Gravel Road Musings

I like Tracie's writing and I've read one other book written by her and Kimberely that I liked. This one was good, but not as good. The main character is a 20 something girl who has only ever known the backwoods of Alaska. She has this persistent optimism that almost doesn't seem like it could be real. And there might be where I struggled a bit with the book. I don't consider myself a pessimist, but maybe I am more than I think because Cassidy was perpetually smiling, laughing and lost in her thoughts and it sort of bugged me. I just don't know too many people like that. So maybe instead of thinking that she was a little immature and underdeveloped, I should try to emulate her more and be more positive and cheerful regardless. Anyway, she does have a trust and dependence on God that is definitely worth emulating and she does want to share her faith with those around her. She wanted to be a Daniel. Her father was the same way, a careful, plan ahead and take pre...

Why we can stop trying so hard. This was a good book. I know that can be a bit of a cliche as I say that about a lot of books and I mean it about a lot of books. So what makes this book a good book? This simple takeaway. "I am not enough." That is a simple sentence, only four words, but terrifying in it's meaning. We live in a culture where you have to be enough. You need to be the best, you need to accomplish things. You need to be skinny and beautiful and rich and successful and on and on and on. And that's a hard load to carry. But if can believe and live out that sentence that "I am not enough" and if we can claim Jesus' blood and His help to be enough for us, our lives will be radically changed. We don't have to join the rat race of success-driven people who must, must, must perform. We can step back and "stop doing things for God, and start doing things with Him." God is enough and He can take the weight off your shoulders, the ba...

So this year, on Tuesdays, I have been studying the Beatitudes. If any of you read my book reviews, you know I read this amazing book on the Beatitudes a couple months ago. It was called "Momentum" by Collin Smith. I highly recommend the book. I am now rereading it slowly on Tuesdays and trying to let it soak in. I want the concepts of the Beatitudes to sink deep into my heart and to change me. "Blessed are the Poor in Spirit, for they shall see God." This is the first step, the first thing that must happen before any of the other Beatitudes can be exercised in my life. Do you know that this is the only Beatitude with a promise in the present tense? So what is poor in spirit? In a nutshell, it is humility. It is recognizing that apart from God, I have nothing, I am nothing, and I can do nothing. This is not a "I can't do anything, ask someone else" mentality. It is recognizing that God gives the abilities that I have and without His help, I am noth...

What Jesus Taught and Prayed in His Final Hours A 7-week Bible Study of John 13-17 Another Bible study to do which makes me happy. I have been wanting purpose and focus in my Bible reading. I want to dig deeper and extract truths that I miss in just a casual reading of Scripture. Kim has taken these five chapters in John and devoted a week to each chapter. She splits out the verses into four days and then the fifth day is for review and reflection. I have only glanced through the book yet, as I am in the middle of another Bible study right now, but one thing I noticed about this one right away is she has a chart for each daily reading that lists the verse and then beside it is a space to write down what the verse tells you about God. I like that. It makes you stop and consider what each verse is saying to you personally. She says there may not be things to write about each verse and that's okay, but not to rush through so fast that you miss what the Spirit may be speaking t...

This is an adorable little board book. It would make a great gift for 1-6 year olds, would be the age bracket I would give it. the back of the book says juvenile fiction. It's a rhyming book that talks about the different animals you would find on the farm. Each page has two 4-line stanzas. The one stanza asks the question about who makes the animal do what it does and the second stanza answers the question. Here's an example. This one was my favorite the first time I read through the book. Mama, look! That chinny-chin-chin! Who made that beard and grinny-grin-grin? A rascal in a hairy coat... Only God can make a goat. Meh-eh-eh. Each page talks about how God made the animal. I love the emphasis on God creating. Rhonda has also written a book called "Only God Can Make a Kitten". The premise for both books is the same, though the Kitten book would be geared for older children and, of course, features different things that God made. The illustrations a...

So I was going to post once a week on this, but I never got to it last week and that was probably all right. I pretty much bombed it all last week and not in a good way. Last week's challenge was to Speak Kindly. This week's challenge is to Touch Intentionally. So when you first started dating, you would never have thought to yell at them or wait, I don't yell. I just say in a perturbed tone of voice, "You know you could help do this." Or "why are you home so late again?" Etc. etc. You know what it is for you. You would have never done that when you were dating. In fact, you were probably appalled if you saw another lady speaking that way to her husband or vice versa. And now, you are 5, 10, 15, 20 years into marriage, 1, 2, 3+ children later and kindness can sometimes be the farthest thing from your mind. I believe it is Ravi Zacharias that says, "There is never a reason to be unkind." So I would like to make a thousand and one excuses...

How can it be three years already? Happy third birthday in heaven, Nicole. We love you and miss you like crazy down here. Three years. In so many ways, it feels like a lifetime ago and yet, when I stop and ponder and remember, the memories pour over me and the feelings, the thoughts, the tears wash over me and it feels like it was only yesterday. I can remember that first phone call, the concern that there was a chromosome abnormality with Nicole. I was at work. I remember going to the bathroom and just sobbing. It felt so huge, so overwhelming. I remember going home, crying with Dave, researching, and then by the end of the week deciding that we would be given a huge responsibility and blessing to have a special needs child. I remember so much of that fateful Sunday morning, the fears and the tears. Of going to the hospital and telling Dave, "They're just going to tell me I peed my pants." And then later wishing that that was exactly what they would've told m...

