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Ashley Fenker's avatar

Always love reading about your adventures at home that are so different than mine! ❤️ I started a book club and so far we’ve read Shark Heart and The Great Alone. Both very different fiction, but enjoyed them both! The Great Alone was tough but also hard to put down.

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Stacy Bronec's avatar

Thanks, Ashley!! Ooh yes, Shark Heart, I'm waiting for that one from the library! I read The Great Alone a few years ago. I have The Women by Kristin Hannah on my nightstand, but I'm trying to finish the books I'm reading before starting another one. ;)

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Laura Rennie's avatar

"It’s how we choose to see them." YES. Loved this piece, Stacy. How cool that you're putting together another conference. You have a lot of experience planning big events!

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Stacy Bronec's avatar

Thanks, Laura!! I guess I like planning things. 😆

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Krista Steele's avatar

Beautiful! So enjoyed your perspectives on travel and adventure and marriage and just all of it. Also, I’m 100% here for all the calving content.

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Stacy Bronec's avatar

Thanks, Krista!!

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Amy La's avatar

“An “adventure” on the farm could mean many things, but usually, it means he needs my help.” 100% true 😂

A wonderful piece. Looking forward to listening to your podcast interview. Also, there is something therapeutic about writing in a notebook…pages just begging to be filled. The joy of using a good pen or pencil to do it is underrated.

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Stacy Bronec's avatar

Haha, you know!! ;)

Thanks so much! Yes, I so agree about writing in a notebook. I love the feel of the pencil on the paper.

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Joy Nicholas's avatar

“Maybe that’s what marriage is—saying yes to adventures big and small, exciting and mundane.

It’s how we choose to see them.” Love this, so true!

I’m also a huge fan of starting my writing in my journal! I actually feel like I can’t start without it. The blank screen of the computer almost always feels too intimidating if I don’t have the idea of where I’m coming from, which I’ve worked out (at least a little) by hand. I use gel ink pens.

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Stacy Bronec's avatar

Thanks, Joy!!

That's how I've been feeling lately with writing, the blank screen on the computer screen is intimidating! I love that you use gel ink pens -- so fun!

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Erin Mount's avatar

So many twins calves!! Wow. It makes me sad that the moms can’t feed both. Nature, man. It’s rough out there.

Have you read anything by Katherine Center? Her newest book Hello Stranger is my FAVE, but I also love The Bodyguard and Happiness for Beginners.

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Stacy Bronec's avatar

Some cows will keep them for awhile, but to weaning age is a stretch! (Which is roughly 9-10 months old.)

I have read Katherine Center! I started Hello Stranger and I was liking it, but picked up another book (which I probably shouldn't do), and then the library hold expired so I took it back. I think I read The Bodyguard a few years ago!

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Kym VdP's avatar

Love those last two lines of your essay 🥰✨ I'm loving the Thursday murder club series! So fun and so witty!

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Stacy Bronec's avatar

Thank you!! I've heard of the Thursday Murder Club books, but haven't read them! I'll have to check them out!

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Christina Doerksen's avatar

Such an enjoyable read!

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Stacy Bronec's avatar

Thanks, Christina!

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Christina Doerksen's avatar

Also in a bit of reading slump era, and there doesn’t seem to be any balance between reading and trying to write, maybe it’s ok to have rhythm of one more than the other in seasons. I love writing on paper and doing more of that since my computer went down. Anything that makes it online is one finger tap at a time on my phone!🥴

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Stacy Bronec's avatar

Oh no! I hope you can get your computer fixed soon. Doing everything on the phone is hard!

And yes, so true about balancing the two. I'm sure I'll end up reading more in the coming weeks/months and writing less.

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molly flinkman's avatar

“It’s how we choose to see them.” Love that 💛 and, yes to writing with mechanical pencils forever and always.

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Stacy Bronec's avatar

Thanks, friend! I thought it was you who inspired me to use mechanical pencils, but I couldn't remember for sure. They are so much better than a regular pencil. 😆

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Rebecca Marie's avatar

My goodness. My brain exploded when you said that to get to town is a 13 hour walk. How long does it take to drive??

Writing by hand is so much better! There is too much pressure with a Google doc. But on the page words tumble out and it doesn't matter because no one will see them. I recently read I'm Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy, Yellowface by Rebecca F Kuang, and Leaving Blackwood by Khaiah Thomson. I smashed through all of them in a day each after a looooong reading slump and getting bored of books halfway through (which never happens).

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Stacy Bronec's avatar

It takes 40 minutes to drive, it's 35 miles, but half of that is gravel road. And that's to the town that's a population of 1300 people (that's where our kids go to school). The city is 50 miles away (but not in the same direction as the tiny town), and that's 25 miles of gravel / 25 miles of highway.

So true about a google doc vs a notebook!

I started "I'm Glad My Mom Died" awhile back and I just couldn't get into it. Maybe I should try it again! I've heard good things about Yellowface!

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Rebecca Marie's avatar

Oh wow. You’re properly rural! I wouldn’t stress about getting back into it. It’s pretty intense, I think it overlapped with my professional interests (I’m a therapist) but if it’s not your jam it will only get worse 😂😂 Yellowface was fascinating. Its basically a thriller, kind of like You (the book) without all the stalking

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Kendra Kruckenberg's avatar

Fellow non-swiftie who also uses the term "eras". Please report back if this is a phrase we are not supposed to use, lol.

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