2012 Book List

What I read this Year:

January
1. Divergent by Veronica Roth
2. 11/22/63 by Stephen King
3. Second Helpings by Megan McCafferty
4. The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
5. Kisses from Katie: A Story of Relentless Love & Redemption by Katie J. David
6. Gabby: A Story of Courage & Hope by Gabrielle Giffords
7. Of Mice & Men by John Steinbeck
8. Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen
9. The Dance of Anger By Harriet Lerner
10. Charmed Thirds by Megan McCafferty
11. Fourth Comings by Megan McCafferty
12. Bumped by Megan McCafferty
13. Faceless Killers by Henning Mankell
14. A Thousand Lives: The Untold Story of Hope, Deception & Survival at Jonestown by Julia Scheeres

February
15. The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender
16. True Grit by Charles Portis
17. The Medium Next Door by Maureen Hancock
18. Change me into Zeus's Daughter by Barbara Moss
19. Possessing the Secret of Joy by Alice Walker
20. Anything We Can love Can by Saved by Alice Walker
21. Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer
22. In the Wake of the Plague: The Black Death & The World it Made by Norman Cantor
23. Daughter of Smoke & Bones by Laini Taylor

March
24. Ice: A Memoir of Gangster Life by Ice-T
25. Lone Wolf by Jodi Picoult
26. Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Peterson
27. The Rivals by Daisy Whitney
28. This Matter of Marriage by Debbie Macomber
29. Run by Ann Patchett
30. Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. Grey
31. In the Land of Invisible Women: A Female Drs Journey in the Saudi Kingdom by Qanta Ahmed

April
32. We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver
33. Home Front by Kristin Hannah
34. Sisterhood Everlasting by Ann Brashares
35. Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller
36. The Last Child by John Hart
37. The Book of Jonas by Stephen Dau
38. Save Me by Lisa Scottoline
39. Charlie St. Cloud by Ben Sherwood
40. My Own Country: A Drs Story of a Town & Its People in the Age of Aids by Abraham Verghese
41. The Stand by Stephen King

May
42. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
43. The time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
44. Insurgent by Veronica Roth
45. The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson
46. Where Men where Glory by Jon Krakauer
47. 14 Minutes: A running Legend's Life & Death & Life by Alberto Salazar
48. The Seven Next Words of Christ by Shane Stanford
49. One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp

June
50. Heaven is Here by Stephanie Nielson
51. Come Home by Lisa Scottoline

July
52. The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach
53. Between the Lines by Jodi Picoult

August
54. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
55. This Common Secret: My Journey as An Abortion Doctor by Susan Wicklund
56. The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
57. The Book of Mormon Girl by Joanna Brooks
58. The Gatekeepers by Jaques Steinberg
59. Summer Island by Kristin Hannah
60. Wild by Cheryl Strayed
61. Have a Little Faith by Mitch Albom
62. Mennonite in a Little Black Dress by Rhoda Janzen
63. Julie & Julia by Julie Powell

September
64. Black, White & Jewish by Rebecca Walker
65. Beautiful Boy: A Father's Journey Through His Son's Addiction by David Sheff
66. It's Not About the Bike by Lance Armstrong
67. American Grown by Michelle Obama

October
68. Marley and Mean by John Grogan
69. Resilience by Elizabeth Edwards
70. Diary of a Submissive by Sophie Morgan
71. Acceptance by Susan Coll
72. The Woman Who Wasn't There by Gaby Fisher

November
73. The Blind Side by Michael Lewis
74. I Beat the Odds: From Homelessness, to the Blind Side, and beyond by Michael Oher
75. The Racketeer by John Grisham
76. The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch
77. Second Chance by Jane Green
78. Between Friends by Debbie Macomber
79. The Great Emergence by Phyllis Tickle
80. Calico Joe by John Grisham
81. Promise Me by Nancy G. Brinker
82. The Perfect Christmas by Debbie Macomber
83. Better: A Surgeon's Notes on Performance by Atul Gawande
84. The Absolutely True Story of a Part-Time Indian by Sherm Alexie
85. Plague year by Stephanie Tolan
86. If I Stay by Gayle Forman
87. Still Alice by Lisa Genova
88. Left Neglected by Lisa Genova
89. Where she Went by Gayle Forman
90. A Winter Dream by Richard Paul Evans
91. Ana's Story by Jenna Bush
92. Sex and the City by Candance Bushnell

December
93. Finally Free by Michael Vick
94. 1225 Christmas Tree Lane by Debbie Macomber  
95. Grace by Richard Paul Evans
96. The Gift by Cecelia Ahern
97. I never Promised You A Goodie Bag by Jennifer Gilbert
98. Running with the Kenyans by Adharanand Finn
99. Winning Sounds Like This: A Season with the Women's Basketball Team at Gallaudet, the World's Only University for the Deaf by Wayne Coffey
100. When Christmas Comes by Debbie Macomber
101. Addicted to Hurry by Kirk Byron Jones
102. Leaving the Saints: How I Lost the Mormons and Found my Faith by Martha Beck
103. 700 Sundays by Billy Crystal
104. Silent Night by Mary Higgins Clark
105. The Christmas Train by David Baldacci
106. A Cedar Cove Christmas by Debbie Macomber
107. The Letter by Marie Tillman
108. Sex Changes: A memoir of marriage, Gender, and moving on by Christine Benvenuto
109. The Christmas Note by Donna VanLiere
110. A year of Biblical Womanhood by Rachel Held Evans
111. Love Anthony by Lisa Genova
112. Diary of a Player by Brad Paisley

I did it. My goal was to read 112 books and I did. November and December required a lot of catch up reading!

