• Start Here
  • Blog
  • Books
  • Table
    • Together at the Table
    • Food and Such
      • Beverages
      • Bread
      • Breakfast
      • Main Dishes
      • Vegetables & Sides
      • Soups
      • Desserts
  • Writing
    • On Family
  • Happy Designs
  • Connect
    • For You
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest
    • Twitter

Happy Go Stuckey

Tethering Grace & Togetherness

Finding My #FringeHours

February 13, 2015 by HappyGoStuckey 5 Comments

I remember being nine years old and being simply beside myself on school library day. I wondered what new books would be available. I’m sure I pondered my selection all through math class– A new Boxcar Children book? Or Spunky’s Diary again? I loved library day. Not to mention when the scholastic book fair came around annually. Don’t even. That announcement made my little 3rd grade heart beat wildly just like a little Kathleen Kelly.

If there is one thing in our house that we have an abundance of– it is books. When we first moved in here, the massive floor to ceiling bookshelf on one side of the living room immediately called our name. Which is good, since it’s gargantuan and no beast or man alive could lift it. Never the less, these two bibliophiles quickly packed its shelves with all our treasures.
IMG_4112

Still today, the love continues. Last year however, I realized I was always stacking books and never finishing them. Do you find yourself doing that with anything you know you really enjoy? Having all the tools necessary but never really doing it? What is it for you? Crafting? Photo Book Making? Running? Cooking?

It is really easy to slip into the season of “putting off.” That season where you don’t do those things you know you enjoy– the thing that feeds your soul and gives you rest. Life is very busy no matter what stage we are in, and it’s tempting to just stack up those books or virtual albums of photos or running shoes and plan to have more time later. 

But later could be now if we could find those pockets of time, those little bits of minutes where things can happen.

This year I have read five books so far. WOW. That is huge for me, and I don’t say that to show how much time I have– because well, I don’t really. I may stay at home with my girls, but I find that the days and weeks fill up rather quickly no matter what we have planned. We have small group commitments, ministry opportunities at church, I take a spin class three mornings a week at 6am, I review books, I do part-time book editing and virtual assistant work, and I maintain my own blog and spend a good bit of time writing for future projects. And those are just the personal commitments. I also love the time I can spend with our family and friends. All of those things are important to me and so they all have a bit of priority involved. It is easy to let anything I do “for me” slip. The problem with that tends to be that I am prone to be worn out, stretched thin and unable to have much overflow for everyone else if I don’t take time to refresh.

One of the biggest game changers for me has been reading The Fringe Hours: Making Time for You by Jessica Turner. Jessica’s blog, The Mom Creative was one the very first I began reading more than five years ago and even then I was amazed at “all that she did.” This book does not tell you what you should be doing with your time, but it gives you valuable principles that allow you to decide for yourself. The Fringe Hours is an encouraging and exciting look at the time we already have and it directs us to choose those things that matter and invest in them with our time.

IMG_2683

The Fringe Hours so assisted me in making time for myself that I was able to locate pockets of “lost” time in which I could read and write. If you keep glancing over at a pile of something you really hope you “get to” soon– I would encourage you to grab this book! It comes out in just a few days and if you pre-order The Fringe Hours: Making Time for You on Amazon, it could show up on your doorstep then!

Happy #FringeHours, Friend!!! I’m linking up with Jessica Turner today in celebration of her book’s release and Fringe Friday!

**Amazon links are affiliate links. 

The Song
Abby’s Sheriff Callie Birthday Party

Comments

  1. byquietwaters says

    February 13, 2015 at 1:29 pm

    I too have been inspired to look for those pockets of time! And my pile of “hope to dos” is getting a little bit smaller 🙂

    Reply
  2. Kristin Hill Taylor says

    February 17, 2015 at 10:08 am

    I spend a lot of my fringe hours reading too. AND my girl (she’s 7) is on the couch right now with a Box Car Children book. 🙂

    Reply
    • happygostuckey says

      February 17, 2015 at 10:23 am

      I cannot wait until My Lucy is old enough for the Boxcar children! 😉

      Reply
  3. Kristin Hill Taylor says

    February 17, 2015 at 10:08 am

    I spend a lot of my fringe hours reading too. AND my girl (she’s 7) is on the couch right now with a Box Car Children book. 🙂

    Reply
    • happygostuckey says

      February 17, 2015 at 10:23 am

      I cannot wait until My Lucy is old enough for the Boxcar children! 😉

      Reply

Leave a Reply to happygostuckey Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Subscribe and receive a Free copy of “Simmer: Six soup recipes and the Stories that Inspired Them.”

Your personal information is safe and will never be shared.

Hey There!

I'm Cynthia and I'm so glad you're here. I am an introvert with an extrovert's love of gathering people together. I love good books and capturing moments. Whether you visit me here or on my own front porch, I'll be the one holding the Iced Coffee for us both.

Instagram

happygostuckey

Joy is the courage of people who don’t have all Joy is the courage of people who don’t have all the answers, yet.

While you sit in a season of waiting,
the calendar can often be a cruel companion, reminding you that days go by, weeks, months— with what feels like very little change in the right direction.

Perhaps you can easily assent to: 
“Hope deferred makes the heart sick,

but you strain to see just how it will be when: “...a longing fulfilled is a tree of life.” (Proverbs 13:12)

Wherever you and I are today— whether we wander, wait, stand firmly planted, or some pressed together combination of all three — we can take heart.

We are not alone.
And this will not be wasted.
What seems to be an unending blank space, an indefinite pause, is a space for new things.

