The One Year Devotions for Active Boys: A Book Review

Get ready for this unique devotional that is available on October 1st. I am so happy I had the chance to review it. Each page of The One Year Devotional for Active Boys is jam packed with impactful devotionals and activities that keeps your active boy engaged by what he is reading. The activities include hands on crafts and science experiments, interesting weird facts about our world, word puzzles and more.

Each day is different in it's message and activity. The lessons are applied so well to a boys life, too. The book could be used well by about any boy but I feel like the reading and activities are geared to rough ages 9-14. To walk you through a day I will give you a tour of January 24, which I found especially interesting. The first half of that day's page is the story of Stephen being stoned to death for his faith and how he could have prayed for them to stop but chose to pray for those attacking him instead. There are some deep questions about how you react to being mistreated. Then there is an experiment in which we replicate a crocodile stomach and see how the stones they eat can crush food. Ultimately learning about how rocks can really destroy things, like poor Stephen. At the end there is a prayer prompt and a Bible verse. Each day is laid out in a similar manner. There are stories of serving others, both biblically and in the present, mighty warriors, health, generosity, and having faith in God every day. This is a fantastic devotional designed to run from January to December and is labeled for each day. I highly recommend it, and just dive right in with your active boy!

Tyndale House Publishers has provided me with a complimentary copy of this book.

Taking a Sabbath Day

Once upon a time there was a family who booked every day of the week, became totally drained and irritable, and couldn't figure out to fix it. They said yes to too many service activities, to many get togethers, and tried to fit in extra curriculars on top of it all. They were exhausted, taken advantage of, and tired of living every day like a race to the end.

I know that our family is not the only one this story is about. We want others to be happy. We want to serve. We also want a chance to breathe from time to time and make sure our family is healthy both mentally and physically. One day I read this passage from Exodus:

Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. Exodus 20:8-11

God, the one who made every living thing and breathed out the stars, works for 6 days and then takes a day off. God took a day to rest and we were not. God even tells us to take a day off and we ignore Him. Maybe we think we know better or maybe we don't want to waste our limited time on earth. But is it a waste? When I am weary, exhausted, and irritable no one is getting my best. If I am constantly thinking about the next thing for me to do then no one is getting my full attention. But, if we take one day a week to rejuvenate our minds, bodies, and spirit, we can serve and work in gladness, giving our best.

We realized we needed a Sabbath day in March. We had to wait till May for our commitments to be over so we could begin taking one. Unfortunately, our Sabbath day was the most booked day of the week, Wednesday. Adam has 2 days off a week, Sunday and Wednesday. Many people think of Sunday as the Sabbath day. That doesn't work for us because we generally serve in our church or are support raising for our mission trip on Sunday. Wednesday was once booked with Bible studies, Awana, and youth group. Now it is the day that we take life slow and easy. We don't work, serve, or run errands unless it is an absolute necessity.

What do you take out? Everything we have chosen to take out has been a good thing to do. Mostly everything that is vying for our time is a "good thing". If we take on every good thing because it is "good" we become like the sad family at the beginning of my post. We need to stop letting others place their expectations on us or to feed us guilt so we will say "Yes". Let's all lighten the load on ourselves and take a Sabbath day!

Do you take a Sabbath? What day do you take it? If not, when do you think you would want to take one each week? If it is good for God, it can only be that much more good for us!

The Wayfinding Bible: A Book Review

I think I have a new favorite reading Bible and it is The Wayfinding Bible. This Bible is incredibly well done. I am so impressed by all it's features. The Wayfinding Bible has many reading paths for you to choose from. Each path is color coded throughout the Bible so you always know where the passages on your path start and end. You can choose from a short overview of the Bible in 54 readings, a medium length run through with 215 readings, or the scenic route which goes into more depth with 386 readings. I had such a hard time choosing and finally went with the scenic route, which covers all the important stories but leaves out quite a lot of genealogy and repetition. You can also take in the whole Bible with the reading plan in the very back of the book.

The reading plans are not all this Bible has to offer though. Throughout the book there are timelines, pictures and maps. There is information about what was happening in the world as the story is happening. There are pictures and diagrams of important structures and how they may have looked. For instance, there is a fantastic diagram of Noah's Ark, including how its size compares to other famous ships. At the beginning of each book of the Bible there is a section that shows how Jesus is connected to the story within.

This Bible does a fantastic job of pulling the reader in and helping them to be absorbed by the word of God. It is put together with the New Living Translation, which is not my favorite, but is so easy to read. It will not replace my favorite versions for deep study, but for simply reading and enjoying the word of God, it is fantastic. I am also partial to hardcover so I am not digging the softcover on my copy. Even the soft cover cannot take away my overall love of this Bible though. I will be reading and rereading it for years.

