I'M MOVING!!

My friends, the day has come.

I've been dreaming about this for some time.

I finally have my very own self-hosted Wordpress blog: my website!

JaimieRamsey.com is where you'll find me now. Starting this coming Monday (six days from now; the 30th of September) I will no longer be posting at Living in the Light. I'll also switch the name of my Facebook page-- nothing will change but the title. :)

Please take notice:
NONE of my Google Friend Connect followers will transfer over to the new site!!! That means that there are 125 of you who read either regularly or occasionally, who will need to re-follow the new site via some other method (either another reader or by email). I will be getting the new email signup ready to go in the next couple days, so you'll be able to subscribe to updates from JaimieRamsey.com before the weekend.

Also, if you follow me with a reader, you WILL have to update the URL in your reader, or you will stop getting updates entirely--and that would be awful!

If you're already an email subscriber, your email subscription WILL transfer to the feed from the new site. You won't have to do anything about that!

The Facebook page will continue to post updates from both here and the new site until Monday, at which time updates from Living in the Light will stop.

The website isn't fully ready yet, but feel free to head over and take a look anyway-- just click on the image above or here: www.jaimieramsey.com.

I am excited to make this new site into something that will serve me now and in the future, as a personal blog and a professional author's website. I'm incredibly thankful for the help I've received with getting it set up, especially from Elsie Callender of Richly Rooted, Jami Balmet of Young Wife's Guide, and Amy Andrews from Blogging with Amy (I don't know her personally, but her site has tons of incredibly helpful and easy-to-follow tutorials to help make blogging on Wordpress WAY easier!).

So-- if you follow me via GFC or a reader, head over to JaimieRamsey.com and update your reader. By Friday you'll be able to follow the new site via email.

I'll post another reminder or two later this week, and then I will leave a post pinned here for anyone who happens upon Living in the Light--a forwarding address, so to speak. :)

Thank you for being the ones who have helped me grow this little tiny blog into something still pretty tiny, but also a community that has blessed me greatly. It's been almost three years since I started Living in the Light, and I am SO excited to keep moving forward and see what God has planned!

Introducing S. D. Grimm and "Breathless"

S. D. Grimm is an  author and a good friend. In fact, she's a cousin of mine--specifically, one of my dad's first cousins. I am thrilled to host a fellow author on Living in the Light today. S. D. is sharing about her brand-new book, Breathless, and has even given us an excerpt to read! Check out her website at www.sdgrimm.com. Please give her a warm welcome here--and if you want to buy her book, get it HERE.

First of all, I want to thank Jaimie for being gracious enough to let me post on her blog today. I am so excited about the release of my novella, BREATHLESS.

What if one touch could unlock a thousand memories?

Eighteen year old Claire Summers has a rare gift she must keep secret, she's a Breather— someone who can see other people’s memories by touching an object they’ve touched. When she stumbles across a memory of her friend in danger, she'll do anything to help rescue him. The problem is, her secret will be revealed. If the wrong people find out about her ability, they’ll hunt her because Breathers are powerful weapons.

I started writing when I was … well I actually can’t remember not writing. It’s kinda my thing. I love fantasy—epic, urban, sword and sorcery, all of it—so that’s what I write.

The way I look at it, God blesses us with talents and makes us passionate about them so we’ll use our talents. You can learn more about me and what I’m writing on my website: www.sdgrimm.com.                                                  




Breathless is an urban fantasy. For those of you unfamiliar with whatever that is, it’s fantasy set in a city, sometimes it’s in the future, sometimes present. The story takes place in a few cities—Podunk towns actually. Yup, there’s a road trip involved, and it’s in this awesome, awesome ride.

Yeah, I know.

And for your reading pleasure, here’s an excerpt:

My shoes crushed the thick grass. Thunder rumbled in the distance. Damp, summer air swirled around me unable to cut through the heavy fog. Headstones, cracked and crooked, spread across the grassy hill. I’d been here before. My dreams often brought me to this cemetery. The full moon lit my way down a familiar path. Even though I was dreaming, I was chilly in my tank top and shorts. 

I headed toward the tallest headstone on the hill’s crest. No flowers or American flags decorated this soul’s final resting place. I reached out, like I had the other times I’d dreamed this, and I knew what to expect. Before I could touch the stone, my subconscious would pull me back and I’d wake on my bouncing bed feeling like I’d fallen from somewhere high. 

The rough stone was cool beneath my fingers. 

Three translucent figures walked away from me, passing through the untouched fog. Two men, one held a young boy’s hand, the other followed them. The boy looked so familiar. They walked through the headstones littering the hillside as if they were insubstantial, and then flickered out. 

My hand jerked back. A chill skittered across my chest and spread over my whole body leaving me with goose bumps. Heart racing, I willed myself to wake. 

I didn’t. 

My chest tightened. Was I dreaming or not?  Thunder rolled closer. I backed away from the creepy headstone and stepped on something slippery. Arms flailing, I lost my balance. I landed in the moist grass. Pain shot up my elbow as it connected with rock. 

“Back here. Quick.” The whisper turned my blood to ice. 

