Catching up

I'm heading out tomorrow morning with two of our kids to this place

located on the beautiful Shuswap Lake in the BC Interior.



I won't be spending too much time at the beach since I'll be working in the kitchen but I still plan to get some swimming and beach time in.

I'm also taking books and scrapbooking supplies to work on during an afternoon break (after the nap and swim) and evenings. I know I'm taking too much but I might just need them all! :-)

My husband gets to stay home and work at home all week with the two younger children. I wonder if he's regretting these plans yet?

Back in a week. No promises to posting speed (I always wish I could post more but life seems to get in the way. Of course, if I stopped reading other people's blogs maybe I'd have more time but even that blog reading has been sparse lately) but I am hoping to take some pictures every day. I'll try to keep up a little better.

Summer Reading Challenge Update

My update comments are italicized:

Seasonal Soundings is encouraging us all to read over the summer with her Summer Reading Challenge. Here are the books I'm hoping to get through:

On Teaching the Piano - by Hetty Bolton. I've read this before but since I'm going back to some piano teaching in the fall, I thought it was a good time to reread it. I'm about halfway through. Now about 3/4 of the way through. It's a good reminder to be purposeful in my teaching.

Rhythmics, Dynamics, Pedal - by Leimer-Gieseking. As above. Not yet.

Classical Rhetoric for the Modern Student - Corbett. I won't complete this before the end of the summer as I'm participating in an online study group that will go until February but I will be reading this weekly. We're working through logic this week.
This is going well. We have a week's break this week so I'm hoping to get caught up. It's a good thing I didn't have to do some reading this week - lots of running around.

Great Books -

VIRGIL - Aeneid (Robert Fitzgerald translation) - I'm on book 5. Finished! I really enjoyed it - that was a surprise to me. A little gory in places but generally very interesting. I'll be interested to listen in on the lectures in the fall.
LIVY- History of Rome (de Selincourt translation) There are 5 books (main sections). I'm about 3/4 of the way through the first one. However, I have more time for reading next week, I hope, so I'm hoping to make it through it. It's surprisingly interesting. The Great Books are really not that hard to read.
SALLUST - The Jugurthine War / The Conspiracy of Cataline
CAESAR - The Conquest of Gaul
CICERO - Selected Works
PLUTARCH-Lives of Noble Grecians and Romans, vol.2 (Dryden translation)
TACITUS- The Annals of Imperial Rome
SUETONIUS - The Twelve Caesars
JOSEPHUS - The Jewish War
EARLY CHRISTIAN FATHERS
EUSEBIUS- The Church History (Maier translation)
ATHANASIUS- On the Incarnation (with introduction by C. S. Lewis)
ATHANASIUS - Athanasius : The Life of Anthony and the Letter To Marcellinus
AUGUSTINE - Confessions

For our summer book club:
Winter Birds - by Jamie Langston Turner. Most of the books for the book club came but there are two still on their way so I've been restraining myself from reading the copy that I have sitting here. I'm tempted though.
Living the Cross-Centered Life - by CJ Mahaney

In my morning devotions
A Call to Commitment - a commentary on Hebrews by William Lane. I'm at ch. 3-4 and it's very interesting. It's funny but I hadn't really thought about reading commentaries until I saw it mentioned on girltalk. Then I was scanning bookshelves downstairs and discovered this one.
Not too much further. Maybe in a couple of weeks I'll get back to it.

You will notice there is very little fiction on that list. That's because I read fiction all the time, whether it's on the list or not. I have been reading through Patricia Veryan's books again, and I am at the point of needing to read all of her Riddle books (not my favourites out of hers but I'll force myself to read them again...).

The Riddle of the Shipwrecked Spinster
The Riddle of the Deplorable Dandy
The Riddle of the Alabaster Royal
The Riddle of the Lost Lover
The Riddle of the Reluctant Rake

I was in the city library shortly after I posted this and found 4 out of the 5 on the shelf and had the 5th one at home. I had a good binge and read them all. Mostly satisfying. I haven't reread one other series by her yet so maybe I'll get to them as well.

I'm working on a biography of Alexander Graham Bell that is very interesting. I also read Not Buying It and hope to post a review at some point. I read a Helen MacInnes the past few days - The Double Image. I really enjoy MacInnes' writing. She's very thoughtful too - it's not all action.

