Booking Through Thursdays - QUICK!

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"Quick–what are you reading right now? (Other than this question on
this website, of course.) Would you recommend it? What’s it about?"


Most currently would be Sweet Revenge by Diane Mott Davidson.  My favorite cozy mystery series, I'm catching up on the ones I had missed, and yes, I would definitely recommend them!  This is not my favorite in the series, but it's still a nice, cozy, read.

I'm also avidly reading A Year In The Life Of William Shakespeare in 1599.  So far I love this book - but it's an actual BOOK, not an ebook, so I don't have it with me as often, and it is not exactly light reading, so it will take me awhile.

The other books on this list?  I WILL finish Walden.  But with so many other fun things to read, I forget about this one.  And I've misplaced Retracing Our Roots and No Longer a Slumdog.  They are both on bookshelves around here somewhere, I cleaned thoroughly last month and I am sure I put them away...  I need to dig them off the shelves and finish them!

Summer Reading 2012

It's hard for me to define "Summer".  Technically it is June 21st (roughly) to September 21st (roughly).  For some it is from Memorial Day to Labor Day.  For others it is from the last day of school to the first day of the next school year.

For this summer, I am going to define "Summer" as the day after Memorial Day, to September 15th, because that is today, the first chance I've had to look over what I read this summer.  :-) 

my read shelf:
Heather Truckenmiller's book recommendations, liked quotes, book clubs, book trivia, book lists (read shelf)


Books I Read This Summer
(38 total)

My Favorites This Summer (4-5 Stars)
  1. Lady Bug Farm Series (3 books) by Donna Ball.   Perfect light summer reading!
  2. Born to Run - Nonfiction, and one of the best books I have read this year.  It's not dry at all, extremely interesting
  3. The Dirty Life  - by Kristen Kimball - definitely one of my best reads this summer.  (think Farm dirt, not shades of grey dirt..  And no, I did not read Shades of Grey this summer. )
  4. Only Time Will Tell -1st in the Clifton Chronicles series by Jeffery Archer
  5. I, Michael Bennet by Patterson.  My favorite Patterson series, but not my favorite book in this series.  It was really good though!
  6. The 7th Month by Lisa Gardner  - I'm really enjoying the DD warren series by Gardner
  7. Come & Find Me by Hallie Ephron
  8. Never Tell a Lie by Hallie Ephron - new to me author, but I enjoyed both these books enough to watch for more by her
  9. Whose Body by Dorothy Sayers  - my first time reading Sayers, and I will definitely downlod more by her!
  10. The Devil & Sherlock Holmes  - Short stories, some were better than others
  11. Amazing Grace In the Life Of William Wilberforce - great story!
  12. 11th Hour (Womens Murder Club #11) - love this series
  13. Under The Tuscan Sun by Frances Mayes
  14. Heather Wells series by Meg Cabot  (4 books) - my guilty pleasure read this summer.  Light, silly, but I enjoyed them
  15. The Mysterious Affair At Styles - Agatha Christie.  The First Poirot book - I eventually plan to read this entire series.  :-)
  16. Tigers in Red Weather - a book I thought I would not like a few chapters in, yet ended up really enjoying.  Not my normal read, and a lot that bothered me, but it was interesting and made me think, but not think to deeply.  A really good summer read.
  17. Tough Cookie by Dianne Mott Davidson  I read most of this series years ago, and just recently realized I haven't read the last few by her. Cozy mysteries, one of my favorites.  I'm really looking forward to catching up on the books I have missed!


Good Reads (3 stars)

  1. 2BRo2B by Vonnegut - My first sci fi read, and I really did enjoy this one.
  2. XO - Kathryn Dance series by Deaver, I prefer the Lincoln Rhyme series, but this was good.
  3. Blindside by Cathrine Coulter - I liked this enough to look by more from her.  I don't think she will be a favorite author, but I did enjoy this one.
  4. The Lucky One by Nicholas Sparks (Sparks is always a great summer read)
  5. Living In The Light Of Eternity - Yohannan (Christian Living)
  6. Snatched  - A novella.  I don't remember liking this quite as much as 3 stars...
  7. Never Look Away - would have been much better if it was much shorter.  Drug on too long.
  8. Stately Pursuits - Katie Fforde.  This is on the lower end of 3 stars for me..  it wasn't good enough for me to want to read anything else by her, but I think that's more of a genre thing for me.  I'm not a huge fan of love stories
  9. Bones Are Forever by Kathy Reichs.  I like this series (the series that the tv show Bones is based on) but they are kind of technical and dry in places. Still a good book.


