The Preacher's Kid by Elmer W. Vaters

This book caught my attention when I was perusing the shelves of a used book store recently and I had to buy it.  After I had read it I mentioned it to my dad and wondered if he had read it.  Turns out he has a copy of the book that was given to him by the author.

The Preacher's Kid is an autobiography by Elmer W. Vaters, the son of one of the "founding fathers" of the Pentecostal denomination in Newfoundland and Labrador.  I was drawn to the book because I am a Newfoundlander and I was looking for books written by Newfoundlanders, but also because I was born and raised Pentecostal and I was interested in reading more about the history of the Pentecostal leaders in Newfoundland and Labrador.

My dad and Elmer Vaters had something in common - they were both preacher's kids.  From my reading of the book that seems to be about where the similarities end.  Well, let me rethink that.  I think they probably also have similar feelings about the disassembling of the denominational school boards a few years back.

I have mixed feelings about the book.  I don't think it is particularly well written and it was not at all what I expected.  I expected to read more about how his life was affected by the fact that he was a preacher's kid, and there is some of that there, but not as much as I expected.  I enjoyed the book for the glimpse of history in the book, especially about Joey Smallwood and about the school systems in Newfoundland and Labrador. It has sparked an interest in me to read more books that will give me first hand glimpses of our history.  It really is so much more interesting to read about history in books such as this rather than in text books.

Hooked Mats of Newfoundland and Labrador: Beauty Born of Necessity

This is the my first book for the Art History Reading Challenge.  Hooked Mats of Newfoundland and Labrador: Beauty Born of Necessity was compiled by The Rug Hooking Guild of Newfoundland and Labrador.  The book gives a bit of the history of mat hooking in Newfoundland and Labrador, but the bulk of the book is pictures of hooked mats, along with the stories behind the mats.  Some of the mats are quite beautiful and the book has stirred an interest in me to learn more about the craft.

Unashamed by Francine Rivers

"Rahab.  A woman with a past to whom God gave a future."  Taken from the back cover, this is what the book is about.  The front cover says it is a novella, and as such it is a quick read, but it is a packed read.  It is well worth the time it will take you to read it.  It gives a very clear picture of the mercy of God and gives a whole new appreciation of the story of the fall of Jericho.

Unashamed fits in the 2nd Reading Challenge, because Francine River is an author I really loved in the past and I wanted to read more by her.  It also fits the Biblical Fiction Challenge as it tells the story of Rahab from Joshua 2-6.

Breakfast - Egg in a Nest

A favorite at our house. Little one loves to help me make it.

Step 1:  Use a glass to cut a hole in a slice of bread.

Step 2: Put the breads slices and circles in a frying pan and break an egg into the middle of the hole.

Step3:  When the egg is almost cooked, flip the bread and egg over, and also the circles.

Step 4: Place a slice of cheese on top

Step 5: Place the circle on top of the cheese.

Step 6: When the underside is toasted it's ready to take out of the pan

Step 7: Place it on a plate and enjoy!

post inspired by this week's breakfast theme at

What can you do for Haiti?

It's funny how much more real it all becomes when you have a personal connection. Like everyone else, I've been taking in the news of the devastation in Haiti since the earthquake but it didn't really hit me with the same magnitude until I was pointed to this video and made aware that the speaker in the video was a former student of mine.




Reading personal reports from Vaden Earle's facebook page gives a whole different view of Haiti. Vaden is CEO and Co-founder of Absolute.org, a not-for-profit organization that was working in Haiti even before the earthquake. He urges his facebook friends that we have a responsibility to do something - something more than just sit and watch all the news reports. Vaden is in Haiti offering hands on help while his organization is collecting funds and making arrangements for more help - both immediate and future. Please take the time to watch the video and check out the website to see how you can help. If you are on facebook you can join Absolute.org's facebook page.

Thank-you Vaden, for being willing to do whatever you can. May we all follow your example.

Home Made bread turned out good!

