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It is time for a FIRST Wild Card Tour book review! If you wish to join the FIRST blog alliance, just click the button. We are a group of reviewers who tour Christian books. A Wild Card post includes a brief bio of the author and a full chapter from each book toured. The reason it is called a FIRST Wild Card Tour is that you never know if the book will be fiction, non~fiction, for young, or for old…or for somewhere in between! Enjoy your free peek into the book!

You never know when I might play a wild card on you!

and the book:

Milk Money (Maryland Wedding Series #2)

Barbour Publishing, Inc (2008)

Cecelia Dowdy is a world traveler who has been an avid reader for as long as she can remember. When she first read Christian fiction, she felt called to write for the genre.She loves to read, write, and bake desserts in her spare time. Currently she resides with her husband and young son in Maryland.

Visit the author’s website and blog.

Product Details:

Mass Market Paperback: 170 pages
Publisher: Barbour Publishing, Inc (2008)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1602602557
ISBN-13: 978-1602602557

I’ve really been enjoying Cecelia Dowdy’s books.  They aren’t the typical boy meets girl, boy jumps hurdle and they live happily ever after variety.  In Milk Money  Emily seems to be doing a pretty good job of running the farm and her life until an unwanted CPA comes along and complicates matters by telling her things she doesn’t want to hear.  There’s an ocean of differences between the two and not ones that are easily overcome.  Do they manage?  Read it and see.  If you read John’s Quest, I already know you will enjoy this book just as much.  And you’ll be waiting with me for Cecelia to bring out another book.  Since this is only the second in the series, I’m hoping we can look forward to many more.

AND NOW…THE FIRST CHAPTER:

She opened her eyes.

“Casey, hold on,” she cooed. When he watched the birth, his sour stomach worsened, and the bagel and cream cheese he’d managed to eat for breakfast felt like a dead weight in his belly. Her tears mingled with the sweat rolling down her face. She continued to pull and glanced in his direction. “Oh, thank God you came. Come and help me.”

A plethora of unfamiliar scents tingled his nose. He swallowed, losing his voice. What was he supposed to do? She continued to look at him, pulling on the rope periodically.

“I already left a message on your answering service that it was coming out backward.” Pushing the door open, he entered the room adjoining the barn, still hoping he wouldn’t throw up. She nodded toward the rope, still tugging. “With both of us pulling, maybe we’ll be able to get the calf out.”

“Okay.” He swallowed his nausea and pulled, mimicking the way he used to grunt when bench-pressing heavy weights. He followed her example, keeping tension on the rope and pulling each time the cow had a contraction. She grunted also, and their noises continued until the calf exited the birth canal minutes later. She dropped the rope, and he rushed behind her to look at the young animal. He touched the newborn,

awed by the birth. She glanced at him as she cleaned gunk off the calf ’s nose and mouth.

Her sigh filled the space when she noticed the animal was breathing. “Aren’t you going to examine the cow and calf?”

Before he could respond, a young man holding a large black plastic tote entered the pen. “This the Cooper farm?”

Confusion marred her face when she glanced at Frank. Then she focused on the new arrival. The newcomer rushed to the baby cow and began examining it. “I’m Dr. Lindsey’s son. I’m taking over my daddy’s practice this week since he’s on vacation. He told you that, didn’t he?”

She nodded, still looking confused. “I left a message on your answering service earlier.”

The vet grunted. “I was down the street at the horse farm helping out with another birth, so I couldn’t leave.”

“Are the cow and calf okay?”

“They both look fine.” He stopped his examination and looked at them. “I’m glad you had somebody helping you. You might not have gotten him out in time if you’d been pulling him on your own.” He pulled a tool out of his bag. “You have antibiotic on hand for the calf, right? If not, I’ve got some.”

The attractive woman nodded, her dark hair clinging to her sweaty neck as she promised the vet she would give the new calf the medicine. Frank watched, mesmerized by the whole process. A short time later, the newborn nursed from the mother. “Thank you, doctor,” said the woman, patting the man on the shoulder.

The doctor shook his head, placing his tools back into his bag. “Don’t thank me. You two got him out in time.” He told Emily he would send her the bill, and then he left the farm.

