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Three shortish reviews

Posted on May 10, 2011 by Barbara Harper

Here are a few short reviews of books I’ve finished recently.

Leaving by Karen Kingsbury is a new series with Bailey Flanigan from previous series. I think Karen provides enough background information so that a reader could enjoy the book without having read all the books leading up to it, but the story would probably be richer for those who have shared this journey with Bailey so far.

This book, as the title suggests, sets us up for Bailey’s leaving her family to go out on her own. She has a Broadway audition she has always dreamed of and faces her future with excitement but naturally dreads leaving her family. Cody, her off-and-on love interest is currently off. He has struggled in the past with feeling like Bailey, from an ideal Christian family, would be better off with someone without his baggage of past alcoholism and a mom in jail for drug abuse. He seemed to overcome that in a past book, but threats from his mother’s drug-dealing boyfriend cause him to leave the area completely so as to keep Bailey safe. Unfortunately, he doesn’t tell Bailey what’s going on (a bad habit of his), so she is hurt and confused. They both struggle with their feelings for each other but wonder whether to pursue other relationships.

There are almost parallel plots in Bailey’s and Cody’s lives as well as a subplot with Ashley and Landon Baxter, also from previous series. They struggle as well with their oldest son growing up and a new health issue threatening Landon.

I enjoyed keeping up with the characters and could identify with the feelings of the first child leaving the nest.

I picked up Love Finds You in Camelot, Tennessee by Janice Hanna on a whim because we’re new transplants to TN ourselves. Come to find out the area Janice writes about is not terribly far from were we live. I do want to drive out to it some day. Janice also lives where some of my family members do, so I felt we had a lot in common before I ever got into the story.

That story has to do with a small community called Camelot which sorely needs to raise funds. One member of the city council, Amy Hart, comes up with a grand idea: the townsfolk will put on the musical Camelot to try to draw in tourists dollars from nearby Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg. As Amy casts various eccentric townspeople, she can’t find a suitable King Arthur — until it dawns on her to ask her childhood friend, Steve, the town’s mayor. He agrees if she’ll play Guinevere. A handsome out-of-towner who volunteers to play Lancelot shows interest in Amy, setting up a love triangle that parallels that of the musical.

I would classify this book as a romantic comedy, and it’s a lot of fun, but it’s not without depth as well as the characters deal with the various issues that arise. I felt the Christianity of the main characters was very natural as was the way they applied Scriptural principles to their lives and situations.

Evidently there are a number of “Love finds you…” books by various authors set in various US cities. I don’t normally gravitate toward this type of book, but I definitely enjoyed it and might be tempted to pick up another in the series or from this author.

I wasn’t planning to review An Unlikely Blessing by Judy Baer, but someone said they’d like my thoughts on it.

In this book, new pastor Alex Armstrong comes from city life to a new rural parish. Alex obviously deals with situations that are completely new to him both in meeting new, often eccentric people and getting the lay of the land both in his church and in the community as well as adjusting to rural life and dealing with having just broken up with his fiancee. He is over two churches, one of which is doing fine, but the other keeps its distance emotionally as well as physically due primarily to the bitterness of it leading member.

The first part — maybe even the first half of the book has Alex meeting the people in his parish, and though that’s necessary and I don’t know how the author could have handled it differently, it just seemed like I was waiting that whole time for something to happen. Indeed, the whole pace of the book seemed a little slow and sleepy to me. That may have been on purpose to reflect the slower rural community. But it was several pages after the climax before I realized, “Oh! That was it!” In fact, when I was assembling my last “What’s On Your Nightstand” post, I had completely forgotten that I had read this book until I saw the title listed. I described it there as a “pleasant but not riveting read about a new pastor of two churches in a rural town. Similar in many ways to Mitford but not quite as charming.” It wasn’t a bad book at all — it just wasn’t compelling, at least to me.

But, as Levar Burton used to say on Reading Rainbow, you don’t have to take my word for it — the reviews of this book I skimmed through on Amazon were all quite positive, so I may have just been a little off while reading it.

And my shortish reviews ended up longer than I had planned, but I’d rather keep them together than string them out throughout the week.

