beautiful song

i needed to hear this last night....especially that last verse.

Dear refuge of my weary soul,
On Thee, when sorrows rise
On Thee, when waves of trouble roll,
My fainting hope relies
To Thee I tell each rising grief,
For Thou alone canst heal
Thy Word can bring a sweet relief,
For every pain I feel

But oh! When gloomy doubts prevail,
I fear to call Thee mine
The springs of comfort seem to fail,
And all my hopes decline
Yet gracious God, where shall I flee?
Thou art my only trust
And still my soul would cleave to Thee
Though prostrate in the dust

Hast Thou not bid me seek Thy face,
And shall I seek in vain?
And can the ear of sovereign grace,
Be deaf when I complain?
No still the ear of sovereign grace,
Attends the mourner's prayer
Oh may I ever find access,
To breathe my sorrows there

Thy mercy seat is open still,
Here let my soul retreat
With humble hope attend Thy will,
And wait beneath Thy feet,
Thy mercy seat is open still,
Here let my soul retreat
With humble hope attend Thy will,
And wait beneath Thy feet

blah & a couple "must reads"

yes, blah. that is how i have been feeling in the mornings when i get up. sore throat, headache, tired, etc. as the days go on i end up feeling mostly better and usually squeeze in a little nap somewhere....but it's just annoying. :( oh well, i know i'll survive and it's just the beginning of the season of colds - yay. (hopefully you can hear the sarcasm)

so this is supposed to be a book blog and i have not written about any books lately. at this point i will have a hard time remembering much about books that i read awhile ago (my memory is terrible), but i will tell you a few that left lasting impressions on me.

one of my sort of recent favorite reads was memoirs of a geisha. i had seen the movie and finally got around to reading the book....it is amazing. i was completely sucked in by it and could not put it down - i think i read it in about 3 days, it was that good. i would def. call it a "must read". it was just so beautifully written and the descriptions were so clear. and i guess i hadn't read much from asian culture before so it was quite educational for me, as well.

so, a book that i read last winter that i actually can't believe i haven't written about yet is called serve god, save the planet: a christian call to action. in all honesty, this book has had one of the biggest impacts on me as far as actually DOING something about trying to reduce my impact on the environment. not that i didn't care about it before but i would say that i only did the basic stuff that the average person would do...some recycling, switch lightbulbs to CFL's, etc. this author has a unique perspective in that he's a medical dr. and he tells some very interesting stories. but he also gives a lot of great info, explains from scripture why we are called to take care of this planet and others in it, and tells the story of how his family has taken huge steps to reduce their impact on the environment. (i mean HUGE steps - they downsized to a house that in it's entirety is the same size as the garage of their old house!) this book really opened my eyes to how selfish our culture has become and how our demand for conveniences and our use of so much of the world's resources helps contribute to the poverty of so many others in the world. i am trying to be less of a consumer....i am so thankful my mother raised me to shop at second hand stores! a couple things we do now as a result of this book are: taking our own reusable bags when we go shopping, i bought cloth napkins, we don't use our dishwasher anymore, and we unplug our electronics if they are not being used. i could go on and on about this book - i learned so much from it. but i would also like to read it again soon so maybe i will wait and write about it again later. :)

i guess that's all for now...it's a good day to curl up w /a book....i'm currently reading an adoption memoir. ;) have a great wknd!

are you smarter than a 5th grader?

well, i think i am! :) the other saturday i actually did an IQ test of sorts for a friend of a friend who is getting her master's and needed to practice on someone. it was actually kinda fun, but the sad part is that i can't find out the results since she's not licensed yet. it was kinda crazy though b/c i would second guess some of my answers or think that i was totally getting stuff wrong that i should know. (after it ended i had to look some stuff up on google to ease my conscience!) so here are some of the things i do know: the capital of italy, who painted the sistene chapel, and the president during the civil war. of course there was much more to it than that.....math questons which were kinda hard b/c of it being given verbally, some interesting puzzles, pictures and word definitions. one of the first ones that threw me was "define winter"...uh, what? sounds crazy but i really had to think for a few mins. to decide how to best define a season. (by the way, i said "the season between fall and spring") anyway, at least i got a nice gift card for a nearby coffeeshop out of the deal! :)

since everyone i know is commenting about the election on their blogs, here is what i will say: i will be extremely happy in 8 days when it is all over and we finally know who it's gonna be!!

