Lisa notes

Did you do anything exciting in April? What are you looking forward to in May? We share once a month at Leigh’s.

1 Second Everyday

[If you can’t see the 1 Second Everyday video, click here]

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5 Things Around the Web

1. You Are Not Your Personality: Why the Enneagram Matters 
by Jon Singletary

I appreciate this balanced approach on personality typing. Systems like the Enneagram (which really helps me) are not definitive, but are just another resource among many to help us discern how God is at work in our lives.

“[Even] Enneagram teachers claim that the assessment tests are faulty and your true identity is not in your number. However, knowing your number is a remarkable tool for helping you to be formed in the way of Christ that reflects not your personality type or your number but the unique creation God has made you to be.”

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2. New Memorial Ends the ‘Silence’ on a History of Lynching
by John Hammontree at al.com

Although it will be painful, I look forward to one day going to this new museum in my home state of Alabama, the National Memorial for Peace and Justice. It opened in Montgomery on Thursday. It is important to see their names, to read their stories.

“A stunning – and sobering – six-acre park overlooking the city, the project spearhead by the Equal Justice Initiative is the first memorial in the country dedicated to the stories of more than 4,400 documented lynching victims.

In a press preview on Monday, Bryan Stevenson, EJI founder and executive director, drew parallels to Holocaust memorials in Germany, Stevenson discussed the importance of engaging with a true history, and signaling to the world ‘never again.'”

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3. You Know Who’s Really Addicted to Their Phones? The Olds

Uh oh. Millennials have gotten a bad rap. Graying Gen Xers are the ones who can’t get their faces out of their screens.

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4. Doing Dishes Is the Worst
by Caroline Kitchener

“This is now an empirically proven fact. Dishwashing causes more relationship distress than any other household task.”

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5. Choosing Your Grandma Name

My family will agree I really struggled with this! The video is too funny.

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5 Things about Books and Blogging

1. The Best, Least Annoying Books to Read to Children
by Jennifer Romolini

“Life is too short for uninspiring picture books. And it’s too complicated to settle for “classics” you read as a kid and now realize are problematic or somehow creepier than you remembered. Here are a few children’s books that are clever, quietly educational, and fun — that you won’t mind reading to kids again and again (and again and again and…).”

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2. 10 Best Fiction Books of 2017
by Laura Tremaine

Factors that Laura considered when making her list: Pure entertainment, quality of the writing and story, and how long it sticks with you after you turn the last page.

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3. Here’s Some New Blogging Statistics
by BlogTyrant.com

An infographic here of statistics about why people start blogs, the goals they’re trying to achieve, the amount of income they make, the challenges they face, etc.

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4. 15 Literary Novels that Will Have You Compulsively Turning the Pages
by Anne Bogel

By “literary,” Anne means: the kind of “serious” novels that probe human nature (and especially human shortcomings), focus on the interior lives of their characters, and generally focus on meaning over entertainment.

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5. Five Books I Recommend – April 2018     

It was all non-fiction in April. (I’ll balance it back out in May.)

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5 Things I Love

1. 4 Corners’ Slumber Party

How many years have we been doing this? Probably since 6th grade, which puts it at over 40 years. We don’t stay up at late as we used to. But we have even more to talk about. I love these lifetime friends.

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2. All the “Kids”

The timing of our latest family meal on my side worked out for almost everyone. While this still isn’t all the kids, it almost is: grandchildren and spouses and great-grandkids. We do well to get this many together at one time anymore.

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3. Grown Cousins and Baby Cousins

I love this picture of Morgan and her cousin Lindsey with their babies. They are both happy, happy to be mothers. I hope little Hayden and Riley can continue the family tradition of being close cousins.

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4. At Church Together

This isn’t the clearest picture, but I’m proud to get it! It was Morgan and Riley’s first visit “up north” to our house since she’d been born. And the first time we all got to go to church together.

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5. Home

I hope Riley will come visit Gramps and Granna again and again and again through the years, now that she knows the way. Do Jeff and I look like proud grandparents?

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5 Things on the Blog

• 12 Ways to Be Content
  If you want to be more content in your circumstances, here are 12 ways, revised from The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment by Jeremiah Burroughs.
• What Dates You? Let People Define the Times
  We don’t have to forget the people in our past. They become embedded in who we are now.
• Does Your Mourning Feel Blessed?
  When we’re sad and in pain, we want it removed. What did Jesus mean, “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted”?
• Your Enneagram Type and Mine – Book Review of The Path Between Us
  Want to use the Enneagram personality system to improve your relationships? Suzanne Stabile’s new book, The Path Between Us, shows you how.
• I Can Do It Myself—But Should I?
  Just because you CAN do it by yourself, does that mean you SHOULD? Sometimes letting others help us—even if we don’t think we need it—is a gift to all.

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What was a highlight from your April? What are you looking forward to in May? Please share in the comments.

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