Way Past Time for an Update!

Whoa...I can't believe it's been so long since I updated the blog!  Not that a whole lot of people are reading or anything, but still.....

Anyway, since I last updated in March, I have been to Chicago four times and Los Angeles for work, four days in New York City with my mom and daughter for a girls weekend, and a week in Puerto Rico on a mission trip.  It's been crazy busy!  And a recipe for a diet disaster.  But thankfully, I'm not on a diet :) 

Over the last four months, I have radically changed the way I eat. I've made little changes every two or three weeks and have gradually cut out red meat, refined sugar and white flour, pasta, potatoes and most most cheese. Considering that my favorite meal used to be a big juicy steak with a baked potato loaded with sour cream and cheese, that's a big deal!  And I really should say "avoid" instead of "cut out".  I'm not militant about it...if I am at an event and they are serving hamburgers, I eat a hamburger.  If I am at a restaurant, I make the best choice I can without being "that" person who sends a list of special requests back to the kitchen.  I'm also using a lot of almond milk in place of dairy milk, almond butter, agave nector instead of sugar, brown rice pasta....my cupboard looks like a Whole Foods store!  I never would have believed it.  And I think this is really sustainable.

As far as exercise is concerned, I'm still just riding my exercise bike and doing a little bit of upper body strength work.  But I think it's time to turn it up a small notch so I have an appointment with a personal trainer tomorrow for the first time and I'll start going to the gym maybe once a week.  I just don't have time to go three or four times a week.

Results, you ask?  Well, yea!  I've lost about 65 pounds!  I'm only 17 pounds from my Thanksgiving goal!  So the "obey" is going well!

"Read" has been a little slow.  I've read some great books....some good Elizabeth Chadwich historical fiction and I've started the Bowers Files series by Steven James in Christian Fiction.  I also finally broke down and bought a Kindle. With all of the traveling I have been doing, it was nice not to lug around two or three books everywhere.

And for "Love", I had a great time with my daughter on our mission trip to Puerto Rico. God just blessed the week and I was thankful to experience that with her.  Now we are on to serious planning for her wedding next summer.  My son is still his own little animal...I didn't understand teenage boys when I was a teenager and I don't understand them any better now!  He's working his first summer job so it's fun watching him learn to handle the responsibility that comes with the money.

It's a beautiful day and a beautiful time in my life.  I'm so thankful for the friends who have encouraged, supported and held me accountable during this time!

The Secret History of the Pink Carnation by Lauren Willig

If I had to describe my perfect book, it would have these characteristics:

• A historical setting involving real historical figures with accurate detail
• A strong romance storyline
• Humor - both in dialog and circumstance
• A bit of mystery

 

This book has all of that, so why isn't it perfect?  I can't quite put my finger on it.  Maybe because it appears to have all of my elements on the surface, but it has too much of some and not enough of others...just not the right balance.

 

Let's start with the historical setting.  Yes, it's set in the past, so that qualifies.  There are some scenes with Napolean and some of his family members, but I'd like to have seen more interaction between them and the characters in the story.  I did love the portrayal of Josephine.  I've never read a book about her, so I need to fix that.

 

The romance storyline was strong, but c'mon....she goes by boat from England to France and without knowing his name or what he looks like, finds herself in the cabin with the exact guy she's looking for?  Really?  And then they are so in love with other but she doesn't recognize his voice when his face is covered with a mask?  I'm all for suspending disbelief...in fact, I love it...but that's just too much even for me.

 

I did enjoy the humor, although it ran a little to the cutesy side. And the mystery wrapped up very neatly.

 

So it was a solid good book that I enjoyed reading, but won't make my list of Top Ten reads at the end of the year.  I won't run out and acquire the next books in the series, but I'll pick them up if I stumble on them.  They would probably be good beach reads.

 

 

A Place Beyond Courage by Elizabeth Chadwick

One of my favorite authors of Historical Fiction is Elizabeth Chadwick.  Her early novels are basically medieval romances, but then she started writing about real historical figures and those books are just superb.  I'm only a little over halfway through this one, but I couldn't wait until I finished to talk about it!

Chadwick is a master at character development and this book is no exception.  She shows you all sides of the important figures, not just the parts that fit their role as the "good guy" or "bad guy".  The details are deep and surprising, with frequent "point-of-view" changes that roll seamlessly together.

A Place Beyond Courage tells the story of John FitzGilbert Marshal who served as Marshal to King Henry I, King Stephen and the Empress Matilda.  John Marshal was the father of William Marshal, the famous court favorite of Eleanor of Aquitaine and subject of Chadwick's more well-known book, The Greatest Knight.

The book opens before the death of King Henry I, when John was a handsome, single courtier with the world at his fingertips.  He later settles down and marries Aline, a pious, nervous young woman.  It is Aline's story that has fascinated me, and shows how deftly Chadwick can plumb the depths of her characters.  Just when I was ready to write Aline off as a weak, simpering fool who wasted the opportunities afforded her through her relationship to John, there is a paragraph from her view point that changes completely how I feel about her and makes her far more sympathetic....for the time being!

Chadwick also excels at creating the scene. I recently described her writing as a "sensory feast".  I think it must be difficult to paint the picture of a lifestyle that is so foreign to the modern reader. It's hard for me to relate to the common occurances of bloodshed, abuse and filth inhabited by the medieval people. But in describing those circumstances, Chadwick will often add in a small thing that is universal and still resonates today to draw me in and cause me to sit a while in the scene....the leak of cold snow into a boot, the smell of over-ripe fish, the feeling that you are coming down with a cold.   All common senses that will tie me to the scene.

At the spot where I am in the book, John has just been injured in battle and is recovering from his wounds.  The wounds are severe and will surely change how he views himself and how he is viewed by others.  The John Marshal that I have been reading about so far is quite different than the way he is portrayed in The Greatest Knight, so I can't wait to see how he gets from one place to the other!

Well....here I go!!

Hmmm....my very first blog post!  I want to use this blog to document three big things in my life:

-Love:  I love my husband, my son, my daughter, my family and friends.  I want to learn how to love them more and better. 

-Obey:  I'm on a weight-loss journey. What else is new, huh?  What's new this time is that instead of obsessing about calories consumed and calories burned and weighing every day, I'm focusing on obedience. I'm trying to listen to God more about everything that I do, including what I eat.  Instead of counting calories, I am counting "obediences" and adding them to my pile each and every time I choose to obey.

-Read:   Now that my kids are older, I'm finding a little more free time, so I spend it reading.  I read mostly Christian Fiction and historicial fiction, with a little mystery and romance thrown in there from time to time.

So we'll see how this goes!  It should be fun!