Two Book Reviews

Let me just start out by saying that I am not a gifted writer who can write enthralling book reviews but I do love books and reading and I also would love to help myself and my children to better memorize God's Word. So when Jenn at The Purposeful Mom offered to let readers have a free ebook in exchange for a book review on their blog, I jumped at the chance. Her ebook is called "Hiding God's Word in My Heart". Her book is an easy read, only 20 pages, not too overwhelming, with no incrimination if you aren't memorizing God's word with your children but with encouragement and help to jump in and get memorizing. Included in her book are instructions for using the book, ideas for teaching Scripture to baby on up, list of songs and other go-alongs for learning Scripture, specific songs for verses in "God's Word in My Heart" and printable memory verses. I like the ABC verses as that is where I am at with my Preschooler and soon-to-be Kindergartener. We also enjoyed starting the memory verse caterpillar that she mentions making, although we didn't get very far with it because a certain small person in our house tore some body parts off of it. Maybe we will try again once we start back to school. I also have older children at home and while this book didn't provide what I need to really help my older children, I do think it had some fun ideas for little guys and it is helpful that she has done the leg work for you in providing the verses and printables to make getting started very easy. Jenn has graciously offered to let me do a giveaway of a free copy of her book in which ever Bible version you prefer. Now I am not a big-time blogger so I don't really know much about doing a give-away but if you are interested, just leave me a comment and in a week or so I will do the old fashioned "pull the name out of a hat" version of a drawing. If you don't have little ones at home, feel free to enter so you can give your copy to a friend with littles or maybe grandchildren.

The second book I want to "review" isn't necessarily a review and I am not even finished reading it yet, but I am loving what I am reading so I wanted to let you all know about it. It is called " Three Decades of Fertility". It is written by 10 ( I believe) different ladies on how they chose to allow the Lord to be in control of their fertility and the struggles and blessings that have come with that. I have found it to be a very encouraging book in many ways. I have only read from three of the ladies so far but my favorite for now is Natalie Klejwa's testimony.  I love this bit from her:

                "The key to a healthy family and healthy relationships, I'm convinced, is humility . It is the willingness to admit sin, repent of it and ask for forgiveness. The families I know that practice this are just like every other family in that they sin against one another.  But they maintain emotional and relational health because the individual members grieve over their sin, saying they are sorry and asking for forgiveness.
                "The families that struggle are the ones that have difficulty admitting sin.  IF the parents are prideful and refuse to admit wrongdoing, blaming other family members or making excuses for the ways they hurt others, the family as a whole will suffer untold ways.  So let me be clear. Healthy families are not sinless.  All families sin and they do it everyday in numerous ways. We can make a difference for eternity by simply humbling ourselves before our family members and learning the art of saying sorry and asking forgiveness."

Anyway, I am far from being finished with the book but wanted to put in a plug for it if you are interested. You can find it HERE at the Visionary Womanhood website.

"100 Days of Blessing" book review

I don't get alot of time to read so when I read something great I want to share it with others. Recently I was able to go to an "Above Rubies" ladies retreat. While there I purchased a devotional book for wives and mothers called "100 Days of Blessing", by Nancy Campbell.

There are so many good daily readings but my favorite one so far is Day 42 called " Don't waste Brain Space". I would love to write out the whole devotional here but that probably isn't legal or feasible but here are a few of my favorite parts:

Casting ALL your care upon Him for He cares for you. 1 Peter 5:7
Many women spend most of their brain space worrying about this and that. What a waste! This space could be more profitably used to think positively. When we worry and think negatively, we do not help the situation.Worry makes the problem worse. Worry stifles creativity. You can't even see a way out of the problem when you worry. Worry strangles the effectiveness of God's Word in your life and makes you unproductive. Matthew 13:22 tells us that "the worries of this life" choke the Word and we become unfruitful.

God does not tell you to give some of your worries to Him. He tells you to give ALL your cares to Him. That means EVERY ONE. The big ones and the little ones.

If we spend all our brain space thinking about ourselves and insignificant things, we leave no room for God to bring to our mind the needs of others.

