3s

333 Three Books I Have Loved (in the month of September) 333

1) The Book Thief -Markus Zusak
Holy schmoly, what a book! The fact that it is narrated by Death- yeah, you heard me, DEATH- has got to be intriguing enough. Beyond that, it is simply an awesome read. If you liked Peace Like a River and The Kite Runner... holy schmoly!

2) Eats, Shoots and Leaves - Lynne Truss
"A comma, a comma, my kingdom for a comma!"
Reading this book has been like a long road trip with a good friend- the two of you just talk (at l e n g t h) about whatever comes up. Semi-colons, apostrophes, exclamation points and ellipses. And have a barrel of laughs along the way.

Now now, in my defense, sometimes a girl just has to slap the "send" button- sans proofreading to make sure she closes her parentheses- so she can put out another, more pressing fire. (Doesn't that just kill you?
So don't expect my writing to automatically be editor-proof just because I read a book about punctuation. Keep your red pen in your pocket. When my naked child runs out the front door, it's just plain time to go.

3) The Peacemaker: A Biblical Guide to Resolving Personal Conflict -Ken Sande
Complete this sentence:
"They will know we are Christians by our..."

- Jesus t-shirts and bumper stickers.
- picketing of abortion clinics and political rallies.
- rocking praise and worship bands.
- Bible verse memorization skills.
- gold cross around our necks.
- well-behaved and intelligent homeschool brood.
- love.

They will know we are Christians by our l-o-v-e. Who is it that I'm not loving? With whom am I not actively making peace? Mr. Sande's words echo the apostle Paul's, "If I speak with the voice of men and angels (and hip postmodern evangelese), but have not love, I am a clanging gong."

This month our homeschool lesson plans have nearly bottomed out because we have had so many *ahem* occassions for peacemaking within our own house. I've really wrestled with the question, "Will they know we are Christians because we can rattle off the anatomy of a dog and the breeding standards for Siamese cats? Or will it be because we can love our sisters and handle our conflicts in a Biblical and honoring manner?" My homeschool planner says to teach the kids the anatomy of a dog this week. The circumstances in this household scream that dogs and their canine parts can wait.
Curse you, fallen flesh! You're screwing with my nice little homeschool plan! (Ok, I'm normal.)


333 Three Things You Just Gotta Try 333

1) iPod
It is this music lover's duh-reeeeeem! Steve gave me one for my b-day last year and I just rolled my eyes. He's always getting me some techno-gadget that he is totally convinced is going to simplify my life. (Honey, if I have to sit and read the manual for 2 weeks to know how to make the special chicken-scratch marks so the Palm Pilot can READ my grocery list... it ain't happenin'.)
My iPod is a completely different story. I love that little thing. Almost to death. It used to be that the Bible, a journal and a pen were the "must haves" for some time alone with God. My iPod (with the Bible, my favorite worship tunes, and sermons downloaded onto it) is the first thing I grab these days.

2) Bloglines
Bloglines allows me to surf all my favorite blogs in one, yes ONE, window.

"What?!" "How's that?!" you ask.

Well, let me tell you.

All you've got to do is register and copy and paste the URLs of your favorite blogs and voila! Bloglines will tell you when your blogging friends have posted new entires. No more clicking back and forth from your favorites menus. No more following threads from one comment to the next to see if there's anything new under the sun. Now, all the new stuff just shows up in bold letters. Ain't that convenient?! (I realize I am behind the times. But I'm hoping that just maybe one person out there is more behind the times than me and didn't know about this before reading it here.)


3) Netflix
Lan sakes! Git mah moovies raht in mah maylebocks!? We leeves kindah out in tha kuntry, so's it saves mey frum draggin' the kids all over cree-ayshun lookin' fer tha videah stur.

(Currently watching, Lost: Season 2. See? I told you I'm behind the times.)

333 Three Funny Pictures I Saved. 'Cause They're Funny. 333