The book I am reading now IS a riveting, don’t-want-to-put-it-down, wish I could let everything else go to read it type of tale. Can’t wait to finish and tell you about it!

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

The Week in Words

Posted on May 9, 2011 by Barbara Harper

Welcome to The Week In Words, where we share quotes from the last week’s reading. If something you read this past week inspired you, caused you to laugh, cry, think, dream, or just resonated with you in some way, please share it with us, attributing it to its source, which can be a book, newspaper, blog, Facebook — anything that you read. More information is here.

Here are some that ministered to me this past week:

From a devotional titled The Invitation by Derick Bingham. commenting on about the Pharisees casting out the blind man healed in John 9:

The truth was that the man’s spiritual sight was now dawning. He refuted the Pharisees on their own ground but they threw him out of the synagogue. They literally excommunicated him. But Jesus found him. What a moment! Being excommunicated from a dead religion and being found by the living Saviour is no mean swap.

Sometimes the thing we lose is something dead that needs to go to make way for true spiritual sight and truth and life to dawn.

Seen at Callapidder Days:

The great thing, if one can, is to stop regarding all the unpleasant things as interruptions of one’s “own,” or “real” life. The truth is of course that what one calls the interruptions are precisely one’s real life—the life God is sending one day by day; what one calls one’s “real life” is a phantom of one’s own imagination. This at least is what I see at moments of insight: but it’s hard to remember it all the time. ~ C. S. Lewis

As many times as I have been convicted of this truth, I still need to hear it. I can get so caught up in my agenda, schedule, goals, etc., that I get resentful of interruptions or other bids for my time and attention. It’s interesting to read through the New Testament looking for interruptions. Mary was interrupted from whatever she was doing to hear the news that she was to bear the Messiah. Jesus and Jairus were interrupted on their way to Jairus’s ill daughter by a woman with an issue of blood. Jairus’s daughter died in the mean time, but was raised to life — an even greater miracle. Jesus was interrupted during times of solitary prayer, travel. God works through interruptions! That doesn’t mean we don’t plan and schedule, asking for His guidance as we do, but we remain open for events He had on the agenda that we didn’t know about.

From For the mother of teenagers who aches but a bit.

“It takes all the years of making a boy into a man — to teach a woman how to be a mother.” ~ Ann Voskamp.

So true — it’s a continual learning process, and we don’t feel we’re anywhere near getting a handle on being a mother until our children are almost grown. I am thankful for God’s sufficiency in my inadequacy!

And finally, from an Elisabeth Elliot e-mail devotional:

“Pray when you feel like praying. Pray when you don’t feel like praying. Pray until you do feel like praying.”

If you’ve read anything that particularly spoke to you that you’d like to share, please either list it in the comments below or write a post on your blog and then put the link to that post (not your general blog link) in Mr. Linky below. I do ask that only family-friendly quotes be included. I hope you’ll visit some of the other participants as well and glean some great thoughts to ponder.

Don’t forget to leave a comment, even if you don’t have any quotes to share! 🙂

Thankful for the Moms in my life

Posted on May 8, 2011 by Barbara Harper

I am thankful for my mom and the love and care she showed for me all her life, for her generosity, for long phone calls and laughter and the ability to talk about almost everything. I miss her sorely but hope to see her in heaven some day.

I am thankful for my husband’s mother, for her loving and thoughtful raising of her son into the fine man I married, for her acceptance of me into her family, for her cheerfulness industriousness, love of books, and generally happy demeanor.

I am thankful for my mother’s mother, who died when I was about four: I have very little memory of her, but I’m told that when I asked questions about her medical equipment, my mother tried to “hush” me, but my grandmother patiently and matter-of-factly explained it to me.

I am thankful for my father’s mother, who took me on road trips and had me over to spend the night often. I have fond memories of staying up late reading in the two different beds in her bedroom.

I am happy for Mrs. C., who took me under her wing during my college and early adult years and showed me an wonderful example of a warm, kind, loving, Christian wife, mother, and homemaker and who still keeps in touch with me all these years later and sends me subscriptions of Victoria magazine.

I am thankful for “Aunt Sylvia,” my mom’s best friend, who never married or had children of her own but always brought us Christmas presents and was always kind to us.