Happy reading!

Project 365 - June 24

Driving home from Edmonton one night about 10 pm, the sky was beautiful. Under the darker clouds, the sun painted beautiful colours. These pictures were taken out the car window so they aren't as clear as they could be if we had stopped but still beautiful colours.

Project 365 - June 22

Recipe Round-up - Rhubarb Kuchen

Rhubarb Kuchen

This is a wonderful dessert for this time of year, when the rhubarb is sweet & tender. Actually, it's good anytime! I think this recipe came from Canadian Living years ago.

3/4 c. butter, softened
1 1/2 c. sugar
1/3 c. plain yogurt
1 egg yolk
1 t. grated orange rind
2 c. flour
1/2 t. baking soda
3/4 c. sliced almonds
5 c. chopped rhubarb
1 T. orange juice
Glaze: 1/3 c. strawberry jelly (or jam)

In bowl, cream butter with 3/4 c. sugar; beat in yogurt, egg yolk & orange rind. Combine flour, baking soda, and 1/2 c. of almonds; gradually stir into butter mixture until incorporated. Using wet spatula or hands, spread evenly onto bottom & 3/4" up side of greased 10-in. springform pan.

Toss rhubarb with remaining sugar & orange juice; arrange evenly over dough. Sprinkle remaining almonds around edge. Bake in 350 oven for 45-50 minutes or until pastry edge is golden brown and rhubarb is tender. Let cool on rack. Remove sides of pan.

In small saucepan, bring strawberry jelly & 3 T. water to boil, whisking constantly. Reduce heat & boil gently, whisking often, for about 3 minutes or until thickened. Brush over rhubarb & sides of cake. Let stand for 5 minutes. Makes 12 servings.

Enjoy!

Summer Reading Challenge

Seasonal Soundings is encouraging us all to read over the summer with her Summer Reading Challenge. Here are the books I'm hoping to get through:

On Teaching the Piano - by Hetty Bolton. I've read this before but since I'm going back to some piano teaching in the fall, I thought it was a good time to reread it. I'm about halfway through.

Rhythmics, Dynamics, Pedal - by Leimer-Gieseking. As above.

Classical Rhetoric for the Modern Student - Corbett. I won't complete this before the end of the summer as I'm participating in an online study group that will go until February but I will be reading this weekly. We're working through logic this week.

Great Books - my son will be doing Great Books II with Schola Classical Tutorials this fall. Since I wasn't very successful last year in keeping up with the reading, I'd like to do the majority of it this summer. We'll see how that works. (You can all stop snickering now, unless you want to look at this cartoon.)

VIRGIL - Aeneid (Robert Fitzgerald translation) - I'm on book 5.
LIVY- History of Rome (de Selincourt translation)
SALLUST - The Jugurthine War / The Conspiracy of Cataline
CAESAR - The Conquest of Gaul
CICERO - Selected Works
PLUTARCH-Lives of Noble Grecians and Romans, vol.2 (Dryden translation)
TACITUS- The Annals of Imperial Rome
SUETONIUS - The Twelve Caesars
JOSEPHUS - The Jewish War
EARLY CHRISTIAN FATHERS
EUSEBIUS- The Church History (Maier translation)
ATHANASIUS- On the Incarnation (with introduction by C. S. Lewis)
ATHANASIUS - Athanasius : The Life of Anthony and the Letter To Marcellinus
AUGUSTINE - Confessions

Wow, that list does look a little daunting. I think I should be checking the study guides to see if the students will be reading all the pages.

For our summer book club:

Winter Birds - by Jamie Langston Turner

Living the Cross-Centered Life - by CJ Mahaney

In my morning devotions

A Call to Commitment - a commentary on Hebrews by William Lane. I'm at ch. 3-4 and it's very interesting. It's funny but I hadn't really thought about reading commentaries until I saw it mentioned on girltalk. Then I was scanning bookshelves downstairs and discovered this one.

You will notice there is very little fiction on that list. That's because I read fiction all the time, whether it's on the list or not. I have been reading through Patricia Veryan's books again, and I am at the point of needing to read all of her Riddle books (not my favourites out of hers but I'll force myself to read them again...).

