Book Review: When Words Matter Most
When do words matter most? Just as I was finishing working through the book Truthfilled: The Practice of Preaching to Yourself Through Every Season by Ruth Chou Simons, a friend gave me a copy of the book When Words Matter Most: Speaking Truth with Grace to Those You Love by Cheryl Marshall and Caroline Newheiser. These two books go hand in hand. Colossians 3:16 says “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.” We must first let the Word of Truth dwell in us. We must preach truth to ourselves. This is where Truthfilled is helpful. It’s not a self help book but a beautifully illustrated and practical reminder that in the trials of life, the truth of God is unchanging and life changing. This book is a 7 session study that you can do on your own or with a group. The art alone is worth a view! When Words Matter Most takes this concept to the next level. Once we have internalized this truth, we can then share it with others, strengthening and encouraging them…
Book Review: Lazy Genius Kitchen
Where do you put your dirty dishes in your kitchen? We all have routines. In my house the dirty dishes go to the left of the sink before they get loaded into the dishwasher, which hopefully happens shortly thereafter. Best selling author Kendra Adachi writes Lazy Genius Kitchen so we can “have what you need, use what you have, and enjoy it like never before.” Do my dishes go to the left of the sink because that’s where there’s more counter space or because that’s the dirty dishes zone that frees up all the rest of my kitchen space for other things? Recently a friend loaned me this book and said it is much like how I already run my household. That was true! The book is a “slightly sassy” guidebook to organizing your kitchen using the Lazy Genius Principles. Adachi gives the framework to prioritize what matters most in your kitchen and build a system that makes it easy for you to enjoy your kitchen and mealtimes. This book is jam packed with helpful references on how to cook, how to make meals taste good, how to use kitchen tools, and how to simplify all the tasks and hard…
Product Review: How to Invest $1000
How would you invest $1000? Does investing seem like a daunting challenge? Zach Reynolds unpacks this in his video “How to Invest $1000” by giving viewers three different ways to invest money and what the returns could look like. Zach is passionate about personal finance and helping others save money. He posts new videos on his channel each Monday with topics like credit card balances, stock market, and credit scores. Most of his videos are six to ten minutes long. Zach has been steadily growing his subscribers and his content in the past few years. You will want to investigate his YouTube channel for more personal finance tips. Here are a few of Zach Reynolds’s most popular videos: How to Increase Your Credit Score in 2022 Apple Card Review Capital One 360 Checking Review As a young entrepreneur, getting subscribers to follow your channel is one of the best ways to build up your business. Follow Zach for two reasons: increase your financial knowledge and increase his subscribers. It’s a win win that won’t cost you anything! Know of other young entrepreneurs with up and coming channels or websites? Drop a link to them in the comments so we can…
Product Review: Shampoo and Conditioner Bars
What would it take to get you to try a shampoo or conditioner bar? Finding a good shampoo can be a dirty job. I had never even heard of a shampoo bar until I started researching round the world travel and packing light. I was leery and intrigued by shampoo bars. Through trials (some with the shampoo tests and some with my luggage sufferings) I have found a few shampoo and conditioner bars that are great for travel! It was not until I stumbled upon one at Trader Joe’s that I decided to try it out. The price was right for the Trader Joe’s Shampoo Bar and the peppermint/tea tree scent was not overwhelming. I tried it a few times before determining it would work for travel and then I cut the bar in half so it would fit in a small plastic container in my travel bag. It met my needs for a shampoo but I really needed a conditioner too. Know what I mean about the harsh effects of hotel water?! For the most part, conditioner bars have complicated storage or usage directions. That’s not what I needed and Trader Joe’s does not make a conditioner bar. I…
Libraries
When was the last time you visited a public library? The other day I had a half hour of time before an appointment so I stopped in at my local library to get some cookbooks for stepping up my weekly menu planning. I lost track of time and was almost late for my appointment. I forgot how much I loved free public libraries! Every season of my life has library memories, from filling a huge canvas bag of books as an elementary kid to checking out a big bag of books as a young mom with toddlers. We have Googled local libraries on rainy vacation days at the beach, visited library story times while traveling, and found joy in perusing the shelves of public libraries and bookstores across the country whether or not we take any books home. As a young mom, I got a new cookbook every time I took my kids to the library. Recently I had houseguests with school age kids for a few months and we took regular visits to the library where I told them they could get as many books as they could carry. Benjamin Franklin started his own lending library company in 1731…
