21 hours ago
2.5/5 stars
So, this book did not make a great first impression on me. Here we go.
Negatives
My main issue with this book is that I felt from the very first chapter the gospel was presented very weakly, or even misrepresented because of ommission of the key points of the gospel. Kat Lee opens the book with this explanation:
“Friends, I don’t know where you are in your journey with God. I don’t know how many times you’ve tried to spend time with Him or read the Word or prayed and felt as if you failed. But I do know that He does not merely stand at the finish line awaiting your triumphant victory. Our loving God, our faithful Father, is fighting to come alongside you in the journey. To push past all the discouragements and distractions. To speak words of love, hope, and courage over you. To wrap His arms around you and finish the race with you. Because of Jesus, God does not require our perfection; He wants a relationship with us.”
This is all good and fine if she is speaking exclusively to fellow Christians, but I fear that for the many non-Christians that may be reading this book, she leaves out any real explanation of the gospel here. I kept looking for a fuller explanation, and Lee never got there. The truth is that God does require our perfection, but we are wholly unable to attain perfection, and that is why Jesus came - to cover our filthy sin with His perfect righteousness when we quit trying to save ourselves and put our trust in Him. That is why we who trust in Jesus no longer have to worry about perfection and can have a relationship with God. To me, she really missed the boat on explaining that here.
It didn’t help when later in the chapter she mentioned that some women reading this book may have had a great life and "wish they felt like they needed Jesus a little more". If a Christian is feeling that way I’m not sure they really understand the weight of their sin. Even if we haven’t had a single difficult thing to deal with in our entire lives, we are still in desperate need of Jesus because of our sin! We can't be righteous enough to be in a right relationship with God on our own. This is the problem Jesus came to solve! He didn’t come mainly to help us through the difficult seasons of life or to overcome our feelings of a lack of purpose, and I am afraid the way Lee presented things in this chapter gave the impression that this is all we need Jesus for.
Positives
Once I got past this frustration in the first couple chapters, I thought Lee had a lot of good things to say about developing a morning routine. I definitely appreciated her tips about how to develop habits effectively. She gives a lot of ideas for different habit-forming methods and how you can apply them to developing morning routine.
The Hello Mornings method focuses on three areas for a morning routine - time with the Lord, time to plan the day, and a jumpstart for making physically healthy choices during the day. I thought this was a thoughtful way to focus a morning routine in a short amount of time. She encourages developing a three-minute morning routine with these three things. While that sounds like it wouldn't be enough time, I liked the idea of having an "anchor" habit so that whether I have only those three minutes or a much longer stretch of time, I can start the day off right.
I also really appreciated how Lee focuses on the "why" of developing a morning routine, which is to serve the Lord better through focusing on Him first thing, making a plan to be effective for Him that day, and developing healthy habits so we have enough energy to serve the Lord well. The section at the back of the book where Lee includes different ideas for Bible study time was also a great thing to include, and I thought these suggestions were really solid.
Bottom Line
The bottom line here is that I'm a little bummed about this book. This would have been a higher-star-rating for me if it wasn't for my frustrations about the way she didn't explain the gospel.
While I can understand that she was mainly writing this book for Christian women, I don't think any Christian author should assume their readers already know the gospel, especially when it's a book about a subject that would be of interest to non-believers as well. I thought that because she didn't explain the gospel it gave the impression that she was saying that if you just "spend time with God" each day, you're good to go. That's just not the case. We need to trust in Jesus's sacrifice for us on the cross and His righteousness to save us from our sins and an eternity in Hell. Only when we understand that, and stop relying on our own works to save us, can we have a relationship with Him and look forward to eternal life. That piece was missing from this book, so I wouldn't recommend it to someone who I didn't feel was a solid believer already. So that was a bummer.
Note: I received a copy of this book for free from the publisher in exchange for a review. This is my honest opinion.
I thought the author presented some interesting reminders in this book. I could relate to a lot of the points she made because a lot of the things that she experienced in her family were things my parents also did. I think this book may offer some value in helping parents to start thinking about how they can aid of their children in not rebelling (or how they may inadvertently push them toward rebellion). So many of her points had to do with building a strong family unit through communication, traditions, and a family identity, and I thought she had great things to say on these subjects (though her "evidence" is almost purely anecdotal).
