I Love to Read the Story: The Weekly Hodgepodge



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Come on over to 

From This Side of the Pond 

for the Hodgepodge link-up!

What would you say is your biggest day to day challenge?

Loneliness.  They say that the first year a new place is the toughest.  Though my worst bout with homesickness was right after the F-3 tornado tore through Jacksonville, the sting of not having community outside of work has been disheartening. 

Not to turn this into a rant, but information about surviving your first year in a new place (unless you're a teacher or student) is sorely lacking.  I found one rather insulting article about surviving your first year in Denver.  The author, a Canadian transplant (which should be a clue), offers suggestions like leaving behind your favorite sports team, your significant other, and basically anything that reminds you of home.  She seemed to assume that everyone who moves to the Denver area hates their hometown and would gladly deny its culture.  Sorry, but one commitment I made when I moved out here was that Denver was not going to de-Southern me (#RollTide).  I don't think the author's assumptions are fair or accurate.

I'll just have to figure that one out myself...

May 16th is National Biographers Day. What's a biography you really enjoyed reading? Is this a genre you read regularly?

I've enjoyed several over the past few years:

• American on Purpose by Craig Ferguson.  I plan to reread this one soon.
• In My Father's House:  The Years Before the Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom.  The story of her growing up years and the family's determination to protect the Jewish people during the Holocaust is fascinating.
• My Bondage and My Freedom by Frederick Douglass.
• Up From Slavery by Booker T. Washington.

I enjoy reading biographies.  I also enjoy when an author add a bit of his biography to an otherwise non-biographical work.  For example, I read a lot of books on personal development.  I get much more out of them when the author give examples from his own life of how the principles of the book worked for him.  I'm very suspicious of an author who maintains a distant relationship with his readers.

How important is keeping a clean house? Do you need to de-clutter your life?

As much as I would love to keep an immaculate home like my mom, I realize that it's not the be all and end all.  I try to keep things picked up and put away.  However, there's just days when I don't have time, or feel well enough to deep clean my apartment.  Plus, I'm still working on getting my place company ready.  

You're the 8th dwarf. What's your name?

Chunky.

What's surprised you the most about your life or life in general?

When we had this question last year, this was my answer:

I started to say that how well things are going was surprising, but that would be a lie.  It should be this good, and better.  I've prayed.  My friends have prayed.  God continually reminds me of His Word and asks me to trust Him.  His plan is good.  I'm the one who's been screwing it up.

Any of you who've read my blog for any significant length of time knows that God has brought me through many hard times (some self-inflicted) and helped me overcome so much crap that should have killed me, or at least made me stark raving crazy (again, some self-inflicted).

God's word says in Romans 8:28 that He works all things together for my good because I love Him and am called according to His purpose.  I've been calling that one in.  It's my time.  It's time for me to do Him more good than harm.  It's time for me to work and have something to show for it.  It's time for me to fulfill God's purpose in my life, rather than just sit and dream about it.

And I still mean it.

Insert your own random thought here.

Well, I said last week that I might have a surprise for you.  Here it is:

I present the Auntiemobile v. 2.0!
I am finally mobile again!