It’s amazing how fast July flew by. We enjoyed a low-key 250th Independence Day with the family. The guys went camping for a few days while Mittu and I stayed at our respective homes and got things done. We celebrated Jason’s birthday and Timothy’s finishing the sixth grade as well as my blog’s 20th birthday–more on that in tomorrow’s Friday’s Fave Five!

Creating

I made two cards this month. The first was for Jason’s birthday:

I used a few things from a camping-themed scrapbooking packet and a few things from a forest creature themed packet. I was delighted to find this little frame in the latter packet–I had forgotten it was there. The chair and tent are 3-D layered stickers.

This was Timothy’s:

Watching

We rented Project Hail Mary from Amazon Prime Video when it’s rental price finally came down to a reasonable level. Its premise is that a middle school science teacher wakes up on a spaceship with no memory of how he got there and what he’s supposed to do. Slowly everything comes back to him and is shown to us in flashbacks. Some mysterious substance is destroying the sun, and he and two others were tasked with finding out what the problem is and what to do about it–only he finds the other two dead when he wakes up. He finds an alien investigating the same problem, and they team up. For such a dire situation, the movie has a sprinkling of humor and a surprising amount of heart. It’s implausible that one man, even a quiet genius, could figure out how to fly a spaceship (when he is not an astronaut), how to communicate with a previously unknown alien species, and how to fix the problem with the sun. But setting that aside, the story is quite enjoyable.

(BTW, don’t get this movie confused with The Last Hail M.A.R.Y., as my husband did. It’s the same premise of a dying sun, but it is truly awful in every way. In fact, if Mystery Science Theater, which lampooned bad movies, was still a thing, I’d nominate this film for them to cover.)

Little House on the Prairie is a new remake of the earlier Michael Landon series and the Laura Ingalls Wilder books. This season had eight episodes on Netflix. I understand another season has been approved. It was just okay. Their are some variations from the original storyline, like the family’s close friendship, after a few rough starts, with a local Osage family which has a daughter the same age as Laura. Mary and Laura bicker sometimes in the books, but that seems to be taken up a notch here. One fun moment was recognizing Allison Arngrim, who played Nellie Oleson in the original series, as a scary drifter Mary and Laura run into when they get lost in the woods. There’s a conflation of the Osage and settlers’ religion which was not in either the series or the books. There were anachronistic phrases like “being the best version of ourselves” and “becoming who you were always meant to be.” But it was wholesome family viewing. A good article about the series is here.

We also watched Enola Holmes 3 on Netflix, the third movie based on a series of books about the much younger sister of Sherlock Holmes who solves cases in her own style. Enola was a teenager in the first two films but now is about to be married. But a crisis comes up, of course. This is a fun series with the distinction that Enola breaks the fourth wall to speak directly to viewers at times.

I started watching Cranford via Hulu a couple of nights when Jim was away. I knew the series was based on a book of the same name by Elizabeth Gaskell, but I didn’t know a couple of her other books were incorporated as well (My Lady Ludlow and a novella titled Mr. Harrison’s Confessions). The series takes place in a small English town in the 1840s, with a small town’s ups and downs. The series portrays the women who make up the main characters as much more gossipy than they are in the books. I loved Judi Dench as Mattie Jenkyns, the quieter, more timid younger sister who has to step out of her comfort zone when her older sister dies. I’m almost finished with the first season.

Reading

Since last time, I have finished (titles link to my reviews):

• None Like Him: 10 Ways God Is Different From Us and Why That’s a Good Thing by Jen Wilkin with a friend. I didn’t review this since I did after my first reading of it, here. This book is worthy of multiple rereads.
• Mist of Midnight by Sandra Byrd. A Gothic-type novel in which a young woman has to flee India, where her missionary family has been killed in an uprising. But when she arrives at her family’s ancestral home in England, she finds that a woman claiming to be her has come beforehand–and has died.
• Theo of Golden by Allen Levi. A cultured, wealthy older man originally from Portugal comes to the small fictional town of Golden, GA on business. When he comes into a coffee shop which has portraits of local people on its walls, he gets the idea to buy the portraits a few at a time and give them to their subjects. His kindness and generosity have a ripple effect across the town. Though the premise didn’t sound very interesting to me at first, and the story was a slow burn, eventually I loved it.
• The Spykeeper of Marseille by Roseanna M. White. A novel based on the real-life story of a woman who headed up a large spy ring in France during WWII, coordinating with MI6 in England. Very good.
• Elisabeth Elliot: The Brave Girl Who Chose to Love by Ellen Vaughn, a children’s book about Elisabeth Elliot.
• You’ve Been Pooping All Wrong: How to Make Your Bowel Movements a Joy by Trisha Pasricha. Not reviewed, not as helpful as I had hoped.

I’m currently reading:

• Insights on Revelation by Charles Swindoll.
• Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones by James Clear.
• Letters to an American Lady by C. S. Lewis.
• How People Change by Paul David Tripp and and Timothy S. Lane.
• Into a Golden Era by Gabrielle Meyer.
• Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell. Watching the series made me want to reread the book.

Blogging

This month marks the 20th birthday of my blog! To celebrate, I am hosting a giveaway here which will end Monday morning.

