Sabbath by Dan B. Allender Book Review

The current book that I am reviewing is Sabbath by Dan B. Allender published by Thomas Nelson.  This book is part of The Ancient Practice Series that is "for every Christian seeker who wants more" (quoted from back cover of book).  I chose this book to review because I wanted to get the history of this day and how it was and should be celebrated each week.

I was sorely disappointed when I was reading this book.  Even though the series is the Ancient Practice Series, Allender never touches on anything ancient that is practiced on the Sabbath.  He didn’t actually pinpoint much of anything down.

Allender talks about Sabbath Play and in those three chapters, I had a hard time remembering that we were talking about the Sabbath.  I have the feeling that Allender celebrates the Sabbath any way that he wants, and then wrote a book about it to make it seem right.  But he confuses me several times.  

One certain point that he kept bringing up was Exodus 5:12-15, which is the fourth commandment explaining the Sabbath.  But then he goes on to say that we don’t need to be resting on the Sabbath.  Well, doesn’t the commandment say we are not to work?  How can this be?  Well, Allender goes ahead and explains it for us.  It is because work is different than labor.  

This is not a book that I would recommend to other readers unless they wanted to be more confused than when they started.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze®.com <http://BookSneeze®.com> book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 <http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_03/16cfr255_03.html> : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

New Online Store Discovered By Me!

How many of my readers enjoy shopping?  How many of you enjoy shopping online?  I know that I love both!  But shopping online gives you a little more freedom.  How you may ask?  Well, it allows you to sit on your fanny and shop!  You don't have to get dressed, have gas money, or get the kids ready!  It's totally convenient and fun!  I have been thinking lately about looking into some outside fun for the kids and decided to check out swingsets because we don't have one here.  We have lots of room for one though! 

So lately I have come across a new site.  For some of you it may not be new, but it is to me.  I found CSN Stores.  They have so many products and stores to shop!  It's almost overwhelming!  Anyhow, I checked out the swingsets on this site and I can't believe the choices!  If my kids saw all of the toys and stuff on there, they'd go nuts! 

With so many products to choose from, how can you decide?  The list includes the swingsets that I mentioned above and so much more!  The prices are great prices and not out of this world.  I was also intrigued by the free shipping and 70% off swingsets from Flexible Flyer. 

Check it out friends!  You may find something there that you've been looking for and haven't found!  Follow my link above to check out the swingsets and some other awesome outside fun for this upcoming Spring and Summer!

Bloggerview - 1st Reviewee Chosen!

As I was shopping yesterday morning with my daughter, I was thinking how neat it would be to do some interviews of my friends and fellow bloggers on my blog!  I know that I don't have a huge reader volume, but that's ok, every little bit counts.  I appreciate each one of my readers so much, because without you, I'd be typing to myself.  I don't need a huge number, just true readers.

Anyhow, I digress, like I said, every little bit counts.  Therefore, each and every reader I have that reads the interviews, is that many more than would have read them from their own blog.  Get it?  lol  I think I lost myself in that explanation.  You'll catch on...

I have already have my first guinea pig volunteer for the interview and that is my wonderful friend Casey Ray.  I had the most delightful time teaching AWANA and Vacation Bible School with Casey.  She is a terrific friend and she has a tremendous amount of love for children and Jesus.  I am so glad that I got to know her and be her friend in the short amount of time that we worked together.  Thank goodness for Facebook though!  We can still stay in touch even though she has moved away.

So look for her to make an appearance on my blog this week along with her blog, Phreckle Face Blog.  Check her blog out!  She is such a creative woman and photographer! 

I am so excited for this!!!

 If you are one of my readers, and you would like to be an interview-ee for Bloggerview, please leave your blog ling and name in the comments and I will get back to you!

Kids Say the Cutest Things

Today Stinky said something that just made my heart melt.

We were driving in the car and listening to Third Day's new song, Children of God.  After the song was over and we both stopped singing, I was thinking about what the song says and was thankful for Jesus dying for me.  Us.  The love that He felt and the sacrifice He made. 

I had goosebumps.

Then comes this beautiful, sing-song voice in the back.

