LOL with God

I received the book "LOL with God: Devotional Messages of Hope & Humor for Women" in the mail. I feel so many times as women we put ourselves on the back burner. I was very interested to try a new aspect of devotions. I thought it had a humorous "tongue in cheek" about devotionals related to today's texting generation.

While I enjoy the reference, that is where I would like it to stop. I feel that this devotional spent more time developing the texting humor than the actual meat of the word. While I feel there was some great scriptural content, it was overshadowed by the cheesey content. I think some people will not be hung up on that type of humor, it was distracting for me.

I do believe there is some good content, it just was not my style.

I received this book free from Tyndale Blog Network in exchange for a completely honest review of the book.

Jesus Calling: 365 Devotions For Kids

Sarah Young has written the book "Jesus Calling: 365 Devotions For Kids". It was listed for the starting age of 3. I was so excited to get this book in the mail! The cover art is super cute. The devotions are good, but I think I will wait a little while longer before using this book again with my kids. We tried this for a few sessions and it just didn't work for my 4 year olds. Maybe because they are boys, or because they are 4, but there were not pictures in it. The content is great, but they enjoy the visual parts of Bible reading at this time.

I think this is an awesome devotional for kids. Since I have gotten it, I now see on Amazon the listed age is 9-12. That is appropriate. Get it! Reuse it! Gift it!

I received this book free from Booksneeze in exchange for a completely honest review of the book.

"Outlive Your Life"

We live our lives for the day we stand before the Lord. We pray, seek, and yearn to hear the words "Well done, my good and faithful servant." (Matthew 25:23 NIV)

"Outlive Your Life" by Max Lucado is an inspirational read. He helps us look past the horrific statistics that we hear every day, and have learned to live with. Rather than seeing the whole, we can look at the part and take notice of the one person we can help. The way to make a difference, the way to make it last, the way to outlive your life and make an eternal change.

Max Lucado takes a practical look at Acts and the call of the church, and helps make it relevant in todays society and generation.

This book is motivational, well written, and practical to anyone that reads it.

Join Max Lucado on Facebook or Twitter.

I received this book free from Booksneeze in exchange for a completely honest review of the book.

"One Hand, Two Hands"

Max Lucado amazes me how he goes from a serious adult book, to a whimsical kids book. My boys thought this book was funny, and were repeating parts as they walked away. They did get a little lost when it talked about the smell of hands when depending on what they play with, "stinky cheese".

"One Hand, Two Hands" is a cute book for children. The discussion points on the last two pages help bring up kind things we can do with our hands. The only thing I did not like about this book was the phrase that included "Pooey". I know it's not a horrible word, but I have to watch what my three boys hear for "yucky words" or it seems to stick with their vocabulary. Fortunately the first time we read the book and I by accident said it, I was able to move on fast enough so it did not stick in their heads. All the times since I have changed the word.

It does not change the meaning of the book to show how helpful our hands can be! My favorite part is showing how they can use their hands to hug their Mom & Dad.

I received this book free from Booksneeze in exchange for a completely honest review of the book.

"The Butterfly Effect"

The adult's version of "The Boy Who Changed the World" has been written by Andy Andrews and is called "The Butterfly Effect".

There was an Ashton Kutcher movie with same name a few years back. Andy Andrews also takes this same look at this so called "butterfly effect".

If you are not familiar with this concept, Edward Lorenz proposed his hypothesis at a 1963 New York Academy conference that "A butterfly could flap its wings and set molecules of air in motion, which would move other molecules of air, in turn moving more molecules of air— eventually capable of starting a hurricane on the other side of the planet."

I applaud Andy Andrews for writing this book. He stepped out and discussed a concept that brings up more questions than answers, but still brings to light the Christianity side to this concept. We may have not been using the actual words "Butterfly Effect", but I would say it's safe to say that most Christian's believe in a concept like this. Andy brings out scriptures to go along with this inspirational book about our choices and how they can effect others for decades beyond our grave.

Of course this book will have scholars debating and could have Christian's on the defensive. It is written to inspire Christians and non-Christians to think about their actions and its effects. I enjoyed the challenge.

I received this book free from Booksneeze in exchange for a completely honest review of the book.

