So conflicted!

Sometimes I want to give away every single book in our house & SIMPLIFY.

Other days, I remember this massive list of books I'd love to read and I want to have them all in a tangible stack right next to me.

I think that tangible stack might sound a lot like the audio on this (awesome) site: Save the Words

(By the way, I adopted the word senticious, which means prickly or thorny. Like hedgehogs and porcupines and sticker-bushes and those lovely goatheads that like to puncture bike tires. Oh, and me when I'm irritated...)

Today's pickme!'s:

• Spiritual Direction & the Care of Souls by Gary W. Moon & David G. Benner
• "The Red-Headed League" from The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

There are plenty more begging to be read...

Pigeon for President!

I'm taking a short break from the "paper mill" (as a classmate affectionately calls this time of the semester) to say that I am RELIEVED. Election Day isn't over yet, but I made my decision and voted and I'm DONE with this election.

Done. Done. Done.

I've joked about writing in Pigeon for president, but I didn't really do that. :-) But just imagine...

Pigeon for President!
- Hot dogs for everyone! (Veggie, Kosher, Beef, whatever you like!)
- No bedtimes!
- Puppies and Walruses galore!
- Strong support for better education, by providing high quality literature to children everywhere - especially Pigeon books by Mo Willems!
- Reduction of wasteful campaign spending by driving his very OWN bus!
- Personal jetpacks for every man, woman and child so that all Americans can experience the joys of un-impeded personal flight!
- Respect for the feelings of feathered friends because, you know, Pigeon has feelings too!
- All attitude, all the time!



What children's book character would you write in??

Introducing...

Pigeon!

* * * * * * *

Pigeon is the awesome main character of Mo Willems' illustrated children's books. Pigeon is also a puppet that's been living at the Open Book until this past Thursday. Pigeon now lives with the Rands. He thoroughly understands that he is in no way a replacement for Molly. Molly is irreplaceable. But he also thoroughly understands that living with the Rands means shenanigans... and a move to Denver. In classic pigeon style, he's been begging to drive the moving truck. The jury's still out on that one.

So here are some pictures of Pigeon's life so far with the Rands:


After his last day at the Bookedy, Pigeon eyes the hummus & pita at the Rands' favorite Greenville restaurant, The Bohemian!


Pigeon promptly selects a choice pita and... NOM!


Pigeon jams out with his flamingo friend at Horizon Records
(which is the awesome)


Pigeon participates in the tired & slightly blurry reading of a very good bedtime story for his new family


And now... on to the packing!

yarn cakes & happy tires

(the title is for you, Jeromie; appetizing, isn't it?)

So, for the past year, Tuesdays have been my favorite day. Two reasons: house church in the evening, and it's one of my two consistent days off (Sunday being the other). It seems that other days off are always cram-packed full of people to hang out with and/or things that need doing. Not that I don't want to hang out with people - I actually thoroughly enjoy it now - but being a Liz, and still introverted at my core, I need a day to myself sometimes.

Tuesdays tend to be that day.

So, yesterday I:

* slept late to make sure my migraine was really gone
* read a little in A Separate Peace
* changed a flat on my road bike (happy tires!)
* set up the swift & winder I got for my birthday from WEBS, thanks to Darla
* set to work on making yarn cakes out of my huge bag o' yard-sale yarn, and
* made sausage-lentil soup from the More-with-Less cookbook!

Let me tell you, that bag o' yarn is going to take a bit of work to make knittable.

The story behind it is as follows... My friend Melissa and I were responsible for coordinating the DCF Yard Sale at the beginning of May, and it went off quite well. (I just want to say that God had everything to do with that.) It just so happened that the nearby Lutheran church was having a yardsale the same day. Jeromie paid a visit and spotted the yarn - sprawled on the table and strangely tied. Well, he sent me up to look at it and it appeared to be wool and at least hand-dyed, so I spent the $5 I had to get a few bundles. Well, while we were tearing down in the afternoon, a volunteer from the other yardsale walked down and asked one of my friends if I wanted to just have the rest of the (garbage-sized) bag for free. Knowing me, my friend said yes. :-D

A month & a half later, with swift & ball winder in my possession:

I sat down this morning, cracked open the bag & loaded the first bundle onto the swift. The winding went swimmingly at first, then I started getting to tangles & loose ends. It took 45 minutes to an hour to get that first bundle all caked up, complete with much patient untangling. It's definitely wool, and it's almost certainly handspun. There are lots of planty-looking fibers throughout the yarn, almost as if it was born in a barn. (Wait a minute, it probably was born in a barn literally. You know what I mean.) I've now affectionately dubbed it "the quintessential itchy-scratchy," because it is!

