It's Been A While....

If you pay any attention to me, you'll note that I have not written on this blog since May.  And, paying even closer attention, you'll see that I've deleted several posts all the way back through March.

I'm not exactly sure what I want this blog to be about.  But I know I miss the writing.

My family has a lot to be thankful for this Thanksgiving.  My daddy had emergency brain surgery at the beginning of May.  I thought he wasn't going to make it.  I thought he would never be the same again.  But the Lord has healed him and he's back to his normal self.

Yesterday I said the blessing before our Thanksgiving feast at my parents' house.  I thanked God for my father's recovery, for my mother's gift of selflessness and commitment as she tirelessly takes care of people, for my brother's new job, for my husband's good job, and for my son who is growing and thriving as he should.  But the number one thing I am thankful for is that I am absolutely certain that every single one of us around that table knows Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior and that we will be able to spend eternity together with Him.  Praise God!

My internet habits and interests have changed over the past few months.  I am no longer obsessive about reading blogs about frugality, personal finance, writing, and Christianity.  I am no longer interested in reading blogs and news sites where the comments are worthless, inflammatory, negative and blasphemous.  I am no longer interested in trying to learn about the Lord and the way He wants me to live my life by reading about other people's lives, especially other Christian SAHMs.  I want to go to directly to THE source---God and His Holy Word, the Bible.  I'm also returning to my first love of reading, that old-fashioned thing called the book.

Sure, there's a lot of junky, self-help, feel-good, health-wealth-and-prosperity books out there, even in Christian bookstores.  But there are also a lot of valuable scholarly resources that can enhance my knowledge and understanding of the Bible.

I started a Bible study at my home this fall with four friends and it has been a huge blessing to all of us.  The book we studied was The Girl's Still Got It by Liz Curtis Higgs, about Ruth.  It was a fun and revealing read, chock-full of information that we couldn't have gathered on our own.  I loved listening to my friends' different perspectives on what we read and also how they found ways to apply what we were reading to our own lives.

Back to the internet....Yeah, I finally joined Facebook about 15 months ago, so it takes awhile to catch up on that once a day.  I've also discovered Pinterest and really, really enjoy it!

But I'm reading more regular old books, and watching classic movies on TV, and doing things around the house.  I love being able to stay at home.  I am a homebody and an introvert at heart.  I never run out of things to do here.  And, though the house may look like a mess most of the time, I know for a fact that I make things run smoothly around here.

So, here is my foray back into blogging.  Not sure how often I will post, but hopefully when I do write something it will be something of quality.

Thanks for stopping by and sticking with me!

And to my dear blog friends: Gabby, Donnmo, Davene, Margie, Laura, Carrie, Mary Ann, Robin and all others---I do not include you when I say I am tired of reading blogs.  Your blogs are the ones I want to get back to reading.  I've just, you know, been on a blog break.

A Little Bit of Vintage

When I was a little girl I was whole-heartedly in love with those orangey-red, cloth-bound Childhood of Famous Americans books.  A lot of you know, as I've talked about it before.  I loved to get lost in the lives of little girls who grew to be famous all throughout history.

My best friend growing up was a girl named Kim and she was a whole 14-months older than me, so you could say she was the one who was in charge of our friendship.  I complained to my mother that Kim always wanted to play "people".  We would usually be teachers or telephone operators.  It wasn't fair.  Sometimes I wanted to play Candyland or Barbies.  When I tried to tell Kim that I didn't want to play people anymore, she laughed and said, "What do you want to play...animals?"

So, I thought that maybe Kim might like to hear about the little historical girls I was reading about and we could pretend to be them.  But she was totally bored with Martha Washington and she really burst my bubble when I was designing Rachel Jackson's flatboat to sail down the river and trying to decide how many baskets of apples we needed to take on our journey. 

I've shared before how the Lord gave me the little gifts of two of those little red biographies quite by surprise.  I have Clara Barton: Girl Nurse and Betsy Ross: Girl of Old Philadelphia.  They have a special place on top of my bookcase as decorations.  I've decided to add to their numbers as I can and used a little bit of my birthday money to order Rachel Jackson: Kentucky Girl from Amazon.

