August has been a full but very hot month. I’m looking forward to crisp autumn breezes.

The highlight of this month was my oldest son visiting for ten days. My husband was off and the other kids were here more often, so we had kind of a stay-cation. We celebrated my oldest son’s birthday and mine in that time period. We visited the country’s largest Buc-cee’s, Seven Islands State Birding Park, and the Lost Sea Adventure, which contains the USA’s largest underground lake. We played lots of games, took turns cooking or eating out, laughed, chatted, and had some quiet times in-between all the activities.

This last weekend, we went with Jason, Mittu, and Timothy to the Knoxville Asian Festival. I’ll say more about that in tomorrow’s Friday’s Fave Five.

Timothy started fourth grade at home with an online program. He seems to be enjoying it so far.

With Jim being off most Fridays now, he, Timothy, and Jason sometimes hang out when Timothy gets done with school. Sometimes they go fishing, and they went kayaking once. Sometimes they meet for ice cream.

Jim has bought and sold microscopes online for years. Often someone will be cleaning out a father or grandfather’s attic and find an old microscope and list it for sale. Jim will clean it up, replace parts, and recalibrate it and then sell it. He does it mainly as a hobby, but it also helped put our kids through Christian schools.

A few weeks ago, he found a listing for dozens, maybe scores of microscopes. Two van-loads of them. He got them for a good price and has already sold several. He’s remade what he spent and says he may have overestimated the used microscope market. But he enjoys working on them in his spare time.

Jim’s early career was in labs, but promotions had him managing other people in the labs. Then he was moved to sales because customers needed salespeople with the technical background who could tell them what the company would be able to do. I think he’s been good at every phase, but I think he sometimes misses the hands-on work. So working on these microscopes is his happy place.

Creating

This card was for Jason and Mittu’s fourteenth anniversary.

And this was for Jeremy’s birthday.

This is the first time I’ve tried using an embossing folder on darker paper. I was glad the embossing showed up well. I searched for free clip art to find the fox in the party hat, then printed him out.

Watching

We saw a few interesting movies this month.

One was The Viceroy’s House, starring Hugh Bonneville (Lord Grantham in Downton Abbey) as Lord Mountbatten, who was tasked with overseeing Britain’s withdrawal from India and the setting up of a new government. Unfortunately, I think he was in a no-win situation. The Moslem and Hindu factions would be displeased no matter what was done. Some wanted to divide India and create Pakistan; some wanted to keep the country together. I knew very little about all this, so it was interesting to learn about.

Denial was another good movie based on a true story. David Irving has written and spoken extensively, saying the Holocaust never happened. Writer and historian Deborah E. Lipstadt disagreed with him in her book, and he sued her for libel. In Britain, the burden of proof is on the defendant. I don’t want to spoil the story by sharing the lawyer’s strategy, but it was fascinating.

Unfortunately, there was one occurrence of one of the worst bad words. I had thought this particular word was reserved for R-rated movies, and this is PG-13. My son said he thought the rule was PG-13 movies were allowed one use of it. So it’s almost like they have to toss it in because they can. Frustrating.

Sadly, we ran into the same thing with an otherwise excellent movie called Woman in Gold, another true story about a woman whose family paintings, including a very famous one of her aunt, was stolen by Nazis. She embarks on a lawsuit to have them returned, using a very young and not very experienced lawyer.

Reading

Since last time I have completed:

• Be Worshipful (Psalms 1-89): Glorifying God for Who He Is by Warren W. Wiersbe
• Humble Roots: How Humility Grounds and Nourishes Your Soul by Hannah Anderson. I finished it in June but felt like I needed to go through it again.
• Dreams of Savannah by Roseanna M. White, audiobook. A Civil War-era book about two people coming to realize their assumptions about slavery and Black people are wrong–but then they have to decide what to do about it. Despite how that sounds, it’s not at all preachy. It’s wonderfully layered.
• The Words We Lost by Nicole Deese. Ingrid Erikson is an acquisition editor for a publishing company, but she’s been under-performing due to grief over the death of her father, best friend, and romance. Her boss gives her an ultimatum: find the lost manuscript that her friend, a best-selling author, was reported to have been working on before she died. But that would require her to go back to the place and people she planned never to see again. Excellent.
• Yesterday’s Tides by Roseanna M. White, audiobook. Two related story lines taking place in 1914 and 1942 on Ocracoke Island in North Carolina’s Outer Banks. Excellent.
• Ladies of the Lake by Cathy Gohlke, audiobook. Four friends in boarding school in the early 1900s vow to be friends forever. But trouble brews when two of the girls fall for the same young man. He comes from a German family, which alienates one of the girls whose brother died in the sinking of the Lusitania. Deceit and betrayal cause severe ramifications for years to come. Excellent.
• The Second Half by Lauraine Snelling. A couple just about to enter retirement are asked to keep their grandchildren while their son is deployed. Very good.
• Elderberry Croft and Elderberry Days by Becky Doughty. A series of short stories about individuals in a trailer park and the unusual young woman who comes to live among them. Very good.
• Nathan Coulter by Wendell Berry, audiobook. A boy comes of age on a small Kentucky farm.

