By Quiet Waters | Embracing the Full, Hard and Good Life, While Pausing Often by Quiet Waters

Horse in the Wilderness

February 6, 2017 By Michelle

Horse in the Wilderness by Debbie Eckles was one of my January reads, on my kindle. After a very slow start, the story picked up pace and I found myself pulling out my phone often just to read a bit more. Horse in the Wilderness is the story of a lost horse, a boy who gets lost for a short time, and the people who find love as they search for both.

I give this story just 3 stars, but also tell you it was an enjoyable story. The beginning didn’t draw me in, and I was disappointed in the ending. I swiped my screen looking for the next page a couple of times before I realized the story was over. Not the best way to end a story in my opinion.

Book Description

A missing horse. A missing boy. A vandal with an unexplained grievance against a local farmer. A young woman who drives as though pursued by demons. An impulsive offer to help locate the missing horse draws Brent Travis unwillingly into the affairs of the Parker family. Are they the gracious, God-fearing Christians they appear to be, or are they the hypocrites of Brent’s past experience?

Book Look Blogger network provided me with a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for my opinion.

Embrace Grace

January 31, 2017 By Michelle

In January 1988, as a young single woman, I was very surprised to discover I was pregnant.

That January, during a visit to a clinic for birth control pills, a routine pregnancy test was run. In the same breath that the clinic work told me that the test was positive, she asked me when I would like to be scheduled to “take care of it”.

The news of the new life within me took me completely by surprise, and I couldn’t think to respond to the clinic worker. Stunned but unwilling to schedule “the procedure”, I told her that I needed to talk with my boyfriend.

I walked out of the clinic that day and by God’s grace alone I didn’t return.

Even though the relationship ended with my baby’s father, and I didn’t have a clue what I was going to do, I made the decision to give the unborn child life.

Eight months later, I was living back home with my parents, and a beautiful baby girl was born. The young woman who had never wanted to marry nor have children became a mother. Now that baby girl is grown, and is the mother of my granddaughter.

Life has brought forth life. Those words give me so much joy.

As I look back on that January day I wonder how many young women like me are quickly presented with a solution to the “surprise” of an unplanned pregnancy, how many are ushered into ending the life of the baby?

What if we, the local church could step in, and with a tangible gift that can minister to the heart of a frightened young woman who has just learned that she is pregnant? And with that initial gift, begin a relationship of support, ministry and mentor-ship so that the young woman can choose life, make a plan, and walk out that plan.

Embrace Grace

Embrace Grace has a mission to inspire and equip the church to love on single and pregnant young women and their families. One of the ways they are connecting pregnant young women with the local church is through Love in a Box.

This box is a tool used to reach, bless, and encourage young women with unplanned pregnancies. Embrace Grace provides pregnancy centers with these boxes to give to any single, young woman with a positive pregnancy test, inviting them to join an Embrace Grace group. Within the box are several items to minister and encourage the young woman, items like this necklace,

and this journal

The hope is that through Love in a Box, babies will be saved as these young pregnant women CHOOSE LIFE and realize through Embrace Grace that they are BRAVE and not alone in this journey!

To help get the word out to more people, Embrace Grace is giving away 5 sets of this pretty necklace and Brave journal. Enter here. And if you find that this ministry is reaching a place in your heart that is longing for a way to reach out in your community, check out the Embrace Grace website for more information. There are 3 different ways you can join in this outreach:

Start an Embrace Grace at their local church so young women with unplanned pregnancies have a support group.
Partner with the national organization through prayer and support at www.EmbraceGrace.com
Download and print our brave girl letter (http://egrace.co/brave) and mail to address below for us to place inside a Love in a Box.

You can mail your Brave Girl letter to:

Embrace Grace, Inc.

Attn: Love in a Box

700 W. Bedford Euless Rd., Ste. G

Hurst, TX 76053

Thank you for reading all the way to here. It is my hope that just as I have spent some time to learn about Embrace Grace, that you might do the same. Let me know if you think that an Embrace Grace ministry can start in your local church, or if you are interested in partnering in one of the other ways.

I received the Pro-Love necklace and Brave journal from Embrace Grace in exchange for reviewing the items, this post is part of the FrontGate Blogger Network.

Groupon has Coupons!

January 30, 2017 By Michelle

This is a sponsored post. All opinions are mine.

Like so many other moms, I find shopping online can save my family money, and my sanity. I think each of those things, money and sanity, are equal!! So here on the blog I have occasionally mentioned money saving tips, and I am here to share a new-to-me way to save… through GROUPON! Groupon Coupons actually.

Groupon Coupons

I’ve bought plenty of Groupon deals over the past couple of years, but only recently learned about Groupon coupons. Maybe you have noticed that I love to travel. Looking over today’s coupons I’ve found deals for Priceline and Hilton to research for an upcoming trip to the Northwest US that my family is taking later this year. We will be visiting some family and road tripping for a week and I can quickly see how Groupon coupons is going to be an easy way to save money on this trip. One of the things that is so great about Groupon is that it is local, where ever you are. All you have to do is type in the general area where you’ll be, and groupon finds the coupons! Easy peasy!

