Summer Reading TBR

Seems that I am a little late to the summer reading party but I am here nonetheless. I am going to be straight up honest with you. I love the THOUGHT of beach reading but I don’t love the GRIT of beach reading. I am also not allowed, by my dermatologist, to be in the sun more than about 20 minutes a day and it has to be before 9:00am or after 7:00pm. LOL This picture is enticing and I would love to try it but it is not realistic for me. That being said I do love summer reading in general and crave the more relaxed schedule that allows for such reading.

I have added a few “summer” reads to my stack this year. Anything can be a summer read I suppose but I have a few with the actual word “Summer” in them. One just came in the mail after I took the stack picture. The Best Summer of Our Lives by Rachel Hauck just intrigued me. I have decided in recent months to just buy the book when it goes on 40% off if you pre-order it instead of requesting it for review. The reason for that is that I have no idea from day to day what I will need to be doing in regard to my parents’ situation and travel and such. It is just easier not to have the review deadline looming right now. I got this one and I have another one coming from Liz Johnson entitled Summer in the Spotlight in the next few weeks. It is the third in a trilogy so I need to finish what I started. Plus, I enjoy her books very much even though they can be “kissing books.”

I also have two in the stack with the word “Summer” in them…

• Rosamunde Pilcher’s Voices in Summer and
• Summer by Edith Wharton

I have three other novels in the stack…

• Murder is Easy by Agatha Christie (been buying up paperbacks of hers this year)
• Excellent Women by Barbara Pym
• Love & Saffron by Kim Fay

There is a story with this one. I have had this book on my wishlist for a while now. While I was at my parents’ home back in May my husband called me in the middle of the day and said I had received a package. He read me the name on the package and I immediately knew that a precious friend who no longer lives in El Paso had sent me a fun box. I asked him to open it and send me a photo of what was inside.

He opened it and then told me there was a card. Of course, I asked him to read me the card immediately! LOL As he read I cried from the sweet words that my precious friend had penned. It was the perfect gift at the perfect time. She has a way of sending just the right thing at the right time. In the box was a package of gluten free flour (her husband’s favorite brand), a jar of strawberry jam and a premium Ohio honey (where she lives now) plus a copy of this book with a personal inscription in the front cover. Since I was far away I would have to put the reading of this book on hold but now that I am home it is front and center for July. I cannot wait to dig in! Everyone should have a friend like my Kellie! She is a balm to the weary soul and a true light for Christ. She is a Barnabas – which means “one who encourages.”

The rest of my list is nonfiction. Did you ever doubt that I would do that? LOL I have two biographies that are available right now just about anywhere you buy books (both published this summer)

• Elisabeth Elliot: A Life by S. R. Austen
• Overflowing Faith: Lettie Cowman and Streams in the Desert by Michelle Ule

• To Be A Woman: The Confusion Over Female Identity and How Christians Can Respond by Katie J. McCoy PhD – this is a timely book published the first week of June this year. I had the privilege to hear her speak to pastor’s wives at the SBC convention this year. Her message is relevant and necessary in our day and age. I bought two copies… one for me and one for my teacher daughter. This young woman has done her homework, folks. It is excellent!
• Maturity by Sinclair Ferguson
• The Reading Life by C. S. Lewis
• The Music of His Promises by Elisabeth Elliot
• The Christian Life by Sinclair Ferguson

Lastly, but certainly not least, I have a new CSB Large Print Journaling Bible I picked up at the convention, too. I shared my reading plan for the remainder of this year in my last post. This is what I am reading in right now. It is lovely and purple with flowers and I can see it without a magnifying glass.

So, of course my next question for you is…

What is in your summer reading stack?

Drop me a comment to share what you are enjoying right now or what you are looking forward to reading in the coming month.

May your summer reading be relaxing and plentiful with a side of your favorite iced beverage to keep you cool.

Blessings!

~Leann

Photo by Dan Dumitriu on Unsplash

PS. I don’t get any money from any link you click here or any purchase you buy from said click. I just share if you are interested in knowing where I get something. Enjoy!

