Helping and loving family~
In the community—at work and church~
When I sit at my computer and write~
I serve a risen Savior!
“And if Christ had not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith.” 1 Corinthians 15:17
But my faith is not useless.
My life is not without meaning,
Nor is my writing an exercise of futility.
I serve a risen Savior!
He is ALIVE!
Took the tree down this past weekend and attended the last Christmas party of the season. Finally, the cookie crumbs have settled. Now that all the gifts have been opened, I can share pictures of several that I made.
Vintage clear glass buttons make this icicle sparkle! The buttons are strung on light blue embroidery floss.
This hanging snowman’s hat is actually a rosy color. Made of cotton quilt batting, I sprayed stiffener on the back of it to give it a little more structure.
Here’s a close up:
The Victorian Santa was made for my son. He’s patiently waited years for me to make it for him. I presented him with the basic Santa on Christmas morning and let him go through my bins of trims to choose what Santa would hold. 
I love writing my stories, but creating these items reminded me how much I also enjoy the process and satisfaction of creating with my hands. Looking forward to 2015, there will be time spent in my craft corner.
Available on Kindle, Nook and iBooks.
Have you signed up for my newsletter? Before writing INTO THE DEEP, I interviewed Jack ‘Preach’ Conroy. The January newsletter will have that interview. If you’d like to know a little more about the man, be sure and sign up here:
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Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you;
he is Christ the Lord.
Luke 2:11
Imagine my surprise when I saw that I’d already posted a 2014 mantle–a YEAR ago–and no one called me on it. Does that mean I’m not the only one who’s confused about what year I’m in when one is drawing to a close and a new one is on the very near horizon?
Oh, good. I love being in the same boat with such nice people. For posterity – I corrected last year’s post.
This post is truly the mantle as it looks for Christmas 2014.
As usual, I shopped the house, the Christmas tubs and the craft bins to find what I needed. The ‘shopping trip’ included a foray through the gardening shelves in the basement to create this woodland scene. Squint, and the sparkly white garland kinda looks like snow!
The ‘fence’ is an old wood cow stanchion. It’s one of those pieces I love when I find a use for it, but want to get rid of the rest of the year. Thousands of these wood stanchions were burned when the government insisted commercial dairies use steel. I found this stanchion several years ago while yard sale hopping in the boonies of Rhode Island. There was no longer a family cow in the tiny barn so they were selling the stanchion. I snapped it up when ‘prim’ (primitive) was so popular.
As you can see, raccoon and bunny were allowed to come into the house proper. Regulars on the summer deck this will be their first Christmas celebration with the family. If they behave they may be invited back.
I couldn’t offend Mr. and Mrs. Mouse, so this year they left the Christmas bin and found a spot on the mantle. Don’t they look spiffy dressed in their Christmas outfits? (My sister says I have a whole world in my head that no one knows about. Yes. Yes, I do!)
A tatty vintage cardinal looks on from the top fence rail…
… while a gorgeous male cardinal lands center stage in the wreath.
So there you have it. Christmas 2014 fireplace mantle. I’m thinking it will be hard to say goodbye to.
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You won’t want to miss January’s edition. I’m sharing the interview I did with Jack ‘Preach’ Conroy before writing Book 2 of the SeaMount Series, INTO THE DEEP. Here’s a sneak peek:
Q: What were you like in high school?
Jack: Justice was served with my fists. Everyone knew my father was the town drunk. I was the kid with the patched jeans.
Available on Kindle, Nook and iBooks.
Q: Who is your closest mundane friend?
Jack: I don’t have mundane friends.
Q: What’s the most beautiful thing you’ve ever seen?
Jack: A sunrise in a place I can’t reveal. I was glad to be alive to see the sun come up. It was beautiful and at the same time, a blessing from the Almighty.
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Sparkle and Light
This year I didn’t do my usual ‘over the top’ decorating throughout the house. We have our tree with Son’s collection of Old World ornaments and I gussied up the living room fireplace and the china cabinet in the dining room.
The mantle came out beautiful. Perhaps ‘less’ really is more!
The mirror is from ‘the girls bedroom’ at home. The vase is a piece from my milk glass collection. Silk poinsettias and red ball ornaments add color. White lights and gold beads add sparkle.
Have you finished your holiday decorating?
During my prayer and Bible study time for the month of December, I seek out the word that will be my focus for the new year. Sometimes the same word jumps out at me over and over again as I go through my day. Other times, the repetition of one word leads me to another word before the whispered voice of the Holy Spirit confirms this is it. My word.
To have a special word to guide me through the year – a word handpicked for me by my Creator – sounds so lovely and spiritual, right? But what if the word that keeps cropping up isn’t one that I want?
That’s where I was just before Christmas. Not liking the word.
For several years now my words have been comfortable. Themes to lean on and rest in. Words like Hope and Trust.
This year, my quest started with the word ‘stewardship’ popping in and out of my world. I kept rejecting it, hoping it wasn’t the word and not wanting to consider where the Holy Spirit could be guiding me with that word.
I argued with the Holy Spirit. “Show me the word You really have for me. Stewardship is a word that requires work, you know. And stewardship of what? Money? My health? Spiritual gifts? Relationships? Don’t you know how busy I am? I’m working two part-time jobs outside the house (which equals more hours than one full time job) and I have my writing. And Old Roady and Son like to eat and wear clean clothes. Add in elderly parents and church duties and… and… . Hellooo! Stewardship? Really? I don’t have the TIME!”
Ouch! The conviction pierced my thick-headed hard-hearted shell. Stewardship of my time. Being intentional with my time. Because this is where my year will be defined. The use of my time, the same 24 hours God gives every one of us, will determine if I accomplish what God has set out for me to do in 2013.
