Biggest Loser - end of week 2

Well, I am only down .5 pounds this week, which brings my weight to 202.5. I had a week where my weight fluctuated even though I was following my plan. Some of that was, I think, sodium. I am looking at some of the meals I make and eat while I am out and I suspect that I am retaining water more than I would have thought.

The other thing is just plain eating too much! South Beach is supposed to be all about eating healthy foods in a balanced way, but sometimes I find myself eating more just because. Becuase it tastes good, or I am bored, or I don't want to *waste* it. I am thinking about strategies to curtail it and all I can come up with is....self-control!!! Which is a fruit of the spirit. Which is an issue of prayer, and of sanctification, not of a program. Then again, a good program can help in developing good habits, which is part of self-control.

Romans 7
21 So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. 22 For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, 23 but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. 24 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.

So...I am thinking about whether counting calories, or carbs, or portions, or trying the Biggest Loser plan would help - or not!

Fine Art Friday

Here is a painting by an artist I had never heard of - William-Adolphe Bouguereau. I like his paintings; they are sweet but not sentimental and they are true-looking.

So, I went over to the Met site to see if they had any paintings by Bouguereau and they did. Here is one I remember seeing -

Thankful Thursday

Easy Fudge -
3 cups chocolate chips (I like to use half semi-sweet and half dark)
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1/2 tsp vanilla
pinch of salt
1/2 cup chopped nuts (optional)
Mix chips and milk in a microwave safe bowl. Microwave it for 30s, stir, 30s, stir, 30s, stir and it is done. Add the vanilla, salt and nuts. Spoon it all into a 8x8 pan lined with parchment paper. Refrigerate till firm - 4-5 hours, I guess!

Goya Foods - make my stew so delicious!

Swiffers - make dusting so easy!

Lysol Disinfecting Wipes - ditto!

(Yes, I am cooking and cleaning for company today!!

How to Look at Art

This essay over at Scriptorium has given me something to think about.

....the moment when you encounter a painting that grips you. For some reason it stands out from the crowd of images you’ve already seen and makes a powerful connection. You like it. It moves you. You’ve seen something new and interesting here. But after about 90 seconds, you have to admit that you don’t really know what to do next.

Yup, that's usually me! Here is the list of things to do -

1. Squint at it
2. Flip it over
3. Find the negative space
4. Define the moment
5. Re-Construct it
6. Let the artist guide your eyes
7. Say what you see
8. Use background knowledge
9. Read the label on the wall

Now I am hot to get to a museum and try a few out!

On Jane Austen

I read this post over at Tim Challies's site and I really laughed.

First - about Dave Harvey. I have heard him preach a few times and I am looking forward to reading his book!

Now - about Jane. I think that she is brilliant!

Persuasion is just about my best-loved book. I love how Captain Wentworth and Anne fall in love with each other all over again. Anne's sisters are delicious and I laugh every time I think of Louisa Musgrove and Captain Benwick falling in love over poetry! It has a great balance of romance, comedy and social commentary and I just love her use of language.

I am, of course, quite fond of Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility. Wonderful characters, especially the *villains*! I love to hate Fanny Dashwood and Lucy Steele, especially when they get together!! Mansfield Park is fine but just not as great as Jane's others, I think. Fanny is just too good! And I do not really care for Emma - not the book so much as Emma herself - ridiculous busybody! I have not yet read Northanger Abbey, as I would rather look forward to it than read it right now!

And - the filmed versions.

There is a very good version of Persuasion with Ciaran Hinds as Captain Wentworth. Emma Thompson's S&S was a lot of fun, especially with Alan Rickman as Colonel Brandon!!

The BBC P&P with Colin Firth is just wonderful. It is quite true to the book and I love watching it unfold slowly. The new movie with Keira Knightley is not bad. I appreciate the different look and feel, but it is just too short!

Emma with Gwyneth Paltrow was all right - I actually like it better than the book! The new Mansfield Park is nasty, not to mention totally wrong. Fanny is just NOT Fanny in that movie!

The Biggest Loser - end of Week 1

SO - I lost SEVEN pounds this week! Considering I put them all on very recently, it is not that surprising. But, I did stick to my plan this week and I feel way better than I have for several weeks. Calm and back on track - a good way to feel!

