Happy Friday! This week has been long and busy for me. I may have mentioned previously that I (along with the rest of the Staff Association) am running a system-wide pumpkin decorating contest for all library staff. This week closed the entry period, and now voting is open! So there was a flurry of activity early in the week, but now I’m able to sit back and watch the votes come in. Winners will be determined next week and announced the Monday before Thanksgiving, so it won’t be long before I’ll be busy with this project again!
Today I’m linking up with Hoarding Books to share the first line of a book I’m currently reading. I’ve paired this with Spurgeon’s Morning and Evening devotional as my morning read. It isn’t strictly theology, but talks about stewardship and environmentalism from a thoroughly Christian/Catholic perspective. So far I am enjoying Stewart’s story of the year her family spent living in an apartment on a self-sustainable farm and what they learned to bring back to “reality.”
First Line Friday is a weekly linkup hosted at Hoarding Books. To participate, share the first line of a book of your choice, add the link to the linkup on the host’s page, and check out what others are reading and sharing!
The First Line:
It felt as though a ten-pound stone was lodged in the pit of my stomach.
About the Book
Title: The Grace of Enough: Pursuing Less and Living More in a Throwaway Culture
Author: Haley Stewart
Genre: Nonfiction, Memoir, sustainable living
Synopsis: Popular Catholic blogger and podcaster Haley Stewart explains how a year-long internship on a sustainable farm changed her family’s life for the better, allowing them to live gospel values more intentionally.
When Haley Stewart married her bee-keeping sweetheart, Daniel, they dreamed of a life centered on home and family. But as the children arrived and Daniel was forced to work longer hours at a job he liked less and less, they dared to break free from the unending cycle of getting more yet feeling unfulfilled. They sold their Florida home and retreated to Texas to live on a farm with a compost toilet and 650 square feet of space for a family of five. Surprisingly, they found that they had never been happier.
In The Grace of Enough, Stewart shares essential elements of intentional Christian living that her family discovered during that extraordinary year on the farm and that they continue to practice today.
Check out Hoarding Books for more First Line Friday posts!
What books or activities do you plan to spend time with this weekend?
Until the next chapter,
Jana
Reviews From the Stacks 
My first line is from an exceptional book: The Promised Land by Elizabeth Musser:
“I have spent twenty years carefully stitching my family’s life together, so when it suddenly starts to unravel I find myself in a tangled knot of anxiety.”
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