Book tour ~ Baby Bible Christmas Storybook

The Baby Bible Christmas Storybook by Robin Currie

An Interactive Christmas With Your Infant

Publisher's Summary:
David C Cook’s The Baby Bible Storybook series offers a set of interactive teaching tools for parents to use with their children, from birth to three years old. The latest addition to this series, The Baby Bible Christmas Storybook, makes the birth of Jesus relevant for very young children through the use of colorful pictures, basic prayer and worship, and fun physical activities. It is never too early to introduce the truth of God’s Word to children, and the Christmas Storybook will enhance a child’s earliest experience of this very special family celebration.

Simple actions such as pointing to a specific facial feature or hand claps enable parents to have fun with their child while telling the Christmas story. Each story is brief and well-suited for short attention spans, and the small size of the books is perfect for little hands. Actions that accompany the story combine with simple vocabulary to make this series even more appropriate for very young children. Christmas Storybook introduces the idea of prayer and worship as part of the child’s daily life while also allowing parents to share the powerful truth of God’s Word.

Christmas Storybook would make a wonderful gift for new parents or serve as a memorable birthday or shower gift. This book would also be appropriate for use in church nurseries or church day-care facilities by creating teachable moments that are centered around events found in the Bible.

Teaching Bible stories can be a vital part of your infant’s early years with The Baby Bible Storybook series from David C Cook. The Baby Bible Christmas Storybook will soon become a favorite activity to be included in any family’s Christmas celebration.

My Thoughts:

This is one sweet boardbook to read with your baby and even preschooler! Each double page contains once aspect of the Christmas story told in 4 sentences with the accompanying action on one side and lovely colorful artwork on the other. It ends with a simple one sentence prayer. I can just imagine my guys when they were little and how they would have easily memorized the words and actions of this book as I read it with them. I know my dayhome kids would love this because of the actions that go with the stories. It would be perfect too, in a young church nursery or Sunday school class. Loved it!

Thanks to B&B Media Group for providing a copy for review!

You can purchase a copy of this cute book just in time for Christmas at David C. Cook here.

Friday's Fave Five #112

Welcome everyone to Friday's Fave Five. It's been a hectic & hard couple of weeks around here so I'm especially glad for this discipline that, at least for a short time each week, causes me to push the pause button, slow down and take notice of the good blessings that touch my life. Sometimes life can just run us over, so to speak, and we can't even catch our breaths to take notice of the special things going on around us. So I'm totally ready with a nice cup of tea in hand to look back over the week. Please join in with your favorite blessings from the last week.

1. My lazy boy rocking chair. LOL. I just now thought of it. But I do love this chair. I read in it a lot, rock kids in it and read to them, I'm now blogging in it and sometimes I just sit & gaze out the window & think in it. It's so comfy. Way better than the other one we used to have.

2. Wood Wick Caramel scent candle. Oh nellie, this smells good. Like I'm in a baking marathon. And the wood wick crackles like a fire place. Hubby surprised me with one today. What a sweet surprise. Except now I'm craving a caramel covered Tim Horton's doughnut.

3. "I did it" looks. I love the look on a child's face when they accomplish a new to them

task. The big smiles and the bright eyes just make teaching new tasks so worthwhile.

4. Books. How I love a good book while sitting in a waiting room! 'Nuff said. :v)

5. Sour cream. What can I say? I'm Hungarian and can't live without it.

If you do a Fave Five post, please link up with us so that we may come and visit. And don't forget to visit around yourself and maybe meet someone new.

A Quick Drive By Quote For Ya

As you can tell, I have not been around this week. We've had a really nutty couple of weeks with a family member in and out of emergency and hospital several times, so my brain is mush and I just haven't had time to blog. But I found this quote and it really struck me so here ya go:

"We have been given an absolute armload full of blessings and gifts from God. But instead of appreciating or even paying attention to what we've been given, we often pitch a fit and drop everything to run after the one thing we want."

Dr. Gregory L. Jantz

Gotta Have It!

freedom from wanting everything right here, right now

pg. 157-158

P. S. This book is well worth the read and study. I've gotten so much out of it (my review here, scroll to #38).

Friday's Fave Five #111

Welcome to the 111th edition of Friday's Fave Five. After all this time I still look forward to this exercise of looking for the blessings in my everyday and picking 5 to share. Please join on in and don't forget to sign on to Mr. Linky.

