Tag Archives: January

January Reflections

Posted on by
4
January Reflections

As most of you know, my new year started with atrial fibrillation, ablations, and cardioversions. I won’t bore you with all the details again, but because of those events and recovery from them, I felt like my New Year didn’t really begin until last week.

I’ve been doing well since then, though, and settling back into my routines.

Watching

My husband indulged me by watching the 1995 series of Pride and Prejudice, starring Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle. For many of us, this is the best film representation of Jane Austen’s book. I had seen it before, but I don’t think he had. I think he enjoyed the parts he was awake for. 🙂 But he did ask if all of Jane Austen’s novels involved sisters who wanted to marry rich men. In this case it was the mother who wanted them to marry rich men. But I assured him that’s not what Austen was all about.

We also discovered a 2002 series called Sue Thomas, F. B. Eye, based on the true story of a deaf woman who became an FBI agent. Though it’s a little dated, it’s remarkably clean. And while I wouldn’t call it a Christian show per se, there are many favorable references to God and prayer.

We’re also enjoying the new season of All Creatures Great and Small.

Reading

Since last time I have finished:

  • The Characters of Christmas: 10 Unlikely People Caught Up in the Story of Jesus by Daniel Darling. Excellent.
  • Mercy Mild: A 25-Day Christmas Devotional Tracing Christ’s Love from Eden to Eternity by Josh Taylor. Excellent.
  • The Book of Hours by Davis Bunn, fiction, audiobook and Kindle. A grieving husband is bequeathed an old castle by his wife’s aunt. He can’t afford to keep it, so he plans to sell–until he finds a letter with clues to unexpected finds in the buildings. Very good.
  • Count the Nights by Stars by Michelle Shocklee, fiction, audiobook and Kindle. A well-to-do young woman visiting the Tennessee Centennial Exposition in 1897 searches for her missing maid. In 1961, the daughter of the Maxwell House Hotel finds an older woman’s scrapbook from the Expo, sending her to look for clues about what happened. Very good.
  • Saving Grayson by Chris Fabry, fiction, audiobook and Kindle. A man with Alzheimer’s seeks to right wrongs he can’t fully remember and unravel a mystery that he’s not sure is real. Excellent.
  • The French Kitchen by Kristy Cambron, fiction, Kindle. An American woman works for the OSS undercover as a chef in France while also searching for her missing brother. After the war, she teams up with an unlikely source to continue her search. A good story, but hard to follow.

I’m currently reading:

  • Light Upon Light: A Literary Guide to Prayer for Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany compiled by Sarah Arthur. This has weekly readings from Advent through eight weeks of Epiphany (I hadn’t realized Epiphany was more than a day).
  • Barnaby Rudge by Charles Dickens, audiobook
  • Through Each Tomorrow by Gabrielle Meyer, the sixth in her Time Crossers series
  • All the Beauty in the World: The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Me by Patrick Bringley
  • True Woman 201: Interior Design: Ten Elements of Biblical Womanhood by Mary Kassian and Nancy Leigh DeMoss (now Wolgemuth) with our ladies’ Bible study.

With Bible study and Sunday School reading, I still haven’t gotten back into James for You by Sam Allberry and The Gospel Comes with a House Key by Rosaria Butterfield. But our regular Sunday School time will be involved with a missions emphasis for three weeks, so I hope to finish James then.

I just have James, Revelation, and the last six minor prophets to finish my current trek through the Bible–and our Sunday School is covering the minor prophets this semester. After that, I want to read through a chronological Bible.

I wrapped up my reading year and started a new one with these posts:

Blogging

Besides the weekly Friday Fave Fives, Saturday Laudable Linkage, and book reviews, I’ve posted these since last time:

Writing

Our bi-weekly Zoom critique group resumed this month after taking time off for the holidays. It was good to get back together with the ladies. I’m hoping that getting ready for my presentation will jump start work on my manuscript.

Some writers claim a particular verse for their writing endeavors. I have not done that, but I have started a running list of verses that struck me as pertaining to writing. One that stood out to me was Colossians 4:4. After asking prayer for opportunities to share the gospel, Paul adds the request “that I may make it clear in the way that I ought to proclaim it” (NKJV). Clarity is one of my requests for my own writing.

But recently, another verse has come to the forefront. Psalm 90 is by Moses, and he ends with “And let the beauty of the LORD our God be upon us, And establish the work of our hands for us; Yes, establish the work of our hands” (NKJV).

There are times I come across writing that is so beautiful that I have to stop and turn the words over in my mind for a while. I look up at the ceiling and think, “Wow, I wish I could write like that.” I tend to be more of a factual, practical writer.

There’s nothing wrong with wanting to improve one’s writing and expressiveness, to want to touch the heart rather than just sharing facts. But I have to be careful that my motive isn’t wanting people to fawn over my words rather than being moved by the truth I’ve shared. This verse has the perspective I want: that people see His beauty. And with new writers being told they have to spend hours on social media trying to drum up a zillion followers, I can trust Him to establish the work of my hands.

