RAR #257: You Can Be Refreshed by Your Reading Life

Sarah Mackenzie (00:00): Everybody starts the new year wanting to improve themselves. Right. And as moms, I think we can justify a lot of our reading if it helps us become better wives and better mothers, and better people in general. But what about reading for fun? What about fiction reading? Is it worth it to make time if you are a very busy mother to read for the fun of it, something that doesn't have a specific purpose? And if it's worth it, how do we carve out time for it? Today we're going to talk all about it. Welcome to the Read-Aloud Revival. I'm Sarah McKenzie, and this is the show that helps you make meaningful and lasting connections with your kids through books. And in this episode, we are going to talk all about how to be refreshed by your reading life. It is in fact an invitation in this episode to be refreshed by your reading life. And joining me in today's conversation is none other than RAR's community manager, Kelsey Murphy. Kelsey, welcome to this side of the show. Kelsey Murphy (01:08): Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited to be here. Sarah Mackenzie (01:11): Well, it's fun. You and I talk all the time, of course in our work at Read-Aloud Revival, but it's fun to be doing it here on the show. Kelsey Murphy (01:17): Yes. Sarah Mackenzie (01:17): Do you want to tell everybody a little about yourself? Kelsey Murphy (01:19): Sure. So like you said, I'm the community manager, which means I interact a lot with our premium members, mostly in the forum, but also at our live events. And I help contribute to some of our premium content like the Mama book clubs and Circle of Sarah. And I have six kids. I've been married for almost 14 years, and my family and I live in Idaho Falls, Idaho. Originally we're from California, but we love it here in the mountains. And I have five boys all in a row. And then my youngest is a girl, so that's really fun. And they just range in age from 12 to two, and we've been homeschooling for the past few years and it's been a journey. It's been really fun. Sarah Mackenzie (02:06): I can see on your face where you're like, "It's been great and also..." Kelsey Murphy (02:10): Yes. Well, it's funny because it's just not something I ever set out to do. It's not where I expected to be, but I don't regret it. It's wonderful. Sarah Mackenzie (02:22): Yeah. So I mean, I bet a lot of people listening right now have that same experience too. If I never predicted, I would be here homeschooling my kids, but here we are. Kelsey Murphy (02:31): Here we are. Sarah Mackenzie (02:31): And I do like it most of the time or some of the time, and sometimes I think, what on earth am I doing? Kelsey Murphy (02:36): Yes, definitely. I mean, it's worthwhile. It's worth all of the hard work, but yeah, it doesn't mean it's always easy for sure. Sarah Mackenzie (02:43): Yes. Yeah. Well, something you and I have been talking about a lot lately is reading fiction just for our own refreshment as moms. I think, and I said this in the intro, but I think it's really easy for us to justify reading to be a better homeschool mom or a better wife or whatever, but it's a little bit trickier to convince ourselves, especially if there's dishes piled up in the sink and we're behind on the laundry and there's a million places to go and errands to run, and we're never through our to-do list, to make time for reading fiction. And one of the things we've talked about recently in circle with Sarah inside RAR Premium is homeschooling, like this backpacking journey. Actually, I think I talked about this on a previous episode of the Read-Aloud Revival podcast where I told this story of my husband who went on his first backpacking trip and he thought of all the things that he might want or need on this trip. (03:40): It was several miles in, I can't remember now if it was seven or nine miles in, basically hiking way until the wilderness to camp and then hiking back out. So he's like, "What are all the things I might want or need?" And he packs up his pack and he puts it on his back. And that thing was like 57 pounds. It was so heavy, but he was exuberant enough about going on his first backpacking hike that he was like, "I'm doing it anyway, I'm going to go." So he heads out, and he's not even a mile in when he realizes, "Oh my goodness, this is digging into my shoulders and it is not fun. It is terrible actually. I think I'm going to quit. I'm going to roll over and die." So he went again, backpacking, and this time he did something called, ultralight, where you pack only what you need. (04:30): And we talked about the metaphor there that presents itself for homeschooling and how we can really pack light, but I think there's another piece of that, that we haven't unpacked much, and that is the fact that with the second time Andrew went backpacking, he didn't pack any extra water, he just brought a water filter and planned to hit water stops along the way. It turns out water is one of the heaviest things you can bring when you're backpacking. And it occurred to me when he was describing this that in my own homeschool, I do kind of the same thing