I enjoyed reading it just as much as I did as a child.  What fun to hear all the provisions they stocked their flatboat with, and that their boat actually had a log cabin built on top of it.  When I was little I pictured myself helping to steer that boat in the icy swirling water with a paddle.

It's so fun and relaxing to go back and read favorite childhood books. Which books were your favorites as a child?

It's Kind Of A Joke

My tag line for Green Velvet Couch---"Where I Lie Around and Read All Day"---is cute and says a lot, but it's kind of a joke.  See, I'm a stay-at-home mom of an older child who is not homeschooled.   Moms of my variety are few and far between around here.

I can't tell you how many times I've been asked the question, "So....what do you do all day?", the implication being that I am lazy and couldn't possibly being doing anything worthwhile.  I know, I know....I'm hypersensitive and I view a lot of stuff as a personal attack.

The fact is I never run out of things to do around here.  My hubs and I decided a long time ago, early into our 17-year marriage, that our family just works best when I am at home to take care of things.  I clean, cook, make the grocery list, budget, pay bills, do the shopping, do laundry....you know, all the stuff that all moms do, whether they work outside the home or not.

I feel I am blessed to be able to stay at home.  My wardrobe requires very few clothes, I am always available for my son, I have plenty of time to run errands and go to my frequent doctor appointments and I often get to go out to lunch with my mom and with my friends.  Those are just a few of the benefits.

So, how does this relate to my "lying around and reading all day" on the Green Velvet Couch?  The truth is I read for maybe an hour each regular, ordinary day.  Some days not at all, some days a lot more if I have the time and a really great book.  What helps a lot is that I sit in the car line at my son's school  for about 30 minutes every afternoon and that is 30 minutes of uninterrupted reading time.

At home, after my husband and son are home, it's not so easy.  It's a little more noisy, what with the TV and my husband sitting around practicing his turkey calls, my son running in and out of the house and stuff like that.  I find noise a great distraction.

So, I just wanted to explain that I don't actually lie around all day, eating bon-bons and reading....though that sounds very nice!

How much time do you spend reading each day?

What's This Thing Called?

Here I am, starting a new blog after I made a quick, snap-decision to delete my old one.  I think the shine and the sparkle had worn off of the old one after three-and-a-half years.

I knew I wanted to start a new blog that focused more on reading and writing, with just a smattering of random life mixed in.  Something a little less personal than my old blog.  So, I just had to come up with a name for it.  Easy, right?

No.  Not when every one of the dozens of titles I thought of regarding books and libraries have already been taken.  So, I thought about it and it lead my brain to wonder and wander through my childhood.

Should I call it "Three Dollar Thumbelina" in honor of the very first book I ever purchased with my own money?  It was a beautiful, shiny, pink, pop-up book that you could tie together at the top with a little pink ribbon and it was like carousel of characters.  I picked it out at the book fair at school when I was in the first grade.  There was a green one, too, about Sleeping Beauty, equally beautiful but not PINK, which had already been claimed by a girl named Karen.

 I went home and asked my mother if I could spend my money on Thumbelina.  She talked to me about how three dollars was a lot of money.  And it was!  Especially considering that this was 1979 and my allowance at the time was 25-cents a week.  She gave me her permission to buy it and I was in book heaven! I wish I still had that pop-up book but I have the feeling that as a generous older child I gave it away to someone younger.  I have recently found it on Amazon for 1-cent, but I have the feeling if I order that copy it won't be so shiny and new.

But, in the end, I decided not to call it "Three Dollar Thumbelina" because it sounded kind of cheap and creepy and a little bit sleazy.

Then I thought about where I liked to read the most as a child and that clinched it for me.  I would read lying down on the 9-foot green velvet couch in my parents' living room, propped up on a big pillow.  During summers my mother would allow me to snuggle up there and read all I wanted, as long as I got up occasionally  to play badminton with my brother or go to the swimming pool or go play at a friend's house.

I love that couch.  They bought it when I was six months old along with the other matching velvet pieces and they still have it, almost 40 years later.  It is soft, it is comfortable, it is the perfect place to lie down and read.

Where's your favorite place to read?