Cremes

A note from Nancy Leigh DeMoss about Carrie Prejean (contender for Miss USA).

Prejean’s Story Points to Deeper Issues in Evangelical World

I bet if blogs had feelings, that’s how mine would feel. It’s been many months since my last post. And it’s definitely not that I don’t have lots swimming in my head, it’s just that the time to formulate a post is not there. For example, I’d love to discuss that whole Miss California debacle. But really, in order to write out a well-written post, I’d have to read some articles, think about it, and then carefully craft a post. Who has the time for that? Certainly not me. I haven’t even been reading all that much lately. It’s all been about staying afloat. Today I am finishing up the semester and after that I’m FREE for a month. Then it’s back to classes. I’m hoping to revive this blog someday, but for now, it just doesn’t look like it’s happening.

I promise that I won’t bring this up any more.

But I love this book. Most of the time, I’ll warrant, those tiny gift books that are 200 pages or less (this one is 160) are usually a waste of money and time. But I guarantee if you purchase this one or even just sit for 30 minutes in a book store and read it cover to cover, it will enhappy you. As cheesy and corny as it is, I think it truly has some valid points to make on being happy. Enjoy the things you have. Treasure your friends. Take time to rest. Eat cookies. What else do you need?

Read: I Have Seen the Enemy, and She is FABULOUS: How to Read Women’s Magazines Without Feeling Awful About Yourself

Sometimes I think I’m immune to self-loathing, and I have conquered a fair bit of it due to my awesome husband who constantly reminds me that he thinks I’m a babe. I do notice that when I start picking up the fashion magazines or watching beautiful people on TV I start thinking that I’m not good enough. There are so many better things to focus on rather than looks. At the same time, I want to be well-dressed and not sloppy when I go out into the world.

This morning I was putting cream and sugar in my coffee, and I looked at the fat-free label on the cream bottle. Then I wondered, how can cream be fat free? It’s CREAM for crying out loud.

So we’re settled into the new house! We still have boxes to unpack but we are getting closer to being completely settled in every day. Of course, we’ve been living here for the past month or more, and we still have junk to do, but that is mostly because with Christmas and everything we’ve been busy doing other things. Tomorrow is the day that I’ve decided to take all of the Christmas decorations down, so that’s what I’ll be doing once I get home from my volunteer stint at the Sagemont Library.

Mom came and went; we dropped her off at the airport this morning. It was really nice to have her here, we spent a lot of time just relaxing, talking over a cup of coffee and hanging out. Of course, we did our fair share of shopping too. This means I’m done shopping for the next few months! Christmas was great too, we had the family over for Christmas morning (more like noon, but you know…) and then we had dinner with the extended family that evening. Between work, Christmas functions and New Year’s Eve parties, I’m bushed. I’m actually quite looking forward to getting back to the regular routine of things. Classes don’t start up for me until Jan 20th, so I’ve got another 2 weeks to relax in between shifts at the bookstore.

Well, it’s a new year and you know what that means. Resolutions! To sum up last year, I did not lose 10 pounds but I did read a lot of books. I’m going to keep track of what books I read this year too, but I’m not doing my monthly updates anymore. You can keep track of my progress on my 2009 Books page (located on the sidebar). So that means I needed a new resolution. I think last year I was too ambitious. This year, I’m reading through the Bible in one year. I picked up a One Year Bible from work (yay employee discount!) and I’m trying to get into it every single day. It’s only 5 days in and I’ve already missed one day, but I did go to church that day so that counts for something, right? I’m blogging about the process, so if you are more interested in reading about my bible reading, lemme know and I’ll forward you the URL. The goal was to blog every single day, but considering how slack I am updating this one, you can imagine how the other is faring (re: not well). I think now that I’m getting back into my routine, though, I might be able to turn it around.

Anyways, I hope everyone had a great New Year! If there are any resolutions out there, let me know in the comments so I can pray for and encourage you.

1. SPT Believing God - Beth Moore
2. PBS The Time Traveler’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
3. BOR A Lion Among Men - Gregory Maguire
4. PBS Stories Behind the Great Traditions of Christmas - Ace Collins
5. BOR The Purpose of Christmas - Rick Warren
6. GFT Pillars of the Earth - Ken Follett [audio]
7. PBS Don’t Go To The Cosmetics Counter Without Me - Paula Begoun
8. PBS The Worst Noel - Various [audio]
9. PBS The Good Book - Peter J. Gomes

This is the most books I’ve read in months! And sadly, I finished out with only 88 books. If I hadn’t crashed and burned back in May, I would have made it to 100 before fall. I had some good ones this month too. The biggest stinker was The Good Book. Just don’t bother. But I had some great fiction reads, check out my recommendations for the month at the bottom of the post. They are all some of my favorites overall. I’ll be doing a little wrap up soon, but I’m just not sure what wrappy-uppy things I’m going to do yet.