I'm a working mom...

and I am lucky that I often get to do my "work" with a child in my arms.

 

I think I'm going to be sad when they're too big/have no desire to 'help' me do my work.

Things my kids say...

I often write quotes of things my kids say on facebook but I figured maybe I should compile them into a different medium. In case facebook goes away or something.

Dec. 6th

~Eli accidentally stepped on my feet and Emerson's as he was walking by. He then said, "Sorry Ladies" haha I wonder where he learned that.

Dec. 1st

~I was talking to Eli & Emmy about advent in the car this morning.

Me: Do you guys know that tomorrow we start advent? Do you know what that means?

Eli: Yeah

Me: Okay what does it mean?

Emmy: It means a lot of work!

Haha I can't really say that she's wrong but we did talk about waiting for baby Jesus. Which sparked a conversation about who Jesus' parents are.

Nov. 29th

~I just got Eli's bill from his visit to the ER. (It's a lot). Emerson said, "Don't be sad I'll just make you some soup." haha

Nov 28th

~Just listened to "O come All Ye Faithful" Emerson was silent the whole time and when it was over she said, "mama that's a really good song. It's a Christmas song?" I love her.

Nov. 23rd

~Emerson jut came into our room and said, "wake up and come downstairs it's Christmas." (Gram and Granddad are putting up their Christmas tree and I think she's a little confused haha).

Nov. 21st

~My California babies are screaming every time they walk outside, "It's too cold it's too cold!"

Nov. 10th

~Emmy's newest question, "Where's Obama's castle?" haha I think she's still trying to figure out who he is exactly.

Nov. 9th

~Emmy: I want to be 20 like you?

Me: Why?

Emmy: I just want to be 20 so I can drink soda pop.

(She also seems to think that the American Flag belongs to Obama after all the election coverage. She just said, "Obama's flag is so pretty.")

Nov. 4th

~I asked Emerson what it meant that I was a pastor. Her response, "You sing, pray, talk to Jesus, and work and work and work." Eli's addition was, "and you go night night" Overall pretty accurate.

Oct. 6th

~I might have the best 3 year olds in the world. First they behaved in the front row of a 3 hour Tongan Misinali service, after we left they both said, "That was fun!" Plus they got to see a real princess from Tonga. Then we immediately went to Open Circle the Young Adult worship service. Eli fell in love with gospel music and as we left they yelled, "bye church, bye music, thanks for the cake."

They behaved the entire time. Thank you Jesus long but good day! Let's hope they're still enthused about worship tomorrow morning.

         

I don't blog because I'm tired...

Deep down, exhausted to the bone, can't hardly function tired. I love my job but it makes me tired. It requires so much of my time and my energy and I'm not doing a very good job at balancing all of that. More often than not I do work on my day off, I get phone calls while on vacation from parishioners when it's not an emergency.

I go to work and come and then I often return to work for meetings or classes or something, and I'm tired. As such this blog has taken a back seat. I was going through my posts this year and you can see that the posting frequency went down in July right when I got the job.

I think I need to do a better job at maintaining balance. Whatever that might look like. I think I'd like to go to the movies by myself sometime this week.

My friend and fellow clergywoman wrote this

There are a lot of moments when I am acutely aware of my own inadequacy. I feel the people I minister with have over-estimated me. Don’t they know I am under-qualified to convey these monumental and intensely intimate ideas to my self, my congregation and my culture? How could I ever fully explain that our God loves us and moves into our broken hearts, neighborhoods and nations? I am at a loss.

I want so desperately to do justice to this good news, I mire my soul in well-meaning
action, but it never seems to be enough. I don’t need recognition or glory. Hell, I’ll even
do without sleep. Just one more article, one more sermon, one more visit, one more
call, one more meeting, one more event, one more prayer, one more project, one
more rehearsal, one more hour, one more day…

The trouble is, in so doing, I may instead express a taskmaster God who drives me
to distracted exhaustion. And I spend so much time communicating, conveying,
counseling, and corralling people that I am shocked and embarrassed to find myself
on empty. At the end of the day, I find myself alone and wondering if this good news
is only for other people. When will it be for me?

Maybe after I finish the next thing.

