I have bought way too many knitting books this year. I have been quite unable to contain myself. I don't (anymore) purposely hide them on my way in the door but, I admit, I am happy if my husband is not standing in the kitchen when I walk in with yet another one. This particular book was especially insubordinate because I bought it at a knitting store. No Barnes and Nobles membership or coupon and no JoAnn's coupon. Just straight up off the shelves of my knitting store and, let me tell you. I have stopped feeling bad about it because it was just that worth it.

Reading about knitting has interfered with pretty much every other kind of reading I have wanted to do this year. But, I so like reading about knitting. It is almost as much fun as knitting itself.

By far, though, the best book I have ever read about knitting is The Opinionated Knitter, Elizabeth Zimmermann. This book is a memoir, but it is more than that. It contains patterns, but it is hardly a book of patterns. This book is a book all about love.  It is about the love of knitting, the love that a knitter has for her family, the love between mother and daughter knitters, and the love between friends. And, also, most happily, this book is about the love of writing.

If you love and, especially if you love knitting, you must have this book.

I enjoyed this book. I encourage anyone interested in learning, teaching, and  homeschooling to read it. 

Van DeMille speaks of three types of education: conveyer belt (what to think), professional (when to think), and leadership (how to think). Most people, like myself, have been on the conveyer belt and have learned what others would like us to think. Professional education seems like a step up in that it teaches you when to think, but I am here to tell you that the conveyer belt is making considerable headway in professional education. And, I would agree with De Mille that the conveyer belt is finding its way in the homeschooling community also.

Van DeMille rightly puts the onus of responsibility for learning on the learner. A teacher can push and shove, a teacher can require and insist, but if the student is not amenable to learning, the learning will not occur. Isn't this so true? He says, "every human being learns exactly as much as he or she chooses to learn. No more, no less. No exceptions. We can increase opportunity, incentive, motivation, and improve the environment, the materials, and the resources - but ultimately students must choose to learn or they won't." (p.101)

So, if it is the learner's responsibility to learn, then what is the teacher to do? Here it is in a nutshell: set an inspirational example in learning by doing it yourself. For real. Also, teachers should establish mentor relationships with their students for the purposes of meaningful discussion and encouragement to act. And, no matter what you are learning or teaching, partake in the classics of your genre and partake of the classics, in general.

I love this book. I started enjoying this book even before I learned to knit. On my many forrays into Barnes and Nobles, in search coffee, book perusing, and rest, this book was inevitably in the pile along side me for exploration. I finally submitted and bought the book. I am glad I did.

The book has all of the essentials in a great fiber technique book - inspirational designs and pictures, excellent directions, projects for all levels of crafters, and encouragement to improvise. It also has a particularly nice section on the history of knitted rugs.

Shopping for rugs is burdensome. I almost always need an unusual size in the most beautiful color (which is never what is left on the shelves) and then I am typically loathe to spend the money necessary, especially for a poorly made, acrylic rug. The good news is, that though acrylic rugs have not made great gains, acrylic yarns have. There are a lot of great rug yarn choices available today. Also, combining a good natural fiber yarn with a new funky and soft man-made yarn, seems particularly suited to rug making. The possibilities seem endless.

I finally finished reading this book. It took me a while; there is a fair amount of "meat" in this book, if not in the diet plan itself.

This is the most compelling book I have read on nutrition in a long time. It just makes sense to me. After reading things like Atkins, or South Beach, or the Zone, I was always encouraged to try those plans to lose weight (because, intellectually speaking, those plans make some sense), but I never felt that any of those eating plans promoted healthful eating. I felt that way even more strongly after I tried eating pursuant to those other plans. After a day or two of Atkins or even South Beach, I always felt like I had just eaten large bowls of fat. Yuck. And I was never able to get to a place where I lost my cravings for carbohydrates. Some of my friends did, but I never did. Until I ate a piece of fruit or something; then, I felt better.

Dr. Fuhrman recommends a diet that is "nutrient dense." He makes a strong argument that the way to get a diet that is nutrient dense is to significantly increase the amounts of leafy greans that you eat, and also the amounts of vegetables, fruits, and beans or legumes. He advocates taking a stance against processed foods. And, he advocates giving up animal based protein. He argues that doing so could significantly lesson or eliminate the risk of cardiovascular disease and cancer. He argues that his vegetarian based diet can also reverse things like diabetes, arteriosclerosis, high blood pressure, not to mention macular degeneration and migraines. And, he says, even without any exercise, you will - if you follow his plan strictly - lose a lot of weight. And, incidentally, if you lose lots of weight, you will likely have more energy to exercise.

I know that God has called me to this way of eating. The truth of it came that day that Dr. Yuk Law pulled me, the mother of a transplanted boy, aside and said, "Even if you follow completely vegan diet, your son will still develop arteriosclerosis as a result of low grade rejection that will make him unamenable to future transplants." Law was not a man to mince words and, believe me, I heard all aspects of what he was saying. I knew, immediately, that a vegetarian lifestyle would be the most healthful lifestyle to have and, even though it wouldn't be enough, it would help. God answered my prayer and gave me something small I could do.

