4 hours ago
You probably read that title and immediately thought about Confessions Of A Shopaholic, didn't you? When I think of that movie, I think of that scene where Rebecca Bloomwood is sitting among a pile of shopping bags after a spree of uncontrolled, compulsive spending. I think of the scene where she tries to buy the scarf with maxed-out credit cards, and runs over to a hot dog stand to get enough cash to finish her transaction. I think of her selling everything she owns to pay off her ridiculous credit card debt.
But there are other ways that purchasing new things can take on an undue importance in a person's life. Perhaps it won't involve mountains of shopping bags and credit card debt, but subtler ways that it disrupts someone's priorities. Small ways it can lead to disordered loves.
Now, I had been thinking about doing a no-buy project for a long time, but not very seriously. I recognized a long time ago that I sometimes use shopping as a self-soothing habit...if I'm having a particularly difficult month, it's more likely I'll end up buying something I wasn't really planning. After my fifth baby was born, I really wanted to do a no-buy project, but I knew realistically it was a silly time to attempt something like that. My body had changed alot, and sometime while I was pregnant the styles drastically changed as well. I needed clothes that fit me, and I knew I was going to truly need to make some purchases to update some things in my wardrobe. So I didn't do it then.
But when I watched that video last month, everything she said really resonated with me. And I thought, Why not try a no-buy project now? I wanted to share a few reasons that I decided to finally jump in.
1. I would like to spend less money.
Lest you get the wrong idea, no, I don't have any credit card debt. I don't buy things if we don't have the money to pay for it. Shopping is not some sort of compulsive addiction for me in that way. I'm judicious in the prices I'm willing to pay for something, I have alot of frugal habits, I get alot of good deals. I don't overdo it financially.
However, I know if I reined in those few areas where I am personally tempted to purchase too much (clothes, books, housewares), I could save us a good amount of money, and use that money for other things that mean more. I'm excited to see how this experiment will alter my budget.
2. I would like to be more intentional with my spending habits.
This is how my shopping usually goes: I go through pretty decent chunks of time where I don't buy much at all. Maybe I'm more aware of my budget or have a savings goal, maybe I have just cleaned out my closet and remember that I have too many clothes already, maybe I just feel generally satisfied with what I have for a while.
But then inevitably, after a few months, I'll get a bit of a shopping bug, and I'll spend a chunk of money all at once. Usually this bug hits me at the beginning of a new season, when I want to update my house or wardrobe for the changing weather. It's almost become a habit for me to expect to buy a few things before a season change.
I don't like that I have this habit formed to the point where I start to feel dissatisfied with what I own, like clockwork, as a new season arrives, and I start to think I need to "update" things. This is not intentional decision, it's subconscious, and I don't like having something subconscious controlling my spending habits that way.
I want to become very thoughtful and intentional about buying things that will truly add to my wardrobe and home, instead of buying because of some subconscious urge to "freshen things up". This is part of the internal awareness I need to develop surrounding shopping. I think doing a no-buy year will help me learn about when and why I feel that urge to get something new, so I can be more intentional in the future.
3. I want to be more aware of, and learn to resist, marketing schemes.
Companies have fine-tuned the science of getting consumers to buy, with a multitude of psychological tricks. While I am decently aware of when I am falling for those tricks, I want to learn to see them with my eyes even more wide open, and become more proficient at resisting them! If the previous point is learning to develop awareness of my own patterns and temptations, this will be learning to recognize temptations from without, and learn how to overcome those.
4. I want to fine-tune my style.
I think I have a pretty good sense of my style already, and I do enjoy experimenting with my style sometimes (and I don't think there's anything necessarily wrong with that). But the fact that I have accumulated so many clothing items indicates I could stand to be a bit more picky in my purchases. Instead of having a closet with too many clothes, I would like to have a smaller closet of clothes that really work for my style and figure and make me feel confident and satisfied with what I have. Taking a break on buying new clothes will give me space to really explore my closet, figure out the things that I like the most, and hopefully curate my style to a point that I'm excited about what I already own, instead of only getting excited when I have something new.
5. I want to stop using shopping as escapism.
As I mentioned above, I know that sometimes if I'm a little bored with life, or having a bad month emotionally, I am more often tempted to add a little interest to things by buying something. It's exciting to get something in the mail, it's exciting to have something new to wear or read!
But when I start to use that new-things excitement to soothe myself or escape something stressful, I know in my heart I'm not turning to the right thing. I should turn to the Lord to be my comfort in those stressful moments, I should learn to develop a heart of gratitude and appreciation for what I have instead of allowing myself to get bored with it all. I don't like that I've put "things" in a role that they were never meant to fulfill. Scripture instructs us to hate sin so much that we would even give up our eye or hand to stop sinning (Matthew 18:9) - if something is taking a sinful place in our lives, we need to cut it out, throw it away. That's what I'm trying to do with shopping. It has the potential to become a form of idolatry, and that's serious.
