A Book and a Letter

#10: Read 30 non-academic books.
Well, it's becoming pretty clear that I won't finish this goal in time, unless I can finish 11 books in the next 8 days...not likely. But I'll write about the book I finished most recently anyway.

A few months ago, I was in the mood to read some fiction, and Tom suggested Summer of the Monkeys. It was one of his favorite books as a kid. So I thought "OK, why not?"

Well...I don't think I was quite prepared for how much I would enjoy it. I won't give away any details, but it really is such a great story. I actually found myself tearing up for at least the last two or three chapters, but not sad tears (no, sad tears are apparently for Where the Red Fern Grows by the same author, Wilson Rawls). It's nice to know that there are books like this that can be enjoyed by both kids and adults. I highly recommend it!

#36: Take photos to spell out our last name and frame them.
I was looking at the list the other day and realized I still needed the letters L and E. Then yesterday evening I noticed that the bookcase in our dining area kinda looks like an E, so just one letter to go!

Um...you can see it, right?

Sick Day

#10: Read 30 non-academic books.
So, around 1:30 this morning, and again at 3:30, I woke up with an upset stomach and some other symptoms which I will not describe for you. (You're welcome.) I'm pretty sure it was caused by something I ate, not a virus or anything, but I decided to stay home from work today, just in case. I've spent the whole day in bed, reading, crocheting, watching shows on Netflix, and ingesting plenty of Gatorade and dry toast. I managed to finish reading Every Woman's Battle, which I've been working on for a few months now (it's a pretty short read...I probably could've knocked it out in a few days if I wasn't in the middle of so many other books). I think I would recommend it, especially to married women, though there's a lot of wisdom for single women in there too, on the subject of emotional and sexual fulfillment. (I'll give you a hint: It won't come from a man.)

One of my favorite chapters was near the end, and it was all about carving out time to spend with God one-on-one. I will definitely be using some of her suggestions when it comes to reaching one of the goals on my next 99 list. Yes, there's another list coming, and this one has a twist...so stay tuned!

More Books!

#10: Read 30 non-academic books.
On and off for the past year or so, Tom and I have been reading The Meaning of Marriage by Tim Keller and his wife Kathy; and we finally finished it on Friday night. I highly recommend it to anyone who is married, is considering marriage, or has just had fleeting thoughts along the lines of "if I ever get married..." It drives home the importance of the Gospel in marriage and teaches people how to have a marriage that is truly reflective of Christ's relationship with His church. Great stuff.
The next day I finished reading Here We Go Again. Tom gave me this book for my birthday a few years ago, but I never got around to reading it until recently. (Or maybe it was for Christmas...? The two are so close together, it's hard to keep track.) It's Betty White's autobiographical look at her career in television; as a self-proclaimed Golden Girls enthusiast, I knew I would really enjoy it, and I did. Her vivacious personality really jumped off the pages; it almost felt like I was sitting in Betty's living room, sipping tea (OK, maybe she would be drinking something a little stronger...?) and listening to her tell her story. I almost hated finishing it because I didn't want it to end, but my sister-in-law gave me another one of Betty's books, so the fun doesn't have to stop there. :)

Happy Endings

#28: Watch every Best Picture Winner since 1961.
I can't believe it, but this is DONE...I've officially watched every BPW from the last 53 years! The last one, you ask? It was the very good, very epic Lawrence of Arabia. It's nearly four hours long, so Tom and I spread it out over Memorial Day weekend, watching it in increments starting on Friday evening and finishing it up yesterday morning. I loved it! What a great ending to my run of Best Picture Winners. This was definitely one of my favorite goals...I'm excited to cross it off, but I had so much fun with it that I'm a little sad to see it go!

#10: Read 30 non-academic books.
Speaking of yesterday morning, that's also when I finished reading The Hunger Games! (It feels so good to actually be finishing some books instead of just starting a ton of them!) We rented the movie about a month ago, and it was good; but I figured the book had to be better, and I was right. I'm definitely going to try to read the next book before the next movie comes out.

