Chocolate Cake, Anyone?

"Long time, no see" a blog post on here! Wow- it's been quite a while! I just got a job, and am now working Monday, Wednesday, and Friday all day, so I don't have as much time to write blog posts. ;-) So, I'll start back with a book review and a picture. :-)


Horse Tales From Heaven by Rebecca E. Ondov
Time to Hit the Trail!

"Drawing on 15 years of living "in the saddle" while guiding pack trips and working as a wilderness ragner, gifted writer and avid horsewoman Rebecca Ondov invites you to experience life in a wilderness camp, discovering wisdom to live by through true stories about...

• a frisky cayuse and an early morning chase
• a nigh-blind horse and mule's unusual relationship
• a sleepless night in grizzly country
• a startling cure for snoring at base camp
• a wilderness "drive-thru" cafe

Horse Tales from Heaven capture authentic western life and what it means to depend on God for love, provision, and grace as you ride the trail with Him every day."


No, I did not write this- it's straight from the back of the book. ;-) However, I have really enjoyed reading this book- her writing style and the stories itself make it very difficult to put the book down, even though the chapters are relatively short. I think this may be one of my favorite books now, and I definitely encourage you to read it- it's great! :-)

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And now for the above-promised picture.... Chocolate cake, anyone?? Allison and I made this cake for our elders and wives retreat last weekend, and it looked so incredible I insisted we snatch a picture. :-)


Not the prettiest in the world, but it sure tasted amazing! What could go wrong with chocolate cake, home-whipped cream, and fresh strawberries?? Well, I guess when you put too much of the latter two ingredients on, something might go wrong.... After my mom had cut it (Allison refused to, because of the mess it was sure to make), and all the adults had gone back into the dining room, I turned around to see the top half of the cake upside-down on the counter! Apparently cutting the cake threw it all off balance, and the top half fell off! Oh well- it was still the best-tasting thing all day! :-)

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Happy St. Patrick's Day! Hope you're wearing something green... But then, if you're like me, that could be pretty hard... This is my green for the day, after discovering that I don't own a single green top- or even one that has a stripe of green in it!


I've been helping my mom with some group piano classes she's been having during spring break, and this time the theme was St. Patrick's Day, so we had an Irish composer, John Field, and also a talk about the history of St. Patrick's Day. I would add it to this post, except the file is on the other computer, not mine. ;-) So, I hope you have a great St. Patrick's Day!

Book Excerpts #2

I figured it was about time to put another book excerpt on here for you guys... I can't let you have too much from this particular scene, though, or it'll give away half the story, so it's a rather short one, but is the beginning of one of my favorite scenes. ;-) I'll try to post a few longer ones soon...

“Well, good morning, Aniya,” Jed greeted her as she came in the barn.

“I don’t see what’s so good about it,” she replied tartly.

“Oh, mornings are always good- God made them all good- all we have to do is find the good in them.”

“Well, I can’t find anything good in this particular morning, and I can't see how you could either.”

Mud and Goals

Here in Kansas, it's muddy. Very muddy. And, as my family owns horses, and they have gone out into the pasture some, even with all the mud, I have had to walk through the pasture in thick mud... My boots are incredibly muddy, and need a good cleaning! However, as I was walking one of our horses to the round pen in the middle of the pasture, a thought came to my mind, and I wanted to share it with you. :-)

Life is like mud in some ways. Especially when it comes to goals. When you're walking in mud, you can see your big goal- you can see the spot you want to go. But you also have to watch where you are walking. If you don't, you will most likely fall flat on your back (or face!). Those are the small goals. In order to make it to your big goal, you have small goals to get you along. For example, if you have a big goal of memorizing all of Colossians, you have little goals to get you there- a little goal of one verse. Then you take another step closer to the big goal- one "paragraph" of a chapter, then another goal and another, until you make it to your big goal. It's possible to not have your "little goals", but just like walking in the mud, you're a lot more likely to slip and fall on your way. Little goals keep us motivated, and the more little goals we get done, the closer the big goal is.

What about you? Does it help you to have little goals, or do you prefer to stick with your big goal?

"It is time for us to realize that we're too great a nation to limit ourselves to small dreams. We're not, as some would have us believe, doomed to an inevitable decline. I do not believe in a fate that will fall on us no matter what we do. I do believe in a fate that will fall on us if we do nothing. So, with all the creative energy at our command, let us begin an era of national renewal. Let us renew our determination, our courage, and our strength. And let us renew our faith and our hope. We have every right to dream heroic dreams. Those who say that we're in a time when there are no heroes, they just don't know where to look."
~Ronald Reagan