A drive, campfire videos, ministry updates, favourite missionary blogs

It was incredibly cold here today, but we had a family birthday to attend about an hour and a half away so off we went, frigid temperatures notwithstanding.

Actually, it was beautiful.  The cracks in the ice along the river had puffs of steam rising from them as the bitter air touched the (relatively) warmer water.  And then the puffs froze into crystals and hung like solid fog several feet above the water.  The sun actually had two rainbows, one on each side, which I assumed was from the light hitting ice in the air.  It was all so lovely, and very, very cold.

Anyway, we drove in the daylight this time when usually we start this particular trip while it is still dark out.  We just couldn't get ourselves together this morning (having to chip the ice away from the door so that we could lock it didn't help) and started on the road at the ripe old time of 8:30 in the morning.  But nature gave us something to be happy about anyway.

Speaking of beautiful nature I have a non-book recommendation for whomever has a small child, or for that matter a tired adult, to put to bed.  Y.outube has videos of campfires in different locations and they last for hours and hours and some of them are actually very well done in my opinion.  Some are not recorded quite as well, or the background noises are overwhelming and harsh, but I've been trying them out as a way to get the girls to sleep easier at night.  My favourite is probably by Virtual Fireplace and is called Lakeside Campfire With Relaxing Nature Night Sounds.

-----------

For anyone who might have read this blog many years ago when my husband and I were being considered by various churches and moving through different seasons in ministry, you might remember that I used to post what I called Ministry Updates.  I don't recall them really involving much other than me rambling at a captive audience about the triumphs and trials of a family going through the process of being hired on as church staff, but I enjoyed writing them.  Then, of course, my husband got hired as a senior pastor (if you come here only for the book talk, you might not know this), and those 'ministry updates' faded away.  Partly, if I'm honest, because now to update on ministry felt less private and more public.  But in some ways I sort of miss them!  I should find a way to incorporate them in here again.

-----------

Here's a question for those who, like me, read the blogs of missionaries around the world: what are your favourite blogs that involve families with young children?  Most of the missionary blogs I follow are written by families with much older children or no children at home, and I'd like to expand my repertoire.  I don't have a geographical preference, I just enjoy missions.

The 8yo Is Reading...

A few of the books the 8yo has finished in the last little while.

A.mazon

The pictures are from Amazon but the books we own are mostly second hand.

What I Read - January 2019

Reading Notes - In a previous post I mentioned wanting to try and finish up some of the books that I've started.  I succeeded in finishing two books that had been dragging on for a few months, but at the same time I also started more books.  Well, these things happen.

Traveling With Pomegranates by Sue Monk Kidd and Ann Kidd Taylor

This was an unfinished 2018 book that I managed to finish.

In hindsight, I can understand the framework for this non-fiction dual-author work significantly better if I look at it through the slightly magical lens of Kidd's previous work - The Secret Life of Bees.  Initially I found myself fascinated by the divine feminist perspective she and her daughter held, and drawn in to the story of Ann's descent into depression following a painful graduate school rejection letter, but the tale quickly became somewhat convoluted.  The further in we got, the more cerebral the story became, until it seemed to almost entirely be acted out in the imaginations of the two women.  From a faith perspective, it bothered me that near the end what had been seen as a particular affinity to the Virgin Mary was turned into the women praying TO Mary, changing marriage ceremony words to talk about God the mother, and eventually referring to a person as a 'savior'.  This being said, I actually did enjoy vast swathes of the story!  And certainly if accurate depictions of Christian worship are of no importance to you then you will probably be less bothered by the inaccuracies.

I suppose I was a little disappointed by the fact that it is hard to find excellent Christian female writing about the strength of women within the Christian faith.  But then, maybe this isn't meant to be that.  Maybe this is just meant to be a book about writing a book, and coming to grips with your inability to get everything you want in life, and how to change from one season of living to another.  But even seen through those filters, the book seemed ultimately somewhat unfulfilling.  Ann's deep, deep love for Greek history which leads her to want to devote her entire life to studying it - she applies to one graduate program, is rejected, and promptly falls into a deep, deep depression.  That simply seems illogical to me.  Apply to another program!  Do you love it or not?  Why on earth did you only apply to one graduate school program in the field you loved more than anything?!

