Friday’s Fave Fives

Posted on February 8, 2013 by Barbara Harper

Welcome to Friday’s Fave Five, hosted by Susanne at Living to Tell the Story, in which we can share five of our favorite things from the last week, wonderful exercise in looking for and appreciating the good things God blesses us with. Click on the button to learn more, then go to Susanne’s to read others’ faves and link up your own.

It’s been quite the week — snow Sunday morning that was gone by the time we got out of church, my mother-in-law hospitalized for an infection and released just yesterday to a skilled nursing facility, special meetings at church this week that we’ve had to miss a couple of nights of so far. But there are always blessings scattered throughout, and here are a few:

1. Meetings with the Steve Pettit Evangelistic Team. I’ve enjoyed their music for years and referred to them here often, but I had never seen them “in person” until last spring when they were at our church for one service, and this time they are here for a whole week. I had also never heard Steve preach until last spring, though I have heard good things about him. So it has been nice to hear him more, too. I appreciate his spirit and balance.

2. Ladies’ Steak Night. The last few times our church has had a week of special meetings, they’ve had a Ladies’ Steak Night on Mondays and a Men’s Steak Night on Tuesdays. They grill steaks (free for guests but asking for donations from church members), and the idea is to invite friends, neighbors, coworkers, especially those who might not care to come to a regular church service. It was a time of good food, music, and fellowship (I sat next to one of the Pettit team members who had been an English major, and we discussed books. Lovely!), and best of all, a few people came to know the Lord both nights.

3. Friends sharing books. Both an online friend and a friend at church shared books with me after discussing them and my comment that they sounded interesting. Very kind and thoughtful.

4. A good doctor and nurse. I mentioned my m-i-l being in the hospital. When the nurses thought she would be released, the doctor kept her a couple of days longer because her white blood cell count was still high. He told my husband that there are national averages for how long to keep patients for different ailments, but that wasn’t as important to him as making sure she was all right. I appreciate a doctor who thinks that way. He was also very thorough in explaining things to us. He is not her regular doctor – he was just over her case while in the hospital – but I am glad he was. And though all the nurses were kind, there was one that was especially helpful. As we mentioned something about his mom needing to go from assisted living to skilled nursing, she offered to get us in touch with just the person we needed to talk to. We hadn’t even known who to ask for or whether there was someone at the hospital who helped with such things, so that was a blessing.

5. Being in the right place at the right time. I love how God orchestrates these things. One day I had gotten up to see Jim’s mom later than I had planned, but the lady from the skilled nursing facility was there at that moment needing some papers to be signed to get the ball rolling, and the doctor came in and confirmed that she wouldn’t be released that day, though everyone else had thought she would. In the hospital, especially when it comes to release time, there is a lot of waiting around wondering what’s going to happen when, so it was especially nice to get official word at that moment so we would know how to arrange our day.

It will be a busy few days helping Jim’s mom get used to a new place and sorting and moving things from the old one. The new one is much smaller, so we’re having to strategize about what to keep and what to store and what to get rid of. We’re supposed to discuss her care plan today. We’re hoping and praying she adjusts well — it’s hard to make such drastic changes at that age.

Thank you for your kind comments concerning our family news yesterday. They are much appreciated!

Hope you have a great weekend!

Family news….

Posted on February 7, 2013 by Barbara Harper

I apologize or not writing much besides book-related posts and Friday’s Fave Fives. I have had other “stray thoughts,” but either not enough time to develop them, or if I’ve had time, I’ve kind of gone blank, even though I try to keep a running list of things to blog about as they occur to me. There have been a number of things going on behind the scenes…

Most recently, Jim’s mom has been in the hospital since Friday. The staff of her assisted living place said she was not eating, not talking, and unresponsive except to painful stimuli, plus her blood pressure was low, so they sent her to the ER. There they found her white blood cell count was pretty high plus she was dehydrated. She was being treated for a UTI with antibiotics, but for some reason it wasn’t taking care of it, so they put her on IV fluids and antibiotics. She is doing much better though her white blood cell count is still not back to normal. She is still pretty tired and weak but will probably be released today or tomorrow.

