Counting Crows. Then kicking their rears.

This post is going to be about a little problem I've been dealing with today.

If you'd lived my life this weekend until today after church, you'd be saying, "What? Where's the problem? There's no problem! Katelyn, you have a wonderful life!" Because you see, that's all completely true, and I had a really great weekend full of happiness and fun. But you know, that is exactly why Satan decided to butt his way into my life this afternoon.

He nested in my hair and made it really unmanageable. Sometimes life's little frustrations like a bad hair day just make you lose your cool, you know?
He popped up on my face in the form of a huge zit that made me feel like the ugliest person on the planet.
He lounged on my shoulder all day, whispering first, then eventually shouting hurtful things into my ear. Things that people should never be deceived into believing about themselves.
And what's even worse, he even found his way into my heart a little, and made me want to be angry with people whom I actually love dearly.

I let him get to me quite a bit today. And though there are some things that I think I am justified in being sad or worried over, there's no reason or excuse for the extremity of all the negative emotions I harbored today.

To illustrate this problem (and my solution), I'd like to refer to one of my favorite movies, The Wiz. Toward the beginning of the movie, Diana Ross (Dorothy) meets Michael Jackson (the Scarecrow), who is discouraged and disheartened by the negative influence of the crows. He longs to come down from his perch, just for a little while, to see what it's like. They tell him his desires are foolish, and feed him a bunch of "bullpoopy" (that's in honor of my reading Love, Stargirl):

"You can't win, child.
You can't break even,
And you can't get out of the game."

Diana (er, Dorothy), walks up to the scarecrow and decides that she's going to help him get down. MJ has little to no confidence that he can do so successfully. He calls himself a "hopeless failure." And then Diana Ross speaks some of her most inspiring words (second only to her singing "If We Hold On Together" as Littlefoot's mama):

"You're just a product of some negative thinking. First thing we have to do is get rid of these crows."

So I'm taking it upon myself to do the following:
1: Identify all the "crows" in my life (What are the things that make me think negatively?)
2: Get rid of them. Give them the cold shoulder, forget that they exist, etc.
3: Put up an impenetrable force field so they can't get back in!
4: Always remember that God is my Father and that He loves me!

So, Satan, this is Goodbye.
You've got no bidness trying to ruin my life, so I hereby kick you out of it.
I've got happiness with my name on it. It's waiting for me; I've just gotta run claim it!

Go Away! Read Some Books!

This is my booklist for this summer. It includes books that I have read, am currently reading, or hope to finish in the next month before school starts up again ("x" marks the ones I've read; "c" stands for "currently reading." Or "cookies," which is good enough for me).

_x_Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech

_x_Goose Girl by Shannon Hale

_x_The Wednesday Wars by Gary Schmidt

_x_The Angels of Morgan Hill by Donna Van Liere

_x_These is My Words by Nancy Turner

_x_The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch

_x_Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

___The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom

___For One More Day by Mitch Albom

___The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett

_x_Left to Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust by Immaculee Ilibagiza

_c_Out of Africa by Isak Denisen

___Three Against Hitler by Rudi Wobbe and Jerry Borrowman
_x_Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli
_x_Love, Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli

And maybe nine more books in less than a month is a lofty goal, but by golly I'm gonna try! Plus my computer got killed with a bazillion viruses, so I'll be spending less time on facebook and such (I've highjacked Mary's computer without her knowing so that I could do this. . . Shh! Don't tell!). Also, if I find more fun ones I might modify the list to include/exclude different ones. As I finish the books, I'll update this post and mark them in yellow. And once school starts my goal will be at least one book for fun each semester. Because I've enjoyed this too much; I don't want to forget how much I like reading ever again!

Also, I'm always up for suggestions for my lifetime booklist! Any and all recommendations (outside of anything containing material to which I am morally opposed) are welcome.

Wish me luck!