Friday’s Fave Five

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Welcome to Friday’s Fave Five, hosted by Susanne at Living to Tell the Story, in which we can share five of our favorite things from the last week. This has been a wonderful exercise in looking for and appreciating the good things God blesses us with. Click on the button to learn more, then go to Susanne’s to read others’ faves and link up your own.

Here are some highlights of the last week:

1. A Ladies’ Birthday Party! We had an activity at church last Saturday celebrating all the ladies’ birthdays at once. We signed up under the month our birthday was in, and everyone in that month got together to decide on table settings and decorations to somehow reflect that month, and the tables would be judged in a contest. (Months with not as many people were combined together). People in the different months were designated to bring different foods (finger sandwiches, pasta salads, and fruit trays).

I didn’t think to bring a camera, but took a few shots with my cell phone. Our August table had a picnic theme:

One lady made these super-cute place cards:

I didn’t get a picture of every month — some were still working on their tables when I took pictures. But here is February:

And April:

And November:

So elegant! But I have to say, I was very glad at clean-up time that our table had used paper plates. 🙂

And the winning table was May — I’m sorry this one is so blurry!

Someone made this tree and had birds and fruit in it and verses about fruitfulness.

A very talented lady made cakes that looked like gifts:

We played a few games, sang happy birthday to each other, and then two ladies gave their testimonies of their spiritual birthdays when they came to know the Lord. They were from different backgrounds — one was a “good church kid” who was doing right for the wrong reasons (approval, etc.) but didn’t trust in Christ alone for salvation til her college years. The other was from an atheistic family in another country whose brother was saved, but the family wasn’t interested. But on an internship to the States she met other Christians and was given a Bible ad eventually came to believe. It was such a blessing to hear these two accounts! The whole event was very enjoyable.

2. ISI — which in my son’s youth group stands for Iron Sharpening Iron, what they call their occasional fellowships after Sunday evening services. And every now and then they invite parents. I hate to admit that at first I didn’t want to go — I wanted to go home and kick off my shoes and grab a book and get comfy. 🙂 But I am glad I did go — it was a very enjoyable time of singing, testimonies, and information about a summer mission trip.

3. Safety during the flash flooding we had earlier this week. Thank you, Lord!

4. Signs of spring. A tree outside my mother-in-law’s window is starting to bud, and a yard in the neighborhood has a row of daffodils across the front starting to blossom. The grass is getting greener. These little flowers are the first things I saw blooming at our house:

I don’t know if they’re violets or just weeds — but they brightened up the back yard!

5. This quote from a friend’s Facebook status:

“Everything can change in the blink of an eye. But don’t worry; God never blinks.”

Have a great weekend! I’m getting ready for hubby’s birthday on Sunday!

Homemaking meme

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This is another post I’ve had incubating, adding to it a little at a time. Since I have to go run errands in a bit and therefore not as much time to think through some other thoughts, I decided to post this today. Feel free to use it if you like! Let me know if you do and I’ll come see your answers (or feel free to answer in the comments). And, since I created this meme, I’d appreciate a link back. 😀

1. Do you make a plan for the week? The day? Or just go with the flow?

No, I don’t, unless I have some kind of deadline coming up. I tend to work housework in around what needs to be done and when I have time to do it…and, sorry to say, when I feel like it. 🙂 But I feel like it much more often than I did years ago! I can’t stand for things to get too very cluttered or dusty for very long.

2. When is your best planning time?

Usually the night before or first thing in the morning.

3. Do you clean room by room or task by task (e.g., do you dust the whole house at one time, or do you clean the living room completely before going on to another room?)

Task by task for most things. When I have the dusting stuff out, or the vacuum, I like to do everything I have to do with it while it’s out. One exception would be bathrooms: I tend to clean the whole bathroom before going on the the next one, except that I do all the floors at one time after I’ve cleaned everything else.

4. Do you do certain tasks every day every week, like a shopping day, a laundry day, etc.?

No — see #1. I do try to avoid housework that doesn’t need to be done on Sundays, and I have to wash Jesse’s gym clothes some time between Friday afternoon and Monday morning, but otherwise I tend to attack things on an as-needed basis.

5. What’s your least favorite housecleaning task?

Probably cleaning toilets.

