Searching out a Fuller Life

Signing in from Texas.

We began this blog to document our world travels. Starting in England and documenting trips to China, Korea, across the continental United States, Hawaii, etc. has been fantastic. This blog has also witnessed the expansion of our family, our fellow travelers in life and the joy of our existence.

And now we've taken a new step in our journey, this search for moments that swell life to its fullest. Moving away from family, familiar mountains, comfortable surroundings, we've taken a step out into a new and stretching adventure. We are, for the foreseeable future, Texans.

Making this decision was exciting. We grabbed a great opportunity, eager to experience new and more and different. But then we faced the realities of being separated from family--from cousins our kids saw as best friends, from parents who had real time and need and love for us, and from a large and welcoming extended family that nurtured close and enriching relationships for all of us. That is still the most difficult facet of our time here, and it's getting harder.

But when Dustin and I flew down to house hunt we felt the need to be here. Later, when we drove a car down for him to use at work (he started his job while the kids and I had finished summer in Utah) we felt it again: a resonating pull and sense of right-ness being here.

And so, based on prayers and that reverberation of home, we are here. And our drive to have not just a full life, but a fuller life--one we choose, one we conscientiously expand, one where we seek for deeper and whole-er impacts on our souls--has landed us in a new and wonderful place where we will keep expanding the good we've gathered. This blog is a receptacle, for now, of what we find.

Can't wait to share it with y'all!

Books of 2017

  I read 37 books this year (actually, close to 100 if you count the 50+ The Magic Treehouse series I listened/read to my kids. Boy, was that a time commitment!). I really enjoy reading, and this year I practiced feeling like reading was a time of enlightenment, instead of a guilty time-waster as I so often categorize it. Here's the order, with a few comments:

• Anne of Ingleside--L.M. Montgomery

Finished this series this year after beginning it last year. Anne is a delightful character, and I enjoy her story inasmuch as it so closely parallels my own love story.

• Rainbow Valley--L.M. Montgomery

• The Queen of Attolia--Meghan Whalen Turner

This is a FANTASTIC series. I love the first book, and this second one is great, and the third is splendid...you get the idea. Great characters, strong females, etc. And always a twist in the perspective of the story/plot.

• Daring Greatly--Brene Brown

This took me so longt o get through. I loved the first half, but then I lost steam, and it seemed that she began repeating herself as the slogged to the finish. Her Tedtalks are good.

• Of Mice and Men--John Steinbeck

• East of Eden--John Steinbeck

SUCH an impacting book. I read it with a few friends and spent hours discussing what Steinbeck reveals about people, love, religion, meaning, all of it. Definitely a book everyone should read in their lifetime.

• The Bell Jar--Sylvia Plath

• Rilla of Ingleside--LM Montgomery

• Peter Pan--J.M. Barrie

If you are wanting to read Peter Pan out loud to kids, choose the play instead of the book. The pirate fights and descriptions are lost on the kids.

• The King of Attolia--Meghan Whaler Turner

• River Secrets--Shannon Hale

Shannon is a good storyteller. I really enjoy the world she has created, and the strengths and flaws of her protagonists.

• Forest Born--Shannon Hale

This book stood out to me because it shows (spoiler alert) that, unlike Frodo who can't happily return to the Shire, that heros and heroines can be happy to go out, adventure and travel and such, and then return home--like home is actually a good thing :)

• Conspiracy of Kings--Megan Whalen Turner

• The Boys in the Boat--Daniel James Brown

• Hillbilly Elegy--J.D. Vance

• The Penderwicks--Jeanne Birdsall

Another great series. The first book is my favorite, and it delights me all the more because this is such a great picture of how my sisters and I were growing up. I love it!

• The Penderwicks on Garham Street--Jeanne Birdsall

• The Penderwicks at Mouette Point--Jeanne Birdsall

• Don Quixote--Miguel de Cervantes

This took me FOREVER to get through. Like over 9 months--more than it takes to grow and deliver a baby. It is TOO LONG. There are lots of good and humorous and literary important things here, but mostly just too long.

• Chocolate Fever--Robert K. Smith

Read with the kids. Funny.

• The Chocolate Touch--Patrick Skene Catling

I liked this even better than Chocolate Fever. So did the girls.

• What We Talk About When We Talk About Love--Raymond Carver

Meh. When I talk about love, I don't talk about such sad and depressing things. Needs more of an emotional, less cynical mix.

• Thick As Thieves--Megan Whalen Turner

• Ten Colloquies--Erasmus

Read this because Erasmus supposedly had quite an influence on Reformation thought, etc.

• The Penderwicks in Spring--Jeanne Birdsall

• Middlemarch--George Elliot

Phenomenal. I can't believe I never read Eliot during my MA in English program. Her ability to weave together stories and keep track of dozens of characters is mind boggling. Good read, and beautiful, meaningful writing.

• House Full of Females--Laurel Thatcher Ulrich

Ulrich is one of my long-time role models--my dream was to follow her academic path (history undergrad, English masters, then history PhD), and I appreciate having an intelligent, historical researcher who is so thorough in delving into a topic. Lots to discuss with this one.

• The Girl Who Drank the Moon--Kelly Barnhill

Enjoyable Newberry award.

• Elantris--Brandon Sanderson

This is my first exposure to Sanderson. I was struck with the story, and I have thought of it often. Lots of the details escape, but some of the characters still find me in my thoughts.

• Half of a Yellow Sun--Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

So much tragedy and hardship in the world that never touches our lives directly. Without modern technology we wouldn't even be aware of the rest of the iceberg. Some is so foreign, but some is repeated in every society on earth.

• The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society--Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows

So fun.

• Charlie and the Chocolate Factory--Roald Dahl

My oldest daughter's new favorite book, and has started off a Roald Dahl kick in our house.

• Little House in the Big Woods--Laura Ingalls Wilder

I was surprised how much my kids liked this. We've trudged all the way to near the end of the 3rd book in the series now.

• The Book of Mormon

Every year the same words. Every year new highlights, thoughts, and inspiration.

• Tuesdays at The Castle--Jessica Day George

Kids love it. a Little juvenile for me.

• Wednesdays in the Tower--Jessica Day George

• Thursdays with the Crown--Jessica Day George

• Fridays with Wizards--Jessica Day George