A Melodious Sonnet

Tripping: Punakaiki, July 2019

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If there’s one place on the West Coast that has grabbed my heart for the beauty, it’s just about got to be Punakaiki, or more specifically, the Pancake Rocks located there. I love wild scenery, and there’s nothing you can get much more wild than the ocean thrusting its way up through the rocks to burst in spray above you (or below, depending on how rough the sea is on any particular day).

When we went there with friends last month, we first stopped at an old mining equipment exhibit. I liked the brand name on several of the rims—it’s a good reminder, although I have no idea what it stands for!

I always enjoy the walk out to the blow holes, trying to spot what spray we can as we go! This time, we got a few good peeks on our way out.

Quite possibly my favorite blowhole, the Chimney Pot:

And then there is this one, the most famous and the biggest. Putai, I believe. I love watching it blow. The action wasn’t quite as good as other times that I’ve been there, but it was still enough to be enjoyable—and I was thankful for a few good ones!

Here is a video I got of Putai in action:

And then there is the Surge Pool, which is always fascinating to watch and listen to!

Watching the spray from a distance….

And then, on the way back, we had a special treat! Little sister caught my hand and said, “look! there’s an owl!” I looked, but couldn’t see a thing for a while—then, it finally turned its head and I saw it. A native morepork, I think. So small and cute—the first one I’ve seen in the wild.

Like I said, I always enjoy going to the Pancake Rocks for a look around. It’s never the same two times in a row. What are some of your favorite places to visit near where you live?

Finding Rest

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Early last week, I downloaded a scripture writing plan that had a scripture a day for this month. Last Saturday’s verses were from Matthew 11:28-30, and the special part was that these verses have been precious to me for years.

Back in 2016, I sang a song based on those words in a choir at a youth conference I went to. I’ve loved the song ever since; remembering the words and choosing to rest in Jesus at that time was an important reminder to me. My brother had just died, and the song reaffirmed Jesus’ presence with me—with us—in that time of intense grief.

Here is a beautiful choral rendition of the same composition we sang back in 2016:

Other times in life, we still have to choose to trust the Lord. To come to Him, and leave our burdens at His feet. Worries and concerns for the future may clog the pathway before us, but we must choose to remember Who is in control. It’s not me. It’s not you. It’s Jesus, and He loves and cares for us far more than we give Him credit for.

Today, let us rest in Him. Make the conscious choice to trust that His purposes are being worked out.

He is faithful.

He will give us rest.

“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30, ESV)

What verses have encouraged you when you were struggling to trust Jesus for something in your life?

Kees and Colliers: Series Spotlight!

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Today, I have something special to share with you—a spotlight of a series by an indie author I’ve had the privilege of getting to know a little through the medium of her stories!

Whenever I can, I try to help different authors (especially self-published authors) with their publicity work. It’s incredibly difficult to do marketing these days—I struggle with it myself!—and one way we as readers can help authors is to share their books with our own people, which in this case is you!

First, let me introduce Kellyn Roth to you:

Kellyn Roth is a Christian & historical author from North-Eastern Oregon. Kell is a ranch girl, homeschool graduate, proud sister of four, proud auntie of five, and owner of two goofy border collies, two presumptuous cats, and a very active betta fish. Check out her website, kellynrothauthor.com, for more info.

Author Website: http://kellynrothauthor.com/
Blog: http://kellynroth.blog/
Reveries Co:
Coach Kell:
Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest: @ReveriesofRuby

(Some links in this blog post are affiliate links—your purchases through these links help support this blog at no extra expense to you. Thank you! Also, Kellyn generously sent me free ecopies of all these books.)

Over the past month or two, I’ve taken time to read all the books in this series, except Goldfish Secrets, a short story.

Here are my quick thoughts on the books, in the order I read them:

(And by the way, I wouldn’t recommend reading them in this order…you’ll hear why in a bit.)

I enjoyed The Lady of the Vineyard, book 1. It’s not a heavily detailed plot, by any means, but I enjoyed the lessons it had in it. The editing could perhaps be a bit better, but overall it was a good story. I loved the redemption significance shared in here. A sweet, fairly short story with a delightful little girl in it!

Though there would be a toss-up for me between the first book and the second, I think Flowers in Her Heart is probably my most favorite of the series. Lady is good, but this one somehow touched a bit more of a chord with me and I really loved the story. It’s simple, and sad, and sweet…just the elements I like, with a character or two that really need a good shaking up and heart change. Somewhat of a short book, but I did enjoy it.

