Books Read in 2011

List of books read in 2011. Unfortunately, I over-estimated how many I had read (since several are quite long), and I didn’t get any of my Summer Reading books done! But at least I still met my goal.

We’ll Meet Again by Mary Higgins Clark
Heading Home With Your Newborn: From Birth to Reality by Laura A Jana & Jennifer Shu
The Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan
The Titan’s Curse by Rick Riordan
The Battle of the Labyrinth by Rick Riordan
Teach Your Baby to Sign by Monica Beyer
Your Pregnancy Week by Week by Dr. Glade B. Curtis & Judith Schuler
What to Expect when you’re expecting by Heidi Murkoff & Sharon Mazel
The Proposal by Lori Wick
The Last Olympian by Rick Riordan
Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers
Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery
The Dragon Reborn by Robert Jordan
The Shadow Rising by Robert Jordan
Fires of Heaven by Robert Jordan
Lord of Chaos by Robert Jordan
Twilight by Stephanie Meyer
New Moon by Stephanie Meyer
Home by Choice by Brenda Hunter

Add me as a friend on Goodreads if you are interested in my thoughts on any of these!

Resolutions version 2012

1. Read at least 20 books. Last year, I surpassed by goal by a lot, so I’m upping it this year. It may be more of a challenge since nursing provided a lot of time for reading, and this year I will have a rampaging toddler on my hands! But what fun are resolutions if they aren’t any challenge?
2. Lose 15 pounds. Again, last year I surpassed my goal of getting down to pre-pregnancy weight, so now I want to take it a bit farther.
3. Post on this blog at least once per month and don’t just phone it in! Exactly the same as last year.
4. Watch less TV when Audrey is around, and instead, spend that time in playing/reading to/teaching/singing with her. I’m not saying no TV when she’s up, because frankly, some days just drag on and on. But sometimes I feel badly for watching too much. And now that she is a bit more interactive, I think it’s important to spend quality time with her.*
5. Work on crochet, knitting, and quilts throughout the year, and finish all the ones that I have currently started. This is a fun one, but also quite a big task, considering I have a closet full of unfinished projects.

That’s it for now! As usual, I’ll update throughout the year.

*This part of the post is mostly for my sake, because I like to be able to quantify things. But specific examples of things I want to do daily with Audrey are the following:

• Sing with her, various children and Bible verse songs
• Work on sign language with her
• Teach her body parts (Touch your nose!)
• Read various books and at least one Bible story every day
• Playing peek-a-boo, pat-a-cake, and other gesture games

 

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Resolutions version 2011

Hot Blog Posts of 2011!

One of my annual resolutions is to write at least one blog post per month, but last year I resolved to not just “phone it in” with them, and may I say, I think I succeeded. So here’s the list of my favorites from 2011:

Audrey’s Birth Story - Since we are coming up on a year already, I just wanted to take a minute to remember everything that happened on that amazing day! OK, you may not want to reread it, so this is just for me.

Fuzz or Bug? - Nothing much, just kinda funny.

My Life Verse – I’m not proud of all my posts, but I am proud of this one.

Our Senses – Ditto.

My Things-To-Do List - This turned into a much bigger deal than I intended! In fact, believe it or not, I have been planning a book based on this post.

Randomness… – I would not have included this one, except that it got the most feedback of any of my posts, probably ever!

Balancing Mary and Martha – This is a post that I should read every so often, just to remind me of what’s important.

Staring at the Sky – Ditto.

 

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Staring at the Sky

A few nights ago, while I was taking Hugo out, I noticed how bright it was outside and glanced up in the sky. It was an enormous full moon, or at least it seemed larger than usual to me. I was awestruck by how clear it was, even as the clouds raced past its surface. It made me feel small and insignificant, and made me realize how huge and majestic the Creator of all of it is. I stared for a while longer before I remembered my purpose in coming out and lowered my eyes to look for Hugo. That’s when I noticed the Christmas lights and decorations at our neighbor’s house across the street and it really hit me again what this Season is all about.

It’s about the enormous becoming small.

It’s about the Creator visiting his Creation.

It’s about giving up living among the stars, in order to live under them.

It’s about looking at the majesty and vastness of the universe then looking at the Christmas lights on a small house.

Our God, who is above the sky, who can hold the whole Earth in his hand, who was there before there was, came down to us out of love. What a beautiful story! How can we not be swept up by it this time of year? How extraordinary that we can be a part of it! How sad is it that some people don’t know about it.

Think of yourselves the way Christ Jesus thought of himself. He had equal status with God but didn’t think so much of himself that he had to cling to the advantages of that status no matter what. Not at all. When the time came, he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human! Having become human, he stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process. He didn’t claim special privileges. Instead, he lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless, obedient death—and the worst kind of death at that—a crucifixion.