Looking ahead

I’m looking forward to getting my annual physical and Medicare wellness visit out of the way–back to back appointments this time, thankfully. Valentine’s Day is a highlight for our family. Plus my daughter-in-law’s birthday is next month. The Olympics begin! And we’ll be one month closer to spring!

How was your January? Looking forward to anything in February?

(I often link up with some of these bloggers.)

January Reflections

Posted on by
January Reflections

I don’t want to pine away the time by always looking ahead, but January is one month I am glad to see come to an end.

In some ways, it has been a quiet month. We had one excursion with Jason, Mittu, and Timothy to a pizza place, and they dropped by one day. There have been a lot of activities and meetings at church involving one or more of them, plus snow and colds. Hopefully we’ll see them more next month!

We spent the first few days of January putting away Christmas decorations and presents and recuperating from the much-enjoyed but busy holidays.

My dear husband has spent much of the month painting the interior of our house. We’ve lived here fourteen years and only painted a couple of bedrooms and bathrooms, so the rest of the rooms were in need of refreshing. He wanted to put painting off til he retired so he didn’t have to maneuver around his work schedule. I mentioned on a previous Friday’s Fave Five that he has been wiping down wall plaques and such before putting them back up, which has been much appreciated! He also cleaned the blinds of one room while I washed and ironed the curtains. We’ll do the same as we come to the last couple of rooms with windows. It’s a nice feeling to have a paced spring cleaning.

I didn’t made any cards this month.

Watching

We’re enjoying the return of Masterpiece Theatre’s production of All Creatures Great and Small.

We also watched Blitz Spirit with Lucy Worsley, a documentary in which she tries to prove that the brave camaraderie of WWII was a myth. From what little I have seen of her productions, she’s somewhat iconoclastic in her approach generally. She tried to prove her point with six different stories drawn from governmental archives of personal stories. I’ve read so much from this era, I can’t help but think she’s wrong to a degree. Yes, people were afraid, sometimes desperate, and experienced horrible things. But overall, I think society in general was more brave and more apt to pull together than any time in history.

Reading

Since last time I finished:

  • Winter Fire: Christmas with G. K. Chesterton by Ryan Whitaker Smith, nonfiction. This was a good introduction to Chesterton and sparked three or four blog posts.
  • Set the Stars Alight by Amanda Dykes, audiobook. A watchmaker’s daughter and her childhood friend reunite to discover what happened to the Jubilee, a fictional English ship supposedly taken over by a traitor named Frederick Handford. The dual timeline shows us the real story of Frederick. Amanda writes books that touch the heart, and this was no exception.
  • Miramar Bay by Davis Bunn, fiction, audiobook. A secular but clean story about a Hollywood star determining what he really wants in life, a restaurant owner striving to keep her business despite troubles, and a mother seeking courage to reunite with the daughter she abandoned. This is the first in the Miramar Bay series; The Christmas Hummingbird was the eighth.
  • Firefly Cove by Davis Bunn. fiction, audiobook. The second in the Miramar Bay series. It’s kind of an odd story about a man who dies in the 1960s and wakes up in someone else’s body in modern time. Not the kind of story I usually go for, but it was touching and interesting.

Everyday Gospel for Christmas by Paul David Tripp and The Christmas Hummingbird by Davis Bunn were both finished right at the end of December, but not reviewed until this month together here.

I’m currently reading:

  • Ezekiel: The God of Glory by Tim Chester
  • Hebrews for You by Michael Kruger with the ladies’ Bible study group.
  • What’s a Disorganized Person to Do? by Stacey Platt
  • The Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis, Volume 3: Narnia, Cambridge, and Joy, 1950 – 1963, compiled by Walter Hooper
  • The Librarian of Saint-Malo by Mario Escobar, fiction
  • Between the Sound and the Sea by Amanda Cox, fiction

I started Hans Brinker or the Silver Skates by Mary Mapes Dodge as one of Audible’s free books for subscribers, but it was pulled out of rotation before I could finish it. I will probably look for it, maybe from the library, just to complete it, though it wasn’t really grabbing me. But I think the best of it might be nearer the end.

I’m also dipping into parts of one of my favorite books on writing, Write Better: A Lifelong Editor on Craft, Art, and Spirituality by Andrew T. Le Peau.

Blogging

Besides the weekly Friday Fave Fives, Saturday Laudable Linkage, and book reviews, I’ve posted these since last time:

Writing

Our critique group started back up this month. Though I appreciated and needed the time off during the last couple of months of the year, I am happy we’re meeting again. I learn so much from the discussions even when the focus is on the other writers’ pieces.

I had hoped to delve into my own manuscript since January is usually less busy. But it hasn’t worked out for various reasons. My turn to present to the group is coming up in March–there’s nothing like a deadline to spark motivation. 🙂

How was your January?

Laudable Linkage

Posted on by

Though still not caught up with the blogs I usually read, I got to a lot of them this week—as you can tell by my long list of links to share. Perhaps one or two will be as thought-provoking to you as they were to me.

January’s for Reflecting, not Resolving, HT to Challies. “Maybe part of the reason why so many resolutions fail by February is that they were early. Maybe the resolutions weren’t wrong; they were just underdeveloped. Maybe, they needed an extra month or two in the oven.”