6. I want to order my affections rightly.
Sometimes we buy too much stuff because our priorities - our affections - are out of order. I would never say I care about things (things!) more than Christ - but when I give shopping an undue place in affecting my mood or attitudes, in my thoughts or my budget, I'm not loving the Lord as well as I'm called to. Material things can become a distraction from what I'm really supposed to be doing, from virtues I'm supposed to be developing (self-control, thankfulness, putting the needs of others first, etc.). I think eliminating that distraction for a while will help me reset and bring my actions more in line with where my priorities lie.
You might remember that in 2021, I gave up social media for a year. I deleted all the apps for the major platforms off my phone, I deactivated my accounts, I took a firm detox.
It was a hard, emotional year in alot of ways. My eyes were opened to deeper sin issues than I even suspected when I started out. I had to wrestle with alot of regrets for wasted time and messed-up priorities. I had to come to terms with the fact that social media was occupying an undue place in my life and relationships, and it was painful to come face-to-face with the selfishness it had fostered in my heart.
At the end of the year, I hesitantly came back to a couple platforms, but this time my eyes were open, and my relationship with and attitude toward social media was entirely different. I had put it in it's proper place. I can't explain the peace that came from that.
The benefits from my social media reset have lasted. The scrolling habit was broken, and even now, two years later, I spend a tiny fraction of the time on social media that I did before my detox. Taking that year helped me love my family and the Lord better, and it took my eyes off myself. It was one of the best decisions I ever made, even though dealing with my own sinfulness was painful.
I am quite hopeful that taking a break from buying certain things will bring the same sort of freedom and peace that my social media break did. If it's even half as impactful on my habits, it will be well worth it.
I'll share another post soon with my rules!
Have any of you considered taking a break from shopping?
I know alot of people will not relate to my particular shopping issues at all, but I'm sure some of you do, and I'd love to hear what's worked for you.
"I wish we had a house this huge!" I hear that little declaration off to my right. I'm typing this on Saturday, and my two little girls are creating a Calico Critter mansion. They can stay occupied with Calico Critters for hours, and I'm so glad because I have always thought Calico Critters were adorable, but I couldn't get any of the girls into them until the last year or so.
There is also screeching and yelling coming from down the hall as the boys play some sort of game in their room, but we're going to ignore that. My oldest daughter is writing letters downstairs, and my sweet husband is just about to make me one of his signature lattes (he's really good at lattes).
We have an unexpected weekend at home due to an injury, and I woke up this morning with a million projects running through my head. A whole free weekend! How should I spend it? I'm nearly stress paralyzed with decision fatigue already, and it's not even 10 o'clock.
High on the list was to write a blog post or two, so I thought, why not write one about all the projects I have in my queue? It'll get it out of my brain, and may be interesting to read I suppose, so here we go.
1. Blogging. I have so many posts in my head that I want to get out, but it's been such a difficult season to find time to do anything for myself, so I unfortunately can't guarantee all of these will get written. But here are a few posts that I hope to write...someday.
-How To Sing The Psalms With Your Kids (And Why You Should)
-I Decided To Start a No-Buy Project - Here's Why
-A Masterlist Of Reformation Day Resources
-Fall Picture Books We're Loving
Those are the big posts I keep wanting to find time to work on, and then there are just the general update posts, like this one. It's alot to carry around in my brain, I tell you.
(Also, tell me which one of those sounds the most interesting, and I'll work on it first.)
2. The family newspaper. I'm not sure I've mentioned this, but over the summer I had the kids start writing a family newspaper, and we actually mailed out two issues to family and friends! It's been really fun, and we've gotten alot of good feedback. We are two months behind now on sending out the next issue (reluctant writers and printer issues), so I would love to get that mailed today.
3. Pumpkin polymer clay earrings. I got into making polymer clay earring this summer - nothing too fancy, just cute little shapes that my girls find particularly fun. It's so satisfying to make something for them and then see their little eyes light up with excitement! I got a pumpkin cutter a few weeks ago, and I've been dying to try it out, but making those clay earrings takes quite a bit of time.
4. Letter-writing. I made a letter writing goal at the beginning of the year, and I didn't do too terribly until the summer hit. Nobody's been getting any letters from me since. I so enjoy sending a receiving letters - it makes me feel more connected to my friends than anything else, including social media. If someone puts something online, it's going out to a bunch of people at once, it's not special; if you receive a personal letter from someone, then they thought about you in particular, and valued your friendship enough to carve out time to connect with you. I love that feeling myself, and I love the idea of giving that thought-about feeling to someone else.
