A Great Book for Women!

                                                                  

Cooking dinner. Taking care of the screaming children. We go through the exhaustion of life.  We don't know how to get out of this rut so we just give up and don't try. We women all have issues, as much as we want to try to hide them.  Whether we are controlling, angry, insecure or fearful, we have some issue that we are fighting with almost every single day.  For us to be able to live the life that our Creator designed us to live, we have to bring these issues to light and come to dealing with each of them.  She's Got Issues by Nicole Unice confronts this issues and brings them out into the open.  She describes these issue in detail with a way we can transform ourselves and bring ourselves closer to Christ.

As I read through the issues in this book, I could relate so well to each.  This book has made a great difference in my life and how I have even been dealing with these issues since beginning to read the book.  I love the prayer, journaling exercise, discussion questions at the end of each chapter.  The discussion questions allow us to dig deep inside ourselves and draw out those issues we have. I also love how Nicole uses scripture throughout each chapter reflecting upon each issue and it is also scripture that we can memorize and ponder upon when we are struggling daily.  This would be a wonderful book for a women's study, discussing and supporting each other through our issues. 

Tyndale House publishers has provided me with a complimentary copy of this book. 

A Wonderful Book for Little Ones!!

As a Christian, coming upon a book focusing on God and his creation is exciting! Finding one to read for my 2 year old is even greater.  This is a book that I thoroughly enjoyed reading to her as much as she liked to hear it!

This book is beautifully depicted with drawings on every other page reflecting the words on the page before. My daughter excitedly looked over each page at the pictures as I read to her. We have read it every night for the past three nights because she likes it so much!

I love the way the baby bear is talking to his mom about where he came from and the mama bear goes through the process of her and papa bear being lonely, to God giving them baby bear in her tummy, to baby bear being born. Even though this book seems to be geared towards toddler aged children, the underlying theme of the book is great for even older children and beautifully depicted! What a joy to read!

I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for the purpose of this review. Any opinions expressed here are my own.

What a Precious Blessing Our Babies Are!

Frustration, exhaustion, stress...... These things seems to overbear me at times! But boy, this is such a reminder of how God chose to bless us with a sweet little angel that is growing up way to fast.

Lord, Help me remember, when I feel it's a chore
the time will come when I'll hold her no more
asleep on my chest, the crib refused
the blanket, the pacifier, gone unused.
What better place is there to lay her head
than against my heart, my arms her bed?
For infants grow up and leave us behindwith only memories left to remind
us of midnight walking and predawn rocking,
of soft, helpless babies unable to sleep.


So, Lord, make me patient and keep me awakewhile I cradle this child, and don't let me take
for granted the moments I spend in the night
with this ~ Your gift, my joy, my delight.


~Jan Dunlap

Daily Reminders

Sometimes we need a little reminder concerning what life is all about. Its not about my career, what movie to see next, what new car I would like to have..... Its living for the Lord.  No matter how hard I try to make that my first priority, something always seems to take over that position.

A wonderful company, Dayspring, has given me the opportunity to receive a few of their products in return for a review.  All opinions state are my own!

The first is an amazingly constructed vase with the word  BEAUTIFUL" down one back and Ecclesiastes 3:11 "He has made everything beautiful in its time." down the front.  What a reminder each day of what beautiful is through God's eyes.

My favorite product I received was a set of six coasters. Each coaster reminds of of how blessed we each truly are and how much He loves us. "Beloved God chose you from the beginning." 2 Thessalonians 2:13. " In all things God works for the good of those who love him and all are called according to their purpose. " Romans 8:28

What a reassurance I receive when I sit my drink down!

These both come from the Redeemed collection found at Dayspring.  I love this collection so much I would like to giveway a product!  The retail value of the mirror is$ 23.99.  The winner will only be responsible for shipping ($6) To enter, please become a follower of my blog and a winner will be chosen by random.org.  The giveaway begins April 16 and ends April 20! The winner will be contacted with certificate to redeem for the mirror.  Good luck and thanks for reading!

