Review: A Beautiful Disguise

Posted on September 12, 2023 by Barbara Harper

A Beautiful Disguise by Roseanna M. White

In A Beautiful Disguise, a novel by Roseanna M. White, siblings Yates and Marigold Fairfax had an idyllic childhood in Edwardian England. Their father loved entertainment and spent lavish money on it, even buying a circus. They grew up playing with the animals, learning the trapeze, loving the performers like family.

The Fairfaxes didn’t know, until their father’s death when they were young adults, that all the entertainment came at a steep price. They weren’t in debt, but there was no money. They needed not only to take care of themselves and the family estate, but the circus performers who depended on them.

They decided to use their skills to start an investigations company: The Imposters, LTD. They’d maintain their positions as Lord and Lady Fairfax in 1908 British society, not so much because they cared about position, but because that’s the world they knew and moved in and where their clientele would come from. Marigold remade many of her mother’s beautiful old gowns into outlandish costumes with ostrich plumes and wide hat brims so that people would notice her persona, not her. Her friend, Gemma, alias newspaper columnist G. M. Parker, played up Marigold’s “Lady M” by reporting on her lavish clothing. It worked so well that Gemma could sometimes pose as Marigold because people usually looked at her outfits, not her face.

Sir Merritt Livingstone was a faithful soldier for ten years. But a severe bout of pneumonia took ages to recover from. He’s still not at full steam, so he’s been given a desk job in the War Office Intelligence Division. One of his agents has not been heard from in an unusual amount of time. His most recent coded telegram simply contained the name of Merritt’s boss, Lord Henning. Merritt doesn’t want to believe anything ill of Henning, but he has to discreetly find out what’s going on.

Sounds like a job for the Imposters.

When Merritt meets the intriguing Lady M. at a ball, he has no idea she’s half the team looking into his request.

At first it might sound odd for a titled family to own a circus. The Fairfaxes family home was in Northumberland while they spent “the season” in London, so much of society didn’t know they had a lion in their back yard and a high wire set-up in their gym. But the circus situation worked into the story believably and smoothly. In fact, it was fun and different. Yates’ and Marigold’s acrobatic training came in handy climbing window ledges to eavesdrop, and their stage makeup allowed them to disguise themselves.

The characters and plot are well-drawn and compelling. The faith element is woven in naturally.

I listened to the audiobook wonderfully read by Susan Lyons. I missed the author’s notes at the end, which I wished audiobooks included. But I did see this blog post where Roseanna introduced the series and this interview, in which she shares some of her inspiration.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and can’t wait for the sequel.

Influencing Our Grandchildren for God

Posted on September 10, 2023 by Barbara Harper

I was reading of a grandmother who planned specific activities when her grandchildren came to visit. She’d plot a course and assemble supplies. Some of their endeavors were simple, some elaborate. Her grandchildren looked forward to whatever fun event would be happening at Grandma’s house that day.

The last time my only grandson, Timothy, stayed with us without his parents, we sat on the couch while he showed me his toy and told me about it. We talked about a number of other things. He broke into spontaneous, imaginative play while we watched and commented. And I wondered, “Should I have planned something special to do together?”

Sometimes we might do a planned activity, but usually we’re pretty laid back. I’m sure the activity-planning grandparent probably has low-key times with her grandchildren as well.

There are no right or wrong styles of grandparenting . . . well, setting aside negative examples of abuse or neglect. But how we interact will depend a lot of personalities, circumstances, energy levels, etc.

However, most Christian grandparents want, above all else, to be a godly example to their grandchildren and to influence them for the Lord.

Sometimes it’s difficult to know how to do that. We’re not with our grandchildren all the time. Teaching them is primarily their parent’s responsibility. How can we have the best influence?

I’ve only been a grandparent to one child less than a decade, so I am not an expert. But observations of other grandparents plus my own reading and thoughts have resulted in these ideas.

Engage with them. Sometimes we bring our grandchildren into what we do: gardening, baking, fishing, riding bikes, and so on. Sometimes we enter into what they like to do, whether playing games, coloring, building with Legos, or going to a playground or children’s museum. One of my favorite memories with Timothy involved boxes of Little People toys saved from our kids’ childhoods, especially the Grandma and Baby figures. Once a stray dinosaur had gotten tucked away with them. We had the dinosaur chasing Little People all over the place.