However, there were some areas where I felt that the author's lack of experience on the parenting side started to show. I am a millennial who is a little further down this road because I have children of my own now. Coming at this as a parent of young children, I felt that some topics that she tried to cover can be a bit more complicated than she made them out to be. A good example is the chapter on discipline. Entire books have been written on the topic of discipline from many different perspectives, including different strategies than the ones she presented in this book. I felt that she oversimplified that whole topic and didn't take into account viewpoints that were different than her own. I was also surprised that she didn't mention any biblical principals in this chapter, because God obviously has something to say in the matter of how to train children. The only mention of Scripture here was an expert's opinion on why he thinks the Bible doesn't advise spanking (which people obviously also have a lot of opinions on, but only one side was presented). A huge opportunity was missed here to make this whole book more biblically grounded, so I found that disappointing.
(It also irked me when she stated her opinion that it was better not to focus on what are right and wrong decisions when talking to teens, but rather what is "smart or dumb". Why can't we include both? I think it is more effective to include both angles, so I disagreed with her here.)
The further I got into this book, the more something started to bug me. I couldn't quite put my finger on it until the last chapter, and I think it boiled down to two things. First, I felt that the way she presented her points in this book came off very formulaic, as if doing certain things would almost guarantee that your kids wouldn't "rebel". And while I thought a lot of her advice was good, I finally figured out why her approach was bugging me - it's because overall, this book felt very weak to me on the Gospel. The author mentions "authentic" Christianity, and even repentance or forgiveness of "mistakes", but it is never tied together into a full picture - that ALL children are naturally rebellious against God. That's called sin. And in order to not rebel against us, they first need to stop rebelling against God, turn from their sin, and believe in Jesus Christ and His righteousness to cover the debt of their sins that they cannot pay.
If our children aren't first truly saved, it doesn't matter one wit if they don't "rebel" in the traditional sense - they are still lost in their sins, and that is the most serious rebellion of all. I thought the author was perhaps trying to communicate that with her "authentic Christianity" talk, but it sounded like a bunch of buzz words, and to me, she failed to communicate what should be the main point for Christian parents, which is communicating the Gospel effectively to our children in every way we can, in word and deed.
So overall, I don't know, maybe I'm being a little hard on this book, but something didn't sit right. I won't be recommending this book. I feel there are more complete resources for Christian parents out there.
(If you are looking for a more biblically grounded book about raising children, including preventing rebellion and teaching them how to trust Jesus as their Savior, I highly recommend John MacArthur's Successful Christian Parenting.)
(If you are looking for a more biblically grounded book about raising children, including preventing rebellion and teaching them how to trust Jesus as their Savior, I highly recommend John MacArthur's Successful Christian Parenting.)
Note: I received a copy of this book for free from the publisher in exchange for a review. This is my honest opinion.
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This book is a thorough introduction to modern watercolor painting. Rainey explains her choice of supplies and color theory in the introduction, and then she jumps right into 30 days worth of watercolor projects designed to help you develop your own painting skills. I loved that Rainey didn't just tell you how to paint each project, but she really explains the reasoning behind the different techniques that she uses so you can take them and apply them to different subjects.
The book is also just gorgeous to look at.
The book is also just gorgeous to look at.
I really appreciated how Rainey guides the reader into thinking about the shapes of the subjects and how the light should fall, and I am excited to practice. I love Rainey's style of painting, and this book is perfect if you would like to learn to paint in a similar style. After reading this book I feel like learning to pain in watercolors is that much more attainable.
Unfortunately I didn't get a chance to read this until after Georgie was born, and I haven't been able to actually sit down with paint between adjusting to five kiddos! But one of my goals for the new year will be to get back into practicing, and I'm excited to work through all the projects in this book. I'll hopefully share some of the projects in 2018 - my goal is at least one a week! Highly recommend if you are interested in the watercolor medium.
