Gravel Road Musings

Another fiction book review today. I just haven't been able to find nonfiction books right now that I'm interested in reading. Anyway, I generally like Tracie's style of writing though they tend to be a little on the light side of things.  This is the story of a little boy who witnessed his mother's murder and was warned by the murderer to not say a word or his whole family would be killed. The boy stops talking from then on. The dad is accused of being the murderer but there isn't sufficient evidence to charge him. Then, of course, the dad hires a nanny to hopefully help the boy talk again and they fall in love with each other, yada yada. The element of intrigue is the killer is still on the loose and attacks again, but of course they catch him. So what did I like about the book? Or what can I take away from the book and be inspired by? One thing is the acceptance of the mentally challenged people in the world. Harry, was a 21 year old with the mind of a 7

Yes, you read that right. I think I need to go on a search for an adult pacifier. You know you used to be able to get those candy pacifiers-- I don't know if you still can or not. I think one like that would work, but preferably more of a sea salt caramel and chocolate flavor rather than just hard candy. Why do I want one, you may wonder or you may just conclude that I needed something off the wall for a blog post and came up with this idea. Both could be true, but here's is what made me think of it. Earlier this week, Amber was having a rough evening of it. She had only taken a half hour afternoon nap and was just crabby. I was trying to make supper and she was crying unless I was holding her. It's really hard to stir stir-fry in a wok with a baby in one arm because of the whole heat aspect of it. So finally out of exasperation, I decided we were going to leave supper where it was and we were going to go upstairs and take a nap before we even attempted eating.  You hav

One of the things I might do on my blog this year is talk about the various goals I have set for myself for 2016. I probably got a little carried away on goal setting, but so far I'm loving it. I did realize yesterday, after feeling like a very bad mom, that I need to do some rearranging of my priorities. I'm not sure quite how that will work, but I'm going to work on it while still continuing on with my original goals. I think it's possible. It just requires me to be more intentional and disciplined. Oh, grrr!. One of my goals for this year is to read through the Bible in a year. Likely there will be updates throughout the year as something I read strikes me and makes me want to share. I just finished reading about the ten plagues and the Israelites leaving Egypt. The Egyptians have pursued them, but haven't died yet. That will happen tomorrow.  But here's the thing: how dumb were the Egyptians? Reading the plagues, what was left of Egypt? The plagues had

After reading this book, I thought three things. Nice book. Cute rhyming. Completely unrealistic. The rhymes are cute, I love rhyming books, but as far as Noah and the Ark story? It's not really there. It's written from the perspective of the animals and one picture shows them in a big tub in the ark. Okay? I wouldn't say it's unbiblical, just not at all what I would expect it was really like. When they come off the ark, it shows them coming off down a hill, which is correct, but when you get to the bottom of the hill, it's just water all around. How did they get off the hill? It is a nice board book that I am happy to add to my collection, but I definitely am not going to use it to tell the story of the Flood. It is definitely a children's book, very young child, I would say. So, all in all, as a book, it's nice, as a Bible story, not so much. This book was given me by Book Look Bloggers for the purpose of reading and writing a review. All opinion

This is a medical fiction, so big surprise, I'm going to like it. But I'll be honest, I often feel a little sheepish posting fiction book reviews because so often it's hard for me to take away something inspirational and uplifting when the book was basically a romance novel disguised in another story. And I like those stories, just feel a little silly posting about them too often. And right now, I've had a hard time coming up with books that aren't fiction that look remotely inspiration to read, so fiction is the name of the game right now. Anyway, on to the book. Yes, this book had some romance in it. You knew Tracy the main character was choosing the wrong guy right from the get go. But there was so much more in this book than that. Tracy was a widow of almost three years. And she decided to take the bull by the horns and by the three year date of her husband's death she was going to be so over it. She was going to check items off of her list and then she

