Linda @ Linda’s Lunacy

12 Pearls of Christmas – Suzanne Woods Fisher

December 14, 2011 by Linda @ Linda's Lunacy

Welcome to the 12 Pearls of Christmas!

Enjoy these Christmas “Pearls of Wisdom” from some of today’s most beloved writer’s (Tricia Goyer, Suzanne Woods Fisher, Shellie Rushing Tomlinson, Sibella Giorello and more)! Please follow the series through Christmas day as each contributor shares heartfelt stories of how God has touched a life during this most wonderful time of the year.

AND just for fun … there’s also a giveaway! Fill out this simple {form} and enter for a chance to win a beautiful pearl necklace and earring set ($450 value). Contest runs 12/14 – 12/25 and the winner will on 1/1. Contest is only open to US and Canadian residents. You may enter once per day.

If you are unfamiliar with Pearl Girls, please visit www.pearlgirls.info and see what we’re all about. In short, we exist to support the work of charities that help women and children in the US and around the globe. Consider purchasing a copy of Pearl Girls: Encountering Grit, Experiencing Grace or one of the Pearl Girls products (all GREAT gifts!) to help support Pearl Girls.

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A Christmas of Kindness

By Suzanne Woods Fisher

“You can give without loving, but you can¹t love without giving.” Amish proverb

I do it every year.

I plan for a simpler, less stressful Christmas season and, every year, by Christmas Eve I’m exhausted! After our delicious and very-time-consuming-to-make traditional Swedish meal to honor my husband¹s relatives (think: Vikings), it’s time to head to church. I’m embarrassed to admit it, but the last few Christmas Eve’s, I have sent my husband and kids head off without me. The pull to spend an hour of quiet in the house feels as strong as a magnet.

It’s odd. My children are young adults now. Wouldn’t you think that Christmas would be simpler? Instead, it’s just the opposite. Jugging schedules to share the grandbaby with the in-laws, trying to include our elderly parents at the best time of day for them, dancing carefully around recently divorced family members whose children are impacted by the shards of broken relationships.

The thing is: you can simplify your to-do list, but you can’t really simplify people. We are just a complicated bunch.

Here’s where I borrow a lesson about simplicity from the Amish. It’s easy to get distracted with the buggies and the bonnets and the beards, but there’s so much more to learn from these gentle people if you’re willing to look a little deeper.

Yes, they live with less “stuff” and that does make for a simpler, less cluttered life. But it’s the reason behind it that is so compelling to me: they seek to create margin in their life. Not just empty spacebut space that is available to nourish family, community, and faith. Their Christmas is far less elaborate than yours or mine, but what they do fill it with is oh so right.

Christmas comes quietly on an Amish farmhouse. There is no outward sign of the holiday as we know it: no bright decorations, no big tree in the living room corner. A few modest gifts are waiting for children at their breakfast place settings, covered by a dishtowel. Waiting first for Dad to read the story of Christ’s birth from the book of Luke. Waiting until after a special breakfast has been enjoyed. Waiting until Mom and Dad give the signal that the time has come for gifts.

Later, if Christmas doesn’t fall on a Sunday, extended family and friends will gather for another big meal. If time and weather permits, the late afternoon will be filled with ice skating or sledding. And more food! Always, always an abundance of good food. Faith, family, and community. That is the focus of an Amish Christmas.

And it’s also how the story begins for A Lancaster County Christmas, as a young family prepares for Christmas. A winter storm blows a non-Amish couple, Jaime and C.J. Fitzpatrick, off-course and into the Riehl farmhouse. An unlikely and tentative friendship develops, until the one thing Mattie and Sol hold most dear disappears and then. Ah, but you¹ll just have to read the story to find out what happens next. Without giving anything away, I will say that I want to create a Mattie-inspired margin this Christmas season. Mattie knew inconveniences and interruptions that come in the form of people (big ones and little ones!) are ordained by God. And blessed by God.

Creating margin probably means that I won’t get Christmas cards out until the end of January, and my house won’t be uber-decorated. After all, something has to give. But it will mean I make time for a leisurely visit with my dad at his Alzheimer’s facility. And time to volunteer in the church nursery for a holiday-crowded event. And time to invite a new neighbor over for coffee. Hopefully, it will mean that my energy won’t get diverted by a frantic, self-imposed agenda. Only by God’s agendathe essence of true simplicity.

And that includes taking time to worship Christ’s coming at the Christmas Eve service. You can hold me accountable! This year, I will be there.

