Book Review : Jesus the One and Only

I have always enjoyed reading Beth Moore, whether a book or a Bible Study.  I feel like she has such a sweet love for the Lord and it just pours out in her writing!

I was offered a chance to read and review Jesus the One and Only recently.  I have never been able to do this Bible Study, but have heard great things about it, so I was thrilled to get to read this book!

The book is broken up into 53 readings, you could approach this as a weekly study over a year, or as a daily study and finish in about 2 months.  I approached it by reading a chapter every chance I got. 

Immediately I was pulled in.  This book is basically a study of Luke, step by step.  It is the story of Jesus.  I personally love expository teaching or preaching.  Beth approached this book in that manner, she walks you through section by section of Luke and dives in, sometimes pretty deep!

I loved this book.  I expect to share it with my growing boys too, I think my 12 year old would enjoy reading through this book and learning from a deeper look at Luke.  I love how this book draws you to know Jesus on a deeper level, with more intimacy and tenderness than before.

I would highly recommend this book as a daily devotion, that is what I think would be the best approach.  It would be great to journal as you are walking through it too, I think it lends itself to such a study!

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Beth Moore is a writer and teacher of best-selling books and Bible studies whose public speaking engagements carry her all over the United States. A dedicated wife and mother of two adult daughters, Moore lives in Houston, Texas, where she is president and founder of Living Proof Ministries.

Learn more about Beth Moore...

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NOTE : I was offered a copy of Jesus the One and Only, in exchange for an honest review, by BHPublishing.

Cousin Camp {day #4}

Spent day#4 of cousin camp on the water.  We are worn out – but had tons of fun!!

		Cousin Camp day on the Lake VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Cousin Camp {day 2&3}

As I am wrapping up the third day of Cousin Camp, I am delighted to look at all our pictures!!

We have had so much fun the last three days : painting, sewing and lots of game playing!  The kids have even walked almost every day!  Great fresh air and exercise!!  Sage has helped in the kitchen for almost every meal prep!  I have so enjoyed cooking with her!

 

Sage making her pretzel

Here is my sweet girl rolling out a pretzel.

 

Yummy Supper

The crock pot is my friend.  Even though I am home all day, I still struggle with dinner if I do not have a plan and rarely think about it in time to thaw and make something.  So when I can make dinner during breakfast prep, I love it!

 

(via pinterest)

Yesterday, Cousin Camp day #1 – Sage and I made a BBQ pulled chicken.  I think this recipe is a keeper because you can tweak each part!  The BBQ part is totally homemade – and you could substitute pork or maybe even beef for the chicken.

We threw everything together in the crock pot during breakfast prep, and I think my chicken was mostly still frozen – I used 4 huge chicken breasts (from our broilers) and the sauce as it calls for it.

About 2pm – well past the suggested 4 hours, I put all the meat in my Bosch bread mixer (you could use a kitchen aid) – with the whipper attachment.  Then I let the Bosch shred all my meat, put it back in the crock pot, turned it off and let it set for about 2 hours.  Turned it back to low about 90 minutes before dinner and we were ready to go!!

I highly recommend, and we will be making it again!!

Cousin Camp ‘13 {day 1}

When you can get 7 kids (ages 7-12) under one roof, you know it is going to be a party!! 

Today was officially day 1 of Cousin Camp!  It has been so much fun.  I planned lots of stuff for us to do each day, but I really did not realize how well all these kids would play together!  They have played Risk too many times to count, they cleaned off the ping pong table and had a few rounds of that, and there have been many games of Fussball too!

We have made some garden stones and the kids always love that!  Hopefully the parents will enjoy them too!

Our apron sewing project was started today – we cut out the fabric and got it ready to sew some ruffles tomorrow.

My favorite part of all my days is our Bible Study time, here I snapped a pic of my gang praying before our morning kicked off -

Here we are making garden stones

Here is Matthew feeding our sweet calf

Another Garden stone making pic – they were trying to work together and help each other

A shot of 4 of the kids playing ping pong (yes the school bldg is trashed) – oh my the giggling, laughing and fun they were having!!

Here they are playing stratego – it was either this or risk over and over.

 

Praying things continue to go well, night times have been hard since my boys think it is a free-for-all.  Hoping my boys can get their act together and we can continue to do the fun things that Cousin Camp brings!!

Book Review : Afloat

Dark waters are rising. Who will stay . . .