Good Reads and a Good-bye

#10: Read 30 non-academic books.
I finished reading John Piper's Battling Unbelief a couple weeks ago. It's actually the first Piper book I've been able to read all the way through. (I can hear it now: "*gasp* And you're a seminary wife?!") When Tom and I started courting back in 2008, I tried to read Desiring God per Tom's recommendation, but I could never seem to concentrate long enough to get anything out of it. I'll have to give that another try sometime, though, because Battling Unbelief was great. The basic premise? All sin ultimately stems from unbelief, and the way to battle it is with a concept that Piper calls "faith in future grace": trusting God's promises in Scripture and looking ahead to the grace that God gives us on a daily basis. Great stuff. No wonder all the seminary folks like this Piper guy...

Last night, I finally finished The Tipping Point. This is the book that my father-in-law loaned me almost two years ago in exchange for Sein Language, and I'm just now finishing it. (Sorry, Dad!) I'm going to go out on a limb and say that this was one of the best books I've read in a very long time. It turns out that social epidemics are even more fascinating than I thought they were, which is saying a lot!

#64: Watch every season of ER.
We just finished season 11 last week, and my favorite character, Dr. Carter, left for Africa at the end of the last episode! (I know, I know, he was everyone's favorite.) I almost don't want to keep watching because I know the last four seasons won't be as good without him, but I do know he guest stars in a few episodes (including the series finale), so I guess that's reason enough to keep going with it...!

Secondhand Jesus

#10: Read 30 non-academic books.
Earlier this week, I finished Secondhand Jesus by Glenn Packiam. For those who don't recognize the name, Packiam is the worship pastor at New Life Church in Colorado Springs, CO. He's written several original songs, some of which we sang during the weekend services at Seacoast (the church Tom and I attended back in Charleston).

I have to say, if we're comparing books written by worship leaders, I liked this one better than the David Crowder book I read at the beginning of this challenge. Don't get me wrong; I thought Praise Habit was great. I just feel like I got more out of Secondhand Jesus, maybe because there was just more biblical context? In any case, I would still recommend both of them: Praise Habit if you want a lighter read, and Secondhand Jesus if you're looking for something with a little more meat.

Anyway, Secondhand Jesus was all about exposing four of the most popular rumors that we tend to believe about God. Packiam outlined these rumors using four separate instances involving the Ark of the Covenant, where the presence of God dwelt in Old Testament times. He also tied in some personal experiences from his time at New Life, particularly a nationally-publicized scandal involving the church's former senior pastor back in 2006 and a shooting that occurred during a worship service in 2007. His point in all of this was that in life, there will always be circumstances that arise and challenge your view of God; and in those circumstances, you cannot depend on your own accolades, nor can you depend on what someone else has told you about God. How you come out of those situations depends entirely on whether or not you know God for yourself. Great stuff.

Advent Book!

#10: Read 30 non-academic books.
I just remembered that Tom and I read through a book during this past Advent season! It's called Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus, and I think it has earned a place in the Duttweiler Christmas tradition book (if such a thing exists). There are 22 readings, all by some great heroes of the faith...guys like Martin Luther, John Calvin, and George Whitefield, and some "modern-day heroes" like John Piper, Alistair Begg, and R.C. Sproul. Wow!

We went through a reading each night leading up to Christmas, and it really helped us keep in mind what Christmas is all about. I highly recommend it. Pick it up this year!

