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#21 Left Behind

I finished the book "Left Behind" by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins last night.  It's a book depicting Bible prophecy from a Pre-Trib, Pre-Millennial viewpoint, using a fictional format.  I actually thought it was very well done.  I'm trying to decide if I want to go on and continue with the series right now, or wait for a little bit and read things in-between   Something tells me that reading them in order and one after the other might be a better way of seeing the big picture.
 

My Journey Beyond Being Catholic

I was sitting still most of the morning so I read quite a bit of the time.  It gave me the chance to read this quick book on one woman's conversion from Catholicism to Evangelical called "My Journey Beyond Being Catholic" by Connie Limmex
I was thinking it would be more about her search and research into the two.  As I've been through a major conversion myself in my life, and I studied long and hard beforehand, I figured that was what it was about.  I found it to be much more about her life both before and after, and not much about her conversion itself.  It was still interesting.
It was full of joy and the love of God; a wonderful change of pace after the book I finished yesterday.

Book Number 19

Not sure what to say about this book.  It was interesting, but horrifying at the same time. 

Book 18

Last night I finished "Evangelism And The Sovereignty Of God" by JI Packer.  It was an excellent book, not only covering the reasons for evangelization, but also what it should and shouldn't be.  It was a great book for both the Calvinist and Arminian alike.

  

Book #17

I've been doing a lot of book sampling the last week or so for my Kindle, and it's taken a lot of my reading time.  I did however just finish "In The Garden Of Beasts" by Erik Larson.  It was a very disturbing book that centered on the Dodd family. William Dodd was our first ambassador to Hitler's Germany.  He, his wife and two grown children experienced the rise of Hitler first hand.  
It was maddening, watching our government simply let Hitler grow in power, not heeding the signs or warnings given them about what was going on. So much horror might have been avoided if they had just acted earlier.

Killing Lincoln

For book #16 I read "Killing Lincoln" by Bill O'Reilly.  As a history buff I've been wanting to read this for some time.   In a way, saying that you enjoyed reading of this terrible event is a little strange.  I thought that O'Reilly did a great job, and will probably read his book about Kennedy soon if not next.  
The writing was crisp and it kept my interest.  The gory details (when applicable) were given with a minimum of embellishment which I liked, since I hate gory details.
All in all I'd recommend it to anyone interested in this event or in history in general.

Finally!

For book #15 I finally gave in and read "The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe".  Many people I know have read the Narnia books and for some reason I never had.  I'm not sure if/when I'll read the others in the series, but I felt it was about time I at least read the first one.
I know it's a children's book, but I also know a number of adults that love these books, and since there's no way to make myself a child again, I had no choice but to read it as an adult.

And Then There Were None

For book number 14 I decided to re-read on of my favorites, "And Then There Were None" by Agatha Christie.  No matter how many times I read it, I never fail to get frightened at the end.  It's really quite a wonderful mystery.  



I've very tempted to rent the movie version from 1945.  I haven't seen it in a while.  Part of me hopes that someone decides to remake this movie at some point in the future.  Another part dreads what they will add/subtract to make it more popular for today's audiences.  Yeah, it's probably better they just leave it alone.


  

Book #13

Book # 13 was "Their Last Suppers: Legends Of History And Their Final Meals".   I really don't know what to say except it was a little like watching the History Channel with recipes.  

The Secret Adversary

Book number 11 for the year is an Agatha Christie that I'd never heard of before.  After looking it up, I found that it was her second book published.  I enjoyed it immensely.  It takes place at the end of WW1 and the main characters are Tommy and Tuppence Beresford ( not married as yet in this story).  I noticed a lot more British slang in this book then in her others.  I don't know if it was because of the time period in which she wrote it, or because it was those characters instead of the more familiar ones of Miss Marple and Poirot.  Still it had some major twists and turns...especially at the end.  I fell right into her trap...I love that!

   

Book Eleven

This was a short book.  I would have preferred it was longer.  "Behind Jane Austen's Door" is about what a visit to a Regency home would be like, what was expected of the woman of the house, and some background on the society of that time.  It's meant to help those interested in Jane Austin's works to understand what life was like for women of that period.  I am hoping to read some of her books later in the year and have several more books about this period on my Kindle to familiarize myself with the history before I do.


