More Quotes from Three Decades of Fertility

No, no new letter yet.  But I have something just as good!  Last fall I was asked to contribute to a book about childbearing years.  The authors all have two things in common.  They have all given birth throughout their childbearing years.  Some had many children (like me) and some had only a few, with long time spans between having babies.  The second thing they all have in common is that they are women of faith.  Faith in the God of the Bible, and they each recognize that He is the author and creator of life, and that God uses our childbearing years to create us to be Christlike.

Relinquishing control (or perceived control) of our bodies to the creative work of pregnancy and childbirth has many correlations to the walk of a believer.  We have to take a back seat in order to really see the glory of what Christ is doing in us.  If we fight against God and choose to give in to our natural desire to control our lives in any way, then we are not allowing God to be Lord of our lives, and we will suffer for it.  If in no other way, we suffer from stress.  Because we are not God, we are not created with the ability to control most things, so when we try, we are putting stress into our lives.

Anyway, all that to say that this book is a great collection of stories.  Stories of faith and trust.  Stories of learning to recognize God's hand even in times of difficulty.  Stories of triumph and stories of intense heartache.  I wish all women of faith could read this book and learn of these women who have, in so many ways, "Been There, Done That."

Three Decades of Fertility will be released in paperback and E-book on July 29, Lord Willing!  You can use the banner at the top of this or the link near the top of the right side bar for ordering (I will get a commission on your order so thanks in advance for ordering using my link!  With two trips to an Eastern European to rescue Priscilla, I'm sure any extra income will come in handy!).

But without further ado, please watch the trailer below, and click on the image in my side bar to read more about this book, and get a sneak peak at some of the stories, as well as other parts, of the book!

Another Teaser...

Release Date is July 20!

I will be an associate selling copies via this blog...stay tuned for links!

Please spread the word - pin this/blog this!

It will minister to so many women!

Here's a quote from my chapter/question answers:

"The very thing you fear most will not be sent your way without the grace that only God can give. When I have been in trying and difficult times, God's grace has enabled me to endure in ways that I could not have understood beforehand. So when I worry about the “what if”s, I am on my own. I experience the trials in my imagination without the grace that God will provide if and when that trial comes to me from His loving hand. God does not promise that His grace is sufficient for the "what ifs" - but He does promise in II Cor 2:9 that "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness" and in Phil 4:13 "I can do everything through him who gives me strength" - He will give us the strength to do what He asks us to do, and the grace needed for each day."

Getting Back on the Horse

They say that if you fall off (or get bucked off) a horse, you should get right back on...that was you won't freak out about it and never be brave enough to try again...well that relates to my blogging, only I couldn't get right back on.  Here are some of the things that have caused me to fall off the blogging horse, if you will!
We have been through a very crazy season since I last blogged!  The biggest event was Esther developing pneumonia from the upper respiratory bug we had running through our family.  Everyone in our family came down with this bug, with the only exception being Rachel, who decided that chicken pox was better to have (at least we think it was chicken pox, still not completely sure).    
The pneumonia put Esther in the hospital for 5 days (4 nights) and this was while I was at my sickest with a sinus infection!  We just holed up together in bed almost the entire time!  
Then it was our yearly testing time, and since we had taken an early spring break it was perfect timing to get that out of the way before we went back to our normal school days.  And since then, I have been slowly recovering and getting back into a more normal routine.  I have been working more lately, cutting for the new line of products, but we have also been trying a few new things - like soap making and home making techniques.  
I borrowed Large Family Logistics from my dear friend, Jennifer of Squaw Creek Ranch blog (who is also my inspiration for home made soaps...you have to check out all her great blog posts about soap and home made recipes for things like cleaners, lotions and even deodorant!).  So I am working to put some of the things in that book into practice around here.  Many of the things in the book I already do, and some of it has a flavor of The Fly Lady, who I learned a lot from, but found was just not practical with a large, homeschooling family with a full-fledged home business!  So far it is really making things run smoother around here, especially the laundry (but I must give thanks for Renee of Baker's Dozen Blog, for her tips on sorting laundry into loads of boys, girls and towels - that has been such a blessing! I am devouring several other books at the moment, like Emotional Purity: An Affair of the Heart, Cut Your Grocery Bill in Half with America's Cheapest Family, and I am going to dive into Fix, Freeze, Feast:  starting this week!  Jessica and I worked to make a quadruple batch of meat loaf (11 pounds of hamburger), so today we now have 2 meals in the freezer, at one batch last night, and have another batch in the fridge for lunches this week!  Yeah!
I also place the first seed order in years, from Territorial Seed Company, and included two seeding sets so we can do starts in the house starting this week!  I am so excited to get this going!
I need to keep this short, but I know photos are so much fun, so I'll show you some things that have been happening since we have been healthy enough to take photos again!

Rebekah got her purity ring for hte 16th birthday (Rebekah on the left, Jessica's on the right)

on our way to the petting zoo and Jennifer's house!

the boys enjoying the little chicks...so soft!

cuddly bunnies are the best!

Esther LOVED the rabbits!

And the chicks too - she was so gentle!

Elizabeth enjoyed the chicks and bunnies too!

Elizabeth with her best buddies!

Our first picnic!

my new soap cupboard - everything in one place, and safely out of reach!

doing "melt and pour soap" - fun for all!

Jessica is grating some soap we got from Jennifer  - we tried "rebatching" and it turned out OK, but I am going to try this again but next time in the crock pot!

Jessica's pink and white melt and pour soaps

My creation!

And lastly, I have a new inspiration for blogging - sharing our His-story!  I want to start compiling the stories of when God's has moved in our lives...how He has shaped and molded us through good times and trials and miracles...I hope to start this very soon, starting with the story of my birth!

