Blog T our and Giveaway: The One Day Way by Chantel Hobbs

I was given the opportunity to review this book on weight loss. Seems like an appropriate time to review this book as many are making resolutions to live a healthier life in the new year. The title seems a little misleading as it almost implies that it is a quick fix (which is impossible). On the contrary, her philosophy is just to take your new lifestyle one day at a time, not stressing over the past or the future but just making sure that each new day you make the best of it. The diet plan looks like a good one. I hate diet plans that leave out whole food groups. This one is balanced and even has a healthy attitude about fats, admitting that certain fats are neccesary and good. (Though she does include a lot of non fat varieties of dairy products, something I don't do as I like my food as close to nature as possible and not doctored to take the fat out. I've lost weight on full fat items. ) I was impressed that the exercise program is very doable and inexpensive. The equipment needed can be purchased for about $20 and can be done at home. Over all it seemed like a good program, but I haven't read a lot on the subject.

Publisher's Summary:

The One-Day Way produces lasting results by taking you back to basics. No more complicated weight-loss strategies. No more expensive diet plans that achieve only temporary results. Instead, you will lose weight and get fit with Chantel Hobbs’s simple, high-energy meal plans and her at-home program for cardio exercise and strength training. She will teach you how to change the way you think, which leads to new actions. Before you know it you will be strong, fit, and healthy. All it takes is doing things differently for twenty-four hours—and then repeating it.

The One-Day Way gives you everything you need to lose weight and get fit in body, mind, and spirit:

• Break free from past dieting defeats
• Learn a realistic, life-changing way to measure success
• Change the way you think so you can change your life
• Translate your dreams into goals, and your goals into lasting achievements
• Get strong with thirty-one simple exercises, no fancy equipment required
• Take advantage of ten ways to eat better while you lose weight

By focusing on food, faith, and fitness, Chantel shows you not only how to lose weight, but how to build the new life you were designed to live. You don’t have to wait any longer. The One-Day Way gives you all the tools for success, starting right now.

Author bio:

The author of Never Say Diet and The Never Say Diet Personal Fitness Trainer, Chantel Hobbs is a motivational speaker, life coach, personal trainer, marathon runner, wife, and mother of four whose story has been featured on Oprah, The Today Show, Good Morning America, Fox & Friends, the 700 Club, and the covers of People and First magazines. She appears weekly on two fitness-themed radio programs and promotes her One-Day Way Learning System on television. Visit Chantel at ChantelHobbs.com for fitness updates and coaching tips.

GIVEAWAY

The publisher's provided an extra copy of the book to giveaway. If you would like a chance to read this book, leave a comment on my blog (with a way to contact you) by January 8th.

This book was provided for review by the WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group.

Fall into Reading Wrap Up

Well, winter is here. Snow has fallen, Christmas is coming up fast. And the Fall into Reading 2009 challenge is over. As always it was fun! I did pretty good with my list. Driven mostly by the fact that most of the books on the list were books I "had" to read. Blog Tours and book club books. Which made this season of reading different. I enjoyed all the books I read, but it is different to have my list picked for me. Toward the end, I did finally finish my "required" readin, following the lead of other friends who got a little more choosy in accepting blog tour books. I did read a couple of books for fun, but then found myself just needing a break. Very rare. I have the new Janette Oke/Davis Bunn book calling to be read and time to read it, but just needed a break. I will get to it soon, and soon the blog tours will start demanding my attention again.

Anyway, as I said, I read most of the books on my list and and even added a couple. My list, with titles linked to the review posts, is HERE.

Thanks Katrina for hosting the challenge again!

Cherry Cheesecake Murder by Joanne Fluke

I took a little break from Blog Tour books last weekend and relaxed with a good 'ol cozy, foodie murder mystery. It's been awhile since I have had time for one of these. This one threw another twist into the Hannah, Mike, Norman triangle by introducing an old crush of hers to the mix! That made it interesting! And instead of coming across a dead body, Hannah witnesses the murder first hand! That definitely through a different angle into the story!

Blog Tour

I was priveleged to read 3 wonderful books this week for the blog tours. The little pictures books are adorable and explain some important concepts in words that preschoolers can understand. and I enjoyed sharing them with my nursery kids at church. I will probably donate the books to the nursery so they can enjoy them again and again.

I think the Treasured book would make a great Advent devotional for a woman. You could read about one "treasure" a day throughout the season and get to know God a little bit more each day. Of course the book would be great any time of the year, but since it is Advent season, I think it fits nicely for that purpose!

