Joyful Maiden

Chores and Creek Fun

2016-01-30T22:57:00.001+13:00

Well, last night at 10:45 or so I decided it was too late to put together a post. So today is a mishmosh of yesterday's and today's pictures.

Our oregano plant is currently blooming, and the bumblebees seem to be loving it! See the pollen pouch on his leg? There is more coating the inside of at least one of his other legs, too, but I couldn't get a picture of it.

When I went out to take some pictures last night, I caught the boys mid-chore time, so here are a couple pictures of that. They have a lot of birds; I'm not sure anymore exactly how many, but there are a lot out there!

Little sis helped with chores, too.

We currently have hollyhocks blooming!

This evening, they wanted to show me their dugouts in the clay mound in one corner of our property, so I got a couple pictures of that.

I didn't go inside--he asked for the camera. Reminds me of the pictures of Jesus' tomb.

Then we migrated to the creek, where big brother took little sis boating, and one of the other brothers took the dare to try to ride his bike across a 2×4 across the creek. The results were hilarious!

Surprisingly, he didn't actually get very wet!

Later, Mom was picking peas for a friend, and little sis decided she needed a pea as well. The problem was that she couldn't get it to come off the vine! Problem solved: eat pea while still attached to the vine!

We have hebe (?) flowers around our place, too--so pretty!

How was your day?
–Esther

Sunflowers and a Flooded Creek

2016-01-29T06:33:00.000+13:00

I put this together last night, but decided to wait until this morning to post it because it was getting late.

We got about 1 ¼ in. rain overnight; praise the Lord! We sure need it. The creek has now risen—apparently higher than it has been in the past.

This morning, Mom informed me that there was a very upset turkey outside. I went to take a picture, and discovered the poor fellow sitting on the turkey’s usual night roost, in the rain, making pitiful sounds. Yet he wouldn’t jump off to go join the other turkeys and get under shelter! Silly thing.

This is a cone flower, I believe—isn’t it pretty?

One of my brothers has several sunflower plants growing in his garden—they are beautiful! And the bumblebees sure seem to like them!

As I said earlier, the creek is pretty high. Usually there is 2–2 ½ ft. of space between the bottom of the wooden bridge and the creek bed. Can you see the spurt of water coming out from the pipe that goes through the boys’ dam? We’ll be watering the garden with the water behind the dam.

The boys had fun showing me how deep it was, exclaiming at the cold, and then continuing to wade!

The boys have made dugouts in the clay bank here, and currently they’re working on improving the drainage, so their dugouts don’t get quite so much water trapped inside when it rains!

How has your day been?
–Esther

Rain and Blessing

2016-01-27T22:12:00.002+13:00

I had a bit of a rough start this morning, but praise the Lord He got me through, and this afternoon I was able to get quite a bit done in a too-long neglected science textbook that I really enjoy! This evening, I suddenly remembered the photo challenge, and so I went out to snap a couple pictures. It was still raining, and I enjoyed the challenge of trying to catch pictures of the raindrops.

The pear tree is loaded this year. I don’t remember eating these pears last year, so hopefully they’ll be good!

The lilies are beautiful this year. I keep trying to get pictures of them, but it’s proving to be difficult. This one ended up okay, though. We have yellow ones as well, and perhaps some white ones—but I prefer these pinky red ones!

I’m sure I should be able to remember the name for these flowers, but I can’t. In the rain, they’re even more beautiful with their pale lavender color!

I’ll close with a favorite passage of mine, from Psalm 145:

“The Lord upholdeth all that fall, and raiseth up all those that be bowed down. The eyes of all wait upon thee; and thou givest them their meat in due season. Thou openest thine hand, and satisfiest the desire of every living thing.” — Psalm 145:14–16 (emphasis mine; the rest of the chapter is beautiful, too—the Lord is so good to us!)

How has your day treated you? Got a lot done?

– Esther

Outing With My Brothers

2016-01-26T18:17:00.000+13:00

Last week, some friends came up to spend the day—a rare treat! I decided to take them out to have fish ‘n chips, and since I really enjoyed the food, and realized it wasn’t all that expensive, I decided to take my little brothers out as well eventually.

So we did that today, and they seemed to enjoy their time immensely. Afterward, we played tag and other games on the local school playground until they were ready to head home.

On the way home, one of the boys who is currently collecting old discarded cans to melt down and turn into aluminum ingots found lots of cans on the roadside. He had fun smashing them and adding them to the ever-growing stash in his arms. Eventually he got too many, so he gave some to his younger brothers.

As we were nearing our road, out came my oldest brother carrying little sister. He was headed to town to get some vinegar for Mom—we often walk in, since it’s only a 5–10 min. walk. We all enjoy walking, and apparently baby sis really enjoys going into town, too!

The second youngest boy gave me a twig of roses this morning! I didn’t have time to find something to put it in before we left, so they’re looking a bit sad now. They’re still very pretty!

How is your day treating you?

-Esther

Flower and Bible Study Thoughts

2016-01-25T16:48:00.000+13:00

I decided to give myself a little challenge this week: Take a picture each day of something, and share it on this blog. I’m trying to go with the theme “beauty”, but seeing as there aren’t many flowers blooming right now I think I’ll have to get creative.

This is currently blooming outside my house—isn’t it beautiful!

I was reading in Genesis 38 – 40 this morning, and had an interesting time comparing Judah’s response to Tamar and Joseph’s response to Potiphar’s wife. Judah and Joseph were both raised by the same man, and both had the chance to learn all they needed to learn about God from him.

Yet when faced with temptation, Judah accepted and Joseph refused. Judah had nothing to lose by refusing, but Joseph had a job—possibly even his life!—to lose by refusing. Also, Joseph said “how can I do this and sin against God?”—not even counting in how he’d be sinning against Potiphar, Potiphar’s wife, or his own conscience! Obviously, he loved and wanted to serve God with everything.

Yesterday at church Dad was sharing about the new year, and mentioned how the new year is like a field of fresh snow. We all have to walk in it, but we must choose how we will step—and every step will show. Joseph, obviously, chose to walk with pure steps, even though the cost was high.

In closing, here’s a beautiful verse from Proverbs that could easily apply to Joseph’s story.

