Homemade Yogurt and Blueberry Sauce

There has been a lot of activity in our kitchen lately! Some of it has to do with the recent remodeling projects. (That's another post for another day.) Some of it has been experimenting with a simple way to make yogurt.

"Why?" you ask.

Two reasons:

1. We spend wa-a-a-a-ay too much money on yogurt at the grocery store. (The Bear and I can easily put away 3 cartons a day. Even with coupons and sales we spend at least $2.50 a day or $17.50 a week since he eats 2 cartons of Greek style and I eat at least 1 of whatever style we have available.
2. Neither one of us needs the additional bovine growth hormone that I fear might be in some of the yogurt we consume. He is a man. I am a post-menopausal woman. Enough said. The only ways I know to avoid this hormone are to buy only organic - which would be wa-a-a-a-ay more expensive than what I'm spending now - and I don't want to spend a lot of money on yogurt (see #1 above); or make it myself using non-hormone injected cow's milk. Uh, I choose the latter option.

After a bit of experimentation I have come upon a nice method for making it using equipment and supplies I already had on hand, unless you count the cheese cloth that I bought because I was out of it. Oh, and 1 carton of organic plain yogurt as my starter. (Bought on sale and with a coupon.)

My equipment: a large dutch oven for heating the milk and a pressure cooker/canner for incubating a batch. Also, 2 quart-size mason jars with lids, a funnel, a wooden spoon, cheesecloth, and a candy thermometer.

Steps for making yogurt:

• Pour 8 cups of milk into dutch oven. (That's 1/2 gallon of milk. No matter what price you pay for your milk this method will be a whole lot cheaper than buying 8 cups of yogurt!)
• Heat your milk to 180 degrees while stirring constantly with a wooden spoon. Use a meat or candy thermometer for accurate measurement. My candy thermometer does a great job helping me make yogurt but it has never helped me make good candy! My holiday fudge always turns into a disaster. Or a nice fudge sauce. Depends on how you market your product. Which is why one of our family traditions includes celebrating Christmas with hot fudge sundaes. :)
• After the milk has reached the desired temperature it needs to be taken off the burner and allowed to cool until it reaches 110 degrees. If you let it sit too long just put it back on the heat until it reaches the desired 110 degree temperature.
• Stir 1/4 cup of cultured organic yogurt into your warm milk. I always use a wooden spoon when making ANYTHING that uses a starter (sourdough bread, friendship bread, etc.). It is probably an unnecessary precaution since the milk is heated in a stainless steel pan, but I do it anyway because somewhere in the back of my mind is the thought that metal kills live cultures. Not sure why that thought is there. Anyway. . .
• Using a clean funnel, pour the warm cultured milk into 2 clean mason jars. Place lids on them. These lids can be reused for each batch because you will not be sealing them to the jars.

• Place the jars on the rack in the pressure cooker/canner. As you can see, my canner holds 5 quarts but that would be a bit too much yogurt, even for The Bear and me. Actually, it would be a bit too much for my refrigerator. Now that I know how to make this quickly 2 quarts at a time is plenty.

• Place water in the canner so that the level is about 1/2 way up the sides of the jars. Heat the water until it reaches 110 degrees. Then turn off the stove.
• Once the proper temperature is reached, put the lid on the pressure cooker but DO NOT add the pressure gauge. The idea is to keep the cultured milk incubating, not cooking!
• Open the pressure cooker every 2 or 3 hours to check on the temperature of the water. If it feels too cool turn the stove on "low" for a short time. DO NOT ALLOW THE WATER TEMPERATURE TO RISE TOO HIGH! If you do, it will kill your cultures. Ask me how I know.
• Go to bed. Really. I start my yogurt about mid-afternoon and I check the water temperature two or three times, the last time being right before I retire for the night.
• Wake up to 2 jars of fresh, creamy yogurt!
• I always take out 1/4 cup of cultured yogurt and place it in a separate container in the refrigerator before I do anything else. This is the starter for the next batch.

Strain some of your yogurt using cheese cloth to make Greek style. The Bear likes the thicker curds of this style of yogurt. I'm not particular. 

Use the milky liquid, the whey, that results from the straining in place of buttermilk in pancake or biscuit recipes. It makes them light and fluffy!

Stir spoonfuls of homemade jam and jelly into your individual yogurt servings. I use strawberry jam, peach jam, and apple jelly. Since The Bear and I are partial to blueberry flavored yogurt I make blueberry sauce and keep it in the refrigerator near the yogurt. (Recipe below!)

Blueberry Sauce

This blueberry sauce is adapted from the Blueberry Pie Deluxe recipe found in The Backyard Homestead by Carleen Madigan. (The whole pie is excellent, too!)

Ingredients:
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3 Tablespoons cornstarch
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 cups fresh or thawed blueberries
1/4 cup water
1 Tablespoon butter
1 Tablespoon lemon juice

Directions:
Combine the sugar, cornstarch, and salt in a medium saucepan. Add the blueberries and water. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until the mixture boils, thickens, and clears. Remove from heat. Stir in the butter and the lemon juice. Cool. Then refrigerate.

Place about 2 Tablespoons of the filling on top of your regular or Greek homemade yogurt. Delicious!

Read Along With Me...And a Few Hundred Other Women

You might have noticed the button on my left sidebar for the Women's Bible Cafe (scroll down a bit). If you visit their website you might find an online Bible study group in which you wish to participate or links to help you in your walk with the Lord.

Now you will also find a link for a Book Club! The first month's selections have been posted and it isn't too late to participate. Actually, discussion does not even begin until May so you have time to obtain the books, take notes, and get ready for the website or Facebook discussion.

I've got my books and I'm ready to go!

And with keeping with that frugal gene that seems to be dominant in my DNA let me give you a few hints for getting the books inexpensively. I, for one, don't like to buy hard copies of a book unless I deem it a "keeper" that I must read again and mark up thoroughly. Even then, I might just highlight my Kindle copy excessively. :)

April Fiction 

This book is available for free at Paperbackswap (I just checked.)

It is available as a paperback for various prices at Amazon, depending on whether you want a new copy or not. They have it available as a Kindle book for $5.99.

It is available as an ebook at CBD for $5.99 and you can read it on your computer, Kindle Fire, iPod, etc.  They also have the paperback for $10.49, which is comparable to new at Amazon.

April Non-fiction 

This book is available in paperback at Amazon for various prices, again depending upon whether you desire a new copy. It is also available for the Kindle Fire and you can borrow it for F-R-E-E if you are a Prime member (which I am). Or you can buy it for your Kindle Fire for $8.54 if you wish. (There are also audiobook versions available.)

It is also available at CBD in paperback for $8.99 or ebook for $8.44. They also sell the DVD audiobook version.



As you can see, both books can be obtained for free if you would like to participate but you don't want to spend money or your library doesn't have a copy available for loan.

(**The pictures are courtesy of Amazon. I am NOT an Amazon affiliate and receive no compensation for encouraging the reading of these books.)

More Books For Sale

We're still cleaning out bookshelves and boxes. I've divided these by subject into 4 lots. Prices include postage within the United States and Canada. Feel free to pass the word along to anyone hat might be interested. All books are free of writing or highlighting and come from a smoke-free (but not dog-free) home.

Lot 1: Cherokee Unit Study ($12.50)

This set of 4 books consists of the following:

• Cherokee Psalms, A Collection of Hymns in the Cherokee Language (all reading levels) - original price $3.00 bought at the Museum of the Cherokee in Cherokee, NC
• Cherokee Heritage (junior high - adult levels) - original price $5.95 bought at the Museum of the Cherokee in Cherokee, NC
• American Indians in America, Volume 2: The Late 18th Century to the Present (junior high - adult levels) - original price $5.95, not sure where I bought this
• The Cherokee (elementary ages) - original price $4.95



Lot 2: Ancient Civilizations Unit Study ($7.50)

There are 2 books in this series and they are both published by Troll Associates

• Growing Up in Ancient Greece (hardback, top corner dog-chewed personally by Pepper back when The Bear was 12 years old and she was his birthday present but no words or pages severely harmed.
• Growing Up in Ancient China (paperback, originally priced at $4.95)

Lot 3: Dog Books ($7.50)

These were not used to school our children. I bought them to read myself when we were getting ready to add our first Labrador Retriever to our home in 1993. I guess you could say I was the homeschooled student who needed to know what to expect (she says with eyes rolling heavenward). Suitable for responsible children and adults.





