Happy 90th Birthday, Grandma

My maternal grandmother's 90th birthday was at the end of September and we had an open house to honor her.

Book Review: Smitten Book Club by Colleen Coble, Kristin Billerbeck, Diann Hunt, and Denise Hunter

I received an eBook Advance Reader Copy of "Smitten Book Club" through Netgalley in order to review it. 

 "Smitten Book Club" is comprised of four novellas that follow best friends Heather, Abby, Lia, and Molly.  They are all members of the Smitten Book Club that meets on Fridays at the Lookaway Book Store.  Each novella focuses on one of the four friends' journey to find love but with the underlying story line of trying to find the gold using the "Gentlewoman's Guide to Love and Courtship" written by Molly's late husband's great-grandmother throughout the whole book.  

Novella #1: "Love by the Book" by Colleen Coble is Heather DeMeritt's story.  Heather hasn't ever totally recovered from being rejected by Paul Mansfield.  Now that he's back in town, can she get past the hurt to work with him?  Will she be able to solve the clues hidden in the Gentlewoman's guide and find the gold to help Molly?

Novella #2: "Shelved Under Romance" by Kristen Billerbeck is the story about librarian Abby Gray.  Since her father's death, her life has consisted of work and caring for her mother, with the exception of her weekly meetings with the book club.  With her friends thinking she needs a makeover and Wyatt Tanner seeming to take an interest in her, will she let her hair down and be open for a little adventure?

Novella #3: "A New Chapter" by Diann Hunt follows Elliana Burton (Lia to most people).  When she has a dental emergency, she is surprised to see Joey Oliver, the only man she has ever loved.  Will Joey realize that she is more than just a good friend?  Can Elliana help Joey find a new chapter in his life?

Novella #4: "Happily Ever After" by Denise Hunter is the final novella in the book.  Molly Moore is still reeling from the death of her husband and finding out that he took out a loan with the house as collateral.  The business that he started is struggling and she is out of her element.   When Gage Turner offers to help, she is suspicious since he is her competitor in the adventure business.  Will she be able to let go of the past and learn to trust again?   Will they decode the clues in The Gentlewoman's Guide in time?

This is the third book set in Smitten, Vermont, (the 2nd I've read) so you get to see some of the characters from the previous "Smitten" books, but you don't have to have read the others to get anything out of the book as they have minor roles and backstory is adequately supplied, in my opinion. 

"Shelved Under Romance" had a couple story continuity issues that bugged me.  First, in chapter 4, it says that Abby "doesn't even drink coffee" when she was meeting Wyatt for coffee, and then in chapter 8, it says "Abby skipped her morning coffee".  So does she drink it or not?  Also, when Heather brings the Gentlewoman's Guide for Abby to try and decipher the clues, Abby doesn't seem to have a clue what it is, but in the first novella, the four friends all go gold-hunting together trying to find the gold referenced in the Guide.  Also, in "Happily Ever After", Molly needs to find a new adventure guide since her's quit, but there is no mention of Wyatt and I thought that he worked for her in "Shelved Under Romance".  

I liked "Happily Ever After" the best of the four novellas, but there weren't any of them that I didn't like.  The Epilogue wraps up the book and "ties up the loose ends". 

I found the first two stories a bit rushed at the ends.  There is the usual build up of the relationship and then once the woman trusts the man and acknowledges her feelings for him, there is another conflict that causes her to doubt again.  After this final conflict, it seems that the woman flips a switch to trusting him again and, boom, the novella was done.

There was some issues with formatting, spacing, and paragraphing, but I'm assuming that is because it was an ARC.  It did make it more difficult to read.  
There seems there will be a "Reading Group Guide" at the end of the book.

• File Size: 1400 KB
• Print Length: 373 pages
• Publisher: Thomas Nelson (January 14, 2014)
• Sold by: HarperCollins Christian Publishing
• Language: English
• ASIN: B00DNBEH6Q

Product Review and Giveaway: Wizzy Gizmo Fast Track Bible Pack

I had the opportunity to review the "Wizzy Gizmo Fast Track Bible New Testament Pack" through Home & School Mosaics.  I received a free set of the New Testament Fast Track Bible Pack in order to provide my honest review.

There is a card for each book of the New Testament.  On the front of the card it tells

1. summary of the book
2. key passages
3. theme of the book
4. number to show the order in the New Testament
5. interesting facts:

• the author and a little about him 
• approximate date it was written
• how many chapters it has

On the back, there is

1. an outline of the book
2. key chapters
3. key doctrines
4. key passages 
5. key people in the book  

Each section is color coded to make it easier to keep track of the information. The cards make it nice to have an easy reference to the books of the New Testament.  The New Testament Fast Track Pack would make excellent training resources for kids or you could incorporate them into your Christian homeschool curriculum.  The cards were really nice.  They were colorful and sturdy.  You can see some of the suggested uses for the cards here.

My only suggestion for improvement would be to have them on a ring or have them in a case of some sort so that the cards don't get separated from each other.  I would punch a hole myself, but there isn't enough room to do so without loosing some of the information.

If you would like to buy a copy of these for yourself, you can do so through this Affiliate Link for $14.99.  Also, you have a chance to win a copy of the New Testament Fast Track Bible Pack.


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Frazor Evangelistic Team

Our church recently had the Frazor Evangelistic Team for a week of meetings.  Here are some of the events from that week:

Friday, the kids did a short program:

The kids weren't the quietest or calmest during the song I decided to record of the Frazor Team singing.

Lil' Learners Soccer

We decided to have Andy do a short 4 week intro to soccer program.   He was pretty good at it, too!  The first week got postponed due to rain and the rescheduled date (the last one) got cut short due to rain, also, but at least he still got his certificate!

It was a little harder for Andy with the ball being wet, so this doesn't show his normal skills, but here is a short video from right before the class got called due to rain.