***

Suzanne Woods Fisher is the bestselling author of The Choice, The Waiting, The Search, and The Keeper, as well as nonfiction books about the Amish, including Amish Peace. Her interest in the Anabaptist cultures can be directly traced to her grandfather, W. D. Benedict, who was raised in the Old Order German Baptist Brethren Church in Franklin County, Pennsylvania. Suzanne is a Christy Award nominee and is the host of an internet radio show called Amish Wisdom and her work has appeared in many magazines. She lives in California. www.suzannewoodsfisher.com.

Fractazmic – I See Cards Review

December 14, 2011 by Linda @ Linda's Lunacy

As part of The Old Schoolhouse Magazine’s Homeschool Crew, I was sent a deck of Fractazmic cards from I See Cards.

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From the Fractazmic website:

When children play Fractazmic, they know they’re having fun, and you know that they’re
learning!

When children play Fractazmic, they know they’re having fun, and you know that they’re learning! Fractazmic is a comprehensive interactive fun lesson in fractions that gives your child unlimited practice at their individual level.

Each brightly colored card displays fractions, along with eye catching graphics, to ensure reinforcement. Players will quickly identify the fractions on their cards and calculate their way to fun and learning! Fractazmic teaches fractions, numbers and measurement.

Ensure the mathematical success of your children with Fractazmic!

Fractazmic Decks Include:

60 Math Learning Cards
Each card clearly numbered
Each card clearly labeled with the fraction and reinforcing graphic.

What makes Fractazmic Decks Special:

Quickly learn to convert and add fractions.
Reinforces relationship between fractions and measurements.
Shows real world use of fractions.

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A single deck of Fractazmic Cards sells for $6.95 on the I See Cards website. Excellent for the homeschool. You can also buy the cards in a 5 deck or 10 deck package. Great for homeschool groups or schools. While aimed at 1st-8th graders, Fractazmic is for for the whole family

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It is very easy to learn how to play Fractazmic. The goal is to make more hands then your opponents. A hand is cards in a suit that equal one. The deck is divided into 3 suits, Red – Sixteenths, Blue – Twelfths, Green – Tenths. On my turn, I would either draw a card from the pile or pick up cards in the discard pile. Then I would put down any “hands” that I have, for example – I would put down the blue cards 1/12, 1/6, 1/4 and 1/2 down as they equal one. I would finish my turn by discarding one card.

The game is over when someone runs out of cards. Then everyone adds up their hands, the winner being the player with the most hands. Just like in other card games, sometimes the game is over after only a couple of turns and sometimes it lasts much longer.

As you can see in the picture above, the cards are clearly labeled with color, the fraction, and the measurement on a ruler. Kids can use the visual of the ruler to add fractions up to one. This is a very helpful feature of the cards. It makes the different fractions easier to add up.

You can also play Fractazmic online. It’s fast thinking, great fun. You only have 2 minutes to complete as many hands as possible. Yes, I have played it a few times. Go ahead. Try it. It’s fun. 🙂

I played this card game with my 11 and 13 year olds. One thought it was an ok game, but they disliked the fraction part. lol Yes, that kid hates fractions. The other one said it was fun and likes to play. In fact, he asks me to play it. Two different kids, two different opinions.

I think it’s a great card game to help the kids learn fractions. No, you can’t learn fractions just from playing this game. It does a great job, however, of reinforcing what the kids are learning in their regular math class.

For more information about Fractazmic, visit I See Cards. You can also download a booklet with helps for the games and math helps. To see the games played, watch these videos: How to Play Fractazmic Rummy and How to Play Trap.

See what other The Old Schoolhouse Homeschool Crew Members are saying about Fractazmic.

*Disclosure of Material Connection: I received one or more of the products or services
mentioned above for free in the hope that I would mention it on my blog. Regardless, I
only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.
I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255:
“Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

12 Pearls of Christmas

December 14, 2011 by Linda @ Linda's Lunacy

Welcome to the 3rd Annual Pearl Girls™ 12 Pearls of Christmas blogging series!

We’ve gathered several of today’s most beloved authors to share their Christmas “Pearls of Wisdom”! Please follow along beginning tomorrow (Wednesday the 14th) through Christmas day as Tricia Goyer, Suzanne Woods Fisher, Rachel Hauck, Sandy Ralya, Sibella Giorello, Susan May Warren and more, share their heartfelt stories of how God has touched their life during this most wonderful time of the year.

If you’d like to share the 12 Pearls of Christmas with your blog readers too, just email Christen and she’ll send you the series.

AND of course there is a giveaway! Beginning tomorrow you and all your friends can enter to win a PEARL NECKLACE and EARRINGS valued at $450! The winner will be announced on New Year’s Day! Pearls – a tangible reminder of God’s grace to us all.

