Friday, November 26, 2010

What have you read?

This list has been circulating around bloggy land, Facebook, and e-mail. I thought I would join in for the fun of it. Apparently, I've read 14 out of 100 of these books. I have a long way to go - who knows if I'll get around to reading all these in my lifetime? I also have to admit that I read about half of them during literature or advanced English classes in high school. My reading list as an adult leans toward more recently written works!

According to BBC via Lauren Brownfield, most people will only ever read 6 out of the 100 books listed here.  Feel free to copy and paste this list, bolding the titles you’ve read and italicizing the ones from which you’ve merely read selections.



1 Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen

2 The Lord of the Rings – JRR Tolkien

3 Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte

4 Harry Potter series – JK Rowling

5 To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee

6 The Bible


7 Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte

8 Nineteen Eighty Four – George Orwell

9 His Dark Materials – Philip Pullman

10 Great Expectations – Charles Dickens

11 Little Women – Louisa M Alcott

12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles – Thomas Hardy

13 Catch 22 – Joseph Heller

14 Complete Works of Shakespeare

15 Rebecca – Daphne Du Maurier

16 The Hobbit – JRR Tolkien

17 Birdsong – Sebastian Faulk

18 Catcher in the Rye – JD Salinger

19 The Time Traveler’s Wife – Audrey Niffenegger

20 Middlemarch – George Eliot

21 Gone With The Wind – Margaret Mitchell

22 The Great Gatsby – F Scott Fitzgerald


24 War and Peace – Leo Tolstoy

25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams

27 Crime and Punishment – Fyodor Dostoyevsky

28 Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck

29 Alice in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll

30 The Wind in the Willows – Kenneth Grahame

31 Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy

32 David Copperfield – Charles Dickens

33 Chronicles of Narnia – CS Lewis

34 Emma -Jane Austen

35 Persuasion – Jane Austen

36 The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe – CS Lewis

37 The Kite Runner – Khaled Hosseini

38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin – Louis De Bernieres

39 Memoirs of a Geisha – Arthur Golden

40 Winnie the Pooh – A.A. Milne

41 Animal Farm – George Orwell

42 The Da Vinci Code – Dan Brown

43 One Hundred Years of Solitude – Gabriel Garcia Marquez

44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney – John Irving

45 The Woman in White – Wilkie Collins

46 Anne of Green Gables – LM Montgomery

47 Far From The Madding Crowd – Thomas Hardy

48 The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood

49 Lord of the Flies – William Golding

50 Atonement – Ian McEwan

51 Life of Pi – Yann Martel

52 Dune – Frank Herbert

53 Cold Comfort Farm – Stella Gibbons

54 Sense and Sensibility – Jane Austen

55 A Suitable Boy – Vikram Seth

56 The Shadow of the Wind – Carlos Ruiz Zafon

57 A Tale Of Two Cities – Charles Dickens

58 Brave New World – Aldous Huxley

59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time – Mark Haddon

60 Love In The Time Of Cholera – Gabriel Garcia Marquez

61 Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck

62 Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov

63 The Secret History – Donna Tartt

64 The Lovely Bones – Alice Sebold

65 Count of Monte Cristo – Alexandre Dumas

66 On The Road – Jack Kerouac

67 Jude the Obscure – Thomas Hardy

68 Bridget Jones’s Diary – Helen Fielding

69 Midnight’s Children – Salman Rushdie

70 Moby Dick – Herman Melville

71 Oliver Twist – Charles Dickens

72 Dracula – Bram Stoker

73 The Secret Garden – Frances Hodgson Burnett

74 Notes From A Small Island – Bill Bryson

75 Ulysses – James Joyce

76 The Inferno – Dante

77 Swallows and Amazons – Arthur Ransome

78 Germinal – Emile Zola

79 Vanity Fair – William Makepeace Thackeray

80 Possession – AS Byatt

81 A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens


82 Cloud Atlas – David Mitchell

83 The Color Purple – Alice Walker

84 The Remains of the Day – Kazuo Ishiguro

85 Madame Bovary – Gustave Flaubert

86 A Fine Balance – Rohinton Mistry

87 Charlotte’s Web – E.B. White

88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven – Mitch Albom

89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

90 The Faraway Tree Collection – Enid Blyton

91 Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad

92 The Little Prince – Antoine De Saint-Exupery

93 The Wasp Factory – Iain Banks

94 Watership Down – Richard Adams

95 A Confederacy of Dunces – John Kennedy Toole

96 A Town Like Alice – Nevil Shute

97 The Three Musketeers – Alexandre Dumas

98 Hamlet – William Shakespeare

99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – Roald Dahl

100 Les Miserables – Victor Hugo


So how about you? How many of these books have you read?

