New Background

Can You Hear Me Now?

Thursday, July 06, 2006

The New Phone Books Are Here!!! The New Phone Books Are Here!!!

Okay, so not the new phone books and frankly how many of those do we need anyway?

I am SO excited because a few weeks ago I ordered BOOKS. I know, I'm a NERD! AND I’m a bit of a ‘bargain hunter’ (okay…I’m cheap), so I had them shipped ground. Well! What’s the point of celebrating a cheap new book via Amazon.com if you are going to pay 5x’s the price for shipping…so I waited, and waited, and this morning they appeared on the kitchen table.

No, our mail delivery isn’t THAT good, my husband stopped last night and picked up the mail at our PO Box. They won’t deliver directly to the Wigwam. Guess what else came? Give up yet? My stamps came! I know you’re thinking; “so what”.

Well, as much as I LOVE America and I do, truly, love America…I hate the flag stamps; they’re so ‘done’. AND, my post-office made it clear to me they do not get to decide which stamps they will carry, so they do not know when they will carry a particular new stamp. I order my stamps online.

It’s easy enough and I don’t have to deal with the marginal customer service skills of the over-worked and apparently, quite angry-on-the-verge-of-going-postal clerks at MY USPS. Yours may be different. I certainly hope so. But as many times as I’ve done the postal survey I’ve yet to be able to give my P.O. a grade above 2 on a 1-5 scale. In the words of my, now half grown nephew, “they are WUDE, WUDE, WUDE!”

Without further ado, I got these stamps and these stamps and I can’t wait to start using them. Oh, we do still use the ‘flags’ for bills usually, but my husband clearly understands that for fun mail (which I’m infamous for), I need FUN STAMPS!

Now on to the books I’m hankering to read! The first one I’ve referenced here before and trust me if you ever see it at a garage sale or thrift store or some discount house…pick it up. You won’t regret it and it may just make you laugh AND change a misconception or two, you have! It is: Nancy Kennedy’s book: “Help! I’m Being Intimidated By The Proverbs 31 Woman!” My sister had given me this book years ago. It’s not even in print currently, but they have several “new” copies available via Amazon.com used books. I L*O*V*E this book. It’s one of my all-time favorite reads. She writes much like Liz Curtis Higgs and I laugh to the point of adult-diapers often!

Here’s an excerpt. This passage comes from Chapter one: ‘Next on Oprah: The Virtuous Woman and Those of us Who’d Like to Wring Her Perfect Neck”.

It was Mother’s Day. No, maybe it was the time our church held a week-long women’s seminar. Maybe it was just another Sunday. Whenever it was, my daughters were sitting next to me in the pew, writing on each other’s shoes, while I sat, trying to untwist my panty-hose with one hand and cover a coffee stain on my white blouse with the other. I’d forgotten to brush my teeth that day, too.

The Pastor stood to speak.

“Open your Bibles to the book of Proverbs,” he said. “Let’s take a look at this beautiful passage of scripture on womanhood.”

His voice dripped with syrup. His eyes glazed over. He looked right at me.

My skirt button popped off and rolled out into the aisle. “I’m in trouble,” I whispered.

If that doesn’t “hook” you…you’ve clearly left your funny bone for the Am-Vets to pick up or you’ve misplaced it in the laundry basket. Trust me, it’s worthwhile and aside from the hilarious writing, it holds true meaning for this OVERWHELMING passage of Scripture.

The next book is by Geneen Roth. I’ve never read any of her books, however; the title strummed my heart strings a bit. The book is titled: “When You Eat at the Refrigerator, Pull Up a Chair”. It deals with emotional eating (uh, yeah, I can SO relate) and one of the chapters is: “Carry a Chunk of Chocolate Everywhere”, so how could I have gone wrong?

The last two books are less for laugh-factor and more for my eternal quest to ‘un-box’ God! The first of these is by Eric Sandras, and it’s titled: “Buck Naked Faith: A Brutally Honest Look at Stunted Christianity”.

The back cover says this: “Eric Sandras encourages a generation of believers to drop the layers of make-believe nonsense that stunts our spiritual growth. What emerges is a positive alternative to life-crushing counterfeit faiths many of us are trying out best to work through.

