tuesday things

1. I just finished reading Bread & Wine by Shauna Niequist. Y'all. It is good. I've adored her previous books, and I waited expectantly for this book to release early in the month. It's a memoir, written as a series of essays with recipes scattered throughout. So far, I've made three of the recipes, with great success. The Spicy Caesar Vinaigrette was delicious, and I'm normally not a fan of Caesar dressing. I actually was able to test a recipe for the book, so it was fun looking for my name in the book.

2. My breakfast for the past week has been yogurt and granola. I found a new yogurt that I like because it isn't overly sweet. Typically, I eat the same thing for breakfast for so long that I don't want to eat it again for a year or so. Brown Cow maple yogurt with granola full of nuts and dried fruit is my go-to breakfast for now.

3. Last Tuesday, Jeremy and I went to Dallas; he gave me tickets for my birthday to see Wicked. We headed out pretty early in the afternoon so that we wouldn't get stuck in traffic. The theater where it played isn't known for being in the safest part of town, so I called a friend to get a restaurant suggestion that would be close-ish to the theater  Though he gave a few, we settled on a suggestion in the Bishop Arts District. We had dinner at Eno's Pizza. We started with salads (mine was delicious with crisp Romaine lettuce, roasted pork belly, shaved jalapeno and honey tarragon dressing), and then shared a pizza with crust as crisp as a cracker. It was so good.

And although we were satisfied, we couldn't pass up the second part of the suggestion: dessert at Emporium Pies. We took an indirect route so that I could spy a couple having engagement pictures done. When we arrived, it was so difficult making a decision from the seven or so pies that they offer. Ultimately, I wound up with key lime pie, and Jeremy with the coconut cream pie. We both favored the mine; I've never had a better graham cracker crust! Though his was tasty, I make a coconut cream pie that's hard to beat.

Emporium Pies, Bishop Arts District

When we arrived at the theater, I was at bit shocked by how good our seats were. I typically have the theory that as long as you can hear the music, it's close enough. But I have been so wrong! Sitting close was fun and definitely a treat!

me + my date

tuesday things

1. I have two brackets for March Madness. I haven't watched a single basketball game all season. I know nothing about the teams. I won't watch any March Madness. Last year I chose based on which team colors and/or mascot I prefer. It didn't work well. This year, I decided to go mostly with those expected to win and chose a few upsets. Again, poor way to choose a bracket. Both of my brackets are busted. In one tournament, I'm ranked 63 out of 85; the other ranks me third from the last. Too bad my bracket name in the second one is "I'll Probably Win." Definitely not a self-fulfilling prophecy.

2. I am so excited that this is a four day week. In fact, my excitement got the best of me as I just realized that I'm not on my third day of the four day week. I only have two more mornings with an alarm until next Tuesday. I love working at a private school.

3. As reported last week, I had artichoke for the first time. And this week, I cooked them for the very first time. It was a success. Thirty minutes in boiling water plus five or so minutes on the grill (cut in half) makes for a great artichoke. For dipping, I mixed some sriracha with a bit of mayonnaise. Oh, yum.

4. I recently discovered Thrift Books. I love books and have an Amazon wish list a mile long, plus a stack at home that I haven't read. For some reason, books on my wish list are always more appealing than my actual books. But when I order from Amazon, I feel the need to order just enough to qualify for the free supersaver shipping. That means $25 minimum. (Though I can usually score three books for that cost.) But then I stumbled upon, thriftbooks.com. It's great, y'all. The books are less than $4 and it's free shipping. What?! I still can't figure out how they make money, but before they figure out they're losing money, I'm taking advantage of them. I will say that their quality for "good" or "great" doesn't match Amazon. They come a little more banged up, but for less than $4, I'll take it.

tuesday things

1. Last week was spring break, and it was such a great week. What started with not many things planned turned into a week of breakfasts, lunches, dinners, coffees, and a slumber party. It was time well-spent.

2. My intent over spring break was spring cleaning. That didn't happen. I bleached my shower and wiped the baseboards in our bathroom, and then decided I was done for the day. I never went back to it. We still have weeks of spring ahead of us, so it'll get done. And if it doesn't, I'll admire those clean baseboards in our bathroom often!

3. For St. Patrick's Day, we celebrated with cheddar and stout fondue (with bread, apples and asparagus to dip) and a chocolate stout bundt cake topped with chocolate ganache. It was delicious! And so much easier than a stew or hash.