Lot 4: US History potpourri suitable for Unit Study ($25.00)

There are nine titles in this set:

• Liberty (Scholastic Books paperback) - originally $3.99: a detailed look at our beloved symbolic statue from conception to restoration
• Abraham Lincoln Fact Book & Teacher's Guide (paperback) - originally bought from the National Park Service for $4.95
• Civil War Commanders (paperback) - originally bought from the National Park Service for $5.95 - includes brief biographical sketches of commanders from both sides of the conflict
• A Gallant Christian Soldier: Robert E. Lee,The Sowers Series (hardback) new paperback edition is available at Amazon for $7.99
• Andrew Jackson's Hermitage (souvenir paperback published by The Ladies Hermitage Association) - color photographs and text detailing the life, times, and home of the 7th President of the United States
• The Lost Colonists: Their Fortune and Probable Fate (paperback) - originally bought from the National Park Service for $6.50 - describes one theory concerning the residents of Roanoke Island that disappeared between 1587-1590.  (This book is suitable for high school - adult readers.) 
• The Wright Brothers: How They Invented the Airplane [A Newbery Honor book] (paperback) - originally $12.95 - contains original photographs taken by Wilbur and Orville Wright
• George Washington's Rules of Civililty & Decent Behaviour in Company and Conversation (hardback) - originally bought at Mount Vernon Gift Shop for $9.95
• The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin (SoHo paperback edition edited by Charles W. Eliot, various prices and editions available online)





Feel free to contact me at karabeth6@gmail.com with any questions

The Books of April 2011

• Daisy Miller by Henry James

This is the first of several audio ebooks that I downloaded to my iPod this month.  This classic story about the Gilded Age should be taken as an allegory.  The innocent, unrealistic, romantic girl (Daisy) and the worldly-wise, realistic, concrete (Winterbourne) meet in Europe while Daisy is on a European tour with her nouveau riche family.  I classify this as an allegory because otherwise there would be no reason to feel that Winterbourne was not justified in cautioning Daisy for being too trusting of every person she met.  The real world would demand it.  But in this story, Daisy is a Pollyanna to beat all Pollyannas.  If one takes the story literally one would conclude that Daisy's mother is a complete idiot who doesn't pay enough attention to her children or care enough about them to be concerned for their welfare.

But that is obviously not the author's objective.  He wants us to know that Daisy truly is an innocent and that everything she does and thinks is pure.  We are given the hint through his name that Winterbourne is destined to be the wet blanket that spoils the fun.  And I'll end my English teacher-like description there.  Read the book (or Google it) if you want to know how it turns out.  I found it to be a well-written piece.

• The Mummy Case by Elizabeth Peters

This is another of the audio ebooks I downloaded through the Ohio ebook Project.  And it is another installment in the "Amelia Peabody" mystery series that I and my daughter, Karen, like to read.  I love the droll humor.  I like having the foreign names and places read to me and I like the fact that everyone in the stories exhibits a great deal of intelligence.  The author herself has a Ph.D in Egyptology and is able to marry her profession with literary skills sufficient enough to infuse us with knowledge of Ancient Egypt while entertaining us at the same time.  The continuing story is written as a journal.  If the Amelia Peabody character had resided in modern times instead of Victorian England I feel sure she would have been a blogger.  And one I'd read, too.

• Prince Caspian by C.S. Lewis

I listened to this portion of the Narnian series even though I had seen the movie.  I like to compare the written words with the movie portrayals.  My aim ultimately for reading the Chronicles series is to prepare myself to see "The Voyage of the Dawn Treader" movie. 

I didn't like C.S. Lewis or any of the other fantasy writers when I was a child but I like the genre now.  And having British narrators reading the stories aloud is an added bonus.  Can you tell I'm a big fan of audiobooks?  :)

• The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis

Okay, I'm ready to watch the movie now!  So far, I've been unable to get it through my usual means, which would be Swapadvd.com or Netflix.  I may need to resort to more desperate measures soon.

A sweetgrass basket made for me during a mission trip to Belize

• The Spirit of Sweetgrass by Nicole Seitz

Nicole is one of the authors featured by She Reads.  If I'm not mistaken, this was her first novel.  And like her novel that I read last month The Inheritance of Beauty she based the story on a culture found in her native South Carolina Lowcountry.  This time she concentrates on the Gullah community and their disappearing basket-making craft.  Like anything historical, progress tends to eliminate some of the materials or skills needed to understand the routines of one's ancestors.  (I'm not advocating stopping the march of progress.  That's just a statement about how things are.)

This is the story of Essie Mae Jenkins, a widowed basket weaver with problems that she thinks about while making baskets as she sits at her little stand beside the road .  Some of her problems are the kind common to elderly individuals everywhere (Will she end up in that nursing home?  How is she going to pay her bills?)  and some of them are unique to her situation (What happens when the sweetgrass patches are all plowed under to make room for new development?  Why is her daughter so conniving?).

The story crosses the line between reality/imagination and earth/heaven.  It is left to the reader to decide which is which.

This is only the second of Mrs. Seitz's novels that I've read but I intend to read more.  I like her style:  kind treatment of the aging combined with pure southern charm.  You're sure to see more of her books listed here  in months to come (cf. "The List of my Lists" on the tab above).

• The $5 Dinner Mom Breakfast and Lunch Cookbook by Erin Chase

I bought this book with a gift card at a Borders going-out-of business sale.  This means I got a frugal mom book for nothing and still have bucks on my gift card.  Gotta love it!

I've read others' reviews about the author and her books and I must say that some who wrote seem cranky and hard to please.  Sure, there are some very elementary ideas in here that obviously won't appeal to old-timer frugal gals like myself, but don't any of them know a newlywed who might need to learn some of the "how-to's" involved?  I sure do . . . but I'm not giving them my copy of the book.

Do you know why women like me buy a book like this?  For the recipes.  Yep, that's it.  I buy books about frugal cooking strictly for that reason.  Otherwise, I end up owning cookbooks that require ingredients that I don't normally buy - and don't get me started on what I went through to find capers and pine nuts - which then end up costing me more than I want to spend and usually end up with leftover bits that I have trouble using.  (So . . . know any good recipes using capers?)

So while I did find the book to be below my skill level, I did find some great recipes.  One in particular that I found interesting was for "Cincinnati Chili."  I have a variation of the recipe but am always interested to try others.  You've got to be from Cincy or the region hereabout to know what this means.  The author lives just up the road in Dayton.

• Mayflower:  A Story of Courage, Community and War by Nathaniel Philbrick

This book was previewed in the latest edition of "The Buckeye Mayflower" newsletter and it sounded so good that I couldn't wait to read it.  I'm glad I did!

Like many, my knowledge of America's history has some gaps in it.  I think it is because curriculum tends to jump from the time of the Pilgrim landing to that of the American Revolution.  That's a pretty big gap!  It wasn't until I began researching my family history that I realized that many of my ancestors fought in - and some died in - a conflict known as "King Philip's War." It was fought a little over 50 years after that friendly Separatists-Native American encounter that we Americans celebrate each year on the fourth Thursday of November.  What happened?!!  Read the book to find out! 

It really isn't a new story when one realizes that human depravity existed on both sides of all culture wars and that children rarely have the same goals as their fathers.  Just read the Biblical account of the Children of Israel in the Promised Land found in the Book of Judges if you need proof that this is an ancient struggle.  There are many similarities.  "King" Philip (the son of the friendly native, Massasoit) and Josiah Winslow (the son of Mayflower passenger, Edward Winslow) were the two opposing personalities that set the conflict in motion.  Neither inherited the vision of his own father.

This book was well written.  The many pages of source notes in the back were just as interesting to me as the narrative.  I understand that there is a children's version of this book as well but I have not seen it.  It might be of interest to parents of homeschoolers, as we are the ones who tend to try to "fill in the gaps" for our children wherever possible.

