Creation

Monday-30 minutes Anne of Green gables

Tuesday- 10 minutes Anne of Green Gables

Wednesday-20 minutes Catholic Q&A

Thursday-10 minutes Catholic Q&A

Friday- 20 minutes Catholic Q&A

Saturday-20 minutes Catholic Q&A

Sunday

This week I varied my reading a little.  I got back into my Catholic Q&A book, as well as continuing my journey with Anne Shirley as she finishes up her first semester of University at Redmond.

Anne has finally finished her first semester at Redmond and gets to go home to Green Gables for her winter break.  It has been nearly 4 months since she has seen her family on the island on little Green Gables.  She left at home Marilla, two little twins Dora and Davey, and Mrs. Lynde.  After the stress of fall finals Anne was more then ready to spend a few weeks with dear old friends.  When she got home she was able to spend the whole night with her sworn best friend, Diana.  They soon were able to catch up on all of the town gossip. 

This week I also got back into my Catholic Q&A book.  The topics that I read about this week were about creation, and the human story.  Specifically creation according to the Bible and scientific fact.  This is quite a controversial topic to a lot of people as Christians take creation views very seriously.  I was surprised to find out throughout the course of taking the RCIA classes that Catholics have a very different view of creation then protestants do.  Protestants hold to the fact that God created the world in 7 days, while Catholics have a different view on that as the book expressed in my readings this week.  Time to a God who is eternal and infinite probably is totally different then time to humans who are confined to 24 hours and who are not immortal.  This opened up my eyes to a very interesting realm of thought, one that I never would have traversed before.

The Original Anne

Monday 20 minutes

Tuesday 10 minutes

Wednesday 10 minutes

Thursday 20 minutes

Friday 30 minutes

Saturday 20 minutes

This week I continued reading the Anne of Green Gables.  I wanted to go back to the beginning of the series however even though I was in the middle of the third book and re-read the first book.  Anne of Green Gables was the original book that truly drew me into the series.  I was so excited when I found out that there were other books in the series.  A lot of other books in the series!  When Anne first comes to the Island she is so full of wonder.  Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert are the older brother and sister who are adopting Anne, however they don’t know yet that Anne is coming to them.  They originally wanted to adopt a boy so that Matthew could have some help around the farm as he was getting older and starting to have some health issues. 

Anne was so excited to finally be some place where she had a home only to find out that she was unwanted because she was a girl.  Matthew however really liked Anne and eventually got Marilla to give in and keep her in a few days.  At first life was a little bit difficult for Anne and Marilla to get used to.  Anne was clumsy, and a bit prone to day dreaming.  She had many kitchen mishaps especially at first things such as forgetting to do the dishes, dripping greasy water on the floor, and even forgetting to put key ingredients in recipes.  Marilla had to have a lot of patience with her and it was quite the adjustment for her.  Even though Marilla had a hard time showing Anne love she did love her deep down inside.

The Creation Story & Patty's Place

Monday: 20 minutes Catholic Q&A

Tuesday:  20 minutes Catholic Q&A

Wednesday: 20 minutes Catholic Q&A

Thursday:  20 minutes Anne of the Island

Friday: 20 minutes Anne of the Island

Saturday: None

Sunday

This week I continued reading my Catholic Q&A book.  I am also taking the RCIA classes at church.  While we were in class a couple of people brought up questions about creation and how the world was formed, and what the Church’s stance on topic was.  This was rather timely seeing as how the next two subjects in my Catholic Q&A book were about specifically Genesis (the creation story, and first book of the Bible) and the creation story and the creation of the world.  The book talked about how the Church’s stance on the creation story is essentially that the Bible though we believe it to be accurate is not a scientific description of what truly happened to the earth.  While the Church doesn’t necessarily subscribe to one major belief or another (big bang theory, etc.) it does acknowledge the scientific findings that our earth is very old.  Since God is infinite then what does a measure of time truly mean to him?  It says in Genesis that each “day” God created these different things, and then after 6 days of creating (parts of the world) that He rested on the 7^th “day.”  Those very well may not be literal days, at least not in our 21^st century concept of the word. 

I have also been re-reading one of my favorite series of books (yet again) and am on Anne of the Island.  After I left off of last week Anne and some of her girlfriends have stumbled upon a quaint house in a rather rich neighborhood that are unlike all the other houses.  The girls quickly fall in love with the house and try to find out who owns it.  After Anne hears that the house is called “Patty’s Place,” she is convinced that something special is going to happen there.  Come to find out later, the girls will actually be able to rent the house for the remainder of their time at Redmond. 

Reading Week 1

Monday: 20 minutes Catholic Q&A

Tuesday: 10 minutes Catholic Q&A

Wednesday : 15 minutes Anne of the Island

Thursday: 10 minutes Blog

Friday : 10 minutes blog

Saturday: 10 minutes news

Sunday: none

One of the books that I have been working on in the last few weeks is a book called Catholic Q&A.  About a year and a half ago I met the man who will ultimately be my husband.  Soon after we met we began dating.  At this point in time I soon learned that he was catholic.  I was raised protestant Baptist and came from a very conservative family.  It stands to reason that the news of my dating a catholic boy would not thrill my family, or my protestant friends.  Throughout the process of our dating I soon learned that I had a lot of misconceptions about the Catholic Church and faith as I had listened to a lot of what my parents had told me.  My fiancé and I had several conversations about our beliefs and what we were taught and what we ultimately believed and soon came to find out that though we were raised with two different religions, our beliefs were very very similar.  He proposed in July and I of course said yes.  We both knew that we wanted to be married in the Catholic Church together and be able to take communion together so we signed up to take RCIA classes.  As a sort of supplement I decided to begin reading the Catholic Q&A book and it has thus far been very informative.  I read maybe the first twenty pages or so, it can be pretty heavy reading.  The first chapter in the book seems to be about the Bible and why the Bible is what it is today, and why the Catholic Bible differs from the protestant Bible.  This was a very good place to start for me as I was a protestant for most of my life and had almost always heard, and been told that  Catholic’s take away and add to the Bible as they please.  This however, as I am learning through my readings and through my classes is not the truth.  It has been very eye opening meaningful to help back up and expound upon what I have been learning in class.

One of my most favorite series of books in the whole wide world is the Anne of Green Gables books by Lucy Maud Montgomery.  I have read, re-read, and read again, and again each one of the books in that series, as well as several other books of hers.  They are hands down my favorite book series even above Nancy Drew!  I am currently leisurely reading through Anne of the Island.  This book finds Anne at the University in Prince Edward Island called Redmond.  She along with some of her friends are going for their bachelor’s degrees.  In my readings this week Anne and one of her Island friends get acquainted with another Freshet named Philippa Gordon, a fun, popular girl who never can seem to make up her mind.  Anne is also able to get over some of her homesickness. 

One of the blogs that I almost always read on a daily basis is called “Today’s Letter’s.”  The couple that writes the blog live in Dallas Texas and have such a refreshing view on life and love.  Every time they write an entry (almost) they always write letters to each other, just a little sentence or two telling each other how much they love each other and why, or expressing gratitude for something that the other did for them.  It is always an encouraging part of my day to see a good Christian example form a married couple who, after seven years, are still pursuing each other, and still just as much in love if not all the more so!  It really helps put the important things in perspective for me and reminds me that we can find happiness anywhere we look, especially in the little things in life.