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Wellness Wednesday: Back to the Basics

It’s another Wellness Wednesday! Here in March the theme for me is getting “Back to the Basics.” Throughout the past year I have made good strides toward better mental and emotional wellness. And I feel okay physically, but not in tip-top shape. I am getting chiropractic care for the first time in years, which is fantastic. But the other day I stepped on the scale just to check in, and WHOOPS! I had gained a few pounds in a rather short period of time. Now, I know the scale does not tell all, but I also know that my clothes have been fitting less comfortably, and I’ve not been moving nearly as much as I need these last few months. So I decided it was time to get back to the basics in the area of physical health.

What are the basics? Well, for me, it means simply eating less and moving more. Over the last months, I have been snacking needlessly, eating when I’m bored or want to reward myself, etc. So in order to keep myself more accountable and aware of just what my body really needs, I am going back to tracking my food on my FitBit app. I also know that I have been “hibernating” indoors and not exercising nearly enough all winter. Even with doing some at home workouts, I rarely was getting enough steps in a day. Now that the sun is starting to stay longer, I am committing to get at least 7,000 steps a day by taking walks outdoors whenever possible. (I never have been able to work up to 10,000 steps, but maybe someday I can get there!)

My hope is that in a month I can get off the extra few pounds I gained last month. And in the month after that I want to shed 5-8 more pounds beyond that to get to my ideal healthy weight. In order to do that and stay at that weight, I will have to be more thoughtful and intentional about my food and movement choices and make this a habit. I have done it before, but I slipped back into bad habits for several reasons. Now it’s time to get back to basics and make healthy lifestyle choices the norm.

How about you? Do you need a little accountability to do the things you know will help you stay healthy? I would love to continue the conversation in the comments!


Want to link up? I would love to read your thoughts on your own health and wellness journey! Follow the instructions below to join the link-up and share!

How to participate:

  1. Write a post on a topic related to wellness, and add your link to the list below.
  2. Grab the Wellness Wednesday logo graphic below and put it in your linked post, also with a blurb mentioning and linking back to that week’s link-up.
  3. Please stop by at least two other participants’ blogs and leave a comment on their Wellness Wednesday posts. This doesn’t take long, and it is really encouraging and helpful for building community and continuing the conversation!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

The Reading Report, Vol. 19: What Happened to February?

I know a lot of people are glad that February is the shortest month in the year. And I am probably usually one of them. But this year, somehow, February flew by without giving me time to do all the things I wanted to do! It seems like this school year has been extra busy. Or maybe I just have been lacking in my time management skills? Maybe it is a little of both. Either way, I know there is one thing I did a lot of in February: reading. Actually, now that I think of it, maybe that is a bigger part of my problem in the time management department than I would like to admit? Well, let’s not worry about that right now. Let’s just talk about the books I read, because that is way more fun than thinking about all the other things I possibly could/should have been doing instead! Ha!

What I finished reading…

I actually completed so many books last month that I had to consult my Goodreads list because I could not possibly remember them all! So, in no particular order at all, here are the books I read in February, along with star ratings (because you do not want to spend the time to read what I thought of them all, I know!)

Three Men In a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome * * * *

The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck * * * * *

Paddington Abroad by Michael Bond * * * *

10 Books that Screwed Up the World by Benjamin Wiker * * * *

Better Together by Pam Barnhill * * * *

Once on a Time by A. A. Milne * * * * *

O Pioneers! by Willa Cather * * * * *

Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare * * * * *

My top two favorite books so far this year have been The Good Earth and O Pioneers!, which is interesting since they both have themes that tie into the land, prosperity and family. Both books gave me so much to think about, which is what great fiction does so well!

