Butterfly Box Subscription for Christian Women Review

 FTC disclaimer:  I received a free Butterfly Box in exchange for this post.

I never have subscribed to a subscription box, but I love to watch unboxing videos on Youtube.  Life got in the way (as well as hair that I haven't had professionally cut in over a year), a bit of a reaction to my flu shot, and I didn't get an unboxing videoed.  

Each box contains 5 - 6 items each month.  Items go through a rigorous selection process so I am told.  I am not sure exactly what that means, but each month has a particular theme.  I am assuming my box was centered around the theme of prayer.

When I opened my sample box, the first thing I found was small packets of tea.  Who doesn't love tea?  You might wonder why tea in a Christian women's subscription box, but all their items are faith based or support Christian owned businesses.  The tea is super cool!  Its called Tea Drops I got white tea vanilla bean and Sweet Peppermint.  They are really drops!  They dissolve when you make them.  How cool is that?  (I would have been happy if the box was totally tea, but there was more to explore!) When I went to the website of the company that made the drops I was really surprised to see a big banner ad for teas for zodiac signs since most Christians are against astrology, but the tea was fantastic, so that's just an interesting side I discovered.

The next item was a small little bracelet called "My Prayer Bracelet: a reminder to pray for joy".  it has a little butterfly on it, and the Bible verse of Romans 12:12 on the card.  My first thought when I saw it was how nice it would be to give to someone who is going through a tough time as a token for them to know you are praying for them.


When I brushed away the paper crinkles to see what else was in the box, I saw it was a book.  One of my issues with books is I have read so many books it is hard to find a book I haven't read when it comes to Christian women.  The book was a gift edition of The Power of a Praying Woman by Stormie Omartian.  Not only have I read this book, but I have read it several times and even have read a number of her other "The Power of a Praying ____" books.  I will be giving away this book soon here on my blog.  It's nice, would make a nice gift, but it's not something new to me, as I already have this book in paperback.  (This one is imitation leather with a bookmark ribbon and does contain new material, but since I have a huge backlog of books I want to read, I'm going to pass this on to someone else.)

The final item in the box was a journal.  I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE journals.  This one is spiral bound and lays flat.  (My favorite).  It is hardcover, lined pages, and it says "Be Still and Know".  I love notebooks and journals of all types.  I've been more diligent about keeping a journal of my day to day stuff this year because I figure that since we are in the middle of a pandemic, it will be a great historic record someday.  But I use journals and notebooks for all kinds of stuff.  Lists, journals, keeping records of things, etc.  So I was very happy with the journal (and especially so since it's the exact type I prefer.)

The Best Books about Contests and Sweepstakes

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I love to read, and for the past twenty years I have enjoyed entering contests and sweepstakes.  Here is a list of some of my favorite books about contests and sweepstakes and why I have enjoyed them.


Some of these aren't exactly about contests and sweepstakes but also cover luck, positive thinking, and books written by winners themselves.

Book review: Life in Spite of Me Living After a Suicide Attempt

FTC disclaimer:  I received a copy of the book from the publisher for review purposes.  All opinions are my own.  This post may contain affiliate links.

In the book Life, In Spite of Me: Extraordinary Hope After a Fatal Choice, Kristen Anderson was depressed. Not really any one thing contributed to this depression, but she'd been fighting with her parents, three friends had died as well as her grandmother, she had been raped, and the previous night she'd been out until ten in the morning with friends. She was grounded until further notice. She sneaked out to be with friends, left a note saying she was going to take a walk, and later was in a park. She decided to sit on a train car and think. As she heard a train approach, she decided she would end her life. She planned for the train to hit her and she assumed death would come instantly. Instead, she survived, but her legs were cut from her body.

Book Review: Wild & Wonderful (and Paranormal) West Virginia

FTC disclaimer:  I purchased this book myself.  All opinions are my own.  This post contains affiliate links.

I went to school for a couple years in Tennessee having grown up in West Virginia.  As is typical of college kids, we would sometimes sit in a dark room and tell ghost stories.  (Even at a Christian college!)  There was one friend of mine who would leave the room when I would tell a story because she said they were so frightening.  I adapted most of my tales from Ruth Ann Musick's books.  So of course, when I saw this book, I was curious.

Wild & Wonderful (and Paranormal) West Virginia exceeded all expectations I had.  Unlike other books, it didn't just deal with one subject, but included The Moth Man, Flatwoods Monster, UFOs, ghosts,  Sheepsquatch (which I had never before heard anything about it) and also included other strange phenomenon and cryptozoological mysteries from across the Mountain State.

The thing set this book apart from others in this genre is that the author tried to give multiple explanations when possible, and some of them seemed quite plausible to me.  For instance, there have been reports of kangaroos getting loose from zoos and other places, so who is to say some of these monsters might not be part of a pack of kangaroos that live in a remote part of West Virginia? Obviously, he also leaves open the possibility for paranormal occurrences, but I really enjoyed reading the different theories.