  

Another Mystery....

The 10th book for this years challenge was "Invisible" by Lorena McCourtney.  It was good.  I liked the main character's humor.  I also liked very much that she was a Christian and this was woven through the story.

The fact that the main character ~ a little old lady ~ felt that she was invisible (not really, but socially) reminded me of a dear brother in Christ who used to talk about how he felt that way sometimes, and would suddenly jump out in front of the teenagers at church to startle them into acknowledging him.  I know they found it as much fun as he did.

 

  

A New Author To Keep In Mind...

Well, at least a new author to me!  I was cruising the free books on Amazon for my Kindle and came across "A Dyeing Shame".  It looked cute and I've always enjoyed mysteries...especially "cozies" so I thought I'd give it a try.  It was great.  Lots of humor, characters I might be interested in meeting in real life (except for the killer of course).  I enjoyed it very much.  I'm hoping that she's written more. 

 

A Little Agatha....

I can't seem to stop reading...nothing wrong with that.
Book eight was finished last night..."The Mysterious Affair At Styles" by Agatha Christie.  Great as usual.  Poirot isn't my favorite of her detectives...that would be Miss Marple (a fellow knitter), but it was wonderful just the same.  Funny if I recall correctly the first book I ever read of hers was "Curtain" which I believe was her last book, and was also a Poirot.  Yes, I still remember who did it, and no I won't tell.

   

Book Seven

OK, I know it's just past the right time of year to read this book but I saw it and felt like it.  It was as marvelous as I expected.  I've always been a fan of the story, but had never read it before.  It's about time!

Book Six...

I just finished "The Harbinger" by Jonathan Cahn.  It was an amazing book.  I was first introduced to it by videos that we had at our church.  It's hard to put in a nutshell.  The book involves Bible prophecy, 9-11, God's call to repentance to our country, and much more.  The United States was founded as a country dedicated to God, just as Israel was. Will we turn back to God?  Will our fate be the same as theirs?

And The Winner Is....

I've finally decided on a binder...and the winner is a Day-Timer (Classic, Desk, A-5).  It's one of the Pink Ribbon series.  The logo on the closure is a dark pink..not sure why it washed out here.

I bought this one for several reasons.  I like that it's micro-fiber so it's lighter to carry then leather, I like that it will take all the different inserts (except filofax), I like that it's black, and still has some color because of the logo and the pink inside.  I like very much that some of the proceeds go to help cancer research.  
This is the inside cover (with a sheet of paper to cover the three credit card holders that hold everything from my driver's licence to my business cards).

This is a view of the weekly page for the coming week.  It came with a years worth of undated pages and I'm filling them in how I want them.  Plenty of room for stickers, washi tape, doodling and writing down what's happening for the day...at least so far.  I still have my Franklin Covey two pages per day if I need more room.

This is the back with my two zip envelopes with stickers, post-it's, arrows and other strange odds and ends in them.

I'm liking this binder very much.  I have it set up with monthly pages to keep general track of things and with weekly for a more day by day track.  I'm still working on it...as you can see I haven't even put labels on the dividers yet.  They are Avery and have a design on them.  I may make some dividers too.  I'm using 5 1/2 by 8 1/2 Avery filler paper for general note taking.  It's a good weight.
I'll be interested to see how long this lasts with daily use.

Book Number Four

I just finished the fourth book in my 25 Book Challenge for 2013.  The name of the book is "Mr Penumbra's 24 Hour Bookstore"  It was wonderful!  I highly recommend it if you like books, bookstores, technology and/or "Harriet The Spy".  It wasn't what I expected, but I loved where it led.

  

Gone With The Wind...

I finished "Gone With The Wind" a few minutes ago.  I had forgotten many things about the book and how different it is from the movie.
I also came to realize about a hundred and fifty pages from the end that I do not like Scarlett or Rhett at all...and in an ironic turn really don't give a "darn (not quite the word)" what happens to them.
I still think it's a book that should be read by all person's who love the movie, which I do.

To Filofax Or Not To Filofax, That Is The Question...

