The Saturday Six

One.

As I've been telling you about our pending move this week, I mentioned that I have a planner/binder just for this occasion. I wanted to tell you where you can get it, in case you or anyone you know has a forthcoming move, because it has made my heart beat faster than any planner should. I found it on Pinterest initially, but you can buy it on Etsy. I almost passed it up, because it costs $8.00, and I typically refuse to pay for printables. But when I saw all that it offered, I realized it was absolutely worth the money, and the woman who designed it certainly deserves payment for her design efforts! What I love about it is that it's an instant download, you can choose the color you want {I chose gray because I didn't plan to use up our colored ink on packing stuff} and you can customize the pages on your computer! You can print them out blank and write on them, or you can type in the info and then print it. This planner has single-handedly revolutionized my moving extravaganza. {PS - the link over the words "all that it offered" takes you to the creator's blog post about the binder. The link over "you can buy it on Etsy" takes you to her shop.}

Two.

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Last December, when Ryan's sister threw a surprise 40th party for her husband, she asked me if I could take pictures at the party. I told Ryan I was relieved to have a job to do, because then I knew my place and had a purpose. I wasn't the weirdo wandering around with the camera. I was the event photographer {even if not a polished one} and that gave me a place. I love knowing my place and find that I panic a bit in any given situation if I have to just be there and don't know my place. Giving myself permission to just belong because I'm me is not something I'm great at, and that's why this post by Emily Freeman was so good for me.

Three.

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I love this little blog and actually interviewed Carmella when I worked at the station. Her posts inspire me to simplify my thoughts {which are, as you might imagine, currently quite chaotic where home and possessions are concerned}. This post reminds me of a truth I'm learning in fresh ways as I pack: it's important to keep the things that mean something to you. That's kind of our rule around here - if it doesn't fit our lives or house a significant memory, it's okay to let it go. When we realize we need something, because without it, something seems missing, we know it matters. Carmella says it better.  

Four.

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Here's why I no longer have to feel guilty about my power naps. OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH how I love my power naps.

Five.

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Jennifer Rothschild is an author and speaker, and if you're not familiar with her, let me just tell you: she is a delight. I appreciated her truthful insights in this post, offering ways to make sure you don't waste the upcoming years of your life!

Six.

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I'm nothing if not fashionably late for a party. And this week I finally showed up at the Amish fiction party. If I've ever read Amish fiction before, it's only been one other book, and I'm not recalling it at the moment, but that's okay! Let me tell you about the one I read this week. Jan Drexler's latest novel is the first in a new series called "Journey to Pleasant Prairie," and book one is called Hannah's Choice.  

One of the most surprising things {to me} about this book was its setting: 1842. I guess I had never given much thought to the Amish being active communities back in a time when everyone else in the world lived similarly {in regard to way of life itself}. I'm used to a world where the Amish live without the modern conveniences we enjoy, but in this setting, that would have been a much more level playing field since no one had cars or indoor plumbing or electricity. I typically think of the conflict between the Amish and English world revolving around the presence or absence of those kinds of amenities, but this story showed that conflict is conflict, and it was alive and well back then too, just with different manifestations.

The book chronicles the story of Hannah Yoder and her family, who live in Pennsylvania and have suffered much in the years leading up to our meeting them. Diphtheria claimed three of the children in the family and left soul-wounds that threatened to unravel the remaining members. Hannah is coming of age and wrestles with guilt from the deaths of her siblings, confusion over her feelings toward her lifelong friend Adam, who has converted to the Mennonite faith, and the attentions of a young Amish man who wants to make her his wife.

Hannah's family considers moving farther west, into Indiana, to start over, away from the influences of the world that seem to press in, and though she's sheltered from understanding it completely, Hannah finds herself exposed to the work of the underground railroad and the strange truths that humans are enslaved to other humans. So many choices face her and she wonders what will ultimately become of her if she chooses any of the paths before her.

I had never before thought of an Amish world and a slavery world colliding, so that portion of the storyline was incredibly interesting to me. I appreciated the tug of war within Hannah as she sought to be loyal to her parents, her upbringing, her heritage, her faith, and yet offer her own heart a chance at a promising future. I enjoyed seeing into her thoughts and finding recognizable commonalities from my own days in that age span when I wrestled with similar thoughts shown in different details.

I can say this without spoiling the end of the love triangle portion of the book: she didn't pick the man I rooted for, and that made me sad, but that's just a personal reflection and not any kind of reflection on Jan's writing. After all, isn't life like that sometimes? It doesn't turn out the way we hope, but there's still a beauty within it?

If you enjoy Amish fiction, I think you'd find this a good twist on a genre you love. Like I said, this brings in a time period and pieces of conflict I don't think are typical to Amish fiction as a whole. And since this is the first book in a new series, there's plenty of time to travel with new characters and see what unfolds for them!


* Thanks, Revell, for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. *