Sadly, our Blogiversary party must come to an end. Thank you to everyone who helped make this celebration bright by leaving comments and liking posts!
Here are the names of this week’s winners of a “Power of Prayer” journal set:
Bethany Griggs
Shannon Sims
Ruthann Fernandez
Bethany, you’ll receive a Facebook DM. Please reply with your full name and mailing address so we can send your item out right away.
Shannon and Ruthann, you’ll receive an email from Isabella Alden. Please reply with your full name and mailing address, and your item will be on its way ASAP!
Congratulations, everyone!
This post is part of our 10-Year Blogiversary Celebration! Join us every weekday in September for a fun drawing, giveaway, or free read!
In 1893, when Isabella’s books were at the height of their popularity, a newspaper article about her mentioned that if forced to choose one word to describe Isabella’s work, that word would be “Help.”
The writer of the article made a very insightful observation. Typically, the main characters in Isabella’s books were, indeed, helpers. No doubt Isabella made them so as a reflection of her own belief that every effort counts. In her stories, no contribution was too small, and no effort was too little, as long as her characters did their best and made the most of what God had given them.
Today’s free read reflects that theme, when Mrs. Burns (one of the story’s main characters) asks the question, “How can I turn a small donation to help missions into a large and meaningful contribution?”
When Mrs. Burns is given a five-cent budget with which to help the cause of church missions, she can’t believe her ears. Five cents! What could she possibly accomplish with a small, insignificant nickel?
But with God’s help and a little imagination, Mrs. Burns soon discovers that her five-cent investment can accomplish great things.
Or you can select BookFunnel’s “My Computer” option to receive an email with a version you can read, print, and share with friends.
Reader Tip: As you read the story, be on the look-out for one of Isabella’s most beloved characters from The Chautauqua Girls series to make a brief “cameo” appearance!
This post is part of our 10-Year Blogiversary Celebration! Join us every weekday in September for another fun drawing, giveaway or free read!
Isabella was a strong believer in the power of prayer. She once wrote:
Prayer is the pulse of the renewed soul; and the constancy of its beat is the test and measure of the spiritual life.
One of Isabella Alden’s talents was creating characters who discovered for themselves the power of prayer in their lives. Some of her characters turned to prayer in times of trouble or to heal a loved one of illness; other characters spoke to God as naturally and as often as they would speak to a close friend or family member.
As wealthy Miss Mary Brown discovered in The Browns at Mount Hermon:
“I would give—oh, what would I not give!—to be able to talk to God as those girls did this afternoon, with the assurance which they evidently had that he heard and cared!”
In her own life Isabella knew the power of prayer. It was through the prayers of her sister Marcia that Isabella chose Christ as her Saviour (read more about that here).
As a busy author and public speaker, Isabella began each day with prayer “to ask God’s help and blessing on the work to be done.” (You can read about that here.)
And in her journal she regularly wrote down prayer requests, notes about sermons, favorite Bible verses, and lessons learned.
The Giveaway:
We’re giving away three “Power of Prayer” journal packages to readers of Isabella’s blog!
Each package includes a lovely prayer journal with . . .
. . . a daily two-page spread that includes a verse of Scripture, space to record your meditations and prayers, and a generous area to reflect on God’s goodness.
The set also includes a coordinating sticker pack to help inspire your quiet moments of reflection.
To enter the drawing, just leave a comment below or on Isabella’s Facebook page no later than midnight (EDT) on Thursday, September 28.
The three winners will be announced on Friday, September 29. Good luck!
This post is part of our 10-Year Blogiversary Celebration! Join us every weekday in September for a fun drawing, giveaway, or Free Read!
If you’ve read Isabella’s novel The Little Card, you’ll remember that Teenie Burnside used her artistic talents to draw and embellish a little card on which she had written one of the Bible’s Golden Texts. Teenie hoped that by sharing the cards she could encourage someone to read God’s Word.
But when Teenie’s health prevented her from fulfilling that dream, the girls in her Sunday-school stepped in and began to make more cards. Some were exact copies of the one Teenie made; others were embellished and colored with paint. But no matter their design, the cards all included a Bible verse of God’s promises to us.
Today’s giveaway is a collection of ten Golden Text Bible verses you can color and embellish, just as Teenie and her friends did.
It’s been a busy week for giveaways here on Isabella’s blog! Thank you to everyone who left a comment to enter one of the drawings. Without further ado, here are this week’s winners:
Winners of a Grace Livingston Hill Cookbook:
Judy Pringle
Marie Schlabach
Tammy Teapot Brown
Winners of a “Yesterday Framed in Today” paperback:
MrsSmithCreations
Micah Day
Karen L. Landin
Winners of a “Let Your Light Shine” card pack:
Rebekah A. Morris
CutePolarBear
Barbara Powers
Tammy, Micah, Karen, and Barbara, you’ll receive a Facebook DM. Please reply with your full name and mailing address so we can send your item out right away.
Judy, Marie, MrsSmithCreations, Rebekah, and CutePolarBear, you’ll receive an email from Isabella Alden. Please reply with your full name and mailing address, and your item will be on its way ASAP!