I just managed to get the second audio book in on the last day, which meant that I had to subject Mom to some pretty awful short stories. I also had to force myself to finish up The Good Book which was supposed to be in preparation for this year’s resolution but turned out to be a lame-o. But I have started with my new year’s resolution: reading through the whole Bible in one year. We’ll see how that goes.

My recommendations:

• Time Traveler’s Wife
• A Lion Among Men
• Pillars of the Earth

2nd to last month!

1. PBS Son of A Witch - Gregory Maguire
2. STR Can’t Fail Color Schemes - Amy Wax
3. PBS The Lights of Tenth Street - Shaunti Feldhahn

The color schemes book totally doesn’t count because it hardly has any words in it, but at this point I don’t care. I enjoyed both of the novels that I read this month. I’m still working on Pillars of the Earth, but I’m probably going to finish it this week. I’m excited to read the 3rd and final novel in the Wicked cycle, and since I work at a bookstore I can get it for free for two weeks. Hurray!

Anyways, I’m just finishing up my classes so hopefully I’ll have more books read this month. I have 20 left to reach 100. I’m taking bets: who wants to guess what number I’m going to finish on?

I ran out of cute ways to name these entries. I’m obviously running out of steam on this whole thing!

1. SPT Buy, Buy Baby - Susan Gregory Thomas
2. STR Breaking Free - Beth Moore
3. GFT The Lucky One - Nicholas Sparks

I’m up to 76 books. That leaves 24 to go to reach the big 100. I’m starting to think that just ain’t going to happen. I was doing 12 books a month or so when I had the time (and the fervor) so I know it’s doable (and at that rate I should have reached 100 by August). It does stink a tad though because I was cruising along and got loads of great books read. (Also some real duds, but oh well.) The reason I didn’t finish any audiobooks this month is because I’m in the middle of a huge one and I’m also not in the car as much as I used to be when I had a commute every day. I’m on disc 8 of Pillars of the Earth, which is one of the most ginormous books I’ve ever read. I think the only book that equals its length is Harry Potter 5, and even that one falls short by about 100 pages.

Buy, Buy Baby was really interesting. I think I read it rather quickly considering how much junk I have going on. I definitely won’t think of children’s products as benign anymore, and while I can’t see myself totally boycotting the industry, I think it’s good to be aware of these things and then teach your children correctly. And also try to avoid helping them be blind consumers.

Breaking Free was a fabulous book that had lots of great insights in it, and I think I may read it again next year but get the journal that goes with it and then do it slowly over the course of a month. I’ll probably do her book Believing God first since I already have that journal, and I just got another of her books the other day that I’m excited to dive into. I wish that I had waited on Breaking Free though because since I’m doing another Bible study at the same time I wasn’t able to take it all in. Oh well, my copy is so water damaged that I won’t be trading it!

And the new Nicholas Sparks book was great. He totally redeemed himself for Dear John and The Choice, which were depressing beyond words. This one reminded me of some of his older books and it just captured that romance and loveliness that the other ones had.

Right now, I’m reading Son of A Witch by Gregory Maguire and really enjoying it. I hadn’t realized that I was reading it on Halloween, but I guess that is somewhat fitting. I have a ton of Christmasy books coming in too, that I’m excited about starting over the holiday season. I’m all set (internally) for Christmas, and I can’t wait for my reading material to reflect that.

Nothing much has changed lately on the Melgares homefront. Still waiting for Grandma’s situation to change. Still working at the bookseller. Still spending the bulk of my time a) studying or b) procrastinating from studying. I submitted my degree plan yesterday so at least now I know which courses I’m taking next semester.

My birthday was pretty uneventful this year. Mike and I exchanged presents early “just in case” we ended up in Michigan during the actual days. So far that hasn’t happened, but I got a nifty wacom tablet (like a drawing peripheral) and I’ve been using that almost exclusively instead of a mouse. I’m getting pretty good at it, actually. I spent most of Monday studying or doing school-related things. I interviewed a librarian for an assignment due this Monday (eep!) and then I went to Panera Bread and studied for about 3 hours. That evening we went out for pizza at a restaurant called Tilli’s. The food was pretty good, but the place was completely dead. I think we were the only paying customers there - the other dude sitting at a table was the owner, I’m pretty certain. I don’t think they’ll last, which is too bad because the food was decent.

I’m working tonight but I have tomorrow off. I’ll probably spend it studying and cleaning, since the apartment is a little messy and we have a crapload of laundry to do. It’s also nice to spend the morning at home doing homey things. I get my schedule tonight for next week, so until then I have no idea what next week will be like, and of course who knows what’s going to happen with Grandma. I hate everything being so up in the air like this, but it’s a good lesson in learning to “go with the flow”. Anyways, I should get some reading done for school, so I’m off for now.