284/365

"Grace, Meimei." Charles looked at his daughter. "You are very smart, too. You know that love too much is okay. That is the best thing in life. Love too much."
- The Wangs Vs. The World by Jade Chang

256/365

I suppose that I shouldn't be surprised but honestly, I didn't expect it. The reading log has turned into a competition. Who knew that reading Bible stories and making check marks could be a thing? "How many has he read?" "How many am I missing?" "Can I read one more? Just one more?! Please?!"

Boys and girls from our neighborhood come into the community center in the afternoon. These kids do not attend the local schools. Some have them have gone at one point or another, but mostly, they have picked things up along the way. But now, through a government education program that we are able to administer, our neighborhood kids have opportunity to earn a certificate of completion for their elementary and middle school learning. Think of it as a GED for the lower years.

The kids gather at the gate in mid-afternoon, usually before we arrive, and come in and work for a couple of hours, rotating through tutoring in math and writing and reading. I have the privilege of sitting across and next to these kids and listening to them read. I have listened to kids learn to read for a lot of years. It is balm to my soul.

Some of our kids read fluidly, with inflection that makes me want to laugh out loud. I'm pretty sure that one has a potential in radio. Others still falter and stumble, but push on. A couple of our boys also attend a weekly Bible study, a small group from the church meeting in the home of our teammates. On this day, we took turns reading out loud, moving from person to person towards these brothers. And then, they each took their turn, reading out loud too (and old language words from an old school translation Bible- words that might cause many to slow down). When each finished, we let out a cheer and they each smiled big.

I imagine a time when we will have a library of books for our kids to borrow, a means to transport them to far-away lands and meet yet unknown people and take adventures that ordinary life might never allow. But meanwhile, we progress, one story at a time.

102/365

An afternoon cuppa in a favorite mug and then, finishing a book, quickly wiping the tears away before the pest control guy makes a pass through the living room. ..

“To love someone is like moving into a house," Sonja used to say. "At first you fall in love in everything new, you wonder every morning that this is one's own, as if they are afraid that someone will suddenly come tumbling through the door and say that there has been a serious mistake and that it simply was not meant to would live so fine. But as the years go by, the facade worn, the wood cracks here and there, and you start to love this house not so much for all the ways it is perfect in that for all the ways it is not. You become familiar with all its nooks and crannies. How to avoid that the key gets stuck in the lock if it is cold outside. Which floorboards have some give when you step on them, and exactly how to open the doors for them not to creak. That's it, all the little secrets that make it your home. " 
- Fredrik Backman, A Man Called Ove

76/365

"It surprised him that his grief was sharper than in the past few days. He had forgotten that grief does not decline in a straight line or along a slow curve like a graph in a child's math book. Instead, it was almost as if his body contained a big pile of garden rubbish full both of heavy lumps of dirt and of sharp thorny brush that would stab him when he least expected it."
- Major Pettigrew's Last Stand, Helen Simonson

38/365

"Waiting on God isn't about the suspension of meaning and purpose. It's part of the meaning and purpose that God has brought into my life. Waiting on God isn't to be viewed as an obstruction in the way of the plan. Waiting is an essential part of the plan. For the child of God, waiting isn't simply about what the child will receive at the end of his wait. No, waiting is much more purposeful, efficient, and practical. Waiting is fundamentally about what we will become as we wait."
- Paul David Tripp, "Productive Delay" in A Shelter in a Time of Storm

308/366

“If every person in this room made it a rule that wherever you are, whenever you can, you will try to act a little kinder than is necessary - the world really would be a better place. And if you do this, if you act just a little kinder than is necessary, someone else, somewhere, someday, may recognize in you, in every single one of you, the face of God.” 
― R.J. Palacio, Wonder

I am thankful for early morning friend meet-ups,
you shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am the Lord your God and there is none else,
the women who sharpen me,
dinner in the crock pot,
my girl who bakes,
tunes to sing to on the radio,
unexpected drink stop,
plans coming together,
and a peaceful meal,
and a very good ending.

300/366

The day that I joined the 21st century and checked out a library book electronically (and then lost two hours in a blink of the eye, completely absorbed in my new read... yikes!).

132/366

Dear written word,
I owe you an apology.
I confess, I have been much too easily distracted.
Yes, I have allowed nonsense electronics to come between us.
I have spent much too much mindless time with Panda Pop and such.
It hasn't been restful and it certainly is not edifying.
Please forgive me.

But,
brown girl dreaming reminded me that I have loved words and stories and books, the page turning of books, for as long as I can remember.
Then I picked up Gold after a long winter's rest on my bedside shelf and didn't want to be distracted until I knew exactly how it would end.
A bit of time for browsing through the musty aisles turned up two new finds to add to my travel collection.

