More Books!

I've done a lot of reading lately ...
I have a few to recommend to you ...

Friday Night Knitting Club
I think even if you are not a knitter you will enjoy this story. The struggles of life, the coming together of women to knit together, but then connect with each other. The story of how we can help each other through rough times, how we all make mistakes and seek forgiveness and love and happiness and how each of us have to find that on our own unique path. Let's say it was an emotional book for me as well. I actually did cry during the reading of it. Great great great book!

19 Minutes
Another fiction book that also tugged at my heart strings. It's the (fictional) story of a school shooting and what happens in the aftermath - the trial of the boy and also a classmate who was there that day (but not hurt). A great book IMO. It made me think and it made me wonder. It also made me feel for the mothers - all the grief and anger and the struggles to deal with it in the best way they knew how for their children. Great book. Highly recommend it.

Velvet Elvis
A non-fiction book written by a pastor. It is in fact about religion. I love his honesty. It feels like a conversation. A few years ago, I would not have appreciated this book at all. But he was so vulnerable and open in this book - talking about doubt and questions and all sorts of things that are currently swirling around in my head. It was nice to read that even pastors have doubt. And it was nice that he was so open and honest and reading his thoughts ... as much as I hate to say it, but most of the few (or probably more accurate very few) books about religion I have read have been so much about being so sure of it all and how the reader can have it all too! And then it makes me feel like I'm failing and must be approaching religion wrong. I like this approach much better. And I think he had a lot of good things to say. I haven't returned it to the library yet, so if I get a chance I'll try to tease you with a few good quotes!

Here are two, although I think I could have picked a lot more ... but both meant a lot to me:

And saying yes to that invitation doesn't mean we have to have it all figured out. This is an important thing to remember: I can jump and still have questions and doubts. I often meet people who are waiting to follow God until they have all their questions answered. They will be waiting for a long time, because if we knew everything, we'd be ... God. So the invitation to jump is an invitation to follow Jesus with all of our doubts and questions right there with us.

And this one ... this is the one I'm trying to do...

I meet so many people who have superwhatever rattling around in their head. They have this person they are convinced they are supposed to be, and their superwhatever is killing them. They have this image they picked up over the years of how htey are supposed to look and act and work and play and talk, and it's like a voice that never stops shouting in their ear.
And the only way to not be killed by it is to shoot it first.
Yes, that is what I meant to write.
You have to kill your superwhatever.
And you have to do it right now.
Because your superwhatever will rob you of today and tomorrow and the next day until you take it out back and end its life.

Chocolatherapy
Great book, and no, I am not just saying it because she mentions chocolate in it! I read it quickly. I think it's supposed to be read much slower and requires more thought process from the reader. I did think briefly over each question. However, with it being a library book and me not have the luxury of much time with it, I don't think I gave the book the justice it deserves. I'd love to have a copy of my own to have and read through and really have some thought time with it.

You and I are under a lot of pressure to stay busy and be productive. So much that it may be tempting to buy into the Wonder Woman/Martyr Mom mentality that says, 'Real Woman Don't Need Sleep.' I really hate to admit this, but sometimes I actually feel guilty about sleeping in, catching forty winks, or telling my kids to put themselves to bed because I'm turning in early.
If you feel the same way, don't.
Sleep is an amazing gift from our Creator. It's during sleep that our bodies heal and even our brains rebalance. When we sleep well we think more clearly, age slower, weigh less, avoid more disease and live longer.

For someone struggling to sleep each and every night, this hit me hard. And made me think. And made me crave change in my sleep habits ...