All Hallows Eve

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“The wind outside nested in each tree, prowled the sidewalks in invisible treads like unseen cats. ... Anyone could see that the wind was a special wind this night, and the darkness took on a special feel because it was All Hallows’ Eve. Everything seemed cut from soft black velvet or gold or orange velvet. Smoke panted up out of a thousand chimneys like the plumes of funeral parades. From kitchen windows drifted two pumpkin smells: gourds being cut, pies being baked.” – Ray Bradbury from The Halloween Tree

 

(October was a bit of a wash for blogging. I will be posting several catch up posts shortly, I promise! Then back to blogging.)

 

Sunshine

After days of rain the sun is out today. But I’m not really complaining about the rain. After 3 years of California and barely a drop of rain and zero thunder and lightening, the rain and thunderstorms here are still a novelty. And thank goodness it was rain and not the feet of snow that some people just hours from us got over the weekend! I’m just not ready for snow yet.

J is away on a trip. Not the trips of old, but a real vacation. It’s a boys trip to California for some really cool golf. He said he’s taking pictures, so I will put those up and post more about his trip later this week.

While he’s been away I’ve been reading and sewing. I’ve started in on some Christmas presents, so I can’t really say too much about them or post any pictures yet. Just rest assured that I’m compiling some sewing posts to put up in January. But on that note, my machine is giving me some fits and I think it’s time to find someplace to take it and give it a once over.

I posted over the weekend about my two latest books. Yesterday I started in on Harry Potter. Yes, I’m re-reading. And I just don’t care. It’s been quite a while since I read those books… at least 5 years I think. And since we finally live someplace with seasons it was just to great a temptation to resist. Autumn, the leaves changing, the crisp days, the rain storms, and Harry Potter. I’m indulging! I did think about reading the Lord of the Rings instead. We just watched the first movie not long ago. And I know I said that was part of this years reading goal. But, Harry Potter prevailed and I decided that I can read that epic in the deep winter of the new year.

I watched Ohio State almost lose to Northwestern Saturday night. Then I watched the Broncos almost lose to Dallas Sunday afternoon. Other than that bit of football I’ve had Harry Potter movies playing in the background while I’ve been sewing.

The cats have been good company. They usually lay on top of me or right beside me on the couch in the evenings while I read and have my tea.

Not much else to report on here. Mom comes for her first ND visit in 11 days! Can’t wait.

A shot of the backyard from Saturday when it was so rainy.

What I've been reading

 Ender's Game  This is of the sci-fi/semi-post apocalyptic/space age/futuristic genre. Not typically my favorite thing. J and his brother both just read it in anticipation of the movie coming out in November. J really wanted me to read it as well, and so even though I really didn't want to, I read it.

It will remind you of current popular books such as The Hunger Games or Divergent, etc. This however blows those books out of the water! This is far and away superior writing and ahead of it's time (published in 1977). It also gets top marks for originality; although I admit that may because I'm not well versed in this genre. It's fast paced, keeps you guessing and wanting to know what's next, why, how, when...?! It's a difficult book to put down and a fast read. It also raises pretty deep, intense moral questions. Really, I was surprised by this book and can't say enough good about it! great read.

Warning, I get quite passionate about things concerning Anne. With that in mind...

Looking for Anne of Green Gables  The back of the book reads, "...presented in a captivating narrative that is very well organized and a great read." - Carole Gerson. This book is the antithesis of that quote. My first impression of this book, sadly, was that it read like a school research paper, not an engaging narrative. Oh well I said, I'm still a huge fan of the topic, I can read a book sized paper.

Then I discovered how poorly organized the book was. It is semi-biography of author L.M. Montgomery. But you are only given disjointed pieces of her life story, things convenient to the current authors personal point of view. This leaves you with lots of questions. The author brings up people, places or events in Montgomery's life only to say in the next breath, but I'll get to that later, or we will discuss this in a future chapter. She leaves the reader confused as to the time period she is addressing and the point she is trying to make. And often by the time she gets around to finishing explaining something she starts earlier in the book you, the reader, have forgotten why it's even important or relevant.

