Saturday was our first run in what felt like eons, (in actuality a couple weeks).
Just because. Dogs. 💖
Happy Monday Friends.
I fell waaaaaaay behind on my book reviews and now am struggling to catch back up.
43 The Stillwater Girls by Minka Kent 5/2 (kindle/kindle unlimited)★★★★
Our marriage is a jagged gash, all the good parts—the parts we need to survive and the parts that make us who we are together—gushing from the wound, and there’s no tourniquet in sight. I don’t know how to stop the bleeding. All I know is I have to try . . . because I’m losing him.
Almost forty years together, and they still have that special something, that glimmer in their eyes, an unspoken language, a bond no one else has ever been close to breaking.
My review from last June HERE
“I can't erase the darkness for you, but I can be the one to hold the light when you're ready to come home.”
45 In this Moment by Gabrielle Meyer 5/10 (print/library)
46 For a Lifetime by Gabrielle Meyer 5/15 (ebook/hoopla)
Immediately upon finishing book 2- I downloaded book three on hoopla so I could keep reading.
This one features twins who both have two timelines they share in 1692 Salem, Massachusetts, and 1912 New York City. This one had some crazy twists and I was dismayed when I got to the end and I have to wait until NOVEMBER for the next book! (I LOVE the cover of the next book!)
I didn't particularly care for the 1962 timeline but at the same time- it made me want to learn more.
47 The Many Lives of Mama Love by Lara Love Hardin 5/16 (audio/library)★★★
Challenges met: 52 Bookclub 21. Written By A Ghostwriter (disclaimer: while written by the author, the author herself is a ghostwriter)
Picked this one because Oprah's Book Club. I ordered it as my BOM pick, but ended up listening to most of it on audio as it was read by the author. This is a memoir of a suburban soccer mom, who is a drug addict and gets sent to prison. Or jail I guess. I don't think she actually goes to prison.
It made me so mad in places. But is a testament to how you can't know what someone's life is like from the outside. We need to be wise yet also treat one another with grace and love.
Real power is about using your power to shine a light on other people so they can find their own power.
I am officially a ghostwriter, and finishing any chapter feels like being high, only different. The edges are full of confidence, and that makes it nothing like the high of opiates, which were only outlined in glittery fear and false bravado. This feeling will return every time I finish writing a chapter for the next eight years—a feeling I will chase like I used to chase drugs.
I realize suddenly that I’m tired of pretending I am anything other than who I am. People may love me or hate me, praise me or criticize me, reward me or punish me. All I can be is who I am now, and then work hard to become the person I most want to be.
48 The Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas 5/20 (kindle/library)
He thinks he'll be remembered as the villain in the story. But I forgot to tell him that the villain is usually the person who locks up the maiden and throws away the key. He was the one who let me out.
My friend through many dangers. My lover who had healed my broken and weary soul. My mate who had waited for me against all hope, despite all odds.
49 The Outlaw Noble Salt by Amy Harmon 5/24 (kindle/kindle unlimited)★★★★
Challenges met: 52 Bookclub 52. Published In 2024
I was so excited when my friend texted to say she was bringing back our book club! This was our first book of summer. As I am in two other book clubs hence forth this one shall be known as LBC (Loren's Book Club. 😉)I really loved this book. It sucked me right in and I devoured it. I was disheartened to find out it was purely fiction but am setting that aside and just enjoying the story.
The main character in this story is Butch Cassidy but after he gives up his outlaw life. The other main character is Jane and completely fictionalized, she has a young son named Augustus. Jane is a singer and their lives become intertwined when her young son is quite ill and Butch, mistaken for the doctor they sent for intervenes to help save his life.
In two days, he’d only reinforced everything she’d seen then. He was Noble Salt, the very epitome of those two words, good to his bones, honest to his core—impossibly so—and such a godsend that she’d had to reconsider her limp and often lifeless belief in the Almighty.
50 The Phoenix Crown by Kate Quinn, Janie Chang 5/25 (print/library)
I saw this book featured on MMD Spring book preview and then it was also picked for the April 52 Bookclub Buddy read. I immediately requested it from the library and was shocked when it came it right away. But alas being a new and popular book I did not get a chance to finish it before I had to return it to the library. I put it on hold again after I listened to the authors on the 52 bookclub live event.
