Ah marriage...

marrwage is what bwings us togefah today"  Anyone know what that quote is from?!?!? 

I finished Book 3: Committed by Elizabeth Glibert.  She is the woman who wrote Eat, Pray, Love, a huge hit with everyone in the world as she stumbled through a divorce, traveled around the world in search of balance, and wrote about every single moment of it! 

Her book, Committed, is more like a self-quest study on marriage.  Everything about marriage, why people go through with it, what it means for men and women, why the church and government love or hate it, etc.  It's very interesting.  She has many of her friends tell her different ways they see or do not see marriage. 

I don't 100% agree with her take on the "Christian" view of marriage, I think she got that part a bit wrong or out of context (by only reading certain parts of scripture and not others) she is not totally wrong but I think she missed the mark.  Anyways, she says up front she is not an expert, that this was for HER personal research on how to approach her second marriage and not to fault her for it.  So I don't!

One particular part I loved is how her and her new beau steer around having an argument.  You know those moments, when you are both tense and edgy and want to have an attitude with your loved one?  Why not just WARN each other?  As in, say, "We need to be careful right now..."  A hey, heads up, if something else comes out of either one of our mouths, it's going to be nasty!  Dave & I aren't good at that;)  We say whats on our minds, nasty or not....not all the time, but sometimes, and it's not always a good thing.  So I like this method of "warning" each other.  Say it, take a little break in another room, and come back later to life again together:)  That one just one little part of the book...but that really stuck with me.

I give it a 3 out of 5.  It's a good read, I did want to finish reading it but not with that desperate "I NEED TO KNOW" attitude.  I was just interested in learning what she learned on her self-exploration of getting married.  If you like Eat, Pray, Love - you will like this.  You will like learning what happens to Liz and Felipe after EPL.  Its written in a distinctive way, not a novel or a bio or anything like that - just informative with fun things sprinkled here and there.  Good times!

I haven't decided what is next, but I'll post tomorrow when I have figured it out!  My amazon books came in the mail this weekend and the library has another one held for me - I think I may have all 10 books in my possession at the same time this week so I can finally take a picture of them:)  You should see my new Jane Austen Collection book - its beeeeautful!

Becoming Debt Free!!

In wake of my finishing up Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover (I'm so close - I told you I was going to take my time on this one!!!) this week I am joining A bowl full of lemons weekly challenge (man, I love these challenges - they are life changing!!)  The challenge is becoming debt free!!  Now, that can't happen in a week of course, not with a mortgage and at $20K school loan (thanks Hopkins for my Master's degree!) but it can be STARTED.  So - I encourage everyone to read this book its financially life changing - we are going to be sitting down this week and coming up with our budget (Dave R calls it a zero-balance budget) and figuring out our road to financial freedom. 

FYI Dave R has a whole lot of free printables for budgeting on his website, a budget sheet and a debt snowball sheet (tackling each debt smallest to largest - it creates motivation and a I CAN DO THIS attitude) you can find those here.

Toni is giving away a Dave R package if you link up with her this week too!

See what my reading has motivated me to do?  Try to get out of debt!  Can't complain about that;) 

I'm more then halfway through Committed - it's not at all what I thought it was going to be but it's been a really good read!  More on that later...

I'm feeling a tid bit better - the fluish feeling is starting to go away which is great because I am NOT missing work again tomorrow.  When you are only working for 12 weeks it's rough to miss even one day, because there is so much to do and so many students to help, it's emotionally taxing to not be at school for a day!  I'm pumping my body full of water and OJ and vitamins today!  I may even venture out to the store today and soak up some Vitamin D while I am at it, its SO pretty out and feels springish and I think I need to experience that:)

I've missed a lot of cooking and cleaning this week, and my instinct is to get it all done today.  I can't do that.  So I am also really making using of my HM binder To Do lists today and spreading out all the things I desperately want to do TODAY over the next week.  I can't be superwoman when recovering from the flu - no matter how much I want to.  Yesterday I tried moving furniture and it almost killed me (yeah...I know, what a dumb idea!).  So learning how to slow down and spread stuff out is part of life this week, I always get myself in trouble when I do too much too fast.

Have a wonderful, sunny, BLESSED Sunday!

Gotta love a good book!

I finish book 2 last night - YAY!  Ok...so...I probably should be done 3 or 4 books by now and I've only read 2, but I'm not going to focus on that.  Yikes....yikes....ok, wait....don't focus on that!

a soft place to land was GOOD book.  I really enjoyed it.  Definitely a please-pick-me-up-and-keep-reading-me kind of book!  I love those types:)  I give it a 4 out of 5.  The book was about two sisters who lost their parents in a plane crash when the girls were 13 and 16.  The sisters shared a mom, but have different dads, so they are technically half-sisters.  Because of how the will was set up, the oldest has to go live with her dad and fairly evil stepmom in VA, and the youngest is sent to live with her father's loving and happy sister and her hubby out in San Francisco.  The sisters drift apart - blame, guilt, anger, etc has come in between them...and they have to figure out how to get along in this new arrangement.  The book spans over 15 years I think, 9/11 makes an appearance in this book too. 

It was really good.  Read it!

I'm battling a fairly awful cold right now, maybe borderline flu - who knows?  I always get sick, and I just started working in an elementary school again so you KNOW there are germs flying around in there!  I've been going to work and doing ok - washing my hands like an OCD person and not getting too close to anyone and disinfecting everything (because being ME....I'd re-infect myself next week!)  But I've got this achy, scratchy throat and feeling feverish, and body aches - yuck!  I was supposed to go to my parents house after school and help mom paint but I dont think I can - I should probably rest, right?  So much for being productive this week! 

My next house projects, when I shake this stupid thing, are 1. to move all my craft/scrapbooking stuff into the new lovely craft room and organize it all - this excites me, is that weird?  2.  Prime and paint an old white Ikea sofa table that is PUUURRRRFECT for our "launching" pad area.  I remembered I left this piece at my parents before moving out, and reclaimed it.  Better to repurpose something we already own instead of throwing money at something new!  I have all the stuff to jazz it up too, the brushes and the steel wool to scrub it and primer and the black/brown paint that matches our furniture.  Then all we need to do is get the little square cubes to put underneath it, and we will have our much less junked up launching pad!  Still need to figure what to put on the wall above it, and figure out where to move our "Ireland" stuff - which we still want to use and LOVE (thx Heather) because we put our keys on them (Dave would lose his constantly if we did not have this, so we must use it!)

Ok, off to rest.  Sleep - take this sickness AWAY!!!  AWAY!!!!

My next book is Committed by Elizabeth Gilbert (eat, pray, love author) starting tonight...