Friday’s Fave Five

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Welcome to Friday’s Fave Five, hosted by Susanne at Living to Tell the Story, in which we can share our favorite things from the last week. This has been a 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.

Here are five of my favorites from the past week:

1. Fall. A few people mentioned this last week, but in our area it just began feeling and looking like fall over the past week. I love the coolness in the air and can’t wait to see more fall colors.

2. Jesse’s jacket. He had grown out of his last year, so we went to the mall this week to look for another one. I hadn’t yet been to the particular store I wanted to try first, so I didn’t know the best place to park, but we ended up going right in the door that led to the men’s department. And then we found a nice leather jacket on sale for about half the price I had in mind! I meant to take a picture of it before he left for school, but I forgot. Then I checked the women’s department and found a couple of sweaters for Jim’s mom — I had been seeing a lot of “fashion sweaters” but had trouble finding just a functional cardigan, but I found two for her there. I love quick successful shopping trips!

3. Pretty little note pads. I keep one on my desk and one on the kitchen counter besides the magnetic one on the refrigerator. I don’t even remember where or when I got these — I found them when I unpacked.

4. Coca Cola cake at Cracker Barrel. My family doesn’t really like that restaurant and I haven’t found any new Cracker Barrel buddies here yet, but I had a hankering for it yesterday, so I got a take-out order. The cake was the best part!

5. Friends who pray. I was very touched by the responses of blog friends to our family news in general, but those who said they pray for us especially touched my heart. Thank you! ♥

I mentioned last week that we’d been having some visitors to our bird feeder. I’ve been trying to get pictures, but, of course, if I open the door, they scatter. So these are the best of the ones taken through the window zoomed in as much as I can zoom!

There is a very little one that looks like a shadow on the left side! Since it can fit into the feeder and usually comes at it from the back side, it’s hard to see. But I do see his silhouette pecking away in there.

Have a great Friday.

Flashback Friday: Games and Puzzles

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Mocha With Linda hosts a weekly meme called Flashback Friday. She’ll post a question every Thursday, and then Friday we can link our answers up on her site. You can visit her site for more Flashbacks.

The prompt for today is:

Did you play many games when you were growing up? What were they? (Include outside games as well as board & card games.) Who did you generally play with? Did your entire family play games or just the kids? Were there any traditional games your family always played? What were your favorites? Are they still around today? What about puzzles? Was that a popular pastime at your house? Were puzzles saved for holidays or did you do them any time? Were they set out for anyone to work or just one person?

I am glad we had a week’s heads up on this one, because at first I could hardly think of any games. But after a while a few came to mind.

We did have Candyland when I was a child, and something like Sorry, only it wasn’t called that. Chinese checkers and regular checkers, of course. I do remember playing Chutes and Ladders, but I think it was different from the version we played when my sons were small.We played Concentration, like the Memory games, with regular playing cards. We played Life, Monopoly, and Yahtzee as I got a little older. Friends and I played a game called something like Dream Date (just looked it up — it is called Mystery Date — and they still make it!) where the guy you didn’t want to get was “the dud.” Probably not the best of games for a young girl’s psyche!

As for outdoor games, it seems we had a number of variations of tag. Regular tag, freeze tag (where you have to freeze in whatever pose you are in when you’re tagged until someone unfreezes you) and one of my favorites, statue tag. In that one someone swung the person around and they struck a pose as they were let go of and landed. Then “it” had to guess what they were supposed to be posing as. Other neighborhood games were Mother May I and Hide and Seek. Red Rover was played on the school playground and  7-Up and Simon Says were often played in school at recess on rainy days.

My grandmother loved card games and Canasta was her favorite. I often played with her but I don’t remember how it is played now. She also played several variations of Solitaire. We played Double Solitaire together often, something like Dutch Blitz but with regular playing cards.

Scrabble has been one of my favorite board games, but I don’t remember playing it growing up. I don’t remember where and with whom I first played it. I also liked Boggle and a game called Crossword Cubes which I wish they still made.

