Making an Effort to Post More Here

I have been sick the last couple of days. I feel it more when I first wake up. I was so uncomfortable and couldn't sleep. So I got up at 4:30 with that achy feeling all over my body.

No worries though, I still worked from 4:30 - 11:30 on the Gospel Harmony Book Club. Love doing that. The Beatitudes were on the docket for today, and they were tough to get through. I have a different take on them than most commentators. So, I had to plow through Dallas Willard's rather wordy commentary on them in The Divine Conspiracy. He does give words to what I have always believed, but TOO many words! LOL!

Now, I am comparing prices on the different photo sites, and I still can't come down on one I like the best. I didn't like how Snapfish cropped some of my pictures (I see now it was the ones I took with the Powershot which has a different aspect ratio than the Digital SLR so that shouldn't be too much of a problem) especially on the ones I had resized. I guess I have learned my lesson to avoid "custom crops" on photos if I want to see the whole picture when I get it back. I did that a LOT in 2007, but I hardly did it at all in 2011. So, I should be OK from here on out.

I saved a bird that had smashed into our window yesterday. I say that because I am hearing a song sparrow. Of course I just noticed it, but George says that he has been singing his "territorial song" all morning. He is surprised by that because it is too early in the season for all of that.  Actually, he thinks it is a Spotted Towhee (used to be Rufus-sided) now.  The bird I saved was a Yellow Rumped Warbler. My Marlin Perkins George Weaver husband wasn't home when the catastrophe happened. So, I asked the Facebook friends to help, and I got a plethora of responses. Before that, I just went to see if the Warbler was dead because I thought for sure he was since he was face down (or beak down) in the snow. I didn't want to touch it so I took a cloth grocery sack and slid it under him, and much to my delighted surprise, he hoped upright but didn't move after that. So, I took him inside, but I thought he would fly all over the place. So, I gingerly place him on our dry deck away with the covering to avoid snow and predators. I kept an eye on him and saw that one person said I should call a Wildlife Center. After listening to the spiel about how they don't get any public funds and please give to them, I was told to leave a message. So, I left it, but someone picked up the phone. The nice lady said I could keep the bird in a dark closet in a cardboard box. As I was talking, he started moving more and more and flew away. She said that it usually takes about 45 minutes, and that is was!

She said, "Oh a happy ending!" And I was thankful for being sick and home from church.

Somehow is warmed my heart on the cold, snowy day.

Now that I have warmed up my fingers. I may order some more photos. I already have them uploaded to Shutterfly, and I like their prints and website the best. I have 2009 365 in the cart already. :) I wish I could remember FOR SURE what I ordered yesterday so I don't order something twice. I am really focusing on doing this now, and I can't worry about the cost of it all. I am spending so much less than a photo book. I think the 365 are running me about $65 to print and put in a book versus making a digital book for WAY more than that (365 pictures make for many pages) and tons more time. The same is true for doing a Creative Memories physical scrapbook for the kids. Each of those pages are many dollars when you add the prints AND the stickers AND the TIME! That is the big killer. I have it for Paul from birth to 6th grade and Michael from birth to 8th grade. That is enough!

I will be caught up in no time, and I think it is much more fun the way I am doing it now.

Well, I am signing off.

2011 Movies and Documentaries

January
1. Lost Season 2
2. Lost Season 3
February
3. Lost Season 4
4. Lost Season 5
5. Lost Season 6
6. Jesus Camp
7. Shrek
8. I Can Do Bad All by Myself
9. Larkrise to Candleford Season 4
10. 1776 (great with Democracy in America)
11. Hachi: A Dog's Tale (BORING!)
12. Upstairs, Downstairs (new one)
13. Wives and Daughters (rewatch)
14. North and South (rewatch)
March
15. The Last King of Scotland
16. Friends of God
17. Any Human Heart (ick!)
18. South Riding
19. Contact
April
20. Extraordinary Measures

May
21. The Secret Life of Bees (Slow and didn't like book either)
22. The Bourne Supremacy

June

23. The Bourne Ultimatum

24. The Bourne Identity

25. Two Week's Notice

26. Jane Eyre

27. Poldark 2

28. The Cove

29. Persuasion (Hinds, Root)

July

30. A Few Good Men (clear play made it great!)

31. Creation (excellent)

32. Country Strong

33. The Adjustment Bureau

August

34. Arthur (Edited for the plane)

35. Water for Elephants (teary!)

36. Just Go With It

37. Treasure Island (1934)

38. The Help (BEST of the year)

39. The Devil Wears Prada (clearplay)

40. David Copperfield (precious!)

September

41. Wives and Daughters (again!)

42. The Help (2nd time)

October

(forgot to put Downton Abbey in January so added one)

44. Downton Abbey Season I

45. Mad Men 4 (edited)

November

46. Larry Crowne

47. Alice in Wonderland

48. Downton Abbey Season 2

49. Cheers to Miss Bishop (Bess Streeter Aldrich)

December
50. Have a Little Faith (Mitch Albom)
51. Elf (love this movie!)
52. Pride and Prejudice
53. Bride and Prejudice

54. Emma

55. Sense and Sensibility (Mini-series)

56. Jane Austen Regrets

57. Mansfield Park
58. The King's Speech

Grateful

I am grateful for today. I realize that writing has become so much of my work these days. I wrote a 553 page book last year. Or I should say that I wrote about 200 pages last year and reworked and edited the rest. I will be doing the same this year with another book in the works for the Gospel Harmony Book Club.

Interesting that I have lost meeting with Jane, Elizabeth, and Michelle from 2011 but will meet with Kathleen and periodically with Heather. So, that gives me some extra time.

What I have done with that extra time is picked up a Romans study with Rachel and Kim (which I love) and am working more on home projects long neglected because ministry has beckoned. I suppose I have a certain amount of time doing home things, and most of that home time was spent homeschooling, leading literature classes, and homeschool field trips. So, the "home" stuff has shifted as I take the role of cheerleader and occasional proofreader for the college work that my kids are doing.