Small Steps: The Year I Got Polio Book Review

When I was a child, I remember meeting someone who had been crippled with polio.  She was the first person I ever met who was in a wheelchair, and as children are apt to do, I was extremely interested in the fact she was in a chair that rolled around.  Of course my parents were embarrassed at the attention I was giving her chair, but she showed it off to me and told me about how she did different activities that many of us take for granted.  Of course, this is a great way for children to learn about handicaps.

I remember coming home and telling my mother I hoped I never got polio.  She told me I never would and reminded me of the little cup of liquid I didn't like the taste of but was required to drink.  She explained that would keep me from getting polio.  Of course I asked why that lady didn't drink that liquid and it was explained when she got polio there was no vaccine.

Polio was a very real -- and very scary -- part of life before the vaccine was developed.  The iron lung, a machine that helps patients breathe was developed in the 1920s.  In 2017, there were still three people alive living in an iron lung.  Polio was highly contagious -- and when she was twelve years old, Peg Kehret had a twitching thigh muscle in chorus, then went home for lunch.  She collapsed, and was diagnosed with polio.

Book Review: Goodbye Clutter, Hello Freedom

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Goodbye Clutter, Hello Freedom:  How to Create Space for Danish Hygge and Lifestyle by cleaning up, Organizing and Decorating with Care is by Lena Bentson.  It is a relatively short book, only 82 pages, but I would rather a book be the right length than too long or too short.  (The right length is explaining what the author wishes to express, but not rambling.)  This book is the perfect length.

I read this book because I'm dealing with a lot of clutter.  I sell on eBay which creates a lot of clutter.  Plus I am still going through my mother's possessions.  My husband and I sometimes disagree as to which item we should keep and which we should get rid of.  As a result we have multiple computer desks in our garage!  :)

If you are looking for an inspiring book to help you want to get rid of the excess in your life, look no further.  Lena Bentson does a great job of this.  She is a Dane, and while geared towards the Danish people, it is relevant to everyone.  (I mean, don't we want to be like the Danish when we think about hygge?  And who wouldn't when they are one of the happiest countries on earth.)

Voice, Story, and Humanity

Last night I was listening to a Catholic Stuff You Should Know podcast.   I've been pondering it ever since.   Everyone has a story.  I've heard it said that everyone has a book inside them.  Life is not without adversity, and it's often the adversity that makes our story.  Adventures are either due to facing adversity or going out of our comfort zone.  The ones that are funny are just often not the normal.   For instance, I once crossed the Baltic Sea at 3 in the morning with a Ben Stein look-alike.

I think of some of my family stories and am both amazed and horrified.  My grandfather, whom I never met as he passed away before I was born, had to drop out of school in 6th grade. Yet, he took to educating himself and often read the dictionary for fun.  (I loved to read the encyclopedia when I was young.  Everyone thought it was strange, but I think my grandfather would have been proud.)

My grandmother was orphaned before the age of ten.  When she was a toddler, she poured a kettle of boiling applesauce over her.  I remember as a child sitting and listening with rapt attention as she and her brother told stories of growing up, how the doctor thought that tomatoes would kill her because of her burns and Uncle Ira sneaking her the forbidden fruit so she would snack on them without adults knowing.

The First Time I Needed Permission to Read a Book

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My mother never was one to tell me I couldn't read anything.  She always said she taught me right and wrong and trusted me to know the difference.  Summers found me at our local library devouring books from the likes of Judy Blume, Beverly Cleary, and the Childhood of Famous Americans series.

One of my favorite authors of all time at the ripe old age of sixteen was Dr. Seuss.  I loved the lesser known book I can Lick 30 Tigers Today.  I checked it out of the library quite often when I was younger, and I would giggle while curled up to my mother listening to her reading that some of the tigers' fingernails weren't very clean.  As with some of his books, there were other stories included.  I loved the Glunk that Got Thunk, and growing up in poor Appalachia, I felt sorry for the family who the Glunk was overtaking their phone line.  I would remind myself it was just a for-fun-fiction story, and get back to the rhyme.  (That's how I always remembered fiction and non-fiction.  Written "for fun" starts with the letter F.)  And I loved King Louis Katz that was the last of the stories in that book.

10 Children's Christmas books that Should Be in Your Home Library

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Are you looking for some new, fun Christmas stories?  Looking for some books to use to make Christmas
memories?  Here are some of my favorites and why I like them.  Most are under $10, one is under $2.50, so you won't break the bank to add one or more of these to a stocking this year!  While I'm sure you have heard of some of these, I expect a few will be new ones to you, and hopefully they will turn into beloved favorites like they have here!