I’m currently reading:

• Be Exultant (Psalms 90-150): Praising God for His Mighty Works by Warren Wiersbe
• Made for More: An Invitation to Live in God’s Image by Hannah Anderson
• Elisabeth Elliot: A Life by Lucy S. R. Austen
• How to Write a Sentence and How to Read One by Stanley Fish
• The Phantom of the Organ by Susan Braun
• A Beautiful Disguise by Roseanna M. White, audiobook
• A Fool and His Monet by Sandra Orchard

Blogging

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

• Criticism Can Be a Blessing (even when it hurts)
• When You’re at Your Lowest. Psalm 88 is the only one that does not end in hope. But the psalmist still expresses faith.
• When Do We Need to Look to Jesus?
• Birthday Meditations on Aging
• Trusting God When Our Children Leave the Nest

Writing

I haven’t done much work on the book manuscript, but spent more time on a couple of smaller articles.

I loved much of August, but I am eagerly awaiting September. It probably won’t feel and look like fall til near the end of the month, but every day is one day closer! We’re looking forward to Labor Day burgers Monday, my youngest son’s birthday later in the month, and the everyday joys and get-togethers in-between.

How was your August? Are you ready for fall?

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

I was just telling a friend that I’m usually longing for fall by the end of summer, but that yearning is already upon me. July has had some fun spots, but it’s been hot and muggy. I’m glad it’s about over.

One of the highlights of July was celebrating Independence Day with the family, with the usual burgers, hot dogs, and fireworks. Another was my middle son’s birthday.

The rest of the month was made up of enjoyable everyday activities.

Creating

This card was for Jason’s birthday:

The “happy birthday” was embossed with the Cuttlebug. The letters in “son” were puffy stickers. The blue squares were cut from a thick cardstock with a chevron pattern, though that doesn’t show up here.

These two were for ladies in the church who had surgeries with long recovery times.

The words were made with a stamp.

Watching

We haven’t really seen much I would recommend except Another Mother’s Son. It’s based on the true story of a mom in the Island of Jersey during WWII. The Germans occupied the area and brought in Russian POWs to work. One escaped, and this mom took him in because she would want someone to do the same for her son.

Reading

Since last time I completed (linked to my reviews):

• Every Ocean Has a Shore by Jamie Langston Turner. Three people who happened to be together during a crisis continue to play a part in each other’s lives.
• When the Day Comes by Gabrielle Meyer, audiobook. Libby Conant is a time crosser who lives in 1774 Williamsburg and 1914 New York. She’ll have to decide by her twenty-first birthday which timeline to live the rest of her life in. Excellent, and a unique twist.
• In This Moment by Gabrielle Meyer, sequel to When the Day Comes, audiobook. Maggie is a time crosser, but because both her parents were as well, she has three timelines instead of two: 1861, 1941, and 2001. Excellent.
• Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachan. I’d seen the film with Glenn Close years ago but had not read the book til now. Excellent writing and story.
• Blogging for God’s Glory in a Clickbait World by Benjamin Vrbicek and John Beeson. Very good.

I’m currently reading:

• Be Worshipful (Psalms 1-89): Glorifying God for Who He Is by Warren W. Wiersbe
• Humble Roots: How Humility Grounds and Nourishes Your Soul by Hannah Anderson. I finished it in June but felt like I needed to go through it again.
• Dreams of Savannah by Roseanna M. White, audiobook
• The Words We Lost by Nicole Deese

Blogging

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

• Do You Want to Be Free? The world thinks freedom is being able to do whatever one wants. They don’t realize they’re in bondage because their chains are so pleasurable. But the pleasures of sin only last for a short season.
• Devotional Time in Different Seasons of Life. It’s okay if our Bible reading and prayer time looks different in different stages of life.
• How to Return to Your First Love. We can get a little stale in both our romantic and spiritual lives, and some of the same advice can apply to each.
• The Most Important Way to Change. We like self-help articles and blog posts, but we overlook the primary means God uses to work change in our hearts.

I need to forewarn you that I’m going to have to change themes sometime soon. I’ve had some behind-the-scenes trouble with my blog and have been advised that my current theme (blog layout) is an old one which isn’t implementing all of WordPress’s newer programming. I’ve just started looking at other themes and none has grabbed me right off the bat. But I wanted to let you know why things might suddenly look different here in the future.

I didn’t realize it until yesterday, but today is my 17th blogging anniversary! Thank you for reading, responding, and making blogging such a blessing.

Writing

I’ve been able to incorporate the edits from my critique group in my manuscript. I’ve also worked on a devotional that I think is almost ready to submit to an online site.

Looking forward

August is a big month for us with two birthdays and my oldest son’s visit from RI. We usually work some family outings in during that time and enjoy a lot of time together.

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

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

I don’t know how a month can simultaneously feel long and yet seem to have sped by, but June was like that to me.

I count summer from June 1, though summer only officially began last week. Heat and humidity keep me mostly inside with the AC on and a cold drink at hand.

