Books.

I love to read.  Always have.  My tastes have changed and I've picked up more classics and challenging reads as I've gotten older.  The Kindle has given me unspeakable joy, since the airline weight limits keep us from bringing almost any books back.  Still, we have quite a library and an ever growing pile of books that I haven't gotten to yet on our shelves.  I suppose having two little ones and usually feeling fried at the end of the day, I'm not tearing through stuff as quickly as I might like.  I feel like reading is one of those things that keeps my mind fresh, challenges me to think harder than I naturally would in my somewhat lazy natural self and gives me fodder for conversation with my husband and other booky friends.  And in some cases, it gives me a few moments to escape to another world or another time and completely forget, if even for 20 minutes, the weariness of my day or my concerns.  So, as others before me have done, I decided to share what I am reading right now.  I never thought it a good habit to have more than one book going at a time, but with so much to read, I've started getting into more than one.  Also, if it's a particularly weighty non-fiction, sometimes I also want the chance to jump between that and something fiction that I don't have to try so hard to apply to my life while I'm reading it.  Without further ado:

1.  Lord of the Rings- Book one.  I've been wanting (or feeling a duty) to read this series for a long time now.  I just read The Hobbit for the first time a month or so ago and loved it...so I knew I would enjoy these, too.

2.  Instruments in the Redeemers Hands by Paul David Tripp.  This one is incredibly in depth and at some points reads a bit like a counselling text book.  I have enjoyed the half that I've read but found that there's so much info that I can't keep it all in my head.  However, I believe it's pretty invaluable in helping each one of us to be a better listener and point those in crisis (including ourselves) back to Christ.

3.  The Grand Weaver by Ravi Zacharias.  This is my first Zacharias book.  I've heard so many good things about him and have wanted to read something by him for a long time.  I've barely started but already love the way he tells stories and shares important truths in a practical and interesting way.  I think I'm going to really like and be challenged this one.

4.  Created to Connect: A Christian's Guide to The Connected Child by Karyn Purvis.  This one is a handbook that you can download free online.  It goes along with the author's book, The Connected Child, which I found incredibly helpful (in theory, for now) and practical in helping parents to understand the varied challenges a child adopted from a "hard place" deals with.  I'm looking forward to going through the end of chapter questions with Scotty as we continue to pray for our little guy and the wisdom and grace we need to be his parents.

So, there you have it.  I'm kinda crawling through most of these since time doesn't allow each day for a lot of reading.  Except for children's books, of course...