BOOKS I FINISHED - APRIL 2018

The Ballad of Black Bart, written by Loren D. Estleman

This novel is based on Black Bart, a man who robbed Wells Fargo stagecoaches in California during the 1800s. The story was fine, but what I really loved was Estleman's use of vocabulary. I now have a whole list of words I understood based on context, but had never heard before.

p. 50, (H)e had long ago cut loose his team from the wagon of Regret and hitched it to Action.

p. 175, "A wolf in fleece rarely socializes with shepherds. They don't fool as easily as the flock."

God is Just Not Fair: Finding Hope When Life Doesn't Make Sense, written by Jennifer Rothschild

Irene gave me this book last fall and I finally got around to finishing it. It's filled with encouragement and admonition to press into Jesus when life is hard, words spoken from a woman who has faced major struggles of her own, including blindness and deep depression.

p. 35, Embracing the mystery of God's just inequality can save you from the bitterness that will wither up your soul and from resentment that will keep you chained to self-centeredness. 

p. 41, Our feelings are real, but they don't always reflect absolute reality.

p. 42, Feelings can be incredibly revealing, so don't repress them. But let them serve you rather than govern you.

p. 62, It is not wrong to wrestle with God. If God allows you to wrestle with him, it is not so there will be a winner and a loser. He doesn't need to prove he is stronger and you are weaker. No. The point of wrestling with God is to give you an opportunity to cling to him.

p. 114, Often our prayers are a way to corral our emotions to keep them from crushing our hearts.

p. 137, Our character rarely gets better just because our circumstances do.

p. 139, To embrace the concept of God's compassion and forbearance as it applies to our sins, yet to reject it as it applies to our suffering, is to reject part of the character of God. 

p. 178, After several terrifying months, God's grace gently guided me back to the truth that he did not call himself "I FEEL" or "I THINK", but "I AM". 

p. 190, (referring to John 3:30) It's a shift of focus. We do not ignore our pain or dismiss our sorrow. We do not neglect or debase ourselves. We just shift our focus. Instead of focusing on me and me alone, I glance at me and gaze at Jesus.

p. 210, She created a perfect past and projected a fantasy future - all with the word if.

p. 233, What you struggle with - whether it's debt, disease, grief, or any other number of difficulties - is not the whole picture. It's just one snapshot in the whole photo album that is your life. It is not forever. Eventually, life's pages will turn. Sure, this hard place will always be a part of you, but eventually, it will not be the biggest part of you. Just like an old photo in an album, the pain will become a faded memory.

The Running Dream, written by Wendelin Van Draanen
I enjoyed this novel about a teenager whose outstanding skill as a runner is cut short when she loses her leg in a car wreck. It's a great story about the sacrifices family members make for each other, loyalty of friends, power of a community, determination, and the importance of thinking past ourselves.

p. 314, It's disturbing how fast weeds take root in my garden of worthiness. They're so hard to pull. And they grow back so easily.

Shut Up, Stop Whining and Get a Life, written by Larry Winget
Although I disagree with him on some points, and quite strongly on occasion, Winget has a lot of good stuff to say in this book. In a nutshell, we need to stop complaining and making excuses, start taking responsibility for the way our life is going, and be willing to work hard.

p. 12, Few people will turn to themselves to take responsibility for their results until they have exhausted all opportunities to blame someone else.

p. 24, Knowledge is not power. It's the implementation of knowledge that is power.

p. 34, Affirmations are powerful. However, don't think that affirmations alone are going to change things for you. Just saying something won't change your results. Affirmation without implementation is self-delusion.

p. 86, If you don't know any better, then you are ignorant. If you know better and still do it, then you are stupid. Big difference.

p. 118, Unless you are a counterfeiter or the government, you don't make money. You earn money. Interesting how we forget that fact.

p. 119, By the way, the extra mile we have all hear about isn't very crowded - there's hardly anyone there at all.

p. 217, Stress comes from knowing what is right and doing what is wrong.

p. 227, Success isn't about passion. Success is about the combination of hard work and excellence.

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THANKFUL THURSDAY

I'm thankful that a painful bump I've had on my hand for weeks just vanished. What's one thing you're thankful for?

CRAZY HAT/HAIR BOWLING NIGHT - 2018

Our church's annual crazy hat/hair bowling night for grade school has been split into two events, one for younger grade school kids and another for older. I didn't get any pictures of Ws helping at the first one with younger kids several weeks ago, but here are some from the older kid event last Friday. 

