Happy Monday, friends! And happy last day of March! It’s hard for me to believe that we’re already one-fourth of the way into 2025…I think my concept of time needs some help. XD
Anyway! Here’s a recap of this month. I always love putting these together and remembering the random wonderful (and wild!) moments that may have slipped my mind. I hope you can enjoy it a bit, too!
God is wise in heart and mighty in strength.
job 9:4a
Things worth remembering…
random FaceTime messages from my brothers
tapping season and time in the woods with siblings
quite literally spilling the tea with a dear friend
working on poetry things behind the scenes
the magic of fresh flowers in bringing homeyness to a new space
culinary adventures, in which chicken cooks faster than anticipated…numerous times
reading Bonhoeffer while babysitting the boiling sap
late night ice cream and chats with sisters
watching the grass begin to green up
setting a reading goal for myself at last and meeting it
sharing one of my favorite poems from Clarion Hope in video form
community.🫶🏼
spaghetti and a steer chases with sisters
sitting on the floor with my journal and a guitar
Lord, I would not be a citizen where Jesus was an alien.
I read this book last summer, but reread it this month, marking it up with colored pencils to gift to a sister. It was so much fun to read it again, not just to enjoy the story but to savor the beauty of the prose and the nuances of the characters’ personalities. I highly recommend…again!
I listened to the audiobook, and shocked myself by giving it five stars. XD (If you’ve been around for a bit, you know I don’t usually enjoy romances.) I appreciated the historical richness of this book and the glimpse of the moral difficulties that were faced by German Christians during WWII, and the courage with which the Bonhoeffers met them. And Dietrich’s intolerance of misunderstanding?? It delighted my soul.
I’ve started crocheting and listening to audiobooks most evenings, and I’m working through the Little House series. It was such a delight to revisit this book! It’s interesting to listen to it now, being closer to Ma and Pa’s ages, and seeing it with new (or older? Ha!) eyes. It really makes me remember just how much the ordinary moments and rhythms of life mean to young children.
I know whate’er befall me Jesus doeth all things well.
fanny Crosby
From the journal…
Jesus, I leave regrets in the Hands that work outside of time…
Nothing is too hard for the Lord…if He wants something mended or fulfilled in this moment, He will make it happen. But there has never been a circumstance in my life in which He can only sigh and say, “That’s really too bad.”
Awaken in the hearts of Your people a remembrance of the glory of Who You are. Break us out of the ruts of our self-importance…
Open eyes! Heal breaking hearts. Show us a way out of this brokenness, and show us You in the midst of it.
Is not God enough for thy need, or is His all-sufficiency too narrow for thy wants? Dost thou want another eye beside that of Him who sees every secret thing? Is His heart faint? Is His arm weary? If so, seek another God; but if He be infinite, omnipotent, faithful, true, and all-wise, why gaddest thou abroad so much to seek another confidence?
charles spurgeon
Stay the course!
❤ Laurel
P.S. If you’re newer here, here’s a reminder to sign up for my weekly newsletter! That’s where I share the majority of what I used to share on the blog…plus this week’s newsletter *may* have an announcement…👀 You can join the newsletter gang here! (You get a free short story, too.🤭)
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There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations – these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit – immortal horrors or everlasting splendors.
c.s. lewis
Things worth remembering…
fake snake shenanigans
having an all-sisters outing to a favorite coffee shop
finding that the instant camera I dug out of a thrift store actually works (!!!)
I enjoyed the mystery aspect of this story, but I was really disappointed with how the issue of divorce was handled so flippantly by a Christian couple. The “do I love him, do I not, should I divorce him, should I not,” was littered with Scripture references, and that really saddened me. I know that approach isn’t unrealistic in the least, but I would have appreciated a wiser character being able to bring some clarity to the situation and to the reader. Please and thank you.
(I did get invested in Hez’s story, though, and the epilogue got me, so I may give the sequel a listen when it comes out…)
He satisfies the longing soul, And fills the hungry soul with goodness.
psalm 107:9
From the journal…
The Fall came because Eve was not satisfied with the abundance God had allowed her. Oh, Jesus, let me not fall into the same trap of believing that my ways are better!
It is a gift to suffer and long deeply on this earth, for in doing so we are given a clearer picture of the brokenness of this world and our sinful nature, and our desire for our Redeemer and Savior is strengthened in a way that those who know little trial can only dream of. Thank You for this opportunity, Lord, to know just how deep Your love for me runs.
Let me expect my daily sustenance from You and You alone so that I may be able to love deeply and truly with no conditions.
What’s the best that could happen?
Many people, I’m sure, but one of my dearest friends in Particular 🙂
Ah, February…the month in which joy and struggle love to coexist.:) What thoughts/memories are you taking away from this past month?
This post contains affiliate links, which means that if you purchase something through one of the links I share in this post, I receive a small commission…at no extra cost to you.:)
Hello, friends! It’s the first post of the year!!!
I know it’s been a bit quieter on the blog these days, but it’s been with intention! While life off the page was very exciting this month, I’ve been intentionally shifting away from the blog to focus on building a consistent and meaningful newsletter. You can sign up for that here if you’d like to keep reading new things that aren’t just monthly updates! XD
Anyway. Let’s get to the fun stuff.
