Murder on the Rocks (A Lady Hardcastle Mystery #13)

Wow, life has been busy and the summer is flying by but I finally managed to finish Murder on the Rocks. This is book #13 in the series A Lady Hardcastle Mystery by T.T. Kinsey. Once again, Lady Hardcastle and her tiny servant, Florence Armstrong find themselves solving a murder during what is supposed to be a relaxing, spa weekend. J.B. McIntyre has invited both ladies to his latest business venture. The soon-to-open hotel is a renovated fort on an island off the Devonshire coast. 

Once again, author, T.E. Kinsey has written an entertaining cozy, murder mystery along with wonderful dialog between not on Lady H and Flo, but the many other characters in this story. And I loved all the additional characters, well except for one that gets murdered. 

The story kept me wondering "whodunit" throughout the story and just when I figured it out Kinsey delivers a twist. 

This series is my top 10 favorite cozy mystery series. Book 1 was my first foray into cozy mysteries after deciding that I needed a break from crime fiction. That was nearly 10 years ago and I've been happily reading my way through multiple series. 

For me, as a fan of this series, it comes in at 4.75/5. I'm a fan. I can't wait to read #14. It's set to publish in January 2027. This is a series I own on Kindle, but I just started buying paperback versions as well. 

I'm working on a page for the blog that shares all my favorites cozy mystery series, historical fiction series and other books that I thought were amazing. Stay tuned. 

Grace & peace, 

Betty

Saturday's Blooms

Just a few photos of my little mum and the petunias that continue to blow me away with how much they've grown in that pot.

 

Once I finished editing the petunias for the blog, I decided to play around a bit and create a different version. I'm in love with it. It may become a print for wall decor or I may print it to use in a decoupage project. I think it would look amazing on a faux pumpkin or a large tin I have in my craft stash. 

Short and sweet post today. 

Grace and peace, 

Betty

Using the Gifts God Gives

 

In the past several years, I’ve been asked numerous times, “What do you feel are your strongest gifts?” or “What gifts has God given you to use in serving Him?” In the last year, I’ve finally become comfortable answering questions like these.

My gifts are Giving and Hospitality.

They both come naturally to me. In fact, they come so naturally that God has shown me I need to moderate myself at times. Why? Because I can’t do all the things and be all the things, all the time.

The Lord has shown me that...

“No” is a complete sentence. I can’t control how others will react to me not “doing” all the time. That’s for God to handle.

Not trying to do everything allows others to step up and use their gifts. Many times, people think, “I’m not needed. They’ve always got it covered.” Backing off is perfectly fine.

Creating boundaries is a good thing. I’ve created boundaries around my personal time with Jesus, Bible study, prayer, and time with and for my husband and family.

It was also hard for me to learn to receive rather than give. Before becoming a member of my church, I attended monthly luncheons for those 60 and older. After becoming a member, I felt the Lord leading me to serve at those luncheons, too.

The difference is that I let the Lord lead me rather than jumping in simply because I could.

There are many ways to serve both inside and outside the church, but I’m learning to wait on God’s leading. Some things are what everyone calls common sense. I call those things being “led by the Holy Spirit.”

Lately, the Lord has been using me in ways I never anticipated, and oh man, what a blessing it’s been and continues to be. The coolest thing is that not a lot of people know I’m doing these things.

But Jesus does.

So, if you’re someone who is unsure what your gifts are, don’t stress about it. Pray and ask the Lord to show you. There may not be an “AHA!” moment. Your gift, or gifts, are probably found in things you already do naturally. You may recognize them by the way people respond to you or by what they say about you.

“Oh, she’s always willing to cook or bake something for events.”

“He’s always giving his time to this project or that one.”

“She’s a great listener and always willing to pray for people whenever they ask.”

Think about it. Pray on it. Praise God for it.

Your gifts are meant to flow through you as the Lord leads.

