Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm

How have I not read this book before????  This is THE best book we have read in a long time.  It is laugh-out-loud funny, not to mention the amazing job that narrator Lorna Raver does.  She reads this story to perfection!  If you have access to a computer, Audible Stories is still offering free access to many titles, specifically, you will find this book narrated by Lorna Raver on there 💝.  We have enjoyed it so much as we have traversed the back and forth, back and forth, of doctor appointments.  I am SO tired of going to doctor appointments, therapy appointments, eye appointments...it just seems never-ending recently.  But having a book like this to look forward to, sure does make it a loooooooooooot easier.  I find myself looking for excuses to jump in the car, much like I did a few years ago when we were listening to A Wolf Princess (by Cathryn Constable).   

In case you are interested, we also loved this cute story The Spies that Bind: A Gallagher Girls Prequel by Ally Carter (also on Audible Stories).  I do NOT like the series, but this prequel is super cute and makes a great, easy, fun listen in the car.  I cannot also, in good conscience, forget to mention "The Princess Tales" by Gail Carson Levine (currently there are six to choose from on Audible Stories).  Each one is roughly an hour in length and we have enjoyed these immensely at bedtime, especially since someone is always forgetting to set the sleep timer and I am NOT a happy camper when I wake up at 2am hearing someone talking in my kids' bedroom.  No matter how many times it happens, I throw off the covers, rush in there, only to be greeted by Del Roy deep in story about Kate, Sticky, Rennie, and Constance and the adventure they are currently taking or Victor Garber telling me what Harold and Chester have gotten into now.  *sigh*

Oh, did you ever read The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson when you were younger?  I did, and I had no idea there were actually three titles in this series.  Anyway, our absolute favorite narrator for the three titles is Elaine Stritch.  Sometimes you need a fun book on a hard afternoon and it helps when you find a copy read by someone who totally embodies the story, that grasps the characters to perfection.  Elaine Stritch is this person!!!!!  I don't think this one is on Audible Stories, but I highly recommend getting a copy if you can.

Speaking of that, if you have kids that struggle to read and/or focus, I have found Audible to be an amazing investment.  We have had it for maybe two years?  I can't remember, but we LOVE this membership.  It is so worth the monthly cost.  Not only do you get the one or two titles (depending on which you sign up for) each month, but there is also a discount for members, and oftentimes, for less than a cost of a DVD, you can build your library book by book.  

January Reading

 SO far this year, I have read :

Celebration of Discipline by Richard J. Foster - I HIGHLY recommend this book.  I have had it for years.  Seriously, it has moved several times with me, and been a staple on every shelf we have put together.  But, embarrassingly enough, I never read it.  BIG mistake.  This is such a beautifully practical book.  I got the study guide after reading it because I want to think about it some more.

Simply Classical by Cheryl Swope - this was a reread for me.  I was thinking back and I think I read it two, possibly three times before this...but it had been a while.  I LOVE this book.  I highly recommend this book if you are homeschooling at all, in any capacity, but especially if you have any kids that struggle - whether medically, academically, emotionally, or educationally.  This book is beautiful.  (*as a side note, I truly originally chose this book because of the beautiful cover, but what is tucked inside, that is the real treasure!)

Whose Waves These Are by Amanda Dykes - oh my.  I love, love, love this book. I am almost finished with it, but WOW!!!  Amanda Dykes has a gorgeous writing style.

40 Days Sugar Fast by Wendy Speake - OK. I have a love/hate relationship both with this book and with this challenge right now.  I have started and failed, restarted, and limped along with this challenge.  Sugar has been a major, major stronghold in my life for as long as I can remember.  I have been so frustrated with reading all of the Instagram posts (and stories in the book too), about how victorious everyone has been and how much closer to God they feel.  I finally had to stop reading the Instagram posts, because I am not doing anyone any favors comparing my journey to theirs.  God is faithful and good and beautiful.  He has slowly been drawing my heart to gaze upon Him, and Him alone.  I am not sure if I am especially hard-headed or what, it just seems to always be through difficulties, and hard days, and the sadness of saying no to something you really like.  Yes, I realize how ridiculous that sounds, but sometimes - some things are harder for someone than they may be for someone else.  Sugar, more specifically chocolate (& even more specifically than that Hot Chocolates) are such a comfort for me.  I look forward to a hot chocolate on a bad day the way some people may look forward to a glass of wine or a bubble bath.  So to set that aside, and to set it aside in a hard season....well it has been HARD.  Not pretty, not tied with a neat bow, just plain hard.

Being Mindful & Looking Forward...from a different perspective than I had on January 1st

I originally posted this on January 1st.  I have had reality temper my outlook (QUITE a bit), so instead of just updating the older post, I rewrote most of it.

(I said this in a previous post, but I am not using the phrase 'being mindful' to address the popular mindfulness exercises...I am literally talking about stopping, taking an honest look about where I am, and then charting a course forward)

This is a long post, so feel free to skip it.