This also causes quite abut of repetition which could have been avoided had she been better organized.

And yes, this is a book of one person's opinions presented as absolute fact; fact that until she arrived on the scene everyone else was too stupid to discover or envision. She speaks for L.M. Montgomery, even more seems astonishingly blessed with the gift of reading her mind!

Were parts of this interesting, informative, even enjoyable, yes. But it is an overall disjointed, poorly written book of observations and opinions about an author and her book long dead and unable to speak. This opinion presented as fact is irritating.

Definitely made me not want to read anything else about L.M. Montgomery's own life ever again. I will stick to her books instead of books about her. I'm also going to be sure an avoid this writer who is obviously not a kindred spirit!

The end of September

I finished one of my favorite books last week, September. I read it every fall and despite trying to read it as slowly as I can I’m always so disappointed when it comes to an end. I love it. Read it.


 

Last Thursday J and I went out to the club for dinner. It’s a pretty spot right now because there are so many trees on the course and the leaves are changing. We had steak to eat. It was lovely.





This weekend was quiet. It thundered and rained from Friday until sometime over night between Saturday and Sunday. So we stayed indoors and watched football. I made a big batch of chicken stock with the remains of a roast chicken. And I baked brownies this weekend. We missed church because we were up late watching the Ohio State v. Wisconsin game (we won!) and I forgot to set an alarm. But we did make it to small group Sunday evening.





J is busy this week, he has to fly every day. He starts his office job next week.





I’m busy doing laundry today. I don’t mind because it means I can sit and read between loads. And it’s a good day to read because although it’s not raining, it’s grey and chilly and gloomy. The pictures of the trees changing colors are from this morning. I thought the dark grey/blue sky was a pretty backdrop. The picture of the blue sky is one I took last week before all the rain came.





And of course some kitty pictures. I need to stop taking so many pictures of them! But they’re just so darn cute.





Tomorrow I have Bible study in town at church and a Spouses’ Club board meeting. Errands to run. Busy, busy.

I can’t believe that it’s almost October…

Catching up on books

 The Big Four by Agatha Christie

 

Was this a Poirot mystery, or a Sherlock Holmes? It started a bit oddly for a typical Poirot, but I didn't immediately take much notice. After a while I couldn't help but draw the obvious comparisons; the faithful Hastings (Watson), the old lady housekeeper, the house in London, the battle of wits with an international super villain.

Although this was more a Holmes mystery story, I still enjoyed it. A little change of pace from what I was expecting. That said, it wasn't my favorite Poirot book. It was all too fanciful and far fetched and incredible to be believed. And without the believability, it lost it's power to draw you into the story. There was no suspense, no mystery. It was so incredible a story I didn't even try to solve it!

Entertaining, a short and easy read, kind of a fun twist of two excellent sleuths...but probably not one I'll read again.

 

 An Echo in the Darkness by Francine Rivers

 

This is the second in a trilogy. Although it's written by a Christian author with obviously biblical and Christian content, values and stories, the setting of ancient Ephesis/Rome is described in vivid and sometimes disturbing detail. Lots of drinking, sexual content, and quite violent/gory at times. That said I'd be careful about reading these books if those are issues or temptations for you.

 

This book was pretty good. But around page 300 I found myself thinking, "yes, we've been over this before, more than once, I get it, let's move on, too repetitive, time to move on and wrap it up." I think the books overall are good, they tell an interesting story, they're not badly written, they draw you in, paint a detailed picture, develop characters, but they're repetitive and longer than they need to be.

 

Although it's a long book, it's an easy read!

 

I did like books #1 and #2. But book number three deals with a third character who you're introduced to in the first book but disappears in the second book. I'm not sure I'll read book three, I don't find myself liking the series that much or burning to know what happens to said third character.

 

Autumn

Every so often I like to look back in my blog archives. I was nosing around some of my posts from September and October from years past and found these lovely fall posts:

Favorite Fall Movies

Spice Cookies


I've already started in on the movies. Last week it poured rain all day and so I watched The Ghost and Mrs. Muir about 5 times. It rains almost constantly in that movie, so it's the perfect accompaniment to a damp fall day.

