Archives for July 2013

Twitterature July 2013

July 15, 2013 by Amy 11 Comments

I’m once again joining with Modern Mrs. Darcy for her monthly link-up for books called Twitterature. The premise of this link-up is to share short, casual reviews of books we’ve been reading.

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Alright so this month’s list is long but I had so many books in-flight and then we went on vacation. I finished 4 there and then plowed through a few more. Let’s get to it!

Beautiful Outlaw

Beautiful Outlaw is a fantastic read about the personality of Jesus. You’ll have to read my post Where was Jesus? to grasp the full impact this book prompted. This is one of those books that will go down in the “Changed my Life” category.

Just Lead!

Although I’m not a female leader in the church, I found Just Lead! to be applicable as a woman in a male-dominated field. Highly recommend to any working woman.

The Getaway Car: A Practical Memoir About Writing and Life

The Getaway Car is my second memoir from a writer and I loved this one too. Lots of great advice written with authenticity that has me wanting to complete a second read.

Start

I didn’t find Start’s message to be much different than Jon’s previous book Quitter. It was good but if you’ve read Quitter, I’m just not sure you should rush to read Start. However, if you enjoy Jon’s humorous writing like me, you might enjoy the read anyway.

Unblogger: Discovering the Power of Story in a “How-to” World

Unblogger is a nice, short call for bloggers to be good characters in life.

Prototype

The author and I went to the same church for a time when I was a teenager and even though we never really met, I still felt a sort of kinship to him while reading. A lot of our experiences were the same and his vernacular and such was so familiar, there was an instant comfort. Jonathan is a skilled writer and story teller and while parts of Prototype were moving and enlightening, others felt like we had drifted too far down a rabbit hole. Still, I call this one a must-read.

The Plot Skeleton, Creating Extraordinary Characters and Point of View: Writing Lessons from the Front

I’m including these three together as they’re meant to be read together and they’re all pretty short. If you have any interest at all in writing fiction, check these out. I know this is kind of a “duh” but I’ve found reading non-fiction by fiction authors to be outstanding. Two out of 3 of these are free for Kindle so writers, pick them up!

A Little Salty to Cut the Sweet

I’ve been a faithful reader of Sophie’s blog BooMama for quite some time so her memoir of Southern stories was an absolute delight to read.

Whew, what a month. My reading has slowed as we’ve been back from vacation and working really hard to get the kids’ rooms back in order since the water leak last month—sharing more on that this week. What books have you read recently you’d recommend?

Old School Blogging: List of Fives

July 12, 2013 by Amy 7 Comments

I’ve been wanting to join this Old School Blogging link-up but just haven’t been able to make the timing work. I mean, who doesn’t love a good meme?

OK, fine, some people hate them but since I’ve been blogging since 2002, it brings back fond memories of the early days. And we all know I’ve gotten a little sentimental in my old age so I’m going for it.

If you have no idea what a meme is, it’s basically where everyone answers the same questions and then makes other people do it too.

This month’s meme is called a List of Fives where you share a few lists of five things about you.

List of Fives Meme

Five Things I Have a Passion For

Jesus. Ok, so I gave a Sunday School answer on the first question. I can’t help it. I really do feel passionate about knowing Him!
Reading. I’ve realized lately just how much of a reader I am. I read someone’s blog recently which said they were reading their first book in 10 years and I like, couldn’t breathe. I can’t imagine not having at least 2 books going at a time, much less waiting TEN YEARS for the next one.
Writing. If you would have told me I’d list this 20 years ago I would have laughed in your face but it turns out I really do like writing. I’m currently in a phase of learning about fiction writing and it’s so much fun!
Photography. I’m not so much passionate about doing it all just right but I am passionate about capturing moments in photos. Sometimes I feel like if you don’t get a picture of it, it didn’t happen.
Family and Home. I’m listing this one together because I don’t know how else to say. Homemaking, maybe? My heart is passionate about making our house a home, knowing my kids better and raising them and strengthening my marriage.

Five Things I Would Like to do Before I Die

Be a grandmother. I know that’s kind of weird but I already think about Emma and Lexi being parents and how much fun that will be!
Publish a book. OK, so I have Entangled and I’ve technically written a novel but I’d love to publish a book with a publisher.
I’m bailing on this one. I just don’t get into bucket lists. I think I’d sum this one up but saying I want to complete the good works God has for me.

Five Things I Say A Lot

Stop it. Not as in kids quit doing that, but as in shut up, you’re kidding me. I say that when someone says something unbelievable.
Some form of put that back, pick that up, clean that up.
Oh my gosh. I say it all the time for all sorts of things.
What do you want to eat? All the time.
Emma! Lexi! Scott! I’m always trying to get attention from one of them.

