One Little Prayer

People who know me well know that I'm a woman of extremes. One of my oddest extremes is my climate preferences. I love the beach but I love the snow. I love the serenity of the waves crashing on the shores. The sound of the waves are like a lullaby.

The snow makes me want to snuggle with my family and watch a good movie. I love being with my family and snow provides that opportunity for me. I also love the beauty of my lawn covered in white. Everything is made pretty with a coating of snow. Give me either of which, I'm a happy camper.

The only thing that can make snow better is a white Christmas. Christmas is another one of my loves. It's my favorite holiday. I even like it better than my birthday. So last year, I prayed and asked God for a white Christmas. My family was going through great transition and I asked for the snow as a sign. After I prayed, I felt the Lord saying that not only was I going to get a white Christmas, but it would snow before and after Christmas.

Trust me I was excited, especially when the first snow came and brought us 6 inches two weeks before Christmas. And of course, I was over the moon when we got a record 16 inches the week before Christmas. The snow stuck around for several days because of all the Arctic air (sadly, it rained on Christmas day and washed all the snow away).

Apparently, God is doing his exceedingly, abundantly, all you can ask or think thing with me because it has snowed two times in the past week, Friday, January 30 and Wednesday, February 3. And now as I write this blog, the DC metro area is under a blizzard warning with snow totals predicted to be 20-30 inches. And, snow is forcasted for next Tuesday and the following Saturday.

Amazing what one little prayer can do. Never underestimate the power of prayer.

Tea & Read: The Sweet By and By

Title: The Sweet By and By
Authors: Sara Evans with Rachel Hauck
Rating: One cup of tea


The past is the past, right? If only it was that simple for Jade Fitzgerald. As she prepares to marry, she finds her skeletons won’t stay in their closet. Her mother returns to her life and brings a trail of painful memories with her. Jade finds herself struggling to keep her damaging history from ruining her future.

Jade, her fiancé Max, her mother Beryl and her sister Willow are all complex characters. Jade refuses to face the mistakes she’s made and focuses on her mother’s hippie lifestyle and her parent’s divorce. Max seemed dualistic, holding Jade to a higher standard that he was not willing to live by himself. Willow’s sassiness perfectly fits a young woman with her background. Unfortunately, none of the characters seem to flow together. Their stories are intertwined but they lack a level of cohesiveness that creates good tension.

The lack of tension continued with Jade’s parent’s divorce. I found myself wondering why their marriage actually ended. It didn’t seem realistic since their relationship seemed so idyllic. Along with that lack of tension, the novel read like a women’s ministry manual. Strained family relationships, abortion, illness and unforgiveness all find their way into the story in a very predictable way. At times, the story became very cliché along with a slow pace.

Also, the story’s climax and resolution left me wondering what the climax and resolution was. Jade has an ambiguous encounter with God, but it’s not clear what exactly happened. It was also hard to get into the moment of the encounter because it had supernatural overtones. The moment ended up being very “God in the Machine”, a tidy but annoying way to show character change.

Two things about this book left me confused. The first thing was the prologue. I’m not sure why it was included in the book. It does give some background setting, but very little. The second thing is the title. I’m not really sure what the title actually has to do with the book. I thought maybe it wasn’t that important since it’s in smaller print that Sara Evans name (if one wasn’t paying attention, she might think the book was called Sara Evans).

Having said all that, I will say that the writing was above average. Evans and Hauck add many stunning lines of imagery to the novel. The chapters were short, which helped the fact that the pacing was so slow at some points. Evans and Hauck also applied a normally annoying flashback technique, (one chapter present, next chapter past) in a good way. The flashbacks seem seamless, which it great because this technique is normally jarring.

On the Twelveth Day of Christmas: The Christmas Dog

Title: The Christmas Dog

Author: Melody Carson

Christmas Cheer Rating: 4

I started this challenge with a book by Melody Carlson and I'm ending with another book of hers. Thankfully, I enjoyed this book a lot better than I did the first one. I guess this is why you shouldn't give up on an author because of one bad book.

The Christmas Dog is the story of Betty Kowalski, who has become quite cranky in her old age. She particularly doesn't like her new neighbor Jack Jones. She is ready to take drastic measures when a scroungy mutt and her granddaughter arrive just before Christmas. Betty learns a valuable Christmas lesson from the two abandoned souls and her ornery neighbors.

This book starts a little slow, but it picks up towards the middle, the reason I didn't give it a 5 rating. Even in such a short book, I connected with all the characters. I loved Avery and Jack. I also liked the way Carlson included the message of judging people by what they seemed. It added a nice layer to the story. This story is more on the caliber that I expected from Carlson.