Over the years, though, the urgency - if you can imagine - has diminished. The crisis has moved. Just like the pain of childbirth, you forget. Top that off with a dollop of my own eating issues, which are as deeply entrenched as the roots of an aged and happy oak tree. All in all, I have not had the strength or stamina to do that which I know I am to do. It is so good to know, though, that God continues to speak to us about His will even when we fail to listen the first time. Or the second.

Reading Fuhrman's book has been the manifestation of God speaking the healthful eating issue back into my life again. The previous motivation for increasing the likelihood of health for Zain and the rest of my family has re-kindled strong, but God has also given me a fresh reminder of the fragility of my own unhealth, primarily by bringing me alongside the very recent breast cancer diagnosis of my good friend, Barbie.

God has shown me His will, again, and now I must walk forward in obedience down the road where I have failed so many times before. I must be more dependent on Him for my success. The one lesson I have learned, over the course of some 40 years of trying to do the "right food thing" is that I cannot. I am humbled and, surely, powerless on my own strength. I am thankful for the power of the resurrected Christ which resounds in my heart.

And, I am also reminded of a few blessings. First, I am naturally drawn away from meat and always have been. It is not a sticking point for me. After all, I spent 6 to 8 years, before I had children, as a vegetarian. I just wasn't a nutrient dense vegetarian. I was more a cheese puffs and ice cream and eat all of the pasta and bread that you want kind of vegetarian. That must be why vegetarianism never produced healthful results for me.

Second, I recognize that this is a part of the larger spiritual battle I face. The devil is after the very health and lives of my family; that is well known to me. He battles for their spiritual souls by trying to take their literal lives. I know, in my heart, that he will continue on this line of fighting and that we are only now exeriencing a brief reprieve. The way the devil confuses me, is no different than the way he confuses most - by keeping us outside the narrow path of obedience to God's known will for us. He distracts us, he let's us lie in illusionary comfort, and he busies us with the nonessentials.

And, third, I recognize that God has blessed me with positional leadership in this area. I am, afterall, the one who brings the food into the nest and the one who places it in their little gaping beaks. That is a position of power that I recognize. However, in the past, I have taken this to mean that I must compel my family to eat in a new way along with me. I think that this has been wrong thinking exascerbated by my fleshly worries about how on earth will I be able to manage eating well while the rest of my family insists on eating the same way they always have been. It just always has seemed practically imossible. The new encouragement that came along with Fuhrman's book is that I will not have to compel them. The natural benefit of my eating well (my improved health and energy, my weight loss, my loss of migraines) will serve to naturally spur them on to eat well also. Especially if the results are as dramatic as Fuhrman indicates they will be.

Prayerfully, I step forward.

2Co 12:9 And He said to me, My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore I will rather glory in my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may overshadow me.

In the honor of the new year, and in rememberance of the erased library of last year's books read and reviewed, I decided to persevere and continue my reading journal. Books, of course, are a big part of my life and days; I just can't imagine a good day without them. Even given that, though, I have not  really been reading much lately. Life is so busy and so stretched that only a few particularly noteworthy books have held my attention for any space of time. I would like to try and be a little more purposeful than that, so I decided to embark on a semi-formal reading agenda that is a a tad more planful and guided by things that I have been wanting to read or re-read for awhile. Just for the sake of completion, I listed the books I read in 2005, without comment and re-review. Then, I started searching my brain and my catalogues to decide what I would like to try and read in 2006.

I am mostly a creature of nonfiction and I particularly love nonfiction books that are written with personal reflection and literary flair. Executive Brain was that way as was Knitting Around. So, my 2006 list has a lot of nonfiction that I suspect and hope to be very enjoyable reads. I have, though, included some contemporary fiction that I have been wanting to read for awhile. Most of the books on the fiction list have been recommeded to me by other readers in my life.

I have broken my list down into particular categories because I know myself and I can't contain myself in a particular venue for too many similar reads in a row. I like variety or, at least, a variety of perspectives on a similar topic. Some reads are easy (almost picture book in style) and some reads will be more challenging. Some aspire to reckon some spiritual truths and others are chosen because they simply sound fun. 

I was sure to make a list for books on education and homeschooling. I need some perking up in that area and, although  reading is my most encouraging friend for that, the last few years have brought sadly few great reads to that part of my life.  That is why I thought it might be time to revisit Norms and Nobility. I have read bits and pieces of Norms and Nobililty over the years, but this time I would really like to sit down and give that book the thoroughness deserves.

I have also read two of the Turansky/Miller parenting books before. They, in fact, are the best parenting books I have ever read. My plan is do broach them again for a more pragmatic and studious re-read. I always need help and encouragement in the parenting area.

