In this riveting, poignant memoir of three generations of women and the white dresses that adorned them—television producer Mary Pflum Peterson recounts a journey through loss and redemption, and her battle to rescue her mother, a former nun, from compulsive hoarding. As a successful television journalist at Good Morning America, Mary Pflum is known as a polished and highly organized producer. It’s a persona at odds with her tortured childhood, where she watched her emotionally vulnerable mother fill their house with teetering piles of assorted “treasures.” But one thing has always united mother and daughter—their love of white dresses. From the dress worn by Mary’s mother when she became a nun and married Jesus, to the wedding gown she donned years later, to the special nightshirts she gifted Mary after the birth of her children, to graduation dresses and christening gowns, these white dresses embodied hope and new beginnings. After her mother’s sudden death in 2010, Mary digs deep to understand the events that led to Anne’s unraveling. At twenty-one, Anne entered a convent, committed to a life of prayer and helping others. But lengthy periods of enforced fasting, isolation from her beloved students, and constant humiliation eventually drove her to flee the convent almost a decade later. Hoping to find new purpose as a wife and mother, Anne instead married an abusive, closeted gay man—their eventual divorce another sign of her failure. Anne retreats into chaos. By the time Mary is ten, their house is cluttered with broken appliances and stacks of unopened mail. Anne promises but fails to clean up for Mary’s high school graduation party, where Mary is being honored as her school’s valedictorian, causing her perfectionist daughter’s fear and shame to grow in tandem with the heaps upon heaps of junk. In spite of everything, their bond endures. Through the white dresses, pivotal events in their lives are celebrated, even as Mary tries in vain to save Anne from herself. Unflinchingly honest, insightful, and compelling, White Dresses is a beautiful, powerful story—and a reminder of the unbreakable bonds between mothers and daughters.
When Snail's bucket home is turned over, a ladybug takes him on a journey through the vegetable garden, discovering delicious new foods while encountering new animals.
In every part of anything we do, Jesus is present. This book piques the imagination of children who want to learn more about Jesus. It will guide the teacher to a new approach through lessons, participation, playacting, and games. If you ever wondered how to teach children in a way that would hold their attention and give them better understanding, then these are the lessons for you. Each section is planned separately according to what is being taught and can be used for any age group. The idea of a fairy tale is used to teach about leadership, love, and building a strong foundation. Use the current-events lesson to teach about trust in God. There is even a section on sports. One lesson is named "Hit a Home Run for God." All lessons are informative and creative, and they all allow the children to use their imagination. The holidays are taught in an unusual way. The Christmas lesson is titled "The Thinker," and it brings a message that is clear to all. The games and music sections are included to challenge children's minds and incite curiosity as well as fun. My book is for teachers who want to do more than read or talk to the class about Jesus--it is meant to be used to captivate their minds and encourage learning.
This account of Mother building her own house is a remarkable story filled with her vision, fears, anxiety, anguish, determination and joy in fulfilling a lifetime dream. Mother kept a journal throughout the process, so was able to recall even the smallest details in her thought process, the people we met along the way, what they were wearing, what they said, what I said and how we resolved the countless dilemmas. The significance of this accomplishment only became fully apparent to me when I read this book. I did not understand the magnitude of her aspirations, how important it was to her or what a huge undertaking it was. Her persistence in light of the full awareness of potential for failure amazes me. She credits me for frequently solving looming disasters. In retrospect, my confidence was more a result of lack of knowledge. I didn't have the fear of failure, so was able to approach each situation objectively, with a clear head and nothing at stake. The entire project was a diversion for me - a vacation from my duties as a mother, wife and homemaker. My rewards were great and I thoroughly enjoyed this time in my life. This book is a wonderful tribute to the pursuit of a dream.
Chuckle your way through this easy-to-read illustrated chapter book about a snail who’s looking for a new place to hang his shell. Snail is a merry little mollusk in his rusty bucket filled with strawberries. Strawberries are his favorite treat, but when he eats himself sick, his best friend Ladybug tells him he has to move away from the yummy red fruit. She takes him looking for a forever home, but Snail roams away from his friend and runs into a hungry Chicken. Rut-roh! Will he make it to his new home or be a tasty treat for this famished, feathered fiend?
If you have ever wondered about the joy of aging, wonder no more. You only have to read a few pages of my book to find out. But, we know aging is not all about joy. It is filled with so many different events that happened in our lives. Different friends and acquaintances shared their good times as well as the not so good times. You will not be able to keep from laughing with them at some of the happenings and perhaps be saddened at others. As you read, you may find yourself relating to some of their stories. You will enjoy the games that test your acceptance of getting old and the original poetry that fits the topic.
Sarah Wheeler’s stepdad had just become her partner before the violent attack happened. Will he survive his injuries to be her partner again? Will she be able to solve the cold case of a little girl taken from her mother in a grocery-store parking lot? She knows how it feels to be kidnapped, and she wants to find this little girl, dead or alive, so the little girl’s mother can have some peace. Her relationship has been going great until an incident happens to make her question if Nate is really the one or if she may have jumped the gun. Why is he so testy all of the time lately? Why does it seem like he doesn’t trust her? Does she have what it takes to forgive him and his reaction over an innocent mistake? Will the next chapter in her life be with Nate or alone?
