Gravel Road Musings

While I know the contents of this post can be highly controversial, generating controversy is not the purpose for which it is written. If you want to state your opinions, this is a free world and you may do so, but remember it is also a free world and the next person is entitled to their own opinions. Today is Logan's two month well child check. It is also the day he will get his first set of immunizations. As a nurse, I gave hundreds, probably thousands of immunizations. I never batted an eye, I never saw a reaction, I never worried about anything.  Today I'm a mom and I'm taking my child in to purposely have pain inflicted upon him for the greater good of his health and all of a sudden I feel anxious. I worry a little, how will he react? I fret and start wondering if maybe I should wait another couple months. Then I remind myself, I'm a nurse, I know reacting to immunizations is very rare. I know starting him young is good so he can't remember them. I know...

More than 1,100 new palettes with CMYK and RGB formulas for designers and artists I must admit this book is well beyond my knowledge level. If I'm actually trying to design something, I tend to randomly grab colors and throw them together. Let's face it, my design work seriously lacks as well. But this book is really cool. There are over 200 pages of color combinations. Each page takes a group of five colors that match and Jim displays them in bright, light, dark and muted hues. In the middle of the page are the CMYK and RGB formulas for each color in each hue for that page. Along the side edge on every page and on some pages the top and bottom edges as well are little rectangles of the colors. This is to help with comparing colors against another work or design. Plus it makes the book pretty to look at when it is closed. I don't see myself using it a lot for graphic designing because I don't really enjoy that kind of thing. However, if I do need to design somet...

Let your brokenness be turned into abundance Broken, something none of us like to be, but if we want to love and live and love and live well, we must be willing to be broken. It's going to happen. We live in a fallen world. Ann explores the idea of giving in the midst of that brokenness to be the gift, to Gift It Forward Today. I won't pretend to act like I understand all that Ann says because I don't. Some of the concept feel more poetry than prose, more ideal than real. I don't doubt that they have application, but it feel beyond me to fully grasp. However, there was plenty in this book to be grasped. I thought it was going to be a daily devotional book with daily ideas of how to give it forward today, but that's not at all how it's set up. There are key selections from her book, "The Broken Way" and they are somewhat set up that you could read a page a day and get something from it, but I found that several pages would run together on the sa...

7 Decisions You'll Never Regret 1. Seek God, not Sin 2. Fear God, not Men 3. Love God, not the World 4. Believe God, not the Deceiver 5. Obey God, not your Feelings 6. Worship God, not Comfort 7. Serve God, not Self In a little gift sized book, Dennis Rainey gives the secret to fully serving and surrendering to God. When we choose God first and foremost, the rest falls into place. That is not to guarantee life will be easy, but if we place God first, it will be doable. At the end of each of these chapters, Dennis gives Life Skills, ways to put the chapter into practice. For example, how to grow in faith from the chapter on believing God, be intentional about Bible intake, with suggestions on what to read and do. Search, discover, write and apply every day. Recall the big and little things God has done for you. Obey what you know. Read books and mine hearts. Evict unwelcome house guests. Some of these were in my own words. I liked this aspect of practicality that com...

October 23, two months since Logan joined our family. Two months of learning how to handle life with two littles, of laughing and crying, of rejoicing and being a bit at my wits end. I like to think I've learned a little in these two months. I've got lots of reading done both for myself and to Amber.  Daddy meeting Logan. Sorry, you can't really see Logan's face.  Big sister meeting Logan. She was way more excited about giving him his puppy stuffed animal than she was about actually meeting the baby, I think.  Holding Logan. One thing I've learned is I'm not a professional photographer and as much I aspire to being one, practicing and reading up on how to take professional looking pictures isn't high on my to-do list. So I'm trying to be okay with my less than professional looking pictures.  Grandma Glick and Logan at 5.5 weeks old. We flew to New Jersey for Dave's oldest niece's wedding. I was a little stressed, but it went ...

Finding freedom in God's commands. The Ten Commandments, huh? Old Testament? Easy, peasy. I can keep all those. I don't swear. I don't have an idols in my house. I only worship God. I take Sundays off. I honor my father and mother. I don't steal, kill, lie, commit adultery or outwardly covet. So I'm good right? Wrong. Colin views the Ten Commandments as lines on a railroad track and while the end station may be outright stealing or outright adultery, etc. what about all the lines leading up to the station? Ah, that might be what trips you up. And if nothing else trips you up, what about coveting? That's in inward struggle that nobody can see, but is sure to get us. Colin takes these Ten Commandments and calls them our greatest struggles: Your struggle with God Your struggle with Worship Your struggle with Religion Your struggle with Time Your struggle with Authority Your struggle for Peace Your struggle for Purity Your struggle for Integrity You...

The Music, the Memories, and the Miles Between Mark Lee is a founding member of the music group, Third Day, an award winning Christian rock band. I have never listened to them, I don't believe as I don't listen to rock music, but I found his story interesting. This book is less about his music, though it's a prominent place, and more about God's leading and direction in his life. The writing is simple with no pretention. He really has almost nothing to say about their performances or life on the road. The book is about his journey to becoming a musician and his desire to follow Jesus first, a commitment he made the summer after high school. Mark lost his dad at age 16 to brain cancer. It was a hard journey for him. Hit by a truck a couple years before that, he had some injuries to recover from there as well. The last chapter kind of recaps the book in a way and I want to quote a few lines from there that give the gist of the story better than I can. "Thes...

