3 hours ago
I mentioned earlier this week that we went to a peach festival earlier this month, and we bought a huge box of peaches. And they are delicious - so juicy and sweet and satisfying! It was definitely worth the 28 dollars to buy a box.
However, I always underestimate just how many peaches fill up that box - and last week I realized we may not get to eat all of them before they go bad. So what did I do? I decided to make peach salsa! And I invented my own recipe, which makes me feel so culinarily talented and creative (even though I'm not).
So I thought I'd share my recipe for peach salsa with you. Derek and my brother-in-law were my taste-testers, and they gave it their stamp of approval.
Fresh Peach Salsa
4-5 peaches, peeled and diced
4-5 roma tomatoes, diced
1 yellow bell pepper, diced
3 slices of onion, diced
4-5 jalepenos, diced
3 tbsp. fresh cilantro, minced
1tbsp. lemon juice
2 tbsp. white vinegar
1. Combine all ingrediants in a bowl. Add onions and jalepenos to taste. Serve with chips or over fish, chicken, etc.
And that's it! Super simple, it just takes time to cut up all the produce. I added 4 jalepenos and it wasn't quite spicy enough for me, so if I make it again I'll probably add more like 6-7 jalepenos. Also, this makes a rather big batch, so it would be good for a party. I ended up freezing the extra. I think it should freeze well, but I guess we will see when I thaw it out in another month or two!
Have any of you ever made your own salsa? I think I'm going to have to do it again and experiment with making different kinds. I'm not huge on cooking, but this is one thing I thought was really fun to make, and who doesn't like fresh salsa?
On Distant Shores is a sweet love story set during World War 2. John Hutchinson (Hutch) is a pharmacist in the U.S. Army, but he is frustrated with the lack of respect his profession gets and is working hard with his father to establish a Pharmacy Corps - then he'll finally get to be an officer.
Georgie is a flight nurse, but she struggles with fear in the middle of the dangerous situations she must deal with and her family wants her to leave the Army. The two connect in Italy, but when plans start to fall apart it affects their budding relationship. Both have to learn to rely on the Lord to lead them.
I loved this book! I had never read anything by Sarah Sundin before, but I like her writing style. Historical fiction is one of my favorite genres, but I'm especially impressed when an author takes care to be really historically accurate while creatively tying in real-life people and situations with fictional characters. Sundin did it flawlessly. I also had no idea that pharmacists and their profession were disregarded so much in the Army before World War 2, so I feel like I learned something through this book.
The storyline was sweet, the characters showed growth, and the ending was satisfying. I give it five stars, and I'm looking forward to reading more of Sundin's novels.
Note: I received this book from Litfuse Publicity in exchange for this review. This is my honest opinion.
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Click here to check out the Romantic Weekend Getaway giveaway and the September 3rd "On Distant Shores" Author Chat Party on Facebook.
Rules Of Murder is the first book of a new detective series by Julianna Deering. Drew Farthering is a young estate owner in 1930's England, and he loves a good mystery. But when a house guess and his mother are murdered he puts his detective skills to the test as he and his friend Nick go on a search for clues, accompanied by his stepfather's niece Madeline.
I wasn't expecting the writing style in this book. I felt like a lot of the information was given through dialogue and less through the characters' inner monologues, which I'm not used to, but the more I read the more I realized it reminded me of Agatha Christie's style of mystery writing. I felt like the plot got a little slow in parts, but the ending was very good and a satisfying conclusion to everything that happened. I was not expecting the ending at all. There were a lot of twists and turns in this book.
The author's note in the back says that it was written to intentionally break the "ten commandments for mystery writers" that Father Knox published in 1929, and I thought Deering incorporated that throughout the book in a fun way. The characters were likable, and I want to see what happens to them. I feel like I had to rush through this book a little for this review, and I didn't really get to enjoy it like I might have. Especially now that I am familiar with her writing style, I'm wanting to read more about Drew, Nick and Madeline. Looking forward to checking out her next mystery in this series!
Note: I received this book for free from Bethany House in exchange for this review. This is my honest opinion.
Recently Lisa Marcia from The Little Mustard Seed Co. and WAHM University gave me and some other members of the Influence Network a chance to review her new ebook, A Work At Home Mom's Ultimate Guide To Building A Business, Blog and Brand. I was excited to be able to review her book, because even though Through Clouded Glass is more personal blog than business, I was thinking I could still glean something from her book.
Lisa's book is 58 pages long and covers basics of Wordpress design, tips on hiring and working with a designer for a website/blog, questions to answer while branding your business or blog, encouragement for outsourcing tasks, and different ideas and resources for income opportunities.
I work with Blogger, not Wordpress, so I didn't have a good frame of reference for the Wordpress tips, but I felt like she explained each concept and task well - if I did use Wordpress I think this would be a good resource for me starting out.
I like the section listing different income opportunities. While the book doesn't give a step-by-step guide for pursuing each opportunity, it gave a lot of ideas that I hadn't thought about, and some that I might be interested in researching.
One thing that stood out, that I haven't seen in other e-books, is the different links and resources for further research that Lisa provides. I liked that the information and learning doesn't just stop on these pages.