"Mom, I bet God was smiling and singing along with that song."

Oh the joy of hearing my children worship and praise the Lord.

My Prayer Journal & More

So last night I put together my prayer journal in my household mommy notebook.  I am still trying to come up with my own name for mine.  Ever since I made mine the first time, I have had pages printed out for each day of the week.  But, I never went back in and put what I do for each day of the week. 

Last night I decided that I was going to use those pages for my prayer journal.  I wanted to separate my prayer topics into different days of the week.  Instead of making a separate page for each day, I just used the ones that I had.  I divided my topics up and assigned them a day.  This will make it so much easier for me to keep up on my prayers and focus my mind on certain issues or people that I forget.

I also cleaned my desk up yesterday so this morning when I wanted to see my prayers, I had enough room to open up my binder and read my prayer requests.  I also wrote my requests in this morning.  That is something I still need to do is fill it in.  So far, the only parts I've filled in besides the requests I got this morning, is my daily reminder to pray for my Secret Prayer Sister at church.

Stinky and I got up this morning and went on a shopping adventure searching for a diary with a lock and keys.  First stop was borders and they had 2.  Just 2.  Next store was the Dollar Store and they didn't have any either.  Into the van and across the intersection to the mall and we hit Office Max and they don't have any.  From there we walked to Claire's Boutique and finally!  Eureka!  First diary we see, Justin Beiber, who Stinky is not head-over-heels-in-love-with (thankfully!) and both are missing lock and key.  We kept searching and searching.  We finally found a couple, but almost all of them were missing the locks and keys!  How crazy!  Why just steal that part?  Must be that many girls out there who lose their lock and key......

Lucky for me, it didn't take Stinky long to choose the one that she wanted, and both lock and keys were there.  She chose a bright pink on that says "Private Property".  It also has a puppy on it and markings that look like they were made with a permanent marker saying "i'm cute...but i BITE!"  It's cute.  Now on this whole search, I was also looking for one for Bubba.  He had to stay home, lying on the couch with a fever and a head cold.  So I was on the lookout for him with his money in my pocket.  I had 3 things to go by:

1. Race cars
2. Orange
3. Locks

So far, I hadn't seen any locking diaries that were suitable for a boy.  The only boy diaries, were actually just journal notepads.  After we left the mall, I still needed to get dinner so we decided to stop at Walmart and check there while we pick up groceries.  There we found a diary for Kyle that we though he'd be happy with and it met 1 out of 3 of his requests.  We found a Diary of a Wimpy Kid Do-It_Yourself Book by Jeff Kinney.  That's the author of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books...duh....This certain book is.....orange!!!
This book is neat!

The front half is filled with different sections that are asking him questions, allowing him to draw his own comic strips, and things like that.  Lots of things.  The middle has a few pages of colored comic strips written by Greg, the character in the books.  The last half is blank pages for him to write whatever he wants.  Since he didn't get a lock with it, I gave him an orange rubber band to put around it.  He's happy.

While I was at Borders, I was perusing through the calendar sections.  The big sign says "Calendars $4.99!" so they could hurry up and sell them.  I saw a planner called family_time.mine and I picked it up and checked it out.  The months have big boxes to write in and when it breaks it down into weeks the boxes are big there too.  That is something I always like in a calendar.  The ends of each page are labeled "lists • more lists • crises notes • groceries" and it has perforated edges so you can rip off your list and take it with you if you have to.  There are also big cards included for each season to write your schedule on.  And it goes by every half hour.  Then, of course, they always win me when they include stickers!

The best part was that this planner was included in the clearance sale and it was regularly priced at $17.99!!

This evening, my FIL came over with gifts for Greg and I.  He had ordered us iRenew bracelets.  I have seen the commercials for this and they look like a rip off to me.  But he got it for a gift.  So I will wear it. 

When he is here.

I did a google search on it to see what it does.  Well I find it really strange that the website for these bracelets don't say anything about it at all.  And you know they didn't come with any type of instructions.  Although my FIL did pay an extra $10 for some recharge stickers.  It came with a sheet of holographic stickers, one for each bracelet, but no idea what to do with them.  lol  Then the other things that came up about iRenew were all bad reviews.  They all said it was a scam.  I haven't told my FIL. 