Although nothing magically changes when the clock inches forward and we bid goodbye to one year and say hello to a new one, it feels clean, pristine, and uncrinkled by life.  Fresh hope and joy bubble up, and you think maybe, just maybe this will be the year.  

The year where it all comes together.  But, the truth isn't in the circumstances, it's in what God has already done.  Colossians 1:17

The year where peace reigns higher, louder, more forcibly than chaos, fear, and hard days.  But, even when your heart is full of fear and anxious thoughts, remember.  John 14:27

The year where I lose the weight, save the money, clean the house, go on that trip...you can make all the plans in the world, but God has the last word.  (really the entire book of Proverbs...but) Proverbs 19:21

The year where I check off more boxes than I leave blank, lay good habits down like railroad tracks...you get the picture.  The hope that brims in our hearts on New Years *at least for me* is often rooted in the possibilities of what I can check off/achieve.  Instead, may I anchor my hope in Him.  Hebrews 6:19.  Because NO matter what does or does not come together in 2021, God is the great I AM.  He has given us all we need for life and godliness.  2 Peter 1:3.

This year I picked consistency as my word.  May I consistently seek Him.  May I consistently plant habit seeds, and surrender the harvest to Him.  May I consistently seek faithfulness as a wife, as a mom, as a homeschool mom, as a home keeper, as a steward of my time and finances.  May I consistently choose to drink the water, eat the veggies, and do the exercises when I would rather have hot chocolates, eat junk food, and not exercise.  May I consistently cultivate gratitude and contentment.  Those two things are essential for combatting the defeating thoughts of self-pity, the ever cancerous "I wish I hads...", and the anxious ridden "what ifs" - all three of these lines of thinking combine to create a hamster wheel of chaos.  (Incidentally, I have found out that I can't entertain what if thinking when I am thanking God for what actually is.  And I can't get anxious when I am laying it in His hands and reminding myself of who He is and who I am not.  - ex, I am not in charge, He is.  Isaiah 41:10)

In looking forward:

I separated my goals into categories :

Disciplines - my walk with God

Fit - my plans for fitness

Tidy - my plans for decluttering the house

SMAUG - financial fitness

Pedagogy, Reading, & Teaching - I want to grow and learn and be able to be what I have so often hungered for - a voice that shares where we have been, what we have learned, where we are going, and what we are learning.

I am choosing a ninety-day goal from fitness first.  This is what Grace Goals referred to as my personal Jericho.  For me, as my mouth goes, so does my heart, my thinking, my body (energy, mood...etc;).  What I mean by that is this: when I am disciplined in my eating and exercise...everything else sort of just lines up, that discipline and consistency spills over into all areas.  When I am careless and using food as an escape/crutch to limp through difficult seasons...everything else follows suit.  So, for the next 90 days, I am focusing on tracking and moving.  If I bite it, I write it (which also helps me monitor my water intake) and continuing my Streak (11 minutes of cardio & strength exercises that I can do multiple times a day - I set up an app and chose my exercises and it literally takes like 11-15 minutes per session.  BONUS: keeps me consistent with the knee strengthening).

For me, when I am writing down and tracking what I am eating (& drinking) every day, it makes me want to make better choices, to get more bang for my buck so to speak.  I don't want to waste 250 of my calories on candy and I surely don't want to have to write down and admit I had fast food again for dinner.

For 2021:

Fit - first 90 days

Disciplines - second 90 days - prayer

Tidy - third 90 days - 40 bags, 40 days challenge 

SMAUG - all year long - tithe first

Pedagogy, reading, & teaching - I am meeting with someone 1 hour each month for the next three months to help steer our ship & establish some ideas so that we can finish this journey well.  In the meantime, I will post my reading list next :).  Teaching will have some overarching goals for each girl I am sure, but the main thing is this : I show up consistently and plant the seeds, trusting God to bring the harvest (*in HIS way and in HIS time)

Fourth 90 days : what did I not get done?  This segment of  90 days is set aside for that.

Soooo

The new year didn't get off to a great start in our household.  We had been experiencing relatively calm weeks - I say relative because there is always an undercurrent of struggles with the various mental, neurological, and learning struggles that my kiddos have, but for the first time in a long time we had a stretch of time where the struggles did not eclipse the days.  Then January 1st dawned, and as that week progressed - the very first week of the new year - the days steadily declined.  

It left me reeling.

These have helped me find my footing - 

The hymn: I have been singing this hymn on repeat recently - "Have Thine Own Way Lord"

The hope: I had an amazing conversation with someone from the Radical ministry.   She prayed the most incredibly beautiful prayer over me, my husband, and our beautiful girls, sent me some links to study - it was amazing.

The struggle:  Do you ever have those verses that cause you to trip headlong over, fall face first and hard?  2 Timothy 1:7 is that verse for me.  

The lesson:  The last line of the hymn - Christ only always living in me.  This is the point He is bringing us to.  In life, in loss, in success, in love, in friends, in loneliness - the entire point of everything is this: Christ only always living in me.