Reading, Writing & Pondering

  I Do Today by Chelsea Smith is a 52-week marriage guide. This book is full of practical information that I think would most certainly be helpful for those who are newly married. But as someone who has been married for several years, I also see found information in the book for refreshing our own marriage with practical helps. This book has ideas on dating your spouse, fighting fair, dealing with digital devices, making time to play together, spicing up your sex life, the benifit of serving others and a while lot more. Each chapter of I Do Today starts with 2 or 3 pages of information on that chapter’s topic, followed by a Think About it section for yourself, then a Talk About It section to use  as a couple, and it ends with some action to do related to the chapter’s topic. I think this will be a great book to go through this year for my husband and I. I Do Today would also make a good wedding or shower gift for a newly married couple . There is talk of God an...

I started reading books by Dan Allender about 27 years ago. I learned about him from a Christian counselor that had studied under him. Since then, I have read most of his books. I always learn something from his books. The Deep-Rooted Marriage by Dan Allender and Steve Call is a truly insightful book full of practical advice and many personal stories.  "Story"  is a theme running through many of the books I have read by Dan, including this one. We all have a story that starts with our birth. When we get married, we bring our individual stories together to start a new story together, so to speak, forged of two people. Through this author, I also see story themes in the Bible and this book also includes some Biblical references but it also makes clear that God is not out to shame us and also talks some about spiritual abuse. My family of origin was bathed in shame so I think this is a key reason I like his books. I always feel "safe" with the author's words when ...

  I listened to the audiobook version of If My Husband Would Change, I would be Happy (& Other Myths Wives Believe ) by Rhonda Stoppe.  The audiobook is read by the author and she has a casual tone to her reading style. I had mixed feelings about this book.This author is a pastor's wife. She said she and her husband often do marriage counseling. He chimes in with his views at the end of the chapters--except she reads that part too. I wish that he read that part instead of her as it would be more meaningful to me to hear the shift in voice from female to male on the part written by the male.  If My Husband Would Change offers advice that I think would be most helpful to young married people. However, it may also be helpful to those who have been married for awhile. She does share a couple stories that I found rather cringe--like the story of their honeymoon trip to Old Faithful where she takes a laxative after being constipated on the trip and then goes for a hike. Yi...

  We all want to be with someone who "gets us." You Get Me by Gary Chapman and Jen Mickelborough wrote this small book of helps for those familiar with the 5 Love Languages: Words of Affirmation, Physical Touch, Gifts, Acts of Service and Quality Time. You Get Me starts out with an introduction by both authors and shares a bit about the 5 Love Languages from Gary Chapman. Maybe you or your spouse doesn't have a lot of imagination to come up with ideas to reach out within those love languages. If that is the case, this book offers ideas in each category. At the back of the book there is space to record each thing you did in the categories and any notes that you want to keep about that idea. I think this book is a little pricey for what You Get Me has to offer at the $9.99 retail. I also think the ideas are some basic, standard ideas. I was hoping for something different. At the same time, I think this would be a good gift in a basket along with The 5 Love Languages as a...

Are you a middle-aged woman thinking you will never love again? Wedding Bells After Fifty by Autumn Marie is a small book full of big stories about women who found true love as an older woman. Autumn Marie shares the stories of ten different older woman who got married later in life. Each of the woman are very different and the stories of how they met and got married is very different. Yet, in each of these stories the women found someone that clicked with their personality. I am actually not the target audience of this book in that I am a middle-aged woman but I am already happily married to my husband for nearly twenty years. The stories in this book are encouraging but they also offer things to think about in merging families and personalities that an older woman should consider. Since most of my blog readers are people of faith I would mention that while they talk about faith in some of the stories, in several of them, the couples often live together before marriage and don...

It is no secret that life can be stressful. I know a lot of families where both the husband and wife are on the go--and often in different directions. Relaxing and Unwinding together sounds great--but do you have trouble thinking up something different and fun to do? Randy Southern's new book, 52 Uncommon Ways to Unwind Together is full of activities to consider. 52 Uncommon Ways to Unwind Together begins with information related to the five love languages in Gary Chapman's books and he writes the forward to this book to help readers know what those are and how to use them to have a better relationship. Each of these 52 activities is described briefly and then includes directions to "go the extra mile" for a super fun activity and "making it work for you" talks about the best ways to implement the ideas for the activity to work best for your situation. There is also a brief touch on "speaking the right language" to say which love language the...