***

Just a quick note before the series begins on the 14th …

As I write this, I imagine that we are sitting at my kitchen table and chatting over a cup of coffee while familiar Christmas carols celebrate the Season. My twelve year old Chihuahua, Pongo, barks for a pinch of pound cake while my Shih Tzu, Lilly, patiently sits by the chair and waits for a crumb to fall.

My name is not Martha Stewart, and I will never receive a neighborhood beautification award. Just look at my front stoop. Yes, my never-had-time-to-carve-the-pumpkin-that-now-suffers-from-frostbite slouches next to the front door which is decorated with a Christmas wreath. I plan to roll this large orange ornament to the garbage pile tomorrow. For now, however, I will pretend that my front stoop is a contemplative modern art exhibit capturing the essence of contrast.

Actually, I love the concept of juxtaposition – placing things together that don’t seem to belong together, yet somehow ultimately make sense being paired. A personal example for me this season is the phrase: “comfort and joy.” Having just completed my manuscript for New Hope Publishers about the aftermath of grief, I fully understand the contrast of those two words. How can comfort bring joy? How can one find joy in loss?

Perhaps, dear reader, you have experienced loss this year – loss of a loved one, loss of friendship, loss of health, loss of financial security, loss of trust, loss of love, or loss of direction. Even with the best intent, words of encouragement shared by others can somehow seem insufficient to address an inconsolable loss. A spoken word cannot fully restore joy to a broken heart; however the Word can. And that’s the bottom line message of Christmas! God gave us the most amazing gift: His Son – the Word of God, the Holy Comforter.

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but shall have everlasting life.” (John 3:16).

You are not alone this Christmas, dear friend. Juxtaposed to the unexpected grit in life is the gift of God’s grace wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger. This year I purposely placed a pearl in the Nativity scene as a metaphoric reminder. When we place our grit into the hands of the Lord, His grace transforms our pain into a pearl.

“Joy to the world!”

Thank you so very much for sharing the JOY of the Season with us this year.

God Bless,

Margaret

@mcsweeny

***

Margaret McSweeney lives with her husband, David and two teenage daughters in the Chicago suburbs. She is the founder and director of Pearl Girls. For more information please visit www.pearlgirls.info. Margaret is fast at work on several fiction manuscripts. Her book Pearl Girls: Encountering Grit, Experiencing Grace was written to help fund the Pearl Girl Charities. She is also the host of weekly radio show, Kitchen Chat. Connect with Margaret on Facebook or Twitter.

An Angel in My Room by Betty Collier

December 13, 2011 by Linda @ Linda's Lunacy

It is time for a FIRST Wild Card Tour book review! If you wish to join the FIRST blog alliance, just click the button. We are a group of reviewers who tour Christian books. A Wild Card post includes a brief bio of the author and a full chapter from each book toured. The reason it is called a FIRST Wild Card Tour is that you never know if the book will be fiction, non~fiction, for young, or for old…or for somewhere in between! Enjoy your free peek into the book!

You never know when I might play a wild card on you!

Today’s Wild Card author is:

Betty Collier

and the book:

Angel in My Room

WestBow Press (September 26, 2011)

***Special thanks to Betty Collier for sending me a review copy.***

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Betty Collier is a wife, mother, nurse, author, and child of the King. In her Living Inside The Testimony book series, she inspires others to discover that they too live inside testimonies meant to be shared. Betty lives inside the testimony in Bartlett, Tennessee, with her husband and two sons.

Visit the author’s website.

SHORT BOOK DESCRIPTION:

It has taken thirty-one years, but the story will now finally be told. It’s a story of love, compassion, and forgiveness. Lillie Hopkins had a miraculous encounter that changed her life forever on the day she gave birth to her one and only child. The joy and excitement she had previously anticipated suddenly disappeared and was replaced with the unbearable realization that something dreadful had occurred and things had gone horribly wrong. She was absolutely devastated and consumed with an irreparable broken heart. Excruciating sadness, agonizing sorrow, and total brokenness threatened her very desire to live, but then she had an angelic encounter which left her with indescribable peace. You will discover how Lillie caught a glimpse of heaven and was touched by an angel on April 21, 1980, the day her beloved son, Derrich, was born.

Product Details:

List Price: $11.95
Paperback: 108 pages
Publisher: WestBow Press (September 26, 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1449726976
ISBN-13: 978-1449726973

AND NOW…THE FIRST CHAPTER:

My Walk Took a Detour

I remember watching the Jerry Lewis MDA Labor Day Telethon every year since I was a child. Lewis has hosted the telethon to raise money for the Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA) annually since the 1960s. Each year, the telethon concludes with Lewis tearfully singing “You’ll Never Walk Alone.” Sometimes I would cry along with Lewis as he sang these words that still resonate in my mind.