For my team, I kept track of all that I did this week. Here are a few stats -

• Average water over 7 days - 129 oz. per day
• Timed mile - 14m, 9s. I even ran in 4 short bursts and walked the rest as fast as I could, while listening to Squeeze on my new, cool phone/mp3 player. The idea is to do it again after 8 weeks and see if I can improve my time!
  
• Waist measurement - 41.5". Again, the idea is to measure again in 8 weeks and see...I do hope it is smaller then!

This weeks plan? More of the same! I may end up having pizza one night if we hit the beach this week, but I am not worried. I know that I am headed in the right direction again!

Weird

I got the Fine Art Friday post ready last night and saved it. Then I posted it this morning - but it is showing up having been posted last night. Bummer - I wanted it to be on Friday, not Thursday!

Techno-spaz, that's me!

What Paul Did

Acts 13-14

• 13:3 Paul and Barnabas sent by the church at Antioch
• 13:5 They proclaimed the Word of God
• 13:10 Paul rebuked a magician
• 13:16 Paul preached
• 14:1 They spoke
• 14:7 They continued to preach the Gospel
• 14:10 Paul (well, God!) healed a crippled man
• 14:21 More preaching

Acts 17

• 17:2 Paul preached
• 17:10 Went into the synagogue
• 17:17 Reasoned in the synagogue and marketplace
• 18:3 Paul worked as a tentmaker
• 18:4 Paul preached regularly

Basically, Paul preached, preached, preached! But then there is this -

Acts 19:11-12
And God was doing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul, so that even handkerchiefs or aprons that had touched his skin were carried away to the sick, and their diseases left them and the evil spirits came out of them.

So it seems.....that healing and preaching just go hand in hand. Next, I will look for more sharing and sending of money in the NT.

Fine Art Friday

This painting, of the Comtesse d'Haussonville, is just....breathtaking. The artist is Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres and I had never heard of him before I saw this painting at the Frick Collection. I just stood there for a while, captivated.

Here is another one by Ingres, which is in the Lehman Collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art -


I remember being so excited when I first saw this - I just knew that it was an Ingres, and I am not an art person who knows things like that!

About me

I have been thinking about this a lot - how to introduce myself and my life without giving my husband a heart attack! So, here is a random list of stuff about me and mine.

I have been married to J for 20 years. He is a wonderful husband and a great dad to our five children.

• JF and MW are our teens - beautiful girls who are actually fun to have around!

• Our son Jjr was born with a cancerous tumor on his spine; after years of surgeries and treatments, he died 7 years ago at the age of 5. It is a constant pain but God is merciful, as we are still sane and even happy with our lives.

• FH (a girl) and FB (a boy) are our littler ones. Not twins, but pretty close (8 and 7 right now) and a great joy to our lives!

We live in one of the five boroughs of NYC - vague enough?

I am a SAHM and I homeschool my children.

I was raised in a Christian home, for which I am always grateful.

We attend a small church which we found after a year of searching. We used to attend a larger non-denominational church.

I guess that is it!

Thankful Thursday

It is a lovely, sunny day.
South Beach diet bars - peanut butter flavor.
Asagio cheese.
The ESV Bible - I love how clear it is, like distilled water.
My daughters' friends - such a nice group of girls!

What Jesus - and Peter - did, continued

Mark 2

• 2:1 Preached
• 2:5 Forgave paralytic man
  
• 2:11 Healed paralytic man
• 2:13 Taught
• 2:14 Called Levi
• 2:15 Ate with tax collectors and sinners
• 2:17 Taught
• 2:19 Taught
• 2:25 Taught

Mark 3

• 3:5 Healed man with withered hand on the Sabbath
• 3:10 Mentions that he had been healing many
• 3:14 Appointed apostles
• 3:23 Taught
• 3:33 Taught

So. He taught and healed pretty evenly. Now Acts 2 -

• 2:4 Filled with the spirit
• 2:14 Peter preached
• 2:44 Believers had all things in common
• 2:45 "And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need" - wow! I never really noticed this one!

• 3:6 -7 "But Peter said, “I have no silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk!” And he took him by the right hand and raised him up, and immediately his feet and ankles were made strong."
• 3:12 Peter preached

• 4:8 Peter proclaimed gospel in court
• 4:19 Peter and John preach
• 4:24 Believers pray

A section here that I want to quote in full - Acts 4:32-37.

