Reading, Writing & Pondering

Martha Stewart's Slow Cooker is full of beautiful, colorful photos to accompany the 110 recipes in this book. Interestingly enough, Martha Stewart said she only recently started using a slow cooker and her mother didn't use one growing up. However, she said she has been impressed with the slow cookers she has tried out in recent years and now thinks of it as a "smart cooker." In the beginning of this book, she offers basic advice for using a slow cooker including the "Slow Cooker Commandments" and "How to Use a Slow Cooker" basics which include a few tips that I didn't know before. There are chapters on meat, poultry, seafood, meatless, side dishes, breakfast, sweets, and stocks and sauces. My family eats more chicken and meatless dishes than other meats Martha includes. As a result, recipes for Pho, Chicken Chili Tacos, Chicken with 20 cloves of garlic, Coq au Vin, Barley Risotto with Fresh Mushrooms, Ribollita (Italian vegetarian soup...

In a world that is full of selfies and people clamoring to be both heard and seen, it is hard to feel like one who is noticed, let alone actually seen. In Unseen by Sara Hagerty, she shares how we are seen by God even when it feels like we are not seen by anyone else. Unseen is Hagerty's intimate look at how God sees us and our productivity when we feel like we aren't doing anything valuable. We may feel we are wasting away somewhere but those may be the times we are reading His Word and drawing closer to Him. God wants to be our friend and to be friends we need to spend close time together. Weaving stories of her life and stories from Scripture, Hagerty shares how God sees us, how we can communicate with Him throughout the day, and how to hear His Voice more loudly among the sea of voices around us. Each chapter also invites readers to dig deeper into God's Word and read verses related to the chapter in a section called, For Your Continued Pursuit. I honestly felt e...

I have to state right up front that I LOVE a good journaling devotional. I like a book that helps me get my thoughts together, focus on God's word, and then think about how to apply it in my life. All in All Journaling Devotional by Sophie Hudson is the journaling devotional that can do all of those things. Hudson wrote this book to remind readers according to the back cover that "Jesus is the All in All--over all, through all, and in all that you do." All in All contains 100 devotions designed to better learn and understand the Bible all while living the best life you can with Jesus in every day. Each devotion starts with a relevant reading from Hudson that truly relates to life in today's world. Each reading is followed by four questions to answer or activities to do to help you relate each devotion to your own life. Then there is a larger space to write a prayer for each day. All in All was written primarily to young adult women, but I have to say, as a m...

Bringing Maggie Home is the latest novel from Kim Vogel Sawyer. I have read several of her books and this one ranks as one of her best books yet. Ten-year-old Hazel DeFord was picking blackberries with her 3 year old sister, Maggie, in 1943. She momentarily turned away from her sister and Maggie disappeared. Despite searching for many hours, no one found little Maggie. Years later, Hazel is haunted by guilt and anxiety from that awful incident. Her parents told her never  to talk about her sister again, so she didn't. Hazel married and raised a daughter, Margaret Diane. Her daughter has a daughter named Meghan. Meghan is in an traffic accident that forces her to take a 6 week leave of absence from her job and 3 generations of women find themselves all together. Together they uncover Hazel's secret. But can they solve this family mystery and find out what happened to Maggie? I genuinely enjoyed Bringing Maggie Home . Sawyer writes beautiful prose that keeps the reader t...

The Wellness Revelation by Alisa Keeton is more than just a book. It is a book, Bible study, work out program, and healthy-eating plan all rolled into one eight-week journey program. The Wellness Revelation starts with an introduction by with Keeton explaining how she got involved in fitness, how she turned her life over to Christ, and how readers can best use this book. The book could be used with a group, alone or with a trained Revelation Wellness instructor. Each of the eight weeks takes you on a journey of holistic fitness as you renew your mind, body and spirit to better serve God. Each week's study includes the chapter of explanation on the focus of the week, a Bible study, questions to relate to and to help you to better do the program, a prayer and a real-life story of how this program has made a difference to someone. In addition to all of the help and encouragement the book has to offer, there are additional helps available on the corresponding website on line. I ...

The Assault is the second installment in the Harbingers series. The series begins with The Invitation , where all of the characters (The Professor, Andi, Tank, Brenda and Daniel) are introduced as they work as a team to fight an unknown evil. Bill Myers, Frank Peretti, Angela Hunt, and Alton Gansky each write a novella within each book in the series. This book is every bit as exciting as the first installment. Bill Myers starts out with The Revealing. The team is in Rome at the Vatican searching for a mystical spear that Hitler once stole. As a side note, I looked up the history on this and found it all to be quite interesting along with this novella, which is based on some truth about the spear. Frank Peretti then tells about the Infestation--a microscopic plague that is spreading through the world to kill humankind.The team has to identify what this substance is, how it works, and try to figure out how to stop it. Angela Hunt writes about the Infiltration through the eyes o...

Reading my Bible and journaling at the same time helps me to process better what I am reading and allows me to use my creative side. The NIV Beautiful Word Coloring Large Print Bible allows all of those things to happen for me: reading my Bible, blank space to journal and pictures to color. Best of all, Large Print means this beautiful Bible is printed in a 10-point type size for easy readability. The Beautiful Word Large Print Coloring Bible measures about 9 3/4 by 7 3/4 inches.  The NIV Beautiful Word Bible is also done in a thicker white paper so artwork and journaling are less likely to bleed through. It also has a gorgeous floral fabric cover. Coloring Page with space on one page to journal or create your own picture and the other side with a coloring picture. Beautiful Full Spread Coloring Page in the NIV Beautiful Word Coloring Bible Three Large Print Journaling Bibles side by side: The Inspire Large Print Edition from Tyndale House Publishers in New L...