"I" TIme

The last 24 hours have been a whirlwind. My problem is always that it is a fun whirlwind for me. I love all the things I am doing and all the wonderful people involved in my life. I think that I am needing some time to myself, and I am not getting very much of it. I'm not sure how to rectify that at this point. Having our house painted and cleaned on the same day in addition to having one of the painters eat dinner and breakfast with us everyday is a bit much for me, but I shall endure. Pieter said we should just pack our bags for two weeks and leave and let the painters paint the house whatever they want. He said (in his thick Ukrainian accent), "You go away, and you come back to a purple house. No worries." LOL! I like the fact that he makes me laugh. I think he enjoys us too, and Valentina and Pieter make my back say "thank you" as they clean floors and do things that are difficult for me to do.

I have loved the spontaneous processing that has gone on over the last two weeks with Michelle too. Has it really only been two weeks that she has been here? Maybe it was three weeks ago she came bounding in our life. Yes, it was three weeks ago! That was right after we had gone up to Portland to pick up the P-Stan team too. Wow! Life has hit us in a whirlwind, but life in the whirlwind is exciting and fun and lovely and loving. We get much more  than we give out. That is for sure.

I LOVE MY LIFE!  It is a full life, but it is FULLfilling to the brim!

The Well-Educated Mind Update: 144/158

I have 14 more to go!!!!

AUTOBIOGRAPHY (all in the Modern Period)

1948 Seven Story Mountain Merton (Sept. 27, 2010)
1965 The Autobiography of + Malcolm X (Oct)

1973 Gulag Archipelago Solzhenitsyn (Nov)

HISTORY

EARLY MODERN (1600 – 1850)

1776 Decline & Fall Roman Empire Gibbon (Dec)

1835 Democracy in America Tocqueville (Jan)

MODERN (1850 – present)

1860 Civilization of Renaissance Burckhardt (Feb)

1904 Protestant Work Ethic/Spirit of Capitalism Weber (Mar)

1937 The Road to Wigan Pier Orwell (Apr)
1938 The New England Mind Miller (April/May)

1955 The Great Crash Galbraith (May)

1974 Roll, Jordan, Roll Genovese (June)

1978 Distant Mirror Tuchman (Aug)
1987 All the President's Men Woodward & Bernstein (July)

1990 A Midwife's Tale Ballard (July)
1992 The End of History & the Last Man Fukuyama (Sept)

BOOK BABES 10th Anniversary Book List

 October 23 – The Same Kind of Different as Me By Hall and Moore – Carol Mondich (This is NOT third Saturday because we are at the Sylvia Beach Hotel)

Switching back and forth in short segments, two narrators portray authors Hall and Moore in memoirs that begin in distant walks of life and intersect in a homeless shelter. In the charming accent of an unschooled black man with a deep, scratchy voice, narrator Barry Scott recounts Denver Moore's life of hardship and misfortune, starting on a Louisiana plantation. In contrast, the subtle Southern accent of Dan Butler speaks for co-author Ron Hall, an educated white gentleman of comfortable means. The narrators play their parts of the drama so well that listeners will believe they are hearing the men who lived the story. In the end, the two individuals form an unlikely friendship resulting from charity and challenged by tragedy. J.A.H. © AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

Tons of used copies on Amazon and two at Corvallis Library

November 20 – Through the Veil by Lisa Ohlen Harris (228 pages) – Carol hosts and author leads the discussion

With an ethnographer's trained eye and a poet's lyric tongue, Lisa Ohlen Harris travels to the Middle East where she finds, in a mosque, "tile after tile, the design of every square repeating the one next to it in a silent echo, lonely and lovely." Loneliness and loveliness pervade Harris's story as we journey with her to seek out answers in a land embraced by questions. --Brenda Miller, author of Season of the Body and Blessing of the Animals

Captivating. "Through" is the operative word in Through the Veil as Lisa Ohlen Harris with curiosity and compassion chronicles her unique contact with women of the Middle East. Beautifully orchestrated with honesty, insight, and humor, this book penetrates another culture and, at the same time, helps us understand what it is to be American, in the best sense of that word. --Judith Kitchen, author of Distance & Direction

A few used on Amazon and one copy at the Corvallis Library

December 18 – Man’s Search for Meaning by Victor Frankl (100 pages) – Laura Gannon

Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl is among the most influential works of psychiatric literature since Freud. The book begins with a lengthy, austere, and deeply moving personal essay about Frankl's imprisonment in Auschwitz and other concentration camps for five years, and his struggle during this time to find reasons to live. The second part of the book, called "Logotherapy in a Nutshell," describes the psychotherapeutic method that Frankl pioneered as a result of his experiences in the concentration camps. Freud believed that sexual instincts and urges were the driving force of humanity's life; Frankl, by contrast, believes that man's deepest desire is to search for meaning and purpose. Frankl's logotherapy, therefore, is much more compatible with Western religions than Freudian psychotherapy. This is a fascinating, sophisticated, and very human book. At times, Frankl's personal and professional discourses merge into a style of tremendous power. "Our generation is realistic, for we have come to know man as he really is," Frankl writes. "After all, man is that being who invented the gas chambers of Auschwitz; however, he is also that being who entered those gas chambers upright, with the Lord's Prayer or the Shema Yisrael on his lips." --This text refers to the Mass Market Paperback edition.