So I've probably blabbed enough.  I want to blog about one more thing this evening but it deserves it's very own post because it's so cute and sweet.

Friday's Fave Five #124

First I want to start with a prayer request for Susanne @ Living to tell the Story.  I don't know what the problem is, but she is at the hospital all night and is going back this morning.  She hosts Friday's Fave Five every Friday and is not able to play along this week. 

This was a great week.  I have my family and my church family.  My friends are growing all of the time and I just love my life!  So here are my favorite five things from this past week.

1. I got my computer back, which gave me my internet back.  I am thankful for that.  A friend at church that I went to school with fixed it for me.  It was soooo nice!  Definitely a blessing from God.

2.  All of the blessings from God.  There are so many to mention and I could never go into detail.  But here's a few names of people or things that were blessings this week to me: Jackie, Amanda, Kyle, Greg, Jim, books, Bible, Kristy, Kristy, April, Solomon, Tom, Feisty, the wild young bald eagle we saw upclose, Graclyn, my Secret Prayer Sister, Kalli, Tracy, no rain! an so much more!!

3.  AWANA.  Going to AWANA every Wednesday night during the school year is a refreshing way to feed your Spiritual life during the week.  Those kids are so much fun and cute!  Watching them memorize those verses with their fresh young minds is amazing and encouraging.  I love doing this each week.

4.  Visiting a new friend.  The kids and I went to visit an AWANA mom and child yesterday.  She homeschools her little boy and his age is in between Stinky and Bubba.  They played outside for hours!  It was nice to be able to visit with someone too.  We are going to plan more activities and field trips together.  I'm excited about this adventure!

5.  Books.  What would I do with out my books?  I just love them!  They provide so much entertainment and relaxation.  Oh and don't forget the information!  Books are the best!  The current ones that I am reading is The Faith by Brian Moynahan and I'll be reading this one for a while still.  It's a big one!  The other book that I am reading is for a book review to do on my blog called Sabbath by Dan B. Allender.

I hope that all of you have found blessings from this past week that you can thank God for.  If you would like to share them, add your links or blessings in my comments this week while Susanne is not able to post a linky.  I'd love to hear from all of you!

Five Question Friday

This morning I am linking up with Mamma M. and her blog My Little Life for 5 Question Friday.  If you'd like to join up also, click on her blog name above and link up!

This morning's questions are:

1. If you had a $1000 to donate to a charity, which would you choose?
  I think I would donate it to the Breast Cancer Society.  My MIL had breast cancer and there is a risk that my children will get it.  I would like to donate so that maybe there will be a cure if my children do get it and to help others that have it.

2.  Snow days: Do you welcome them happily or are they a pain?
Well being that we homeschool, snow days don't matter too much for us.  It is a good time for the kids to play outside for a short while and they sure enjoy it.  

3.  What talent do you wish you had and why?
I wish that I was a better writer because I love to write.  I'm not really that great at it.  

4.  Are you a news/politics/celebrity gossip junkie?
None of the above.

5.  What is your favorite cocktail?
When I did drink cocktails, I suppose my favorite was a margarita.  The virgin ones are still good too!     

The Most Terrifying Moment of My Life so Far

Don't you hate those days when you just want to write, but can't think of something to write about?  It's one of those days for me.  I checked out a list online for a journal prompt.  I went with the very first one that I could blog about and it was "Name the most terrifying moment of your life so far".  So read on if you're interested....I hope that I haven't blogged about this before.

About 5 years ago, I had to go to work because of some issues and problems that my hubby was having.  I went to work at my MILs grocery store that she owned with her hubby.  It was an IGA grocery store in Renton, Washington.  It was a 45-50 minute drive from my house, and that was in good traffic.  The nice thing about working for my in-laws was that she worked with me and my schedule. 

When I started there I worked in the deli/bakery.  It wasn't a hard job but it was challenging. Only one person worked in there during a shift.  The store wasn't large enough to have more employees in that area.  After I had worked there for a while, I was able to move into the checkstand and be a checker.  I still worked in the deli/bakery though. 

