Share Four Somethings - January 2022

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I have enjoyed participating in the Share Four Somethings link-ups for a couple of years now, and I'm looking forward to all the things that will be shared this year. The topics are a little different for 2022, so there may be a little learning curve for me. Also, one of my goals this year is to do better at visiting the other participants. Over the last several months, I always seemed to feel short on time and didn't do a good job (in my opinion) of commenting in link-ups. Not just this one, but all of the ones I participate in. 

The four somethings to share each month are Something Loved, Something Gleaned, Something Braved and Something Achieved. January has been a wild ride for us, to be honest, and I'm not sure my four somethings will summarize it adequately, but here goes!

Something Loved

My Something Loved list is all over the place this month with everything we've had happening! Practical things - I love Hotels.com and Rakuten, which have been helping me save money and earn rewards especially during the holidays! We went to Columbus with all our kids to have Christmas 2.0 with our son and his family there, and I was able to get a great deal on hotel rooms and earn cashback from Rakuten. 

I also have learned to like in-app ordering at fast food restaurants. Because I'm lazy and like using the drive-thru, and because I hate the pressure I feel to get all the orders correct while yelling into the speakers. 

The photo is from several months ago, but it's the whole family and I love it!

Other things I've really loved this month are in the more sentimental categories. I love my crazy, loyal and loving family. I love our supportive and encouraging friends and church family. I love the network of people we have built relationships with over the years who pray for us, cheer us on, and offer support and help. 

Something Gleaned

I use the Bible app and website YouVersion for my daily Bible reading, and while for the most part I choose reading plans or Bible study guides rather than devotionals, sometimes a devotional theme just seems right. Such was the case when I started one called New Year, New Mercies (A 15-Day Devotional with Paul Tripp) on YouVersion. It's been pretty good overall, and a couple of great thoughts have stuck with me. One of those was from the daily thought on contentment. 

Contentment celebrates grace. The contented heart is satisfied with the Giver and is therefore freed from craving the next gift.

Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. ~Psalm 73:23-26

Scripture and a Snapshot - My Portion Forever

These are the words of a man who learned the secret to contentment. When you are satisfied with the Giver, because you have found in Him the life you were looking for, you are freed from the ravenous quest for satisfaction that is the discouraging existence of so many people . . . Here is one of the most beautiful fruits of grace - a heart that is content, more given to worship than demand and more given to the joy of gratitude than the anxiety of want. 

This is a simple concept, but the idea of being so delighted with knowing the Giver that you're not thinking about whether you'll get the gift you're hoping for is a good picture of contented living.

By the way, I'm also getting a lot of practical and thought-provoking stuff from the book Atomic Habits that I've been reading. I need to finish it this week and hopefully can make real-life use of some of those practical things.

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I've completed two books since my last Share Four Somethings post. You can see more about my reading in my Monthly Bookshelf Review for January 2022 on Just A Second, which will be live sometime during the next week.

Finished and reviewed:

High-Wire Heartbreak by Anna Schmidt

As Death Draws Near by Anna Lee Huber

   

Currently Reading:

Atomic Habits by James Clear

A Brush with Shadows (A Lady Darby Mystery) by Anna Lee Huber

The End of the Magi by Patrick W. Carr

   

Something Braved

We are currently working our way through a situation we totally did not expect to be in. On the first day back to work after the Christmas and New Year break, my husband was informed it was also his last day at work. To say we were both stunned is an understatement. Let go without warning, and without reason, just short of his twenty-fifth anniversary with the company. He has been given a decent severance package so we are not panicking or truly fearful, but of course it's stressful and uncertain. It's likely that the job hunt will mean we will have to move, so we are trying to prepare for that as well. So much to process and so many decisions to be made. Yes, I'd say this is something we're braving, and will be braving for the foreseeable future as we see where God leads us.

Something Achieved

Realizing that there's a very real chance we'll need to sell this house and move sometime soon has given us the kick in the butt we needed to get serious about "decluttering" and getting the place organized. We've decided to press pause on the basement renovation for now, with the work pretty much done except for the floors. We've painted and have started putting the furniture we're keeping back in place. We've made progress in the smaller room that I intended sort of as a home office. The floors are a big expense, so we are waiting on that until we know what will happen as far as a move. 

It's all still in progress, but I feel like it's a significant achievement that we've emptied and cleaned and organized as much as we have, and it does kind of build momentum, I think. The goal is to have the downstairs office area set up by the end of this week, which also means a lot of progress in our bedroom as a desk and some bookcases will be moved downstairs. 

This post will be linked at Share Four Somethings hosted by HeatherGerwing.com

This post will also be linked at Let's Have Coffee hosted by Joanne Viola: Days and Thoughts.

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