Die Young

Michael and Hayley DiMarco have written a new book published by Crossway titled Die Young:  Burying Your Self In Christ.  

Hayley is the founder of Hungry Planet, where she writes and creates cutting-edge books that connect with the multitasking mind-set.  She has written numerous best-selling books for both teens and adults including God Girl, Mean Girls, Idol Girls, and Dateable.  She blogs regularly at www.hayleydimarco.com  and disciples girls online at God Girl. 

Michael is the publisher at Hungry Planet and oversees cover and interior design as creative director.  He has written numerous best selling books for both teens and adults, including God Guy, Cupidity, Unstuff,  and All In.  He blogs regularly at www.michaeldimarco.com.

Michael and Hayley live with their daughter on the shores of Old Hickory Lake just outside of Nashville, TN.

In their most recent book, Die Young, the DiMarcos state that

"God wants you to die young today.  He wants you to take up your cross and follow him.  He wants you to deny yourself, to say 'no' to the promptings of your flesh and of this world and say 'yes' to the promptings of his Spirit.  To die young is to do all those things.  It is to give up you right to yourself so that no one can be your master buy God himself."

The basic message of the book is that it is not too late to turn to God and die to yourself no matter what stage you are in life.

While the book contains an important message and the DiMarcos have done a good job of making the layout of  Die Young trendy looking with cool graphics, the message is pretty simple.  When I say "simple", I mean that the book is grossly repetitive.  However, the interspersed testimonies by Michael and Hayley are a nice addition and help with the repetitiveness.

The book is short (only 173 pages).  Die Young would be good for use in Youth Sunday School classes and for discipleship with new believers.  You can order the book from Crossway by going HERE.  Read and excerpt from the book HERE. 

Trailer for Die Young:

Die Young. from Crossway on Vimeo.


*I received an Advanced Reader Copy of this book for the purpose of review from Crossway.

Happy Reading,
Jennifer

Meeting Jodi

I've said it before, but I'm saying it again today:  The internet can be an evil place.  "Can be" being the key words.  Social media sites like MySpace and Facebook can be very bad.  Again, "can be" are the key words.  There are so many ways satan, the enemy of our souls who seeks to steal, kill, and destroy us, uses things like what I've mentioned to really mess people up.

However, God, the Lover of our souls, is more than able to use those very same things (all things He created and thought of before any man even had the ideas for) to encourage and spur His people on to love and good works.

That's what blogging has done for me!  And it (blogging) has become a huge blessing and encourager in my life.  The connections I've been able to make and friendships forged have been a cup of fresh water to my soul. 

Several years ago, I discovered Beth Moore's Living Proof Ministries Blog and the Lord has used it to really change my life.  It was the impetus to begin my own blog.  I was going through a particularly difficult time in my life just a couple of months after discovering the blog at LPM and posted a comment asking for prayer.  Now Beth has hundreds of comments to any given post on her ministry's blog.  The best I was hoping for was a few people who would read my comment and genuinely pray for me.

Within just a couple of days of each other, Stephanie (Notes From The Soul) and Jodi (Fruit Inspection) both emailed me with encouraging words and pledges to pray for me!  Out of all the people that read and comment on that blog, these two sweet girls took time to personally contact me.  The Lord used them then and continues to use these two sweet friends to encourage me and spur me on.  I got to meet Stephanie a couple of years ago in San Antonio, TX at a Living Proof Live event.

Yesterday, I was blessed to meet Jodi and her two sweet kiddos!  Her husband Jeremy is involved in a fishing tournament taking place on Lake Okeechobee and they are staying in Clewiston for the week.  Jodi, her daughter Savannah and her son Emery, came to Fort Myers and met up with me, Bentley and JennaBeth at Escape Zone.

Bentley and Emery began playing and paling around like they've know each other all their lives!  It was sweet to have them finally meet IRL (in real life).

This picture is really poor quality...it was kind of dark in the bounce area and I couldn't get a good setting on my camera to get a good picture.  That's Savannah in the corner...and I am sad that this picture is the only one of her I got!  JennaBeth immediately fell in love with her and kept her busy most of the evening.  Jodi, if you got a better picture of Savannah and JennaBeth, please send it to me!!

 

As usual, JennaBeth jumped right in on the action with the boys and would NOT be outdone by them!  After the kids had played for a couple of hours, we took the kids to Yogurt Mountain for a cool treat.  I think both Emery's and Bentley's hair was plastered to their heads...they played hard and enjoyed every minute of it!  Later that evening I had checked in with Jodi by text to make sure they had arrived back in Clewiston safely and she said that her kids wanted to play with Bentley and JennaBeth again today.  I in turn told her that Bentley was wanting to move to Georgia so he could play with Emery everyday!