Well, I am now going to sit and soak in John 5 and part of John 6 to prepare for tonight's Kingdom Community AND for writing in the Gospel Harmony Book Club.

Ten Minute Freewrite: GO!

I am going to just write without stopping for a while. I had hoped to write here more often. I am on a heating pad today because I think I sat in my chair too long today. I worked on a week's worth of Gospel Harmony Book Club posts (so yummy, btw). So, I had to stop and do the big, moist-heat bag. I did some stretching, and whatever was out popped right back into place. YAY!  But I am taking it easy now in bed.

I have loved this month of fasting so far. I feel like the focus has been really good. I love that I am doing it with others. I am really challenged by many things.

George and I are going to go to Aqua again for Valentine's Day. I had this: red curried sweet potato puree, local braising greens, crispy sweet potato, truffled basil coulis, and passionfruit buerre blanc. It was easily the best meal I have had in YEARS (others being one of the times we went to Nick's and Gladwin's mother's Indian cooking).  

I can't believe it has been eight minutes, but I am done for now.

A Christmas Wedding

357 - A Christmas Wedding, originally uploaded by carolfoasia.

Via Flickr:

I love these ladies!

We went to Berina and Joel Tuttle's wedding.

In picture:
Fatimah (left) was a bridesmaid.
Jean (behind me) is a dear friend from college.
Heba (right) is my sweet friend from Jordan.

It was a delightful evening with dinner three hours before the ceremony. There was a LOT of time for talking at this wedding.

2011 Books

I don't think I am going to get through the books I am currently reading before the end of the year. So, I will post these here. Not as many books this year, but many of them were the finishing up of The Well-Educated Mind list. So, they were TOMES and very difficult reads!

KEY:
TWEM = The Well-Educated Mind
BABES = Book Babes - my monthly book club that I have been in since January 2001
DAMES = Book Dames - my bimonthly book club that is an offshoot of Babes and reads classics (inaugurated in June of 2005)

JANUARY

1. A Distant Mirror by Tuchman (TWEM)

FEBRUARY

2. The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (Womersley-TWEM)

3. TrueFaced: Trust God and Others with Who You Really Are

MARCH

4. Democracy in America (Heffner-TWEM)

5. The Road to Wigan Pier (TWEM)

6. The Last Lecture (Babes)

7. All the President's Men (TWEM)

APRIL

8. The Runner's Field Manual

9. The Blindside (Babes)

MAY

10. The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (TWEM)

11. The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy (TWEM)

12. A Midwife's Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard, 1785-1812. (TWEM)

13. A Painted House (Babes)

JUNE

14. Light on Snow (Babes)

15. Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage (Babes)

16. Theophostic Prayer Ministry Basic Manual Revised

17. TPM Ministry Demonstration Training

18. TPM Ministry Student Workbook

19. Leadership Essentials

20. Images of God for Young Children

JULY

21. The End of History and the Last Man (TWEM)

AUGUST

22. Treasure Island (Dames)

23. Roll, Jordan, Roll (TWEM)

24. All Creatures Great and Small (Babes)

25. Blink of an Eye (Babes)

SEPTEMBER

26. Wives and Daughters (Dames)

27. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (Babes)

OCTOBER

28. Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption (Babes-Amazing)

29. Year of Fog (Babes)

30. The New England Mind: Colony to Province (TWEM)

31. The Christ of the Indian Road
32. The Divine Conspiracy (May have just been three chapters for our ministry but a post in 2012 here says I read it twice by then!)

33. Saving CeeCee Honeycutt (Babes)

34. Bold Spirit: Forgotten Walk Across Victorian America (Babes)

NOVEMBER

35. The Gulag Archipelago (TWEM)

36. A Voice in the Wind (Babes)

37. Little Princes (Babes)

38. American Nightingale (Babes)

39. Runaway Bunny

DECEMBER

40. Rim of the Prairie (Babes)

41. Left to Tell

42. Handel's Messiah: Comfort for God's People

Wednesday Reflections

I have so many things to do today. They are things that I usually ignore for the whole year, but I open up the week between Christmas and New Year as a time to select, print, and scrapbook for the boys' albums, our Christmas album, and just print photos and put them in sleeves for family pictures. The hard part is that I have not been doing it consistently for the past four years. 2007 was such a huge picture year that I haven't gotten past it. Last year, I made photo books and most of 2007 Christmas. Why didn't I do the whole holiday? Maybe I decided not to do the later pictures or maybe I didn't because I have them in my 365 book already? I can't remember from year to year what decisions I have made.  If I would just do this a little bit each week, I would remember where I left off, but each day during the year is so busy.

I also don't know when I should make the switch to digital for the boys' books. I told them maybe I should stop scrapbooking, and they said, "No, you should keep doing it."  That surprised me because they have never seemed to care that I do it for them.  I want them to leave our house with a memory book to have of their childhood. It has been a labor of love. But here is the rub: I want to switch to digital, but I don't know when they breaking point will be when I run out of stuff for the in-my-hand scrapbooks. I want to make a natural break, and I thought it would be high school, but I realized that I might have to buy a whole new book for Paul's middle school. So, should I switch to Paul for middle school? But I already printed pictures through the fall of 7th grade for him. So, that seems very inefficient since I would only have to scrapbook for 1 1/2 years after that. I know it is stupid to even think about it, but I have considered this my labor of love for my boys. I know they will appreciate it when they are older (and from the reaction last night when I asked them if I should stop it all together, they seem to appreciate it now).

I do love looking at photos of their childhoods. They were the cutest! Of course I am prejudice, but they were fine children, and they have grown into fine young men. We love being around them, and the flow of our conversations (and even conflict) is really lovely and healthy.  We went out to dinner with gift cards given to us by Sue Thompson, and it was really nice. We don't go out to dinner that often, and I don't know why we don't.