I've yet to make a batch of spice cookies. But that needs to happen soon.

Instead of a California fall, we have been getting real fall here in North Dakota. The leaves are starting to change colors, it's most definitely cooler. We had our first overnight freeze warning. We've had to turn on our heat at night. I've made the first batch of Swedish meatballs to go along with the start of football season. The days are getting shorter. The apple and clove scentsy has been burning. I'm enjoying it.

Along with the autumn season, lots of normal base and church activities have started back up. I've been attending a ladies Bible study on Tuesday mornings at church. We also joined a small group that meets just off base on Sunday evenings. I'm back on the base spouses' club board handling the charitable requests this year. So slowly we are getting back into routines and starting to meet people here.

J starts an office job in October. He's going up to the group to be an exec for 6 months. He's cursed (blessed?) with this job. This will be his 3rd exec. job in his AF career. It means long days, late nights and me usually grumpy because he can't tell me when to have dinner ready. But since his flying here doesn't mean he has to leave maybe it wont be so bad because he'll be home otherwise.

I'm re-reading September. In all honesty I hadn't even thought about reading it, until two weeks into the month and it hit me and I got very excited! I'm going as slowly as possible! I think I am going to finish my reading year with more re-reading. Harry Potter is calling my name. And I don't remember the last time I read through them.

We've got a visitor coming in October and I'm already very much looking forward to that...!

“Her pleasure in the walk must arise from the exercise and the day, from the view of the last smiles of the year upon the tawny leaves and withered hedges, and from repeating to herself some few of the thousand poetical descriptions extant of autumn--that season of peculiar and inexhaustible influence on the mind of taste and tenderness--that season which has drawn from every poet worthy of being read some attempt at description, or some lines of feeling.” ― Jane Austen, Persuasion 

Finally finished

It took me long enough (not to actually do it, but to motivate myself to do it). My first table runner is done! It was actually pretty easy, and parts went together very quickly. But other parts (ironing, hand stitching the binding…) were still long and labor intensive. I’m in two minds about small quilting projects now that I’ve finished one. On the one hand, awesome. On the other hand, if I’m going to do all this work why not just make a big quilt? :)

Here’s my finished top before quilting


Here’s my top with the spider web designed traced on, but still before any quilting

And, ta-da! It’s all quilted, bound and done. 

Why Faith Matters

Why Faith Matters

"Judging by today's bestseller lists, one would think that religion is either irrational or extreme. What's missing is a genuine debate between the atheists and fanatics; someone to point out that religion has value in the modern world. Why Faith Matters is an articulate defense of religion in America. It makes the case for faith and shows its relationship to history and science."

Some parts of this book I loved. Some parts made me uncomfortable. There is a real lack of extremism in this book, and a lot of generalities. Not bad things in and of themselves.

Whilst reading I was applying his teachings to Christianity, but the author points out that really, you could apply his work to any of the major monotheistic religions; Judaism, even Muslim. So this isn't a book making the case for Christianity, but literally faith, whatever that faith may be. Hence some of my discomfort. Or maybe discomfort isn't the right word, maybe caution is a better word.

What I loved was his frank use of theology and science and history to help make the case for faith. He states several times that faith and the rest of modern education don't need to clash and fight against one another, but that they can and do work together to strengthen each other. I saw things and thought about them in entirely new ways.

One of the best parts of this book is his discussion of what do bad things happen to good people. It's such a hard topic. And one that I find myself totally tongue tied about when trying to talk to a non-believer, even myself sometimes. His discussion about it is brilliant.

It's a short book, and not hard to read, but it needs to be read slowly.

here are some quotes that jumped off the page at me...

xiii  "Life is such a remarkable surprise, why should death be less of a surprise?"

 

xv  "As with all meetings of the spirit there was not one who gave and one who took; there were two who stood with each other and before God, and even in their sadness, felt blessed."

 

Pg. 10  "'Doubt,' as the theologian Paul Tillich wrote, 'isn't the opposite of faith; it is an element of faith.'"

 

Pg. 12  "Acceptance of mystery is an act not of resignation but humility."

