Through Clouded Glass

A Book On Prayer You Should Read

noreply@blogger.com (Callie) — Thu, 26 Apr 2018 11:00:00 +0000

(Affiliate link below.)

Prayer is not something that comes naturally to me. I constantly struggle to fit in dedicated time for prayer, and then once I have it, I struggle to make my prayer time really meaningful. Any time I have a chance to read a book on prayer that I think will be actually helpful, I snag it.

The Prayer That Turns The World Upside Down by R. Albert Mohler Jr. is a book that focuses on the Lord's prayer, and specifically why this prayer was so radical in Jesus's time (and now as well!). Mohler takes each line of Jesus's prayer in Matthew, and explains it in detail, including the theological truths that Jesus was communicating through each line. I honestly never thought about the actual theology communicated through the Lord's prayer, even though I've had it memorized since I was a child.

I found this book not only fascinating, but also very practical when it comes to figuring out WHAT to pray. So often I get stuck in praying about things that feel trivial, and then not really knowing what else to say. The Lord's prayer is a wonderful basis for directing us to the things we truly should be praying for, and this book really inspires you to actually spend time praying about the things that Jesus told the disciples to pray. After each chapter I found myself closing my eyes and taking a minute to apply what I was learning.

This is a book that I'll refer back to again and again - I already have so many passages highlighted that I want to go back to now that I've read the whole thing! Highly, highly recommend if you find yourself stagnating in your prayer life. I think it will inspire you to focus your prayers on things that will last, obeying Jesus's example and honoring God in the process.

Note: I received a copy of this book for free from the publisher in exchange for a review. This is my honest opinion.

Nothing Too Interesting

noreply@blogger.com (Callie) — Tue, 24 Apr 2018 22:06:00 +0000

(I did not take this photo today. Obviously.)

You know how I wrote that post about "spring" in the mountains last week? Well, it's snowing. That's about right.

You know how people ask you, "So, what have you been up to?" And you respond with "Oh, nothing too interesting." Well, that's this post. Nothing too interesting, but life isn't always edge-of-your-seat, is it? Life is made up of a whole lot of nothing-too-interesting, so I see no reason why I shouldn't still take time to write about it.

The last couple weeks have felt so busy to me, but not with anything very substantial. No, I've been busy with things like creating a spreadsheet with all the groceries that are in my cupboards, making muffins for the kids for breakfast to save money on cereal, and cleaning my house. All helpful, good domestic things. All things that, dare I say, I have surprisingly found rather fun.

Once again, not things that are very interesting to write about, but that won't stop me from trying! Because guys, if you have never created a grocery-cupboard-spreadsheet, I feel like you should give it a try. This was a particularly hard month when it comes to grocery money, so the spreadsheet was born from my desire to see how long I could make it without going to the grocery store. I had no idea how much was hiding in the dark recesses of my freezer! I've barely gone to the store at all this month - I've spent probably around $200 on groceries for April. For seven people.

I laid all the items in my cupboards out on a spreadsheet and then put together meals with what I had, and it's been amazing. I saved so much money!

And we've actually been eating pretty well, if I do say so myself (thanks in large part to this cookbook). We've had braised meatballs in wine gravy, spicy chops with sweet potatoes, skillet steak with peppers and cheese, barbecue roast, raspberry hazelnut chicken with potatoes (not as labor-intensive as it sounds, I made it with salad dressing). And for breakfast we've been having these (amazing) nut muffins, banana muffins, cranberry muffins, pumpkin pancakes, and hard-boiled eggs (instead of the cold cereal we usually have).

My grandma told me once that when you have less food to work with, it's easier to get creative and you almost end up eating better than when you have an abundance. I must say, she was right.

I also realized about halfway through the month that I had read hardly any books, so last week I buckled down and finished FIVE books. Pretty good, right? And I'm halfway through three more that I'm hoping to finish before May!

I've been having a lot of fun making videos with my recently read books this year, and watching other bookish videos on Youtube. My friend Felicia has been on "booktube" for years, and I love watching her videos. It's quicker and easier to talk about the books you've been reading, rather than sitting down and compiling a post with mini-reviews (at least it's easier to me, I don't know why). So if you want to keep updated on books I'm reading, you need to stop by my channel. Or you can also follow me on Goodreads, because I'm still writing reviews on all my books there (how is that easier than writing review posts on my blog, you ask? I don't know, it just is!).

Speaking of May, we booked our vacation! We are flying out to North Carolina this year to visit Derek's family! The last time we went to North Carolina I was largely pregnant with Gwen, so it's been quite a long time. We have four more babies on the outside than we did then. I'm not going to lie, I'm a little nervous about flying with five young children. The airline assured me (multiple times, because I asked the same question, worded slightly differently, repeatedly) that we would be sitting with our children on the plane. "Are you sure?" I said. "Because there are four of them, and one in my lap." But they assured me this would be the case without any extra seating fees.

Now I have the monstrous task of digging all the kids' summer clothes out of the closets, and sorting through them to see what will be acceptable North Carolina attire in May. Southeast people, what's it like out there in May? Because the last time I went on a May vacation somewhere that I thought it would be warm (ie. ARIZONA), it snowed.

The spring snow, I tell you. It follows me even out of state.

What I Read In March | 2018

noreply@blogger.com (Callie) — Fri, 20 Apr 2018 13:35:00 +0000

Now that we're halfway through April - let's talk about what I read in March! If you follow me on Goodreads, you have probably already seen a bunch of these. Prepare yourself for one very unpopular opinion.

Books I Mentioned:

A Wrinkle In Time by Madeline L'Engle

Chronicles Of Narnia by C. S. Lewis

A Tree Grows In Brooklyn by Betty Smith

My Cousin Rachel by Daphne du Maurier

When Is It Right To Die? by Joni Eareckson Tada

Wishtree by Katherine Applegate

What Came From The Stars by Gary D. Schmidt

The Wednesday Wars by Gary D. Schmidt

The Lord Of The Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien

Okay For Now by Gary D. Schmidt

Bachelor Nation by Amy Kaufman

Answers For Homeschooling by Israel Wayne

The Reformation by Stephen J. Nichols

Anne Of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery

Emily Of New Moon by L. M. Montgomery

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

What are you reading these days?

8 Minute Memoir: Spring

noreply@blogger.com (Callie) — Tue, 17 Apr 2018 13:09:00 +0000

(Quick note - Post inspired by Amanda's beautiful 12-Minute memoir yesterday. I forgot how much I like doing these, and it's so much easier to fit in before the kids wake up. I'm getting my prompts here. Thanks Amanda! Also, picture is from somewhere else where they actually have those magical flowering trees.)

6:46 AM

When I think of spring I think of one thing: mud.

I've lived in the mountains my whole life, and in the mountains spring is an endless cycle of snow which turns to mud, which is covered by more snow. Even the springs that break form (like this one) are brown and grey in the mountains, with very little color. We wait and wait, until suddenly, all in a flurry at the end of May, it goes from spring to summer in one week.

When I was a child I never understood why people liked spring. When I became a young adult I started to realize that other places had flowers, flowering trees even. And well, if you have a spring like that, it makes sense why you would like it. But in my mountain world, spring is the ugliest season.

Mountain springs haven't changed that much since I was a kid, but while I used to hate the season, I don't anymore. It's still brown and yucky, but I notice the green grass poking through the ground, hidden behind the yellowed leftovers from last year. As my kids' feet pound the floor above me way too early in the morning, I realize I also hear birds singing an endless song outside the window. I walk over to let our big hound mix outside, because he won't leave me alone until I do, and I hear squirrels chattering and I breathe in the cold, wet smell of melting snow.

Spring will always smell like that to me. Not like flowers, or green grass. Like mud and melting snow.

There is life out there, new life stretching up, peeking around the corner, sitting in the tree branches. I never noticed that as a kid, but I do now. Now that I've felt new life in my womb, held it in my arms, and had a few more Resurrection Days under my belt, spring holds a bit more significance.

So even these muddy, ugly springs are beautiful after all. I look out my window and can see the echoes of God's words in Genesis - even here, in the mud.

"It is good."

6:54 AM

Happy Baby - Georgie At Five Months

noreply@blogger.com (Callie) — Mon, 16 Apr 2018 11:30:00 +0000

Well, this month's update is about two weeks late. Whoops! My sweet girl is now well past 5 months old!

This month has felt like a bit of a whirlwind, and I'm not really sure why. I just know that I've been exhausted with everything on our calendar and have been intentionally trying to slow down. The last few weeks I've been telling Georgie that she's my little stress reliever, because her sweet cuddles and big smile instantly lighten my mood! I'm so happy she's my baby.

Growth And Eating

We're still struggling along with the nursing, and my supply isn't increasing at all - but I'm hanging on, because I'm not quite ready to give it up. She's mostly on formula now. I'm also happy to report that she's chunked up some even since her last monthly update. Her little legs have the hint of rolls now, and I just love her round little cheeks when she smiles! Her hair is starting to thin - I've figured out that babies' hair reaches the peak of baldness at six months old before it starts to grow back in thicker. She still has hair, but I can tell it's changing texture. She is gumming everything and drooling a lot, so I feel like some teeth may poke through soon - or we may have to wait another 3 months, you never can tell.

Sleeping

I actually told Derek the other day that I feel bad for everyone in the world who does not get to be Georgie's mom (ha!) - first, because she's just so sweet and happy and delicious, and second because this baby is the most incredible sleeper I've ever heard of. She's STILL sleeping 12 hours at night, plus a 2-hour nap during the day! I'm getting so much sleep, I have no reason in the world to be exhausted. When I'm tired, everyone assumes it's the baby - no, it's my own fault. I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop...it is just so nice to have a fifth baby who sleeps! Georgie totally spoils us. I told her the other night that she's the kind of baby who tricks you into having a sixth!

Firsts

Shortly after Georgie's 5th month birthday, we celebrated Easter! It was Georgie's first on the outside, and she looked pretty cute in her dress that matched all the girls. We also put her in the gumbo seat for the first time, and sometimes she likes it, and sometimes she hates it. No other firsts yet, but I think we'll be adding a few in the next month as we look ahead to starting solid foods.

Personality

She is still the cutest, happiest little thing! She greets me with a smile each morning, smiles when I kiss her cheek, smiles when I talk to her. She loves her siblings and will just grin at them if they give her any attention.

She's obviously very easygoing (see above), but she tries to assert herself when she's hungry. Even then, her cry is just not that loud or disruptive. If she has to cry more than a couple of minutes before I get to her, her cries turn to this hopeless wail, like she's upset that no one ever takes her crying seriously, and it's so sad and pathetic and cute-sounding.

She definitely likes me best right now, and will just watch me when someone else is holding her, then she grins when I finally take her back. She likes to talk, and has the cutest little cooing voice - I'm looking forward to when she adds more consonants to her repertoire!

---

Sweet Georgie,

My darling girl, you are such a blessing to me! There have been many times over the last month when I was feeling stressed, and I sat down to feed you and your smile just melted all the chaos away. If I look you in the eye while you are eating, you'll grin at me around your bottle and give me a cute little "hum" sound, and I just feel like laughing every time you do it. What a joy you are! Your personality is so sweet, and I just can't wait to watch it develop more as you grow. I thank God every day for giving you to me. I love you, darling.

Love Always,

Mama

Don't Be Like Bob

noreply@blogger.com (Callie) — Tue, 10 Apr 2018 11:30:00 +0000

(Four of my blessings.)

"Ah, you're Callie. I've heard of you. The one thing I know about you is that you have a lot of kids...so I guess I also know that you're insane."

Hardy, har, har.

Believe it or not, someone who was also a fellow Christian, by the way - we'll call him, Bob - actually said this to me once. I gave out an incredulous "ha!" and then sat there in silence. This is where I wish sometimes that I was a little quicker on my feet. What I wanted to say was, "Oh, nice to meet you, Bob. I guess the one thing I know about you is that you haven't read Psalm 139, where it says children are a reward from the Lord, and a blessing. Buh-less-ing!"

But of course, I didn't say that, because that would be rude (hint, hint, Bob).