Emily glanced at Frank, as if taking in his khaki slacks and oxford shirt. Noticing his bloody hands, she beckoned him over to a room containing a sink and a large steel tank. After ripping off the long plastic gloves covering her hands and forearms

and dropping them into the trash can, she turned the water on, pumped out several squirts of soap, and washed. “I thought you were the vet,” she said, continuing to scrub her hands and forearms. “I’ve never met Dr. Lindsey’s son, so that’s why I

assumed you were him.” After rinsing, she pulled paper towels from a dispenser and gestured for Frank to use the sink.

Frank shrugged and walked to the sink, placing his hands under the running water. “Sorry. I helped you out, but I didn’t have any idea if I was doing it right. It’s probably good I showed up when I did. It looked like you’d been trying to help

that cow for a long time.”

She shook her head. “Cows are tough. They can be in labor for hours before giving birth. When you came, I’d just started pulling the calf out with the rope.” She continued to stare, frowning. “Well, if you’re not Dr. Lindsey’s son, then who are

you?”

He offered his recently washed hand, glad the nauseous feeling had evaporated from his stomach. “I’m Franklin Reese, Certified Public Accountant.”

I’ll admit it.  I’m a book worm.  I love to read.  When I was a kid we had a rule.  No books at the table.  Since I come from a family of book worms, I have since figured out the rationale behind the rule.  We could have gone for days without speaking to each other if we were allowed to bring our reading material to the table.  Instead my brother and I devoured anything that had the printed word on it.  We read cereal boxes, ketchup bottles, salad dressing, A1 sauce.  You get the picture.  That’s why I was a bit dismayed when I ran across this list of the the “new classics.”  100 of the best reads from 1983 to 2008.  Of the top 25, I’ve only read two.  How embarrassing.  It’s not as if I quit reading for 25 years.  Of the hundreds (thousands, actually) of books I read, I just didn’t manage to read the right ones.  I don’t even want to admit that those two books were the only ones out of the entire list that I’ve read.  I think someone needs to make a list of the top thousand.  Maybe I could do a little better.

Here’s the top 25.  Did you do any better?

I have to make a  confession.  I’ve been obsessed with another man lately.  For three days I’ve had thoughts of him almost constantly.  This man has enticed me.  Made me promises.  Has been telling me how much better my life could be if I let him come home with me.  Promises and more promises of satisfaction and delights. 

I couldn’t take it any longer.  I caved in Saturday night on the way home from work. I stopped by one of the places where he hangs out.  I even had to ask another man to help me find him.  There he was in the back.  What a relief to see him!  It didn’t take much to get him in my car.  A little sweet talk and there he was in the seat beside me.  I could hardly wait to get him home and make him comfortable.  He has certainly warmed my heart and put the smiles on my face since then.

I’m sorry, Consumer Man.  I had to do it.  Three days of drinking instant coffee and I was eager to bring Mr. Coffee into our house.  He’s very comfortably ensconced in our kitchen.  And he’s certainly making me happy.

Hear my voice, O God, in my complaint:  preserve my life from the dread enemy.

Hide me from the secret plots of the wicked, from the scheming of evildoers,

who whet their tongues like swords, who aim bitter words like arrows,

shooting from ambush at the blameless; they shoot suddenly and without fear.

They hold fast to their evil purpose; they talk of laying snares secretly,

think, “Who can see us?  Who can search out our crimes?

We have thought out a cunningly conceived plot.”  For the human heart and mind are deep.

But God will shoot his arrow at them; they will be wounded suddenly.

Because of their tongue he will bring them to ruin; all who see them will shake with horror. 

Then everyone will fear; they will tell what God has brought about, and ponder what he has done.

Let the righteous rejoice in the Lord and take refuge in him.

Let all the upright in heart glory.

Psalm 64

This book has potential, but as it stands, the three separate story lines bouncing from chapter to chapter leaves a lot to be desired. This book would be better introduced as a book of long “short stories.”  I enjoy books written by Christian authors, but do not need a word by word prayer every six or seven pages to prove that the characters are Christian.  I think this would turn off most main stream readers.  Another problem for me is the fact that the book seems to contain a lot of product endorsements.  I don’t really care what brand jeans someone’s husband puts on nor where a character buys her body lotion.  I’m not interested in brands.  I’m interested in plots and characters. I have to admit that it was a struggle to read this entire book in order to give it a fair review.  Dwan, I’m waiting for these story lines to each be expanded into novels.