From Now ’Til Forever, book 3, unfortunately, did not really do a whole lot for me. It’s a good story, in and of itself, but I struggled with one doctrinal point shared here (nothing against the author personally, of course; I know lots of people who believe what is expressed or inferred here). Since that was a main element of the story, that made it harder. I did enjoy seeing the family grow up a bit more, and the thread of forgiveness that really started to show in the second book was still here in the third one. This is a very short story; I’d hardly call it a novella. If you want a good wrap-up to the series, this would be good to read.

And the last, which I should have read first but didn’t, is Souls Astray, book 0 (or prequel 1). If I had read it first, I have a feeling I would have enjoyed it a bit more; as it was, I had to consciously choose to pick it up, because otherwise, I wouldn’t have finished it. The reason why it was harder for me to read, I think, was because I felt like I already knew the story. Enough detail was needed in the main books of the series that I already knew about all the major events; this just fleshed them out a bit more. I thought the writing style could have been improved somewhat, and I would have liked a better ending, but in the end, that’s all the author’s choice. This was also the longest book of the lot. If you like backstory, you would love this book.

In all, I really enjoyed getting to hear Kellyn’s “voice” through the stories. She has taken some intriguing ideas and set them in a time and place where they work. My favorite parts were definitely the thread of forgiveness through the stories and the family life as it developed throughout the series. They were quite a fun, fairly easy read, but definitely sweet, too, in places. I didn’t understand why certain things were put in there quite as frequently as they were (I believe marital relations were mentioned in every book, and I didn’t think that was needed in some cases), but I was thankful that though things like loose living are mentioned, they aren’t described too much.

If you’re looking for something slightly different on the reading market or a redemption story, you might just enjoy this series. It wasn’t deep, nor was it super fluffy—just somewhere in the middle.

Thank you, Kellyn, for sharing your stories with us! I was thankful for the chance to find out what your books are like, and also thankful for the chance to help out a little!

Giveaway!

Kellyn has a lovely giveaway going. The first prize includes The Lady of the Vineyard and Flowers in Her Heart in paperback and a flower necklace (which goes perfectly with the theme of the books)!

And the second prize is The Lady of the Vineyard in paperback and Flowers in Her Heart and From Now ‘Til Forever in ebook!

Enter the giveaway here.

What World War I or II fiction have you read lately?

Tripping: The Nelson Post

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The past few weeks have been busy with multiple trips to different places. I’ve been able to catch up with quite a few different people from different places, which has been extra-special! Isn’t the Lord good to put different ones in our paths?

Two weekends ago, we took a family trip over to the east coast to visit friends at a little church there. It was an encouraging overnight trip; so good to see everyone, even if the visit felt far too short! I loved the view of the Southern Alps on our way back home!

Then, a couple days later, I took two brothers with me up to Nelson. Mom is due in about five weeks, and I wanted to be sure to have a good rocking chair here before the baby comes, hence the need to go and pick one up. I didn’t want to drive something like seven (plus) hours straight, so we arranged to spend the night with friends up there before coming back the next day. It’s been probably six months or so since we last caught up with those friends, so it was pretty special to do that! Other friends from Kaikoura were there as well at the same time, which made it extra-special!

Our friends are living at a Christian campground, so we had a quick tour the next morning before we left. Here is the main community building, with the dining room/lounge on the far left, the (beautifully large!) kitchen near the middle of the building, and a three-bedroom flat on the right wing for families or “camp mums” with their children. The white-roofed building off to the right is the beginning of a long row of cabins, and the fenced-in area holds a massive blow-up pillow for the children to play on!

We also got to explore the massive maze they have set up; I started going through it, but soon everyone else outstripped me, and I decided I would rather do without the mud and be ready to go when they all got out. I was assured that you couldn’t get lost in it!

I was also quite impressed by the long obstacle course that is set up! The apparatus was quite wet when we were there, but the children assured me it was quite fun. One girl said she had gone over it about 50 times! Most of the steps looked difficult enough to me, and for several I wasn’t quite sure what you were supposed to do there—maybe things are taken down over winter?

After exploring the campground, we headed up a short hill and got a look over the landscape. Back in January, I believe, there was a terrible fire that started up in these hills somewhere. It took quite a while for the firefighters to put it out, but the special part was that though the fire was very close, the camp didn’t burn!

This is the fire line. If you follow the valley to the left of the house, you would get to the Christian camp. I’d guess it’s a five-minute walk back to the camp from there, at most. Lots of people were praying for protection of the camp when the fire was going on; this camp has been going for years, and many people have been blessed by it!