Congratulations, everyone!
This post is part of our 10-Year Blogiversary Celebration! Join us every weekday in September for a fun drawing, giveaway, or free read!
“I declare!” said teenager Mate Kent to her best friend Jessie Wells. “Won’t you be kind enough to tell me what is the matter with you? Do you know you are growing very queer and strange? Now, make a clean breast of it, and tell me what on earth is the trouble.”
“I’m ashamed,” burst forth Jessie, vehemently, “that is the trouble. Mate, you and I have been professors of religion for four years, and who would know it, unless they happened to come to church on Communion Sabbaths? What have we ever either of us done for Christ? How have we been different from everybody else? No wonder the other girls think I’m a hypocrite. I almost begin to think so myself. It’s all wrong, Mate. The Bible says, ‘Let your light shine before men;’ but I’m sure you and I don’t seem to have any to shine.”
Mate was silent from utter amazement. Scarcely anything could have astonished her more than this sudden outburst from Jessie. She did not speak another word, nor did Jessie, until they reached the latter’s gate. Then Jessie suddenly turned toward her and said, in a voice choked with feeling:
“Mate, let us begin at the beginning, and try again.”
And that’s exactly what Jessie did in Isabella’s novel Jessie Wells.
Book cover for Jessie Wells by Isabella Alden.
As soon as Jessie got to her bedroom she opened her Bible, and her eye immediately met these words:
“I have loved thee with an everlasting love; therefore, with loving kindness, have I drawn thee.”
Those blessed words of assurance renewed Jessie’s conviction to let her light shine for Christ from that moment on.
The Giveaway:
We’re giving away “Let Your Light Shine” card sets to three readers of Isabella’s blog!
Each set includes 50 beautifully illustrated cards, each with a Bible verse to inspire you or someone you love to let your light shine.
Use the cards in your daily devotions, share them with others as a message of encouragement, or carry them with you as a helpful way to memorize Scripture.
To enter the drawing, just leave a comment below or on Isabella’s Facebook page no later than midnight (EDT) tonight, September 21.
The three winners will be announced on Friday, September 22. Good luck!
If you haven’t yet read Isabella’s novel Jessie Wells, click here to go to Amazon.com where you can purchase an e-book version for only 99 cents!
This post is part of our 10-Year Blogiversary Celebration! Join us every weekday in September for a fun drawing, giveaway, or free read!
What would you do if a man—a stranger—walked into your town and claimed to be the Son of God? Would you believe him?
And what if he could heal the sick and perform astonishing miracles? Would you give up your life to follow him?
That’s the premise of Isabella’s 1898 novel Yesterday Framed in Today: How would you react if God’s Son came to your home town today?
The new stranger in town is David Holman’s last hope. An old injury has confined David to bed for years; but David has heard rumors about a stranger in town—a stranger who can perform miracles and heal the sick. If David can only get close to him, he’s certain the stranger will heal him, too. But David’s family doesn’t trust the stranger, and they search for logical explanations for the miracles they see. Is it possible the stranger truly is the Son of God? Or is he the evil enemy of man, who must be stopped at all costs?
The Giveaway:
We’re giving away three paperback copies of Isabella’s thought-provoking novel Yesterday Framedin Today.
To enter the drawing, just leave a comment below or on Isabella’s Facebook page no later than midnight (EDT) on Thursday, September 21. (Unfortunately, we can only mail books to readers who live in the United States.)
The three winners will be announced on Friday, September 22. Good luck!
This post is part of our 10-Year Blogiversary Celebration! Join us every weekday in September for a fun drawing, giveaway, or Free Read!
Isabella Alden and Theodosia Foster were not just best friends—they were writing partners, too.
Like Isabella, Theodosia was a prolific writer, and published her work under the pen name “Faye Huntington.”
When they got together to write a story, their styles were so similar, and they were so in tune with each other’s talents, it’s impossible for us to tell which of them wrote what chapter or scene.
Today’s free read is a novel they wrote together about the love of money and how it can change (or reveal) someone’s true colors.
Lawrence Brenholz always knew he would inherit his grandfather’s millions once he satisfied the provisions of the will. But on the eve of that momentous day, when all the Brenholz millions would be his, Lawrence’s ornery old Uncle Amos—long thought to have died in the wilds of Colorado—makes a shocking appearance that threatens Lawrence’s inheritance.
With Uncle Amos’ unreasonable demands disrupting every area of his life, how can Lawrence ever again find peace for himself and those he loves?
“And you think the Lord gives attention to such little details as how long a potato should cook?” asked Ruth earnestly.
“Why, yes, dear,” answered the mother, “if you put a matter, even a little matter, into the Lord’s hands to guide you, and trust that He will, of course, He will.”
—Chapter 7, The Substitute Guest
Oh, those wonderful meals! The ones that make you want to put down the book and head straight for the kitchen! In Grace Livingston Hill’s novels, the magnificent aroma of home cooking fills the air in boarding house and humble home, alike. Quite often, they have a mission all their own.
