True Love Stories Never Have Endings

When I don't like a book, it is so hard for me to get through it. I have a hard time getting to the end. It's like a race you are trying desperately to reach the finish...who am I kidding? I know nothing about races. I don't run... Anyway...I started this book in April. I am a pretty fast reader. I try to read a book every two weeks; not ways possible but I try. So not even halfway through this one, I was desperately trying to finish this book. I really wanted to like it. I have grown to like year long journeys. I find them very inspiring. This book, however, was not inspiring.  Rachel Held Evans embarks on a year long journey of the Bible. In this journey, she will practice Old Testament customs and learn more about herself and her Christian faith. Or so we are led to think. What starts out as a month by month task list devoted to particular virtues (Grace, beauty, submission, valor etc) ends up a whine fest drowned with overtones of sarcasm. I was highly disapp...

It's getting kind of ridiculous how many books I am reading right now. Not that I am complaining, it's just I have to be realistic to how many I can really read at one time. I read one fiction book, one marriage book, one non-fiction Christian book, and a regular non fiction. There are so many choices and such little time that I read one chapter of each. And now I also read on the treadmill since there is the nifty Kindle app that connects with my kindle so I can read on my phone while I am walking. Ah, technology these days. While walking on the treadmill I discovered this free ebook: I don't normally read books out of sequence...but I didn't realize that this is a part of a series until halfway through it. Even though this was book two, I didn't feel like I was missing anything from the first.  I am continuing my quest to find good, clean romances and this one definitely met my criteria. This book finds ER nurse Julie taking care of a former soldi...

It's been a long time since a book actually made me feel convicted and made me question how I handle things.  Not that this is a bad thing...or a bad book; on the contrary...it was a great book. I absolutely loved it. But it was convicting for me. I finished it the other night. I have grown to love my mission to find good marriage books to share with you guys. For one, it gets me reading marriage books and I pick up lots of interesting tips.  This book was no different. The one thing that was so refreshing about this one was unlike most of the marriage books I have read so far, it was not a step by step on what you should do and not do. The author takes you with her on her journey of this experiment to discover what exactly it means to be a submissive wife. When she doesn't understand something or struggles with her role as a helper, she expresses it to the reader. I loved this writing style. It made it so much more personal. As I was reading this book, I start...

Ok...you can say it. Or say it with me...I am a horrible blogger. Here it is almost 3 months since my last post. HORRIBLE BLOGGER. There are many excuses I can throw at you: I have started a new bible study on Wed nights...K and I are now going to Sunday school (now called life groups), work has gotten super busy, and for a week we had family staying with us. But all of that is my way of saying...I'm sorry for being gone but I am here. I just don't post all the time ;) I started reading a very interesting book: K and I spent a Saturday afternoon browsing Lifeway Christian bookstore and I stumbled upon this in the bargain section. I am only a few chapters in and I can say I am really glad I picked this up. Instead of doing a review of this book, I am going to treat it as discussion topic for now. As I continue through it, I am going to post about it. It raises some very interesting topics. The most interesting being  that dirty word we talked about : Submission. Sar...

I've mentioned to you  that I am an avid reader.  I was so skeptical of getting a kindle, but I have to say it has been one of my favorite purchases ever. I LOVE my kindle. One of the perks of a kindle is free books. I have been stocking up on free books lately and since I recently finished a children's book series, I dove into one of the free books last week. One of my challenges to myself for this blog was to find good marriage books and I increased that challenge to good romances. So this is what I started with: The book opens introducing us to a man who is unhappy with his life. During a trip to his hometown, the main character runs into an old love. We learn that this was "the one". Flashback to the 1970's when times were different and Shawn literally falls for the girl next door: Dawn Adele. At first what seems to be a brother/sister relationship blossoms into young love. Because of their age difference, (Shawn was 4 years older) her parents tried t...

There are so many ways I show K that I love him. Cooking his favorite meal, spending time with him, doing something he wants to do...watching the entire Star Wars collection because of the new movie being released in December. There are many ways... This book by Lisa Jacobson gave me more great ideas to show K that I love him. I really enjoyed reading this book. It was a very quick read as she lists each way on separate pages with a brief reason. Here are some of the ways that stood out to me and some I need to work on: Welcome him home (12) - When our husbands come home, we want them to feel welcomed and loved. This is their safe haven from a day full of hard work and stress. I wish I could say this is something I have practiced since the beginning, but hey, I am still learning. And I am working on it. So when K comes home, I greet him with a smile and a kiss.  Pray for him (16)- I love how she says that he needs a praying wife and to ask for protection. Who better t...