I am thankful for Aunt Bobbye, my mother’s sister, though she washed my mouth out with soap once when I said something, not realizing it was a bad word. 🙂 I am thankful for her zany sense of humor and for her love and care and continued interest throughout my life.

I am thankful for my dear friend, Valorie, and the many walks and talks and excursions to breakfast at restaurants that let kids eat free when our kids were small, but I especially appreciate her loving attitude and interest in others.

I am thankful for Mrs. M. and the wise advice she gave me once while working on a bulletin board together about not dreading the teen years of my children and not expecting them to be rebellious.

I am thankful for my dear friend Carol and her warmth and genuine interest in others, for working together in various aspects at church and school and long talks and lunches.

I am thankful for godly pastor’s wives I’ve had and their sweet spirit and godly counsel.

I am thankful for so many women who “mothered” me in some way or who were examples to me and made me a better mother.

Happy Mother’s Day to you all!

Laudable Linkage and Funny Videos

Posted on May 7, 2011 by Barbara Harper

With Sunday being Mother’s Day, there has been a lot of good Mother’s Day reading this week:

For Moms, Former Moms, and Wannabe Moms. “Motherhood is not the greatest good for the Christian woman. Whether you are a mom or not, don’t get caught up in sentimentalism that sets it up as some saintly role. The greatest good is being conformed to the image of Christ.”

For the mother of teenagers who aches but a bit. “It takes all the years of making a boy into a man — to teach a woman how to be a mother.”

For the Mother who fears failure. “Relationships cost. It’s not that you aren’t going to blow it. It is what you do with it, when you do…Perhaps there was something more powerful to experience than a perfect Mother: the wonder of a committed Mother who simply humbles herself.”

Tutorial for Making Silhouettes. There is a very sweet example in the above link, and this shows the how-to. Neat gift idea!

Some very, very nice handmade Mother’s Day cards.

Inexpensive but thoughtful Mother’s Day gift.

Genesis 1:1-2:3 is not poetry and it is historical. HT to Challies. “When it comes to standard Hebrew poetic forms—especially parallelism, ‘non-standard’ vocabulary and ‘unusual’ verb patterning—these are also absent from the text (with the exception of 1:27). As my old Ancient Near East history lecturer once put it, anyone reading the text would fail a first-year Hebrew exam if they called Genesis 1 a type of Hebrew poetry.”

The Interrupted Reading: The Kids with George W. Bush on 9/11. Interesting article on how those students in the classroom with Bush when he received the news of the 9/11 attacks viewed the President’s response then and now.

Austenbook: if the Pride and Prejudice characters were on Facebook. “Lady Catherine de Bourgh is most seriously displeased.”

Rolled paper flowers and Fabric flower tutorials.

No wonder mamas have a hard time getting things done:

Poor doggie! This is really cute.

One man sings six parts of “Who Is On the Lord’s Side” a capella.

Have a good weekend! I’d better go get mine started!

Friday’s Fave Five

Posted on May 6, 2011 by Barbara Harper

Welcome to Friday’s Fave Five, hosted by Susanne at Living to Tell the Story, in which we can share five of our favorite things from the last week. This has been a wonderful exercise in looking for and appreciating the good things God blesses us with. Click on the button to learn more, then go to Susanne’s to read others’ faves and link up your own.

Here are some favorites from the past week:

1. These:

I’m glad they only make them this time of year!

2. Finishing my cross stitch project! More about that here.

3. A possible job lead for my son from a serendipitous encounter. I’ll say more about it if/when something works out, but I thought, “Wouldn’t it be just like God to bring it about in such a neat way?” Whether it’s this or something else, I know God has something for Him, and I guess a related praise is just the reassurance of that this week. I had been kind of discouraged when one very promising lead didn’t work out because of a new hiring freeze and because of the problems he had come up against in looking for a job, and I always knew on some level God would take care of things and open the right doors at the right time. One day this week my devotional book was full of verses about God knowing our needs and taking care of them, and that renewed my hope that He would take care of my kids’ needs, too.

4. Getting several things checked off a to-do list in one afternoon. I had some Mother’s Day shopping to do for my mother-in-law and “secret sister” at church, and then Jesse needed a new shirt and dress shoes for his upcoming Junior-Senior banquet. After not making any progress even after one trip to the mall earlier in the week, we knocked out all of that yesterday. Felt good!

