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Categories What's on Your Nightstand?

Nightstand (May 2012)

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Looking through this month’s list, it definitely looks like I’ve been on a fiction kick. Of course, I have a half dozen non-fiction works in progress in my bag or on my Kindle–but I just haven’t been finishing them at the rate I’ve been finishing fiction.

But why worry? Balance is for the birds. Why not add unbalanced reading to all the rest of the stuff that’s currently unbalanced in my life?

Books Read and Ready to be Returned

Finished Books (Waiting to Be Returned to the Library)

This month I read:

Adult Fiction

  • The Damascus Way by Davis Bunn and Janette Oke
    I’m continuing to enjoy these historical novels set around the early church. This one includes (can you guess?) Saul, the church persecutor, in addition to familiar characters (both Biblical and fictional) from the previous books in the series. I’m realizing that this is as far as the series goes at this point. Oh my! I’ve committed the unthinkable, getting engrossed in a series that isn’t finished yet!
  • The Drifter, The Maverick, and The Plainsman by Lori Copeland
    An okay series, mostly fluff but good for a turn-off-your-brain read. I enjoyed The Drifter (the second book in the series) best. In it, a Kansas widow saves a drifter who was being mauled by a wolf–and then tries to force him to marry her so she can keep her homestead claim. Maybe I just enjoyed that one because I’m a sucker for stories of marriages of convenience.
  • Letter Perfect by Cathy Marie Hake
    Ruth Caldwell causes trouble wherever she goes. She doesn’t intend to do it, but not even a half dozen young ladies finishing schools has been able to turn her into a “letter perfect” woman. When her mother’s dying wish sends her to California to stay with the father she never knew–and when the father turns out to be no longer living… Well, things get interesting. I thoroughly enjoyed this story.
  • Bittersweet by Cathy Marie Hake
    The sequel to the aforementioned title, Bittersweet follows Ruth’s sister-in-law Laney, whose longstanding crush Galen has finally started noticing her. But when the squatter living on Galen’s land makes a startling revelation, Laney’s hopes and dreams come crashing down. I’m definitely enjoying Hake these days.
  • A Vote of Confidence by Robin Lee Hatcher
    Hatcher sure likes her suffragettes. I’m not quite as fond of these I-will-never-marry-oops-I-fell-in-love heroines as she seems to be. Hatcher’s books are fluffy reads, okay but not amazing.
  • Ariel Custer by Grace Livingston Hill
    A bit unique among Hill’s works in that it includes a bit of a mystery (about 3/4 of the way through). Oh, and it includes a bad mother (probably what sets it apart most from Hill’s other works.) It took a while to get started, but once it was going, I enjoyed it well enough.
  • The Rest of Her Life by Laura Moriarty
    A beautiful, introspective novel with realistic, nuanced relationships. This is probably the best novel I’ve read so far this year. Read my full review here.

Books In Progress

Books in Progress (That’s where all the Nonfiction is!)

Adult Non-fiction

  • Busy Mom’s Guide to Family Nutrition by Paul C. Reisser
    A basic nutrition guide put out by the Focus on the Family Physician’s Resource Council. I gave it a “meh” review and suggested that I should write my own Christian nutrition reference–something that I’m only half kidding about.
  • Grace for the Good Girl by Emily P. Freeman
    Barbara H. wrote an excellent review of this book just as I was finishing it up and returning it to the library. I didn’t feel the need to write a repeat review. Suffice to say that it was very good. I’m so thankful that God opened my eyes to His marvelous grace six years ago in Jacksonville, Florida. I pray that others will recognize that they were not only saved (past-tense) by grace, but that they also walk (present-tense) through God’s grace. This book is a good reminder.
  • Knack Pregnancy Guide
    Research, I tell you, research. :-) And maybe just my own continuing curiosity. I’m still pretty bummed that my midwife career didn’t pan out.
  • Make the Bread, Buy the Butter by Jennifer Reese
    I read every blurb all the way through. I tried one recipe. I returned the book to the library. I ordered myself a copy. Jennifer Reese is my hero, comparing the homemade version to the store-bought for everything from cake to cheese to hot dogs. Alice of Supratentorial also wrote some thoughts on this book while I was in the middle of it. Her conclusion: Buy it. I concur.
  • The Penguin Book of Women’s Humor edited by Regina Barreca
    The back of the book explains that this is “a landmark anthology that proves there is a distinctly female way of being funny.” If this anthology showcases this distinctly female way of being funny, I can summarize said distinctive way in two words: Not Funny. 600 pages of venomous bitterness. Blech. I gave up when I still hadn’t found anything funny by page 229.

