Lists To Love By

About the book:
It's no secret that there is a wide emotional gap between men and women. Couples crave love and attention from one another, but they don't always know how to show it. LISTS TO LOVE BY FOR BUSY WIVES presents creative and practical ways for wives to bridge this gap and improve their relationship. These thirty lists will carry wives through an entire month of learning to love their husbands more deeply with advice they will come back to again and again. From lists addressing a wide range of topics, readers will learn to set better expectations for their marriage, to communicate more effectively with their husband, to build a deeper foundation of love in their marriage, and much more.

My thoughts:
What a neat little book!  This set of books came out earlier this month, and I'm glad to tell you about them.

There are 30 lists here about a variety of marriage topics.  For example there is "10 things husbands want to hear from their wives," "4 decisions that define forgiveness," "6 things to do when you're lonely in marriage," and "7 things you should stop doing to your husband in public."

I found this book to be very helpful as a wife.  It is one that is good to go back and reread the lists. We all need the reminders, and I think this will help me improve as a wife.

Since there are 30 lists, this is a good size book to read in a month and read a different list each day. Or you may just find the lists that seem applicable to your current situation and read them in that order.  Either way you will surely find useful ideas and help for your marriage.

I enjoyed the lists and recommend this to you.

Also, there is another book for your husband called Lists to Love by For Busy Husbands.....

About the book:
Husbands and wives bring different personalities, upbringings, experiences, and expectations into their marriage, which can lead to miscommunication and emotional turmoil. LISTS TO LOVE BY FOR BUSY HUSBANDS presents practical dos and don'ts along with step-by-step advice for husbands who want to bridge the emotional gap and improve their marriage. Mark and Susan Merrill understand that couples crave love, but don't always know how to express it to one another. These thirty lists will carry husbands through an entire month of learning to love their wives more deeply--wisdom they will come back to again and again. These real-life answers from a Christian perspective will help readers evaluate, refresh, and strengthen their own marriage.

My thoughts:
 I have not read all of this book, but it is similar to the one for wives.  The ones I read I did think were applicable and would be good for husbands to know about wives. My husband read some of the lists and thought it was good, useful information.

This set of books was provided to me for my review by Hachette reviewer program.  Thank you.

Have a day of blessings!
   Bethany

A Different Beautiful

I am so enjoying the book A Different Beautiful by Courtney Westlake.  It has such a wonderful message about how we see those around us and what is truly beautiful.

 I feel like so many people would benefit from this book.  It's release day is just a few weeks away!  Pre order your copy now! You will enjoy Brenna's story.

Here's a quote from the book I thought was fitting:

#adifferentbeautiful

Have a day of blessings!
  Bethany

2010 Book #31: The Book Whisperer

I have finished reading an interesting book called The Book Whisperer by Donalyn Miller. I chose to read this book for my yearly book to count towards my continuing education credits. Sometimes I am disappointed with the book I chose to use; this year I really enjoyed reading the book and agree with the author's opinions about reading.

Donalyn Miller is a teacher who loves reading and shares her love of reading with each of her students. In this book she shares her techniques and advice for how to teach reading. Students are not given much time to just read in today's classrooms. Teachers say they don't have time for that. Instead they are forced to read a book assigned to the class by a teacher, prepare for a standardized test, and do worksheet after worksheet. This is not effective. Mrs. Miller has a totally different approach. The kids in her class actually read. They take ownership of their reading through selecting their own books and sharing favorite books/authors with classmates as well as their teacher. She writes that the average each student reads is 40-50 books per year. It was interesting to read about the different types of readers she has in her class each year and how she gets all of them to read.

I am glad I read this book and wish there were more teachers out there who valued reading as Mrs. Miller does.

Have a day of blessings!

Flashback Friday: I love books!

This week is a great Flashback Friday about books.

My Flashback:

Books have always been important to me. I always loved reading and always had a lot of books.

I still have the Golden Books from my childhood. I like that my Mom wrote my name in them along with the date and who gave them to me. Some of them are very worn, I can tell which were my favorites. There was one (and I can't remember the title, of course), but it had a picture of a little girl laying in a barrel. This made me want my own barrel! My Dad fixed one for me under my slide. I don't know that I really laid in it, but I thought it was neat to have one like the girl in the book. Now that I am grown these books have been a treasure to have to share with Caleb.

