Owen's Busy Book

This year I made a busy book for my nephew Owen. The idea came about while we were standing in church watching him intently studying the buckles on his overalls and shoes. I mentioned that he needed "one of those books with lots of buttons and buckles" and Megan laughed and said, "Well you know, Christmas is just around the corner!" And that was the moment I decided to make a busy book for Owen.

I scoured Pinterest to find the best pages and the best way to bind the book--and of course just ended up doing things my own way :) Scroll through to enjoy the photos of each page and click on the link at the bottom for a video that shows them all in action!

View the video here: 

Ultimate Book Challenge of 2016

I've been wanting to to take on an extensive book list like this one since I graduated a few years ago (since I have so much extra time now that I'm not in school). I finally decided this was the year, and thought I'd share with anyone who may want to take it on with me. I know it's a few months into the year, but there's still plenty of time! This list technically has 52 books on it, since one of the categories is a trilogy, so that comes out to one book a week. However, your options are limitless, so it's easy to pick books that are shorter if you so desire!

A book with more than 500 pages: Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, by Susanna Clarke

A classic romance: Emma, by Jane Austen

A book that became a movie: The Da Vinci Code, by Dan Brown

A book published this year: The Girl from Everywhere, by Heidi Heilig

A book with a number in the title: Thirteen Reasons Why, by Jay Asher

A book written by someone under 30: Alif the Unseen by G. Willow Wilson

A book with nonhuman characters: Animal Farm, by George Orwell

A funny book: Yes, Please, by Amy Poehler

A book by a female author: Between, by Jessica Warman

A mystery or thriller: The Shining Girls, by Lauren Beukes

A book with a one-word title: Ash, by Malinda Lo

A book of short stories: Vampires in the Lemon Grove, by Karen Russell

A book set in a different country: The Thirteenth Tale, by Diane Setterfield

A nonfiction book: Beneath the Surface, by John Hargrove

A popular author’s first book: Anne of Green Gables, by Lucy Maud Montgomery

A book from an author you love that you haven’t read yet: The Body in the Library, by Agatha Christie

A book a friend recommended: Once and Future King, by T. H. White

A Pulitzer Prize-winning bookL The Goldfinch, by Donna Tartt

A book based on a true story: An Invisible Thread, by Laura Schrod and Alex Tresniowski

A book at the bottom of your to-read list: Snow Falling on Cedars, by David Guterson

A book your mom loves: The Scarlet Thread, by Francine Rivers

A book that scares you: House of Leaves, by Mark Z. Danielewski

A book more than 100 years old: The Secret Garden, by Francis Hodgson Burnett

A book based entirely on its cover: The Magician’s Lie, by Greer MacAllister

A book you were supposed to read in school but didn’t: The Club Dumas, by Arturo Perez-Reverte

A memoir: Girl at the End of the World, by Elizabeth Esther

A book you can finish in a day: We Have Always Lived in the Castle, by Shirley Jackson

A book with antonyms in the title: Noughts & Crosses, by Malorie Blackman

A book set somewhere you’ve always wanted to visit: The Danger Game, by Kalinda Ashton

A book that came out the year you were born: The Diamond Lane, by Karen Karbo

A book with bad reviews: Barry Trotter and the Unauthorized Parody, by Michael Gerber

A trilogy: The Magicians, by Lev Grossman

A book from your childhood: Island of the Blue Dolphins, by Scott O’Dell

A book with a love triangle: I Capture the Castle, by Dodie Smith

A book set in the future: Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley

A book set in high school: The Swan House, by Elizabeth Musser

A book with a color in the title: Red Queen, by Victoria Aveyard

A book that made you cry: Bridge to Terebithia, by Katherine Paterson

A book with magic: A Great and Terrible Beauty, by Libba Bray

A graphic novel: The Encyclopedia of Early Earth, by Isabel Greenberg

A book by an author you’ve never read before: The Language of Flowers, by Vanessa Diffenbaugh

A book you own but have never read: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, by Stieg Larsson

A book that takes place in your hometown: The Shunning, by Beverly Lewis

A book that was originally written in a different language: The Shadow of the Wind, by Carlos Ruiz Zafón

A book set during Christmas: Shadow Season, by Tom Piccirilli

A book written by an author with your same initials: The Beekeeper’s Apprentice, by Laurie King