The reason I bring this up is because I saw a sketch on Facebook yesterday that made me laugh (you can see it here). A stick figure family with six children and one on the way have their mouths hanging open, while another stick figure man says "You know what causes that, right?" Underneath it says "This is Bob. Bob does not recognize blessings. Don't be like Bob."

Apparently there are a lot of Bobs out there.

Of course I thought it was funny because of my own experiences, so I shared it. And then I sat there and remembered the story I shared above. And then I had a startling realization.

Sometimes, I am also a Bob. Because sometimes, I don't recognize blessings.

Isn't that what discontentment is, after all? We forget to recognize and thank God for the blessings we have. We think what we have isn't good enough, or isn't enough, period. We want more...more excitement, more recognition, more experiences, more things (even good things) - and when we focus so much on what we're missing, we forget about the things that we have. The things God has so graciously given us.

Maybe we don't actively ridicule those blessings like my Bob did, we're just overlooking them or minimizing them. Those are two different things of course, but in practice, isn't it the same thing? We're an ungrateful people, and whether with derision, or indifference and greediness, we snub God's good gifts as spoiled children would. And when I say "we", I mean me. So when I say this next part, it's a challenge to me more than it's a challenge to you.

Don't be like Bob.

Creative Contentment | A 100 Days Project

noreply@blogger.com (Callie) — Thu, 05 Apr 2018 11:30:00 +0000

One of my unspoken goals for the year has been to get better at budgeting.

Recently I was reminded of why I need this so much when a friend mentioned a deal she found on some new clothing items. Did I need new clothing? No, but it didn't stop me from browsing the internet in search of a similar deal. I have three new garments to show for it, and though I stayed within my budget to buy them, and they were good buys that will fit into my wardrobe nicely, it still makes me a little unnerved each time I look at them. Because I know they were bought from an ugly place. A place of discontent.

2018 so far has brought to light my personal discontent in ways I didn't expect. The budgeting and finance issues are just one aspect - at various times over the last few years I have felt discontent with my schedule, discontent with our food, discontent with our house. I have felt discontent with how ordinary my days are, how little I accomplish in a day, the quality of the books I'm crossing off my to-be-read list, the number on the scale. I've felt discontent with my homeschool community (or rather lack thereof), and discontent with my walk with the Lord (because I wish I had more time and was better at making it a priority!).

Basically, I'm tired of being discontent.

I recently saw that the #100daysproject is starting up on Instagram, and I mulled over the idea of joining in. I did 31 Days Of Writing last October and loved being able to focus my posts around a certain theme on this blog, and I liked the idea of doing it again.

As I was sitting there, running through different topics or activities that wouldn't be too burdensome in my current stage of life (and also wondering if it's cheating somehow to write about the project on my blog instead of Instagram), I remembered my blog friend Cassidy doing a 31 Days project on contentment a few years back. Many blog friends have participated in these challenges over the years, but for some reason Cassidy's series stuck with me. Perhaps because contentment is something I struggle with off and on too.

Then it came to me: creative contentment. If I was going to do a 100 Days Project, that's what I'd like it to be on. Thinking outside the box when it comes to practicing contentment - figuring out strategies to help myself rest in contentment, and improving my circumstances and attitude where I am right now, with what I have right now.

I think I'm just going to go for it. Will I write every day about this on the blog? No, but I am hoping to seriously think about and practice contentment in different areas of my life every day for the next 100 days, and write something related to this topic at least once a week right here (and maybe occasionally on Instagram too). That counts right? That's my plan.

So consider this the first installment, and expect more on Thursdays or Fridays for the next few months!

Reunions

noreply@blogger.com (Callie) — Fri, 30 Mar 2018 11:30:00 +0000

This time last year, my belly was just starting to round with a new little life (Georgie!) when we made the difficult decision to search for a new church. I remember crying. We had been going to our previous church for seven years, and it took a significant amount of that time to really start to feel involved there, like we belonged. Though we had been praying about it and felt like this was the right decision, I wasn't looking forward to starting over.

I didn't write about it during that time, but it was a long, hard search until we found somewhere that met our standards and felt right. Maybe I'll write more about the process of looking for a new church someday, but let's just say I'm relieved to have it behind us. There is a sense in which any body of believers feels like family, but every time you start attending a new church it takes some time to feel like you belong. We've been pleasantly surprised and blessed to feel at home here quickly, and that has helped ease the transition, helped us know that it was right.

A couple of weeks ago after the church service, I pushed open the door to the ladies' room, and looked up and into the face of a dear lady from our former church. She stared at me for a second, and I stared at her, and then we burst out with each other's names and rushed to give each other a hug. We laughed about meeting again in a restroom of all places. My family visited with their group in the hall well after most of the regular attenders had cleared out. It was a reunion of sorts, and I couldn't stop grinning for the rest of the day. Reunions, when they are sweet, will do that.

---

March has been a month of reunions overall. We also went out to visit my dear childhood friends on their ranch. They can't get away that often, but once a year we make the trek out to see them. I want to make it happen more often.

We visited, caught up on each other's lives, introduced the baby. We ate lunch, and remembered back to when we were kids, growing up in a little white church in the mountains. Every summer there was an ice cream social, with real ice cream churned in vintage buckets, packed with snow from the nearest mountain pass. There would be peach, and banana, and pralines and cream - the row of ice cream makers on the shelf above our heads brought it all back.

We will keep making this trip out to the ranch as long they will have us, because we love our friends so dearly, and our reunions make it seem as if we live much nearer than we do. It always feels like we saw them last week instead of last year.

---

Reunions don't always feel so sweet as all this, of course, but when I do have moments of happy reunions, it makes me think how beautiful Heaven will be. I imagine we'll see everyone who we know here who has trusted in Jesus, and that will be one round of happy reunions. Then we'll see all the people whose names we know but who we've never met - but it will seem as if we had known them all along. Then we'll see all the people whom Jesus saved who we never met, and we never knew their names, but we're still all connected because we've all been adopted into this family, through the blood of Jesus.

---

It's Good Friday today, when we remember Jesus's death on the cross. My heart is heavy as I remember why He died - to pay the penalty for my crimes (and yours too), when He had no crimes of His own. God became a man, lived without sin, and died in our place - covering our sin and reconciling us with Himself when we trust in Him to save us.

What kind of despair the disciples must have felt though, when He died. I can't even imagine that feeling, because I've never had to feel it - we all have the benefit of knowing the rest of the story, after all. Seeing Jesus on the third day, alive again, had to be an unimaginable joy!

And now, I'm just waiting for my turn. Because someday I'll see Him too, either when I die and enter eternity, or when He comes back on the clouds to take us home. And boy, that will be the best reunion of all.

---

Happy Resurrection Day (on Sunday), friends! I pray that you know Jesus as your Savior too, and may you get a small taste of the joy of that coming reunion as we celebrate that our Savior is alive, forevermore!

"But the angel answered and said to the women, 'Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here; for He is risen, as He said. "

Matthew 28:5-6a

Large Family Q&A - 5 Kids Under 7

noreply@blogger.com (Callie) — Wed, 21 Mar 2018 11:30:00 +0000

People are curious about large families. Curious enough to ask awkward questions of strangers (I speak from experience). I don't blame them - I am even curious about families that are bigger than mine!

With five kids, I suppose we officially fall into the "large family" category, so I had a little fun with it recently and did a video with some common questions people seem to have about big families. Now you don't have to ask me awkward questions, because I answered them for you here! Watch the video (or scroll down for the short answers!).

1. How many children do you have?

Five!

2. What are their ages?

7, 5, 3, 2, 4 months.

3. What is your family structure?

They're all our biological children.

4. How old were you when you had your first baby?

Twenty-two, and I'd recommend young motherhood when possible. I got all five of my babies in before I turned 30!

5. Were they all planned by you and your spouse, or do you leave it up to God?

We had to try a bit for the first two, and the last three were surprises (sort-of).

6. What is your favorite reaction to telling someone how many children you have?

My favorite reaction is when someone tells me how blessed I am, because that's how I feel!

7. How do you usually handle negative comments?

Um...I don't really notice negative reactions most of the time. One of the benefits of being non-observant. Still looking for a good one-liner for the (thankfully very few) times we get a negative comment.

8. What does it cost to feed your large family?

Well, our monthly grocery budget is currently $650, but most of the kids are pretty little and don't eat terribly much. It'll probably go up in the next few years.

9. Do you plan to have more children?

I believe we're done, but hey, I'll never say never! Derek and I have talked about leaving adoption open as a possibility if the Lord calls us that way.

10. What is your family vehicle?

Minivan, baby!

11. Do you ever eat out?

Not very often, and if we do, it's usually fast food.

12. How much milk do you go through in a week?

Two gallons? We probably could go through more, but we drink water more often than milk.

13. How many rolls of toilet paper do you go through each day?

I don't even know!

14. What is your favorite go to meal?

Burritos or some sort of noodles.

15. How do you spend one on one time with each of your children?

I usually take one of them with me for the beginning-of-the-month grocery shopping trip, though we still need to get back into that since Georgie has been born. Homeschooling is also giving me some one-on-one time with the older kids while we do their work, and I totally count that. We bond over math.

16. How do you manage the clutter?

We do pick-up times at designated times of the day, but let's just say I've become a lot more laid back about messes.

17. Do you homeschool, private school or public school?

Homeschool!

18. How do you manage the chaos?

By getting used to it?

19. What do you do IF you get free time?

Blogging, dabbling in doing these videos, and reading.

20. What is your #1 tip for other large family moms?

I don't know! I don't think I'm far enough in to give advice. Someone give me some tips!

If you have a large family, feel free to grab the questions and let me know where you answered so I can check it out!

When Is It Right To Die Review - Highly Recommend

noreply@blogger.com (Callie) — Mon, 19 Mar 2018 17:28:00 +0000

(Affiliate link below.)

I live in a state with legalized assisted suicide, so when I saw When Is It Right To Die? by Joni Eareckson Tada up for review I thought it would be a really helpful read. I knew Joni Eareckson Tada is a voice on these subjects that I would truly respect, and I was looking forward to hearing what she had to say.

If you are interested in thinking on the subject of assisted suicide and other end-of-life decisions from a Christian perspective, I HIGHLY recommend this book. This book addresses not only those who might be considering assisted suicide, but those, like me, who are wanting to look at this subject in a God-honoring way.

Joni not only doesn’t preach in this book, but she presents a truly compassionate look at these subjects while remaining uncompromising. She addresses those who may be facing suffering or death with compassion and a challenge to use every day to God’s glory, and she addresses those around these people to consider the situation with compassion and biblical truth. She speaks from personal experience on both sides of these circumstances, and I don’t think you will find a more well-balanced Christian approach to end-of-life decisions than in this book.

As someone who is strongly against assisted suicide, I especially appreciated this book because it made me look at the whole subject with more compassion. Joni challenges you to think about the real people who are facing suffering and death, to put yourself in their shoes, to imagine yourself as their friend, and to consider how you would handle these things in a Christ-honoring way.

I also personally found some of her distinctions in the last section interesting as she addressed end-of-life decisions, and she made me realize I really should sit down and write an Advance Health Care Directive. Even though I’m healthy and don’t expect to die soon, you just never know. People get in care accidents every day, and it’s important to think about the potential healthcare decisions that could be made and how to approach these things in a way that glorifies God, should a difficult ending be part of my story.

I highly recommend this book for every Christian to read. It’s not a happy subject, it’s not one that’s “fun" to read about, but I think it’s important to think about these things from a biblical perspective - both for the sake of those who may be facing these kind of issues, and for ourselves should we, God forbid, face them ourselves on day.

Note: I received a copy of this book for free in exchange for an honest review.

Thoughts On Homeschool Rooms

noreply@blogger.com (Callie) — Wed, 14 Mar 2018 13:54:00 +0000

Each year in the spring, I start to think in the direction of all things homeschooling (at least ever since my kids have been old enough for me to think about school). I start planning next year's curriculum, I break out all my books about homeschooling, and I watch a bunch of videos on Youtube. I happen to follow several homeschooling moms on Youtube (one of these days I'll put a list together for you), and I've come across quite a few "homeschool room tour" videos.

Now, most of you know that I was homeschooled growing up, and this homeschool room idea honestly surprised me. I had never even heard of having a "homeschool room" until the last couple years.

