There are those who went through it, faced death, and came home share a tale or two. Some come back and just want to forget the horrors of what happened before their very eyes. And then… there are those who will never speak their stories because they weren’t able to return home.

I’m thinking about those men and women and the acts of valor we’ll never hear about.

Throughout our history, countless men and women have given their lives for our country. We may never know all their stories or all the ways they served our country. We’ll never hear about near death escapes, because some didn’t make it. Nor will we know what hopes and dreams they held onto. But what we do know, is today we honor these men and women.

Just serving our country is an act of valor.

May your Memorial day weekend be filled with love, laughter, and shared memories.

I’m pleased to announce that I have been offered and accepted representation by agent Terry Burns of Hartline Literary Agency.

As many of you know, it has been a long process getting here.

I cannot express enough how much all of your encouragement, support, and faith means to me. There isn’t enough words to describe how much I appreciate you all.

Thank you Hartline Literary Agency, Terry Burns, and all of you who continue to believe in me.

While I’m not sure if we’ll get to pitch our tents this weekend, we are, however, planning to cook over the campfire. Boy’s cub scout troop is planning a cook out this week and I’ve got the job of preparing some campfire foil packs for the main course of our supper.

Anyone have any good recipes?

Wednesday just totally flew past me, how about you?

See you Friday.

There are five new baby calves on the farm. As you can see this little heifer isn’t shy at all.

Even though it wasn’t raining, the wind was chilly. Next time we go visit, I promised the kiddos we’d see the rabbits and the cats. Who knows, in the short time until we visit again the number of calves that we’ll see then.

It’s been an awesome and exciting weekend.

How about you? How did you spend Mother’s day?

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It is hard, as a mother, to ever have to face the fact that our babies may or may not be healthy when they are born. So many of us are blessed with healthy babies, that we forget that right now, out there somewhere, there is a mother cradling a child that needs a little extra love.

There are so many situations that arise for us mothers, that our own mothers didn’t ever imagine or can’t comprehend why we would now face the challenges in motherhood that we do.

When my oldest, Bell, was born. I did everything the doctors told me,too. I walked. I ate right. I talked and sang to my belly. I couldn’t wait for Bell to make her appearance. And when she did, I found I could love in a much more powerful way than I ever knew.  I could look upon her, only as a mother could, and love her so incredibly that no one else could.

That’s why, even today, when I see a child with a hemangioma, port wine stain, or birthmark, I compliment their mother on what a beautiful child they have.

Each and every one of our babies are special and beautiful.

And even more special is the fact that God chose you as the mother of that baby.

That’s how I see it. God has blessed me three times. And that is exactly what I am. BLESSED.

Whether your child is raised by you, or someone else. Whether your babies have challenges, or not. Whether your babies are grown or still young…

remember you are both special. God choose you as you child’s mother. And God created that child from you.

HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY

I can’t believe it is Monday already!

I guess that is what happens when the kids are home and there are fun things to do. Like play kick ball, wash the family car, and settle down in the evenings to a good book.

This weekend’s read was TroubleTwisters by Garth Nix and Sean Williams.

Another book we picked up from the book fair last month.

Although I finished reading the book, I lost Boy within the first Chapter and Bug within a page or two. Bell stuck with me half way through, but then she strayed off and I was left reading the rest of this book alone.

I can’t blame them. It’s a little confusing and has a whole lot to swallow within the prologue.  Who knew that twins could get into so much trouble, right?

This book has got a lot of good vs evil going on in it for a bunch of twelve-year-olds, and of course the talking cats. That is if you can hear them.

This was a good read, but I don’t think we’ll be picking up the next book in the series.

Let me know if you’ve read it and what you think.

Happy reading!

I was out shopping with a friend. I’ve been wanting a living room furniture set for several years. (We have one couch for five people. Not that we are not a close family, but its a little crowded on movie night.) I saw a used living room set while we were out shopping. I’ve always been a little on the impulsive side, and promised I would take more time to think about major purchases for the house. So this time I decided I needed to wait. I told myself it the living room set was still there on a certain day that it was meant to be mine. 

Have you ever been there? You know where you’ve wanted something and decided it was meant to be if a certain criteria was met?

We’ll see in a couple of days if that living room set is still at the store where I left it and if I end up bringing it home with me. (Who knows it may not fit once I measure it.)

So what does faith have to do with a new (used) living room set?

There is a story,and forgive me if I don’t get all the details right, but a short summary of the story is this:

There once was a man on top of house roof. His home had been flooded. He prayed for God to rescue him. Along came a boat and the man refused to get in the boat. The water rose and along came a helicopter  Again the man refused the offer of assistance. Eventually, the waters rose and the man drown. When he came into the presence of the Lord he asked God, “Why didn’t you rescue me?”

God answered, “I sent a boat and a helicopter, but you refused both my attempts to answer your prayer.”

I know there are some of us out there that relay on our faith so deeply that it blinds us. I am one to admit that there have been times when I missed God sending me the boat and almost missed the helicopter. 

As I get ready to curl up on the couch with the family for movie night, I know God provides us with what we need. Only we can choose to accept what is put in front of us, whether it is or isn’t meant to be. 

 Have a great weekend. 

I wanted to wait until I got my Trivets back so I could show you them finished.

It was such a fun trip.

And let me tell you.. the creativity poured forth from all of us.

Or better thought, let me show you.

I decided to do trivets. I’m always ruining hot pads and not having enough of them to sit hot stuff on. I wanted to do something Italian. I’ve got the whole Italy theme going on in the kitchen and mixed with a little of the cafe’ latte’ deal.

I saw a picture in one of the books at the shop and got inspired. So I decided to free hand something similar to the inspiration photo. 

This is what they look like after about two hours of painting and drying with a blow dryer. But they’re not done yet.

Now they’re done. All glazed and gracing my dinning room table.

I can’t wait to go back again. I’m thinking I need to make two more to have the complete set as I saw in the inspiration photo.

And, it was a relatively inexpensive way to spend a Friday morning with a wonderful group of ladies!

However, I was packing and preparing for the Mercer, PA one day conference at Emmanuel Church and time slipped away from me. You would think that seven hours in the day (while the kids are at school) would be enough time to pack, clean the car, do the laundry, and prepare meals for while your away. Especially when I was only gone for one night and one day, but there were a few things I had to forgo, I hope you all understand.

I just finished reading Kate O’Hearn’s book Pegasus and the flame this week.

Pegasus and the flame

I would complain about the ending, but after seeing that there is another book to keep following the story, I now understand why I felt incomplete at the end. I’m waiting to get my hands on book two, Pegasus Olympus at War. If you have ever read any of the Percy Jackson books by Rick Riordan then you will enjoy this book, too.

Like most of the middle grade fiction I’ve been reading lately, I’ve passed this one off to Boy. It’s a big book, but he is reading like a fifth grader lately. Bell will just have to wait her turn on this one.

Who knows what book will fall into my lap this week. I just hope it’s another good one.

What are you reading?