The Wind Blows in Sleeping Grass by Katie Powner

After years of drifting, fifty-year-old Pete Ryman has settled down with his potbellied pig, Pearl, in the small Montana town of Sleeping Grass--a place he never expected to see again. It's not the life he dreamed of, but there aren't many prospects for a high-school dropout like him.

Elderly widow Wilma Jacobsen carries a burden of guilt over her part in events that led to Pete leaving Sleeping Grass decades ago. Now that he's back, she's been praying for the chance to make things right, but she never expected God's answer to leave her flat on her face--literally--and up to her ears in meddling.

When the younger sister Pete was separated from as a child shows up in Sleeping Grass with her eleven-year-old son, Pete is forced to face a past he buried long ago, and Wilma discovers her long-awaited chance at redemption may come at a higher cost than she's willing to pay.

I really enjoyed this book. The characters in it were interesting and unique. While some things were predictable, there were some surprises throughout. I especially enjoyed Pearl. She added so much to the story. I like how these characters were in mid and later life. It is nice to hear stories about that age group and to think about how long past events can haunt you. There were a lot of themes going on in these pages and I think they all worked well together and led to a very satisfying and redemptive ending.

Copy of book provided by Graf Martin and Bethany House.

Comments

A Perspective

I have already mentioned my "Word of the Day" screen saver that I have on my laptop that is hooked up to the projector in my room. I am learning that the words go in cycles a bit, so the same word will pop up in several classes during the day. Today's popular word was "entitlement." A fantastic word to share with teenagers who often think they are entitled to a whole lot of stuff. In fact, we as humans often think we are entitled to a whole lot of stuff when really we are fallen people who deserve nothing but death. We so often miss how wonderful and blessed our life really is and we get caught up on the little things. This video sort of puts that in perspective in a rather humorous way. I am by no means promoting this comedian, but if you take what he says to heart, it is so true. We live in an amazing world, created by an amazing God. We really should be happy with the blessing we have been given.

Getting Big...And Strong

Mataya went back in to be weighed earlier this week. While she did not jump back on her growth curve, she did gain over a pound in the last month, so the doctor is not worried at all. She is just going to have a new curve, I guess. In other news, she is getting really strong and can move around. I am not really sure how she does it, but she is never where I leave her when she is laying on the floor. She uses a combination of rolling and scooting. In the picture below, she started out sort of by the red ring that is half under the blue chair. That is a pretty good distance to cover when you can't even crawl. Thankfully she is pretty slow, so she hasn't gotten into too much trouble yet.

An Afternoon at the Park

I am not a mom who spends a lot of time at parks and playgrounds with her kids. This is for several reasons. 1) I have to drive to any park and we all know packing up everyone in the car takes a bit of extra effort 2) Joash doesn't have a really good relationship with playground equipment yet. In the past, he has never wanted to go and explore a playground structure on his own, he didn't really like to swing and he didn't really like slides. So, that kind of limits the amount of fun one can have at a play ground. Why would I drive somewhere to have my kid pretty much want to just sit on my lap the whole time. We can do that at home. 3) Joash doesn't do well when there are too many unfamiliar kids around. Yeah, he is a bit shy and timid. So, he doesn't really like to go on anything that another kid is using. And if he is on something and another kid comes over, he gets off right away and runs to me. But, a new year has come and I thought we should try out...

The Talens' Tales

Search This Blog