Currently On My Nightstand

What is currently on my nightstand, in the den, on the dining room table, in the kitchen counter, and beside any comfy chair in the house are a few of my books. There are my books for reading, for journaling, and one book for volunteer stuff for church. Want to know the details?

Reading: I'm currently reading:

1. Bird By Bird by Anne Lamott. A book on writing and a book on life. It exceeded my wildest expectations. 

2. Comforts From The Cross by Elyse Fitzpatrick. A birthday gift from a friend, which I've read almost daily since then. Such a sweet devotional for someone (me!) who is skeptical of devotionals.

3. The One Year Book of Hope by Nancy Guthrie. The same friend gave this to me to pass to Lauren during her grieving. When I gave it to Lauren, she smiled. She read it after her mom died and said it was the only book that she liked and it helped. Now, I'm reading it too and it is marvelous. I look forward to reading it everyday. I would highly recommend this to anyone.

4. Country Living and Better Homes & Gardens. I hang onto these all month, reading a little bit at a time because I love them so. I stretch them out to last all month!

Journaling: 

1. I had a cute little floral journal that John gave me. It's colors and design were my taste perfectly, but the tiny size made it hard to write.

2. After a few weeks of writing in it (or not writing because it was difficult), I gave it up for the standard black and white composition book that suits me just perfectly. Why do I think that anything else will suffice? Besides, I love to get a little craftastic on those composition journals and make them my own.

Two questions:

1. I've been nonfiction heavy with my reading this year. Could you recommend any fiction books?

2. Do you journal? What inspires you?

4 Books That Changed My Life

This year has been the best yet.  I'm 31.  I have a great marriage.  I have two wonderful children.  And I have a lot of junk.  I've tried to pack up my life and myself in a nice little package so that I'm able to check things off the list and work towards a person who is emotionally accomplished.  I've worked hard to manage everyone's opinions of me so that I appear to be the best at everything.  

That's not the case anymore.  I am striving to feel uncomfortable in my views of life, and I'm craving change and brokenness.  I'm so ready to be wrong and take responsibility for my actions and apologize on a regular basis.  (If you have beef with me, this is a really good time to bring it up-and I would love it if you did.)  The Lord has used relationships, a wonderful trip, my church, and four books to bring on this transformation.  I would like to share them here.

A Million Miles In A Thousand Years by Donald Miller.  While on the trip to Belize, I read this book about stories.  Some of our stories include ending each day in front of the TV; stories that revolve around spending time and effort accumulating things; or stories that are manly focused on our household, picking and choosing what relationships and organizations we join based on comfort.  My story was a small buffet of all of those things. We are all living stories, and the stories mean something.  It had me asking what my story was?  What story am I creating for my kids?  What story am I shaping for my household?    

Every Body Matters by Gary Thomas.  I hate to talk about this one.  I wish I didn't have to put it out there.  Food.  Exercise.  It's important.  The sin of excessive eating and laziness is not mentioned much in the church.  In fact, it's not mentioned in the Bible much, but what is mentioned is gluttony.  I (and several others in the church) have a problem with it.  We don't talk about it, we ignore, and instead we point the finger at other sins.  We go around pointing out specks in others' eyes, but we don't see the plank of gluttony in our own eyes.  (A great example of this is going out in droves to buy fried chicken, waffle fries, and milkshakes to support traditional marriage under the banner of Christianity.  What was that!?!)  I shouldn't bring Chik-fil-a into this.  This book was about me and pursuing holiness, and my eating habits were in the way.

7 by Jen Hatmaker.  (Not pictured, loaned to a friend.)  I've said it before: I think the biggest struggle of being American is learning to say "no" to all the excess.  Food. Expectations. Clothes. Stress. Scheduling. Media.  I started feeling this when I saw this on Wall E, felt it more when I went to Belize, and even more after reading this book.  I'm starting to take a different look at time, efforts, and money and think of it in terms of something larger.  Saying "no" is my new favorite thing to do.

Grace For The Good Girl by Emily Freeman.  The tag line is "letting go of the try hard life." Hallelujah  Amen. Preach it, sista. Sock it to me.  I could write forever about this one. I talked about it so much, a few of my friends read it too and I get texts quoting the book and talking about which character we relate to best, and just how accurate this book is.  If you want to be the best, have it all together, never let anyone down, never be wrong, and have strong feelings of guilt and prideful achievement, then this book is for you.  We're got.to.let.go.of.trying.hard.  Even on the second read, I was being blown away by how much of my heart was being revealed.  Also, I just re-watched the first video on the link that is above and I cried. Again.  Please, read it and find freedom.

