Walking with God in the Season of Motherhood by Melissa Kruger.

Motherhood, what a joy it is yet it comes with much sacrifice.  As I have witnessed my wife, this season of motherhood, she has sacrificed her spiritual growth.  It has been up and down spiritually for her and only now as our kids are older is she able to retake her spiritual life back.

When I saw this book, I said this book is definitely for my wife.










Author's Bio

After perusing this book, this book is definitely full of substance.  It is a bible study book.  It's not a one page daily devotional book. This is broken out into different aspect of faith, such as joy, faith, etc. and each week for five days, there's a bible study with questions that pertains to a specific aspect of faith and how it pertains to the season of motherhood.

This book is not for those who are looking for a quick devotional but for someone who is looking to delve deeper into the word and how the word applies to this season of motherhood.

That is the challenging part of my wife to be able to make time and do a bible study, otherwise this is the book that she needs. I would highly recommend this book to mothers who are ready to study the Word.

I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review.

The Dropbox by Brian Ivie and Ted Kluck

No, this is not a book about the cloud storage, Dropbox.  This is a book about a remarkable man, Pastor Lee of South Korea.  Who truly lives out Jesus' calling that he came not to be serve but to serve.

This book along with the movie tells the story of Pastor Lee's giving hope to babies who are abandoned in South Korea by creating a "dropbox' outside of his church so women can discreetly "drop" off their babies.



It's not just a story of this "dropbox" but of Pastor Lee's love for these babies and how he and his wife have personally taken/adopted some of these babies, who are mostly with birth defects.  What was telling is that though he is not rich by world, South Korea standard, Pastor Lee and his family are rich by God's standard.  His love and joy toward these babies are remarkable.

This book tell of this story more in depth but it also tells the back story of Brian's own journey. How he was once lost but through the making of this documentary, was found, like the parable of the lost sheep.

God works in mysterious ways, using the filming of this documentary to soften Brian's heart for Him.

This book is a great read and perfect companion to the movie.

The book was provided by Netgalley for an honest review.

Capture the Moment by Sarah Wilkerson

There are few passions in my life and it so happens that photography is one of them.  I love taking pictures of my family and I have been doing so for many many years.  In addition, I have been asked by friends to take pictures for their families.  I'm not a professional so I know my technical know how are limited so I'm always seeking opportunities to learn about photography.

When I saw this book, I said "Ah ha, a book up my alley.  It's about photography and subjects that I'm familiar with."

The book that I'm referring to is:

Capture the Moment by Sarah Wilkerson.
















Written by Sarah Wilkerson, who is the CEO of Clickin Moms, which was founded by professional photographer Kendra Okolita in March 2008 and has grown to become the photography industry's largest female-photographer social network.

I love this book because this book is a collection of photos, tips and musing from women, professionals, artists or full time mom, who capture these precious moments of their children lives.

As a father, it's priceless when I'm able to capture moments of my kids lives, that I'm able to freeze that moment in time that I know that I will never get back but I can look back at the picture and remind me of the joy, anger, or sorrow at that moment in our family.

Here is an excerpt from the book that I like:

It is said that photographers view life differently. Everything from the businessman striding down the sidewalk to succulent fruit at a farmer’s market to scuffed shoes on the doormat becomes a potential subject in our minds. We can hardly contain ourselves when dusk sets a child’s halo of curls aglow, and we love nothing more than an empty room filled with sunshine, the way shadows dance across our kitchen walls as daylight approaches, or the drama of tall trees enrobed in fog. We view rundown structures as feasts of textures and see evening’s rush hour as an irresistible collection of lines, shapes, and colors. This book intends to help foster this way of seeing: to make knowledge and instruction accessible, to provide the motivation to advance, to help you illustrate your world powerfully, and—above all—to empower you to embrace a passion as creator of beauty, keeper of memories, and teller of stories.

The last sentence is why I love photography, it is ultimately a teller of stories.  This book has very practical tips and ideas to help enhance the story telling and to motivate me to up my game.

This book is broken out into different sections: such as "natural light" "composition" and each page after that is a picture and a "tip" of how to use natural light.  There's not a lot of technical jargon which is good but just straight on tips.

I like this book and would highly recommend to all photographers, whether you are a newbie or season.  It's refreshing to be able to look at things from a different (female) perspective.

I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review.

The Postage Stamp Vegetable Garden by Karen Newcomb.

We have a raised garden that we started years ago.  I have to say, when we have planted tomatoes, we have been able to get good crop for a season.  We have also planted other crops but it has been hit and miss.  We want to grow more but have a hard time getting an abundant crop.

I saw this book The Postage Stamp Vegetable Garden by Karen Newcomb which is an re-issue of a classic. What caught my eye is the fact that on a plot of 5x5 size, you can get a crop of 200 lbs of vegetable.  What!!!?? Get out of here, you gotta be crazy.  So that caught my attention and I told myself, I gotta read this book.

 

Here's a link to the author's bio below.

Author's Bio

There are drawings of many different types of postage stamp garden and the best layout for each style. Karen also delves into best time to plant, how to prep the soil and watering.  She makes it sounds so simple and easy but without any of the pretentiousness that sometimes you would associate with these DIY books.