• Priceless by Tom Davis

Whenever I read one of Mr. Davis's novels I want to do something.  Mr. Davis is a She Reads author who advocates Christian humanitarian efforts through his stories.  In this case it is prostitution/slavery and in Scared it was genocide and the AIDS crisis in Africa.  In both stories, women and children are the focus because of the abuse that they suffer.

Slavery is alive.  You know that, don't you?  It is and it shows just what a sick world we have.  The story found in this book is the sequel to the aforementioned one.  The unlikely hero, Stewart, is no James Bond, just an ordinary reporter.  These stories are about his unintended involvement in rescue attempts.  By the time the reader is finished, she will want to get involved in the rescue of these young victims, too.  The good news is that she can be.  Visit http://www.sheispriceless.com/ for more information.


Those are the books that I read in April.  Some of them were just fun reads and some were pretty heavy to digest.  There wasn't a bad one among the bunch.

More eBooks for Me (and You!) to Enjoy

I'm really into eBooks and audiobooks as you can probably tell. :)

Free advertising for one of my favorite bookstores, otherwise known affectionately as CBD! I can't wait to download some of the Christian books I want to read that aren't available through my library, or the Ohio eBook Program, or even at Paperbackswap.com.

Maybe you're not interested in physically reading your books on a device. Well, they have audiobooks, too.

What? You don't like that either because you don't want someone to read aloud to you? You were a kid once, right? Okay, just checking.

Or you don't own a compatible device? Yeah, right. You're reading this message on something whether it be a computer, your phone, or an iPod.

Gotcha! :)

Okay, so you really don't want to read and/or listen to your books because you're old fashioned and like traditional paper and ink pages. Yessiree! Me, too! But reading books doesn't need to be either/or. It's like when the hostess has two desserts: cake and ice cream. You can have some of each. No one will mind.

And what about your kids?

Gotcha again!

Many kids and teenagers love, love, love having a book read to them and since teens' portable devices seem to be ever present they can be listening to some great literature or inspirational material while they do whatever else it is that teenagers do (around here that would be sleep, eat, and play video games on the computer when not being interrupted by a nagging mother who insists that chores and schoolwork be completed).

Reading good books has never been easier. And that's a great thing for all concerned.




* I am NOT a Christianbooks.com affiliate but I do highly recommend them for Christian books and homeschool curriculum.

The Books of March 2011

This post has been modified slightly.  My apologies to my readers.

A bit late, but here are the books that I read last month:

• Life in Defiance by She Reads recommended author, Mary E. Demuth.  This is Book 3 in the Defiance, Texas trilogy.  (The two previous books in the series, Daisy Chain and A Slow Burn were reviewed in prior months.)

This book was the completion of the saga about the disappearance of a young girl named Daisy from the small town of Defiance, Texas. And now I can say that I know the whole story.

Mary E. Demuth is a superb crafter of words.  Her choices evoke a sense of presence.  You are in Defiance. And you are one of the individuals frantic for the discovery of the young girl's fate.

The third book in the series is written from the perspective of pastor's wife, Louise Pepper. Ouisie, as she is called, is a repressed soul who carries many secrets.  The first book is written from the perspective of her son, Jed, and the second book is written from that of her friend, Emory Chance.

There was a year's pause between my reading of the first book and the second and third so I had regrettably forgotten a few of the details.  When you begin this saga make sure you have all three of the books on hand so that you can digest the story in its entirety.  This is a story about hurting individuals and God's redemptive love that you'll want to read straight through from beginning to end.    A visit to the author's website reveals that Ms. Demuth is no stranger to suffering herself.  It is most likely her own journey through pain via grace that provides the acute pathos in her writing.  Even though I knew these books comprised a work of fiction I still cried after reading them because I instinctively knew that this was written by a woman who was no stranger to pain.  And let's face it.  At the time I needed a good cry.

• The Inheritance of Beauty by Nicole Seitz.  This is the She Reads book of the month.

Like the Defiance trilogy above, this book is about individuals whose lives hold secrets.  In this case, the individuals have grown old and have kept their childhood secrets hidden deep within them.  What happens when some of them suddenly find themselves residing in the same care facility?  Read the book to find out!

This is a charming story that explores the personalities and heritage of a few individuals from their childhood through to their days in an assisted living home.  Besides the issues of beauty, aging, and the loss of independence, it touches on what can result when people try to hide sin.  More than one generation in this book is guilty of trying to weave deception into truth.

A couple of cultures ride separate tracks throughout the story only to cross at unexpected junctures. We are provided glimpses into the superstitions of the white inhabitants of the town and that of their Gullah neighbors, all residents of the Bible belt. 

We are also afforded a look at the real beauty that emerges from inside a person as their outward beauty fades.  One can only hope that the decency that the caregiver in this novel shows to the residents in her care is mirrored in nursing homes everywhere.  

There are a few fanciful scenes in the story but they work well within the context of mental stability of the elderly and the tricks that the mind can play as a result of trauma and selective memory as well.  I enjoyed the book and recommend it.

• Buckeye Presidents: Ohioans in the White House by Philip Weeks. 

I read this book as part of my study and preparation for the Ohio History class that I was teaching to a group of homeschooled students in grades 4-6.  I found it to be helpful in preparing brief biographical sketches.  This book was published by Kent State University so I am assuming that Mr. Weeks is a professor and fellow Ohioan.  It was refreshing to read about Ohio's contributions to the Presidency by someone who knows Ohio, her politics, and her people.  Frankly, some of the other works I consulted were broad-spectrum presidential tomes that barely scratched the surface on the topic and I understand that a manuscript that covers the complete period of U.S. government of necessity must be brief.  I, on the other hand, wanted to provide my students with meatier tidbits than the appetizers afforded in the other books.  Buckeye Presidents helped me give them some pieces to chew on.

• Oddball Ohio by Jerome Pohlen 

Ah, yes!  More Ohio research.  This "odd" volume provided a bit of levity along with history.  It is also an unofficial tour guide of some of the stranger places in Ohio.  The author's humor is a bit, um, risque in places so I edited judicially whenever I read something aloud to my students who otherwise were appropriately amused by both the author's humor and the tawdry places he was extolling.

• Adam Bede by George Eliot.

It took me a lot longer to listen to this classic novel than what I intended.  But once I was well into it I kept going.  There were things about the story that I enjoyed (the clear presentation of the gospel) and things I didn't (the ending, for one).  Yes, I know that Eliot was a woman and that she embraced agnosticism, but she still managed to have several sermons preached by a few of the story's characters.

I didn't think much of the book's ending.  Since this is a classic there is surely no "spoiler alert" in effect so I'll just wade right in.  The fact that Adam married his brother's longed-for love at the end to make what Eliot saw as a happy ending didn't make me happy at all.  I suspect that in real life it would not have made Adam's brother, Seth, happy either even if Seth did get to be the doting uncle to several fine children.  Really?  I waded all the way through the story just to feel like the author gave up and slapped any old convenient outcome on as the ending?  Why yes, I did.

I have never read Silas Marner and am now wondering if I should do so.  Or perhaps, that is the story I should have read in the first place.  Anyone else have an experience with the writings of Eliot and care to share your opinion?

• The Horse and His Boy by C.S. Lewis. 

This was one of the audio books that I downloaded through the Ohio eBook program.  Like all of the Narnia saga that I've read (actually heard) so far, I liked the story.  Lewis's wit and humor (should I spell it h-u-m-o-u-r) are especially evident through the voice inflections of the British individuals who have so far been utilized to narrate this chronicle.  Like all the Narnia tales, I found this one to be engaging and easily digested in a day's time.  The brevity of the eBooks (4 hours on average) make for a fine afternoon of "reading" while doing housework.  The fact that this book has not been made into a movie meant that it was all new material to me also.

• Lady in Waiting by She Reads author, Susan Meissner.

This historical novel by one of the Christian authors whose works I've recently encountered thanks to the efforts of the She Reads ladies is probably my favorite of her works.  Like The Shape of Mercy and White Picket Fences this story is based upon a token object that ties the past with the present.  In this case, it is a ring with an inscription, including the name Jane, that sets the story in motion.  The present-day Jane is intrigued by the discovery of her name in an antique ring and sets upon a journey to solve the mystery of the long-ago Jane's identity. 

