Lots of Helpers

Our family's life in New Zealand

New in the Library! June 2026

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More new books! We have just completed a complete inventory of the library, laying hands on every book that is not currently checked out and making sure that the book is not lost, it is in the correct place, and the cover image is correct (because we changed a setting on LibraryThing last year, which made 2/3 of our cover pictures change to the wrong one! Oops.). It was a bit scary to realize how many new books we have acquired since our last inventory in September, and how many we haven’t read yet. This is my To Be Read stash.

Esther went to a large secondhand book fair when she was visiting friends for a weekend, and found some lovely books. She bought these old copies of The Three Musketeers and Little Dorrit to add to her collection of classics. The Bamboo Cross is an amazing story about Vietnamese Christians during the 1960s. I read a borrowed copy several years ago, and it was inspiring. She also found several more books to add to her collection of Agatha Christie books.

She also found replacement copies for several of our books that have been well-loved. The paperback copy of The Story About Ping that I bought when Esther was quite young is nearly worn out, so I was delighted when she found this hardcover copy of one of our favorite picture books. Our old paperback of The Wheel on the School was falling apart, too. I love this hardcover–with the original dustjacket still! We had a first edition of Jungle Doctor Operates, but it was in very poor condition, and this one matches most of our other books from that series.

At another secondhand book sale, we found a copy of Anne Frank to replace ours, which was literally crumbling. That same sale yielded a Marguerite Henry book we didn’t have yet, Misty’s Twilight. I was delighted to be able to complete the Misty series although, to be honest, this book is not my favorite of Henry’s books. Several days later we went secondhand shopping, and I found this hardcover copy of The Carrot Seed, a delightful picture book about a little boy who knew his seed would grow.

The Silver Sword is another old favorite in our family; now we have a hardcover on the shelf to replace the falling-apart paperback. And then there are these lovely old copies of Little Men and Jo’s Boys!

Mary on Horseback and Dolphin Treasure were two of the books I read recently to my youngest. They are also old favorites that I’ve read many times! After we finished Mary, we looked up the 1931 documentary mentioned in the end of the book, and got to see old movie footage of the same scenes! As we were doing inventory, I rediscovered this picture book of Sir Francis Drake. We happened to be studying him at that time, so we added it in to one of our reading sessions. It’s a humorous look into the explorer’s life.

I got to read Caddie Woodlawn to one of my daughters. What a treat! I don’t know how many times I’ve read this one, but I always enjoy it. I finally read Traveller to myself. It was especially interesting because it is set in Canterbury, in places we have been. It’s a beautiful story of redemption, and of forgiveness, and letting go. We also read Westward Ho! It turns out to be a tale of the struggle between England and Spain for naval power, in the 1500s; the Spanish Armada figures into the story. Sadly, it ended up being quite a bloody story, with a lot of prejudice shown (the Spanish are completely evil; the South American Indians are a lower race, just barely above the level of monkeys). Since it was written in 1855, it is likely an accurate portrayal of the attitudes of the time, and gave us something to talk about.

I have been working on collecting the Swallows and Amazons series for a year or so, and finally found Swallowdale! Now we are only missing #3, Peter Duck, and one or two of the last ones. Joe found a Ranger’s Apprentice book at a secondhand shop to add to his collection, and Esther found Wives and Daughters. I haven’t read it, but she says it’s really good. James bought Called when he went to a meeting where the author spoke about her life experiences. He enjoyed reading it, and said it was inspiring.

A package of new books I received for the library included all these fun ones. A is for Arches is from a series I used to get from the library when we lived in Michigan. It’s a fun way to explore the states. The Longest Journey is a description of the voyage faced by people immigrating from England to New Zealand in the 1950s. Dick Whittington is a fun retelling of the old legend of a boy and his cat. Avoid Being in a Medieval Castle is from a fun series; I’ve found these quite good for studying various topics. And then there are two more Life of Fred books. I love the way they teach difficult topics in a fun way.

