Book Review – The Edge of the Divine, by Sandi Patty

In my high school years I was a fan of Sandi Patty’s music (I won’t tell you when that was, but let’s just say shoulder pads and big hair were in style), and have always appreciated the power of her voice to uplift my spirits.  So I was excited to have the opportunity to review her latest book – The Edge of the Divine: Where Possibility Meets God’s Faithfulness. 

I wasn’t sure what this book was about before I received it; I simply thought it was a sort of autobiography – what I had read on the publisher’s website was that it was written to be inspiration for women to trust God and live life on the “Edge of the Divine”.  So it was a bit of a surprise to learn that this is mainly the story of her journey to a healthier lifestyle after having lap band surgery to help her lose weight.  Regardless, I really enjoyed her insights and her conversational style of writing. 

Sandi Patty relates her story of how and why she learned to turn to food for comfort, and how she came to a point in her life where she decided to work towards a more healthy lifestyle.  Along the way she gained some wonderful insights about her relationship with God, and described with honesty the “edges” she reached in her personal life – points where she could choose to step over the edge and trust God or remain safely where she was despite being unhappy and unfulfilled.

I don’t agree with all the choices Sandi has made in her life, as told in this book, and many of the Scripture quotes using a modern and pretty casual interpretation (The Message by Eugene H. Peterson) annoyed me.  However, all in all, I really enjoyed the book, parts of which were really humorous.  I’m glad I read it and it did serve to make me more thoughtful about the relationships in my life.

Thank you to Thomas Nelson Publishers for sending me a complimentary copy of this book to review.

Dump Cake

       

Yum!  We made dump cake this week – I’d forgotten about this until I ran across the recipe when I was looking for something else.  (The something else was a good recipe for zucchini bread – if you have one, please share it in the comments!)

This is such a simple dessert to bake, M was able to do almost all of it when he was only 2 years old!  My 9” x 13” pan is missing (I think it’s in the shed being used for an oil change pan – yuck!), so we used a slightly larger baking dish.  The fruit didn’t quite cover the bottom like it should, but if you use the correct size pan it should be just fine.

Ingredients:

• 20 oz. can of crushed pineapple
• 14 oz. can of cherry pie filling
• 1 yellow cake mix
• 3/4 Cup of butter or margarine

First, grease your pan.

Then dump the crushed pineapple in and spread it around the bottom.

Dump the cherry pie filling in and spread it over the pineapple (we ended up just mixing our fruit together to cover the bottom of our dish). 

Next, sprinkle the cake mix on top of the fruit.  Use the entire mix, and smooth it out with a spoon as much as possible.

Then slice your butter and lay it on top of the cake mix, evenly, trying to cover as much of it as possible.

Bake in a 350 degree oven for 45 minutes. 

Try not to eat the entire delicious thing in one sitting. ;)

***NOTE***Previously when we made this, instead of slicing the butter and placing it on top of the cake mix, I melted the butter in the microwave, then mixed it into the cake mix in a separate bowl until all the cake mix was moistened and crumbly.  Then we sprinkled it on top of the fruit.  It was less time consuming than slicing all that butter AND we ended up using less butter that way.  I only remembered this after I had half the butter already sliced! 

Have a beautiful day! :)