Stepping into Sunlight by Sharon Hinck

What an interesting book! The focus is about healing and trusting God after a traumatic incident. The main character is a chaplain's wife. She obviously does have a belief in God and does know God. She is at a gas station convenient store when it gets held up. Two people are shot to death in front of her and she is spared because the gun itself jams as the robber takes aim at her. A very traumatic event and she withdraws from the world. She finds it difficult to go out and has panic attacks every time she does go out. Normal, everyday activities become incredibly difficult. And she has a hard time trusting in God - where was He during this? And why didn't God prevent it from happening?

She sinks into a depression that she fears she will never crawl out of and finally decides she must force herself to do tasks -- or she will lose her battle with the depression. She begins keeping a notebook and keeping lists. Then she comes up with a plan to do one nice thing for someone each day. When she is filled with panic about the outside world the nice thing is sometimes an emailed note of appreciation or a note of encouragement on a blog.

While this book's focus is depression that results due to being involved in a major crime (a post traumatic), I really could relate to the depression aspect. I experienced it in a much milder form than the book describes after having my miscarriage. It is like being in a black hole and it takes a while to feel like you have the ability, energy and fortitude to crawl back up and out of the hole. For me and for this main character in the book, it was only with God's help that we were able to get out of the hole. I really believe He pushed, pulled and shoved me up and out of the hole.

I am reading another book - Where is God? Both these books speak to the aspect of finding God in difficult times and also while going through those times feeling somewhat like He left. Where is God is just a great title because at one point or another we all end up walking along or crossing a bridge or dealing with a crisis and wonder - where is He? Why did He leave me? Why isn't he fixing this? Isn't that really what the famous footprints poem is about - except that the author has already reached the realization that there is only one set of footprints because God is carrying him/her. It is during trying times that we can feel like we are all alone and it is important to find ways to reach out to God - so that we can feel His presence and know He is there - it is so very important to find ways to stay connect to God.

Anyway - I will blog more about the Where is God book later. I just wanted to share about Stepping into the Sunlight. Excellent book - and I highly recommend it.

Oh this is my middle son

My husband found this fantastic quote from Thomas Edison and after reading it we both just said - that is JL for sure!

"To invent, you need a good imagination and a pile of junk."

JL is our child that ALWAYS has junk stashed in his room, in his pockets, on his desk. He picks up old nails, pieces of wire, bottle caps (thing I would define as junk) and he brings them home to guard as treasures. I am always pulling things out of the washer and dryer (because some treasures don't make it out of the pockets prior to entering the wash) --- and I wonder what would possess the child to bother to pick this up and drag it home in his pockets.

Now I realize I have an Edison in the making!!

Black Bean Soup with Sausage

I made this for dinner tonight and it turned out great. We really loved it.

2 cans black beans

6 cups of water

4 cups of chicken broth

2 cups of chopped onion

2 cups of chopped celery

4 cloves of garlic, minced

2 teaspoons ground coriander

1/8 to 1/2 teaspoon ground red pepper (I used only 1/8 t. - and it was more bland - I like it this way - if you really like it spicier - then add the full 1/2 t.)

8 oz. fully cooked Polish sausage cut up

Throw everything in to the slow cooker except the Polish sausage. Cook several hours on high. If you are going to cook it all day - then put it on medium or low.

Just prior to eating add the polish sausage and cook for about 1/2 hour more.

This is really good with hot brown rice. I made the rice and put it in the bowls first. Then added the soup. Plus we found that croutons were wonderful in the soup. They added some nice flavor.

EAA Museum

We had a fantastic field trip to the EAA Museum. Our family is studying the 1900's this year. The boys love the 20th century because they love the war stuff. The EAA Museum has many WWII planes.

The big yellow and black thing is an example of the bombs that were dropped on Japan.

After a tour of the museum we broke up into a younger kids group and an older kids group. The older kids got to design, cut out and build a balsa glider plane. The students loved this.

Below is my youngest making his paper airplane. They had a class to talk about how to fold and make the planes. Then they got to 'test' their planes to see how well they flew.

Below is the 'testing'! The kids really got into this aspect!

Here is JJ testing to see how far his plane will fly. Believe it or not his flew the farthest of all the planes - 42 feet. Isn't that something! Great fun!

Tour of Sonex Airplane

One of the things that I really think is important for the kids to see businesses - how things are made and assembled. We had a great tour of Sonex - and they make experimental airplanes - they actually make the kits and sell the kits. The customer buys the kits and assembles the plane themselves. It is a very affordable plane. This was really one of our better tours. The owner gave us the tour and you could just tell that flying and planes were his passion. It is obviously his love and he just really, really enjoyed sharing.

Below is the building where they have all their parts that are used to build the planes.

Below is the gas tank.

Below you can see two of their buildings. They are in hangers on the edge of one of the smaller airports in the state. The time when this airport gets really busy is one week in the summer during the EAA fly in. Planes (and people) come from all over the world to the EAA. It is an amazing sight to see!

Nature Center - Winter Sensory class

As our class finished up, our naturalist took us inside and let us see an example of an animal that hibernates. And yes this is my youngest with a snake around his neck! Very brave of him. One other boy and one other mom (that was me!) was willing to hold the snake this way. The rest of the class preferred to watch the action and not really be part of the action!

Nature Center - Winter Sensory class

We went to the local nature center. They do a great job with their educational programs. They rehabilitate injured birds and ones that can't be released back into the wild are used in their educational programs. This is a barred owl. He was amazingly beautiful. It was really great to be able to see one so close.

After the indoor portion of the program, they went outside to check out wildlife in its natural setting. It was just a beautiful day. The snow allowed for plenty of opportunities to see animal tracks.

Doesn't that look cold, cold, cold. Icy cold. That is the beach we were standing on. Doesn't look very beachy - now does it.

We climbed a tower to look around and get a bird's view of things. My youngest went up about 3/4 of the way and decided he was far enough. He was willing to stick around long enough to pose but then he fled down to the ground!

Below is a man made replica of what an eagle's nest looks like. I guess I just never realized how strong and powerful eagles are -- check out the size of the wood used. I asked if the eagles would really be able to fly with wood this large - and they said - oh absolutely. The only thing that this replica has that a real nest wouldn't is that it is tied together with twine. Birds wouldn't do that but as humans (not having the bird's skill and expertise in nest building) they cheated and used twine!