as packing a whole bunch of extra water. I know the homeschooling is going to be hard. I know it's going to be long. So if I bring all as many things as I can that will make the journey more fun, if I pack as much fun curriculum in or whatever, it will be an easier journey. (05:20): But what ends up happening is I just get really, it's all becomes really, really heavy and I get really burned out. And what I realized is if instead of packing all the refreshment with me, if I just planned on hitting some water sources along the way in my homeschool year, that's kind of like my husband hitting a water source on a long dusty hike and filtering the water and sitting down and taking a minute to be refreshed and then thinking even further on this, I thought the best method I know for being refreshed in a way that's accessible to all of us, doesn't cost anything and you can do without leaving your house or without more than a few minutes to rub together, is reading. So it feels to me like reading for pleasure can end up in a large way being a major source of refreshment. Kelsey Murphy (06:12): Absolutely. I think like you had mentioned, as moms we're tempted to read for improvement to either learn a skill or to improve some aspect of our lives, whether that's homeschooling or parenting or as a wife or whatever, and there's some excellent, excellent books and resources, and they definitely have their place for sure. But what about reading, just like you said, as a water source for refreshment, for joy, for fun. And it's kind of funny because I can guarantee as homeschool moms, we want our kids to enjoy reading and have a rich reading life. I guarantee that's why you're listening to this podcast right now. Sarah Mackenzie (07:01): That's right. Yeah. Kelsey Murphy (07:01): Right. But what about us as moms? Are we creating that same rich reading life for ourselves or do we push that aside? Sarah Mackenzie (07:12): Yeah, I mean even if I think to myself, if I could imagine some of my kids being grown and having children of their own, would I want them to have the reading life that I have right now? And I'd think like, well, no, I want them to read more and enjoy it more and then being able to read just because they want to, because they love reading because it feeds them and nourishes them in all kinds of unpredictable ways. And yet I'm like, and I'll read after I get caught up on the chores. It's so funny. That's not really what I want for their reading life either. Kelsey Murphy (07:43): Yeah, we want it to be a joy. Sarah Mackenzie (07:45): Specifically about reading fiction. I feel like there's something here to unpack about how we are actually nourished specifically by stories and like you said, all of those how-to books or prescriptive books or nonfiction books all have a place, and a really a beautiful place in our reading life. But what I'd love to talk about today is specifically how stories themselves have an unexpected way of nourishing us. Kelsey Murphy (08:13): Yes. I love this topic so much. There's an excellent book by John Eldredge. It is called, 'Epic.' It's really short and small. You could read it in just one quick sitting and there's a quote in there that he says, "Story is the language of the heart." And I know you love that. I think it's so true. We were designed for stories because God is the original and best storyteller. There's a reason that we gravitate towards stories. Sarah Mackenzie (08:45): Oh goodness, so much. There's so much here. One of the things that I oftentimes remind people when they say, "Well, my kids don't like stories," or, "They don't like reading," is that everybody loves stories actually. So not everybody loves reading, but we all love stories. Stories are everywhere. They're like every show or movie. It's just a story in a different format. Every sports game is a story. You have two football teams and they're both trying to overcome obstacles to achieve a goal, and that's a story. And so the news reports, your Facebook updates, the text from your best friend, all of those are generally stories. We're just hardwired. That's the way God made us. He designed us for stories. I love this. I pulled a quote from Sarah Clarkson's, 'Book Girl,' and we'll put all the books we mention and we're probably going to mention a few more, because that's what we do around here. (09:33): And so we'll put those all in the show notes. So if you're listening and you're like, "Ah, what was that book?" It'll be at readaloudrevival.com/257 since this is episode 257. Okay. But here's what Sarah Clarkson wrote in, 'Book Girl.' "Stories shape our existence because we recognize in a deep part of ourselves that life itself is a story. The tale of the world opens with a sort of divine once upon a time or in the beginning. The gospel itself comes to us in narrative form, and one of its great tenants is that we have the chance to join the story of the Kingdom come in this world, to be agents in the ongoing story of redemption." Kelsey Murphy (10:13): I love that quote so much because we have been talking a lot about the hero's journey in premium that's come up a lot this year in our content, and we can