What I’m reading now…

I am trying to dial back my personal reading a wee bit so that I can focus on pre-reading a little more. (I’m still behind where I would like to be with that!) But I am also trying to keep one for fun novel going, along with a non-fiction book and a devotional book. For my devotional book, I am still slowing reading The Spiritual Life by Andrew Murray. It is SO good! I have really found some life-changing insights in this very scripturally sound little book. Reading a couple of pages a day is just perfect for pacing, too.

For my current non-fiction, I’m actually trying to read Gladys Hunt’s Honey for a Child’s Heart, instead of just mining the bibliography in the back for books to put on hold at the library. It’s not new information, but it is inspiring to read, nonetheless! I finished The Spy Who Came in from the Cold on March 1, so my new novel is some old kid-lit. We borrowed a picture book retelling of Hitty: Her First Hundred Years by Rachel Field from the library a while back, and it made me very curious about the original. So I am reading and enjoying that one now.

New on my TBR list…

When I am finished with The Spiritual Life, I am seriously considering reading a brand new book by Rachel Jankovic called You Who: Why You Matter and How to Deal with It. I have heard a lot of excellent feedback about this book from people I trust, as well as read a few sample pages which lead me to believe this is an important book addressing our current Christian culture. I will let you know what I think when I get it and start reading!

Until next time…happy reading, friends!

March 2019 Memory Work Plans

Here we are, marching into March already! I must say that February simply flew by around here, excepting the part of the month in which it seemed to rain for a week straight. (We did get over 13 inches of rain here in Middle TN in February, so I didn’t exactly imagine all that water!) I had to scramble to get this month’s memory work in order for today, though to be honesty, we won’t actually use it until next week. No need to start a new batch on a Friday, in my opinion! But I wanted to get it out semi-on time for you all anyway. I do want to apologize that this month there will not be a free printable, though. I have been thinking about the fact that several of the texts I am using this month are not technically in the public domain, even if they can be found online. So I am just going to link to what I can and leave it at that. I hope you enjoy learning some of these songs, hymns and texts along with your own family this March!

March Memory Work:

Prayer: a Morning Collect from The Book of Common Prayer
Hymn: What Wondrous Love is This
Folksongs: Leatherwing Bat, My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean
Poetry: Spring by Harry Behn
Scripture: Colossians 3:12-13
Catechism: Questions 13 and 14 from the New City Catechism (children’s version)
Motto: Family Way #8 from Our 24 Family Ways

Why Can’t I Write About the Books I Love?

Earlier in the month I finished reading The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck, and I have been wanting to write some of my thoughts about it ever since. The book moved me and has given me much about which to think, so it should be easy to write a post on it. Every time I think of it, however, the words just will not come.

Why is it so hard for me to write about books that I love? This is certainly not the first time I have struggled with the words to express how a book has impacted me. When I read My Antonia I had a similar struggle, and Watership Down is another book that I thought deeply about long after but could not find a way to put those thoughts down in black and white.

Perhaps one reason I have trouble writing about the books I love is that I don’t have a literary education, and I am not sure of the terms to use to talk about them. I feel somehow to discuss themes and structure and setting and all because I have no formal education in these things. All I know about literature has been picked up from places like the Circe Close Reads podcast or the Center for Lit podcast. Otherwise, my only qualification to talk about books is that I just love them so much.

And because I love books, I have trouble talking about them. It is almost as if the thoughts and feelings that I have about stories that I love feel too close and personal in some ways for me to express. Books have a way of getting to my heart in a way that other media don’t, especially fiction. The characters and settings somehow become a part of my personal experience, and I have a hard time telling others about that experience, even when I really want to do just that.

Reading The Good Earth was an incredibly moving experience, being part of the intensely human story of Wang Lung, the farmer, and his family. I felt like I was there watching his life unfold through all the trials and successes, the joy and the immense tragedy. But how can I tell you all my thoughts as I process this book? I hope that one day I will learn how to write about the books I love.