We do not have a homeschool room. You can watch this little video to see our current homeschool setup:

We do most of our schoolwork together right now, and it happens most often at the kitchen table.

The kids seem a little less wiggly when I have them sit at a table (which is probably also why most homeschool rooms feature a table). Occasionally we do work on the couch, but that's always a little more chaotic. Since the only table we have is in the kitchen, that's where we work. This works out really well for us, and I'll often have Wyatt read to me while I fix dinner or whatever. Having him at the kitchen table allows me to multitask part of the time (and he actually seems to read better when I'm not sitting right next to him looking over his shoulder).

When I was growing up, we did not have a homeschool room. School was a more casual affair, and my mom gave us a lot of freedom as long as the work got done. As a child, I would grab my schoolbooks in the morning, and take them wherever I felt like doing school that day. My typical routine was to fix a big glass of ice water and lay down on my stomach in the morning sunlight that came through our living room window. In the afternoon when the sun shifted, I often put on my swimsuit, gathered up my books, and did school in the hot tub (in retrospect, kudos to my mom for not worrying about me dropping my textbooks into the water). Doing school wherever I wanted weirdly made the whole thing feel less like work and more like fun.

So honestly, even if I had an unused room, I'm not really sure if I would designate it as a homeschool room. I don't want to restrict my kids to doing their schoolwork in just one area of the house. As a former homeschool student, I know how much I enjoyed shifting to different areas throughout the day, and as the kids become more independent with their schoolwork I want them to have the freedom to go wherever is easiest and most fun for them too.

Though I tell you, if I had an extra room, I would definitely consider a homeschool library room...

Do you have a room designated for homeschooling? Or do you just do schoolwork wherever, like me?

Baby Giggles - Georgie At Four Months

noreply@blogger.com (Callie) — Mon, 12 Mar 2018 11:30:00 +0000

This shall be known as the month of the baby belly laughs. (Referring to Georgie's baby belly, not mine.)

Georgie has been laughing so much lately! If you caught my recent Instagram story, you'll see that she is even capable of making herself laugh. The other day I was folding clothes, and she started looking around and scratched her clothes basket. Apparently that was a pretty hilarious thing. She repeatedly scratched it and burst out laughing for about two minutes straight. What is it about baby laughs that make you want to laugh too?

Growth and Eating

We are nursing about three times a day and using formula the rest of the time. I'm slightly bummed about this and so is my grocery bill, but what can ya do? It's paying off though, because I think she has noticeably plumped up in the last couple weeks! We visited the doctor for her four month checkup, and she is 25 inches long and weighs 12 lbs, 1 oz! So she's gained almost two pounds since her last weight check, and three pounds in the last month! She is back on the charts at the 3rd percentile. Still little, but I'm fine with that as long as she's moving in the right direction.

I'm taking her in next week to see a specialist about a possible tongue tie. Angi suggested this possibility to me, but her doctor said Georgie didn't have one...but then another friend shared her story of a misdiagnosed tongue tie, and I thought it would be good to make sure. So that's next week.

Sleeping

She is still sleeping 12 hours at night! And it's still amazing. She woke up twice in the last month for either a late night or early morning snack, and that's it. I'm waiting for the four month growth spurt to hit any day now, but maybe we'll get lucky and this sleeping streak will just keep going! A girl can dream, right?

Firsts

This month Georgie discovered toys. I think this is the earliest any of my kids have been interested in toys, and it's so cute. If you place a toy near her she'll stare at it and then death-grip it in her little fist.

Personality

Georgie is just so, so happy! Her smile has gotten even quicker this month, and she has started giggling a lot more. Sometimes I'll be talking to her and she'll surprise me with a giggle. I love her laugh so much. She grins at her brothers and sisters anytime they take a minute to entertain her, and she gives a baby grin when I kiss her now. We've come a long way from her cringing response to my kisses when she was just born.

However, ever since we started her on formula she does get a lot more cranky when she is hungry. She also doesn't like to be left alone - the one exception is when she is tucked safely into her carseat while we're getting ready to go. But don't you lay her on the floor and walk away. She is happiest when she's being held, especially by me - she's gotten to that stage when she leans toward me and follows me around the room with her eyes whenever I'm not holding her. I'm not complaining!

She loves to talk. Whenever she can catch your eye for long enough, she'll stare at you and start to coo. She expects you to talk back, and then she'll coo again. It's a little conversation.

---

Georgie Bea,

Your personality has really started to shine this month! I love what a happy baby you are. Your sweet dimpled smile lights up my whole day, and when you laugh I couldn't feel stressed if I tried. I still love carrying you around in our wrap, because that's the time when I can get you to fall asleep on me. If I hold you without the wrap you crane your neck to see what's going on around you, or you look right in my eyes and try to talk to me. I love our baby conversations, and I love how you grin whenever someone talks to you! What a little joy you are to me, my sweetheart. Keep that happy heart!

I love you more than words!

-Mama

Let's Talk About Easter Baskets

noreply@blogger.com (Callie) — Wed, 07 Mar 2018 12:30:00 +0000

(Affiliate link below. Also note that I received the book mentioned in this post for free in exchange or a review. This is my honest opinion!)

Alright, I'm just going to get straight to the point - what do you put in your kids' Easter baskets?

Easter is less than a month away! There have been years when I put a lot of effort into picking things for the kids' Easter baskets, but since we've had a fourth and fifth baby I've toned them down quite a bit. Last year's baskets were definitely thrown together last minute. This year I'd like to make them at least thoughtful, since they won't be elaborate by any means (five kids, remember)!

Here are some things I've included in the past:

Summer shoes - Why not go ahead and buy something I'm going to need to purchase anyway?

Swimsuits - Same reason.

Umbrellas - My kids loved these.

Sunglasses/hats - Are you noticing a theme here? Easter feels like the official kick-off to spring, so I lean toward warm weather essentials.

Books - Of course. I'm actually kind of doing the book gift early this year with this book from Tommy Nelson.

If anything can get you in the mood for Springtime, it's the cute illustrations in this book! A Very Happy Easter Prayer is part of a series, so it's written in a similar style as some of our other books, with little poems on each page thanking God for some part of the season. I like how this one incorporates Jesus's resurrection on the last page too. It's adorable for my little ones as a transition into the Easter season, and gets us all looking forward to Easter! If I hadn't already given the book to my kids I would probably stick this in one of their baskets, especially for my younger kiddos.

As I'm considering what to include in Easter baskets though, I'm at a bit of a loss. I would kind of like whatever I put into their baskets to have some connection with spiritual growth and pointing my kids back to Jesus, because more than any other holiday, this holiday is really about Him! In a lot of ways Resurrection Day is an even more important celebration for our faith than Christmas. On Christmas He was born, and He was born that He might die to take the punishment for our sin. While Christmas is happy (because we celebrate the long-awaited arrival of the Savior!), it's looking ahead to something sorrowful.

Resurrection Day, on the other hand, is pure joy. He suffered and died, but then He showed His power, proved He is God, and conquered the grave! Without the resurrection we are still in our sins, but because He rose again we can be alive forever with Him! It's triumphant in a way that even Christmas isn't, and I want to make sure that all doesn't get lost amidst lesser things.

And I don't think it necessarily will get lost because we'll be talking about the Resurrection and everything that means in all the days leading up to Easter - but I don't know, I'd like it reflected somehow in their little gifts on Easter morning. Or maybe I'm just expecting too much from a present for this age group (0-7 years)? Any suggestions for me?

What do you put in your kids' Easter baskets (if you do them)?

How To Start A Casual Blog

noreply@blogger.com (Callie) — Mon, 26 Feb 2018 12:30:00 +0000

A few people have asked me in recent months how to start a blog.

As a result of the professional blogging spike in the past five years, you can find a ton of posts about how should start a blog if you want to be a professional about it. However, I don't know that everyone who has considered starting a blog necessarily wants to make blogging their profession.

Some people just want to have a place to write about whatever they feel like writing. Some people want to document a specific journey or adventure on which they are embarking. Some people just want to give it a go and see if it sticks.

Unfortunately, there's not that many posts out there anymore telling you how to start blogging casually. So I thought I would just write my own so that the next time someone asks me about starting a blog, I have a post ready to go with the bare minimum of what they need to know and do to get started.

1. Set up your blog page.

Before you can start to write you need to have a place to write, so you need to choose a blogging platform. There are two approaches to this:

A. Start as if your blog will earn you money one day.

Many bloggers who have monetized their blogs will advise you to start right off the bat with WordPress.org and hire someone to build an amazing website for you. If you you want to start a blog with the intent of earning money with it, and you are fully committed to that and have a plan, listen to those people. I have many blog friends who recommend the resources on Just A Girl And Her Blog for a professional approach to starting a blog.

However, I am not going to tell you to do that.

B. Just start.

Personally, I don't think there's any sense in investing a ton of money until you really figure out if blogging is for you. You may absolutely love blogging, or you may write for a couple months and decide it's not your thing. Especially if you are more interested in personal reasons for blogging (documenting your life, connecting with other people, having your own platform to just write), I would recommend that you start on Blogger.com. I've been on Blogger since the beginning, and I am still happy with it. The interface is very intuitive (you can just start!), they have a great designing dashboard that is easy to use (you can make it look how you want it to look), and it's FREE! You can sign up with Blogger and set up a basic blog in about ten minutes, so go do that. I'll wait.

A Note About Designing

If you want to fiddle around with the design template on Blogger you probably will figure out how to make it look the way you want it to look you all by yourself. You may also consider creating or commissioning a graphic designer for a header image, because that is the first impression of your blog page (nice, but not strictly necessary). You can also search on Etsy for blog templates; some sellers will even install it for you. This is the template designer I used when I wanted to update my template to be mobile-responsive (i.e. so my blog would adjust to screen on your phone), and I'd recommend her - she was very helpful!

2. Start writing.

The next thing you need to do to get going with your blog is just to write.

The professional blogging community will also tell you to create several posts before you launch your site so that you have content already waiting for your potential readers. I don't think this is a bad idea at all. When you have posts already published and ready to promote, it makes it look like you've been writing for more than a day. This is nice, but I'd like to emphasize that it is in no way necessary. It's more important to just start, so if pre-creating content is going to slow you down, I say just skip it.

Just go ahead and write whatever you want to for your first post and publish it. In the long run, what makes most bloggers successful is just writing, and being consistent about it.

The more you write, the more you think of to write, and the more creative you force yourself to be, the more creativity comes to you. So just get started. Try to make a goal of writing x-amount of times per week. If you stick to it for a while, you're going to come up with some good content, and it's going to get easier and easier to come up with good content.

3. Start reading blogs.

You may want to do this before you actually start creating your blog, but after you start writing I think it's especially helpful to read other blogs. There are two reasons for this.

A. To spark your own ideas.

First, reading other blogs will often spark ideas for posts for your own blog. Seeing how other bloggers write will also give you a better idea of how to format posts on your blog, and the kind of feeling you want your blog and writing to have.

B. To become a reciprocal blogger.

The second reason I recommend reading other blogs is not only to get ideas, but also to start creating your network. Blogging is way way more fun if you have people actually reading your blog and interacting with it, and a good way to encourage that is to become a reciprocal blogger - meaning you leave comments on other blogs, and return comments when you receive them on your blog.

This used to be the norm in the blogging world, but unfortunately blogging has gotten a lot more self-focused over the last five years, with an emphasis on pageviews rather than relationships. If you want to have a casual blog and make it fun, focus on building relationships. The good news is that I sense a shift back to building a sense of community among bloggers, and I hope this continues.

If you are just starting out with a casual blog, I recommend commenting frequently and widely on blogs that look similar to yours, and I almost guarantee a few of those bloggers will end up coming back and reading your blog too.

4. Get your posts out there.

By this I mean to go ahead and share your posts on social media. In the blogging world today, commenting, while important for casual bloggers, is not as effective as it used to be in getting people to visit your blog. You need a way to let people know that you have some new content. There are several ways to do this:

A. Instagram.

I highly recommend joining Instagram, even for a casual blog these days. Not only will this help you get your blog out there to people who might be interested in reading what you have to say, the (sort of sad) truth is you will most likely get more responses to your content on Instagram than on your actual blog. I've found it's almost easier to find blog friends this way, because it's so quick and easy to comment back!