It is a rare treat to read a marriage book that captivates me as much as Confessions of a Happily Married Man by Joshua L. Rogers. I read much of this book in one day. In Confessions of a Happily Married Man , Rogers shares much of the story of his marriage coming from his heart. After the introduction, written by Greg Smalley from Focus on the Family, Rogers shares how he met his wife, Raquel, fell in love and were married within 9 months. Throughout the book, Rogers shares story after story of how God worked in their relationship to grow them both up to be more like Jesus to each other. Interestingly enough, with God, they had started working on each other shortly after Rogers proposed and his future wife accepted the proposal. Rogers candidly shares about how the couple worked out their issues around mundane things such as chores to how they worked out much bigger challenges such as in-law challenges, health issues, having children and a cross-country move. At the end of this b...

One of the most important thing to me in life is good relationships. At the same time, I think good relationships can be one of the hardest things to maintain in life. If you are looking for ways to help make all kinds of relationships be the best they can be, consider reading Real Life Love by Michael Gibson. Real Life Love is divided in to three parts: Growing in Love for Yourself, Growing in Love for God, and Growing in Love for Others. Gibson shares practical advice throughout the book that he gleaned while studying under his grandfather, relationship expert Gary Smalley. At one point, Gibson says in the book that the entire point of the book is to show you that you can have a true love that is better than what the world tells you to settle for. You are not doomed to a life in which your relationships really don't mean anything. Instead, readers glean seven principles to help their relationships be the best they can be and they also learn that real love comes from Jesus....

We long for a marriage that lasts for a life time full of love and happy memories. Yet, the divorce statistics are fairly high in today's world. How do we create a marriage full of lasting love? Kim Kimberling gives a lot of solid advice and answers in his latest book, 14 Keys to Lasting Love . There are 14 chapters in 14 Keys to Lasting Love that correspond with the 14 keys. Topics such as being friends with your spouse, how children can change the relationship, how to do conflict, how to handle money, how to keep the spark in your marriage through the years, and a whole lot more. In each chapter, he gives a lot of advice and examples from other couples in his work as a marriage counselor. He also shares a lot of personal information on how he and his wife and maintained their marriage for forty years. At the end of each chapter, he offers several key questions for couples to think about and ask each other. Then it ends with a sort of action each couple can take to improve...

How the Light Gets In by Jolina Petersheim is my first book by this author--but I hope to read more. This beautiful story begins when Ruth Neufeld's husband and father-in-law are killed in a bombing overseas. Ruth's mother-in-law invites her to travel to Wisconsin with her and her two daughters to bury their men within the Wisconsin Mennonite Community. Elam Albrecht, her husband's cousin, invites them to stay at his cranberry farm through the harvest. Ruth's marriage was broken and not doing well before her husband died, but she doesn't feel like she can share those details with anyone. She finds both solace and healing in this new place--and perhaps new love with Elam. But will Ruth get the happy ending she hopes for? How the Light Gets In is one of the most intriguing novels that I have read lately. Petersheim kept me turning pages quickly and it kept me guessing until the end with some twists and turns. I read the book mostly within a span of two da...

Are you looking for a new study series for your couple that you are pre-marital counseling, a small group or young married couples group? I recommend checking out the The Growing a Strong Marriage series from Hendrickson Publishers. In the Starting Strong DVD with the study guide, viewers see strong Christian couples share both the fun things about their marriage, such as how they got together, and the challenges that they have faced and overcome in their marriage. The couples featured in the DVDs are couples that many of us have heard speaking or have read their books: John and Stasi Eldredge, Chip and Theresa Ingram, Gordon and Gail MacDonald, Les and Leslie Parrott, Art and Lysa TerKeurst, and Gary and Lisa Thomas. Their is something sort of comforting about seeing how well-known people have also struggled and worked out problems that is encouraging and reminds young couples that they can work things out too because marriage has some challenges at times. The Starting Strong D...

It has often been said that the kitchen is the heart of the home. Our Newlywed Kitchen by Laura Schupp offers new brides a book to treasure and to help them make their kitchen the heart of their home or apartment. Our Newlywed Kitchen would be a beautiful keepsake book to give for a shower gift for a bride-to-be. This lovely book has several pages to personalize from the gift giver and other family members. I see it as a sort of kitchen journal keepsake that would be treasured indefinitely with personalization from special people. There are places to write good wishes for the couple, prayers and favorite family recipes. The book also mixes traditions with modern technology information to create a truly unique book. Schupp shares some of her family traditions, newly married stories, special recipes and kitchen tips. However, she also shares websites and up-to-date ways to feed your family such as through meal delivery services. She shares a lot of practical advice on registering f...