I grew up in Oregon, so I should have expected it. There is a reason it is so green. The first summer I lived in California, I cried because everything was so BROWN…well, golden. So why should I be surprised that it rained on my vacation at the end of June?

My husband and I are celebrating our 20th wedding anniversary next week. When my best-friend-from-high-school’s husband planned a surprise 40th birthday party for her, it sparked the idea of combining her celebration with a second honeymoon trip to where we had our first honeymoon. Thanks to the generosity of my in-laws, we were able to get away for five days, the longest trip we had taken alone together since having children.

Of course, we weren’t even out of California before I started buying books! We stopped at a grocery store in Willows to get something to eat, and we found promising-looking garage sale nearby. There weren’t a lot of books, but I found two old hardback books by Arthur Ransome: Swallows and Amazons and Pigeon Post. When we stopped for lunch in Medford, there was a Goodwill Store nearby, so we wandered in, and I found a Holling Clancy Holling book in new condition, as well as many other treasures. We continued the long journey up I-5, taking a little break in Canyonville, Oregon to visit Dave’s Book Barn which is literally a huge barn filled to the rafters with old books. Unfortunately, Dave’s is going out of business, but lucky for us, everything was half-price. I bought a copy of St. Elmo by Augusta Jane Evans, A Lantern in Her Hand by Beth Streeter Aldrich (see my book reviews), a volume of My Book House, a biography of Edvard Grieg by Sybil Deucher and Traveling Shoes by Noel Streatfeild.

We were not in our big van but in our 4-door sedan; the trunk was already full with our suitcases, and the back seat was filling up with boxes of books, but we were only beginning our trip! Steve swore he was not going to get a trailer, but I assured him that would not be necessary, there was still lots of space between the seat and the ceiling of the car…

I will continue this saga later, but I wanted to give a little preview of our trip. Lest you think I only had eyes for books, let me assure you that my husband and I, although we missed our children, had a wonderful time together, talking and being romantic. We can honestly say that we are even happier now than when we were first married. More later…

Modern non-Christian women today are ashamed to be women. They want to have all the supposed benefits of masculinity, especially careers. At least, that is what the left-leaning media would have us believe. Yet, when working women, especially mothers, are asked whether they would stay home if they had the choice, a majority of women say they would gladly stay home rather than participate in the rat race.

The godless society we live in mocks this attitude and tries to convince young women that they need to “have it all” to be truly fulfilled. Take Your Daughter to Work Day is now an American institution. Try to find a little girl who will admit that she wants to be a wife and mommy when she grows up. Motherhood is mocked rather than revered as it once was. “I’m just a housewife” is an embarrassed admission of failure to do anything greater.

Wives and mothers of America, you have the most important calling in the world! Raising godly children, sons to take Christian dominion in this world and daughters to raise their own godly families and continue your godly heritage, this is the greatest privilege and most difficult job there is. My license plate holder on my 15-passenger van says, “Motherhood is not for wimps.” If God has called you to this blessed profession, then embrace it with all your might and revel in the glorious responsibility He has given.

This article is so encouraging in its lucid refutation of feminist lies about what kinds of heroines our daughters ought to emulate. After you read it, grab the wonderful books it recommends and read with new eyes how a more mature and godly time represented the ideal of strong feminine traits without sacrificing feminine softness and virtue.

“And as the mother is the guardian and guide of the early years of life, from her goes the most powerful influence in the formation of the character of man. And why should it not be so? What impressions can be more strong, and more lasting, than those received upon the mind in the freshness and the susceptibility of youth? What instructor can gain greater confidence and respect than a mother? And where can there be delight in acquiring knowledge, if not when the little flock cluster around a mother’s knee to hear of God and heaven?” From The Mother at Home by John S. C. Abbott.

I have been on a little vacation from this weblog, although not from life. Things have been rather busy around here as my husband and three older boys are gone right now. That still leaves a busy household, just not as many helpers. So I fall into bed at night exhausted and wondering how I did it when all my kids were all small and I had no helpers.

