18 August 2015

For the Love: Fighting for Grace in a World of Impossible Standards


Today is a very special day.  Jen Hatmaker's new book, For the Love, comes out today.  I have been privileged to read an advanced copy of this book and I must say that it is amazing.  As a person who is struggling to figure out exactly what it means to seek the Kingdom, this book spoke straight to my heart.  

Jen examines the life of the individual, the church, and community.  She speaks honestly about her struggles with the people of God and those in her own family (Parenting! For the Love!).  She takes an open look at the issues that we struggle with as we try to be women who do it all, have it all, and be it all, perfectly.

The beauty of this book is that even though Jen speaks about the tough issues that we face and forces you to dig deep into your own life and thoughts, she also gives you a little break and offers comical respites, such as her own personal Jimmy Fallon-esque Thank You Notes.  Just when you are about to cry your eyes out because you know that she wrote that passage with you in mind, she jumps to fashion crimes and you begin to cry with laughter!




This book is a great way to begin to have those tough conversations with those around you, in your home, in your community, in your life.  It helps us to start figuring out what this life is all about and how it should be lived - For the Love!


This post is part of Jen Hatmaker's "For the Love" Blog Tour which I am delighted to be a part of along with many other inspiring bloggers.  To learn more and join us, click here.

    12 August 2015

    Why Wednesday? Clean Eating/Whole Foods

    Why Whole Foods/Clean Eating?

    Just to clear things up, I don’t mean Whole Foods Market, though I do tend to shop there.  No, today I’m talking about why I eat the way I do, or at least try to.  There is no simple answer to this question.  I can’t talk about the way I eat without talking about the whole of life.

    To start, I think I have to answer the question of why eat at all?  What is the purpose of eating?  We eat to sustain ourselves.  Better said, we eat to live.  Without food, we can’t be sustained.  What follows is what kind of life to you want?  I want a healthy life, therefore I want to eat healthy.

    Eating healthy means different things to different people.  I have friends and family that believe that if it says “healthy” “low fat/calorie” or “good for you” on the label or on tv, then it must, in fact, be healthy.  What those labels mean to me is that they’ve probably taken the really heathy parts and replaced them with things to make it taste better or last longer.  That is why I try to eat ‘clean’ or ‘whole foods.’

    Clean eating is basically the premise that you eat things that are processed as little as possible or have few ingredients.  I am not a strict adherent to this principle, so if that’s what you are into or if you want more info on that kind of life, I’d suggest you go here.  She’s got some great info and some recipes that are AMAZING!

    I believe that the reason that we have so many health problems in our country is because we tend to lack food in our food.  There are so many preservatives, processed, and synthetic parts in our food that it rarely resembles what it’s actually supposed to be.  Try looking at a normal bottle of fruit juice.  To me, the only ingredient should be the fruit, right?  However, that is rarely the case.  Look at a jar of pickles.  You know what it takes to make a jar of pickles?  Cucumbers, pickling spices, vinegar, and water.  Do you know what the common ingredients in a store bought jar of pickles?  Cucumbers, water, vinegar, salt, calcium chloride, sodium benzoate, polysorbate 80, natural flavors, and yellow #5.

    With the modern invent of so many convenience foods in our country, from fast food drive thrus to grocery store prepared food sections, we have lost the nutrients in our food.  That’s why we need vitamins, supplements, and drugs to solve problems that could be solved by returning to a diet that actually contains those vitamins and nutrients.

    So, that is why I eat clean/whole foods.  When I can.  Because just like everyone else in the world, I don’t always have the time to bake my own bread (I do it when I can) or squeeze my own orange juice, or pickle my own pickles.  I fall prey to the modern conveniences, too.  But that is why it is so important that you read labels and choose wisely.  Perhaps you have to buy spaghetti sauce instead of making your own, read the labels and make a good choice.  Stay away from high sugars and a multiplicity of ingredients (especially if you can’t recognize or pronounce them!). 


    Because in the end, all we can do is the best we can.  Make good, healthy choices when we can.  And this helps in those times when we can’t.  Our body was made to heal itself.  So if we are able to eat as clean and whole as possible 75% of the time, then our body will work to repair any damage that is caused when we run through the McDonald’s drive thru during the remaining 25% of time.  Food is meant to sustain us, but that doesn't mean we can't enjoy it.  We just have to make sure that it is in it's proper place and that we are being good stewards of self and others.

    07 August 2015

    Friday Favorites...

    Well, it's that time again.  I'd like to share just a few of favorite things...

    1. Alone - I don't know if you know about the History channel's new reality survival series, but it is AWESOME!  We just happened upon it while on vacation.  It's like Survivor, but without other people.  If Survivor is an experiment in sociology, then Alone is an experiment in psychology.  10 men were dropped in the wilderness of Vancouver Island, Canada with 10 items (of their choosing) and cameras to document their journey.  After one week, 6 guys tapped out, but now we're down to the final 4 (all the ones I picked at the onset!) and they've been out there for over a month!  I can't wait to see who wins.