I'm back.
We need to spend more time together; I know we do.
Can we still be friends?

Yours truly,
k

130/366

Already there are stories 
in my head. Already color and sound and words.
Already I'm
drawing circles on the glass, humming 
myself someplace far away from here.
- brown girl dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson 

a pass through the car wash and making ready for the road ahead.

47/366

“Do you understand how there could be any writing in a spider's web?"
"Oh, no," said Dr. Dorian. "I don't understand it. But for that matter I don't understand how a spider learned to spin a web in the first place. When the words appeared, everyone said they were a miracle. But nobody pointed out that the web itself is a miracle."
"What's miraculous about a spider's web?" said Mrs. Arable. "I don't see why you say a web is a miracle-it's just a web."
"Ever try to spin one?" asked Dr. Dorian.” 
- E.B. White, Charlotte's Web

2016 Reading Challenge

I am taking the Challies 2016 Reading Challenge. And that is appropriate because for the last few years, I've been reading challenged! My goal is to complete the "Committed" list- 52 books. I will need suggestions! Stay tuned.

(meanwhile, I'll keep track of the list here...)

1. Life Together by Dietrich Bonhoeffer (a book about Christian living)
2. Run by Ann Patchett (a book with a one-word title)
3. The Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri (a book written by someone of a different ethnicity than you)
4. All Things for Good by Thomas Watson (a book written by a Puritan)

thinking in type...

Starting anew in 2016...

more reading: this list from Challies.com. I'd like to get past Light and past Avid to Committed, but let's be honest, there's little chance of making it to Obsessed.

more Scripture memory: it's a discipline that I've added to my morning routine over the last couple years, and I want to continue in it. I've memorized complete chapters of Scripture, but never an entire book. Yet. (want some encouragement as to why? How 'bout this? or this?) ScriptureTyper has been a great help to me and my girls. But best of all is a partner to be held accountable with...

more photos: I was gifted a ReallyNeatLens for Christmas, and I am newly inspired. It's so easy to take pictures with my phone, but I am remembering how much I enjoy my camera, too.

more running: I logged just over 400 miles in 2015, but fell off the wagon in the last quarter of the year. I'm getting my shuffle back on.

less social media: I love aspects of being connected to far-away friends and family. But my OCD characteristics become too much so. And Panda Pop... (sheepish guilty grin)

less...?: 2015 was full, too full, I think. The hardest part is that there's nothing that stands out as "No more of this..." How to choose what to do less of?

Praying for wisdom and that "the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope" (Romans 15:13) as this new chapter begins...

145/365

“Today the word "hero" has been diminished. confused with "celebrity." But in my father's generation the word meant something. Celebrities seek fame. They take actions to get attention. Most often, the actions they take have no particular moral content. Heroes are heroes because they have risked something to help others. Their actions involve courage. Often, those heroes have been indifferent to the public's attention. But at least, the hero could understand the focus of the emotion.” 
― James D. Bradley, Flags of Our Fathers

133/365

“In silence the three of them looked at the sunset and thought about God.” 
― Maud Hart Lovelace in Betsy-Tacy and Tib

84/365

Catalog Day!!  I wasn't expecting it to arrive so soon but there it was, sitting on the pile of today's mail. Do you have kids between newborn and 80 years old? You need the Sonlight catalog too.

Sonlight has been our primary homeschool humanities curriculum for almost 15 years. We could not be more blessed. The instructor manuals are a tremendous help, mapping out the year in manageable and well sequenced order. I believe that heart that the curriculum shows for missions and the world profoundly influenced our own desire to pursue cross-culture missions. Our graduates have been well prepared for life beyond high school, achieving excellent scores on standardized tests and succeeding in college.

But even if you don't homeschool, I recommend the Sonlight catalog to you as one of the very best reading lists for toddlers to adult. Through Sonlight my kids were introduced to some of my favorite friends- Frog and Toad, Beezus and Ramona and Henry Huggins, the Ingalls family, the Cricket in Times Square, Betsy and Tacy and Tib, and Encyclopedia Brown. Together we met missionaries to Burma and to India and to Africa and to the streets of New York City. We traveled through history with togas and Vikings and colonists and adventurers and ordinary kids in their time and place. We read about the customs and cultures and traditions of faraway places, ancient and modern both, in the context of literature and narrative and biography, not solely through the monologue of a textbook. At the older grade levels, the lists take the students through the "highlights and hallmarks" of American literature, the world classics old and new, and the authors every reader should know.

But the best measure of success, more than the test scores and good grades? My girls still squabble over the newest catalog- each wanted to get her hands on it to remember all the old favorites and see what might be ahead in the school year to come. Sonlight has helped to inspire a love of learning in my kids, and for that I am grateful and blessed.

Needless to say, we are fans. For more information and to check out this tremendous resource for yourself, check the Sonlight website. Or just ask us!

