Fall Into Reading 2011

My blog friend Katrina hosts a twice yearly reading challenge in which participants list books they plan to read in the course of the challenge and then note their progress at its conclusion. It's always fun to participate (did you know Katrina has giveaways and prizes?!) and I usually end up with a longer-than-usual amazon wishlist after seeing all the great books that others are reading. So, for Katrina's Fall into Reading 2011 challenge, I plan to read the following titles (subject to reader discretion and whim, of course)...

NON-FICTION/MEMOIR

Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption by Laura Hillebrand
Everyone's reading it. Everyone's raving about it. My husband read it and raved about it. Now I'm reading it.

The God Who Is There: Finding Your Place in God's Story by D.A. Carson
It's cheating a little bit to add this one to my list because I'm more halfway done with it. It's one that Rebecca highly recommended and for good reason.

Surprised by Oxford: A Memoir by Carolyn Weber
I have been intrigued by the reviews I've read on this one and I am eager to read it for myself.

Why Church Matters: Discovering Your Place in the Family of God by Joshua Harris
I received this title for review and the press release that was included states that "Loving Jesus Christ involves a passionate commitment to His church--not just your presence in the pew." Yes and amen.


FICTION

The Queen by Steven James
I am a big fan of James' Patrick Bowers thrillers and I cannot wait to read this, the latest in the series. If it is anything like its predecessors it will be smart, witty, well-written, and intense.

Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy
You know I have to throw in a classic title, or two. I've intended to read something of Hardy's for quite some time and no doubt I've listed a book by him in past reading challenges. This time, though, I really mean it.

100 Cupboards by N.D. Wilson
I forget where I first saw this book mentioned but again I've heard nothing but good about it.


OTHER POSSIBILITIES

Since I like keeping my options open (did I mention the whim of the reader earlier?) and I always have a (very long) running list of books I'm eager to read, here are other titles I'm interested in that may well find their way to my reading list over the course of the challenge...

• The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim 
• Made to Crave: Satisfying Your Deepest Desire with God, Not Food by Lysa Terkheurst
• Give Them Grace: Dazzling Your Kids with the Love of Jesus by Elyse Fitzpatrick and Jessica Thompson
• The Bible or the Axe: One Man's Dramatic Escape From Persecution in the Sudan by William O. Levi
• A Mountain of Crumbs: A Memoir by Elena Gorokhova
• King's Cross: The Story of the World in the Life of Jesus by Tim Keller
• A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
• Licensed to Kill: A Field Manual for Mortifying Sin by Brian Hedges

Do you have a stack of books you're planning to read this fall? Make a list and link up at Katrina's! You can also see what other reading challenge participants are reading and, like me, find even more books to add to your stack. Plus, there's prizes and giveaways all along the way!

Happy Blog Anniversary to me!

Today, September 22, marks five years of blogging here at Lisa writes... Five years! Over eight hundred and seventy posts! Who knew I once had so much to say?

However sporadic my posting may currently be, I am thankful for this hobby and for the friendships and connections I have gained with fellow bloggers literally from around the world. I am grateful for our online conversations and for the encouragement I gain from your comments and emails and blog posts. What a blessing you are to me! How good and great is our God to use the internet medium to bring into my life a community of women that I esteem and respect so!

To those of you who read and comment, to those of you who read but never comment, and to those of you who lean over at the football game or stop me in the grocery store to tell me that you read--thank you. Your choosing to stop by and read my humble thoughts (when I actually have some and post them) humbles me. I don't know if this blog will live to see another five years or even another five months but I do know this: I love thinking through my faith and my journey as a mom and wife and sometime Bible teacher and I love writing about those things and I love interacting with you and your faith and your journey and I love that the Lord has graciously blessed me with all these for five years and some eight hundred posts, such as they are.

And, for the curious, here's my first post: Confessions of a Newbie. I am glad to know my desire remains the same: for the Lord to be honored and for others to be encouraged. How I hope it has been so!

