Commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these commands that I am giving you today. Repeat them again and again to your children. Talk about them when you are at home and when you are on the road, when you are going to bed, and when you are getting up.
Deuteronomy 6:6b-7 NLT
I was not a big fan of reading early on—I liked being read to but not when it was myself doing the reading. It was hard! I didn’t pick it up right away and it took effort! This was probably why as a 7-year-old I would get a little annoyed with my grandparents when they touted the advantages of reading; how it keeps your mind sharp, and how you can learn about other times and places, people, and travel.
Even though they talked a lot about reading when I was very young, it didn’t make a big impression on me. Around the age of 7, I started spending Fridays with them. Every Friday around 10 in the morning Grandpa would take me down to the library. They loved their local library which was a decent size library and they visited it frequently. He would send me off to the children’s section for me to pick out my books and, after selecting his books, he would open up the newspaper, settle into a chair, and wait for me. These Friday trips to the library are some of the best memories I have with him.
What made an impression was living out the example in front of me. Grandpa wasn’t just encouraging me to read, he was teaching me his values through the time we spent there each week. It was all those trips to the library that started to get me interested in reading. It was the cozy times when I would spend the night at their house, when they would pull out their books and recline in their easy chairs, and not a sound would be made except for the turning of pages. These were the things that caused me to fall in love with reading.
The Bible speaks again and again about instilling our values into our children. Instilling our values into our children isn’t just about talking to our children about the Bible—it’s about living out these examples on a daily basis. As parents and role models for the children in our lives, it’s not just about what we say, it’s about what we model. We can talk all day long about how wonderful having a relationship with God is, but if we act like going to church every Sunday is such a drag, then our children are not going to believe us.
It is not enough for us to just say all the right things, we have to live the right things as well. Let us always remember that the children and young people watching us are taking in way more than we probably wish they were about how we live our lives. We will mess up and there will always be things that we could have done better, but let us always be trying to model our values for our young ones, out of a place of love, not drudgery.
Hey! May I Send You Something?
If you are here, chances are you just might like my writing. (wink) If you Drop your email address in the box below I’ll save you time by emailing you the link every time a new post comes out!
You have Successfully Subscribed!
Disclosure
Please remember that this post contains affiliate links; that means if you click on the link, I will make a small commission at no extra cost to you. It’s a way to support my blog! I will only ever share an affiliate link if I love the product and think that you just might love it too!
I always like to do a year review of the previous year and of course that includes looking over all the books that I read and determining which ones stand out as really good books. In 2021 (see my post favorite books of 2021 here) there was a section of time when I fell down the rabbit hole of reading revolutionary war spy historical fiction—now that was good reading! This year I didn’t have any fantastic stretches in which I read 5-star books, yet there were some books that I particularly enjoyed. If you are looking for great titles to kick off your 2023 then continue reading to hear 5 of my favorite historical fiction titles that I read last year! These were some of my favorite unputdownable books that I read in 2022!
The Flight Girls by Noelle Salazar
This was a story about the women pilots who helped the war effort in WW II. This book opens on Thanksgiving Day in Hawaii, 1941, right before the bombing of Pearl Harbor. It is a story about the women pilots as well as the fictional story of Audrey Coltrane who is focused on saving her money and buying an airfield near her family’s home one day. She cannot allow herself to be distracted from this goal, even as she starts to find herself falling in love with handsome….
And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
Sometimes you get a good book at the wrong time and sometimes you get the right book and at the perfectly right time—that’s what happened with this book! I love a good mystery and, of course, I love a time-setting from the past. I am a little bit of a wimp… I don’t want anything too scary but, that being said, I still want to get a little scared. This is the perfect scariness for me! Ten people are stranded on a stormy island and one by one they start turning up dead which can only mean one thing—the killer is among them! If you want a goose-bump-raising mystery try this one!
The Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes
I read two books about the packhorse librarians last year and, while I enjoyed both of them, this one was far and away my favorite. The Appalachian Hills in Kentucky were not a forgiving region in the 1930s. Family feuds ran deep, travel was rough, and poverty was rampant. The rampant dangers of the job were hardly a deterrent to these women who took to their horses as part of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt’s initiative to spread literacy. But prejudices run deep and there are more than just rattlesnakes hiding in those hills to worry about.
