Currently Reading

I am currently reading a pre-release book by Sara Poole, titled, Poison. Be watching for the review of this fascinating renaissance book regarding the Borgia's and Rome.

Review - The Busy Mom's Guide

The Busy Mom's Guide To A Happy, Organized Home

Fast Solutions To Hundred of Everyday Dilemmas

By Kathy Peel

Copyright 2008 by Kathy Peel

Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.

ISBN 978-1-4143-1619-2

United States

America's Family Manager Kathy Peel has once more offered us solutions to the many things in our lives that can harangue, excite, and confuse us!

Under seven major categories: Managing Time and Scheduling; Managing Your Home and Property; Managing Menus and Meals; Managing Relationships with Family and Friends; Managing Your Finances; Managing Special Events; and Managing Yourself, Peel affers us solutions that can not only streamline and make our rather busy lives a bit less hectic, but that can simplify our lives in such a manner that we begin to look after the one who is often overlooked in our lives. Ourselves!

Where was Kathy Peel when I was raising my own five children all of those years ago?

I love Peel's quote on the very first page of Introduction: "When you take on motherhood, the world's most important job, there's no formal orientation - just on-the-job training and trial by fire."

Peel asserts that if we look at our job as Mother's, as a JOB, we can more easily and readily hold it all together!

She states: "You oversee an economic institution that includes such services as facility and resource management, meal preparation, child care, education, and transportation, to name a few. Using the strategies and tactics of successful business managers will help you realize your dream for a happy, organized home."

Peel lists ten things we need to know regarding that job:

1. Think like a manager.

2. Manage by department.

3. Know your mission and values.

4. Cast vision and communicate benefits.

5. Build a family team.

6. Create a base of operations.

7. Use a Daily Hit List.

8. Manage according to how you're wired.

9. Be prepared.

10. Lean on God.

Peel gives us

The Family Manager Creed

I oversee the most important organization in the world

Where hundreds of decisions are made daily

Where property and resources are managed

Where health and nutritional needs are determined

Where finances and futures are discussed and debated

Where projects are planned and events are arranged

Where transportation and scheduling are critical

Where team building is a priority

Where careers begin and end

I am a Family Manager

Lastly Peel leaves us with twenty pages of Web Resources to assist us in the organization of our home and our lives.

She never forgets to have us lean and learn from the Head of our Family, our Lord and Savior.

I found this a wonderfu, source of information. And a book that every woman should have on hand! It should be a mandatory read for expecting women! And a handbook for busy Mom's everywhere!

I give this book a hefty 5 stars *****, and I highly recommend it for every home library!

*DISCLOSURE: A copy of this book was received from Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. free of charge for review of the text. All opinions regarding the text included in this review are solely that of the writer. - cbh

Currently Reading

The Busy Mom's Guide to a Happy, Organized Home: Fast Solutions to Hundreds of Everyday Dilemmas

Kathy Peel
Picket Fence Press (2008), Paperback, 336 pages
ISBN: 1-4143-1619-4


Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.

Be watching for my review!

Review - Embracing Your Second Calling

Embracing Your Second Calling - Find Passion And Purpose For The Rest of Your Life

Dale Hanson Bourke

Printed by Thomas Nelson, Inc.

Copyright 2009 Dale Hanson

ISBN 978-0-8499-4697-4

In this wonderful lesson on the book of Ruth, Bourke particularly focuses on Ruth's mother-in-law, Naomi, and the wonderful things that happen to her in the "second half of her life".

Filled with annectdotal quips and comments regarding her own life, and those of so many others, as well, Bourke brings us from the middle-age doldrums, to a new awakening of what a woman over fifty years of age can really become!

When so many woman seem to have peaked early in life, fulfilling, it seems, all of their dreams, what comes after fifty? What comes when the children leave home? What comes when they have retired from their career?

Or what comes if they have done absolutely nothing until they turn fifty?

Is it the beginning of the end? Is it the end?

Bourke brings us to an awareness of what God has in store for women who are now, literally, in their prime!

God has brought us through the small children, through the struggles to get and maintain and even excel in a career, through difficult marriages, through the pressures of being the perfect wife-mother-career person, into an age where we now have a modicum of wisdom, and can obtain all - for His glory!

I expected to find a talented writer who could shed some small insight into my life as I opened this book. Instead, I found a wake-up call! Affirmation that the career path I have chosen was correct for me. And affirmation that God isn't through working with me yet!