Tons of used copies at Amazon. Four copies and one downloadable audiobook at library.

January 15 – The Book Thief by Markus Zusak (550 pages) – Ginny

Starred Review. Grade 9 Up–Zusak has created a work that deserves the attention of sophisticated teen and adult readers. Death himself narrates the World War II-era story of Liesel Meminger from the time she is taken, at age nine, to live in Molching, Germany, with a foster family in a working-class neighborhood of tough kids, acid-tongued mothers, and loving fathers who earn their living by the work of their hands. The child arrives having just stolen her first book–although she has not yet learned how to read–and her foster father uses it,The Gravediggers Handbook, to lull her to sleep when shes roused by regular nightmares about her younger brothers death. Across the ensuing years of the late 1930s and into the 1940s, Liesel collects more stolen books as well as a peculiar set of friends: the boy Rudy, the Jewish refugee Max, the mayors reclusive wife (who has a whole library from which she allows Liesel to steal), and especially her foster parents. Zusak not only creates a mesmerizing and original story but also writes with poetic syntax, causing readers to deliberate over phrases and lines, even as the action impels them forward. Death is not a sentimental storyteller, but he does attend to an array of satisfying details, giving Liesels story all the nuances of chance, folly, and fulfilled expectation that it deserves. An extraordinary narrative.–Francisca Goldsmith, Berkeley Public Library, CA 
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Tons of used at Amazon. Five print and two audio at Corvallis Library.

February 19 - The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl by Timothy Egan (340 pages) – Lisa Herder (because Michelle thinks that is her birthday, but it really is not)

Starred Review. Egan tells an extraordinary tale in this visceral account of how America's great, grassy plains turned to dust, and how the ferocious plains winds stirred up an endless series of "black blizzards" that were like a biblical plague: "Dust clouds boiled up, ten thousand feet or more in the sky, and rolled like moving mountains" in what became known as the Dust Bowl. But the plague was man-made, as Egan shows: the plains weren't suited to farming, and plowing up the grass to plant wheat, along with a confluence of economic disaster—the Depression—and natural disaster—eight years of drought—resulted in an ecological and human catastrophe that Egan details with stunning specificity. He grounds his tale in portraits of the people who settled the plains: hardy Americans and immigrants desperate for a piece of land to call their own and lured by the lies of promoters who said the ground was arable. Egan's interviews with survivors produce tales of courage and suffering: Hazel Lucas, for instance, dared to give birth in the midst of the blight only to see her baby die of "dust pneumonia" when her lungs clogged with the airborne dirt. With characters who seem to have sprung from a novel by Sinclair Lewis or Steinbeck, and Egan's powerful writing, this account will long remain in readers' minds. (Dec. 14) 

Tons of used on Amazon and three hardcover, one CD, and one pre-loaded audiobook at Corvallis Library.

March 19 – Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford (320 pages) – Margaret

Adutl/High School—Henry Lee is a 12-year-old Chinese boy who falls in love with Keiko Okabe, a 12-year-old Japanese girl, while they are scholarship students at a prestigious private school in World War II Seattle. Henry hides the relationship from his parents, who would disown him if they knew he had a Japanese friend. His father insists that Henry wear an "I am Chinese" button everywhere he goes because Japanese residents of Seattle have begun to be shipped off by the thousands to relocation centers. This is an old-fashioned historical novel that alternates between the early 1940s and 1984, after Henry's wife Ethel has died of cancer. A particularly appealing aspect of the story is young Henry's fascination with jazz and his friendship with Sheldon, an older black saxophonist just making a name for himself in the many jazz venues near Henry's home. Other aspects of the story are more typical of the genre: the bullies that plague Henry, his lack of connection with his father, and later with his own son. Readers will care about Henry as he is forced to make decisions and accept circumstances that separate him from both his family and the love of his life. While the novel is less perfect as literature than John Hamamura's Color of the Sea (Thomas Dunne, 2006), the setting and quietly moving, romantic story are commendable.—Angela Carstensen, Convent of the Sacred Heart, New York City

Tons of used on Amazon. Corvallis Library has 10 print copies and eBook and audio book.