“I’m dreaming,” I said aloud since this was too freaky to be real. 

“Dream? No, sweetheart, you’re in a trance. Snap out of it or whatever it is you Breathers do.” 

The stranger’s voice rasped. 

I froze, watching him inch closer. Breather? What was he talking about? My head cleared like a fan turned on and blew the fog from my brain, and I realized my situation. I so wasn’t dreaming. 

This was real. This was real? 

I faced the stranger hiding behind a headstone and caught a glimpse of his rifle. Oh holy night.

What do you think? Does this sound like something you'd just love to read? I ABSOLUTELY want to-- you can get it HERE on Amazon!

FLASH SALE of Real Food for the Real Homemaker!

For only twenty-four hours (less than that now), Elsie, Jami and I are offering Real Food for the Real Homemaker for 50% off!! Happy Labor Day!

This is a fantastic deal. For less than $7, you get two copies of the book (a PDF and a copy for your Kindle), recipe cards with each recipe from the cookbook printed on them, and an Excel meal planner and list generator.

If you haven't gotten a copy of Real Food for the Real Homemaker yet, NOW is the time to do it! This price won't get any better, and it won't last.

The sale goes till midnight TONIGHT (PST). That's 2 am Tuesday morning for those of us in the Central Time zone.

If you're still torn, check out what some of our very happy customers have to say HERE on our Testimonials page. We pray that this cookbook will be a blessing to you--and we're excited to offer it at such a great discount! Don't miss it!

If you have any questions, feel free to comment or email me, or check out our FAQ page on the website.

I realize my blogging has been rather sporadic lately, and almost non-existent in the last week. We started our new semester a week ago, and life has been pretty crazy. I'm getting used to the new schedule and building up my stamina again-- summer was much more relaxing than this week has been! It's been great, though, and God is so good. We are blessed and thankful every day. However, that's no excuse to neglect writing, and especially no excuse to neglect my lovely and faithful readers. Please forgive me. I will do my best to get back to a normal writing schedule this week. I've missed it, and I've missed you!

Launching Real Food for the Real Homemaker!

Today is definitely the most exciting day of my blogging and writing career thus far--especially if you consider that it's been one of my dreams (since I was six years old!) to become a published author.

Today, that dream has come true.

I am thrilled to announce, along with my amazing co-writers Jami Balmet and Elsie Callender, the release and launch of our new book, Real Food for the Real Homemaker.

This book is a compilation of what the three of us have learned in our first few years of marriage about cooking, whole-foods eating, frugal grocery shopping, meal planning, entertaining, and so much more.

Not only are there nearly 80 recipes and over 60 photos to go with them, we've included 8 other chapters on some of the topics listed above, plus freezer cooking, our favorite and most-recommended kitchen tools, and more!

Our goal is to put in your hands the resource the three of us wish we'd had when we began homemaking.

We're offering a great deal for just this week. In about two days, the Kindle version of our book will be available on Amazon for $9.99. For a cookbook almost 200 pages long and packed with content, that's already a great deal!

But to celebrate the launch of the book, we're offering-- also for just $9.99-- all this:

• the PDF copy of the book
• the Kindle copy of the book
• a set of recipe cards with each recipe printed on a card
• an Excel spreadsheet that works as a meal planner and shopping-list generator (see below for details)

So this week, if you buy the PDF copy of the book from our website, you'll get for FREE the Kindle copy, the recipe cards, and the Excel spreadsheet.

Starting next week, that bundle of awesome products will be $12.95, so don't wait to take advantage of this!

We want to make this book affordable to you, because we know that budgets are often tight (as young married women, we understand!). But we want this resource to be easily available to other young homemakers like us, as well as experienced homemakers and singles. It's got something for everybody!

Check out the great things we're including with the copies of the cookbook:

Jami designed these beautiful, full-color, printable recipe cards--one for each recipe in the cookbook! I personally love being able to use recipe cards when I cook because they take up less space on the counter than a book, and they're easy to store. I will definitely be making use of these!

We want to make it as easy as possible for you to create a real food diet in your house while sticking to a budget! So Jami's husband, Jason, developed this menu planning and shopping list spreadsheet that works in Microsoft Excel.

Just pick whichever you want of our 75+ recipes from the cookbook from a drop down menu. Select the dates of your menu and viola! You have an instant grocery list that you can print off and take to the store – complete with an area for additional notes. I can't wait to start using this for my menu-planning: it's going to make that such a quicker and more pleasant task!

Get step by step instructions for using the shopping list in the FAQ section on the website.

For more information, to order the book, and to sign up for our mailing list so you can find out when the paperback copy of the cookbook releases (which should be in about two weeks!), visit our website, www.realfoodcookbooks.com. If you have any questions, feel free to ask in the comments section and I'll get back to you!

We are praising and thanking the Lord for the amazing blessing that this cookbook has been already to us, especially in the process of writing it and preparing it for you to use. I pray that this book will be a blessing to everyone who reads it!