Books still waiting to be read

Up Next (Books Still Waiting to Be Read)

Juvenile Fiction

  • Cam Jansen and the Mystery of the Stolen Corn Popper by David A. Adler
  • Cam Jansen and the Chocolate Fudge Mystery by David A. Adler
  • Young Cam Jansen and the 100th Day of School Mystery by David A. Adler
  • Young Cam Jansen and the Ice Skate Mystery by David A. Adler
  • Young Cam Jansen and the Library Mystery by David A. Adler
  • Mystery at Devil’s Paw by Franklin W. Dixon
  • Boston Jane by Jennifer L. Holm
    Jane is a motherless tomboy throwing mud in the Philadelphia streets before William Baldt shows up on her doorstep to apprentice under her father. Then she’s off to school to learn how to be a lady (after all, William thinks it’s important). Jane pines for William when he leaves on a ship for Washington Territory, but the two correspond as promised–and at last Jane leaves for Washington to become William’s bride. When she gets there, though, she discovers that Washington isn’t quite what she expected–and neither is her fiance. This was a very strange book. It’s labeled as juvenile fiction by my library, but it’s really not. It’s pioneer fiction, with a main character who starts as a girl and emerges as a woman. I suppose it wasn’t edgy enough to be labeled YA–and couldn’t be adult fiction because Jane isn’t even 18 when the book ends. It was pretty good, if unclassifiable.
  • The Redheaded Princess by Ann Rinaldi
    I checked out Rinaldi’s book about Lady Jane Grey during my last library trip–so now it was time to see how she would portray Jane’s cousin, Elizabeth. The Redheaded Princess didn’t disappoint. It was a enjoyable detailed little novel about the girl who would become Queen Elizabeth I.
  • At least 36 Children’s picture books

Juvenile Non-Fiction

  • One-Room School by Raymond Bial
    A glossy, full-color history of rural one-room schools. I cried a little (for real) when I read: “In addition to the Amish, Hutterite, and other parochial schools, there are still more than 800 one-room public schools, mostly in Nebraska…” Sadly, in the twelve years since this lovely little history was written, one-room schools have disappeared from Nebraska’s landscape to be replaced by consolidated schools that offer long bus rides and sub-par educations. Despite the sadness this book reminded me of, the book itself is a wonderful tribute to the way the majority of American students learned for over a century.
  • Passover: Celebrating Now, Remembering Then by Harriet Ziefert
    Do you plan on celebrating the Passover with your little ones? If you don’t, you should consider it (talk to me for more info about how the Passover points to Jesus.) If you do, you should consider picking up a copy of this book to prep your kids for what’s to come. This lovely book goes through the basic order of the Seder, describing what is done (“Now we hold up the roasted lamb bone”) and pointing backwards to the Exodus (“Then the Angel of Death passed over the homes of the Israelites.”) This is a great introduction to the Seder–and worth having.

Don’t forget to drop by 5 Minutes 4 Books to see what others are reading this month!

What's on Your Nightstand?

Categories Everyday Life

I complain too much

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I just have to say it.

I complain way too much.

I am blessed beyond compare, yet I spend so much time whining.

For now, I’m thankful for lunch with Kathy and Jon, hanging out on the dock with Beth, conversations with Grace, Reg’s with the W’s and Cait and Anna and the aforementioned, a huge hug from Ashlyn, time spent with the Ericksons and their guests, a bonfire at the other W’s.

And that was just today.

Really? I think I have something to complain about?

Think again, Rebekah. God has given you immeasurable blessings.

Praise Him.

Categories Book Reviews

Book Review: “The Rest of Her Life” by Laura Moriarty

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Leigh arrives home from work one day, vaguely annoyed to find that the recycling can had been overturned and no one had bothered to pick it up. Then she walks into the living room, where her family waits. There was an accident, her husband informs her. Kara was driving. A girl is dead.

