books of 2014

I read.

A lot.

This year, I want to keep track of my reading, so I figured, "Why not share my list?"

So here goes...

My fiction in progress for January...

And my January non-fiction...

And our read alouds for January for the kiddos...

   

Books I've read in 2014...

So what are you reading?

in need of friend time {aka an open invite to stop by unannounced}

As I watched these girls let loose after homework and sight word time last night, I was struck by my own need for kindred spirits.

I saw two girls who share life together.

And I thought about how much I've enjoyed friends dropping in with meals and coffee and hand-me-downs and clean laundry and diapers and gallons of milk and money and gift cards... we have been so very blessed.

But the greatest blessing, even more than all those tangible helps? It's been the flow of people who love us coming by with smiles and hugs and conversation.

I need that. With six children, it's hard to come by.

Actually, it was hard to come by before our newest additions, because we're homebound most days after carpool, Zoe's therapy time four days a week and the naps she needs before and after, and my therapy time (aka going to the gym each morning).

The meal schedule ended last week, and the visits have mostly stopped. I am finding myself missing the constant flow of friends in and out of our home.

So here's my open invite: please, please, please keep coming.

No need to bring food or other goodies. I'm not afraid to be cheesy and say it's your presence I need more than your presents.

If the idea of just dropping by is too much for you, you can text or email or FB or call first. But you don't have to do that.

Just promise me one thing, okay?

If I'm in sweatpants with a messy ponytail and no makeup and the laundry pile is as tall as you are and the house looks like it hasn't been cleaned in a week, please try not to look as judge-y about all that as Jocelyn did in the photo above.

(But seriously. C'mon over.)

(I mean it.)

my word for 2014: receive

In the past few years, the blogosphere has been big on the idea of choosing a word rather than a resolution at the start of the year. I've liked the idea of it.

In fact, I've chosen words in the past without blogging about it.

2012's word was intentional. I didn't realize the number of things we'd have to be intentional about that year: finishing my recovery from knee surgery, starting our first international adoption, putting our house on the market, selling our house, buying another one, moving across town, finishing the adoption and bringing Zoe home, starting our first child in kindergarten, coping with Robbie's seizure and epilepsy diagnosis, and seeking help for myself when I realized I wasn't handling all the change well.

2013 was trust. Wow. I didn't expect to have to trust God so much with so many unknowns, and I certainly didn't expect to trust a plan to double our number of children... but God knew. And we stepped forward in trust.

And this year?

mainly from God.

Receiving isn't easy for me.

I like serving.

Giving.

Doing.

Working.

I struggle with receiving.

The chaos in our lives in the past two years has taught me to receive from others: meals. help. friendship.

I'm still not great at it.

Receiving from God?

I struggle with that even more.

I tend to be more comfortable with a faith focused on what I have to do than with what I have to receive.

Me? I'm a Pharisee at heart. I like rules and boundaries and effort and work.

As I realize how much I have to pour out as I parent all six of our blessings, I know one thing: I can't do it without receiving abundantly from Him first.

So in 2014, I will receive.

Wanna join me? If so, what's your word?

RECEIVE instruction from his mouth,
and lay up his words in your heart.
(Job 22:22)

And whatever you ask in prayer, you will RECEIVE, if you have faith.
(Matthew 21:22)

And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “RECEIVE the Holy Spirit.”
(John 20:22)

For if, because of one man's trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who RECEIVE the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.
(Romans 5:17)

For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have RECEIVED the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”
(Romans 8:15)

But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might RECEIVE adoption as sons.
(Galatians 4:4-5)

Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may RECEIVE mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
(Hebrews 4:16)

speaking love to her, in the language of yarn twists

Sometimes I cry in secret, because I don't want her to know how her hard tales of life make my mama heart ache. She would stop talking about it all if she saw my tears.

She doesn't often cry, though, as she tells me her story.

Only one topic gets her own tears spilling while she recounts life in the orphanage.

"My first mommy, she want me have long hair." She sniffs. "At the orphanage..."

She trails off, as a few more tears tumble down.

"At orphanage, they shave head. I no keep hair. I be sad."

As I run my fingers through my own hair, I think of all her other stories.

My world didn't involve yarn twists before she entered my story.

For a white mama with hands damaged by rheumatoid arthritis, the ten hours it took to put them in seems excessive.

For a little girl required to sit still for all that time, it seems excessive too.

But?

I can't do much about the other stories, the ones that keep me up at night.

I can - thanks to the power of internet tutorials - do something about the story that pains her the most, though.

 

(Even if I have to ice my swollen hands afterward.) 

*Many thanks to this youtube video for direction on anchoring each twist. It's harder with the short - about 1.5in of stretched hair - length my girl currently has, but I used the same technique, after separating the hair into small sections with rubber bands the night before. (No bands stayed in her hair after that, though, to avoid breakage on the little hair she has.) Also, I still need to even up some of the ends, but you get the picture.

Merry Christmas!

"Mary, you're going to have a baby. A little boy. You will call him Jesus. He is God's own Son. He's the One! He's the Rescuer!"

The God who flung planets into space and kept them whirling around and around, the God who made the universe with just a word, the one who could do anything at all - was making himself small. And coming down... as a baby.

Wait. God was sending a baby to rescue the world?

"But it's too wonderful!" Mary said and felt her heart beating hard. "How can it be true?"

"Is anything too wonderful for God?" Gabriel asked.

So Mary trusted God more than what her eyes could see. And she believed.

- from The Jesus Storybook Bible by Sally Lloyd-Jones