Linking with The Better Mom, The Modest Mom, Exceptionalistic

Reflecting on the A to Z Challenge

Well, I made it!!  This was my first year doing the A to Z Challenge, and I jumped in the deep end right away--not only did I sign up for the challenge itself, I volunteered to be an Ambassador for the fantastic Arlee Bird, whose idea it was to begin the Challenge in the first place.

I'm glad I took this opportunity.  It was a lot of work, but it was worth it!  I planned out all my topics in March, but I didn't pre-write or schedule any of my posts.  I like writing every day, but since I only have a certain amount of time every day in which I can do my blogging, that meant I didn't have time to visit as many other blogs as I would have liked.  I feel bad about that, and that's something I would definitely change for next year (you bet I'm doing this again!).  April was a busy month for me in other ways, but I'm proud of the fact that I did keep up with my posts, generally having them published the night before.

I am following quite a few new blogs as a result of the Challenge, and I'm delighted to welcome new followers myself!  This event has been a blessing in that area, allowing me to get to know other bloggers, some of whom have interests similar to mine, and others who I would have never found if not for the Challenge.

In terms of how the administrators organized everything, I have no complaints.  It's a massive job to host such a huge link-up, but I think they did well.  Those many of us who helped patrol the link-up list did our best to make sure everything was running smoothly.  I think perhaps it might be helpful if there were even MORE of us ambassadors/minions/whatever-we-were next year, especially if the Challenge grows in popularity (which I sure hope it will!).

I think perhaps it might be beneficial to have a few separate link-up lists, divided by type of blog (personal, writing, cooking, photography, etc).  That would make the list a lot less overwhelming to navigate, and it would help bloggers find more easily the blogs they're interested in, versus just blogging the whole huge list.

I will definitely be doing the Challenge again.  I appreciated the fact that it required me to be disciplined with my blogging.  I enjoyed the community, and getting to know other bloggers.  I definitely appreciated the major boost in visitors it gave me this last month!  I also enjoyed the mental challenge of having to come up with a post topic for each letter of the alphabet.

There are a few things I'll be doing differently next year.  I will start visiting blogs in the days and weeks leading up to the Challenge, as they are added to the link-up list.  I will plan my posts six weeks in advance and start writing them four weeks in advance.  Then I'll spend my time each day visiting blogs and leaving comments instead of writing.  I hope to be an Ambassador again next year, too (just for future reference, Lee!), and I hope to do a better job of it next year.

Did you do the Challenge?  What did you think?  Head over to the A to Z blog and share your post!

Planning and Consistency

Do you like consistency?  I like consistency.  No, not as in texture, although that's a good thing too.  I mean a pattern, a regular schedule, something predictable.  Sometimes it's fun to stray from the pattern, but it's comfortable to keep to it.

I've been thinking about this for a little while, and I want to establish a pattern of sorts in my posts.  I like alliteration too, and I like sharing in others' good ideas, so this won't be entirely original, but I'm going to be posting on a (fairly) specific topic each day of the week.  Several of these correspond to themed link-ups that I like joining, but I won't do that every day.
Here's the plan:

Marriage Mondays (with The Alabaster Jar, and others)--posts having to do with my husband, our relationship, and/or my role as a wife
Click HERE for today's post!
Titus 2 Tuesdays (with Far Above Rubies, Time-Warp Wife, and others)--posts having to do with Godly womanhood
Into the Word Wednesdays (with Upward Not Inward, and others)--posts having to do with Scripture and our walk with Christ
Thankful Thursdays (with black tag diaries and others)--posts having to do with how God is awesome, and how thankful I am for who he is and what he does
Foodie Fridays--posts having to do with my experimenting and eating

I recently posted a poll on my Facebook page asking for feedback on what kind of posts my readers are interested in.  The most people asked that I write about marriage and homemaking.  Other topics--like Godly womanhood, cooking, and frugal living--fall under those.  I'll try to focus on those topics in particular, especially since they're the ones I have the most knowledge about.  If you haven't taken the poll yet, hop over to my Facebook page and do so, and click "Like" while you're there!

Finally, I'm excited to announce that I will be participating in the Blogging from A to Z April Challenge this year!  I heard about this massive blogging party a few months ago, and it's been simmering in the back of my mind a bit since then.  The premise is simple: every day in April, except Sundays, your blogging topic must start with a letter of the alphabet--A on April 1st, B on the 2nd, and so on.  Hundreds of bloggers participate in this, so I'm excited to get to know a lot of other people!  I don't intend that this will interfere with my weekly topic schedule.  In fact, I'm looking forward to finding topics that coincide with both things.  These next two months will be brainstorming and planning for that!

If you'd like to participate in the A to Z Challenge, just read all the instructions, follow the hosts' blogs, and sign up!


What kind of posts would you like to see the most on Living in the Light?  I want to write what YOU want to read, so talk to me!

My Purpose for Writing and for Life

I was inspired today to reevaluate my purpose and goals for this blog, and for my writing in general.  Why am I writing?  About what am I writing?  For whom am I writing?

Bottom line, I'm writing to honor and glorify God.  I am writing so that you can know my Jesus--the Son of God who is Lord of all.

And within that, I'm writing to encourage, build up, and inspire you--those for whom I write.