But we had a couple of outings involving a picnic lunch. We went with Jason, Mittu, and Timothy to a park at Douglas Dam and enjoyed some games as well as exploring the tailwater area with Timothy.

Then last week we went to a different park to eat lunch and shoot model rockets, something we did when our boys were small. More on that at this week’s Friday’s Fave Five.

We enjoyed Father’s Day and other family dinners and quiet evenings in-between.

Creating

Somehow Father’s Day caught me off guard—I thought I had another week. So I ended up using stickers I had on hand to make Jim’s and Jason’s cards.

The card I was trying to make for my step-father didn’t come out like I had hoped. His had to be sent early through the mail, so I ended up buying one for him.

Here is Jim’s with a camping theme:

This is Jason’s:

Jason used to make cards or notes divided into four, and that seemed like a good layout for this one. Fun fact: I accidentally had the card upside-down and didn’t realize it til the front was finished. I’ve done that once or twice before and rectified it by cutting off the whole front and gluing it to another card. I decided to leave it this time, figuring it would give the family a laugh. I wrote “OOPS!” on the inside front cover.

Watching

There’s not much on in the summer, so we’ve streamed a few more programs than usual.

We watched the four-part Shiny Happy People on Amazon Prime. The subtitle is “Duggar Family Secrets,” but it’s about more than the Duggars: it’s a kind of exposé of Bill Gothard and his teachings. I already knew much of the information from reading Jill Duggar Vuolo’s book, Becoming Free Indeed: My Story of Disentangling Faith from Fear (linked to my review).

Though there were serious problems with Gothard’s teachings and practices that needed to come to light, the series grouped all fundamentalists and almost all homeschoolers and conservative Christians under the same umbrella, which was not correct. This article from WORLD magazine, Shiny Happy People is Both True and False, delineates some of the faulty conflation.

One night when Jim was away, I watched Babette’s Feast, a1987 film based on a short story by Isak Dinesen. That led to reading the story and discussing both the story and film here.

We watched Jesus Revolution together with mixed emotions.

We watched The Battle of Britain, a WWII film made in 1969. We were expecting it to be good since it had an all-star cast, but we were disappointed.

Another pretty bad movie was God and Spies. It was a poorly written, mostly poorly acted Christian film, but it was based on a true story Operation Ivy Bells during the Cold War. The Navy, CIA, and NSA worked together to tap the USSR’s underwater cables. Garry Matheny, one of the divers, is the main character (and I think writer/producer). A few slides with photos and more information at the end made me wonder if this would have been better done as a documentary.

Finally, we saw a good one called Greater:The Brandon Burlsworth Story, also based on a true story. Brandon was an unlikely football player who was a walk-on for the Arkansas Razorbacks, but then excelled, became an All-American, and was signed to the Indianapolis Colts shorty before he died in a car accident. This was not presented as a Christian film, but Brandon’s faith was a big part of his life and was well-displayed here. We’re not big into sports films, but we enjoyed this.

Reading

Since last time I completed (linked to my reviews):

• The Two Mrs. Abbots by D. E. Stevenson, audiobook. This is the third Barbara Buncle book, though Barbara is Mrs. Abbot now. The other Mrs. Abbott is a young woman who married Barbara’s husband’s nephew, who was like a son to them. This story takes place during WWII, with a number of subplots intertwining, including a runaway girl, an incognito author, and a spy.
• The Four Graces by D. E. Stevenson, audiobook. The four Graces are adult daughters of the village vicar. This story continues with some of the characters from The Two Mrs. Abbotts, though Barbara is only in the first chapter. This was a sweet story as the young women face various trials.
• A Place to Hang the Moon by Kate Albus, audiobook. I dearly loved this book. Three orphaned children are included by their family’s solicitor with child evacuees sent from London to the countryside during WWII. The hope was that their foster family might be willing to keep them permanently. Though this book was written a few years ago, it reads like a classic children’s novel–and references many classic children’s novels.
• The Nature of Fragile Things by Susan Meissner, audiobook. I didn’t review it here, but did at GoodReads. Set during the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake, this was an intriguing story about an immigrant who answers an ad for essentially a mail-order bride. Everything goes well until she finds he is married to someone else as well as her. Though the writing was well-done, some objectionable elements turned me off.
• Humble Roots: How Humility Grounds and Nourishes Your Soul by Hannah Anderson. Excellent. I’m rereading it, after just finishing it, to try to soak in more of it.
• Gay Girl, Good God: The Story of Who I Was and Who God Has Always Been by Jackie Hill Perry, audiobook and Kindle. Jackie’s remarkable story of becoming a Christian out of a life of drug addiction and homosexuality.

I’m currently reading:

• Be Worshipful (Psalms 1-89): Glorifying God for Who He Is by Warren W. Wiersbe
• Blogging for God’s Glory in a Clickbait World by Benjamin Vrbicek and John Beeson
• The Dwelling Place by Elizabeth Musser
• When the Day Comes by Gabrielle Meyer
• Every Ocean Has a Shore by Jamie Langston Turner

Blogging

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

• Unseen Hurts. Parallels between wounds of the flesh and spirit.
• Why Doesn’t God Make Everything Clear? It seems like that would prevent a lot of debating. But perhaps God wants our hearts and dependence and grace in ways we might not yield them otherwise.
• Fathers and Children. We’re not doomed by a bad father or saved by a good father.
• A Steady Soul. Just as a firm handrail helps me when I feel unsteady, God’s Word is a firm guide and aide to keep us steady spiritually.