To do this, there’s no secret handshake or magic formula, but there is vision and encouragement to take the risk and get dangerously real with God. With a pull-no-punches approach, Sandras exposes the naked truth: We need to dress our lives with a real friendship with God and nothing else."


This type of book always pulls me in because I’ve seen (and continue to see regularly) what appears to be faith that lacks faith, for lack of better terminology. I’ve seen it in myself and friends and strangers. I don’t want to become just another pretty-sounding, phony designer Christian. I’ll let you know what I think of the book and this Sandras author.

The final book is by Donald Miller (author of Blue Like Jazz). It is “Searching For God Knows What”.

This is what the cover says: "What if the deepest longings of your heart were there for a reason? Small-minded, boxed-in formulas of modern religion weren’t the Truth? The gospel of Jesus was not ‘safe’ after all, but full of intrigue, passion -- and romance? How would your life be changed?"

How can I go wrong? I love Donald Miller’s writing style and I’m almost certain I’ll learn something from these books, so I’m off to work and await my chance to break into these little pleasures as soon as I can!

Have a wonderful and blessed Thursday and remember to read (yeah, children's books count too, but only if you actually HAVE children!).

10 comments:

Overwhelmed! said...

I'm so tired of the flag stamps too. I might have to check online to see what my options are.

Thanks for the book recommendations!

Sarah said...

Arrrrgh...I just had a comment to post, but Blogger ate it.

Anyhoo, these sound like interesting reads...give us a review when you're done, eh?

Thanks for commenting on my meme post. I forgot to tag anyone, so now I've tagged you and your sis. If you want to.

Shalee said...

I was thinking at the beginning of this post, "She needs to read Don Miller" and then you just got one of his books. I love it!

Blue Like Jazz is probably the best book I read this year. And as you know, I read a lot!

Now don't give away anything on the other books...

Anonymous said...

Ok, I'm admittedly not a stamp person...but I have to say, I LOVE your choice of stamps. Especially the Amber Alert ones, but they are both great. And I'm thinking I need to get some of those books you referenced. I'm right there with you on that emotional eating thing. Nancy Kennedy's book sounds hilarious, I got a good laugh just from that quick excerpt (sp?) you put in.

So..anyway, I guess I'm a little out of the "stamp click" because I had NO idea you could order cool stamps online! (shaking head, head hung low)

Grafted Branch said...

Do they still sell stamps? In this day of e-mail and online payments, people are still licking and sticking? How WONDERFULLY old fashioned! lol.

Thanks for the book suggestions. I'm always looking for a humorous read for my time on the treadmill (dramas and history slow my pace). At home, it's mostly children's literature (which is truly my speed).

Thanks for your comment on my blog. I can, in all honesty, say that I am equally (or moreso) honored to be linked on your blog. I have never ever seen yours stray from the straight and narrow path. God bless!

HeyJules said...

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Donald Miller although none of his books are as great as BLJ - that one is the creme de la creme.

Those other two sound really good, though. Going to have to check those out!

Sally said...

I love Donald Miller- really enjoyed Blue Like Jazz, and have just finished Searching For God Knows What.
Why am I not surprised that we like the same books???

Kari said...

Oh, how could you do this to me? My hubby has restricted my "library spending" (okay, so I have a book fettish) and now your recommend even more wonderful ones... oh, the temptation. Guess I better save my pennies because with all the comments on "Blue Like Jazz", I'm thinking I'd better get me a copy and quick!!!

GiBee said...

What? You didn't want crops of America? Go figure!

Chaos-Jamie said...

I LOVE Nancy Kennedy. I met her back when "Help" was brand new and she gave me a signed copy after I told her "My boyfriend tells me that you wrote a book..." She just signed it and handed it to me. She really is as unassuming as she seems.

I laughed until I cried (I hadn't had children yet, so I didn't need adult diapers). Great news! She has a new one coming out this fall.

And "Help" has been re-published as "When Perfect Isn't Enough" I believe.

AND you won MaryLu Tyndall's book on my blog, so I need a mailing address.