The store closed at 11pm, but since I had such a drive home my MIL didn't want me there past 8:30.  That was the latest shift that didn't close.  One evening, I was working up front in the checkstand with another gal who was fairly new.  Now I can't think of her name.  We'll just call her Jenny to make this easier.  Our manager, Jill, was in the back working on things that she needed to do for her shift and closing. 

A shorter man appeared in front of my checkstand and yelled that he was robbing the store.  My first reaction was, "Yea, right." and I thought it was a kid that worked next door pulling a joke on me.  So I laughed.  I don't remember laughing but I remember the guy telling me that this wasn't a joke and not funny.  Of course, he came to MY checkstand and told me to open the drawer. 

He was dressed in a huge purple sweatshirt with a hood on and he had the hood over his head.  He also had a bandanna tied around his face with sunglasses over his eyes.  His whole face was covered.  He told me he had a gun and wouldn't take his hand out of his pocket.  I don't think he really had one, but I wasn't going to test him.

When he came behind me and told me to open my drawer, I remember feeling that this can't be happening to me.  Then I thought about my kids and Greg.  Our cash registers were set up in a way that we could open our own drawers, but we had to enter our number and password.  When we logged in, we could choose our password numbers for the day so they were always different. 

I couldn't get my drawer open because I was shaking so bad and nervous.  The guy told me to hurry up, he said he knew that I could open the drawer myself and he would shoot me if I didn't hurry.  I told him that it was difficult to do it correctly when he was yelling at me.  I laughed at my bravery and snottiness later.  I am still me even when I am afraid.

I finally got my drawer open and the guy took the money out of the register.  But he was nervous!  And he wasn't smart because all of the big bills were UNDER my cash tray!  He left them! 

He was so nervous that he didn't hear the other cashier calling for our manager over the intercom.  When you picked up our phones, it beeped over the intercom, so she hid her hand and barely lifted the phone and beeped that intercom over and over.  The guy was so nervous that he didn't ever hear it!  In fact, he looked at her right when she was doing it and told her not to even think about picking up her phone to call for help.  That was sorta funny.....later.  Not then.

After he took the small bills from my drawer, which was not very much, he took off out of the store.  I was quite shook up.  Our manager comes strolling up to the front, in no hurry.  She thought that Jenny and I were just playing around.  The rest of the night was a jumble of nerves, cops, questions and then the drive home.

This experience scared me so bad that I couldn't go back to work.  The thought of that guy coming into the store and seeing me, the person he robbed, just creeped me out.  He could walk in and just be a regular customer.  It was 2 weeks before I even went back into the store, and only to get my paycheck.  I have been in car accidents, and even one with my kids, had that tree fall on the house which was terrifying, and some other scary incidences.  But I think this tops them all.

Dear Mr. Honker

Can you believe this?  I needed to go to the gas station before I came home so Hubby would have gas for his appointment tomorrow.  I have to cross the other lane of traffic to get into the gas station because it is on the left side.  I turn my blinker on, slow down and almost stop because there was an on-coming vehicle that I had to wait for.  And the guy behind me honks!  Yep....he HONKED!  I couldn't believe it!  I slowed him down a bit and he didn't like it.  I wasn't trying to make anyone mad.  I just needed to turn.  I did everything legally.  All of the lights work on the van.  I don't know what he was upset about.  He must have been in a great hurry.  He was going the opposite way of the hospital though.....lol

