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The Weekly End

around here…

I’ve sloooowwwwly been catching up from my stateside stint. Yes, I’ve been home for a few weeks already. But I don’t do catching up very well. Aside from that, we’ve been working on the business (me) and new illustrations (B), and breaking from that with lots of Reign.

In other news, the 100 day countdown has begun. In 100 days, I will leave the desert. Happy girl, here. Happy. Girl.

around the web…

These gems found me this week. Were they published in the same period? It’s unlikely. But surely you know by now how little I keep up with. Luckily, awesomeness knows no expiration date.

Your Husband Doesn’t Have to Earn Your Respect :: I like hearing a guy talk about this.

And the imaginary Kate and William conversation at the end of this article killed me.

Also, a friend sent me this. (Thanks, Katie.)

on my mind…

As I mentioned Wednesday, I’m reading (well, listening to) the Bible during Lent this year. I’m continually astounded at how much life here is like Old Testament life. Camels at wells in the desert? Tent-pitchers? Betrothals to people you’ve never seen and highest honors for guests you’ve never met? All alive and well. And it makes reading the Bible so much more alive. (And well.)

and close at hand…

  • This Reign Playlist (on Spotify)
  • American M&Ms (A moment of silence, please, for the Sams-sized m&ms bag laying empty beside me. One hundred days, self. Just 100 days.)
  • My mac hack of the week, cmd + plus/minus (+/-). That’s bizarrely challenging to communicate in a sentence. But I’ve been using it on so many websites lately when the text is too small, or the page too big… it’s pretty great.

and just for kicks… here’s what that camel looks like up close. Aren’t they goofy?

camel close-up

What about you? What was notable in your week?

And So It Begins. (Lent, That Is)

Today begins one of the two seasons we (in the west) still bother to pay attention to in the Liturgical (Church) Year. We have Advent right before Christmas (how else would we countdown to Santa?) and Lent for the seven-ish weeks leading up to Easter (because everyone needs to slow their caffeine intake every now and again).

Snark aside, Lent is upon us. And while contemporary practice is more about healthifying than slowing and Passion, it might be something different for us. If we want it to be.

The Liturgical Calendar is one of the ancient rhythms of church, a rhythm which provides space and provocation for remembering what is Real in this up-turned world of ours. Lent and Advent are a part of this rhythm, but traditionally their observance was much more than logging out of Facebook or lighting a wreath.

And sadly, we’ve now associated those things with the names of the liturgical seasons for so long that the words Lent and Advent no longer whisper of their depths. It’s like we’ve filled a red plastic cup with water at the beach and are calling it the Pacific Ocean.

It is. And yet, it isn’t.

What Lent and Advent (and the whole Calendar) really offer is a rhythm of remembering.  They give us the chance to step into stride with the great cloud of witnesses and take a deep inhale of Better Things.

I don’t know about you, but I need that. I want that. [Read more…]

The Weekly End

around here…

It’s been a big week around here. We’re headed to the states next week, and between weddings, belated Christmas celebrations with families, parties we’re hosting, art stuff we’re finishing, and travel arrangements we’re making, life feels like the inside of an engaged blender.

and on top of that…

The Dude turned in his notice yesterday! We are officially on our way out of the Gulf. Who’s the happy girl? (Both hands raised.) And since we’ll be moving soon, I have twice as much packing to do before crossing the pond in a few days. Pulse blender.

We went out with friends to celebrate last night, though, and were ushered away from our flat with a spectacular sunset. We rarely have clouds, and lovely sunsets are even more rare. So this was a treat.

around the web…

I must have been procrastinating more than usual this week, because I had much more internet goo by the end than usual. Here are a few of my favorites:

Suspended Coffee

Have you heard of this? I don’t think it has caught on in the States yet, but whyever not? Here’s a 30 second video introduction and Snopes’s comments.

Five economic reforms every rational Millennial should be fighting for

My 2 cents? This guy is on the money (as it were). And as a person who spent a dozen years on a college campus and worked in Financial Aid? If you are a parent please take special heed to numero uno.

An 8-ish minute story/poetry performance slamming (literally and stylistically) Scientology

The great-grandson of L. Ron Hubbard tells the story of his family. I can’t speak for its veracity, but it’s pretty darn fascinating.

(if you’re reading via email or RSS, click through to see the video)

Happy Week-End!

Reading Goals: 2014 Edition

There’s been an unusual amount of banter around the house this year about our annual reading goals.

Last year I all-caps FAILED at my goal of reading 50 books, and when I said I was going to aim the same in 2014, the Dude spent the next seven days trying to wrap his mind around the idiocy.

He pointed out how I’d never even come close to 50 books in a year (true) and how during only two months of 2013 was I able to finish a book a week (also true) and, in a king-of-the-castle sort of way declared that meeting a goal must not matter at all to me, because clearly I’m not going to read 50 books this year (2014 promises to be a doozie) and that I should just make the goal 100 instead if there was no point in meeting it.

Uhhh… Okay.

