Gravel Road Musings

What is it about December 31 that seems to bring about a sense of reflection and nostalgia?  We spend it thinking back over the year-- the good and the bad, the memories, the joys and sorrows, the changes.  Bloggers post their most popular posts or do a recap on their year; companies start pulling out the end of year paperwork and getting it ready for the tax man. Retail stores gather the troops and start doing inventory--something I am very sad to miss this year.  (Call me crazy, but I love doing inventory. My last job, inventory didn't take long, but it was so much fun while it lasted.  Plus after I came up with this cool little spreadsheet, I felt all sophisticated about it too.  Please note, I am not the most up to date on technology and spreadsheets and other such things, so this was a big accomplishment for me.)  Anyway, back to December 31.  Then after all this has been done, people get together in the evening to party and toast the New Year in-...

Okay, I really don't want this blog to turn into a complete book review blog; however, I just applied with two more book review programs.  I don't think the one will accept me, but the other one might.  We will see. I suppose the only way to make this not become a book review blog is to post more often.  Ha Ha!!!  We'll see how that goes as well. Christmas songs are something I've been thinking about more this year.  I'm very disappointed that I got to help sing so few Christmas songs this year. I think I sang all of one last Sunday in church.  I like Christmas songs. I have played a few on my keyboard.  What are your favorite? And have you really stopped to consider what they say?  My understanding is that some people people don't like Christmas songs because they seem so shallow, but really stop and listen to some of those lyrics. Even Away in a Manger: "Be near me Lord Jesus. I ask Thee to stay close by me forever and love me I pray..." ...

By Julie Klassen This book was given me by Bethany House for the purpose of reading and writing a review.  All opinions are my own. It's time to get reading.  I currently have three more books that are waiting to be read and reviewed. One would think with all the down time I'm supposed to have, I would get lots of reading done, but I don't really read that much.  This week I have charted an hour in my schedule every day for reading. We will see how that goes.  Anyway, back to the review: I first read Julie Klassen on another Bethany House Review book and I really liked her style of writing.  This book was not disappointing.  It had some twists and turns in it that I didn't see coming at all.  Maybe I wasn't observant enough, but I sure didn't catch on to some of the plot until it was laid out before me. That to me is a sign of a good book.  I like books where everything comes out okay in the end, but I don't like to have it figured out in ...

Kept Forever in My Heart There are two of these little figurines sitting on our dresser--two little reminders of our heart's greatest treasures.  It's almost two years since we said goodbye to our eldest child-- a child we never had the privilege of meeting, a child we barely got to know, a child we didn't even know how much we loved until he was gone.  I wanted a reminder of this baby, something I could look at and see regularly.  We chose this figurine. Then, when we said goodbye to our second child, I wanted another figurine in honor of her, but wasn't sure if I wanted to go with the same style or not, but then my friend answered that question for me when she sent me an exact replica of the first Willow Tree and I knew it was right and it is.  Two little figurines sitting one either side of our unity candle on our dresser.  Fitting, I think.  Our two little babies are a part of our family-- they have driven us together.  In sickness and in hea...

This post would be much better with pictures, but I didn't think of taking any.  Maybe I'll see what I can snag off the world wide web to better portray my story A package comes in the mail or better interpreted an overgrown envelope: At first it's exciting like you might be getting a small gift from someone: But then you look closer and you see words that don't inspire a happy face at all.  Instead, they might inspire more of this: Because you see words like this on the package: Household Television Survey. You debate throwing the envelope away without even opening it, but for some reason you open it.  Then you are going to trash it, but wait something catches your eye: You reach into the envelope and remove five brand-new crisp one dollar bills: You smile now: But wait: the company is paying you in advance for doing their survey.  Now what?  A pause, a moment to think and then into the goes the envelope and int...

A huge shout out of thanks to Hannah for doing all the hard work.  If you need something fun to do, make those hanging cinnamon ornaments. Not the greatest pics but for better views come visit me.

I don't think I really promised to absolutely every day post something I was thankful for, did I?  If I did, I'm truly sorry, but here in is the beauty.  It's my blog and I reserve the right to make any and all changes to the content that I wish and that includes how frequently I post. It really is a little pathetic. I quit posting on the day we had a sermon on thankfulness.  How ironic, huh?  To add further to the irony is the fact that I was more than a little crabby and moody the rest of that day as well.  But it's been better since.  I'm starting to go a little stir-crazy and realizing that ten weeks is a really, really, REALLY, REALLY long time, but by God's grace I will make it for as long as I need to. Am I bored yet?  Getting there, but I still have things I can do.  I have only half met my goal for today on my online transcription job, but truth-be-told, I was getting a little tired of transcribing a focus group for undergarments. ...

