Deborah Vogts's Blog, page 105

This Week's Recipes

Here are this week's new additions at Country at Heart Recipes. Have a great weekend! 
French Toast
Apple Cinnamon Rolls with Maple Glaze
Picnic Ideas for Spring
Featured Author Recipe: Maureen Lang's Sunday Chicken

This Week's Recipes

Here are this week's new additions at Country at Heart Recipes. Have a great weekend! 
French Toast
Apple Cinnamon Rolls with Maple Glaze
Picnic Ideas for Spring
Featured Author Recipe: Maureen Lang's Sunday Chicken

Book Preview ~ When the Morning Glory Blooms

This week, theChristian Fiction Blog Allianceis introducingWhen The Morning Glory BloomsAbingdon Press (April 1, 2013)byCynthia Ruchti
Cynthia writes stories of hope that glows in the dark, merging her love for storytelling with inextinguishable hope for inexpressible hurts.

Cynthia spends her days diving into words, worship, and wonder and celebrating 40 years of marriage, three grown children, and five outrageously adorable grandchildren. One of her greatest joys is helping other writers grow in their craft. To that end, she served as the assistant director and a faculty member of the Quad Cities Christian Writers Conference, has served as worship and devotions staff for the Write-to-Publish conference, and teaches at other conferences as opportunities arise. She speaks to women’s groups, at mother-daughter banquets, and for women’s refresher days and retreats. It is her delight to serve on her church’s worship team. Rather than “busy,” she likes the term “active.”

For 33 years, Cynthia wrote and produced the radio broadcast The Heartbeat of the Home. The scripted radio drama/devotional broadcast aired on as many as 50 radio stations and two cable/digital television stations over the years. Cynthia was the editor of the ministry’s Backyard Friends magazine, a twenty-page, twice annual publication that reached 5,000 homes, churches, and parachurch outreaches.

ABOUT THE BOOK
Becky rocks a baby that rocked her world. Sixty years earlier, with her fiancé Drew in the middle of the Korean Conflict, Ivy throws herself into her work at a nursing home to keep her sanity and provide for the child Drew doesn't know is coming. Ivy cares for Anna, an elderly patient who taxes Ivy's listening ear until the day she suspects Anna's tall tales are not the ramblings of dementia. They're fragments of Anna's disjointed memories of a remarkable life. Finding a faint thread of hope she can't resist tugging, Ivy records Anna's memoir, scribbling furiously after hours to keep up with the woman's emotion-packed, grace-hemmed stories. Is Ivy's answer buried in Anna's past? Becky, Ivy, Anna--three women fight a tangled vine of deception in search of the blossoming simplicity of truth.

If you would like to read the first chapter of When The Morning Glory Blooms, go HERE.

Celebrating Baptisms

 This past weekend we celebrated the baptism of our granddaughter, Emma Grace. What a joy that day was. A blessed event.
Here with the grandparents.
Her pastors with mom and dad.
Her Great-Grandma Judi made her dress -- a beautiful heirloom treasure. (Emma slept through the entire service and pictures right until the very end here ...)
We celebrated afterwards with a luncheon and cake.
A precious picture with Aunt Rosie
I know I've said this before . . . but I LOVE being a grandma! 

This Week's Recipes

Here are this week's new additions at Country at Heart Recipes. Stay warm and enjoy your weekend! 
Whole Wheat Muffins
Spinach Quiche
Homemade Granola

Fire on the Prairie

Fire on the Prairie. It began with the Indians, perhaps when lightning struck the prairie and caused the fresh new grass to attract buffalo to their land. Later, ranchers in the Flint Hills adopted this practice into what is now an annual tradition. Between March 15 and April 15, depending on seasonal weather and grass growth, ranchers will light up the prairie with their spring pasture burning, which marks the beginning of the grazing season.


In the old days, ranchers rode their horses through the pastures and dragged burning tires or kerosene-soaked gunny sacks behind them to start the fires. Some merely dropped wooden matches to the grass as they rode over the pastures. Today, most ranchers drag fire sticks behind four-wheelers to cover the many miles of undulating prairie.