Hi, My Name is Esther...and I'm a Bibliophile

#10: Read 30 non-academic books.
Tom and I have really gotten into reading through books together, usually one person reading out loud to the other. Most recently, we finished The Five Languages of Apology while driving to South Carolina for Thanksgiving. This book was written by Gary Chapman, who also wrote The Five Love Languages, which I would probably say has helped our marriage more than any other book...besides the Bible (duh). If you haven't read it, I highly recommend it, whether you're married or not. Chapman basically presents the idea that everyone has their own idea of what is considered loving, and learning to speak others' "love languages" greatly improves the quality of your relationships. For example, my primary love language is Quality Time: if you want to hang out with me, even if we barely talk, I feel on top of the world. Well, in Apology, he outlines five different ways in which people might perceive an apology to be truly sincere. Through reading this book, I discovered that my primary apology language is Genuine Repentance; unless you at least indicate the desire not to repeat whatever you did wrong, I probably won't take your apology very seriously. Tom's, on the other hand, is Accepting Responsibility, admitting you were wrong. See the difference? No one language is any better or worse than the others; they just show how different people are. Very interesting. The sociologist in me was loving it.

Also, this past Sunday, I finished Mark Driscoll's Confessions of a Reformission Rev. It's a pretty quick read, but it packs a wallop; I really feel like it taught me a lot about church planting, church leadership, and how I, as a layperson, can contribute to the well-being of my local church. I've listened to Driscoll's sermons for years now, and he is an acquired taste for sure. His honesty is brutal at times, but refreshing, and that carries over into his writing style. He definitely revealed the less glamorous side of church-planting, and as one of the most successful (if not the most successful) church planters of our time, I'd say he knows what he's talking about.

So...I'm coming to the realization that I will probably not meet this goal. The Driscoll book was the 10th one I've finished since I started this challenge, and I seriously doubt I'll be able to read 20 more books by September of next year. I'm currently "in the middle" of more books than I can keep track of (seriously...just hop over to the Tracking page...it's getting a little ridiculous), but it's been hard to find the time to finish any of them. I just love books too much; it gets me into trouble sometimes...! That being said, I recently had an idea for a new blog to start once my 999 days are over.

There are SO many books out there that I want to read, but I know that if I keep going the way I'm going now, I'll start all of them and never finish (this should not be!), so maybe this will be a good way around that. It's sort of a one-person book club, if you will: One book per month, with a short "review" at the end of the month. That will force me to focus on one book at a time, and I think knowing that I'll have to write about it at the end of the month will help light a fire under me to actually finish it. I'm pretty excited about it!

Back from Vacation

We're back from San Antonio! And I was at least slightly productive while we were there...!

#42: Get one article of clothing I would never buy for myself.
There was a little boutique right across the street from our hotel. Tom and I went there on Monday, and I found a dress to wear to Tom's grandparents' celebration dinner that night. (They're celebrating their 58th wedding anniversary this year!) The dress had one feature that is usually a huge turn-off for me: slightly poofy sleeves with elastic on the ends. This is a turn-off because my arms are my least favorite feature, so I usually bypass any article of clothing that draws attention to them, and this dress definitely did. But it wasn't too bad, though I do think it will look better when my arms are smaller. Wish I had a picture of me wearing it, though. I think Tom's mom got a good one...will post as soon as possible.

#10: Read 30 non-academic books.
Tom just finished Jerry Seinfeld's Sein Language, and he passed it on to me. It was a pretty quick read; I read about half of it during the flight from Atlanta to San Antonio, and finished the other half on Tuesday morning. It was basically a collection of jokes from his standup routines. So, so good. My father-in-law is a big Seinfeld fan, so I passed it on to him, and he had brought a book to loan to me too! I also finally finished George Muller's autobiography. My friend Joel gave it to me when I graduated from Clemson in 2008, and I started it sometime last year. The book is not long at all, but every time I picked it up I only read a few paragraphs at a time. Well, I finished it while waiting by our gate at the Atlanta airport on the way home this afternoon. Actually, it wasn't so much an autobiography as it was excerpts from his diaries, but still...what a story. Muller was such a good example of childlike faith. Even in times of desperate need when there was no relief in sight, his faith in God was unwavering, and God was faithful every time. What an example of how God does not forsake those who seek to glorify Him!