However we go about it, we need to spend time with them, get to know them, and let them get to know us. We would do this anyway just because we love them. But we also aren’t going to be able to speak into their lives without that underlying relationship. If our only interaction with them is didactic, they’re probably going to avoid us.

Pray for them regularly. Pray for wisdom in being an influence to them.

Point out God’s hand in creation and circumstances. One friend is a master at this, regularly pointing out God’s creativity in the sky, insects, even onions.

Share how God has worked in and through His people. Deuteronomy 4:9 says, “Only take care, and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things that your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. Make them known to your children and your children’s children.”

Share personal stories. This is something I wish I had done more with our children. School, Sunday School, and Awanas focused on doctrine, so at home we dealt more with character development. But doctrine and character are integrated, and both are personal, not just academic.

These things are harder to do when we don’t live near our grandchildren. I have fond memories of writing letters to and receiving letters from my grandmother. We have multitudes of ways to keep in touch these days.

If parenting instruction is more “caught” than “taught,” I think grandparenting influence is even more so. Sharing how God has worked in our own lives, leading us, and providing for us, helps them learn that God is personally interested in us, a friend that sticks closer than a brother (Proverbs 18:24). In Deuteronomy 6, God wants “you and your son and your son’s son” to fear Him and keep His commandments. He wants families to “talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise” (verses 2-7).

Most of us aspire to be like Timothy’s grandmother, Lois. “I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, dwells in you as well” (1 Timothy 4:5).

We want to share “things that we have heard and known, that our fathers have told us. We will not hide them from their children, but tell to the coming generation the glorious deeds of the Lord, and his might, and the wonders that he has done” (Psalm 78:3-4).

Some of us don’t have grandchildren (or even children). Or we might have only one or two. But we can minister to other children and young people in our sphere of influence by showing an interest, getting to know them, and speaking a word for God as He leads.

How about you? What ways have you found to influence your grandchildren or any of the next generation for the Lord?

Tell to the coming generation the glorious deeds of the LORD, and his might, and the wonders that he has do. Psalm 78:4

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

Laudable Linkage

Posted on September 9, 2023 by Barbara Harper

Some good reads found this week:

“Just Not Feeling It”: How Routine Awakens Devotion. “To some, the word routine carries the stiffness of stale bread and the rot of dead plants, the stuffiness of library books never opened and attics dusty with age. The very thought of routine spirituality — planned, scheduled, disciplined — seems to undermine the ministry of the life-giving, freedom-bestowing Spirit. ‘Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom’ (2 Corinthians 3:17) — and where the spirit of routine is (we may think), there is bondage. The dichotomy, however, is self-imposed, self-imagined. If routine smells stale to us, the problem lies in our own sniffer.”

Delays Are as Much a Part of God’s Plan as Answered Prayers. “At times, we may find ourselves in situations where we are eagerly waiting for answers to our prayers, hoping for our dreams, goals, and aspirations to come to fruition. However, it’s during these moments of uncertainty and delay that we may become overwhelmed with frustration, anxiety, and even a sense of disillusionment.”

2 Ways Anxiety Affects Parents, HT to Story Warren. “In my thirty-plus years of counseling, I’ve never seen parents feel as much pressure or as much like failures as they do today. I’ve never had as many parents in tears in my office. And I’ve certainly never seen as many parents who live in a perpetual state of worry.”

5 Lies Teenagers Believe & Biblical Truth to Set Them Free. “I sometimes fear this generation of young people is stuck in a giant game of Where’s Waldo? They only see the things they are looking for. When you fear rejection, you see it on every face in the crowd. When you want to escape your responsibilities, you spot exits everywhere. When you crave affirmation, you will find it in all the wrong places. 1 Peter 5:8 HCSB says, ‘Be sober-minded, be alert. Your adversary the devil is prowling around like a roaring lion, looking for anyone he can devour.’ Sadly, teens are primary targets in the enemy’s strategy to dismantle the kingdom of God.”

Purposes of Predicative Prophecy. “Why has God given revelation in the form of prophecy? And why so much? What is the goal of prophecy? Or are there multiple intended effects? A number of passages answer these questions. The answers are surprisingly diverse.”

Lists are Menus, HT to Linda. I don’t have the negative feelings this writer has about working through a list. But there is something appealing about looking at a list like a menu. “These menus also help clarify a critical way a menu differs from a to-do list: picking just one or two items from a menu is something you get to do, not something you have to do. The myriad things you could order – so far in excess of your capacity to consume them – don’t constitute a problem.”

