Some of you may have seen this going around Facebook. I read a book about Gianna Jenssen, a survivor of an abortion, Gianna: Aborted…and Lived To Tell About It, some years ago — amazing story.
Part I:
Part II:
Author Archives: Barbara Harper
Friday’s Fave Five
Welcome to Friday’s Fave Five, hosted by Susanne at Living to Tell the Story, in which we can share 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 five of my favorites from the past week:
1. Locks! We didn’t realize until our first day in our new house that none of the bedroom or bathroom doors had locks on them! We pretty much have always had a policy of respecting the closed door, but we really emphasized it the past few weeks! Last weekend was one of the first we didn’t have something else to take care of (which could be a fave in itself), and Jim was able to change the doorknobs out for ones with locks.
2. Jesse’s visit to his old school. He has been wanting to go and visit his old school during a school day, but of course we wouldn’t let him skip a day here to do that. But his school had no classes last Thursday and Friday due to a teacher’s conference, and Jim had to go to SC for his work on Friday, passing right through our old town, so he took Jesse and dropped him off at Jason and Mittu’s, then they took him up to school for a few hours. Only one or two people knew he was coming, so he enjoyed surprising everyone. Originally Jim was going to pick him back up on his way back through around 3 or 4, but Jason was working and didn’t get off until 5:30 and wanted to visit with Jim, so they ended up staying for the school’s soccer and volleyball games, too. I’m glad he got to do that — he enjoyed it a lot.
3. Visitors to the bird feeder. Jim hung it up outside a while ago, but I just got around to getting feed for it this week. It took a couple of days, but a cardinal came by as well as some small greyish-brown birds. I need to get a basic bird book! But one of my favorite things about the bird feeder is that I can see it from the kitchen, office, and family room. And I haven’t seen any squirrels here yet, so maybe the birds will actually get to use it instead of its being raided by squirrels, which is what happened at our old house.
4. Banana bread. No matter how many bananas I buy, it seems no one eats the last one or two, and then they get too ripe to enjoy. I always say I am going to save them for banana bread, but rarely do. Well, this week I finally did. I had enough for two batches and made six mini loaves instead of two big ones and put the extras in the freezer. In one batch I added mini chocolate chips. It tasted good, but I think I added too many — they mostly sank to the bottom and the loaf was overly moist.
5. Finally getting my boxes of books unpacked. That was the hardest group to unpack as we have fewer bookcases here — two at the old house were built in. I ended up repacking a few boxes to store that I didn’t have room for but wasn’t ready to get rid of yet. But I did get three boxes filled to give away or sell. It’s so nice to get those out of the living room and have that whole area looking neater and more finished. And I am scouting around to see if there is another place we can put another set of book shelves to take the stored ones out. 🙂
Hope you have a great Friday!
Flashback Friday: Toys
Mocha With Linda hosts a weekly meme called Flashback Friday. She’ll post a question every Thursday, and then Friday we can link our answers up on her site. You can visit her site for more Flashbacks.
The question for this week is:
What toys do you remember from your childhood? What did you like to do to entertain yourself? Did you mostly play inside or outside? Did you ride a bike all over the neighborhood? Play baseball in the backyard? Basketball in the driveway? Did you have to “get permission” to play at a friend’s house, or were you and your friends back and forth between houses all the time? If you had siblings, was there a distinction between your toys and theirs? Did you “inherit” any toys from older siblings? What were the “fad” or “must-have” toys of your generation? Did you parents buy them? Was there a toy you always wanted and never got to have?
Just to help you plan, this week is Part 1 – Toys. Next week in Part 2, we’ll look back at Games and Puzzles. Because hopefully, our childhoods involved lots of playtime!
My favorite way to entretain myself was by reading. I preferred to play inside, but my mom sometimes shooed me outside. We did ride bikes around the neighborhood sometimes, but when I visited my cousins in Louisiana, we rode bikes everywhere. I think most of my friends lived too far away for a walk or bike ride, so our moms had to take us back and forth, so that obviously necessitated getting permission. But that was pretty standard in our house, anyway, to get permission to go somewhere. At my cousins’ house, where I spent a good deal of time as a child, most of their friends were within the sound of my aunt’s whistle–that was her signal to come home.
