Archive for the 'Books' Category

Winners!! (and tidbits)

Published May 21, 2010 Blogging , Books , Friends , Giveaways 2 Comments

Thank you to everyone who celebrated my blog’s two-year milestone with me this week! I had fun doing the giveaway! I sent your names to random.org last night, and they chose Rachel and Jessica as the winners! Congrats, friends!

Rachel, I’ll email the Barnes & Noble gift certificate to you. Jessica, please send me your address, and I’ll mail the book to you. Happy reading, ladies!

This has been a busy week with some challenges, but God is good, and He continues to lead and guide us. He made a promise to his children to hold their right hand and walk with them through everything, and He has kept His promise to me. (Isaiah 41:13)

Before I go, I wanted to share a few tidbits about my blog since this week is all about my baby. If you haven’t read the history of my blog, it’s right here. In the first year, I only wrote 31 posts. In the last 12 months, I posted 85 times. I would love to post every day, but I’m still learning how to keep everything balanced in my life. It’s been a good learning experience!

Thanks again for joining me on this journey…have a great weekend!

Second Blogiversary and First Giveaway

Published May 18, 2010 Blogging , Books , Friends , Giveaways 13 Comments

My blog was born two years ago today!

Until about a month ago, I had never heard of blogiversaries. I was hopping around the blogosphere, and I noticed some blogs had countdowns to their blogiversaries. When you spend a lot of time on your blog, it does become like a baby to you, so why not celebrate its birthday?! It’s always fun to find new reasons to celebrate.

So I’m having my own little blogiversary party this week! Several of you have spoken to me and commented and sent encouraging messages and emails about my blog adventure, and you have blessed me! Thank you! I have had a blast with this thing!

To celebrate and to say thank you and to share the love, I’m doing my first giveaway!

Because I love books, I’m giving away…

A $20 online gift certificate to Barnes & Noble.com

and

Daisy Chain by Mary E. DeMuth (scroll down to read a description of the book)

To enter, post a message about the party on Facebook, Twitter, your blog, or email. You could write something like, “Check out my friend Lisa’s blog at www.fulfillingmypurpose.com. She’s doing a cool Barnes and Noble giveaway this week!”

Then come back here, and leave a comment, telling me you posted a message to a bunch of your friends.

On Thursday night, www.random.org will choose two winners, and I’ll let you know who wins on Friday. :-)

I received this book last year as a gift from Zondervan at a writer’s conference. (I attended a session by the author.) Since I rarely read fiction, and it has been sitting on my dresser, I would love to give it to someone who enjoys fiction.

Here’s the back cover copy:

“A picture-perfect small town hides more secrets than the curved petals of a blood red rose. In the summer of 1977, innocent young Daisy Chance goes missing. Fourteen-year-old Jed Pepper has a sickening secret: He’s convinced it’s his fault.

“As Jed follows the trail of clues Daisy left behind, he traces the path of pain hidden in his own family as well. When Jed’s carefully constructed world comes crashing down, will he dare to find hope? Or will his guilt crush him forever? Haunted by Daisy’s memory and pierced by the shattered pieces of a family in crisis, this achingly beautiful southern coming-of-age story brings to life God’s sometimes confusing but always present redemption.

“Mary DeMuth loves to write about turning trials to triumph. Her debut novel, Watching the Tree Limbs, was a Christy Award finalist. Both it and its sequel, Wishing On Dandelions, were finalists for the American Christian Fiction Writers Book of the Year. Mary’s nonfiction books include Ordinary Mom, Extraordinary God, Building the Christian Family You Never Had, and Authentic Parenting in a Postmodern Culture. Mary recently moved back to Texas with her husband, Patrick, and their three children, after spending two and a half years planting a church in southern France.”

Love, True Love

Published April 15, 2010 Books , Faith , Family , POTD 3 Comments

The Princess and the Three Knights by Karen Kingsbury

“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It always protects, always trust, always hopes, always perseveres.” 1 Corinthians 13:4, 7

My mom gave this book to Chelsea for Easter, and I was very impressed by it. I have found most books about princesses to be kind of cheesy, but this is a great story, and it provides a good way to introduce your little girl to what true love really looks like.

The book is based on the verses above. In the story, the king stages a competition to find “the one knight with a heart as beautiful as that of his daughter.” I think Kevin and I will have to stage our own competition when Chelsea gets older!

The publisher recommends the book for girls aged 4-7. Chelsea has looked at the pictures, but she won’t let me read it to her because one of the knights on the cover looks a little scary. I think she would really like the book, but I think girls aged 6-7 would understand the true love concept better than the four and five-year-olds. The younger girls would probably be more interested in the horses, castles, and pretty dresses.