Besides that and the weekly Friday Fave Fives, Saturday Laudable Linkage, and book reviews, I’ve posted these since last time:

• The Danger of Blessings. We usually think that our trials and struggles are the biggest dangers to our spiritual lives. But our blessings pose a danger as well.
• Aging Is a Series of Reliquishments. It seems that we face continuing losses as we age. But God is gracious to help us face our mortality in increments. As we face each relinquishment, we’re geared a little more toward eternity.
• Assorted Stray Thoughts. A hodgepodge of mostly unrelated ponderings.
• Kinder Than They Deserve. When people speak to us hatefully or dismissively, we’re tempted to respond in kind. But God showed grace–unmerited favor–when we didn’t deserve it, and He wants us to show grace to others.
• The Wrong Kind of Nostalgia. It’s fun to reminiscence about what life was like when we were younger. But nostalgia can take a couple of wrong directions if we’re not careful.

Writing

I did get a bit done on my revisions, but not as much as I had hoped. Our critique group is taking the month of August off.

Looking ahead

The month of August is a busy but happy one for us. My oldest son will be coming to visit for about ten days, when our family will celebrate his birthday and mine as well as enjoying many get-togethers. The ladies event at church that was supposed to happen in July got postponed until August. And I just learned last night that my family from TX will be coming at the end of the month.

How was your July? Are you looking forward to anything in August?

(I often link up with some of these bloggers.)

Another month has sped by. We enjoyed Mother’s Day and Memorial Day as a family as well as other times together. I don’t think we had any major excursions except for dinner with friends one night and Jim and Timothy going to a couple of science museums.

We’ve enjoyed the spring-like weather and new blooms and plants. But we can feel summer edging in with a few days near 90 degrees.

Creating

I just made one card this month, for Mittu for Mother’s Day.

The Cricut did the heavy lifting this time, with the drawing, writing, and cutting. I thought about coloring the flowers in–but talked myself out of it. If I messed it up or didn’t like it, I’d have to start all over. So I left it well enough alone.

I’ve also started to play around with some informal lettering. My handwriting has not been good ever since I first learned to write, so I usually use the computer or stickers to do the wording on cards. I’d like to be able to dash off something on my own that looks decent. I got some free practice sheets here and paid for some here.

I love the look of informal lettering, but have to fight against my tendency to want to make all the letters the same height as in formal lettering. The differences are part of the charm, but I struggle with wanting to do it “right” rather than just feeling free with it.

Watching

We found quite a few good movies and mini-series this month.

Beyond the Blackboard is based on a true story about a new teacher whose first assignment is a classroom in a homeless shelter. The previous teacher viewed her assignment as a glorified babysitter, not trying to teach much since the kids came and went. But this teacher fights to make a difference.

Race is about the life of Jesse Owens from his time in college through his record-setting wins in the 1936 Olympics in Germany. There are a few instances of the Lord’s name taken in vain.

The English Game is a mini-series also based on a true story of how English football–or soccer, as we know it in the US–started out as a “gentleman’s game.” When some of the working-class men wanted to play, they received a lot of resistance at first.

Harriet is a biographical film about Harriet Tubman, who escaped slavery and then went back to help hundreds of other slaves escape through the Underground Railroad.

Seeking Persephone is a Regency-era mini-series with kind of a Beauty and the Beast feel. A scarred, reclusive young duke needs to marry, so he has his steward find a needy family with a daughter of marriageable age. He’ll take care of the family’s needs if their daughter will marry him. She’s hesitant but feels she can’t refuse the benefit this will be to her family. So they marry, and she tries to feel at home in his big, lonely castle. Much reference is made to the Greek myth of Persephone and Hades, which I knew nothing about. But the film tells enough of the story that the viewer can get the references.

Temple Grandin was yet another movie based on a real person. Temple was diagnosed with autism at age four, back in the sixties, when parents were advised to institutionalize such children. Through her mother’s persistent work with her and the encouragement of a few good teachers who saw her intelligence, she overcame bullying and learned to cope and express herself. By working at her aunt’s cattle ranch in the summers, she became interested in animal behavior and became a legend in that industry. After seeing the film, we watched a documentary of her life titled An Open Door.

Reading

Since last time, I have finished:

• God Moments in my Publishing Life: The Making of a Writer and Publisher by Leslie H. Stobbe
• David Copperfield by Charles Dickens, audiobook. My second-favorite of Dickens, a comforting, cozy read. Excellent.
• Jose’s Zulo by Lou Ann Keiser, set in the Basque Region of Spain, where Lou Ann and her husband ministered for decades. A sleeper terrorist begins to question his life choices. Good.
• Angel Sister by Ann. H. Gabhart, audiobook. In Depression-era KY, a little girl is left on the steps of a church, where her parents said an angel would come and care for her. She’s found by the middle sister of a local family who takes her in, but the community disagrees that she should stay there. Longstanding issues with grandparents on both sides and the husband’s alcoholism threaten to tear the family apart. Good.

