Plot Points #37 💌
Deconstruction, rootedness, more fantasy novels, and Marie Antoinette
Hi friends! I hope you’ve had a wonderful week.
We took a Uhaul full of boxes to storage the other day and painters are here getting the walls pretty again for photographs. My mom and sister are coming tomorrow to help pack some closets and I’m dreading the logistics of this move less and less. It’s strange to think that in a little more than two weeks this house will be for sale once more. Pierce has had a lot of second and third interviews lately, so we’re hopeful to get job news right when the house hits the market. After that…well…let’s just say Zillow has been getting a lot of traffic from me in the past few days.
talked about rootedness in the latest episode of her podcast, and it’s a topic I’ve been contemplating as well. I look at the towns on our “Maybe” list and wonder, “Can we build a community there? Can we feel settled there? Can we be fruitful there?” I suppose the answer is, with God, always.Pierce asked me the other day whether I think God has a purpose or a plan for our lives. Does He have specific ideas about what our lives should look like, year by year? Or does He simply want us to walk with Him and allow the rest to follow? I answered the latter.
I believe there are a million different ways for us to live out our calling as children of God. Every moment, we make choices that affect how tomorrow will turn out, but those choices are often morally neutral and don’t impact our ability to be faithful. This is the beauty of free will. The bounty lays before us and the choice is ours.
I pray we will leave fear behind and move forward with joy and hope.
Word of the Week
Balter: (v.) To dance artlessly, without particular grace or skill but usually with enjoyment.
Point #1: Marie Antoinette walked so we could run.
In the fields, that is. Pretending to be cottage dwellers who can mill our own grain. To make sourdough bread from scratch. Because it’s fun.
Point #2: Let’s be done with this, okay?
Yes to all of this from about our penchant for filming any obnoxious person who dares cross our path. Y’all. Can we not? Sometimes people are just assholes. That doesn’t mean they deserve to lose their jobs/get death threats/be publically humiliated in perpetuity.
Point #3: Barbie was fun, but it wasn’t great.
Greta Gerwig is a queen and I love her work. But I finally watched Barbie a few weeks ago and this review is a spot-on treatment of both the film and its place in the zeitgeist. A blockbuster worthy of note it most certainly was; a film worthy of an Oscar? Meh.
Point #4: Unequally yoked…but not.
This latest post from on navigating deconstruction within a marriage is likely to be a gift for many. When she wrote, “always assign positive intent until proven otherwise” I wanted to cheer. Pass this one along to your friends.
Reading in The Nook
I finished The Luminaries by Susan Dennard last week and I.AM.HOOKED. We live for a binge-able YA fantasy series! The characters are kind of flat, tbh, but the plot is a page-turner, so now I’m fully immersed in the world of Hemlock Falls and onto the second installment of the series, The Hunting Moon.
Next up on the list of books I pulled from a hat is The Chronicles of Narnia. I gave up on Lewis’ Space Trilogy around the time Pierce was laid off and just haven’t felt compelled to pick it up again. I’ll get to it later. For now, I’m eager to finally discover all the wonders of Narnia! (I know, I know. I’m so behind.)
What are you reading this week? 👇🏼
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“Loving my children, protecting them, and building them into a Godly heritage is a life’s work worth far more than any money or status I might find in a career.”
—Sally Clarkson—
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Moving -- and anticipating a move -- is its own beast! We are processing this right now, and I feel your pain.