How much larger your life would be if your self could become smaller in it.
G.K. Chesterton
Things worth remembering…
New Year’s Day tractor adventures
God giving back the opportunity to lead worship regularly
The fourth book in The Mitford Years…another gem. These books are just so good for the days when I need a cozy read that is heartwarming and entertaining…and not too hard to follow!
I’ve decided to stop being such a reading purist and start claiming audiobooks I’ve listened through as “read” in these recaps. XD This one, however, I would probably have absorbed better if I’d actually read it. It was a fascinating story! Krakauer is a gifted writer, and I appreciated his vulnerability and humility in sharing about such a difficult experience. However, I don’t recommend it for younger readers because of consistent language throughout (ugh) and a bit of content.
Home, sweet home…I love Dickens’ work, and this is my favorite of his. So far! Rereading it this month has been a blast…I’m catching all the foreshadowing and appreciating it for the first time as someone who’s already familiar with the entire story. In a way, it’s better the second time around!
I was blessed with an ARC of this book! It comes out in February, and I’ll be sharing my review when it releases. Meanwhile you can follow Rachel’s literary adventures through her Linktree!
I ran out of audiobook hours in the middle of this one! To be honest I’m really frustrated by one of the main characters, but I’m intrigued by the mystery and have to know what’s going on. So back to this one I go! (When Spotify renews my audiobook hours. XD)
If Your presence does not go with us, do not bring us up from here.
Exodus 33:15
From the journal…
Again God will be the same merciful God I have known and loved, and at the end of this year He will still be worthy of my soul, my life, my all.
I trust You, Father, even with my blunders.
Oh, the power of the Resurrection!! Among so many other things, it gives us the power to live self-controlled, to happily trust broken lives to the God Who makes all things new.
oh, wondering soul, time is a measurement of hope as for a wedding day.
This post contains affiliate links, which means that if you purchase something through one of the links I share in this post, I receive a small commission…at no extra cost to you.:)
To hope is to wait with your heart intertwined, knotted up, tied to God Himself. To be a people of hope is to let go of hoping in all the things of this world, and have all your hope, all your heart, all your aching, waiting expectations, bound to Jesus.
Ann Voskamp
Things worth remembering…
Building a book tree with a sister
Studying Malachi
Seeing Sidewalk Prophets in concert at last!!
The drive home with sad songs and 40 ounces of Nighty Night Extra
Several outrageous rounds of Who What When Where Why
That was hope. Not a violent jolt or reawakening, But the constancy of living as though each moment was worth it, Rising up under pain because by the power of the living God it will not end us – It will not end us; it will not end here.
I didn’t end up reading this one all the way through like I did last year, as I was reading another Advent book (see below).
Advent: a collection – Hannah Hodgson
If only Hannah’s books were available for purchase all the time…her poetry blesses me so much and I want to share it with the world. If you want to catch a glimpse of her poetry, though, go follow her on Instagram!
I so wish Mary Oliver had had a better grasp of theology, because if that had been the case this collection would be absolutely flawless. The beauty of her thoughts and way of expressing them is so natural. I adore her poetic style.
A prison cell, in which one waits, hopes…and is completely dependent on the fact that the door of freedom has to be opened from the outside, is not a bad picture of Advent.
dietrich bonhoeffer
From the journal…
Oh, Father, help me to catch a vision for something greater than my own life story!
You’re never late, I know.
You have never skimped a single one of your children, Father, and I pray that I would know that deeply, even if Your richness and generosity meet me in this same position of life next year.
Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Your sight.
Luke 10:21
What are you tucking into your book of memories from this December?
Stay the course!
Laurel
P.S. My short story, Grace Werner’s Perfectly Imperfect Christmas, is available to you for FREE when you sign up for my weekly newsletter! You can do that here. ❤
This post contains affiliate links, which means that if you purchase something through one of the links I share in this post, I receive a small commission…at no extra cost to you.:)
I’ve been quieter on the blog lately because I’ve been working to pour more into my (mostly)weekly newsletter. I’m so grateful for my newsletter gang, and this Christmas that group gets a special gift: a short story with all of the cozy, nostalgic Christmas-y feels.
All Grace wants is to make Christmas 2001 absolutely perfect for her family. Is that too much for a seven-year-old to ask? But she can’t wrap gifts as well as her mother, or decorate cookies that look as nice as Grandma’s, and to top it all off the sky won’t yield even a single snowflake! Her dreams for a perfect Christmas seem to be crumbling as fast as her sugar cookies, but could it be that there’s more to a perfect Christmas than perfection?
This Christmas, join Grace and her family in their blustery corner of the Midwest for a chuckle-inducing adventure that will warm your heart and possibly leave you craving a plate of sugar cookies.
I didn’t think one could get so excited about such a simple story, but here I am, proving myself wrong. XD I adore these characters (borrowed from the novel I’m prepping from publication), and seeing them in a Christmas setting and through the eyes of a seven-year-old has been such a delight. I don’t think you want to miss it.:)
Sign up for the weekly newsletter and your free short story here!