1. Doing the kick off to Operation Christmas Child at my church. I love this ministry and I feel very privileged to be a part of it. We kicked off on Sunday with an absolutely beautiful testimony on video from one of the very first recipients of a shoebox gift from Bosnia. Please take a moment to watch the video. It absolutely powerful and a wonderful testimony of God's love. It's amazing that people have packed and given more than 78 million shoeboxes filled with gifts since they started in the 1990's. If you don't know about this very special ministry you can check it out here (for Canada) or here.

2. The humble little egg roll. I have no idea why they call them egg rolls because as far as I can tell there is definitely no egg rolled into them, but I do know I love them. Haven't had one in forever and last night's supper was a real treat with rice and stir fry broccoli. Yum.

3. A son who does his fair share of running to the grocery store for this mom. I cannot say how much I appreciate him for doing that and saving me from having to go when I'm tired after work. And when his sis can join him that's even better and I love them both for it.

4. Beautiful warm days. Yesterday was actually 22*C, which is a balmy 72*F. That is incredible for this time of year.

5. Pumpkin Spice tea. From Bigelow teas. My current favorite afternoon relax time tea.

What have your favorites been for this past week. What are the blessings, big or small, that have come to your mind as you think over the week? Please link to your specific post and not your home page so that visitors may find the post easier.

Have a great weekend!

Hanging in with the Paper Project

If you ever want to complicate your life, just announce to the world via a blog that you are trying to simplify your life. So after I let you all in to the fact that I am trying to streamline the way I do some things in my life, everything in my life got a bit hairy harry harried crazy this week. Sigh. Why does that happen? It's like someone has a weird sense of humor and wants to see if I really mean what I post. But I am happy to let you know it has been two weeks and I've been handling the paper project well, even in the midst of insanity. Hopefully, I make it to the 28 day timeline that they say will make an act a habit.

On a side note, is anyone getting into the series on NBC: the EVENT? I think I might be hooked. Which is unusual because I don't typically get into the series stuff. Unless it's Flashpoint. And I cannot miss one of those. I just can't. I think it's one of the best cop shoes ever written. But for the most part, I'm more of a Food Network/HGTV kind of watcher. All I can say is thank goodness for the PVR! (DVR, Tivo to my American friends).

Overwhelm Relief #1

Lately I've really been feeling overwhelmed by all the things of everyday life. Just the busyness and rushing has taken a bit of ahold. It's just one of those seasons that seems to naturally bring with it extras. And the Christmas season is coming. So I've been trying to think "simplify". Now the thought of doing that in huge chunks, in itself, is overwhelming to me. So I've been taking baby steps. And I thought I'd share the steps with you in segments. 'Cause I know you're waiting with bated breath, and all.

First off the bat, I just took pause and reflected and prayed about what it is that causes those feelings of being overwhelmed. And it took awhile for me to figure out. But then it came to me. I get feeling frustrated, what gets a bee in my bonnet and makes me antsy and grumpy is when my floors aren't clean, when counter and tabletops are overflowing, when "things" are crowding me out. So I'm going to figure out a plan, so I don't get to the point where everyone in my household is avoiding me because I have a storm cloud over my head.

My first step was to take a deep breath and look around to see which was the worst at the moment. The first thing I decided to get a handle on was the paper work that seems to pile everywhere. No matter how much I want to ignore it, paper will come into my household. I resolved that fact with myself. My need was to simplify the process in which I deal with the monster. The above picture is only one area it seems to collect in. I have tried the basket idea. Got some really pretty ones but then everything just goes into this black hole and doesn't get dealt with at all. And then it's just an overflowing basket on my counter.

I made a decision to force myself to immediately handle as much of the paperwork as possible when it first comes into my hands. Here's my plan. Instead of picking up the mail and depositing it onto a table or counter top I will take that minute force myself and do a quick sort: read later or immediate recycle. Hubby's mail will go onto his dresser right away so that he can deal with it. I cannot believe the difference that little quick sort makes. A fast 30 seconds to 1 minute and the clutter is already cut in half. After lunch when the kids are having their quiet time, I take one more minute and go through what got left. The sale papers get a quick look, if I see something I might want, it goes on a list on the fridge and the paper goes immediately into recycling. All dates that I need to know get written on the calendar, and the letters go.