I will say that I need to get back to work, but I want to do Job 31 for the Bible Book Club first. I don't like being away for too long.  I so enjoyed my Gospel Harmony Book Club reflections before Christmas, and I hope to continue them once King's Day comes around. :)

Well, I think there is only about 2 minutes left on my 15 minute timer. This warmed up my fingers for writing about Job 31 this morning. Then, it is on to the photo labor of love for this lovely crew below!

How Many of the 100 Have I Read? 48 (Now I have read them all)

THE BOOK OF GREAT BOOKS 100

1. Aeneid – Virgil YES
2. All Quiet on the Western Front – Remarque YES
3. All the King’s Men – Warren YES
4. Animal Farm – Orwell YES
5. As I Lay Dying – Faulkner YES
6. As You Like It – Shakespeare YES
7. The Awakening – Chopin YES
8. Beowulf YES
9. Bill Budd – Melville
10. The Bluest Eyes – Morrison 
11. Brave New World – Huxley
12. The Call of the Wild – London
13. Candide – Voltaire
14. The Canterbury Tales – Chaucer YES
15. Catch22 – Heller
16. The Color Purple – Walker
17. Crime and Punishment – Dostoyevsky YES
18. The Crucible – Miller
19. Daisy Miller – James
20. David Copperfield – Dickens
21. Death of a Salesman – Miller YES
22. Diary of a Young Girl – Frank
23. Inferno – Dante YES
24. Doctor Faustus – Marlowe YES
25. A Doll’s House – Ibsen YES
26. Don Quixote – Cervantes YES
27. Ethan Frome – Wharton
28. Euthyphro, Apology, Crito, Phaedo – Plato
29. A Farewell to Arms – Hemingway
30. Faust: Parts 1 and 2 – Goethe
31. For Whom the Bell Tolls – Hemingway
32. Frankenstein – Shelly  YES
33. The Glass Menagerie – Williams
34. The Good Earth – Buck YES
35. The Grapes of Wrath – Steinbeck YES
36. Great Expectations – Dickens YES
37. The Great Gatsby – Fitzgerald YES
38. Gulliver’s Travels – Swift YES
39. Hamlet – Shakespeare YES
40. Hard Times – Dickens
41. Heart of Darkness – Conrad YES
42. Henry IV, Part 1 – Shakespeare
43. House Made of Dawn – Momaday
44. The House of Seven Gables – Hawthorne YES
45. Huckleberry Finn – Twain YES
46. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings – Angelou
47. Iliad – Homer YES
48. Invisible Man – Ellison YES
49. Jane Eyre – Bronte YES
50. The Joy Luck Club – Tan
51. Julius Caesar – Shakespeare
52. The Jungle – Sinclair
53. King Lear – Shakespeare
54. Light in August – Faulkner
55. Lord Jim – Conrad
56. The Lord of the Flies – Golding
57. The Lord of the Rings – Tolkien YES
58. Macbeth – Shakespeare
59. Madame Bovary – Flaubert YES
60. The Major of Casterbridge – Hardy
61. The Merchant of Venice – Shakespeare
62. A Midsummer Night’s Dream – Shakespeare YES
63. Moby-Dick – Melville YES
64. Native Son – Wright YES
65. 1984 – Orwell YES
66. Odyssey – Homer YES
67. The Oedipus Trilogy – Sophocles YES
68. Of Mice and Men – Steinbeck
69. The Old Man and the Sea – Hemingway
70. Oliver Twist – Dickens YES
71. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest – Kesey
72. Othello – Shakespeare
73. Paradise Lost – Milton YES
74. The Pearl – Steinbeck
75. The Plague – Camus
76. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man – Joyce YES
77. Pride and Prejudice – Austen YES
78. The Prince – Machiavelli YES
79. The Red Badge of Courage – Crane YES
80. Republic – Plato YES
81. The Return of the Native – Hardy YES
82. Richard III – Shakespeare YES
83. Romeo and Juliet – Shakespeare
84. The Scarlet Letter – Hawthorne YES
85. A Separate Peace – Knowles
86. Silas Marner – Eliot YES
87. Sons and Lovers – Lawrence
88. The Sound and the Fury – Faulkner YES
89. Steppenwolf – Hesse
90. The Stranger – Camus YES
91. The Sun Also Rises – Hemingway
92. The Taming of the Shrew – Shakespeare
93. The Tempest – Shakespeare
94. Tess of the D’Urbervilles – Hardy
95. Their Eyes Were Watching God – Hurston 
96. Tom Sawyer – Twain
97. Treasure Island – Stevenson YES
98. Twelfth Night – Shakespeare YES
99. Waiting for Godot – Beckett YES
100. Walden – Thoreau YES

100 Great Books

My next challenge!