It's the morning of your second birthday, Nicole.  Your dad and I "celebrated" with cupcakes and coffee before he went to work. And we wondered what you are like in heaven. Are you still a little, teeny, tiny baby? Are you growing up and now a toddler? How does it work in heaven? Two years, my little one. Two years. I can still remember two years ago this morning, waking up about 45 minutes from now, feeling achy all over and begging for Tylenol. This was the day I got to "see" you for the last time alive. We were going to go home for the week, but the doctor wasn't too keen on that beings I was freezing cold and a little light headed. I remember it as a miserable day because I was sick and then you came. Just a little tiny bundle of perfection, so very tiny. I remember the tears as we held you for the first time. You were our little girl, but you were gone too soon. You still are our little girl and will always be our little girl. We tell Amber about yo

I have mixed feelings on this review. This is an amazing story about overcoming extreme difficulty. On his third deployment to Afghanistan, Travis set his back pack down and ignited an IED. He lost all four limbs and become the fifth quadruple amputee to have survived after being wounded in war. His determination is an example for all going through tough times. His motto: "Never Give Up. Never Quit." I can learn from it. Travis tells the story of his childhood and up and then the months of recovery and rehab he went through to be able to take care of his family again. Today, he can drive, make his daughter breakfast, go skiing, etc. etc. He has started a foundation and bought property to make a retreat for wounded veterans to go to for encouragement and sports activities, etc. The thing I didn't like about the book is Travis comes across as a little over the top. God gets next to no credit for anything though he professes Christianity. He admits to pretty much never

This is a children's book, ages 4-8 put out by ZonderKids. It is part of the Living Lights edition of the Berenstain Bears. I thought Mike did a good job with this story. He told the basics of the Easter story and then got into the Easter bunny and eggs scenario a bit. He had the bears going on a treasure hunt at church for Bible characters that they put together into a picture story. His explanation of the Easter bunny is that in the spring is the sign of new life and Easter is also a sign of new life and so they came to be associated together even though they have nothing to do with each other.  He doesn't view the candy and Easter egg hunts as wrong as long as you remember the real meaning of Easter. I think his explanation makes sense. It is going to be hard to raise children that aren't exposed to all the candy and bunnies, etc. around Easter and I think this is a way to explain it that keeps Christ in Easter. I don't know. My daughter isn't old enough ye

So I decided in the New Year that I would try to post once a week on Thursdays give or take a couple days or weeks. On Tuesday, I decided to get a head start and write a post, then on Thursday I could just quick proof it and post it and I would be done. Well, the post sat there and simmered and tonight when I was thinking about posting, it had simmered into something totally different than what I felt like writing. I am leaving that post to simmer back into something I want to use. There was nothing wrong with the post. I talked about resolutions and some of my goals for the year and I will likely come back to that and post it at a later time. But today, I wanted to talk about other things. I think I will schedule this post because by the time it is actually Thursday I may have something different up my sleeve again. And right now I have time as Amber is taking a bath. (Yes, yes she is not left unattended in the water; though I really think she would have to about crawl out of her

This was a sweet love story that spanned over 60 years. The story of two high school sweethearts and a jealous sister who split them up. They went their own ways for over 60 years before reuniting. There is also the story of a young couple eloping and then wondering if it was really going to be worth it to stay married. This is the first book I've read by Rachel and I would like for it to not be my last. I really enjoyed the book. It did hop around a lot from character to character and from the late 1950's to 2015 and back again. I found it easy to follow, yet almost frustrating because I just wanted to know how the story ended and yet it was very well-written and added to the whole depth of the story. The main theme was the fact that Jimmy built his girlfriend a wedding chapel in which to be married in. It was a beautiful chapel set in an out-of-the-way place complete with stained-glass windows and everything. It was breath-taking. They pledged youthful vows of marriage

12 Secrets for a Lifelong Romance Greg and Erin have written, I believe, several books on marriage. I think this is the only one of theirs I have ever read and it is worth your read. I say this after a lot of marriage books I read, but this one has impacted my life and I hope it will continue to impact our marriage. I wouldn't say we are having marriage struggles-- no, no-- but let me say this, I think I can be a little difficult to live with at times. Praise the Lord, I am married to an extremely patient and loving man who puts up with a lot at times. I would like to blame some of my nasties on stress and grief and upheaval and etc. etc. but I'm not one that likes the blame game when you should take personal responsibility. Now, I'm not saying those things do not contribute to mood struggles, I think they can; but for myself personally, I need to take responsibility for them and work on making our marriage a thing of beauty rather than endurance. At the risk of that