The Bible has to go through our head to affect our heart and life.

Friday’s Fave Five

Posted on September 8, 2023 by Barbara Harper

It’s been a busy week! I’m glad to sit down and recount some of the week’s blessings with Susanne and friends at Living to Tell the Story.

1. Labor Day is kind of an odd holiday in that it doesn’t have any traditions associated with it—except maybe grilling hamburgers, which we did. Labor Day seems like the summer’s last hurrah, though it will still feel like summer for a few weeks yet, past the official start of fall. But it was nice to have the day off and to have all the kids over (minus Mittu, who, sadly, wasn’t feeling well but still sent over a wonderful chocolate pie).

2. Puttering. On Saturday afternoon, I got finished with what I was working on about an hour before dinner time. There was nothing else that had to be done, so I enjoyed time just puttering around doing assorted little things. It was fun and relaxing.

3. Expandable bookcases. I had asked for and received for my birthday this expandable bookcase. Due to a mix-up my husband actually ended up getting two, but that turned out to be a good thing. They seemed a little flimsy when I first tried to set them up, but once they had books in them, they were fine. I used them to house my cookbooks a little better.

Amazon image of expandable bookcase — Amazon image

4. Bathroom scrubbing by my dear husband. He has some kind of attachment to his drill that he sometimes uses to scrub the bathtub much more thoroughly than I can with my little brush and cleanser. Then he swept and mopped as well.

5. Catching up with friends. Though funerals are not favorite occurrences, we enjoyed so much catching up with old friends at the graveside of a dear older man from a church we used to attend. Then Melanie and I had our almost-monthly lunch meet-up, this time courtesy of gift cards to Cracker Barrel.

That’s my week. How was yours?

Review: A Fool and His Monet

Posted on September 6, 2023 by Barbara Harper

In the novel A Fool and His Monet by Sandra Orchard, Serena Jones is a new member of the FBI Art Crime Team. She was motivated by the death of her grandfather during an art theft and hopes her new position will help her find his killer.

Serena’s friend, Zoe, the temporary head of security at the local art museum, brings Serena in to report the theft of two paintings in storage, a Monet and a Rijckaert. Since the paintings were in storage, the theft had not been noticed immediately. So the case was already somewhat cold. But Serena immediately begins interviewing museum employees. Her trainer, Tanner, joins her on the case. Oddly, her supervisor makes her stop investigating her lead suspect.

Serena’s mother pesters her to get a nice, safe, normal job and give her grandchildren. Her aunt fancies herself an amateur sleuth and offers Serena advice. The aunt even inserts herself into some of Serena’s investigation.

Though the book has some serious and touching moments, it’s somewhat a comedy of errors. But the case eventually gets solved with many twists and detours along the way.

I enjoyed several art-related details sprinkled throughout the book, especially one quote from Stella Adler: “Life beats down and crushes the soul and art reminds you that you have one.”

There’s a light faith element: a few mentions of God and prayer.

This isn’t my usual genre of book. But that’s one nice thing about Kindle sales: trying something you might not have otherwise.

I admit I got a little lost on some of the details. And I wasn’t fond of Serena’s aunt’s involvement. But overall this was a fun book. If you like figuring out mysteries with comedic undertones, you might like this one.

Review: Hannah Coulter

Posted on September 5, 2023 by Barbara Harper

Hannah Coulter is Wendell Berry’s seventh book, published 44 years after Nathan Coulter. But the action picks up right where Nathan Coulter left off. I’ve only read these two books and Jayber Crow, but I understand that Hannah appears in some of the other Port William books as well.

Hannah tells her story as an elderly woman, twice widowed, looking back over her life. She was born in 1922 as the only daughter to her parents. Their farm was owned by her father’s mother, Grandmam, who lived and worked with the family.

Hannah had responsibilities around the farm from the time she was five or six. By the age of twelve, when her mother died, Hannah could do “a woman’s part.” She tells of her father’s remarrying a woman who “lived up to the bad reputation of stepmothers.” Grandmam watched out for Hannah, though, providing for her to go to high school and secure her first job.

Hannah met her first husband, Virgil Feltner, at work. He died in WWII while Hannah was expecting her first child. Hannah lived with her in-laws, who loved her like a daughter.

Then Nathan Coulter came back from the war and helped the Feltners out on their farm. Hannah tells of his budding interest, then hers, until they finally married and moved into the fixer-upper farm he bought.