The argument is over and prayer has begun in earnest. Because the only way the work – on my interior world as well as the exterior – will be done and fruitful is with constant communion with the Holy Spirit.
And in that amazing way that God works, old articles and past sermons and passing comments from others are hitting the mark and guiding me now that my heart and mind are open to the word I’ve been given – Time. I can’t hold it, or see it, or stop it, or recycle it. Even as I’m sitting here writing, it is passing, never to be reclaimed or relived.
Being a good steward of my Time – that is my challenge, my theme, and my word.
Please join Christian Indie Novelists in the celebration of our Savior’s birth. We have a progressive Christmas story hop to share with you, as well as a post about favorite Christmas songs. Each author is having a drawing at their blog and there is an overall Grand Prize.
Here’s what you need to do to enter:
1. Go to each blog in the order that is listed below.
2. Read the section of the story posted. Then follow the link to the next blog where the next section of the story is posted.
3. At each blog, click on the Rafflecopter link to be entered in the Grand Prize drawing ($100 Amazon Gift Card), and leave a comment on the blog to be entered in each author’s individual drawing. Your comments can be about the story. Or you can tell us your favorite Christmas song, movie or book. Be sure to tweet and like us on Facebook to be entered multiple times.
My drawing —
Comment on this blog for a chance to win a digital copy of OUT OF THE WILDERNESS, my inspirational romantic adventure novel, as well as a small (3.5 x 5.5 inches) moleskin notebook with a hand-embroidered cover created by Bonnie Paper Works (Etsy).
Follow blogs in the order listed below:
Pre-dawn light glowed on the horizon. Meredith checked her watch and stepped away from the window. Time to go.
Hurrying out to her car, she climbed in before a case of nerves caused her to chicken out. She refused to spend another sleepless night wondering why Garth had come back. The scars on his face and his slight limp were evidence that the rumor of a medical discharge was true. But that had happened several months ago. Why show up here now?
The sun was cresting the horizon as she turned her car onto the farm’s driveway. The run-down house loomed ahead with no vehicle in sight. Had he left as quietly as he’d arrived? Last night, she and the children were so caught up in the fun of caroling for someone new in town that she hadn’t questioned the empty parking spot.
Parking her car, Meredith took a deep breath and got out. She climbed the steps and raised her hand to knock. Her knuckles never connected with the wood.
The door opened and a hand shot out, clamped around her forearm and yanked.
“Aahh. Hey!” She stumbled forward and fell to her knees. The door closed behind her with a thump. Her heart thudded against her ribs. In the gloom of the interior, the shadow of a man loomed above her. “Let go of me.” She surged to her feet. Free hand clenched in a fist, she swung at her assailant. A strong hand captured it and held on.
“Merrie, stop.”
Meredith froze. No one called her that name. No one except Garth. And it was his voice that said it now. She tugged against his hold. “You frightened me.” The low light deepened the grooves that slashed across his cheek. He was dressed like a one-man militia.
“You shouldn’t be here.” He glanced out the window then pulled her deeper into the room.
“I had to find out why you decided to come home.” She refused to be cowed by his glare. “For so long I’ve wanted to see you.” Her whispered admission hung in the air between them.
He let go as though scalded. “So now you’ve seen me. It isn’t the face you remember, is it?” He turned away and fiddled with a piece of gear attached to his vest.
The harsh words hit her like a sucker punch. “Is it your scars? Is that why you didn’t come home? You didn’t want me to see you?”
His head came up but he wasn’t looking at her. She glanced toward the window and caught a glimpse of a person in the field before she was shoved against the wall with Garth pressed close against her. “You do exactly what I tell you to do and we may get out of here alive.”
Meredith closed her eyes, desperate to sort out what was happening. She’d known him as a military man, but that knowledge had never prepared her for the hard-shelled warrior pinning her to the wall. Fear warred with the love that had never died for this man standing so close, but still miles away.
“Come on.” Grasping her shoulder, Garth shoved her toward the back of the house. “I want you out of the way.”
“Who is that man out there, Garth, and don’t tell me ‘nobody’.”
His face was set in a hard ruthless mask and, for one moment, Meredith wished she’d stayed home.
“Someone I’ve been expecting.” He pushed her toward the small pantry.
Meredith dragged her feet and grabbed the doorjamb. “You can’t just stuff me away.”
“I can and will. You’ll be safer in here.”
She clung to his arm. “I’m not letting go until you tell me what’s going on.”
His gaze traveled over her face. He lifted her hand and rested it against his cheek. “The man out there did this to me.”
She trembled. Beneath her palm the smooth scar tissue moved with each word he spoke.
“It’s time he paid for what he did.”
Tears pooled in her eyes making it hard to see clearly. “Revenge, Garth? Is that what this is?”
His lips pulled back in a snarl. “Justice. I may be scarred, but what he did left others dead.” He stroked his fingertips across the inside of her wrist.
He moved so quickly, she didn’t have time to react. One moment she stood before him, trying to understand this man she had loved for so long, and the next moment, she was inside a tiny room, the door closed and locked.
For Part 5 and the conclusion of A CHRISTMAS TO REMEMBER, visit:
Don’t forget to leave a comment below and click on this Rafflecopter link to enter the drawing for the $100 Amazon Gift Certificate!
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Christmas 2012
The best cheese ball recipe! For that table that keeps the hungry crowd out from under the cooks feet so the Thanksgiving dinner can be prepared. What do you call the food on that table? Hors d’oeuvres? Appetizers? Nibbles? Pickys? My favorite part of the meal?
Where inspiration, creativity and faith intertwine
Anita K Greene 