The author is a single woman and shares her struggles of desiring to be married and have a family while needing to accept that God may have a different plan for her. I have some friends that I think could relate to this and might enjoy this book for that reason.

In Treasured, Leigh McLeroy considers tangible reminders of God’s active presence and guides readers in discovering evidence in their own lives of his attentive love.

“The idea for the book came from a cigar box filled with odds and ends of my grandfather’s life that arrived a few months after his death. Sifting through the objects in the box, I experienced him in a fresh new way. This made me wonder what treasures might be tucked away in Scripture that could frame God for me in an equally intimate, tangible way. This process also helped me uncover my own “treasures” of my walk with the Lord: objects that remind me of my history with him and his faithfulness to me,” says McLeroy.

Drawn from the pages of Scripture, the author considers twelve such treasures and personalizes their meaning for readers, such as a green olive branch that offers proof of God’s “new every morning” mercy and a scarlet cord that demonstrates his willingness to adopt “strays” of every sort.

Weaving these treasures together with scenes from her personal history, Leigh McLeroy invites readers to discover God’s heart for them and embrace their unique role in his redemptive story. Treasured offers readers a guided experience of God’s love and character and invites them to consider their own treasures that point to their part in God’s ongoing story.

In God Gave Us Love, Little Cub and Grampa Bear’s fishing adventure is interrupted by mischievous otters, and the young polar bear begins to ask questions like why must we love others . . . even the seemingly unlovable? Why is it easier to love those we like? Where does love come from? And why does God love her so much?

Grampa Bear patiently addresses each one of Little Cub’s curiosities by explaining the different kinds of love we can share: the love between friends, the love between families, the love between moms and dads, and the love for God.

He also assured Little Cub that because of the love God has given her through his Son, there’s nothing she can do to make God love her any more or any less. Through Grampa Bear’s encouraging Little Cub to love others with a “God-sized love,” children will be inspired to love others and to be patient, gentle and kind, so that in every way, they too can demonstrate God’s love.

In God Gave Us Christmas, as Little Cub and her family prepare to celebrate the most special day of the year, the curious young polar bear has something on her mind: “Who invented Christmas?” she asks. “Is God more important than Santa?”

Her questions reflect the confusion of so many children during the holiday season. And this heartwarming story takes them on a wonderful journey of discovery—right to the heart of Christmas.

Through Mama’s gentle guidance, Little Cub learns that God loves her and everyone— polar bear, moose, or human—so much that he gave us Jesus, the very best gift of all.

Author Bios:

Leigh McLeroy is the author of The Beautiful Ache and The Sacred Ordinary. An avid collector and recorder of everyday moments, words, and wonders, Leigh’s keen eye for God’s presence in ordinary life infuses her writing and living with a deep, insistent joy. A frequent conference and event speaker, the author makes her home in Houston, Texas, and posts often on www.leighmcleroy.com and www.wednesdaywords.com.

Lisa Tawn Bergren is the award-winning author of nearly thirty titles, totaling more than 1.5 million books in print. She writes in a broad range of genres, from adult fiction to devotional. God Gave Us Love follows in Lisa’s classic tradition of the best-selling God Gave Us You. She lives in Colorado, with her husband, Tim, and their children, Olivia, Emma, and Jack.

These books were provided for review by the WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group.

Scenes from our kitchen today.

We will be celebrating Thanksgiving at my parents' house tomorrow. We will also be hosting two international students from a nearby University. One from China (cool, since we are studying China right now!) and one from Sweden.

My part of the meal is rolls, cranberry sauce, Watergate salad, and green bean casserole. Here are some pictures taken through out the day of cooking.

Pumpkins

Scooping out the pumpkin seeds before roasting the pumpkins.

I got six cups of pumkin out of our pumpkins.

Pumpkin seeds ready to roast.

Roasted seeds.

The Rolls

Jessica's Gluten Free rolls.

Whole Grain herb rolls.

Pumpkin Dinner Rolls

Sides
Alex making the Watergate Salad.

This year, we just made the original, unnatural version.
I couldn't afford to be healthy this year.


Cranberries, cinnamon, brown sugar, orange zest/juice and a bit of ginger.

