Every Hour Until Then by Gabrielle Meyer ~ Book Review

When Kathryn is invited to be a guest curator to help create an exhibit on Jack the Ripper she is thrilled to have been asked to be part of the project.  As she jumps into the research, she is horrified to realize that her sister in her other life in 1888 is one of Jack the Ripper's victims.  Now she has a dilemma on her hands.  One of the rules of being a time crosser is that she cannot do anything that will change history or else she will forfeight that path, but how can she possibly let her own sister remain in danger and be the final victim of this horrilbe killer? 

In Victorian London, Kathryn's sister has been banished from her status loving parents home and Kathryn is not allowed any contact with her.  Knowing what she does from her other life, how can she push the limits of her time crossing life to be able to spare her sister?  And now with her childhood friend involved, her decisions now affect yet another life. 

This was an edge of your seat addition to the author's Timeless series.  They just keep getting better.  This was suspenseful and kept me guessing to the end.  While the main character was at times frustrating and headstrong, her motives were born of  a desperation to somehow save her sister from a horrible and untimely death that would be recorded for all of history.  Yet her recklessness in doing things her own way can prove to be the undoing of it all.  But this is what made her very human to the reader.  Though dealing with horrible events in history, the author managed to  not be overly graphic while maintaining the horror and fear that came with the murders of the women.  There is a thread of faith running through all these book in the series but is not heavy handed.  I appreciated being challenged within the story of thinking of  who really is in control and in whom is my trust and how decisions reverberate through time.  The author's research of the historical periods is once again fantastic.   High recommend though I would definitely read the books in order.  

Rating:  10/10

Friday's Fave Five# 895

updated with my own post!

Hi everyone!  Just popping in very quickly to put up Mr. Linky for ths week.  I don't know if I'll be able to get on to do a FFF this week.  We are having internet issues and it comes and goes with no warning of cutting me off and for the most part it is off.  So until it's fixed, I am off the computer.  And doing a whole post on my phone just does not work for me and carpal tunnel.  To say nothing of the fact my data is being sucked up like crazy from having to do things on my phone.  It's the same reason I haven't commented yet on all of your last week's posts.  Please go ahead and link up and hopefully this will be fixed if not today, then before next week!

 Whew, finally got that all fixed up.  Apparently, some signal was sent to our box but only half of it worked.  That was crazy.  And frustrating.  But finally back to normal. It is scart how dependent we are on the stupid internet nowadays just for everyday life.   So onto finding my favorite blessings of the week.

~ 43rd Anniversary ~ last week marked our 43rd anniversary.   Those crazy kids pictured below had no idea what life would throw their way.  We were pretty nieve and idealistic.  We chose each other then and we choose each other now.  It hasn't always been easy but we've passed through some things meant to tear us apart and we've come out stronger.  Life isn't always a smooth path but it is blessed and more blessed together.

~ anniversary bouquet ~ this beautiful bouquet was delivered to me on our anniversary from my Hubby.  It's made even more special because he worked with a local florist to create something he thought I would love.  The vase is a "purse" (he knows my love of a cute purse), and all carnations (he knows they are one of my faves) and the grass is actually made to go into the shape of a heart.  It was totally unexpected and I LOVE it!

~ sunshine ~  we've had some lovely sun this week along with some showers but not the constant gray and rain and the previous week.  Hopefully with the heat the annuals in pots and ground can start taking off now.

~ technicians who know their stuff ~ once we finally got a real live in person technician here he had the problem detected and fixed within an hour.  So frustrating having to jump through the hoops of how they do things nowadays trying to resolve issues over the phone with someone who probably lives  an ocean, or at least a country or two away, before they send an actual living, breathing human but it got done.  Thankful there are people who know their stuff because electronics drives me crazy.

~ ladies group year wrap up ~ Wednesday was my ladies bible study's final study before summer break and it was a good.  I appreciate the leader of the group and the way she challenges us and I love how open the ladies are in sharing and not afraid to discuss something through they might now understand or disagree with.  That's what makes the study so good and beneficial for me, we don't just get "talked" to by one person.  We can get in there with our thoughts and questions making it easier to apply the lesson to life.  Now we'll do a few fun things together in the summer before restarting study in the fall.

Thanks for your patience through the whole internet fiasco.  I hope to get to read all your post this week!

Friday's Fave Five #894

Welcome to Friday's Fave Five.  It's our moment in the week to purposefully look past all the distractions that causes us to get caught up in things like overwhelm, hurry, fear, worry, negativity, hopelessness and even just everyday routine.  We are taking the pause in our normal everyday lives to intentionally look beyond all that and zero in on all the blessings that God brings our way.  Things we would probably miss if we didn't pause to take note.  Being thankful softens our hearts and actually allows us to see even more clearly blessings in our lives.  Please join us as we press that pause button in our busyness to stop, notice and thank God for those good things.