Jodi, I am blessed to know you!  You are one of the most genuine people I know and I love the transparency and realness with which you share on your blog.  I am go glad we finally got to meet face to face and certainly hope it won't be the last time!  Your faith encourages me and God has used it to spur me along in my own! 

*You can visit Jeremy and Jodi's new business, Anglers Warehouse by going HERE and be sure and connect with them on Facebook by going HERE.  

"Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their work:  If one falls down, his friend can help him up.  But pity the man who falls and has no one to help him up!..Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves.  A cord of three strands is not quickly broken."  Ecclesiastes 4:9-10, 12

Blessings,
Jennifer

Living Life

While going through the blogs I follow this morning, I read this on Mellissa's (Breath of Life):

"I find myself too busy living my life to write about it.  And that is a blessing that cannot be measured."

I could have written those very words myself.  We've had a busy, but good weekend.  The fun started on Thursday night.  While I was leading Bible study with a group of ladies at our church, Mike was at "pirate tryouts" with Bentley and JennaBeth!

The event was Readers of the Carribean, a family literacy workshop, and was held at the school where Bentley and Cecily attend school.

That's our principal, Dr. Santini.  I love how the administration and teachers at my kids' school work together to make learning so much fun.  They get involved with the kids and parents and seem happy to do so.

Bentley's teacher, Ms Weigman, even got into the pirate scene!

And don't think for one minute that JennaBeth was going to miss out on any of the action!  She was so excited to be on the big stage with the big kids.  After all, she can do anything they can do.

On Saturday, the kids were invited to a birthday party.  We had a new family move into our neighborhood a few weeks ago and their little boy Ilan was turning five.  His mom and dad had a bounce house set up for the kids, which was a big hit with all the kids.

As you can see, the slide was the most fun!

That's Ilan, the birthday boy!  Don't you just love that big smile???

The only thing better than an Oreo Ice Cream cake is a SpongeBob pinata!!!

The only thing even better than cake and candy is...

sweet friends!  That's JennaBeth with her best friend from next door Morgan.

Sunday we had homecoming at our church in North Fort Myers.  Northside Babtist Church was established the first Sunday in February 30 years ago.  Each year we celebrate as a church family with a picnic after our morning worship service.

That's Cecily (on the left) our oldest with a friend from church, Grace.

The kids usually get together and play some form of ball; this year it was soccer.  And true to herself, JennaBeth joined right in!

And when she wasn't playing soccer, she was climbing up and down the bleachers...yes that would be JennaBeth about halfway on the bleachers on her way down!

Bentley enjoyed playing Nerf guns with his buddy Seth.

What do you and your family like to do for fun weekends?

When life gives you a hundred reasons to cry, show life that you have a thousand reasons to smile.

Spend time with those you love.  One of these days you will say either, "I wish I had" or "I'm glad I did".  Zig Ziglar

Blessings,
Jennifer

 

 

Not In The Heart

A condemned man.

A dying son.

An imperfect father.

How far will one man go to save the life of his son?

Time is running out.

I'm so excited to let you know about a book that is releasing TODAY by Tyndale House Publishers.  The book is Not In The Heart by Chris Fabry.

 Biography  (taken from Fabry's website found at www.chrisfabry.com )

Chris Fabry is an award-winning author and radio personality who hosts the daily program Chris Fabry Live! on Moody Radio. He is also heard on Love Worth Finding, Building Relationships with Dr. Gary Chapman, and other radio programs.
A 1982 graduate of the W. Page Pitt School of Journalism at Marshall University and a native of West Virginia, Chris and his wife, Andrea, now live in Arizona and are the parents of nine children.
Chris' novels, which include Dogwood, June Bug, Almost Heaven, and Not in the Heart, have won two Christy Awards and an ECPA Christian Book Award, but it's his lyrical prose and tales of redemption that keep readers returning for more.
He has also published more than 65 other books, including nonfiction and novels for children and young adults. He coauthored the Left Behind: The Kids series with Jerry B. Jenkins and Tim LaHaye, as well as the Red Rock Mysteries and The Wormling series with Jerry B. Jenkins. RPM is his latest series for kids and explores the exciting world of NASCAR.

You can connect with Fabry on Facebook and through his blog The Flog - The Fabry Log. 