Illustrated by David Hohn This is the story of a wolf kid who is an only child and he is trying to figure out why some families are big and he is only one. His parents are explaining that families come in all sizes. There is the family with lots of children, the family where the cubs are raised by the grandparents and the family that is raised by the mother and only see the dad in the summer. Then the wolf family goes to a family reunion and the cub realizes that all these other wolves make up his pack/his family and while sometimes they are annoying, they can also be fun to play with. The storyline is cute. I hesitate at the hint of a divorced family and yet I realize that is the culture we live in and my children are going to be exposed to it at some point. And also, this could indicate a family where the dad works away and is only able to come home on weekends or monthly, etc. If there was no indication of a dad, I would take it to mean a spouse has died, but I don't thi...

Getting Real about Getting Close Relationships--so vital and so hard. Why do we fear being real? Why do we try to hide behind a fake facade, attempting to be whoever we think the other person wants us to be? John explores getting real and really experiencing intimacy. This applies not just to a spouse, but to all close relationships. We were born to bond. That's why attachment and bonding is so important as babies. We need that so we can thrive as adults "God's primary goal for us is character, not innocence. Innocence means I haven't done anything wrong. Character means I am habitually devoted to doing what is right. Babies are innocent. Saints have character." It is this character that allows us to experience intimacy with those around us. "People who are skilled at intimacy look for opportunities to create joy for other people." It's an outward focused thing, how can I best help the other person, rather than a me focus. John talks abou...

The Napalm Girl's Journey through the Horrors of War to Faith, Forgiveness, and Peace. June 8, 1972, at eight years old, Kim Phuc's life changed forever. That was the day the Napalm bomb was dropped on her village of Trang Bang. I do not fully understand these types of bombs, but they work by burning. It's a sticky substance and sticks to whatever it touches. It also burns at 5,000 degrees F. The fire chased her, burned her clothes right off of her and deeply burned 30% of her body. She was taken to a hospital and placed in the morgue where her mother found her three days later. Interestingly enough, and I hope I'm not giving away too much of the storyline, Kim always wondered and struggled with why she had been left for dead when she was still breathing, but because of the way napalm worked, other victims who were taken to the hospital and well-meaning nurses would remove the bandages, they would immediately catch on fire again and die. Napalm needs oxygen. By bein...

This is the third in the series Heart of the Frontier. I am thinking it is the last as Mercy was the youngest sister Mercy lived up to her name. In the previous two books as everyone dealt with the after effects of the Whitman Mission Massacre, Mercy wanted love and forgiveness to prevail. She wasn't after revenge. That theme didn't come out quite as strong in this book, but it was definitely there. She was once again put in some life threatening situations and her earnest desire was for peace. While this was a purely fiction book, it did open my eyes to the fighting and wars between the whites and Indians and I'm sure there was a lot more truth in the fiction than I ever realized, as far as the hatred the whites had for the Indians. It was a good book. I like Tracie's books. It was also rather predictable as we might assume. There was a little twist in the plot involving a little girl, but I'm not going to give away any spoilers here. I received this book...

A Prayer for When You Wish You Were Brave This is a nice hardcover book with a dust jacket suitable for ages 2 and up or any age where they will sit and listen to a story. Even as an adult, I can stand to remember this story. It's the story of a cat who thinks he's a big, strong cat and not a scaredy cat, but turns out he's scared about a lot of things like sprinkles on his doughnut.  When fear strikes though, there is a prayer to pray. "God, you are good. God, you are near. God, you are here! And, God, you love me." These words, are repeated throughout the book and are so very, very true. God is good, He is near and He hears me. I need to remember this when I want to allow fear to overtake me. My daughter loves this book and had her daddy read it twice back to back as soon as the box was open. I hope she too can remember to go to God when she is scared. I really like this book and the lesson it teaches. I will say for those who have read Max Luca...

Live fully, love bravely "a fierce Hearted woman... "looks life in the face and says, "You can't beat me." "Knows love is risk but reaches out anyway. "Understands kindness takes real courage. "Makes gentle the new strong, small the new big, ordinary the new extraordinary. "Chases Jesus with a tender, world-changing wildness." And there's more. This book was good. It was written in a style I could hang on to. I think every chapter started with a little story or anecdote. The chapters were small, they were read in just a few minutes, but they pulled me in and made me want to keep reading. This is the first book I've read from Holley. I have a Bible study book of hers, but I haven't gone through it yet. I definitely will be on the lookout for more of her books. It's not a book that says how wonderful you are, blah, blah, blah. Yes, it says that, but in the way that Jesus made you who you are. You are good in ...

Finding God's Goodness in the Broken and the Beautiful For those of you who have read Kisses from Katie, I definitely recommend this book. It continues the story of Katie's work in Uganda, the heartache and loss she experienced and yet how she always found God faithful and good. It wasn't always easy, but there was always hope. Katie talks about grieving the loss of a friend and putting sticky notes all around her kitchen of verses that told of God's goodness. She talks of battling it out on the bathroom floor night after night because it was the only private place in the whole house. With 13 adopted girls and often visitors in need of help, her life was busy and crazy, but she trusted and hoped in God. This book offers hope for those who are going through tough times. I was challenged to hope more in God, to talk to Him as a friend, to keep Him in the daily running of my life and not to try to do life on my own. Katie has given of herself in amazing ways and she ...