One thing that I find terrific about the Groupon Coupons is that all the Groupon deals are right there on one site. Before I start my online shopping, I can search the coupons. And on the same site I can check the local deals for dinner out with my husband, or for that ski trip next month. And as I already have mentioned, a person can use groupon anywhere in the US and many locations in Canada.

Here are a few of the other stores and businesses with coupons on the site today:

Target

AEO

Hertz

Nordstrom

Starbucks

and look at this one, Udemy, coupons for the Online Courses site!

and so many more. If you haven’t heard of Groupon Coupons before, go ahead and check out the site. Let me know of any great travel deals you find, okay?!

The Romans 8:28 Promise

January 27, 2017 By Michelle

For Christ followers, the Bible is a road map, it is a mirror that reveals to us what is inside us, Who God is, and it the resource that tells us the end of the story, and how to be ready for it. In the Bible there are admonitions, blessings, general promises and specific promises. In those specific promises one can find words written specifically to and for the believing Christian, the Christ follower.

San Antonio Missions National Historic Park

January 26, 2017 By Michelle

Work has my husband traveling all over the US and Canada. This winter he is spending some time (snow birding, ha) in San Antonio. Being the traveler that I am, and that I wanted get some one on one time with my hubby, I seized the opportunity to fly down for a short weekend earlier this month. Well, a very short weekend, flights delays on both ends of the trip gave me less time with hubby, and more time sitting in the airport…but that is not what this post is about.

When I did a little research on the area, I told Builder that the beach looked like fun. Then I remembered that the Alamo is in San Antonio, along with several other missions. So Sunday morning we headed out to the San Antonio Missions NHP Visitor Center and the first of 4 missions that we visited that day. What a delightful day of fresh air, companionship and history we enjoyed together.

San Antonio Missions National Historic Park

Mission San Jose

Our first stop was Mission San Jose and the SA Missions National Historic Park visitor center. If you start with a tour at the visitor center, you will likely get information on the other missions. Each site has it’s own stories and each one is so interesting. So we were just in time for a tour of the mission site, with Tatum. If you find yourself planning to visit Mission San Jose, call ahead and ask if Tatum will be giving tours. She is a great tour guide, you will be in for a real treat. Her interest and compassion in preserving the stories of the past, and respecting the people brought so much life and color to the information and stories she shared.

Each of these missions were established by Franciscan friars from Spain. The missions were built and run according to European culture and models, with the intent of creating new Spanish citizens. Native American tribes that were struggling under the burdens of famine, loss of land and conflict from other warring tribes (Apache and Comanche) were offered refuge in exchange for labor and conformity to the culture of the Spanish Crown. It was the “new converts” who built the actual buildings and walls, and cultivated the land for farming and ranching. The mission walls offered these people shelter, food, education and protection.

Mission Concepcion had colorful geometric designs that covered it’s outer surface. Those designs have faded, but you can still see the shadowy outline of them.

Our visit to The Alamo was quite different. It is in the heart of downtown San Antonio and there were crowds of people. While there is much to see at the Alamo, a museum full of weapons, artifacts and displays, we didn’t enjoy the same slow pace and quiet exploration as at the other sites. It was just so crowded. But, as we were leaving, we did find another fantastic storyteller and heard a fantastic and interesting retelling of the battle of the Alamo that either of had read before.

Alamo Storyteller

Just having one day to spend in San Antonio I, of course, didn’t even see the tip of the iceberg. But a day visiting the missions and soaking up some history is right up my alley. That evening we did head to the Riverwalk, and we had a wonderful evening walking and talking. It was so pretty and romantic with all the lights, the light crowds, water lapping and boats passing by. Perfect end to a good day!

Hopefully this post and the pictures will encourage you to check out the San Antonio Missions if you find yourself in the area. And be sure to plan an evening on the River Walk!

Earrings, One of My Favorite Things

January 18, 2017 By Michelle

As readers here at By Quiet Waters likely know, I am an all girl mom. Actually, I am also an all girl grandmother (Nana). And I’m always knee deep in all things girly, but my favorite girly things is, EARRINGS.

I have a thing about earrings. Necklaces, bracelets and rings…nah. But earrings!!! So several months out of the year, I join in the Fair Trade Friday Earring of the Month Club. This is a small, simple, and fun way we are able to help support young women who are at risk earn a fair wage, and even become business owners themselves. Here are the earrings that I received this month. Aren’t they so beautifully simple?

I love it when the earrings are “meant for me” and when they aren’t. It is a joy to gift them to another and let the story Fair Trade Friday’s mission be told again. And by the way, if earrings are not your thing… and maybe bracelets are?! There is a bracelet of the month club now, too!

Fair Trade Friday and Earring of the Month club have been mentioned on By Quiet Waters in the past (here and here)

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