TJ Hirst

Try-It With-Me Tuesday, an interactive weekly time and place to foster connections that challenge and encourage the process to become a well-rounded person.

I promised to share part or all of my lifetime reading list with you for the September Reading Challenge and challenged you to make a list of five to ten books for your lifetime pursuit reading list and begin reading one this month. My list comes from my high school AP English teacher, Terry Cannon, and I’ve been reading from it for more than 18 years. Today, I share 15 favorites from the list that I’ve already read and those I want to read soon.

15 of My Favorites That I’ve Read From the List:

1. Bible
2. Austen, Jane - Pride and Prejudice
3. Dumas, Alexandre - The Count of Monte Cristo
4. Dickens, Charles - Great Expectations
5. Hugo, Victor - Les Miserables
6. Hardy, Thomas - The Mayor of Casterbridge
7. Tolstoy, Leo - War and Peace
8. Tolstoy, Leo - Anna Karenina
9. Pasternak, Boris - Dr. Zhivago
10. Rand, Ayn - The Fountainhead
11. Cather, Willa - Song of The Lark and O Pioneers! and other books
12. Mitchell, Margaret - Gone With the Wind
13. Wharton, Edith -The Age of Innocence and other books
14. Wilder, Thorton - The Bridge of San Luis Rey
15. Wouk, Herman - The Caine Mutiny

10 Selections from the List That I Want to Read:

1. William Shakespeare - plays and sonnets
2. Cervantes, Saavedra - Don Quixote
3. Forster, E.M. - A Passage to India
4. Golding, William - Lord of the Flies
5. Mann, Thomas - Death in Venice
6. Bradbury, Ray - Fahrenheit 451
7. Thoreau, Henry David - Walden
8. Rostand, Edmond - Cyrano de Bergerac
9. Irving, Washington - The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
10. Warren, Robert Penn - All the King’s Men

Here’s two others who took the challenge and made lists of their own. Thanks for participating!

Rebecca at Thrilled by the Thought

Rachel at Idaho Cheneys

For participating, I am sending each of them the entire list by email. Do you want my whole list, too? Write your own post on your website or leave a comment here with the five to ten books on YOUR lifetime pursuit reading list.

I participated in an online book club at Marathon Bird for several months this year.  I loved her selections because they stretched me to discover literature beyond my usual choices. I was sad to see that very few continued to participate, but I know Holly is still reading all the time. I am inspired by a list of her own. My sister was a high school English teacher who also has a list of books to read. She’s just had a new baby—congratulations—and I’m looking forward to getting my hands on that cute new baby boy and her list as soon as they are up and around.

I am considering starting an online book club, myself, with selections from all of these lists. The Try-It-With-Me Tuesday Book Club would replace my monthly reading challenge. Do I have any takers that would Try It With Me?

I would announce the book on the first Tuesday of the Month and review it on the last Tuesday of the Month. Then, all those who read it with me could write their own reviews on their websites, and I would publish the links so we could see what each other are saying. If you don’t have a website of your own, you could just leave your comments.

What do you think?

Join in by trying the challenges with me, commenting, linking, or suggesting a challenge. If you want to write a post on your blog about what happened when you took the challenge, I will publish your link. Just link to my website in your post and send me your link. Feel free to use the TIWMT image in your post.

Our elementary school has a 100-mile running club for the students. They set a goal to run 100 miles during the school year. The gym teacher sends the students home with a worksheet filled with running bubbles. Each bubble represents 1/4 of a mile, and after they run that far, they get to fill in a bubble. When they fill in enough bubbles to equal five miles, they turn it in for a prize.

Each fall, one of my children signs up for the 100-mile running club and runs with great earnestness to meet the goal. At some point, he or she slows down and scales back. Then, the winter chill sets in, and since we don’t have a treadmill, the idea of running outside diminishes and the child stops altogether. At the end of the school year, each looks sadly upon the students who persevered and received the 100-mile running club award.

This year is the last year that I will have a child at the elementary school. Our youngest daughter, KH, recognized that if she’s going to meet the goal, it is this year or never. (Never mind that I could make up these sheets for them to fill in at home, no matter what their age.) I did all I could do to encourage her, and on the third day of school, I drove my car around the neighborhood and marked the distance for a one-mile run.

She is tenacious. She runs nearly every day and has already gone 20 miles in the first month. She said, “I want to do it. Its good exercise, and I’ve never got a fitness award before.”

I see her strong spirit, her single-minded focus, her fast pace, and I see myself.  I have a passion for meeting goals that I believe in, working at an increased pace for extended periods of time—days, months or years—without stopping. I don’t overextend myself, though, and only have one or two major goals like this in my life at a time so that I can commit to just that goal and my family.

Lately, though, I have determined multiple goals that I want to accomplish. Initially, as they presented themselves, I knew each one was right for me at this time. But, as each added onto the next, the requirements overwhelmed me. I asked myself, “How am I going to do it all?”

I wrote an insane schedule for myself and outlined my day, minute by minute, to accommodate all that I wanted to accomplish. But I knew I couldn’t keep to it, and so I asked, “Which of these goals should I keep and which should go?”

And then this insight came:

And see that all these things are done in wisdom and order; for it is not requisite that a man should run faster than he has strength. And again, it is expedient that he should be diligent, that thereby he might win the prize; therefore, all things must be done in order.

Mosiah 4:27 in the Book of Mormon

Each goal is important, but I do not need to run the 100 miles all in the first month. Since most of those multiple goals don’t have deadlines, I can change my pace and work on each at a slower pace over time.

