Some of my favorite classics...

In honor of having gone through about 90% of my books at this point, here are some classics that won't make it into the donation bags...

Rebecca by Daphne DuMaurier  -  What a great read, full of love and dark mystery...

Animal Farm by George Orwell - Dystopian fiction at its most creative.

Equus by Peter Shaffer - A dark, discomforting look into the mental decline of a young boy 

in the midst of horses.

  

The Gods Will Have Blood by Anatole France - A twisted and disturbing but truly fascinating look into the lives of French revolutionaries.

I highly recommend all 4 of the above, but be aware - 

the last 2 are definitely NOT for the feint of heart...

Getting unstuck in my walk with Christ - Day 11

     I'm keeping today's post fairly short because both of my parents are coming down for a visit and we all know what happens when we're in the midst of decluttering/organizing...it's a mess!!  So today I'm going to be doing mostly triage to make the living room look presentable - part of this is throwing away all the trash and tossing the recycling in their appropriate bags.  No, I don't mean that I live in a pigsty and I bet many of you may also have this problem ;-)  For example::
- plastic grocery bags
- old papers
- receipts
- broken appliances a.k.a. coffee makers (yup, this totally happened to me a couple days ago)
- old food in the fridge
- used dryer sheets
- empty boxes
- empty plastic bottles and cans
...I think you get the idea...

     I also need to make beds, clean out the litterbox, carry out the trash, wipe down some surfaces, and replace all of my air fresheners.  Oh me...while it's always a lot of work pre-visit, it's so nice to see the people I love that I don't get to see that often AND I can't help but enjoy the after effects of getting some extra cleaning out of the way...

     I haven't been linking to many of Sarah Mae's posts recently because she pretty much stops at Day 13 and moves on to a new series.  I'm hoping to spread out her challenges over my 31 days (which will in the end be 31 days even if it goes into August).  I'm going to skip ahead to Sarah Mae's Day 12 - "There is Worship in the Cleaning" - for today, but will jump back to Day 10 later :-)

She shares a passage of scripture that goes along great with my Day 6 post : Colossians 3:23-24 - -

23  Whatever you do, work heartily, 

as for the Lord and not for men,

24  knowing that from the Lord 

you will receive the inheritance as your reward.

You are serving the Lord Christ.

     Remember the Day 6 Unstuck question - - What does it mean to love God with all my heart, soul, mind and strength?  Well this passage from Colossians puts it quite clearly.  Whatever obligations our daily lives consist of, we must carry them out as if we are doing them for God Himself.  By putting such whole hearted effort into our daily actions, we also consequently, show our sacrificial love towards others.  And this hearkens all the way back to my Day 4 post in which I talked about how keeping our living spaces clean is a way of sacrificially loving others.
     So with today's looming parental visit in mind...I will keep an upbeat attitude of sacrificial love as I clean, so I can actively show I care enough about them to make the extra effort in making my place look nice.  [Of course, I can't get away from the selfish dimension of the whole thing either - - I would much prefer having a visit where we can focus on each other and not my deficiencies as a homemaker.  But if I keep this selfish thought in the back of my mind, then the pre-visit cleaning should go more smoothly and with much less stress.]

My dad and me on my 24th b-day :-)

I'm SO happy he's coming along with my mom...

totally unexpected!

That's all for now...

Getting unstuck in my walk with Christ - Day 10

Decluttering went quite well yesterday as I found another hefty stack of books to give away and went through my calendars!
     Through your calendars? you ask.  Yes, I've already admitted to being quite a packrat and along with that comes saving the strangest things.  If there's a calendar with pictures in it that I really like, well, it doesn't get thrown away.  I found about 10 in my bookshelf that were all mostly over 3 years old.  In February of last year, I discovered a fun and unique DIY project that can be done with calendar pictures...it's super simple but can create a lovely piece of art.  What am I talking about?  Frame them!! - lol - Like I said, it's simple, but look at the pictures below to see how pretty such a project can turn out ;-)

This is an amazing super rustic wooden frame I found at Hobby Lobby.  And yes, to continue the theme, I put a couple of my favorite bug samples down in the left corner.