I'm not great at writing book reviews.  If we were sitting face to face, then I would talk your ear off until you waved your white flag and yelled, "ok, ok, I'll read it if you'll just stop talking!"  Please know, that even though these brief reviews are not lengthy or well written, they have a lot of heart behind them.  If one of these books stirs up your life like it has mine, then I would love to know about it.  Also, I'm always up for a good, heart-felt recommendation as well.  The written word is a beautiful thing.

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This post was written a while ago, but I'm joining Jones Design Company today as we talk about books.  For more people, click on the picture below:

Burl and Reading

When Burl was an infant, I was determined that he was going to be a solid reader by the time he turned one, reading chapter books by two.  We spent time together reading baby books, kids books, and at one time we started the Chronicles of Narnia. 

Somewhere along the way, that slowed.  Sitting for an entire book seemed impossible.  My hopes for Burl to be asked to join Mensa were shattered.

However, my little friend, Patty, told me that it was ok.  He was going through a phase-most kids do-and he would soon show an interest in books again.

She was right.  His interest in books has sparked again.  Often, when people come over, he takes them a book and wants them to read it.  The current favorites being Oh The Thinks You Can Think and Little Blue Truck.  Deb and Heidi were no different.  Deb is a teacher, so she knows just how to captivate a child with a book.  She does the voices, uses inflections, and it very engaging. Burl was enthralled.   

Naturally, I thought it was a great time to try out some reading times.  However, it was not the same as reading at home.  I'm not sure we're there yet.  Burl is more interested in throwing the crayons during the craft and enjoying the snacks.  

Then, there is the train set.  This is where we spent most of our time.  Instead of forcing him to sit through the whole story, I decided that letting him work on the trains was just fine.

Especially when he's systematically cramming them into the bridge.

Something about that makes me just as proud as when he brings me a book.
Maybe this is a sign that Mensa will be calling after all.  

Hungry For A Good Read?

Even though reading is a very, very fun thing for me to do, I have been in a drought lately.  Bone dry of good reads.  

For the record, if I'm going to read a serious book-something on prayer, parenting, Christian freedom, etc-I like to take my time.  Otherwise, I don't remember anything.

Fiction books are different.  (Besides the occasional Ron Rash books where I slowly take in his incredible writing,) I love to pick up a fiction book that I can't put down.  Some of my fastest, most recent page turners were:

Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society
Twilight Series

The Help

Those are all books that I would recommend to the typical gal.  I just finished another one that came highly recommended.  Here's what I knew about it:

1. It didn't sound like anything that I would ever enjoy reading

2. It was SOOOO GOOOD.  

If you haven't read it, then go, pick up a copy of the Hunger Games.  I just finished the first one and I'm about to start the second one (as soon as I finish this post).  To read more about it, click HERE.  Just take my word for it.  It's enthralling.  

Bookmarks

I love to read.  I love paper.  I love to find a home for everything.  And I love to match a bookmark to my current read.  Really, I do.



Therefore, I keep any cute paper that I find, get or steal.  Invitations-cut off the words, keep the cute design.  Cards-do the same.  Cute business cards-Don't mind if I do, Heidi.

I'm very protective over my repurposed paper bookmarks.  So, I put them in my super cool birdbath so this little birdie can watch over them.  Stand guard.

Cute little papers + vintage looking birdbath (gift from my Aunt) =  so cute on my bookshelves.  

I hope that I'm not the only one who has a little collection of random cute things that are on display...anyone else?  

A Reader's Blog

I came across this blog that is about a gal's goal to read a book a week for 2010.  To quote her, "think Julie and Julia, substituting books for recipes."  Love it.  Want to do it. 

Reminded me of a memory...

When I was younger, my dad heard about a boy who grew up in poverty and became a successful surgeon.  I don't remember much of his story, but I remember that his mother made him read a book every week and write a one page report on the book.

For a few summers, my dad made us a summer deal:  read one book a week and at the end of the summer, we go to Six Flags.  At the time, that was a huge deal, because I hated reading.  

But, I did it each time.  We all did and I don't know which I loved more-Six Flags or that feeling of accomplishment.  

And look at me now?  I'm not a surgeon, but I'm a scientist.  Not really, but I like to invent things like, fun, for example.

Reading Spot

I love reading.  I do it everyday....before I go to bed, when I workout on the machines (and yes, I still work up a big sweat), while John plays the Wii, sometimes in the afternoon while Burl is napping (rare, but love it).  

I always wonder where other people read.  Are people reading everywhere like me?  Or, do they have special nooks like these:

If you're reading this, please, tell me where you read.  I'm fascinated by it.  Also, tell me what you're reading.  I'm on a hunt for good books.  I'm 50 pages into A Long Way Gone, and it's so intriguing.  

Props for pictures here.