Second week of fasting

For our second week of fasting during Lent Chad and I decided to give up watching TV.  I thought that TV would be the hardest, but most needed fast we would do.  We have Tivo so we did set up to record the shows that we watch regularly.  It ended up not being nearly as hard as I thought it was going to be.  I found that what I missed more was not a specific show, but the "relaxing" time of just zoning out watching TV.  It was especially hard because during this week of no TV was when the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library system announced drastic cutbacks of 148 staff layoffs and 12 libraries closing.  On Wednesday March 17th, St. Patrick's Day, we found out from a friend that in the past St. Patrick's Day was used as a break from Lent, which is why it became known as a drinking holiday.  So, since that was the day I found out about the drastic cuts and was in fear of my job, we decided to take the St. Patrick's Day Lent break and watch TV - and it did help me not worry excessively about my job and the library system.

Our pastor Jim described in one of the "Fast Forward" Lent services we should think about fasting from something that was "numbing" and I definitely find TV to be numbing in a way.  I don't always watch it to be numbed or forget about life, but I think I was guilty of just turning it on to have background noise or out of habit.  Chad and I have decided to try to watch less TV overall after doing this fast.  We have also decided to not eat dinner in the living room while watching TV, which was another bad habit we had.  But, overall it was not as hard as I thought it would be and we are going to try to use this past week as motivation to try to watch less TV in the future.

Our third and final week of fasting for Lent will be to fast from using Facebook.  While that might not seem like a hard fast I have found that I spend a LOT of time on Facebook - time that could probably be better spent.  So, the TV is back and Facebook is out (for the week).

First 7 days of fasting

Our church is doing a series right now on the Lent season that comes before Easter.  Some people fast from something for 40 days before Easter, but our pastor challenged us to fast from something for 21 days.  It could be anything we wanted it to be and for any length of time.  Chad and I decided to fast from something different each week of the 21 days and he was also going to fast from politics for the whole time (YES!). 

The first week we decided to fast from eating meat.  I have always wanted to try to eat less meat and then use our grocery money to buy local meat that wasn't raised in a factory farm, but hadn't really made that happen yet.  I didn't think Chad would want to do the meat fast, but he was on board so that's what we did for the past week.  And honestly it was MUCH easier than I thought it would be.  The only real issue came when we did eat out because we had to think about where we could both get something meat-free that we both liked - we ended up eating at Panera 3 times!  I think we both enjoyed all the meals we made at home too.  Because of this we are now going to try to eat less meat overall and hopefully I can eventually work in my goal of buying more local meat too. 

So, first week down and now onto the second fast - TV.  I am ashamed to admit that I think this will be the hardest one for me, but on the plus side if the weather is nice hopefully we'll get outside and walk more in the evenings and I think we'll get a LOT of reading done too.

Just Because...

This week Chad surprised me with roses - no special occasion, just because he wanted to surprise me.  I came home from work and he had not only bought me roses, but he was also cooking dinner! 
Here are some pictures of the beautiful roses:

Gloria Steinem

On March 1, 2010 I was lucky enough to get to see Gloria Steinem speak at UNC Charlotte for free and with some other library friends - Melanie and Amrita.  I know that she is a huge feminist icon and I was super excited to get to see her and apparently so were a lot of other people - almost 1,000 people showed up and unfortunately that meant we ended up in the overflow section - not in the actual room with her.  Also, she had laryngitis so one of UNCC's women's studies professors read her speech for her, but she did answer questions from the audience herself so we did get to hear her speak/whisper.  But, I did really enjoy her speech and it is amazing to see someone who has done so much for the women's movement in person.  She has helped make huge strides for women all over the world with her work.  As most people who know me know I am a feminist, but I am also a Christian and I tell people that I filter things first through the Christian lens and then through the feminist one.  I believe that Jesus was the first feminist - He was completely radical for that time with His treatment of women as equals.  So, I was not thrilled when during the Q&A time Ms. Steinem responded to a question saying "Monotheism was created so men could be God", which I agree and disagree with.  I do think religion has been and is used to justify all kinds of evil things - slavery, keeping women in a lower status, war, etc.  But, I believe God is vastly different than how humans play out religion - God created men and women in His image and we are equal in His sight.  God is the perfect, loving being who wants nothing but the best for us.  So, while I agree for the most part with the feminist ideology I do NOT agree with what Ms. Steinem had to say about that topic when I saw her speak.  You can be a feminist and a Christian and I think Jesus was the perfect example of that! 

Now, here are a few pictures I took of the screen that night:

          The professor reading Ms. Steinem's speech.

          Ms. Steinem answering quesitons.

Snuggling Cats

The cats tend to snuggle together and with us more whenever it's colder outside.  Here are some pictures of them together on the futon upstairs.

Sandy wakes up briefly while I was taking pictures.

February 13, 2010 Snow Day

Well, we had our second snow of 2010.  It started Friday night and was so heavy and quick that I really thought we were going to get more than we did.  We probably got about 2-3 inches at our house.  But, because it was snow, not ice Chad and I were able to build a decent snowman out of it!  It would have only been better if I hadn't had to work that day - we had a 3 hour delay.  By the end of Saturday most of the snow was melted and gone, but it was nice while it lasted.  Here are some pictures from this snow day:

January 30th, 2010 Snow Day!