    2.  Fitbit - I just got one of these little contraptions for my birthday (yay!).  It's a little wiggy to think of a bracelet that keeps track of your activity and sleep, but it is a pretty cool thing to be able to track these things.  I'm really trying to get fit and healthy and I'll take all the help I can get.

    3. Paper Towns - Chas and I went to see this for my birthday (yay!).  I haven't read the book.  I really did mean to, but I haven't been much into fiction lately.  I know that the movie deviated from the book quite a bit, however, I thought it was great.  I won't give too much of the plot away but it you have a teen, it's a great watch for them and adults alike.

    4.  Air conditioners - Yeah, I know that I said last week that I like the weather and I still stand by that while I"m standing comfortably by an air conditioner.  Last week I went to a picnic at the park with my parents and their church and there aren't enough adjectives to describe the deluge of sweat that was continually pouring off of me.  Summer by the Mississippi River = heat + humidity.  Now in addition to the indoor variety, I'm pretty excited about the fact that my AC in my car is now blowing those icy cold streams of air, too.

    5.  For the Love - I know, I know.  It was on the list last week, but that was just the preorder.  Now, you can actually go to Barnes & Noble and buy it BEFORE it is released.  Not every B&N have it out, but you can check yours.  I found it in mine.  (BONUS:  If you flip to the back you can see a list of all the Launch Team members!)

    These are just a few things that have caught my eye this week, what's on your favorite lists?

    05 August 2015

    Why Wednesday? Blogging...

    If you have children or have ever really been around a child, you know that phase where they continuously and relentlessly ask questions.  And usually no matter how far from that original question you get, it always ends up devolving into that 3-letter word that can keep the game going indefinitely:  Why?

    That game tortured me when Chas was little, but I have to say that it also made me think about a lot of things that I’d never really thought about before or at least not to that extent.  Why are chicken nuggets this shape?  Why is it important to wash your hair?  Why do we call it a pair of pants when it’s a single item?

    With that in mind, I’ve decided to start a series of sorts.  I want to explore some of the mundane and the profound in life in Why Wednesday?  Some topics may be silly and some may delve a bit deeper, but all are made so that I can tackle some of my beliefs and find out Why?  Why do I believe that?  Why do I watch that?  Why don’t I do that?

    Today, I wanted to start off with something a bit on the lighter side and try to explain: 

    Why I Blog?

    I’ve always enjoyed writing.  It has been therapeutic for me.  I think it must somehow run in my genes, because I can remember as a child watching my sister work consistently on poems and screenplays and stories in the bedroom we shared.  She even went to school for it.  Most of my early writing was fiction and I even collaborated with a friend where we’d pass off a notebook and write a long story involving the teachers and classmates we encountered.  I still have a lot of those files that I would transcribe on my computer.  However, they are on discs that no longer work on modern computers (I’m old, y’all).

    Writing stories, like reading stories, gave a way to escape and enter a completely made up world.  When I wrote the stories, I got to create that world. 

    Today, I still write a fiction story or work on an old one every once in a while.  And I vow to one day participate in NaNoWriMo.  However, I’ve realized that as I have gotten older, I have a lot more to say about the world I currently live in than the fictional ones I created.  I have thoughts and opinions and ideas.  I took to social media for a while and that was fine, but I realized that that wasn’t the best medium to say all that I wanted to say.  And it certainly wasn’t great for long detailed posts or delicate opinions.

    I had just a couple of friends that wrote blogs and I read a couple that I really enjoyed.  I wanted to enter that arena.  I wanted to put my words out there, too.  I wanted to be able to bear my heart and say the things that were on my mind and relevant to the world I lived in.


    Ultimately I blog because it helps me.  It gets me out of my head a bit and allows me to say the things that are often bottled up in me with no way out.  I blog because I enjoy it.  Someday it would be great if I had a large readership and it’d be even greater if I could make money at this, but really I blog first for myself.  And I hope that maybe someday something I write might help someone else.  As one of my (few) blogging friends once told me, “Blogging is good for the soul.”

    03 August 2015

    August Books?

    Anyone who has followed be for very long, knows my love of books.  And lists.  So it totally makes sense for me to make a list of books that I want to read for the year, right?  So I did.  And I did really well, for a few months.  But I am so sad to say that I have pretty much abandoned my list.

    I've still been reading some, but I haven't followed much of my list for several months.  I've actually had several books cross my path that I had to read, such as For The Love by Jen Hatmaker.  But I've also had a couple cross my path that I just needed to read, like Kevin Yancey's What's so Amazing About Grace?  Both were amazing and I would highly recommend them.

    Last month I came across The Hole in Our Holiness by Kevin DeYoung.  I started it immediately.  I am just beginning it (and haven't made enough time for it), but I love it.  I think I am on quite a personal journey exploring righteousness, holiness, and grace and the inner-working of all those things together.