They’d tried to call Leigh, but she hadn’t answered. There wasn’t time to try again. He had to comfort their daughter.

The tragedy brings the strained relationship between mother and daughter into sharp relief. Kara turns to Gary, rebuffs Leigh’s attempts at sympathy.

The tragedy brings out the strained relationship between Gary and their precocious son. It tests Leigh and Gary’s marriage. It tests Leigh’s friendship with her best friend, with her community.

It makes Leigh wonder how she managed to get here–alienated from her daughter when she’d tried so hard to be a good mother, to give her daughter everything she hadn’t gotten from her own mother.

The Rest of Her Life is an introspective work, exploring Leigh’s past and present, digging into her thoughts about her marriage, her family, her friendships, her standing in the community.

This was a wonderful book with so many positive qualities that I find it hard to just give a general impression. There are so many things to like, so many things to mention.

I’ll begin with technicalities. I love that Leigh’s story is told in past-tense third person subjective. This point of view is an integral part of the story–and is a breath of fresh air after the spate of first person novels inundating the female marketplace.

The author has an M.A. in Creative Writing, but unlike many an academic artist, she doesn’t try too hard to be groundbreaking with her style. This is a book that follows the conventions of the English language, with capitalization and punctuation exactly where they should be, letting you get on with the story instead of worrying about misunderstanding meaning in the midst of the hodgepodge of “creative” effects.

And what a story it is. Moriarty demonstrates a keen insight into human relationships, teasing out the complexities of Leigh’s relationship with her daughter, her husband, her son, her best friend, her sister, her own mother, the mother of the dead girl.

In Leigh, we see a mother who tries hard to be the mother her mother never was–and who doesn’t understand why her daughter doesn’t appreciate that. We see a mother frustrated because she can’t seem to connect with her teenage daughter, a woman who learns to put aside herself in order to relate to her daughter.

In Leigh and Gary’s marriage, we see a couple who works hard to stay married. We see misunderstandings, frustrations, and accusations–and a choice to keep at it despite all that. I loved that Gary and Leigh’s marriage is neither sensationally awful nor saccharinely good. It’s honest, a rare trait in novels depicting marriage.

I can identify a lot with Leigh, despite our many differences (Let me count the ways…I’m not married, not a mother, not middle aged, not a teacher, not secular, not a product of a broken home…) Leigh is something of a loner, holding herself aloof from many around her. She is compassionate, but often doesn’t know how to express her compassion. Should she write a note, go to the dead girl’s funeral, put her hand on her daughter’s knee in sympathy? She simultaneously enjoys and dreads the gossip her best friend shares with her. She wants to do everything right, has a vision of how her life should look–but finds herself acting and her life looking differently than she’d envisioned.

Leigh is a sympathetic character. Her relationships are real and complex–not just dramatic episodes but full of subtle expectations, longings, comfortability, and differences. Leigh grows, learns, develops through her experiences. The relationships grow through their experiences.

This is novel-craft at its finest.

Rating:5 Stars
Category:General Fiction
Synopsis:When Leigh’s daughter accidentally kills a pedestrian and turns to her dad instead of Leigh for sympathy, Leigh is forced into an introspective review of her relationships with her children, her husband, and her best friends.
Recommendation: Wow. This is a truly good book. I definitely recommend it.

Categories Theology

Sunday School in Review: Part 3

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Ruth was easy–only 4 chapters that week. We went through the story at a leisurely pace, recalling at the beginning how we were still in the time of the judges (with its requisite problems) and pointing forward at the end to the coming King Jesus who would reign forever.

The next week, we tried to eat an elephant in a single bite, packing 1 and 2 Samuel and 1 and 2 Chronicles into an hour and a half.

Race through Eli, race through Samuel. Race through Saul. Race through David. Contrast Saul with David–both sinful but one repentant. Ask whether David was the perfect king. Answer no. We need a better king. God promised one. The king that would come would be from David’s family–and would be the perfect King forever.

Each child colored a different picture. When the race through the books was done, each child showed off their picture and we talked briefly about the story behind it.

No time to do much else.

I had grand plans for our time in 1 and 2 Kings. We were going to play a “Go Fish” style game called “Good King/Bad King” that I’d thought up the night before.

We got too busy talking about the good kings and the bad kings that we didn’t have time to get to the game.