The Chilbury Ladies Choir by Jennifer Ryan
This was a delightful little book full of quirky characters that make life come to life against the backdrop of war-worn World War II England and alternates points of view from several of the women who make up the Chilbury Ladies Choir. Kitty is 13, a very grown up 13 she wants to be sure we know, who brings a bright naiveté to the story. There is Mrs. Tilling, a widowed nurse whose son is currently overseas fighting. She is lonely though she doesn’t want anyone to know it. We meet Edwina who is hatching a scheme she is sure is going to make her a wealthy woman—but only if she doesn’t get caught! And there is Venetia who has her eye on a very eligible bachelor who is new to town; however, in getting involved with him she may also be getting in way over her head! Through the eyes of all these women we see how a town banded together during the difficult times of World War II and brought a bright spot into the war-torn gloom.
The Christie Affair by Nina de Gramont
I went into this book not really knowing what the storyline was but I found myself immersed in the different characters’ points of view. I enjoy a well-done story told from the point of view of someone who we usually demonize (in this case Mr. Christie’s lover) but yet one that doesn’t set out to pit the characters of the story against each other. What could have been the motivation for this young woman to have her eye set on Mr. Christie? Could it have had less to do with Mr. Christie himself and more to do with the child that was once ripped from her arms? What else could have transpired during Mrs. Christie’s famous disappearance?
There you are—some of my favorites from 2022! What about you? What were some of your favorite books of 2022? I’d love to hear about them!
Hey! May I Send You Something?
If you are here, chances are you just might like my writing. (wink) If you Drop your email address in the box below I’ll save you time by emailing you the link every time a new post comes out!
You have Successfully Subscribed!
Disclosure
Please remember that this post contains affiliate links; that means if you click on the link, I will make a small commission at no extra cost to you. It’s a way to support my blog! I will only ever share an affiliate link if I love the product and think that you just might love it too!
For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good work, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
Ephesians 2:10
This year has not started off quite like I wanted. Then again it might be more accurate to say that 2022 didn’t end like I wanted it also. It really was not in the plans, as far as I was concerned, for my husband and I to get the flu right before Christmas and be sick over Christmas day. It was really not my plan for my 7-month-old to get sick with the flu just as my husband and I started to recover, to then have a sick, fussy baby to worry about when I wanted to get a few projects crossed off my to-do list and play with my happy, smiley baby—not anxiously be holding my baby as I watched his fever climb higher and higher despite the Tylenol we had given him. But such is life sometimes….
Sometimes we have weeks like this, sometimes we have days, and sometimes we have years like this. This past year did not go as I had planned for it to either. In some regards it did; we had a healthy baby in May as was the plan. Other things though, did not go as I wanted it to and it messed up the plans I had for us.
I don’t know about you but when I came up with the game plan for my life, it was a pretty straight line going up without a bunch of ups and down, certainly no loops where we find ourselves back at the beginning. I remember being very little, I was still in daycare, and someone brought in Monopoly… several of the “older” kids teamed up with us younger ones and basically played the game for us. I really had no clue what the game was about, I just knew that if everyone else wanted to play it—I did too. So I sat at the table while one of the older kids moved my piece. At one point she turned to me and told me I had landed in jail. I had no idea that jail was part of the bargain of this game and I remember thinking what that cold jail cell would be like, when would the police come to get me, and would my mom be coming too or would I have to be alone. Thankfully I did not have long to ponder these thoughts as it was our turn again and I was able to get out of jail. What a lucky break! I got up from that table and have not cared for Monopoly since getting that fright of my little life! Since then I have done my utmost to stay out of jail!
Staying out of jail in Monopoly is pretty easy—just don’t play it! I like cause and effect, if you do X then Y happens. What I’m not a big fan of is the unpredictable. Which is exactly how life operates!
Life is a lot like Monopoly in some ways—we go in circles slowly making progress rather than just in one straight line. As we make our way through the circuitous journey, it is full of ‘go back to start’ and seemingly pointless loops, making slow progress toward our end. Life really isn’t about the destination—death is the final destination every single one of us will reach.
P.S.
If you never want to miss a post, enter your email into the box at the bottom of this page and we will deliver these posts straight to your inbox!
Hey! May I Send You Something?
If you are here, chances are you just might like my writing. (wink) If you Drop your email address in the box below I’ll save you time by emailing you the link every time a new post comes out!
You have Successfully Subscribed!
Disclosure
Please remember that this post contains affiliate links; that means if you click on the link, I will make a small commission at no extra cost to you. It’s a way to support my blog! I will only ever share an affiliate link if I love the product and think that you just might love it too!
Do you set time aside each year to reflect on the year? I have to admit that sitting and reflecting is something I love the idea of… but rarely something that I put into practice! I think it’s important though to think through the year past and think about what we can do to improve our upcoming year. There are lots of suggestions for things to think about sprinkled all over the internet but here are a few of the questions that I have found helpful to ask myself when thinking about what I want from the days and months ahead.
