Hilarious Book!

If you are a knitter, you have to read this book! It's called Knitting Rules! The Yarn Harlot Unravels the Mysteries of Swatching, Stashing, Ribbing & Rolling to Free Your.....(the library put their sticker over the rest of this text!). It's by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, a/k/a The Yarn Harlot.

I've laughed out loud so many times. She has some other books too. One is called At Knit's End, Meditations for Women who Knit Too Much. I read parts of it at Barnes & Noble, very funny too.

I am slowly learning to knit. Still struggling with each stitch at times, other times things feel like it's going smoother. I still have a long way to go. You can visit my knitting blog if you want to see what I've made so far.

To Love, Honor, and Vaccuum

I decided to make To Love, Honor, and Vacuum (when you feel more like a maid than a wife and mother) by Sheila Wray Gregoire my August selection for the Non-Fiction Five Challenge. I don't read very many Christian living/parenting/homeschooling books anymore. It seems like once you've read a bunch there is "nothing new under the sun" anymore to read about these subjects (there are exceptions of course!) I wouldn't say this book is a huge exception to that, but there were a few different perspectives on the subject of housecleaning/marriage/parenting that I gleaned from the book. I guess they didn't make too big of an impression on me though because I can't really recall much about the book! ROFL (I finished it over a week ago.) But I will just share this quote:

Speaking of "the good old days" such as the 1950's:

"Obviously we cannot return to that time. But it is useful to look at what was good about it, and how things have changed both positively and negatively. As we launch into our investigation of the problems of women's work today, let's remember some of these lessons. one of the reasons you're feeling stressed is because things are more difficult than they were when our mothers were young! It's not that your mother and grandmother did a better job than you do, but that they did a different job. Women in earlier generations weren't perfect. They just had different things to cope with, and had more community resources to help them along the way. When we realize this, we can move on to practical solutions that will help us in our lives today."

Shameless Plug!

I started another blog, because I'm learning to knit! It's called N-E-W-Knitter. I also updated my sewing blog. Go have a look!

N-E-W-Knitter

Eileen's Sewing Journal

Harry Potter....so far

I posted this to the Sonlight forums and thought I'd do the same here.....

I'm almost through the first half of the first Harry Potter book. So far I'm not all that impressed! I was hoping to love this book and feel better about my misgivings about "should a Christian read these books?" If there wasn't such a hubbub (sp?) about these books, if I had never heard of the book and all the hoopla before I started reading it, I probably would have shelved the book by now.

I'm still wondering about all the witches, spells, robes, potions, magic, etc. in the book. I was led to believe this wasn't as big a part of the book as the naysayers think, that the book is more about character development and all those things. But so far I think the book is quite filled with all the "magic" stuff! I'm just not sure about this yet. I will finish the book and decide after that.

Please understand I'm not accusing or anything regarding the controversial aspect of the book. I'm seriously trying to understand how this is acceptable as a Christian. I'm still not sure!

Also, I am one chapter past where they got to the school and were sorted into houses. Will it pick up more from here? If you're a Harry Potter lover, did the book grab you from the beginning or did it take awhile to get "hooked"?

Confessions of a Slacker Mom

LOVED this book. The author is Muffy Mead-Ferro. I agreed with just about everything she said, and laughed out loud while reading the chapter about scrapbooking. I DONT'HAVE TO SCRAPBOOK!!! Wahoo! My kids aren't going to be scarred for life if I don't document their lives in a scrapbook. I'm lucky if I get the pictures off my computer, print them and throw them all in a box, much less do fancy scrapbook pages. I think scrapbooking is great, hats off to you if you do it, but I'm just glad I don't have to!

As much as I agreed with most of the book, I totally disagreed with her chapter entitled "Now all you need is a village". (She is a career woman, I am a SAHM and make no apologies for feeling that moms should stay home with their kids.) I won't get into a debate about it or discuss the chapter beyond that. I certainly respect others choices and ask that they respect mine (which I believe the author does but we still have opposing viewpoints on what is best).

I also have Confessions of a Slacker Wife checked out, wonder if I'll like that one too. I have my own (non-feminist LOL) opinions on that, so we'll see.

Library

Last weekend I was reading The Secret of Us by Roxanne Henke, got halfway through and just couldn't finish it. I loved her Brewster series (with the exception of Finding Ruth) but this one just didn't grab me. I tried for an entire half of the book! Oh well. After that I tried EIGHT more books and couldn't get into any of them! I am now 5 chapters into Burning Bright by Tracy Chevalier (remember I really enjoyed Girl With a Pearl Earring, much to my surprise) and this one is pretty good so far too. But don't be surprised if I don't finish! I just don't know if it's the books, or if it's me, that I can't get into any books. I think it's the books but not sure. Well anyway.........

.......I went to the library last night, took back those 8 books and got a bunch more. These are the books I checked out:

-A Woman's Place by Lynn Austin (for my book club)

-To Love, Honor, and Vacuum by Sheila Wray Gregoire (funny title!)

-Firebird by Kathy Tyers (sci-fi, not usually my thing but it was recommended)

-Spirit and Flesh: life in a Fundamentalist Baptist church by James M. Ault, Jr.(I may use this as my substitute Non-Fiction Five Challenge book for August

-The Frazzled Mother's Guide to Inner Peace by Pat Baker

-The Tree of Red Stars by Tessa Bridal (recommended by BeckyB)

-Death Comes as Epiphany by Sharan Newman

-Confessions of a Slacker Mom by Muffy Mead-Ferro

-Confessions of a Slacker Wife by Muffy Mead-Ferro

-Kids Knit!: simple steps to nifty projects (I am going to learn to knit! I decided to get a kids book to make it easier LOL)

AND....yes I am finally going to see what the craze is all about....as a Christian I wasn't sure how I felt about these books, and they didn't really interest me that much anyway...but after reading various comments about the latest book including thoughts by Mommy Brain....I decided to give it a try (ready whenever you are BookBelle!)....

-Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling

I'll post again after I read or don't read all these books and let you know how many I actually read all the way through. One never knows..........LOL

JULY READS

My slowest reading month all year....

FICTION

-A Girl's Best Friend by Kristin Billerbeck, 4 **
-Renovating Becky Miller by Sharon Hinck, 3.5

NON-FICTION

-Candyfreak by Steve Almond, 3.5
-How to Help a Grieving Friend by Stephanie Grace Whitson, 4

**Favorite book of the month

(Ratings on a scale of 1-5)