The World of Mathematics and Seven True Elephant Stories were also in that package. I really like Tiner’s books about various historical/scientific topics. The elephant book has been shelved with the Independent Readers; it’s a great book for children who have graduated from Easy Readers and are ready for simple chapter books. Sermons From a Soapbox is one that I got for review, and my mom brought it along when she came. I used it for a daily devotional after she left (she was reading it that way while she was here). I like the short, bite-sized encouraging essays.

I finally talked someone into choosing The Bounces of Cynthiann’ for a read-aloud! I brought this one home in a suitcase last year. It is a delightful story of four orphan children who discover, when they arrive in a small town in Oregon, that the cousin they were to live with has died. What happened to them next makes an engrossing story. Brave Buffalo Fighter is a page-turner about traveling the Oregon Trail. Be sure to read a few reviews of it before handing it to children, though. I included a number of content warnings with my review. Then there is Cornelia and the Audacious Escapades of the Somerset Sisters. I chose this one from my TBR pile just because of the title. The author uses stories-within-a-story to change a character’s mindset and bring people together.

As usual, we were able to get through several books that have been on our shelves but unread by us for many years. The Yanks Are Coming is a very readable history of World War I. Some of it is terrible–the way war is. I appreciated learning more about that war; there are a lot of books about World War II, but not many about this one. Esther read Defying Death. It is the story of a Coptic priest in Egypt, and his discovery of Jesus and how he shared Jesus with those around him. She was quite impressed with the story. Sebastian Bach is another book I discovered while doing inventory. I read it quickly, and decided it belonged on the Independent Readers shelf. It is a fascinating story!

These readers were in another parcel of books I bought. They have beautiful pictures! My youngest loves reading them.

That same parcel included all these beautiful science picture books. My children enjoyed studying the pictures in them.

That parcel also included these picture books! When one of the boys read Hattie and the Fox, he asked, “Why does the fox never catch the chicken in picture books?” Sunshine is a fun wordless book. I like these books illustrating various aspects of New Zealand farm life, too. Sadly, Deer Recovery is missing the center pages, so I’ll be watching for a replacement copy.

We finally have a copy of The Story of Ferdinand. Can you tell I like the old picture books? We found Ten Girls Who Used Their Talents in a secondhand shop. I think we have all except one of the books in that series now. And, I found another Bear Grylls Adventures book! The Safari Challenge joins the other three we have from that series. I don’t like the magical aspect, but I do like that these are high-interest, low-level books, and even printed with the OpenDyslexic font. And, the life lessons that are taught in each book are good, too.

I finished reading The Russians series. These are good! I have read a lot about the events of the Bolshevik Revolution and Lenin’s takeover of Russia, but to read about it in this format really makes the events real and personal. I found it fascinating to get an inside glimpse into the tensions that brought Russia to the point of Lenin being able to take over the country. Every so often there is a chapter directly about the Romanov family, the family of the Tsar. Those were a bit hard to read, because I knew what happened to them. Find my reviews of Heirs of the Motherland; The Dawning of Deliverance; White Nights, Red Morning; and Passage Into Light on Goodreads.

And that’s all for June! There will be more books going on the shelf in July, I’m sure. Remember that TBR pile at the top of this post? I’m working on it! As always, to borrow any of these books or others, please go to our catalog. If that link doesn’t work, find another view of it here, and then email me through the contact form on this blog. Find out how we loan books on this page.

New Floor!

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One day in early May, Esther went into our shipping container to find something that was stored in there. She was horrified to find evidence of mice. We had never had mice find their way in there before, but sure enough, when I went in, it smelled strongly of them. That was on Saturday. We helped someone move on Monday, so Tuesday was our first chance to get into the container. We decided to pull everything out of the area under the shelves and see if we could find where the mice were getting in. We found it! See the hole in the corner and the pile of bits of wood around it? We also found that this corner of the floor was quite damp. After some consultation with the builder and the floor layer in the family, the decision was made to tear up the old particle-board floor, which was water-damaged in many places, and replace it with new, treated plywood, covered with commercial vinyl offcuts that Elijah was able to get for free.

