My Reading: A Girl of Limberlost and Book Girl Thoughts

My Readings:

A Girl of Limberlost and Book Girl Thoughts

A Girl of Limberlost
by Gene Stratton-Porter

My dear friend, Heather L., has told me repeatedly over the years to read A Girl of Limberlost, but, it never felt like the right time.  Finally, this winter was the perfect time to read this story. 

I'm not sure if I ordered it or if Dd just happened to check it out and bring it home, but alas, there was a library copy in our dining room!

My other dear friend, Chelle, had recently mailed me a copy of Book Girl by Sarah Clarkson that recommended reading A Girl of Limberlost.  Book Girl is a book that talks about books that Sarah and her friends have read over the years and shares the most valued books with the reader, along with synopsis of what the books are about.

So thankful for Heather and Chelle---my friends that share good book ideas with me!!!!!

 It is always interesting how you can get pelleted by the same idea until you do what you're supposed to do!  

I quickly figured out why Heather thought I would like it---a girl named Elnora, with a deceased father, and a mother that acts like she doesn't exist, is drawn to nature and being outside.  

At least that is what the first half of the book is about; somewhere around the middle of the book there is a theme shift and a young man comes into the story and kind of hijacks the story I could relate to and becomes more of a love story. 





 I was quite taken with this book.  I love how nature was the balm and solution for many of her problems.  How often I've found time outside to help me through the difficulties and trials of life.  Also, there just aren't a lot of books about children being raised by parents that seem bothered by the inconvenience of their child, at least not in this non-violent and ambivalent way. 

There just aren't a lot of books about children being raised by parents that seem bothered by the inconvenience of their child, at least not in this non-violent and ambivalent way. I've read stories of parents yelling, fighting, hitting their children but not so many stories of parents that go about their lives living as if there weren't children in the other room.  Elnora's mother goes about her life, sharing the same house, but completely ambivalent to the existence of her daughter and how she spends her days.  They are strangers.  This quiet existence isn't often portrayed.

Ironically, the story is set in Indiana and ends while they are in Grand Rapids---which is what I've done the last 20 years!

Elnora, finds her own way without the help of any family or parenting...that is until the middle of the book when the story has a mid-life crisis and everything changes.  A man arrives at their home in the woods and Elnora's life, and our story, changes.



I really liked and related to the first half of the book and was disappointed the story wasn't concluded in the trajectory it had started in; as if Anne of Green Gables moved away from Prince Edward Island after a year a two to live with a young family in Chicago.  It does all work out in the end, they go through some near death experiences and tribulation to happily arrive at a perfect happily-ever-after ending.   I do love those neat and tidy endings, but I did so enjoy the Elnora in the beginning of the book---out in the woods collecting moths and solving her own problems with the help of a little boy and the kind neighbors beside her.  



 The story felt a little hijacked, although it was an interesting new story that had interfered with the story that had begun in the beginning!  I did like how Elnora's passion for nature and collecting insects is what drew her boyfriend in and continued as a thread throughout the story.  She didn't stop being who she was because she fell in love, he just joined into her life and shared them with her.  She stayed true to herself and her life, just with a man at the end of it; considering the book was published in 1909, that was very progressive.  I love how she stayed who she was throughout the book; no conforming herself to fit the grooves of the man she fell in love with.  She is such a solid, formed person who knew herself and remained so, and I am confident her character will only grow wiser as she matures.  She handled her trials better than I would have known, and her mother also said the same, so Elnora is a very wise character to begin with.  I guess we all long to be as independent as Elnora is in her self.

I found this book, warts and all, to be nearly impossible to put down.  I was very happy to be with Elnora walking through the woods, looking under leaves for moths and cocoons.  I highly recommend this book, especially for female readers, due to the fact that Elnora sets such a good example of finding her passion and never letting it go.  She problem solves by herself and unites those around her.  In situation after situation, she shows how to respond in a loving and generous way to others.  This good example reminds me of the books that the Lamplighter organization has been reprinting, books that show this generation how to walk through life in a good way.  

Afterward: 

I've recently talked to Heather about this book and she had forgotten about the mother-daughter relationship and said she primarily recommended this book because Elnora, like me, has a great appreciation for nature.   

Book Girl by Sarah Clarkson

I love books that recommend other books; and Book Girl does just that!  I've been pecking away at the recommendations for the past few months and have enjoyed the push to read outside my choices.  Although I do get a feeling that Sarah Clarkson is much more of a romantic than I am!  Some of the suggestions that I've read or perused so far are:

Run With The Horses: A Quest for Life at It's Best 
by Eugene H. Peterson.  
This book on the prophet Jeremiah was very interesting, but wasn't a page turner for me.  Some books just share a deep thought and you want time to process that thought, so you put it down for a few days.  