I don’t remember playing many games with my family as I grew up, but as all the siblings got older, we enjoyed games when we gathered together. Scattergories and Balderdash are the only two I remember, though I know we played several others.

When my own kids were small we played many of the same board games I did growing up as well as newer ones like Uno. As they got older we enjoyed games like Settlers of Cataan and its variation, Ticket to Ride, and Apples to Apples. My oldest and youngest love lengthy strategy games that take a couple of hours or more and played each other as well as a regular group of friends they got together with.

And though we still occasionally play board games, they mostly play video games now. I can’t handle any but the Wii — for some reason other video games bother my eyes. And my older kids and I play Scrabble via Facebook.

I do usually really enjoy games when we play, but somehow we don’t play them that often! I generally prefer games that are more than just chance or continually being knocked back to the beginning, like Sorry, but sometimes I’ll play those if someone else wants to.

Sometimes at church fellowships we’ve played group games like Outburst, Pictionary, and Guesstures. I like those just occasionally, but can’t handle too much noise and commotion for very long.

I really don’t remember any puzzles from my childhood. I used them a lot with my own kids when they were little, but only once when they were older did we have a big puzzle out that everyone worked on over several weeks. We just never seemed to get much into them, and to do all that work just to take it apart and put it back in the box seemed a waste to me. I know you can get a type of glue to hold it all together and frame it, but that just never appealed much to me.

How about you — what games did you grow up with?

Book Review: The Thorn

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The Thorn by Beverly Lewis is the first of her new Rose trilogy. Rose’s sister, Hannah (Hen for short) had run off a few years earlier to marry an Englisher and leave the Amish lifestyle behind, but now that her young daughter is displaying worldly attitudes, Hen’s roots tug at her heart and pull her back to her home and community. Her husband wants no part of Amish life, leaving Hen at a seeming impasse.

Rose has long been the only real friend to the bishop’s foster son, Nick, who seems to resent his Amish upbringing and has never quite fit in. Rose has been the primary caretaker for her invalid mother since her accident, and though she loves caring for her mother, she wonders if she will ever be free to marry. When kind and handsome Silas shows an interest, Rose is thrilled. But Nick seems to be pulling her closer to what he calls “the edge,” the desire to experience what the non-Amish world is like beyond the confines of their community.

Beverly Lewis was the first author I read in the Amish fiction genre, and to me she’s the best. I enjoyed the exploration of some of the different issues that came up in this book, and, as always, immediately identified with her characters. I am looking forward to seeing what is in store for Rose, Hen, and Nick.

Family news

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It’s been a while since I shared any kind of family news except in passing, so I thought I’d give a little post-relocation update. When I start to write things like this, I sometimes feel this kind of post will be lightly visited or commented on, and I am often surprised and touched by your care and concern and interest.

Well, it has been two months since we moved. That seems unreal! I have all the inside boxes unpacked except for some of decorations, and I hope to dig into those this week. I still don’t know where I am going to place everything, but I’ll start with what I do know. I love how having things on the walls personalizes a home. Then once I get the bulk of that done, I have some boxes in the garage and shed to go through.

Everything is coming along nicely and I don’t have to use the GPS every time I leave the house any more. Aside from all the things I disliked about our old house, its one major advantage was that it was close to most everything.  School and church were five minutes away (three if all the lights were green!) as were grocery stores, W-Mart, the dentist, the mall, Jim’s mom’s place, etc. Here, school is about 8 minutes away (more if a train is going by or traffic is busy), as is W-Mart and Target, Jim’s mom is about 12 minutes away, church is 20, the mall is about 20, maybe a little more. So I am spending more time in the car, which is one of my least favorite things. But I was just thinking yesterday that I could start listening to some sermon and seminar tapes while I drive and at least feel like I am making good use of the time. My car has a cassette tape player rather than a CD player, and I discovered a lot of tapes during the move. So I might try that, on longer drives at least.