I'm not perfected at it. I mean, it's only been about a week that I got determined to deal with this but I'm trying and determined I am. Paper may be a fact of life but I refuse to let paper get me down. Maybe one of these days I'll be able to have to conviction to actually put a sign on my mailbox that says "No unaddressed mail or flyers, please". Now that would make it really simple, but I'm not quite at that place yet.

How do you simplify dealing with the paper in your life?

Monday Mish Mash. Alternate title: Waiting is for the birds

Where on earth did my weekend go? Oh yeah, it was spent waiting.

And waiting.

And waiting again.

Aaargh. I am so not a good wait-er. First a good chunk of waiting happened at the electronics store waiting to get my daughter's cell phone exchanged. Oy, that process has gotten so complicated. We have a product replacement warranty so that's a good thing, but the crazy paperwork for the employees, not so good. Add to that a very busy Saturday and only one guy manning the cell phone department because the other one was on lunch break, and then top it off with a trainee in the customer service department that, bless him, had to stop frequently and ask the supervisor how to do something who just happened to be helping other customers instead of do the training. It all made for a lot of, you guessed it, waiting. I would have gone to sit in the massage chair they have in the media department but then I would have lost my place. So I waited.

Finally leaving my daughter there, I ran home to get the dog for his vet appointment. Where I waited. And while I waited I questioned the poor new vet's assistant who just got on shift, why on earth I would be scheduled an appointment at the same time the vet had a meeting. Did they not know I had just left my daughter at the electronics store to get here on time and hubby was using his half hour lunch to be there, and the vet wasn't even on location? Whatsup with that? Poor guy looked a little flummoxed as he said he wasn't sure but he just got on shift and was telling me all he knew. I have to laugh at the trapped look on his face. So I waited.

Then I race back to the electronics store to pick up the Younger Daughter who had been waiting patiently for over an hour. Home again, home again, jiggety jig. Or something like that, because when I got there it was more, all together now: waiting. first waiting for hubby to get home because I royally got kuffafled trying to get the new phone activated online. Then I had to wait till Sunday to get on the phone line with an agent 'cause none of us knew what I did wrong.

All is fixed now but I tell ya, this praying for patience thing? It really is trying my patience. Lord, could you please just give me this patience, like, right now?

Silence. And I wait.

Sigh.

Friday's Fave Five #110

Welcome to Friday's Fave Five. Time to look back over the week and find those blessings, great and small, that have been in our daily lives. Some weeks it's easy to do up a list and hard to stop at just five and then other week's you might be hard pressed to find five at all. But I encourage you to look, because God's blessings are there if we just open our hearts to them. If you need more info it is here, then feel free to just join us.

1. An unexpected hug & kiss from my Youngest Girl. Seeing she's a teenager, sometimes those are hard to come by, but she blessed me with them as she was headed out the door to school. Made my morning.

2. Having my daughter arrive safe and sound for Thanksgiving. It's about a 6 1/2 drive depending on how many times one stops, and it's the first time she drove it all by herself with no one else in the car. It was a bit of a nerve wracking afternoon for me, but praise God, she made it. What a blessing to see her drive up!

3. Surrounded by family. One of the things I love about Thanksgiving is being surrounded by family. Sometimes we don't see other for awhile but this holiday always seems to draw us together. It was wonderful to have the house full of loved ones.

4. The great meal and the abundance of it. Another yummy meal with way too much food as usual. Sometimes I think I take for granted how blessed we really are when it comes to food. I tend to whine and complain that my grocery budget never goes far enough to get everything on my list and yet somehow we are always well fed and at holidays like this, as I look at all the food on our table, I think of those who don't have near what we have and those who will go hungry that day and it really makes me ashamed of my complaining. We are truly blessed to be where we are.

