19 hours ago
We are adding one more little arrow to our quiver! Baby #4 coming September 2015!
Check back soon for more details!
Hey guys! Well, the last couple weeks have been weird to say the least. Just lots of unexpected things that are totally throwing my blogging schedule. Normally I would have some nice accompanying post, but today I have nothing, so I'm just going to point you over to my post on Tommy Nelson today!
I wrote about separation anxiety, which I feel is ironic, because I would not consider myself an expert at handling it - however, we have found ways to cope. And when I say we, I am not just talking about the kids, I am including myself! I hope I am not the only mom who gets anxious for her kids sometimes.
A verse that my mom taught us in childhood reminds me that I need to point my kids to the One who will always be with them if they put their trust in Him. And sometimes I need that reminder too!
To read all about my separation anxiety story and verse, head on over to Tommy Nelson's blog!
"Remember The Lilies" by Liz Tolsma is a story set in Santo Tomas, a prison camp in the Philippines during World War II. Many Americans find themselves in this Japanese prison camp, including Irene Reynolds, a woman who grew up with her missionary aunt int he jungle after her parents abandoned her, and Rand Sterling, a nightclub owner who dreams about returning to his easy pre-war life. Irene and Rand meet when Irene tries to deliver a confidential message to Rand just as he is attempting a dangerous escape from the camp. Plans foiled, Rand and Irene find themselves thrown together more and more, and an unlikely romance blooms.
I thought the characters in this story were sweet, and I liked their simple romance, which was a little complicated but not so complicated that it makes you cringe. I felt like I would have liked some of the characters to have a little more depth, particularly a couple of the secondary characters, but I thought they were all likable.
I thought the author did a fantastic job of weaving spiritual lessons into this story without it seeming unnatural. Maybe part of it was the setting of the book, because when put through such hard experiences, I think it is common for people to think more about spiritual things. I especially liked how she wove the gospel into this story. I think it takes skill to make a fictional conversion seem natural, and she did it well.
This story was a sweet romance, amidst conditions that were not ideal - sickness, starvation, and poor treatment by the Japanese in the prison camp. I have not researched prison camps during World War II, but the author seemed to have done her research thoroughly, and I thought this book gave a glimpse into what life must have been life for those who found themselves in one of these camps. Conditions continued to worsen throughout the story, and I thought the author ended the story very well.
Note: I received a copy of this book for free from Litfuse Publicity Group in exchange for this review. This is my honest opinion.
You also have two more days to enter the Kindle Fire giveaway as part of the "Remember the Lilies blog tour! Check it out!
Last weekend we had Wyatt's 4th birthday party! I should clarify that this was less of a "party", and more of a family gathering. I just like doing themes for the kids' birthdays for fun. When I asked Wyatt what he wanted to do for his party this year, he said he wanted a race car party, so that is what we did!
Everything was pretty easy to throw together for this party.
I bought some checked and red paper and used it to make the birthday banner and signs. I also wrapped some of the checked paper around the "coolant" water bottles, and used the extra paper for a runner on our "pit stop" table.
I added red streamers and black and white balloons to fit with our race car color scheme.
Bought some "spare tire" chocolate donuts, and some red Kool-aid for the "transmission fluid" (which is actually red in real life too). I originally wasn't going to label everything, but I asked Derek what car fluid was red, and he talked me into making the labels last minute - and I think they ended up tying the theme together really well!
I washed some of Wyatt's Hot Wheels cars and put them on top of some red cupcakes. If you bought some new Hot Wheels cars this would be a fun way to give out favors to the kids who come to the party too!
And that was it! It was a really simple theme to put together, and we had fun with it!
For more pictures of Wyatt at his party, you can check my family photo blog, or sign up for my newsletter and I will send out the link!
I am finally getting around to posting about Gwen's 2nd birthday party! I am determined to always make a big deal of Derek and Gwen's birthday, since it falls right after Christmas. It's hard having a Christmastime birthday because people tend to forget with the busyness of the holidays.