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte:

Can you believe I've never read this?!  I'm still listening to it on audio---with the hope that Dd is enjoying it as well.  I'd watched to movies on this story so many times and hadn't been drawn to it's gloomy appearance.  I'm glad I'm finally hearing it, but haven't been completely won over by it. I just keep thinking, why am I not listening to Jane Austen if I am to spending my time on this type of literature?  I miss Jane's humor and sarcasm that comes along with these types of stories!  

New Seeds of Contemplation, Middlemarch, and Eat This Book are three other book recommendations that I've been pecking at---but, not wholly taken in by yet.  

Bible Study:

Right now I am working on a new Beth Moore Bible Study:

To Live Is Christ, as well as reading a 'stand alone' book by her titled: To Live Is Christ.  I assumed that the book and the Bible Study were connected and would work together, but they don't connect.  I'm enjoying both, but disappointed that they don't work together.

Armor of God by Priscilla Shirer:

Just started and LOVING it.  Wow, can Priscilla really light a fire and increase the desire I have to grow and learn.  I'm hoping this study, like the others I've done by her, will really fill my tool box and help me to become a more powerful prayer warrior.  She is one of my favorite bible study authors.

Seamless by Angie Smith:

I just finished this about a month ago.  I'm really glad I did it, and even Dh enjoyed doing it with me during his two months on disability.  It is an overview of the entire bible, hopping along throughout the book to either help you get to know the entire bible or serve as a refresher to those of us that have been doing in-depth studies on specific books (like me).  It was a really good review and reminded me of things I've not hit upon for years by stopping in books that are often overlooked.  Recommend, but also should point out the first 1/6 of the book was a bit hard to get into.  Once I got past the first hump it was downhill from there!

Wisdom From God: 

Bible Study with Dh, it is the one the older adults are using at church right now.  I'm not that impressed with it.

Don't forget to take time to spend with your Bible; refill your cup!  Accept the love and encouragement we need and is freely given.

......

Feb. 3-9, 2019 Loss, Power Outages, Epic Weather, Generator, Felt Birds

Feb. 3-9, 2019 

Loss, Power Outages, Epic Weather, Generator, Felt Birds

Generator saved us again!

Hello, Friends!

  This was a really hard week, in a few different ways; the loss of our electrical power for five days and the loss of my aunt. My wonderful, kind, loving aunt passed away at 92 and I grapple with the idea of whether I can fly to her service in Boston while all sorts of crazy epic winter hit us in Grand Rapids and there in New England.  I've only kept in contact with her, my mom, and occasionally my brother, so my extended family is a short list.  Out of the family I've had, even not meeting her until I was in college, she was so very nice to me and made such an impression on me.  I've been changed for the better having known her.  She showed me how a parent can care, adore, cherish, and enjoy having children and seeing them as the blessing they are--something I didn't see with my immediate family.  I will always miss her and keep her cherished memory in my heart.  

Weather: Generator

It was a pretty crazy weather week--Sunday was fairly nice; sunny and warm.  Then on Wednesday, the crazy ice hit us hard.  It usually a blessing to live in the woods, surrounded by trees; but, this week it was downright scary hearing trees falling all around us.  



Our neighbor's house was hit by a tree and they were without electricity an extra day longer than we were.  It was scary having huge trees so fragile and brittle; thankful we didn't have any damage.  We did lose our electricity on Thursday morning at 9:30 and didn't get it back until late Monday afternoon around 4:00 pm.  What a long five days! 

Chickens:
My Black Hen is still sick.  She continues to be impossible to pamper and refuses to be hand-fed.  I've not had a chicken that is so resistant to help.  I'd been cooking rice and adding healthy things to the mixture each day, sometimes 3x a day, to help keep them healthy and then we lost our electricity this week and had to rely on limited power use with the generator.  This week their food was less exemplary but was glad I could keep their heat lamp for them. 

Migraines and Botox:
This week I had my second round of shots in my head, neck, and shoulders with Botox; which is supposed to take down the number of migraines I get each month.  This time I had my doctor give the shots instead of a student like I had my first time.  I'd love to say he did a better job, but actually, the student was way better.  



I had raised 'eggs' on my scalp where he injected me.  It hurt to even lay my head down on my pillow at night!  He was a brute comparatively; I'm still having pains where he gave the shots in my neck and shoulders but my head finally healed.  