I’m currently reading:

• None Like Him: 10 Ways God Is Different From Us and Why That’s a Good Thing by Jen Wilkin with a friend.
• Life Under the Sun: The Unexpectedly Good News of Ecclesiastes by Hannah Anderson.
• Blueprint for a Nonfiction Book: Plan and Pitch Your Big Idea by Jennie Nash.
• Theo of Golden by Allen Levi.
• The Lumber Baron’s Wife by Lynn Austin.
• Into a Golden Era by Gabrielle Meyer.

I also shared 12 Fun Bookish Questions and enjoyed seeing other people’s answers. Feel free to share yours if you haven’t yet.

Blogging

Besides the weekly Friday Fave Fives, Saturday Laudable Linkage, and book reviews, I’ve posted these since last time:

• Are We Doing it for Him? It’s easy to fall into spiritual routines and forget why and for whom we’re doing them.
• Brave Mothers of the Bible. We can draw inspiration from Biblical mothers and the difficulties they overcame with God’s help.
• Weariness in Serving God. We all get weary sometimes. But there’s a certain type of weariness that’s a danger signal.
• Sharing From Our Experiences with the Lord. When we have an opportunity to share spiritual truth with others, whether a crowd or an individual, we don’t have to give a sermon. We can share from our own walk with Him and our time in His Word.

Writing

My turn to submit a chapter to our critique group was a couple of weeks ago. I always appreciate the feedback and suggestions. I have not had a chance to work those edits in yet. But my schedule is much lighter the next few weeks, so I hope to work on it soon.

Looking ahead

Our church has VBS in June. Mittu and Timothy are involved directly (Timothy as a helper this year). The rest of us contributed supplies and prayer. I’m excited about Vintage Market Days in town. And we’ll be preparing for Father’s Day on the 21st. Otherwise, the month looks pretty quiet! I am hoping to get lots done.

How was your May? Looking forward to anything in June?

(I often link up with some of these bloggers.)

April sure flew by. Maybe it seemed that way because we only had one week in the month without anything extra scheduled.

We enjoyed a lovely Easter with the family. A good church service, great food, an egg hunt (with money in plastic eggs) for the kids. And Jason and Mittu surprised us with an egg hunt for us, with things they appreciate written on strips of paper folded inside plastic eggs.

We attended a free dress rehearsal of Mary Poppins at the school associated with our church. They offer that as a thank you to the church, plus it gives the cast and crew a chance to run through things in front of an audience and work out any kinks. They did a great job.

Timothy’s birthday was this month. We went out for dinner early so he could enjoy it before a scheduled orthodontist’s visit. Then we celebrated as a family with cake and presents a little later on. The play mentioned above was on his actual birthday, plus he and his parents went on an outing that day. Then he had a party with friends the next week. So he got to spread out his birthday over a couple of weeks. 🙂

Around the house, Jim has been cleaning up the yard, porch, and patio from winter debris. We haven’t planted anything in the flower beds or planters yet–we usually do that around Mother’s Day. We had a bird build a nest in the few inches between our porch light fixture and the wall. If it’s just a nest without eggs, Jim usually takes it down. But this one had an egg when he saw it. Four more were added over the next few days. The baby birds were crowded in! They didn’t stay very long. And what was even more unusual, we didn’t hear them. There’s often a nest on the porch somewhere during spring, and we’ll hear the baby birds chirping as the parents bring them food. But not this time. They left a pretty big mess, though.

Some of the other scheduled things were medical–a dentist’s visit at the end of March, a visit to the sleep center, an eye doctor appointment, and, today, a mammogram and bone density test. Thankfully, they all went well–I hope today’s scans will, too. Plus all but the dentist are once-a-year appointments, so it’s nice to get them out of the way.

Watching

Though we’ve watched a few things, I failed to make note of them. Some were not good nor recommended. We watched a few episodes of Hudson and Rex, a series about a detective and his dog (I guess it was in our “you might like this” queue because we’d watched Sue Thomas, F.B. Eye and Blue Skies, which also featured detectives or agents with dogs). Though the few episodes we saw were clean, we just didn’t connect with the main characters. I don’t know if we’ll get back to it.

Creating

I only made one card this month, for Timothy’s birthday. He’s currently into weather radios, so I came up with this:

The radio and “speech bubble” frame were done with the Cricut. I printed the words from the computer onto card stock, pasted the frame around them, and then cut it out with scissors. I was going to center the words over the radio. But it didn’t look right with the arrow and antennae. So I put the words over to the side. Then I thought of putting a balloon or something in the empty space, but decided not to.

I also put together a Jane-Austen-themed Lego kit that I had received for Christmas. More on that and some other bookish projects here.

Reading

Since last time, I have finished (most titles link to my reviews):

• True Woman 201: Interior Design: Ten Elements of Biblical Womanhood by Mary Kassian and Nancy Leigh DeMoss (now Wolgemuth) with our ladies’ Bible study. I didn’t review it this time since I did the first time I read it, here. I enjoyed going through it again.
• The Characters of Easter: The Villains, Heroes, Cowards, and Crooks Who Witnessed History’s Biggest Miracle by Daniel Darling. Excellent!
• The Gospel Comes with a House Key by Rosaria Butterfield. Mixed emotions with this one. It was good and convicting in many areas, but at times came across too strong. Plus I didn’t quite agree with every little thing she said.
• All the Beauty in the World: The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Me by Patrick Bringley. After his brother’s death, Patrick needed a change. He spent ten years as a guard at the Met and shares his experiences as well as some observations of the art he came to know so well. I was disappointed by some bad language in this one, but enjoyed some of his thoughts.
• The Prince of Spies by Elizabeth Camden, the third in the Hope and Glory series, audiobook. Luke Delacroix is a journalist intent on exposing the fraudulent practices of long-time enemy Clyde Magruder. But then he falls in love with Marianne, not knowing at first that she is Clyde’s daughter. Very good.