We didn't have a "party" for Gwen this year, per se - we just had some of our immediate family over for cake, and to give her presents. Still, I see no reason why I can't have a birthday theme anyway! This year I had a couple packages of pink lemonade cookie mix in my cupboards, so I decided to go with a Pink Lemonade theme. It turned out really cute, and I think this was one of the easiest parties I've done!
For the party I just got some yellow and pink balloons and streamers.
I used some old scrapbook paper and made a few labels and a birthday sign for Gwen.
I made pink lemonade cookies from a mix, and I used the same mix to make a pink lemonade cheesecake - which was so good! I wish I knew how to replicate it without a mix.
Of course we also had to have pink lemonade.
I put a yellow tablecloth on the table, and got some lemons to add to the decor.
Gwen and I got all dressed up in pink and yellow! I just happened to have the perfect yellow dress and pink hair bow for Gwen's birthday outfit. I told you, everything just came together!
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For those of you follow my photo blog, head on over there to see more pictures of Miss G at her birthday party! She is pretty adorable. I'll send out a link in my next newsletter as well!
One of my favorite book series of all time is Anne Of Green Gables. And I just finished watching Gilmore Girls. I think the parts that I like best about both of those series is the small town feel to the stories. Even though there are main characters, like Anne, or Lorelei and Rory, all the other characters in their small towns are woven throughout the story. It makes it richer, and more like real life.
It irks me when a book only focuses on one or two characters in isolation, because that isn't how most people live their lives, especially in small towns. There are lots of people in the day-to-day that enrich our lives. You know their quirks and charms, and even though you may not know some of them well, or you may know some of them well enough that they drive you crazy, you love them all anyway for the charms.
If I was to pick one word to describe House Of Living Stones by Katie Schuermann, it would be charming. It really was like Anne of Green Gables, meets Gilmore Girls, meets church. House Of Living Stones follows the story of how Zion Lutheran Church got their new choir director, Emily Duke, and it follows along with the quirky politics and relationship dynamics of the people in that church.
The book started out slow, but by the sixth chapter I was really interested in the story. There really were several stories going on at any one time, but they were all woven together seamlessly. The characters were lovable, sometimes frustrating, but many times heartwarming. There were several "mysteries" about the pasts of some of the people that were revealed throughout the book, but in a real-life sort of way. There was also a subtle love story that did remind me of the one between Gilbert and Anne.
There was one curse word in this book that I thought could have been left out, and I have to add a disclaimer that though Lutheran doctrine was not discussed, it was alluded to, and I don't necessarily agree with every point. (Like some confusing language about communion, for example - I know Lutherans don't believe in transubstantiation, but the language made me wonder about that. I had to look it up.)
In spite of that though, I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and if you like Anne of Green Gables or Gilmore Girls, I would say that once you get into this book, it has the same feel to it.
Note: I received this book for free from NetGalley in exchange for this review. This is my honest opinion.
I love Valentine's Day.
I know to a lot of people it is just a Hallmark holiday, a holiday companies make up to encourage us to spend more money and buy more cards. But I like the idea of showing the people in your life that you love them - our husbands, but also our kids, our family, and our friends!
Valentine's Day was always a family affair for us growing up - Mom and Dad went on their date, but every year they would have some sort of surprise for us too. Sometimes it was candy, sometimes it was stuffed animals, once it was even a new Adventures In Oddyssey set! But I love that they did that. I think it would have been easy to become depressed about having no romantic prospects every Valentine's Day since I didn't have a boyfriend (Derek) until I was 18, but my parent's gifts made Valentine's Day something fun. I want to do that for my kids, and for the other people in my life that are important to me.
I had so much fun making Valentine's for Wyatt and Gwen's little friends last year, so I decided I wanted to create a Valentine printable again this year, just for fun. This is what I came up with.
I drew this little Valentine. The phrase came from a magnet that I have had on my fridge for a long time. I think it's a cute pun. I printed up the graphic, cut it out, and taped it to some card stock using pink, glittery washi tape that I got for a dollar at Walmart. I thought these valentines would be especially cute with a coffee-related gift, so I bought some Starbucks Via packets and taped one to the back of each valentine. A Starbucks gift card would be great to include with these too.
