A Quiet Simple Life | Sallie Borrink

For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Romans 6:23

A Quiet Simple Life

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Howdy, friends. It is long past time to say hello without a microphone in my face.

We’ve been doing pretty well overall. We’re all tired both physically and mentally. I’m sure some of it is end of the winter fatigue. Some of it is the evil time change. But a lot of it is simply life not being normal. It’s normal in some ways and still not in others. But we press on because that’s all any of us can do as we live through what I suspect will be one of the major events in American history and probably world history. I think we all can be excused for being a little worn out. 

Caroline has been doing a good job of getting up a bit earlier in the morning which means we’re getting her homeschool work done in a more timely manner. Big win. However, that means I’ve lost an hour or two of my quiet work time in the morning. So by the time I make a Morning Update and get it posted, a lot of times she’s waking up. That pretty much means an end to quiet thoughts and writing of any significance. 

This means I haven’t been writing here and I’ve neglected my Substack. Sigh. Every day I say I’m going to get back on track, but it hasn’t happened yet. It’s not from lack of desire, however. 

I’ve been doing a lot of work in my shop over the past few weeks. It’s the kind of mindless work I can do when I’m tired and/or listening to other things. I’m uploading all of the hundreds of math, reading, writing, science, and history activities and worksheets in my various activity packs as individual products (in addition to the packs). It makes it much easier for moms to find exactly what they are looking for, especially if they have the full year pass. I’m probably about a third of the way done. There are literally hundreds of products and I’ve had to rethink how my store is organized while doing it. But I’m very pleased with the results and it has made me want to get back to writing more learning posts and working my way through the list of products I’d like to make. 

I am really enjoying doing the Morning Updates. I find it fun, to be totally honest. The time issue is the only thing that makes it a bit challenging.

Caroline and I finished going through Downton Abbey last week. She loved it. She loves the wit, especially the Dowager Countess. It was interesting to see which characters and couples resonated with her. We’ve had so many good conversations about different aspects of storylines, characters, etc. I think fifteen was a good age to watch this with her. 

Other than feeding the birds, bunnies, squirrels, deer, raccoons, opossum, etc. life is pretty routine. David does have a bunny who likes him and will hop right over near him when David takes the food out. We’ve named him Buddy. He’s a cute little thing with shorter ears. We also have squirrels who love the apple cores we throw out after we cut off the apple we’re eating. One, in particular, is quite trained to pay attention as soon as the slider door opens. His name is Applesauce. The other morning we had 16-17 male cardinals waiting and eating around the feeders. It was easy to see them due to the snow that morning. We’ve basically grown our own flock of cardinals over the years we’ve lived here. 

That’s it from our home. I hope you are doing well during this transition from winter to spring. ♥

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Embrace The Suck and Spread Christ’s Beauty


The phrase “embrace the suck” was new to me in the past several months. Embrace the Suck Meaning & 8 Lessons to Use in Your Life describes it this way:

In the military, there’s a saying that is very similar to the one I originally mentioned that urges people to “embrace the suck”. In military jargon, this means To consciously accept or appreciate something that is extremely unpleasant but unavoidable.

I think that perfectly describes what life is like right now. None of us would probably choose to be living through what we are, but it is unavoidable. It seems to me our choices are to:

  • accept it and make the best of it
  • rage against it in health-destroying anger
  • allow it to crush us and fall into quiet despair.

For whatever reasons, God has put each of us here on Earth at this time and in the places where we each live. He has given us a circle of influence in our family, friends, church, community, and online.

I’m sure some people who read my blog are annoyed that I’ve been writing about The Fourth Turning and The First Turning. Those aren’t necessarily cheery topics although I am purposefully trying to point people to the hope of a better future in each of those posts. I’m sure others are less than thrilled that I posted four times this week, but they were all morning update audio posts about current events.

Guess what? Given the choice, I’d rather be doing something else. I’ve got a list a mile long of posts I’d like to write, ebooks I’d like to write, products I’d like to make, courses I’d like to record, etc. But right now none of those seem as important as trying to make sense of the suck in which we find ourselves and trying to help others do the same.