5. Reading. I always carve out some time for reading, but I started several books related to the Reformation and autumn, and I'd really like to finish them before the end of the month! Here are a few I'm hoping to get through this month:
-Martin Luther by Eric Metaxes
-Why The Reformation Still Matters by Tim Chester and Michael Reeves
-Still Protesting: Why The Reformation Still Matters by D. G. Hart
-Luther In Love by Douglas Bond
-Giant Pumpkin Sweet by Melanie Heuiser Hill
As you can see, all of these will be less relevant to the season in a month's time, so I better get moving.
6. Bake a pumpkin pie. We went to a pumpkin patch and corn maze last weekend, and the kids each got to pick out a pumpkin...and unfortunately, a couple of them are already looking a little ripe! I need to start baking asap so we don't waste our pumpkins. I'm thinking of making a pumpkin pie, because why not, and I'm also contemplating pumpkin soup. Other pumpkin recipe suggestions welcome.
7. Develop a birthday card system. We have several family and friends birthdays coming up, and every time I remember that it's someone's birthday, I wish I had taken time to develop a system for sending out birthday cards. I am thinking of doing a little card file system, and I can just sit down at the start of each month and write out all the cards at once. It's so nice to receive a card in the mail (see letter-writing point), and I just wish I could be more organized about birthdays!
8. Research my family tree on ancestry.com. Devoting more time to this has been a goal of mine for a while, and I can honestly say I've been a big failure when it comes to accomplishing this! It takes quite a bit of time to do the family tree research right, even with ancestry.com, and I really need a set time each day to make progress.
Seeing all that typed out, I realize if I really want to accomplish any of it, I better get myself organized and just carve out the time to get it all done! That's what I'll be doing straightaway with the rest of my day.
What's on your autumn to-do list?
Let's not even talk about getting ready for Christmas...I don't have space in my head for that yet.
Fall is in the air, and I am ready to mix up my reading stack so I can prioritize all my coziest books - but first I have to get this post out of the queue! Getting caught up on sharing my reading is something that has been weighing on my mind for quite some time. It was a good reading summer for me, and every time I got ready to share this post I put it off so I could finish just one more book and add it. Clearly that was a mistake, because this book post has ended up being rather long, but I think most of you bookish people won't mind too much.
A Gentle Tyranny by Jess Corban - These first two books are a short series set in a dystopian future. A couple hundred years in the future, after women have suffered ever-increasing abuses due to rampant immorality, most of Earth's population is intentionally wiped out and a Matriarchal society is started with only "gentled" men - men with no testosterone. This new society is named Nede, which is Eden spelled backwards, and Reina Pierce, the granddaughter of the current Matriarch starts to see that things are not quite right in their supposedly idyllic society. She has established friendships with various "Gentles", and as she competes to take over the matriarchy, she truly sees the brutality the Gentles suffer through - but surely Gentles are still better than the "Brutes" of old, right?
A Brutal Justice by Jess Corban - At the end of the first book, Reina discovers that there are "Brutes" (ie. men with their testosterone intact) living in the jungle, and they aren't at all like she thought they were. Now she must find a way to help the Brutes, and the Gentles, who she discovered were not born that way as she was always told, but were made into the frail creatures they are. A running theme through these books is that people choose whether to be monsters or have virtue, and either Brutes or women can become evil if they so choose. The only characters in the book that don't appear to have any capacity for malice are the Gentles, which is also my main gripe with the book. Let's be realistic here - people can be wicked with or without hormones, so I thought the author should have written the "Gentles" in a more balanced way, because males with no testosterone would still be capable of sin, betrayal, etc. The author says she is a Christian, so I think she should have been realistic about the sinfulness of all humans, including her fictional, altered Gentles. Overall though, this series was a very interesting concept, and I quite enjoyed it. The ending was really nicely done - I feel that so many dystopian books end on a somewhat hopeless note, and this one didn't. Content Notes: Reina does murder someone for the "greater good", though she is tormented by her decision. There are some references to the birds and the bees as part of the plot, but not explicit at all. Vague references to same-sex relationships, which are against the culture of Nede. Violence, especially in the second book, but not excessively described. There is some mythology/false religion built up around Nede, and Reina uses a false goddess's name as a curse word.
Wingfeather Tales by Various Authors - This is a book of short stories surrounding the land of the Wingfeather Saga, which I reviewed here. I quite enjoyed this collection of short stories! So many of them perfectly captured the feel of Aerwiar, and added alot of intrigue to an already interesting world. Collectively, some of the stories reminded me of different elements of Narnia, while still being completely their own.
The only story that I'm really not sure what I think of is the last one entitled "Beyond The Edge Of The Maps". I noticed online that this story had alot of mixed reviews, and I can see why. Spoilers Ahead: The story starts out quite dark and hopeless, and I think goes on for a bit too long, though it is written quite well (aside from some intentional run-on sentences, which as a style choice on which I will reserve judgement). The main character of the story is going on a quest to question his Maker, with accusations of injustice since the man has lost his daughter. But he never makes it up the One Mountain on which the Maker is said to dwell, because he realizes he is unworthy to bring an accusation because of a choice he made (though he is quite self-righteous up until that point).
