Some book reviews...just before Christmas!



This was an easy read, but a good book.  The chapters are very short, so I read this book, a chapter or two at a time, right before bed.  It made for great end-of-the-day reading.  McLeroy goes back to familiar bible stories, but looks at them from the angle of a specific item in the story (a fig leaf, a head of barley, Rahab's scarlet thread) and why God would keep those items in remembrance of those events.  And then, why we should, too.  To be honest, not every chapter was meaningful to me, but then, some of the chapters spoke clearly to me.  And she ends the book with her own "collection" of spiritual markers.  And challenges her readers to do the same.  There is also a discussion guide at the end of the book, and I do think the material would make for good small group interaction.  So, overall, I did like this book.  I will probably keep it and read it again sometime and see if different things jump out to me at a different time.  





These two books are part of a series (there are two other books), obviously for children.  The material is filled with truth about how God has filled our lives with himself, and in Christmas, Bergren does a very good job reminding us that Christmas is about God, not Santa.  Also, the artwork is lovely (though, personally, I liked Christmas a little better of the two).  But I have to be honest.  I didn't love these books.  And perhaps I am looking at them with a too-adult perspective.  But the conversations between Little Bear and her Mother (Christmas) and Little Bear and her Grandpa (Love) seemed a little too contrived to me.  Of course, a small child might not find these characters and conversations contrived at all.  But my little ones are too little for me to test my theory on.  So, if your little ones are a little older, these might be worth a read.  And, in a couple of  year, I may be surprised how much my kids like the books.  I hope so!

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

Links to the website:

http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9781400074815

http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9781400074471

http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9781400071753

Wow...it's the end of November, the end of the Thanksgiving weekend, and I'm still thankful.  Can you believe it?

It was a good weekend.  Much family.  Much travel.  Much time with husband and babies.  In other words, good.

We did have a couple of plan changes though, some big, some not-so-big.

First Change (not-so-big)
My plan was to put up the tree and hang the lights on Friday night after the babies went to bed.  Well, after 5 years, my strings of lights are starting to die on me.  SO we got the tree up and the living room totally baby-proofed (they now have the run of the entire living area).  And I bought more lights on Saturday morning. 

Then I planned to hang the lights and fully decorate the tree on Saturday.  But some of the strands that had worked on Friday night decided not to work on Saturday.  I had to hang and rehang lights.  And keep in mind that we have a 9-foot tree.  I'm 5 feet tall.  So there were tall ladders involved in that frustrating episode. 

So I finally did get the lights done, but nothing else.  Oh well...I guess I can do the rest this week.

Second Plan Change (The big one)
On Sunday, we were supposed to go to another Thanksgiving with Eric's Grandma's sister and her family (make sense?).  But unfortunately, my father-in-law had a weird heart issue on Saturday night and ended up in the ER early Sunday morning.  It turned out to be okay and not a heart attack.  For some reason his heart just started beating out of rhythm.  So he was admitted and monitored overnight, and he has to have a stress test this morning.  But thankfully, he seems to be fine now.

So we did go out to the farm for Sunday.  The babies and I played at the house while Eric went to the hospital with his family.  It was good to do that.  He needed to, I think.  Even though it meant a lot of driving in one day.  And it wasn't the original plan. 

But hey, the life we live is rarely the life we plan out, isn't it?  At least when we're flexible enough to just go with the flow and refuse to hold rigidly to the here and now (Ps. 84:5).  Which I am only starting to learn.  *sigh* 

Oh well.  At least, after all the busy-ness and plan changes, I am still thankful.  And that's something to be thankful for!

Happy Monday!