A simple rectangular poster frame is all these crosses needed to become a work of art.  Notice how the pair of crosses on either end are color opposites - the color that's in the background of each of the pair is inside of the cross for its partner - I was super excited when I realized I could get creative with how I paired colors :-)

     These 2 pieces were done with calendars from 2011, without any thought to the "collection" I had tucked away in the back room...  Well now that I've ripped out all the pictures I like from ALL of my calendars, I think I should go back through that stack and decide which ones are worthy of framing.  If I decide that one doesn't immediately make the cut, then it's going in recycling because giant floppy pieces of "paper" are not all that easy to store.  If I can go ahead and get them framed before the end of the month, then I'll have new art work to put on the walls and not just another awkward thing to store :-)

     On a further book note, it's actually gotten substantially easier to pick books to give away now that I'm in the mode.
Questions to ask yourself:
- Is the synopsis so intriguing that I would want to start this book right now?
- How many PowerPuff Girl books do I really need? (I'm for real...lol)
- Can the information in this book be found on the internet?
- Do I really need a book of quotes?  Can't I just pull out the quotes I like and put them in a word document? (You'll see a post of quotes soon)
- Would a child get more enjoyment out of this than me? (when considering books you still have not read)
- How many books that invoke memories of childhood is it worth to keep? (proportional to the amount of space they take up)
- Will this "textbook" be relevant to me in the future?  (if not, Rentscout it!)
- Did I enjoy this book enough to keep it, or should I release it into the world for someone else to enjoy?  (I have some favorites, and I definitely won't get rid of them, but others probably should find someone else who would actually consider them favorites...)

     If I come up with more questions, I'll be sure and share them later, but for now, on to spiritual matters...

     So I've finished Chapter 4 of Unstuck - "From Temptation to Turmoil" - and it turns out, I have quite a few addictions in my life.  Before I list what I came up with, I want to share a quote found in this chapter from Dr. Gerald May, author of Addiction and Grace:

I am not being flippant when I say 

that all of us suffer from addiction.  

Nor am I reducing the meaning of addiction.  

I mean in all truth that the psychological, 

neurological, and spiritual dynamics 

of full-fledged addiction are actively at work 

in every human being...

We are all addicts in every sense of the word.

With this in mind, I asked myself, "What am I addicted to?"  And this is what I came up with:
- my morning routine (waking up next to my cat, in my own bed, and then sitting on my balcony with a hot cup of coffee)
- TV (or rather, my "need" for multitasking)
- frugality (finding it hard to spend money on others when I frequently feel like I barely have enough for myself)
- Sudoku (my Kindle's app leads me to lose hours)
- negative thoughts (while this can always be blamed on brain chemicals, the Lord has the power to help us overcome anything!!)
- worry (I replay things I've said and/or done over and over in my head...daily)
- being the fashion police (It's like a psychological impulse to point out really bad clothes)
- overeating (just one more bite...ugghhh...I need to lay down...)
- making excuses (although I feel that they're all valid, there does come a point when sucking up feeling sick or setting aside a task for later is the right thing to do)

     Not your traditional list of addictions huh?  That's one of the points this chapter is trying to make, because as the authors later point out, "as enticements increase and surface more often, there is proportionate likelihood of their becoming more and more influential, and even consuming, as they push out endeavors that help us thrive spiritually."

     After considering the above list, I could think of numerous ways in which these addictions could lead me away from relationships with others, or into sinful actions.  So what can help us overcome the snares that these seemingly trivial enticements may catch us in?
     Psalm 94:16-19 says - -

16  Who rises up for me against the wicked?

Who stands up for me against evildoers?

17  If the Lord had not been my help,

my soul would soon have lived in the land of silence.

18  When I thought, "My foot slips,"

Your steadfast love, O Lord, held me up.

19  When the cares of my heart are many, 

Your consolations cheer my soul.

     In other words, we must immediately turn to Jesus when temptations and addictions first rear their nasty heads.  If we don't, then James 1:14-15 makes it very clear what will eventually happen:

14  But each person is tempted 

when he is lured and enticed 

by his own desire.

