Welcome to the Strong Women podcast, where we explore the beautifully diverse ways God invites and equips women to participate in his story.

We're here to encourage one another as we step out of the shallow definitions of what it means to be a woman

and into the flourishing life that comes when we walk out our design.

I'm your host Sarah Stone Street. I'm so glad you're here.

Welcome back to the Strong Women Podcast. I have a special guest with me today, my friend Heidi White.

Now, Heidi wears lots of hats. So I'm going to tell you about a few of them. And then I'm

going to tell you about Heidi. Heidi works for Cursi Institute. And some of our listeners are also

listeners to your podcast, Close Reads. On Close Reads, she and a couple other book lovers talk about books. I know all of our

listeners love books. So if you're looking for a good podcast, go check out Close Reads. But she does

other things for Circe Institute. And give me a little quick thing about Searcy. How would you describe

Searcy? Yeah. So Searcy is a research and consulting firm.

We work with classical educators, homeschool moms, classroom teachers, school administrators

to teach literature in the classics and classical pedagogy.

So if you're interested in classical education, the Searcy Institute is a fantastic resource. I am a contractor there. I'm not full-time staff. And so I can kind of step outside and talk about how wonderful they are. I'm just honored to be part of what they're building over there. Yes. And I, in the early years of homeschooling, I learned so much from Searcy. I'm so grateful. So grateful. So grateful. That's actually how we met. That is. Yeah. Okay. And Heidi has a new book coming out, which we'll talk about at the end, I think. But I'll say the title right now, the divided soul reuniting duty and desire in literature and life. Doesn't it sound so fascinating? I can't wait to hear more about

that. She also teaches at St. Hild here in Colorado Springs, which my kids attend. So my daughter,

Allie, actually has Heidi as a teacher, which is so fun. We schooled our kids together when they

were really little, and we've done lots of book clubs

together. And one thing about Heidi is if you want to talk about books and get to like the deeper

meaning, she is the most fun person to talk about books with. So I asked her to come on because

during this Advent season, we're talking about the Christmas Carol, which is one of my favorite books, especially during the Advent season leading up to Christmas.

I mean, Advent is about thinking and remembering past, present, and future of the big grand story of Scripture and what God is doing in this world.

We look forward with Israel, like when we're reading the Old Testament in this Advent season,

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