The story ends with a glimpse into the fate of the man's daughter and the afterlife of this world of Aerwiar, but I will say that I wasn't satisfied with how the spiritual questioning element was tied together...or with how redemption is accomplished in this fictional world since the man never really makes peace with the Maker, but is still in paradise in the end. Andrew Peterson is a Christian, and though Aerwiar is it's own world (kind of like Narnia), spiritual principles were woven into the original books in a creative and meaningful way that were also mostly in line with Scripture (at least on a surface level). This last story departs from that pattern a bit, and I found myself confused about what the underlying message or principle was supposed to be, aside from possibly the fact that there are things we will never understand on the earth. I'm probably thinking too much into it. So yes, I nearly gave up on the last story, but at the same time, it is also the story that has me thinking the most, so maybe that says something. Content Notes: The main character in the last story considers suicide.
Only The Beautiful by Susan Meissner - This is an interesting story about how people were forcibly sterilized in California in the early 1900's, which is a travesty. Rosanne, who has synesthesia, works in a vineyard with her family, until they are killed in an accident. She is taken in by the vineyard owners as a foster child, but really ends up being their made. She is taken advantage of by the husband of the family and ends up pregnant, and is sent by his vindictive wife into a mental institution where they sterilize those with mental problems (and synesthesia was considered a mental problem by the doctor). Th second half of the book flashes forward about 20 years, and we find out what happened to Rosie. Content Notes: This books plot was so interesting, but I can't truly recommend it because I think the author went into unnecessarily explicit detail about the night Rosanne became pregnant. Because of that, this isn't a clean book. I believe there was some bad language as well, but it's difficult to remember now.
The MacArthur Commentary on Revelation 1-11 - I've been reading this book as part of my own Bible study this summer, and I always appreciate MacArthur's detailed commentary and extensive Bible cross references! I just read this book alongside the Revelation passages this time through, but would love to go through it again with a notebook handy and go through all the Bible references that are mentioned.
The Confident Homeschooler by Pam Barnhill - I got to read this tiny booklet for free on Kindle. I'm not sure it qualifies as a book, but I think it's a great summary of some of Barnhill's best advice for homeschool moms, so I recommend checking it out!
Our Little Spartan Cousin Of Long Ago by Julie Darrow Cowles - I pre-read this book to see if I wanted to let my kids read it this fall. This is about a young boy living in ancient Sparta, and I thought it provided a really interesting look into Spartan society. I learned alot, but I do feel that the book presented mostly information in a positive light. It glossed over negative aspects of Sparta, such as the brutality of their war games, probably in an attempt to keep it appropriate for children. I will probably let my oldest read it and see what he thinks of it. Content Notes: Obviously stories about the gods of Greek mythology.
God Doesn't Whisper by Jim Osman - In this book, Osman addresses some of the unbiblical ways that Christians try to "hear the voice of God" in our modern times...including many very common practices such as fleeces, open and closed doors, feeling a "peace", etc. Your toes WILL be stepped on by this book, but it's very hard to argue with Osman's reasoning and biblical supports. Even I, as someone who barely has a charismatic bone in my body, was convinced that some of the ways I have supported my decisions in the past, using these frameworks, was not biblical. I love that Osman doesn't just leave us hanging at the end, but gives us a truly biblical model for making God-honoring decisions. Highly recommend.
State Of Lies by Siri Mitchell - I read some of Mitchell's historical romances years ago and quite enjoyed them, and have been meaning to read her first suspense novel for a while now. Georgie is a mom, trying to hold her life together after her husband Sean is killed - but mysterious things keep happening, and then her home is broken into, and she starts to ask more questions. I was truly on the edge of my seat during certain chapters of this book, and did not expect some of the twists and turns! I was rather unhappy about the identity of the villain, but other than that I quite enjoyed it. Content Notes: Somewhat graphic violence as various people Georgie interacts with are killed, and her physical relationship with her husband is referred to in various places in the book, without being described much. Also note: The paperback of this one is really cheap on Amazon for some reason, just FYI.
Truth Or Territory: A Biblical Approach To Spiritual Warfare by Jim Osman - This one is a similar book to God Doesn't Whisper, except in this one Osman discusses the modern church's idea of "spiritual warfare", and how alot of unbiblical ideas and practices have infiltrated modern Christianity. Osman does such a great job of addressing the so-called biblical support for some of these ideas, and then looking at the verses in context to understand the true meaning, which most often is nothing to do with spiritual warfare. Good examples of this would be praying "hedges", or generational curses. I listened to this one and actually wish that I had read it instead so I could have highlighted or taken notes. I may buy a physical copy in the future!
