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Christine's Newsletter 006 01/26 December 09, 2025 |
January, 2026Dear Friends, Happy New Year! This year, Floyd and I are going to keep a thankfulness notebook. Every morning at breakfast, we will note something for which we are thankful. And no repeats! Today is January 1st, and Floyd is thankful for our salvation that God provided by sending His Son to earth to die for our sins. I’m thankful for a new year, with the expectancy of God changing lives by His grace. My writing slowed down during the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays. I was busy sewing – with a bunch of other ladies – for a bazaar to support Vacation Bible School this coming summer. I made lots of things for children: doll clothes, cloth books, stuffed bears and bunnies, as well as travel toiletries bags. I do enjoy sewing, and it’s not quite as demanding on my mind as writing! For a while I was writing blogs fairly regularly, but I want to write what people like to read. If you have a topic you would like me to explore, please let me know.
My upcoming book (I’m into chapter 9) explores what might happen if a career woman inherited a piece of property that was entirely “off the grid.” For many years, I didn’t even realize what that phrase meant, but that was how my mother lived – no indoor plumbing, no electricity, and only heat from a wood stove. She had a small solar panel that would run a few lamps and her Christmas tree lights, and she had a propane refrigerator and two-burner hot plate. Many years ago, we bought her a generator to pump water from the well. It must have been a hard life, and she didn’t want to give it up, but what would it be like to inherit such a place? I have been considering locations for this fictional piece of property, and have finally settled on a general area west of Great Falls, Montana. It’s pretty flat, with a fabulous view of the Rocky Mountains and a fierce wind. Speaking of wind, we finally got a decent snowfall here in Plains, but it came with a strong wind. It knocked over our grapevine supports and blew a large box of kindling clear across two acres! We are so thankful for our warm, snug house, which doesn’t even rattle in the wind. I read Psalm 90 to the ladies in our Breakfast Club last Tuesday. It was written by Moses, and it is often read on New Year’s Eve as a New Year’s psalm. Some of it is pretty sobering as it points out how great God is and how transient our tiny lives are, but I love verse 14: “O satisfy us in the morning with Your lovingkindness, that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days” (NASB). I guess that is why I wanted us to begin a thankfulness notebook, so we can learn to be more satisfied with what God gives us. And I love to sing His praises! Christine Montana Stars
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