6. Do you have a favorite housecleaning task?

I can’t honestly say I enjoy any particular housecleaning task, but I’m okay with most once I get started, and I do like the results.

7. What do other family members do in the way of cleaning the house?

When the boys were younger we rotated different jobs — there were some done every day (dishwasher, garbage, taking recycling out, etc.) and some done weekly (vacuuming, dusting). Now Jason and Mittu take care of the dishes most nights and Jesse does whatever I ask whenever I ask — often taking our garbage and recycling and sometimes unloading the dishwasher. He also takes care of the dog as well. Jason and Jesse help bring groceries in. Since Jim works 60+ hours I rarely ask him to do anything unless I am in a real bind. I figure that’s my work while his is being the “breadwinner” (yes, we’re pretty traditional 🙂 ), but sometimes he pitches in. He takes care of anything outside. That leaves me with the laundry (though Jason and Mittu do their own), dusting, sweeping, vacuuming, bathrooms, organizing and clutter pick-up, shopping, cooking, all the extra little jobs in the kitchen, etc. — enough to keep me busy. 🙂

8. What, if anything, do you do to make housecleaning more enjoyable, (e.g., play music, set a timer, etc.).

When I was first married, I had one friend who liked to spend a lot of time on the phone — and we didn’t have cordless phones then, much less cell phones. It was popular at least in the kitchen area to have an extra-long cord so you could reach the whole room while on the phone. So sometimes I would call this friend or my mom (my mom and I rarely talked for less than an hour) while puttering around the house cleaning here and there. One of my dislikes of newer phones was that they were so small I couldn’t comfortably put them between my head and my shoulder so I could talk and use my hands for other things. These days most of us don’t talk on the phone that long any more, and many phones have gotten “hands-free” anyway.

But usually I turn on the Christian radio station or play a CD. I don’t have an iProduct. I don’t know if I’d like either headphones or earpieces. I need to borrow one of the kids’ devices and try it out to see, because sometimes I do think it would be nice to listen to an audiobook or something else. I don’t like to just sit in front of the computer to listen to anything there without doing something with my hands, so being able to take some of those things with me while I work sounds appealing.

9. What things make a room seem messy or unclean to you?

Clutter. Picking things up and establishing a sense of order does wonders for making it look cleaner.

And dust.

10. What are particular areas that are standouts to you that other people miss?

The area around the faucet on the sink. It can pretty quickly get gunky stuff around it, and in our area, even pink or black mold. Once my sister was staying with us and surprised me by cleaning the bathrooms while I was out. I think the first thing I noticed was that little gunky black line around the faucet, and it took a great deal of effort to just say thank you and not mention that.

11. How do you motivate yourself to clean when you don’t feel like it?

The biggest thing is just to get started. “Once begun is half done” as the saying goes. Another motivation is having been embarrassed a few times when someone popped in unexpectedly and the house looked like a disaster area. But then I felt really guilty one time “cleaning for company” when I thought — doesn’t my family deserve a clean home, too? Wouldn’t it help motivate them in their future to keep things clean if that’s the habit they’ve grown up with, rather than a frenzied, pressured marathon cleaning when an event is coming up? Plus I’ve learned that I just feel more peaceful and orderly in my thinking when my environment is fairly orderly. When the house is cluttered and chaotic, I just feel the same way (not to mention time and energy wasted not being able to find things when needed, etc.). And then, I have learned over the years that it is less work and takes less time to keep on top of housework than to let it slide and build up.

But probably what should be the biggest motivator for a Christian homemaker is that we’re representatives of Christ. I don’t think that means we have to keep things museum quality and can’t let our families relax in their own homes. We shouldn’t become more Martha than Mary. But “Let all things be done decently and in order” (I Corinthians 14:40), though the context is church services, surely applies in principle  to every area of life. And then of course I Corinthians 10:31 applies to all areas: “Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.” If a non-Christian walked into my house unexpectedly, would a messy, unclean house or a basically clean and orderly house be a better testimony? And shouldn’t that testimony be before my own family as well, not just unbelievers? Now, I admit, I don’t think through that every time I need to clean, but every now and then getting the right perspective helps.

Sometimes collecting quotes about homemaking encourages me, too. I put several in an older post titled “Encouragement for Homemakers.” A few other homemaking-related posts are:

Wanting things to be “perfect.”