actually find the origin of the hero's journey in scripture. It's not something new, it's not something we invented. It's actually a design from God. And so we usually break down the hero's journey in three acts. And I'm just going to give a really general overview of this. I'm sure you could find lots more resources and really dig into this, but just broad overview of the hero's journey. In scripture, we have act one, which is creation and then the fall. (10:56): So we have our problem and our plot building. In act two, we have humanity's attempts and failures at redemption and trying to fix the problem that was caused by the fall. And then in act three is where we have our true hero, Jesus breaking into the story for our rescue, redemption and restoration. And as it turns out, he's been hinted at all along. And I also love this because I really am passionate about literary devices as well, and we also did not invent those. God puts foreshadowing into scripture all the way through that's pointing to Christ. Sarah Mackenzie (11:39): We see this pattern again and again in stories, whether it's, 'The Hobbit,' or, 'The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe,' or again, that football game you're watching on TV or an advertisement that you're watching, this same structure over and over again because it's really built into our DNA. We were designed for story and we do it all the time. We speak in stories all the time, even like you're having dinner with your family and it's like someone has to tell what happened at school that day, at co-op that day, or at church that day or at work that day or whatever, and you're telling a story. So it's innate. It's like we can't get away from it. We couldn't get away from it if we wanted to. Kelsey Murphy (12:21): Yes, it's so true, and I think that's why we see it in almost every story. Even if it's not intentional, it's because we are God's image bearers. And so like you said, it's in our DNA. It's why we love it so much and gravitate towards it and continue to recreate it. Sarah Mackenzie (12:39): Okay, and you saying even if it's not intentional, this is part of what I love so much about story is that even if the author doesn't, I mean an author might just think that they're telling a story and we might see some gospel truth all through it as the bedrock. And why that is, is because story, it's that whole story framework and no matter, you can't get away from it. Because God is the original storyteller and because we were made for stories and designed for stories, regardless of whether the author means to or not, a lot of stories, even if they weren't written by somebody who loves God or follows Jesus, still come back to that same storytelling thing that feeds our deepest spiritual longings. (13:32): This comes from Alan Jacobs. He's been a guest on the show a couple of times. He is a honors, it's like the honors program at Baylor University. He's an English professor there, and he has written a couple of books that I just love. One of them is, 'The Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distraction,' and in that book he says, "We should affirm the great value of reading just for the fun of it. In my experience, Christians are strangely reluctant to take this advice. We tend to be earnest people always striving for self-improvement and can be suspicious of mere recreation, but God doesn't just create, he takes delight in his creation and expects us to delight in it too." (14:12): And since he has given us the desire to make things ourselves, has allowed us to be sub-creators, as J.R.R Tolkien says, "We may rightly take delight in the things that we and others make. Reading for the sheer delight of it. Reading at whim is therefore one of the most important kinds of reading there is." Oh, I love that so much, and I love that we can go, oh my gosh, I'm just loving this, 'At Home in Mitford,' novel or something, be like, I am co-creating right now with the great creator by just delighting in the fact that this story exists and that I'm enjoying it. Kelsey Murphy (14:49): It does go back what we were talking about at the very beginning, that we have this inclination that we need to read for self-improvement only when, no, reading for a delight is wonderful, and we should partake in that. Sarah Mackenzie (15:06): And then it will leave us with this sense of hope which we can carry into our very practical lives of tending our children and our relationships and mothering and making dinner and all the other things that we're doing, because the best stories leave us with hope. I know Leilani, RAR's premium coordinator was just on a podcast with me not too long ago. We were talking about the importance of hope in stories and when we make our booklets at Read-Aloud Revival, we're always looking for stories that leave the reader with hope. Katherine Patterson has this. She has a wonderful set of, actually, she has several sets of essays, collections of essays that are just astoundingly good, and in one of them, 'A Sense of Wonder,' she says that art is a means of seeing truth that cannot be observed directly. (15:54): And I think that cannot be observed