Gravel Road Musings

This is my last post on the book "Longing for Paris." I wasn't even sure I was going to write more about it, but a page in the second to last chapter really stuck out to me. It touched on something that I've discussed with friends off and on. Sarah talks about how we are made to shine God's love to those around us. We are called to live out of who we are, to be alive. So often we think that means we must get out there and do something big for God. We feel unfulfilled being in our homes, ministering to our children and our husbands, our parents, our families, whoever. We feel small and insignificant and we want to do something big for God. I don't think I'm along in this thought either. I'm going to quote a couple paragraphs from her book. "Sometimes I wonder if good works have been relegated to physically meeting needs outside our homes. There seems to be an unspoken consensus that if our good works are only done in the home--at least for a ...

My sister asked me the other day if Amber ever plays with toys. Yes, she does, but..... she loves things that aren't toys. She loves to play with her socks. So the other day I took pictures of the different things she played with that day. It's not necessarily all-inclusive, but it gives you a glimpse.  Maybe I'm a bad mom by letting her have so many non-toy items, but my philosophy is, if she's not going to hurt it, it's not going to hurt her and she's happy, play away with certain exceptions. My kitchen cupboards are off limits. I just don't like the idea of her emptying them out and me having to organize and reshelve everything again. Magnetic alphabets. She doesn't play with on magnetic surfaces, but she does play with them.  These are hinges of various designs that are eventually supposed to become a board for Amber to play with, but until then it is great fun to rattle the packages.  My cookbooks.  It's big and huge and fun to turn...

I am not quite sure what to say about this book. It is written in first person switching back and forth between two different people. I give Terri a lot of credit for doing a good job at that. The story had continuity to it and I wasn't left trying to figure out what was going on. The plot was really good, a girl runs away because she is sure she is going to be implicated in the murder of her good friend and she doesn't trust the justice system because they didn't listen to her about her dad who supposedly had committed "suicide" 12 years before, but in reality was murdered. The other main character was the investigator hired to find her. He is started to think that there is more to the story than he knows and gets some information that points to the cops being the bad guys. He also realizes that likely these same cops don't want the girl brought to trial, they want to kill her before that. But then the story ends. The investigator found the girl and le...

If you like some suspense and mystery with a good clean Christian twist to it, Janice is your author to read.  I think this is the fourth book of hers that I've read and I'm on pins and needles hoping to get the next book in this current series when it comes out. Janice is a retired police officer so she can write from experience. It's a continuation of the story from the first book Drawing Fire of Abby Hart's search to find out what really happened when her mom and dad's restaurant was burned and her mom and dad murdered.  But the story didn't end with this second book yet either and I am sure there is much more suspense to be had in the next book. Abby had a crisis of faith during this book in which she wanted to just hide, but some blunt honest words from her aunt forced her to reconsider what her foundation was and she realized that God was not the Rock in her life like she needed Him to be. Re-establishing that enabled her to be ready to go and face t...

I think I've mentioned that I'm rereading Longing for Paris by Sarah Mae.  She has a long chapter on mothering and there are a few thoughts I'd like to share from that. I'm at the beginning of this thing called being a mom. Most of the time, I love it, but there are seconds, minutes, hours, etc that I'm not a big fan of it. I mean, I love my little girl, don't get me wrong, but some days are hard. It's me and her All. Day. Long and sometimes All. Evening. Long too. I have this horrible fear of messing up, of being a bad mom, of ruining my child. What if I don't give her enough sensory stimulation? What if I don't talk to her enough? What if I talk too much? What if I don't engage with her in profitable activities enough times in a week? One of my goals for this year was to spend 15 minutes a day playing with Amber, sitting on the floor without my phone or computer and playing with her. Do you know how hard that is? I confess, I've not d...

Ahh, another coloring book.  Makes me happy.  This one is unique in that with each coloring page there is also a page for journaling, doodling, or whatever you feel like doing. There is also a Bible verse for each page and the point is that while you are coloring, you are to be meditating and memorizing the verse on the page and then writing down any reflections or thoughts that come to mind. It's really a good idea, a good way to relax, destress, and still keep your thoughts from going aimlessly in directions that accomplish nothing. The pictures look like a lot of fun to color, a lot of flowers which is down my alley.  It makes me want to go buy some pencil crayons or some other coloring markers, but that's a whole other story. The one con I see with the book is the binding is too stiff. It doesn't feel like the type of book that is going to lay down well so that you can color in it. I think you will either  have to be very rough and "break it in" good or ...