5. Power naps. I was just dragging after doing a little bit of errand-running yesterday, and decided to call it a day and come home. But sleeping 20-30 minutes refreshed me enough to get back out and get everything else done later in the day. Sometimes when I take a nap, I end up sleeping too long or waking up too groggy, but this was just perfect.

We had a dreary, rainy day earlier in the week, but it’s been bright and sunshiny the rest of the week. We’ve had a bit of a cold snap, though. I actually like it in the 50s or so — the really hot weather will be here all too soon!

Happy Friday!

Finished!

Posted on May 6, 2011 by Barbara Harper

My most recent cross stitch project is finally finished! This photo shows its just-finished state — I haven’t rinsed it out or ironed it yet. The pattern is “Thy Word” from the Inspired by Scripture booklet of Paula Vaughan.

The lettering was one of the hard parts because a lot of it doesn’t fall within the usual lines of cross stitch — I had started it earlier but got a little lost and frustrated and then saved it for last. Then when I got going again, thankfully I could find enough reference points to keep on track. At first I was afraid I’d have the words slanting up or down like my handwriting does on a page. 🙂 And I knew I would have to give up on that part looking as perfect as the pattern — but when I looked at the sample on the front of the pattern, those letters weren’t perfect, either.

The curtains were difficult, also, because some of the different shades were so close to each other. It was odd that when I held the piece away from me, I could see the shading, but close up, even with my reading glasses and around the neck magnifier (yes, it looks dorky to use it, but I couldn’t see to stitch without it), two or three of the colors were extremely close to each other. It was a relief to get that section done.

I love the gold detailing on the pitcher and cup.

This little pin cushion is one of my favorite parts.

The scissors there were supposed to have a metallic silver strand of floss in with the gray, but it just didn’t look right to me and seemed to draw undue attention to that section, so I ended up taking it out.

The curtains and shadowy area under the dishes and scissors came out a lot darker than the photo of the finished piece on the front of the booklet showed, and I almost ripped out the stitching and chose lighter colors when I got into those sections. But then I decided it wasn’t really worth it and I’d just stay with the colors listed even though they looked darker. It all came out okay in the end.

Thanks for looking and listening to me ramble. 🙂 I’m not sure how long I’ve been working on this — I tried to do a quick search through my blog, and I mentioned last October picking it up again after having laid it aside for a while during the move, and at that point I had the bottom quarter done. I think I laid it aside for a little through the Christmas holidays as well.

I’m linking up today to Can I Get a Whoop Whoop? (dontcha just love that name?) at Confessions of a Fabric Addict. I’ve seen my friend Susan link up to it for a few weeks, and it looked so fun. The idea is to show not necessarily the finished project but rather some progress on a craft project you’re working on. I haven’t shown progress week to week, because just working on it a few evenings a week, it didn’t seem to progress very quickly and I thought it would be boring to show this every week. But now that’s its finished I definitely want to link up!

Now I just have to wait for some decent framing coupons.

I’m also linking up to Made By You Monday at Skip to My Lou.

Day of Prayer

Posted on May 5, 2011 by Barbara Harper

Today is the National Day of Prayer.

Power of Prayer

The day was long, the burden I had borne
Seemed heavier than I could longer bear,
And then it lifted – but I did not know
Some one had knelt in prayer;

Had taken me to God that very hour,
And asked the easing of the load, and He,
In infinite compassion, had stooped down
And taken it from me.

We cannot tell how often as we pray
For some bewildered one, hurt and distressed,
The answer comes, but many times those hearts
Find peace and rest.

Some one had prayed, and Faith, a reaching hand,
Took hold of God, and brought blessings down that day!
So many, many hearts have need of prayers:
Oh, let us pray!

— Author Unknown

II Chronicles 7:14: If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.

Wednesday Hodgepodge

Posted on May 4, 2011 by Barbara Harper

Joyce From This Side of the Pond hosts a weekly Wednesday Hodgepodge of questions for fun and for getting to know each other.

Here are the questions for this week:

1. Have you ever been served breakfast in bed? Do you enjoy that? If someone were serving you breakfast in bed what would you hope to see on the tray?