I haven't made home made bread for quite a while.  My past attempts have not been that successful.  Today, however, was an exception.  I was making home made baked beans for supper and home made baked beans is just not the same without fresh home made bread, so I decided to give it a try.  It turned out great!  I made two loaves of bread and 24 rolls.  I didn't actually make it from scratch, however.  I used bread and roll mix. But still, I'm pretty proud of myself.  Sooo, my six words for today are:
Home Made bread turned out good!

post inspired by

My Amazing Talented Daughter

My oldest daughter, still in her teens, has amazing talent. She has a beautiful voice and she's taught her self to play guitar. I love it when the sounds of her singing and playing come drifting out of her room. She also is a very gifted writer. She has written the lyrics and music for a few songs, and they are really good. Just yesterday she showed me the first draft of an amazing poem she wrote the night before. She also has a great eye for photography and is working on developing that talent. Just this past week she finally made a facebook page to share some of her photography.

She's been going through some struggles lately wondering what the future holds for her. She's at that stage in life where everyone is asking her about her plans for the future. I have great confidence that if she will keep on the path she has been on and develop the skills God has given her, He will direct her paths as she keeps giving it all to Him. One day at a time the future will unfold. I'm excited to watch it happen.

A day late but inspired by

which I discovered it from CanadaGirl 

The joys of technology!

I am having computer issues yet again!  It is so frustrating!  My laptop, which is only just barely, not even quite, one year old is acting up again!  I have had so much trouble with it every since I had it that it makes me question whether I will ever buy another Toshiba again.  I'm trying to fix it, again, so we'll see how that goes.  Oh how I wish I knew all the ins and outs of computers and could find out what the trouble is and fix it once and for all.  This is driving me crazy!

Anyway, just wanted to pop in and post so as not to miss today, though it's not much of a post.  I had so many ideas for posts today, but they are wrapped up in a laptop that is not working at the moment.  I am using my children's desktop to write this post.  Hopefully I will manage to get the laptop running again quickly.

Oh the joys of technology!

I want to have more time in a day

I can't seem to find enough time in the day to do all that I need/want to do.  Mind you, if I were perfectly truthful, I'd have to admit that I waste a lot of my time and if I actually stuck to doing what I should be doing I'd have no trouble fitting it all in.  Sooooo, while I think I would like to have more time in a day I'd probably just end up wasting it away again.  Truth is I really need to prioritize and not get side tracked.  With that thought in mine I'll answer this week's question for the "I Want Wednesday meme".


"What do you want to change about yourself?"

I want to get my priorities straight.  I want to stop getting sidetracked and stick to the really important things.  I want to get back on track in my sleeping/waking schedule.  I have been totally messed up in that regard for quite a while and it's wearing me out.  I want to feel energetic and revived again.  I want to get back on track with exercising again.  I know that will help with the energy and probably even the sleeping.  I want to change.  Now, how do I make that happen?

post inspired by the January 20th - 

Sneaking in Under the Wire

So many times today I thought about the post for today, but that's as far as it got.  I really need to do a book review, but I just couldn't wrap my head around it, so here I sit trying to sneak a post in before midnight, just to say that I posted today.  How sad is that!  Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day.

Stress fades with Praise!

71. calmly reacting to computer troubles and being able to find solutions 

72. having like minded friends traveling the homeschooling road together 

73. oldest daughters creativity and confidence in making alterations to pieces of clothing

74. reading and discussing the Word with oldest daughter

75. oldest daughter's obvious attempts to try to be more helpful and obedient

76. being able to tidy room again after long time of having it too full to be tidied

77. wonderful break

78. time with daughter, son's girlfriend, and another friend

79. good music and good fun

80. knowing little one is well cared for and content while I'm away

81. husband making arrangements for trip

82. being able to turn to praying friends when trouble comes

83. being able to lay troubles at Jesus' feet and rest

84. safe travels for all

85. my wonderful dad 

I am amazed at how this simple act of remembering and listing things to be thankful for floods my heart with such peace!  It certainly has not been a perfect week.  There was a time of great distress this week, but it fades into the background as I give praise for the good this week.  What a blessing!

Ann explains The Thousand Gifts challenge - to start listing the gifts in the everyday and watch as your list grows...first to 1000...and then beyond...until it becomes an Endless Gifts Lists. Ann says that she tries to "add to the endless list of gifts every Monday... to begin the week with a heart spilling with gratitude!" I am following her example.

