Christina Suzann Nelson

Generally, I’m very much a letter and word kind of girl. I leave the numbers to my accountant husband and life has a way of remaining balanced. There is this one exception though. Stats. I love to watch the stats on my website. I check them throughout the day. And those graphs. Those are a lot of fun too. I can see in one peep of my eyes how today compares with all the other days this month, or week by week, or month by month.

That brings me to some very exciting news!

January 2011 is a new record month for hits to my website. Yay! (Balloons and confetti here)

Since you’re reading this you must be one of the lovely people that has made this moment a reality. Please stand up and give yourself a hand.

Thanks! And do come back soon.

The girls are charged to cut into this years big project. They, along with three of their friends, are making quilts for their beds. The patterns have been chosen, the calculations made, and today we took a trip to the fabric store.

My girls scoured the racks evaluating each and every possibility. Aleasha needed six fabrics and Emma only three. If you knew my girls you’d see how very classic this is. Emma is simple and to the point. She chose bright colors that match her personality. Aleasha is more serious. Her pattern is complicated, and the colors are deeper. Regardless of how different the selections, both quilts will be beautiful like my girls.

I must mention the best part of the fabric store trip. We didn’t take any of the boys. You can count the seconds on one hand from the time we step through the doors until my boys (including my husband) are begging to go.

Maybe the girls project will inspire me to finish the quilt I started in 1999. No that’s not a typo. It’s been twelve years. These moments sure do make me take a look at how fast time goes by.

Keep coming back to see how we’re doing. Next big step, cutting.

Have a great week,

Christina

This Christmas my family blessed me with a Kindle. I love it more than I even thought I would. The size is perfect and I can carry a bookshelf full of stories with me wherever I go. To top it off, I bought a bright pink cover. Truly lovely.

So are ebooks as good as the paper variety? Well here’s the thing, it’s the story that counts, regardless of the format. I was concerned that I’d miss holding a book, and I still think for non-fiction I’ll stick with paper, but the Kindle is just the right size and it holds my place for me. Oh, and the screen is awesome. I can read in bright sunlight with no problem, not that I’ve seen much sunlight lately.

Another benefit: Amazon offers free books. I recently read a blog post bashing this practice. The blog writer was concerned about books being giving away causing the value of books to diminish. I have to disagree. My first ebook, Fireflies in December by Jennifer Erin Valent, I downloaded free. The story was so wonderful that I will not hesitate to buy anything else this author writes.  In fact I plan to buy the next two books in the series right away. The free book paid off for her as I’m sure I’m not the only reader that loved this story.

Whichever format you prefer, don’t miss this book.

From the website of Jennifer Erin Valent:

Fireflies in December

“The summer I turned thirteen, I thought I killed a man.”

So begins the story of Jessilyn Lassiter, a young girl whose world is torn apart the summer of 1932. When Jessilyn’s best friend, Gemma, loses her parents in a tragic fire, Jessilyn’s father vows to care for her as his own, despite the fact that Gemma is black and prejudice is prevalent in their southern Virginia town.

It doesn’t take long for the Lassiters to attract the attention of a local band of Ku Klux Klan members, who make increasingly violent threats on Jessilyn and her family.

As she struggles to navigate a complex world of first crushes, loyalties, and betrayals, Jessilyn ultimately discovers what it takes to be a bright light in a dark world.

Maybe it’s a sign that spring will come again to this gray and dreary Willamette Valley. I looked out my window this morning and there in the pen where we keep the ewes that seem closest to lambing was a fuzzy little head. The girls and I went down to investigate and found twin ewe lambs, one much bigger than the other, but both very healthy. They’ve already received names: Argentina is the little one and the other is Starlight.