   

Fierce Beauty by Kim Meeder

What matters most to you? Your career? Your family? How you look? This powerful book will make you look at your priorities to determine what you really value in life!It was a real eye opener to me!

Through Kim sharing instances in her life in which she has seemed to hit rock bottom or has someone close hit rock bottom, we as readers stand in awe at the grace of God and how he can pull us from any situation if we set our focus and our lives on Him.  A answer to the brokeness that we feel when faced with trials and tribulations is beautifully revealed throughout this book. 

We often chase after this world's definition of beauty and value and reject geniune worth offered by our Lord.  Will we live in fantasies of our own creations or choose God's best purpose for our lives?
I recommend this book to any woman who is struggling in her life and is searching for a peace that only He can provide.  A truly amazing book!

I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing group for this review.

Capturing Bree

Its so very amazing how fast our little girl is growing up! She turned 31 months old yesterday.  It is mind blowing to think that in just 5 short months she will be 3!!! Brady and I try to video tape and take pictures as much as possible to capture the moments that are passing by much too quickly but I also am coming up with some other (hopefully creative) ideas to do so! For each of her future birthdays, we are going to interview her with 10-20 questions about her "favorites." It will be awesome to see just how much her answers change from year to year.  So I wanted to start now and with some of the questions to see how she answers and then again at her third birthday we will ask again and see if the answers are different.  Here is our interview!


Bree's Favorites:


Most beautfiul color: Blue
Greatest toy: "Hampstoms"  translation: Zhu Zhu Pet Hamster
Most delicious fruit: Blueberries
Most amazing tv show: Dora the Explorer
Yummiest snack: Raspberries
Coolest animal: Rhino
Best way to start the day: with Oatmeal
Greatest book to read: Teddy Goes Night Night
Words to sing: Baa Baa Black Sheep
Favorite cereal: Cheerios
Best sport to play with Daddy: Golf
What do you want to be when you grow up: A flower :)


Listening to her answer these questions was just too cute!! Made me laugh!


Another way we are capturing her "funny" moments..... Anytime Bree does something to make us laugh, we are writing it down on a small slip of paper and then we place it in a jar we have just for this.  Then on New Years Eve 2012, we will read all of them and fill our night with laughter of all the ways our little angel has filled our year with joy.

Catching up

Where was winter?  I really really am upset we did not have any snow.  I was so ready for us to build a snow man with Bree, snow angels, snow ice cream!! With the small amount of snow we did receive a mini snowman was built and Bree got to at least play in SOME snow. 

The first week of March is always fun for our family.  We head south to Austin for the Girls State Basketball Games.  It is three days of A LOT of basketball!! Whew!! This is the third year that Bree has attended and as we thought back over all the years that she has gone, its amazing how she has gone from sitting in her carrier sleeping in 2010, just sitting in our laps and falling asleep when she was tired and barely walking in 2011, and then this year, she was all over the place! We had to take a bag of toys to keep her occupied! But all three years she was wonderful and wasnt any trouble at all.  Sort of a mini vacation for us: hotel, great food, and my precious little family!!!

We couldn't wait for Brady's spring break to finally start! We were so ready to spend a week with him, and it was well deserved for him. The long haul from Christmas break to spring break is tiring.... oh I remember well! The first weekend of spring break we went to Oklahoma to stay with Nonnie and G for a few days. Of course, Bree had a blast having them to play with for four days! I am sure they were worn completely out once we left. While there we met with most of the family and had dinner at a mexican food restaurant in Norman and did a little shopping (looking around) together. It was a great time. We loved being with them and spending that time together!

After we came back to good ole Texas, we took Bree to the Dallas Zoo. We had been to the Ft Worth Zoo before we had Bree, but never the Dallas one so we wanted to give it a try. I'm glad we did! It was great and Bree loved it. She couldn't wait to see the elephants, the giraffes and the crocodiles. She played in the little kids area, watched a bird show, and rode the monorail. The few days before going to the zoo, that was all she could talk about! She would name all the animals that she hoped to see. From the amazement in her voice when she saw her favorite animals to the beautiful smile on her face, we knew she had a blast on her trip to the zoo!