love to paint

I'm not even sure where to begin.  So much has happened in the last month and a half that I want to write about. So, I'll start here. We did move last weekend.  The closing on our new home was very hard and even before we closed we could see that problems with the house were likely ahead.  There were a few that we new about.  What we've found though is much more.  There are little and big problems. There are so many shows on television about rehabbing houses, fixing up your old house, decorating rooms, finding treasures that one thought was trash...  They make moving look fun, full of work, and doable.  I think they also romanticize and idealize it!  They make us think that different and new is better than what the present is. I had a lot of time to think about this the past two weeks. After our pre-closing inspection showed issues, we were a bit jittery.  Our closing did nothing to settle my nerves as the house's owner started...

When I told my husband about taking a break from blogging, he didn't give the enthusiastic cheer that I thought he would.  Instead he told me, "Well, we'll see how long that lasts.  You may need the outlet in the midst of everything else."  As often happens, he's right in this case.  I've had all these thoughts running around in my head this week, so I'm just going to put some of them down in this post. Pondering #1 Last week a missionary couple came to visit our church from France where they are serving.  We started talking about books and I recommended several of my favorite books to her.  At first, I didn't articulate why.  After the church service, I realized that it was because each of the books made a deep impression on me. These were the books: Love in the Driest Season by Neely Tucker This book made me realize how Americentric I've been in my world view and why it is important that the U.S. help countries in Africa and why we need ...

I will admit that I've read all 7 Harry Potter books.  Many people have different opinions on these about whether they want their children to read them.  After discussions with friends, I decided that I would let my children read one each year beginning when they turn 10 or 11.  Harry gets older in the books and the later books include material (how they address magic) and are often scary in ways that I feel aren't appropriate for young readers.  So, that's going to be my approach with these books and my kids. This week I read a book that made me recall my feelings about Harry Potter.  It reminded me of the books because my husband's reaction to it and what he was concerned about. The Future Door by Jason Lethcoe You see my husband has a habit of picking up the books I'm reviewing, flipping them open, and reading a few pages. After he read a snippet from this one, his first question was whether I was going to let our 8 year old daughter read it?  I said...