totally stolen from micah

1. One book that changed your life: the Bible. [next on the list: john piper's the pleasures of God]

2. One book that you’ve read more than once: francine rivers' redeeming love

3. One book you’d want on a desert island: the Bible again

4. One book that made you laugh: eats, shoots, and leaves (yes, i am a grammar nazi)

5. One book that made you cry: taliesin by stephen lawhead

6. One book that you wish had been written: the lord peter wimsy mystery novel where he and his newly-wedded bride (harriett vane) have a baby.

7. One book that you wish had never been written: bill myer's fire of heaven.

9. One book you’ve been meaning to read: the enduring community by les newsom and brian habig

10. Now tag five people: you, you, you, you, and you. (do 5 people even read my blog?)

Question

does anyone know how to get blood out of leather?

Music Meme

i am totally making this up as i go.

1. Favorite Song of All Time: Alas! and Did My Savior Bleed?
2. Favorite Singer: tie between Sandra McCracken and Andrew Peterson
Favorite Song by Sandra McCracken: No More Tears
Favorite Song by Andrew Peterson: Carried Along
3. Favorite Band: Shane & Shane
Favorite Song by Shane & Shane: The Answer
Runners Up: Psalm 118, You Said, Song of Surrender, Hosea
4. Favorite Band from the 90s: Out of the Grey
Favorite Song by Out of the Grey: three-way tie between Remember This, Disappear, and My God You Are (Psalm 22)
5. Favorite Singer from the 80s: Sandi Patti. So sue me.
Favorite Song by Sandi Patti: Via Dolorosa
6. Favorite Country Song: Somebody's Hero
7. Favorite Country Band of the Moment: The Wreckers
Favorite Song by The Wreckers: Leave the Pieces
8. Favorite Disney Channel Singer/Band: Aly & AJ
Favorite Song by Aly & AJ: Slow Down
9. Favorite U2 Song: Grace
10. Favorite Movie Soundtrack: Shrek 2
Runner Up: Sweet Home Alabama
11. Favorite Broadway Musical Soundtrack: Aida
12. Favorite Psych-Up Music for Basketball Games: Soul Survivor
13. Not Mentioned Old Favorite Singers/Bands*: Amy Grant, Cindy Morgan, Babbie Mason, Point of Grace, Bebo Norman, Caedmon's Call
14. Single Album You Would Take on a Road Trip: Carry Away by Shane & Shane
15. Single Artist's Work You Would Take on a Desert Island for the Rest of Your Life: Indelible Grace (hey, it counts)
16. Favorite Love Song: "Springtime Indiana" by Sandra McCracken
Runner Up: "A Page Is Turned" by Bebo Norman
17. Favorite Song by Someone Not Mentioned: "She Must and Shall Go Free" by Derek Webb

* I actually still listen to alot of Bebo and Caedmon's. They just don't make the top of the list.

Oh My Gosh

it is so good to have katie home. :)

word to the wise: shane & shane are unbelievable. like amazing. like you should buy all their cds and listen to them a ton. i mean really.

actually, i have an idea. be right back.

SpongeBob Hater

*disclaimer: i don't actually hate spongebob, though i'm not exactly a big fan. that's just what my brother suggested i title this sucker.

katie's home! (that would be my sister.)

also of note: i'm hungry, i love justice, and i would like to see "my super exgirlfriend."

i am addicted to the flipword game on yahoo.

i really need to start reading my oscar wilde biography - it's sooooooooooooo long though.

i have to review my brother's latin stuff and teach him now to study. it'll be interesting.

PARTY

just kidding.

"a few good men" was a good movie.

At the Risk of Sounding Like a Commercial...

boundless.org has two more great articles this week.

the one by j. budziszewski is about gender differences. it's crowning statement? "There's no such thing as generic person. There are only men and women." the rest of it is good too.

kirk cameron's article features these whiz-bang sentences:
"sin is not an honest mistake and Jesus did not die to make you happy."
"within the last 100 years, a new gospel has crept into our churches. it has been designed not to offend you...it gently suggests that you open your heart to jesus if your current lifestyle isn't working for you, and try God 'when the time is right for you.'"

he also quotes george whitefield: "first, then, before you can speak peace to your hearts, you must be made to see, made to feel, made to weep over, made to bewail, your actual transgressions against the law of God."

