S Club Mama

I can't remember why I wanted to read "Every Bitter Thing is Sweet" by Sara Haggerty, but I'm glad I did. I wasn't that in love with it when it started. I wasn't taken in by her sorrowful account of infertility; maybe because I have a friend whose story is so similar and familiar to me. I completely understand that infertility is a hard pill to swallow and foreign to someone like me. I have tried my very hardest to be comforting and patient and gentle with my friend and so I put forth the same while reading this book. I ended up really falling in love with the struggles of the Haggertys. That sounds strange but so often in books, we don't see the struggles, and so we feel like our lives are wrong if we struggle. Yet here is this author telling us of her struggles to love her husband, to fill a void of an empty womb, to mother these children not knitted in her womb but fully in her heart. I came to love that openness and appreciate her being so vulnerable

My friend, Evi, is a much better writer than I. She set up a gratitude challenge around Thanksgiving to get all of us to really think about what we're grateful for - and to be grateful! She had some questions on her blog to help us reflect on this past year and look ahead to 2015. 1. Looking back, what (and who) am I grateful for this year? Of course, I'm grateful for my family. My incredible husband who has taken care of us and put forth even more effort while I've been dealing with nausea, vomiting, and lethargy with this pregnancy. My children who are driving me crazy today (can it warm up so they can run off some energy?) but who also drive me crazy with their love and sweet cuddles. I LOVE these kids. I am grateful, too, for this budding child inside my belly. July can't get here soon enough! What I'm thankful for could be any sort of material thing. I have so many things I'm thankful to have, but they are just things. I am really thankful for the

I LOVED Jim Gaffigan's first book, Dad is Fat , so I thought it would be great to read Food: A Love Story . I wasn't completely wrong but it definitely didn't live up to the expectations I had to laugh the entire time. There were funny pieces; in fact, most of it was funny, just not laugh out loud funny. I laughed out loud from the foreword to the end in Dad is Fat . I chuckled often with Food: A Love Story . Some of my favorite chapters were At Least I Don't Eat Blubber about whales and Hot Pockets: A Blessing and a Curse. For Gaffigan fans, you know that some of his biggest hits have been about Hot Pockets. I don't think there was a lot of new material in this book, which was what other commenters said about Dad is Fat. I don't listen to a lot of Gaffigan's routines so it was new to me both in that book and this. I guess his thing is, if it's not broke, don't fix it. If this material works, why write new stuff? That's all just me guessi

That's right folks who still read this book, we will be a family of five come the end of July! I hope this baby is as good-looking as these two boys with as sick as I've been.  I apologize for the lack of posts lately but I've been doing the best I can minus energy.  Happy New Year!

I've been a Reese Witherspoon fan since she dated Ryan Philippe back in the day but I'm still her fan several boyfriends, children, and years later. I'm excited to share with you this giveaway offer of one of her new movies, released in October, called "The Good Lie." The movie is a true-life tale about the Lost Boys of Sudan. Their lives were torn apart by civil war while they were left to grow up in refugee camps and then finally given the opportunity (through the efforts of church groups and other charities) to start new lives in the U.S. Reese Witherspoon may be the celebrity name in this but some former Lost Boys are actually in the movie, too. I think that's incredible that they get to be a part of telling their very important story. This movie could be a part of your home library! GIVEAWAY! Mandatory: You MUST complete this entry in order to be eligible to win this prize. Spread the news about this giveaway on Facebook, Twitter, or Pint

There are names in Christianity that are thrown out there like Big Bird and Elmo to a toddler crowd. Names like John Piper, Francis Chan, C.S. Lewis, A.Z. Tozer, and Dietrich Bonhoeffer. There are many more but you get the idea. It's basically a bunch of guys with some good quotes (and one with an awesome children's book series), right? Sometimes these quotes and their authors are thrown out there like anyone who's anyone should know who they are! That's frustrating to me on one hand because a lot of Christians are ready for the meat they throw out; they are new and just need uncomplicated milk teaching. However, I feel like I'm ready for more meaty teachings and so I decided to read more about some of these guys. I've made it through a John Piper book. I've read several books from Chan. I've read more of C.S. Lewis than the Chronicles of Narnia (which are always good). And so Bonhoeffer was next on my list (if I had a list, that is). I picked up Eric

I've been making my kids write thank you notes before they could write. Yes, I have. I used to have them scribble on a typed out thank you I printed. When they learned to write their names, they signed each card. Now that they are getting older, I have had them fill in the blanks on their gift items. Perhaps this year I will have Moose write out full thank you notes. Nothing complicated, but just "Grandma, thank you for such-and-such. I am having fun with it. Love, Moose." It doesn't have to be grand to be real. But you also don't know if the kids understand what they are doing; the impact it has (or doesn't) on them. However, I got a glimpse of the impact it's had on Moose probably a month or two ago. I was reading "A Robertson Family Christmas" by Miss Kay Robertson of Duck Dynasty fame. Moose saw the book and was interested (he loves the show). He handed the book back to me and, with all seriousness, said, "We should write her a thank

It's no surprise that my family loves Duck Dynasty and all things attached to it (although the only merchandise we own is their Christmas CD & a water bottle, the latter of which I won on a blog). We share their ideals and would love to share in fellowship with them. Unfortunately, they're famous so I doubt that will happen (which is too bad because our kids have been asking for a year now to go to Louisiana to the Robertsons' house. They don't understand we don't know them.). We may never sit down to fellowship with Willie, Korie, Miss Kay, Phil, Jep, etc but I think having a Bible edited by Phil and his eldest son, Al, is pretty close. Except I doubt I cook 1/8th as well as Miss Kay so the dinner is lacking. image via Amazon There's not much to review in terms of the writing of this book. It's the Bible so it's pretty awesome and infallible and tells the story of God who loves us so much that He sent His ONLY Son to die on the cross to pay