I am going to see if I can figure out how to get a different person to administer the shots next time.  I had a headache and migraine Sunday and Monday, but after the shots, I had the week off from that pain.  I still can't decide if the shots are helping.



Felt Birds:
I worked on my felt birds this week.  I managed to complete three by the end of the week.  One of them turned out a bit odd so I undid it and changed it, but that took the same amount of time as doing a fourth one.  I'm trying a design I saw online and I'm not sure I like it.  The mini-goldfinches I made in December aren't very good either.  It's been a weird year for my felt birds.  I'm hoping to get a few good ones made soon.



Dd Felt Bird:
Dd started working on felt bird this week, but she is keeping it in hiding for now.  I can't wait to see it.  She always does such a good job.

Bird One--you can see the differences most by looking at their differing beaks.

A Girl of Limberlost:
I finished reading A Girl of Limberlost by Gene Stratton-Porter.  What a good book!  I'm writing up a post on it.

Bird Two

Dh Work Transition:
This was Dh's second week back at work and he is struggling with working with so many people with different ideas on how to get things done.  It was a really hard week for him.

Bird Three

Dh Eye:
Dh had an appt. with Dr. Gindzin again this week.  His eye is healing really well.  He only has one week left of doing eye drops left!!!  

Dd's Academic Progress:

Bible:

Church, Sunday School, Youth program and personal Bible Study:

Week 20 on her Word of Life Bible Study



Youth Program
Dh watched the Super Bowl together and Dd went to the Youth Group party at Judy's house.  I bet she had more fun with all the other kids and fun adults; I know they had a lot more fun food!

Volunteering:

Nursery at church: 1 hour

Both Olympians and her Library (Story Time) were canceled this week b/c of the awful weather, so Dd didn't get a chance to volunteer at either event.  We haven't had a Wednesday night Olypians group in a month now; so much awful weather to contend with.

Treadmill/ P.E.:

3x this week; until our power went out on Thursday morning. She has been waking up and doing her treadmill workout first thing in the mornings.

Cultural Geography (BJU)

Algebra I (Saxon)

Spanish I (BJU)

Introductory Logic

Exploring Economics by Ray Notgrass

Fun Reading:

The 100: Book One by Kass Morgan: In Process

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen: In Process

Art:
Making a Felt Bird of her own design

Next Week:
Will our power come back on soon?  Will I go to Boston?  Will Dd's have her Grace co-op classes? 
.............

Jan. 27- Feb. 2, 2019 Dh Back to Work- Wk 1, SNOW, A Girl of Limberlost, Snow blowing, Cancellations

Jan. 27-Feb. 2, 2019 

Dh Back to Work- Wk 1, SNOW, A Girl of Limberlost, Snow blowing, Cancellations 

Adding Pictures: In Process

Henry LOVES the snow!

Hello, Friends!
What a cold and snowy week; I'd love to know how many hours I've shoveled and spent snow blowing!  At least with all this snow, Henry is really happy and wanting walk after walk, he is such a snow-dog!  



And I've enjoyed taking photo's of nature while we walk.  The advantage of having so much snow, is everything canceled and I was free to enjoy some reading time.  I'm thoroughly enjoying A Girl of Limberlost by Gene Stratton-Porter.  I'm going to post a specific post on the books I've been enjoying focusing on this book a lot.  I haven't been so taken with a book in a while.

Keeping a path clear to the electric box in case we lose our power and have to hook up the generator.

Dh was released, by his doctor, to return back to work this week.  Of course, it was the same day we had about 10 inches of snow on Monday.  I had to snow blow in the wee hours of the morning, so he could get out of our long driveway, and then again in the late afternoon so he could get back up the driveway. I did many hours of snow blowing and shoveling this week. 



He said he had a pretty good first day back.  His last day of work, before his Detached Retinal diagnosis, was Nov. 15th!  He had 9 1/2 weeks of recovery.  His first week back to commuting to Grand Rapids and winter decided to finally kick it into over-drive!  We had so much snow and cold temperatures and that made driving a huge issue.  We had been having a very calm winter; that is until Dh was released back to work this week!



Then to Dh's surprise, he was called into work on Saturday.  He put in a lot of over-time his first week back, to his dismay! He wasn't used to standing on his feet all day long after so much sitting and resting with his eye recovery.  After two months of sitting and doing little else, it was a big transition to have to be on his feet 8-10 hours each day.  It was a mentally, physically, and emotionally a very challenging week.  One of his co-workers asked him if he was glad to be back and he replied, "no."  Well, at least he is honest!  Poor guy!  I miss him.

