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.

Once again, we’re nearing the end of another month that flew by quickly. Though there are a few days of October left, I thought I’d go ahead and take a look back.

October is usually a quiet month, with no family birthdays (except my brother’s near the beginning) and no major holidays. I had completely forgotten about pumpkin carving/decorating with the family. We enjoyed doing that last weekend. And I had a couple of medical visits this month. On one hand, it’s nice to have those in a month where nothing else is going on–on the other hand it would have been nice to have a month without anything else on the calendar. But they have to be done some time.

We’ve really enjoyed the changing leaves and cooler temperatures. We’ve had a couple of early morning freezes, but otherwise, the weather has been quite comfortable. And the fall color is hanging on for a good while this year.

I haven’t quite known whether to mention it here, but we recently made the sad decision to leave our church. We love the people, and because of that tried to stay as long as we could. But we have some major differences in doctrine and emphases. We don’t consider each other heretics or anything like that. 🙂 The church was becoming incorporated and encouraging “official” membership, which we hadn’t had yet, since the church was just started a few years ago. Part of the pledge for church membership was promising to support the church’s teachings, and there were some we felt we couldn’t.

It’s a bit difficult to seek a new church, both in feeling “homeless” and in evaluating new places. As I said in Monday’s post, we know no church will tick every box. And churches with the same statement of faith can still vary widely in personality, emphasis, and secondary doctrines.

Creating

I didn’t make any cards this month, though I need to work on one in the next few days.

Watching

We seem to be the only people who enjoyed The Rings of Power, kind of a prequel to The Lord of the Rings.

We also enjoyed Red Tails, about an African American crew during WWII (warning: a smattering of bad language).

Reading

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

• Always, Only Good: A Journey of Faith Through Mental Illness by Shelly Garlock Hamilton. Ron and Shelly Hamilton’s oldest son began experiencing mental illness in his teens, eventually taking his life in his early thirties. Shelly tells his story and offers encouragement to those whose loves ones walk the same path.
• Women and Stress: A Practical Approach to Managing Tension by Jean Lush and Pam Vredevelt. I didn’t agree with every little point, but the authors provide a lot of great, practical tips.
• Enchanted Isle by Melanie Dobson, fiction. A young American woman travels to the Lake District of England, where her mother had visited twenty years earlier. An unsolved disappearance from that era hangs over the reputation of a young man, and he and the young woman try to find out more. Very good.
• The Hatmaker’s Heart by Carla Stewart, fiction. A talented hatmaker is both stifled and used by her employer. Meanwhile, the young man she thought she would marry is interested in someone else.
• The Italian Ballerina by Kristy Cambron, fiction. After her grandfather’s death, Delaney Coleman hears from an Italian family claiming he had something that belongs to them. A trip to Rome and some old letters reveal a side of her grandfather that Delaney had never known–including an orphaned Jewish girl, a British ballerina, and “Syndrome K,” a fake illness manufactured to keep Nazi soldiers away from efforts to smuggle Jews to safety. Excellent. Will probably be one of my top ten books of the year.
• The Search by Grace Livingston Hill, fiction. A society girl and an old friend going to war realize they are nor prepared for death, and they embark on a search for God.
• A Daily Rate by Grace Livingston Hill, fiction. A single girl on her own for the first time wishes she could spruce up her depressing boarding house and help its inhabitants. When she receives an inheritance, she’s able to pursue her dreams. But the results aren’t always what she planned.

I’ve been going through 2 Chronicles in my devotional time. Warren Wiersbe combined his commentary on 2 Kings and 2 Chronicles in Be Distinct: Stand Firmly Against the World’s Tides, Since I just read and reviewed that book back in June when I went through 2 Kings, I just looked at the parts specifically dealing with Chronicles this time. Most people don’t think of Chronicles as one of the most exciting books of the Bible. But I really got a lot out of it this time. Between Wiersbe’s book and the ESV Study Bible notes, I think this may have been the first time I realized that Chronicles was not just a rehashing of Kings, but it was written when the Jewish exiles in Babylon were about to come back to Israel. It was meant to encourage and remind them that they were still God’s people and His promises to them as a nation were still in effect. And it was also perhaps a warning–they had gone into captivity because they had disobeyed God, worshiped idols, and would not listen to His prophets. They needed to be careful not to go down that same path again.