"The Boy Who Changed the World"

As a mom of three boys, I was anticipating reading to them the book "The Boy Who Changed the World" by Andy Andrews.

It starts out talking about a little boy named Norman and how he grew up in the corn fields of Iowa. Then he used his knowledge of agriculture as an adult to help feed billions of people. Then it goes on to tell the story of 4 additional great men of our history and how they grew up.

This book is beautifully illustrated. I also highly applaud this book for the message it is trying to get out there for our children today.

However, I had to rate it 4 out of 5 stars. The only reason why is because my boys had a hard time keeping up with which person we were talking about and the names that went along with their story. I wish this book had a little more details about each person, and made them into their own "chapters" or even their own books. Kind of like a toddler Bible and how it separates out the stories. I am overjoyed at this attempt to bring the story's lesson down to a younger age, and will continue to read this book to my boys. However, I will only talk about one of the men at a time, so as not to confuse them.

I received this book free from Booksneeze in exchange for a completely honest review of the book.

"The Boy Who Came Back from Heaven"

"The Boy Who Came Back from Heaven" is an amazing book. Kevin Malarkey writes this book about his son, Alex. While fighting for his life in a coma, Alex sees so many amazing things in Heaven.

I purposefully don't want to give too many details of the book. I don't want to spoil it for you! Honestly, I could not put this book down. For my friends that truly know me, I can lean more towards the pessimistic side of things. As a firm believer in Christ and His miracles, this sometimes does not gel with the rest of the church as a whole.

As I read this book very critically, I sobbed. Reading the words that Alex says gave me chills. Then reading with Kevin wrote made my heart as a parent grieve with him. I appreciate his candor on how difficult this has been on him and his marriage. I relish the words written by their friends and family that also show themselves as "real" and would not believe it themselves if they were not there to witness it.

I would recommend this book to anyone that wants to see a minuscule glimpse of heaven through the eyes of a 6 year old boy.

Thank you, Alex, for letting us see through your eyes. Thank you, Kevin, for sharing this with us.

I received this book free from Tyndale Blog Network in exchange for a completely honest review of the book.

"Never Let You Go"

"Never Let You Go" by Erin Healy was an intense book! Single mom, deadbeat druggie husband that left her, murdered sister and now the one accused of her sister's murder is on parole. She has to come to terms with the past demons coming back to haunt her. The surprise twists and turns of this book were a pleasant surprise!

I have never read a book by Erin Healy, but I will look for her books to read again!

I received this book free from Booksneeze in exchange for a completely honest review of the book.

Free Kids Books!!!

What is better than a FREE book being sent to you in the mail??? THREE FREE books!

We have moved to an area that is reached by Dolly Parton's Imagination Library program. My friend Shawna previously lived in TN and told me to sign my kids up. So far we have gotten TWO books for each boy since we moved here! They will be enrolled in this program until they are 5 years old. They pick the books based on their age, so my three happen to get three copies of the same book. It's great because they are so excited to get mail with their own names on it!

Check it out and enroll your child today! Start HERE and choose a button under the words "please select the option you prefer" and then choose "go" on the rock.

Enjoy!!!

"Otis"

"Otis" by Loren Long was our second book we received in the mail from the Imagination Library. It is a PERFECT book for little boys (and girls) that love farm equipment and tractors. My boys love tractors, so this was great!

Otis is a little tractor that finds a best friend in a calf. However, he is getting old and his farmer owner replaces him with a much larger yellow tractor. The calf misses his friend and can't find him. He eventually gets himself in trouble. Who can help him without scaring him? You guessed it, his friend Otis.

It is a paperback book, about 12x12 in size. The pages are easy to turn for each of my kids while they sit with it on the floor. If they are in any smaller place, they have a hard time keeping their place in the book without help just because the pages are larger.

My boys like the book. They especially love the pages with the huge, yellow tractor. So far they have enjoyed the books from the Imagination Library! There is just something about getting their OWN book to read, with their OWN names on them!