Long before all is made right, and whether or not it all is tied up neatly with a perfectly crafted bow— we can know this:

We do not have to know the outcome to be faithful today.

✨Joy is not disregard for reality as much as it is obstinacy against despair.✨
Hi 👋🏻 I’m Cynthia and I’m a bit weary. T Hi 👋🏻 I’m Cynthia and I’m a bit weary. There. I said it. These days I’m gravitating to the true & the beautiful as rest for my weary self... and I wonder if you are too.

So much so, that I’m starting a new little offering, it’s called “The Feast: Wonder for the Weary” and the first issue goes out this weekend. It’s a bit more personal (okay this first one is WAY more personal. 🤭) It will be a little bit of everything, all with the goal of offering REST to both the feasters & foragers alike. If you’re already a subscriber— no need to do anything, if not— click through my bio to “keep in touch” and join the feast.✨
We are a people of both lament and praise. We hol We are a people of both lament and praise.

We hold questions without answers— yet we hold them in hands already full of good things.

We hold our daily bread, our daily gifts, and we hold the daily closeness of the God Who Sees.

The God who is no stranger to our lament, and Who Is the reason for our every hope.
He does not grow weary of our asking. Of our need to be told again, He will. 

You friend, are not invisible.
You are seen and cared for by the God who does all things well. (Even when they feel anything but.)
Married love ambition: making the kids roll their Married love ambition: making the kids roll their eyes at our “gushy-ness” as often as possible. 

President & CEO of the Lance Stuckey Fan Club— in every season, but especially on days like today.
Rainy day Mocha date, courtesy of our own toasty k Rainy day Mocha date, courtesy of our own toasty kitchen.😍🌧📚

On this chilly Saturday, we spent entirely too long browsing for books at our library and then all came home to a fire, mochas, and cocoa, respectively. Of all the things we do not know at this very moment, we know the gifts abound, and are worth counting.

PS, if you haven’t spread whipped cream on a foil-lined baking sheet to freeze, and then cut out cute shapes with cookie cutters to top your coffee or hot cocoa, may I suggest you get thee on that at once.
“If God sends us on strong paths, we are provide “If God sends us on strong paths, we are provided strong shoes.” — Corrie Ten Boom

✨File under, things to save in a fire.✨

The prayer journal pictured here contains six months of the hard & the sweet.
Six months of prayers asked & answered for ourselves and for others.
Six months of seeing through prayer, not how it changed our circumstances necessarily but how it changed us.

I always appreciate a record like this— being able to clearly see the paths we are led down, rocky though they may be? Priceless.

The ways God has come near us & drawn us to Himself again and again are written on these pages and I’ll treasure it forever.

Also pictured: Psalms Illuminated Scripture Journal. Highly recommend. Thank you always, @allifarnell
“The world is indeed full of peril, and in it th “The world is indeed full of peril, and in it there are many dark places; but still there is much that is fair, and though in all lands love is now mingled with grief, it grows perhaps the greater.”
J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

While scrolling through my photos today, my heart was heavy to realize how far back “before” was.

Before masks and distancing, before loss, before other, more personal bits of hard. Multitudinous change, neither all bad nor all good.

With our free time, we’ve introduced our girls to Tolkien, Bilbo, Frodo, and especially Samwise the Brave. They are officially hooked and we are delighted to watch them discover another world where evil doesn’t win, and the courage of the small matters much. {they close their eyes at the Orcs and we haven’t had a nightmare yet!}🤞🏻😂😬
I’m leaning increasingly more into the analog th I’m leaning increasingly more into the analog these days.

It started with the Sourdough and a dozen different kinds of jam last year.
I suddenly find great calm in activities that stand in direction opposition to hurry, the textbook definition of ✨work in progress.✨ And really, if you could see the other side of this piece, you would believe me. 🙃

Thank you to @thebarmyfox for making embroidery so accessible!
@thenester says, “It doesn’t have to be perfec @thenester says, “It doesn’t have to be perfect to be beautiful,” and I believe that the weeknight meal equivalent is, “Just because it’s easy— doesn’t make it a second-tier supper!”

Thank you, Spaghetti with Meat sauce for being both a ministry to mom AND a crowd pleaser. Especially on a dreary January-ish day. It is ✨quite alright✨ to make something we’ve made a million times just because we know it makes the people happy.🍝
Load More... Follow on Instagram

Categories

Featured Posts

On Waiting & Moving

(And a Recipe for Italian Tortellini Soup) Later this month, our family will celebrate the 10th … [ Read More ]

Five Good Things

Hi. How are you, really? If you're anything like me-- you have moments of complete gratefulness for … [ Read More ]

Winter Favorites

(and why it matters to pay attention to the little things.) "For you are the sunshine-maker in … [ Read More ]

Loving Lately in November

"...all creation's revealing his majesty. We're invited to join with all nature in manifold witness … [ Read More ]

Feasting & Foraging (free for the weekend!) 🍊🌿

I wrote a book, called Feasting & Foraging, and I would like to tell you why. About a year … [ Read More ]

Miss Something?

Please be kind and give proper credit if you share! © Cynthia M. Stuckey. For personal use only, not to be copied, distributed, altered or sold.

Privacy Policy

Full privacy policy may be found HERE.

Want each post to magically appear in your email box?

Your personal information is safe and will never be shared.

Cynthia@happygostuckey.com
xo Cynthia
  • Start Here
  • Blog
  • Books
  • Table
  • Writing
  • Happy Designs
  • Connect

© 2021 · Pretty Creative WordPress Theme by, Pretty Darn Cute Design