Another book post...

I love books. I've been gobbling them up since I started reading in kindergarten. I loved spending my afternoons reading in the summer, and I went to library at least once or twice a week.

College ruined my ability to read for fun. It's true. In college, they make you read so many academic books that you pull out something you want to read, and then put it back on the shelf before even opening it. I did not have the time or desire to read anything after pouring through 30 pages of music history, or 10 pages of music theory. And so, college killed my ability to read fun things.

Last summer, I made a conscious effort to pull all the books that I'd bought but hadn't read yet, and read them. I did fairly well...maybe only a few were left over by the time school started again in September. But once again, the exhausting activities of school brought reading to a halt.

With a combination of tv shows that hooked me in and this project that I'm working on for my friend, I haven't been reading too much this summer, either. But yesterday, I picked up a book my mom gave me for my birthday: "So Long Insecurity" by Beth Moore. I was maybe a few chapters into it already, so I started where I left off.

Every single person on this earth is insecure about something. Everyone handles it differently, but everyone has those little things that hinder them from being the person that God wants them to be. Reading through the pages made me realize that I have more insecurities than I thought. And while I won't spill them all here, I will say some of them are incredibly stupid, and have made me act in incredibly stupid ways. And I hope that reading this book will force me to realize what most of them are, and with God's help, hopefully deal with them.

Deep, huh?

Short posts are better than nothing at all...

...right?

I had a wonderful weekend. Babysat on Friday night for my fav family. It was the most interesting experience with them ever. Managed to accidentally lock myself and the kids out of the house while we were playing outside. Mom had to come home and let us in, but she didn't get there soon enough and the youngest had an accident before we could make it to the neighbor's bathroom. Shoot. Everything turned out ok, but I learned my lesson about closing doors before checking if they lock automatically.

Saturday I spent the morning catching up with my friend, Julie. We ate a delicious breakfast at the Cookie Jar (their caramel rolls are amazing.) She's such a sweetheart, and it was good to spend time with her. Soon enough she'll be married and moving away, which makes me sad. But I suppose we all must grow up someday.

Visited the gym Saturday afternoon, and then went on a wonderful date with Jonathan. He had a great groupon (yes, I spelled that right. Don't ask me what a groupon is...because I still haven't figured it out) to Timberlodge Steakhouse. If you don't mind shelling out some serious money for a meal, go there. It was excellent.

Normal Sunday activities included church, napping, and laundry. I was able to read a few chapters in my book as well as complete a little more of my gift that I'm making for Julie. I sure hope I can finish it before the end of May.

There's a pretty short run down of the weekend's amazingness. And, as always, I'm counting the days until the next weekend. Everyone lives for the weekends, but even more so after you are out of college and working day in and day out. I think this week should fly by, though.

Weekend has arrived!

I don't think I've ever been so grateful for a weekend to arrive. This week has been very....off. I don't know what the deal is, but I just had trouble focusing all week.

Hoping an evening with my favorite babysitting family will bring my spirits up.

Book Review - The Shack by William Young

I'm very behind the trends when it comes to book reading. "The Shack" has been circulating book stores for quite a while. I've heard very polarized opinions about this book. Some people hate it because it isn't the "God in a box" like they're used to, while others love the fact that someone had the guts to take God out of the box.

No matter what your opinion may be, I think this book is a good piece of fiction that should be read. The book starts with its main character, Mack, who receives a letter from "Papa" in the mail. Papa is the nickname that Mack's wife uses for God. The letter asks Mack to spend the weekend at the shack.

A flashback in time reveals the story surrounding the shack. Mack's youngest daughter, Missy, was abducted while the family was on a camping trip. She was never found, but the trail led them to a shack in the woods where they last found evidence of her.

Without revealing the entire book and all of its "out of the box" contents, Mack ends up going to the shack, and he meets God there. He learns some amazing things about himself, about Missy, and about God's love for him and his family.

It took me quite a while to read this book (only because I don't make the time to read like I should). I really enjoyed it, and I loved that the author took God out of the old, white, grandfather like figure that everyone defaults to. If you want to stretch your views about God, love, and forgiveness, read this book. I'd even let you borrow my copy.

Blog Direction?

I don't really want to discontinue with this blog forever. It's fun to write out things once in a while for people to see, and for myself to read back on later.

I'm trying to decide what direction I want to take it, though. Let's face it, it's pretty boring right now. Sporadic updates on my mundane life just isn't cutting it. I just end up writing the same things over and over. And over. And over.

A few ideas that just popped into my head:

-Book reviews (though I have just as much time to read as I do to update this blog. Hmm.)

