My Reads

I have started to read at night before bedtime just recently and I find it's very relaxing to just lay in the warm bed with a book for a chapter or two before lights out. I kind of missed that...although I didn't know until I started it again.

The books I'm reading are:

1. The Chronological Study Bible
Reading from start to finish, I cannot believe some of the things in the bible that I have missed! Like Abraham and Sarah were brother and sister, for instance. And that Isaac and Rebekah were first cousins! Lot of incest lol. Also interesting was Sarah had already passed the age of conceiving a child, meaning she had already gone through menopause when she became pregnant with Isaac. But there have been other discoveries that I find incredibly intriguing, like the group of outcasts called Habiru...

Habiru - Refugees or Outlaws? (Gen. 14:13) The Habiru (also spelled Hapiru) were a class of fugitives found in the ancient Near East from about 2000 to 1000 A.C. Some of the Habiru were refugees who fled their homelands, while others included brigands, malcontents, and socially maladjusted individuals. Their geographic horizon extended from southern Mesopotamia, Anatolia , and Syro-Palestine to Egypt. The obvious similarity between the words "Habiru" and "Hebrew" has led some to equate the Habiru with the early Israelites. Unfortunately, the original meaning of the Accadian term "Habiru" has never been satisfactorily determined. Most scholars, however, believe it concerns either refugees forced to leave their own lad, or armed brigands who caused problems for local populations. The Habiru are described at length in a great variety of texts, ranging from the amarna letters in Egypt to the Hittite archives in central Anatolia. The Mari tablets describe te Habiru as brigands who were very mobile. The Nuzi documents identify them as foreigners who served the citizens of Nuzi. In all these texts, the Habiru are foreign to the Near Eastern society in which they are trying to survive. Some survived as servants or laborers; others as outlaws. Abram was called "the Hebrew" (Gen. 14:13). In this context, he could be acting as an armed brigand with his own army to help his nephew Lot (14:14-16). On the other hand, David and his men are also called "Hebrews" (1 Sam. 29:3) when, in flight from King Saul, they sought refuge among the Philistines (1 Sam. 27:1-4). Although "Hebrew" is clearly an ethnic term in the Bible, it may have been oiginally a term describing the social condition of persons in flight or those in armed gangs. Abram could have been called "The Hebrew" simply because of his status as a foreigner in Canaan.

2. Organizing Magic: 40 Days to a well-ordered home and life
I love organizing so this book is perfect for me, especially since I live in a house with practically no storage. So, the need to find new ideas for organizing is just what the Doctor ordered. A particular quote from this book gave me some serious food for thought (In every avenue of life):

When you choose the behavior, you choose the consequences.

This piece of knowledge is very precious...

Stop, Start, Continue To put feet to your goals and start movng ahead, you must realize that reaching your goals requires behavior change. Have you thought recently about the behaviors that get in the way of your dreams, or about the habits you must initiate to et where you want to go? It's time to evaluate them, decide how to deal with them, and move forward.

Well, that's exactly what I needed to hear and need to do! In more than one area of my life. Not just in the organizing part. I never thought of it in that way and now that I have, I expect to see changes happen.

3. Fat Proof Your Family
This book has been amazing and I haven't even finished one chapter yet. I was very upset when I looked in the BMI chart and realized that for my heighth with my weight I am considered obese! What a horrible word! These statistics scared the living daylight out of me!

58 million American adults are overweight,40 million obese, 3 million morbidly obese. 60% of adults were twenty-five and over are overweight. 78% of Americans are not meeting basic activity level recommendations. 76% increase in type 2 (adult-onset) diabetes in dults thirty to forty years old since 1990. 80% of Type 2 diabetes is related to obesity. 70% of cardiovascular disease is related to obesity. 42% of breast and colon cancer is diagnosed among overweight individuals. 30% of gall bladder surgery is related to being overweight. 26% of overweight people have high blood pressure. 100,000 new cases of cancer ech yar are due to obesity.  Source American Heart Association, 2004 data Imagine two loaded 747 jetliners colliding midair and killing everyone on board: certainly a tragedy. Now imagine that happening every single day and you get a sense of the devastation caused by excessive fat. You might be thinking, Sure this stuff sounds bad, but these are adults. They can choose to harm themselves if they want to. You're right, and indeed, that is what they are doing, but consider this: Among American children ages six to eleven, 18% of girls nd 19% of boys are overweight. Among American Adolescents ages twelve to nineteen, 19% of girls and 20% of boys are overweight. That's over 13 million overweight kids! The entire population of Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, Utah, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, New Mexico, Kansas and Alaska...combined!

Isn't that shocking!? So, these are my reads. What are you reading?