The rules for my giveaway of the book, 501 Quilt Blocks, have been posted at Berries and Cream.  Check it out.  You can get up to six entries.  The deadline for entering is 11:59 p.m. EDT, Friday, March 6, 2009.

My apron strings that is.  I’ve decided that I need some.  My mother many times told me, “I can dress you up, but I can’t take you out.”  What does this mean, you ask?  It means that she would get me dressed up to go out and by the time she was ready those pretty dresses and pinafores were a mess.  Never mind that she was already dressed, made up and ready to go before she got me dressed.  It only took a moment or two.  Just long enough for her to go get her purse.  Why did she go through all that grief?  Why not just dress me in something dark that wouldn’t show the dirt and smudges so much? 

How many of you have children?  I was a first child.  Now think about that.  Remember how the first one had to always be dressed just so?  Nothing dirty or stained when you were going out and planning on showing off that little darling of yours.  Nothing changes.  Really.  My mother wanted me to look all cute and pretty.  I wanted my first one to look adorable.  The children who follow don’t have the same pressure to look adorable and to be perfect.  They don’t have a picture taken of them every time they get their clothes changed either.  My second child spent half her childhood thinking she was adopted or something because their were tons of pictures of her brother and she was lucky to find a handful of herself.  I can see you out there chuckling and nodding your heads.  You know about the baby books, too, but we’re beginning to get a bit sidetracked here. 

That thing about keeping my clothes clean.  My mother never won that battle.  I’m still fighting it.  Especially when I cook.  I work so hard at it.  I sometimes even make it to the table before splashing, splattering or spilling something down the front of me.  Like I said, I really need some aprons.  I’ve worn all kinds of aprons in my life.  Back in small town mid-America that’s what you did.  You wore aprons.  If you had a dinner party or just another couple over for dinner, you took off your kitchen apron and put on a dainty or frilly little thing.  In the kitchen you had a bigger, more serviceable apron.  You had a wardrobe of aprons.  We didn’t toss in a load of laundry every day.  We did that one day a week.  You have to have figured out by now that I needed lots of aprons.

Plain aprons.  Fancy aprons.  Aprons with ties.  Aprons with those plastic circles that you stuffed them on and clipped them around your waist.  Half aprons.  Full aprons.  Plain ties around your waist.  Ties that you crossed in back and ran through fabric loops before tying.  Ties that you crossed in back and buttoned at the waist.  Ties that tied around the neck.

And all the apron patterns.  After awhile, aprons started going out of style and then you couldn’t find a pattern unless it was used.  No, you couldn’t find one on the Internet.  We are still wandering around in the dark ages before the web was something other than what you swept down if you saw one in your house.  So now pattern companies are giving us apron patterns again.  And now you can find patterns on the Internet.  And I’m sure you can figure it out on your own.  I’m going to make a couple aprons.  I don’t want to keep hearing my mother say how she could dress me up, but couldn’t take me out.  I’m a big girl now.  I don’t want smudged and splattered clothes.  I’m going to make an apron with a bib.  A big bib.  How difficult can that be.  A big rectangle gathered onto a waistband.  A couple ties at the waist.  The bib sewn to the front of the apron with a couple ties to go around my neck.

Do you wear aprons?  Do you need aprons?  Do you make your own aprons?  Do you have a favorite pattern?

If you have a credit card, you’ve probably received a notice telling you that your interest rate is going up.  I did.  Mine was doubling.  I’ve had this Capital One account for years, make payments on time and am in good standing with the company.  It’s still irritating that we, the taxpayers, have given the banks bailout money and more to come, while they have done nothing to help us out.  I didn’t expect them to go around lowering interest rates, but I certainly didn’t expect to see mine double. 

So I called, politely voiced my concerns and asked if anything could be done about it.  They threw me a bone.  It’s not exactly as much as I expected, but hey, it certainly beats what was happening.  They will leave my interest rate as it is for four more months before raising it.  When they do, they will raise it only 6% instead of 8%.  Now if I could only dump it all before the increase, but will not be able to do that. 