I was getting tired of trying to arrange my own lessons (drawn from my personal study) around the worksheets in the curriculum, so I’d given up on trying to impart something valuable and was now creating my lessons entirely around the worksheet.

It was, nevertheless, exhausting to feel that I wasn’t doing the Scripture justice in reducing it to stories and little factoids.

I tried to make it interesting, at least. For Ezra and Nehemiah, different children had different letters to color, royal decrees from Cyrus or Artaxerxes–and letters to the kings from the people around Jerusalem. Depending on their reading abilities, the children could read their own letter out loud or I would read it for them.

In Esther, I had planned to do the melodrama-style booing and hissing whenever Haman’s name was mentioned–but the kids were squirrelly enough already, I knew that to boo and hiss would take the class out of control. I’d lost my helper a few weeks into the year and maintaining classroom control was always a highly tenuous idea.

I acted out Job as a skit, playing God, the devil, Job, and Job’s four friends in turn, jumping from one end of the room as I switched from being the accuser to being God bragging on Job.

I recited/read chapters 1 and 2 verbatim, and distilled Job and his friends’ monologues into one or two sentences each. Once God started speaking, I expanded again, only lightly abridging the Scriptures.

Once class was over, I discovered that the teachers for the second session were sick and wouldn’t be able to come in. I did my one-woman act a second time, this time to an enormous class of kids who weren’t quite sure what to do with me (apparently, I taught a bit differently from their usual teachers–hah!)

We sang our way through Psalms. I distributed Bingo cards to each student and pulled songs from a hat, playing old Hosanna CDs borrowed from my mother and looking up the verses that went along with each song.

The next week, we did the worksheet on Proverbs and Ecclesiastes, filling in the matching questions as we read selected verses. This took too long for us to get to Song of Solomon.

I was getting thoroughly exhausted by our curriculum.

The Word of God is wonderful, but I didn’t feel like the worksheets were coming close to doing it justice. I was afraid the students were getting absolutely nothing out of the teachings. I was desperate.

I scrapped the curriculum entirely for Isaiah.

Categories Thankful Thursday

Thankful Thursday: He will not break

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You’ve heard the saying “God never gives us more than we can bear”?

It’s not true.
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My mom says, “God never gives us more than He can bear.”

So much better.

But here’s an even better promise–one straight from the pages of Scripture:

“A bruised reed he will not break,
and a faintly burning wick he will not quench;
he will faithfully bring forth justice.
He will not grow faint or be discouraged
till he has established justice in the earth;
and the coastlands wait for his law.”
~Isaiah 42:3-4 (ESV)

How often do we feel like bruised reeds, like smouldering wicks? How often do we grow faint or get discouraged?

For me, it’s pretty often.

But in Christ, I have an amazing promise. He will not overburden me–and He will not be faint or get discouraged in pursuing justice. Thus, I can rest, even under the load that bends my reed to its capacity.

This week, I’m thankful…

…that Jesus Christ bore a crushing load so that I would not be broken

“Surely he has borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken,
smitten by God, and afflicted.
But he was pierced for our transgressions;
he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
and with his wounds we are healed…

it was the will of the Lord to crush him;
he has put him to grief;
when his soul makes an offering for guilt,
he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days;
the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.
Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied;
by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant,
make many to be accounted righteous,
and he shall bear their iniquities.”
~Isaiah 53:4-5, 10-11 (ESV)

Categories Everyday Life

Doppelganger Sitings

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The third grader appraised me silently before she approached.

“Do you have a sister in high school?” she asked.

“Yes,” I answered.

“Does she go to Lakeview?”

“No, she’s in Lincoln.”

“Oh,” she was visibly disappointed. “Because I saw someone who looked just like you at Lakeview last night.”

I laughed and explained that I must have a doppelganger in town–which led to a fascinating discussion about doppelgangers with a group of three third graders.

“Does everyone have a doppelganger?” one girl asked.

I was refilling my water bottle, minding my own business, when the resident’s comment forced my attention.

“How are things in Neligh?”

A bit confused, I answered “I’m sorry?”

“How’s your family?”

“They’re doing well, thank you.”

“Is your dad still…”

He must have seen the confusion on my face, for he stopped and explained.

“There’s a really good Christian man with nine or ten children in Neligh–and, well, you look just like his oldest daughter.”

