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Welcome back to Day 23 of 31 Days to a Life of Purpose!
We’ve spent the week talking about the importance of caring for ourselves. What better way to wrap up talking about self-care than with a review of Jessica Turner’s The Fringe Hours: Making Time for You!
Jessica Turner is a wife, mother of 3, full-time employee outside the home, author, and popular blogger of The Mom Creative. I met Jessica at last year’s Allume Conference. I attended two of the sessions she led, one of which was specifically about The Fringe Hours. Jessica was so passionate about the topic of self-care and pursuing your passions that I couldn’t wait to read the book.
The Fringe Hours is based on research involving over 2000 surveyed participants and many interviews, all with the intention of addressing the need for self-care. Jessica is passionate about women making time for themselves so that they are more fully invested in their lives, which leads to better relationships, better home and work environments and an all around better life.
A fringe hour combines the unused pockets of time throughout our day to pursue our passions and practice self-care. These pockets of time might come while we’re waiting in the carpool line to pick up kids or waiting for a doctor’s appointment, in the time before your family wakes up or after the kids have gone to bed. When added together, it can amount to a significant amount of time that can be used with purpose if we only recognize it. This time can fill us up when it would otherwise be wasted.
Throughout the book, Jessica encourages readers to evaluate their schedules, identify their fringe hours, and overcome the obstacles of providing self-care, and she gives practical advice for making the most of this time. One of Jessica’s many examples is how she makes time for her love of scrapbooking, which was the original focus for her popular blog The Mom Creative. Scrapbooking would usually take a significant amount of time, but her schedule rarely allows for hours at a time to be devoted to this task. Knowing this, she came up with a way to utilize short spurts of time to pursue this passion of hers and she shares advice for how readers can do the same.
A common message from women today is that their lives are too busy, but they aren’t really finding joy in the day-to-day . We can easily get caught up in doing for everyone else and neglecting ourselves. Jessica believes that purposefully using our fringe hours will lead us to become better wives, mothers, and friends. Her book has already inspired so many women to pursue dreams that have long been placed on the shelf. Doing the things we love can lead us to be more energized and joyful about life in general.
While the concept of self-care certainly isn’t new, it is still often a struggle especially for busy moms. Jessica gently encourages women to take care of themselves without guilt and to recognize that using a few spare minutes for something you love is far better than letting that time go to waste.
I love the message this book presents and I truly hope you can be influenced by it, too! In keeping with this month’s theme, I am giving away a set of three books that I hope will encourage you in your journey to live with purpose:
The Fringe Hours: Making Time for You by Jessica Turner
Own Your Life: Living with Deep Intention, Bold Faith, and Generous Love by Sally Clarkson
Make It Happen: Surrender Your Fear. Take the Leap. Live on Purpose. by Lara Casey
Also, Jessica has a new book called My Fringe Hours: Discovering a More Creative and Fulfilled Life which releases on December 1, 2015. You can now pre-order the book on Amazon. Check it out!
Make sure to check back next week as I review the other two books. The giveaway will be open through the end of this month as we finish out the series on 31 Days to a Life of Purpose.
Also, in support of bloggers taking on the Write 31 Days challenge, Dayspring is generously offering a giveaway of a $500 Dayspring gift card to readers. You can enter by clicking here.
See you tomorrow!
Lindsey says
I spend my fringe hours reading, blogging, and baking!
Judy says
I spend my fringe hours blogging and catching up with friends. 🙂