Hello, friends!
These blog posts are some of my favorites to write, and I’ve heard they’re favorites with some of you, as well. That makes me so happy…thank you for reading!!
That being said, after this post I am going to switch things up on you guys and turn the monthly memories posts into a monthly email sent to my newsletter subscribers. So! If you love these posts and don’t want to stop being nosy reading them, here’s the link to subscribe to my newsletter so you don’t miss the next one.
(And if you’re concerned about email spam, don’t be. Sending a bi-weekly newsletter is my hope, but that goal is rarely reached these days.XD)
We make our lives insupportably complex by disobeying Jesus’ command to take no thought for tomorrow. Planning for tomorrow, when planning is necessary and possible, belongs properly to today. Worrying about tomorrow belongs nowhere. The Lord gives us daily, not weekly, bread. He gives strength according to our days, not our years.
Elisabeth elliot In A Path through suffering
Things worth remembering…
- my family’s annual Christian Seder meal
- watching God answer a huge prayer within days
- writing more poetry than I have in a long time
- getting to see A Great Awakening in the theater (so good!!)
- evening writing sessions with a mug of tea
- walks and phone calls
- a sibling nacho night
- the everlasting game of cornhole
- Bible studies
- mastering iced coffee and learning not to freeze things in pickle jars
- late night ice cream to celebrate a sister
- coffee with my mom
- violets in the lawn
- watching the trees green up
- so many trees bursting into bloom
- rediscovering the journal I kept at age 8🫠🫠🫠
- the first lawn mowing of the year
- riding in the tractor with my brother
One learns, as one goes, not to fear the detours by which God leads on.
Lilias trotter
What I’ve been reading…
The Atlas of Untold Stories – Sara Brunsvold
If Jesus had been driven to the Gateway Arch and told by his intrepid redhead that they would hover 630 feet above ground in a claustrophobic viewing chamber, what would he do? Chances seemed solid that he too would regret not putting more caveats on his promise to do anything not involving a river.
I love Sara Brunsvold’s work. This one doesn’t feel as homey or as much of a comfort read as her previous books (it does revolve around a road trip, after all!), but instead it’s rich with complicated mother-daughter and sister relationships and deep dives into their personalities and heart struggles. I’m so glad I read it, and definitely recommend if you’re a contemporary fiction fan.
A Passion for the Impossible: The Life of Lilias Trotter – Miriam Huffman Rockness
“You are right to be glad in His April days while He gives them. Every stage of heavenly growth in us is lovely to Him; He is the God of the daisies and the lambs and the merry child hearts!”
I’m still in the early chapters of this book, but it’s been so good already. (And it’s 50% off right now on Amazon!!)
Winnie-the-Pooh – A.A. Milne
When you put it like this, you saw how it was, and you aimed very carefully at the balloon, and fired.
“Ow!“ said Pooh.
“Did I miss?” you asked.
“You didn’t exactly miss,” said Pooh, “but you missed the balloon.”
Sometimes you just need to read about Winnie-the-Pooh. I figured that it being 100 years of Winnie-the-Pooh this year was as good an excuse as any!
On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness – Andrew Peterson
That evil was a nameless evil, an evil whose name was Gnag the Nameless.
This book has been wildly popular with my sister and her peers, and one Sunday afternoon I finally cracked and decided I must know what the hype is all about. I am thoroughly enjoying myself.
In This Mountain – Jan Karon
Mule sank back in the booth, looking depressed. “I’ll have what I been havin’ before th’ new menu, a grilled pimiento cheese on white bread, hold the mayo.”
“Do you see anything on this menu sayin’ pimiento cheese? On this menu, we don’t have pimiento cheese, we ain’t goin’ to get pimiento cheese, and that’s th’ end of it.” The proprietor stomped away, looking disgusted.
“You made him mad,” said J.C., wiping his face with his handkerchief.
“How can a man make a livin’ without pimiento cheese on his menu?” Mule asked.
I’m trying to stay ahead of another sister in the Mitford series, and this book, as expected, has been equal parts humorous and heartwarming.
I will sing to the LORD as long as I live;
Psalm 104:33-34
I will sing praise to my God while I have my being.
May my meditation be sweet to Him;
I will be glad in the LORD.
From the journal…
When I know God, what grieves His heart will grieve mine…it will become personal.
Let Your will be done, and help me to love Your will.
You know my frame, O Father…provide for me as You see I need provision! Satisfy me with Your mercy as only You can. Keep my heart and mind pure and close to You, free from all traces of selfishness and bitterness.
The itch to know and to have and to be anything other than what God intends me to know, to have, and to be must go.
Elisabeth Elliot
What made your April memorable? What beauty have you been seeing these days?
<3 Laurel
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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