Did I mention that I love to read? I LOVE TO READ. Growing up I would enter the house and see my Dad reading a book or magazine 90% of the time. I used to think that was all he ever did. He is a very bright man and maybe because he read so much he gained a reservoir of knowledge about many things. I must have inherited his love for reading. I used to go to the little Cowley library every week for new books. I would get lost in the Nancy Drew mysteries, Mary Poppins books and anything else that looked like a fun place to escape to for a while. I still like mysteries and fun books but the last couple of weeks I have read two books which really had an impact on my life. One is "Left to Tell" about the holocaust in Rwanda. I can't say I enjoyed reading it. It was more like I felt I needed to read it to understand life in other parts of the world better. It is about a woman's struggle to live through an African holocaust nightmare and yet keep an unwavering faith in God even as she witnessed the death of all her family members except one brother. The other book was given to to me by my daughter-in-law Kee and is a story about one woman's connection to her great grandmother. She studied her grandmother's life and wrote about her homesteading adventure in Eastern Montana. It is called "Hattie Big Sky." It details the struggles, hardships and fun times trying to establish a homestead near Wolf Point. I am so glad that I live at this time in the world and in this wonderful country. I am a strong woman in many ways, but I know I wouldn't have made it in pioneer times because of the extreme deprivation and challenges of the weather, ( I like mine temperatures to be 60 to 80 degrees) or can I even imagine losing those that I love so much. I am a much more grateful person these days because of the messages in these books.