Tree Swing Reading

Flying Books Giveaway: "A Slow Burn" and "Life in Defiance" by Mary DeMuth

It's time to release some of the books that have been flying around my living room looking for a new home. Would you be willing to help them find new owners?

I'm having another book giveaway from now until the end of March here on this blog! There will be a whole variety of different kinds of books!  I hope you'll find some books you like!

Here are the rules:

1.) To enter the drawing for a book, just answer my random question for the day in the comments of the post.

Today's question: What's one good thing that happened today?

My Answer: I am excited that a new client liked my logo design!

2.) Be reachable by email should you win, so I can let you know.

3.) Enter by March 13, a winner will be selected the following day.

4.) Come back again!

Today's books: Books 2 and 3 from "Defiance Texas Series" by Mary DeMuth; A Slow Burn and Life in Defiance

Description:

A Slow Burn

Burying her grief, Emory Chance is determined to find her daughter Daisy's murderer-a man she saw in a flicker of a vision. But when the investigation hits every dead end, her despair escalates. Not even the kindness of her persistent suitor Hixon can soften her heart towards the community of friends that long for her healing. And as the questions surrounding Daisy continue to mount, and Emory's safety is shattered by the tattooed man's dark pursuit, she can't shake the sickening fear that her own choices contributed to Daisy's disappearance. Will she ever experience the peace her heart longs for?

A gripping suspense novel, A Slow Burn is about courageous love, the burden of regret, and the bonds that never break. It is about the beauty and pain of telling the truth and letting God take over. Most of all, it is about the strength of forgiveness and what remains when shame no longer has power. Mary DeMuth's distinctive new voice in Christian fiction will keep readers enthralled as they ask soul-searching questions in this second book of the Defiance, Texas Trilogy.

Life in Defiance

In a town she personifies, Ouisie Pepper wrestles with her own defiance. Desperate to become the wife and mother her husband Hap demands, Ouisie pours over a simple book about womanhood, constantly falling short, but determined to improve. Through all that self-improvement, Ouisie carries a terrible secret: she knows who killed Daisy Chance. As her children inch closer to uncovering the killer's identity and Hap's rages roar louder and become increasingly violent, Ouisie has to make a decision. Will she protect her children by telling her secret? Or will Hap's violence silence them all? Set on the backdrop of Defiance, Texas, Ouisie's journey typifies the choices we all face---whether to tell the truth about secrets and fight for the truth or bury them forever and live with the violent consequences.

My Thoughts:

Mary DeMuth always grabs hold of the reader and makes them feel what the characters are feeling. Powerful stories about fascinating characters.

Flying Books Giveaway: "A Stitch in Time" by Allison Bottke

It's time to release some of the books that have been flying around my living room looking for a new home. Would you be willing to help them find new owners?

I'm having another book giveaway from now until the end of March here on this blog! There will be a whole variety of different kinds of books!  I hope you'll find some books you like!

Here are the rules:

1.) To enter the drawing for a book, just answer my random question for the day in the comments of the post.

Today's question: Favorite m&ms: plain? peanut? coconut? mint? almond? peanut butter?

My Answer: I'm into the coconut ones lately, but love peanut m&ms!

2.) Be reachable by email should you win, so I can let you know.

3.) Enter by March 8, a winner will be selected the following day.

4.) Come back again tomorrow!

Today's book: (from 2006) A Stitch in Time by Allison Bottke

Description:

In the course of one year Dee Decker . . . . . . has gastric bypass surgery and loses 150 pounds . . . separates from her husband . . . buys a whole new wardrobe . . . flourishes in her glamorous fundraiser job . . . and becomes a Christian. She's a new person inside and out, and the future looks bright. But then a job offer sends her life in a direction she hadn't expected. Her past and present are about to collide in a major way . . . and Dee didn't bring the right shoes!

Flying Books Giveaway: "The Silent Order" by Melanie Dobson

It's time to release some of the books that have been flying around my living room looking for a new home. Would you be willing to help them find new owners?

I'm having another book giveaway from now until the end of March here on this blog! There will be a whole variety of different kinds of books!  I hope you'll find some books you like!

Here are the rules:

1.) To enter the drawing for a book, just answer my random question for the day in the comments of the post.

Today's question: What kind of cookies are your favorite?

My Answer: I'm all about warm chocolate chip cookies!

2.) Be reachable by email should you win, so I can let you know.

3.) Enter by March 10, a winner will be selected the following day.

4.) Come back again tomorrow!

Today's book: The Silent Order by Melanie Dobson

Description:

When his partner is murdered, 1920s detective Rollin Wells goes into hiding. Taking refuge in an Amish home in Sugarcreek, Ohio, he works to discover who in the police force is collaborating with Cleveland's notorious mob. But when he befriends a young Amish mother named Katie, will he unearth an even more shocking secret?

Laughing at Myself

Today I'm having a bit of a chuckle at myself.

I was looking back over my blog posts and feeling kind of embarrassed.  I must look like a wack-a-doodle to you guys sometimes.

I'm always announcing big plans: open business, close business, re-open business; be busy, no be slow; run a 5k, no do P90X; read more, read less; CRAZY! haha

So, if you haven't figured it out by now, I'll let you in on a little secret. I have no idea what I'm doing half the time!  Do you ever feel like that?  I'm just doing my best with what each day gives me.  And the lesson in this little review is for me to remember that each day is different and that I shouldn't make any rash decisions about my entire future based on the feelings of one day.

