The Saturday Six

One.

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I will be the first to confess I have not (yet) jumped into the adult coloring craze. I don't avoid it because I think it's ridiculous. Quite the contrary, actually. I barely have time to write and scrapbook. If I start coloring...well, I'll have to start giving up sleeping or eating, and I am not prepared for such a sacrifice. HA! But my friend Sarah Forgrave did a (written) interview this week with an author/artist of a coloring/devo book, and I found it fascinating to read about how she get into creating these books and how coloring fits into her time with the Lord. So I thought I'd share the interview with you! :)

Two.

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Earlier this week, I shared my list of Christmas gift ideas, and after I did so, I found this amazing list of clutter-free ideas. These work for anytime...not just Christmas. Hmmmmm. I seriously think that next year, Ryan and I might overhaul our entire gift-giving philosophy.

Three.

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During my 4 years of working at WBCL, I drove an hour each way every day, and two of my four years landed during those Polar Vortexes. {Remember those?} Driving, especially for a girl like me who doesn't even really like to drive on a bright, sunny day, was excruciating. The worst part was all the drivers who apparently felt invincible and went sailing by me, and then a bit later, I'd creep past them where they'd landed in a ditch. So when I found this list of tips for winter driving, I thought I'd share them ahead of the winter driving mess.

Four.

White/neutral Christmas decor is all the rage, isn't it? And it's definitely beautiful and timeless and all that. But sometimes color can be beautiful, too! Loved this room by Jessica over at Four Generations One Roof. {Lynne and I interviewed her back when I worked at the station. She and her husband and their kids live in the same house with her parents and grandparents, and she blogs about how they live as four generations in one house. Fascinating!} Anyway. I love the color choices in this room!

Five.

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I had planned to have my house half decorated by today, but alas, I woke up sick with some weird sore throat/flu bug yesterday. NO idea where I got it. I was fine on Thanksgiving! Anyway. I spent the entire day on the couch, part of it legitimately crying because I just wanted to start putting Christmas up! One of the trees I'm most excited to decorate is my Adorenament tree. I don't have all these sets, but I have three of them, and I am so excited to put them on a tree and have one that is actually dedicated to Jesus! :) {Since, you know, He's the reason for the season.} Family Life is running a sale on them, so I thought I would share in case you're looking for a new tree theme!


Six.

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So it turns out I have an almost name twin who also loves to write. How could I not read her debut book, Choosing Real? Bekah Jane Pogue and I have many things in common...parting ways mostly because she lives near the ocean and has two kids, while I live in the middle of cornfields and have a cranky cat.


But as I read Choosing Real, I realized we've been learning many of the same lessons along the way, and she's captured them very well. First I have to tell you that her style is uber-conversational. Reading this book is absolutely like sitting down on the couch beside her (and she even describes her huge L-shaped couch, so you can even see yourself there) and pouring out your soul over a plate of chocolate chip cookies (which she includes the recipe for, by the way).

Bekah loves the same things I love, and they're probably the same things you love, too. Parties and showing love to others, giving and receiving gifts, loud laughter and well-scripted days. Order. Beauty. Predictability.

But she's learned along the way that life usually follows a very different pattern. Her dad died long before she thought she'd have to say goodbye. Her husband didn't always come home with the gifts she hoped he would. Her kids brought lice into the house. Relationships sat in tension sometimes. And she vulnerably says she didn't always react to those moments in the right ways. She freaked out, overreacted, and shut down. (And who among us hasn't done one or all of those things over something along the way?)

Yet in each of those moments, God spoke to her heart and taught her, ever so gently, to choose the reality of her life before her rather than the elusive dream that just wasn't going to come true. He asked her to find herself in Him, not in being the perfect, coolest mom, or the best party-thrower on the planet. He urged her to be real before Him and to understand that He didn't expect her to create this perfect faith. He expected her to just be Bekah and let Him grow her faith.

Here's what I loved about this book. Bekah doesn't ask you to give up Pinterest. She doesn't ask you to stop planning parties or searching for ways to make meaningful moments. She does ask you not to let those things define you. She asks you to choose real. Real is what is before you. Real is sometimes messy. Real is sometimes unplanned. But real is what you have, and if you allow it to be, it can be beautiful.

I laughed and cried in this book, feeling the giggle-moments alongside her and feeling my heart break for the things that hurt her as she walked through them. And as a fellow planner, I have to say that I loved the reminder to choose real. To choose what lies before me. To let God make the moments and only be responsible to live them as best I can.

The book comes out in ONE WEEK, on December 1, so if you order it now, it'll be a few days before it arrives, but it's a great addition to the Christmas season, when we tend to pursue perfection instead of choosing real!

* Barbour Books provided a copy of this book to me at no cost. All opinions are my own! *