One of my dear friends just published a children’s book, and I loved it so much I just had to dedicate an entire post to it. With Easter coming up, it seemed like an especially good time to share, as this book would be a delightful Easter-time gift for the little ones in your life.
// the blurb //
On a big farm, the cows are all loved by their Farmerโincluding Tiny Bull and Big Sister Cow.
When the Farmer goes on a long journey, he promises to come back and make the farm the most amazing Farm in the whole world (maybe with a roller coaster!). But even though he leaves the Helper with the cows, their jobs arenโt always easy while they wait for the Farmer.
Tiny Bull faces adventures, danger, biting flies, and Angry Bulls. Other cows forget about the Farmer, are lazy, and just have fun all day, but Tiny Bull and his sister must keep obeying because one day, the Farmer will keep his promise. Can they keep going until he does?
I grew up loving allegories like Max Lucado’s Coming Home and Jennie Bishop’s The Squire and the Scroll: beautifully illustrated stories for children that are even more meaningful to read as an adult, due to their rich parallels to the spiritual life.
It’s no wonder I loved this book, then. I smiled and teared up while reading it, as it’s written in such a funny and sweet way (I can picture kids giggling over some of Hosanna’s descriptions!), yet it’s so deep and reflective of the reality of our existence as the Bride of Christ waiting for the return of our Groom.
I came away from this book more excited for Christ’s return and with a renewed desire to live faithfully in the meantime.
And can we talk about the illustrations??
One of my biggest problems with the children’s books coming out these days is the sad lack of beauty in the illustrations. (Must all bookish artwork for kids be ugly, choppy caricatures?)
I was delighted, however, by the whimsy and beauty in Hannah K. Dukes’ watercolor pieces for this book. They’re just so happy – a perfect pairing with Hosanna’s cheery, upbeat writing style.
All hope for children’s literature is NOT lost!
I think the above photo was one of my favorite illustrations. The idea of a cow drinking lemonade made me smile.:)
// to learn more //
You can purchase a signed copy, paperback or hardcover, directly from the author here. If Amazon is more your style, you can find it there, too!
Even if you’re not in the market for children’s books, I hope the bits of this sweet story brightened your day! Are there any children’s books you’ve loved?
February was a stretching month…one of learning (mostly the hard way) to rest my restless soul and mind in Christ and trust that He is the all-sufficient Savior He truly is, even when life is wild and a bit intimidating and I find myself to be so insufficient. What a gift it is to be able to rest in Him! โค
There were also so many lovely things that filled this February. Here’s a sampler…
BUT FIRST!!!
I wanted to share a reminder that I’m running a Winter’s End giveaway, and it ends this Friday. If you haven’t entered yet and would enjoy a lovely new book to add to your collection (there are two up for grabs!!), please do head over to the giveaway post to enter.
Alright.
Back to the regular post…
Oh, that men would give thanks to the LORD for His goodness, And for His wonderful works to the children of men! For He satisfies the longing soul, And fills the hungry soul with goodness.
Psalm 107:8-9
Things worth remembering…
ice skating with a brother
running into a dear friend at the grocery store on a hard day
listening to a song from a friend at just the right moment
cooking with my sisters
a bookish Galentines get-together
the long way home and healing conversation + prayer
flowers from a friend
Valentine’s Day nachos and cheesecake and movie with siblings
reading on the porch with sunlight and a sleepy dog
a delightfully quiet and yet social afternoon of crocheting with other ladies
wig-wearing, house cleaning, and packing with a sister
several firsts on the last day of the month: seeing snow-capped mountains, setting foot in both Colorado and California, renting a car, piloting aforementioned car through six-lane traffic. ‘Twas a day to remember.
We all long for Eden and are constantly glimpsing it: our whole nature is soaked with a sense of exile.
I believe God is sovereign, and I also believe Iโm responsible and God holds me responsible for the choices that I make. I simply trust God that both assertions of Scripture are true.
I didn’t adore this book as a whole, but it was an informative read!
O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer Greatest treasure of my longing soul My God, like You there is no other True delight is found in You alone
I’m struck by God’s attention to beauty and the smallest details in His instructions for the building of the tabernacle. Father, give me the patience and reverence for You that I need to care so deeply about the small things I often allow to slip through the cracks. Truly let all I do be done for the love of You.
Help me to live surrendered, Father, serving fully and faithfully in the corners of life to which You call me. I feel so small sometimes…so insignificant in the face of a world full of hurt. May I know that I am small and fit well in Your Almighty hand.
The most transformational thing you can do today is to look clearly at Christ with the eyes of your heart.
Alistair Begg
What made your February memorable? What beauty have you been seeing these days?