I want to write about a lot of things: homemaking, marriage, cooking, life.  But I want the good news of Jesus Christ to be the common thread that runs through all of that.  God is all-pervading in my life; he's the reason I am alive and he gives me purpose for life.  I want my blog to reflect that.

I'm writing for you, and I'm writing for Jesus.

Maybe that sounds kind of corny.  But in this little space on the internet, I have a voice, and I can use that voice to serve him: to praise him for who he is and what he has done, and to talk about the good news of his life, death, and resurrection.

I want to share a lot of things with you.  I'm thankful for each of my readers, and yes, I hope my readership will grow.  But I want that mostly so that I can tell all of you who read these words of mine, that Jesus loves you.

I want you to know that:  Jesus loves you.  So much.  So much that he, the Son of God, came to earth as a human, lived, and died, and rose again, for you.    He did this so you can have a relationship with him, have faith in him as your Lord and Savior, and spend eternity in heaven with him.

As a sinful person, I won't always accomplish what I set out to do on this blog.  I might focus more on myself than my God.  When that happens, I ask that you graciously look past my faults to the perfect God who, by his grace, I do my best to serve.

He has done everything for me, and he has done everything for you.  Please rest in the knowledge today that the Creator and King of the universe--loves--you.


Linking with:  The Fontenot Four, black tag diaries, There's Just One Mommy, Loved and Lovely

{Focus} On My Schedule

Most of my childhood, my days were fairly unstructured.  There were, of course, expectations for each day-make bed, do schoolwork, help around the house--but we were never on a rigid schedule.  That lasted through high school (one of the lovely benefits of homeschooling!), but college changed my lifestyle considerably.  Now I have to be in classes at specific times each day and I have a set work schedule.  This all changes every semester, so each semester we have to adjust our daily schedule at home a little.

I was talking to a friend yesterday, lamenting how we haven't been very productive over Christmas break simply because we have no schedule (although classes start again on Monday).  I realized that if I had given myself a schedule--not necessarily rigid, but at least some structure to a day--I could have gotten a lot more done over break.  So I've decided that, for this semester, I'm going to give myself a schedule for while I'm at home, not just at class and work.

I also want to make goals when it comes to housework.  I have a hard time getting caught up on housework once life gets busy with school and other commitments.  This semester I want to stay on top of the cleaning so it doesn't get out of hand.  I know that if I don't set small goals for myself I tend to get overwhelmed and don't feel like doing anything at all, so I'll do one or two easy cleaning jobs a day, and that way I know it will all get done.

My class schedule this semester is fairly easy; I don't start classes till noon on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.  My Tuesday/Thursday classes start at 8.  I want to get up at the same time every day, so I'll be getting up "early" on MWF and, ideally, have time to get a lot of things done those mornings.  Joshua has to be at class at the same time every day, 10:00.

An ideal morning for me this semester will look like this:
6:00 out of bed, get in shower
6:15 get dressed, do hair/makeup
6:30, get tea or coffee brewing, read my Bible at the kitchen table (this will give me incentive to get the kitchen all cleaned up before I go to bed)
7:00 start breakfast (I generally make quick breakfasts--oatmeal, eggs, or something I've prepared the night before).  On MWF I'll have time to make a bigger breakfast; probably on Tues/Thurs I'll eat by myself since Joshua doesn't have to leave as early as I do.
7:30 Tues/Thurs, get ready to leave for class.  I still plan on walking/biking a lot to school, even though we have the car now, but it's a 20-minute walk or a 10-minute bike, so that will give me time to get my backpack ready.
Mon/Wed/Fri: 7:30, write/publish a blog post.
8:30, pack lunch, finish tidying kitchen.
9:00, Wednesdays, get ready to leave (we'll go to chapel together on Wednesdays).
9:00, Mon/Fri, housecleaning and homework.
11:30, get ready to leave for class.

What I am NOT going to put into my schedule is any computer time other than blogging.  This weekend I'm planning on reorganizing my desk so I can put my computer away when I'm not using it, and thus cut down on the temptation to be on it so much.  I have plenty of free time during the day, when I'm already at school, to check email and Facebook.

The chores I want to accomplish weekly are:
-clean the bathroom
-clean the kitchen floor
-dust/declutter/vacuum the living room
-dust/declutter/vacuum the bedroom
-pick up/organize the closet

Daily chores will include getting the dishes all done and kitchen cleaned up, tidying my desk, and basic wiping down in the bathroom.

Monday mornings: bathroom, and kitchen floor
Tuesday afternoons (I'll get home around 4:15): pick up/organize the closet
Friday mornings: dust/declutter/vacuum living room and bedroom

This weekend I'm going to make a master chart with both of our daily schedules on it.  This will keep both of us on task, and that way we'll always know where the other one is going to be.

I'll keep you updated on how I do with this!  I'm excited and a little nervous, but I know how satisfying it will be if I can accomplish this.  My main reasons for setting this schedule for myself are so that I can {Focus} more on being in the Word, {Focus} on being a better homemaker, and {Focus} on using my time more productively.  I hope that this will also reduce my stress!