According to the report we heard, a firefighter that was working there at the time saw the fire coming—and then it got up to this spot, and stopped. He said he’d never seen anything like it before! The pine plantation there should have burned, but it didn’t. The house in this picture was part of the camp at one point, but isn’t anymore—and it just escaped being burned. God is so good!

After looking at the fire damage, we headed around over the top of the hill, and got a good view of the valley leading up to Nelson. It was a beautiful day to be out sight-seeing!

Beautiful New Zealand! Nelson city is off on the left of this picture, under the hazier part, if I remember correctly.

 

In all, I thoroughly enjoyed our little trip up there, and loved that we could get a little nature walk in at the same time. Grandma, I wish you could have been there; the birdsong was quite different than we have here, and very pretty!

What places have you been exploring lately? What are you enjoying in God’s creation right now?

Top 6 Books of the Year (So Far)

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Well, friends, we’re already well into 2019 already—hard to believe, isn’t it!? I thought it would be fun to share my favorite books for the year so far today, hopefully to both remind me of my favorite stories, and also to share a few new ones with you! And please be sure to weigh in in the comments to say what YOUR favorites for the year so far are, too!

Note: Some links in this post are affiliate links. Your purchase through these links help support this blog at no extra cost to you. Thank you! Also, some of the books mentioned below are ones I got in exchange for review at one stage or another.

First, a few stats:
Total books read to date: 27 (my goal this year is 50 books)
Fiction: 17
Non-fiction: 10
Audiobooks: 3
Most-read month: May, at 9 books total, 5 of which were non-fiction!

It feels like I’ve read a lot of non-fiction this year. It used to be a pretty difficult genre for me to get into, so I’m thankful I’ve been able to read as much as I have so far! Admittedly, seven of the ten were biography-type books, but even so, it’s been a great reading year so far. And, since I can’t pick favorites very easily, here are…

My top three non-fiction reads so far:

 

The second book I read this year was Lords of the Earth by Don Richardson. It was somewhat of a hurried read, because I needed to return it to my grandma before the end of the trip, but it was a gem! I loved reading about how God worked in their lives to both bring the missionaries to the place He wanted them, and also bring the gospel to a previously unreached tribe—what a challenge, and what glory to God in the end!

Probably my favorite non-fiction of the year so far is The Waiting by Cathy LaGrow. It’s one I’ve consistently struggled to describe, but it’s just an excellent story all round. Full of faith. Full of hope, and agony, and prayer. Best of all, it’s a true story—and a beautiful one, too.

My third favorite is A Company of Heroes by Tim Keesee. I’ve already reviewed it on this blog, so I won’t rehash the plot here—but it’s a great book. Recommended to all Christians. Good, good thoughts and stories in here.

Other books that deserve an honorable mention would include Defying Jihad by Esther Ahmad (AMAZING true story!), Here, Now by Kate Merrick, and Love Lifted Me by MarJanita Geigley.

And my top three fiction reads:

It’s so hard to choose a favorite! But my first pick is Chosen People by Robert Whitlow. I read this one fairly early in the year, and the story has stuck with me ever since. It’s mostly a mystery, but I loved the picture of the Holy Land it gave me, as well as the faith in here. There were also some great plot twists—an all around enjoyable, fairly realistic-feeling read!

Between Two Shores by Jocelyn Green has to be in the list as well. This is one of those books that you read at first, enjoy, and then realize later how good it actually is! I read it back in April, and still remember a lot of it clearly. I’ve never seen the French and Indian War in quite the same light before, and the story itself was unique and surprisingly enjoyable. A great historical fiction.

Though I’m having trouble picking a favorite for third place, I think Blessing Bentley by Chautona Havig has to make the list. This book has simultaneously raised my standards for romance books to a whole new level, AND challenged me more in my attitude toward life than any other fiction title I’ve read this year. It’s a good, good book. Almost an epic in length, but highly recommended!

Other honorable mentions would be the Refiner’s Fire series by Lynn Austin (I’ve read two of the three, and absolutely loved each one!), Hadassah by Diana Wallis Taylor, The Number of Love by Roseanna M. White (well worth the wait!), and Until the Mountains Fall by Connilyn Cossette (quite possibly my most favorite Biblical fiction for the last couple years!).

Whew! How many of these books have you read? And if you had to narrow down your reads to your top favorites, what would they be? Please share in the comments—I’m always looking for more books to add to my never-ending to-read shelf!