Patriots and Providence

#28: Watch every Best Picture Oscar winner from 1961-2013.
"Americans love a winner and will not tolerate a loser. Americans play to win all the time...That's why Americans have never lost, and will never lose a war...because the very thought of losing is hateful to Americans."
Sounds like a good line for Independence Day, right? Well, I thought so too. It was the perfect day to watch a movie like Patton. Actually, if you happened to see the Tracking page sometime in the last couple of months, you might've noticed that Patton was marked "in progress." That's because we actually started watching it on April 30th, but had to stop because we were falling asleep! (Not that the movie was boring; we were just really tired.) We kept meaning to pick up where we left off, but every time we thought about it, we were always in the mood to watch something else. By July 4th, it'd been so long since we started it, we ended up just watching it from the beginning again! Anyway, it was really good. I never really knew very much about the famous WWII general besides what everyone reads in history books, but the movie gave me a glimpse of his personality in addition to everything he did during the war. I've also discovered that I really like historical dramas, which is fortunate, because historical dramas make up a good portion of the movies I have left to watch...!

#10: Read 30 non-academic books.
Wednesday night, I finished My Husband Wants to Be a Church Planter...So What Will That Make Me? Long title, good book. Each chapter was written by a different person and addressed different aspects of balancing church planting with family life: things like how your children might be affected, money management, time management, dealing with loneliness, finding your role within the new church, and making time for your husband amidst the madness. I started reading this with the ladies in my small group, since every couple in the group has a mutual interest in church planting. We got through the first several chapters, but we were all coming and going out of town so often that it was rare to have a Sunday evening when all five of us were together to discuss what we'd read. Anyway, I think it was really helpful. Most of the women who wrote chapters are church-planting wives themselves; it was nice to be reminded that there are plenty of people who have been down the same road we're thinking of taking. It is possible to plant a church, and it is possible to keep your sanity and keep your family first in the process. God is faithful; where He guides, He provides. What a comfort!

Weekend in Charleston

#10: Read 30 non-academic books.
OK, so I didn't literally read an entire book the other day, but I did hear one, word for word, in its entirety. Several years ago, I bought The Firm by John Grisham, on CD; my friend Megan and I were getting ready to go on a road trip, and we decided to get one audiobook each, as an alternative to listening to music...but we never used them (I think maybe we ran into some bad weather, which made it hard to hear in the car). Anyway, I've been listening to music at work lately, but I was in the mood for a little something different on Thursday, so I popped that in. Ooh, it was good. Helped the workday go by more quickly too, which was great because it was my last day before going to Charleston for Memorial Day weekend!

#57: Keep a new plant alive for at least a month.

My mom gave me this plant while we were at home! (Don't hate on my Aqua Globe; you know you love it.) It's one of those plants that grows roots on the stem if you cut it off and put it in water. I was worried about it not surviving the trip back to Louisville while sitting in a cup of water, but I'm pretty sure these things are impossible to kill. (Heather, if you're reading this, I think it's the same kind you and I were talking about the other day.) We'll find out!

#50: Take photos of/for a friend or relative.

My parents are celebrating their 30th wedding anniversary next month! As their gift, I offered to take some pictures of them together while we were in town, provided the weather was good. Thank God, Saturday was a beautiful day! I think we got some pretty good shots; I've posted just a few of my favorites. I hope Mom and Dad had as much fun with this as I did! I definitely want to give this photography thing another try sometime.

The matching outfits were definitely not my idea, by the way; that was all Mom.

I think this one's my favorite. Dad was being very silly!

My Nickname in High School

#51: Choose walking over driving five times.

I totally forgot Tom and I did this a few weeks ago! There's this great place nearby called the Homemade Ice Cream & Pie Kitchen (the lack of creativity in the name is not reflective of what they serve...that's all I'm gonna say about that). The weather was so nice, we decided to go for a walk after dinner. It didn't take long for us to choose the Pie Kitchen for our destination, which sort of defeats the purpose of taking a walk, but oh well. It was deeeeelicious!