70 Years Old

How is it possible that my dad is 70 years old?!  I'm finding that hard to take in.  To me he never ages.

As I've posted here before, my dad is my hero - always has been and always will be.

He is not a tall man in stature, but to me he's heads above everyone else.  Mom likes to tell a story about when I was quite young and we lived in an apartment that had a lower roof than most places.  Dad used to make a big deal out of the fact that he could touch the ceiling and apparently one time when we were out somewhere I was bragging about how my dad could touch the ceiling and I told him to show the people.  It was rather a humbling moment for him.  :)

He is not a perfect man, but in my mind he's as close as you can come.  I've watched him struggle with things about himself that he didn't like, but with God's help he conquered them.

I've said it before and I say it again, I think the most important thing Dad did was to provide me with an earthly example of my Heavenly Father - a Father who's love is unending, but that also has standards to be reached for.

I thank my Heavenly Father for the earthly father he provided me with and I thank Him for the 70 years He's blessed my Dad with.  I'm praying He blesses Him with many more.

No internet, but great overnight trip

Yesterday I missed posting for the first day since 2010.  I went on a road trip with the girls - my oldest daughter, my oldest son's girlfriend, and another girl that is a friend of both girls.  We had a great time!  The only bummer was that the hotel we stayed at didn't have internet available for guests and I couldn't find a connection to use. I was bummed about that, but what a great time we had!  We thoroughly enjoyed the concert we went to see and my daughter got some great pictures.  I love spending time with the girls.  I was planning to so a six word post about the good times and the concert but the plan changed slightly when I couldn't post.  I'm a day late in posting but my six words for yesterday are "No internet, but great overnight trip!"  :)

A Great Cooking Blog

My friend Carla is a wonderful cook - actually I think she's wonder woman because she's a great scrapbooker, cake decorator, teacher, mother, wife, friend, etc. too.  :)

Carla started a cooking blog a couple of years ago but last year the blog kind of fell by the way side.  She revived it this year, however, and has a couple of neat features already that I thought I'd share.

She's started a 52 weeks of cakes theme for 2010 .  Every week she's going to try to remember to post cakes that she has decorated for people that week.  You can also check out some of her decorated cakes from past years.  I'm telling ya, she's good.  She even has a daughter that is following in her mother's footsteps.

She's also starting a Make It Monday Blog Carnival.  Each Monday she's going to post a recipe theme and include a MckLinky in the post for everyone to share their recipes that fit the theme.  The first carnival is coming up this Monday so be sure to check in and participate.

8 Things that Caught My Eye Online This Week

1. The Daily Meme has Photo challenges - I'm trying to get my daughter motivated to take up some of them.  Haven't had any luck so far.  Teenagers!  :)

2. I took great encouragement from Ann's post The Real Secret to Happy Homemaking .  Here are the snippets from it that spoke to me, but please go read the whole thing - "Homemaking is about making a home --- and a home is a safe place, a refuge, a place to be real and alive and truest true...Homemaking is not about making perfection...A perfect home may not at all be a neat as a pin home." -

3. US President's Reading Project - I found out about this through Robin's Book Week Two post and I thought it was a great idea, however, as I am Canadian, I am considering posing my own Canadian Prime Ministers Reading Project. You may see something about that soon.  Please let me know if you'd be interested in such a thing

4. Loved this Sunday's Get Real With God post at Totally Tots.  Here's a quote: "children are the best mirrors. It never fails. If they are going through some behavior issue or attitude problem it doesn’t take long to realize that I am the ultimate cause of this."  Ouch.  I have found that to be so true.

5. 12 Tips for New Bloggers - Though written specifically for book bloggers there are some good tips for all bloggers - Get into a rhythm of regular posting; Read and comment on other blogs;  Ask questions in your posts; and answer questions posed by your readers in the comments; Always link to blog posts that you mention; If you get nasty comments or spam comments, ignore/delete. Do not respond; Enjoy blogging.  I discovered the 12 Tips from Phylis's new book blog, Windy Ridge Books.

6. I'm considering adding the Library Loot to my list of memes to participate in.  I like the idea of sharing great finds from the library and learning about what others have discovered in their local libraries.