But I'm still excited about coming up with some good projects for it. Perhaps some mad felting?

Meet:

Quintessential Itchy-Scratchy.


Rather furzy, but practically free!

iRead: more than i should, perhaps

All right, so. I've been reading a lot. This is about all I've done in my spare time apart from the film festival, which took up the first 2 weeks of April. Haven't painted, haven't sewn much. I think I need to work on maintaining a bit better balance. :-)

Either way, the following books have passed through my book-hungry little hands so far this month:

- The Moviegoer by Walker Percy
- I Am One of You Forever by Fred Chappell
- So Brave Young and Handsome by Leif Enger
- Brighten the Corner Where You Are by Fred Chappell
- Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer (i re-read it)
- The Optimist's Daughter by Eudora Welty


As much as it might look like it, I have *not* been just plowing through these. Well, except for maybe Into the Wild because it was hard to put down & I had no energy that day. I enjoyed all of them, but I'll only rave about a few. :-)

One of my favorite books thus far in my life has been Leif Enger's Peace Like a River. Since picking it up several years ago, I've re-read it several times and enjoyed it even more with each read. It's definitely one of my staff picks at work. Needless to say, I've been giddy with anticipation over the release of his new book, So Brave, Young and Handsome. I placed my order at the beginning of this month and then babbled endlessly about it for several days... which led to a co-worker picking up PLR, which then led to the suggestion of a good author by said co-worker, the fabulous Daneen Schatzle. The author = Fred Chappell.

Fred Chappell is one of those authors that makes me wonder what freaking rock I've been hiding under that I hadn't read anything of his before. Or what rock the rest of my world has been hiding under that I hadn't heard of him. So far, I've read the two books listed above, and I will be hunting down more. (Apparently there's poetry too!)

I Am One of You Forever - I picked up this one first, used, for $1. I have not laughed so much while reading a book since Brothers K (David James Duncan)! The book is narrated by Jess, a young boy, and is a series of stories about his family - initially his immediate family, then a series of odd uncles and humorous occurrences. Chappell's storytelling is beautiful, to say the least, and his characters are full and incredibly funny at times!


Brighten the Corner Where You Are - I think I hunted this one down before even having finished the first! Turns out, both of these books are part of a series about the family & specifically the father (?), Brighten being the second. The writing has a different feel than the first, but is still enthralling and humorous. I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the books...



So Brave, Young and Handsome - Long awaited, finally here! Awesome! I really don't know what to say about it, since "western" conjures up skepticism for me. The story follows the friendship of two men - one a failing writer, the other an outlaw - through the eyes of the former. Enger's storytelling in this second book was just as captivating to me as in his first. He's no longer the author of one of my favorite books, he's a favorite author!




I know, I know... I've been rambling. It's late. I get that way. No apologies, though. Just wanted to share the bookedy love. I'm always open to suggestions too... my list of books I want to read is already out of control, what's a few more? :-D

iRead: a couple of things, actually!

After finishing the utterly fantastic Secret Life of Bees, I headed in a sillier direction. As usual, a few books caught my eye while shelving at work, and I set them aside to read. These books were:


Fun! By Avi!

They are both juvenile books - short, and rather silly. What made them endearing to me was the constant playing on words. If you know me at all, you're aware of my affinity for puns (bad ones will suffice...), so reading these two short books elicited a lot of giggles.




After reading these, I almost promptly picked up The Last American Man by Elizabeth Gilbert. I'd been eying(sp?) the book at work for a few weeks, then my friend Lance lent it to me. The book is a biography of Eustace Conway, who lives self-sufficiently in the woods of Western NC. Gilbert examines his life, work, and philosophy from the stance of an observer-friend, and her writing is intriguing and funny. Overall, very thought-provoking.

At some point during the reading of Last American Man, another book jumped off the shelves at me. Or rather, perhaps, God drew my attention to it. Eat This Book by Eugene Peterson. After my post about Secret Life of Bees and how I read, I could not ignore this one. I'm in the middle of it right now, and will be for a while. This one, I shall thoroughly digest, I believe. And the Bible with it. More on this one as I work through it.

And lastly, I was given a book this weekend when a local author came to do a signing at work (The Open Book - Greenville, SC). I love to see what local authors are writing, so I've been giving this one a shot. I'm not much of a mystery/romance reader, but if this is your interest, then this would be a good book to add to your shelf. It's a quick read with an interesting (though thoroughly fantastical at parts) plotline.

