A Day at the Beach

Kris got a new iphone, and he is officially as bad as those people on the commercial.  Just kidding, but he is having fun.

 

Mom, click on the box at the bottom right corner to expand the screen for a bigger view. :)

So Shines the Night by Tracy Higley

Once I find an author I like, I read everything I can find by them until I have to move on to a new author or wait for them to come out with a new book.  I was very excited when I read and loved the book So Shines the Night by Tracy Higley because now I have a new author's books to devour.

So Shines the Night is set in Bible times in Ephesus, after Jesus has walked the earth.  While it is a fictional novel, much of the story is based on biblical writings, the writings of Ephesians.  The main character, Daria, is an educated widow, trying to find a way to support herself using that education and her intellect.  She faces, not only the challenge of the time period when women were not respected or honored in educational settings, but also the intense darkness that followed her from the last city she fled.

The characters in this book were intense and intriguing, the setting was fascinating, and the story itself drew me in.  I love the time period when much of the New Testament was written and I really liked the fact that Higley elaborated on the scriptures in Ephesians to write the story.  It gave me a much greater context for what life in that time was like, the culture and what the Ephesian church was facing.  The way she portrayed Paul, Timothy, Pricilla and Aquilla and several others helped me to understand better many of the things Paul wrote to the Ephesians.

I have already finished another of Higley's books, Pompeii, and I fully intend to find more of them at my library.  I highly recommend her books.

I was provided a copy of So Shines the Night by Booksneeze.  My opinions are all my own.

A Day In the Life

"What have you been up to lately?" I get asked that question a lot.  

"What did you do today?"  I get asked that question a lot by my husband. (Yes, I love it as much as you do.)  

Well, the answer to both those questions is this: 

Keeping up with this kid.  

Looks sweet and innocent, right?  He is, he is. What he is not, is ready to be left unattended for more than five seconds.  I know this, and I still forget that he is not as trustworthy yet as his big brothers.  Today, I made phone calls to two different companies to determine if the pills he had climbed to the very top shelf to get into would kill him or just make me have a panic attack.  Both of them were just herbal, so all was well after he threw up into the trash can.  He didn't have enough intestinal distress for my liking.  I was kind of hoping it would at least make him miserable enough for him to learn a lesson, but I almost think he thought it was fun.  Sigh.

After my shower, I came out to find that my sweet youngest had decided to help Mama cook. He was so very proud of himself. (Notice the hands on his hips.)

I started the potatoes for him before I left for my shower and he added his imaginative touch.  I had planned on using the mushrooms, just not in that exact way.

Really, who needs adult help for things like knives and getting things out of high cabinets?

 In the end, the only damage done was the mess on the floor and the liquid I had to drain off the potatoes.  I'm 99% sure it was just olive oil.  They tasted okay anyway.  

Whew!  I'm going to bed!