April 16 – Picking Cotton: Our Memoir of Injustice and Redemption by Jennifer Thompson-Cannino and Ronald Cotton, with Erin Torneo (298 pages) – Michelle

A New York Times Bestseller

Jennifer Thompson was raped at knifepoint by a man who broke into her apartment while she slept. She was able to escape, and eventually positively identified Ronald Cotton as her attacker. Ronald insisted that she was mistaken-- but Jennifer's positive identification was the compelling evidence that put him behind bars. After eleven years, Ronald was allowed to take a DNA test that proved his innocence. He was released, after serving more than a decade in prison for a crime he never committed. Two years later, Jennifer and Ronald met face to face-- and forged an unlikely friendship that changed both of their lives.

In their own words, Jennifer and Ronald unfold the harrowing details of their tragedy, and challenge our ideas of memory and judgment while demonstrating the profound nature of human grace and the healing power of forgiveness.

Many used copies on Amazon and two print and one audio at library.

May 21 – Skeletons on the Zahara: A True Story of Survival by Dean King (384 pages) – Cathi

Some stories are so enthralling they deserve to be retold generation after generation. The wreck in 1815 of the Connecticut merchant ship, Commerce, and the subsequent ordeal of its crew in the Sahara Desert, is one such story. With Skeletons on the Zahara: A True Story of Survival, Dean King refreshes the popular nineteenth-century narrative once read and admired by Henry David Thoreau, James Fenimore Cooper, and Abraham Lincoln. King’s version, which actually draws from two separate first person accounts of the Commerce's crew, offers a page-turning blend of science, history, and classic adventure. The book begins with a seeming false start: tracing the lives of two merchants from North Africa, Seid and Sidi Hamet, who lose their fortunes—and almost their lives—when their massive camel caravan arrives at a desiccated oasis. King then jumps to the voyage of the Commerce under Captain Riley and his 11-man crew. After stops in New Orleans and Gibraltar, the ship falls off course en route to the Canary Islands and ultimately wrecks at the infamous Cape Bojador. After the men survive the first predations of the nomads on the shore, they meander along the coast looking for a way inland as their supplies dwindle. They subsist for days by drinking their own urine. Eventually, to their horror, they discover that they have come aground on the edge of the Sahara Desert. They submit themselves, with hopes of getting food and water, as slaves to the Oulad Bou Sbaa. After days of abuse, they are bought by Hamet, who, after his own experiences with his failed caravan (described at the novels opening), sympathizes with the plight of the crew. Together, they set off on a hellish journey across the desert to collect a bounty for Hamet in Swearah. King embellishes this compelling narrative throughout with scientific and historical material explaining the origins of the camel, the market for English and American slaves, and the stages of dehydration. He also humanizes the Sahrawi with background on the tribes and on the lives of Hamet and Seid. This material, doled out in sufficient amounts to enrich the story without derailing it makes Skeletons on the Zahara a perfectly entertaining bit of history that feels like a guilty pleasure. --Patrick O'Kelley --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Tons of used on Amazon. Library only has ONE large print.

June 18 – Devil in the White City by Erik Larson (447 pages) – Michelle

Author Erik Larson imbues the incredible events surrounding the 1893 Chicago World's Fair with such drama that readers may find themselves checking the book's categorization to be sure that The Devil in the White City is not, in fact, a highly imaginative novel. Larson tells the stories of two men: Daniel H. Burnham, the architect responsible for the fair's construction, and H.H. Holmes, a serial killer masquerading as a charming doctor. Burnham's challenge was immense. In a short period of time, he was forced to overcome the death of his partner and numerous other obstacles to construct the famous "White City" around which the fair was built. His efforts to complete the project, and the fair's incredible success, are skillfully related along with entertaining appearances by such notables as Buffalo Bill Cody, Susan B. Anthony, and Thomas Edison. The activities of the sinister Dr. Holmes, who is believed to be responsible for scores of murders around the time of the fair, are equally remarkable. He devised and erected the World's Fair Hotel, complete with crematorium and gas chamber, near the fairgrounds and used the event as well as his own charismatic personality to lure victims. Combining the stories of an architect and a killer in one book, mostly in alternating chapters, seems like an odd choice but it works. The magical appeal and horrifying dark side of 19th-century Chicago are both revealed through Larson's skillful writing. --John Moe

Over 1,000 used copies on Amazon and six print and two audio at library.

July 16 – The Veil by Diane Noble (400 pages) – Shelly

Hannah McClary is being raised by her aunt, who is a member of the religious group known as the Saints. Hannah questions many of their beliefs, but obeys for the sake of her aunt. Beneath the benevolence of the Saints lies a terrible secret. A secret that is slowly destroying the man Hannah loves, Lucas Knight. Alexander and Ellie Farrington have placed all their hopes for the future on a wagon to California. The trip is slow and arduous, with unexpected delays that threaten to leave them on the wrong side of the mountains when winter arrives. The wagon train must travel an alternate route, which takes them down the Utah trail through the territory of the Saints. Hannah and Lucas fight for their lives and love even as the wagons of the pioneer families rattle over the trail to a tragic confrontation with the Saints! Diane Noble brings history vividly to life in this intricate and compelling novel. She has revealed the truth of an early Mormon practice and made it personal in a way no dry history book could. Her well-drawn characters capture the heart and make you wish history could be changed.A triumph! The Veil's searing narrative pierces the heart! It will haunt you long after the last word is read! Don't wait to get this book! Linda Fitzner -- Copyright © 080198 Literary Times, Inc.

