Just One More Thing

Happy Birthday Baby Erin!!!




Now resuming shuffling.

Until Further Notice . . .

All blogging, shop opening and schemes will be suspended. I have to do a little life reshuffling. Thanks!

888 Challenge

I have no issue fitting books into my life but I do feel like I am often unintentional with what I choose to read. I discovered this nifty challenge over at BloggingMolly. The making of this list, forced me to really look at all the books we own. I came up short in the poetry category. I am taking suggestions!


8 Rereads

1/Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
2/Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver
3/Anne of Green Gables by L.M.Montgomery
4/Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen
5/To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee
6/A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain
7/Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
8/When Life & Beliefs Collide by Carolyn Custis James

8 Missionary Life

1/Once Bitten by Anne J Townsend
2/Letters Never Sent by Ruth Van Reken
3/Let the Nations Be Glad by John Piper
4/Raising Resilient MKS
5/A Chance to Die by E.Elliot
6/ No Graven Image by E.Elliot
7/Ministries of Mercy by Timothy Keller
8/In the Face of Surrender by Richard Wurmbrand

8 Autobiography

1/Reading Lolita in Tehran
2/ Gifted Hands: The Story of Ben Carson
3/Traveling Mercies:Some Thoughts On Faith by Anne Lamott
4/An American Childhood by Annie Dillard
5/The Letters of J.R.R.Tolkien
6/This is My God:The Jewish Way of Life by Herman Wouk
7/Escape by Caolyn Jessop
8/Prisoner of Tehran by Marina Nemat

8 Classics

1/Hitty the 1st Hundred Years
2/Pilgrim's Progress
3/Tess of the D'Ubervilles by Thomas Hardy
4/ Giants in the Earth by Rolvaag
5/Rebbecca by Daphne du Maurier
6/Anna & the King of Siam
7/Kim by Rudyard Kipling
8/Around the World in Eighty Days by Jule Verne

8 Poetry

1/The Father by Sharon Olds
2/Polishing the Petoskey Stone by Luci Shaw
3/George Herbert
4/Annie Dillard
5/The Weather of the Heart by Madeline L'Engle
6/
7/
8/

8 Personal Growth

1/Irresistible Revolution
2/Heaven by Randy Alcorn
3/Ministry of Motherhood by Sally Clarkson
4/Susanna by Arnold Dallimore
5/Pursuit of God by A.W.Tozer
6/Evangelism Explosion by Kennedy
7/All God's Children & Blue Suede Shoes by Myers
8/Heirs of the Covenant by Susan Hunt

8 Books Girls in My Jr.High Sunday School Class are Reading

1/
2/
3/
4/
5/
6/
7/
8/

8 Madeline L'Engle

1/A Circle of Quiet
2/The Summer of the Great Grandmother
3/The Irrational Season
4/Two-Part Invention
5/Bright Evening Star
6/The Weather of the Heart
7/The Small Rain
8/A Severed Wasp

Randomness and a Link for Lisa

~Yesterday,the kids and I ordered THE BIKE. H4 was disappointed when she realized she wouldn't get to see the man's face when he received his gift! We will be turning our thoughts locally this time around. There are some very amazing places around town. Please, take a moment and see if maybe there is something you could do.
~The Barney Rubble camera died. Pictures around here will be sparse for awhile. I have been praying(coveting, scheming, whining) for one of these babies.
~I have added one more goal for the year. I 'll post the list tomorrow.
~ This is an interesting story. I liked it.Hey, computer guy (you know which one you are) is that really true what they say about computers???

One More Goal

I do have one more teeny, tiny goal I really want to get off the ground this year. I (with guest appearances from my mom) will be opening a small shop in the huge world of online sales. We deeply desire to continue with our Conspiracy Plan . The sales from my humble shop will go towards our efforts on that front. The picture below is part of my paper layout for a banner that will be in the shop on January 14th.



I will be giving you glimpses of what is to come. There will be aprons and art smocks of course but also a few new things. I am very excited about these banners. They have been floating around in my head for years. I am enjoying bringing them to life.

A Brief Comment on Comments

Blogger does not show me your email addresses. I have tried very hard to be faithful in acquiring every one's email and replying BUT . . . I am not very good at it. I LOVE your comments though and being me, I always have a comment for your comment. I have decided to reply within the comments section. If you would like a personal reply to a question just shoot me a plain ole' email. It seems so sad to even admit I can't personally keep track of the 5 or so people who comment here. What will happen if I become famous and reach 50 or 60 comments?!?!? Te-he. Seriously, I love your comments. They are a brief moment of contact with the outside world of adults.Hey, remember, I stay at home with six kids!!!

BOOKS READ 2007

Quaker Summer by Lisa Samson
The Enemy Within by Kris Lundgaard
Saving Fish From Drowning by Amy Tan
Mary Modern by Camille DeAngelis
Total Abandon by Gary Witherall
Christ the Lord Out of Egypt by Anne Rice
The Adventures of Odysseus by Hugh Lupton & Daniel Morden
The Cage by Ruth Minsky Sender
Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman
When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit by Judith Kerr
Who loves you like this by Edith Bruck
Dominion by Randy Alcorn
Safely Home by Randy Alcorn
Acorna: The Unicorn Girl by Anne McCaffrey & Margaret Ball
Teach Like Your Hair's on Fire by Rafe Esquith
The Kite Runner by Haled Hosseini
When the Darkness Will Not Lift by John Piper
The Knitting Circle by Ann Hood
The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield
Empire by Orson Scott Card
Next by Michael Crichton
Ask Supernanny by Jo Frost
The Mission of Motherhood: Touching Your Child's Heart for Eternity by Sally Clarkson
Enriching the Brain:How to Maximize EVERY Learner's Potential by Eric Jensen
Dangerous Journey by Oliver Hunkin
Alphabet Dreams by Susan Fletcher
A Violent Grace by Michael Card
Till We Have Faces by C.S.Lewis
Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller
Fahrenheit 451 By Ray Bradbury
A Return to Modesty: Discovering the Lost Virtue by Wendy Shalit

A New Year

We welcomed the New Year with an evening spent in the company of close friends. There was warm soup, coffee, a fire and s'mores. A total of 18 children were in attendance (divided not so evenly between four sets of parents)!!! Everyone (in our clan) made it 'til midnight. That was a big first. The next day we bummed around and had some more s'mores. That's the upside of having forgotten to bring our share on New Year's Eve!



We discussed New Year's resolutions. The Boy described them as "things you DON'T do!" Te-he! How true that often ends up being. Most of the gang did not have too many plans laid out,yet. L1 continues in her quest to accumulate a large sum of money to purchase a horse. The Boy and P3 are going to try for reading the whole Bible. The Boy tried this past year and almost made it but not quite! My sweet man's goal is to be a man worthy of my kindness and affection. (He is for real! The guy breaks my heart.)



I have a few, small personal goals. I want to learn to knit socks. I found someone in real-life who knits! She is going to help me make sense of using four needles to knit. I think it looks terribly scary. I have also been tweaking our homeschooling adventure. I want to aim for reading out loud at least two hours a day. That may be my most ambitious endeavour this year! We don't want our Advent Conspiracy to end and have decided to continue it year round. The beginning of anything, whether a pristine blank journal, a box of newly sharpened pencils or the smell of an unread book, is exciting. I am looking forward to this new year and the adventures that lie in wait.