{ Around here }

 It's Friday, probably a day that I very much look forward to each week.  I don't know why, it's not for anything specific, other than I guess the fact that it means everyone is home from work for the next two days, I get to go to the gym, I can stay up a little later to watch something or read.  You know, the things that us older folk look forward to.

 

It is extremely windy outside, we have a warning from this morning until tonight around 10pm, with winds in the area hitting between 50 and 60 mph.  I don't need to say how I loathe winds, because I've talked about it ad nauseum.  I am already sneezing, my nose and eyes are itching and I know what is coming my way.  I will be staying indoors, that's for sure.

 

So, this past week I have taken a break from Instagram, and I will tell you that it's been absolute bliss.  The peace I have felt has been tremendous.  It's weird, it's not like Instagram stresses me out, but whatever it was, it is freeing and liberating and I have loved being by myself, in my home, without constantly reaching for the phone anytime I had a spare moment or my hands were not occupied with housework.

 

The endless doom scrolling, is a big thing, and quite frankly if I do look at it deeply, I think as much as I say that Instagram doesn't stress me out, it kind of does.  No is forcing me to post stories or even be on there, but I myself felt like I needed to and then when I didn't have to post anything, I felt like I was being lazy or neglecting the app.  So, to be free of that has been wonderful!

 

I will most likely return in the next few days, but I think even my stories on there will be few and far between or only when I really feel like it.  No more feeling pressured to do it.

 

What have I been doing this week?

 

 

 

 

Well, I have put a big dent in my Cosmic Blanket and have loved getting back into a crocheting routine.

 

I have continued my daily Bible reading plan and am very much enjoying it, and also learning new things that somehow I missed when I read these books previously.  It's like that with the Bible isn't it?  No matter how many times you read something, when you go back, it's like reading it for the first time.  At least that's what it feels like to me.

 

I got groceries done this week and as always, I am thankful to God that we can afford groceries.

 

I have continued reading my book.  I am currently reading The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen, and quite enjoying it.  Of course that has sent me back into a Jane Austen mood and I'm really wanting to re watch the movies again. 

I have watched a lot of YouTube videos, and found new favorites.  I have unsubscribed from older channels too.  I do this every few months, as I find that with everything else in life, tastes change and maybe a channel I enjoyed 6 months ago, I no longer watch, so it makes sense to remove it and replace it with a new one to enjoy, for however long that lasts.

 

Some new ones I've recently subscribed to:

 

Celtic Cottage Life

Tanita Giu

Creating Cosy Home

French Vibes

Mariam Mubarik

Terramor

 

 

I also have some new books coming in the mail.  Used up some of my Paperbackswap credits I have sitting there.  One of them arrived earlier this week and I am so excited to read it.

 

 

Lost Country Life by Dorothy Hartley

This beautiful and heartfelt encyclopedia of rural life in the middle ages gets its special charm because the author, as a little girl, knew shepherds and laborers who lived in a way hardly changed through the centuries. She shares that land, now lost forever, where man was the measure of all things.

Using as a framework a 16th-century calendar of advice for farmers, she takes us month by month through the country-dweller's year, and opens up the customs and traditions of a vanished rural life.

 

The Heiress of Winterwood by Sarah E. Ladd

Amelia Barrett, heiress to an estate nestled in the English moors, defies family expectations and promises to raise her dying friend’s baby. But she knows she can’t do it alone and finds herself in the surprising position of asking Graham, the child’s father—a man she’s never met before—to marry her.

When the baby vanishes with little more than an ominous ransom note hinting at her whereabouts, Amelia and Graham are driven to test the boundaries of their love for this little one.

Amelia’s detailed plans would normally see her through any trial, but now, desperate and shaken, she’s forced to examine her soul and face her one weakness: pride.

 

 

The Dancing Master by Julie Klassen

 Finding himself the man of the family, London dancing master Alec Valcourt moves his mother and sister to remote Devonshire, hoping to start over. But he is stunned to learn the village matriarch has prohibited all dancing, for reasons buried deep in her past.

Alec finds an unlikely ally in the matriarch's daughter. Though he's initially wary of Julia Midwinter's reckless flirtation, he comes to realize her bold exterior disguises a vulnerable soul--and hidden sorrows of her own.

Julia is quickly attracted to the handsome dancing master--a man her mother would never approve of--but she cannot imagine why Mr. Valcourt would leave London, or why he evades questions about his past. With Alec's help, can Julia uncover old secrets and restore life to her somber village...and to her mother's tattered heart?

 

It's been a good, quiet, relaxing week.  Very much needed.  I have prayed more, gotten to know God more, spent more time in my home pottering around, read, crocheted, watched inspiring videos and have been more present with family.  Honestly, I think everyone should drop the phones, especially social media, at least for a day during the week.  It's incredible how much more connected we become with family and life, when we pull away from that.

 

As I've been reading in the Bible, the past few chapters have talked a lot about idols and false Gods, and we need to understand that those things are very much in play even in today's age.  Anything that we obsess with, or that takes all of our focus especially away from time with the Lord, IS, in and of itself, a false God and and idol.  There's something for you to think about.

 

Have a blessed rest of Friday, and I'll be back tomorrow to share what I get up to.