Lenten Book Club 2019 Week 4 - Hope, love & Molly Weasley...

Happy third week of Lent, everybody, and welcome back to this year's installment of the Lenten Book Club! This year we are reading The Grace of Enough by Haley Stewart, and I hope you're enjoying the book as much as I am. :-)

Our 3 chapters this week focused on:

1. Marital intimacy
2. Living like Molly Weasley
3. Hope in today's world

It's our last week for this book club, and I can hardly believe it! Let's dive in!

So the first of our three chapters for this week dealt with Natural Family Planning, openness to life and intimacy within marriage, and I have to admit I wasn't expecting this topic to be covered in this book, for whatever reason. It makes sense in terms of the book's overall theme of eschewing the throwaway culture, but I was thinking all of the chapters would concern relationships within society rather than personal relationships, does that even make sense, lol?! It totally fits, I was just surprised to happen upon it. This is a topic that I am well versed in, and first learned about in my young adult years (which was some time ago ;-)), so it's old hat to me, but I know for a lot of people this is a surprising realization about our Catholic faith. I think it's important to note, as Haley does, that this particular lifestyle does not necessarily translate to having a lot of children in your family, although sometimes it does. Being open to life looks different and has different results for every individual couple, it's the outlook and the practice that are the key. It's certainly something that can be a conversation starter if somebody finds this out about you, as I well know :0, and expressed in a knowledgeable and compassionate manner, can be a true tool of learning and love for all.

I'm sure you will not be surprised to learn that I loved the Molly Weasley chapter, hee! Since reading/watching the Harry Potter series a few years ago, I have felt close to the characters, and Ron's adorable family always struck me as Catholic. ;-) Well, it seems to me that all of the main characters embody Catholic values, the Weasleys are just easiest to pinpoint. I very much enjoyed Haley's discussion of Molly, the harried nature of her life with her big family and other responsibilities that she takes on in service to others, yet she always is so friendly. And her motto is to keep things simple - despite how much she has going on, she does not seek fancy solutions to everyday problems. I found this chapter very charming.

To wrap things up, Haley addresses hope. It's easy to get down about the dark things that happen in our world, and the attitudes that we see around us. But our faith has a foundation in hope of a new tomorrow, and we must cling to that. Everyday we can aim for joy in our vocations and in the situations that we find ourselves in. And when the challenging ones arise, we always have hope that God will bring out the good in everything.

What did you think of the final 3 chapters in the book?

This read-along just flew by, didn't it?! We still have several weeks left in Lent, and this gives us time to prepare for Holy Week and Easter. I'll be back next week with a lifey post, and in the meantime, I'd love to hear from you! 

Lenten Book Club 2019 Week 3 - Hospitality, community and whether or not the Internet is our friend...

Happy second week of Lent, everybody, and welcome back to this year's installment of the Lenten Book Club! This year we are reading The Grace of Enough by Haley Stewart, and I hope you're enjoying the book as much as I am. :-)

Our 3 chapters this week focused on:

1. Hospitality
2. The importance of Community
3. Internet - friend or foe?
   

I mentioned last week that a few of the chapters we're covering this week would be tougher ones for introverts to tackle. ;-) And it's true, right? Reaching out to people, TALKING to them, making conversation and invitations, is difficult when you are a bit socially awkward, as introverts are prone to be. But it's to our benefit, as well as the person we're reaching out to, for us to challenge ourselves in this way and go outside of our comfort zone.

I love how Haley mentions that we should not stress about having our house be perfectly clean before we'll have anybody over to share a meal or fellowship. I try very hard to follow this advice, because I longed for this approach so much when I was growing up. I completely understand the insecurity about the state of one's home prior to visitors, I truly do! But we miss out on so much enjoyable time with our family and friends if we let this hold us back. Have your friends over for tea, even if there are toys on the floor and the bathroom hasn't been cleaned!

Obviously, this ties right in to how much we need community around us, even if we are introverts. Haley makes an excellent point about how people don't sit out on their porches as much anymore, and it's funny because we DO do this, and it's for the exact reason she mentions - we do not have central air conditioning! Living where we do in WNY, we literally do not see our neighbors from after Halloween until May. And our neighbors are very nice! When Anne started going outside to play with their dog I fretted about her bothering them and then me having to go out there to make small talk. But you know what? It's great. We've had great conversations about Catholic high schools in the area and other neighborhood news. Last year, while we were out there talking, a woman and her grandson came walking along with him in his stroller, and he requested a stop to also pet the dog. She lives a few blocks over, and we had a *wonderful* conversation with her. She cared for her grandson quite a bit, and it was obvious that she was extremely happy to have found a bit of adult conversation and entertainment for both of them out in the fresh air. The kids were taking turns throwing the ball for the dog to fetch as I reflected on what a lovely and unexpected interlude this had been. This summer, I am resolving that we will continue to be more neighborly.

The Internet chapter was pretty much exactly as I expected, and it's information that I definitely needed to hear. Online community can be a beautiful thing, especially for people who are more housebound based on their state of life or physical needs. And it can be a beautiful source of friendship and fellowship for all of us. But it doesn't take the place of communicating with people who are right in front of you. We shouldn't become so absorbed into our screens that we neglect actual conversation and experiences in real time.