Crochet and Blogs

Crochet is something my mom and grandmom taught me. It's been with me since I was a kid, I taught myself to knit in my 50s and absolutely love it but I stopped doing both when arthritis in my hands and wrists made it a painful  hobby. After not picking up a crochet hook or knitting needles for more than 7 years I picked up a hook and crocheted washcloths for my nephew. 

I made them for him a decade ago which is a testament to how long handmade items can last! He asked if I'd make more because they're wearing out. He said he didn't mind what color I chose. Thankfully for him, this S'mores looking cotton yarn was on sale. 

After rummaging around for my original dishcloth patterns, I found a gritty stitch pattern on Ravelry and made two before switching to the lemon peel stitch pattern which is now my favorite for washcloths or dishcloths. It's easy, works up fast and provides a nice texture. 

 

I have two more to crochet then I'll block them and get them ready to deliver this weekend since we'll probably be playing cards together. Now that I've made these, I want to make more for my kitchen. Mine are getting a bit raggedy too and they're closer to 15 years old. 

The only complaint I have while making these is about the yarn. 

Sugar 'n Cream has been my go-to cotton yarn for years and years. Sadly, I noticed a huge difference in it when I received it. It's much thinner than it used to be. Fortunately it worked well for the washcloths. I checked around online and apparently Yarnspirations is discontinuing or phasing out the line altogether.

Looks like I'll be shopping for a new 100% cotton yarn in the coming months. Maybe I'll switch to a bamboo-cotton blend yarn. There's no rush to buy it right now because I have plenty of other projects to keep me busy. 

Since moving to a free blogging platform, I've been settling into a more consistent writing rhythm. One of the changes I've made is creating a separate home for my gaming adventures.

Where Grace Meets Her is where I write about faith and the everyday places God meets me, with books, photography, baking, crafts, and the ordinary moments of life. While gaming is certainly one of my hobbies, it never seemed to fit naturally alongside those posts. Rather than force it, I decided to give it a place of its own.

Not all gamers are Christians. Not all Christians are gamers. And let's be honest, not all grandmothers spend their evenings playing MMORPGs, ARPGs, or an embarrassing number of board and card games.

My sons are all grown now, and they still get amused by the stunned reactions from friends when they mention that their mom is a gamer. Apparently, it's not every day someone discovers that "Mama" spent years happily healing their pixelated backsides in PvP.

Rhekkit Gaming is where I'll share all the gaming adventures. 

Now it's time to end this post. 

Peace, 
B

When God Changes Your Rhythm

 

What a difference God's plan makes when we let Him do what only He can do in our lives. 

In 9 months He has moved me from one church to another. He has opened doors to new ministries where I can serve, and He has taught me that healthy boundaries are a gift.. The boundaries I've put into place protect dedicated time for prayer, Bible reading, my family, my church family, and the ministries God has entrusted to me.

My friend Kandiss described it perfectly: "There's no more noise."

That may be the best description I've heard. If you've experienced it, or are beginning to, you'll understand.

Several friends have gently reminded me to be careful of "new church burnout" and not take on too much. That's wise counsel, and something I wasn't nearly as aware of when I returned to church in 2023. But something changed. 

It's not wrong to prioritize time with Jesus, and time with family. Once I completely embraced God's priorities... He opened doors. As I learned to guard my time, God opened doors to volunteer with Jacob's Journey, and serve in new ways at church.

Last Sunday was my first opportunity to serve at the King's Heirs Luncheon...

I enjoyed attending 6 of them since coming to Calvary, but really felt the Lord calling me to serve, do dishes, clean up, and help in any way I can as well. It's such a wonderful time each month. Then, standing with the others as we finished dishes, I was part of the brainstorming for next month's menu. There was such a blessing being part of that conversation as we bounced ideas off each other and together came up with an easy, delicious menu. 

When I'm not at church, my days are spent reading my Bible, praying and taking care of this home, my husband and making my adult children feel that even though they're out there on their own, forging their lives, Mama is always there to chat, pray, encourage and tell them that Jesus loves them. They are my first ministry, my most important ministry. 