This is a fun little rhyming children's book that talks about the different parts of the body, hands, nose, knees, ears, etc. and something you can do with them. Like you can play with the sand on the beach with your hands, hear the various sounds around you with your ears, etc. It's a beautiful padded board book with excellent illustrations. There's a toucan on every page and often a monkey pictured as well. The colors are vibrant and catching. My almost two-year-old really likes it. It would make an excellent gift for that 1-3 year old bracket. And maybe I will find as my daughter gets older that she will like board books longer than I think she will. There's one thing I don't like and that is when Leslie talks about the hand, she says five fingers. It's a minor thing, but to me it's four fingers and a thumb, but I realize that wouldn't make a great rhyming story and maybe that's why she worded it that way. I do like the emphasis put on Go...

52 Weeks of Growing Together This is a 5 day a week devotional with a different theme for each week. The themes include: love, respect, purity, money, prayer, servanthood, integrity, perseverance, giving, maturity, communication, hard work, and 42 more.  Each theme is broken out over the five days with different Bible readings for each day. Wednesdays, or Day Three, tends to focus a lot more on different Scripture and is called "Wednesday in the Word." Fridays, or Day 5, focuses more on fun projects for the weekend and is called "Fun Friday", though not every Friday features a fun activity. Different activities include drawing a picture to look like a family tree for the week that talks about family, creating prayer jars for the week on prayer, making lemonade to see how the water changes for the week that talks about discipleship.While I didn't read every reading, it seems like there are some interesting stories scattered throughout. The purpose of the bo...

The setting is over the time of the Revolutionary War and Daniel Boone's exploration west into Kentucky. It's a time of Indian raids and much bloodshed. Temperance Tucker and her family have been involved in some of this bloodshed and there is loss and grief poignant throughout the book. Temperance, the main character of the book, along with Sion, the secondary main character, have both lost their first loves to the Indians and then of course, they fall in love. I can't say the book wasn't well-written, it was, but for me, it was a little too graphic. And yes, I don't like a lot of violence of any kind in the books I read. And yes, I know that that can make fiction even less realistic, especially when writing about frontier life. But to me there's a way of saying someone was killed by the Indians without describing the torture that might have occurred before their death. It's not that there were lots of violent descriptions, it was just a little too much...

Parenting each child according to their unique God-given temperament. I passed by this book for a few times because I wasn't sure I was that interested. There can be a lot of hype about temperaments etc. and I didn't think I really was into that too much. Not that I don't want to be aware of my child's temperament, but just didn't view it as that important. To be honest, I'm not sure why I picked this book then, but I decided to read it and I am glad I did. Julie does talk about temperaments some. There are about two chapters dedicated to R aising an O riginal P ersonality E valuation S ummary on your child. I went through this rather quickly and really couldn't decide for sure what I was and Amber seems a bit too young yet, at least for me to decide on this. While I think that part was valuable, that wasn't really what stuck out to me in the book. What stuck out to me is how our child is unique and my goal as their mom is to take those unique th...

Greet Lovingly Back a few years, when we were sending out wedding invitations, I received a reply that had some really good advice on it. (Yes, we sent out this little reply cards that people actually mailed back in to me. And yes, I would still recommend doing that because people will send you good tidbits of advice like this one I'm about to mention and people will also send you money in those little envelopes.)  I don't have the wording verbatim and I am way too lazy to go and try to find it, but the gist was this. Always greet your husband at the door when he comes home from work. If I'm remembering correctly, this was advice she had received when she got married and advice she had followed faithfully up to that point. At the time we got married they would have been married about 12 years and had 2 girls. It just so impressed me and is something I have tried to do as well. I don't always do it and I think almost every time I don't, her advice comes whis...

Tales from Ivy Hill Book 1 I enjoy Julie Klassen's books. I haven't read all of them, but enough to know they are my immediate pick for reviewing if given the opportunity. This is her first series that she is doing. The story is of a gentlewoman who married an innkeeper. He was killed in an "accidental" carriage accident and the inn was left to her. She learns from the ground up how to run it and jumps through obstacles to make it successful. As far as themes from the book that you can pull out and learn from, I think one of them is life doesn't always lead in the direction we anticipated as children. As children, Jane (the main character) dreams of marrying and having a big family. She does marry, but her husband dies young and the dreams of children evaporated in a series of miscarriages that left her heart broken and bleeding. Through this, Jane does learn that family can be found in unexpected places and Jane finds it in the staff at the inn she is in ...

I love setting goals. Last year, I went a little crazy and maybe got about half or so of them accomplished. I didn't actually count them up. But it was good, I enjoyed working towards them. This year I tried to use a bit more common sense with it all and have set a few less goals, I think. There are a few main areas I want to focus on: my relationship with God, especially improving my prayer life, my marriage, and my daughter. Then of course, there are the personal goals of exercising, hobbies, etc. and a few other things as well. But those don't rank with quite the importance that the three I mentioned do. Last year I chose a word for the year: joy. I made the letters out of cardboard, wrapped them in string, hung them up and then mostly forgot about joy. This year I have another word and I am hoping to do a bit better at remembering it and observing it. This year my word is intention. I want to make the most of my life, I want to savor the little moments, treasure the mem...

As I mentioned in the last post, I love new things, new years, new books, new journals, new goals, etc. And so to each of you, Happy New Year. My new planner. I debated getting a different kind this year, but came back to the same old same old. It's been tried and proven true and so I will use it again for 2017. Because I decided it wasn't cost effective to buy a Line a Day Journal and a Menu journal, I got these two instead. I might add that with a 40% off coupon for the one on the right, I got them both for less than what one would have cost me if I went with the official titled ones. Yes, they are a bit more work, but a bit less buck as well.  I don't know if you can see how I set it up or not, but each page in the Line a Day journal has four lines for each year for a total of five years. Plus, it's a beautiful leather-looking journal. It's as step up from my Jumbo Little Book that I used for the last four years.  The quality of thes...