Holy Prayers from Rocking Chairs, HT to the Story Warren. A lovely poem about mothers’ middle of the night sessions.

A Legacy of Love: Passing Down the Gift of Spiritual Discipline to Your Children. “Because of the legacy my mom passed to me, I have a vision that goes beyond serenity and candles. I want my children to see a mother desperate for Jesus, willing to do whatever it takes to be at His feet.”

Make Christianity Hard Again, HT to Challies. “The way of Jesus is the way of the cross. So don’t talk about it like we just need to be nice people. Here are three commands that have challenged me, with practical trails we can follow.”

“I Must Decrease” . . . But How? HT to Challies. “It’s pretty clear: the world’s loud, incessant voice tells me that in order to be happy, I need to spend more of my time, money, and attention on myself. You’ve probably heard the same message about your need for this, as well.”

Wasn’t My Body, but It Was My Baby, HT to Challies. “Abortion isn’t just about a mother’s choice. It’s also about a father’s responsibility. Perpetuating the lie that men need to stay out of the abortion debate isn’t just untrue—it’s catastrophic for the generations to come.”

Don’t Women Need Access to Abortion for Rape? “‘You don’t have the right to tell my fourteen-year-old daughter she has to carry her rapist’s baby.’ That’s what Joe Rogan, the most popular podcaster in the world, recently argued when he interviewed Seth Dillon, owner and CEO of the satire website The Babylon Bee. How would you respond to that argument? Here are three arguments to consider.”

The Murderer Who Crushed a Worm. “We get hard through the steps of an unperceived process.” This is a different kind of hardness from the article above.

C. S. Lewis an Mrs. Moore: Relationship of Sin or Sanctification? HT to Challies. “Every biographer of C. S. Lewis must face ‘the Mrs. Moore question’ and decide what to make of the relationship the beloved writer had with a woman more than 25 years his senior who remained a major part of his life from the time he returned from the trenches of the Great War until her death in 1951.” I especially like the concluding paragraphs of how God uses difficult people in our lives.

God Plans Your Stops, HT to Challies. “If God plans our steps, it means He plans our stops as well. And if you sit with it for a minute, there’s comfort in that.”

Unraveling the Riddle of Rejoicing Always, HT to Challies. “Several years ago, while meditating on Philippians 4:4, the Lord helped me glimpse why it makes sense to always rejoice—even in hard times—and how it is possible to give thanks in everything.”

A Family Vacation, a Broken Transmission, and a God Who Is With Us, HT to Challies. A neat story about God’s provision in a crisis.

Caregiving As a Calling and Ministry, HT to Challies. “At the time I didn’t see it as a ministry, and I didn’t understand that I had been called. I saw caregiving as a giant disruption to everything in my life and a burden that was forcing me to ‘step out of ministry’ to do this caregiving thing that I hadn’t signed up for. Over time, God has shown me  that caregiving wasn’t a disruption; it was God’s plan for me all along.”

How Should I Dispose of an Old Bible, HT to Challies. Though the sacredness of the Bible comes from what it says and Who gave it to us, not the pages and ink, we still want to treat it with respect. This has a good suggestion.

Laudable Linkage

Posted on by

Here are some thought-provoking reads discovered in the last week:

We Lost a Child, and Gained Something Greater.

The Not-So-Quiet Quiet Time. HT to Challies. “”It has become common among Christians to think that listening to God means being quiet and listening to our own hearts. But here’s the problem with that: God says, “My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways” (Isaiah 55:8).” “That is why the Bible says that the “entrance” of God’s Word gives light (Psa. 119:130, KJV). We do not have entrance to God through any other way, except the Word of God. You won’t get to know God by reflecting on your own thoughts and feelings on the sofa with some Christian music on in the background. You listen to God with an open Bible!”

A lot of us seem to be thinking about Titus 2 ladies. The day I posted I’m an older woman…now what? Jess Connell posted The Elusive Titus 2 Woman. She has some reasons I hadn’t thought of for the seeming lack of them plus a reminder to compare their advice with Scripture. She also linked to another good post, Titus 2 IRL – Is that what you really want? I especially like this quote from the latter: “It will be difficult to find this type of relationship online, but not completely impossible. Should we have IRL Titus 2 women?  Yes – but be prepared to listen and potentially get your feelings stepped on.  If you want those real relationships, you have to be willing to be real and raw and teachable.  Iron sharpens iron and sharpening hurts…. Is that what you really want?”

When Life Feels Like Drudgery. “Faithfulness in drudgery is what faithfulness is all about.  Most of life is drudgery, isn’t it?  The messes, the commute, the weeds that keep growing, the bellies that need feeding, the clothes that need washing….When I step back, I see that the cooking and the homework and the messes are part of the much more glorious picture of what God is doing in our family.”

Seven reasons why you shouldn’t read 1 Timothy 6:1-2 as an endorsement of slavery.

Hail, January. It’s my least favorite month, but this has some things to appreciate about it.

How to Encourage (or Discourage) a Writer on Deadline.

Short but sweet – a baby sea otter napping while his mom is floating:

Happy Saturday!