I confess: I really don’t like to cook.

Two views of housework.

Cooking style.

“Thy list be done.”

ABC Homemaking Meme.

(Graphic courtesy of Fotosearch)

Parenting Teens

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Some time ago I began jotting down some thoughts in regard to parenting teens as a possible post one day. It’s been incubating, because every time I think about posting it, I think I should wait because there will probably be more I’ll think of later. But this isn’t a book: it’s just a blog post, not meant to be exhaustive. So I thought I’d go ahead and share these thoughts.

Let me quick to say, though, that I am no expert, that neither my children nor their parents are perfect, and that there is room for differences of opinions in many areas. But as my boys are 26, 23, and 17 now, these are just some helpful things I’ve learned along the way.

  • Don’t dread the teen years. A wise older mom once told me never to dread any stage, whether the “terrible twos” or the teens or anything in between. If you come into it with negative expectations, that will color everything about it.
  • Don’t “expect” rebellion. Modern media makes teen rebellion sound like a given, and all you can do is hang on and hope for the best. They are journeying toward independence, and that will raise a difference of opinion sometimes, but that does not have to include rebellion and disrespect. .
  • Don’t be afraid of their questions. For many this is a time when they begin to examine what they believe, and, hopefully, when they begin making the truths they have been taught their own rather than just following along parroting what they have heard. Though scary, this can be a good thing as they come out of it stronger and more fully convinced of what and Who they believe in. Don’t be afraid to say, “I’m sorry, I don’t have an answer for that now, but I’ll get back to you on it.” Josh McDowell has some good resources for some of these types of questions.
  • Discipline in early years will carry over, but if you haven’t disciplined well til now, stop and have a frank discussion about how and why things need to change
  • Give them opportunities to try various things, yet keep balanced so as not to over-pressure and over-schedule and have both the teen and his family running ragged. On the other hand, don’t keep pushing one area that you want your teen to excel in (living vicariously through them, perhaps?) if they’re not interested.
  • Listen. Someone once said, “If you want your children to listen to you when they’re 15, you have to listen to them when they’re 5.” Listen without pouncing on things that need attention or things you disagree with. Listen without demeaning.Keep the lines of communication open.
  • Let them begin to handle situations and make decisions so they can gain experience.
  • Encourage service toward others, probably best done at first with you or with school or youth group.
  • A lot of what makes for a good relationship with your teen is built on the relationship you’ve had when they were children. Those foundations of respect and discipline are so important.
  • Don’t think they don’t need you as much. Their needs are different from when they were small, but they still need you.
  • Stress that the Christian life is not just a set of dos and don’ts: let them see the relationship you have with Christ by how you talk about Him and to Him and acknowledge Him through the day.

If you have teens or remember something helpful from your own teen years that your parents did, please share!

This post will be linked to “Works For Me Wednesday,” where you can find a plethora of helpful hints each week at We Are THAT family on Wednesdays, as well as  Women Living Well.

 

Flooding in Eastern TN

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I was surprised to find when we moved to eastern TN that there were a lot of rivers, streams, and creeks throughout the area. Both on the way to church and to Grandma’s we see a lot of waterways of varying sizes.

That combined with a lot of low spots I mentioned a few days back meant that the rainfall yesterday resulted in a lot of areas being flooded. It was a pretty harrowing drive to Grandma’s and then to Jesse’s school, with several roads having water across them, some having a lot of water across them.

I don’t know these folks and this is in Knoxville proper, which is not where we are, but I found this searching through YouTube to give you an idea what it looked like.

A news video here shows more. It wasn’t quite as high in our area as it shows there.

The worst was when we thought we were home free after getting Jesse from school. The end of the road just before our turn had a field next to it, and water from the field was cascading like a waterfall across the road and onto the other side of the street. Standing water was bad enough, but moving water was pretty scary. I knew one other way home had been badly flooded in places when I first went that direction to see Grandma an hour earlier, and there are a lot of little side roads, but I wasn’t sure if they would be any better — they all have dips in them that were going to collect water. Thankfully traffic both ways was letting one car through at a time, and we made it home safely — skipping the grocery store visit for the day! I was pretty unnerved for a while. Thankfully our home and neighborhood weren’t flooded at all. I am so grateful God saw us home safely.

