A Dream of Miracles book review and #giveaway

If you were cooking up an Amish love story, and someone dumped in a heaping cup of medical thriller when your back was turned, you'd get A Dream of Miracles.  It's an interesting combination, like maple bacon donuts.  But it works.  (The story works; the jury is still out on the donuts.)

Bo is an unlikely hero for an Amish plot line.  First, he's an Enlischer.  Second, he's a social worker, investigating an abuse case.  Obviously there's more to him than first meets the eye.

Mattie comes off as a bit of a train wreck, especially at first.  In fact, at one point, I was thinking there must be some sort of environmental toxin on their farm; bad water, underground off-gassing, etc, to be causing her and her children to be unwell.  Her husband died, her kids are sick, she's not sleeping, and even passes out a couple of times.

Author Ruth Reid does a good job of throwing out all sorts of teasers to get you thinking, "Maybe it's this, maybe it's that," which creates a suspenseful story that kept me up long after I should have turned the light out.

There are interesting sub plots to the main story line, like Bo's ongoing disagreement with his adoptive mother's partnership with a fracking company, and her campaign events.  There's even a villain of sorts, in the form of a career focused woman with lousy people skills.  It's a clean romance, with a happily ever after ending, and I'll be passing it on to my teen daughter to read now that I'm done with it.


When a suspicious outsider with a shadowy past comes crashing into Amish widow Mattie’s fragile world, can she learn to love again? Find out in Ruth Reid's new book, A Dream of Miracles. When Mattie and Bo cross paths, all signs point to disaster. Yet as they face a crucible of trials and tragedies together, longings begin to stir that seem destined only to end in more heartbreak. Is a miracle possible—not only of healing but of forbidden love? What secrets lie in Bo’s dreams? And will Mattie find the courage to face her uncertain future . . . or will she simply run away?

Ruth is celebrating the release of A Dream of Miracles with a Kindle Fire HD 6 giveaway (details below) and an author chat party on May 3!

 

One grand prize winner will receive:

• One copy of A Dream of Miracles
• A Kindle Fire HD 6

Enter today by clicking the icon below. But hurry, the giveaway ends on 5/3. The winner will be announced at A Dream of Miracles Facebook party. RSVP for a chance to connect with Ruth and other fans of Amish fiction, as well as for a chance to win other prizes!

RSVP today and spread the word—tell your friends about the giveaway via FACEBOOK, TWITTER, or PINTEREST and increase your chances of winning. Hope to see you on the 3rd!

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General Vallejo's Home - Sonoma Field Trip part 3

If you missed parts one and two of our Sonoma field trip, here's The Mission and the rest of our time on the Plaza from that day.  After part 2, we hopped back in the van for a very brief drive over to General Vallejo's Home.

The kids were eager to explore and set off in a hurry with Grammy.

Inside the first building were many interesting things to look at, including this beautiful carriage.

Er, coach.

Hannah is checking out that unusual bike in the corner.

Lovely painting done on a roof tile.

What on earth?  Model planets?

No, cannonballs.  Oh.  How silly of me.  I always assumed cannonballs were black.

Anyone who currently pays a water bill will find themselves nostalgic for the good old days.

Spurs.  I don't know if they jingle jangle or not.  The kids found this stuff fascinating, as much of it they'd never even heard of.  "Well, you wear those on your boots so it hurts the horse more when you kick it."  Um, yeah.  You ever notice you don't really think about some things until you try to explain them to a child?

Whoops!  The sword shot didn't get rotated.  Sorry.

Outside was gorgeous!  It's a very peaceful atmosphere.  There was hardly anybody else there, and the weather was perfect, and the birds were singing.  Really, a perfect day.

The kids checking out the fountain.  See the house in the background?  That's where the "inside the house" pictures coming up will be taken.

After the fountain, we went up to the pond.  This was the point where I set my camera down and walked off without it.  Fortunately, it stayed right where I put it, and when I called and left frantic messages on their answering machine, someone went up and found it for me, and my mom picked it up the next day.

Some of what you see around the pond are rocks.

And some of what you see are turtles!

There were more than a dozen of them that we spotted, and probably more that we didn't see in this lovely pond.  Grammy threatens to take Annaliese's turtle, Sheldon, up there in a picnic basket and set him free.  (It's also a red eared slider, like many of the turtles at the pond.)

The white and orange shadow is a monster koi, easily the size of Katie's whole leg.  And there's a turtle poking his head out of the water, too.

There goes another really big fish.

We also saw lizards sunning themselves.  When we lived in Santa Rosa, we used to see these lizards all the time.  I feel bad for the younger kids who missed out on all that nature.