fall is def. here in full force: i am wearing slippers, drinking hot chocolate, enjoying the crisp air and sights of pumpkins on people's porches and the colors of changing leaves. we took our fall camping excursion up to WI last sun. thru tues. and it was nothing short of amazing. the weather was perfect: cool but not too cold and the trees were gorgeous! i honestly am trying to figure out why we haven't always done a fall trip to WI in oct. - we both love camping at this time of year, it's less crowded, you don't get all hot and sweaty hiking and there's no bugs! anyway, it truly was the break that we needed from the chaos of the city and a good time for us to reflect and reconnect. i will let the pics tell the rest of the story.

august recap

hey again! so now that's it october, i thought i would go back and review the month of august! :) not sure how much i can remember though....we had some fun visitors: phil's oldest nephew, ben, came out for 6 days. they ran around the city, watched the air and water show, and then we went up to WI for a couple days of camping which was really good. we went back to Devil's Lake State Park, which we hadn't been to in several years - we highly recommend it. there are some awesome hikes and it doesn't take too long to get up to a really nice view. we are planning to go back up there in a couple wks. to enjoy the fall colors and hopefully not freeze for one last camping trip of the year!





then right after ben left our friend ann came for a few days. we used to work together at Sunshine Gospel Ministries, but she left a year ago to take a break, travel the world and figure out where God is taking her next. it was fun to catch up and we got to help phil work at a neighborhood festival where the coffeeshop our church owns (ipsento) had a stand selling frozen mochas....yummy! :)





then phil and i celebrated 8 YEARS of wedded bliss. we can hardly believe it - it's a good reminder to make the most of each day b/c they fly by so quickly. we went out for a nice dinner and then attended a seminar on "openness" w/ our adoption agency. it was actually a really good evening....and crazy to think that most likely by the time we celebrate another anniversary we will be parents! anyway, they had a birth mom there who gave up her little boy 2 yrs ago but one of her requirements was that the adoption be completely open: meaning she has a relationship w/ her son and his parents. it was really good to hear her perspective and we were already willing to consider an open adoption but now i think i really want it - it could be really cool to have a relationship w/ the birth mom and see how God could use that. as well as making it a lot easier on the kid.







so, to wrap up august and the whole summer, we went back out to MI for labor day wknd to hang out w/our friends at the lake. it was....well, how can i put it? WONDERFUL! there were around 10 of us that went out and we did it all: tubing, skiiing, swimming, fishing, laughing, sleeping, puzzle making, eating, and more! oh yeah, and on the last morning, our friend's grandpa (whose house we were staying at), said, "i'm really surprised no one took the kayaks out - it's a perfect morning for it...." - so i went to find phil and said, "grandpa T just twisted my arm - we have to take the kayaks out before we leave b/c we don't want them (the neglected kayaks or the grandparents) to feel bad"! :) it was a delightful way to wrap up a perfect wknd. thanks so much to our dear friends the gilberts and talens!!!









that last pic is me and my friend sara tubing - she was gonna go by herself (she hadn't been out yet but most of us already had), so i said, "friends don't let friends tube alone!" ;) well i think that's all i've got for now. maybe in my next post i will actually tell you about the books i read this summer - there were some good ones!

i'm it!

so, a friend of mine, whose blog i read, "tagged me" which means i'm "it". or, in this case, it means i have to share 7 random or weird things about myself.....hmm, this could be interesting. :) then i get to tag 7 people who must do the same....hehe. so, here goes:

1. when i spent a semester in israel, i got bit by a dog and almost had to get rabies shots (can we say, scary??)

2. the only bones i've ever broken in my body are my teeth

3. i failed the test to get my driver's license more than a few times....let's just say i lost count, but if i hadn't passed it when i did i would have had to retake the test for my learner's permit!

4. i hate applesauce, but my mom claims that it's all i ate when i was a baby!