It finally stopped raining in the late afternoon, and this morning the sun has been shining brightly. There was one spot on the way to school this morning where the water was pretty high, and traffic alternated one car at a time again. One road just outside our subdivision was still closed, and I’ve been hearing the steady hum of traffic being rerouted through our subdivision all through the night and morning, but it seems to have stopped now, so hopefully the water has receded or evaporated enough to reopen the road. One school is closed and one food bank lost a lost of its wares.

So March is coming in like a lamb after February went out like a lion!

The Week In Words

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Welcome to The Week In Words, where we share quotes from the last week’s reading. If something you read this past week  inspired you, caused you to laugh, cry, think, dream, or just resonated with you in some way, please share it with us, attributing it to its source, which can be a book, newspaper, blog, Facebook — anything that you read. More information is here.

From a friend’s Facebook:

God often puts us in situations that are too much for us so that we will learn that no situation is too much for Him. ~ Edward Luther

Sadly, sometimes we don’t look up to Him until we’re overwhelmed, but when we do and find Him faithful and able, hopefully then we begin to seek Him and to lean on Him more in everyday life.

From Lisa‘s sidebar:

God comforts us not to make us comfortable but to make us comforters.” -John Henry Jowett

And from yet another friend’s Facebook:

If I find 10,000 ways something won’t work, I haven’t failed. I am not discouraged, because every wrong attempt discarded is another step forward. ~Thomas Edison

That is a great perspective and a good reason not to be discouraged by failure.

I’m almost halfway through Ann Voskamp‘s One Thousand Gifts and have marked several places, but one quote that arrested me the last couple of days opens Chapter Six on page 102:

“Every time you feel in God’s creatures something pleasing and attractive, do not let your attention be arrested by them alone, but, passing them by, transfer your thought to God and say; “Oh my God, if Thy creations are so full of beauty, delight and joy, how infinitely more full of beauty, delight and joy art Thou Thyself, Creator of all!” ~ Nicodemus of the Holy Mountain

I have felt that way even in listening to secular music or viewing beauty in art or words as well as nature — that swell of praise to God for the beauty He has created that reflects Himself.

Then Ann says, on page 106:

I am beset by chronic soul amnesia. I am empty of truth and need the refilling. I need come every day — bend, clutch, and remember — for who can gather the manna but once, hoarding, and store away sustenance in the mind for all of the living?

Chronic soul amnesia — so apt. We can’t gather all the truth we need at once to last us all of our living: we need to come to God daily, gathering the manna for that day’s needs.

If you’ve read anything that particularly spoke to you that you’d like to share, please either list it in the comments below or write a post on your blog and then put the link to that post (not your general blog link) in Mr. Linky below. I do ask that only family-friendly quotes be included. I hope you’ll visit some of the other participants as well and glean some great thoughts to ponder.

And please — feel free to comment even if you don’t have quotes to share!

Laudable Linkage

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It’s been a little while since I shared interesting links I’ve seen here and there. Hope you find something of interest!

Rejoice With Those Who Rejoice. Love Jeanne’s honesty here, and the last two paragraphs especially hit home with me. Quote: “Life has been a file in the hand of a loving God, and He has used it to smooth a lot of my rough edges.”

The Saddest Letter I’ve Ever Read was addressed to Cary Schmidt and has some sobering perspectives for parents, written by a young woman raised in Christian home, church, and school: “My point is that the problems that are supposed to be bad kid’s problems belong to us too. Unfortunately, our parents and youth workers don’t know that we struggle with these things and they don’t know what to do with us when they find out.” And then she shares how a parent’s focus on externals rather than the heart results in a child’s focus on externals without a heart relationship to Christ. Dr. Schmidt’s balanced, gracious first general response and second response to parents covered many of the thoughts that sprang to my own mind, and he’s planning a third response to the young woman and her generation. Though as parents we do need to concentrate on the heart and on a relationship with Christ and not just making sure our kids are in the right places, on the other hand, if God can take a child from an unsaved, alcoholic home (me) and show her His truth, I would think that young people surrounded by the truth would get it despite parents’ failings. Every parent will fail in some way because we’re sinners. That’s not an excuse and that doesn’t mean we don’t need to give serious heed to the problems the young lady addresses, but that was just one thought in my mind in addition to the many that Dr. Schmidt addressed.