7. 6 Steps To Effective Self Learning  Love this post!  My favorite point is point #4 Anytime is learning time.  If we could only get that into our heads!  And a favorite quote: "Let constant learning be a major part of your life-style".  Found out about the 6 steps through a Self Learning post at An Unschooling Life.

8. Booking Through Thursday - another meme that I will likely use as fodder for my blogging.  Every week a question having to do with reading is posed.  Today's question is: Do you read the inside flaps that describe a book before or while reading it?  My answer is most definitely yes! I read everything - the front and back covers, the inside flaps, the forewards and introductions, the reviews, the appendixes - everything!  I know, I'm sick  :)

post inspired by

How do you Shape Your Brand (Witness/Testimony)

Last weekend while participating in the Bloggiesta I read something that I haven't been able to get out of my mind. It was all about the importance of your Brand in the blogging world, but I couldn't get over how much of it also related to the importance of your Christian witness in the world.

As part of her bloggiesta Mini-Challenge about favicons and gravatars, Trish quoted from a ProBlogger post about How to Shape Your Blogs Brand and I had to go check out the whole post.  I hope ProBlogger doesn't mind but I've written my own adaption to the post to show where my mind has been.  I do encourage you to go check out the original post.  Most of these words are from that post, but I've edited them slightly.

1. A Brand (Witness/Testimony) will emerge whether you want it to or not

People begin to develop perceptions about you and what you stand for as they listen to what you say, as they look at what you wear, as they see what's important to you, as they observe how you interact with them and others – all of this contributes to how they perceive and describe you – your brand (witness/testimony).

2. You Can Shape Your Brand (Witness/Testimony)

People will form their own ideas about who you are and what you stand for – but you do have some ability to help them come to these conclusions.

How do you Shape Your Brand (Witness/Testimony)

1. Identify what You want to be Known For

2. Be what you want to be known for…… Consistently

Every time you do anything keep the witness you’re attempting to grow in mind. Everything you write, everything you say, everything you do either has the potential to build and shape your witness or conversely to hurt it.

Build relationships with people and influence their perceptions.  It is very easy to rush into conversations about you with guns blazing to ‘defend’ yourself and ‘fix’ peoples erroneous views about you – however this kind of attitude can actually do more harm than good.  Listen and reflect on what people are saying before you respond.  You’ll not only gain the respect of others but hopefully learn a thing or two about yourself and your witness that will help you improve it.  Don’t get sucked into letting what others say about you determine how you view you or determine your self worth.  Learn to know when to take it on board and learn to know when to let it go and move on.

Such wise, wise words.  Thank-you, ProBlogger.  I know you were talking about something totally different than what I ended up thinking about, but I learned much from your post, for both the blogging world and my Christian witness.

The Dangerous Voyage by Gilbert Morris

The Dangerous Voyage, by Gilbert Morris, is book #1 in The Time Navigators fiction series, written especially for preteens (ages 11-14). In the series Danny and Dixie travel back in time and experience "unforgettable moments in history". In The Dangerous Voyage they are transported back to 1620 in England and they explore the Mayflower.

I found this book on my book shelf last week and decided to re-read it because it fit the requirements for a couple of reading challenges I am participating in - the First in a Series Challenge and also the Young Readers Challenge

I remember buying the book for my children to read after I had read many of the books in Morris' House of Winslow series.  I really enjoyed Winslow's writing and was thrilled to check out his writing for children. Also, as a homeschooling mother, I was always looking to squeeze all the learning I could out of a book and the fact that these books had an historical element to them made them more appealing.

If you are interested in seeing the books in each series you can check out Gilbert Morris' page on Fantastic Fiction. I think that both of these series can be used as additional reading for pleasure in an American history learning unit, the Time Navigator series for younger readers and the House of Winslow series for older readers. Children could be encouraged to record mentions of historical events and people and use this as jump of points for further study. While reading the book this time around I was wondering how it compared to the first book in the House of Winslow series and I wished I had it on my shelves to do the comparing.

I am not a fan of the whole sci-fiction travel in time concept, but I do see how it can be fun for children and it can help them to see things from a different perspective.

I already quoted one passage for the book in my Admit You Need Him post and I'd like to end with another one:

"Are you sure you want the truth?" Dixie asked. "Or do you just want to prove what you already have decided to believe?"