    Even with my major deviation from my list, I'm not chucking it out just yet.  Perhaps I'll return to it at some point this year.  I'm not ready to call it a failure, just yet.  I have to remember that the point of my list is to keep me reading.  My goal was 24 books this year.  This doesn't seem overly ambitious to me.  I have friends that will read double that by year end.  I just want to make sure that I am continuing to feed my mind and being challenged.

    So, what are you reading?  What has caught your eye this year?

    31 July 2015

    Friday Favorites...

    I know there are a lot of blogs out there that do some fun posts on Friday and since I’ve been a little MIA lately, I thought I would go ahead and join the Friday Fun Bandwagon.  I’m starting this out this week because tomorrow is the first day of August, which is one of my favorite months.  And here are a few reasons why:

    1. My Birthday!  Yep, that’s right.  I kind of have a love/hate relationship with my birthday.  I don’t mind getting older, but for many years I had really bad birthdays (grandma had a heart attack and stroke on my 17th and then there was the year that my mom, husband, and son forgot – and no, it wasn’t a joke).  However, I’ve still always looked forward to my birthday.  Isn’t there just something fun about being silly and enjoying the day God placed you on this Earth?

    2.  School supplies.  I’m SUCH a weirdo, but there is just an amazing joy that comes from shopping for school supplies.  When I was in school, I loved it, too.  I didn’t care about starting school, but I loved the school supply shopping (more so than clothes shopping).  Now that we homeschool, it’s even better because I get to make my own school supply list!  And if I happen to add a couple fun binders and pens that end up being too girly for my son to use, then I guess I’ll take them off his hands.

    3.  Weather.  Yes, August is still hot.  And humid.  And miserable.  But there is hope in August, right?  You know that after August comes September then October.  The end of the oppressive heat and humidity is in sight.  It’s just around the corner.  Don’t believe me?  Look at all the pretty sweaters that are now in stores.

    4.  Back to School Planning.  Now, this isn’t to be confused with school supplies although, there is a bit of overlap here.  Being the nerd that I am, I love sitting down with my calendar and planning out our school year.  Where are the 3-day vacations and weeklong breaks?  What are we going to study first semester and what will wait until the spring?  This is my jam, y’all.  I’m a planner and I love it.  It is hard and takes a lot of work, but it is oh, so rewarding.

    5.  For The Love.  Yes!  It is finally here.  The book that I have been gushing over and quoting to all that would listen, yeah, it comes out this month.  18 Aug, to be exact (one week after my birthday!).  Seriously, this is book is awesome.  It melds the idea of being a Kingdom people with lots of humor and presents it in a real way.  The good news is that you don’t have to wait until August to buy it.  You can preorder it here now! 


    This concludes this week’s faves.  What are some of the things that you are excited about this week?

    07 July 2015

    Victory in Inches...

    Oh, goodness! This could be the theme of my life. It's a phrase that the Hubs and I coined a while back during a particularly tough duty station. There was rampant wickedness and horrible situations and a lot of issues in our family. We really didn't know where to start or how to fix things. So, we just jumped in and followed Jesus. And things began to change. Little by little, here and there, things got better.

    That's when we started using this term, Victory in Inches. There were no huge, life shattering moments, it was just the little things that were happening slowly, over time until one day when we turned around we could see undeniable progress. 

    So, here we are again. There's a huge task before us, major house renovation and a major change in lifestyle (hello, homesteading!). I'm glad the Hubs knows where to start, because I certainly don't. And start, we have. Things are going, moving forward, but it seems that it is at a glacial pace. I'm the kind of person who goes for a walk in the morning and wonders if I'm skinny and healthy yet. 

    Because of this, I am struggling with this project. It's one of the biggest of my life and certainly the biggest of my marriage. So, we definitely need to take our time and do it right. That's what I want. But I also want it done and want it done now. This is the part of me that I'm having to crucify daily. 

    However, there's that other part that keeps sneaking in. The part that's telling me that we aren't making any progress and it's all for naught. All this sacrifice, all this work, it's just spinning our wheels. Oh, how easy these thoughts come. How easily my mind conjures the negative aspects and feeds on them. This is what I'm currently combatting. Every setback, every missed deadline is feeding into this line of thinking. 

    This is why I have to occasionally do a "moto check." I have to stop and turn around. I have to make myself look at where we started so that I can see how far we've come. It's not drastic and it looks far worse now than when we started, but there is progress. Slow, steady moving forward. Victory in inches. It's not pretty yet and it isn't comfortable, but it's necessary.

    For any person, in any stage of life, it's so much easier to focus on the negative aspects, to spend our time looking at how much is left, rather than what has been accomplished. But we can't live there, in that place. That is not our home.  No, our call is to live in the victory and hope that has been promised to us. When it is difficult and discouraging, we have to remember to take the time to see where we've been and how far Jesus has brought us. Because even when the victory comes in inches, we are still gaining ground.