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
• Be Free (Galatians): Exchange Legalism for True Spirituality by Warren Wiersbe
• Worthy of Legend by Roseanna M. White
• Three Fifty-Seven A. M.: Timing Is Everything by Kendra Norman-Bellamy and Hank Stewart

Blogging

• The More We Know Him, the More We Trust Him. “If we’re not careful, we can approach Bible reading with an ‘all about me’ attitude. What’s in it for me, how does it relate to me, how does it make me feel. Instead, the Bible is all about God. God wants to meet our needs, but more than that, He wants us to know Him”
• Offers of Safety Are Not Always Safe. The world wants to quiet opposing voices in the name of providing a safe haven. But the safe haven is actually a trap where Satan is enfolding people in error.
• When Is It Wrong to Complain? Sometimes complaining isn’t so much about the words, but the attitude behind them. It’s not wrong to share burdens or problems.
• Ministry Beyond Church Membership. It can be discouraging to invest time in church visitors who don’t stay. But our ministry still counts if done as unto the Lord.

Writing

I continue to enjoy our writing critique group and have started implementing some of their suggestions for my manuscript.

But I was recently discouraged by a podcast where a literary agent said an aspiring author needed to have 50,000 followers before even seeking an agent. My jaw dropped and my spirit plummeted. If you don’t know, the days are gone when an author submitted a book to a publisher who did all the marketing. These days, new authors are expected to have an audience before a publisher will take a chance on them. Part of that is due to changes in books and publishing over the last several years (more online purchases, fewer bookstores, cuts in publishers’ budgets and personnel) and to the fact that word of mouth is the best way to promote books.

But when a blogger’s focus changes to getting followers, there’s a subtle shift in everything else they do. And I don’t want to have that shift in focus. I want to keep coming alongside and encouraging others here, sharing what I am learning.

It’s not wrong in itself to seek a larger audience. People in the Bible sought ways to share their message. But when that becomes a primary focus, it can skew everything else.

So I am praying about that and about time to write. If you feel led, this writer and others would appreciate your prayers for wisdom and balance and God’s leading.

As we turn the calendar to November in a few days, we’re expecting another fairly quiet month until Thanksgiving week. I enjoy that there is a theme of gratefulness through the entire month of November.

How was your October?

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

Wow, this month has sped by. It’s hard to fathom that September is almost over.

We celebrated Labor Day with traditional grilled burgers and a much-appreciated long weekend. The next weekend, my son, daughter-in-law, and grandson made dinner for us for Grandparent’s Day and brought over flowers and a colored picture from Timothy. We attended the state fair for the first time in years. Mid-September, we celebrated my youngest son’s birthday.

My daughter-in-law made the cute lemon blueberry cake.

Then my family from TX (two sisters, my step-father, and nephew) came to visit for a few days, and just left Wednesday morning. One day we all drove to SC to see family there (two sisters, my niece and great niece). It had been three years since we had all see each other. We missed my brother and sister-in-law in CT. We got this picture of all five sisters, with my brother and s-i-l’s picture on the phone:

And this one of all five of us with my step-dad:

This was the whole group after dinner in SC, minus Jesse, who couldn’t come that day:

It was so good to catch up with each other, more than can be done on FB and through texts and messages. We laughed (and ate!) so much! Timothy got to meet his second cousin for the first time. We took the kids to a park one afternoon and visited the mall in TX. We played lots of games. Most of all I enjoyed just talking with everyone.

Creating

I just made one card this month, for Jesse’s birthday. You can tell his interests by the card and the shirt he wore in the first picture. 🙂

“Gamer” was done on the Cricut, “Happy Birthday” on the computer, and the border at the bottom was a sticker.

Watching

We’re enjoying our regular shows being back on with the fall season. We’re trying out the new version of Quantam Leap, but the jury is still out—we’ve only see one episode so far. We like the College Bowl, where college quiz teams compete against each other, hosted by Peyton and Cooper Manning.

I have not found anyone who likes the new Rings of Power, based on Tolkien’s writings. But we really like it. That may be because we’re not familiar with Tolkien’s work outside LOTR and The Hobbit. I hear this program is basically writing their own stories. But the feel of it is very Tolkien-ish to me. The main thing that would ruin it is if they bring modern-day sensibilities into it, especially “woke-ness.” So far that hasn’t happened. The one thing I don’t like is that they’ve made the main character, a younger version of Galadriel, arrogant and angry and sullen. But she’s fighting a battle no one else sees the need for so far, so maybe she’ll mellow out over time.

