Top Ten Books I Have Ever Read (well in the past 5 years)

Did I mention that I am a bit obsessed with reading? If not, I am, it becomes a problem at times because I "live" in books. For example, when I was reading the Twilight series and was out running, I would frequently be on the look out for vampires. I think books, particularly fiction has this amazing gift of actually changing me. Sometimes for the good, sometimes for the bad. Stories are a gift. I am currently reading four fiction books at the same time, one by myself, one with my children, one with my husband, and one just here and there. I actually got my husband to read with me, which is SO exciting, although he doesnt love my book choice, he lets me read while he sketches (he is an artist...professorpaint.blogspot.com). It is a bit of quality time for us. So... Here are my Top 10 Books I have read (in the past 5 years) -- I am sure I read others in High School/College, but I think I should read them again

1. Mark of the Lion Series by Francine Rivers -- I think this series is THE MOST life changing series I have EVER read in my life! You should read these books!

2. The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory -- Only because it made me realize that history can be interesting.

3. Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy -- I just really loved this book

4. The Winter Garden by Kristin Hannah -- I think one of the only books that has ever made me cry!

5. My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult -- One of the first fiction books I read that made me realize the power of fiction to make me think and give a viewpoint without being in your face

6. The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak -- Wonderful, interesting, creative! I loved this book! I want to read it again, now that I am writing it on this list

7. A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini -- I think anyone who reads this book would put it on their top 10

8. The Gurnsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Schaffer -- again a book that I just really, really enjoyed reading

9. Still Alice by Lisa Genova -- a book that gave me perspective on something I did not know I wanted perspective on -- alzheimers

10. Twilight by Stephenie Meyer -- this is kind of silly to me, but these books made reading fun, not life changing, not really intellectually stimulating, but fun!

There it is, my top 10 books! That was harder than I thought!

This post is submitted to Top Ten Tuesday's at Oh Amanda

Baptism

This is not a theological post on baptism; this is just a story about my daughter's baptism. First,though, I did not actually complete any of my tasks I set out to complete last week — namely,the making of her dress, sweater, and bonnet. I did complete a hat and started a sweater, had allthe pieces ironed and cut out for the dress, but then realized my sewing machine somehow wasmissing one of the major parts AND I just did not have time to complete any of the projects.
Apparently, there was a dress in the family, my sister-in-law over-nighted it to us, and it wasbeautiful! Despite my plans and attempt at doing everything, nothing went as planned, and I wasnot able to do much of anything! I find it a bit amusing (and humbling) when things happen thatway, and I feel like a total failure. But I am somehow ok with it anyway because life has to goon, and that is just what happened. Life went on.
It was a beautiful fall day. My baby is my fourth to be baptized, but, to be honest, with the firstthree, it was more of a faith/following-my-husband thing. This one was an exciting type thing. And she did great.
Our priest read during the baptism: Baby four is baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and then he said, Baby four is sealed by the Holy Spirit in Baptism and marked as Christ's own forever. Amen. I wanted to scream, SHE IS MARKED AS HISOWN! FOREVER! It is sealed; it is done; take that, enemy! You are not allowed near this child!
It gave me goose bumps and joy, knowing that my child, this precious little girl, all my childrenare marked as His; they are claimed! What a joyful day!

If You Give a Mom a Coffee... (an updated version of an old post)

If you give a mom a coffee, she will probably ask for cream. And as she pours the cream, it might remind her of a funny story about a two year old, cream and a coffee of his own.
She will probably sit to share the story. And stories might be shared back and forth for quite some time.
She might realize she is really hungry because she forgot to eat dinner, and ask for a piece of cake. If she asks for a piece of cake, she will probably want a fork. If she asks for a fork, she might think about all the dishes waiting for her at home. If she thinks about home, she might think about her children running around instead of sleeping in bed. If she thinks about bed she might realize that she is absolutely exhausted. And as exhaustion threatens her need to be productive, she might ask for a refill on her coffee. And if she asks for a refill on coffee, you know what probably comes next! But, please always give a mom her coffee!

Things that Break my Heart (in a good way)

I had no idea that these wonderful people in my life could break my heart... in a good way because I love them more than I ever thought possible. I want to protect them from every hurt, every broken dream, every sadness. I hate having them sad, BUT I love that I get to be the one that is there when their hurts need kissing, their dreams need redreaming and they need to laugh. Recently my eight year old confided in me that she gets nervous in her gymnastics class because all the girls talk, but she doesn't know what to talk to them about and she feels weird. It broke my heart because who couldn't like this girl. She is AMAZING, I know, I know, I am her mom, BUT she is beautiful, she laughs easily, there is no one she doesn't like, she leads, but not too loudly, and her heart is huge. And I just want to protect her from all the hurt in the world. I want to go into that class and tell them, what a great girl she is. But instead we talked a little about what you can talk to people about and about maybe asking them questions. And I was so thankful that at eight she still felt like she could come to me and tell me that this is hard for her. Then a few days later her little brother, my darling two year old had her read him some good old fashioned Calvin and Hobbes cartoons. You could tell he resonated with Calvin, the mischief and adventure suit him well. He requested a cape and mask, and his daddy eagerly agreed to make one for him. He put the cape and mask on, and ran down the hallway, he then turned to run back as his WHOLE family cheered him on, and you could see this look in his eye, excitement and joy, and he leaped into the air, followed by a serious flop on his face, and then the tears. At first, I thought he injured himself, but then I realized physically he was fine, but his heart was broken. Through tears he explained that he honestly thought he would be in the air. He did not understand why he could not fly. His dream was crushed. He even proceeded to ask me to go to the store to buy some batteries to help him. My eyes burned as I saw my little man's dreams crushed. But so thankful that as a stay at home mom, I get to see these dreams, pick him up in his superhero costume, dust off the cape hug him, and tell him that he should keep dreaming. What a blessing it is to have little people in my life that break my heart because I love them that much, I feel everything they do, I am so thankful
This post is for the 30 minute blog challenge on Steady mom's blog