Note: I received a copy of this book for free from the publisher in exchange for a review. This is my honest opinion.
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The Austen Escape is about an electrical engineer, Mary, who has a crush on a consultant at work, Nathan. She also has a tumultuous relationship with her childhood best friend, Isabel, but Mary ends up going with her to England anyway for an Austen-era experience at a house in Bath. While they are there, Isabel has a nervous breakdown and thinks she is actually living in the early 1800's, and Nathan shows up to help Mary.
I would say I enjoyed this book, but I thought it could have been stronger. While in Bath, Mary works through a lot of her own internal feelings about the way Isabel treats her, but I felt the ending left a lot of things unresolved. Isabel has a moment of repentance at the end of the story for the way she treats people, but it didn't really feel like she and Mary were fully reconciled. Through the story we also learn that Mary had emotional problems connecting with her mother growing up, and while I suppose knowing this about Mary added some depth to her character, I didn't really see how that struggle added to the story since there was no realization related to this in the end aside from a brief conversation with her father.
I also felt like the main character was a little hard for me to personally relate to, probably because of personality differences. Mary's character was very introverted and analytical, and though Reay tries to convince us at certain places in the book that Mary is a "romantic at heart," I didn't get that at all. Nathan seemed to be the one in the relationship that was more emotionally in tune with Mary. Though I'm not saying that women can't be analytical or men can't be emotional, I do think that it is a less common relationship dynamic, and somehow with the way it was executed I had a hard time buying it.
I also felt that some of the relationships with the peripheral characters could have been developed a little better, and it would have strengthened the story. But then, there was a lot of emotional issues going on in this book, so maybe it would have been too much. I just know that I would have liked the secondary characters integrated more into the main storyline, and Mary's inner turmoil focused a bit more.
Aside from some of my frustration with the elements listed above, I did actually enjoy the book! Reay's novels are always slower-paced, but while they take longer to get into, they have a comforting vibe to them. I also think it could be argued that the multi-faceted emotional side of the characters does add a real-life element to her books, because rarely do we have all of our emotions resolved and tied up into a neat little package in real life. In that way her characters and situations are really believable.
I really liked the ending and thought it was nicely done, though I wish I could peek a little further into the future and make sure it all turned out well long-term! Maybe she'll give us a glimpse of some of her characters in future books? (Katherine Reay, if you are reading, that's a request! Because I will pick up more of your books in the future.)
Note: I received a copy of this book for free from the publisher in exchange for a review. This is my honest opinion.
1. Gingerbread House. The kids all requested a gingerbread house this year, so I want to make sure that happens. Derek put the structure together last night, and we're hoping to get to the decorating this week!
2. Christmas Cards. I addressed cards to all the critical people, like family, and I'm just going to keep this low pressure and either 1) write a few addresses here and there as I have time or 2) just focus on returning cards to people who send them to me.
3. Baking. There really isn't any way to simplify the work of baking, so my goal is just to do one type of cookie a couple times a week until Christmas, and then freeze them. I've already got ginger cookies in the freezer.
4. Finish our stack of Christmas books. I rented a whole stack of Christmas picture books from the library,and we are slowly working our way through them! The kids are so excited every time I pull one out. We also got this adorable book from Tommy Nelson to add to our permanent collection!
Christmas Blessings has a different Christmas poem on each page, and my plan is to pick this up this week and read one poem a day to the kids. The poems are sweet celebrations of different aspects of Christmas. I think my littler ones will especially like this book, because the illustrations are so cute, and it would be fun (and easy) to even memorize one of these poems with the kids! I also love how so many of the poems point in some way back to the reason we celebrate Christmas as Christians, which is to remember what Christ has done for us through His birth, and later his death and resurrection! This book is a great starting point for reminding little ones of that.
5. Wrap Presents. I have a couple presents left to wrap for my extended family, but I'm happy to report that Derek and I knocked out most of the present-wrapping before Georgie arrived! So there is not much left to do here.
6. Advent. My brother-in-law and sister-in-law make doing advent with the kids so easy, so this one is more for me to remember to do my own advent devotionals each day! As I wrote last week, I have to make time for focusing on Jesus at Christmas, or I start to resent all the Christmas to-do's instead of celebrating the joy of His birth.