B. Facebook.

There are a few ways to use Facebook - you can create a page for your blog so you can share new content, or you can just share new content right on your personal Facebook if you don't mind everyone in your friend list potentially reading your blog. You may also consider joining a Facebook group for bloggers. I don't use my blogging Facebook groups that much because they are typically geared more toward the business side of blogging, but sometimes they can be fun. The Peony Project is a one for women bloggers.

C. Linkups.

A lot of people have great luck finding blog readers through participating in linkups. A linkup is a collection of blog links surrounding a specific theme, and it is hosted on someone else's blog. You would typically write a post that would fit with the theme of the linkup, and then go to the host blog and add your link. If you are going to participate in a linkup to find blog friends/readers, do not just drop your link and run. You have to comment on other people's posts too. I don't do that many linkups, personally, but if you are interested I'd check A Joy Filled Life and/or Girl On The Move for their link party lists.

Frequently Asked Questions

What should I write about?

There are typically two kinds of blogs out there: niche blogs, and lifestyle blogs. Niche blogs are focused on one particular topic, such as cooking blogs, fashion blogs, homeschooling blogs, etc. If you want to create a niche blog, I think it's important to really be focused and only write things that relate in some way to your topic. My blog is not a niche blog. I would classify it as a lifestyle or personal blog. I just write about whatever in the world I feel like writing. You can make a blog work either way, you don't necessarily have to have a niche. It's also totally okay to change your focus, especially when you are just blogging casually (which is what this post is all about) - you can try niche writing for a while, and if it doesn't work, change it up.

How do I get people to send me items to review?

A lot of blogs, as they grow, can become a weird hybrid of a casual personal blog, and a money-making blog. My blog might be a good example of this - I mostly write what I please, but I also accept products to review and sponsored posts occasionally - either for fun or to help my family. Because of these occasional sponsored posts, I frequently have friends asking me how they can get free products or compensation through blogging.

In order to get items to review or be offered compensation for writing a post, you have to build something of a readership first. Companies want to make sure their investment of money or a product is going to yield some sort of return, so you just aren't going to get these kinds of offers until you start getting a certain amount of monthly pageviews. Gaining pageviews does take a lot of work, and if this is going to be your focus from the start I would say you are probably not wanting to be a casual blogger - you are hoping to make money with your blog, so I'd check out more of the resources for professional blogging at the link near the top of this post.

How did you start getting sponsored content or products to review?

If you don't necessarily want to start with the goal of making money, but are just kind of curious on how that works, here's my story.

I wrote on my blog consistently for several years, made blog friends, and generally just had fun with it. I gained some like-minded followers. Pinterest came out, and I had a moderate amount of success with some of my party-related posts, which afforded me even more regular pageviews. Once my pageviews reached a certain level, I had companies occasionally contact me to see if I'd like to receive a product to review - of course I said yes (when it was something I would be interested in)! Then I went through a brief phase when I decided to try to gain more sponsored post opportunities through sponsored content networks, and I had some success with that because I had a certain amount of pageviews and an audience that those companies were looking for.

Product reviews and sponsored posts can be a lot of fun, but they only come once in a while, and I don't think they should be your only reason for blogging. Most people aren't that interested in a blog that only puts out sponsored content and product reviews. After trying to earn more money with my blog for a year or two there, I decided I was becoming exhausted with the whole thing and had more fun with blogging when I focused more on friendships with other bloggers, so I shifted back to a more casual/personal approach. I still do occasional sponsored content, but I'm more particular and don't accept those posts as often anymore.

But what about your book reviews?

Okay, if you are wanting to know how to get books to review, that's a whole other ball game! I love reviewing books on my blog, and I think it fits in nicely with a more casual approach to blogging. Let me know if you are interested in more on that, and maybe I'll put together another post on how I receive free books in exchange for reviews!

Blog buddies, what do you think? Would you add anything to this post for people who may be interested in starting to blog casually?

The Weird Thing About Small Towns (And Other Random Remarks)

noreply@blogger.com (Callie) — Thu, 22 Feb 2018 12:30:00 +0000

I've been struggling the last couple weeks to get stuff done. And I'm not talking about any amazing projects, I'm talking about so-called simple things - like making dinner, folding laundry, eating lunch (oops). You'd be surprised how much more challenging things are when you are feeding a baby every two hours. It's like having a newborn again.

So I've been wanting to write a regular old blog post for about a month now. Ah! Well, I'm finally doing it, so that's progress.

A Faithful Servant

In case you are living under a rock, Billy Graham passed away yesterday. People have been sharing this quote all over social media (and that includes me):

"Someday you will read or hear that Billy Graham is dead. Don’t you believe a word of it. I shall be more alive than I am now. I will just have changed my address. I will have gone into the presence of God.”

-Billy Graham

That quote makes me want to cry every time I read it. Are hormones involved? Maybe, but mostly I just swell up inside when I think of such a faithful servant of Christ finally stepping into his reward. What kind of joy he must be experiencing now, in the presence of our Savior! I'm about to cry again, just typing this out. I might also feel like crying a tiny bit because the Church has lost one of it's treasures, the second in recent weeks (remembering R.C. Sproul).

I'm also thinking about how I want to be more faithful to Jesus with my life, so that I'll hear those words that Graham has most certainly heard. "Well done, good and faithful servant." I don't think I have to proclaim the gospel to stadiums of people to hear those words, but could I be more faithful in serving Christ in my roles as a wife and mother? In proclaiming the gospel to those in my immediate circles? Yeah, you bet I could. I've been convicted of that as I think about Billy Graham today, finally home.

The Weird Thing About Small Towns

If you missed it on the blog a few weeks ago, we recently started going to our local CBS (Community Bible Study). I'm not totally new to this particular CBS - I went there from the ages of 10-15 with my mom. I can't tell you how soul-filling it is to be back there now. I thank the Lord for guiding my steps back to that church at this point in my life, because I don't think I realized how much I was missing this type of Christian fellowship right now. The challenge to really study Scripture consistently, the older women who offer encouragement, the opportunity to connect with other moms - it's all exactly what I needed.

All that to say, going to CBS has brought up a weird realization about small towns for me. Derek and I live in the same little rural community where I grew up, but it's an unusual situation in that we're less than an hour away from an actual city. For most of my married life, I have gone into the city to meet friends, go to church, and attend a moms group. I did this because I always felt like there was no one close by in my life stage to be friends with, and I'm an extrovert who likes to be around groups of people. I was one of the few of my friends who grew up here and didn't leave, so I resigned myself to just having to travel a bit to hang out with friends in my same life stage.

But enter Community Bible Study, where there are actually two moms of young kids close to my own age at just my own table. And there are many more in other discussion groups at my CBS!

You might be thinking "Duh, Callie, obviously there will be some other moms at a community Bible study." But I seriously didn't think about the fact that even though a lot of people I grew up with left my small town, a lot of other people have moved in since I became an adult. And these people are even better than the childhood friends I had, in terms of practicality, because we're all here now because we want to be here! It's like a whole new world has opened up to me! There are people for me and my kids to be friends with in my own town!

Sorry, I feel really dumb typing that out and thinking something so obvious was revolutionary, but there you go. An epiphany of sorts. The weird thing about small towns is sometimes they change, even in good ways, right under your feet without you realizing it.

What Else Have We Been Up To

Let's see, what have we been up to?

1. Doing an awful lot of feeding the baby.

2. Crying over spilled (breast)milk.

3. Dealing with crazy weaning-like hormones because my body is giving up on producing milk.

4. Taking Fenugreek to try to combat my milk drying up. Smelling like maple syrup, because that's what Fenugreek does.

5. Feeling like crying a lot (see #3).

6. Developing a good homeschooling rhythm.

7. Trying to get better at budgeting (trying a new method this month, I'll let you know how it works).

8. Going on a bookstore scavenger hunt for Valentine's Day.

9. Taking Valentine's photos of my babies.

10. Typing out blog posts that may never actually get published. I'm still mulling over the topics. I've been in a serious mood lately and feel like I'm getting a little too intense in my writing when I'm not in a good place to handle those emotions or potential discussions (see #3 - hormones).

11. Spending some nice days at home as a family, because Derek keeps getting minor holidays off work.

12. Trying, trying to develop a morning routine, which so far has been a big fat fail. I enjoyed reading about Heather's morning routine though. Do you all have a morning routine, or am I the only one lacking in discipline here? Why am I so tired in the morning??

13. Reading a lot of books because I need an escape from all my crazy emotions sometimes. See what I've been reading here.

I'm going to wrap this up, because it's 9:30 PM, and we've already established that I probably need more sleep (see #12).

Did any of you grow up in a small town and stay? Am I totally being a weirdo for not realizing small towns change?

What I've Been Reading! January And February Books

noreply@blogger.com (Callie) — Tue, 20 Feb 2018 19:23:00 +0000

Last year I had full intentions of doing a recap of the books I've been reading each month. I had the same intentions this year. You know what they say about good intentions...

But nevertheless, I decided to just squeeze in book updates where I can this year, and I wanted to try something a little different by doing a vlog instead! Here is the first installment:

Books I mentioned in this video:

(affiliate links below)

Why I Didn't Rebel by Rebecca Gregoire Lindenbach Hello Mornings by Kat Lee Love And First Sight by Josh Sundquist Murder On The Links by Agatha Christie Hercule Poirot's Christmas by Agatha Christie When We Were Worthy by Marybeth Mayhew Whalen I See You by Clare Mackintosh Castle Of Water by Dane Hucklebridge The Discipline Of Spiritual Discernment by Tim Challies
The Lost Art Of Reading Nature's Signs by Tristan Gooley
My Cousin Rachel by Daphne du Maurier
Bear Sees Colors by Karma Wilson
I mentioned getting a book recommendation from a blog friend, and that would be Rachel at A Country Vicar's Wife. Hop over to her blog and say hi!

Also, you can follow me on Goodreads here if you want to be in the know before I put these videos together.

What have you all read so far this year? Have you read any of these?

A Tiny Thing - Georgie At Three Months

noreply@blogger.com (Callie) — Fri, 16 Feb 2018 12:30:00 +0000

The last month of our lives have been rather crazy, and a lot of that craziness is surrounding my sweet Georgie Bea.

Growth And Eating

In late January I finally took in Georgie for an overdue two month checkup. I was excited to see how much she had grown! She seemed like such a tiny thing, I was curious to see her percentages. Nevertheless I was still surprised to learn that she had only gained 11 ounces since her two week checkup.

In case you are not familiar with the weight gain curves that doctors use, that is not so good! She had dropped completely off the chart, below the first percentile. In the week leading up to our appointment I noticed she still seemed so tiny and delicate, but she seemed healthy and content, and she was hitting all of her milestones. I honestly didn't realize she hadn't been gaining weight. I still feel a little guilty about this.

Enter "Operation: Fatten Up Georgie". For the next week I fed her every two hours and topped her off with formula at least twice a day. Whatever I did seemed to work, and a week later when we went in for a weight check she was up to 10 pounds, 2 ounces at 3 months old! She's still tiny, but her weight is moving in the right direction, so that's good.

In retrospect, I think her not gaining enough weight can be attributed to a "perfect storm" of a few different factors:

1. Georgie sleeps about 12 hours at night. This is completely amazing for obvious reasons, but it was not helping her in the weight gain department.

2. Because she sleeps so long at night, my supply had been dwindling. However, this was so gradual that I didn't notice it until the last couple weeks when it became a problem.

3. My milk wasn't letting down properly. I have five kids, and it's hard to find a quiet time to feed Georgie where we won't be interrupted. I think this was making it hard for me to relax enough for my milk to letdown, which contributed to my supply issues.

4. On a normal day, Georgie is an extremely content baby, and she just wasn't letting me know when she was hungry. I was feeding her at three hour intervals or so, but she needs more than that right now. We now officially have her on a timer.

We'll have another weight check in the next couple weeks, but I am very confident that she is gaining weight happily now. Her face has gotten notably rounder, and she even has a double chin. She's even chubbed up since her three month pictures that I recently shared on Instagram! Unfortunately my supply continues to dwindle, and I just don't have time or motivation to add pumping into an already packed day, so we've been giving her 2-3 bottles of formula each day. We didn't make it as long as I wanted to with exclusively nursing this time, but c'est la vie. I'll just be happy if we can at least partially nurse until six months at this point.

