Lauren Sparks

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May Muster 2020…and Grace and Truth Link Up

May 29, 2020 by Lauren 18 Comments

Happy Mother’s May (not a typo), graduation, end of school, Memorial Day and all the other things!  Celebrating probably looked very different for you this year, but I hope you still did.

 

The social distancing routine continues at Sparks manor, with one improvement.  We now host yard parties for my daughter and her friends and ours as well.  With chairs set at least 6 feet apart and everyone bringing their own food and beverage, we feel safe and also more sane!  If you haven’t already, give this a try.  I LOVE this kind of hospitality.  I don’t have to cook or clean!  My husband and I did work hard initially cleaning up the yards, but they desperately needed a sprucing anyway.

 

Allie, my beautiful but broken-legged daughter graduated from a splint to a boot this month.  She still can’t put weight on it and struggled to hear that she will wear it for at least 9 more weeks.  But she can take the boot off, making baths easier.

 

On Mother’s Day our church held a drive in service at our local football stadium.  We stayed in our cars and tuned into a radio station to hear the praise music and sermon.  After lunch we drove the hour and a half to my parents’ home to see them and my grandfather for the first time since all this mess started.  We refrained from hugging and somehow kept Shelby, our special needs daughter from it (not an easy task – it’s her favorite.)

 

My husband Chuck got his first quarantine haircut – from my 15 year old.  I did not take offense that he trusted her more than me with this task.  There was a direct correlation to her confidence and my lack there of.  He did exhibit some rising anxiety during the process, but she did a great job!  He doesn’t need a hat or anything!

 

Shelby began Rec therapy again, which gives me a much needed couple of hours with a quiet house – even if I’m not alone in it.  It also allows me a break from exercising her for one day a week.  Yay!  A break in routine.  Anything different, please!  I taught my first class in weeks.  Online for the senior adults from the Rec of Grapevine.  It felt good to get back, even if only in a small way.  Check my Facebook page for links to the live Yoga Lite classes on Tuesdays at 1:00pm.

 

For family entertainment we turned to Star Wars Monopoly.  Not my choice.  But we laughed at my bad luck and it kept us busy.  I tried to cajole them into playing until I had lost ALL of my money and property, but we gave out a little shy of that.  We also introduced Allie to Dirty Dancing.  Don’t judge.  It was the stuff of my teen years and has an amazing soundtrack.  We also rewatched The Greatest Showman.  I think that was my fourth time.  I just love a good musical and Hollywood falls short of making many new ones.  And for more good movie songs, we belted along to both Disney Sing-Alongs.  Our Amazon Alexa entertained us with two more games – Song Quiz and Mr. Robot (the later not an actual game, but something Jimmy Fallon made up).

 

The hubs and I consumed quite a few more shows and movies than we could convince our teen to join in.  Green Book, On the Basis of Sex (about Ruth Bader Ginsberg), The Martian, and The Post (with Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep) were all excellent.  I would rate Second Act (with Jennifer Lopez) and The Jane Austen Book Club as OK.  We sampled the new Hulu series The Great about Russia’s Catherine the Great and found it a little too distasteful for our palate, but we love National Geographic’s The 80’s:  The Decade that Made Us.  Talk about nostalgia!  We even got out our high school letter jackets after sitting through a couple.  And promptly put them back away.  Little Fires Everywhere left us slack-jawed and a little speechless.  In the words of my friend Terri, it’s coo-coo-catchoo!  I would still love to talk to someone else about it.

 

In more literary pursuits, I actually finished a couple of the books I mentioned last month and began My Dear Hamilton:  A Novel of Eliza Schuyler Hamilton by Stephanie Dray and Laura Kamoie.  It’s been on my to-read list for a couple of years and I finally quit letting other things get in the way.  These authors also wrote one of my very favorite books, America’s First Daughter:  A Novel.  If you like history even a little, I highly recommend them.  I also set off with some self-discovery and hopefully healing with Stephen Arterburn’s Lose it for Life.

