Time is up and we have five winners for our second blog giveaway.  Yay!  Each person who posted a comment regarding the books they could read over and over again wins a copy of The Calvary Road by Roy Hession.

Our winners are Carey, Kay, Tauni, Carolyn and Jessica!  Thank you for commenting, and please be sure to let me know what you think of the book. 

Watch for December’s blog giveaway in……December.

I’ve enjoyed reading about some of your book favorites, and I found myself mmm-hmmming in agreement to so many. I have three takers on our book giveaway so far, and six books to give! So maybe there are a few more of you who might just be brave and share your favorite book or two with our myriad blog readers. 🙂

Another book that I could read over and over again is Les Miserables by Victor Hugo.

If you haven’t read it, you really must. I first read it in ninth grade in Mrs. Grimley’s Novel class, and groaned when I saw the drabness and thickness of the book. But I wanted an A in the class, so read it, and half enjoyed it.

I read Les Mis again in 1985, and was floored by its scope, and saw things at age twenty-eight that of course I had missed when I was fourteen.

I read it for the third time a few years ago and marveled at the book and its message. I recommend it every time the opportunity arises. It’s worth the time.

In January of 2007, my husband and I pinched ourselves as we sat with dear friends in the elegant Queen’s Theatre in London, and watched the breathtaking production of the musical Les Miserables on that famous revolving stage. When the final curtain went down, we weren’t the only ones with tears on our faces. What a memory.

Sometimes there are huge books I want to read, but because of different involvements I just don’t want to start on 1000 pages during the school year. So I plan for longer “Summer Reads”.  Maybe you could make Les Miserables a summer read, or a vacation read.

Last time I read it, it made me a little Les(s) Miserables. You might find it helps your mood too.

I love to talk books. I can’t think of a time in my entire life when I haven’t been reading a book or three. Right now I’m reading a unique and delightful one called Cider With Rosie, recommended by a dear friend in northern Scotland.

But I would like to know what books have touched you the most. If you could only have five books to read for the rest of your life, what would they be?  Which ones would you want to read over and over? I’m assuming for some of you, The Bible is one of them. It is the first one I would choose. (Hebrews 4:12)

What else would you choose? Tell about one (or more) of the books you would pick, and why.

One of my choices would be The Calvary Road by Roy Hession. It was recommended to my husband and me years ago by a godly friend. Michael and I read it out loud together, slowly. We both wept our way through the pages. And it changed our lives. It’s one of those books that needs to be read and reread every year. I’m at a place in my life where I need a balm and a true course, and I think it’s time for me to read it again.

Even one of my favorite ministries, Community Bible Study, puts this book on their recommended reading list every single year. CBS’s executive director reads The Calvary Road each January, to help set her course for the coming year.

I have other books I would choose, and I will post about those another time. If you’re reading this today, won’t you share with us what your choices would be?  What books have made you laugh, given you hope, changed the course of your life, delivered new insight, made you dream?  What books would feed your soul if you could read only those for the rest of your life?

I look forward to your answers. And this sounds like a good time for another blog giveaway. I will send a copy of The Calvary Road to every person who comments on this post.

Happy reading,

It’s Thankful Thursday. Today I give thanks to the Lord for prayer. For the promise that He hears. For His power that can move mountains. For His love that has made me His daughter.

I thank God for friends who will pray. I thank Him for the invitation to come boldly to His throne of grace. For His words, “Bring them here to me” regarding people or situations where miracles were desperately needed.

Lord Jesus, thank you for your love and power. Thank you for hearing us when we pray. Thank you for defeating the enemy of our souls. Thank you for being my God and King and Father.

Now that snow is in our forecast, it seems all the more imperative to have some carols playing in October.  Here’s what’s going through the house on the stereo/intercom system today:

Windham Hill’s Celtic Christmas – this one makes me wish I could spend all day with a book by a roaring blaze in our bedroom fireplace. 

A Charlie Brown Christmas will take you right back to your childhood, but aside from the familiar songs from the Peanuts cartoons, this is a mild, jazzy CD that I love to play each year.

Carpenters Christmas Portrait – “Merry Christmas Darling” is our favorite.

Happy Holidays by Jo Stafford is a wonderful old recording that reminds me of my mother, who loved and played this kind of music.

What’s on your playlist today, even if it’s not yet Christmas music?

I will drive five lovely women to the Twin Cities soon to attend a leadership conference for Community Bible Study. My dear husband will be at home taking care of people, dogs and details here.