There are actually two mysteries in this story.  Besides the owner of the ring, there is the puzzle of the modern day Jane's marriage.  The confusion over the broken marital relationship seemed believable as did Jane's relationship with her parents, sibling, and coworkers.  Life really isn't two dimensional, is it?  Most of the characters were sufficiently complicated and rounded.

The plot providing the historical theme is a fictitious account of the life of Lady Jane Grey, a niece of King Henry VIII.  If you are familiar with that period of world history then you are aware that many of the people surrounding Henry and his offspring were unusual indeed if they died natural deaths.  I enjoy studying the period but am mighty glad not to have lived in it!  The peasants and gentry alike were likely to suffer cruelly as the world experienced religious and monarchical upheaval.

March was a good reading month for me.  So far, April is proving to be even more promising!  And I'm ever so grateful to the fine folks who make eBooks available to me.

New to Me: Book Swapping

I'm a bit late to participate in Frugal Friday and the same could be said about my  participation in the whole concept of swapping books by mail but thought I'd throw this out there anyway just in case others haven't discovered this source of trading reading material.  I joined Paperback Swap last week and you know what I've been doing lately?  Mailing books!!!! 

Of the first 10 that I posted when I joined (and 2 DVDs that I posted at tbe sister site,  Swap A DVD) I've mailed 6 books and 1 movie.  That means I must've had some pretty good stuff since they were snatched up or put on hold within minutes of being added to the system. 

Several of my books (and the movie) have already reached their destinations so I have several credits to spend.

I'm like a kid in a candy shop.  :)

The Anthropology of Genealogy

All of my worlds are colliding these days. And that's not always a bad thing.

I just finished reading the "She Reads" monthly selection and listened to the blog audio clip interview with the author. I was struck by how much local flavor colors the writing because the author is native to the setting. So while this book was not a genealogy per se, it was somewhat of a cultural, religious, and social anthropological discourse of the author's heritage. It reminded me of my own culturally diverse roots.

In doing research for the Ohio History class that I teach I've made some interesting anthropological discoveries behind my own family tree. This could prove useful for further research or for even understanding family traditions.

Most people are unimpressed when someone mentions that they are from Ohio - unless it is getting close to presidential election time and then suddenly everyone (including the media) starts treating us with respect. But in non-election years? Not so much. And who can blame them? We seem mediocre enough: just plain ol' plain.

But actually, we're anything but! We're quite a blend of anthropology. We are the example of the proverbial American melting pot. Nothing proves this more than my own lineage.

Some of my New England Anglican ancestors were the first to arrive in the newly formed Northwest Territory. In 1797 my southern Virginia Baptist ancestors appeared and settled in the same neighborhood. If you know any church or U.S. History you know that this was a potentially hostile situation. Somehow they overcame it because a son from one family married a daughter from the other. Perhaps their mutual hatred of the British united them. Both fathers were reportedly Revolutionary War veterans and their children married during the War of 1812. Or maybe their shared wilderness experiences made them set aside any differences for the sake of survival. One way or another, their bonds were forged and children were born.

A son produced from the union of this New Englander-Southern farmer alliance went on to marry a girl of Scots-Irish ancestry. They had children.

A daughter from the union of New Englander-Southern farmer -- Scots-Irish marriage went on to marry a German Protestant boy whose parents still spoke their native language almost exclusively because they had learned very little English in the 40 years since they had immigrated from the Old Country.

Okay, stick with me now! We're on a roll!

A daughter produced from this union of New Englander-Southern farmer -Scots-Irish -- German marriage went on to marry a man of English-Jewish ancestry. The English line had only been in America for a generation or so. The Jewish line had been in America (but not Ohio) for many years. You can imagine the fireworks when the Southern Jewish girl married into the high-brow English Methodist family a generation before and then moved to Ohio as a consequence!

And this is just my mother's Ohio line! When she, the New England - Southern Virginian - Scots-Irish - German - English - Jewish girl, married my dad another set of cultural, social, and religious aspects were introduced, including some inherited from his own first settlers of Ohio roots (although another part of the state entirely). Sometimes I feel like a walking Ohio History exhibit!

And on another note, perhaps it explains why sometime I feel so mixed up. I really am! I'm not religiously confused, but the cultural and social aspects can be daunting depending on the situation. It really tends to manifest itself in reaction to negative stimuli. Which culture comes into play? I'll-blow-them-out-of-the-water-after-I've-had-my-afternoon-tea English? Or shoot-first-and-ask-questions-later Scots-Irish? Hmm.

I guess I'm not so different from my dog, Pepper. She looks and acts a whole lot like her chocolate lab roots but also somewhat like the unspecified part of her lineage (which I suspect to be some type of hound). Her confusion manifests itself when she encounters a bird in the yard. First she points at it and then she haltingly runs for it. She seems to be saying, "Do I point at it or do I retrieve it? Point? Or retrieve?" Finally, she looks at me like I'm going to give her a command (which she wouldn't understand if I did). After a long moment she makes her decision, "Oh, never mind! Let's play fetch." And she picks up a ball and brings it to me.

I couldn't agree with her more. I find the study of my own anthropology to be very fetching indeed.

The Books of February 2011

This was not a month spent reading a lot for pleasure. This was more a month for research, specifically as it related to the Ohio History Class that I teach each Monday in our homeschool co-op. But even that netted me some reading pleasure.

This was also a month that saw me spending a great deal of time on the road for the sake of basketball. I'm one of those folks who can read just fine while riding in a car, but I've never tried to do it while actually doing the driving.

Without further ado (and whining), I will review the books I read last month. But first, I'd like to draw your attention to something. It's March! Yippee! The month that spring officially begins. :)

Okay, now that I got that out of my system, here are the books I read in February.

• Suddenly Frugal by Leah Ingram.

You might recognize the author by her blog of the same name. I know that I did and that is one of the reasons I checked out this book from my library.

This was the book I alluded to when I said I wondered why I hadn't written it. (Well, I know the answer to that, really.)  To say that I do - and have done - probably 90% of the stuff in the book is not an exaggeration. In our case, it is not that we are suddenly frugal. It is that we are looking for more cost-cutting tips. I did find a few that were new to me and some that I knew already but needed to be reminded to do.

One of the new tips I learned was that vinegar can be used to clean laminate floors. We replaced most of the carpet in our house with a quality wood-look laminate a couple of years ago and I had found that the cheap store-brand alternatives to Swiffer mopping cloths were not worth the money I paid for them so I always used the real thing (which should make several members of my extended family who work for P and G very happy). However, I am pleased to have the vinegar and water frugal alternative. My floors look G-R-E-A-T.

If you "suddenly" find yourself needing some frugal suggestions I recommend this book. It will get you moving in the right direction. And then, for more industrial strength frugality, go borrow the bound volumes of The Tightwad Gazette (written by Amy Dacyczyn) or better yet, find them in a thrift store.

• A Slow Burn by Mary E. Demuth

This is the second book in the Defiance Texas Trilogy. I began reading this set a year ago while in Texas (which was purely a coincidence). The first book, Daisy Chain, didn't get a fair review when I listed all of my 2010 reads in one lump sum. I said that I didn't remember much about the book, and that was true. Now that I've read the second of the trilogy I remember the first, too.

The series is about the disappearance of a girl named Daisy and is set in 1973. Book 1 is written from the perspective of her friend, Jed Pepper, a preacher's kid. Do you see any similarities to my own family yet? Well, yes, The Bear was a 14-year-old preacher's kid this time last year. Like Jed, he is also pretty trustworthy and somewhat of an introverted deep thinker. Perhaps now you see why the book disturbed me a bit too much to want to remember something written from the perspective of the tortured 14-year-old boy who feels responsible for his best friend's disappearance.

These good qualities are about all that The Bear has in common with Jed, though. The Bear's preacher-dad is NOTHING like Jed's dad, thankfully. In fact, despite the fact that I kept seeing The Bear's face as I read, the rest of the family and the people in his father's church resemble nobody that I know.

