Reading Goal for 2010

I've never been a big reader and I always wished I were, so last year I decided to read books mostly for entertainment value, with story lines that weren't too challenging, and I think my plan worked.

Now I find that I enjoy sitting down to read a book, and I love that feeling. If I begin to read something now, that seems like it will NOT hold my interest for long, it seems easier to keep on reading, and then I'm usually hooked. I used to give up on books after the first or second chapters.

This year I read a lot of Wanda Brunstetter novels. Her books are very easy to read, but enjoyable all the same. My favorite read of the year was Trianon: A Novel of Royal France . If you have not read it, you should.

I've decided to challenge myself a bit more in 2010, so I came up with a reading plan. Here goes:

Political: 2 Books

Spiritual (saints, etc.): 4 Books

Apologetics: 1 Book

Historical: 1 Book

Read 4 Fun: 7 Books

The last category is already in my Amazon wish list, but I need help with the other four. If you could recommend a book or two I would greatly appreciate it.

Book List for 2009: **recommended

• A Sister's Hope **
• A Sister's Test **
• Rome Sweet Home **
• A Sister's Secret **
• The Crossroad
• The Postcard
• A Cousin's Prayer
• The Hope Chest
• Plain & Fancy
• Trianon: A Novel of Royal France **
• Looking For A Miracle
• A Merry Heart
• The Bishop's Daughter **
• The Quilter's Daughter **
• The Storekeeper's Daughter **
• A Cousin's Promise
• The Great Brain
• Shattered Dreams

The Ant and the Grasshopper

This was sent to me in an email, and I just couldn't resist sharing.
____________________________________

This one is a little different......
Two Different Versions..................
Two Different Morals

OLD VERSION

The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter.

The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away..

Come winter, the ant is warmand well fed.

The grasshopper has no food or shelter, so hedies out in the cold.

MORAL OF THE STORY: Beresponsible for yourself!


MODERN VERSION

The ant works hard in the withering heat and the rain all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter.

The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away.

Come winter, the shivering grasshopper calls a pressconference and demands to know why the ant should beallowed to be warm and well fed while he is cold and starving.

CBS, NBC , PBS, CNN, and ABC show up to provide pictures of the shivering grasshopper next to avideo of the ant in his comfortable home with a table filled with food. America is stunned by the sharp contrast.

How can this be, that in a country of such wealth, this poor grasshopper is allowed to suffer so? Kermit the Frog appears on Oprah with the grasshopper and everybody cries when they sing, 'It's Not Easy Being Green...'

ACORN stages a demonstration in front of the ant's housewhere the news stations film the group singing, "Weshall overcome." Then Rev. Jeremiah Wright has the group kneel down to pray to God for the grasshopper's sake.

President Obama condemns the ant and blames President Bush, President Reagan, Christopher Columbus, and the Pope for the grasshopper's plight. Nancy Pelosi & Harry Reid exclaim in an interview with Larry King that the ant has gotten rich off the back of the grasshopper, and both call for an immediate tax hike on the ant to make him pay his fair share.

Finally, the EEOC drafts the Economic Equity & Anti-Grasshopper Act retroactive to the beginning of the summer. The ant is fined for failing to hire a proportionate number of green bugs and, having nothing left to pay his retroactive taxes, his home is confiscated by the Government Green Czar and given to the grasshopper.

The story ends as we see the grasshopper and his free-loading friends finishing up the last bits of the ant's food while the government house he is in, which, as you recall, just happens to be the ant's old house, crumbles around them because the grasshopper doesn't maintain it. The ant has disappeared in the snow, never to be seen again. The grasshopper is found dead in a drug related incident, and the house, now abandoned, is taken overby a gang of spiders who terrorize the ramshackle, once prosperous and once peaceful, neighborhood. The entire Nation collapses bringing the rest of the free world with it.


MORAL OF THE STORY: Be careful how you vote in 2010.

Caveman on Marian Devotion

From: The Lair of the Catholic Cavemen

Merry Christmas!! (a little late)

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas, and I pray that a year full of joy and many blessings come your way.

Poor Posting Habit

I know I haven't posted anything new in a while & I apologize, I've just been a bit preoccupied & a little uninspired at the moment. I will be back in the game soon though, so please don't stop coming by. I truly enjoy reading all your comments.

Memories

I spent the evening going through old pictures & these are some of my favorites of myself as a kid. I especially like the ones with me in a dress because I'm sure it was not an easy task for my mom to get me in them. But my real favorites are the Halloween pics of me & my brother.

Ads In Comments

For the last month I've been getting comments made in old posts that aren't comments at all, they're advertisements. I'm not even sure what the ads are for, I just don't publish them, but it's getting annoying. I am glad I moderate my comments now though. It makes it much easier to delete.

Is this happening to anyone else?? If so, are you just as bothered by this as I am, or am I just too easily annoyed in this case?

Sanctus Real

Thanks Allison!!

I love this song.

Duggar Emergency

"Michelle Duggar, star of TLC's "18 Kids and Counting" gave birth to her 19th child, a girl, Thursday night via emergency C-section, although she wasn't due to give birth until spring, TMZ reports. Josie Brooklyn Duggar weighed in at 1 lb., 6 ounces." Click here for whole story.

Please remember Michelle & Baby Josie in your prayers.

Amish Peace

Lately I've been reading a lot of novels about the Amish written by Wanda Brunstetter & a few by Beverly Lewis, and I've really enjoyed it. Really they are love stories with a more wholesome setting, and I'm a sucker for love stories.

Today I just started a book called Amish Peace: Simple Wisdom for a Complicated World and so far I love it. Each chapter is a small story about an Amish person or family (real stories) telling about the benefits of their simple yet hard working lifestyle. At the end of each chapter are some questions for the reader, and suggestions on how to live a simple life in our modern & very busy world.

I know, I know, what's with all the Amish books? In fact, when Paul saw I bought this one he asked "are you planning to go Amish?", of course he was kidding. While I would love to visit Amish country I have no wish to join their community, I do enjoy reading about their culture though.

It's amazing what all can be accomplished in a single day & pretty much all meals are made from scratch. Prayer is encouraged for every little decision, which to me just serves as a reminder to ask God for help, always. Men & women have their roles, and that's that!! Nowadays (for the most part) we modern folk are not brought up knowing the difference. We are taught that men should help with the dishes & a woman should want a career because being a wife & mother isn't good enough.

Over time I will make little posts with the reflection questions in the book, but not yet. Here are some pictures I found online.

In heaven by Stephen Crane

In heaven,

Some little blades of grass

Stood before God.

"What did you do?

"Then all save one of the little blades

Began eagerly to relate

The merits of their lives.

This one stayed a small way behind,

Ashamed.

Presently, God said,

"And what did you do?

"The little blade answered, "Oh my Lord,

Memory is bitter to me,

For, if I did good deeds,

I know not of them.

"Then God, in all His splendor,

Arose from His throne.

"Oh, best little blade of grass!" He said.

Video: Blessed Miguel Pro