Thursday, November 25, 2010

Taking our lives for granted


Today is the day we traditionally count our blessings. This year is very different for my family, and I can't help but think about all the things that I should have counted as blessings in years past, and didn't. Now that our family has been split up and the children and I are living with friends, it's easy to see all the things I took for granted.

I should have been thankful:
  • that I could turn the heat or air conditioning up or down whenever I wanted.
  • that I had a companion (my husband) to snuggle with at night.
  • that I could load the dishwasher whenever I wanted to.
  • that my children each had their own rooms to go to when they got upset.
  • that I always had some kind of income coming in (from my job, my husband, unemployment, or whatever).
  • that I never had to learn to mow the lawn.
  • that someone else was always home to tend to the children if I was sick.
  • that I walked outside every day during the winter months and didn't slip on the ice on the steps because someone else had already got up and scraped it off.
  • that I had wonderful friends who supported my homeschooling efforts.
  • that I had a wonderful and caring church family who I knew I could always turn to for support.
  • that I could open or shut the windows in my home whenever I wanted.
  • that I lived close to all my family and friends.

These are all things I took for granted last Thanksgiving. Notice they don't have anything to do with things that I had. It all had to do with freedoms I had and people I loved. This Thanksgiving, I am determined to be thankful for every little thing I still have left.

I am thankful:

  • that I have a God I can cry out to when life seems too hard to bear.
  • that I still have two or three friends who will listen and respond with a hug and prayer.
  • that I have the opportunity to be an example to my children and show them how they can depend on Jesus.
  • that I can still hug my kids every night, read them stories, make them brush their teeth, and teach them how to love others.
  • that, thanks to good friends, my kids and I still have a roof over our heads.
  • that we still have some luxuries like hot showers, clean clothes, and food in our stomachs - many people don't even have that.
  • that my children and I are still generally in good health. We have fresh air in our lungs, love in our hearts, and blue skies to remind us that it's all relative. 

This Thanksgiving, I encourage you to remember the little things when you count your blessings. Allow your heart to be full until it overflows into those around you.

Now, our God, we give you thanks, and praise your glorious name. 
(1 Chronicles 29:13)

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Saturday, November 20, 2010

Organizing all those Legos

Adam's Lego bin
Justin's Lego bin
If you've ever tried to organize/clean a room occupied by two boys, you know there are challenges aplenty. Perhaps the biggest challenge, at least in my boys' room, is what to do with the all the Legos.

When I decided to do this post I went in search of Legos to photograph. I didn't have to search long. The Legos often make a trail to the boys' room. An armless man, a lone head.... do you know how many Lego pieces I vacuum up on any given day? A lot.




Both of my boys are Lego freaks. Currently each boy has a huge plastic bin to contain their Legos. But it's not the most organized system. They have to dig and it takes them forever to find the exact Lego piece they are looking for. The worst part is that in order to find the piece they want, they often will dump an entire bin on the floor! Then they have a huge mess to clean up before bed.

I found these on a shelf in their room... not in the Lego bins.

So when I saw that Michelle of Sustainably Chic Designs (who also has two boys) had a post on organizing Legos, I jumped for joy! And what a post it was! Her new Lego organization system has the pieces organized by color and drawers of bricks labeled. She even set aside a drawer for all those instructions that come with each Lego set.

This photo by Michelle of Sustainably Chic Designs
This photo by Michelle of Sustainably Chic Designs
Right now I don't have a job or a home of my own, so spending any money on another container is not an option. But I bookmarked her post and will be following her Lego organization system as soon as I possibly can!

Friday, November 19, 2010

Natural shampoo for humans and dogs

This is my shampoo. It's all natural, and works great for my oily hair. And I love the natural smell of herbs instead of the perfumey smell of most shampoos. I have been using this shampoo bar from J.R. Liggett's for about a year now.


I also use their dog shampoo for my 11-year-old Italian greyhound, Leo. He gets skin conditions easily and needs a very gentle shampoo, and this works great for him.

And, just in case you are wondering, I have absolutely no affiliation with this company, nor have they ever sent me any free products or money. I simply like to spread the word about good companies with great products.

Thursday, November 18, 2010

What do you do with your reusable bags?

I can't believe I actually purchased cheaply made reusable bags years ago. Now you can find them all kinds of places for free. I have quite the stash. Above are the cheap, washable bags I use for groceries.

 Above are a few of my favorite, better bags that I use for stuff other than groceries. The beige ones are heavy canvas and can hold heavier things. The canvas one with the cross was made by one of the kids in Sunday School or something. The light green one folds into a flat square that makes it convenient to store and carry.

The bags above and below have special meaning. The one above was the very first reusable bag I ever acquired. I bought it from a lady at a farmer's market who handmakes them. It's very large and of course, I love the chicken she stitched on it. It has seen a lot of use!