We were surprised, when we pulled up the floor, to find this underneath! The container was a reefer, which explains the channels.

James got the new floor laid that evening (what a blessing that Elijah can bring plywood home in his work van), and Elijah got started laying the vinyl.

That weekend, he finished the job, and on Monday we moved back in! The floor has three different colors, but it is sweepable and washable and we are delighted. And, no mice can get in. The hole through which they were entering has been found and plugged (a plug blew out when someone was using a power washer a few months ago). The cats still want in, but that is because they like the beds that are often in there.

Moonlight Track

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The first week of May, we spent a Sunday afternoon with friends, exploring the Moonlight Track in the Paparoa Range. This track is almost directly across the Grey River from our house, but a 30-minute drive because of the location of the bridges. It was a gorgeous, quiet spot to spend a few hours. I quickly found myself alone at the end of the line. I had forgotten to bring my walking shoes, so had to make do with my dress shoes. I enjoyed taking my time and soaking in the quiet of the forest after everyone else ran on ahead.

The views along the Moonlight River were amazing!

After awhile, I caught up with Gayle, Esther and Miss Joy who were sitting on rocks along the river and enjoying the water and the scenery.

We think of Grandma every time we see fungi!

I’m not sure what this was, but it was intriguing.

A couple of us took photos of a friendly bush robin. It actually got as close as about three inches from my feet, but moved so fast that I didn’t get a picture of it there.

I took a few side tracks that looked interesting. One of them came out on this clearing, with a sign that says, ” Moonlight Township 1860.” There was a bustling town here at that time, full of gold miners.

This enormous hole in the ground is at the far side of the town site.

The main track next goes between these piles of rocks. It looks as though the rocks which were dug out in the process of searching for gold were stacked very carefully in various places.

Up a hill on another side track, overlooking the river, I found this roofing iron–all that’s left of a house?

Beside it, Joe and I found this fireplace.

This bit of stone wall was just off to the side.

This pile of stones goes out over the river.

There were a number of caves, where gold was dug out long ago.

Another picture for Grandma–Elijah thinks this may have been slime mold.

I didn’t go as far as the swing bridge. Apparently, it wasn’t too scary!

April 2026 Photos

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This month’s photos are a little more varied than last! First are some mushrooms. These first three are pictures Elijah took while he was on a search. He has a new phone and loves the good camera built in to it.

The girls found these mushrooms growing in the garden and took the pictures for Grandma (the ones above were taken with Grandma in mind, too!).

The next one is mushrooms growing on rotten balage!

Elijah loves taking night pictures with his new phone. This was the moon over the Tasman Sea one night when he was in Hokitika for a birthday party.

The same night; this is the boat playground at the mouth of the Hokitika River.

Little Miss is determined to get 1,000 hours of outside time this year, so even when it rains, she’s outside. And when she’s outside, chances are that Miss Joy is, too. One rainy day, this is what I saw!

The girls harvested the first half of the pumpkins by themselves.

When it’s cold, we do school like this. Miss Joy got the coveted position directly in front of the fire this time. The cat makes sure she gets her spot close to it, too.

After being in milk since September 2024, Bluebell isn’t giving much anymore, but there sure is a lot of cream! See the cream line? I’ve been able to freeze great quantities of butter for the winter shortage. Some days, there is even more cream than this. Sadly, after 15-20 years of service for us, this 5-liter jar got cracked a few days ago. I’ll have to buy another stainless steel one.

One morning, I was hanging laundry. I noticed something fuzzy in the basket of wet clothes. My eyes aren’t quite as good as they used to be, and I didn’t look closely, either. I thought, “That’s an odd bit of black yarn; it almost looks like a spider.” I kept picking things up and shaking them out and hanging them. As I got down through the basket, the bit of yarn fell to the bottom… and then the legs moved. It WAS a giant, fuzzy spider! It had gone through a wash cycle and was still slightly alive. Mr. Imagination took it to the greenhouse, but it didn’t live much longer. I think he still has it, though, to bring out when he wants to shock someone.