I’m currently reading:

• None Like Him: 10 Ways God Is Different From Us and Why That’s a Good Thing by Jen Wilkin with a friend.
• Life Under the Sun: The Unexpectedly Good News of Ecclesiastes by Hannah Anderson.
• Blueprint for a Nonfiction Book: Plan and Pitch Your Big Idea by Jennie Nash. This got crowded out by other seasonal reading, but I want to get back into it.
• God Moments in my Publishing Life: The Making of a Writer and Publisher by Leslie H. Stobbe
• David Copperfield by Charles Dickens, audiobook, a comfort read for me.
• Jose’s Zulo by Lou Ann Keiser. Lou Ann and her husband were missionaries in the Basque region of Spain for several decades. I knew her through the support of our church in SC. We’ve communicated for years but never actually met in person. Her debut novel is set in that country

Blogging

Besides the weekly Friday Fave Fives, Saturday Laudable Linkage, and book reviews, I’ve posted these since last time:

• Sure-Footed Confidence. “The book of Habakkuk might seem an unlikely place to draw inspiration for Easter. But my study from Habakkuk last week gave me food for thought this Easter week.”
• When People Act Like Jerks. “I thought, ‘Or maybe he’s just being a jerk.’ Because people are sometimes, especially while driving. So what do we do with jerk-like behavior?”
• What I’ve Learned About Ministry. “Here are some things I’ve learned in nearly fifty years of ministry in and out of church.”
• Broken Pieces. “If your life is broken, it may be because pieces will feed a multitude.“

Writing

Our critique group is starting another round, with my piece due this week. I’ve had some great, though exhausting, sessions working on it.

Looking ahead

We look forward to planting the flowers beds and planters, Mother’s Day, Memorial Day, a dinner with friends, and a (routine, thankfully) visit with the cardiologist.

How was your April? What are you looking forward to in May?

March has been a varied month, at home as well as in the weather. We celebrated my husband’s birthday. The guys enjoyed a brief camping trip, while Mittu and I visited them for a few hours one day. We totally missed “Pi Day” (3.14). We got some financial paperwork done that will make things easier on the kids when we pass (hopefully not for a long time in the future). I got some organizational things done here and there. Our health has been relatively stable–always a good thing. We’ve enjoyed the signs of spring slowly making themselves known.

We’ve had snow as well as temperatures in the 80s. We did have some storms and loss of electricity for a short while. And the hardest part of the month was the loss of our niece’s husband after a brutal battle with cancer. We were blessed by the live-stream of the memorial service.

Watching

We’ve started watching a series called Blue Skies about a young woman who is a National Park investigator in CO. In the first episode, a lost dog shows up and “adopts” her, showing an uncanny ability to track and help with cases. Her mother passed away a year earlier in an accident at the park, and she and her father are making progress in her relationship. But a friend thinks her mother’s death was not accidental and has been investigating on the side. It’s a very clean series, if a little slow-moving. My husband and I have laughed over the frequent Significant Glances that occur between characters during important moments. But we’re enjoying the series.

We finished the PBS Masterpiece production of The Count of Monte Cristo about a man in France during the Napoleonic era who is betrayed and wrongly imprisoned for fifteen years.When he gets out, he becomes rich through finding a lost treasure that a fellow prisoner told him about. He reinvents himself as the Count of Monte Cristo. Then he seeks to find out what happened, reward those who stood by him, and exact vengeance on those who betrayed him. But he discovers vengeance often exacts a price on the innocent. We did find a couple of brief objectionable elements, but overall, the series is well done. It’s been so long since I read the book, I’m not sure where they may have varied from the original plot.

Sarah’s Oil is based on the true story of a young Black girl in Oklahoma in the early 1900s. Because she was born in Indian territory and has some Creek Indian heritage, she’s entitled to an allotment of land. She feels sure there is oil under the surface, but trying to find a prospector who is both willing to take the challenge of drilling and honest enough not to swindle her is hard.

First Dog is about a young boy in group foster care who comes across the president’s missing dog. No one will believe him that the dog is the president’s. But he feels compelled to do the right thing and try to return the dog. So he sets out on his own, encountering both helpful and shady people along the way. It was not a terribly well-made movie, but it was quite family friendly. It might have been fun to watch with the kids when they were younger.

Creating

I made a couple of cards this month. This was for Jim’s birthday:

This is one of my favorites. The little scenes on the left and the words were printed and cut from the Cricut.

