Reading, Writing & Pondering

This past year has been full of personal challenges. . .so when this book came up for review I couldn't wait to read it. There is something encouraging in reading other people's personal struggles and seeing through their eyes how God has worked to change their hearts and/or their lives for the better through them. This book is full of encouraging stories from people all over the country and in all walks of life. The stories are from people like you and me that have been through some challenges and saw how God made something, Lemonade, if you will, through the lemons (challenges) in their lives. Hope is the element each story offers to the reader. In each story, the reader sees God working through someone's life situation. I can't say for me that any one story stood out as better than the others--they were really all good from my point of view. These stories were well-written, inspiring and moved me to tears at times. I even found one author that I remember meet...

Review: Creating Contentment Seminar I don't know about you, but in the midst of the Midwestern Winter, I can often feel discontent. . .I'm not a fan of winter so I'm tired of cold and snow. I often am home more and see more what needs repair or what needs done. It gets dark early so I feel like going to bed early. I just plain feel discontent with life. For a reasonable 2.99, Lorrie Flem has created a Seminar To Go on Creating Contentment. Christian women watching this seminar can learn what happiness and contentment are and what they are not. Lorrie helps those watching decide to maintain contentment with God's help. She offers 14 ways to create contentment. Each of these 14 points offers women encouragement to look to God and not to look around at the world or other women. I like how Lorrie gently keeps pointing us to the Savior and reminds us to look to him through each of these points. She also consistently uses Scripture to back up her points. The seminar ta...

A couple of weeks ago, a friend stopped by for a quick visit. During the visit, she shared how her and her husband were helping out a man with a 3-year old daughter whose wife had just died. Through the conversation, I realized I knew this woman and had prayed for her for a long time. . .then I stopped. I didn't stop because I didn't care anymore, I stopped because I wasn't sure my prayers were making a difference anymore. However, through that conversation, God showed me that my prayers may be making more of a difference than I know. Shortly afterwords, I had opportunity to read Draw the Circle by Mark Batterson. Batterson is the author of the popular book, The Circle Maker. I didn't read that book but I had read his book, Praying Circle Around Your Children. Draw the Circle is a forty-day devotional book that offers forty true faith-building stories of how God answers prayers based on his first book, daily Scripture and a prayer prompt for each day. This book is...

  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...

After reading Smitten, I was anxiously awaiting the next one in the series by this group of talented authors. The new book did not disappoint me as it contains not only romance but a good mystery as well. In the first novella in this group of 4, Love Between the Lines, dog tags from Grandma Rose's first love turn up in her attic. The mystery begins, how did those dog tags get there when David Hutchins was killed in action and never returned to Smitten? The mystery intrigues Rose’s three granddaughters—Tess, Clare, and Zoe. However, their mother Anna warns them against any investigating and meddling in Grandma Rose's affairs. Then each of the granddaughters and their mother face some romance and intrigue of their own as they face new seasons in Smitten--and the mystery of Grandma's lost love begins to unravel. Make Me a Match is the 2nd novella followed by Knit One, Love Two and concludes with Love Blooms. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. There were a few twists and...