225/365

It was almost overwhelming. Would you believe I didn't buy one book?

191/365

"I will go out on the front porch and walk up and down," said Toad.
"Perhaps that will help me to think of a story."
- Frog and Toad Are Friends by Arnold Lobel

50/365

"But even if I don’t read as many books as others, I read. If I’m not reading, I’m relying on my memory. Which seems to be decreasing daily. So I read. I once heard someone say that books don’t change people - sentences do. If I glean two or three sentences from a book that affect the way I think and the way I live, that’s time well invested. So I read. Books give me the opportunity to learn from and about godly, bright, insightful people I’ll never meet. So I read. What I know will always be dwarfed by what I don’t know. So I read. Books help me become more effective at what I do. So I read."
- Vaughn Roberts, True Friendship, as quoted in "One Great Question to Ask a Friend," challies.com, February 19, 2014

book list 2014

The last few years have been a book list fail. Hope springs anew in January, and I'm try-trying again. Recommendations, anyone?

January:
Half Broke Horses: A True Life Novel by Jeannette Walls
Given to me by a trusted book recommending friend, I was instantly sold by the back cover description, "Half Broke Horses is Laura Ingalls Wilder for adults, as riveting and dramatic as Isak Dinesen's Out of Africa..." 
The book tells the story of Lily Casey Smith, a character unlike any you have met before, and her adventures from youth through adulthood in the American Southwest. This New Mexican girl adored Half Broke Horses.

The Just Church by Jim Martin 
"God's call isn't to feel bad about injustice- but to do justice!"
What might that look like in my community, my church, my life...?

The King of Torts by John Grisham
I'm a fan of Grisham, but... We know the legal practice of mass torts is, umm, rather slimy, and this book only confirms that. The main character is the hero and the villan, sympathetic and yet incredibly greedy as he becomes more and more addicted to the money and perceived power that accompanies his shell game. We see the end coming from the beginning. Not my favorite of Grisham's works.

Februrary:
The Glass Castle: A Memoir by Jeannette Walls
In an interview on her books, Walls recounts, "Since writing The Glass Castle, so many people have said to me, "Oh, you’re so strong and you’re so resilient, and I couldn’t do what you did." That’s very flattering, but it’s nonsense. Of course they’re as strong as I am. I just had the great fortune of having been tested. If we look at our ancestry, we all come from tough roots. And one of the ways to discover our toughness and our resiliency is to look back at where we come from."
Walls was tested. Some of the stories of her childhood are almost too hard to read, and yet, she tells the story of her childhood, of her eccentric parents, without bitterness, with a sense of unconditional love. Well worth the read!

The Reason for God by Timothy Keller  
"All doubts, however skeptical and cynical they may seen, are really a set of alternative beliefs."
In A Reason for God Keller addresses the list of doubts skeptics often voice concerning Christianity, and also many reasons grounds to put trust in the Christian faith. "We have a sense that the world is not the way it ought to be. We have a sense that we are very flawed and yet very great We have a longing for love and beauty that nothing in this world can fulfill. We have a deep need to know meaning and purpose. Which worldview best accounts for these things?" Keller asks, and then addresses.

The Freedom of Self-Forgetfulness by Timothy Keller
A tiny little book, maybe just a sermons worth, on 1Corinthians 3:21-4:7- no pride, no boasting. "Do you realize that it is only in the Gospel of Jesus Christ that you get the verdict before the performance?" Keller reminds us of that Gospel- that it is not what we do that makes us loved and accepted by God, it is only what Christ has done for us.

The Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri- a Pulitizer prize winning collection of short stories primarily comprised of characters who travel from America to India and back again, whether by physical distance or cultural difference. Fictional relationships come to life. When I turned the last page, I went to look for another one of Lahiri's works so I could keep reading.

March:
Tactics by Gregory Koukl- a practical plan for Christians wanting to share their faith and their trust as followers of Jesus. In the old school style of the unassuming and rumply detective Columbo, readers are encouraged to ask questions, to listen carefully, and to be "wise as serpents and innocent as doves," but always ready to give a reason.

(photo of "Vintage Book Stack in Beautiful Blues, Aquas, & Slates" from sugarSCOUT at etsy.com)

16/365

“You can't prepare for everything life's going to throw at you. And you can't avoid danger. It's there. The world is a dangerous place, and if you sit around wringing your hands about it, you'll out on all the adventure.” 
- from Half Broke Horses by Jeannette Walls

(thankful for adventure; for friends who listen and then hand you a book that you will love; for a new favorite place to eat; for girls that play hard and lose and laugh on the way home anyway; for hearty hugs from not-oft-seen friends; for forgiveness; for unexpected text; for my bed and lying next to my husband at the end of the day.)