The Corruptible

I just completed the book, The Corruptible, written by Mark Mynheir.  This book follows The Night Watchman, both of which make up his Ray Quinn mystery series.  This book was everything that I love in a book!  Great characters and suspense.  Dry sense of humor and law enforcement.  A main character, who though not a Christian yet, you feel very likely to later become one.  It always greatly enhances my reading experience when the author writes from his personal experience.  Mynheir has worked as an undercover narcotic agent, on a SWAT team and as a detective - all details which appear in The Corruptible.  Good stuff.

The book centers around the main character, Ray Quinn.  Quinn is a former police officer and martial artist.  He has since become physically handicapped and is trying his hand at being a detective.  He is offered a potentially highly lucrative job, which he accepts.  Things quickly go awry, however.  The characters are well developed and the story line moves quickly along to an exciting conclusion.  I am DEFINITLY going to read his earlier, The Night Watchman and look forward to his works to come!

I received a complementary copy of The Corruptible, from waterbrookmultnomah.com for reveiw.  The opinions are my own.

Top Ten Tuesday - Why I Enjoy Celebrating My Children's Birthdays

Just choosing pictures for this post got me soooooooooooo excited!

1. It gives me something super fun to focus on.

2.  It is permission to celebrate one of my children at a time.

3.  It is a creative outlet.

4.  It is an opportunity for my children to choose details that represent who they are and what they like.

5.  The birthday child and I love to plan for days ahead for the celebration.

6.  I love how the color, texture and design of the details work together.

7.  We get so excited about the birthday table itself!

8.  I enjoy scrapbooking about each birthday.

9.  We enjoy maintaining certain birthday traditions, while also exploring new ones.

10.  The celebration allows time for me to slow down a bit as I reflect on the what makes my child unique and the milestones they have accomplished.

Just one more picture!!!!!!!!!

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Top Ten Tuesday - Random Items I Enjoy in My Day

1.  Lotion containing shea butter

2.  My Crochet bag nearby

3.  Ponytail holders

4.  Flipflops

5.  Our Coffeemaker

6.  A good book in hand

7.  Sharpened pencils that still have the eraser

8.  Black ink in my printer

9.  Clean, lined paper on which to make lists or capture my thoughts

10.  Germ-x

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Eat Your Peas Daughter

Today I received and completed reading Eat Your Peas Daughter by Cheryl and Mom Karpen.  It is illustrated by Sandy Fougner.  This is a gift book from a mother to her daughter.  Taking just three minutes to read, the pages are filled with simple but inspiring messages to girls.  The page quality is very impressive, more thick than typical and lightly textured.  The illustrations are sweet and quite girly.  I quickly got the impression that this book would be like getting many birthday cards in one collection.  The messages are encouraging, uplifting  and simply sweet.

From the back of the book:  "Between the covers of this tender little book are words to grace the relationship between mother and daughter.  They are words of affirmation and praise, encouragement and love.  But most of all, a promise...a promise to be there whether going through joyful times or painful setbacks.  It's a 3-minute celebration giving voice to a mom's love and gladness to a daughter's heart."

I received a complementary copy of this book for review from booksneeze.com The opinions are my own.

Top Ten Tuesday - Reasons I Enjoy Scrapbooking

1. I enjoy taking pictures.

2. I treasure the act of chronicling the story of our family.

3. My husband and kids enjoy the end product.

4. It is a super creative outlet for me.

5. It is something fun to do by myself and with other scrapbookers.

6. I enjoy composing each layout.

7. I enjoy the challenge of mixing the various patterned papers in one layout.

8. Simply trimming the pictures is oddly soothing to me.

9. I enjoy how scrapbooking organizes my thoughts regarding when to take pictures and certain shots to get.

10. Lastly, I enjoy seeing how in someways my scrapping style has changed throughout the years and in other ways stayed the same.

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february book of days

~ a field trip to a local newspaper office

~ Happy Birthday, Papa!

It all began with Dream Books for the kids.  They do keep a bedtime journal in which they draw while the bedtime story is being read.  We do not end up reading out loud every night, but their journals from last year are a treasure to me.  Anyway, I had the idea at the end of last year for them to make dream books.  These would be composition notebooks for them to list or draw about what they wanted to do when they grow up.  They have listed cupcake maker, fashion designer, mama, papa, missionary, etc.  I, too, still get excited about dreaming of new habits to accomplish, or new skills to learn.  So I also have a dream book.  However, mine is set up more like a list of goals that I want to acheive this year, with space to journal each month. 

Earlier this year, I was also enchanted by Ann Voskamp's 100 day calendar.  You choose three goals/habits and commit to do each of them for 100 days.  It has been a good discipline for me to have a limited number of things to focus on for a sustained amount of time.  I tend to have a good idea about something and attempt it for a week or two, lose motivation, etc.  My three goals have been to excercise, practise my guitar and read 2 chapters from the New Testament daily.

How We Marked Some of Our Days in February:

GAMES:  Go Fish, Trouble and Marbles

WALKS:  the kids and I got some walks in this georgous weather!

KID CRAFTS:  Valentine bags and Valentine boxes

the older three children took a painting class offered at our awesome local library

MOM CRAFTS:  one dishrag and 2-3 scrapbook pages

MOM'S MEMORY VERSE: Isaiah 40:28-31

MOM'S BOOKS READ:  from the Bible - Romans, 1st and 2nd Corinthians, Galations, Ephesians, A Long Obedience in the Same Direction, Charlotte Figg Takes Paradise, Regret Free Parenting, Blind Hope

E'S BOOK:  Where the Red Fern Grows

M'S BOOK:  Alice in Wonderland

J'S BOOK:  Pinocchio

BEDTIME STORIES:  The Hundred Dresses, Make Way for Ducklings, The Hobbit (still working on)

CELEBRATIONS: Papa's Birthday!

I hope all is well with you and your precious family!

Blind Hope

This past weekend, I completed my first book to reveiw from "Blogging for Books."  The title of this book is Blind Hope and it is written by Kim Meeder and Laurie Sacher.  It recounts the true story of a young woman and the dog she rescues.  The young woman, Laurie, sets out to do something noble by taking in an abused dog, yet ultimately finds that she, too, is in need of hope and healing. 

A relatively short book, it was easy to read.  It did cause me to see, in a new light, the great parallel in our personal (master/child) relationship with God and Laurie's relationship with her dog.  So, there were moments of "I've never thought of it that way!"   However, I did find the book a bit repetitive.  I DO think this would be a SUPER book marketed toward pre-teens/teenagers.  The story doesn't shield the reader from certain harsh realities (animal neglect, young adult issues, and loss of a pet), but does keep those realities appropriately restrained for a younger audience.  And I do think that a younger targeted group would find the "moral of the story" fresh, engaging and at times, profound.  I plan on letting my 11 year old daughter to read it soon.

I received a complementary copy of this book for review from waterbrookmultnomah.com.  The opinions are my own.

Tuesday's Top Ten

I am a library girl.  But, there are some books and/or series of which I want my very own copy.  These are among my Top Ten fiction books/series to keep in my personal library.  The fiction books that I want with me if I ever find myself on a deserted island!

1.  Up a Road Slowly by Irene Hunt

2.  The Pink House by Nelia Gardner White

3.  The Blue Castle by L. M. Montgomery

4.  The Miss Read Series

5.  Julia's Hope by Leisha Kelly

6.  Emma's Gift by Leisha Kelly

7.  Sarah's Promise by Leisha Kelly

8.  Plaguemaker by Tim Downs

9.  Deception by Randy Alcorn

10.  The O'Malley Series by Dee Henderson

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