It’s funny how a month can seem long in some ways and short in others. September had several full days plus some slower-paced ones.

We celebrated my youngest son’s birthday this month and enjoyed meals and games together. We got some sorting, organizing, and purging done of old boxes and my dresser.

Timothy is learning the joys of orthodontia. 🙂 He got spacers and an appliance installed and will get his braces on in March.

Creating

I usually go with a tech or gamer theme for Jesse’s cards. But this time, I remembered he also likes medieval things. I looked around my Cricut images and found this design:

I had something completely different in mind for friends’ 50th wedding anniversary. But as I looked through the materials I had on hand, this design almost assembled itself.

Reading

Since last time I have finished:

• 1 and 2 Timothy for You by Phillip Jensen, not reviewed. Not my favorite of the “For You” series, but I did glean a few good things from it.
• A Face Illumined by Edward Payson Roe. An 1878 story about an artist who sees a woman with a beauitful face marred by her manners and attitude. He seeks to try to awake “a woman’s mind” in her, leading to near-tragic results and showing him his own faults.
• Little Lord Fauntleroy by Frances Hodgson Burnett, audiobook. A young boy in genteel poverty finds out he is the sole heir to his grandfather’s estate. His grandfather moves him to England to teach him to become an earl but is changed himself. Somewhat overly sweet, but a lovely story.
• The Bitter End Birding Society, audiobook, by Amanda Cox. Ana Watkins comes to Bitter End to help her aunt clean out her house to prepare for moving to a retirement community. Finding out her aunt has had a long and bitter feud with a seemingly nice neighbor, Ana investigates and finds a sixty-year-old story of a moonshiner’s daughter who fell in love with a preacher’s son. Very good.
• The Island Bookshop by Roseanna M. White. Kennedy Marshall comes back to the Outer Banks to help her injured sister and run the family bookshop. A discrepancy on the store’s deed leads to a surprising search about her grandmother’s history. Very good.
• The Unlikely Yarn of the Dragon Lady by Sharon J. Mondragon, audiobook. A church’s prayer shawl knitting group is encouraged by their pastor to take their knitting out into the public, much to the consternation of the group’s leader. Gradually, God works not only through, but in the prayer shawl ministry in surprising ways. Delightful story, though I found it lacking in a couple of areas.

I’m currently reading:

• Exodus for You by Tim Chester with the ladies’ Bible study at church.
• Titus for You by Tim Chester
• Van Gogh Has a Broken Heart: What Art Teaches Us About the Wonder and Struggle of Being Alive by Russ Ramsey
• Raising the Perfectly Imperfect Child: Facing Challenges with Strength, Courage, and Hope by Boris Vujicic, father of Nick Vujicic
• 100 Ways to Improve Your Writing by Gary Provost
• North! or Be Eaten, the second in the Wingfeather Saga by Andrew Peterson.
• The Collector of Burned Books by Roseanna M. White, audiobook

Blogging

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

• What God’s Sovereignty Does not Mean. “People have argued for centuries over what God allows vs. what He ordains and how His sovereignty and our responsibility work together. . . . But through years of talking with other Christians and reading Christian writing, it seems to me there are some things God’s sovereignty does not mean.”
• The Only Bloodline That Matters. “It’s not whose blood flows through our veins that determines our characters or our destiny. It’s whose blood flowed on the cross.”
• When Evil Gets Worse. My thoughts processing Charlie Kirk’s murder.
• Are You Full? What the Bible says we’re to be filled with.
• How to Withstand Pressure. Inspiration from sea creatures that survive the intense oceanic pressure they live in.
• Ways to Pray for the Lost. Scriptural ways to pray for lost loved ones to come to know the Lord.

Writing

My turn to present a chapter for critique to our writing group came up last week. It’s good to get back into my manuscript more deeply, and I’m always inspired by the feedback. Now if I can just keep that momentum going!

Looking ahead

Not much is on the schedule for October, so I hope to get lots done at home!

How was your September? Are you looking forward to anything in October?

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