directly is pretty important there because there's just a huge difference between telling your children about what sacrifice and what it actually meant for God to sacrifice his only son is one thing. And then to watch Aslan on the stone table is a totally different thing, and it hits you in a completely different deeper way, and it's abstract, right? We're not looking at the thing directly that's like how we're seeing the truth. That's what art does. Kelsey Murphy (16:24): Yes. I think that's so important that in order to be refreshed by our reading, we need to be left with hope. And certainly there are stories that don't offer hope at the end. Sarah Mackenzie (16:37): For sure. Plenty of them. Kelsey Murphy (16:38): Plenty, but the ones that we are really passionate about here are stories that leave you with hope. Sarah Mackenzie (16:46): This goes along with why it can be really hard to get into reading if you're not in the reading habit. Even if someone's listening to this and they're like, "I mean, I want to be more of a reader, but then I pick up a book and I read it, I start reading it, and I'm left in despair." And so then they feel like I did all the things to try to make this work so I could be a reader, and I'm constantly frustrated with the kind of books that I pick up. I think that tendency or frustration with, well, I don't know what to read, I can't seem to find a good book, and if I go look at the list of what other people are reading or recommending, those keep leaving me dry. They're not great. Kelsey Murphy (17:28): It can be hard to make the time for reading and then be disappointed by what you've read. That's definitely not refreshing and not what we want. Sarah Mackenzie (17:44): Pam Barnhill and I were just talking about this on her show not too long ago. She wasn't quitting books. She had that. I think that when you start a book, you should finish it. So I was telling her, listen, the best thing you can do for your reading life is to begin quitting books. If you've gotten like 25% in and you're not eager to get back to it, you're probably not going to make very much time for reading because you've got a lot of other demands on your time and attention. So she sent me a text two weeks after we recorded that episode and was like, "I might need a support group in order to quit a book." I was like- Kelsey Murphy (18:14): It's so hard. Sarah Mackenzie (18:16): I will be your one-woman support group. Yeah, it is hard. Kelsey Murphy (18:19): Yes, it's hard to get out of that mentality, especially if maybe she was a good student in school. And so we had assigned reading in school and I was like that too. I read a lot of books for school and most of them I probably wouldn't recommend as delightful reading. Sarah Mackenzie (18:40): Do you know why? I don't know why this is. I mean, I don't really want to theorize about it even, but it does feel like teens in school are given the most existential despairing books possible to read. I'm like, why do we do this to young people at this time in their life? And then we give them a book like, I don't know, 'A Brave New World,' or, '1984,' or, 'The Old Man and the Sea,' even. That's just like, really? This is what we're going to give our young people? Kelsey Murphy (19:09): And it's usually all in one year too. I remember reading, 'Brave New World,' and, '1984,' both in the same year, and it was rough. Sarah Mackenzie (19:19): Brutal. Kelsey Murphy (19:19): It was really brutal. Not a lot of hope. Sarah Mackenzie (19:23): No, and I think it's not just because your time is limited, that you should ditch books if you don't like them. I just think if reading is this source of refreshment, if we're reading as a way to refresh ourselves, let's just make sure we're actually being refreshed. So I wouldn't drink. I was going to name something that I wouldn't, I wouldn't drink Mountain Dew. There's probably somebody listening to this who just loves Mountain Dew, so I'm not hating on your Mountain Dew, because I love Diet Coke and half of our audience just cringed. So everybody's got their thing. (19:53): But I wouldn't refresh myself with a glass of Mountain Dew because that would not be refreshing to me. I do not like it at all. So find something that's more refreshing. Find something that fits your taste and that leaves you wanting to come back for more. Because I think if we are pouring out into our children all the time, and we also want them to see us engaged and having a robust living, reading life because that's what we want to model for them, then it's going to be a lot more likely we'll do that if we're reading things that we like. Kelsey Murphy (20:23): I think we have to give ourselves permission to take this weird pressure that we're putting on ourselves to finish a book just because we've started it. Sarah Mackenzie (20:31): Or books that you think you should read or you should like, especially certain classics, right? Kelsey Murphy (20:36): Yes, yes. There are plenty of classics that I am not interested in and nothing against a literary genius, it's just not themes that I- Sarah Mackenzie (20:46): Yes, totally. Kelsey Murphy (20:47): ... want to fill