The Big Read - part 2

The last time I posted about a reading challenge, I was corrected on the existence of the "real" one called "The Big Read" by a blog commenter. The list I posted was a mish-mash of two challenges. Whatever.

ANYWAY... You can read about the real "Big Read" HERE! Whoopin' Divinity School is a participant and all of us Whoopers are encouraged to squeeze in a non-Divinity book... I am going to try and read a few of them that I either hated the first time, or would like to try as a new one this time... Besides, I have a week coming up at the beach and I need something to read!

Here's the list...
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
My Antonia by Willa Cather
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J. Gaines
The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett
A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
The Call of the Wild by Jack London
The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers
The Shawl by Cynthina Ozick
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan
The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Leo Tolstoy
The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton

Yours for better beach reading...

Deb
...who is already at the beach in her mind...

HOME

The Mexico team is HOME! Despite all odds, everyone got a ticket (including a change of planes in Houston less than 24 hours after Edouard!

The Harpist is enjoying her first hot shower in a week, and shortly, will soon be snoozing in her own bed...

Thanks for praying her, and the rest of the team, HOME!

Deb

P.S. Yes. She will do a guest blog in the next week!

Maybe tomorrow

Our friend, ED, has closed the Houston airport for several hours today... Their flight never left Mexico because of the storm's projected landfall. ...So our girl and the rest of the team are delayed. Pray for good flights, hopefully tomorrow... and safety.

Thanks...
Deb

UPDATE: (3:45 p.m. EDT)
They are on stand-by for Wednesday... there's only 2 flights out of San Luis Potosi each day. Then IF that works, they are on stand-by to get out of Houston....

Keep praying...

Feminist Kitteh

Somehow, this one seems appropriate since my Feminist Theology paper is done...


more cat pictures

...by the way...

Gad, I am an idiot.
200 pages into my day this all becomes quite clear to me...

It is NEVER a good sign when your prof says (after reading your proposal for a paper topic) "well THAT will be a very interesting and challenging paper!")

It would be much better for them to say, "your paper will bore my socks off and will be a piece of cake for you. Here's your A+."

RriiiiiiigghhhhTTT!

NEWS FLASH

Today The Harpist is spending her last (planned) day at Casa Hogar in San Luis Potosi, Mexico. However, we have been watching the Gulf of Mexico and this lil ol' storm named Eduardo. Projected to be making landfall in the next 24 hours... and while I don't wish it on my RevGal friends in the Katrina affected area, I don't want it to hit Houston, either. (That's where the team changes planes and goes through Customs...)

So pray for a fast, safe uncomplicated return.

thanks...
deb

sufficient

In the midst of being overwhelmed yesterday to the point of tears... Naomi and Bill sang this as part of the morning worship. And peace descended...

And God is more than enough for whatever I look at trying to accomplish today. That is, if I remember as I try it, that God is in the midst of doing it with me...

oh. yeah. that.

I hate the phone

AAaaaaahhhhhH!!!!!!

I don't like the phone.

I especially don't like phoning to recruit or schmooze or "survey" or otherwise do visitor follow-up. Or persuade other people that it is a great "ministry" to do it so that I don't have to...

It's a problem because it is now becoming a large part of my work as a pastoral underling (aka "associate pastor.") I am recruiting, training and "empowering" people to do it...

SOooo... what about the things I am passionate about in ministry???

Teaching? very little.
Preaching? non-existent to barely ever.

If you'd pray for my attitude and a miraculous change of heart... to loving "cold calls" (which is what this feels like) I'd appreciate it...
Because that what's on my plate this week, and I really REALLY don't want to do it...

And that sucketh mightily.
Verily.

Just sayin'.

That flippin' calendar...

I finally got around to flipping the calendar to August. (OK, so I'm slow. Sue me.)

It's good and it's bad. It means that I'm almost done with another semester. It means that the fall schedule with its intense busy-ness for the rest of the family starts up again... soon. VERY soon.

Reedy Girl saw the awful words "1st day of school" and said, "NO NO NO NO!!!!" Her only consolation is that my semester starts before hers.

I feel her pain. Even though my summer schedule, in some ways, is worse than the school year, I've enjoyed knowing that the girls are around during the days.

Time is flying by... in a little over three weeks...
The Harpist will be starting her senior year in high school.
Reedy Girl will starting her last year of middle school.
I will start another year of divinity (FUDGE!) school. (I always want to put that word after "divinity"!)

To quote Mayor McShinn's wife in The Music Man...
LADIES... TEMPUS FUGIT!

deb

Friday Five: Lock Me Out, Lock Me In

Songbird of RevGalBlogPals writes:

For some reason, Blogger declared this blog possible SP*M and locked us down yesterday. This morning, we're free to post again, but there was a fair amount of excitement last night among our contributors, who found a dire notice on their Blogger dashboards threatening that this blog might be deleted in 20 days!

We requested a blog review, and I posted a request at the Blogger Help group, where I found we were not alone. Many other perfectly nourishing and cromulent blogs got the same notice last night.

This turned out to be a very small barricade in our blogging community life, but it seemed appropriate to explore locks and blocks and other barriers this week. Also, I liked the picture of the security team above! Could they be Blogger's Spam Prevention Robots, working overtime?

In honor of their efforts, I bring you the "Lock Me Out, Lock Me In" Friday Five.

1) How do you amuse yourself when road construction blocks your travel?
Pre-GPS days, I would play "radio roulette" and just keep punching the "search" button on my FM radio. (Did you know that, regardless of where in the US you travel, there are an inordinate amount of Country stations??? yilg...) Now, I hit that "find detour" button. At least I'm moving. It's questionable whether I am actually getting there any faster...

2) Have you ever locked yourself out of your house? (And do you keep an extra key somewhere, just in case?)
Sigh. Yes... The worst was when I was taking the trash out late one night. The door to the house (the handset in the door handle was finicky) blew shut and locked itself. I could spend the night in my car... or I could bang on the door until my husband let me in. He, of course, was sound asleep. Neither one of us were happy. (A moment of marital bliss it was NOT!) My husband took some Lock-eze to it the next day. And no - no keys hidden anywhere outside our house. We have a neighbor who has ours, though.

3) Have you ever cleared a hurdle? (And if you haven't flown over a material hurdle, feel free to take this one metaphorically.)
Um. No, but I knocked them down regularly in the Track and Field P.E. unit in high school...

4) What's your approach to a mental block?
It depends on what it is. Since I am one mental block away from finishing my latest round of Turabian uh... fertilizer I assign myself "mini-tasks" to make the insurmountable seem possible. If that doesn't work I throw food around on Facebook. When I get really disgusted, I go blow off some steam at WellGames! (And those of you who struggle with getting distracted on-line should NOT go there. Repeat: NOT!!! But if you like a fun game, try Glassez or Beadz!)

5) Suggest a caption for the picture above; there will be a prize for the funniest answer!
"Huey felt their relationship was one-sided; Dewey and Louie thought he was acting a bit unhinged..."

And now... on to my day...

Deb