Happy Friday, dear readers! I hope your day is going well. Today I just want to talk a bit about balance and leave you with some fun for the weekend.

Now I’m probably not the person to talk to about finding balance in one’s work and personal life. I’m the first to admit that I often get too caught up in projects, research, and teaching and work some crazy hours. But I’m trying to be better and find some balance–even if that balance only shows up if you look at an entire month or year of my life and not on a daily or weekly basis.

Luckily there are others that have the balance thing down much better than I do. So if you need some help with balance, especially going into the weekend and end of the summer, check out Lifehacker’s great article, how to stop working and go home at night.

And for a librarian-focused article, check out Michael Stephens’ post, Finding Balance?. It’s a nice overview about the different facets of balance we should all try to achieve in our lives.

For me, one of the best ways to de-stress and find a bit of balance is in the kitchen so I love Joy the Baker’s post Summer 2011 as it goes for its great thoughts and recipes for summer. If you like cooking then you should check out this article from Lifehacker, eat like a foodie at home without breaking your budget. Getting good food while on a budget is great.

And we should end on something that will make you smile in an instant (instead of after an hour cooking in the kitchen), so watch and smile at this animated GIF from Beautiful Portals. I love it and it always makes me smile.

I hope you have a lovely weekend full of good reads, good food, and good friends. I’ll be back next week with more reflections on libraries, archives, tech, and life. Allons-y!