This should be a must read for all women over the age of fifty!

It should be read thoughtfully, even prayerfully, and let the Spirit of God touch your heart as you read this marvellous work!

I give this book my 5-star rating!

[DISCLOSURE: Thomas Nelson, Inc. provided me with a copy of this book free of charge for review.

All recommendations or opinions herein noted are my own and do not reflect this exchange.]

Currently Reading

Embracing Your Second Calling

Dale Hanson Bourke

Thomas Nelson, Inc. - 2009

ISBN 978-0-8499-4697-4

Be watching for my coming review!

The Tomb of Hercules

The Tomb of Hercules

Andy McDermott

Bantam Book - 2009

ISBN 978-0-553-59294-8

Another in the Eddie Chase and Dr. Nina Wilde adventures! And Andy McDermott does not disappoint!!!

Eddie and Nina are now living together, but have begun to take one another for granted, and beginning to re-think their relationship when all h-e-double toothpicks breaks out!

The search for Hercules Tomb is on. And just like in it's predecessor, The Hunt for Atlantis, another master-mind, is behind a plot to literally take over the world. But watch out! Just like in the previous novel, there are twists and turns to this storyline that will take up one trail just to double-blind-backslap you down another!

And just as in his other works, McDermott leaves the fate of the world in the hands of our two heroines. And they kindly accommodate. They win the day.

And one another.

I highly enjoy McDermott's writing. And plausible or not, the read is fast-paced and full of excitement. You won't want to put it down.

I give this work a five star ***** rating, and highly recommend it!

Google To Enter eBook Market!

The ebook market is getting crowded. First there was the Sony Bookreader, then the Amazon Kindle, the Barnes & Noble Nook, and, most recently, the Apple iPad also is a general-purpose device that becomes an excellent ebook reader. Each producing company sells tens of thousands of books through it's own proprietary store and each company's offerings can only be read on the hardware device sold by that company. Until now.


Google has now announced that it is entering the crowded ebook market and, best of all, the books will be readable on almost any desktop computer, laptop computer, or most any mobile gadget that features a full Web browser. Books will be purchased directly from Google and also from retailers who will keep the majority of the money earned. The new service will be called Google Editions.

NOTE: Today's announcement of the new Google Editions is not related to Google Books, a service that has been scanning out-of-print books in libraries. The new Google Editions will only sell books obtained directly from publishers.

Analysts at the Yankee Group have predicted that the US ebook reader market is "about to catch fire sparking from $1.3 billion in revenue in 2010 to $2.5 billion by 2013". Now other industry watchers have said Google Editions will boost those figures further still.

At this stage Google has not revealed how much it will charge users to access digital books through Google Editions.

Chris Palma, Google's manager for strategic-partner development, said at a publishing event today Google expects to launch Google Editions as early as late June or July, according to the Wall Street Journal.

***Disclosure: The above is reprinted from EOGN with permission from Dick Eastman.

Currently Reading & Studying

Sermon Outlines on The Great Themes of the Bible

Charles R. Wood

Kregel Publications;1991

ISBN 0-8254-3992-2

Be watching for my review on this work!

Currently Reading

The Tomb of Hercules

Andy McDermott

Bantam Book; 2009

ISBN 0553592947 / 9780553592948

Be watching for my review soon!

Will The World End in 2012?

Will The World End in 2012?

Raymond C. Hundley, PH.D.

Thomas Nelson, Inc.

2010

ISBN 978-1-4002-0285-0

I was a bit hesitant at reading this book, as I was unsure what to expect from a Christian writer approaching the subject of a Mayan prediction, which is a skeptical prediction at best; a controversial at least!

Dr. Hundley handles this subject with grace, as only a man of God would do.

He objectively looks at: The Mayan Factor, Solar Storms, CERN and the Large Hadron Collider, The Predictions of Nostradamus, The Reversal of the Magnetic Poles, Collision with Planet X, Earth's Allignment with the Galactic Plane, Eruption of the Super Volcano, The Web Bot Project, Religious Predictions of the End of the World, and finally, Preparation for the End of the World.

Dr. Hundley makes it abundantly clear that the world COULD end in 2012. It could also end tomorrow.

As Christians we need not fear whatever the future may hold!

I may not know what the future holds, but I know Who holds the future!

***DISCLOSURE: Thomas Nelson, Inc. provided us with a free copy of this book for review. All review comments are entirely my own. - cbh