Mr. Imagination is majorly into weaponry. His latest craze is slingshots. He has created many, many slingshots in the last while, and built this target to practice shooting. The towel is to stop the balls, and they can be recovered in the barrel so he can reuse them.

The day we traveled to Timaru for Easter Conference, the sky was absolutely clear, and the view as we came over a hill and could see Lake Coleridge in the distance was stunning. The photo doesn’t come anywhere near doing it justice.

The view as we came down into the Rakaia Gorge was stunning, too.

Miss Joy with her domino string.

The ultimate pick up sticks game–arrows!

This was part of Joe’s engineering course; he had to design a suspension bridge and then weight it down.

She’s protecting the chicks that are hatching! (Or maybe coveting….)

New in the Library! May 2026

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More new books! I placed an order with Living Book Press for a few books. I remember loving The Burgess Bird Book for Children; I read it several times. I’ve never read The Burgess Seashore Book for Children before, but soon I hope to read it aloud. Both of these have been updated with color photographs instead of the original drawings. One Sunday morning, I noticed a picture book under someone’s arm, and asked to have a look at it. It turned out that she had brought it along to give to someone, and she gave it to us for the library! The Cat From Muzzle is a delightful true story of a cat who made his way home through rugged terrain.

Last month sometime, I watched a video that a fellow librarian in Wisconsin made, describing some older books she is reprinting. The books she was showing rang a bell, and I went to the shelf to have a look. Sure enough, this biography of Sir Edmund Hillary was from the publisher who originally brought out the books she was talking about! Not long after that, I saw six more books advertised on a page I follow, and I was able to get more of these wonderful biographies. Thomas Alva Edison and Paul Revere are from the Discovery series, which are the ones she was talking about; Hernando De Soto, John Smith, Roald Amundsen, and Ferdinand Magellan are from the other series, about World Explorers. All of these have relatively large print with a lot of white on the page, and reasonably easy vocabulary, but the stories are very interesting. Each has around 12 chapters. I am delighted to have these books on the shelf; some of them are about men that are hard to find information about.

These two Titanic books were bundled with another book I wanted (which hasn’t been added to the shelf yet). Finding the Titanic is an easy reader, while Titanic by Sean Callery is full of information about the ship and its sinking. A funny story about it: We took a long hike on a mountain track one Sunday afternoon, and our six-year-old said, near the end, that she was “tectonically tired.” She’s been studying the Titanic in this book! I grabbed No Lily-Livered Girl when I had the chance, as we already had the other four books in this series about the life of a girl in New Zealand in the early 1900s.

Awhile ago we read How to Pet a Porcupine in digital format. We loved this goofy book with its delightful illustrations and fun plays on words, so when I had a chance to buy a paper copy, I did. Rikki-Tikki-Tavi was an op shop find when my daughters were with a neighbor. It has beautiful illustrations, although I think I still like our other picture book version of this story better. Betsy and the Boys was my choice of one more book in an order to get free shipping. I would love to own all of Carolyn Haywood’s books! They are quite popular with 7-9-year-olds. Luciana was a book I received in a bulk lot and didn’t like the looks of, but when I read it, I decided to keep it. There are some good lessons about responsibility and friendship in this book.

I added Winning His Spurs to a stack of books I bought recently because I like G. A. Henty’s historical fiction, but was disappointed, when it arrived, to see that it was abridged. I’ll leave it on the shelf until I find a better copy. Cougar was a Bookarama find last year. It tells the story of a boy who adopted an orphaned cougar cub in the woods of Maine–and then had to figure out what to do with it! Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry has been on our shelf for many years, but I just ended up with this nice, nearly-new copy in a bulk lot and decided to replace my old one. Esther took it, because it matched another in the series that she owns.

We already had a copy of My Friend Flicka, but when I found this vintage hardcover with a beautiful dust jacket I decided to replace ours. With a new plastic cover over the dust jacket, isn’t it gorgeous? Mick the Disobedient Puppy is a fun small-format picture book. Out of the Dust has been on our shelf for a long time, but I finally got around to reading it. What an amazing way to feel like you have experienced the Dust Bowl in Depression-era Oklahoma! It also happens to be the first novel-in-verse that I have ever read.

