Saturday Musings (May 25, 2019)

Since I never seem to finish up a blog post for Five on Friday, let's give Saturday morning a shot!

Week #2 of summer 2019 is complete, and after a crazy May, couple of months, year, our schedule has come to a screeching halt. For comparison, I only filled the car up with gas once this week while my norm throughout the rest of the year is 2-3 times. The kids are reading, sleeping, and consuming TV. No doubt our schedule will pick up again, but for now, the kids are professional couch potatoes and I'm trying not to feel guilty about all the downtime. Why do I feel bad about a slow schedule? Busyness is such a way of life that it somehow feels wrong to have white space in our calendar. It's not, by the way. A slow season is restorative if we let it be.

Brian is in Uganda for 2 weeks, which feels all kind of strange. After 22 years of marriage, it just doesn't feel right without him. Because our church is made up primarily of military families, I cannot complain about having my husband out of pocket for a mere 14 days. But it sure seems like a long time.

I spent the morning browsing the many summer reading lists being released, adding books to my lengthy "to be read" list. Here are several to get you started: MMD 2019 summer reading list, How Sweet Eats summer reading, and MMD new summer lit. Camden and Rory are inhaling books faster than I check them out from the library. Several favorites from the last couple of weeks:

• When Crickets Cry by Charles Martin - Camden and I both cried through this one
• The Lost Man by Jane Harper - she is the queen of suspense without graphic violence or gore
• Rust and Stardust by T. Greenwood - tough subject matter, but I could not put it down
• The House Girl by Tara Conklin - historical fiction from the pre-civil war era is always a favorite
• Camden recommends  Kwame Alexander books (he just finished Swing) and two historical fiction books by Ruta Sepetys (Between Shades of Gray and Salt to the Sea).
• I am about halfway through Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother's Will to Survive by Stephanie Land. Reading is such a great way to experience a different perspective. I would not put it on the same level as Hillbilly Elegy or Evicted, but still a good read.

I enjoyed this blog post: To the Middle Season Mama in May.

Thanks to a Mother's Day gift, I had a facial yesterday (only the second one ever) and it was delightful. 

The kids and I are going to see the brand new Aladdin movie with my mom this afternoon, and I can't wait. Have a great Memorial Day weekend, friends.