Fifteen used at Amazon and ONE downloadable audiobook at library

August 20 – The Help: A Novel by Kathryn Stockett (451 pages) – A.J.

Starred Review. What perfect timing for this optimistic, uplifting debut novel (and maiden publication of Amy Einhorn's new imprint) set during the nascent civil rights movement in Jackson, Miss., where black women were trusted to raise white children but not to polish the household silver. Eugenia Skeeter Phelan is just home from college in 1962, and, anxious to become a writer, is advised to hone her chops by writing about what disturbs you. The budding social activist begins to collect the stories of the black women on whom the country club sets relies and mistrusts enlisting the help of Aibileen, a maid who's raised 17 children, and Aibileen's best friend Minny, who's found herself unemployed more than a few times after mouthing off to her white employers. The book Skeeter puts together based on their stories is scathing and shocking, bringing pride and hope to the black community, while giving Skeeter the courage to break down her personal boundaries and pursue her dreams. Assured and layered, full of heart and history, this one has bestseller written all over it. (Feb.) 

Many used at Amazon. TONs in New Book at library with downloadable audio, large print, and CD.

Up at 1:45 AM!

I have been sleeping so well for a month now. I have not been up at night because I have gotten up so early and then fasted all day, eaten a good dinner, and gone to bed really tired. I had to fast two days before this procedure and totally empty my stomach, and when I broke this fast, I found my stomach churning and churning, and I couldn't go to sleep. I also slept for 2 1/2 hours after the procedure, and I should have just limited to my usual 20 minute cat naps.

Live and learn! I am in 1 John 2 though and enjoying it and the churning of my tummy. LOL!

Drinking PEG 3350

And it isn't so bad! I was able to put two packets of Crystal Light lemonade in it. That has really helped. It is important to do this procedure, and I didn't get around to in my 50th year. So, I am one year and six weeks behind the curve!

In other news, I am back in the swing of life after such a nice vacation. I am very grateful for the time away, and I am now ready to go for it. My schedule will be much less hectic as I am not facilitating Thelma's class this year. It was just too much work for me for just one child, and Paul didn't really care if he did it or not. Michael finished his course of Classical, American, and British Literature. I would like Paul to take Classical Literature though. I would still like to get the lectures and edit them ahead of time for Paul for next year.

As an alternative, Paul will be doing Anatomy and Physiology with Nathan. That will be really slow and easy and not a big strain on me.

We are also not doing the two nights a week of meeting for the TOAG. So, that will also free up our schedule too. I really missed our nights together as a family around the dinner table, and the TOAG took away two of those nights. With the two church meetings that George has per month. It made for many less family dinners and almost no date nights. I am looking forward to reinstalling both into our schedule. :)  I will still have the study with the Iranians, but I think that is going to be at 6:30. So, I will still have dinner with my family.

Well, back to drinking and also to studying before I am not able to be sitting here and typing anymore. :)

The Well-Educated Mind Update: 91% (143/158)

I finally finished Mein Kampf. I am taking a big bow and won't even justify him by reviewing it. He was evil and arrogant!


I am down to a single digit percent-wise. 9% of the books left. I am finishing the autobiographies and will go back to the remaining history books. Here is my tentative schedule over the next year:


AUTOBIOGRAPHY (all in the Modern Period)

1948 Seven Story Mountain Merton (Sept)
1965 The Autobiography of + Malcolm X (Oct)
1973 Gulag Archipelago Solzhenitsyn (Nov)

HISTORY

EARLY MODERN (1600 – 1850)

1776 Decline & Fall Roman Empire Gibbon (Dec)

1835 Democracy in America Tocqueville (Jan)

MODERN (1850 – present)

1860 Civilization of Renaissance Burckhardt (Feb)

1904 Protestant Work Ethic/Spirit of Capitalism Weber (Mar)

1937 The Road to Wigan Pier Orwell (Apr)
1938 The New England Mind Miller (April/May)

1955 The Great Crash Galbraith (May)

1974 Roll, Jordan, Roll Genovese (June)

1978 Distant Mirror Tuchman (Aug)
1987 All the President's Men Woodward & Bernstein (July)

1990 A Midwife's Tale Ballard (July)
1992 The End of History & the Last Man Fukuyama (Sept)

Lord willing, I will be done with this Odyssey eight years after I started. 

