In Portland, Oregon, there are two bookstores where I spend hours and hours browsing and buying: Powells Books and Pilgrim Discount.  I scored at Pilgrim this trip: 10 books - 2 new, but discounted, and 8 used in good shape.  When I find a book treasure I'm never content until I've shared it with someone.  So you, dear reader, get to see my catch!

My future DIL was reading this book on a visit last year.  It's about 13 Scottish Covenanteers. I love the title.

I picked up two Elisabeth Elliot titles - God has brought several single women into my life and I thought reading these books might equip me in our conversations together.

Martha Peace has been recommended countless times.  I think she's the kind of author that evokes polar responses - you either love her or you don't.  I think I'll like her.

I love quotes!!  John Owen looks a little scary on the cover but there are treasures in his writings.  Thomas Watson is my favorite Puritan.  There are 1500 quotations from many authors on many subjects in the Treasury book.  Table Talk is a collection of Martin Luther's quotes on various subjects during conversations around the table.   Not meaning any disrespect, but the next two are perfect bathroom books. 

I read this little book when I was 14 and loved it.  Within the last month I was thinking it was time to revisit it.  I remember he talked about peeling potatoes to the glory of God.  Rock on, brother Lawrence!

Did you know that George Grant wrote a novel back in 1999? The subtitle, A Dan and Bea Adventure, caught me eye.  It's a reworking of Dante's Inferno, a book my son and I plan to read this coming school year. This might make a good companion book.

Ahhhhh.  Elisabeth Elliot and Edith Schaeffer in one day!  Doesn't this cover just draw you in?  I've already dipped into it a few times.  Oh yeah, I'm one happy chica.

What's the last book you purchased?

Here's what you need:

and...................

(Just the socks, hehe, and many of them).  Here's what you do:

1.  Make the socks compact like a tennis ball.  You can fold them and slip the elastic part over the rest or tie longer socks into knots several times. 

2.  Turn the fan on high speed.

3.  Throw the socks into the fan.  It will catch them and "bat" them all over.  Sometimes the fan will miss the socks like a batter swinging and missing.  The trajectory of the socks is unpredictable and that's part of the fun.  You can "pitch" one sock at a time or grab several and throw them at once.  There are no rules and therefore no umpires.

Our family has delighted in this silliness for many years.  It's only fun with a group of people.  We grab piles of clean socks, work them into balls and start throwing.  It's certainly a unique way to dust in those hard to reach corners. 

Our fan doesn't have a light and we don't have vaulted ceilings, two factors that might change the dynamics.  Please don't ask me how this tradition got started.  It must come from having boys and loving baseball.

I have a funny picture in my mind: my husband and I bent over, infirmed, arthritic, trying to muster the strength to lob a sock high enough from our rocking chairs to hit the fan, commenting in a slow, shaky voice, "look at that one go, Gertrude!"

                                                 Baby's Feeding Time
                                           Giuseppe Magni  (1869-1956)

The Caldwell Gallery

                                                 Giuseppe Magni (1869-1956)

Fred Parker Fine Art

Doesn't Baby's Feeding Time look positively Vermeerish?  I love the shoes in these pictures, the elevated feet, the simplicity of the backgrounds and the touches of elegance the moms show.   You can almost hear the soundtrack for the lower piece, can't you?

Blogging will be spotty for the next few days.  Our church Family Camp is this weekend.  My son and I shopped for food today, completely filling the Suburban with cases and boxes of edibles.  Shoppers always approach us and ask "What are you going to do with all that ______?"  (26 loaves of bread, 40 pounds of breakfast links, 36 pounds of butter, 10 #10 cans of green beans, 24 red peppers...)  One of the best gifts we can give the mothers in our church is a weekend free of cooking and cleaning up.  We hire the best cook in the world and the teenagers graciously do all the cleanup. 

Next week we are leaving the shire and trekking to the city for some medical appointments.  The city = shopping.  Shopping = Trader Joes and Costco.  I am a veteran Costco shopper, but Trader Joes is a relatively new delight.  Do you have a favorite item at either/both store/s that you like to get?  Please leave a comment and let me know. 

I'm delighted that Costco has restocked two items that have been MIA for quite some time: Sun-Dried Tomatos and Aronia Berry Juice. 

Dear friends of our close friends experienced a tragic loss yesterday.  I'm not sure of all the details - their son was driving and the vehicle ran over/hit (?) his little sister, who died from the injuries.  "Btolly", a regular commenter on this blog, and her husband are with the family now.  Please pray.  Pray for the young man.  Pray for his mom.  Pray for his dad.  Pray for the other siblings.  Pray for those ministering to this broken family.