Reading...

I just finished reading Rose Galbraith. Once again, Grace Livingston Hill doesn't disappoint. It took a little while to get to the good part, but she just had to set the stage...

Currently I'm reading Afternoons with Emily - seems totally different than anything I've read before....

Astra by Grace Livingston Hill

She might be desolate and alone in the world, but He was her Saviour. She was glad she believed!

Well, the children loved An Old-Fashioned Christmas by Louisa May Alcott. The movie didn't make it in time for the weekend holiday so maybe they will be able to watch it next weekend.

Tonight we started One Wintry Night by Ruth Bell Graham. We read this story two years ago and they loved it. We will read it slow - just one chapter a night - and linger over it through December. Tonight we started by reading Luke 2 - the intro of the book. If you haven't read this story to your children - it is a beautiful read. It briefly tells the history of the Bible and shows our need for a Savior and God's gift of Jesus. The pictures are fabulous, especially the angel at the gate of Eden and the lion. I'm hoping Bobbie will draw the lion when we get to it. I'll try and post it if he does.

I have begun reading a new book called Frugal Luxuries. It has me thinking all about gardening right here at the end of November!!! The book flap says it's a combination of Simple Abundance and The Tightwad Gazette. Sounds good....




I am also trying to finish up The Missing by Beverly Lewis from the new series - Seasons of Grace. Last Christmas I got a couple of Grace Livingston Hill Christmas books and only had time to read one of them. I saved them and packed them away in my Christmas boxes, so I have a new GLH Christmas book sitting in there just waiting for me.... I SO LOVE BOOKS!!!!! :-)





Yeah!!! All the Christmas decorations came in this weekend after a long night of Black Friday shopping!! Hopefully tomorrow we can get started!!! I love Christmas!!!!

Homing

"Well, of course that was all nonsense! She wasn't going back on the principles her mother had taught her. She was going to go steadily on trying to do as nearly right as possible. And perhaps some day God would give her a break!"

Jane in Homing by Grace Livingston Hill

Re-Creations

"Oh, but my dear! No one can take a daughter's place in a home when there is trouble, not such a daughter's place as you occupy, I'm sure. And as for the other thing, if you have it in you it will come out, you may be sure. You'll begin by decorating the home interior, and you won't lose anything in the end. Such things are never lost nor time wasted. God sees to that, if you are doing your best right where He put you. I can just see what an exquisite spot you'll make of that home, and how it will rest your mother to know you are taking her place."

Mrs. Maxwell to Cornelia in Re-Creations by Grace Livingston Hill

The Honor Girl

"When the table was set, Elsie ran out into the yard, and picked a handful of yellow roses from the straggling old bush in the yard, and put them into a vase in the centre of the table. The always had flowers of some kind on the dinner-table at Aunt Ester's. It gave the one little festive touch now that showed a woman had been at work trying to make things beautiful."



The Honor Girl by Grace Livingston Hill

Celia

"It was not in Celia's nature st stay in a room and not make those little changes of picking up a shoe and straightening a quilt and hanging clothing out of sight. She did it as a matter of course."

"I have never tried to be "pretty" as you call it. I only tried to be clean and neat, and have things look as nice as I could without spending much money."


A Daily Rate by Grace Livingston Hill

Dress Parade

"Celia had not spent her afternoon at the parade. Instead, she had been in her small, cold, back bedroom on the third story, attending to various worn garments which needed mending. They had been spread out on the bed in a row, and she had gone steadily down the line putting a few stitches here, a button there and setting in a patch in another, counting every minute of daylight hoping to finish her work before it faded, for the gas in her room was dim, the burner being old and worn out. She tried to be cheerful over the work. She called it her 'dress parade.' She knew it was the best way in which to accomplish as much as she wished to do."

A Daily Rate by Grace Livingston Hill

A Daily Rate

And his allowance was a continual allowance given him of the king, a daily rate for every day, all the days of his life...

2 Kings 25:30

"Charge not thyself with the weight of a year,
Child of the Master, faithful and dear,
Choose not the cross for the coming week,
For that is more than he bids thee seek,
Bend not thine arms for to-morrow's load,
Thou mayest leave that to they gracious God,
Daily, only he says to thee,
'Take up thy cross and follow me.'"

"She smiled to herself in the dim light and thought this must be part of the Master's plan to fix it so that she could do this duty and her others also. This was all he asked her to do, just what she had strength for. He gave her the daily allowance of that. "

~ Grace Livingston Hill in A Daily Rate

Grace Livingston Hill

I have read all but the last 2 of Beverly Lewis' books. I am waiting to get the second to last through my Paperback Book Swap.



I was wondering what I was going to read next and found a wonderful author through the writings of Anna at Pleasant View Schoolhouse.

Grace Livingston Hill

Anna even has a blog dedicated to GLH - Neat and Dainty as a Flower.

Mrs. Hill is a beautiful writer with a strong Christian witness in her books, a wonderful homemaking spirit and to top it all off - she's a LADY!!

You don't see many of those any more!!



Her writings take me away and give me an extra lift to do things just a little nicer than normal. Giving everything the extra touch. She makes me think of my Aunt Violet who so had that gift.