Tag Archives: reruns

31 Days of Reading Well: Day 26

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The Books That Changed Them

I recently read The Book That Changed My Life. No, really. That’s the title! It’s an excellent collection of essays from writers ranging from Anne Lamott to John McCain to Frank McCourt. All share a book (or few books, for those who are like me and can’t make up their minds) that changed them.

The Book That Changed My Life: 71 Remarkable Writers Celebrate the Books That Matter Most to Them

It’s been sitting on my shelf for probably two years. I stocked up on books when I started using PaperBackSwap and as a result have spent the last year trying not to acquire any new books while I read the 200+ that I have. But now that I’ve read it, I’m sad I waited so long. As someone who loves chatting about books more than most things in life, reading this was like sitting down with a group of good friends and finding out their very favorite books of all time.

(Although I’m not sure I trust anyone whose life was changed by Catcher in the Rye. I just don’t get it, I guess.)

The Books That Changed My Life

I can’t pick one. Are you surprised? I would guess not if you’ve read any of my posts about books. But I can narrow them down to two: one that changed my reading and one that changed my writing.

I’ve waxed poetic about A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving before (see this post). I first read it for a creative writing class in high school–by far the best gift I received from that particular teacher. I had never been presented with a novel so intricate, one that was so incredibly thought-out.

A Prayer for Owen Meany (Modern Library)

I don’t know if Irving writes with such a detailed outline that he knows each and every event that will happen (Bird by Bird refutes that this actually happens, but I still wonder!), or that he goes back and tinkers with precision once he has determined his characters’ paths, but either way this book has such a sophisticated road to the end it takes my breath away. Above all else, it caused me to think about what I am writing and not just blab on in train-of-thought–although we all know I do that some too.

The book that changed my reading is One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. I was in a 200 level English class entitled Great Novels with the lovely Susan Heroy. I was flip-flopping around about my major, having discovered that I would need more than a summer study abroad to obtain an International Studies major and not really wanting to go that route. Opening Garcia’s masterpiece led me on a wild goose chase. I scribbled in the book. I asked questions of my professor. I was fascinated by his use of mysticism, smells, colors.

Shortly after I closed the text, I decided to declare a major in English despite not having one class toward the major. I wanted to read more books like One Hundred Years of Solitude. I wanted to spend my time talking about them and writing about them with the hopes that one day I would write my own.

So I did.

Maybe some day I’ll finish that book I’m writing.

Is there a book that’s changed your life?

Originally published in January 2010.

See the books the authors recommended: Part I and Part II.

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Journeys, Thailand, and Me

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{31 Days of Reading Well: Day 21}

originally posted November 18, 2008, hence the references to my newborn Libbie!

Despite having a newborn, I have had some time to read. I’ve finished three books since she’s been born. I reread Tam Lin by Pamela Dean, read Chicken Soup for the New Mom’s Soul, and just finished tonight Tales of a Female Nomad by Rita Golden Gelman.

I liked them all in their own respect – I haven’t read a Chicken Soup book since high school, but someone gave this to me and it was sweet and a good reminder to savor every moment. Tam Lin is a little strange but a good read. But I adored the Gelman memoir.

After a bitter divorce, Gelman decides to sell everything and live as a nomad, with no permanent home. She writes of her travels around the world, including an extensive stay in Indonesia. But tonight, near the end of the book, she finally landed in Thailand, and it strummed up such good memories for me.

If you are new to my blog or don’t know me, in March 2006 I went to Thailand for two weeks with a group of Tennessee Baptists to help with tsunami relief as a part of an extended effort there. It was a phenomenal experience that I wouldn’t trade for anything. I made some good friends that I still keep in touch with. I met amazing and kind Thai people, painted their homes, spoke with national Thai Christians. And the food. It kills me to eat in a Thai restaurant here because the food is nowhere near as good as real Thai food. This passage in the book struck me especially:

“Lawn,” says Nark, holding a bowl of red sauce and adding some to his bowl. Then, in English, he says, “Hot. Thai like hot.”

“I do too,” I respond, spooning about the same amount into my soup along with marinated chilies and assorted leaves. I feel the heat on my lips, my throat, and all the way down. It is hotter than anything they serve in the U.S., but I’m determined to eat Thai food the Thai way. I only choke a little.

I learned quite quickly that if a Thai person says something is a little hot, I should stay FAR AWAY from it. I am extremely sensitive to spicy foods. I even packed my bags with tons of trail mix and snacks in case I couldn’t eat anything in Thailand without being sick. But the food was phenomenal. We helped cook our own breakfasts and dinners at our guesthouse, but lunch was cooked by the wife of a local squid farmer in authentic Thai-style. You haven’t tasted squid until it is fresh out of the ocean! And those chicken feet really add flavor to a soup.