I also read several more books that have been on the shelf for a long time. Where in the World and The Wondrous World of Violet Barnaby both deal with grief for the loss of a parent (one from a boy’s perspective, and the other from a girl’s), among other issues. Both are well done, although I found Violet more engrossing. The Dark Night is a typical example of 19th-century Sunday reading, telling a story with a very clearly-shown moral.

I loved getting to read some old favorites to my youngest children! The Light at Tern Rock is probably my all-time favorite Christmas story. The Story About Ping must be almost my favorite picture book. I’ve been reading this one aloud for well over 20 years, and still love it. By the looks of it, we may need a replacement some day. Secret of the Andes is a delightful story of a boy in the mountains of Peru. I hadn’t remembered how much of it centers around worshipping the sun, though. That made for a good thing to discuss!

I read a few more books that have been languishing on the shelves for many years, waiting to be read. Keeping Score is a moving story about a girl in love with baseball, and when the man she enjoyed it with is sent to Korea, with devastating results, she learns a lot about life. A Rat’s Tale is a fun, tongue-in-cheek story of thousands of rats who act a lot like humans. I haven’t read Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy yet, but Esther did and liked it.

My 11-year-old didn’t totally enjoy listening to me read Across Five Aprils to her, but I thoroughly enjoyed this intimate view of the American Civil War from the perspective of a young boy on a farm in Illinois. Race to the Pole is a quick, easy read about Scott, Amundsen and Shackleton and how they raced to the South Pole. It is great for 7-10-year-olds who like nonfiction. The Snow Goose was another quick read. It turns out to be the story of the rescue at Dunkirk, centered around a snow goose and the outcast man who saved the bird’s life.

We found another Church Mouse book. These are very fun! The humor is decidedly adult-level (totally clean, but things like “escaping the rat race”), but children love the overall story. I read American Adventures to one of my children as part of our trip through American history. There are stories in this book that I’ve never seen elsewhere (did you know that there was an Emperor in San Francisco once upon a time?). Ballet Shoes was included in a bulk lot of children’s books I purchased. I didn’t think I would keep it, but when I started reading it and laughing, I soon changed my mind. Then, I realized that, instead of being modern as I thought, it was actually first published in 1936!

We just finished reading a book I brought home from an op shop in Michigan last year, and one that we picked up at the Bookarama. The Grizzly turned out to be a very intense survival story, great to suck boys in. It is much more than that, though. It is an amazing journey of a boy whose parents are estranged; his mother has made him afraid of his father and of anything that might be dangerous or scary. I ended up really liking this book. It will be on the shelf as soon as I can get the cover repaired. Boy made us very thankful not to be in an English boarding school in the 1930s. The brutality was unbelievable. However, we did understand more where Roald Dahl came up with some of his stories and characters. I also read Joanna of Checkerboard Hills, which has been on the shelf since it was given to us a couple of years ago. It is a typical book from Rod & Staff Publishers, depicting a strong Christian family and perfect role models.

We now have three books on the shelf about William Wilberforce. I think One Voice is my favorite, even though it doesn’t work very well as a read-aloud unless the person being read to is right there looking at the page. That’s because it is written in free-verse style. It was a very effective way to get the message across, if it is seen. Esther found The Story of Doctor Dolittle at a secondhand book shop. The cover had come loose, so they didn’t charge her for it, but I was able to glue it together easily. I read it to my youngest, and she absolutely loved it. We had just finished studying the Elizabethan period when I noticed Mary Queen of Scots on the shelf forgotten, waiting to be read, so we backed up in our history studies. I have added some content warnings about it to our catalog, so have a look at that.