Writing

I completed my first draft some time ago, so now I am revising chapters. I just completed my third one–actually combining the next two chapters— for our critique group. I received helpful and encouraging feedback.

As I told the group, whenever it is my turn to present, I am excited to get back into it—but then real life kicks in, and I don’t get as much done until my next turn.

However, I discovered something that I think will be helpful. I keep thinking I need a big block of time before I can even get started writing. But in this revising stage, I can only think through so much about arranging and rearranging and whether I need to add here or cut there before my brain can’t process any more. So, realizing I can make a dent in a shorter time period will hopefully help me do so more often. Plus, the more often I work on my draft, the less time I need to reorient myself from where I left off.

Looking ahead

I’m always glad to get past the summer solstice and know the days will start shortening from here on. I like having more light in the evenings this time of year . . . but maybe not quite as late. We’re looking forward to the Fourth of July with the family next week, Jason’s birthday later, and lots of everyday life throughout.

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

I thought I’d go ahead and share my end-of-month post since I have other things scheduled for the last few days of April.

I found a quote from Mark Twain in my files that seems to describe April weather: “In the spring I have counted one hundred and thirty-six different kinds of weather inside of four and twenty hours” (from a speech titled “The Oldest Inhabitant-The Weather of New England”). It sure feels that way! We’ve had another cold snap this week, but I hope we’ve seen the last of 30-degree weather til next October.

We finally went to an annual “Chalk Walk” event downtown where artists drew masterpieces on Market Square. We enjoyed celebrating Easter and my grandson’s 9th birthday this month. But otherwise, April has been pretty low-key. Even still, it seems to be passing all too quickly.

One big change in our schedule is that my husband started working four days a week instead of five. He usually works much more than 8 hours a day anyway, so it was no hardship to change his work week to four ten hour days. Now he has Fridays off to get away from the pressures of work and get other things done or just relax. He took Timothy fishing last weekend.

The only problem with a four-day work week is that I get discombobulated on Fridays, feeling like they are Saturdays. 🙂

One sobering event this month was the death of the man who was a youth pastor in my home church during my college years. I was out of the youth group by that time, but I got to know him while working in the church office one summer while the church secretary was out sick. His wife gave me several recipes, one of which shows up regularly for dinner (Cherokee Casserole–this recipe is pretty similar except I use tomato sauce instead of tomatoes and American cheese instead of cheddar). He and his wife were missionaries in Mexico for several decades. He developed a sudden kidney problem and died the day before he was supposed to start treatment. I felt for his wife having to deal with everything in Mexico, but she said the folks at the churches there were a big help. She’s planning to stay there for now.

Then I mentioned last week that Ron Hamilton passed away. We did not not know him and his wife personally, but felt in some ways like we did. Our whole family listened to and sang his music since before our kids were born. His death was not unexpected, as he had been declining from early-onset dementia for years. It’s a mercy, in a way, that he is released from the effects of illness on his body. But I almost get teary when a song of his comes on the radio or my playlist.

Timothyisms

It’s been a long time since I shared one of these. Last night, Jim mentioned that our lilac bush was in bloom. He commented his grandmother usually wore lilac-scented perfume, so he always connected that scent with her. Mittu asked Timothy what his grandmother smelled like. He replied, “Cookies and clean laundry.” 🙂

Creating

As I looked on Pinterest for card ideas for Timothy’s birthday, I saw these free downloads for a Minecraft birthday party. I used one of their sign designs for a card. I figured that would be better than anything I could do by hand.

Watching and Listening

I have a couple of podcasts queued up that I haven’t listened to yet.

I enjoyed watching the latest season of The Mandalorian. As I mentioned before, I am not all that into Star Wars, but I really like this series.

My husband and I watched On a Wing and a Prayer, based on a true story about a man and his family who were passengers in a friend’s small plane when the pilot had a heart attack. It was not the best-made film we’ve ever seen. But it was enjoyable. I liked that during the closing credits it included some footage of the real-life man from the story who had to land the plane.

We also watched Ithaca, a coming-of-age story about a teenager during WWII. His father has passed away and his older brother is a soldier, so he takes on a job with the telegraph office to help out at home. In that era, however, most of the telegraphs he delivers are informing families of the death of their sons. His eyes are opened to hard things in the world. The movie moved very slowly. I told my husband, it could have been really sweet and poignant, but there was something missing. I just couldn’t put my finger on what. Then I learned this film was a remake of The Human Comedy, an older film starring a young Mickey Rooney. I may watch that some time for comparison.

