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Thank You, God, for Blessing Me by Max Lucado-a book review

Thank You, God, for Blessing Me is a delightful short children's book.  And by short, I mean short.  It was only a few pages long.  However, the book covered a wide variety of things that the main character is thankful for.  It incorporated many different aspects of Hermie's life.  I thought it was a great book to teach thankfulness for the things we have in a simple way to children.  I would highly recommend this book for a parent with a young child.

I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze®.com book review bloggers program.

Blessed

I've barely written anything lately other than book reviews, and even those have been scarce.  But I do have one story that I immediately thought I needed to put on here, even though it's taken me four days to do so.

Black Friday was a crazy day.  I went to Kohl's at midnight, then to Boston Store.  I got home around 3:30am and went to bed.  I had been in bed from about 9-11:30 before that.  Anyway, I slept until about 7:30, when Mike came home, so that I could go back out again.  I went to ShopKo and Menards.  I was going to go back to Boston Store because I wanted to exchange what I got for a bigger size.  I was starting to get hungry.  My system is all messed up when I don't sleep right.  So, I pulled into McDonalds drive through to get a couple things off the dollar menu.  When I pulled up to the first window to pay, the girl asked me if I knew the people in the car in front of me.  I had no idea who was in there, especially not from the back, and I didn't recognize the car.  She proceeded to tell me they asked what I ordered and then paid for it.  So, I didn't have to pay.  It was only $2.10, but still.  How nice!

I've read about this sort of thing happening, but it's never happened to anyone I've known, and now it happened to me!  I was driven to tears and really blessed by this.  It's such a small thing, but really meant a lot.  There are actually nice people in the world still.  Thank you, whoever did this.  I'm sure I'll never know, but I hope it blessed you as much as it blessed me. 

The Love and Respect Experience, A Husband Friendly Devotional that Wives Truly Love-a book review

The Love and Respect Experience Devotional is one I would highly recommend to a couple looking for a devotional book to read.  Unlike most devotionals, this one does not have to be done every day.  There are 52 chapters, in a sense designed to do one a week, but the author, Dr. Emerson Eggerichs, does not demand that.  In fact, he states that couples can take it at their own pace.  He also gives suggestions for how to go about doing the devotional.  He goes so far as to even suggest reading it separately, then coming together to talk about it.  He designed this to be more friendly to husbands, in that it is not something that is supposed to be a drag for them to do, but rather thought-provoking and a time to grow in the Lord.  Eggerichs gives a word to the husbands in the beginning of the book and the wives as well.  This is not meant for a time of emotional connection.  It is a time to come before God and learn more about the marriage, but without passing blame.  I really like the approach Eggerichs has in this.  He is very intent on his purpose for this book.

I think the book is set up very well.  The reading part of the devotional is about three pages long, nothing that is going to take hours to read, but there is enough substance there.  Each devotional ends with items to pray about.  It's not a printed prayer, but suggestions for prayer.  They each begin with thanking God for something, then add prayers of petition as well.  The back of the book contains further questions couples can use to discuss. 

One doesn't have to have read the Love and Respect book in order to do this devotional.  Each chapter uses concepts from the book, but he also gives an overview in the appendix.  Concepts like the Crazy Cycle are discussed.  Basically, without love, she won't act with respect, and without respect, he won't act with love.  It's a vicious cycle that is difficult to break.  Eggerichs recognizes that it is not possible to always stay out of this cycle.  I like that he is realistic and encouraging.  I definitely recommend this book.

I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze®.com book review bloggers program.

Save Your Marriage in Five Minutes a Day-a book review

Save Your Marriage in Five Minutes a Day was a difficult book to get through.  It offered some helpful suggestions for daily activities one can do, but this book was definitely not written from a Christian perspective.  I did not realize that when I offered to review this book.  The book offered some suggestions that could be helpful---things one doesn't normally think of.  However it also offered other suggestions that I do not believe are appropriate for a marriage.

For example, the book suggested a couple watch some porn together.  Really?  Porn?  For a married couple?  Aren't our bodies to belong to one another only?  Isn't it lust, adultery, a plain sin to be viewing pornography?  I had a serious problem with this and it really turned me off to the rest of the book.  The book seems to be highly focused on sex and seems like that is the reason why a person should work on their marriage daily, to get sex.  Seems to me that there should be much more to a marriage than that.


Maybe some people in the secular world would enjoy this book, but I really did not.  I could take away a few things from this book that might be helpful, but when I think about them in context with the rest of the book, no Christian perspective, I don't know that it is worth it.  I would not recommend this book to anyone I know.

I received this book free from the publisher for this review from booksneeze.com.

Sleep...