It has been nice to have Jim home in the evenings. He does still have to travel some, but not nearly as much. We’ve had a lot to do on weekends, but hopefully soon we’ll settle into a more relaxing routine. He has been the one most pulled in different directions and pressured over the last several weeks between taking care of details with all of our moves, both houses, his mom, work, etc., etc., so I am really hoping things slow down for him soon.

I’m having to adjust my cooking. Even though in SC we often only had three of us at home for dinner, Jim was there on weekends or Jason and Mittu came over for dinner. But I am ending up with a lot of leftovers now even when I’ve tried to pare down. I have some for lunch but can only deal with so much!

Jesse does sorely miss his old friends, and it still gives me a pang to think of his not graduating from the same school his brothers did, the school he had gone to all his life. But he seems to have jumped right into things at his new school and at church. They’ve been very welcoming. Last weekend he was invited to a youth activity at a friend’s church and this next weekend there is an overnight activity with our church youth. He’s been to several school volleyball games and plays basketball once a week after school with several guys hoping to make this year’s team. He took his camera to one of the volleyball games, and showing his principal one of his pictures resulted in his being asked to take photos for the yearbook. So, even though he misses his old friends and his brothers and sister-in-law, he’s adjusting well. His grades were lower than usual the first few weeks, I think just from adjusting to new teachers and how they do things, but they seem to be coming back up now.

Jeremy has been in Rhode Island a little over a month now. He lives in a house that has been divided up into apartments and all his neighbors are polite and fairly quiet. He had enjoyed experimenting with cooking for some time  before, so cooking for himself wasn’t a totally new thing — just having to do it every night for himself was! And shopping for them! He’s having to learn to cut down recipes as well: some of his first dinners lasted three or four days until he was tired of them. He really likes his job and had some friends up there before he moved and another couple who have moved there since then, so he is enjoying get-togethers with them.

Since Jeremy lived at home during college (though on week days we only saw him late at night and early in the morning) and then at home after college, this was our first major separation. He had only been away from home a week at a time before. And this was farther away and longer — this was actual moving out rather than going away for a visit. So this separation was hard on us all in various ways and I’ve had more than one teary session, even reminding myself that this is normal development and we had him at home longer than many parents had their kids there and telling myself I just needed to appreciate that. But, it is still hard when someone who has been a part of your life and home for 26 years isn’t there any more. I am glad we live in this era where we can text, Facebook, or call with ease. When I was first married we were doing well to call home long distance once a month. That would be so hard! But we’re all adjusting, and knowing he enjoys what he does and where he is helps a lot.

Even though Jason flew out of the nest when he got married, since they lived so close by I didn’t really consider him too far out of the nest. I think it was hard for them at first being the only ones left in SC, but they’ve had a lot of visitors with people they know coming through town, so I think that helped a bit. And we’ve been there or they’ve been here about every other week, I think, so we haven’t had a really long separation. I don’t think I have mentioned this here before, but it is public knowledge now, so I don’t think they’d mind my mentioning that they’ve been putting in job applications both here in TN and in OK, where Mittu is from (one reason they’ve been up here often). So we’ll see how the Lord leads. It has been discouraging for them to travel for an interview and have it seem to go very well only to have the job go to someone else, but they’re waiting for the Lord’s timing.

Something else I don’t think I have mentioned here is that Jason has been having trouble with migraines since last winter. I don’t think he ever had them before in his life, but he started getting them, and now they’re almost a daily occurrence. He has been to several doctors and had several tests run, but has had little relief. Thankfully the American Family Medical Leave Act allowed him to keep his insurance and not be penalized for missing work, but of course, he wasn’t making any money when he didn’t work, either, and that ran out several days ago, so they had to let him go. They did so on good terms, though, saying that if he ever was well enough, they’d love to have him back, so that helps. He and Mittu were living in an old house, so we were hoping maybe it was a mildew problem or something, and once they moved out, the headaches would go away. But so far it hasn’t seemed to help. They are living in our old house, painting and doing some minor repairs and keeping the grass cut, etc. so that is a help to them and to us. I’d appreciate your prayers for the Lord’s healing and guidance in their lives.