So who knows what will happen with my next attempt at handling 2 businesses and running my home.  Good thing I can laugh about it. 

Flying Books Giveaway Day 1: "The Missionary" by Carmichael and Lambert

It's time to release some of the books that have been flying around my living room looking for a new home. Would you be willing to help them find new owners?

I'm having another book giveaway from now until the end of March here on this blog! There will be a whole variety of different kinds of books!  I hope you'll find some books you like!

Here are the rules:

1.) To enter the drawing for a book, just answer my random question for the day in the comments of the post.

Today's question: What do you do to help yourself relax when you're stressed? I need some suggestions! :)

My Answer: I like bubble baths! But chocolate helps too...

2.) Be reachable by email should you win, so I can let you know.

3.) Enter by March 8, a winner will be selected the following day.

4.) Come back again tomorrow!

Today's book:

The Missionary by William Carmichael and David Lambert

Description:

American missionaries David and Christie Eller run a clinic for homeless children in Caracas, Venezuela. But when an angry David publicly rails against the government, he falls into an unimaginable nightmare of espionage. Will his life-or-death gamble to escape the country with his wife and son succeed---or will the resources of a corrupt dictatorship prevail?

What I Thought:

I couldn't put this one down!  It was a great suspense with lots of twists and turns and an unexpected plot!  David faces the overwhelming delima that a lot of missionaries face: lack of funds to do what people desperately need him to do for even basic survival of the people he's trying to help. So when he is offered money by what he thinks is a wealthy donor, he makes a critical mistake in taking it without thoroughly checking the source. He ends up in a mess of trouble!

A good read that kept me turning the pages even when I was supposed to be making dinner!

On businesses, books, and busyness...and upcoming giveaway

Hi! I thought I'd write a little update so you'd know what I'd been up to...

I ended up registering two businesses in my name. Crazy, right?  I had decided that it was time to follow my dreams a bit more and really go after the craft business aspect of my life so I finally took the plunge and officially registered my craft business, but I guess God had other plans. I had three new web design clients "fall" in my lap all in one day. So then I officially registered my web design business too. In between working with my new clients, I am trying to revamp my own websites to officially launch them. I'm also tweaking my craft offerings, so I need to get some good sewing/designing time in for that too. Exciting but busy! I'm so grateful to have something good to focus on in the midst of my husband's job uncertainty, etc.

As far as reading goes, well, the only times I've been reading lately is when I'm on the treadmill. So I'm sorry I haven't had many book reviews lately. I only managed to read one of my daughter's Battle of the Books books too. Today's the day, but I'm just doing the timer, so it shouldn't matter that I haven't read them.

We also had unexpected guests for the weekend. My husband's best friend's dad died on Friday and we had some mutual friends from Michigan come stay with us. I love having guests and being hostess, but it did add to the busyness, especially since I taught a Ladies Night Out craft event on Friday night too.

So, all in all, it's been a really unique time of change for me. I'm working a lot more and trying to figure out how to balance that with my kids' needs too. I'm excited for all the opportunities, but nervous about meeting expectations. I don't want to go back to the extreme levels of stress I had last year.

I hope you are still reading, because I do have a giveaway coming starting tomorrow!  So, be sure to come back then!

Happy Heart Day!

Happy Valentine's Day!  I hope you are spending the day with people you love!  I got excited for V-day this year. I made heart-shaped pancakes for breakfast and made heart jello like this:

from "The Hungry Housewife"

and will make heart-shaped pizza for dinner and red velvet brownies for desert!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here's the brownie link too. From "Smells Like Home."

I hope my husband and girls like them! 

I  have to admit that my obsession with Pinterest led me to these ideas!  Anyone else on Pinterest?  Come find me at: http://pinterest.com/tami227/

Reading, reading, reading

Hi friends,

Just wanted to let you know that my reading schedule will be a bit different for the next 2 weeks. I volunteer at my daughter's middle-school library and have been asked to help with this year's Battle of the Books.  Battle of the Books is like a quiz bowl about a selected group of books with teams competing to answer the most questions correctly.  I am trying to read the books from the seventh grade list.

The books are:

Drums, Girls & Dangerous Pie	Jordan Sonnenblick
Hoot	Carl Hiaasen
House of the Scorpion	Nancy Farmer
Life as We Knew It	Susan Pfeffer
The Lost Years of Merlin	T.A. Barron
Mortal Engines	Phillip Reeve
Never Trust a Dead Man	Vivian Vande Velde
Road to Memphis	Mildred Taylor
Shabanu, Daughter of the Wind	Suzanne Fisher Staples
Shackelton’s Stowaway	Victoria McKernan
Slam	Walter Dean Myers
Tasting the Sky	Ibtisam Barakat
The Traitor	Laurence Yep
What the Moon Saw	Laura Resau

I better get busy reading!

Thanks for all your prayers about my husband's job situation.  We appreciate it!

Book winner

Here is the final book winnner from the Let it Snow giveaway.

A House of Secrets goes to Vader's Mom!

Thanks for entering!

Book winners

Congratulations to some more book winners!

Baker's Wife goes to grams

One Thousand Gifts goes to Lynne

Thanks for entering!