What I’m into: January 2016

January felt like the longest month ever this year and I am happy it’s over. January and February are always harder months especially after the excitement of Christmas. I tried really hard this month to update this post in my drafts as I found things… Hopefully this can be a habit for the future! I know I’m late posting this- but I thought that posting my Weekly adventure was more important earlier this week!

I am linking up with Leigh Kramar for the What I’m Into monthly post! It’s my first time “linking up”… So we’ll see how this works!

What I’ve been watching: 

By the end of December I had a serious netflix addiction and had been binge watching Army Wives along with other things. So for the Month of January any time I wanted to watch Netflix, I picked up a book since one of my New Year’s goals has been to read one book a month. This month I read TWO! Though that’s not many books, I am excited because I believe the more I read the better I will write.

Toward the end of January I broke this habit of reading and started watching Supernatural on Netflix… for two reasons: My best friend in Louisiana LOVES Supernatural and so does my roommate. How could I not join with the fun? I’m trying to catch up….

What I’ve been reading: 

Broken Harbor by Tana French 
I’ve been a fan of Tana French since my early college days. I’ve read her first three books and finally landed on Broken Harbor at the beginning of this month. Tana French is a skilled international (Irish) writer of murder mysteries. Most of her books set in Ireland near Dublin are filled with drops of Irish sentence structures and culture, which makes it truly interesting for me. They are full of complex characters, colorful language*, and intense moral themes. Broken Harbor has heavy dialogue and a myriad of details about the murder scene and morgue scene compared to her previous books. This book is revolting and gripping simultaneously making it a fast read, albeit its 400+ pages. Other reviewers believe it was too interview and dialogue-heavy and found it skim-worthy at best, but I disagree. I was drawn into the scenes and found myself wondering how she could craft peoples’ exact personalities into their responses and interactions. Her writing fascinates me. I can feel the small nuances in peoples’ responses such as an eye movement, a small flicker of emotion, a tone of voice, or a dead-pan stare. I was enthralled and thought her writing was crafty and smooth. If you are interested in murder mysteries and want to read a Tana French book, start with In The Woods, which has been one of my favorites!

*Be aware the colorful language means a heavy presence of foul language.

Searching for Sunday by Rachel Held Evans
Rachel Held Evans has become one of my favorite spiritual memoir authors over the last few months. The first book I read in November is a Year of Biblical Womahood, that my friend Ciera let me borrow before she passed away.  When my fellow blogger and friend, Lily learned I enjoyed it so much, she gifted me Searching for Sunday (thank you, Lily!). In the book Searching for Sunday, Evans takes us with her on her searching journey by using the seven sacraments of the Catholic Church to tell the story of her journey of leaving, searching, and finding the church over the last several years. She doesn’t claim to have finally “found” all the answers to her questions, but she has found what the Church and His Kingdom are all about. When I first read the intro about the seven Sacraments, I worried that the book would be dull and boring. However, it was anything BUT boring. Instead, in her truest way that only Evans can, she brought out the beauties in each sacrament and helped me think more about what the church is all about- especially for millennials, such as myself. I connect to this book a lot more than I had planned on connecting to it. She made each sacrament come to life and applied to her everyday life, making the mundane what it can truly be: holy. I didn’t agree with everything she wrote or all over viewpoints, but that’s not the point. I hope to write about A Year of Biblical Womanhood soon, since it has so radically impacted how I view womanhood and modesty.

On the Internets:

A guest post written by Diane Corner on Anne Voskamp’s A Holy Experience blog. I feel like I could have written it! Diane parallels her progressive deafness and pretending with her inability to pretend for God. She compares the talking to her audiologist gave about being upfront and honest when she cannot hear and not bluffing to God’s acceptance of us in our messes. Since I, too, have deafness and can identify with pretending and bluffing so much in conversation- this hit home with my relationship with Jesus as well! Talk about powerful!

I was introduced to the old song by Michael W Smith Friends are Friends Forever by a dear friend who was sharing that with me in relation to a conversation about Ciera.

This post by Bronwyn Lea about how one word changed her prayers. Thought it was written in 2013, it really impacted how I think about situations in my life, even currently! I also followed her blog and read her blog regularly now- I love what she has to say on certain topics!

Also, I learned Atlanta got 911 text messaging! What an amazing resource for those who are Deaf and Hard of hearing- like myself. I really hope it comes our way to East Tennessee soon! Take a look at the picture to the right of a sample text with Atlanta 911 that floated around on facebook early January: Awesomesauce.

What I’ve been writing: 

I launched into the new year with my New Year Goals and 1 Word. I started the 52 Weeks of Adventures series in January and have decided to post on Monday or Tuesday of an adventure that I’ve taken the previous week! The first week kicked off with my adventure of noticing the Eucharist in the mundane of everyday life! Week 2 was much more adventurous about my time learning self defense moves at Friday Night Fights! That same week, I shared a prayer with you all that had once been shared with me. I spent week 3 of my adventures talking about Snowmageddon and how much fun Watson and I had. Week 4 was somewhat of a tribute to Ciera as I talked about Love Rocks.

For January, 2016…All in all, I kept with my goal of reading one book a month and writing one blog a week! eeeeee! I’m excited about that!

About scarmich

A girl in her 20's looking at love, life, and laughter in the mundane.

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