Gindi Vincent

The Dish on Career, Fashion, Faith, and Family

Women

What’s On The Nightstand

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Hello friends!

There’s been a lot of heavy stuff with talking about the pandemic and racial injustice and parenting.

But there is good too and I really wanted to focus on that today.

What tops my good list?

Reading.

Cooking.

Rinse, repeat. 

Today, let’s talk books.  Books, books, and more books.  Fiction and nonfiction. Kids and adult.  I’ll even throw in podcasts!

I love to read, but I wasn’t getting nearly as much read as I had hoped to until the world stopped. 

Because I was curled up in my hidey-hole, I focused on fiction for March – May.  Fiction is my favorite.  Well, good fiction.  I love it so much!

So let me first recommend some of my favorites:  both The Huntress and The Alice Network from Kate Quinn, The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides, The Dinner List by Rebecca Serle, The Dutch House by Anne Patchett, and I’d Give Anything by Marisa de los Santos. 

Those last two are some of my favorite modern authors of all time so if you haven’t read them already, start with Run or Bel Canto by Patchett and with Love Walked In by de los Santos. (I also started The Parisians and hated it so much that I promptly stopped after Chapter 3.)

And while it is neither fiction nor a quarantine read, I tell everyone they have to read Educated by Tara Westover – I am still obsessed with this book.

In the nonfiction camp, I was rereading Present over Perfect by Shauna Niequist which I love, The Book of Joy by Archbishop Desmond Tutu and the Dalai Lama, and Burnout by Emily Nagoski and Amelia Nagoski. 

I just read nonfiction slower, so I have not finished the last two yet.  (Because I pick up a new fiction book when things slow…)  I do like them both and would recommend. 

For the kids, we are ALL over the map.  I was reading the Harry Potter series out loud to the boys which we all loved, but now we have finished.  Sniff sniff. 

We have started both Artemis Fowl and Gregor the Overlander series together but haven’t finished either of the first books yet.  They are okay.  It’s no Harry Potter.  When we finish both of those, we’re going to read the Lord of the Rings series, and start with The Hobbit.  We’re hoping to find something to carry us away like Potter and his pals.

For little bit, she just does not love to read as much.  When we read together, she likes period fiction or mysteries.  We read several Great Depression era fiction books in the spring and she enjoyed those (like R, My Name is Rachel). 

I went through my mom’s storage unit and we pulled out all my old books.  So I have a huge collection now of Nancy Drew books, including my mom’s original books from the 1950s, so I’m hoping those may grab her attention.  And we’re reading through a Janette Oke series together because she has decided she wants to be a pioneer woman. (Not the chef, a real one, with a covered wagon.)  We’re part way through the Love Comes Softly set, and then will move on to the When Calls the Heart set because the Hallmark series based on the book has utterly captured her imagination. 

As a family, we’ll read Where the Red Fern Grows for 5th grade.  That and Wonder were required reading but we finished Wonder before third grade (and loved it!). 

Now, what’s on my nightstand now? 

I decided after months of fiction, I needed to be thinking about some important issues.  On the issues of racial injustice in our country, I’m reading White Fragility by Robin Diangelo and have Be the Bridge and Between the World and Me up next.  On the issues of parenting tweens, especially focused on technology rules of the road and conversations about their bodies and sex, I’m reading The Tech Wise Family by Andy Crouch and Teaching Your Children Healthy Sexuality by Jim Burns, both loaned to me by one of our ministers, as well as 5 Conversations You Must Have With Your Daughter (and companion book for Your Son) recommended by a good friend.  On the faith front, I’m reading The Eternal Current by Aaron Niequist and Calvinism in the Las Vegas Airport by Richard Mouw.  (I also have about a half dozen books on the faith front I really want to get to stacked by my nightstand!) On the leadership front, I am reading The Fireside Chats of Franklin Delano Roosevelt and rereading Plan B by Sheryl Sandberg and Adam Grant. 

(And I have Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie also on my nightstand, because I need at least one fiction book at all times…)

Now that I’m driving again, I’m getting to listen to podcasts again! Hoorah!  I just finished the compelling and eye-opening NPR investigation podcast called White Lies about the murder of a minister in Selma, Alabama during a 1965 civil rights protest.  (If you like this mini podcast format, I also highly recommend The Dropout about Elizabeth Holmes!)  I listen to Elevation to get my sermons from Steven Furtick, but I was also recently introduced to Miles McPherson at The Rock Church and have added him to my playlist. 

I keep Jen Hatmaker and The Daily in the queue, and I listen depending on topic.