Now the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own, but they had everything in common. And with great power the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. There was not a needy person among them, for as many as were owners of lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold and laid it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need. Thus Joseph, who was also called by the apostles Barnabas (which means son of encouragement), a Levite, a native of Cyprus, sold a field that belonged to him and brought the money and laid it at the apostles' feet.

The section I highlighted is astonishing - all needs met by the body! And the next section in Ch. 5 is about Ananias and Sapphira, the ones who held some back for themselves and lied about it - yikes! Then a section that really speaks to what I have been thinking about - Acts 5:12-16-

Now many signs and wonders were regularly done among the people by the hands of the apostles. And they were all together in Solomon's Portico. None of the rest dared join them, but the people held them in high esteem. And more than ever believers were added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women, so that they even carried out the sick into the streets and laid them on cots and mats, that as Peter came by at least his shadow might fall on some of them. The people also gathered from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing the sick and those afflicted with unclean spirits, and they were all healed.

So - preaching, financial assistance, healing - all part of the NT church.

Next time I want to look at missionary trips - I am thinking that they did the same things as they spread the gospel.

Am I a Feminist?

The questions were pretty forced but it still same out about right.

You Are 59% Feminist

You aren't a total traditionalist when it comes to gender roles. But you're no feminist either. You generally think that women should be treated as equals, but you're not convinced the world should be gender neutral.

Are You a Feminist?

Found this over at the Badgermum's new blog. I was about to leave a comment when I got distracted by the quiz!

What Jesus Did

Last week, I was thinking about missionaries and I wondered

So - do missionaries preach first and help second, or is it the other way around?

And - what did Jesus do?

So - I made a list of everything Jesus did in Mark 1.

• 1:9 Was baptized
• 1:12 Went into the wilderness
• 1:14 Proclaimed the Gospel
• 1:16 Called disciples
• 1:21 Taught in the synagogue
• 1:25 Rebuked unclean spirit
• 1:31 Healed Peter's MIL
• 1:34 Healed many and cast out demons
• 1:35 Prayed in desolate place
• 1:39 Preached and cast out demons

He proclaimed, then taught, then healed, then taught and healed some more.

I want to go through more of Mark, and then take a look at Peter and Paul in Acts.

A Hymn for Sunday

And Can it Be - Charles Wesley/Thomas Campbell. You can hear the tune here -

And can it be that I should gain
An interest in the Savior’s blood?
Died He for me, who caused His pain—
For me, who Him to death pursued?
Amazing love! How can it be,
That Thou, my God, shouldst die for me?
Amazing love! How can it be,
That Thou, my God, shouldst die for me?

He left His Father’s throne above
So free, so infinite His grace—
Emptied Himself of all but love,
And bled for Adam’s helpless race:
’Tis mercy all, immense and free,
For O my God, it found out me!
’Tis mercy all, immense and free,
For O my God, it found out me!

Long my imprisoned spirit lay,
Fast bound in sin and nature’s night;
Thine eye diffused a quickening ray—
I woke, the dungeon flamed with light;
My chains fell off, my heart was free,
I rose, went forth, and followed Thee.
My chains fell off, my heart was free,
I rose, went forth, and followed Thee.

No condemnation now I dread;
Jesus, and all in Him, is mine;
Alive in Him, my living Head,
And clothed in righteousness divine,
Bold I approach th’eternal throne,
And claim the crown, through Christ my own.
Bold I approach th’eternal throne,
And claim the crown, through Christ my own.

The Chorus-

Amazing love! How can it be,
That Thou, my God, shouldst die for me?
Amazing love! How can it be,
That Thou, my God, shouldst die for me?

This has been my favorite hymn since - forever, I guess! I learned it and sang it in a choir when I was 11 or so and it has stayed at the top ever since. I love how it tells the Gospel so clearly and now, as an adult, It tickles me that Wesley, an Arminian, could write such a "Calvinistic" hymn (wink!).

Books for K-12

I read this and I must say that I like the list!