5. Having an encouraging friend in my life. I have been blessed to have a friend who really is a huge encouragement to me. I have attempted things that maybe I wouldn't have before, have stepped out of my comfort zone in different areas, have ventured into new waters because of the gift of her encouragement. I hope I can encourage another in the same way and be a blessing to them.

What have your favorite blessings been this week? If you do a post, please link on so we can come and visit.

Back to Normal, Whatever that Means

Things are settling back in again to routine after the Thanksgiving weekend. Big Sis went back to her city yesterday and arrived there safe and sound. Other than a small incident of hitting a curb with her front tire and popping a hole into it which entailed having to call a tow truck and buying a new tire in a strange city, she made the 6 1/2 drive here by herself for the first time quite nicely. I'm not gonna lie. It was a nerve racking 6 hours for this Mom knowing she was out on the highway all by herself. There was lots of prayers for her safety going up before the Lord that Friday afternoon. And I have to say it was a totally helpless feeling that I couldn't go charging in to take over and help her when she blew her tire. But she is an adult now, albiet a fledgling one, and she has been living on her own for 2 years now (wow, did I just type that?), and she handled this new learning step just beautifully without me taking charge.

I saw a newness to my girl this visit that I haven't seen in a while. She exuded joy and happiness. Not that she wasn't happy and joyful before but this time there was a lightness surrounding her. There have been some big changes for her and I'd say it fits her very nicely indeed. It was a wonderful visit and now I can't wait for Christmas. I'm thinking Younger Girl was pretty content to have her sister back within reach.

I got smart this year and doubled my stuffing recipe. Every year by the time I get to serve myself there is about a tablespoon of stuffing left in the bowl. So this year, I doubled it and still stuffed the bird but then put the rest into the crockpot. I looked up a few recipes online just to see what the added moisture quotient should be and may I say it was delicious. And there was plenty even for seconds and some as leftovers the next day. I did dry out the turkey a bit though which was a bummer. Last time I felt it could have used another half hour of cooking so I over compensated this time and it got dry. LOL. Next time I will listen to the oven temperature recommendation written right on the turkey bag instead of deciding differently. Good thing for gravy.

So that's a wrap up to my week other than debating whether I should tell you about the visit to the vet which cost us a cool $200. You would be amazed at what they charge for. Or maybe I'm really naive and it just surprises me. Anyway. Vet talk and turkey talk don't go together well, so I'll leave that for another day.

See you tomorrow for FFF!

Friday's Fave Five #109

Welcome everyone! It's time for Friday's Fave Five. If you need info you can go here first and then just join us. Don't be shy, we're friendly folk.

1. Indian summer arrived in all it's glory this week. The days have been very warm and mild, the evenings cool and the fall colors are starting to break out. It's the perfect fall right now.

2. Pulling out the fall decorations. I love the colors of fall so decorating in the fall is always fun for me. And I always look forward to the scents of the candles and pot pourri's. Burning right now is "Pumpkin Bread".

3. Putting together the Thanksgiving menu. Thanksgiving already you ask? Well, yes. Yes it is this weekend as a matter of fact. Up here in Canada we celebrate the second weekend of October. I really enjoy cooking the Thanksgiving meal more than any of the other holidays. Part of the fun for me is deciding other than the turkey and stuffing what I will make. Should I go with the familiar favorites or go for totally different from the traditional. This year joining the turkey and stuffing will be whipped potatoes and gravy of course, ham (supplied by hubby's mom), melt in your mouth buns (my mom) Maple Walnut yams ( a big hit last year and this year I'll be using that luscious organic REAL maple syrup!), green and yellow beans with carrots, Ambrosia salad (my sis's contribution), pies (my sis in law's addition), and Chocolate Pumpkin Cheesecake Bars.

4. Great tasting water. Water straight from the tap. Yuck. But from our alkaline machine? So good and really thirst quenching. We take good tasting, clean water for such granted in this country. But it is truly a blessing!

5. Cleaning out the extra bedroom because that means my oldest girl is coming home for Thanksgiving. Yipee today is the day she arrives.

So what are your favorites from the week? Please join on in and link up if you did a post. Don't forget to try and visit around a bit. Happy weekend everyone. I'll have a bite of turkey and stuffing for ya!