Reading

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

• Be Joyful (Philippians): Even When Things Go Wrong, You Can Have Joy by Warren Wiersbe
• Seven Words You Never Want to Hear: How to Be Sure You Won’t by Denise Wilson, based on Jesus words, “I never knew you; depart from me.”
• Murder Your Darlings: And Other Gentle Writing Advice from Aristotle to Zinsser by Roy Peter Clark
• All That Really Matters by Nicole Deese. A social media influencer volunteers at a facility helping foster care kids transition to adult life. But she’s the one who is changed. Loved this.
• Ring of Secrets by Roseanna M. White, audiobook, first in the Culper Spy Ring series, set during the Revolutionary War. Excellent!
• Whispers from the Shadows by Roseanna M. White, audiobook, second in the Culper Spy Ring series, set during the War of 1812. Also excellent.
• The Forgotten Life of Eva Gordon by Linda MacKillop

I’m currently reading:

• Be Worshipful (Psalms 1-89): Glorifying God for Who He Is by Warren Wiersbe
• Humble Roots: How Humility Grounds and Nourishes Your Soul by Hannah Anderson
• Blogging for God’s Glory in a Clickbait World by Benjamin Vrbicek and John Beeson
• Circle of Spies by Roseanna M. White, audiobook
• All That It Takes by Nicole Deese
• The Dwelling Place by Elizabeth Musser

Blogging

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

• Applying God’s Word
• Resurrection Hope Beyond Easter
• Goodnight, Ron
• Called to Sacrifice
• Thankful God Is Not a Stranger

A few weeks ago, I read Broken Links: How Often Should You Check and Fix Them on Your Blog. I used to fix old non-working links in my blog as I discovered them, mainly as a courtesy so someone who found an older post wouldn’t get frustrated by links that no longer went anywhere. But I didn’t know, until this article, that search engines would rank your blog lower if you have a lot of broken links. Plus, this author, Hugh, says spammers are more active on blogs with broken links. Both these effects result from broken links in the comments as well as in one’s post. He shared Broken Link Check Dot Com and told how to use it. So I’ve spent a couple of sessions ferreting out broken links and fixing or deleting them. I can only stand to do a handful at a time, so I have a long way to go yet.

Writing

No real headway this month. Hopefully I’ll get back into it next month.

How was your April? Are you looking forward to anything in May?

February has been an up and down month in many ways besides temperatures.

Early in the month we got word that Jim’s sister was not doing well. Then she passed away just a few days before her 67th birthday. She didn’t want any kind of service, so we didn’t travel up to OR. We kind of missed that closure and opportunity to see family, but we were able to touch base with some online. Jim and his oldest brother are the only ones left of his immediate family.

We had a nice Valentine’s Day with all the family. For the first time in I-don’t-know-when, Jim and I went for a pre-Valentine date. I enjoyed that quite a bit. Maybe we’ll start a new tradition!

The very next week was our dear daughter-in-law’s birthday. And, as I mentioned in the last Friday’s Fave Five, the kids saw that this week was the tenth anniversary of my husband’s surgery to remove a cancerous kidney. So they surprised him with “Kidney day,” including dinner and a kidney-shaped cake.

In-between those events, we had an excursion with Timothy and Jason to the American Museum of Science and Energy in Oak Ridge, TN. It focused much on OR’s part in the development of the nuclear bomb and the more productive ways they’ve used the science and equipment since then.

We’re still visiting churches and racking up some . . . interesting experiences. I don’t know if I will post about them. I am still processing them. As we pray for God’s leading and keep finding places with issues too big for us to want to join, I am asking God what He wants me to learn from this.

Creating

February and December are my biggest card-making months, since I make a card for all the immediate family for Christmas and Valentine’s Day.

This one was for Jim.

The words in the middle were from a sticker collection he had given me.

This was Jeremy’s.

He likes foxes. This fox is a multi-layered sticker. The mushrooms, leaves, and words were stickers as well. I love that this paper isn’t the traditional pink or red hearts (though I love traditional Valentine’s colors, too!)

This is Jason’s.

I wanted to use the candy hearts idea, and these were the only designs I found on the Cricut that would be appropriate for a mother to a son. 🙂

This was Mittu’s.

This was done on the Cricut (except the words). There’s a reason I chose this design . . . if it comes to fruition, I’ll let you in on it. 🙂 Also, I just noticed that a swirl in the bottom and top paper met on the left. I wasn’t trying to do that, so that was a nice surprise. 🙂

This was Timothy’s.

These hearts are from Minecraft, a game he likes to play. This was all done with the Cricut.

And this was Jesse’s.

I adapted it from an idea I saw on Pinterest. The hearts were made with a heart punch.

Then this one was for Mittu’s birthday.

She likes purple and sunflowers, which I’ve used a lot in the past. But she also likes daisies, and I had these adorable multi-level daisy stickers.

Watching and Listening

I didn’t listen to any podcasts this month, but I read the transcripts of a couple from Author Media.

We did see some interesting movies. One was a Polish film called Run, Boy, Run based on a true story. A young Jewish boy ends up alone in Poland, trying to hide his identity and look for work from farm to farm. It’s amazing the cruelty of some people, but the great risk others are willing to undergo to help.I enjoyed the bit at the end with the man whose childhood was depicted here.