In the meantime, her assisted living place said they could not take her back because her level of care was more than they could provide for. This in spite of the fact that when Jim specifically asked them, when we first interviewed there, if he would need to move her again at some point if she got worse, and they said no, they could take care of her til the end.

So Jim has been having to call and visit a number of nursing homes or “skilled nursing facilities” to try to make a decision before she is released from the hospital. In all honesty, we’re are kind of glad to move her from the old place because we had some issues there…that may be another post for another time. But having to deal with it all in a short time frame has added pressure. He has found an acceptable place not far from where she was, which is close to church and not too far from where he works, so we will be moving her when she’s released from the hospital. Initially she’ll be in a rehab/physical therapy short term section and will then be moved to long-term care. We’re also exploring the possibility of home health care. I’d appreciate prayer for a smooth transition and adjustment for her.

Then I had mentioned in an FFF in the last week or two that my niece’s fiance was found to have multiple tumors throughout his body a few weeks ago, one the size of a softball around his aorta. He has been on a heavy chemotherapy regimen and was having pretty severe trouble at first, not able to keep even water down. But he seems to be adjusting better now. He’ll be having chemo off and on for three months, and the doctor thinks he has an 80% chance of being cured. We sure hope so. They are a few hours away, so we’re not able to see them, but they’ve been heavily on our hearts. I am not sure where they are spiritually but they have been asking for prayer.

And finally, the day before we found out about my niece’s fiance, we learned my husband had a mass on his kidney. It was a surprise — the doctor ran a CAT scan due to another issue and unexpectedly came across this. He said that is how they usually find tumors of this kind. He also said that 95% of the time they are cancerous, and it doesn’t work so well to remove just a part of a kidney, so he recommended removing his entire kidney. So that is scheduled in a couple of weeks. The good news is that he won’t have to have chemotherapy or radiation as that is usually not effective with this type of cancer, so surgery should take care of it, and people can survive and thrive with just one kidney. He said it’s not likely that cancer will spread to the other kidney, and from everything else they saw on the CAT scan plus his lack of symptoms, it doesn’t look like it has spread anywhere else, though he did recommend a chest x-ray.

I think at first we were just so glad that he was not in pain and wouldn’t have to have chemo that it hardly seemed as dire as a cancer diagnosis would normally be. But surgery is surgery and cancer is cancer, and occasionally I feel a little more rattled. I think he just wants to get it over with. And of course the issues with his mom have added concerns: we’re hoping and praying that she is stable throughout his surgery and recovery.

He had asked me originally not to mention it on my blog or Facebook, but just recently said he didn’t mind if I mentioned it on my blog. So we would definitely appreciate your prayers for us.

Does anyone else…

Posted on February 6, 2013 by Barbara Harper

…cringe at the thought of using book pages for crafts? Like these flowers or this Christmas tree? I like the way they look: I just hate the thought of tearing apart a book to make them. I suppose if the book is falling apart or I didn’t like it that would be one thing.

…react negatively to the word “must,” as in “must-see TV” or “You must see this” or “You simply must read this.” I guess it is part of my perverse nature that thinks, “No, I mustn’t!”

…wonder how people wear those bunchy scarves, like this? I think they look great and are a great way to add color and panache. But it seems like it would get in the way, and I know personally if I wore one, at the end of the day I’d be picking out the food I spilled into it.

Book Review: West From Home by Laura Ingalls Wilder.

Posted on February 5, 2013 by Barbara Harper

West From Home is a compilation of letters Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote home to her husband, Almanzo, while she was in San Francisco visiting her daughter and the 1915 World’s Fair, also called the Panama-Pacific International Exposition in celebration of the completion of the Panama Canal, which opened trade with other countries. Her daughter, Rose Wilder Lane, had kept the letters in a box after her mother’s death, and they were among other possessions passed along to her heir, Roger Lea McBride. When he discovered them, he decided to publish them in a book for Laura fans.

Laura spent about two months with Rose and her husband. She was 48; Rose was 29. Besides all the sights and wonder of the Exposition, Laura got a glimpse of San Francisco, Rose’s work, different ways business was done, and the ocean. I love the description of Laura and Rose taking their shoes off and running in the water.