~ peonies have bloomed ~ my Mom's peony bush that I took from her house before we sold it finally has really bloomed out.  It's been a few years since I moved the bush over and it has only ever given a handful of blooms at the most.  But this year it was covered in buds and the last couple of days those buds have been opening.  They are beautiful and make me think of my Mom and her love of her flower garden everytime I look at it.  

~ puddle jumping ~ with all the rain we've had, my neighbor and I took our dayhome kids out puddle jumping yesterday.  I texted parents to make sure rain boots and splash pants were sent and off we went in search of puddles.  And we found some awesome ones.  Great fun was had by all and it got us out of the house for a bit enjoying the fresh air.

~ blue skies ~ Sunday afternoon saw some glorious blue skies with white puffy clouds so we had to take advantage of that even though some pretty gusty winds came along with it.  We went down to the river bottom where it can be a touch more sheltered and enjoyed a quick walk burning off some energy with Tux.  It was pretty green down there from all the rain we had the week before and the color contrasts were beautiful.

~ communicaton from all the kids this week ~ I was blessed to have all the grown kids communicate in some way this week.  I always love when I hear from them.  Sometimes it's just a picture or a silly quote or meme but it's nice to know they think to send it to me.

~ good night's sleep ~ with some night's this week with broken sleep or not good sleep I was thankful for the nights where I did fall asleep fairly quickly and slept through to morning.  There have been some things this week that have happened to friends that weighed heavy on my mind and heart for them this week coupled with some kind of ache in my leg that disturbed my usual good rest.  I'm thankful for those nights I was graced with a good sleep.

What have been your favorite blessings this week?

Friday's Fave Five #893

Welcome to Friday's Fave Five.  It's the wonderful day of the week where we can take a pause and look for the blessings in our busy week, then taking the next step of being grateful for them.  Please join in with us!

~ concrete out and taken away ~  my big garden project this year was to remove the concrete hunks that I had as a front garden border and put in the nice bricks.  The concrete came out easier than expected and the job was done in no time.  Hubby hauled it to the top of the drivewary out of the way for me saving me that hard work.   Big bonus: one of my dayhome parents even hauled it away for me as he could use it for something to do with his dugout on the acreage.

~ new stone border in ~  Saturday morning the weather turned cool with predictions of rain.  It made the hard work of putting in the new stones for the border so much easier than having to do it in the heat.  I got it all done just before the first raindrops started to fall.  I love how it turned out.  It matches the round front flower bed and looks so much nicer that chunks of broken concrete!  

~ no floods, no water in the house, fire bans lifted ~  speaking of rain, boy did it ever!  Four days straight!  It had been so dry before.  Our city already had a couple major coulee fires this year and we were already in a fire ban.  The rain wet it all good and deep so now that is lifted.  And I am so thankful that with all that rain, though the river is high it hasn't flooded and no water seeped into the house.

~ lupins a blooming ~ after a few years of my lupins working on getting established this is their year!  They are showing off splendidly.  It makes me happy raising the curtains each morning and seeing them in all their glory. 

~ visit from son ~  my son came for a visit this weekend.  Though the rain prevented us from doing the sorts of stuff we would have liked, like hiking and bike riding, the time spent together was enjoyable.  We did a little shopping, watched a movie, cooked a nice Sunday lunch and just enjoyed having him home.  Two weekends in a row having one and another of the grown kids home makes this Mama's heart happy and thankful.

What were your favorite blessings from your last week?

Friday's Fave Five #892

Hello everyone!  Welcome to Friday's Fave Five.  It's time to look back on the week and find some things that made our days uplifting showing the hand of God in our lives.  They could be small things, they could be huge happenings but in our day to day lives they were something that made us smile.  They were a blessing.  Please join with us as we intentional train our eyes to look for God's blessings and be thankful for them.

~ waking up to sunshine after a week of gray and cold ~  the last week had been so gray and chilly that predictions of a warmer week were very welcome.  Well a warmer week we did get.  We went straight into summer weather with temps in the high 20's (C).  That's in the 80's F!    Crazy whiplash weather.  But we're taking it!

~ lunch with youngest and friend ~  my youngest was in town on the weekend to celebrate her friend's birthday.  When she asked if they could visit on Sunday of course I said yes.  It's a blessing that my grown adult kids want to come by and we had a nice lunch with bbq'd burgers.

~ river bottom walk to pelicans ~ after lunch we all went to the River Bottom and took the trail to the weir to see the pelicans.  There were soooo many this year!  I could sit there for hours and just watch them.  They are the original synchronized swimmers and it's so fascinating to watch how a group of them will, right on cue, all duck their heads under to fish and then all come up together.  God's creation is amazing.  I actually caught a picture for the first time of one in flight.

this was just a handful of them out on the river that day

fishing!

~ flowers planted ~ finally with the heat moving in I was able to plant all my flowers out.  I usually do it by the May long weekend, which for us is the 3rd weekend but it was so cold with the nights hitting freezing temps.  But it's all done now and the heat should get them growing.

