I have a brand new giveaway on my Facebook page, and this one is a little bit different! Not only are we including a little surprise piece of knitting made by each of us, but instead of asking for Facebook follows, we’re asking those who enter the giveaway to follow us on Amazon. This giveaway with with the lovely Vannetta Chapman. She’s a big favorite Amish author who I’m sure needs no introduction for Amish fans, and you have a chance to win her newest upcoming release!
Do you follow any of your favorite authors on Amazon? I didn’t even know about it until recently, but it’s so handy! You get an email when they have new releases, and you’re kept up to date in a very unobtrusive way. I’m a new fan of the system. 🙂
So drop by Facebook and let me know that you’ve followed me and Vannetta Chapman on Amazon, and you’re entered to win! Easy as that!
I just love when I get that email telling me I have a new cover, and this one did not disappoint! WIFE ON HIS DOORSTEP releases June 2021. June is a busy month this year–I have a few releases!
But this story is a special one, about an estranged wife who comes back to her husband’s home for just a couple of weeks… just long enough to wonder if there might be a way for them to live together after all.
A visitor he never expected… Can the differences that drove them apart…
ignite a love to make her stay?
When Miriam Lapp arrives unannounced at her estranged husband’s house, she has no intention of staying. But she can’t walk away when Amos’s ailing grandmother needs a woman’s support. She’ll help temporarily, then leave to start her own Amish business. But spending time together makes Miriam and Amos question their past mistakes. Can a once mismatched couple find love ten years later?
As you might know by now, I absolutely adore dollhouse miniatures, and the newest addition to my little collection is a complete set of 1:12 chess. It’s so cute!
It has all the pieces, and the stand is metal, and it has a magnetized surface so that the pieces stick to it, which is a huge relief, because you don’t want to lose a piece that small! It would be next to impossible to find again, and I would probably cry.
My son and I tried a game of tweezer chess, and it IS a playable board!
It’s the perfect addition to my little book nook reading room I have set up, and I couldn’t love it more!
These are the teeny tiny things that make me ever so happy! I am endlessly entertained with miniatures, when I’m not writing books, that is. 😉
I do hope you’ll pick up a copy of my newest release that’s still on the shelves! A Precious Christmas Gift won’t be on the shelves for much longer, so pick it up now, while you can! It’s an emotional Christmas read about a mother’s love. ❤
And after this… I suppose you’ll just have to grab a copy online! 🙂
The Johns family Christmas tree is the kind that is filled with memories. I don’t do color coordination or anything fancy, but every year we buy a new ornament or two that reflects the year before.
This year, I found a couple of new ornaments that I just love! The first one is for my husband–an avocado. He loves avocados, and I bring them home as a treat for him when I grocery shop, so I got a smile out of him when I came home with this one.
The Star Trek shuttle craft is one I found a couple of years ago, and I snapped it up. I’m the Trekkie of the family, still doing my best to win my husband over to Star Trek fandom. It’s been fifteen years, but I haven’t give up yet. 😉
For my son, I found a Minecraft figurine. I was informed when I brought it home that it was cute, and he did like Minecraft a lot LAST year, but this year it was Roblox. So… oops.
And peeking out behind the Minecraft pig is Spiderman from a couple of years ago. 🙂
I love having ornaments that remind us of the things we enjoyed over the years. One of these Christmases, my son will be all grown up, and Mr. Johns and I will be a little plumper and a little grayer, and these will be even more precious.
I am just thrilled to let you know that I’m on the Publishers Weekly Bestseller’s list again! This time it’s for A PRECIOUS CHRISTMAS GIFT, and it came in at #15!
I couldn’t be happier. My author buddy, Jocelyn McClay, was the one who let me know. What would I do without good friends? 🙂
There it is–the proof! With my fellow Love Inspired author Emma Miller coming in at #16.
If you haven’t picked up your copy yet, definitely do! It’s on the shelves everywhere Harlequins are sold, so grab yours! 🙂 You can also pick it up online, if you’re laying low these days. This story is guaranteed to make you cry… but don’t worry, it all comes out well in the end. That’s a romance novel guarantee.
For the longest time, I wanted a wreath for our front door, but spending $100 per wreath, per season, just seemed so expensive. And then there the was the question of where you’d store all those wreaths when not in use! So I didn’t get around to it.
But then I visited a craft store, and realized that if you get a grapevine wreath and decorate it differently each season, you can do it at a fraction of the price! Plus, you don’t have to store 4-5 wreaths in your home–it’s the just the one on the door, and you swap out the decorations on it.
So I present to you, our Christmas wreath!