15  Then desire when it has conceived 

gives birth to sin, 

and sin when it is fully grown 

brings forth death.

     We can rest assured in the fact that God wants to help us out of temptations.  He wants us to turn to Him, running with abandon, our arms wide open.  If he didn't greatly desire for us to cling to Him and have companionship with Him, then my favorite quote of His from the story of "The Fall" would never have been uttered.  Genesis 3:22-23a - - 

22  Then the Lord God said, 

"Behold, the man has become like one of us 

in knowing good and evil.  

Now, lest he reach out his hand 

and take also of the tree of life and eat, 

and live forever--"

23  therefore the Lord God sent him out 

from the garden of Eden

     The fact that God himself can't finish His sentence reveals just how strongly He desires us to not live in constant temptation.  Every time I read this passage, I imagine God rapidly sucking in breath at the thought of Adam and Eve living eternally in sin.  He sent Adam and Eve out of Eden so that they would not live forever in sin; so that they would instead have the opportunity to be reconciled in Him and return to His presence in glory after their death.  What a fantastic reality that is!!

[All scripture passages are from the questions asked at the end of Chapter 4.]

State-of-mind pic of the day.

Ol Doinyo Lengai, the Maasai's Mountain of God 

(taken by me)

Getting unstuck in my walk with Christ - Day 9

     Yesterday was spent doing a lot of reading for my "low-key" class - HA!  It threw me a curve ball paper last night in addition to the reading.  It's all good though, this post is just delayed by a day...

     It's amazing how once you start saturating yourself with the word, numerous connections appear between all parts of scripture.  To begin today's "Getting Unstuck" post, I wanted to share a couple of those that I discovered last night (well, 2 nights ago now), courtesy of the YouVersion reading plans I've started.

     Remember the Exodus story of Jethro and Moses from Day 7?  Well take a look at Proverbs 15:22 where the Bible also mentions the need to share the load with others...

22  Without counsel plans fail,

but with many advisors they succeed.

     And Day 8's post on Isaiah 55: 8-13's call for us to be mindful of the ways of God has a lot of parallels with Psalm 37.  I mention just a few below:  

23  The steps of a man are established by the Lord,

when he delights in His way;

24  though he fall, he shall not be cast headlong,

for the Lord upholds his hand.

30  The mouth of the righteous utters wisdom,

and his tongue speaks justice.

31  The law of his God is in his heart; 

his steps do not slip.

34  Wait for the Lord and keep his way,

and he will exalt you to inherit the land;

you will look on when the wicked are cut off.

Hosea 6:1-3 - - - What must I do to return to the Lord and begin acknowledging Him again? [Question from Unstuck Chapter 3.]

1  "Come, let us return to the Lord;

for He has torn us, that He may heal us;

He has struck us down, and He will bind us up."

     I think a lot of acknowledging the Lord in our lives simply has to do with us realizing that He does all for our good.  How can we experience His loving grace and mercy if we don't suffer some?  How can we be built up if we aren't first broken down?
     I'd like to reference a couple of Jimmy Needham songs that do a wonderful job of relaying this concept (obviously, I love this guy).

Hurricane

I have built a city here

Half with pride and half with fear

Just wanted a safer place to hide

I don't want to be safe tonight

(...)

I am Yours and You are mine

You know far better than I

(...)

And it's Your eye in the storm

Watching over me

And it's Your eye in the storm

Wanting only good for me

Being Small

Why I wanna be a hurricane

When I'm barely a breeze

'Cause I've already seen Your storm

Bring me down to my knees

(...)

Whenever I climb too high

Keep my feet off the ground

And when I get full of me

Turn me upside down

You know pride and not just summer

Come before the fall

(...)

So maybe hopefully I see less of me

And more of you and its true

I'll be finally free

That's what I want after all

     It's really all about putting our lives into perspective.  We are children of the Creator of the Universe and with that in mind, we should know without a doubt, that He has our best in mind (even in the bad stuff), since He knows all, and understands each of us intimately as one of His creations.

