Gravel Road Musings

First off, let me start by saying thank you to those who took the time to comment, facebook message me or text.  I really appreciated it. There's one thing I didn't mention on my last blog post because we didn't know for sure and now we do and my mind's in a while once again and I want to say, "Really God? Don't we have enough right now?" But I guess not and it hurts so deep and so raw and how do you grieve one more thing. But yes, it's true: my oldest sister has officially been diagnosed with breast cancer. I'm not going into a lot of details on this blog, likely never will for two reasons: one, we don't know much yet and two it's her story to tell. But I will beg and plead for prayers for her that she could be healed and for her husband, her children, her siblings, and her mom as we try to make sense of the "evil" that has invaded our family and as we try to figure out how best to help and I don't even know how to reques...

Okay, let me start by saying I still believe in God. I know He is powerful and all-knowing and caring, but.... as one of my friends said, sometimes it feels like we are just pawns in His hands and He just does with us whatever He wants. And yes, I know that the bad things are more a result of the curse and living in a sinful world that doesn't honor God, than it is God wanting to hurt us. I got a text back the day Cheryl died that said something to the effect that God must see great potential in me to be putting us through these tough times and right now I would like to say, "God, I'm maxed out. There is no more potential to be sucked out of me, so could you please just let me be now?" I know I should pray, but I feel like what's the use?  I prayed that Dad's surgery would go okay and his heart stopped on the operating table. I prayed that he would wake up and instead his brain waves went flat. I prayed his heart would stop before we had to make the decisi...

I am a Dee Henderson fan.  I think she writes a good, captivating story. There is normally romance mixed in, but I don't consider it the predominant feature. This book is the story of a girl who was kidnapped at age 16 and escaped 11 years later. Shannon was a remarkable girl in that she dealt with her captivity by developing and maintaining a strong faith in God, journaling, and developing her photography skills. She didn't attempt escape earlier because she didn't want to cause another person to die which is what would have happened. Shannon chose Matthew to be her guide to settling in to the real world again as his daughter had also been kidnapped and recovered. The romance aspect was Shannon was pretty determined to date Matthew and he was equally sure that while he also wanted to date her, he thought she needed to wait and work through some of her issues first. The book had a good flow to it; very little edge-of-your-seats drama, but captivating all the same. I...

"make 3 months of homemade purees in 3 hours" Ahh, the inspiration this book incites.  Some people think I'm a little nuts for being excited about starting Amber on baby food and while it makes me a little sad to think of her growing up so fast, it makes me excited to move her on to the next step.  I have about 3 more weeks to wait because we all know that 3 months and 29 days is too early to start them on food, but 4 months is the perfect time!!! Anyway, this book has inspired me to attempt making my own baby food. I was planning to anyway, but this book breaks it down into recipes so I can know how to steam the veggies/fruit and also gives some combination recipes for mixing two kinds of food together.  The author also recommends really branching out in the food categories: kale, quinoa, beans, etc; things I wouldn't have thought to give a baby.  Two features I really like in this book are: a breakdown for how to cook the food in 3-1 hour increments and the se...

Inspired by Jeanna Young & Jacqueline Johnson Pictures by Omar Aranda This is a children's, I would specify girls, activity book. Age range is 4-8. From what I have seen, I would think this book goes with some stories about Princess Charity because there really isn't much of a story line in this book, but it looks like fun.  There are reusable stickers. I was a little disappointed that there weren't more places in the book designed to hold the stickers.  I remember as a little girl having sticker book and they were so much fun.  There are 50 stickers, but I could only find designated places for 4 of them.  There is a spot a word page, a maze, a color by number, a dot-to-dot, etc. I love the looks of the book, It looks bright and clean and so inviting.  It made me want to do the coloring myself.  Like I said there's not much of a story line, but you can gather that the authors are Christian simply by the use of the names. Princesses Joy, Grace, Ho...

I'm just going to openly plagiarize here for a bit. I think the hardest part of losing someone isn’t having to say goodbye, but rather learning to live without them.  Always trying to fill the void, the emptiness that’s left inside your heart when they go. "We're not necessarily doubting that God will do what is best for us; we are wondering how painful the best will turn out to be." C.S. Lewis. Remembering precious lives...a beautiful little girl, a young mother and her newborn, and a wonderful grandfather...all lives that once were and thankfully, 'forever more will be' just not here and with us. Death has a way of raising real fear and some hard questions that trite 'cliched' answers won't fix. Lord, breathe your peace over us all please, in the name of Jesus  ‪#‎ FlorenceMarigoldinBloom‬   Heather Dawn Kuhns These quotes stuck out to me when I read them this past week. I could expound about each of them individually, but...

A Journey from Fear to Faith This is the story of a man with a lot more courage than I have ever possessed.  He looked fear in the face and seemed to laugh at it a lot of times.  He lived in the Middle East for about 11 years. He wasn't afraid to ask the Imam if they could host meetings in his mosque to talk about Jesus. By saying his talks were about Jesus and not Christianity, he was able to open many more doors than he would have otherwise.  But he did mention that he had to learn about Jesus and who He really was to be able to really talk about Him. Carl spent some time in prison, he was kicked out of the country of Lebanon, but he wasn't afraid to keep going forward.  If he felt God was calling him to do something, he said Yes and then jumped in with both feet. He admits you can tell God no if you want to, but what will happen is you will eventually stop hearing God's voice and you can miss out on some grand opportunities. While I wish the book would h...