I Was Nominated for a Blogging Award!

Kris from Georgia Home Garden, an absolutely great blog about his garden, kindly nominated me for the Liebster Blog.

The idea with this Blog Award is that it is presented to people who have less than 200 followers. They in turn "pay it forward" by nominating 3 to 5 people for the award, as well.

Here is the description from Kris's site:

The Liebster Blog Award is designed to introduce others to enjoyable blogs that have less than 200 followers. When you accept the award, you choose 3-5 other blogs that you feel are deserving of more subscribers and pass the award on to them.

Here are the rules:
1. Thank the giver and link back to the blogger who gave it to you.
2. Reveal your top picks and let them know by leaving a comment on their blog.
3. Copy and paste the award on your blog.
4. Have faith that your followers will spread the love to other bloggers.
5. And most of all - have fun! 


The first person I want to present the award to is my dear friend, with a great and funny homeschool blog, Layla, at Flat (Tire)d Homeschool. I love her blog. She makes me laugh. Her blog is so great and worth reading. I look forward to all her new posts. 


The next person I would like to present an award to is Doris of The Art Annex. She is an art teacher in Huntington, New York. I get more great ideas from her site than from any other. I love to read about her arts and crafts with children ranging in ages from preschool (about 4) to high school.


The third person I would like t present an award to is "Ribbit" from The Corner Yard. She writes a garden blog in the summer, and then at other seasons of the year she talks about what is going on at the school at which she works. I enjoy reading about her garden and her children. 

Review of Grumble Hallelujah

When I read the title, I expected this to be a book that would make me laugh at myself while overcoming complaining. That is not what this book is about. It is about the author's own complaints about her own life, most of which are very petty. Some of the complaints she has include 1) that her electricity went off because of a storm, 2) that her nice expensive home is not as nice as the person's across the street, 3) that she doesn't have a lake house, 4) that her friends get to take "dream vacations" while she takes stay-cations, and that her book "...ended up in publishing purgatory for years." (quote from page 53.)

I expected to be challenged to find the truth in God's word that gratitude is better than complaining. I expected to laugh at how silly I am to complain when my life is so good. But what I got instead was a theology based on other people's Facebook posts. She constantly quotes Facebook status updates and then takes that one line quote, internalizes it, and forms her chapters around that. 

This was not a good, enjoyable read for me, and I cannot recommend the book unless you want to hear a lot of complaining, no real answers for your problems, and many, many Facebook status posts. Ugh.

If you would like to be challenged and helped to overcome real problems, I would recommend The Blessing of Adversity: Finding Your God-given Purpose in Life's Troubles instead. 

Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Thank you, Tyndale for the opportunity to read this book.

Encouragement for the Weary Gardener or Farmer

Back in July of this year, I really contemplated giving up the garden. I thought I would admit defeat, and throw in the towel.

I had been working in the garden every day, most of the time at least twice a day. I sowed. I watered. I weeded. I picked bugs off by hand. I refrained from using pesticides. I refrained from using chemical fertilizers. I prayed. I composted.(And, really, sometimes I found that to be really gross   I read every book I could get from the library (about 40 of them).

But with all this effort, and time, sweat and toil, I only harvested 5 cherry tomatoes and ZERO slicing tomatoes out of 23 tomato plants of different varieties (because they all contracted a disease carried by whiteflies and died). I harvested 5 eggplants total. I harvested at most 10 green beans at a time, about 10 times. I harvested 5 green peppers, and 5 hot peppers.


To be honest, I did harvest 58 jars of pears, but I had nothing to do with that harvest. The tree was well-established before I was even born, and much before we ever bought the property. I also harvested a jar of dried basil, half a jar of dried oregano, and a jar of dried lemon balm (for winter teas).

So, all in all, I began to feel that this whole gardening thing was not worth the effort. Maybe I should go back to flowers. I never seemed to have any trouble growing flowers. Or maybe I should just give up altogether.

That's where I was when I got the following encouragements from scriptures.


I found it amazing that scripture speaks directly to the exact problem I was having. Sometimes you succeed, and sometimes you fail, but keep sowing. You don't know whether this will succeed or that will, or both will do equally well. (That would be a harvest I would like to see.)

Sow your seed in the morning and at evening do not let your hands be idle, for you do not know which will succeed, whether this or that,  or whether both will do equally well.  Ecclesiastes 11: 6



Be patient, then, brothers and sisters, until the Lord’s coming. See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop, patiently waiting for the autumn and spring rains. You too, be patient and stand firm, because the Lord’s coming is near. James 5: 7-8



Also, it was amazing to me to notice that the James scripture specifically connects waiting for harvest to waiting for the Lord's return. I had never noticed that before. I will not give up looking for my Lord. And I will be patient and stand firm with the garden, too.

So my encouragement to you is the same one that I received. Don't give up. Keep trying. Try something new if this isn't working. You will eventually learn this. You will eventually harvest something. Just keep trying and  keep learning. Add your failures to your education and you will eventually succeed. The only real failure is quitting.