5. i was never very adventurous in my younger days, but in college i learned how to ski (downhill and x-country) and since being married i have done some serious mountain biking that i never would have imagined myself doing - and enjoying.

6. another weird food fact: i do not like jelly - yuck! so sticky and messy!

7. i was born on my great-grandmother's birthday - may 12th. and strangely enough, phil and i are only 1 day shy of being 5 years apart - he was born on may 11th. :)





so, now it's time for liz, justine, jes, davene, ashley, marissa and kacie!

yes, i am alive!!!

hello there! i'm sure by now most of you thought i would never return to blog-land, but i've gotten several emails and comments about the fact that i need to get back to it - so here i am! even though it has been forever (or 3 mos.) i am still going to attempt to "catch up" here on what has been happening w/ us all summer....don't worry, i'll spread it out over a few blogs. :)

well, to pick up where i left off, we had a great trip home to PA back in early july. we spent time w/both of our families and it was a much-needed break from the city. we hadn't been home during the summer time in several years, so it was quite lovely. we even went camping w/one of phil's brothers and his neices and nephews and we saw a lot of wildlife: deer, elk, and a BEAR! it was great fun. and then driving through the mts. to head back to my parent's a baby bobcat crossed the road in front of us. anyway, aside from getting a 24 hr. stomach bug of some sort, our trip was really great but as always it felt too short. we miss you, our wonderful family!!

the next wknd. after we got home from PA, some friends and i became TRIATHLETES! i was a little worried about how i would survive, as i hadn't trained as hard as i wanted to...but honestly, it was not that hard at all and we had a lot of fun. (sounds crazy, i know!) i actually did a lot better than i thought i would and finished in less than 2 hrs., here were my times: .5 mile swim in 19 mins., 12.4 mile bike in 56 mins., and 3.2 mile run in 34 mins. i was most amazed at my run time.....running is my least favorite thing and i am not good at it....but i guess being warmed up helps a lot b/c i ran 11 min. miles! :) we are planning to force more of our friends to do it w/ us next year b/c it really is such an empowering feeling and it's a tri. just for women so everyone is really encouraging.

aren't we cute?? we made our own shirts....well, phil did the design - the front had a stick figure swimming, biking and running (they looked like the ones they used for the olympics) and on the back it had the verse from isaiah "they will run and not grow weary"...but we inserted "swim, bike, and run" ;)....it was super cute and very appropriate b/c we are all in a Bible study together and had just finished the book of isaiah! we even put "team isaiah" on the shirts!
(in case anyone notices, my crazy friend marissa, who is next to me in the pic, has ice on her leg b/c she actually did the race w/a stress-fractured tibia - yes, she is certifiably insane but i love her!!)

so, to finish out the month of july we went out to MI for a few days to enjoy some R&R on a little lake where our friend's grandpa has a cottage. it was great to catch up w/ them and just to enjoy some peace away from the city. we even went to a nearby farm and picked black raspberries and flowers....so delightful! we are so blessed to have such amazing friends - we are truly grateful.

well i think that is all for now - i will finish catching up on the summer another time.....guess i shouldn't wait too long though since today is the first day of fall! hope you are enjoying weather as nice as we have been having - it's actually been in the 80's the past few days. :) trying to make summer last as long as possible! take care!

going bye-bye!

so, somehow it's been a couple wks. since i posted anything, but i just wanted to let everyone know that it will be quiet for another 10 days at least while we are in the promised land....pennsylvania. :) we are very excited to be heading out first thing tomorrow morning - i'm ready for a change -i feel like things have been really busy again lately. but it's all good stuff. like yesterday we went to IN to go to a wedding - it was a really beautiful, outdoor ceremony and the weather was perfect. they are a sweet couple who went to Moody and attended our church. i'll have to try to remember to post some pics later.

anyway, it will be refreshing to get out the city and see our families - we have lots of nieces and nephews who grow a lot while we're gone, so we need to check in once and awhile so that we can still recognize them! and we're also looking forward to meeting two new additions: phil's cousin and his wife had their 2nd little girl a month ago, and some very dear friends who we haven't seen in a year and a half had their 2nd (also a girl, but their first is a boy) back in jan....we can't wait to meet you, sophia and sadie!