Five Books and/or Magazines I Have Read Lately

Point of View by Angela Hunt
Creating Extraordinary Characters by Angela Hunt
The Plot Skeleton by Angela Hunt
Prototype by Jonathan Martin
A Little Salty to Cut the Sweet by Sophie Hudson

Five Favorite Movies (maybe you’ve seen them Five times…)

I’m so not good at movies. It is rare I watch a movie more than once.

You’ve Got Mail is my all-time favorite movie
The Proposal (or most Sandra Bullock movies)
So lame, but I do love Fast and Furious
Breaking Dawn. Don’t hate me. They finally got it right with the last one.
17 Again. It’s Zac Efron and I could watch it a billion times. What else do you want from me?

Five Places I Would Love to Travel

London
Scotland
Bora Bora
Spain
Hawaii

Five People I Invite to do this Meme

Stitch Fix #6

July 11, 2013 by Amy 21 Comments

It’s been about 6 weeks since my last Stitch Fix.

For those just checking in, with Stitch Fix you pay a personal stylist $20 to send you 5 hand-picked items. You then have 3 days to decide which to keep, if any. If you do keep any, your $20 styling fee goes towards your purchase.

A paid return envelope makes it super easy to return any items but you do lose your $20 if you choose to send it all back.

I felt like this was a great fix but unfortunately when I splurged on the jeans and necklace on Fix #5, I used up all my credits. We’ll have to be really blown away by these to keep them!

Red Printed Flutter Blouse

Well, I just love this shirt. There’s not really anything I don’t like about it and I can definitely see it in heavy rotation in my shirt-shorts-sandals summer uniform. My only concern is the length. Is it long enough?

Lace Button Up Tank/Bead Necklace

This white lace shirt was pretty, it fit perfectly but there just wasn’t a wow factor there for me.

I popped on the necklace from the fix. It’s pretty but I don’t think that I’d wear the style or color.

Embroidered Pink Cardigan

I almost didn’t even try on this cardigan. It seemed too cutesy for my taste, it’s small and I’m not a huge fan of the color combination or print. It did look a ton better on but this definitely didn’t wow me either.

Green Pin-Tuck Blouse

If you know me, you know I love green. I love the color, the necklace, the sleeves, the length—it’s a winner for me.

The green and red blouses are definite contenders as keepers but the price tag at $45 a piece is holding me back. Since I’ve already paid my styling fee, I will probably keep at least one since I like them so much.

You guys totally changed my mind on my last fix and you guys were RIGHT. I wear both the necklace and jeans all the time. So, should I keep both blouses? If I pick only one, which should it be?

Check out my other fixes here:

If you’d like to try out Stitch Fix, I get $25 credit to keep having fun with these Stitch Fix posts. Thanks for supporting the site!

What I Wore Wednesday 07.10.2013

July 10, 2013 by Amy 7 Comments

It’s Wednesday when I share my outfits from the week.

I pair my outfits with inspirational photos. Read more about that here.

Email and RSS readers need to click over to the site to see the inspirational photos.

This week I’m in total uniform mode: shirt, shorts and sandals. In fact, now that I look back, I’m wearing the exact same sandals in every picture. Whoops!

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Linked with:

The Pleated Poppy’s What I Wore Wednesday

Sunday Style at Plane Pretty

What we Wore at Suburbs Mama

5 Summer Beauty Tips

July 9, 2013 by Amy 2 Comments

I’m so happy to have Cyndi at my blog today. Cyndi blogs about fashion and beauty for ladies over 40. But let me tell you, I’m just in my early 30’s (at least for another week) and adore her style and never miss a post. You’ll love her fashion sense, her writing style and HER!

Hi! I’m Cyndi and I blog at Walking in Grace & Beauty. I’m so excited to be guest posting for Amy today!

I spend a lot of time over at my blog talking about fashion & beauty so I thought today I’d share my 5 Summer Beauty tips with you.

Summer is here! We all spend a lot of time outside but hot weather can do a number on our skin. It’s important to take some extra precautions to keep our skin looking it’s best.

Here are 5 Summer Beauty Tips that will help you battle the season’s elements:

1. Exfoliate- It’s important to remove all those dead skin cells. I usually exfoliate my skin once a week. I use a coconut oil body scrub that I make at home. It’s easy and will leave your skin feeling smooth! If you’d like to see how I make it, go here.

2. Moisturize-Exfoliating is important to remove dead skin cells but then we need to moisturize to infuse skin with moisture and protect against the sun and other elements. One of the best ways I’ve found to keep my skin looking great is to use coconut oil. I keep a jar in my bathroom. Coconut oil contains fats that moisturize and smooth your skin without leaving it sticky or feeling oily.

3. Hydrate-This is one of those things we all know but drinking plenty of water and eating foods with a high water content help keep our skin looking great. Steer clear of foods with a high salt intake and too much caffeine which dehydrates our bodies.