Grandma has been adjusting well to her new place. This place has a smaller staff yet they are more attentive — I don’t know how that can be, but it is. She has one main lady who cares for her through the week, whereas in the old place you never know who was going to be there when. She has double windows that look out into a neighbor’s yard, and I think she enjoys seeing some of nature. She always liked to be outdoors as much as possible when she was younger, and even though she likes to keep to her room and read most of the day, I think she enjoys this window to the outside world. She is generally a pretty happy person. I mentioned a scare with her health a couple of weeks ago, but everything has seemed to be on a even keel since then. She does go to Sunday School and church with us and then comes over to out house for Sunday dinner.

We really enjoy our new church. These folks have been the best of any place we have ever attended when it comes to welcoming new people beyond the initial handshake and greeting. Several people speak to us and introduce themselves every time we go and several have gotten pertinent information to us or made sure we knew of upcoming events and personally invited us. Even though it is difficult going to a new church, they’ve made every effort to ease the transition. They just put together a pictorial directory this last summer, which helps immensely! We often flip through it after a service and review who we met in order to try to remember names. We really enjoy the pastors, preaching, and music as well.

I have to admit I don’t really miss the ministries I was involved in at the old church. I think I was feeling more pressured than I realized, as it has been such a relief to get things done at home without feeling the need to stop and get other things done or plan for the next thing coming up. There were a couple of things I had considered laying aside when Jim’s mom first came, because I knew that her coming would have an impact on my time, but they didn’t take a lot of time in themselves, so I kept talking myself out of dropping them. But I think sometimes just having the responsibility is weighty even if the time isn’t a major investment. I do miss the ladies’ booklet and the outlet to minister to other ladies in that way, especially when I come across something I’d love to share there. But the ladies group and the booklet are in wonderful hands.

Sometimes I have wondered if, after I get the house all set up, I am going to ask myself, “Now what?” But I don’t think so. As I’ve mentioned before, I have had some ideas simmering on the back burner for writing and for a possible web site, I have family mementos that I discovered and gathered during the course of moving that I need to figure out what to do with, and I have about ten-twelve years of photos to sort through! Plus I want to make some curtains and assorted other things, so I am sure I will have plenty to keep me busy as the duties of everyday life allow. I am sure opportunities to minister will come up over time, but for now I am more than content to be in a nesting phase. With the older two out of the nest and with the realization that Jesse will probably be in dorms for college rather than living at home, I am more acutely aware of the shortness of the time with him before he tries his own wings, and I want to make the most of the time he is here and be available to him.

So that’s about it. We’re just plugging away at everyday life, getting things done as we’re able, and enjoying our new place and situation. And looking forward to Thanksgiving when we’ll all be together again!

The Gospel and Christian Fiction

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The Gospel and Christian Fiction

I have commented many times in book reviews on authors’ treatment of the gospel. After one author recently took me to task for my comments in several e-mails, I thought perhaps I should explain myself further.

A novel is a work of fiction. It’s primary purpose is to tell a story. The very best witness a Christian fiction author can have is to tell his or her story well, just as a painter’s best witness is to do his absolute best job painting rather than inscribing John 3:16 somewhere in it. A story that is a thinly-veiled sermon, doctrinal treatise, or tract will likely turn away readers, especially lost readers who most need the message. Some stories will hopefully be a springboard to awaken a thirst or a need in the reader which will then lead him or her to seek out someone to talk further, but a full exposition of the gospel is a rarity just because of the nature of story-telling.