Cranberry Sauce

The Box That Watch Found "by" Gertrude Chandler Warner

Growing up, The BoxCar Children books were my favorite books. They are the first books that I remember reading. (Well, reading for real. I also remember "reading" aka reciting from memory a set of story books that my parents read to us from when we were little.) My 2nd grade teacher read the first book to us in class and I was hooked! I remember going to the school library often and getting the next book and the next.... :-)

I am not all that fond of the new books that are written by ghost writers. They just don't have the same quality as the orginal books. But, when I heard that there was a book that was all about geocahing, a favorite hobby of mine, I had to get it! My favorite childhood series combined with one of my hobbies? How could I resist.

The book does a great job of explaining geocaching. Many of the lines I have spoken verbatim. Though the girls did manage to avoid a common newbie mistake of bushwacking through a long section when the path curves and the gps goes straight! :-) And I did think that they should have figured out travel bugs on their own if they really did study the website. I also found it interesting that they didn't mention that you can hand enter the coords and that they didn't take any cache sheets with hints along. And rarely do you see cache maintanence done like it was in this book. But, for a introduction to caching this is a pretty good book. For Boxcar Children book, eh, still would much rather read the originals!

One Perfect Day by Lauraine Snelling

My book club read this book for this month's meeting. After completing my blog tour obligations for the month, I was left with a half a week to read this heart wrenching story of two mothers, each desiring the same thing a perfect Christmas. Possibly their last Christmas with their children at home. But, what becomes one mother's nightmare becomes the other's best Christmas gift when one a son dies and his heart is donated to save a young girl's life.

This was a good book. It was interesting to read both sides (the book flipped between the two women). To see how people deal with grief, a child's illness, joy and sorrow. I would have liked to have been able to explore some of the other characters more. The twin sister of the boy who died was obviously dealing with a lot and it would have been interesting to delve more into her story, etc.

This was our "holiday book" and it is not your cheery, feel good holiday book, but then life is rarely a Norman Rockwell painting!

My Christmas wish: A sponsor for Lydia

Rich Mullins was a major supporter of the Compassion ministry. Thanks to Rich and the other Kids Brothers of St. Frank, I was introduced to this ministry that allows us to sponsor children, giving them a chance to help meet their physical, social, emotional and spiritual needs. We sponsored our first Compassion Child, Paola from Honduras at a Mitch McVicker concert, years ago. After Paola left the program, we chose to sponsor William from Ecuador. It is a blessing to be able to sponsor these children, write to them, pray for them and help them grow.

For $38 a month, you too can share in this blessing. For less than the price of taking the family out to a sit down dinner, a movie or maybe a few video games, books or CDs, you can be a blessing to a child who has very little.



I invite you to take part in this blessing. I have been granted the privilege of helping to find a sponsor for Lydia from Kenya. Across Kenya, thousands of children like Lydia face a harsh, daily struggle for survival. Many children go for days with little or no food, or have little access to safe drinking water. They are often sheltering in unhygienic conditions where disease, violence and abuse overshadow their lives. No wonder many live in fear and danger.

But through the Compassion sponsorship program, children like Lydia are being given the chance of a lifetime to break free from poverty, receive an education for the first time and know what it is to feel loved, valued and highly esteemed as one of God's precious children.

Please consider showing Lydia or a child like her the love of Christ this Christmas by agreeing to be her sponsor. If you would like more info on how to sponsor Lydia, please ask!

Blog Tour and Giveaway: Faith and Fangs

Touched by a Vampire by Beth Felker Jones

When I was invited to review this book about the messages in the Twilight Saga, I jumped at the chance to see what it had to say. If you have read the Twilight books, are thinking about reading it, have friends who are reading it or don't want anything to do with them, I think should read this book! It is always good to be aware of what kids are reading.

I was once asked, why can't we just read books for the enjoyment and not have to analize them or get some message out of them? Well, as the author of this book points out, we don't just read books and move on, the stories we read stay with us, they change us, they take us to new places and they effect us. We need to know what we are diving into before we do so! Everything we do should glorify God. So if the books we read can't do that somehow, then what's the point?

As one of the overall themes of the Twilight books is love, the author addresses the subject of love. She use the illustration of Augustine's love of use and love of enjoyment. Pointing out that we should love everything except God with the love of use. That "everything has only one right use, only one proper purpose, and that is to love God", that "we're supposed to love everything, absolutely everything, that is not God with the purpose of directing all of life toward loving and glorifying God". Now, when the author brought this up, she was talking about Bella's all consuming love of Edward. And that we need to make sure we are not making the love of our life our god. But, I think it also sums up how we should look at our entertainment, books, movies, etc. We can love books, but if they aren't helping direct us to love and glorify God more, then, we aren't putting them in the proper perspective.

