Welcome to this week’s midweek mix-up! I’ve had a full, fun, informative week, and I hope there’s something interesting or useful for you here today. Grab a cup of coffee—or tea, if you so desire—and let’s dig in!
Reading this week:
Confessions of a De-Cluttering Junkie, by Chautona Havig
Progress: Finished
Just a few random thoughts on the book. I loved De-Cluttering Junkie, and I’m beginning to suspect I’d love any of Chautona’s books. Even though this book apparently has no real plot—okay, maybe it’s just that it doesn’t have a “generic” plotline, because it does have introduction, conflict, and a resolution—it’s both fun and exciting. I suspect it would be more interesting for Moms to read than for me, a teenager, but even so I found it gripping—taking it so far as to prefer reading over watching the scenery when we went sight-seeing with my aunt!
One thing I really appreciate about Chautona’s books is how careful she is about the amount of romance she portrays—or refuses to portray. That was especially clear to me in this book, where there were several scenes that could have easily gotten, um, yucky, but she skillfully avoided subjecting us to anything bordering on too much detail. It’s obvious, through the book, that she knows what she’s talking about—but she never uses it to wrongfully stimulate the senses. I really appreciate that. Yes, there is kissing, but it isn’t dwelt upon, and isn’t cast into any other light than normal—which is absolutely acceptable, because that is real life. Husbands and wives do kiss, and they should. I don’t mind reading about it if it’s treated as the normal way things work.
Another thing I loved was that Chautona doesn’t push homeschooling in this book at all—something she has every right to do, seeing as she’s a homeschool mom of a large family. She does mention it in a very favorable light in the Aggie’s Inheritance series, but in this book it just gets a passing mention. Although I am homeschooled, I really, really appreciated that because that is normal—not everyone wants to, or has the ability to homeschool their children. Chautona gets that. I highly recommend her for choosing to portray real life the way it is, rather than creating a perfect homeschooling world—as I’m sure it would have been both easy and tempting to do.
Alright, I’ll get off my soap box now.
What we’ve been up to:
I said goodbye to my visiting aunt early this morning. Yesterday afternoon, we took one more quick family trip to show her a few local sights—including a river mouth not far away. It’s been fun to show her around our little corner of the world.
#1: The view…always beautiful! This is looking south from a lookout, toward the river mouth. (River mouth is just on this side of the hills, almost in the middle of the picture.)
#2 and 3: Baby sister kept trying to escape from Mom’s arms.
#4: Three oldest boys decided to foot it down the track, so they’d have more time to explore.
#5: Sign of spring! Plum blossoms are just starting to appear! I love spring….
Useful blog posts:
- Share Your Resources Day (Go Teen Writers) — Very helpful. Over 25 links to different resources. It’s pretty fun to go through this list!
- How To Describe A Voice (Go Teen Writers) — One of my brothers really struggles with doing this, so I’m looking forward to share this post with him. Lots of great ideas, and several good sized lists of words you could use!
- How do you stay self-disciplined when your schedule is inconsistent? (The Rebelution) — Interesting question, and several very good answers.
- Life: A Gift and a Responsibility (Noveltea) — A very challenging post about the responsibility of a Christian when it comes to abortion, and a great idea for all those who enjoy doing handiwork!
- Why I May Never Write a First Draft on a Computer Again (The NaNoWriMo Blog) — I’m slowly starting to agree with Courtney Montgomery—for some reason, it makes a lot of sense for me to write the first inklings of a story out by hand. Are you a computer writer, or more of a pen-and-paper type?
- 100 Books You Should Read by the Time You Turn 20 (Blog, She Wrote) — How many of these have you read? I’ve read/listened to 17. I think I have a ways to go! I have heard about almost every one of these books, and have even heard abridged audio versions of some. Others are on my “don’t-think-I’ll-ever-want-to-read” list.
New books on the website:
- Ricky and the Hammond Cousins, by Wanda M. Yoder (Great as a read-aloud! Our whole family loved hearing it.)
- Yielded Captive, by Dalaina May
- The Adventures of Johnny Chuck, by Thornton W. Burgess
- The Tombs of Anak, by Frank E. Peretti
- Titus: A Comrade of the Cross, by Florence Morse Kingsley (I really enjoyed this one, even though it is old.)
See more of our most recent books here!
Resource of the week:
Software and Tools Masterpost (Write World)
This post…is like the ultimate post for writers to drool over, ever. Here’s a quick screenshot, to show you what I mean:
Yes, some of that stuff is pay-to-use, but still there’s quite a few free tools there too. I’d recommend you start here if you want to try something new, or want to see if something will work better for you. Just be warned: Trying out new programs can be very addictive!
How has your week been? Learned anything new, come across anything interesting, or just had a “normal” week? Share below—I love hearing from you!
If I had known you would be publishing those photos publicly I would have looked for matching socks for the baby! I like the pictures, though.
Signed, your mom
I didn’t know I was going to post them until later, anyway, when I was going through the pictures. But even so, I think she’s kind-of cute in mismatched socks.