In addition, the style of writing most prevalent in this era is the “show, don’t tell” variety. Subtlety, suggestion, nuance, illustrating what is going on in the characters’ hearts through their actions are all considered a better form of story-telling than spelling everything out for the reader. The Bible even does this in some places; for example, the book of Esther does not mention God’s name at all, but He is clearly evident in the events. Thus the gospel might be only suggested or referred to, or the author might show the character’s change of belief in the change in his or her actions rather than sharing the details of that character’s conversion.

I do understand and agree with those points. What I have sometimes criticized in book reviews is not so much the amount the the gospel that is presented in a book, but rather the clarity of the gospel. Whatever there is of the gospel in a work of fiction needs to be accurate and not misleading. For example, in one work of Amish fiction, a girl who had gone to live among the Amish to  find answers for her own heart is told, when she finally opens up to talk to someone about her need, to keep living as they are living and following their rules, and eventually it will come to her. I can understand encouraging someone who does not yet understand to keep coming to church and hearing the gospel in the hopes that it will eventually become clear, but the advice given in this book seemed more like, “Keep living like a Christian and eventually it will become real to you.” That is unbiblical advice and confusing to one who is searching.

In another book I read recently, a seeking soul is told that “Jesus invites you to join him on the journey.” There is a sense in which that might be said, but as a stand-alone sentence, I feel that is confusing and misleading.

In other books, a Christian’s faith is attributed to having been in church “all her life.” If that’s the only evidence of a person’s faith, it can be misleading because a lost person would obviously conclude that church attendance is what makes a person a Christian rather than a relationship with Christ, and an unbeliever who attends church might think they’re all right spiritually.

Christian fiction has been criticized in some instances for being formulaic and predictable in that the main character has some crisis of faith and “sees the light.” I don’t really have a problem with that in one sense, because each genre has a certain amount of predictability: you expect the guy and girl to declare their love for each other in a romance, or the good guys to win in a western, or the detective to solve the mystery and find the criminal he is searching for. It’s how each of those things happens which makes them interesting and keeps us reading even when we have a good idea of what will happen in the end. But I do understand how some readers would be turned off by a blatant formula. However, now it seems some authors have swung the pendulum so far the other way that often the gospel is so buried in subtext that it is almost completely hidden. “But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost,” Paul says in II Corinthians 4:3. Even if the context of the story precludes a full explanation of the gospel, what is included needs to be correct, accurate, and clear rather than so shrouded it is unclear at best, or at worst, misleading.

I was accused of being insular by the author I first mentioned, of wanting Christian fiction to be such that it would only appeal to Christians. That is totally untrue. Christians are those who would pick up on the nuances of the gospel even when it is not spelled out. It is the lost who wouldn’t understand.

I was also told that to include a gospel presentation would mean writing on a fifth grade level. Again, I disagree. I have seen some wonderful salvation stories in fiction told in an effective way within the context of the story that was beautiful and fit very well in the flow of the story. Not every piece of Christian fiction will have a salvation story: some will deal with those who are already believers, with their problems and issues and growth. But for those involving a conversion experience, it can be done and done well.

I think perhaps I am sensitive to this issue because for many years I sent my mother copies of Christian fiction books I enjoyed, and she loved them, even though she was not a believer at that point. She did want to learn more, and she did benefit from seeing how Christians interacted in books. I did not send her only “conversion story” books: she probably would have gotten turned off if every book was like that. Yet there are some books that I would not have sent to her, not because it was not a “salvation story,” but because it was misleading, and I felt she would have gotten the wrong idea from it.

Rather than being insular and wanting Christians books written just for those who already believe, on the contrary, it is precisely for those who don’t yet understand or believe that I want the gospel to be clear and accurate, as well as for the glory of the Lord who gave us the gospel. Understanding, conceding, and supporting everything I mentioned in the first paragraphs about the nature of fiction, I still do believe and expect that whatever allusion there is to the gospel should not be misleading. I know it can be done: I have read wonderful examples of it.

