The Seraph Seal by Leonard Sweet and Lori Wagner

The Seraph Seal is a fictional account of what the "end times" might look like. It reminds me of a Christian take on the Davinci code. There is the humble professor caught up with an unsuspecting small group of people in a good vs. evil battle for the end of the world. While the book had some very interesting guesses as to how some of the Biblical symbolism might play out in modern times, that is where a lot of the intrigue and interest ended for me. It started on a high note, drawing you into an intriguing set of circumstance but after a few more pages there are so many different characters from different parts of the world, representing different things, involved in the story it is difficult to keep them all straight. If you stick with it by the middle to final third of the book you have a grasp on who everyone is and the book does pick up to a pace close to that of a "page turner," but that is a long time for me to stick with a somewhat confusing book. If you like this genre of literature then it might be a good read for you, as I mentioned their ideas of what the apocalypse might look like are extremely interesting. But if that's not you're thing and you're just looking for some fast paced fiction another book might be better for you.


Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze®.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255

Captivated Again..(Captivating by Stasi Elderidge)

Hi all,

I just finished rereading Captivating by Stasi Elderidge, and was again reminded of how great it is, and what a needed message it has for women. If you are a woman then I think you might need this book. Here's a snippet:

"Every woman I've ever met feels it --- something deeper than just the sense of failing at what she does. An underlying, gut feeling of failing at who she is. I am not enough and I am too much at the same time. Not pretty enough, not thin enough, not kind enough, not gracious enough, not disciplined enough. But too emotional, too needy, too sensitive, too strong, too opinionated, too messy. The result is Shame, the universal companion of women. It haunts us, nipping at our heels, feeing on our deepest fear that we will end up abandoned and alone..."

If any of this quote resonates with you then I think you'll get something out of Stasi's book. Her premise is that: every woman's heart longs for three things: to be romanced, an irreplaceable role in a great adventure, and beauty to unveil. She spends the book unpacking these three things driving home the point that God loves us deeply, something I think we always need reminded of! I left this book with a sense of God's love for me and new insights into what womanhood is all about, even on the second time through!

Now There's No Excuse...

What do most of the people I know blog about? Yes...that's right...their kiddos. When I started this blog I had one husband and one cat,named Ranger. Who I was forbidden to blog about by my husband. Something about we don't want to be those cat people. I dunno, apparently he has a phobia of that.

In short there was little to blog about. But now, the tables have turned, I have no excuse as to why I don't update my blog. We've had something very special come into our possession in the last six months. It's a Jackson!! Isn't he cute!



Then - October 1, 2011



Now - Almost Six Months

Six months I can't even believe it. It's true what they say about time speeding up once you have kids. I can still remember week 2, day six, at hour 22 thinking I just might die, what have we gotten ourselves into. And now we have a boy who sleeps like a champ and whose little smile can turn my whole day around. Ok, ok, one more picture rocking the tie!

Nelson's Complete Book of Bible Maps and Charts, 3rd Edition

Look out book review!!

This is an amazing Bible reference book. When I ordered it I thought that it was going to be more of just a book of maps, but was very impressed when I received it. It contains so much more than just maps. It has actual photos of historic Biblical sites, charts and outlines of many different things, like events in the life of Jesus, the Tabernacle in the Old Testament, etc. It even has summaries of all of the different books of the Bible.

You can also download full color pdf versions of many of the maps and charts. I give a lot of presentations and talks on the Bible and this book is now one of the ones that I use the most!

I would recommend this book to anyone, it's easy to use and comprehensive!

Quotes To Share & New Blessings To Announce

I [Steph] read two interesting quotes recently that I’d like to share with you. The first is by Ruth Bell Graham. She says; “as a mother, my job is to take care of what is possible and trust God with the impossible.” The second is by a man named Kin Hubbard and goes something like this; "The worst feature of a new baby is its mother's singing." I’m happy to announce that both of these quotes now apply to my life, and that while at least in my case the second quote might be just as true as the first!

Yes, God has blessed Ryan and I with our first little bundle of joy! We are due the first week of October. It’s hard to believe that soon our family pictures will include one more! I can’t begin to tell you how excited we are to have this precious gift from God! Maybe you caught on to this high level of excitement by the excessive amount of exclamation points in these first two paragraphs!

As we begin to make room in our house and our lives for this precious new addition we are continually awed by God’s love and provision for us and for our new baby. Please join us in praying and thanking God for this great gift; and also please pray for Ryan and I and for the baby. That we would have faith and wisdom in parenting and that our little one would be healthy and would come to know Jesus early in life! Thank you for these and all of your prayers, we appreciate you so much!

My Goal For The New Year

Alrighty, so Ryan and I came up with our little blog about this time last year. Well, we came up with the name for it this time last year and I had a new year's resolution to have a blog. As you can see I didn't get too far; not even one post.

So, this year I have set out again and made a 2010 resolution to be a blogger. Mostly after being inspired by the movie Julie and Julia. Incidentally, great flick you should snag a copy out of the red box. Anyway, I just spent about fifteen minutes finding my blog again (Ryan really liked the old name), another twenty minutes or so spiffing it up with a fun little template, another five to ten finding a good picture of us, an additional one or two getting our welcome message text right, and now here I am around 45 minutes later and remembering why this was so hard last year: I hate blogging!

What does one write about on these things? Most of my friends write about their kids (which is awesome!), but alas all we have is our cat Ranger. And Ryan made it very clear that I was not allowed to do two things: put Ranger on our Christmas Card or write about him on our blog. I think he has some sort of deep rooted fear that "the masses" out there that read our until now non-existent blog, might get the impression that we're over the top cat people. I dunno.

So now I'm back at square one...maybe I'll think of something later...or maybe something exciting will happen today and I can tell you all about it tomorrow! Here's hoping!

Oh, PS - I thought I should maybe set the bar low. So, my 2010 goal is at least one post a week. Keep your fingers crossed!