Please be praying for me and Joshua as we start this new semester!

I'm here, and I'm writing.

This is good.  Two days in a row.  No link-ups, but you know, I think that's a good thing.  A dip in pageviews will be good for me--a reminder to not let that affect me.  A reminder of the real reason why I write: not to get my words out to as many people as possible, but just to get them out there for the people who really care about what I have to say.

(Hint: if you're reading this, that's you.)

Today has been a much better day than yesterday.  It's 8:00, I have two hours before I'll be home (to my hubby, yay!) and I'm not exhausted yet.  This is a good sign.  I had supper with my best friend and her two sweet house-mates tonight.  Meatloaf, mashed potatoes and veggies.  SO good.  Best meatloaf I've had in a while.  (Thanks, K!)

Half a week in...I think I can handle this.  I know I can.  Philippians 4:13, for Pete's sake.  This week has been a wake-up call: I can't do life alone.  I really need Jesus.  Bible reading has got to become even more important, because I need the spiritual strength so much more.  I mean, I need it all the time, but you know what I mean.

Guess what.  I discovered something.  I like writing like this, unpolished, not really thought through ahead of time, just letting the words go out on the screen.  A journal for a lot of people, most of whom I don't know personally and probably never will (and that's okay).  There is, of course, a time and place for those posts that I spend more time thinking about, planning, wording carefully, writing to fit all the various link-ups I do in a day.  But I'm really loving this freedom, to just write about whatever, and not really care what anyone else thinks--or even if it gets read or not.  It was written.  That's what matters.

to keep on keepin' on

Today was the first day of school.
Technically, it's my senior year, but I have a year and a half to go and Joshua has two.  So we'll be "super-seniors," which isn't that big a deal...a lot of people follow the five-year plan.  Or four and a half, in my case.

We didn't get to bed nearly early enough last night, so that might contribute to my tiredness.  I'm exhausted.  It'll probably take a few days to get used to the school schedule again.  I don't have a massively busy schedule, but it's plenty.  Figuring in classes, work, homework, meal-making, cleaning, dishes, and time with friends and most importantly with Joshua...it's a little overwhelming.  But I know we'll get into a system, and I'll get used to it.  I always do. :)

So far I've only been to three of my eight classes.  Two of them are choir and handbells, which both are very familiar.  I have two new professors this semester, and I met both of them today.  I think this will be a good semester.  I'm looking forward to all my classes.  They will all be useful and interesting. :)

I want to keep blogging, and linking up, but I have a feeling that, at least for a while, blogging might have to take the back burner.  I know writing is really, really important, but did you see that list of everything I have to do every day?

Give me a couple weeks.  At the most, a month.  I'll keep writing as much as I can...but it might be a little less than usual in the next few weeks.  Bear with me.  Stick with me if you want to.  Keep your eyes open... I'll keep posting.  I'll be here.  I just might be a little scarce for a while. :)

Because this is important to me.  Writing.  Blogging.  Keeping up with this community.  I know I have an obligation to my readers, to keep on keepin' on.  I have even more of an obligation to myself.  This is important.

But I talk a lot about priorities...keeping first things first.  Blogging is an important thing, but it's not a first thing.  Not right now.  So it will happen--I hope fairly regularly--but I need to keep other things first: God.  My husband.  My friends.  School.  Work.

Thanks for sticking with me. :)

The Nine Most Influential Authors of My Childhood

I have loved books ever since I was very small.  My parents can take the credit for instilling that love in me.  Words on a page have always fascinated me; I've been reading since the age of four.  As I grew in confidence as a reader, I would devour almost any book I could get my hands on.  Luckily, my parents, knowing good literature, provided me with quality books that made a positive impact one me.

I have no idea how many books I've read in, well, seventeen years.  The authors below have been the most influential in my life up till this point, and I still love their books and read them often.
I won't give much information about each author themselves.  The names are all links to biographical information, and I've included links to some other interesting sites as well.  Fair warning--this is a long post!

Laura Ingalls Wilder  When I was small, playing dress-up was one of my favorite activities.  More often than not, I played I was Laura Ingalls Wilder.  Her books fed my imagination.  If I could have gone back in time, it would have been to visit Laura.  The stories she wrote are easy enough to read for small children, and fascinating enough for older ones.  She is a master at storytelling, detail, and bringing places and people to vivid life.  I grew up with Laura, and now I love reading the books about her teen years, courtship with the wonderful Almanzo, and early marriage (Little Town on the Prairie, These Happy Golden Years, and The First Four Years).  At the age of seven I had one of the greatest thrills of my life when I visited Laura's birthplace in Pepin, Wisconsin.  That was an experience I'll never forget!

Jane Austen  Thanks to high school literature (credit to my mother) and two beloved friends who were, well, rather obsessed with Jane in high school (Janan and Emily!), I finally watched the five-hour movie of Pride and Prejudice my freshman year and read the book not long after that.  I have since read it several times over, and I have also read Sense and Sensibility, Emma, and Persuasion.  Someday I'll get to Northanger Abbey and Mansfield Park.  I also own the more recent, shorter version of Pride and Prejudice, the movie with Matthew McFayden and Kiera Knightley, and Sense and Sensibility with Emma Thompson.  They're all great movies!