Birthday Random Dozen

It's Lid's birthday! Happy "Birfday", Lid! And her birthday request was that we would comment and leave a question for the Random Dozen. So all of today's questions are brought to you by her readers. Now there are no links provided so if you want to visit the writer of the question you can go 2nd Cup of Coffee and link through the comments. To join in on her birthday celebration, just visit the Random Dozen.

1. From "Men Are Dumb ....": If you had a theme song that played whenever you walked into a room full of people, what would it be? Now I'm not a theme song kind of gal, so though I've been thinking on this one for 2 days now, I could not come up with a one. Now I know as soon as I hit publish and can't get back to the computer, my mind will be flooded by a dozen of them.

2. From Pam of "Alert And Oriented x 4": Which of your shoes are your absolute favorite, and which are of the object of your most painful shoe-buyer's remorse? My favorites are my light beige, cork heeled leather sandals from Clark's. Even though they have a bit of heel they are so comfy and they're cute. Cute and comfort don't always go together, but I hit it with these ones. My shoe buyer's remorse? Teal colored, pointy toed cowboy boots. Bought for the cute factor, but only worn a few times. In my world there is not a lot of places to wear teal colored cowboy boots.

3. From Susanne of "Living to Tell the Story": Tell about your favorite birthday celebration that you've personally experienced. Oh look it's me! :v) Any birthday celebration that has my whole family there is my favorite. I can't really pick out a specific one that stands out above the others. We keep it sort of on the lower key side here and they all sort of meld together. When I was a kid, it was the usual neighborhood and school friend birthday parties with the games and hot dogs and cake. But what I remember most is my favorite birthday cake made by my mom. It was sponge cake but Mom baked it in cookie sheets so you got really thin layers. And there would be about 8 or 10 layers. With the best chocolate icing ever. She always used unsalted butter in the icing, I think that was her secret. But I'm telling you this stuff I could eat by the spoon. In fact I did. If there was left over icing, Mom would freeze it, but I always got in there and dug through it with a spoon and ate it frozen. It was especially good like that because it was cold and a slow chocolate melt would start on you tongue and continue for a minute. My mouth waters as I think of it. Yum. I miss those cakes. But as for the party itself? Pathetic I know but I'm sorta jamming out on my own question.

4. From Lori of "Just me and My Life": If you were a flavor of ice cream, which would you be? This is sorta like the song question. I don't know. Ideally, I 'd love to say something soothing or refreshing like a capuccino ice cream or a nice mint with a surprise of chocolate chunks but in reality I'd probably end up with a flavor with nuts.

5. Cindy Swanson of "Notes in the Key of Life" asks: Have you ever had a crush on a movie star? Who was it, and are you still crushing? When I was a kid it was Robby Benson. I saw absolutely every movie that came out with him in it.

Crushing now? No. I have my very own handsome guy now I call my Hubby.

6. Jill from "Jill Boyd's Place" inquires: Glasses or braces--if you had to wear one, which would it be? Seeing I've been cursing my glasses for the last 8 months, I'm going to say braces. They are temporary, whereas glasses are permanent usually.

7. Nel from "Fasteneau Facts" asks: If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be? I have definitely not traveled extensively in my life so this is sort of hard to answer. I have places of fantasy that I think I would like to live, places I've romanticized in my mind or from movies such as Tuscany or Santorini but I'm sure they've all got their issues once you're there. The thought of living in Hawaii draws me but I would totally miss the seasons. Reading Kathie's blog totally makes me want to move to Prince Edward Island and own a piece of Anne's Island. But I'm pretty happy living where I am. I have all four seasons, we have our winters eased with the warm chinook winds in the winter, I'm only an hour or so away from the mountains which I love.

8. Thena from "Patiently Waiting" wants to know: If money were no obstacle, what would be the perfect birthday gift to receive? A shiny, red Mustang convertible. Or a Mediterranean cruise. Yeah, that would be awesome. Well, you said money was no object.

9. From "Life Through Bifocals," LynnMarie asks: What is your favorite birthday meal? Anything I don't have to cook myself.

10. Debby at "Just Breathe" checks in with: Do you still send hand-written thank you notes? I love notecards and thank you cards so I do send them occasionally. I keep a nice stock of them in my drawer so they are handy when I need them.

