The Busy Mom’s Bible ~ a review

I was given a copy of this bible from Zondervan to review. They tweeted a while back about this review opportunity and I was all over it.

First off, I would like to thank Zondervan for giving away around 5000 bibles. I was looking for a photo to use and saw that they had overwhelming response to this Blog Review campaign. Hooray for giving away the Gospel!!!

And Hooray for realizing that moms everywhere struggle with fitting in their devotion time. I’m guessing this is not a new phenomena, but I commend the makers of this Bible for seeing a need and meeting it.

This is a NIV Bible with a gorgeous pink/brown cover. We gals like things to be pretty, don’t we? And inside. The pink continues. Now if you don’t like pink, well, I’m not sure you’re a girl. Kidding!!! I don’t think it’s available in other colors. Yet. Maybe that’s something that Zondervan could look at adding, if this Bible sells like hotcakes and they need to keep ‘em coming. And the size is great. Perfect for putting in a purse (if yours is on the sorta large size like mine.) It’s about the size of a good paperback. Not the super small, mass market ones. You know, the ones you see on the Paperback Table at Barnes & Noble. Let’s reign in the ADD, shall we? I’m all better now.

Ok. Aesthetics aside. Let’s get to what’s inside.

The things that I did like about this are the devotion inserts. There are 52. They start with a 1 minute Thought Starter. There is also a 5 minute Reflect & Pray and a 10 minute Study. So as little or as much time as you want to spend in here, it’s geared for that. It removes excuses, is what it does. How many times have I said, “My day just got away from me & I didn’t even read my Bible?” Too many. Now, even if you only have that one minute while waiting on the water to boil for macaroni & cheese, you can get in there. 10 Minutes in the morning with coffee and a danish sounds like a great way to start the day to me. 5 minutes before bed will keep you mulling over scripture as you fall asleep.

Now, I’ll address something that I’m not sure if I should or not. But I will. While I love this Bible, and I do, it seems it’s target audience is the shiny, happy mom. I searched for material on depression and there was one section. I know that we are supposed to have joy in our lives, but I do think it a disservice to assume that saved folk have it all together and are chipper all the time. I guess, because I’m in this place, I need something that grapples with the hard issues. But then again, that’s not necessarily the purpose of this Bible. It’s for the Busy Mom, not the depressed and miserable mom. So, I get it.

All of that does not discount the fact that this is a great tool to help those of us running around like chickens sans heads. It is.

Let me state that again. This is a great tool for the Busy Mom. And did I tell you that it’s pretty? Because it totally is. Caa-ute!

So, even though I have issues ( and that’s what they are, my own issues) this gets an A+ from me.

Thank you, Zondervan for giving me this Bible to review and for making it easier to do what I should have been doing all along. You know, actually reading the Bible.

All about Sawyer

Now, it is a well established fact that Sawyer is one of my favorite characters in the show. Shoot. Most of them are my favorites. And this whole shift to calling him James just has not stuck with me. (That did not look grammatically correct, but … not fixing it. Heh heh. I’m a rebel.)

So, I will continue to call the man Sawyer and we’ll discuss the episode, shall we?

The *SPOILERS* start …NOW!

He’s a COP?! OMG. I did not see that one coming at all. And yet again, we see that our friends’ lives are better without the pull of the island. Not only that, but they seem to be better people. We were talking about it, and Hubs said everyone but Kate were better. She was about the same. But didn’t she tell Sawyer that she didn’t do it? And him being a cop puts a whole new spin on his letting her go at the airport.

I’m not sure I’m digging his law abiding self. I mean, this is fiction. I wouldn’t be hanging out with a con artist in real life. He was just more complex when on the other side of the law. He did seem to get some of that back when he confessed to searching for the real Sawyer to kill him. Does he really want Miles to talk him out of that?

We got to see his blind date and brief fling with Charlotte. I kept thinking “No, she’s supposed to be with Daniel.” I wonder how many of the other characters we’ll get to see in this sideways world.

I also wonder what’s next for Kate here. He can’t very well let her go this time, can he?

And on the island, we got better acquainted with Claire’s creepy dried animal corpse baby. “It’s all I had.” Well, now. That is reasonable and not at all Baby Jane. Then Claire attacks Kate (she is a woman of her word), Locke intervenes and smacks Claire around a little to make her see sense. So naturally, she becomes weepy and hugs Kate apologizing. I was yelling, “Watch out, she’s gonna grab that gun & shoot you.” Seriously. If someone had a knife at your throat just an hour earlier, would you lower your gun and let that person hug you and possibly snatch the gun that’s just casually slung over your shoulder? Not me.