This new rhythm is peaceful, even when we encounter a bump because as I've said numerous times on this blog... 

God is always with me. 

Releasing the feeling that I always need to be productive has been life-changing. It has changed my attitude and reminded me that God never asked me to fill every moment with activity. He asked me to abide in Him. Healthy boundaries aren't selfish. They protect the time I give to the Lord and help me serve others from a place of peace instead of exhaustion. God wants our hearts before He wants our busyness, and when we keep our eyes fixed on Him, He faithfully strengthens us for whatever lies ahead.

The End of Me Was the Beginning of Grace

 

"Blessed are the poor in spirit."

The message of the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5–7) produces despair in those who haven't been born again of the Spirit. This is exactly what Jesus intends it to do. As long as we cling to the self-righteous idea that we can follow His teaching apart from Him, we will eventually discover that we cannot. God often allows us to come to the end of ourselves so that we will come to Him with empty hands, ready to receive His grace.

The bedrock of Jesus Christ's kingdom is poverty—not possessions or making a decision to follow Jesus Christ, but a sense of total futility, a knowledge that we can't even begin to follow God's teaching on our own. That is the entrance; that is when Jesus says, "Blessed are you." It does take us a long time to accept the fact that we are poor! The knowledge of our own poverty brings us to the moral frontier where Jesus Christ works.
— Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest

This is an excerpt from My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers. I've included two links below: one to the daily devotional on the official website and another to the book on Amazon if you'd like your own copy. I'm not an Amazon affiliate, so I receive nothing if you use either link.

Now, let's get to the heart of today's post.

Christians are often encouraged to share their testimony. Mine isn't a thirty-second elevator speech. It's a story with many chapters, and for the past three years I've struggled to figure out how to tell it without taking half an hour. Then, during my devotional time this morning, the answer became clear.

Everything that happened before April 2023 tells the story of God's protection and faithfulness through difficult seasons. But April 2023 marks the beginning of a different chapter.

My husband unexpectedly lost the job he had faithfully worked for seventeen years. Seventeen years of loyalty were over in an instant. While the financial uncertainty was frightening, what devastated me most wasn't the loss of the job, it was watching the man I love break down in tears. We've known each other for twenty-six years and have shared twenty-two of those as husband and wife. I had never seen him so broken, and I couldn't fix it.

That moment brought me to my knees.

I'd known about Jesus since I was a little girl. I went to church. I took my children to church. I believed the right things and would have confidently said, "Yes, I'm saved." But if I'm honest, Jesus often occupied the edges of my life rather than the center of it. I still wanted to be in control. It wasn't that I rejected Christ; it was that I hadn't fully surrendered every part of my life to Him. There is a difference between knowing about Jesus and learning to trust Him with everything.

Matthew 6:25–34 became more than familiar verses. They became an invitation to trust the One who promises to care for His children.

"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life..." (Matthew 6:25–34)

Those verses reminded me that my security had never been found in a paycheck, a retirement account, or carefully laid plans. My security has always been, and always will be, in God's faithful provision. Looking back, I believe the defining moment of my testimony wasn't when I could recite a date or point to a baptism certificate. Those were important milestones in my faith journey, but my testimony truly took shape the day I came before the Lord with nothing left to offer except complete surrender. That doesn't mean life suddenly became easy. It means I finally understood who was carrying me through it.

Following Christ doesn't remove trials. It changes how we walk through them. Instead of relying on my own strength, I now have the assurance of God's presence, His promises, and His faithfulness. People often ask what they would change if they could live life over again. Honestly, I don't think I would change the hardest seasons.

Without them, I don't believe I would know God as I do today. I wouldn't understand what it means to depend on Him completely. I wouldn't have learned that sometimes the greatest blessing comes when we finally realize we have nothing left to depend on but Christ. Perhaps that's exactly what Oswald Chambers meant when he wrote that the entrance into Christ's kingdom begins with knowing we are poor in spirit.

