Wednesday Hodgepodge

Welcome to the Wednesday Hodgepodge! Add your link at the end of Joyce's post by clicking here, and let's get this party started. Be sure to mingle, or at least go say hello to the blogger who linked before you. Here are my answers to Joyce's questions for the week.

1. Today is my sister's birthday (yesterday actually). What's one way you're like your siblings? If you don't have siblings, how are you like your lifelong best friend or cousin?
I am an only child, or at least have been since I was young.  My Aunt Shirley's girls are the closest thing I have to sisters and there are four of them.  We are all a bit headstrong and stubborn to varying degrees....just like our moms.  We all are musical in some capacity.  We all love to sing and some of us play instruments.  We have a strong sense of family and love each other madly.  Some of us love to travel and we love doing it together.  We all love the holidays and being together.  Shirley's girls look like their dad's side of the family.  I look like a mix between my mom and dad.

2. What's the first thing that comes to mind when you think of yourself at age eighteen?
Freedom.  My parents semi-supported me....but I was free.

3. Sculptor-dancer-actor-painter...if you could excel in one of these arts, which would you choose and why?  Actor.  I have always wanted to be on stage in a musical....on Broadway.

4. What's a scent that takes you back in time, and where does it take you?
Pikaki.  On Mary's 50th birthday we went to Hawaii and the heady smell of pikaki reminds me of her.  She died six years after the trip.  Pikaki takes me to a happy place in time.

5. November is for peanut butter lovers (National Peanut Butter Lovers Month). Are you a lover or a hater? What's your favorite dish/recipe that calls for peanut butter?
I am a peanut butter lover to the enth degree.  I love the stuff!.  When my mom could get me to eat nothing else, I would eat peanut butter.  My favorite peanut butter dish is Peanut Butter Cake.  This is the recipe I use and it is wonderful.  I have cheated and used a yellow cake mix for the cake and it is equally as good.

Peanut Butter Cake 1 3/4 c. sifted cake flour 2 1/2 tsp. baking powder 1/2 tsp. salt 1/2 c. shortening 1/2 c. peanut butter 1 c. sugar 1 egg, unbeaten 1 tsp. vanilla 2/3 c. milk Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and line bottoms of two 8 inch layer cake pans (or one 8x8x2 inch cake pan) with waxed paper; grease paper. Measure flour, baking powder and salt into sifter. Cream shortening and peanut butter in medium bowl until soft; add sugar gradually, creaming until well blended. Beat in egg; stir in vanilla. Sift and add dry ingredients alternately with milk, beating after each addition until batter is smooth. Pour batter into prepared cake pans. Bake 25 minutes or until center springs back when lightly pressed with fingertips. Cool cake in pans on wire rack 5 minutes; loosen around edges with knife. Turn out onto racks; remove waxed paper. Cool completely. FROSTING: Cream 1/2 cup peanut butter and 1/2 cup butter together in medium bowl. Stir in 1/2 tsp. vanilla and 1/2 tsp. salt. Add 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar gradually. Cream. Frost Peanut Butter Cake!

6. What do people thank you personally for most often?
 Small  and random acts of kindness. 
 
7. What event this year are you most thankful for? My choice to follow God's lead and taking a church as its pastor.  I have been truly blessed at Midway UMC.

8. Insert your own random thought here.  Today is National Saxophone Day and Marooned Without A Compass Day.  Where do they come up with these crazy days.  I love the music of Kenny G.  My favorite song is called, "Auld Lang Syne."  I always have a compass with me.  My father gave it to me when I graduated from high school.  He told me as long as I had a compass I could always find my way home.  The compass he gave me was a bible....and he was right.  As long as I have it and use it I CAN find my way home. 

At Least You're In Tuscany

 

About The Book:  Endless fields of flame-like poppies. Vino Nobile di Montepulciano. The sweet, rhythmic chime of church bells.  Months upon months of unemployment? Struggling to communicate with locals? Duvets frozen on the clothesline?  Jennifer Criswell's move from New York City to Tuscany was not supposed to go like this. She had envisioned lazy mornings sipping espresso while penning a best-selling novel and jovial group dinners, just like in the movies and books about expatriate life in Italy.  Then she met reality: no work, constant struggles with Italian bureaucracy to claim citizenship through her ancestors, and perhaps worst of all, becoming the talk of the town after her torrid affair with a local fruit vendor.  At Least You're in Tuscany is the intimate, honest, and often hilarious tale of Jennifer's first year in Montepulciano. During that time, Jennifer's internal optimist was forced to work overtime, reminding her that if she were going to be homeless, lonely, and broke, at least she would be all those things - in Tuscany.  Through all her small-town bumblings, though, Jennifer's mantra, along with a healthy dose of enthusiasm and willingness to learn about Italian culture, helped her not only build a new, rewarding life in Italy but also find herself along the way.