My all-time favorite toys were my Barbie and related dolls and their accessories. My nickname growing up was Barbie. The doll didn’t come out until I was around four, and I don’t know if my nickname came from her or if I was already called that. I did have one carrying case that, when opened, looked like a little closet, and I just loved the little clothes on little hangers and such. I made furniture out of matchboxes. There was a time when they sold kits to “make” Barbie clothes — the seams had some kind of glue stuff on them, so they stuck together rather than being sewed together. I don’t remember really loving those, but that is where I first learned how basic garment construction worked. Friends would bring over their Barbies. We also had Ken dolls and Barbie’s oldest friend, Madge, as well as some of her younger — cousins or something. I can’t remember their names. Francine was one, maybe.
There wasn’t quite all the Barbie paraphernalia there is now, but one toy I always wanted and never got was a Barbie Dream House. And, unrelated to Barbie, I always wanted an Easy Bake Oven and never got one. But one of my cousins got both. Sigh. (Not the cousins in La.)
As an aside, I know some moms don’t like Barbies now because of her…shapeliness and proportions and the supposed self-esteem issues she can cause girls, but, honestly, we never thought or talked about such things. It was just fun to try on the different clothes — and they were much more modest that what’s available these days.
I did have baby dolls before Barbie, but I don’t remember anything about them except that my favorite was named Susie after my cousin, Suzanne.
Another favorite, though not a toy exactly, was a little record player and several children’s records given to me by one aunt. I do remember a plastic tea set that looked like Corningware with the little blue emblem (chosen from the S&H Green Stamp store!), Etch-a-Sketch, Little People, Mr. Potato Head, Tinker Toys, Lincoln Logs. The last two may have been my brother’s or they may have belonged to all of us, I don’t remember. My brother was four years younger, so with different genders and ages we didn’t really play with the same toys often. He had a lot of plastic green army men and cowboys and Indians, Hot Wheels cars, Tonka trucks. My next sister was an additional four years younger, and then three more sisters followed. I think they probably shared (or fought over) toys, but I didn’t play with the same things then.
When I was a little older, I also loved my Spirograph and spent a lot of time making different designs. My La cousins and I were into paint-by-number kits for a spell.
I tended to be a “saver,” but in my late teens in a fit of cleaning out I gave all the Barbie stuff I had left to my sisters. If any of it survived — which I doubt — it is probably in my mom’s attic, not likely to be found until some day if and when the house is sold. I wish I had kept my first Barbie, because she was one of the first-edition ones in the black and white striped bathing suits.
Though we bought our own children current toys, I also loved to buy some of the classic toys I grew up with, too. They loved Little People, Hot Wheels, Tonka trucks and green army men and played with those for years — most of the others got played with briefly here and there but weren’t favorites. I think their favorites were Legos.
And that’s probably more than you ever wanted to know about what I played with. 🙂 But I enjoyed the trip down memory lane. You can join it or see what others played with at Linda‘s.
Book Review: Her Daughter’s Dream
Her Daughter’s Dream by Francine Rivers is the sequel to Her Mother’s Hope, which I reviewed earlier here. Though you could say the main subject of both books is mother-daughter conflict, that statement hardly does the books justice.
In the first book, Marta escapes an abusive father to make a life for herself in America with grit and hard work. When her daughter, Hildemara, is born early, sickly, and frail, Marta’s memories of her fragile sister, Elise, and her untimely end make Marta determined that Hildie will grow up strong. Hildie does survive but views her mother’s tough-love as a lack of love, and she leaves home to pursue a dream she loves that her mother initially hates.
At the opening of Her Daughter’s Dream, Hildie is gravely ill and reluctantly allows her husband to call her mother for help. Hildie’s daughter, Carolyn, has experienced trauma unknown to Hildie, but as Oma Marta comes, Carolyn’s nightmares stop and she bonds with Marta during Hildie’s illness, adding to the rift in their relationship. As Carolyn grows up feeling she will never measure up enough to earn her mother’s approval, she drops out of college with free-spirited roommate Chel to protest the war and experience the counter-culture of the 60s. She comes home a few years later lost, broken, and pregnant. As her mother takes care of her daughter, May Flower Dawn, they bond closely, making Carolyn once again feel left out. But as Dawn grows up, she begins to wonder how all these fractured relationships can be healed and prays and works to that end.
