Wow... it has been a long while

...but I am reading. I updated to the right and now that school is in the home stretch I am going to be reading much more. I am currently reading the following... all in progress and nothing truly finished. I am SO bad about this but this is the finish list first and then I think I am moving on to a Jane Austen summer. :)

January Books...

Books I read or am reading...

* Messie No More by Sandra Felton
* Colossians Commentary - H.A. Ironside
* First Aid and Safety - this one will take the semester to finish

Not a fantastic start but better than nothing read. The semester just kicked into high gear very quickly. I am hoping to settle in and be a little more regular at reading outside of school.

2008 Reading list...

January
* So Many Books, So Little Time
* A Christmas Carol - Dickens
* Jacob Have I Loved
* Homeschooling with a Meek and Quiet Spirit
February
* Little House in the Big Woods
* Better Off: Flipping the Switch on Technology
* The Color Purple
* Plain and Simple by Sue Bender
* The Crossing by Gary Paulsen
March
* Green for Life by Victoria Boutenko
April
May
* Accounting textbook 13 chapters consider full text
June
* The Raw Food Gourmet by Gabrielle Chavez
* 12 Steps to Raw by Victoria Boutenko
July
August
September
October
November
* Menu Management
* Facilities and Layout text
December
* Of Mice and Men - Steinbeck
* Dave Barry's Book of Travel

Messie No More...

I have read Messies Anonymous or the Messies Manual some years back. I have a few more of Sandra Felton's books on my shelf but never really read them. I picked up her book called Messies No More and stuck it in my bag for our trip. Dan and I read to each other on car trips and after I finished reading Dave Barry's Travel Guide out loud I picked this one up and started reading it to him yesterday on the way home.

I have no idea why I did not read this book sooner but Sandra Felton has been watching my entire life via video or something. I can relate to this organizing book more than I have ever related to any other. She connects the dots on why messies are the way they are and the number one reason is that they grew up in an addictive family.... an alcoholic family.... and that it shapes a person to be either a messie or a compulsive personality. OH.MY.GOOD.GOOGLY.MOO..... She described me... the deepest inner me in great detail as if she was me. I could not believe the close connections and incredible classic messy behaviors that I was exhibiting.

I also almost skipped the chapter on the ADD adult because I had just never considered that about myself. She described me to a tee there, too. I am a classic ADD adult... stop laughing.... I don't care that you already knew that.... LOL I have gained some serious insight that I think will help me in this journey to a lovely home for this new year. There is work to do... inside and out.

I love that Sandra Felton approaches things from a Christian perspective. She also opened my eyes to why all of these other organizing programs and things never stick for me. It is a fantastic read. Dan saw himself and his dysfunctional childhood in this a lot, too. He wants to change, too. I am grateful for that. Now, we just have to figure out how to teach the children a better way. I am glad Sandra Felton has a book on living with Messies, too. I have that on my shelf and I think it is next - after I reread the Messies Anonymous book. If you struggle with this you may want to check it out, too. It is quite the insightful series. :)

New Year New Challenges...

I am not going to kill myself this year with endless lists of books I promise to read because I never finish them. It will be simple this year with two basic goals.

1. I plan to read only books that I either have in my house, receive from paperbackswap or get from my local library if I just cannot stand it. LOL The challenge is called Read-Your-Own-Books Challenge for 2009.

* set a goal for how many of your OWN books you’d like to read in 2009

* read from your own collection between January 1st and December 31st, 2009

2. The second challenge is going back to the book I read at the beginning of 2008 called So Many Books So Little Time.

The goal is to read 52 books in a year... one book a week. I am combining the two challenges to read 52 books from my shelves in 2009. That is it! That is what I am doing this year and I will review each book I read along the way right here.

Stay tuned!!! :)

Dave Barry's Travel Guide

Hilariously funny sophomoric humor that we just read as we made our trip for Christmas to my folks. It was a car read aloud this time and we laughed all the way across Texas. It made the trip go much more quickly. He covers all the states and many foreign travel destinations with tongue in cheek. Hours of laughter are promised with this one. If you love Dave Barry he does not disappoint in this one. This was my second time to read it and I was delighted to share it with the family teenager. He loved it, too. :)

Did not finish... how about you?

I fell down. School got the better of me and I lost my whole momentum to get this done but I think these will be on my list for next year seeing as how I own them all. Maybe I will do better in 2009. Let me know you did if you took this challenge. :-)

This was my list...

The Four Loves - CS Lewis
Freedom of Simplicity - Foster
Mere Christianity - CS Lewis
Total Truth - Nancy Pearcy (a newer pick)
Knowing God - JI Packer
Spirit of the Disciplines - Dallas Willard

I read about half of Knowing God and am still working on it. The others are still in the stack.

Of Mice and Men...

This was a quick read but a very good bit of literature. I cannot imagine this story ending any better... sad but totally appropriate for the situation. This one will live in my mind for a long time to come. I catch myself mulling things over in my mind. I am glad I read it and wonder why I did not read it sooner. If you have not you should take the time to ponder this one.

Lost my way...

We are heading very quickly into December and I look back on the one real goal I had in all of this blog and that was to read a book a week... one book for 52 weeks and that would have been 52 books for the year...

It did not happen and it will not happen but I will not beat myself up over this one.  I will start over again for the next year and make that goal again and work toward being better than I have been this year.

For the month of December I have the goal of reading at least 4 seasonal books.  They can be with the kids or for myself or whatever I want... after all... it is my blog and my brain and I can choose what I want to put in, right?  ;)  So, I will post some books I am reading for December and close out the year with some fun BOOKISH stuff that makes me happy.  :)

Oh, and look for another spiritual challenge coming in 2009, too... I hope to do better there, too.