There are six of these young evergreen trees in our woods.  Each time it snows I go out and shake them clear of the heavy snow.  I really hope I can help them grow up.

Cancellations: 
For the first time in my memory the Post Office closed due to snow storms!  Not only the Post Office but just about everything--schools, libraries, work, banks, stores... Wednesday the temperatures were in the negative degrees, with wind chills something like -35 degrees.  



The high temperature for Wednesday was 1 degree.  It was just crazy weather this week, breaking all kinds of records across the mid-west.  Dh's work was closed Wednesday, but was open on Thursday---which was literally just as bad as Wednesday was!  I don't understand why so many businesses opened up when the weather was just horrifically, epic bad!  



Dh slid all over as he drove to work and home, but thankfully he never hit anyone and no one hit him.  There have been so many countless accidents and slide-offs here.  One day this week I counted SIX cars that had slid-off as we made our way to our destination.  We drove snail-speed!



Migraines:
Last week ended with me starting a migraine cluster on Friday.  Saturday and Sunday were the worst days.  I stayed home from church on Sunday and Dh and Dd went without me; as I had trouble just getting out of bed periodically for bathroom breaks.  It was 'that' bad.  I had a residual headache Monday and Tuesday, but I was back to my normal by Wednesday.




Chickens:
Have I shared that I have a Black hen that is sick?  She is just not doing well at all.  I wish I had the knowledge and expertise to give her some antibiotics to help her get over this bug.  I keep trying to hand-feed her, but unlike EVERY other chicken I've ever had, she really doesn't like to be hand-fed!!!  How is this possible?  I'm praying like crazy for her and hope she can overcome these steep odds.  It is cold in our coop, even with the heat lamps going it just always seems too hot or too cold.  I know it is better for chickens to be colder than hotter, so I try for that lean, but heat lamps aren't high tech!  The rest of the hens are all doing well considering its winter and they aren't getting many greens.  



They honestly barely peck at their store-bought pellets and do not act like they want to eat that.  They go crazy for the food I bring in to them and always want more.  Since Dh has been home the past few months I've been scrambling eggs for them and they go crazy for that!  I've been doing cooked rice with odds and ends mixed in as well.  



This week I've used my smooshing stone and added a bag of pistachio nuts along with the rice to add more protein.  They all look skinnier.  With all the snow they haven't been outside as much.  Tuesday night I didn't sleep well; just worrying over the chickens and hoping the heat lamp doesn't catch the outbuilding on fire.  I'm ready for spring---, especially for my chickens!

Bulletin Board:
I kept working on the design, a little each day, tweaking it until I felt like it was done.  It is super hard working on a thin brown paper that I'm taping to the board.  I'm just doing the best I can considering the situation.  I finally brought it to church.

Dd Academic Progress:



Bible:
Church, Bible Study: Week 19 on Word of Life, Sunday School, and Youth Program



Volunteering:
Nursery at church: 1 hour
Both Olympians and her Library (Story Time) were canceled this week b/c of the awful weather, so Dd didn't get a chance to volunteer at either event.



Volunteering as Hair Stylist:
Whenever Dd's buddy, Hailee (a public school kid) has school dances she asks Dd to do her hair.  Then Hailee's friends started asking to also be included; which lead to Dd doing three girls hair this Saturday.  After she did their hair they went out to eat at a Chinese restaurant.   Dd had a great time doing their hair; she is a natural at that type of thing.



Audio:
My Antonia by Willa Cather
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte



Fun Reader:
The 100: Book One by Kass Morgan: In Process



Home Economics:



Dd made dinner on Friday: Rice, Mixed Veg. and a Stir-Fry Chicken!  



For dessert, she made "Moo-Less Pie"



Physical Education:
Treadmill x 3



Doctor:
Well-Child Visit; which went well.  Dd and I are switching to local doctors so we won't have to drive all the way to GR when we are sick.  I found last year that Dd would only feel ill when there were inches of snow on the ground and more falling!  Now, she can get sick whenever she likes and I won't hesitate to take her in!!




Grace Co-Op:
Classes were canceled Thursday night; hours before classes, so Dd had finished all her homework for the week.   She's been working hard even if she doesn't meet for classes.

Cultural Geography (BJU)
Algebra I (Saxon)
Spanish I (BJU)
Introductory Logic
Exploring Economics by Ray Notgrass



........