So.I Don't forget

Avoid puddle people
Choose love
Family first
Don't be a yummy pretzel
R.E.L.A.X.

On the Great and the Grotesque and the Weird Way They Intersect

I started Mein Kamf ("My Struggle" in German) in June, but War and Peace, The Picture of Dorian Gray, The History of England, The Longest Day, and Gandhi got in the way. Anything was better than Hitler, especially Gandhi.

I could only stomach Hitler for so long before I was utterly disgusted! I have a hard cover of his THICK book. I carted it along with me places, but other books were always more appealing. I broke down and downloaded it onto my Kindle for $4.99 after I finished Gandhi. Now, it is easier to cart around, and I can listen to it with TEXT TO SPEECH when I am in the middle of things. I stop the voice every once in a while to underline his grotesque tirades about the Jews and about the need for land for the German race. Such foreshadowing of the horrors that would occur fifteen years later. According to Wikipedia, "In The Second World War, Winston Churchill felt that after Hitler's ascension to power, no other book deserved more intensive scrutiny." Too bad people didn't scrutinize.

Hitler was a persuasive speaker. While his writing was not as good, he still wooed a Germany devastated economically due the the reparation put upon it after World War I. 


It is hard to have Hitler bookend Gandhi's greatness, Gandhi's autobiography was the next on my list. It was a good choice. Oh my goodness, my respect for  Gandhi is enormous. His autobiography was amazing. It wasn't flashy or even persuasive, but it showed a man of deep character and conviction who gave up so much for the betterment of India. He fasted and lived a simple life (to the extreme). He cared for the individual as well as the people who were oppressed by England.  Germany was oppressed by England too. Well, England and her allies, who oppressed Germany because of the excessive reparations put on them after World War I (See this ARTICLE). Gandhi's solution to oppression was non-violent resistance (Satyagraha and Ahimsa). Gandhi did not seek glory or fame. Hitler's solution was all about violence and hatred and seeking glory for himself. 


The contrast of two men who overlapped in time is amazing. Gandhi was born in 1869. Hitler was born in 1889. They wrote their disparate autobiographies within four years of one another. Their ends on this earth were very different. Hitler committed suicide in 1945 at age 56 as allied troop closed in on Berlin. Gandhi was assassinated by an angry Indian protester exactly three years and nine months later at the age of 78.  The former lived a grotesque life. The latter lived a great one. 


So here is the weird way they intersect. Apparently, Gandhi corresponded with Hitler. Here is an article about how Mein Kampf is received in India today:

Indian business students snap up copies of Mein Kampf

Sales of Mein Kampf, Adolf Hitler's autobiography and apologia for his anti-semitism, are soaring in India where business students regard the dictator as a management guru.

Booksellers told The Daily Telegraph that while it is regarded in most countries as a 'Nazi Bible', in India it is considered a management guide in the mould of Spencer Johnson's "Who Moved My Cheese".

Sales of the book over the last six months topped 10,000 in New Delhi alone, according to leading stores, who said it appeared to be becoming more popular with every year.

Several said the surge in sales was due to demand from students who see it as a self-improvement and management strategy guide for aspiring business leaders, and who were happy to cite it as an inspiration.

"Students are increasingly coming in asking for it and we're happy to sell it to them," said Sohin Lakhani, owner of Mumbai-based Embassy books who reprints Mein Kampf every quarter and shrugs off any moral issues in publishing the book.

"They see it as a kind of success story where one man can have a vision, work out a plan on how to implement it and then successfully complete it".

Jaico Publishing House, one of the publishers in India, said it reprints a new edition of the book at least twice a year to meet growing demand.

"We were the first company to publish the book in India and there are now six other Indian publishers of the book, although we were first to take a chance on it," said Jaico's chief editor, R H Sharma, who dismissed any moral issues in publishing Mein Kampf.

"The initial print run of 2,000 copies in 2003 sold out immediately and we knew we had a best-seller on our hands. Since then the numbers have increased every year to around 15,000 copies until last year when we sold 10,000 copies over a six-month period in our Delhi shops," he added.

Senior academics cite the mutual influence of India and Hitler's Nazis on one another. Mahatma Gandhi corresponded with the Fuhrer, pro-Independence leader Subhas Chandra Bose's Indian National Army allied with Hitler's Germany and Japan during the Second World War, and the Nazis drew on Hindu symbolism for their Swastika motif and ideas of Aryan supremacy.

Dr J Kuruvachira, Professor of Philosophy of Salesian College in Nagaland and who has cited Mein Kampf as a source of inspiration to the Hindu nationalist BJP, said he believed the book's popularity was due to political reasons.

"While it could be the case that management students are buying the book, my feeling is that it has more likely influenced some of the fascist organisations operating in India and nearby," he said.