What Were the Life-Giving Moments of 2022?
What were the moments that really made you come alive in 2022? What was something you were doing that caused you to lose all track of time because you were so immersed in that thing? I realized that in 2022 I did not have nearly as many of these moments as I would like—it was a busy year—having a baby eats up a lot of time! However, when I looked back I realized I really enjoyed a day spent with my husband walking around the town of Ligonier and visiting the locally-owned shops within the town. I enjoyed the time spent hiking with my husband and little baby, and I enjoyed the time I spent working on some of my various craft projects.
What Worked in 2022?
I did not come up with the phrasing of this question; check out Anne Bogel of the Modern Mrs. Darcy website, but think about what worked in 2022. What made life run more smoothly? What habits made life easier? For me, in 2022 we started using some of the grocery pick-up features from our local grocery stores, not all the time, but definitely some of the time! While I still find value in physically making a trip to the grocery store, there were many times this past year when placing an order for pick-up saved time and hassle that I either didn’t have or wasn’t up for. It can be a slippery slope with the time vs. money equation and you can start to go broke automating everything in your life but here and there I think it is money well spent!
What Didn’t Work in 2022?
Were there habits that stopped working in 2022? For me, this was changing my cleaning schedule halfway through the year with the arrival of our little one. While I would still love to get all the weekly chores done on one day of the week, it simply isn’t working with the time I have available to me at this time, unless I want to only do chores all day on either Saturday or Sunday—which I don’t! I started doing all of the laundry midweek in order to recoup some of the time on the weekend. What pain points are you experiencing that you need to re-evaluate? How could restructuring your week solve some of life’s problems? Are you doing too many little chores every day that are eating into valuable time? Or are you not doing enough and then running out of time so that laundry is never getting folded and you are always stressed out wishing you had gotten to that “one thing” this past weekend?
What do you want more of in 2023?
Similar to our first question of what was life-giving in 2022, what did you not do in 2022 that you wish you would have? What have you found life-giving in the past that wasn’t this year? Normally I find great pleasure in reading at the lake at our local state park. This year, however, with a baby in tow it simply wasn’t easy and didn’t usually end up being that relaxing. What I found to replace that relaxation was having more campfires in our fire pit where there was not a need to lug a bunch of baby gear and where generally my baby was happy to be held and to doze off throughout the evening. Things change from year to year, and while I would generally rather everything stay the same, I have realized that when I adapt to the changes rather than fighting them things end up being a lot more enjoyable!
Do You Need to Restructure Your Priorities?
There isn’t space to care about everything, all the time. In the past exercise has been a big priority for me, but this past year I held it more loosely. I tried to exercise 2-3 times a week, but if it didn’t happen I didn’t stress. I have a job that keeps me physically active and in shape so I let formal exercising drop down a rung on my priority hierarchy. Depending on how this next year goes exercise may need to be moved to the top of the ladder in years to come! But for now, it’s really okay if I’m not training for my next half marathon.
Did You Make a Little Bit of Progress on the Things that Matter Most to You?
We want to see big leaps and bounds in the areas that matter to us each year, but that doesn’t usually happen year after year. What we want to be careful about is saying we want to work on the same thing every year and then not work on it. It’s defeating. If you have a big goal that you are putting on your list of goals to work on simply because it’s a habit, pause—do you really want to do that thing this year? So many of the things we fail to accomplish we fail in part because achieving the thing takes more effort than the amount of joy we will achieve from the results. Re-evaluate to make sure you are really putting effort into the things that matter. Changing goals is okay! Never making progress on what matters most to you isn’t okay so I encourage you to take time and decide what really matters most to you. What will the future you be glad that you did? And how can you change things to enjoy life even just 10% more this year than you did in past years?
I hope this helps you to think through how you can tweak your day-to-day rhythms and routines to end up finding a little more joy, a little more ease, and your goals a little closer when we arrive at the end of yet another year!
Have you gotten yourself a scheduler yet? This is my current scheduler!
Other Schedulers I like:
Hey! May I Send You Something?
If you are here, chances are you just might like my writing. (wink) If you Drop your email address in the box below I’ll save you time by emailing you the link every time a new post comes out!
New year—new trends! Some of these I love, and others… not so much. There are some interesting things going on in the world of color—some of the trends are continuing, and some hot things of last year are out. Here are some of the trending items for 2023.
Sanctuary
After 2020 with everyone spending large amounts of time in their homes, we saw an emergence of turning our homes into sanctuaries. This is what they should have been all along! We started seeing people remodeling their homes to use them in the way that makes the most sense for them—sometimes a good home office is needed more than a formal dining room! We also saw people adding sunrooms and utilizing more of their house than before. Anything added to make your home more of a retreat sanctuary rather than just a place to live continues to be a trend in 2023.