The Riddle of the Shipwrecked Spinster

The Riddle of the Deplorable Dandy

The Riddle of the Alabaster Royal

The Riddle of the Lost Lover
The Riddle of the Reluctant Rake

Sheesh, some of those covers just scream "romance novel". Veryan's books are romance, true, but her writing is much better than most romance novels. And there are no icky bits. I enjoy her characters & stories.

I'll be interested to see what I manage to get through this summer! Maybe this list is why I rarely write down what I plan to read!

Trail Ride

My eldest daughter & I went on a trail ride on Saturday. It was an all day ride to raise money for a local Bible camp - Brightwood Ranch Camp. They raised almost $21,000 which is fantastic, especially since this particular camp is focussed on inner-city kids and they don't charge the campers to come.

June is a beautiful month in northern Alberta. I think it's maybe the prettiest month of the year, although each season has its own beauty. We rode mostly on a Jack Pine tree reserve that the camp has permission to use.


This is the first time the camp has done this rideathon. They were hoping for about 30 riders. Instead, they had over 70. It made for quite a group. These pictures don't even show all of them. There were also two wagons that accompanied the riders. At the point these pictures were taken, we were waiting for some of the riders at the end to catch up.



We rode a little through trees but mostly over beautiful meadows.










We rode for about 2 1/2 hours and then stopped for lunch. The camp brought up lunch for all the riders and it was a nice break for both riders & horses.


I tried to get a nap....



I rode a wonderful horse. Our daughter's riding teacher graciously hauled horses for us and Zimra did really well all day. She liked to trot or canter, especially on the way back, and we weren't supposed to be going too fast so I had to hold her back but that was okay. Everyone else was having the same "problem". We held them down to a jog for most of it but occasionally we'd let them speed up, then reluctantly bring them back to a jog.

Zimra even held mostly still for me to take pictures as I rode, although she did have a tendency to start moving just as I got the camera turned on.



I don't have any pictures after lunch because the storm clouds rolled in and we had thunder & rain most of the way home. Thankfully, the thunder wasn't too close and I only saw one flicker of lightning in the distance. We were wet and cold by the time we got back but it was still a great ride.

This was the longest ride I've done and it was a wonderful day. I'm sure my husband is very thankful we live in town and not on an acreage or the push to own horses would be much stronger!

Sunday Hymn - In Christ Alone

In Christ alone my hope is found
He is my light, my strength, my song
This Cornerstone, this solid ground
Firm through the fiercest drought and storm
What heights of love, what depths of peace
When fears are stilled, when strivings cease
My Comforter, my All in All
Here in the love of Christ I stand

In Christ alone, who took on flesh
Fullness of God in helpless babe
This gift of love and righteousness
Scorned by the ones He came to save
'Till on that cross as Jesus died
The wrath of God was satisfied
For every sin on Him was laid
Here in the death of Christ I live

There in the ground His body lay
Light of the world by darkness slain
Then bursting forth in glorious Day
Up from the grave He rose again
And as He stands in victory
Sin's curse has lost it's grip on me
For I am His and He is mine
Bought with the precious blood of Christ

No guilt in life, no fear in death
This is the power of Christ in me
From life's first cry to final breath
Jesus commands my destiny
No power of hell, no scheme of man
Can ever pluck me from His hand
'Till He returns or calls me home
Here in the power of Christ I'll stand

"In Christ Alone"
Words and Music by Keith Getty & Stuart Townend
Copyright © 2001 Kingsway Thankyou Music

Project 365 -

Project 365 - June 4

The vegetable garden. Tomatoes on the left, chives & sorrel in the front, lettuce in the 1st bed and radish & carrots planted behind. Peppers & basil are in the little greenhouse & beans are planted in the far right bed (lengthwise).

New Attitude

Last year & this year, I wished I could have been at the New Attitude conference, put on by Sovereign Grace Ministries. Thankfully, even though I couldn't attend (and I'm not even sure if I would be allowed to as I'm not a young adult or young married anymore - do pastors' wives count?), they make available the messages from the conferences.

This year, the theme was discernment. I have listened to 3 1/2 messages so far and they are excellent. I highly recommend them to anyone - young or old. And the folks at Sovereign Grace Ministries are offering the mp3s free of charge.

You can go here to download them. Do it now! You will be blessed, challenged & encouraged.

Project 365 - June 1

I didn't actually take any pictures today but my oldest daughter (13) did. I think they are so gorgeous that I'm going to post them here.