Have you ever fallen in to bed at night exhausted, realizing that you did absolutely nothing that day for yourself?
Many women are just like you but guess what? It doesn’t have to be that way!
I was really excited to receive The Fringe Hours: Making Time For You from Family Christian in exchange for an honest review of this book! The Fringe Hours has been on my reading list because I have heard great reviews about it and I’m a huge advocate of self-care. Even though I know self-care is important, sometimes in reality it’s just hard to carve special time for myself to focus on my passions into my schedule. This book gives many examples of how to do that!
I found The Fringe Hours: Making Time For You to be a very encouraging book geared towards all women.
If you are like me, I can’t remember the last time I was bored. In fact, I’m always over busy. I loved what Jessica Turner said on page 27, “We can’t have balance if activities in our life are neatly scheduled but we are overwhelmed, exhausted, and emotional”.
My life is neatly scheduled but there are many days that I am overwhelmed, exhausted, and emotional! This was a good wake up call that just because I can do it doesn’t mean I should!
There are also the things on our schedule that I have signed up for because they were for a good cause, or that I thought they were good for the kids or because I felt like I should. Turner’s quote on page 30 was a huge release of guilt for me from those activities when she writes that “just because they are good things doesn’t mean they are good for you, for right now, (or even ever)”.
This all relates back to the season of life we are in. This year my son wanted to do Cub Scouts. To be honest, I didn’t want anything to do with Cub Scouts when he signed up except that I knew he would love it and that I could work it in the schedule for him to do it. Then it turned into a whole lot bigger commitment when I needed to be the leader because there weren’t any other parent volunteers and what about camping (which I really don’t care that much for), fundraisers, and many other activities that are a good thing, but honestly they aren’t good for me. I get no enjoyment out of it besides my son has fun and I dread most of the activities.
This was a big wake up call for me that I don’t need to volunteer to be the leader next year. Most of these activities we already do at home or another adult can be the leader and my son can participate without all of the extra commitments for me. Cub Scouts is a good thing, but it’s not my thing.
Balance is the key to being healthy and that includes doing things that I love!
Turner defines fringe hours as “those little pockets of time throughout the day that often go underused or are wasted altogether” on page 84.
After reading this book, I realized that I do make time for myself during my own fringe hours (that I hadn’t considered before), but there were also some great suggestions on how to get in more of the things I love during sports practices, while I’m waiting for my husband, and during other 5 to 10 minute spots during my day when I’m waiting on someone.
In order to find these pockets of time, Turner recommends tracking your time to know what you are actually doing during the day. She also recommends prioritizing and eliminating waste. I enjoyed her suggestions for eliminating obstacles that can cause us to not fulfill our passions.
I would recommend this book to every woman who finds herself wishing she had time for ______. I loved that this was a journaling book to reflect on as you read through it. I also found the fact that Turner interviewed over 2,000 women really helped shape this book to help all women, not just working women or moms or wives.
Are you ready for the really exciting part? You can win your own copy of The Fringe Hours: Making Time For You courtesy of Family Christian!
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Disclaimers: I received this book for free to review from Family Christian, in exchange for an honest review of this book. All opinions in this review are my own. This post may contain affiliate links you can see my disclosure policy here.
I would love to win this book! I have been wanting to read it for awhile now. My biggest homemaking challenge is prioritizing my time well. I have blocks of time available for work, family time and taking care of my home but I need to better prioritize my time within those blocks so I am working on the most important things first. Basically I need to learn to “eat that frog,” another book I have been wanting to read 🙂
I just got “Eat that Frog” from the library today!
I liked that book a lot. (I like any that are practical and are easy to apply to real life). I always feel more productive when I get that first bad thing out of the way!
Dawn, you’ll like both of those books! Both have practical ways to help you apply what they’re talking about! Good luck! 🙂
My biggest homemaking challenge is not getting distracted by FB when I should be getting things done! I used to have good self-discipline. Need to work on that again.
My biggest homemaking challenge is starting dinner on time/remembering to take meat out to defrost. Even with a menu plan, I’m horrible at it. Then I get distracted by trying to get computer stuff done before my husband comes home and dinner becomes late.
I have that problem sometimes, Julie! I’ve gotten better at just getting out 2 days worth of meat. That way I almost always have something thawed in the fridge (not perfect but it’s helped when I do it!)
Great review! I also read The Fringe Hours.
She shared great tips on how to USE the pockets of time in your day. I am pretty good at using the small pockets of time…now if I could just FIND a few more. 😉
Sounds like a really interesting book! I need to add it to my to read list!
My biggest challenge at the moment is to find the motivation to do things in the house. I just can’t seem to get out of bed and be energized for the new day. 🙁 I know prayer can help me, but even that is kind of hard to do right now. 🙁
Prayers, Gabriela! I’ve been in that season before, too! Adding a lot of ice water into my day really helped me, be more energized. This season will pass, sending you prayers!
This sounds like a great book, and one that I know many of us women could benefit from. Me included! Thanks!
My biggest homemaking challenge is time management. I hate the clock and I hate schedules, as a result dinner is almost always really late which then puts everything else late and it rolls into the next day.
My biggest homemaking challenge is doing so many things well and simultaneously – marriage, parenting, cleaning, sewing, cooking, budgeting, crafting, laundry, entertaining, etc. I think this book would be a great help!
My biggest homemaking challenge is trying to fold laundry while a toddler is unfolding the laundry. 🙂
LOL, been there, done that! Blessings, Karen! 🙂
My biggest homemaking challenge is meal planning! I don’t know why we can’t get it together in this department. haha
I’m really good at it but my challenge is WANTING to actually MAKE it! 🙂 Maybe we can combine ourselves and have a super woman, Brittany? 🙂
I’d love to win this book. I often feel overwhelmed yet I know that I also waste a lot of time. Even if I don’t win, I am adding this one to my reading list.
Ooops! I didn’y follow directions, lol. My biggest homemaking challenge is me not wanting to do any homemaking things 😉
My biggest challenge is staying motivated to maintain a clean orderly house.
If I don’t win, I still plan to order this book, because I **NEED** this!
My biggest homemaking challenge is gaining authority over CLUTTER!!