4. At the beginning of the year, Jeremy and I set goals for us. One goal is to see 12 movies in the theater. I know. Priorities. We like movies, but saw maybe three last year. We're upping our game. This weekend, we saw Oz: The Great and Powerful. I loved it: the music, the costumes, the effects, the story. Only eleven more movies to go!

5. Last Tuesday, I returned our DVR box. It was difficult. I almost didn't do it, thinking I could convince Jeremy to keep it. But then our bill decreased by $60. I think I can do this. Plus, we have Roku that we'll use to stream our shows.

6. Our shows this season include: The New Girl, The Mindy Project, Castle, Modern Family, Top Chef Season 10, Duck Dynasty. We waited until Top Chef ended before making the break from cable--we have an obsession with that show. It's more like borderline addiction. We enable each other.

7. I am totally into memoirs right now. I love real stories. Some that I've read and loved: Crowded Skies: Letters to Manhattan by Tara-Leigh Cobble, Orange Jumpsuit: Letters to the God of Freedom by Tara-Leigh Cobble, and Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns) by Mindy Kaling. The pendulum will swing soon enough, and I'll love fiction again. But for now, I love these stories.

8. We ate dinner with my brother and sister-in-law this week. My brother is a great cook. (It obviously runs in the family.) For the first time ever, I had real artichokes--not just the hearts that come in a can. We dipped and scraped the leaves on our teeth and dug out the thistle-y part to get to the heart. Oh, man, it was good. I have it on the menu for dinner one night this week, but I can see how they could become a regular vegetable in our house!

what i'm reading & watching

Since we moved, we don't have cable. This is a huge change for us. We're really TV junkies. Husby works for the cable company that services 99% of our area. Unfortunately, we moved to this little bitty area that isn't serviced. This stinks for two reasons:

1. The littlebittycablecompany is reportedly awful.
2. As an employee of BIG CABLE COMPANY, Husby got a major discount. Like almost free. Like we got every single channel for free. We only had to pay $15 a month for DVR.

Mourn with us, please. I have a plan for BIG CABLE COMPANY to take over littlebittycablecompany. I just need to pitch it to someone other than Husby. Evidently, he doesn't think it'll work. What does he know? He's only worked there 14 years.

(If you're counting, that's before I graduated high school. He's my sugar daddy. And he's super sweet!)

We haven't signed up for cable, since most of our shows won't start until the fall. Even then, we're not sold on paying for cable. We'll probably Netflix and watch shows on the websites. To satisfy our TV addiction, Husby suggested watching Veronica Mars. I agreed. Typically, we enjoy the same type of shows.

(Exceptions: Bethenny Ever After and Game of Thrones.)

Let me tell you, Veronica Mars has NOT disappointed. I love it so much that we usually watch more than one episode at a time. We're 16 episodes through the first season, and I can't wait to finish it. I didn't know how much I liked Kristen Bell. Sure, she's been in a couple of chick flicks (ugh...I hate that term as much as chick lit), but she's a really good actress in VM.

As if it weren't obvious, when one cannot watch TV, one has more time to read. I just finished:

I really liked this book. Krakauer (who wrote Into Thin Air) gives a raw look into the Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints. (You might remember a fairly recent raid on their Texas compound.) I was hooked after the first sentence. The underlying story is about the Lafferty brothers who murder their sister-in-law and her baby--because they believed it was a revelation from God. Of course the FLDS polygamy belief is intriguing to me. I am WAY to jealous a girl to be okay with this, and I don't think it's what the Bible describes as marriage, even though some in the Old Testament practiced it. (But did it ever really work out? Usually it was a mess.) After reading this book, I can sympathize with the FLDS followers who are hurt that the Mormon church turned away from polygamy. Although I doubt Joseph Smith's revelation, it was an accepted practice in the church that was abandoned because of pressure from the United States government. They conceded and abandoned this belief because of a government. I think I'd be a little upset, too. Don't get me wrong, I don't think that their beliefs are sound--and I certainly respect government, but I can understand why they feel as they do. Under the Banner of Heaven also gives lots of information about the Mormon tenets of faith. I really recommend this book.

I have another book that I started last night. Since I'm already a quarter of the way through, I except to be able to share my thoughts soon. And it's rocking my thinking about food.

