Book Review: The Messenger by Siri Mitchell
 
Generally when I read a book, I stay pretty aware of my surroundings. Having three children and a baby in the house will do that. However, I came as near to losing myself as I think I will until Karl and I are empty nesters when reading The Messengerby Siri Mitchell. I received the book from Bethany House Publishers as part of their blogger-review program. (If you are a blogger and would like to join the program, learn more here.)

Hannah Sunderland is a young Quaker woman still under her parent's protection during the American Revolution. Her twin brother, with whom she had always been close, turned from the family faith and their pacifist views to join the colonial army in fighting the British. When he is captured and placed in the jail, Hannah is forbidden from visiting him, though her heart aches to do so.

Jeremiah Jones, who owns a tavern frequented by the occupying British soldiers, uses his friendship with one of the officers to find secrets and collect messages for Washington's army. However, when he needs to get a message inside the jail, he runs into a brick wall as unbreakable as the walls of the jail itself. When he happens to learn that Miss Sunderland wishes to visit her brother, though, he believes that he has found an answer to his dilemma. A young Quaker maiden visiting her brother is the last person anyone would suspect of espionage.

In an excellently woven tapestry of suspense and uncertainty, Siri Mitchell creates an atmosphere of unease and danger as the backdrop to Hannah's discoveries about her self, her faith, and her God. I especially appreciate the way that she is able to keep historicity, plot, and faith well-balanced in her writing. The Messenger is not a history book made more interesting by a plot, nor is it a faith-lesson with some history and a plot to make it more tangible. Rather, all three elements flow seamlessly together, creating a real and vibrant novel that completely pulls the reader into Hannah's world, her mind, her heart.

Happy reading!

It's Food, Baby!

My husband and I recently started feeding our five-month-old some baby cereal. I can hardly believe he's old enough. But, now that he's eating more than just mommy's milk, he's gobbling it up.

Anyone who has ever shopped the baby aisle knows that babyfood isn't cheap. Especially if you want anything of the organic variety. With our daughter, who is now six, we started with the purchased jars, but then when my mom mentioned that they used to make most or all of the babyfood she fed me and later my sister, I decided to give it a go.

Of course, for many people, this was not a novel concept. However, being one of the first of my set of friends and relatives my age to have children, it hadn't really dawned on me that I didn't have to buy what was offered. I could know exactly what was going into the babyfood (and in Baby's body), because I could make it! So I did make a lot of our daughter's food, and most of our second child's food, myself. Now on our third child, I'm happy to say that I'm making all of it.

While the thought of making babyfood was a little daunting at first, I soon found that it was quite easy. Here's the system I've developed. (And if you have a different method of doing any of this, feel free to comment and share your knowledge and experience!) Also, before we get started, I'm not a health care professional or a dietician or anything of the sort, so don't take my advice as such. I'm simply a mommy sharing how I feed my baby. Now, without further ado...

First I cook whatever it is I'm making. Generally, I like my veggies still a bit cripy. However, for babyfood, cooking until it is mushy works a bit better. Add a little extra water to the grains (oatmeal, rice, etc), cook the green beans a bit longer than needed, and so on. If the food is already slightly mushy, it purees more easily. With vegetables cooked in water, save a little of that water.

Next, put the food into the food processor or blender or baby food processor. Start blending. As you do, you'll see that the leftover veggie water you saved can come in handy; adding it to the food while mixing helps bring it to a good consistency. You can even save some veggie-water to add to foods that you cook without extra water, like rice or squash. (I learned to roast squash, but I think you can boil the pieces if you want to cut up the squash before i'ts cooked.)

When determining the consistency, I find that the grains need to be more runny than I would usually make for Baby. It thickens when frozen.

Finally, put the food into ice-cube trays. I like to use my tablespoon cookie scoop. It fills the spaces really nicely. :-)

Stick it in the freezer... You're almost finished! After it's frozen completely, pop the tray out of the freezer. A tip about getting the food out of the trays: dipping the bottom of the trays into an inch or so of hot water in the sink loosens the food nicely. I have difficulty cracking the trays with the food in them.

I put the food cubes into freezer bags. I would use washable food storage containers, but I don't have any of the size I need yet. It's on my to-buy list.

And now you can make your own baby food for a fraction of the price!

Ch-ch-ch-changes

Hello Readers!!

I've been contemplating a change to my blog for a while. I know this has primarily been a place of devotional-type writing, but I wanted to expand. And I know that a lot of really successful bloggers keep most of their focus on one topic. But I'm not necessarily going for success. Sure, I'd love to have more readers, and more interaction with them (great way to get ideas and whatnot for posts, life, etc), but I'd really like this to be a blog of my life and what I'm doing in it. I have varied interests, as I'm sure many of you do, too. So my blog is going to reflect this more.

However, in the midst of the interests, there are central things running through -- specifically, my feeble attempt at following God and His grace that pulls me along when I struggle. So my (new) theme of this blog is His grace surrounding us as we go about life. How exactly this will play out in blog format remains to be seen.