For the kids, we are loving Wow in the World with Mindy Thomas and Guy Raz! Little bit has listened to dozens because four out of five days of the week they are super short!  I would really love some more kids podcast ideas! We’re about to try Smash Boom Best because little bit is obsessed with debate.

Okay.

Whew!

And to think I was going to try and combine recipes in this post! 

Cooking is tomorrow! 

And Friday we’ll return with some Fashion Friday after a long hiatus.  I’m back!

28 Days: Day 25, On Winning and Losing

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It was a day for winning and losing.

The boys were in the semi-final round of their basketball bracket. Of course, when they won their game on Saturday, we had to cancel our Mardi Gras dinner plans to make it to their big game on Tuesday (because I only get to do games for 8 more years, a fact I constantly think about).

They knew it would be tight. The opposing team was ranked 1. The boys team was ranked 5.

These games are the best ones because they are close and action packed. The boys team led the first half. But they fell behind in the third quarter. The fourth quarter was back and forth with the five best players on each side playing their heart out.

The clock sounded the end of the game and it was tied, 43-43. In playoffs, overtime is mandatory.

The boys team scored, then the other team. At the end of the first overtime, 45-45. Another overtime was necessary.

All the boys were wiped. Playing hard with each side wanting the victory to head to the championship Saturday. The other team scored. Our team missed the basket. The boys ended their season with a one basket loss and the eldest with a badly jammed pointer finger.

There were tears. They play with their whole heart, one of the things I love so much about them. The players hugged. We talked on the way home. What a way to go out! Isn’t it better to fight well to the very end than get blown out?

Regardless, it still hurt.

On the very same day, I had the opposite result professionally.

I’ve been working incredibly hard over the past couple of months and one of the issues I was working was intense and complex. One possible resolution was a long shot. Small odds of winning but it would completely resolve the big challenge.

And then, in a completely unexpected turn of events, we won yesterday. 3-2. Also close result, just different winner (in our home at least).

I was so excited I actually yelled in my office. Then I called my client and yelled with him. And because it’s sort of a hard thing to explain, I didn’t get the same level of thrill and excitement at home when I reported the news nearly jumping up and down. But for me, it was a good day.

So after the boys game, I came home and opened a very nice bottle of wine I’d been saving for a special occasion. It’s not exactly a parade on Main Street, but a big win is still satisfying.

What I’ve learned is there will be days with big wins or big losses. Days with little wins and little losses. Days with both.

But play hard. Do your best. On the days with losses, let yourself be sad, but then get ready for the next game. On the days with wins, celebrate. You never know when the next one will be.

28 Days: Day 21, Fashion Friday, Icons

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As I pulled open the door to the ladies room this morning, I saw a stunning woman step out.  Tall, slim, dark hair, and a beautiful high collared camel-colored blazer paired with her Friday dark wash trouser jeans and boots. 

It made me want to go buy a camel-colored blazer, even though that is far from my best color. 

It also got me to thinking about style icons.  More specifically, images from movies that shaped what I love most about fashion.  As I still have no idea what I’m doing with Fashion Fridays, or if I’m going to even do them anymore, I decided to write about iconic fashions for today’s Fashion Friday.

That woman’s jacket from this morning jump started my first iconic style movie. The Thomas Crown Affair (remake). Every single outfit Rene Russo wore. She even made bathrobes look glamorous. I even tried to recreate her haircut so I could BE her (it did not work out).

Audrey Hepburn in every movie she plays in. Classic. Simple lines. And lots of black. I don’t channel her often, given my draw to color, but she’s matchless.

Julia Roberts, in and out of movies, has long been a style icon of mine, although her fashion out of movies is arguably better than her fashion in movies.  However, while I know it is utterly 1990s period, her post-shopping style in Pretty Woman made a pretty big impact on me.

Julia Roberts at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, California (Photo by Jim Smeal/WireImage)

And even better, which is saying something, in and out of movies is Cate Blanchett.  Seriously, she is magnificent.  Movies from The Aviator to Monuments Men create Cate-only styles to make you want to makeover your closet.

There are so many other formative fashion movies – The English Patient, Reality Bites, Pretty in Pink, The Royal Tenenbaums, Sabrina, Clueless – and icons from Grace to Gwyeth.

I love movies and I love fashion.  Who are your fashion icons or what’s your most memorable movie fashion moments?

28 Days: Day 19, Better

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Well, I’m better than yesterday.

I even made it to work.

I ate a banana and some chicken soup.

Ha!

Small progress.

We were all praying none of the rest of the family got “it.” I don’t know whether it was a stomach bug, little man had one last week, or food poisoning, or something else, but it was not good.

But at the same time, do you know what it made me feel?

Relief.

Isn’t that crazy?

Yesterday was going to be a bear. Work calls every hour on the hour practically from 8 to 3. I had something to do before work and I had a commitment after work and I needed to run someone food whose wife was very ill.

I had come back from the farm and Day 1 back was about to knock me out.

So as I lay there, in between throwing up, I started processing how to reconfigure my day. Well, I’d have to do this and cancel this and move this and ask if this could be done via phone, etc., etc.

And this huge sense of relief swept over me. I slept. I mean I napped which NEVER happens and I went to sleep at 7 pm and work up the next morning after 6 am.

If a deathly stomach bug brings you relief, maybe you need to reconfigure how you’re living.

I mean I am trying. You know that. I’ve been writing about Present over Perfect and I’ve been stepping down from commitments, but still. It’s not enough.

How do you blow it all up? And still exist and provide in today’s society? I’m working that out…

Fashion Friday: Mascara Mama

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I’ve been mulling over what to do with Fashion Friday. 

It seems like everyone is starting to look the same.  You scroll through social media and there’s a kind of style that catches on and then that’s what women look like. 

I’d love this to be a place where, when we talk about fashion or style or cosmetics, we talk about tips and what works, but it’s not talking points on the “one” thing you have to wear to “fit in” – whatever that is. 

So until I’ve settled on what that looks like, I decided to post on a topic where it utterly does not matter if everyone uses the same product: MASCARA. 

That’s right, let’s talk about our lashes.  Now I don’t go and get fake lashes and I just have average lashes. Not short. Not long. Just perfectly fine lashes.  But I love for them to look darker and full. 

If I leave the house with nothing else on, I have cover up and mascara on.  I guess because I’ve always really liked my eyes, I keep them ‘done.’

For the longest time, over a decade, I wore Voluminous by L’Oreal mascara.  It kept them full but it didn’t flake like some mascaras.  And I usually kept Great Lash mascara by Maybelline in my purse in case I needed evening touch ups.  That was it. 

Periodically, I’d get some tester from MAC or Estee Lauder or Mary Kay or something, but I never liked them better than Voluminous. 

Last year, I decided to branch out.  As any good consumer would do, I asked Dr. Google about the best mascaras on the market.  And that led me to research from Elle and Glamour to Business Insider. 

I did not try any of their super pricey nominees, like Chanel, so I can’t compare those products for you. 

Plus, there were a ton of different makes and models from L’Oreal I didn’t try because Voluminous was already my go to.  I did try one called Voluminous Lash Paradise, not to be confused by L’Oreal Paris Voluminous (the original and one I love). I did not like it nearly as much.  Even though the reviews said such good thing.  Just like a movie remake – the original is always better.  (Let me know if you have another L’Oreal mascara you swear by – totally willing to give it a try.)

Then I decided to go a little higher end.  Not Chanel higher end, but in the $20-$30 price range given how long my mascara lasts. 

I narrowed it down to two mascaras: Better than Sex by Too Faced and Urban Decay’s Perversion.  The pros on them were similar and the price was the exact same so it was basically a coin toss when I walked into Ulta to choose.  I went with Perversion. 

I loved it.  My lashes looked better than they ever did with Voluminous.  Very full and rich looking.  BUT.  And this is a big one.  Almost daily I ended up with black under my eyes.  It hadn’t happened before Perversion and didn’t happen when I stopped wearing it, so clearly it was the mascara.  I loved it so much I tried to compensate by powdering under my eyes at lunchtime.  But given that I’m already battling dark circles, I just can’t have it from my mascara too.  So I took a break.  


Which is how I ended up trying Maybelline Snapscara.  I had low expectations after my L’Oreal change.  I don’t love Great Lash to begin with, though all the movie make up artists swear by it, and that had been my only Maybelline experience.  Well, let me tell you, I was in for a pleasant surprise. 

I love this mascara.  It gives me these lovely long looking upper lashes which are very well defined, and not clumpy, but there’s not a bit of smudging or flaking.  No under eye blackening with this number.  And here’s the best part: it is $5.99.  That’s right, department store results on a dime store budget.  This is now my go to mascara. 

I will always keep Voluminous around (the original).  It’s been good to me and will probably become my purse mascara. 

Also, I’m willing to continue the hunt if you have found the greatest mascara since sliced bread.  Comment so we can all try it out!

But if you’re looking for a new one, I definitely give the nod to Maybelline Snapscara.  An affordable home run.