I wonder sometimes if I will ever travel again like I have; I’ve been to China, Brazil, Thailand, the Dominican Republic. I love doing short-term missions and interacting with other cultures. I was a Chinese minor in college, and I know my language skills have gone down the tube. I long to be able to practice them again. But now I’ve entered this new phase as a mom. I’m excited right now to get to leave the house two days in a row.

It’s a new adventure. Where we don’t quite speak the same language, and this little one will have to adapt to my culture!

When I looked this up on Amazon in 2011, I saw there’s now a sequel – Female Nomads and Friends: Breaking Free and Breaking Bread Around the World. Guess that’s another book for my TBR list!

See all of the 31 Days of Reading Well posts.

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31 Days of Reading Well: Day 3

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The reason I read so much is to try to capture the feelings I get when I read that one gem, the one where you feel you know the characters so well it is heartbreaking to lay down the pages.

The one where, when I put it down, I am changed, I think more, I am moved.

There are stories I enjoy. I like most of the books I read; if I don’t like them in the first 50 or 100 pages I will give up and put it down. But there is something different about a story that tugs on your heart, that makes you cry or even sob, that makes you sure if you traveled to their town you might see the characters walking down the street—if the author has chosen to let them stay alive!

I’ve just, for the third time, finished A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving. While sometimes I forget to list it on my “all-time favorites,” it is without a doubt the book—other than the Bible—that has the most emotional pull for me. It puts me in a daze.

While I read it, I am in Gravesend, New Hampshire … I am growing up with John and Owen … it is almost a scary sort of trance. And now, finished, I want to cry over my life for not being so heroic. I am angry at myself for not reading the sort of books John teaches to 16- and 17-year-olds, real literature. I wish I could write with the immense power of forethought Irving has. I wish my faith were more refined.

And yet, somehow there has to be a wake up and face the music moment. Where I am just me, I have to go to the fabric store this afternoon and cook dinner and wonder what it is I would change about my life. I have to be my own protagonist.

What book has had the most emotional impact on you?

Originally published January 19, 2008.

Feels like home

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Can a Fool Be Wise?

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Because:

  • I’m tired
  • I’ve been working on lots of freelance stuff
  • I haven’t slept a whole night in at least six months
  • I don’t have anything new to say



I’m “rerunning” this post from October 2009. Enjoy, and looking forward to hearing your comments.

I’ve always struggled with Job.

While I consider God’s admonition in the last chapters of the book my second-favorite Scripture passage, I am never quite sure what to do with the rest of the lengthy chapters.

If you’re not familiar with the biblical Book of Job, the short version is that Satan asks God for permission to afflict Job with many painful situations after God cites that Job is His most faithful servant on earth. So God allows it. Job’s children are all killed, all his riches taken away, and his body inflicted with boils from head to toe. Wearily, he sits on his doorstep and scrapes at his boils with broken pottery.

That’s when his three buddies come to visit. Over the course of many chapters, they try to convince him of all kinds of crazyness. Then in the end God swoops in, reprimands Job and his dumb friends, and then restores everything to Job. Of the friends, God says, “I am angry with you … you have not spoken the truth about Me, as My servant Job has” (42:7).

So here’s what I’ve always battled with: is there any merit in the words of Job’s friends throughout the Book of Job? Can we quote those passages out of context as Truth?

It seems to me that they do say some insightful things:

“See how happy the man is God corrects; so do not reject the discipline of the Almighty” (5:17).

“We were born only yesterday and know nothing. Our days on earth are but a shadow” (8:9).

“It is impossible for God to do wrong and for the Almighty to act unjustly” (34:10).

Working in the world of Bible studies, I know we HAVE done exactly this, taken the friends’ words for the wisdom they seem to be. But God Himself said the friends were fools? It’s a strange dichotomy.

I believe that everything in Scripture is there for a reason. Certainly there are many truths that can be scraped from the falsehoods in this text. It’s a life lesson not to let even your most trusted friends draw you away from what you know to be true. A perfect example of standing up for what you believe in and remaining pure in heart.

But still, I wonder. Can we quote the words of fools as good, as Truth?

What do you think?

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Flashback: 10 Reasons I Hate St. Patrick’s Day

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A reminder from 2009 on why I won’t be wearing green today … and why I don’t care.

Ten Reasons I Hate St. Patrick’s Day


I’m sure missing out … I could look THIS stupid!!