my head with. Sarah Mackenzie (20:50): Or at different seasons in life. I mean, it just might not be your season for Russian literature, and then another person's season is, I don't know. There is something to say. This comes from, 'Book Girl,' by Sarah Clarkson. It's another quote from there. She said, "I'm convinced that great children's books in their clarity of language and discipline, simplicity of their themes, bear as much insight into the workings of the human part and its desires as the great adult classics. But they managed to do it all while being accessible to a child's wonder and innocence." And I would add, without having to take you forever to read them, because I love a good short book, I am a big fan of a quick read, and especially I think because especially in those years when I had so many babies and toddlers, it was like nothing stays done and nothing gets accomplished. But I could read Charlotte's Web and finish it in a pretty short amount of time and be like, I read that. I finished it. I couldn't do that with, Anna Karenina, exactly. Kelsey Murphy (21:51): No, definitely not. I think we need to pay attention, like you said, to the season that we're in, and I've definitely made that mistake of, oh, I need to get back into the habit of reading. Let me start with this 500 page Tolstoy classic, because that's probably, if I'm not- Sarah Mackenzie (22:10): The best thing for me. Kelsey Murphy (22:11): Yeah, it's probably the best thing. Because if I'm not going to read for self-improvement, then I should torture myself with a really long- Sarah Mackenzie (22:18): Which is funny because it's really just another way of reading for self-improvement. I should read this classic to be more cultured or whatever. It's just another angle on the same thing. Kelsey Murphy (22:29): And again, it's these weird standards that I'm putting on myself for no apparent reason. I'm not in school anymore. No one is assigning me these books. Sarah Mackenzie (22:39): Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. Okay, so Ava Lewis, one of our RAR premium members left us a voicemail that I would love to play. I asked recently what it feels like for fiction to impact your life maybe in a surprising way. Ava Lewis (22:55): Hey, Sarah, this is Ava. And I just wanted to share that the fiction work that I read that really changed and affected my life and also my family was, 'Pride and Prejudice,' by Jane Olsen that we read together in the book club. And that book changed me in many different ways. First of all, because it was the first book that I joined the mama book club with RAR, and I love the book so much in itself, but also the discussion that came with it. So the book tied me and endeared me to RAR Premium forever and just set off a really awesome chain of events as far as that goes. But the book itself very much changed me in that it awakened the love to read again, which I have not had since I was probably in middle school. (23:50): Like many people, that compulsory reading thing that we had to do in school just totally killed my love of reading, and I haven't really just found anything that sparked that again, other than reading my Bible, really loving the language and the story and the literature of the Bible, which is wonderful. But to have something like you said, just for fun, something light to sit around and read and to show my kids that it's great to have a love of reading and just how wonderful it is. So that book, the witty dialogue, the fun interactions, also the depth of it and the discussion that comes with it, just opened up a whole new world for me and my kids. And so I'm so thankful for Jane and also for Sarah and all you do and all the team at RAR. So thank you so much. Sarah Mackenzie (24:46): Anybody puts my name next to Jane Austen's and says, thank you both. I'll take it. I mean, come on. Kelsey Murphy (24:51): That's a high compliment. Sarah Mackenzie (24:55): Have you had any experience like that where you're like, I'm just surprised and delighted by this book that I didn't think was going to impact me like this? I thought I was just reading for fun. Kelsey Murphy (25:03): You know what's funny is I did not read Jane Austen until very recently, like very, very recently because it seemed kind of intimidating. Sarah Mackenzie (25:12): Totally. Kelsey Murphy (25:14): And I knew that I would enjoy it, but I was also just very nervous to jump in and start. But Pride and Prejudice is a great, great place to start. Sarah Mackenzie (25:27): I still haven't read all of them. I've only read a few, and I only started reading them in my thirties. I find for anyone who's listening and going, "I want to read Jane Austen too, but I don't know where to start." I think just watch a movie first. I don't know. What do you think of that advice, Kelsey? To me, it feels like if you watch one of the movies, you'll know who's who and what's going on. And then when I'm reading, I see so much more humor than I did when I was trying to read it straight up. I just missed all the funny parts, because my brain was working so hard to be like, wait, who was that? And why are they doing that? Kelsey Murphy (25:58): Right. And some of that is just cultural of the time someone makes a statement and yeah, I had a difficult time. Well, was that meant to be funny? Were they trying to be ironic or was that a serious statement? So the movie does help give some context to what they're saying. I personally had to pull up on Wikipedia, like a character map of who was who- Sarah Mackenzie (26:20): Yes. Smart. Kelsey Murphy (26:21): And who was related to who, because there's a lot of characters and sometimes they go by their first name, sometimes they go by their last name. And so that really helped me to keep track of it. I really love what Eva mentioned too, is that she jumped in, in community in reading that book. And I think that can be really helpful too when you're in a book club to help facilitate some of the discussion and you don't feel like you're so alone trying to figure out plot or, and it's also encouraging to keep reading and to keep going. Sarah Mackenzie (26:59): Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And have other people who might see things that you don't see or who ask questions that you hadn't thought of. It always enriches my reading life when I'm reading in that kind of a format. Kelsey Murphy (27:12): Definitely. Sarah Mackenzie (27:13): Oftentimes nonfiction books do this for me too, and so many nonfiction books are written in a narrative format that we get that they're stories, either a batch of small stories strung together like essays or one larger story like a memoir or a historical account. I think you were the one recently on the team who was talking about, 'The Story of the Trapp Family Singers.' Is that right? Kelsey Murphy (27:38): Yes. I love that book. It blew my mind completely because I've loved the sound of music for Forever. Did not know until a few years ago that it was based on a real family. Obviously I know the history of the time period, but had no clue that it was based on an actual real life family. Sarah Mackenzie (27:58): Well, it's such a good example of one of those books that is written narratively, and so it sweeps you away in the story, because it goes back to that whole we're designed for stories piece, but also feels like it can meet you in a whole different place knowing there's other layers of things that can happen too. I know Leilani on our team really loves the book, 'Endurance.' My husband read that this last year and loved it as well. I haven't read that. It's not totally my genre, although, I mean, I'm sometimes surprised by genres that I'm like, "I'm not going to like this." And then I'm like, "I can't put it down. I love this book." Kelsey Murphy (28:41): Yes, it's true. I remember the first time I read, 'The Boys in the Boat,' and oh my goodness, I was like, where can I get more books that are like this? Because I love history and historical fiction is probably what I gravitate towards the most. So to have a nonfiction narrative style story with so much history embedded was amazing. Sarah Mackenzie (29:06): Historical fiction is also my favorite genre. Shocking. Shocking. So what else comes up when we're thinking about reading for pleasure and we have a million things to do on our plate and obligations, and it feels maybe a little decadent to pick up a novel and read, but then we finally, we've been talking kind of a little bit about that feeling of I don't know what to read, or the last time I picked up a book. I couldn't stand it and I have to finish that one before I get to the next one, which, no, you don't. (29:41): So if we could debunk all of that, what else comes up? I know for me, one of the things that jumps to mind right away is when am I supposed to fit this in? There's another to do, it feels like another thing to add to my to-do list, which is why I kind of want to invite you all to think about your reading life as a water source instead of a to-do. It's not really another thing on your to-do list. It's like a treat. It's a way to refresh yourself. It's one of those things that you could use as a source of refreshment, a way to refill your well. Kelsey Murphy (30:13): Yeah, I think we need to reframe how we think about our reading time as something that's not selfish. It's actually refreshing us. Like you said, we are gleaning from these amazing stories so that we can pour back out into our kids and our families. And I think the bonus is that I want my kids to see me reading. That's also a great benefit that I want them to become readers and develop that habit of reading. So what better way than to model it by reading so that they can see that I find joy in my reading life as well. Sarah Mackenzie (30:57): Yeah, exactly. In the show notes for this episode, we'll put a couple of other episodes that we've done. One called, how to make time for your own reading. So if that's the thing that keeps coming up for you as you're listening or watching this and you're like, oh man, I just don't know how to make more time, try listening to that episode. You can just search for it in your podcast app, how to make time for your own reading. Read-Aloud Revival and you'll find it. We'll put a link to it though in the show notes. There's also one