...my impression of what is “out there” is pretty much the same as hers. To my pre-existing impression that a great many of the most prestigious prizes in this field have for years been awarded only to books that pass ideological tests which practically no classical work could survive except on mere sufferance was added the finding that standard reading lists are heavily larded with them, and are missing many of the best, given that they cannot pass these tests (Hugh Lofting, anyone? Kipling? Frederick Douglass?) Or perhaps, given the current rabies of the library world--a world monumental conceit and stupidity--to discard old books, especially if nobody around here reads them any more, perhaps a number have simply been euthanized.

Here it is, and I am highlighting the ones that I (and usually some or all of the children) have read - not as many as I would have thought! But my oldest and I have read other books by some of the authors (Sayers, Forster, Hemingway) - just not the ones listed.

Aardema, Verna. Who's in Rabbit's House?

Aesop. Fables.
Atwater, Richard and Florence. Mr. Popper’s Penguins.
Bemelmans, Ludwig. Madeline.
Benchley, Nathaniel. Sam the Minuteman.
Blume, Judy. Freckle Juice.
Brown, Marcia. Stone Soup.
Brown, Margaret Wise. Goodnight Moon.
Brunhoff, Jean de. The Story of Babar.
Burton, Virginia Lee. Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel.
Carroll, Lewis. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.
Cleary, Beverly. The Mouse and the Motorcycle.
Collodi, Carlo. Adventures of Pinocchio.
Crews, Donald. Freight Train.
Daugherty, James. Andy and the Lion.
dePaola, Tomie. Strega Nona.
Flack, Marjorie. The Angus series.
Freeman, Don. Corduroy.
Fritz, Jean. The Cabin Faced West.
Gag, Wanda. Millions of Cats.
Galdone, Paul. The Three Little Pigs.
Goble, Paul. The Girl Who Loved Wild Horses.
Grahame, Kenneth. The Reluctant Dragon.
Gramatky, Hardie. Little Toot.
Hoban, Russell. Bedtime for Frances.
Johnson, Crockett. Harold and the Purple Crayon.
Keats, Ezra Jack. The Snowy Day
Kraus, Robert. Leo the Late Bloomer.
Krauss, Ruth. The Carrot Seed.
Leaf, Munro. The Story of Ferdinand.
Lear, Edward. A Book of Nonsense.
Levinson, Riki. Watch the Stars Come Out.
Lionni, Leo. Frederick.
Lobel, Arnold. Frog and Toad Are Friends.
Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth. Paul Revere's Ride.
Lopshire, Robert. Put Me in the Zoo.
Marshall, James. George and Martha.
McCloskey, Robert. Make Way for Ducklings.
McDermott, Gerald. Anansi the Spider.
Milne, A.A. Winnie-the-Pooh.
Parish, Peggy. Amelia Bedelia.
Piper, Watty. The Little Engine That Could.
Potter, Beatrix. The Tale of Peter Rabbit.
Rey, H.A. Curious George.
Selden, George. The Cricket in Times Square.
Sendak, Maurice. Where the Wild Things Are.
Seuss, Dr. The Cat in the Hat.
Slobodkina, Esphyr. Caps for Sale.
Steig, William. Sylvester and the Magic Pebble.
Stevenson, Robert Louis. A Child’s Garden of Verses
Taylor, Sydney. All-of-a-Kind Family.
Thurber, James. Many Moons.
Udry, Janice May. A Tree is Nice.
Van Allsburg, Chris. The Garden of Abdul Gasazi.
Viorst, Judith. Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day.
Ward, Lynd. The Biggest Bear.
White, E.B. Charlotte’s Web.
Yashima, Taro. Crow Boy.
Zion, Gene. Harry the Dirty Dog.
Zolotow, Charlotte. William’s Doll.