 

Pg. 15  "To believe only in what u can see seems a peculiar form of blindness."

 

Pg. 67  "Nature, even human nature, abhors a vacuum; when our need for meaning is wrenched from its religious roots, people repeatedly turn to creeds that draw devotees by the power of their conviction."

 

Pg. 85  "my real difficulty is with the notion that science is 'the only begetter of truth,' as biologist Richard Lewontin once expressed it. That is both an inflated view of science and an impoverished view of truth."

 

Pg. 92  "as maturity in an individual consists in recognizing his own limitation, so maturity in a thinker is often marked by admitting certain features of the world cannot be understood."

 

Pg. 111  "Suddenly it became clear to me that we bring light into this world not as a source but as a prism- it comes through us. As electricity requires a conduit, so spirit moves through human beings to touch others in crucial moments."

 

Pg. 111  "Indifference distances us from God."

 

Pg. 131  "'You see,' he explained, 'from sixteen to thirty-five I was always drunk and felt no pain. Since I was never in pain, I never grew.'"

 

Pg. 151  "Imagination does better with pain that with bliss. Dante's Inferno has always seemed to me a more successful poem than his Paradiso because pleasure is so fleeting and hard to grasp but pain is concrete and easy to imagine. So the torments that religion describes are horrible and easy to project. The rewards seem ephemeral and often silly."

 

Pg. 188  "The key to coexistence is not sameness but recognition of something greater than all of us."

 

Pg. 191  "'Frantic orthodoxy is never rooted in faith but in doubt. it is when we are not sure that we are doubly sure.'"

A Voice in the Wind

A Voice in the Wind is the second book I've read by author Francine Rivers. In short the book is about: "Torn by her love for a handsome aristocrat, a young slave girl clings to her faith in the living God for deliverance from the forces of decadent Rome."

So when I started the book, it wasn't at all what I was expecting! No love story, no slave girl to be found. It's all about the Romans taking over Jerusalem and the exiles that creates (and where we eventually find the girl to become a slave). It also follows barbaric Germanic tribes fighting the Romans. It's a very violent, bloody start. And the stories are disconnected. Not my cup of tea! But I kept reading because I was intrigued and because it was well written.

Eventually the bloody beginning comes together in Rome, story lines converge, and things start making sense and getting very interesting. It was hard to put the book down.

The "love story" isn't a huge part of the book though. It's an undercurrent until the very end when it becomes a major issue. It's kind of corny, rich man falls for the "help" and every girls dream of him pursuing her at any cost. Blah, blah, but important to the story line and tastefully downplayed.

And of course this book just leaves you hanging at the end and wondering and going, "WHAT?!" "REALLY?!"

I really liked it and I can't wait to get the second book from the library (someone else has it on hold!!)

Halloween Table Runner

I haven’t quilted in quite a bit. My mother-in-law found a table runner pattern called Waffle Time at my local quilt shop. There is a large center panel which is great for a feature fabric, which in turn is great for a holiday themed runner. Since we’re coming up quickly on autumn I thought I’d try my hand at a Halloween design.

Here are my four fabrics all cut and ready to go: black with grey spider webs, grey, orange and my featured, not too creepy, pumpkins.


You sew the black and orange strips and then cut the strips into 2x2 inch squares. Then you join your 2x2 grey squares to your black and orange squares. This all becomes part of the boarder. 

Sewing the inner boarder to my center panel. 

Straightening the end and making it the correct length. 

Now I can sew on the short inner boarders to the “top” and bottom” of the runner. 

All my inner boarders are on and now the inevitable ironing!

Next come the rows of little squares. They get sewn onto the first, inner boarder. First the two long sides, and then the two short ends. 

And the last step in the top piecing process is the outer boarder. Long sides, then the short sides.

I got the top all done before the in-laws left. And then I had to clean house, we went on a long weekend trip, and then I had to re-stock the house and unpack.

I have been working on the quilting this week. It’s hard to tell without a finished and washed product, but I’m quilting a bunch of spider webs on it. It should get finished this week and then I’ll finish the post and show you my completed table runner!