-Local/National events and my opinions about them. (Might be fun.)

-Music reviews....though I'm guessing my taste in music is quite a bit different than most of my followers (all two of you.)

-Workout log. I'm not trying to lose weight, just get fit. I like to set goals for myself, so maybe it would help me keep track of them better.

-Cooking. I like to cook. I don't do it very often. But I like to read the blogs with recipes and pictures of all the yummy food that they make.

Maybe a mixture of all of the above? Plus the normal and mundane? Maybe everything put together would make it more interesting.

What do you guys think? Any ideas?

Update

Well...the non resolution resolutions are going fairly well. Though I've done my fair share of worrying, I've done my best not to.

But the best part is that I joined a gym this past weekend. And I've gone to it five times already. And I feel great.

That's all.

Virtual Slumber Party

Earlier today, I got a facebook message from a friend. She's feeling a little lonely where she's living now with her husband, so she decided to recreate some of the craziness that we used to have in high school in a unique way. A virtual slumber party.

In high school, our lives seemed to revolve around slumber parties. Staying up all night watching movies was the usual. So, my friend proposed we all have our own slumber parties in our respective places. Take pictures of ourselves doing everything over the course of the evening and then share with each other. I thought it sounded fun.

I discovered tonight that high school was a long time ago...and that I feel like an old lady not being able to make it past eleven.

Nevertheless, I did what I could. It's a lot more fun when you're with someone than alone, I'm afraid. So, also for your viewing pleasure: http://www.flickr.com/photos/45026563@N02/?saved=1

A Good Start

In an effort to record some progress and keep all my devoted blog readers updated (like there are so many of you), I've started making at least a little progress on my non-resolution resolutions.

First step began two evenings ago, when I spent the entire evening balancing my checking/savings accounts and figuring out how much money it actually takes to sustain my life for a month. It felt good to finally have everything pretty much in order. Now, if only my upcoming paychecks can live up to my projected needs. Hopefully.

In other news, I haven't made any attempt to become active yet. But, I discovered the perfect amount of sleep to feel good in the morning: 8 to 8 1/2 hours. Maybe now I can plan an appropriate bedtime. Instead of thinking, I can survive on 6 hours of sleep, I should be thinking...I need 8 to 8 1/2 to function tomorrow. This is all wishful thinking, because I haven't been able to make myself have a bedtime since I was like 14. We shall see.

Snowy day today. On the Early Show on CBS, the weather map said our part of the country was the "Frozen Tundra." I would say that's pretty appropriate. I've been enjoying the morning off of work, but feel somewhat obligated to go in this afternoon. I'm rather enjoying just watching the snow blowing around outside my window rather than going out in it.

Until next time!

Non-Resolution Resolutions

I've never been a big fan of New Year Resolutions. They rarely work out, and then when the next new year comes around you just look back and think about the failed attempts.

So...I normally don't make any. That doesn't mean that I don't think about things that I want to change when the new year rolls around just like everybody else.

A couple of things that I would like to change (but that I will not label as resolutions):

1. Worrying. I worry way too much. Probably enough for me and five other people. This has been pointed out to me multiple times, mostly by my boyfriend. And lately, I just know that I'd be a happier person if I'd quite worrying about how things are going to turn out and just let them happen. So, here's to hopefully at least worrying less from now on. I somewhat made the decision on Sunday at church. It's been working pretty well so far.

2. Budgeting. I've tried budgets before, but never stuck with them very long. Since my savings account was emptied of it's last few dollars at the end of December, it's more important now more than ever to figure out where the heck my money is going, and to plan for it.

3. Exercising. The times are against me at this point since I just lost my free gym privileges as a college student, and I have no way of paying for a gym membership. However, I do have taebo dvd's, and some excellent home workouts in a magazine I subscribed to. I have not started anything yet, but I hope to.

I think three is a pretty good number for resolu....I mean....changes. We'll see how it goes.

Bittersweet

Part of me is rejoicing that I'm not joining the rest of the college masses and going back to classes tomorrow. And part of me feels really weird that I'm not trying to find the cheapest textbook and looking up to figure out where my class meets tomorrow.

Being done is weird.

That is all.

Happy New Year!

2010. Seems like a foreign number, right? I remember when my youngest sister graduated from kindergarten, they announced the class of 2011. Everyone laughed, and I'm pretty sure I thought that the 2000's would never exist.

But here we are, ten years into them. 2010 seems to be starting off with a lot of exciting prospects on the horizon.

So what does this year hold for me? I guess we'll have to wait until December 31, 2010 for the complete answer.