An Update

Just so you know, I'm still here. I just have writer's block combined with a semi-boring life. I wish I had fun or interesting stories, but I don't. I even went to WalMart today, and other than it being a reminder of why I really don't like WalMart, nothing outstanding happened. (I usually have a great story after a trip to WalMart. Like the time when I was in the dairy section, and a kid walked up to the dairy case, opened a container of French onion dip, scooped some out with his finger, ate it, put the lid back on and walked away. I was dumbfounded. Especially when he later almost ran me over while driving a motorized cart. While his mom was walking beside him. Seriously?)

I've tried really hard this week to work on balance--bible time, working out, cooking, cleaning, laundry. I have such a hard time maintaining all of those things, and maybe I can't do it all, but I've tried really hard this week. Which is why I haven't blogged. See, something has to give.

I've also been reading quite a bit. Last year, I only read 12 books. That's a really sad number. I blame it on the fact that my first book of the year was not enjoyable. We had an All School Read, and I was forced to read Three Cups of Tea. I did not like it. One bit. Before you skip to the comment section and hate on me for knocking this book, let me give a disclaimer that I like the story of building schools in Afghanistan and Pakistan; it's a great mission. But the book was about 150 pages too long and VERY poorly written. I wish the editor had been better. I think starting the year off with a book that I didn't like set the tone for the rest of the year.

So I knew that I had to do better this year. I had to read a book that was one my MUST READ list. I just finished my first book, read in five days because it was that good.

If you haven't read this book, you should. I couldn't put it down. Set in the 1960s, it tells the stories of black maids who work for white families. Every two chapters is in the voice of a different character, telling her story. Some good. Some bad. Some heart-wrenching. I'll probably think about it for a while.

Now I'm reading another book on my To Read list. So far, really good. I'm about 25% done.

Oh, and I have a confession. I'm now the owner of a:

That's right. I own a Kindle. I swore when they first came out that I'd NEVER be able to hold something like that in the place of a book. Well, let me tell you, Husby and I have five bookcases in our house. And they're full. All of them. Some are doubled up. We had to do something, so we converted to Kindle's (thanks to a handy Best Buy gift card Christmas present!). I hate to admit that I like it, but I do. I know that I'll probably always prefer an actual book, but this isn't so bad. (Although the process of buying it was awful. Best Buy has terrible customer service.)

There's also one more change for us. (I'm not prego.) After ten years, I own a new car. Her name is Genevieve. She's a Kia Sportage and looks like this:

Yes, she's red. Yes, my car is female. Yes, she has a name. It's more fun that way. She and Knox, Husby's black Prius, look so cute together!

I'm off to read another chapter before bed. Hope you've had a relaxing and/or productive weekend!

Weekend Update

Today has been a day of rest at our home. Other than brewing coffee and making muffins, we've done almost nothing. Which is nice considering our busy day yesterday. Husby and I went Christmas shopping--and eating--with his family. A day of Pottery Barn, Williams-Sonoma, Banana Republic, and World Market, sprinkled with meals at Grand Lux Cafe and Maggiano's, sounds perfect to me. However, Husby does not enjoy a day spent at stores. Luckily, he did enjoy Angry Birds and Cut the Rope on my iPhone, when The Container Store just didn't do it for him. We're quite different in that respect. I could spend hours in The Container Store, dreaming of my next organization project.

As I type this, our bellies are full from yummy Banana Crumb Muffins. Although I've claimed not to bake in my Things I Don't Do list, I am a pretty decent muffin maker. I was quite happy with this mornings result: 

I'll share the recipe later this week.

This morning, I finished The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. It is such a fabulous read! This book has been on my book list for about a year. I finally snagged it at a local used bookstore. It's written in letters, and I couldn't wait to finish one letter so that I could move to the next. Guernsey is a Channel Island (English Channel) that was occupied by the Germans during World War II. The book is set just after World War II ends; each character tells stories about the Occupation, but more importantly, their relationships with each other during this time. Now, I badly want to visit Guernsey. I want to smell the sea air and walk along the beach. I fear that I might be disappointed when the reality of the characters as part of fiction sets in. I'd love to walk along the beach with Juliet and Kit, or share tea and raspberry pie with Amelia. Although a quick trip to Guernsey isn't an option, I do think that a re-read is imminent. Here are a couple of quotes that made me fall in love with the book even more:

"I wonder how the book got to Guernsey?