THE BOOK OF GREAT BOOKS 100

1. Aeneid – Virgil
2. All Quiet on the Western Front – Remarque
3. All the King’s Men – Warren
4. Animal Farm – Orwell (read)
5. As I Lay Dying – Faulkner
6. As You Like It – Shakespeare
7. The Awakening – Chopin
8. Beowulf
9. Bill Budd – Melville
10. The Bluest Eyes – Morrison
11. Brave New World – Huxley
12. The Call of the Wild – London
13. Candide – Voltaire
14. The Canterbury Tales – Chaucer
15. Catch22 – Heller
16. The Color Purple – Walker
17. Crime and Punishment – Dostoyevsky
18. The Crucible – Miller
19. Daisy Miller – James
20. David Copperfield – Dickens
21. Death of a Salesman – Miller
22. Diary of a Young Girl – Frank
23. Inferno – Dante
24. Doctor Faustus – Marlowe
25. A Doll’s House – Ibsen
26. Don Quixote – Cervantes
27. Ethan Frome – Wharton
28. Euthyphro, Apology, Crito, Phaedo – Plato
29. A Farewell to Arms – Hemingway
30. Faust: Parts 1 and 2 – Goethe
31. For Whom the Bell Tolls – Hemingway
32. Frankenstein – Shelly (read)
33. The Glass Menagerie – Williams
34. The Good Earth – Buck
35. The Grapes of Wrath – Steinbeck
36. Great Expectations – Dickens (read)
37. The Great Gatsby – Fitzgerald
38. Gulliver’s Travels – Swift
39. Hamlet – Shakespeare
40. Hard Times – Dickens
41. Heart of Darkness – Conrad
42. Henry IV, Part 1 – Shakespeare
43. House Made of Dawn – Momaday
44. The House of Seven Gables – Hawthorne (read)
45. Huckleberry Finn – Twain
46. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings – Angelou
47. Iliad – Homer
48. Invisible Man – Ellison
49. Jane Eyre – Bronte (read - I think?)
50. The Joy Luck Club – Tan
51. Julius Caesar – Shakespeare
52. The Jungle – Sinclair
53. King Lear – Shakespeare
54. Light in August – Faulkner
55. Lord Jim – Conrad
56. The Lord of the Flies – Golding
57. The Lord of the Rings – Tolkien
58. Macbeth – Shakespeare
59. Madame Bovary – Flaubert (read)
60. The Major of Casterbridge – Hardy
61. The Merchant of Venice – Shakespeare
62. A Midsummer Night’s Dream – Shakespeare
63. Moby-Dick – Melville
64. Native Son – Wright
65. 1984 – Orwell (read)
66. Odyssey – Homer
67. The Oedipus Trilogy – Sophocles
68. Of Mice and Men – Steinbeck
69. The Old Man and the Sea – Hemingway
70. Oliver Twist – Dickens
71. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest – Kesey
72. Othello – Shakespeare
73. Paradise Lost – Milton (reading now)
74. The Pearl – Steinbeck
75. The Plague – Camus
76. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man – Joyce (read)
77. Pride and Prejudice – Austen (read)
78. The Prince – Machiavelli
79. The Red Badge of Courage – Crane
80. Republic – Plato
81. The Return of the Native – Hardy (read)
82. Richard III – Shakespeare
83. Romeo and Juliet – Shakespeare
84. The Scarlet Letter – Hawthorne
85. A Separate Peace – Knowles
86. Silas Marner – Eliot (read)
87. Sons and Lovers – Lawrence
88. The Sound and the Fury – Faulkner
89. Steppenwolf – Hesse
90. The Stranger – Camus (read)
91. The Sun Also Rises – Hemingway
92. The Taming of the Shrew – Shakespeare
93. The Tempest – Shakespeare
94. Tess of the D’Urbervilles – Hardy
95. Their Eyes Were Watching God – Hurston (will read)
96. Tom Sawyer – Twain
97. Treasure Island – Stevenson (read)
98. Twelfth Night – Shakespeare
99. Waiting for Godot – Beckett
100. Walden – Thoreau

Annotated Bibliography of The Well-Educated Mind List

Over the next year, I will be creating an annotated bibliography of all of the books I read in the Well-Educated Mind, doing one to two at a time. It will be good review for me and hopefully helpful for someone on the same journey.

Ancients (15)

1) 2000 BC: Epic of Gilgamesh/Ferry/Poetry


I really enjoyed this. It is very approachable and readable. I also read illustrated versions to my kids that helped me imagine in my own reading. Visual images often make reading more enjoyable for me. It spoils it for others. It is a personal preference for all. 


These were my favorite children's versions with lush and beautiful illustrations:
retold and illustrated by Ludmila Zeman

800 Iliad (*+ T)/ Homer/Lattimore/ Poetry
800 Odyssey(*+ T) /Homer/Lattimore/Poetry
600 Greek Lyrics/ Lattimore/Poetry
458 Agamemnon(*+ T)/ Aeschylus/Drama
450 Oedipus Rex(*+ T)/ Sophocles/Drama
441 Histories/ Herodotus/ History
431 Medea/ Euripedes/ Drama
400 Birds/ (Clouds – T) /Aristophanes/ Drama
400 Peloponnesian War(*+ )/Thucydides/ History
375 Republic(*+)/ Plato/ History
330 Poetics(+)/ Aristotle/Drama 
65 Odes of Horace/Poetry
AD
100 Greek Lives/Roman Lives by Plutarch

Medieval Times (19 out of 19)

400 Confessions*+ T Augustine Fitzgerald Autobio 
426 City of God+ Augustine History
731 Ecclesiastical History of the English People Bede History
1000 Beowulf* Poetry
1300 Inferno*+ Poetry 
1300's Everyman Drama
1350 Sir Gawain & the Green Knight* Poetry
1386 Canterbury Tales* Chaucer Poetry
1430 The Book of Margery Kempe Autobio
1513 Prince*+ Machiavelli History
1516 Utopia* Sir Thomas More History
1564 Sonnets Shakespeare Poetry 
1580 Essays+ Montaigne Autobio
1588 Life of Teresa of Avila Autobio
1588 Doctor Faustus Marlowe Drama
1592 Richard III Shakespeare Drama
1594 Midsummer's Nights Dream* Shakespeare Drama
1600 Hamlet* Shakespeare Drama

1600 Poems* Donne Poetry (British)

Early Modern -1600-1850 (33 out of 33)

1605 Don Quixote*+ Cervantes Penguin Novel

1611 Psalms KJV Poetry

1641 Meditations+ Descartes Autobio 
1667 Paradise Lost*+ Milton Poetry

1666 Grace Abounding Bunyon Autobio 
1669 Tartuffe Moliere Drama
1679 Pilgrim's Progress* Bunyon Novel
1682 Narrative of Captivity & Restoration(T) Rowlandson Autobio
1690 True End Civil Government Locke History
1700 Way of the World Congreve Drama 
1726 Gulliver's Travels* Swift Novel 
1754 History of England, V.5 Hume History
1757 Songs of Innocence and Experience by Blake/Poetry (British)
1762 Social Contract+ Rousseau History
1773 She Stoops to Conquer Goldsmith Drama
1776 Common Sense (T) Paine Dover History
1776 Decline & Fall of the Roman Empire Gibbon Wormsley(Ab) History
1777 School of Scandal Sheridan Drama