So much of the story seems to hinge around dreams people have.  Someone dreams of an owl, and an owl is a symbol of Athena, and then that ties so nicely into the fact that Athena is a strong woman, and we're right back to strong women in ancient Greece.  Sigh.  It was all a bit circuitous for me.

Discipline: The Glad Surrender - Elizabeth Elliott

This was an unfinished 2018 title.

Elliott is an excellent Christian author who really gets to the heart of her subject.  In this book she very clearly outlined the areas of life where we need to allow God's authority, and what exactly that looks like.  Her examples are relevant and useful, her writing is simple, straightforward and elegant, and her understanding of her topic is spot on.

As Chimney Sweepers Come To Dust - Alan Bradley

The 7th in the Flavia De Luce Mysteries

Always a good mystery.  Flavia is in Canada!  Yay!

The Happiness Project - Gretchin Rubin

Possibly my fourth time reading this one?  Rubin has such an orderly mind.  It is both fascinating and intimidating to read her.  Also, CAN you become happier?  Is it scientifically possible?  Interesting.

Great Tales From English History - Robert Lacey

Book 1 of 2

I didn't realize this was actually the first of two volumes by Lacey chronicling some of the more colourful characters in English history, but I had so. many. English. history. books. I just had to read at least one of them for goodness' sake.  So I grabbed this one.  It was fantastic!  I mean, it wouldn't be a particularly helpful book to teach history with, nor would it be useful if you wanted to get beyond a very basic understanding of some of the monarchs, churchmen and lay folk he looks at, but for what it was, it was perfect.  Lacey mentions Our Island Story by H.E. Marshall, which is along the same lines as a book we're currently reading in homeschool - A Child's History of the World.  And Lacey's book is a grown up version of exactly this sort of book.  Short, pithy independent chapters that show links between individuals and help the reader draw their own conclusions.  I will be keeping it on my shelf for when my own students get into reading history.

Thoughts About The Garden.

It was a warm day today, and the sun is now up when we have supper, and therefore I'm straining towards spring and trying not to be disappointed that, in fact, it is still very much the middle of January.

Still, let's talk about gardens.  Because it is warm. 

For the past five years that we've been here I've planted a vegetable patch and every year I am pretty disappointed in it.  I'm not much of a vegetable gardener; my talents (such as they are) lie in the realm of flowers.  Last year I extended the linear bed in the back garden and started another bed around the rock wall and one in the front garden as well.  I filled the front garden plot with a bright green vine called Creeping Jenny, and some big annuals and some smaller annuals and also a bunch of Lily of the Valley that I dug up from under the spruces.  I think my goal is to focus on those beds and really try and fill them up with colour, and also to take out the 4x4 wooden raised beds and give them to my parents, who enjoy vegetable gardening.  I will plant a bunch of scarlet runner beans, though, because they bring me bees and hummingbirds.  And also I will keep my garlic in, if only because I must have 100 bulbs in the ground right now.  The rest will go.

So what flowers to plant!?  How exciting.  I have very bad luck with bulbs, except for oxalis, which the chipmunk won't eat.  So plenty of that around!  But last year the dahlias did well, and the sedum went crazy to the point where I split one big clump into four plants.  The ground sedum spread fantastically.

I think I'll branch out into hardy plants that will withstand our sporadic attendance on them.  The issue is that we have so much travel to do in the summer, and our garden suffers.  In the fall I transplanted a lot of daylilies, and that should withstand whatever I can throw at it, and of course the sedum and other drought-tolerant plants are fine, but generally speaking the garden sags a lot when we are gone.  This might be part of the problem with me growing vegetables, but it isn't a problem I can fix.