#28: Watch every Best Picture Oscar winner from 1960-2013.
So, we finally stopped procrastinating and signed up for Netflix! Our first DVD by mail? The Godfather: Part II. I highly recommend seeing it, but just be prepared: it gets pretty sad toward the end (don't worry; I won't give it away). This Netflix thing is great; I've already put some other Best Picture winners on our queue, as well as a few seasons of ER.

#10: Read 30 non-academic books.
Well, Mere Christianity turned out to be a bit too...cerebral for me to read on the treadmill. I am going to finish it, though! I just decided that it might be easier to read something a little lighter while at the gym, so I started The Phantom of the Opera. I am loving it so far! It's been awhile since I read any fiction; I didn't realize how much I missed it!

#25: Eat at a famous restaurant.
#58: Order fish at a restaurant 5 times.
We were going to do a "staycation" with our tax refund this year, but instead we decided to just go out for a really fancy dinner and use the rest of the money for something else (Tom wanted a flat-screen TV...what a tough life). We chose the English Grill at the Brown Hotel, one of the oldest and nicest restaurants in Louisville and the birthplace of the famous Kentucky Hot Brown (insert my "nickname in high school" joke here). AAA has given this place the illustrious Four Diamond Award several years in a row, and it's made an appearance on Throwdown with Bobby Flay; Bobby challenged them to a Hot Brown throwdown and lost miserably. Now...I know the recipe for the Hot Brown is available online, and you can even buy Hot Browns at some of the grocery stores around here, but when I looked at the menu, I couldn't think of ordering anything else. But for our appetizer, we ordered smoked salmon. I was a little unsure about it because I'm not a huge fan of fish (which is why #58 is on the list, to challenge me)...but it was delicious! More details about the English Grill to come in my restaurant blog, but for now, suffice it to say that it was a fabulous experience!

Praise Habit

#10: Read 30 non-academic books.
I finally finished The American Plague while waiting for the phone to ring at one of my recent job assignments. I also recently finished reading Praise Habit by David Crowder, a book I've had for over a year. The premise is that worship of God is not just something that we are called to do; it is woven into our very beings, and we cannot separate ourselves from it. He unpacks these ideas in a really genuine and funny way, using stories from his own life to illustrate the truths found in the Psalms. Initially, I wanted to read it simply because Crowder is a great worship leader, and I wondered if the book would help me do a better job when I help lead worship at church, which I get to do from time to time. What I was not expecting was for this book to help me be a better "lead worshiper," which is what my high school music teacher always said a good worship leader should be. When we truly realize who God is in comparison to who we are, and what He has done for us in Christ, how can our hearts do anything less than explode in appreciation?
Anyway, I told myself I wasn't going to start anymore new books until I finished the ones I was already reading...but I needed something to replace Praise Habit as my book to read at the gym, and all the other books I was currently reading were bulky hardcovers (except for my George Muller book, which I like to read before bedtime). So I broke my rule and started a new book that I've been meaning to read for ages: C.S. Lewis's Mere Christianity. I'm excited about it, but I've decided that I'm only going to read it at the gym, so that I can chip away at some of these other books that have been gathering dust lately...! I've also decided to go ahead and post the books that are on my "queue." I have a big stack next to my dresser just waiting to be read!

What a Week!

So...no work again this week. 'Nuff said?

#1: 100 new recipes.
I made guacamole from scratch for the first time the other night! I got the recipe from Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything, and it is soooo simple to make! With the Super Bowl coming up, this recipe might be making another appearance, but I think I might actually need to ease off the gas pedal on this goal for awhile...! Don't want to have all the big fun right away! :-p

#10: 30 non-academic books.
I also just recently finished reading For Women Only. The author, Shaunti Feldhahn, spoke about this book at Seacoast sometime last year, and a friend from our old small group happened to have a copy which she loaned to me. It's basically the findings of a survey the author did on thousands of men from all walks of life, and this survey revealed a lot of misconceptions we women have when it comes to relating to them, particularly wives to their husbands. (The book was full of statistics and percentages, by the way; the sociologist in me was all over this.) I personally think this is one book every married woman needs to read...with a grain of salt, of course, as is the case with all books like this. I won't say anymore about it, though, just in case there are any men reading this...I mean, let's not forget what the title of the book is!

