Review of This Fine Life by Eva Marie Everson

Revell sent me this complimentary copy to review.

What a tender-hearted story. The reader follows Mariette Puttnam through the early years of the 1960's right after her graduation from high school. A story about finding faith and love, experiencing heart ache and learning about growing up.

Here is a small clip from the back:

This Fine Life is a stand-alone novel by popular author Eva Marie Everson that transports readers to small-town Georgia in 1959: Mariette Puttnam has just graduated from boarding school during the summer of 1959. When she returns to her privileged life at home, she isn't sure where life will take her. More schooling? A job? Marriage? Nothing feels right. How could she know that the answer is waiting for her within the narrow stairwell of her father's apparel factory, exactly between the third and
fourth floors?

For a quick, heart warming story, pick up this book.

Available May 2010 at your favorite bookseller from Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group.

and still going strong!

15 years ago at about this time, I was standing in a church packed with 400+ people getting ready to say "I do" to the man standing across from me. We were so, so young. I was only two years into college and Ed had a full time job at the YMCA. There was so much I didn't know at the age of 20, let alone so much I didn't know about myself.

Little did I know what the journey would look like for us.

And what a journey is has been.

We have been together over half my life now between dating and marriage and learning life with you, my love, has been amazing. I couldn't ask for a better companion along this road or a better friend to journey it with. There have been valleys I never thought we would make it out of alive. The mountain peaks have been filled with so much adrenalin it was hard to come down. The peaceful meadows of when life was quiet. And riding the roaring rivers where life seems to move so swiftly we barely see where we've been or where we're going.

I'm looking forward to the next 15 years and beyond. The areas that haven't been traveled yet. The mountains we haven't seen. The part of the river that is around the next bend. The valleys where we can encourage each other through.

I'm glad we haven't arrived yet. There's so much left to live with you. Happy Anniversary my love!

the beginning

This week marks our 15th wedding anniversary. When I tell people how long I've been married, it's quite humorous to see their reaction. Last week one coworker said he thought I wasn't even 30 yet. The week before another said she thought I looked like I was in college.

I thought it'd be fun to share some of our story from way back when.

The picture you see is from my Senior Banquet (not prom mind you. That wasn't allowed). Ed and I had started dating the summer between my Junior and Senior year. Of high school. We had been making eyes at each other for a couple years before Ed finally asked me out.

He was wisely advised by his friends not to ask me out when he wanted to as I was just 15 years old. So two years later he did. But I informed him that he had to ask my dad first for permission.

That sure didn't deter him. He went out to lunch with my dad and asked permission of which was granted.

Our first date he feigned cold hands while sitting at an outdoor MSU play and slipped them into mine. Yeah...he's sneaky like that. He also blatantly lied and said for dinner he was going to get a sandwich from Quality Dairy (if you know Lansing, you know QD..think 7-11, but also having ice cream. And milk in a bag. I joke not.) We did end up at QD, but also in the same parking lot was a little restaurant called Swenson's. He headed that direction while I headed to QD. Yeah...he's sneaky like that too.

From the first time he told me he loved me (in which I threw up), I continued to get sick in his presence. It took months to recover from that. I even broke up with him one day, calling the next saying I made a mistake.

He claimed he was going to marry me to his mother even before we started dating. Yeah...he's persistent like that.

So many stories in our courtship. All of which make me smile.

labels

Whilst in the store the other day, I was reading labels to Sam on cereal (showing him how much sugar is in the sugary cereals as he and his sister always ask for them and I always say no) and noticed a little thing called BHT that is added to the packaging material to preserve freshness. It also appears in things like potato chips, which tend to be high in fat, along with baked goods and a wide variety of other foods.

Onto Google I went and found, according to good 'ole wikipedia, the definition.

First off, I can't even pronounce this additive. Butylated hydroxytoluene. Exactly. It's an antioxidant food additive.

Then I read what else this is used for as an antioxidant additive. It's used in cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, jet fuels, rubber, petroleum products, electrical transformer oil,[2] and embalming fluid.

Yum! And it's great that I have unopened boxes of what I thought are healthy cereals sitting in my cupboard with this on the label.

As with everything else out there, debate and controversy ensue with one side saying it's safe and others saying it can increase tumors and malignant cancers.

I just want to live on a plot of land with a milk cow, some chickens, maybe a pig and a garden, hang my wash on the line and churn butter. I know. It's harder than it sounds, but doesn't it sound grand?

Last week I was yet again reminded how much we have.

For our anniversary coming up, we splurged and bought a new bed. Ed was waking up more tired than he was when going to bed and in serious pain each morning.

The same day we bought the bed, I received an e-mail from one of my coworkers stating a man in the congregation was working with a couple from Pakistan who needed a bed. The wife is 7 months pregnant and the husband is looking for work. I thought in my wee brain, "we have a bed that's still in good condition."

Two of the custodians at church came and got it from our house on Monday and took it to the couple. One of the guys took pictures and video to show me their journey.

He said, "this is their couch. She slept there while her husband slept on the floor." He then showed me their bedroom and the bed on the floor. There was about a foot of space to walk on one side of the bed and that was it. No dressers or anything else could fit in the room.

He also said, "they washed out their two cups just to give us a drink." Two cups. That's all the dishes they had. I received an e-mail later from the man and from a woman that is working with them also, saying they absolutely LOVE the bed and are so very thankful for it.

Here I sit on my comfy chair surrounded by bookcases full of books and a piano against the other wall. My kitchen is chalk full of dishes. Do I really need all this? There is a couple out there with a bed, a couch and 2 mugs.

What can you do to help someone? Goodwill is great and helps a lot of people, but there's just something about seeing who you are giving to that pierces the heart.

Again, it's been a while since I've written anything other than a book review. Life has a way of flying by without realizing it. By the time you stop and look back, weeks have come and gone.

So here we are, the 2nd week of May. The year is almost half over! Time...where have you gone? The kids have four weeks left of school.

Then summer. We're hoping to travel to lots of places this summer and experience the West Coast. Our list keeps getting longer and longer of places we keep finding.

Ed has started summer classes and I'm pretty excited I get to take one of the classes with him. Child and adolescent counseling.

This is the last week in my current position at work. Next Monday the new boss starts. Hopefully this week I find out what that means for my hours. I already have something new with helping one of the satellite churches with their children's ministry, so that'll be a new learning experience to add to my belt.

I can tell my noggin is weary as this is the most stumbly post I've ever written.