3 hours ago
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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!
I have no big plans for the day, aside from homeschool and working on my Christmas card list (Christmas time and this baby's arrival are looming). I will probably do something a bit more elaborate for dinner, and by that I mean I'll spend the 45 minutes it takes to cut up potatoes for potato soup. It's a potato soup kind of day.
But for now, it's quiet, and I'm hunkering down in my room, trying to figure out what to write today. I was going to write about more frivolous things, but there are a few deeper thoughts left in the month after all. Snow always puts me in a reflective mood, and this morning I'm reflecting on keeping a good balance between memory-keeping and memory-making.
Much has been said about how obsessed we all are with getting the perfect picture to share on social media, and viewing our lives through the lens of our phone instead of the lenses of our eyes. I'm not sure I'm going to go that route with this post, because I've written this month already about how it's hard for me to even remember certain events without some documentation. I am not gifted with an impeccable memory for times and places and events, so writing something down or snapping a picture keeps these things from being lost to me forever. I don't think there is anything wrong with wanting to document the past, and indeed I think it's important. It's most important I think so we don't forget what God has done. How far He has brought us, and how He has worked in our lives and grown our character up to the present moment.
However, I think there is a certain danger in getting too caught up in the past. How we've "always" done things. How things "used to be".
Because the more years behind you the more you realize that things never stay exactly the same.
And that statement sounds wistful and sad somehow, but I don't really think it has to be. Because would we really even want things to stay the same forever? Would we want to never move to the next stage of life, to never watch our babies get bigger and develop their personalities, to never develop new traditions, try something new, grow?
There is room for a bit of sentimentality about the past I think, as long as we don't get stuck in our reminiscing about "the good ole days". Because these days that we're in right now, these very present moments, are good too. They drift on by, and tomorrow will be a memory before we even realize it. And I think it's good to embrace the way things change, to hold on to our memories while making fresh, different ones in the present moment, and not to resent the fact that things aren't always "the same". Because really, how boring would things get if they always were?
My goal I think, in all this memory-keeping, is to remember all that God has done for me this far, but not so I can wish for the way things used to be. I want to remember His faithfulness and gifts in the past so my eyes are wide open for His faithfulness and gifts that are still in the future. And when I keep that balance between the memory-keeping and the memory-making yet to be done, I think it's easier to live fully in the blessings of right now, and to be grateful for them.
Today I want to talk about a practical aspect of memory-keeping, namely, how I go about organizing photos.
First, I feel like I should clarify that I am not actually very good at this. I have plenty of photos stored on my computer, and I have something of an organization system, but there is much room for improvement. Still, I thought I'd share what I do and ask how you all go about organizing photos!
Organizing Digital Photos
For my digital photos, I try to keep the photos I take organized in folders by year and month. So I'll have a folder for 2017, and in that folder I'll have a folder for each month. In recent years I've organized them even further and I try to split each month into separate "event" folders - for example, in my September 2017 folder I have folders for "Autumn Hike", "Clarice's Birthday", "34 Weeks Pregnant", etc. I think this helps me find the photos I'm looking for a little easier, assuming I can remember the year/month of the event - which I usually can, because I somehow am able to remember pictures I take even better than the real-life events. This is one reason why taking photos is so important to me! It helps me remember the different fun things we did together.
My recent project - and by recent I mean the project I've been working on over the last year and a half - is going through all these folders and deleting the photos that were no good. In the past, I've gotten lazy and just dumped photos into a folder without editing them or deleting the throw-aways, so I'm trying to clear out some of the photo clutter. I am in the process of creating a folder for each year of my "favorite" photos, the ones that I would actually like to get printed up (this is difficult because there are so many).
Which leads to the next aspect of organizing my photos...
Organizing Printed Photos
I am really struggling with figuring out how to organize my printed photos. I have albums from our early years of marriage and Wyatt's first couple of years, but I quickly realized that I'm not going to have enough room in my house to store albums of all our family photos. So what to do? Like I said, I have a ton of photos that I hope to eventually get printed. I need to narrow them down further, but then what?
I'm considering just buying cute-looking boxes to hold each year of photos - I can fit a lot more prints into a box than in albums. However, I'm also aware that this is a messier option and not as fun as an album to look through, so I'm still debating on what to do. It's going to take me a while to get caught up on printing photos, so I guess I have time to figure it out!
So how do you all organize your photos? Do you have any sort of system? Are you better than I am at getting them printed up? Give me your tips!
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