The Saturday Six

One.

Source

If it's cold and snowy where you live, today would be a great day to curl up and listen to a podcast! I've got the first Conversation Cafe of 2017 with author Erica Wiggenhorn. I've told you about her new Bible study, An Unexplainable Life several times, because I just completed it at the end of last year. (It's also the study Ryan and I are leading together with our small group.) I really enjoyed this study and it was a treat to get to hear from Erica herself about her passion for Christ and what she learned from studying the first half of Acts. If you're looking for a good study to start 2017, pick this one! And take a listen to Erica's heart!


Two.

Source

I found this post by Wendy Lawton at the Books and Such Literary blog, and though it's geared toward writers, I think the words are helpful for anyone working from home/getting back into homeschooling right about now. Wendy gives permission to ease back in, which was my exact plan as I returned to work this past week. I appreciated her validation that easing in wasn't slacking off, and perhaps we'd all have a better start to the new year if we allowed ourselves this very thing, rather than rushing headlong into a busy schedule and finding frustration at the inability to keep up!

Three.

 Source

I haven't blogged much recently about my adventures in styling my capsule wardrobe, because I haven't completed any new sections of it! But when I started this adventure, one of the most helpful blogs I found was Audrey over at Putting Me Together. She is down-to-earth, real, shops at normal stores, has a normal body type, and I found her tips and ideas very helpful! This week she shared this post that I LOVED! Tons of ideas on how to figure out what you need in your wardrobe, if that confuses you. Really helpful post!

Four.

Source

One of the hard things about waiting for answers in the whole medical world is...well...waiting. I don't do it well, especially when I have to watch my Love hurting so much! I had mentioned in passing to one of my friends this week that I was frustrated as to whyyyyyyyyyyy {yes, read in a whine} God wasn't answering, and she reminded me that wait was an answer. {Sigh. I know.} Later, she shared this post with me, which was really convicting and comforting at the same time. Don't know if you're in a waiting game right now or not, but if so...read up! 

Five.

Source

Last year, I had the opportunity to join up with a team of writers to share posts in the Annesley Writers Forum. This week, they published one of my articles, which happens to be about our "Tuesdays at the Table" project. I'm excited to share that with you today, both to share about this project I love so much and also to share the site with you. Lots of great articles each week by a variety of women! 

Six. 

As you know, this past year I got in the habit of reading a book every week and reviewing it here on Saturdays. As far as I know, I plan to keep that habit this year, because I have loved returning to books after so many years of not having time to read.

But today I feel funny calling this last part a book review, since the book I read this week is considered an American classic and isn't going anywhere whether or not I loved it. But though I won't call it an actual review, I'll tell you that for the first time ever in my life, I read Frances Hodgson Burnett's The Secret Garden.

I had mentioned on a podcast not long ago that I'd never read the book, and my mom happened to have a copy that someone gave her for Christmas in 1947. (That's 69 years ago if anyone is doing the math.) So not only did I read an old book this week, I actually read an old book. I think it was as much fun to hold an old copy in my hands as it was to read the story.

Have you read The Secret Garden? If you haven't, the quick synopsis of the book is that it's the story of Mary Lennox, a little orphan girl who comes to live at Misselthwaite Manor with her uncle - although perhaps it's more accurate to say she comes to live with his staff. He's rarely there. She arrives in the winter, and the Manor is a giant, gray, tomb-like place to be, so Mary sets out exploring to keep herself occupied on the long days. As winter creeps into spring and she spends time outside in the gardens, she discovers a secret garden, one commanded closed by her uncle following the death of his wife.

The book was written in the early 1900's, so some of the words are unfamiliar to us now in daily use, and other words are used very differently in our language today. (I told Ryan I'd never read a book in which a female character talked about how excited she was to get fat.) There are also some sections written in a heavy Yorkshire dialect, so you have to slow down in those parts and read carefully to fully understand.

Mary and some other characters in the book believe the secret garden has magical powers, so if magic talk bothers you, you'll want to be prepared for that. But even with that, you could see a sense of innocence and fun throughout every page of this book that seems to be missing from much of what we might read in present-day books.

I particularly loved the way this book simply told a story. I'm pretty sure Frances wasn't worried with character development and multiple plot lines and all the things authors have to mess with today to be successful. It's just a fun story, and I was able to simply enjoy it.

When I was in college, one of my professors dearly loved to visit used bookstores and hunt for old copies of books. Treasures. I never understood it, but after reading this one, I am starting to see her joy in that. (Oh dear. I feel a trip to a bookstore in my future.) I say this because as I read through some reviews of this book on Amazon, I realized many of the copies for sale today are abridged versions and rewritten versions. There was something lovely about holding an untouched version in my hands to read, and I think I might like that again with another classic.

So that was my week with The Secret Garden. Ryan has asked if a movie version of the story is available. ;)