I meant to start this a few days ago to keep track of things, but that obviously hasn't happened.  Wednesday evening we started Elizabeth in her crib after co-sleeping since she was about four months old.  I just couldn't take the waking up 7 times a night anymore.   I've been totally sleep-deprived, though I've managed to function quite well, all things considered.  Although, that may just be my silly mind thinking that, and since I haven't really been sane for months, I could be way off.  Anyway, I was prepared for the worst.  Well, not prepared.  Can you really be prepared for what you're going to experience, especially when it's expecting your child to cry for several hours?  Now I really don't believe in the cry-it-out method.  The thought of her crying for an extended period of time, even in my presence with me trying to soothe her, was hard for me to wrap my mind around.

I am grateful to say that I have been pleasantly surprised by how well she's done, all things considered.

Night 1:
Put in bed about 9:30 (yes, I realize this is very late, but Mike was in IL that day, so we waited for him to be home)
Cried for an hour
Fell asleep at 10:30, slept for 2 hours.
Awake at 12:30.
Cried for an hour, this time more mad.
Asleep about 1:30, slept for an hour and a half.
Awake about 3, for 45 minutes, more whimpering than all out crying.
Asleep about 3:45, slept until about 6:15.
I got up with her and took her downstairs to the recliner we nap in.  She nursed back to sleep and slept til about 8.

Not bad for the first night.  I expected much worse.  I was very hands on with her, though I did not pick her up.  I don't know if I should have let her nurse back to sleep or not, since that's such a strong sleep association, but at least it wasn't in bed with me.

Night 2:
Put in bed about 8:15.
Whimpered ever so slightly, but laid right down and stirred for about 15 minutes, no crying!
Slept until 11:30.
Cried for about 35 minutes.
Asleep just after midnight, slept until about 5.  Five hours in a row!  I can count on my fingers the number of times she's slept that many hours in a row in her whole life.
Asleep about 5:45, didn't cry while awake those 45 minutes.
Slept until about 7:10.

I was more hands off the second night, but still there.  The last time she woke up, she held my hand to fall asleep.  I don't want to make that a habit, but it was only once, and if it got her back to sleep, well hey.  She let go in less than 10 minutes anyway.

Night 3:
Put in bed about 9.
Slept until about 1, sat up in bed, cried "mommy" but I told her to put her head back down, she did, so was only awake about 5 minutes. 
Slept for 20 minutes, exact same thing as previous happened. 
Then I got her up from bed about 7:15 this morning!  Sure, she stirred throughout the night, and I believe put herself back to sleep on her own!  I couldn't believe it!

I am truly amazed by how well she's done.  I expected much worse.  Now, if I could only sleep.  I've just been so used to having her right there next to me.  I always know she's breathing.  It's nice to cuddle up with her.  Even though I woke up frequently before, I usually got back to sleep within 5-10 minutes.  Now I lie awake for hours on end.  In the past three night, I think I've not even gotten a full night sleep with all of the hours combined.  I don't know if it's that I was just so used to her, or if it's adrenaline, or what.  I hear her every move and always turn to peak at her.  Oh, we kept the crib in our room next to my side of the bed.  I thought it was too drastic to put her in another room, especially since she's been with us for so long.  I don't honestly know if I would sleep at all if she were in another room right now.  That'd be too drastic for me.  Hopefully soon I'll be able to sleep.  Watching the minutes go by on a clock for a few hours in a row is not my idea of a good night. 

I am so thankful for all the prayers we've gotten over this.  For one of the first times in my life, I can really feel the prayers of others.  I don't think there's any way I could have gotten through this without them, and I don't think Elizabeth would be doing as well as she has been without them.  I pray these good nights, getting better by the night nights, continue for her.  Thanks for all your prayers!

Love & War Devotional for Couples

John and Stasi Eldredge have put together an 8-week devotional book. Five days a week, one can read the devotional for the day. Each day begins and ends with a Scripture verse, with the exception of a few that contain a quote from a reputable source. Also included each day is a prayer based on the subject of the day. The devotional is short and will not take much more than 5 minutes to read per day.

The subject matter of the book is what I would have expected from it, based on the summary published on the back of the book and what one would read if looking up the book. It is different from other marriage books in that it did not just have a section on communication, money, sex, etc. It went deeper than that. There was not much new to me in here, but I am pretty well read on the subject. There might be some new ideas to some people. There were some excellent reminders though, such as Satan is the enemy in your marriage, not your spouse. Or, you can never be completely fulfilled by your spouse, only God can do that. The book did admit that couples will have problems in marriage, that it is not easy. A lot of books don't do that. It gave one a real perspective on marriage.

While I think the book is a good read and could be helpful, I would have liked them to go a little deeper. I would have also liked more personal examples from the Eldredge's lives. The cover of the book states, “The 8-week adventure that will help you find the marriage you always dreamed of.” With a statement like that, I hoped for great things, but I don't think it delivered on that. This book could be helpful to a marriage, but seems a far cry from helping the marriage become the one you've always dreamed of.

I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review.