As I said with the first book, you just ache with these people for the mistakes that they make and the pain they experience. I envision each woman with her arms wrapped around herself: Marta’s in fear of loss, Hildie’s in bitterness, Carolyn’s in a self-protective cocoon. But when one’s arms are wrapped around oneself, they are not open to other people or to fully receiving all the Lord has in store. Though each woman has faith in God, during major parts of her life she is not actively trusting Him. This really spoke to me about the dangers of grasping self-protection and the need to let go and trust God for the protection that only He can provide.
I enjoyed how Francine Rivers set each generation and its relationship issues in context in its historical setting. This is a wonderfully written epic story.
Exposing kids to evil
Jesse’s English teacher is requiring his junior students to read six books during the course of the year and write a report on them (and this book-loving mama is cheering!) The genre they needed to choose from this month was a non-fiction book that was not a biography. As we perused our bookshelves and I made recommendations, the book he chose was Spirit of the Rainforest: A Yanomamo Shaman’s Story by Mark Ritchie (my review of the book is here). I forewarned him that the first couple of chapters were very hard to read: the book is written from the shaman’s point of view, and his conferring with his spirits is disconcerting as is the brutal attack of one village on another. But I told him it was recommended by a missionary we knew and trusted and supported and it did get better as you went farther along.
But it had been almost three years since I had read it, and I had forgotten exactly how graphic it was until he shared some parts of the book that disturbed him. As I picked up the book and flipped through it again, I wondered if I had made a mistake letting him read this book and whether he should switch to something else.
I was still pondering that yesterday morning as we drove to school, and I asked him if the book was getting any better. He said yes, and we discussed some of the good aspects, some of the reasons I had recommended the book in the first place — the need the Indians felt within themselves for change, the difference they saw in the lives of others, both white people and other Indians, who believed once the gospel began to be spread. We discussed the presence of evil spirits and how they operate behind the scenes in our culture as well as primitive cultures though they are mostly unrecognized here. We discussed the sickening exploitation of the Indians by others who wanted to prey on them. We even discussed the funny parts, such as how the Indians came up with their names for each other, wondering what names would be attributed to us if we followed their example.
Something we didn’t have time to talk about this morning but I want to bring up soon is what missionaries have to face when they go to such fields — and, really, not just such fields where demonism is open and obvious and rampant, but any area where the gospel is opposed. The admission that “we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places” in Ephesians 6 is immediately followed by the admonition “Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand” (verses 12-13). I want to discuss how that truth is not just for missionaries; it is for all of us.
I shared with him a familiar verse from A Mighty Fortress Is Our God which stood out in bold relief to me as we sang it in church Sunday:
And though this world with devils filled
Should threaten to undo us,
We will not fear, for God has willed
His truth to triumph through us.
Though, if I had it to do over again I probably would not have recommended this book yet, I am glad that his exposure to some of these things came from a book headed in the right direction such as this one and that we could discuss these issues.
I don’t think we have to wonder how and when to expose our children to the darker side of life. I think somehow it breaks out upon their awareness all too soon — a news report, an awful happening in the community, something that comes up in a TV show that we’re not expecting. I wish we could keep them innocently sheltered in the Hundred Acre Woods much longer, but unfortunately that is not real life.
Sometimes the weight of the evil in the world is so heavy and oppressing. I cannot fathom how Christ bore it all on the cross.
And we have to be careful not to just lament what we think of as excessive evil “out there” while we excuse what we think of as our relatively minor sins. Some of the things the Bible says the Lord hates are pride, lying, wicked imaginations; envy, strife, and divisions are what the Bible calls carnal. Those added to that weight of evil Christ bore as well.
“If thou, LORD, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand?” the Psalmist asks in Psalm 130:3. Thank God he answers, “But there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared.” And “thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (I Corinthians 15:57). “Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world” (I John 4:4).
What’s On Your Nightstand: September
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. You can learn more about it by clicking the link or the button.
Wow, I can’t believe I forgot this again until I saw it at Janet’s!
Here’s what I have finished since last time:
Emma by Jane Austen, reviewed here. A charming, beautiful, rich young woman tries her hand at matchmaking with dismal results — you could say that is the basic plot line, but the book is so much richer than that. Though I have seen it referred to as a comedy, I found much depth in Emma’s maturing. And her dear friend and sharpest critic, Mr. Knightly, lives up to his name as the quintessential English gentleman.