Physical Evidence

Jules tagged me with the following meme reasoning that because bloggers sometimes need a comic boost and a nudge, why not a meme which demands physical evidence:

1. What could serve as physical evidence that you sometimes lose focus?

My multifocus (a.k.a. bifocal) contact lens

2. What could serve as physical evidence that you are loved?

My husband who knows me best and sees the very worst of me and still comes home for supper.

3. What could serve as physical evidence that you’re from wherever you’re from?

There's the fact that I make a gallon of sweet tea a day, as well as the fact I would never, not ever, no never dare to wear white shoes after Labor Day, but the biggest evidence is most likely in my speech. Yes, I have something of a drawl an accent, y'all.

4. What could serve as physical evidence that you went anywhere this past week?

How about the sack of flour I purchased this morning, despite having been to the store yesterday and the day before?

5. What could serve as physical evidence that you recently caved in to temptation?

The Target receipt from my last trip to the big city which shows that not only did I buy a pair of red flats but I paid FULL PRICE for them too...

What to join along? Consider yourself tagged and let us know in the comments so we can examine your evidence as well. See who else Jules tagged and check out their responses!

Birthdays past and present

Sunday was my birthday, 43 years! It was a great day, a day of friends and family, good food and fun gifts. What better way to begin a birthday than worshipping the Lord I love with people I love? After church we had lunch with my good friend and her family, a joint celebration of both our birthdays, mine on Sunday, hers on Monday. And of course we had cake!

I also enjoyed birthday greetings and well wishes via email and text, phone call and Facebook, hugs and even announcements from the pulpit. I am so grateful for such an outpouring of sentiment! How could I not have had a good day?

Birthdays at this juncture in life often prompt a good deal of reflection and remembrance on the part of the celebrator. I can't help but think of birthdays past, the traditions and excitement of my childhood celebrations as well as the transition to more "grown up" observances. When my sister and I were girls, my mom made us "doll cakes" for our birthdays, an elaborately decorated bundt cake serving as the skirt of a Barbie figurine. They were always so beautiful to me, almost too beautiful to eat! She would also sew a birthday dress to the birthday girl's specifications. What fun to go to the fabric store several days pre-birthday and pore over the pattern books, then picking the perfect fabric for the perfect dress. The birthday honoree also got to pick the restaurant for the birthday meal, though it seems in my memory we all always picked Red Lobster.

I have few memories of specific birthday celebrations. I do remember the year my sister (without much prying) confessed to me every single one of my gifts. I remember us standing in the tree house and she (not so very) reluctantly telling me of the surprises that awaited, though now I can only remember one: a Laverne and Shirley board game. Why that particular gift stands out in my mind, who knows?

I also remember the year I got pantyhose, the first step toward womanhood--or so I thought. In my excitement and surprise of that birthday, I could not imagine a day (like now, at 43) when I wouldn't even own a pair much less wear any within the last decade! I also remember my twelfth birthday (I think), when my best friend gave me a small zippered bag containing blush, mascara and cherry flavored lip gloss. Makeup!! I remember my mom's look of dismay when I showed her and her warning that we would have to check with my dad to see what he thought. I suppose he gave his consent; I never knew otherwise if he did not. I think I understand now, these many years later, her look of dismay.

I remember my first birthday away from home as a college freshman at Baylor University. The girls who lived in the dorm room across the hall threw me a surprise party of sorts; these same girls would a couple of years later come into my room in our condo we were renting and sing to me despite my protestations that my birthday really was on the fourth and not the second of September!

Later birthdays are more of a blur; I do recall my birthday sixteen years ago when I was, shall we say, great with child. He was due on the third but wouldn't make his arrival until he was forced to do so on the twelfth. More recent birthdays are more often than not marked by football games and soccer practices and the like. Every so often we all enjoy a three day holiday on my birthday like this past weekend! Regardless, my men sing to me and hug me and tell me they love me and these are the best birthday celebrations.

I am thankful for 43 years of life. I am glad for the perspective that 43 years bring. I am so grateful for the multitude of blessings that the Lord in His grace has granted to me over the course of my life. I see His sovereignty and in His sovereignty I see His goodness. I am humbled. I am glad. I am grateful.