“Every word of God is pure: he is a shield unto them that put their trust in him.” — Proverbs 30:5

Where have you been reading in the Word lately?

-Esther

Plum Picking

2016-01-24T21:26:00.000+13:00

One of our family traditions is to pick whatever’s currently ripe on Sunday afternoons on the way home from church. Since we’re nearing the end of January, some of the plum trees are already done—we missed the first trees due to cherry picking and overall busyness, but today we had our first major plum picking!

It’s always fun to get outside and work together to strip a tree, especially remembering that we will enjoy these plums come winter!

Little sister stayed in the van for a while, so we could pick without having to always chase her off the road. After several of us picked ourselves out of a job, we took turns watching her.

The hills in the distance were gorgeous—pictures can’t do them justice.

I had a cicada land on me! Sadly, I wasn’t able to see it very well because it was on my back, but it did serenade me for a little bit.

There were some wild mint plants growing beside the roadside—so pretty!

What do your Sunday afternoons usually look like?

-Esther

#Puzzled

2015-09-16T15:42:00.001+12:00

What do birthday cards, letters, brochures, and a Catechism paper from July have to do with bank statements and pay stubs?

I don’t know.

I do know that as I worked on bookkeeping and had to sort through the stack of papers that had accumulated in my corner cubby, I found the above named in abundance there—and that isn’t usually the place I keep things like that!

When was the last time you found a mysterious combination of odds and ends scrambled together?

-Esther

P.S. My corner cubby now looks a lot emptier, and a lot happier.

P.P.S. I’m on the Purposeful Learning blog today, talking about villains. Join me?

Memories: Mount Cook, Tasman Glacier, and the Hooker Valley

2015-09-14T07:00:00.000+12:00

In July, I had fun being a tour guide for my visiting aunt and her friend. We had five days before the friend went home—my aunt stayed on for another three weeks—and in those five days we took as big of a tour of the South Island as we could!

They arrived on the 15th, a Wednesday. My third brother and I were dropped off at the airport around 10 pm to meet them—they were scheduled to land about midnight. We watched the clock slowly tick by the minutes, and when it reached 00:00 my brother announced we had reached the end of time! About half an hour later they came out of the terminal, and we happily greeted them.

That night, we stayed at a local holiday park in a cabin—getting to bed around 2:30 or so!—and the next morning, Thursday, around 8:30 we went to drop some excess luggage off at a kind friend’s place. Then by 9:30 or 10 we took off south.

It had rained a bit overnight, and was still spitting and overcast the next morning. Off and on all morning, we had showers of rain and overall we weren’t able to see much scenery. I started praying—hard—that we’d have decent weather, but it didn’t look like we’d get it that day. Then, as we drove over Burke’s pass—heading into McKenzie country—the sky cleared and left us with this view:

It was gorgeous. The mountains were just beautiful. This is the middle of winter, but I’ve never seen the hills and mountains so pretty before (perhaps because we always considered travelling in the middle of winter a waste of time because of weather variables?).

We had gorgeous scenery the rest of the way south (roughly six hours total in the end, with several breaks for picture-taking and lunch).

We got to Lake Tekapo, one of the lakes created by glaciers and man-made waterways. This is a beautiful area, and we took some stretch time and got some pictures. The scene in the picture above is on a postcard of the area.

We were planning to visit the Tasman Glacier that evening, yet, so we would have more time the next day for the Hooker Valley and then for getting across the mountains to the West Coast, but by the time we got down in the area it was 4:00 pm and we only had an hour or hour and a half until sunset—and it would take roughly half an hour to get out there! We decided it wasn’t worth it, and headed on to Twizel.

We got a group photo while there.

That evening, we stayed with some wonderful friends who had relocated to the area after the Christchurch earthquakes. They were very hospitable, and we really enjoyed our evening there.

The next morning, Friday, we took off about 8:30 again, and I was pretty disappointed by the thick fog along the way. I wanted a view of the mountains, but it looked like we were doomed to a foggy, dismal day—not uncommon for this time of the year.

Then we got past Lake Pukaki, after driving for half an hour or so, and suddenly the sky began to clear and we started getting glimpses of snow-covered peaks! I was so excited—here I’d been praying for good weather so we could have a worth-while trip and God gave us this:

It was breathtaking. I’ve never seen these mountains so cloud-free, or so snow-covered.

We went to the Tasman Glacier first, and as we drove to where the walk started we watched the temperature gauge go down to 1°C, and then creep back up to about 3–4°C as we came to the beginning of the walk.

It was about 10 am when we started walking, and even though it was cold—for me, at least—the sunshine and clear blue sky made up for any discomfort we might have had.

At the top! The sun was in the wrong place to get a very clear picture looking toward the glacier, and anyway this glacier is not really visible because it hides under the gravel. You can see the end of it, about in the middle of the picture at the far end of the lake, at the base of the mountains—mostly a big pile of rocks.

There were hardly any icebergs on the lake—less than usual, I believe, but the mountains…oh, the mountains! They were beautiful!

You can see Mount Cook—the highest mountain in New Zealand—close the middle of this picture, with the twin peaks and the snow billowing off the top.

Below is looking back the way we had come. The fog was most definitely confined to the area where Lake Pukaki was—obviously, the water was warmer than the air.

A close-up of Mount Cook.

After spending about an hour at the Tasman Glacier, we headed back around the end of the mountain and went to the Hooker Valley. This is always a gorgeous place as well. Below is a picture of Mueller Lake, with (I believe) Mount Sefton in the background. We walked along the Hooker river (bottom right corner of the picture) for the most part.

Had to get a couple pictures of each other while we were there to prove we had actually been there! :)

I think my brother was starved for snow or something. He took every opportunity he had to detour and grab a handful. Sadly, this was from a snow storm almost a month before, so it was old and crusty—most of what he was able to chip off ended up being dropped into the river from one or the other of the bridges we walked over.

Aunt L. decided she would be the first to get across the swinging bridge (so brother and I wouldn’t shake it while she was on it!), so she took off running when we got close. My brother chased her, and I had to stop to get a quick picture before joining in the chase myself.

