Lords of the Manor

I was asked to be part of Lori Nawyn's blog tour, and I was excited to learn about an unfamiliar author!   Beautiful cover, no?



Trish Ingram works hard to maintain the perfect suburban household—or, at least, the appearance of one. By managing her outer world with lavish attention and rigid control, she’s able to ignore and conceal the darkness of her inner world, which is plagued by traumatic childhood memories of loss. Her terminally ill sister-in-law, Jamie, sees through the façade and reaches out in love to Trish, inspiring her to seek a more meaningful life and a more authentic self. But the childhood scars run deep, and despite Trish’s best efforts, she’s unable to be the wife and mother her family needs.

Devastated by the departure of her husband and daughter, Trish faces the challenge and opportunity of a lifetime. She desires to move forward in faith, but this desire alone cannot mend her family's shattered trust. The hollow realm of denial and fear has been her safe haven. To confront pain and transcend the shadows of her past will require a level of courage she’s not sure she possesses. This gripping story of familial love and conflict tenderly reminds us that forgiveness—of self, and others—is both a difficult choice and a precious gift.

Lori has said her book is about helping women learn to forgive themselves.  So many women strive to create an atmosphere of perfection: an endless supply of creativity, patience, and beautiful things.  Can we learn to accept ourselves, warts and all?  Lori has shared that in her own personal life, its been a journey toward replacing the negative self-talk with more accurate, positive statements.  She decided she was allowed to choose happiness, by thinking about the "what if's" and mustering the courage to make them a reality.  Her novel can be seen as a challenge to the rest of us, to learn to live our dreams, and happily accept our flaws.

Lori Nawyn's award-winning writing has appeared in regional and national publications including Outside Bozeman, Segullah, Deseret News, CraziBeautiful Women, and Latter-Day Woman. She is also a columnist for her local paper and a former member of Utah Press Women. One of her short stories was published in the anthology Stolen Christmas. Her first novel, My Gift to You, was released in October 2010.

Lori is currently writing her next novel, Day, about a mother’s relationship with her son. She works as a freelance artist and is the illustrator of the award-winning children's picture book What Are You Thinking? which was released in July 2010 by ThoughtsAlive Publishing. She and her fireman husband live in northern Utah where they enjoy spending time with their four children and two granddaughters, plus an assortment of dogs, rabbits, and chickens.

I just took a five month hiatus from blogging because I've had severe morning sickness! We have a baby girl due to arrive at the Manor in late February!

I have lots of back-posting to do to update you on our summer, including lots of things we've done to Enjoy Utah!

We finally went out to the Pioneer Museum which is adjoined to the Daughters of the Utah Pioneers Museum which is inside the old courthouse and jail.  Both though small, were great.  We found pictures and were able to print a history of my husband's ancestors who were the first people to settle this valley.  We didn't even know we had roots here when we came.

I didn't get a picture of the pioneer washing machine, but it made me so grateful for the way we do laundry today even though I often feel like a laundry wench as it is.  Haul water, boil water, agitate by hand with a crank in a washtub, wring, rinse, wring, hang....
 
This actual pioneer cabin is actually located next door to the lot where my husband's ancestors lived.  Where their home was is now a parking lot.


J trying out the pump organ.  It's quite a workout for your legs.  The kids also liked seeing some artifacts that were commonplace for my parents and grandparents, like rotary phones and  popcorn poppers you hold over the stove and shake.



This is a recreation of the pioneer jail, obviously the bars would need to be closer together. 

Conestoga wagon, a freight wagon.  The covered wagons the pioneers brought would have been much smaller.

Saturday we took everyone out to explore an area we'd never been, Harker Canyon. I had heard there was a ghost town there but we weren't able to find it. We did however find some gorgeous views. We will be going back at least once this summer for camping.


Harker Canyon is located in the Wasatch National Forest in the Sheeprock Mountains south of Vernon, UT.   There are are 2 beautiful canyons within about 2 miles of each other, and each is unique and diverse in the scenery and plant life. While we were there we also saw lizards, squirrels, and deer.


What we didn't see was very many people at all.  This is a great place to go when you want to get away!  Harker Canyon is a popular bird watching spot.  At one time, there was a ghost town in or near Harker Canyon, but we couldn't find it.  It looks like it may have been destroyed by a forest fire some time in the last  few years (but maybe we were in the wrong place, if you've been there recently please share how to get there!)