The Rose and The Thistle by Laura Frantz

A Quick Overview with No Spoilers 😉

Our adventure begins with a young woman named Lady Blythe Hedley. She has been sent on holiday by her father to France. His intention was to get her out of the country for a shorter period of time as he made a long term plan for her safety. Her father, who was a catholic, was attending secret meetings with Jacobites. They were scheming in order to plan for the return of the Stuart family to the throne of England. The story takes place in 1715.

I went online to learn a little more about this Jacobite Uprising and it was fascinating. The story takes place around the events of this historical upheaval in England and Scotland. The author, Laura Frantz, has taken a page from her own history as she is a descendant of the real Hume family who lived in Wedderburn Castle.

Shortly after returning home from France things began to go awry and The Duke of Northumbria, Blythe’s father, had to send her to Scotland to hide her away. He was friends with the Laird of Wedderburn and had arranged for Lady Blythe to go to Scotland to be hidden in case of trouble. She was secreted away in the middle of the night with her ladies companion, Elodie, as enemies of her father were attacking their home.

They were shuffled into an old section of the Castle of Wedderburn that was no longer in use. This would ensure that no one would know where she was. The only problem was that the Laird, and friend of the the Duke, passed away before he could know she was there and the orders to hide Blythe were passed on to his eldest son, Everard Hume. Everard was unaware of this until the moment she arrived. Everard was in the middle of planning a funeral and taking over as the new Laird when all of this was thrust upon him. There could not have been a worse time for her arrival in Scotland.

They were thrown together under circumstances of worry and grief. They would have to make the best of a very bad situation in order to protect both Blythe and the Hume family from harm. The next weeks held a funeral for the deceased Laird and letters from Blythe’s father that did not ease her mind. The constant threat of danger could either cause a rift between Blythe and Everard or force them to work together.

What I Thought

I loved the historical aspect of this story very much. I am of English and Scottish descent and really enjoyed getting a view into that part of the world in the 1700s. There is a Scottish vocabulary dictionary at the beginning of the book to guide one through the dialogue if it gets confusing. I referenced it several times while reading. Frantz has done this in several of her books. It is a fun perk some of her books offer.

It is definitely a romance but it is also a grand adventure with some tense moments. It is spirited and dangerous in sections of the story. The main characters are endearing and intelligent. They are characters of deep faith and exhibit sacrificial love for those around them. The story opens with a tense escape and then it slows down for quite a bit. Stay with it because the excitement returns. Frantz took time to develop the story and the characters through those slower times in the book. I took that time to just savor the reading a bit. Once I got about halfway through the book I couldn’t put it down.

I really enjoyed this story. If you are a fan of historical fiction plus romance this is a great book to fill that preference. The story is written from a Christian worldview with clean language and no sexual content. It is definitely a book you could pass on to the young adult women in your life. The characters have continued to live in my brain since I finished the book. I always think that is a good thing. I give this one a full stamp of approval!

I had the privilege of being part of the Launch Team for this lovely book. I was sent a book from Revell Publishing and asked to read and give my honest opinion.

Interested in learning how to make drop scones? Check out a Drop Scone Recipe from Queen Elizabeth II at Taste of Home.

Learn more about Laura Frantz and her books here.

Curious about the Jacobite Uprising/Rebellion? I found this helpful.

Canning: Marmalade Season

It is citrus season folks! That means, in our home, it is time to dry citrus peel and make marmalade for the coming year. That is just what I have been up to this past month or so. I dried citrus circles around Christmas and this past week I made marmalade with some blood oranges I scored through Misfits Market. There are many tutorials online for this so I will spare you the instructions and just show you a few photos.

Dehydrated citrus wheels and peels are great to add to hot water for tea or for a stove top potpourri. If you are blending your own teas the citrus peels are a nice addition to your blending stash. They are not hard to make at all. I follow The Purposeful Pantry for almost all of my dehydrating projects these days and she shared one over Christmas for these citrus beauties pictured above.