Perhaps there is some secret sort of

homing instinct in books that brings

them to their perfect reader.

~Juliet

"Reading good books ruins you

for enjoying bad ones.

~Isola



Next up on the docket? A game of domino's with Husby. Then I plan to be somewhat productive. My goal to purge our home of 100 items by Thanksgiving requires some action on my part. (Read about that here.) I need to gather 10 items per day to make it a little less overwhelming. I have my eye on a few things that will make an exit.

The Weekend

Oh, I love a good weekend. Friday was an early release day at school. Normally, the worker bee in me would stay and get ahead. Not so on Friday. I left work and headed to Dallas to meet up with my college roommate, Adriane. Our plans? To hear Shauna Niequist speak, author of Bittersweet: Thoughts on Grace, Change and Learning. It was such a nice way to spend an evening, and oh so refreshing for my soul.

Shauna read a handful of passages from Bittersweet, and then we had a great question and answer time. My favorite chapter changes every few days, but one of my favorites is "Things I Do." I feel--as a woman--pressure from society to do: work 40+ hours per week, keep a clean house, cook fabulous meals, workout, maintain relationships, and on and on. Evidently, this is common. Shauna addresses this in her book, along with advice she was given:

"It's not hard to decide what you want your life to be about.

What's hard is figuring out what you're willing to give up

in order to do the things you really care about." -Bittersweet

This really strikes a chord with me. For the girl who wants to do it all, it's a challenge to be willing to give up doing. Shauna creates an ever-evolving list of "Things I Don't Do." What a great idea! On our way home, Adriane and I came up with our own lists. Though I want it to be a list that changes over seasons, here are Things I Don't Do:

1.) I don't bake. I don't like to bake. It requires precision and time that I don't like to give. And one small mistake can throw it all off (unlike cooking).

2.) I don't use cloth napkins. I know that it's super classy to bring the paper towel holder to the table, but that's what we do. I don't like washing more linens than absolutely necessary. And I sure don't want to iron these. So, for now, it's paper towels.

3.) I don't shop at Wal Mart. I know it's convenient and less expensive, but I don't like it. I prefer making two less stressful stops at Target and the grocery store.

4.) I don't finish reading books that I don't enjoy. They're not worth my time.

I feel liberated saying that I don't do things. I like it!

Adriane and I enjoyed shopping on Saturday morning and had more conversations about life. Then we visited my sweet friend, Christine, and her husband and oh-so-cute baby, Luci. After a quick trip to their fabulous farm store, Urban Acres, I headed back home. I arrived just in time to change clothes and head to a wonderful wedding.

Yesterday, after church, Husby and I did a little rearranging around the house. In the winter, our home gets pretty chilly. The coldest spot is the dining room; it hovers around 55 degrees. Brrr! We decided to move our dining table into our living room so that we won't have to eat a the bar for the next five months. That meant changing the layout of our living room. Twice. Then we organized the closet below our stairs. Husby assembled a new shelving unit, and I got to make order of all the stuff. He doubted my abilities to fit it all back into the closet. I guess it might take more than a year of marriage for him to have confidence in my organizing/packing abilities. I mean, who else can fit 55 pounds in a carry-on bag? That's talent, my friends.

I hope you had a great weekend. Happy Monday!

This Week...

You know those weeks when you just want it to be over? This is one of them. I'm not one of those people who looks forward to the weekends, as if Monday-Friday should be totally wiped off the calendar. I like living those Mondays-Fridays. Even if they're not the greatest.

I finally feel like my body has re-adjusted to Central Time Zone from being in Europe. But it's just so dang hot that any energy I might muster up during the day quickly evaporates in the humid air.

I don't know if I've shared this (and honestly, I don't feel like researching my own blog entries), but my boss is preggers. She has a sweet baby girl cooking away. Chloe Noelle will join her two brothers, 10 and 12, soon. Actually, sooner than expected. Due to complications, my boss will spend the remaining 1-5 weeks--depending on delivery--at Baylor Medical in Dallas.

It's always been the plan that I would take the lead role in our counseling office this year, but I really didn't want it to be this soon. Yikes! I've claimed Esther 4:14 as my verse for the year, "...but who knows that you have come to royal position for such a time as this." I don't know how royal my position is, but I do know that I've been groomed by my fantastic boss over that past two years, and I can do it.

