Life in My World

I just came in from the shop. Calvin is putting the finishing touches on the cedar chest he is making for Grace and needed me to help lift it up on the saw horses. (Believe me when I say strong, sturdy gal was on his list of qualifications when we got married.) An old song was playing on the radio when I walked into the shop and he asked me to dance to it right then and there, in front of the fire in the stove, and See-more chewing on his bone. It was the making for a romantic novel, especially because the details of my wet-hair-dried-natural, no make-up, and my paint splattered, baggie clothes could be carefully omitted.

(I borrowed this picture of a used books store in Italy from Ande's blog)

While reviewing life in my world this morning, I discovered that what I read pretty much defined it.


I finished Why Gender Matters by Dr. Leonard Sax and also presented a lecture “Male and Female Created I Them: Moses 2:27” for the LDS institute lecture series held at the college. Interestingly enough my reading also included The Family: A Proclamation to the World, Moses in the Pearl of Great Price, and Julie B. Beck’s talk, Teaching the Doctrine of the Family. It was faith building to see how the reading collaborated without my effort.


After reading a few chapters of Writing & Speaking for Business I have discovered that I am too dependent on spell check. Though I faithfully use a calculator only to “check my work” like my school teachers taught me, I let spell check have free rein in my life. This book is by no means compelling reading, more like taking-your-medicine reading, but I do hope I’m better for it when I’m finished with it.


I finished all but 30 pages of Bell Canto by Anne Patchett. It’s a good thing a friend recommended it, and also taught me the symbolism I missed in it, or it would have just been a novel about an opera singer. I am ignorant in matters pertaining to opera. Can’t say I’d recommend the book, can’t say I loved it, but can say I learned something from it and appreciated my friend’s views.


The Proper Role of Government by Ezra Taft Benson was a great 28 page read. Can say I recommend it, can say it was inspiring, and can say I learned a great deal from it.


The Book of Mormon, in particular the book of Ether and the book of Moroni, was also on the circuit this week. Hands down I’ve read this book from cover to cover more than any other book (even counting the Little House series :). It changes me every single time. It changes others. Watching and feeling the miracle of that change has been an exciting part of my week.


I just started The Queen of the Big Time by Adriana Trigiani last night and am only on page seven. She wrote, “Our farm will never be as beautiful as the houses and gardens in town. Anything that’s pretty on the farm is wild. The fields covered in bright yellow dandelions, low thickets of tiny red beach roses by the road, and stalks of black-eyed Susans by the barn are all accidents.” I think we’re going to get along just fine in this book.


And on that note, getting along fine, I made Jill’s-Michelle’s-Hannah’s Miracle Bread this morning. Usually bread takes me several hours on Saturday, but not today. It is true; the recipe really does only take an hour. I followed the all-white directions but added half wheat-half white flour and the loaves are beautiful and taste good, too. Thank you Jill, Michelle, and Hannah. Now I need to go and finish the batch of rolls that are rising and do the laundry and ironing. And maybe, just maybe, read.

What have you been reading? Does reading define you some weeks?