If you want to know more our adventures, check out Enjoy Utah! where I'm contributing with details of our summer long Staycation!

We are planning a bit of a Staycation this summer to discover the fun things to do nearby that we've never tried.  We are always on the lookout for places to explore with our dogs. Stansbury Island is on the West end of the Great Salt Lake and has hiking, biking, and driving trails for views of the lake.


On the drive in, you can see where the salt from the lake accumulates on pilings, rocks, and anything in the water.




Dad had to go back to the truck because we forgot the chocolate...





On the way back we found this giant slab of limestone.

After several weeks of being on pins and needles, my future brother in law did get a deferral, he doesn't have to report until June. So the wedding will carry on as planned. *whew*

We will be trying out a new dog sitter while we are gone to the wedding, so cross your fingers that it will go well and that the doggies won't ruin my garden like they did last year. I have dozens of little vegetable and flower seedlings growing in pots around my house and porch, and I'm starting to get weird. I talk to them, tell them to grow, encourage them to not die. It always amazes me that anything I plant ever grows at all.



We moved an apple tree to build an island in our front yard:



I also planted 3 new fruit trees, 2 North Pole apple trees that will grow straight up with apples on the trunk, and another dwarf flowering peach for the park strip:



Baseball is still ruling our lives. J is learning to pitch and makes a wicked first baseman:



T mostly likes to dance around and make grass angels in the outfield:

Mom and MIL, if you are reading this, stop now!

I'm going to show everyone what I made you for Mother's Day....

I saw these over at Nap Time Journal, a Candy Gram she made for her husband on Valentine's Day. I thought it would be super cute with a Spring Theme, so Taryn and I made these for Paul's and my moms:

The day Stephanie Roberts met Jared Wakefield, she didn't realize they'd met before. Running from an abusive marriage and trying to safeguard her children, she turns to Jared for support, but he needs more from her than she might be capable of giving. With her abusive husband looming in her past, the difficulties they must overcome to be together seem insurmountable. Is it possible for love to conquer all? I'll Know You By Heart is a timeless romance that explores the possibility that relationships span the entire realm of eternity. A story about abuse, hardship, and betrayal, it is ultimately a story about the healing power of everlasting true love.

 What immediately struck me as different about this book is that the main character is described as 50 pounds overweight.  And yet, she's also hard working, helpful, creative, and active.  Usually the main character is spunky, thin, and blissfully unaware of how beautiful she is. I loved that Kimberly Job chose to have her main character be overweight, and yet also not make her weight a big issue in the story, it was just a feature, not an identity. Over the course of the story, as Stephanie grows and seeks what she wants out of life, she doesn't even lose weight as a side effect, like most overweight heroines manage to do.  This book will not perpetuate the  myth that thinness is a fundamental part of happiness. That was nice.

Not far into the book, Read More

This just makes me happy!

I was very excited to review The Thorn because Daron Fraley has formulated a winning plot for the LDS adventure-loving audience: Christ's "other sheep" on a distant planet await the signs of his birth, while in the midst of their own conflicts.  Intriguing, no?

Fraley did a great job of.....(Read More)

Are you tired of little short posts about why I'm always MIA?  If you guessed that I got a life, ding! ding! ding! I blame the pedometer I got for my birthday. The pamphlet claims 10,000 steps a day is "very active."  Today, I'm at 16,000 steps and counting.  Based on my single subject design, I have determined that buying a pedometer will have the following adverse effects on your blogging life:

The Good:



The Bad:

The Ugly:

And so on.  So ask yourself, do you really want a pedometer?  Sure it has its perks, but in the grand, productive scheme, is it really worth it?  For the record, I'm now at 17,501 steps. (You know its impossible to just sit and write when the kids are still awake.)

The kids and I have been doing some research into the origins of April Fool's Day.  I had been taught in grade school that when they changed from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar, people who didn't observe the New Year were dubbed "April Fools."  But why do April Fools pranks appear earlier, even in the writing of Chaucer decades earlier?

This picture is of a friend's patio... Based on the amount of snow we got over the last 36 hours, I'm buying in to the theory that we are April's Fools for thinking Spring is here!

You can't deny laughter, when it comes, it plops down in your favorite chair and stays as long as it wants. -Stephen King