This was for a friend from church recovering from surgery:

I’ve been wanting to use those 3D blue flower stickers for a long time, so I was glad to finally find a design to do so. The words were from a stamp. Some time ago I used that stamp to make sheets of it in different colors, so I’d have them ready to use when needed instead of having to let the stamp dry while making a card.

Mittu and I met with an artsy friend from church Saturday to do some simple watercolor flowers. It’s harder than it looks! More on that on Friday.

Reading

Since last time, I have finished (titles link to my reviews):

• Light Upon Light: A Literary Guide to Prayer for Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany compiled by Sarah Arthur. I didn’t like this as well as I thought I would, but I did glean a few good selections.
• Barnaby Rudge by Charles Dickens, audiobook. A young man with mental deficiencies is caught up in the mob reaction to the Papists Act of 1778. The description didn’t sound very exciting, but the book was quite good.
• Rebel with a Cause by Franklin Graham, his autobiography.
• All We Thought We Knew by Michelle Shocklee, audiobook. A young woman’s twin brother is killed during the Viet Nam war, and she blames her father for not keeping her brother from going. She leaves home for a few years until she learns her mother is dying. She comes home and learns secrets about her family that may heal or open the rift wider. Very good.
• The Spice King by Elizabeth Camden, audiobook, the first in the Hope and Glory series. Annabelle moves from Kansas to Washington, DC, with her blind sister, who has an opportunity to work at he Library of Congress in the early 1900s. Annabelle lands a temporary position at the Smithsonian, where her boss wants her to persuade the head of Delacroix Spices to donate some of his plants to the museum. Gray Delacroix refuses, but Annabelle doesn’t give up easily. Meanwhile, Gray tries to keep his frivolous twin siblings out of trouble. Very good.
• The Gilded Lady by Elizabeth Camden, sequel to The Spice King. I just finished this and hope to have the review up this week.

I’m currently reading:

• True Woman 201: Interior Design: Ten Elements of Biblical Womanhood by Mary Kassian and Nancy Leigh DeMoss (now Wolgemuth) with our ladies’ Bible study.
• None Like Him: 10 Ways God Is Different From Us and Why That’s a Good Thing by Jen Wilkin with a friend.
• All the Beauty in the World: The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Me by Patrick Bringley. Disappointed by some bad language in this one.
• Blueprint for a Nonfiction Book: Plan and Pitch Your Big Idea by Jennie Nash. I’ve only read a couple of chapters, then this one got crowded out. I plan to get back to it this month.
• The Characters of Easter: The Villains, Heroes, Cowards, and Crooks Who Witnessed History’s Biggest Miracle by Daniel Darling.
• The Prince of Spies by Elizabeth Camden, the third in the Hope and Glory series.

Blogging

Besides the weekly Friday Fave Fives, Saturday Laudable Linkage, and book reviews, I’ve posted these since last time:

• Favorite Instagram Accounts, just for fun.
• Spiritual Maturity Is Dependent. Physically, children grow independent from parents as they mature. But spiritually, we grow ever more dependent on the Lord.
• How Do We Delight in the Lord? We tend to concentrate on the second half of Psalm 37:4 and gloss over the first part about delighting in the Lord.
• God Uses the Ordinary. We love the Bible stories involving some of our heroes. But God doesn’t just use those who stand out or who have great gifts: He uses everyday, ordinary people, too. That’s good, since most of us are everyday, ordinary people.
• Spring for the Soul. Souls have seasons. During a spiritual winter, we look forward to the renewal of spring.
• Who Is Responsible for Jesus’ Death? A number of people had a hand in Jesus’ crucifixion.

Writing

I got a good chunk done this month! It was my turn to present a chapter to our critique group. I was able to get that done and then work in the edits they suggested.

Turning the corner

Easter is coming up, and then Timothy’s birthday as well as a couple of medical appointments. We look forward to more blooming things, more stable weather, more reading, writing, and enjoying time with family.

How was your March? Looking forward to anything in April?

(I often link up with some of these bloggers.)

Our February has been marked by a big snow, four doctor visits–three of which were just follow-ups, a lovely Valentine’s Day as a family, and my daughter-in-law’s birthday.

We Face-timed Jeremy during Mittu’s birthday celebration. Sometime during the conversation, I asked if his friends had done anything for Valentine’s Day–around holidays they’ll often have some kind of get-together, like Friendsgiving in November. He said no–anyone with a significant other did something with them, but they didn’t do anything as a group. I said I had seen a lot of women having a “Galentine” Day with friends, but guys probably wouldn’t be interested in a similar Valentine’s alternative. Mittu said if they were, they could call it “Palentine’s.” 🙂

In sad news, Jim’s niece’s husband passed away after a year-long, sometimes brutal battle with cancer that was first discovered in his sinuses and then found all over his body. He was 52. I’m thankful for the Caring Bridge site that allows people to post updates, so we could be informed and pray along with them. We rejoice that he is fully healed in heaven and seeing his Savior face to face, yet we ache for his family and church. I’ve enjoyed reading some of the tributes that have been posted on Facebook. I always marvel at how one life can touch so many others.