so i'm sure we will be having lots of laughs, eating too much, having good conversations (i better practice my "where we are in the adoption process" speech!), and staying up late to star gaze b/c we'll actually be able to see them for a change!! :) oh yeah and i'm looking forward to sitting out on our parent's back porches and just relaxing and watching lightning bugs!

fyi, on the book front i just finished reading "pride and prejudice" by jane austen. it's a good read but you have to be able to get into the old english language. i thought it was great though and now i need to watch the movie again. :) at the library i just found a couple memoirs of people who were adopted and i'm looking foward to getting into one of them on our trip - i'll be sure to let you know how they are!

k, i'm gonna sign off for now, it's getting late-ish and we have to get up at 5:30!

and now.....we wait

so, in case you don't know this about me (all 6 of you who read this!), i am not a very patient person. which could prove interesting for this stage of our life: we have just completed our adoption home study and now we get to wait. yep, wait. approximately 6-12 months, give or take. i am also a structured, planner, organizer type person. so we'll see if i can keep my sanity. :) i also know that God has a sense of humor and might decide to bless us w/ a child at the last minute - you know the story: the adoption agency calls and says the hospital has to discharge a baby tomorrow, do you want it? yep, pretty sure that will be us. i'm not worried about it, but i just like to know "what's coming down the pike", so to speak. only time will tell!

in the mean time, if any of you don't know, i am training for a women's sprint triathlon (.5 mile swim, 12 mile bike, and 5k run). crazy, i know, but it will be fun b/c i'm doing it w/some of my bible study gals. but i've also decided to use it as forum to raise funds for our adoption, so if anyone out there wants to sponsor me in this endeavor, that would be even more incentive! just drop me an email or make a pledge in a comment and i'll follow up w/ you. thanks!

so, i'm finally learning how to post pics on my blog....pathetic, i know! anyway, it only took me about a month but i finally created new curtains out of this lovely fabric that i purchased. it's kinda hard to tell in the pic, but the design is actually flowers, but they are very wild, stemmy, herb-like looking flowers. :) i really like it. i'll have to try to take another pic and include both sets of windows if i can. instead, you get the pleasure of seeing phil taking a rest on our couch! hope you are having a great weekend!

summer's here....finally!

so today and several days thereafter it's supposed to get into the high 80's....craziness. when we got back from our WI trip last wk. the lilacs were finally in full bloom here - very strange to smell their heady fragrance magnified by the warmer, humid weather. anyway, i'm not complaining but it's just weird b/c last tues. night we went to the cub's game w/ our awesome friends chris and amy and froze our butts off - seriously, i was wearing long underwear and was still cold! (but the cubbies won, so it's all good)

anyway, our trip to WI was wonderful. a bit chilly for camping, but since it was the wk. before memorial day we had the state parks almost all to ourselves. that's how we like it....yep, we're selfish like that. :) for the first few nights we were at peninsula state park in door county - a place i've wanted to visit for quite some time. for those of you not familiar w/ the cheesehead state, it's the peninsula that juts out into lake michigan and creates green bay. it was really pretty w/ cute little towns. and they had good bike trails, so that makes the hubby happy.

then we went to north-central WI, pretty close to lake superior. we stayed at copper falls state park, which was also really nice. good hiking and several nice falls to check out....we were pleasantly surprised by the rock cliffs and ravines, etc. (even phil was impressed, if you can believe it!) and we did drive up to check out the superior great lake...didn't do anything super exciting but at least now we can say we've been there. :)

our last destination was to camp forest springs, where i did my college internship a few years ago (ok, i'm lying....it's been more than a few years). my very dear friend jenn and her hubby and their beautiful son just joined staff there recently, so it was great to catch up w/ them. the camp is celebrating their 50th anniversary this year so they had a special service over memorial day wknd. we were technically "campers" which was kinda funny, but we had a good time. it was refreshing to be served and on the receiving end and the speaker gave some challenges which led to good conversation for phil and i. mostly it was a "carpe diem" kinda theme and we talked about stuff that we always say we want to do, but never do... like learning how to play guitar.

