Tina The Storyteller

 Is greener grass the ultimate goal?

  Last fall, I ordered several seed packets that needed to be planted in the fall so they could experience winter. Sometimes people will start them in the fridge in the spring to simulate the cold. I figured I’d just plant and be done.  Spring was much colder than normal, even summer has has a few hot days but overall, it’s been cool. I have no idea if that’s why I haven’t seen any of the seeds I planted turn into flowers. If I currently had to guess, I’d assume the whole bunch didn’t make it. I planted Shasta daisies and black eyed Susan, bee balm (maybe?), and there were some zinnias in the area last year.  So far the only thing that’s resembled a flower are these miniature daisies that I’m pretty certain are wild considering there’s some in areas I definitely didn’t plant in.  You just never know with seeds. I’ll keep an eye on the space but I’m not thinking it’s going to happen this year. I’ll get more seeds and plant them, because you just never know.  I’m ...

  Have I introduced you to Sam? Samantha joined the crew last February. We had been looking for a puppy. Hannah wanted a dog, I was okay getting a puppy so it could grow up with the cats and we’d potentially have a happy fur crew. Puppies were hard to come by in the thick of the pandemic. One sunny February day, we decided to see if we could get a look at a set of puppies at the Humane society. By the time we were able to enter (only one adopter set allowed at a time), it was too late, they were all adopted. We decided to take a look at the dogs since we were there. Samantha was there in all her long haired glory. Joel says now the moment he saw her he knew she was our dog.  They brought her to a room for us to visit with her. She jumped on all of us. She was decidedly not a puppy in size. Joel said we’d take her, I almost objected.  Sam was heart worm positive.  Which meant in addition to integrating into our home, getting to know two cats, seeing if she could make ...

  I did this podcast right before Covid hit. I hope to do some more sharing on Genesis soon!

  View this post on Instagram A post shared by Christina D. Puntigam (@cdpunt) I thought it was a long road to write Mary's story. It felt like the years of not sitting down and just pondering it off and on almost made the story impossible. And now, here I am selling copies of her story and writing about characters I didn't even imagine until earlier this year.   I'm at the place in the story where I've written several chapters and there's a natural ending on the horizon. Instead of charging forward and writing that ending. Instead, I'm going back and reading the story all the way through as it's been written. I'm catching some typos and things like that but I'm also getting a better feel of if I actually like Chris's story or not.  Last night, after I had closed down my computer I wondered if this story was any good. And then I realized that if I didn't like it, if it was no good, then I could just toss all that has been ...

  The Path to Peace is Ann Swindell’s second published work. I did a review of her first book Still Waiting if you’d like to check that out, too.  The Path to Peace is a devotional that pairs biblical stories with Ann’s personal experiences to provide insight into how the stories may be at work in your life, too. Some of those stories include Sarah from Genesis, Hannah from 1 Samuel, and Paul from the New Testament.  I’ve always enjoyed Swindell’s retellings if scripture. She adds in historically accurate insights and often makes the voice of the scripture stories more in line with a reading of the Message than the standard English translations such as the NIV or ESV. Her personal stories were touching and thought provoking. Overall, it was a great devotional, perfect sized readings to start or end your day. As week as plenty of encouragement for our days.  I received a copy of this book for the purpose of review from NetGalley. I'm never required to give a positi...