october 1

This morning in western Washington it's foggy though I don't hear the fog horn on the water. My stack of books by my big green chair is growing! Yesterday the boys and I came home from being away at school all day and an Amazon box was on the front porch - the latest book from my publisher called "Longings of the Heart" by Bonnie Leon. The cover is very well done which makes me excited to see my own once it's finished.

Bonnie has a neat blog and lives in Oregon. I like her devotional style posts. She's had some hard things happen to her which she is very transparent about. I've already read several chapters of her book, set in Australia, and I like it very much. I've never met Bonnie but I'd like to! Her blog address is at the bottom of this page if you want to take a look.

October will be a fun month for us with cider-making, a wedding, and an interesting Bible study starting at our church next Wednesday. Reminds me of the old Baptist traditon of Wednesday night suppers which I loved way back then at Calvary Baptist in Lexington, Kentucky. We'll meet for supper at our little church at 6 pm and then start something called the "Alpha Course." We hope lots of new folks will come.

On the scribbling front, I am ready to write that last chapter of book 2. I started this book on a trip to Kentucky last fall after finishing The Frontiersman's Daughter. I blame this book on Randy! I was flying home to see my granny for the last time and Randy told me to be sure to take a notebook to get my mind off the sadness of the trip. I sat in the airport and on all those planes for hours and it seemed like 5 minutes. Reading or writing a good book will do that for you. Hallelujah!

But I hate ending a book. To prolong it I am writing this last chapter out on real paper as slowly as I can - none of that laptop business. There's nothing on earth like writing a book out on your lap. I learned on an old Royal typewriter and didn't have a laptop till this year so prefer the old fashioned scribe-type method any old day - and I've never lost a file this way either!

This is the day which the Lord has made; Let us rejoice and be glad in it.
Psalm 118:24

little by little

LITTLE BY LITTLE DOES THE TRICK. AESOP

It's 8:12 a.m. and the world outside my window is wet. Washington State is an amazing medley of greens all year. I've been trying to think of reasons to like the rain right now and have come up with a couple of things - it is giving me a break from canning all those green beans and beets! I used to put up a couple of hundred of jars every fall which my granny would laugh at as she used to can 50 plus quarts of pickled beets in a day! My favorite thing to can is chow-chow because it is so colorful in the jar and goes so well with soup beans and cornbread. I make some mean dill pickles with jalapenos and garlic too. Canning is sort of a lost art and I'm afraid I'd rather read and write than be in the kitchen. But the larder is low.

I am back at work on this second book. I love the story and hope readers do too. Now that The Frontiersman's Daughter is the official title of this first book, I am calling this second book The Preacher's Daughter which sounds a little plain but fits the story well. Did I mention I've now entered the realm of reading glasses? They really do help a lot! And they make me feel quite bookish, like the librarian I once wanted to be.

So I'm back home (or at my home away from home), trying to catch up. September is looking a little overwhelming with canning, schooling, church activites starting up again, etc. But as Aesop said, little by little does the trick. And we have that wonderful promise that I've grabbed hold of once again from Philippians:

I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.