St. Francis is supposed to have said “Preach the gospel; if necessary, use words.” I agree that a life should back up and reinforce the words we speak, but someone likened this to saying, “Feed starving children, when necessary use food.” Jesus said, “The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life” (John 6:63). He also said, “Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you” (John 15:3). Paul said, “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Romans 10:17). Words do matter; words are necessary to convey the gospel. Within the medium of Christian fiction those words may not take the same form as a tract or a sermon, but they ought to at least not obscure the truth.

The Week In Words

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Welcome to The Week In Words, where we share quotes from the last week’s reading. If something you read this past week  inspired you, caused you to laugh, cry, think, dream, or just resonated with you in some way, please share it with us, attributing it to its source, which can be a book, newspaper, blog, Facebook — anything that you read. More information is here.

I only have one today, from an Elisabeth Elliot e-mail devotional:

If my life is once surrendered, all is well. Let me not grab it back, as though it were in peril in His hand but would be safer in mine! ~ Elisabeth Elliot, Keep a Quiet Heart

It’s absurd that we do that, isn’t it? We fear the possibility of some major catastrophe, or something serious happens to a loved one, or God allows something we don’t understand, and then we somehow feel we can protect ourselves better than He can. This set my thoughts running back through a previous post about being afraid to surrender all to Him. I hope it doesn’t sound self-indulgent or self-promotional to quote myself, but I tend to have to go back over some of the same lessons learned, and something I said in that post along these same lines was a good reminder to me:

There have been whole books written about reasons for suffering, and we hear testimonies of God’s grace through those times. Yet that lurking fear or reluctance can still snake into our thoughts.

As I was pondering these things this morning, the thought came, “What’s the alternative, really?” Suffering will come to most of us in some form or another. We live in a fallen world and deal with its effects; we’re not in heaven yet, where there are no tears, sorrow, pain. We’re not going to stop these things from coming into our lives if we don’t surrender to God. We can’t somehow insulate ourselves or protect ourselves from any pain or trial.

But if we are the Lord’s, we can trust that He has a purpose in what He has allowed. We can trust Him for His presence, peace, grace, and help. If we’re surrendered to Him, we can face these things in a way that we can’t otherwise.

I’m thankful we can “come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need (Hebrews 4:16).

If you’ve read anything that particularly spoke to you that you’d like to share, please either list it in the comments below or write a post on your blog and then put the link to that post (not your general blog link) in Mr. Linky below. I do ask that only family-friendly quotes be included. I hope you’ll visit some of the other participants as well and glean some great thoughts to ponder.

Amazing video

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Some of you may have seen this going around Facebook. I read a book about Gianna Jenssen, a survivor of an abortion, Gianna: Aborted…and Lived To Tell About It, some years ago — amazing story.

Part I:

Part II:

Friday’s Fave Five

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Welcome to Friday’s Fave Five, hosted by Susanne at Living to Tell the Story, in which we can share our favorite things from the last week. This has been a 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.

Here are five of my favorites from the past week:

1. Locks! We didn’t realize until our first day in our new house that none of the bedroom or bathroom doors had locks on them! We pretty much have always had a policy of respecting the closed door, but we really emphasized it the past few weeks! Last weekend was one of the first we didn’t have something else to take care of (which could be a fave in itself), and Jim was able to change the doorknobs out for ones with locks.

2. Jesse’s visit to his old school. He has been wanting to go and visit his old school during a school day, but of course we wouldn’t let him skip a day here to do that. But his school had no classes last Thursday and Friday due to a teacher’s conference, and Jim had to go to SC for his work on Friday, passing right through our old town, so he took Jesse and dropped him off at Jason and Mittu’s, then they took him up to school for a few hours. Only one or two people knew he was coming, so he enjoyed surprising everyone. Originally Jim was going to pick him back up on his way back through around 3 or 4, but Jason was working and didn’t get off until 5:30 and wanted to visit with Jim, so they ended up staying for the school’s soccer and volleyball games, too. I’m glad he got to do that — he enjoyed it a lot.