We also added four new Adult Fiction books! Esther picked up Gold For Prince Charlie at an op shop. She loved this glimpse into the life of Bonnie Prince Charlie. I would love to read it… as well as Waves of Mercy. Esther read Waves of Mercy awhile ago, as a review book. Lynn Austin is one of her favorite authors, so much so that she not only read this one but listened to it. The Holy Thief is one of the books we rescued from the dump in Rotorua when we were there a couple of years ago, and we found The Potter’s Field at the Bookarama last year. I really enjoy the Brother Cadfael books! I would call them cozy mysteries, though they are murder mysteries, and all that I have read have a thread of romance in them, even though they are set in monasteries. They are pure fun! I like the way they are written, too; though they were written recently, they sound like old stories.

To borrow any of these books or others, please go to our catalog. If that link doesn’t work, find another view of it here, and then email me through the contact form on this blog. Find out how we loan books on this page.

March 2026 Photos

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Cats and garden and truck… that covers most of the photos I liked from March! This first one, though, is of the lunar eclipse that month. What a spectacular sight! Elijah had a pair of image-stabilizing binoculars here at the time that he was testing out for his Land Search and Rescue group, and they made the moon amazingly clear. We also got to see the four biggest moons of Jupiter through them. What a thrill! The last time I saw those was with my dad, probably in the 1980s when he was given a telescope.

My girls love books and cats! Little Miss has been reading to Miss Joy a lot.

Mr. Imagination and Elijah with their stack.

The garden was gorgeous at that point. (It’s mostly dead now.) Esther took this picture one day while she was harvesting chamomile. The smell of this area… wonderful!

Sometime in March, Simon bought another Land Rover. This one started out life in 1963 with a different body; this one was put on in the 1980s. It isn’t running, and he plans to junk most of it, but he got it for certain parts that are especially good in that model. Anyway, the price was so low he couldn’t not get it!

And, cats! Goofy cats that rest in odd places and positions.

Boxes are the best.

Even if the box is so small it’s difficult to fit all four feet in!

This picture requires some explanation. One morning, around 11:00, someone saw Grizzly sitting like this in the yard, looking quite unhappy. It had started to rain an hour or so before this; she had been sitting there since 8:30 or so. She was very wet, but didn’t wake up enough to move until I nudged her as I went past, shortly after the picture was taken. Then, she got up, leaving a dry spot on the grass where she had been, and went under cover.

Recovery

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After he broke his hip, Joe (formerly called Mr. Sweetie) spent six weeks in a wheelchair. That was a challenge, in a house the size of ours with this many people living in it! We managed, though.

First, here are a couple of pictures Esther took while they were in the hospital

As soon as he was allowed to sit up in a wheelchair, Esther took him outside to a park across the street for some fresh air. This furniture is concrete with mosaic decorations!

I purchased an engineering course for Joe to do, since when he got hurt he had only a week’s worth of school left. That kept him busy for the entire time he was in a wheelchair, and he thoroughly enjoyed it! Here are a few of the projects he did. The first assignment was to hold a stack of books an inch off the floor, using only one sheet of printer paper and a foot of masking tape. He accomplished it!

This assignment was to create a free-standing tower with a given amount of paper and tape.

When we went back for his six-week check, to receive permission to start walking again, they took an x-ray to check his healing. Quite an impressive screw! About half of it is inside the bone.

Book Review–Blaze of Honor

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About the Book:

Book: BLAZE OF HONOR

Author: D.M. Griffin

Genre: Biblical Fiction

Release Date: May 12, 2026

A BLAZE OF HONOR WOULD EITHER CONSUME HIM OR ILLUMINATE THE PATH TO LOVE!

Joram couldn’t pinpoint the burning conviction in his heart, the reason honoring his father felt like the only path to a life that pleased God. He remembered the unheard prayers of a five-year-old whose mother betrayed the sanctity of family and knew well the bitterness in his father’s heart. Whatever the reason, Joram, a man of few words, lived an obedient life. He adopted his father’s wishes and desires as if they were born from his own heart, and with that came his father’s simmering bitterness and ingrained distrust of women.

Driven by a desire for Joram to achieve more than a shepherd’s humble existence, his father pressured him to excel academically, tirelessly seeking the approval of powerful figures. Joram’s life took a dramatic turn when he captured the attention of Parthia’s notorious bandit leaders.