As you can imagine, it's hard to keep up on things when you have five kids to take care of and one of them needs to be fed every two hours, hence why this post is late. Aside from her weight, Georgie has been changing and growing in so many ways this month!

Sleeping

As I mentioned, Miss Georgie is an amazing sleeper! She goes 12 hours at night, and I intend to enjoy this as much as possible. I'm fairly confident she will stop sleeping through the night around four months because all of my babies have gone through a growth spurt at four months. She also takes one afternoon nap during the day (having only one daytime nap is my tradeoff for a full night's sleep - I'll take it!).

Firsts

The day we found out Georgie wasn't gaining weight (January 25th), she laughed at me. I can't tell you how comforting that was to me - right when I was beating myself up for not realizing she wasn't growing on track, she blessed me with sweet baby giggles. It's a cute little belly-chuckle sound. She's mostly just laughed for me so far (and once for Derek), when I tickle her tummy. I got the best video of her laughing at me repeatedly for a minute straight, and I rewatch it sometimes when I need a grin. I just love her laugh so much!

She also discovered her hands. One day I had her laying on the bed in my room while I got ready to go somewhere, and I looked over at her and she was just starting so intently at her hands. I always find this phase so funny! It's so cute to watch her little quizzical expression as she tries to figure things out.

We also celebrated our first New Year's with Georgie, and went to the stock show together for the first time as a family of 7.

She still rolls over both ways, but only occasionally. However, she's such a strong little thing! Her head support is pretty good for her age, and she pushes up with her arms really well when we do tummy time.

Personality

As I said, Georgie is mostly a very content baby, though since we've been feeding her every two hours she has gotten a little more vocal. I think she finally realized she likes to eat. She has the sweetest little grin, and she smiles much more quickly now than she did a month ago. Her dimples are just the best thing ever! I can also tell she's getting a little more attached to me - When someone else is holding her she will just stare at me and follow me around with her eyes. She doesn't talk too often, but when she does it's the cutest little cooing/sighing sound. If you want to hear her talk you have to stare right into her eyes and talk to her, and then she'll wait for a break in the conversation to coo back at you.

---

Georgiana Bea,

You threw me for a loop this month! I can't believe how tiny you are, but your sweet little grins and baby talk reassure me always that you are doing just fine. You are such a happy baby! Your grins light up my whole day, and I'm a tiny bit obsessed with your dimples. I sit with you sometimes and just try to get you to smile over and over so I can catch a glimpse of them. And don't even get me started on your laugh. Your baby giggle puts both your dad and me in stitches - we just can't help but laugh along with you! What a sweet little joy you are. I can't imagine our life or family without you, my little lady. You live up to your name.

I love you always,

Mama

My Firstborn At Seven

noreply@blogger.com (Callie) — Tue, 13 Feb 2018 12:30:00 +0000

Wyatt Boy, yesterday you turned seven years old.

Your birthday could have snuck up on me this year except for the fact that you have been reminding me about it for the last few months. You are big enough now to sit down with a calendar and figure out how many days there are until things, and you were counting down the days. This is also the first year that you had plans for you own birthday, and I tried my best to fill all your hopes with what I had. You were so sweet and enthusiastic, in your quiet, shy way, about everything we ended up doing.

We took you to the Nature and Science museum, and walked through the gem section with you. You are fascinated by the idea that such beautiful things can just be waiting beneath the earth for someone to come dig them up. We took you to the gift shop and bought you some rocks for you "gem collection", and I loved seeing your face light up. You wanted to know all the technical names, and how the gems were formed, and whether they were "real rocks" or manmade. You are my thinker, and you love to just know things, especially anything related to physical science or biology. You can stare for hours at books filled with birds, insects, and animals, and you always want to know how things work.

This year whenever you were asked what you wanted to be, you always replied with "a farmer and a worker". You have been scoping out land as we drive places, trying to figure out where you could buy a farm. But over the last month you've been talking more about being a "worker". You want to build things. We bought you a bunch of Legos this year, and seeing your how creativity grows is amazing. You and your dad have built several things together, and I know that's one of his dreams for his kids come true, to sit and do Legos together with his son (and also go to a college football game together, which you also did this fall!).

We started first grade this year, and I don't think I expected to see you grow so much when we first cracked the books last summer. You are learning so much! It's so fun for me to see things start to make sense to you, to see how much you are learning each day. You actually love to learn, and in that I see myself in you again. I expect many years ahead of bonding over biology and zoology textbooks, since you seem to especially enjoy that subject just like I do.

One thing I love about you is your desire to do the right thing, and your desire for people to know about Jesus. At Christmas time you made a little card in your Sunday School class that you were supposed to give to someone to tell them about Jesus. If it were me, I would have completely forgotten about it, but you carried that card around in your pocket, scanning the stores to see who you might give it to. You finally gave it to our cashier at the mall, and I'm pretty sure you made her day. But I saw the serious look on your face as you asked her if she knew about Jesus, and my heart melted a little. My sweet boy, I love the desire you have for others to know the Truth. I pray you will never lose that.

Do you know how incredibly proud I am to be your mom? You are a joy to me, Wyatt. I love you so much, from that first moment I laid eyes on you seven years ago, and more every day. It's a privilege to call you my son.

Love Always,

Mama

Evangelism Is Scary

noreply@blogger.com (Callie) — Tue, 06 Feb 2018 22:53:00 +0000

Confession: I've been a Christian for over 20 years, but I struggle with evangelism. A lot. I know I'm not alone in this, because I've recently heard a statistic that only 2% of the church shares their faith on a regular basis. Yikes! That's embarrassing.

I like to think that sharing the gospel in written form on this blog counts for something, but let's be honest, if I really are about those around me who are headed for Hell, I should be willing to speak up in person too. But I get scared, and I don't know what to say. It's a problem. I've been feeling convicted about this for a couple years, but it's so hard to know where to start.

After praying about this for a while, I feel like the Lord brought a couple resources into my life in the last few months that are making me feel a lot less terrified of evangelizing. I was going to share about all this in one of my life update posts, but then I thought, hey, evangelism is an important enough topic that it certainly deserves it's own post. And I know some of you out there have the same struggles as me. Speak up in the comments!

Resource #1 - Wretched Radio

In December we started listening to a podcast called Wretched Radio. Derek and I are officially hooked now. Todd Friel, the host, has a sarcastic sense of humor that is entertaining, but the meat of his ministry is all tied back to the importance of the gospel and evangelism. We don't always agree with his style or word choice, but he's very grounded on God's word. Each week he does a "Witness Wednesday" episode, where he gets random people on the radio and witnesses to them right there. Just hearing how someone else witnesses to people, in real conversations, has made me feel so much more prepared for the moment when I might get a chance to witness to someone myself. And feeling prepared is half the battle, right?

Resource #2 - Living Waters

On a related note, Friel started this part of the podcast with Ray Comfort, who has a whole Youtube channel where he witnesses to strangers. His boldness in sharing the gospel is so inspiring, and makes the whole thing seem less scary and more doable. Derek and I could sit for hours and watch his witnessing videos. You can see all those here, but be prepared to get sucked in for a ridiculous amount of time.

Resource #3 - Successful Christian Parenting by John MacArthur

I've mentioned Successful Christian Parenting before, but this is my go-to book for refocusing on evangelizing my children - who are the people I want to point to the Lord the most, for obvious reasons! That's really the whole point of Christian parenting. I think this book would be great in particular for anyone who has children in their life that they want to lead to Jesus, even if you aren't a parent yet, and the approach he explains in this book would be helpful in witnessing to someone of any age. I'm reading it again this year.

---

Evangelism is one of those things that I think a lot of us put off because we don't think we have the "gift" of evangelism. But the thing about spiritual gifts is that they are often things that we are supposed to do whether we have a "gift" for it or not. We're all supposed to be practicing discernment, hospitality, mercy, etc. And we're all supposed to be evangelizing. Plus, this is purely a guess, but I imagine that since we know God is not willing that any should perish but all should come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9), He probably has gifted more than 2% of the church with the gift of evangelism...and maybe a lot of us just don't realize it because we're too scared or lazy to give it a try.

That would be me. But I'm working on it, and I wanted to encourage my fellow sisters in Christ to work on it too. Checking out these resources is an easy place to start.

Do you have a hard time with evangelism too? Are you trying to work on it? What resources have helped you?

The Year Of Reading Challenges - Book List For 2018

noreply@blogger.com (Callie) — Mon, 29 Jan 2018 11:31:00 +0000

I don't really make New Year's resolutions, and I kind of gave up on the word-of-the-year thing (for now at least). But one thing I do enjoy is making reading goals for the year! You all know how much I love books, so these kinds of New Year goals are less burdensome and more fun.

I have three basic goals for this year:

1. Complete Jami Balmet's Christian Women Reading Challenge.

2. Complete the Modern Mrs. Darcy Reading Challenge.

3. Read 75 books this year.

I read a lot of books anyway, so 75 books won't be too much of a stress. It comes out to about one more book a month, which I'm hoping will challenge me to spend those spare moments less on scrolling my phone and more on flipping through pages on my Kindle. But looking at my reading list over the last year, I think I could increase the quality of the books I read. I'm hoping participating in both of these challenges will help me pay more attention to the kind of books I'm reading, so I can make sure I'm actually growing in some way from my reading. I especially hope to read better quality fiction books (even though I know I'll still have some light reads on the fiction side, because sometimes you just need some chick lit). Here are the categories for both of these challenges, and my preliminary picks (which I can almost guarantee will change, but it's good to have a plan).

Jaime Balmet's Christian Women Reading Challenge

I listen to Jaime's podcast and really enjoy it, and I'm looking forward to her reading podcast that will start sometime this year! Her challenge focuses mostly on Christian non-fiction, and I'm hoping to read some winners in these categories this year!

Practical Homemaking - Three Books

1. Hello Mornings by Kat Lee (already completed, see review here).

2. The More Of Less by Josh Becker (I own the audiobook.)

3. How To Manage Your Home Without Losing Your Mind by Dana White

Biblical Womanhood/Marriage - Three Books

1. Housewife Theologian: How The Gospel Interrupts The Ordinary by Aimee Byrd

2. Twelve Extraordinary Women by John MacArthur

3. Women Living Well by Courtney Joseph

Parenting/Family Life - Four Books

1. Why I Didn't Rebel by Rebecca Lindenbach (completed - I'll count it here, but it wasn't my favorite. See review here.)

2. Reset For Parents by Todd Friel

3. 30 Ways To Save Your Family In 30 Days by Rebecca Hagelin

4. Six Ways To Keep The Good In Your Boy by Dannah Gresh (I read the companion to this one about girls and it was great.)

5. Successful Christian Parenting by John MacArthur or Loving The Little Years by Rachel Jankovic (Bonus books since the first book in this category wasn't my favorite. Both would be re-reads - I know they're good!)

Christian Living - Six Books

1. You Are What You Love by James K.A. Smith (I already started this book and it is excellent!)

2. Adopted For Life by Russel Moore (I own this one and have wanted to read it for a while.)

3. Respectable Sins by Jerry Bridges

4. How Then Shall We Live? by Chuck Colson (I own it, haven't read it.)

5. Brass Heavens: Reasons For Unanswered Prayer by Paul Tautges

6. Glimpses Of Grace by Gloria Furman (I own it, but I'm not sure if I'm a fan of Furman's style. I'll give this one a try.)

Theology - Four Books

1. None Like Him by Jen Wilkin (To buy! I really liked the other book I read by Wilkin, and her Bible studies are great.)

2. Your God Is Too Small by J. B. Phillips (A classic my pastor mentioned years ago that I have wanted to read.)

3. Expository Listening by Ken Ramey

4. The Work Of Christ by R.C. Sproul

Biography - Two Books

1. A Hobbit, A Wardrobe, And A Great War by Joseph Loconte

2. Bonhoeffer by Eric Metaxes (I have the audiobook, which is an ideal way to get through biographies in my opinion.)

Finances - Two Books

1. More Than Just Making It by Erin Odom (Started it, great so far.)

2. Love Your Life Not Theirs by Rachel Cruz

Christian Classic - One Book

1. Out Of The Silent Planet by C.S. Lewis (the one fiction book on this list, but it counts, right?)

Church History - One Book

1. Still trying to figure this one out. Suggestions?

Modern Mrs Darcy Challenge

Anne's blog is probably the most prominent book blog out there. This reading challenge looked fun - I decided to add this challenge into the mix this year since it seems to be more conducive to picking fiction. Here are her categories, and what I might pick for each.

