Sweet Olive Book Review

Sweet Olive

By Judy Christie  

Zondervan Publisher

Sweet Olive is about a tough, independent woman working in the oil business and wrestling with a moral dilemma when the residents of Sweet Olive, Louisiana are reluctant to sign over their land rights.  

Camille Gardner wants to be fair and generous with the landowners, but she also wants to get it done and get out of town.  With no interest in settling down in a small town, Camille is surprised to find herself drawn to the landowners, to their small town sense of community and especially to the handsome attorney representing the landowners.

In the charming community of Sweet Olive, Camille finds her tough exterior refined and her faith revived from a painful past.  Camille navigates the fine line between humanity and big business without minimizing her career and goes on to find love in unexpected places.

Sweet Olive is a great book.  I’m thrilled to find Christian fiction that is current and well written.  The characters brought the book to life and I enjoyed every minute of it.

Sweet Olive is available in print or electronic format.

Disclosure:  The product in this review was given free of charge. My opinions are my honest, tried-and-true views and were not influenced by any source. I was not compensated monetarily to advertise this campaign.

One Faux Pas Away from Becoming a Meme

Every time you step out your front door, you are just one faux pas away from becoming a meme.

The old school risk of doing something embarrassing only to have the mean girls giggle around the lockers the next day has become a much larger risk.  Over a billion cameras in mobile phones and tablets were shipped in 2012.  2013 will surpass that by far.  It takes a literal minute to snap a photo and put it on the Internet for the entire world to view.  It takes just a few minutes more to upload it to a Meme Generator and slap a snarky remark on it.

The natural next step is hands free photography.

Google's Glass, a wearable camera designed for the public and currently in test mode, should be released in 2014.  Glass is developed to operate via voice commands, head movements and taps on a control panel.

 
Imagine the apps that will be developed for this -- apps that provide travel and historical information about your view, birding apps (Tom!), horticulture info., and yes the inevitable, face recognition apps, which will be great for Aunt Bertha with her dementia.

After app development for Glass, legislation for privacy protection is going to have to come into the picture.   Face recognition could be very damaging in the wrong hands..... creepers, stalkers, abusive husbands. 

Mark Zuckerberg has claimed that privacy is no longer a social norm.  How do you feel about that?

USC Walk for Babies, March of Dimes, Columbia SC

Our team participated in the USC March for Babies today and raised nearly $500.  Thank you to all of you who supported us.  We appreciate your support very much.

In South Carolina, on average, 159 babies each week are born too soon.  Premature babies spend many weeks, sometimes months in the NICU.  Many have life long health and developmental consequences, many regain good health, and sadly, some do not survive.

The March of Dimes' March for Babies raises funds for research to increase the health and well being of premature babies.  University of South Carolina's walk today was a student-led 2.5 mile walk fundraiser for the March of Dimes.  The students did an excellent job with this first time effort.

March For Babies Columbia, SC

The March of Dimes March for Babies will be in Columbia, SC on Sunday, November 17, 2013.

I am walking on a team in memory of my third grandchild, Braden.  I, and my family, are not big on fund raising.  We have never pushed hard to collect money or ask people for funds.  I believe there's adequate information online for people to choose what charities to support and I like to let them make their choices without my advice.

Having said that, I want to let my readers know that this walk is coming up.

The mission of March of Dimes is to improve the health of babies by preventing birth defects, premature birth, and infant mortality.

There are many ways to support the March for Babies.  If you want to sponsor me, visit My Page to make your donation.  If you've lost a baby, you can share your story.

Thank you for your support of whatever charity you support. We are a generous nation.

Best Potato Soup Recipe

You might remember this.  Jackie's Potato Soup.  It's finally cold enough to start making it again, so I thought I'd share the recipe with you and give you a good kick in the butt on it.

Find Recipe Here
Find Us Enjoying Recipe Here