The book is Refraction by Jan Dynes, who lives in Clemson now (after "crash-landing" on the SC coast.




As always, my list is growing faster than I can (or want) to read, so who knows what's next??

Happy reading, all!

Life at the Bookedy...

Some days, I swear I want to bring home every book in the store. Today is one of them. But I'll restrain myself... and only bring home one. Maybe.

It helps that I've been steadily digesting a stream of good books lately... What is the What (Dave Eggers). The Once and Future King (TH White), The Heart is a Lonely Hunter (Carson McCullers), The Way of the Heart (Henri Nouwen), to name a few. Kind of like with running, the more I read the more that I want to! If I had more time, I'd ramble on about all of them. But I'll restrain myself... and only ramble about one. Maybe.

This morning, I finished The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd. I'd originally checked it out from the library on CD for the trip down to Alabama this past weekend, but couldn't finish it in that format because one of the CDs was badly scratched. (Grrr... of course it stopped at a really crucial part.) Upon arriving home Tuesday night, I promptly borrowed the book from my good friend Juli and am now done. Oh, it was so good. Very well written. Very good story. I feel like I made a whole slew of new friends! Though our stories are in no way identical, I see parts of Lily's story in mine. The sheer telling of the story watered seeds of God's truth in me that the soil of my heart always seems to want to choke out. Looks like I've got some digging to do. :-)

I'm thankful that I'm not a particularly fast reader. Reading & writing are how I learn, so I tend to ruminate on the things I read. I take the words & story in and I feel like I literally digest them... I invite them to dwell in me and root around. Unless it's a textbook... that's a different story - you know, study mode. Unfortunately, this is the way I learned to take in Scripture too. Study mode. That's good in its time, I think, but Scripture is also story. God's story, and now my story too. I want to digest God's story the way I do with books. I want Him to dwell in me, to root around and find a home, to change me from the inside out. I know that He does dwell in me now in the person of Jesus (my Savior and Friend), but something's been missing. I think that perhaps it's been Jesus as the Word. I pray that that will change soon!

In the meantime, I will continue reading & digging & hoping & living.




"Really, it's good for all of us to hear it again. Stories have to be told or they die, and when they die, we can't remember who we are or why we're here."

August Boatright from The Secret Life of Bees
by Sue Monk Kidd

iRead: The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers

(Part of this post is from a note I wrote on Facebook last week... I figured I'd just go ahead and post it here.)

So I've been a bit quiet lately. It started with being knocked out with a cold for the better part of a week... and the two weeks since then have been full of work & praying about moving & deciding to move & packing... and Saturday will be full of MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVING.

Not much time to think about books, other than at work where I get to help people find good ones! This morning I was puttering along, unsuspecting, shelving books, when I stumbled across one that's held my attention ever since:

The Heart is a Lonely Hunter
by Carson McCullers

As I understand so far, the story follows a deaf man by the name of John Singer and the lives some of the people he interacts with. I haven't gotten very far yet... gotta work, you know... but so far, I'm thoroughly enjoying it. It seems very well written.

* * * * * * *

Now, a few days later, I'm about a 3rd of the way through the book, and it's only gotten better. The way the author develops the characters draws you in & makes you curious. Books are great for different reasons - with this one, I feel like I've gained at least 3 new friends! :-)

I'd be done by now if it weren't for moving, but we've still got a ton of boxes to unpack, so I'll just have to wait.

(But I *really* don't want to! :-D )

A week, a nasty nasty cold, and a good book later...

This past week and a half has felt like it was a month long. (It doesn't help that it's the 30th now, and I'm wondering where the month went!) It started out unassumingly, like any other, but ended with me having spent a good half of it stuck in bed with a fever and some flu-like sort of cold. Early on, I decided I needed a book to keep me company, and so I grabbed The Once and Future King by TH White.

Still haven't figured out what rock I lived under, but White's take on Arthur was incredibly fun to read... all of it was. The story ranged all over the place from uproariously funny to appropriately serious to distressingly sad, with histories that made me feel as if I'd known some of the characters all my life.

If I had to pick a friend from this book, it'd be Merlyn. :-) After all, he knits!

The Once and Future King (TH White)

I've been eyeing this book for a while. Today seemed a good day to start it, since I haven't had the energy to do anything else. I don't know what rock I lived under as a small child or teenager, but I didn't have a clue the story was going to be funny. Sword in the Stone, at least, is hilarious.

And Merlyn knits. Can't beat that.