Because of that obedience, God lifted him high and honored him far beyond anyone or anything, ever, so that all created beings in heaven and on earth—even those long ago dead and buried—will bow in worship before this Jesus Christ, and call out in praise that he is the Master of all, to the glorious honor of God the Father

Philippians 2:5-11 (The Message)

Thoughts on Twilight (the time of day)

OK, I’ll admit it, I’ve strayed a bit from my Summer Reading List and I started the Twilight series. And I love them! But as a Christian, of course, I have to examine why I love them, and whether that’s even OK. So here are my thoughts on the books so far, mostly off the top of my head even now as I sit down and write.*

First of all, like I said, I am enjoying them so much. In fact, they are bringing out the possessive/obsessive side in me, that only certain books/movies/tv shows do bring out. So much so that I have to take a several week break between each book because otherwise all my free time goes to reading, and all my non-free time goes to thinking (i.e. obsessing) about the story and the characters. And that I do not think is healthy. But like I said, that is not exclusive to the Twilight books, and therefore not an inherent problem with the series.

Another possible problem I have with them is related, in that I get so swept up, I begin to see my own life as boring and mundane. But again, this is a problem with being a hopeless romantic, and not a problem with these particular books.

My mom read the first book as well, and I think she actually did enjoy the story, though she didn’t finish the whole series. Her problem with the whole vampire/werewolf story lines is that it is focusing too much on the “darkness”, and not on the “light”. It makes women, and young girls in particular (the intended audience), yearn for something dark, perhaps even evil; something that is clearly not good for them. I can see this point as well, and is probably why I would not let my young teenage daughter read them. The Bible is very clear about that which we should allow our minds to rest. Perhaps that’s why I give myself a break in between them, because I do get so obsess-y about them, and I don’t want my mind to linger there too long.

I’m sure there is a whole long list of other reasons why many Christians don’t care for these books and think they shouldn’t be read, but for the most part, I’ve touched on the ones that are the most important to me. That being said, I don’t think any of these reasons is enough to keep me from finishing books three and four! And by the way, I’m Team Jacob.

*This is completely off the top of my head because I just realized it was an hour before my bedtime on November 30, and I hadn’t written anything this month! So I do apologize for the unthought-out nature of this post! Also, the title of this post is in reference to the Justin Long quote on Twilight. 

Balancing Mary and Martha

My life since college has been Martha. I take pride in how my house looks for guests and the nice meals that I serve them. I like to put special touches on everything I do to let the houseguest know they are important to me. I prepare ahead of time, and much of the time they are here, to make sure they have a pleasant stay. If I had a sister like Mary, I think I would feel resentful of her, thinking “Doesn’t she think I want to just sit around with our guest, too? But someone has to put the meal on the table!” (If you’re unfamiliar to the story to which I refer, read it here.)

Now suddenly have this amazing little person in my life (Pardon the comparison to Jesus, I certainly don’t mean to be blasphemous!), who needs nearly constant attention. She changes every day by developing new skills, continually enthralling me. I love to sit with her and watch what new thing she can do. I take pictures like crazy so I never forget what it feels like in that particular moment. I just want to be Mary and the Martha in me gets thrown out the window.

Unfortunately, along with the Martha in me, a clean house, clean clothes, healthy, home-cooked meals all get thrown out the window as well. A part of me says, “Well, it’s OK because a baby does need nearly constant care!” It’s good to spend so much time with her, investing in our relationship and in her life. But then I have to remind myself that it’s also OK to let her have some alone play time in her jumper, her playpen, or watching a little Baby Einstein!

So now my life is a balancing act between Mary and Martha, and I haven’t quite mastered it. (And sometimes I want to be neither and just flounce in front of the TV and rest! And that’s OK, too.) But I will continue to try.

Scariest Moments

With Halloween fast approaching, and today being a dreary, maybe even spooky, day, I have been remembering those times in my life when I’ve been so “eeeek” scared. (I say “eeeek” scared because, as we all know, there’s different kinds of scared, just like there’s different types of fears. There’s the “what’s that weird looking mole on my leg?” type of scared, and then there’s the “eeeek” kind of scared.) It doesn’t happen often, because I don’t like to watch scary movies, and thankfully, that kind of scared doesn’t happen very often in real life! So here are the few moments that come to mind.