โค Laurel
Scripture taken from the New King James Versionยฎ. Copyright ยฉ 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
This post contains affiliate links, which means that if you purchase something through one of the links I share in this post, I receive a small commissionโฆat no extra cost to you. We all win.:)
I’ve been wanting to do a giveaway for a while now, and thought that late February would be a good time to do so for two reasons:
1.) After Valentine’s Day, there just aren’t that many fun things to be celebrating! The weather is nasty, spirits tend to be low…of course a good book or two would help.;)
2.) The books I’d like to share with you would make good late winter/early spring reads, as they’re written for those who are struggling to find joy, hope, and beauty in their current life circumstances.
I’d like to send a book (and maybe even a handwritten poetry card??) to two of you!
One person will receive a copy of Ruth Chou Simon’s Now and Not Yet. Goodness, I loved this book. I think you will, too.
Another person will receive a copy of yours truly’s book of poetry: Beauty Even Here. I’ve gabbed about this one a lot already, but looking through it the other day I remembered that there are a few poems in here that make it perfect for Lent and Holy Week! So there you go.
To enter:
Simply leave a comment on this post! Bonus (not actually, but I’ll be proud of you!) points if you share one thing that you like to do to make the drearier days of the year more lovely, or share a book, song, or Scripture that helps point you to hope and beauty.
If you do want a REAL bonus point, just make sure you’re subscribed to my newsletter and let me know that you are in the comments!
I’ll pick two winners on March 13th and reach out to you in the comments.
Stay the course, friends! The days are getting longer, and the day is drawing nearer when Christ will return for His Bride. There is always something beautiful up ahead. โค
If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up people to collect wood, and don’t assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.
Antoine de Saint-Exupรฉry
Things worth remembering…
a New Year’s Day feast and stories swapped over coffee
baking bread
coffee and book talk with a kindred spirit
lotsss of reading
cooking up bacon and onions and potatoes all at once and feeling like a hobbit
finding new artwork for the living room
a new book study
God moving in ways I never saw coming
surviving fierce winds and severe cold on the farm
Our conversation with others declares what is on our minds. But our conversation with God in private reveals what is in our hearts. Listen to someone pray – or listen to yourself pray – and you gain a window into the very center of the being.
I’m going through this book with a group of other women this winter. It’s so good.
They encouraged each other by walking individually with God and finding His grace sufficient to meet their needs. Together, their lives intertwined into a cord of shared ministry that was stronger than either could have woven alone.
Finally finished this one. It’s an absolute gem, and I highly recommend it.
Why was I always suffering, always browbeaten, always accused, for ever condemned? Why could I never please? Why was it useless to try to win any one’s favour? …I dared commit no fault: I strove to fulfill every duty; and I was termed naughty and tiresome, sullen and sneaking, from morning to noon, and from noon to night.
I’ve been wanting to reread this book for a long time and finally picked it up alongside my mom. Ugh, it’s so rich, and I despise John Reed!!
“A man’s legacy is the flavor he leaves behind in the mouths of those close enough to taste his character.”
It took me a little while to get into this one, but I’m over a hundred pages in and thoroughly enjoying it…I hope that continues!
Indeed, these are the mere edges of His ways, And how small a whisper we hear of Him!
Job 26:14a
From the journal…
Strengthen my hands to lay all my hopes and fears to rest on Your chest, and fix my eyes in sheer adoration on You.
Let me trust the entirety of Your grace, the all-consuming power of Your sacrifice. Let me see how small I am in the shadow of Your Cross.
Be patient and so utterly confident in God that you never question His ways or your waiting time.
Oswald Chambers
What made your January memorable?
Stay the course, friends! May this month bring us ever closer to Christ’s heart.
โค Laurel
Scripture taken from the New King James Versionยฎ. Copyright ยฉ 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
This post contains affiliate links, which means that if you purchase something through one of the links I share in this post, I receive a small commissionโฆat no extra cost to you.:)
Before another word could be said, a little old lady appeared in the hall, trying to look stern and failing entirely, because she was the picture of a dear, fat, cozy grandma.
I read this with friends for a book club! It wasn’t my absolute favorite read from Alcott (it began to feel repetitive after awhile), but there were some sweet, thought-provoking stories with Louisa May Alcott’s inevitable dash of humor. Her characters are so endearing!
I almost didn’t listen to this audiobook because I didn’t love the first book in the series, but I’m glad my restless mind got the better of me; I enjoyed this one so much more the one that preceded it! It ended on a horrible cliffhanger, though, and the third book doesn’t come out till March. Boo!!