What is the What (Dave Eggers)

I have just finished an incredible book:

What is the What
by Dave Eggers

I first came across this book when I started work at the Open Book. I was intrigued by it, but could only add it to my quickly growing list of books I wanted (and still want) to read. Months passed and it called to me all the while from its little shelf. I picked away at other books on my list that I already owned (I'm trying to make this my primary source of reading despite a lovely discount at work), and still it nagged me whenever I walked passed it at work. Finally, the book pounced. Jeromie and I went to the library to get an audiobook for our Christmas trip to Alabama, and it ended it coming home with us. I know I'm anthropomorphizing a book... or feline-pomorphizing it, but it did feel like a friendly kind of stalking.

We started the book together in the car a few days before Christmas and were captivated. The writing itself, the voice and storytelling, is incredible, and the actor that was chosen to read it for the audio format only brought the story more to life. We didn't want to turn it off! It occupied the whole trip to Alabama and back, and I finally bought the book when I came back to work. The book has been no less incredible to simply read.

What is the What is the story of Valentino Achak Deng, one of the Lost Boys of Sudan who trekked to Ethiopia, then to Kenya as a young boy because of the conflicts (understatement!) that engulfed the whole of southern Sudan beginning in the early eighties. The book is biographical fiction - written this way because, as Deng says in the preface, "I was very young when some of the events in the book took place." He notes that all major events are true and that nothing occurs in the book that could not have occurred in the real experience of these Lost Boys.

As a book, What is the What is gripping - it captures the reader from the very start and holds one's attention throughout. As the story of one life, and the lives of millions, it is many things: sad, hopeful, frightening, outraging, indelible. I hold images from this story burned into my mind, ones that I do not want to forget. I am ashamed that I have not been more than peripherally aware of the atrocities that have taken place in Sudan - southern Sudan, and now Darfur. I have been aware of suffering, even in my own town, but it has not brought me to my knees. I do not simply want to put down the book and go about my life unaffected. I also don't want to get worked up for a short time and fizzle back into the wretched complacency I've let in the back door.

This story has made me think, it's called me to pray - it has helped me to engage with my broken world in a way that I have not in a long time. It's one that I would suggest to anyone to read and consider.


In house church this week, we talked about our word for the year, and I think I forgot to share mine: SPEAK. As I finished reading, this word was reinforced to me. I am excited and hopeful of what this year holds, and of what God is doing.

Everything Must Change

Including my approach to reading said book.

--<>--



Everything Must Change : Jesus, Global Crises, and a Revolution of Hope
by Brian D. McLaren

--<>--

This book is one that Jeromie & I came across in our attempts to research grad schools. Brian McLaren is connected with Mars Hill Graduate School out in Seattle, WA (one of the schools we're applying to), and so we decided to grab the book & eventually give it a spin. I picked it up a few days ago, started reading it alone, and quickly decided that it's one to be read WITH others... everything within begs to be discussed (and that's encouraged... there are lots of discussion questions). Some of the questions I've encountered so far are ones that've already been weighing on me... I haven't really known where to start with the discussion.

So... anyone want to read it with me??

Bookedy Book Book Book

I´ve yet to determine if this is good or bad, but my list of books I want to read has grown exponentially since starting work at the awesome local bookstore. In fact, several weeks ago I knocked a whole bunch off the list by reading something like 8 books in two weeks to keep it under control... but I slowed down... a little. :-)

I think the next book on my list might be... A Prayer For Owen Meany (Irving).

I´m not sure yet. :-D



Sooooooooooooooo...

What are you reading?

and

If you could choose two staff picks (favorites) for a bookstore, what would they be??

An Open Book...

I was going to wait until I had some pictures to post, but I think I'll just add them in later...

------------------

Quite a bit's happened in the past month! We went semi-super-north, semi-super-south, and I found a rather enjoyable part-time job!


semi-super-north : MAINE

Toward the end of July, Jeromie and I flew up to Portland, Maine, then the drove to Bridgton (Moose Pond!) for a family reunion - my stepmom's family. It was an *great* trip - fun to be around extended family and a good balance of action/relaxion. I know, I just made up a word. Highlights would have to be: good conversations with family, the loft we got to sleep in, the beautiful view, and the 3rd annual family 5k.

We spent our last day in downtown Portland, wandering around various shops, hunting down yarn stores & thrift shops, and pur-chasing Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows from a cool local bookstore (Longfellow Books?).