 

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Oh my.  I have loved Ted Dekker for ever – love every book he has written.  One of the things I love about Dekker is that he works with authors and co-writes a few books too.  Erin Healy is an author he has co-authored a few books with, so her name is not new to me.  I also was honored to review The Baker’s Wife in the past.

This time, I loved reading Afloat by Ms. Healy.  I love how Ms. Healy brings spiritual ideas into the real world and merges the two.  Each of the characters is facing some facet of their past, except for young Simeon.  In the story there are a group of people cut off from the rest of the world by a deluge of water.  There are rumblings and they are not sure if there earthquakes, bombs, or something else.  The rumblings, torrential water, and weird light patterns are all a concern for each of the survivors.

New Addition!

I used Grammarly to grammar check this post, because since starting SAT training with my boys I have realized that my grammar may have brought my score down after all!!

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I recently received a call from a friend that we needed to get ready, he might have a calf for us! We were already ready! We have the bottle, have some milk and always love to have a new calf!! This one is 3 days old!! She is absolutely adorable!! Oh my!!

So yesterday we went on a hunt for her and her brother – and were so blessed to find both on a 40 acre lot. {Think 2 tiny needles in a haystack} It was even fun just seeing all the mama cows and their babies!! When we reunited our sweet calf’s brother with the mama – we such a sweet reunion too!! Both were happy to be back together!!

Not sure of her name yet, but there is not much that is sweeter than baby animals on the farm!! Getting her to start taking her bottle yesterday was not too sweet, but she is already drinking a full bottle at a feeding and that is worth celebrating!!

We are just so excited – and once we get Chloe home (she went next door to visit the herd of cows over there – she went through the barbwire) we are pretty sure they will be fast friends! Hopefully, this little herd of 3 goats and 2 calves will be enough to keep Chloe home for a while!!

God is sure pretty amazing and we are sure thankful!!

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PS – I hope you check out Grammarly – I found it very interesting and I know it will be a tool that would be well worth the cost, especially during high school and/or college applications!!

NOTE – Grammarly did sponsor this post!!

Book Review : Unglued {Devotional}

I was trying to get my hands on a copy of this book several times!  For some reason I really wanted to read it.  I finally was able to get signed up to review a copy and I am so glad I did!

Have you even had a devotion book that just met you where you were almost every time you opened it?

Oh my!

This little book did that over and over, and well, over!!  It is full of 60 quick devotions.  Sounds simple, but the truth that pours from the pages is anything but simple – profound is more like it!  I just loved this book.

I kept it in the bathroom, hoping to read it each time I made a trip.  I would find myself reading more than one just because I wanted more.  They really are quick reads – 3-5 minutes.  Would be a great book if you have to wait in an-afterschool pick up line.  Or even a great book to stick in your purse and pull out when you have 3 minutes – honestly!

I love Lysa Terkeurst, I have read Made to Crave by her (need to get that review posted soon) and I loved both of these books.  Lysa writes with a simple truth that goes right to your heart. 

Unglued topics covered are (well there are 60, but here are a few I really soaked up) : Getting Unstuck from My Thinking Rut, Plan for It, Comparisons Stink,  The Exploder (1 & 2), well I could keep going but I won’t.  Just take my word for it – we could all use a devotion book like this.

Now, that being said, let me tell you this is not a quiet time devotion – it is not a pour over and meditate on.  It is a read, absorb and apply kind of thing, there is a verse at the beginning of each chapter and then Lysa working through real life with scriptural truth and application.  That is why I suggest stashing it somewhere you can grab it when you have 3 minutes free.  While it is not hour long quiet time material, the truths are powerful!!

Can you tell I loved this book?  I did.  I hope you get a copy and let Lysa speak God’s word into your heart!!

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NOTE : I received a copy of Unglued (Devotional) in exchange for an honest review.

Gratitude {Starting Over}

I am feeling that life is running away some days, well – all days.  I feel like things are not going to slow down until ….  well, honestly maybe never.  So I think I need to slow.  Be still.

Today is June 1st and I am going to start all over.  I am going to count again, count my thanks.  I have done this before, and it changes the minutes of every day.  Taking notice of everything.  And I want to experience that again, that offering of thanks – that pace of gratitude.  So for the next 3 months I am going to count every day.  I’ll dig out my journal, or start a new one.  And I am going to live a life of Thanks.  I hope it spills into everything else, all sloppy like – in my days and my minutes.  I hope it makes me slow just a bit, to see all the great and wonderful things around me all the time.

{Gratitude Journal 2013}