Along with the details of their lives together, Hannah shares the history of the times and the community of neighbors that they called “The Membership.” The Membership wasn’t an official club; rather, that’s what they called the group who lived near each other and helped each other on their farms.

Over the course of Hannah’s long life, Port William saw many changes. Hannah decried many of the changes, like not knowing many of the families in the community any more, some technologicaladvances, and so on. Many of the “Membership’s” young people did not stay on the family farms, including Hannah’s.

Hannah Coulter reminds me of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House books in the sense of showing how people used to live and how things changed over the decades of one person’s life. But Berry’s voice is quite different from Wilder’s.

Hannah is my favorite of the three Port William books I have read so far. There’s an unfortunate smattering of bad language, as with the other books. Michele Morin had hosted a discussion of Jayber Crow (which I think is what prompted me to read it) and mentioned once that it sometimes felt that Berry took the microphone in place of Jayber. I had that same feeling in a couple of places here, particularly in passages about the war.

But Hannah seems the most authentically Christian of Berry’s characters that I’ve encountered so far. And the main strength of Berry’s writing is the lyricism, the sense of place, community, love, and relationships.

A few quotes that stood out to me:

Love is what carries you, for it is always there, even in the dark, or most in the dark, but shining out at times like gold stitches in a piece of embroidery.

The living can’t quit living because the world has turned terrible and people they love and need are killed. They can’t because they don’t. The light that shines into darkness and never goes out calls them on into life. It calls them back again into the great room. It calls them into their bodies and into the world, into whatever the world will require. It calls them into work and pleasure, goodness and beauty, and the company of other loved ones.

I began to trust the world again, not to give me what I wanted, for I saw that it could not be trusted to do that, but to give unforeseen goods and pleasures that I had not thought to want.

Sometimes…I wander about in this house that Nathan and I renewed, that is now aged and worn by our life in it. How many steps, wearing the thresholds? I look at it all again. Sometimes it fills to the brim with sorrow, which signifies the joy that has been here, and the love. It is entirely a gift.

It is hard to say what it means to be at work and thinking of a person you loved and love still who did that same work before you and who taught you to do it. It is a comfort ever and always, like hearing the rhyme come when you are singing a song.

He was a humorous, good-natured man, maybe because he hoped for little and expected less and took his satisfactions where he found them.

A lifetime’s knowledge shimmers on the face of the land in the mind of a person who knows. The history of a place is the mind of an old man or an old woman who knows it.

Even old, your husband is the young man you remember now. Even dead, he is the man you remember, not as he was but as he is, alive still in your love. Death is a sort of lens, though I used to think of it as a wall or a shut door. It changes things and makes them clear. Maybe it is the truest way of knowing this dream, this brief and timeless life.

Any time an eighteen-year-old boy tells you not to worry, you had better worry.

Members of Port William aren’t trying to get someplace. They think they are someplace.

One theme that comes up continually is something Nathan says. When unexpected changes come, even his own terminal diagnosis, Nathan says he’s just going to “live right on.” “Living right on called for nothing out of the ordinary. We made no changes. We only accepted the changes as they came.”

I listened to the audiobook nicely read by Susan Denaker.

Have you read Hannah Coulter or others of Berry’s books? What did you think?

When Everything Goes Wrong

Posted on September 3, 2023 by Barbara Harper

It must have seemed to the disciples like everything was going wrong.

In less than twenty-four hours, everything they had worked for the past three years seemed to unravel:

A “great crowd with swords and clubs” came to find Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane (Matthew 26:47).
Judas, one of the twelve disciples, betrayed Jesus.
Peter, thinking to defend Jesus, wielded his sword and cut off a man’s ear. But Jesus told him to put his sword away.
Jesus was wrongly arrested.
People lied about Jesus at His trial.
Jesus was falsely accused of blasphemy.
The Jews spit at, slapped, beat, and mocked Jesus.
Peter, who promised to stay with Jesus always, denied knowing Him.
Judas killed himself.
Jesus was taken to Pilate, who offered to make Jesus the prisoner he annually released for the crowd. But the crowd chose Barabbas instead.
Pilate had Jesus scourged and delivered Him to be crucified.
The Roman soldiers mocked, spit on, and beat Jesus.
Jesus was crucified between two thieves.
Jesus was mocked by the crowd.
Jesus died.
Earthquakes split rocks and opened tombs.