Devon wanted a bunch of random braids, so Tim spent the evening before the event braiding and beading his hair. This, by the way, just happened to be the same night he made dinner at the end of a crazy day. He was on a roll of earning good husband and dad points!

I snapped a few pictures before they took off the next evening. Here's Devon and his random braids. The lack of symmetry makes me twitch, but the goal was crazy hair. Mission accomplished.

Naomi knew they'd had a prize category of tallest hair in the past, so she bought some helium balloons and tied them to her hair. Her strategy failed because they eliminated that category this year, but life goes on.

Tim wore his turtle hat, just like he does every time he helps at this event. Silas met them at the event, so I didn't get him in the group picture. I don't think he did anything festive this year anyway.

SOME WEEKS

Do you ever have one of those weeks where one thing after another goes wrong? Complaining doesn't feel justified because there have also been plenty of good things and the hard things aren't scandalous or life-changing. But, still, what in the world? That was last week.

Motherhood was ... ummm ... well, let's just say that I won't be writing a parenting book soon. Or ever. I had a few physical things going on that were frustrating. I didn't get nearly the amount of homeschooling work accomplished that I intended to and have pretty much lost most of my motivation to do any at all. 

Facebook made an unannounced change that suddenly and unexpectedly rendered all posting services useless on event pages, meaning my Pampered Chef party posts that go up automatically during the day while I take care of the rest of life, allowing me to pop into parties at my convenience, had to all be posted manually. Even during times where I'm intentionally offline.

The kids and I missed a junction that wasn't clearly marked on a hike, which cut our planned distance in half. I was running late for a haircut, which meant the kids all had to come with me immediately after the hike. We got home at 3:45, exhausted from a non-stop day and hungry because we hadn't anticipated being gone so long and hadn't brought adequate food. Plus I had tons of work to do because of the posting service situation and being away from the computer long. Our house was a mess. My dinner plan fell through.

Why were we running late, even though our hike was only half the distance we planned? Because of this. Four siblings relaxing and laughing together in the sunshine. Picturesque, right? Just having so much fun we lost track of time.

Or maybe it was that a big farm truck came barreling down the center of the road after our hike and I had to choose between getting hit head-on or sliding into a ditch, so the little Ws opted to wait on the opposite side of the road instead of sitting at an angle indefinitely.

Yep, it was that. And then it was waiting around to spend some quality time with the man of my dreams. You can see us together here, me getting my first sunburn of the year and him rescuing a damsel in distress. 

The good news is ...

The same kids who I feel so weary of parenting at times are the same ones who can be a joy to be around. I'm not parenting alone. None of my physical complaints are life-threatening. In fact, they're not even serious in any way. Schooling choices of every kind have ups to balance the downs. I've had the ability to manually post in my virtual Pampered Chef parties for the short-term while I decide what to do for the long-term. Both of last week's parties were fun.

We have the freedom to go on a hike in the sun in the middle of a school day. My phone had a signal in a somewhat rural area, which allowed me to call our insurance company to get towed out of the ditch. The tow truck driver responds to calls in the order he gets them, which meant when he got four calls in a row, he came to us first. We have insurance that paid for the tow.

The haircut I thought I'd have to cancel was still able to happen and I enjoyed catching up with my hairdresser. Tim was on a subbing schedule the day of the ditch adventure, so he beat us home by a few minutes. He took over the role of man of my dreams when he asked how he could help, then whipped together stir fry and a pot of rice when I asked if he could figure out something for dinner while I dealt with party stuff and tried not to cry.

Two things.

First, remember that there are proverbial vehicles in ditches across from smiling kids. People don't always tell you about them, but that doesn't mean they don't exist. Maybe you only see the smiling kids because the stuck vehicle in their life is something that isn't up for public consumption. Maybe it doesn't have to be kept private, but they're choosing to focus on the good things instead of the hard ones. Either way, there's often (I'm tempted to say always) more hard things going on in a person's life than one smiling picture or pleasant conversation indicates. No one's life is all sunshine and roses.

Second, remember that every rotten day has something good in it. I realize my week wasn't absolutely horrible, but it's still easy to get bogged down by the relatively trivial things that are inconvenient or frustrating. Whether you're dealing with a barrage of minor problems like I was, or huge things, which I've also faced, make a point to look for the positive things that are also going on. They're always there.

RANDOM PICTURES

I haven't been very consistent about blogging lately, which means I have a random assortment of pictures to share. Here are some from mid-February through mid-March. 