So, with that in mind, I think this book is an excellent guide to reading the Twilight books or just discussing them and keeping a Biblical perspective on the themes presented. The author definitely does not say we shouldn't read the books. She has obviously read them and is very familiar with what they say. But that if you do read them, she gives lots of food for thought in regard to what is presented. She touches on the various themes of the books, romance, love, gender roles, loyalty, families, etc, etc and how they are presented in the book and what the Bible has to say about these things. She presents scriptures to back up her thoughts.

One of the subjects that comes up often is abstinence. I remember that the first time I ever heard of these books, it was from respected Christian friends who were praising the book for promoting abstinence before marriage. How rare that is to find in popular culture these days. But, as this book points out, you can have abstinence with out purity. If the Twilight books are to be our children's guide on how to stay abstinent, that's not a good thing! She points out that asking "how far is too far" is a recipe for trouble.

The back of the book includes a reader's guide for each of the books. This book could be used in a youth group setting to open up discussion about the books and how we should respond to what we are reading. It would be a great guide for parents to use with their kids to keep a dialog about the ideas presented. It presents an opportunity for some very popular books to lead to some great discussions on what the Bible has to say about family, love, purity, good vs evil, etc.

Publisher's Summary:

EXAMINING TWILIGHT THROUGH A BIBLICAL LENS

People around the world are asking the same question, enraptured with Edward and Bella’s forbidden romance in the Twilight Saga, a four-book serial phenomenon written by Stephenie Meyer. The bestsellers tell the story of a regular girl’s relationship with a vampire who has chosen to follow his “good” side. But the Saga isn’t just another fantasy–it’s teaching girls about love, sex, and purpose. With 48 million copies in print and a succession of upcoming blockbuster films, now is the time to ask the important question: Can vampires teach us about God’s plan for love?

Touched by a Vampire is the first book to investigate the themes of the Twilight Saga from a Biblical perspective. Some Christian readers have praised moral principles illustrated in the story, such as premarital sexual abstinence, which align with Meyer’s Mormon beliefs. But ultimately, Beth Felker Jones examines whether the story’s redemptive qualities outshine its darkness.

Cautionary, thoughtful, and challenging, Touched by a Vampire is written for Twilight fans, parents, teachers, and pop culture enthusiasts. It includes an overview of the series for those unfamiliar with the storyline and a discussion guide for small groups.

:Click HERE for more info on this book.

GIVEAWAY!!
I have one copy of Touched by a Vampire to give away! If you are interested in winning a copy of this book, please leave a comment on this post by November 24, with a way to get in touch with you should you win.


Thirsty by Tracey Bateman

Ok, so this is the first blog tour book that I read all the way through, but didn't thoroughly enjoy. Not, because it was badly written. I think it was well written. The metaphor of vampirism and alcoholism was well done, the characters were believable (well in so far as vampires are believable), the obligatory romantic angle of any vampire story was clean, it was definitely a page turner and it had a relatively happy ending. But, vampire books, even vampire books with a Christian message, just aren't my cup of tea. :-) But, if you like vampire books or suspenseful type books you will probably enjoy this book! If I have to read a vampire book, I prefer it to have some redeeming value such as this one did, something that will point us to God and teach us a good lesson.

Publisher's Summary:

There's no place like home, they say.
"Hello, I'm Nina Parker…and I'm an alcoholic."
For Nina, it's not the weighty admission but the first steps toward recovery that prove most difficult. She must face her ex-husband, Hunt, with little hope of making amends, and try to rebuild a relationship with her angry teenage daughter, Meagan. Hardest of all, she is forced to return to Abbey Hills, Missouri, the hometown she abruptly abandoned nearly two decades earlier–and her unexpected arrival in the sleepy Ozark town catches the attention of someone–or something–igniting a two-hundred-fifty-year-old desire that rages like a wildfire.

Unaware of the darkness stalking her, Nina is confronted with a series of events that threaten to unhinge her sobriety. Her daughter wants to spend time with the parents Nina left behind. A terrifying event that has haunted Nina for almost twenty years begins to surface. And an alluring neighbor initiates an unusual friendship with Nina, but is Markus truly a kindred spirit or a man guarding dangerous secrets?

As everything she loves hangs in the balance, will Nina's feeble grasp on her demons be broken, leaving her powerless against the thirst? The battle between redemption and obsession unfold to its startling, unforgettable end.

Click HERE for more info where to find this book.

These books were provided for review by the WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group.