We also watched an old movie called Desert Rats starring Richard Burton. It’s based on a true story abut a little-known battle in Tobruk during WWII.

Reading

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

• The Lost Heiress by Roseanna M. White, first in the Ladies of the Manor series. A young woman in Edwardian England finds she is the missing daughter of an earl. She doesn’t realize she is carrying a hidden treasure that an enemy will try to get first by flattery and romantic insinuation, and then, when that doesn’t work, by force. Excellent.
• The Reluctant Duchess by Roseanna M. White, the second book in the Ladies on the Manor series. England’s most eligible bachelor rescues a Scottish young woman from an abusive father and even more abusive fiance by marrying her and taking her to England. But she struggles fitting in to her new role as a duchess, and their relationship does not go smoothly at first. Then there’s that pesky hidden treasure from the first book that bad guys are still after
• A Lady Unrivaled by Roseanna M. White, third and final book in the Ladies of the Manor series. Lady Ella Myerston is sweet and cheerful. She wants to help protect her brother’s family and their friends from the danger that has haunted all three books. But everyone else want to shelter and protect her. She feels she’s not being taken seriously, but she’s determined to do what she can. Lord Cayton is a changed man from the cad he used to be, but not everyone trusts him. The two become an unlikely pair to bring the series to a close.
• Jesus Led Me All the Way by Margaret Stringer, an autobiography of her 40 years as a missionary in what was then Irian Jaya among former headhunters and cannibals.
• Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less by Greg McKeown. From the back book cover: “Essentialism isn’t about getting more done in less time. It’s about getting only the right things done. Only once we discern what is absolutely essential and eliminate everything else can we make our highest possible contribution towards the things that truly matter.”

I’m currently reading:

• Always, Only Good: A Journey of Faith Through Mental Illness by Shelly Garlock Hamilton.
• The Hatmaker’s Heart by Carla Stewart
• Women and Stress: A Practical Approach to Managing Tension by Jean Lush and Pam Vredevelt

Blogging

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

• Passive or Pursuing? Is the fruit of the Holy Spirit something we passively receive or something we actively pursue? Both.
• Daily Light on the Daily Path. I’ve been using this devotional book, made up entirely of Scripture, for about 30 years. A friend had never heard of it, so I thought I’d share about it.
• When You Have to Say No. We have more opportunities than we can handle these days. I shared some ideas for discerning when to say no.
• What Is God’s Highest Calling? Sometimes we hear that motherhood or full-time professional ministry is God’s highest calling. But that’s not what the Bible says. What is, then?
• When Spiritual Routines Get Boring. Routines are helpful in many ways. But prayer and Bible reading on autopilot aren’t spiritually healthy. Here are some ways to alleviate our frail human tendency to lapse into thoughtless routine when spending time with God.

Writing

I was asked to participate in a critique group which meets every other week via Zoom. We take turns presenting our work for the others to edit and make suggestions about. It’s been so helpful, no matter whose work we’re critiquing. I’ve started implementing some of the suggestions.

I enjoyed all the activities of September, but I am looking forward to a quiet October. So far, the only things I have scheduled are lunch with a friend and a couple of medical appointments. We usually carve pumpkins sometime during the month as well.

How was your September? Are you looking forward to anything in October?

August’s heat and humidity have us longing for cool fall breezes. Each day brings us closer to them!

We enjoyed an extended time together as a family when my oldest son came to visit for about ten days. My husband took a week off, and Jason, Mittu, Timothy, and Jesse were here much of the time, though Jason and Jesse still worked most days.

I think I only ended up making dinner 3 nights. We went out some nights, Jesse made dinner for us one night at his place, and Mittu made dinner a few nights. We hadn’t coordinated beforehand spreading meals around, but it worked out nicely.

We celebrated Jeremy’s birthday at the beginning of his time here and mine near the end. It’s nice when the calendar works out so he can be here for both celebrations. We joked at the beginning of his, “Should we Face Time Jeremy?” We’re used to putting him on the TV screen for other celebrations when he can’t be here in person.

