I've Been Tagged....

twice!! Both Rosemary and Kim from Hiraeth have tagged yours truly for the Crazy Eights meme. Here's how it goes:

Answer eight questions posed by the person who tagged you, come up with eight more questions and tag eight more people to answer your questions.

Does that make it the Crazy Sixteens Meme for me? Well, I'll answer the sixteen questions but I'm not going to tag anyone. If you want to do the meme, just pick any of these 16 questions and have at it! I like to rebel against the rules every now and then. Don't you?

Rosemary's Questions:

1. What is your earliest childhood memory? Pushing my sister, Mary, around the living room in a porta-crib.

2. Do you usually wear an apron when you cook or clean your home? I wear an apron when I cook but not when I clean.

3. With what do you top your hot cocoa: marshmallows, marshmallow crème, whipped cream, nothing at all? Nothing at all. But I do sometimes swirl a candy cane around in it to get a bit of peppermint going.

4. Will you have a fresh or artificial Christmas tree this year? Artificial.

5. Colored lights or clear? Clear, right now. But I do vacillate on this one.

6. Tell us about your favorite piece of furniture in your home. My bed because I love finally reclining there at the end of each busy day to read a few pages and gain the restoration that sleep gives.

7. If you could spend six months anywhere in the world, expenses paid, where would you choose to go and what would you be doing? Ireland and I'd just soak up living there.

8. If you were a tree, what kind of tree would you be? Just kidding. Couldn’t resist throwing that in…Pink Dogwood. I love pink!

9. If you were given a million dollars, tax free, what would you do with it? Find a way to glorify God with it.

Kim's Questions:

1. Did you have a favorite Aunt or Uncle growing up and if so, what made them so special to you? My Aunt Agnes. She's still my favorite Aunt because we laugh together and she thinks I am someone important.

2. Carpet or hardwood floors; what is your preference? Hardwood.

3. Do you remember your dreams upon awaking? Sometimes.

4. How many different churches have you attended in the past decade? Three.

5. Do you prefer to do your shopping in stores or online? Online. Except for shoes.

6. Do you label and date the back of family photos? No. I always mean to, but I don't.

7. What is your least favorite household task? Dusting. Its just too tedious.

8. Do you stroll the aisles in the library for interesting books to bring home or search the online catalog to reserve the specific book you are looking for? Both. But I must say that I love strolling the aisles of the library for interesting books and some of the best I've ever read I discovered that way!

Answers!

Here are the answers to the "5, 56 Book Meme":

1. The Christian Life: A Doctrinal Approach by Sinclair Ferguson

2. The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan
Taking this one off the shelf, I felt the intense desire to read it again. John guessed it correctly.

3. Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Mongomery

4. Practical Religion by J.C. Ryle
Not much of a clue in that sentence but rules are rules!

5. Persuasion by Jane Austen

6. Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God by J.I. Packer
The sentence was very Packer-ish, wasn't it, Rebecca!

7. Reason to Believe by R.C. Sproul

8. Daniel Deronda by George Eliot

9. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
I do love Little Women! And it was through it that I was introduced to Pilgrim's Progress as a young girl.

10. 1776 by David McCullough
I love history although I don't own a lot of it for some reason. Its a category I tend to borrow from the library. This book was a rummage sale find. Oh, and David McCullough is the other author who was born in Pittsburgh, PA.

I've really enjoyed this meme, both doing it myself and playing along with others. Thanks for the tag, Rebecca. I am hoping its not over!

Tagged!

I've been tagged by Rebecca for this unusual book meme. Its got some very interesting guidelines!

Take ten books and transcribe the fifth sentence from page 56.

In keeping with the 5,56 thing, make sure that at least five books are fiction. provide five hints, and pass the meme on to six other bloggers.