It's hard to believe that in six months the sun will be nowhere near setting right now but will have hours left in the sky.  The children will play outside after supper, and I will be watering the gardens in the evening with the cat beside me, watching to make certain I do a good job, and the chipmunk who is fast asleep at this moment, surrounded by his or her seeds, will be on the big flat rock, trying to eat my tulips.

How To Read A Lot Of Books - One Technique. Also the books I have started.

Here's one way in which I read lots and lots of books every year - I scatter them.  I strew them about.  I tuck them everywhere in my life.  There is a book beside me in the car.  There is a book beside every chair.  There are books in my kitchen and my bedroom and there are books stacked in the bathroom.  There are books I would like to read in my children's rooms and there are books in closets.  My entire life is filled, filled, with books.  I mean filled.  I read constantly.

Well, I suppose that isn't totally true.  I read constantly in spurts and in between spurts I read lazily.  I meander through books off and on, pausing to get deeply involved in a different project like learning how to make a certain food or finish a certain craft or hike somewhere or watch a documentary I've wanted to watch.  And then something will pull at me and I will disappear into books without noticing time passing.  I will forget to eat.  Sometimes I will stay up very very late.  Too late.

This isn't so much a technique for how to read more, so much as an explanation of how I personally read as much as I do.  I keep books everywhere so I am almost never without a book, and when I feel like reading them I dive in and get lost in them and forget the passage of time.  Not a helpful technique for many, perhaps.

I'd like to finish up some of the books scattered in my life right now, so I thought I'd wander around the house and see what I can find that is unfinished.

Let's start:

Beside my favourite reading chair we have a substantial pile.

There are also several books here that I have intended to read and haven't.  I'm not going to start those right now, since I have so many books on the go at the moment.  I will come back to them later.

In the bookshelf of doom, where books that are purchased sit and get forgotten, there are several titles that have been started...

And also a LOT that have not been started.  It's taking significant willpower not to start another book right now from that pile.

Right. And of course beside the bed:

I'm going to gather up all of these books into one big pile and make a list on paper and start crossing off titles as they are finished.  It will be nice to get a fresh start and then I can bring up all of the unread books and start those.  Like spring cleaning the reading lists.

The 2018 Reading Wrap Up

This year I read 70 books, which is up from my total of 62 in 2017!  I try to beat my own personal best of the year before, but of course the danger of doing especially well is that the following year you have to best it.  2019 will be the year of 71 books!

Here's the breakdown:

18 fiction
22 non fiction
1 play
1 book of poetry
28 children's books.

I count books I read aloud in the car to the family, books I read on my own, those I read aloud to the children at bedtime, and if I used Audible (I don't, but not for any particular reason) I would count those as well.  If I start a book, and don't finish it, I don't count it.  Even if there is only a page or two left.  However, I can count those books on the next year's list.  I use my own common sense with children's books - I will count The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, for example, but I will not count Mr. Putter and Tabby Bake A Cake - even though 'technically' it has chapters.  A book has to be somewhat substantial for its genre.  To this end I do not count long essays in my yearly total - although I do write them down on my list for my own records.

Of the 28 children's books:

2 of them I read aloud in the car (I actually read three books in the car this year, but only two were recorded as 'children's' books):

More About Paddington
Abel's Island

18 of them I read aloud to the children:

The Family Under The Bridge
Ballet Shoes
When My Naughty Little Sister Was Good
The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey
The Best Christmas Pageant Ever
Poppy
Stories From Grandma's Attic
More Stories From Grandma's Attic
The Four-Story Mistake
Encyclopedia Brown Cracks the Case
Twenty and Ten
The Doll People
Catwings
Catwings Return
The Milly-Molly-Mandy Storybook
Pippi Longstocking
Book Scavenger
Mr. Popper's Penguins

8 of them are children's books that I read on my own:

Catherine, Called Birdy
Moominvalley In November
Island Of The Blue Dolphins
Every Living Thing
The Gift of the Pirate Queen
Shoeshine Girl
Everything on a Waffle
The Boggart