By Kevin Johnson This book was given me by Bethany House for the purpose of reading and writing a review about it. I liked this book.  It's a very different style of writing, but I think it works.  Kevin has 10 chapters dealing with anything from loneliness to questions to peace to surrender and ending with hope.  He talks a little about his own journey and places a person can find themselves in, but mostly he takes a Scripture, divides it out into 4 or more sections and has you pray it.  He offers a verse and then gives some open-ended sentences to allow you to tell God what you are really feeling. For example: II Corinthians 12:8- "Three different times I begged the Lord to take it away."  His open-ended sentences that follow are: "You've said no to....." and "When you say no to my pleading,I feel...."  This allows you to really analyze how you are feeling and talk to God about it. And there were some positives too, like "I confide...

Sundays!!!!!!!!!!!!! I mean, really. What's nicer than a day where you can kick back, relax and be lazy without a trace of guilt?  You can go to church and worship God, come home and gorge yourself on a "way too big" Sunday lunch and then veg all afternoon while complaining about you much you stuffed yourself at lunch.   Unless you live at our house, then you're lucky to get a good Sunday lunch.  It's more likely to be leftovers or some other simple food stuff.  Today, for instance, we are having Chicken Barley Soup.  It's a new recipe and because I'm lazy, I tweaked it and threw it all in the crockpot and am hoping for the best.  Because, I will just say it on here and be done with it--I really hate waiting for my lunch when I get home from church.  One test of a good Sunday lunch is that it must be ready to be put on the table in 15 minutes or less from the time one arrives home.  Along, with the soup, we may have some yummy Miller's Po...

Now, this could very controversial in the realm of gratefulness and there are varying ways of looking at it.  One could be grateful that there is only one week of gun season; or one could be grateful that they get one week of gun season. I'm not sure where I come out at on the whole hunting thing: I really don't mind that D goes hunting. When we lived in the central part of the state, hunting meant I would likely see D less, but he had a really cool tree stand that you could heat and so Thanksgiving day became a traditional "wife-goes-hunting-with-man-hunter" day. I would go with him, struggle up the tree stand, get cold, talk too loud, not creep around quietly enough and sometimes wonder why in the world I came with. I would bring a book or try to find good Black Friday deals, etc. This year? This year is different.  He didn't go racing out the door in the blackest of the night, nor did he do a sleep over in his tree stand like last year.  He left with his ju...

As I sat here this morning thinking up another post on the benefits of limited activity, I thought why not do a daily post on things in my life I have to be grateful for?  This is the Thanksgiving season after all and I for one could sure use a dose of Thankfulness each and every day of my life.  I'm not making any promises on whether I will actually manage a daily post, but if ever I have the time, it would be right now. So my first post is going to be the "Blessings of Limited Activity" I've been a little sad that I won't be able to go Black Friday Shopping.  It has been a tradition the last five years, I believe, to go shopping in the early hours of the morning with my co-workers.  I knew this year was going to be different because we don't live in the same area anymore.  I hadn't completely given up hope of being able to go with the same group of people, but I wasn't counting on it. However, I was still planning to go somewhere in the early mor...

When your doctor puts you on limited activity--what do you think that means?  To ease the minds of all those plaqued with indecision about what they can and cannot do, I've compiled a list of "can dos" and "cannot dos".  I hope it is helpful to you. "Cannot Dos" 1. Cannot vacuum the floors 2. Or scrub them on your hands and knees 3. Cleaning the bathroom is out 4. Washing Dishes 5. Ironing 6. Cooking, (unless of course, you'll go nuts without your daily kitchen fix) 7. Organizing that messy back room 8. Bookwork (way too stressful) 9. Laundry 10. Grocery shopping "Can Dos" 1. Extensive reading of all favorite books 2. Internet browsing until you're so sick of it, you could throw the computer 3. Scrapbooking 4. Sewing, unless you hate doing it, then all those sewing projects you had lined up for the winter must be given to someone else to accomplish for you because you really must have them done now. 5. Naps 6. Co...