This stash of peels is going into the dehydrator today after I trim the pith (the white part that makes things bitter). I am going to dry them for more tea ingredients. I love tea made with citrus and ginger on a cold day when I am not feeling my best. It is a very warm and soothing option for days when you feel under the weather or have a cold or flu, too.

For dehydrating you can use any kind of citrus. You can also use any kind of citrus or a variety of several kinds of citrus for marmalade making, too. The batch I made last week came from a variety of blood oranges, mandarin, and mineolas.

I added the cut up fruit without the peel, pith or membrane and then cooked it with sugar and some rind chopped into smaller pieces. I used this tutorial over on The Spruce Eats. I really love their website for learning something new. They have an extensive database on a variety of topics.

Look at that gorgeous blood orange color! It made for a very pretty and tasty marmalade when everything was finished. I have 8 jars ready to go for the coming year. When I am in a tea and toast mood I will enjoy this treat very much.

Are you doing any canning this time of year?

Maybe some dehydrating?

What are you working on around your home these days?

I would love to hear from you. Please feel free to drop a note in the comments to share or invite me to check out your homesteading or homemaking posts on your blog. I love to find new cozy blogs to enjoy! I find reading like minded blogs feels so much more personal than social media. Let’s bring blogging back.

One more thing… did you know that there is a small window for fresh strawberries for canning in February? I always find beautiful strawberries on sale around Valentine’s Day and do a small batch of strawberry jam for my youngest during that time. I will likely share my project with you when I get there.

My children all have their favorite types of jams and pickled items. They refuse to buy store bought alternatives because they know mom will make it for them. LOL There is always something to preserve. I have found that I can dehydrate and can something almost every month of the year. I am hoping to share more of the gardening and preserving with you this year. There is just something that is very satisfying about growing and preserving for your own family and friends.

What is your favorite thing to can or preserve?

Until next time…

Happy Canning!

~Leann

Photo at the top by Andre Taissin on Unsplash

Winter in the Desert Garden

As we have moved into winter here in the desert southwest I have to admit that it has been pretty mild around here. Our lows are in the upper 30s and highs in the 60s for the last few weeks. I have only had a few days since November where I had to cover carrots and leafy greens overnight. I am still watering a couple times per week because the days are warming up into the 50s and 60s during the day. If you are not familiar with desert dwelling then you may not be aware that the temperature drops about 25-30 degrees overnight but the days are pretty mild through the winter. That means that I can grow things year-round.

I currently have a very healthy rosemary plant that never quits. I planted red onions, shallots, and garlic back in November and they are growing well through the cold months. I still have small spinach and collard greens but they are hanging in there so I will have early greens come February and March. I even have carrots that I am just letting grow for an early spring harvest.

We planted a few trees this year… an avocado tree, self pollinating apple, mandarin orange and a Persian lime tree. We lost our apricot trees. They are just not producing anything so they are coming out. It will be about 4 to 5 years before we will have real fruit on the new trees to enjoy but the process has been started for those fruits of our labor.

I also brought some plants into the sun room for the colder months. I have spearmint, basil, lemon thyme, and a large citronella plant. I am planning to add a few more herbs this year in their own containers. It works well for me to be able to move them indoors to keep them going through cold months.

I am also still dehydrating herbs as they grow because none have gone to seed. I will probably let some go to seed in the spring to get a fuller planter for later drying. I use some of them in herbal teas. I was sick through Christmas and drank herbal teas to get through that. The homegrown herbs worked beautifully in my little stump loose leaf tea pot. (this is the one I own) I even made a batch of Christmas Tea from the Hearth and Vine blog. It was so good I gifted some to my girls for Christmas.

This is the time of year when I start seeds indoors. I am scouring seed catalogues and getting ready to order and start seeds. I do have some seeds from last year that I will test also. I have also been known to scour Walmart and Lowe’s for seeds, too. LOL

I have been collecting cardboard egg boxes to start seeds. They can be cut apart and go straight into the ground with the seeds. They break down in the soil over time. You cannot use the styrofoam ones for this, btw. It has to be a biodegradable cardboard version.

