3 in 3 Challenge

Photo from dishevelledchic.com 

I came across the 3 in 3 Challenge over at Desiring Virtue recently, and decided to join in. Its very simple, you just read 3 books in 3 months. She has chosen one on theology, one on christian living, and one as a biography. The first book is "Name above all Names" and so far is awesome!

Want to join???

All you need to do is read the book, and at the end of the month head over to desiring virtue to discuss. Easy peasey.

I needed something to help push me to read something other than a parenting book ;-) haha! Yay for Fall reading. Something about Fall always makes me want to curl up with a book my iphone kindle app and some hot chocolate (might be too early for that considering it was high 90s today!).

Fall Into Reading List 2010- finally

So I am a few days late on this, mainly because a sickness has attacked my head and throat and chest and I just didnt have a clear enough head to type. Better late than never, right? Without further ado....

My Fall Into Reading List 

for 2010

This Fall I am doing it a little differently. I have a list of 12 books I would like to read overall, and my goal is to read 6 of them by the end of the challenge. 

1. Big Truths for Young Hearts by Bruce Ware
2. Radical by David Platt
3. The Screwtape Letters by CS Lewis
4. The DNA of Relationships by Gary Smalley
5. Women Leaving the Workplace by Larry Burkett (I am not leaving the workplace- just looks like an interesting book and has lots of stewardship tips within it)
6. Stuff Christians Like by Jonathan Acuff
7. Engaging Parents as Allies by Wayne Rice
8. Irresistible Revolution by Shane Claiborne
9. The One Minute Organizer by Donna Smallin
10. Mudhouse Sabbath by Lauren Winner
11. Getting Things Done by David Allen
12. 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey (I have read half and never finished!)

What will you be reading this fall?? 

**If you want to join in and have a blog, go to Callapidder Days and link to your post. If you dont have a blog, leave your list in the comments and I will check in with you to see how you are doing. Dont we all need a little encouragement to get our eyes off the tv and into a book??

Several Book Reviews...

I have several books I have been meaning to summarize on here, but I just can't seem to find alot of time to blog these days. So here's my thoughts on a couple of recent reads:

Family Driven Faith by Voddie Baucham Jr. 

This was such an interesting read. I loved what he taught on the importance of parents taking responsibility for their children's discipleship. He brought up great points about how today we expect "experts" at church to handle this, just like our children's teachers and sports coaches, but this is not the biblical mandate parents get from the Lord. As someone who is in ministry at a church, I fully agree with him about the dangers of this. He focuses heavily on the importance of having a family worship time daily or weekly, and I think that is awesome. He believes in "Family Integrated Churches" which actually means churches that have no age segregated ministries. The families all worship together and learn together, no youth group or nursery etc. That was a new concept for me, and its one I am still processing through. But overall the book is great and I would recommend it to any Christian.

Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

A re-read for me, and I think its so funny because last time around I didn't really love this one that much but this time it became one of my favs! Weird. I love the sense of adventure in this one, and all the different stops on the way to "Aslan's country". It is wonderful.

Narnia: The Silver Chair

Last time around this one was a fav, and while I still think its great it was not nearly as good as the Voyage was. It fell flat to me this time around.

Narnia: The Last Battle

Still my favorite I do believe. As my youth and bible study girls know, I love to ponder and wonder on what the end will be like and the "new heavens and new earth". This is Lewis' version of doing that and he does not disappoint. I always get sooo mad at the Narnian's for so easily turning against Aslan, but how often I myself have done this! He describes the afterlife they go to as the "real version" of the place you always thought was real. That clicks with me. I cant wait! Read this one people! Plus, you get to see all the great characters from the other Narnia books.

The Magical Worlds of Narnia by David Colbert

So after finishing Narnia again, I just wanted more (imagine that- I have such a compulsive personality in some ways). So I wanted to read more about the imagery in the Narnia series. This book is not one I would read again. There were good parts, but mainly this guy just took what others had said and re-said it. Oh well.

What have you been reading??

Bookin' It in 2010-- May Update

Back in January, I decided to join FishMama in Booking It in 2010. I set my goal to read 2 books a month. In January I was successful, but not in February or March. So how did I do in April???

