Week in Review ~ Books I'm Reading
February 18, 2011
photo credit: Laurent Tougas
It's been one of those weeks. I know you know the kind I'm talking about.
We all have our unique struggles and life situations that challenge our sanity and well being. Mine happens to be a life changing move in just three months.
It's been a week of changing plans, lowered expectations, and impending deadlines. Oh, I hate deadlines. This week, because of impending deadlines, I especially felt the struggle of balancing my writing aspirations with home life - children, school, meals, and moving.
I don't believe in balance. I believe in priorities. But what do you do when all your priorities jumble up on each other and are hard to sort out? When writing (how I usually sort out the jumble) is too time consuming and taxing on the brain?
You read! Well at least I do.
This week I took care of the basics (we're talking really basic here), let go of the rest and did my best to keep my head above water, quite literally. As in, I read a book in the bathtub one afternoon at 5pm after supper was in the oven while the kids watched a netflix movie about the human body. I should add, on that day they watched nearly three hours (gasp) of internet streaming video.
You should have heard them when Damien came in the door. Babbling about all the things they learned. Good thing too since that pretty much was homeschool this week.
Sometimes when life gets too much I like to move outside my reality with books. To think about noble ideas, escape in a story, or have a good cry from a heartwrenching read. That's been my week.
I've stolen sunlit moments after lunch, snuggled under the covers in bed, and soaked in a hot tub - all with books.
There's a bunch of books I'm reading right now and you can see some of those on the sidebar under reading. This is a feature I'm trying out on the blog. Don't worry, I don't actually read all of those each day or even each week, they're just in the current "books I grab" rotation. Here's a few I've been reading this week:
- Making Ideas Happen: Overcoming the Obstacles Between Vision and Reality I have ideas, I want to make them happen. I'm reading this to help me achieve my goals.
- Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy Amazing. This has been on my to-read list for months. It will appeal greatly to a Christian audience but the story itself transcends Christianity with lessons about personal transformation, governmental power, leadership education and so, so much more.
- Organized Simplicity: The Clutter-Free Approach to Intentional Living Wanting to get to know my editor-in-chief from Simple Living Media a little better. Quite honestly, I'm not learning a whole lot of new information from it, I've been a professional homemaker on the simplicity track for many years now. But I like the easy read and little tips I'm picking up on. Plus it's an aesthetically pleasing book with helpful checklists, cleaning recipes etc. Part One is my favorite section.
- Making Toast: A Family Story Oh my goodness. Sob out loud, tears streaming down cheeks kind of read. When I start to bemoan all the work I need to do to maintain life and prepare for this move this book helps me remember to be thankful for the breath I am given each day. Thanks to Misha's list at Kind Birds for tipping me off to this one. (I agree with Misha's assessment, there is a fair amount of name dropping in the book. But the writing is superb and the underlying theme of a father's grief and family ties resonate strongly regardless of socio-economic level and class).
I just picked up another stack of library books yesterday that I think will be returned un-read. Too much to read, too little time.
What are you reading these days? I seriously love to know. My own reading is almost always based on recommendations I get from people.