Musing On God's Music by Scott Aniol - This book is an in-depth look at the psalms as an actual book, not just a list of song lyrics. Aniol argues that whoever put the psalter together did so by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit (as with all scripture), and that the order of the psalms itself is significant. It's not just a random collection of songs, it's a carefully curated collection that is meant to show us how to live a blessed life in a wicked world, a collection that is meant to form us as we sing them in order. I have never looked at the psalms as being intentionally organized in a certain way, and this book was revolutionary for me. I highly recommend this one for any believer! We don't take the psalms as seriously as we ought, and I think that is because we don't view them as a book with an overarching purpose and point!
Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice For Murderers by Jesse Sutanto - This book was alot of fun - Vera Wong owns a "world famous" tea house, but one that is unfortunately about to go out of business...until a dead body shows up in her shop! A host of characters start to show up at Vera's, and she assigns herself as the investigator of the murder - even though the police aren't even sure it is a murder. A really delightful peek into Asian culture, especially the unique personality of a stereotypical Asian mother/grandmother. Also, this book made me really hungry for Chinese food and a cup of tea. Note: Bad language in this one, including several uses of the f-word.
Glitch by Laura Martin - In the future, some people are born with a "time travel gene" that allows them to glitch back in time - but unfortunately that means alot of people hopping around, trying to mess with history! That's what the Glitch Academy is meant to prevent as young people train to apprehend "butterflies" - people who are meddling in historical events. Reagan is a cadet in the Academy, and also the daughter of the director of the program, which leads her classmate, Elliot, to be jealous of how easy Reagan has it. And Reagan isn't a big fan of Elliot's know-it-all attitude either. But when they receive a letter from their future selves, they just figure out a way to save the Academy, and their futures, before it's too late! This was a really fun, imaginative world, and I loved the lessons about history that are subtly presented in this book. The only note is a little bit of violence as the cadets fight butterflies, and within various historical events that they visit.
Famous For A Living by Melissa Ferguson - In this book, a famous influencer is hit with scandal, and has to find a place to lay low for a while - she travels to a small international park run by her uncle. As she tries to help the park with their social media and do what she can to combat her bad image in the press, she falls for a guy who hates the internet. Will she give up her life for the guy or not? Fairly predictable, sweet rom-com type book, and I enjoyed it!
Such A Quiet Place by Megan Miranda - I have a weakness for suspense books set in small towns or communities, where everyone knows everyone, and this book was like that. Ruby was convicted for murdering the neighbors, but now she's been released from prison, and she's back in the neighborhood - and no one quite knows why. Content Note: This book had alot of cursing, which I did not appreciate. But it did scratch that small-won suspense book itch, and I enjoyed it overall.
Black Ships Before Troy by Rosamary Sutcliff - I read this to pre-screen it for school for my 7th grader - It was a really thorough telling of the Trojan War. I appreciated all the information it gave about the different figures, but sometimes felt like the writing was too stiff. The Greek "gods" make appearances in this book, and the Greeks make sacrifices to them, etc, but I wouldn't say those characters had a major role in this version. I'm torn about whether to have my son read this one, or keep searching for a version I'll like a little better.
Gentle And Lowly: The Heart Of Christ For Sinners And Sufferers by Dane Ortlund - This book was a surprise to me. Ortlund reviews some of the Puritan writings about Jesus statement about Himself being "gentle and lowly in heart", and explains what that means. The focus in this book is about Jesus's gentle attitude toward sinners who truly repent, toward His sheep that still fail as we go about life in this fallen world. Though there were certain phrasings here and there that I wasn't quite sure about, I found this reminder of Jesus's love toward His own to be comforting and heartening, and there were many times when I was close to tears reading a needed reminder. I'd recommend it!
Sing A New Song: Recovering Psalm-Singing For The 21st Century by Joel Beeke - This book is a collection of essays regarding Psalm singing, and it covers such topics as the history of psalm singing, why it's important, why we seem to have largely dropped it in the modern church, and why we should not let the art of singing psalms fall by the wayside. Some of the essays got rather academic, but I appreciated learning more history of church music through this book, and it did fire me up to make sure I'm teaching my kids a robust collection of psalms to sing. Definitely recommend if the idea of singing psalms interests you at all, along with the book I mentioned before, Musing On God's Music.
Okay, I'm going to close this out now, even though I'm nearly finished with a few more books I could add! In the future I will try not to get so behind on sharing books so these reading posts don't end up being quite so long.
What did you all read over the summer?
It has been quite some time since I shared a Wednesday Five. They are such easy posts to put together, and easy is what I need right now, so I'm going to try to share these more often.
A Quote
"Whenever the Psalter is abandoned, an incomparable treasure is lost to the Christian church. With it's recovery will come unexpected power."
-Dietrich Bonhoeffer
I read this quote in a book I read recently about Psalm-singing, which will be in a book round-up post later this week. I've been incorporating psalm-singing with the kids into Bible time with the kids this summer, and it's been so sweet to learn to sing the Psalter together.
