Book review: Love's Pursuit

Love's Pursuit
Bethany House (June 1, 2009)
by
Siri Mitchell


ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Siri Mitchell graduated from the University of Washington with a business degree and worked in various levels of government. As a military spouse, she has lived all over the world, including in Paris and Tokyo. Siri enjoys observing and learning from different cultures. She is fluent in French and loves sushi.

But she is also a member of a strange breed of people called novelists. When they’re listening to a sermon and taking notes, chances are, they’ve just had a great idea for a plot or a dialogue. If they nod in response to a really profound statement, they’re probably thinking, “Yes. Right. That’s exactly what my character needs to hear.” When they edit their manuscripts, they laugh at the funny parts. And cry at the sad parts. Sometimes they even talk to their characters.

Siri wrote 4 books and accumulated 153 rejections before signing with a publisher. In the process, she saw the bottoms of more pints of Ben & Jerry’s than she cares to admit. At various times she has vowed never to write another word again. Ever. She has gone on writing strikes and even stooped to threatening her manuscripts with the shredder.

A Constant Heart was her sixth novel. Two of her novels, Chateau of Echoes and The Cubicle Next Door were Christy Award finalists. She has been called one of the clearest, most original voices in the CBA.


ABOUT THE BOOK

In the small Puritan community of Stoneybrooke, Massachusetts, Susannah Phillips stands out both for her character and beauty. She wants only a simple life but soon finds herself pursued by the town's wealthiest bachelor and by a roguish military captain sent to protect them. One is not what he seems and one is more than he seems.

In trying to discover true love's path, Susannah is helped by the most unlikely of allies, a wounded woman who lives invisible and ignored in their town. As the depth, passion, and sacrifice of love is revealed to Susannah, she begins to question the rules and regulations of her childhood faith. In a community where grace is unknown, what price will she pay for embracing love?

If you would like to read the first chapter of Love's Pursuit, go HERE



MY REVIEW: I've read a lot Amish fiction, but I have to say this is the first novel I've read that focused on the Puritans. I found it interesting and refreshing to become entwined in a lifestyle much farther removed from our own than even the Amish. I have to say, it was with a sort of morbid curiosity that this story held me in. I couldn't put in down. It followed a great story line of forbidden love, tragedy and deceit, but I couldn't help but be grateful for our modern day lives. It's not really our things that this book made me so grateful for... it's our modern freedoms. Though the story portrays the Puritans as Godly, hard-working folks, it also portrays them as joyless. A life of joy and laughter were not allowed. How glad I am that we have the freedom to engage in as much laughter as we want today!

The garden is thriving!

I love seeing all the green that indicates the gardens are growing well!

When you are trying to grow hundreds of pounds of produce on an urban homestead, you have to be creative. We barely have any grass left anyway, but this year we decided to utilize even more space by making beds around the perimeter of the fence.

Above, tomatoes seedlings reach for the sky.

We used twine to give these pickling cucumbers something to climb on. We are just starting to get cucumbers. This year, I plan to try my hand at pickles!


Above, the watermelon patch is hiding melons that size of softballs. We can't wait to taste that juicy red fruit!


We decided on an open pollinated heirloom variety of corn instead of GE (genetically engineered) seeds. Some people said we should have tried the GE seeds since it is our first year trying to grow corn, but we'll just see how it goes.


In the very back you can see our little peach tree. Eventually we hope to add a couple of apple trees, if we can make more room!

Book reveiw: A Bride in the Bargain

A Bride In The Bargain
Bethany House (June 1, 2009)
by
Deeanne Gist

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Deeanne Gist, the bestselling author of A Bride Most Begrudging and The Measure of a Lady, has a background in education and journalism. Her credits include People magazine, Parents, and Parenting. With a line of parenting products called "I Did It!® Productions" and a degree from Texas A&M, she continues her writing and speaking. She and her family live in Houston, Texas.

Since the debut of those novels, her very original, very fun romances have rocketed up the bestseller lists and captured readers everywhere. Add to this two consecutive Christy Awards, two RITA nominations, rave reviews, and a growing loyal fan base, and you’ve got one recipe for success.







ABOUT THE BOOK:

The Wedding Is All Planned...
Someone Just Needs to Tell the Bride
In 1860s Seattle, redwoods were plentiful but women scarce. Yet a man with a wife could secure 640 acres of timberland for free.

