Gravel Road Musings

 So this little miss is a high energy, fun-loving, running through life kind of girl. She has been doing much better at playing by herself and keeping herself occupied, but yesterday was an exceptionally good day. I'm sure it helped that I was up and around and not sitting and sewing or being on the computer. She loves to help in the kitchen, so in the morning we made granola and the pie that's coming up further down in the pictures.  I'll be honest, I didn't know you could love someone quite so much and then sometimes be that frustrated with them all at the same time. Actually, I guess I did, but maybe just not on someone so little. She is so much fun. I think I've said this before, but I am loving this age. She chatters nonstop. I don't know what it will be like when I can actually understand what she is saying. Her main words seem start with b. Ball, Baby. A similar word that starts with B for puppy. Ni-ni is night night and good bye. And to be really sapp...

This is the second DiAnn Mills book I read and I don't think it will be the last one. She has an excellent way of writing, I think. Stacy, the heroine of the story, happens upon a dead body, a military-grade drone and a dog that, unknown to her is carrying a deadly genetically modified disease. Alex and Ric are the FBI investigators assigned to the case. Of course, there is romance involved between Alex and Stacy and while that's part of the story, I don't consider it predominant and yet you can tell it definitely determines the course of actions taken by both Stacy and Alex. Anyway, the story gets all tangled up in mysterious happenings, a hoax water threat, a shell company and people getting sick from the dog. One person I really like too is Whitt, a 12-year-old genius. It's hard for me to believe that someone that age could be that intelligent, but I think it can happen. However, he has dead-beat parents and Stacy is in process to gain custody of him. She loves...

This is one of those books, that if portrayed according to the times, and I think it was, makes me so grateful not be living in that era. Did anyone follow that sentence? Set in the early 1800's in London, it's the story of a girl with dyslexia trying to nab a husband during her first Season so that she has protection for when her secret comes out that she can't read. Somehow she had managed to hide the fact of her inability to read from her family her whole life. Georgina has plotted for three years about which eligible men were the wealthiest with the best titles so she can work to marry them. The endless parties, card games, dancing, and even eating can almost make one tired just to read about it. Then there's the dressing up and going out and making sure you have the right clothes for the right occasion and the endless maids and butlers and ensuring that you behave just perfect in public so you don't become the topic of a scandal in the next day's newspa...

Love speaks truth and that is not always what we want to hear. But the question I have, is how and when does this happen? Do the rules Is it Kind? and Is it Necessary? still apply? (That was a weird sentence and I seriously doubt it is anywhere close to grammatically correct, so you guys can decide your love for me by whether or not you want to tell me how to fix it to be correct!!! ) I think about these things with love though. Life can be hard and cruel sometimes and sometimes you want to fall down in the ditch and hide and never return, but you need that person to speak words, that feel harsh at the time, but get you up and out of the ditch and facing life again. Those words for me lately have come from the Psalms. I've been struggling keeping my chin up the last while and my Bible readings have been from the Psalms. So every morning I read about praising the Lord, blessing the name of the Lord, gratitude for the Lord's protection from their enemies and on and on and on....

I've read a few Lawana Blackwell books and liked them, as I recall. I often find the descriptions on the back of books to make the book appear to be much more mysterious and scary than it actually is. This book didn't disappoint in that regard either, though when you read the back description again, you can understand what it is saying. However, I found this book quite nice to read. It's the story of an actress who had married for the third time and was secluded on her husband's estate, a man who treated her rather badly. She is given the opportunity to make a comeback in the acting world, but on her first public appearance she has a memory lapse and forgets her lines and is put in a hospital. Her estranged daughter takes her away to a secluded location where their relationship is repaired. Anyway, this actress, Charlotte, takes this opportunity to befriend the people around her, taking an interest in two abused little boys and trying to renew her relationship wit...

First off, I want to give kudos to all of you moms out there who have more than one child.  I say "Good Job" "You guys rock", etc. etc. Even to those moms of only one child, you rock too. I was thinking I was going to veer off my Love tangent this week to talk about something I'm fighting, but then I realized that it fit in perfectly with one of the laws of love. Love is sacrificial.  I'll say it: mothering is hard work and I know I have nothing to talk about yet. I have a 16 month old child. It's probably about as easy as it's going to get, but I've been fighting a bit of burn out. Said 16 month old (see below pictures) is adorable and cute and yes I know I'm prejudiced. But said 16 month old is high energy, go-go-go-go all the time. It's fun. I love this age. So in some ways I am enjoying being a mom more than I ever have before and in some ways I am just exhausted. I love watching her learn new things. Yes, somet...