I can only imagine the disciples’ dismay and confusion for the three days between the crucifixion and resurrection. Jesus told them He was going to be put to death and rise again, but somehow they didn’t get it. At least, however they thought it was all going to work, they were clearly surprised and unprepared.

Their leader, their Messiah, had been cruelly treated and killed. How did it all happen, and so quickly? What was going to happen to them now? What should they do?

As they were soon to discover, God’s perfect will was being worked out. God didn’t just work in spite of all that had occurred, but through it all.

God’s fingerprints were all over this day. Does that mean He made people sin? No, but He knew what they would do.

At least 27 Old Testament prophecies were fulfilled by Christ in that one day, not to mention so many that were fulfilled over His lifetime. .

The Pharisees had not wanted to arrest Christ during the Passover “lest there be an uproar among the people (Matthew 26:3-4). But that’s exactly when it happened, so that Jesus, the Lamb of God, could fulfill what the Passover lamb represented.

When Pilate said, “Do you not know that I have authority to release you and authority to crucify you?” Jesus answered him, “You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given you from above” (John 19:10).

Jesus “yielded up His spirit” (Matthew 27:50). He died when He had fulfilled everything and when He was ready. He died on His terms, not Pilates’ or the Pharisees’ or the soldiers’.

On this worst of days, when everything seemed to be going wrong, God was working to accomplish the means of our salvation. Though it must have seemed to the disciples that everything was spinning out of control, God’s perfect will was being accomplished.

Others in Scripture had times when everything seemed to be going wrong.

Job lost his possessions, his livelihood, his ten children, and then his health.
Abraham and Sarah were promised a son, but nothing happened for decades.
Joseph was the favored son, but was sold by his brothers into slavery, falsely accused, and thrown into prison. Those whom he asked to say a good word for him forgot.
David was anointed king, but spent years running for his life and hiding in caves before he was crowned.
The Jews were on the verge of being exterminated by a wicked enemy in the book of Esther. Esther was unsure whether her husband, a pagan king, would listen to her plea to save her people. Though God is not named in the book, His hand is obvious throughout.

We see their situations resolved by God’s provision and leading in just a few pages. But we need to remember they lived with questions and bewilderment for a long time, even for many years in some cases.

Olympic runner and missionary Eric Liddell said, “Circumstances may appear to wreck our lives and God’s plans, but God is not helpless among the ruins. God’s love is still working. He comes in and takes the calamity and uses it victoriously, working out His wonderful plan of love.”

When things seem to be falling apart, when God’s answer doesn’t seem to be coming, when we’re confused, when we have no idea how the current circumstances will ever work out, we can go to God. He doesn’t always let us know His plans or reasons. But He promises He loves us and He is in control. He has a purpose for everything He allows. Many verses reassure us of these things. Here are just a few:

“Remember the former things of old; for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done,
saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose” (Isaiah 46:9-10).
“The LORD has established his throne in the heavens, and his kingdom rules over all” (Psalm 103:19).
“Then Job answered the Lord and said: ‘I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted'” (Job 42:1-2).
“Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the LORD that will stand” (Proverbs 19:21).
“Our God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases” (Psalm 115:3).
“The Most High rules the kingdom of men” (Daniel 4:25b).
“And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28).

Throughout the Bible, we see people laying their hearts, confusion, and questions out before the Lord, often in anguish. After reminding themselves of the truth they knew about God’s character, wisdom, love and power, they came to a place of trust, submission, hope, and joy. They received His grace and help to carry on and wait for God’s answer.

We can, too.

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

Laudable Linkage

Posted on September 2, 2023 by Barbara Harper

Here are some of the good reads found this week:

Jesus Said More About Hell Than Anyone in the Bible, HT to Challies. “What a wonderful thing it is that Jesus warns us. He does not leave us ignorant of the wrath to come. He not only warns. He rescues. This is the best effect of fear: it wakens us to our need for help and points us to the all-sufficient Redeemer, Jesus. Let it have this effect on you.”

Truth to Cling to When Nothing Makes Sense, HT to Challies. “Though there have been many precious years of walking with my Savior, the past several years has shaken my confidence as the road has continued to be dark, long, and painful. Though God has been faithful in so many ways (far more than we can probably see) I have been increasingly perplexed and unsettled by his ways.”