In my experience of reading lots of books, I have found that very few fiction writers are able to write in such a way as to make their characters jump off the page and into your mind and heart.  And very few are able to paint a picture with their words that shows the true condition of the human heart and the gamut of emotion that is often found there and tell a story that leaves you breathless in the end.

Chris Fabry has accomplished that in his story of Truman Wiley in Not In The Heart.

Truman absolutely had me puzzled until the very last page.  In the first few pages of the book, I didn't like him very much.  A little further along into the story, I felt sorry for him.  Then I was really on his side pulling for him.  Then I didn't like him again.  Then I loved him.  At times I didn't know what in the world to think about this man and his extreme selfishness but heart wrenching love for his family.

If that sounds confusing, well it is.  Truman will have you wondering about him until the last page of his story and when you get to the end of Not In The Heart you will realize that we are all just like Truman at different points in our own lives.  Chris Fabry has offered up something really special in this story.  I encourage you to consider it for your next book club (questions for a reading group are included in the back of the book).  But don't count on just one night to discuss this story!  You'll need more than one.

Read chapter one HERE.

You can order Not In The Heart from Amazon.com by going HERE. 

You can order directly from the publisher by going HERE.

*Audra Jennings of the B&B Media Group sent me a copy of this book for the purpose of review.

Happy Reading,

Jennifer

Finding Delight

My friend Leslie Wiggins is hosting

over at her blog Alabamenagerie.  Her Finding Delight posts are all about how you've found delight in God's Word during the previous week.  Now, she is reading God's Word this year with an eye and heart toward looking for each use of the actual word delight in Scripture.  You can read her post introducing this by going HERE.

Recently I read this passage in Psalm 5:11-12

"But let all who take refuge in You be glad; let them ever sing for joy.  Spread Your protection over them, that those who love Your name may rejoice in you.  For surely, O LORD, you bless the righteous; You surround them with Your favor as with a shield."

It seemed to me, as I read these words, that the phrase "those who love Your name" was the key.  We take refuge and are able to sing for joy and are surrounded with God's favor as with a shield as we love His name.  So, I looked a little further into this Hebrew word for love using the resource of my Key Word Study Bible.

The Hebrew word for "love" in this passage is Ahab and means:

to love, desire, delight, like, be fond of, covet, be beloved, amiable, be a passionate lover.  It implies an ardent and vehement inclination of the mind and a tenderness of affection at the same time.

The question that has been embedded in my mind and heart is this:

"Am I delighting in God's character?  Do I passionately love and desire God with all my heart, soul, mind and strength?

Visit Leslie and see how she and others are delighting in God's Word.

How have you been delighting in God's Word lately?

Blessings,
Jennifer

Secure Daughters, Confident Sons

If you are a parent, you can quickly get overwhelmed with the plethora of parenting books on the market.  Few are anything more than your typical guide in how to have well-behaved, nice, neat little children.  It was refreshing to read Glenn T. Stanton's Secure Daughters, Confident Sons:  How Parents Guide Their Children Into Authentic Masculinity And Femininity.  

Glenn T. Stanton is the director for Family Formation Studies at Focus on the Family in Colorado Springs and a research fellow at the Institute of Marriage and Family in Ottawa. He debates and lectures extensively on the issues of gender, sexuality, marriage and parenting at universities and churches around the country. He served the George W. Bush administration for many years as a consultant on increasing fatherhood involvement in the Head Start program.
Stanton is the author of five books and a contributor to nine others, including Why Marriage Matters: Reasons to Believe in Marriage in Postmodern Society (1997), My Crazy, Imperfect Christian Family (NavPress, 2004) and Marriage on Trial: The Case Against Same-Sex Marriage and Parenting (InterVarsity Press, 2004), which was featured on C-SPAN BookTV.
His latest book, The Ring Makes All the Difference (Moody Publishers, September 2011), explains the latest research findings, as well as biblical wisdom, on why cohabitation is not a smart idea for couples and their children. Stanton and his wife have five endlessly growing and amazing children, and they live in Colorado Springs, Colo.

Stanton's response to some opinions that his definition of gender in the book is too narrow can be found HERE at her.meneutics the Christianity Today blog for women.