We played lots of Jackbox games, enjoying some old favorites as well as trying out some new ones. We also played Uno and even got out Settlers of Catan for the first time in a long time. It was Timothy’s first time to play the latter, and he lasted through most of the game. It’s a lot for a 8-year-old to take in.

We usually try to have one major outing during the week and maybe a couple of smaller ones. But this time there were several interesting things occurring that we took advantage of. I’ve mentioned a few of them during Friday’s Fave Fives, but wanted to go into more detail here. But that ended up making this already long post twice as long, so I am going to share details and photos in a separate post tomorrow.

Creating

I made two cards this month. The first was for Jason and Mittu’s anniversary:

And this was for Jeremy’s birthday:

Watching

We really enjoyed War Horse. It’s been out for a few years, and I remember when I saw it advertised that it looked good. But then we forgot about it. It follows a horse’s path from a farm through many hands during WWI. I was especially struck by how just one person in each scenario saw the horse’s worth and made a difference in its treatment or next step, which enabled it to continue on–an apt metaphor for making a difference for good in the lives of people we meet. I don’t think that was the main point of the movie, but that’s something I got from it.

A Call to Spy was very good as well (except for a few instances of taking God’s name in vain. 😦 ). It was based on true events about women being recruited as spies during WWII, and followed the path of two in particular.

Reading

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

• Where I End: A Story of Tragedy, Truth, and Rebellious Hope by Katherine Elizabeth Clark, a true story. Katherine was playing tag with some children at her son’s school playground when a boy jumped off the jungle gym and onto her head, breaking her neck and paralyzing her instantly.
• Something Good by Vanessa Miller, a great novel about “Three Women. Two Mistakes. One Surprising Friendship That Changes Everything.”
• The London House by Katherine Reay, a novel about a woman who seeks the truth when an old friend tells her he is about to publish an article that says her great aunt was a Nazi sympathizer. (Audiobook).
• The Stranger by Melanie Dobson, a novel set in the Amana colonies in 1894. A stranger with a sick daughter stops to get help in the commune and falls in love with one of its inhabitants. But the group is wary of outsiders.
• To Treasure an Heiress by Roseanna White, a novel about a race to discover pirate treasure, but with surprising depth and truth. Very good. (Audiobook).
• Lady Almina and the Real Downton Abbey: The Lost Legacy of Highclere Castle by Lady Carnarvon. The current countess of the castle that was used for Downton Abbey tells some of the castle’s history, particularly that of Lady Almina, who converted it to a hospital during WWI. (Audiobook and Kindle).
• O Love That Will not Let Me Go: Facing Death with Courageous Confidence, complied by Nancy Guthrie. Nancy has collected excerpts from writings as far back as the Puritans to modern-day writer on the subject of death and dying. Excellent, excellent, excellent.

Normally I have a Warren Wiersbe commentary in my reading list. I am in 1 Chronicles now, and Wiersbe included it in with his book on 2 Samuel, Be Restored: Trusting God to See Us Through. I’m not rereading the whole thing, since I did in April, but I am looking through the parts that specifically mention Chronicles.

I’m currently reading:

• Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less by Greg McKeown
• Jesus Led Me All the Way by Margaret Stringer
• The Hatmaker’s Heart by Carla Stewart
• The Lost Heiress by Roseanna M. White (audiobook)

Blogging

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

• Labels and Lenses. Labels are helpful and necessary. But we need to look at our lives and theology through the lens of Scripture, and not look at Scripture through the lens of our labels.
• Why Keep Reading the Bible, especially when you’ve read it several times before?
• Making Time to Read the Bible. If we don’t make time for it, we likely won’t find time for it. Some tips to make that time for what Jesus called the one necessary thing.
• How Can We Make Our Souls Fire Resistant? Just as leaves can smolder and then erupt into flame, sin can flame out in our hearts. What can we do to avoid that happening?
• What Can We Learn from Bible Genealogies? Genealogies are probably no one’s favorite part of the Bible. But what might God want us to learn from them?

I overlooked my blogging anniversary at the end of July. 16 years! And, as of today, 5,189 posts. Thank you for reading and making blogging such a blessing to my heart.

As we turn the calendar to September tomorrow, we look forward to Jesse’s birthday and a visit from my folks at the end of the month.

How was your August? Anything interesting happen?

This July has been one of the stormiest months I can remember. Our days seemed to oscillate between over-100 degree heat indexes or storms. I took this picture of the sky right after a storm early in the month.