A play: Love Labour's Lost, by William Shakespeare

A banned book: The Chocolate War, by Robert Cormier

A book based on or turned into a tv show: Deja Dead, by Kathy Reichs

A book you started but never finished: The Wednesday Tales, by Jon Berkeley

11 Books for Shannon to Read

Last week, Shannon asked me for some book recommendations... "What are the books you think everybody should read?" She said she was trying to read more and broaden her horizons, and that she was open to reading just about anything. It took me a few days to think over all the books I've read in my life (a nearly impossible task), but I came up with a pretty decent list of some of my favorites that I've read over the years. As always, there's no rhyme or reason to this list, it's just some of my favorites. I wouldn't even go so far to say that everyone ABSOLUTELY MUST read these books, but they're definitely worth it.

I should add the disclaimer that for most of these books I have numerous favorite quotes, so to say that the quotes listed are my FAVORITE is probably a bit untrue. But only because I have many favorite parts about all these books.

Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis
This book will change your life if you let it. I read it for the first time during my freshman year of college, and suddenly so many things made sense. Lewis has a way of talking about spiritual things that just resonate in my life. I find myself at peace after reading many of the things he says.
My favorite quote: "If I find in myself desires which nothing in this world can satisfy, the only logical explanation is that I was made for another world."

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
This is a classic that I definitely did not appreciate the first time I read it at 17 years old. I wasn't one of those girls that was enamored with Mr. Darcy for my entire life. I actually considered it to be a pretty forgettable book after my first time through. It wasn't until I watched The Lizzie Bennett Diaries and the BBC miniseries that I decided I should give it another shot. To my surprise, I fell in love with the story and the characters. Maybe it's the fact that I grew up in a family of all girls, or maybe its the way we were always convinced we were never going to get married, or perhaps the way Lizzie loved books and learning or it could be my fascination with the class system and the way they lived back then. I've read it several times since then and enjoyed it each and every time.
Favorite quote: "I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading! How much sooner one tires of any thing than of a book! -- When I have a house of my own, I shall be miserable if I have not an excellent library."

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
I first read this book during my junior year of high school, as part of a Modern Novels class. I was instantly intrigued by the concept--I love a good dystopian society story, and the fact that books played a major role was extra enticing. There's a nice touch of irony that this is one of the most frequently banned books in the US. It's crazy to me how something written so long ago can ring so true in today's. Almost prophetic, and yet we're not quite at that point yet. But take care... we are not that far away.
Favorite quote: "We cannot tell the precise moment when friendship is formed. As in filling a vessel drop by drop, there is at last a drop which makes it run over; so in a series of kindnesses there is at last one which makes the heart run over."

Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis
Okay, maybe it's cheating a little to have two books on here by the same author, but Lewis is just that awesome. This is a work of fiction that portrays a series of letters from a senior demon officer to his nephew, about how to succeed in the business of causing humans to sin. I read it for an English class, and then we had to write our own "Screwtape Letter." I poured my heart and soul into that letter.
Favorite quote: "For the Present is the point at which time touches eternity."

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
This was another one that I read for that Modern Novels class (Mrs. T sure knew how to pick great books). The book is told through the eyes of Janie, a southern African-American woman who lived in the early 1900s and is now recounting her story as a woman in her mid-forties. Her story is rife with sexual abuse, violence, and tragedy. This book is raw and powerful and not for the faint of heart.
Favorite quote: "Love is lak de sea. It's uh movin' thing, but still and all, it takes its shape from de shore it meets, and it's different with every shore."

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
The only reason I picked this book up at a used book store in the first place (way before they decided to make it into a movie, I might add), was because the main character's name is Liesel. And even though it wasn't the same spelling, I figured that since the word "book" was in the title, it was probably the most perfect book there ever was. I was pretty much right. This is one of the most beautiful, heart-wrenching stories I have ever read. I don't do a lot of crying, but when I was done with this, I had tears in my eyes. It's one of those books that I finished, I closed the cover, and I sat there for a long time just thinking about it.
Favorite quote: "When she came to write her story, she would wonder when the books and the words started to mean not just something but everything."