The bag below came from Cracker Barrel.  It's not where it came from, but the memories it evokes that make it special. Just before I moved last July, a dear friend of mine took me to Cracker Barrel to eat one day - a sort of farewell dinner. We talked a lot that day - about the past and the future. She and I both love the little Cracker Barrel store, and that day we bought these great bags. They are humongous, sturdy, and pretty enough to carry whatever we might be taking to a relative's house for Thanksgiving dinner. I always think of my wonderful friend whenever I use this bag. Love you, Candice!


And last but not least, these bags below are smaller than most. One day I want to be able to make or buy some mesh bags for produce, etc. but until then I have been using these. They are also good for carrying snacks or lunches on car trips.


So here's my question for my readers... what other things can you do with your reusable bags? I have taken them to the library and grocery store but it seems like we should be able to do so much more. Any ideas?

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

A door is a door

The generosity of my friends Ronnie and Nancy is unparalleled. They allowed myself, my boys and my niece to move in with them when we lost our house. But one of the things I miss about having my own house is being able to decorate. So I hung my wreath, not on the front door, but on my on my bedroom door. It gives me a little more of a sense of identity.

Monday, November 15, 2010

Bake sale cake

 
There was a lot of baking going on Friday. Mitchell, my friend Nancy's son, was doing a fundraiser bake sale Saturday morning with his Sunday School class. Nancy made brownies and muffins, and I made a cake. In the photo above, I am creaming the butter and sugar. I used my favorite cake recipe from Wilton.
 
 I used organic eggs and milk, but that's as far as I got for the organic part. See my Amish apron I ordered from Amelia's Aprons a few years ago? It's really cute but unfortunately, over the years I managed to shrink it in the dryer. It's still my most comfortable apron, though.
 I sprinkled some fall colored leaf shapes and sprinkles over the top.

 

Sunday, November 14, 2010

No more tissues


We switched to cloth products instead of paper about two years ago. Above you can see our stash of cloth napkins. I have a set of matching ones for special meals but these are our stained, mismatched, every day napkins. I do one load of laundry each day about six days a week, so whatever napkins we used the day before just go into the next wash load.



Above is our drawer of kitchen dishtowels and rags (for use around the kitchen) and we have a container in the cabinet full of old baby wash clothes that we use for wiping the hands and faces of little ones.

We also have a drawer in the bathroom full of rags that are strictly to be used to clean the bathroom or other not-so-sanitary areas. These are often bleached to make sure they are disinfected.

But recently I was going through the archives of one of my "newly favorite" blogs and found this post about using cloth. I have considered and thrown out the idea (at least for now) of using cloth for toilet paper and feminine hygiene products (I'm just not there yet - and maybe never). But one paper product I am now considering replacing are tissues. Tissues get so nasty with blowing noses and such I guess I just stayed away from using cloth. But I am considering switching. After all, how many decades did people use handkerchiefs? As long as they are washed in hot water the germs should not be a problem. So I think one of my new goals (once I find a job) will be to start checking yard sales and thrift stores for pretty, vintage handkerchiefs to replace all the disposable tissues in the home. One step at a time... and I think I'm ready for this step.

Saturday, November 13, 2010

Friday, November 12, 2010

Disaster looms... and I am nervous



In the past year we have heard a lot about the possibility of an upcoming economic collapse. With an unemployment rate around 15% where I now live, I believe we are already seeing this on a small scale... but we are talking about the possibility of something BIG.

For the past year I have been doing research and more research on how to survive a disaster, be it economic, natural or whatever. A big part of homesteading is becoming self-sufficient, and I believe it is that self-sufficiency that will allow some people to survive a collapse. During the 2009 year I had been slowly but surely trying to collect things I knew my family would need. A year's worth of food and water for the entire family, emergency supplies, etc.

When I moved we had to get rid of about 75% of our belongings - including whatever was left of our food storage that we had not already gone through during our hard times. So not only do I not have food, water and emergency supplies for a disaster.... I don't even have a home. And because it's been eight months since our own little "disaster" struck our family, I have barely a dime to my name and have been unable to find a job.

I've had a lot emotions running through me this year, but there was one I wasn't able to put a finger on. I do know that for a while I had to stop watching the news or reading newspapers or current event Web sites. And I just now realized why.... I am nervous. My family is unprepared and I am uneasy and anxious - not just about our current status, which is bad enough - but about being unprepared for the future.

While I do believe God will take care of us, I also believe we have to be good stewards and be prepared for what may come. And we are not prepared. Right now I suppose food storage should be the least of my worries... but I am a little nervous.

Thursday, November 11, 2010

The road between the states


This is one of the highways close to where we now live. This road goes over the border between the Carolinas. It's a pretty drive.


The architecture of this church (on that same road) caught my eye. I love old churches with interesting architecture.

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