 

About The Author:  Jennifer Criswell is a lawyer turned writer. After a trip to Italy in 2001 changed her life and her direction, she chucked her legal briefs to pursue her love of writing. Jennifer followed this dream to New York City where she supported herself (just) for over six years by walking dogs on the Upper West Side.  Jennifer has authored three novels, and her current project, AT LEAST YOU’RE IN TUSCANY: A Somewhat Disastrous Quest for the Sweet Life, is an honest and funny memoir about the reality of following your dream.  Jennifer lives and writes in a small hill town in Italy with her sidekick of a Weimaraner, Cinder. They are always on the look out for new adventures… and new gelato flavors!

 

My Thoughts On The Book: I thoroughly enjoyed the true story of someone who really wants to fit in and seem like a local in another country. Having traveled a good bit I have often wondered what it would be like to just pick up and move to another country.  I think this book is the answer to my ever present question.  In order to live in another country you have to learn the language, adapt to the culture and keep on keeping on.  The book also shows that it does not take a ton of money to do this.  Who knows maybe someday I will venture out into the world and live somewhere I have never lived before. 

 

Statement of Disclosure: I received an paperback copy of this title from Net Galley Publishing Group as part of their blogger review program . I am disclosing this in accordance with the FTC 16 CFR, Part 255 'Guides concerning the use of endorsements and testimonials in advertising. I was not asked to write a positive review and all opinions expressed are entirely my own. Thanks guys for letting me read this and participate!

What the Bride Didn't Know

About The Book:  Shh…it's a secret!   Special ops expert Trig Sinclair is a man's man, and that means he knows the cardinal rule of the bro code—no matter how dynamite Lena West is, as his best friend's younger sister, she's strictly off-limits!  But when a secret mission to Istanbul sees Lena and Trig pretending to be married (and sharing a bed!), he finds himself in a whole new world of sweet torture…. But if Trig thinks playing the honor-bound hero is tough, it's got nothing on how Lena feels when she discovers what her "groom" is really hiding….

 

About The Author:  Australian born Kelly Hunter writes short contemporary romance for Harlequin Mills &Boon and even shorter contemporary romance for herself. First published in 2007, Kelly's books have finalled once in the Romance Writers of Australia's RUBY award, six times in the Australian Romance Readers Awards, twice in the Romantic Times Readers Choice Awards and have been nominated three times for a RITA. Thus inspired, Kelly keeps writing them.

 

My Thoughts On The Book:  I love a story where friendship turns into love, and I was expecting that outcome from this book. I liked the main characters, I liked their interaction with each other, I liked the fact that they were all old family friends.  I liked that they were spies (which gave the story an element of suspense) and the shooting and robbery in Turkey made them all vulnerable.  I was a bit disappointed in the amnesia aspect, but loved the ending.  This is a fun read. I read it in one sitting.

Statement of Disclosure: I received an paperback copy of this title from Harlequin and Net Galley Publishing Group as part of their  blogger review program . I am disclosing this in accordance with the FTC 16 CFR, Part 255 'Guides concerning the use of endorsements and testimonials in advertising. I was not asked to write a positive review and all opinions expressed are entirely my own. Thanks guys for letting me read this and participate!

 

To Know You

 

About The Book:  Julia Whittaker’s rocky past yielded two daughters, both given up for adoption as infants. Now she must find them to try to save her son.Julia and Matt Whittaker’s son has beaten the odds for thirteen years only to have the odds—and his liver—crash precipitously. The only hope for his survival is a “living liver” transplant, but the transplant list is long and Dillon’s time is short. His two older half-sisters, born eighteen months apart to two different fathers, offer his only hope for survival.  But can Julia ask a young woman—someone she surrendered to strangers long ago and has never spoken with—to make such a sacrifice to save a brother she’s never known? Can she muster the courage to journey back into a shame-filled season of her life, face her choices and their consequences, and find any hope of healing?  And what if she discovers in her own daughters’ lives that a history of foolish choices threatens to repeat itself? Julia knows she’s probably embarking on a fool’s errand—searching for the daughters she abandoned only now that she needs something from them. But love compels Julia to take this journey. Can grace and forgiveness compel her daughters to join her?  In To Know You, Shannon Ethridge and Kathryn Mackel explore how the past creates the present . . . and how even the most shattered lives can be redeemed.

