Books finished this year

I am moving this post to the top as I finish books.

January

A Christmas Carol
Gulliver's Travels

February

Reading Between the Lines

March

When God Writes Your Love Story
Best Friends for Life
Pride and Prejudice
The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax

May

Adventures of Tom Sawyer
Tom Sawyer Abroad
Tom Sawyer Detective
More Hours in My Day
I Gave Dating a Chance

June

The Scarlet Letter
Robinson Crusoe (with B#2)
Book of Indians (with B#3)

July

Mrs. Pollifax Unveiled
The Hurrier I Go: Finding Time for the People in Your Life
Mere Christianity
Th Man Who Was Thursday

Currently Reading:

For the Children's Sake
Dating with Integrity
How to Read a Book

Quotable . . . on Personality

From Mere Christianity by CS Lewis Book IV, chptr. 11

"At the beginning I said there were Personalities in God. I will go further now. There are no real personalities anywhere else. Until you have given up your self to Him you will not have a real self. Sameness is to be found most among the most "natural" men, not among those who surrender to Christ. How monotonously alike all the great tyrants and conquerors have been: how gloriously different are the saints."

Quotable . . . on the church

From Mere Christianity by CS Lewis book IV, Chptr. 8

" In the same way the church exists for nothing else but to draw men into Christ, to make them little christs. If they are not doing that, all the cathedrals, clergy, missions, sermons, even the bible itself are simply a waste of time. God became Man for no other purpose. it is even doubtful, you know, whether the whole universe was created for any other purpose. It says in the Bible that the whole universe was made for Christ and that everything is to be gathered together in Him."

Quotable . . . on Faith

From Mere Christianity by CS Lewis Book IV, Chptr. 7

"But we must not remain babies. We must go on to recognise the real Giver. It is madness not to. Because, if we do not, we shall be relying on human beings. And that is going to let us down. The best of them will make mistakes; all of them will die. We must be thankful to all the people who have helped us, we must honour them and love them. But never, never pin your whole faith on any human being: not if he is the best and wisest in the whole world. There are lots of nice things you can do with sand; but do not try building a house on it."

About Me

Javamom tagged me a long while ago with this one and I just got it finished. It was kind of fun to go down memory lane and scary too since the old memory doesn't work so good anymore.

20 years ago (1986)
1. I was 25 years old.
2. My oldest was almost one
3. I worked for the Federal Aviation Administration in their personnel office.

15 years ago (1991)
1. Our second oldest was 8 months old
2. We were getting ready for our dear friends to move in with us.
3. I was content to be a wife and mommy.

10 years ago (1996)
1. I was 35 and was 8 months pregnant with my fourth child.
2. My grandfather was very ill
3. We went to see a civil war reenactment

5 years ago (2001)
1. Went to my first Apple Cider Press Youth Rally
2. Spent lots of time with our friends the Reddings
3. Listened to our daughter sing with her friends at Youth Rallys

3 Years ago (2003)
1. We camped at Mt. Ranier, North Cascades, Olympic National Parks and Mt. St. Helens
2. I witnessed the birth of my dear friends daughter.
3. Our oldest graduated from our homeschool.

1 year ago (2005)
1. We went camping in Spokane, WA
2. We went to We Care Ministry training
3. We went camping at the Olympic National Park

This year so far (2006)
1. Our two oldest boys have committed their lives to Jesus.
2. We went on a mission trip to Texas.
3. We changed churches after 14 years at the same one.

Yesterday
1. Met some friends at the park
2. I did laundry
3. Planned for our reading program

Today
1. Went to a garden with my daughter
2. Hosted neighborhood reading program
3. Worked on School Planning

Tomorrow
1. I will watch my son at swimming lessons
2. I will fix dinner for my family
3. I will help with Summer Memory Madness

In the next year
1. I will go to Yellowstone bible camp
2. I will work on my scrapbook
3. I will work on decluttering my house

In the next minute
1. Get ready for Bed

Clash of the Cultures

Last weekend we got pulled into a domestic dispute that our neighbors were having. We don't know much about these neighbors except that they came to America from India about 11 years ago. Their 19 year old daughter came flying into our house crying and hysterical asking me to call 911 and saying that "he" was going to kill her. After her came her mother, who speaks very little english and her father or brother, I am not sure, it is all kind of a blur. The girl ran upstairs and the mother was excitedly talking to me, I could not understand what she was saying. I followed the girl upstairs and telephoned 911, the neighbors already had too, and then waited for the sherif to get here. My husband got the others out of the house and I was able to calm the girl. Turns out the father found that she had a "My Space" and instead of talking things over decided to get physical. I don't debate the right of the father to make rules for his household, but I do take issue with the way he and his son tried to enforce them. What I see as an issue here is people coming from one culture that has certain ideas about women and their place to another country, namely ours, that has completely different ideas about that sort of thing. They don't learn the language and they send their children to public school and yet expect that they won't pick up attitudes that pervade our society. To some extent, as Christians, we can have the same problem. We are in this world but of another, trying to remain true to our Lord. Trying to fit one culture into another is truly a difficult thing.

Words are Interesting

Quixotic: 1) of or like Don Quixote; 2) extravagently chivalrous or romantically idealistic; visionary; impractical or impracticable.
(found in A Man Who Was Thursday)

Megalomania: 1) a mental disorder characterized by delusions of grandeur, wealth, power, etc. 2) a passion for or for doing big things; 3) a tendency to exaggerate
(found in Mere Christianity)

Pirates!

