About Barbara Harper

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Friday’s Fave Five

Posted on January 2, 2015 by Barbara Harper

It’s Friday, time to look back over the blessings of the week with Susanne at Living to Tell the Story and other friends.

I didn’t think I was going to do a FFF today – it has been a busy week, and I wasn’t feeling well this afternoon. But everything has come to a stopping place, and I have half an hour before time to start dinner – so here I am. 🙂

1. Time with family. My oldest son was here until last Sunday, and my middle son and d-i-l and little grandson were here often (and of course my youngest son lives here), plus my husband has been off for two weeks. We had lots of great times together as a family.

2. Ibuprofen. I had to have a tooth pulled Wednesday – no fun at all. The doctor said the damage was worse than thought (one root was almost completely gone. He was amazed I hadn’t had any pain, but that tooth had had a root canal some years before. The only way I knew something was wrong was when is showed up on an x-ray at a routine dental cleaning). He said the surgery went “as good as it could go,” so I am thankful for that. It’s been sore ever since then, but ibuprofen is keeping it manageable.

3. Soup has been my mainstay this week. Pudding and cream of wheat helped, too, but soup was the best, especially potato soup.

4. A meal brought over. One day my son and daughter-in-law brought soup and sandwiches over and we watched How to Train Your Dragon 2. Cute movie!

5. Ecclesiastes is not usually one of my favorite books to read in the Bible. It’s written kind of from a different angle than the other books. But for my birthday last year I got a John MacArthur study Bible, and his introductory remarks sounded very reminiscent of some things C. S. Lewis said, particularly his famous quote, “If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world.” Since I had just finished his The Weight of Glory and Other Addresses a month or so ago, much of that was really fresh to me. I hadn’t read Ecclesiastes in that light before – there is much, Solomon said, to enjoy in this life, but ultimately nothing satisfies long-term because it isn’t meant to. Reading in that light has caused me to “get” what it is saying that much more, and I am really enjoying this reading, or rereading.

Happy Friday – what’s left of it!

Happy New Year!

Posted on January 1, 2015 by Barbara Harper

I had to have a tooth pulled yesterday, so there were no big New Year’s Eve parties for us. 🙂 Actually, we usually have a quiet evening at home on that night anyway. I don’t like to be out when there are going to be even more drunk drivers than usual, and our church wasn’t having its usual Wednesday night services. I thought about rescheduling my oral surgery for another time, but figured this would actually work out for the best since Jim would be home anyway. I wasn’t sedated – just had local numbing. Of course I’ve been dealing with varying degrees of pain since the numbness wore off, but it is not as bad as it was yesterday afternoon.

I don’t usually do New Year’s Resolutions, but I do usually like to reflect a bit on the coming year and things I need to work on. So far I haven’t really had time to: maybe next week. But in last night’s Daily Light reading, I came across these verses, which will give me plenty to think about in the next year:

Giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; and to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; and to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity. I Peter 1:5-7

I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment. That ye may approve things that are excellent; that ye may be sincere and without offence till the day of Christ. Being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God. Philippians 1:9-11

And for my friends here, I saw this last year and was moved by it:

A New Year’s Prayer

May God make your year a happy one!
Not by shielding you from all sorrows and pain,
But by strengthening you to bear it, as it comes;
Not by making your path easy,
But by making you sturdy to travel any path;
Not by taking hardships from you,
But by taking fear from your heart;
Not by granting you unbroken sunshine,
But by keeping your face bright, even in the shadows;
Not by making your life always pleasant,
But by showing you when people and their causes need you most,
and by making you eager to be there to help.
God’s love, peace, hope and joy to you for the year ahead.

Anonymous

(Graphic from crosscards.com)

At the Close of the Year

Posted on December 31, 2014 by Barbara Harper

Excerpts from “At the Close of the Year”

~ by John Newton

Let hearts and tongues unite,
And loud thanksgivings raise:
‘Tis duty, mingled with delight,
To sing the Saviour’s praise.

In childhood and in youth,
His eye was on us still:
Though strangers to his love and truth,
And prone to cross his will.

And since his name we knew,
How gracious has he been:
What dangers has he led us through,
What mercies have we seen!