During school we got to do book orders. I was always so excited to look through these order forms and choose some books. This really added to my book collection and I had so many. The funny thing is I don't know how many of those I ever read! When I have gone through them over the years, many of them I don't remember reading. We went to the library in the summer, and I always participated in the summer reading program. I still remember the smell of those old library books! I loved books by Beverly Cleary and also the Babysitters Club by Ann M. Martin. I owned a ton of both and borrowed them from the library.

Because I had so many books and because I loved libraries, I categorized my books and made my own little library. I still have some of those chapter books today, and it makes me laugh to see my labels and numbers on the inside. I remember one group was comics or joke books. So I'd write Comics, #9 on the inside cover along with a stamp "From the Library of...." I was trying to keep a list of how many I had.

In high school my favorite book was To Kill a Mockingbird. I also enjoyed Huckleberry Finn my junior year and the projects we did while reading it. I found my copy of that book during our move, and it was neat to go back and look at what I had marked and written in the margins. I want to reread both of these along with The Scarlet Letter.

As an adult books continue to play an important role in my life. I've also shared my love of reading with my husband. He reads all the time now too, which he didn't do when we dated and in our earlier years of marriage. He likes to find new books on the sale rack at Mardel or at the annual library book sale. I've wanted to pass our love of books to our son and he has always had many books. It makes me sad when children don't have books at home to read and use. We went to the library story time before he started to school and still make a weekly trip to the library. It thrills my heart when he gets an idea of a topic in his mind of a book he wants to find at the library. This week it was hurricanes. I love to look through the book order forms he brings home now and can usually find one or two for him or to give as gifts.

Thanks to Linda for another great topic this week.

Have a day of blessings!

Book giveaway winner

Congrats to Denise. Her number was chosen in the Random.org for the book giveaway. I will probably be having another giveaway soon! Thanks for all who entered.

Have a day of blessings!

Giveaway and My Other Blog

I previously posted a review for the third book in Kathy Herman's Sophie Trace Trilogy. I am hosting a giveaway for this book. Leave a comment on this post if you would like to be entered for a chance to win this wonderful book. It would make a great read for your summer reading!


Also, I have another blog where I review children's books. It is called Have You Read With Your Child Today? I realized recently that I have not posted a review there in quite some time (last October actually!) and have read some good books with Caleb that I wanted to share. Hope you will visit there and become a follower. Thanks!



Remember to enter for your chance to win! Winner will be chosen at random and you will need to provide your mailing address so the book can be sent to you. Giveaway open to those in US. I will choose a winner the evening of Friday, June 18 and announce the winner after that.

Thank you for stopping by!

Have a day of blessings!

Living with Less

Today I'd like to welcome Jill and Mark Savage. Jill and Mark's newest book Living with Less so your Family has More just released and I've invited them to share a little bit about this great resource!

Tell us a little bit about yourself and your family.

We have been married for 27 years…17 of them happily. After finding ourselves in a marriage counselor’s office around year 8 or so, we realized that we really didn’t know how to be married. We worked hard to turn things around and now we like to share that hope with other couples.

We have five children ranging from 13 to 25. Our oldest three are married. Anne (25) and her husband, Matt, live in Zion, IL, and are expecting our first grandchild in April. (We are very excited!) Evan (22) and his wife, Julie, have been married a year and a half and they live just a few miles from us. Erica (19) married her husband Kendall last September. They live in Augusta, GA, and wherever else the Army takes them.

We have two teenagers still at home. Kolya just turned 16. He’s learning to drive and we’ve nearly worn a hole in the carpet on the floor in the passenger seat trying to find that non-existent brake pedal. Kolya is the newest member of the Savage family. We adopted him at the age of nine from Russia.

Austin is 13 and in the 8th grade. He wants us to make sure and tell the world that this “living with less” life is a real bummer because he’s the ONLY kid in 8th grade who doesn’t have a cell phone.

Tell us about your newest book Living With Less So Your Family Has More?
The world screams the message that bigger is always better, but we have found that is not often true. When it comes to raising a family, less materially can actually result in more relationally. Children don’t need the best houses, the best lessons, the best cars, or the best clothes. What they really need is the best home life and the best family relationships we can give them.

Why did you want to write this book?
We didn’t start out with the “less is more” mindset. We started as a double income family wanting to have the “best” of everything. Then Mark decided to pursue ministry. We went from the “high life” to the “frugal life” very quickly as we moved to another state for him to go to Bible College full-time.