I have picked up some books over the last year that I will be reading as I go. I am learning from Melissa K. Norris gardening books and canning/preserving books right now. The main book I have from her is The Family Garden Plan book. I also have some old favorites for desert gardening, too. Two books from George Brookbank have been the perfect gardening books for desert gardening for me for years. The main one is Desert Gardening Fruits and Vegetables and his second is a companion entitled The Desert Gardener’s Calendar with month by month lists and helps for year round growing. He has since passed away but he was an Arizona gardener who has helped many of us grow in harsh climates and conditions. I love his resources.

I also use a variety of YouTube gardeners including the NMSU gardening videos. They are an agricultural university just about 45 miles north of El Paso. Their information is very appropriate for our area.

Lest you think I am only about the food gardening I cleaned up and replanted some bulbs this year, added some new bulbs, and I have a variety of rose bushes that are about to get cut back for the spring. I also have a lovely Rose of Sharon and a Wisteria plant in a shaded cooler area of the yard. I do enjoy the flowers and lovely blooms that come with spring, too.

There is just so much I can share on gardening from my collection of books, videos, blogs and such. I will do a few more over the coming month or two so this one won’t be so long. It is already exceeding what I intended. LOL

Are you gardening this year? Do you have plans for growing food? Do you prefer growing flowers and landscaping? Maybe you do both? Do you have a favorite gardening book, blog, or youtuber? Feel free to share below in the comments. Until the next installment…

Happy Gardening!

~Leann

PS. I don’t receive any money for any of the links I share on my blog. I just wanted to share with you.

Photo by Clever Visuals on Unsplash

A Few Reading Challenges I Like for 2023

I have to be super honest with you. For most challenges I find I don’t often complete them. I am not saying I don’t love them because I totally do. I just lose track and fall off the wagon for many of them. I decided to share my favorites for 2023 here for you so I have a place to come and find the links again. I also hope that you might find one that you would enjoy if you are also into challenges.

These are all from challenges that have a very different flavor from ones like Sugar Pop or Bookriot. I stopped using those because I wanted something deeper than just a lot of popular fiction. I found some that have classics, theology, books I already own, and ones I could shape to my own tastes and preferences.

That is not to say I don’t still challenge myself each year. Have you tried reading books from the Victorian age? How about a good old fashioned Puritan author? What aboooooouuut… a book of poetry, or letters, maybe a cookbook, or even a biography on someone like Anne Bradstreet? (I actually own two books by or about her) Here is your chance to stretch your reading muscles in a big way. The following are my faves from all the ones I have seen offered this year. I hope you find something you love, too.

• The Tea and Ink Society is offering a challenge for those who want more Classic Literature in their lives. She limits the term classic to anything prior to 1970.
• Do you have an overabundance of books on your own shelves you just haven’t gotten to yet? Here is your chance to read from your own shelves with this Unread Shelf Challenge.
• Intentional By Grace is offering a challenge where you can choose your level of commitment with a variety of categories to pick your own books to fit each one.
• G3 has another challenge for 2023 this year with a wide array of genres to fill the bill. They have offered one for the past few years and they really stretch a person if you stay with it.
• One I have not seen posted yet for this year but I have always loved is the Tim Challies Reading Challenge. The link is to his page of past events. I have built my own personal challenge from his past challenges. They have been very good lists!
• You can always feel free to check out my Classics Club page and find more through my link on that page to join the club for yourself. I do believe we can never read too many classics in our world today.
• One more little challenge I have jumped into is from my friend Kate Howe. Check out her YouTube channel for this Kindred Spirits Book Club 2023 Challenge with one book per month and a discussion if you are interested in a group. (This is a collection of children, young adult and adult classics)

I hope this gets you started on a grand reading adventure for 2023. If you find another challenge that fits the ones here please share with us in the comments. I always love a good reading challenge even if I don’t always get through it. The goal is just to read, right? Please feel free to share what you are reading right now or a book you are looking forward to in the coming year. Inquiring minds want to know!