Locke admits to being Smoky to Sawyer and pleads the picked on kid at the playground. He only wants to get away from this playground and everyone thinks they need protection from him. Poor Locke. %^/ (that’s an eye roll, fyi)

Apparently all of you that called the long con were right. But what we know so far is that the con is on Widmore. At least that’s what Sawyer tells Locke. I think Sawyer’s loyalties lie with whoever wins & can get the heck off that island. And he’s gonna take Freckles with him. Did you see the dress he picked up? I think it was Kate’s from the Polar Bear Cage. Again. I could be wrong.

Well, this wasn’t so much as recap as my random reactions to this episode.

Overall, not one of the best episodes. But what it lacked in answers, it made up for in Sawyer-ness.

And I forgot to give you the puppy report. There's a girly dog in heat in our neighborhood, so he spent the whole episode tied up outside, howling, whining, whimpering and barking; begging her to come up and see him sometime. Plus there were really no temple scenes, so it wouldn't have mattered.

For more theories, reactions, questions and all things LOST, visit here for many many more opinions.

“Discuss among yourselves.”

Dr. Linus ~Lost

The consensus around the online world (well, my online world) is that we LOVE this episode.

Whether you love Ben or hate him, you have to agree that he is the most complex character on the show. You could have it both ways and love to hate him. Or hate to love him. See? Complexity. It follows him like a shadow.

We get glimpses into Ben’s life without the pull of the island. He has a good relationship with his father, although he feels like he’s wasting his life. I liked when he corrected the creep principle about his title. "It's Dr. Linus." The one bright spot is helping Alex prepare for her future. But I did question his quick promise to Alex to keep the secret. With the ethics and obligation to report anything that could be harmful to a student, I doubt whether he’d make a blind promise so quickly. But it’s a show and they wanted to build trust between teacher & student so, whatever.

Did Ilana seem angry to anyone else? Not about the whole Ben thing. When she was talking to Sun about the candidates, I got the feeling that she’s jealous she’s not one and angry that she has to be the one to protect them. Maybe it’s just me.

Then we get the Jack/Richard storyline inside the ship. I saw someone on twitter respond to the “touch” from Jacob. “Show me on the doll exactly where Jacob touched you.” I just thought that was funny. No story merit there. I thought that for sure Richard was going to pinch out the fuse while Jack was talking to try to save Jack, even though he himself wanted to die. But the island had different ideas.

Meanwhile off the island, the evil principle crushes Ben’s dreams of taking over in return for helping Alex realize her dreams. Creepy creep. But what’s to stop Ben from resuming the Machiavellian Plot after Alex is safely settled in at Yale?

And the biggest moment of the night. Ilana simply states, “I’ll have you.” With all of the Biblical theories being thrown around this is probably the biggest, most powerful parallel of the entire show. Ben said he was siding with Locke because he was the only one who’d have him after his betrayal, murder, and downright nastiness.

How many people are there that feel the same way? They feel they have done too much, wronged too many people, and been so bad for so long that they must resign themselves to being forever lost. And without a second thought, Jesus says “I’ll have you.” I’m telling you, this moment made me cry.

Of course I’m basing all of that on Jacob being good. I have seen too many plot twists to completely trust what they want us to assume about all of the characters. But because it was such a powerful moment, I’ll suspend my mistrust for now and just go with it.

But it gets all ominous real quick with the shot of a periscope and Widmore in a submarine.

So. I give a definite thumbs up to this episode. It is one of my favorites. Call me a lemming.

Got anything to add? I love to talk Lost!

Want more theories? Go visit here.

Multi-Site Church Road Trip ~ A Review

This video corresponds with this book:

I was provided a copy of this book from Zondervan in exchange for this review. Thanks to them for A Multi-Site Church Road Trip.

I again state that I’m no literary critic, so bear with me.

I suppose that I’m a bit behind the times, but I didn’t realize that Multi-Site is as popular as it is. I suppose I’ve been somewhat sheltered for the last few years. Spending the last decade in some form of rural Virginia will do that.

This was an all around education about Multi-Site, from concept to implementation and launching new campuses. I did a mad read over the weekend in order to finish the book before the blog tour this week. While I enjoyed it, I do feel like it was written for a more specific audience than the random curious mom of three willing to read/review books. (It does say Leadership Network Innovation Series on the cover.) It seemed to be a very helpful book for church leaders facing space issues and looking at options for expansion.

The purpose of the Multi-Site Church is to “instead of bricks and mortar, [Multi-Site Church] invests in technology to create more space for worshippers.”

