Adventures in La La Land

1. Exciting news, everyone: I am officially drug free. 😂 And by that, I mean I finally completely weaned myself off of Zoloft. I took the max dose for years and have been slowly lowering it for a year. I stopped taking them altogether over a week ago, and have lived to tell the tale! I didn't notice any physical effects, and I feel pretty much normal emotionally! I've been a little irritable and moody the past couple of days, but that's not abnormal for me, and I felt like this occasionally even when I was fully medicated. So as long as it doesn't continue over-long, I'm not going to worry about it.  The one effect that has been most pronounced, however, is that I have emotions again. I've joked for years that I'm hard hearted and don't cry because I'm highly medicated, and apparently there was some truth to that. This week I was watching Jackie Hill Perry's podcast on YouTube while I folded laundry. She had a guest speaker on who was discussing

1. My moms' group at church has been reading M is for Mama  by Abbie Halberstadt. Truthfully, I don't love the book, but we came to a chapter this week on gentleness that I appreciated. Halberstadt calls moms to be kind and gentle with their kids - something we all want to be, but few of us actually are . I have many excuses to yell: I'm tired or hormonal, the kids don't respond if I don't yell, or it's how I exercise my authority. But Halberstadt points out that the Bible requires kindness even when our circumstances are unfavorable or our hormones are raging. Gentleness is kindness's twin, and they both require self-control. If you know your Bible, you may recognize those three attributes as fruits of the spirit! Anyway, the chapter concluded with a "Gentleness Challenge" and we decided to take it on. For seven days, we're going to strive for gentleness - not just with our kids, but with everyone around us. That means no harsh words, no yelli

1. Last week, when I was binge-reading that Connilyn Cossette series, I came to a startling realization: I prefer ebooks to physical books.  What kind of librarian am I?? I read the first two books of the series via Kindle on my phone, but I actually had a physical copy of the last one on my shelf - I must've found it at a thrift store or something - and it was such a pain to haul it around and try to find a place in my house with good enough lighting to read by. Haha. My phone is always in my pocket, and always lit up. The one perk of physical books is that they don't run out of battery power, but I think I can officially say I prefer e-books.  2. We celebrated New Year's Eve at home, reading books and watching football. Levi went to bed at his normal time because he can't entertain himself like the girls do. Haha. The girls stayed up 'til midnight with us. We flipped from football to the ball drop at 11:59, then toasted the new year with sparkling grape juice. Of