Part of the suck we’re living through is the propaganda war, information war, and gaslighting we and our loved ones are subjected to all day, every day. Who really wants to choose to spend their valuable life energy trying to stay one step ahead of the lies every day for years? It’s not what I would necessarily choose if given the option.

But I’ve chosen to embrace the suck and determine how God has equipped me to help others during this time of suck. I’m not going to accept the lies and go about my life quietly. If God can use me to save even a small group of people from falling into despair from the all-out suck war in which we find ourselves, then that’s what I’m going to do. I won’t do it perfectly, but I’m not going to allow a fear of being wrong at times keep me from battling against those who are literally trying to destroy us.

It’s not going to get better any time soon. I hope people realize that. The suck is going to continue for some time. In fact, I’m very certain that the suck is going to get worse before it starts getting better. There is nothing we can do to change that. All of what is happening must play out in order for everything to move forward. The only thing we can do is choose to accept it and ask the Lord to guide us through it. The more courage we get from the Lord, the more we can help other people see the suck for what it is and consciously make the decision to move forward as well.

But do you know what hasn’t changed? The beauty of Christ. Every time I record one of those morning updates, I encourage the listeners to go out and spread beauty that day. It’s important we are informed. It’s important we try to sort out the truth in the propaganda onslaught. But it’s vitally important we keep spreading the beauty of Christ.

We need to be a light to the world. We need to add beauty every single day. We need to speak with hope and assurance of a sovereign God. Do we have all the answers? No. But we cannot let that stop us from moving forward with truth, beauty, and goodness.

Embrace the suck. Laugh in the face of the suck. I say it all the time – laugh or cry. Laughter is good for you physically, emotionally, and mentally. Do not stop laughing. That’s not to minimize the difficulties around us. But we can’t meet the needs of others if we are falling to pieces under the weight of the suck.

In an emergency, you put on your own oxygen mask first and then help others. Consider that embracing the suck and asking God for guidance is the equivalent of that oxygen mask right now. Put on your oxygen mask. Make peace with where we are right now in history, push forward as the Lord leads you individually, and then help others who desperately need the beauty of Christ to get through the coming days, weeks, and months.

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The Return Of Shame – The First Turning


This week a podcast title caught my eye because it had the word “shame” in it. We don’t see the concept of shame discussed much any longer. In the past, people would say, “Have you no shame?” and “You should be ashamed of yourself.” When was the last time you heard someone say that or even used those terms yourself?

Shame caught my eye because according to the book The Fourth Turning the primary social motivator in the First Turning will be shame. During the Fourth Turning in which we have been living the primary social motivator has been stigma. We’ve clearly seen how that has played out over the past few years with the rise of cancel culture.

However, I think we’ve turned the corner on stigma. There is a steadily increasing number of Americans who no longer care about the stigma of not agreeing with insane ideas that defy reality. Once that reaches a tipping point, the culture will rapidly change.

What is shame? Here are a few definitions from a brief search.

Shame can be defined as a feeling of embarrassment or humiliation that arises in relation to the perception of having done something dishonorable, immoral, or improper. What Is Shame?

Shame is a painful feeling that’s a mix of regret, self-hate, and dishonor. A good person would feel shame if they cheated on a test or did something mean to a friend. Shame

The podcast I mentioned above spoke of an article at First Things by Carl R. Trueman. Trueman wrote this week in A Society Ashamed of Shame about the new controversial Adidas sports bra campaign that features twenty-five naked breasts. The article is short and worth your time. He wrote:

Modesty, in an odd inversion, is now seen as shameful, unnatural, and a stigma, no less. This makes sense at a cultural level. Performance, not formation, is now the order of the day, with YouTube and TikTok being far more important to self-image and self-understanding than families, schools, or nations. In such a world, reticence and self-restraint are seen as deformations of the person, not appropriate realizations of the same.

