Friday’s Fave Five

Posted on November 11, 2016 by Barbara Harper

It’s Friday, time to look back over the blessings of the week with Susanne at Living to Tell the Story and other friends.

This has been and up and down week, but so far it seems to be ending nicely. Here are some of the best parts:

1. Roses still in bloom. Most of our flowers are gone now, except for one planter of petunias and begonias out back, but our roses are still looking nice.

2. A calm, quiet, no obligation day after a very busy one. My mother-in-law’s regular bath aide is out with a knee injury, and the substitute aides vary in when they get here. So that put me little late going to the grocery store. I may have to plan my week to avoid needing to go out on bath days for a while. Anyway, the hospice chaplain came while I was out, and the hospice doctor, who comes about once every three months, came just after lunch, and the nurse came an hour later. And I usually do laundry on her bath days, so between all the people coming and everything else. I decided I may as well give up on trying to get anything else done that day. That was Election Day, and I was so glad I had voted early. My one consolation was that, with all the hospice people coming in one day and errands having been taken care of, the rest of the week should be a lot quieter. We stayed up late watching election results, and it was so nice on Wed. to have a peaceful, quiet day with nothing that “had” to be done (though of course there are always things that could be done). It was refreshing both to my body and my spirit.

3. The election is OVER. Whichever side you’re on, I’m glad it’s over for this year.

4. An extra hour Saturday night. I hate giving it back in the spring, but I love turning the clocks back in the fall. Except now it gets dark so much earlier.

5. A non-cooking weekend. Jim indulged my request for take-out Chinese food Saturday night, and my daughter-in-law made delicious hamburger pie for Sunday dinner. I hope you don’t mind me listing this kind of thing so often, but it’s always a favorite part of the week when it happens. 🙂

This is Veteran’s Day in the US, and I am so thankful for the men and women who protect, defend, and serve our country, as well as their families and the hardships they endure with their loved ones away.

Book Review: Long Way Gone

Posted on November 9, 2016 by Barbara Harper

I put Long Way Gone by Charles Martin on my TBR list after reading Susanne’s review of it, and when I needed a new audiobook, checked to see if Audible had it. They did! I usually put new books back behind some of the others already waiting, but I wanted to get to this one right away.

Cooper O’Connor’s father was a traveling preacher who mainly spoke at tent revivals in Colorado and surrounding areas. Cooper’s mother had died when he was very young. A large black man named Big Ivory (or Big Big when Cooper as a boy could not pronounce Ivory), recruited by Cooper’s father when Big Big got out of prison, rounded out their ensemble and played the piano.

Cooper proved to be quite gifted at playing the guitar and singing at a very young age. When he got into his teens, talent agents began to seek him out. His dad wasn’t opposed to his making a career out of music, but he wanted him to be able to be himself and not be taken advantage of by unscrupulous producers. But eventually Cooper began to feel his father was holding him back, so he took his father’s truck, guitar, and some money and drove to Nashville. There he fell on the hardest of times, until about five years later when he met a singer named Daley Cross and gave her one of his songs. Things were riding high for a while until a betrayal and an accident took nearly everything from him.

As you might have guessed, this is a modern-day retelling of the prodigal son story in the Bible. The scene where Cooper left his father was devastating, and it was heartbreaking to see all that he had to go through. But his father, always watching for him, always ready to forgive and receive him back, was such a tender picture of the heavenly Father.

Charles Martin definitely knows how to spin a story and pull on heartstrings. I enjoyed the story, his writing, musings here and there about life, faith, and music, and even a bit of hymn history.

We would differ on angelology – but I am not sure whether his use of angels in the story is from his belief system or just a part of the story to illustrate how people might “entertain angels unaware.”

This is a book I wish both of my parents were still alive to read. Of course, I wish they were still alive for a myriad other reasons, but what I mean is that they would have understood Cooper and his world quite well.

Narrator Adam Verner did a superb job narrating the audiobook version.

Overall, a beautiful, heart-touching story. If you read the book, be sure to read the author’s afterword as well.