~ tonight's sunset ~  absolutely stunning!  The color was so intense.  This was straight out of the camera, no filter, no edits.  God is an artist and I'm so thankful for eyes to take it all in!

What were five of your blessings you are thankful for this week?

Friday's Fave Five #891

Welcome once again to Friday's Fave Five.  Time for another edition of Friday's Fave Five.  Are you ready to push pause on the busy and take a few moments to just look back on the week and find those things that were a blessing to you?  Sometimes it comes easy and sometimes it is a struggle to either want to do it, make the time to do it or to find blessings in a tough week.  But the more we practice keeping our eyes open for blessings in the hard, in the mundane and in the busy the more natural it will become to find them.  Please join us as we develop the habit of looking for blessings and then being grateful and thankful for them.

~ annual flower shopping ~ every year my sister and I take an afternoon and go and get our flowers.  We both look forward to this day.  We also both always say we're gonna be restrained this year and we always end up going overboard when we see all the beautiful plants and flowers.  It's a fun time we spend together doing something we both love.

~ found treats ~  the other day I was digging through a storage cupboard and I came across a bag of locally made caramels that I forgot I had stashed there a couple months ago.  It was a nice surprise and they were just as soft and tasty as if I just bought them. 

~  long weekend ~ Monday was a stat holiday here in Canada so I had the day off.  Who doesn't love a long weekend?  It was so nice to have that extra day.  Even though the weather was on the cold side so we didn't do any bike riding we did manage to get some shorter walks in and enjoyed being able to relax.  We watched "Song Sung Blue" on Pr!me.  If you like Neil Diamond songs and like a good love story you'd probably enjoy this movie based on a true story. Hugh Jackman and Kate Hudson did a great job doing their own vocals.

~ another workshop accomplished ~ got another workshop knocked off my training plan for this year.  I'm required to do 6 a year and I think I have one left.  It's always good to get these things done before summer comes along.

~ neck and back massager ~ we have this massager and lately I have been putting it to good use.  I have issues with knots building around my left shoulder blade and along the top of my shoulder and this really helps.  Though it really gets in there and I have to be careful not to apply too much pressure or use it for too long in one sitting, which feels good at the time but can leave me sore into the next day, I have learned to go easy with it to get the most benefits.  Thankful I have it on hand as I can't drop the money on a massage therapist as often as I happen to need one.  This helps out in between my monthly visits.

What were your favorite blessings this week?

Friday's Fave Five #890

Hi everyone!  Welcome to Friday's Fave Five.  Please join in as we look back over the week and  look for blessings in our lives, things that made us smile, uplifted us, helped us to take another step.  They may be big or they may be small, they may have big impact or just be something that may have slipped by had you not paused to think about it.  Whatever they are they are helping us to cultivate a grateful attitude.

~ new water bottle ~ my massage therapist is always telling me I need to drink more water.  She can tell my muscles are lacking enough hydration.  But I find it hard to just chug water all day long.  In an effort to motivate myself I splurged on a really nice water bottle to help motivate me and help me to notice it sitting there patiently waiting for me to pick it up and drink from it.  So far it's worked fairly well.  It's a 4 cup size and I've been drinking it most of it daily since I bought.  Yes, I know the recommendation is 8 cups but I figure 4 is better than what I was doing before.  I find adding lemon or lime slices really helps too.

~ Mother's Day ~ Though none of my kid's were able to be here on actual Mother's Day, I'm grateful we were all able to meet up a couple of weeks ago.  On Mother's Day I got phone calls and txts which were a blessing.  Along with gift cards to buy my bedding out plants and Hubby bought me our traditional Mother's Day lunch and took me to get the stone border I wanted for the front flower bed.  So all in all I'd say it was a lovely Mother's Day.    

~baby shower ~  this week our ladie's bible study group went to the home of our youngest member who had just had a beautiful baby boy.  I won't go into details because it's not my story to tell, but the safe and healthy arrival of this little one was a miracle to celebrate.  We spent a lovely couple of hours sharing gifts with the very happy Mom and getting all the cuddles with the little one we wanted.  Our group is mostly "mature" ladies so full grandma mode was presenting itself.  At the end we prayed over them and blessed them as Mom and babe will now be attending the young mom's group.  

~ movie night ~ Saturday night I was on my own and I could hardly wait to curl up with Neflix's movie adaptation of Remarkably Bright Creatures.  I listened to the audiobook last year and loved it and couldn't wait to see it.  I heard the author was quite involved with the movie and it showed.  Though things had to be left out as is the usual with adaptations, I thought they did a lovely version.  Sally Field was wonderful as the main character.  And just like the book it made me cry.  

~ easier work week ~ most days this week I've only had 3 or 4 kids instead of the usual 6.  Though I mostly prefer when they are all here the bit of a break was nice.  

What were blessings in your life this week that you are grateful for?

• ‘Thank you’ is the best prayer that anyone could say.
• — Alice Walker