Monday Morning: January 12

January 12th Questions:

1. What book is on your nightstand right now? What was the last book you read? How many books do you think you read in 2008? Right now I’m reading The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis (I’m about half way through, it’s a very short but GOOD read). I actually know exactly how many books I read in 2008 since I kept track in several places – 47 books – my goal for 2009 is 50.

2. Name three blogfriends that have inspired you. Now please tell us how these blogfriends have inspired you. Gosh so many of you inspire me! Like Jen @ Daily Mish Mash who (along with inspiring me with her Friday Eye Candy list) started the Looking Fine by 2009 Challenge that actually helped me lose 7 pounds and come up with a real plan to lose more (I’ve since then lost another 5 pounds! So what if the stomach bug helped make that happen?). Tsh @ Simple Mom is also hugely inspiring in general – just browse her blog for, um, three seconds and you’ll totally see why, but for a more concrete reason – she inspired me to start planning my menus monthly rather than weekly or heck let’s face it, daily. Lastly I’ll say Rachel @ Adventures of an American Mum who hosts the Wordless Wednesday With a Twist meme – she’s one of many fabulous photographers whose pictures inspired me to really go for something more in my own pictures – I’m sure I don’t have half the skills they do, but bloggers like Rachel inspire me to at least try!

3. How far do you live from the place where you grew up as a kid? Tell us about the place you grew up – would you choose to go back there and raise your own family (if you have one)? Why or why not? This question is kind of hard for me to answer as I moved a LOT as a child, but the one place that was consistently home (my grandparents house) is actually only about 40 minutes or so from where I live now. It’s a very small New England town where everyone knows everyone, a cow farm is across the street from my grandparent’s house and my grandfather would always predict the weather based on whether the cows were standing or sitting. The teens there seemed angsty and bored when I was a teen but I still think it was a wonderful place to live. I would consider raising my family there, except that it’s a bit far from the city, especially the area my husband currently works – the commute would be awful – it’s also not terribly near any major shopping areas, etc. It would be a toss up I guess.

4. Finish this line: Absence makes the heart……
(please do not say “grow fonder”.) How long do you think is ‘too long’ to be away from your loved ones? … more true? Not like faithful true, but rather honest. I think distance or absence for the most part will just magnify what’s already there – a weak relationship will definitely crumble – a strong one has a much better chance of thriving, though you wouldn’t be happy about that distance I’m sure. I personally wouldn’t enjoy being apart from my ‘loved one’ for longer than a week or so – but we’ve also never been apart for longer than that – he has a big business meeting trip coming up next month on the other side of the country and he’ll be gone for that long – one week – and I’m not looking forward to it – but not because of our relationship’s sake, but rather because things are better when he’s here – he helps out a lot and I enjoy his company – I know I’ll miss him. I really feel for the wives of soldiers, etc. whose husbands are gone for much longer at a time – they are much stronger women than me!

For more Monday Morning fun, head over to Karen’s blog @ Write From Karen!