Here are some things on my to-do list that really should be attended to before we depart:

1.   Put gas in the Odyssey and check the oil.

2.   Make sure a fresh box of Kleenex is in the van.

3.   Print out driving directions to hotel.

4.   Remove the old computer keyboard from the back of the van.

5.   Remove the green and camouflage snake costume from the way-back of the van.

6.   Pack a Honeycrisp apple and a Kashi Peanut Butter bar for snacks.

7.   Make sure I wear the jeans with Lycra.

8.   Wear turtleneck since my neck gets cold when I drive long distances.

9.   Make sure meals at home are planned for.

10.  Kiss everyone goodbye, see the emotion in my husband’s eyes and begin to question why I ever agreed to go in the first place.

Last week I introduced a weekly feature on the blog here. I know I’m being frequently reminded about how vital it is to live in a grateful manner. And I don’t want to grow into a bitter, complaining old woman. Bitter, complaining old women generally aren’t fun to be around. I want to grow in grace and gratitude.

Today I thank God for my vision. Blurry as it is without corrective lenses, I can still see. With my glasses, I can clearly see the gorgeous fall displays outside my windows. I can see the three huge deer that wander into our yard each morning. I can see my husband’s kind eyes look at me. And oh, the wonder of seeing the smiles of my grandchildren! I can see the words of friends typed in e-mails. I can read God’s Word. I can see. And I give thanks to the Lord today, for the amazing gift of sight.

Are you thankful for anything today?  I would love to know.

It doesn’t sound right does it?  (Julie) Ann of Beige Gables. Or Julie of Eight Gables. Not when Anne of Green Gables rolls right off the tongue and evokes wonderful literary recollections of wistfulness, innocent antics and simplicity. 

I’ve always felt transported by the Anne series by L.M. Montgomery, and would someday love to visit Prince Edward Island. I even play the sound track to the movie, and have a very specific prayer I ask the Lord about, relating to one of the songs on the CD. (Strange, I know).

And long before I loved these books, I have favored gable roofs. With a husband who’s a carpenter, I soon learned the difference between a hip roof, a mansard roof, a gable roof, a shed or a gambrel roof. And I always liked the looks of gable roofs, especially if their pitch was steep.

Yesterday I just realized that we live in a house with a total of eight gables. Eight beige gables. And my middle name is Ann. So I ask you – if I had fancy personal calling cards made up with “(Julie) Ann of Beige Gables” or “Julie of Eight Gables” printed on them, do you think it would fly? 

When introduced to someone new, if I firmly shook their hand, smiled warmly and looked straight into their eyes and said, “Hello, so nice to meet you. I’m Julie Ann of Beige Gables”, do you think they would feel right away that we were kindred spirits?

Are any of you gifted in dream interpretation, as Joseph, wrongly imprisoned in Egypt was?  I don’t often remember my dreams anymore, but this is what I dreamed right before I woke up this morning:

A former pastor of ours decided to start up a church again. In the midst of all the preparation he and his friends were involved in, he wrote a message to me on one piece of paper (I haven’t seen him in years and didn’t know him well, personally). He put it in an envelope and wrote on the outside of it: “A Scotsman Can’t Hurt a Scotsman”. A woman I am only just acquainted with delivered the envelope with the note inside to me. But the letter had been sealed in a thick plastic container similar to what you get electronics in these days – those molded, impossible-to-open packages that require a small chainsaw to cut through them. As I was trying to open this molded package with the letter inside, there were about fifty crickets scrambling around inside too. I kept pressing down on the crickets with my thumb (through the hard plastic), hoping to crush them all before I opened the package to get to the letter that had “A Scotsman Can’t Hurt a Scotsman” written by my former pastor on the outside. The crushed crickets made quite a juicy mess all over my envelope. When I finally got the package open and pulled the letter out, it was black and wet with cricket corpses. I opened the envelope and held the single sheet of paper by the corner and instantly dipped it in a liquid solution in a tray, similar to what a person in a darkroom developing a photograph does, and most of the cricket crunch washed off, but the ink of the message was running off too, due to the strength of the solution, I think. I quickly tried to open the folded note, and before I could read it, the acquaintance who delivered it to me announced that she already knew what it said. She casually remarked that the note inside the envelope that said “A Scotsman Can’t Hurt a Scotsman”, basically confirmed that I was so deeply flawed that no one knew what was wrong with me, and it was generally agreed that I couldn’t be fixed.

And that was the end of the dream. I got up, let the Schnauzers out, and started fixing breakfasts.

Now I know dreams often reveal what we’re internalizing, but I just don’t buy that I can’t be fixed. I happen to think I’m fixable. I know it’s a hard job and would take an expert, but I know Someone who can do it, and I’m sticking pretty close to Him these days.  🙂

“I am the LORD, the God of all mankind. Is anything too hard for me?” 

                                                                                                         Jeremiah 32:27