Booking It January 2012

I love to read, and I have loved Booking It, because it  not only reminds me to take time to read, but also makes me a least sit back for a few moments and think about what I have read.  This month (and over Christmas) I read a few books, but I have a couple in progress right now that I can't wait to tell you more about next month. 

Naturally Skinny: 100 Organic Recipes under 350 Calories
 This was a cookbook - there are some interesting recipes in it that I will try, but I was glad that I got the free kindle version - I'm not sure that I would use it often enough for it to pay for itself.  That being said, it is always nice to get another viewpoint on dinner, and this has great snack and breakfast recipes as well.  I'm sure it will see some use in the upcoming months. 

O Little Town
I love Christmas books.  I love the nostalgia, and even the craziness  and sadness of things not going the way it is expected to.  It took me awhile to get into this one because it jumps around from character to character at the beginning, I was sucked in as soon as I saw their lives intersecting, it just took me a moment toget there.  It showed fragile, imperfect people, trying to make it through life regardless of circumstance, and I loved it.  It was a story of forgiveness- Forgiveness both given and received. 

The Cheapskate's Guide to Grocery Savings
This was a very quick read.  There were a lot of suggestions to help cut grocery spending, and I felt like I already do most of them, however I can pass up a book of this title on the offchance that they may have one more trick up their sleeves.   It is also great to have a reminder of things that I should be doing to help keep down my costs - It's a great motivation to keep on keeping on - It is also FREE at amazon right now for your kindle if you want to check it out.

I also started a new bible reading plan this year and have actually stuck to it for 3 weeks - it helps that there is a built in day with no reading.  I've made it to Genesis 50 - now if I can just continue with that great pattern - I always get a lot out of it- It is God's word, and it will not return void - I just need His help to carry through with my good intention. :)

Menu plan Monday

We have to eat, and I have to plan. Here it is!

Monday CranberryPotRoast

Tuesday MontereyChicken

Wednesday church

Thursday ChiliCheeseDog

Friday - Family night.

Saturday - AppleCiderPulledPorkSandwich

For more great plans check out orgjunkie.com

Menu Plan Monday

It's Christmas time! Last week we baked and baked and baked some more. We made snowball cookies, chocolate chip pretzel cookies, hot cocoa cookies, and chocolate chip oatmeal cookies and they were all wonderful. My husband brought them into a lot of the folks that he works with, and we were able to bring them to our neighbors as well. This week we'll make a few batches of cinnamon rolls (some for us, some as Christmas gifts) and maybe do one more round of sweet stuff. We don't actually have a ton of time at home this week, so I don't have to prepare a bunch of meals, but I have food that we'll need. We do have to prepare for lunch this week, so I have to keep that in mind. Monday - family gathering and birthday party Tuesday - family night out Wednesday - shrimp and grits, rolls, salad Thursday- roast, rice, green beans, rolls Friday - more family Saturday- spaghetti, garlic bread machine rolls, green salad Sunday - Christmas! I think we'll be eating with family. For more great menu plans check out orgjunkie

Booking it!

I just haven't been doing a great job about posting my reading for booking it this year, and part of that is because my computer hasn't been working quite right, but most of it is because I have been lazy.  This month I read a lot, and found most of it enjoyable.  I came home from the library with a stack of books and I have been working my way through them one book at at time.  I  had chance to review two books for Waterbrook Press and one audio book for oasis and the review for those are linked in their titles below.

The Christmas Singing by Cindy Woodsmall

Ashes, Ashes

The Harvest of Grace by Cindy Woodsmall

I also read these books by Thomas Kinkaide and Katherine Spencer

The Wedding Promise - The wonderful story of a young couple going through the wonder and hurt of building a life together, woven together with the story of the woman that runs the inn they want to be married at.

A Christmas to Remember - Jump in between a present day Christmas season and a 1950s romance @ Christmas - It gave a lot of depth to the Lillian Warwick character if you have read any of the Cape Light Books

A Christmas Visitor- Kinkaide and Spencer are masters at various story lines being woven into one book, and I think this is my favorite one of the series.  All story lines were equally interesting to me and it felt as though I were just talking to neighbors to hear what was going on in each story.  It didn't feel jumpy to me, I thoroughly enjoyed each line. 

I am Currently reading A Christmas Angel and am loving it. 

Obviously I needed some Christmas reading this month:)  I enjoy reading Christmas centered stories and it helps me get in the mood for the season. 

Check out what everyone else is reading @ LifeAsMom.com

Another Amish Adventure - The Harvest of Grace

This month I recieved my second Cindy Woodsmall book, The Harvest of Grace.  I loved it.  It was a wonderful story of Failure and then Redemption.  The book focused primarily on the farm of Michael and Dora Blank and all that occured there, but wove in stories of several different couples and relationships throughout.  It not only was a story of flawed people that got together after allowing forgiveness in, but it was also a story of how a daughter forgave an absent father after years of hurt and anger. 
The Amish way is different then how I live my life (obviously, I am going to guess that they don't blog!) but sometimes when you see an idea from another's eyes it brings new meaning or perspective to your own life.  I felt that way as I read this book. 

Thanks to WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for providing a free copy of this book for me to review. My Opinions are my own.

Audio Book Review - Ashes Ashes

 A while ago I was given a copy of an audio book to review for Oasis.  The book was Ashes, Ashes.  The idea was an interesting one to me, horrible, awful things happen to the world and most of the human population is wiped out. How do the ones that are left survive.  While I enjoyed the book on some level I found it to be slow at the beginning, and then as soon as it really got started I could pretty much predict the end. The caveat here is that the book was written for teenagers, maybe they wouldn't have found it to be as predictable as I did.  The book was an interesting concept for sure and written about a scenario that I hadn't thought much about.  What would we do if there was a major pandemic?  Would we as a society handle things the way that they did in the book?  Would I try to survive on my own, or would I look for a group of people to share the burden with?  The book does give food for thought.  If you enjoy asking yourself questions like that, and end of the world dramas this may be the book for you. 

The audio was well put together, I liked the narrator and it moved along at a reasonable pace and was pleaslant to listen to. The breaks for the CDs were at chapter breaks and were at good points in the book which made it easy to  listen through breaks.  The music that signaled the switch always  surprised me, but I  don't think that's because it  was a poor music choice, I think I was already jumpy because of the subject matter. I think that it was a well designed audio file with a book that I found somewhat predictable, but still interesting.

Thanks to Oasis for providing me with a review copy.  My thoughts and opinions are my own. 

Amish Romance at Christmas time

I love a good Amish story.  I don't know why, but the culture, the tradition, and the lifestyle all fascinate me.  Cindy Woodsmall does a great job with the Amish stories, and from what I understand of the culture I think she writes it fairly accurately.  This story is called The Christmas Singing.  It follows characters that Woodsmall created a long time ago, but you don't need to know any background to enjoy the story.  It is a story of broken hearts, lies, and the mending of broken lives.  I really enjoyed my venture back into amish country. 

If you want to check out the first chapter of this book, look here.
If you prefer to watch a short video you can check it out here.
Thanks to WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for providing a free copy of this book for me to review. My Opinions are my own.