A Weekly Rundown: Mid-January

I had several really good conversations with friends this week and we all seemed to come to the same conclusion: the world is a disaster area and we’re spending too much time on social media reading everyone’s opinions about it.

The last thing I ever want to do is stick my head in the sand and pretend things aren’t happening. I deal much better with hard facts than fibs that make me feel good.

But at some point, I (we?) had to take a step back and evaluate where I’m spending my time and how that time spent is making me feel. Right now, social media is making me feel tense, angry, fuzzy-headed, unfocused, distracted, chaotic, lacking in hope, and it’s deterring me from making my home feel safe and cozy and snug and discipling my kids. And these things are my most important jobs right now.

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Allllll that to say–I have owned a blog for 11 years and it’s been a fantastic creative outlet for me all these years. So I’m returning to my first online love with a weekly round-up of things I would’ve shared on social media. I can do that here, with more intention, less sporadic posting, clicking, and liking. I can complete a THOUGHT and hopefully this revival of blog posts–I’m seeing more and more IGers dust off their old blogs–you can take some time, slow the scroll, and be more intentional with online consumption too.

The hope is to do these weekly round-ups for the next couple of months and see how they go! I’ll share things I think will be helpful to you that God is teaching me through His Word (reading through John right now), around the home, books we’re reading, what we’re doing in school, and other tidbits from our week.

Making Home

I cannot believe I’m typing these words, but it’s January 16th and I STILL have a Christmas tree up! The light is so lovely on these dark winter days, I can’t bring myself to take it down. Although, it’s currently making up my mind for me as there are only about 38 needles still hanging on. Thinking I’ll run to Home Depot next week and find a taller plant to take the tree’s place.

The girls had been asking for a hanging chair in their room for most of a year. The one they really wanted was Serena + Lily and over $500, so that was a no. I found a really cute one on Amazon for only $60 and we hung that this week.

What We’re Learning

I cannot be the only homeschool mom out there feeling like every school day is Groundhog’s Day. It all feels very same ol’, same ol’ each day–and it does every single year in January + February.

This week, we have been fully enjoying the SQUILT music calendar. It’s all selections from musicals and we are loving it! Monday, Vera had a live SQUILT lesson with Mary on The Sound of Music, which reminded us of Austria! We watched all the videos from our trip and decided we desperately need a vacation–don’t we all???

What I loved about the SQUILT lesson is that it prompted Vera to pulling out the Sound of Music movie too–one of the best movies ever! And later in the week, the girls watched Annie for the first time, in keeping with the theme of musicals this month.

The monthly listening calendar is AMAZING and you don’t have to be a SQUILT member to get it! CHECK IT OUT HERE!

RELATED: How we use SQUILT in our Homeschool

See all of our curriculum for this year HERE.

Good Reads

One of my goals for this year and to dive deep into learning more about theology. I had several books I’ve been wanting to read and they came in from Christian Book Distributors this week.

• Live not by Lies by Rod Dreher
• Everyone’s a Theologian: an Introduction to Systematic Theology by R.C. Sproul
• Christianity + Liberalism by J. Gresham Machen (this wasn’t on my list originally but came highly recommended by a friend.)

I also have been wanting to find something super simple but super effecting for catechizing my kiddos. Deep questions that I want them to have a handle of before they leave home.

I found these amazing catechism books from Founders Press. These are PERFECT because they have three levels based on age–I had to purchase all three because of the ages of my kids.

Each book includes:

• intro and “how to” use the book section
• thorough list of catechism questions
• Bible basics to memorize
• scripture to memorize
• hymns to memorize
• and a checklist (or progress list) to check off what your child has completed.

These are so SO good and I have learned so much by reading through them with my kids already. We’ve added these to our morning meeting.

Noteworthy

I listened to two things this week that I found so helpful and encouraging.

1. Carole Joy Seid shared a podcast on returning to our first love as homeschool parents. She speaks a bit to the unease that some of us are feeling around homeschooling and our freedom to do so. It was really encouraging to me!
2. Doug Wilson had an excellent sermon this week that was also super encouraging. The last half was especially helpful. He shares 12 things we can do this year to strengthen our homes and our churches. It wasn’t a stressful list, just really solid biblically-based ideas that we can start implementing TODAY.

On My Heart + On My Nightstand

I’ve been reading through the book of John this month and it never ceases to amazing me what God can teach through scriptures we’ve read so many times. One chapter in particular was chapter 8 and three uncomfortable truths I found while reading:

God Is Good

Like I said in the intro, I’ve had several really good conversations with friends this week. The thing I found is this: we’re all feeling completely off-kilter. We’re looking down the pike and wondering what’s coming our way.

But despite my humanness and unbelief, what each of these friends has brought be back to is: God is good and He promises that He will never forsake His people.

Do you know Jesus died so you could live, despite your sinfulness? If so, you’re His people.

God is good. His plans are sovereign and just. His will will be done on this earth–whether it be for sovereign good or moral good–it will be done. There is hope in that.

Keep reading your bible, sister. Put the women’s studies on the shelves and study the real, raw Word of God.

Keep going–as my friend Cindy has repeatedly reminded me this week–just keep doing the next thing, one foot in front of the other.