I completed 6 books in April! Amazing! That puts me right on track with the goal of 2 per month. Some of you may remember that last month I decided I needed to put aside the serious books I was trying to read and dive into some light reading. It seemed to work for me. I find that when I finish one book it makes me eager to "accomplish" finishing another one. And though none of the books I read last month were super deep or helpful books, I think they were good for me overall. Here are the links to my books reviews on each of the books I read last month:

• The Jean Nidetch Story
• Last Song
• The Magician's Nephew & A Horse and His Boy (Narnia)
• sTori Telling
• Redeeming Love

Did you read anything in April???

The Last Song... my take on it!

So I went from barely picking up a book for like two months, to reading four books in two weeks! I guess I caught a reading bug... or I started picking up easy reads at least! Ha ha! I recently completed The Last Song by Nicolas Sparks. Some of my dear friends are coming for a visit soon, so Mel & I decided we should read Last Song and then go see the movie. I have read several Nicolas Sparks and have loved every one of them. I always get sucked in and cant put the book down... I think this is why I tend to not read fiction much.

What I liked about the book:

• Loved the dad character. He never reacted to things, he was able to control himself and see past what was immediately happening to the bigger picture. I want to be like that! 
• Loved the setting! It was set on the east coast, maybe in North Carolina?? 
• Loved the romance obviously.
• I loved that he made Ronnie, the main character, a teenager who didn't drink, smoke, do drugs or have sex. Nice change from society's typical teenager. 

What annoyed me about the book:

• His books always make you think your life isnt romantic enough. This feeling goes away in a few minutes, but I just couldnt read these books all the time or I would really put unrealistic and unfair expectations on mr.pate. 
• It really made me want to be at the beach... really. 
• Because someone always dies in his books it was predictable. 
• The names Ronnie and Blaze (one of her friends)... I just didnt like them. Couldnt we have thought of something better? 
• It ends too early... I want to know the rest of their story!!! 

Have any of you read Nicholas Sparks?? What do you think?? Anyone seen the movie?

Getting in the Habit... #1

Mr. Pate and I are reading "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Families" by Stephen Covey right now. It is sooo good guys! Anyhow, it is quite long and is full of great things so I have decided to start summarizing the things that stand out to me from each Habit to help me retain it all.

Habit 1: Be Proactive

The whole premise of this habit comes from a few sentences he read in some other book:

Between stimulus and response, there is a space.

In that space lies our freedom and power to choose our response.

In our response lies out growth and our happiness.

Basically, we all have a choice in how we respond to everything and everyone in life. We can either REact to that person or thing (stimulus) or we can act, meaning we can choose how we will respond without being controlled by the circumstances. I think this is probably something most people in life struggle with, and I know I do big time! He uses the mental picture here of having a "pause button- something that enables us to stop between what happens to us and our response to it, and to choose our own response."

Covey says the ability to do this comes from developing the 4 unique human gifts that animals do not have: Self-awareness, conscience, imagination, independent will.

• Self-awareness: the ability to step back from our life and observe it. We can observe our thoughts and we can choose to make changes also.
• Conscience: Our moral or ethical sense or "inner voice". We can not only observe our life, we can evaluate it too.
• Imagination: Our ability to envision something entirely different from our past experience. We can see a "better way" that life could be than what we are observing it as now.
• Independent will: This is our power to take action.

These are what live in the space between what happens to us and how we respond. We have to learn to use these "gifts" more intentionally in order to become "response-able", able to respond to life instead of being controlled by it. (The book has lots more indepth info about this.)

He also teaches about the Circle of Influence and the Circle of Concern. The Circle of concern embraces everything in your life you may be concerned about. The Circle of Influence is a smaller circle within the Circle of Concern that embraces all the things you can actually do something about in life. We typically focus on the Circle of Concern, but this diminishes the influence we have in the Circle of Influence. So we need to learn to focus only on the smaller circle and it will influence the larger circle... see picture:

Next up is the Emotional Bank Account (EBA). It's a simple concept really, our relationships operate just like a checking account. We can choose to make deposits into the account, or we can make withdrawals. The deposits are positive investments in our relationships, like communicating, keeping promises, being honest, encouraging etc. The withdrawals are negative actions that hurt our relationship, like lying, being mean, not keeping promises, attacking, belittling etc. So just like your checking account, if you want your relationship to grow, you have to make more deposits than withdrawals.

The rest of the chapters gives examples of how we can do this, but basically you need to be aware(self aware actually haha) of each relationship's bank account. Make a special effort to go a whole day without making any withdrawals. And he stresses how when we do screw up (as we all will) that apologizing and accepting blame can be the biggest of all deposits for our EBA's.