“Oh, sorry–I’m just the second of seven, not the first of nine or ten.”

I laughed it off, wondering how much my full skirt and long hair had to do with the mix-up.

I can go months, even years without being mistaken for someone else (or having someone else mistaken for my sister)–yet I ended up with two doppelganger sitings in as many weeks.

Has anyone ever told you that you have a doppelganger?

Categories Book Reviews

Book Review: “Busy Mom’s Guide to Family Nutrition” by Paul C. Reisser, M.D.

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I am not a busy mom. I am not interested in getting my family to eat healthy foods, in discovering which weight loss plan is right for me, in helping my overweight child, or in cutting through the hype–

Oh wait.

I am interested in cutting through the hype about health and nutrition. Which is why I agreed to review Tyndale’s Busy Mom’s Guide to Family Nutrition.

While I may not be the target audience of this book, as a Registered Dietitian with a keen interest in food and families, I do have some basis by which to evaluate this material.

Cover to Busy Mom's Guide to Family NutritionThe good news is that the majority of the information found within this book is accurate. “The Official Book of the Focus on the Family Physician’s Resource Council, USA” contains standard, low-hype information about food and nutrition. While there were a few unclear statements and a few answers that missed the main point, most of this book is scientifically sound.

The bad news is that, well, I just didn’t like this book.

First (and most frivolously), despite the promising glossy cover, this book was printed on that cheap acid-filled paper that disintegrates within a couple of years, making it far less than ideal as a reference work.

Second, the organization of this book made absolutely no sense. The book was written in a Q&A format in which questions were grouped under broad headings that made up chapters. So far, so good–except that the broad headings were often so vague as to give no information as to what could be found within, and the questions had no logical order to them.

An example: The first chapter was entitled “Nutritional Basics.” The first five questions answered under “Nutritional Basics”? “What is a nutrient?” “What are carbohydrates?” “Why do I sometimes seem to crave sugar?” “What is hypoglycemia–and do I have it?” and “What are the different sugars I might find at home?”

Yeah. Not quite sure what the editors were thinking on that one.

As a result, I don’t see how this book could really be useful as a reference, since the only way to know how to find the information you’re looking for is to read the book straight through. And while *I* might be willing to read it straight through, I think it’s silly to expect a “busy mom” to read a book of this sort straight through. The information is far from novel enough to compel great interest and the writing style and mode of delivery is nothing spectacular either.

Finally, while I am fully convinced that how we relate to food has spiritual implications, there’s nothing uniquely “Christian” about this book’s information–apart from a comment or two about blessing food before you eat it or the Hindu roots of yoga. I don’t see any reason why Focus on the Family needs to have a book about nutrition in the first place–and I especially don’t know why they need to have a book about nutrition if they’re only going to glance over anything spiritual related to nutrition.

This book clearly does not satisfy my desire for a well-written nutrition reference that takes into account the physiological, psychological, psychosocial, and spiritual aspects of food. I guess I’ll just have to write my own!

Rating:2 Stars
Category:Nutrition Reference
Synopsis:A factually correct but disorganized Q&A on a variety of nutrition topics.
Recommendation: Skip this one and stayed tuned for my book :-P

I received this book from Tyndale House in exchange for an honest review. I did not receive any other compensation for this review.

Categories Family History

Walnut, Nebraska

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The state of Nebraska is littered with dozens of defunct towns. In the days of horses and wagons, they were living, breathing communities with a general store and a post office–maybe a school or a church.

Walnut, Nebraska, now little more than a memory and a decrepit building on my Uncle Richard’s property, is one such town. My great-Grandma Louise Cook was the postmistress for Walnut Grove Township and ran the general store, supplying the surrounding farms with news and goods.

Grandma Louise owned the general store with her husband Ben Marshall. Back then the store was across from my Uncle Dean’s house–that is, the house where his widow lives now. Ben and Louise were in the process of moving to a new store–the store that still stands today–when Ben Marshall died in the Spanish flu epidemic of 1918. Louise had a four-year-old son and a child on the way and the contents of the general store were mostly packed inside their new house–the home my Uncle Richard lives in now.

