I'm 28 as of Thursday.Twenty-eight, not thirty, and not as momentous.But still, I try to enjoy every birthday even if it's not an epoch. I use birthdays for self reflection, and as an excuse to have some extra fun on the blog and let my readers get to know me a little better, if you will. On birthdays past I've shared 25 random things about me, 26 things I need to nail down before I get any older, and my 27 favourite heroes, heroines, and villains from classic lit.You might be expecting another numbers list this year.Well, you're not going to get it!Not a 28-things-long numbers list, at any rate. I'm getting too old for ... Continue Reading

Do you ever feel discouraged by your debt?Whether you're paying down student loans, a mortgage, or trying to get on top of consumer debt, a lot of us owe money to someone, and we feel the weight of that burden. To add guilt to burden, we've been gradually conditioned to put debt-free living on a level with godly living. In fact, I think many of us have turned this debt-free ideal into an idol.I recently wrote an article over at The Humbled Homemaker that I hope will be a wake-up call for those struggling with the weight of debt and the deep desire to be debt free.My husband and I have been valiantly trying to pay off our debts for ... Continue Reading

Need a good period film to watch? Here are 20 romantic period pieces to choose from for your next girls' movie night!I'm pretty bookish and I certainly don't advocate spending most of your evenings in front of a TV, but I adore the occasional girls' movie night! I want--and I'd even say I need--these times to connect with kindred spirits and enjoy good stories (and tea) together.And by the way, I really do think it has to be tea for girls' night, if you're watching a period film. You can have margaritas when you watch the latest chick flick romantic comedy, but for the period films, please do sip tea.For the next time you plan ... Continue Reading

Should I dream big, or settle for less?I turned the question around in my mind, over and over again. The answer seems painfully obvious in our 21st-century, you-can-do-anything society.Dream big, dummy!Or...err...dream big, you special snowflake, you!We've been told from childhood that we can do and be anything and everything we want. We're encouraged this way because the world really does need innovators and inventors.And hundreds of people have shown me that it's possible to make big dreams, to achieve them, and to look awesome while doing it.So I got a little dazzled.I got swept up in the possibility of being ... Continue Reading

Of all the ways the world tilts, I like it best when it's pointed toward the sun.Summer has always been my season. It stands for freedom--freedom from school, from clothes, from schedules, from normal. When autumn arrives I'm ready to return to the arms of my cozy sweaters and comfortable schedules, but while summer lasts we play hard and try to soak up every day.I love that summer can be equally glorious whether you spend it mostly at home or travel far and wide. Usually it's a collection of simple little pleasures that make the season feel so abundant.Beautiful things like summertime deserve poetry, but I lose my train of ... Continue Reading

Everyone ought to recognize that a woman in possession of a sound mind must be in want of a good story. Jane Austen must've thought so, for her novel Northanger Abbey is one of the best literary defenses for fiction, and she has the book's hero Henry Tilney declare that “The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid.”"But I'm a reader!" you say. "I make reading lists!"I know.I know you do.I've seen them, or you've told me about them, and the truth is, they're painfully deficient in fiction.Fiction--novels--those are the kinds of books we're not reading enough of ... Continue Reading

Do you get them, too? The Sunday night blues?Even as a child, I always felt morose on Sunday evenings. It would hit me as Dad hollered to us kids that it was time to go home. (You have to literally "holler" when your children are running wild over the church property, flushed with Capture the Flag and bellies full of ice cream.) It was always the same: I stared out the window of the back seat as we drove home, happy but sad. The fun, glorious weekend was over, and it was back to school and business as usual come Monday morning.The feeling didn't go away in college. In fact, it was even worse. Probably because when you're in college ... Continue Reading

Have you ever had a friend confide to you that she looooves making lists? And you smile enthusiastically and say "Oh, me too!!"You talk about how you love your lists, how you need your lists, and you feel like the two of you share a secret. You've got a special personality quirk in common that makes you both tick!Now that I've been on one side or the other of this conversation over a dozen times, I've come to this realisation:We all love making lists.Or a lot of us do, at least.Finding a fellow list-lover is about as common as discovering that another woman likes dark chocolate.Yeah, pretty common!What's far less ... Continue Reading

Self care waters our dry roots and helps us to flourish no matter what life throws at us.We practice it every day, whether we realise it or not, but sometimes realising it and taking note makes a little self care go a longer way.If you want to learn about the heart health and longevity benefits of self care or how it produces endorphins, you'll have to look elsewhere. I'm not here to cite studies and convince you that a good thing is good. My aim is to inspire you. To get you musing about all the ways you can practice self care on a daily, ongoing basis. To point out to you, as you browse this list, that you're likely already taking ... Continue Reading