"My desire is to help you teach your child to navigate between the two extreme views of gender identity that are present in our culture today.  One group firmly believes that the way you nurture or socialize a child trumps the work of nature; the other demands that no amount of nurture should change the inborn wild-at-heart or captivating nature of boys and girls.  Our definition of gender has to involve both nature and nurture to truly explain the essential difference and how we authentically live in our humanity throughout distinct cultures of the world.  Our natures are real, but so are our nurturing environments.  If not, parenting would simply be about providing food, clothing, and shelter."  (Stanton from the introduction - The Importance of Difference)

The book is divided into two parts:

1. A Clear Vision for Authentic Manhood and Womanhood
2. Why Boys and Girls Need Mothers and Fathers

The two parts cover the following:

1. What makes a good man?
2. What makes a good woman?
3. What a boy needs most.
4. What a girl needs most.
5. Making Healthy Men out of Healthy Boys
6. Making Healthy Women out of Healthy Girls
7. Why it's Good When Mom and Dad Disagree
8. The Serious Business of Play
9. How Moms and Dads Together Influence Language Development
10. Balancing Grace and Discipline
11. Preparation Versus Protection:  Why Both Dad and Mom Are Right
12. Your Child is a Sexual Being
13. How Mom and Dad Raise Kids Who Care
14. Gender Differences:  The Basis for a Healthy Family

Stanton's writing style is engaging and funny.  You'll be blessed and encouraged by his offering in Secure Daughters, Confident Sons.

A copy of the book was sent to me by WaterBrook Multnomah as part of their Blogging For Books program.  You can order the book from them by going HERE.  You can also read an excerpt from the book by going HERE.

If you will, please take a minute and rank this review in the box below.  You will be entered to win a copy of the book for yourself!


Blessings,
Jennifer

A Recipe of a Different Kind

Have you noticed how expensive everything is getting?  From gasoline to groceries to the things you need to keep your home clean, everything seems to be stretching family budgets to the max!  As a stay at home mom, I clip coupons and try to keep spending (even for necessities) at a minimum.  Out of all the "chores" around the house, laundry is one that NEVER gets completed.  I think my laundry baskets can be empty for only 2.5 seconds flat at any given time!  I do multiple loads everyday of the week except on Sundays.  So, I go through a lot of detergent and even with coupons, it can still be very pricey.  Plus, it seems I'm always running out at the most inconvenient times.

I had been hearing of some people making their own laundry soap and using things like vinegar in the place of fabric softener in order to save money.  To be honest, I was a little skeptical with questions like:  How clean does it really get your clothes?  Do your clothes smell like vinegar if you replace the softener with it?  And most important, how will if affect my Psoriasis?  The cleaning affect was the biggest thing for me, because I have three children who can get pretty messy, especially the littlest two, ages 6 and 2.  My 6 year old son loves to be outside and when he comes in in the evenings, well...he just stinks!  There's something pungent about little boy funk!!

With all of this in mind, I went to the greatest source of information on the web today...Facebook!  I posted some questions about homemade laundry soap and if anybody had ever tried it and so forth.  I was directed by one of my Facebook/Blogging friends to this website:  Being Creative To Keep My Sanity.  This lady is a genius!  She has a plethora of tips to help you live frugally.  Yesterday, I made her recipe for homemade laundry soap!  Here it is:

76 oz. box of Borax

4 lb. box of Arm & Hammer Baking Soda

55 oz. box of Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soap

3 bars of Fels-Naptha soap

3.5 lbs. OxyClean

You mix all the boxes/containers of powder.  Grate the bar soap and add to the powder ingredients.  I found all these items at Wal-Mart.  Here's the cost of each:

• OxyClean (I used the SunOxygen brand, because it was much cheaper than than the OxyClean brand)  $1.96 X 2
• Fels-Naptha   .97 X 3
• Baking Soda  $2.12
• Super Washing Soda  $3.24
• Borax   $3.38
• I also bought a plastic latch container in which to store the detergent   $3.97
• TOTAL:  $19.54

The average 64 load size of laundry detergent costs anywhere from around $8 to $12 depending on the brand you are buying and sometimes more.  I go through 2 of those in ONE month.  And sometimes run out before the end of the month comes around!  That's say an average of $24.00 a month on laundry detergent alone.  The lady over at Being Creative To Keep My Sanity uses 1 to 2 tablespoons per load and this recipe lasted her NINE MONTHS! 

When I was mixing this up yesterday, the kids were really mesmerized by the process.

The grated Fels-Naphta looks exactly like grated cheese.  My two year old kept saying, "You washin' my clothes in cheese mama?"

I washed my first load using this detergent last night.  The clothes came out clean and very fresh smelling and they were soft.  This was a fun experiment.  I'll keep track of how long it lasts and let you know in a few months how much money I've saved by not having to buy laundry detergent every time I turn around!

What are some ways you are saving money and living frugally around your place?

Blessings,
Jennifer