In the meantime, I will just have to content myself with recommending you read them, too! So, go get your hands on a copy of The Good Earth, and be prepared for a heart-wrenching story of the human condition. You can await my next report, in which I will likely have another book that I have come to love deeply and can’t find words for, because I have just started reading Willa Cather’s O Pioneers!, and I’ve already been feeling swept off my feet!

Wellness Wednesday: Healing the Mind in a Distracted World

Welcome to the February installment of Wellness Wednesday here at Tuning Hearts! This month I wanted to dig a little deeper and write about some of the things I have been learning as regards healing the mind in a distracted world. Those who have been following me for a while now know that in October I started taking an extended break from social media. Since then, I have also been reading a few books on the topic of internet and media usage, distraction versus deep work, and the control we have in maintaining our mental and physical health.

Three of the most influential books for me on this topic have been Switch on Your Brain:The Key to Peak Happiness, Thinking and Health by Dr. Caroline Leaf, The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains by Nicholas Carr, and Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World by Cal Newport.

In Switch on Your Brain, Dr. Leaf gives a compelling argument from neuroscience research that we actually change our brains physically as we think. When we think positive, true and worthy thoughts, our brains grow new healthy tissue and send signals to our bodies that actually help us stay physically healthy as well. Conversely, when we dwell on negative or toxic thoughts, our brains make unhealthy connections and weaken, even changing our DNA to release disease and dysfunction in our bodies. It’s truly fascinating stuff! I found her ideas on taking control of our thought lives and choosing what we tell ourselves and what we allow to get “stuck” in our brains (and therefore, in our bodies) truly encouraging and challenging. I have not yet tried the “21-Day Brain Detox” method that she recommends in the later portion of the book, but I am definitely going to in the near future.

Going along with that idea of choosing what we let into our minds, when I read Carr’s book The Shallows, I was struck by how easily we let media of all sorts determine what we think about. It was rather sobering. As much as I appreciate the ease of the internet, I do see how much it can be a detriment to my own mental health, and I know I’m not the only one. The fast pace of the internet alone is a real threat to our ability to stay focussed on one thing at a time for a long period of time. During these months that I have been off social media, I have seen my attention for reading books grow a good deal. Yet, I still feel that pull to check email, news headlines or a homeschool parents’ forum to which I belong. Even just picking up my phone at random spare seconds throughout the day shows me how distracted I have become since I started using a smartphone. It is something I know I will always be working on now that these devices have become a seemingly inseparable part of our daily lives.

Cal Newport argues for kicking some of this constant connectivity to the curb in Deep Work, particularly as it relates to creatives and professionals. This book was a little harder to apply to my current life as a stay at home mother and homeschool teacher, at least as far as the practical rules of tuning out distraction in order to work in a professional setting. But the principles of clearing the clutter of connectivity from email, social media and the like still do apply. I can choose to focus on my children and my work here at home and my inner thought life instead of allowing the virtual world to encroach on my mental space and energy so much of the time. And I have found that when I keep the media distractions to a minimum, I do make more time for my creative pastimes and have a greater capacity for stillness and quiet.

To sum it all up, if we want to have better mental health (which is interconnected with emotional and physical wellness), we need to reduce the time we spend scrolling and increase our awareness and intention toward our thought life. I know that just being more alert to where I am placing my attention and how much time I am spending in distracted activities has been helpful to my state of mind.

How about you? Do you see a connection in your life between mental health and distraction and/or internet usage? I would love to continue the conversation in the comments!


Want to link up? I would love to read your thoughts on your own health and wellness journey! Follow the instructions below to join the link-up and share!

How to participate:

  1. Write a post on a topic related to wellness, and add your link to the list below.
  2. Grab the Wellness Wednesday logo graphic below and put it in your linked post, also with a blurb mentioning and linking back to that week’s link-up.
  3. Please stop by at least two other participants’ blogs and leave a comment on their Wellness Wednesday posts. This doesn’t take long, and it is really encouraging and helpful for building community and continuing the conversation!

Inlinkz Link Party