Wednesday, October 25, 2017

Past Booklists (2014-2016)

2016 Booklist
  1. Baby Knows Best- Deborah Solomon 
  2. The Scarlet Pimpernel- Baroness Orczy 
  3. For the Love- Jen Hatmaker 
  4. Year of No Sugar- Eve O Schaub
  5. Babywise Book Two and Toddler wise - Gary Enzo
  6. The Baby Whisperer Solves All Your Problems- Tracy Hogg
  7. Because He Loves Me. Elyse Fitzpatrick 
  8. Hiding Place- Corrie ten Boom 
  9. Do More Better- Tim Challies 
  10. Letters to My Daughters- Barbara Rainey 
  11. For the Children's Sake : Foundations of Education for Home and School - Susan Schaeffer Macauley 
  12. The Shallows: What the internet is doing to our mind 
  13. Transforming grace: Jerry bridges 
  14. The power of habit: Charles Duhigg 
  15. Shepherding a Child’s Heart-  Tedd Tripp 
  16. Out of the Silent Planet- CS Lewis (audio) 
  17. Habits of Grace Dave Mathis 
  18. The Magicians Nephew- CS Lewis (audio) 
  19. Stop Asking Jesus Into Your Heart- JD Greear (audio) 
  20. First We Have Coffee- Margaret Jensen  
  21. Fervent- Priscilla Shirer (audio) 
  22. Treasuring Christ When Your Hands are Full- Gloria Furman  
  23. Oh Crap! Potty Training- Jamie glowicki 
  24. Reason for God- Tim Keller 
  25. 100 Cupboard- ND Wilson 
  26. Dandelion Fire- ND Wilson 
  27. Uninvited- Lysa TerKeurst  
  28. PollyAnna- Eleanor H. Porter
  29. A Loving Life-Paul Miller
  30. Adopted for Life-  Russell Moore 
2015 Booklist
  1. Baby Wise I and II- Gary Enzo
  2. The Baby Whisperer- Tracy Hogg 
  3. The Best Yes- Lysa TerKeurst
  4. Women of the Word- Jen Wilkin
  5. Live like a Narnian- Joe Rigney
  6. Walking with God in the Season of Motherhood- Melissa Kruger
  7. Classical Christian Education- Douglas Wilson
  8. From Fear to Freedom- Rose Marie Miller
  9. 1000 Gifts- Ann Voskamp
  10. Your God is Too Small- JB Phillips
  11. The Hardest Peace- Kara Tippets
  12. Read Aloud Handbook- Jim Trelease 
  13. Adventures in Prayer- Catherine Marshall 
  14. The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up- Marie Kondo 
  15. The Envy of Eve -Melissa Kruger 
  16. Spiritual Mothering- Susan Hunt 
  17. The Hiding Place- Corrie ten Boom 
  18. Don't Make Me Count to Three- Ginger Hubbard 
  19. Praying the Bible- Donald Whitney 
  20. Total Money Makeover- Dave Ramsey 
  21. What Alice Forgot- Lianne Moriarty
  22. The Lord of the Rings Trilogy- JRR Tolkien  (again)
2014 Booklist
  1. The House of Hades- Rick Riordan
  2. Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking- Susan Cain
  3. The Hobbit- JRR Tolkien
  4.  Insurgent- Veronica Roth
  5. The Wonder of Words and the Power of God- edited by J. Piper and J. Taylor
  6. Interstellar Pig- William Sleater 
  7.  A Wrinkle in Time - Madeline L'Engle
  8. A Wind in the Door- Madeline L'Engle
  9.  A Swiftly Tilting Planet- Madeline L'Engle
  10. Crazy Busy- Kevin DeYoung
  11. Every Good Endeavor- Tim Keller
  12. Many Waters- Madeline L'Engle
  13. The Book of Three- Lloyd Alexander
  14. The Black Cauldron- Lloyd Alexander
  15. The Castle of Llyr- Lloyd Alexander
  16. The Warden and the Wolf King- Andrew Peterson
  17. Taran Wanderer- LLoyd Alexander
  18. The High King- LLoyd Alexander
  19. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets- JK Rowling
  20. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone- JK Rowling
  21. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban- JK Rowling
  22. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire- JK Rowling
  23. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix- JK Rowling
  24. Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince- JK Rowling
  25. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows- JK Rowling
  26. The Help- Kathryn Stockett
  27. Eat This Book- Eugene Peterson
  28. The Secret Garden- Frances Hodgson Burnett
  29.  The Gifts of the Child Christ and Other Stories and Fairy Tales- George MacDonald
  30. The Unfolding Mystery: Discovering Chris in the Old Testament - Edmund Clowney
  31. The Fellowship of the Ring- JRR Tolkein
  32. The Two Towers- JRR Tolkein
  33. The Return of the King- JRR Tolkein
  34. On Becoming Babywise- Gary Ezzo and Robert Buckham
  35. Great With Child- Debra Rienstra
  36. Bringing Up Bebe- Pamela Druckerman
  37.  How Eskimos Keep Their Babies Warm: And Other Adventures in Parenting- Mei-Ling Hopgood
  38. Little Women- Louisa May Alcott
  39. For Women Only- Shaunti Feldhahn
  40. The Philosophy of Tolkein- Peter Kreeft
  41. Harriet the Spy- Louise Fitzhugh
  42. Bebé Day by Day- Pamela Druckerman
  43. Born to Run- Chris McDougall
  44. The Big Over Easy- Jasper Fforde