Today is a milestone for a few different things.  First off, my sister has a birthday today.  Happy Birthday to my wonderful, caring sister who lets me call and run at the mouth about my life and my frustrations and my sadness and my tears and my triumphs and my joys.  Even though we live many miles apart and are quite a few years in age apart, I always love a good long chat on the phone as we solve the world's problems.  HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!  The Glick little girls say, "Happy Birthday, Aunt Vivian.  We can't wait to meet you!! Today marks the 10 month mark since Nicole Brooke went to be with Jesus.  It hit me again this morning how much I miss that little girl--my little ray of sunshine she was going to be.  How can you miss someone so deeply that you never really got to meet--never really got to know?  I don't fully understand and I probably never will--I just know my arms can ache with the emptiness that should be filled and our house see...

This beautiful looking book showed up in my mailbox from Bethany House yesterday.  It was given me for the purpose of writing a review about it. Now obviously, I didn't read the whole book since I just got it yesterday and I am not a speed reader, but I leafed through it and read a few random days to get a feel for the book and how I liked it. First off, I love how it looks.  It has a nice feminine appeal--actually very peaceful looking if you want to consider the title of the book as well.  I opened the package and immediately wanted to like the book very much simply on the basis of how it looked.  Shallow, right; but hey, I like pretty things. I opened the book to around where we are in November and the first verse I read was a verse I had read in my devotions that morning or the day before: "In quietness and confidence shall be your strength." Isaiah 30:15 (NKJV)  That was a verse that had spoken to me so it really stuck out when I read it in this dev...

This book was given me by Tyndale House for the purpose of reading and writing a review about it. Quite a few years ago, I had read a few of Charles Swindoll's Biblical biographies and I really enjoyed them.  I had no idea he was still writing them until I got this opportunity to review Abraham through Tyndale House.  And really, it's quite impressive.  Charles celebrated his 80th birthday before the book went to the printers.  That is a life well-lived and he plans to keep going. This is also how he views Abraham: a man who lived well and lived fully.  Charles doesn't make Abraham out to be perfect; we all know Abraham made mistakes and even made the same mistake twice at times.  But Abraham had the one thing we all need in life: faith. Normally, I don't like to quote too much from the book because it can detract from the story, but for this book, I want to give you some of the quotes that struck me in the hopes that it will trigger your appetite f...

Evergreen by Susan May Warren was given to me by Tyndale House for the purpose of reading and writing a review about it. Yes, I have found another publisher who offers free books in exchange for my opinion about the books.  I cannot pass up a good deal like that.  Evergreen was a short novella based on the Christiansen family in upper Minnesota.  The timing of this book was perfect because I have read the previous book in her series and this one seemed to play into the right timeline.  I like the Christiansen family--they seem down to earth, practical, and overall a fun, normal family with normal family struggles.  In this book, the two brothers are estranged because of a fight they had.  Because I read the other books, I know what the fight was about, but the book didn't elaborate at all on it. This book was about the parents, John and Ingrid and their dimming relationship. The root cause stemmed back to a miscarriage or stillborn, I wasn't sure whic...

Today, October 15 is Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day.  If tonight at 7:00 PM, everyone in every time zone across the world would light a candle and leave it lit for at least one hour, there would be a continuous WAVE OF LIGHT over the whole world.  How awesome would that look if you could see it from above. To those who have lost littles, they are not forgotten.  May God give you comfort and strength for each day as they live forever in your heart.

Tried and True by May Connealy. This book was given me by Bethany House Publishers for the purpose of reading and writing a review about it. Well, the picture on the front cover gives you a hint that it just might be a romantic chick flick.  And that is pretty much what it is.  Kylie and her two sisters, Bayley and Shannon are basically forced by their dad to fight as men in the Civil War and then to go out West and claim land.  This was all in honor of their brother Jimmy who was killed in the War.  Reality?  It's very sad because the dad has no love or concern for the safety of his daughters, he just wants land to build his "Jimmy" ranch.  I just think it's sad that their dad, Cudgel, couldn't see the beauty of his daughters and the blessing they could be to him if he would be willing to accept them as daughters instead of wanting them to represent the son that was killed.  It's a challenge to me to value each of my children, if God chooses to ...