I was looking forward to The Most Reluctant Convert about C. S. Lewis’ conversion. It was interesting to hear his story as he might tell it. I knew much of it from reading various biographies, but there were a few details I didn’t know. There were a few acted-put parts (with Nicholas Ralph from All Creatures Great and Small playing Lewis as a young man). But I think it might have been better with a few more acted parts and less narrator-talking-while-walking sections. Still, I enjoyed it overall.

Fanny’s Journey was another WWII film based on a true story about a child. In this case, a girl and her sisters are sent to a group home in the French countryside, but have to flee with their guardians. They miss a contact and end up roaming around by themselves.

With as star-studded a cast as the 2017 Murder on the Orient Express had, I am surprised I hadn’t heard about it, at least not that I remembered. I had never read the book or seen another version, so the conclusion was a surprise to me. There’s a bit of language and innuendo that I have to think was probably not in Agatha Christie’s original version.

We also finished up All Creatures Great and Small and loved it, though the season seemed way too short. I read a few of Masterpiece‘s behind-the-scenes articles about the show. I especially enjoyed the ones about the food in the show’s scenes and the costumes.

Reading

Since last time, I finished:

• Be Rich (Ephesians): Gaining the Things That Money Can’t Buy by Warren W. Wiersbe. This was a reread. I linked to my review of it from a few years ago. This time I slowed down and only read about half a chapter of Ephesians a day to go along with Wierbe’s chapters. Ephesians is so packed, it helped to take it in smaller chunks.
• Writing for the Soul: Instruction and Advice from an Extraordinary Writing Life by Jerry B. Jenkins. Very good.
• Unveiling the Past, by Kim Vogel Sawye, audiobook. A cold case detective’s current case about a missing father unearths feelings about her own absentee dad. Excellent.
• Dakota Dawn, Dakota Dream, and Dakota Dusk by Lauraine Snelling, a novella series about Norwegian immigrants who settle in North Dakota in the early 1900s. They are packaged together in one audiobook. Just finished, not reviewed yet. Very good.
• The Fence My Father Built by Linda S. Clare, audiobook, not reviewed or recommended.

I’m currently reading:

• Be Patient (Job): Waiting on God In Difficult Times by Warren W. Wiersbe
• Murder Your Darlings: And Other Gentle Writing Advice from Aristotle to Zinsser by Roy Peter Clark
• Becoming Free Indeed: My Story of Disentangling Faith from Fear by Jinger Duggar Vuolo
• All That’s Good: Recovering the Lost Art of Discernment by Hannah Anderson
• The Space Between Words by Michele Phoenix
• Dakota December by Lauraine Snelling, audiobook

Blogging

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

• To Be a Clod. Thoughts inspired by an Amy Carmichael poem. It’s easy to settle into cozy inertia, but God wants to keep working in and through us.
• Quotes About Reading. Some of my favorites.
• Love Does Not Eliminate Hard Things. I noticed for the first time that Jesus waited to come when Lazarus was sick because He loved Mary, Martha, and Lazarus. Sometimes in love He allows hard things.
• Tips for Finding a New Church Home.
• God’s Correction Is a Blessing. We like God’s comfort and affirmation, but would rather avoid correction. Yet He corrects us in love for our good.

Writing

I plugged away on my work-in-progress a bit, but need to make more time for it.

Even though February is a short month, it seemed to last a long time. Only 20 days until spring!

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

I used to dislike January because all the excitement of Christmas was over, all the decorations and lights were taken down, the weather was cold, the skies were overcast. But in the last few years, I’ve appreciated January as a restful month after the busyness of December.

This January has not been as restful as usual. But keeping busy helps keep my mind off winter. One thing that encourages me the most is the knowledge that we’ve been getting a little more daylight every day since the winter equinox.

I shared on some Fridays Fave Five posts that we went with Jason, Mittu, and Timothy to a car show and then with Jesse to a Knoxville Symphony Orchestra performance of the music from Jurassic Park—while the movie played.

One not-as-fun outing was a visit to the dentist for a filling, only to discover that the damage to the tooth was more extensive than originally thought and will require more work. I had to take antibiotics for an infection in the tooth and still need to call the dentist back to discuss the next steps. As much as I don’t want to deal with this, it won’t go away until I do.

I’ve mentioned here and there that we’ve been visiting churches in search of a new church home. We loved the folks at our last church, but had a difference of opinion over a doctrinal distinction that we didn’t hold to. We still love them and wish them well, but just felt we were going a different direction.

It’s a little unsettling not to have a church home. Much of our conversation the last several months has been discussing and weighing the different places we’ve visited. One good thing, though, is finding small groups of believers here and there that love God.

I usually share the cards I’ve made each month, but there were none this time.

And I don’t have much worth mentioning in the watching/listening category except the new season of All Creatures Great and Small on PBS.

So, on to books and blog posts!