When I arrived at work on Monday, I had an Amazon package waiting for me. It was this:

I was so excited! I've blogged about Shauna's first memoir, Cold Tangerines, so I was super-psyched to have this in the mail after pre-ordering in May. Already I LOVE it! In fact, I looked down yesterday and realized that I was already half-way through. It made me sad that I would actually finish it. Yes, that's how much I like it. My heart will ache when I'm done.

Here's one of the amazing, amazing quotes from Bittersweet:

The idea of bittersweet is changing the way I live, unraveling and re-weaving the way I understand life. Bittersweet is the idea that in all things there is both something broken and something beautiful, that there is a moment of lightness on even the darkest of nights, a shadow of hope in every heartbreak, and that rejoicing is no less rich even when it contains a splinter of sadness.

It's the practice of believing that we really do need both the bitter and the sweet, and that a life of nothing but sweetness rots both your teeth and your soul. Bitter is what makes us strong, what forces us to push through, what helps us earn the lines on our faces and the calluses on our hands. Sweet is nice enough, but bittersweet is beautiful, nuanced, full of depth and complexity. Bittersweet is courageous, gutsy, audacious, earthy.

This is what I've come to believe about change: it's good, in the way that childbirth is good, and heartbreak is good, and failure is good. By that I mean that it's incredibly painful, exponentially more so if you fight it, and also that it has the potential to open you up, to open life up, to deliver you right into the palm of God's hand, which is where you wanted to be all long, except that you were too busy pushing and pulling your life into exactly what you thought it should be.

I've learned the hard way that change is one of God's greatest gifts, and most useful tools. Change can push us, pull us, rebuke and remake us. It can show us who we've become, in the worst ways, and also in the best ways. I've learned that it's not something to run away from, as though we could, and that in many cases, change is a function of God's graciousness, not life's cruelty.

This is the work I'm doing now, and the work I invite you into: when life is sweet, say thank you, and celebrate. And when life is bitter, say thank you, and grow.

Here's to saying thank you, and either celebrating or growing.

On My Reading List

I'm steadily working my way through the dozen books I need to read to match last years number of completed books. My most recent reads are A Little Bit Wicked (hilarious!)  and A New Song (part of the Mitford series).

Up next is a book that always seems to make the cut as a favorite book. I know I read it in high school, but I don't remember it being impactful. My next read is:

It's GAlinda...with a GA

You might remember that in May, I reported that I'd read a total of two books in the entire year. Or you might not remember. Or you might hate reading and really not care (which makes me really sad for you). Any way about it, I'm now up to six books. That's right folks, now I only have 12 more to go to meet my total from last year. Woo hoo!

My selected reads often come from Oprah's Book Club. Honestly, I can't remember being disappointed by a selection from Oprah. If you're familiar with O's Book Club books, you know that they usually involve a death in the first chapter--sometimes more than one. But they're JUST SO GOOD. All that to say, I usually don't read funny or happy books. I like the emotion involved in reading. Then I had a friend recommend Kristin Chenowith's book (co-written by Joni Rodgers), A Little Bit Wicked, because it reminded her of me. Now I know why: this book is funny! Which sounds a little conceited, but sometimes I even make myself laugh. And we all know that's the sign of being funny. Or maybe that's the sign of being annoying?

Like always, I removed the book jacket before lugging it around in my car or purse, upstairs and back down, so that it doesn't get torn. When I removed it, I found pink. The entire book cover is pink! I'm not so much a pink person per se, but I've never had a completely pink book. And I like it.

If you're not familiar with Kristin Chenowith, perhaps her most notable claim to fame is her role as "Glinda" (or Galinda) in Wicked. She was also "Olive Snook" in Pushing Daisies, which was a fabulous TV show that wasn't renewed after it's second season. (Thanks stupid writers' strike.) I'd recommend the following to become familiar with Kristin Chenowith: buy the Wicked soundtrack and rent Pushing Daisies. She's just a fun girl!

Back to the book...I've laughed out loud so hard, and I'm only 50 pages in. I just read this passage, and it's so familiar to me. Husby and his family tend to mispronounce things. By a lot. So this made me laugh so hard, especially the last line. Here goes, a conversation between Kristin and her mother: 

 "We should have dinner at Mudfuckers," says Mom. "They have every kind of burger you could possibly want."