A Slow Burn picks up the story where Daisy Chain left off but the thread is picked up by Daisy's grieving mother, Emory. She is haunted by her own feelings of remorse. She wasn't a good mother to Daisy. In fact, she wasn't a good neighbor, friend, employee, or anything to anyone with whom she came in contact. This book is about her journey to find her daughter's killer (yes, Daisy is dead) and the spiritual journey she begins in spite of her desire to avoid it.

I recommend these books, but only if you have the time to read the whole trilogy because the first book left me totally deflated and this second book left me waiting for Emory to find the answers to the questions that troubled her, including the identity of the killer.

(P.S. I began the third and final book in the trilogy this month but did not finish it. I just completed it last night and will review it next month.)

• The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis

This was the audiobook presentation of the much-beloved Narnia tale. I know it is the bonafide first book in the series but I read (heard?) it following The Magician's Nephew. I've seen the movie so the story line was not a mystery to me. Still, I think it is good to actually experience a story in an author's own words.

• "Ohio Valley History" Volume 9, Number 3, Fall 2009

This book is not a book at all. It is a magazine. But it happens to be an exceptional magazine. The magazine itself states on the inside that it is "A Journal of the History and Culture of the Ohio Valley and the Upper South, . . ." Subcriptions may be obtained here. I borrowed this copy from the library.

Why did I read this magazine? It provided research toward a lesson I was teaching in my Ohio History class. My students are 4th-6th grade homeschoolers and I think it is important that the information I present be both interesting and accurate. This particular edition had an article concerning European migration and the Kaskaskia Indians. We happened to be studying how the Native Americans in the Ohio region were influenced by French fur traders.

As an added bonus, after I returned home with this magazine I found that another article in it was written by a professor that Pastor Dad and I met last year at the conference we attended in Mississippi. And as an added added bonus the article was about the pastor of one of the churches that started the church that Pastor Dad now pastors. Okay, that's not quite as confusing as it sounds. (A certain pastor pastored a church in KY in the 1700s. That church later helped start our church.) The article was interesting to me, too, because it discussed regional and cultural biases among Baptists in the late 1700s. Ohio was a frontier microcosm of the blending between the New England  and southern cultures. Most historians are familiar with how that blending in the 13 original colonies wreaked havoc with the nerves of our Founding Fathers as they worked to coalesce the colonies into a nation. Those regional prejudices extended beyond governmental procedures and into how churches conducted their worship and missions. This, of course, was aggravated by how differing affiliations interpreted Scripture concerning church polity and its offspring, missions.

But for those of you who are not interested in Native Americans or church history, this volume also contained an article about a heinous robbery/murder and the resulting execution of the perpetrators, plus one about a steamboat of long ago. There was also a section for book reviews, which I found helpful for suggestions for further reading, particularly to adequately prepare for certain future Ohio History lessons, which was the impetus for obtaining this magazine in the first place!


So the results for this month are not that spectacular, but they are what they are:

1 non-fiction book
1 non-fiction magazine (which had more information in it than many of the non-fiction books I've read)
2 fiction books (1 via audiobook)

Frugal Food

This is the picture of the end of a very thrifty meal that served 15 people. Well, okay, that's an exaggeration. Baby Lili brings her own food source with her so that means only 14 people were fed from my crockpots Sunday.

Notice the cooker on the left. It was a gift from my parents many years ago and it has lived a long, useful life. I got the super-duper upgraded model on the right as a gift from Lulu and Dan (only Dan probably doesn't know anything about it) and I think Lulu managed to get all of her siblings involved in the purchase of it in one way or another. The new one was meant to replace my poor, disfigured, broken crockpot except I couldn't bring myself to throw it away. Sure the crockery is a bit cracked and the handles are taped on but the heating element still works just fine thankyouverymuch! I'm a bit cracked and taped up but you wouldn't think of throwing me away would you?  Don't answer that.  And let me just say for the record that my heater works just fine these days - or nights - too.

Anyway, I wouldn't dream of taking the old one to church dinners or anything like that for fear of the tape working loose and the whole shebang going "bang" but for after church dinners at home? Well, it still meets a need.

I like to spend time with my extended family over Sunday dinner if at all possible. I've got a bit of my paternal grandma in me, I think. I remember fondly those days at her house playing with my cousins while the grown-ups did grown-up things . . . like playing board and card games. Some things never change. :)

I also like to be able to invite others home with us on the spur of the moment.  That isn't always possible, but there is usually room for another 1 or 2 (or 3) around my table(s) as long as they don't mind eating home-cooking served rather informally.

The secret to inexpensive Sunday dinners is in planning ahead. 'Way ahead. I'm talking think-like-Thanksgiving-Day-is-coming soon ahead. I already have next week's meal planned and part of the next week also. I'm also scheduled to take a meal later this week to a family who has a new addition so I'm preparing for that meal also.  Nothing like a new baby to make me want to go sneak a peek at the little darling.   I've learned that if you stop by with food they don't mind the intrusion.

Yesterday's meal consisted of pork tenderloin, scalloped potatoes, tossed salad, mixed California style veggies with cheese sauce, home made crescent rolls, and white Texas sheet cake with chocolate ice cream for dessert. I figure that I spent $1.50 per person. The most expensive thing was the pork, but by fixing a whole tenderloin (and buying it on sale) it went further with less waste than individual pork chops would.  Plus I didn't need to worry about the one-to-one correspondence between each person and his or her chop.  Pork chop, that is.

I made my rolls the day before with another cost and labor-saving device: my faithful old bread machine that I bought as a reconditioned item almost 20 years ago.   It has more than paid for itself many times over.

I planned the cooking of the meat and side dishes carefully.  The pork went into the old crockpot and the potatoes went into the new one. The potatoes needed the "keep warm" setting that engages on the newer model once the cook time has elapsed. I made the cheese sauce in the little crockpot immediately after I got home from church for anyone that wanted to put it over the California veggies. 

My roast and potato recipes came from the Fix It and Forget It Recipes for Entertaining cookbook  that I found on sale a few years ago and the white Texas sheetcake one came from the Gooseberry Patch Family Favorite Recipes cookbook that I bought a couple of years ago for full price, but with a gift card. The rolls recipe was from a book that I got at a yardsale in Georgetown, SC while on vacation at Myrtle Beach many years ago (strange, but true:  who goes to yard sales on vacation especially when she doesn't go to them in her own neighborhood?) called Bread Machine Magic.

So I figure that for around $21 I fed us all. I'd hate to think what it would cost to take us all out to eat at a restaurant. Even eating off a dollar menu would not be as "ful"filling.

Speaking of eating out, if you like the flavors of certain restaurant cuisine but not the accompanying price you might be interested in this downloadable e-book entitled "28 No-Guilt Copycat Recipes" that are not only cheaper to make at home but diet friendly.  (Thanks to Cincinnati Cents for the tip.)



Note to Lisa:  I don't know how I could possibly publish anything about frugality that you don't already know!  I think I taught you everything I knew when you were growing up in our home.  And you've learned to live even more frugally yourself on a military salary.  Thanks for the encouragement, though.  Maybe I'll come across something new to teach you.  Love,  Mom

In Pursuit of Frugality

In recent weeks I have been reading a book on being frugal. Frugality is not new to me. It's just something that I felt needed a bit of a kick into higher gear.

I've now finished the book and will do a review of it when I post what I've read this month, but for now, let me say that I was disappointed. Not in the book I should hasten to add, as I feel that the author did an admirable job with the topic, but disappointed all the same.

First, I'm already doing 99% proposed and have most of my adult life. You knew there were some tricks to being a stay-at-home homeschooling mother/pastor's wife, right? So my disappointment wasn't in the book per se but in the fact that I didn't find a whole lot of new material. A few, yes, but not much to merit the cost of the book. Oh, wait. Ha! Ha! I didn't buy the book. I obtained a copy from the library. The only books on saving money that I ever bought were the "Tightwad Gazette" books. (You might have noticed them on my cookbook shelf a few weeks ago.) Those books have been worth every dollar I spent on them even if I haven't been able to bring myself to drink reconstituted powder milk. But I digress.

My second disappointment is that I didn't write this book. Obviously someone had the idea to do so and has made quite a bit of money doing it. In fact, the author was featured in her local paper because she decorated for the holidays with things that cost her nothing. Zilch. Nada. Here I am reading the book post-holiday and you know what kind of holiday decorations were gracing my tables and mantle? Yeah, you guessed it. The same things decorating her house. I let Pastor Dad read the page as my witness. So my second disapointment stemmed from the fact that I wish I'd had the forethought to write this book first.