Books I Did Not Enjoy (2 stars  or less)
  1. Come Home by Lisa Scottoline The second of her books that I got sucked into..  she has great plot lines, but her books are a lot of tedious, stiff, dialogue, making them not so great to read.
  2. Wild (Life On the Pacific Trail) - when will  I learn to never read anything Oprah recommends?
  3. Wicked Business - Book 2 in the Diesel series by Evanovich.  I normally love her (non romance series) books, but just didn't care for this one
  4. Snowhite & The Huntsman  - book written based on the movie. Bad idea
  5. Gone Girl  - one of the worst I read this summer
  6. Summerland - looked like an idea summer read, but it just wasn't good.
  7. Here's to Not Catching Our Hair On Fire - probably the worst book I will read all year.  Along with Oprahs suggestions, I also rarely like the free books through Amazon.. 



Top 10 Tuesday - Books That Made You Think

This weeks Top Ten Tuesday Theme is:
Books That Made You Think


A book about the beginnings of a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture - you buy a "share" of the farm or gardens produce for the year) and the difficulties of farming in general. 
Think: Buy Fresh, Buy Local. 
My Take Away: I'm so lazy - I could do so much more with our farm!  


Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen
2. Born To Run by Christopher McDougall
I've struggled so much with running over the years, yet it is something I really want to do well.  Just for a bit - just to prove to myself that I CAN.  This book was amazing - one of my favorite reads this year.  It's a story of the authors journey to run with a hidden tribe of super runners, but mixed in between the chapters of the story are chapters of in depth research (not boring facts) and stories of super athletes accomplishments.  
Think: We were born to run.
My Take Away: I want to try running with LESS supportive shoes  - maybe the toe shoes that have become so popular...  (the book talks about how Nike started - and it wasn't based on how to make people run better...)

The Greater Journey: Americans in Paris The House I Loved
I'm really glad I read these two back to back.

David McCullough is one of my all time favorite authors.  His books bring history to life, in great detail.  

Think: About History - Artists used to actually set up easels and copy the great works in museums in Paris.  

I read shortly after The Greater Journey, and although I may not have loved The House I Loved all that much on it's own, reading to the two back to back was awesome.  After being immersed in the old Paris in McCulloughs book, it made the story in The House I Loved so vivid and real - as Paris was being modernized, and homes were being torn down to widen streets.

Take Away: I want to go to Paris.  But preferably in a time machine.  :-)  More realistically, I want to try my hand at charcoal drawings. I don't expect to be really good at it - it's just something I want to try.


I try to read the bible in 90 days at least once a year.
Think: Reading the bible in this time frame gives me such a context of how everything fits together.  It really surprised me how, after reading the bible many times over the years, I had missed by reading it piecemeal.
Take Away: I can read this book 10 dozen times, and still learn something new, usually lists of something new, every single time.  It's amazing.

Reshaping It All: Motivation for Physical and Spiritual Fitness

The best diet book, ever.  Because it's not really about a diet.  It's about our choices.
I read this last year, and I know I need to reread it this year...
Think: We are who we choose to be.  One tiny choice at a time.
Take Away: I can lose this weight.  I can. It will not be easy.