When Sarah returns to Paradise after seven years and sees that it's been burned to the ground, she realizes it's time to let go of the past. Being able to bury the past makes it easier to concentrate on her future and her ambitions, but who is this person that continues to haunt her nights? Who won't leave her alone? Why does it seem like they are always around but no one ever sees them? When the police department she works for sends over a technician to install a security system and he gets hurt before he even starts the job, she wonders what, this maniac has in store for her. Will she be safe in her own home, or will she be a prisoner? Who, if anyone, can she trust? She decides to try trusting the technician since he seems to be at her place so much. Could she be falling for the man who is trying to keep her safe, even though she vowed years ago to not let anyone into her heart ever again? She's supposed to be the one who catches the bad guys, but when she doesn't know who that is, will she ever find him? Be sure to look for the next thriller in the Sarah Wheeler series, "Secrets".
All soups are better to be made with fresh uncooked meat, as that which has been cooked once has lost much of its flavor and nearly all its juices. It is therefore better economy to hash or spice your cold meat, and buy fresh for soup. Soup should not boil very hard, as that has a tendency to toughen the meat. Fat meat is not so proper nor healthy for soup as the leaner parts of the finest meat. The fat does not impart much flavor, and is not palatable. Soup may be kept till the next day; before it is heated over again, skim off the cake of fat which congeals on the top. It is often preferred one day old to the day it is cooked. Crack the bone of a shin of beef, and put it on to boil in one quart of water to every pound of meat, and a large tea spoonful of salt to each quart of water. Let it boil two hours, and skim it well. Then add four turnips pared and cut in quarters, four onions pared and sliced, two carrots scraped and cut in slices, one root of celery cut in small pieces, and one bunch of sweet herbs; which should be washed and tied with a thread, as they are to be taken out when the soup is served. When the vegetables are tender, take out the meat, strain off the soup and return it to the pot again, thicken it with a little flour mixed with water; then add some parsley finely chopped, with more salt and pepper to the taste, and some dumplings, made of a tea spoonful of butter to two of flour, moistened with a little water or milk. Drop these dumplings into the boiling soup; let them boil five minutes and serve them with the soup in the tureen. Noodles may be substituted for the dumplings.Ê
Enjoy five historical novels by some of Christian fiction’s bestselling authors. Meet daughters of prairie farms from Montana south to Kansas who find love in the midst of turbulent life changes. Marty’s nieces are kidnapped. Rosalind’s town is overrun by a railroad company. Amy’s jealousy comes between her and her twin. Beulah’s answer is needed to a marriage proposal. Lilly’s choice puts her at odd with her neighbors. Into each of their lives rides a man who may only make their situations worse.
Jason: Ward of the State is Mary J. Peterson's debut memoir. It is the compelling story of commitment and care of a student who became a ward of the state long after she had been his first grade teacher. Mary guided Jason as well as his brother, forging a bond that goes beyond blood ties. Her love and focus on the importance of education helped them survive the System, attend college and become successful adults. This story proves that education and achievement are attainable goals, regardless of a child's circumstances.
From a barrage of photons, we readily and effortlessly recognize the faces of our friends, and the familiar objects and scenes around us. However, these tasks cannot be simple for our visual systems--faces are all extremely similar as visual patterns, and objects look quite different when viewed from different viewpoints. How do our visual systems solve these problems? The contributors to this volume seek to answer this question by exploring how analytic and holistic processes contribute to our perception of faces, objects, and scenes. The role of parts and wholes in perception has been studied for a century, beginning with the debate between Structuralists, who championed the role of elements, and Gestalt psychologists, who argued that the whole was different from the sum of its parts. This is the first volume to focus on the current state of the debate on parts versus wholes as it exists in the field of visual perception by bringing together the views of the leading researchers. Too frequently, researchers work in only one domain, so they are unaware of the ways in which holistic and analytic processing are defined in different areas. The contributors to this volume ask what analytic and holistic processes are like; whether they contribute differently to the perception of faces, objects, and scenes; whether different cognitive and neural mechanisms code holistic and analytic information; whether a single, universal system can be sufficient for visual-information processing, and whether our subjective experience of holistic perception might be nothing more than a compelling illusion. The result is a snapshot of the current thinking on how the processing of wholes and parts contributes to our remarkable ability to recognize faces, objects, and scenes, and an illustration of the diverse conceptions of analytic and holistic processing that currently coexist, and the variety of approaches that have been brought to bear on the issues.
Experience five Alaska adventures through the lives of determined women who overcome the many challenges to build their lives in the wilderness. From the gold rush, through a diphtheria epidemic, to the building of the Alcan Highway, readers will enjoy the stubborn fight each woman displays as love comes into her life. Will the women also give up fighting God and let Him lead them through America’s last frontier?
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