It is not a fad, and it is becoming, quite possibly, the new normal. But, what exactly is a Multi-Site Church and how does it differ from what we are used to? They go into detail about the replication of the church DNA in the sites. Some churches use video to broadcast one message to each site, while others rely on Campus Pastors for the teaching, sharing common vision and mission for the church.

The desire to reach the lost and disciple newcomers to the faith is prevalent throughout the book. I love the idea that people are willing to look outside the box in order to “bring the church to the people.”

While reading this book, I kept thinking about the church I grew up in. This church is bursting at the seams and still growing. They have tried purchasing land to build a larger church, and when that didn’t work out, decided to expand on the property that they have now. I just kept wondering if this type of model would translate to this church. The problems they are facing are the kind you want, whatever the outcome. Those issues mean that lots of lives are being impacted, people are growing in Christ and introducing Him to others.

That’s a good problem, folks. And if you have to do church via internet (which, at this point in my life is verrry appealing) to get that done, so be it.

Hello, my name is Jen and I’m a band nerd.

I came across this video today and it thrilled me.

If you were in marching band, you will appreciate this as much as I did. This is like EXtreme Marching Band. Love it!

Hopefully those of you unlucky enough to have escaped the marching band stigma will enjoy it as well.

I just wish I had been able to march in this video with my flute.

See, I told you I am a nerd. Still pining over the good ole days.

OK Go - This Too Shall Pass from OK Go on Vimeo.

Maybe I’ll just have to arrange my own marching band extravaganza video. Who’s with me?

Sundown ~The Swiss Cheese Report

This is super duper late this week. I just wasn’t exactly feeling it last night, so I decided to re-watch today and post.

SPOILER ALERT!

Ooooo. This episode starts out reminding us of the awesomeness that is Sayid. They break our hearts by revealing that life is not always better for our friends in the sideways life. Nadia is married to Sayid’s brother (who’s an unprincipled jerk, btw.)

Sayid and Dagon duke it out. (Does anyone use that term anymore?) Actually it’s more like a martial arts showdown. They roll and kick all around that torture room. I kept waiting for those torture devices to come into play. It would have been sweet revenge for Dagon to have been tested. Alas, the writers don’t have my fictional nasty streak of revenge. Then the baseball falls and Dagon lets Sayid go with a banishment.

Claire. We have all discussed Claire in depth for the last few weeks. So she’s been promised her son back to help Whatshisname. A reasonable person would have a discussion with Kate and find out Aaron is with Grandma, then start to plan to get off the island to her son. I think we all have established that Claire is not reasonable.

*Puppy Report* He must be getting used to this because we got through this week with minimal barking and growling. It was still there, just not as intense.

Miles is becoming one of my favorites. And he just proves that men can look past grime and filth and still consider a woman hot. So are all of our manicures, waxing, makeup and highlights just for us?

Flocke promises to help Sayid get the only thing he wants back (from the dead) if he will deliver a message. Now. Which something is Sayid talking about? The show is focusing on Nadia so it’s probably her. But Shannon died in Sayid’s arms too. Hmmm. So Sayid delivers the message and throws the camp into an uproar. So Flocke was right about it meaning more coming from Sayid. But he also has to return the knife. Well, that doesn’t sound promising.

Someone on twitter last night said “Catch a falling star & put it in your pocket” has never been so creepy. Amen to that. I will say that Claire has made the transition well. She completely creeps me out now.

Keemy. He picks up Sayid. And never before has a conversation about breakfast food been so ominous. I don’t think Keemy truly understood who he was dealing with. I’m trying to remember if Keemy was killed after he shot Ben’s daughter and who killed him. Was it Sayid? Was he destined to kill Keemy? Just wondering.

So there are currently 3 people acting on a promise to get a loved one back. Scratch that. Now it’s only 2. Sayid killed Dagon, letting Ole Smokey into the temple. And now is when our beach friends show up. (LOVE Lapidus!) And we are working our way towards a Jin/Sun reunion. They keep dragging their feet on this.

After the Smoky rampage, Kate follows Claire and Sayid, although questioningly. What got me, Claire hasn’t killed Kate yet. She vowed to and had the perfect chance. Did Kate sway her with the “I was trying to rescue you.” speech?

And one final thought. I love seeing Ben off his game. He was totally thrown by Sayid. Ran away scared. Even though I’m not sure about this whole splitting up our beloved Losties into two teams, that was priceless.

Did I miss obvious things? Significant things? Please fill me in. My brain feels like swiss cheese at this point.

For more LOST recaps, visit Rocks in my Dryer.