Stepping Heavenward, by Elizabeth Prentiss

Stepping Heavenward, by Elizabeth Prentiss
This is my absolute favorite novel of all time. No, I'm not exaggerating...I've read it 6 times now, and have underline more than a dozen passages, hoping to print some of them and use them to decorate my home!

Stepping Heavenward is a book written in a diary or journal format. The young girl, Katherine (Kate or Katy, depending on her moods) starts the journal with this entry..."How dreadfully old I am getting! Sixteen!" She sets out to chronicle her spiritual journey, and grows from a willful, selfish young woman, to a mature, enduring, graceful woman after many trials and losses.

What I love about this novel, is that it seems so real, so genuine, and I see much of myself in the fits and spurts of spiritual growth, intermixed with times of spiritual despondency and seeming lack of growth.

During the course of this journal, Katy losses her father suddenly, endures a broken engagement, gets married, has her father-in-law and sister-in-law move in with them and they are both sour old gloomy people, has at least 6 children, but suffers the loss of one of them and frail health of another, cares for some of her husbands (he is a doctor) clients who are home-bound, losses her only beloved brother suddenly, and suffers from poor health herself (spending 7 years bedridden at one point).

This book is so genuine because in many ways it mirrors the life of the auther, Elizabeth Prentiss...I found this in Wikipedia:

"In 1845, she married George Lewis Prentiss, a brother of her dear friend Anna Prentiss Stearns, ... After a happy time of transitioning into the duties of a pastor's wife and a housewife, within a period of three months she lost her second and third children – one as a newborn, one at age four. She wrote this poem in that year, 1852, on the occasion of the baby's death:

I thought that prattling boys and girls
Would fill this empty room;
That my rich heart would gather flowers
From childhood's opening bloom.

One child and two green graves are mine,
This is God's gift to me;
A bleeding, fainting, broken heart—
This is my gift to Thee."

So her heart wrenching loss shows up in Stepping Heavenward, but also the comfort she found in Christ and God's severe mercies, and how He carried her through those dark days.

There's also many wonderful insights into married life, motherhood, and godliness...and this is what I loved about this book...so much godly wisdom in one place, yet it's a fun read at the same time!

Here are some of my favorite passages:

"Duty looks more repelling at a distance than when fairly faced and met"

"God does nothing arbitrarily. If He takes away your health, for instance, it is because He has some reason for doing so; and this is true of everything you value; and if you have real faith in Him, you will not insist on knowing the reason. If you find, in the course of daily events, that your self-consecration was not perfect - that is, that your will revolts at His will - do not be discouraged but fly to your Savior and stay in His presence till you obtain the spirit in which He cried in His hour of anguish "Father, if Thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will but Thine be done" (Luke 22:42). Every time you do this it will be easier to do it; every such consent to suffer will bring you nearer and nearer to Him and in this nearness to Him you will find such peace, such blessed, sweet peace and will make your life infinitely happy, no matter what may be its mere outside conditions." (a letter to Katy from her pastor)

"And there are my children! My darling, precious children! For their sakes I am continually constrained to seek after an amended, a sanctified life; what I want them to become I must become myself"

In a conversation with her other sister-in-law, Helen, the following was said:

"I think I may way of my happiness that is rests on something higher and deeper then ever Earnest (her husband) and my children....The will of God, the sweet will of God. If He should take them all away, I might still possess a peace which would flow on forever."

Helen suddenly asked. "Do you always submit to God's will thus"
"In great things I do," I (Katy) said, "What grieves me is that I am constantly forgetting to recognize God's hand in the little, everyday trials of life, and instead of receiving them as from Him, find fault with the instruments by which He sends them."

Oh, if only I could recognize God's hand in the little trials of each day and seek His wisdom and peace...and not become irritated with my children or husband or friend!

"There is no wilderness so dreary but that His love can illuminate it, no desolation so desolate but that He can sweeten it....I believe that the highest, purest happiness is known only to those who have learned Christ in sickrooms, in poverty, in racking suspense and anxiety, amid hardships and at the open grave."

"I want to see little children adorning every home as flowers adorn every meadow and every wayside. I want to see them welcomed to the homes they enter, to see their parents grow less and less selfish and more and more loving because they have come. I want to see God's precious gifts accepted, not frowned upon and refused."

Here's my 2nd most favorite quote:

"And now I am waiting for my Father's next gift and the new cares and labors it will bring with it. I am glad it is not left to me to decide my own lot. I am afraid I should never see precisely the right moment for welcoming a new bird into my nest, dearly as I love the rustle of their wings and the sound of their voices when they do come."

And here is my absolute favorite quote...

this is her response to her sister-in-law who, after hearing that Katy is expecting yet another baby, says she will "now have one mouth the more to fill and two feet the more to shoe, more disturbed nights, more laborious days, and less leisure for visiting, reading, music, and drawing"

"Here is a sweet, fragrant mouth to kiss; here are two more feet to make music with their pattering about my nursery, Here is a soul to train for God. and the body in which it dwells is worth all it will cost, since it is the abode of a kingly tenant. I may see less of friends, but I have gained one dearer than them all, to whom, while I minister in Christ's name, I make a willing sacrifice of what little leisure for my own recreation my other darlings had left me. Yes, my precious baby, you are welcome to your mother's heart, welcome to her time, her strength, her health, her tenderest cares, to her lifelong prayers! Oh, how rich I am, how truly, how wondrously blest!"

Can you see that I love this book...it is second only to God's Word for me...there's even more in the book to learn from than what I've quoted here...so get yourself a copy and see what gems you find in there!

I have read one other book by this author, "Aunt Jane's Hero" and enjoyed it as well...I plan to read that one again soon and review it for you as well!

Let me know if you have read this book, or if my review has inspired you to read it for the first time (or read it again!)