Genre: Christian fiction
Potential objectionable elements: Bar scenes, drinking, 2 or 3 instances of a character almost saying a bad word, with enough of it that the word is obvious.
My rating: 9 out of 10

(Sharing with Semicolon‘s Saturday Review of Books and Literary Musing Monday, Carol‘s Books You Loved )

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Thoughts on the election

Posted on November 8, 2016 by Barbara Harper

Image courtesy of David Castillo Dominici at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

I don’t think I have said much, if anything, about this year’s presidential election. There have been too many voices carrying on ad nauseam about it, and I figure if I have been sick of it for weeks already, probably most of my readers have as well. Plus I don’t like stirring up controversy, and this election has been the most controversial in my memory.

But there are some things on my heart, and this is my outlet, so I am going to try to lay them out here. Who knows, I may get to the end and then delete it. But I want to take the swirl of different thoughts and try to set them out and examine them one by one.

Most of the blog and social media posts I have seen on election eve have been reminders that no matter who wins the election, God is in control. And that’s true.

The king’s heart is in the hand of the LORD, as the rivers of water: he turneth it whithersoever he will. Proverbs 21:1

For promotion cometh neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the south. But God is the judge: he putteth down one, and setteth up another. Psalm 75:6-7

Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God. Romans 13:1

Some take these truths to mean, “God’s in control so it doesn’t matter what I do or whether I do anything.” While there is a sense in which that’s true, God most often uses means (like prayer to accomplish His purpose or witnessing to bring the gospel to the lost). We can each only do in good conscience what we feel God wants us to do, but we should at least do that: pray about it and then act accordingly. I don’t think God ever intended for us to take no notice of what’s going on in the world and never participate in it because He is in control. Throughout the Bible He calls people to action even while asserting His sovereignty. Sometimes He works in spite of people or without people, but most often He seems to work through people.

I’ve even seen a few saying that since Christians are citizens of heaven and this world is not our home, we don’t even really need to participate in the election process. That, to me, falls in the category of being so “heavenly minded one is of no earthly good” and seems a slap in the face of myriads who fought and died for us to have this privilege. We have this incredible gift to have a legal say in our government, and I can’t understand not using it. I think the above truths apply here as well.

But most of the chatter I have seen has not been along the lines of opting out or disregarding the privilege to vote. It’s been more along the lines of the best way for Christians to use that vote, often fraught with deep disagreement.

My biggest problem with some of the political bantering on social media is the idea that if person A has a different view on things than person B, then B thinks there must be something defective with A’s understanding, reasoning, intelligence, motives, sanity, character, patriotism, Christianity, etc. It’s possible for good people to have very different views on what should be done and how and who should do them.

Almost every election, I’ve heard the phrase going around about choosing the lesser of two evils, meaning neither candidate is ideal. This is the first year I have heard Christians objecting to that. But no candidate is ever going to line up 100% politically and spiritually with how we think. No one like that would make it that far because that’s not how the majority of the country thinks any more. And we differ so much on some of the finer points, we wouldn’t all agree on a candidate like that anyway (that, in fact, is how I believe we ended up with the Republican candidate we have: most Christians I know were splintered between 3 or 4 of the other candidates in the primaries, dividing their votes and resulting in none of them winning). We can’t hold out for the ideal candidate: we have to choose between what we have, rather than wishing for what we don’t have.

There is such a deep divide over the issues and candidates, I fear that whoever wins, the other side will be discontent and continue to complain for months to come, if not until the next election. But once we’ve studied not only the candidates, but the platforms, and prayed, and before God in good conscience made the best choice we know how to make, we have to accept the results.

We need to remember, too, that no president operates in a vacuum. We do still have a voice: we need to be alert and use that voice to let our representatives know our views on issues.

And once it is all over, our response is to be:

Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. 1 Timothy 2:1-4 (NKJV)

Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake: whether it be to the king, as supreme; Or unto governors, as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers, and for the praise of them that do well. For so is the will of God, that with well doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men: As free, and not using your liberty for a cloke of maliciousness, but as the servants of God. Honour all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honour the king. 1 Peter 2:13-17

Those verses have all the more poignancy when we remember the kinds of rulers those writers were under.

In some ways, Christians tend to be more watchful and prayerful when their preferred candidate is not the elected one. Otherwise we tend to sit back and relax and trust everything will go well and forget about it all until the next election. But I do pray for God’s mercy in this, and, as a guest speaker prayed in church yesterday, ask that we’ll get the candidate God knows we need, not what we deserve.