We finally got some snow the weekend of January 30th, 2010.  It started Friday night around 5pm and snowed off and on until early Saturday morning.  Thankfully the library was closed so I didn't have to go into work on Saturday.  Our friends Melanie & Dave were brave enough to drive over and hang out too.  Even though it was mostly icy snow it was still nice to have one good snow day this winter!  Here is a slideshow of pictures from that weekend:

Favorite Snow Day Picture

I love watching the birds at our bird feeder, but I had never seen a Cardinal until the Jan. 30th snow day.  This picture is in the slideshow, but it is my favorite picture and I thought it deserved it's own post too.  Here it is again:

New cat pictures

We have to start off the new year with new cat pictures!

Roxy & Sandy snuggle on our bed.

Sandy loves to soak up the sunshine.

A close up of Sandy's face - so cute!

Books of 2009

As my friends and family know I am an avid reader.  For the past few years I've been keeping track of all the books I read each year - Goodreads has made this super easy too.  Since I've had this blog I've been posting my top 10 books of the year - these are my top picks of what I've read in the past year.  This year I read 78 books, which is hard for me to believe!  So here are my top 10 - 5 each in Fiction and Non-Fiction and in alphabetical order by the author's name.

Fiction  
The School of Essential Ingredients by Erica Bauermeister
After You by Julie Buxbaum
Along for the Ride by Sarah Dessen
Mouse Guard: Winter 1152 by David Petersen
The Promised World by Lisa Tucker

Non-Fiction
Cherries in Winter by Suzan Colon
Homer's Odyssey by Gwen Cooper
Columbine by Dave Cullen
The Compassionate Carnivore by Catherine Friend
Wesley the Owl by Stacey O'Brien

Sandy and Roxy Christmas video

We took a video of Sandy & Roxy playing with their Christmas toys on our camera.  You will see that at the end Roxy accidentally throws her toy into the Christmas tree!  If you have the sound on you'll realize we had the TV on the whole time, but oh well - it's a cute video of the cats playing!

Christmas 2009

Last year I was really sick from before Thanksgiving until the New Year, so this year I was determined to enjoy every minute of Christmas!  Chad & I have established Christmas Eve as our day to celebrate Christmas - we always go to the Christmas Eve service at church, out to eat and then we drive around and look at Christmas lights.  On Christmas Day this year we celebrated with Chad's family at his grandmother's house.  Then on the day after Christmas we celebrated with my family and some family friends too.  Here are pictures from all of our Christmas celebrations and I am so thankful that I was healthy this year and really enjoyed Christmas 2009!

Athenaeum Girl's Night

My friend Nicole and I went to see Athenaeum at Amos' Southend for a Girl's Night and for our Christmas get together.  Athenaeum is one of my all time favorite bands and even though they're not together anymore they usually play one or two shows a year.  To make it even better Amos' is now smoke free - which makes the concert even better!  It just blows my mind that a band like Athenaeum can't make it in the music industry, but there is so much garbage on MTV - they are so incredibly talented.  It was a great show - they played for 2 hours!

Friends Christmas Party

Every year we get together with our closest friends and have a Christmas party.  We also do an ornament exchange game.  This year Melanie & Dave hosted since the renovation on their house is finally done!  We always have a good time and it's become one of our Christmas traditions.

Mint Hill Staff Christmas Party

Last year I was sick on the day of the Mint Hill Staff Christmas Party, so this year I was very excited to be able to go.  Donna hosted the party and we had lots of fun eating, playing Sneaky Santa gift exchange and revealing our Secret Santas.  Here are some pictures from the party.

Decorating for Christmas

Here are some pictures of me & Chad decorating our Christmas tree and our house decorations.  I love Christmas and really enjoy decorating and getting ready for the holidays!

New Sandy pictures

Here's Sandy sleeping on the bed - so cute!

Sandy on my sweater - this is why even clean clothes have fur on them!

Sandy sleeping in between all the Christmas decoration boxes.

Partylite Show

At the beginning of November I had a Partylite show.  I've had multiple Partylite shows - especially since my Mom used to be a consultant.  I really like Partylite candles and earned LOTS of free stuff from my party.  Thanks to all my friends who came and ordered lots of stuff too!  Here are some pictures from the party.

Wrightsville Beach Flotilla 2009

While we were in Wilmington for Thanksgiving this year we were also able to see the Wrightsville Beach Holiday Flotilla.  The flotilla is always the Saturday after Thanksgiving and is basically a boat parade at night with the boats decorated for the Holidays.  There is also a craft fair that day as well.  We had a great view of the flotilla from our room at Summer Sands!  Here are some pictures from the flotilla:

Thanksgiving 2009 in Wilmington

This year we went to Wilmington for Thanksgiving.  We had our Thanksgiving meal with my Dad and Nana.  We were also able to see the Holiday Flotilla at Wrightsville Beach too.  Here are some pictures from our Thanksgiving trip: