Welcome to my weekly Sunday post where we take a break from money-related posts and I share about what I'm loving right now and give you a little peek into our life from the past week.
What I'm Reading
Last week, I read Read the Bible to Your Kids by Rachel O’Niell (she’s a blog reader and she sent me a copy of her ebook to check out!). I was so inspired by Rachel’s encouragement that you don’t have to make Bible Reading with your kids some big complicated thing. Just reading and talking about a verse or two or three every day is a great start.
I also finished A Portrait of Emily Price and The Year of Yes. I wouldn’t say either were stand-out books. A Portrait of Emily Price was a pretty slow read and I didn’t fall in love with the characters as much like I have in some of the author’s other books. I did enjoy the references in the book to Rome as I got to visit there last year!
I thought that The Year of Yes could have used a LOT of editing down and it still would have accomplished the same thing. However, that said, as this is my Year of Yes, I thought it was a good book to help kick off the year. (Note: If you do pick this book up, it’s not written at all from a Christian stand-point and is crass at times. Consider yourself warned!)
This week, I'm continuing on reading books from my bookshelf from four different categories: Candles in the Dark (an old Christian reprint), A Trip Around the Sun (a spiritually encouraging book), The Giver (a story-driven book), and Grace Not Perfection (a book on life improvement).
I'm hoping to finish both Candles in the Dark and Grace Not Perfection this week. I'll let you know how that goes next week! {See my Reading Goals for 2017.}
How I’m Fitting in Reading Right Now
Multiple people have been asking how I find time to read. This changes with every season of life, but here’s how I’m fitting in reading right now:
- I’m spending 10-15 minutes reading spiritually encouraging books in the morning — I do this in conjunction with my morning Bible reading.
- Then, I’m spending 10-20 minutes in the afternoons/evenings reading a non-fiction book or story-driven book. I’m doing this during my afternoon offline time (from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m.) once our afternoon chores are done and before it’s time for dinner prep. I usually have a short 10-20 minute window here while the kids are busy doing other things. It’s a nice before-dinner treat for myself!)
- And then I try to find at least another time either one night or on the weekends when I can fit in another hour of reading.
Between all of this, I can easily get through an average of at least 1-2 chapters of a book every day.
When people tell me that they don’t have time to read, I disagree. I don’t think you should ever say, “I don’t have time for XX.” Instead, choose to say, “I’m not prioritizing that because I’m prioritizing XYZ instead.” Which is totally okay.
But when you change how you talk about time management, it also reminds you that how you spend your time is a choice. We can’t control all the variables of our every day life, but we do have many choices and are not just a victim of our calendar or circumstances! 🙂
For me, because reading is a priority, I choose to find pockets of time to include it as part of my routine and then have made it a habit to include that in my every day life.
What I’m Loving
My dad got us a foosball table for Christmas and we have been loving it. It’s been the source of much laughter and hooting and hollering at our house the past week as we challenge each other to games.
Silas beat me one time this week — which he was SO proud of! I’m definitely going to have to work on learning some new moves and strategic plays because all his practicing is making him harder and harder for me to beat! 🙂
We also played an epic three-night-long game of Ticket to Ride. We played it on our Apple TV and just played for 30 minutes before bed every night as a family. It was so much fun and definitely is something we’ll be doing again. It’s a great way to wind down, it’s something we can all enjoy, and it brings out all of our competitive sides in a big way. 🙂
What I’m Watching
This week, I watched YouTube videos on how to be more successful at YouTube. Because that’s one of my goals for 2017! I’ve also been following a few YouTubers. One of my favorites is Happily a Housewife.
As a family, we watched Greater for our family movie night. It was a good movie with a great and very inspirational message (thanks to the reader who recommended it), however, I thought it was kind of slow to progress in parts and I was shocked that it had the language that it did for being rated PG. I’d highly recommend that you don’t choose it for a family movie night unless you’ve watched it first as parents and feel like it would be appropriate for your kids.
In case you needed a laugh tonight. 🙂
Posted by Money Saving Mom on Wednesday, January 4, 2017
Did you see this video online? It went viral around Christmas and I’ve watched it multiple times… because the dad’s facial expressions and commentary and dry sense of humor just make me laugh! 🙂
What I’m Listening To
This week, I listened to my friend Karthi’s podcast with our executive pastor, Eric Hoffman. If you’ve been following me on Instagram, you know that I’m involved in a discipleship group at church that has been deeply impacting me as a person.
Eric is the one who created the discipleship group curriculum, so if you’ve been at all interested in what we’ve been learning, these two podcasts will give you a taste of some of what we’re diving into in our discipleship group: Part 1 is here and Part 2 is here. I think it would be well worth your time to listen!
Thank you for all your music suggestions last week. You reminded me that I should start listening to Pandora while I’m working on the computer. Truth be told, I’d kind of forgotten all about Pandora since we started using Amazon Prime music on our phones.
One reader recommended the Hymnstyles station on Pandora and I’ve been enjoying the majority of the songs that it plays!
What are YOUR favorite Pandora stations? I’d love to know now that I remembered Pandora exists! 🙂
What I’m Excited About
In 2017, I made the commitment to get back to goal-setting, become a paper planner girl again, go to bed no later than 11 pm every night, and be offline from 3 pm to 8 pm every day (among a few other goals).
We’re one week in and I cannot believe how much these simple tweaks have changed the flow of our days. Our house has been so much cleaner, I’m spending a lot more time with Jesse and the kids, I’m investing more in real-life relationships, I’m making time for fun, and I still have time to get all the important business projects done + have time for some things I love (like reading!)
Honestly, I think that the key for me has been compartmentalizing my time and committing a big chunk of my day to be completely offline. I can’t wait to see how the next few months play out, but I’m so hopeful that this routine is going to be a really fantastic fit for this season of our lives!
In Case You Missed It
My Posts This Week:
My #1 Tip for Finding Frugal Friends
Why Our 3 Kids Share a Bedroom
BIG Changes Are Coming to the Blog This Year!
My YouTube Videos This Week:
2 Habits I Want to Develop in 2017
My 10 Goals for 2017
My One Word for 2017
What are you reading, loving, watching, listening to, and/or excited about? I'd love to hear!
