Muffins and Mayhem!!!

Just finished reading Muffins and Mayhem: Recipes for a Happy (if Disorderly) Life by Suzanne Beecher (creator of *DearReader.com) and I highly recommend it.  Part memoir, part cookbook, Suzanne shares some of her life experiences and lessons learned in this delightful book.  Suzanne speaks to the reader candidly about life and it's ups and downs in a way we can all relate to.  With a few tears and lots of laughs, this book is a joy to read!  Check out the Muffins and Mayhem website for more information.

*DearReader.com is a site you need to check out.  I may have blogged about it before ~ it's great.  You can choose different "book clubs" and receive a daily excerpt of the featured book that week.  Everyday Suzanne posts something on the e-mail as well.  Might be a new recipe, a thought, reader mail, etc.  I LOVE getting daily book excerpts and finding out about new authors, etc.  Suzanne also has a feature known as AuthorBuzz that introduces you to 4-6 authors not featured on the daily read.  I cannot tell you how much I enjoy it.  Some weeks I don't look at any of the books, but most times I do.  I've discovered authors that have become my favorite to read on AuthorBuzz.   One of the best parts of the site though ~ you might be lucky enough to be the winner of a batch of Suzanne's famous Chocolate Chip Cookies!!!!!

It's very simple.  Nothing to buy, no requirements to fulfill, no surveys, etc.  Just great information.  Check it out!

Happy Reading,

WOW

If you read my last post, I introduced you to an author ~ Denise Hildreth Jones.  Just about 15 minutes after I posted about her, I received another authors newsletter on my e-mail.  The first entry on her newsletter read. . . "join me tomorrow night at The Book Exchange in Marietta, GA along with Maryann McFadden and Denise Hildreth. . . "   Here in the south, we call that a God Thang!!! 

I did a quick search to find out where the bookstore was and decided I could get there in about an hour.  So after work today I took off for Marietta!  Met a dear friend there who loves books as much as I do.  

The Book Exchange folks were great hostesses and the authors were delightful.  If you live in the Atlanta area I highly recommend you visit The Book Exchange.  

I came home with signed copies of the authors newest books, and felt like I made lots of new friends, too.

I told you about Denise Hildreth in my previous post.  Her newest book is Hurricanes in Paradise.   Nichole Seitz's new book is Saving Cicadas.  This is her fourth novel and she does all her own beautiful artwork for the covers.  Maryann McFadden's newest is So Happy Together, set in Cape Cod.  Her first novel, The Richest Season is set in Pawleys Island, SC.  All three authors were informative, honest and a delight to talk with and listen to.  Their writing comes from their hearts and is a gift to us.  Check them out by clicking on their names and also check out The Book Exchange.

Happy Reading!

Great Blog Find

There are times when I happen upon a blog through an e-mail or another blog, etc. and try to share.  Denise Hildreth Jones is one I found today through dearreader.com (another story).  Anyway, I've read some of Denise's book and loved them.  She has a new one out that I look forward to reading.  I've read . . .  

I highly recommend them.  Her new book is Hurricanes In Paradise.  Just click on the title to read about it.  

She is also a bible study teacher in her hometown of Franklin, TN.  I will also be checking that out.  I spent some time on her blog reading archives and learning what I could about her.  I highly recommend her blog and books to you.  Here is a post that really spoke to me today, and I hope it does you, too.  I  hope she forgives me for copying part of it and sharing it with you (I will tell her)!

. . .There is that weaned child place. The place of rest and peace. Where it can sit right beside it’s mother and never have to react in desperation for what it’s mother has. Because it knows that it will have whatever it needs. I’m been sitting in the passage in Psalms for over a week now. Psalms 131:2 ” But I have stilled and quieted my soul; like a weaned child with its mother, like a weaned child is my soul within me.”

Not always easy is it? Sometimes we’re far more like the flailing child. Desperate. Panicked. Searching. Scared. Life is uncertain. Jobs are scarce. Money is tight. Marriage is hanging by a thread. Children are wreaking havoc on your nerves. Depression tightens like a noose and we flail. We react in panic. As if we will get more if we do. As if the answers will come quicker or sound different.

Yet there is a place of rest for the soul…a quiet confidence in our sustenance provider that removes the need for flailing. That tells us we can rest in the fact that He will supply all of our needs. Not one thing that we have need of will He not supply. Whether it is direction, provision, or simply peace in the fact that things are still unanswered. And in the middle of it all can be an inexpressible joy.. . . originally posted February 8, 2010 on denisehildreth.com.

Please take the time to read her post at in it's entirety HERE and I hope it blesses you like it blessed me!

Oil reaches Okaloosa Islands

A friend shared this story with me tonight (click on the link below text to read it). The Destin area is beautiful and one of our favorite vacation spots. This is of course one of many tragic stories related to the oil spill.

Lots of prayers need to be sent up. The people that live and work in the affected areas, the business owners in the affected areas, our environment, and as unpolitically correct as it might be ~ BP, too. If they did not repair something or were truly negligent in what happened, then they will have to make amends.

I cannot imagine that they are not affected by the loss of life and environmental damage that has been done.

Oil reaches Okaloosa Islands beaches; assessment teams en route okaloosa, oil, teams - News - TheDestinLog.com

Fun summer giveaway

Catching Fireflies is hosting a great summer giveaway!  Check it out HERE.  While you are visiting their site, check out their unique gift selection.  And if you happen to win the contest, let me know!!!

 

Fun Pic Game

This is a fun game!  Go into your "My Pictures" or "Pictures" file.  Go to the 8th folder and choose the 8th photo…post it. . . then tell the story.

This is a picture I scanned recently to send to the girl on the right in the pic!  It is a picture of my brother, me and my parent's best friend's daughter, Sandy.  Bobby and Sandy are the same age and I think I was about 12-18 months in this picture, they were like family and still are.  We moved away from Dallas in 1971 when I was only 12 years old and I miss them terribly to this day.  I just got to see Sandy in Dallas in March because her mom passed away.  Still like family!  What a great 8th folder, 8th picture to find!