I really wanted to embark on a Great Books list and I thought about it for a few days. But, it is not the time in my life for that kind of study. I know myself. I would hate to do it halfway and it would be discouraging for me to start and then not be able to finish. So, I decided to wait for a year or more. In the interim, though, I thought a nice, happy medium between Great Books and No Great Books would be the Knit the Classics read along. In that group, the girls knit along projects that spring forth from some classic pieces of literature. I doubt that I will be one of those knitting some period piece; I will be quite happy if I can read (or, in the case, listen on tape) to some good literature while practicing my knitting.     

I haven't completed my reading list yet, but I will keep plugging away on it until my list is completed, hopefully by the end of January. I am sure that there will be somethings on my list that I don't read and somethings not on my list that I will read. I don't want to turn a reading list into something that adds pressure to my life so I refuse, in advance, to feel bad if I don't get to read all of the things on my list. I set this out as merely a happy, mildly planful, aspiration. It will be fun, at the end of 2006, to see how much was accomplished, and whether there was any inclination to move into uncharted reading territory.

Executive Brain: Frontal Lobes and the Civilized Mind

I read and reviewed this book last year but accidentally deleted the review. Second reviews are never the same, so I won't bother to try and recapture my original thoughts, but it is worth it to take the time to, at least, highlight this book again because it is a great book. It is particularly important for people who struggle with or caretake someone who struggles with executive dysfunction. The difficulty with this condition is its subtlety and that it masquerades as things like bad behavior, laziness, and bad attitude.

Nylah struggles incredibly with this problem which, I suppose, is not surprising given the nature of her neurological damage. My experience is that professionals do not address this problem. At least in my world of developmental pediatricians, neurologists, nurse practioners, neuropsychologists, and teachers there is neither awareness of nor understanding of executive dysfunction. No one seems to get it; a state of affairs almost as frustrating as the condition itself. That Goldberg identifies executive dysfunction, describes it well, and proffers some mild encouragement is like a candle in the darkness of a musty and, surely, unlit basement. And he does it in a book that is very well written, almost literary, in its scope. It makes you feel like you are having a real conversation with a real person who understands your real problem.

And that prompted me to write to Dr. Goldberg. He never wrote back, but I think that if he had a magic bullet answer, he would. I include the letter here (edited slightly for good grammar's sake) in the hope that it may encourage some other mother, or caretaker, who feels like they are sitting alone in the damp darkness of an unfriendly basement. Or maybe there is someone out there who has found the way out of that basement and can enlighten me. 

This was a sweet little book. It is a one setting read and, let's be honest, who doesn't benefit from that now and again? No fluff, nothing preachy, just the real solid bottom line. This is what he says:

1. Look to Jesus. (This always gets my attention.)
   
2. Decide temporal priorities based on relationships, fellowship, work, and personal needs.
   
3. Take the time to take a time inventory.
   
4. Make a schedule that allows for those temporal priorities noted above.
   
5. Then, follow the schedule.
   

Hmmm. Let's see. I trip on each of the steps regularly. I fall down, most consistently, on the fifth step.

My favorite paragraph: "A competent general always draws up his battle plan before engaging the enemy; he doesn't postpone basic decisions until the firing starts. But he is also prepared to change his plans if necessary to cope with an unexpected turn of events. So be ready to implement your plans as the day's battle against the clock begins."

Anything about warriors generally gets me fired up. I also appreciated: " Prayerful waiting on God is indispensable to effective service ... the need itself, however urgent, is not the call for us to meet it; the call must come from the Lord who knows our limitations. "

The key to long term success, he says, is

daily waiting on God

weekly inventory of tasks

and monthly planning.

Sounds like a plan to me.

Thank you, Trish. Best book I have read in months.

A while back, I had dis-engaged my library, with reviews of books that I had read, because I didn't like the way it was organized or how poorly written my reviews were. For weeks, I tweaked it and moved things around, re-wrote reviews, fixed broken links that happen when you move things around, etc. After considerable work, it was good or, at least, good enough. The whole time I was creating this new library, I had saved the old one - you know, just in case I blundered.

Finally, yesterday, I enabled the new library and deleted the old one. Or so I thought. When I re-checked my webpage, I realized that I must have deleted my new one instead of the old one. I was being pretty careful, but there is no doubt about it, the new library, with all of its pretty reviews, is surely gone. 

Waaah. I emailed Squarespace and they said, indeed, those files were not recoverable. They were very nice about it, though.

It is not that big of a deal, of course. In fact, before I had reworked my archive, I really thought about deleting it straight out. The reviews were pretty boring and I haven't been reading much so the pages just stood there with nothing to do. I was lamenting both the lack of reading and the boringness factor, and, if there is one thing I don't need to do, it is waste time feeling guilty about something that doesn't really matter in the first place.     

Oh well. I guess that no one, including me in my advancing years, will ever know how much I loved some of the books I read on spiritual authority last year. Or my fabulous encounter with Elizabeth Zimmerman, or Sally Melville. I am going to re-write a little something about Executive Dysfunction because that book was important to me. And I still have the letter I wrote to Dr. Goldberg in my files. Hopefully. 

In the meantime, it is onward. I am in the market for something good to read.