Watching

We had the Olympics coverage on most evenings. I enjoyed it, even though I am not normally into sports. One of my favorite moments was Alysa Liu’s winning free skate. Another was Elana Meyers Taylor’s monobob win. Watching bobsled racing isn’t the most exciting for me, but I appreciated her story of winning at age 41, having two deaf children, and being a Christian. And the skating gala after the competitions are over is always a favorite–the tension is gone and everyone is much freer in their performances. I wish they had shown more of it. I may see if the whole program is online.

We finished Sue Thomas, F. B. Eye, based on the true story of a deaf woman who became an FBI agent. As I mentioned last time, it was a little dated, but very clean. I kind of missed the characters after we finished the series.

We watched a short series titled Shadrach about a family in the city who has to move to the grandparent’s house in the country when the dad is betrayed by his business partner and their company fails. The teenage daughter is not happy. But when a horse follows her home, her outlook changes. This show was quite clean and faith-based, but a little too on-the-nose.

Creating

February is a busy month for card-making. First, there’s Valentine’s Day. Many of these were inspired by cards I saw on Pinterest.

This was Jim’s:

The letters were from a pad of scrapbooking papers. The red heart was a 3D sticker.

This was Jeremy’s:

He likes foxes. The fox design was done with the Cricut. I sent the picture from the Cricut machine to my computer to print, then took it back to the Cricut to be cut out.

This was Jason’s:

The letters are stickers.

This was Mittu’s:

The “basket” was done with the Cuttlebug embosser.

This was Timothy’s, also done with the Cricut–just the cutting, not printing:

I did the words on the computer.

And this was Jesse’s, my main gamer:

The heart was done with the Cricut, the words on the computer.

This was for my friend, Melanie:

She and Mittu both like purple/lavender. The lacy part of the heart was done with the Cricut. I kept thinking I should put something in the middle of the heart, but by that time I was almost done and felt I should leave well enough alone.

And this was for Mittu’s birthday:

The daisy and yellow center were done with the Cricut. The white center was done with the computer and a scalloped hole punch.

Reading

With the Olympics on, I didn’t read as much as usual this month. Here’s what I finished:

• James for You: Showing You How Real Faith Looks in Real Life by Sam Allberry. Very good.
• Through Each Tomorrow by Gabrielle Meyer, the sixth in her Time Crossers series, set partly in 1563 during the reign of Queen Elizabeth 1 and partly in during the Gilded Age in 1883. Very good.
• Barnaby Rudge by Charles Dickens, audiobook. I just finished this one yesterday and will review it next week. Very good!

I’m currently reading:

• Light Upon Light: A Literary Guide to Prayer for Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany compiled by Sarah Arthur. Almost done!
• All the Beauty in the World: The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Me by Patrick Bringley. Disappointed by some bad language in this one.
• True Woman 201: Interior Design: Ten Elements of Biblical Womanhood by Mary Kassian and Nancy Leigh DeMoss (now Wolgemuth) with our ladies’ Bible study.
• None Like Him: 10 Ways God Is Different From Us and Why That’s a Good Thing by Jen Wilkin with Melanie.
• Rebel with a Cause by Franklin Graham.
• Blueprint for a Nonfiction Book: Plan and Pitch Your Big Idea by Jennie Nash.

Blogging

Besides the weekly Friday Fave Fives, Saturday Laudable Linkage, and book reviews, I’ve posted these since last time:

• Bearing with Small Trials. I often find the little irritations and frustrations harder to deal with in a right spirit than the big trials.
• Winter Inspiration. Bible verses, quotes, poems, and songs about winter to help me have a better perspective of it.
• “Deep roots are not reached by the frost.” When we’re rooted in Christ, we’ll survive winter storms and flourish again.
• Rely on God and Make Every Effort. God has given us everything we need for godliness, so we’re to “make every effort” (2 Peter 1:3-6) to incorporate certain things into our lives.
• Devotional Books for Lent and Easter. Some suggestions from books I have read in past years.
• What Do You Tell Yourself? Sometimes we have to sit ourselves down for a chat.

Looking ahead

Coming to the end of February feels like turning a major corner in getting through winter. We can still have cold and snow in March, but spring is in sight and we usually start seeing flower buds. In fact, our daffodils have already started peeking out when we had a warm spell.

My husband’s birthday is in March, and there’s talk of some get-togethers with friends to look forward to.

How was your February? Looking forward to anything in March?

We’re a few days before the end of the month, but with Thanksgiving tomorrow and other posts scheduled, this seems the best time to reflect.

November has been a fairly quiet month. We enjoyed going to a play–actually a free dress rehearsal–at our church’s Christian school, then going out to eat afterwards. We enjoyed doing some Thanksgiving crafts with Tim.

Jim finished his shed, winterized the camper, and cleaned out all the dead stuff in the flower beds and planters.

I sorted through boxes from the shed as well as some parts of the house and have a pile set aside for the thrift store.

I am still dealing with an elevated heart rate, but my devices aren’t showing signs of atrial fibrillation. It may be atrial flutter. When I had that in July and August, it went on for several weeks and turned into atrial fibrillation, resulting in a cardioversion. I’m praying God will intervene and set my heart right so we don’t have to go that route again. I feel okay except I have to take breaks in-between doing things.

I only made one card this month, but it hasn’t reached its recipient yet, so I’ll share it next month.

