My 2010 Reading Challenge

I have chosen a reading challenge for myself this year.  Last year my reading challenge was to read 50 books and I read 59.  The year before my challenge was to go through the alphabet with book titles.  I didn't do that one all of the way.  I gave up because I was getting stuck with boring books for Z and O. 
This year I decided that I wanted to have another challenge, but I didn't want it to be as difficult as the alphabet thing.  I am going to read all of the books in the Left Behind series.  I might even stretch it out to the teen series and the new series that goes before they were left behind.  It depends on how well I do.  Right now it's just the Left Behind series for adults.  I have started collecting all of the books from paperbackswap.com and have made it all the way up to book 10 so far.  Now I just have to start reading them.  I don't know if I'll get to it this month.  I am reading 2 books right now.
The first one that I am reading is a pretty heavy book.  Literally.  It's a 806 page hardback called The Faith: A History of Christianity by Brian Moynahan.  I am currently on page 213.  I have just started to make a dent in it.  It's an interesting book really.  The only thing that bothers me is it is written as if I already know the people that I'm reading about.  I don't know the majority of them.  So I am lost as to whom these people are.  But I guess to do a history of Christianity, it would be a huge book to go into more detail than this one does.  I don't know when I'll finish this book.  I started it January 5, so tomorrow I will have been reading it for 20 days. 
Then I needed a book that I understood, doesn't take a lot of concentration to understand or follow and that I enjoy.  So I had to choose a fiction by Dean Koontz.  Now I know that he's not exactly Christian material reading, but I have always liked his suspense novels.  They keep me on the edge of my seat.  I have read the first 2 novels in this series so I have to read the third and last to know what happens!  I am reading Dean Koontz's Frankenstein Dead and Alive.  Oh and what a bummer I just found out.  This is not the last of the series.  There are 5 book.  That means I will not find out the ending until I read the other 2!  I will have to do that!
I want to hurry and finish one of these books though because I have a really great book waiting for me to review.  I want to read this book and the other books in this series.  It's called Sabbath by Dan B. Allender.  This book is part of The Ancient Practices Series.  The whole series is found here and it even explains it a little.  I really want to own this whole series.  That is, if they are good.  We'll have to wait and see.  The next one I would like to read is Fasting and if I hurry, I can get that for a review also!
The Dean Koontz book won't take me long to read because it is so good.  Once I sit down to read it I get hooked and read a lot at once.  I am almost a third of the way through it now and I haven't been reading it nearly as much as The Faith.
I decided that this year I will not publish my reading list right away and add to it as I go through the year because then by the end of the year, no one sees it.  So if you'd like to see the list of books that I read last year, you can go here.  This year I will just make a draft of my list and  post the whole list at the end of the year.  I think I will also do monthly reading lists......maybe with my Amazon widget.....I love to use that on my homeschool blog.
After I finish Sabbath, I can start reading The Left Behind series.  I have read books 1-8 before.  Or maybe it was up to 6.  It was quite a few years ago and I don't remember.    I figured it would be best to just start over and refresh my memory anyways.  I like to do that when I read a series too far apart.  I don't have any book reviews after Sabbath either until I get the other 2 in the mail.
I am reviewing books for 4 companies now.  Three of them are for Christian book publishers and the fourth is done on my homeschool blog for The Gabby Moms.  I signed up to do that for a whole year and I get something to review every month.  This month I reviewed a book by TEACH Magazine called True Treasures.  You can check it out here, on my blog Teaching At Home in a Christian Way.
It is currently 10:08pm here at my house.  I think that my kids are finally asleep and I can lay down and read the night away.  Well, as long as I can stay up I guess.

Not quite ready yet....

I know that I said I was going to blog about something soon.  Well, I'm just not ready yet.  I really want to.  I know just what I want to say.  But I'm not sure that I'm ready to let everyone in on that yet. 
So on we go.....Things here are going smoothly along.  Besides the temperament of a person I put up with daily.  But that is something I have been dealt to deal with and I just do.  I try not to let it bother me, along with other things.  I am trying to grow in the Lord everyday.
Homeschool, as I've mentioned before, is going great this year!  How much fun we have!  Yesterday we did a Science experiment to make rain.  It was awesome and I will blog about it later on my homeschool blog called Teaching at Home in a Christian Way.  As my friend Tawny said on Facebook, "I'm so thankful that we answered the call from God to Homeschool".  That is not word for word, but I can't find it to quote it exactly.  But it was something along those lines. 

I found a new Christian bookstore up here on the hill, about 15 min away in good traffic.  In great traffic it would only be about 10!  But that never happens on Meridian.  So I plan on 15-20 min drive.  But the store is great!  It's a Christian bookstore (I know I already said that) and thrift.  I did see some clothes and such in there but honestly, I just wanted books.  lol  The name of the store is Love's Treasury.  Isn't that a great name?  So inviting!  The books were so fairly priced that I am going back probably this weekend!  I can't wait!  They had a large selection of books for homeschool.  I mean large. 
Speaking of Christian and bookstore.  I found a new used book store called A Novel Idea in Puyallup.  I went there to meet author Christina Weigand.  She found me last year on Facebook because I was signed up to do NaNoWriMo and she lives in Puyallup.  At that time, I didn't realize she was in the process of getting a book published!  Well she did get that book published and it's called Aaron's Revenge. 
I found the bookstore and actually got to meet her.  The best part?  She gave me a book for free for just making it there (it was quite a feat for me) and signed it.  It is the next book that I am going to read.  I have to finish White Fang first.