Recalling some, but missing much

61.  friends to share a meal with62.  safe travels for family63.  quick healing of oldest daughter's knuckle64.  books to encourage65.  learning new things66.  oldest daughter keeping youngest occupied so I could rest and recover from illness67.  challenging messages from God's word68.  little one adjusting to her own room69.  enjoying the results of little one's imagination70.  memories packed with decorations
I am going on memory at the moment because I spent most of last week recovering from a bug and then I had computer troubles.  I missed making my daily jots as they occurred.  I know there were many more blessings than what I have recorded and though I didn't get to record them all, I did treasure them more because I was more aware of them than I would have been before taking up the challenge.
Ann explains The Thousand Gifts challenge - to start listing the gifts in the everyday and watch as your list grows...first to 1000...and then beyond...until it becomes an Endless Gifts Lists. Ann says that she tries to "add to the endless list of gifts every Monday... to begin the week with a heart spilling with gratitude!" I am following her example.

Admit You Need Him

"...how can we ask God for anything? We certainly haven't been on good terms with Him."

"Well, I don't know much about God, but I don't think it works quite like that. He doesn't hold out on us until we're good. He just wants us to admit that He's the only one who can help us. Then if we pray..."

A quote from a conversation between Dixie and Danny in The Dangerous Voyage by Gilbert Morris

Learning lots at the bloggiesta festivities!

Here's my six words for today:
Learning lots at the bloggiesta festivities!

Now to expand on those six words  :)


I decided to skim the mini challenges - old and new - and I got sucked in!

Here are the Old Challenges that caught my eye:
Clean Up Your Feedreader - got rid of feeds that hadn't been updated for over a year, got rid of some that I never really read anymore, got rid of some tags - down to 110 subscriptions, 13 tags.  I know that still sounds like a lot and I may do more cleaning yet, we'll see.

Google Alert Challenge - Never heard of Google Alert before and didn't find the link provided with the challenge all that helpful so went searching for info.   I found a good explanation and instructions on how to Set Up Google Alert Yourself and set one up for my blog address and my blog title.

Elevator Pitch - didn't know what an elevator pitch was but up on reading what it was and trying to work on one I realized that I already have a really short one, at 29 words, in my banner.

Favicons and Gravatars - I had heard bout a favicon before but didn't know how to make one or install it on my blog so I decided to give it a try.  I had much trouble but also had much help from Trish and Jill.  I finally figured out how to do it from How to Add a Favicon in Blogger.  In case you don't know what a favicon is, check out the little icon in the URL box by my blog URL.  Notice that it's no longer the bright orange blogger favicon.  I created my own little J's favicon.  Isn't it cool!?  I didn't do the Gravatar part of the challenge

Anchors Aweigh -  I learned about the importance of using more descriptive anchor words for links.  I'm trying to do better at that. 

Grade Your Blog  - I did a website grader and only scored 57%!  Boy, do I need to do some work.  One of the things I need to do is include ALT text for images.  I never do that.  Another is to add meta tags.  I tried, and tried to do that yesterday but never did succeed.  I kept getting an error message when trying to save it.  Sure wish I knew what was wrong

And the new challenges that appealed to me:

Cheat Sheet - I was sort of already doing this with sticky notes on my igoogle page for daily blog posting ideas, but I like the idea of making a master cheat sheet for blogging codes.

Footers and Copyright - I did not have a footer or copyright on my blog at all but this challenge had me searching to find out how to add it.  I found a website that finally helped me figure out how to add a copyright notice to my blog.  You have to scroll down to the bottom to actually see the copyright notice.  
 
Labels and tags - I had actually already started trying to be more consistent in adding labels to my posts.  I still forget sometimes but I'm trying to stay on top of fixing it when I forget.
 
Backing Up Your Blog - I had never thought about doing it before but it's done now, thanks to this challenge.  I can't believe it was so easy to do!
 
Dead Links - I hate dead links, but they are kind of inevitable. I do, however, think it is important to fix them when you become aware of them.  I tried testing my blog for dead links but got really frustrated with trying to read the results.  I may try again later.  I'd love it if people would leave a comment when they found a dead link, because then I would find out about it and fix it.