Color
Color is kind of all over the place this year. Several of the color companies produced calming neutral colors for the color of the year for 2023, others did magenta. Clearly, they did not consult with each other before choosing their picks! The two overarching themes that we are seeing this year in the color world are:
Neutrals for creating a sanctuary-like home, and
Strong colors—we have had whites and grays for so long that people are now desperate for color!
Deep moody colors are in, which is good news for me since I just painted my living room a deep teal-tinted navy blue! If you have a room that doesn’t get a lot of light (as was my case), try going dark for a cozy feel rather than trying to lighten it up with white which can just appear dingy in a dark room. Trends for 2023, in addition to neutrals and deep, moody tones, teals, magentas, and purples are on the rise this year as well.
Now for the colors of the year:
Pantone
Each year Pantone releases their color of the year; this year the color is Viva Magenta.
Just like the name says, this is a bold Magenta color.
Behr
Behr’s color of the year is called Blank Canvas. This is off-white—somewhat grayish in tone; a good backdrop for a wall color that could then be offset using some of the other colors of the year.
Benjamin Moore
Benjamin Moore Paints has picked Raspberry Blush as their color of the year. They are calling it Raspberry Blush but I am calling it Dusty Rusty because it is definitely a rust color—there’s not too much that is soft and blush about it!
Sherwin Williams
Sherwin Williams has declared their color of 2023 to be Redend Point. Redend Point is a very, warm, strong beige. It is not my favorite color (it kind of looks like it was regurgitated from one of the previous decades) however it pairs really well with other neutrals that I love—sage green, warm creams, and dark maroons.
Neutral and Vintage Furniture
Shortages and shipping delays have helped rush in the trend of using vintage furniture in your home. Using vintage pieces in your home is a great way to give your home a collected feel, but it is also a way to reduce waste and, in many cases, you are getting a better quality piece of furniture than you would be able to purchase for the same price brand new.
Textured Furniture
While we are still talking about furniture, textured furniture is big right now. Sued, leather, rattan, wicker, velvet, and any other texture you come across is on trend for 2023! We feel the texture with our eyes as well as our hands, and adding texture throughout your home is another good way to give your home a collected designer feel.
Kitchens
I love my all-white kitchen, and white kitchens will always be a classic but… color has made its way back into the kitchen as well. While you may have to take your chances with staying power, for now, bold colors in the form of cabinets are in and I wager they will be for several years. Two-toned cabinets continue to be on trend, as does a different color kitchen island.
Wallpaper
Wallpaper isn’t going anywhere—quite possibly because everyone is scared of trying to take it off their walls! Wallpaper has come a long way over the years and is a great way to make a big statement that you don’t have to live with forever. Over the past few years, we have seen a lot of accent walls done in wallpaper and, while this is still a thing, we are seeing a lot more full rooms done in wallpaper. I am still trying to talk my husband into letting me wallpaper the guest bathroom! But in the meantime I am still in love with the dresser I redid last year, using wallpaper on the drawer fronts to add some personality to the dresser. (See my post here for the step-by-step guide to how I redid this dresser.) All that to say—get creative! If you want to incorporate wallpaper but aren’t sure about actually putting it on the walls, you can put it in a picture frame—have fun with it!
Vintage Art
Vintage art continues to be in—won’t all the Van Gogh lovers be happy to hear that? However, for those of us of more moderate means, we can happily pick up the painting that catches our eye at our local thrift store or flea market, and rest assured that we will be on trend too!
These are just a few of the home decor trends this year, but as always I want to encourage you to remember it’s your house! If you love something, do it! And if you don’t love it—please don’t add anything just because you think you should! Also if you want to try a trend but you aren’t sure about committing to it on a grand scale, try just adding touches of it here and there: wallpaper in a large picture frame; a magenta throw pillow; start small and see what you think. If you still love it after living with the trend on a small scale then go for it on a large scale if you so desire!
Please keep in mind that if you are enjoying these, I greatly appreciate it when you share them with friends and family! Sharing these posts helps me to be able to bring you more of them, week after week, and word of mouth is the primary way this blog grows!
Disclosure
Please remember that this post contains affiliate links; that means if you click on the link, I will make a small commission at no extra cost to you. It’s a way to support my blog! I will only ever share an affiliate link if I love the product and think that you just might love it too!
Hey! May I Send You Something?
If you are here, chances are you just might like my writing. (wink) If you Drop your email address in the box below I’ll save you time by emailing you the link every time a new post comes out!