The picture on the left is from the first swinging bridge, looking up the Hooker River toward Mueller Lake.

Left picture: The second swinging bridge. Right: Looking upstream from the second bridge.

I doubt I’ll ever get tired of mountains.

The snow blowing off the mountains was beautiful! And I was very glad to know it was clouds of snow, not rain.

View of Mount Cook from the Hooker Valley.

On the way back, I found the different colors of scree very interesting—obviously, there is some iron in parts of it to form the reddish tinge.

Welcome to the “Smallest Bridge in the World” (it was later destroyed so that it could be dropped into the Hooker River from the bridge on the way back).

After spending about an hour at the Hooker Valley, we headed north once again about noon, stopping only once for gas at Lake Tekapo. Then on to Arthur’s Pass so we could get across the mountains before the snow storm that was on the way could block roads. There was snow along the road for a ways, and some grit near the top of the pass where there had obviously been snow or ice for a little while, but we arrived safe and sound around 7 pm at a friend’s place in Hokitika. Close to seven hours on the road was enough for me, but we made it!

Bed felt really good that night.

So concludes the first two days of our flying five-day trip. Even though I was tired, I was enjoying every minute—after all, you don’t always get the joy of showing people where to go in order to see the best of the country! Being with my aunt, her friend, and my brother was also pretty special, too.

I’m not promising that I’ll be able to share more, but I can promise I’ll do my very best to share more pictures. I took well over 500 pictures and videos on this particular trip, and condensing even just 100 pictures into 20 has been a bit of a chore. However, I enjoy it—and hope you enjoy the glimpse into this beautiful country I live in as well!

Soli Deo Gloria.
Esther

My Book Review of The Sound of Diamonds by Rachelle Rea

2015-08-29T18:39:00.001+12:00

A few months ago, I had the privilege of getting an advanced reader copy of The Sound of Diamonds in exchange for a review! The book was very interesting, and while I fully intended to review it right away that didn’t happen. Here’s my review now. :)

The Sound of Diamonds by Rachelle Rea
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

There were several things I really liked about this book. First, I loved the historical value. This book had a lot of different details about the 16th century and what it was like to live there and I loved reading about the Iconoclastic Fury—how that affected Holland, how it affected England, what kinds of people lived through it, etc. This book is absolutely fascinating when it comes to this sort of stuff!

I wear glasses, and the main character, Gwyneth, wears glasses as well. I hadn’t realized that back in the 1500s you were even able to get glasses! That fact was fascinating!

I’ve been studying church history this year for school. When I came across the Iconoclastic Fury then, I found the stories told about it fascinating. So it was pretty neat to realize that this is the time period The Sound of Diamonds is set in! Of course, the Fury isn’t the main part of the book, but it definitely had a play in the events described through the story.

I really love the historical elements of this book—they were very well done.

The thing I didn’t really like was the romantic aspect of the story. I should have expected it, but I didn’t and in the end I was kind of saddened by the fact that it was there. The romance never went beyond kissing or thoughts about the other person, but to me (in some places anyway) it seemed like we were invited to witness something that should have been private. But then, romance is a subjective thing—what’s not okay with some people is okay with others, so that is merely my opinion of what’s shown here. In some ways that did put a damper on how much I like the book, but overall I’ve really enjoyed the story.

The historical events were obviously researched well, and Rachelle did a marvelous job in creating characters and developing and executing the well-planned plot. She obviously has a lot of talent and I really admire how she wove everything together in the end.

Overall, I think I’d give this book four stars out of five. Good job, Rachelle.

View all my Goodreads reviews.

A Promise

2015-06-21T18:31:00.001+12:00

Well, here in the Southern Hemisphere we’ve reached the shortest day of the year (today, the 21st). From now on, the daylight should slowly begin to get longer and longer.

And yet it seems like we’ve barely passed summer.

I suppose the fact that I worked all summer—and quite a few days each week—would make a difference. Also, with the dry, hot summer we’ve had—and the very warm autumn until a week or two ago—it seemed like summer was a lot longer than usual.

My brother owns several turkeys. The turkey to the far right is by far the youngest—and the noisiest.

Even though I usually hate winter—most particularly the cold and the short days—I’m slowly finding that in some ways I actually like it! There are things like being able to have time to sit down and work on a crocheting project, or listen to a story, or even do a bit of real book work are all very, very, nice. I’m also enjoying having longer evenings—with it getting dark earlier, Mom is inside earlier, which means supper/tea/dinner at 7:30 or so, as opposed to 8:00 or a bit later.

Apparently there are a few perks to winter. :)

Summer this year was—as I said—incredibly dry. Our area was especially affected—up until last week, we’ve probably had at most 10 mm of rain since January—and we’ve had quite a bit of trouble feeding our animals because there just isn’t any grass. Many farmers around here had to begin feeding out hay in April (the equivalent of October in the Northern Hemisphere). I’ve heard of more than one instance where farmers were putting out a thousand dollar’s worth of food each day to try to keep their stock fed.

Many farmers have had to sell off stock—lots of cattle and sheep have been shipped out of the area this summer.

But, praise the Lord, we had rain last week! All in all, I think we had just over 22 mm (about 1 inch). It was such a blessing to see real water falling out of the sky!

And today, on the way home from church, as I was watching the sunset, I saw two new lambs and the cutest black-and-white calf ever.

I’m sure we haven’t seen the worst of winter yet—we still have two months to go before spring comes. But these—the new babies, the rain—are beautiful promises of hope to come.

“It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.” — Lamentations 3:22–23

How have the recent months treated you?
– Esther

P.S. I’m blogging fairly frequently over at Purposeful Learning these days—come join me, if you have some time! Thank you!

We’re Live! Finally!

2015-04-11T09:54:00.001+12:00

We are live!

After many months of preparation, you can finally come visit my site!

When I first got the idea for Learning Resource Directory back in October, I never thought it would take this long to complete. But now that that’s passed, and I have most things ready to go, I’m glad to let you know that you can now see what’s been cooking for so many months.

Come visit our home page, or, if you’d like to enter the launch giveaway, you can go directly to that post here. We have quite a few book reviews up already, and a backlog of 50 or 100 more waiting to go up, so keep checking back for new books to read!