Travel Review: Ultra Minimalist Travel
What products would you hate to be without if you lost your luggage? If you have been following me for some time, you know I’m a huge fan of travel and carry on bags. I have mastered the art of of packing light for a long adventure. My items multi task, and I like to think I’m a minimalist, but I see no need to try ultra minimalist travel. Turns out the airlines wanted to test that theory this summer. I had crafted my packing list and prioritized what I could fit into my backpack (weighing 18 lbs or less) and a laptop bag for a 3 week European adventure. Saving my crazy travel story of cancelled flights for another time, let’s just say “I saw Europe, I saw France, and the airlines kept my underpants!” I truly became an ultra minimalist when I had to survive with one pair of underwear, a change of clothes, and just my liquids bag when my carry on bag, checked at a destination, got lost. Of course there is travel insurance to cover lost things, but what about when you hit the ground running and don’t have time to shop for basics or…
Travel Review: Food Tours
What is the best way to get to know a new town? Food tours are a great way to get to know a new town. Want to get the lay of the land, a quick history lesson, and some restaurant suggestions? Take a food tour on your first day of vacation. Want to see your hometown in a new light? Take a food tour. Want a fun date night with friends? Take a food tour. Our first food tour was a free food tour by foot in Washington DC on a family vacation years ago. We were hooked! Since then we have gone on food tours on vacations across the globe, always delighted with the tours and the tourists. On a typical tour, you will meet at a designated spot to start and end your tour. Your tour guide will give a brief welcome and let the guests introduce themselves. It’s fun to hear whether people are local or just visiting. Usually, the tour is a leisurely walking tour of the town, visiting 4-6 restaurants within a few hours and a mile or two of distance in total with some history of the town or restaurants thrown in. Some restaurants…
Book Review: Road Trip Book Lists
Where will you go this summer? Bethany House Publishers produced an annual “Road Trip Guide” for seven years where they suggested books to read based on the settings. It’s such a clever idea! Summer beach reads abound, but what about those who vacation in Montana or India? There’s a book for them too! Grab a book set in your vacation destination, childhood home state, or bucket list destination and take a book vacation. The blog post has links to past road trip lists as well. While everyone is waiting in line to get the newest books, grab copies of these books online or at your local library and take a road trip to a new or favorite place! Where will you go this summer? Want other book reviews? Check out these posts. Got some book suggestions for summer travel? Post in the comments below! Table Talk: What was the destination of your favorite childhood vacation? What destination is on your wish list? Like this post? Share it with a friend! Share on facebook Facebook Share on email Email Share on pinterest Pinterest Share on print Print
Product Review: Uptime Robot
Do you have your own robot working for you yet? Uptime Robot is a free website monitoring service that works so you don’t have to. This business tool is my secret weapon. Uptime Robot checks your website every few minutes to see if it’s up and running and notifies you if it’s down. Downtime happens to the best of us, but hopefully, you can catch it before your customers do. Just this week I was trying to find the menu and hours of a new business but I got an error with every link I tried. Bummer. When I visited the restaurant that day, I let them know and they thought I just had the wrong link. It was up and running today, but using a service like Uptime Robot could have saved them egg on their face. It takes just a few minutes to set up this free service and you can choose to receive an email or text message when your website or course page is down. Plus their smart team of robots can monitor all sorts of other things for you, except what’s in your fridge or when you are running low on basic supplies like…
Book Review: Imperfect Disciple
What do you do when you struggle to get your act together but keep failing? Imperfect Disciple: Grace for People Who Can’t Get Their Act Together, by Jared C. Wilson, is the perfect book to read with a friend this summer. Wilson’s conversational style of writing makes you feel like you are sitting across the table at a coffee shop or at an airport waiting area having a chat. His wisdom makes you feel smarter not smaller once you finish a chapter. Read a chapter, let it settle in, then discuss it with a friend or two. Repeat 10 times. Preferably with an iced coffee. Wilson takes readers on a discipleship journey through his own stories with humor and honesty. Knowing you are not alone in this journey nor do you have to have it all together all the time will build your confidence. Discipleship is doing life on life with someone else. Normal life. Messy life. Wilson understands a life full of questions and knows a Book full of answers. After hearing Wilson speak in person a few years ago, some friends and I did a book study with Imperfect Diciple. There are not questions at the end of…
