Sunday, June 3, 2012

Sunday Sunshine - A Whirlwind Week

Practicing contentment by remembering the graces of the week and practicing gratitude through giving.  

This week seemed to fly by.  Most normal pieces of our routine were interrupted, but it was ok.  HandyMan took a very quick trip to England to celebrate his Aunt Betsy's life with other family members and arrived home safely.  Certain details of his trip could have been disasterous, but they weren't.  Friends took G-Tot for the afternoon on Sunday.  I got the house to myself and a sacked out  little girl within a half hour of her return home from her adventures.  Thanks G, D & K!

I had lots of work this week.  I enjoyed frozen cookie dough and some even made it to the oven!  G-Tot gave me lots of practice in the areas of patience and grace.   We are a week closer to meeting Itty Bitty - whenever that may be!  (Let the guessing begin!  Date?  Gender?)

While I had plans for alone shopping on Friday, our car had other ideas.  I'm thankful to have been near an exit and able to wait safely for Handy Man and the truck to come and rescue me!  And that I had made arrangements to have G-Tot elsewhere that morning!

Saturday brought peaceful time, alone time as I worked my hours at the local craft co-op where I sell my candles.  HandyMan and G-Tot got to go have their own adventures - of higher activity level than this Mama's up for these days!

It's been a good week.  If you've had a chaotic week too, take a minute to reflect on the good!

Every desirable and beneficial gift comes out of heaven. The gifts are rivers of light cascading down from the Father of Light.” (James 1:16 -The Message) May the light of the Father brighten your week!

Saturday, June 2, 2012

Book Review: "Not This Time"

 Not This Time by Vicki Hinze is the third in the Crossroads Crisis Center series.  I have to admit, I read it on it's own and requested the review copy not realizing it was one in a series.

A story of terrorist plots, small town intrigue, traitors among the tight knit community as well as a small dash of romance all flavor this romantic suspense novel.  The beginning was a little cumbersome as it was obvious the author was trying to fill in the plot-line gaps that were covered in previous books, and had I read the other books, I think it would have been even more sluggish.  Once past all the introductory pieces, the story line moved along nicely.

The characters are well defined and emotions and feelings of traumatic experiences are well written.  Although the series namesake, Crossroads Crisis Center, is mentioned often, it is left as a vague entity and the reader is left unclear of it's exact organization.  A church?  A counseling center? A group of friends who get together to do good in the community?

If you're looking for a fun, suspenseful read and can take a couple steps from reality into the shelves of fiction, Not This Time is a fun, clean, page-turner.

Disclaimers: I received a complementary copy of this ebook from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review as part of the Blogging for Books program. The opinions and thoughts of this are my own and are not influenced in any way. This post contains affiliate links.