What’s the Temperature of Your Love Relationship with the Lord? “Whether you’re teaching, planning events, cleaning the church, or filling your days with service to your family, your love for what you do and for the people you are serving is an overflow of your love for God. In protecting and preserving that vertical relationship, there’s no substitute for time spent in his presence, soaking in the truth of his Word.”

Don’t Think About Elephants! HT to Challies. “There is more to the answer than saying, ‘don’t be anxious’. That doesn’t work; we then become anxious about whether we are doing a good job of not being anxious! Let me prove it to you. I want you to not think about elephants. Whatever you do, I don’t want the thought of an elephant to enter your mind. Don’t think about their size or their ears or their trunks. How are you going? What are you thinking about right now? I think I can guess!”

7 Meaningful Ways and Reasons to Be Kind to Yourself. We can beat ourselves up unmercifully when we make mistakes, but that’s destructive. Jeanne shares better ways to respond.

On Short-Term Missions, Part 4: Semper Gumby. “When you’re ministering cross-culturally, you’re dealing with people who are different from you all day long. They think differently, they do things differently; they’re offended by different things, they laugh at different things. In that kind of environment, it’s possible for you to be highly offensive, even with the best of intentions. So you need to adjust your thinking.” This is good advice even in business or other situations where we interact with people from another culture.

Greet with a Holy Kiss? Applying an Uncomfortable Command, HT to Challies. Some good ways to think about and apply the passages referring to a “holy kiss.”

The Blessings of Boredom. “Anytime we feel the slightest hint of boredom, we look for the closest novelty to alleviate that feeling. That usually means grabbing our phones, checking social media, playing a game, reading the news, or otherwise finding something to occupy our minds. The result, however, is that we find ourselves dashing from room to hallway, room to hallway, never fully pacifying that feeling of boredom and never very much enjoying the distraction either. The sad thing is that this is a form of self-sabotage.”

God does not waste suffering, nor does He discipline out of caprice.
If He plough, it is because He purposes a crop. — J. Oswald Sanders

Friday’s Fave Five

Posted on September 1, 2023 by Barbara Harper

It’s the first Friday of September! Autumn is one day closer. 🙂 That’s one blessing. I’m sharing a few more with Susanne and friends at Living to Tell the Story.

1. The Knoxville Asian Festival. I’ve wanted to go to this for ages, but we never made it til this year. Jason, Mittu, and Timothy went last year, and Timothy really enjoyed the Matsuriza Drum group from Disney World. So we especially wanted to see them this year. I would have loved to see so many more of the performing groups, but performances ran all day from about 10:30 a.m. to 8 p.m., and we couldn’t stay for all.

I thought it was funny that with their beautiful outfits and fans, these dancers wore white socks and sneakers.

There were booths and stands all over World’s Fair Park, some selling Asian food and wares, some selling nothing that had to do with the Orient. 🙂 It was so hot and humid that day, we just couldn’t look around much and stay for longer than we did. But we enjoyed what we did experience.

2. A voice text from Timothy asking if they could come over and hang out one evening. It’s lovely knowing your grandchild wants to spend time with you.

3. Clearing out a few things. I have a giveaway box where I stash things to donate to the thrift store, then deliver them when the box is full. That time was coming, so I also went through some old boxes in my closet. To walk into my closet, you wouldn’t notice anything different. But I know the back corner was cleaned up and sorted through, and that feels good.

4. Finding $20 unexpectedly. One of the giveaway items was a purse that was cute, but too small for me. I had already cleaned it out, I thought. But I looked through all the pockets and crevices again, and found a wad of receipts and coupons. . . and a $20 bill!

That was fun in itself. But just that morning I was looking over the list of things we were going to get our youngest son for his birthday in a few weeks. (I can say this because I don’t think he reads my blog. 🙂 ) I wanted to get him one more item than we had discussed, which was $20. Finding $20 seemed like the go-ahead to get the item.

5. Timothy at Kid’s Club. Our church has a kid’s club something like Awanas, but with a curriculum written by one of the men in the church. Timothy went this week, the first time he’s gone to something like that, and had a great time.

That’s our week. How was yours?

August Reflections

Posted on August 31, 2023 by Barbara Harper

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Creating

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

And this was for Jeremy’s birthday.

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

Watching

We saw a few interesting movies this month.

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

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

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

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

Reading

Since last time I have completed:

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

I’m currently reading:

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

Blogging

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

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

Writing

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

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

How was your August? Are you ready for fall?

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