Tangent: Up until shortly after this trip, I'd only read HPs 1 & 2 and just didn't feel like following the craze through the rest of them; however, once Jeromie got (and in rather short order, finished) the 7th, I got kind of curious and ran off to the library for #3. Since we got back from Maine (July 24th), I've finished the rest of them... including #7 last night. Earlier in July, I rediscovered my love for reading of nearly any sort, which made it pretty easy to get sucked into the Potter books. I like them. More than I remember liking first two!

Back to Portland, though, and Maine in general: I thoroughly enjoyed it. Getting to finally see some of New England has got Jero & me reconsidering Gordon-Conwell for further school endeavors.


semi-super-south : ALABAMA

Orange Beach, to be exact, with Jeromie's family for his mom's 50th birthday! Hanging out with Jeromie's family has always been awesome thus far, and this time was no exception. I just hope they've forgiven me for being a bit of a bookworm! ;-) It was great fun to get to swim and rest and cook and monkey around with everyone.

I've always been kind of neutral about beaches until now. I'd never been to any outside the Carolinas. The water was clearer and the sand was soft, so this time I *really* enjoyed the beach for being itself.


rather enjoyable part-time job : THE OPEN BOOK

Woo-hoo! After nearly a month of being a bit pesky, I got a job at the Open Book! I started last week before we left for Alabama. It's a great, great local independent bookstore with awesome staff. Over the past couple of years, whether out of stress or no-time, I'd kind of forgotten how much I like to read... and thus I read pretty much out of necessity and not much else. When I finished at my previous job and started hunting around for a part-time job, I decided to think outside the box... in other words, places I hadn't considered before or had thought unattainable AND no big-box retail places. Jeromie and I hadn't really bought any new books since moving to Greenville, so I'd nearly forgotten about the Open Book, having not been there since sometime in high school. Having been back lately, I love it! No more big-box bookstores... none none none.

Desiring God

(July* 10)

Originally, just the house church guys were going to read through Desiring God (John Piper) this summer, but it's become a whole house church (whole snow cone!) thing instead. In my wanderings over the past week or so, I'd opted for other reading & other pursuits instead of catching up to the guys, but as I picked it up today I realized I'd already been wrestling with some of this already.

Tomorrow, it'll be a month since my resignation, and that month's flown by - heavy with questions and re-awakening. Though it feels like I've second-guessed it up to tenths & fifteenths, probably, I know that God has a purpose in this waiting and wondering, and I want to wait and wonder (and wrestle and dig!) well.

(July* 11)

Our discussion last night has had me thinking a lot, and praying, about where my heart is now and about what it means to delight in the Lord, for Him to be my treasure. As the day has passed, I've recognized again my tendency to wander, to allow other things to steal the affection that belongs only to God. I was reminded this morning of a verse that was given to me several years ago (~5?!) by a good friend, written on the bottom of a stone. The top of the stone said, carved simply, "love;" on the bottom was written "Rev 2:4." The verse seemed odd to me at first, but through the years since it has pointed me straight back to Christ in times where I'd allowed the whole world to come in between. Now, of course, is one of those times. The verse that follows calls me to do three things: to remember, to repent and to return. My pride has kept me from truly doing those things for quite a while, but, by grace alone, I realize that now.

I want to do those things daily.



* (No one told me I got the months wrong!!! :-p)

Absent or Absent-minded?

Sometimes I wonder if I should keep my blog. I don't think many people read it (as I haven't really told many folks about it), thus it finds itself at the very bottom of my priority list most weeks. When I finally get around to thinking about an update, there's not really much to say (and no pictures to make things interesting).

So here's what I've been up to lately, in no particular order...

- Work - still part-time, still a tad disorganized. we're minus a program coordinator for the time being, so things may get a little more stressful in the coming weeks.

- Sinus Infection - knocked me out for most of this week... feels a bit wierd to start AND finish your workweek on a Friday. Monday I felt well enough to knit a little, Tuesday through Thursday, I slept... and read... and slept.

- Reading - A Sense of the World by Jason Roberts. I picked this one up after hearing snippets of it on NPR's Radio Reader and it is an excellent book... very well written biography of James Holman (1786-1857), who lost his sight in his 20's and went on to travel the world like no one else before him. I'd started it back in January, not made much progress because things just got busy, then just about knocked it out while out sick this week... READ IT READ IT! (Tis good!)

- Reading and Wrestling - Deuteronomy, some of Psalms, now James... Jeromie and I are reading through the Bible with some friends from house church. It's been hard not to read just for the sake of reading (and thus not even really be seeking God in it), but God seems to be mercifully drawing me back to Him in recent weeks, even though I am so prone to wander.