Jane Austen's books are absolutely timeless.  The themes are still as applicable today as they were when they were written.  They're lovely romances, hilarious comedies, and serious dramas, all rolled into one.  Not for the faint of heart, but most certainly for the romantic.  (More about Jane Austen on this website for fans.)

Jan Karon  Ms. Karon has written quite a few books in the last not-quite-two decades, most notably The Mitford Years, a series of nine books covering ten years in the life of an Episcopal priest, Father Tim Kavanagh.  I believe it was my paternal grandmother who introduced my mom and me to these books when I was in middle school, and I have loved them ever since.  They take place in a charming fictional village, Mitford, North Carolina (which is based on the real-life village of Blowing Rock), and the characters are all so real, so endearing, and so relatable.  Reading a Mitford book feels like going home.  Father Tim is a devoted Christian, and Jan includes many wonderful sermons, prayers, and Christian life, so the books are nourishing to the soul and faith as well as the mind.  She also writes about food a lot, which sparked the creation of the amazing Mitford Cookbook and Kitchen Reader.  My mom and grandmother both have copies, and someday I'll add it to my own collection.

C. S. Lewis  The Narnia books took me a little while to get into, but then my parents bought me a beautiful hardcover edition of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe with gorgeous full-cover illustrations and a ribbon bookmark.  I've read it so many times that the bookmark is well-frayed.  As I got older I read the rest of the books in the series.  Lion remains my favorite, but the last book, The Last Battle, is AMAZING because of so many Biblical references.  Now that I'm older I can appreciate the Biblical analogy much more than when I was little.  I remember watching the old BBC movies with friends when I was about six, and I really love the new movie versions as well.  Other books by Lewis, notably his Space Trilogy (starting with Out of the Silent Planet) have also been favorites.  His theological works are fantastic--I read The Screwtape Letters in high school.

Louisa May Alcott  Ah, Miss Alcott.  After studying more about the religious views of her and her father, I've approached her works with a little more caution (let's just say they were friends of Thoreau and the like), but Little Women had such an impact on my young girlhood.  I always identified most with Jo, but I wanted to be good, kind and obedient like Beth, and a hard worker like Meg and Jo both were.  The movie version of this, with Susan Sarandon playing Marmee, always delights and moves me.  Another book of Alcott's that inspired me greatly was Eight Cousins.  The main character, Rose, is a delightful young lady and such a good moral example--but still real enough to relate to.  The sequel to Eight Cousins is Rose in Bloom.  I also loved Little Men and Jo's Boys, sequels to Little Women.  (For more on L. M. Alcott, visit here.)

Corrie ten Boom  Her book The Hiding Place is still one of my favorites!  Not for the squeamish, it includes a fair bit of detail about life in the Nazi concentration camps of WWII.  And if you're wondering, I didn't read this for the first time till about eighth grade.  WWII has always fascinated me, especially stories about life on the home front in Europe and the US.  The Holocaust is also a really interesting, albeit heart-wrenching, aspect of WWII.  The most amazing and inspiring part of this book, however, is the faith that was exhibited by Corrie, her sister Betsie, and their entire family throughout the incredibly difficult circumstances they endured.  Reading this book taught me to be thankful in all circumstances, to have complete faith in God even when nothing is going right, and to stand up for what I believe in at all costs.  (More about Corrie and The Hiding Place here.)

Lucy Maud Montgomery  I have loved the Anne books for quite some time!  Like with Laura Ingalls Wilder, I feel like I've grown up with Anne, and my favorite books in the series now are the ones about her early marriage (except that Anne is fictional while Laura is not).  These books are funny, lively, touching, emotional, and real.  I always felt like I really knew all the characters.  It was fascinating to read through the series and see Anne grow from a little girl to a young woman.  Her friendships, her relationships with difficult people, her courtship, and her marriage all were realistic but also a good example.  Anne is a very pure-hearted character, and I think that's one of the things I really loved about her.  She wasn't too perfect by any means, but she was someone I looked up to in a way.  (More about L.M. Montgomery here.)

Lois Lowry  Books like The Giver and Number the Stars got worn out eventually because I read them so many times.  The Giver is absolutely fascinating, but weird.  I would recommend it, but I encourage parents to read it first before letting their children read it.  It's about a Utopian society, and includes elements like government-arranged marriage, euthanasia (once people are too old to be of use to the community, they are "Released"--killed) and what is basically post-birth abortion--if a baby is a twin (they can't have duplicates) the smaller one is "Released."  However, the book's redeeming quality is that it makes clear that this kind of society is wrong.  It's a really great story, and can encourage some fantastic discussion between parents and children.  As a youngster (again, didn't read this till at least middle school) some of the details kind of went over my head; I realize how serious it is now as a young adult.

Number the Stars is another WWII book that takes place in Europe (Denmark, to be exact), this one about a young Christian girl and her Jewish best friend who has to go into hiding.  It's a fast, easy read, but it's very historically accurate (for historical fiction), a fun and moving story, and historically fascinating.

