I forgot to do a post last month and didn't realize it until December was well underway, so I decided to do a combination of both months in one post. Here we go, starting with the most recent book and working our way to the oldest.
The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Recipes from an Accidental Country Girl, written by Ree Drummond
The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Recipes from an Accidental Country Girl, written by Ree Drummond
Tana gave me this book and I had fun going through it, both alone and with Naomi. Now that I've read all of it, I look forward to trying some of the recipes!
Homeschooling: The Middle Years: Your Complete Guide to Successfully Homeschooling the 8 to 12 Year-Old Child, written by Shari Henry
Random pick off the library shelf. Nothing particularly enlightening and I'm not a fan of the attitude that homeschooling is superior to public school or that public school has nothing positive about it, but I did get a couple of ideas and some websites for the kids to use.
Money, Possessions, and Eternity, written by Randy Alcorn
Excellent book! Alcorn takes a significant amount of time to talk about money from a spiritual perspective of eternity, talks quite a bit about materialism and prosperity theology, places great value on giving, and discusses money issues pertaining to individuals, families, Christian organizations, and churches. The book is filled with scripture references and includes a study guide in the back, which I didn't use and don't have an opinion about.
Here are some of the other topics he addresses - asceticism, stewardship (eternal destiny, eternal rewards, relationship to master), pilgrim mentality, tithing, giving, helping the poor, reaching the lost, ministry finances and fund-raising, making money, owning possessions, choosing a lifestyle, borrowing, lending, saving, retiring, insuring, gambling, investing, leaving an inheritance, teaching kids about money, financial integrity and accountability in churches, using ministry funds for buildings, co-signing, and whether or not giving should be done secretly.
While Dave Ramsey can be very helpful for someone needing practical help with getting out of debt and forming a budget, the "how" of money management, I think Randy Alcorn does an excellent job of getting to the "why" of money management. Each man addresses both issues, but their books are totally different.
One of the things I liked about this book is that he talks a lot about raising your standard of giving, not your standard of living, when given pay increases and about keeping your own life fairly simple in order to make impacting changes in the lives of others ... but he does not take it to a point of legalistically coming up with numbers of acceptable or unacceptable dollar amounts and is totally fine with budgeting for things like vacations or eating out.
One of my goals in parenting is to raise kids who are wise managers of their money and cheerful givers. We start to work on those things when they're young and so far they are doing well for their ages, but I think I'm going to make this book be required reading as they get older.
p. 90, (on prosperity theology) For any gospel that is more true in America than it is in China is not the true gospel.
p. 93, (talking about money, but true in many areas) Unless the right choice is deliberately made and tenaciously clung to, the wrong choice will naturally be implemented.
p. 101, What we do with our money doesn't lie. It is a bold statement to God of what we truly value. But what we do with our money doesn't simply indicate where our heart it. According to Jesus, it determines where our heart goes. <snip> If I want my heart to be in one particular place and not in another, then I need to put my money in that place and not in the other. <snip> As surely as the compass needle follows north, your heart will follow your treasure. Money leads; hearts follow.
p. 120, What you do with your resources in this life is your autobiography.
p. 309, (the first of six assumptions of the debt mentality) We need more than God has given us. (the third) God has failed to provide for our needs, forcing us to take matters into our own hands. <snip> It's one thing to trust God to provide for our present needs (Matthew 6:33). It's another to presume upon him by dictating (via a decision to incur debt) the terms of his future provision.
p. 344, (on the way people used to depend on family, neighbors, church, and community, rather than insurance, in times of need) His "insurance" was his own participation in the community. People cared, helped, and prayed. God worked through these personal relationships to meet not only material but emotional and spiritual needs.
p. 365, There's an unfortunate myth that if our hearts are right God will automatically bless us, even if our heads are empty when it comes to sound business principles. We must be careful not to presume upon God's favor and expect him to bail us out of unwise decisions.
True Crime: True Stories of the World's Infamous Murderers, Thieves, and Con Artists, written by Nick Yapp
My dad gave me this as a birthday gift over the summer and I've been slowly making my way through it over the last several months. Morbid and graphic, so it's definitely not for everyone, but I really enjoyed it.
I didn't actually read the whole book, but I skimmed through it. I bought my copy of this book in college, nearly twenty years and half my life ago, shortly after it came out. There were things I didn't agree with or couldn't relate to, but I remember soaking up the feeling that someone understood my reality. I wrote notes in the margins and a roommate later bought me Letters From Motherless Daughters, which I proceeded to sob my way through. Eventually both books ended up on my shelves and I kinda forgot about them.
A couple years ago Beep asked if she could look at Motherless Daughters and I gave her permission to read my notes and make her own. So reading the book this time around meant reading notes of my own that I'd totally forgotten about (some feelings are the same, some are different now), reading Beep's notes, and reading again parts of the books that intrigued me.
A couple years ago Beep asked if she could look at Motherless Daughters and I gave her permission to read my notes and make her own. So reading the book this time around meant reading notes of my own that I'd totally forgotten about (some feelings are the same, some are different now), reading Beep's notes, and reading again parts of the books that intrigued me.
