Hi friends!

Gosh, how I’ve missed you all!

Some of you have been with me since the humble beginnings of this little ‘ole blog back in 2006 when I had bought a certain Blue House, all the way through the heyday of a shocking 115,000+ visitors a month, and I have loved having you along for the crazy ride. I made SO MANY real friends through this blog that I never would have met otherwise. I had a BLAST getting to know you. AND mostly, I really enjoyed (and needed) this free form of therapy and creative outlet. AND I HAVE MISSED IT.

But as much as I loved the therapy of writing, and making you laugh, and sharing my vast knowledge (that was sarcasm, obviously) with y’all, LIFE HAPPENS. And if you hadn’t gathered by now that some LIFE had been happening to me over the last few years, let me be the first to tell you: it was rough there for a while.

I quit writing this blog for lots of reasons, and those reasons will be some great topics for upcoming blog posts.

But the important thing is, I’M BACK. I thought about scrapping this blog altogether, deleting all the posts and starting over, and even bought a domain and had a blog designer create a new place for me with none of the baggage nor memories from the old Blue House, but at the end of the day, this blog (and the Blue House) are such a huge part of my history, interwoven into the fabric of who I am, that I can’t let it go.

Was that dramatic? I hope so. I was going for ‘dramatic.’

The bottom line is, the last few years changed me. I read back over old posts here and don’t even know the person who wrote those. My ‘About Me’ page used to have a list of 40 Things About Me… and seriously, I read over that list now and I’m shocked that *I* wrote it. That was a lifetime ago! Who even was that person?!

But y’all… I’m so happy with where I am in life, now. I posted something about that on my Instagram yesterday, here. {Do we follow each other on Instagram? If not, please follow me  here! I always follow back}.

I’m ready to be back. I’m ready to talk about it. I’m ready to laugh with y’all again.

Meanwhile, a few books changed my life and maybe even saved my life over the last couple of years. These are books that have inspired me to live more simply, to transform my home into a cozy, minimalistic haven full of peace and calm and order, and to act justly, love mercy, and walk more humbly with God, and I think you’ll like them, too. In no particular order:

The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing by Marie Kondo

I know, I’m probably the last person to jump on this bandwagon. Actually, I read the book about two years ago, decluttered everything, hauled several SUV loads of full garbage bags to Goodwill, and haven’t looked back. Things DO have energy. Clutter DOES weigh you down. It’s so freeing to travel light and only keep the things that have positive energy and positive memories and things that bring you joy. Which is why I included it in this list… JOY is high on my priority list these days. And it feels GOOD to toss anything, even things that are valuable monetarily, or useful, that causes you to have one millisecond of stress or bad memories.

Interrupted: When Jesus Wrecks Your Comfortable Christianity by Jen Hatmaker

I wrote about this one once before, in one of the last blog posts I wrote a couple of years ago here. This book, like her other life-changing book, 7: An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess, which I’d also include in this list, spoke to where I am and the dissatisfaction and disillusion I’ve felt with the Christian church as a whole lately. Sadly, the most evil, abusive, manipulative, evil, tormenting, hypocritical, evil (did I say ‘evil’ already?) people in my life in the last few years have been “church” people, and the worst of the worst were an evil, abusive family of flying monkeys who were all heavily involved in “The Ministry.” 

But this book really isn’t about that, per se; it’s about how to love and follow Jesus when you love HIM and really don’t like the way church is being done, because honestly, if I didn’t love Jesus so much, I would never go back to church again. Up until recently, I’d only had positive experiences within church. I can’t say that anymore. And that has changed me.

Present Over Perfect by Shauna Niequist

Are you seeing a theme here yet? I cannot put into words how much I LOVED this book, and NEEDED it. I downloaded the audio version and have listened to it on two different road trips and in the bathtub and while I was painting my bedroom, stopping often to take NOTES, because it was THAT GOOD. Y’all. If you’re tired, stressed out, overwhelmed, GET THIS BOOK.

Bold Love by Dan Allender

If you’re trapped in any kind of relationship with an abusive person*, goodness, you NEED this book. If you’re in an abusive MARRIAGE, you likely won’t receive much support, if any at all, from within the church, sadly. Marriage is put on a pedestal, and the ONLY option is to forgive, forgive, forgive. A husband can hit you in the face, lie, cheat, and steal, and you’ll be counseled to FORGIVE and move on because the MARRIAGE must be held together at any cost. This attitude is not only devastating to the victim, it’s NOT Biblical. Did you hear me? It’s NOT BIBLICAL. Jesus would never say to stay and endure, I’m sure of it.

This book explains WHY it’s not only NOT BIBLICAL, it’s not HELPFUL for the abuser because all it does is reward them for being abusers, which makes them abuse more, and that doesn’t make them better people. What IS helpful? I’ll let you read the book to find out. And you have my permission to stop tolerating and “forgiving” abuse, according to the standard ‘Christian counseling’ version of forgiveness.

*Maybe you don’t KNOW if your marriage is abusive? You need to know about Leslie Vernick. Google her. She has videos. And read her book, The Emotionally Destructive Marriage: How to Find Your Voice and Reclaim Your Hope. And please, please feel free to message me if I can help, or if you need to talk to someone. I mean it.

Last, but definitely not least,

Everybody, Always: Becoming Love in a World of Setbacks and Difficult People by Bob Goff

This is the book currently on my nightstand. I’m ALMOST finished with it, but reading the last couple of chapters slowly so as to savor it. This book was written for me, because God knew I needed to have my hope restored in Christian people. This is the SWEETEST book, with stories that made the back of my eyeballs leak. I don’t usually read books twice, but every book on this list is a definitely-read-twice book. This one, I’m going to download the audio version because I need to immerse myself in it again. If you’re a person who loves Jesus but needs help loving His people, gosh, read this.

I read so many books – usually a book a week – and I know if I thought about it I could list twenty more books that have rocked my world, but these are the first that came to mind, the ones that made me laugh and cry and change my beliefs and change the way I live my life, and most of all, helped me through the last tumultuous years.

I’d love to know yours? Please leave me a comment with the BEST book you’ve read lately!

Love,

Melissa