Harvest of Grace

I was so excited to see another Cindy Woodsmall Book on my list of options for my next Blogging for Books book!  I absolutely love everything I have read of hers.  And Harvest of Grace did not disappoint. 

Harvest of Grace is the final book in the Ada House series, which followed the Sisters of the Quilt series I blogged about earlier.  I read the first book in the Ada House Series earlier this summer and still have yet to read the 2nd one.  Thankfully, this series wasn't so tied together that you couldn't read out of order.  All of the characters are the same in the books, but the main characters change in each one, so the focus is different.

In Harvest of Grace a young woman, Sylvia, is betrayed by the man she loves and her sister and feels like she must get away from it all.  She is not your typical Amish woman and much prefers the 'man's' work of a diary farm than the 'woman's' job in the kitchen.  So, to get away from the situation at home she gets a job at a dairy farm far enough away from her family that she won't have to deal with the hurt.

The farm she goes to is owned by a couple with hurting hearts.  They lost their only surviving daughter to an accident and their only surviving son, Aaron,  became an alcoholic and left home.  T(hey had lost 7 other children through miscarriages or soon after birth.)  Thankfully, Aaron sought treatment at the Better Path (which is from the Sister of the Quilt Series and I loved the tie in), overcame his addiction and returned home to try to talk his parents into selling the farm and moving into town with him to run an appliance store he was hopeful to purchase.

Selling the farm meant Sylvia would lose her job and the farm she was coming to love, so she was very threatened by Aaron.  Aaron was threatened by Sylvia in the fact that she was trying to save the farm and give his parents hope of keeping it.  The big question throughout the book is whether they will save the farm and fall in love or go their separate ways.   It keeps you turning the pages.

A while series of events unfold involving other supporting character throughout the book who were also subjects of the first two books and they all tie together nicely.  Since this is the final book in the series, all character's stories are resolved and left for "happily ever after."

Another great Amish series of books by Cindy Woodsmall. 

I received this book for free from Waterbrook/Multnomah publishers for this review.

State of the Family #45

Oy Vey! Or however you spell that....  It has been crazy around here and doesn't look to slow down anytime soon!  Yowzers!
So, since the last post on here we have been to the pumpkin patch, had a few bouts with a tummy bug, celebrated a big birthday, deer season, had a scare with a box of hair dye, and so much more fun I can't even remember it all.

So, the pumpkin patch was a blast as usual.  We were terrible parents and pulled Miss Firecracker and Noisy Man out of school for the day to go.  That place is a nightmare on the weekends and it worked for everyone to go the day we chose, so we went.  I always have high hopes of getting a great family photo and pics of the kiddos there.  With all of their beautiful trees and mums and pumpkins they have great photo opp places.  Of course, Miss Thumb Sucker was in NO mood for any pictures and I was lucky to get anything.  Last year we got a great one, this year we'll have to deal with what we have and hope for a better one at Christmas maybe...

Miss Thumb Sucker turned the big number two the first week in November.  We had a fabulous rainbow birthday party for her complete with a layered rainbow cake and rainbow tutu!  She was spoiled with gifts from loved ones and dug into the cake before we even cut it.

Daddy and Noisy Man came down with a terrible case of the stomach flu the day following the party and mommy was afraid I gave everyone food poisoning.  Thankfully, there were no other reports of illness and we were able to chalk it up to a virus.  Poor daddy felt sick that entire week, but plowed through it.  Thankfully, again, no one else is our family got it. 

That day also happened to be Halloween, so poor Noisy Man did not feel well enough to participate.  He was heartbroken.  His loving sisters helped him out and took his candy bucket along with them and filled it up too. (Sadly, I evidently deleted our Halloween pictures before I uploaded them, so I am going to have to do some staged ones for their scrapbooks.)
Mommy had a terrible experience with a box of red hair dye for the Christmas play Halloween day as well.  It did go on very evenly and also washed out kind of pink.  Thankfully, our resident Christmas Musical hairdresser came to my rescue and fixed it.  Not so thankfully, it still isn't red enough and I have to go back for yet another round of hair dye later this week.  I keep telling people that God skipped a generation of red-heads for a very good reason. 

Daddy is out deer hunting as we speak.  It started last Saturday and he bagged a doe right away.  This year's rules say that you have to shoot an antler-less deer before you can shoot one with antlers.  So now he is holding out hope for one with a nice spread.  I am just ready for him to come home. 

Daddy took the kids to my dad's with him (he hunts on the section just caddywhompus from my dad's house) on Friday night since I had play practice all morning Saturday and had to sing at both church services Sunday morning.  So, mommy was at home ALL ALONE from Friday night at 5:30 until I went and picked the kids up at noon on Sunday.  Let me tell you, it was glorious!  Don't get me wrong, I love, love, love my family, but sometimes a girl just needs some time alone.  It was so great to be able to clean the house without having it get cluttered up as soon as I turned around. I even got the kids' rooms cleaned up. Even more so, it was great to be able to finish a complete task without having a, "Mommy!" yelled at me 20 times before I finished.  Actually, the house is still about 75% clean, it is amazing.
Well, I suppose that is about enough jabbering on for now.  More to come on our exciting lives....or something like that.