Home Again

It irks me that I haven't posted in a whole week.  We got home from our month long trip to WA on Sunday night.  I thought the girls would be so happy to sleep in their own beds (they'd been on a cot on the floor, sleeping feet to feet) but this is how I found them on Monday morning.  It was exciting to get back into our routine.  I've started craft projects, volunteered to have card club at my house, set up a double date to the Temple, read the book club book (I've also committed take over book club because the last leader decided her time was up), and the list goes on (I'm awfully proud of my long to-do-lists).  But all this means is that I've put a whole lot of stuff ahead of blogging, thus long-time-no-blog.  So my solution is to include some of the notes I've taken for book club in this post (and perhaps future posts), sorta killing two birds with one stone--except I'm not into killing birds.

The book is "Simplify: A Guide to Caring for the Soul" by Carolyn J. Rasmus.  At first I thought that the last thing I need as I try to simplify life is another book to read about simplifying. But it turns out I like it a lot.  For example, living with integrity is a great way to simplify.  Here's why:

Webster's 1828 definition of integrity: "wholeness; the entire, unimpaired state of anything, particularly of the mind; moral soundness, purity; honesty".

William Bennett "Why should I be a person of integrity?" responds, "Because it is healthier.  Integrity--having one's psychological parts integrated, 'having it all together'... is the sort of condition in which any really rational human being would choose to be...a person in shape".

A number of years ago, the US Department of Health and Human Services reported that "the U.S. has indeed become a nation of believers in the virtue of exercise. But," the study continued, "most citizens confine their practice to nothing more strenuous than pushing a shopping cart around a supermarket on Saturday morning or shoveling down a pint of ice cream while doing laps between the kitchen and the TV set."  In other words, most people (80 to 90 %) recognized the importance of exercise, but their actions were not consistent with their beliefs.  They were not living with integrity." (p.30)