Happiest of Thanksgivings to you & yours

 

May God bless you and keep you and make His face to shine upon you.

This coming Thursday is Thanksgiving...

How is that even possible?  As the holiday season draws ever closer, and as the end of the year approaches...I love to spend time reflecting over the past year.  I love working through Arabah Joy's Grace Goals and one of the first questions she asks is:

'What lessons did you learn in 2021?'

After thinking this over for a bit, I came up wtih these three things :

1) never quit trying

2) people are sometimes nicer than you expect them to be

3) it is exhausting trying to be friends with someone who does not want to be friends with you (same with trying to fit in somewhere that does not want you there)

As I did the month by month review (taking stock of what happened + when), inevitably my mind drifted to 'what did I / we read this year?'.  Books often define whole seasons of our life...when it was hard and miserable - which authors did I draw close to me?  When I was hungry for friendships...what book(s) did I reach for?  When I feel like I am literally going to burst at the seams with joy, what books reflect that?  Or when I felt a bit lost and did not understand, could not see what God was doing, where He was leading me...what did I pull off of my shelf?   I had fun looking back over the year and making the list.  This year, I actually read very, very little that I had planned.  *sigh*  But, when I went back and tallied up what I did read, I was surprised.  I actually read more than I thought I did.

the complete list

I will start with the books we are still reading:

to my girls:

Brother's Keeper by Julie Lee (reading aloud to one of the girls)

Hitty, Her First Hundred Years by Rachel Field (reading aloud to another one of the girls)

City Spies by James Ponti

Pocketful of Pinecones by Karen Andreola

to myself:

Humbled by David Mathis 

Running Scared by Ed Welch

Freedom from Emotional Eating by Barb Raveling 

Hammer of God by Bo Giertz...embarassingly enough I forgot I was reading this.  It is a collection of three stories and I still have to finish the last one.

Books I started, but did not finish for one reason or another:

Finally Focused by James Greenblatt

40 Day Sugar Fast by Wendy Speake (tried three times? only ever got to day five)

Journey to the Cross by Will Walker

Brave Learner by Julie Bogart

Spirituality of the Cross by Gene Edward Veith

Language Based Learning Disabilities by Daniel Franklin

The Last Hour by Amir Tsarfati

Celebration of Discipline Workbook by Richard J Foster

Satisfied!  by Rhona Epstein

And finally, the books we completed:

Whose Waves These Are by Amanda Dykes (AWESOME book)

Simply Classical by Cheryl Swope (re-read for me, LOVE this book)

Celebrations of Discipline by Richard J Foster

Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm by Kate Douglas Wiggin (if we had to pick one book this year - this would be it - we absolutely adored this book!!!!)

Warden and the Wolf King * we finally finished the Wingfeather Saga by Andrew Peterson

Adventures with Waffles by Maria Parr (this was a close second as favorite)

Betsy & Tacy by Maud Hart Lovelace

8 Class Pets by Vivian Van Velde (reread, LOVE LOVE LOVE this one!!)

Wide Awake Princess by ED Baker (preread this one for my youngest)

Pages & Co - Bookwanderers by Anna James (also preread for my youngest)

Narrow Gate, Narrow Way by Paul Washer (I LOVE Paul Washer)

The Day Approaching by Amir Tsarfati 

Raya and the Last Dragon Junior Novel

Alone by Megan E Freeman (edited quite a few things as I read this aloud)

Mysterious Benedict Society (first 3 books) by Trenton Lee Stewart (HIGHLY recommend this series)

God's Hostage by Andrew Brunson (I loved this story so much.  Especially since I remember praying for him and his family, but also, since he details his journey with mental illness and trying to figure out God in the middle of that)

The Incredible Journey by Sheila Burnford

Hello Mrs. Piggle by Betty MacDonald

The Normal Christian Life by Watchman Nee (if you only read ONE book about living the Christian Life - this is IT!!!!)

and finally, the MOST important thing I read all year - hands down - was the Bible in 90 days💖

Stuff and nonsense...

I don't remember to use it very often, but today I am going to look for as many opportunities as I can to properly utter that phrase.  Two of my other favorite phrases are 'sweet cheese' and 'good gravy'.  Sweet cheese, that was a hard workout.  Good gravy, you scared me to death.  I love words and how we can join them together and create phrases that make us smile, give insight to our frustrations and fears, and/or provide a momentary snapshot of what we were thinking when things go awry.  

