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.

State of the Family #44

Well, things have definitely not slowed down around here.  It seems like the last two week we (mainly mommy) has had something going on every night of the week.

Our highlight of it all was combine rides with G'pa G., getting to see our friends from Alaska and making some monster pudding cups on the one Saturday morning we had free.

I sadly forgot to take my camera when we went to see the Buckbees, so I don't have any pictures of that fun.  But here is the fun of the other events.

Mommy got to go out with the girls!

Other than that it has been play practice, AWANA, Kings Kids, Bible Studies, Pampered Chef and all the daily life in between.  Miss Thumb Sucker has good and not-so-good days with her potty training still, so we are still working on that. 

Noisy Man had Red Ribbon Week at his school this week, so he has had fun dressing up for their various days.  Monday he just had to wear red, and came home looking like a ladybug.  Tuesday he got to dress up as what he wanted to be when he grew up and today was pirate day.  (Pic to come, since this is his Halloween costume too).  Friday is favorite book character day and he plans to go as Peter Pan.

Miss Firecracker has started back to dance class.  She plans on being a ballerina for Halloween this year.

I'll have much to blog on next time as we will have Miss Thumb Sucker's 2nd birthday party and are headed to the pumpkin patch tomorrow (rain delay from last planned date).

I DO IT!

Oh Miss Thumb Sucker.  She has become quite the independent jabberbox as of late.

A melt your heart moment:  We decided to say our bedtime prayers in the car on a late school night drive home the other night so as to be able to brush teeth and jump in bed once we arrived at home.  From the back seat I hear, "Dear God, thank you for Jesus, Aaaaamen.  Dear God, thank you for da Bible, Aaaaaamen."  Yes, both of these complete statements and signature drawn out Amens came from my not-quite-two-year-old.  It was one of those, "Thank you, Lord that you are helping me do something right" moments!

Her other current thing is wanting to dress herself.  I get her clothes out in the morning or jammies out at bedtime and she instantly says, "I do it!" Well, if I lay her pants and undies down on the floor in front of her the correct way she can get them pulled on just right.  I must say it is quite commical to watch her do it, too, but she gets it done.  When it comes to the shirt though, it is another story.  She isn't quite up to this task and it makes her so mad. 

This picture is the little independent jabberbox saying to me, "I button it, mommy." (there are little buttons and loops at the bottom of these pants.)  After about 2 minutes of trying, an A for patience in her book, she looks at me and says, "I can't button it.  You help, pease, mommy?"  Plain as day.  Seriously.  Where did my baby go?

A Great Read

I love a good book...I might have mentioned that a time or two on here.

My last blogging for books book was one of those.  It was Karen Kingsbury's (I was so psyched that I got to review one of her books, she is one of my favorite authors) Waiting for Morning.

This is a great read to put you in place with where your heart truly is with Jesus.  In this book, Hannah Ryan unexpectedly loses her husband and eldest daughter in a car accident with a drunk driver.  When the metal hits the road, Hannah finds her faith doesn't stand the test and she loses her trust in God.  But thankfully, God doesn't give up on her. 

In the pursuit of sweet revenge, Hannah becomes obsessed and totally pushes her remaining daughter away, to a point where she might lose her as well.  Hannah's pursuit involves an in-depth trial with a Christian lawyer, cop and counselor with MADD on her side, against the drunk driver that killed her family.  Thankfully, God's plan prevails with putting these three people in her life to remind her of His plan and love for us even when things don't turn out as we want them to.

This book is a great tribute to fully trusting in God through thick and thin, and even more so one of forgiveness.  It was so easy to judge Hannah Ryan in this book.  Thinking, "How can she turn from God?  Look what she is doing to her daughter?  Why can't she see what is going on?"  But when it really comes down to it not a single one of us knows what we would do if placed in a situation of the same caliber unless we have been there.  Preparing our hearts and abiding with Him daily are the only ways we can hope to make the right decision.

I am so glad to have gotten to read this book for free for this review from Waterbrook/Multnomah publishers.  It was a great read and I didn't want to put it down until it was done.

State of the Family #43

Things are a busy as ever around here as the Christmas musical practices are in full swing which takes Mommy away from home 2 nights a week.  Then you add in Wednesday night Bible Study and Kings Kids and the whole week feels shot!

Noisy Man and Miss Firecracker are still loving school.  We had Parent/Teacher conferences for Noisy Man and got a great review.  His teacher reported that he is a very well behaved little boy and doing well with everything in school.  The only thing she had to report to us that wasn't completely positive, but not really negative either was that during reading time he seems to be self-distracting, making binoculars with his hands or playing with his chair.  But when she catches him and asks him a question about what she was just teaching, he still knows the answer.  Hmmm... the musings of a kindergartner.  Noisy Man also hit another milestone this past week with learning how to tie his shoes! 

The battle with Miss Firecracker and nap time seems to have subsided in the last week.  Thanks to an awesome MOPS mentor mom who discussed the 'special time' she and her husband used to do with their children before bed time, I decided to try and implement it with MF for nap time to see if the arguing would lessen.  Lo and behold, it worked!  She gets to pick out whatever book she wants and I lay down in her bed with her. Then we read the book together, just the two of us.  She loves the one on one time, which I think is essential for a middle child to get anyway, and I don't have to fight with her to get her to bed every afternoon!