She visited to a cannery, and “her doubts about the cleanness of canned goods from a large plant are removed” (p. 54). She was intrigued by the different nationalities of people she saw. She was enthralled by the light show in the evenings. And she took in a great deal from the city and the Exposition and tried to describe it in great detail to Almanzo.

Though there are photos included in the book of some of the sights around the time she was there, they are not hers. I don’t know if they did not have a camera, or if it was just inconvenient or expensive to shoot many photos. But Laura tried to describe with as much detail as she could what she was seeing so Almanzo can experience it as much as possible, too.

Almanzo couldn’t leave the farm, and it is clear in several of the letters that Laura feels conflicted about leaving him with all the work herself. A number of things I read last year about her showed that she was an integral part of the farm work.

Her letters are quite practical, not romantic or even affectionate much at all. That may have been due to the era, but overall she was a very practically-minded person, so that may just be how she expressed herself.

In several places it is mentioned that Rose was trying to persuade her parents to move near her, and Laura (actually called Bessie by Almanzo because he had a sister named Laura and called Mama Bess by Rose) explored the costs and details involved in moving some of their ventures to CA. But ultimately she felt, “There is no place like the country to live and I have not heard of anything so far that would lead me to give up Rocky Ridge [their home] for any other place” (p. 89).

Laura was also writing her farm-paper columns at this time, and Rose had several writing assignments, but there was talk of wanting Rose to help her block out a story. I’m assuming these were some of the first efforts towards what would eventually become the Little House stories.

One of the reasons I especially wanted to read this book was for a glimpse into Laura’s relationship with Rose. I had read mixed reports about how well they got along. There is nothing in these letters to indicate they didn’t get along, and if they didn’t, it would seem Rose wouldn’t be so keen on wanting them to move near her. There are indications that Rose was more emotional and Laura more practical and down-to-earth, so I am sure that caused some misunderstandings sometimes. Of course, these cover just a short period in their lives, so they are not the whole story.

There are some family glimpses as well, in Laura’s concern about whether they’d get back $250 they had loaned to Rose and her husband, and Rose’s note to her father with concerns that Laura was getting too fat (!!!)

All in all it was a fairly quick (171 pages, if you count some recipes at the end) and enjoyable read. It wasn’t riveting, but it was an interesting peek into Laura’s real life.

The Laura Ingalls Wilder Reading Challenge 2013

Posted on February 1, 2013 by Barbara Harper

Welcome to this year’s Laura Ingalls Wilder Reading Challenge! Since February is the month of her birth and her death, it seemed a good time to read anything related to her. Any of the Little House books are fine, but if you’d like to read something other than those, I listed a few books related to Laura Ingalls Wilder here, and of course I’m sure there are several biographies and such that I don’t know about.

Let us know in the comments below what you’re planning to read pertaining to Laura this month, and at the end of the month I’ll have another post where we can share how we’ve done and what we’ve thought about what we read. You can join in at any time during the month and you don’t have to have a blog to participate. And there just may be a prize of some kind for those participating.

If you do anything else Laura-related, we’d love to hear about that, too: last year Bekah tried some prairie-type crafts, foods, and activities, and a while back Annette hosted a Little House-themed birthday party for her daughter.

For myself, I plan to read:

West From Home, Laura’s letters back to Almanzo when she went to visit her daughter and the World’s Fair in San Francisco.

Let the Hurricane Roar by Rose Wilder Lane, Laura’s daughter, about her grandparents early years on the prairie, written before the Little House books.

Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder.

If I have time before the end of the month, I may go on in the Little House books. But it’s a short month, so we’ll see!

I got the Little House cookbook last year, so I may try some dishes from that as well.

Happy reading!

Feel free to grab the button for the challenge to use in your post:

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Friday’s Fave Five

Posted on February 1, 2013 by Barbara Harper

It’s been a wild and windy week outside: rain, high winds, flooding, and a bit of snow. I’m thankful it’s been warm and cozy inside. Here are a few faves from the week:

1. Not losing power, always a concern during storms of any kind around here.

2. Safety. Jesse had a couple of harrowing experiences in his car, hydroplaning for the first time.

3. A new nightstand. I have been wanting to get rid of the old one for ages. It was old and had problems even before we scavenged it from friends who were getting rid of it. It was intended for a living room end table and stuck out too far for a bedroom night stand, but it served that purpose well for a number of years. I had been saving up points from my Amazon credit card to buy something big with rather than piddling it away on smaller orders. It takes me ages to come to a decision about style and color, but I finally bought a new one. I had enough points to get two, but I wanted to wait and see how we liked this one first. Jim said I could buy a second one for his side — we will have matching nightstands for the first time in 33 years of marriage!