I am now composing a list of frugal ideas of my own that I will share soon in a future post. And I know some of you want me to continue my homeschooling series. I'm compiling my list of scriptures that the Lord used to show me that homeschooling was His plan for our family. That will be coming soon, too. I promise. Tonight The Bear plays his last basketball game of the season and I should have more time to get these things written.

More importantly, just think of how much money we'll be saving on gasoline when not required to make a 60 mile round trip at least 4 days a week for basketball practice and games! Now that's the best money-saving idea I've encountered all month!

The Books of January 2011

This synopsis is a bit late, but thought it best to get it posted now, even if it does interrupt my current article series on homeschooling.

*Note: This may appear several times in your reader. For that, I apologize! I am having "issues" with my text editor and I. Am. Not. Happy.

Here are the books I completed in January:

White Picket Fences by Susan Meissner (fiction). Susan is one of the authors regularly highlighted by She Reads (notice the new button on the right sidebar) but I do not think this book was one of their monthly selections. If it was, it was picked before I started following. White Picket Fences was written in 2009 and I didn't discover She Reads until early in 2010.

You may recognize the name of Susan Meissner from her book, The Shape of Mercy, because it is one that I read last year and discussed just a few weeks ago. Ms. Meissner was kind enough then to send me an email to thank me for my recommendation.

I recommend this one also. Like The Shape of Mercy the present tiime is influenced by past events. In White Picket Fences the Holocaust provides a series of mysteries for the protagonists to unravel. And like all individuals, the modern-day people have their own secrets. Let's just say - for the sake of providing a nudge in the direction of this book without spoiling anything - that the characters might seem to be part of the perfect family (hence the reference to the proverbial white picket fence) but appearances can be deceiving, even to the individuals themselves.

I do have one criticism concerning the use of mild profanity. I say mild because they are Biblical words but they are not meant to be King James English. I do understand that authors, even Christian ones, feel compelled to have their characters speak authentically, however, I don't need to read such in order to know how people talk. One of the reasons I choose Christian fiction is to escape such language. Nor do I think it's usage was appropriate even in the context. Granted, it was a mild-mannered individual who used "mild" profanity and not one of the more worldly characters who did so, but that just begs the whole question of why even go there if everyone isn't going to speak freely?

Aside from that caveat I would recommend this book. It was a touching story about the seemingly perfect family that obviously is not all that it seems. Life with its interpersonal relationships is, um, complicated. This book deals with that issue.

I also recommend this book because I love a story that looks back through a character's genealogy. The blending of modern individuals with snippets of information concerning their family heritage makes a story right up my alley! This book does that as well.



7 Events That Made America America by Larry Schweikart (nonfiction). This book looks at some events of American history that were not seen as bellwether events in their time. For instance, did you know that the era of big government began in 1820 with Martin Van Buren? Or that when Dwight Eisenhower had his heart attack in 1955 the media set in motion the nanny state to control the diets of all Americans?

Each of the seven events highlighted is compared and contrasted with the concept of government that the Founding Fathers set in motion with what our government does now. And as you might imagine, what it gets wrong. He uses historical events that show that private enterprises and individuals can and will meet any needs that arise better than the government can. The problem is that the government will rarely leave well enough alone and goes so far as to get in the way by regulating the altruistic that step in to help. This in turn causes more chaos, which in turn causes more government regulation, etc. For example, the tragedy of the Johnstown, PA flood was contrasted with Hurricane Katrina flooding and argued that individuals that are familiar with the people, resources, and the topography of a devastated area are better able to offer assistance than FEMA agents.

In another chapter the book goes so far as to say that the bad boys of the 1960s era, the anti-establishment rockers, were pure capitalists. What? You thought they weren't in it for the money? Ha! Ha! Ha! How many of them held concerts for free? Hmm. Even the Beatles weren't happy with the British tax code and moved their enterprise elsewhere. And to think, our politicians want to emulate the European model!

Remember that last year I read a book about "myths" promoted by the North after the end of the American Civil War? I mentioned that our family had lively talks around the dinner table that were inspired by that book. And seriously, the anti-Lincoln slant of last year's read had somewhat unsettled me. Well, this book helped answer some of our questions. The real racists were ensconced within the Supreme Court, that branch of the government that overstepped their boundaries even back then.

Even one of our modern heroes, Ronald Reagan, is written up in this book for his crucial and erroneous decision to send our Marines into Lebanon on an impossible peace-keeping mission. They had targets painted on their backs the moment they set foot in the place, figuratively speaking.

The study of history is important to our nation. It is only by protecting the system set in place by our founders that we can be protected ourselves. I thoroughly recommend this book! Read it and cringe.


The House of Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne (audiobook). This classic fiction was a required reading in The Bear's literature study. He didn't read it. One of the nice things about being the homeschool teacher is that I can make any necessary substitutions to fit the program. The American Literature guide that we bought from Institute for Excellence in Writing (IEW) had this Hawthorne book scheduled as part of its study of the Romantic Era. I chose to substitute Hawthorne's book The Scarlet Letter (which was listed as the honors text, but don't tell The Bear that.) because I am more familiar with it and until this month I had not read the other. This would make me able to discern whether The Bear was actually keeping up with his reading. (Don't tell him I said that either.) Okay, this is not a discussion of The Bear's reading habits so I'll move on in the discussion of mine.

Hawthorne suffered from verbosity, as do I, but probably because I read a great deal of American literature when I was young and was therefore highly influenced by it. His wordiness is evident in both books.

In classic Hawthorne fashion, the reader is introduced to the story through a prop. In The Scarlet Letter it is an embroidered letter that the author found in a drawer the leads to the invention of a story about the woman who wore it. In The House of the Seven Gables it is Hawthorne's house that fuels the author's imagination as he constructs a tale about its prior inhabitants. Again, this is a ploy that I find appealing! I'm much more amenable to reading historical fiction set in my own ancestors' haunts now that I am aware of such. Before I pursued my study of genealogy I had no clue where I fit into the history of the United States. This makes Hawthorne's writing as much a study of the New England culture as it pertains to my genealogy as it does of the Romantic period itself.

This book did not take me long to "read" on my iPod. A few days of basketball practice, some housework, time on the treadmill, and this book was completed! Again, if you haven't discovered the world of audiobooks, you really must. I'm blessed to be able to download mine free through the Ohio ebook program, but I'm sure there are other ways of procuring them frugally.


The Magician's Nephew by C.S. Lewis (audiobook). Again, I'm using audiobooks to read some of the classics that I missed as a youngster. For one thing, my tastes have changed and now I appreciate certain genres so much more than I once did. It isn't that I didn't like Lewis. I read The Screwtape Letters when I was young and thoroughly enjoyed it. But the type of fantasy that he, Tolkien, and their kind usually produced? Not so much.

Now, however, thanks to the movie adaptations I have become a fan. I decided that I wanted to read the book The Voyage of the Dawn Treader before seeing the movie, but I decided to go back and read them in order. Okay, I am aware that "in order" is somewhat of a misnomer when it comes to the Magician's Nephew but I read it first since it is the prequel to the others and I didn't want to have to go through another Star Wars type flashback experience. This book tells how the events of Narnia came to be a part of the human world before they were discovered through the wardrobe.

The audiobook is particularly enchanting, the narrator being Kenneth Branagh who reads it in his lovely British accent. Somehow, that just makes it all the more appealing.

In fairness to my complaint about mild profanity I need to point out that it exists in the C.S. Lewis classics, too. I wasn't aware of that when I began reading them (I'm so naive) so it was somewhat of a shock when certain words came through my headphones. I'm also acutely aware that British and American vulgarities are not necessarily the same. I know an American who served as a pastor of a British church who unintentionally shocked his congregation by the use of some words we Americans use daily. And we'll leave it at that. :)

This month I read 4 books. 1 was non-fiction, and 2 of the 3 fiction were classics enjoyed via audiobooks.