By Ricky Texada This book was given to me by Bethany House for the purpose of reading and writing a review on it. These days I find myself drawn to books that talk about grief and healing and tough times.  This is a book that talks about the loss of Ricky's wife in a car accident, his subsequent remarriage and then the loss of at least one child through miscarriage. Ricky had a lot of good points in this book, but I'll be honest.  There were parts that left me disillusioned and maybe that is to my shame.  While I believe he really did grieve deeply the loss of his wife, he describes his experience as though it was just a big drawing closer to God time in his life. As I read it, immediately upon hearing that his wife had died, he chooses to draw closer to God, he asks God to not be silent and he prays that Debra's death is not in vain.  I am not doubting his sincerity in all of this, but I just wonder where was the anger, the grief, the "whys", the tears? ...

It might appear that I am on a grief kick again and maybe I am, but I don't think you ever really know when grief is going to hit.  For instance, I came home from work today feeling good.  I opened the TLC (Together Learning to Cope) newsletter and read two poems and they both made me cry.  And I want to share them here.  I don't expect everyone to be able to relate to them or to even appreciate them, but they touched me. Before that though, mark your calendars: October 15, is Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day and if everyone would light a candle at 7PM on that day and let it burn for at least one hour, there will be a continuous wave of light over the world on that day. Strength by Terry Jago In the early days of my grief, A tear would well up in my eyes,  A lump would form in my throat,  But you would not know- I would hide it. For the strong do not cry-- And I am strong. In the middle days of my grief,  I would look...

I saw this on Facebook this morning and decided to share it.  I never thought of it in this way before, but it is so true.  It would sometimes irk me when people would express sympathy and offer condolences and their arms and/or belly was full of baby.  And I would vent to D and say, how easy it is for them to tell us this is all part of God's plan when everything seemed to be going good for them.  And yet, I did want to accept their heart and their well-meaning wishes despite the frustrations you could sometimes feel. A comment on Facebook said something to this effect: God doesn't need anything, but He welcomes His children home.  That is a beautiful thought. Okay, I'm done now and should get back to the myriads of work I need to be getting done today.

This book was given to me by Bethany House for the purpose of reading and writing a review about it. You may wonder why I chose a book about answering my kids' questions.  In reality, Nicole doesn't need any questions answered, she could answer many for me if I were given the opportunity to ask her.  Someday, I will have that opportunity and I will have questions.  But, maybe someday, we will have children that do have questions and besides I am always interested in hearing an author's take on the big questions of life. Elyse Fitzpatric and Jessica Thompson are a mother/daughter team that wrote this book and I would have to say they did a good job.  They talked about each question first and then broke it down into age groups and gave age-appropriate answers to the questions. The questions were as follows: 1. What is sin? 2. Why do people die? 3. What is Satan? What is hell? 4. Why do people get divorced? 5. Why does the Bible say that? (difficult Bible sto...

So, it has come to my attention that school just isn't done the way it used to be and I wonder what happened. When I went to school, you went on a Tuesday, the day after Labor Day--No Exceptions.  You went at 8:30 in the morning, you listened to the chairman talk about school and whatever else he wanted to.  Then you listened to a list of dos and donts for the school year and then by 9:30 or so you got to work.  You spent your day studying vocabulary words and perhaps paging through your Lightunits and seeing what you were going to learn about in your new books.  Everything felt new and exciting. Then at 3:00, you went home.  Most teachers let you go home without homework that first day of school, a really generous teacher might even give you the whole first week off from the fear of homework.  You came back the next day and the next and you studied.  Yeah, there were the occasional parties and things, but the teachers were busy and didn't have time ...

This book was given to me by Bethany House for the purpose of writing a review about it.   Miracle in a Dry Season by Sarah Loudin Thomas I'm really not sure what I want to say about this book.  I don't know if I really know what I think about this book. It was interesting and yet rather different; well-written and yet too simple.  Let me try and explain.  I would give Sarah credit as a good author with the ability to use language in a way that writes a vivid story line, but some of the events seemed too unbelievable.  Yes, I know it's fiction and you can do what you want with fiction, but I still like it to be a little real to life. Okay, now I think I'm confusing everyone, myself included, so I'll just say some of the things I liked and didn't like about the book. It's a nice story; an unwed lady comes to town with her 5 year old daughter and a 35 year old bachelor slowly falls in love with her after her overcame his judgment of her and her illegi...