A Book
I just started "A Biblical Case For Cessationism" by Tom Pennington, and I can already tell it's going to be thorough and helpful. You can watch his talk about Cessationism from the Strange Fire conference a while back to get something of a preview, since in the book he's fleshing out alot of the arguments he made in that message.
For a fiction book, I finally started "Homecoming" by Kate Morton. Her books always feel perfect for the fall to me. A little bit of homeyness, and little bit of mystery. I'm sure a full review is coming if I ever catch up on sharing books.
A Bit Of Nature
We visited the Botanic Gardens last week, and there were so many pretty plants. It was the perfect time to catch the flowers before things start to die off in the fall. These are some sort of crabapple, apparently.
A Recommendation
I am going to recommend this with an abundance of caution, but if you have long-ish hair, and you are getting a bit sick of it or feel like your hair is boring, this is for you. I have been feeling bored with my hair for a while, and was considering going back to a bob, but I was hesitant because I do like to be able to pull my hair up sometimes. I wasn't sure what to do about it beside going to my hairdresser and asking what she thought, but a hair appointment is also just not in my budget right now. Then one night, I stumbled across this video on Youtube comparing a wolf cut with a butterfly cut, and a wild hair (ha!) must have struck me, because I decided to give myself a butterfly cut. The worse that could happen is that I'd have to schedule that hair appointment sooner than planned. I followed this tutorial.
I'm going to qualify this by saying that I do have some experience cutting my own hair, so I felt pretty comfortable taking the risk of trying this out, because I knew I could probably salvage it into a nice bob if the cut went wrong. But that said, the tutorial worked perfectly. It added lovely, bouncy layers into my hair that look great when I curl them, and my hair has been feeling pretty glamorous ever since.
A Moment Of Happiness
My girls spent some time at their grandma's house for my 8 year old's birthday recently. When they arrived home, my 5 (almost 6) year old ran up to the door shouting "Mama, Mama!" I hurried over to greet her, and she threw her arms around me, sighed, and said "Ah, you're so comfy." I'm not sure if that would be a compliment from anyone else than my children, but from her it just made my day.
I learned from my mistakes last year and broke out my fall decorations on time this week. The autumn season is always more brief than I expect, and I want to enjoy it fully this year: including fall decor, fall candles, pumpkin muffins in the oven, and moody mystery books galore!
Summer eased out rather uncomfortably around here. We started school, but I wasn't as excited about it as I sometimes am. I think the dreary weather for a large part of our summer made it feel as if we didn't get a proper summer break, and this school year, which I've known will be a particularly difficult one, has been looming. I have all five kids homeschooling this year, and even though I feel exponentially more capable as a homeschool mom as the years go by, the challenges that come with more kids in school and older grades always seem to (nearly) cancel out my homeschool-mom gains. This year I can at least give myself the credit of seeing the challenges coming.
(The traditional first-day-of-school donut.)
Our homeschool days have been easier in some ways than I thought, because I have really got my homeschool systems down after perfecting my strategies over the last couple years. But it's also been harder in some ways. I shifted my mindset a few years back about homeschooling as the parent, treating it in my mind as more of a job that could take as long as 8 hours a day if necessary, and that helped transform our homeschool in alot of ways. However, this is the first year that it actually has been taking nearly 8 hours out of my day, and those extra demands are taking a little getting used to (for me). I also know this is most likely a temporary thing - our days will run smoother eventually, expectations will even out, skills will catch up, and I'll likely have more time on my hands again at some point. But right now my days feel packed.
We took a vacation a couple weeks ago, and I'm quite happy to report that it was uneventful! I think this may have been the smoothest trip we've had in quite some time, and a problem-free getaway was much needed. We drove up to South Dakota, we saw Mount Rushmore (including the evening lighting ceremony, which was wonderful), made a day trip to the Badlands with a stop at the infamous Wall Drug, saw a gunfight reenactment in Deadwood, took a tour of Jewel Cave. We stopped at Bear Country ( a drive-through zoo with more bears than I could count), and drove to the South Dakota Air and Space Museum (though the inside exhibits were unfortunately closed). My kids gained a grand total of six badges for various National Park Junior Ranger programs, which was quite an accomplishment.
Last time we went to South Dakota it rained the entire week, quite literally. We were tent camping, I was pregnant and soggy and miserable, and we cut our vacation short because we just couldn't take it anymore. After that experience, we were both a little nervous about this trip, but South Dakota was a winner this time! Overall, it was a nice quiet trip, with no car problems, no hotel issues, and no freaky weather events. Just what the doctor ordered!
Before we headed home we drove to Devil's Tower in Wyoming, and we also read about Custer and Crazy Horse before visiting Little Bighorn. It was a sobering way to end our vacation, seeing all the markers on the hill where Custer's regiment was completely wiped out. We read about the battle, and just seeing the sloping of the hills in person, I could really picture every stage of the battle as the cavalry advanced, and then retreated, finally forming a barricade behind dead horses on a ridge, before they were ultimately cut down. It was chilling, but it peaked my interest to read more about the Wild West, and I listened to "The Summer Of 1876" by Chris Wimmer on the way home. It was interesting to listen about different historical events as we were driving past the very locations where they happened.