Years ago, when I was babysitting in a home with a large picture window facing the woods, I received a phone call while the little girl was watching TV. “I can see you,” a deep voice said. “I’m watching you.” I hung up immediately and calmly called the child to come to me and get away from the window, but inside I was frantic! Was someone really out that window watching us? Would they try to get in? I called my parents immediately and before I could tell them what happened, they told me a friend of mine had just called and they gave had given him my phone number there.  So we figured out it was just the friend playing a “joke”. And what a horrible joke it was! Obviously, it scared me to death!

Once, when we were in India, we were staying in a “guest house”, which was a main floor apartment. It wasn’t completely decorated, but there were enough furnishings to get by on for a little while. The curtains were very simple, but there was still a lot of space around the edges that you could see out (and in). One night, Ryan and I were drifting to sleep, and I glanced towards the window, and there was a dark shape outside. When my eyes were finally able to focus, I realized it was a man staring in at us! I shouted out, and must have scared the man away, because he left before Ryan had a chance to see him. But from that moment on, we draped sheets over the edges of the curtains while we were staying there!

So that’s two “eeeek” scary moments. There are a couple more, and I might share them, I might not. For now, I’m curious about your scary moments! What better time to relive them than on a cloudy, dreary, October day?

Introducing Audrey to October

Having been born in February, Audrey has never met October before, so today I took the opportunity to introduce her to my favorite month. We stood outside and I explained that whooshing sound was the drying leaves scattering in the cooler breeze. I explained the clouds in the sky gave the month a feeling of mystery and suspense. The cooler weather makes you want to bundle up in warm blankets in a cozy house. I also told her about the coming holidays that October always alludes to and heightens my sense of anticipation. She’s never experienced Thanksgiving or Christmas, the two best holidays of the year. When you are with the people you love most in the world, when daddy gets over a week off work, when you decorate the house with beautiful lights and ornaments, when you open presents and feel that rush of excitement upon receiving one, and giving one, when we celebrate the most Wonderful Present of all time. She doesn’t understand it all right now, but it makes me even more excited about things to come. My favorite month always brings that anticipation, and that’s why I love it so much. And having a child to share it with this year makes it exponentially better.

Randomness. Don’t even read it. It’s not worth your time.

OK, I admit it. It’s September 28 and I’m only posting today because I haven’t posted since August 2 (and that one was pretty light on content). So I apologize in advance for a post that’s written without a topic in mind. Plus, Audrey is upstairs waking up from her nap, so there isn’t even much time to write, which I guess is fine because I don’t have anything to write about!

My resolutions have all been met except for one, and that one I’ve given up on. I’ve surpassed my number of books because I have become addicted to the Wheel of Time series. In fact, as I told Ryan the other day, I like them better than Harry Potter and LOTR combined, and that is saying something! I’m almost done with book six, and am excited that I still have seven more to go! I’m hoping to finish them all before the final book comes out next year. I find that my favorite parts are when “nothing” is happening. One of the reasons I love the books so much is exactly the reason I see so many people complaining about them: that they drag on and on and not much happens. I love that.

The resolution I’ve given up on is the Couch-2-5k program. It’s practically impossible with a baby in the house! We don’t have a jogging stroller, and it’s too hot to run outside anyway. The treadmill is in our buggy basement, and apparently it is so loud when I run on it that I wake up Audrey from her naps! So I’ve started just walking outside, or using our Wii (which can give a surprisingly good workout!).

I read an article yesterday about how the most prevalent lie in our culture is that parents tell their children they don’t have a favorite child. I was able to talk to my mom about it because as it happens, I’m the favorite. She says that parents love all their children the same, but may relate to one better than the others. I can see how that would be the case, but it also makes me worry about having another child. How could I possibly love another baby as much as I love Audrey?

I have switched from the two spaces between sentences to the one space. I’m not sure what made me change. I know that’s how Ryan does it, and he insists it’s more correct. I think I just got too lazy to put in that extra space all the time.

My things-to-do list continues to evolve. I have split my daily list into two lists: “Musts for everyday” and “Musts for days I’m home”. There are just some things I cannot get done on days when I’m away from home. But there are some things I have to do everyday. It seems to be working well for me. I have also split my general list into two lists: “Things to do soon” and “Things to do eventually”. The eventually list I hardly ever look at, but I still want to remember should be done.

On my list of things-to-do is a list of blog post ideas that I’ve been meaning to write. Some of them I want to do, but know in order to do them right, they will take a lot of time. We’ll see if I ever get to them. I hope so. I had another great idea for a blog post, but never wrote it down, so I can’t remember what it was! It will probably never get written now, which makes me sad. It would have been amazing. In fact, let’s pretend I wrote that one instead of this one and you have been sufficiently amazed and fulfilled by reading that post.

It was as good as I said it would be, right?

A Love Affair Begins

My first birthday.