next up on the list of winter survival tactics ...

... READING. 

And how Oyster {kind post sponsor} is saving my carefully tended shreds of sanity as we muscle through the remaining monthS {silent dramatic scream} of winter. 

Way back when I was a mature 24 years of age and e-readers first hit the shelves I swore I'd never cheat on my tangible books and told Simon (my then boyfriend) I would never own one. He nodded in feigned agreement, solidarity, and support of his sensible girlfriend.

I'm sure you can surmise how that story ends. An older and slightly wiser Grace taking back her swear once she realized the convenience factor far outweighed her silly principles ... especially after kids came on the scene and trips to the library became more like odysseys to rival the original.

While I've happily chewed through Christmas bookstore gift cards and impatiently sat on the library waiting list for some coveted titles ... Oyster has gone and created a brilliant service that puts over one million titles at my fingertips. No lines, no limits for $9.95 a month (first month free! And they have a referral program!) ... like Netflix for books.

I anticipated that reading would fall to the VERY bottom of my priority list when I had kids but I've been surprised how much I rely on little snatches of time to momentarily and figuratively escape to different fictional worlds. Oyster enables my terrible habit of dipping into a few titles all at once but sometimes a little YA Fiction just hits the spot, you know?

Hopefully I'm not alone.

{Simon would like full credit for his artistic picture taking abilities and I would like full credit for getting all the kids to nap for multiple and coinciding hours over the weekend, this is 31 - I suppose}

Oyster works on iPhones, iPads, Androids, the Kindle Fire, Nook HD, and the plain old internet. I wasn't about to move a muscle on our flight back from Florida after Phoebe final-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-y fell asleep and was super grateful to have the Oyster app that worked just fine on the plane sans wi-fi to read my latest guilty pleasure.

In addition to spades of best seller's and new releases, Oyster carries loads of children's titles which spurred me to encourage Julia to occasionally graduate from our usual "picture with a paragraph" younger kids' books to some older titles. One of my very favorites when I was little ...

... I was so happy they carried it.

Simon was too ...

{Simon does voices and animal noises 100% better than I do which is to say that he does them and I don't. Revoke my parenting license! Now!!}

And a few of our favorite Oyster titles complete with the worst pun of them all ...

 

1. Simon's currently reading*
2. Grace's favorite "read anytime/anywhere!"
3. Julia's required listening {luckily, she likes it}
4. Next on Grace's list
5. A favorite of Simon's
6. Grace's currently reading*

*opposites attract? never.

Intrigued? A little bit? Give it a {truly} risk-free 30 day whirl.

Thanks for reading and scrolling and reading some more.
And I hope you have a happy weekend!!