Reading

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

• Be Transformed (John 13-21): Christ’s Triumph Means Your Transformation by Warren Wiersbe
• Be Committed (Ruth and Esther): Doing God’s Will Whatever the Cost by Warren Wiersbe
• Seasons of Sorrow: The Pain of Loss and the Comfort of God by Tim Challies, written the first year after his 20-year-old son unexpectedly passed away.
• The Pilgrim’s Regress by C. S. Lewis (audiobook), in which he allegorizes his journey through various philosophies to theism and finally to Christianity.
• Christmas Every Day by Beth Moran (audiobook). A young woman fresh from a breakup and the loss of her job moves to the duplex in Sherwood Forest she inherited from the grandmother she had never met. After a series of comic disasters, she finds friends and new love.
• Hope for Christmas: A Small Town Christmas Romance Novella by Malissa Chapin. Merry has also lost her job and ends up back in the small Wisconsin town where her mother lives. Her mother’s new neighbor, time with her mother, a blizzard, and an unexpected visitor in need all help Merry face her issues.

I’m currently reading:

• Be Rich (Ephesians): Gaining the Things That Money Can’t Buy by Warren W. Wiersbe
• Writing for the Soul: Instruction and Advice from an Extraordinary Writing Life by Jerry B. Jenkins
• All That’s Good by Hannah Anderson
• The Fence My Father Built by Linda S. Clare (audiobook). Not sure I’ll be able to recommend this as it seems to promote a syncretism between trusting “Jesus and all the angels” and one’s Native American ancestors. But I’ll see how it ends up.
• The Space Between Words by Michele Phoenix

Blogging

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

• Let Not Your Hearts Be Troubled, drawing on Jesus’ counsel to His disciples just before He was arrested.
• “Everyday Hallelujahs. “But worship isn’t just for Sundays or public gatherings. We don’t acknowledge God on Sundays and then go back to our regular work without giving Him any more thought. We can worship Him in everything we do because He is with us and has given us all we have.”
• What Does God Want Us to Continue? We often start January with new goals. But some things we should continue from year to year.
• Be Your Own Unique Style of Grandparent. We probably don’t compare ourselves to other grandparents as we did with other parents. Still, it’s good to know there are any number of ways to grandparent. But our main desire is that “through our love, our lives, our testimony, and our words, we can have a great influence on them for God.”
• How Churches Can Help Visitors

Writing

I’ve finally made a dent in my hardest chapter! The problem is having more information than one chapter can contain and finding the best way to present it so the reader isn’t bogged down. I’m motivated because my turn to present to our critique group is coming up in March, and I’d really like to have made a good headway on this so I can get the group’s feedback.

Though January has been a pleasant month, I am happy for it to end. We look forward to Valentine’s Day, something we do up big with the family, and my daughter-in-law’s birthday next month. And as of this writing, we’re only 48 days away from spring!

November has been another quick and busy month. We’ve had some frigid days and frosty nights interspersed with temperate ones.

We started the month with a couple of big gatherings. The church we’re visiting had a joint service with a “sister church” in another area. It was a wonderful day of worshiping together. Then our neighborhood had its first big get-together in a long time, something we used to every year.

We were thankful for the privilege of voting earlier in the month. We had some fun get-togethers with the family, including some dry ice “experiments” that Timothy loved.

We got to experience a couple of Thanksgiving testimony times in the church we’ve been visiting. I mentioned last Friday that churches we’ve been in used to have testimony times regularly, especially right before Thanksgiving, and I have missed them. Especially being new to this church, we don’t know everyone’s backgrounds. What a joy to hear how God has worked in lives.

Then, of course, we had a wonderful Thanksgiving with all the kids except our out-of-state one, and he had “piesgiving” with friends (all the food was in the form of a pie).

Creating

We had no birthdays this month, but I made these for a couple of friends going through different trials.

The message for both cards was made with a stamp. The leaf shapes were made with the Cuttlebug, which usually just does embossing. But I have a couple of folders which actually cut out shapes.

The strip of leaves is one of my favorite things. I have a square stamp with four leaves on it, and I use a multi-colored stamp pad and turn the stamp a quarter-turn each time. I didn’t come up with this idea; I saw it demonstrated somewhere.

I had wanted to use another leaf strip on this one, but the one I had got messed up when I touched it with damp hands. It takes a long time for that kind of ink to dry, so I looked for another idea to use instead. The roses were from a small embossing folder for the Cuttlebug. The color of the paper reminded me of some beautiful off-white roses I saw in a fall wedding once.

Watching and Listening

I enjoyed the Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions, though the player I was rooting for was robbed. You may have heard about the Bible question used for a final Jeopardy! round that the writers got wrong (if not, you can read about it here).

We enjoyed watching Disenchanted with the family, the sequel to Enchanted. In the first movie, an animated princess finds her handsome prince and is about to start her happily-ever-after when the stepmother of her groom-to-be pushes her down a well into the real world, which is quite a culture shock. The people in the real world don’t know what to make of her, either. But over time she discovers a handsome lawyer and finds that fairy tale love is shallow compared to the real thing.

In the sequel, the little daughter from the first movie is now a teenager, and daughter and stepmother clash. The stepmother, Giselle, thinks a move to a castle-like house in the suburbs will help. But it makes relationships with her stepdaughter worse. She finds the means to make a wish and desires a “fairy tale life.” Immediately, people are clothed with fairy tale attire and start singing and dancing in the streets. Giselle’s husband goes on a quest to find some way to display heroism. But Giselle forgot that stepmothers in fairy tales are evil. Her family and friends have to find a way to reverse the wish before it becomes permanent.