Crazy, Even for Me

So, my week started with this random thing. I had noticed in several places a women's name, she is part of a homeschool group I am in, her daughter was a student in one of my husband's classes, her name sometimes showed up in the emails from a running club I always intended to join but never did ( but still got emails from, just in case)...finally I got an email from a classical homeschool thing I was interested in, and her name was on the sending e-mail. So, I randomly sent her an email saying, we have all these connections. We became facebook friends and realized we have another random connection- she used to mentor teen moms with the same program I just started mentoring with. She is good friends with the leader of this branch, when I told the leader I had just met this woman, she said, "didn't I tell you when I first met you that you reminded me of someone? Well that is who you reminded me of." So we met this morning, this the crazy part--we met at 5 a.m. to run 6 miles in the pitch dark. I haven't run more than 4.5 since my baby was born 4 months ago. And I finished it, running the whole way (no walk breaks) I think it is really neat when something like this happens and you realize how small the world is, and I can't help but think there is a reason for it all, that in God's purpose, this woman and I were meant to meet, even if it is just to help me realize that I am not that crazy because there is someone out there a whole lot like me!

Supermom

A post from an earlier blog, I tried and tried again to write

When my first child was born she did not come out carrying a cape and tights for me to put on. She came out screaming and needy. I wish she had come out with the outfit, it may have seemed strange, but it would have clued this first time mom into the fact that the expectations of a mother are far from wimpy. They are the expectations of a superhero. Sometimes, I can hear in my head the announcer from one of those movies, “It’s a bird! It’s a plane! No, it is a mom running full speed across the kitchen to catch the egg her daughter has gotten from the refrigerator to “help” make cookies.” Amazingly, with the grace of God, we as mothers are given superhero powers to care for these little people He has placed in our hands. Motherhood is amazing, beautiful, fun, and difficult. It is all the adjectives used to describe something great and worth a lot of effort. It is all I imagined it to be and more. What I could not imagine was the strength necessary to be a good mother.

A mother is given by God the superpower of making milk. A mother can provide her child with all she needs, all the food, vitamins and nourishment for her new little one. She is given the gift of supersonic hearing. A Mom can hear her child’s cry before he actually cries. Maybe it is the way he rolls in bed, the roll that clues her into the fact that her sweet child is not completely asleep or starting to stir. Sometimes it is the strength to get up to put the pacifier back in his mouth for the eighteenth time. And so often it takes just a touch, a hand on the cheek, a pat on the back and he drifts back into dream land. And have you seen a mother’s smile? It is magic. The smile in a mother’s eyes and on her lips that instantly sends her baby into fits of belly laughing. I have heard it in the grocery store, the mall or a church pew. It is the laugh that sends me into fits of laughter upon just hearing it. It is a strong woman, wise enough to know that laughter almost always wins out over tears.

The memory goes a little more with each child, a “holey memory.” A mother filters out the bad and holds onto the good. She has the strength to open her hands and let go of the things she does not want to hold on to, and to grasp ever so tightly those memories she will always desire. The gift of elocution is a mom having the ability to talk about poop and spit-up with utter fascination for hours. A mother is able to work while sleeping. Mothers can change diapers, make dinner, and direct children on just hours of sleep. A never- ending supply of sweet kisses abide in a mother’s grasp. She can heal a booboo with those kisses in an instant. She has the voice of an angel. This one I am particularly fond of since I do not have one, but my children love it when I whisper songs in their ears. When all these superhuman powers do not work, she relies on the regular human ones. Arms that carry thousands of loads of laundry, scrub floors, wash dishes and carry pounds of groceries, the same arms gently lift this child and walk, on legs that chase children and climb stairs for one last kiss. The mother carries her precious colicky child for hours with patience far greater than any she ever imagined. The mother carries her child and loves with the strength of a mother.

And what would this superhero wear? Besides cute shoes? There probably would not be an outfit my daughter could have come out with to prepare me for it all. Maybe it could have a charming red purse to put my kisses in. Whatever the outfit, it would probably not be pretty at all times, but definitely made with grace.

A little progress

So, I started Saturday, and actually got a hat crocheted and all the fabric bought, cut out, ironed and set, but sewing machine is missing parts-well one part, but it is an important one I think... so a trip to the store is in order. In the mean time, here is the hat...

Hopefully more will get done tonight!