Louise held up admirably under the circumstances she had been given. She settled the new store, bore her son, Ben Jr, and cared for her older son, who was crippled by polio in the years after the death of his father. She was still a widow at the time of the 1920 census, with her occupation listed as “Salesmistress” of the “General Store.”

Some time later, Louise married my grandfather, Orval Anthony Cook. Orval was four years younger than she, and at the time of the 1920 Census, was listed as a laborer on the “home farm” owned by his parents.

Louise continued to run the store and be the Walnut Grove Postmistress throughout the Great Depression. The postmistress job was a good, steady income that enabled the family to weather the depression. The general store enabled many other families to weather the Depression. Often, families from the surrounding farms would purchase their groceries at the general store on credit they could not afford to repay. Grandpa Orval would go about to try to collect bills and often came home with an animal or two.

The Nebraska GenNet Project has a map of the Walnut Grove Township from the 1920 Atlas of Knox County. The northeast corner of the map is a snapshot into my family history.

Map of Walnut, Nebraska

Benj C. Marshall, whose property sits near the center of the extract above, was my great-grandma Louise’s first husband. By the time this atlas was published, he was already deceased and Louise was running the General Store on their property by herself. Her property was bounded on the west by the property belonging to her father, Herman Block.

By the southeast corner of Herman’s property, Orval Anthony Cook (who would marry Grandma Louise and become my great-grandfather) was working on the “home farm” belonging to his father Willie G. Cook. Frank E. Butterfield, who owned property sprinkled throughout the extract above, was Orval’s uncle.

The very corner property, which extends into Jefferson Township (and possibly into Washington Township as well), belonged to Nels Nelson. Nels’s granddaughter Carol would one day marry Louise and Orval’s son, my Grandpa Ronald.

Which brings me to today.

Walnut, Nebraska no longer exists as a town–but it still exists.

This is my mother-land, my home-place. While I never lived in Walnut, Nebraska, I still grew up there.

I grew up riding north over the “Big Crick”, turning west onto what was Benj C Marshall’s land. I waved to my Uncle Richard before driving past the old General Store.

I grew up “romping” through Walnut hills, “wading” in Walnut’s “Big Crick”, roasting wienies with Walnut wood.

While few, if any, will recognize the name “Walnut, Nebraska”, those that do think of it fondly.

Walnut, Nebraska?

Walnut is where my family is from.

Categories Theology

Sunday School in Review: Part 2

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We picked up the pace in Week 4, going over Numbers and Deuteronomy together. We walked through key stories in Numbers–God’s provision of manna and quail, the 12 spies spying out the promised land, Korah’s rebellion, the waters of Meribah, and the serpent in the wilderness.

In every story, we learned the same truths. The people forgot what God had done in providing them food or protection or leadership. The people complained about the circumstances God had brought them into. The people were punished for their complaining.

In Deuteronomy, we were reminded through Moses’ words to do the opposite. Moses told the people to remember what God had done and said. He told them to be thankful and to obey God. And he promised them that when they remembered and were obedient, God would bless them.

For the first time, I added my own activity sheet to the mix. I still used the “Fuel up” worksheet, but now I had a handout with the words “Thank you, God, for ________________” below a blank box. I instructed the kids to practice thankfulness at once by drawing a picture and filling in the blank with what they were thankful to God for.

The next week, in Joshua, we contrasted the battle of Jericho with the battle of Ai. We marched around our classroom six times silently and another seven times shaking homemade rattles (old pill bottles filled with a variety of noisy beans/bells/rice/pebbles/craft supplies). We tried out darnedest to make even our classroom tables fall down, but we concluded that God’s plan was humanly impossible. Marching around silently and then loudly does not defeat cities–especially not super-strong ones like Jericho.

Yet when the people obeyed, following God’s plan, they succeeded in destroying Jericho.

Contrast this with Ai, where the people are sure that they can win. Ai was in such bad shape that the Israelites wouldn’t even need all their warriors to defeat them. This was easy-peasy.

But Achan was disobedient–and the battle they should have (humanly) won with plenty to spare ended up as a crushing defeat.

We discovered that when we are obedient, God works to do impossible things. We discovered that when we are disobedient, God allows our defeat–even when we’ve got “everything going for us.”

In Judges, we found Numbers all over again, only with a twist.