How To Provoke Your Children to Anger, HT to Challies.

I Am About to Walk the Red Carpet. Love this!

Humble Leadership.

What Is Furlough? Not a vacation, that’s for sure.

13 Phrases to Keep Your Friendships Thriving.

Hat Box Favors. If you’re ever doing a theme for a shower or luncheon or banquet that has anything to do with hats, these are darling favors.

This Rose Cake is just gorgeous (HT to Lizzie). I don’t think I’d ever have the courage to try it. But it is so pretty.

Faux Fingerprint Pendants/Ornaments.

Internet Resources For Writers.

Interesting to watch, though it must have taken all kinds of time:

Happy Saturday!

Friday’s Fave Five

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Welcome to Friday’s Fave Five, hosted by Susanne at Living to Tell the Story, in which we can share our favorite things from the last week. This has been a wonderful exercise in looking for and appreciating the good things God blesses us with. Click on the button to learn more, then go to Susanne’s to read others’ faves and link up your own.

1. The birthday of my daughter-in-law, Mittu. We went out to eat at Olive Garden Friday night — only my second time ever to have eaten there. Then on Sunday when the whole family was here we had a special meal, cake, and presents. Jeremy was able to join us via Skype.

It was such fun to buy girl things and wrap them in girly paper!

2. The end of basketball season. I do love that Jesse gets to play, but it’s always kind of nice when it’s over and we have practice and game times back.

3. A new Dinner For Six group. I’ve mentioned “Dinner For Six” before — it’s a program in our new church where people who want to participate are divided into groups of six and they take turns hosting each other for a meal for a few months, each bringing different parts of the meal. Our whole group in the last rotation ended up getting together only once due to illness and holidays and one family forgetting an appointed time. We signed up for the new rotation and met for dinner with our new group this week and really enjoyed getting to know them better.

4. Getting some organizational projects done. It would be too long and boring to give a detailed account, but I’d had a couple of ideas to try around the house and finally was able to work on them this week. One turned out well, the other I’m still contemplating and may have to try something different.

5. A writing project. I’ve had several ideas for writing floating around in my mind, and one just came into clear focus this week and I was able to make a beginning. I’ll tell you more about it if/when it comes to anything. 😀 In the meantime, if you’re so led, I’d appreciate your prayers.

Bonus: I finished a great book this week! I wanted to read it over again, but have too many others waiting for me.

Have a great weekend!

Book Review: A Memory Between Us

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A Memory Between Us by Sarah Sundin is set in WWII. Lieutenant Ruth Doherty is an army nurse stationed in England. The shame of her past and the pressure of supporting her younger siblings causes her to keep to herself. She welcomes neither the outreach of friends nor the overtures of servicemen, but her efficient and cheerful labors make her a favorite among patients.

Major Jack Novak finds himself a patient of Ruth’s one day. He’s as attracted to her as the other guys, but he realizes he’ll have to tread carefully to break through her “no dating” policy. Meanwhile he wrestles with the expectations of his father that he will become a pastor and his own desires and abilities as an officer. He develops a plan of action to win Ruth’s heart as well as a promotion against a rival.

The optimistic confidence of WWII soldiers is appealing, but Jack has to learn that he can’t trust in his own plans and God-given abilities: he needs to trust in the Lord directly. And Ruth needs to learn that the walls she has built around herself are no protection and in fact hinder her from receiving support from friends — support that she doesn’t think she needs at first.

I loved these characters — I don’t feel as if I am doing them justice. I loved the fact that they’re both flawed, but they both make progress in their walk with God, and I loved that their interaction at the end wasn’t suave and smooth but sweet and a little goofy.

Sarah Sundin did a masterful job drawing me into the characters and the raw emotion of their struggles, and the setting is perfectly balanced: not so overrun with details so as to lose the story but informative enough to make me feel I was experiencing it for myself. I didn’t want to put this book down, and I wished there was more of it to read when I finished it.

This book is the second in the Wings of Glory series, the first being A Distant Melody (my brief review here) about Jack’s brother Walt, but I believe it could be easily enjoyed alone. I’m very much looking forward to the next installment about third Novak brother Ray this summer.

(This review will also be linked to Semicolon‘s Saturday Review of Books.)