About The Author:  *Shannon Ethridge* is a best-selling author, speaker, and certified life coach with a master’s degree in counseling/human relations from Liberty University. She has spoken to college students and adults since 1989 and is the author of 21 books, including the million-copy best-selling Every Woman's Battle series. She is a frequent guest on TV and radio programs and mentors aspiring writers and speakers through her BLAST Program (Building Leaders, Authors, Speakers & Teachers.) *Kathryn Mackel* is a best-selling author and acclaimed screenwriter for Disney and Fox. She was on the screenwriting team for Left Behind: The Movie, and Frank Peretti's Hangman's Curse. She is the acclaimed author of "The Surrogate", "The Departed", and "The Hidden" and resides in Boston, Massachusetts, with her husband.

My Thoughts On The Book:  This story touched a nerve with me.  My best friend tried to find her birth mom when my friend's son came down with a rare disease.  I felt a lot of emotions I experienced with her at that time.  This book is by far one of the best books I have read in a while.  It was absolutely wonderful, and in my opinion, had everything a good book needs. I didn't want to put it down!   Once I started reading this story I did not want to eat, sleep, or work.  I just wanted to dive into the story.  Everytime I thought I had it figured out I would be thrown for a loop and the ending was quite a surprise.  I would have never seen that one coming.  The book covers a multitude of topics but the biggest one is redemption as you are taken on a journey that keeps you on the edge of your seat throughout the whole story. The book may be fictional, but the realism in the story would catch your breath. This book is definitely a must read!

Statement of Disclosure: I received an paperback copy of this title from Litfuse Publishing Group as part of their Blogging for Books blogger review program . I am disclosing this in accordance with the FTC 16 CFR, Part 255 'Guides concerning the use of endorsements and testimonials in advertising. I was not asked to write a positive review and all opinions expressed are entirely my own. Thanks guys for letting me read this and participate!

Forever Friday

 

 

About The Book:  Every Friday, a postcard.  Every Friday, a love poem.  Every Friday for sixty years.  Adam Colby is just doing his job, sorting through the unsold Alexander belongings after the estate sale. He is unprepared for what he finds in an old photo album, overlooked by the bargain hounds and treasure hunters—six decades of postcards and poems from Gabe Alexander to his wife, Pearl. The mystery of the Alexanders’ love entices Adam, a man unhinged by divorce and puzzled by the depth of commitment that he finds in the unabashedly romantic cards.  Forever Friday invites you to travel back in time to the early twentieth century Texas Coastal Bend where a young couple—Gabe and Pearl Alexander—are swept up in a miraculous love. As the heartwarming, pulse-quickening story of their relationship develops through Gabe’s poems, the Alexanders reveal a new way to consider what it means to be truly devoted to each other. Could the secrets of their love affair, laid to rest twenty years ago, hold the key to one man’s future?  Want to read an exerpt?  (Click here.)  If you would like to view a clip on you tube click here.

About The Author:  Timothy Lewis is an author and playwright.  he has authored more than twenty musicals/plays.  In addition, he teaches a beginning novel writing class at West Texas A & M University and co-directs a summer writing academy.  Timothy is also a professional speaker, cowboy poet, actor, and sngwriter.  He drew inspiration for Forever FRieday from the postcards sent between his great-aunt and great-uncle over a period of sixty years.  He lives with his wife near Amarillo, Texas.

My Thoughts On The Book:  As a big estate sale lover I found this book very intriguing.  Many years ago my mom and I attended a sale, bought a sealed box, opened it and found a picture of two young women (one from the 1940's and one from the 70's), a series of letters to a man who was in the servie, and a picture of a couple.  The box was fascinating and we began to see if we could find the young girl.  A year later a salesman friend was visiting our house, I told him the story, he asked to see the box, and it turned out the young woman was his wife.  The couple was her grandmother and grandfather.  He died during WWII.  His story broke my heart and so did this one. Forever Friday is a great love story about two people who care about each other deeply. I couldn't put it down. It has a good moral and a great ending. I think this was an amazing book!! Lewis is quite a wordsmith and the book was well-written. Lewis provides his readers with insight into both Adam's life and the couple who wrote the postcards. I had the same warm fuzzy feeling I felt with Nicholas Spark's book, The Notebook.  I would recommend this book to anyone who loves a touching love story about enduring love.
Statement of Disclosure: I received an paperback copy of this title from Waterbrook Multnomah as part of their Blogging for Books blogger review program . I am disclosing this in accordance with the FTC 16 CFR, Part 255 'Guides concerning the use of endorsements and testimonials in advertising. I was not asked to write a positive review and all opinions expressed are entirely my own. Thanks guys for letting me read this and participate!

This One Is For Me!

Saturday morning I got up way too early and left the house before daylight to get to Mrs. Shirley's Antique House.  Today is the day the Ladies Guild at Rock Mills is having a yard/bake/craft sale and all proceeds are going to Magen and Keaton for the babies.  They are one month old! 