1. I’m not Irish.

2. I’m not Catholic.

3. I don’t drink beer, so no enthusiasm over green beer.

4. Plus, going out to drink would cause me to be up later than 10 o’clock.

5. Leprechauns scare me.

6. I could never find a four-leaf clover.

7. I hate being pinched. (Anyone who has tried to pinch me today has been informed they will be kicked. And I am not kidding.)

8. I have green eyes, so that should be green enough.

9. I don’t look that good in green in the first place.

10. As Mr. V pointed out this morning, isn’t nearly every day some saint’s day? Why did we pick St. Patrick to celebrate as a full-out holiday?

Lest you think I hate every holiday, I promise, I love most of them. The ones that have a point. Like Easter, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and patriotic holidays.

Are you a St. Patrick’s enthusiast?

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Ten Favorite Christmas Albums

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Since I am just not feeling well in my 39-week pregnant state … I thought I’d re-share this post from a year ago. A new favorite Christmas album for me this year is Kristin Chenoweth’s A Lovely Way to Spend Christmas.

10. Home for Christmas / Amy Grant

One of my first Christmas TAPE loves. I could listen to “The Night Before Christmas” over and over again. You gotta have a little Amy in your Christmas music.

9. Snowed In / Hanson


Y’all know I cannot deny my Hanson obsession love. I could not even begin to tell you how many times Ashley and I listened to this CD during high-school Christmas times.

8. Anything by Bing Crosby


What’s Christmas music without “White Christmas”? Not only is the movie perfection, the song is a Christmas staple. I love pretty much anything by Bing.

7. The Nativity Story: Sacred Songs / Various Artists

A more recent favorite, this CD is honestly heavenly. I didn’t care much for the movie, but these “inspired by the movie” songs are just gorgeous. “The Virgin’s Lullaby” is enchanting and will provoke tears. Last year, I told you about “Labor of Love.” Seriously, this one is worth purchasing.

6. A Christmas Together / John Denver and the Muppets


And on a less serious note… This is one we also wore the heck out of the tape each Christmas. My parents were big John Denver fans and I grew up on his music. I was so glad to see they’ve added back the tracks from the tape that they had excluded when they originally put this on CD. Yay!

5. Anything by Manheim Steamroller, especially Christmas Celebration

I mean, you just can’t not feel Christmasy when you hear the first few bars of “Celebration,” the first track on this album. So much fun!

4. Let it Snow / Michael Buble

OK, so granted he must have been really busy because this album only has 6 tracks. But they’re still really good. And I love Michael Buble. Looooove.

3. The Living Room Sessions: Christmas / Chris Rice


I’m not usually that into instrumental music. I mean, I don’t sit around listening to classical music, generally speaking. Maybe Christmas changes that? Or maybe this piano music just makes me think of cold Virginia nights with ice on the trees and sitting around our old piano, singing in harmony or just listening to my daddy play.

2. Believe / Natalie Grant


I am a big Natalie Grant fan. I think she has an incredible voice. I was so happy when she did this Christmas album a few years ago. “I Believe” is a really lovely track.

1. Handel’s Messiah

Coming from a very musical family, Messiah is just the ultimate Christmas music! Every “Thanksmas” we attempt a few crazy chorales (I’m not up on my music terminology–is that the right word?). Singing through Messiah in college choir was one of my favorite life experiences. Challenging (especially for a second soprano … Handel didn’t do no second soprano part!) but awesome.

So … what song or album embodies Christmas for you? And when do you start listening to Christmas music?

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Mommy’s First Christmas

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Photobucket

I’m working on a series of guest posts on what I call “Mommy’s First Christmas”—how Christmas changes for you once you are a parent. So you’ll see a smattering of these over the next few weeks. Here is my reflection from last Christmas, originally entitled “Mary.”
______________

I think it’s probably only natural that this Christmas is different for me.

Not only I am too bogged down in newborn-ness to really decorate, bake, or buy presents, I’ve had a child this year.

Now when I reflect on the nativity on top of my china cabinet, I think a little differently. I consider how much pain Mary must have been in on her donkey, traveling many miles from Nazareth to Bethlehem (a quick Internet search says anywhere from 60 to 90 miles). I was so uncomfortable in my last weeks of pregnancy I could barely sit in my desk chair. I spent most of it on the couch watching movies and old Project Runway episodes. If she was having contractions, all the worse!

Now I am sure God could have given Mary a very easy labor if He wanted, and maybe He did, but why should we think it was any different than what we go through to give birth? She probably hurt tremendously. She certainly had no epidural. She was in a stinking stable! And can you imagine Joseph’s face as he had to cut the cord? Deliver the placenta?

