"We will now return to our regularly scheduled programming."


After three weeks on the farm, chronicling our experiences there, we are now back to reality.


I discovered upon my return that the link to this blog was sent out (by Geoff) to lots of people last week. If you are checking it out for the first time as a result of that, thank you for taking the time to "stop by." It is nice to know who is reading, if you don't mind leaving a comment or emailing me that you visited here.


A man by the name of Bill Brownson preached two of the three Sundays we were in Indiana. My parents had a copy of a book he had written about his family and the experiences they had with two of their four sons, that I picked up out of curiosity and became engrossed in. In Billy & Dave: From Brokenness to Blessedness, he tells the story of his eldest son, who was stricken with a severe case of measles encephalitis. Their healthy, vibrant 6 year-old son suffered brain damage that changed all of their lives from that time forward. He died at the age of 24. Their second son was deeply affected by his brother's illness and eventual death, and developed mental illness as a young adult that also was part of their family struggle.


The other book I recently cruised through (partly because it is roughly a second/third grade reading level) was Despereaux.

This was one of the children's choices for the Barnes and Noble reading program this summer. I was a little unsure of it as I had no knowledge of it and there wasn't a lot of detail as to the story contents on the back cover. But a helpful lady at our local store, printed out the internet description of it, and after reading it I decided it would probably be OK. B started reading it, but I wanted to know what she was reading and picked it up. It was really a good story and I would recommend it if you have someone at home who is reading simple chapter books. It has 3-4 pages per chapter, promotes good character traits, such as the value of forgiveness and showing kindness to your enemy.