Here are the ten fifth sentences:

1. 1. When Jesus tells him that he needs to be born from above, only faintly understanding the meaning, he lamely asks whether another birth is possible.
2. 2. Then they shewed him the Ox's Goad, wherewith Shamgar slew Six Hundred men.
3. 3. "...She looks lonely and sad, don't you think?..."
4. 4. Believe me, it is no light matter.
5. 5. To be sure I may just as well go as not, for I am no use at home-am I? and it only harasses me.
6. 6. In the third place, it needs to be said that a meeting, or service, is not necessarily evangelistic just because it includes testimonies, and choruses, and an appeal, any more than a man is necessarily English because he wears striped trousers and a bowler hat.
7. 7. As we talked, he came to realize that what he really believed was that people could do their own thing as long as their own thing did not impinge on his thing.
8. 8. "Did she," said Gwendolyn, laughingly.
9. 9. For the first time in her life she had been struck, and the disgrace, in her eyes, was as deep as if he had knocked her down.
10. 10. On October 18, a raw, gloomy Wednesday, a congressional committee of three, including Benjamin Franklin, gathered by a roaring fire in Washington's study and, after lengthy deliberations with the commander and his generals, concluded that if an attack on Boston meant the destruction of the town, they could not approve.

Here are the five hints:

1. 1. (For sentence #8) This female author published under a male pseudonym.
2. 2. (For sentence #9) This book is a contender for my very favorite novel of all time.
3. 3. (For sentence #6) This well-known author lives in Canada and this particular book is one that I refer to frequently.
4. 4. (For sentence #3) I'd be very surprised if Islandsparrow doesn't have this book memorized, cover to cover!
5. 5. (For sentence #7) This author is one of two which I've quoted here that was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Now for the tagging:

• Elle
  
• Islandsparrow
• Ann
• John
• Willow
  
• Ellen

Have fun! I did!

Tagged Again!

Kim just tagged me for a new meme. Well, actually its an old meme from before my time...my time of having a blog, that is. I'm sure lots of you will recognize it though, and it just so happens that its also reading related. Its the Bookworm Meme!

1. Hardback or trade paperback or mass market paperback? Hardback is always nicest but sometimes price is a consideration, you know. And if you can accept paperbacks, you can get more books per dollar so I mostly do!
2. Online purchase or bricks and mortar? Online mostly. Often what I want is not in the bricks and mortar store and with online, I can shop for price more efficiently too. Plus I can peruse my wish list and update it and change it and dream over it any time I want to!
3. Barnes and Noble or Borders? Usually not either one. I shop used as much as I can on Amazon or ebay or wherever. Even if I am going new, its not likely they will have the cheapest price, in my experience. Or the books I want.
   
4. Bookmark or dog ear? Bookmark, always! One of my Bookworm Bookmarks, to be precise.
5. Mark or not mark? I used to never mark in any book. Heaven forbid! But that was a long time ago...or it seems like it. Now I mark to my heart's content in non-fiction but rarely in fiction.
6. Alphabetize by author or alphabetize by title or random? I organize my book shelves by subject or category and within that, by size. But within a category or subject, all the books by the same author go together. It makes sense to me.
7. Keep, throw away or sell? Usually keep but occasionally sell. Never throw away!
8. Keep dust jacket or toss it? Keep it, always!
   
9. Read with dust jacket or remove it? Usually remove it but sometimes I am so anxious to start reading that I forget.
10. Short story or novel? Definitely a novel!
    
11. Collection (short stories by the same author) or anthology (short stories by different authors)? I'm generally not a fan of short stories.
12. Lord of the Rings or Narnia? Here's my confession. I've never read Lord of the Rings! I can hear you gasp but its true. When I was younger, I really did not like what I considered fantasy and as I've gotten older there just always seems to be something more pressing that I want to read.
13. Stop reading when tired or at chapter breaks? Chapter breaks if at all possible!
14. "It was a dark and stormy night" or "once upon a time?" "It was a dark and stormy night." Its so much less predictable.
    
15. Buy or borrow? I use the library when possible, sometimes making requests that go outside the "system" or I do borrow from friends. Kim, especially! But once I realize that I want to own the book, I set about buying it!
    
16. New or used? Used in good condition is fine with me. You can buy more books that way! But I don't want to buy someone else's marked up copy. Too distracting.
    
17. Buying choice: book reviews, recommendation or browse? I've done all three but I love to browse and find an unexpected treasure.
    
18. Tidy ending or cliffhanger? Tidy ending, definitely! I hate a cliffhanger!!
19. Morning reading, afternoon reading or night time reading? Yes. All three or whenever I can.
20. Standalone or series? Both. I do love a good series but I also think that the very best books are generally one of a kind.
21. Favorite series? I really like The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series by Alexander McCall Smith. I usually read one just once a year while we are on vacation. Those books just induce a relaxed sense of simplicity in me.
    
