Read the Best Books First: March 2016

Tuesday, March 29, 2016

A Tuesday Confession

My husband says I "pre-wash" the dishes before I load them into the dishwasher.

What I call rinsing, he calls good-enough-to-eat-off-again.

I consider the dishwasher to just be a final sanitation cycle.

Am I the only one?

Sunday, March 27, 2016

Because of This

We live in a broken world.

It's hard to have hope when every news story we read brings another report of horrifying terrorism and our best presidential candidates are Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.

It's hard to believe in any good thing when human life holds no value and marriage is talked about and treated like a big joke.

It's hard to live in peace when people are so hateful to each other and spew ugly, angry words without a single thought to the pain they're inflicting on another living, breathing person and the undoable damage they've just done.

It's hard to love through all of that. Hard to be content. Hard to find joy.

But then I read these precious, life-altering, mind-shattering, love-inducing words:

"Now on the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they, and certain other women with them, came to the tomb bringing the spices which they had prepared.

But they found the stone rolled away from the tomb.

Then they went in and did not find the body of the Lord Jesus.

And it happened, as they were greatly perplexed about this, that behold, two men stood by them in shining garments. Then, as they were afraid and bowed their faces to the earth, they said to them,

'Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but is risen!

Remember how He spoke to you when He was still in Galilee, saying, "The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again."'

And they remembered His words."

Luke 24:1-8 (NKJV)

Jesus is alive! He is not, has not, and will never be limited by this broken world. And someday, He's coming back to make everything right.

Because of this, I have hope (1 Peter 1:3).

Because of this, I have good news (1 Corinthians 15).

Because of this I have peace (Philippians 4:6-7).

I can love through it all (1 John 4:7-11), be content in all circumstances (Philippians 4:11-13), possess joy unspeakable (1 Peter 1:7-9).

Hallelujah! What a Saviour!

Friday, March 25, 2016

Casual Fridays

If my memory serves me correctly, I have never been allergic to anything. But here I am, getting closer to 30 than I'm comfortable with, and all of sudden, I'm suffering from allergies. And here's what I've discovered:

allergies suck

My sincerest apologies go out to all of you who have battled the pollen every year for as long as you can remember. I truly, truly am sorry because this is the worst, and I'm genuinely hoping this is some kind of fluke and next year I'm normal again.

I'm also sorry that we are now at two Casual Fridays in a row with no book discussion in between, but that's the nature of life right now. Just crank your favorite jam, dance it off, and send me all the allergy remedies you can think of.

Has anyone else developed allergies later in life? Why is this a thing??

Friday, March 18, 2016

Casual Fridays

Well hello there! I realize I haven't been the most faithful with the posts lately. So today I've decided to dedicate our Casual Friday to telling you all the reasons I haven't been around. Sound good?

Excuses For Being Totes M.I.A. From Blog-Land Lately

1) Did you catch the very end of this post where I casually mentioned that we bought a house? It's true. We're homeowners now, and this is definitely the biggest reason I haven't been keeping up with blogging. I've been unpacking, unpacking, unpacking, and I'm finally starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Cody and I have moved 4 times in less than 4 years of marriage together, and I'm optimistically expecting this to be the last time (at least for a very, very long time). I absolutely love my little house o' dreams, and I hope we never leave it. Happily, I think all my boys have completely assimilated to our new home and want to stay, too.

2) Because of this gigantic life change, I haven't exactly been tearing through my book list. I think there was a week or two where I didn't even read at all. I haven't touched The Good Girl's Guide or In Their Own Voices since I mentioned them in this post, but I did decide that it was time for something friendly and familiar so I'm about halfway through Sense and Sensibility. Which I have to say is a lovely break from all the craziness that is moving. Why is this an excuse? Because this blog is supposed to be about what I'm reading, and I haven't been reading.

3) My husband let me buy a piano! We finally have room for one, so I got on craigslist and contacted several different people, saw and played a few, and finally found one that has been loved and taken care of that I thought was perfect. So all the spare minutes (and some of the not-so-spare ones) find me sitting at the keys, fumbling my way through all my old music. #bliss

4) I've been helping out a friend with one of her sweet little munchkins quite a bit these last couple of weeks and who wants to blog when you can play with a baby? Not me.

5) Naps. Because priorities, amiright? Most days over the past month, when I finally get a second to sit down and take a breath, I think to myself, "I guess I could try and crank out a blog post." And then two hours later...I wake up. To make matters worse, enter Daylight Savings Time. I'm a night owl by nature, so losing an hour has screwed with me in an ugly way. I'm getting to bed later (in fact, it's 1:52 AM at the time I'm writing this post), but I still have to actually get up in the morning. What a cruel trick. #napsforthewin #nappingisbetterthanblogging

So there you have it. Excuses for my blog-silence. These could also be dubbed "Excuses For Not Cooking Dinner" or "Excuses For Running Out of Milk". I hope you'll forgive me. Thankfully, my husband sure has. What have you been up to lately?

P.S. By the way, apparently, several of you shared this post and (except for my giveaway) it quickly became my most-viewed post of all time. So thanks for sharing and thank you to everyone who approached me with kind things to say about it. I truly appreciate all the prayers and love!