June Reading

June was definitely a slower reading month for me, but I did complete one of my reading goals for the year--a book on marriage, Becoming Your Spouse's Better Half.
A couple posts back I briefly mentioned my enjoyment of Erica Bauermeister's book Joy for Beginners. This book chronicles a specific year in the life of seven interconnected woman. Their friend just in remission from breast cancer gives each woman a challenge to accomplish in the coming year. For one, it is learning to bake bread. For another it is taking a trip on her own. For a third it is getting a tattoo. The subsequent chapters focus individually on each woman and how the challenge changes her...most of the woman wonder how their friend so perfectly chose each challenge. Because I hope some of you might choose to pick this book up, I don't want to give too much away. So, that's all I'm going to say on this.

My completed reading list:

Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand
The Shipping News by Annie Proulx
Becoming Your Spouse's Better Half by Rick Johnson
Only the River Runs Free by Bodie and Brock Thoene
Joy for Beginners by Erica Bauermeister
South of Superior by Ellen Airgood

Two Quotes

We want to create, but we also don't want to create so as to spare ourselves all this anxiety.
from Mastering Creative Anxiety

It's not who you are that holds you back, it's who you think you're not.
from unknown source

The Sound of Words

During the final relaxation segment of my weekly yoga class, my instructor reads a poem. He has a very mellifluous voice that's well suited to the reading of poetry. I don't know how he chooses the poem he reads each week, but they are nearly always thought provoking and positive. This is the poem he read last Monday; lines from it flitted through my mind throughout the week.



NUMBERS

I like the generosity of numbers.
The way, for example,
they are willing to count
anything or anyone:
two pickles, one door to the room,
eight dancers dressed as swans.
I like the domesticity of addition--
add two cups of milk and stir--
the sense of plenty: six plums
on the ground, three more
falling from the tree.
And multiplication's school
of fish times fish,
whose silver bodies breed
beneath the shadow
of a boat.
Even subtraction is never loss,
just addition somewhere else:
five sparrows take away two,
the two in someone else's
garden now.
There's an amplitude to long division,
as it opens Chinese take-out
box by paper box,
inside every folded cookie
a new fortune.
And I never fail to be surprised
by the gift of an odd remainder,
footloose at the end:
forty-seven divided by eleven equals four,
with three remaining.
Three boys beyond their mothers' call,
two Italians off to the sea,
one sock that isn't anywhere you look.
~Mary Cornish

Three Things

Sometimes you just need a little sweet drink. On occasion I make orange julius for an after-dinner treat for Jeremy and I (which transports me to childhood when we'd make orange julius and popcorn snacks). No sugar needed, just refreshing, icey, orangey goodness in a glass.

I bought this citrus press last weekend to help in my weekly lemonade making endeavors. And I'll tell you what, it makes juicing lemons so much quicker! I whipped up a fresh batch of lemonade this afternoon.

I found this jar at the thrift store for under a dollar. I love that it says drinking jar on the bottom. It indeed makes a great drinking jar.

Book Brain

I'm guessing any of the dozen or so people that read this blog are aware of the fact that I have a bit of an addiction--reading.

Take today, for instance. It's the first sunny day since Tuesday. My kitchen is a mess. My floors need dust-mopped. Laundry is waiting to be done. And I have a farmer's market and grocery list as long as my arm. But, the minute that Jeremy walked out the door for work, I sat down with a cup of coffee and finished reading my book. I knew I wouldn't be able to concentrate on anything else until I settled in to turning the final pages of the story.

Now I can breathe easier again. And that book-filled space in my brain is momentarily freed up and ready to focus on food and cleaning and the necessities of life (that is until I pick up another page-turner).

I just finished Joy for Beginners by Erica Bauermeister. Her two books (the other is The School of Essential Ingredients) are lyrically beautiful stories. Read them. I'm still processing--which I'm quite capable of doing while working on chores or walking to the farmer's market--and absorbing the story.

I shamelessly took this quote out of context from my reading this morning--in fact it's from the middle of a sentence--but while reading, this thought made me pause for a moment and realize that as believers, this is how we should approach life as recipients of the greatest gift, life that is paid for by Jesus Christ:
...each particular moment made more beautiful with the sense that it had been paid for...

Okay, I'm done procrastinating. Now on to story absorbing and housework. Have a wonderful Saturday!

While reading...

I was impressed by this phrase thought: a woman needs to cultivate a "garden" of creativity and to actively tend her dreams.

Mary, Mary quite contrary, how does your garden grow?

I am so pleased to be gardening this season! Last year I tended a tiny little plot out my back door. It's on the south side of the house, but is fenced in, so is pretty shaded. However, I managed to grow a few tomatoes, cucumbers and herbs. This year I decided to plant it out in flowers, herbs, and just one tomato plant.

But the great news is that I have a garden plot at work! The children's department where I work hosts a kid's garden club. The staff partners with a few local master gardeners and they teach kids about gardening, butterflies, bees, and such.

At the suggestion of a co-worker, I approached my manager and requested permission to plant a garden in the same area where the kid's garden club meets. I got the okay and was finally able to plant it a week ago. It's another smallish plot, but very sunny and with room for a few herbs, tomatoes, peppers, zucchini, and some bush beans (which I'm hoping grow).

I like gardening and being outside and seeing my work bear fruit. I'm no gardening expert, so I'm interested in seeing how my attempts go this summer. Though I'm hoping for success, I feel a bit like this year is an experiment. So, we'll see.

I am truly thankful that God provided places for me to dig in the dirt. :) It's been a desire of mine for awhile now, but I didn't see how it would come to pass considering I'm an upstairs apartment dweller.

(One day I might actually remember to take photos of my gardens to share with you. I seem to be forgetful about that.)