My 2010 Reading Challenge

I have chosen a reading challenge for myself this year.  Last year my reading challenge was to read 50 books and I read 59.  The year before my challenge was to go through the alphabet with book titles.  I didn't do that one all of the way.  I gave up because I was getting stuck with boring books for Z and O. 
This year I decided that I wanted to have another challenge, but I didn't want it to be as difficult as the alphabet thing.  I am going to read all of the books in the Left Behind series.  I might even stretch it out to the teen series and the new series that goes before they were left behind.  It depends on how well I do.  Right now it's just the Left Behind series for adults.  I have started collecting all of the books from paperbackswap.com and have made it all the way up to book 10 so far.  Now I just have to start reading them.  I don't know if I'll get to it this month.  I am reading 2 books right now.
The first one that I am reading is a pretty heavy book.  Literally.  It's a 806 page hardback called The Faith: A History of Christianity by Brian Moynahan.  I am currently on page 213.  I have just started to make a dent in it.  It's an interesting book really.  The only thing that bothers me is it is written as if I already know the people that I'm reading about.  I don't know the majority of them.  So I am lost as to whom these people are.  But I guess to do a history of Christianity, it would be a huge book to go into more detail than this one does.  I don't know when I'll finish this book.  I started it January 5, so tomorrow I will have been reading it for 20 days. 
Then I needed a book that I understood, doesn't take a lot of concentration to understand or follow and that I enjoy.  So I had to choose a fiction by Dean Koontz.  Now I know that he's not exactly Christian material reading, but I have always liked his suspense novels.  They keep me on the edge of my seat.  I have read the first 2 novels in this series so I have to read the third and last to know what happens!  I am reading Dean Koontz's Frankenstein Dead and Alive.  Oh and what a bummer I just found out.  This is not the last of the series.  There are 5 book.  That means I will not find out the ending until I read the other 2!  I will have to do that!
I want to hurry and finish one of these books though because I have a really great book waiting for me to review.  I want to read this book and the other books in this series.  It's called Sabbath by Dan B. Allender.  This book is part of The Ancient Practices Series.  The whole series is found here and it even explains it a little.  I really want to own this whole series.  That is, if they are good.  We'll have to wait and see.  The next one I would like to read is Fasting and if I hurry, I can get that for a review also!
The Dean Koontz book won't take me long to read because it is so good.  Once I sit down to read it I get hooked and read a lot at once.  I am almost a third of the way through it now and I haven't been reading it nearly as much as The Faith.
I decided that this year I will not publish my reading list right away and add to it as I go through the year because then by the end of the year, no one sees it.  So if you'd like to see the list of books that I read last year, you can go here.  This year I will just make a draft of my list and  post the whole list at the end of the year.  I think I will also do monthly reading lists......maybe with my Amazon widget.....I love to use that on my homeschool blog.
After I finish Sabbath, I can start reading The Left Behind series.  I have read books 1-8 before.  Or maybe it was up to 6.  It was quite a few years ago and I don't remember.    I figured it would be best to just start over and refresh my memory anyways.  I like to do that when I read a series too far apart.  I don't have any book reviews after Sabbath either until I get the other 2 in the mail.
I am reviewing books for 4 companies now.  Three of them are for Christian book publishers and the fourth is done on my homeschool blog for The Gabby Moms.  I signed up to do that for a whole year and I get something to review every month.  This month I reviewed a book by TEACH Magazine called True Treasures.  You can check it out here, on my blog Teaching At Home in a Christian Way.
It is currently 10:08pm here at my house.  I think that my kids are finally asleep and I can lay down and read the night away.  Well, as long as I can stay up I guess.

Life Without Limits by Nick Vujicic Book Review

Have you ever looked at your life and thought that it was worthless? Have you ever wondered why you are here? Sometimes we need to really take a look at our lives and be thankful for what we have been given and work towards our purpose that God has for us.


In his book, Life Without Limits, Nick Vujicic brings a brand new perspective for all of us. He was born with any arms or legs. You would think that his life would be boring, worthless and not helpful to anyone else.

But Nick took the body that the Lord gave him and turned it into a blessing to God. Nick had every reason to want to end his life. He fought feelings of guilt because he would always need someone to take care of him and help him. He fought feelings of worthlessness because kids at school made fun of him.

Reading Nick’s story should make everyone take stock of their own life. We all have problems and faults. But Nick has overcome that and taken his story around the world to show others the love of the Lord and exactly what He can do for all of us. This book is very powerful and will make you look at your own life and feel ashamed for complaining about the problems that we have now. They are usually nothing in comparison to Nick’s.