Still not sure if Learning Resource Directory is the site for you? Our goal is to assist you in your search for good books—whether for yourself, or for your children. To do that, we’ve tried to pick the best books from our shelves (out of the thousands that we have), reviewed them, written down anything you might want to be warned of before you read it, and then posted them on the site. There’s also a handy search you can use to quickly find books—every book is categorized by age level, genre, historical period, location, and special appeal.

Come take a look today—and don’t forget to enter the giveaway for some fun prizes!

“It is what you read when you don't have to that determines what you will be when you can't help it.” ― Oscar Wilde

Have a great day!
Esther

P.S. Sorry if this seems a bit stilted—I just sent this out to my email list, and my brain is a bit too tired to try to re-write it in a fresh way. Hope you can enjoy looking around LRD, regardless. :)

Giveaway and Free eBook!

2015-04-02T09:59:00.001+13:00

Giveaway:

I’m excited to announce that we will be launching the site next week! To celebrate, we’re holding a giveaway for a $10 Amazon gift card. Check out this post on Facebook to learn more and enter! :) (Giveaway is open internationally, and ends at 6:00 am tomorrow, NZDT.)

We are getting very close to launch day, and to celebrate we're going to have a flash prelaunch giveaway! What's your...
Posted by Learning Resource Directory on Wednesday, 1 April 2015

P.S. If you can, please share the post and/or page—I’d like to have a huge launch party, and I can’t do that without your help in getting the word out there. Thank you so much! Also, if you’d like to sign up for the newsletter (so you’re the first to know when we go live next week!), go here.

Free eBook:

Just found out about this this morning. Sarah Holman, an author I’ve worked with several times, has put her book Adventures and Adversities up for free for April 1st and 2nd. I’ve read this book, and really enjoyed the Christian themes in the story—and the touch of fantasy was also fun.

Check the book out here, and get it while it’s free! I know you’ll enjoy it.

Hello, World!

2015-03-29T21:11:00.001+13:00

Wow, it’s been a while since I last wrote on here!

We’re having a beautiful Sunday evening here—quiet, sunny, and warm. I thought I could take a couple minutes to update you on what’s been happening lately.

I have two months to cover . . . well, maybe you’ll just get a random compilation of what I’ve been thinking about and doing lately. I’ll also chuck in a few pictures from the past couple months, so you can “see” what I’ve been seeing.

Baby sister is really growing up! I’m so thankful for her. She’s learning to be content in the van when we’re driving, and overall is a happier little girl.

Recent picture of all of us siblings.

Two weeks ago, we enjoyed having six German visitors stay with us for a day. That was a real highlight for all of us—we’d never met them before, but they knew my cousin. It was really encouraging to fellowship with fellow believers from the other side of the globe!

Walking the Kaikoura Peninsula with our German guests. Dad and little brother were behind for a while.

Looking at the beautiful scenery.

Such a beautiful day!

It was so pretty!

Ever heard of MultiMarkdown? I’m rather intrigued with it! I really like this markdown editor, and I’m thinking in the future I may just start writing in it for things like blog posts, because I won’t have to format everything in a word processor and then reformat everything to work with HTML once I want to put it up live.

I’ve been thinking a lot about websites lately, particularly my website. Most of my “extra” time—besides visitors, work, family, and away-from-home events—has been spent working on my website, trying to get it finished. Lord willing, I’m hoping to launch early next month (exact date isn’t set yet, but I’m hoping it will be the second week of April). I’ve been trying to figure out giveaways for the launch and prelaunch . . . this should be lots of fun. If you like, you can “like” the Facebook page for Learning Resource Directory, where you’ll be kept up-to-speed with all that’s happening.

Coffee. I found some organic fairtrade coffee at a supermarket a month or two back, and it actually tastes pretty good! I haven’t used it lately, because instant is just so much easier to throw together in a hurry. But I’m thinking I may use it to make crazy coffee. That looks both fun and yummy!

Talk about yummy . . . this was a highlight one (hot!) week. Salted Caramel Magnum Bar. The cleaner’s job isn’t always a very noticed or thanked job, but it is really special when someone “forgets” something in the freezer once in the while (whether intentionally or not). It somehow makes the whole day a lot brighter.

I’ve been cleaning at a local Motel/Holiday park. The amount of people coming through is slowing, so I only work there 2-3 mornings per week. Thankful for the little amount of income I still have!

A month or two ago, I came across some very handy planners. They’ve been very useful to me for quite a while now, and I’m thankful for them. This month, they didn’t get them up quite as early as I had hoped (I had to wait until roughly the 5th to get them!), but now April’s planners are up, so I’m very happy. Now, to plan my month . . . .

A plant outside my window.

I’ve been reading quite a bit lately. Among my latest favorites:

More Than a Carpenter, by Josh McDowell—pretty challenging, but also really good.
Cheaper by the Dozen, by Frank B. Gilbreth, Jr. and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey—pure fun. I love reading about large families!
Elsie Dinsmore and Elsie’s Holidays at Roselands, by Martha Finney—both encouraging and challenging! I love this series.

I’ve been writing quite a bit lately—I’ve found that if I have a particular theme for a day of the week, I can actually get something written! So this last month, I tried (and succeeded almost every day) to write a review every Mon/Wed/Fri, and a blog post each Tue/Thu. Everything from those days will be used on my website, so it’s nice to have some backup ready to go.

Picking up apples for the cow—she loves apples, no matter if they’re good or rotten! The really good ones (usually off the tree) become our eating apples.

We’ve been putting away lots of food lately. Apples, tomatoes, peaches, and blackberries, to name a few! God has really blessed us.

Discussing a new bike right before leaving to go get more apples.

What’s your life been looking like lately? Hectic, or relaxed?

Website of the Week

2015-02-11T08:56:00.000+13:00

About six months ago, Matthew Sampson—a family friend—contacted me and asked if I’d like to have a free line edit done on my book, in exchange for writing a review of his work. Yes, please! My book needed a lot of help, as it turned out, and I’m very thankful for the time and effort he took in making it shine.

Just recently, he contacted me and told me that he has now launched his business, Red Pendragon.