Old:

New:

4. A new Mexican food restaurant. I have to have a Mexican food place nearby! That or learn to make chicken chimichangas for myself. My husband was dissatisfied with the place we’ve been going, so we tried a new place and liked it.

5. God bringing things together. I was working on the ladies’ newsletter for church this week and had it all done except for one section someone else was writing. She e-mailed Wed. night to ask if she could wait and send it in next month, which was fine, but now I needed to figure out what to put in that blank space. Then something I read Thursday morning fit the bill perfectly, both in what it said and the length of it to fit in the needed space. Thank you, Lord!

Hope you have a good weekend! The rain has finally stopped here, though we still have lots of ponds throughout town formed by all the rainwater. We’re supposed to get snow this weekend, but they say it won’t be enough to cause any problems. Hope not!

Book Review: Emily of New Moon

Posted on January 31, 2013 by Barbara Harper

I read Emily of New Moon by L. M. Montgomery for Carrie‘s Lucy Maud Montgomery Reading Challenge. and Reading to Know Book Club for the month of January.

Emily is similar to LMM’s Anne of Green Gables in many ways: both are orphans and come to live with stern older women. Both are highly imaginative and high-strung. But Emily’s world is harsher, darker, at least at first, whereas Anne’s is more charming and optimistic.

Emily’s mother had died years ago, and Emily lives alone with her beloved father, who is dying of consumption. They had had no contact with her mother’s people, the proud Murrays of New Moon, because her mother had run away and eloped with her father, to the severe disapproval of the Murrays. But “Murray pride” insures they will do their duty by Emily, and the various family members draw lots to see who will take her. The lot falls to Aunt Elisabeth (who is much harsher than Anne’s Marilla, who, though she was not warm, was not unkind.) The blow is softened for Emily a bit by the fact that her Aunt Laura and Cousin Jimmy (who “may not be all there, but what is there is very nice” p. 209) also live with Elisabeth, and they both love Emily, though they don’t “cross” Elisabeth.

It was astounding to me that no one understood either Emily’s grief in the loss of her father nor the jolt it would have been to leave all she had known to live with strangers. But with the resilience of childhood she soon learns the ways of the household and soon learns to love much about New Moon. Starting school is another trial by fire, but she makes dear friends with a girl named Ilse, who has been allowed to run rather wild by her inattentive father, Teddy, a quiet classmate who draws exceptionally well but whose mother is somewhat disturbed, and Perry, who has never been to school but has sailed hither and yon with his father.

Emily’s outlet is writing. She loves “the magic…made when the right words are wedded” (p. 273). She has a vivid imagination and writes fanciful stories and poems and pours out her heart about her trials and tribulations in letters to her father.

I wasn’t sure how well I really liked this book until about the last third of it, when Emily and Aunt Elisabeth have their ‘breakthrough” (and I loved that everything wasn’t all “happily ever after” that, but their different personalities and views still caused them to clash sometimes.) And then the chapter “When the Curtain Lifted” was the best in the book, I think. I also enjoyed Emily’s growth through the book, both in her personalty, as she “learns to mingle serpent’s wisdom and dove’s harmlessness in practical proportions” (p. 314), and in her writing, as she begins to realize that much of her early work is fanciful trash but is encouraged by the glimmers of talent a few others see.

This book is said to be more autobiographical than Anne, with some of the events in Emily’s life taken from LMM’s. It was interesting that a poem someone sent to encourage Emily about the Alpine path was one that also encouraged LMM: her autobiography takes its title from the same poem.

There is also a television series based on Emily, but I have not seen it.

I had hoped to read all three Emily books, but I only got through the first one, so I’ll probably save the next two for next year’s LMM challenge. The book for February’s Reading to Know Book Club. (which is all classics this year: take a peek here and see if you’d like to join in for any of them) is The Scarlet Letter, which I’ll probably listen to via audiobook.