India is not the only country where Mein Kampf is popular. It has been a best-seller in Croatia since it was first published in while in turkey it sold 100,000 in just two months in 2005. In Russia it has been reprinted three times since the de facto ban on the book was overturned in 1992.

In Germany the book's copyright is held by the state of Bavaria where its publication is banned until 2015, 70 years after Hitler's death.

In India, any book more than 25 years old is free of copyright, which has paved the way for six separate publishers to print the book. (Article from HERE)

Amazing!

The Well-Educated Mind: 142 out of 158. I'm at 90% with 16 to Go!!!!

MEDIEVAL (400 – 1599)

1580 Essays of Montaigne (6/8/10)

EARLY MODERN (1600 – 1850)

1754 History of England, V.5 Hume (8/14/10)

1776 Decline & Fall Roman Empire Gibbon

1792 Vindication Rights Women Wollstonecraft (6/17/10)
1835 Democracy in America Tocqueville

1848 The Communist Manifesto Marx & Engel (6/17/10)

MODERN (1850 – present)

1860 Civilization of Renaissance Burckhardt

1904 Protestant Work Ethic/Spirit of Capitalism Weber
1908 Ecce Homo Nietzsche Autobio (6/14/10)

1925 Mein Kampf Hitler Autobiography (09/3/10)

1929 The Story of My Experiments w/Truth Gandhi (8/27/10)

1937 The Road to Wigan Pier Orwell
1938 The New England Mind Miller

1948 Seven Story Mountain Merton

1955 The Great Crash Galbraith 
1955 Surprised by Joy C.S. Lewis (6/28/10)

1959 The Longest Day Ryan (8/10)

1965 The Autobiography of + Malcolm X

1973 Journal of a Solitude Sarton (6/5/10)
1973 Gulag Archipelago Solzhenitsyn 
1974 Roll, Jordan, Roll Genovese

1978 Distant Mirror Tuchman
1987 All the President's Men Woodward & Bernstein

1990 A Midwife's Tale Ballard
1992 The End of History & the Last Man Fukuyama

Body Wellness: Body Mass Index

I finally looked up this formula. Maybe I knew it long ago and don't remember. Anyway, it is:

WEIGHT IN LBS
DIVIDED BY
HEIGHT IN INCHES SQUARED
TIMES
703

A "healthy range" is 18.5 to 24.9 BMI, but if I were 18.5, I would be 146. I would be anorexic! I don't have a small frame though (ALTHOUGH, the rough estimate of putting your fingers around your wrist puts me in the small frame range, but that is ridiculous!)

Good new is that I am in that healthy range! YEAH!

Thursday

Tying up some loose ends before I go on my vacation adventure. I'm excited. :) Where will I go, and what will I do?  Who knows.

Chillin'

I need to leave in a few minutes, but I thought I would write. Nothing much to say. Today turned out to be a much mellower day than I expected. I was going to walk with Michelle at 6, meet with Noha at 8, and Michele at noon. All three had to cancel. So, I had from the time I got up until a few minutes from now that I wasn't expecting. It will be good to ease into my vacation with less activity. That was my last time with Michelle, and I don't think I can meet with her tomorrow because I want to be able to say good-bye and thank you to Melinda for all her hard work on Ultimate this summer. Also, kids might be coming over afterward. Maybe I can meet with her after I come back from vacation.

God opened the door for me to stay at a beautiful beach house next week. I am so happy. I need some time alone and time to read and pray and sleep. I am tired, and I think a couple of days at the coast will be just what I need. :)

Well, I better take Paul to the Ortho and piano. I will shop for the fam while he is at piano. :)

"Your Life is a Vacation"

I was at a reunion with college friends yesterday. I was telling the women that we are determined to take a vacation this coming year, and one of the ladies (who I am not as close to) said, "Your life is a vacation."  I wasn't sure what she meant, but I debriefed with my friend Jean in the car afterward, and Jean thought it was a friendly way of saying that I was a "housewife" and didn't work. Being a fellow "housewife," Jean went on to explain that when people say that, she said she refused to feel guilty about it because she has raised three very healthy children who love the Lord and are doing well in life. She has managed her home well.

I didn't feel guilty about what this woman said (she was the least close of all the people in attendance), but I did wonder why she didn't inquire about whether I worked or not. I do work! And not just at "housewife" duties either! I probably spend a good 40 hour working every week!  I just don't draw a salary for it, but I could do that if I chose to do so.  Our agency has an account all set up for us to do just that, but we chose not to since George works full-time. We are 100 percent volunteers but 100 percent employed in work for our agency!

Just sayin'

Oh Dear . . . It has been quite long

This blog has become a very low priority as of late. I had a too busy couple of weeks that made me see the need to cut back and decide to make a vacation a bigger priority than it had been. I plan on getting out of town at the end of next week. I am still praying about where that might be.

