Things I Enjoy These Days
I was never an outdoorsy person when younger. I was an indoorsy book reader. I still don’t consider myself very outdoorsy, but have grown to love it, and feel the need to be outside because of Aaron’s outdoorsy influence and because nature was the strongest evidence of God to me when I could not otherwise believe in Him. Now when we are hiking or watching nature documentaries, I want to cry the whole time in gratefulness as nature proclaims God’s existence and faithfulness to me.
These are some of my favorite nature docs right now:
-The Green Planet with David Attenborough on HBOMax (also on PBS).
I love David Attenborough. Aaron loves Viva La Dirt League. This comedy sketch has me in stitches every time! The guy impersonating Attenborough deserves an award.
-Epic Adventures with Bertie Gregory on Disney+.
-Animals Up Close with Bertie Gregory on Disney+.
-Secrets of the Bees with Bertie Gregory on Disney+.
The rest of the series (Whales, Penguins, Elephants) is great too but, alas, does not have Bertie who is my favorite, and a cross between my nephew, Blake, and Mr Bingley from Pride and Prejudice. I adore his enthusiasm and love for nature. He’s living my dream. If I had all the money in the world, I would just tour nature reserves across the globe + go on a cruise to Antartica.
Disney+ has the National Geographic catalog which, for me, makes the annual subscription well worth it (also because of Bluey which is hands down the best little kid’s show ever made).
Aaron loves archeological documentaries, particularly any with Dr. Albert Lin.
I was astonished by Lin’s episode on Sodom and Gomorrah.
Although it isn’t a Christian perspective, he is so respectful, and I feel that God easily could have used His own creation against Sodom and Gomorrah in the way the show depicts so it didn’t discredit the Biblical account, in my opinion.
We had to pause this show for a bit to answer hard questions (and admit to no answers to some questions) from a distraught Luna. Why would God kill an entire city of people? Why, especially, would God kill Lot’s wife when she was looking back at her home and children left behind? I don’t fully understand God’s reasoning here either, even though I have faith in God. Lot’s wife was obliterated for looking back, but her daughters carried on in drunken incest with their father without instant destruction (right after Lot offered to toss them out his front door to be ganged raped, without reproof), and modern day pedophiles, rapists, and serial killers are allowed to exercise their free will. Luna is only 6 so we make this story as age appropriate as possible. I explained as much as I could, and then told Luna that I have no pat answers for her regarding Lot’s wife, and only she can decide whether or not to trust God’s confusing-to-us decisions. I can tell her the reasons I choose to still trust, but it’s up to her to make that decision for herself each day of her life. Not an easy conversation to have because I wish I had every answer for us both, but I’m so thankful for her compassionate heart and inquisitive mind, and I pray that she is able to root her faith as she grows.
For a Christian perspective on archaeological sites and history, Aaron enjoys Expedition Bible on Youtube by Joel Kramer. Pastor Kurt Skelly recommended Joel Kramer on one of his podcasts, and I was excited to introduce Aaron to this new-to-me Youtube channel. But, turned out he was already subscribed and knew all the best episodes to show me.
I enjoyed this episode on Pharaoh’s firstborn.
I have his book Where God Came Down, as well.
I told Aaron we are, like, so old and wise now because we sit around watching documentaries like our grandparents did. When you’re a kid you feel like that’s so boring. Why aren’t they watching Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, for Pete’s sake? But there is just a certain age where suddenly you find yourself saying,”Wow look at this doc on WWII submarines! Bet that’s interesting,” and then you watch it for two hrs before bed. Or the other morning, as we watched Bertie tracking four killer whales as they hunted an epic STUD of a leopard seal who managed to escape death in the most astonishing ways (several times!!). My heart was pounding as we all cheered for the whales and the seal both. And then I went into the bathroom and brushed my long, half white hair, while contemplating being 42 years of age.
These packable camp chairs are great.They fold up so light and tiny! Only 2lbs and they can attach to a backpack. Great for when we go hiking and can’t carry our massive camp chairs. They seemed very flimsy when I unfolded them, and I was worried it would snap in half when Aaron first sat in his, but it held up fine and I was very proud of its endurance.
I love this hammock. We have one in pink for the girls and a blue for Aaron.
It isn’t particularly special, it’s just the only hammock I’ve ever owned, and we liked it enough to buy a second one. We use these for hikes, too. I say that like we’ve really broken this hammock in on the wild west trail, but in reality we have taken it on exactly one hike. But it was a great hike and we loved the hammock! There will be more hammock hikes! The other day it rained, and I was having a rough narcolepsy day so Aaron hung the hammock under our pergola along with a heated blanket. I spent the day out there with a book and it was so great.