A Classic You've Been Meaning To Read

-So many choices...I will probably either go with A Tree Grows In Brooklyn or To Kill A Mockingbird.

A Book Recommended By Someone With Great Taste

-Throw me some suggestions, people!

A Book In Translation

-I'm struggling with this one. I'm thinking of trying My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante.

A Book Nominated For An Award In 2018

-To be determined when the nominations are actually made. But I'll probably be going for a Newberry because I like Children's books for this category since I think they will have less of a chance of being political statements.

A Book Of Poetry, A Play, Or An Essay Collection

-I'm strongly considering tackling a Shakespeare play, since I've never actually read Shakespeare. Have any of you?

A Book You Can Read In A Day

-I'm just going to fill this in with Love And First Sight by Josh Sundquist, since I already read it and it's definitely doable in a day. Read my review here.

A Book That's More Than 500 Pages

-Started The Brother's Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, which could also technically count for "a book in translation". I'm planning on reading a chapter a day until I finish it, which is absolutely doable. This book is more interesting so far than I thought it would be!

A Book By A Favorite Author

-Definitely The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton, which was a gift for Christmas from my dear friend Felicia!

A Book Recommended By A Librarian Or Bookseller

-To be determined when I get up the nerve to actually ask a librarian for a recommendation.

A Banned Book

-Either To Kill A Mockingbird or Fahrenheit 411, both of which I've started and haven't finished because of my bookish ADD.

A Memoir, Biography, Or Book Of Creative Non-Fiction

-It is very likely this category will change, but I'm hoping to either do Fierce Convictions by Karen Swallow Prior (about Hannah Moore) or John Adams by David McCullough.

A Book By An Author Of A Different Race/Ethnicity/Religion Than You

-I've been wanting to read more stories from people who escaped North Korea, so I'll be going with The Girl With Seven Names by Hyeonseo Lee for this one.

Both of those challenges should take me through about about 38 books, which means I'll have 37 other books to complete. I may double up in some categories or do some of Tim Challies reading challenge to keep me reading books that will grow me throughout the year.

What is on your reading list for 2018? Any recommendations for me?

When It's Right To "Judge" A Fellow Christian

noreply@blogger.com (Callie) — Fri, 26 Jan 2018 22:54:00 +0000

We went back to our community Bible study group this week, and I am so grateful for this opportunity to get together with other believers and study from God's word. It's been far too long since I've been involved in a Bible study like this, and I'm reminded of that verse about "iron sharpening iron" (Proverbs 27:17). The discussion time challenges me to think a little more carefully about different biblical topics.

This week the theme that stood out to me was "judging". We talked about it in Bible study, and then I read this article that brought it to mind again (written from a Catholic perspective, so I don't agree with some things he says, but the underlying point made me think).

I have thoughts.

I read this line in the study this week:

"When we judge and criticize people whom God has already justified and acquitted, we align ourselves with the enemy's voice of condemnation. How much better it would be to align ourselves with Jesus's intervention on their behalf!"

I liked that line because I can certainly find myself judging the choices of brothers and sisters in Christ just for not doing something the way I would do it. And that's not right. Romans 14 is particularly clear that we aren't to judge each other on "disputable matters".

"Accept the one whose faith is weak, without quarreling over disputable matters. 2 One person’s faith allows them to eat anything, but another, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables. 3 The one who eats everything must not treat with contempt the one who does not, and the one who does not eat everything must not judge the one who does, for God has accepted them. 4 Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To their own master, servants stand or fall. And they will stand, for the Lord is able to make them stand.

5 One person considers one day more sacred than another; another considers every day alike. Each of them should be fully convinced in their own mind...

So then, each of us will give an account of ourselves to God.

13 Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in the way of a brother or sister."

Romans 14:1-5, 12-13

But that's the key, isn't it? Disputable matters.

Because the thing is, there are things that AREN'T disputable matters. And there is a place for calling out a brother or sister on unrepentant sin when it's something that the Bible clearly calls sin.

I wasn't quite satisfied with my Bible study discussion this week on this subject, and in retrospect I wished I had my thoughts together enough to speak up a bit more in the moment (and because I didn't, you all get my thoughts here instead I guess!). Because as Christians, we are to approach our brothers and sisters in Christ when we see them obviously living in unrepentant sin. This is to be done in love, but we must speak the truth.

"24 And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, 25 not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.

26 For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, 27 but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries...

But we are not of those who draw back to perdition, but of those who believe to the saving of the soul."

Hebrews 10:24-27, 39

"Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself lest you also be tempted. 2 Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ."

Galatians 6:1-2

We are to challenge each other to greater holiness and help to restore those who are overtaken by sin - and this can often feel like "judging" when someone doesn't want to hear it. That doesn't mean we should stay silent. Not if we truly care about them.

There's even a clear process for how to do this, laid out by Jesus (we should do this with discernment, and be careful not to just go around accusing people willy-nilly):

“Moreover if your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he hears you, you have gained your brother. 16 But if he will not hear, take with you one or two more, that ‘by the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.’17 And if he refuses to hear them, tell it to the church. But if he refuses even to hear the church, let him be to you like a heathen and a tax collector."

Matthew 18:15-17

If a brother doesn't listen when we approach him about a sin against us, we are to go to the elders (this obviously only works when someone is part of a local church, and unfortunately these days a lot of people aren't - that's a whole other problem). If he doesn't listen to the elders, they are to put them out of the church!

That sounds like "judging" doesn't it? And it is. We are called to it as believers (1 Corinthians 6:1-5 - Paul even says here that he is saying these things to "shame" the Corinthians. Ha! That doesn't sound very non-judgmental, does it?).

Not all judgement is bad. Some of it is iron sharpening iron. And as believers, shouldn't we WANT that accountability in our lives?

Well, anyway, I do. And maybe you do too. If you aren't sitting under a pastor who will sometimes make you feel uncomfortable, if you don't have a Christian friend who will do this for you to help hold you accountable - well, maybe you should find one who will.

But just to wrap this up, I'm reminded of this verse too:

"There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit."

Romans 8:1

Not all feelings we would label "guilt" or "shame" are bad - the Holy Spirit's conviction on areas of real sin in our lives can feel that way. When we feel guilt or shame because of something that is actually sin in our lives, we should turn back to Jesus, and leave the sin behind - and along with it, the guilt and shame. Because when we put our faith in Christ, who never had any sin and died and rose again to pay the penalty for ours, our sins are already covered with His righteousness. And He no longer condemns us. We turn away from the sin, we don't brush it off as insignificant nor try make up for it as though we can make ourselves righteous - in repentance, we turn to Jesus to make us clean instead.

That's the gospel. And preaching it to others (and ourselves, when we need reminding) involves a measure of righteous judgement (biblically-based discernment on what things are sin) and faith and grace.

Thoughts?

18 Books I Would Recommend From My 2017 Shelf

noreply@blogger.com (Callie) — Wed, 24 Jan 2018 11:30:00 +0000

At the end of December, or the first week of January at the latest, everyone posts their favorite books from 2017. But the fact that I'm posting mine now, solidly in the middle of January, just means that it will stand out more, right? I'm going to pretend the late date of this post was done purposefully for this reason! Aren't I so smart?

This last year was a pretty good reading year for me, overall. I didn't read too many duds, and I have a fairly substantial list of books I think were well worth my time, and yours! Let's just get started, because this will be a long post.

The non-fiction list is much longer than the fiction list. I'm hoping to read more end-of-year-post worthy fiction in 2018. Click on the links to read my more extensive reviews on Goodreads (including content warnings where applicable).

Non-Fiction

Strange Fire: The Danger Of Offending The Holy Spirit With Counterfeit Worship by John MacArthur

I had been reading this book through 2016, and finally finished it in 2017. This book is basically a critique of the modern charismatic movement, particularly the branches that are theologically and biblically unsound (I'm not saying everyone who labels themselves "charismatic" would fall in this group, but it is worth a careful evaluation). I think MacArthur comes off a bit harsh at times, but I couldn't disagree with anything he said, and I think there is definitely reason for concern about the charismatic movement. Worth a read because we all should have our eyes open on these issues.

Women In The Word: How To Study The Bible With Both Our Hearts And Our Minds by Jen Wilkin

I listened to this as an audiobook, and I regretted not buying a paper copy because I would have been highlighting all over the place! I love how Wilkin walks us through different pitfalls to avoid in studying the Bible and outlines a sound method for Bible study. The paperback is definitely on my list to buy, so next time I can go through it with highlighter in hand.

No Little Women: Equipping All Women In The Household Of God by Aimee Byrd

I wish this book was a little more focused so I could give a better summary of it here, but I guess I'll just say that it addresses problems with women's ministries and the way women are often viewed in church, all mixed in with a call to discernment. It got five stars from me specifically because of the challenge to discernment, and it made me realize the areas that I have been a little lazy with discernment.

World Religions And Cults Volume One: Counterfeits Of Christianity by Bodie Hodge

One of my more intellectual reads of the year, this book series presents different world religions and what they believe, but does it from a biblical perspective. It presents Christianity, how these different religions differ from the Christian belief system, and how to witness to people who may be involved in these different religions. I'm collecting this whole series for my own information, and also to use as a religion/apologetics study for my kids when they reach high school.

Redeeming The Feminine Soul: God's Surprising Vision For Womanhood by Julie Roys

This book tackles some tough topics surrounding gender, but I thought it was biblically grounded and really deep. It gave me so much to think about, and I particularly found the chapter on motherhood to be encouraging.

The Most Misused Stories In The Bible: Surprising Ways Popular Bible Stories Are Misunderstood by Eric J Bargerhuff

One of those books that made me want to say "THANK YOU!" throughout, but it also made me think about many of these stories from the Bible in a different way. Very grounded in a proper interpretation of Scripture, and I thought his tips for avoiding misinterpreting Scripture were right on.

Already Gone: Why Your Kids Will Quit Church And What You Can Do To Stop It by Ken Ham

The information in this book was based on a survey of adults who went to church as a child but no longer do, and it was completely fascinating. Lots of solid information here that parents can apply to training their children, picking a church, etc. It also may have you thinking about ways you may have compromised God's word, and how that might be affecting your kids. A great, and possibly convicting, read.

Glory In The Ordinary: Why Your Work In The Home Matters To God by Courtney Reissig

A pleasant reading surprise, this book talks about the biblical view of work, and how our work in the home (which often seems mundane) brings glory to God. I wished I had read this a year earlier when I was struggling with no longer working outside the home! I listened to the audiobook and will probably be listening to it again.

Deep Undercover: My Secret Life And Tangled Allegiances As A KGB Spy In America by Jack Barsky

One of my reading goals for 2017 was to read more about the Cold War. I got distracted by the whole having-a-baby thing and didn't read as much as I wanted to on this subject, but I did read this book and it sucked me in! A narrative non-fiction from a former KGB spy. It was fascinating to read about the process of becoming a spy, and I loved that it ended with his testimony of coming to Christ. Great read!

Unlocking The Bible: What It Is, How We Got It, And Why We Can Trust It by Jeff Lasseigne

This was another one of my pleasant surprises of the year. I had never heard about this author, and was unsure of this book, but it was excellent! A solid look at the history of the Bible, why we can trust the it is the Word of God, and lots of great Bible Study tips! I'll be reading this one again.

Eve In Exile And The Restoration Of Femininity by Rebekah Merkle

I didn't agree with every point in this book, but overall I found Merkle's message really encouraging! I love the idea that we as women could do so much more with our work in the home if we would just throw ourselves into it, instead of pining after the same roles as men. And Merkle has quite a high view of women and their abilities that is evident in this book, so don't get your hackles up before you give it a read. I'll probably be coming back to this one.