These are just a few passages of this days devotional and this one is just one of many wonderful daily devotions in this book. I would love to be able to purchase a boatload of these to hand out to all the wives and mothers I come in contact with.

If you are interested in this book or any others written by Mrs. Campbell, you can find them at www.aboverubies.org

Two new favorite books

Within the past few days days I have gotten two new books, well, one is borrowed from a friend but is certainly on my wishlist. The one on the top is a cookbook called "Healthy Choices". We try to eat healthy but we certainly love our sweets. Recently our oldest has been advised to avoid wheat for three weeks to see if he is allergic which has caused us to examine everything we eat. We haven't made cake mix cookies or brownies in almost two weeks. This cookbook has lots of healthy alternatives and lots of wheat free options. I loved that is also has some recipes in it for some homemade products like "aluminum free baking powder". We always buy the aluminum free kind but it is expensive for a little can and we do use it quite a bit so I am excited to give this recipe a try. I actually found this cookbook at the checkout stand at the grocery store. It was completely an impulse buy but I think it will definitely be worth it.

The second book, "Large Family Logistics" has lots of tips for being more organized at home. One of the suggestions is to order your week like the ladies of old did...Monday is laundry day, Tuesday is kitchen day, Wednesday is town day, Thursday is Office day, Friday is Cleaning Day, Saturday is Gardening Day and Sunday is the Lord's day. I really like that, I love orgaization and knowing what to expect. Of course, my week won't always work out so smoothly like that but it is something to shoot for anyway. Today was laundry day for us, which just means we keep the laundry going all day and make it our goal to actually get it put away instead of it going onto our "floordrobes". Laundry day doesn't mean we won't have more laundry to do throughout the week but the bulk of it will be done which will free up some time and some washer space for doing bedding and other things. This is such a practical book in lots of ways and I love practical things. I know the "Large Family Logistics" book can be found at www.visionforum.com but the cookbook might take some hunting online for. It is published by Keepers at Home magazine.

Books

A very original title I know. But I couldn't think of any other title that would fit what I am blogging about today.

I am a book worm. There is nothing I would rather do than sit down and read a book; but it has to be a good book mind you.

I prefer non-fiction over fiction, ever since I first learned how to read I preferred to read non-fiction. Of the late though, I have found some fiction books that I haven't been able to put down. The name of these intriguing books? Anything that Charles Dickens wrote. :)

A few months ago Mom checked out 'Bleak House' from the library. I had never read anything by Dickens before so I told myself I would read 'Bleak House' as my first. The book itself looks daunting; with 1018 pages, a different print than I am used to and they wrote things different back then. As hard as I tried I couldn't get past chapter one. So I gave up for the time being and began on 'A Christmas Carol'. Much, much easier. I've seen the movie lots of times so that helped and it was shorter. After I finished that I doggedly started on 'Bleak house'. In the end I skipped chapter one and started at chapter two. It quickly became the #1 favorite book of mine. Dickens had a true talent for words and making his readers see what was going on. I couldn't think of how to describe the book so I copied down what I found online.

Bleak House tells the story of the case of Jarndyce vs. Jarndyce in Chancery court. Bleak House is in England, the red tape of the law, the world in all its grime and glory. Here you will meet fascinating characters such as Esther Summerson the first person narrator of several chapters; Detective Bucket the first detective in English fiction; the grotesque Smallweed family; the street sweeper Jo and the comic Jellyby family. There are countless other characters, a complex plot and English prose written with verve and joy!

Esther Summerson is my favorite character, Mr. Skimpole is second. I highly recommend this book for anyone who likes to read!!

Along with 'Bleak House' I am also reading an auto-biography written by Dickens himself. It's been really good. And of course there's always Tennyson's poems to read. All three of us girls have been enjoying that.

About the pics. I have always liked the old-looking books over the new-looking ones. I couldn't resist taking these shots. Aren't they pretty? Well your probably asleep reading about a bunch of dusty books. Sorry! But hey, now you know what we like to read, right?

~B#2