We use the All Trails app to look for hikes. Because of little kids and narcolepsy, our hikes are easy, slow, and usually involve lots of breaks. None of us will ever get in shape from our hiking techniques. Daphne is queen of saying,”My legs ah ti-yud” about 10 minutes into any hike or walk, and I wish we had a sled and a team of dogs to carry our kids for us.
This queso with these chips. This is my favorite snack. I will choose this over chocolate which is saying a lot. Costco carries this brand, but sometimes I can’t find it there and when that happens I will pay more and get it from Target.
Free Prints. Every month you get like 80 free 4x6 prints. Any other sizes cost, as does shipping. I use it frequently. I cover our fridge in family photos, and like to have a lot of family photos framed in our house. I’m not picky about prints being perfect, but if you are maybe consider using a different, higher quality company.
Christopher Paolini, author of The Inheritance Cycle series and the Fractalverse series.
I read To Sleep in a Sea of Stars a couple of years ago, and was yelling “What what WHAT!!!!” in the shower while listening to the audiobook because it was so thrilling. I’m reading Fractal Noise for the first time and enjoying it so far. I think he’s a phenomenal author who really knows how to create life-like characters and immersible worlds. Unlike Brandon Sanderson (I finished Elantris right before starting Fractal Noise. I truly did love it, but I have complaints, too.) who creates epic worlds and describes amazing characters, but when he writes a dialogue scene, his characters are like cardboard and I cringe in disappointment because it disconnects me from the story. Do not come at me, Mistborn lovers (I’m looking at my own husband right now, haha)! I know you don’t agree with me, but we can still be friends!
I use Thriftbooks at least 8 times per year.
I’m not a fast reader and struggle to finish books within the library (or Libby) deadlines. So if I feel pretty certain I will enjoy the book, I’ll just buy it for a few bucks from Thriftbooks. I enjoy memoirs (I feel like people would understand each other so much better if everyone would read more memoirs. They give a glimpse into lives we’d never have a chance to interact with in regular life), self help/non fiction, and fantasy/sci-fi.
I’m trying to listen to old classic books on Libby or Spotify Premium.
I saved around 20 classics to my list, all of which I have never read or haven’t read in the last decade, and decided to start with short ones because it’s what I can do right now. In May, I listened to Animal Farm, Fahrenheit 451, The Time Machine, and Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. These are all 4 hrs and under! Les Miserables is SIXTY-FIVE hours long. 65!! That one is at the bottom of my to-read list because it’s a reread for me, and because of the length. I had 65 free hours when I was a teenager, but it looks daunting right now.
I recently discovered this website that allows you to search for other libraries who collaborate with your local library so that you can search for even more books on Libby. This allowed me to add 9 more free libraries to my Libby account.
My current reads are:
-God’s Family: Why the Church Still Matters by Carmen Joy Imes. I’m still in the first few chapters of this book so I can’t say whether or not it’s great. The author walks you thru the Bible to prove the importance of God’s family (and ultimately the church), and I’m super interested to see all of this laid out. I follow Carmen’s Substack and really like her (she’s very Bible nerdy).
-Fractal Noise by Christopher Paolini.
-To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. It’s been years since I’ve read it! I remember loving it as a teenager and rewatching the Gregory Peck movie many times. Even though I’ve forgotten most of the book, Atticus has remained one of my lifelong favorite male names because of the book character.
On my nightstand to hopefully start very soon:
-All My Knotted Up Life by Beth Moore. This is Beth’s memoir and will be the first book I’ve ever read by her. I hope to try some of her Bible studies at some point.
A book I did not finish (which I hate doing so maybe I’ll go back to it):
-The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway.
Have you ever heard of Amber Share’s Subpar Parks? She takes hilarious bad reviews of National Parks and turns them into books, calendars, and other things. They’re so funny! One review of Old Faithful says,”Save yourself some money. Boil some water at home.” I thought of her content when I read this book. If I were to write a subpar review of this treasured and beloved classic, it would likely be,”Some old guy went fishing. Big woop,” and every literature aficionado would have a stroke from horror.
If you like books about old Cuban guys fishing for marlin with underlying life lessons, this is the book for you. I wasn’t into it, but I’ll reserve making immovable judgmental remarks because I was very disinterested in the first half of Animal Farm (I related a lot to Molly the horse who really just wanted sugar cubes and hair ribbons out of life), but by the final three chapters I was sitting bolt upright, flapping my hands at my family who wanted supper like,”Guys! I, an intellectual, am deep in political satire right now and can’t make your grilled cheese yet!”. And then I googled George Orwell and Stalin’s politics for an hour (I’ve already forgotten everything I learned which is a curse I have to live with). All that to say, maybe the old Cuban fisherman gets better. Or maybe you should just read Subpar Parks.
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