This past Sunday morning, I woke up to a weather alert on my phone that I had never heard of before - freezing fog. I'm still not quite sure what that meant. What I can tell you is that it made the trees absolutely beautiful, coating each branch in white. I was only able to snap one quick picture on my way to church. God did a great job of frosting His creation that morning!

Saturday Snapshot is hosted by West Metro Mommy.

This week, I put my 200th book on my Goodreads to-read list. This list has been gradually growing since I joined Goodreads at the beginning of 2013. It goes down a fair amount over the summers when I have time to visit the library and read a lot of books. The rest of the year, it just grows bigger and bigger.

In honor of reaching the magic 200, I thought I would look through the list and see what the top ten books are that I want to read as soon as humanly possible.

I told myself that I would limit my reading challenges this year. With a baby arriving next month, I really didn't want to over-commit because that would just make me stress myself out. So I was really good in January and only signed up for 4 reading challenges. (Compared to last year's 15, that's pretty good.)

But I just can't take it. It's not enough. Surely there are other reading challenges out there that I can fulfill without driving myself crazy. So I found two more. . .​

The European Reading Challenge is hosted by Rose City Reader. This is one I've participated in every year since I started blogging. I'm signing up for the Five Star level, which means I need to read 5 books set in 5 different European countries. Looking at the books I've read so far in 2016, I've got a great start. Surely I can find time to squeeze in a couple more books to finish this one up!

The Nonfiction Reading Challenge is hosted by The Introverted Reader. This is another challenge that I've participated in frequently, and it's usually been really easy for me to blow it out of the water. Nonfiction is a typical part of my reading diet. Looking at what I've read so far in 2016, it's a part of my reading diet that has been lacking this year. And I find myself gazing longingly at the nonfiction books on my shelves. I'm signing up for the Explorer level, which means I need to read 6-10 nonfiction books this year. I'm hoping for more, but I'm still trying to set my sights realistically.

Okay, I promise I'm done. Six challenges. That's it. (I think.)

It's Lutheran Schools Week! I teach at a Lutheran school, and we always spend one week a year celebrating what makes Lutheran schools so awesome. We also do a lot of goofy things, like dress mismatched and play Wacky Olympics. It's essentially like Homecoming week in high school, but I think it's even more fun. We started today with the teachers making a pancake breakfast for all of the students - and we all got to wear our pajamas to school! :​) Any crazy happenings for anyone else this week?

Top Ten Tuesday - In the Mood for Christian Fiction
My Thoughts on Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne
​My 31 in 31 List - Update #2

Cress by Marissa Meyer (Awesome!)
Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder (Reading this book made me hungry.)
The Tale of Hill Top Farm by Susan Wittig Albert (I love escaping into this series.)

The Castle of Llyr by Lloyd Alexander (I'm definitely rediscovering my love of this author by rereading his Chronicles of Prydain. I may just do a whole year of rereading his books!)
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy (Getting closer every day! 945 out of 1,361 pages read!)

The Kite Fighters by Linda Sue Park (This is our March read for the Reading Together book club.)

Back in September, I posted a list of 31 things I wanted to accomplish before my next birthday. At the beginning of December, I posted my first progress report. Since it's been another three months or so, I thought I would check in again with what progress I've been making.

#1: Read War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy.
I have been working on this little by little since the beginning of January. I am now 69% complete!

#4: Finish our upstairs remodel and finally move into our new master bedroom.
Remodeling our upstairs has been a project we've been working on for three years. I am happy to report that (besides a few minor things) we're done! We moved into the upstairs bedroom at the end of January, and I'm enjoying it very much. (I'm also getting a lot more exercise going up and down those stairs all the time.)

#6: Read 50 books from my own shelves.
In my December update, I said that I had read 10 books from my own shelves. That number is now up to 25!

#22: Try 20 new recipes.
Okay, I haven't done stellar with this one yet. I've tried two new recipes - pumpkin muffins (two ingredients - so easy!) and Ranch Chicken Roll Ups. I really need to be better about this goal.

#24: Instead of just making fun of 10 grammatical errors, actually tell someone who can fix them.
I've done this once. A digital sign for a dentist in our town had a typo - "Can we think sring yet?". I called and told them so they could fix it. Instead, they just took that screen out of the line-up. I suppose that counts as a success.

#25: Visit the Creation Museum.
I was really excited that we were able to make this happen while visiting some friends over Christmas break. I'm looking forward to going back someday when they have the Noah's Ark section open.

So there's my progress, halfway through the year. Once again, it's not as much as I thought it was. There are some goals I haven't even touched. And now with a baby arriving in April, I have feeling I may need an extension. . . But hey, anything I get done on this list is more than I would have done without it, right?

This is a book that has entered our culture to a certain extent, so I was surprised how little I knew about it when I started reading it. I knew the main character was named Nemo, and I knew it took place on a submarine. Here's a list of all the things I learned as I read:

1. Captain Nemo isn't the main character. At least, he's not the narrator of the book. That would be Professor Aronnax, a professor of underwater plant and animal life.
2. It starts out as a mystery. At the beginning, nobody knows what is causing all the havoc with ships traveling the oceans.
3. Professor Aronnax and his two buddies are essentially kidnapped by Captain Nemo and told they can never leave the submarine (the Nautilus).
4. Captain Nemo is rather moody and isn't always a nice guy. He's also apparently out for revenge against somebody for some unknown reason.
5. A league is a measure of distance, not depth. I kind of knew that already, but I always thought the title meant that they were 20,000 leagues underneath the surface of the ocean. Turns out that it actually means they traveled for a distance of 20,000 leagues. Incidentally, they were under water when they did it.
6. This book is not really as action-packed as all of that premise makes it sound like. There were even sections where I was (gasp!) bored reading.
7. Mostly those sections were the ones that described the underwater plants and animals they were seeing. Using scientific names of many syllables. The vast majority of which I had never heard of before. For paragraphs and paragraphs.
8. This book would have been better with pictures of the underwater life.

I really did enjoy this book, but it was a much slower read than expected. I think this is one of the rare cases where I would have enjoyed the book more if I knew more about it going in. Either way, I'm glad I took this trip under the sea with Captain Nemo.

I read a wide variety of genres, which I definitely enjoy doing. But sometimes that means I end up reading a lot of books with swearing or not-so-great actions or topics. That's when I escape to a genre that I know will be safe, and will uplift and refresh me for awhile - Christian fiction. The books on this list are ones that I've read and enjoyed and certainly recommend.

Glamorous Illusions by Lisa Tawn Bergren (The first book in a trilogy that follows a poor girl that suddenly discovers she's an heiress as she goes on the Grand Tour of Europe.)
A Passion Most Pure by Julie Lessman (A beautiful love story full of faith and twists and turns.)
Chateau of Echoes by Siri Mitchell (A castle in France and a grouchy American writer turn out to be the perfect recipe.)
Song of Redemption by Lynn Austin (Biblical fiction about King Hezekiah. This is actually the second book in a five-book series, but it was my favorite because of the faith Hezekiah showed.)

House of Living Stones by Katie Schuermann (This book was pitch-perfect as far as life in a church in a small Midwestern town is concerned.)
​A Skeleton in God's Closet by Paul Maier (A Christian thriller - what would happen if an archaeologist uncovered the bones of Jesus?)
​Pretense by Lori Wick (I have read this book at least ten times since I discovered it in high school. At least. Probably more.)
Words Spoken True by Ann Gabhart (I have always loved stories of journalists, and this book set in 1855 Louisville is no exception.)