11. Linda from "Mocha with Linda" poses this question: What is something you've done that you never thought you'd do? Get up and speak in front of people. Blog.

12. Jewel, my homegirl from Indiana who writes at "Musings from the World of Jewel," is very insistent that we answer this: Mount Rushmore honors four US Presidents: Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, and Roosevelt. If you could add any person to Mount Rushmore, who would you add and why? That's sort of hard to answer considering I'm not from the States and don't really know the history of Mount Rushmore.

Easy Peasy Dinner

Wow, look at the time. It seems lately that I'm just not able to get a post posted in the early AM. It seems by evening my brain is gelled and to come up with a post just doesn't happen, especially on those nights I have things on the go. And to do one first thing in the morning just isn't happening either. Too much going on there and it always seems we're in a rush at that time, what with trying to find that missing textbook, do a quick sweep of the kitchen floor or get the dayhome stuff set up before those first kids are knocking on the door. So it gets posted when it gets posted.

But today I wanted to make sure I posted this super easy and super delicious recipe. Rave reviews from around the table on this one. It's great for a quick family dinner but I think is good enough for company. The curry is medium taste so can be adjusted. It's definitely going into my "family favorites" list.

SUE'S TOMATO CURRY CHICKEN

(serves 4 -5)

-5 chicken breasts, cut into larger bite size chunks

-2 Tbsp. butter

-1 medium onion, chopped

-1 28 oz. can diced tomatoes, UNdrained

-1 can condensed cream of tomato soup

-2 1/2 - 3 tsp. curry

-1/2 tsp. cumin

-1/2 tsp. dried basil

-1/2 tsp. fresh ground pepper

-1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 350*F (175*C)

Lightly grease a 13 x 9 inch baking dish. Add chicken cubes.

Melt butter in a medium skillet. Add onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until translucent. Add diced tomatoes, canned soup and spices. Simmer for 5 minutes. Pour over chicken. Cover and bake for 45 minutes. Sprinkle with cheese and continue to bake uncovered for 10 - 15 minutes more.

Serve with rice. And I like to also serve peas because in my head peas and curry go together.

Friday's Fave Five #108

Hi and welcome to Friday's Fave Five! Yes, I have a new button again. I just love the fall designs and colors, so go ahead and use which ever one you like the best. Join me as we reflect back upon our weeks and look for the good things in our lives, the simple or the big, that were a blessing, that changed our perspective, that uplifted us, that made us smile. If you need details you can go on over here first.

1. This magician video made me pause and say "How do they do that?" This is more the magic show that I enjoy, not the creepy kind of magic that some of the magicians who are popular today do. Anyway, I enjoyed the little break as I watched this. 10 Illusions in 5 Minutes.

2. The fact that today is Friday! I am so glad this week is over and the weekend is upon us. It's been a long work week and I'm looking forward to just slowing down and planning my Thanksgiving dinner for next weekend. Yes, Canadian Thanksgiving is

in October. The oldest girl is coming home and I love me turkey dinner so the plans will be in the works.

3. Autumn. The leaves are finally starting to change color and some are even falling. Although it has been a windy week here, it has been warm with one day this week actually hitting 27*C which translates to a hot 79*F. Which to me is hot. Indian summer is upon us.

This is my Ohio Buckeye tree. I'm in love with the orange colors it turns.

4. A massage therapist who knows what she's doing. I have issues with a really tight upper back and neck. I can just feel huge knots in it at certain times. The lady whom I'm going to now is a blessing. She knows how to get in there and work those out for me using a variety of techniques and boy does it ever help. I feel way better after seeing her which I couldn't always say after visiting a massage therapist.

5. A good night's rest. Sometimes I think, in my case anyway, I don't realize what a blessing something is until that something is taken away. The other night for various reasons I had a horrible night of sleep. Boy did I ever appreciate what a good night's rest does the day after a day of a horrible night. Does that make sense? LOL. In any case, I am very appreciative again of a good night's sleep and am very thankful that not so good sleeps are rare for me.

What have been your favorites blessings and moments from this last week? Do a post and link on up!