A beloved Bible passage is 1 Thessalonians 4

“… to aspire to live quietly, & to mind your own affairs, & to work with your hands …”

Recently I came across this devotional from one of my favorite authors, Paul David Tripp. I highly recommend his devotional books. This is from Everyday Gospel: 

“For many of us, social media dictates how we spend our time, & it dominates how we act, react, & respond to others. Social media is the place where you go not to live quietly. The power of social media is that it gives you a voice-& it rewards loud voices. It encourages you to weigh in & to make your presence & opinion known. Social media encourages you to live loudly, & it rewards you if you do.

You do not go to social media to mind your own affairs. No, social media encourages you to to mind other people’s business. It rewards you for sticking your nose into things that have nothing to do with you … It gives you the false impression that you are a part of something, when in reality your involvement is just a bunch of keyboard clicks.

Two things result when we fail to live quietly & to stay out of others’ affairs. First, if your attention is dominated by the business of others, then you are not investing time in examining your own heart & life, in confessing what has been revealed, in seeking God’s forgiveness, & in surrendering yourself once more to him. This harms your spiritual growth & worship. Second, the time you invest in social media takes you away from developing & using the gifts God has given you, & employing them in the work he has given you.

Paul David Tripp

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March is nearly here along with a spring forward adjustment to the clock which steals an hour of reading away! I’m dreaming of planting a little colonial garden but it’s too soon here in the Pacific Northwest. We’ve experienced one of the mildest winters on record. Rhododendron bushes were actually blooming in December! I missed our usual, beautiful snow, since we got a scant half inch this winter. But you need only look up from our foothills to see the Olympic Mountains dressed in white.

I made sure to put a snowstorm in my Christmas novella I told you about last post. I’m finishing the first draft now & adding historic quotes at the beginning of each chapter. To say I’m smitten with this story is truly an understatement. It highlights history at one of my favorite historic sites in the most festive way. But for now, back to spring & dreaming of new story ideas. If you have something in mind you’d like for me to write in future please let me know!

And please return to to this journal page for a title reveal soon for my next full-length historical romance with Revell releasing in January 2027! Cover reveal coming after that…

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I’ve been inspired to share & count my joys by author friend, Stacey Thacker. If you’ve not met Stacey, please visit her website & sign up for her newsletter. You don’t want to miss her insightful spiritual posts, the list of things she’s loving month by month, her edifying books, & so much more! She’s an inspiration to many, me included. Hence, this post. If you’re Christmas shopping, hope this gives you fresh ideas…

OCTOBER JOYS!

Distilled Genius – A Collection of Life-Changing Quotations

Barefoot Dreams Socks

Candlelighter

Everyday Prayers for Christmas

Yardley Royal Red Roses Powder

Kindle case

Christmas for the Heart

See you in November!

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Time is truly flying & somehow writing happens in the midst of it all. I wish I could slow time down & am often glad eternity has no clock. I can’t imagine it but I think it will mean we enjoy these fleeting joys forever! Every summer does have its own story & the blessings are many. American flags. Fresh strawberries. Book stuff. Sunshine. Long walks. Lake days. Good meals. The pool. Our garden. Trips to our unfinished little house down south near our boys. I could write a book about the blessings. There’s always a down side but it’s better not to dwell on it as Philippians 4:8 says.  And then there’s Paul’s words in James … Count it all JOY! And so I am. Hope you are, too.

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April is such a special month. It’s Easter, a wondrous event. While I miss creating Easter baskets for my littles and Easter egg hunts, now I get to dwell on the significance of the holiday in its truest form. As I grow older, the risen Christ means more to me than ever before.

What I most remember about Easters past is my granny’s big dinners after church overflowing with country ham & side dishes & deviled eggs & her wonderful yeast rolls (her one departure from daily cornbread). Since April is my birthday month, she always made a big German Chocolate Cake & would store it on the back porch in a closet to keep it cool. How I loved opening that door!

Times & celebrations change but I’m so thankful for wonderful memories & the fact that God & His love & faithfulness stay the same. We are having a different Easter this year, just us two. The next months will be a whirlwind of travel & books so being home for a quiet holiday is a welcome gift. So, this year, however you’re celebrating…

A blessed Easter to you!

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These are just a few faces of fellow travelers. We share a love of Scotland & Scottish ancestry & were amazed by all that we experienced while there. One of the highlights was the home of our 6th great-grandfather, George Hume, of Wedderburn Castle. Three of us on tour are his great-granddaughters, so to speak, & the estate he forfeited when he was exiled to Virginia in the 18th-century is incredibly beautiful today.

I found the Hume’s Lowland home especially poignant & moving given all they lost as a family during that very turbulent time as Jacobites. Their history is what inspired both A Bound Heart & my upcoming Scottish novel, The Rose & the Thistle.

Here’s a photo of me standing in the castle courtyard. A Hume descendant still lives there today. The grounds are so peaceful and private. How I wish I was still Lady Laura of Wedderburn Castle!

I’m overflowing with inspiration & especially excited to release this second Scottish novel next January. Soon I’ll share the cover via newsletter first then here in my journal. The design is stunning & captures the novel so very well.

Haste ye back!