"I think you mean Fuddruckers, Mom."

"Yes, that's what I said."

"You said Mudfuckers."

"What? I would never say Mudfuckers. Jerry, I didn't say Mudfuckers, did I?"

Now, let me say here, my mom is an intelligent woman, so perhaps this is some kind of verbal dyslexia or just a matter of not sweating the small stuff, but in her personal lexicon, I play "Olive Shnook" on Pushing Up Daisies...Suzuki piano method is remembered as "Yamaha lessons." "Achy Breaky" becomes "Yucky Ducky," and Puerto Vallarta turns into "Porta Kolache."

Okay, I'm off to read a little more before bed. Hope you've had a great week so far!

I Heart this Book

Over the past couple of years, several of my friends read Cold Tangerines by Shauna Niequist. Never being one for giving into trends, especially trendy books, I declined their recommendations to read it. Then I decided that buying it wouldn't hurt anything; it could sit on the bookshelf and wait its turn. Last summer, I conceded and decided that it would be a decent enough book to flip through during a weekend.

Wouldn't you know that my friends were right? Wow, it was amazing. Once I picked up this glossy, orange book, I read it in about 24 hours, flipping through the chapters, wondering how several parts of a book--a memoir--could so closely mirror my life. And this summer, I've begun the re-read. Already, I'm moved. It makes me want to celebrate everyday. It does. I think I'll have it finished over this long weekend. And now, I'm about to place an advance order for her next book, Bittersweet, to be released later in the summer.

Here are a few of my most favorite passages in the Cold Tangerines by Shauna Niequist:

I have always been essentially waiting. Waiting to become something else, waiting to be that person I always thought I was on the verge of becoming, waiting for that life I thought I would have. In my head, I was always one step away. In high school, I was biding my time until I could become the college version of myself, the one my mind could see so clearly. In college, the post-college "adult" person was always looming in front of me, smarter, stronger, more organized. Then the married person, then the person I'd become when we have kids. For twenty years, literally, I have waited to become the thin version of myself, because that's when life will really begin.
And through all that waiting, here I am. My life is passing, day by day, and I am waiting for it to start. I am waiting for that time, that person, that event when my life will finally begin.

I want a life that sizzles and pops and makes me laugh out loud. And I don't want to get to the end, or tomorrow, even, and realize that my life is a collection of meetings and pop cans and dirty dishes. I want to eat cold tangerines and sing out loud in the car with the windows open and wear pink shoes and stay up all night laughing and paint my walls the exact color of the sky right now. I want t sleep hard on clean, white sheets and throw parties and eat ripe tomatoes and read books so good they make me jump up and down, and I want my every day to make God belly laugh, glad he gave life to someone who loves the gift.

I don’t want to wait anymore. I choose to believe that there is nothing more sacred or profound than this day. I choose to believe that there may be a thousand big moments embedded in this day, waiting to be discovered like tiny shards of gold. The big moments are the daily, tiny moments of courage and forgiveness and hope that we grab on to and extend to one another. That’s the drama of life, swirling all around us, and generally I don’t even see it, because I’m too busy waiting to become whatever it is I think I am about to become. The big moments are in every hour, every conversation, every meal, every meeting.

You have stories worth telling, memories worth remembering, dreams worth working toward, a body worth feeding, a soul worth tending, and beyond that, the God of the universe dwells within you, the true culmination of super and natural.
You are more than dust and bones.
You are spirit and power and image of God.
And you have been given Today.

I could go on and on; there are so many wonderful passages in this book that is honest and powerful. But if I did, then you wouldn't need to read it. Check it out from the library, borrow it from a friend or pick it up in a bookstore. You won't be disappointed. Your heart will be happy; you'll want to shout "amen" as you read and read passages again; you'll wonder how you can learn to celebrate life everyday.

I'm a Little Behind

In 2009, with wedding and all, I read 18 books. So far, in 2010, I've completed two books. And we're halfway through 2010. My completed book list includes: Three Cups of Tea--required reading for our entire school--and Meet the Austins.

(While reading Three Cups of Tea, I had to have something to offset the awful writing, and I thought Madeline L'engle could do just that, thus Meet the Austins. It's a VERY SIMPLE READ, so I sped through it.)