Sometimes God allows us to reach the end of ourselves so we can finally discover that He is more than enough.

Peace, 
B

New Old Platform. Same Quirky Me.

Welcome! The look of Where Grace Meets Her has changed but the content has not. I simply decided that the $300 I was spending to host my site on Squarespace should be used in a better way. So I moved the domain name to Blogger. Yup, it's a downgrade when you compare the two. Blogger is considered an entry level platform and Google doesn't show it any love these days. BUT, it's free and functional. I'm not a professional making money from my blog. I'm a grandmother that loves Jesus and the quiet, lovely life I'm able to live out each day. 

I purchased a theme for Blogger which gives me the blog entry grid look that I love and I'm happy that I did. As for the old content on Squarespace? Well, I'm taking the easy road and simply copying & pasting each post to this new blog home. It's going to look a bit wonky but it's what I'm doing instead of re-writing every entry. I managed to get half of them done today as I worked on the blog. For now, I'm off to do something else because I've spent enough time in front of this monitor, right after I cancel my subscription on Squarespace and start the process of moving the domain here. I'm praying that it all goes smoothly. 

Peace, 

B

When the Assignment Changes

 

Several weeks ago, after a wonderful lunch with a dear friend, I felt lead to offer to meet with her to read/study/discuss the Bible. So I extended the offer and she was open to it. Then things changed and it became a group of four women, from different churches with a written Bible study plan by Lisa Toney. Meeting one-on-one versus a group of women meeting and setting the topic for a Bible study. Both are wonderful things right? God is glorified and people grow in the Word. Yet the larger Bible study wasn’t what I was led to do but I pressed on as we met to set up a weekly schedule and I volunteered to purchase the leader copy of the study. My thought was that we could pass the book on each week and a new person could lead the following study. All the while I’m praying because something wasn’t sitting right in my spirit.

One of the hardest things to unlearn as a human when you choose to follow Jesus, is not acting on our feelings.

ACTING ON FEELINGS

• Begins with “I feel…”

• Changes with emotions or circumstances

• Often seeks relief, comfort, validation, or control

• Can by driven by fear, excitement, guilt or desire

• Frequently demands immediate action

• Leaves confusion when feelings shift

CHRIST-LED DISCERNMENT

• Begins with “Lord, what are You saying?”

• Remains steady even when emotions change.

• Seeks obedience, love, and God’s glory.

• Is rooted in Scripture and the Holy Spirit’s leading.

• Can wait patiently for God’s timing.

• Produces increasing peace, even if the path is difficult.

Discernment is the Holy Spirit helping us distinguish between what merely seems right and what actually is right. In this situation it meant asking the Lord if this was still what He was asking me to do. The result was moving on, dropping off the study book and believing that God will do great things for each of the ladies that continue on with the study. It’s very easy to get caught up in the feeling that “Oh no, things have changed, this isn’t what I wanted.” But it’s not about what we want. It’s about God’s plan and how He’ll execute it. Did God change His mind and pull me away from it? No.

God doesn’t change His mind.
But sometimes people change the assignment.

After much prayer and noticing that scheduling conflicts arose, I bowed out filled with peace. I’m reminded of the parable of the Sower in Matthew 13. Not directly about how seeds fall and which seeds grow, but in relation to us as sowers of Gospel. We step into what God calls us to do out of obedience, reverence and love. We may be used to share the Gospel with someone, but that doesn’t mean we’ll see the end of the story. Some sow, some water, some prune, some harvest. All Jesus wants us to do is be willing to go, to do and be joyful as we do it.

So I pray for the little Bible study and thank God for what He’ll do with it and for those 3 women. As for me and the one-on-one that didn’t happen?

Another one-on-one happened this week that blessed me immensely, but that’s a story for the next blog post. Stay tuned.

