A little "light" reading

One of the things that I love to do most is reading. I LOVE to read! When I get into a book hours can pass without me knowing. I become totally engrossed with the characters. I mostly read fiction books...I read to escape reality not to read about it. You will never find me pouring over a biography, I just can't do it. Shamefully I love fantasy book the most, witches and wizards, vampires and werewolves, heroes and demi-gods, magic, flying and of course the battle of Good vs. Evil. These are my guilty pleasure.

However, for the past few months I have been trying to incorporate a few spiritual books into my reading. Here is what I have found so far...

 I started with "Having a Mary Heart in a Martha's World" by: Joanna Weaver.

 It is based from the biblical story of Martha and Mary in Luke 10:38. Jesus and the diciples come to visit and Martha throws herself into the details of housework, cleaning and preparing for Jesus. During this her sister Mary is found sitting at Jesus' feet listening. This angers Martha and she asks Jesus to remind Mary where her rightful place is...Jesus responds by informing Martha that Mary is in fact in the right place and that she (Martha) "is worried and upset about about many things but few are needed." Lk 10:41-42 This is a book that looks into the life of every day women and reminds us that we can not do everything and that worrying every second about everything is not healthy. That we need to take time for ourselves and building a true relationship with God. One that includes more than just volunteering for anything and everything that happens at church, work or our children's school and becoming over whelmed with the tasks of each day. Some times these things that we value so deeply can in fact distract us from God and take us far away from the path he wants us to take. This book teaches you to prioritize and de-clutter your life so that you are more able to make some room for God.

The second book I want to talk about is Matthew Kelly's "Rediscovering Catholicism"

I am only up to chapter 9 in this book and have really liked it so far. I like it because it is filled with facts. Facts are easy to understand and most were quite surprising. My favorite chapter so far is chapter 8 it covers a few different Saints and their lives. I really want to add more spiritual books to my everyday reading, but I have trouble really getting into them since there are no characters or plot line to follow. This book was surprisingly easy to get into but it still a slower read for me.

The last book I want to discuss is by far my favorite. It is called "Imaginary Jesus" written by Matt Mikalatos

I stumbled across this book in Amazon's section religious/spiritual books for my Kindle and was immediately intrigued. It is exactly the kind of book I like. Matt refers to it as "sort of a true story" it includes many real life experiences and how he dealt with them as well as traveling back in time to Judea to see why Peter chose to drop everything and follow Jesus and chasing Imaginary Jesus through Portland.  Here is the review I read:

Imagine having lunch with Jesus at your favorite downtown restaurant. You are discussing Bible passages and the fact that the waiter forgot to bring the side dish to your meal. Jesus tells you he thought that might happen, which annoys you, but you can't really say anything to him about it since you often feel he is unhappy with you. The scene is interrupted by a new guest to the restaurant, one that you've never seen before. Jesus rolls his eyes at the entrance of the newcomer and hurries outside to go plug the parking meter. The new guy comes over and introduces himself as Pete. After getting a glass of water he begins to quiz you about Jesus. You are surprised that he can see him too. Then when Jesus returned to the table you are horrified when Pete and Jesus start bickering. Pete literally punches Jesus in the face who in turn makes a mad dash for the door, picking up his robes and heading for the hills. You knock Pete over with a chair, demanding an explanation for his behavior.

"That was an imaginary Jesus, my friend... and now that we are on to him he is going to run."

You cross your arms and frown. "I've known Jesus for a long time, what makes you think that you know him better than I do?"

"Because," Pete says, heading for the door, "I'm the Apostle Peter."

So opens Matt Mikalatos fascinatingly funny and creative story of purging his life of this Imaginary Jesus and the many other fake Jesus characters he finds in his life. Some aren't that easy to get rid of and others look deceptively like the real thing. In his chapters you will meet Political Jesus, Peacenik Jesus, Testosterone Jesus, 8-ball Jesus, and many others.

With a few important friends along the way, including Peter, a prostitute, two Mormon missionaries (named Laurel and Hardy), George Barna, and a talking donkey, Matt takes trips in both location and history that open up both his mind and heart to see who Jesus really is. And though it is nearly impossible to put this book down simply for the entertainment value you can't help but recognize some of the false saviors that you've been worshipping yourself.

Though this clever parable has a fun literary device it is not difficult to recognize the painful moments in Matt's life that prompted him to look for Easy-Answer-Saviors. Thankfully for him, and for his readers, he didn't stay stuck there and is on a journey of following the real deal.

Do yourself a favor and pick up this book and a highlighter or two. It is one of the funniest and thoughtful stories that you will read this year.


I know I could have written my own review of the book but this one sums it up so well and this is my blog so I can do what I want ;) 


I absolutely lOVED this book!!! I laughed, I cried, I grew closer to Jesus.  The author has done an incredible job mixing hilarious antics with deep religious thought provoking moments. This book by no means preaches to it's reader. Instead it takes us on a journey with Matt as he meets several key characters, who help him rid himself of the imaginary Jesus he has created to fill the void in him that longs for closeness with GOD. It shows us that we need to take a seriously long look at our relationship with Jesus and determine if it is a genuine relationship with the true Son of God or if it is just what WE feel a relationship with Jesus should be. 


If anyone has a suggestion or recommendation for spiritual/religious books please let me know. The next book I will begin reading is "The Screwtape Letters" by C. S. Lewis I will let you know what I think of it once I've finished :) 

Just saying Hi!

Hello...I have debated starting a blog for some time now. I really enjoy reading the blogs that my friends have, so I have finally started my own. This is a blog of my life the good and the bad. There are so many aspects of my life that I want to blog about I just don't know where to begin... I guess I will start with me.

Me:
I am a procrastinating, 29 year old, catholic, mother of a beautiful baby boy, wife of brave civil servant, stay
 at home mom, avid reader,good listener, loyal friend, lover of chocolate, good conversation and comfy pajamas, hater of dirty dishes and laundry. I have the most amazing family and friends. I feel so lucky to have both my family and Matt's family near us and we get to be involved in each others everyday lives. I am blessed to say that I do not have one best friends but several. I honestly don't know what I would do without each one of them in my life. 


My Past:
I am what they call a "military brat" I have always wondered where this term came from b/c I'm sure any "military brat" can attest to the fact that we are FAR from being brats or spoiled in any way. hahaha I have lived in a few places...I lived the majority of my early childhood (from 2nd grade through 8th grade) in Southern California and think of this as "where I'm from". I moved to Memphis, TN when I was 14 years old and I refer to Memphis as my home even though I currently live in Olive Branch, MS. I attended Craigmont high school for 9th and 10th grade and then graduated from Bartlett High in 1999. I met my husband at the ripe old age of 15 and have been with him since. We met during our church youth group trip to Florida in 1997 and were married in June 2005 after nearly 8 years of dating (exactly 8 days before our 8 year anniversary).

My work:
As stated above I am a mother, a teacher and a sales rep. Yes I am including my son in the work section of my intro. As any mother will tell you it is HARD WORK raising children. It is a learn as you go process no matter how many children you have, what kind of degree you have earned in the field of child development, or how much Experience you think you have. I have worked with children all my working life. I was a babysitter, an after-school care worker, a day care teacher, a nanny, earned a teaching degree in Early Childhood Education from the University of Memphis and taught 4 years before I had my son. NONE of it prepared me for parenthood. I would like to think that it gave me some insight seeing as I knew the basics such as how to change a diaper and not to shake the baby. But, in reality When we welcomed our son William Hatley into the world in October 2008 my husband and I were just as terrified as any other new parent. It was as if I had forgotten everything I had learned and experienced. It is funny how that works..even after having a child already, when I would ask my friends for advice or tips they had already forgotten most of what happened in their child's first days. I think we are programmed to forget the really hard stuff b/c if not we would never have more than one child hahaha!! Well, William has successfully made it to two years of age with only one minor fractured leg and I am VERY proud. William is my life right now, everything I do I do for him and his well being...some times that includes taking care of MY well being so that I an better able to deal with the stress of raising my fiercely independent son! LOL

I also work part time teaching computer skills to 3 and 4 year old and I am that annoying person at the mall that asks if you would like to try a new fragrance. I love both my part time jobs, they allow me to spend the majority of my time with my son, pay well, have flexible schedules, come with very limited stress involved and get me out of the house for a few hours a week so I don't get cabin fever :) I really do enjoy my jobs. I will always love to teach and through this job I get to teach and do all the fun things with my students without lesson plans, parent conferences and grading papers. I love the people I work with at the mall we are always laughing and joking around. I get access to the newest fragrances and I really do enjoy the ones that my company makes which makes it super easy to sell. I'm sure this blog will include a lot about my hilarious son as well as my work.

My present:
I think the "thing" that is currently taking up the majority of my time, brain power and efforts is retuning to my faith. I am what they call a "fallen away catholic" When I moved to TN I decided, after exploring just about all the other Christian based religions there are, that I wanted to be Catholic. I signed myself up for R.C.I.A at the church my grandmother attended and joined the youth group. The church became my life. I went to church on Sunday followed by youth group Sunday night and we also met on Wednesday at the youth house. All of my free time revolved around church events. My husband and I met at church, We were good old old fashion Catholics we believed that horrible things would happen to us if we missed church.

 Once in college we helped to form the youth group at the Church of the Immaculate Conception and then most of our free time revolved around planning for and conducting that youth group. Shortly after starting I.C's youth group Matt got the job as the Youth Minister at Holy Spirit...So I helped with both youth groups. It was our connection to the church our life line to our faith. I stopped attending mass when we moved to Olive Branch b/c I had not found a church to attend yet. I began attending mass at Queen of Peace catholic church in 2007. During this time we struggled with fertility and although my faith wavered when we lost our first pregnancy after trying for a year to conceive, I never stopped attending mass. I turned to God with my hopes, fears, and dreams, praying that it be his will for us to have a family.  I'm not exactly sure when it happened ...but recently I took a look at my life and realized it was completely void of any real faith. I no longer went to church and no longer had any real connection to any parish. I still prayed and asked others to pray for me, I occasionally went to church and barely paid attention and put nothing in, so in turn got nothing out of it. I had thousands of excuses as to why I didn't attend church and why I didn't have time. But, honestly I just wasn't putting in any effort.

Things have changed now. I started my journey back by joining a "mommy group" at my local parish. We meet once a week and do a book study and talk about our lives. I am SO very thankful to the ladies in this group. I don't think they know how much they have impacted my life over the past few months and I am very glad that I had the chance to meet them and very much look forward to getting to know them better. The next step came when I heard about a weekend retreat called Cursillo. I jumped at the chance to go out of town for the weekend to surround myself with my faith and to really take a close look at where my life was and where a really wanted to to be. Since my Crusillo weekend I feel the fire of the Holy Spirit again (not that it wasn't always there, I just wasn't open to it) I have made some drastic changes in my spiritual life. I am now attending Mass more than once a week, have began praying and really talking to God again, I will continue to spend time with my mommy group and plan on becoming more involved with the Cursillo movement in Memphis.

I know that this post has already become quite lengthy and my future blogs will NOT be this long. I will limit myself to talking about that days or weeks events. It is hard to sum up a whole person with just a few paragraphs and this is not by any meas "all of me" it is just all I care to fit into one post :)