Amish Love Review

I received "An Amish Love" from Booksneeze.  "An Amish Love" is a collection of three novellas: Healing Heart by Beth Wiseman, A Marriage of the Heart, by Kelly Long, and What the Heart Sees by Kathleen Fuller.  All three stories center around the same small Amish town.  All three stories are complete fairy tales; never gonna happen.  On the other hand, who doesn't love a good fairy tale.  The stories are really good and would work even without the whole Amish thing.  Sometimes I wonder if writers stick in Amish stuff to improve the sales.  It seems if they aren't writing about Amish, its a vampire.  But anyway, this book is a good read. 
The first story, "A Marriage of the Heart" is about a girl who says a boy kissed her when he didn't so she has to get married within the hour.  Yeah, right.  But anyway, they fall in love over time and work through the grooms drug problem.  The second story, "What the Heart Sees" is a little more deep.  It is about the aftermath of a serious car wreck and forgiveness.  The third, "Healing Hearts"  is about a couple of emptynesters and their path to refind each other.  This book is a good collection of love storys that will be enjoyed by any woman of any faith. 

Precious Moments Storybook Bible Review

Recently I read the Precious Moments Storybook Bible to my 6 year old and she loves it.  This storybook bible is a collection  favorite bible stories, songs, prayers, and praise.  It is broken into 4 collections:  Favorite Bible Classics, Words of Praise and Wisdom, More Stories of Faith, and Songs and Prayers.  The illustrations are what make this book stand out.  Our family has a special spot for Precious Moments being that my mother-in-law lives near the chapel and we can visit it every year or so.  The book is written at a K-3 grade understanding level, but more of a 3rd grade reading.  It does not talk down to children or "dumb down" the story.  It reads like a bible.  The only part I don't like about it is that the stories are not in biblical order.  The stories in each collection are, but as a whole book they are not.  For instance, Jesus feeds the 5,000 on page 47 and is born on page 115.  That does throw off an adult reader, but my 6 year old never noticed.  I think this book would not only be a wonderful addition to a beginning readers collection, but to any Precious Moments fan as well. 

new year's eve

My New Year's Eves have changed drastically in my life.  This year I ate a healthy spinach and muchroom omelet at IHOP, saw Little Fockers, went to a party with a swinging game of UNO, and still managed to make it home by 10:30 where I brought in the new year with a 6 year old and Brendan Fraiser.  Not even a hot "journey to the center of the earth" Brendan Fraiser, but middle aged "Furry Vengance" Brendan Fraiser.  (Sarah's been on that kick lately.)  Seventeen years ago at this time I would have been to hung over to slur 2 words together let alone put together a paragraph.  Strangely I don't feel I have missed anything this year.  Like the Bible says:  there's a time for this and a time for that.  And right now is a time for diet dr. pepper, a sleepy kindergartner, and the comfy version of Link.  Happy 2011!