My husband and I did that for one another a couple of times in early married days, but didn’t really like getting crumbs in bed. If you’re counting eating in a hospital bed, yeah, I guess you could say one perk of being there is breakfast in bed served on a nice rolling tray so you don’t have to balance it all on your lap. Not enough of a perk to cause me to want to visit there again, though. 🙂 If I ever were served breakfast, in bed or otherwise, I think my first choice would be an omelet with ham and Cheddar cheese and some orange juice with a bit of ginger ale mixed in.

2. What is one piece of advice you would give a new mother?

Sleep whenever you can. Accept help, even if things aren’t done exactly as you would do them. Savor the moments — they pass so quickly. Keep some time with the Lord, even if it is shorter or different than it was before (see Encouragement for Mothers of Young Children for more.) Oh, wait, you said just one piece of advice….

3. When was the last time you wanted to scream? Explain.

I can remember it wasn’t too long ago but I can’t remember what it was about. It does happen more often than I’d like to admit. 😳

4. Can you hula hoop?

Probably not any more.

5. What is something people do in traffic that really bothers you?

Tailgate, change lanes too closely and recklessly, fail to use turn signals, pull in front of me and then slow down for a turn.

6. What do you do when people don’t admit they’re wrong?

Honestly? Seethe inwardly. Then hopefully before long put it in perspective. If it is some little thing that doesn’t matter in the long run, I try to just let it go — some things you have to “agree to disagree” about. But if it is something that I think will have serious consequences for them or others, I’ll pray for them, that the Lord will open their eyes and change their hearts and maybe seek another opportunity and way to bring it up again.

7. What is the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the word ‘fun’?

Something with the family — pizza and movie night, going out to eat together, playing a game.

8. Insert your own random thought here.

I frequently hear an owl in the trees around our house. I’d love to see him some time. Some years ago at a different house and state, our kids and some others were playing on the trampoline in the back yard when an owl flew out of the trees, perched and looked at them for a few minutes, and then flew away. It all happened too fast to even think about getting the camera. We probably woke him up and he came out to see what the commotion was about. We never saw him again.

Assorted stray thoughts…

Posted on May 2, 2011 by Barbara Harper

I don’t know if I mentioned that my son, Jason, had a second interview for one job possibility, then they called him back for paperwork, drug testing, and began a background check, which all pointed to the likelihood of being offered a job. But then the management declared a hiring freeze until they could work out some budgeting issues. 😦 The man interviewing Jason said they were just about to offer him the job and he’d put his paperwork on file to call him as soon as the hiring freeze is over — but who knows how long that will be. Its frustrating and disappointing — sometimes I think, “Can’t these kids just catch a decent break?!” But I remind myself that God knows what He has in store for them. One person Jason interviewed with for another job said they had over 70 applicants….so that’s the kind of thing he’s up against.

I’m having very conflicted feelings about the news of Osama Bin Laden’s death. There is relief, on one hand, but fear of retaliation on the other. But I am even more conflicted by the reaction of fellow Christians on Facebook. The first response last night was cheering. It just didn’t seem right to me that we’d rejoice over anyone’s death. The verse that came to mind was Ezekiel 33:11: “Say unto them, As I live, saith the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live.” Then someone posted this morning Proverbs 24:¹⁷ Rejoice not when thine enemy falleth, and let not thine heart be glad when he stumbleth,” and verse 18 goes on to say: ^“Lest the LORD see it, and it displease him, and he turn away his wrath from him.” But then, I thought, there was rejoicing when Pharoah’s army was killed when they were after Israel at the Red Sea and when David killed Goliath. I don’t know how to square that with Prov. 24:17, except maybe the proverb is talking about a personal enemy, and the rejoicing in the other passages refers to God’s enemies. Then several people posted Proverbs 11:1o: “When it goeth well with the righteous, the city rejoiceth: and when the wicked perish, there is shouting.” One friend said, “We don’t rejoice in death, but we rejoice in justice.” May be….some people were sure rejoicing in death! I don’t listen to talk radio, but my son said some people were saying things about being glad bin Laden was in hell. Those weren’t necessarily professing Christians, though — I haven’t seen any Christian going that far. A couple of people on FB reminded us that except for the grace of God we’d all be headed there. But it is a little hard to feel sorry for one soul going out into eternity facing not the 70 virgins he thought he’d see but rather the God of judgment when that soul was responsible for so many others going to their deaths. I’m still wrestling with all of this.

