Reading, Writing & Pondering

    It’s   time to start a project that will grow a grateful heart.  The Weekly Gratitude Project  is a 52-week guided gratitude journal that offers a life-changing journey through reflection prompts and inviting questions to guide you into a deeper relationship with God. This yearly gratitude journal features beautifully illustrated journaling pages that will help you discover more intimacy and joy in your spiritual life. The Weekly Gratitude Project  is: Perfect for a beginner in faith and practicing gratitude, but strong and thought provoking enough for someone who already has a solid foundation An easy-to-use journaling format designed to help you focus on adding more gratefulness into your day A helpful companion for individual worship, Bible studies, and small groups Each week includes: A biblical theme to focus on A short but impactful Bible verse to help you reflect and meditate Inspirational insight to guide your thoughts and jumpstart y...

  Crazy Joy: Finding Wild Happiness in a World That's Upside Down by Mary Katherine Backstrom is a fun collection of Backstrom's insights and experiences related to finding joy within our life and circumstances. Crazy Joy begins with Backstrom introducting herself and a bit about who she is and why she wrote this book. Right off the bat, she tells the reader about her challenges and how she has chosen to see better things in the midst of them many times. Throughout the book, Backstrom invites readers to be who God created them to be and not to live life to meet other people's expectations. She encourages people to see their strengths and not to compare themselves with other people in real life or on social media. Most of all, she encourages readers to find the joy in the midst of all the messes in life.  Crazy Joy is refreshing in that Backstrom is honest and up front about who she is. I like that she is that way. She invites readers to be themselves and to love themselv...

  Any Time Any Place Any Prayer: We Can Talk with God by Laura Wifler is a simple but effective teaching book for toddlers. It is 16 pages long with simple easy wording for young children. It roughly measures about  6 inches by 7 1/2 inches--which is a smaller size for young children to hold on their own and turn the thick cardboard pages. This book has pictures--with various people in them--of all skin colors  as well as differing abilities. I especially like how inclusive this book is. Truly we can all pray. No matter how old we are. I like how this book simplifies prayer and makes it clear that it is important to talk to God. To tell him thank you. To tell him you  need help. And to say, sorry to God for mistakes made. . .Among other prayers.  All in all, Any Time Any Place, Any Prayer: We can Talk with God is a brightly illustrated board book that would be great to use in most Christian families with little ones. I received a copy of this book from the pub...

Are you a fan of horses? By the Way of the Moonlight by Elizabeth Musser ties together a love of horses through generations along with other family history and struggles to weave a fascinating dual timeline story. Allie Massey is a physical therapist with a dream of making her grandparents' estate into an equine therapy center. Her grandmother, Nana Dale, embraced Allie's dream and promised her that it would happen for her one day after she passed away. However, to Allie's shock and utter disbelief, when the will is read, things have changed and the land is sold to a developer.  Allie is tasked with cleaning out Nana's house within three weeks before the house is knocked over. During that time, she reflects on her life and we learn more of Nana Dale's history. Can Allie's dreams stay alive through this crisis?  I'm not a real fan of horses but I enjoyed By the Way of the Moonlight. If you love horses, I imagine the book would be even better for you. However,...

    You Can Shine So Bright by Jinger and Jeremy Vuolo is a brightly illustrated 32-page children's book aimed at children ages four to seven. This book has a dust jacket and measures about 9.75 by 9.35 inches--a great size for a read-aloud with your family or smaller Sunday School class, as well as a good size for children to read and look at on their own. You Can Shine so Bright is most definitely a Christian children's book as it is based on Galations 5:22-23 which is about the Fruits of the Spirit. The book talks about each "fruit" and ways to apply it in our world today. I love that the illustrations are inclusive of children of various colors as well as abilities. It does lean a bit towards "Jesus is meek and mild" message, but it also offers a lot of good things that children could do in our world today. At the back of the book is a one-page message of salvation and a brief explanation of the fruits of the spirit. All in all, a good book for young C...