The Flipside Of Feminism: What Conservative Women Know And Men Can't Say by Suzanne Venker

This was a really fascinating look at the feminist movement and some of the consequences that we are just starting to see now. This made an interesting companion read to Eve In Exile because it looked at feminism from a slightly different perspective. Of course I liked both of these books because I am decidedly not a feminist in the modern sense, so if you consider yourself a feminist, prepare to be challenged (and probably offended). Just warning you now.

Fiction

Ginny Moon by Benjamin Ludwig

This one was difficult to read because of emotional reasons, and it had some content issues, but I don't know, I thought it was worth mentioning here. The story follows an autistic girl in the foster system, and her struggles to find her "forever home". Sweet and suspenseful, sad, but the ending was hopeful and I liked that.

The Wednesday Wars by Gary Schmidt

Have you ever watched "The Wonder Years"? This book reminded me of that show, except I like this book better! Holling Hoodhood finds himself stuck in class alone on Wednesday afternoons with a teacher who doesn't seem to like him, but we get to see how his studies and activities on those Wednesday afternoons help him grow up over the course of the year. I loved this book so much I went right out and grabbed the companion book, Okay For Now.

Okay For Now by Gary Schmidt

I loved this book too! Similar in type to The Wednesday Wars, this one follows Holling's friend Doug as he moves to a new town. Doug stumbles upon the library and an original volume from Audubon, and between learning to draw the birds and his friendship with the girl he met in front of the library, he starts to make the most of his less than ideal circumstances. The ending of this one seemed just right to me, happy, but a little bittersweet too.

Austenland/Midnight In Austenland By Shannon Hale

This one was purely for fun! Some content issues, but a funny and happy read. The main character goes to "Austenland", a resort that puts it's guests into the world of Jane Austen. I don't think I really need to say more than that. I also liked the sequel, Midnight In Austenland which was more of a mystery. Both of these would be fun summer reads!

Flipped by Wendelin Van Draanen

Have you seen the movie? The book is basically the same as the movie, and I loved them both! I'm a sucker for a good coming of age story.

The Secret Keeper by Kate Morton

My first Kate Morton, and basically the best novel I read all year! (Well, maybe tied with The Wednesday Wars/Okay For Now.) The main character saw her mother kill a man when she was a teenager, and the story follows her investigation to figure out what really happened that day. This book will surprise you! I loved it.

All of these books are ones I would recommend to a friend! But now, friends, what would you recommend to me? What should I add to my reading list in 2018?

What were your favorites from last year?

Why I Wear Makeup

noreply@blogger.com (Callie) — Mon, 22 Jan 2018 11:30:00 +0000

The first time I wore makeup I was 13, and I was getting ready to go to an event with my Bible study group. We had just gone shopping for some back-to-school clothes earlier in the day, and for some reason my mom decided I was old enough for a little mascara. I remember feeling so grown-up and pretty, headed off the the event wearing makeup for the first time. There have been many times since then that I was grateful to my mom for introducing makeup and teaching me how to apply it, especially as I grew and encountered people who didn't share my feelings about makeup.

I remember being bewildered the first time I heard someone say they felt makeup was akin to lying. I also didn't know how to respond when a friend stopped wearing makeup after her daughter was born, saying she didn't want to show her daughter by example that she wouldn't be pretty without it.

Honestly, I'm still not sure what to say about those arguments. I suppose everyone has their own reasons for wearing, or not wearing, makeup. All I can really speak to is why I, personally, like to wear makeup, so that's what this post is about. It's not an argument for why you should or should not wear makeup, it's basically some philosophical (and some silly) thoughts from someone who actually likes makeup quite a lot!

Arguments Against Makeup

First I thought I'd address my take on the two arguments against makeup that I mentioned above, because though those arguments made me stop and think, they didn't make me quit it.

"Makeup is lying. You are trying to make someone think you look better than you do."

This argument didn't really stick for me because it's not as if I'm putting on makeup and then trying to tell people I'm not wearing any, that I'm just naturally this beautiful (ha!). I assume they'll notice that I'm wearing makeup, and I wouldn't really have it any other way. If we're going to use this argument, we might as well extend it to clothes and say that choosing a flattering cut is "lying", and you must wear clothing that shows all your lumps and bumps if you're going to be honest. Don't brush your teeth with mint-flavored toothpaste, or you might be "lying" by giving someone the idea that your breath naturally smells that good. Sorry, it just doesn't fly.

"If I wear makeup, my daughters will think they need makeup to be beautiful."

I was honestly a little taken aback with this argument when I first heard it, and I didn't know what to think. I can see why my friend started thinking this way, but I came at makeup from such a different perspective that I couldn't agree. My own mom wore makeup, and she taught us girls how to wear makeup, and I honestly never thought I was less beautiful without it because of something my mom said when she introduced makeup to me. I vividly remember her telling me that makeup done right doesn't "make you beautiful" but rather enhances the beauty that is already there. I took that to heart and always approached makeup with that in mind.

Why I Wear Makeup

So without further ado, the reasons I personally wear makeup, and why I'll show my girls how to wear it too.

I think it's fun.

This is probably the most superficial reason why I choose to wear makeup, but nevertheless, it's true. Over the years I've experimented with different makeup looks, found my favorite makeup products, and I honestly just find the whole thing pretty satisfying and fun. For some women makeup is a an artistic expression, and while I wouldn't necessarily say the same thing about myself, I do appreciate the skill it takes to do it right.

I feel more ready for the day with makeup on.

I got an email newsletter from Diana Kerr (a blogger I follow who is also a life coach) this week, and was reminded of this point. I've heard it said many times that most people are more productive if they get dressed for the day instead of just staying in their pajamas. Their brains takes getting dressed as the queue to get started with the rest of the day, and it's harder to get going without it. Like it or not, makeup has become a similar queue for me. On days where I don't do my makeup I typically am more tempted to be lazy. When I wear makeup, I'm more ready to get on with my day and be productive.

I especially like the point Diana made about what effect our taking care with our appearance might have on how we serve the Lord. Will we use our days to serve Him better when we feel more prepared to face the day? And does makeup play a part in that? Not for everyone perhaps, but for me, I think makeup might actually make a difference here too (as weird as it is to type that out).

We live in a sin-cursed world, and that does, unfortunately, affect our faces.

We age. We get wrinkles. We experience sun-damage. We get tired or dehydrated. All things that wouldn't necessarily have happened pre-Fall, but things we have to deal with now. I struggled a bit with this point when sitting down to write this point, because what exactly should we do about this anyway? Is it just vanity, a "chasing after the wind" to try to counteract the effects of a fallen world on our faces? It does feel vain in a way, but another part of me doesn't think it is necessarily wrong to try to bring out our natural, God-given beauty even while fighting against the impact of the effects of sin on our skin and hair.

As in so many things, a lot depends upon the attitude with which we use makeup. Certainly makeup can be used in a vain, prideful way, but does it follow that makeup is always used that way? I don't really think so. I read something in Eve In Exile by Rebecca Merkle that made me think about this a little differently. Running throughout that book is this theme that one area that God often gifts women is an ability to take something and improve it, make it beautiful. Overall, Merkle applied the idea to much more meaningful things, like bringing beauty and reflecting Christ into our homes and families. But the idea really stuck with me, because I think it explains some of my (and many women's) love of beauty, and desire to take something less then attractive and bring some beauty to it. That could show up in hobbies like photography or other art forms, in the way we decorate our houses, the way we cultivate gardens, or yeah, maybe even in the way we use makeup. And I don't really think that's a bad thing, if we can avoid focusing on our own glory in the process of using makeup and rather try to bring glory to God by taking care with our appearance. Something to think about. I'm still mulling it over.

When Makeup Goes Wrong

I started thinking about this post in the first place because I somehow found myself in a section of the library next to all the books about makeup. Weirdly, I didn't know there was such a section, even being a fan of makeup myself. "How fun!" I thought to myself, and grabbed a couple of the books to peruse at home.

I read a few chapters, and I have to tell you, something just wasn't sitting quite right. I wondered if I should really be spending all this time thinking about my outward appearance. Not to be cliche or anything, but there is that whole verse: "Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart." 1 Samuel 16:7

Now, I don't think that verse is necessarily saying that the way we present ourselves outwardly doesn't matter at all. There is, after all, the Proverbs 31 woman who looks after the outward appearance of herself and her family, dressing them in "scarlet" and herself in "fine linen and purple", and she is commended for it. We are representatives of our families and ultimately of Christ to a watching world, so being a slob is certainly not a virtue. But the idea, talked about further in 1 Peter 3:3-4 is that we should take care to cultivate a good character above worrying about how we look.

So I started thinking, how does the time allotment compares when it comes to caring for my outer appearance and taking care to cultivate "gentle and quiet spirit which is precious in God's sight"? Do I spend more time doing my makeup (and fixing my hair and getting dressed) each day than I do reading God's Word? Maybe that's a problem. I think the most significant way I use makeup wrongly is by getting distracted by it and focusing too much on my physical appearance. I often want to look good for other people, so that I will feel good about myself, and so I prioritize applying makeup.

This is the one reason I wear makeup that I feel is the wrong, and even a sinful, reason.

Going forward, I am hoping to think about these things further and make sure that I am approaching makeup with the right attitude as a Christian woman - and especially making sure I am prioritizing time in God's Word over applying makeup in the morning. Because a good thing to remember is that for those of us who put our trust in Jesus to save us from our sins, someday this old, sin-affected body will be replaced with a perfect, glorified body, with a glorified face, and there will be no reason to put makeup on. I think it's fine to wear makeup while I'm here, but it's certainly not the most important thing. It's infinitely more important to make sure I'm investing in things that will last when makeup no longer matters at all.

So what do you think about all this? Do you wear makeup? What role do things like makeup play in our walk with the Lord?

Hello, January

noreply@blogger.com (Callie) — Fri, 19 Jan 2018 12:30:00 +0000

Watch out World, I finally discovered I can narrate blog posts into my phone whilst doing something else! This is how it works. I'm currently narrating into my Notes app while driving to the gym (don't worry, it's hands-free with the little microphone on my earbuds). When I get to the gym I have a big mess of a paragraph with no punctuation, but the bones are there, and I edit while I ride the stationary bike. Multi-tasking at its finest! No, I don't get as good of a workout in while tapping on my phone, but what can I say, blogging is worth it to me.

I've been meaning to write another old-fashioned blog post like this for a couple months, but it just doesn't seem to get done between figuring out how to take care of all five kids while homeschooling, so this is my solution for now.

Back To School

Speaking of homeschooling, as of the second week of January we started school again for the first time since Georgie was born. Five days a week until the end of May will get all of our required days in before summer. That seems pretty good to me considering I took two months off for "maternity leave". I find myself putting a lot more effort and creativity into homeschooling the last couple weeks, more than I did last fall. I think I underestimated the amount of energy that being pregnant took out of me at the start of the year. Even though I have a newborn now, I feel like I'm able to put so much more into our days without getting worn out.

I shared my homeschool bullet journal on Instagram last week (don't worry if you missed it, I will have a blog post about my homeschool bullet journal in the months to come once I refine my process a bit more). So far this method is working like a charm! I really love keeping track of what we're doing this way, and I'm finding it really motivating to write down everything with my highlighting method to make sure we're getting a good variety of subjects in each week. Some homeschool moms really seem to thrive on a weekly schedule for different subjects, but I am doing better with just having weekly goals for our subjects and squeezing them in wherever it happens to work for that week. We've accomplished so much more with this flexible method than we did when I was trying to schedule our whole week out.

Family Outings And My Toy Strategy
Let's see, what else? We've had some fun weekends so far this January. We took a weekend road trip into the mountains and did a short hike with the kids. It was freezing cold, but I tucked Georgie into my Solly wrap, and she was asleep within two minutes, despite my frozen fingers. It was nice to get outside. It's so beautiful in the mountains, even in the winter.