And if anyone is looking for another challenge for February, I invite you to check out the Laura Ingalls Wilder Reading Challenge which starts tomorrow!

My past readings for the LMM Reading Challenge are (all linked to my thoughts on them):

Anne of Green Gables
Anne of Avonlea
Anne of the Island
Anne of Windy Poplars
Anne’s House of Dreams
Anne of Ingleside
Rainbow Valley
Rilla of Ingleside
Looking for Anne of Green Gables: The Story of L. M. Montgomery and Her Literary Classic by Irene Gammel

(This will also be linked to Semicolon‘s Saturday Review of Books.)

The Tenth Plague: Book Review and Author Interview

Posted on January 29, 2013 by Barbara Harper

In The Tenth Plague by Adam Blumer, Marc and Jillian Thayer have just adopted a new baby boy, and a friend has invited them to a Christian-themed resort for some rest and time together as a new family.

When they arrive, however, the retreat is in upheaval. A company planning a new Bible translation is having meetings at the resort, and a throng has arrived to protest. Someone rigged the water system to dispense what appears to be blood from the faucets. What seems an odd prank is soon discovered to be the first in a series of events based on the Biblical ten plagues of Egypt, some of them resulting in fatalities. Marc calls on a friend, a retired homicide detective, to help with the investigation as the plagues escalate.

Gillian, meanwhile, runs into someone who has hurt her deeply in the past. She thought she had put it all behind her, but the old anger and hurt rush back in like a flood, and she wrestles with the need to extend forgiveness.

The Tenth Plague is a sequel to Fatal Illusions, Adam’s first book (which I reviewed here), but you don’t have to have read the first book to understand and enjoy the second. Both books are tremendously suspenseful and feature realistic, everyday Christian people trying to discern and apply God’s will in their circumstances. I enjoyed them both very much!

Here is an interview with Adam:

What was your inspiration behind The Tenth Plague?

One day I was reading the book of Revelation and came across 22:18–19. “I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book, and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book” (ESV). My mind began playing the “what if” game. Would God really bring a biblical plague on someone who tampered with His Word? I chatted with a few theologian friends, and the plot emerged from there.

How does this novel compare with your first novel, Fatal Illusions?

Though the plot, of course, is different, the two novels share a number of similarities. Both are set in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, where I live. I like to write about average folks like Marc and Gillian Thayer, a pastor and his wife who face unexpected, even threatening, events. Of course, there’s another really bad killer who wants to do them harm, and their retired homicide detective friend, Chuck Riley, once again comes out of retirement to help them. I also like to weave in a historical event that somehow relates to the present day. In Fatal Illusions, it was the killer’s obsession with Houdini; in The Tenth Plague, an old mine disaster plays an important role. The past always plays an important role in the present—a running theme in my novels. Overall, I like to write about redemption: how biblical truth offers the answers to the complicated issues of life. Stories, like parables, present some of the best ways to illustrate biblical truths.

What was one of the most important lessons you learned during the writing of this novel?

The power of the collaborative process. I had a fairly strong first draft, but I was stuck. A novel editor provided a creative springboard and helped me see where my true story lay. Without her help, I doubt this story would have seen the light of day.

What part of writing this novel took the most work?

This novel required a ton of research. From an old mining tragedy to autism, from adoption law to anthrax, from pheromones to the Oklahoma City bombing, the research for this one required much more than I ever expected. I’m so thankful for technology and ease of access, thanks to the Internet. Without Google and so many resources at my fingertips, I’d probably still be researching this story.

So far, what has been your favorite work experience in life?

During one summer between years in high school, I worked at a library, a book lover’s paradise. Granted, a lot of the work involved stocking shelves, but being surrounded by so many fascinating books and interesting authors was pure heaven. I was born a die-hard book lover, and I’ll probably die one too.

Consider the qualities that make you unique. How do these qualities come out in your writing?

I love suspense fiction and history, so a blending of the two always seems to come out in my writing. In high school, I won awards in calligraphy; Gillian Thayer, my female lead, is into calligraphy in a big way (it’s her job). I’ve always been intrigued with how one’s past impacts his or her present and future. This is a recurring theme in my novels because it’s part of who I am. Now that I think about it, what I write is inseparable to some degree from who I am.