Here’s the short review I wrote about his work:

Matthew Sampson edits with style, and the content he delivers is what you’d expect from a professional. Beyond sentence structure and grammatical fixes, he suggests simple changes that will make your work sparkle. His approach is logical and hard, but kind too, and if something doesn’t feel right, he’ll be sure to tell you. Overall, I highly recommend Matthew. I was very impressed with the quality and speed he demonstrated, and hope to work with him again in the future.

Matthew looks for a lot of things while he works:

Typos
Misspellings
Transposed words and letters
Grammar slip-ups
Inconsistencies
Redundancies
Repeated words and phrases
Awkward wording
and much more!

If you have a book that needs edited, check out Matthew’s site, and see if you can get him to help you with it. You won’t be disappointed.

From the Dark to the Dawn: a FREE Book!

2015-02-07T08:10:00.001+13:00

Hello, all!

Just stopping in quickly to tell you of a fun happening—remember the giveaway we had last week with Alicia A. Willis? She sent me an email this morning, telling me that one of her books is going to be FREE for two days (today and tomorrow) on Kindle.

“I felt the Lord strongly impressing me to make it free for the sake of the gospel presentation contained in the book.”

I thought that for those of you who didn’t win the giveaway, you might want to check this book out! I’ve been wanting to read it ever since it’s release probably around a year ago, and so I’m super excited to now have a chance.

Here’s a little about From the Dark to the Dawn: A Tale of Ancient Rome:

Decadent Rome, 61 Anno Domini. The masters of the universe have crushed the Iceni rebellion with an iron hand, slaughtering and enslaving her people.

For Philip, his existence as a captive means living to hatred. He despises his rich, young master, resenting his life of servitude and the wrestling feats Marcus forces him to perform. Bitterness engulfs his soul until he only lives for the day when he will crush the might of Rome.

Then Christianity enters the picture. Taught by a Jewish breadmaker to know the man called Christus, Philip begins the struggle to forgive and honor his master. But forgiveness is not easy towards one who lives for himself.

Marcus Virginius knows nothing but power and pleasure. Destined to a successful career serving Nero in the Praetorian Guard, he wants no part of Christianity. And he is determined to crush Philip’s newfound faith – no matter what it takes.

Join Philip and Marcus in their journey of redemption, faith, and forgiveness. Is love enough to conquer hate? And will the light of the gospel ever surmount the darkness of Rome?

Persecution abounds – will the two young men survive its terrors and live to experience the bright hope of a new dawn?

One last note from Alicia:

“If you know anyone who is unsaved or struggling, please share it with them. It's God's book...let's see what He does with it!”

See the book here: www.amazon.com/dp/B00LH7GYOQ/

I hope you’ll be encouraged and inspired by this book, as I know I will be!
-Esther

Announcing the Winner

2015-02-01T09:52:00.001+13:00

Congratulations to…

Wild Horse!

You have won an eBook version of Rising to the Challenge!

Alicia Willis will be in touch with you shortly. :)

Rising to the Challenge: Book Review and Giveaway!

2015-01-27T06:57:00.000+13:00

I’m excited to share a new book by an author I’ve been in contact with for the last year or so—Alicia A. Willis! It was fun to be a beta reader (only second or third time I’ve ever had that privilege before!), and I loved the story immensely.

The book is being released today, and I’m delighted to have my review post coincide with the date. Alicia has graciously offered to give away an eBook version of the story to one of you wonderful readers—you can see the details at the bottom of this post.

Enough introduction. Let’s get started.

Rising to the Challenge: A Tale of Perseverance and Unconditional Love, by Alicia A. Willis

My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Recommended for: 12-year-olds and up (see reason in “warning”)

Rising to the Challenge was a fun, stimulating book to read. In many ways, I saw myself in the well-developed characters—especially in Sir Kenneth Dale, who had to do the right and honorable thing, even though it meant going against all his heart longed to do. I also understood Brion well, someone who, while wanting to do the right thing, always managed to end up in the wrong place. Both were equally challenged throughout the narrative, both learning that the hardest things sometimes are—in the end—the best experiences for us.

The story opens with Brion de Lantenac, a thirteen-year-old noble’s son, escaping from the burning ruins of the castle that holds the slain bodies of his parents and only brother. With his treacherous uncle searching for his life, he must find a place of safety where he can prepare for the day he will be able to take revenge.

We next meet Sir Kenneth Dale, a knight in Birmingham castle, who is badly in need of a squire. Through a series of events, Sir Kenneth and Brion’s lives are brought together—and Brion soon becomes Sir Kenneth’s new squire. Brion keeps the secret of his true identity to himself, holding fast to the promise he made to his life-long mentor that will help keep him safe until he can fend for himself.

Over the course of several months, Brion comes to long more and more for the indulged freedom and authority he once held as second only to his father, the castle lord. Deliberately refusing to obey Sir Kenneth’s commands, he ends up accidently killing his master’s favorite horse and as a consequence—and because of his many other disobedient and outright insolent actions—Brion is discharged. Alone, without the protection of Sir Kenneth—or any other knight, because no-one wants to deal with his untamable spirit—he must somehow survive—and escape his uncle’s detection. Despite all he does to try to stay away from his uncle, he is captured. Does anyone care enough about him to try to find out where he has disappeared to––and save him? And if they do, will they get there in time? Or will the secrets of Lantenac castle rest forever in the hands of a traitor?

I received an early reader copy of Rising to the Challenge, to help Alicia Willis with any slight mistakes that may still be in the book. While I did find a few problems near the beginning, by the end I was reading so fast to get the tension over with that I forgot my real job was to act as editor. Instead of being a critiquer, I became an observer—and began living in Birmingham castle and the surrounding area instead. The story is full of exciting, hair raising adventure, with a few humorous bits woven in to keep the tension well balanced.

Through Rising to the Challenge, we are called to continue on in the hard things of life, even when it would be easier to give up and find a more effortless route. Besides an entertaining story, I found it very encouraging to read about someone who fought what he knew was wrong, instead taking the respectable way to go about things—and conquering his problems in the end.

This story is truly a masterful piece of art, and I am privileged to recommend it wholeheartedly.

