On the blog Mama: Monk by Micha Boyett, every Tuesday is
- that our phone is working again. We had no phone and spotty internet for 3 or 4 days last week. It turned out the main cause was a wire that had been chewed by a squirrel (or as a t-shirt I saw once put it, "one of Nature's speed bumps").
- that Allison is happily starting a new semester of high-school courses this week: French, Science, Music, and Healthy Active Living (what we used to call Phys.Ed. or Gym back in the day.)
- that our family's had a very healthy winter so far.
- for my groups:
*writer's group (we've been meeting for nearly 5 years, during which I've written a dozen short stories, 5 or 10 poems, and a 'tween' novel draft that's still in [sloooooow] progress)
*book club (just had our 17th-anniversary meeting - we discussed T.S. Eliot's "The Four Quartets")
*church women's group (I've attended now for 7+ years - this winter we're doing Beth Moore's Believing God. A bit outside my zone but it's always good to try new things, right?)
*New Wineskins (little home worship group that's been meeting monthly for 5+ years) .
It's great to talk about ideas, words, and God with other people.
So glad to see your link up for Thankful Tuesday today!
ReplyDeleteYours, too! As a Canadian I love snow! :-) (Cf my Jan 2 post http://prinsenhouse.blogspot.ca/2013/01/into-winter-world.html)
DeleteThanks for stopping by: it's always nice to have a new visitor.
Nice list of thanks, Jeannie. Here's one from me: I'm thankful to count you as one of my great interwebz friends!
ReplyDeleteTim
Thanks, Tim; I feel the same about you and my slowly-growing group of online friends. There are people who say it's not possible to find real community on the web; those people are what I like to call "wrong."
DeleteStill, when I read my thanks list above, I'm also very glad I have groups of non-web friends to share community with too. As far as I'm concerned, I have the best of both worlds.
"wrong"
DeleteSNORT!
Jeannie! So great to read your post today and discover your blog. I am SO jealous of your groups. A book club that's been meeting 17 years??? Oh, I can only dream about all the beautiful books you've read and talked about. I really need a book club. I was part of a writer's group in my church during the year we were in Austin and it was such a wonderful experience. I'm proud of you for taking on Beth Moore. I'm sure her capital 'T' Texan-ness can be a little overwhelming but I that woman has a gift. I made my long-suffering husband go through her study of John with me our first year of marriage! Ha.
ReplyDeleteThanks for linking up.
Hi, Micha: Thank you so much for stopping by. Wow, I'm honoured; I love your blog! I do feel blessed to have my writers' group. (We've kept a list of EVERYTHNG we studied so if you'd like to see it let me know.) This month I am leading the discussion on Ann Voskamp's 1000 Gifts. Now, for that particular group, this will be a stretch since it is more "Christian-y" than most things we do. But I know it will be great. And I know Beth Moore will be great too. Speaking of long-suffering husbands, whenever I mention Beth M he says "Get outta that piit!" Words to live by!! Have a great day and "see" you soon!
Deleteoops meant "book club" where I said "writers' group" there (can't keep my own groups straight)
Delete"Thankful Tuesdays" -- what a great idea. When I first started blogging I occasionally participated in Ann Voskamp's "One Thousand Gifts" link up, which was basically the same thing. Listing all my blessings was a very uplifting practice! Love your list!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Adriana: I think thankfulness is so important; it can totally change our outlook on life. As I mentioned in a comment above, I am leading a discussion of "One Thousand Gifts" in our book club at the end of February. Although most of our members are Christians we don't usually do overtly Christian material esp nonfiction so it will be interesting. I'm really looking forward to it. Also looking fwd to reading P&P later this month. Now where ARE those empire-waist dresses of mine ...
DeleteWhile you're looking for the empire-waisted dress, I'll be in Mr. Bennet's library asking to borrow his wig powder.
Delete"No lace, Mrs. Bennet, no lace -- I beg you" says Mr. B as he brandishes his fireplace poker ... wait, that's in the movie, I always get those 2 mixed up.
DeleteYour blog discussed The Four Quartets? Wow, I'm impressed--that's a far cry from typical book club fair!
ReplyDeleteI'll say. And a far cry from our typical material too. One of our members is a university English prof so he gave us a lot of guidance. But I don't think we'll be tackling "The Waste Land" anytime soon. (Yikes.)
DeleteThanks for stopping by!
Just curious Jeannie...why is Beth Moore 'a little out of your zone'?
ReplyDeleteJamie, it's mainly because I'm not very familiar with the kind of language she uses, like claiming the promises, walking in victory, claiming the ground from Satan, etc. I just don't have much experience with that way of speaking about the faith, so it's challenging for me to get at what she means. And at the start of Believing God her assumption is that "our current practice of faith isn't working" but she never explains exactly what she means by that: we're not living with joy? we're not seeing miracles in our daily lives? we're not making converts? etc. It takes some digging (and of course going further in the book) to see what she's saying and how it applies.
DeleteBut it's really interesting because (as I said above) I'm also reading Ann Voskamp's 1000 Gifts for a book club meeting -- it is about as different from Beth Moore's book as it could possibly be!! And yet, she actually starts in the same place too: "Doubting God's goodness, distrusting His intent, discontented with what He's given ... we desire... more." It's the same message: my/our faith doesn't seem to be working. So I'm very interested as I read these 2 books simultaneously this month to see what I get from them, separately and together.
Thanks for coming by again, and for the question! See you Sunday! :-)