The Saturday Six

One.

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Maybe I'm the last to know {because that's not unusual!} but have you all heard of this place in Cincinnati? It's called Bargains and Buyouts - and it sounds like a place Ryan and I need to visit! {Not as much because we need anything but more because it just looks FUN!!!} I realize my version of "bargain" and the average person's version of "bargain" might not match - I confess to choking a bit on a couple of the prices she quoted. My version of bargain is much more garage sale. But this STILL looks really fun!

Two.

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Oh. But. Yes. I've told you before that I do my level best to keep from morphing into a blog with words that stir the pot. And I could probably write a blog post about why I feel that way, but I see no need, because Shauna Niequist already wrote it and said it better than I ever could. This. This. This. {Granted I've not had to deal with what she has in what has been said about her or her family online - that I have found, anyway - but the general principle. Oh yes.}

Three.

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Found this gem of a blog this week...when scouting around Pinterest for some capsule wardrobe ideas. I love this blogger's approach and I love it that she's a real person living a real life, which makes it easier to apply her principles to my life. I may or may not have spent several hours on her blog this past week. Judge if you like.  

Four.

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The words of this post by Kelly Minter are for every one of you out there...but I want to add that for those of you who are single and struggling today with what kind of impact you can have on those who come behind...because you might not have anyone of your own coming behind...read this. Read this and know that your life matters because all of us have people watching and shaping their own lives after what they see us do. Leave a legacy.  

Five.

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While my selfish prayer would always be that we don't have to know this kind of love in its practicality, I type this sentence assured that if we did, Ryan would love me as Jason Tippetts loved Kara. These men get what it means to love as Christ loves the church. If you can read through this post, get to the part where the mom tells her daughter the true stuff of marriage, and not cry, then you're doing better than I did.  

Six.

I signed up to review Ginger Kolbaba's book Your Best Happily Ever After, because I thought it was going to be a book about marriage, and I'm always up for new insights on making our relationship the best it can be. I plowed eagerly into this adorable little book with aesthetically torn edges, pen in hand and ready to learn...and I turned the last page so very sad and disappointed that I hadn't liked it.


It pains me to even write those words, because as a writer, I want to believe in the good of other writers out there. I want us all to be great every time and get the message of hope out there to hungry readers, and I know even as I write this, Ginger will probably see it in some forum, and I don't want to be the reviewer that didn't like her book and ruins her day. But I promised an honest review in exchange for the book when Barbour sent it, so I have to be honest, even though it's the last thing I want to do today.

The book did have some good points. Some things I underlined, even. And she had an entire chapter on keeping the Sabbath holy and recognizing it as a set apart day for rest, which is a topic I'm passionate about and think more people should research. So for those things, I was thankful.

But the book on the whole confused me, which is something I hardly ever experience as a reader. It started with my misunderstanding that the book would be about marriage, but ended up being about the broader life with some marriage thoughts sprinkled in. Her premise combined the familiar stories of fairy tales, the familiar accounts of Scripture, and tales from her own life and the lives of those she knew. And while I enjoyed each facet on its own, the combining of them didn't go smoothly for me. I felt like I hopped from fairy tale to Bible account to real-life story and back again in no particular order and with no transitional warning. It frustrated me and had I not promised to review the book, I probably would not have even read to the end.

While she incorporated conversational language and humor, sometimes it came off to me as flippant, which I choose to believe with all my heart she didn't mean to do, but that's how it read to me. There was also a part of me that struggled with dissecting fairy tales and Scripture in the same spot...I couldn't quite pin-point the issue in my heart over it, but I felt a bit unnerved lining up true accounts from the inerrant Word of God with fairy tales made by man. I can't fully explain it.

At the very end, in the acknowledgements, she said the concept for this book had been birthed out of some speaking she did at a retreat. Once I read that, the anecdotal feel of the book made more sense to me, but I wish that in the final product, the flow would have been more natural and less choppy.

I'm so sorry I didn't love this book. I wanted to...I really did. It seems from other reviews I read online that I stand alone in this feeling, which makes me question myself and simultaneously very happy for the author, knowing so many other reviewers did love this book. Sigh. Honest reviewer sadly signing off for this week.