ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Christa Allan, a true Southern woman who knows any cook worth her gumbo always starts with a roux and who never wears white after Labor Day, weaves stories of unscripted grace with threads of hope, humor, and heart.

The mother of five and grandmother of three, Christa teaches high school English. She and her husband, Ken live in Abita Springs, Louisiana where they play golf, dodge hurricanes, and anticipate retirement.

ABOUT THE BOOK

Leah Thornton’s life, like her Southern Living home, has great curb appeal. But already sloshed from one-too-many drinks at a faculty party, Leah cruises the supermarket aisles in search of something tasty to enhance her Starbucks—Kahlua and a paralyzing encounter with a can of frozen apple juice shatters the facade, forcing her to admit that all is not as it appears.

When her best friend Molly gets in Leah’s face about her refusal to deal with her life, Leah is forced to make a decision. Can this brand-conscious socialite walk away from the country club into 28 days of rehab? Leah is sitting in the office of the local rehab center facing an admissions counselor who fails to understand the most basic things, like the fact that apple juice is not a suitable cocktail mixer.

Rehab is no picnic, and being forced to experience and deal with the reality of her life isn’t Leah’s idea of fun. Can she leave what she has now to gain back what she needs? Joy, sadness, pain and a new srength converge, testing her marriage, her friendships and her faith.

But through the battle she finds a reservoir of courage she never knew she had, and the loving arms of a God she never quite believed existed.

If you would like to read the first chapter of Walking on Broken Glass, go HERE

Welcome to Friday Felicities, a meme created by Nattie – now a resident of heaven. This meme is all about creating a list of things that make you happy and Nattie knew that when you concentrate on your blessings your sorrows are not as overwhelming.

If you would like to participate please create your own blog post and come back here to link it with other Friday Felicities participants. If you don’t mind, please include a link on your blog to mine so others can also participate with us.

This is the baby blanket I made for Sara’s Baby Shower.  I was especially pleased with the way the border turned out.  It is a shell pattern but it looks all ruffly.  Is that a word?  My spell check says no!

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While writing this, I was listening to "Blessed Be Your Name" by Tree63

Last night I made some wonderful Chicken and Dumplings in the slow cooker and it was so easy!  I put chicken breasts in the cooker and covered them with 2 cans of Cream of Chicken soup and chicken broth.  I cooked that all day and it was tender enough to tear apart just by stirring it with a spoon.  I dropped biscuits into the broth (cut into fourths) and let them cook until they were no longer doughy.  It was delicious but I like my mom’s dumplings better (i.e. thinner).  Next time I will try this same recipe but will add flour tortillas cut into strips instead of the biscuits.

I’ve recently started trying my hand at baking bread and have found that it is pretty easy!  My efforts over the weekend were delicious.  Yesterday I tried the “Depression Era Bread” and I didn’t like it as well.  Stacey said hers didn’t brown like she wanted and neither did mine.  I didn’t think these were as tasty as the bread over the weekend.   I’m committed – I bought two new bread pans yesterday.

I had my monthly labs this week and I was only stuck twice and they were able to get all the blood they needed.  They’ve added back the daily manual exchange until I can get this extra fluid off my body.  I don’t have any major complaints but to be honest, I am tired of just feeling tired and poorly all the time.  I want to feel good again.  I’ve gained a lot of weight over this past year and it makes me feel awful both physically and emotionally.  I need change!

I am currently reading: Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God by Francis Chan

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Lisa lives in central Texas were she is a popular inspriational speaker, magazine columnist, and national bestselling author of several books. Her novel, Tending Roses, received dozens of five-star reviews, sold out thirteen printings for New York publisher, Penguin Putnam, and went on to become a national bestselling book. Tending Roses was a selection of the Readers Club of America, and is currently in its fourteenth printing.

The Tending Roses series continued with Good Hope Road, the Language of Sycamores, Drenched in Light, and A Thousand Voices. In 2003, Lisa’s Texas Hill Country series began with Texas Cooking, and continued with Lone Star Cafe’, which was awarded a gold metal by RT Bookclub magazine and was hailed by Publisher’s Weekly as “A charmingly nostalgic treat.” The series concluded with Over the Moon at the Big Lizard Diner.

Lisa is now working on a new set of small-town Texas novels for Bethany House Publishers. The series debuted with Talk of the Town and continued with Word Gets Around and Never Say Never. A new series is also underway for Peguin Group NAL, beginning with A Month of Summer (July 2008), and continuing with The Summer Kitchen (July 2009) and Beyond Summer (July 2010). Lisa’s works have been featured by the National Reader’s Club of America, AOL Book Pics, Doubleday Book Club, the Literary Guild, American Profiles and have been chosen for the LORIES best Published Fiction Award. In 2009, A Month of Summer was nomiated for the American Christian Fiction Writers Book of the Year award.