The edge of the road

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One of the joys of living in eastern Tennessee is the view of the Smoky Mountains in the distance. But living so close to the mountains means the terrain here is rather hilly. When we were house-hunting, some homes were ruled out because the driveways were so steeply sloped I would never be able to walk down them and I would even be a little unnerved about driving down them, especially in icy weather.

Roads are also affected by the slope of the land. Several roads here have no shoulders and a steep drop-off — just a few inches in some cases but several feet in others. When I notice that drop-off, I get nervous about the possibility of slipping off the side of the road. But as I look at the edge of the road and the drop-off next to it, an odd thing happens: though I want to avoid that drop-off, I find myself gravitating exactly toward it. It’s only when I get my eyes back on the road and the lines that mark my lane that I’m safe from going over the edge.

I wrestle with fears in other areas of my life as well, some of which affect my health, which then is a source of more fear and anxiety. The more I focus on those issues, the more anxiety they cause and the more distracted I am by them and the more they pull me in, until I am nearly consumed by them. Even praying in that condition is not much help because my focus is still on the possibilities of what might happen. But when I turn from all of those “What ifs” and put my focus back where it belongs, on the God who I know is omniscient, all-powerful, who loves me, has said He knows all my needs and has promised meet them and take care of me — then I am secure in the path He has me on.

We do need to face our fears: if we hide from them, they’ll find us, and if we try to ignore them, they’ll fester. But facing them is one thing: it’s quite another thing to focus on them to the point of distraction, to the point where they actually lead us astray. We need to be aware of the dangers beside the path, but rather than feeding our anxiety, those dangers should only heighten our alertness to keep our eyes on the path ahead.

Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith. Hebrews 12:2a.

What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee. Psalm 56:3.

For thus saith the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel; In returning and rest shall ye be saved; in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength. Isaiah 30:15a.

_____________________________

I am linking up today to Women Living Well Wednesdays and Women in the Word Wednesdays.

What’s On Your Nightstand: February

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What's On Your NightstandThe folks at 5 Minutes For Books host What’s On Your Nightstand? the fourth Tuesday of each month in which we can share about the books we have been reading and/or plan to read. You can learn more about it by clicking the link or the button.

It’s funny how, at the beginning of last month’s nightstand post, I commented on how quickly January seemed to have flown by, but in this shorter month of February, last month’s nightstand seems ages ago. I don’t know what accounts for the difference in how quickly or slowly the same amount of time seems to be passing.Sickness in the house probably had something to do with it — my son’s, not mine, but that significantly slowed the activities and errands. Thankfully all are well now.

Anyway, since last time I have read:

Anne of Windy Poplars, the fourth in Lucy Maud Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables series, reviewed here.

50 People Every Christian Should Know: Learning From Spiritual Giants of the Faith by Warren Wiersbe, a review and several quotes from it here. An excellent resource.

Looking for Anne of Green Gables: The Story of L. M. Montgomery and Her Literary Classic, by Irene Gammel, a look at Montgomery’s published and unpublished journals, scrapbooks, letters, former stories, as well as magazines and the culture of the times to see what influences might have led to the Anne books. I had mixed emotions about this one: loved the background information but didn’t agree with some of the author’s conjecture. My review is here.

Living with Purpose in a Worn-out Body: Spiritual Encouragement for Older Adults by Missy Buchanan which I saw by way of Mocha With Linda‘s recommendation. Excellent book, my review is here.

Song of Renewal by Emily Sue Harvey, reviewed here. Good story about a family’s strained relationships coming nearly to the breaking point after a daughter’s accident and the healing/renewal on several levels, though it would have been better without a couple of objective (to me) elements.

I am currently reading:

A Memory Between Us by Sarah Sundin, set in WWII — riveting. hard to put down.

A Novel Idea: Everything You Need to Know about Writing Inspirational Fiction — I’ve been reading sections of this between other books.

The Book Lover’s Devotional: What We Learn About Life From 60 Great Works of Literature by various authors, one of whom is blog friend Laura Lee Groves of Outnumbered Mom.

Still on my nightstand: Faithful by Kim Cash Tate, Just Between You and Me by Jenny B. Jones, One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp, The Damascus Way, biblical fiction by Janette Oke and Davis Bunn, and several others. I’m not sure which to choose next!