Saturday morning thoughts following a Friday night win

I love Friday night football.

I love watching my boy play.

I love watching my boy catch a pass for a touchdown.

And doing it again!

I love the exhilaration and the elation and the high five's that follow a score.

I love winning and winning big.

I love Saturday mornings after a game, examining the newspaper's coverage (finding only two errors), and remembering the fun of the night before.

I love then sitting out on the back porch with my coffee on that same Saturday morning and reading that day's Bible reading, today's reminding me that the fear of the Lord leads to life and that the purpose of the Lord will stand, that the Lord of hosts is holy, holy, holy and the whole earth is full of his glory.

I love knowing that the temporal joys of this world--football and touchdowns and victories--serve to point me to a far greater joy, a lasting joy, a joy found only in the Lord Jesus Christ. Football games will fade from memory but my joy in Christ is eternal, yes and amen!

I love the Lord, the giver of all good things, and I am thankful there is grace in wins...and in losses...and that in both, as in all things, He is glorified and He is sovereign and He is good...and this I remember even as I hope for another victory next week!

Pinterest made me do it

So I've been dabbling a little here and there, browsing the beautiful images and fantastic ideas posted on Pinterest and in the process I became intrigued by pictures like the following:

Don't you love the black doors...on the inside? So I googled "painting interior doors black" and discovered all sorts of gorgeous images:

So...can you see where this is going? You guessed it: I threw caution to the wind, pulled down the can of black paint the painters used on our shutters when we had the exterior of our house painted a month or so ago and after a quick sanding, I painted all my interior doors downstairs.

Here's some before shots --oh, and please excuse the poor photo quality since I took these with my phone and they really are terrible...

The breakfast area:

The hallway looking toward the front door:

The family room:

And here's the after shots...

Yes, I painted two sets of French doors, a feat I hope never to replicate! If ever I get tired of the black, I'm thinking I'll just have to buy new doors...

So, what do you think of black interior doors? Yay...or nay? Hit...or miss?

Status Report, September

Reviving...the blog, at least long enough for the humble status report.

Sitting...out on the back porch. It's 8:00 in the morning, the fan is circulating, and, still, it is hot. Please, fall, come soon!

Drinking...coffee, black.

Surveying...the damage Darcy the puppy wrought on the screen door. She busted through yesterday while I was away from home. Bad puppy!

Impressed...by Blogger's new interface. Have you seen it? A nice, clean look. I like it.

Unplugging...from most social media for the past few days. I haven't been on twitter in nearly a week! Have I missed anything? Somehow I think not.

Wondering...what the average life span of a blog is? As I look to the five year mark of this blog's existence and find myself uncertain as to its future, I'm curious to know if five years is a long or short time by blog reckoning.

Celebrating...my number 2 son's sixteenth birthday next weekend. Can you believe it? Did you know it's my husband's birthday as well? What a wonderful gift our son is to us! We are so proud of him and we look forward to marking this milestone birthday with friends and family.

Also celebrating...my birthday on Sunday. 43! Wow. It sounds old but I don't feel old. Though this is a strange stage of life I'm in, I think I like the 40's better than the 20's. Anyone else?

Deliberating...about teaching Bible study this fall and what (if) to teach. I am thinking through issues like our purpose and what we hope to accomplish and whether it is profitable or merely redundant. Don't misunderstand: I know that Bible study is important! Critical! Necessary! Good! If you've read this blog for any length of time you know of my passion for the study of God's Word. I am thinking in  terms of my specific group. There is so much good teaching at my church (SO. MUCH. GOOD.)--we are incredibly blessed. Contemplating my class's place is a good thing, I think, and so is being open to new avenues the Lord may have for us in terms of ministering to women. An accountability group, perhaps? Who knows how the Lord will lead? We seek Him!

Planning...to clean out the pantry today. Ugh. Other (not so) fun items on today's to-do list: cleaning up my boo-boos from a recent painting project, tackling the ever present laundry, as well as giving the porch a good cleaning. My to-do lists are usually pretty ambitious so we'll see how much actually gets done.

Happy September, friends!