All that to say that I am having a delightful weekend ALL BY MYSELF! I forgot how much I enjoy being here all alone, and it seems like it hasn't happened for more than a few hours in quite a very long time!  Last year, when the boys went on their camping trip, I had unexpected, out of town, strangers (who soon became friends) in Travis and Hilary Shepard coming to stay here while they attended the TOAG training at Joe's. I was looking forward to that weekend, and I think I did have maybe a half a day to myself when they took off. I can't remember now. I may have even had one of the two night to myself but not one whole day here alone. Today is that day, and it has been heavenly!

I got up before dawn for prayer and time in 1 Peter, drank some chai tea, and started the fast at sunrise. Yes, I am fasting. I am not a Muslim, although I am submitted to God. So, in that sense, I am. :) I wanted to do it to feel what they feel during this month and make it more comfortable for them to have me over without feeling the need to serve me anything!  I have more to say about, but it has been excellent. It has helped me to focus and also to reign in my eating. I do miss the water during the day though. It is a LONG time to go 14 hours without any water, but the days have not been too terribly hot, and I do most of my exercise (today being the exception) so that I can take drink (5:45 am Group Power allows me to drink for 1/2 of the class).

After sunrise, I spent more time in 1 Peter. I forgot how much I LOVE this book! It has brought back warm memories of doing it in Malaysia (more than once, in fact). I also did it in the summer of 2000 after Colossians with Stacy, Teala, and what was her name? Can't remember. That was a good time to do it, since Stacy began to bring more an more drama and trials to my life, and I was able to endure them. Her life went down the tubes a few years later (divorce and abandonment of her children), and I don't regret standing up to her abuse and speaking truth, even though she did not want to hear it. What a very sad woman.

Then, I took a walk/run up Glen Eden going the opposite way that I usually go so that I would end up at Lisa's house (which is en route) at exactly 8 am for speaking about The Art of Racing in the Rain. It only got a 6.8.  The three of us were not wild about it, but the women not there had given it higher scores.

After that I ran down the hill home.  Then, I did something I haven't done in quite a long time, perhaps two years. I did The Firm Time Crunch Workout! I loved it, and it was hard. It is a MUCH better workout than Group Power at the club! It burns many more calories (I think 30%).  It was challenging weight-wise too. Maybe I should just quit the club and do that and running/walking/biking/hiking like I did for so many years. I have to think about it.

Then, I took a shower and puttered a bit in the office cleaning up. I have also read Gandhi. I like him and want to rewatch the video. Terry Henry stopped by to pick up the Algebra I book, and now I am in bed and watching Persuasian. I got it for 4.99!!! It completes my Austen DVD collection. I did not have a copy of this movie. :)

Well, I have already laid out my dishes and even candelabra for breaking the fast tonight.

I love the quiet. I love my men, but it is nice to have quiet too. :)

The Well-Educated Mind - 89% Complete (141/158)

MEDIEVAL (400 – 1599)

1580 Essays of Montaigne (6/8/10)

EARLY MODERN (1600 – 1850)

1754 History of England, V.5 Hume (8/14/10)

1776 Decline & Fall Roman Empire Gibbon

1792 Vindication Rights Women Wollstonecraft (6/17/10)
1835 Democracy in America Tocqueville

1848 The Communist Manifesto Marx & Engel (6/17/10)

MODERN (1850 – present)

1860 Civilization of Renaissance Burckhardt

1904 Protestant Ethic/Spirit of Capitalism Weber
1908 Ecce Homo Nietzsche Autobio (6/14/10)

1925 Mein Kampf Hitler Autobio

1929 The Story of My Experiments w/Truth Gandhi

1937 The Road to Wigan Pier Orwell
1938 The New England Mind Miller

1948 Seven Story Mountain Merton

1955 The Great Crash Galbraith 
1955 Surprised by Joy C.S. Lewis (6/28/10)

1959 The Longest Day Ryan (8/10)

1965 The Autobiography of + Malcolm X

1973 Journal of a Solitude Sarton (6/5/10)
1973 Gulag Archipelago Solzhenitsyn 
1974 Roll, Jordan, Roll Genovese

1978 Distant Mirror Tuchman
1987 All the President's Men Woodward & Bernstein

1990 A Midwife's Tale Ballard
1992 The End of History & the Last Man Fukuyama

I Really Don't Like War Books

But it seems that I have read two in the last month. I didn't mean to, but I read War and Peace. Then I read this little GEM:

He gives almost a minute by minute account of what happened on D-Day from both sides. He did many personal interviews and read many documents. This is a thorough rendering of the day, and it isn't boring!

It was written 51 years ago (the year of my birth, 1959), and it is a classic. I heartily recommend it.

It makes you appreciate World War II Vets that much more!

Now, on to reading Hitler, who caused it all to happen in the first place.

I love this book!