22. Favorite book of which no one else has heard? The Three Day Promise by Donald K. Chung. Its the memoir of a Korean man attempting to fulfill the promise he made as a youth to his mother to return in three days when they were then separated by the Korean War. Maybe others have heard of it by now but at the time I read it, it was self-published and fairly obscure.
    
23. Favorite books read last year? Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God by J.I. Packer and Luther: Man Between God and the Devil by Heiko Augustinus Oberman.
    
24. Favorite book of all time? Little Women by Louisa May Alcott maybe. Or maybe Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. Or Knowing God by J.I. Packer. That's just too hard of a question. I love so many books.

Anyone else not done this meme? Consider yourself tagged then! Just let me know in the comments if you do it so I can come visit and read your responses.

Tagged for a Meme on Reading!

There's a meme about reading going around and I've been tagged by Elle of A Complete Thought. I love to read so this one is right up my alley. Here goes...

1. Do you remember how you developed a love of reading? Oh, I do indeed! I am the oldest of six children and my family did not have much money when I was growing up. But library books were free and the library was right around the corner from our house. It was a treasure trove for me and my brother, Richard, who is 15 months younger than I am. In the summer time especially, any spare moment we could find, the two of us were either going to the library to pick out books or reading them. We went to the library almost every day and I well remember how we got in trouble with the children's librarian for "bothering" her since we "couldn't possibly be reading all those books." But the truth is, we were! Those books were new worlds to discover for us and we'd each take one to our respective trees, climb up and read for hours.
   
2. What are some books you loved as a child? My very favorite childhood books were the Betsy, Tacy and Tib books written by Maud Hart Lovelace and illustrated by Lois Lenski. I can't think of those books without thinking of the illustrations too! And I loved the way the books became more difficult reading as Betsy, Tacy and Tib (and I) grew. I also loved the Flicka, Ricka and Dicka books by Maj Lindman. Richard read Snipp, Snapp and Snurr by the same author and I read some of his picks along with my own. There also was a series of books about a mouse named Florence that I loved as much for the illustrations as the stories but I can't remember the titles or author or anything more about them. Anyone have a clue? So like Elle, I was a series reader. Oh, and of course, there were the Nancy Drew books as I got older. And Little Women by Louisa May Alcott. And the Anne of Green Gables books by L.M. Montgomery. And I loved any biography I could get my hands on...a love that continues to this day. Okay, I guess I'd better force myself to move on to the next question.
3. What is your favorite genre? I love non-fiction and I as mentioned in the previous answer, I love biographies. To me, there is nothing as absorbing as getting inside the life of someone whom I admire or find intriguing and learning about the forces...social, familial, historical, spiritual or whatever...that shaped that person's life.
4. Do you have a favorite novel? It is really hard for this avid reader to pin down one particular novel as a favorite but I am thinking that the novel that I reflect on most often over the course of my life would have to be Little Women by Louisa May Alcott. But Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe as well as Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen are right up there too!
5. Where do you usually read? Well, its not in a tree anymore! In bed before I go to sleep or on the couch with Charlie on my lap when I take a reading break during the day.
6. When do you usually read? Whenever I can steal a few moments! I've been known to read at the stove while cooking but I prefer to read for a half hour or so while I have lunch or a cup of tea during the day. I also read for about 20 minutes at night before I sleep.
7. Do you usually have more than one book you are reading at a time? Yes, I try to limit myself to no more than three...one fiction, one non-fiction (biography, theology, etc.) and one "picture book." Now what I call a picture book is really also non-fiction but its a book that incorporates a lot of pictures about an interest of mine...needlework, gardening, cooking, tea, a beautiful area I love. Something I can look at when I am really too tired to read but it meets the need to hold a book and flip through pages.
8. Do you read non-fiction in a different way or place than you read fiction? I try not to read non-fiction in bed when I am too tired to fully absorb it but sometimes I do because that is just the book that is absorbing my thoughts at the time.
9. Do you buy most of the books you read, or borrow them, or check them out of the library? I am a big fan of the library. But there are some books I just want to own and some I've been introduced to by generous friends who lent them to me.
10. Do you keep most of the books you buy? Yes, because the ones I buy are generally the ones I really do want to own. But I do selectively lend them.
11. If you have children, what are some of the favorite books you have shared with them? I have a precious daughter with whom I read Little Women when she was about 14. She couldn't understand why parts of it so deeply moved me and, since I had not read it since I was 12 myself, I also was surprised at my reactions to parts I barely remembered from that early reading. I also tried to introduce Emily to the Betsy, Tacy and Tib books but found that she wanted the joy of discovering new books for herself just as I had.
12. What are you reading now? I'm (re)reading Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen, (re)reading Knowing God by J.I.Packer and my "picture book" of the moment is a knitting pattern book lent to me by my dear friend, Carol.
13. Do you keep a To Be Read list? Yes, and some of them are stacked on my nightstand. Hehe.
14. What's next? Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen and Practical Religion by J.C. Ryle. My "picture books" are never planned!
    