And though I do believe the political process is important, and some are called to participate more than others, ultimately that’s not what helps people’s hearts or brings lasting change. Only the gospel can change hearts; only God and the Bible can change people’s thinking. Doing our part to be informed and vote is vital and necessary: doing our part to share the gospel and make disciples is even more so.

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Back to the Classics Challenge Wrap-Up

Posted on November 7, 2016 by Barbara Harper

I’ve read the following for the Back to the Classics challenge (titles link to my reviews) hosted by Books and Chocolate:

A 19th Century Classic – Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens. (Finished 2/22/16)
A 20th Century Classic – The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame (Finished 6/3/16)
A classic by a woman author. Little Town on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder, part of the Little House series. (Finished 2/15/2016)
A classic in translation (originally written in a language other than your own): Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne (French) (Finished 3/15/16)
A classic by a non-white author. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. (Finished 2/29/16)
An adventure classic – can be fiction or non-fiction. Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe (Finished 4/29/16)
A fantasy, science fiction, or dystopian classic. The Sword in the Stone by T. H. White (Finished 3/24/16)
A classic detective novel. The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins (Finished 4/18/16)
A classic which includes the name of a place in the title. A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court by Mark Twain. (Finished 3/8/16)
A classic which has been banned or censored. Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift (Finished 6/23/16)
Re-read a classic you read in school (high school or college). The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway. (Finished 3/26/16)
A volume of classic short stories. (One complete volume, at least 8 short stories, single or multiple authors). Great British Short Stories: A Vintage Collection of Classic Tales (Finished 7/5/18)

We’re allowed three children’s classics for this challenge, and I have two: The Wind in the Willows and Little Town on the Prairie. A few of the others later had children’s versions made of them and came to be thought of as children’s stories, but according to my research weren’t originally written as children’s stories.

Participants are eligible for prizes with a certain number of entries for books read. Since I read all twelve categories, I’m eligible for three entries. Yay!

I believe I listened to all of these via audiobook, but with some I got a free Kindle version because I wanted to read parts over.

I actually finished back in July: it helped that many of these were short, which I didn’t realize when I picked them. I could have read/listened to more and have accumulated more through sales, but I wanted to save them for next year’s challenge.

I’ve mentioned that I somehow missed being exposed to a lot of classics growing up, and I have made it a mission to seek them out and educate myself as an adult. Some of these I probably would not have chosen on my own, but I am thankful this challenge caused me to diversify my reading a bit. I enjoyed all of them in their own way, but probably the one I enjoyed most was Wind in the Willows.How did I get to be on the far side of 50 before reading that?!

Thanks, Karen, for the challenge! I am looking forward to next year!

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Laudable Linkage

Posted on November 5, 2016 by Barbara Harper

I found quite a bit of good reading the last couple of weeks. Hope something here piques your interest:

Grace Incognito. “What if the point isn’t sprinting across the finish line in record time, but knowing God in every halting, baby step along the way?”

Grace-paced Living in a Burnout Culture. The “Mrs. Grace” illustrations were probably the best I’ve seen showing what life lived with an overflow of God’s grace to us is looks like.

What Should Be One of My Chief Aims at Church?

3 Ways Understanding Jesus’s Cultural Context Helps Me.

Here’s How I’m Fighting the Lies of Self-pity.

19 Spurgeon Quotes for Coping With Stress and Anxiety.

When the Doctor Says to Terminate.

Children and Sleep-overs: What Parents Need to Know.

Master Your Time: 5 Daily Scheduling Methods to Bring More Focus to Your Day, HT to Challies.

The Things All Women Do That You Don’t Know About, HT to Lisa. Sad, but true. (Warning: a bit of bad language).

Here’s What Goodwill Actually Does With Your Donated Clothing.

5 Reasons You Need Fiction, HT to Lisa.

Did you know they were making a new live-action version of Beauty and the Beast? With Dan Stevens (Matthew on Downton Abbey) as the Beast? Here are some photos from it, HT to Carrie. This is one of my favorite fairy tales and the Disney film one of my favorite Disney movies. I hope they do this well and don’t toss in anything objectionable. Looks good so far.

And finally, my oldest son posted this video called “Unsatisfying,” and right at first I thought it was frustrating, but before long I was laughing. Some of the little touches, like the squeaky windmill, are great and the soundtrack, though I love the piece (Samuel Barber’s Adagio for Strings), is perfect.

Happy Saturday!

Friday’s Fave Five

Posted on November 4, 2016 by Barbara Harper

It’s Friday, time to look back over the blessings of the week with Susanne at Living to Tell the Story and other friends.

This week started out with a bang, but thankfully calmed down later in the week. Here are the highlights:

1. God’s protection. I wrote on Sunday about how a fire started in a neighbor’s yard (due to not completely putting out a leaf fire) and spread quickly because it has been so dry here. In this picture that my son took, our fence is on the left, and the fire went neatly around it, though it did warp it a bit and melt the edging Jim had placed for a planting area. All that black area is from the fire.

lawn-fire

Some of you remember our tree saga earlier in the year, when a row of 52 trees had to be cut down because they had caught a disease and were dying. They were right where the fence is now, so if they had been there, I am sure they would have caught fire and spread as well. We were thankful they were gone and no one was hurt and the damage wasn’t any worse.

2. Pizza and movie night with the family. We hadn’t done that in a while. We re-watched Finding Nemo.

3. Christmas cards. I wasn’t thinking about Christmas cards while shopping at W-Mart until I passed the Christmas aisles. I had a bit of time so I decided to look, and ended up buying all my Christmas cards. I’ve found that that is really the cheapest place to buy them, and do they have a section of inspirational ones. I’m particular about how mine are worded, so I like to shop for them before the selection is picked over. Now if I really wanted to get ahead of schedule, I’d start addressing them – but that’s not likely just yet. 🙂

4. A cheerful checker. At the same store, the sales clerk where I checked out was exceptionally cheerful and friendly, and it totally brightened my day. I’m not naturally like that, so I admire people who are, but it did convict me that a smile and bit of conversation and interest in others is better than being always caught up in my own thoughts.

5. Online shopping successes. I’m going to combine two in one here. 🙂 I had seen something on Pinterest that I was interested in getting Timothy for Christmas, but when I clicked through to the Etsy shop the item was from, it said they were all sold. I messaged the owner to see if there was any possibility she might be making more, and she told me she had one left and would be willing to sell it to me! Then I saw something else while out shopping and came home to compare prices and similar items online, and found it at Target. It was a little more there, but they had a 20% off code for kid’s toys and free shipping, which made it lower than anyone else had it. (No affiliate ads or links here – just sharing what I found.)

Bonus: Early voting. I had thought you could only vote early if there was some reason you couldn’t vote on election day. I was happy to be found wrong, and avoided the long lines by voting this week. Although I’m not always thrilled with the choice of candidates, I’m thankful for the privilege of voting and don’t take it lightly.

That’s our week – hope you had a good one, too, or at least can find some good in it. Happy Friday!

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“Edgy” Christian Fiction

Posted on November 2, 2016 by Barbara Harper

“Edgy” Christian fiction is becoming an increasingly hot topic among authors and readers. Those for it contend that stories need to be realistic for people living in the real world with bigger problems than the color of the church carpet. Opponents say that Christian fiction, of all places, should be a safe haven from objectionable elements in literature.

I think, as do many I know, that we should take our cues from this as well as every facet of life from the Bible. Yes, the Bible is different from a novel, but even in our novels we can operate within its parameters.

There are certainly edgy people in the Bible: harlots, polygamists, thieves, liars, evil kings, adulterers, murderers, zealots, and so on. And edgy situations abound: a man rapes his half-sister and in return is murdered by his brother; a man cuts up his murdered and abused concubine in pieces and sends her out to the various tribes of Israel to drum up support for revenge; a woman seduces a young, naive man; a king sees a woman bathing and takes her to himself though they are both married, then arranges to have her husband killed in battle; a woman has been married five times and is living with a sixth man.

But nowhere in the Bible are any of these situations written in a way to entice people to sinful thoughts in the reading of them. Profane men are shown to be such without spewing profanity. Sexual sin is portrayed in ways to show how it came about and how the people were tempted, but not in enough detail to cause arousal in the reader. Violent scenes are not written with gratuitous detail.

I’ve mentioned before that I grew up in an unsaved family with a father who used bad words (in three different languages! It was humiliating and embarrassing as a child when I said something at a Hispanic neighbor’s house only to find out it was an offensive word. Thankfully I don’t remember what it was.) So it doesn’t necessarily shock me when I hear people say those words. But when I read them, they float around in my head, and I don’t want them there.