I didn’t quite capture the beauty I wanted to. But I love the light at the edge of the cloud, which shows more brightly on my phone than it does here. I thought it was a poignant symbolic reminder that storms may seem to come between us and God, but He is always there.

In-between the heat and storms, we had fun celebrating the birthday of our country plus the birthday of my middle son a couple of weeks later.

I mentioned this a few times already this month, but in case you missed it, I had an interview with Kurt and Kate Mornings on Moody Radio Florida to talk about my blog post on regret. Here’s a link to the interview. I started out with some technical glitches, but thankfully everything worked out.

I mentioned on my last Friday’s Fave Five that my husband had discovered this weird but fascinating creature on our patio. It looked like a cross between a bee, a hummingbird, and a moth. My son looked it up, and it’s a hummingbird moth, also sometimes called a hawk moth. Jim took a video, but I can’t upload videos directly unless I invest in the next tier of paid WordPress blogs. But I did manage to capture this photo from the video.

Timothyisms

My daughter-in-law texted me that she asked my grandson, Timothy, where he got his cuteness. He answered, “Mommy.” She said, “Annnd?” meaning, I think, and Daddy. But Timothy said, “And Grandma.” I’m honored to be considered a contributor to his cuteness. 🙂

One night we were playing Uno at our house. Timothy noted that our Uno cards looked different from his. I explained that ours were an older set. Someone else said, “These are classic Uno cards.” Timothy said, “That’s what classic means”–older. 🙂

Creating

This card was for a couple in our church celebrating their 55th wedding anniversary:

The birds, branches, and leaves were made with the Cricut.

This was for Jason’s birthday:

I had an interesting time with this one. I try to incorporate something of the recipient’s interests when I can instead of just making a generic card. All I could think of for Jason is that he liked his family, the Mandalorian, and electric cars (and coffee, but I’ve used that motif in cards several times before). I looked up electric cars in the Cricut image data base, but they didn’t have much of a selection. This one was originally part of a design that had several tiny pieces that I was growing frustrated trying to piece together, then gave up. I tried a couple of other ideas that were ok, but I wasn’t thrilled with. I picked up a scrap that had this part cut out–this was the paper left after I took out the designed part–and I decided I liked it as it was. So I cut it out again and placed it in a better and then cut out the bolt after seeing that incorporated in another design.

This is for a great nephew’s wedding coming up this weekend. I meshed together a couple of ideas I had seen on Pinterest.

The embossing was done with the Cuttlebug. I printed out the “Mr. and Mrs.” on the computer and colored the edges by tapping a foam brush on a silver ink pad and brushing it against the edge of the cardstock.

Watching

I’ve thought about eliminating this category, but I enjoy when others share what they have watched. If you have any good, clean movie or series recommendations, let me know!

Jim likes WWII movies, so we’ve watched a few. One movie we really enjoyed was The Courageous Heart of Irena Sendler, based on the true story of a Polish social worker who worked with the Polish Underground Resistance and smuggled over 2,000 Jewish children out of the Warsaw ghetto and placed them with other families until the war was over.

We also watched a few old ones. I remember seeing The Great Escape when I was a kid, and it was interesting to watch it with adult eyes now. The Bridge on the River Kwai was good until its very frustrating ending. The Eagle Has Landed was a bit of a disappointment. If I had known it was fictional, based on a novel about German paratroopers trying to kidnap Churchill, I probably would not have watched it. It also had a bit of language, which is not usually a problem with older films. With all of these, it was kind of fun to see actors in their younger days that I had only seen when they were older.

Reading

I’ve enjoyed several good books this month. Since last time I have finished (linked to my reviews):

• Be Compassionate (Luke 1-13): Let the World Know Jesus Cares by Warren Wiersbe
• Be Courageous (Luke 14-24): Let the World Know Jesus Cares by Warren Wiersbe
• Victorian Short Stories of Successful Marriages by Elizabeth Gaskell, Thomas Hardy, and others.
• Hospital Sketches by Louisa May Alcott (audiobook), fictionalized account of her short time as a nurse during the Civil War.
• The Paris Dressmaker by Kristy Cambron (audiobook), excellent, about two women who secretly work for the Resistance in Paris in WWII.
• Shadows in the Mind’s Eye by Janyre Tromp. A couple in the American south adjust to each other after the trauma they’ve both undergone in WWII.
• Aging With Grace: Flourishing in an Anti-Aging Culture by Sharon Betters and Susan Hunt. Excellent, very encouraging.
• Something Good by Vanessa Miller, not reviewed yet. The tag line says, “Three Women. Two Mistakes. One Pivotal Friendship.”
• The London House by Katherine Reay (audiobook), not reviewed yet. A woman is contacted by an old college friend writing an article that exposes her aunt as a Nazi spy. She goes on a search to find the truth.