This was me playing with the "panorama" setting on the cell phone camera.  It was taken from up above the pond on the porch of a tiny little cabin.

General Vallejo's Home is a California Historical Landmark.

Built in the 1850s, it's a look back in time to a very different era.

It's currently maintained by the Sonoma Petaluma State Historic Parks Association.

Stepping into the main house is like walking onto the set of a historical romance novel.

The rooms are full of interesting things to look at.

To read more about General Vallejo, click here.

Hannah has a hard time on steep stairs, so these were a challenge for her.  Going up is okay, but coming down, I walked right in front of her to help.

There once was a time when music didn't happen at the touch of a button.  I think we valued practice and accomplishment and even togetherness more back then.

 One of the tiny children's rooms.  On the right, you see the foot of the bed below.

I was struck by how small the bedrooms were.  The entire room was about the size of a king mattress.  It was a good reminder to me of how very blessed we are to have our spacious home.

 The fireplaces were marble.  Can you imagine??

The sewing machine was not close to the doorway viewing area, but I knew the silhouette would be recognizable.

Another panoramic shot of the grounds.

This was the perfect field trip for us since it highlighted the period in history we were studying.  I'm thinking about teaching California history next year and making a stab at doing some more historical field trips.  We actually managed to hit 3 of the historic sites in Sonoma County on this trip (I've been to several more of them over the years).  Sacramento County has a whole bunch of historic sites we could go check out.

Linking up with the Schoolhouse Review Crew.

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Our Week with Progress in the Sewing Room

We spent a day at Shriners again this week.  Fortunately, both girls' legs are good now, so we should be able to go a couple months before needing to go in for growth adjustments.  I don't like appointments cutting into our school hours, but I'm grateful for the technology that allows my girls to walk.

Another field trip with Daddy.  Paul took the children to a vendor show.  Yes, my children are standing under a fire engine.

Confession:  This trip didn't actually happen during this week.  But since the pictures were on Paul's camera, I just got them.

I wish Lukey could appreciate how cool it is that he gets to ride in fire engines.

And here's a significant part of the reason the kids got to go.  Swag bags.

We celebrated our anniversary recently.  Paul took me to Ikea and we brought home boxes.

The boxes went into the sewing room, which I've been working on (slowly!) the last few months.  You can see before pictures here.

Paul assembled the 6 million Ikea pieces and produced...

This!  A narrower sewing table (meaning I won't have to sew with my toes to reach the foot pedal!) with drawers on both sides!  I've amassed an embarrassing amount of thread.  Most of the drawers are now full of thread, which frees up some wall space for part 2 of this project (which will come around Mother's Day), the other side of the room.

The center machine is my embroidery machine, which doesn't usually go on the table, but since my sewing machine was at the spa for a tune up, it's sitting in it's place for the picture.  Now my sewing machine is home, and it's time to start churning out projects again!

We're starting to learn about the 50 states, so I had the kids do our GeoToys puzzle of North America.  Jack ended up doing most of it.  Not because Hannah couldn't, but because he wasn't feeling like sharing.

When we learned that Massachusetts is a major grower of cranberries, I remembered the Curiosity Quest DVD we reviewed that talks about cranberries, so we pulled that out to watch.

Hannah has finished this year's math book!  So what happens when there's more "year" than book?

You start next year's math book!  I figure, if we get the opportunity to review a math program next school year, she can take time off from her book without falling behind.

I got a chance to sew, so I made Hannah red bike shorts for under a navy & white striped dress.  Katie will wear Hannah's old shorts from last year.

One of the big things that happened this week is that the dryer stopped working.  On Monday.  Paul took it apart and decided it was time for a new one.  So Tuesday, he went to the appliance store and ordered one.  To be delivered on Saturday.

With 10 people in the house, I was a little concerned about being without a dryer all week, but the backup hasn't been too bad, actually.  I did about 5 loads today (starting the minute the delivery guy left) and I'm almost caught up.

Brianna's team won 10-0 this week!  She's enjoying soccer.  I'm really proud of her.  She's never played before this year, and she's just jumped right in and done great.

I just realized I have absolutely no art to show for this week!  We watched a segment of the 4th grade Home Art Studio DVD, showing a metal sculpting studio and talking with the artist.  And we read about French artists (to go along with learning about the French Revolution).  But we didn't actually do any art projects.  Hannah and Katie took their sketch pads out in the back yard and drew, but I didn't get any pictures of that.

Next week, we get to learn a bit about Russia, and continue learning about leaves in Botany.  (This week, we learned about photosynthesis.)


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