On a side note, a friend and I are putting together some writings to start a devotional blog. I'll post about it when we're ready. Thanks for sticking with me, readers, with my sporadic posting and changing themes. :)

~Sarah
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My Prayer

My prayer for today as a mom:
God, give me strength for my tasks. Give me patience with children who are still - always - learning. Give me love for tender hearts. Give me a sense of justice to teach right from wrong, but grace and mercy to forgive as abundantly as I have been forgiven. Give me compassion for hurts, comfort for sadness, and most of all, words to teach them of Your great love for them in Christ. In His holy name I ask this, and for His sake. Amen.

Tame the Fingers?

I've always tried to be careful and conscious about what I post online, on this blog, on Facebook, Twitter, and so on. However, this morning I posted about being reprimanded when dropping off the kids for school, as they were taking too long to get out of the van.

The woman in line told me that if they were having trouble getting out of the car, I should pull up and around so the other cars don't have to go around me. No sympathetic smile, (I was already frustrated with the kids for taking so long), no wording that would indicate that make it sound more like a suggestion than a command. So I was a little hurt. Yes, I know I'm too sensitive.

So I posted on Facebook that I'd been reprimanded in the pickup line for the kids being too slow, ending with what I thought was a humorous "Really?"

But then I started to get a lot of comments kinda of ragging on the person who talked to me. With each comment, I started to feel worse and worse. Was this what I'd wanted to happen? No. Was I still the cause of it? Yes. So I removed the post.

James, in his epistle describes how the tongue is impossible to tame. "For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind, but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so." (James 3:7-10 ESV)

Even though I didn't speak a word, I was still sinning in that I didn't look at the situation in the best light. Maybe she didn't smile because she was having a rough morning. Maybe someone else had complained against her for parents taking too long in drop-off and she felt she had to react to that. There are a thousand unknown variables that might affect the situation.

A good friend of mine, in teaching youth about the harmful effects of gossip and how you cannot retract what had been said, had the kids squirt toothpaste from a tube. She then asked them to try getting it back into the tube. Have you ever tried? It's impossible! Even if you manage to get some of it back in the tube, you're still left with. A big, sticky mess. So it is with our words.

With the Internet, we must be even more cautious. Words today spread with alarming speed. So what words are we spreading? Words that tear down and hurt others? Or words that build up and encourage?

James' conclusion to chapter three may be applied to the intent behind our words. "For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice. But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace." (James 3:7-10, 16-18 ESV)

May God grant us the grace and patience to spread words of peace and love, sacrificing our own pride for the sake of the Gospel of Christ.

All for Christ

Life is stressful. Sometimes more than other times. It is frustrating when things do not go how it seems they should. The demands on our time and energy seem unending. The weight of responsibilities and burdens (even good ones) add up. With all these things constantly picking at us, we can easily come to the conclusion that life is hard.

Let us consider, though, if life were easy. Would we be happy? Sure! Without a care in the world, we would never be tempted to complain, or to be discontented in this life. But comfort can easily lead to complacency. And that is a dangerous place to be. More on that another time.

When we struggle, though, for what purpose? Why not simply give up? Withdraw from the things that stress us? For us as Christians, there is one driving incentive which pushes us to persevere. It is the Gospel of Christ. We continue in this life, despite the difficulties, that we may bring hope to others for the next.

St. Paul writes in his first letter to the Corinthians, "I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings." (1 Corinthians 9:23 ESV) It would be so easy to never push ourselves from our comfort zones, to not care about other people, to never put ourselves out in the open for our faith to be seen. But then no one will see the hope in which we live, the Gospel which we can share. We who have struggles in this world persevere in hope that others might be touched by the love of Christ and His saving grace.

How do your particular struggles help further the kingdom of God?

Dear Lord, help us to see Your grace in our struggles. Give us strength that only You can impart, that we may persevere to the glory of Your name and the salvation of those around us. Amen.

In His Hands

As some (most?) of you know, my husband and I recently had our third child by birth (fourth including by adoption, but that is for another post). Having a baby again is an interesting experience. Of course, we are thrilled and humbled and enchanted by this tiny life entrusted into our care. However, when we are not lost in his eyes or big piles of diapers or laundry, we notice little points of interest about babies.

Our baby couldn't do very much when he was born. He could cry, suck, and expel waste. However, it was enough, together with the care of his parents, to survive. It is amazing how God has created babies, helpless little infants, with just enough knowledge to do what is necessary. He gives them instincts or reflexes that they automatically do. One of my favorites, though I don't know any health benefit or scientific significance behind it, is the reflex that causes their little hands to grab whatever is in it. Our older kids love to put their fingers in his palm and feel his tiny fingers squeeze theirs. I'll admit, I love it, too. So many things those hands will learn to do in my baby's lifetime, but for now, they can only clench.

Knowing the physical inabilities of a baby, it is astounding that the Lord of all creation, the only-begotten of God, would subject Himself to that sort of limitation. His hands, so weak and tiny at His birth, would work, bless, heal, and eventually be pierced for our sins. And it doesn't end there. Those same hands, once still and cold in death, were alive and warm and even touched by His disciple, seeking proof of His resurrection.

At Christmas, it is easy to only think of Jesus the Holy Infant. We must also remember, though, that Christmas is not the end. It is, rather, the beginning of His time with us. He came for one purpose, to reconcile us to God. And that reconciliation was only possible through Jesus' life, death, and resurrection.