Now through another year,
Supported by his care,
We raise our Ebenezer here,
“The Lord has help’d thus far.”

Our lot in future years
We cannot now foresee,
He kindly, to prevent our fears,
Says, “Leave it all to me.”

Yea, Lord, we wish to cast
Our cares upon thy breast!
Help us to praise thee for the past,
And trust thee for the rest.

What’s On Your Nightstand: December 2014

Posted on December 30, 2014 by Barbara Harper

The folks at 5 Minutes For Books host What’s On Your Nightstand? the fourth Tuesday of each month in which we can share about the books we have been reading and/or plan to read.

I’m so glad the 5MFB folks decided to put this month’s Nightstand post on the last Tuesday rather than the fourth Tuesday of December, which, this year, would have been two days before Christmas. There is much less pressure and more time to enjoy it this week. In fact…I would love it if it were the last Tuesday of every month, or the last day of the month. 🙂

December is traditionally a busy month, but I was able to get some good reading and listening in.

Since last time I have completed:

The Weight of Glory by C. S. Lewis, reviewed here.

Number the Stars by Lois Lowrey for Carrie’s Reading to Know Classics Book Club for November, reviewed here.

The Gift of the Magi and Other Christmas Stories by O. Henry, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Henry van Dyke, and Leo Tolstoy, reviewed here.

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum, audiobook, reviewed here.

To Kill a Mockingbird for Carrie’s Reading to Know Classics Book Club for December, mostly audiobook, reviewed here.

Merry Humbug Christmas by Sandra D. Bricker, reviewed here.

The Cricket on the Hearth by Charles Dickens, audiobook, reviewed here.

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, audiobook. I didn’t review it this year, but my thoughts on it from a couple of years ago are here.

Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus: Experiencing the Peace and Promise of Christmas, essays compiled by Nancy Guthrie. I have read this several times and referred to it here before, but I have never reviewed it. I hope to soon.

The Snow Queen by Hans Christian Anderson, audiobook, just finished yesterday afternoon.

That may look like a lot, but many were audiobooks and a few of them were very short.

I didn’t read the Christmas books I had planned to, but then I did read some I hadn’t planned on. I do like to read something Christmasy this month, so I am glad I got a few titles in.

I’m currently reading:

The Pound a Day Diet by Rocco DiSpirito. This one got laid aside, literally. I am not even sure where it is. But I am about 2/3 of the way through it and plan to finish it.

Where Treetops Glisten: Three Stories of Heartwarming Courage and Christmas Romance During World War II by Cara Putnam, Sarah Sundin, and Tricia Goyer.

Let Every Heart Prepare Him Room:Daily Family Devotions for Advent by Nancy Guthrie

I haven’t mentioned them every month, but I’ve been reading daily devotionals Daily Light on the Daily Path and Traveling Toward Sunrise this year and will have those finished tomorrow.

Next up:

Lizzy and Jane by Katherine Reay

To See the Moon Again by Jamie Langston Turner

Carrie hosts a Lucy Maud Montgomery Reading Challenge in January, so I will be reading something of hers. I’ve read all the Anne books multiple times, so I’ll probably continue in the Emily series I started last year.

Other than that I haven’t decided. I am still pondering whether to participate in any reading challenges this year or just map out my own plan, but I do have some things I want to tackle this year. In audiobooks, I want to finish the Sherlock Holmes series, and I’m thinking I’d like to try War and Peace.

I also compiled a list of the books I’ve read this year and then my top ten favorite books of the year.

For those who like to plan ahead, I will be sponsoring the Laura Ingalls Wilder Reading Challenge again in February, where participants read anything by or about Laura. I don’t know how many years I’ll do this, but I’m definitely planning on it this year.

Happy Reading!

My favorite posts of the year

Posted on December 29, 2014 by Barbara Harper

free-letters.com

There is something about the end of the year that invites reflection. One aspect of that for me is that I like to look back through my posts of the previous year and remind myself what I have been thinking about. I don’t necessarily look back through book reviews (other than listing the books I’ve read this year and then my top ten favorite books of the year) or Friday Fave Fives (though the top ones of those would probably be when Timothy was born and then when he came home from the NICU 10 1/2 weeks later) or Laudable Linkage or anything like that. Rather, I like to look back over the posts when I’ve been thinking through an issue or wrote about something that affected me or something I felt God was teaching me. So from those posts, here are some of my favorites (favorites not in the sense that I necessarily enjoyed them the most, but they are the ones that impacted me the most):

January:

Christian Fans. “How sad that people will defend at all costs a media personage, even a Christian one, who will never know them or care about them, at the expense of a relationship with someone they know and are supposed to love in their very own church and community.”

February:

Be Still? Or Fight? “Sometimes God will supernaturally win the battle for me while I only watch, but sometimes He gives me victory by handing me a sword.”

The Spiritual Value of a Secular Job.

The Value of Homemakers.

March:

Can We Let God Down?

Strong Women.

YA Censorship. A question about censorship in YA lit led to a further discussion about objectionable elements in any literature.

April:

Trusting God in the Dark.

Helping Parents As They Age, part of the Adventures in Elder Care series.

May:

None. I was spending a lot of time at the NICU that month. 🙂

June:

Eternal Glories Gleam, written after our pastor’s announcement of his terminal cancer diagnosis.

July:

But If Not….Another that grew out of my pastor’s illness: thoughts on the reality that God does not always answer prayer the way we’d like.

When People Say the Wrong Thing.

A Plea to Caregivers, another in the Adventures in Elder Care series.

August:

It was a busy month, so there is nothing in the way of “deep thoughts” except for some book reviews, but I did finally get all of my favorite cookie recipes into one post. 🙂

September:

Absent From the Body, Present With the Lord, on my pastor’s death.

My Ebenezers.

Irritating vs. Irritate-able. My biggest problem is not what irritates me, but my ability to be irritated.

October:

31 Days of Inspirational Biography. This was a series of posts through the whole month: this post contains a list with a link to each one. It did me good to look back over the lives of saints who have gone before and to learn from them.

Why Read Biographies?

November:

No Mere Mortals.

Why Read Fiction and Christian Fiction? I discussed why read at all, then why read fiction, then why read Christian fiction. This was a post that had been in the back of my mind off and on for years, so I was glad to finally get it written down. And, it’s funny, after thinking this would be my magnum opus, I don’t think it made a splash in the blog world much at all. 🙂

A revival of what?

December:

Grieving at Christmas is one I have reposted a number of times under different titles. Each year, sadly, I seem to know someone grieving the passing of a loved one this time of year.

Looking at my WordPress stats for the year, none of the current year’s posts is near the top of the number of viewed posts. The highest of them is 31 Days of Inspirational Biography at #15. The post viewed most this year (almost four times as many views as any other post) is Coping When a Husband Is Away from 2011. I’m amazed but thankful that God is using it to help women dealing with that issue.

Only a few days left of this year! Except for the monthly What’s On Your Nightstand post tomorrow and a book review or two to finish out this year, I am ready to look ahead to 2015.

Books Read in 2014

Posted on December 26, 2014 by Barbara Harper

I like to list and look over what I have read for the year, and Sherry at Semicolon, who hosts a weekly Saturday Review of Books where we can link up our book reviews, is setting aside this last Saturday of the year for books lists – what we’ve read this year, favorite books of the year, books we are planning to read next year, etc. I included audiobooks in with the the others because I do consider them “read” even though I “listened,” and for many of them I reread or looked at excerpts from online versions or library or Kindle copies. But all of the audiobooks this year were classics except for one in the “other fiction” category.

I’m just listing the titles read and not including commentary, but I am linking the titles to my reviews.

Non-fiction:

Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus: Experiencing the Peace and Promise of Christmas, essays compiled by Nancy Guthrie, not reviewed yet
Crowded to Christ by L. E. Maxwell
Gospel Meditations for Missions, not reviewed.
Gospel Meditations for the Hurting by Chris Anderson and Joe Tyrpak, not reviewed.
The House Is Quiet, Now What? by Janice Hanna and Kathleen Y’Barbo
How I Know God Answers Prayer by Rosalind Goforth
How to Read Slowly by James W. Sire
Ida Scudder: Healing Bodies, Touching Hearts by Janet and Geoff Benge
Jesus, My Father, the CIA, and Me: A Memoir of Sorts by Ian Morgan Cron
The Knowledge of the Holy by A. W. Tozer
Loving the Church by John Crotts
Made to Crave Action Plan Participant’s Guide by Lysa TerKeurst and Ski Chilton
Made to Crave: Satisfying Your Deepest Desire with God, Not Food by Lisa TerKeurst
Mere Christianity by C. S. Lewis
On Stories and Other Essays on Literature by C. S. Lewis
Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus: A Devout Muslim Encounters Christianity by Nabeel Qureshi
Walking From East to West: God in the Shadows by Ravi Zacharias
Walking in the Spirit: A Study Through Galatians 5 by Steve Pettit
Wednesdays Were Pretty Normal: A Boy, Cancer, and God by Michael Kelley
The Weight of Glory and Other Addresses by C. S. Lewis
Why We Are Not Emergent: By Two Guys Who Should Be by Kevin DeYoung and Ted Kluck
Women of the Word by Jen Wilkin

By the end of the year I will also have finished another round through Daily Light on the Daily Path, plus Traveling Toward Sunrise, a daily devotional by Mrs. Charles E. Cowman, and Let Every Heart Prepare Him Room by Nancy Guthrie

Classics:

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Bleak House by Charles Dickens
The Blue Castle by L. M. Montgomery
The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
The Cricket on the Hearth by Charles Dickens
Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder
The Gift of the Magi and Other Christmas Stories by O. Henry, Dostoyevsky, Henry Van Dyke, and Leo Tolstoy
The Great Divorce by C. S. Lewis
The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
I will Repay by Baroness Orzcy
The Little White Horse by Elizabeth Goudge
The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
My Man Jeeves by P. D. Wodehouse
Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen (did not review this time, but a review from a previous year is here.)
Number the Stars by Lois Lowry
The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens
Persuasion by Jane Austen (did not review this time, but a review from a previous year is here.)
The Princess and the Goblin by George MacDonald
The Return of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle
The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy
The Sign of the Four by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
A Study in Scarlet, the first Sherlock Holmes book by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum

Christian fiction:

Courageous by Randy Alcorn
Dear Mr. Knightley by Katherine Reay
The Girl in the Gatehouse by Julie Klassen
In Perfect Time by Sarah Sundin
Jennifer: An O’Malley Love Story by Dee Henderson
Just Jane: A Novel of Jane Austen’s Life by Nancy Moser
The Last Bride by Beverly Lewis
Lost and Found by Ginny Yttrup
Merry Humbug Christmas by Sandra D. Bricker
Somewhere Safe With Somebody Good by Jan Karon
Undetected by Dee Henderson
Unspoken by Dee Henderson

Other fiction:

The Book of Three by Alexander Lloyd
The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place: Book IV: The Interrupted Tale by Maryrose Wood
The Seamstress: A Memoir of Survival by Sara Tuvel Bernstein

62 books in all (65 if you count the three I’ll complete by the end of the year): 20 audiobooks and 42 made of paper. There were maybe three or so I wasn’t so thrilled with, but overall it was a good reading year. There was a lot less Christian fiction than usual and a lot more nonfiction, due mostly to the reading challenges I participated in this year, especially the TBR challenge. A lot of my TBR books are nonfiction because I tend to gravitate to fiction. I do enjoy nonfiction when I get into it, but I usually have to “make” myself pick it up. Yet my top ten or so books of the year usually are nonfiction. That’s coming up next!

(This will also be linked to Semicolon‘s Saturday Review of Books.)

Friday’s Fave Five

Posted on December 26, 2014 by Barbara Harper

It’s Friday, time to look back over the blessings of the week with Susanne at Living to Tell the Story and other friends.

This past week has been full to overflowing with blessings. Here are some of the highlights:

1. Our 35th anniversary. We thought we were going to my son and daughter-in-law’s place for lunch, but they surprised us with an anniversary celebration.

2. A special gift. Our kids had a special book made for our anniversary with photos and memories. This will be one of our most prized treasures.

3. A dinner date. Since Jim’s mom has lived with us, we can’t usually eat out because of the expense of hiring someone to care for her. But we did on our anniversary. I had been hankering for a steak from Outback for a while, so we went there. Yummy food and truly nice for the two of us to get away for a bit.

