March Book Review - Lethal White & The Miracle Morning

Hey friends! I hope you all had a lovely weekend. We had a wonderful one over here just spending time relaxing at home and we went to our first Cubs game of the year yesterday! We went up to Miller Park in Milwaukee for the Cubs vs Brewers game with a big group of our friends. We did an all inclusive club level package and it came with an all you can eat buffet, drinks, and a giant suite area you can watch the game from. It was really nice actually and helpful with a one year old that is running around a bunch now. We were able to take breaks from watching the game and let Kai run around the lounge area in between innings. The Cubs lost but it was still a really fun time!

So I read not 1 but 2 books last month! My spike in reading has been thanks to my amazing morning routine that I've been doing the last couple of months which I will actually be telling you all about thanks to one of the books I read last month (The Miracle Morning). So let's dive right in to our little book club chat for this month...

Lethal White -Robert Galbraith

Lethal White is the fourth book in the Cormoran Strike series by Robert Galbraith aka JK Rowling. If you haven't read the first three, I highly suggest reading them before you read Lethal White as there are a lot of references to the previous books all throughout plus the back story of Strike and his partner, Robin.

In Lethal White, Strike and Robin take on a case for a government minister who is being blackmailed. The minister won't divulge what he is being blackmailed for and wants Strike to find dirt on the people who are blackmailing him. Strike takes the job but on the side digs around for the real reason for the blackmail. There is always the outlying twist in crime novels too, of course, this one being if there is a connection to a dead little girl to the government minister. In the midst of the blackmail job, something tragic happens the minister and the family rehires Strike to find out more about it. It's a crime within a crime story and the twist at the end in unreal.

Seriously, all hail Queen Jo. Lethal White was fantastic. I don't want to give too much of it away nice it is newer and I hope all of you read it at some point but WOW I was stunned by the ending. I've never been able to guess who committed the crime throughout the books but this one really took me by surprise. It was a classic not want to put it down book and I would recommend it to everyone and anyone. The Strike series was my entry in to crime novels and I love this series so much. Also, can we talk about the sexual tension between Robin and Strike in this book!? When are they going to get together!? I'm dying over here...I guess we'll have to wait and see for the next one.

You can purchase Lethal White on Amazon.

The Miracle Morning -Hal Elrod

So I started doing a revised version of the Miracle Morning at the beginning of the year thanks to the podcast, Find the Magic. Their pilot episode talked about their morning routines and how they follow the Miracle Morning structure. I really liked what they had to say about it but wasn't sure about incorporating all of it in to my morning. I do have a one year old and I work 5 days a week. But I knew I wanted to read the book at some point and really understand what the Miracle Morning was all about.

The Miracle Morning book takes you through how the author, Hal Elrod, came up with this ingenious idea for the Miracle Morning. He was a very successful guy but also has gone through plenty of trials in his life. At his lowest point, he knew he needed to figure something out of how to get out of the rut he was in. He started exercising in the mornings as well as doing some other personal self enhancement practices and thanks to all that, the Miracle Morning was born. Essentially, what the Miracle Morning is, is a morning routine that helps your personal development each and every day. There is an acronym for it and it is S.A.V.E.R.S. It stands for Silence, Affirmations, Visualizations, Exercise, Reading, and Scribing. Elrod states that if you can incorporate SAVERS in to your morning routine every day, you will bring yourself up to a level 10 life and fall within the 5% of people in this world who are as successful as they can possibly be.

Before I had read the Miracle Morning, my morning routine looked like this based on what I had learned from the Find the Magic podcast...
6am: Wake up, stretch, wash my face
6:10am: Meditation (silence)
6:20am: Make coffee, light a candle, open the windows
6:25am: Read
6:55am: Affirmations/Visualizations/Gratitude (scribe)

So as you can see I was missing exercise. I have never been a morning exercise person but after reading the book I decided to give it a try. I updated my schedule to this...
6am: Wakeup, stretch, wash face
6:05am: Mediation
6:10am: Yoga
6:20am: Make coffee, light a candle, open the windows
6:25am: Read
6:55am: Affirmations/Visualizations/Gratitude

GAME CHANGER. Just that 10 minutes of morning yoga has done wonders. I'm able to concentrate better and this way if I miss a normal workout that I usually do later in the day I don't feel as guilty because I did get my body moving at some point in the day. Let me elaborate a little bit too on my full routine in terms of the SAVERS acronym.

Meditation = Silence. I use the Headspace app every day and usually just choose to do the 3 or 5 minute daily meditation they have available. I downed my time from 10 minutes to 5 minutes to allow myself some time for yoga. I don't think it was much of a sacrifice because to be honest, I found it really hard to concentrate on mediation for 10 minutes right when I had just woken up. I was still pretty sleepy and even though I was sitting up so I wouldn't fall back asleep, I find my mind would wander off on random thoughts a lot more with the 10 minute sessions. So 5 minus of silence is perfect for me.

Affirmations. I have 3 affirmations written out in my phone that I read aloud every morning. They have to do with motherhood, my career, and taking care of myself. Prior to reading the book I use to write new affirmations every day. This really had no impact on my life because it was always changing and I would honestly just forget about them an hour later. By having 3 set affirmations now I remember them and I can concentrate on them all day every day.

Visualizations. This is supposed to be you actually visualizing what you want in life. I start small with this because my big picture of what I want in life is pretty far off, I'm not going to lie, so if I start small with visualizing how I want each day to go for myself and Kai then I'm always one day closer to that big dream that I visualize all the time. So how I go about doing this is I have a daily schedule written out for each day of the week for myself and Kai. Every day is different because some days I work from home, some days I'm in the office, some days we have a random event on our calendar, and weekends are always different. So I have a generic schedule for each day written down in my phone. I go through it hour by hour and visualize the day. It helps me to remember what needs to be done each day and I'm able to visualize how I want the day to go. By doing this I'm able to really predict and know what to expect from the day. No day ever goes according to plan but it really helps me organize my thoughts and plans for the day to make our dreams happen.

Yoga = Exercise. So like I said, I added this part in not too long ago. I do a 10 minute morning yoga session with Yoga with Adrienne on YouTube. It's a quick and easy way to get the blood flowing every day.

Reading. I've always loved waking up early and reading a book in the morning but I've never been able to consistently do it until now. I like to make a cup of coffee, light a candle, and open up all the curtains so I can see the sunrise as I'm snuggled up reading my book. It's so peaceful and it starts my day off so happen. Definition of hygge? I think so!

Gratitude = Scribing. My daily scribing is just writing down what I'm thankful for every day. It really starts my day off on a positive note and I love going back through and looking at each day and what I wrote down. I just keep a little note in the Notes app on my phone so I have it with me at all times, which is also where my affirmations and daily schedule are kept as well.

I also just want to throw this out there, ever since I've made this change our life has honestly gone up to a level 10. I 100% believe in God and that he is watching over us with my dad but I also believe that thanks to my effort for personal enhancement in the mornings, I have the energy and ability to work harder during the day to achieve the life I truly want for myself and my family. I highly recommend reading the Miracle Morning or simply just starting based off what I've told you here! If you're interested in a more in depth review of my morning routine or daily routines please let me know in the comments and I'd be happy to do some posts on them for you all!

You can purchase The Miracle Morning on Amazon. The Kindle version is free for Prime members, too!

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​What are you currently reading? Share with my in the comments!