This book was given me by Bethany House for the purpose of writing a review about it. Help, I'm behind on my blogging reviews because I spent the last three months consumed with a reading program.  But now I have 7 brand-new free books coming in the mail--all books I've never read.  Now, who doesn't love the sound of that.  And I have a total of 5 books, this one included, waiting to be read and have a review posted about it. $10 Great Dates is a nice little handbook for when you feel out of creative juices, want to do something fun for a date and don't want to break the bank to do it.  I haven't read through the whole book--it's not the kind of book that most people will pick up and read from cover to cover. Probably only weird people like me will do something like that.  But I've read enough of it to know I want to try some of the suggestions they gave. There are definitely a few ideas that won't work for us.  For example, one date i...

This book was given to me by Bethany House for the purpose of reading and writing a review about it. So, I interrupt my busy schedule of reading books for another summer reading program to bring you a book review about "A Match of Wits". This was just a good lighthearted, smile or laugh your way through book.  I really liked it.  I had been reading fiction books about war in the Middle East, child abduction, human trafficking, and a loyal reader being abducted by her favorite author, so this book was refreshing. It's the story of a young lady, Agatha, who really can make a mess out of about anything.  From what I gathered she had been in jail a few times, loved dressing in disguise and just generally seemed to collect trouble.  The story starts out west where she has been sent because she had a death warrant back in New York.  Why?  They thought it was because she was an investigative journalist who had no qualms writing about low-life living and ex...

---Beauty in a cemetery--- ---Peace in the pain--- ---Life above death--- ---Hope springing out of the cold black dirt--- ---Healing through the mangled wounds--- ---Angels watching over my baby tonight---

Yup, I'm pretty sure this is a controversial topic and I am also pretty sure I would like some feedback from you on it. This is something that I have thought about off and on over the last couple years maybe, but it has really been driven home to me over the last six months.  First off, this is not a plea for money--we are abundantly blessed, as I plan to point out.  Second, it is not a diatribe against health insurance.  Third, it is meant to hold me accountable for putting my money where my mouth is about to be. Let me share our story:  We have Samaritan Ministries--we send our money to a family in need every month. If there are more needs than money, the need is prorated, which means you will not get enough money to pay off your whole hospital bill.  So when Nicole was born, we turned in our need.  It was prorated to 85%, meaning we had close to $1000 that was not going to be covered by the ministry.  To my money-bothered brain, this looked big....

This book was given to me by Bethany House for the purpose of writing a review about it.  This was a great chick flick that I read in about 2 days or so.  A couple of months ago I had posted a review about "A Sensible Arrangement" by Tracie Peterson.  This was the sequel to that and focused a little more on Alice who had been hired to be Marty's personal maid in Colorado.  The economy took a serious downturn causing Jake and Marty to lose everything and they returned to Texas, very much against the will of Marty who blamed Texas for the bad things that had happened to her.   Alice falls in love with Marty's nephew, Robert, and he with her and they lived happily ever after.  There was, of course, the normal fiasco, where Alice ran off because she thought Robert was engaged to another woman and didn't want to come between them.   There's one paragraph I want to put on here that stuck out to me tonight as I was reading.  Robert was talking...

This book was given to me by Bethany House Publishers for the purpose of writing a review. I like Dee Henderson.  She is a good author, but in my opinion her best works were the O'Malley series and everything else is just a little beneath that level.  However, she did do a very good job with this one and I did really like it. The plot is the normal man and woman falling in love, etc., but the surrounding story was almost over my head.  It was a Navy story with the leading man being a submarine commander and the leading lady being a civilian with a brain I can't even dream about.  In college at the age of 14, she had made some amazing discoveries by the age of 29.  Cross-sonor, sending pings without being heard, discovering other subs by the quiet they create, etc. etc.  It blows my mind how a mind could even pull all this out.  I have to remember it is fiction, but there must be some element of truth to the ideas or Dee wouldn't use them?  Or ...

Happy Mother's Day to all the wonderful mothers out there.  Yes, I know it is a week late, but that's okay--this is my blog and I can do what I want when I want to on it. Was it a Happy Mother's Day for me?  The week before was more appropriate.  Did you know that the Sunday before, May 4, was Bereaved Mother's Day?  Appropriate, I think. I didn't answer the question did I?  It's a tough question to answer--May 11 was the day I had been looking forward to it with great anticipation since September sometime.  It was extra cool that it was going to be on Mother's Day, but Mother's Day was just the side benefit.  Then January 13 came and with it came the dread of Mother's Day and the dread of May 11.  Now, it was a day to look ahead to with dread--the weeks were counted, the tears were shed and finally it was here. We left for the weekend--just went away and hid.  Call me a coward if you want, but, quite frankly, I wasn't about to risk hea...