Book Review - Star Struck: Seeing the Creator in the Wonders of Our Cosmos

One of my favorite activities of childhood was laying outside on my front lawn after dark and just looking up at the night sky. The street light in front of my house was only a minor distraction. Even better, though, was spending a week in Vermont with my grandparents and being able to see the stars from their front yard, in a town without a single street light. I have always enjoyed trying to find constellations and wondering how anyone could make pictures by connecting star dots. Except the dippers; I’m pretty good at finding those.

That’s as far as my love of astronomy goes. And aside from admiring pictures taken in space, my curiosity for things astronomical just doesn’t exist. I think the idea of space and an ever-expanding universe is slightly terrifying. The idea of space travel and colonization of other planets practically gives me hives. I don’t know if it’s my fear of heights or the idea of the vast and overwhelming aloneness or a combination of the two, but whatever it is, it’s a visceral fear. I don’t even like sci-fi movies that deal with space travel. For some reason, I love Doctor Who. Not sure what the difference is, but it is what it is!

So, I’m not sure what it was that drew me to Star Struck:Seeing the Creator in the Wonders of Our Cosmos by Dr. David Bradstreet &Steve Rabey. You’d think that would be the last book I’d want to read, but something about it was just intriguing to me.

I have to admit, I thoroughly enjoyed this book in a way I never could have predicted. I liked the author’s style as much as I enjoyed the book’s information. Dr. Bradstreet has a very personal writing style. It’s almost as if you are sitting down to talk with a friend who just happens to know a lot about space. His enthusiasm for his subject is contagious. He really does see God in the universe and he gives the reader a better understanding of how to see Him in ways we might not otherwise. 

This book is an informative look at the history of the earth, along with its place in the galaxy and the universe. Dr. Bradstreet takes us back in human history and discusses our fascination with space through the eyes of early astronomers right up through the current status of the Voyager spacecraft. These stories are told with warmth, humor and insight. Even as someone who does not have a particular love of space, I truly did like this book. The authors did a great job in conveying what they find so wondrous about our cosmos.

Book Review: Sister Eve and the Blue Nun by Lynne Hinton

So this was not my usual kind of read. I'm not a huge consumer of Christian fiction. In general, I'm not a huge consumer of fiction as a genre. But a good mystery is always welcome. So when I saw that Sister Eve and the Blue Nun by Lynne Hinton was available I figured I'd give it a shot.

I really wanted to like this book. This premise looked interesting enough; A murder takes place and the victim's brother is the prime suspect. Sister Eve, the motorcycle-riding nun, decides to figure out who the actual murderer is in order to prove her friend's innocence.

It sets up to be a fun book, but I just couldn't relate to pretty much any of the characters. Maybe it's because I'm picking up the series at book 3, but I had a hard time finding myself caring about any of them; the victim, the suspect, and the would-be heroine, included.

The most frustrating thing about this book was the main character.  I understand it's a fictional character in a fictional world, but some of the choices she made just left me scratching my head, wondering how someone could choose so poorly.

The mystery gets solved in the end, but almost in spite of Sister Eve, not necessarily because of her.

I really did want to like this book, but I guess my past reading of authors like Agatha Christie have set the bar a little higher than this book could reach.

Book Review: Jesus Called - He Wants His Church Back by Ray Johnston

People make fun of so-called “cafeteria Christians,” but stereotypes come from somewhere. The 21^st century American Church comes in a huge variety of shapes and sizes. However, that sheer variety necessarily breeds a deviation from true Biblical faith. 

If you’re interested in exploring what Christianity really could – and should – be about, then take a look at Jesus Called – He Wants HisChurch Back: What Christians and the American Church Are Missing by Ray Johnston. Johnston is a pastor of a large church in California, and has a front row seat to everything he writes about in the book. 

The book is broken into three parts. In part one, "A World Without Jesus," Johnston outlines cultural shifts that have been eroding what could be considered a traditional faith. He points out the importance of a person’s worldview and how Christianity is up against some deceptively appealing worldviews. 

Part two, "A Christianity Without Jesus" goes on to explain what’s missing from a lot of Christians – namely Christ! – and how that manifests itself in the life of the church.

And finally, part three (which is 2/3 of the book), "Meet the Jesus Most People Miss," is where, Johnston goes into significant detail about what we are not doing, what we should be doing & why, and more importantly how we can fix it!

I’ve read my share of books on the modern church movement. This book does a great job of stripping off the fluff and getting back to Jesus’ message. I highly recommend it

Book Review: The 4 Dimensions of Extraordinary Leadership by Jenni Catron

Jenni Catron's The 4 Dimensions of Extraordinary Leadership was a pretty good read. Catron examines the big idea of Leadership through the lens of the Great Commandment (Mark 12:30). Jesus tells his disciples - and by extension us - that we are to love God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength.

As part of the Introduction to the book, Catron briefly breaks down what each dimension of the Great Commandment looks like when applied to leadership. In further chapters she then goes on to flesh out what it means to lead with your hear, soul, mind, and strength using real-life illustrations of good leadership, bad leadership, and then extraordinary leadership.

The last part of the book is the practical application section- for me that's always the best part. The author goes through a series of statements geared to help you become an extraordinary leader and maintain those skills (Pass it On, Readily Teach, Relentlessly Realign, Never Give Up, etc.).