Monday, September 08, 2014

A place to call home


We are all moved in to our new place in Hilton Head!  We are thankful that God has provided us a place within walking distance of the church and pretty close to everything else as well.  I am thankful that Andrew persisted in waiting for the "perfect place."  I was determined to decide and have things done, but he felt that we should wait.  Glad we did!

A spacious living room! 

Dinner and music, anyone?
I am hoping to *finally* have time to actually plan meals and cook more. 
Master bedroom
A sweet kitty
We have a guest room!  Please, please, please come and visit us!  This place turns into a nursery in January!
My favorite part of our new place is our back porch, complete with turtles and an alligator that live in the "lagoon".





Tuesday, September 02, 2014

A big summer (in Instagrams)


 It was a big summer for the Shanks!

June 

We traveled to France, Spain, and Italy with 17 SLCA students.
The packing begins!  Andrew has LOTS of books.
Baby Shank will be joining us in January!

July
Our *amazing*  Life Group help us load the U-haul that carried all of our things to a storage unit in Hilton Head.
We have WAY too much stuff :(  As we loaded, I found myself making mental vows to reduce future clutter and unnecessary items: "One thing in, one thing out," or "Give one thing away everyday."  We will see if this actually happens.
My last Cross Country event was our 3 day summer camp in Hendersonville, NC.
After 7 years of coaching, it is hard to imagine a fall without crunchy leaves and running through Latta Plantation.  So many of these students have impacted my heart and my life for always.
 We said goodbye to family and friends in Charlotte, including my sweet niece and nephew: Dakota and Cheyenne.

August

Andrew arrived in Hilton Head to begin work in July, and I joined in August.   It is hard to believe that we live in a place that most people come to vacation.  We both find it a little ironic to be living at the beach, since the place we most love is the mountains of Virginia.
Roomies!  We stayed with Tim and Stephanie Pitzer for 2 weeks
while we waited for our new place to open up. 
Visit with the Vickerys!  Some sweet Charlotte friends happened to be in Hilton Head with their family.  We hope to see lots more Charlotte friends soon!  (Note: please take that as a hint to come visit us!!)
We are finally moved in to our new place.  Every thing is unpacked and decorated.
And no home is complete without a kitty (Jemimah Butterworth)!!  We adopted her from the Humane Society.
During a short trip back to Charlotte, Christina and Camilla helped me register for baby items!  I am thankful to have sweet friends who have just recently had babies and can point me in the right direction.
It's a girl!!!  In a family full of boys, Shank girls are rare.
We are keeping the name a secret for now, but I can't wait to share!!!
 I am thankful to be making new friends in Hilton Head, especially friends who run!!!!