Notice one thing that is not on the list is shopping! I am very happy to have all of that done early this year, but if you are still struggling for some gift ideas, I've got a post on Tommy Nelson idea with gift ideas for boys that will last! Read and tell me what you think.
What do you have left to do before Christmas?
Note: I received a copy of Christmas Blessings for free from Tommy Nelson in exchange for a review. This is my honest opinion.
The kids have been asking me every day how many days are left until Christmas. I have to say, it brings back memories of my childhood, when it felt like Christmas would take so long to arrive. The anticipation was almost too much! Ah, childhood. We made paper chains the other day for the countdown, so I haven't had to answer the questions as often.
I've mentioned before how Christmas is usually filled with more stress than joy for me as an adult, but this year feels different. After six years of Christmas as a mom, nine years of Christmas as a married lady, this year I finally feel like I'm figuring it out.
Being due with our fifth baby so close to the Christmas season definitely has had something to do with it I think. Not only did I get started on Christmas to-do's earlier, but I have overall put less pressure one myself to do everything this year, and I feel the difference. So, I have to write down what is working for me, so hopefully repeating it next year will bring about the same results of less stress, more joy!
Buy presents early.
I bought all of the presents early this year because I wanted to finish all my shopping before Georgiana was born. I don't think I realized how much stress present shopping causes me when I save it for December. It has been so nice to not be out and about so much so far this year, and I feel less stressed about finances since most of the purchases are already made.
Do all the Christmasy things as soon as I feel like it.
I used to feel like I had to save all the Christmas activities until December, and that they had to be made into a big production. This year I am spacing things out a little more and doing all the Christmas things as the mood strikes. Example: Christmas cookies. If I feel like baking Christmas cookies with the kids early in December, we'll just bake whenever the mood strikes and freeze them for later. If we feel like wrapping presents and listening to Christmas music in November, why not? It's more fun to do Christmasy things when we feel like it, instead of "saving" the Christmas fun to the point of procrastination and then getting stressed out when we have to squeeze it all in.
Take the family picture early.
I'm continuing my strategy of taking a family Christmas picture before our actual Christmas gatherings. If I get everyone dressed up in their Christmas clothes and get some good pictures on a low-stress day, then I don't feel like I have to try to wrangle everyone together for a family picture on days when we are actually going somewhere. I can just enjoy being present and not worry about it, since I know we already got a good picture of the family at Christmas.
Cut out the non-essentials.
I don't know why it took me so long to realize that I don't have to do all the Christmas things. I'm learning to be a little more particular about what we choose to participate in at Christmas time, because it's a lot easier for me to enjoy the Christmas season if we have more days when we aren't doing anything specific. When we all have more room to breathe, the Christmas fun happens more naturally, and it's a lot less stressful on me.
I also think one of the reasons I have had a hard time enjoying Christmas is because I rush around so much, trying to make everything perfect, and I don't allow myself to have time to just relax and reflect on why we are celebrating in the first place. Having a newborn this year has given me the perfect excuse not to do things. I am enjoying Christmas so much more since deciding to say no and allowing myself enough mental rest to reflect on our Savior. Which brings me to my last point.
Prioritize Advent.
It's tragic really, how often I let this get overlooked in previous years in favor of all the more commercial aspects of Christmas. I think having the shopping done before the season started has really given me the space I needed to focus less on things and more on our Savior. He is the reason our family celebrates Christmas in the first place, after all.
I am doing this advent devotional, and listening to my favorite Christ-focused Christmas songs, and I've been spending a lot of time reflecting on why He came (to seek and save sinners) and my part in that (the great commission). Of course I did advent stuff in years past, but I think the fact that so much of my other Christmas prep is already done this year has left me more space to keep advent in the "because I want to category", instead of the "I have to do this or my kids won't remember that Christmas is about Jesus" category. I am convicted that I even let the Lord get relegated to the "have to" category during Christmas. If other things have to take a backseat for our family to have the time and space it takes to focus on Jesus, well, that's what we'll do! It's as it should be, even especially at Christmas time.