Learning this and doing it is taking some practice, but some unintended consequences have forced me into it. I get up early every morning to meet the commitments of one of these goals. I have time enough to work a little bit on each goal throughout the day; yet, my energy levels lower as the day goes on, taking away the opportunity to push myself beyond a certain pace.

In the evenings I’m subdued rather than enthused, and that’s a blessing for one who runs on passion. I thought maybe I’d make myself my own bubble worksheet to hang above my desk, but I’m worried I’d succumb to the pressure to fill them up faster rather than see the accomplishment that each filled bubble represents.

During Jesus Christ’s ministry on earth, he performed many great miracles. However, when he taught in the synagogue in his own part of the country, the people questioned his teachings, saying “Is not this the carpenter’s son?”

As a result, “And he did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief.” Matthew Chapter 13:58, The New Testament of the Bible.

We did a fun object lesson in our class this week with an apple in a brown paper bag. I announced that there was something in the bag that no human eye had seen. I asked the students if they believed me. Only one student raised his hand. I showed him the contents of the bag and told him quietly that the seeds in the apple had never been seen by the human eye. He believed me and told the other students he believed. Many of the students still doubted that we were telling the truth.

Following that object lesson, we had an thought-provoking discussion about developing faith and how faith grows when we press passed our doubt and choose to believe. When we show forth a little bit of faith, God blesses us to know we were right to believe him.

I love to see that process occurring in life. We can actually look at life experience and recognize the connection between our belief and the ensuing blessing or miracle that transpires. I especially like to see how God’s hand has touched us with blessings that follow extended periods of faith.

Yet, I realize more fully, that I can allow doubt and discouragement to take over, and the opposite will be true.  Just as Christ did no miracles in his part of the land, he cannot do them in my life when I do not believe. “For if there be no faith among the children of men God can do no miracle among them; wherefore, he showed not himself until after their faith.” Ether Chapter 12:12, The Book of Mormon

In a follow-up to yesterday’s little accident in the kitchen, the dinner was salvaged—despite the fire—and very tasty. Last week I posted a picture and link to a healthy recipe I tried, but this week I am sharing this rich and filling pasta dish that my mom often served. The season for comfort food is starting, and Bow Tie Pasta satisfies in a number of different ways.

Bow Tie Pasta

1 lb. bulk sausage
1 large onion, chopped
1 clove of garlic, minced
1 can (16 oz) diced tomatoes
1 teaspoon leaf basil, crumbled
1 teaspoon leaf oregano, crumbled
½ teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
1 (8 oz) pkg farafelli pasta (shaped like bow ties)
½ cup grated fresh Parmesan cheese

Flatten sausage into patty. Brown on both sides and remove to a paper towel. (AND SET AWAY FROM THE STOVE!!)

Saute onion and garlic. Drain tomatoes, reserving liquid. Brown tomatoes for five minutes in skillet. Return meat to skillet with tomato juice and seasonings. Simmer 30 minutes on low. Cook pasta and spoon sauce over pasta. Serve with Parmesan cheese.

Personal Notes: Play with the seasonings and adjust to personal preference and try fresh herbs if you have them. You also might want to add more tomatoes if you like a juicier sauce, even double the amount, but be sure you brown them. That step gives the tomatoes a characteristic flavor.

The Question: Have I Seen the Hand of God Reaching Out To Touch Us Today?

Paul had a roommate at college who loved to play with fire. He used to start small objects on fire in their apartment and then immediately put the fire out.

I took up his bad habit. When I went home to visit my family for the holidays, I lit a napkin on fire during a conversation around our kitchen table. That fire didn’t go out as quickly as when the roommate did it, and my mom didn’t think it was a funny game. While no physical damage was done, I learned my lesson.

Since that time I’ve been cautious about fire, especially in the kitchen. I read newspaper accounts all the time of kitchen fires and think how easily that story could be mine if I’m not careful. Still, accidents happen, and yesterday I started a fire.

I was cooking Bow Tie Pasta for the missionaries from our church who were coming to dinner. Since these young men seem to eat quite a bit more than my children, I doubled the recipe and used an extra-wide pot instead of my usual skillet to cook the sausage and red sauce.

I formed the bulk sausage in a patty and browned it in the pan. Then I removed it onto a plate covered with paper towels to soak up the excess grease. I set that to the side of the pan and browned the onions and tomatoes.

I’d been cooking in the kitchen for a while, making baguettes before the sauce. I really wanted to check my email or read the newspaper while the tomatoes and onions cooked, but I resisted that urge and stayed focused on my sauce. (I’m foreshadowing the blessing, if you can’t tell.)

Instead, I opened a new bottle of oregano and set it beside the plate of sausage. The large pot was overhanging the stove top and things were a little crowded on that counter. I bent down to reach into my pull-out spice cabinet just below and saw the paper towel flaming along the sides.

The wrong instinct came to me first, and I blew on the fire to try to put it out. That only made it grow bigger.

I am never calm, but I was calm. But what did I remember about kitchen fires? Should I bury the plate in my flour bin or set it on the counter and pour flour on it?

Water. Water. Water. Oh, yeah, right, I thought.

I grabbed hold of the other side of this flaming plate, and held it under the kitchen faucet and drenched it with water. I can only imagine the scene that would have greeted our dinner guests if those small insights in the moment hadn’t come.

Don’t you think it is time we purchased that fire extinguisher we put on our home safety list two years ago?