Booksneeze Book Review

I reviewed 100 Prayers God Loves to Hear, 100 Praise Songs. (Created by Stephen Elkins)

This book has a lot of prayers dealing with day to day activities and situations for children. It also has a praise song, sung by children, to go with each prayer. I requested this book to review with my children 5 and 8 months. My son, 5, did not like the book as much. He more enjoys reading this book to his baby sister. The words are easy to read, the pictures are great to look at and the CD is enjoyable to listen to. I have also brought this book to work with me. (I teach 1 year olds in a church preschool). My students enjoy sitting in my lap reading this book with me. They like looking at the pictures and dancing to the music. For more information see: http://www.christianbook.com/prayers-praise-songs-god-loves-hear/stephen-elkins/9781400315499/pd/315499?item_code=WW&netp_id=750015&event=ESRCN&show_all_cr=1#customer_reviews

I gave this book 4.5 stars.

Chapter 2

Chapter two spoke to me as much as the first. In this Chapter the author tells of a trip to Bosnia where they met a community of women who had no clean underwear for themselves or their children. Such a small, simple request. The next time they visited these women they all had clean underwear. In meeting the physical they were able to minister to the spiritual needs of these women.

If you've read my past blogs you know I too have been one of these women. I have needed a roof over my head, food to eat, clothes on my back and a bed to sleep in. I have not been so destitute that I needed clean underwear but I now understand the needs. Telling me Jesus loves me is one thing but I can't hear you when I am worried about where my child's next meal is going to come from.

In all that my family and I have been through the past year and a half I feel as though I am Naomi (in the book of Ruth). This book parallels the life of Naomi as she too embraces her second calling. I feel like God is preparing me for something great...I just have to keep my faith and know that there is a plan.

Chapter 3: What Really Counts

My Free Book from Booksneeze!

Okay, okay, so I got my book several months ago but I have to be honest. When I picked out the title I didn't pay much attention to what the book was actually about. When my book came in the mail for me to read I was puzzled and drug my feet to getting it read. I just decided to go ahead and read it and give an honest review, regardless of whether or not it applied to my life or not. My book is called, "Embracing Your Second Calling: Find Passion and Purpose for the Rest of Your Life" What?? I'm only 30. Little did I know that as I read the first chapter of this book, this book definitely applies to me. It urges you to find purpose in your life and listen to God's calling for you. It has helped me to kind of take a step back and embrace my aging (something I often struggle with). At the end of Chapter 1, there is a prayer written. I'd like to share it with you as it has spoken to my heart.

"Lord, I'm sorry to whine but I feel a bit sorry for myself.
I miss who I was, and I'm not enjoying this process of
aging very much right now. Help me to listen less to the
messages about fading beauty and more to your call to
my heart. Thank you for my health, and forgive me for
taking it for granted for all these years."

Chapter 2: Getting Personal.
I wonder what God has in store for me in this chapter?

Long Time, No See

Well, its been a while. I have been so busy trying to keep it all together...and failing miserably. Here's an update.

Shortly after my last post we had gone to court because we were being sued for back rent. Rent we couldn't pay on time but kept paying everything we had. Josh's work had slowed down and every penny went to keeping him working. No groceries, no other bills got paid. When we left court the representative from the Landlord's told us they were more than willing to work with us.

About 3 weeks later Josh got a new job! He started in two weeks! Yea! Then we got a notice that we had to be out of our 'home' in 24 hours. We grabbed everything we could and stored it at Josh's dad's house. We quickly ran out of room. We moved into an extended stay hotel. Because we couldn't grab everything anything that was left was placed out on the curb. We had grabbed Joel's stuff, Addy's clothes and some toys, and we also grabbed necessary furniture (crib, our bed, dressers, etc.) What we couldn't grab was stolen. Including my wedding dress, my kitchen stuff, Joel's DS, and a couple pieces of furniture.

We pressed on knowing that God would take care of us. After 3 weeks in the hotel we couldn't pay that anymore either. We found an apartment (not an ideal place for raising two kids but it would do). Once again, we are starting over.

Weekend blur

This weekend I was anticipating a bad one. It rained all weekend long. We usually try to go somewhere during the weekend to fight off cabin fever. Of course the act of going somewhere is a tricky one. We can't differ from our usual routine much without much notice and preparation. We also have to think about Joel's anxiety level, as well as my own. Due to past behaviors I find that my anxiety level is quite high when we are out in public. I never know what will set him off.