Alexander, Lloyd. Chronicles of Prydain.
Andersen, Hans Christian. Fairy Tales.
Babbitt, Natalie. Tuck Everlasting.
Baum, L. Frank. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.
Boston, L.M. The Children of Green Knowe.
Brink, Carol Ryrie. Caddie Woodlawn.
Brooks, Gwendolyn. Bronzeville Boys and Girls.
Burnett, Frances Hodgson. The Secret Garden.
Byars, Betsy. The Summer of the Swans.
Cooper, Susan. The Dark is Rising Sequence.
Dodge, Mary Mapes. Hans Brinker, or the Silver Skates.
Eager, Edward. Half Magic.
Edmonds, Walter D. The Matchlock Gun.
Enright, Elizabeth. Thimble Summer.
Estes, Eleanor. The Moffats.
Farley, Walter. The Black Stallion.
Field, Rachel. Hitty: Her First Hundred Years.
Fitzhugh, Louise. Harriet the Spy.
George, Jean Craighead. My Side of the Mountain.
Grahame, Kenneth. The Wind in the Willows.
Grimm, Jacob and Wilhelm. The Complete Grimm’s Fairy Tales (Hänsel and Gretel, Rapunzel, etc.).
Hamilton, Virginia. The House of Dies Drear.
Henry, Marguerite. Misty of Chincoteague.
Howe, Deborah. Bunnicula.
Hughes, Langston. The Dream Keeper and Other Poems.
Irving, Washington. Rip Van Winkle.
Juster, Norton. The Phantom Tollbooth.
Kipling, Rudyard. The Jungle Book.
Knight, Eric. Lassie Come Home.
Konigsburg, E.L. From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler.
Lamb, Charles and Mary. Tales from Shakespeare.
Lawson, Robert. Ben and Me.
Lenski, Lois. Strawberry Girl.
Lester, Julius. To Be a Slave.
Lewis, C.S. The Complete Chronicles of Narnia.
Lindgren, Astrid. Pippi Longstocking.
Lofting, Hugh. Doctor Dolittle.
Lovelace, Maud Hart. Betsy-Tacy.
Macaulay, David. Castle.
MacLachlan, Patricia. Sarah Plain and Tall.
McCloskey, Robert. Homer Price.
Merrill, Jean. The Pushcart War.
Montgomery, L.M. Anne of Green Gables.
Nesbit, E. The Railway Children.
North, Sterling. Rascal.
Norton, Mary. The Borrowers.
O’Brien, Robert C. Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nimh.
Paterson, Katherine. Bridge to Terabithia.
Pearce, Philippa. Tom’s Midnight Garden.
Perrault, Charles. The Complete Fairy Tales (Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, etc.).
Sawyer, Ruth. Roller Skates.
Sewell, Anna. Black Beauty.
Sharp, Margery. The Rescuers.
Spyri, Johanna. Heidi.
Travers, P. L. Mary Poppins.
Wilder, Laura Ingalls. Little House on the Prairie.
Wyss, Johann David. Swiss Family Robinson.

Alcott, Louisa May. Little Women.
Bagnold, Enid. National Velvet.
Bradbury, Ray. Fahrenheit 451.
Bunyan, John. The Pilgrim’s Progress.
Christopher, John. The White Mountains.
Cooper, James Fenimore. The Last of the Mohicans.
Defoe, Daniel. Robinson Crusoe.
Dickens, Charles. A Christmas Carol.
Douglass, Frederick. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass.
Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.
Dumas, Alexandre. The Count of Monte Cristo.
Eckert, Allan W. Incident At Hawk’s Hill.
Engdahl, Sylvia Louise. Enchantress From the Stars.
Forbes, Esther. Johnny Tremain.
Forester, C.S. The Horatio Hornblower Series.
Frank, Anne. Diary of a Young Girl.
Frost, Robert. Poems.
George, Jean Craighead. Julie of the Wolves.
Hautzig, Esther. The Endless Steppe.
Hilton, James. Goodbye, Mr. Chips.
Hinton, S.E. The Outsiders.
Hugo, Victor. The Hunchback of Notre Dame.
Hunt, Irene. Across Five Aprils.
Hunter, Mollie. A Stranger Came Ashore.
Irving, Washington. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.
Keith, Harold. Rifles for Watie.
Keller, Helen. Story of My Life.
Kipling, Rudyard. Kim.
LeGuin, Ursula K. A Wizard of Earthsea.
L’Engle, Madeleine. A Wrinkle in Time.
London, Jack. Call of the Wild.
Malory, Sir Thomas. Le Morte d’Arthur.
Mazer, Harry. The Last Mission.
McCaffrey, Anne. Dragonsong.
O’Dell, Scott. Island of the Blue Dolphins.
O’Hara, Mary. My Friend Flicka.
Paterson, Katherine. Jacob Have I Loved.
Peck, Richard. The Ghost Belonged To Me.
Peck, Robert Newton. A Day No Pigs Would Die.
Pyle, Howard. The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood.
Rawlings, Marjorie Kinnan. The Yearling.
Rawls, Wilson. Where the Red Fern Grows.
Reiss, Johanna. The Upstairs Room.
Saint-Exupéry, Antoine de. The Little Prince.
Schaefer, Jack. Shane.
Scott, Sir Walter. Ivanhoe.
Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein.
Smith, Betty. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.
Speare, Elizabeth George. The Witch of Blackbird Pond.
Sperry, Armstrong. Call It Courage.
Steinbeck, John. The Red Pony.
Stevenson, Robert Louis. Treasure Island.
Taylor, Mildred D. Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry.
Tolkien, J.R.R. The Hobbit.
Twain, Mark. Adventures of Tom Sawyer.
Uchida, Yoshiko. Journey to Topaz.
Verne, Jules. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.
Webster, Jean. Daddy-Long-Legs.
Wells, H.G. War of the Worlds.
Wilder, Thornton. The Bridge of San Luis Rey.
Yep, Laurence. Dragonwings.
Zindel, Paul. The Pigman.

Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart.
Agee, James. A Death in the Family.
Angelou, Maya. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.
Anonymous. Beowulf.
Austen, Jane. Pride and Prejudice.
Baldwin, James. Go Tell It on the Mountain.
The Bible.
Bolt, Robert. A Man for All Seasons.
Brontë, Charlotte. Jane Eyre.
Brontë, Emily. Wuthering Heights.
Buck, Pearl. The Good Earth.
Camus, Albert. The Stranger.
Cather, Willa. My Ántonia.
Cervantes, Miguel de. Don Quixote.
Chaucer, Geoffrey. The Canterbury Tales.
Chekhov, Anton. The Cherry Orchard.
Collins, Wilkie. The Moonstone.
Conrad, Joseph. Lord Jim.
Cormier, Robert. The Chocolate War.
Crane, Stephen. The Red Badge of Courage.
Dante. The Divine Comedy.
Defoe, Daniel. Moll Flanders.
Dickens, Charles. Great Expectations.
Dickinson, Emily. Poems.
Dostoevsky, Fyodor. Crime and Punishment.
Dreiser, Theodore. An American Tragedy.
Eliot, George. Silas Marner.
Eliot, T.S. Murder in the Cathedral.
Ellison, Ralph. Invisible Man.
Emerson, Ralph Waldo. Essays.
Faulkner, William. The Sound and the Fury.
Fielding, Henry. Tom Jones.
Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby.
Flaubert, Gustave. Madame Bovary.
Forster, E.M. A Passage to India.
Franklin, Benjamin. The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin.
Galsworthy, John. The Forsyte Saga.
Golding, William. Lord of the Flies.
Graves, Robert. I, Claudius.
Greene, Graham. The Power and the Glory.
Hardy, Thomas. Tess of the D'Urbervilles.
Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Scarlet Letter.
Hemingway, Ernest. For Whom the Bell Tolls.
Henry, O. Stories ("The Gift of the Magi," "The Ransom of Red Chief," etc.).
Hesse, Hermann. Steppenwolf.
Homer. The Iliad.
---. The Odyssey.
Hughes, Langston. Poems.
Hugo, Victor. Les Misérables.
Hurston, Zora Neale. Their Eyes Were Watching God.
Huxley, Aldous. Brave New World.
Ibsen, Henrik. A Doll's House.
James, Henry. The Turn of the Screw.
Joyce, James. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.
Kafka, Franz. The Trial.
Keats, John. Poems.
Kennedy, John F. Profiles in Courage.
Koestler, Arthur. Darkness at Noon.
Lawrence, D.H. Sons and Lovers.
Lawrence, Jerome and Robert E. Lee. Inherit the Wind.
Lee, Harper. To Kill a Mockingbird.
Lewis, Sinclair. Babbitt.
Llewellyn, Richard. How Green Was My Valley.
Mann, Thomas. The Magic Mountain.
Marlowe, Christopher. Dr. Faustus.
Maugham, W. Somerset. Of Human Bondage.
McCullers, Carson. The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter.
Melville, Herman. Moby-Dick.
Miller, Arthur. The Crucible.
Monsarrat, Nicholas. The Cruel Sea.
O’Connor, Flannery. Wise Blood.
O'Neill, Eugene. Long Day's Journey into Night.
Orwell, George. 1984.
---. Animal Farm.
Pasternak, Boris. Doctor Zhivago.
Poe, Edgar Allan. Short stories.
Potok, Chaim. The Chosen.
Rand, Ayn. The Fountainhead.
Remarque, Erich Maria. All Quiet on the Western Front.
Rostand, Edmond. Cyrano de Bergerac.
Salinger, J.D. The Catcher in the Rye.
Sandburg, Carl. Abraham Lincoln.
Sayers, Dorothy L. The Nine Tailors.
Shakespeare, William. Hamlet.
---. King Lear.
---. Much Ado About Nothing.
---. Sonnets.
Shaw, George Bernard. Pygmalion.
Sheridan, Richard Brinsley. The School for Scandal.
Shute, Nevil. A Town Like Alice.
Sinclair, Upton. The Jungle.
Solzhenitsyn, Alexander. One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich.
Sophocles. Oedipus Rex.
Steinbeck, John. Of Mice and Men.
Stowe, Harriet Beecher. Uncle Tom's Cabin.
Swift, Jonathan. Gulliver's Travels.
Thackeray, William Makepeace. Vanity Fair.
Thoreau, Henry David. Walden.
Tolkien, J.R.R. The Lord of the Rings.
Tolstoy, Leo. Anna Karenina.
Trollope, Anthony. Barchester Towers.
Turgenev, Ivan. Fathers and Sons.
Twain, Mark. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
Updike, John. Rabbit, Run.
Valladares, Armando. Against All Hope.
Virgil. The Aeneid.
Voltaire. Candide.
Warren, Robert Penn. All the King's Men.
Waugh, Evelyn. A Handful of Dust.
Welty, Eudora. Collected Short Stories.
Wharton, Edith. The Age of Innocence.
White, T.H. The Once and Future King.
Wiesel, Elie. Night.
Wilde, Oscar. The Picture of Dorian Gray.
Wilder, Thornton. Our Town.
Williams, Tennessee. A Streetcar Named Desire.
Wolfe, Thomas. Look Homeward, Angel.
Woolf, Virginia. To the Lighthouse.
Wouk, Herman. The Caine Mutiny.
Wright, Richard. Native Son.