Watching

We watched one season (six episodes) of Crossroad Springs, about a pastor in Chicago who comes home to help his father after the latter is injured. There are hard feelings because the father wanted his kids to take over the farm, which has been in the family for several generations. But one child became a pastor and the other a doctor. When the pastor gets reacquainted with a girl he used to know, he’s torn between going back to his church or staying. Meanwhile, there’s trouble brewing with a neighbor who may be up to no good. The show was clean and the story was good, but something was lacking. It had the same vibe as a lot of early Christian movies. One negative aspect: they equate salvation with baptism.

Where the Lilies Bloom was based on a book by the same name, written by Bill and Vera Cleaver. A poor family consisting of an ailing father and his four children live in the mountains of North Carolina. They used to own their home but sharecrop it now, fully believing that neighbor Kiser Pease stole it out from under them by paying the back taxes. Kiser wants to court the oldest daughter, but the father will not allow it. When the father knows he is dying, he makes fourteen-year-old Mary Call, the practical one, promise to keep the family together and not let Kiser date her sister. The children don’t let anyone know when the father dies, believing they’ll be taken from the farm. The oldest sister is kind of dreamy, and the other two children too young to understand what needs to be done, leaving the major burden to Mary Call until things come to a head. This was also a good, clean movie but also lacked something. I have a feeling the book is much better and want to read it some time.

We also watched the second season of House of David. It picks up right where the first left off, with the slaying of Goliath and the ensuing battle between the Israelites and Philistines. The series portrays David as not a skilled warrior at first, having to be taught by Jonathan and protected until he gains his footing. Saul thinks he has recovered from his madness, but he hasn’t. Intrigue arises from a couple of different fronts. This season ends with Saul discovering David has been anointed by Samuel, and David runs for his life. My understanding is there’s supposed to be one more season, culminating in David being crowned king.

As usual, some parts are in line with the Bible, some are not. I’ve read that a lot of material is drawn from the Talmud and other Jewish writing.

One episode that I especially liked showed everyone going to the tabernacle for the day of atonement. We had just been studying the tabernacle in our Exodus Bible study, so it was interesting to see a limited portrayal of the Day of Atonement portrayed and the solemnity of those looking on.

Reading

Since last time I have completed:

• Bloom In Your Winter Season by Deborah Malone and others. A collection of essays on various women of the Bible, showing that God can be trusted to take care of us and can use us at any age. Very good.
• Raising the Perfectly Imperfect Child: Facing Challenges with Strength, Courage, and Hope by Boris Vujicic, father of Nick Vijicic, who was born without arms and legs. Very good.
• The Language of Sycamores by Lisa Wingate. A woman’s put-together life comes crashing down with the loss of her job and a bad report from the doctor. She goes to visit her sister, trying to set aside old rivalries. The neighbor, Dell’s grandmother is ailing, leaving Dell in the foster care system.
• Drenched in Light by Lisa Wingate. Dell has been adopted. Being something of a musical prodigy, she’s enrolled in a performing arts magnet school. But her vastly different background gives her trouble fitting in. Meanwhile, her guidance counselor is at a crossroads in her life. Good.
• A Thousand Voices by Lisa Wingate.These last three book finish Lisa’s Tending Roses series. Dell is an adult, but still struggles with wondering about her birth father. She drives to the Choctaw festival in Oklahoma to seek answers. An okay story but had some elements that troubled me.
• The Man Behind the Patch: Ron Hamilton by Shelly Garlock Hamilton. Biography of musician and vocalist Ron Hamilton, aka Patch the Pirate. Very good.

I’m currently reading:

• Exodus for You by Tim Chester with the ladies’ Bible study at church
• James for You by Sam Allberry. Haven’t made much progress with this due to Bible study and Sunday School reading. But I hope to catch up over the holidays.
• The Gospel Comes with a House Key by Rosaria Butterfield
• Amy Snow by Tracy Rees, audiobook
• My Beloved by Jan Karon

Blogging

Besides the weekly Friday Fave Fives, Saturday Laudable Linkage, and book reviews, I’ve posted these since last time:

• Why Do We Need Wisdom? Not just for big decisions, but for everyday life.
• Inconvenient Holiness. Sometimes opportunities to serve the Lord or do the right thing don’t come at the most convenient times. But when we think of hows Jesus was inconvenienced for us, it inspires us to go the extra mile for Him.
• When Spiritual Disciplines Seem Dull. Praying, reading the Bible, taking communion are not always exciting or inspiring. But even while we pray God will revive our hearts, we obey, knowing that God works through those means.
• Thanksgiving Is Not a Feeling, it’s an action. But it can lead to feelings of gratefulness.

I hope those of you in the States have a wonderful Thanksgiving tomorrow!

Thou that hast giv’n so much to me,
Give one thing more, a gratefull heart:
See how Thy beggar works on Thee
                                              By art:

Not thankfull when it pleaseth me,
As if Thy blessings had spare days;
But such a heart whose pulse may be
                                            Thy praise.

From “Gratefulnesse” by George Herbert

Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours!

(I often link up with some of these bloggers.)