Joe Denton doesn't have a wife, though. His died before she could follow him to Seattle and now the local judge is threatening to take away his claim. In desperation, he buys himself a Mercer bride--one of the eastern widows and orphans brought to the Territory by entrepreneur Asa Mercer.

Anna Ivey's journey west with Mercer is an escape from the aftermath of the Civil War. She signed on to become a cook--not a bride. When she's handed over to Denton, her stubborn refusal to wed jeopardizes his land. With only a few months before he loses all he holds dear, can he convince this provoking, but beguiling, easterner to become his lawfully wedded wife?

If you would like to read the first chapter of A Bride In The Bargain, go HERE


MY REVIEW: I have yet to be disappointed by a novel by Deeanne Gist. In this one, the heroine, Anna, comes all the way from the east coast - which is being torn apart by the civil war - to the state of Washington in search of a job after her father and brother are killed in the war and her mother dies of a broken heart. She is to work for lumber mill owner Joe Denton as a cook for his employees. Unfortunately, a scam artist promised Joe Denton a bride, not just an employee.

Anna refuses to marry him and, since women are in short supply in the west, Joe sets out to make her fall in love with him in a last ditch effort to save his land. Meanwhile, Anna worms her way into the hearts of the lumberjacks under Joe's employ by cooking up a storm. Maybe the subtitle to this book should have said something about the way to a man's heart being through his stomach...

I thoroughly enjoyed "A Bride in the Bargain." I think I'll go fix a big meal for Hubby...

Cardinal baby

Can you see it?

Right outside my daughter's window, a cardinal built a nest and laid two eggs. We have been watching the activity through her window, and a couple of days ago one of the eggs hatched. It's hard to make out, but the baby bird doesn't really have any down or feathers on it's back.

Can you see the plastic lining the nest? That should teach us not to litter. Instead of draining water when it rains, that plastic is going to cause the baby to have to sit in a puddle.


The baby bird is waiting for mom to come back with some food.

A Valentine's gift in June

So, have you noticed all the changes around here? I finally got my Valentine's Day gift! Let me explain.

Hubby and I are pretty practical and happily give and receive practical gifts on holidays. When Valentine's Day came around in February, Hubby asked me if there was anything in particular he could get me. I thought for a minute and then said, "Yes, a new blog!"

But not just any blog. I wanted a blog done by Sara Bonds, blog designer extraordinaire. Unfortunately, Sara had a waiting list of clients. A long waiting list. But Hubby said to go for it, so I had her add my name to her list. And now, finally... I have a newly redesigned blog!

Sara was very good at listening to my ramblings and coming up with a blog design. After answering her questions about my likes and dislikes when it comes to blog designs, I just knew the only thing she was going to be able to get from my discourse was going to be horrible. But Sara just summed it all up... "Got it. Classy but country."

Oh, is that I all that stuff I said amounted to? Apparently so, because when I saw her rough draft I loved it! With a little tweaking we were able to make it perfect. Hope you like it, too!

P.S. Give me a few days and you'll be able to click on the tabs at the top of the page to get to posts from the past and present that interest you.

The first squash!

The squash has officially started producing. This is our first two days worth, and I've already got another batch bigger than this waiting to be chopped, blanched and frozen.

Our first squash? It came Wednesday, and we are already up to getting this much every day, despite the plants that were broken by high winds. I'm telling you, when squash decides to start producing, it doesn't hold back!

Laughing With

This video was really different and has some amazing visuals, but it was really the lyrics that caught my attention. They aren't your mainstream Christian music lyrics. In fact, I've heard different views of exactly what people think this song means. This is one of those songs that leave you to draw your own conclusions. I've got my own opinion, but see what you think.