I suspect God is not interested in making me busier but better: to once again infuse
and transform my life, if I’d slow down long enough to let it happen. Advent reminds
me that God can lovingly re-tune even my easily distracted heart to the kingdom of
God, and fill even my mediocre offering with joy, peace, hope, and love.

Go here to read more

A good remind this advent.

We drove, ate, married, danced, & were sick...

Clever title huh? This last week has been a bit of whirlwind. The highlights...

1.) We drove home for thanksgiving. It took us 3 hours to go 40 miles as we left our city due to a traffic accident and then we hit rush hour traffic. The drive to my brothers which should have taken about 4.5 hours instead took over 7.

2.) We had our christmas pictures taken, and it's getting easier and easier to get a picture with the two of them together.

3.) We had some turkey and stuff...

4.) On friday we went to my dad's and had more turkey and stuff (have to love family hopping at the holidays).

5.) Later on Thursday I actually ventured into a store with my aunt. It was madness I'm sure there's some sort of sermon illustration in the experience. I didn't wait in any lines but Marcus did with his brother, and as a thank you his brother bought him a tv. Boys and their TVs.

6.) On Saturday my mom got married and I preformed the ceremony. (I'm write more about this later with pictures).

7.) Eli & Emmy were the cutest ring bearer and flower girl ever.

 

See aren't they cute!

8.) Emerson was a dancing fool at the reception.

9.) I saw my very conservative cousins and we avoided any political discourse praise the lord.

10.) We were all sick and I had enough voice to get through the wedding ceremony and then promptly lost it by the reception.

11.) Now we move onto advent and Christmas... let the busy season of my job commence! (I just need to get well so I have energy for all the festivities).

How was your thanksgiving and beyond?

People Say Weird Things...

Occasionally I have days where people just say weird/rude things today was one of those days. Despite being at my church for 4 months now, with 2 kids who are the exact same size, people are still discovering Eli & Emmy are twins.

I did a talk today about an initiative in my denomination that works to improve maternal health around the globe. As part of my talk I mentioned that I owe the health and life of my premature twins to my access to good medical care.

After church I had several people comment on the twin thing but a few comments were particularly odd.

1.) As I was receiving people a man came up to me and said, "One of my twins was premature." I wasn't quite sure what to make of his statement and said, "oh they have different birthdays" (I have heard of cases where one baby is delivered and the other isn't. Rare but not unheard of).

He then responded, "No they were born 3 minutes apart." Um... say what. How do you have twins born 3 minutes apart and only one was premature? At some point I might go ask more questions because this story makes no sense and these are typically smart people.

2.) Another woman told me that she delivered her twins 2 weeks early (aka full-term, but whatever...) she told me they were 7 and 8lbs which is wonderful and I told her such.

Then the dreaded question I hate so so much, "Are yours natural?" I despise this question. For starters how my children were conceived is none of your  business if you're asking for simple curiosities sake. Second, All babies are natural. Three, It doesn't make any different one way or another.

She then went on to say, "Well my twins were natural." Thanks for sharing.

3.) I learned that fraternal twins are not different than a regular brother or sister who just happened to be born at the same time. Again people, I know this. I have a boy and a girl as fraternal as they can be, this is not new information,.

4.) Later in the day we were invited to a gathering at our neighbors house. They mean well but they're old and a little bit nutty. They invited some of the other neighbors over as well. This couple has 2 dogs and I was telling Emerson that we don't feed dogs human food. (If the owners want to that's there business but I don't want Emmy to get in the habit of giving animals any food).

Emerson said okay and went outside to play. The woman than says to me, "When my children were little we never ever said the N-O word... okay... fine but I still didn't want Emerson to feed the dog. 

She also gave Eli and Emerson these huge glass coffee mugs to drink out of and filled them all the way to the top with orange juice. Then she wanted them to drink the entire glass as she stood their and watched. They were both a little perplexed by the request and of course couldn't do it.

5.) Then even later in the day at a funeral at the church I got the standard funeral response during the reception, "You don't look old enough to be a minister. You look just like a teenager." Noted, doesn't need to be said.

In conclusion people are weird.

Perspective on Voting...

 In 2005 I was in Zimbabwe for a work mission trip and we were there during the 4th of July.
One of the students over there said to me, "Congratulations on your day of independence."

I had never thought about it quite in those terms before, until hearing that sentiment from someone who was a from a war ravaged country without that same independence.

Today that same friend is now living in Michigan State getting his masters degree and he asked me today on facebook, "Have you voted today?"

I responded that I had and he replied that voting in America is amazing and so many people just have the freedom and opportunity to vote.

Then he said,  "I hope that will someday be true for all of Africa."

 Again it's that tiny dose of perspective. Our election cycles often turn into a crazy kind of circus. It lasts forever, the ads and other campaigning are relentless, the money spent is horrific, and it can all just be exhausting.

Yet, today I was reminded how very important it is that we have a right and ability to cast our vote, and that for many in the world that notion doesn't exist.

I took Eli and Emerson with me this morning to the polling place. I want them to being to see from an early age how important it is to always always vote.