2/12 - Tyler chose to draw while I was reading to him for school one day. Any guesses what book he illustrated as I read? If you guessed Dolphin Treasure, you're right!

2/13 - Naomi had a spontaneous phone call with Mrs. Carter late one night. She was happy to begin with, as she and Pam have a sweet friendship, but then she got a major case of the giggles when describing a concert that had booths with things for sale. It sounded like she said she was at a concert with a lot of booze, which led to hysterical laughter and tears streaming down her face. It took quite a while for her to regain a composure!

2/14 - Hair twins.

2/18 - Trying out the new (and free to me as a reward for work I'd done) 10" Stainless Steel Nonstick Skillet from Pampered Chef.

2/19 - More skillet experimentation.

2/22 - This is the way short people take care of their responsibility to clean the exterior of the fridge.

After you work hard, you play hard. If you got a little bit of snow, that means heading outside and building a little snowman.

2/24 - The two biggest Sudoku addicts in our home working together on a puzzle.

2/25 - And still more skillet experimentation. We don't usually take pictures of ordinary cooking, but I'd wanted to share some pictures on my Facebook business page when the skillet was released. I figured I'd share them here since they're part of daily life.

2/27 - Reading in bed is definitely a perk of homeschooling!

2/28 - I'll never tire of young readers enjoying a book on their own.

3/15 - Tyler's weekly job this month is cleaning the bathroom. Silas popped in to check his progress on this particular day, then hung out to coach him through the parts he still had to finish.

3/16 - Reading partners.

I'll come back later with some pictures from mid-March through mid-April.

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THANKFUL THURSDAY

I'm thankful for music. What's one thing that you're thankful for?

I'M GOING!

I've mentioned to people over the last few months that I wasn't going to Pampered Chef's National Conference this summer. I wanted to go and knew I'd love it, but I'm zeroed in on my #BracesOnFaces goal and didn't feel like it was wise to pay for that trip when the money could go towards braces.

Tim leans a little toward saying yes to every fun opportunity and I lean a little toward saying no to all of them, so in an ideal world I reign him in a bit and he pushes me a little. Upon hearing about the conference, he said I should go, but I stood my ground.

Then I remembered when he pushed me to do something fun a few months ago that I felt was irresponsible. It turns out he was right and I was glad I'd taken his advice, even though I was uncomfortable with it on the front end.

Then I realized I was going to be moving to another level of leadership in my business, which has since happened. It wasn't something I sought out, but I really want to lead well now that I'm in that position. I know the training I'd receive at the conference would be really helpful.

So I'm going.

The registration itself is free, paid for with some of my Pampered Chef Dollars, which is company credit I've earned on top of my paychecks. The rest will be written off as a business expense, an investment in my efforts to pay cash for all the braces our family needs.

I confess I'm still torn on whether it's the best choice or not, but I'm also really excited and trust I'll come home grateful that I went.

THANKFUL THURSDAY

I'm thankful that the little W who most easily pushes my buttons is also the one who makes me laugh most frequently. What's one thing that you're thankful for?

WORLD'S BEST LOLLIPOP

Devon left this on my pillow a while back, an Original Gourmet cotton candy lollipop that he deemed "world's best lollipop". I finally ate it about a week ago, bringing it along when I left the house to spend some time working on various computer projects. I don't know if it's the world's best or not, but that lollipop tasted exactly like cotton candy. Exactly.

I can't help but wondering if all the other original and cream swirl flavors are so perfect. I may have to find out! If I end up with a lollipop addiction, I'll blame Devon.

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4/6/18 - WORTH REPEATING

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Average Americans began thinking of their homes as monetary objects to be bought, sold, invested in— consumed —rather than places to be experienced, places in which our complex lives as human beings unfold.

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Like the beauty industry, the home-improvement industry plays on (usually gendered) insecurity—the fear that we are unattractive or inadequate. But the truth is, “other people” don’t have to live in your house, and when they come to visit, they’re there to see you, not your succulents and marble-and-brass side table.

~ Kate Wagner in Are Home Renovations Necessary? at Curbed


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I don't wanna miss it / I don't wanna look back someday and find / Everything that really mattered / Was right in front of me this whole time / Open up my eyes, Lord / Keep me in the moment just like this / Before the beautiful things we love / Become the beautiful things we miss

~ Matthew West in The Beautiful Things We Miss on All In


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Convenience is all destination and no journey. But climbing a mountain is different from taking the tram to the top, even if you end up at the same place. We are becoming people who care mainly or only about outcomes. We are at risk of making most of our life experiences a series of trolley rides.