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
The plot of this novel centers around a futuristic treasure hunt that takes place in a virtual world. Pretty cool, as far as fantasy novels go. This is a book that I was only recently introduced to, but once I started, I couldn't put it down. It's a fascinating look at the human desire to hunt for buried treasure and be the absolute best in the world.
Favorite quote: "I was watching a collection of vintage '80s cereal commercials when I paused to wonder why cereal manufacturers no longer included toy prizes in every box. It was a tragedy, in my opinion. Another sign that civilization was going right down the tubes."

Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
This coming-of-age story about a teenager named Holden Caulfield can be difficult to read. He's a complex character, and many people see just enough of themselves in his story that it's almost painful. His narrative is real--real enough to keep this book on the banned list in many schools across the nation.
Favorite quote: "What really knocks me out is a book that, when you're all done reading it, you wish the author that wrote it was a terrific friend of yours and you could call him up on the phone whenever you felt like it. That doesn't happen much, though."

Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
This beautiful touching memoir is best summed up in it's tagline: "One woman's search for everything across Italy, India, and Indonesia." Elizabeth Gilbert leaves her friends, marriage, and home behind, on a year-long quest to find herself. She studies the art of pleasure in Italy, the art of devotion in India, and tries to find the balance between the two on the island of Bali.
Favorite quote: "The Bhagavad Gita--that ancient Indian Yogic text--says that it is better to live your own destiny imperfectly than to live an imitation of somebody else's life with perfection."

Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom
A poignant memoir about Mitch Albom's interactions with an old college professor, Morrie Schwartz, who is now dying of Lou Gehrig's disease. Mitch visits him in the last few months of his life, and learns "life's greatest lesson": how to truly live.
Favorite quote: "'Everyone knows they're going to die,' he said again, 'but nobody believes it. If we did, we would do things differently.'"

Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman
Where would this list be without some Gaiman fantasy? This is one of my favorite other-wordy adventures, a book about a man named Richard Mayhew who finds himself racing against time in London Below (a world beneath the city of London) with a girl named Door. Fantastical creatures and characters make this a wonderfully macabre fairy tale for adults.
Favorite quote: "Metaphors failed him, then. He had gone beyond the world of metaphor and simile into the place of things that are, and it was changing him."

Love Covers a Multitude of Sins

Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.

1 Peter 4:8

Lately, I've been reading and studying 1 Peter, reflecting over the sermon series we had a year or so ago. The Timberline series notes are still posted on the website, so I've been reading through them as I go. It's good stuff... my margins are now full of scribbled notes, with underlined verses and circled words all throughout.

But this verse in particular keeps standing out to me. Love covers over a multitude of sins. Sometimes, it's just not practical or wise or prudent to confront someone... sometimes, we just have to let love do the work. The sermon notes say, "It means we consciously choose to let it go... Many times love can just cover over the offense." It doesn't matter how far in the past or into the future... Love covers over a multitude of sins.

After all, isn't that how the ultimate act of love and sacrifice came about? Jesus' love covering a multitude of sins. We are called to live like Christ, and it doesn't get much simpler than that. 

Love covers a multitude of sins.

5 New Year's Resolutions You Should Definitely Keep This Year

I don't usually make many (if any) New Year's resolutions. 

I think I've come to realize that in many ways, they are a waste of time. Historically, I haven't fully followed through--usually I get halfway and then got distracted. Why make a resolution if I'm not going to keep it? I also have come to the conclusion that I often make resolutions throughout the rest of the year. Whenever there's something I feel the need to work on, I do it then and there instead of waiting for the new year.

But I do recognize the value in setting aside specific time to make changes in your life and change the things about yourself that you don't like. And if the turn into a new year is what gives you the motivation to finally get it done, then that's great! Even if you aren't making any official New Year's resolutions, here are five things we could all do a little more in our lives.

Laugh more. It's scientifically proven to improve your life and make you live longer. They even say that faking your laughter eventually leads to real laughter. If you don't think you have a reason to laugh, force yourself to laugh at lame jokes or dumb cartoons, and you just might find yourself feeling happier and laughing for real.

Help others. It just takes so little effort, and it leaves you feeling better about yourself and the world and life. Of course there will be times when helping someone isn't within your financial or physical or emotional grasp. But often it is, and we should jump on those chances. Helping someone carry their groceries, make someone a casserole, assist in setting up for an event... the possibilities are endless.

Learn something new. This one is so EASY you might have already done it. Here's the secret: learning something new doesn't have to be a huge undertaking or a big consumer of your time! It can literally be ANYTHING. It can be as simple as looking up facts about your favorite historical vacation site or learning how your french press actually works. You might learn something about a coworker or friend that you never knew before. If you're feeling ambitious, you could learn a new skill at work or figure out a new hobby. Learning enriches your life, and it makes you feel good about yourself!

Make something. Again, so easy you probably have already accomplished it. But there's a huge sense of satisfaction in making something for yourself. Making yourself dinner once in a while instead of always going out to eat totally counts! If you're up for it, dive into the DIY world and pick a project that you can use in your house. There are endless ideas out there, and chances are good that if you can imagine it, someone has already tried it and written a tutorial for it. If not, experiment for yourself and then write your own!

Invest. Especially in things that make you happy. Take the time to truly invest in the things that are worth it. Spend a few extra moments with the kids in your life or work a little harder to complete your projects. Don't forget about the little things. Don't let your life pass by without putting in the time and reaping the benefits. Invest.


My one, actual resolution this year is to blog more. So hopefully we will all enjoy the fruits of my labor. :)

The Many Faces of Christy Lyn

Many times I return to my phone to find these stunning selfies, taken by my 

one and only baby sister. I don't really care, but my only rule is that 

anything she takes could potentially end up on the internet. 

She's sixteen. She SO doesn't even care.

"Something Interesting on the Ceiling"

"Ugliest Face Contest"

"Selfie for Jeremy"

"Surprised by You"

"My Dad Can Beat Up Your Dad"

"We Try So Hard"

"A Selfie with Extra Cheese, Please"

"Surprised by You, 2"

"It Wasn't Me!"

"That's Actually a Window Behind Me"

"Do You Smell Something Gross?"

"You Know You Love Us"

Top 5 country songs for Monday morning

One of the side effects of working at a corn maze is that you are surrounded by country music all the time. I've worked there every summer since I was 14, so each year I would go through these phases. First, abject horror of having to listen to it ALL DAY LONG (an awful thought for a high school kid who liked musical theatre). Second, reluctant enjoyment as I began to recognize and sing along with the more catchy tunes. Third came a casual acceptance, when I realized I actually kind of liked listening to country music, and that it's much more enjoyable than a lot of the crap you hear on the radio today. Finally came the point where I embraced it and realized I could officially consider myself a country music fan. Then, at the end of the season, I'd go back to school for the year, and stop listening to the country radio stations. So when it came to working again in the spring, the cycle would start all over again.

Since I'm now entering my second year of working beyond the end of the season and straight through the winter, I never had the chance to revert back to any other music. As such, country music is now my music of choice andddd I'm thinking it's probably here to stay. At least for the foreseeable future.

My ride to work is just about enough time for five songs, so we're going with my top five country songs for Monday morning. This week, at least. Who knows what my top favorites will be by next week.

5. "Cruise" by Florida Georgia Line
Thanks to Regan, this is now one of my favorite country songs. Left over from last year, it's pretty much a summer staple. Best to listen to it with the windows down and the radio turned waaaay up.
But not the remix.

4.  "Rewind" by Rascal Flatts
I am an extremely nostalgic person who's always wishing I could relive the best moments of my life. I've had a lot of good times with great friends, and I know, I know, this song is clearly in a romantic setting. But whatever. It's a nice reminder of that. [The music video, though... is the cassette tape supposed to be some sort of Muggle Time Turner?? I've gotta get my hands on one of those...]

3. "Give Me Back My Hometown" by Eric Church
Can't say I've ever felt this way, exactly, but somehow this song still gets me.
[Again with the music video.... what.]

2. "Could It Be" Charlie Worsham
I've loved this song from the minute I heard it. Then I saw him at the Grand Ole Opry and I loved it and him even more. So yup.

1. "Play It Again" by Luke Bryan
Here's the thing. I am now basically living out this song, in real life. I find myself flipping through the stations, trying to find it, and then singing out loud at the top of my lungs as soon as I find it. So the whole song is my life. Minus the boyfriend, most of the dancing, and the truck. But other than that, it's pretty much the same.
The irony is not lost on me. Probably that was Luke Bryan's plan from the very beginning. It's a conspiracy.