Our Saturday started off like any other. He wakes up and comes to my room, if he isn't already in there. He wakes me up. If it is before 8:00 am, I suggest he watch TV, quietly, as he waits for 8am. At 8, I get out of bed and we go get him 'chocolate milk'. This helps get his blood sugar up so that I can avoid any unnecessary fights. He plays/watches TV, plays on the computer, or helps with Addy. This Saturday I had a lot of chores to do so he had his choice of what to do. He had a pretty good morning and early afternoon. We went to the church/school to check on our Chrysalises. We then went to the store to grab one thing then back home to cook dinner and to work on cleaning his room, which he did with minimal complaining. In fact, no complaints. So out of character for him.

That night, after dinner he started complaining about his body hurting. I thought he was complaining about his boo boos on his knees. (He had fallen this week). Later he came and snuggled on the couch with me and I realized he had a fever. He told me that his knees couldn't bend. This reminded me of a time when I was about 5 or 6. My parents went out for New Year's Eve. Sherry, my sister, was babysitting. My knees were hurting all night and eventually got to the point where I couldn't bend them. She kept yelling at me because she thought I was being lazy when I wouldn't bend over to clean up. By the time my parents' got home I had to be taken to the Emergency Room. It turned out to be an Ear infection that had gone to my knees. So...Joel's temperature still isn't very high so we will have to call the doctor Monday morning.

Sunday was pretty low key. We stayed home from church since Joel still wasn't feeling well and Addy started to cough again. We got a lot done. Half the laundry got done, bathrooms got clean, and floors got mopped.

Now...what will this week bring?

My "Perfect" Day

So tonight after dinner, a dinner that Joel actually ate, I was thinking about how great today was. The baby was content and playing quietly in the floor, Joel was sitting next to me talking to me about this and that, quite honestly I wasn't listening too intently until I heard him say 'chicken goes bauk bauk (not sure how to spell this...forgive me.) This phrase was the same one I have heard over and over for the past couple of days. You see, every week there's a different phrase. Who knows what it will be next week. Josh calls to let me know he's on his way home. I get excited because the kids hardly ever get to see him when the sun is still up. Josh gets home, eats dinner, and as we are sitting there I decided maybe we should take a walk. They usually venture out on walks without me since the baby is almost always fussy this time of night. So we get our shoes on, grab the stroller and off we go. We are all enjoying ourselves, and get just to the other side of the hill (not even a block away) when Joel starts to freak out. He couldn't see the house. I told him we were going to walk around the block (3/4 mile) and Mommy and Daddy and Addy were all going to go. Josh offered to put him on his shoulders and that did the trick. Once we got moving again he started to whine and cry again but since he was being carried we kept walking as we talked. I decided to play I Spy to distract him. This worked until Daddy spied a fire hydrant. Joel once again got upset pleading with us not to touch the hydrant. So we walked around it and further on down the road. As I walked I started to pray. God, please help me help him. Give me guidance, give me strength, and give me wisdom. As we passed a truck that was parked on the side of the road I saw its bumper sticker. Autism awareness. It seems lately that every time I start to doubt my suspicions, I run into someone with some form of autism. There was the time I ran into the facebook friend, someone at work was talking about her sister but couldn't remember the name of the diagnosis (PDD NOS-the same thing I suspect Joel of having). I prayed again and asked God "are you sending me these messages or am I more aware of these things?" I have always been a supporter of autism awareness. It is one of those things that I believe needs our support, and prayer, so we can find a cause and try to find prevention for it, if possible.

Our next step now is to pray and wait. Let me be honest...this part sucks, but I guess its growing pains, right?

A good day??

Today was one of rare good days. This morning he started to get upset because I didn't have any bread for toast. I told him we would go to the store and get something for lunch and breakfast. We got to the store and I asked him to get out of the car and again, he got upset. I had to show him that we were at the store and we were going to pick out something for breakfast and lunch.

I very rarely allow him to eat lunchables but today he wanted a lunchable. He chose a ham and cheddar lunchable. I was nervous about it but allowed it anyways. He chose yogurt pretzels for breakfast. (vs. donuts? oh yeah! sure thing buddy....no problem)

We got to school and he was a perfect angel...no fits, no problems. When he got to computers today I asked his teacher how he's been. Usually by now, when he's had a morning that's out of the norm, he's had a fit or two. She even told me that he had been the best behaved all morning (out of his whole class). : O <--------Shocked face

I went on and met with my Family Facilitator from Hand in Hand. She helped me figure out what my next step would have to be.

When I got back to the school to pick him up he had taken a nap, and he showed me his new boo boos. He fell down on the playground and scraped his knee. He fell down on the playground, PLAYING WITH OTHER BOYS!

So now here's what I'm thinking: Are his behaviors a result of my bad parenting? I know that there's definitely something going on with him, as we are unable to predict his behavior...but did I do it to him?