The Saturday Six

One.

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Our first year of marriage...well, to be fair, our first MONTH of marriage...included our first time to get a live Christmas tree. Ever. In our lives. About ten days before Christmas, we trekked to a little tree farm about an hour and a half from home, chose a half-priced lopsided leftover from the picked-over farm, took it home, named it Chuck, and that was our first live tree experience. So it's a little different for the 94 foot, 14 ton tree that was transplanted into Rockefeller Center for this Christmas. But HOW COOL to see how they do it! Check it out!


Two.

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And speaking of Christmas, if you're in this general area and looking for some fun things to see during the holiday season, The Adventure Mom blog has compiled a list of things to try in Cincinnati. Ryan and I went there for our first birthday getaway, but after reading this list, I may have to put it back in contention for a future anniversary getaway. Some great stuff here! Perfect long weekend getaway destination for Midwestern folks!

Three.

A few days ago, when I blogged about our best purchases of the past year, I included my Fitbit, which Ryan gave me for a birthday present earlier this year. Not long ago, the band on it bubbled up and one side broke free from the mechanism. Thankfully I was asleep when it finally gave way, and I didn't lose it! Earlier this week, we got online and chatted with customer service at Fitbit. They answered quickly, resolved the issue, and put a new Fitbit in the mail to me. {And they no longer make the model I had, so they replaced it with the newest comparable version.} HUGE KUDOS to them for providing a painless fix! Looking forward to wearing a regular Fitbit - not one held together by tape! 

Four.

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Still unsettled on your Thanksgiving menu? Need healthy options? Not surprisingly, I'm going to send you straight over to Katie Farrell at Dashing Dish, who has compiled THIRTY (yes, THIRTY!) secretly healthy Thanksgiving menu options. Sometimes the search for the recipe is more exhausting than making it, so this should save you time and exhaustion! :)  

Five.

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Anyone gearing up to decorate for Christmas in the next week or so? I am!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (Sorry for the overuse of exclamation points, but I just really, really love decorating for Christmas!) Anyway, sometimes it helps to get a little inspiration, so here's a Christmas home tour for you. This is from last year, but Christmas is Christmas, so I don't think it's all bad to recycle last year's home tour. I found multiple inspirations within it. Hope you do, too! :)  

Six.

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Before I launch in to my book review this week, I'll confess I had a huge struggle with this book. Rhythms of Rest by Shelly Miller initially caught my eye, because I have a tender place on my soul for the topic of Sabbath rest.


My parents were very careful to set apart the Sabbath day and keep it holy, and in the years that have followed leaving their household, I have spent much time on this issue, figuring out how it works for me and how I want to be intentional to do it. Since getting married, Ryan and I have finally found our best Sunday practices, and I feel our bodies and souls are healthier because of our choices to abstain from all work (and as much social activity as possible) and truly rest on Sundays.

I always enjoy reading what others have learned about Sabbath rest, and that's why I wanted to read this book. And for the first half of it, I found the writing to be captivating, but (and I have never said this about a book before) the presentation of the book itself was off-putting to me. It's not a terribly long book - just over 200 pages, actually - but there was so much text on a page, and the font was such that I felt worn out just picking up the book (on rest!!) to read. It baffled me, because I've read hundreds of books and have never struggled with the font, the words on a page, or anything else. It was very strange. And very probable that it's just unique to me, but I still feel I must admit it.

Then, about halfway through the book, I started struggling with the book itself. Shelly is a good writer, and I enjoyed her thoughts (and even underlined a fair number of things I agreed with). But I felt confused, because it seemed like sometimes her writing style was very lyrical and poetic - almost like Ann Voskamp's - and then other times, I felt like I was reading a cross between her journal and her inbox, while she shared conversational stories from her ministry and actual email conversations with people who read her blog.

The stylistic jumping back and forth eventually lost me. I also saw themes pop up throughout the book but never found their full-circle or resolution moments. Maybe they were there, but I was so lost in all my struggles with the book that I just failed to find them. I'm not sure.

I do think she had some great points throughout the book, even in the final chapters, when I felt lost and confused on the whole, and I underlined several things that I think are worth remembering. But the book, both the literal book, and the jumping around in writing style, confused me. I really wish I would have loved it more. I wanted to! But this just wasn't a fit for me.

* Bethany House sent a complimentary copy of this book to me. All opinions are my own. *