The steady return of shame and modesty to the cultural discussion will be strong signals that we’re approaching the First Turning. It might seem like we can never get to that point again as a culture, but we will. Will some resist it? Of course. But most people do not want to live in a culture that lacks moral restraint. We’ve seen what happens when that is the case. Many people might not speak openly out of fear of retribution, but they will be the first ones to quietly sigh with relief when they (and their children) no longer have to be surrounded by vulgarity and immodesty everywhere they look. 

Along with the return of shame will come a renewed call to modesty. With a move toward modesty will come discussions of beauty. There will be some who will shriek with outrage that concepts such as these are being revived. I think those shrieks will fail to move most people after all we have lived through in recent years. Can ideas of shame and modesty be abused? Yes. But to reject them out of hand as not useful in our culture is missing the bigger picture of what our culture needs to be healthy. Anything goes doesn’t work and we have at least two damaged generations of kids and young adults to prove it.

As we move through these difficult days of the Fourth Turning, may we each deliberately do our small part each day to move our culture toward what is good, true, and beautiful.

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Taking My Own Advice & Doing Real Things


About a week ago I started feeling a great desire to spend time fluffing and enjoying my nest. I wanted to follow my own advice and make real things, read real books, and do real things with real people. So that is what I’ve been focusing afresh on doing. 

I’m currently reading a book I purchased with a Christmas gift card – Mother’s Book of Home Economics by Mrs. Sharon White. It’s a collection of some of her blog posts and includes some of my favorite posts from her site. I’m looking for inspiration to make the most of what we have during these challenging times. I’m sure many of you are as well. I always seem to find it in the things Mrs. White writes. 

I’ve been methodically working my way through various cupboards and drawers, cleaning out things we don’t need and tidying them up. 

I’ve organized all of my ebooks in Calibre with the exception of my Kindle books. That will be my next project. I need to move copies of all my Kindle ebooks I’ve purchased over the years into Calibre. Caroline was a little shocked when we were discussing how Amazon or Apple can basically delete anything you’ve purchased licensed from them because you don’t technically own it. I told her this is why we keep a hard copy of music, movies, television shows, and books that are important to us. I’ve also been downloading quite a few books from Project Gutenberg to make sure I have copies of ones I want to keep. 

Speaking of television shows, Caroline and I are just about done with the Downton Abbey series. We watched the third episode of the last season yesterday. I think I previously mentioned the fact that we are watching them, but it’s been a great learning tool in so many different ways.  

Caroline learned how to crochet at youth group so we’ve been spending some time exploring that. She wants to crochet sweaters and animals right now when she’s only learned how to almost make a kitchen cloth, but I’m hopeful she’ll keep with it. My crocheting skills are minimal because I never had a great desire to really go all-in on it as a hobby. (I was an avid counted cross stitcher.) I’m curious to see what she’ll do with her new interest. She’s been doing a lot of crafting lately which has been very nice to see. 

Caroline decided she preferred to do her crafting in her room instead of the unfinished basement area we set up for her a number of years ago so that opened up some new possibilities down there. We moved things around a bit and now I have two large tables where I could spread out projects of various kinds. We still have not decorated the dollhouse we bought a few years ago. David has it almost done, but life has not moved in that direction at all. Maybe we will do it now. 

I reorganized my office several weeks ago. I removed the file cabinet which really opened things up. I moved books around in the bookcases and am happy with the results. Caroline and I homeschool at a table in my office (her choice) so we’ve put together a layout that works for us. I thought about doing a post about it, but wasn’t sure if it was interesting enough to fill an entire post. But we have a TV and DVD player we use for videos. We have the extra laptop I bought for learning Linux on a stand that makes it very convenient to look up things on the fly while we’re doing Bible or history rather than having to go over to my desk ever time we want to look something up. So we’re always learning better ways to do things. For people like us, I think it’s just part of how we’re wired. 

Overall we continue to live our quiet, small life. We like it that way (most of the time). We’re thankful that the Lord has us tucked under the shadow of His wing during these challenging times (Psalm 91). I hope you feel that same comfort and assurance. ♥

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