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Archives for 2024

Birds–In Memory

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Mr. Imagination’s birds mostly stay in their cage and look pretty. We try to let them out to exercise several times a week, but because we have to do it when the cat is locked up it doesn’t happen every day. We are always able to pick up Jo-Jo, the cockatiel, but Kea, the budgie, doesn’t want to be touched. However, she will land on people’s heads now–or on a back, if someone is bent over! She weighs so little that sometimes it’s hard to know if she is still there. Everyone likes it when she lands on them!

A few days after I wrote that paragraph and scheduled this post, we found Kea on the bottom of the cage one day, unable to use on of her legs. We did what we could for her, but a few hours later she died. Jo-Jo is very subdued these days, and we miss our lively, beautiful bird.

Miss Joy

Mr. Sweetie

Mr. Imagination

Little Miss

I didn’t realize till I was putting this post together that I had pictures of all four of the younger children with the birds! Speaking of which, has anyone noticed how different my life is now from when I published my first post, in July 2011? At that time, I had six children and the oldest was 13. Since then, we have had three more babies, one child died, and four of them are now legal adults with jobs! At this stage, I have only four schoolchildren, and the youngest will soon turn five. Thirteen years can make a huge difference in a family.

Meat!

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We did a lot of butchering in June. The first weekend, while more than half the family were in Dunedin, a neighbor gave us a deer. Those of us who were at home got it boned out and minced, and then I made it all into hamburger patties.

A couple of weeks later, Simon killed a deer, and we made that one into mince, and froze it for later use.

We also got some nice pieces of backstrap from it.

The last weekend of the month we killed a beef heifer we raised for almost two years. She was the biggest beast we’ve ever processed ourselves, and when we weighed all the packages of meat while we were putting them in the freezer, we calculated that the hanging weight would have been about 275 kg (over 600 pounds). This was the quarters hanging in the carport, where they stayed for two days before we broke them down.

We made everything possible into roasts and steaks, and turned the trim into sausages.

The kitchen was a very busy, messy place that evening!

A few days later, I cut up the steaks, which we had put in the fridge in big bags, and the children helped to get them wrapped.

After a month, my hand has finally recovered from all that knife work!

The Steepest Street

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The first weekend in June, several of our children went to Dunedin for a conference, a weekend of preaching, at a church there. Some friends from this area went along, too. After the conference, before heading home, they made a quick stop to check out what is listed in the Guiness Book of World Records as the steepest street in the world–Baldwin Street. It has a gradient of 35%–the result of following plans laid out for the town from England without taking local topography into consideration!

This one is here just for fun–Simon clowning around one of the evenings!

And a funny bit of trivia? Three of my children, two of whom were in the group that went to Dunedin, are in the United States right now. They had a 12-hour-layover in San Francisco, and a cousin took them on a short tour of the city. One thing they did was to drive down what is known as the curviest street in the world!

Book Review–Guess Who Is In God’s Family

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Welcome to the Blog Tour for Guess Who Is in God’s Family by Karen Ferguson, hosted by JustRead Publicity Tours!

About the Book

Title: Guess Who is in God’s Family
Series: Questions for Kids
Author: Karen Ferguson
Publisher: Ambassador International
Release Date: June 4, 2024
Genre: Children’s Picture Book

When Lucy comes across some old family pictures, she has a lot of questions for Papa Joe. Who are these people? Why doesn’t she look like them? As Papa Joe tells Lucy about her family, he shares with her the uniqueness that God created in each of us from the very beginning, all the way back to our first ancestors, Adam and Eve. What follows is a wild adventure through the Bible, where Lucy and her papa discover God’s love and faithfulness for all people throughout all of history. In this second book in the Questions for Kids series, discover how much God loves diversity and how God created your family in the most beautiful and perfect way.

PURCHASE LINKS: Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Bookshop | BookBub

My Thoughts:

I love this picture book! The pictures are sweet, beautiful and colorful, and I love the way the author tells the story of Creation and the Fall. She describes the perfection of the original creation, and then the way sin entered the world and ruined it. That is the bad news—and she ends the story with a teaser about the good news, which is then detailed on the next page. There are also several questions at the end to ask little children, to make sure they understand what the story is about. This is the perfect way to introduce young children to the account of mankind’s earliest days and why we need Jesus.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the author, and these are my honest thoughts about it. Links may be affiliate links.