Misconception: One Couple's Journey from Embryo Mix-Up to Miracle Baby, written by Paul and Shannon Morrell, with Angela Hunt
This was the second book I read about this IVF disaster, the first being written by the couple carrying the baby and mentioned farther down in this post. The first book was definitely written better, but I wasn't interested in figuring out who was the more gifted author. I just wanted to hear the perspectives of both sets of parents involved in this mess. I can't imagine what it must have been like for either couple. Such stress, heartache, fear, anger ... and no one else who could understand what they were going through. Hard stuff, for sure!
Henry Huggins, written by Beverly Cleary
School for Naomi. We opted to listen to it on CD this time around and heard this version, which is read by Neil Patrick Harris.
Mountain Born, written by Elizabeth Yates & illustrated by Nora Spicer Unwin
Mountain Born, written by Elizabeth Yates & illustrated by Nora Spicer Unwin
School for Naomi. The story of a boy who raises a sheep from a nearly dead newborn through adulthood. A story of maturity, farming, hard work, simplicity, and relationships. I think I quoted this part the last time we read the book, but I like it.
p. 47, Old Benj once said, "A man must have a care to what he puts in his mind, for when he's alone on a hillside and draws it out, he'll want treasures to be his company, not regrets."
Inconceivable: A Medical Mistake, the Baby We Couldn't Keep, and Our Choice to Deliver the Ultimate Gift, written by Carolyn & Sean Savage
Shelley recommended this book and I really enjoyed it. It's the simultaneously fascinating and disturbing story of a couple who, through errors made by medical staff during the IVF process, end up pregnant with someone else's child. It's their last chance to be pregnant and the baby, through no fault or choice of their own, is not theirs. Great read!
Here is what I told Shelley.
I did/do have some thoughts about them calling Logan a gift.I don't think he was. He belonged to the Morells the whole time and never belonged to the Savages. What happened was so phenomenally wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong. I can't even begin to fathom what it would be like to be robbed of your last opportunity to be pregnant with your own child *or* to go through an entire pregnancy/delivery/etc. for a baby that you wanted to keep, but couldn't *or* to have no one in your life who truly understood your situation *or* to be the one paying the consequences for someone else's grandiose mistake, while simultaneously not really having any rights ... and on and on. I have nothing but sympathy for the situation.
That being said, Logan simply wasn't Sean and Carolyn's baby. You can't gift something that didn't belong to you in the first place.
If you and I both order new couches, but yours comes to my house while I'm gone and my family, not realizing it's the wrong one, starts to use it, that doesn't make it mine. It doesn't matter that it's not our fault it came to us, that it goes perfectly with our decor and we love it, that it's going to be an inconvenience to get it to your house, that the furniture company slacked in their work, or that we'll have to wait and figure out another way to get our couch. Getting the couch from my house to your house doesn't mean I've given you a gift in any way, shape, or form. I'm simply returning something to it's rightful owner. I know that couches aren't equal to humans and that there are holes in my example, but I'm sure you understand my point.
So, I wouldn't say they gave a gift. I'd simply say they did the right thing. A very painful thing that required great sacrifice on their part, the effects of which will never go away completely.
Here is what I told Shelley.
I did/do have some thoughts about them calling Logan a gift.I don't think he was. He belonged to the Morells the whole time and never belonged to the Savages. What happened was so phenomenally wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong. I can't even begin to fathom what it would be like to be robbed of your last opportunity to be pregnant with your own child *or* to go through an entire pregnancy/delivery/etc. for a baby that you wanted to keep, but couldn't *or* to have no one in your life who truly understood your situation *or* to be the one paying the consequences for someone else's grandiose mistake, while simultaneously not really having any rights ... and on and on. I have nothing but sympathy for the situation.
That being said, Logan simply wasn't Sean and Carolyn's baby. You can't gift something that didn't belong to you in the first place.
If you and I both order new couches, but yours comes to my house while I'm gone and my family, not realizing it's the wrong one, starts to use it, that doesn't make it mine. It doesn't matter that it's not our fault it came to us, that it goes perfectly with our decor and we love it, that it's going to be an inconvenience to get it to your house, that the furniture company slacked in their work, or that we'll have to wait and figure out another way to get our couch. Getting the couch from my house to your house doesn't mean I've given you a gift in any way, shape, or form. I'm simply returning something to it's rightful owner. I know that couches aren't equal to humans and that there are holes in my example, but I'm sure you understand my point.
So, I wouldn't say they gave a gift. I'd simply say they did the right thing. A very painful thing that required great sacrifice on their part, the effects of which will never go away completely.
Six Word Lessons on Growing Up Autistic: 100 Lessons to Understand How Autistic People See Life, written by Trevor Pacelli
Short book that I read after crawling into bed one night. I've heard friends mention it in the past, so I got it from the library. The author is an autistic college student who gives very brief lessons about autistic people. I know a lot of people with family members on the spectrum and have learned much from them over the years, so I didn't learn a ton from this book. However, it would be a good read if you have someone on the spectrum in your life.
Actually, you probably know people on the spectrum, even if you don't think you do. So read it anyway. It will help you better understand them and, perhaps, help you extend grace toward their parents when you don't think they're handling things correctly. Sometimes there is more going on than you think.
Actually, you probably know people on the spectrum, even if you don't think you do. So read it anyway. It will help you better understand them and, perhaps, help you extend grace toward their parents when you don't think they're handling things correctly. Sometimes there is more going on than you think.
** This post contains affiliate links and I'm grateful when people use them. **
No comments:
Post a Comment