This book doesn't do all the work for you, so if you are looking for a complete how-to kind of guide, you will probably be disappointed. I feel like this book is more of a jumping-off point, a guide for women who want to work at home on getting started on a business concept. It doesn't cover how to gain more readers or sales or advertising revenue once you have already started a blog or business, and it doesn't tell you what kind of business you should have or how to get your business to make lots of money. But I think it's valuable because a good foundation for a business is important, and that includes website design, branding, and an idea of what exactly you want to do.
Design, branding, and vision is going to look different for each blog or business. I wouldn't call this book a comprehensive guide to each of those topics, but the tips given in this book would be useful for someone still trying to figure those things out for themselves. So if you've always wanted to start an at-home business, this could be a place to start to get your wheels turning. Certainly worth the $2.99 to buy it, I think!
Note: I received this book for free from the author in exchange for this review. This is my honest opinion.
Imagine if you could impact that many people.
What you might not realize is that you can. And you might be even now, without realizing it.
I recently read a book called Beyond Bath Time by Erin Davis (highly, highly recommend this book for all moms - it was so good), and this caught my attention.
"A woman who has two children and whose children each produce two children for ten generations will by the tenth generation have 1,024 offspring. But a woman who has four children and whose children each have four children will be the tenth generation have 1,048,448 descendants!"
(Quote was taken from "Turning the Tide: Having More Children Who Follow Christ" by Holly and Bill Elliff.)
I always considered motherhood a calling and a ministry - that is something that my mom passed on to me. And I have thought about the big picture of the fact that my work as a mother is not just affecting my children, but their children and everyone else they impact. But I never really thought about the fact that the number of my own descendants could be that large, and that I have the power to impact them all for good or ill.
I don't think I'm over-stating it. In most cases parents (particularly mothers, since they are typically the ones spending the most time with the kids) have more of an impact on their children than any other people. They affect them more deeply than anyone else can. In countless little ways they affect how their children view the world, how they behave, how they treat others, how they feel about themselves, how they view God. And those things don't just stop with that child, because that child may grow up and have children of their own and pass down the things they learned from their parents.
For all you moms - don't let anyone tell you that you are wasting your talents or time on motherhood. You are making more of an impact than you think. Use your influence wisely - pray for wisdom to give your children a godly worldview, teach them how to be polite, teach them about loving others and treating them kindly, make them feel like a blessing and not a burden, teach them about following Jesus and living to further His Kingdom.
These seem like small things, but they aren't. These are the big things. These are the things that will truly last when you are gone.
Don't short-change yourself or minimize everything you do as mother, as if it's not a worthy use of your gifts. It is. You are making a difference.
You are changing the world.
After reading Splitting Harriet, I decided I'd like to read more books by Tamara Leigh, so when Faking Grace came up I requested to review it.
Maizy Grace Stewart needs to be able to pay the bills, so even though her faith has been on the back burner for years, she fakes being a strong Christian to get a job at Steeple Side, a Christian magazine company. But then her boss at the local newspaper wants her to investigate Steeple Side's employees and write an article about all their dirty laundry. Will Grace betray the friends she makes at Steeple Side or risk losing her career as a reporter?
I like Tamara Leigh's books - they are so fun to read, and often they make me laugh out loud while I'm reading, which is always the sign of a good story to me. I like feeling emotionally invested in how the story plays out, and Leigh's characters and funny situations drew me in.
The main character, Grace, was likable even when her deceptions were making me cringe. The story kept me interested clear to the end. I also liked the message of not being just a "cultural Christian" and extending grace to our brothers and sisters in Christ when they make mistakes. Two thumbs up!
Note: I received this book for free from Blogging For Books in exchange for this review. This is my honest opinion.
Recently I was given the opportunity to review a book on photography by Jane Goodrich entitled Capturing Every Day Life. Jane Goodrich is a child and newborn photographer based in New York. The description read: "The no-nonsense, cheese-free, read-while-they-nap, easy-as-pie guide to taking top-notch, world-class photos of your kids." That sounded good to me!
I was excited to review this book because I feel like when I read books or articles on photography my photos just get better because it's a good reminder of the basics and different techniques to use with my photos. I was looking forward to reading a book about photographing kids in particular.
I felt like this book was very informative. It covered all the basics of DSLR photography, and her writing style is very conversational and easy to understand. Beyond giving just the basics of photography concepts, Goodrich also included ideas for photographing children and getting creative shots. I also appreciated that she included a section on tips for photographing different ages, from infants to teens. I liked the tips for my kids' age groups, and it gave me an idea of what I have to look forward to in photographing them in future years!
The entire book is filled with gorgeous photos that Goodrich took herself, and more than once I found myself staring at and admiring one of the images on the pages. I even got a few ideas for photos I'd like to try with my kids, so that was inspiring.
The entire book is only about 63 pages, so it really is a read-while-they-nap guide - which is perfect for me! I was able to glean ideas and inspiration in a relatively short amount of time, and that's a plus to me because I like immediate results - tips that will help me improve my photos right away.
The only con I can mention about the book is a few typos I caught here and there - but I'm kind of a grammar/spelling nerd, so I catch typos everywhere. Even on my own blog (whoops!). So while it was enough for me to notice, it wasn't a deal-breaker for me.
Overall, I'd recommend this book for any mom who is just starting out in DSLR photography, is trying to learn their DSLR camera, or just wants some photo ideas to use with her own kids.
To learn more about the author and get more photography tips from her blog, you can check out her website, Jane Goodrich Photography.
Note: I received this book for free from the author in exchange for this review. This is my honest opinion.
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