I am planning on giving this to my mom and sister. I might even sneak one into Derek's work bag during Valentine's week, even though we will still do something special to celebrate!
And as a little pre-Valentine's Day gift to my readers, I am giving you these valentine printables for free! You can download them here (light pink variation) and here (dark pink variation). I hope you have fun with them, and if you think of any other creative ways to use them, I'd love to see!
I also thought these would be cute to use for a "I'm thinking about you" card, so my newsletter subscribers will be getting the non-valentine version to use for any occasion! If you would like the non-valentine version, sign up for my newsletter. The February edition is coming out next week, so sign up quick if you would like that version as well!
One of my goals for the New Year was to try my hand at some hand lettering. It is not something I am naturally good at, but I do think it is something that can improve with practice. So I looked up some websites, and ordered a couple books, and I've been playing with lettering here and there.
One book I was so excited to have the opportunity to review was DIY Type by Dana Tanamachi. This isn't a traditional book - it consists of a couple chapters and then is filled with stencils for you to use in your own DIY type experiments! Probably 90% of the book is stencils, including a capital letter alphabet, a small letter alphabet, and some decorative stencils.
Even though there is just one real chapter with instructions, there are definitely a lot of fun ideas packed in that one chapter. From monogrammed t-shirts to birthday cakes, there are many fun ideas in these pages to get your creativity flowing. I also really liked how Tanamachi includes some basic ideas for how to embellish your letters to give them that hand-lettered feel, even when using a stencil. I never would have thought of a lot of the embellishments, but they look easy to do.
I decided to test one of the stencils out and make a "G" for Gwen's room - I just doodled a bunch of flowers inside my letter outline. The only thing I wished I hadn't done was that I bent the paper because I didn't want to take the stencil out of the book yet - and the letter turned out pretty cute, so I wish I had just taken the stencil out! Maybe I'll just have to make another one.
My plans for the stencils in this book include a birthday banner for Wyatt that I'll be making this weekend…and I might try some of the other ideas in this book, like the personalized notebooks. I think there are a lot of great gift ideas in here!
If you like the hand-lettered look that is popular now, this book is probably a great place to start!
Note: I received this book for free from Blogging For Books in exchange for this review. This is my honest opinion.
Last fall I started a personal study of the book of Hebrews - mostly because it was a book I just didn't really understand. And wouldn't you know, I saw that a study called HeBrews: a Better Blend by Leah Adams was up for review! It was perfect.
I really enjoyed this study. Adams has split this study up into eight weeks, and she opens each chapter with a recipe and coffee recommendation, which I love! I appreciated all of her illustrations and the way she uses Scripture to interpret Scripture. She references many other places in the Bible for clarification of difficult concepts in Hebrews, and I really liked that. She also had a really good variety in the types of exercises in this study, and it kept each section interesting!
She did jump around Hebrews a bit, instead of going chapter by chapter, and though I can see how she was trying to address each topic in Hebrews, I still found it a little confusing. I am also not sure why the publisher did this, but there were two places where an "Editor's Note" was included, and it felt weird to me - like whoever the editor was, they were trying to insert their opinion into a study they didn't write. I think the intent might have been to add a different perspective so all sides were understood, but it was awkward to me.
The one point I did not agree with the author was when she said that the passage in Romans 8 that talks about nothing being able to separate us from God's love does not include us - that we can separate ourselves from the love of God. Her point was that we need to cling to the Lord and spend time in Bible study and prayer, but I totally disagree with her thought on that passage - "nor any other created thing" (Romans 8:39) would include us! We are part of creation, no? That bugged me.
Overall, Adams has a great, conversational style to her writing, and she has a way of making difficult concepts easy to understand. Aside from the point mentioned above, I think this study is sound, and I can recommend checking it out.
Note: I received this ebook for free from Netgalley in exchange for this review. This is my honest opinion.
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