One of my favorite books, of all time.
To describe it would take up too much space here - go to the goodreads page above.  It's basically about how one college kid volunteered for something he knew almost nothing about, mainly to make his actual goal sound more impressive to others,  and how it changed his life forever. It changed his life, because he changed others lives.   
Think: This life is so much more than our bubble
Take Away: When I grow up (inside joke) I want to be more like Mr Grennan.  In the meantime, I can do more, with my checkbook.
A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail

I almost didn't include Wild, I skipped over it when going down my list.  Because I didn't really like this book.  Bill Bryson wrote about a similar journey, hiking on the other side of the United States:

I loved Bryson's book.  Maybe I loved it because he didn't even finish the hike.  And he was so honest - it's BORING.  I love to hike, but the Appalachian trail is, for the most part, all about looking at one very narrow path at your feet.  There are some amazing views, but mostly, it's about looking at where you are going to step next.  He's honest, and funny, and at the end I wasn't inspired to tackle the Appalachian  Trail.  (I have hiked very small sections of it here in PA)

Strayed's book made me shake my head the entire way through.  I raised two eagle scouts, with a 3rd working on his Eagle project this summer. That made reading  her exploits with too heavy backpacks, the wrong footwear, and hiking alone as a woman...  painful.  But it did make me think. In the end I did appreciate that with all the ways she could have handled her messed up life, she chose to go hike for weeks on end.  She knew she was a mess, and she took steps, literally, to make a change.  That is awesome.  Even if she was an idiot, she recognized that she was an idiot, which I guess, makes her a lot less of an idiot than I often am...

Think: Nature is good for us.
Take Away: I should hike more.  But not on the Appalachian trail  :-)  I should definitely hike the Ricketts Glen trail more often...

Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything
This book is similar to #2, Born to Run.  Different themes completely, but the same journey, and same style.  In Born to Run, McDougal is struggling with his running and ends up running with an unknown tribe of superathletes in a once in a life time race.  In Moonwalking With Einstein Foer starts out a normal guy with a poor memory, and ends up competing in the World Memory Championships.  Both books weave old stories and facts into the story of their journey.  I would love to fill my bookshelves with books just like these two.  They make you think, without making the thinking tedious.

Think: All of our electronics have cheated us out of learning old, valuable, skills for making our brains work.
Take Away: Find more books like these!

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An Index Of My Bookish Posts & Lists
https://fieldsofhether.blogspot.com/p/reading.html

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Baking Eggs for breakfast sandwiches

I saw this online somewhere..  probably on Pinterest.  Today while I had the oven on, baking up a storm for Coffee Connection & Youth Group snack, I decided to try it.  It makes a thicker egg than I think is ideal for breakfast sandwiches, but it works really well!  It might fit a biscuit better than the bagels and bagel thins I used...

The eggs on the right are just cracked into the muffin pan, the ones on the left I scrambled - I like scrambled eggs on my breakfast sandwiches.



What is BSF? (Bible Study Fellowship)



Overview:

BSF is an abbreviation for Bible Study Fellowship.

BSF is a worldwide International Bible Study Class, held once a week September through May.   New members can join the first week of the month, when introductory classes are held.

BSF uses a 4 fold approach to learning:

Each week we arrive, children are taken to their classes (there are classes for preschool children, and the children must be enrolled before they can attend) and the adults gather in the sanctuary.  We sing a song or two, hear some announcements, and are dismissed to our small groups.

Each year you will be assigned to a new small group.  Your leader will be trained, and will attend a meeting the night before to go over what we are discussing that day.  The small group discussion will be on topic, no denominations can be mentioned, and they ask that we discuss only our study, no additional books or resources, but only the bible.  The questions we discuss are from the homework the week before.  After covering all of the questions, prayer requests are shared.  

From there we are dismissed back to the sanctuary, where we will sing another song, then hear a lecture on the study.  Bring a notebook for taking notes!

At the end of the lecture, we pick up our homework for the next week.  It will be several pages, and will include notes to read, then a bible passage to read and questions to answer from that passage for each day leading up to the next weeks study.  

Homework takes approximately 20 minutes a day - sometimes more, sometimes less, depending on how fast you read, and how challenging the questions are for you personally that week.  Every week someone will be completely stumped by some of the questions - don't worry, it happens to ALL of us.  :-)    

This is the link to my post right after I started BSF.  Two years later, I am still so impressed with the BSF format!http://fieldsofhether.blogspot.com/2010/10/bsf-bible-study-fellowship.html

What We Are Studying:

This year is Genesis.  