I love to read. I know I have mentioned that before...but I want you to understand how deep that love for reading goes. It started in 1st grade. There was this program called "SRA" and it was to encourage recreational reading as well as our development in learning to read. The minute I picked out my first book, I was hooked. I wanted to learn how to read so I could read every book I could get my hands on. I quickly learned that I don't just read...I am in the book. In elementary school, I was a part of the babysitter's club, I went through all the horrors in the Goosebumps series, and I was a Sweet Valley girl. (Does anyone remember the Sweet Valley Twins?  I read all the junior books!) When I hit high school, I was teased for reading so much, but instead of it bothering me; I became rebellious. I read all the time and I made sure they saw me reading. Fear Street was my favorite series. I majored in English in college so I could study literature. (I'll be h...

I love to reread books. Being an avid reader, I want to read as many books as I can. This year, I increased my goal to read 22 books. I have read 12 so far. Rereading a book counts for me. Sometimes I catch something that I didn't the first time I read it or my opinion is a bit different. I also remember why I loved the book so much. Rereading The Five Love Languages so I could post a review for it was fun. I loved revisiting this book. I read it back in 2010; two years after K and I were married. I loved Gary Chapman's idea of love languages and how each person has one. His idea is that you want love displayed in your particular language: First I want to address his idea of "being in love" vs. "real love". I really think he is onto something here. When you fall in love, you can't control your feelings. You constantly think about the person; want to always be with them...they are always on your mind. You don't see their flaws or th...

This afternoon was my perfect kind of evening. I felt accomplished; my house was clean so I planned to spend the evening doing what I loved: reading. I fixed a mug of hot tea and finished a delightful book. I don't know if you have noticed the new badge on my blog...it's on the top right side. It states that I am a proud member of the Happy Wives Club. Not only have I joined the site, but this is the book I just finished. I couldn't wait to share it with you. I am rating it into one of my all time favorite non-fiction books. It was that good. Her mission was similar to mine and I think that is why I loved this book so much: Fawn Weaver wanted to prove happy marriages do exist. After becoming disgusted with how the media, television, and Hollywood portrays marriage, Fawn Weaver sets out on a journey to find happy marriages around the world and what makes them happy and successful. It took 12 countries and 6 continents before she was satisfied with her research. She sac...

I will start this off by saying I was naive. I am familiar with the popular series 50 Shades but I did not know what it contained. I really didn't have a desire to read it although a good friend and sister in laws have read it and raved about it. But they are also Twilight fans and I am not, so I overlooked the suggestion. I say I was naive because I read books that are in the genre of romance. I love a good love story, but some of them had explicit content in them. A lot of argument and controversy centers around the 50 Shades series and books with explicit content known as "soft porn" or "mommy porn". The trouble with this is addressed in this book and opened my eyes to the harm of it not just for me, but for Christian wives. Dr Juli Slattery (co-author) is a clinical psychologist and co-founder of a ministry focusing on intimacy for women. Dannah Gresh teamed up to write this book to expose the dangers of erotica and the phenomenon of what 50 Shades ...

I love Sheila Wray Gregoire's blog,  To Love, Honor, and Vacuum , which is also about marriage. I get lots of great Christian marriage advice and ideas from her. She also has some great books I want to read and isn't afraid to tackle rough topics and some that are considered taboo (sex, porn, etc). I came across a blog post from her about  the 50 most romantic movies  from her Facebook readers and it gave me a great idea...I wanted to express my opinion about the difference with Hollywood's depiction of love and what real love should be. Don't get me wrong...I am a sucker for a good romance. I have read every Nicholas Sparks book and I love a good cheesy romantic chick flick. But...Hollywood has it so wrong. Most of the classic love stories are about a guy and girl who meet and only after first seeing each other...they fall head over heels in love. Then there is a major conflict like a previous love, dark past, bad childhood, parents, that prevents them from being to...