- Knitting!!! - after the bag, it's been a couple of small items (2 Calorimetries from Knitty, a cabled headband that I made up myself, an failed attempt at a notions bag, and the Two Movie Hat from this blog). Now I'm on to socks for Mom! Size 0 double-point needles were torture at first, but now I think I may be addicted. :-D

- Testing Limits - (of my stupid foot) - the pain in my right foot turned out to be a mix of joint inflammation & a tough case of plantar fascitis, so I've been doing as told to get it better. Until I ended up sick earlier this week, I'd been up to swimming and walking on a somewhat regular basis. Hopefully I'll be able to pick that up again this next week.

So that's at glimpse of what's been up. Jeromie and I are both looking forward to hiking again once my foot is all better... not being able to get out like that has been driving us both a little nuts.

Onward to Saturday! :-D

Lilo & 2 Stitches

Hehe, I have now had stitches twice in my life! Don't worry, I'll spare you... no pictures! For some reason, it's kind of tempting though!

Of all ways to get stitches, mine might be one of the dumbest... I was unloading the dishwasher at my step-sister's place and dropped a ceramic mug all of one foot into the top rack of the dishwasher. Not thinking it would break (cause it shouldn't have), I reached down to pick it up as it was falling and thus sliced my palm... cause the mug cracked in pretty much half. Needless to say, I'm feelin' pretty dumb, but pretty blessed since it could've been worse. :-)

On the previous subject of George MacDonald, Jeromie promptly located a site called Project Gutenberg (sp?) where all sorts of pre-copyright books are posted for general use in electronic format. As far as I can tell most of his are in their original forms, which is EXCELLENT. I promptly got my paws on one of the stories I'd been looking for at the booksale, called The Wise Woman, and loved it. George MacDonald's approach to storytelling, and conveying truth in story, is insightful and incredible to me, and so I am rather thankful to have access to his original writings. Now I'm trying to temper my reading of them with other books as well, as much as I'd like to just curl up with them all one after the other!

Another book I've been reading lately is J.I. Packer's Knowing God, and it's been thoroughly challenging to me. Perhaps that's why I haven't been as consistent as I should in reading it. As much as I very much want to be changed, there are moments (many) where I shy away from the conviction that the Spirit brings... because God is God and I, most certainly, am NOT... which is a very very *good* thing. I have more wonderings to explore related to this, but right now I've run out of time.

Off I go to begin crafting a fantastic work of art called home-made pizza. Ha. Or maybe off I go to begin crafting a plain old home-made pizza, as it will likely not be particularly artistic. :-D

reallybigreallygoodreallycheap booksale...

or reallybigreallycheapreallygood booksale...
or reallygoodreallybigreallycheap booksale...
or reallygoodreallycheapreallybig boogsale...
or...

I can't remember the actual name, but I think I've gotten the point across. :-)

Jeromie and I went this weekend and got a pile of good books for not much in the way of dollars, and the outcome has certainly made this week so far a little more bearable. However, it's also put me on a mission to find more of George MacDonald's books in their original (original republished is fine) form, as opposed to "edited for today's reader." Most of his books at the booksale fit in the latter category, which is a little frustrating. And by "edited for today's reader," I mean that they "translated" all the dialect and put cheesy romance novel [1] covers on the books. The one editor seems to do a good job of keeping the story & truth that MacDonald seeks to convey, but what about us folks that want to wade through scottish dialect and the story as it was written!!! ;-)

Aside from recently acquiring good books (which may just be distraction), my days have still been a mix of doubt and hope and perhaps a glimmer of faith. I hesitate to even call it that... because what resembles faith in me seems such a poor representation of what faith is. Sometimes I wonder if I even know what that means or entails!! I still feel like I'm finding my worth in work, which is really no worth at all... and it seems as if i will remain without what i consider gainful employment until i learn my lesson!

And so I will journey on. I know that God is at work, and I hope that my knowledge of this fact, and all that it means, will travel from head to heart again and grow deep roots. And not just knowledge of the fact that God is at work, but knowing HIM.

I've spent entirely too long trying to put this into words, and I feel like I still haven't touched on the entirety of what I'm even aware of what God seems up to in my heart and the ways that He's up to it... and, you know, the entirety doesn't belong here either. :-)

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[1] Yes, MacDonald does put a romantic twist in some of the stories, but the author is a Scottish pastor from the 1800's... i think anyone that picked those books up for the cover would be sorely disappointed!! :-)