Novels will by their nature share more descriptive detail than a Biblical narrative. Good authors know how to draw a reader into a scene and make them feel and experience what the characters do. But that is the very reason Christian authors need to be so careful with sexual or violent scenes. We need to take responsibility for the fact that we’re putting thoughts, images, and ideas in people’s minds and make sure they’re not the kind that lead the reader into a lustful or lurid state.

I don’t object to edgy people or situations in books, depending on how they are handled. I can understand a person is foul-mouthed without hearing the words. I can understand a person succumbing to sexual temptation without details of bodily form and feeling. I can appreciate a violent scene, such as a murder in a crime drama or a battle scene, without descriptors like eyes bugging out, blood spattering, etc.

In addition to how such scenes and people are described and what images those descriptions put in our heads, another factor is how the situation is treated in the novel. For instance, in searching for something in my blog recently I came across a forgotten book review for a story that included a suicide. That happens, so it’s not in itself an objectionable situation in a Christian book. But in this particular novel, it was treated as the only thing the character could do, and more than that, right and sacrificial and even heroic, when Biblically it is never regarded that way. “Thou shalt not kill” certainly applies to one’s own life as well as others. There is a difference between taking a bullet for someone and aiming that bullet at yourself. Suicide is the ultimate taking of your own life into your own hands and the ultimate lack of faith in God to handle one’s life circumstances as He sees fit. There were Bible people who wanted to die, but they left the actual process to the Lord. Suicide is a tragedy, and I can understand its happening in a story, but I think it’s wrong for a Christian book to condone it or present it as a good thing. Similarly, the tone, consequences, and character responses to profanity, sexual sin, and violence can convey that those things are not right without devolving into preachiness and judgmentalism.

I think it actually takes a great deal more talent to portray certain scenes without going into unnecessary specifics. One of the most violent scenes I ever witnessed on film just showed the victim’s feet, kicking at first and then lying still. No blood, no gore, but the effect was chilling. “Less is more” applies in a number of these areas.

I do want to encourage Christian authors that readers don’t want insipid, plain vanilla plots and we do want authentic, full-bodied, real characters and believable circumstances. I know it’s hard sometimes to know where the line is, but it’s possible to write great and realistic Christian fiction without crossing it. I know; I’ve read it. And I’d love to read more.

(Linking with Thought-provoking Thursday) and Literary Musing Monday)

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November

Posted on November 1, 2016 by Barbara Harper

Photo courtesy of FreeLargeImages.com

“November — the month of crimson sunsets, parting birds, deep, sad hymns of the sea, passionate wind-songs in the pines. ~ Lucy Maud Montgomery, Anne of the Island, Ch.25

Dull November brings the blast;
Then the leaves are whirling fast.

~ From “The Garden Year” by Sara Coleridge

Now the autumn days are gone
Frost is sparkling on the lawn,
Windows winking cheerful lights
Warm the cold November nights.

~ Author Unknown

November comes
And November goes,
With the last red berries
And the first white snows.
With night coming early,
And dawn coming late,
And ice in the bucket
And frost by the gate.
The fires burn
And the kettles sing,
And earth sinks to rest
Until next spring.

~ Clyde Watson

November in our area isn’t quite so cold and barren as these poems express. The trees still have some color, though leaves are falling fast. We’ve had frost maybe one or two mornings but it’s in the 40s or 50s most nights so far. It’s not unheard of to get snow here in November, but we usually don’t get it until January and February. So I’m still enjoying autumn it has passed its peak. Hope you are too! Happy November!

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Book Review: Secrets of a Charmed Life

Posted on October 31, 2016 by Barbara Harper

Secrets of a Charmed Life by Susan Meissner begins with history student Kendra Van Zant arriving for an interview with famed watercolor artist Isabel MacFarland for a paper she is writing. Isabel almost never gives interviews, but agreed to this one because one of Kendra’s professors is her friend and arranged it. Kendra’s paper is on the effects of the blitz on London during WWII, and Isobel’s home was bombed during the war. As they start their interview, however, Isabel begins to tell the story of two sisters, teen-age Emmy and seven year old Julia.

They lived in London in the 1940s. Emmy liked to draw sketches of wedding dresses and hoped to be a designer one day. When she happened across a job opportunity in a bridal shop, she seized it. When the owner said she had a cousin who designed costumes and might be willing to take her on as an apprentice, Emmy was overjoyed.