The second movie wasn’t as charming as the first, but I liked the twist on the usual fairy tale arc. I loved some of the nods to other fairy tale movies. But I thought some of the song lyrics were silly.

I’ve been listening to the Literary Life Podcast episodes on Dracula–not my usual fare, but I read it along with my son through Dracula Daily, which sent out the diary entries, letters, newspaper articles that make up the book on the dates listed. It was a fun way to read it, and the podcast has brought out much more than I gleaned on my own.

Reading

Since last time I have finished (linked to my reviews):

• Three Fifty-Seven: Timing Is Everything by Hank Stewart and Kendra Norman-Bellamy. An elderly widow finds new purpose in making herself available to help various neighbors. This was a really sweet story but was marred by too much detail in a couple of the characters’ bedrooms.
• Bringing Maggie Home by Kim Vogel Sawyer. Hazel’s little sister, Maggie, was lost when Hazel was ten, and Hazel has borne the guilt of that for sixty years. Her losses cause her to be perfectionist and anxiously controlling, which causes her daughter to rebel. She hasn’t told her daughter or granddaughter, but the latter accidentally stumbles across some old photos. The granddaughter, Meghan, is a cold case detective who investigates Maggie’s disappearance. This is one of Kim’s best.
• Worthy of Legend by Roseanna M. White, the last in her Isles of Scilly series. Two background characters from the previous books come to the forefront in a race against another group to find a long-hidden artifact. Excellent.
• Dracula by Bram Stoker.
• Be Free (Galatians): Exchange Legalism for True Spirituality by Warren Wiersbe. I reread the book this month, but the review is from a couple of years ago when I first read it.
• Call the Midwife: A Memoir of Birth, Joy, and Hard Times by Jennifer Worth. A good book of a midwife’s experiences in the 1950s, but marred by graphic descriptions of a dancer in a brothel.

I read the section on Ezra in Be Heroic (Minor Prophets): Demonstrating Bravery by Your Walk by Warren W. Wiersbe. Ezra is usually grouped together with Nehemiah, which follows on its heels in history. Wiersbe put Ezra in with the minor prophets instead, since the timeline does fit there as well. I had read the rest of this book a while back when reading through the minor prophets–but didn’t review it then because I hadn’t read the Ezra section yet.

I’m currently reading:

• Joy: A Godly Woman’s Adornment by Lydia Brownback
• Seasons of Sorrow: The Pain of Loss and the Comfort of God by Tim Challies
• Writing for the Soul: Instruction and Advice from an Extraordinary Writing Life by Jerry B. Jenkins
• Be Determined (Nehemiah): Standing Firm in the Face of Opposition by Warren W. Wiersbe
• Snowed In for Christmas by Cami Checketts (audiobook)

I’m looking forward to some Christmas reading in the next few weeks!

Blogging

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

• Careful of Our Strengths as Well as Our Weaknesses. We’re often concerned about our weaknesses tripping us up. But we can fail in areas of strength as well. We need God’s strength and guidance for both.
• You Don’t Have to Choose a Word for the Year. Many people benefit from the practice, but it’s not a must. What’s most important is regularly spending time with God in His Word, seeking His guidance for the day.
• Hope in Darkness. The time change caused darkness to descend earlier in the evenings, which can be depressing for some of us. I did a quick Bible study on darkness and found the Bible had some encouraging things to say about it..
• God Is Always Working Even When We Don’t See. It’s discouraging when we pray for a long time with seemingly no response, especially when praying for spiritual needs. But God is at work under the surface.
• A Confession of Praise. One Hebrew word can be translated as either “confess” or “give thanks or praise.” When we thank and praise God, we’re confessing that He is who He proclaims to be.
• Benefits of Giving Thanks. Our US Thanksgiving holiday reminds us what we’re supposed to be doing every day and how much we have to be thankful for. I found several other benefits to giving thanks as well. Let thanksgiving continue!

Writing

I dug into my work-in-progress a bit this month. I’m not sure there will be time to work on it any more through the holidays, but we’ll see.

I continue to enjoy our writing critique group. We’re about to take a break for the holidays.

Several months (maybe even years?) ago, I saw a free online conference for hope*writers, so I signed up for it. As it turned out, it wasn’t really a conference. It was a replay of some of their teaching videos. Since I was on their mailing list, I began to receive invitations to membership as well as more videos and even a free class. I decided not to join them, for several reasons. But I’ve been working my way through the things they sent me so I can clear them out of my box and then unsubscribe from their mailing list.

One common theme that emerged from the videos for me was that we can’t do everything aspiring authors are supposed to do all at once. One video encouraged us to just work on the thing at hand and take everything else as it comes. That was a help, as it’s easy to feel overloaded with everything else to the point that we can’t even make time for writing the book.

As we turn the corner into holiday season, may we each have some quiet moments to reflect on the greatest gift God could give: His Son.