so, that's what we've been up to. just a quick update on the adoption front...we were supposed to have our final home study interview last night but our case worker was sick. so now it's scheduled for next wed. not a major setback, but i was looking forward to getting it completed! then basically, she told us it would be about a 6-12 mos. wait. however, it could go faster for us b/c we are not being particular - we're open to adopting just about any child under the age of 2.

now i will conclude w/ the actual "book" portion of my blog. :) i read "prince caspian" before going to see the movie - i thought both of them were great. they added a couple things to the movie of course, but i didn't think it was a big deal. i keep telling phil it makes me sad that peter and susan will not get to return to narnia.

i also read "three cups of tea", almost in it's entirety, on our trip. it was incredible. a real life story of a man (greg mortenson) on a mission to bring education to the children of afghanistan and pakistan. it is unbelievable what this guy goes thru....and it all starts off w/ him getting lost after trying to summit K2. i have a high respect for those who go out on the foreign mission field, and let me tell you, even though this guy is not a "christian missionary" (although he did grow up as an MK in africa) he has the determination of one! he is so committed to these people, i really wanted to cry at times. if only all of us could have half the compassion of this man. it was another reality check for me, to once again be reminded of how blessed and privileged i am just to be born in this country and have basic things like clean water, clothes and education. PLEASE read this book...and then tell your friends to read it. i mean, who needs to read a novel when this guy's life is way more interesting and uplifting than any fiction??

sorry, i probably should have made two separate posts out of all this stuff....but you know me, it might be another few wks. until i write again! one final thing, a PRAYER REQUEST: of late there have been a lot of child and infant deaths. i'm sure many of you heard about steven curtis chapman's 5 yr. old daughter's accidental death. then, an acquaintance of our's lost their 2 month old baby boy to SIDS last wk. (if you know of the christian music group selah, it was the woman who used to be their lead singer - her hubby went to moody and there's also a connection thru our old ministry, sunshine). finally, just the other day one of phil's cousins and his wife, jason and janelle, lost their 10 month old baby girl. she was born with an extremely rare set of genetic conditions, so they were never sure what her future would hold, but that doesn't make it any easier. so please join me in praying for these families as they attempt to make sense of out everything and to find their way to continue moving forward w/o their loved ones. thanks so much!

end of writer's strike! :)

ha! just kidding...it was more like a hiatus. does it count that i've been writing this blog in my head for several wks now?? well, most of you know we moved at the end of march so things got a bit busy. now, as most of you know, we are in the midst of our home study for adopting. so those are my excuses. and i think i've discovered (not surprisingly) that i enjoy reading blogs more than writing on mine!

anyway, our transition has been great - it's so fun living near the lake and much closer to our friends. it took us considerably longer to get settled in b/c we were spending so much more time just chilling w/ everyone. on the flip side.....parking around here is terrible and these first two months of cub's season there are a ton of home games, so we are walking and biking as much as possible. (which is fine b/c in case you haven't heard gas is over $4 a gal. here!!)

the adoption process is going a bit quicker than we anticipated, but that's fine w/ us. our home study should be completed by mid-june....as long as our background checks clear and everyone sends in their references...you know who you are!! :) we are excited but it's still kinda weird b/c we don't really know how long it will take to have a child placed w/ us....ahhh, just another lesson in patience.

so, that's about all for general "life" stuff...ya know, nothing major. :) so, since i've last written, i finished reading "anna karenina"....it was good, BUT there were some parts that dragged and you could basically skip over them....hunting, elections, farming, blah, blah, blah. that's ok though, i can add it to my growing list of monstrous, 900+ pg books that i feel quite proud to have gotten thru. our next book group selection is "three cups of tea" which i am excited to read b/c i've heard great things....and clearly it is very popular in chicago right now b/c i can't get my hands on a single copy from the public library - there are a million holds on it!