Descriptions and Prescriptions by Michael R Emlet

FTC disclaimer:  I received a free copy of this book to review.  This post may contain affiliate links.

I studied psychology in college.  I didn't expect this book to be anything new to me, but I wanted to read it to see how the concept was presented to pastors and other church leaders in helping those who are mentally ill.  Mental illness is a real -- it's not something we can say to them everything would be fine if they just pray more -- in fact instead of helping, that can be harmful in discouraging the truly sick to avoid going to a psychiatrist.  My grandmother landed in the hospital multiple times over her life because her pastor encouraged her to go off her medication -- without consulting her doctors or being weaned off of it.  Then there are times that someone knows there is a sin issue causing them problems and a pastor just says to go to Christian counseling.  Can there be a good balance between faith and trust in God and medicines that help improve functioning?  I believe so.  And I am happy to say that the author of Descriptions and Prescriptions thinks so as well.

Don't Kill The Birthday Girl: Tales from an Allergic Life

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 In  Don't Kill the Birthday Girl: Tales from an Allergic Life, Sandra Beasley presents a sad but at the same time humorously written account of life with multiple food allergies.  Weddings?  As careful as she is, nearly half of them have left her gasping for air during an allergic attack.  Traveling overseas?  Don't forget plenty of meds, they may not have the same food items available.   

What a joy when a doctor relative gifts you with six months of allergy samples -- or they make them in a different way by compounding medicine.  While this is a memoir, I learned a lot about food allergies and some of the theories behind them. Do Bambas help reduce the risk of nut allergies? Did you know that China doesn't have the incidence of peanut allergies the United States does?  Does dry roasting peanuts make a difference in the higher rate of peanut allergies in America?  While that's not known, she does present some interesting facts about food allergies sprinkled through the book.

My 5 Favorite Fall / Halloween Children's Books From My Childhood

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I love doing these posts to help introduce a new generation to some of my childhood favorites.  I hope you find something you and your child enjoy here.

The one Halloween book that stands out to me most is Grandpa's Ghosts Stories.  I'm not the only one who would put this at the top of the list -- it FINALLY came back into print after the ones from the late 70s and early 80s were going for huge prices on eBay and Amazon.  (I have to confess, I sold mine once when I desperately needed the $60 it was going for.)  Now that it is back in print, I plan to get another copy!  But enough about the high prices this one could fetch, let's get to what I remember about the book.   It was fun, and I think you would enjoy love it.  There's a scary thunderstorm out, and Grandpa starts telling stories of things that are a lot scarier -- like a witch that turns little boys into spiders.  I got it from Weekly Reader book club about 1979, and it's the first book I think of when I think of Halloween.  (Although this isn't exactly a Halloween book, the content is appropriate for the season.)

The KJV Know the Word Study Bible & Kindle Fire Giveaway

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Diving deeper into God's Word can be easy and rewarding if you break it down book by book, verse by verse, or topic by topic with the new KJV Know The Word Study Bible by Thomas Nelson. The book-by-book series of notes leads you through the main points of each book of the Bible. The verse-by-verse notes help you to dig deeper into God’s Word. The topic-by-topic articles, which cover 21 theological topics, guide you through a series of insightful notes and give you a thorough biblical understanding of each topic. With the beautiful and timeless text of the KJV translation, the KJV Know the Word Study Bible offers you choices of how to study Scripture and grow in your relationship with Christ.




This fall, become a regular student of the Bible and enter to win the Kindle Fire giveaway!







 

One grand prize winner will receive:



Enter today by clicking the icon below, but hurry! The giveaway ends on October 31. The winner will be announced November 1 on the Litfuse blog.

• A copy of the KJV Know The Word Study Bible


• A Kindle Fire 7


• A Kindle Fire case (winner's choice)

The Money Challenge by Art Rainer

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The Money Challenge:  30 Days of Discovering God's Design for You and Your Money by Art Rainer is a short book, but stuffed with content.   At only 148 pages (and in a smaller sized hardcover book, at that!), this book is an easy read to get anyone started on their financial plan.

Being a savings and finance blogger, there was nothing new to me here, but I like to review books like this to let my readers see what is out there as resources.  This book is one that I would highly recommend.

Even though I am good with money, I am not where I would like to be in life with my bank account.  Part of that is because I took care of my sick mother for so long, meaning I couldn't get a job outside the house.  So, I feel like I'm starting again when it comes to money.  I'm sure I'm not the only one in mid-life like this.

Book Review: Fierce Women by Kimberly Wagner

FTC disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review.  All opinions are my own.  This post contains affiliate links.  