LAUGHING WITH
Performed by Regina Spektor

No one laughs at God in a hospital
No one laughs at God in a war
No one's laughing at God when they're starving or freezing or so very poor

No one laughs at God when the doctor calls after some routine tests
No one's laughing at God when it's gotten real late and their kid's not back from that party yet

No one laughs at God when their airplane starts to uncontrollably shake
No one's laughing at God when they see the one they love hand in hand with someone else and they hope that they're mistaken
No one laughs at God when the cops knock on their door and they say "We've got some bad new, sir,"
No one's laughing at God when there's a famine, fire or flood

But God can be funny
At a cocktail party while listening to a good God-themed joke or
Or when the crazies say he hates us and they get so red in the head you think that they're about to choke

God can be funny
When told he'll give you money if you just pray the right way
And when presented like a genie
Who does magic like Houdini
Or grants wishes like Jiminy Cricket and Santa Claus

God can be so hilarious
Ha ha
Ha ha

No one laughs at God in a hospital
No one laughs at God in a war
No one's laughing at God when they've lost all they got and they don't know what for

No one laughs at God on the day they realize that the last sight they'll ever see is a pair of hateful eyes
No one's laughing at God when they're saying their goodbyes

But God can be funny
At a cocktail party while listening to a good God-themed joke or
Or when the crazies say he hates us and they get so red in the head you think that they're about to choke

God can be funny
When told he'll give you money if you just pray the right way
And when presented like a genie
Who does magic like Houdini
Or grants wishes like Jiminy Cricket and Santa Claus
God can be so hilarious

No one laughs at God in a hospital
No one laughs at God in a war

No one laughs at God in a hospital
No one laughs at God in a war

No one's laughing at God in a hospital
No one's laughing at God in a war

No one's laughing at God when they're starving or freezing or so very poor

No one's laughing at God
No one's laughing at God
No one's laughing at God
We're all laughing with God

Wind vs. the garden

We've had rain for the past couple of days. It wasn't until we went out to check on the garden today that we realized we must have had some high winds at some point, too.

Much of the corn was no longer reaching for the sky. Instead it was growing diagonally. We were able to straighten most of it up.

The squash wasn't as easily saved, however. Several of the plants, which just recently started flowering, have been broken by the wind.

Gardening/farming is a difficult thing. You work so hard to coax the plants into growing, then in one night a simple act of nature can destroy them. That sounds pretty melodramatic, considering that we only lost a few squash plants! There are plenty of farmers who have lost entire crops to droughts or floods, and along with it, their livelihoods.

Other than the squash and corn, the garden is doing well for the most part. We decided to grow the cucumbers against the fence this year to save space and thus far, it's working well.

The carrots that overwintered were tough and just didn't taste good, so we have decided to let them go to seed. We will save the seed and replant in the late summer for a fall crop. The seed heads are pretty, aren't they?

And the herb garden is growing like crazy. The bees are big fans of the lavender.

Defending homeschooling

This is a "homesteading" blog, not a "homeschooling" blog but I can't get away from the fact that homeschooling is a big part of our life.

Not only do I simply think that in many cases it's the "right thing to do," but homeschooling does pertain to homesteading. After all, homesteading is all about becoming more self-sufficient and relying less on the government and on big box stores, isn't it? How self-sufficient is it to provide for the education of your own children?

Anyway, the whole point of this post is to encourage you to read Spunky Homeschool's rebuttal to Jesse Scaccia's "Case Against Homeschooling."

Whatever your beliefs on the subject, I hope you will find this spunky post as interesting as I did.

Book reveiw: Breathe

Breathe
(David C. Cook; New edition June 1, 2009)
by
Lisa T. Bergren


ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Lisa T. Bergren is the best-selling, award winning author of over thirty books, with more than 1.5 million copies sold. A former publishing executive, she now splits her time between writing and freelance editing and parenting her three young children with her husband Tim. She lives in Colorado Springs.

ABOUT THE BOOK

To make a new life, she'll have to learn how to breathe again...

By the time Dominic and Moira St. Clair get their ailing sister, Odessa, to Colorado Springs in the winter of 1883, she is nearly dead. Odessa has been seriously aling for the past year from consumption, an illness that claimed the lives of four of her younger brothers, prompting her father, to send his only surviving children west to chase the cure.

Moira is beautiful and dangerously headstrong; and pugnacious Dominic is charged with establishing a new arm of the family business--a business he doesn't want.
Several days after her arrival, Odessa witnesses what she fears is the murder of miner Sam O’Toole, friend and neighbor to the charming Bryce McAllan.

What’s more, Sam leaves her a poem containing clues that seem to direct her to his mine, which is purported to carry a fantastic vein of silver. But if she is ever to rise from her bed again, she must first concentrate on conquering the giant that threatens her─consumption. Indeed, she must learn to breathe again─daring to embrace her life, her future, and hope in her God.

If you would like to read the first chapter of Breathe, go HERE