I have published a few posts on my Filofaxes including pictures.  I have a black Personal Holborn and red A-5 Domino and have enjoyed playing with them.  I've enjoyed, and still enjoy, reading various Filofax blogs, watching Filofax videos, and looking at pics of other people's set-ups on Pinterest, Flickr, and Tumblr. 
Slowly I have run up against a problem though, and that is Filofax simply does not play well with others.
I live in the United States, and for the most part, if you want Filofax binders or refills you have to purchase them by mail or find a store (few and far between here) that carry them.  On the other hand you have Day-Timer, DayRunner, Franklin Covey and Avery who are all interchangeable.  They are also easily available from Staples, Office Depot, Office Max, etc...  I've noticed also that while Filofax binders are pretty (and expensive), the inserts are very limited.  The refills and inserts and "go withs" for the others are varied and really very pretty.  Filofax is the only one that won't fit.  I had decided to move to a larger size, call it A-5 or Classic or Desk Size, depending on the brand, basically it's 5 1/2 x 8 1/2 paper.  And after much consideration and shopping I've decided to go non-Filofax.  I'd already gone to the non-Filofax paper with my Franklin Covey Blooms refill for my Holborn.  It's funny that they make the Personal size fit with the other brands (more or less) but not the A-5.
I know there are some who will turn up their noses at my choice but I guess one of the really wonderful things about growing older is that I simply don't care what others think.  If it floats your boat to pay large sums of money, and wait a week or more, every time you want to purchase anything have fun.  I'll be happy with my easy to find, incredibly varied array of binders, inserts, papers, dividers, pockets, pads, pen holders and refills.
Of course I still prefer British TV, so in a way it all works out in the end :)   

Somewhere In The Middle....

OK, not quite in the middle...more like a third x2.  I'm working on my third book in the 25 Book Challenge and I'm about a third of the way through it.  I'm reading "Gone With The Wind".


The last time I read it was in the 9th grade.  It's just as wonderful a book as I remember, but it has a lot that I'm sure I probably didn't understand back then.  I lived a very sheltered childhood.
One of the biggest problems is that I'm reading it on my computer.  I used to have a Sony reader and still have the account, but I can't find the reader.  I don't want to have to buy the book again on Kindle, so I'm only reading it when I'm at my desk, on my computer.  It's definitely slowing me down.  I could read it on my phone as well, I have the Reader app on there, but they don't "sync" like Kindle does.  Trying to find where I am every time is a pain.
So the result of this reader problem is that I have several books going at the same time.  We'll see which one finishes first.

Second Book...

A few days late in writing this but I finished the second book on Thursday with "A Study In Scarlet".  I seem to be on a Sherlock Holmes kick.
As a big fan of the show "Sherlock" on PBS I was interested to see the difference between the original story and the modern interpretation.  I'm familiar with the originals of most they have done so far (my favorite being A Scandal in Belgravia based on A Scandal in Bohemia) but not this one.
It was very interesting to see how they came to live together and Watson's change of mind about Holmes during the course of the book.  
I was also thinking that it's portrayal of Mormons would never have flown in our modern day.  If it came out now, I would imagine there would be lawsuits and protests.
All in all though a good plot that kept me up till 2:00 am to see how it all ended.
  
 

25 Books

Last year I set a goal of reading 50 books by the end of the year and even put a ticker on my blog to try to motivate me.  I failed miserably.  This year I've decided to set my goal at 25 books, and increase the number, if I pass it, by 10 at a time.  I also decided that I'll try not just reading but listening to books via an audiobook app on my phone.  So I'll be reading one book and listening to one book through the year...but not at the same time of course.  In this way I can knit and crochet, or do other tasks at the same time.  The first book I've finished for the year is "The Hound Of The Baskervilles" by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.  I actually started reading it last year, but never got around to finishing it so I started it over.  I'm hoping to read the entire Sherlock Holmes canon this year as part of the project.  I also intend to re-read "Gone With The Wind" and the Tolkien Trilogy (plus "The Hobbit" of course) which I haven't read in about 10 years so I'm long overdue.  So one down, and 24 to go.

So Many Ways To Use Them....

I've come to see from all the Organizer blogs and videos that there are many different categories of those who use organizers and what they are trying to get out of them.  Three examples...