Joseph and Mary were humans, and I think sometimes we forget that. And this year I can identify with Mary and look at the scene differently. Imagine her feelings of honor, excitement, pain, joy, and exhaustion all at the same time. And responsibility.

And then there was the Savior of the world, in her arms. Not just the joy of holding your own baby, whom you have carried in your belly for many months and felt kick and respond to your voice. The joy of holding in her arms her very own Savior.

I really, REALLY love the CD The Nativity Story: Sacred Songs. I would encourage you to go to iTunes or Amazon and at least get “The Virgin’s Lullaby” and this song, which has brought me to tears many times this season already.

Labor of Love (go listen here on Peterson’s own blog)
Andrew Peterson

It was not a silent night
There was blood on the ground
You could hear a woman cry
In the alleyways that night
On the streets of David’s town …

Originally posted December 13, 2008. Added to 5 Days of Christmas at A Slob Comes Clean.

It’s Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas on TV

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Yeah, I love White Christmas, It’s a Wonderful Life, and Rudolph. But I also love these obscure Christmas movies. Enjoy this rerun from 2007!

1. Christmas Every Day

Erik Von Detten (The Princess Diaries) made this movie when he was 14 in 1996…which happens to be the same age I was in 1996! It was a made-for-TV movie made in Richmond, VA, where I grew up. Erik’s character’s little brother wishes for it to be Christmas every day…and so in Groundhog Day-fashion, they repeat the holiday over and over until they get it right! :) Mostly I think I liked it cause it was in Richmond and because Erik was sooooo cute.

2. The Christmas Toy

My sister and I watched this movie every single year off a taped cassette. It’s about a room of toys that come alive when the humans are away. It’s Christmas Eve, and Rugby the Tiger is trying to figure out how he will be Jaime’s present again this year. Sadly, our VHS died this year and my sister had a mental breakdown. Apparently it now sells for like $85 on eBay. A VHS!! We were also fond of the 1986 “Celebrate the season with Kraft” commercials on our tape. [2009 update: They now have it on DVD. But without the 80s commercials.]

3. A Muppet Family Christmas

All of the Muppets and the entire cast of Sesame Street have Christmas together at Fozzie’s mom’s house. The Swedish chef tries to cook Big Bird. Miss Piggy can’t get home from shopping because it’s snowing. Classic. Oh, and they go to Fraggle Rock.

Merry Christmas!

Originally posted December 25, 2007

Family Recipe Fridays: Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

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For Family Recipe Friday this week, I am recycling this old post from December 2007.

When I got home from our choir concert tonight I was feeling a little blue. I think the beginning of December Christmas elation has worn off. I am ready to get to PA and see all the fam and actually do the celebrating. This week is the in-between. Hardly anyone is at work, everyone else has more vacation time. No parties. No church. Nothing until we leave next Sunday.

So instead of doing something useful, I wanted to bake. I started with brownies. One of the girls I teach on Wednesday night brought me one of those homemade jar mixes that you add liquid to. They have chocolate chips, white chocolate chips, walnuts…yuummmm.

But that was not labor-intensive enough, so I was scouring the Internet for a shortbread cookie recipe (and considered pound cake, except my loaf pan is dirty) and then just went and stood in the pantry. And I remembered this wonderful oatmeal-chocolate chip cookie recipe I used last year. YES!

It is from The Ultimate Chocolate Cookie Book. I have baked from this with great success–but always laughing, because it has the most pretentiously detailed recipes I’ve ever seen.

One reason I love the recipe is because it says to put two cookie sheets in the oven at the same time! Brilliant! OK, so I could probably always do this, but I don’t ever think of it, so I am very grateful to Bruce & Mike (authors) for that help.

It also happens to be one of Mr. V’s favorite kinds of cookies, and maybe he will forgive me for eating the Subway cookies he left in my purse if I feed him them and send the rest off to school with him tomorrow!! Shh, he hasn’t remembered yet.

So, without further ado, here is the recipe. I’ve deleted some of their superfluous instructions because I don’t want to be here all night!

Chocolate Chips Oatmeal Cookies
Makes about 4 dozen

2 1/4 cups rolled oats (not quick-cooking)
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
8 T (1 stick) cool, unsalted butter, cut into small pieces, plus additional for greasing baking sheets
1/2 c solid vegetable shortening (4 oz.)
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1 large egg, at room temperature (HA! Yeah, maybe it would be at room temperature if I ever thought about cooking in advance)
2 tsp vanilla extract
3 cups semisweet or bittersweet chocolate chips (I used 1 c. mini chocolate chips and 1 c. semisweet baking chocolate I cut into chunks, because that is what I had on hand)

1. Position the racks in the top and bottom thirds of the oven; preheat the oven to 375 F. Lightly butter two large baking sheets; set aside. Whisk the oats, flour, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl until well combined; set aside.

