Ok, so I have gone through all my past Book Reviews and tried to classify them, so that if you wanted to find a certain type of book that would be easy to do now. All you have to do is look at the Word Cloud on the right, squint a bit, and then choose the genre you're looking for.
If you have read something based on my recommendation and think that I have missed a classification (from the list below), please comment and I will add it. Depending where you read, there are 7 or 8 main classifications of genre (I have made sure I covered them all) but there are also 150+ subgenres and classifications that I can't always see the difference between. As such, some things you'll have to give me artistic license for, such as grouping Paranormal under Fantasy, rather than giving it its own classification. And I'm surprised to see that despite reading a load of Stephen King and James Herbert as a teen, I haven't got any Horror listed. That's probably the only addition that I would make.
And, you will notice that some of the links give more than just books listed, especially in the non-fiction list, but you'll just have to cope with scrolling down to find the books for those.
So here is the list of classifications, so that if you did want to find something quickly, you can either click the link below, or the word cloud.
This past week I have done nearly zero exercise and have been eating crap. I haven't weighed myself, but I hope to get back to it this week After a few days of not eating properly, I'm missing vegetables, so I'm looking forward to our veg box coming this Wed.
What I have been doing, is loads and loads of home ed stuff. I have two different FOIs going on, and have been busy collating the information altogether. I'm even drawing a pretty chart to display the info, which looks good, but wasn't as easy as I was hoping for! DD2 missed her transition day for secondary school due to covid, but has been invited to a summer school. I need to start getting her uniform together - I swear for DD1 I had it all by this point in the year, whereas for DD2, I've barely thought about it.
I have also been reading - hurray! - reading a lot and escaping into other worlds really does help my mental health. I am approximately 5 books/series behind on my book reviews, so instead of doing that (because that would be the obvious thing to do, wouldn't it!), I'm going to go back through all my previous book reviews and group them by genre, so that anyone who wants to find a specific type of book, will be able to find it easier.
I feel the need to preface this post by saying that I know depression is hard for everyone. I know that depression manifests itself differently for different people, and I'm certainly not suggesting Christians are better than other people.
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Depression as a Christian is hard. Not only do I have the depression itself, but I feel the added pressure of "If God was real, he'd take away your depression" and "If you were a true Christian, you wouldn't have depression" - both of which are lies that add to making you feel worse.
Recently, I've been feeling crap. Nothing, that I'm aware of, triggered it. I just felt numb and 'meh'. I wasn't suicidal, and wasn't in a pit of existential despair, I just felt sad and have been on this ride long enough to know that my depression was kicking in. My self care had gone, and I felt like I had to be everywhere doing everything, but not managing anything - all of which made me feel worse.
I tried to let go of the small stuff. Not worry that my house was looking worse and worse. Not worry that I just wanted to run away and hide, whilst knowing that I have too much responsibility to be able to do that. I'm in the middle of various FOI requests regarding home education and the treatment of home educators; I have my tutees that I love tutoring (whilst simultaneously looking forward to the summer break!); I have DD2 that I am actually home educating (when she is not watching repeats of Miraculous); and even this afternoon I have a meeting with my Local Authority about changing their HE policy. And walk the dog. And see my PT. And spend time with my family. And phone family that live further away. And see friends. And keep in touch with friends who live further away. And... And... And...
Two weeks on, and I'm in a place where my mental health is such that I can write this post, though I have been thinking about it for a while.
Many people think (including some Christians) that Christians have to be "happy" all the time, with stupid grins stuck to their face (yes, I'm jealous due to RBF), never getting angry, with glitter and sparkles wherever they go. However, when you read the Bible, it doesn't actually say that. Nowhere that I recall does it say that Christians will have an easy life with everything they want - indeed it says that Christians will be persecuted* for their faith and suffer hardship.
*Brief segue: whilst some Christians are persecuted for their faith, I do think that many of the claims in the West about persecution are not. This is a discussion for another time.
I listen to worship songs in my car (much to my girls' annoyance), and I can feel the love of God, even when I am depressed. It doesn't take the depression away, however. But I have the knowledge, understanding and faith, that my depression is merely feeling and emotion, and however I am feeling, does not mean that, poof, God suddenly doesn't exist anymore.
Paul wrote many of his letters whilst in prison, after having been beaten or stoned, having to run and flee for his life. He knew that no matter how he felt, God is still in control.