I received a free copy of this Bible to review from Tyndale House Publishers.

The Wayfinding Bible book trailer: http://goo.gl/9qpoal

What I'm Reading

An escalating stack, I can tell you. This month I am starting 3 books. They all look great, one is as I have been through it before. Here is a sum up...

James: Mercy Triumphs by Beth Moore

Beth is one of my favorite bible study authors! I did this study about a year ago at my church and it was so deep and really struck a chord with me. It is an incredible look at the person and book of James. When planning a women's study in my home this was my first pick! I am loving it the second time around. It has varying levels of activity, from just watching the weekly videos to memorizing the book of James. I am taking a stab at memorizing the book because it has become on of my favorites. I have the first 4 verses down already and am working on #5. We started the study on Thursday, so I think this is a good pace. If you are looking for somewhere to start on study, James: Mercy Triumphs and Becoming a Woman of Simplicity, by Cynthia Heald have been my all time faves.

Fight Like a Girl by Lisa Bevere

I got a call from Adam's Mom on Saturday morning in which she asked if I wanted to come to the women's study at her church starting 5 minutes before she called me. I did not attend, but I did pick up the book on my Kindle and got started reading for next week. So far it looks pretty good. It isn't capturing my full attention at this point, but I am still on the first chapter. I think it will make great conversation and I am looking forward to seeing the corresponding video.

The Ministry of Motherhood by Sally Clarkson

This one I downloaded tonight. It is my first book for review with Blogging for Books. I am really excited to read this one. It really stuck out among my book choices. Since I haven't started reading it yet, I don't have much to say about this one. You will have to wait till my book review I suppose.

What are all of you reading this winter?

Janurary Goals

January is just about here! It is time to see how last months goals went and make some for next month.

Dec goals: Crazy Elephant Paperwork - Check!
                  120 minutes of exercise a week - Check!
                  House purging - The house areas are done, but we still need to hit the garage
                  Making time for Christ during Christmas - Absolutely, if it weren't for him I never could
                  have made it through all the holiday craziness!

Here is what I am working on in January...

*The Crazy Elephant is going to be a big focus for me this month. I want to get Valentine's goodies listed and lots of things sewn. We are also going to work on a new celebration format for our sales. We were going out for burgers when we hit a certain amount of sales and that was it. It was basically a race to see how early in the month we would be able to celebrate. Now we are going to wait till the end of the month and our celebration will be based on our total for the month. We will see how it goes and what we come up with.

* I am going to keep working on exercise, especially after all the holiday eating. To make it a little more of a challenge, I am going to bump it up to 130 minute each week. I am going to be doing my time between Wii Fit and Zumba 2 for Wii. They are both activities that I love to do so it makes it so much easier to put in the time.

*In November Adam and I started the 3 year reading plan that is layed out in my study bible. It covers the entire bible and of course with us being who we are, we want to shorten that time up. So for January I would love for us to get through the 9 chapters of Matthew and all 40 chapters of Exodus that are next on the list. That is 18 chapters more for the month than the plan lays out, but we can do it.

I am interested to see how my first full year as a stay at home mom goes. It will change how each day is in comparison to all the years before. Plus having the time at home means The Crazy Elephant will have the focus that I have never been able to put in before. I am so excited to see how the year goes, how about you?

November Goals

My guys on halloween

Have you thought about your goals for the month yet? Well, it's high time! It is already November 3rd, if you can believe it. To update on last month's goals:

*I have decided to let our schedule come naturally and is starting to come together.
*We have lots of family time ideas, they just aren't written down, and it has been great not watching as much tv.
*I hit 100 listings in my shop, now I just need to maintain it.

I am leaving this weekend to go on a crafting weekend with my mom and her friends. I am going to be sewing like a maniac filling orders and making merchandise. I will also be missing my family. Adam tells me I need the time away and to have fun. They are also having a boy weekend with Adam's brothers, so I hope they will be having fun too. I am excited to come back and get on top of my goals though and be back in my family's arms.

*Goal #1 is to make studying the bible an every day occurrence. I even added it to my daily checklist so I make sure to get it in. I am not as familiar with the Word as I should be, but each day I learn and grow.

*Goal #2 is to add at least 100 minutes to my Wii Fit Plus each week. I am not doing anything in particular to loose weight, I just want to get moving more. In the cold months it is harder to do that. This is also on my calendar.

*Goal #3 is to organize gifts for the holidays. We have roughly half of the gifts taken care of now, but we need a list to make sure we don't double buy for people. We also have lots of giving to do for those in need and those need to get organized as well.

I guess that is it for this month. I am also brainstorming blog ideas for December. If you have a stretch it topic you would like me to cover, let me know.