15. What books would you like to reread? I am in the process of rereading the Jane Austen books right now in conjunction with rereading her biography, Becoming Jane Austen by Jon Spence.
16. Who are your favorite authors? Well, I love Jane Austen (can you tell?) and Louisa May Alcott and Harriet Beecher Stowe and J.I. Packer and John Brown. But there are so many I haven't read that I am sure would be favorites if I just read them!

Oh, this has been so much fun! Thanks, Elle, for tagging me! Who else would like to join in? How about Kim from Hiraeth, Rebecca of Rebecca Writes, Ann from Whatever Things...and Islandsparrow! And you, if you haven't been tagged yet! But now, I've got to go read a few pages. Oh, and if you are too busy reading or whatever to play right now, please don't feel any pressure. Only play if its fun!

Meme: Passion Quilt

Kim tagged me for this meme on Friday but it took me some time to think about how to respond to it. I am not a fast thinker, for those of you who are just getting to know me.

But back to the meme. Here are the "rules" for this one:
1. Post a picture or make/take/or create one that depicts that about which YOU are most passionate for students to learn.
2. Give your picture a short title.
3. Title your blog post "Meme: Passion Quilt."
4. Link back to this blog post.
5. Include links to five (or more) whom you are tagging for this meme.

Here's mine and I've titled it simply "Light."

There are so many passages of Scripture that use the imagery of light to convey what we have in our Saviour but to me the one that most clearly conveys the Gospel message in one verse is Psalm 56:13 "For you have delivered me from death and my feet from stumbling, that I may walk before God in the light of life." And He commands me to share that message with all who cross my path.

I've lost track of who has been tagged and who hasn't for this meme so please, if you haven't been tagged, consider this your invitation to join in.

My Very First Meme

I've been tagged for my very first meme! Kim at Hiraeth did the tagging and I'm excited to get to play!

So here are the rules of the game:

1. The rules of the game get posted at the beginning.
2. Each player answers the questions about themselves.
3. At the end of the post, each player then tags five people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know they've been tagged and asking them to read your blog.

Here's the meme:

What was I doing ten years ago?

Like Kim, I was getting ready to move but our move was just local. Moving from rural upstate New York two years previously, Chicagoland involved some sticker shock for us and the house we were living in was affordable but did not really meet our needs. Also I was just beginning the project of homeschooling our daughter, Emily, for her high school years.

Five things on my "to do" list today:
1. Care for a friend's cat while they are on vacation
2. Take a walk with Charlie
3. Do next installment of study of the Book of Matthew with my sister
4. Clean the bedroom
5. Do two rows on the baby afghan I'm crocheting

Snacks I enjoy:
fruit, trail mix, popcorn

Things I would do if I were a billionaire:
Hmmm...well, visit Ireland, fund a building for our little church and a pastor too, help family and friends that I know could use it, buy Andy a four wheel drive vehicle and Emily a harpsichord. Probably not in that order and each one only after much prayer to ascertain God's direction in the matter but those are the dreamy things that spring to my mind.

Three of my bad habits:
I have to tell? Well, all right.
1. Worrying (but not as much as I used to)
2. Hitting the return key after I label a post but before I am ready to publish it!
3. Not buying something at a clearance sale or a second hand store or a garage sale and then it is gone when I decide I really should have gotten it

Five places I've lived:
1. The Utica-Rome area of Upstate New York
2. Wichita Falls, Texas
3. The Portland, Oregon area
4. New York City
5. Long Island, New York

Five jobs I've had:
1. Registered nurse
2. Child-care provider
3. Tae Kwon Do instructor
4. Seamstress
5. I don't think there ever was anything else!

So there you have it! I think I will tag Rosemary at Seasonings of the Heart, Karen at Simply A Musing Blog, Ann at Whatever Things... and Island Sparrow at A Sparrow's Home.