Actions Steps for this Habit:

• Begin trying to identify how you use the 4 gifts in each major family interaction. Think about the last time you reacted instead of acted and try to identify why this happened and how it could be different.
  
• Spend some time identifying what your 2 circles are. List out all the things in your life you are concerned with, then list the things you have any control over. Try to focus this week on spending time only on these things.
  
• Balance your EBA's. Do you have a positive or negative balance? Write down three things you can do this week to make a deposit in a relationship.

Booking It Check In

Well it's February people, which means there is one month down in my Booking It challenge at Life as Mom. You can see my reading goals for this year here.

So how am I doing?

Pretty good I guess. I completed two books in January, Treasuring God in Our Traditions and TrueFaced. But both of these things happened right at the start of January, so I feel like I havent made much progress since then. I have started two other books, but I just havent spent that much time reading.

Right now I am reading:

• The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Families and Mr.Pate is actually reading it with me! Yay! It is really good, but man the chapters are long! I am reading this on with the SimpleMom Bookclub.

• Real Sex. So far this is a really good book, she has alot of good perspectives. I need to be more diligent about reading this one consistently.

Have you read anything good this year?? Please share!

27

27: Favorite books from my childhood

1. The Giver
2. Are you there God, it's me margaret?
3. Number the stars
4. Nancy Drew books
5. The Babysitters Club
6. Encyclopedia Brown
7. Sweet Valley High
8. Sweet Valley Twins
9. Sweet Valley University
10. Sweet Valley Kids
11. Iggie's House
12. Starring Sally J. Freeman as herself
13. It's not the end of the world
14. Tiger Eyes
15. Deenie
16. Forever
17. Goosebumps
18. Tuck Everlasting
19. Mrs.Frisby and the Rats of NIMH
20. Bridge to Terabithia
21. Harriet the Spy
22. James and the Giant Peach
23. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
24. Sarah Plain and Tall
25. The American Girl doll books
26. The Polar Express
27. Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark

Thinking of these just makes me want to read each of them again!

What was your favorite book from childhood?

I'm Booking It!

I have mentioned before how writing my 2009 book list helped me read more and exceed my reading goals. Well it is a new year, which means it is time for a new book list and new reading goals.

When I made my book list last year, I was unemployed and realized I needed something to challenge me to be intentional with that extra time. I have always loved the idea of reading, but most of the time I would pick the tv or internet over grabbing a book. After getting back in the habit of reading again, I don't think thats my need this year. And I ended up changing my list quite a bit because I just kept changing my mind on what I wanted to read. So many books and so little time!! Ha!

So this year I think I will take FishMama's advice and having broader goals. And I am going to go to her site once a month to check in and hold me accountable to reading in general.

So my goal for 2010 is to average 2 books a month for a total of 24 books (for those of you how are slow at math! ha!).

Here is my working list of the books I really want to read first:

1. Treasuring God in Our Traditions by Noel Piper Just finished last night! Review to come.
2. TrueFaced Almost finished with it. Going through it with our youth small group and I would highly suggest it!
3. Reread the complete Narnia series (7 total) Got the set for Christmas, thanks sis! Love this series, absolutely love it!
4. 7 Habits of Highly Effective Families (SimpleMom book club) Mr.Pate read the first one and loved it, so we are going to read it together.
5. Getting Things Done By David Allen... I read a review on this system of organization and planning and was intrigued. We will see.
6. Letters from a Skeptic Gregory & Edward Boyd... My old boss read this and had great things to say about it. I think it will help me in the evangelism department.
7. Savage Inequalities Jonathan Kozol... Social Inequality was one of my favorite classes in college, and this was one book we referenced but I never got to read. I ran across it super cheap in Fargo last spring break and I am super excited to read it.
8. Practicing the Presence of God by Brother Lawerence... A classic I have always wanted to read but never followed through with.
9. John Adams by David McCullough... Seeing the real everyday part of historical figures really interests me, so I am going to try this one. Have you see it? It is huge!
10. Family Driven Faith by Voddie Baucham... I think family is hugely important and the major influencer in who we will be, and I think families have no idea how to put their faith at the center of their being instead of it being just one more extracurricular activity. I am excited to see what this one teaches.
11. sTori Telling by Tori Spelling... I don't know why.
12. From Clutter to Clarity by Nancy Twigg... Read a great review of this one on Lindsay's blog and was attracted to it. I am all about simple.
13. Real Sex by Lauren Winner... I heard her speak at IvyJungle a year or two ago, and something about her just made me want to listen to her more and more. Anyhow, I heard her talk on this subject and thought she had great points, so here we go.
14. Mudhouse Sabbath by Lauren Winner... She was Jewish and converted to Christianity, so in this book she explains Jewish traditions and why we should still practice them as Spiritual Disciplines.
15. Cleaving by Julie Powell... I read Julie & Julia last year and began a love/hate relationship with her. Now I feel like i just have to read this one too.