Last Sunday afternoon, we went to see Pirate's of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest. We are big fans of the first movie and we really enjoyed this one as well. There were a couple of creepy parts that I didn't like, especially the opening scene, but for the most part it was a very entertaining story. Johnny Depp was as creative as ever in his character of Captain Jack and the costuming for Davy Jones and his crew were favorites of our whole family. Sensitive individuals may be upset by a few of the scenes that contain violence.

The Man Who Was Thursday

Wow! This book was a real page turner. Chesterton is indeed a master at his craft. Just when I thought I knew what was happening, it all changed and then changed again. Those who like a mystery will like this one. The ending, well it just wasn’t expected! This was my first Chesterton work, but certainly won’t be my last.

Happy Birthday Bouncy Boy!

Bouncy Boy, our youngest child, turned 10 last week. In our family, we have the tradition of letting the special birthday person select breakfast and dinner menus. On his birthday, we had cinnamon grands for breakfast and Pappa Murphys Pizza for dinner. Because he wanted his big brother to be at his party, he chose to wait until a few days after his birthday to celebrate with his friends. B#1 got home from his mission trip late Sunday night and we had Bouncy Boy's birthday party on Monday afternoon. He didn't want cake and chose to only have ice cream, Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough and Vanilla. It seems just as if it were yesterday that Bouncy Boy came into our lives. My how time flies! This child fills our lives with much love and excitement. He is a very passionate child, there is no in between with him. He keeps us on our toes. Currently he is really into marvel comics and action figures.

A - Accent: American
B - Breakfast Item: toasted raisin bread
C - Chore you hate: cleaning the bathroom
D - Dad's Name: Raymond
E - Essential everyday item: toothbrush
F - Flavor ice cream: Extreme Moose Tracks
G - Gold or Silver?: Gold
H - Happy Place: my recliner, with my bible or a book and coffee
I - Insomnia: sometimes
J - Job - Love or want to leave: wife & mother - LOVE IT
K - Kids: yes (4)
L - Living arrangements: Two story house
M - Mom's birthplace: Missouri
N - Number of houses you've lived in: 7 and 3 apartments
O - Overnight hospital stays: three
P - Phobia: heights
Q - Question: Does anyone ever read these things?
R - Religious Affiliation: Church of Christ.
S - Siblings: one sister, two step sisters and one step brother
T - Time you wake up: 8am ish, 7ish on Sunday
U - Unnatural hair colors you've had: None.
V - Vegetable you refuse to eat: brussel sprouts
W - Worst habit: Talking too much.
X - X-rays you've had: Dental and chest
Y - Yummy: chocolate and oh yes chocolate, did I mention chocolate?
Z - Zealous about?: God!

I have seen this on many blogs but decided to do it after seeing it on Beth Spera in Domino

Quotable . . . On Heaven

These quotes are from Mere Christianity, by C.S. Lewis. Book III chapter 10 Hope.

"The Apostles themselves, who set on foot the conversion of the Roman Empire, the great men who built up the Middle Ages, the English Evangelicals who abolished the Slave Trade, all left their mark on Earth, precisely because their minds were occupied with Heaven. It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so inffective in this. Aim at Heaven and you will get earth "thrown in": aim at earth and you will get neither."

"Most of us find it very difficult to want "Heaven" at all - except in so far as "heaven" means meeting again our friends who have died. One reason for this difficulty is that we have not been trained: our whole education tends to fix our minds on this world."

"I must keep alive in myself the desire for my true country, which I shall not find till after death; I must never let it get snowed under or turned aside; I must make it the main object of life to press on to that other country and to help others to do the same."

Food for thought . . . Thoughts for Prayer

Summer Memory Madness

On Wednesday evenings during the summer, our congregation has been providing a program for children ages 4 - 6th grade called Summer Memory Madness. My understanding is that they have been doing this for 11 years now. The theme this year is Called to Action and the the goal is for the children to hide God's word in their hearts. Memory verses have been selected to go along with theme and the children learn these verses each week. There are learning, craft and game stations set up and the children can go to the ones they are interested in but must go to at least three of the stations and the station that teaches the new verse. The children are learning the verses and are having fun too. I have been helping and having fun along with the children - plus I am learning the memory verses too!

Homeschool Carnival Week 27

The Homeschool Carnival Week 27 is up at Tami's Blog! There is something for everyone. Go check it out.

Letterboxing

Monday afternoon, B#2, Bouncy Boy, Plantlover and her friend Latoya went with me to a couple of parks on a type of scavenger hunt. We went on our first Letterboxing outing. I learned about letterboxing on one of my many email lists about a year or more ago and wanted to try it, but just never got started. Letterboxing involves rubber stamps and clues. People place a notepad, rubber stamp, and ink pad inside a rubbermaid type container then hide it in some location and then post clues on the letterbox website. You can go to the Letterboxing website and look up parks and other places in your area that contain a letterbox. You print out the clues and then take a rubber stamp and notepad with you on your adventure. Once you find a letterbox, you use their stamp to stamp your notepad and then you stamp their notepad with yours and return the letterbox to its original hiding place. We printed out clues for two parks in our area and went on our search. We found both boxes and learned some things along the way. It is a bit cumbersome to carry everything involved and do all the stamping and try to be inconspicuous at the same time. We will put together a letterbox kit for our next adventure. You need a pen, stamp and pad (in case theirs is dry), a notebook and wet ones to clean everything/one up when done stamping. It was a very fun time and Hubby was even able to join us at the second park!

Our House feels empty

B#1 left Sunday after church services to go on a mission trip to Montana. We are missing him terribly. We don't normally let our children go off without us like this but we felt this would be a good experience for him. He went with about 9 teens, some parents of the teens and our youth minister. It is a good group of people. They will be working with a very small congregation while in Montana, helping with community outreach. He will be gone all week and return late Sunday night. I am sure he will have much to share when he returns.