This week’s learned, links, and thankfulness…

Thankful that our garden is blooming and growing! We ordered more custom corten steel beds and can’t wait to get that in. We have lots more garden plans going on this spring and summer.

As someone who loves to make things (and share these things publicly here), this article “Work with Your Hands, Not with Your Worship” was really good in getting me to examine my heart and think through why I do what I do. I definitely do find that I idolize things I shouldn’t, and I need to constantly fight to anchor my worship and happiness in God alone, not in anything I create, be it a craft project, my book, or even in my family.

This is another great article in learning how to be okay with not having the answers, not knowing why (or when), but just trusting God.

I read The Nightingale and loved it. We went to the library, and I’m totally a pick-a-book-out-by-it’s-cover person, and it worked out nicely in this case. Suspicion is next on my reading for fun list.

I thought it was interesting what Russell Brand had to say about pornography (see here). It’s something that isn’t really talked about in marriages, or among people, but it’s something that is everywhere, especially in our digital age, and can be so detrimental to our hearts and minds. It can really hurt relationships too. Ben and I were thankful to be part of a church where that issue was addressed among men and women. Men were reaching out to other men confessing their struggles and asking for help (and even women too!), and husbands and wives were talking about it in their own marriages and how to protect it from that. We were far from perfect, but it was a community of grace and not performance. It was a place where we could be the messy, but help each other confess that and love God more deeply. I know it’s something we also have to prepare our kids for, and we’ve already started some dialogue with our girls about it. My friend, Frances, wrote about what they do to protect their home and children from pornography (read here, she links to many good articles in her post), and we do much of the same things in our home and have similar conversations with our girls. Anyway, sorry this was probably an awkward thing to share here, but it’s something we likely will all have to deal with in some form. It’s not something my parents really had to worry about as I grew up since the internet didn’t exist, and it was unlikely I would run into it. It’s a different time now, so it’s something we want to make sure we are prepared for. I’ve always loved this space for being able to share the pretty, crafty, and even messy things like this.

Back to lighter subjects, I’ve been craving onions rings and want to try and make this.

I’m sure my girls would love to make this.

I wish this dress was smaller because it seems like it would be perfect for summer.

Okay, that’s all for now. I guess that’s what happens when I don’t do a “Huzzah” for awhile, I come back with a really loaded one. We are finally on spring break! I have some outings planned, and I plan to have at least one day when we all do nothing except read books and watch movies in bed.

Happy weekend friends!