right now for my Bible study group i am re-reading "mudhouse sabbath" by lauren winner. i know i've mentioned this before, but i LOVE her. partly b/c she's just a great writer and she's my age so i think i connect w/ her. also b/c she converted from judaism and has some amazing views on christianity in light of her background. that's mostly what this book is about - she explores jewish practices and disciplines and how we could better celebrate or practice them as christians. it's a small book, so very readable for anyone, but has a lot of depth to it. she takes a look at things you would expect like sabbath, prayer, and fasting as well as subjects such as mourning, hospitality, the body, and aging.

so, i have one other recommendation...but not for reading. a few wks. ago we went to a concert - the first one in quite awhile. funny thing is, it's a band i have loved since they first came out 15 years ago and i'd never seen them in concert before! (writing that makes me feel old!) anyway, it was caedmon's call, on tour w/ derek webb (who used to be their lead singer). they were nothing short of absolutely AMAZING. they are extremely talented musicians, worshippers and songwriters. i thought i had died and gone to heaven. :) i did not want the evening to end. it was cool too b/c we were in a pretty small chapel at a college nearby and were in the 4th row. so, i would suggest you check out their tour schedule here: www.caedmonscall.com and make it a priority...i promise you won't be disappointed.

well that's all i got for now.....hopefully i will update again sooner rather than later!

tired of winter and of being sick!

so, it's been awhile. a lot has happened in the past couple weeks....we've gotten more snow, found a new apt. and signed the lease (yahoo!), went out of town for two days, been sick for the past week, and yesterday we moved our church from the school back to it's old home - very exciting!

so, i'll start w/ the new apt. - we were so excited to find it so quickly. it is literally a block from the lake - yippee! it's still w/in walking distance of church for phil but not too close to our beloved cubbies....however, parking our car will be more difficult, so that is something fun to look forward to. :) and one of the best parts is that we wil be a lot closer to many of our friends! it's a "garden" apt., meaning half below and half above ground. but it has really high ceilings and full size windows, so it doesn't feel like you are in a cave. it's a bit bigger than our current place, but not huge by any means - which is fine, we just wanted to be able to open up our dining table again and have more than 4 people sit around it! we are planning to move the last sat. of march...gotta get packing!

last sun. after church we headed out on a little adventure that phil planned for us - he didn't tell me where we were going until we were almost there. my surprise destination was starved rock state park, where we spent two nights at their lodge. it was really good to get away and just relax and we did some hiking - phil got some neat shots of the wooded winter scenes and we saw an eagle and several deer. it was a nice time, except that near the end i started getting this annoying cough which developed into a cold/flu thing which has continued and now phil has it - fun times. (apparently it's really going around though - i talked to lots of people at church yesterday who have it or had it)

then yesterday was our last day having church in the elementary school that we have called home for the past 2 years. it was neat to see so many people stay after and help us move all our stuff over to the church building - it went really fast. we're so excited to be back in our old home and the way God brought us back is such a cool story of redemption. for those who don't know, we moved out b/c of issues w/the previous owner. but the building was sold around a year ago and the new owner had actually been attending our church. he has done a lot of renovation and restoration of the building and it looks amazing, and now we are back as the primary renters. he is calling it a "community center" and wants it to be used for other organizations and events, so we don't have exclusive use of the building any time we want it. but our offices are there and it will be worlds better than meeting at the school, so we are extremely grateful!

so i guess that's the "big stuff" from here. please pray we feel better soon - we have no energy for the packing which needs to get started! not to mention we will be working on getting unpacked and settled in at the church this week too! have a great week!

even more snow!

so, it's been a week and a half but it still looks the same outside - white! we are so ready for this craziness to end....although we wouldn't mind being able to get out of the city once to go cross-country skiing or downhill skiing and snowboarding. we'll see if that happens!

anyway, if there's anyone out there who hasn't seen it yet, "juno" was really good. it was sweet, quirky and all the actors were great. the style kind of reminded me of the tv show "gilmore girls" which was a favorite of mine. so i really hope it wins some oscars.

i don't really have any new books to write about. i am about to embark on a journey of several months to read through tolstoy's "anna karenina" for my book group. i am excited - i like tackling the big books - i had such a sense of accomplishment after completing "atlas shrugged" (which i struggled through and would not necessarily recommend to everyone, but am glad i stuck w/ it) as well as "the count of monte cristo" (which was great but a bit difficult to keep up w/ all the characters).