But her plans were cut short when the city called on parents to evacuate their children into the countryside for safety. Emmy protested that she didn’t need to be evacuated, but her mother insisted. The girls were taken to a village in the Cotswolds and taken in by an older single lady and her sister. The setting was peaceful and idyllic, but when Emmy learned that her employer’s cousin was coming to London, she felt this was her only chance to make something of herself. She made arrangements to leave secretly for the rendezvous, but Julia found out in the meantime and insisted on going. Emmy decided to take her along, trusting that her mother could make arrangements to send her back. As the girls quietly sneaked out of the house to make their way back to London, what neither of them could have known was that the Luftwaffe blitz on London was going to start that very day.

I can’t go more into the plot without spoiling it, but slowly, as the story unfolds, the connections between Isabel and the two girls becomes increasingly clear.

I listened to the audiobook of this and was so drawn in, I kept looking for times other than my usual listening times to hear more. I’ve read many WWII novels, some even involving the evacuation of London’s children, but never quite from this angle. I thought the story unfolded wonderfully. I read some readers’ criticism of a section of the book near the end made up of journal entries, but I thought that was as well done as the rest of the novel. The fact that it contained a good bit of information that readers have been wondering about all through the book made it as suspenseful to me as the rest.

The faith element was perhaps a little too subtle for me. It is a vital part of the book, underpinning the plot, but mostly in the background, and only occasionally and somewhat vaguely referred to.

I thought I had not read Meissner before, but a search through my blog showed me I have, and I enjoyed those books as well, so I need to keep a lookout for more of her books.

Genre: Inspirational fiction
Potential objectionable elements: Emmy’s mother is what we would call a kept woman, and unmarried sexual encounters are mentioned, but details are not explicit. A few bad words (I can’t remember if they were “damn” or “hell” – perhaps one or two of both).
My rating: 9 out of 10

(Sharing with Semicolon‘s Saturday Review of Books, Carol‘s Books You Loved and Literary Musing Monday)

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Thankful for God’s protection

Posted on October 30, 2016 by Barbara Harper

Yesterday we left the house for a couple of hours to have lunch at Jason and Mittu’s. When I got back, I noticed a couple of sections of a neighbor’s fence were down and thought that was odd since they had just had part of it repaired a few months ago, but I was in a hurry to get in because it was about time for my mother-in-law’s caregiver to leave.

When Jim got home an hour or two later, he noticed the fence as well as a big black patch on the grass which somehow I had missed. Evidently there was a fire during the time we were gone.It had to have been starting when I left, but the garage is on the other side of our house, and I didn’t look that way, so I didn’t see anything.

We found out later that a neighbor across the street had seen it, called 911, and hosed off what she could while waiting. Somehow we missed all of that. Jim’s mom’s caregiver didn’t hear anything.

The yard the fire was in is next door to the house directly behind ours. The fire started in her yard and spread to ours and the neighbor behind us. Jason took this picture from the vantage point of the neighbor’s yard – I am not sure how well it will show up since I think it’s a panoramic shot. (I tried to crop out any identifying features from the houses around us).

lawn-fire

It’s amazing to me that it went around our fence on the left. It did cause that section of our new (to us) fence that my husband worked so hard on to warp.

He said some of the edging will need to be replaced as well.

He was outside when the neighbor from the house where the fire started came out and talked to her. Evidently she was burning leaves last week and thought she had put the fire out, but it must have been smoldering down where she couldn’t see it. It has been unusually dry here. She had been out of town until yesterday, and when she came back she was trying to find her dog, went out into the back yard, and saw the evidence of the fire (you’d think the firemen would have put a notice on her door. “Hi, we were here!” I guess they figured she’d figure that out).

We’re thankful that:

It wasn’t as bad as it could have been.
It wasn’t so bad that Jim’s mom needed to be evacuated or needed to be aware of it at all.
The row of 52 dead trees that we had taken out a few months ago was gone. If one of those had caught fire – that would have been a disaster and a half.
We’ve been planning to put mulch along the fence and create a planting area, but hadn’t yet. Those chips might have been susceptible to catching fire.
No one was hurt.

I was a bit shaken that something like that could happen in the short time I was away. But I am extremely thankful for God’s protection.

And a public service plea: please make double and triple sure that any fire is thoroughly put out.