Limit your “always” and your “nevers.” You can buy this cute banner here on Etsy: https://www.etsy.com/listing/234989367/yes-please-amy-poehler-bunting?ref=market

Here’s the thing about my mom: when she likes something she really likes it and really wants you to like it, too. Whether it’s a book she just read, new way to steam clean clothes with ice cubes or the chickpea salad she made the night before, she’ll mention it in a conversation and send a follow-up email — maybe a review in the Wall Street Journal or something — as a reminder. She wants me to get onboard and enjoy something am much as she did.

She’s helping me enhance the quality of my life.

The good part about her strong recommendations is that my mom is like my very own Faith Popcorn and has her finger on the pulse of  all that’s new and hot. If it weren’t for her, I never would have found and loved “Call the Midwife,” Moon and Lola jewelry or My Pillow. I generally like a lot of the things she likes. Sometimes I joke and ask her if she’s working for the companies she’s really pushing, which currently would be the producers of “Wayward Pines.”

The bad part about her behavior is now I find myself doing the same thing, especially with my kids. Sadly, as they are still young and, let’s face it, have fairly unrefined tastes, they do not really appreciate many of the things I’m enamored with. They could care less about the fuckmazing Cheryl Strayed book I just started to read or the tasty packets of frozen quinoa and kale I picked up at Costco last week.

And so dear readers, that is why I have decided to take a few minutes each Friday to share with you here some of the things I’ve been into because I know you’ll appreciate it. It’s shit I’d like to marry if I only could. A lot of us should probably just gone ahead and married, say, a great piece of pizza or bag of Trader Joe’s chocolate covered potato chips rather than a person. Worst case scenario if things don’t work out is you can toss it in the trash. Cheaper than divorce.

• For many years, I’d end each day lying in bed between my children and reading a book out loud. We had lots of favorites. We laughed at the moose in “How to Give a Moose a Muffin” and loved anything by Kevin Henkes, especially “Chester’s Way.” We sat night after night reading “Charlotte’s Web,” “Harry Potter,” and the Roald Dahl canon and always made time for a few ditties from “Where the Sidewalk Ends.” But probably the book I am most sentimental about is “Where the Wild Things Are” whose main, naughty character shares the same name as my oldest child. “Oh, please don’t go—we’ll eat you up—we love you so!”  So wasn’t I thrilled, and a little sad maybe since none of my kids would want it in their very-grow-up-rooms, to see this print crop up in my Facebook feed the other day.

Somebody please buy this. Find details here to do so.

• I recently connected with a blogger who’s also named Amy and while she might be significantly younger than this-here Old Amy, she’s way better at this blogging thing. Like, the girl is a blogging boss. She’s cute and bubbly and has adorable taste, to boot. And while I’m a little long-in-the-tooth to wear a majority of stuff on her site, I did immediately download this desktop wallpaper she recently posted about because it’s not only pretty but reminds me that I need to GET SHIT DONE. 
• Got any long car rides or flights this summer? I did a lot of driving this spring and loved two very different audio books. The first was Amy Poehler’s “Yes, Please” and no, I don’t only endorse things created by fellow Amys but see your point. It’s funny and engaging and probably more fun to hear the author read it herself. The kids and I loved it (Warning: there is cursing) and listening made the gruesome drive south for their brother’s graduation not as terrible as usual.
• In a very different vein, I listened, by myself, to Jeremy Irons read — although he really performs  — Vladimir Nabokov’s “Lolita.” Whoa. I mean, I knew the basic premise but not the EXTENT of Humbert Humbert’s creepiness. Drags a little bit towards the end but Irons’ reading kept me listening through all 10 discs. Highly recommend.
• Lest you think I’m becoming too much of a smartypants over here, I’d like to share the latest Gilmore Girl gossip because I love me my GGs. Not for nothing, a “Rory Gilmore Reading Challenge” I found online, containing books mentioned during the many fast-paced, whip-smart conversations on the show, contains Emily Dickinson, Toni Morrison, Dante and Judy Blume.

Happy weekend!

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