I haven’t weighed in yet this week, so I don’t have any news on the weight loss effort. The exercising has come to a stand still this past week. There’s a lot going on in our church that is affecting my motivation, plus I had several extra school responsibilities and a 6-year-old birthday party to plan last week. Whine whine whine. I will do better this week. I’ll let you know how the weigh in goes after tonight.

Books. I finished Wheel of Fortune last week while I waited for my children to finish gymnastics lessons. It was an excellent book. I will write more thoughts later, but I must say that as I finished the book, I could see the characters for Howatch’s future books (Starbridge Series) developing in her mind. I am still not much further in The Holiness of God. Now that the novel is done, I may get further. However, I have an editing job to do this week, so it may fall by the way once again.

Regarding reformed books, I appreciated the suggestions of some of you for books to use in discussion with my newly reformed friends. I think I have settled on working through the Shorter Catechism with them and studying the proof texts. My sister-in-law mentioned a couple of books she used in a high school study on TULIP. That may be the next thing we tackle. I think these friends want to get beyond the popularized stuff like Sproul. But I will still read them for a reference point.

A nearly 3-year-old girl just climbed on my lap, so I need to close.

I didn’t go to my TOPS group last night, so I didn’t weigh in this week. I feel like I have at least maintained my weight since last week. I haven’t walked since last Wednesday. My life is sometimes just too busy to work it in. I don’t think I’ll manage working it in today either. So a whole week has passed since I last exercised. I hope to remedy this tomorrow, and will work toward that not happening again.

Books– believe it or not, I am still not finished with Wheel of Fortune. I still have about 80 pages left. Again, my responsibilities have precluded me from reading. But, I will say that Laurel is right about the book having more Christian elements in the second half. As I read it, I have a sense that Howatch was using characters in this book (Young Hal, Pam) as prototypes for her characters in the Starbridge series. I imagine that reading Howatch’s books gives me a picture of her own spirtual journey. It would interest me to talk with her in person about what she believes.

Holiness of God–still in chapter 4. Haven’t had time to read this book either. My son’s birthday was Sunday, so we had various celebrations. Mark was out of town, making me busier over the weekend. I helped host a baby shower at church on Saturday. Sunday had all of its regular obligations plus the consecration of a new wing of the Methodist church’s building, in which Mark was asked to participate. Then we had a community-wide ladies’ function last night for which I had been a part of the organizing group. Tonight is Calvin’s kindergarten program for school. So we are just busy. Things will slow down soon, I hope.

Just thought I would update on a few things I have blogged about lately . . .

Walking – Real workout walk (35 min) Monday; fairly long walk with children pushing stroller Tuesday; 20 minute fast walk Wednesday. Not bad by my estimation. Anything is better than nothing.

Wheel of Fortune– in the last section. Have totally been irresponsible with my time in the evenings to take out time to read this book. Bad behavior for a mom . . . but I’m enjoying the book. Will be on a fiction break for a while (at least a week 😉 after this.

Holiness of God – since I’ve been reading so much of the novel, I haven’t read much more in this book. It goes quickly though, so I am in chapter 4.

It seems I am stuck in a poor sentence structure rut . . . In looking at the latest blog entries, I noticed that I started 3 of them with “Well.” Even in informal blog-land, this is a bit much. I will try to avoid this practice in the future.

I’m about halfway throughThe Holiness of God. I am finding it very helpful in reminding me of how grateful I should be for God’s willingness to love me when I am so far from being holy.

Well, I am up to page 713 in Wheel of Fortune. One thing I’ve noticed in the most recent part of the book is a reference to Dame Julian of Norwhich. She was a big influence in Howatch’s Starbridge Series. I am also noticing a lot of talk about “taking off masks” and some of the characters leading double lives, also things that come up in Howatch’s other novels. I am enthralled with the book, and I have been staying up way too late reading for the last several days. I need to finish this book so I can pay proper attention to my life’s responsibilities.

Well, I went to my weight loss group Monday night after not being there to “weigh-in” last week. In the last 2 weeks I have lost 4 pounds. Total loss is now 20 pounds! This is something of a milestone. Even though I still have a significant amount of weight to lose, it is good to get the first 20 gone. I haven’t gotten out to walk today, but I hope to before getting to sleep tonight.

Well, I have read a couple more chapters of The Holiness of God. I am enjoying it. I heard RC Sproul speak in person a couple of times, and he strikes me as a personable, down-to-earth sort of guy. His writing style strikes me the same way, thus making this book sort of friendly and accessible. I think my plan at this point is to finish this as quickly as I can and then read Chosen by God. Then I will talk with my “newly reformed” friends about reading them together for discussion. I appreciated Dawn’s suggestion of Chosen by God. I have a friend from college who read this book, and it is what drew him to becoming presbyterian (not to mention the obvious sovereignty of God). So I am hopeful that these books will be a good place to start. I also wanted to comment that it has been good for me to read some non-fiction again. I have sort of ignored non-fiction for a long time, so I am enjoying reading for learning more than for entertainment–although we all know we learn a lot when we read good fiction.

Ok, I know I must seem like a broken record writing about Anne of Green Gables again, but I had to because I just splurged and purchased the 2-part video at Sam’s Club on Tuesday. I hadn’t planned on watching it this soon, but my soon to be 3-year-old daughter and I were home alone this morning, and she wanted me to put it on (I think because she liked Anne’s picture on the box). So I did, and we watched while I folded laundry, updated the check book, and did other rather stationery chores. When you read the Anne novels, you get a real sense of the child’s over-active imagination and her overly dramatic approach to life. The video adaptation captures both of these things well. The actress who portrays Anne plays her just as I would expect her to be after reading the books. I played part of the second tape after lunch while my nearly 6-year-old boy played and watched a bit. He got into it right away. Both he and my daughter were very interested in the dramatic expressions of Anne. My son also felt sorry for her when she didn’t get what she wanted and she acted like the world had ended because of it. I realized that I must come across much like Marilla Cuthbert does to Anne when I refuse to let my children do what they want. I think that is what my son was thinking. I also realized that I am not sure I want my son and daughter to read these books until they are nearly grown. They already over dramatize everything, they hardly need the encouragement of a heroine like Anne Shirley.

I am taking a long time to read Susan Howatch’s novel Wheel of Fortune. It isn’t that it is not interesting or a good story. It is just hard for me to get blocks of time in which to read. However, I wanted to note a couple of similarities between this book and the other Howatch novels I have read (Starbridge Series, Wonder Worker). The characters in WoF are concerned about “setting things right” in much the same way characters in her other books were. They also make comments about “doing the done thing” and allusions to “earning prizes,” much the same way the characters did in her other books. I am also beginning to wonder is Ginevra, the main character, will be able to accept good fortune if it ever materializes for her (I’m only on p 176, and there are 1171 total pages).

I know this is not very interesting to anyone else at this point, but I am just using my blog as a journal of sorts to help me keep track of some thoughts. One also might wonder if I will ever finish the book. Mmm . . .