 

What made your May a little better?  Drop a comment below with your movies, shows, books or activities.  I love hearing from you.  And as parts of the world start to slowly open up, I pray you remain safe and sane!  And to close; I love you, I thank you, and I hope June treats you well.

 

And now for this week’s featured post!

 

Body Image and Intimacy:  3 Effects it Has On Your Marriage sadly resonated with me because I struggle with negative thoughts about myself when I’m with my husband.  Angie from keepingthetiethatbinds.com both reminded me that I’m not alone and encouraged me not to simply accept this.  Click here to read the post and give her some comment love for linking up with us!

 

Now for this week’s link-up! Let’s bless and encourage one another in our walk with the Lord.

Grace & Truth : A Weekly Christian Link Up

Grace & Truth exists to point people to Jesus! We hope this link-up will be a source of encouragement every week. If you’re a blogger, we hope you’ll use this space as a way to meet new friends within the Christian blogging community. If you’re a reader, we hope that you’ll encounter new bloggers that love Jesus as much as you do! Most of all, we hope you’ll meet Jesus here.

Join us each Friday for the Grace and Truth Link-Up!

To receive a weekly reminder of when the link-up goes live subscribe to laurensparks.net in the right hand column of this page.

Heather Hart & Valerie Riese

Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Pinterest
 

Maree Dee

Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Pinterest
 

Lauren Sparks

Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Pinterest
 

Lisa Burgess

Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Pinterest
1.)  Following your hosts via their blog and social media channels is not mandatory, but appreciated!

To receive a weekly reminder of when the link-up goes live subscribe to laurensparks.net in the right hand column of this page.

2.) Leave 1-2 of your most recent CHRISTIAN LIVING posts. Please do not link DIY, Crafts, Recipes, etc. We will delete these links. We also reserve the right to remove articles that don’t align with the theme or are deemed by the hostesses to be inappropriate.

3.) Visit 1-2 other links and leave a meaningful comment! We want to encourage community among us, so please don’t link and run!

4.) We sort all links randomly – feel free to link as early or as late as you’d like. The playing field is even!

Featured Post Requirements

5.) Grab a button or link back to encourage new linkers. It is not mandatory, but it is required to be featured.

6.) Each host will choose one link to emphasize and promote via their social media channels next week.

Grab a Badge and Link Back to this Post

And now, let’s link up!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

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Filed Under: Christian, Coronavirus, entertainment, Grace & Truth Link Up, monthly review Tagged With: America's First Daughter, Dirty Dancing, Disney Sing-Alongs, Green Book, letter jackets, Little Fires Everywhere, Lose it for Life, Mother's Day, Mr Robot, My Dear Hamilton, On the Basis of Sex, quarantine haircut, Rec therapy, Second Act, Song Quiz, Star Wars Monopoly, The 80's, The Great, The Greatest Showman, The Jane Austen Book Club, The Martian, The Post, Yoga Lite

Comments

  1. Joanne says

    May 29, 2020 at 3:41 pm

    Seeing a very slow and gradual opening up here has helpd my May look up. We’ve also had some pretty nice weather and have spent time outside in the sun! I certainly can’t complain about that.

    Reply
    • Lauren says

      June 1, 2020 at 1:23 pm

      It is already too hot here to be outside much. And the mosquitos are terrible. So I guess today I am thankful for AC!

      Reply
  2. Mary Geisen says

    May 29, 2020 at 8:12 pm

    It sounds like your May turned out to be busier than you imagined. I am happy things are lifting where you are so some of your routines can resume. I am sure your daughters appreciate some normalcy. Have a wonderful weekend.

    Reply
    • Lauren says

      June 1, 2020 at 1:22 pm

      Thank you, Mary. I hope your wkend was great!