WARNING: Some parents may not appreciate the different sword fights, torture, and other related subjects through the book (never fully described, but enough that younger children might be best not hearing it). There is also a fairly strong thread of romance through the story, but I did not find it over-the-top or disgusting. Besides some (clean) lover’s talk, there is just one kiss.

view all my Goodreads reviews

Can’t wait to see if you win the giveaway? You can buy the book on Amazon here.

THE GIVEAWAY!

Like I said before, Alicia has offered to give away an e-copy of Rising to the Challenge—a fun, encouraging story that I can (almost) guarantee everyone will love.

This giveaway is open internationally.
You have until the 31st of January to enter, and I will announce and notify the winner as soon as possible.
Have fun! :)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

-Esther

Orange Flames in the Night

2015-01-22T22:04:00.001+13:00

8:22 am

“BOOM!”

The sound ricocheted through my consciousness, jolting me awake. My sleep-numbed brain tried to register what was going on as I fumbled for my glasses and grabbed my headlamp. Switching the light on, I looked briefly at my watch—12:17 am—and slid out of bed. As I moved, I floundered for an explanation of the noise. I could hear a crackling, snapping, popping sound coming from somewhere.

Could it be an earthquake? No, earthquakes both shake and are noisy. This was just a bang…unless something else happened before I woke up. Did someone have an accident? Possibly.

Soon I reached the door, and after opening it a crack to make sure everything was okay in our front yard, I looked beyond the tree-line around our property. An orange glow lit up the tree down across the road beyond where our street “T’s” onto the road that leads to the village center. I could see a huge column of smoke rising above the deep orange center of the fire, as big around as the trunk one of those enormous old Macrocarpa trees.

What’s going on? Did someone crash into the car sitting at the end of our road that was waiting to be towed away? Are there people hurt?

Then I remembered the conditions outside.

The fire ban is on, and that’s a huge fire. With all the dry weather we’ve had, the grass and hedge will be a tinder box…if that catches fire, it could easily spread over here, and we’d have to evacuate.

Whatever it was that had happened, I wanted to go help out if possible. Just as I was preparing to close my door, I saw a light coming up the back drive—beyond the lawn and the garden, the one leading to the paddock. Someone was heading toward the sleep out that my brother used as a bedroom.

Closing my door against the orange glow, I fumbled for my bathrobe. Then I realized I might be around other people, and it might be best to be fully dressed if I was going to help out. With shaking hands I discarded that and tried to pull on my dress—but it was inside out. After more fumbling—little helped by the adrenaline in my veins and the chilly air causing my hands to shake violently—I was finally dressed and stepped out the door just in time to see Dad coming from the main house.

“Esther? Is that you?”

“Yes, Dad!”

“I’m going to check it out. Want to come along?”

I slid into the chilly truck seat beside him, and buckled the seatbelt with trembling fingers. Soon, we were out the lane and approaching the burning car. The whole frame was engulfed in flames. Cautiously, we drove past it, looking to see if there was anyone around.

In the light from the brilliant flames, I could see the brown grass in the ditch behind the car. It hadn’t caught…yet. I was thankful there was no wind—the pillar of smoke rose straight up into the air, to join the huge orange-tinted cloud above us.

Under my breath, I prayed that the firemen would arrive soon, and that the grass wouldn’t catch on fire.

We reached the Catholic church’s driveway, and still had seen no one. Just as we were turning around, to go back up the other way, the fire siren blew. Praise the Lord! After going up to the trucking yards, and still seeing no one, we figured the arsonist—whoever it was—had made a clean escape.

Since there was nothing more we could do, we headed back to the house. Mom met us, phone in hand, as we stepped out of the truck, asking if we saw anything.

“Someone apparently set it on fire,” Dad said with strain in his voice.

Mom had called the fire department, and they’d soon be there.

Then Mom remembered seeing a light going toward my brother’s sleep out. I confirmed her memory, because I had seen it too. “Could be someone up to no good.” Dad found his headlamp, and we both walked across the lawn and through the gate.

As we got to the corner of the sleep out, I noticed something weird. “Chevy’s not barking.” The dog that we’ve been taking care of the last few weeks is usually on high alert, and barks at the smallest things. That night, he was unusually silent. The tension in the air heightened, and we hurried even faster to make sure everything was okay.

We got to the front of the sleep out, and finally the dog started barking. One good sign, at least. Then, thankfully, my brother opened the door and came out.

“You’re okay?” Dad asked, “No one’s come here?”

“No,” he reassured Dad. “I just went out to check what had happened.”

By that time, we could hear the fire truck arriving. Knowing my brother was safe, we walked out the drive and soon came upon the scene. It was interesting to watch the firefighters work—although, at 12:30 in the morning it’s not quite the most welcome sight ever.

My brother was relieved. “I prayed someone would call the fire truck,” he said as we watched.

They hosed down the car, and everything seemed out, but within a few seconds the fire started again. After several good lots of drenching, they hosed foam all over the car, and then continued to pour water onto the engine.

Soon, the local police arrived, and after a while he came over to talk to us. By that time, Mom had come out to join us and together we watched the proceedings. When the police came, Mom told him that she had heard 4 or 5 distinct explosions, and we told him we hadn’t seen anyone around the site when we first checked it out.

After a little while, there was nothing more to see. The fire was out, leaving a blackened frame behind, and—praise the Lord!—the hedge was safe, and not much grass had burned. We soon went back to bed.

Melted glass on the window frame.

Neither Dad nor Mom slept much after the stress of the fire. In the morning, all we could see of the damage was a ruined car frame—complete with melted glass on the window frame and a cracked tire rim—and the foam, like snow, all over the car and surrounding area.

We are very thankful there was no wind, that it had rained just a little bit yesterday—just enough to make all the grass wet, and therefore, a tiny bit less fire-prone than usual, and that the firefighters were able to arrive quickly.

It could have been worse—much worse. But God was good, and we didn’t have to deal with any of that.

3:12 pm

I went to work this morning—after writing the above—and during the course of our conversation I asked my boss if she had heard anything last night. No; she hadn’t. Sometimes she has a hard time getting a good night’s sleep, but apparently last night wasn’t one of those times.