4. Use a Self Tanner-We all want to have a healthy glow in the summer but tanning beds and hours in the sun will damage our skin. I use Sun Labs Self Tanning Lotion {Disclosure: This is an affiliate link}. This is the BEST tanning lotion! I use it every 3 or 4 days to keep a healthy glow.

5. Inner Beauty-Lastly, I believe beauty begins on the inside. For many of us, summer means we have a little more relaxed schedule but don’t forget to spend time in God’s word every day. As we begin to look more like Christ, our true beauty will shine! This summer I’m doing this study, Meet Jesus. It’s a 13 week bible study on the book of John.

These are my 5 Beauty Tips to help you look your best this summer! Do you have any other tips to keep your skin looking it’s best?

Thank you Amy for letting me introduce myself to your readers! Have a blessed day!

Potato Candy – Published!

July 8, 2013 by Amy 6 Comments

I have some very fun news this Monday morning!

The potato candy recipe I posted has been published in the August 2013 edition of LifeWay’s HomeLife magazine!

I received my copies this weekend. It was so fun to see our family’s picture, a blurb about Mom making it when I was home, a great new picture of the candy and of course, the familiar recipe in the “From Your Kitchen” section, which includes all gluten-free recipes this month.

The magazine is jam-packed with excellent articles to help you raise a Christian family. I was especially excited to see an article from Kristen Welch. If you’ve been around here long, you’ll know she blogs over at We Are That Family and runs The Mercy House Kenya.

Your local church may stock this magazine or you can order it directly online.

To celebrate, I wanted to give away a summer bundle of HomeLife which includes the June, July and August editions featuring articles from folks like BooMama, Travis Cottrell, Mandisa and David Platt.

Just leave a comment telling me your favorite dessert and I’ll pick a winner on Friday!

Five Minute Friday: Beautiful

July 5, 2013 by Amy 12 Comments

We had no solid plans for July 4th yesterday. Scott disappeared for a few hours in the morning for a bike ride and he was off to work that evening. I just couldn’t get it together enough to organize a cookout for lunch.

I drove to Starbucks for breakfast and saw a local parade getting ready to take off. When I got home, no one wanted to go.

No one wanted to go for fireworks that night. I couldn’t even garner interest in riding to go sparklers.

Mid-morning I read about the canon firing downtown. I asked if the girls wanted to go. Lexi said no and Emma asked me if I wanted to go. I said I’m fine either way.

But do you want to go?

I don’t care, I said, I’ll go if you want to go.

But do you WANT to go?

If you guys weren’t here, no, I probably wouldn’t go.

So you wouldn’t be disappointed if we didn’t go? she asked.

No, I won’t be disappointed.

Then I don’t want to go.

A beautiful little heart is growing in that one.

Way more beautiful than any firework we might have missed.

Linked to Five Minute Friday

Cirque du Soleil Quidam Review

July 4, 2013 by Amy 1 Comment

I’ve professed my love for Cirque du Soleil since first seeing Quidam a few years ago in Charlotte. I’ve seen a couple shows since but after returning to Quidam last night, I remembered why I fell so hard for the shows in the first place.

Quidam is the quintessential Cirque du Soleil show only rivaled by the water show “O” that I saw in Las Vegas. While there is a loose storyline of a girl experiencing her imagination through a magic hat, the main acts shine. From six men hanging only by ropes twirling at break-neck speeds in sync to juggling acts that leave your mouth hanging open, Quidam astounds.

I admit I was a tad worried the girls would be completely lost and bored. I couldn’t have been more wrong. Seeing the show through my girls’ eyes was my favorite part of the night.

Emma would see someone do something amazing and look up at me to see my reaction. Our eyes would meet as in, “Yes, I saw that, and I thought it was amazing too!”

A few times I caught her clapping unprompted by me, or anyone else in the audience.

Lexi, who of course didn’t even want to go, stubbornly said she liked it during break but professed by the end that she “absolutely loved it.”

Even Scott, who admittedly is allergic to any cultural events, said that although the “distractions in between didn’t do anything for me, the main acts were amazing.”

A special part of last night was sitting in front of a little boy, about 3, who insisted on commentating the entire thing. The show would move into a dance or transition that was meant to be very moody and artsy and he would say things like:

“They are running like dogs.”

“That person looks naked.”

“That sounds like a helicopter.”

“He is funny.”

It was the most innocent, straight-forward, tell-it-like-it-is commentating I’ve ever heard.

We had a fantastic time as a family and I’d highly recommend it for all ages.

You can still get the family ticket pricing. No promo code is required. Just use this link or click on the image below.

I was provided 4 tickets in exchange for this review. All opinions are my own.