I thought I had the taxes figured out so that I wouldn’t owe this year.  Ha!  Due to some unforeseen circumstances, I’m going to owe.  A bunch.  I’m working on getting that together now and then I’ll only have a couple months to get as much as possible paid on the card balance before the interest jumps.  I’ll do what I can and then explore some other options when that time arrives.

So, you never know.  Sometimes it works.  Try calling your credit card companies.  Every little bit helps.

It’s time for another chapter of Leo Babauta’s Thriving on Less,  a companion ebook to The Power of Less.

Chapter 7 – Changing Your Spending Habits

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit.”

• – Aristotle

While you can cut costs here and there, the real, lasting changes won’t come until you change your habits. If you currently give in to impulse purchases on a regular basis, for example, you’ll still spend a lot of money despite making numerous cuts in other areas.

An important long-term strategy is to create new, sound financial habits, one at a time. See The Power of Less for more on creating new habits. Use the effective habit-change techniques in the book to change one habit at a time. Here are some important habits to form:

1. Make savings automagical. This should be your top priority, especially if you don’t have a solid emergency fund yet. Make it the first bill you pay each payday, by having a set amount automatically transferred from your checking account to your savings (try an online savings account). Don’t even think about this transaction – just make sure it happens, each and every payday.

2. Control your impulse spending. The biggest problem for many of us. Impulse spending, on eating out and shopping and online purchases, is a big drain on our finances, the biggest budget breaker for many, and a sure way to be in dire financial straits. The first step to controlling this habit is to monitor it and become more aware of your urges. Then create a 30-day ban on impulse buying and focus on not buying anything other than necessities for one month. After that, create a 30-day list … anything you want to buy other than necessities goes on the list (with the date it was added) and you can’t buy it until 30 days later.

3. Evaluate your expenses, and live frugally. If you’ve never tracked your expenses, try the One Month Challenge – track your expenses every day for a month. Then evaluate how you’re spending your money, and see what you can cut out or reduce. Decide if each expense is absolutely necessary, then eliminate the unnecessary.

4. Invest in your future. If you’re young, you probably don’t think about retirement much. But it’s important. Even if you think you can always plan for retirement later, do it now. The growth of your investments over time will be amazing if you start in your 20s – and yes, even if the market isn’t great, it will recover and eventually start growing again. Start by increasing your 401(k) to the

maximum of your company’s match, if that’s available to you. After that, the best bet is probably a Roth IRA. Do a little research, but whatever you do, start now!

5. Keep your family secure. The first step is to save for an emergency fund, so that if anything happens, you’ve got the money. If you have a spouse and/or dependents, you should definitely get life insurance and make a will – as soon as possible! Also research other insurance, such as homeowner’s or renter’s insurance.

6. Eliminate and avoid debt. If you’ve got credit cards, personal loans, or other such debt, you need to start a debt elimination plan. List out your debts and arrange them in order from smallest balance at the top to largest at the bottom. Then focus on the debt at the top, putting as much as you can into it, even if it’s just $40-50 extra (more would be better). When that amount is paid off, celebrate! Then take the total amount you were paying (say $70 minimum payment plus the $50 extra for a total of $120) and add that to the minimum payment of the next largest debt. Continue this process, with your extra amount snowballing as you go along, until you pay off all your debts. This could take several years, but it’s a very rewarding process, and very necessary. More on debt

elimination in the next chapter.

7. Use the envelope system. This is a simple system to keep track of how much money you have for spending. Let’s say you set aside three amounts in your budget each payday – one for gas, one for groceries, one for eating out. Withdraw those amounts on payday, and put them in three separate envelopes. That way, you can easily track how much you have left for each of these expenses, and when you run out of money, you know it immediately. You don’t overspend in these

categories. If you regularly run out too fast, you may need to rethink your budget. This isn’t an absolutely necessary habit, but one you might find useful.

8. Pay bills immediately, or automagically. One good habit is to pay bills as soon as they come in. Also, as much as possible, try to get your bills to be paid through automatic deduction. For those that can’t, use your bank’s online check system to make regular automatic payments. This way, all of your regular expenses in your budget are taken care of. Remember to focus on one habit at a time!

I just came across a thought provoking YouTube video here.  It focuses on finance, our constitution and potentially scary evolution of our country.

What do you think about what Alan Keyes, former US ambassador has to say?