Reading, Writing & Pondering

  http://tinyurl.com/czta6g8 Helping Hands at Home by Lorrie Flem is all about teaching your kids to clean the kitchen and bathroom. . .Yes, really, you can get the kids to help you clean. This e-book offers step-by-step instructions on how to teach  children to clean--and help yourself in the process. It gives advice on starting with very small children and working with them to be a real mom's helper. I thought that the encouraging helps were good--especially the reminder to keep my voice happy and cheerful as I was working with my son. I think it takes more patience to teach the children to do it than to do it yourself, but the payoffs of having the help are definitely worth it in the end. I think having a good attitude about it helps the kids "catch" that attitude. I think that was one of the most important things I really needed to learn from this book. I have worked as a "cleaning lady" with a friend who cleans professionally while she had breast cancer...

Last fall, I did a Bible study on-line through Melissa Taylor featuring Lysa Terkeurst's book, Unglued. Life has been messy for me the past few months with lots of changes and added stress. As a result, I was feeling emotionally frayed. The Unglued book did offer great ideas and encouragement to help me learn to not let my emotions rule and to roll better with the stress in my life. Even if you don't have big stresses right now, this book helps readers know how to healthfully process the feelings that come from times when others irritate us or criticize us--and most of us bump into "those" people, at least occasionally. Instead of stuffing or exploding, Lysa helps us make progress towards handling difficult situations better. Lysa's latest book, Unglued Devotional, is another tool that I, and other readers, can now use to help reign in emotional reactions. Each devotion includes a daily opening Scripture, Thought for the Day, devotional reading, and closing ...

Desperate: Hope for the Mom Who Needs to Breathe by Sarah Mae and Sally Clarkson is a book that I wish I had when I started out as a mom. I appreciate these ladies sharing from their heart about some of the challenges that they faced as well as the joys of mothering. In one chapter of the book, the ladies share some advice on which "voices" to listen to as you are learning to parent. . .Their voices are ones to listen to, speaking words of encouragement to this mom. Sarah Mae and Sally Clarkson have been to the edge and back. Desperate is the story of one young mother’s trials and one experienced mentor’s priceless exhortations. I like how this book offers each mother's view and experience without telling you how it MUST be done. . .I know I have had a lot of advice from other moms that meant well but left me feeling like I just couldn't do it "right.". These moms share from their hearts their thoughts on parenting, keeping house, listening to thos...