For the individual Christian, more specifically me, this disparity between 'head knowledge' and 'heart knowledge' can make me feel worse at times. Not helped by hereditary Catholic guilt, disagreeing with my current church (Baptist) on a couple of issues, and knowing what I'm really like, all mean that I know I am not a "good Christian", and I wonder if I was "better" then I wouldn't feel like this? Obviously, the answer is "no", and when I'm feeling normal, like I do right now, I can rationalise that. The whole point of Christianity, is that there is nothing we can do to earn our place with God. As good as a mere human can be, we could always be better, however, rather than that forcing everyone into depression, God came down to earth, to meet us at our level, where we currently are, with all our sins and guilt and shame and everything else. And because of that, is why we can still be joyful and sing God's praises, even when we are depressed and 'meh'.
So, my weight is still going up. As of this morning, it is just one measly kilo below the highest weight I have ever been: a staggering 97.1kg.
However, I am not totally disheartened. I am having non-scale victories, even though my weight is increasing. I am still seeing my personal trainer twice a week. She came this morning, and though I didn't quite beat my PB of a plank for 1m57s, I did reach 1m47s - which is amazing considering how tired I felt.
I am also starting to see a difference in what I look like. Yesterday was my day to take my measurements and photo graphs again. Unfortunately, I couldn't find my book with my previous measurements in, so I only know what I am, not whether I have gone up or down. Fortunately, my phone has my previous photos, so I can make a comparison.
I can actually see a difference! It's not huge, and I'm still fat, but I am making progress and that's the main thing. My waist is getting smaller (and I no longer need the bra extender that I'm using in the top photo!), my stomach doesn't seem to protrude quite as much, and though the difference is slight, my shorts are slightly looser around the legs, compared to two months ago.
As embarrassing as these photos are - I am pleased with the difference!
When I was a kid, I had my ears pierced when I was 11yo, before going up to secondary school. At that age, I was deemed old enough to be able to look after pierced ears myself.
Fast forward to now, and my baby is going to secondary school in September! Having never been interested before, she has asked to have her ears pierced, and being the same age(ish - DD2 doesn't turn 11 until August), I wasn't going to say no.
Knowing we weren't going to go to Claire's, we looked around and decided to go to Sharon's Beauty for All. Set up in Sharon's conservatory, we were greeted at the door, and Sharon was even gracious when we were 15minutes late due to my sat nav going haywire and an accident closing a local road.
The room itself is clean and functional, without feeling like a sterile (in the bad way) hospital room. Sharon kept everything hygienic, wore a mask and kept sanitising her hands as per covid regs, and used disposable needles and clean, sterile (in the good way!) equipment.
DD2 jumped up on the bed, chose her earrings and Sharon got to work. Sharon helped calm my daughter down, as DD2 was nervous, and talked through everything. Not too long later, my daughter was pleased with the result.
That's not what I did, though.
I decided that if I was going to be going to take DD2 to get pierced, then I should get pierced too. A lot of blood later (I'm a bleeder, lol), I now have my nose pierced again to match my glasses. A little purple ring.
All in all, a good experience for both myself and DD2. If you want a piercing I recommend Sharon - and she does a range of beauty treatments and nails too.
Have you got a hunger to be closer to Jesus? Have you got a desire to know Him in a greater way and walk with Him in a deeper relationship? Do you have a thirst for intimacy with Jesus to such a level that you can know secret things about Him? Do you want to walk with Him so close that He directs your every step through the leading of the Holy Spirit?
This book is separated into over 70 Kingdom Nuggets. Each Nugget is only a few pages long and goes over some simple truths of the Bible and faith in Jesus - actually, not just faith In Him, but specifically enhancing your relationship With Him, and ends with a simple prayer.
Overall, I really liked this book. I can't say I agree with the author 100% but overall, but, given this was a free book, I liked his casual writing style, the fact he owns up and is open about various sins, and there is a lot of encouragement within the pages without the author being "Holier Than Thou". If you're looking for an easy-to-read book of encouragement, this may be what you are looking for.
This is a children's book. Maybe I should have guessed, because it's called Mouse Tails, but when choosing this as part of my A-Z of Fiction books, I didn't realise that.
This is, however, a cute book to read to children at Christmas time. It is only a few chapters long, and introduces a few stories from the Bible from the perspective of mice who are watching the humans.
The blurb says:
A Christmas story for the entire family that introduces several stories from the Bible in a unique and different way - from the perspective of mice. Two orphans are lost in a blizzard when they happen upon kind Nicholas, keeper of the mountain church. Then a young couple arrives as well, slowed down by the storm. Nicholas gives them a haven from the cold as he shares his stories of some very special creatures in this inspirational novella.
If you are looking for a book to read on the nights leading up to Christmas, this may be for you. If my children were younger, I can imagine settling them with some hot chocolate and a blanket, but I doubt any kids would be that interested over the age of about 8yo.