What are you reading? What do you want to read?

Rekindled Love

This year I have fallen back in love with reading. When I was a kid I was a huge huge reader. I read every Nancy Drew book, every Judy Blume, every Encyclopedia Brown, every Babysitter's Club, and every Sweet Valley High (and middle school and unviersity etc). But as high school and college hit, my reading mainly focused on school related topics. Though I have read some in recent years, I just had a horrible habit of not ever finishing books.

So earlier this year I took the idea from Lindsey to make a Book List for the year. Actually thinking through, prioritizing, and identifying the books I really wanted to read instead of just reading whatever came my way has really helped me stay on track. And having a deadline of when I wanted them read by has motivated me to actually read.

Then I found the "Fall into Reading Challenge". It was at a great time to give me another boost to keep up the reading. And now here I am, in December of 2009, and I have read 14 books so far. I am almost done with 2 others. And I have enjoyed majority of them alot, learned quite a bit from several of them, and disliked just a few.

So the moral of this post? I wanted to give any of you who are wanting to read more (or do anything more for that matter) some steps to take towards making that a reality. These are the things that worked for me:

1. make a list, identifying want you want to read (or do)

2. prioritize that list

3. give yourself a timeline

4. tell someone, or lots of someones, so that you are held accountable

5. put it somewhere you will see it often

6. take the first step to do it

So what is it you really would like to do, for you? Reading is something that I enjoy, something I do simply for me. More often than not today, we fill up all of our time going going going and doing everything for everyone but us. Now I am not saying we should just live selfish lives, because a Christ focused life is a servant focused life. What I am saying is that we have to learn to love ourselves too. And as Biggest Loser always says, "we need to put ourselves back on the list". When we take some time to take care of ourselves, we guard against bitterness towards those we serve and emptiness or a lack of purpose, etc. So pick something that you will do for you today, and see if it blesses those around you. I know for me and mr.pate, this has been very true.

Fall into Reading 2009: Wrap Up

Well, Christmas is almost here and that means Fall is a thing of the past. I joined in with Callapidder Days on the "Fall into Reading Challenge" this year, and I am here to share the outcome.

• Did you finish reading all the books on your fall reading list? If not, why not?

I finished 6 on my original list, and 8 from my altered list (which I am hoping to make 9 this week). I did not finish "TrueFaced" because I am going through it with my youth on a week to week basis, "Treasuring God in our Traditions" because I am slow (but its almost done).

• Did you stick to your original goals or did you change your list as you went along?

I changed the list because I just found that halfway through I just didnt have the desire to read some of the ones on my list anymore, or I just wanted to read some seasonal ones.

• What was your favorite book that you read this fall? Least favorite? Why?

Either Life Together or The Giver! Life Together was just a really good spiritual challenge for me. And the Giver is just a great book and a great memory of childhood reading.

My least favorite was "Instructing a Child's Heart". It was boring and I dont like his writing style.

• Did you discover a new author or genre this fall? Did you love them? Not love them?

I read Julie Powell for the first time and oddly enough liked her writing. So I am planning on reading her new book too.

• Did you learn something new because of Fall Into Reading 2009 – something about reading, about yourself, or about a topic you read about?

I learned a ton! Since I read a wide assortment of books, I feel I grew in my personal walk with the Lord, in knowledge about parenting techniques, in learning the history of Christmas, etc.

• What was your favorite thing about the challenge?

That I had a timeline and somewhere to check in at. This helped me stay motivated to read now instead of "later" (which usually turns into never).

Overall, I enjoyed the Challenge alot. I have been blessed by most of the books I have read and just really enjoyed reading again. Here is the final tally on the books I read and a link to my book review (if I did one).

