the cover and the title page.

Listening To: Ho Hey by The Lumineers

Hello beauties (&;beastlies)! Due to a random lack of Internet this week (plus a whole bunch of crazy happening), I'm not posting our Q&A Tuesday question until next week. But it's coming soon! If you have a question for Q&A Tuesday (it need not be of a serious nature ...), don't hesitate to send it in!

I'll be back next week with some new posts. Until then, behold some fun links for your clicky pursuits:

- Most importantly, thank you for praying for Tommy (our new little blog-hero mentioned on the last post). He's out of surgery and doing well! Thanks also for praying for my friend Melanie, who got an incredible report from her doctor today and should be home very soon. That thread is still open if you'd like to share a way I can pray for you this summer. You people are too wonderful for words.


- My friend Lola is writing about her hair; about why it's a sensitive topic for women, about how she came to love hers, and why her crowning glory can be an "awkward or amusing" conversation topic. I love this quote so much: "Psalm 139:13-14 came home to me in a fresh way and was a great reminder that God made no mistakes in the way that he made me -- my hair included. In fact, he delighted in every one of my features, which is why he gave them to me. I've been wearing my hair naturally since then. And I love it."


- If you're out to dinner with your friends this weekend and somebody happens to ask, "I wonder how many people are in space right now?" (... it could happen...) You can give them the answer! 


- Michael Hyatt is interviewing Bob Goff. Mr. Goff's new book, LOVE DOES, is one of the best books I've read in a very, very long time. I've already gifted it twice this summer. I'll write more about it in a couple of weeks. If you're up for it, grab a copy and underline your favorite parts, so we can discuss! I would love to hear your thoughts on it! LOVE DOES is the kind of book you can't be quiet about once you've read it; it's wild, passionate, wonderful, and dangerous. It's dangerous because it doesn't inspire you to live more passionately; it compels you to do so in the most wonderful kind of way. I now keep a small packet of Starbucks VIA on my desk as a reminder to risk, to wonder, to dream. (You will never, ever look at those little packets the same way.) This is a book men and women will love. I'd recommend it for teens and adults; it's rare to find a book that appeals to so many people but it really, really does. I love the book so much that I'd give Bob Goff a hug for writing it if I could. Have you ever read a book like that? A book that makes you want to live better without making you feel like a guilt-bag waste of space? This is that book. (A note: Mr. Hyatt is giving some copies away on his blog. If you buy a copy, all proceeds go to an amazing organization in Africa.) 


- Speaking of books! I'm keeping up with recent reads over on my Pinterest, if you're in the need for summer reading ideas. 


- This is my favorite summer band. 


- If you were bored out of your wits and followed along with my adventure to the Pacific Northwest last summer, I have good news! The Rogue Accountant and I are road-tripping again. This September, we'll be bringing our special brand of high-class to Colorado. I'll be documenting our shenanigans on Le Tumblr. Follow at your own risk. 


- Biscuit got a haircut this week. She was all smiles afterward. Prepare for much, much cuteness: 

- BRAVE is out this weekend!!! Are you going to see it? I can't wait! If I were still little, I'd SO dress up like Princess Merida this Halloween. I might do it anyway ... 


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- Finally, I'll leave you with a favorite quote. As I've prayed through the comments on the last post, and watched so many unexpected storms spin around the people I love this week, I've been in a Narnia-state-of-mind. Narnia has always been my coping mechanism, which is a story for another time. But this week, I've been holding these words from The Last Battle very, very close to me: 


And as He spoke, He no longer looked to them like a lion; but the things that began to happen after that were so great and beautiful that I cannot write them. And for us this the end of all the stories, and we can most truly say that they all lived happily ever after. But for them it was only the beginning of the real story. All their life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and the title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story which no one on earth has read: which goes on for ever: in which every chapter is better than the one before.


Such a sweet reminder, that. Hope you have a sweet weekend :) Are you going to see BRAVE? Do you have any fun plans?