I haven't reread this book in a long time. I got a free audio download of it through Learn Out Loud:

Love, love, love it! Been listening to it in the afternoon and evening. So good! So filled up. :)

From Dale Carnegie Tips of the Month

5 Tips for Shaking Off a Mistake

Legendary Basketball Coach John Wooden once said, "Failure is not fatal, but failure to change might be." The obvious point he was trying to convey is that everyone makes mistakes and fails. It is what you do after the mistake or failure that makes all the difference. Here are 5 ways to shake off your mistakes and move forward to success.

• Brush it off
  No one is perfect. Once in awhile everyone makes mistakes, it's going to happen. Don't spend time worrying about it, cooperate with the inevitable and focus on what you are doing.
• Don't fuss about trifles
  Forget the small stuff. If you let go of the smaller mistakes, you'll be more focused and catch the larger ones before they happen.
• Don't worry about the past
  Shake off your mistakes and move on. Forget about what happened, no matter how silly or embarrassing. By letting go of the past it will help you focus on your current task.
• Profit from your mistakes
  So you've made a mistake, now figure out why you made the mistake, make a note and move on. Making even a mental note will help remind you to be more careful next time the situation comes up.
• Rest before you get tired
  Many times silly mistakes are made simply because you are tired. Make sure that you get enough sleep.

I received such great condemnation a couple of months ago for an innocent mistake that I made with no malice intended. This was encouraging to just shake it off and move on. I have shaken it, but something happened this past week that reminded me of it. I think I need to reread How to Win Friends and Influence People and How to Stop Worrying and Start Living. Both are excellent books for anyone!

Wednesday Freewrite

I'm setting the timer for a 15 minutes freewrite this morning. I haven't really had the luxury of a free morning for a while. Eight meetings a week with monthly ones sprinkled on top of that has made it more difficult to post here, but that is OK. I was trying to write my post for James 1:19-27 this morning and felt like I needed some writing to free up my mind and fingers on the keyboard. So, I write with a sanctified Faulkneresque stream of consciousness this morning.


I feel better. I have identified my problem last week as caffeine withdrawal. I had more caffeine than usual in the ice teas I had been handed and made. I had that second cup of tea in my new rose painted tea pot. I didn't mean to overdue it, and I didn't think I had to have it. When I didn't have it last week, I would get a splitting headache and flu-like symptoms. The symptoms went away on Saturday when I indulged in a chai and then another chai at Teala's tea counter at the sorority. Then, they came back again on Sunday. The site I looked at it happened 12-24 hours after the last caffeine. I had green tea at church at 8:00 am, and I had a splitting headache at about 7 or 8 Sunday night. 


So, I have cut back. I only have 1/2 tablespoon per day. That is going to be my limit. I tried making chai without any tea in it, and it doesn't quite have the right taste. It tasted like a tasty steamer though. So, I will have those in the afternoon if I need a hit of calcium. I already use 1/2 the amount called for in the recipe. Now, I will use 1/4 of the amount. The headaches have been gone since that bad one on Sunday night. Yeah!


The big thing I should journal about is George's dad's passing. He was talking one minute in the hospice house on Monday. The next minute his head went back, and he was gone. He had pain meds for the first time the night before. That is all he went through. Nothing like the more drawn out situation with my dad and his morphine pump and my mom with the battles between the assisted living center and the hospice organization that had my mom's care (that was a stupid thing - all because my brother was friends with the doctor who NEVER even came to see my mom the whole month I was nursing her). He had a very peaceful passing. He said he just wanted to fall asleep and not wake up, and that is basically what he did.


All that to say is that George is handling it well, but I know he is not the same old George. He is processing, and I need to be there for him. We canceled Jesus Community, and I canceled with Michele tonight. I need to listen to him rather than 20-somethings right now. It is the right place for me to be.


Oh, I also had a huge answer to prayer. I can't say here what it is because I have a feeling there are lurkers here (HI!) that might know the people involved, and I don't want to betray any confidences, but I have been praying for something for four years. I was pretty fervent for about 1-2 years of that, but about two months ago, God laid it on my heart to pray for it again. Now that four years have gone by, the impossibility of things changing was even BIGGER (we are talking HUGE). So much so that I prayed in faith that He would move mountains to make it happen (I felt that strongly that this was His will to pray in this way). Low and behold, I got my answer last Friday, exactly how He had put on my heart to pray. I was doing back flips. Then, I was with Jane going over our study in Discipleship Essentials (I am putting a link to it below because is an wonderful book for basic growth in the faith) on prayer, and I had written that prayer request in the book when I did it with Rebekah four years ago!  I had just told Jane about the answer, but I had forgotten until we got to that last question in the lesson. I was blown away.  I love how God allows us to be part of His work even though we don't deserve it.


Well, the alarm is going off. So, I will end this now. No proofreading either.