JennieGScott.com - Page 8 of 22 - Enjoying the Journey
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06.01.2017

  Each Friday, I'll be writing a short post sharing five (and only five!) ideas with you. Today is one of my favorite topics - books! (This post contains affiliate links, which help pay for this site and its content.) Here are five I want to read this year: Water from My Heart by Charles Martin. I just finished another of Martin's books, When Crickets Cry, and I LOVED it. I don't know how I haven't read him before! I discovered When Crickets Cry when Kindle had ebooks on sale over Christmas break. I paid just a couple of bucks for it, and I could not stop reading it. I stayed up past midnight and almost woke my husband up with my sobs. I won't ruin it in case you want to read it, but good grief. SO. GOOD. Water from My Heart has a half-star higher rating on Amazon than When Crickets Cry, so I can't wait to read it! Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of Nike by Phil Knight. This might seem like an odd choice for me, but I love reading stories of people who been successful in their field, and I can't think of a better example...

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05.01.2017

  We are now a few days into the new year, and I've let the resolutions craze pass. I didn't come up with a list of 20 drastic changes I want to make in this year, and I didn't decide to overhaul my entire lifestyle in one fell swoop. I've done that in the past, and I've always ended up feeling defeated and frustrated. Instead, I'm easing into the new, praying about how I'd like to be different, and asking God to tweak me to be more useful to him. That's it. Sure, I have goals I'd love to see materialize in 2017, and certainly I have habits I want to change, but I'm not falling for the lie that 2017 must be different in every way from 2016. I'm not going to pretend that I have to be a completely different person because it's a new year. I didn't expect to wake up on January 1st and be transformed. A thought that occurred to me as the calendar changed is that while we humans place enormous significance on a new year, God is not limited by our earthly calendar. Our years are days to him, and the stroke of midnight changes nothing about him or...

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03.01.2017

  My daughter hates it when my husband kisses me. Or hugs me. Or dances with me in the kitchen. She huffs in exasperation and always tries to climb between us, saying, "No! My Mommy!" She pushes us apart, rolling her eyes, and is completely disgusted by our physical affection. We think it's hilarious. (So naturally we do it on purpose and make sure she's watching.) I hope it's always like this, with her trying to weasel her way between us as we snuggle and pretending to vomit when we kiss. I'm not sure there's much more I want her to remember from her childhood than that the adults in her house loved each other greatly. My daughter is a child of divorce, and I worry so much about how it will affect her. She was small when it happened, and she and her brother have been incredibly resilient so far. She doesn't remember much from when her dad and I were married, but she's going to remember everything about her stepdad and me. So we're doing all we can to make her memories good ones - including grossing her out when we kiss. I didn't grow up in a demonstrably affectionate family, and I want my kids to...

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01.01.2017

  In my house live a stubbornly independent 11 year old and a precociously rambunctious 10 year old. Add in two set-in-their-way 30-somethings, and you have a delightful recipe for some conflict. We’ve moved past the days of children flinging their food on the floor and splashing in the toilet for fun, and they’ve learned not to hit and bite, but they’re still kids. And that means occasional disobedience, rowdiness, and talking back. The kids act like kids sometimes, so that means they misbehave. And when they do, I feel exhausted and depleted. I feel defeated and ineffective, and I feel like I still - 11 years later - don’t have a clue what I’m doing. (Don’t ask me where I got the idea that raising children would be picturesque and easy - I grew up in a house with four children, and our lives were never reminiscent of Mary Poppins. I guess I thought my unrivaled mothering skills would raise children who were practically perfect in every way.) On the days my children do and say things I’d rather them not, this is what goes through my mind: Um, for real? Have they not lived here their entire lives? Do they think the rules...

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27.12.2016

  When the clock strikes midnight on December 31st, I will have read the entire Bible from beginning to end this year. I made the commitment to stick to it no matter what, and if the last few days of 2016 don't throw me a crazy curve ball, I will have done it. I'm not some kind of super-Christian, and every day hasn't been a gloriously amazing experience where I heard angelic choirs singing as I read. Some days, I wanted to skip it. In some books (Leviticus anyone?), I wanted to pull my hair out. I seriously looked at my husband some days and said things like, "I cannot read one more genealogy. I don't care who begat whom. Why do I need to know the dimensions of this building? How do you pronounce Beninu?" There were days I got frustrated. Times I began to daydream. Moments when I questioned if there was any application to my life. But now that I'm nearly finished, I'm so glad I stuck to the task. Here are some things I learned while reading the entire Bible this year: It's not like reading any other book. Duh, I know, but the app I used skipped around sometimes, and there...

