The Ghost Knight by Cornelia Funke
I love this kid's author, so I grabbed this--her newest book--from the shelf without even knowing a thing about it. Very good, but not quite as captivating as her Inkspell trilogy. This one is about an 11-year-old boy who gets sent to boarding school and becomes haunted and hunted by a quintet of ghosts of have done the same thing to all of his male ancestors who showed up in that town. He takes them on with the help of his new best friend, her grandmother, his mom's boyfriend, and of course, the ghost knight of the title. Fun read (and only creepy if you're actually a kid reading it).

Growing Kids God's Way (a book & video study by the Ezzos)
I realized I haven't written about this yet, but I've been participating in this parenting class at church since sometime in August. It's really good, and aligns very well to what Handsome and I have always talking about with parenting our girls. The big ideas so far: teach kids not just the rules but the reasons why and teach them to respect other people, property, and nature. Of course, the Ezzos go into great detail about all of these from a biblical perspective. There's only a few of us doing it--just three families and the facilitator--so that's allowed for lots of discussion. I've disagreed with the Ezzos on a few things (they don't believe in allowances for example, but will just sporadically hand their kids money--seems like a bad idea). The class continues into the spring and I'm looking forward to the next set of lessons about discipline. I'm hoping for some real practical tips.

The Stars, Like Dust by Isaac Asimov
I realized that, while I've read tons of Asimov's short stories, I've yet to read any of his novels, and I found this one at the library. It's all about interstellar intrigue and rebellion against the ruling empire revolving around a couple of star-crossed lovers from the ruling families of different planets. Definitely a fun read. I love reading the old sci-fi classics (this was written in 1950) in large part because it's fun to see what they wrote about that actually exists now (in this book things like tazers, auto pilot, and GPS-like tracking devices) and speculate about how long it will take humans to develop the other things (like successfully visiting another planet or even a different solar system).

Behemoth by Scott Westerfeld
The second book in this trilogy did not disappoint. Fun steampunk alternate history. This time the topic was the revolution in the Ottoman Empire, a topic I know very little about. The author made more of a change this time and had the first revolution fail, so that Prince Alek could be involved in a second one during WWI. Looking forward to book 3!

Our church hosted a free organ concert by Christopher Houlihan, a young internationally known concert organist. I left Handsome with the entourage and went by myself (he wasn't interested). Houlihan is indeed an excellent organist, and I don't even know that much. It was lovely though to sit in a dimly sanctuary enveloped in wonderful music and read about the pieces and composers or simply sit and let my mind wander with the music. I haven't done something like that--enjoy a fine art--for myself in such a long time. Handsome isn't into that sort of thing, so I just need to remember to make it happen. (Reminds me: I want to get the entourage and I out to the local art museum some time.) Added bonus for the evening is that it meant the girls were all asleep by the time I got home and the downstairs was cleaned--even the kitchen. Just lovely!

The Magic Thief by Sarah Pineas
A fun bit of YA fantasy in the vein of Harry Potter. A young and unexpected apprentice magician has to save his city by saving Magic. It's the first in a trilogy, so I'll have to keep my eye out for the next one. Fortunately, it leaves one in anticipation for the next book, but not hanging from a cliff.

Personal Retreat
I got away for a much-needed day of personal retreat yesterday. I took a picnic lunch, my Bible, journal, and a book I've been reading and headed for a state park about 40 minutes away. I spent a wonderfully peaceful day praying and pondering while tramping around 12 miles of backpacking trails. My legs are a little sore, but my soul is refreshed.

During college I did this every spring after exams were done just to clear my head and refocus. I had a minor breakdown a couple of weeks ago, and realized that I hadn't taken a personal retreat since the kids were born. In the years between college and kids and didn't usually take a whole day, but disappearing into a park for an afternoon was something I did pretty often. I must make this at least an annual thing again. I had a chance to sort through some things that had been on my heart, and actually articulate in writing what my priorities are, why, and what I'm actually going to do to make reality reflect them.

Today was a successful Sabbath. The only thing on the to-do list was church. Dinner was lasagna with thanks to Stouffers and salad I mostly made yesterday. I got to take a little nap, do some follow up research to Sunday school discussion, spend an hour or so reading The Wizard of Oz with my girls snuggled up on the couch. Yes, I am ready to face Monday!