So. In case you don't know 23 very well, let me just say that she's very open to quirky ideas and finding fun ways to do the mundane.
Her latest adventure is riding her bike to the coffee shop. First she had to buy the bike. Of course, she bought the sweet retro looking model. Gotta look the part of quirky if you are quirky, after all.
Before she punctured her tire and put the bugger out of commission for a week she was able to ride to and from work and enjoy every second of it.
Well. Most of them anyway. Seems that six in the morning can be dark in spots. And the night creatures aren't all tucked away in their beds yet. She nearly ran over a possum. With her sweet new bike. You just don't experience that every day. Ha.
Crossing Oceans
Gina Holmes
Paperback: 400 pages
Publisher: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1414333056
Product Description:
Jenny Lucas swore she’d never go home again. But being told you’re dying has a way of changing things. Years after she left, she and her five-year-old daughter, Isabella, must return to her sleepy North Carolina town to face the ghosts she left behind. They welcome her in the form of her oxygen tank–toting grandmother, her stoic and distant father, and David, Isabella’s dad . . . who doesn’t yet know he has a daughter. As Jenny navigates the rough and unknown waters of her new reality, the unforgettable story that unfolds is a testament to the power of love and its ability to change everything—to heal old hurts, bring new beginnings . . . even overcome the impossible. A stunning debut about love and loss from a talented new voice.
My Review:
I am always hesitant to review a book written by a friend. Can you imagine how much more apprehensive I was reading the debut novel from not only a friend but a critique partner? A critique partner lives to rip and shred work to point out what's wrong and what needs to be changed to make the work readable.
Though I've critiqued Gina Holmes for years, I had just glimpses into Crossing Oceans and I knew it was a very different style from her previous suspense novels. Her suspense is strong. But how well would her voice translate to women's fiction?
Once I opened her book and began to read I can say that her voice translates with a poignant grace that is rare in a debut novelist. And Crossing Oceans is a story that Holmes was meant to tell.
Holmes tackles a heavy story line with a touch of whimsy and deep, deep melancholy, sometimes in the same paragraph. A young mother, emotionally orphaned when her mother died and father cocooned himself in a cloak of angry grief, finds herself forced to return to the home she had escaped. Jenny has Stage IV metastatic cancer and must reunite with the family she fled for the sake of her little girl's very near future need. With less than a year to repair and restore relationships Jenny tackles the past and the future, the present and the pain, all while attempting to give her daughter, Isabella, memories and love and what life she has available to give.
This is a novel that quickly overcame the author and my relationship with her. The story told itself in a realistic and three-dimensional tale of life and death, sorrow and fear, choices and consequences, pain and beauty, loss and hope. Holmes voice is similar to some of my favorite authors in the Christian fiction genre, Siri Mitchell, Charles Martin, Susan Meissner, Claudia Mair Burney, Lisa Samson and Bonnie Groves.
Crossing Oceans is not an easy read. It is haunting and beautiful and raw. Expect to cry and expect to remember this family long after you turn the last page.
So far April is dry but whether we have April showers or not, May is coming and with it, flowers.
I am particularly fond of daisies. There i
s just something about the simplicity and the cheerful little "countenance" of a daisy. I'm not drawn to them because of scent, that's for sure, because if they actually have one, it's not pleasant.
I'm also drawn to lilacs for completely different reasons. The season for lilacs is short and imitation lilac scent makes me queasy. But standing between purple festooned lil
ac bushes and breathing in that unmistakable scent is one of the great pleasures in life.
Why did God take the time to give us an abundance of flowers? I suppose we could say its for the bees and the birds. Sure. But why would He make the fragrant lilac that lasts three weeks, the peony, the poppy and the hyacinth, all vibrantly colorful and vastly different?
I'm going to suggest that the flowers He created, in all their glory and difference, are for our pleasure. And His.
Each type of flower has a growing season, soil and sun preferences and a maintenance need that
differs from others. And each of us has our own flower preferences. Roses are beautiful but come with thorns. Daisies are hardy, cheerful and scentless. Lilacs and peonies are here today and gone tomorrow and the scent of each can't quite be captured in a bottle. Some flowers grow shallow, some crave sun, some can grow without soil, some need shade.
A garden can be sculpted and neat or unruly and wild and both can be gorgeous. Flowers even have their own language. A gift of yellow roses means something entirely different from a bouquet of carnations or lilacs. And a gift of flowers from a special friend is not like receiving a token flower at a banquet.
Aren't we also very much like a garden? God's own garden, created for His glory and His purpose and His pleasure? And for the needs and pleasure of those around us? Som
e of us will be drawn to the human roses, others will be drawn to the wildflower garden. Those who come in contact with us, those whom we pray for, those who don't know Jesus, yet, are drawn or repelled by the scents and the sights and the garden that we are.