I have been teaching my two oldest daughters to cross-stitch. One is making a bookmark with a koala on it which says, “Save My Place”. The other is finishing a piece we started about a year ago, then set aside because Mommy is always so busy, but Mommy got guilty feelings and is trying to do more handwork with her girls. Her picture has a beautiful angel among the stars, and it says, “Jesus, Angel of the Lord”.

A list I subscribe to which discusses books (many of the ladies are nuttier about books than I!)was discussing the disturbing trend of the large book chains carrying very objectionable homosexual (I prefer the term sodomite) literature in prominent locations in their stores. This is horrible, and next time I visit one of these places I will be sure to object, but at least people can avoid shopping there and purchase books from other places (like Buried Treasure!) But you cannot avoid the grocery store, and there are often very objectionable magazines in the checkout lines.

Our society has become so desensitized to pornography and immorality that people don’t even think about how inappropriate it is to have some of the magazines at the checkout lines displayed at the eye-level of a child. Many times I have seen covers with models wearing almost no clothing and posed in very sensuous ways. Once there was a cover with Sylvester Stallone completely naked, in the pose of Rodin’s “The Thinker”. I choose my battles carefully, only speaking out about the very worst offenders, but I have often asked to speak to the store manager, pointing out how wrong it is to have these magazines where the children walk past. The response has almost always been apologetic, and they have moved the magazines to another spot, out of the way. I have been told many times that I was the only one who complained. That makes me so sad. I’m sure many Christians see these covers and say nothing. We have no right to complain about the depravity around us when we are not willing to speak out about it when the opportunity comes.

I have a very unrealistic wish: that all nine of my children would live in propinquity to me forever and always. I don’t want to be a stranger to them and their children someday. I want to be able to walk in and out of their lives in a comfortable way, and they with me, when they are grown. I want them to someday leave the nest but not my life.

This article by Rod Dreher was full of poignancy for me. I miss my mom and dad who live far away, and I wish they could know my children better. Why is it that many times our relations with our family far away consist of brief but cherished visits during which we barely get to know each other again, then when our parents grow old and need special TLC, we must spend time with them, helping them in their frailties, but having missed out on so much that could have been while they were younger and stronger? This high-tech, mobile, “monoculture” society has both blessings and cursings: the blessing of email, long-distance telephone and jet travel, the cursings of busyness, shallowness and the separation of extended families.

Dreher’s article also exposes the dearth of “men with chests”, real men who are not bound by the culture around them to emulate the feminized and Oprah-derived ideals of manhood. Real men, he says, are the opposite of soft, and they have a realistic moral stance toward the world that comes from believing that righteousness exists. Real men are not sissies.

Nobody deserves more accolades for being a great father and husband than my husband of 20 years, Steven. He is a man with a chest. Maybe Oprah would approve of him because he brings me flowers every week, but he is the most manly man I know, full of wisdom, humor and strength. I thank God for my husband’s solid shoulders and his joyful embracing of the difficult job of providing for our large family, a job which he faithfully fulfills with love.

While I was shopping today, my dear husband submitted my site to several search engines. We’ll see if I get any more traffic. I still feel like a voice crying in the wilderness, but the novelty has not worn off, and I’m enjoying writing in my weblog and changing the trivia in my sidebar occasionally. Tonight I also added a few new books for sale, with many more to come in the following days.

I found some great stuff at the thrift stores today, and my well-trained sons helped me find things I overlooked. One fun item was a “brand-new” Book Lover’s Calendar from 1999. It was still in its wrapping, and it has trivia about lots of authors and their books. I bought it despite the calendar being out of date, so I could add some interesting tidbits to this log.

From the June 15 entry: “Gone With the Wind is more than a novel; it’s a phenomenon. For more than 60 years, millions upon millions of readers around the world have been entranced by Margaret Mitchelll’s epic of the indomitable Scarlett O’Hara. Actually, it’s easy to understand the story’s appeal: Mitchell presents her readers with a strong cast of characters; her descriptions of life in the Old South sounds like a kind of Golden Age…Dive in.” If you look at my books for sale on the parent’s books page, I have this book in hard back for only $5. It is a huge book, but it is a hard one to put down.