That experience introduced us to the concept that less is more. We definitely had less money, but we had more time. We had less stress and more peace. We had less activities and more fun.

Since that experience, we’ve continued to live primarily on one income for the past twenty years. We’ve had to battle cultural peer pressure and make different decisions for our family than many other families in our neighborhood have made. But we’ve never felt that we were materially depriving ourselves or our kids…instead we’ve focused on what we’ve actually been able to provide for them emotionally and relationally.

What do you hope your readers will gain from this book?
We hope the reader is encouraged to evaluate how they are living their life, spending their money, and thinking about family matters. Our goal is to introduce families to the “less is more” concept and then equip them with the attitudes and actions to actually make that happen.

For families that are already committed to less is more, we hope to bolster their resolve and help them stay focused on the long-term goal of providing relationally for their kids.

In today’s economy, there are many families being forced to live with less. We want to help them see the opportunity they have with this unexpected downsizing they’ve been forced to do.

And for those who have just been a little discontent with their life and saying things like, “I’m tired of the rat race of life,” or “Is there more to life than drive-thru meals for dinner?” we hope to help them see other choices they have and how they can lead their family in a different direction.

What unique elements will the reader find in Living With Less So Your Family Has More?
For couples who want to read the book together, we’ve included discussion questions at the end of every chapter. This helps move the readers to discussion and eventually actions. Even a single parent can use the discussion questions for personal evaluation.

Readers will find this book a practical guide to changing your attitude and your actions to live a successful “less is more” life. They’ll find our writing style to be a warm, casual, honest discussion where we not only share our victories but our mistakes along the way. We are an average couple living successfully on an average income who want to help others to see the possibilities before them.

This is a Hearts at Home book. What is Hearts at Home?
Hearts at Home is an organization that encourages, educates, and equips women in the profession of motherhood. Hearts at Home encourages moms through annual conferences, our extensive website (www.hearts-at-home.org), a free electronic newsletter, a radio program, and an entire line of books designed to meet the needs of moms all over the world!

Any closing thoughts?
It’s healthy for parents to occasionally pause and evaluate their vision for their family and the choices they are making. We hope this resource will help them do that together and that it will lead them to live a life of little regret.
--------
Thank you to Hearts at Home for sharing this interview today. I'm excited to read this new book from the Savage's.

Have a day of blessings!

Poem: "A Different Child"

Ealier this week I was waiting for my husband to get off work so we could go meet Caleb and Gramma at the water park. Instead of sitting in the heat of the truck I went over to the library to browse and read my books. I was looking in the "new books" section and a title caught my eye: After Miscarriage. I picked it up and flipped through it. At the back was a poem called "A Different Child." At first I only read the first page of the poem and then realized it was continued on the back. I checked the book out so I could share it with my husband and Mom. I found it online and want to share it here as well.

You can find the poem online here. This was written by Pandora Diane Waldron.

A Different Child
"------for Madoka Marietta Rosalie, from your mother,
Pandora Diane Waldron*--------March 4, 1999.

A different child,
People notice
There's a special glow around you.

You grow
Surrounded by love,
Never doubting you are wanted;
Only look at the pride and joy
In your mother and father's eyes.


And if sometimes
Between the smiles
There's a trace of tears,
One day
You'll understand.

You'll understand
There was once another child
A different child
Who was in their hopes and dreams.

That child will never outgrow the baby clothes
That child will never keep them up at night
In fact, that child will never be any trouble at all.

Except sometimes, in a silent moment,
When mother and father miss so much
That different child.

May hope and love wrap you warmly
And may you learn the lesson forever
How infinitely precious
How infinitely fragile
Is this life on earth.

One day, as a young man or woman
You may see another mother's tears
Another father's silent grief
Then you, and you alone
Will understand
And offer the greatest comfort.

When all hope seems lost,
You will tell them
With great compassion,
"I know how you feel.
I'm only here
Because my mother tried again."

As I read the last lines I got tears in my eyes. After our miscarriage I was scared to try again. I was scared it would happen again, and we'd never hold a child in our arms. I was in such pain, and I didn't want to go through all of it again. But at the same time I wanted to try again and wanted to have a baby. Even though I suffered a great deal of pain during that time after the miscarriage, I wouldn't change it. God had a purpose and plan for us going through that. I'm thankful for those nearly 11 weeks with that first baby, the "different child," we never met.

