Last year, I wrote about the books I read in 2012 and the books I planned to read in 2013. Only two on the to-read list were ever actually read (Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother and The Soldier's Wife). But, I did read 15 other books!

• Flyboys: A True Story of Courage
• Surviving and Thriving in Stepfamily Relationships: What Works and What Doesn't
• Ephesians
• Galatians
• Jonah
• Even From a Broken Web
• Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking
• Love's Executioner and Other Tales of Psychotherapy
• What You Need to Know about Spiritual Warfare in 12 Lessons: The What You Need to Know Study Guide Series
• The Birth Order Book: Why You Are the Way You Are
• Organic Outreach for Families: Turning Your Home Into a Lighthouse
• Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother
• How to Be an American Housewife
• I Hate You -- Don't Leave Me: Understanding the Borderline Personality
• Your Beautiful Purpose: Discovering and Enjoying What God Can Do Through You
• An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness
• The Soldier's Wife

In 2014, my goal is to read 18 books--about one and a half books each month. So far, there are 10 on my bookshelf waiting to be read.

• Hitler's Last Secretary
• Undaunted: The Real Story of America's Servicewomen in Today's Military
• King Leopold's Ghost
• Standing By: The Making of an American Military Family in a Time of War
• Wait No More: One Family's Amazing Adoption Journey
• Revolution in World Missions
• Handbook on Thriving as an Adoptive Family
• Counseling Couples in Conflict
• The Peacemaker: A Biblical Guide to Solving Personal Conflict
• Community: Taking Your Small Group off Life Support

the d-word: deployment thoughts [25% done]

month 3 // Today was rough; I think it would have been easier if Alan were home. I was feeling sad and grateful to be blessed by a husband who orders pizza delivery from another continent and a friend who blessed me with a little pampering package.

month 4 // I don't want to say that certain people are "made" for the military lifestyle, as I don't believe that we were created to be separated from our spouses, but I do believe that some people adapt more easily and are more self-sufficient, traits that turn deployments into periods for growth and challenge instead of misery.

//

+ savage. Temperature in the 20s. Waist-deep water. Lots of mud. I ran the Savage Race and loved it. I skipped some of the challenges because I was afraid of hypothermia--Texas' Savage Race was the coldest on record!--but I still enjoyed the obstacles and have officially completed my second race.

+ volunteering. I started volunteering at the Family Life Chaplain Training Center on post. I'm there two days a week and I love it.

+ umhb. Three more semesters until graduation! Thanks to God and a supportive husband, I have maintained a 4.0 (which was a challenge, especially since I had a stomach flu during finals week). Also, I think solution-focused brief therapy is "my" approach. I really like it. One of my professors also loaned some emotion-focused therapy material to me and I've been studying it over break.

+ almost there. I ran 9.06 miles. I could have made it to 10 but I quit because my phone (and therefore, Endomondo) died around 7 miles and I wanted to know exactly how far I ran. Also, after surviving the Savage Race, I did two evening runs in 23F and 27F weather, respectively. It was raining the second time.

+ flyboys. After a friend recommended Flyboys to me, I purchased it and have been reading it off and on for several months. I finally finished it. In my opinion, the book was well-researched; I enjoyed learning about the history of Japan and Japanese-American relations as well as an area of history I had not studied before.

+ bucket list. Some friends and I went to Outback for dinner--it was my first visit, so I can cross off another item on my deployment bucket list! Also, I took a friend out to lunch at Rosa's after PWOC--yes, I was there the Tuesday after I posted about it and have been going semi-regularly ever since. I attended a class on mentorship based on At the Feet of Ordinary Women and asked the ladies to pray about whether any of them would be interested in mentoring me. Recently, one of them approached me and she's going to start mentoring me in the new year! And, I'm currently writing from Pennsylvania. Plus, my wonderful husband scheduled a massage for me last month and it was amazing.

+ snapchat. I downloaded Snapchat. My sister and I have been using it to send each other pictures of our dogs. While we're both in the same room.

a year in books

Last year, my goal was to read 12 books that I had never read before.  Which is really sad, because it used to be nothing for me to read well over 100 books in a school year, which means that number doesn't even include whatever I read over summer vacation.  Sadly, I didn't even read 12 (not including textbooks), although the eight that I did read either stimulated, convicted, or encouraged me.

1. Bringing Up Boys (Dobson)
2. The Resolution for Women (Shirer)
3. On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society (Grossman)
4. Divergent (Roth)
5. The Buddha in the Attic (Otsuka)
6. Post-trauma Stress: Reduce Long-term Effects And Hidden Emotional Damage Caused By Violence And Disaster (Parkinson)
7. Games People Play (Berne)
8. Resilient Warriors (Dees)

In 2013, I have more of a definite list instead of a vague goal of reading 12 books.  I want to focus more on history, read some of the classics that have been setting on my bookshelves for years, and challenge myself spiritually.  I also threw in some popular fiction because, quite frankly, I am not about to plow through social injustice, a crusade, and the Holocaust without some fluff in between.

1. Les Miserables (Hugo)
2. Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother (Chua)
3. Insurgent (Roth)
4. The Tiger's Wife (Obreht)
5. The Nazi Officer's Wife: How One Jewish Woman Survived the Holocaust
6. The Fourth Crusade and the Sack of Constantinople (Phillips)
7. One Thousand Gifts (Voskamp) <--I started it over the summer and never finished it.
8. The Secret Holocaust Diaries (Bannister)
9. The Prince (Machiavelli)
10. The Soldier's Wife (Leroy)
11. Perpetua (Peterson)
12. The Help (Stockett)

As a couple, we also should finish (actually, we probably need to start reading from the beginning) Mullaney's "The Unforgiving Minute: A Soldier's Education."