Walk on, walk on, with hope in your heart,
And you’ll never walk alone,
You’ll never walk alone …

Although most of “Jerry’s Kids” were in wheelchairs and couldn’t walk due to the disease, they didn’t have to “walk” alone. Jerry Lewis and the entire MDA were with them, giving them all the support they possibly could—with millions and millions of dollars in donations each year.

Life is easier when you have a support system—family, friends, and significant others whom you can depend on in times of need. You should never feel you’re all alone in this world. It’s often surreal when you reflect back and realize that you don’t walk alone. At times, I’m sure Lillie Hopkins felt like she was all alone on this earth, with no one on her side. She had been walking with the Lord and had a personal relationship with him ever since she gave her life to him in April 1963. She was very assured of her salvation and her place in heaven.

She had indeed devoted her life to the Lord for many years—actually, all of her adult life—and nothing was going to separate her from Jesus Christ … no one or no thing. Fast-forward to April 1980, seventeen years after becoming a born-again believer. Could something so awful, so horrendous, so extremely dreadful and unbearable happen to shatter her very existence and her will to live?

In order to answer this question, we must go back to the beginning. Lillie Hopkins was born in the 1940s in a rural town near Memphis, Tennessee, in the segregated south, the fifth of her mother’s eight children. As a young African-American female born thirteen years after Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was born, she lived through the civil rights movement. In 1963, the same year Lillie gave her life to the Lord, Dr. King was in the middle of the civil rights movement. He helped organize a massive march on Washington, DC, where he delivered his famous speech, “I Have a Dream,” on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. It was seventeen years later that Lillie’s life was shattered beyond recognition.

Now, putting things into perspective, although Lillie was not directly part of the civil rights movement, one must realize that growing up in the segregated south during this time in our nation’s history would cause one to look at his or her own life and dream of a better future. Such was the case for Lillie, who saw the struggles and challenges her poor parents faced while trying to raise their family under very unequal circumstances.

But Dr. King had taught Lillie a very important lesson: to have a dream. She believed that one day she would grow up and marry a wonderful man, and together they would raise their children in a nation that was changing for the better. She started to believe that she had a promising future—not one marked by hatred, bigotry, and inequality but one filled with the love and peace of God, one in which she would simply be judged by the content of her character.

After all, who would ever question the content of Lillie’s character? She was the perfect child who always did as she was told. As her siblings described her, she was the one who always got them into trouble because she tried to ensure that they did the right thing. She always did the right thing herself, so why would her brothers and sisters not comply with their parents instructions and do the right thing as well? She took it upon herself to make sure they behaved, but as you can imagine, that didn’t always go so well. She frequently found herself being ridiculed by the other children who simply wanted to have fun and do things their way.

If there was a rule to be broken, Lillie was certainly not going to be the child who broke it. She never broke any rule. She always did what was expected of her. Since I’m not from that generation, I don’t know what they would have called her, but I would imagine it was the equivalent of “Little Goody Two Shoes.”

While doing what was good, what was right, and what was expected simply came naturally for Lillie, there was a period in her life that surprised her entire family. No one had ever questioned her Christianity or her morality, simply because she had never done anything to cause anyone to question it. Time passed, and as the 1960s turned into the ’70s, Lillie found herself a single woman in her thirties with no prospects for a future husband. Her heart’s desire was simply to get married and have children. But she was still living at home with two of her adult sisters, caring for their mother who had become ill. Lillie’s five other siblings had all left home and gotten married.

So there she was, in the late 1970s, in the same home her father had built many years prior to the civil rights movement. This was the home she had grown up in. Why was she still there with her other two sisters and her aging mother? Time had certainly passed her by; she had missed the opportunity to get married and have children. Her biological clock was ticking like a bomb, and if she waited much longer, it would simply be too late to fulfill her dream.

Being confident that her mother and sisters were financially stable without her, Lillie finally moved out of her mother’s home in the late 1970s into her first apartment. By now she was well into her thirties with a time bomb about to explode. Was it too late to fulfill her dream of a wonderful husband and beautiful children?

At least she had a job she enjoyed. Working with handicapped and autistic children in a state facility gave Lillie a great source of joy and satisfaction. Her job was secure but also very challenging. She took work-related and college courses to become more proficient in her job and was very happy to be doing so. Her life was good, but since she was nearly forty years old, she also felt like her dreams would never come true. She had missed what she considered the epitome of womanhood: a husband and children.