Thursday, August 07, 2014

Next Chapter

Today is a big day.  SouthLake students arrived to school with their new pencils and notebooks neatly organized in their new backpacks.  Lunches are packed and gyms bags filled with clothes for practice.  Freshmen faces show traces of underlying anxiety about locker combinations, difficult classes, peers, and pimples.  Seniors confidently and nostalgically walk the halls knowing that today is the first day of their last year.

Teachers arrived this morning with as much excitement and anxiety as their students.  First day speeches and smiles are ready on their lips.  Rooms are carefully decorated with posters and meaningful quotes.  Textbooks lie in stacks, ready to be given out.  Young minds await their wisdom and knowledge.

Today everything happened the same way as always, but for the first time in eleven years, my room is not decorated, there are no speeches or lessons, no hall duty or book lists.

Today when I awoke, there was still excitement and anxiety, not about going to school, but about NOT going to school.  There is excitement about this next chapter of life.  Andrew has, what he calls, his first big boy job.  We are expecting Baby Shank sometime in January.  We are in a new town with a new church and a new home to decorate and enjoy.  But there is also a little bit of anxiety.  Not that I'm anxious, mind you, but I am filled with questions: What now?  If I don't teach, what should I do with my time until Baby Shank arrives?  Substitute or tutor?  Try to write?  See if I can help with the local cross country team?  Actually make a shopping list and dinner plan and cook something?

After my first week in Hilton Head, the questions seem pressing.  I've applied at the Christian School here, but replies have been slow.  I've mostly been reading books and driving to thrift shops.  I want my time to be purposeful, but I sort of just feel like a bum.  Our apartment isn't ready yet, so there are no boxes to unpack.  Andrew keeps telling me to enjoy the time and that I'm already doing work- making a baby- but eleven years of teaching and coaching is a hard habit to break.  Perhaps God is giving the rest and space that I have been needing.  I am praying that I won't just fill it up with random things to do, but that God would guide each day and fill it as he decides.

Monday, April 14, 2014

Crazy Busy

In the midst of my longing for rest from busyness, I realize that much of the problem is my own doing.  Hoping to find some wisdom in here:

No time

No time to read.  No time to see friends.  No time to cook dinner.  No time to exercise.  No time to get everything done that needs to be done.  Why does it always feel like there is not enough time?  Why am I always in a hurry, always frantic, always late, always behind, always overwhelmed, always stressed?

My Spring Break began at 3:30 on Friday.  As I drove away from school, I began to think about how to spend this newly acquired time.   My first thought was to get rid of my watch, that bossy old man that ticks away my life, chides me for not submitting to his deadlines, and who cheerlessly moves forward whether I want him to or not. 

As I looked down at my wrist to get rid of this merciless taskmaster, I discovered that I had already haphazardly flung the watch into my school bag.

Before the the thoughts had become words in my mind, my heart must have cried out for no time.  No deadlines.  No hurry.  No rush.  No more minutes to watch disappear.  No more crushing despair and sense of constant failure.

My soul was crying out for the endless summer days of childhood.  For time-free moments with family and friends.  For laughter and joy.  For a peaceful heart.

We were not made for time.  That is why it feels so uncomfortable and strange to us.  Like a garment too small, we adjust and readjust trying to make it fit.  But time will always feel too small because we were made for eternity, life outside of time.
'We are so little reconciled to time that we are even astonished at it. 'How he's grown!' we exclaim, 'How time flies!' It's as strange as if a fish were repeatedly surprised at the wetness of water. And that would be strange indeed; unless of course, the fish were destined to become, one day, a land animal'.  - CS Lewis
 He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.  Ecclesiastes 3:11

Thursday, January 30, 2014

A quiet conclusion

I resonate with this quote from the conclusion of Quiet:

"Whoever you are, bear in mind that appearance is not reality.  Some people act like extroverts, but the effort costs them in energy, authenticity, and even physical health.  Others seem aloof or self-contained, but their inner landscapes are rich and full of drama.  So the next time you see a person with a composed face and a soft voice, remember that inside her mind she might be solving an equation, composing a sonnet, designing a hat.  She might, that is, be deploying the powers of quiet."
- Susan Cain

Maybe there's not something wrong with me when I want to be quiet.  Maybe there's something right...

