Random thoughts on everyday life

I know…it’s been quite a while since I’ve made time to write here.  I’ve missed it, but life had more pressing things over the past few months.  I don’t know how regular I can be, but I would like to check in more often.  Thanks to those of you who have said you missed it.  It’s nice to be missed. 

I do love to read, and I love to pass along my love of books to you.  There are very few books that I whole-heartedly recommend, but Miraslov Volf’s Free of Charge: Giving and Forgiving in a Culture Stripped of Grace is one I would not only recommend, I would encourage every person who believes in God to read.

Volf is a professor of theology at Yale Divinity School, but this is not an intimidating read.  Each of the two sections, giving and forgiving, begins with discussing how God does each.  He reminds us that God is neither a negotiator nor a Santa Claus.  God gives because that is His nature, and He delights in giving to us so that He can also give through us.  He uses the visual of God pouring gifts out to us and makes the point that the flow of giving was never intended to stop there…it should flow through us and on to those around us, who in turn give to those around them, and all of it flows around and then back to us to begin again.  He often refers to the necessity of living within a giving community of givers (the body of Christ), not only so that we encourage one another in the grace of giving but so that we pour those gifts onto others outside the body so that they, too, will come to know God through us.  This picture is one that has me captivated.  Certainly it is of the ideal…the one that God intended and not the one that we as sinful humans are able to create perfectly…but the ideal is the goal.

The second half of the book deals with forgiving, and for me there were ideas here that might be called transforming.  I was especially impressed with his discussion of the relationship between forgiving and repentance.  Does forgiveness precede repentance?  I had never considered it, but his reasoning seems sound.

I can not recommend this book highly enough.  It is not expensive and not so “theological” that those of us without a degree in theology can’t understand it.  If you read it, please come back here and leave a comment.  I would really like to know what you think.

Encourage one another,

This week’s Love to Cook Challenge was for soups and stews.  There is nothing that says “fall” to me more than a really great soup.  The “Love to Cook” button has a picture of one of my personal favorites, Taco Soup.  It’s easy, fast and yummy.  This minestrone is one I found last year at Allrecipes.com, and it rates right up there at the top.

Minestrone Soup

3-4 teaspoons olive oil

3-4 cloves garlic, minced

1 onion, chopped

3-4 stalks celery, sliced

1-2 carrots, sliced

4 cups chicken broth

2 cans petite chopped tomatoes

1 can tomato sauce

2 medium zucchinis, quartered and sliced

2 cups fresh spinach, thinly sliced

1 can dark red kidney beans

1 cup fresh or frozen green beans

3/4 cup red wine or water

2 tbsp fresh basil, thinly sliced

1 tbsp fresh oregano, thinly sliced

5 cups cooked macaroni, small shell or ditalini pasta

Fresh Parmesan cheese, grated

Heat oil over medium heat. Saute garlic in hot oil for 2 minutes. Add onion, celery and carrots and saute until onions are almost clear, 3-4 minutes. Put sauteed vegetables, chicken broth, tomatoes and tomato sauce in crock pot and cook on high for 2-3 hours. Add red wine or water, zucchini, kidney beans, green beans, spinach, basil and oregano to crock pot and cook for additional 30-45 minutes. When ready to serve put 1/2 cup of cooked pasta into each bowl.  Add minestrone over the pasta, grate Parmesan cheese over soup and serve.

I hope you will join in this carnival by adding your own recipe on your blog (or in the comments here if you don’t have a blog) and add a link in the Mr. Linky below.

Next week’s challenge: Chocolate!

Encourage one another,

I am a huge fan of Tom Hanks, so my enjoyment of the Robert Langdon books may be at least partially due to my prejudice.  I had never had any interest in reading any of Dan Brown’s books until I heard that he would be starring in The Da Vinci Code, and…always one to want to read the book before I see the movie…I proceeded to read both Angels & Demons and Da Vinci.  Important lesson: a person should not read a Dan Brown book in search of truth, but if you’re in the mood for an enjoyable story, he’s definitely your man.  The newest addition to the series is The Lost Symbol, and, while it isn’t great literature, it is entertaining.

Robert Langdon, the now famous Harvard symbologist, stays in the good ol’ USA for this story…Washington, D.C., to be exact…and the secretive group featured this time is the Freemasons.  After a call he believes to be from an old friend, Langdon flies to D.C. expecting to be a last-minute replacement lecturer at the Capitol Building; instead, he goes on a 24-hour chase trying to save his friend, his friend’s sister, and possibly the nation from the creepy villain.  It is a 500+ page roller coaster ride that I found very hard to put down.

