May 7 2012

Time in a Bottle

So many days have passed where I have had the thought “I should blog about this”, or “I really need to blog about something!”  Then the moment passes and life keeps sweeping along and before you know it, two months have passed and I haven’t blogged – about anything!  I have two book reviews to share among various other life events.  My sister has found out she’s having a girl, so we are gearing up for her baby shower in July.  My youngest brother has moved into a brand new home.  My oldest younger brother has found out that he will be able to adopt his oldest child (although she isn’t biological we all love her and can’t wait for her to be officially adopted in to the family!)  My middle younger brother is officially out of the Army and now officially in the National Guard of Indiana, on leave right now and we are soaking up all the time we are getting to spend with him.  My husband’s paternal grandmother passed away and we had to make a quick trip back to northern Alabama for the funeral.  We went on a weekend trip to Lake Lemon with friends and ended up needing new rear brakes out of that trip (busted brake line on the way down there, ah!)  So much has happened, and is happening, that every day seems to zoom by.  Speaking of which, is it really May 7???  It’ll be December 31 before I know it and 2013 will be under way.  I have been making sure to ground myself each day in the Word, allowing God to mold me and keep me in His will.  Boy is it ever tough to relinquish your own will!  I see now why Paul speaks on dying to self, because it truly is a daily choice we must make in taking ourselves off of God’s throne and sitting at His feet and doing His will.  I’m still struggling in so many ways but in others, where I used to struggle quite a bit, I have allowed God to really change my heart.  My biggest struggle right now is in eating, and treating my body as the temple of the Holy Spirit that it is.  I have lived selfishly for too long, and as I get closer and closer to 40 I have realized that it’s sincerely now or never.  Hopefully when I update in July after the baby shower I will be down 30+ pounds.  Perhaps in writing it down here I will hold myself more accountable.  Feel free to check in with me.  I could really use the accountability!  My other main goal in the physical realm is to be able to run a 5K by the end of August.  I have been doing the Couch 2 5K program, downloading a paid app on my phone and everything!  I never get paid apps :)

On to the book reviews, I have two wonderful books I’d love to share with you.  Sorry that this isn’t two separate posts, but I read one, received the other one in the mail and still hadn’t reviewed the first, so I’d like to lump them together in this post.

First:  Blue Moon Bay by Lisa Wingate

This book is a sort of departure from my normal reading fare.  I usually stick to the historical fiction category when picking books for a book review, but I have to say the cover image got me.  I know, I know… never judge a book by its cover (but seriously, who doesn’t when it comes to actual books??) and I try not to, but I’ve really been wanting a trip to the beach for awhile now so this cover immediately got my attention.  The storyline is captivating from the beginning to the end.  I really wanted to be right there with the characters, helping them figure out the riddle of Heather’s past demons.

Heather Hampton is the protagonist, having to go back to Moses Lake, Texas to tie up loose ends on the sale of family property.  She is in hot pursuit of moving up the ladder in her architectural firm, and has to return to the town which she hates to find out why her mother isn’t finalizing the sale in Seattle, Washington.  Along the way, she finds out her high school crush is the town do-gooder – enter love interest.  The love story between Heather and Blaine Underhill is sweet.  Heather’s selfish motives got on my nerves every once in awhile, as if she couldn’t let go of her high school hurts, but I understand them as well (having gone through my own high school issues later in life).  The story grips you, as you want to make Proxica pay for their dirty deeds, and you want Heather and Blaine to fall in love.  At times, I almost felt as if I was reading a similar version of Hope Floats in book form.  Good for me, because I love Hope Floats!  I definitely would recommend this book to a friend.

Up  next:  Chasing the Sun by Tracie Peterson

So the book image on this book did not grip me, but the description did.  I have never read Janette Oke’s Love Comes Softly series, but have seen the movies and thought they were pretty good.  My mind immediately flitted to those images when I chose to review this book, hoping this would take me somewhere similar.  I wasn’t disappointed.

The protagonist in this novel is Hannah Dandridge, who moves west to Texas in the mid 1800s with her father and younger siblings from Vicksburg, Mississippi.  She left behind a charmed life of ease we find out but is able to serve her family well in the harsh west of Texas.  We find out that her father leaves her and her siblings behind to return to Mississippi to care for their grandmother and this is where the story picks up.  The love interest, William Barnett, enters the story soon after, coming to claim the ranch the Dandridges live on (given to them by the Confederate government as spoils of war) but Barnett fights for the ranch through the legal system.  Hannah and William face their convictions head on, serving the Lord all while doing so.  In the battle for the ranch they also must face the other woes of the time and decide how they want to deal with them.  The story is also a sweet love story, and you find yourself rooting for Hannah and William and what they are each facing.  This book is number one in a series, and I am definitely going to be buying the other books when they come out.  I can’t wait to see how Peterson develops this story line and the characters.  I read with that in mind, and I think that helped because then I felt as though she could take her time in developing the characters, which Peterson does quite in-depth.  I also am finding myself wondering if Herbert Lockhart, the antagonist in this book, will make a future appearance!  Again, another book I highly recommend to my followers here!

As always, these books were provided to me by Bethany House Publishers free of charge, in exchange for my honest feedback.  I am not required to give positive reviews of their books.

Mar 8 2012

Finding Contentment in Jesus Alone


I never thought I had a problem with discontentment. I love my life. I love being grafted into the vine, a daughter of the King, I love knowing where I will spend my eternity. But when faced with the question of “Am I content with ‘just Jesus’?” I find myself thinking that perhaps I haven’t been. I feel that I have been placing so many idols before Him, the author and perfector of my faith! I haven’t spent the time with the Lord that I so desperately need to be alive, fully alive! I have allowed the evil one to pull me away, to think that the “things” of this world can truly satisfy. I know this is a lie, but yet I have been deceiving myself.
So what changed, what made me realize that I wasn’t really trusting in the Lord for my happiness and contentment? Well, a few things culminating with one potential life change that the Lord chose to shut the door on, at least for right now. The women in my Bible study at church have really helped me to see my disobedience for what it is: rebelling against a Holy God. I need to come to the foot of the cross daily and confess my sins, repent of my sins, walk AWAY from my sins! We, as believers in the only One who can truly satisfy, have to search our hearts daily. For me, sometimes this is moment by moment searching, asking God to help me turn from worldly “virtues” and bask at the throne of God, putting on His righteousness because of the work of Jesus at the cross. When, and only when, we meditate on what Jesus did for us by daily going to the cross, can we hope to put on the godly virtues of peace, contentment, joy, happiness, patience, self control, love, kindness, faithfulness, goodness.
I am thankful to the Lord for the people He has placed in my life: my husband, my children, my friends, my church community. You all will never fully know how you have impacted me for the Kingdom.
Psalm 23:1 The LORD is my Shepard, I shall not want.

Feb 8 2012

The Rose of Winslow Street Book Review

I received a new book from Bethany House Publishers in the mail yesterday as part of their blogger book review program.  I started reading it last night and got halfway through the book before I forced myself to put it down.  Today, I finished it because, you know, the laundry can wait!  What another delightful book from Bethany House Publishers!

The main character, Liberty Sawyer, or Libby as everyone calls her, is a self confessed “illiterate spinster” who lives with her father, Professor Sawyer in Colden, Massachusetts.  As they are vacationing off the coast of Massachusetts with her brother Jasper’s family, a family of Romanian expatriates moves in to their home in Colden.  The book unravels the story of the home’s original owner, Constantine Dobrescu, and the will which left the home to his heir in Romania.  As a court battle for the home ensues, a love story unravels between Libby and Mikhail (Michael) Dobrescu.

As with all stories I’m enthralled with, this story touched me on a personal level.  The love story between Michael and Libby touched a nerve for me because as Michael loved Libby for what she was, so too my husband loves me for what I am.  As Libby battled with a learning disability and therefore in 1879 that meant being illiterate, in 2001 I battled with inner demons and started letting those inner demons win.  I figured I was worthless, and started to act out in such a way that gave off an air of worthlessness.  But Jeff saw right through that, and saw a beauty in me that God created, a worth that only God could make me see in myself.  So this story touched me in ways I can’t even begin to describe.

This is a very touching story, and I recommend it!!  Have a blessed day!

I received this book free of charge from Bethany House Publishers in exchange for an honest review of the book on my blog.  The opinions expressed here are my own, and I was not required to write a positive review of the book.

Dec 29 2011

Happiness Abounds

I have very exciting news to share, and I thought today would be a very appropriate day to share it. Why today? Today is December 29th, 2o11. Six years ago my sister birthed my nephew, and two weeks ago my sister found out that she is pregnant again! Woohoo! This is certainly very exciting news. My sister and I both have struggled with infertility, and my heart is overflowing with this exciting news because I am flooded with reminders from our sisters-in-the-Bible of their struggles with infertility (Sarah, Hannah, Elizabeth) and how amazing our Almighty God is and how His ways are certainly not our ways, and His timing is ALWAYS perfect! Congratulations little sis, and I am very excited to see the newest addition to our family tree!

Dec 20 2011

The Jesse Tree

In lieu of having a traditional Christmas tree, we have decided to do a “Jesse Tree” with our boys this year.  It has been such a pleasure, not only to do a Jesse Tree craft for each lesson, but to share my faith with our boys.   A Jesse Tree, for those of you who are unfamiliar (as I was before this year), is basically a family tree that celebrates and instructs on the family heritage of Jesus from the beginning to when He was born.  I have always been a lover of family heritage anyways, so this fit perfectly into our plan for a non-traditional Christmas this year.  We wanted our boys to focus on what Christmas is REALLY about, and to think of others before themselves.  I myself wanted to focus on this, too, as usually I spend more time on buying gifts than I do focusing on WHO this season is really about.  I was very convicted this year about making Jesus the main thing.  Some days I have failed, as we all have those days.  Thankfully, God has given us grace upon grace to keep on keeping on.  So before I begin, let me sing my praises: Jesus I thank you!  You are the lover of my soul, and it is my heart’s desire to praise you and give you thanks!

Tonight’s lesson was about Ruth.  One of my favorite books of the Bible, because I have always resonated personally with Ruth.  She was a Moabitess, a foreigner, who married an Israelite and when he passed away her mother-in-law Naomi was her only family.  Ruth adored Naomi, and loved her deeply.  Because of her love for Naomi, and Naomi’s love for the LORD, Ruth told Naomi in 1:16 that “your people shall be my people, and your God, my God”.  I am moved every time I hear that.  Ask me sometime, and I’ll tell you why that resonates deep within my soul.  I’ll save that for another post, perhaps.  Naomi and Ruth traveled to Bethlehem where Ruth went to the fields of Boaz, a kinsman of Naomi’s, to glean from the fields.  Ruth worked very hard to provide for her and her mother-in-law.  Boaz saw this, and was touched by her love for Naomi.  He provided a way for Ruth to glean even more from the fields, and eventually Boaz and Ruth were married.  They had a son, Obed, and it is from this family that King David will come from, and eventually the King of Kings – Jesus!

Our memory verse for this lesson was Ruth 1:16b, which I mentioned earlier.  We had the boys make the sheaves of wheat which you see below out of pipe cleaners and embroidery floss, and we hung them on our Jesse Tree.  I have put two pictures below, one of tonight’s craft, the other of our tree.  I made it myself from supplies I bought at Hobby Lobby.  We wanted it to not look like a traditional Christmas tree, so we can continue to leave it up all year long.  We are trying to expound on each night’s lesson, and I’m hoping that by continually going over the OT leading up to Jesus will help the boys to see the beauty of God’s plan from Genesis to Revelation.

I hope that you are blessed by God’s story as well, because it is truly the greatest story ever told!

Merry Christmas!  -Jaime

John 1:16 “And from His fullness we have all received grace upon grace”

Ruth 1:16 “But Ruth said, ‘Do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you. For where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God.’”

Nov 3 2011

A Lasting Impression book review

This is the second book I wanted to rave about which I received free from Bethany House Publishers as part of their blogger review program in exchange for an honest review here on my blog.  I loved this book.  Love, as in I-wanted-to-read-this-book-from-start-to-finish-in-one-sitting-but-life-happens type love.  I usually only have time to read in the evenings, after I’ve put the boys down for bed and provided I don’t have a lot of work to do.  This also means that I stayed up until 1 or 1:30 am most mornings for a week until I finished this book.

This book stuck with me, is still sticking with me.  I finished it a few days ago, and I just can’t stop thinking about the characters and wondering where the rest of this series is going!  There are very few books in my life that I can say that I was literally IN the book with the character.  Every night I would step out of this world and straight into 1860s Nashville, Tennessee and I was standing right there next to the characters.  Tamera Alexander had me crying, laughing, talking out loud, holding my breath, and heart pacing from excitement along with these characters.  My emotions ran the gauntlet in the book with Claire, Sutton, Adelicia and the many supporting characters.  I felt them all, and felt them deeply.  I truly appreciate this kind of writing, and haven’t had this sort of excitement for a book (and soon to be series) since reading the Anne of Green Gables series by L.M. Montgomery.  My grandmother and I used to talk about how there didn’t seem to be writing in this day and age that had the writing that classic authors engaged readers in, and for the most part I still believe that.  Tamera Alexander is definitely in that class of author for me though, and I applaud her for taking the time (and pages! this is definitely not a short book, which I love!) to really develop a story line as well as the characters and their emotionality.

As a Christian author, I feel she was genuine in her placement of Scripture to flow with the storyline.  I think part of the reason this book is so phenomenal to me is because I was like Claire, I came to a relationship with Jesus later in life, after a sketchy past.  I was touched by the love story between Sutton and Claire as well, probably because that, too, was similar in some ways to how I fell in love with my husband.  We were the best of friends first, with mutual attraction, but our friendship is still something I treasure more than I could ever say.  I felt that connection between Claire and Sutton.  (My husband is also Southern, so maybe that also echoed for me part of his charm)

I definitely, definitely recommend this book if you are a sucker for a beautiful love story, like me!

Nov 3 2011

To Have and To Hold book review

I received the book To Have and To Hold by Tracie Peterson and Judith Miller from Bethany House Publishers as part of their blogger review program, in exchange for my honest review on my blog. I am really loving this program from Bethany, mainly because I have loved the last two books I have received! I will share more about the other one in my next blog post.
This book is a very sweet story. The love between Audrey and her father as well as Audrey and Marshall are the two main components of this book. There are sub-plots of course, but these two lines intertwined throughout the book and I thought the authors did a superb job of lacing them together. This is a historical fiction novel, set on a fictitious island called Bridal Veil Island (BVI) off of the coast of southern Georgia. Audrey’s father is native to this island, his family having owned the entire island at one point, and he moves away to Pennsylvania when Audrey is young. Audrey and her father return to BVI later in life, so that he can restore it to what it once was before the “War Between the States”. A sub-plot is that Audrey’s father was an alcoholic who has since given his life to Jesus and turned away from the bottle, but Audrey is still very cautious and worries that her father will return to the bottle at any given moment. Enter in Marshall, who’s family are also all alcoholics and Audrey believes that he is as well. What she doesn’t know is that Marshall also is a follower of Jesus but she is a skeptic at best toward him at first. To put it bluntly, she is pretty rude to him. Of course, they fall madly in love by the end of the book.
Some of the themes that I personally resonated with in this book was the story of redemption from a wicked past, as well as the caution of Audrey. I all too often fall into a “negative” rut that I have been allowing the Holy Spirit to enable me to work against. I was fighting in my own power for too long, and I had forgotten what Kingdom I am now a part of. I think that when we have such strong demons from our past, we begin to war in our flesh, and then the battle is lost from the very first step. I have a wonderful mentor to thank for that piece of wisdom, and a beautiful group of women in my Bible study who weekly remind me of the grace of a community of women who can share openly and honestly.
I also resonated with the love story between Audrey and Marshall. When you aren’t expecting something to ever come along, when it does it is an alluring thing to behold. I felt that between them, when Marshall realized he was in love with Audrey and when Audrey realized she had fallen for Marshall. I was hoping the rest of the Bridal Veil Island series would be about them, but I see that it’s going to be about a new couple. Not sure I want to leave Audrey and Marshall, I was hoping to find out where the next step of their journey took them.

Oct 13 2011

Vigilante book review

I just finished the book Vigilante by Robin Parrish last night.  I stayed up late just to finish it.  Pretty much from the moment I started reading this book it was hard to put down.  Unfortunately, due to my hectic schedule lately I took a month to finish it.  I highly recommend this book for those of you who like plot twisting contemporary fiction.  I was enthralled even when I wasnt reading because I was trying to figure out where Mr. Parrish was going to take me on this reading adventure.
I have been trying to think all morning how to blog about this book.  Basically, its about a man, a war veteran, Nolan Gray, who wants to clean up New York City and engage people from apathetic to empathetic regarding their fellow man.  He wants to show them a “better way”.  He enlists the help of his old war hero general, Branford, and another super-techy friend named Arjay.  On his journey through cleaning up NYC he learns some valuable lessons along the way for himself about brotherly love and facing his own buried demons.
This was a refreshing novel to read, especially for the amount of introspection I have been doing lately regarding my deeply rooted sins and allowing the Holy Spirit to enable me to root them out and replace them with the fruit of the Spirit.  It truly is amazing how the Lord has brought everything together in my life to reinforce the Scripture in my heart.  At the end of Vigilante, this is where Nolan realizes God has brought him, too.

At the cross, at the cross, where I first saw the Light, and the burden of my heart rolled away.  It was there by faith I received my sight, and now I am happy all the day!
These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace.  In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.  -John 16:33

I received this book from Bethany House Publishers free of charge as part of their blogger book review program.  I am not required to write a positive review, just my honest opinions!

Oct 2 2011

Time can stop flying now…

2011 picture

My beautiful boys

It is evening and I am sitting here in front of my laptop getting ready to finish up some work.  I can’t help but sit here and contemplate how fast the days are going.  It helps that I was watching a screen saver on my computer with pictures of the boys, from when Samuel was a newborn to now.  They are sitting across from me on the couch, being brothers – so cute together.  Joseph wanted a sock taken off, and I asked Samuel to help him.  It just amazes me that they are old enough now that I can ask them to help each other instead of needing me to help them with all of their daily tasks.  It can be liberating on one hand, because I can now sit here and do some work while they quietly play together before our bedtime routine begins.  It can also be daunting, on the other hand, because when I think about it, in no time at all they will be tweens, then teens, then off to explore the world on their own.  The days of cute ways of saying words in their toddler speak will change to me reading their 12 page term papers in high school to check for editing errors.  I know I am so getting ahead of myself but I am constantly trying to take mental images of things they are doing or writing down the cute words they have for different things so I won’t forget them.  I want to savor every moment of their existence.  I also want to honor the LORD in how I am raising them.  I have tried to make sure that every step of the way, from their C-section births to the nighttime feedings and diaper changes, to when they wake up sick and need extra TLC, through Joseph’s long colicky days and nights, that every.little.thing I am thankful for because they are all such amazing blessings.  I know I’ve failed to do this through many moments, but as I draw near to God I am reminded of how much I have been blessed through Jeff and the boys.  God heard.  God added.  God, you are amazing!

Lord, it is my prayer that every moment of every day I will be thankful for what you have done for me, that I will sing your praises, that your rod and staff will comfort me, that I will rise early in the morning to prepare the domain you have chosen to bless me with and will help me strive to be the virtuous woman, whose price is far above rubies.  Let me take no moment for granted.

In the 20 minutes it has taken  me to contemplate this post and write these sentences to you, my virtual followers, Samuel is now sitting on my lap and Joseph is sitting next to me holding tightly on to my hair (that’s his thing lately) and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

“Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD: and the fruit of the womb is his reward. As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth.”

Psalm 127:3, 4

Aug 30 2011

Can it really be??

I started a post over a month ago and dumped it in the “drafts” box because I wasn’t really sure where I wanted to go with it.  I’ve done that more than once, started something and then decided it wasn’t what I really wanted to say and then trashed it.  Wouldn’t it be nice if we did this more often with our words that we actually say in real life?  We are in a sermon series at church (www.yourchurch.com if you would like to check out the sermons, great listening, I highly recommend them!) on the tongue entitled “O Be Careful Little Mouth…” and it, of course, has been God tugging at my heart to really examine some issues in my life.  All of the Scripture has been so convicting, because I have not tamed the tongue with certain things in life.  I am really allowing God to work through these issues in my life, surrendering all to Him, including the tongue.  Pastor Mark has encouraged us to really “think about our thinking” and I must say that God has rooted some Scripture in my heart to allow me to be more introspective of everything filtering through my mouth that comes from my head and heart.  I have been more responsible in my words to my husband, to my sons, to my family, to my friends.  I want to make sure that I am putting my devotion to God in action (thank you Jerry Bridges! I am referencing Practice of Godliness, another recommendation!) and making sure that my relationship with Jesus is first and foremost before anything.

James 3:1-12

Matthew 12:34

http://www.yourchurch.com/mediafiles/o-be-careful-little-mouth-1what-you-say.pdf