Bibleman DVD "Combating the Commandment of Confusion"

I have memories of my younger brothers-in-law watching these shows all the time years back. Now that my boys are 4 years old, I thought they would thoroughly enjoy the Combating the Commandment of Confusion (A Bibleman Live Adventure) DVD. We sat down to what seemed like a VERY long time and watched it. This was not the Willie Aames Bibleman that I remember watching years ago. From an adults view, the lip synching is off, the acting is poor, the video is of a live church show, and the story line is very week. However, it had a decent message, and kept drawing my boys back in every couple minutes. They enjoyed the "fight" scenes with the swords. I would rate this one star, except it did get my boys talking about the "good guy" beating the "bad guy" because he obeyed God and made good choices.

I received this DVD free from Booksneeze in exchange for a completely honest review of the book.

"The Story of Easter"

“The Story of Easter” is a children’s book with fun illustrations by Steve Smallman. Each page spread has the title and scripture reference that is covered. The author, Gwen Ellis, has the page spread end with either a probing question or a pondering comment. A bonus DVD comes with the book that includes 6 short narrated stories totaling 18 minutes, and DVD-ROM coloring pages.

For the most part, the book was good and my children liked it. Some of the questions and comments were not worded well enough for my 4 year olds to understand. The page titles made it seem like each layout could stand alone; however, the book needs to be read as a whole. Some re-working of words had to be changed for my children to understand such as “linen” to “cloth”. While the DVD was narrated stories of more than just Easter stories, it kept my kids attention. The coloring pages span all 6 stories on the DVD. All in all it was a good book, and packaged with the DVD it is a great value for the money.

I received this book free from Booksneeze in exchange for a completely honest review of the book.

"In Praise of Stay-At-Home-Moms"

Love her or hate her, Dr. Laura Schlessinger does know how to put out successful books and shows. I was recommended to read this book "In Praise of Stay-at-Home Moms", since I am a Stay-at-Home-Mom (SAHM).

I have never listened to Dr. Laura, nor have I read any of her books. I think this book is an encouraging book for SAHMs to read. This book is NOT for working moms.

This book is exactly what is says, it's "In Praise Of". Not bashing working mothers, but supporting over and over and over and over again those moms that choose to stay home. She shows many letters from listeners who decided to stay home and the difference it makes.

Personally, I think it was a good book for the praise portion. It would NOT be helpful for working mothers. I feel the target audience is those that just made their decision to be a SAHM and are still very unsure, they are not getting husband support, family or friends support. Then this book would be great for them! It is repeatedly supporting SAHMs.

I agree on many aspects of this book. Being a SAHM is HARD. It does not give you monthly reviews, bonuses, deadlines, raises. All the things that we have been used to our entire working lives. I have the best support from my husband, my family and my friends. Even then it was hard to get used to staying home with three babies after working and doing well at my job.

The rewards of being with your children is outstanding! Seeing all their firsts, knowing them and all their stories, needs, fears and loves, and being the one to hold, cuddle, wake them up, put them to bed - it's irreplaceable. Realistically all that is sandwiched in with household chores, discipline, frustrations, loneliness, and sleeplessness.

I think an interesting fact the book talks about is how little of this second income truly ends up in your bank account. Both incomes are taxed at a higher rate since you will be pushed into a higher income bracket. Then take out childcare expenses. Figure in the gas costs, vehicle maintenance for all the extra miles put on the car, work clothing, lunches out, etc and the take home difference is not much more.

If you want to read it, go ahead! If you know a SAHM that is having a hard time, suggest she check her library for a copy of this book. Working mom? Stay away from this book if you have made your final decisions to continue to work while your kids are little. Not that I don't think working moms could get anything out of this book, but it will only be a discouragement and that is not going to be helpful.

Personally, my husband and I made the decision for me to be a SAHM and I would not trade it for the world!

What are YOUR thoughts about this book? Please comment!

Welcome to the beginning....

I love to read! I grew up reading books all the time. Before any road trips with my family, I always took out a stack of books from the library. I didn't get car sick, so I would just lay down and read the whole trip! My favorite author growing up was Robin Jones Gunn, and she still is a favorite today.

Three weeks shy of four years ago, this reading frenzy stopped abruptly when our triplets came into our lives. However, the reading urge is still in me. So I decided to start reading more books now, and posting my reviews. It's a way to keep me reading more. You might like what I say, or hate what I say, or not care what I say. It's ok! I'm doing this for me.

Please comment your thoughts about the books if you have read or are interested in reading it. Thanks for reading my blog!!!