My Favorite Things: Read, Eat, Listen!
Hey y'all! Welcome to the favorite things post! Some of my favorite things to talk about with my friends are what people are reading, what people are eating, and what people are listening to... I love books, food, podcasts and music! So I will definitely be sharing all of those things with y'all. And I'll include lots of other fun things in between!
Cory and I have had a really fun summer traveling around which means I finally got to finish 2 books I have been reading since before I had our little dude, Grayson, 11 months ago. Pretty exciting stuff!! One of the books I even took the hospital when I was in labor with G... I know, I'm insane. Haha.
I absolutely loved Present over Perfect by Shauna Niequist (she also loves to talk about books and food!). I love the subtitle "Leaving behind frantic for a simpler, more soulful way of living" y'all, Cheers & Amen!!
Shauna is one of my favorite authors so I knew this book was going to be a great but Present over Perfect absolutely spoke to me as if she knew my own thoughts. I read it in 6 days! I love her writing because her chapters are short but life giving, like when you meeting your best friend for coffee without your children for a hour.
She talks about "fake resting", you're in pjs and look like you are being lazy but you are actually cleaning up the house, doing laundry, checking things off our endless list. How we fake rest so much we actually trick ourselves into thinking we are resting until we are so tired from not really resting. She says it is our job has adults to actually rest our bodies and souls. I think as women it is so hard for us to stop because we want a tidy home, we want healthy/delicious meals for our family, we want to love on our people and take care of them. We put ourselves last until there's nothing left. Shauna says in a chapter called Running Laps:
"... this woman and mom is exhausted. And tired of being exhausted."
One of my favorite parts in Present over Perfect is a chapter called Baptism... I was reading it late one night in bed with tears rolling down my face, nudging my husband "you have to hear this part!" I can not even handle these amazing words, I honestly feel like I may need to get them framed for our home. Shauna is talking about how she has started to long to be outside in nature where before so many structures had been important to her like churches, colleges, etc...
"But now I find my heart is drawn so entirely to only two places: the table and the water. Our home and the edge of the big water, the two most sacred places I've ever known.
One way to look at it: communion and baptism. I'm a table person, a bread and wine person. And I'm a water person, profoundly.
All my life, I've felt most deeply myself around the table and on the shore, the bread and the wine and the water"
Y'all... chills right? Those words bring tears to my eyes every time, the Lord spoke so much truth to me in Shauna words. The longing I've had to go to my favorite place on earth, Hilton Head Island, had me counting the hours to us being there this summer. And I read those words the day before we drove 5 hours to my heaven on earth. I read the last chapter of this amazing book as we drove over the bridge on to my island and I decided right then getting to HHI more often was going to the top of our family's priority list. I've always said it was my priority but now I'm going to be intentional about making it happen.
I am so grateful for this book and honestly feel like I was supposed to take this long to read it, not read it when I was in labor (talk about being Present...what was I thinking?!) and start it over when I was in this season of my life. I will forever be changed by this book.
I hope y'all pick up this book. I love giving books to my people and this one is definitely going to be one I hand out frequently. She even has a bible study of Present over Perfect, I would love to do eventually. Let me know if you want to do the study with me!
If you want to learn more about her and become a groupie like moi, check her out below...
Shauna Niequist & her instagram: @sniequist