It takes place in San Francisco around the big earthquake in 1906. The story follows 4 very different women in the time leading up to and then following the earthquake. It is interesting to see how their stories overlap and become woven together.
51 The Deconstruction of Christianity: What It Is, Why It’s Destructive, and How to Respond by Alisa Childers, Tim Barnett 5/27 (print/own) ★★★★
“Deconstruction is not about getting your theology right. It’s not about trying to make your views match reality. It’s about tearing down doctrines that are morally wrong to you to make them match your own internal conscience, moral compass, true authentic self, or whatever else it’s being called these days. Yet the goal for all Christians should be to align our beliefs with the Word of God, despite our own personal feelings or beliefs on the topic.”
52 Unmissing by Minka Kent 5/29 (kindle/kindle unlimited)
Book club selection for June for the other book club. 😂 Funnily enough we read a book by the same author as May's pick (The Stillwater Girls). I also enjoyed this one.
A woman who has been missing for ten years and declared dead, shows up on the doorstep of her husband and new wife one day. The plot is pretty twisty.
The future isn’t carved in stone—it isn’t even written in pencil on the back of a napkin.
“You don’t have to answer that,” she says before I can respond. “There’s a heaviness about you. But also a sweetness. You’re here on a mission. You’re here to do good things. To incite change. I know it. I see it in your eyes.”
Total: 10 2024: 52
Kindle/Ebook: 5 Print: 4 Audio: 1
Library: 5 Owned: 2 Kindle Unlimited: 3
Favorite: The Outlaw Noble Salt
50 States: I didn't hit any new states this month
52 Bookclub:
A-Z
Two Saturdays ago we had dress fittings! No pictures of that because *MAJOR SPOILERS* 😆 But Mikayla looked so happy and beautiful! I can not believe my girl is going to be a BRIDE.
We went out for a girls lunch after to Applebees. It was a day filled with JOY and Delight!
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| Shopping is exhausting! |
Our BRIDE!
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| This picture makes my heart 💖smile |
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| Dylan's nephew helped with all the gifts 😄 |
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| Mom and Aunt Sue |
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| Thankful Laura thought for us to snap this picture before they left! |
I have been having a lot complicated feelings about my church for the past couple years. Change is so hard for me and this transition time has been rough. Also in that two years, two of my children have stopped attending regularly or at all. And that is so hard. 💔
There have been good things too, don't get me wrong. But my heart still mourns people and dear friends who have left. Although my heart is joyful over new friends who have come. I guess its like that old Girl Scout song... make new friends but keep the old... one is silver and the other gold....
If I am honest, I was dreading this day. I was not on board with this whole anniversary celebration. I wasn't sure I wanted any part of it. Why? Let's just leave it at there's been a lot of hard lately.
I was over joyed though to learn my sister and her boys were coming and my son was coming.
At 9 o'clock there was a Church History lesson- which sounds dry and boring but it was a delight. Funny and nostalgic, I enjoyed every second. The Nemitz family has a long legacy at Alive Wesleyan Church. My grandparents were part of the original charter members that literally broke ground and built our church.
In the worship service my Dad was honored for his legacy of prayer leadership. I, for one am so thankful for my Dad and his prayers through the years.
Alive felt like home again and my heart was overflowing. I had conversations that gave me hope for the future. I can not even express how much joy it gave me to share this day with my sister and my two youngest children, also friends, old and new. I know my grandparents would enjoyed this day so much.
I can honestly once again say I am excited for the things happening at Alive Wesleyan Church. The love I have for this body of believers, the outpouring of love from this body of believers. There are no words. It's not a perfect church, but what church full of humans is? Its home though, its family and its where I belong.
I encourage you to find a place to belong; when you do get involved. It doesn't become home by just sitting in the chairs every Sunday and going home. Find your place to serve. It will fill your heart, I guarantee.
This race was a month ago today. But I would be remiss if I didn't write a recap even though its quite late. Life has been weird and heavy and I haven't felt much like sharing. But there has been some good stuff! So let's catch up starting with this...
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| Start Line selfie |