Frances Hodgson Burnett  Burnett's two most famous books are The Secret Garden and The Little Princess.  Both of these were favorites of mine as a child.  Both are about a little girl born in India, and include elements of Hinduism that troubled me a bit when I was little (especially in The Secret Garden), but that is the only caution I have about them.  Mary in The Secret Garden is an orphaned little girl who has to learn to live and love.  A gruff old gardener, a boy full of life, and a mysterious cousin help her do both.  Sara in The Little Princess is motherless but beloved by her father--until, while at a boarding school in England, she receives news that her soldier father has been killed in the line of duty.  When circumstances in her life change drastically, she learns to rise above them, keeping sweet and humble and remembering that her father always told her she was a princess, no matter what.

Both these girls had something to teach me.  A person doesn't have to be defined by their situation--you define yourself.  And you can't hide from real life.  You have to face it, make the most of it, and learn from it.  There isn't a strong Christian message in either of these stories, but they are delightful and thoughtful books.  (More about Burnett and her books here.)


If you've stuck with me this far, congratulations!!  I could have written about so many other authors and books, but this is enough for now.  I hope that what I've written will be interesting, informative and useful for you and/or your children.

Talk with me: what were the most influential books and authors of your childhood?  Share in the comments!


Linking with: Your Thriving Family; Consider the Lilies; Susan Godfrey; finding joy

I'm Back!!

I just realized yesterday that it has been over a MONTH since I posted last.  That is a long time!  I have definitely missed blogging, and I think it is high time I quit playing Bejeweled Blitz on facebook so much and started writing more often.  However, this month has been a great chance to think about why I blog, and to get myself out of the rut of writing just for those higher numbers of page views.  It was also a month that I kept quiet about my personal and family life, and that was a good thing.  I didn't really intend to, but I see that I "gave up" blogging for Lent...and I'm okay with that.

That said, I have so much to share with you all about where I've been the last few weeks--spiritually, emotionally, mentally, and physically.  That outlines the posts I'll be writing in the next few days.

Spiritually:  What has God been teaching me?  How am I doing in my prayer/devotional life?  What ways can I encourage you?

Emotionally:  I'll focus on my marriage, and the ways we have grown as a couple, and I have as a wife, in the last month.  I'll also share some things I've learned about marriage that will, Lord willing, be helpful and challenging for you.

Mentally: What kind of other things have I been learning?  What's been on my mind?

Physically: What have I been doing for and with my body?  I'm going to use this post to focus especially on what I'm doing to enhance our physical lives, meaning, cooking and homemaking.

School will be out for us in just a few weeks--the first week of May.  I have several job applications to fill out and return, and I'm excited to see what the Lord has in store for both of us this summer.  Joshua already has a full-time job lined up working on campus with the Buildings and Grounds department--same thing he did last year.  I hope to work about half-time and spend the rest of the time focusing on honing my homemaking and wifely skills. :)  This morning I wrote out a list of my cleaning, organizing and home improvement goals for the spring and summer.  I'll share that with you, too.

For now, it's great to be back in the blogging world, and I'm looking forward to encouraging one another once again, as we seek to live in the light of Christ!

What it means to "live in the light"

When I started this blog, I wanted to come up with a title that would be timeless: something I wouldn't have to change, something that would always apply to me and my life and would cover everything I write about.

I mainly write about life, and I am a Christian, a believer in Jesus Christ.  Those two things shaped my blog title.

Matthew 5:14 and 16 says, "You are the light of the world...Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works and praise your Father in heaven."  This is Jesus speaking to his followers, encouraging them to let their "light" shine.

Jesus also describes himself as a light.  In John 8:12, he says, "I am the light of the world.  Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life."

At the beginning of his Gospel, John writes about Jesus, saying, "Through him (Jesus) all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.  In him was life, and that life was the light of men.  The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it."  (John 1:3-5)

This world is dark with sin.  Satan does his best to hide the light of Jesus: light that makes visible all the evil in the world, light that shines the way to Jesus, light that gives life.  When Jesus was born into this world, he brought light.  He brought life.  Through our baptisms, by the power of the Holy Spirit, we are able to shine his light also, like candles in a dark room.  We don't produce that light, but just as the moon reflects the light of the sun, so we reflect the light of the Son, Jesus.

That's what this blog is about: my life, living in the light of Christ.  I want his light to show me the way to live, and I want to reflect his light to the world around me.

It's only the light of Jesus that gives life.

Top Posts from January

This January has had more pageviews than any other month since I've started blogging!  I've also gained the most new followers this month than in any other.

This is partially due to lots of great link-up parties and working hard on getting my name out there.  However, it is mostly due to the lovely people who read and comment and care about me!  Thank you all. :)

If you've missed one of these most-viewed posts these month, they're all worth going back to read. :)

Loved by God, Just the Way I Am

Why am I in college?

His Mercies are New Every Morning


Our Engagement Story

The top commented posts from this month are:

Thankful for My Husband

What's Better than "Happily Ever After"?