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13.12.2016

  I tell myself I'm a really bad mom because:   I don't make homemade bread for my children's lunches. I didn't deliver my children naturally or without drugs. I don't feed them only organic food. I don't use only natural cleaning products in our home. I let them watch TV so I can have a moment's peace. When they ask if they can have a silly string fight, I say no because I don't want to clean up the mess. When they ask if they can have ice cream after school and before supper, I say yes because I'm too tired to care. I don't force them to make their beds every morning. I make them wear the same pants two days in a row because I forget to turn on the dryer sometimes. I sit on the couch and ask them to bring me a drink. I forget to move the stupid elf. I make them clean their own toilets. I don't give them an allowance. I don't check their homework unless they ask for help. I only breastfed 50% of them. I let them sleep on their bellies as babies. I let my son stay up past his bedtime to...

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13.12.2016

  If you're looking for gift ideas for a book lover this Christmas, look no further! Here's a list of books I have loved. (Some were released this year, and some are oldies but goodies.) Fiction Choices: Sue Monk Kidd's The Invention of Wings - I could not put this one down! Historical fiction centered around slavery in Charleston. Kelli Estes's The Girl Who Wrote in Silk - historical fiction about a Chinese girl's secrets. Fascinating. Page-turner. Loved it. Kristin Hannah's The Nightingale - historical fiction in WWII. I have told everyone I've ever met to read this book. Believe me when I say it's amazing. Fredrik Backman's A Man Called Ove - an old man alienates and endears his neighbors. I still can't believe how much I liked this one! Kristin Hannah's Winter Garden - the story of sisters who learn about their mother's past when they come together to care for their dying father.   Nonfiction Favorites: Jerry Sittser's A Grace Disguised - perfect for someone who has faced a tragedy and needs a reminder of hope. I wept while reading it. Jessica Turner's The Fringe Hours - for those busy moms who can't find time for themselves. Super practical tips. Sarah...

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07.12.2016

  Hey, everyone! I wanted to jump on here really quickly and let you know about two books that are currently a great price on Amazon. The first is a new favorite of mine, Grace for the Good Girl by Emily P. Freeman. This ebook is on sale for only $1.99! If you haven't read it, don't let this great price pass you by. (And if you don't have a Kindle or e-reader, don't worry. You can download the free Kindle app on any device, including your computer, and read it from there. Super easy.) Another one I wanted to tell you about is a new ebook by a new friend of mine! Cheryl Cannon has written a sweet little book called The Best Three Bucks You Will Spend This Christmas, and it's all about how to make holiday gatherings with your family a little more meaningful. You'll love Cheryl's voice. Great prices for these - let me know what you think of them!   Disclosure - affiliate links are included in this post....

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06.12.2016

  Before you get outraged by the headline and assume I'm bashing being an American - don't. I love being an American. I get misty-eyed at football games when 80,000 people pledge allegiance to the flag and fighter jets fly over. I vote proudly (if hesitantly like this November), and I cried when I bought a soldier coffee the other day. So please don't assume I'm unpatriotic or say I should move to another country. But I was scrolling through social media this morning (mistake number one), and I had a sudden realization that being American allows us to be ridiculous in ways others around the world don't have the luxury of being. I watch the evening news every day (I've turned into my father for whom the world stopped at 6:30 pm), and I know of the world's wars, famines, and threats. I follow organizations that try to stop human trafficking, and I give money to relief organizations that feed and educate the poorest children. My Instagram feed shows me every day the life-threatening, desperate situations people are facing. But it also shows me how self-absorbed and hypocritical I am. How are we Americans ridiculous? Consider these examples: we spend money on...

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05.12.2016

  I love to read, and while I typically choose nonfiction, I just read three fiction books in four days that I want to recommend to you. They're all super entertaining, and I couldn't put any of them down. I read them on my Amazon Kindle app (which you can download onto any device for completely free! If you have your phone, then you always have a book to read when you're waiting somewhere). The Good Girl by Mary Kubica. Oh. My. Goodness. If you liked Gone Girl and love thrillers, you've got to read this one. I could not put it down! Mia, the main character, returns home from being kidnapped with no memory of what happened and a new identity - she only knows herself as Chloe. Her well-known father, a judge, and her beautiful mother try to uncover what happened to Mia during the months she was gone, and throughout the discovery process, the book moves from one character's perspective to another and back in forth in time. You will not see what's coming - this I can promise you! The Wonder by Emma Donoghue. (The author of Room, if you've read that one, too. Very good but...

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