But goals for me are really more like aims. Achieving them is neither motivating nor rewarding, so I’ve stopped bothering to pretend like it is. But I’ve found the process of considering where I want to go and deciding a direction I think might take me there to be worth it, so I set them.

Several friends of mine don’t make reading goals because they’ll read a bazillion books just by following their inclinations. And bravo to them for realizing the pointlessness of setting a goal for something you’d do anyway. But reading-focus eludes me, and as long as it does, I’ll be setting reading goals/aims. I’d like to meet them, but I won’t be sobbing out back if I don’t. Here they are for 2014.

2014’s Reading Aims/Goals

In total: 50 books. Fail by trying, right? Finishing a book each week keeps me reading and is much easier to keep track of from week to week.

Any way I get to 50 will count, be it Anna Kerinina or pdf ebooks, audiobooks or Kindle books, but I’m adding a few sub-aims to help me read a little more specifically. The sub-aims:

  • Re-read the Harry Potters.
  • Re-read three other non-fiction books (Re-reading is something I’d like to grow in)
  • Read 6 soul-nurturing books
  • Tackle 3 nagging books (books that have been on my list for way too long).
  • Do 2 short sprints where I read 3+ titles within a single theme (be it a topic, author, or other similiartiy)

Depending on the overlap-of-categories, if I complete the above I’ll still have room for 25 read-whatever-I-wants. Score.

Do you have a reading goal for 2014? Dish!

(And in case you’re looking for help getting started, How to Set and Keep Annual Reading Goals.)

My Favorite Reads of 2013

Twenty-thirteen’s reading was decent-ish. I read more than the previous year and less than I would have liked. Which has me tinkering ceaselessly over 2014’s reading goals, something I’ll post about soon.

But this Friday, Modern Mrs. Darcy is hosting a link-up to share our 2013 favorite reads. Join me there and let me know to look for you!

So in no particular order, I give you my faves from 2013…

The War of Art, Steven Pressfield

A favorite because of both Pressfield and its content.

First published in 2002, this treatise on conquering Resistance (that thing that keeps you from doing the Good you want, creative and otherwise) is a modern classic. I know this is odd for a girl, but war as metaphor for life resonates with me the very most. And Pressfield delivers MOST.

Death By Living: Life is Meant to be Spent, N.D. Wilson

Memoir-style reflections centering around spending out in our brief days on the planet. A really enjoyable read full of opportunities for reflection.

How God Became King, N.T. Wright

Probably my favorite book of the year.

In the gospel-this and gospel-that Christian trend of the past few years, I’ve been consistently perplexed by this: though Jesus preached a gospel of “the kingdom”, there never seems to be a kingdom in any gospel I hear talked about.

How God Became King not only puts the kingdom back in the gospel, but weaves in other lost loose-threads as well. It definitely won’t interest everyone, but it was my 2013 favorite.

The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald

More and more often I’m finding I’ll care little for the essence of a  book,but love a particular element so much it will rank among my favorites.

So it was with Great Gatsby: I didn’t care much for the story (something I’d remembered from high school), but I was smitten by the prose. Just lovely, lovely writing. What Fitzgerald should I pick up next?

It Starts with Food, Melissa and Dallas Hartwig

This book is the poster-tome for Whole30, the food experiment where all potentially-aggravating foods are removed from your diet for a full 30 days to see what happens.

But It Starts With Food is more about our psychological, hormone (think insulin and cortisol, not estrogen and testosterone), digestive, and immune systems respond to various foods we eat, with a bit at the end about tackling the Whole 30. Having been diagnosed with insulin resistance a few years ago, this book explained why I feel the way I do with or without certain dietary components better than anything else I’ve read.

I’m already due for a re-read.

The Happiness Project, Gretchen Rubin

I’m due for a re-read here, too. This book nailed several happiness killers that had grown large in my personal life. Gretchen Rubin gave me a new way to think about enjoying life, and provided concepts and phrases to fuel certain practices I needed to change or engage in, like “tackle a nagging project,” “find more fun,” and “Forget About Results.”

In fact, her brief paragraphs on that last phrase described me precisely and nurtured a freedom I needed to embrace. However unfortunate that it’s the case, I needed this book.

The Work of Suzanne Collins

I read only eleven fiction books last year. Three of those were by Suzanne Collins.

I started with Gregor, and later in the year came back to read Catching Fire again before watching the movie. And I found myself falling in love with Collins as a writer, which didn’t happen on my first reading of the Hunger Games.

I grew to love how her main characters understand deeper threads of humanity and how she’s able to bring these threads to the page. Gregor and Katniss both put themselves in the shoes of people they’d really rather hate and try instead to understand them, a trait I find far too little of in the world. But she models it in these characters in a beautiful way. That plus the smartly-veiled social commentary she weaves has me liking her more and more.

So Suzanne Collins makes my list of favorite reads, though obviously in a more general sense.

What were your favorite books of 2013? The Modern Mrs Darcy link up is open for a few more days, let me know if you link up!

also on this topic…


 

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Merry Christmas!

merry christmas

Wishing you steady light in the darkness this Christmas…

Much love over many miles,
a