We are diaper free at this house!  It is such a blessing!  Miss Thumb Sucker has figured out this potty stuff.  She still has a few accidents here and there and wears pull-ups whenever we are out of the house or she is in bed, but is even figuring out how to go on 'other' toilets as well!  I am so proud of her.  And she doesn't turn 2 for another month. 

Daddy has been quite the trooper over the past few weeks with mommy being gone quite a bit for practice, Pampered Chef shows and a few other things.  Get this, I even came home to some beautiful flowers from him the other day, and he had to take all three kids into the store to buy them!  He is still working on breaking some horses so the kids can ride a little bit more this summer, trying to get in a few last fishing trips (without much luck on catching anything) and started a men's Bible study as well. 

Last weekend we got to trek half way across the wonderful state of Nebraska to see some wonderful college friends of ours.  Julie and I have run many races together in Lincoln over the last few years, but then she moved out to beautiful Elsie.  The 5 hour car ride to see them was a bit 'iffy' at times with 3 kids in tow, but once we got there, it was nothing but fun.  Well, almost.  The trek was made so that Mommy and Julie could take part in the Autumn River Run 1/2 marathon in North Platte.  Did you know that North Platte and Eastern NE have almost 2,000 ft difference in elevation?  Did you know that this difference makes a huge difference on Mommy's ability to run well (notice I didn't say fast, just well, my running far from qualifies as fast no matter how well I do)?  More on the race in another post.

Our time with our friends was wonderful.  They have 2 kids ages 2 and 4.  You would never know that our kids had never played together before.  I don't think there was a fight all weekend and they all played like they had been best friends for life.  The parents had a great time as well, watching football and enjoying great conversation.  Learn more about their wonderful family here.  Julie and I lived in Love Memorial Hall together our first years of college and our hubbies were both Burr Hall boys those years as well!   They made a great cheering section for the race too!

Now onto more busy weeks, hopefully a trip to the pumpkin patch this weekend if the rain holds out, and tractor and combine rides with grandpa!

State of the Family #42

 Things have finally seemed to calm down a little bit around here!

We are getting into a groove and I am finally not forgetting everything because I am so out of whack.  Kind of sad that it took me a month to get to that point though.

Noisy Man and Miss Firecracker got to start AWANA a couple of weeks ago.  It is a program at our church for leading kids to know, love and serve Christ.  So, every Sunday night they get to hang out at church, play games and memorize Bible verses.  It is such a great program. 

Mommy has play practice just before AWANA starts so I drop them at their classrooms and I have been using that time to go run!  I am absolutely loving this weather.  Miss Thumb Sucker and Daddy get to just hang out during that hour and a half, I think they have fun too.

We also went to Grandpa's house for the weekend and headed up to Nebraska City to pick apples!  We are so very bummed that our local place we usually pick tons of apples from had a bad year and doesn't have any apples to pick.  So, we opted for a smaller version of our annual apple picking fun.  The kids still loved it and we got to meet up with Grandma Susan and Cousin D to pick and ride the hay rack as well. We picked a peck of apples (10 lbs) which is probably just a 10th of what we picked last year.

That night mommy and daddy got to go to the Nebraska football game.  It was the first time we have been to a game since college.  We had a great time with our fabulous friends who invited us to come.  And best of all the Huskers (barely) pulled out a W.  It was a bit hairy at first.  :)  It was also very awesome to go to the game that commemorated the 10th anniversary of September 11th since daddy and I were at the game the Thursday following the attacks in 2001.  Very emotional.  The alumni band even played some of the same songs it played that very night.  I remember being in tears back then, and it, again, brought tears to my eyes this time. 

Noisy Man and Miss Firecracker's school had homecoming last weekend, on what seemed to be the coldest day of the season so far.  We went to the festivities, games and supper that the school holds before the game.  Mommy had to help out with the PTO booths.  The kids had fun playing games and winning silly prizes and best of all getting all sticky with the gourmet lollipops.  We opted to skip the actual football game and just went over to our friend's place to roast some smores and let the kids play.

This past week has been pretty uneventful, other than an awesome turnout at our first MOPS meeting and some potty training for Miss Thumb Sucker.  She did great the first week other than a few accidents, had a couple of rough days in the middle and is doing great again today. 

One rough moment that is quite memorable happened when I was expecting some MOPS moms over for some help assembling name tags and centerpieces.  Miss TS and I were in the basement to get some things out of the printer when I to run back upstairs to send another project to the printer via the laptop which had a dead battery (thus was plugged in upstairs).  Of course, it took me a bit longer than I planned and in the process of sending it one of the moms and her daughter came to the door.  Upon hearing people at the door Miss TS came to the bottom of the stairs which can be viewed from the entryway of our house.  Well, we see Miss TS at the bottom of the stairs, covered in poo.  Oh dear!  It was quite the ordeal.  There was no just cleaning this one up.  It was a throw the clothes in the wash, throw the toddler in the bath type of mess.  I am so thankful that the mom who came is also in the throws of potty training and flowed with the punches!  Oh the fun!

And I will end there.....