Reading, Writing & Pondering

100 Days of Thanks from Thomas Nelson is a simply gorgeous reflective gratitude journal. This beautiful book is designed to help you take time away from your busy schedule, to sit and to reflect on what is important in life and what you are grateful for. As you would expect, there are 100 readings in 100 Days of Thanks . Each reading has a Scripture verse, a short written piece to reflect on the Scripture as it relates to your life, and a question to help reader's reflect on what they are grateful for in their own life. Throughout the book there are many beautiful soft photographs and illustrations that add a real richness to this little book. 100 Days of Thanks would make a great gift for almost anyone. It would also be a nice book to buy for your self and to go through for 100 days. It is small in size (4.7 x 8.2 inches) so would be easy to stick in a purse or backpack to carry along and use wherever you want to. I also like that it has a ribbon marker sewn in to keep yo...

Chameleons can change their colors. In All the Colors That I See by Pamela Kennedy, little ones can follow the sneaky chameleon around and learn all their favorite colors. All The Colors That I See has a fun verse with a little something for the toddlers to do when they look at each page for all the colors--red, green, yellow, blue, and more--in this cute board book. The book measures a little over six inches square. It is the perfect size for little hands to use on their own and it is a fun book to use together as the children learn to find items of matching colors on each of the pages. All The Colors That I See helps make learning colors fun--and it reminds toddlers that each color comes from God. Children can follow the chameleon to learn each color so there is a consistency among the brightly illustrated pages. I also like that there is an activity that the kids can do with each color. The book is fun to read and helps children learn in a fun way. I would recommend this ...

Candy Apple Blessings celebrates many people's favorite season of Fall. This book would be great fun for preschoolers in the upcoming Fall season with it's catchy rhymes and cheery illustrations. What young child doesn't love to pick out a fall pumpkin or help to make and eat candied apples? This board book, generously sized at almost 8 inches square with sturdy pages for little fingers, is full of fun, catchy rhymes to celebrate the fall season. Candy Apples Blessings is a fun book to read to little ones. While it isn't yet fall, I can see where this book would be fun to read with your family all season as it talks about and illustrates the fun activities of corn mazes, decorating for Fall, Fall festivals, going back to school, dressing warmer for Fall with scarves and eating fall goodies. I would recommend it to anyone with little ones who like to read together. The rhymes are all fun and catchy and the illustrations boldly show the fall seasonal pictures to h...

Alicen McCaffrey is living the good life according to her mother, Betty. She has a beautiful house, a successful husband and a beautiful daughter named Jane. Unfortunately, that all changes with a tragedy that Alicen feels responsible for. . .and it doesn't take Alicen long to hit the lowest point of her life. Feeling a change of scenery would do her good, Alicen accompanies her friend, Louise, back to Red Lodge, Montana, where they spent summers together as children. Once in Red Lodge, Alicen tries to relax and hopes that she can see life differently there. Then she starts to hear voices and sees mysterious figures. Are they real? Or are they a figment of her imagination? When Through Deep Waters is different from anything else that I have ever read. As a whole, I enjoyed Dekker's writing style. I haven't read any of her previous books, but this book flew along fairly quickly for me.I read most of the book in one day. There is a battle between good and evil, san...

Every day we get up and we often take life for granted, just living life the best we can without thought to how God wants us to live to be healthy. Living Fit: Make Your Life Count by Pursuing a Healthy You by Ronnie Floyd is written for the Christian who wants to live healthy in all areas of their life. Living Fit focuses on five elements of a healthy life and the book is divided into five sections of four chapters each. They include Living Fit Spiritually, Physically, Relationally, Financially and Emotionally. In each section, Floyd expounds on how to live your best Christian life in each area through the use of Scripture and life examples. I think Living Fit would be a great book for a new Christian. In this book, Floyd gives a lot of advice on living life from the Christian perspective. Floyd is senior pastor of Cross Church in Northwest Arkansas. As a result of his view as a pastor, I think this book is quite heavy on living the Christian life spiritually and less heavy...

I am probably one of the few people who did not know who Rory and Joey Feek were before I read, This Life I Live last year. However, I enjoyed Rory's tender, thoughtful writing and then listened to their music several times since then. When I saw Rory had a new book out, Once Upon a Farm , I was anxious to see how he, Indiana and his girls were doing. Once Upon a Farm is book of random essays. I expected the book to be mainly about life after Joey passing away and fathering their daughter Indiana, who is in the cover photo with Rory. However, they seemed much more random to me and the book sort of jumps around from one subject to another in the short chapter essays. The good part of that is that you can set the book down and read short chapters whenever you get time. I enjoyed Once Upon a Farm as a whole. Rory is a thoughtful person and writer and I can relate to that as I have been told I am a deep thinker myself. However, because of the randomness and the wandering eleme...

With so many older people getting some form of dementia, many of us are concerned about brain health as we age. The Aging Brain by Timothy R. Jennings, MD offers a lot of good information on taking care of our bodies and, ultimately, our brains as we age to give ourselves the best chance at a life without a memory loss disease. Dr. Jennings starts out The Aging Brain by sharing how dementia is personal to his family as he has watched his mother-in-law deal with Alzheimer's disease over the past few years and has seen his wife's concern that she may also face that challenge. Dr. Jennings then shows readers ways that the disease can begin, then progress and many ways to fight off the disease. The Aging Brain is divided into four sections: History and Aging, Oxidative Stress and Aging, Lifestyle and Aging and Pathological Aging. Each section contains several chapters of  solid scientific advice and information that Dr Jennings has collected. I especially like that each ...

The Song of Sadie Sparrow is the story of three women from three different generations and how they meet through The Hickories nursing home. We read about Sadie, an 86-year-old widow whose daughter is too busy to come and see her. Even so, she makes new friends with the staff and other residents and settles in just fine. She also learns about the Christian life through a young Bible teacher who visits the home. Meg Vogel is a recent widow at just 58. She decides to make a career change after her husband passes away from cancer and takes a job at The Hickories writing the biographies of the residents. Elise Chapelle is a younger woman at 32 and single. She quit her job as a teacher to care for her beloved grandfather, who now lives at The Hickories. The Song of Sadie Sparrow is told from the viewpoints of these three women a they interact with each other at the nursing home throughout the story. The book is a pleasant read overall, rather sweet and tender, especially if yo...