And The Winner Is:

Utilizing the tools available at Random.org have produced a winner of the Valentine book giveaway.  I have sent the winner an email and am just waiting to hear back.  If Nancye Davis would kindly contact me by midnight Friday EST I will get the book in the mail. 

And for the rest of you?  Valentine's Day is less than 2 weeks away.  This is your second warning.  The clock is ticking. . .

(Don't forget that tomorrow is that all-important spring guestimate event, Groundhog's Day.  Most folks around these parts - and in the rest of the northern hemisphere, I presume - are anxiously awaiting the arrival of spring.  I don't mind the snow, but this ice draped over the overladen tree limbs is something else again!)

A Reminder, A Ministry, and A Children's Book Giveaway

A reminder: Exactly one month from today is Valentine's Day. Some of you - mostly males - might need this wake-up call. You're welcome.  :)

A ministry: I haven't posted a Ministry MATTERS post for a few months but if I had, Voice of the Martyrs just might be one of those highlighted. You may send them a donation if you feel so inclined but no comments are necessary, no strings are attached, and no prizes will be given for your donations.

A children's book giveaway: On the other hand, I do have a children's book to give away entitled The Story of St. Valentine, More than Cards and Candied Hearts written by The Voice of the Martyrs with Cheryl Odden and illustrated by R.F. Palavicini. I found this to be a fascinating account of the young man who defied the Roman emperor Claudius to worship God by upholding the sanctity of marriage. (Whoa! Does that sound like a modern issue or what?) The only thing some (including me) might take issue with is the statement that the "church" declared February 14th a day to celebrate Valentine in order to replace the celebration of the Roman goddess, Juno. But there are many words on my calendar that are directly influenced by the Greeks, Romans, and their immediate successor, the Roman Catholic Church, that I must of necessity use daily so I take it in stride. Parent who disagree with an author's point-of-view should use such opportunities to appropriately educate their children. We're Americans and we still have the right to do that by sharing our faith with our children and other people.

The tale ends with a quick vignette of a modern Vietnamese woman who has been arrested many times for her faith. The subtle point of this transition is to introduce American children to the fact that even today not all the world has the right to openly worship Jesus or share their faith with others.

The book is beautifully illustrated using vivid colors as vibrant as the blood-red hue that we normally associate with the day itself. (I laid the book on a red cloth for the photograph just so you could make the comparison yourself.) They are bold which makes them worthy of the actions of the book's hero.

Here are the rules to participate in the drawing:

• Leave a "legitimate" comment - multiple entries allowed but with a limit of 1 per day, please - stating you wish to be entered in the drawing. (Comments that activate the spam filter will not be entered and are an example of an "illegitimate" comment.)
• Tell about this giveaway at your own blog or website and leave me a comment stating the proper URL (of your specific blog post, not your blog address).
• Contest ends at midnight EST on January 31, 2011 and the name will be randomly selected and announced on February 1st. Winner has until midnight EST February 5th to make contact.
• Book will be mailed to winner in a timely fashion.

Let the countdown to Valentine's Day begin!

New Page Added

I'm always making lists. And I'm always losing lists that are written on paper.

Sometimes I neglect to write everything on the list as I think was the case of my book list of 2010. I just can't believe that I didn't read even one book from the end of June until the beginning of October! I'm willing to concede that I didn't read much over the summer since there are all of the church related events like Vacation Bible School, camp, and other activities added to the back-to-school planning that take up the time, but reading no books seems a bit extreme.

Therefore, I have made one of my blog pages to be where I keep my lists. There's even a list of the genealogy lines or persons that I'm currently researching. This will be updated to reflect any changes.

Check it out if you want to know what I'm reading, writing, and researching. Its the page called "The List of My Lists" and for good reason.

Who Reads This Stuff?

Evidently more people than I first thought.

When a person (specifically, me) writes a blog post it seems so private, like say, to be kept among family and friends. Actually blogging is so out there. Certain phrases or key words catch someone's attention whether it be within the body of a blog post or in the author's profile.

I say this as a warning to watch what I say. As if the pictures of my followers - most of whom I don't know - don't prove the openness of this medium then recent comments and emails do.

There are those who responded to something from my genealogy posts because they recognized a highlighted name or other detail. If the post was about one of my own ancestors I replied and signed my real name to facilitate the sharing of our mutual research goals. (Side note: There is nothing special about the anonymity of this blog. Anyone who knows me, knows me and anyone who doesn't gets weeded out in a hurry when they send me requests to join Facebook that say "Hi Karabeth!Remember me? I sat next to you in high school English! Join Facebook and be my friend." Um, give me a break! Bill Murray used that line in the movie Groundhog Day in order to seduce one of the Punxsutawney women. There is more than enough information included here to expose my identity, but some anonymity has helped to keep a few weirdos at bay. PS.  Sorry Punxsutawney for the misspelling in the original of this post.)

There are those who contacted me after I mentioned I'd read certain books. That has happened a couple of times in the last week thanks to my list from 2010. Who knew that the authors and their agents kept such close tabs on things? It makes sense, though, doesn't it? As Dan Miller said in his book, marketing the product could be the difference between success and failure. Okay, I'm paraphrasing. And Dan Miller isn't one of the authors that contacted me, but if he sees this and wants to confirm or deny my paraphrase he's more than welcome to do so.

There are those whose digital designs I've used (in the whole 2 weeks I've been digitally scrapbooking here) that have thanked me for using their products. Okay, one is my friend, Vicky, but truly, it was unexpected to receive a word from Kim telling me that she liked how I'd used her items to make my Family of Faith page.

There were several unknown individuals who contacted me requesting the Bible reading schedule in file format. I suspect now that there were more who followed last year's schedule than I originally suspected. I thank you for your encouragement, both in using the schedule and in helping to keep me on track. Yes, I need the accountability, too. Aren't Christians supposed to encourage each other to good works? Hmm. I think I read that somewhere. :) (cf. Hebrews 10:24)

I've also received offers from educational software and curriculum developers that want me to try their products and write a review. So far, I have not taken advantage of these offers and the blog has remained non-monetized. However, I wouldn't be adverse to trying a product and writing a review if it actually fit my focus group. The days of spelling, learning to read, math manipulatives and other early-to-mid childhood education topics are long over in this homeschool. {sob}

What I need are programs that teach

• Physics,
• Calculus, and
• Spanish.

So if you have developed quality products for homeschooled high school students that you wish me to review, then we just might be able work out a mutually beneficial arrangement because evidently there are more people who come across this blog than we might think.

The Books of 2010

Unlike my daughter, Karen of Candid Diversions, I am not capable of reading a couple of dozen books each month. I am capable, however, of reading that many in a year as long as I'm allowed to cheat a bit and count audiobooks. I hope it's allowed because I'm about to do it. If there are rules to be followed you can send them to me later and I might follow them in this coming year. Or I might ignore them completely. Whatever. I'm contrary that way.

So, without further ado, here are the two dozen+ books that I read last year.