Joshua died and there was no leader to take his place. Everyone did what they thought was right. They forgot God, they worshiped other gods, they did evil in God’s sight. God delivered them into the hands of their enemies. They cried to the Lord, the Lord raised up a deliverer (a judge). The judge dies and there is no leader to take his place. Everyone does…

The cycle goes on and on and on.

I was still trying to follow the “Fuel up” worksheets, but was getting frustrated with how they emphasized what I felt were tangential details.

“Stick to the point”, I felt like telling the author (who, of course, I have no contact with).

To be continued…

Categories Thankful Thursday

Thankful Thursday: Unforced rhythms and hymns

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“Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me–watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”
~Matthew 11, from Eugene Petersen’s The Message


This week, I’m thankful…

…for a pillow and blanket in the car and for wisdom to know when to use them
I had a long day night at work last Thursday. I drove home as the sun rose. I napped in Clarks. By the grace of God, I arrived home intact.

…for a flexible boss
Can I just say that I really appreciate my boss?

…for the ability to work from home and for the wisdom to know when (and when not) to use it
It was good for me to check my e-mail on Friday, to do the two minutes of work to put my dietary manager on a better footing. It was also good for me to choose not to do any other work on Friday. It was good to get all my “prep work” done on Saturday from home so I could only spend a couple/three hours in the facility on Sunday. I don’t have a lot of internal balance when it comes to work–but I trust God is helping me learn some.

…for trying a Pinterest tip while watching a YouTube video
I haven’t done anything around the house for what seems like forever–so, while attempting to clean a bread pan with baking soda and hydrogen peroxide doesn’t seem like much, it went a long way towards making my life feel less unbalanced.

…for my little sister coming to stay
I took advantage of my weird weekend to move the loft from upstairs down into the spare bedroom, soon to be my little sister’s room. She’s staying with us for the summer and working at, er, a company which shall remain nameless but which I also happen to work at (wink, nod). Since I have three buildings and am only in that one two days a week and since Grace is a CNA and I’m a dietitian, I don’t imagine we’ll really see each other much at work–but it’ll be lovely to have her staying with us.

…for Scripture, Scripture, and more Scripture
I need it. I need to be steeped in it. I need for others to pour it over me, even beat me over the head with it. Lord, to whom shall I go? You have the words of life. So thankful for all those who point my eyes back to Christ and fill my ears with the words of Scripture.

…for running(?!?) with the girls
I signed up for a 5K, Color Me Rad in Council Bluffs. I don’t have any time to train, wasn’t (amn’t) sure that I *will* train. I might have to end up walking it. Which is fine. But Anna encouraged me to go running/walking with the girls who are planning on running the same race–and I found the mindlessness of it all (waiting for someone to signal that it was time for a running interval or a walking interval) to be rather soothing.

…for sleep
I got eight hours of sleep one night this week. I know. Amazing. Overwhelmingly so.

…for wonderful fellowship with my peeps
I’ve so missed the Bible study gals. Sitting around the fire with them (and Jon) last night was so very refreshing–even if I (yet again) stayed too late and robbed myself of sleep.

…for a scale by the copy machine
I don’t weigh myself often, but I stepped on the scale while waiting for the copy machine to warm up (yes, I have a weird life.) The numbers on the scale weren’t that unusual, but they did cause me to realize that I’m not taking care of my body as I should. I’ve known that for awhile, but I haven’t had the energy or will to do anything about it (how can I, I thought, as busy as I am right now?) That little bit was somehow enough to focus my mind and make me brainstorm for little changes to make to take care of this body I’ve been given (maybe like, eating breakfast and going to sleep at night?)

…for peacocks, a peahen and hymns
It was not a good day at work today. I was gearing up for a major headache on my drive home, jaw clenched with the stress of the day, frustrated and running my frustrations over and over inside–when a flash of bright blue off the side of the road made me think I was hallucinating. I looked again and found two peacocks, strutting along in the ditch, along with one peahen. Of course, I grabbed my notebook to record the incident as something to be thankful for–which reminded me that, even in days like these, I can give God praise–which prompted me to open the hymnal that I just happened to have in the car, to turn off the music that was playing, and to sing hymns for the duration of my drive home.

“Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,
Let this blest assurance control,
That Christ has regarded my helpless estate,
And hath shed His own blood for my soul.

It is well
with my soul
It is well, it is well
with my soul”