Choose Health

Published March 28, 2010 Books , Food , Health 10 Comments

I heard Patty Minta speak a few nights ago, and her topic was Choose Health. Local friends, you missed a great message! Patty is a registered dietitian and the author of Mom, What’s For Dinner?, a meal planning guide for families. I bought the book, and you are welcome to borrow it when I am done with it.

Just wanted to share a few tidbits from her message:

  • Twenty-five years ago there were only a handful of autoimmune disorders. Now there are 80 different types.
  • Everything you put in your mouth either builds you up or tears you down.
  • Google Miracle in Wisconsin. Cool story.
  • 4500 studies show that increasing your fruit and veggie intake prevents cancer and heart disease
  • Our bodies are either slightly alkaline or slightly acidic. Cancer cannot grow in an alkaline environment. Drinking lots of water and eating plant-based foods makes your body alkaline. Eating too many animal products makes your body acidic.
  • 75% of each meal should be plant-based. The amount of meat you eat should be equal to the size of your palm. Same applies to your kids’ portions.
  • Eating 1 gram of trans fat daily (hydrogenated oil/fat) increases your risk of heart disease by 20%.
  • Mayoclinic.com has several food pyramids. Search on pyramid.
  • Drinking lots of water flushes all the junk out of your body. When you don’t drink enough water (half your body weight in ounces), it’s like using the toilet all day long and never flushing. Gross, I know.
  • When Patty’s kids were younger, she never made a separate meal for them if they didn’t like what she was serving. (I need to work on this one!)
  • Patty would make her kids bite, chew, and swallow two bites of food before they could say they liked it or not.

Check out www.momwhatsfordinner.net

How to be a Baby

Published March 27, 2010 Books , Family , POTD 2 Comments

How to be a Baby by Sally Lloyd-Jones

Chelsea found this book at the library on Wednesday. (She only picks books that have pink bindings.) We laughed hysterically when I read it to her. Chelsea could hardly catch her breath.

But moms, beware. When I got toward the end of the book, I got so choked up I could barely finish reading it. (I’m glad Chelsea didn’t notice the tears streaming down my face.) You might want to have some tissues nearby.

The ideal audience for this book is little girls–the girl in the book is 6–who have a new baby sibling. We don’t fit into that category (nor do we plan on fitting into that category), but we still loved it.

Winter is Gone

Published March 24, 2010 Books , Family , Nature , POTD Leave a Comment

 Well…at least in this part of North America it is.

“See! The winter is past; the rains are over and gone. Flowers appear on the earth; the season of singing has come, the cooing of doves is heard in our land.” Song of Songs 2:11, 12

Our picnic in the backyard today. Sunny and 72–perfect!

Playing with beans and rice while Mommy read Crazy Love.

Goals Revisited and New Year’s Theme

Published January 12, 2010 Books , Faith , God Lessons , Holidays 2 Comments

Looking back…

What’s the point of having goals if you don’t evaluate how well you met them? Here’s how I did:

My Goals For This Christmas Season

I will NOT…

1. stay up until 1 a.m. on Christmas Eve wrapping presents. I finished all my wrapping by 9:30 and spent the rest of the night reading and blogging. Woohoo!

2. spend over my budget. I overspent by $34. This is a huge improvement for me. In the past I overspent by hundreds each year, so yay me. Next year, I need to get it down to zero or less.

3. pull out every decoration I own. I only put out about 50% of my decorations and about 75% of my ornaments. It was much quicker and much less overwhelming.

I will…

1. watch the Nativity Story (great movie!). I watched it on Christmas night after the kiddos went to bed. I am so amazed by Mary. That woman rocks. I can’t wait to meet her one day.

2. read Touching Wonder: Recapturing the Awe of Christmas by John Blase. I read half of it. Great book. I looked at many Christmas books this year. I didn’t want one about Five Ways to have a Better Christmas. I wanted one about the incarnation. Just give me Jesus. This book did that. The only reason I didn’t finish it is was because I was reading another book at the same time and couldn’t put it down. I finished “Same Kind of Different as Me” on Christmas Eve–a Christmas gift from God:

This incredible book deserves a post of its own, but for now…If you have a heart for the poor and homeless, read this book. If you struggle with stereotyping, prejudice, or favoritism (like me), read this book. If you love a true story, read this book. If you want to see how God uses ordinary people to do amazing things, read this book. You’ll thank me.

3. spend time daily in the Word (especially in Matthew and Luke) looking for new nuggets of truth about Christmas. Check.

4. spend lots of time snuggling on the couch under a warm blanket with my two little munchkins reading Christmas books. Lots and lots of time. Wonderful memories. Thank you, Jesus.