1. The Shape of Mercy by Susan Meissner. This book was one that was recommended by She Reads (found here and here).  If you aren't familiar with "She Reads" you really should get to know this branch of Proverbs 31 Ministries. The selections of Christian fiction that they highlight are usually several notches above most of the genre. Let's just say that before I discovered them I pretty much stopped reading Christian fiction because I care little for glaring romance novels (Christian or not) and have not developed an obsession with the Amish. Anyway, this book was well written and dealt with a period of history that I find fascinating: the Salem Witch trials. That's probably because I descend from someone who was hanged during that period of US History(Ann Pudeator - you knew I would find some way of working genealogy into this discussion didn't you?) so I found the story of a modern woman seeking information about an accused girl to be excellent reading. I read this book in January.
2. Daisy Chain by Mary E. Demuth. Another She Reads pick. This is the first of a trilogy about Defiance, TX and I must confess that I haven't attempted to find out if the other two books have been published. I'm not sure whether that reflects bad on me or the story but I never took the time to complete the saga. I read this book while in Texas in January.
3. Fireflies in December by Jennifer Erin Valent. Another She Reads pick. Are you noticing a pattern here? I read this book in January and enjoyed it so much that I read the follow-up in February called
4. Cottonwood Whispers by Jennifer Erin Valent. These books are about the friendship of two young ladies. The setting is the American south in the 1930s. One girl is white and the other is black. That should give you some idea of the tensions and prejudices encountered.  I read both books and I recommend them.
5. Lady Susan by Jane Austen. Another She -- ha! ha! Just checking to see if you're still paying attention. This was the firsr audiobook that I downloaded onto my then-new iPod. I found that by doing this I could "read" a book and go about my housekeeping duties at the same time! What a great idea! And yes, I enjoy a good Austen book as much as the next guy -er- girl.
6. Talking to the Dead by Bonnie Grove. Another She Reads pick for real. An excellent read and one that I didn't have figured out early in the novel. Can I hear a round of applause for that? Okay, I'm giving it one. I read this in February.
7. Silks by Dick and Felix Francis. This was my second audiobook download and I think I got it from the Ohio ebook project. I used to love reading a good Dick Francis novel years ago. Um, I think I liked the book but I really can't say because I remember very little about it. Maybe I was doing too much housekeeping and not enough paying attention. I'm not sure. Or maybe my love of horses isn't what it used to be.  That's probably it. I read (heard?) this in March.
8. Flat Belly Diet by Prevention Magazine. You've probably heard about this book/diet and the MUFA plan of eating. I read it because I wanted to know what constituted a MUFA (monounsaturated fat). I think it helped me eat better, which was the main purpose of reading the book.
9. The Blood Pressure Cure by Robert Kowalski. Three guess why I was reading this book. Forget the guesses. I did a post on this back in May 2010 here so go check out some of the things I had to say and then check out the book if you are so inclined. I have been using some of the suggestions successfully ever since.
10. Founding Mothers by Cokie Roberts. I like history. I like biographies. I like reading excerpts of letters, diaries, and journals. Does that make me nosy? Don't say it! I already know the answer. However, I loved reading about the women who helped give birth to America and prefer to think of my nosiness as liking to read primary source material.
11. Victory in the Storm by Sandra Hastings. Sandy is a missionary wife of my acquaintance and her self-published title tells of her battle with depression and the scriptures that helped her fight it. She blogs here at "More Than Survival."
12. The Black Arrow by Robert Louis Stevenson. My third audiobook. Okay, this is a kid's classic, but I enjoyed it, too.
13. The Dogs Who Found Me by Ken Foster.  My fourth audiobook. Mr. Foster has a knack for finding dogs although by the title you can see that he thinks the dogs find him. Yeah, probably like the herd of cats that have found my parents' back door recently. Anyway, I applaud his rescuing efforts, having rescued ol' Pepper from the pound a few years back ourselves. Mr. Foster's rescues are more along the line of taking in homeless and stray dogs after natural disasters like Hurricane Katrina. Very inspiring and humorous at the same time.
14. The Heretic's Daughter by Kathleen Kent. Not only is this a book about another person accused of witchcraft during the Salem Witch trials, but this book is written about a real person by one of her descendants. This story was handed down as family legend and enough documentation survives to back it up. Good reading! I read this book in April.
15. Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen. This was my fifth audiobook. It's Austen. It's good. Need I say more?
16. Facts the Historians Leave Out by John S. Tilley. The subtitle is "A Confederate Primer." Okay, deep breath here. I'm the product of both the north and the south and pretty much thrilled that a cease-fire was called long before my birth. This book troubled me deeply an inspired some interesting dinnertable discussions since the Bear read it, too. Some of the "facts" were southern propaganda, which was exactly the kind of thing the author condemned as coming out of the north. Call me a fence-straddler if you must, but as much as I am in favor of States' rights I also am mighty glad that the Union was preserved! There really are no easy answers, are there?
17. Scared by Tom Davis. This was another She Reads selection and it was excellent. I read it in the car on the way home from Texas in April which was the only sensible thing to do since the air conditioning chose to go out in our car and I was sweltering. Reading about Africa just seemed to help set the mood. Good book. Read it!And then order coffee from the author's endeavor to help in humanitarian efforts.
18. Brisingr by Christopher Paolini. AWWWWWWWW! (Imagine me screaming here.) I took the whole month of May to listen to this, my sixth audiobook and I can't remember much of anything about it! I even read along at times just so I would remember the story. I remember enough to say I've had about enough of the Eragon story and just want it to end already. I liked the audiobook because it pronounced those difficult names. One note of humor: at the end of the audiobook is an interview between the author and his editor and she (the editor) mispronounces one of the names and he (the author) corrects her. Okay, does anyone remember how this novel ended? I know I'll need to read the Cliff Notes or a synopsis prior to completing the fourth (and hopefully final) book whenever they decide to release it.
19. At Home In Mitford by Jan Karon. This was my 7th audiobook and I listened to it while riding the Metro rail each day in Washington DC at the end of June. Since this was the "Focus on the Family" radio adaptation it was extremely entertaining. I could see Dean Jones as Father Tim. I tried to listen to the next book in the series but couldn't since it wasn't a Focus production and didn't have the same radio drama charm to it. I suspect I'll be borrowing the rest of the books in the series from Karen at some time just so I can say I've read them all.
20. The 100 Best Loved Poems of All Times edited by Leslie Pockell. Well, I loved some of the selections but others I could live without very nicely, thankyouverymuch. I do like poetry, though, and read this book while the Bear and the grandgirls were taking taekwondo lessons.
21. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving. This was one of the books that the Bear had to read for American Literature and I decided to read it again just for enjoyment since it had been so many years since I had done so. I read this in October. Somehow, I don't seem to have read any books between the end of June and all of October. How can that be? I'm not sure that's accurate, but that's what my ledger says so I'll go with it.
22. The Devious Book of Cats (A Parody) by Fluffy & Bonkers. Have you seen The Dangerous Book for Boys? The Bear has it and the point of it is to inspire boys to be boys in their pursuits of outdoorsy, "sticks and snails and puppy dog tails" adventures. Well, this book is written for cats by cats (snicker, snicker) to help them be cats. I liked it, but then, I like cats and I think I understand them pretty well without a book. I read this in October.
23. The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin (1706-1757) by Benjamin Franklin. Good book. If you want to know what Ben "really" thought you should read this. He didn't pull any punches! His views on God, while not Christian, are a far-cry from the atheistic tendencies that modern authors have attempted to claim. A must-read about one of our more colorful Founding Fathers in his own words.
24. The Moffats by Eleanor Estes. My eighth audiobook. This was a juvenile book but I enjoyed it. The story is of the early-20th century family, the Moffats, that consists of the widowed mama and her brood of children. What adventures and escapades! I'm sure my granddaughter, Polly, would enjoy this one!
25. Crocodiles on the Sandbank (Amelia Peabody series book 1) by Elizabeth Peters. My ninth audiobook. Fun fiction about a Victorian English spinster heiress who goes on an Egyptian tour courtesy of her inherited money. The woman who reads aloud this audiobook does a remarkable job of adding the droll tones at just the right time. One would think she wrote the book, which she didn't. A fun way to pass the time doing the housecleaning in November.
26. The Curse of the Pharoahs (Amelia Peabody book 2) by Elizabeth Peters. My tenth audiobook. This continues the story of the now-married Amelia and her husband Emerson who calls her "My Dear Peabody" throughout. The humor helped pass more of my housecleaning days but this time in December.
27. No More Mondays by Dan Miller. I heard Dave Ramsey recommend this book on his radio program one day while I was on my way to the library to do research so I obtained it immediately. After I completed it I insisted that Pastor Dad read it as well. Succinctly, it is a primer on how to think "outside the box" when it comes to jobs, employment, and doing what you love.
28. Newspapers, Pennies, Cardboard & Eggs for Growing a Better Garden by Roger Yepsen. It's cold outside and I'm now reading gardening books. I don't think I need to explain this, do I?

So, as you can see, my yearly list looks something like my daughter's monthly list and ten of mine were audiobooks. I really don't read as much as I should, but I do read. Actually, I read a lot but not all of it is in book form. I read many genealogy journals, magazine articles, and research material but time spent poring over that material doesn't equate into "books read." I think that's probably why when I do get around to reading book they are more likely to be fiction than nonfiction.

I've got several books in my stack for 2011 but I haven't begun them yet. I really need to spend more time reading and less time doing housework.  Hahahahahaha!!!!!