let's see, what else to write about.....well, for those who haven't heard we are planning to move when our lease is up april 1st. i know, i know - when will we stay put??? i don't know! :) but if anyone in the city hears of a reasonable 2 bedroom apt. a bit closer to wrigley field than we already are, let us know. it's such a difficult thing - we want to be closer to church but the closer we get to church, the closer we get to wrigleyville....which is crazy during baseball season and a more expensive area. so we'll see - i know God will provide. we were hoping our current landlord would have something for us, but it sounds like he won't. so now begins the fun of checking craig's list mutiple times a day and making lots of phone calls - yay!

well, i guess that's all for now. i'm contemplating baking some cookies tonight...it just sounds really yummy. maybe i'll make bars so that it won't take as long. :) then i'll have to deliver them to some college students for valentine's day so that we don't eat them all! anyway, happy valentine's day a couple days early. hope you get to do something fun - phil and i are gonna go to one of our favorite restaurants for lunch (stir fry)- we have gift certificates from christmas so it's a free date anyway! later!

"snowed in"

ha! yeah right...not in this city! we got around 10 inches of snow on thursday and overnight into friday - i know a few people who didn't have to go to work, but mostly life just keeps going. so sad, that's one thing i miss about living in the boonies: staying hunkered down at home b/c there's too much snow to get out. i guess you could say i got a "4 hr. delay" b/c i didn't go to my usual nannying gig until noon, so that was kinda nice.

so, i know this is supposed to be a book blog, but i'm going w/ some friends this afternoon to see the movie "juno" and i'm very excited about it. i guess that's really all i can say about it for now...i'll have to give my critique next time i blog. :) i've seen so many reviews and clips of it on tv that i just hope i don't feel like i've already seen the entire movie....but from what i've heard i doubt i'll be disappointed.

now on to the books.....a little devotional book that my mom gave me over the summer that i've really enjoyed is "come away my beloved" by frances j. roberts. i don't usually get into the daily devotionals b/c they just always seem so fluffy, and too "easy", if you know what i mean. i guess the fact that life doesn't come at us in such specific, topical, easy to swallow little packages is part of what turns me off. anyway, to me this one is different. it's kind of written almost like little love letters directly from God to me. and although they are usually just a page or two long i feel like there is depth to them -truths to really cling to. there have been a lot of days when i read a selection and feel like it was written just for me, for what i am going thru. i sometimes use the verses and thoughts in them to launch into my prayer time. so, even if it's not your thing i highly recommend it - it also makes a great gift....just ask my mom, she's given away several of them!

the novel i just finished reading for my book group is "the memory keeper's daughter" by kim edwards. good book...quick read....and a different sort of plot. w/o giving too much away, the story revolves around a lie that one of the main characters tells his family and how it affects their life. it's an interesting look into how we think we know what's best, but when we take matters into our own hands things can turn out quite differently than we expected. another interesting aspect of the book is that one of the characters has down's syndrome, but was born in the 60's....so it sheds some light into how, in general, our society has changed it's view of those w/ disabilities.

so, i guess that's about all for now. hope you're enjoying your weekend!

the irresistible revolution

so i'm a little slow getting back to this blog....but i have been thinking about it. :) and now i've discovered even more of my friends who blog, so it takes me longer to catch up on reading them all!

anyway, if i had to pick one book from last year that really impacted me, i would have to refer you to the title of this blog, "the irresistible revolution: living as an ordinary radical" by shane claiborne. honestly this book convicted me and challenged me in a lot of areas - don't read it unless you want a kick in the pants to make some changes in your life.

it could a bit (or a lot) overwhelming and guilt-inducing. the author, shane, does indeed live a radical life compared to most of us. simplicity and communal living are main tenants - and just trying to figure out how to follow Christ in this crazy world and truly make a difference in other's lives. honestly though, i think it's the kind of challenge that most of us need - i know for myself, the goals and challenges i give myself really aren't all that difficult. the ideas that shane puts out there are gonna take some real sacrifice.