I’m currently reading:

• Where I End: A Story of Tragedy, Truth, and Rebellious Hope by Katherine Elizabeth Clark
• The Stranger by Melanie Dobson
• O Love That Will Not Let Me Go: Facing Death with Courageous Confidence in God compiled by Nancy Guthrie (not that any of us is facing imminent death, as far as we know. But I saw several quotes from this in Aging With Grace and loved Nancy’s other compilations).
• Lady Almina and the Real Downton Abbey: The Lost Legacy of Highclere Castle by the Countess of Carnarvon

Blogging

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

• Spiritual Freedom. What we’re saved from and to spiritually when we believe on Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.
• Objectionable Elements in Books and Films. Some principles drawn from Scripture.
• God Uses Flawed People. Which is good, since we’re all flawed. But we should extend the same grace He has shown to us in our dealings with others.
• Stricter Standards Do Not Always Equal Legalism, nor do freer standards always equal spiritual maturity.

We have a lot to look forward to in August, which my oldest son’s birthday and visit and my birthday.

How was your July?

We began this month with an end-of-school party for Timothy. We enjoyed celebrating Father’s Day 2/3 of the way through the month. And now we’re gearing up for the Fourth of July.

It’s been too hot out to do much else, but Jim did get the patio spiffed up for summer. We need to get new patio chairs but haven’t looked yet. We’ve had a couple of cookouts already. One evening,Timothy brought over sidewalk chalk, bubbles, and “pop-its”–those things you throw on the concrete where the make a loud pop. The weather was nice that evening, and it felt like a summery thing to do.

My middle son, Jason, had to leave his employer when the employer couldn’t pay his salary for a few weeks. He’s been making deliveries for a few different companies and has been able to make just about his regular salary. He likes the flexibility, and he says it’s kind of like playing Santa Claus–you get to deliver stuff to people and make them happy. I don’t know how long he’ll do this kind of thing, but it’s a nice change from the pressure he was under.

Timothyisms

When we play Jackbox games together as a family, we have to sign in with our names. Timothy usually calls me Grandma, but one night I just put “Gram” in for my name. Then he started calling me Gram Cracker, and more recently, Gramster. 🙂

But what really cracked me up was when Jason texted that Timothy had said, “Oh, man! I need to pay my bills! I haven’t paid any in 8 years!” Thankfully, he won’t have to worry about that for a few years yet.

Creating

The first card I made this month was for Timothy’s end-of-second-grade party:

I made the words on the computer and the sign on the Cricut.

This was for my step-father for Father’s Day:

Once again, the words were done on the computer and the mustache on the Cricut.

This was for my husband for Father’s Day:

I had gotten the idea for these two on Pinterest and adapted them. The tape measure was done on the Cricut.

And this one was for Jason for Father’s Day:

The silhouettes were cut on the Cricut, but the moon and stars and squiggles were drawn by the Cricut with markers my oldest son just got for me either for Christmas or Mother’s Day. It was fun to experiment with those. I loved how much this design looked like Jason and Timothy.

This was for a friend’s birthday:

The bird and butterflies are multi-layer stickers. I did the words on the computer and then used two different-sized scalloped hole punches.

Watching

There’s not a lot on this time of year. We enjoy America’s Got Talent (though you have to have the remote at the ready sometimes) and reruns of America’s Funniest Home Videos (usually I’ve forgotten enough of them that it is like seeing a new program. 🙂 ).