Introduce your plot summary and main characters. What is your favorite part of the story?

Water turns to blood. Flies and gnats attack the innocent. Marc and Gillian Thayer’s vacation resort becomes a grisly murder scene, with a killer using the ten plagues of Egypt as his playbook for revenge.

When their friend turns up dead, Marc and Gillian put their vacation on hold, enlist the help of a retired homicide detective, and take a closer look at the bizarre plagues as they escalate in intensity. Meanwhile, a stranger is after the Thayers’ newly adopted baby. Will they uncover the truth behind the bitter agenda before the tenth plague, the death of the firstborn son?

My favorite part is when the firstborn son is revealed and the novel culminates in the tenth plague. This is the most suspenseful and action-packed part of the story, with several key characters in jeopardy. I had a blast writing it.

One of the main themes of The Tenth Plague is confronting and dealing with your past. What can readers take away from this theme, especially in a novel that deals with religion and death?

Both the villain and my heroine, Gillian Thayer, grapple with heartbreaking real-life issues from their past. But how they respond shows two very different paths. My hope is that readers will see the stark contrast in the context of biblical truth presented in the story. The bottom line is that God is enough, and He offers the solution to every problem of life. This is another repeated theme in my stories. Thank you for the opportunity to talk about my latest project.

Some content used by permission of Kirkdale Press

The Tenth Plague is available in e-book format only from Amazon and Vyrso. You can read an excerpt here.

Thanks to Adam for sending me a copy in exchange for my honest review.

(This will also be linked to Semicolon‘s Saturday Review of Books.)

Book Giveaways

Posted on January 26, 2013 by Barbara Harper

Author Adam Blumer writes edge-of-your-seat suspense infused with Biblical principles. His new book, The Tenth Plague, will be released as an e-book on January 29. I’ll have more to say about it then, but meanwhile, if you’d like to have a chance to win a copy of The Tenth Plague or a physical copy of his first book, Fatal Illusions (linked to my review), go here or click on the graphic.

Adam discusses the book here, and you can read an excerpt of The Tenth Plague here.

Friday’s Fave Five

Posted on January 25, 2013 by Barbara Harper

It’s been a better week for us than the last couple of weeks have been, though we’re still heavy-hearted and concerned for a niece’s fiance who was discovered to have multiple tumors and is suffering through a heavy regime of chemotherapy this week and will be for weeks to come. The ultimate prognosis is good, the doctor says, but they’re going to have an awful time of it through treatment. Prayers are always appreciated!

The faves for this week are small ones, but they do lighten and encourage.

1. Thoughtfulness. My husband had to pick up Chick-Fil-A biscuits for a meeting at work, and time was tight between the time they opened and the time he had to be at work, but he still stopped by the house and dropped off chicken biscuits for Jesse and me.

2. Filters. When my oldest son was here he showed me how to set up filters for gmail. That has been a great help, especially for sales-related ones (coupons for the pizza place, fabric shop, etc.) I can set them to go into a folder without them cluttering up my e-mail and then look at them when I want to.

3. Hand-written notes, both sending and receiving them.

4. Downton Abbey. Yes, I’ve gotten on the bandwagon. 🙂 I was discouraged from doing so, thinking I’m 3 seasons behind and it would take ages to catch up, but then I saw each season was only 7-8 episodes long. I’ve seen some episodes through Netflix and some through the PBS site, but thanks to Lisa for sharing this link to stream the episodes (The “Behind the Drama” special was really good), and also for the warning that there is a pretty bad scene in the first episode, but thankfully nothing like that has come up again so far. I was disappointed that it seemed a little soap-operaish at first, but I liked the historical aspects, especially when WWI and the Spanish flu hit. But according to the author in the “Behind the Drama” special, what I thought was the most soap opera-like one of all about the Turk was actually based on a true story. Truth is stranger than fiction sometimes!

5. A cozy, warm shelter. Our area is being hit with an ice storm with predictions now of up to a 1/2″ of ice before it’s over. I’m thankful to have a safe place to stay and pray for those who don’t.