From my writing blog

An amazing lady visited our writing class tonight.  She sang to us, spoke to us, and imparted so much wisdom.  Hope Dunbar is a singer, songwriter, pastor’s wife, and at-home mom.  Here is just some of what she said to us tonight (some of it’s paraphrased a bit).

• Go back and get inspiration from yourself.  Find what you’ve written that’s good and that’s not.  You should have comfort-food writing.
• It’s terribly private, and yet we’re just dying to be heard.  We have to walk this fine line between, it’s gotta be you, but there’s a point where it’s got to be heard.
• Mine your own work to find where you need to go next.
• There’s inspiration mode, and editor mode.  Don’t mix them.

{to read the rest of the post--more of Hope's incredibly wise and inspiring words--go here!}

Three New Poems

They can be found at my school/writing blog, Read. Write. Live.  It's been a while since I posted anything there, and these are poems I'm fairly pleased with.

{If you read them, please let me know what you think}

You know what's a blessing?

So many things are blessings today!

Twenty followers!  (One doesn't show up on the blog, just my owner's "dashboard.")  THANK YOU!

Comments and encouragement from new people, wonderful people, sisters in Christ.

Bloggy link-ups leading me to people I needed to find, words I needed to read.

Most amazing of all... the realization, while reading all these lovely people's words, how far-flung the family of believers is.  I'm reading the words of women all over the country--all over the world!--and they're going through the same struggles I am, they're encouraging me in the ways I need it most, they're looking and longing to serve God too.

What a wondrous thing this blogging community is!  Bringing together people from all backgrounds and walks of life--but with a shared, common faith.


All these people whom I'll probably never meet in this lifetime are people I'll be sharing eternity with.  How incredible IS that?!?

If you're reading this, please leave a link to your blog--only God knows who needs to read it today.  And visit at least one other person who commented, so that you can be a blessing to them as well!  I pray that God will make all of us a blessing to each other, as he uses our simple words to speak His glorious truth.

In His peace...

A poem on my other blog...

I mentioned I have a new blog for class.  Here it is: there's something there now. :)  If you read it, please let me know what you think!

http://wp.cune.org/jaimieramsey/2012/01/12/transparency-a-poem/

The Best of 2011: Favorite Posts

This was my first full year blogging.  I marked my one-year "bloggiversary" in October.  I feel like I have learned a lot about writing and blogging, and I definitely think I'm becoming a better writer.  In the next year I hope to continue to improve my skills and knowledge in both blogging and writing.

I have gotten to know some amazing people via their blogs this year.  I'm thankful for their encouragement, their humor, their insight, and their knowledge.  These fellow writers and sisters in the faith have been such a blessing to me.

So: without further ado, here are the posts that were the most popular this year!

Introducing: My Man!
This was one of my first posts with pictures.  Joshua and I were dating quite seriously by this past January, when this was posted.

A Married Woman: Pictures!
More photos.  These are a few from our wedding.

A Homemaker and Proud of It
Not a long post but one of the posts I'm most proud of. :)  This is something I'm very passionate about, and it is near and dear to my heart.

Fourth of July: Modeling!
I was rather surprised how popular this post became.  It was mostly just me having fun with a camera. :)

The Blessings of Six Weeks of Marriage
Most of my marriage-related posts were well-received.  I've learned so much about being married in the last seven months, and this was a great place to write about it.

A Work in Progress
This was a very soul-baring post.  I found a lot of metaphors for my spiritual life in my everyday life, and this was one of them.  God's been teaching me a lot about who I am in relation to who He is.

Reasons I am thankful for my friends
Our friends have played a huge role in our lives in the last year.  People we didn't think we had much in common with became some of our closest friends, and I got to know people better who hadn't been a big part of my life before.  Our friends have been such a blessing to us this year!

How my husband loves me, and, more of what I've learned about marriage.
My greatest (earthly) blessing in the last year has been my husband.  This was a post sharing more of what we've been learning.  Another rather transparent post.

Home for Christmas
I wrote this just a month ago!  It's been a very different Christmas than last year, now that I'm married and in my own home.

Most Commented Posts:
The Evolution of a Living Room

The Latest from My Kitchen

Cooking Like My Mom

Today :)

I'm Glad to be Me

Thankful Thursday


Enjoy reading any posts that you missed in the past year!  And many thanks to the lovely people who read, comment, and give welcome feedback on my blog and my writing.

Soli Deo Gloria!

Fiction Writing Website!!

One of the classes I took this semester was Fiction Writing.  Each student wrote three short stories in addition to several other smaller writing assignments.  I just turned my portfolio in today; it was so exciting to get that made and handed in!

A student in the class is an art major, and she designed a website to share one of each of our stories.  Our class also wrote notes to another class taught by the same professor, encouraging them in their writing.  She scanned those and they're all on the website as well, in our original handwriting.  (Mine she divided into two parts, and one of them is the "P.S." note at the very end! :) )

The story that I'm most proud of from this semester is the one that's on the site.  If you decide to read it, do let me know what you think. :)

Enjoy the loveliness of the site and the talents of the authors whose work it showcases!

Fiction Writing