called, reading for fun is more important than you think. And it really goes well with what we're talking about today, which is that when you read for fun, it does more than you think it does. So even though we were trying to couch this as a way that's like, you don't have to read for fun because it's a way to improve yourself and your family life, but I know in the back of our minds, a lot of us are like, "Yeah, but does it improve myself in my family life?" (31:47): We can't help ourselves and it does. And so that episode, we kind of unpack that, and then I recently was on Pam Barnhill's podcast talking about just reading for fun. We talk about the importance of ditching books and where to find book recommendations and some fun things. We'll put all of those links in the show notes to this episode. But we've also got something really fun coming up right around the corner. We have a brand new circle with Sarah Retreat that we are doing an RAR premium that we are calling, reading as refreshment because that's RAR just like Read-Aloud Revival. I love that. Just saying, but really reading as refreshment, going back to that idea of we can't really be expected to go on this long hike with all of these children and all of their snacks and all of the things that we have to do and not take a second to refresh ourselves. (32:40): So how do we set up water sources along the way? And yes, you can go on a date night or go on a getaway with your husband or you can go to a spa, sure. But probably most of us are like, "No, actually I can't do that this week. And I am hanging by a thread." So that's where reading can actually be this really lovely source of refreshment and rejuvenation that we have in our houses that doesn't cost a thing that we can fit in even in little five or 10 minute bites. And we're going to talk about it all at this retreat. It's on Zoom, and we're going to talk about how to be refreshed by your reading life. Kelsey, do you want to give a little peek at some of the sessions we're going to be doing? Kelsey Murphy (33:22): Yes, I'm super excited about this. We're going to be really just expanding on a lot of what we've talked about in this episode. So a session on overcoming readers block, so reigniting that reading spark, if that's something that you're struggling with, getting to know your own reading taste, so how to choose books that you will enjoy, how to let go of the books that you don't, and then how to read classics and actually enjoy them. Sarah Mackenzie (33:51): Awesome. I cannot wait. It's going to be so fun. So if you want to find out more about that, go to readaloudrevival.com/257 and we'll put info in the show notes all about that retreat. Kelsey, thanks so much for coming on the show with me. It was fun to chat. Kelsey Murphy (34:07): It was super fun. Thanks for having me. Now let's hear from the kids about the books they're loving lately. Alexandria (34:16): Hi, my name is Alexandria and I'm six and I'm from Houston, Texas. My favorite book is, 'The Hungry Caterpillar,' and why I like it is because it has colors and it's about caterpillars, and I like caterpillars. Atlas (34:42): Hi, my name is Atlas and I'm eight years old and I'm from Houston, Texas, and my favorite book is, 'Kaiju No. 8.' And why I like it is because they're defending the world from Kaiju, which means monsters, big monsters, and Kafka is really funny, and that's the reason why I like it. Borden (35:14): Hi, my name's Borden and I'm seven, and I live in Dubai, and my favorite book is, 'The Secret of the Hidden Scrolls,' because it's funny. Charlotte (35:31): Hi, my name's, I'm Charlotte. I'm five years old. I live in Dubai, and my favorite book is Boxcar Children's series because there's four children who don't think their grandfather likes them, but then it ends up that they have great times with him, and then they also saw lots of mysteries together. Claire (35:54): My name is Claire. I'm from New Mexico, and my favorite book is, The Wing Feather Saga, because it has action and adventure. Jane (36:04): My name is Jane and I'm 10 years old and I'm from Houston, Texas and my favorite book is, 'The Promised Neverland.' And the author's name is Kaiu Shirai. And why I like it is because it's adventurous and it has a fantasy world and because there's a bunch of drama, and that's why I like it. Sarah Mackenzie (36:44): Thank you. Thank you, kids. Show notes for this episode are at readaloudrevival.com/257. As you leave and go on with your day, I want to share this quote from G.K. Chesterton with you. He said, "I had always felt life as a story, and if there is a story, there is a storyteller." We have the opportunity to pass that onto our children to help them see their lives as a story because we fill them with stories. And part of the way we do that is by loving stories ourselves and being nurtured by and refreshed by stories ourselves. And that helps us remember that there is a storyteller and he cares about his characters. So very, very much. I'll be back in two weeks with another episode of the podcast. In the meantime, you know what to do. Go make meaningful and lasting connections with your kids through books.