1781 Confessions* Rousseau Autobio 
1791 Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin (T)
1792 Vindication of the Rights of Women+ Wollstonecraft History (British)
1798 Lyrical Ballads* Wordsworth, Cooleridge Poetry (British)
1813 Pride & Prejudice*+ Austen Novel 
1819 Odes* & Poems Keats Poetry (British)
Longfellow Poetry (American)
Tennyson Poetry (British)
Whitman Poetry (American)
1835 Democracy in America* Tocqueville History
1838 Oliver Twist Dickens Novel
1847 Jane Eyre Bronte Novel
1848 The Comunist Manifesto+ Marx&Engel History
1850 The Scarlet Letter* Hawthorne Novel

Modern History (1850 to present)

 ( 87 out of 87)

Rossetti Poetry (British)
1851 Moby-Dick/Melville/Novel
Uncle Tom's Cabin/Stowe/Novel 
1854 Walden/Thoreau/Autobio
1857 Madame Bovary* Flaubert Novel
1860 Civilization of Renaissance Burckhardt History
1861 Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl Jacobs Autobio
1866 Crime & Punishment Dostoyevsky Novel

1850- 1866 * Dickinson Poetry (American)
1872 Dunbar Poetry (American)
1877 Anna Karenina* Tolstoy Novel
1878 Return of the Native Hardy Novel 
1878 Sandburg Poetry (American)
1879 Doll's House Ibsen Drama
1881 Life & Times/Narrative of Frederick Douglass * T Autobio
1881 The Portrait of a Lady* James Novel 
1883 Williams Poetry (American)
1884 The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn* Twain
1895 The Red Badge of Courage Crane Novel
1899 Importance of Being Earnest Wilde Drama
1901 Up From Slavery Washington Autobio
1902 Heart of Darkness* Conrad Novel
1902 Hughes Poetry (American)
1903 Souls of Black Folk DuBois History (American)
1904 Cherry Orchard Chekov Drama
1904 The Protestant Ethic & the Spirit of Capitalism Weber History (German)
1905 House of Mirth Wharton Novel 
1907 Auden Poetry (American)
1908 Ecce Homo Nietzsche Autobio (German)
1913 Poems* Frost Poetry (American)
1921 Queen Victoria Stachey History
1922 Larkin Poetry (British)
1924 St. Joan Shaw Drama
1925 Mein Kampf Hitler Autobio
The Great Gatsby Fitzgerald Novel
Mrs. Dolloway Woolf Novel
The Trial* Kafka Novel 
1929 An Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments with Truth Gandhi Autobio
1932-1963 Sylvia Plath Poetry (American)

(1865-1939) William Butler Yeats (Irish)

Auto of Alice B. Toklas Stein Autobio

Born 1934 Mark Strand Poetry (American)

Born 1929 Adrienne Rich Poetry (American)

1935 Murder in Cathedral T.S. Eliot Drama
1937 The Road to Wigan Pier Orwell History
1938 Our Town Wilder Drama
1939 Seamus Heaney Poetry (Irish)
The New England Mind Miller History 

1940 Long Day's Journey into Night O'Neill Drama
Native Son Wright Novel
1940 Robert Pinsky Poetry (American)
1942 Stranger Camus Novel
1944 No Exit Sartre Drama
1947 A Streetcar Named Desire Williams Drama 
1948 Seven Story Mountain Merton Autobio
1949 1984 Orwell Novel 
Death of a Salesman Miller Drama
1952 Invisible Man Ellison Novel
Waiting for Godot Beckett Drama

1955 The Great Crash Galbraith History 

Surprised by Joy C.S. Lewis Autobio

1956 Allen Ginsberg (1926-1997) Poetry (American) (DO NOT RECOMMEND ICK!)

1956 Seize the Day Bellow Novel
1959 The Longest Day Ryan History
1960 A Man for All Seasons Bolt Drama
1963 The Feminine Mystique Frieden History
1965 The Autobiography of + Malcolm X Autobio
1967 One Hundred Years of Solitude Marquez Novel
Rosencrantz & Guildenstein Stoppard Drama
1972 If on a Winter's Night a Traveler Calvino Novel 
1973 Journal of Solitude Sarton Autobio
Gulag Archipelago Solzhenitsyn Autobio
1974 Roll, Jordan, Roll Genovese History

1974 Equus Shaffer Drama 
1977 Born Again Colson Autobio
Song of Solomon Morrison Novel
1978 Distant Mirror Tuchman History

1978 Jan Kenyon (1947-1975) Poetry (American)
1982 Hunger of Memory Rodriguez Autobio
1985 White Noise Delillo Novel

1985 Rita Dove (1952- )Poetry (American)
1987 All the President's Men Woodward & Bernstein History
1988 Battle Cry of Freedom McPherson History
1989 Road from Coorain Conway Autobio
1990 Possession Byatt Novel

A Midwife's Tale Ballard Autobio
1992 The End of History & the Last Man Fukuyama History
1995 All Rivers Run to the Sea Wiesel Autobio

(*ITC, +D overlap, T)

ITC= Invitation to the Classics D=Denby's Great Books T = Thelma's Library

Sunday Morning Peace

I knew the weekend would be packed with people and parties. So, I decided on Thursday night that this would be a morning to be alone with You.

I have no doubt that You are present here. I don't even have Christmas music playing. The silence is comforting. My heart is stirring as I sit here and love my life.

