Awaiting New Book to Review

I just signed up to get a new book from BookSneeze.  This book is The Waiting Game: Learning to Appreciate Life's Little Delays by Eileen Button.  I hope this book is as good as I am expecting it to be.  I really need to learn about "The Waiting Game" and how to appreciate "Life's Little Delays".  Looking forward to receiving it.

Description:

A collection of essays describing the beauty and humor that can be found in what often feels like a most useless state—The Waiting Place.

We all spend precious time just waiting. We wait in traffic, grocery store lines, and carpool circles. We wait to grow up, for true love, and for our children to be born. We even wait to die. But amazing things can happen if we open our eyes in The Waiting Place and peer into its dusty corners. Sometimes relationships are built, faith is discovered, dreams are (slowly) realized, and our hearts are expanded.

With humor and heart-breaking candor, Eileen Button breathes life into stagnant and, at times, difficult spaces. Throughout this collection of essays she contends that The Waiting Place can be a most miraculous place—a place where beauty can be experienced, the sacred can be realized, and God can be found working in the midst of it all.

Includes stories on waiting for:

the day to end a place called home the fish to bite a baby's healing church to be over a husband's return children to grow a mother's acceptance a loved one to die As Eileen says, "To wait is human. To find life in The Waiting Place, divine."

Review: Rejoice (CD): Women of Faith Worship CD (by Women of Faith Worship Team)

This "book" review is a change from my usual reviews because it is a CD.  I got this instead of a book because I thought it would be a wonderful change and I love that I had a chance to get a CD instead of a book this time.  That was a nice surprise.

REJOICE captures the unbridled joy, awestruck adoration, and reverent worship audiences experience over the course of a two-day Women of Faith event.

In arena events across the U.S., the Women of Faith Worship Team leads audiences into deeper communion with God. Through the songs on this new studio recording, they bring that experience to the listener, no matter where they are. There’s a sound for every situation; a song for every emotion. This is not just worship for women - it’s music for anyone and everyone who is ready to rejoice over the incomparable love God has for us.
Includes:

1. Beautiful Redeemer
2. So Good
3. Forever Reign
4. Come As You Are
5. Hosanna
6. Our God
7. Glory To God
8. You Brought the Sunshine
9. Greatness of Our God
10. Great Is Thy Faithfulness

This CD was an awesome change from my usual music taste.  I loved the way the Women of Faith Worship Team put a contemporary spin on these beautiful songs.  These women harmonize beautifully together.  It is definitely a CD that I will listen to for a while.  It is an uplifting and encouraging CD of music that helps get me ready for a day of worship!  Very glad that I picked up this CD through BookSneeze.  Thanks, BookSneeze!!

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.”

In Front of God and Everybody: Confessions of April Grace by K.D. McCrite

   I recently read the book In Front of God and Everybody: Confessions of April Grace by K.D. McCrite as part of the BookSneeze® blogger review team.  Below is my review.

This book is a great book for teenagers, young adults and adults alike.  I am 29 years old and I enjoyed it thoroughly.  I grew up in the "country" in Alabama and April Grace could be a combination of me and all of my friends growing up together during my childhood.  I can't wait until the second book in this series comes out!!

April Grace is a typical tween (11 years old) living out in the country -- a "hillbilly" according to her new neighbors, Isabel and Ian.  They are your typical California couple who have lost everything and Ian has decided they need to "get back to their roots" by moving to the country.  Her sister, Myra Sue, LOVES Isabel and hangs onto every word she says.  I love that April Grace says exactly what's on her mind and doesn't hold back anything ... that's what makes this book so hilarious!  There are also serious moments that gets April Grace to thinking and she realizes in the end that she needs to be more like her parents -- who see the good in everyone, never judge, and put others ahead of themselves.  They are good Christian people and you can see it through their actions.  Although not written, there is a lot of swearing that is implied.  April Grace just says that she can't repeat what they said.  It is a great book and has a lot of great talking points for the young girl in your life.

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.”

Miracle Monday ...

Today's blog is all about the Miracles I have experienced this past week.

I am from Alabama -- born and raised here.  I currently live outside of Birmingham.  I was raised in a small town in DeKalb County, Alabama (Northeastern part of the State).  I lived in Tuscaloosa for 2 years to attend the University of Alabama.

My "home" has been devastated by the tornados that plowed through the state last Wednesday.  After heading back "home" this past weekend to help out where needed and check on loved ones, friends and neighbors, I decided that today's blog would definitely be a "Miracle Monday" blog.  All of the Miracles below are Miracles that these people still have their lives, but read the stories with each one.

It's a Miracle that my best friend (from high school), Shelley's, family are still alive.  Yes, they lost their homes - three of them.  Yes, they lost most/all of their belongings.  Yes, they lost their vehicles.  But they still have their lives.  All 8 of them had God's hands protecting them as they sat in that tiny bathroom and watched their world crumble around them.   It's truly a Miracle that Shelley's mother, father, sister, brother-in-law, 2 nephews, niece, and grandmother are still here and enjoying the Blessings that our community is laying on them.

It's a Miracle that another friend's family are still alive.  Tabitha's family's home is still standing (for the most part), but every window is broken, the roof is missing and trees are down all over their yard.  They have 2 young children.  My parents visited them to see if they needed anything and my mother gave her $30 -- all the cash my mother had at that time -- Tabitha didn't want to take it from her.  My mother told her to take it from Braylon, Bailey, and Abigail (her grandchildren -- my nephew, niece and daughter) for her 2 children.  They lost all of their toys -- mom told her to buy them more toys.

It's a Miracle that my Aunt Louise and her family are still alive.  They took shelter in Louise's grandson's in-laws storm shelter and made it through ok.  But just a few feet from their house, a neighbor lost her life and her husband is barely hanging on to his life.

It's a Miracle that my parents, brother, sister-in-law, their kids, Uncle Ken, Aunt Denise, Cousins Bethany and Shalana and Shalana's husband, John all are still alive.  My dad told me that he didn't think they would make it.  My opinion -- looking at the damage -- is that the tornado formed about a quarter mile from their house before it tore toward Highway 75 in the Lakeview community and headed toward Fyffe and Rainsville -- cutting a path of destruction.  The only damage around their house was 2 huge old pecan trees were uprooted and thankfully hit the pasture behind their houses.

It's a Miracle that, so far, ONLY 250 or so people have died.  Many, many more could have and many more could be added as they are still shifting through the rubble.

I am so blessed that none of my family was killed in this terrible storm.  I am so thankful that the Lord chose to spare their lives.  Please pray for our state and the surrounding states that suffered from these storms.