I still haven’t seen all the royal wedding — I taped it, but I can’t just sit and watch for four hours unless I am doing something else at the same time, and my cross stitch project is at a point that needs concentration just now. So I am watching it in biys and pieces. But overall I’ve enjoyed it so far. Gorgeous music. There was a lot of truth being presented in both what was said (that I’ve heard so far in the service, i.e., the Biblical reasons for marriage) and the music, if anyone had “ears to hear.” I think we realized with the outcome of Diana’s wedding that there is really not such a thing as a fairy tale wedding in real life. Yet because her boys have been in the public eye and suffered such tragedy, I think we all wish them well. I thought Katherine was beautiful and loved her understated elegance. I like hats, but I thought some were outlandish and/or worn at odd angles. I liked the simplicity of Queen Elizabeth’s hat, though I am not fond of yellow. Though I wouldn’t want to live amidst such protocol personally, I did enjoy the “pomp and circumstance” involved. Ceremony is nice sometimes. I also enjoyed the deep sense of history — the commentator on the station I was listening to kept bringing up the history of various items and customs. And it was nice to have happy news for once on TV!

But, alas, there were naysayers for the royal wedding as well. Some griped about the privileges of royal birth, getting such an expensive wedding and a dukedom when he hadn’t done anything to earn it. I pointed out that royalty has its particular stresses and pressures as well as its rewards. but the individual didn’t want to hear it and said if the royals didn’t like their lot they could just step down from royal life. 🙄 True, I suppose, but I think that reveals a lack of understanding of what the monarchy means to Britons. The commentator I listened to pointed out how many acts of duty various ones of the royal family had performed that year, and the word “duty” came up often. Sure, I prefer democracy, but that doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate the culture of other countries. Then some people commented on the young couple’s having lived together before marriage. Yes, that is fornication, and yes, that is wrong in God’s eyes. but who knows whether the prayer they wrote themselves that they “keep our eyes fixed on what is real and important” might be answered like Cornelius‘s was and lead them to know God in a real and personal way?

I probably should wait and go over this in the morning — I’ve been distracted and this isn’t as coherent or neatly written as I’d like. And I’m thinking there were a couple of other things I was going to mention, but I can’t think of them now….but I think I am going to go ahead and post it in it’s “off the top of my head.” state.

Edited to add: two other viewpoints on the rejoicing over bin Laden’s death (for the record, I don’t have a problem with war and I am not a pacifist and I appreciate our military.)

Is It Wrong To Celebrate Bin Laden’s Death? from NPR.

Some Thoughts on the Death of Bin Laden by Denny Burk.

The Week In Words

Posted on May 2, 2011 by Barbara Harper

Here are some that ministered to me this past week:

From a devotional titled The Invitation by Derick Bingham. commenting on John 9:1-4:

[The blind man’s] suffering was not due to sin but was in fact a conduit for showing what God can do. He was about to become a legend for the glory of God…..Your circumstance may be dire; your health may be failing, your business may be collapsing, your plans may be wrecked, your finances stretched and your cupboard bare. You may be ready to quit. Don’t. Why? Because this circumstance you are in is not because you have done wrong but because God is about to reveal His works in you.

From Women’s Ministry in the Local Church by J. Ligon Duncan and Susan Hunt:

No matter how many bowls of soup we dish up at the soup kitchen, if we do it with rebellious hearts against those God has put in authority over us, it is not pleasing to Him (p. 90).

From a friend’s Facebook:

“Every job is a self portrait of the person who did it. Autograph you work with excellence.” ~ Unknown

This is something I wish every person could imprint on their brains! And their work!

From another friend’s Facebook:

“Keep out of your life all that will keep Christ out of your mind.”

From “Meeting God Alone” in On Asking God Why by Elisabeth Elliot:

The Bible is God’s message to everybody. We deceive ourselves if we claim to want to hear his voice but neglect the primary channel through which it comes.