The template of the story will be very familiar to anyone who has read the previous two books:

1. Langdon is swimming in the Harvard pool.
2. Langdon receives phone call.
3. Langdon flies to scene of novel.
4. Creepy villain gets there first.
5. Creepy villain or victim he threatens/maims/kills is member of secret society.
6. Langdon is the only person who can solve the crime.
7. Langdon’s intentions are misunderstood by law enforcement.
8. Langdon and cohort must run or stay hidden to avoid misunderstanding members of law enforcement.
9. Langdon experiences several revelations from information he already knew.
10. Climactic scene in important historical location.
11. Langdon returns to his quiet life at Harvard.

I really don’t intend to make fun of Brown’s writing style.  For a purely fun read, it works pretty well.  (For a good laugh, read this article from the UK’s Telegraph.)  There was, however, a very predictable formula throughout this book that became a little annoying after a while.  Someone asks Langdon, “Have you ever heard of _____?”  Langdon says, “Yes, but that’s just a myth.”  The other character says, “But, _______,” and Langdon is surprised and replies, “I never thought of that.”  I lost track of how many times that occurred.  Not much creativity there.  The whole novel, while interesting, reads very much like the screenplay we all know is coming.  I could even hear Tom Hanks quoting Robert Langdon’s lines.  Each short (and I do mean short) chapter is like a quick scene from a movie.  In my opinion (and that is what a review is about, right?) Dan Brown needs a new editor…someone who will help him cut about 100 pages of unnecessary fluff.  But seriously…I’m sure he doesn’t much care what his critics think.  He obviously gets the last laugh…all the way to the bank.

Unlike in the other Langdon novels, I had much of the mystery figured out way before the end of the story.  This one is not quite as complex as it’s predecessors and so is a bit more transparent.  I don’t want to get into any spoilers, but the ending of this one was really weak.  As I finished up the last few chapters I was shaking my head thinking that, from a purely human physical stand point, it didn’t make sense.  If you’ve read it, you know exactly what I mean.  He also throws in a bunch of “we can all find God within ourselves if we just look hard enough” which I found tiresome.  I agree that we have not begun to grasp the full potential of the human mind, but misusing scripture (and other writings from many faiths) was as much an unbelievable stretch as the relationship between Noetic science and Freemasonry…another problem a good editor would have helped him work out.

In the grand scheme of things, this is an enjoyable story with more than a handful of problems, but if you can look past the predictability and read it purely for fun, I don’t think you’ll be too disappointed.

Encourage one another,

I remember when I was growing up my mom would occasionally take us to Amarillo to shop, and that would usually mean a stop at Furr’s Cafeteria to eat lunch. One thing I always looked forward to was their cucumber salad…I still do on those rare occasions when we eat there now. Since those times are few and far between, I searched around and found a recipe that takes that original recipe and makes it even better.

Updated Cucumber Salad

Place cucumbers, tomatoes, onions and olives in a bowl. Combine vinegars, oil, sugar, salt and pepper. Pour over vegetables and refrigerate 30 minutes. Serve and enjoy!

It’s a little warm and muggy here today, but fall is officially here so cooler weather is just around the corner…hurray! There’s nothing that says “fall” to me more than a great soup or stew so our challenge for next week is for your best soup or stew recipe. No chili…we’ll save that for later.

Thanks for stopping by this carnival! I hope that you will join in and post your own recipe on your blog (or here in the comments if you don’t have a blog), link back to us here in your post and add your name and link to the Mr. Linky below. For those of you who stop by just to look, please leave a comment and let us know what kind of recipes you’d like to see posted here.

Looking forward to a great homecoming weekend and to The Writer coming home for a visit next week! Yippee! Start bringing out those soup and stew recipes, and come back by next week!

Encourage one another,

 

All children mythologize their birth. It is a universal trait. You want to know someone? Heart, mind and soul? Ask him to tell you about when he was born. What you get won’t be the truth; it will be a story. And nothing is more telling than a story.

In Diane Setterfield’s debut novel, The Thirteenth Tale, prolific and popular British writer Vida Winter has given many interviews over the years about her life and history. Problem is, none of what she told them was true. Now she is dying and has chosen Margaret Lea to write what she says is her true story.  Or is it?

Hmmm…what to say.  This book was interesting. It has something of a mystery/suspense feel to it without horrible violence.  There are really two mysteries…Ms. Winter’s past and the questions that Margaret has about her own birth that continue to haunt her as she uncovers the truth about her subject.

I enjoyed it and am glad I read it…might even read it again someday to catch the things I missed the first time through, but I wouldn’t say it was a great read.  The lack of profanity and other offensive things was nice, but the writing kind of bogged down in places.  There were some twists and turns toward the end that I might have seen coming if I had paid closer attention earlier.

Interesting…I’ll leave it at that.

Encourage one another,