โWe are not called to be successful in accordance with ordinary standards, but in accordance with a corn of wheat falling into the ground and dying, becoming in that way what it never could be if it were to abide alone.โ
You know I’m not the biggest fan of the romance genre, but this Christmas rom-com has delighted me with how much I’ve been able to enjoy it! I love the depth of the characters and the author’s sense of humor. If you’re a rom-com fan, you should definitely check this book out.
The LORD is righteous in all His ways, Gracious in all His works. The LORD is near to all who call upon Him, To all who call upon Him in truth.
Psalm 145:17-18
From the journal…
Strengthen my hands to lay all my hopes and fears to rest on Your chest, and fix my eyes in sheer adoration on You.
Live slowly enough to be able to think deeply about God.
J.I. Packer
What made your December memorable?
โค Laurel
Scripture taken from the New King James Versionยฎ. Copyright ยฉ 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
This post contains affiliate links, which means that if you purchase something through one of the links I share in this post, I receive a small commissionโฆat no extra cost to you.:)
It was the 20th of December, and for an entire month the smells of gingerbread and homemade fudge had filled the farmhouse kitchen, secrets had been exchanged in whispers behind hands, and Randy Travisโ Christmas album had been played more than a dozen times through the boombox. The month had borne all the earmarks of a Werner family Christmasโฆexcept for the one that was most important in Grace Wernerโs eyes.
There was no snow. At least out of doors.
Last year I wrote a short Christmas story about a (fictional) little girl I’d gotten to know quite well after spending a few years writing a story about a baker, a deputy, and a farmer who happened to be Grace’s older brother. Grace was never a main character in that book, but anyone who’s met her on the page knows that she’s most definitely main character material. (Major levels of sweetness and sass will do that for a seven-year-old.)
All Grace wants is to make Christmas 2001 absolutely perfect for her family. Is that too much for a seven-year-old to ask? But she canโt wrap gifts as well as her mother, or decorate cookies that look as nice as Grandma’s, and to top it all off the sky wonโt yield even a single snowflake! Her dreams for a perfect Christmas seem to be crumbling as fast as her sugar cookies, but could it be that there’s more to a perfect Christmas than perfection?
This Christmas, join Grace and her family in their blustery corner of the Midwest for a chuckle-inducing adventure that will warm your heart and possibly leave you craving a plate of sugar cookies.
I reread this story last week, and it was such a treat to revisit all of Grace’s mishaps and adventures. (I honestly had forgotten how I’d resolved the story, so it was sweet to read that part like it was the first time, hehe!)
If you love all of the close-knit family vibes, humorous little kids, and the chance to visit a rural Midwest community via the written word, this story might be for you. ๐
I wrote this piece a couple of years ago and wanted to share it now. I hope it can be a blessing!
Practice guitar for the Christmas program.
Continue with gift preparations.
Finalize edits on my auntโs obituary.
Itโs a cruel and confusing thing to be grieving while the world swirls in such happiness and anticipation to the tune of โItโs the Most Wonderful Time of the Yearโ blaring over the radio.
But isnโt that why we have a Christmas in the first place?
God saw, God grieved, and so He came. Christmas isnโt a fragile veneer thatโs been plastered over reality. Itโs the reality of God made flesh so death could die, and deep grief gives us the opportunity to celebrate that in a way that goes much deeper than trite choruses and wooden nativity scenes.
We stand beside caskets that hold the shells of the ones who have burst into eternity before us, and we lower them into a hole in the earthโs frozen heart and our weeping hollows us out because we are broken, dying humans living in a broken, dying world.
But we sow these shells in a sure and tearful expectation, because, just as the souls we have loved have shed their shells, these shells will one day shed these caskets and meet their Savior in the air because we are healing, blood-bought humans living for a healed and blood-bought world.
And so we carry our grief, sometimes over our shoulders, sometimes in deep, hidden pockets, but always with a deep-seated expectation that weeping only endures for a night, and joy will come with the morning.
Whether that morning is earthside or not matters not to us, because we are trusting a flimsy future to the hands of a sturdy God. He has worked all for the good of those who love Him, and He is unchanging. Why should He think He will break that habit now?
Indeed, in the triune God is the love behind all love, the life behind all life, the music behind all music, the beauty behind all beauty and the joy behind all joy.
My favorite non-fiction read of 2025, hands down. Read it!!
โWe are not called to be successful in accordance with ordinary standards, but in accordance with a corn of wheat falling into the ground and dying, becoming in that way what it never could be if it were to abide alone.โ
I found this book deeply impactful in high school and have been enjoying a reread.
And I will wait on the LORD, Who hides His face from the house of Jacob; And I will hope in Him.
Isaiah 8:17
From the journal…
May every fiber of my being magnify and rejoice in You!
Lord, let me be obedient to the point of the death of my dreams.