The studies in order are:
Genesis
Matthew
The Life of Moses
Revelation
Romans
History of Israel and the Minor Prophets
John
Isaiah
Acts of the Apostles


Where It Is Held:

 "In all, there are over 1,000 BSF classes with 200,000 class members in 38 nations across six continents! Over 800 of the classes are held in the U.S. "

Our local class is held at Community Baptist Church in Montoursville, Pa

Directions:

Community Baptist is approximately 2 miles north of Interstate 180 on Route 87 in Montoursville. We are located in the beautiful valley of the Loyalsock Creek. 

ADDRESS:
1853 State Route 87
Mountoursville, PA 17754

The class I attend is on wednesday mornings from 9-11am.
  New members can join the first week of each month, when introductory classes are held.  

To find what classes are available:

What You Should Bring:
A bible
A pen
Paper to write on

This is the notebook I made the first year:

It was overkill.  :-)  Last year I used a smaller binder..  this year I'm planning to use a 3 subject notebook - the kind with folder dividers, using the folders for prayer requests, and this weeks notes.  The previous weeks notes I will store in the filing cabinet here at home, rather than dragging them all back and forth each week.



Covers UP ceiling paint


This stuff is awesome! Dan still wont let me take the dropped ceiling out of the kitchen, and a magic eraser wasn't enough to clean up the metal tracks the tiles sit on. They had yellowed. This stuff made the ceiling look almost new, and SO much cleaner! It covered the water spots in the hall ceiling too. $7 a can, its not cheap, but it was worth it. It sprays straight up, it is meant for ceilings.

(my FB post last week)

A week later, I can see it is a bit splotchy around my stove, where the ceiling was a bit blackened from a cooking error awhile back..  I think a second coat might fix the splotchiness, but even if not, it looks SO much better as is!

Table Before & After

I need a smaller table in my kitchen.  We eat all of our meals in the dining room, so a full size table just isn't needed.  Plus, the table in my kitchen was Dan's great great Aunts, and I don't want it getting too banged up..  I'd rather put it away in the attic safely, and save it for when the kids are grown and one of them needs a nice table.

So I found this one at the Amish Sale.  It wasn't as cheap as my past deals, but it was a good price.
The chairs that came with it I did not like, so I bought the chairs on the right as well - also at the sale.

Cranberry spray paint, coated with black paint that I wiped off with a dry cloth, and antique walnut stain on the top (after sanding it lightly).  The chairs got a coat of the stain too.


Corn In the Kettle - Take Two

We did a second "Corn Day" here at the farm.  It went so fast - we were done by 11am!

We had a large crew - a lot more kids were helping this time around.  Many hands make light work!

Addie was happy to "help" some more too!

The Cutting Station


Luke removing the corn from the kettle

from the kettle, into coolers of cold water
 
Mainly spectators, they came to watch, then hung around to chat for a bit.  :-)

Coffee Mugs I loved -

Found these in the Shady Maple Gift Shop -

Front - A Happy Home is is made with Love
Back - and Caffeine, Lots and lots and lots of Caffeine

Front - God First
Back - Coffee Second


I was not impressed with the restaurant, but the gift shop here (which is the entire downstairs and roughly the size of our mall here at home!) was a lot of fun to browse.


Sidewalk / Grass Edger

I LOVE this thing.  It's easy to use, and cleans the sidewalks up so nicely! 

This post keeps showing up as one of the most popular on my blog - and it's one of the least informative posts here.  I feel bad about that.  But I don't know what to tell you..  I think it came from QVC more than 20 years ago.

My mother in law gave this to us years before we moved to the farm.
We moved to the farm nearly 20 years ago.  
The edger still does a great job.


Amazon has a sidewalk edging tool - but it does not look like mine, and I have no idea how well it works.  It's pricey!  If I were going to spend more than $30 for this one, I think I'd be tempted to spend the extra and pay the $60 (it's on sale right now)  for the electric one..  but again, I have no idea how well  they work.








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