We serve an awesome God!  The customers were slow to begin with....but once they started coming it was a mad house.  I put two pictures on the front door of the house.  One said:  Benefit Yard Sale for Kash and Kruze McCarley.  The other sign showed one of the babies and it said:  This yard sale is for ME!  We had a donation jug set up in case people didn't want to buy anything they could still leave us a little something. 

When it started I figured we would raise somewhere around 8 to 9 hundred dollars if....and the key word is "if" we were lucky.  One of our church men told us we "might" make five hundred dollars.  I cried a good bit during the day as I witnessed people's love and generosity.  When Mrs. Shirley and I totaled up our handiwork for the day we had raised right at 1300.00!  Magens post on Facebook:  Prayers for Kash and Kruze McCarley asked for continued prayers.  She is such an amazing woman.  Her outlook is amazing.  Her update was this:
"Hello!! Sorry my update is so late.... Jett(their one year old son) had been running me today!! 

First of all, we want to thank everyone that donated to our girls today at the Hwy 22 yard sale, we appreciate it and will never find enough words to express how thankful we are for you guys! We love y'all!  Moving along... We took Jett to the zoo today, he seemed to like it. Kruze is still just moving along, not causing much trouble. the results of her echo shows that her vessel had gotten smaller.... Great news! Kash has had a little bit of a rough day. They are doing a repeat cranial on her this week, if the bleed has grown more, we will be meeting with neurosurgeons. The repeat echo came back that her vessel was unchanged, so they had to start her on a medication to help close it.... They will do 3 rounds, then a repeat echo if is still unchanged they will repeat the 3 doses and do another repeat..... If still unchanged, they will talk about closing it surgically. Today Kash had to have another x ray of her belly bc it looked distended. Her belly was fine, but they noticed that the top of her femur and hip bone look eroded. They think this is from the infection she had.... So they are checking again for infection, to make sure she doesn't have any infection of the bone. They just came to do move x rays of her legs, depending in the results.... We may be meeting with a bone doctor..... Say a few extra prayers for Kash tonight..... They gave her morphine earlier, her heart rate was really high, and she was acting like she was in pain.... Thanks for your continued support, love, and prayers!!! Love from Birmingham!"  As I close out my post tonight....I humbly ask that you please pray for Kash and Kruze.  They have fought to be a month old.  They now weigh in at a whopping 1 pound 8 ounces and 1 pound 7 ounces.  That is a feat in itself.  Many people never live to see an actual miracle take place and I am fortunate to watch this one unfold before my very eyes.  Goodnight little ladies and yes,this one was for you!

 

Five Minute Friday - Grace

On Friday’s we silence the inner critic. The loudest of all naysayers. And on Fridays we remind ourselves that The Word is for us and loves us and welcomes us.  Your words are safe here.   So come and write with us. Together. On one word for five minutes. And then link up your post or leave it in the comments. But remember, the one must rule here is that you visit the person who linked up before you and encourage them in their writing.  That’s it. The gift of encouragement – pass it on.  All the back story and details for how to play along are over here.  Once you link up at Lisa Jo's blog then pick the person before you and leave some comment love on their post.  You can visit all you want....just be sure to visit the one before you.  Today the word is the one that’s been hammering in my head all week. Today the word is GRACE.

GO::

I am trying to write this while my class is taking a test.  I have already had three interuptions so I am stopping my clock and starting it back each time.  I know my thoughts are disjointed.  I had a student ask me once, "what is it about Grace that makes it so amazing?"  I wanted to cry.  I could not believe that someone did not understand the ramifications of Grace.  Grace  in Christian terminology  is the free and unmerited favor of God, as manifested in the salvation of sinners and the bestowal of blessings.  It is amazing.  In Ephesians 2: 8-9 I find this assurance of grace, "You are saved by God’s grace because of your faith. This salvation is God’s gift. It’s not something you possessed. It’s not something you did that you can be proud of. "  That is what I love so about grace.  There is nothing that I did to earn it....or deserve it.....but God gave it to me.  When I found the word for the day I immediately began humming the tune to "Amazing Grace" and started my day with a huge smile on my face.  As I sat here at my desk in my room while my students did their work the tune for Chris Tomlins song, "Amazing Grace - My Chains Are Gone" moved into my mind and by the time it was over the students were actually smiling back at me.  My whole day....even at this very moment....I feel blessed with grace.  Grace makes me feel like it is Christmas morning all day long.  I( am sitting here wrapped in warm fuzzy feelings of grace unearned.  Thank God I am saved.  Thank God for the Amazing Grace.  Thank you for all the second chances I have been given.  Help me Lord to pass grace on to others.  Help grace temper my action and reactions.  If you have not ever watched it, please take a chance and watch the movie, The Grace Card.  It is well-worth the effort and time.  You won't regret watching it I promise. 

STOP: