I know I don’t talk about it much these days, but Oklahoma is near and dear to my heart. I spent 4 years of growth there, making lots of memories, getting to know lifelong friends, and (occasionally) studying.

In 1999, I was still living in Kansas, where we experienced our own May 3rd tornado. When I moved to Norman (one suburb over from Moore) in 2001, I remember watching the community grow and rebuild after that tornado with the highest recorded winds in history. Then in 2003, during final’s week, a tornado hits Moore again as we huddled up in our dorm fifteen minutes away.

When I heard yesterday’s storm was headed to Moore again, I couldn’t believe it. How does a community as small as Moore handle yet another storm? To see tragedy strike anywhere isn’t easy, but it’s not hard to think of it as just a news story.

After being away from the area for 8 years, I don’t have too many friends there anymore. Still, I know these people, these neighborhoods, these landmarks. For me, this was not one of the things you think, “Oh, that’s sad” and immediately turn your attention elsewhere.

Hearing about the school struck with a direct hit of this massive tornado made me instantly think of Newtown. It wasn’t long before the news coverage went there as well. To the news  anchors, it was the heroic acts of the teachers in the face of imminent death that was the connecting link. There’s definitely a story there.

But more than that, I pondered the link between the two as consequences for sin. Please read this carefully, because sometimes statements like this can be misunderstood and/or stripped of their context. I know others still have made statements like this and have meant that natural disasters are a direct judgment on specific people for specific sins. That’s not what I’m saying here.

Both cases like Newtown and natural disasters are caused by sin. In the case of the former, it’s the individual(s) perpetrating the crime who are sinning, following our first father and the sin nature that is in each one of us. But natural disasters, too, are caused by sin.

Because of the original sin (and each and every one thereafter), we live in a fallen world where such things as super-tornadoes can and do happen. Not primarily as “acts of God” (though they are within the sovereignty of God) but as indirect “acts of man.”

Were those affected by this storm more guilty than you or me? No. We all bear the guilt.

At the same time, through the death of the perfect Son of God on our behalf, we have the right to draw near to the One who comforts and heals. I pray that during this time of loss and tragedy more people will be drawn towards the only One who can provide eternal relief to our sad plight.

Come quickly, Lord Jesus.

I shameless borrowed that illustration from Facebook. If you made it, let me know and I’d be happy to credit you or take it down. Thank you.

But I do want to write. I have some ideas swirling around that I need to think through, and writing is the best way for me to do so.

So I will write again.

Photo by J. Paxon Reyes

7. Watch 10 movies I’ve wanted to see. 5/10

I saw Life of Pi.

14. Reread (or listen to the audio of) 20 books. 7/20

16. Say “yes” to 10 things I would have said “no” to. 4/10

20. Ask 5 friends to suggest a book, and read them. 4/5

22. Visit a farmers’ market. - Completed 4/14/2013

27. Hike 101 miles. 9.8/101

45. Journal 500 times. 78/500

47. Blog 303 times. 42/303

48. Read the Bible through in 5 different versions. 883/5945 chapters

55. Write 101 letters or encouraging emails. 59/101

56. Proactively offer help 10 times. 2/10

58. Donate $1001 (above what I give to the church). 430/1001

60. Throw out/recycle/donate 50 other things. 7/50

62. Send an international care package. - Completed 4/9/2013

63. Volunteer 101 hours. 65.5/101

With the sleepover a few weeks ago, this number jumped.

65. Go to the beach. - Completed 4/28/2013

This was an impromptu trip for me, but glad we went. Because I normally would have said no, it also counts towards #16, too!

74. Pay down student loan to below $X. 15.79%

76. Get a raise. – Completed 4/3/2013

78. Wear a skirt or dress to work 50 times. 36/50

82. Read 250 books. 46/250

84. Visit a national news site 101 times. 13/101

I don’t go to the beach as often as I should considering it’s only a 2-hour drive away. I probably have only averaged a beach trip once a year since I moved here in 2005 (though a few of those were several days long).

It wasn’t as cold as it looks (though it was still cooler than you’d expect for late April)!

Starting at 8 AM EDT, I’ll be reading all day! While Dewey’s Readathon is technically 24 hours, I’ll cut off by midnight. 16 hours of reading (in a row) is enough for me!

I’ll update this post with my progress every couple of hours. You can see the stack I’m reading from here: http://ignoranthistorian.com/2013/04/readathon-stack/ .

Quick Stats
475 pages read
120 minutes audiobook listened
finished: The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce

9:30 Update

Reading is going well. I’ve read 60 pages so far, from 3 different books: The Transforming Power of the Gospel by Jerry Bridges, Blink by Malcolm Gladwell, and All too Human by George Stephanopoulos. Since I’m reading only 20 pages in any book at one time, I may never finish a book today. That’s okay…I’m reading what I like!

11:15 Update

I’ve completed my first “circuit,” reading 30 pages each in Les Miserables by Victor Hugo and The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce. Also read another 20 pages in Transforming Power of the Gospel.

I got sleepy, so I ended up taking a 15-minute nap. I’m more awake now and ready to hit the books again.

1:45 Update

Losing a little steam. Only read 40 pages since my last update, from Blink and All Too Human. About to dive back in to the reading.

3:30 Update

Picked up the pace since my last update. Helps that I only read fiction. I read 90 pages, from Les Miserables and The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry. At this point, I think I’ll switch to focusing on one book, and read Harold Fry until it’s finished. I’m about 1/3 of the way through at the moment.

I did go outside for about an hour which was nice. Sat on my balcony for the first time. I came back in, though, as sitting in the sun on the balcony got uncomfortable after a while.

5:55 Update

Continuing in The Unlikely Pilgrimage Harold Fry, reading 90 pages. Hope to complete it before I update again. It likely will be the only book that I finish this Readathon, but I’m okay with that. If you add up all the pages I’ve read today, I would have already finished any normal-length book.

8:00 Update

I finished a book! Kept reading until I finished Harold Fry. It was good, and I’m glad my SIL recommended it.

I may turn back to the Stephanopoulus memoir, or another fiction book. Or maybe a little bit of both. I still have a few more hours in me!

10:30 Update

That’s it. I’m ready for bed. What can I say, going to work at 7 AM has ruined the night owl in me! Totals are as above. I’m happy with my day and looking forward to another relaxing day tomorrow…at the beach!

When I decided to participate this time around, I was thinking through what books I wanted to request from the library. Then I remembered the decent-sized stack of books I already had out, and wasn’t reading. So instead of getting new, enticing books from the library, I’m going to read what I have.

That said, here’s my stack:

Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood (how much longer can I not read this?)
Misreading Scripture with Western Eyes by Richards and O’Brien
The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce*
Blink by Malcolm Gladwell
The Year of the Hangman by Gary Blackwood
Earth Unaware by Orson Scott Card and Aaron Johnston
Bridge of Sighs by Richard Russo
The Transforming Power of the Gospel by Jerry Bridges*
All too Human by George Stephanopoulos*
Quiet Leadership by David Rock
Citizens by Simon Schama*
Les Miserables by Victor Hugo* (not pictured)

*in progress

Clearly with this stack, I’m not going to be putting up huge numbers with this stack, though I do have a couple of easy reads. They’re all books that I’ve wanted to read, and this is my opportunity to do so. I’ll be keeping up with my habit of jumping around between different books, so probably won’t be finishing many, either. I’m okay with that, though. I’m just going to enjoy the read! If the weather’s nice as it appears likely to be, I’ll probably spend some of the day reading outside, and knock one more thing off my list!

If you’re joining in, what are you looking forward to reading?

I knew that my Sunday school class would love this as well. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find a menu for “Roadkill Cafe” or a similar mystery dinner. That just meant I had to create it myself!

In case someone else would be looking for something similar, I wanted to post the menu I used in case it’s of use to anyone else. I used the theme “Fantasy Cafe” because I thought the girls would like it, and fantasy was a broad enough category (fairy tales, mythical creatures, fantasy literature, etc.) that I could draw enough things from.

Of course, the girls were only given the coded names, not the key. They were then instructed to write their name and the names of three of the items on the outside of a paper plate. We did 3 courses of 3 items each. In most cases, we just gave them a tablespoon’s worth of the item, since I knew that they wouldn’t be eating it as served, anyway!

I really tried to take a good picture, but they were too excited to stay still.

Here is the menu they were offered (and the items they corresponded to). After the fun, we ate our real dinner of nachos and ice cream sundaes.

Chicken little’s truth – nuts
Dragon’s breath – salsa
Dryad party – Fiesta cheese
Elves’ handiwork – cookie
Emperor’s new clothes – nothing =)
Fairy wand – fork
Faun horn – carrot
Fluffy cloud – sour cream
Fountain of youth – ginger ale
Four-leaf clovers – lettuce
Giant’s bathwater – root beer
Glitter stones – ice
Gloppy’s goo – chocolate syrup
Gnome eyes – olives
Golden lava – cheese dip
Ground griffin – ground beef
Jack’s beanstalk – celery
Leprechaun droppings – green chiles
Little red’s accessory – napkin
Mermaid tint – guacamole
Nymph nectar – strawberry lemonade
Pay dirt – refried beans
Phoenix beak – homemade salsa (pico de gallo)
Ogre finger – pepper
Rainbow shavings – sprinkles
Ruby slippers – tomatoes
Slivers of crystal – onions
Snow white – ice cream
Troll heart – cherries
Unicorn horn – spoon
Yellow-brick road – chips

Bought most of my garden plants this year from the North Carolina state farmers’ market.

As a cashier (something I did on and off through college), I loved training new cashiers. At my other college job as a phone solicitor for the university, they would ask a few of us a couple of times a month to come on and help new callers train by being the “alumni” on the other end. I loved doing it.

At my first “grown up” job, I was given the responsibility to run 3 tax sites, overseeing and training the volunteers. That was my favorite part of what I did.

Did you catch the common theme?

In every job I’ve ever had, I’ve fallen into the trainer/mentor role. And it’s happening again.

I love my job. I work for a company who seeks to foster talent and wants their employees to grow and pursue the skills they need to do the job they want. A little while ago, they asked me to take some tasks that needed a dedicated individual. Since what they were asking wasn’t (yet) enough for a full-time job, they asked me what else I would like to do. I asked that training become a part of this new role, and they agreed. The next day, they were handing the reigns of my department’s fledgling training program over to me.

I love that they’re letting me do this. As much as I think I have to give and teach, I have a whole lot to learn, too. I’m excited for the challenge!

Photo by Photomatt28