The Biggest Loser

Today I am starting another *game* with my friends on my favorite message board. I had lost 58 pounds but I put 13 back on in the past few weeks - bummer. Anyway, I am really hoping to lose those 13 pounds over the next 2 months!

My plan involves eating well (South Beach diet, phase 2, with an occasional special meal to keep me from feeling totally deprived AND to keep my body from getting too complacent), drinking lots of water (100-128 oz. per day) and regular exercise (a combination of strength training and cardio, 30-40m. per day, 5-6 days per week). It worked well till about 2 months ago when I started feeling sorry for myself over several things and I started to let myself go. So I am praying for self-control and focus - I am tired of being *FAT* and I want to get to at least just *fat*, if not *regular*.

Today's weigh-in - 210. UGGGHHH - I was down to 197 6 weeks ago!

Fine Art Friday

I had always liked this painting, but seeing it up close and personal for the first time a few years ago made a world of difference! I think that the Lehman Collection may be my favorite section of the Met and this may be my favorite painting in it.

Renoir's paintings are so - lush. Here is an online gallery of his work - so much beauty!

ETA: Gideon Strauss on Renoir.

Thinking about missionaries

In Things Fall Apart there are two missionaries - Mr. Brown and Reverend Smith. Brown and Smith - cute how Achebe gives them such stereotypical *white* names! Anyway, Mr. Brown is kind and understanding while Rev. Smith is harsh and contemptuous, but neither seem to be able - willing? - to make the Gospel clear.

Of course, these are fictional missionaries.

I have read a few biographies of missionaries - Isobel Kuhn, Patricia St. John, Amy Carmichael, Francis and Edith Schaeffer - and it seems that the Schaeffers had an easier time getting to the point, as it were, because they did not have to deal with the extreme poverty of the third world nations.