Initially I chose this book not because I have any professional leadership roles, but because of my personal leadership roles. As a mom, as a small group leader in a weekly Bible study, and also as part of the larger leadership team for the same Bible study, my roles are varied. And while the particulars of each role are different, the essentials of leadership are the same. And, truthfully, the four aspects of loving God (heart, soul, mind, strength) are how we should view all of our lives - whether in positions of leadership or not. It is loving God in such a way that gives us the ability love others the way he wants us to.

DIY Coffee Table Makeover

This coffee table was actually a hand-me-down when I first moved out of my house in 1996. Pretty sure it was old at that point, but it didn't look nearly as bad then as it did this past summer when I decided to try my hand at restoring it. (It has glass panels, but I had already taken them out before I took this photo.)

I am currently in the process of taking down old wallpaper and getting ready to repaint the walls (and most likely some other stuff). I fell in love with the Coastal Cool color collection from Sherwin Williams - not a paid endorsement, just telling you the colors I like - and decided I wanted to try doing a combination of paint and stain to complete this project.

The first thing I did was sand it all down. The finish was in terrible shape so it didn't take a whole lot of effort on the top, but the legs took a little longer. Once it was ready to go I stained the top using Rust-Oleum's Driftwood oil-based stain. I wasn't sure how it would look over the reddish wood, but I think it came out pretty nice!

I painted the legs using Sherwin Williams' Comfort Gray from the Coastal Cool collection. I don't actually live near the ocean, but I love the relaxed, comfortable colors of a beach house.

Once the paint and stain were dry I used a clear, semi-gloss polyurethane top coat on the whole table. I gave the legs two coats, but ended up putting three on the table top, figuring it would get a lot of use in my living room.

The legs are a little washed out from my flash, but the table ended up looking so nice - certainly better than the way it was at the beginning of the summer. :)

The List

I have been a homeschooling mom for the past 9 years. My eldest went to school in 7th grade. So now it's just my youngest, who would like to try going to school next year. Though somewhat bittersweet (I LOVE homeschooling) I think I'm ready for the change. He will still be home with me for the rest of this school year, but that hasn't stopped my mind from making "The List" - all the wallpaper that needs to come down, the kitchen cabinets that need new hinges , the rooms that need to be redone from floor to ceiling, and so on... You know, The List.

Every time I walk into a different room in my house The List gets bigger and bigger. So as a way to keep some semblance of sanity I intend to start out with a plan. One plan for each room. And me being me, it will all be in one 3-ring binder. As I go, I hope to blog through the experience.... so stay tuned!

(I also started putting up some of my already completed DIY projects...)

DIY Kitchen Table Refinish

We bought a little kitchen table years ago from a neighbor's moving sale. It started out stained with a light stain. Thinking it would look better a little darker we tried staining it darker. Clearly we did not prep the surface very well because it didn't look better - it looked awful! :)

I LOVE LOVE LOVE going to the "oops table" in the paint department of the home improvement stores. I found a can of off white paint for $2 and immediately knew I needed to buy it to repaint my kitchen table!  I was in such a rush to get this thing refinished that I completely forgot to take a "before" photo until it was already disassembled on the back deck!

It's just a basic table: square top with 4 legs, one at each corner, attached with nuts and bolts. Easy to disassemble and easy to reassemble when it was all done.

I tried using an orbital sander, but found that I preferred to sand by hand. Not sure why, but there was something about it that I just enjoyed - especially on such an easy, flat surface like the table top. I sanded the legs the same way.

I got it all sanded down using a 60 grit sandpaper. Then I gave it a quick sand with a 120 grit sandpaper. Because I wasn't going to re-stain it I wasn't super picky about how smooth the surface was.

Once it was ready, I primed it all using a water based primer. I don't know if it was entirely necessary, but because it would get a ton of use I decided to use it. Once that was done and dry it was time for the paint!

Because of the primer I only ended up putting on one coat of paint. Again, because this is a table that will get a ton of use I finished with a water based polyurethane. I gave the legs one coat of polyurethane, but gave the table top three coats. Because of the weather I had to move the table back inside for the finishing coats - too much wind!

All in all, I think it was a pretty decent first attempt at a DIY project.

Book Review: The Carols of Christmas by Andrew Gant

Leading up to Christmas I chose to read The Carols of Christmas: A Celebration of the Surprising Stories Behind Your Favorite Christmas Songs by Andrew Gant. As a lover of all things Christmas, especially the music (I put on the Christmas radio stations before Thanksgiving) I thought this would be a fun book to read as a way to add some historical background to the songs I love so much. 

Gant takes us from Advent through Epiphany with historical background on 21 different carols. Everything from O Come, O Come Emmanuel to Jingle Bells with lots of others in between, including my all-time favorite O Come, All Ye Faithful. Each carol gets its own chapter where the author gives a very detailed history of how it came to be, the variation in lyrics from one place to another, original language and translations (where applicable), and then the words and music of the most common version being used today.

All in all this is a very good book. But I do think it's probably not for everybody. Maybe the title is a little bit of a misnomer. Though it's subtitled "A Celebration of the Surprising Stories Behind Your Favorite Holiday Songs,"  perhaps a more accurate title would have been "the Surprising History..." because most of these read more like history than flat-out stories. Not a bad thing, but probably not something I would have picked up as a light read in the busy weeks before Christmas.

This book also assumes a knowledge of musical history that some readers may not readily have. More than once I had to go look something up in order to understand what I was reading. Again, not a bad thing; I love to learn when I read. But I probably would have waited for a less busy season to read this one.