I am satisfied because of Who God is. Please be the first thing I seek, the One I long for in the driest of seasons. Help me to see Your lovingkindness as truly better than life.
To pray, “Thy will be done,” I must be willing, if the answer requires it, that my will be undone.
Elisabeth Elliot
What made your November memorable?
โค Laurel
Scripture taken from the New King James Versionยฎ. Copyright ยฉ 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
This post contains affiliate links, which means that if you purchase something through one of the links I share in this post, I receive a small commissionโฆat no extra cost to you.:)
Look at me, jumping on a trend for once. But I felt like waxing poetic, and this prompt was just the thing. I would be so glad if you’d use it as a springboard/inspiration to make your own list! โค
I am rich…
because the November sun makes the edge of gray skies glow pink and lavender as it comes and goes // because I drink root beer and read poetry with my grandma // because mochas are a thing // because all the music I could dream of is at my fingertips // because my parents and siblings are so close, to my home and to my heart // because I have room for an ever-swelling book collection // because I can sing myself hoarse in corporate worship without fear // because my tomorrows are held firmly in the hands of a loving, sovereign God // because long-distance friendships work // because hours fly by with the dearest of friends // because candles and twinkle lights and fireplaces exist // because my aging car has stellar speakers // because there are โgood morningโ and โdrive safeโ texts // because brokenness is not the end of the story // because God said โnoโ and โnot yetโ more times than I can count // because He is writing a story much longer and deeper and more glorious than what I can see // because I have so many memories behind and an eternity with Christ before me //
And that is the God revealed by Jesus Christ. Before He ever created, before He ever ruled the world, before anything else, this God was a Father loving His Son.
AHHHHH!!! Read this book!!! I’ve known the Lord since childhood, but this book digs so deeply into the triune nature of God and what it says about Him (and consequently about our relationship with Him), I feel like I’m meeting and falling in love with Him for the first time all over again.โจ
Gardening is one part labor of our hands and one part God’s sovereign care through creation. It’s a reminder to us that God often chooses to provide at the intersection of our just get started and His watch me do this.
Hands down one of the very best books I’ve read this year. I came to it expecting a recipe for surviving unwanted circumstances and came away challenged to thrive in the pieces and seasons of life I wouldn’t have chosen. It was also an encouragement to me to stop moping at the doors God’s closed to me and instead start asking Him to show me the doors He’s opening and give me the courage to walk through them. If you’re struggling with discontentment or restlessness, read this book if you can.
โThe way to shape a childโs heart is through love. And the way to shape a childโs mind is through literature. When you read to a child, you accomplish both.โ
Romance still isn’t my genre, hehe, but I so enjoy Nicole Deese’s writing style and endearing characters. I listened to the audiobook after my sister read the book, and it was so much fun to discuss it with her. I’d recommend this book if you enjoy the clean contemporary romance genre, fun-loving male MCs (think a hilarious dinosaur obsession), parts of the story told through text threads, and some adorable kids.
Character is shaped by the level of God’s control in our lives.
This one popped up as a recommended audiobook on Spotify, and, to be honest, I was skeptical but in possession of lots of audiobook hours to use before the end of the month, so…I started it. I haven’t listened to much of it, but I’ve been so pleasantly surprised. Thus far it’s been a convicting and encouraging listen.
“‘Snickers has ear mites, I hope Barnabas is doin’ fine in all those sandspurs, I hope to th’ Lord you’ll check his paws on a regular basis.’ Emma was running her straw around the bottom of the cup and sucking with great expectation, but not finding much. He turned the volume down on the answering machine.”
Continuing the Mitford series…as always, it’s a lighthearted yet touching read.
Turn away my eyes from looking at worthless things, And revive me in Your way.
Psalm 119:37
From the journal…
Help me to treasure and see as weighty the gaze of Your eyes alone.
I laugh in wonderstruck delight
at the order You have settled in the heavens:
the way You set Earth in its orbit
just close enough to smile at the rays of the sun.
and yet I worry that I – a trillionth of a speck
on the face of North America –
missed something that You wanted me to find,
and now it can never be recovered.
Your sovereignty, O Lord,
has taken into consideration my clumsiness…
Ever heighten my sensitivity to sin in my own life and root it out, but ever deepen my comprehension of the depth of Your grace. Don’t let Satan wield my awareness of sin (confessed and repented-of sin) to drive me deep into despair and a sense of worthlessness…show me Your glory and Your mercy!
For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works.
titus 2:11-14
What made your October memorable?
โค Laurel
Scripture taken from the New King James Versionยฎ. Copyright ยฉ 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
This post contains affiliate links, which means that if you purchase something through one of the links I share in this post, I receive a small commissionโฆat no extra cost to you.:)