This poem touched my heart and made me thankful for our sweet Caleb.

~~~~~~~~~

" For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." Jeremiah 29:11

Real Moms....Real Jesus

I was totally blessed to read another book (Professionalizing Motherhood) by this wonderful author, Jill Savage, last year. I have been following her blog since then I guess. I'm excited to begin reading her newest book. Read below more information about this gifted author and speaker. You will be blessed! (I may be having a give away of this book coming up in the near future so stay tuned.) It is a privilege to be part of this blog tour for this new book. I was supposed to post last week on the 10th but it totally slipped my mind during our time at the hospital. I was thankful for them to let me post this week instead so I could still participate!

Today I’d like to welcome author and speaker, Jill Savage. Jill’s recent book Real Moms…Real Jesus, just released, and I wanted to ask her about her real mom moments..

Jill, tell us a little bit about yourself and your family.

Mark and I have been married 25 years and we have five children. Anne is 24 and married to our wonderful son-in-love, Matt. Evan is 21 and married to our beautiful daughter-in-love, Julie. Erica is 18 and a college student at Heartland Community College. Kolya is 15 and in the 8th grade. We adopted Kolya at the age of 9 from Russia---the God story about his adoption is included in the Real Moms…Real Jesus book. And Austin is 12 and in the 7th grade.

Tell us about your newest book Real Moms...Real Jesus?

Real Moms…Real Jesus is a book designed to help moms understand that when Jesus lived on this earth he was fully God, yet fully man. We don’t often think about the fact that he was a human being and he lived the full human experience: pain, hunger, fatigue, frustration, betrayal, disappointment. He experienced it all!

There’s one verse in the Bible about Jesus that simply says “large crowds followed him everywhere he went.” Well, isn’t that the life of a mom? Large crowds follow her to the bathroom. They follow her to the kitchen. To the grocery store. She’s in high demand! And when Jesus lived on this earth, He was in high demand, too.

Why did you want to write this book?

Most of us long for a friend who understands. Yes, we need girlfriends who understand what our life is like. But we also need to understand that we have a friend who understands in Jesus. Too many of us think of God as being distant and unable to relate to our daily struggles. But nothing could be further from the truth! He understands and he wants us to build our friendship with Him. He wants to not only be our Savior, but also our Friend.

What do you hope your readers will gain from this book?

I hope that readers will gain a new perspective about their relationship with Jesus. I also hope to weave God’s truth into the daily life of a mom.

What unique elements will the reader find in Real Moms…Real Jesus?

Each chapter looks at some character trait in Jesus’ life that can help us in our life as a mom. In between the chapters are interactive vignettes that provide brief, refreshing glimpses into our real, messy, busy lives.

There are also questions at the end of the chapter for further consideration and suggested Bible reading in the book of Matthew. If the reader chooses to pursue the suggested reading, she will have read the book of Matthew completely by the end of the book!

There is also a leader’s guide in the back of the book so it can be used in a group setting.

This is a Hearts at Home book. What is Hearts at Home?

Hearts at Home is an organization that encourages, educates, and equips women in the profession of motherhood. Hearts at Home encourages moms through annual conferences, our extensive website (www.hearts-at-home.org), a free bi-weekly electronic newsletter, a radio program, and an entire line of books designed to meet the needs of moms all over the world!

Any closing thoughts?
I am very excited about this book! I believe that if a mom can strengthen her relationship with Jesus Christ, she will feel more equipped to be the mom she wants to be. I’m also offering an online book discussion on my blog beginning Tuesday, April 7. If you’d like to join us, you can subscribe to my blog at www.jillsavage.org.

I’d love to hear a reader’s thoughts after they read the book, too! You can connect to me through my blog at www.jillsavage.org.

Thanks, Jill, for taking time out of your busy schedule to share your real mom, real Jesus moments with us.

You can purchase your own copy of Real Moms…Real Jesus by clicking here.

And be sure to check out Hearts at Home, their conferences for moms, and all their online resources here.

Book giveaway

A fellow booklover at Musings of a Minister is having a book giveaway. Go check it out! He has three books he'll be giving and all of them look great! I enjoy reading his blog as well so don't just go for the giveaway. :)