Peace,

B

There's Joy in the Storm

 

As I left church after today’s VBS session, it was pouring down rain, my head was pounding and that familiar scratchiness had settled into the back of my throat. “Oh no!” I thought, I’m probably coming down with something and I thought about all the people I interacted with that day. As I pulled into the garage, I sat in the car watching the rain fall. Part of me was worried for the people and kids I interacted with for a few hours. Part of me was sad because I was going to have to cancel Bible study with my niece-in-law…again. They’re leaving on vacation soon and I don’t want to spread any germs.

So I prayed.

I prayed for the children at VBS. I prayed for the teachers and helpers I'd been around all week. I asked the Lord to protect them from getting sick. Those kids have had such a wonderful week learning about Moses, singing songs, laughing, and hearing the Gospel. I didn't want anything to spoil that. I also told the Lord I was disappointed. I was looking forward to spending time in His Word with Jen, and I was sad that it would have to wait.

But as I prayed, I shifted to praise and a posture of thankfulness.

• I thanked God for making me part of His Kingdom.

• I thanked Him for allowing me to have a small role in Vacation Bible School.

• I thanked Him for a conversation with Pastor Tim about the simple joy of playing in the rain.

• I thanked Him for the sound of children joyfully singing praises to the Lord.

• I thanked Him for a church family whose greatest desire is simply to tell people about Jesus.

By the time I walked into the house, my circumstances hadn't changed. My head still hurt. My throat was still scratchy. The rain was still falling. But I was filled with joy. Joy that comes from praising God in the storm. And then God added one more little blessing that made me smile. My husband tucked me into bed with my Bible, a big jug of water... and a cupcake.

Honestly, that's a pretty wonderful prescription.

Sometimes God's goodness isn't found in dramatic miracles or mountaintop moments. Sometimes it's found in a quiet prayer in the garage, faithful people serving children, the comfort of His Word, a spouse's thoughtful kindness, and yes, even a cupcake. The headache and sore throat will eventually pass. I’ll trust the Lord to protect others from getting sick and through it all, I’ll be joyful because joy comes from the Lord and my God is always with me through the storm. God is good.

Peace,
B

Finished Reading: The Museum of Second Chances

 Amazon First Reads June 2026 Pick

Lovely story about Evelyn Silver and her quirky, little museum filled with discarded items. Some wash ashore and are found by Evelyn on her early morning walks. Others she’s found at jumble sales and thrift shops over the years. Evelyn believes that every forgotten or discarded thing has a story. Perhaps she feels this way because she too, was a foundling and she hopes to one day learn her beginning story.

This is a wonderfully written tale about self-discovery and how lives are intertwined in ways we never imagined. It was heartwarming. The characters are likable and well defined and the pacing is spot on. There were no sections where I felt I was trudging through. I enjoyed it a lot and I’m so glad I picked this as one of my free selections from Amazon First Reads. It’s not my usual genre but I was drawn to it nonetheless.

It earns a solid 4/5 from me.

Happy reading!
B

Happy 250th to the U.S.A.!

 

It was a very big deal to celebrate the country's Bicentennial in 1976. I was 14 years old but boy do I remember the hoopla. We even got into the celebration at school. I hope to be around for the 275th anniversary of this great country. Yeah, we have issues here and the climate of our country isn't the greatest right now. But we're here and the heart of this country remains true to the principles established at the birth of this nation. Americans. We're a mixed lot and there are good folks, many, many good folks that represent our nation well but the news agencies don't cover that. That kind of simple, quiet news doesn't earn clicks. It's all about big dramatic headlines that unfortunately draw even good folks into the inflammatory style journalism we see which only separates us. 

But here we are, 250 years later from the day we became a brand new nation. We've come a long way and my prayer is that we return to being united, closing the chasm that is created with the hype. 

This year, like last year, Hubby and I will be celebrating quietly at home doing what we enjoy most. Our sons all have the same plan. To relax, refresh and decompress on this well deserved weekend. 

I hope you have a wonderful weekend. It's going to be crazy hot this holiday so please stay safe and hydrated!