1. There are those that are already ultra organized and this is just an extension of that organization.  We've all seen the pictures....these are the perky, perfect looking organizers.  The ones with the matching perfect row of color coding pens.  They sit in beautiful, immaculate organizers being shown off in some cases with some kind of ultra craft/organizational background.  They hold anything from monthly to daily calendar refills meticulously made out with schedules for the whole family in each family member's personal ink color, and some have a contact section as well.  They could belong to just about any organized person.  There is very little customization.
2. Next we have the stationary lovers.  They proudly show you through their latest Filofax.  There are multiple kinds of post-it's, stickers, flags and washi tape.  They have different kinds of dividers, flags and tabs.  The pen collections are amazing with pens and highlighters of different kinds and colors (and some pens or pencils with a bunch of different colors)  In some cases they have a color coding system and in some cases they just use a lot of colors when they write.  They also generally have an abundance of homemade dividers, top loading plastic sleeves with pictures, and/or other memorabilia in them.  One very interesting thing about this group is that for all the fun we have seeing what's in their planner...there's not a lot of planing going on.  Yes, there's some here and there.  Little tidbits of their life, but this is definitely secondary to all the stationary/office supply fun.
3. Third there are the ones that use their organizer as a brain.  There are those that tend to be all business "just the facts Ma'am" and those that love to have all the bells and whistles...great office supplies (yes, as I've stated before I have an office supply/stationary "problem", I adore them and want them all).  In this first case there is a lot of writing and organized tabs....not just schedules but sections for just about every thing on their minds and these are full of notes and numbers and information, not necessarily neat, but all written down so the person has access to it.  Like the messy desk, the owner knows where everything is.  Then there are those that I have to admit are my favorites..the one's that not only fill their planner with schedules, to do's lists, journaling, reminders, and everything that runs through their minds...but do it with lots of stickers, post-its, washi tape, stamps, different color pens and highlighters (not necessarily in any set pattern) and on all kinds of different paper and inserts.  They might even have home-made dividers.  Their planners are often bursting at the seams with page after page of what's on their minds, that they must get written down or they'll forget.

All planners (and all stationary and office supplies) are wonderful.  Day-Timer, DayRunner, Franklin Covey and Filofax...all are great and I love them all.  And all the different ways of using them are terrific as well.  I find it very interesting that people use them in so many ways.  I hope everyone has as much looking at them, getting them and using them as I do.
      

Franklin Covey Refill

These are pics of my Franklin Covey Refill that arrived today.  I was amazed at how thick the package was and how thick the paper is.  There are monthly pages and two pages per day and a number of blank note pages and other odd pages to keep one organized.  There's also a nice new information page which I've filled out (with a bare amount of info, I don't like giving out too much just in case it gets lost or stolen).  I've rearranged the sections I had in there so the new pages are in the middle. That way it will be more balanced when closed and they fit nicely, with the strap snapping shut and barely touching the edges of the monthly tabs.  In other words perfectly.  

I love the new pages. They are, as I said, nice thick paper and have lovely designs on them.  I put the monthly and two months of the 2PPD in while leaving a number of my original sections in as well.  My Holborn seems to like the new additions, and the rest will stay neatly in a food storage bag waiting to be swapped in at the end of the month.  

My First Filofax

This is my newest obsession.  It's merged with one of my oldest obsessions....stationary and office supplies.  It's my Holborn Personal Filofax.  I have had organizers for years, mostly Day-Timer and DayRunner.  I enjoyed both kinds immensely.   In recent days I had tried to go to only using my phone for everything (Blackberry and then iPhone).  I even got rid of all my old planners and inserts when I purged all my "un-necessary" paper during the great simplicity push I made recently.  Alas, I have found that I miss much of my paper.  I am slowly building it back up.  I'm sure that other posts will talk about it.  But for right now....enter Filofax.  I was first introduced to it on Pinterest ~ where I've been hiding out to get away from Facebook, Twitter and the news since the election...politics overload...and what did I find there you ask...but a large group of people who are as in love with office supplies, stationary, paper, and organizers as I am!  At any rate I'm now spending time reading Filofax blogs, watching videos, and generally enjoying myself with restocking my desk and life with the necessary organizing, journaling and paper loving necessities.  I'm expecting an order of 2 page per day inserts from Franklin Covey tomorrow (ordered on Friday) and will no doubt take more pics and post them once they arrive.  Even now my Holborn looks different then in the picture.  It's been personalized and is starting to look well loved.  I'll also post pics of some of the inside...but first I have to take them.