1. Hundred Dollar Christmas - I saw this recommended on a blog recently and my curiosity was peaked. It is a short book about one families experiences during the holidays once they set a $100 budget. [Book review coming soon]

2. Treasuring our Traditions- I wanted to read this last year, but never got around to it. She talks about celebrating traditions as a family all year, and then also on the Holidays. [Hopefully finishing this right before Christmas]

3. The Fuel and the Flame- This is one of my favorite books! I am rereading it again with my dgroup this semester, and it is a great reminder to stay passionate about my Lord. [No book review]

4. TruFaced- Our high school youth small group is going through this right now, and boy is it amazing. Mr.Pate read this book in a counseling class at seminary and loved what it taught. This book focuses on living in community and dealing with sin. It teaches against putting on masks and hiding from God and each other, and it encourages learning to live in God's grace. It encourages knowing that we cant work on our sin and then come to God, instead we must just come as we are to God and work with Him on our sin. You will hear more later on this one, but so far i highly recommend it! [Still going thru it]

5.Julie & Julia by Julie Powell: This is the book that the recent movie Julie and Julia is based on. I have started it and can tell you it is way different than the movie and pretty crude at parts, but overall I am liking the point. [Book review found here]

6.The Duggars: 20 and Counting! by Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar:This is a book the Duggars wrote to share their family philosophies and everyday habits etc. I dont have cable, so I dont watch the show but I am intrigued. [Book Review found here]

7. Teach them Diligently by Lou Priolo: Saw this book on Lindsey at Passionate Homemaking's booklist and wanted to read it for myself. I think it will be helpful for when I have kids but also now with my sunday school class etc. [Book Review found here]

8. Instructing a Child's Heart by Tedd and Margy Tripp: mr.pate and I took a class based on one of Tripp's other books and loved it. So if the library can get it on interlibrary loan then this one is in. [Book Review found here]

9. Life Together by Dietrich Bonhoeffer:currently reading this book and totally loving it! it is a hard read, but so worth it. anyone who really wants to improve in how they love the people around them, i would suggest this book! [Book review found here]

10. The Giver by Lois Lowry: My childhood favorite, I figured it was a good time to revisit it! [Book Review found here]

You can see how others did and what they enjoyed here.

Whewww... that was alot of hyperlinking action going on. I am going to go rest the fingers by watching some "Say Yes to the Dress Now!"

FIR Update

I am making some changes to my FIR List, because there are just some books I don't feel like reading right now, some that I am reading for bible studies, and some others that I really want to read. It's my list and I can change it if I want too (name that song!)! So as we are nearing the end of the "Fall Into Reading Challenge", I want to update my list so I can keep up with how I did overall. Here is my final goal list:

1. Hundred Dollar Christmas - I saw this recommended on a blog recently and my curiosity was peaked. It is a short book about one families experiences during the holidays once they set a $100 budget.

2. Treasuring our Traditions- I wanted to read this last year, but never got around to it. She talks about celebrating traditions as a family all year, and then also on the Holidays.

3. The Fuel and the Flame- This is one of my favorite books! I am rereading it again with my dgroup this semester, and it is a great reminder to stay passionate about my Lord.

4. TruFaced- Our high school youth small group is going through this right now, and boy is it amazing. Mr.Pate read this book in a counseling class at seminary and loved what it taught. This book focuses on living in community and dealing with sin. It teaches against putting on masks and hiding from God and each other, and it encourages learning to live in God's grace. It encourages knowing that we cant work on our sin and then come to God, instead we must just come as we are to God and work with Him on our sin. You will hear more later on this one, but so far i highly recommend it!

5.Julie & Julia by Julie Powell: This is the book that the recent movie Julie and Julia is based on. I have started it and can tell you it is way different than the movie and pretty crude at parts, but overall I am liking the point.

6.The Duggars: 20 and Counting! by Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar:This is a book the Duggars wrote to share their family philosophies and everyday habits etc. I dont have cable, so I dont watch the show but I am intrigued.

7. Teach them Diligently by Lou Priolo: Saw this book on Lindsey at Passionate Homemaking's booklist and wanted to read it for myself. I think it will be helpful for when I have kids but also now with my sunday school class etc.

8. Instructing a Child's Heart by Tedd and Margy Tripp: mr.pate and I took a class based on one of Tripp's other books and loved it. So if the library can get it on interlibrary loan then this one is in.

9. Life Together by Dietrich Bonhoeffer: currently reading this book and totally loving it! it is a hard read, but so worth it. anyone who really wants to improve in how they love the people around them, i would suggest this book!

10. The Giver by Lois Lowry: My childhood favorite, I figured it was a good time to revisit it!

This season of reading has been full of learning and encouragement, and I have enjoyed it a ton! What have you been reading??