Lillie became unfocused after she moved into her own apartment. Soon her thoughts became very selfish and self-centered. She wanted what she wanted, which wasn’t necessarily what God wanted for her life. She began to walk away from the Lord, and her mind was no longer able to concentrate on all the things she had been taught as a Christian. Looking back now, she knows that was definitely the wrong thing to do. But at the time, she was being controlled by thoughts that certainly were not her own, and soon her desires took her to a place she later wished she had never gone.

She had been taught what the Bible says in Isaiah 26:3, “You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in you.” God was there, just waiting to give her peace to accept the life he had given her, but that’s not what she wanted. She had no peace, because she wanted something that was not God’s plan for her life.

What happens when you start looking around at other people? The grass always appears greener on the other side. Lillie started looking at other people and simply felt left out. Everyone her age was married with children. That’s what she wanted too. Her mind was not on the Lord; she became distracted; and her biological clock had nearly reached the end of its time.

When faced with the possibility that she would grow old alone, she took matters into her own hands. After all, men had been pursuing her for years, not just pursuing her, but downright chasing her! As soon as the next Mr. X appeared, wrapped in all the right packaging, the temptation became too great, and she finally yielded. He was a very nice man, extremely kind and incredibly gentle. He treated her very well. Was he the one? Had God sent Lillie the husband she had been waiting for? Were her dreams about to come true?

The courtship began.

A few months later, the courtship was over.

Lillie knew in her heart what the Bible said, and guilt was consuming her very existence. Even Mr. X recognized it but could do nothing to stop her uncontrollable guilty conscience. Confronted with the realization that she had gone contrary from her Pentecostal religious beliefs, Lillie and Mr. X separated. Shortly after the courtship ended, his job moved him out of town. He called her a few times after he left Memphis, but the courtship was already over. She was left behind with nothing—nothing but guilt, remorse, embarrassment, and a broken heart. Her last chance at “happiness” had ended as quickly as it had begun, and she had nothing … nothing that she knew of, anyway. Lillie’s lifelong dream was over. Or was it?

MY REVIEW:

An Angel in My Room is one womans story of how ones life can be changed in an instant. How God sends angels to visit His children. How the angels minister to us, comfort us, and bring us messages from God.
Lilli Hopkins tried to live a Godly life. When her son died, her entire life changed.
Through God’s touch on her life, Lilli was able to get her life back, and go on to minister to others.
An Angel in My Room is a heartwarming story of love, faith and angels.

I was also able to read and review Mrs. Collier’s first book, Living Inside the Testimony.

God Gave Us Love Board Book Review

December 12, 2011 by Linda @ Linda's Lunacy

You never know when I might play a wild card on you!

Today’s Wild Card author is:

Lisa T. Bergren

and the book:

God Gave Us Love board book

WaterBrook Press; Brdbk edition (December 20, 2011)

***Special thanks to Laura Tucker, WaterBrook Multnomah Publicity, for sending me a review copy.***

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

LISA BERGREN is the best-selling, award-winning author of more than thirty books, with more than two million copies sold. A former publishing executive, she now splits her time working as a freelance editor and writer while parenting three children with her husband, Tim, and dreaming of the family’s next visit to Taos.

Visit the author’s website.

SHORT BOOK DESCRIPTION:

As Little Cub and Grampa Bear’s fishing adventure is interrupted by mischievous otters, the young polar bear begins to question why we must love others… even the seemingly unlovable.

In answering her questions, Grampa Bear gives tender explanations that teach Little Cub about the different kinds of love that is shared between families, friends, and mamas and papas. Grampa explains that all these kinds of love come from God and that it is important to love others because…

“Any time we show love, Little Cub, we’re sharing a bit of his love.”

This sweet tale will warm the hearts of young children as they learn about all the different sorts of love, while the gentle explanations of each provide a valuable opportunity to encourage children to share with others a “God-sized love.” Now in a sturdy format, ideal for the littlest hands at storytime, bedtime, or anytime. Would make a great Christmas gift!

Product Details:

List Price: $6.99
Reading level: Ages 0 and up
Board book: 22 pages
Publisher: WaterBrook Press; Brdbk edition (December 20, 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0307730271
ISBN-13: 978-0307730275

Here’s an excerpt from the first book in the series: God Gave Us You (Board Book). (Click on images to see them larger):

MY REVIEW:

God Gave Us Love is such a sweet little book. From the sweet story line to the incredible eye catching drawings. Your little one is sure to love God Gave Us Love. I know I did!

You can also read my review of God Gave Us You, the first book in the series.