i really connected w/him....at first i thought maybe it was b/c he lives in philly. but then as i kept reading i realized that he had to be about my age - he talked about going to work w/ mother teresa one summer while he was in college. it turns out, he was born the same year as i was! anyway, it was really interesting reading about his experiences in india and then making the huge change to come out here to the burbs of chicago to do an internship at the mega-church willow creek.

he talks about how so many churches use most of their tithe money for their own comfort, programs, buildings, etc. instead of the real original purpose of the tithe being to help the poor. he talks about how so few of us really share our lives w/ each other...as in, our belongings, our food, anything that someone else might need. the idea of communal living intrigues me, and phil and i have even talked about getting a bigger apt. w/ the intent of having a college student live w/ us for low rent. a friend of our's from church needed a place to stay for a month over the summer while he was in between leases and he ended up crashing w/ us. it seemed like such a big deal to some people (and to him - he must have thanked us a million times) but we knew it was the least we could do and it was a lot of fun (hopefully he thought so too!). i wish the concept of communal living wasn't so "weird" - it honestly makes so much more sense to share living expenses, household needs (and chores!), etc. similarly, how often do we think to ask our friends if they have something we could borrow before we just run out and buy it b/c we "need" it? we have happily lent out some of our camping gear b/c not that many people in the city own the basic stuff. :)

well, i will have to post some quotes from the book later b/c a friend of mine has it right now. but i have barely scratched the surface and i'm sure i'll be posting about this book again. please read it and let me know your thoughts! good night and happy reading!

here we go!

so this is my first attempt at blogging.  over the past year or so i have had an increasing number of friends start blogs - i have over a dozen on my google reader now.  anyway, i decided that since i read a lot and i process and remember what i've read better if i discuss it, that books would be a good overall theme for my blog.  

i think for this first post i will just give an overview of some of my all time favorite books and authors.  i'll work my way up to what i'm currently reading.  who knows how long it will take me to get "caught up" but this wknd is bitterly cold here in chi-town  (wind chills from -10 to -20!) so if  i'm smart i'll stay inside as much as possible and just blog away....or read!  :)  

so, in the genre of historical fiction, one of favorite author teams is bodie & brock theone.  they have written several series involving israel (ancient and more recent), WWII, ireland, and more.  watch out though - each series usually has at least 6 books and you can get hooked!  i like them b/c you learn a lot of history but it's not boring - and the subject of israel is a personal passion of mine (in case you don't know, i spent an amazing semester of college there).  

for some light reading, i love jan karon.  the mitford series, to be precise.  it's a bit "fluffy" but i love her writing - endearing, funny, and yet still deep at times.  you'll laugh, you'll cry.......but once again, if you get hooked, it's a long series.  :)  basically the series follows the life of a goofy pastor (for lack of a better description) and his church in the small town where he lives.  the characters are great - i read this series a few years ago and just writing about it makes me want to go back and read it again soon!  it made me laugh out loud more than a few times - i love it when that happens.  

let's see....a recent read i have to mention is the kite runner by khaled husseini.  i mention it b/c they just made a movie of it - i don't think it's really in the theatres much anymore, but in case you saw it, you should still read the book.  it follows the life of 2 boyhood friends in afghanistan when the taliban take over.   so, be warned, there is some violence and your heart will be ripped out more than once.  but it is so good - i could not put it down.  

i guess to close i'll just mention a few other favorite authors who i'm sure i will talk about more later.  lauren winner, brian mclaren, brennan manning, c.s. lewis, donald miller, and bruce feiler, to name a few.  i'm sure i'll remember others that i should have added and they'll make it on here eventually.  

well, i guess it's time for me to head out.  unfortunately, i do have to go out in the nasty cold but thankfully it's to go visit someone and run a quick errand.  oh, on a similar note:  please keep the homeless in your prayers this wknd./winter.  although there are lots of shelters, some people will never go to them.  we actually went out last night w/ a group from church to pass out blankets and coffee (one of our awesome college students coordinated it!) - it was humbling and has renewed our passion to help those who are marginalized by our society.  take care!