Wednesday, January 22, 2014

Quiet

Do people think I'm boring?  Why can't I think of things to say?  Really, small talk?  Can't we just be quiet?  Or, if we must talk, can we talk about things that are meaningful?  Do people think I am interesting and funny or just awkward? 

Who knew that all these anxieties and more, which have plagued me since adolescence, might actually be partially caused by the American social construct!  According to Susan Cain, author of QUIET: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking, it is within the past 100 or so years that the American Culture has made a shift from the Culture of Character to the Culture of Personality.

What does this mean exactly?

In the past Americans focused on character: attributes such as citizenship, duty, work, honor, morals, manners, integrity were admired and pursued.  Advice manuals talked of how to develop inner character and studied the lives of people like Abraham Lincoln.  However, with the rise of a new economy in the early 1900's,  people began to move into cities, leaving behind the communities that knew them.  Here arose a new breed of man who was supposed to "make a good first impression" in order to get a job among strangers.  He has to be able be to sell new products and sell himself.

New guides and books for business men encouraged them to work on being magnetic, attractive, dominant, forceful, energetic, and fascinating.  Dale Carnegie was in his prime teaching everyone everywhere how to win friends and influence people.  Interestingly, it was in the 1920's and 30's that America began to be obsessed with movie stars.

Extroversion was valued and rewarded, introversion was seen as a disease to be cured.   Extroversion and everything external- appearance, personality, clothing- became the measure of a man.

Consequently, it was also during the 1920's that psychology began to develop the idea of the "Inferiority Complex."  Parenting articles began giving suggestions of to help their children overcome shyness and develop "winning personalities."  Shy or quiet children were believed to to have a problem that needed to be solved.

It is not difficult to trace the trajectory of those early years into today.  Image is everything.  Personality, being bigger than life, fun, witty, interesting, and always having the right thing to say are valued over quiet, thoughtful, introversion.

Needless to say, this cultural preference for extroversion, personality, and attractiveness has led to anxiety for many causing us to constantly self-analyze and self-doubt.  Is it okay that I want to read a book at home instead of be out every night of the week?  Is it okay that sometimes I just don't want to talk?  Is something wrong with me because I like to be alone sometimes?  Am I a bad person because I don't want to make small talk?

Thus far, Cain's book has provided a bit of grace for my soul.  It has let me know that we have not always lived in an extroverted, appearance driven society.   

Within a day of reading the history of "The Rise of the Mighty Likeable Fellow" in Cain's book, a verse in Colossians seemed to offer an alternative to "dressing to impress" and it said nothing of the need to always have the witty thing to say or the perfect outfit:
Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony .  Colossians 3: 12-14
 There it is: Put on character, put on love and patience and kindness.  Put on Christ.
Do not let your adorning be external—the braiding of hair and the putting on of gold jewelry, or the clothing you wear— but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God's sight is very precious.  1 Peter 3:3-4
Charm is deceitful, and beauty is fleeting,
    but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised. Proverbs 31:30
I am not saying that small talk is never of value or that desiring to be quiet sometimes is an excuse to not be friendly or kind.  Not at all!  God's word calls us to kindness and outreach and service.

I am saying that our culture tends to value extroverted, flashy, impressive, beautiful personalities and people as the best and only valid mode of expression.  But it hasn't always.  And in this land of personality and the constant anxiety to impress, there is only One whom we should seek to please.

And as Andrew and I, two introverted, not very flashy people, wait for to hear from RUF,  I am trying to remind myself that the personalities we each have are the ones that God chose for us.  Or, as Andrew reminds me, " Jesus did not come to change our personalities, but to redeem them."

This gives my self-doubting heart a bit of rest.