Renewing You book Review

 Renewing You 

by Father Nick Louh and Dr. Roxanne Louh

I am very torn by my thoughts on this book.  I think it would be easiest to divide my thoughts into a set of Pro’s and Con’s:

Pro’s

• This book covers many different areas of personal life: Prayer, Thoughts, Vices, Trials, Self Care,

• Marriage, Kids and Sharing your light.  

• Dr. Roxanne does a wonderful job explaining the psychology of our minds and actions. 

• I appreciate the amount of science she uses to explain how our minds work.  

• This is a great workbook format. There are a lot of thought provoking questions. This book

• takes a good time commitment to be used correctly and beneficially.

• I enjoyed reading and connecting with the anecdotal stories.  They helped tie in the message.

• It is very clear that Father Nick and Dr. Roxanne have many experiences to share.  I could tell

• that they had a personal understanding of many different situations.  This made the book very

• relatable. 

• I really like how the chapter on Self Care covered more in depth ways to take care of yourself

• and quick fixes like getting your nails done or a bowl of ice cream. 

• There is so much supportive Scripture!   

• Several quotes were inspiring to me:

•  “Peace is not the absence of a storm, it’s the presence of God.” page 48  

• ‘We can’t rely on ‘feeling like it’ in order to do the things our bodies require.” page 173  

• “Just keep remembering that choices lead, feelings follow.” page 175

Con’s

• I was absolutely overwhelmed by the amount of Bible translations used.  I counted 6 different

• translations in the first chapter.  This makes me leery and makes me feel like the Scripture is

• being twisted to make a point.  

• I am unsure of the intended audience of this book.  It is written in such a way that maybe

• Protestants would be more likely to read.  

• In the chapter of Prayer there is no mention of using the Jesus Prayer or having an Orthodox

• Prayer rule.  While the First Fifteen plan is probably a very good idea, I was very disappointed

• by the lack of Orthodox influence.  We have daily scripture readings and daily Saints lives that

• would be wonderful to include first thing in the morning, as well as the Trisagion prayers.  Also

• mentioning the importance of developing spiritual guidelines with your Spiritual Father would

• have been a good suggestion.

• The chapter of Vices covered a lot of interpersonal issues, but lacked focus on personal vices. 

• Many of my battles deal with my own issues.  There was also a lack of discussion on the

• importance of Confession.  I feel like making the full cycle of repentance is lacking if there is no

• form of confession.  Planning for confession would have been a helpful addition to this chapter.  

• I don’t see the full flow of all of the chapter headings.  While Marriage and Children are great

• topics, not everyone reading the book will be married or have children (or even children of the

• ages discussed).  I feel like there are other life situations that should have been included.  While

• I appreciate the need to Shine Your Light, I did not feel like that chapter cohesively fit with the

• rest of the book.  It was more of a good remember for the reader, not a description of Renewal.  

• I personally would have preferred prayers from the Saints at the end of each chapter rather than

• the ones written by the authors.

I do feel like I benefited from reading this book and would like to go back to some of the chapters

and take some more time thinking through my personal life.  The book did not have a strong Orthodox

feel to me, so I am not likely to highly recommend this book to my Orthodox friends.  

I was provided a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. 

The Top 7 Reasons Why I Love Working with my Husband

Let me clarify, I don't actually work with my husband.  My husband is a Nurse on the same unit in the hospital that I work as a Nursing Assistant.  We never work the same shifts, but we do work with all the same patients and co-workers.
Working outside the home has never been a life goal for me.  I have enough to keep me busy at home.  I like it that way.  Josh likes it that way.  But we have goals, and I need some sanity outside of the house.  Thus we came to the agreement that it probably wouldn't hurt for me to get out of the house a little bit and make some money while I was at it.
I knew that teaching wasn't an option for me.
I love children.
I love working with children.
I do not love working in the classroom setting with children, at least not in a paid position.
So we started discussing options.  The decision was made for me to return to school and train to be a CNA. I ended up loving it way more that I thought I would! I applied to many different units at the hospital, got interviews with two units and eventually chose to work on the same unit as my husband.

Side note:  It's probably not wise for all married couples to work together!

So what have I noticed in the past couple of months as a working woman, specifically with my husband?

Here are my top 7 reasons Why I Love Working with my Husband (in no particular order).

1.  It gives me a greater appreciation for his job as a nurse.  My husband is almost a different man at work.  He is organized, smart and manages his time.  He delegates tasks and makes sure he is informed about all the illnesses he deals with.  Not that he's not most of these at home....cough....cough....like he says, "Why would I be when I know you can do it for me!?"  It's neat to see all the hard work that the nurses do everyday and know that this is what my husband has to deal with full time. I understand now!  And I'm sure the same goes for him.  He's an awesome dad, but now he's working even harder at home when I'm away.

2.  It makes logistics easier.  Balancing both his and my schedule can be a little crazy sometimes.  Are we each able to get enough sleep?  Who has the kids?  What's going on this week?  Can I pick up an extra shift?  Everything is all organized in one place, on one team that understands our situation.  We can both check each other's work schedules and easily plan around each other.  It would work out if I was on a different unit, it's just so much easier that we're on the same one.

3.  I'm ok with him working at home.  Before I started working I never really got frustrated when he had to work at home, I mean, not really frustrated....maybe a little....  While it does getting tiring after a while, now I know exactly what's on his plate.  Or at least I have a connection with the patients on the unit, so I know that if he is working at home, that means he's helping the patients, and they mean a lot to me.  And that's ok.

4. We get to work as a team, separately.   Josh and I have not always been known to be the greatest team players. I have to say, being married for 10 years has definitely helped, and having 5 kids.  We've kinda been forced to play nicely or fail.  Working separate shifts allows us to play nicely on the nursing team, but not have the awkwardness of working at the same time.  I mean, what if I messed up?  What if I thought he was a jerk that day?  We don't need that stuff on the unit!  This way none of our home-life baggage is brought to the work site.  Not that we ever disagree...

5.  He keeps my work load balanced.  Anyone who knows me knows that I tend to go head first into things, many times without thinking and most of the time overwhelming myself completely!  Josh knows exactly what my job entails and what is normal for my position.  So he knows when I come home with some crazy idea for something to help with a patient, he can tell me to stop or go ahead with it.  He helps me regulate my work load so that I don't drive myself crazy.  After 10 years of marriage, I trust him.  I know that he's looking out for my best interests.  So if he tells me to calm down or back off, I know I should listen.

6. He helps me problem solve.  Healthcare is a new job area for me.  My degree is in education.  Although Wake Tech absolutely prepared me for my job, there are still minor skills specific to our unit that I am thankful for Josh's wisdom.  He's able to tell me what he's observed other NA's doing that might work well for me.  I am able to ask him specific questions about taking vitals or other basic cares that I know he will give me an honest answer to.  I like my job to be efficient and helpful to the nurses, so it's nice having a nurse at home with me that I can ask questions to make sure I am doing a service for the nurses and not being a hindrance.

7. We have the chance to provide better care for our patients.  That's what it's all about, right? We want our patients to get the best care they can.  Having both the perspective of the nurse and nurse aide, we can both advocate in different areas for the patients.  This results in more complete care.  I think the patients enjoy joking about us at our expense as well, which results in higher morale for the patients, and for that, I don't mind being the butt of jokes!