love to paint

Back in September we went on vacation to Maine, which included a very long drive up and a long drive back.  Along the way, I read an ebook titled Dear Mr. Knightley by Katherine Reay.  One would assume that this book is going to be another modern retelling of Emma (in which Mr. Knightley is a character.  Not so.  This story is the retelling of Daddy Long Legs with a conspicuous name borrowed from Austen's novel from long ago. Last year, I bought a copy of the classic, Daddy Long Legs.  I remembered enjoying it, so I wanted to see if I would share it with my girls.  After reading it, I shelved the book and actually donated it back to the library book sale.  I didn't like the moral tone of the book.  Sad to say, it's been a while so I can't remember what my specific concerns were, but I had enough concerns to realize that my girls wouldn't enjoy reading it and I wasn't going to force it upon them. I do like the premise of Daddy Long Legs, though...

Sometimes I realize that I forget how ideas have changed over time.  Today, many families have adopted children in our country.  Their skin color is often different from one another, but it doesn't change that they are a family in any way.  In the 1800s, who your parents were had a huge impact on how you were seen.  The family you belonged to was of great significance.   I was reminded of this detail when I read a Christian fiction book yesterday titled Every Perfect Gift by Dorothy Love.  This book is the third and final in her Hickory Ridge series.  It stands on it own and can easily be read without having read the first two.  I actually didn't realize there were two other books until the very end.   In this story, Sophie Caldwell has returned to Hickory Ridge to restart the town's newspaper.  She once lived in the orphanage there.  A new tourist resort is being built by Horace Blakely and being overseen by Ethan Heyward. ...

This past weekend I picked up a book with what I thought might be an interesting storyline.  One thing I've noticed in my reading is that there are all sorts of books.  There are books one would call Christian fiction and then there are books that are written by Christians which I would simply call fiction informed by a Christian worldview.  Then there are books written by Christians that are simply fiction--there is no discernable Christian worldview or "inspirational truth" underlying the story.  Christian publishers today publish books that fall into all three of these categories.  The book I read this past weekend would probably fall under the last category.  I expected it to fall in the middle category and because of that expectation, it was quite a disappointing read. The book I read is titled Beyond Molasses Creek . It is written by Nicole Seitz.    The main character of the story is a 60 year old, overweight white woman who has come hom...

Since Eric Metaxas biography about Dietrich Bonhoeffer was published, much ado has been made about the book.  The sheer size of it was daunting and so I never gave it much thought.  My husband, on the other hand, wanted it for his birthday--so that was my gift.  I gave him a copy of the Hardcover edition of the book. In August, a paperback edition of the book was published.  I had a chance to review it, so I decided it would be a worthwhile endeavor.  After finishing the book, my husband had said to me that he really wanted me to read it, so reviewing it would give me added motivation to make my way through the book.  I am slowly reading it bit by bit.  It is quite heavy in vocabulary and information (Metaxas really packs it in!). Since so many reviews have been written about this book, it seems silly to write another detailed review about the writing, content, and flow of the book.  So, I have decided to limit myself to what makes this ed...

Is faith in oneself the same as faith in God?   No. Is Courage based upon who one is the same as courage from God when we are weak? I don't think so. Is Hope that our dreams will come true the same as the Hope we have because of Christ? No. Our culture touts the values of hope, courage, and faith.  But, it bases these values in the potential within ones self.  It grieves me deeply.  The way these messages are conveyed to us sounds good and encouraging.  How could they be bad things?  They aren't necessarily bad--but they are bad if they take God out of the picture.   Psalm 2:1-3 ESV    1 Why do   the nations rage    and the peoples plot in vain? 2 The kings of the earth set themselves,    and the rulers take counsel together,    against the LORD and against his   Anointed, saying, 3 "Let us   burst their bonds apart    and cast away their co...

Last year when I read Distracted by Maggie Jackson, I had no idea that I would be reminded of the insights in her book as often as I have been.  One of the ideas I have pondered often is what is real and what is not.  What was once considered artificial is now considered real in our world.  Online relationships are as real to many people as their relationships with their physical neighbors.   There was one particular story in Distracted that hit me hard.  Well, actually there were several.  One that comes to my mind is her recounting of a group of people involved in an online game with avatars.  When surveyed, there was a large number that believed that their avatars were their real lives and this life is their artificial one.  My mind was alarmed!   Over the past year, what is real has come to be something that I desire to choose.  I know there is a place for technology in our lives, but I love to think that someone has done or ma...

I have to admit that when a new picture Bible storybook comes out I am always curious about how it will be different from others that we've read as a family.  Today a new one arrived in the mail. The Beginning Reader's Bible , illustrated by Marijke ten Cate is a little different than other Bible storybooks we have in our house.  I mistakenly assumed that it would be a Bible storybook for early readers, written at a 2nd or 3rd grade reading level.  I did note that the description mentioned that it had excerpts from the ICB, but I assumed these were short.  In actuality, the text is almost entirely excerpts from the International Children's Bible with illustrations.  There are verses in boxes for almost every lesson that are good to repeat and memorize with your children.  There are also scattered boxes titled "Do God's Word" which include ideas for activities to reinforce the theme of the passage or to explain a theological concept such as sin. At first...

Over the past year, Thomas Nelson has published a series of books called The Ancient Practices Series.  The books cover such topics as fasting, prayer, tithing, and the liturgical year.  My husband and I were curious about the book by Joan Chittister titled The Liturgical Year .  The book is actually by Sister Joan Chittister.  She belongs to the Benedictine Order.  That is an important piece of information because it tells you what perspective this book is written from--a Catholic perspective.  I was curious as I read the introduction how that would shape the information in the book. It is a very readable book.  But, the one word I would use to describe this book is "hyper-spiritual".  There are some wonderful quotes in this book, but there are also several that verge on the line between Christian and New Age thinking.  And it's very hard for me to discern the difference while I'm reading it.  Sometimes it was very clear in the book a...

A few months ago, I received the Read And Share Bible for Autumn and I wrote a review of it that I posted it on this blog. I'm not sure exactly what I wrote--but we have loved this Bible Story Book! It is very biblical and has really caused me to think about what the Bible says and what it doesn't. I don't have the DVD version of the Bible, but have been curious about it. So, I was very excited to receive a copy of The Christmas Story storybook from Thomas Nelson. It includes a DVD with a sampling of the stories on the Read and Share DVD Bible. This storybook is a larger sized storybook than the read and share Bible that includes the stories about Zecharias, Elizabeth, and John, as well as the stories about Mary, Joseph, and Jesus' birth. My 6 year old enjoyed the pages at the end which ask you to tell the story with the pictures (which are out of order). The stories on each page tell a story (they don't have to be combined all together and then put in order)...