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Strawberry Pretzel Salad

Happy almost Thanksgiving! If I could I’d love to learn what’s on your holiday menu this year, both Thanksgiving & Christmas. Here at our house we bring out the best china and glassware and heirloom silverware and set the table in advance. Sometimes days in advance.

This year we’re feasting on a smoked turkey, cornbread stuffing/dressing, mashed potatoes and gravy, macaroni and cheese bites, sweet potatoes in puff pastry, cranberry sauce, green beans, deviled eggs, & dinner rolls. Iced Christmas cookies & a banana cream pie are for dessert at my son’s request as it’s also his birthday. Oh, & strawberry pretzel salad:) We then enjoy leftovers for days & days.

If you’ve read any of my novels you know that I love putting delicious details into each one. At a Zoom book club meeting this past week, more than one reader said she loved the food my characters enjoyed & then proceeded to quote from the novel! Truly, food is a gift from God we can enjoy not just in person but on the page. I’m so thankful we have a holiday devoted to giving thanks around a bountiful table.

Wishing you a peaceful, joyful holiday season!

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It’s that wonderful time of almost summer when I just pressed SEND and returned galleys of Tidewater Bride to my publisher & am now almost ready to share the new cover while awaiting the final pages to read one last time before the book goes to print. I usually run out into the garden and pick flowers to decorate those pages before prayerfully going over the novel before it reaches your hands.

So many book events that I’d looked forward to this year have been cancelled. Staying home is good but getting old. But I must admit that all this quarantining does wonders for writing. I’m beginning to think of ideas for future books. But first there’s another for Revell in my current contract that I’m nearly finished with and is due this November.

And I’m wondering what kind of stories and settings you are hoping to read? Anything you have a heart for but can’t find? Any history you’d love brought to the page?

I’d love to hear your thoughts!

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My Kentucky kitchen

Simple White Bread

1 teaspoon sugar
1 package dry yeast
1 ¼ cups warm water, divided
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 ¼ teaspoon salt
1 large egg, lightly beaten

Dissolve sugar and yeast in ¼ cup warm water in large bowl; let stand 5 minutes.
Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups, and level with knife. Add 1 cup warm water, flour, and salt to yeast mixture; stir until soft dough forms. Turn out onto floured surface. Knead dough till smooth and elastic about 5 minutes.

Place dough in large bowl coated with cooking spray, turning to coat top. Cover and let rise in warm place free from drafts, 45 minutes or until doubled in size. Gently press 2 fingers into dough. If indentation remains, dough has risen enough.

Uncover dough, and punch dough down. Cover and let rest 10 minutes.

Roll into a 14×7-inch rectangle on a floured surface. Roll up tightly, starting with a short edge, pressing firmly to eliminate air pockets; pinch seam and ends to seal. Place roll, seam side down, in an 8×4-inch loaf pan coated with cooking spray. Cover and let rise 30 minutes or until doubled in size.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Uncover dough, gently brush with egg. Bake at 425 degrees for 12 minutes. Reduce over temperature to 350 degrees (do not remove bread from oven). Bake an additional 15 minutes or until loaf sound hollow when tapped. Remove from pan; cool on a wire rack.

ENJOY!

Yield: 12 servings/1 loaf

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I’m spending time researching and writing by the fire, working on a novel set in Yorktown, Virginia with a privateer hero (he’s quite dashing!) and awaiting galleys for the James Towne story set in 1634 (which my head editor loves). A new title and cover art are in the works for this next novel releasing January 2021.

I’m baking bread which I find very satisfying, not to mention eating it:) Some of you have asked for my favorite bread recipe which I’ll post soon.

I’m listening to old hymns, each a sermon in itself, and also contemporary worship music like O Come to the Altar

I’m looking forward to Easter, a holiday I’ve loved since childhood. It’s also my birthday that week so one year nearer heaven for me!

I’m laughing at memes, remembering ‘a merry heart is good medicine.”

Proverbs 17:22

Evening Prayer by Pierre Edouard Frere

I’m praying, something I’ve never been very good at. My mind is usually out on a ramble thanks to my imagination. I have to work at prayer though it’s easier when people are suffering to persist. Often I feel too deeply for words.

I’m taking lots of walks which I love. Out west we live at the gateway of Olympic National Park so this hike along Lake Crescent is just minutes from our door.

Am I at peace? Absolutely, even if I somehow get the virus and don’t live through it. But that’s okay, too. As a believer, this is my temporary home. I’m made for heaven and dying is the door to get there. I don’t live in fear of it.

‘Do not fear’ is used repeatedly in the Bible, with fear mentioned 68 times in the Psalms. More than 60 times we are told to fear the Lord, a positive spin on a mostly negative feeling.

During this time of change and uncertainty, John 14:27 in the Amplified version speaks to me:

Peace I leave with you; My own peace I give and bequeath to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. Stop allowing yourselves to be agitated and disturbed; and do not permit yourselves to be fearful and intimidated and cowardly and unsettled.

I’m praying for my readers, family, and friends, that we live out this verse, now & always. Wishing you shalom, too, another timely word with a multi-layered meaning far beyond the concept of peace. Psalm 23 is another keeper for we are truly like sheep and He, thankfully, is our very capable Shepherd.

So, shalom, fellow sheep, our good Shepherd has all in hand.

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