2017 Reading Quest 01

Book: Promise Me Tomorrow. (Rocky Mountain Memories #4).

Author: Lori Wick

Info:  Copyright 1997: Eugene, OR:  Harvest House Publishers

Where acquired: Library check out.

Rating (on a scale of 1-4 stars):  ✮✭✭

What it's about:  In this final volume of the Rocky Mountain Memories series, Wick picks up the story years after Book 3:  To Know Her By Name.  Catherine Taggart (known as "Rusty" by all), the oldest daughter of Clayton and Jacqueline Taggart (book 1), has a grand love of children.  She works with her Aunt and Uncle at an orphanage.  During a placement trip, Rusty meets Chase McCandles, a widower with a young son.  Through a set of mishaps, unrequited love, plus some divine intervention, Rusty and Chase end up at odds with each other with his child in the middle. 

Favorite Quotes:

The beauty of one phrase that Rusty prays struck me--but in a good way.  She prayed that God would "Remember me when You think of motherhood."  I thought it was simply beautiful.  She wasn't saying she would be a perfect mother or that she was better than anyone else, she simply knew that her life's call was to be a mother, and she wanted to have God's blessing as she fulfilled His purpose.  I know, usually I don't care for stuff like that, but I'd never heard a prayer for motherhood quite like that in any book, fiction or otherwise.

What I Liked:

• This book is a great deal better than Book 3.
• Rusty's interactions with children are fun to see.
• Quite frankly, I like that way Rusty told off Chase about his treatment of his son.  By the time she let him have it, she was WARM!
• This final volume does tie up some loose ends and bring in familiar characters from the prequels.

What I didn’t like: 

• Like the lead female character in book 3, Rusty Taggart's character is written in a confusing manner.  During the opening chapters, she is presented as flighty, weak, and daft.  Later, her personality quickly changes to reveal a woman of strength and great passion, but with no outside precipitant to account for it.  It was almost as if her strength of character could only be revealed in the context of being around a male.

Takeaway: 

Good conclusion to the series.

Five Minute Friday: "Middle"

 

More than once this past year, I've heard the time period for working the process for change referred to as the "messy middle."   I'm in the process of reading Dr. Brene' Brown's book Rising Strong, in which she takes the reader through the process of the messy middle.  This is the part we hide.  This is the part that's left out of our testimonies.  This is the part of a fitness quest where the blood, sweat, tears, cussing, and vomit part of the before and after story are conspicuously missing.  The messy middle is lying in the floor in the fetal position asking God to give you a reason to live.  The messy middle is hanging on to the sides of a treadmill with a white-knuckled death grip because you're dead tired, but you'd rather die than fall off or quit in front of anyone.

No one likes the messy middle.  They just want to see a before picture of a fat, unhappy person, then applaud as that same person bursts through that image the picture of health, wealth, and happiness.  Here's AFTER!

Sorry, snowflake, it don't work that way.

The messy middle is where triumph is built. 

Like I read on Dave Ramsey's Twitter page:  Success is a pile of failure that you are standing on.

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Prompts provided by Mrs. Kate over at Heading Home.

S is for Spaghetti Squash [A-Z Challenge 2015]

 

Experiments From Auntie's Test Kitchen

Intro  A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Conclusion



                                                                                                                    

S is for Spaghetti Squash

As a native Southerner, I'm no stranger to squash.  However, our idea of squash is the yellow crooknecked squash in casseroles and...well casseroles.  I tried growing zucchini once, but it cross-pollinated with a cucumber and cantaloupe plant.  The result was some "thing."  Some friends volunteered to eat it.  Though they said it was good, I've not had much contact with zucchini since.

I happened to be talking to my friend, Annie, during her dinner prep one day and she was cooking spaghetti squash.  Spaghetti squash?  I'd never heard of it.  She said it was a squash that when baked, flakes off in the consistency of spaghetti.  She even sent me a picture of it (sauce and all).  It looked yummy.

Earlier this week, I was tooling around on the Nerd Fitness site and happened across a spaghetti squash recipe.

Heck, why not?

I purchased a spaghetti squash and got started.  As a side note:  I usually buy groceries at Wal-Mart.  This, plus being in the South, I was pleasantly surprised to find spaghetti squash in the produce department.  Understand, I come from a very poor background where we bought basic staples and didn't hunt for anything exotic.

As for the sauce, the site has a pretty easy recipe to make your own.  However, I had a can of sauce in the pantry, so I browned some ground turkey and added the sauce to it. 

Preparing the squash is pretty simple:

• Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
• Cover a cookie sheet with aluminum foil.
• Cut the squash in half lengthwise.  Remove and discard the seeds and pulp (the gooey stuff) in the middle of the squash.
• Drizzle the inside of the squash with olive oil and lightly salt, if desired.  Allow the oil to soak into the vegetable for a couple of minutes.
• Flip the squash, open sides down onto the cookie sheet.
• Bake at 400 degrees for 40 minutes.
• Remove from oven and use a fork to flake out the inside of the squash.  I know I don't need to tell you this, but it's going to be HOT.  Use caution and the proper utensils.
• Serve with sauce and/or side dishes (like my salad) and enjoy.

And enjoy it I did.  The most fun part was flaking it out the shell.  It really does come out looking like spaghetti.  I just keep saying, "This is so cool."  Anyway, after playing with it, I did get around to eating it.  It was fabulous.  It has a sweet flavor and has a slight crunch.  I will definitely be making this one again.