The Great Saturday Book-Away

Yay Yolanda! You are the winner of the legal natural energy book! It is filled with wonderfully informative synopses of many herbs used to alter one's state of mind. Send me an email with your address and we'll get your book on its way to you early next week.

As for this week's book offering, we have Joey Green's Amazing Kitchen Cures: 1,150 Ways to Prevent and Cure Common Ailments with Brand-Name Products. Sound interesting? Be sure to sign up between now and next Saturday night, when a new winner will be chosen. Thanks to everyone for participating!

Great Saturday Book Away

If you've been keeping count, I am now two books behind to be mailed out. It's really quite sad, considering the terrific start I had with the first week of the book-away. I shipped out that book lickety-split! I felt so confident. Then, I forgot to contact the second week's book winner. Then, we never drew a name for the third week. The fourth week, we spent in Louisiana. And the fifth week, well--time does fly, doesn't it??

As for the third week's winner: Joanna, if you will contact me with your address, I will get your gardening book in the mail to you. Yay! Another book gone...I mean given away...

For this week, we have another great book to be given away. It's one I had high hopes for but has gone unused in our household. Please sign up for the book by leaving a comment sometime this week telling me you would like it!

Thursday 13: Austen-ish Words

I have been intently and voraciously devouring Pride and Prejudice these last few days. With that in mind, I thought what fun it would be to do another Wordy Thursday Thirteen, this time with words found in writers of the period. I hope many of these words are already in your vocabulary, but if not, I will provide definitions for each lovely turn of thought. Enjoy!

1. panegyric: \ˌpa-nə-ˈjir-ik, -ˈjī-rik\--formal or elaborate praise--Mr. Collins' panegyric of Lady De Bourgh is quite irritating to Elizabeth.
2. palliate: to cover by excuses and apologies--Though Elizabeth desired to palliate the atrocious behavior of her mother and younger sisters, her filial devotion kept her from it.
3. dilatory: characterized by procrastination--If I had not been dilatory in this matter, my TT entry would have been posted much sooner!
4. disapprobation: (quite likely my favorite word of Jane Austen's. One can assume that she was partial to it as well because it is liberally sprinkled in her novels) the act of state of disapproving
5. diffidence: What a sweet word! hesitation in acting or speaking though lack of self-confidence--Miss Darcy, by her lack of conversation, exhibited great diffidence in her first meeting with Elizabeth Bennet.
6. temerity: unreasonable or foolhardy contempt of danger or opposition--Lydia Bennet showed great temerity in her sudden and foolish elopement with Mr. Wickham.
7. repine: to long for something--Elizabeth spent many hours regretting her hasty and ill-advised opinion of Mr. Darcy. She greatly repined for a chance to express her remorse.
8. umbrage: (this word is not found in Ms. Austen's writing in this novel, I first became acquainted with it in Hannah Hurnard's work: Mountains of Spices--a sequel to Hind's Feet on High Places)--a feeling of pique or resentment at some fancied slight or insult.
   
9. diminution--the act, process or instance of diminishing
10. vicissitudinous: marked by fluctuations in condition--thank you for bringing this word to my attention last week. It is now marked in my memory as wonderful and full-deserving of much usage. I love to say it!
11. timorous: (this word reminds me of a mouse...)of a timid dispostion--Mice are usually timorous when confronted with the need to be seen in the open.
12. exigent: requiring immediate aid or action--A child swallowing bleach is an exigency that one does not often wish to repeat. Yes, my little sister did this when she was quite young. How she thought it would taste good, we're not sure. She is fine. Don't worry.
13. penception: I am sure I saw this word in the earliest chapters of Pride and Prejudice. However, I am having quite a bit of difficulty in tracking down its meaning. The best I can come up with is that it refers to being aware of one's surroundings.
    

And that, my friends, concludes this week's edition of Thursday 13. I hope you enjoyed it and be sure to visit other Thursday 13ers to see what they are up to as well!

Anybody here?

With all the reading I have been doing lately, I feel like I am stretched kind of thin on blogging. I have been keeping up the Coffee Klatch blog on a fairly regular basis. I felt kind of bad seeing all the folks who have stopped by and I have nothing but a piddly post here and there. I have been reading all of your blogs, just so you know. I finally figured out how to use my Google Reader account so I just dive in there and see what you all are talking about. It's great!

Right now, I'm working on a super-secret costume for a party this weekend. I'll upload photos later today. Of course, you won't see the entire costume...just a little teaser. We'll see if you have any idea who I'm planning to be! It's so much fun designing my own costume. Hee,hee.

Our big night out...

I should be in bed, getting ready for a Saturday filled with breakfast, stretching and (possibly) garage-saling. Instead, I'm writing a blog entry to tell you about all the great new books I can't wait to read...soon!

First, we went out to eat. Then, we browsed BAM, powered by the gift card my little (hah!) brother gave to us for Christmas. I will say, everything is very different from last time I was in the store. Granted, we don't usually shop there, but it didn't even seem like the same store. It took me just about half an hour to find the business section and then I couldn't find any Tim Sanders books!

I did, however, discover a new author. Seth Godin, author of Purple Cow and All Marketers are Liars. He has an excellent blog as well, called "Seth Godin's Blog."

Okay, so he uses all his creativity on his books, right? So, check out his blog. Let me know what you think. As well, this post is number 98! I will be doing a give-away at post number 100. Don't forget!

Be here or be square...

Just to let you know...

I fixed the links to The Kids in the Library blog. So, if anyone tried to click on the link, I know you went nowhere! Try again, please...

The morning routine

Adding to our morning routine of drinking coffee, James and I have pledged to incorporate stretching and (drumroll, please) breakfast!! So, this morning, we had awesome stretching time on the back deck under a perfectly blue sky. It was such a lovely experience that I definitely want to continue this routine. I even made applesauce muffins for breakfast. Friends dropped by and joined us for the rest of the morning.

So enjoyable.

By the way, don't forget to check out the newest co-operative blog! The Kids in the Library is a site to post book reviews, recommendations and lists. Think you're interested in being an author? Send me an email and a link to your website.

The getting of ideas...

How to Get Ideas by Jack Foster


Well, here is my latest read. I didn't think I would like this book. My copy doesn't have the little guy fishing on it. My copy is just kind of dorky looking. But...I "screwed up my courage" and jumped in.

I'm glad I did. Great book. Mr. Foster writes with years of experience behind him. He writes in an anecdotal style (which I love reading) giving plenty of examples from his own experience and from history. The only section I did not like at all was when he began to expound upon the power of positive thinking! If you think you're a great basketball player and you practice in your head...there you are.

You are what you think...unless you think you can't and then that you can change. The premise seems contradictory to me. But, I do have a bit of a preconceived notion on the issue.

Overall, I really enjoyed the book and learned how to get more new ideas. Don't buy it (unless you find it at a garage sale), but definitely check it out at your library