Monday, July 20, 2015

Manic Monday V


Rain!: Beautiful, beautiful rain. For two or three days now, lovely storms have been coming north up the coast and dumping much needed rain on us. It hadn’t even made a dent in the drought, but still, it’s a start, and a very encouraging one at that. Rain is something to be thankful for in itself, but it brings so many other blessings with it, from not having to water the garden, to watching the little ones playing in rain puddles after church.

False Starts and True Ones: I think I may have committed a Narnia no-no. As I wrote about earlier, each year Carrie at Reading to Know hosts a Narnia reading challenge. I decided to read the series start to finish, and I started with book one. Book one being The Magician’s Nephew. Well, at least I tried to start with book one…three times. The third time was not the charm. After that I changed tacks, and started reading them in the order Lewis published them, starting with The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe. That made all the difference in the world. I am now fully immersed in Narnia, and hopefully sticking to this reading plan will pan out nicely. Unfortunately, I lost time with my false starts so I may not finish the entire series this month as I was hoping to. But I think the point of this challenge is to encourage us to read something that might otherwise have hung chronically around the middle of our to-read lists. And I will finish it, even if it goes a bit into August. But really, where are you supposed to start?!

Pinterest: I love Pinterest. I may in fact be slightly addicted to it. But only recently have I discovered some of its more practical uses, and at the top of that list is planning things. If I’m expected to do something, I need a plan. I am not spontaneous, I’m not even sure what ‘flying by the seat of your pants means,’ but it sounds terrifying. And suddenly I’ve noticed all the resource Pinterest has for planning, whether it’s costumes, meals, or events. Perfect for a chronic planner like me.

Cooking Victories: Speaking of meals, that has become one of my biggest goals for the year – to cook more. I am not a bad cook, just an unwilling one. I love to bake, but for some reason cooking is at the very bottom of the list of things I enjoy doing. But every time I have a small victory and cook something particularly yummy, it gives me a little extra boost that makes it easier to cook next time. What about you? Have you found any resources for meal planning that are particularly helpful and that you could recommend?

Pumpkin Starts: I finally got a nice little patch cleared for my pumpkins. I decided on two varieties – a large one, intended for display pumpkins and jack o lanterns, and a tiny one that may very well make excellent pie pumpkins…we shall see. And perhaps later in the year there will be pictures…if I don’t murder them first.

A Much-Anticipated Novel: I read To Kill a Mockingbird for the first time at the beginning of the year and fell instantly in love. Two days after I finished reading it, and while I was still savoring it and nursing a bad case of ‘book hangover’, I found out about the long-forgotten, recently unearthed sequel, Go Set a Watchman. I sent in my preorder within days. And last week it arrived. I can’t believe I’m doing this to myself, but I am refusing to read it yet. Instead it is sitting innocently taunting me from its place on my shelf. No, I’m not a masochist, and no, I’m not doing penance for some horrible sin. I am using it as a self-bribe, my incentive for finishing The Chronicles of Narnia, whether I finish it late or not. In the meantime, I am totally isolating myself from any reviews, opinions, people who have read it, and practically the world at large to avoid spoilers.

2 comments:

  1. Yeah that was a Narnia no-no but it seems like it corrected itself nicely. :D

    I'm refraining from reading Go Set a Watchman. I felt rather ambivalent towards To Kill a Mockingbird so I don't feel the drive.

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  2. Yeah that was a Narnia no-no but it seems like it corrected itself nicely. :D

    I'm refraining from reading Go Set a Watchman. I felt rather ambivalent towards To Kill a Mockingbird so I don't feel the drive.

    ReplyDelete