Being the closest neighbors to our left, I was surprised—they are just down the road from where the fire (and the explosions) were! But they hadn’t heard a thing.

Sometime this morning, my brother met up with the closest neighbor to our right—the only other occupant of our street. He also said he knew nothing about it, and was apparently surprised to hear about the fire.

That made me wonder…what if there hadn’t been any explosions? We probably wouldn’t have heard it—or woken up to it—either! As it is, besides the policeman and the firefighters, we were just about the only ones that were aware of the fire when it happened. I know we would have found out sometime what had happened, but it may have been too late by then—the fire got within a foot or so from the hedge (my brothers reported later that the hedge itself has all turned dark brown/black right around where the fire was), and once that gets going the job of putting it out quadruples in size.

All in all, this experience has made me very thankful. Thankful that we’re safe, and thankful that there was no great harm done (besides a bit of burned grass and a now-ugly car sitting out at the end of our road!).

God is good.

Nelson Trip, part 5

2014-11-08T09:21:00.000+13:00

Last installment. Phew, now I don’t have to think about this anymore. Want to read the previous ones to refresh your memory? Here you go: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4.

We stopped at one other place on the way home—Maruia Falls. They were beautiful!

There’s something majestic about flowing water….

Caught him! He hates being photographed, so it was fun to get a non-blurry picture of him as he looked at the falls from the bottom of the hill.

The wet logs in the middle-right are part of a huge whirlpool. They were going around in a never-ending circle.

More of the family at the bottom.

We all enjoyed taking pictures of the falls!

Upriver.

You can see more of the whirlpool here.

I finally went down the hill. This sign made me laugh after I saw the strength and enormity of the whirlpool. I think anyone who even tried to swim would be foolish.

It was fun to have two cameras along—two different points of view!

Contemplating where to explore next…such a hard decision.

Down to the water!

I got the next brother down from the one in the last picture to sit on the rock for me while I took some pictures.

So pretty.

He tried skipping stones—I don’t think it worked very well, though.

The whirlpool, from the bottom of the hill.

Looking downriver.

Mom got down! With baby brother, too, of course.

Oldest and youngest brothers obligingly posed for me, as well.

After lunch, little brother explored.

Second-youngest brother accompanied me to the water.

And then we struck off for home again!

Riverbed along the way.

…and we got home! :)

It will be fun to share pictures of our fun times with Grandma, too. Hopefully it won’t take so long to get them up….

Don’t be surprised if there aren’t any posts for a while, though. Work on my website has slowly been going along, and I still have some things to do yet before it’s done. And with Grandma being here, I expect I’ll be one busy girl! :)

I guess we’ll see when I can post. For now, I hope you enjoyed the pictures.
-Esther

Nelson Trip, part 4

2014-11-05T09:10:00.000+13:00

Another installment! Yes, I remembered! (Here are the links to Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.)

After leaving Split Apple Rock, we went around another place (I can’t remember the name). The tide was still out, and it was neat to see the boats grounded!

Scenery on the way back.

One our host’s horses—I saw this one as a new colt. I love his colors!

Their other horse.

View from the porch. The water in the left middle is an estuary. When the tide is out, it turns into a very slimy, muddy mud flat.

Another view from the porch. It didn’t turn out very well in this picture, but looking across this estuary (or whatever it is) in the early morning is something to see! It’s so pretty!

And then, early one morning, we began our trip home after a wonderful weekend.

On the way, we stopped at a lookout.

The scenery was amazing.

We headed back to the van, and just as we got there one of the boys noticed two wild guinea pigs in the bushes!

Dad suggested they might have once been tame, and then someone dropped them there.

Then we found another track, and admired the scenery some more.

The sky was so blue. And I love the flax stalks—they provide wonderful contrast.

Baby brother had fun riding on his big brother’s back!

On the road again.

Just one to go. Yes, I can finish this. I can, I can!
-Esther

Thankful + Beauty

2014-11-03T10:09:00.001+13:00

This month, I’m participating in King’s Blooming Rose’s GiveThanks! x7 challenge—writing down seven things I’m thankful for each day through the month of November. I participated last year, and am excited to do it again this year, too!

My Thankful List, for day 1:

Warm, sunny weather after the not-so-nice weather last week
My Mom, who is always encouraging
The ability to praise my Creator
Having a camera, so I can capture pictures of my brothers while we’re still growing up together

God’s Word, which is new every day (and encouraging, as well)
Good books that take me to new places and introduce me to new people
The gift of being able to write for HIS glory
Deuteronomy 31:8: “And the Lord, he it is that doth go before thee; he will be with thee, he will not fail thee, neither forsake thee: fear not, neither be dismayed.” That was so encouraging today!

One of the first roses of the season on the bush around one side of my verandah.

My Thankful List, for day 2:

For the song "All Creatures of Our God and King". And all other songs, for that matter. I love praising our KING!
Beautiful, sunny, warm Sundays.
Friends to fellowship with.

Encouraging, inspiring messages--the kind that make you squirm a bit to hear because you know they're so true and you also know you don't measure up.
Songbirds.
Wholesome food (like homegrown chicken).
Coffee.

I love roses! And all flowers, as an extension. :) And I love praising the KING as well!
–Esther

P.S. Did you see my most recent post on Jewels of Jesus? If not, you can read it here. It’s hard to say goodbye there, but I know the Lord is leading, and I’m thankful for that.

Nelson Trip, part 3

2014-11-01T17:20:00.001+13:00

Well, I finally got all the rest of the posts from our Nelson trip back in May ready to go! Perhaps now I can get them all posted before Grandma comes and we take a lot more pictures! I’m sorry this has taken so long—guess I kept getting sidetracked. Here we go with part three. (Here are the links to Part 1 and Part 2.)

After being on the beach for a while, most of us children went to the flying fox while we waited for lunch. Several people tried it out—I didn’t, I prefer taking pictures.

Little brother with his wonderful helper and playmate!

Then, they took him on a ride…he thought it was so much fun!

Lunchtime came. As soon as prayer was over, all the children dove in, made a sandwich, and then took off running for the island. All the sand in this picture is covered with water at high tide.

Who can get there first? (By the way, the boy and the girl in front are the leaders of their siblings in our respective families….)