I got a lot out of these chapters. Next week, we're somehow already wrapping up our Lenten Book Club and discussing the final 3 chapters! Looks like we'll be addressing intimacy, living out the Gospel in our world, and choosing hope. I'll see you then, but in the meantime, leave your thoughts in the comments!

Lenten Book Club 2019 Week 1 - Simplicity & turning away from the throwaway culture...

Happy beginning of Lent, everybody, and welcome to this year's installment of the Lenten Book Club! This year we are reading The Grace of Enough by Haley Stewart. Let's dive in!

I was very excited to start this book this past weekend, and had a feeling that despite being nonfiction, it would flow very quickly. I was right! I devoured the Introduction and first three chapters in just a few days, which for me and my limited reading time these days, is very, very fast!

As we begin the book, we have the following themes:

An Introduction to the modern "everything is disposable" throwaway culture;

Chapter 1 on this family's dramatic back story, and how they left behind the security of being near extended family and a dependable desk job to chase their dream of farming, and have more family time together;

Chapter 2 on simplicity and winnowing down your physical possessions. What do you actually *need* rather than storing things that you think you want;

Chapter 3 on love of the land and ethical treatment of animals.

I was so captured by this story. I absolutely love memoirs and life stories that involve courageous choices from the norm of everyday routine. Routine is great, don't get me wrong, but every once in awhile you need to make bold choices when the timing is right, and it's just plain the right thing to do. And so I was completely taken in by Haley's story of her young marriage, and her being at home with 3 small children, homeschooling, and her husband trundling off each day to work long hours in front of a screen. None of them were satisfied with their lack of family time, or with their overall suburban situation, but they felt stuck financially. Then came the inspiration to live in Texas for a year, near their old college alma mater, and live/work on a sustainable farm for a year via an internship program. They made the decision to sell their house in Florida, move to Texas, and pack the 5 of them into a small apartment for a year with no flushing toilets.

Bold. Yes, very bold. :0

Love, love, love this story. Despite the obvious challenges, this had the benefit of them all being able to be together during the day and evenings, and fitting in with homeschooling perfectly. Haley and her husband had satisfying work that they had always wanted to do, and the kids were able to play outdoors and experience real opportunities to learn and grow in nature.

One of the things Haley mentioned that I really related to was reducing clutter and overall looking at your possessions and releasing things that you no longer need or use. Sometimes we have emotional attachments to things, and granted, things with strong sentimental value can still be quite important to hold on to. But ALL of the things that we are reluctant to part with because of guilt or some other such emotion? It can be so freeing to give that stuff away or have a big garage sale. Not having so much stuff means less to clean, less to store, but more free space to live in. We try to go through our basement and storage room regularly, but sometimes we let it go far too long, and lately that has been the case. Release the guilt!

Haley makes a point of saying that not everyone is called to do what her family did. There is nothing wrong with living in the suburbs, sending your kids to a brick and mortar school, and working at an office job. The key is: where do you need to be, and what do you need to be doing, to fully live out what God is asking of you? At your job and at home, are you able to live out your faith, and spend quality time with your family? That's all that is important. You may be called to share your faith in unexpected ways in your workplace, and for your kids to do the same at their school. You may be able to happily weave together faith and family life in satisfying ways right where you're at now. But reading inspiring stories such as this one helps us to stay vigilant, to be always searching and aware of what God is asking us to do on any given day. He may be asking us to reduce clutter to create a more freeing prayer and study space for ourselves and our kids, to take walks outside with our family when the weather is right, to treasure those special moments. The implementation will be different for each of us, but the message is the same. GOOD STUFF.

What did you all think of the introduction and first 3 chapters?! We'll cover Chapters 4, 5 and 6 next Thursday!

Lenten Book Club 2019 - official schedule!

Hi all! We're exactly a week out from Ash Wednesday, and as usual, the Catholic Nerd is all excited! :-0 I have a prayer plan in place, devotionals are all ordered, and so it's time to solidify our Lenten Book Club for 2019. This year we're going to be reading The Grace of Enough: Pursuing Less and Living More in a Throwaway Culture, by Haley Stewart.

I'm *very* excited about embarking on this reading journey along with all of you! This book was recommended to me by my sister, who loved it, and told me that she devoured it quite quickly because she was so into it. Therefore, what I'm thinking is that we will start reading this weekend, have our first post next week just as Lent is beginning, and wrap up prior to the season finishing, I figure that we might as well ride the wave of a quick and interesting read, and give ourselves a few weeks at the end of Lent to focus on Holy Week and preparation for that. And there are only 12 chapters, 192 total print pages, so this definitely shouldn't take us long to get through.

Thus, my proposed schedule would essentially just commit us for the month of March, and looks like this:

Thurs. 3/7 - Introduction and Chapters 1-3
Thurs. 3/14 - Chapters 4-6
Thurs. 3/21 - Chapters 7-9
Thurs. 3/28 - Chapters 10-12 and Conclusion

This would leave us with a week afterward to prepare for Holy Week, and then Holy Week itself. I'll plan special posts for those weeks after the book club wraps up. 🤗

What do you all think? Are you all as excited as I am?! Let's get our copies secured (mine is already on my Kindle!) and get reading this weekend! We'll chat on the Thursday following Ash Wednesday. If you're going to be participating, please let us know in the comments!