5. be like Jesus’ friend Mary and sit at Jesus’ feet listening to Him. “Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.” Luke 10:41 I’m becoming more and more acquainted with Mary’s ways and less and less with Martha’s. Spent lots of time sitting, reading, and listening to Jesus.

Looking ahead…

I don’t do New Year’s Resolutions. I have tried in the past, and I never kept them. A long list is too much to keep up with. Instead, I ask God what He wants the theme of my year to be–something that He wants to teach me. I got this idea from my friend Jenny F a few years ago.

This year’s theme is breaking my approval addiction. You know…the obsession with what people think of me instead of total dependence on and security in God. My self-esteem is also tied up in this addiction, so that needs an overhaul too. I’ve struggled with this for several years. I distinctly remember it in college, but it probably started before that. I’ve tried and tried to overcome it in the past, but it keeps sneaking back up to the surface. It’s been particularly ugly in the past six months, so I wasn’t surprised when God said, “We’re going to put an end to this in 2010.”

So that’s it. I’ll meet you back here at the end of 2010 and let you know how it went.

And I’d love to hear your goals and themes (or resolutions) too. If you want to share, leave a comment.

It Takes a Parent

Published June 4, 2008 Books , Family Leave a Comment

I am reading a book right now called, “It Takes a Parent” by Betsy Hart. My mom recently led a playgroup and a mom’s group at her church, so she has started reading parenting books again. She read this book and gave me a copy. I was a little hesitant to read it because I have never heard of the author, but my mom said it was very good, and I trust her godly judgment. The author does not claim to be a Christian, but she quotes scripture, talks about her church attendance and helping her children memorize scripture, and so far the book seems to be in line with godly principles.

The thing that I love about this book is that the author quotes Ted Tripp’s book “Shepherding a Child’s Heart” in the first chapter, and she states that the purpose of her book is to deal with issues of the heart instead of trying to control outward behavior, which is the same premise of Ted Tripp’s book. Hart says we are on a rescue mission for our children’s hearts, which is so true.

For example, it’s not enough to tell our kids not to lie. We need to help our children orient their hearts toward “genuinely disdaining lying and loving truth.” And it’s not enough to tell our kids (fifty times a day), “Be nice!” We need to help our children orient their hearts toward “truly valuing, caring about, and respecting others…”

This book has been a great follow-up read to “Shepherding a Child’s Heart.” It has been very encouraging and a great reminder to focus on shaping the heart toward God instead of toward perfect behavior.

Crossing Over

Published May 24, 2008 Books , Joyce Meyer Leave a Comment

I watch Joyce Meyer just about every day on TV. I usually watch her on the Church Channel, but she is also on at least two other channels, maybe more. I have been listening to Joyce’s teachings since I was in high school. I think my mom heard Joyce on the radio, and my mom started buying her teaching resources and books. I remember years ago sitting on a couch in my brother’s room (he was away at college) with a tape player and a notebook and absorbing everything Joyce said. Her teachings have really helped me to apply God’s Word to my life in very practical ways.

A few weeks ago Joyce had Paul Scanlon as a guest on her TV show called “Enjoying Everyday Life.” Paul Scanlon is a pastor in the United Kingdom, and he talked about how his church “crossed over.” He said his church was full of good people who were concerned about the lost, but they were not reaching the lost at all. He led his church on a journey of crossing over from a dead church to a living, vibrant church that truly reaches out and embraces the lost in their community. I was very intrigued by Scanlon’s message because it sounded a lot like what I believe our pastor is in the midst of right now–leading our church through great change with the ultimate purpose of reaching the lost.

I was so interested in Scanlon’s experience that I bought his book “Crossing Over,” which details his church’s journey. He compares the journey to the Israelites’ journey of crossing over the Jordan River, led by Joshua. The book is mostly directed toward pastors, but its principles can also be applied to any leader in any type of situation. I do not consider myself a leader, nor do I feel comfortable in leadership positions, but I have really enjoyed reading this book because it has helped me to understand a little bit of what our pastor has gone through in the last year. It has made me appreciate his perseverance.

Communication

Published May 21, 2008 Books , Family , Sunday School Leave a Comment

Two Sundays ago (May 11) we talked about communication in class. I shared this with the small group I was in:

Back in March Kevin and I started something new to improve our communication. Up until that point, as soon as the kids went to bed Kevin and I would get busy with email, hobbies, chores, or whatever was left on our to-do lists. We weren’t making our communication a priority. We were just giving each other the left-over time we had if any. So we decided to spend at least 15 minutes talking to each other immediately after the kids go to bed. This was an idea I heard about from Gary Chapman (author of “The Five Love Languages”). Our relationship has improved tremendously now that we are putting each other first before all the other things that so easily use up our time.

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