3. Visitors to the bird feeder. Jim hung it up outside a while ago, but I just got around to getting feed for it this week. It took a couple of days, but a cardinal came by as well as some small greyish-brown birds. I need to get a basic bird book! But one of my favorite things about the bird feeder is that I can see it from the kitchen, office, and family room. And I haven’t seen any squirrels here yet, so maybe the birds will actually get to use it instead of its being raided by squirrels, which is what happened at our old house.

4. Banana bread. No matter how many bananas I buy, it seems no one eats the last one or two, and then they get too ripe to enjoy. I always say I am going to save them for banana bread, but rarely do. Well, this week I finally did. I had enough for two batches and made six mini loaves instead of two big ones and put the extras in the freezer. In one batch I added mini chocolate chips. It tasted good, but I think I added too many — they mostly sank to the bottom and the loaf was overly moist.

5. Finally getting my boxes of books unpacked. That was the hardest group to unpack as we have fewer bookcases here — two at the old house were built in. I ended up repacking a few boxes to store that I didn’t have room for but wasn’t ready to get rid of yet. But I did get three boxes filled to give away or sell. It’s so nice to get those out of the living room and have that whole area looking neater and more finished. And I am scouting around to see if there is another place we can put another set of book shelves to take the stored ones out. 🙂

Hope you have a great Friday!

Flashback Friday: Toys

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Mocha With Linda hosts a weekly meme called Flashback Friday. She’ll post a question every Thursday, and then Friday we can link our answers up on her site. You can visit her site for more Flashbacks.

The question for this week is:

What toys do you remember from your childhood? What did you like to do to entertain yourself? Did you mostly play inside or outside? Did you ride a bike all over the neighborhood? Play baseball in the backyard? Basketball in the driveway? Did you have to “get permission” to play at a friend’s house, or were you and your friends back and forth between houses all the time? If you had siblings, was there a distinction between your toys and theirs? Did you “inherit” any toys from older siblings? What were the “fad” or “must-have” toys of your generation? Did you parents buy them? Was there a toy you always wanted and never got to have?

Just to help you plan, this week is Part 1 – Toys. Next week in Part 2, we’ll look back at Games and Puzzles. Because hopefully, our childhoods involved lots of playtime!

My favorite way to entretain myself was by reading. I preferred to play inside, but my mom sometimes shooed me outside. We did ride bikes around the neighborhood sometimes, but when I visited my cousins in Louisiana, we rode bikes everywhere. I think most of my friends lived too far away for a walk or bike ride, so our moms had to take us back and forth, so that obviously necessitated getting permission. But that was pretty standard in our house, anyway, to get permission to go somewhere. At my cousins’ house, where I spent a good deal of time as a child, most of their friends were within the sound of my aunt’s whistle–that was her signal to come home.

My all-time favorite toys were my Barbie and related dolls and their accessories. My nickname growing up was Barbie. The doll didn’t come out until I was around four, and I don’t know if my nickname came from her or if I was already called that. I did have one carrying case that, when opened, looked like a little closet, and I just loved the little clothes on little hangers and such. I made furniture out of matchboxes. There was a time when they sold kits to “make” Barbie clothes — the seams had some kind of glue stuff on them, so they stuck together rather than being sewed together. I don’t remember really loving those, but that is where I first learned how basic garment construction worked. Friends would bring over their Barbies. We also had Ken dolls and Barbie’s oldest friend, Madge, as well as some of her younger — cousins or something. I can’t remember their names. Francine was one, maybe.

There wasn’t quite all the Barbie paraphernalia there is now, but one toy I always wanted and never got was a Barbie Dream House. And, unrelated to Barbie, I always wanted an Easy Bake Oven and never got one. But one of my cousins got both. Sigh. (Not the cousins in La.)