(I would like to clarify that I TOTALLY SUPPORT the mission of Greg Mortenson. I do not think he or his co-author are good writers. Period.)

(I really wanted to make that a bad sentence to invalidate my position on bad writing.)

(But I couldn't do it. I can't knowingly create bad sentences. But I know who can!)

(Wait, I think I just invalidated myself by starting TWO sentences with BUT!)

What is wrong with me?! Two books in 5 months! Currently, I'm working on City of Thieves. I'm also re-reading Anne of Green Gables (read when I was quite young) and Cold Tangerines (a book off of last years list). I love, love, love Cold Tangerines, which is why I've added it to my list of current reads. It's not that I don't like the others that I'm reading, but I feel like I need to complete a book that I really enjoy to continue on my way of reading several other books this year.

On my list of things to read THIS YEAR are: The Help, The Sign for Drowning, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society, Same Kind of Different as Me, The Know it All, The Almost Moon, and Bittersweet.

But that doesn't quite add up to 18, and I'm determined to at least meet the number of books read last year. I would LOVE suggestions. What's been a good read lately? I'll read almost anything; I'm not a huge fan of "chick lit." (I'm not a huge fan of the word, for that matter.) And just so you know, I totally judge books by their cover. Rarely am I disappointed.

Three Monthiversary

Today marks three months of marriage. And three great months at that!

Once we were done eating lunch, I declared that I didn't want to go home. We both love spending time at home, and given the option, we'll usually stay in. But today, I wanted to do something different; I just didn't know what the something different was. Husby thanked me for my ambiguity as I gave him the challenge of coming up with an activity.

(I really think that it helped spur him to come up with something once I mentioned I was in the mood for shopping.)

Since it was such a beautiful day, he suggested that we go to Tyler State Park. I agreed. Once we arrived and walked around for a bit, we decided that it would have been a great idea to change out of our church clothes. About an hour later, we arrived once again in jeans and tennis shoes with books, chairs and Crickett.

The three of us walked through the woods for about an hour. Of course, Crickett, being a hound, led the way with her nose to the ground. And she stayed on the trail the whole time. (She's just so smart!)

After our walk, we found the perfect spot of sunshine where we set our chairs and began reading. Currently, I'm set to finish Three Cups of Tea. The school where I work is doing an All-School Read with this book.

(I've wanted to read it for a while, but now that it's an "assignment", I don't want to read it.)

(And honestly, if it weren't required, I would have stopped reading it. It's just not well written. I think the contents would have been adequately written in 180 pages, not over 300.)

We read for quite a while, until it began to cool off, and we decided to head home. We ended our afternoon with a trip to Sonic.

Now, I'm about to start dinner. A friend is coming over, and we're having root beer short ribs with mashed sweet potatoes. I hope it tastes as good as it sounds!

Book List 2009

I love to read. I always have. At the beginning of 2009, I made a list of books to read. Over the year, the list changed. For instance, I began reading one recommendation, Epicenter, but thought it was only days before Iraq and Russia joined forces to conquer Tyler, Texas. I had to put it down.

(Thanks to college roommate, Adriane, I now know that news and current events can be harmful for me to watch and read. I have bad dreams and anxiety that just isn't normal. Now I know when to stop. It was a sad day when I could no longer be a news junkie.)

I didn't read everything on the list, but I added quite a few books. I'm proud to say that even with a wedding, I read 18 books. I'll put a little star by those that I really enjoyed.

Here's to Hindsight by Tara Leigh Cobble*

Velvet Elvis by Rob Bell

Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller

I Dared to Call Him Father by Bilquis Sheikh

The Time Traveller's Wife by Audrey Niffennegger*

The Year of Living Biblically by A.J. Jacobs*

A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khalid Hosseini

At Home in Mitford by Jan Karon

Firefly Lane by Kristin Hannah

A Light in the Window by Jan Karon

Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert

Cold Tangerines by Shauna Niequist*

These High, Green Hills by Jan Karon

The Pilot's Wife by Anita Shreve

The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold*

Out to Canaan by Jan Karon

The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver*

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

My 2010 list is in full swing. Already in the works: Anne of Green Gables, Meet the Austins, and Three Cups of Tea. And maybe, just maybe, I'll convince myself to finish Lord of the Rings that I began over two years ago.