Happy Reading in 2023!

~Leann

Photo by Jasmin Sessler on Unsplash

Writing it all down…

I am never ever ready to go on January 1st with all the goals and plans and such. Part of the reason I start later is that our family hangs on to the 12 days of Christmas. My mind just doesn’t move forward very quickly into the new year because I savor the Christmas season a little longer on purpose. I don’t regret that at all. As I sit here on the Epiphany (which is always January 6th) I am drinking a cup of oat milk hot cocoa and thinking through the weekend of getting the lights down and all the stuff finally going to the attic for another year. I have been gradually putting the Christmas stuff away throughout the past week and the inside of the house is back to normal and clutter free (sort of). The last thing to come down is the outside lighting.

Dan is really our holdout this year because as he kissed me goodbye on the way out the door he said, “Happy Epiphany, I promise the lights come down after tonight.” I jokingly said, “FINALLY!” as I waved him off to work. LOL After almost 34 years I know he will be up at dawn pulling them down. Have I mentioned that he is a good man? It truly is how we have stayed married this long.

In the meantime, I have been working on some goals for this year. I have been writing them on real paper in a real notebook because that, somehow, helps me to realize them better. I have used lists from two different authors over the years. I have used the Kathy Peel plan to manage our home and Dave Ramsey’s plan to write goals for personal planning.

Other things I have been working on include building my new bullet journal. I am working through a Bible reading plan, logging movies I watch, books I read, books I want to eventually get, monthly spending/saving logs, menu planning, brain dump lists, gardening chores and plans, etc. I mentioned books I want to get… I am on a spending freeze so no new books for now. I will just write them down and if I still want to get them when I have money then I will allow it (probably used). I am also taking more real photos this year and staying offline more (analog is the goal). There might also be more bird watching in my future. 😉

The reading plan is off to a great start with one book under my belt. I finished Mary Hunt’s Smart Woman’s Guide to Retirement. I highly recommend it. It helped me to understand a lot of terminology. I feel more confident in my financial goals for this coming year because of what I learned with this book. I also love Mary’s website Everyday Cheapskate. I get the daily emails and they are super informative.

Another great resource I follow is Money Saving Mom – Crystal Paine. She shares a lot of sale items in grocery, household items, clothing and more. I am currently working through her Cut Your Grocery Bill Challenge. There is always another way to cut the budget and I want to continue to refine it all this year. With the hike in costs it has become a real challenge but with diligence I can continue to feed my family without breaking the bank. There are ways. Growing and canning/preserving more of my own food is one change I am making to help this process.

A few changes I have made over the last few years include NOT having a word for the year. I decided to drop that because it began feeling really contrived. As I moved through last year I began seeing a word come up over and over again in my life. If I had picked a word at the beginning of the year I think I might have missed that. God brought the word Abide to my attention throughout the year at His prompting. From that I built a page of scripture and some music and hymns in my bullet journal as they came up. The process has made me more focused and intentional. I much prefer that plan. So, I am waiting on the Lord for what He brings to the forefront as I move through 2023. I want to see His hand as I enter the unknown. The advantage to that is that He already knows where we are going. I will wait upon the Lord and let Him renew my strength right when I need it most.

I am also not making a book list for the year. I do so much better when I just pick the next book one at a time. I do still plan to make a TBR for each month but not the whole year at one time anymore. It felt freeing when I dropped this so I am keeping with this way of choosing the next book. I am also not reading very many new releases anymore. I have a few review books that will be new but many of my books are backlist books from my shelves, classics, or a recommendation from friends and family. I really love the older books. Too many new books just stray from things I am interested in reading about.

My question to you is… what are you planning this year? Are you changing the way you have made resolutions or goals this year? Are you slowing your life or plowing full speed ahead? Do you have something big on your calendar for this year? How are you moving into 2023?

Praying you all have a year full of joy no matter your circumstances!

Here’s to Joy in Your Journey,

~Leann

Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash