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This Fine Life – Revell Blog Tour
I received the following book in exchange for writing a review. While I consider it a privilege to receive free products to review, my review is my honest opinion and thoughts of the book.
I enjoyed the book, This Fine Life. It is a book about growing up and in Christ. It shows real characters struggling to find out who they are in Christ. The story is set the deep South in the late 1950’s and reveals the struggle of a young lady, Mariette Putnum, who doesn’t know what she wants to do with her life after high school graduation. Each of her parents have their own ideas as to what she should do, but she is quite undecided. The book takes a turn when Mariette is changed by one event. From that point on there is excitement and strain in relationships, which affect each of the characters’ decisions and emotions .
Based on the description of the book, the story was different than I expected in many ways, so I am hesitant to give away too many details because if you choose to read the book, I want you to have that same element of surprise of the unexpected.
I was able to take something from the real life struggles of the characters in This Fine Life. It really made me think through life’s trials and how we can always see the “finer” side of things if we try, if we persevere and have faith that God has everything under control.
“This Fine Life proves that growing into love can rip one apart, quitting might be the easiest thing, but walking away is out of the question. I bled with these characters as they struggled to become who they were meant to be. So real and so true to life.”
—Lauraine Snelling, author, Daughters of Blessing
Eva Marie Everson is a successful speaker, a popular radio personality, and the award-winning author of Things Left Unspoken. She is coauthor of The Potluck Club series and The Potluck Catering Club series. She lives in Florida.
“Available May 2010 at your favorite bookseller from Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group.”
Vacations
This is a sponsored post.
Image: dan / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
My husband and I have been talking about vacations lately. He is itching to go on vacation and now we have a huge garden to tend! I told him we can still get away for a weekend or just wait until fall if finances work out. We have discussed going to Canada, Utah and even Florida. We have an old friend who has invited us down to his home in Florida, so that would be savings there having a place to stay but our friend has stipulated it be “sans des enfants” – that means without children in English. Many will think us weird but there is a part of us that just cannot leave our children and go on vacation by ourselves. To us vacations are family affairs. Maybe we will feel differently once they are all older and we don’t have to rely on outside help to care for them.
We actually met in Florida nearly 18 years ago. We have only been back once and that was in 2001, so it is extremely tempting to return. There are just so many places to go and things to see down there, plus the memories and the warm water beaches are another draw!
Image: Jennifer Renee / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
A Vacation package to Disney World is even appealing with all of its commercialism because of all the activities available, the onsite accomodations and the location of Orlando. There is Sea World, Disney World Theme Parks ((Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, EPCOT or Hollywood Studios), Disney Wide World of Sports, Disney Quest and Universal Studios. Not to mention getting a vacation package to Disney World that includes a Park Hopper option allowing you to hop from park to park during your visit.
Just thinking about it and seeing pictures of the beaches makes me long for a vacation too. We’ll just have to see how our growing season goes and what the upcoming months hold. Maybe a vacation isn’t as far off this year as we thought…
One thing is for sure, it takes a bit of planning and I certainly appreciate advance warning when we are going anywhere for more than a day, but that has not stopped my husband from deciding a couple of hours beforehand that we are going out-of-state! He likes to do that! He is more spontaneous than I am, I like to have everything mapped out and planned.
Where do you like to vacation or what do you consider your “dream” vacation?
Meatless Meatballs from Veggie Patch
I received the following product in exchange for writing a review. While I consider it a privilege to receive free products to review, my review is my honest opinion and thoughts of the product.
We were sent two coupons to try the Meatless Meatballs from Veggie Patch, which we did last weekend. We really liked them. They were very good and made a very easy tasty meal. There were no complaints from anyone and the children ate them without any problems. Another interesting thing is that we could not tell they were not meatless!
I get concerned when I read labels and find “natural flavors” and “carmel color” because those terms have been known to mask MSG. And the package of these meatless meatballs contains these two ingredients. However, my oldest daughter informed me that there is a non-GMO caramel color being used now (since 2004 according to my research) and Veggie Patch does use non-GMO soybeans, so there is hope with this product. I saw no where on the Veggie Patch packaging that this product certified organic, so it is pretty safe to assume it is not organic.
Take a look at the ingredients listed on the package: Textured Vegetable Protein (Water, Soy Protein Isolate and Concentrate, Wheat Gluten, Wheat Starch), Carrots, Soybean Oil, Egg Whites, Contains Less than 2% of Onions, Inulin, Spices, Sea Salt, Potassium Chloride, Dextrose, Hydrolyzed Protein (Corn, Yeast, Wheat), Modified Vegetable Gum, Calcium Carbonate, Vegetable Fiber, Garlic, Yeast Extract, Natural Flavors, Caramel Color, Cultured Dextrose.
Resources:
http://www.veggiepatch.com/faq/index.php/section/20
http://www.caramel.com/EditorUpload/File/compliance/GM-6-07.pdf
http://www.seedsofdeception.com/DocumentFiles/141.pdf
In Harm’s Way – Revell Book Tour
I received the following book in exchange for writing a review. While I consider it a privilege to receive free products to review, my review is my honest opinion and thoughts of the book.
In Harm’s Way was another suspenseful book that was a good read. I found it a bit more predictable than I did Too Close to Home, but it was a good story line with a bit of romance tucked in for the romantic at heart.
This book is actually the final in a series called, Heroes of Quantico, but each of the books can be read without reading the others, so it wasn’t like I felt I was missing any details. It was about another FBI agent who is hard pressed to solve an uncanny, yet intriguing mystery. All because of a rag doll. I loved how the author wove the story line of this together. She did catch me off guard with the spin she put on one aspect of the story.
What struck me in this book was how badly some people want children, but cannot have them. One character in this book wanted children so badly she was willing to do anything to have a baby. It is sad and I realize how much I take for granted my ability to conceive. Not that I haven’t had my own difficulties with our losses, but still I have seven children here with me. The rest just happen to be waiting in heaven.
Another topic of interest In Harm’s Way deals with is the intuition between twins. I find that intriguing and I know that this isn’t just some phenomenon, like ESP, which is touched on in the book as well. Before I even told my mother I was expecting again, she outright asked me if I was pregnant. I was taken aback and asked her what made her ask and she said she just had a feeling. Now, that doesn’t happen all the time or with every pregnancy and is certainly of a different calibur of intuition that that of twins; which I happen to believe in because I don’t doubt God’s ability to give such close siblings the ability to feel and “know” something about a person who was knit together with them in their mother’s womb. Intuition is just one of those uncanny things you just cannot explain. And it is one aspect of the story that the main character must deal with too.
I would recommend this book to anyone looking for a change of pace in their normal reading. It is another good, clean mystery that I really enjoyed.
“Available April 2010 at your favorite bookseller from Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group.”
Facebook Fan Page
I just wanted to invite everyone who is reading Faith and Family Reviews to become a fan on Facebook. If you already have a Facebook account becoming a fan is pretty painless, you just click the “Become a Fan” button! Creating an account is a little more detailed but painless too.
When Your Hut’s On Fire!
When Your Hut’s On Fire!
The only survivor of a shipwreck was washed up on a small, uninhabited island. He prayed feverishly for God to rescue him.
Every day he scanned the horizon for help, but none seemed forthcoming.
Exhausted, he eventually managed to build a little hut out of driftwood to protect himself from the elements, and to store his few possessions.
One day, after scavenging for food, he arrived home to find his little hut in flames, with smoke rolling up to the sky. The worst seemed to have happened, and everything was lost.
He was stunned with disbelief, grief, and anger. He cried out, ‘God! How could you do this to me?’
Early the next day, he was awakened by the sound of a ship approaching the island! It had come to rescue him!
‘How did you know I was here?’ asked the weary man of his rescuers.
‘We saw your smoke signal,’ they replied.
The Moral of This Story:
It’s easy to get discouraged when things are going bad, but we shouldn’t lose heart, because God is at work in our lives, even in the midst of our pain and suffering.
Remember that the next time your little hut seems to be burning to the ground, it just may be a smoke signal that summons the Grace of God.
Author Unknown
This was passed on to us via email from a friend.
Did You Participate in Earth Hour?
Just wondering if anyone participated in Earth Hour on Saturday night? We did, but we were late starting because we were watching the movie, Far From Home: The Adventures of Yellow Dog, and with only 15 minutes left we opted to do our hour from 8:45pm-9:45pm. By the way, good movie!
I had grandoise plans for our family, but I guess I should have shared them with everyone before hand because while Earth Hour was spent in the dark, it wasn’t anything like I was expecting!
First, Robert was not feeling well. Second, I had pictured all of us crowded in our bedroom with perhaps the flashlight, (I considered candles but with so many bodies in one room decided for the safety reasons the flashlight was enough) and we’d get some discussions going.
Well, when you put a sick husband, seven children and a wife/mom who wants to talk in a dark room for an hour what do you get? Giddy children, grumpy husband and a disappointed wife/mom!
I am sure our children will have fond memories of our hour of darkness because they played and goofed around, while my husband asked them to tone it down because he had a headache and I bemoaned that this is just not what I pictured us doing.
Result? Happy children, tired, sick husband and disappointed wife/mom. But we did conserve energy.
How was your Earth Hour?