The leaves are leftover from the fall decoration, and I liked them, so I kept them. And I added in the red berries and pinecones.
I like it! It makes the apartment feel so much more welcoming… to no one but the Amazon delivery people and Mr. Johns, but still… It’s the thought, right?
So if you’ve ever pined for a wreath, this is an economic/storage-friendly way to do it!
I hope you are all staying safe and healthy this holiday season. Take care of each other out there! ❤
There are two big giveaways going on right now that you NEED to know about!
Number One:
The first is being handled by Kensington Books on Goodreads! This one is only lasting for two weeks, so you’ll want to make sure you enter soon. They’re giving away 100 free Kindle copies of THE PREACHER’S SON! This is my newest release that hits the shelves in February, so you’ll be able to find it in bookstores, Walmarts and Targets. This is the first book in THE INFAMOUS AMISH miniseries, and so far it’s getting fabulous reviews!
I’m holding a giveaway on my author page on Facebook, as well. This is for three books, including an ARC for THE PREACHER’S SON! This also included my current release, A PRECIOUS CHRISTMAS GIFT which is on the shelves now, anywhere Harlequins are sold. I’m also including a fantastic read by UK author, Clare Revell. If you haven’t discovered her yet, you want to!
Cabbage rolls are the kind of food that doesn’t have an official recipe. And I’ll stand by that! Every family has their own version of cabbage rolls, because every family likes something a little bit different.
For example, my cabbage rolls are vegetarian. (Gasp!) My Russian Mennonite ancestors just rolled over in their graves. 😉 But my parents raised me vegetarian, so my dad made his without meat. And they were delicious! Mine are like his, but different because I have allergies now that I didn’t have before. So we tweak them for our family’s taste.
It all starts with boiled a head of cabbage.
You boil until the leaves come off the cabbage head, and aren’t too soft, because you need to use the leaves to wrap up your filling.
The filling is a mix of things you like! Some people do ground beef with rice and spices, and a very few others, like me, do a vegetarian mix.
My filling uses:
rice
spinach
blended chick peas
garlic
diced onion
salt
oil
paprika
lemon juice (just as dash)
Then you wrap a large spoonful of filling in a boiled cabbage leaf, and put it in a pan. You put tomato sauce on top, and bake the life out of it for about 1.5 hours. I also add a layer of cabbage leaves on top, just to make sure that the actual cabbage rolls stay moist and don’t burn.
And there you go!
Cabbage rolls!
My family loves them, and since we can’t have my parents over to eat because of Covid, I made these so that I could bring them some cabbage rolls, too. They are a lot of work, so they’re a treat.
So, for those of you who have cabbage rolls in their family repertoire, what do you use in your filling? Cabbage roll filling tells so much about a family! 🙂
As you may know, I have a “thing” for dollhouse miniatures, and recently, I started a modest little collection. I’m outfitting a single little room–a small study. Well, I got my latest addition to the room, and I couldn’t be more excited to share it with you all!
It’s a radiator!
I had the choice of buying this radiator or a fireplace, and while the fireplace was the obvious choice, I just couldn’t get my mind off the radiator. I mean, who has a dollhouse radiator? It was too cool to pass up!
Don’t you just want to drag that chair over and stick your socked feet up on that radiator to keep them toasty while you read?
These are the things that make me excited these days! I’ve told myself that I can’t get a whole dollhouse because I just don’t have the space, but I’m steadily working my way toward it, I have to say. 😉
This is my stress release, and I hope you’re finding your own ways to relax, too. Maybe my books are a part of that…
My newest release, A Precious Christmas Gift, is on the shelves now, and I do hope you’ll pick it up when you spot it!
A Precious Christmas Gift is my thirtieth book published with Harlequin Books! I hadn’t realized the big 3-0 had crept up on me, and it was an author friend of mine who saw the milestones email from Harlequin and congratulated me.
What a great feeling! Harlequin is an amazing publisher to work with. They produce quality books and they are just a pleasure to work with. My fellow authors who publish with them are an amazing group of professionals, and I’m honoured to be in their ranks. I have more books coming with Harlequin and with Kensington Books, and I’m looking forward to what the future holds. 🙂
A Precious Christmas Gift is hitting the shelves next week, and I can’t wait to start spotting it on the shelves! That really never gets old, I have to say! Every single time, I stop and stare at it, take a selfie with it… It’s the best feeling!
I hope you’ll pick up a copy when you spot it. Or better yet, I hope you pre-order a copy!
Don’t forget to pop by my Facebook page and give it a “like” if you’re interested in winning copies of my books paired up with other authors’ books as well. 🙂 We have a lot of fun over there–it’s worth it!