So - do missionaries preach first and help second, or is it the other way around?

And - what did Jesus do?

Some Missionary organizations

Samaritan's Purse -

Our work takes us throughout the world to extend the love of Jesus Christ to hurting people. For over 35 years, Samaritan's Purse has done our utmost to follow Christ's command by going to the aid of the world's poor, sick, and suffering. We are an effective means of reaching hurting people in countries around the world with food, medicine, and other assistance in the Name of Jesus Christ. This, in turn, earns us a hearing for the Gospel, the Good News of eternal life through Jesus Christ.

Covenant Mercies -

Covenant Mercies is eager to harness the abundant resources that God has provided to serve our brothers and sisters abroad, and to come alongside churches in areas plagued by famine, natural disasters, and various “third world conditions” as they seek to embody the love and mercy of Christ in their communities.

Africa Inland Mission -

Africa Inland Mission (AIM) is an evangelical Christian mission agency dedicated to the establishment of maturing churches among the peoples of Africa....We are engaged in a wide range of ministries including evangelism and church planting among Africa's unreached and least reached peoples, leadership development, youth ministry, medical ministry, community development and community health, aviation, and support service ministries.

Not so much an issue of aid vs. development here - a missionary focus is very different!

ETA: The focus - the Great Commission -

Matthew 28:18-20
And Jesus came and said to them, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.

Thankful Thursday

Google Image Search -

Monopoly - so much fun to play with my children!

Calculators - for adding up after we play!

Mild weather - it's only 77 degrees!!

Back to Africa

This article continues the ideas I found in the last one about Africa.

We can fight malaria by distributing free mosquito nets, which may cost $10-$60 each by the time you get them down often impassable dirt roads. Or, as Shikwati suggests, we can train locals how to operate a business spraying homes with an insecticide that will keep them mosquito-free for six months at about $2 a family.

We can spend billions importing medication, or you can invest in local farms that grow the Artemisinin, a Chinese herb with potent anti-malarial properties, and the factories that process it.

We can continue the endless cycle of need and dependency, or you can create jobs, develop indigenous capacity, and build a sustainable future.

Aid not only crowds out local entrepreneurship, it makes governments lazy and deprives countries of the incentive to build effective institutions. Public revenue derived from taxes makes governments directly responsible to their citizens. Free money builds white elephants and bloated bureaucracies, it being far easier to create new government jobs than implement policies to fight unemployment, especially when someone else is footing the bill.

The perverse result is that many of Africa's best and brightest become bureaucrats or NGO workers when they should be scientists or entrepreneurs. Which is why some are wondering: why not just take the aid money and invest in local business?

(I found the link to this article over at Pajamas Media.)

So, this has me thinking about missionary efforts in Africa and what kind of approach they are taking...I need to look up some missionary organizations!

ETA: Another article - an older one, I think.

God and mammon and government and me

So I was lying in bed this morning, thinking about this article I read recently about financial aid to Africa and how it is really not helping (followed a link from Instapundit).

And I was thinking about how the more money that is poured into corrupt countries just gives the bureaucracies more to steal from those it is meant to serve

And then I started thinking about how there is no way to change the hearts of those corrupt leaders without the power of the Holy Spirit bringing them to Christ.

Which led me to thinking about how the *liberal* response to human sufferering or need is to gather lots of money to solve the problem. Even when their solutions don't work, they invariably decide that they just need to spend even more money! Not just in Africa, but in the Public Schools and programs like Medicaid. And then I thought about how President Bush has been sending plenty of money to Africa and how it was just another example of how he is not as conservative as he said that he was.

And then this popped into my mind, King James and all!

No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. Matthew 6:24

And then I started wondering whether rejection of God (as I tend to think that many liberals are Atheists, or at least have a *small* concept of God and His power) leads to idolization of money and its power. I think that it does. BUT then I realized that I certainly do not hate money; as a matter of fact, I often wish that I had more! But does that mean that I love money and hate God? Or is there an inverse relationship between my love and dependence on each?

And now another verse has popped into my head - but not in the KJV!

You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye. Matthew 7:5

Again, I am reminded that I should spend less time dwelling on the sins (real or supposed) of nameless *liberals* and spend more time examining my own heart. Sigh.