Taking On

In years past, I have given up something for Lent -- usually a type of food. Honestly, though, it never felt like anything other than a competition with myself to see if I could actually do it. So, this Ash Wednesday, I am going to try to take something "on" instead of giving something "up". I am going to take on teaching myself that I can't please everybody. I am going to take on convincing myself that I am not the only source of another person's happiness. And I am working on letting go of the guilt that accrues when you believe that you have to do both of those all the time but feel that you fail miserably. Because somewhere in there, I lost myself. So I am taking on me. Selfish? Maybe. But I am figuring out that in order to be the Child of God, woman, wife, mother, daughter and grandmother that I am meant to be, it's where I have to start.

2014 Reading List

Let's see how many I can read this year...

The Legacy
Fearless (non-fiction)
Royal Mistress
Temple of a Thousand Faces 
Stealing Athena 
The Island House 
The Silent Land 
A Step in the Dark 
Requiem 
The Facts of Life 
Grace
The Birthing House 
Shadow on the Crown 
Dark Sister

I haven't blogged in a long time...should get back into it...but here are my answers for the Facebook "things you don't know about me" game:

 

1. I have written 9 full-length novels and 3 "novellas" (but have not attempted to get published and probably won't -- writing is my therapy.

2. My favorite genre of books to read (but not write) is historical fiction -- namely (and in order): the Middle Ages, Colonial/Revolutionary America, Italian Renaissance and the French Revolution.

3. My favorite historical person is Richard III.

3. I would rather watch a program/movie with zombies, ghosts, headless horsemen, the Winchester Brothers and various gore than anything which doesn't contain some form of those.

4. I love dogs (this you know) but if I could have any "unusual" pet, it would be an elephant. Or maybe a capybara. Or a giraffe.

5. I gave birth at ages 25, 27 and 32. The smaller gap between the first two are why there is a bigger one between the third. (Love you all dearly, by the way).

6. I once had a MRI that showed (from more than one aspect -- and Mark saw it) what appeared to be a tumor but it was not there at all when I had surgery. Miracle? I'll take it.

7. I went all the way to New Jersey for one Men Without Hats concert. Another time I went to Jacksonville (not quite as far).  Missed the last tour because I was awaiting the birth of a grandson. Sometimes you do have to draw the line.

8. I am right-handed but am more comfortable doing some things with my left-hand (I have the mouse on my left, for instance). Mark is also right-handed but two out of three of our children are lefties.

Ziva and Neville say...we love Boston...

Simple

Almost everyone who knows me, whether in "real" life or on Facebook (or elsewhere) knows how I lean politically. I don't rant and rave about it and never will -- I tune out when people start using insults and name-calling as a substitute for intelligence. I don't understand how so many people demand that their viewpoints be tolerated and respected while not bothering to extend the same to others. Many, many times I let my opinions fall to the wayside because it's not worth it to me to hurt another person's feelings over what is important to them, no matter how much I might disagree with it. But, for the record, in case you didn't know, I am a conservative, capitalist, constitution-loving Christian. Today, though, I just want to say one thing and this is it -- I believe that all people who love each other should be together -- and that includes being married. In a complicated world, this is just that simple to me.

2013 Reading List

Another year, another reading list...

The Very Thought of You
The House at Tyneford 
Year of Wonders

The Other Eden
The Owl Killers 
Surrender 
The King's Grace 
Three Maids For A Crown 
The Unseen
The Shadowy Horses 
The Innocent 
The Exiled 
The Uncrowned Queen 
Queen By Right 
The Turning of Anne Merrick 
Roaring Midnight 
Incarnation 
My Name is Mary Sutter 
The Crimson Petal and the White 
The Winter Sea 
The Lady's Slipper 
The Turncoat 
The Bungalow 
The Private Papers of Eastern Jewel 
Midnight on Julia Street 
The Sister Queens 
Twelve Extraordinary Women (non-fiction)
A Secret Kept 
The Flower Reader 
Time and Chance 
The Serpent and the Pearl

God Help Us

Disappointed this morning...but life goes on and God is in control...but I'm afraid the road to ruin just got a little shorter and narrower...my generation will be okay...the one after not so much...but who I really worry for is my grandson (and grandchildren yet to come). Our freedoms are being taken from us and replaced with constraints...and, eventually, people won't remember how it used to be...and, before long, saying the name of God or Jesus (but probably not Allah) will be banned entirely from any public discourse...we have become the entitlement generation(s)...why work if the government will pay you to sit on your ass? And, for the people who do work their asses off, why work harder if the government is just going to take more and more? I don't think most of this country even knew about the horror of Benghazi...four Americans died and we were lied to about it all...our military will become weaker and weaker...and our bed bigger because we have to make room for Iran to be in it with us...and Israel, oh, Israel...I am so, so sorry...