Wednesday, July 20, 2011

††† ~ IMAGINE ~ ††† Women of Faith Fall 2011

Women of Faith Imagine
Oh, my gosh, I don't hardly know where to start. I've been crying and praising all over the place since I received a terrific and life changing email yesterday...

The sender was "Women of Faith" and the subject line simply said "Hello, BookSneeze Friend!" Well, BookSneeze is a book reviewing program I am part of. Basically if you have a blog and love to read, you can sign up with BookSneeze. You then can pick one book at a time from their review copies which they will send to you absolutely free provided you write a review of the book you received on your blog, on a retailer website, and on their site. So easy!! After those reviews are posted through the BookSneeze site you pick another book and the cycle repeats. It is AWESOME!

Last month, though, BookSneeze sent me an email. A terrific email with the chance to register for an opportunity to receive a FREE registration to a Fall City for the Women of Faith Conference. The closest to me is Hartford, CT. I have never been to Connecticut...not even to pass through it. But I said, "Well, Moira, fill out the form. There are many more excellent bloggers out there than you and you probably won't get picked anyway." So, I did...and yesterday found out I WAS CHOSEN!!!

That started me on a total in-depth viewing of the Women of Faith site, the info for the Fall conference, called Imagine, hotels in the area and the biggie, checking out Greyhound fares. That's the other thing I haven't done in my life yet...I am a little nervous (hey, anyone who's seen the movie Dogma would be a little nervous to get on a Greyhound, lol!) but also excited.

I will be receiving a small living stipend back from my college financial aid and it will not only go towards building our house but to helping me achieve a dream I've had since I was a teenager.

Check out the following video for an exciting sneak preview of what it will be like at one of the Fall Cities for the Women of Faith conference:
You can come join the fun as well just follow the link below!



Wednesday, July 6, 2011

The One-Day Way ~ A Blogging For Books Review

I can't say much more than WOW. Chantel Hobb's book was a mixture of inspiration, motivation, and how to. With stories I could relate to and practical advice, as well as DELICIOUS recipes I am hooked.
I’ve only had the book a couple of months now but I have lost, in those two months, FOUR SIZES!! I was wearing a size 24W and I simply felt awful about myself. I weighed close to 230 pounds; I couldn’t walk 100 feet from my front door to the car without getting winded or, on hot days, lightheaded.  I now weigh 180, which is what I went into my last pregnancy at back in early 2004. My husband and I took the canoe out on July 4th and paddled 24 miles. We’ve never been able to do that!
The weight came on gradually over 11 years and I thought I would take me at least three or four years to get it all off. The One-Day Way has shown me that I can do it much faster but that it will not happen overnight, either. What I’ve learned is that moderate weight loss is much better than rapid weight loss. Rapid weight loss is usually the result of a ‘crash diet,’ so called because you eliminate certain foods or ingest shakes or supplements and eventually, you WILL ‘crash and burn.’ Rapid diets are not healthy, they’re not sustainable, and they certainly aren’t long term changes.
Chantel tells us right on the back of the book that yesterday’s mistakes and choices are past! We cannot change them now nor do anything today to successfully change yesterday’s results. We have to live one day at a time and make choices each day, each moment, yet at the same time have a plan in place and remember what’s coming later.
I used to go to McDonald’s a couple times a week and tell myself that eating two double cheeseburgers was just fine and wasn’t hurting me because I wasn’t having fries and a soda with it. Now I think about healthier options. I usually get a four-piece McNuggets, a side salad with balsamic vinaigrette and a sweet tea. I am fuller and satisfied with my healthy choice, the food tastes better because I sit there with a good book or my laptop and eat it slowly instead of inhaling driving down the road toward home because I want the food gone before I get there, that way I don’t have to explain why I stopped at McDonald’s. Going out to eat is becoming a pleasure again. I am making healthy choices in my home cooking and I am becoming much more active.
All these changes are the result of what I’ve learned from The One-Day Way.

The Seraph Seal ~ A BookSneeze Review

Wow! What an exciting book. Leonard Sweet and Lori Wagner really and I mean really  did a stunner of a job on The Seraph Seal. I really enjoyed the Left Behind series and while I was reading those I thought no book could ever come close to being as amazing as they were.  I received The Seraph Seal from BookSneeze in review for my unbiased opinion. I am very glad I chose this book to review!
I was pleasantly surprised with this book. It managed to do in one book what Left Behind didn’t manage in a dozen. The Seraph Seal is superb. The characters are so real, so well developed and given terrific back story it seems like you are reading a biography or a historical account, not fiction.
The central themes throughout this engaging novel, which I read in one eleven hour block, is end time prophecy and the fulfillment of that prophecy, specifically the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. With a dizzying spate of worldwide travel seeking clues and information interwoven with a touching love story, political intrigue and flat out murder this suspenseful mystery kept me thoroughly engaged the entire time.
The four horsemen are symbols of prophecy and agents of God to fulfill His prophecies. They are tied symbolically to the four elements of Earth, Air, Fire, and Water. One December night, thirty years before the ‘current events’ taking place, there were nine births. Eight babies were all born with a symbolic birthmark, one of the symbols of the elements to mark them as one of the horsemen. Paul Binder was the ninth baby born and just before his birth his mother received a very special gift, an antique key and a note telling her to name the baby Paul. Paul is to grow up and have a very special place in the end times.
If this review has intrigued you, get your hands on a copy because I can honestly say this is the best Christian fiction I have read in a very, very long time!