Grace Livingston Hill did more writing than cooking, but she knew her way around a kitchen and you can tell. Her heroines could put together a full meal at a moment’s notice, pull a hearty lunch out of thin air with the aid of a jar of beef-extract, a can of baked beans, and another of tomatoes or they could single-handedly extinguish flaming pork chops in the midst of buying a tiny house!
If they couldn’t manage it themselves, they could always depend on someone like Aunt Hannah or Molly Poppleton to create a feast that was unforgettable. Then afterward, the dishes were marshaled into the kitchen sink, carefully washed and left to dry (scientifically, of course!) and the buckwheat cakes were set for tomorrow’s breakfast.
As an avid reader of all things Grace Livingston Hill and Pansy, I was fascinated by their detailed descriptions of home life. I could just imagine myself snowed in with my family and welcoming The Substitute Guest into our home and hearth. Just one catch—our home was an apartment and our hearth was an electric stove! Nevertheless, I was determined to somehow recreate that wholesome fare for my own family!
I chanced upon my very first vintage cookbook, a 1931 copy of The Settlement Cookbook, at a quaint roadside stand and began looking for recipes that would have been served on the tables of Grace’s characters. Many more would follow! I wanted to learn how to really cook, instead of relying on cans and boxes and take out.
Apple pie, gingerbread and sugary doughnuts seemed to be simple enough, to be served with a great pitcher of milk or amber coffee. But buckwheat cakes always fascinated me. They appear on nearly a dozen different GLH tables, often paired with sausage and real maple syrup. I had questions.
What exactly is a buckwheat and where do you get one? And what about hubbard squash? I love the name, but no one around here has even heard of it! Flannel cakes? Raspberry vinegar? Caraway Seed Cookies? I wanted to try them all!
Sometimes I had a hard time deciphering the vintage instructions in that little gem of a cookbook. Sometimes there weren’t any—just a list of ingredients! Sometimes I got them very wrong—like the first night I “set my buckwheats” and woke up to an explosion of batter everywhere in the kitchen! Or finally finding someone who knew what a hubbard squash was and actually had one for sale, but not telling us how to open the ugly, gray thing. We had to use a miter saw!!
That’s a photo of my first hubbard squash! I included the recipe on page 50 of the GLH cookbook, or you can download it by clicking here.
I was suddenly adventuring into the books in a way I’d never done before and I loved it!.
“But, wouldn’t it be nice to have all of those recipes in one cookbook?”
I definitely wasn’t alone. Flash back to the early days of the internet. The GLHill Yahoo Group had lots of great email discussions about the more mysterious foods that Grace’s characters enjoyed. Things like Junket (hurried up with a second tablet) or aspic (made to match the dining room) or the dreaded…tongue and peaches! What were these strange things? And could we make those, too?
A few dozen of us set out to catalog the food in all of the GLH books. I was sure this would be a quick project and a cookbook would soon appear. It certainly seemed like a lot of of those favorite foods were repeated. Except they weren’t. There were hundreds of foods, many of them appearing in only one book. This wasn’t looking good. Putting together a single cookbook on my own suddenly seemed like a herculean task.
Smaller seemed like a better approach, so I eventually decided to focus on just the holiday books and asked for help from the online family again. From Thanksgiving with the Lorrimers in The Christmas Bride to that snowed-in Christmas with The Substitute Guest, we tried to cover the festive meals from all of our favorites, right down to the maple-sugar hearts tucked into the stockings in Star of Wonder!
Tea Rolls, from a handwritten recipe left inside a vintage cookbook. Translation is on page 26 in the GLH Cookbook.
A lot of time went into pairing up menus and recipes. It was truly a labor of love. Members of our original group and many more we met along the way on social media served as “test chefs” or did proofreading. There were even a few “family secret” recipes shared for the cookbook. It was a delight to put together and it was meant solely for our GLH groups to enjoy. Much to my surprise, it’s been discovered by hundreds more kindred readers around the world!
Have you always wanted to taste those memories from yesterday? You can join in on the holiday fun, too. The Grace Livingston Hill Cookbook, Volume 1: Vintage Recipes from the Holiday Books is available at Amazon in paperback or Kindle versions, or you can purchase a personalized, signed copy by reaching out by email at stories@gracelivingstonhill.com. And by the way, there’s a GLH Christmas story tucked into the back of the cookbook that you’ve probably never read. It’s called The Half of a Christmas and it’s my gift to everyone with a copy of the cookbook.
Original illustration from The Half of a Christmas in “Our Sunday Afternoon” December 18, 1891
The Giveaway:
We’re giving away three paperback copies of The Grace Livingston Hill Cookbook, Volume 1 by Daena Creel.
In addition to recipes, this charming book is filled with vintage ads, menus from Grace’s different novels, and delightful illustrations.
To enter the drawing, just leave a comment below or on Isabella’s Facebook page no later than midnight (EDT) on Thursday, September 21.
The three winners will be announced on Friday, September 22. Good luck!
If you’d like to purchase your own copy of Daena’s book, click on the link below to go to Amazon.com:
You can learn more about Grace Livingston Hill’s life and books by visiting Daena’s website at GraceLivingstonHill.com.
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Isabella Alden 