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Struggle is not always a problem. Sometimes struggle is a solution. It can be the solution to the question of who you are.

~ Tim Wu in The Tyranny of Convenience at The New York Times


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Ego is the anesthesia that deadens the pain of stupidity.

~ Dr. Rick Rigsby on Goalcast on Facebook


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My thinking went like this, "If there is any external reality in my life that I could not give up for 40 days, it has become a controlling influence on me. By definition, I have lost an element of self-control."

~ Joshua Becker in The Value of Fasting (from Anything). And How to Get Started. at Becoming Minimalist


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THANKFUL THURSDAY

I'm thankful for the apple crisp a friend gave my family. What's one thing that you're thankful for?

BOOKS I FINISHED - MARCH 2018

*****

Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption, written by Bryan Stevenson

 A defender of innocent people who have been falsely accused and wrongly convicted, an advocate for the guilty who have not been treated with dignity or fairness, and man who's chosen to walk with integrity in the midst of corruption, Stevenson's experience as a lawyer is eye-opening. He's a man who pursues justice through a path of mercy, seeking a balance between the two and never choosing one at the expense of the other.  Simultaneously heart-breaking and hopeful, Stevenson's story of fighting for those treated unfairly by America's justice system is one I encourage everyone to read.

p. 18 - The true measure of our character is how we treat the poor, the disfavored, the accused, the incarcerated, and the condemned.

p. 289 - We are all broken by something. We have all hurt someone and have been hurt. We all share the condition of brokenness even if our brokenness is not equivalent. / Sometimes we're fractured by the choices we make; sometimes we're shattered by things we would never have chosen. But our brokenness is also the source or our common humanity, the basis of our shared search for comfort, meaning, and healing. Our shared vulnerability and imperfection nurtures and sustains our capacity for compassion.

p. 290 - When you experience mercy, you learn things that are hard to learn otherwise. You see things you can't otherwise see; you hear things you can't otherwise hear. You begin to recognize the humanity that resides in each of us.

*****

Pictures of Hollis Woods, written by Patricia Reilly Giff

Hollis Woods is a girl who's never had a family to call her own. Shuffled through the foster care system, she copes with the tangled thoughts and emotions of her experience with a family she wanted to be part of by drawing. A gifted artist, she finds peace in the home of a creative woman she won't be able to stay with. It's a bittersweet story of our need to belong. This is a school book for the kids that I read on my own.

*****

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HUMBLED & GRATEFUL

Just a few days shy of the seven month mark in my Pampered Chef business, I sit here with so much gratitude for the experience. We need braces in our home, lots of braces, and Pampered Chef was a somewhat unlikely means to that end, an opportunity worth trying. I knew I wouldn't dislike it, but it turns out that I absolutely love it. I wasn't sure if it would be successful, but it has been.

I simply wanted to run a business from home, opting to do a job I could schedule around the rest of my life, and save up cash to pay for one set of braces each year. The first set was fully funded after just six months. A few totally unexpected and amazingly generous gifts pushed that accomplishment forward faster than expected, but my Pampered Chef income, one I chose to earn through virtual parties instead of live ones, was already ahead of schedule. That's humbling and I want to serve my customers well.

I had no ambition to build a team of other consultants, but was approached about fast-tracking to some advancement within Pampered Chef during my first month. It was a reasonable discussion to have, given that a couple people had already asked to join my team, but I explained that I didn't want to actively pursue business growth in that way. If a team grew naturally by people approaching me about trying a business of their own, that was fine, but otherwise I was just going to keep doing my parties and let the chips fall where they may. That boundary has been held by me and respected by everyone else. Today I'm not only a member of a team that's phenomenally supportive of each other, but I'm also directing a team of five other gals who are a steady source of encouragement and advice for one another, regardless of personal goals and business activity. That's humbling and I want to lead well.

As I've said repeatedly, I have no idea what the future holds for my Pampered Chef business, but I'm excited about what it's been so far. I haven't said anything publicly about the various business milestones I've reached along the way, but I recently hit another one and am so humbled by how things have worked out. I'm thankful, so very thankful, for each person who has supported my quest to meet the need of #BracesOnFaces in our family, whether through words of encouragement, business transactions, or sending people in search of Pampered Chef help my way.

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!