Luke is in the hospital, and I bow in prayer for his safe recovery. Lord, surround him with Your love and comfort as he is in a strange hospital in a foreign country without his mom by his side. Be his comfort and joy this day (or 7:55 pm Sunday night Morocco time).

Be Elizabeth's comfort and joy as she spends her last Sunday at her church before she goes to India on Tuesday. I will miss her so much. The good-bye is bitter-sweet. Corvallis will have a hold, but India and her sister and brother in law will gain a treasure. You know that they need her more than we do.

No doubt in my mind You are present as my fingers go across the keyboard. I have become so comfortable with typing my thoughts. I enjoy writing them too though.

Be Rebekah's comfort and joy as she prepares to leave for Singapore while still grieving the loss of her precious mother. I love her. Wish I could have gone to Salem to the funeral, but I had to be here in Corvallis that day.  You knew that.

Oh be the comfort and joy of two unnamed friends who are struggling. So many tears were shed before my eyes this week. I can offer them your comfort and joy through prayer. May they encounter You today. May they be confronted with Your majesty this minute. Both need clarity and wisdom beyond words. I love them both so much.

Praising You for a lovely family. Travel down to Eugene and back yesterday was lovely. Most families have the most tension in the car, but we love the quality time together. Laughed. Loved that two teenagers would want to go to The Nutcracker to satisfy the 20 year desire of a mom who did The Nutcracker when the almost 20 year old was in her womb. I think they liked it. I sure did!  If for nothing else, five and a half hours of time with my favorite people in the world.  Thank You for that gift.

The quiet will be shattered in about 1/2 hour. I hope I used the time well. I like the alone time even though I love the people time.  Balance is always necessary for me though.

A Few Minutes to Write

I woke up very early, and I wished I would have gotten up, but I forced myself back to a semi-sleep until 6:30.  Michael had oral surgery at 8:00 am in only 38 minutes yesterday and didn't even need to take the heavy duty pain meds, just ibuprofen for inflammation.  He did great!

After that I came back and got my house ready for another Christmas tea with Lisa. I had to make more scones and Christmas ribbon sandwiches, but it was lovely. In the fact, I had a very relational day from 11:45 - 10:15 pm with three different friends coming and going. It was good. Christmas tea and prayer are two very good things, and I had lots of both.

I'm sipping chai in my Donovan's Pottery red-glazed cup. It is festive and Christmas-like. I have loved this season. I love my new Christmas tea pot and cups that match my grandmother's and Christmas tea cozy. Donna also brought me a Christmas colored apron for a hostess gift! So great!

Well, I am off to have time with God. So strange to be at the crucifixion in my gospel reading time when I am at His birth in the season!

Journey Through Job and Life

I went from an overview of Romans this morning with Kim and Rachel (a dream to study this book with them that is finally being realized, YAHOO!) to my journey through Job.

Since both kids are at their college classes, I broke into song at the top of my lungs:

 "I know that my Redeemer liveth . . . and because He lives . . . I, too, shall live."

Oh I must break out Handel's Messiah and put it on my iPod!  

I sang something like this in high school - I was in Job's Daughters. Some evangelicals would tell me that this wasn't a good thing, but they don't know what we learned there. They look from the outside and condemn it all as bad, but I only learned good from it, and it was so much praise and worship and Scripture!

They were lessons from the book of Job, and for a high schooler, they were excellent lessons that would develop my theology of suffering later on in life. I took the memorization very seriously, and they were great Scriptures and beautiful hymns like this (At the end of every meeting we aligned in the shape of the cross and sang "Nearer my God to Thee." It was always so wonderful.)  I didn't know then what it was to suffer, but life has brought its share of sufferings and this was my beginnings. I am grateful.

I am praising God that my Redeemer liveth as proven in my study of Romans and Job today!

Life is such a great adventure with God!

So Grateful

I am studying Ecclesiastes 11-12 this morning, and I am so grateful for my mentors who taught me to enjoy life by enjoying and remembering God!  This is Thanksgiving week, and there is such joy and freedom in remembering my "Creator in the days of my youth." It is a privilege to counsel with 20 somethings who are still finding their way. I want them to enjoy these days of their youth.

My heart broke talking to a girl last night who is struggling and lonely. I do not want to go back to my 20's, and I know Ellen Slifer was so right about that when I had my nervous breakdown at 23.  She said she would never want to relive her 20's. She was the only touch of kindness that I felt in those dark days at Loyd Chiropractic (with the maniacal boss who posed as a believer and follower of Jesus). She touched me and rubbed my shoulders. It was balm to me.

I looked her up on the internet and found she passed away in 2004. I tried to contact her husband to say thank you but the phone was disconnected. I thanked God for her today.

Here is her obituary:

http://www.memorialobituaries.com/memorials/obits_display.cgi?action=Obit&memid=121855

She was my angel in 1983.

Life is Beautiful

Ecclesiastes really makes me wax philosophic. Life is beautiful. God does make all things beautiful in His lovely time. I look at the events of my life, and I see that God is sovereign in everything that has come my way. You can get bitter or better.  I saw examples of bitter recently, and I don't want that for my life. He can make even the bad beautiful. One prime example is Louis Zamperini in the Unbroken story. He could have been so bitter from his POW experience, but he chose to forgive.  So beautiful.

Forgiveness is so powerful.

Friday Freewrite

I haven't had a freewrite here for a while. So I am setting the timer (or watching the clock) for ten minutes and typing away. I don't have anything significant to write this morning, but Friday Freewrite sounds like a cool thing.

I have been back from Las Olas for nine days now. I think I am finally back to normal. My back is totally free from pain (for two days now), and my bruises are fading. There were many things I liked about the experience, but in many ways, it was very lonely for me. People kind of broke up in to couples from our group, and my other half was sweet but struggling and withdrew quite a bit. When we did talk, it was more counseling mode for me, but I loved her for her vulnerability and beauty.