The annual pasture burning is quite a sight to behold with thousands of acres being burnt at one time. The purpose is to eliminate the dead grass and make way for the new by getting a head start on weeds. With the help of spring rains, the charcoaled land will bring forth tender green shoots, rich in minerals. It is said that cattle feeding on this grass will gain 30 to 40 pounds more than they do on an unburned pasture.

Book Preview ~ Though My Heart is Torn

Though My Heart is Torn by Joanne Bischof

Settling into a simple life in the majestic Blue Ridge mountains, Lonnie and Gideon O’Riley have finally found happiness after the rocky start to their marriage. The roguish bluegrass musician has fallen in love with his gentle wife and the God she serves, and Lonnie rests secure in his tenderness for her and their young son. A heartless ruse interrupts their peace, bringing them back to Rocky Knob—and forces them to face the claims of Cassie Allan, a woman who says she is Gideon’s rightful wife.As Gideon wades into the depths of his past choices, Lonnie is stunned by the revelations. She has no choice but to navigate this new path, knowing that surviving the devastating blow will take every ounce of strength  she has.While Gideon’s guilt  and his bitterness towards Cassie threatens to burn up his fledgling faith, Lonnie wrestles to find the courage to trust the God who brought them together in the first place. Will their hard-earned love be able to conquer all? Lonnie only wanted her husband’s love. Now that he belongs to another, can she surrender Gideon to a God with a bigger plan?
Q & A with Joanne What aspect of your series was the most fun to research? Well, setting up the moonshine still in my backyard was pretty fun. Just kidding! Seriously, the best part  was doing lots of hands on activities like soap making, rug braiding, butter churning, etc. Some experiences turned out better than others, but I include them on my blog in the Adventures of Country Living, and am always looking for more projects to tackle.How do you choose your character’s names? For historical fiction, I always strive to find a name that would have been around in a particular time or place. For this series, I took it one step further and researched names specific to the Appalachian region. It was tons of fun reading through records of names like Erwin and Floyd. When I stumbled upon the name, Lonnie, I knew it was the perfect name for my heroine.Aside from your hero and heroine, who was your favorite character to write? It’s a tough one to choose, but I would probably have to say Jebediah. There’s something about channeling one’s inner 65 year old man. Jebediah is as kind as they come but with enough spunk to push Gideon around a bit. Nothing was more fun than making my hero squirm.You handle some delicate subjects in your books. Do you ever worry about offending someone? I think many writers worry about offending readers at one point or another, but with some of the touchy topics in this story, I hope to shed light on the freedom that can come in Christ. I think we can express a difficult situation without bringing glory to it. Shedding light on it for what it is—sin. I feel strangely amazed and blessed to watch these characters grow. As the chaff falls away, the refinement process is truly aweing. Something that can only be accomplished through Christ!I know your inspiration for BE STILL MY SOUL came partly from bluegrass music. Do you play any instruments? I play the mandolin. Of course my dad plays it about five times better than I do, but I love the instrument. It’s near and dear to my heart, and writing that into Gideon’s character was really fun. Every time he plays in the books, I can feel the fondness for the mandolin that he feels and I hope that comes across to readers.Read more about Joanne and her books on her Author Website HERE.

This Week's Recipes

Here are this week's new additions at Country at Heart Recipes. Enjoy your weekend! 
Steamed Potatoes with Parsley
Minestrone Soup
and Featured Author, June Foster's Catalan Pot Roast

My Week with Emma

Last week I had the pleasure of staying with our oldest daughter to spend time with her family (and especially our first grandbaby). Let me tell you, I had loads of fun!
Holding her and rocking her!
Even in the wee hours of the morning, when she was wide awake.
Giving her a bath in her big tub!
Watching her bond with mommy!
Dressing her up like a little baby doll!
Miss Emma in her poofy dress.
Love this little sweater dress with her new rattle.
I love being a grandma--it's everything I imagined it would be--and so much more! 

This Week's Recipes

Here are this week's new additions on Country at Heart Recipes. Have a great weekend! 
Pineapple Chicken
Spiced Apple Muffins
Slow Cooked Shredded Pork Loin