It had been forty-five years since Annabelle had seen Auntie Sarah. And forty-five years is a very long time, especially for an eight-year-old girl.
I enjoyed this book when I was younger, and it’s been fun to read through it again!
Wait on the LORD; Be of good courage, And He shall strengthen your heart; Wait, I say, on the LORD!
psalm 27:14
From the journal
Even here, in this present darkness, Your goodness is writing comeback stories in the flesh and bones of the wounded and wounding. Great are You, Great are You, Lord! What mercy this is!
There is hope and there is beauty, in and beyond this present darkness.
I know that even when this life feels dry, You are the source of living water. Don’t let me forsake You in pursuit of temporal, more visible wells.
This post contains affiliate links, which means that if you purchase something through one of the links I share in this post, I receive a small commission…at no extra cost to you.:)
There is a place called ‘heaven’ where the good here unfinished is completed; and where the stories unwritten, and the hopes unfulfilled, are continued. We may laugh together yet.
J.R.R. TOlkien
Things worth remembering
joining a new Bible study
blood sausage conversations
live music and sunlight
the bonfire and the northern lights
all. the. stairs.
creating a fake crime scene for a Sunday school lesson
leading worship with a friend
prayers answered and prayers refined
Let us move in the common affairs of life with studied holiness, diligence, kindness, and integrity.
“Life is the only cure for death, not the prescriptions of duty, not the threats of punishment and damnation, not the arts and refinement of education, but new, spiritual, Divine Life.” – Christmas Evans
This is essentially a collection of mini biographies, and what a joy it’s been! Learning about the lives, ministries and habits of such giants of the faith has been refreshing and a challenge for me in the way I live my life.
“We all think that we are so brave, so selfless lifting these things that we are too selfish to see don’t even need to be carried alone.”
Still enjoying this one!
True humility is when you are so focused on God that your self-focus becomes secondary. You are so devoted to His cause that You are able to fully rest in His gentle care without a thought for how things will play out.
Jessie Anderson
From the journal
Cleanse, Father. Heal. Do all that must be done to make me the truest reflection of Your heart that I can be.
…it’s been so good for me to hear the stories of relatively short lives that left a deep impact on the church, not because of their scrambling to be all and do all at once, but because they delighted in the presence and work of God and framed their life around it.
Struck again in Matthew 1 by the value of upright men quietly walking difficult paths in obedience to the Lord.
This post contains affiliate links, which means that if you purchase something through one of the links I share in this post, I receive a small commission…at no extra cost to you.:)
Our Lord in His infinite wisdom and superabundant love, sets so high a value upon His people’s faith that He will not screen them from those trials by which faith is strengthened.
Charles Spurgeon
Things worth remembering
a beautiful baptism Sunday
firecrackers and dead marshmallows
surviving the tree stand removals and reassemblies
truck stops, apple cider and city driving
starting Sunday school again
a spontaneous hike
redneck baseball
the (intentional) air bag explosions and the terrifying excitement that followed
Pink is drifting along the mountain, the faint of primroses, clouds low, light and thin brushing the horizon like feathers. Oh, it’s beautiful. And not the garden I left behind. It’s beautiful in a different way, more full, and empty.
I’ve been taking this one along with me in the tractor to read in spare moments! Danielle is a joy, and so is her book. I love the MC’s desperate search for beauty in a place of desolation.
I was struggling to focus on reading for a little while, so reading some of Hergé’s Tintin graphic novels was a fun way to still consume stories on a page without dragging my brain through a lot of words!
God gave all men all earth to love, but since our hearts are small, ordained for each, one spot should prove beloved over all.
rudyard Kipling
From the journal
Help my heart to want what You want, on Your timeline.
Never let me underestimate the power of prayer and a gentle influence in the lives around me.
What a beautiful thing it is to rest in the timing, omniscient and omnipotent, of God!
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And in the tidepools of all the tears there is sea glass and shells, a cradle of mercy; you are producing beauty housed in the presence of God.
One of my very favorite poets finally released a poetry collection!! Hannah portrays grief and loss in the light of the resurrection so beautifully and with such poignance. Sadly this collection was only available for a limited time…but you can read some of Hannah’s poetry over here on her Instagram account. I highly recommend it.
The sound of voices so close made Ralph more eager than ever to escape. “No!” he shouted, his voice echoing in the metal chamber. “I won’t have it! I’m too young to be dumped out with the trash!”
Her loneliness was so great that she felt a physical need of bringing happiness to some living thing…
I finally finished this book! Towards the end there were a couple of characters that drove me crazy, but it was definitely worth the read and the ending was powerful.
It is sure to be well with us when we feel and know our own folly, and are heartily willing to be guided by the will of God.
charles spurgeon
From the journal
Oh, Miracle-Worker, may I rest content, joyous even when healing hands seem stilled.
Don’t let my soul live paralyzed!
What made this past month memorable for you?
❤ Laurel
This post contains affiliate links, which means that if you purchase something through one of the links I share in this post, I receive a small commission…at no extra cost to you.:)
Laurel Luehmann 