About the book:

As a follow up to their bestselling Thank You, Lord, for Everything, P.J. Lyons and Tim Warnes have created a sweet and relaxing padded cover board book that tells the story of God’s constant presence around you. Meant to be read at night, when a child is warm and snug in their bed, the rhyming text and adorable illustrations in God Is Watching Over You gently remind us that God is constantly watching over us, protecting us, and caring for us.

This book is the absolute cutest!  The book itself is sturdy and measures about 8 inches by 8 inches. The cover is a little plush, and the pages inside are made of solid cardboard, so the book will endure many nights of reading.

The illustrations by Tim Warnes make the book extra special and oh so cute. This book held the attention of the littles in my Sunday School class the entire way through. And we even had to look through it again, so they could look again at the sweet little fluffy sheep family.  Continually throughout the book, it says that God is always watching over you, no matter what you’re doing.  Such a great point to reinforce with our littles.

This book was provided to me free of charge by Book Look in return for my honest review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.

P J Lyons received a Master’s Degree in Writing for Children at Vermont College and is the author of The Little Lion’s Bible (Zondervan 2012), The Little Lamb’s Bible (Zondervan 2012), and The Wonderful World That God Made (Kregel 2004). She currently resides in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

I had never heard of Wildflower until I was given the opportunity to watch and review it. I am so happy that I gave this movie a try because it was a really great movie! There isn’t anything predictable or typical about this movie. It’s not a typical drama. It’s not a typical, feel-good story with a happy ending. It’s so much deeper than that. This movie is very suspenseful. There’s never a moment when you’re bored. You’re always wondering what’s going to happen next and your eyes are glued to the screen the entire time.

There were three main aspects of this movie that stood out to me. Grief, trauma and faith. I think every single one of us can relate to those.

One important aspect of Wildflower is that it touches on grief. People handle grief in a number of ways. Some hide it behind a smile. Some are outwardly upset. Others cry to themselves. Sometimes, people handle grief with denial. You will see all forms of grief in Wildflower and it will definitely tug at your heart strings too.

Another aspect is trauma. I think we all either have dealt with our own trauma, or we know someone personally who has. Just as people handle grief different, every one of us handles trauma differently. Sometimes the only way to cope with it is to suppress those memories and make them less painful. Eventually, we all have to heal. Wildflower takes you on a journey of a girl trying to find the answers to something terrible that happened to a young woman. In finding the answers, you will see so many lives touched and healed. You will also see how faith plays a very important role in healing and moving on.

About the book:

Get your home and your heart in order in just 31 days! 

Sarah Mae wants to let you in on a little secret about being a good homemaker: It’s not about having a clean house. She’d never claim to be a natural, organized cleaner herself—yet, like you, she wants a beautiful space to call home, a place where people feel loved and at peace. Where people can really settle in with good food, comfy pillows, and wide-open hearts. 

Is it possible to find a balance? To care for your heart—and your home—at the same time? 

Journey with Sarah Mae on this easy, practical 31-day plan to get you moving and have your house looking and feeling fresh. But even more than that, you’ll gain a new vision for the home of your dreams, and how to make it a place of peace, comfort, and community. Originally published as the e-book 31 Days to Clean and now revised and expanded in print for the first time, Having a Martha Home the Mary Way will inspire you to find a happier, healthier . . . cleaner way to live.

This book is filled with inspiration, personal insight, practical suggestions, daily activities, Bible verses for inspiration and questions to ponder, along with so much more. You can take each day as it comes, read the whole thing at once, address the Martha-housekeeping tasks, or focus on the Mary Bible-study. It’s truly versatile, fantastic and flexible. Homemaking shouldn’t be this daunting thing and it doesn’t have to be, but we also need to keep our priorities and faith in order.

Thank you to Tyndale Publishers for a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.

Sarah Mae, listed as one of Christian Broadcasting Network’s “Six Women Leaders to Follow on Twitter,” is an influential Christian blogger, conference cohost, and coauthor with Sally Clarkson of the bestselling book, Desperate: Hope for the Mom Who Needs to Breathe.

Because of her drive to inspire women to hold fast to Jesus and to live by faith, Sarah Mae has cultivated blogs and websites that have encouraged thousands of women all over the world. She is the author of several bestselling e-books, a contributing writer to DaySpring’s (in)courage, and the founder and cohost of Allume, a national Christian women’s blogging conference that has sold out each year.

Those are her street creds.

In her everyday life, she is a wife who passionately supports her husband, even on the days when he drives her crazy (and, don’t you know, she drives him crazy sometimes, too), a mom to three of her favorite people whom she homeschools, and a piecrust botcher. Oh yes, she bakes, but it’s never pretty.

She makes her home in the beautiful Amish countryside of Pennsylvania where she often ponders what life would be like if she actually finished all the laundry.

You can find her at sarahmae.com.