In reading this book, I'm already imagining changes that I need to do for my own garden, it's been a long time coming and it looks so sad in my yard.  I especially like the latter half of the book where she lists out all different types of vegetables, when to grow, what they need and advise on growing them.

That is such a great reference tool because I want to grow other things than tomatoes...

Highly recommend this book, what more can you ask then grow your own food and do it easily. 

I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review.

The Paleo Chef by Pete Evans

So a few years ago, I met a friend for dinner, whom I haven't seen in a while. The last time I saw him, he was a bit on the heavy side and wasn't in as great shape as he could be.

Well, when he walked up to me, I couldn't believe it was him.  He was almost half the size of when I last saw him and he had muscle definition.  We proceeded to sit down at eat (it was an all you can eat buffet) and he piled his plates with meat, meat and more meat.  I was like "dude, what's going on here?  You ready for a heart attack?"  He proceeded to explain to me how he started going on a Paleo lifestyle (he didn't mention diet) and how by cutting out starch/carbs/sugar/dairy free and eating proteins, vegetables and nuts, he has lost a lot of weight and along with working out has never felt healthier in this life.  I was amazed at the transformation and each time we get together, he continue to espouse his new lifestyle.

When I saw the book The Paleo Chef by Pete Evans, and felt I had to take a look at the book.  After all, here is an accomplished chef who has written a book about and with recipes for the paleo lifestyle.

 

In reading Pete's intro, I knew this was the right book for me.  First, he clearly states Paleo is not a diet but a lifestyle.  Diets don't work by lifestyle does.  He goes and makes the the case the in adopting Paleo, we are not missing out on carbs, sugars and grains but we are gaining so much more in getting carbs and sugars from natural sources instead of all the processed foods around his.  

However, Paleo is just one step in being and feeling healthy.  It includes rest, being outdoors, and a positive mindset.  All these, with Paleo will help enhance your life.

The book is broken out into seven sections: Breakfast, Vegetables/Sides/Snacks, Seafood, Poultry, Meat, Dessert and  Drinks.

The recipes are simple and easy, with ingredients that's generally easy to purchase from your neighborhood store.  Of course some you might have to purchase from Whole Paycheck (oops, Whole Foods).

The Vietnamese Chicken wings are awesome, cauliflower fried rice with chicken (who would have thought that you could sub Cauliflower for rice and its delicious), and the meat.

The desserts are what I like, being able to use other sweeteners besides sugar and they look fantastic.  Haven't had a chance to make any but here's the one's that I want to try:
Apple berry crumble
chocolate avocado mousse
chocolate beet mudcakes

actually want to try them all.
I like at the end Pete has a section on how to make the "basics" that's needed in his book.

I would highly recommend this book to all who wants to try the Paleo lifestyle yet eat well.

I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review.

Draw-A-Saurus by James Silvani.

Who love Dinosaurs?  Who loves Dinosaurs?  Who loves drawing Dinosaurs?  We all do.    This book by James Silvani is exactly as advertised, its a guide to drawing Dinosaurs and even for my little one, they are able to use this book.  And me, who can't draw a lick, this book helped me become an "artist" (used very loosely).






This is what this book is, it shows how to draw Dinosaurs which my kids love to do.  Now they are able to draw their favorite Dinosaurs, from T-Rex to Raptors much better.

This book is great is bringing out the creative side in our family and have lots of fun doing it. 

This  is a great book for kids and brings out the kids in adults in drawing dinosaurs.  A lot of fun.

I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review.

Clean Slate - Reset Your Health, Detox Your Body and Feel your Best - From Editors of Martha Stewart Living

There are lots and lots of books out there on detox and healthy living these days.  I got my hands on a copy of Clean Slate, a cookbook and guide on Reset Your Health, Detox Your Body and Feel Your Best.  This book was put together by the editors at Martha Stewart Living, who knows a thing or two about food.

Usually in the Martha Stewart Living magazines, there are not many articles on "clean" living so was surprised to see this from the editors.




First of all, I love this book is a softcover, it makes it easier to carry about and I'm not as afraid to get tis book dirty.

As the title says, this book is all about how to eat cleanly, what that means is naturally food and vegetables, though this book is not a vegetarian.  They just emphasize eating more vegetables than meat.

This book is broken up into two sections, the first sections gives various information about different nutrients, what's needed for the pantry and guide to 3 day detox. the second part of the book is all about recipes and there are lots of them.  All the recipes are in the "R" categories: replenish, reboot, recharge, reenergize, restore and relax.  I found this book very similar to Mark Bittman's VB6.

Many of the information in the first half I have already read about elsewhere but I was interested in the 3 day detox.  It's a short detox so easier for someone to do that the first time around than a 21 day detox.

There are plenty of pictures with each recipes, of course the pictures make the recipes look delicious but in reading the book, I was wondering, how do you get full on these food??

My favorite portion has to do with the reboot, which has recipes for drinks for my health, like smoothies and juice. Most of the ingredients are easy to obtain.

I would recommend this book to someone who is looking to get better health wise.  The recipes, in general are simple and most ingredients are easy to find.

This is a good book to have on hand in your journey of bettering your health.

I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review.