More Books In This Series

About the Author

Karen Ferguson is a freelance writer and the author of the Questions for Kids picture book series. A lover of words, family, animals, and Jesus, Karen is a passionate advocate for truth that transforms lives. Her faith in God and background in K-8 education inspires her mission to write stories that grab and hold young readers’ attentions, teaching them all about God’s unchangeable truths and His unchanging love for them.

Connect with Karen at karenferg.com to follow her on social media and sign up for email updates.

Tour Giveaway

(1) winner will win a $25 Amazon gift card, print copies of Guess How Much God Loves You and Guess Who Is In God’s Family, and a book tote!

Full tour schedule linked below. The giveaway begins at midnight July 31, 2024 and will last through 11:59 PM EST on August 7, 2024. Winners will be notified within 2 weeks of close of the giveaway and given 48 hours to respond or risk forfeiture of prize. US only. Void where prohibited by law or logistics.

Giveaway is subject to JustRead Publicity Tours Giveaway Policies.

Enter Giveaway

Follow along at JustRead Tours for a full list of stops!

JustRead Publicity Tours

Book Review–But In Mount Zion

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About the Book:

Book: But In Mount Zion (Companion Study for Knowing Obadiah)

Author:April W. Gardner

Genre: Bible Study for Women

Release date: October, 2023

But in Mount Zion is a companion study for the commentary Knowing Obadiah.

​This workbook offers an interactive and reflective experience for readers to engage with the commentary and dive deeper into the book of Obadiah.

Through thought-provoking questions, exercises, and group discussion prompts, the workbook provides readers and teachers the tools to apply the lessons from Obadiah to their own lives. It also includes suggestions for further study, making it an excellent resource for Bible study groups or individual study.

Whether you’re a seasoned Bible scholar or a new believer, this set will help you deepen your understanding of Obadiah and its message.

My Thoughts:

Several months ago, I noticed that April Gardner was asking for reviewers for her first Biblical fiction novel, A Hope Fulfilled. I offered to help her out, and along with that book she sent ebooks of Knowing Obadiah and a companion study guide, But in Mount Zion. I decided to work my way through this study of the book of Obadiah for my morning quiet time. I read Knowing Obadiah, and when I reached a place where the instruction was given to work through the study guide I switched to it. 

On my second read through But in Mount Zion, this time without going back and forth between it and Knowing Obadiah, I was struck with the author’s emphasis on me, the reader. How do these ancient writings and prophecies apply to my life? What does God want of me and have for me? This is quite an intense study. I wouldn’t recommend trying to do it without going through the other book, though. These two books are best used as a set, in my opinion.

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:

APRIL W GARDNER is an indie author whose great passion is historical romance with themes of Native American and Southeastern U.S. culture. Copyeditor, mother of two grown children, and non-trad college student, April lives in South Texas with her husband and two German Shepherds. In no particular order, April dreams of owning a horse, learning a third language, and visiting all the national parks.

More from April:

How close are you to your Bible? I don’t mean the distance from you to the nightstand where it’s resting. Or the amount of warm-and-fuzzy you feel toward it. Or the number of heartfelt notes you’ve scribbled sideways into the margins. I mean, how close is your connection to the Bible’s people and places?

Are you here in the twenty-first century while it’s there in some unknown BC year? Are you here in your comfy chair re-reading old Bible stories while prophets and priests are there battling against idolatry, while apostles and saints are there suffering for Jesus?

Or are you here and there, backside in a plush chair but feet planted in the hot sands of the Negev, body existing in the twenty-first century, but heart and mind connected to every message and mission given in Scripture?

The story of the Bible isn’t a three-act play: Old Testament characters and plot, New Testament characters and plot, present-day characters and plot. From Genesis 1 to today, it’s all the same act. We are all players in God’s Great Story. If we’re Christians saved by Christ’s sacrificial death, we’re all joined by the same Scarlet Thread. From Adam through Joshua, Obadiah, Esther, Lydia, Stephen, and all the rest to you and me.