     As a side note, check out this article on singleness that captures this wonderful insight (thanks to my best friend).

     To tie up Chapter 3, I want to share another reason why intentionally saturating yourself in the Word and thus imprinting your heart with the ways of God is so incredibly important...
Romans 1:18-32 - What can I do to ensure that my mind starts being changed away from the deceiving ways of this world? [Question modified from Chapter 3 of Unstuck.]
This passage definitely knocks you in the gut...

24  Therefore God gave them up 

in the lusts of their hearts to impurity,

 to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves,

25  because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie 

and worshiped and served the creature 

rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever!  Amen.

28  And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, 

God gave them up to a debased mind 

to do what ought not to be done.

29  They were filled with all manner of 

unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice.  

They are full of envy, murder, 

strife, deceit, maliciousness.  

They are gossips, 30  slanderers, 

haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, 

inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 

31  foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless.

32  Though they know God's decree 

that those who practice such things 

deserve to die, 

they not only do them 

but give approval to those who practice them.

     If this isn't a strong enough call for us to be mindful of the ways of God and spend time in His Word, acknowledging His great presence and authority over all, then I don't know what is!


On a lighter note...cleaning:

My maintenance tasks are going fantastically - hooray :-D

- Laundry:  Almost all the way through this for now!  Although I did manage to come across a bag of dirty clothes from my last visit to my parents...ugghh...why does it seem to multiply??

- Recycling:  Only 2 more bags to take out, and one's already in the car ;-)

- Dishes:  On track with this too.  I need to be sure and run the dishwasher today...

- Kitchen counters:  I've made a habit of wiping them down with Clorox wipes at least every morning when I make my coffee so that they're always clean and sparkly.

Decluttering on the other hand has been a little slow what with the 50 pages of reading I had to complete yesterday, along with the 4 pages I had to write...but I have made some progress in the realm of books:
- Rentscouter is awesome!!  I've found books I have that 3 different companies want, totaling over $30!! Woohoo :-D  And none of them are traditional textbooks btw.  I'll start packing them up as soon as I've gone through all the books.

State-of-mind pic of the day.  

Lake Manyara National Park in Tanzania (taken by me).

That's it for now...hopefully today I'll get through most of the remaining books on my shelves...wish me luck!!

Yay for Books!! - Some long overdue reviews...

Thunder rolls across the heat-ravaged city.  Lord please let this mean there will be rain to bring us some relief...



Indian Maidens Bust Loose by Vidya Samson (Book # 29 of 2012)

      This was a fabulous and witty look into the lives of modern-day 20-something Indian women.  I absolutely adored every word!  The first person narration comes from Nisha (a girl obsessed with romance novels) who still lives with her parents and grandmother, along with her sister Vinita (a girl who registers on the genius scale).  Her family is actually living in her grandmother's (Naani's) house, and throughout the story, you can see the ramifications of this as the father slowly grinds on everyone's nerves.  Apparently, this living situation is fairly standard for young women in India, even though both of the sisters had already graduated from college.  Their parents, especially the father, have made it their mission to match them with a husband.  But this isn't even the funniest part, their cousins and aunt (mom's sister) come to visit from the US and most of the ridiculous and lol occurrences are due to Nisha's efforts to entertain her kin and the hijinks that the cousins somehow always manage to be a part of.  It's difficult to completely capture all that occurs in this novel without rewriting the whole thing, as it's a never ending roller coaster ride of crazy happenings, blunt honesty, and melt-your-heart romance (this last one is more towards the end of the book - but it's wonderful).  The ending is 100% perfect and I couldn't have asked for more in a fun, out-of-my-usual read.
      The only thing I had any problems with was the broken English used by the older people in the story, but the reasoning was deftly explained and the whole notion of broken English just became a necessary part of this tale.  Essentially, it was the older people's way of trying to up their social status - and Nisha and Vinita frequently knocked their elder's mistakes, which just added to the honesty and witty frustration inherent in this 5/5 novel.

Note:  I received this in a member giveaway on LibraryThing.  All of the above is 100% honest.


