Ok, let us try to keep this simple and concise.
Thanks.
Thank you for letting me get to know you.
" " " the world, the sun, the animals, and the plants.
" " " " work of your hands.
Thank you for myself.
" " " my good points and my bad.
" " " purchasing for me a right relationship with you.
Thank you for Jesus.
" " " being the loving God that you are.
" " " not leaving me to justice, but giving inconceivably of yourself.
" " " living as a man and seeing what I live through.
Thank you for your sacrifice on the cross.
" " " being there and paying the price.
" " " the pain, sweat, blood, and the forgiveness.
" " " completely finishing an act that replaces my error and wrongness.
Thank you for Jesus' resurrection.
" " " the final complete proof that you have made me right with you.
" " " hope beyond this life to a better life.
" " " a living person I can choose to live for and serve.
Thank you for family.
" " " their good points, humor, smiles, and how wonderful they are.
" " " " bad points and efforts to improve themselves.
" " " being able to love them and express this love.
In the same way, thank you for: friends; pets; church; co-workers; and neighbors.
Thank you for the United States of America.
" " " " wonderful way you have blessed the US.
" " " " marvelous way America has been your nation.
" " " " foundation of God given rights America was founded upon.
" " " " for good people, even if they are wrong, trying to make things good.
Thank you for all the people in service to America.
" " " " the people in service to me.
Thank you for shelter, food, safety, and comfort.
There is more, but thank you
Thank you that I can be thankful.
I just got my tickets to go home over Christmas.
I'm so excited!!!!
I haven't seen some of my immediate family in almost 3 years!!!!!
Yay! I Leave Chicago and Fly into London, Gatwick on the 16th and get THREE WHOLE WEEKS of family! WOOHOO!
I'm going home, I'm going home!
(does Numfar's dance of Joy and the Snoopy dance, and some of Elaine Benes' dance from Seinfeld)
From the turkey and stuffing to all of the fixin's... Who's cooking your Thanksgiving dinner this year? What dish are you most looking forward to?
My mom, aunt and uncle are coming into town and we're going to eat at a restaurant at the Inner Harbor. (Very excited; I hear the food's great.)
Thanksgiving isn't one of my favorite meals (turkey and mashed potatoes are okay, but I hate stuffing), but I do love pumpkin pie. :) So that's what I'm looking forward to the most--pumpkin pie. (And also sleep.)
Finished An Amish Christmas by Beth Wiseman, Kathleen Fuller & Barbara Cameron for Thomas Nelson.
An Amish Christmas is three novellas, all set in Paradise (town in Pennsylvania). They're interconnected (characters from one pop up in the other two) but also standalones so if for whatever reason you don't read them all at once, you can follow each one without remembering the other two.
(But good luck not reading them all at once.)
The three stories are all really good, but I think my favorite was A Choice to Forgive (the one by Beth Wiseman). But that in no way indicates that I didn't love A Miracle for Miriam (Kathleen Fuller) and One Child (Barbara Cameron), too.
The book opens with A Miracle for Miriam, which is about a woman with incredibly low self-esteem who finds herself being courted by Seth. In school, Seth was the most popular boy and he broke Miriam's heart. But now he's older and wiser and wants to make it up to her. But can she trust him? (And, more importantly, should she?)
Then there's A Choice to Forgive. Lydia is a young widow with three children. Her dead husband is the brother of her first love (Daniel), who broke her heart when he vanished on Christmas. Except now he's back and he wants to be re-baptized into the faith. He clearly still likes Lydia, but can she get over her hurt (and feeling like she's betraying her husband by wanting his brother)?
And finally One Child. Sarah and her husband are still grieving the baby they lost over Christmas a year ago. Then, during a really bad blizzard, a very pregnant Englisch woman and her husband show up. They had a car accident and need somewhere to stay. Sarah has to help a woman with the only thing she wants and lacks: a baby.
This book also has discussion questions and recipes.
This would be an excellent stocking stuffer for a girlfriend of yours who reads. (Especially if she has a fascination with the Amish, which I think most of us do. Or is that just me?)
Finished Shadowland by Alyson Noel. This is the third book in her Immortals series, after Evermore and Blue Moon.