The wide open, empty spaces of South Dakota, Wyoming, and Montana got into my blood in a way. I live in a rural area already, but it's become very much more crowded than the places we visited, and I've been scheming and planning a fall hike somewhere more remote to get that taste of wilderness again.
I usually like to ease back into life when we get back from vacation, but I was forced to hit the ground running last week. We packed two field trips (one pre-planned, one spontaneous), plus a birthday outing for one of my kids with grandma, into that whirlwind of a week. We topped it off last weekend by visiting our local botanic gardens for a fall plant sale. We didn't end up buying any plants, but we did enjoy the gardens before coming home to watch a football game.
Then I drank some tea and and sat down to write this post before scrounging up some dinner. I've been missing writing on my blog, and I'm very much hoping I can carve out more time for writing despite this extra-busy season. Sharing on social media has always been draining to me, but writing on my blog tends to give me energy. It helps me organize my thoughts and feelings, and somehow that gives me a little boost to get on with what needs to be done. That's worth something! I'm looking forward to making it more of a routine again as we head into my favorite season.
At various times this summer...stumbling across a book by chance, seeing the news story about a lost submarine, and getting thalassaphobia videos recommended to me on Youtube (how did Youtube know I have thalassaphobia?)...I've been reminded of the incredible fact that we know so little about our own oceans. More people have been to space than have been to the deepest parts of the ocean. That is wild when you think about it! I thought studying what we DO know about the deep ocean would be a fun rabbit hole to go down with my kids in this late summer stage of the school year.
I did a little research and found a bunch of great picture books about the deep ocean and ocean exploration. These are not books about the beach, but books about the parts of the ocean that are not easy to get to, and all the creatures that lurk down there.
I encourage you to read through the descriptions before picking up any of these books for your family, because I didn't agree with everything in every one of these books, and tried to make note of that where I could. However, I think taken together, these books give a really fascinating look at the deep ocean for kids!
I also included a couple documentaries having to do with underwater creatures, if you want to make a unit study out of this list. From deep ocean creatures, submersibles, historical figures that mapped the ocean, and more - there is alot to get you started on an ocean study here!
Giant Squid by Candace Fleming - This picture book tells in pretty good detail about the mysterious Giant Squid, including it's tentacles, beak, large eye, babies, etc. The illustrations are interesting, and there is more in-depth information on the last page of the book.
Otis And Will Discover The Deep by Barb Rosenstock - A very interesting book about the first men to build their own deep-sea submersible in 1930. There is biographical information given in the back of the book as well. I love how the formatting of the words on the page add to the feel of the story!
How Deep Is The Sea by Anna Wilbourne - A great picture book to help kids understand the vastness of the ocean and the scale of how deep it really is!
Field Trip To The Ocean Deep by John Hare - This is a book with no words, with illustrations of a group of kids diving to the ocean floor in scuba gear and taking a bunch of pictures. A quirky and fun picture book!
Diving Deep by Michelle Cusolito - The previous book gives an imaginative look at diving to the ocean floor, but this book goes through all the ways that humans actually DO dive down into the ocean! Great illustrations and lots of facts included. One reference to "millions of years".
Flying Deep by Michelle Cusolito - Another book by the same author, taking a closer look at what it would be like to go down to the sea floor onboard a submersible such as the Alvin, which is the longest continually-operating submersible in the world.
From Shore To Ocean Floor by Gill Arbuthnott - A very detailed book about the history of ocean exploration, and what we do know about the ocean floors. There are some things in this book I wouldn't agree with or appreciate - for example, assumptions about the age of the earth, environmentalism, information about various false gods/goddesses in ocean lore. But there is so much other interesting information in this book that it outweighs the negative aspects, so I think it's worthwhile if you're willing to wade through it.
How Deep Is The Ocean? by Kathleen Weidner Zoehfeld - A great picture book about various creatures that live at different ocean depths, including information about the pressures deep down in the ocean. The illustrations are colorful and fun in this picture book!
Dive To The Deep Ocean by Deborah Kovacs - A very detailed history about the Alvin submersible, and others that came after it. The Alvin was the first submersible to explore the wreck of the Titanic!
Solving The Puzzle Under The Sea by Robert Burleigh - This book is about Marie Tharp, who was one of the people to first create a map of the ocean floor using sonar. There are a couple different picture books about Marie Tharp, but this one was the less obnoxiously feminist of the two I read. I also liked that it was more detailed about the process of mapping the ocean floor.