4. Family time. My oldest is home for the week, my husband is off for a couple of weeks, and everyone else had a couple of days off besides the weekends, so it has been nice to have some family time with everyone home.

5. Christmas could supply five faves all on its own – reading and reflecting on the Christmas story from the Bible, giving and receiving, wonderful food, afternoon naps, evening games, and spending a lot of time with our little grandson on his first Christmas.

Hope you’ve had a great week as well. It’s hard to believe that not only December, but the year is winding down to a close. Now that Christmas is over I am looking forward to a bit of down time over the next few days.

Merry Christmas!

Posted on December 25, 2014 by Barbara Harper

We hope you and yours have a lovely day with all its activities, especially remembering our dear Saviour born for our salvation.

Infant holy, Infant lowly, for His bed a cattle stall;
Oxen lowing, little knowing, Christ the Babe is Lord of all.
Swift are winging angels singing, noels ringing, tidings bringing:
Christ the Babe is Lord of all.
Christ the Babe is Lord of all.

Flocks were sleeping, shepherds keeping vigil till the morning new
Saw the glory, heard the story, tidings of a Gospel true.
Thus rejoicing, free from sorrow, praises voicing, greet the morrow:
Christ the Babe was born for you.
Christ the Babe was born for you.

Traditional carol, translated from Polish to English by Edith M. Reed, 1921

Book Review: Merry Humbug Christmas

Posted on December 24, 2014 by Barbara Harper

I picked up Merry Humbug Christmas by Sandra D. Bricker when it was on sale for the Kindle app (at the moment it is 99 cents, but that could change at any time) mainly because I enjoyed her The Big 5-OH! a couple of years ago.

This is a two-part story of two friends. The first, Joss Snow, was born on Christmas day, and her parents in a burst of holiday and new parent inspiration decided to name her Merry with her middle name as Christmas. Merry Christmas Snow. “Her name had come to seem like a Before and After puzzle from Wheel of Fortune.” By adulthood she’d had enough of the jokes and wisecracks such a name brought out, and she had it legally changed to Jocelyn, going by Joss. When a family tragedy occurred on Christmas Eve, she was done with the holiday. “She’d made a decision long ago not to ask too many questions about the why of that turn of events. Instead of turning on God, she’d turned on Christmas.” She not only did not celebrate it, she went out of her way to avoid it along with her best friend, Reese Pendergrass. This year she’s found the perfect getaway for herself and Reese: a Bah Humbug Cruise that promises no festive seasonal vestiges. The only problem is that Reese drops a traitorous bomb on her: her boyfriend has just proposed and she is going to meet his family at Christmas.

Joss decides to go alone, only to discover when she arrives to board the ship that her cruise has been canceled and she has been rebooked on the “12 Days of Christmas Fun Cruise.” It takes a certain suspension of disbelief to accept that that would happen without her having received some notice beforehand, and that she would find herself actually on the ship, deciding to disembark only after it was too late. But setting that aside, Joss soon meets “a walking commercial for Christmas at Dollywood” in the platinum blond, overly adorned and talkative Connie, and steels herself for a miserable time tucked away in her room. Connie, however, won’t let her get away with that, and in the course of events Joss also meets a potential client for her business and a handsome guy with an Irish brogue.

Meanwhile, Reese is nervous about meeting the seemingly idyllic family of her fiance when she herself comes from a non traditional hippie-ish family. An accident in which they hit a deer on their way and have to finish their journey on foot in the snow sets off a series of disasters which makes Reeses doubt she will ever be accepted by the family.

In one scene Reese thinks that it’s like they’re in the middle of a cheesy holiday movie, and, yes, the book did have a TV holiday movie feel about it. I did wince at Reese’s calling her fiance, Damian, Damie, and Joss calling some guy gorge, as in gorgeous (I had never heard the latter before – is that a thing now?) But overall the book is full of Bricker’s trademark humor and is a light, fun holiday read. I especially enjoyed the interaction of the two friends at the beginning and end of the book. And of course, it wouldn’t be a Christmas book without Joss realizing that Christmas is “not really so bad…under the right circumstances.”

(This will also be linked to Semicolon‘s Saturday Review of Books.)