End Spring Read Thing 2010

I failed. I didn't read any more books. I have been reading a couple of the ones on the list but one of them is so hard to read quickly. It's a very dense book.

Maybe I'll do better next year.

What was I thinking?

There's no way I can read that many books in that amount of time. I mean, who has time to read? I do, I just don't do it, which is unusual for me. I love to read! With some books I can't put them down. It gets on John's nerves.

Today and tomorrow work men are here to install A/C units in the bedrooms. It's unfortunate that we won't have them in the common rooms, but apparently the common rooms don't cool well. It's meant a lack of sleep for Simon because I can't leave him in the bedroom and he doesn't sleep for very long on me when big brother is loud.

I started attending a Kay Arthur Bible Study on Philippians on Wednesday nights. This morning John reminded me that we did a commentary on that particular book of the Bible in our hermeneutics (how to study the Word) class. I'll have to pull that paper out when it comes with HHE.

Speaking of HHE, it's been in country for two weeks and still no sign of it.

Bringing Up Geeks

Today I finished Bringing Up GEEKS Genuine, Enthusiastic, Empowered Kids how to protect your kid's childhood in a grow-up-too-fast world. By Marybeth Hicks

The day I posted the list of books I was reading, John went to the bedroom and immediately pulled this book out of hiding. He did tell me it was there, but I didn't see it.

If you were to boil the book down to one sentence you would say that this is a guide on raising your kids to remain kids as long as possible and to grow to be smart, authentic kids who have a very high self esteem because they know who they are and their place in this world. I certainly desire to do that. How do you ask? Marybeth has come up with 10 rules for doing just that.

Rule 1: Raise a Brainiac
Rule 2: Raise a Sheltered Kid
Rule 3: Raise an Uncommon Kid
Rule 4: Raise a Kid Adults Like
Rule 5: Raise a Late Bloomer
Rule 6: Raise a Team Player
Rule 7: Raise a True Friend
Rule 8: Raise a Homebody
Rule 9: Raise a Principled Kid
Rule 10: Raise a Faithful Kid

Going into the book I knew this is what I wanted to do when raising my kids, so this book has acted as a good starting point and has given me a lot of good ideas on how to Bring Up GEEKS.

Link

I feel I have failed to give a link for the Spring Read Thing so click on this button to get to the official page:



I'll also put it on my side bar.

We had a good Sunday. We went to Price Smart with one of John's co-workers. She brought us first to Chez Christophe for breakfast and it was amazing! John and I are breakfast people and we were so happy to find a good place that is close. She mentioned that we'd always find someone from the Embassy there, and sure enough one of their co-workers from the consular section showed up when we were eating.

Price Smart was busy for Price Smart but it was the same as Costco on the weekend in my opinion. We got a few things and then came home. In the afternoon everyone but John napped...for four hours. John had to wake us up. During our nap John made donut holes...mmm. Then dinner, Skype with my mom and sister, bath/shower for the kids and bed. We started watching Chocolate and then stopped half way through so John could sleep.

I couldn't sleep...and I couldn't sleep. Finally after an hour and a half as I was about to fall asleep John's alarm went off. You see, last Friday morning we had a power outage for just a few seconds. Long enough to reset his clock of course. I reset the time, but failed to reset his alarm. DOH! So a little bit after that I finally went to sleep. When Simon got up to eat in the wee hours of the morning, I had such a hard time getting up. And then when Malachi woke me up it was just as hard.

And now here we are. I was blogging and feeding Simon breakfast at the same time. And now I'm done feeding him and I have nothing else to say except that I'll post a couple of pictures soon, but we don't have a regular computer yet to download pictures on (just a netbook and it doesn't have the space for our pictures). So I haven't put any pictures on our "computer." I'll do a couple though, I suppose.

Oh, and one more thing! Our HHE is in country today!!! It's supposed to take a few weeks to go through customs. Maybe it won't. That would be nice. No word on the car (which I'd rather have more than the HHE honestly).

Spring Read Thing

I realize I already have a blog entry with the same heading, but I haven't really registered for this yet and I wanted to make sure that I actually do it because I really want to.

I don't have very many books here with me unfortunately, so from now until June 20th I'll be reading the following books:

Bringing Up Geeks: Genuine, Enthusiastic, Empowered Kids by Marybeth Hicks
I actually started this one, and am probably about 2/3 of the way through it but I've lost it in my new house.

What is Reformed Theology by R.C. Sproul I started this one after losing my other one. This was highly recommended by my hubby, and I've been wanting to read it for a couple of years, so I'm using this as a way to push me to finally do it.

America and The World: Conversations on the Future of American Foreign Policy by Zbigniew Brzezinski and Brent Scowcroft and Moderated by David Ignatius
Since my life now revolves around American Foreign Policy I think this will be an interesting read. This is another one recommended by my hubby.

I've Got to Talk to Somebody, God by Marjorie Holmes
This is a collection of different prayers she's said to God about all sorts of topics. The title really caught my attention shortly after I moved to DC because I didn't have my best friends from Dallas and hadn't made strong friendships in DC yet and I really felt like I didn't have someone to talk to. I did read part of it back then, so I'm going to finish it. This one probably won't take very long.

Housewives Desperate for God by Jennie Chancey and Stacy McDonald
Basically a book on how to feel good about being a Housewife when so many people look down on it. This was recommended by someone in my mom's group in DC. I actually started this one too a while ago, but didn't get very far into it before I got my Christmas books and put it back on the shelf for the other new and shiny books that looked a little more interesting. I'm excited to finish it though.

Being Real...Living What You Really Believe by Dean E. Landis
Sometimes I struggle with the balance of living out my Christianity in a secular culture, I hope this book will help.

All of these books have some kind of application in my life. I realize now that I don't have any "fun" books in there. I might have to add one or two in the midst, but we'll see. I don't know where I'd go to buy one with out spending an arm or a leg. And if I order it online I'm looking at a week or two (or three or four) before it gets here, so we'll see.

Spring Read Thing

A couple of FSO wives that I follow are doing a challenge called the Spring Read Thing. I first heard about this last year when I saw one of them doing it. Now both of them are and I've been inspired. I feel like my reading time has really been cut since I had Simon. This is a good way for me to pick it back up again. I'm already reading a book called Bringing Up GEEKS by Marybeth Hicks. John bought it and I'm eager to finish it.

Since I don't have about 99% of our book collection and won't have it until this challenge is over I'm going to have to work on books that I have here. I may have to buy a couple, but I think I brought a sufficient amount of unread books with me from Dallas and have acquired a couple in VA. Once my list of books is finalized I'll let you know what it is.