But, as useful as they are, words can also harm and cut down.  I've been tempted this week to use my words for just that.  Got a frustrating email, the person will not take no for an answer, and then went and told on me to someone else.  Seriously, who does that?  I composed several emails in my mind, but in the end I settled for silence.  I could hear my mom's mantra, 'if you have nothing nice to say, say nothing at all'.  Once I put some time between the email and my response, I was also reminded of another truth, once spoken you cannot take back the words.  Much like the fruitlessness of trying to straighten out a piece of paper after you have angrily crumpled it, words sting and often times that person's heart will bare a striking resemblance to that pitifully wrinkled paper when you are done unleashing your tongue.    

Speaking of a crumpled state...over the past few weeks we have had quite a few days that felt crumped and wrinkled and not at all how I envisioned them as going 😕

1) several medical issues arose out of no where and we are trying to successfully navigate them - not life threatening - simply frustrating with no clear cut choices

2) one of my daughter's rabbits developed a UTI and bladder sludge...again.  We thought she had outgrown them, it has been more than a year since she had this issue...but it reared its ugly head this past week.

3) lots and lots of little things compiled...like forgetting to put my mug under the coffee spout and flooding most of the kitchen island, or having to have a friend come get me so I could go get our car...which was a sweet surprise because it meant my youngest got to see a good friend of hers at the same time...but it also meant, having to interrupt not only our day, but my friends' as well.  Or being in a drive thru and realizing I forgot meds for one of my girls 😒...on and on it seemed to go...sweet cheese, good gravy it has been a doozy.

So, today is Friday and my husband is NOT on call - we plan to put out the rest of our Christmas decorations, sing lots of Christmas carols, and watch lots and lots of Christmas movies.  Praise God, advent is almost here!!!!

my view this morning...

 Working on my Barb Raveling Bible study & wishing you a beautiful week this week...💖

NaNoWriMo

November is here and that means - NaNoWriMo - National Novel Writing Month.  WOOHOO!!!  I love to write.  I love to write almost as much as I loved to dance.  My girls and I are participating in it here at home.  It looks a little bit different for each of us - but each afternoon we curl up with laptop or pad of paper and pencil (or pen) and scratch out our imaginations - developing characters and settings and embarking on adventures.  It is quite simply AWESOME.  The work will probably never see the light of day, but it is known to us and that is enough. 

It has been a crazy busy week (last week that seems to have spilled over into this week).  The weather has been deliciously chilly, the leaves are turning, the putting up of lights and playing of music has commenced (I LOVE the weeks leading up to Christmas).  Quite simply, this is the absolute best time of the year.  

Advent.  Isn't that a delicious word?  I love the thought that you tie your heart so completely to anticipating the arrival of Christ that you wait in breathless expectation.  I have my advent supplies laid out - I am starting now because our days and weeks can be so unpredictable - I don't want to get to the middle of December and wished I had built cushion in.  Here is what I am doing this year:

I have mentioned before how very much I adore Kari Denker - I do not know her in real life, but I love her blog posts, her Bible studies, - her heart for Jesus.  So, this year I finally got The Promises Advent Study that she wrote - it takes you through the Old Testament prophecies and their ultimate fulfillment in Jesus Christ.  

I started a 90 day read through of the Gospels.  I have floundered a bit after ending B90.  It always takes me a bit to decide what to do next because reading through the Bible is much like sitting down at an exquisite buffet style dinner and being able to sample everything, but linger over nothing.  And when you get done - there is inevitably SO much you want to go back and experience fully...it is hard to choose.   After reading Watchman Nee's book, I know for a fact I want to resume my Romans study - but I wanted something more during the Holiday season.  So I found a 90 day read through of the Gospel and it is perfect!!  (I am also going to try Kari's one line a day everyday - that is such a neat practice)

I am still working my way through the Freedom from Emotional Eating, I am taking it a bit slower than the forty days format, because I am concentrating right now on learning how to Truth Journal.  If you want to know more information about either Barb Raveling, her books, and/or how to journal this way - check out her blog.  It is amazing.  

And finally, we will pull out all of our Christmas and Fall picture books later today, the Hallelujah study from Cindy Rollins is downloaded on my kindle and my Handel CD is ready to go, and we will try our very best to slowly and with great thankfulness take each day as it comes.  

God is good.