Book #20 - French by Heart

My friend has a daughter whose family is over in France for a three year job stint through her husband's company. What an adventure this must be for them! Well, I am sure there are days that it does not seem to be an adventure, with the challenges of a different language and culture.  So many memories are being created for them and their extended family as they come and visit them while they are there.

I happened upon a delightful blog Wonders Never Cease ( a friend had recommended it, and rightly so), and as I got to reading it, I noticed a book to the side French By Heart: An American Family's Adventures in La Belle France, and when I went to check it out, I notice they had lived in the same area as my friend's daughter. And, of course, it was the same company which had offices over there. Well, it piqued my interest to peer into what life was like over there from another perspective, as I have kept up with the other family as well.

Delightfully written, her experiences of living in France are similar to what I have heard, with the cultural and language challenges, along with having young children. It was a written documentary of their life in Clermont-Ferrand, France, approximately 4 hours away from Paris. Full of humor, with a here and there of frustrations on the vicissitudes of life, Ramsey's family eventually returns to the US in one piece, with treasured memories of friendships and experiences.

I look forward to sharing this with my dear friend, and French by Heart will head over to Clermont-Ferrand, France to share. Thank you, Rebecca, for sharing your experiences and allowing us to peer into a life of a family who travels to another country and ALMOST becomes French.

Sunday Hymn - Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing

Our entrance hymn today at St. John's was "Come thou fount of every blessing, a popular hymn composed in the 18th century by the Methodist pastor and hymnist Robert Robinson (tune by Nettleton).





While reading up a little about the history of the hymn, I discovered that Charles Ives, an American composer, had taken this hymn and placed it in a string quartet. As I went hunting for it on Youtube, I found this lovely video of the String Quartet. Clearly one can hear the tune woven throughout his composition. So I share with you also this to enjoy:

To thine own self be true......

We didn't do a whole lot of celebrating on Father's Day. Dad didn't really want it that way. He was much more likely to just be glad for us to be together than for us to go get a card or a Father's Day gift. And, the ties and the other gifts cannot be remembered, for they were more self imposed obligatory gifts than ones that Dad expected or needed or really wanted.

I now understand what Dad meant. For when Mother's Day comes around, I want the presence of my children surrounding me with their love. I know as they have families, it might not always work out on the day, but the day really doesn't matter does it? Father's and Mother's Day can be any time.

My dad is no longer with us - he passed away 7 years ago in his sleep. What a blessing, I think, but I also think Dad hid his pains and symptoms that he knew one day would take his life away. Heart trouble, though not a diagnosis of death, was surely the culprit.

However, my dad left me many gifts, some I use, and some I treasure today.

•  Dad had some of the corniest jokes - I heard them a million times it seems and as  a teenager I was always embarrassed by them when friends were around. But teenagers are like that.
• We ALWAYS sat at the table to eat our meals. And... Walter Cronkite was in the background. Now some folks think - turn the tv off, but that is the way we talked about current events in our home. And Dad always had an opinion about them, but he also explained what was going on.
• Yankee food. I didn't know it at the time, because our meals were our meals, but Boston Baked Beans, with the brown bread out of the can, and weiners were a weekly meal at our house. It wasn't until my late teens that I had southern cornbread (not Jiffy mix).  We also had creamed chipped beef on toast (I think that is a "Yankee meal"). 
• Dad had a few quotes he would share with us... "to thine own self be true", "don't take any wooden nickels",  "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself (FDR), and others that I can't remember at the moment!
• Dad was a depression child - born in 1929, hard times were a part of growing up. Money was something he thought of as "it comes, it goes" so he wasn't much of a saver. His phiiosophy was "I didn't have it growing up, I can't take it with me, so let's enjoy what we have now and worry about tomorrow when it comes."  If he had a windfall of money (like when he won a small amount with the lottery) - he took us all on a vacation. Could he have squirreled it away? Sure, but we would have never had a memory of that. The vacation, though, is a highlight that my children remember.
• When it came to fashion, my father loved BRIGHT and FLASHY - no conservative outfits for him. He wanted to make a statement with a crazy tie, plaid pants with a striped shirt. Yep, that was my dad.

Best of all, he left me with a gift of thinking for myself, to always question, to be a life long learner, and to be compassionate to those less fortunate. He taught we an awareness to not always assume that things were not always what they seemed at face value, that there could be a story behind it that we don't know about by looking or seeing what we saw.

I hope that the gifts my father gave me are ones that I can live up to and pass on to my children, and to others. My gift to him, even today, is to be thankful to who he was and how he shaped me to be who I am today.

Gallavanting with Mom

Yesterday was filled with going to and fro with Mom. She is on a Nicholas Sparks reading kick, so if any of you want to read his book in this town, you might find the library's supply of his books a little low. She is the type of reader when she finds an author that suits her liking, we have a run on them. Problem is I can't keep up with what she has read and not read. But yesterday, we went to the library, so she did get a few more books - Debbie Macomber books keep her quite happy too.

The morning started off with her 3 month check up at the doctor, plus follow up post hospital stay, which she does not remember (is that a blessing? For her, yes). It was a good appointment, with his encouragement for her to move around more. She was adamant she WAS moving around a lot in the house by getting up and going to the bathroom. True.

Library visit, as mentioned above, and then to get her haircut. She has found the MAN to cut her hair, who makes her feel like a queen, and if it makes her feel that good, then it is worth the money she spends, though I think it is on the pricey side. And, they are good to her and treat her like royalty. When I get to be her age, I want to be treated like that too. (I hope my children hear that?).

Decisions decisions as to where to get a bite to eat lunch, so we went to the country club (where my husband is golf pro) and ate our sandwich and had a gorgeous view of the golf course. We sat and watched the grass grow.

Evelyn Underhill

Today the Episcopal Church observes Evelyn Underhill on their calendar. I haven't read any of her books, but I did find some quotes from her that I like. As I was looking for an image for her, I found this wonderful icon, created by Suzanne Schleck, whose work was displayed on the Episcopal Church and Visual Arts.


Underhill lived from 1875-1941 and was a prolific writer. Initially an agnostic, she became attracted to Catholocism, and eventually became involved in the Anglican tradition.
She contended that contemplative prayer was not strictly for nuns and monks, but for any person who desired to practice it. She was a spiritual director and leader of many workshops.

Here are some of her quotes from various writings:

God is always coming to you in the Sacrament of the Present Moment. Meet and receive Him there with gratitude in that sacrament.

God is much in the difficult home problems as in the times of quiet and prayer.

Try to arrange things so that you can have a reasonable bit of quiet every day.  

For more information about Evelyn Underhill go here:

(permission given to use image by Suzanne Schleck.) 

Book #19 Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close: A Novel- by Jonathan Safran. I'm counting this book, though I did not finish it til the end. I read 2/3 of the way through and found it wasn't the book for me. I tried to like this book. There were aspects I did like about this book, which centered around a nine year old boy whose father was killed in the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center.  Just wasn't my cup of tea.

Book #18 - The Double Comfort Safari Club

The Double Comfort Safari Club (No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency) oooh how I like The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency books. I'm not sure why because nothing really surprising happens, but I love the way the characters talk to each other. And I always feel like I am right there with them while the story is being told. I believe I have read all of the Detective Agency books - I read another one last week which I will post soon. They are a pleasure to read.