We streamed a really good movie titled In Harm’s Way about an American pilot who heads a bombing raid on Japan just after Pearl Harbor was bombed. He crashes in China, and a young widow helps nurse him back to health and hides him from the authorities. I don’t know if the movie is based on a particular true story, but the end screen said many Chinese helped Americans in such ways, and, sadly, the Japanese killed many Chinese because of it. Even though much of the film was in subtitles, it was easy to follow and get caught up in the story. It was one of the best movies I have seen in a while. Here’s the trailer:

I had watched The Boy in the Striped Pajamas a few years ago after reading the book, but Jim had never seen it. So we watched it together one night. It’s about a boy whose father is put in charge of a work camp in Germany. The boy thinks the camp is a farm and the people where funny striped pajamas. One day while exploring, he sees a boy on the other side of a fence, and they start talking. Eventually they become friends. The ending is very sad. But maybe because I knew what was coming, I noticed other things this time, like the various attitudes of different people and the boy’s wrestling with whether or not his father is a good man.

Reading

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

• Shadowed by Grace: A Story of Monuments Men by Cara Putman, historical fiction. A female photojournalist works in Italy while also trying to find the father she never knew. She’s assigned to a lieutenant who is in charge of finding and recovering missing art.
• Once Upon a Wardrobe by Patti Callahan (historical fiction, audiobook). A college student in 1950s London seeks C. S. Lewis to ask questions about Narnia for her dying brother.
• Eugene Onegin by Alexander Pushkin (audiobook), classic Russian tale about a man who doesn’t appreciate what he has til it’s gone.
• The Confessions of St. Augustine (nonfiction, audiobook). This and the previous one probably would have been better to read than to listen to. This may be the oldest book I’ve read (except the Bible).
• Be Distinct (2 Kings and 2 Chronicles): Standing Firmly Against the World’s Tides by Warren Wiesrbe
• The Four Loves by C. S. Lewis (nonfiction).

I’m currently reading:

• Shadows in the Mind’s Eye by Janyre Tromp
• Hospital Sketches by Louisa May Alcott
• Victorian Short Stories of Successful Marriages by Elizabeth Gaskell and others.
• Be Compassionate (Luke 1-13): Let the World Know Jesus Cares by Warren Wiersbe
• Aging With Grace: Flourishing in an Anti-Aging Culture by Sharon Betters and Susan Hunt InstaEncouragements is hosting a study of this book on Tuesdays through July.

Blogging

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

• A Visit to Jan Karon’s Mitford Museum. I mentioned this in my May reflections, but the write-up and pictures came later. My friend, Melanie, and my husband and I took a day trip to Hudson, NC to see the Mitford Museum, full of memorabilia of author Jan Karon’s life and inspirations for her beloved Mitford books.
• What Can We Learn About Depression from Elijah? At Elijah’s lowest point, God tenderly cared for him.
• When You’re Afraid to Take Communion. Scripture’s solemn warnings about partaking in an unworthy manner can frighten sensitive consciences. But, while God wants us to take communion seriously, He does want us to partake.
• Walking Through the Flames. A good memory about a good song.
• My God, My Father. Though our human fathers plant ideas good or bad ideas about God in our minds, Biblical truth leads us to know our perfect heavenly Father.
• What to Do With Regret. Regret can linger long after we’re forgiven. But God can use it to help make us more watchful and sensitive.

Around the corner

We’ll probably have a cookout on the 4th. Jason’s birthday is this month. Otherwise, I am not sure what’s on the horizon yet.

How was your June? Anything you’re looking forward to in July?

It’s nice when my end-of-month post lines up with the actual last day of the month!

Once again, the month has flown by. May is not the busy month it was when we had kids in school with all the end-of-year programs, recitals, etc. It’s odd how I am mostly glad not to have those activities any more, yet I still miss them sometimes.

Also, with all my mother-figures no longer living, I don’t have to do anything for that day except make a card for my daughter-in-law. While I miss my mom and other “moms” in my life, I enjoy the fact that the rest of the family makes plans for that day. They do a wonderful job making me feel special. My husband used to take me out to dinner that day. But the restaurants were so busy and waits were so long, he began making Mother’s Day dinner at home and employing the kids to take care of different faces of it. Nowadays he usually grills something. The last two years, Jason had made Chocolate Pretzel Pie, one of my favorite desserts (probably second to Texas Sheet Cake, which Mittu usually makes for my birthday).

The other big event this month was a road trip with my husband and my friend, Melanie, to Jan Karon’s Mitford Museum in Hudson, NC. Jan Karon authored a slew of best-selling books set in the fictional Mitford, based on the town she grew up in. I posted about the trip with lots of pictures here. It was something we’ve been planning and looking forward to since last fall, and it was so nice to finally go.