It’s my hope that as you go deeper into the study of Obadiah, its origins, prophecy, and fulfillment, that you’ll place yourself at the center of its Before-Christ settings, that you’ll feel Esau’s grief, Jerusalem’s terror, and Judah’s righteous anger, and that you’ll look to God’s stage where His Story is playing out and say to yourself, “These are my people. This is my story. I am a player.”

So. Let’s get playing.

To purchase your copy, click here.

To visit more of the blog stops on this tour, click here.

To enter a fun giveaway, click here.

Cats

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We continue to enjoy watching our goofy cats, and teasing them. Of course, any new surface must be sat on–this sheet of newspaper was obviously the best place around for taking a bath!

The house the little girls made was a great place to hide out, too–especially when we were trying to catch Princess to put her outside!

One evening, James started teasing Princess, and it was so funny I grabbed my phone to get a video of it.

Mr. Sweetie was amused at Grizzly enjoying the sun on top of our ute one day.

The picture above, of Grizzly from behind, reminds me of Capyboppy in the book by that title–a capybara that was a pet for awhile. This is the picture:

A friend stayed here with our boys for a few days, and the last day he was so worn out that I found this!

Aurora

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Along with almost everyone else in the high latitudes of the world, we were privileged to see the brilliant auroras in May. I didn’t get any decent pictures, but Esther got a few. She edited this first one to make the colors more like what we saw with the naked eye. Amazing! We saw this from our driveway, looking past the neighbor’s house with its lights on.

An hour or two later we drove up the road a little ways to where there were no lights, to see what we could see. The red was gone at that time, but there was a green glow in the sky that was also amazing.

May 2024 Photos–Part 2

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Here are the rest of the pictures I have from May. This first one is sad. She was playing on the trampoline after church one Sunday and fell off onto concrete. She gave herself a black eye and a concussion. After we got home and she had rested for an hour or two she wanted to know what she looked like, so I took this picture. She looked a lot worse the next day, though, as her eye got blacker, and then over the next few days it turned green and yellow. Within a week, though, the color was gone; within a day she had no visible effects from the concussion.

I’m not sure what this was all about. I do know they were being goofy! This is Mr. Imagination and Mr. Sweetie.

Someone got the idea that we should photograph all the tourists who stop to photograph our calf! We can’t now, though, because a fence has just been built along the road and we can’t see across there anymore.

I was working at my desk one evening and Little Miss brought me her rock creation, so I quickly snapped a picture of it.

Little Miss created this bouquet one morning, and then took a picture of it and asked me to print it. She then made it into a card for an elderly couple we were going to visit that afternoon at a rest home in town.

This is more of Little Miss’s artwork! She took this picture, too.

Book Review–Sounds Like a Plan

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Welcome to the Blog Tour for Sounds Like a Plan by Lorna Seilstad, Eleanor Bertin, Sara Davison, Brenda S. Anderson, and Stacy Monson, hosted by JustRead Publicity Tours!

Title: Sounds Like a Plan: Stories of Change and the God Who Doesn’t
Author: Lorna Seilstad, Eleanor Bertin, Sara Davison, Brenda S. Anderson, Stacy Monson
Publisher: The Mosaic Collection
Release Date: July 10, 2024
Genre: Christian Fiction Anthology

A Baby in the Mix by Lorna Seilstad
Not By Chance by Eleanor Bertin
Five Things You Know About Me by Sara Davison
Mercy’s Detour by Brenda S. Anderson
Piper’s Sweet Dream by Stacy Monson

What Reviewers are Saying About The Mosaic Collection Anthologies:

Each is a picture of God’s grace working in the hearts of hurting people through individual writing styles.

Each author has her own voice, yet somehow they all fit perfectly together.

The stories are just the right length to relax with at the end of a long day.

I love these Mosaic author anthologies. These are stories about real people with real problems and emotions.

Such beautifully written, inspirational short stories with themes of grace, forgiveness, love, and peace.

Uplifting stories of ordinary people dealing with their faith and life’s struggles.

Thank you to all the Mosaic Collection authors for giving us more lovely stories to remind us that we will never be alone as God is always with us.