Growing up in church I was taught the importance of being meek and mild.  The verse in  First Peter where women should have a gentle and quiet spirit was impressed on me.  I wasn’t the most lady-like girl in the youth group and I always thought I was failing to live up to what God expected from me.  So when I saw that Moody Publishers was offering Fierce Women:  The Power of a Soft Warrior by Kimberly Wagner for review, I couldn’t wait to request it.

The author believes that God has instilled a fierceness within every woman.  I have always been a go-getter and this really interested me -- what if my personality isn’t something to always squelch but to embrace as God-given?  The thought really intrigued me.

Yet, this was a book much about marriage.   I’m not married, but I am dating a wonderful man.  Learning about what works and doesn’t work in marriage is something that I find helpful at this stage because I feel like what I learn now is preparation.  Sort of like studying for an exam.  Yet, even with this being a book about marriage, I still gleaned a lot of wisdom from this volume especially since I wanted to see how to be godly and fierce at the same time.

I loved the list of how humility affects a fierce woman.  I think the defining one for me is she’s a soft warrior.  Not harsh.  She gets the job done in her own kind way.   Other advice she gives through the book is to watch how we give advice to men (I’m learning that already.  I might be excited about a completed project and rattle on about that, but instead of it sounding like I’m just looking forward to completion, it might be interpreted differently by a man.)  I also loved how she described how the marriage relationship parallels Christ and the Church.  This is something I think hasn’t been taught on enough in Christianity. 

Book Review: The Inkblots Hermann Rorschach and his Iconic Test

FTC disclaimer:  I received a copy of the book for review purposes from the publisher.  All opinions are my own.  This post contains affiliate links.

I was a psychology major in college.  Yet, we barely touched on Rorschach.   My first exposure to the test (which, incidentally, the inventor never called a test) was in junior high school when I was undergoing a battery of tests because I was in the Gifted and Talented class.  After about two cards I was bored and gave one word answers so I could move on to something more interesting.  I mean, why should I have to mention everything in the card?  Wouldn't that take forever?  And what did it help anyone to know my opinion of abstract art?

So, when I had the chance to review The Inkblots: Hermann Rorschach, His Iconic Test, and the Power of Seeing, I was intrigued.  Maybe I could learn more about the man who came up with this standard psychology assessment and also have an idea of how it worked.  This book didn't disappoint.

Book Review: You're Already Amazing

FTC Disclosure:  I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.  The opinions are my own. This post contains affiliate links.


Review of You're Already Amazing by Holly Gerth:

I like reading books for Christian women.  I honestly do, but many times I feel I can't relate to them.  I don't struggle with wondering if I'm "good enough" (I am), if I'm pretty enough (If looks matter that much, that person isn't someone I would want to have in my life), or if my feelings are okay (My mother always taught me you can't help your feelings.  They are what they are.) So many times I am thinking, "Are these the biggest issues facing Christian women today?" (I do think they are, but I just can't relate!)  That's how this book started -- me enjoying reading the book, but not much in it for me until. . .

Book Review: The Departed by Kristy Cooper

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I went to a Christian college for two years, and one night we decided to play a joke on someone to make her think the rapture happened and she was left behind.  This was in the days before the Left Behind series, and we thought we were so clever -- there were stereos playing music, water running, and a couple girls who were the least likely to be raptured according to themselves were around but no one else was.  When our friend got to the final room, everyone was waiting on her so she only had a few minutes to be concerned as to if she was left behind.

But what if that happened on a large scale?  A VERY large scale?  In this series, the world wakes up to find hundreds of thousands of people missing.  Most are in America, but some in Australia, Europe, and Korea.

It's National Reading Month! Celebrate with your Mobile Device!

FTC disclaimer:  This is a sponsored post from U.S. Cellular.  All opinions are my own.

With a blog name of "Books, Bargains, Blessings", you know I love books.  I used to be a self-proclaimed book snob and only read physical books.  But then I got a mobile device from U.S. Cellular and discovered the amazing world of eBooks.

My husband and I have a lot of appointments, and I love the fact that since I always have my phone on me, I am able to access a book anywhere I am with U.S. Cellular's national wide coverage.  Not only books, but I can read magazines, news, and yes, even blog posts on my phone.  I have read more than one book by stealing a few minutes here and there.  In line at the grocery store, waiting at a doctor's appointment, or while my husband fills the car with gas, having a reading app on my phone allows me pull up something interesting to read wherever I am.

Five Favorite Books I read in 2016

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I love doing year end round ups, and today I want to bring you the top five books I read in 2016.  All but one of them I borrowed using Kindle Unlimited.  This is a service through Amazon that is free for the first 30 days, and then is only $10 a month after that.  With it, you can read as many Kindle books as you want that are eligible for the program.  You can read on your Kindle, computer, or download an app to use your iPhone, iPad or other device.  I make great use of this service, as you can tell with all of my favorite books being from this program.

Without further ado, my five favorite books and why I liked them.