After walking (well, I walked) to the island, we then went across the sand again to a bridge, went under it and through this water to get to the other side of the road. There, everyone started a Fox and Goose game in the sand.

I think they had more fun making trails than playing the actual game!

After everyone was tired of playing the game, they decided to dig a well.

Water!

Soon after they hit water, it was time to head back. We then went to Split Apple Rock.

The youngest of our friend’s family. I love how the picture turned out!

Waiting to start down the trail.

At the bottom of the trail. The rock is so neat! It reminds me of the verse in the Bible that talks about the Mount of Olives being split cleanly into two parts.

A little stream of water came down the hill, and flowed out into the sea. The black sand—or metal, or whatever it was—was fascinating to look at.

A helicopter flew over.

To the left of Split Apple Rock, there were a series of caves carved into the rock. We found a lot more of the black sand in there. The boys said the black sand was a lot heavier than the yellow.

We didn’t have any lights with us to explore the caves, so a brother went back with me to the van to get some headlamps. I left my camera with Mom, so I could move faster. While we were gone, a Tui sang for the others. Sadly, it was gone by the time we got back.

Another view of the rock.

The other side of the bay.

Our wonderful hosts.

In the caves again, with lights! We were all very excited when someone spotted two penguins way back in a crevice.

The black sand, or metal, or whatever it was was amazing to see in such big drifts! The right picture has another penguin in it, I believe—you can’t see it very well, though. I know we did find two different places where there were penguins, and there were around four birds all together.

Back out in the sunshine again. While we were gone, a “Coffee ’N’ Cruise” touring boat had come into the bay. When someone started shouting to us from the boat, we all tried to make out what they were saying. But we couldn’t understand at all, so we shrugged it off. After looking closer, however, we found out they were some friends who live around two hours south of us! It was pretty funny that we had to go around four hours north to get to see them.

I moved along the beach to get a few pictures, and it was pretty neat to look back and see that everyone was standing in the last bit of sunshine on the beach for the day. The hill behind the bay is very high, so the beach loses it’s sunshine early.

Baby brother was put in the backpack for the climb back up to the van.

…and there we have it. Two more posts to go!

-Esther

Guest Post—Whose Point of View Should You Write From?

2014-10-27T12:42:00.001+13:00

Today, I’m guest posting over at Ravens and Writing Desks! This month, they’re focusing on helpful tips for book building—to help the writers who are doing NaNoWriMo this November. I was very privileged to be a part of their “NaNoPlaMo” (National Novel Planning Month), and I’m excited to share my thoughts with you, as well.

Whose Point of View Should You Write From?

This question could also be reworded—whose point of view should you not write from?

I love writing. I think everyone who reads this blog loves writing, too. And as we’re building our stories—layering the different threads of plot, subplot, characters, and setting like cheese and lettuce on a sandwich, we inevitably come across the question. Which point of view would be the most exciting? Which would add the most depth to the story? Today, I want to share with you the two main questions I ask myself when choosing who should have the microphone in my story.

Who changes the most internally?
By now, you probably have a fairly good idea (or else you don’t!) of who your characters are. You know who the good guy is, and who the villain is. Hopefully, you even know what the good guy does that sets him apart as the “good guy”, and what the villain does to earn that title.

…read the rest here! :)

I really enjoyed doing NaNoWriMo last year, and although I won’t be doing it this year due to other projects I’m hoping I can next year. How about you—have you ever heard of NaNoWriMo before? If you have, do you ever think you’d participate?

Until next time
Esther

Preparing

2014-10-19T22:27:00.000+13:00

Preparing to review these books this next week for Learning Resources Directory (the name of my website—yes, I’ve decided). If I was a baby, I’d be drooling over these (but I’m not). These books are all so…good! Hopefully I can write the reviews without too much gushing.

And just FYI—Vivaldi is wonderful to listen to while you’re working on projects like this. :)

–Esther

Funny of the Week and Editing Update

2014-10-14T18:40:00.001+13:00

Funny of the Week:
Last Sunday, on our way to church, I had some peppermint tea in my travel coffee mug. I usually take coffee in it, and often my youngest brother (who sits next to me) gets a sip or two as we go. Sunday was no exception, and he asked for some. So I gave it to him. He took a drink.
“Tea!” He said, in a very disgusted voice, “Mint tea!” (Try saying it out loud, adding emphasis to the “tea” part in the most offended voice possible and you’ll understand how he said it.) The poor boy. He was expecting coffee, and he got mint tea! I had to chuckle, because while he likes all kinds of tea I hadn’t thought about the fact that he would have been expecting coffee!

Here’s Another Recent Funny:
We had a rainy day earlier last week, and one day it cleared some. Then a dark cloud came up, threatening to rain again. It was coming pretty fast, so we had to hurry and get the laundry in before it started raining. I remember saying something about it going to rain soon, and my second-youngest brother was very unimpressed.
“I don’t want rain!” He said, a scowl on his face, “I want weather!” He was sure that he wanted weather instead of rain. I didn’t take time to correct him on the fact that rain is weather.

Editing Update:
You saw the stack of papers I had to edit a few days ago. Today, I knew it had to be done, but around 11:30 this morning I still hadn’t started and I was rather annoyed with myself because it wasn’t getting done. Rachel was online at the time, so I asked her to pray for me that I could get something done today. She was having troubles staying motivated today, too (and I hope she doesn’t mind me telling about her!), so we kind-of swapped prayers. :) And…

…praise the Lord, I was able to get it all done! I’m so thankful I took time to ask her to pray. I’m sure that was what got me through. I was able to get 118 pages edited today, the most I’ve ever done in a day. It was just read through and note everything that needed changing, but it really felt like a big job. I’m very thankful it’s done now.

My writing desk today. I sat in bed, away from the computer (and away from distractions!), and used the slider my keyboard and mouse usually sit on as a desk. It worked well—I might just use it again one day!
Now I need to do the next thing on my to-do list: Fix all the places noted. There are lots. But I’m thankful I could print it out and mark it that way—it’s a lot easier to edit the small bits that way, I think. And after that, hopefully, I can get it sent off to the printer for a few Beta Reader copies! :)

Thankful for all He’s done,
Esther