So I Got This Phone Call Today

it was pretty shocking. i was in the upper room (a room upstairs with a nice sized high def tv and the accompanying accoutrements, some comfortable seating, and a ton of my books and bills) reading the no. 1 ladies' detective agency, when my cell phone started vibrating. it was my dad.

now this may not strike you as odd if a) you know my father, b) you know me, c) you've been reading my blog for more than like 6 days, or d) some combo thereof, but that is because you are missing an important factor: he was in the same house as me, and he knew it. and guess what he was calling for - to tell me i'm special and he loves me very much, a thought he has communicated to me pretty darn frequently even just today.

the bar has been set awfully high for any potential suitors in my future, huh? :)

Oh My Poor Feet

should my feet hurt after working for 8.5 hours (with 3.5 hours and then 4.25 hours spent entirely on my feet)? they do, but is that something i should be okay with, or are even my new shoes crappy?

i have alot of fun thoughts about "the critic as artist," a dialogue-style essay by oscar wilde, but i'm too exhausted to think about it.

Ramblings

wts-dallas is definitely number one on the list. i'm tired and i had a big headache today. i love books. tomorrow i have to work for almost 9 hours. i am a selfish wretch - i'm realizing more and more just how preoccupied with me i am. it's very humbling.

i love law and order. and my parents rock.

Omigosh!

katie (that would be my sister) is coming home for 7 weeks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Let All Things Now Living

let all things now living
a song of thanksgiving
to God the Creator triumphantly raise -
Who fashioned and made us,
protected and stayed us,
Who guides us and leads till the end of our days.
His banners are o'er us,
His light goes before us,
a Pillar of fire shining forth in the night;
till shadows have vanished
and darkness is banished
as forward we travel from light into light.

His law He enforces
the stars in their courses
the sun in its orbit obediently shines
the hills and the mountains
the rivers and fountains
the deeps of the ocean proclaim Him divine.
we too should be voicing
our love and rejoicing;
with glad adoration, a song let us raise
till all things now living
unite in thanksgiving
to God in the highest, hosanna and praise!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

we sang this hymn in church today and i remembered how much i love it. it really is wonderful. :)

just one major thought - "His banners are o'er us" would be a reference to the song of solomon 2:4-> "He has taken me to the banquet hall, and his banner over me is love." not only should this line conjure up battle imagery, but lover imagery as well.

the Lord is a warrior and a husband, eh?

I Think...

...that my favorite movie is "pirates of the caribbean: curse of the black pearl." i just don't think there is any way around it.

and really bad eggs.

Bobbi Brown

every girl wants to beautiful, and feeling beautiful really makes a difference in a girl's confidence. i think that's the biggest perk of makeup, actually. today i went by the bobbi brown counter at the mall and got a makeover, bought some makeup, and came home feeling fabulous. it's amazing how much some powdery stuff and some mascara can really make a difference in how i feel about how i look. i know that probably sounds so incredibly shallow, but it's going on inside me. and i think it's ok. makeup and fashion and shoes and all that are loads of fun in my opinion, but only if they don't supplant more important things. i have a whole fun philosophy of makeup, but i won't bore y'all with that. i just wanted to be like "yay makeup" and wound up explaining it and defending it kinda. i am weirdddddddddddd.

oh, and i have exciting news: i now have eight (8) chairs to go around my dropleaf table, which belonged to my great grandmother gertrude. how cool is that? mom and i drove out to the boonies and looked for hours today before coming back to down and - rather close to home - we found the most comfortable ones - which were, relatively speaking, inexpensive.

I Like This Article

you should read it.

Some Ponderances

(didn't want to call it "some thoughts," as i thought that might be stealing)

i am reading the picture of dorian gray right now in preparation for my directed reading on oscar wilde. it's certainly cleared up a few things for me about how/why people like wilde were so incredibly dysfunctional. in fact, i have started to wonder how people caught up in the sort of lifestyle so common to the english landed classes in the 1800s ever turned out moderately healthy.

tomorrow is another "big event" at the good ole b&n, this one centering on e.b. white's charlotte's webb. party time. :)

darren wanted a sample of what is on that big list i wrote of books i would like to read. here's that sample:
crunchy cons by rod dreher
stop dating the church by joshua harris
on writing: a memoir of the craft by stephen king
a total waste of makeup by kim gruenenfelder
the grits guide to life by deborah ford
the color of water by james mcbride
the dressmaker by elizabeth oberback
heat by bill buford
the novelist by angela elwell hunt
stonehenge by bernard cornwell
the poisonwood bible by barbara kingsolver
the secret life of bees by sue monk kidd

there's the sample. :)

"I Am a Handsome Bald Man"

that (^) has got to be the greatest quote from my (thus far) favorite episode of dharma and greg, which is a FABULOUSLY hilarious show i happen to adore. i have way too much time on my hands.

so now mama and i are getting down to business in two major areas - organizing my finances (which is largely a teaching/guiding process for her of me, if that makes sense) and finding dining room chairs for my apartment. estate sales here we come!! :)

i love watermelon. i also love books, and i made a huge list of books i want to read the other day. it's not really a "huge" list, but it only includes "fun books" - nothing too exhausting or taxing, except a little theology. mostly candy bar books, in other words.

Kill or Be Killed

tim tinsley preached a lovely sermon yesterday on romans 8:12-17 about the doctrine of adoption. here are some great quotes and thoughts from it.

God doesn't invite us into His kingdom to clean us up and make us presentable. He does not let us stay with Him temporarily - He full-out adopts us, giving us full rights and privileges of children of God (and coheirs with Christ). we are not second-class citizens in His kingdom - we are sons and daughters.

as we grow in Christ, we don't get more faith, we get more knowledge of the faithfulness of God. His trustworthiness is proven to us over time. that's part of the Holy Spirit's gig - He moves into our hearts and begins immediately convincing us that we are sons and daughters. we need convincing of this. children behave differently than hired help - children have different attitudes than hired help. furthermore, children act like hosts in their Father's house, not like guests.

the family trait of the family of God is holiness

there is a difference between conviction and condemnation

the doctrine of adoption is dropped down here in this passage between "no condemnation" and "no separation" which is way cool
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
by the way, i wasn't pancake pig. i did alot of fun other stuff instead, like read the story and plan the craft and blow bubbles. (the bubbles are their favorite part.)

Pajamarama and Baby Proof

so i know i haven't been so great at updating regularly. that is mostly due to two factors: 1) i have been rather busy, and 2) i have been rather exhausted. i hope to resume more or less daily posts starting with this one. i've got alot stocked up to write about.

today, however, i will tell you about friday night. we had our monthly pajamarama, when a character from a children's book comes to visit our store. we do a special story time, and the kids come in their pajamas (usually) in the late evening. this time, our guest was pancake pig. woohoo to that, huh?

to make things more complicated, emily giffin (author of something borrowed, something blue, and the new york times best seller baby proof) . we had a rather sizey crowd of mostly young women, unsurprising since she's a chic-lit heroine. she was really sweet, which is not exactly normal for an author. i've personally only read something borrowed, and while i really enjoyed her style of writing and her honesty about the human condition (so to speak), it wasn't what i expected and i was kinda disappointed. not in her ability as an author, but in the plot and a couple of the characters. read the blurb and you'll see why.

i'm so glad my mom is home. it's such a relief to not eat lunch alone every day. :)

Im Tired

i am. tired. very. tired. it's annoying.

i love america.

"but may you never be so happy that you forget about your home
your home in the land of the free" - andy peterson

sandra has a new cd coming out. i'm so excited.

the devil wears prada was hilarious. superman returns was great. i'm going to see pirates on saturday.

did i mention i was tired?

my condolences to all hockey fans bemoaning the loss of that guy who retired.

Speaking of...

..."fireworks and rain," that's what happened tonight. it ended in a pretty pathetic way...

3 Main Thoughts

1) the number one way to reaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaally make me mad is to pick on either my mother or my sister. in this case it was my mom who was ill-treated, and i am madder than a wet hen and a wet cat - COMBINED.

2) superman returns was a good movie.

3) it should not be necessary for the movie theater to have a sign that says "children under 6 years of age will not be allowed in R rated movies after 6 pm."