Trail Blazer Of The Sea by Jean Lee Latham - This chapter book is the one and only book for children that I could find about Matthew Maury, who was the first person to recognize that there were currents in the ocean and map them. This book is hard to find - in print, I could only find it on Purple House Press, but it's well written and worth the effort to search it out if you are doing an ocean study! You can also read it on the computer only here if you are interested in previewing it.
Yoshi And The Ocean by Lindsay Moore - This book is about a sea turtle that was nursed back to health and then released. We follow her as she travels all through the ocean and back to the beach where she was born. It is amazing that little sea turtles can travel so incredibly far in the ocean, and this book gives lots of additional information about sea turtles in the back as well.
Into The Deep: An Exploration Of Our Oceans by Annika Seems and Wolfgang Dreyer - This is a big book, full of colorful illustrations and lots of information about different sea creatures and the ocean itself. This is a long one, so I haven't read every page yet, but from a limited flip-through I didn't see any references to evolution, etc. There is page after page of beautiful illustrations and information, and I think we'll be looking through this one for a while!
Documentaries:
The Riot And The Dance: Water - My kids have watched this documentary a couple times now, and my oldest declared it "such a good documentary" - I have to agree! It's a nature documentary from a Christian perspective, and it is truly impressive the quality of shots they were able to get on a relatively low budget. The music really sets the mood for a documentary, and I also learned about some creatures I legitimately never knew about before. Really interesting, and inspiring!
My Octopus Teacher - This documentary isn't so much about the deep ocean, but it is an interesting peek into the world of an octopus. I had two different people recommending this to me, and after watching it I know why! Some mentions of "millions of years of evolution" in this documentary, so when I let my kids watch it we will just talk about that beforehand.
I have been procrastinating on sharing this post because I keep thinking that as soon as I share it, I'll stumble across other books or documentaries that I'll wish I included - but it's time to get this published. Expect this post to be updated with more resources as time goes on, and if you know of any great resources about the deep ocean, please let me know!
I waver between feeling excited for the school year and very nervous. This is the first year that I'll be doing work with all five kids, and the thought overwhelms me. I try to remember that I felt that way each time I added a new student to the mix. This is the last time I'll have to recalibrate.
We've been making good use of our last week. Yesterday we went mini-golfing with our dear friends who now live a couple states over. I'm so happy whenever we get to see them, and we talk and laugh like we still see each other every week. Friends like that are special, something to treasure. The hardest part is always saying goodbye, until the next time they come here or we go there.
Later this week the kids have "cousin camp" at grandma's house, which means that Derek and I get a date night which we don't quite now what to do with. I'm hoping to do something fun on Saturday as a last hoorah for summer break.
The plan for today is a hike up in a state park, perhaps to an old broken-down lumber mill we discovered a couple weeks ago. Or perhaps we'll try a new trail. The kids are packing nature notebooks, binoculars, and snacks into their packs. I try to get them to draw something each time we go out into the mountains, but we are meeting a friend today, so my expectations are low for amazing nature drawings. Laughter, and silliness, and foot races, and sun-kissed cheeks are on the agenda.
We've been watching movies on the porch this summer. The kids lay out their sleeping bags, and we all wear long sleeves and pants to protect ourselves against mosquitos as the sun fades. The TV glows in the dusk, hummingbirds whir past our porch, and the kids laugh as we introduce them to childhood classics, like The Princess Bride and Hook. When my littlest looks cold I call her over to settle on my lap and zip her up inside my over-sized sweatshirt. She giggles against my chest at the defeat of the pirate captain.
The swimming pools have officially closed, despite my wish that they would stay open until Labor Day. Before they did, I took the kids to every family swim night I could, and I'm impressed with how much their swimming has improved. It's rather a magical stage, swimming right now. I stand in the pool and watch them play, but they mostly entertain themselves with very little help from me. I can just enjoy the sunshine and the sound of their antics. We always bring licorice or skittles for a snack on the way home.
I've had a running to-do list for several weeks now. Every time I crossed one thing off, two more were added, but I've finally chipped away at it this week. Plan enrichment subjects? Check. Choose read-alouds for the year? Mostly check. Set up sewing station, clean out the kids' toys, schedule doctor appointments, do the grocery shopping? All check. The things that are left are mostly the items I wanted to do for fun or things I've been putting off. Work on researching my family tree. Make clay earrings. Clean out the car. Organize the kids' fall clothes.
We are going on a vacation in September, and those last two things need to be accomplished before then. I'm just excited to get to go on vacation at all, since every unexpected expense this summer cut into our vacation budget. It'll be a shorter trip, but we have alot of interesting stops planned, and you can bet I'll count every educational experience as a school field trip, because we can. I don't typically like taking trips in the fall instead of the summer, but out of necessity it has started to grow on me. It also makes it easier to get started on school when I know that we have more fun things coming right around the corner.
My coffee is lukewarm. It's time for a warm-up so I will close this out. I wish you all the last bits of summer fun you can muster before pumpkin spice starts to fill the air!
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