Coming Back Stronger by Drew Brees Book Review

Coming Back Stronger by Drew Brees is a powerful story about Drew and his own comebacks in life. With his faith in God, he knows that he can overcome it all and even reach greater than he had planned.
Have you ever needed that motivational voice telling you that you can overcome an obstacle that you were told you couldn't overcome? Drew Brees found that voice inside himself. He was told that there were things that he couldn't do, but he didn't listen to that. He built himself a professional football career by not giving up.
Brees has a drive that many people in this world need. Not only to help and benefit themselves, but also others.
Brees talks about his fight for becoming a great football player.  His struggles brought him to a place where he decided that he would not give up.  He also realized that his problems and struggles helped to make him stronger and better prepared for things that he would face in the future.
Drew Brees is a man that looks to God for his accomplishments, awards, achievements and success.  He doesn't let anything stop him from reaching his dreams and purpose that God has planned for him.

Oh How I've Missed Thee!

Since my PC died a few weeks ago, it has been eventful around here. I don't have time to even blog about it all now, so it will save me some blogging topics later on. Right now, I am blogging from my wii. That's right, you understood correctly. My Wii. How strange?! I think it is. I never knew I could get online like this with me Wii. lol But what a pleasant surprise it was!
Unfortunately, on top of everything else that has decided to quit working, my TV was one of them. I had turned it off sometime around 2 or 3 this morning when Stinky had fallen asleep watching tv in bed with me. I tried to turn it on this morning when my sis told me that I could use the wii to get online. Well, it would turn on. So I had to steal the TV out of the kids room, which is just a little bit smaller than mine. But wouldn't you know it, the Wii won't work on it because we don't have a remote to change it to video from TV. So I had to get the 12' tiny Disney Princess TV that I bought Stinky years ago for Christmas. She was 2 so it was 5 years ago. Lol. I have that tiny tv set up on my couch with my Wii there also. It's quite interesting, actually.
I have been crocheting and reading a lot. As well as getting my house in order. It's working well for me! I bought dish drying mats and a new dish drying rack that is chrome instead of the ugly bulky green plastic one I had. It looks much nicer and cleaner up there on the counter. And I also have been keeping up on my dishes all day long so that I don't have a whole pile to do once a day. I have been doing them about 3 times a day and they are keeping up! On top of that, I was finally able to get yeast and flour to make some home made bread in my new bread maker! I am in love with it. I made a loaf for us and a loaf for Jimmy and Jessica (our friends) so far. I want to start another one tonight to take to church for Pastor and Jackie tomorrow. They will both appreciate it and they have done so much for me.
The holidays were good for us. Things went well despite what was going on here and we all were blessed this year.
I have decided that this new year is going to be a year of following the Lord even more closely than I have been. Mostly by doing my duties as a wife and mother. That means that I need to stop feeling like Greg is interupting me when he wants to talk and I am reading. I also need to stop feeling like the kids are bugging me when I am getting work done because they are my babies and they won't be this little forever. I am going to shapen and sharpen my housekeeping skills. I want to keep my house as picked up as possible with 2 kids in the house. Like I said, I have been keeping up on the kitchen and dishes. That has helped me tremendously. Laundry is our next biggest downfall.
I bought some new tubs for the kids to help organize their bedroom more and make it easier to keep it clean. We have seriously re-evaluated the toys also. With such a small bedroom, that is a must!
I am hoping that I will be able to fix my pc soon, because I will not be able to do much school planning on the Wii. I can't use my flash drive with all of my homeschool books and pdf files on it. I can use it at the library though. I think I am going to take a trip there on Monday so that I can do some planning. I didn't want to try and go this past 2 weeks because it was Christmas break and the library is packed with kids. And the favorite place for the kids to hang out? The computers! So I thought I would just wait until Monday and head to the library.
We are experiencing a lot of changes around here and they are mostly for the good! I can't share them all right now but hopefully I can in future posts. I have a couple book reviews to do and I would like to get them done tonight, but I don't know if I will. This wireless connection thing seems pretty testy and doesn't work very well at times. I have not used wireless before so I don't know if this is normal or not.
It is time for me to sign out and get some other things taken care of while I am online. I will be back soon!