As I've guarded my time a little more this year, and given more of it to the Lord, I feel the joy that I've been missing in years past coming back a little. It makes sense. He is the only true source of Christmas joy, after all. Everything else ends up being a disappointment eventually, but in the gift of Jesus's birth and sacrifice for us - that's where the joy is.
And it only took me nine Christmases as an adult to figure that out.
Do you do anything to guard your time at Christmas? How do you make sure the focus stays on Jesus during Christmas season?
I feel like I should preface this post by saying that many of my days alone with the five kids so far have ended with Derek coming home right as I'm about to pull my hair out, and me escaping to wash my hair - even if it doesn't need washed - just to have a break.
But yesterday, it wasn't like that. We had the most peaceful day that we've had, not just since adding our sweet Georgie, but in months. I'm trying to go back over it in my head to figure out the "secret", so I can repeat it, if that were possible.
The morning went pretty normally, with the kids waking up before me. Clarice climbed under the covers with me at some point, and I feel like I remember her reading a book in my sleepy haze. After drifting in and out for a half hour, I finally got out of bed and got ready for the day. The kids woke up Georgie because they went into her nursery to take care of her (which wasn't as tragic as it sounds, because I heard her stirring anyway). I fed the kids oatmeal, I fed Georgie, and wrapped her into our Solly wrap.
She fell asleep, so I pulled out the play dough (which I've been meaning to do for the last two weeks), and read to the kids while they created things. We read about Christopher Columbus. We read two chapters of Dr. Doolittle. We were on a roll, so I pulled out the next catechism question, and we worked on a memory verse, and we read the Christmas story from Luke (I figure if we read it every day for the next month, maybe they'll inadvertently memorize it). And nobody cried (at least not until we were done with all our read-alouds).
I made lunch and got the kids down for a nap in the nick of time before Georgie got hungry. I fed her and then practiced some reading with Wyatt while she slept on my lap. I snuck her onto the couch and she stayed asleep, so I edited some of the pictures we had taken of her first two weeks.
Kids got up. Pulled out the play dough again, and they entertained themselves for another hour while I chopped up potatoes for dinner. I made dinner! On my own! Potato soup was bubbling on the stove by the time Derek walked through the door.
I still can't figure out what made it go right. But it's nice that it happened on Thanksgiving week, because I suspect it had more to do with my attitude than with the logistics of the day. I watched this video, and while I'm mulling over some of it, what I do think is true is that gratitude makes all the difference in the level of happiness we feel. When things start to feel overwhelming or frustrating, it is usually about the same time that I forget to feel grateful. And when things go relatively smoothly it seems that it is usually because I decide to make the most of the day with my sweet children, from a heart of gratitude, instead of letting things just happen to us.
"Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever." Psalm 118:1
I had this verse on my chalkboard all last year, but it is sad that I didn't let it sink into my heart a little more. There is a reason Scripture tells us to "in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you." (1 Thessalonians 5:18)
There is so much for which to give thanks - each day I have to spend with these sweet children, each day my wonderful husband comes home to me - it's such a blessing. Somehow, having Georgie come at this time of year seems really appropriate, because having her here has reminded me that God didn't have to give me any of this. But He did, and I am so grateful. I think the Lord let today go so well to remind me what it looks like to slow down and give thanks, to marinate in that gratitude a little bit more. (Marinate - ha! Because it's Thanksgiving week? Turkey? Oh, never mind.)
My hope is that I'll remember to be grateful on the rough days too, long after this Thanksgiving week is past.
On Thursday I'll join the rest of the country in "giving thanks" - giving thanks to God for all the blessings He's given our family, and the way He has guided our nation so that we even celebrate this holiday in the first place, and for the greatest gift He gave by giving us His Son to save us. But I want to carry that gratitude on into the craziness of December and through the New Year too. And I wish the same for you, friends! Because there is so much to be grateful for when we remember to slow down and look, and giving thanks "in everything" can change a lot.
Happy Thanksgiving Week!
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