 Do you use supplements or alternative treatments? I sometimes do. I recently had the opportunity to try some colloidal silver products from Ameo Life. I had a hive-like reaction to a medicine so I used the extra strength silver gel to help heal the spot. . .and it did seem to make it better for me. I have used topical silver products in the past with good success for other scrapes and surface injuries with good success. I really liked that this gel comes in a pump bottle and was so easy to use and felt like a nice quality ointment.  They also has a Ph Balanced Alkaline Structured Silver Solution that I personally would have used if I had got it a few days earlier to swish with some canker sores--although I see on their website that the company has a mouth rinse available as well. The company suggests it is healthy for your gut and may help with a gut re-set. They have a probiotic that also helps with gut health. I didn't receive that though, instead I received a chelated mult...

  It has been awhile since I have read a book that really touched me. That gave me all the feels like Love and the Dream Come True by Tammy L. Gray. Actually all three books in this series have been so good and I would encourage any reader to read them in order to get the most out of this story. We met Cameron in Love and the Little White Lie and I have felt for him since then. I have really been looking forward to his story. Cameron's distress at coming home and facing his past is clearly palpable. I feel his pain alongside him. Lexie is in pain in a different way. . .and she chooses not to face it. Instead, she buries it and focuses on the positive in everything without wanting to see or feel anything negative. While that can have its merits, it can also have downfalls. In this case, Lexie's teenage daughter Morgan is afraid to share the hard stuff with her mom for fear that she can't take it. I like how this book comes full circle in the series with characters that Came...

  Looking for a Western Adventure? Inventions of the Heart by Mary Connealy is full of adventure, romance and a gold mine to keep safe. Michelle Stiles is hiding at Two Harts Ranch, owned by Zane Hart--along with her sister, Jilly, after their other sister gets married and goes back to their home that they ran away from since their Stepfather was evil in his ways and actions. Zane is a good guy with a lot to figure out--what should he do with the gold he found? What about his attraction to Michelle? How can he take care of his sisters? Inventions of the Heart is an interesting book with strong female leads. Overall I enjoyed the book but sometimes it got a little old listening to how smart the sisters were. I am not sure that really needed to be stated in those ways. There is a bit of romance and some mystery entwined in the story, along with adventure in the West. If you like clean reads and Western fiction, you'll want to check out Inventions of the Heart. It does not have to b...

  I do love a good mystery with some heart-pounding suspense. Deception by Patricia Bradley is full of mystery and suspense both--there are more than a few unanswered questions that the reader has while reading this book. ISB Ranger Madison Thorn is back in her home town of Natchez to investigate a white-collar crime. It has been a few years since she investigated violent crimes and she isn't anxious to work in that area again. Unfortunately, she is forced to investigate a violent crime--and it is personal one--in more ways than one. However, a former childhood friend, Clayton Bradshaw, comes alongside her to help with the investigation. Deception was an intriguing book from start to finish. I really didn't want to put it down. I was amazed at how Bradley wove several mysteries together to create an amazing tapestry of both deception to the characters in the book and clues that build up to an exciting conclusion for the reader. I liked Madison and Clayton and their budding r...

  Are you looking for a book that mixes sweet romance with fast-paced Suspense? The Deadly Shallows by Dani Pettrey is the latest book in the Coastal Guardians series. CIS Agent Noah Rowley and his team are shocked when a mass shooting happens on the Coast Guard Base. Coast Guard Flight Medic Brooke Kesler also becomes a target when one of the gravely wounded shooters talks to her--and the wrong person sees that he did. Brooke and Noah face a lot of danger and challenges as they seek to figure out why the shooting happened and who the mastermind behind it is.  At the same time, Caleb and Austin are involved in a different mystery. Who polluted the waters with a dangerous chemical--and why?  This is my first book by Dani Pettrey. I have been wanting to read her books for awhile and so glad that I did read this one. However, I read it as a stand-alone. It was quite good but would likely be even better if I read it within the series.  I liked all of the good-guy charact...