The Graduate

Wahoo, she did it!

Lovely daughter finished college and what an exciting day!  She graduated last weekend with her B.A. in Sociology with a minor in addictions study.  Now, if she can only find her dream job of working with troubled youth/young adults. . . .

Can you spot her in the crowd?

Hint:  she’s the shortest one and oh yeah, I see her now!

Better Half got tears in his eyes when he spotted her cap; I just yelled obscenely loud!

Couldn’t be prouder; that’s my girl!

Book Review-The Daughter’s Walk

In this day and time of foreclosures, would you be willing to walk from one end of the U.S. to the other if it meant saving your home?  What if it meant losing your family?

I’m a sucker for fiction books based on historical facts, particularly when so much of the book is true and not fictionalized.  This book definitely falls in that category.  Author Jane Kirkpatrick did an amazing job researching facts and interviewing family members.  Initially it’s hard to imagine that over 110 years ago a young woman and her mother took on a challenge as daunting as walking across the U.S., all in an effort to save the family farm and then it clicks in your brain that Helga (the mother) really had no other means or methods at her disposal to save not only the farm, but her family.  Helga really was a woman born in the wrong era and it appears at times that Clara (the daughter) really behaved as if she were the mother.

Clara, who fought the (il)logic of the journey every step of the way, lives the rest of her life as one big adventure and in essence becomes the mirror image of her mom, with the exception of bowing down to a husband!  She was a woman ahead of the times and one that should have been admired, in my humble opinion, by her family.  She took risks, big risks, and I found the reactions of her family, particularly her mom, disturbing and sad.

Honestly, at first I was concerned that since WaterBrook Multnomah is a Christian-based publisher (division of Random House) I would not find the book nearly as interesting as I did.  I can truthfully say that if you are opposed to reading “Christian” books you should try reading this book!  It really was a great, exciting read, and I could envision all types of book lovers enjoying it.  Click here to read an excerpt.

I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review.

Saturday Snapshot

Pink, Gold, and Silver Friends

You gotta have friends.

I really do have the best friends.   Look at all these pink friends in the 2011 Little Rock Race for the Cure; pink friends rock my world!

I’m grateful for my gold friends–eternally grateful.  I always individually refer to these gold friends as my best friend.  Sounds like a junior high girl, no? My gold friends are so special to me I call them lifers or lifetime friends.  There is nothing they could ever do to cease being a lifer to me.   They know who they are.  We can talk about anything, absolutely anything, and they are brutally honest with me, and me with them.  We also laugh like hyenas.  We can just look at each other and crack ourselves up.   Lord, I love those friends!

Now I am gathering more silver friends.  This past year I’ve become involved in more social activities and have met some amazing women who are becoming quite special to me.  I just spent a weekend with a group of silver friends at a knitting/quilting retreat.   My throat is still sore from laughing.  Pillow fight–need I say more?

I’m wondering if there is such a thing as bronze friends….

Make new friends, keep the old.  One is silver and the other gold.

Saturday Snapshot