TJ Hirst

Six she prepares,

the seventh he wears.

In this silent time

set apart to serve Him.

Try-It With-Me Tuesday, an interactive weekly time and place to foster connections that challenge and encourage the process to become a well-rounded person.

My bottle of choice for the challenge to drink more water is a Peach Propel bottle. We buy and drink Propel regularly, but I refill with my real daily drink—filtered WATER from the fridge. My goal was to drink at least three bottles per day. At 23.7 oz each that is just over 70 oz (excluding additional water for exercise). I met that goal every day except one. The supportive connections from readers, friends and family helped me to succeed. Thank you.

The day that I did not reach my goal provided some insight about lifestyle changes for health. That day was during spring break from school. Although my children took a “break” from their normal routines, I had tried to keep mine, especially my morning routine, close to the same. But on Friday I took a “break.” I slept late and did not exercise. And it wasn’t until 11:15 in the morning that I filled up my bottle.

This makes me think there is a correlation that when I participate in good health habits I am more likely to participate in others. In other words, either I am doing them or I am taking a “break”. Have you found this?

Despite this lapse, I saw health improvements (like clearer sinuses) that cause me to believe that simple changes like an increase of water and other daily lifestyle choices are an important contributor to good health.

What experiences have you had with drinking more water? I would love your feedback. Leave a comment below.

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One more week for the March Reading Challenge. My self-imposed challenge to read a biography by Tuesday, April 1, is pressing upon me and maybe on those of you who are trying it with me.

If you are participating, whether you are finished or not, plan to connect with me here next Tuesday and share what you gleaned from this experience. Leave me a comment on Tuesday, April 1, telling me what biography you read, a few facts about the person in the biography, and something that person did or said that inspires you.

→ If you would rather publish your thoughts on your own website, I will publish your link on April 1. Here’s what to do:

1. Write a post on your website.
2. Include a link to my website or the March Reading Challenge in the body of that post.
3. Send me your link by Monday, March 31, 6 p.m. (CDT)

I was given a questionnaire at my doctor’s office recently that asked me to fill in the blanks on my lifestyle and health conditions. One of the questions caused me to pause, as usual.

What is your occupation?

Although my current activities and those for the past number of years do not provide a monetary livelihood, I am learning to write with growing confidence MOTHER in this empty space.

I am growing used to the blank stares I receive when I fill in the blank in this way. However, I was unprepared this time for the blank pause in conversation that occurred when I explained what I meant by filling in the blank this way:

What is your occupation? Mother and writer

Writing has occupied a good deal of my life, every day in various ways. I received a college degree in journalism. I have recorded and published my writing, albeit not to large audiences. Most recently, I am writing daily on this website.

While I do fill most of my time with mothering and writing, neither is a vocation nor an avocation. What I mean is that neither serves as my source of income nor as just a hobby.

Upon seeing my answers to his questionnaire about occupation, my doctor was curious about what kind of writing I do.

“Do you write fiction or nonfiction?” he said.

“Mostly nonfiction,” I said, “but considering some fiction.”

Then he wanted to know where I write (or was I publishing). When I explained to him that I write every day on a website, his line of questioning went blank.

Now, to be fair to him, I don’t know why he stopped there.

However, I have since wondered if my occupations are valued (and thus interesting for conversation?) by the pay that I receive.

I was inspired to learn something about Margaret Bayard Smith, a woman writer in Washington City during Thomas Jefferson’s presidency. Her husband Samuel Harrison Smith, headed the first newspaper in Washington, The Intelligencer.

Under her own name and under pseudonyms, Margaret was a prolific journalist as well as a popular novelist. . . Her most significant writing, however, was the huge body of letters she wrote to her sisters and sister-in-law over four decades.

^{A Perfect Union:
Dolly Madison and the Creation of the American Nation
by Catherine Allgor}

The fact that Margaret’s letters were a significant contribution is a meaningful example to our day. She was writing to her own family about the life she was living, and she was actually writing history.

I draw several conclusions from her example:

First of all, what we write and how we write is important, even if it is simply well-expressed insights about the life we live and it is only published from our word processor to our family.

Secondly, we may not (and probably will not) know the real value of our most significant pursuits for many, many years to come.

Certainly, I know that in pursuing the meaningful and purposeful activities of motherhood and writing I will not just be filling time with empty occupations.

And they gave him a piece of a broiled fish, and of an honeycomb.

And he took it, and did eat before them.

And he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me.

Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures,

And said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day:

And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.

And ye are witnesses of these things.

Luke 24:42-48

Birthday parties when I was growing up were a family affair. My mom gave her first and only young children’s birthday party when my sisters, born on the same day only a year apart, received a joint birthday party with friends. I guess she figured that two celebrations for preschool-age children for the price of one would be easier. It probably wasn’t, I’m guessing.

Her philosophy of simplicity stayed with me as I approached how to celebrate my own children’s birthdays, mostly because I am sensitive to stress and these events are known to produce a fair amount of stress.

Birthdays Without Pressure is a website FIND I recommend. Started right here in Minnesota, it discusses the pressure we often feel in our culture to provide large and unique birthday celebrations for children. They “want to raise awareness of this problem and offer alternatives for parents and kids who want birthdays without pressure.”

While my children have hosted or attended a number of birthday parties in our area, most seem to be kept within a reasonable range. But I understand that this is not the case in other places, particularly major metropolitan areas in the United States.

Finding this website is timely—we celebrated my son’s 11th birthday this week. I felt a lot less pressure when I let him plan a simple but fun get together with some friends. He even made the invitations himself the way he wanted them. As I held back my opinions about the way I would have done it, I realized that children want far less than we think they do. Considering that, how much of the party pressure comes from our need to meet more than just the birthday child’s expectations?

Here’s some of what we do to simplify:

We have friend parties occasionally, not every year, more like every other year.

We try to keep the guest list to the number of the age that the birthday child is turning. For instance, a six year old may have six guests. Since we will only invite six friends, usually we have fewer who actually attend.

We host birthday parties in our home so that our children’s friends and family will get to know us and feel welcome to return to our home.

We are learning that we can provide a lot less food to little stomachs. Lunch or dinner and cake and ice cream is often way too much for them to eat.

In lieu of a friend party we will do something fun together as a family, like go to a movie or go bowling, and then have a special dessert at home.

How do you celebrate? It is interesting to see how traditions are often started and continued just by what we see others do. This website and the ensuing conversations can provide new traditions for the birthday culture.