ABOUT THE BOOK

Kai Miller floats through life like driftwood tossed by waves. She’s never put down roots in any one place–and she doesn’t plan to. But when a chaotic hurricane evacuation lands her in Daily, Texas, she begins to think twice about her wayfaring existence.

And when she meets hometown-boy Kemp Eldridge, she can almost picture settling down in Daily–until she discovers he may be promised to someone else. Daily has always been a place of refuge for those the winds blows in, but for Kai, it looks like it will be just another place to leave behind. Then again, Daily always has a few surprises in store–especially when Aunt Donetta has cooked up a scheme.

If you would like to read the first chapter of Never Say Never, go HERE

In the shadows of Charleston, someone is watching her… Rylee Monroe, a dogwalker in Charleston’s wealthiest neighborhood, never feared the streets at night. But now a thief is terrorizing the area and worse, someone seems to be targeting her.

Reporter Logan Woods is covering the break-ins with the hope of publishing them as a true-crime book. The more he digs, the more he realizes this beguiling dogwalker seems to be at the center of everything. As danger draws ever closer, Logan must choose: Chase the girl, the story, or plunge into the shadows after the villain who threatens everything?

If you’d like to read the first chapter of , go HERE

Welcome to Friday Felicities, a meme created by Nattie – now a resident of heaven. This meme is all about creating a list of things that make you happy and Nattie knew that when you concentrate on your blessings your sorrows are not as overwhelming.

If you would like to participate please create your own blog post and come back here to link it with other Friday Felicities participants. If you don’t mind, please include a link on your blog to mine so others can also participate with us.

Sales clerk, barista, telemarketer, sign waver…

At twenty-five, free-spirited Becca Daniels is still trying to figure out what she wants to be when she grows up. What Becca doesn’t want to be is bored. She craves the rush of a new experience, whether it’s an extreme sport, a shocking hair color, or a new guy. That’s why she quit her bookstore job, used her last bit of credit to go skydiving, and broke her leg.

And that’s why, grounded and grumpy, Becca bristles when teased by friends for being commitment-phobic. In response, Becca issues an outrageous wager—that she can sustain a three-month or twenty-five date relationship with the next guy who asks her out. When the guy turns out to be “churchy” Ben—definitely not Becca’s type—she gamely embarks on a hilarious series of dates that plunge her purple-haired, free-speaking, commitment-phobic self into the alien world of church potlucks and prayer meetings.

This irrepressible Getaway Girl will have you cheering her on as she “suffers” through her dates, gains perspective on her life’s purpose, and ultimately begins her greatest adventure of all.

If you’d like to read the first chapter of Becca By The Book, go HERE

I really liked this book a lot. A little different from the usual Christian romance books.

Life for Kelly McGregor is a daily drudge of driving her overbearing father’s mules along Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Canal. She dreams of one day owning an art gallery where her own drawings and paintings are on display. But these dreams don’t include marriage. . .not after seeing what her father has done to her mother. How then can Mike Cooper, a general store owner, make her realize he is different than her father and wants to support her artistic talent? Will Kelly learn that dreams can walk hand in hand with a love created by God?

If you would like to read the first chapter of Kelly’s Chance , go HERE.

Every month I have to fill out an inventory sheet and call my supply company to let them know what I have and what I need.  It’s a pretty simple process and the sheet does all the work for me – all I have to do is make a note of how many unopened boxes of solution I have left (by bag size and solution strength) and what other things I need such as tape, masks, etc.

My inventory sheet today looks a little like this:  unopened boxes of 2.5 liter solution – yellow (1.5%) 5, green (2.5%) 2 and red (4.25%) 4.  My 6 liter bags are 10 yellow, 14 green and 7 red.

I’ll be ordering mini caps (a new one for my catheter after every exchange), cassettes and tubing (for the cycler), drain bags (my drain line doesn’t reach the bathroom so I use a big drain bag and then empty it), patient extensions (so I can watch TV in the LR after I connect at night), soap, tape, masks, IV sponges (to cover my exit site), 2×2 gauze bandages (to clean the catheter after every exchange and 4×4 bandages (sterile place to place my catheter on while I am getting ready to connect).

If my prescription changes, my nurse calls the supply place and lets them know what I need.  Everything is very organized and the process is always smooth.  My supply company will even mail early supplies I need if they see I don’t have enough to last me till the next delivery.

The delivery guys is nice too.  Last month after he unloaded my supplies, he played a few games of Wii with the boys.

Just a little look into my world…