For the Love of God

If you are a high school graduate, there is a 33% chance you will never read another book for the rest of your life. If you are a college graduate that number goes up to 42%. However, it is highly likely you spent 28 hours of your week watching TV.

Conservatively speaking, you could finish an average book in 6 hours. If you read 15 minutes a day you could finish 20 books a year. We do not own a TV and I haven't turned one on in my home for a year. So I should easily have met this mark, but I am writing this blog for myself because I did not read 20 books last year.

I have turned into an accountant of late. We have scrapped Quicken and track where our dollars and cents go with Excel spreadsheets and charts. Now I am moving on to my time. Wyatt has been disciplined in getting up early and reminded me that by pulling myself out of bed 1 hour earlier would result in 30 more 12 hour days a year.

After seeing my abundance of time, I realized I lack discipline. On a Crown Financial podcast recently a successful business women shared that she has a list of ten things she must do no matter what she feels like. Case in point 20 minutes of exercise a day, which would be on my list if I had one.

Discipline naturally flows into accountability. So I have given Wyatt license to use whatever means necessary to get me out of bed earlier in the morning. He will ask me if I ran today and what did I read. We both do a Bible reading plan that goes through the Old Testament once and new Testament twice a year. To enhance this, we got D.A. Carson's commentary on the plan entitled For the Love of God Vol I&II. We read the 2 page commentary aloud together which has incredible insight and sets aside time for us to discuss what we read that day.

A site of free audiobooks was recently recommended to me called LibriVox. It is quite extensive and the quality it good. I am working my way through G.K. Chesterton's Orthodoxy currently~just a mere 6 hours and 1 book under my belt.

Thought for the day: Some day you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again. ~C.S. Lewis

Oregon, Oysters, and More Oysters

One year later and one year more in love. Is the honeymoon over, I don't know. We are still experiencing new things together, like both our first times in Oregon and Wyatt's first taste of oysters.

I don't remember my inauguration to oysters, probably some posh corporate function, but I have been talking about them non-stop to Wyatt since we moved to the Pacific Northwest. I was on a mission to eat oysters after passing through Willapa Bay and the self proclaimed Oyster Capital of the World - South Bend, WA.

I really love oysters on the half shell, which are actually alive when eaten! Talk about fresh. So did Wyatt enter a haven of bliss upon encounter with this heavenly mollusk. This skeptic was turned into a believer and shuckers be ware we are working our way through oyster bars near you.

Oregon is an amazing place. Not only is it tax free, but gas is pumped for you by law for a cheaper price than Washington. Ok, not to mention the breath taking coast lines, commitment to locally grown product, the ocean, mountains, and rain forest within a few miles striking distance. And the tide pools, orgies of starfish at every turn and waves begging to suck you into the ocean.

I highly recommend Cannon Beach for your Oregon coast stay. You might recognize the scenery from such movies as cult classic the Goonies. Everything is local in this town, no Marriott or McDonald's in a very touristy town.

The picture to my left has been my dream ever since I knew this was possible- kayaking with killer whales! I have a very strong affinity with the ocean, my husband can fill you in on the numerous dreams involving sharks. This is a teaser to a future post...after my close encounter of the orcas kind.

Thought for the Day: He was a bold man that first eat an oyster. Jonathan Swift