So, I was pretty alone, especially from the third day on (we were cohesive until the second night and then everything changed). My third day was difficult. While I received original compassion, I felt it turned into ridicule when I came into my own on the fourth day and wanted to continue surfing. Then, my "I don't like this" comment from the third day came back to haunt me with ribbing comments.

While I felt invisible at times (people not even asking if I was walking into town and leaving without me, not asking me to enter into the traditional pool nightly activity and not even noticing I wasn't there), I didn't seem to care and just looked at it from a cooler, analytic perspective. Such growth for me. Invisibility used to really hurt my feelings, but I didn't have as much in common with our other two roommates (common history and present life stage), and no one seemed to really want to ask questions about me and my life (Although a LOAD of assumptions were made which were at best comical ("You are so naive you don't know when a gay woman is trying to pick up on you." LOL! Hello, former college athlete here, surrounded by gay people since I was 18 years old!)  and at worst frustrating (After another dismissive put down, I just had to walk away down the street, laugh it off, and sing my song, "I am not an idiot." Because I am not!).

This is where I think that I have grown. I am OK with being in a group now and being ignored or not asked questions about myself (George says it happens to us all the time. I guess we are used to it). One time at dinner, one of the girls asked about my sons, and that was nice, but it was a dearth of intimacy in the relationship department all week.  Even though I knew I was alone, I just went with the flow and enjoyed it. That was a good thing. While debriefing with Penny at the airport before we took off, she wished we could have had more time together, and I agreed. It was a lovely give-and-take of conversation! Most of the others people in our larger group were really nice, down-to-earth people that wanted to know about me and what I did. My roommate asked me, but no one else in our group did.  I wished I had spent more time with the larger group (a couple of time we sat at the hotel restaurant talking, and that was lovely). My roommate ended up doing that and was more comfortable with them than our own group. It almost would have been easier for me to go alone in many ways. Trying to get a party of six to gel was hard, especially since I don't live in the same area as the other four, and I don't have the history that the person who invited me to her party had with her roommate. They would be immersed in conversation, and I would try to break in; but while they were polite, I always felt like the third wheel. The best time I have ever had with my friend was at the beach one-on-one almost three years ago. I am more a one-on-one person, and I don't begrudge the dynamics. I was happy for my friend at a distance, and one-on-one, I think I would have enjoyed the other people in our group more, and I did in little one-on-one conversations I had throughout the week. The group dynamic usually brings out the cutting and snippyness in people that I don't understand with women. I could write a book!

I just was glad to have people to talk to at home. I have so many intimate relationships here that I missed them and grew to appreciate them so much more, especially my sweet, chatty George!

I went from hating surfing one day to finally figuring out what I needed to do to get up and wishing I had more time to improve. (The jury is still out as to whether I "loved" it, but contrary to what people told me, I didn't hate it because I am used to "excelling at everything I do."  That is rubbish and told to me by people who don't know me at all.) That is why I want to do it again in Hawaii in February. I will also have George to take pictures of me. If I had one suggestion about Las Olas, it would be that they have a photographer there. I guess they did in the past. I think Connie and Heidi (returning people) were a bit disappointed that this was not offered this year like last year.  I get the drift that many things were different this year (less about empowering of women and more about get up on that board and surf), and the returning three didn't like it as much. I liked it though, even though I wrenched my back on the third day and was in a lot of pain (until my massage).   I am going to try it again in February and August (when I go to California for my 35th reunion). We will see if I take it up or not.

Well, this was WAY more than 10 minutes, but it was good to get my thoughts down!

The Well-Educated Mind BHAG Complete - 100% (158/158)

What began in August 2003 ended this morning, November 2, 2011 at 12:37 am. I tried not to finish it so late at night, but I could not stop.

Goal achieved! YIPPEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(By the way, BHAG stands for Big Hairy Audacious Goal)

Ancients (15 out of 15)

BC
2000 Epic of Gilgamesh/Ferry/Poetry
800 Iliad (*+ T)/ Homer/Lattimore/ Poetry
800 Odyssey(*+ T) /Homer/Lattimore/Poetry
600 Greek Lyrics/ Lattimore/Poetry
458 Agamemnon(*+ T)/ Aeschylus/Drama
450 Oedipus Rex(*+ T)/ Sophocles/Drama
441 Histories/ Herodotus/ History
431 Medea/ Euripedes/ Drama
400 Birds/ (Clouds – T) /Aristophanes/ Drama
400 Peloponnesian War(*+ )/Thucydides/ History
375 Republic(*+)/ Plato/ History
330 Poetics(+)/ Aristotle/Drama 
65 Odes of Horace/Poetry
AD
100 Greek Lives/Roman Lives by Plutarch

Medieval Times (19 out of 19)

400 Confessions*+ T Augustine Fitzgerald Autobio 
426 City of God+ Augustine History
731 Ecclesiastical History of the English People Bede History
1000 Beowulf* Poetry
1300 Inferno*+ Poetry 
1300's Everyman Drama
1350 Sir Gawain & the Green Knight* Poetry
1386 Canterbury Tales* Chaucer Poetry
1430 The Book of Margery Kempe Autobio
1513 Prince*+ Machiavelli History
1516 Utopia* Sir Thomas More History
1564 Sonnets Shakespeare Poetry 
1580 Essays+ Montaigne Autobio
1588 Life of Teresa of Avila Autobio
1588 Doctor Faustus Marlowe Drama
1592 Richard III Shakespeare Drama
1594 Midsummer's Nights Dream* Shakespeare Drama
1600 Hamlet* Shakespeare Drama

1600 Poems* Donne Poetry (British)

Early Modern -1600-1850 (33 out of 33)