What type of flower are you? Functional? High-maintenance? Fragrant? Can we help cultivate our particular human flower? Can we offer our soil some help? Maybe do some self-pruning? Any dead-heads that you are aware of that might be hindering new growth? Could your soil use a little more time in the Word as preparation for some new seed or seedlings? Maybe we could try to stop striving to be roses if we are wildflowers and we can accept that wildflowers are beautiful and valuable just as they are.
And while you are pondering all of this, don't forget to stop and smell some flowers.
I fell in love with my husband again last night.
Not that I was out of love, not at all.
But I saw him through an unusual lens.
His father is ill. Very ill. As we sat and talked with his dad, I was able to observe a different level of their relationship and to experience a hint of the depth of the love between them. My husband served his father his dinner and he sat down, grasped his dad's hand and mine and prayed for his father.
My father-in-law is a kind and generous man. He has been quietly providing for his children and their families in so many ways, many we were unaware of, as long as I've known him. And seeing my husband's kindness and gentleness toward this special man reminds me that life is so much more than the day to day things we do to get through to the next day. And that I'm blessed that the apple has not fallen far from the tree.
A blessing beyond words.
Life is short, art long, opportunity fleeting, experience treacherous, judgment difficult.
Hypocrites
Note to the one reader who knows who she is. Yes. Or else. Two days have passed and my muscles hurt. I'll be asking you. Prepare. Now. Back to the story of my grocery goodies.
So far my journey into $500.00 worth of groceries was problem free and chugging right along. But I was running out of options and had to dig into the fine print. (All of the offers had fine print.) I clicked on several, read the details and backed out.
Finally, I clicked on a face cream trial but repetitive-clicking-exhaustion had rendered me momentarily (yes, opening myself up to nasty comments here) clueless and I didn't read all the details. This one was the only negative experience. Because I didn't read the fine print very well I ended up missing the deadline for the inexpensive trial and had to buy the face cream. I got the second shipment canceled before having to buy a second one but the one I purchased was pricey....$78....pricey. The face cream is great, actually. But really, not $78 great. And the really, really frustrating thing was that the company didn't click clear me as participating so when it came down the final week before my completion deadline I had to find one more offer to participate in. This one cleared me right away and I ended up getting some great bargains through them so I ended up being okay. But. If you participate with any of these, learn from me...read the fine print.
With all eight of my offers completed, my gift card quest reached the next level. I filled out paperwork, mailed it in and waited. And waited. And waited. All the time I waited I wondered if I had purchased the equivalent of a bumper sticker or T-Shirt emblazoned with a bright orange "SUCKER."
Would I actually get my card? And if I did, would it work?
I did and it does.
Free lunches usually have strings but if you can work within the strings, that free lunch can be a tasty, tasty little meal (or many).
Note to someone specific, if you are not that person you may check out for just a moment, I did my Wednesday workout, did you? And since I won't see you today, you have one more day of grace. Use it wisely and I'll ask you about your workouts on Friday....
Okay. Back to the regularly scheduled post.
I posted a link to Freebies VIP last week. And mentioned my awesome deal and said I'd share about it later. So. Looks like later. Here goes.
In early November, shortly after I realized that legitimate freebies were something I could find on the internet I checked out the Freebie VIP offers and one in particular jumped out at me. It was for a $500.00 gift card to various grocery stores. One of which was Whole Foods. I was understandably skeptical but decided to trust that what was said was true. In order to get the card I had to participate in several offers via other companies. Eight of them to be exact. I had seen other listings that mentioned participation was required and had read about another blogger who'd gotten some real satisfaction through one of the companies that was participating.
I went through all the options and there were many. Several seemed safe. Two no-brainers were Netflix and Blockbuster at home. I clicked and joined both intending to keep one and lose the other after the low-cost or free trial. I had been toying with Netflix for months so that was an easy choice. Another easy choice was a birthstone ring for a total of $7.00 and Silkies for about the same. I joined both, got my goods and canceled upon meeting the requirements. So far I was pretty pleased.
I joined two different on-line savings groups. One offered a free $25.00 card and the second offered two $25.00 gift cards. So I stayed with them both for the free trial and one month paid membership to get the additional freebies. If I was a big on-line shopper they might have been really beneficial but I'm not so I can't say much about the benefits there. I also joined a free music site that offered free songs. I downloaded the songs and canceled before the monthly charge kicked in. The only issue with any of the above was that the songs didn't download onto the I-Pod like they were supposed to. Each of the things I had signed up for were very easy when it came time to cancel and well worth trying out and cost very little.
Now comes the oops.
And maybe I'll leave you hanging. I'll share my oops tomorrow.