2. Beat the butter and shortening in a large bowl, using an electric mixer at medium speed, until softened and somewhat creamy, about 1 minute. Add both sugars and continue beating until airy, pale yellowy-brown, but still a little grainy, about 2 minutes (see what I mean?!). Beat in the egg and vanilla all at once.

3. Turn the mixer off, pour in the oat and flour mixture, then beat at a very low speed until just incorporated. The dough should be cohesive but crumbly. Stir in the chocolate chips with a wooden spoon or spatula until distributed throughout.

4. Roll the dough into balls about the size of a walnut and place on the prepared baking sheets, spacing them about 1 1/2 inches apart. Flatten the balls slightly with the back of a spoon–don’t make an indentation or let the sides crack; rather, gently push down just to take the roundness of the tops.

Here are the cookies pre-smash:

5. Bake for 8 minutes, then rotate the sheets back to front and top to bottom. Continue baking for about 8 more minutes, or until the cookies are lightly browned but still soft to the touch. Cool for 3 minutes on the sheets, then transfer the cookies to wire racks and cool completely. Cool the baking sheets for 5 minutes, then butter them again to make additional batches.

There you have it, the most detailed cookie recipe you never knew you wanted.

But it does make a delicious cookie.

Some of these are a little more done than I would have liked. Maybe I did not rotate the sheets well enough or should cook them for 7.34 minutes each time instead of 8.

Join the carnival! Write a post about one of your family’s favorite recipes on your blog and then link up to your specific post here with MckLinky. Then cruise around and check out all the delicious recipes!

Dreaming

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My husband swears that he has never remembered a dream. Are any of you like that? I can’t imagine that being the case. I tend to go through periods where I dream insanely, and then periods where I can’t remember anything at all. Last night’s dream I don’t remember specifically, but it was strange. I’ve never really had recurrent dreams like some people. But man, I have had some bizarre things running through my head. I’ve always thought my imagination was way too vivid for my own good.

I was very pleased to find out from the link above that many other people have had this dream: I was back in college and apparently forgot to go to class all semester, but then I had to take the final exam. That really freaked me out. I feel like this is kind of recurrent for me, mostly that I can’t figure out why I haven’t gone to class, since I was always a pretty good and responsible student. It’s never the same class or the same images, but the feeling is one I think keeps returning in a dream.

Back in the Hanson days I had a few dreams involving them, and that was always a treat. Around the same time, I was totally stuck on this guy in my youth group. He was totally the “it” guy. (I was watching our youth choir this Sunday and trying to figure out who the “it” guy is in our church youth group. Isn’t there always one?) I remember having a very vivid dream where we went out for coffee and he was all romantic and sweet and when I woke up I had that moment where I thought it was real. When I remembered it was a dream, I think I may have cried.

My sister would never let me forget it if I didn’t share my most insane dream story, however. She won’t let me forget it anyway, because she thinks it’s the funniest story in the world. Except for the time I told her to lock the doors to the car because there were signs up that said “Surveying.” And I thought someone was going to stop us and give us a survey. Stop laughing!

The summer after my freshman year in college I was a summer missionary. I worked at a youth mission camp as a counselor/worship leader/slave with three other girls. It was the best summer ever, but we slept at most from midnight to five during camp weeks. It was grueling! So at some point in this summer, I was at home and took a nap on the couch. And I had this dream.

I dreamt I was in a very old house and I was babysitting. For a whole slue of children. And all of the children looked like little round heads with triangle bodies, like bad drawings of a swaddled baby. (Recalling this dream, I always called them the “pea-sized children.”) While I was trying to baby-sit, I kept getting e-mails from the mother of these children, who was upstairs and was a known crazy lady. I think she was a painter and was supposed to be working. Well, I got to the point where she started to worry me, but I didn’t know what to do with the masses of children. So I lined them all up on the street, laying down. Then I ran upstairs, worried about the mother. And there she had killed herself, next to a painting of the Virgin Mary.

That’s when I woke up. And I was really, really scared. According to my sister, Ashley, I rushed into the room where she was and started asking, “Where’s Mom? Where’s Mom?” She said my eyes were as big as saucers. And I started going on about the pea-sized children.

Mom was at work, she told me. So I went and laid back down. And have never lived it down.

So what’s your wackiest dream?

I guess this post is recurrent. Originally published December 19, 2007.

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