1605 Don Quixote*+ Cervantes Penguin Novel

1611 Psalms KJV Poetry

1641 Meditations+ Descartes Autobio 
1667 Paradise Lost*+ Milton Poetry

1666 Grace Abounding Bunyon Autobio 
1669 Tartuffe Moliere Drama
1679 Pilgrim's Progress* Bunyon Novel
1682 Narrative of Captivity & Restoration(T) Rowlandson Autobio
1690 True End Civil Government Locke History
1700 Way of the World Congreve Drama 
1726 Gulliver's Travels* Swift Novel 
1754 History of England, V.5 Hume History
1757 Songs of Innocence and Experience by Blake/Poetry (British)
1762 Social Contract+ Rousseau History
1773 She Stoops to Conquer Goldsmith Drama
1776 Common Sense (T) Paine Dover History
1776 Decline & Fall of the Roman Empire Gibbon Wormsley(Ab) History
1777 School of Scandal Sheridan Drama

1781 Confessions* Rousseau Autobio 
1791 Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin (T)
1792 Vindication of the Rights of Women+ Wollstonecraft History (British)
1798 Lyrical Ballads* Wordsworth, Cooleridge Poetry (British)
1813 Pride & Prejudice*+ Austen Novel 
1819 Odes* & Poems Keats Poetry (British)
Longfellow Poetry (American)
Tennyson Poetry (British)
Whitman Poetry (American)
1835 Democracy in America* Tocqueville History
1838 Oliver Twist Dickens Novel
1847 Jane Eyre Bronte Novel
1848 The Comunist Manifesto+ Marx&Engel History
1850 The Scarlet Letter* Hawthorne Novel

Modern History - 1850 to present (87 out of 87)

Rossetti Poetry (British)
1851 Moby-Dick/Melville/Novel
Uncle Tom's Cabin/Stowe/Novel 
1854 Walden/Thoreau/Autobio
1857 Madame Bovary* Flaubert Novel
1860 Civilization of Renaissance Burckhardt History
1861 Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl Jacobs Autobio
1866 Crime & Punishment Dostoyevsky Novel

1850- 1866 * Dickinson Poetry (American)
1872 Dunbar Poetry (American)
1877 Anna Karenina* Tolstoy Novel
1878 Return of the Native Hardy Novel 
1878 Sandburg Poetry (American)
1879 Doll's House Ibsen Drama
1881 Life & Times/Narrative of Frederick Douglass * T Autobio
1881 The Portrait of a Lady* James Novel 
1883 Williams Poetry (American)
1884 The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn* Twain
1895 The Red Badge of Courage Crane Novel
1899 Importance of Being Earnest Wilde Drama
1901 Up From Slavery Washington Autobio
1902 Heart of Darkness* Conrad Novel
1902 Hughes Poetry (American)
1903 Souls of Black Folk DuBois History (American)
1904 Cherry Orchard Chekov Drama
1904 The Protestant Ethic & the Spirit of Capitalism Weber History (German)
1905 House of Mirth Wharton Novel 
1907 Auden Poetry (American)
1908 Ecce Homo Nietzsche Autobio (German)
1913 Poems* Frost Poetry (American)
1921 Queen Victoria Stachey History
1922 Larkin Poetry (British)
1924 St. Joan Shaw Drama
1925 Mein Kampf Hitler Autobio
The Great Gatsby Fitzgerald Novel
Mrs. Dolloway Woolf Novel
The Trial* Kafka Novel 
1929 An Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments with Truth Gandhi Autobio
1932-1963 Sylvia Plath Poetry (American)

(1865-1939) William Butler Yeats (Irish)

Auto of Alice B. Toklas Stein Autobio

Born 1934 Mark Strand Poetry (American)

Born 1929 Adrienne Rich Poetry (American)

1935 Murder in Cathedral T.S. Eliot Drama
1937 The Road to Wigan Pier Orwell History
1938 Our Town Wilder Drama
1939 Seamus Heaney Poetry (Irish)
The New England Mind Miller History 

1940 Long Day's Journey into Night O'Neill Drama
Native Son Wright Novel
1940 Robert Pinsky Poetry (American)
1942 Stranger Camus Novel
1944 No Exit Sartre Drama
1947 A Streetcar Named Desire Williams Drama 
1948 Seven Story Mountain Merton Autobio
1949 1984 Orwell Novel 
Death of a Salesman Miller Drama
1952 Invisible Man Ellison Novel
Waiting for Godot Beckett Drama

1955 The Great Crash Galbraith History 

Surprised by Joy C.S. Lewis Autobio

1956 Allen Ginsberg (1926-1997) Poetry (American) (DO NOT RECOMMEND ICK!)

1956 Seize the Day Bellow Novel
1959 The Longest Day Ryan History
1960 A Man for All Seasons Bolt Drama
1963 The Feminine Mystique Frieden History
1965 The Autobiography of + Malcolm X Autobio
1967 One Hundred Years of Solitude Marquez Novel
Rosencrantz & Guildenstein Stoppard Drama
1972 If on a Winter's Night a Traveler Calvino Novel 
1973 Journal of Solitude Sarton Autobio
Gulag Archipelago Solzhenitsyn Autobio
1974 Roll, Jordan, Roll Genovese History

1974 Equus Shaffer Drama 
1977 Born Again Colson Autobio
Song of Solomon Morrison Novel
1978 Distant Mirror Tuchman History

1978 Jan Kenyon (1947-1975) Poetry (American)
1982 Hunger of Memory Rodriguez Autobio
1985 White Noise Delillo Novel

1985 Rita Dove (1952- )Poetry (American)
1987 All the President's Men Woodward & Bernstein History
1988 Battle Cry of Freedom McPherson History
1989 Road from Coorain Conway Autobio
1990 Possession Byatt Novel

A Midwife's Tale Ballard Autobio
1992 The End of History & the Last Man Fukuyama History
1995 All Rivers Run to the Sea Wiesel Autobio

(*ITC, +D overlap, T)

ITC= Invitation to the Classics D=Denby's Great Books T = Thelma's Library