Review of Love You More by Jennifer Grant

This is a delightful book detailing the personal story of one family as they adopt their daughter after having three children. I loved this book and found it highly readable. I really liked that the point of the book was not to shame the reader into adopting. I also really liked the way Mrs. Grant relates to her children. Her visible love for each of them and the way she loves each one individually and equally was a great bonus in this book.

She candidly speaks of the impatience to have her daughter home and the blows that adoption made to her peace of mind. Though her story doesn't seem all that unusual to me, (knowing many people who adopted) she seemed genuinely and totally surprised that the adoption took so long, that it was so emotionally draining, that it cost her so much in emotional reserves, that she went through the motions day after day.

I enjoyed it. I don't plan to adopt. But I love to read well-written true stories about family life, and this book fits that description.

I received this book from Thomas Nelson in exchange for an honest review. I received no other compensation for the book.

Eggplant Ravioli

Here's the recipe I am planning to have tomorrow when my company comes. When I was in Italy, I had a wonderful dish of Eggplant Ravioli at some small restaurant. That was one of my all-time best meals EVER. I looked for years for a recipe for Eggplant Ravioli. I did find one, but it was really difficult. You had to make the raviolis by hand.

I had finally given up, and happened on this recipe in a magazine. (I am sorry, but I have had the recipe for years, and I didn't cut out the reference information for it. It does have calorie information and amounts for protein, fat, fiber, etc. so it might be Southern Living magazine, but that is just a guess.)

This recipe is almost as good as the meal I had in Italy, and the directions are really easy.

The eggplants I am using are from my garden. 

This is the meal before I cooked it. (I'll cook it tomorrow, once

my guests get here.)

Eggplant Ravioli


Vegetable Cooking Spray
2 t olive oil
1/2 pound eggplant, peeled and cut into 1/2 inch cubes
1 cup chopped onion
2 cloves garlic, minced
2- 15 ounce cans of tomato sauce
2 T sliced ripe olives
1 T balsamic vinegar
1 t dried thyme (I'll use fresh tomorrow, since I have so much thyme growing in the yard.)
1 t to 1 T of fresh oregano
2   packages of refrigerated cheese-filled ravioli, uncooked.
3 T grated Parmesan cheese

Coat a large nonstick pan with cooking spray. Add olive oil, and place over medium high heat. Add eggplant, onion, and garlic. Cook, stirring constantly, 5 minutes or until tender. Stir in tomato sauce, ripe olives, vinegar and thyme. Remove skillet from heat.

Cook ravioli according to package directions. Drain. Rinse with cold water, and drain. Toss with vegetable mixture and place in 1 1/2 quart shallow baking dish.  Sprinkle with cheese. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

Revew of George Washington Carver by John Perry

George Washington Carver is someone I really like and admire. His work has been really beneficial to people in my area. I actually know people who testify that they have personally benefited from his work with peanuts and sending out Jesup Wagons.

I was looking forward to reading this book, because I expected to learn more about his admirable qualities. Unfortunately, I did not enjoy this book by John Perry. His view of Dr. Carver as a petty, self-promoting person who happened to be kind, but rather uninformed was really disturbing to me.

There were some things that were good about the book, but in order to find them, I had to look past the author's bias against Dr. Carver. For instance, I really liked finding out that Dr. Carver believed in direct observation of nature and hands-on experiences as essential to learning. I liked learning that he felt the student must encounter nature, that nature is both entertaining and instructive, and that nature both encourages investigation and stimulates originality. Dr. Carver's teaching style was to lead walks through the woods, and bring specimens to class. He felt that hands-on is better than lecture or text book learning.  These are points I can actually use in my homeschooling.

He also felt that nature was a window through which to view God's glory, and that nature is a way through which God speaks to us every day, every moment and every hour of our lives. I can see that.

I received this book from Book Sneeze in exchange for an honest review. I am thankful to Book Sneeze for sending me a copy for review.

Review of Safely Home by Randy Alcorn

Safely Home by Randy Alcorn is the story of 2 old friends. One was from China, the other from the US. They met at Harvard during college. They shared a dorm.  20 years passed. The American was now in line for the CEO of a large American corporation. His boss thought it would be a good idea for the American to go to China to live with his old friend from Harvard, in order to increase business in China. The boss thought they could sell more in China if they better understood the culture of the consumer.

The Chinese man had become a Christian during his stay in America. The American man was able to locate the Chinese man, and the Chinese family invited him to stay at their home for six weeks. From the moment the American arrives in the home of the Chinese, the book is a fast paced, roller coaster ride. The book is exciting, adventurous, and challenging in ways I never expected. I don't want to say too much about the story line, because I don't want to spoil any of the twists and turns.

I loved this book. I loved the rollicking, action-adventure, don't-want-to-put-it-down quality of the writing. I loved the view of the differences between the persecuted church and the American church. I loved the honor accorded to the Christians in the persecuted church by Mr. Alcorn. 5 stars.

Disclaimer: I received this book free from Tyndale House Publishers, in exchange for an honest review.