The Unfinished Gift and The Homecoming by Dan Walsh, reviewed here. The first book tells how a death, a war, a grandson, and a box of old letters bring an estranged father and son together; the second continues the story of their family, focusing on the son’s adjusting to life after the death of his wife and the journey of faith of the young woman he hires to be his son’s nanny. Both were great reads.
A Distant Melody by Sarah Sundin was reviewed here with the above two as they are all set in the WWII era and I read them one after the other. This was a delightful book of an ordinary, flawed couple who have various relationship problems when they meet (he can’t talk to girls, she is expected to marry a man her parents approve of but whom she does not love). They keep in contact with each other despite a series of misunderstandings and wartime complications.
Hoping for Something Better: Refusing to Settle for Life as Usual, a Bible study through the book of Hebrews by Nancy Guthrie, reviewed here. I cannot recommend this one highly enough. Excellent.
The Pirate Queen by Patricia Hickman, a story of “finding treasure in unexpected places,” reviewed here. On the very day a woman packs to leave her philandering husband, he comes home to announce he is dying and wants them to go to their coastal home for treatment, where she finds herself in a series of unexpected and difficult circumstances. I enjoyed her journey and her discoveries.
Her Mother’s Hope by Francine Rivers, reviewed here. A mother’s tough-love attempts to raise her daughter to be strong are understood by the daughter as a lack of love, and their relationship problems affect future generations. Epic story against the backdrop of two world wars. Enjoyed it very much.
The Note by Angela Hunt, reviewed here. A short note of love and forgiveness washes up on the Florida coast after a terrible plane crash, and a newspaper columnist seeks for its intended recipient while being unexpectedly affected by its message herself. Loved it!
I am currently reading and almost finished with Her Daughter’s Dream by Francine Rivers, the sequel to Her Mother’s Hope, and am still working on Faithful Women and Their Extraordinary God by Noel Piper. I got bogged down with that one and need to move it to the forefront and finish it.
Next I want to start one of the non-fiction books from my fall reading goals, either Start Somewhere: Losing What’s Weighing You Down from the Inside Out by Calvin Nowell and Gayla Zoz or I’m Outnumbered!: One Mom’s Lessons in the Lively Art of Raising Boys by Laura Lee Groves. I think next up after one of those will be Same Kind of Different as Me by Ron Hall, Denver Moore, and Lynn Vincent or The Thorn by Beverly Lewis.
Happy Reading!
The Week In Words
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 caught my eye this week:
This was from a comment bekah made on Janet‘s Week In Words post from last week:
Nothing in you that has not died will ever be raised from the dead. C. S. Lewis. Mere Christianity
I think of this as not just the physical resurrection when our bodies die, but the resurrection power and newness of life that can only come in conjunction with dying to self. We tend to like and want the resurrection part but dread the death that has to precede it, yet there is no resurrection without death.
From Diane:
It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men. Frederick Douglass (1818-1895)
From Quill Cottage:
A stiff apology is a second insult…. The injured party does not want to be compensated because he has been wronged; he wants to be healed because he has been hurt. — G.K. Chesterton
From a friend’s Facebook:
“The real art of conversation is not only to say the right thing at the right place but to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment.” – Dorothy Nevill
From another friend’s Facebook:
My hope lives not because I am not a sinner, but because I am a sinner for whom Christ died; my trust is not that I am holy, but that being unholy, He is my righteousness. My faith rests not upon what I am or shall be or feel or know, but in what Christ is, in what He has done and in what He is now doing for me. Hallelujah! –Charles Spurgeon
Hallelujah, indeed, and amen!
And finally, from today’s reading of Our Daily Walk by F. B. Meyer, this is commenting on John 10:41 and 42, which says, “Many resorted unto Him, and said, John did no miracle: but all things John spake of this Man were true. And many believed on Him there” and the fact that many disparaged John because he did no miracles, yet his witness of Christ was the hallmark of his life and ministry:
Do not try to do a great thing, or you may waste all your life waiting for the opportunity which may never come. But since little things are always claiming your attention, do them as they come from a great motive, for the glory of God and to do good to men. No such action, however trivial, goes without the swift recognition and the ultimate recompense of Christ.
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.
Jesus Christ the Apple Tree
As the apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among the sons. I sat down under his shadow with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my taste. Song of Solomon 2:3
The tree of life my soul hath seen,
Laden with fruit and always green:
The trees of nature fruitless be
Compared with Christ the apple tree.
His beauty doth all things excel:
By faith I know, but ne’er can tell,
The glory which I now can see
In Jesus Christ the apple tree.
For happiness I long have sought,
And pleasure dearly I have bought:
I missed of all; but now I see
‘Tis found in Christ the apple tree.
I’m weary with my former toil,
Here I will sit and rest a while:
Under the shadow I will be,
Of Jesus Christ the apple tree.
This fruit doth make my soul to thrive,
It keeps my dying faith alive:
Which makes my soul in haste to be
With Jesus Christ the apple tree.
Author Unknown
Music composed by Elizabeth Poston.
Laudable Links and Videos
…in which I share interesting things seen round the Web over the last week or so.
Random Thoughts On Reading Fiction.
What’s Wrong With Seniors Clinging to Their Memories? I’ve wrestled with how much to try to bring seniors focus back to the present, and this has some good thoughts. Of course, those who are saved have a glorious future to look forward to, but I don’t think there is anything wrong with walking down memory lane with someone who has more past than future on this earth. Might learn some things!
Lisa Notes’ book review of I’m Still Here: A New Philosophy of Alzheimer’s Care.
Also from Lisa, 5 Ways to Really Sympathize In a Sympathy Card. If you’ve ever struggled with what to write in a sympathy card, this has some excellent advice.
Free Fillable Suzee Que Vintage Labels.
Gift Bags Made From Scrapbook Paper.
This was seen at betz white‘s. Amazing. When you see the set-up at the end, that’s when you realize how small it truly is.
While I was looking at that, I saw a link to this, another stop-motion video guitar number. Pretty cool!
Saw this at Chris Anderson‘s. The narration is in Spanish but it has English subtitles.
Friday’s Fave Five
Welcome to Friday’s Fave Five, hosted by Susanne at Living to Tell the Story, in which we can share 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 five of my favorites from the past week:
1. Celebrating Jesse’s birthday. I mentioned last time that his actual birthday was last week, but we celebrated on Saturday with Jason and Mittu as well.
2. One of the best parts of Jesse’s birthday celebration was that Jeremy could celebrate with us via Skype.
3. A sweet moment. Last Sunday night at church, we were standing around talking with some folks afterward. A little boy of about 2 came over and grabbed Jim’s hand and asked him to help him. We’ve had the experience before that a young child grabs one of us around the knee (knees must all look fairly similar from that height) and then looks up and is frightened by seeing someone he doesn’t know where he thought his mom or dad was. So we were bracing ourselves for that to happen when the child looked up and realized he didn’t know Jim, but it didn’t — he kept tugging on Jim’s hand asking for help, so Jim followed him. There was a pen that had rolled under a pew that he wanted Jim to help him get. Jim tried to get him to crawl under, but he wouldn’t. We thought it was because he was afraid to, but later his mom told us that she had been telling him not to crawl under the pews, so she should be very pleased that he remembered and obeyed, even when after such a prize! Jim finally got him to go around behind that pew where he could reach it more easily. I just thought the whole exchange was sweet, but also seeing my husband on his hands and knees trying to help this little boy gave me a glimpse of his playing on the floor with grandchildren some day. Though hopefully not in the church auditorium. 🙂
4. A new ladies’ Bible study at our new church. I don’t know why — it’s silly — but I am often nervous about these things, and especially at a new church. I like to sit on the aisle seat, and I was running almost late, so I came and sat in one of the first aisle seats I saw free, and I was really blessed when another lady came from her seat and sat beside me. Then the teaching was really meaty — by which I mean Scripturally-based, not sentimental or “fluffy.” Even though the truths we discussed were not new to me, it blessed me to be reminded of them.
5. This…
is absolutely scrumptious.
And besides those, I liked the arrival of fall. I was reluctant to let go of summer, but I was finally ready for fall to arrive. It doesn’t feel too fallish yet, but I know it will soon. And several favorite old or anticipated new TV shows premiered this week. Plus Jesse has two days off from school this week due to a teacher’s conference. I love not having to set alarm clocks! But I think I have mentioned that several time before. And I love the book I am reading, Her Daughter’s Dream by Francine Rivers. It is making me wish I had a vacation day or a road trip so as to spend a vast portion of the day just reading.
It’s been a great week. Hope yours was, too, and if not, I hope the next one is better!