Each of these faith-based fiction stories in Sounds Like a Plan is uniquely and beautifully written with believable characters sustained by the amazing grace of God. Memorable, touching, inspiring, and a true reading pleasure. May you be blessed by this collection.

My Thoughts:

The Mosaic Collection has published several anthologies, each with five or more novellas by a variety of authors. I haven’t read all of them, but have really enjoyed the ones I have read. For that reason, when they were asking for reviewers for their new summer 2024 anthology, I signed up. I ended up really liking all five of the novellas in Sounds Like a Plan, and I will definitely be interested in reading more of these collections!

If you enjoy collections of novellas with characters who feel real, with light or no romance, try out Sounds Like a Plan.  I am looking forward to reading the next anthology put out by the Mosaic Collection. 

PURCHASE LINKS: Goodreads | Amazon | BookBub

About the Authors

Lorna Seilstad delves into life’s complexities with a generous dash of humor. She is a Carol Award finalist and the author of nine novels including the Lake Manawa Summers series and the Gregory Sisters series. Her stories are part of several novella collections. When she isn’t eating chocolate, she teaches women’s Bible classes, runs a toy store, volunteers with 4-H, and is a wedding planner. She has three adult children and lives in Iowa with her Pyredoodle named Honey Bea.

Connect with Lorna at lornaseilstad.com to follow her on social media and sign up for email updates.

From her home in central Alberta, Canada, Eleanor Bertin writes fiction that ponders the depths of God’s love and mercy to humanity.

She is the author of The Ties That Bind series, Lifelines, Unbound, and Tethered, the Burning Bright series, Flame of Mercy and Flicker of Trust, as well as the memoir, Pall of Silence, about her late son, Paul. She lives with her husband of 40 years and their youngest son, in what will someday be a beautiful century home.

Connect with Eleanor at eleanorbertinauthor.com to follow her on social media and sign up for email updates.

Sara Davison is the author of The Night Guardians, The Rose Tattoo, two sparrows for a penny, and In the Shadows series, as well as the standalone, The Watcher. A finalist for more than a dozen national writing awards, including the Christy Award, Davison is a Holt Medallion, Cascade, and two-time Carol Award winner for romantic suspense. She lives in Ontario with her husband, Michael. Like every good Canadian, she loves coffee, hockey, poutine, and apologizing for no particular reason.

Connect with Sara at saradavison.org to follow her on social media and sign up for email updates.

Brenda S. Anderson writes authentic and gritty life-affirming fiction that shows God at work in people’s messy lives. She enjoys live sports and theater, walking along the shores of Lake Superior, sharing hot cocoa with friends and family, and taking road trips with her newly retired husband. She lives near Minneapolis with her husband and their mischievous twin kitties.

Connect with Brenda at brendaandersonbooks.com to follow her on social media and sign up for email updates.

Stacy Monson is the award-winning author of stories that reveal an extraordinary God at work in ordinary life. Residing in the beautiful, peaceful countryside outside of the Twin Cities with an old dog and 17 chickens, she has two kids, two wonderful in-law kids, and adores being G’ma to 7 amazing grandchildren.

Connect with Stacy at stacymonson.com to follow her on social media and sign up for email updates.

Tour Giveaway

(1) winner will win a paperback copy of Sounds Like a Plan, a $25 Amazon gift card, and a piano music CD by Eleanor Bertin’s son!

Full tour schedule linked below. The giveaway begins at midnight July 9, 2024 and will last through 11:59 PM EST on July 16, 2024. Winners will be notified within 2 weeks of close of the giveaway and given 48 hours to respond or risk forfeiture of prize. US/CAN only. Void where prohibited by law or logistics.

Giveaway is subject to JustRead Publicity Tours Giveaway Policies.

Enter Giveaway

Follow along at JustRead Tours for a full list of stops!

JustRead Publicity Tours

The Conking Donkey

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Mr. Imagination was assigned to write and perform a puppet show as part of his Language Arts program. He chose to adapt one of Aesop’s Fables from a book we have, and got his older brother to help perform it. This video was taken during a practice run, and then they performed it for our homeschool group the next day. The first few seconds are blurry, and then the camera got focused, so hold on till you can see what is happening.

This is the story he was inspired by: