APRIL READING LIST

Moving right along with my reading...

I was intrigued when this new book came into the library.  I put my name on it to read it first.  I am so glad I did.  What a book!  I just loved it.

THE MAKING OF MARY ANN (Based on a true story) by Cora A. Seaman (2008)
Mary Ann arrived in the United States from Germany at the age of 16.  She began her new life as a young nanny for a minister's two children.  After marrying a field hand, she gave birth to six young daughters.  Then her husband died of TB.  Four of her daughters were taken from her and put on the Orphan Train by the local Trustee.  Her own journey, with two babies, takes her through the dirt roads of Gibson County to her friend's house in Buckskin.  She began her search for the other four girls while she worked as a caretaker for an alcoholic woman.  The girls, who had little knowledge of their early life, began their own search for their birth mother after hearing the delirious musings of one of the girls as she was suffering from influenza.

They separately find their original home, finally uniting with Mary Ann.  There is trauma, tragedy, and pathos in this story of a little German girl whose journey takes her from Pforzheim, Germany to Southern Indiana in search of a better life.  Her courage and fortitude give hope to all who journey with her on this eventful trip.

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And I started a new series.  I seem to be into quilts lately.  Not only did I read this book, but I was reading a magazine article about antique quilts.  Hmm....  I think it's time to wash my quilts and pack them away for the summer.  Now I just need a nice warm day to hang them on the line in the back yard.  In the meantime, read this book.  It's wonderful.

THE QUILTER'S APPRENTICE by Jennifer Chiaverini (1998)
 

From debut novelist Jennifer Chiaverini comes The Quilter's Apprentice, a delightful, timeless story of loyalty and friendship.

When Sarah McClure and her husband, Matt, move to the small town of Waterford, Pennsylvania, to get a fresh start, Sarah struggles to find a fulfilling job.  Disheartened by failed interviews, she reluctantly accepts a temporary position at Elm Creek Manor helping seventy-five-year-old Sylvia Compson prepare her family estate for sale after the recent death of Sylvia's estranged sister.  As part of her compensation, Sarah is taught how to quilt by this reclusive, cantankerous master quilter.

During their lessons, Mrs. Compson slowly opens up to Sarah, sharing powerful, devastating stories of her life as a young woman on the World War II home front.  Hearing tales of how Mrs. Compson's family was torn apart by tragedy, jealousy, and betrayal, Sarah is forced to confront uncomfortable truths about her own family -- truths that she has denied for far too long.  As the friendship between the two women deepens, Mrs. Compson confides that although she would love to remain at her beloved family estate, Elm Creek Manor exists as a constant, unbearable reminder of her role in her family's misfortune.  For Sarah, there can be no greater reward than teaching Mrs. Copmpson to forgive herself for her past mistakes, restoring life and joy to her cherished home.

Heartfelt and inspiring, The Quilter's Apprentice teaches deep lessons about family, friendship, and sisterhood -- and about creating a life as you would a quilt:  with time, love, and patience, piecing the miscellaneous and mismatched scraps into a harmonious, beautiful whole.

IT MUST BE ALMOST DONE

The construction on the house next door continues.  The stucco people have been here on Sunday, Monday and yesterday.  They did a beautiful job with the top coat.

I thought it looked great.  But yesterday they put a gray colored coat on top.  I think I liked the tan better, but the gray is OK too.

It's hard to see with all the scaffolding.  When it comes down, I will go across the street and get a really good picture for you.  It is supposed to go up for sale on Friday.  A couple of friends from church are looking for a place to live and it would be cool for one of them to move in next door.  I would know there wouldn't be any big drinking/drugging parties going on.

They finished the back of our house on Monday also.  It is beautiful.  So much nicer than anything I could have imagined.  When I have time to get out there I will show you how it turned out.  The guys were so good.  They cleaned up, swept the patio, put the furniture back, and even hung up the clothesline for me again!

I have to stop now and get ready for work.  Another lovely day at the library.  And, yes, I can't wait to retire.

One last picture for you.  Here's an incredible sunset from the other day.  I love the clouds in it.

 Have a good day, everyone!

Kathy

P.S.  Hop on over to my cooking blog "Cooking for my friends" today.  I have a really good recipe for olive oil cake.  You can click on the link on the right hand side of this page.

THE CONSTRUCTION CONTINUES

The saga of the house next door continues.  On Friday while I was home from work sick, there was a lot of banging going on.  When I looked out they were putting up plywood over fiberglass insulation.

They sure are going to town on that house.

Later in the afternoon there was a knock on the door.  The owner of the building company was there.  He said he had talked to Joe about siding the back of our house and was I still interested.  Was I?  Of course!  Joe had told me that they offered to do our house at cost because we had been so nice and kind to them.  We had been looking into it, had gotten an estimate, and were in the process of saving up enough money to get it done.  Here we were being offered to have the job done at less than half of what the estimate was.  So the builder and I went out to the back yard, looked at the job, discussed what was going to be done and I made arrangements to pay him.

So yesterday morning when I got up there were the guys.  They had cleared off the patio and were getting to work.  Such nice guys and it turns out that one of them goes to the Fishtown Library and we know a lot of the same people.

Our house really needed to have new siding.  We actually had some holes in the wall but were trying to hold out because we couldn't afford it.  I consider this new siding to be a gift from God.  There is just no other way it could have happened.

They had done such a nice job next door (on the right).

Here's our house.  You can see the hole in the wall.

And the missing piece under the door.  There was a hole in the alleyway also.

It took all day, and there is a little bit more to finish off, but here is the finished product.  No more hole.

And the alleyway.

It is so beautiful.  I am so very thankful to God for this.  And so thankful to the guys who did the job.

Joe got out into the yard for the first time in weeks to look at the siding.  He was really happy with it.

Meanwhile, the front of the house next door got the first coat of stucco.

The owner, Peter, took me inside the house next door and let me see all the work they had done.  It's beautiful.  The kitchen is all new and so is the bathroom.  They painted everything and redid all the hardwood floors.  Wow!  I told them when we are ready to get the bathroom done we are going to call them.

The guys were telling me that by the house next door being nicer it brings more value to my home and I believe it.  Peter said they are planning to finish up next week because the company that owns the house next door wants to put it up for sale on May 1st.

I got a lot done today.  I even got to make Snickerdoodle cookies for Fellowship Time at church.  They turned out good too.  I try to bring the snack once a month on the last weekend.

Joe and I were able to get to church last night for the evening service.  It turns out that Natasha, Joe and I were the only adults that showed up.  We had two new kids, though, who had their lesson with Cherie along with our three regular kids.  So I guess that was four adults.  

It was funny that when it was time for the kids to go to the Sunday School room, Miss A walked over to the kids and told them in no uncertain terms, "Well, come on!"  Baby talk, of course, but they all got the message.  We had to laugh.

I got to run the power point again.  I really like doing that.  

It's a shame that there weren't more people there because Pastor Justin's message was tremendous!  I am planning on going again this morning so I will get to hear it again.  And I know there will be more people in that service.

I have to run and get ready.  Until later....

Kathy

 

THE STETHOSCOPE

This is not going to be like one of my usual posts.  I came across these two videos that I think are just wonderful.  And funny.  Please watch them.  They are a few minutes each, but well worth your time.  And if you do watch them, let me know what you think.

Thanks!

Kathy

FRIDAY VIEWS

This has been such a busy week that I haven't had time to post anything.  It isn't that I've forgotten about you, dear readers.  I've been visiting your blogs when I've gotten a chance.  I hope this post will make up for things with picture overload.  Uh...  maybe not.

Anyway, on Monday we celebrated Diane and Tom's birthdays at work.  I went at lunch time and got a cake and cards at ShopRite.  Diane's birthday was on the 1st and with everything going on with Joe I completely forgot about it.  So I wanted to get a cute belated birthday card for her.  Could I find one?  Of course not.  Finally one of the employees helped me.  There was one card in the entire store, so I got it.  It wasn't what I wanted, but it had to do.

Bob was on the desk and he wanted to sing to them, so I hopped on to replace him.  As a result I didn't get a picture of the whole cake, but here's the cake after it was cut.  I tried to get a marble cake because Diane likes yellow and Tom likes chocolate.  Well, there was a little chocolate in it but not much.  Not much of a marble as far as I was concerned.  But it was good and everyone liked it.

There was a great sunset on Monday also.  Look at this!

On Tuesday we had a fantastic Ladies' Bible Study.  We are going through the book of Daniel and this week did chapter 5 -- the handwriting on the wall.  I always put little pictures at the bottom of the study sheet they get.  I found a picture of God's hand writing on the wall and I couldn't put it on because it just freaked me out.  I'm not usually like that, but I could just imagine it.  So instead they got a picture of the ruins of King Nebuchadnezzar's palace.  Much safer.

Joe has been doing so much better and all his injuries are healing nicely.  But on Wednesday his tremors returned and he wasn't able to get to church that night to lead his Bible study.  He sent me in his place.  I was really not prepared because I teach the little ones on Wednesday.  So I could have had everyone coloring pictures of the Garden of Eden and making snakes out of play dough, but that was about it.  It turned out that we just shared our thoughts with each other and had a time of prayer.  The little girls were bothering us during the prayer time because they kept running in from the classroom to ask questions or show us things, so while the others were praying I took them to their room and we read them some books and we went over our memory verse.  They were making pictures of princesses and made one that they said was me.  They put my eyes in my forehead because I am short and this way I can see over the other people.  Ha, ha, ha!  They are so creative and funny!

On  Tuesday Diane went home sick.  On Wednesday Clarissa was sick, but wouldn't go home.  She called out sick on Thursday, though.  Today it's my turn.  My stomach is queasy and my head is pounding.  Boss is not too happy with us this week, but it must just be making its rounds.  Better sick here at home than at work.  Monday starts another week.

So for your Friday View this week I am going to show you the work going on next door.  Remember I told you about all the pounding going on inside as they gutted and remodeled the place?  Well they sided the back of the house and it looks beautiful.  Now they are getting the front ready for stucco.  Or so they told me.

This was taken in my car's mirror so everything is backwards.  But I wanted to show the three layers on the house.  The original is the wooden siding.  Then there's a layer of asphalt that looks like brick and a layer of asphalt that is gray (the way I've always seen it.)

These next pictures are taken at night under the street light outside our houses.  I'm the brick front.

They are going to town on it.  The insulation is on and they are putting up plywood.

Look at this scaffolding!  I would not want to climb it.  Heights aren't for me unless I'm inside a building.

As you can imagine it is very noisy during the day.  It isn't helping my headache at all!

More of the scaffolding.  The guys are really nice and pleasant.  They cleaned up the mess they made on our sidewalk.  I move my car if I am home so it doesn't get damaged and they have more room to work.

I like the view of this photo.  It's my "art picture".

 They are hard at work today.  I am hoping to take more pictures when they leave.  I don't want them to think I am taking shots of them.  More to come!

Hope you have a good day.  I'm going to take some aspirin and try to feel better.

Kathy

THE SUNDAY GARDEN

A white and yellow daffodil.

It's back!  It's time for "The Sunday Garden" posts to start again for the spring, summer and fall.  Let's face it, there really isn't much to show you in the winter except for brown grass or tons of snow.

So here are some views of what is happening in the garden.

The chives are back.  Wow are they ever!  And I see some thyme there too.  I have to get out there and weed and fix up the fairy garden.

Pink hyacinths

More pink hyacinths.

Joe's favorite, the daffodils.

I try to plant all different kinds.

This is a tree in the yard next door.  I don't know what kind it is, but I like the white flowers.

The grape hyacinths are all over the yard.  They are pretty to look at but I hate their scent.

 Pretty soon the roses will be out.  Then the yard will smell wonderful.

There is a lot of work to do in the yard.  Too much!  But that's always how it is at the beginning of the season.  It was 82 degrees out yesterday and just beautiful!  I loved being out there.  Today it is cooler but still a lovely day.  I'm so glad spring is finally here!

Kathy

SUNDAY PRAISE -- SOUL ON FIRE

Romans 12:1-2

And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you.  Let them be a living and holy sacrifice – the kind he will find acceptable.  This is truly the way to worship him.  Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think.  Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.  

Soul on Fire by Third Day

ALL STAFF DAY

Thursday was our annual All Staff Day at work.  We all have to go to the main branch and spend all day in lectures and workshops.  Most everyone hates it.  It is very boring.  We would rather just be in our own branch doing our own job.  But it's one of those mandatory things that you just have to put up with.

 

I was pleasantly surprised that this year wasn't so bad.  I was so glad to see a lot of my friends that I worked with at other branches but haven't seen in a long time.

 

We started with breakfast.  I had a muffin and a couple of slices of cantaloupe.  I really wanted a bottle of water to drink but there was none.  So I got a cup of tea.

Then we went to the first series of lectures.  It was pretty interesting.  Several different groups told about different things happening at the library.  It lasted about an hour or so.  Then there was a break and we went to the first workshop.

Diane and I decided to stick together the whole day and take the same workshops.  There were about 20 different choices.  We chose Cooking for a Healthy Heart.  It was pretty interesting.  Mostly we learned about how to read ingredient labels and what the different terms meant.  Some things I knew, but a lot I didn't so I did learn something.

Next came lunch.  I was supposed to get a dairy free meal but they forgot to get one for me.  I saw the list and there was one other person and me for dairy free.  But the lady behind the table said they had never shown up.  So she gave me a gluten free lunch because it had no dairy in it.  Well, folks, I don't mean to criticize a free lunch, but it was pretty bad.  The roll of the sandwich was nice, but there was turkey which was so dry I had trouble eating it and a slice of tomato.  There was also a bag of chips and an apple.  I can't eat raw apples and really didn't want the chips.  So after eating half of the sandwich, I just gave up.  

There were so many people there and not enough tables so Diane and I sat on the steps with my boss and ate. We watched the library band which was so loud you couldn't hear yourself think (but they were good!) and then the line dancing.  Everyone was invited to join in, but I wasn't going out there.  This year's video isn't up on youtube yet, but here's last year's.  You can get the idea.  Again, it was very entertaining.

There was also a talent show going on in the auditorium.  We peeked in on that, but didn't really stay.

Next it was time to go to our second workshop.  We didn't know what to take and went back and forth on which one to go to.  We had sat down at a table in one of the rooms on the first floor and we were so tired we decided to just stay there for the Conflict Resolution workshop.  I'm glad we did because it was really good, interesting and fun.  We even got to talk with the presenter afterwards for awhile and he gave us his personal take on some things.

Finally we went to the last lecture by our President Shiobhan Reardon who was recently named Librarian of the Year by the National Library Association.



She told us about all the new things coming up, the renovations, the new hires, etc.  There was a question and answer session afterwards and then we could go home.

Fortunately we just missed rush hour.  It was starting, but we made it with just a little bit of a delay.  I hate sitting on I-95 for an hour when it's only a 15 minute drive otherwise.

So even though I wasn't looking forward to the day, it wasn't all that bad.  I did love seeing all my friends.  That was the best part.  I am thinking that this will be my last one since I am expecting to retire before April next year, but who knows?  No one knows the future.

Kathy 

WEDNESDAY AT THE HOSPITAL

Joe finally went for a CT scan on his head on Wednesday.  He still is not feeling well from his falls and it is almost two weeks.  I left work early to be able to take him.

When I got home I helped him get ready and then we took off.  We had to stop at his doctor's office first because he couldn't find his prescription.  I had never been to the hospital where he had to have the test done, so I asked at the doctor's office how to get there.  They told me, but I still got lost.  I was in the wrong lane and when we saw the hospital on the right, I had to turn left!  It didn't help that there was a lot of construction and I couldn't get where I wanted to go.

I finally got to one of the several buildings.  I left Joe in the car and went in.  There was a long hallway and a lot of shut doors to offices.  I finally found an open door and asked the lady behind the desk where I was supposed to be.  Of course I was in the wrong building.  But she gave me excellent directions how to get to the correct one.


We were 15 minutes late getting there, but they still took Joe.  And it didn't take very long at all.  Less than 5 minutes for the test.  Most of the time we were there was spent filling out paperwork!

So we should find out the results either today or Monday.  We are praying and hoping there is nothing wrong.  I know it would give Joe some peace of mind.

I found out on Thursday that apparently after I left there was a big blowup at work between boss man and one of my co-workers.  I am going to try to nip in the bud any future problems by taking on even more of his job.  I have told each of my employees to come to me with problems, not him.  Oh, boy.  I don't know what they are going to do when I retire.

So much more to tell you, but I must end.  I am falling asleep writing this and want to get a couple more hours sleep before getting up for work.  At least it's the last day this week.

Until later...

Kathy

REMEMBER SLOW FOOD?

I saw this in our local paper today and got a kick out of it.  I thought I would share it with you.  I'm probably dating myself by saying it reminded me of my childhood.  Hope you enjoy it.

REMEMBER SLOW FOOD?
Someone asked the other day, "What was your favorite fast food when you were growing up?"

"We didn't have fast food when I was growing up," I informed him.  "All the food was 'slow'."

"C'mon, seriously.  Where did you eat?"

"It was a place called 'at home'," I explained.  "Mom cooked every day and when Dad got home from work, we sat down together at the dining room table and if I didn't like what she put on my plate I was allowed to sit there until I did like it."


By this time the kid was laughing so hard I was afraid he was going to suffer serious internal damage, so I didn't tell him the part about how I had to have permission to leave the table.

But here are some other things I would have told him about my childhood if I figured his system could have handled it.

Some parents NEVER owned their own house, never wore Levis, never set foot on a golf course, never traveled out of the country or had a credit card.  In their later years they had something called a revolving charge card.  The card was good only at Sears Roebuck.  Or maybe it was Sears & Roebuck.  Either way, there is no Roebuck anymore.  Maybe he died.

My parents never drove me to soccer practice.  This was mostly because we never had heard of soccer.

I had a bicycle that weighed probably 50 pounds, and only had one speed, slow.



We didn't have a television in our house until I was 10.  It was, of course, black and white, and the station went off the air at midnight, after playing the national anthem and a poem about God; it came back on the air at about 6:00 a.m. and there was usually a locally produced news and farm show on, featuring local people.



I was 19 before I tasted my first pizza.  It was called "pizza pie."  When I bit into it, I burned the roof of my mouth and the cheese slid off, swung down, plastered itself against my chin and burned that, too.  It's still the best pizza I ever had.




I never had a telephone in my room.  The only phone in the house was in the living room and it was on a party line.  Before you could dial, you had to listen and make sure some people you didn't know weren't already using the line.

 

Pizzas were not delivered to our home, but milk was.

All newspapers were delivered by boys and all boys delivered newspapers.  My brother delivered a newspaper six days a week.  It cost 7 cents a paper, of which he got to keep 2 cents.  He had to get up at 6:00 a.m. every morning.  On Saturday, he had to collect the 42 cents from his customers.  His favorite customers were the ones who gave him 50 cents and toldhim to keep the change.  His least favorite customers were the ones who seemed to never be home on collection day.



Movie stars kissed with their mouths shut.  At least, they did in the movies.  There were no movie ratings because all movies were responsibly produced for everyone to enjoy viewing, without profanity or violence or most anything offensive.

If you grew up in a generation before there was fast food, you may want to share some of these memories with your children or grandchildren.  Jut don't blame me if they bust a gut laughing.

Growing up isn't what it used to be, is it?


(I would gladly give the author credit, but he/she did not sign their name.)

THE WEEKEND

The weather has been just so beautiful this weekend.  I was so glad I had both days off from work.  I think the winter is finally over.  I shouldn't say that too loudly or tomorrow I will have to get my heavy coat out again.  There's a little chill in the air, but the sun is shining and the flowers are beginning to poke their heads out of the ground.

Saturday I had planned to attack the kitchen -- scrub it all down.  What did I do?  I slept.  I slept and slept and slept.  Almost all day.  I know I am really tired.  But I think this week did me in with all of Joe's falls.

He finally went to the doctor on Friday and she looked at all his bruises and scrapes.  She agrees his toe is broken and thinks he has a concussion.  There is not much anyone can do except let him heal at this point.  She also changed one of his medications that she thought was too strong and he is doing much better these last few days.

I took Joe with me to choir practice on Saturday.  It's been changed to 5:30 p.m.  We didn't have time to eat first, but had some of the snacks we had there to tide us over.  I made brownies and they turned out so good.

We started practicing a new piece at choir.  It is much harder than the last one, but I've listened to it several times on YouTube so I've now gotten the tune in my head which will make it easier next week.

After practice I went to pick up our friend Dottie for the next big change at church.  We now have Saturday evening church service!  Many people say they cannot make the Sunday morning service because of work or other commitments.  So there is now a contemporary Saturday evening service.  Joe has problems in the morning and often cannot go to church so this is perfect for him.  No one knew how it would go and so we were really happy when 14 people showed up.  That's a good start for a service that was announced just a week ago and has had no advertising.  We expect it to grow as time goes on.  It was very laid back and had more of the newer music.  I really liked it.

Here's a short video of Pastor Justin and Elder Jon practicing before the service.

When we got home we decided to call out for Chinese food.  Instead of getting our usual, I did my version of a dim sum.  I went through the appetizers and we picked four to order.  We got egg rolls, spring rolls, teriyaki beef sticks and steamed dumplings.  It cost about the same as if we had ordered an entree and we were full when we finished eating everything.  It was fun to do it that way and we decided we would do it again next week.

I really went back and forth on whether to go to church this morning or not.  I knew it would be the same message, but there were some references I didn't get last night because I couldn't write that fast and also I really wanted to hear the message again.  It seemed that God was speaking to me about something last night and I wanted to know if I got the same thing out of it again this morning.  (I did but in a different way.)

I left Joe sleeping and went to church.  I was glad I did.  You see different people at the Sunday morning service.  It was not as contemporary as the Saturday evening -- a little more standard and that was good too.

And here's a video of this morning.  It's a little shaky though.  I didn't aim it very well.

Again, today I was going to attack the kitchen but got sidetracked talking on the phone, watching TV, going on the internet and making out my food shopping list.  *sigh*  There was so much I wanted to accomplish this weekend and the only thing I could cross off of my list was paying my bills!  Well, that's something.

Oh wait!  I also finally finished my editing job. It was a much bigger job than I expected it to be.  I am so glad to have that off my shoulders.  And George is so happy to get his book!

Tomorrow is back to work. Friday was such a horrible day that I don't even want to go back.  I'm tired of being yelled at and criticized all the time.  I wish I could just go in and hand in my resignation.  But since that isn't possible just yet, I will try to make the best of it.  Hopefully tomorrow will be better.  I'm praying it is anyway.  I'm trying to be an example to those I work with of how a follower of Christ acts.  But it's so hard sometimes.

So I'm going to go to bed.  5:30 comes pretty quickly.  Good night, everyone!

 

SUNDAY PRAISE -- RIDE ON JESUS, RIDE

Romans 6:3-11

³ Or have you forgotten that when we were joined with Christ Jesus in baptism, we joined him in his death? ⁴ For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives.

⁵ Since we have been united with him in his death, we will also be raised to life as he was. ⁶ We know that our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin. ⁷ For when we died with Christ we were set free from the power of sin. ⁸ And since we died with Christ, we know we will also live with him. ⁹ We are sure of this because Christ was raised from the dead, and he will never die again. Death no longer has any power over him. ¹⁰ When he died, he died once to break the power of sin. But now that he lives, he lives for the glory of God. ¹¹ So you also should consider yourselves to be dead to the power of sin and alive to God through Christ Jesus.


Here is the long awaited Hope Philly Choir followed by our Easter message by Pastor Justin.  I see many ways to improve myself and do better next time.  But it was all done to the glory of God and there is no improving on that!

MARCH READING LIST

Yes, you are right.  I am late posting this late and there was no reading list for February.  That's because I was reading one book the entire month and didn't finish it until the middle of March.  That's what happens when you don't have time to read.  The book that held me up was...

SCONE COLD DEAD: A Liss MacCrimmon Mystery by Kaitlyn Dunnett (2008)

Seven months after a career-ending injury, Liss MacCrimmon is keeping her feet in the dance world by offering lessons to a few kids in her hometown of Moosetookalook, Maine.  Running the town's Scottish Emporium with her aunt, working on her physical therapy for her knee injury, and romancing Dan Ruskin has kept her plenty busy.

Still, she misses the life of a professional dancer, so when her old dance company goes on tour, Liss decides to bring the show to her hometown.  She arranges a reception for the troupe complete with a Scottish theme that includes a new spin on the classic Scottish Scone -- "cocktain scones."

Company manager Victor Owens has been making life a living hell for every member of the troupe.  So when he bites into a scone and promptly collapses and dies, the police set their sights on Liss and her friends.

I'm loving these Scottish New England mysteries.  The stories are interesting and I usually can't figure them out till I'm almost done.  I guess I like mysteries because it's like a game trying to figure out "who dun it".  This wasn't a difficult book, I just didn't have time to read!

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TREASURING EMMA:  A MIDDLEFIELD FAMILY NOVEL

by Kathleen Fuller (2011)

Emma was Adam's first love, but circumstances made them both choose different paths in life.  Emma's heart breaks all over again when Adam returns to the Amish community of Middlefield, Ohio.

For the past two years, Emma has been caring for her ailing mother, but after her mother's death, Emma is at a loss.  Her well-meaning sister and brother-in-law have their own plans for Emma's future and the property she shares with her elderly grandmother.  Emma knows God will provide, but is this what He wants?

Adam's return reawakens feelings Emma had buried for so long.  Both of them are older now, and both have reached turning points in their lives.  Adam's feelings for Emma are stronger than ever, but will he be able to convince her to give their love a second chance?

This is one of the most exciting books I have ever read.  It started off a little slow, but by the time I reached the middle of the book I didn't want to stop.  Especially the unexpected ending.  I can't wait to read the rest of this series.

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FREDERICA IN FASHION by Marion Chesney (1985)

It is time Frederica, the sixth and youngest daughter of Reverend Armitage found a husband. As her five sisters try to find her a husband, Freddie suddenly blossoms and may actually make a match surpassing those of her sisters.

Over 20 years ago I discovered Marion Chesney and read just about everything she wrote.  Everything I could get my hands on at the library anyway.  And it's been about 20 years since I read any of her books.  I thought I would read one "for old times sake" and discovered that I still like her writing.  This is the sixth of a six book series, but was the only one of the series that the library had.  But you know, I still remembered some of the previous stories.  Now that's a good author!