The Storm is Coming: An Anthology edited by Sarah Holroyd (Book #30 of 2012)

If you enjoy reading super depressing and fairly disturbing stories...then this is the book for you.  It certainly was NOT for me.  I'm not sure what I really expected after reading the synopsis, but this wasn't it...  I think it was the last sentence of the synopsis that hooked me - "But, as is always the case after a storm passes, you will also find life beginning anew."  Yeah...maybe a couple of the stories have a victorious ending, but the vast majority of them just left me feeling extremely uncomfortable.  Also, even though the synopsis makes it seem as if at least half of the stories are storm related, most of them are about abusive spouses and horrible human beings.  I guess having gone through the big tornado on April 27th of last year, I was looking for an anthology that focused on the sunshine after the storm and how the human spirit and "Mother Nature" have an incredible ability to bounce back from adversity.  If that's what you're looking for too, then don't look here...

Note:  I received this in a member giveaway on LibraryThing.  All of the above is 100% honest.

Zombies of the Apocalypse by Kevin Michael and Lacy Maran (Book #31 of 2012)
This one was great!  Talk about a man's man's novella lol.  It's like a hardcore version of Spike TV in book form.  A much-welcome mindless romp through a zombie-infested country.  Be aware: profanity, slight-male chauvinism, and a shoot 'em up attitude abound - hence the Spike reference.  Still definitely fun though, and short too, so you'll finish it in no time.

Note:  I received this in a member giveaway on LibraryThing.  All of the above is 100% honest.






"Real Lies" by Liana Brooks [Free for Kindle] (short story - so still #31)

Hmmm...this was a very short story and was fairly intriguing, but so much more could've been done with it.  I felt a little gipped by the ending and wished that it had been fleshed out a little more.  Oh well, it was free, and at least thought provoking.

Getting unstuck in my walk with Christ - Day 8

Good evening all, here is Day 8 :-)

Spiritual matters >>
Isaiah 55:8-13 - Do I truly care about God's thoughts and ways?  If so, how can I learn more about them? [Questions from the end of Unstuck Chapter 3.]

8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts,

neither are your ways my ways,

declares the Lord.

9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth,

so are my ways higher than your ways

and my thoughts than your thoughts.

...

11 so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;

it shall not return to me empty,

but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,

and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.

     There are certainly times when I struggle with God's direction for my life and the current situations He has me in, but regardless of this, I definitely care about His thoughts and ways.  So many things have happened in my short life, that if I were a non-believer, I would be an angry and bitter person by now.  This isn't to say I don't have moments of anger and bitterness, but all-in-all, I find peace in what has happened to me, because I know that God has a plan for my life that is far greater than anything I could ever imagine.  The bad things that have happened have all led me to where I am today-a much more Christ-connected place than 5 years ago; before most of "the bad things" even happened. 

     It kind of hit me that verse 11 can be looked at with us being the "word that goes out from [His] mouth" - we will not return to Him empty and unfulfilled if we follow His plans and purposes for us.  We will instead, return to Him, having accomplished His purpose for us, and having succeeded in the thing for which He sent us to earth.  How great does that make you feel??  I know it lifts my spirit!  Just think, if we accept His ways and thoughts as higher than ours, we will be able to fulfill that which we were put on this planet to fulfill - we each have an individual God-given purpose!  I think my joy meter just hit a high ;-)

Another picture of the state of mind I hope to cultivate this month.  

Taken by me on the way to the Serengeti.

     So how can we learn more about these thoughts and ways of His?  Obviously, and most especially in light of Day 7's post, God's Word is where we can most clearly learn more.  Of course, many times it is difficult to get into the meat of the text without a little bit of guidance and so I definitely advocate the reading of Christian non-fiction, albeit always with an eye on the truth of God.  He wants us to be there for each other within this great family of believers and so such literature exists as part of His commandments.  I wouldn't be reading Unstuck if I didn't believe that my fellow brothers and sisters had something meaningful and powerful to share!  But still, without our personal and individual, deep digging into the Word of God, we cannot know the first thing about discerning what is biblically based and what isn't.  