We also took a trip to the stock show on MLK Jr. Day. The stock show is a family tradition going back to when I was a kid myself. It's fun to take the kids now and show them all the animals and wander through all the vendors together (and sometimes go to a rodeo, though not this year). We ended up getting the kids some really sturdy metal toys so they can set up their own little ranch. The set was expensive, but it came with a tractor and three trailers, and fence pieces that fit together, and a cow. The kids have been playing with it nonstop since we got it. We feel a little sheepish for spending so much on it right after Christmas, but this is a toy set that will last through all our kids, and probably even until we have grandkids. It's also an easy set to add to, which is something I'm working toward with the kids' toy collections. I don't know about you, but I really don't like getting random little toys for the kids that will break two months down the road. I'm trying to narrow all the kids' toys down to a few categories that can be added to - like this ranch set, Legos, pieces to the boys' train set, Calico Critters, and eventually Barbies (yes, I'm getting my girls Barbies - I'm not one of those anti-Barbie people).

A New Bible Study
In more recent news, we did try a Community Bible Study in our area this week. When I was a child we went to our local CBS for years. In case you might have forgotten, I was homeschooled from fourth grade through high school. CBS was one of the ways we got in our social interaction and Bible curriculum (all at once!). I have so many fond memories of those Bible study days, and I am still in touch with some of the friends I met then.

So I have known for a while that I wanted to get involved again when my kids reached grade school. I decided now was the time. On Wednesday we tried it out, and the kids LOVED it. It was so cute to hear them talking in the backseat on the drive home, all about the Bible lesson, and what they played in the gym, and the snacks they had. I was also surprised when I went into the sanctuary for the concluding lecture to see Clyde, onstage, dressed in a furry robe. He was acting out John the Baptist for all the moms! He was waving at me and blowing kisses. That's Clyde for you, my little extrovert! I am looking forward to next week.

This is where I would normally start talking books (because when do I NOT feel like blabbing about what I'm reading?), but I have an entire post waiting in my drafts about my reading plans for the year. I am hoping to have a little blogging time in the morning on Saturday (Derek is so sweet and lets me escape to the coffee shop every now and then). I have several posts in the works, which makes me want to ask a weird question: which post should I try to get up next week? My blogging time these days is limited. I'll let you all choose, if you have an opinion...you can help me prioritize!

What I'm Drinking: Coffee with Southern Butter Pecan creamer (because I forgot I was supposed to bring it to our mom's group yesterday - whoops).

What are you drinking on this fine Friday morning? How is your January going so far?

How I Use Bullet Journaling

noreply@blogger.com (Callie) — Mon, 15 Jan 2018 12:30:00 +0000

Every year in January, I head to Target and buy a new, crisp planner.

And every year I use said planner for approximately 2.3 weeks before my motivation to get organized peters out and I forget about it.

I am one of those people who likes the idea of a planner, especially the ones with monthly goal sheets and weekly layouts - but when it comes to actually using the planner, I usually find that all my organizational hopes are disappointed. I stare at the blank lines and want so much to fill them in, but I usually end up writing stuff in those spaces just so the blank space won't be staring at me, or not using it at all and feeling like I failed somehow. I've never been able to find a planner that is structured enough to help me stay organized and motivated without being too restrictive for my actual life.

So despite dropping a twenty on a pretty planner, I usually still end up with random pieces of paper in a pile on my counter with scribbled to-do lists, book lists, quotes, and reminders.

However, I'm happy to report that all that changed last fall when I finally figured out what people meant by "bullet journaling".

A few days before Georgiana was born, I was walking through our newly remodeled library and saw a new wall with displays of DIY books. I stopped to skim, and found a book called Dot Journaling: A Practical Guide by Rachel Wilkerson Miller. The subtitle said How To Start and Keep The Planner, To-Do List, and Diary That'll Actually Help You Get Your Life Together. Honestly it just kind of looked pretty, so I picked it up for fun and started flipping through it in the car.

I realized almost immediately that this was the planning and organization system I have been looking for!

Basically a bullet journal is a self-made planner and diary that can be anything you want it to be because you are the one who organizes it. There are really no rules to it except the ones you make for your own journal.

I told Derek that I needed to give this a try, and we spent an afternoon driving around in search of a dot-grid journal. On Sunday I finally got one, and I sat down to start getting my journal set up just as my labor contractions started. I ended up bringing my bullet journal to the hospital with me, and one of my first pages is a timeline of my labor and delivery with Georgie!

To get a solid grasp on the system, you can check out the official bullet journaling website for free, but I highly recommend checking out Dot Journaling, because to me, it made the whole things seem more doable. But that said, here is a little tour of my bullet journal to give you an idea of what it is.

Key

A page with a code for any of the symbols you choose to use in your journal (see "Daily Entries").

Index

Most bullet journals have an index, where you record what is on each page of your journal. This makes it easier to find something later. I guess some people write down the page numbers each time they mention different topics, but I think that sounds like too much work, so my index is pretty straight-forward.

Yearly Calendar

This is a calendar of the year, just for reference. I have mine set up so I can write in dates of holidays, birthdays, etc. under each month.

Collections

In my journal, these are ongoing lists that I know I'll be adding to frequently. I have:

1. Books To Read page

2. Books To Buy page,

3. Products To Try page

4. New Words page (an idea I got from the Dot Journaling book that has proved really useful).

Trackers

I have a few pages dedicated to trackers for habits I want to nurture every day of the year. In my journal these are:

1. Bible/Prayer Time Tracker

2. Exercise Tracker

3. Read-Aloud Tracker

The tracking pages are something I would like to be more consistent in using. I have found that I haven't been updating my trackers that well, which kind of defeats the purpose. I'll see how it goes over the next few months and evaluate if I think I'm using these enough to include them in my next journal.

Monthly Pages

In my journal, these pages are a calendar for the month where I write in events, doctor's appointments, etc (this was really useful to have in December). It's nice to have my calendar all laid out and organized in a book I can carry in my purse, instead of just on the wall at home. And I know they make pocket calendars, but I never use those. For some reason I do use the calendars in my bullet journal.

For my monthly view I also have been including a habit/mood/health tracker, with categories like:

1. Drank 2 glasses of water.

2. Drank coffee.

3. Took a nap.

4. Had a migraine.

5. Feeling sad, irritable, anxious, happy, etc.

Once again, I feel like I haven't been as consistent as I would like with tracking my habits. I would like to get better at this because if I could keep track, I think it would help me figure out some triggers for different health and mood related things (like migraines, being irritable, etc). But the great thing about bullet journaling is that if I don't feel like I get the hang of it over the next couple months, if it's not working for me, I'll just drop it.

Daily Entries

In my journal I don't have any weekly planning pages since I don't find them particularly useful - I just skip right to my daily entries, which I organize with a to-do list at the top and notes about my day underneath that.

The night before I write the date and to-do list for the next day (with little dots next to each task). I always have an idea of what I want to accomplish the next day, but in the past this list has just resided in my head or on random scraps of paper around my house. I frequently forgot things. It's been great to have all my to-do's in a central location - they don't get lost this way!

In the evening I cross out the things on my list that I finished (with an "x"), migrate things forward (with the > symbol) to the next day if I didn't get them done, or cancel them (with a slash mark).

After that I write little dashes underneath with my notes about the day. This is the "diary" part of my bullet journal. I just write down whatever I did that day, and I can (briefly) include my feelings about it or not. It's just a record of my day. There have been a couple times so far when something was bothering me and I spent more time writing about it in this section too, but usually this note-taking only takes me a few minutes at night.

Not everyone necessarily uses their journals this way, but I really like the idea of being able to look back on my daily entries years down the road. I've often said the same thing about my blog - it's nice to look back on old blog posts, and this to me is like a mini version of that, filled with the things that no one will find interesting but me, or things that I might not find time to blog about (not everything can make it onto the blog).

Now, I don't do a daily entry every single day. Some days I'm just too tired, some days I forget, but once again, the beauty of a bullet journal is that whenever you miss a day, there is no blank paper staring at you, making you feel guilty (or is that just me?). One entry just goes right after another, even if a week has passed.

Quote Pages

I wanted a place to write quotes that I like, but the problem is that I don't know how many quotes I will find before my journal fills up. I didn't know how many pages to assign quotes, so I decided to put these pages in the back of my journal. I've been reading books with a stack of index cards handy, I write down the quotes that I like. I either transfer the quotes to these back pages or tape the index cards directly onto the pages, starting with the very last page and working backward. When my daily entries and the quote pages meet, I'll be ready for a new journal.

Other Pages

Scattered in the midst of my daily entries are random pages that I just make whenever the thought strikes me. Examples are:

1. Sermon Notes pages. I take my journal to church each Sunday and make a page for my sermon notes. This way they aren't on a paper that I'll just end up throwing away!

2. Random lists. For example, I made a page with a list of all the gifts we got for Georgie in the hospital.

3. Grocery lists. Yep, just sandwiched right in between my daily pages.

4. Budget pages. I just started including budget pages, so I'm hoping to refine these a bit more, but so far I have stuck a monthly budget page in whenever the monthly bills have get paid off (sometime during the first week of each month).

This is where I can see how a bullet journal wouldn't be useful for some people. Those with more of a type A, it-has-to-be-perfectly-organized personalities would probably go crazy sticking a random page in their journal like this. But those type of people also probably do just fine with traditional planners. For people like me, this is the beauty of bullet journaling! I can write down whatever I want, anywhere in the journal, enter it in the index so I can find it later, and there are no blank pages! I also cannot overstate the benefit of the amount of paper clutter this has eliminated from my kitchen counter.

Doesn't It Have To Be Pretty?

No. Also, stop looking at bullet journals on Pinterest.

My journal is not very pretty. My handwriting isn't very attractive, and I still have not developed any lettering skills. I have a bunch of mistakes crossed out. I don't have any doodles. I try to jazz up some pages with washi tape, but that's about it. My bullet journal is very functional, and I like it that way, and I don't feel the need to make my pages Pinterest-worthy. If you want to make your journal all pretty with your artistic skills, definitely do! But don't let a lack of artistic skills stop you from giving it a try.

What Do You Need To Get Started?

First I'd recommend trying to get Dot Journaling from the library, because she has so many ideas for ways to use your journal. My ideas here are just a small sampling, and it's quite possible you'd find a bunch of useful things that will work better for you than what I listed here. You get to make your journal whatever you want it to be!

After you read that book, if bullet journaling is for you, you'll probably be itching to get started (and if not, that's okay). Technically after that you only need a notebook and a pen to get started, but this is what I actually use:

1. A dot-grid journal. I like having a dot-grid because it allows me to more easily make calendar pages, and it helps keep my handwriting straight. I also think the pages look cleaner without lines cluttering it up (at least when you have my handwriting, which looks a little slapdash as it is).

2. My favorite pens. I like .5 mm pens.

3. A ruler (for making calendar pages).

4. A couple colored markers or highlighters (optional: just to make it prettier).

5. Washi tape (also totally optional, makes the pages prettier since I don't have a level of artistic ability that would be acceptable to me).

Why I Like It

As I said before, I don't think every personality type is conducive to bullet journaling. People like me, who want to be more organized but don't care if everything is perfectly organized, probably would do better with this system. This is why I personally like bullet journaling (if you didn't already gather my reasons from the rest of this post):

1. No blank pages. One of the reasons planners never worked for me is that I get discouraged by the blank pages when I miss a day, or just don't have anything to put in certain sections. There is none of that with bullet journaling because I only make the pages I think I will use, and I can drop them if I don't.

2. Less paper clutter. I used to write all my random lists on random pieces of paper that would eventually end up in the trash or stuffed in my junk drawer. Now I can either add those random notes to an already-existing list, or make a new one, and my to-do lists are organized in my daily entries.

3. Everything is in one place. My calendars, to-do lists, grocery lists, budget notes, quotes - they are all in one handy little volume that I can fit into my purse. Things don't get lost. I'm less likely to forget things.

4. I feel more organized and productive. The daily to-do list setup has worked really well to keep me on task and help me not forget things that need to be done.

5. I have a record of daily life. I know I'm going to find it interesting to look back on my day-to-day life when a few years have passed. My daily entries have daily events, but they also have little things the kids did (or other things I want to remember) that never would have been recorded if I didn't have a bullet journal.

Will you like it for the same reasons as me? Maybe, but it's quite possible that you will like bullet journaling for entirely different reasons, because I doubt you will end up using yours in exactly the same way I do! Bullet journaling, in the end, is whatever you want to make it, and that's what I find fun about it.

Do you have a bullet journal? How do you use yours?