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Hello Reader,

The Summer Olympics kick off in Paris this week. Will you be tuning in to watch? My kids tell me breakdancing will make the roster of official events for the first time this year, but my favorite spectator sports have always been gymnastics and diving.

In honor of the occasion, our family will be staging a few "olympic games" of our own this weekend (and are praying the weather cooperates enough that we can move the competition outdoors 🙏).

Since this event (on both the official international and the unofficial local level) only occurs once every four years, this seems like the perfect time to share an olympic-themed link list with you. Enjoy!

Free resources for you this week:

• ​Stop, Drop, & Roll - this fun printable fitness game will have your kids begging to exercise
• ​10 Fun Races to Get Your Kids Up & Running - no couch potatoes allowed!
• ​Run to Win Coloring Page - a hand-drawn coloring page that features 1 Corinthians 9:24
• ​Summer Olympics Word Scramble - how fast can you decipher this olympic-themed words?
• ​Splish-Splash! Have a Swim Bash - lots of fun family games to play at the pool
• ​Run with Endurance Coloring Page - this free printable features the words of Hebrews 12:1

What I'm reading this week:

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In her book In Praise of Stay-at-Home Moms, Dr. Laura Schlessinger encourages mothers to make the most of the time they have at home with their children. For those who are already SAHMs, she offers statistics and anecdotes that will make you feel good about investing your time and energy in your family. For working moms who would love to be at home more, she gives advice for making that dream a reality. ​

What we're eating this week:

My daughters made a big batch (and I downed far too many) of these chocolate chunk cookies. If you're going to break a sugar fast, chocolate is definitely the way to go!

But we polished them off in short order, then I got right back on the bandwagon. My husband's losing weight, and I don't want him to narrow the gap any further than he's already managed. I'll have to work hard to stay ahead of him!

What we're watching this week:

Several of my older kids went to see Twisters the night it debuted and recommended it highly to Mom and Dad, so we went to a matinee over the weekend. I'm glad we did. Although a tornado movie is not anything that would've normally appealed to me, I really liked this one--as much for what was missing as for the interesting plot: no woke propaganda, no sex, no nudity, no inappropriate innuendo, and very little language. The male lead was strong, masculine and protective; the female lead was smart but tender-hearted.

This week's reader request:

A reader named Dorothy wrote to let me know of a typo on my free printable home health care chart. She uses the form regularly and wanted to know if I could correct it. The answer is YES, and I've updated the original PDF to reflect that. (You can download it here.)

On the podcast this week:

Loving Life at Home: Episode 54 ​HOW TO CULTIVATE A THRIVING MARRIAGE​ Marriage is a lot like gardening — both require a lot of tending if we want them to do well. So this week, we’re discussing six essentials that will help your marriage (or you garden) flourish. ​ Listen Now

Progress on last week's goals:

I managed to finish almost everything on last week's to-do list, including ✅ painting a birdbath and a maple tree on my backyard mural, ✅ planning our upcoming family olympic games, ✅ organizing two more shelves in my pantry, ✅ publishing one Timberdoodle review (and starting on a second), and ✅ clearing (most of the stuff) off the desk in my bedroom closet.

The only thing I didn't get to was ❌ completing two new leatherwork projects (because I'm still waiting on all the necessary supplies to arrive).

Personal goals for this week:

Summer break is almost over, and I still have lots I want to accomplish before school starts. Toward that end, here's my (overly ambitious?) to-do list for the next seven days.

• lay up 10 more freezer meals
• host family olympics (kids driving in from out of town)
• finalize itinerary for upcoming road trip
• finish editing chapters for friend's new book
• repair broken fence picket
• install flip lock on the pantry (so it stays organized)
• replace missing labels on pantry containers
• make a wreath for backyard patio
• drill drainage holes in our fire pit (so it won't harbor mosquitos)
• plant ferns
• finish at least one leatherwork project

A new poll for you this week:

You may have noticed my newsletter was a little late last Monday (and a lot late today!). That's partly because I kept getting interrupted while composing it and partly because I needed those extra hours to knock out the goals on my prior week's to-do list (didn't want to carry them over a THIRD time! 😳).

What's interesting, though, is that all my metrics (open rate, click through rate, etc.) increased dramatically with the later mailing time -- some of them eight-fold! So my question to you is, when would you rather this message land in your inbox? Just answer this poll to let me know:

Thanks for your input--and for giving me a place in your inbox. I deeply appreciate it! Hope you have a wonderful week.

You may not be competing in any televised games, but never forget that we are all "surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses," nonetheless. So "let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith...." (Hebrews 12:1-2)
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