I have a busy day planned today.  Trying to get my house all cleaned and ready for the holidays.  Decorating is going to be kept at a minimal this year for Fall and Thanksgiving.  I don't know where any of my decorations are at the moment and really am not going to try and get them from my garage.  I'll save that for Christmas.
And since I have so much to do, I am going to start my work now.  And that has to start by stopping my blogging.  Oh I hate it when I have to do that.  I could just keep on blabbing. 

Link Up to Homeschool Happenings!

Sunday is the last day to link up for this week!  If you miss it, join us next week.  You have Monday - Sunday midnight to post!  Click the graphic above to take you to the blog for Homeschool Happenings!

Good Bye Summer

September brings us Fall.  Which brings us Winter.  I love the colors of Fall.  I hate the temperature of Fall and Winter.  I do not like to be cold and I am always cold.  I am not ready for Fall yet.  But my weather channel reports are telling me that Fall is here and Summer is gone.  Our Summer here in Western Washington was so late and I'm not ready to say goodbye.
And being in Western Washington, Fall and Winter bring rain.  Lots and lots of rain.  I am not too fond of the rain either, but I could stand it better if it was warm rain.

Now don't get me wrong, I love my state!  And I like the green part of it!  Eastern Washington is very warm, but windy and brown also.  Western Washington is so beautiful.  My favorite times of year to view Washington is the Fall, when we have so many different colors.  The bright red trees are my favorite.  In Spring the green buds start coming out and the beautiful flowers in some trees.  Then Summer has full bloom green trees that spread out their shady canopies for us to enjoy.

I finally finished my school planning for this week tonight.  I was behind from having such a busy weekend and not feeling the greatest.  But I'm going to start next week a lot earlier this week, like either tonight or tomorrow.  I am going to post my schedules on my homeschool blog, Teaching At Home In A Christian Way, if you are interested in reading.

Well it's already after 8pm and I want to blog on my homeschool blog tonight.  I don't know if I will though...we'll see.

Changes and Plans

After I checked NaBloPoMo yesterday morning and entered my blog into the blog roll, and posted my post.....they changed the theme.  Instead of VISION it is now ART.  I can go with that because I like art and it's easy to blog/talk about.  That also gives me a whole month to show off my designs!!
Today I was offered to do a quick job that paid quite well.  I blogged about it yesterday right here.  This will be a simple job, I'm hoping, but it will take quite a bit of time today.  I am extremely grateful that it is something I can do here at home though.  I have an hour before I start.  After I am done blogging I need to wash some dishes so hubby won't have to look at the mess all day.  
We are not going to do any formal school today.  I will have the kids do what school work they can do on their own, quietly.  But I probably won't get to the subjects that I need to do with them.  And that's ok, because I need just one more day to finish last week and that will be tomorrow.  It works perfectly!  

Yesterday I was brought to the realization of something in the Bible that I want to research for myself.  It is the issue of women wearing head coverings.  You'll find the passage in 1 Corinthians 11:2-16.  I am intrigued by the issue and am praying a lot about it.  *PLEASE NOTE: I DO NOT WANT A DISCUSSION ABOUT THIS TO GET OUT OF HAND.  ANY RUDE COMMENTS ABOUT THIS WILL BE DELETED.*  I do not need to worry about others religious life.  I want to do what God wants orders me to do.  That is why I am praying about it.  I don't care how others live their religious life, if they feel that God wants them to live the way they do, that is their deal.  They have to answer to Him in the end, not me.  And it doesn't affect my personal decisions.  If the Lord convicts me in this area of my life, I will know it because He will make it clear to me.  I believe this and pray on this.  I will be blogging about this topic a little bit more.  I want to do a little more research and praying first.

Marvelous Monday!

I woke up bright and early this morning to get ready for this Marvelous Monday!  I just love Mondays.  I don't know if there is something wrong with me or what....but I do!  And today is a special Monday because the kids decided they want to start school early and early is today.  I have been preparing the teaching room and other things for school this morning.  We are all excited to start!
If you're a homeschooler, please jump over to my other blog and check out the new blog hop called Homeschool Happenings.  I am so excited about this and ready for it to take off and meet some other homeschool Moms and Students.
My blog is short today so I can get a move on our marvelous day!  Hope you have a Marvelous Monday also! 

Coming Soon...Spread the Word Homeschooling Moms!

I found a meme last year to join for homeschooling but the blog author gave it to another blog author to do and I never saw it again.  So I decided to try to start my own.  I want a weekly meme called Homeschool Happenins' so us Homeschooling Moms can post weekly about our adventures.  I am going to host this blog meme on my homeschooling blog called Teaching At Home in a Christian Way.  So if you don't already follow that blog and would like to and join the fun, please do!  Please tell your other Homeschool Moms that you know about it also.  I am in the process of making a button for it, so stay tuned!