I also had a colonoscopy this month–not fun, but I was glad to get it over with and to have clear results. We’re still trying to figure out my stomach issues, but I am glad the procedure ruled out some major concerns.

We got wills and living wills and such made us and notarized, something that’s been on our need-to-do list for ages.

So I guess May was still busy in a different way!

It also seemed like this month turned from spring to summer quickly. Even though it’s not officially summer until later in June, we usually count summer as starting from the Memorial Day weekend. This year, however, it has started to feel like summer the last couple of weeks.

Timothyisms

My daughter-in-law sent me a couple of exchanges with my grandson, Timothy.

One day they were talking about roadkill. Timothy asked, “Do people eat bear?”

Jason said, “I don’t think that’s allowed in America.”

Timothy responded, “Maybe in Texas?”

🙂

Another time, Timothy asked his mom if it was fun in the 90s. She said yes and asked what he thought they did in the 90s. “Probably watched TV and wore cool clothes.”

Creating

I only made one card this month, for my daughter-in-law for Mother’s Day.

She likes sunflowers, as you might guess. The arrangement in the center is a multi-layered sticker. I was very pleased with myself for learning how to arch text on the computer without having to ask one of my sons! I did find a YouTube video that helped.

Watching

I watched Spiderman 3: No Way Home and loved it (except for a bit of language). I won’t spoil it if you haven’t seen it (and have missed spoilers everywhere), but it had a lot of neat parts.

As a family, we watched the first live-action Sonic the Hedgehog movie and Clifford movie. I wasn’t expecting to enjoy the Sonic one, but I did. Clifford was a disappointment in that they changed just about everything from the books except the dog’s and girl’s names.

Reading

Since last time, I finished:

• “Don’t Call Me Spry”: Creative Possibilities for Later Life by Win Couchman. Excellent book about perspectives on aging.
• The Winnie the Pooh books by A. A. Milne. All four reviewed together. Loved these.
• Ten Time Management Choices that Can Change Your Life by Sandra Felton and Marsha Sims
• Be Responsible (1 Kings): Being Good Stewards of God’s Gifts by Warren Wiersbe.
• The Girl in the Painting by Tea Cooper, fiction. Set in the late 1800-early 1900 Australia, a businesswoman and philanthropist suddenly breaks down at the sight of a painting. Her ward tries to find out why.
• Mourning Dove by Claire Fullerton, fiction. Growing up in Memphis elite in a dysfunctional family in the 70s and 80s.
• Mary Barton by Elizabeth Gaskell, fiction, audiobook. Part helping rich and poor understand each other, part coming-of-age, part unraveling a crime.
• Eugene Onegin by Pushkin, audiobook, not reviewed yet.
• IBS for Dummies by Carolyn Dean and L. Christine Wheeler. I didn’t review it per se but said a bit about it on Goodreads. I gleaned some ideas and information but was also greatly frustrated by the format and the New Age influences.

I’m currently reading:

• Be Distinct (2 Kings): Standing Against the World’s Foes by Warren Wiersbe
• The Four Loves by C. S. Lewis
• The Confessions of St. Augustine, audiobook
• Shadows of Grace by Cara Putnam
• Shadows in the Mind’s Eye by Janyre Tromp

Blogging

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

• Content . . . with Thorns? A look at why God allows weaknesses and needs in our lives and how Paul could say he was content with his.
• Ministry in the Mundane. We want to get past the everyday necessary tasks in order to do something meaningful and important—yet our ministry most often is in the everyday mundane details of life.
• Our Responsibility to Discern False Teaching. False teachers are accountable for leading others astray and misrepresenting God’s truth. But God also gives us plenty of warnings about them. We need to know His Word well enough to spot false teaching.
• Assorted Stray Thoughts. A collection of random things I wonder about.
• Encouragement in the Fight Against Temptation. I get discouraged that I am tempted by things I should have victory over. But I can use those temptations as a call to arms and defeat Satan at his own game.
• Are You a Big Z or an Ordinary N? We can’t make words in Scrabble with just the high-scoring letters. We need the ordinary ones. People, too, don’t function alone. The stars and executives have a whole support staff. Even if we’re just an ordinary “N,” God has essential things for us to do.

And that just about wraps up May. I hope yours was good as well!

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