Caught in a dizzying storm of politics and family vendettas, Joram reluctantly accepts a fake marriage, meant to bring a young woman to Jerusalem so she could marry another man. Knowing how his father felt about women, a view he adopted as his own, Joram wasn’t prepared for the transformation that would take place once he began playing the role of a husband for all the wrong reasons.

The treacherous journey, marked by near-death experiences, culminated with them arriving in Jerusalem amidst the vibrant Feast of Weeks. With his knowledge of God ringing hollow as a mere religious duty, Joram divorced his wife and surrendered her to another man, determined to honor his word. But when he stumbles upon the truth and feels the burning intensity of the Holy Spirit descend in a blaze of honor that illuminates far more than he could have ever imagined, Joram has to decide if he is willing to walk the path of love.

My Thoughts:

Biblical fiction is very much a mixed bag for me. I really enjoy some of it… and other books in this genre just don’t do it for me. For the first half or so of this book, I was quite ambivalent about it, and likely wouldn’t have kept on if I hadn’t committed to reading it. Towards the end, though, I found myself reading faster, wanting to find out what happened. 

I was quite irritated with Joram through much of the story, because it seemed like he wasn’t learning what he needed to learn. It was great to find him changing later on, though. I especially appreciated the discussions about what marriage should be. I also liked the glimpse at what it may have been like to be in Jerusalem on Pentecost when the Holy Spirit came. 

I received a review copy of this book from the author, and these are my honest thoughts about it. Links may be affiliate links, which will benefit Esther’s website if purchases are made through them.

About the Author:

D.M. (Demi) Griffin is the author of several novels and has won multiple literary awards. Her novels in The Encounter Series won various Independent Author awards in the category of Religious Fiction.

She writes Christian Fantasy, Biblical, and Historical Fiction. She currently resides in Northern California with her husband of over thirty years. She truly believes that a book that sits on a shelf unread is like a planted seed that never blossoms. Nothing delights her more than sharing a story.

More from D. M.:

My inspiration for writing Blaze of Honor came from a simple lyric in a song. “Be careful, little eyes, what you see.” I had the idea of writing the Spirit Ignited Series rattling around in my head for five years. During my regular Bible reading plan, inspiration sucked me into the scene in Acts 2 when Peter preaches to a crowd on the day of Pentecost. I found myself wondering about the people described as coming from all over the empire. I wondered what had brought them there, and what they had heard. How could I not be fascinated when the church grew exponentially that day? So, the idea for Spirit Ignited grew. I wanted to write four novels about four men who had been in the crowd that day.

As excited as I was to begin writing those stories, other books crept into the queue before I fully developed the characters for Spirit Ignited. I was excited when the first ideas came back to me after five long years of waiting for these men to speak up and inspire me. What was even more challenging was that the stories were begging to be written in first-person from a single perspective. That was a daunting task since I had only written dual-perspective stories up until that point. And, truth be told, first-person isn’t my favorite.

But I obliged and found myself completely captivated by these men. Surprisingly enough, I did not write Blaze of Honor first. Though it is the first to be released in the series, it was the third book I wrote in the Spirit Ignited series.

After hearing the song lyric, I started to wonder about how parents, most specifically troubled marriages, affected children. Joram, a shy character, finally found his voice in my head, and together, we explored a life of unintended scars and how they shape a boy as he becomes a man.

The story’s themes of redemption, forgiveness, and grace underscore the main takeaway: honoring God through loving others. I yearn for readers to grasp this central truth, to feel the depth in the main character’s plight. The narrative delves into the heart of devotion, exploring how easily the concept of honoring God can become contorted in the labyrinth of the mind. After completing the first draft, the realization that this story, with its raw vulnerability, could only be told in the intimate voice of the first person hit me.

I truly hope readers will get as much out of it as I did when I wrote it. Stories that transform as well as entertain are my favorite kind of stories.

To purchase your copy, click here.

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To enter a fun giveaway, click here.