I couldn't really discuss the plot of Blue Moon because of spoilers, and it's even harder to discuss this one. I think it's my favorite of the three, so you can imagine my annoyance that book four isn't due out until next summer.
(But then this one was supposed to come out in February, so maybe Dark Flame will come out early, too?)
Anyway. Ever and Damen are trying to be together, even after the bad events at the end of Blue Moon. Except now there's this new guy she's met and she feels drawn to him, too.
I cannot wait to see what happens next. (And really, how rare is it to find a series that keeps getting better?)
I have just not had a very good go of it the last few days.
Finished Liar by Justine Larbalestier.
This is one of those books where it's almost impossible to discuss with someone who hasn't read it.
Micah is a compulsive liar and she's also the narrator of this book. Her boyfriend--or the guy in her classes who she says is her boyfriend--is found murdered and she's a suspect. She says she didn't do it.
This is a weird, complicated book. I liked it, but I'm not entirely sure what happened. (I know what Micah's said, but I'm not sure what's the truth.)
If you don't mind books that make you work, this is a great read. :)
I have Thursday and Friday off this coming week, which means that I will get a Thanksgiving like real people. :) And what makes it even better is that my family's coming to Baltimore and we're going to have dinner at one of the restaurants downtown.
(By the time I leave work Wednesday night, I'll have worked seven days in a row and I will not be in the mood to drive to Salisbury on Thursday and back home on Friday.)
So yay! :)
In a perfect world, I'd get a lot of reading done, say, some of the books that I got on my recent Amazon binge:
Or the book I have coming from Thomas Nelson:
Or the book I have coming from a contest I won (thanks, Emily!):
OR I could watch movies:
But most likely? Most likely I'll be facedown in pumpkin pie. We may go to the movies (if we can find a movie we'll all agree on, which is unlikely) and I think my mom and I are going shopping on Black Friday, which will likely mean that I will need a bunch of caffeine beforehand and even more vodka- or tequila-based drinks after.
Finished Mudhouse Sabbath by Lauren F. Winner.
As detailed in her memoir Girl Meets God (which is amazing and a must-read, in the world according to me), she was an Orthodox Jew before converting to Christianity. In this book, she talks about 11 specific things Jews do that would possibly enrich Christian lives.
For example, she says that much of Judaism is an action--specific prayers, for instance, and rituals--and there tend not to be counterparts for that in Christianity.
So she compares and contrasts things like weddings and the Sabbath/Shabbat and mourning and even eating.
I think the mourning chapter was my favorite (I know, right?) but it's so fascinating and, I think, appropriate the way the Jewish faith deals with mourning. (It's broken up into specific segments--the first week is the one most people have heard of, where the bereaved sit shiva and don't leave the house. But then there's another month where each Shabbat, they get increasingly involved back in their lives (specifically getting more involved in synagogue again). And then there's the rest of the first year of mourning. There are specific prayers and rituals, and I think it's just a really meaningful thing that makes a lot of sense. Mourning isn't something that's done by the time the funeral's over.
Finished Mudhouse Sabbath by Lauren F. Winner.
As detailed in her memoir Girl Meets God (which is amazing and a must-read, in the world according to me), she was an Orthodox Jew before converting to Christianity. In this book, she talks about 11 specific things Jews do that would possibly enrich Christian lives.
For example, she says that much of Judaism is an action--specific prayers, for instance, and rituals--and there tend not to be counterparts for that in Christianity.
So she compares and contrasts things like weddings and the Sabbath/Shabbat and mourning and even eating.
I think the mourning chapter was my favorite (I know, right?) but it's so fascinating and, I think, appropriate the way the Jewish faith deals with mourning. (It's broken up into specific segments--the first week is the one most people have heard of, where the bereaved sit shiva and don't leave the house. But then there's another month where each Shabbat, they get increasingly involved back in their lives (specifically getting more involved in synagogue again). And then there's the rest of the first year of mourning. There are specific prayers and rituals, and I think it's just a really meaningful thing that makes a lot of sense. Mourning isn't something that's done by the time the funeral's over.