Many of our spring and summer flowers are still in bloom. That’s not only nice in itself, but it has helped since fall foliage color was late coming in. But it finally did. It’s so nice to have that beautiful color before the landscape goes barren in the winter.

This has been a month for dying appliances. First our dishwasher, which wasn’t unexpected. Then our microwave, which we just got last November. Because it was still under warranty, the company we bought it from sent out a repairman. We’re waiting on the needed part to arrive. In the meantime, Jim had brought over the little microwave in his office, which we had originally bought years ago when his mom was in assisted living. Then it went kaput as well.

Jim refurbished my dresser, making it look wonderful. And he’s been putting walls and a ceiling in our shed. Lights and a ceiling fan are next.

We enjoyed dinners both planned and impromptu with the family, as well as a couple of Sunday lunches with them and friends.

Our Connect Four group got together to work on paint-by-number projects. I hadn’t done that since maybe sixth grade. It was relaxing and fun to visit while painting.

The guys had a camping trip with other men and boys from church one weekend.

We had our annual pumpkin carving event last week. Here are the results:

The one on the bottom left was Jim’s–Luigi, I think, from the Mario games. The “classic” jack-o-lantern was Tim’s. He did all the carving himself! The light in his rotated through different colors. Mine, on the right, has a Pac Man theme. Mittu drilled the holes for me when my carving knife wasn’t working for them. Hers is the cross and heart on the table. And Jason’s is the one on the right side of the table. He made a template from this photo of Timothy and Jim fishing to carve:

I’m amazed at the detail, even the waves. I had a hard enough time cutting out my two small images!

We had no birthdays or anniversaries this month, so I didn’t make any cards.

Watching

When Jim was away camping, I watched the 1985 film The Trip to Bountiful, starring Geraldine Page. It was recommended by Hope. Based on a play, it’s the story of elderly Carrie Watts, who lives in a busy Houston apartment building with her son, Ludie, and controlling daughter-in-law, Jessie Mae. Carrie dreams of visiting the small town she came from, Bountiful. But Ludie, somewhat henpecked and weak-willed, doesn’t have time to take her. Carrie schemes to cash her pension check and take the train to Bountiful. We learn then that she has attempted this several times and has always been caught. But not this time. The story is comical at the beginning, but poignant and wistful at the end. There was one use of God’s name taken in vain (which, oddly, I saw in the subtitles but didn’t hear). But otherwise, it was clean.

Reading

Since last time I finished (titles link to my reviews):

• Titus for You by Tim Chester, not reviewed
• Van Gogh Has a Broken Heart: What Art Teaches Us About the Wonder and Struggle of Being Alive by Russ Ramsey. Spiritual lessons from art and artists. Very good.
• 100 Ways to Improve Your Writing by Gary Provost. Very good.
• The Mystery of Edwin Drood by Charles Dickens, audiobook. This was his last novel, left unfinished.
• North! or Be Eaten, the second in the Wingfeather Saga by Andrew Peterson. Good.
• The Collector of Burned Books by Roseanna M. White, audiobook. Very good. Set during WWII, a professor who sends covert messages via codes in books has a run-in with the Nazi officer who is responsible to take over the libraries in Paris.
• The Women of Oak Ridge by Michelle Shocklee, audiobook. Good. A novel of a young woman who takes a job in Oak Ridge, the “Secret City” built during WWII to enrich uranium.

I’m currently reading:

• Exodus for You by Tim Chester with the ladies’ Bible study at church
• James for You by Sam Allberry
• Raising the Perfectly Imperfect Child: Facing Challenges with Strength, Courage, and Hope by Boris Vujicic, father of Nick Vujicic
• The Gospel Comes with a House Key by Rosaria Butterfield
• Bloom In Your Winter Season by Deborah Malone
• The Language of Sycamores by Lisa Wingate, audiobook

Blogging

Besides the weekly Friday Fave Fives, Saturday Laudable Linkage, and book reviews, I’ve posted these since last time:

• Look to Jesus. “How can we look to Jesus when He is not physically on Earth any more? He wasn’t when Hebrews was written, either, so the author did not have a physical view in mind. Where do we see Him these days? In His Word. What would that look like in everyday life?”
• What Complaining Does. “Before we’re too hard on the children of Israel, we need to look at ourselves. How often do I complain at the first minor inconvenience? I don’t stop to ask God if He has something for me to learn from the problem. I might get convicted about that later, but all too often my first response is to grouse.”
• How Can a Wife Help Her Husband? “It’s easy to depend on a husband’s help in myriad ways. And there’s nothing wrong with that. Ephesians 5:25 instructs husbands to love their wives as Christ loved the church, and Jesus certainly helps us. But sometimes I’m reminded of Genesis 2:18, where God said He made woman a helper fit for or suitable for the man. And I wonder, am I being a help to my husband? And how do I do that?”
• Back Burner Dreams. “Certain intellectual and creative pursuits have to be put on the back burner because there are only so many hours in the day.” But sometimes they’re better for their time simmering.
• Stray Thoughts. Sometimes I write a hodgepodge post of disconnected things I’ve been pondering.

November looks like a pretty low-key month until Thanksgiving. It’s nice to have a lull before holiday season.

How was your October? Is there anything you’re looking forward to in November?