February 2026 Photos

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February was a very eventful month! My last eight posts of family adventures have been of things we did away from home with Mom and my brother. Here are the rest of the pictures I have from the month, showing a few things that happened at home and the big trauma that Joe endured.

There was time for the children to play a few games with their uncle, and for him to enjoy the budgies.

On the way to church one Sunday morning, we had to stop for some cattle that were being moved down the road. What fun–we don’t see that very often anymore.

Mom did a few more puzzles, with occasional help from the rest of us. She started another puzzle the day before she left, but I don’t think it’s been touched since then!

I spent a lot of time harvesting. That was when the garden was still beautiful, before the late-summer diseases hit. I loved all the colors here in the pea/bean trellis!

Goofball came along to get some attention one day when I went to pick a few beans for dinner. She sat in the tub for a few minutes, then got out and walked away.

We hatched some more chicks. That never gets old!

One of the girls caught Grizzly in a box.

The day we went to Jim’s Hut, while he was walking along the road, Joe thought he pulled a muscle. For several days, he limped. I asked him about it several times, and he just said it hurt a little, but not bad. Then, on Monday morning, his brother startled him and he jumped. Suddenly he screamed in pain and couldn’t walk anymore. I came into the house just in time to see Elijah carrying him to the couch. An hour or so later, I took him to the hospital. The x-ray showed that the growth plate on his left femur had slipped apart, as you can see here. He was flown to Chrischurch in the helicopter within a couple of hours, and the next day he had surgery. They realigned the bone and put in a screw to hold it in place. He was in hospital for three days. Esther drove over there to care for him and bring him home when he was released.

We were all very thankful to have Joe back at home on Thursday evening! He spent the next 6 1/2 weeks in a wheelchair.

Right after Mom left, I found another slime mold in the greenhouse. That must be a perfect environment for them!

One evening, Gayle took pictures of what was happening outside. Two boys were practicing archery.

I was reading to the girls.

Kiwi Chick, Blackball, Brunner Mine

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We packed a lot into the last Saturday of my brother’s visit. All the males from our house went four wheel driving that day. I haven’t gotten any pictures from that trip, so I can’t share anything, but we ladies had a fun day. That morning a friend texted me that there was an open day at the Kiwi Creche across the river from us at Atarau. The people in charge of kiwis on the Coast collect eggs from wild birds, take them to Christchurch to be incubated, and then bring them back here when the chicks are a month or two old. They have a large area carefully fenced so that predators cannot get in, and they keep the young kiwis safely there so that they can learn to care for themselves and grow enough that stoats and weasels can’t harm them. One was to be released into that area that day, so we rearranged our plans quickly and went.

Before we got to see the baby kiwi, we listened to a talk about what the group does, and got to hold a real kiwi egg that had failed to hatch.

We watched the woman in charge weighing and measuring the baby, and then she carried it around the circle so that everyone could have a close-up look at it. After that, she tucked it into a hollow stump and covered the opening with ferns; kiwis are nocturnal.

We enjoyed seeing these water lilies. The kiwi creche is accessed through the grounds of a lodge, and it is gorgeous!

After leaving the Kiwi Creche, we had a picnic at a roadside table, and then drove to Blackball to have a look around. I had never been there before, so it was interesting to see a new area. On the far side of Blackball, we stumbled across the Blackball Mine, where coal was mined for a number of years before and after 1900. There were a lot of ruins there, and what looked like a great track to hike. We didn’t have time for that, though; Esther had started bread and needed to get home to get it out of the fridge and baked.

On Tuesday, I took the three youngest children, Mom and my brother to Greymouth. It was their last day, and with Esther and Joe in the Christchurch hospital, I wanted a distraction for everyone. We did a little fun shopping (fun for the ladies; the men went along with us). Then, we had lunch at the breakwall and watched a fishing boat go out.

Then, we went to the Brunner Mine at Stillwater and enjoyed the river and the ruins there. The paths and signs have been greatly improved since I was last there in 2018. We all enjoyed this one last fun thing before Mom and my brother left.