#28: Watch every Best Picture winner from 1960-2013.

Two this weekend! The Hurt Locker was on Showtime Friday night (which we happen to get, even though our cable package is otherwise pretty limited), and that was good, although I think I could have appreciated it more if every other word hadn't been profane; then again, it did seem like a pretty realistic portrayal of what life was like for our troops in Iraq. If anything, it made me really want to make it a priority to pray for those who are deployed overseas, which is always a good thing. Then we were in the mood for another movie on Saturday, so we rented Out of Africa, which was the most "tame" Best Picture winner we could find at Blockbuster (The Hurt Locker was pretty intense, as you might imagine). The acting was great, of course, but it was a little hard to follow at times, plus it was about a woman having an affair, so...yeah. A good weekend, but not my favorite one for movies so far, to be quite honest.

#51: Choose walking over driving at least five times.

There was a UPS notice on our front door Friday morning, saying that we had a package at the front office. But this was the scene outside that morning; we got 3.6 inches of snow on Thursday, and the apartment office is practically on the other end of the property from our building. I was so tempted to drive to the office, but I decided against it for two reasons: 1) gas prices in Louisville are hovering around $3.15 per gallon right now, so I want to save it in any way I possibly can, and 2) in the time it takes to get all the snow off the car and warm it up, I could easily walk to the office and back. It felt good having to rely on my legs instead of my car to get me where I needed to go...! :)

Molto Bene!

#1: Try 100 new recipes. (3/100)
This was my conversation with Tom before bed last night...
Tom: G'night, honey.
Me: (silence)
Tom: What is it?
Me: There are so many ways to make lasagna...

My thoughts have been consumed with lasagna for most of this weekend. I made two different kinds for our small group this week: one meat (ground turkey and Italian sausage), one veggie (yellow squash and spinach). I've made lasagna before, but I'm counting these toward my #1 goal because they were completely different from the other ones I've done, and they were extra-special because I actually made the sauce, which I'd never done before. These two also turned out a lot better than any others I had ever made. Yay!

#28: Watch every Best Picture Oscar winner from 1960-2013. (14/53)
We rented The Godfather on demand the other night. This is another one of those movies I can't believe I had never seen before; it was incredible, of course. I also got a Sicilian pizza for dinner that night, by the way; it just seemed like the right thing to do. :)

#10: Read 30 non-academic books. (0/30)
I'm getting close to finishing the book The American Plague; though I'm not crazy about the way this author writes, the story itself is intriguing. It's about the US yellow fever epidemic and the discovery that mosquitoes were the vectors by which the virus spread. In those days, viruses were not even widely acknowledged as real organisms, much less something that could make people sick; bloodborne illness (as opposed to airborne or waterborne) was a fairly new concept as well. It's really amazing to think of how far public health has come in the past 100 years.

Two More in Progress!

#10: Read 30 non-academic books. (0/30)
When we were in Charleston for Thanksgiving, my mom loaned me The Health Detective's 456 Most Powerful Healing Secrets by Dr. Nan Kathryn Fuchs. I just remembered I started this one about a month ago, so I'm adding it to the list of books I'm currently reading. I wasn't sure what to expect, but it's actually pretty interesting. The "secrets" are not what I thought they would be; instead of weird extracts or supplements, it's more about hidden deficiencies and probiotics and things like that. Also, I'll go ahead and put this out there since it's probably on your mind already: the author's last name is pronounced "fyooks." Not what you thought, was it? Same here.

#13: Buy a new kitchen gadget and use it at least 10 times. (0/10)

I've been wanting a mandolin slicer for months now. I decided that I would get one if I got some money for my birthday, but I kept putting it off. No more! I got one while we were out running errands today, and I can't wait to start using it!