The Simple Woman's Daybook #1

It would be awesome if you would join me in linking up with Peggy at The Simple Woman to share a little about your week!  It's been a long time but I am looking forward to this weekly post!

Today is Sunday October 29th, 2023

Outside - Cold and cloudy morning.

Thankful - for my job.  I had a season of discontentment.  The Lord has helped me to see that I have it pretty good and I'm not in need of anything.

Thinking - I'm not ready for this cold weather that is coming.

Wearing - blue jeans and a long sleeve t-shirt with IT IS WELL WITH MY SOUL on the back.

Creating - a new blogging season.  I'm not a creative person so I hope this comes together with some sort of regularity.

Wondering - How long I will stick with it this time! LOL!

Reading this week -   NKJV The Book of John chapters 1 - 5

 ESV 1 Samuel 1 - 5

 The Sons of Encouragement: Biblical Stories of Aaron, Caleb, Jonathan, Amos, and Silas by Francine Rivers.  I just started this book yesterday; a cold and dreary day.

Praying - Daughters and their families, Dan, niece and her future, nephew and his marriage, sale of the homestead, and plans for our future.

Looking forward to - The sale of the homestead being over with.  This sort of thing really makes me fret and I know I shouldn't.

Learning - to lean on Jesus!

In the kitchen -   There hasn't been much going on in the kitchen for quite some time.  I hope with the holiday season coming I will be motivated to make something happen in there.

Around the homestead - There isn't much on this homestead anymore.  I have the place for sale and I have a contract being put together as we speak.  It may take some time to close as it is a Federal USDA Loan.  I still have chickens to care for but they will be sold with the homestead.

Scripture of the week - John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 

The first verse of my reading for this week.

Have a blessed week! 

Monica

Back to blogging

 I have been away from the blogging community for quite some time.  I've been working out life and trying to figure out what my future looks like.  After a divorce and reconciliation, I am ready to pick up the books again and write some blog posts.  

My reading was all over the place.  I have decided to only read books I wouldn't be ashamed to share with my wonderful Christian grandmother.  I am reading Francine Rivers Sons of Encouragement: Biblical stories of Aaron, Caleb, Jonathan, Amos, and Silas.  It's just over a thousand pages so it may take a bit for me to get through.

I'm back. I'm looking forward to sharing my reading and blessings here with you once again.

Seeds of Yesterday

The Seeds of Yesterday.  V. C. Andrews.  #4 Dollanganger series. Published by Pocket.  Originally 1984.  408 pages.  Source: Purchased from betterworldbooks.com.

First sentence: And so it came to pass the summer when I was fifty-two and Chris was fifty-four that our mother's promise of riches, made long ago when I was twelve and Chris was fourteen, was at last realized.

Plot:  Cathy and Chris, entwined with the evil that haunts their children, living with the fearful spectre of Foxworth Hall, are awaiting the final, shuddering climax... prisoners of a past they cannot escape.

My thoughts: This family needs more therapy than can be provided by one professional. Just saying. Cathy's youngest boy terrorized the family his entire life and she fed his crazy behavior instead of actually addressing it. Now in his manhood he is very wealthy thanks to his grandmother leaving him the vast majority of the Foxworth estate. And he continues to terrorize them all.  This story will make you believe that insanity is hereditary.  

Cathy lives in an alternate reality.  Thinking that life can be normal when your spouse is your brother!  This really is a sick and twisted story but I have to see it to the end.  One more book left in the series.

The Good Earth

The Good Earth. Pearl S. Buck. Howard Publishing Co. 1931.418 pages. Audio library.

First line: It was Wang Lung's marriage day.

Plot: This tells the poignant tale of a Chinese farmer and his family in old agrarian China. The humble Wang Lung glories in the soil he works, nurturing the land as it nurtures him and his family. Nearby, the nobles of the House of Hwang consider themselves above the land and its workers; but they will soon meet their own downfall.

Hard times come upon Wang Lung and his family when flood and drought force them to seek work in the city. The working people riot, breaking into the homes of the rich and forcing them to flee. When Wang Lung shows mercy to one noble and is rewarded, he begins to rise in the world, even as the House of Hwang falls.

My Thoughts: Sometimes it's hard for me to wrap my mind around a culture that is so completely different from my own.  When Wang goes to marry his wife whom he has never met or courted he seems alright with his choice considering his status in life is but a farmer.  She works next to (behind really) him at all times on the farm.  She prepared meals and kept the home.  A better wife you would be hard pressed to find.  Until Wang's social status changes after coming into a lot of money.  He starts visiting a brothel.  After a while becomes discontent with his wife and moves in a mistress taken from the brothel.  

After some pour life choices Wang's life begins to fall apart.  His sons don't live up to his expectations.  I can't say that I felt sorry for him by the end of this story.  I don't know if I want to continue with the series yet or not.  Some of the content is for mature audiences so I would not recommend this for anyone under upper teens.

The Remains of the Day

The Remains of the Day.  Kazuo Ishiguro. Faber and Faber Publishing. May 1989.  258 pages.  Source: Audio Library

Plot: In the summer of 1956, Stevens, a long-serving butler at Darlington Hall, decides to take a motoring trip through the West Country. The six-day excursion becomes a journey into the past of Stevens and England, a past that takes in fascism, two world wars, and an unrealised love between the butler and his housekeeper.

My thoughts: I really enjoyed this laid back story of the life of a butler as the end of an era was coming to a close.  I like to read books set in England and about the history of England even if it is fiction. 

Me After You

Me After You. Jojo Moyes. Penguin Books. September 2015. 352 Pages. Audio Library

First line: The big man at the end of the bar is sweating.

Plot:How do you move on after losing the person you loved? How do you build a life worth living?
 
Louisa Clark is no longer just an ordinary girl living an ordinary life. After the transformative six months spent with Will Traynor, she is struggling without him. When an extraordinary accident forces Lou to return home to her family, she can’t help but feel she’s right back where she started.
 
Her body heals, but Lou herself knows that she needs to be kick-started back to life. Which is how she ends up in a church basement with the members of the Moving On support group, who share insights, laughter, frustrations, and terrible cookies. They will also lead her to the strong, capable Sam Fielding—the paramedic, whose business is life and death, and the one man who might be able to understand her. Then a figure from Will’s past appears and hijacks all her plans, propelling her into a very different future. . . .
 
For Lou Clark, life after Will Traynor means learning to fall in love again, with all the risks that brings. But here Jojo Moyes gives us two families, as real as our own, whose joys and sorrows will touch you deeply, and where both changes and surprises await.

My thoughts:  I loved this second book in this series!  Louisa Clark is such a good person and I felt a connection with her since the first book.  I did find her accident to be ironic.  I half expected her to be paralyzed like Will but I was wrong. When she begins to have feelings for Sam I found myself cheering her on.  Hoping she would fall in love and move on with her life.  She is torn between her love for him and doing something with her life.  Apparently she can't seem to do both at the same time.  I guess I will find out how this all ends in the next book... Still Me.  Which I can't wait for but I will because I'm on a wait list!

The Sound and The Fury

The Sound and The Fury.  William Faulkner. Published by Vintage.  First published 1954.  326 pages.  Source:  Audio library.

First Sentence: Through the fence, between the curling flower spaces, I could see them hitting.

Plot: The novel reveals the story of the disintegration of the Compson family, doomed inhabitants of Faulkner’s mythical Yoknapatawpha County, through the interior monologues of the idiot Benjy and his brothers, Quentin and Jason.

My thoughts:  This one was chosen for my classic club challenge.  I started it once but tabled it.  I pushed through it this time because I just had to.  Wow, there is enough disfunction in my life but to add this family just about made me go crazy! 

This is one messed up group of people.  It took me several chapters to even get the gist of what was going on.  Faulkner's writing style is not my idea of a good time.  Back and forth and who is narrating... Since the story is set in Mississippi the dialect was so very southern it difficult to take at times.

As you can tell I did not enjoy this book and don't really recommend it.  Especially for younger adults.  I only gave it 2 out of 5 stars on Good Reads.