1/10/17

23. Reread a book by Janette Oke




I'm slowly but surely working on that birthday bucket list. It seems, though, that everything I am working on are things that cannot be wrapped up in a day.

For instance, I'm fasting from social media every Sunday for three months. I'm over half way finished with that goal already, but really, until it is accomplished there is nothing more I can say about it.... well, except to make a public confession: I completely forgot about the fast on Christmas Day, which happened to fall on Sunday. Which also happened to be a day we were traveling from Pa where we spent time with family, back home to NY. I may have used Instagram to pass time while in the back seat of our truck, stuck in between two car seats, one which held a little boy who kept asking I tell him another George story. George use to be my pet name for Carson -- because, like Curious George, he is a good like Tyke, but always very curious -- until one day he told me his name is Carson, not George and asked I never call him George again. So now I just tell him stories about a boy named George, who, ironically, does everything Carson does. Carson LOVES these silly stories, and sometimes it about drives me crazy, repeating them over and over again.

I'm kind of bunny-trailing. Back to the social media fast. Monday morning as the sun was rising it dawned on me that the day before was Sunday. Yeah. Oops. I suppose I should be making up for that mistake by skipping Instagram for an entire week day.

Then there is Bible memorization with Carson, which is a slow go. He's got Psalm 23 down pat, but in the shrillest, squeakiest voice, the sort that grates on every mom's nerves. We haven't started on the Christmas story from Luke 2 or even the Lord's Prayer yet. We need some WD40 for that voice first.

 Mastering a headstand? I'm still rather shaky at it. And there so many other things that I didn't even start thinking about.

Over the weekend, though, I did accomplish something I can finally cross off. If I'm not crossing at least something off every now and then, I feel like I might lose momentum.

I re-read the Love Comes Softly book by Janette Oke.

I use to hate reading. Despised it. Until, one day, when I was perhaps twelve or thirteen, my mom introduced me to the Love Comes Softly series.

I remember those stories came alive to me, and after that I could barely put books down, often reading well past midnight, even on week nights, simply because I had to know what would happen to the characters who suddenly felt like real-life friends.

Revisiting the first book in that series was rather fun.

It was a bit juvenile, there is no doubt about that. And twelve years later, the characters no longer felt like real-life friends. They talked in a country slang that rather annoyed me, and coffee was mentioned so often I almost mistook them for hipsters instead of Pioneers on the prairie lands of the Midwest. Nonetheless, I still truly enjoyed the book, but not for the story line as much as for the memory of myself as a young girl, one who thoroughly hated reading... or so I thought -- until my mom handed my the first book of the series, which opened my eyes to a whole world to be discovered, nestled in the shelves of our quiet small town library in the form of "boring" books.

Now, years later, I am constantly reading. I often try to read books that I know will challenge me to grow stronger mentally or spiritually or even physically. Or books written by people who hold different beliefs than I so I can learn about others cultures and values. Or books on how to write well or inspire creativity. Even books about a little monkey named Curious George.

Janette Oke is no longer my favorite author, but there was a sort of magic in her work. Magic which made a young girl fall in love with words. And because of that, it was completely worth revisiting the title which turned me into the avid reader and kind of, sort of, writer I am today...


"The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go." -Dr. Suess




2 comments:

  1. I have not read these books, but I found the entire DVD set at a garage sale for $5! My older kids love to watch them and they are family friendly enough (albeit mildly corny, yes) that we can enjoy them together! :)

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    1. I watched the first two movies, but haven't seen the rest. And yes, they are a little corny, but the storyline really is good and wholesome enough to watch together as a family. So it's worth dealing with the corny-ness of it, if you can create a movie night for the entire family to enjoy!

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