As an aside, I know some moms don’t like Barbies now because of her…shapeliness and proportions and the supposed self-esteem issues she can cause girls, but, honestly, we never thought or talked about such things. It was just fun to try on the different clothes — and they were much more modest that what’s available these days.

I did have baby dolls before Barbie, but I don’t remember anything about them except that my favorite was named Susie after my cousin, Suzanne.

Another favorite, though not a toy exactly, was a little record player and several children’s records given to me by one aunt. I do remember a plastic tea set that looked like Corningware with the little blue emblem (chosen from the S&H Green Stamp store!), Etch-a-Sketch, Little People, Mr. Potato Head, Tinker Toys, Lincoln Logs. The last two may have been my brother’s or they may have belonged to all of us, I don’t remember. My brother was four years younger, so with different genders and ages we didn’t really play with the same toys often. He had a lot of plastic green army men and cowboys and Indians, Hot Wheels cars, Tonka trucks. My next sister was an additional four years younger, and then three more sisters followed. I think they probably shared (or fought over) toys, but I didn’t play with the same things then.

When I was a little older, I also loved my Spirograph and spent a lot of time making different designs. My La cousins and I were into paint-by-number kits for a spell.

I tended to be a “saver,” but in my late teens in a fit of cleaning out I gave all the Barbie stuff I had left to my sisters. If any of it survived — which I doubt — it is probably in my mom’s attic, not likely to be found until some day if and when the house is sold. I wish I had kept my first Barbie, because she was one of the first-edition ones in the black and white striped bathing suits.

Though we bought our own children current toys, I also loved to buy some of the classic toys I grew up with, too. They loved Little People, Hot Wheels, Tonka trucks and green army men and played with those for years — most of the others got played with briefly here and there but weren’t favorites. I think their favorites were Legos.

And that’s probably more than you ever wanted to know about what I played with. 🙂 But I enjoyed the trip down memory lane. You can join it or see what others played with at Linda‘s.

Book Review: Her Daughter’s Dream

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Her Daughter’s Dream by Francine Rivers is the sequel to Her Mother’s Hope, which I reviewed earlier here. Though you could say the main subject of both books is mother-daughter conflict, that statement hardly does the books justice.

In the first book, Marta escapes an abusive father to make a life for herself in America with grit and hard work. When her daughter, Hildemara, is born early, sickly, and frail, Marta’s memories of her fragile sister, Elise, and her untimely end make Marta determined that Hildie will grow up strong. Hildie does survive but views her mother’s tough-love as a lack of love, and she leaves home to pursue a dream she loves that her mother initially hates.

At the opening of Her Daughter’s Dream, Hildie is gravely ill and reluctantly allows her husband to call her mother for help. Hildie’s daughter, Carolyn, has experienced trauma unknown to Hildie, but as Oma Marta comes, Carolyn’s nightmares stop and she bonds with Marta during Hildie’s illness, adding to the rift in their relationship. As Carolyn grows up feeling she will never measure up enough to earn her mother’s approval, she drops out of college with free-spirited roommate Chel to protest the war and experience the counter-culture of the 60s. She comes home a few years later lost, broken, and pregnant. As her mother takes care of her daughter, May Flower Dawn, they bond closely, making Carolyn once again feel left out. But as Dawn grows up, she begins to wonder how all these fractured relationships can be healed and prays and works to that end.

As I said with the first book, you just ache with these people for the mistakes that they make and the pain they experience. I envision each woman with her arms wrapped around herself: Marta’s in fear of loss, Hildie’s in bitterness, Carolyn’s in a self-protective cocoon. But when one’s arms are wrapped around oneself, they are not open to other people or to fully receiving all the Lord has in store. Though each woman has faith in God, during major parts of her life she is not actively trusting Him. This really spoke to me about the dangers of grasping self-protection and the need to let go and trust God for the protection that only He can provide.

I enjoyed how Francine Rivers set each generation and its relationship issues in context in its historical setting. This is a wonderfully written epic story.