     So with the above in mind, I'm going to be spending a lot more time in the Bible this month (as I mentioned in my post earlier today) and am hoping that this will get me into a solid, consistent, daily habit of soul nourishment once the pedal hits the metal again in August.  I recently downloaded YouVersion for my Kindle and am really excited about the multitudes of reading plans available.  After you start a plan, you can track your progress and so keep yourself accountable.  Plans range from 3 days long to a year long and from "topical" to "devotional" to "whole Bible."  I'm gonna start out with a few short topical plans and work my way up from there.  I'll let y'all know how it goes :-)

Cleaning has been fairly slow the last couple of days as I've been more in a maintenance mode than a true decluttering mode, but I've still made some relaxing progress.  Below is a quick run-down:

- Dishes:  Washed a load, and all my pots and pans are clean!  Also finally got all of the cups and coffee mugs out of my car; that's what happens when you're rushed to get to class...

- Laundry:  Washed and dried 3 loads

- Folding:  1 load (looks like I have a to-do for tomorrow...)

- Magazines: DONE!!!!! :-D  (Yes it did take 3 binders lol, but it's still less space)

- Email:  Funny how non-visible clutter can take up so much time and space - I ended up spending quite a bit of time getting back down to <100 in the inbox...

- Books:  Making slow but steady progress here.  I went through 1 shelf today and was able to pull out a whole stack to get rid of - a victory for the packrat ;-)  

- Random papers:  I keep running across random collections of papers from various parts of my life that are just taking up unnecessary space.  Example, packets on how to deal with my myriad array of digestive intolerances - Hello Internet!!  Also, a collection of articles on how to be an effective camp counselor; some were good for teaching and so went with the teaching stuff but others were so summer camp related that they are going to the recycling bin.

- Recycling:  So to take out my recycling, I have to haul it all down 3 flights of stairs and out to my car.  Then I have to drive to the recycling bins that are about 2 miles away.  Yeah, yeah, I know, sounds like I'm making a mountain out of a molehill...but with 103+ degree weather and 85%+ humidity...I ain't.  Needless to say, I'm having to take it out a couple of bags at a time, but it's getting there.

A note about health...and why laziness can be a good thing

     Maybe it's just me, but I have some of the strangest health issues on a seemingly non-stop basis.  And my body's response to stress is definitely physical.  At the beginning of last week (3 days before the big final), my shingles came back; thankfully it was a mild case, but painful nonetheless.  On top of that, I had headaches every single day from Monday to Friday.  Friday's headache was especially a doozie (lasting from the time I got up to the time I fell asleep) - which was strange seeing as I was done with biochem at that point.  I'm starting to wonder if these headaches are from more than just stress - I've been having some really strange and unpleasant dreams as of late and my headaches usually start as soon as I wake up.  I wonder if anyone else has had dream-caused headaches...  When googling different causes for headaches and the different types of headaches, mine didn't seem to match up with any of them...so who knows.  I've also got constant off and on body aches and pains, nausea, and stomach aches.  At this point, I've pretty much forgotten what it's like to feel completely well.  How many people are out there that feel completely well on a fairly consistent basis?  Do other people always feel a little physically off?

The kind of image I want to keep on my mind this month (courtesy of my dad).

     Anyway, this next month all I have to do is keep up with my low-key online course and clean and organize the apartment.  I'm going to keep any big commitments at a minimum and try to relax as much as possible.  I'll also be able to spend a lot more time in the Word - which I'm greatly looking forward to!!  Hopefully a month of mild laziness will bring my body back up to speed.  And that's the trick right?  Laziness is always seen as such a terrible thing, and I've even posted on this blog about how laziness can catch us in it's terrible web and suck away our productivity and get-up-and-go.  But I believe there truly is a time and a place for laziness, certainly not a hardcore laziness that is warned against in Proverbs, but a laziness that relaxes our minds, souls, and bodies, so that we can get back to feeling physically normal and able to actually spend time with others while 100% of ourselves.
     So here's to laziness, in it's most productive form.  A restful laziness of time with God and working on myself so that I can be the most of who I am :-)