      Reply
  3. Laurie says

    June 1, 2020 at 6:22 pm

    We are gradually seeing more of our family too. It’s wonderful to see the grandkids again. And Star Wars Monopoly sound like fun!

    Reply
    • Lauren says

      June 1, 2020 at 7:47 pm

      I wish I could say it was fun. Monopoly is one of my least fave games!

      Reply
      • Lauren says

        June 3, 2020 at 4:33 pm

        Little Fires made me think more than a little! Pun intended. And I think there are messages in it that speak directly to the horrificness that is happening in our country right now.

        Reply
  4. Shelbee on the Edge says

    June 2, 2020 at 1:36 pm

    Lauren, I am so glad that you are able to socialize with neighbors and visit family now. It really does make a huge difference in our mental states. My in laws are visiting for the rest of this week and we are looking forward to seeing them as well. And my neighbors have been our saving grace! Wasn’t Little Fires totally insane?! All 4 of the mothers featured did atrocious things but still I found myself understanding their decisions. It definitely made you think about a lot of things, didn’t it? And this 80’s show on National Geographic looks really cool. I need to check that out!

    Shelbee
    http://www.shelbeeontheedge.com

    Reply
  5. Amy Jung says

    June 2, 2020 at 8:04 pm

    Thanks for the link-up and for pointing out the post on body image and intimacy. Much needed here too!

    Reply
    • Lauren says

      June 3, 2020 at 4:32 pm

      Amy, I had a feeling I wasn’t the only one!

      Reply
  6. April J Harris says

    June 3, 2020 at 3:16 am

    Lauren, I so enjoyed this post! I think your new way of entertaining is brilliant! I’m so glad that your daughter’s leg is healing. How wonderful your husband got a haircut – my husband desperately needs one but I just don’t have the confidence to do it. Grateful for your book recommendations… I had been considering both America’s First Daughter and My Dear Hamilton and I’m definitely going to read them now! Take care and stay well, and thank you so much for being a part of the Hearth and Soul Community.

    Reply
    • Lauren says

      June 3, 2020 at 4:32 pm

      Thank you so much for hosting us every week, April. I always enjoy visiting your site. I hope you love the books.

      Reply
  7. Susan Shipe says

    June 4, 2020 at 10:50 am

    Lauren, love this post. And, Little Fires Everywhere is definitely worthy of a discussion. I found great book club questions online and in our tiny village we are going to have a gathering of women who watched it. Should be interesting.

    Reply
    • Lauren says

      June 4, 2020 at 11:02 am

      Susan,that sounds so interesting! If the questions are something you can share, could you send them to me at lauren@laurensparks.net? Thank you.

      Reply
      • Susan Shipe says

        June 4, 2020 at 11:58 am

        I just emailed them to you. Check your spam too – my work email has the word “enjoy” and at times it triggers spam.

        Reply
        • Lauren says

          June 5, 2020 at 10:54 am

          Got them. And my husband and I got a date night last night and discussed. So helpful to get convo going. Thank you.

          Reply
  8. Donna Reidland says

    June 15, 2020 at 9:44 am

    My husband trimmed my hair during the quarantine and did a pretty good job. I was finally able to go to the beauty shop and even my hair dresser said it wasn’t bad. Maybe he can start a new career. As for me, I’ve stayed very busy. I’ve been able to do my ministry from home (counseling and writing) and picked up my scrapbooking again which has been fun. I wish I had started earlier in the process but hopefully will be able to stay with it. I have some pipe dream of actually scrapping all the photos we have. 🙂

    Reply
    • Lauren says

      June 15, 2020 at 10:49 am

      I have never been a scrapper. My poor kids are going to have to piece their childhood together from Facebook photos!

      Reply

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I love Jesus, my husband and caffeine. The order of these can change depending on how tired I am. When my two daughters, stepson, and 4 grandchildren get to be too much, I practice yoga. God graciously allows me to share our adventures, victories and flub-ups from my laptop. May He be glorified here.
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