Amy J. Bennett

What I Wore Wednesday 12.11.2013

December 11, 2013 by Amy 4 Comments

Happy Hump Day, friends! Can you believe we’re only 2 weeks away from Christmas? Eek!

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

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

I wore this for the Sole Hope party on Friday night. Lexi thinks I look like a picnic table. I feel a little like my dad in his collared shirts and sweaters. But still, I love this outfit and loved that it was 75 degrees and I could pull off capris and flats.

I wore this to church on Sunday. I woke up EXHAUSTED after the Sole Hope parties Thursday and Friday and then staying up so late to finish Gone with the Wind. I resorted to my usual jeans, boots, sweater winter uniform and threw on the scarf and earrings so I looked a little put together. I thought of this exact little bird on my Pinterest board when I picked the black and white scarf. The picture is not a perfect color match, but this truly inspired this outfit.

I wore this as a work from home day. I ran out to get Emma some dress shoes and got her to dance but other than that, was at home.

Can I tell you a sad story about these pants that I was oh-so-excited to get at Allume? One of my vitamins exploded in the pocket and the jeans STINK of fish oil. It’s disgusting and I usually only wear these at home now so I don’t stink up a joint. I’ve tried lemon juice and washed them several times. The smell is slowly going away, but I just can’t make myself get rid of them. I even cut out the bottom of the pocket where the pill was 🙁

Let’s connect! Like AmyJBennett on Facebook. Follow me on Pinterest (where I post these inspirational pictures),Instagram (where you might sneak an early peek of an outfit) orTwitter.

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Facebook Fans, You’re Probably Missing Out

December 10, 2013 by Amy 1 Comment

If my stats are any indication, many of you are relying on the Facebook page to alert you to new posts here. If that’s the case, I have some sad news. Facebook is consistently and strategically hiding each post from up to 90% of you. It’s worse than it’s ever been and expected to continue!

This is true for ANY Facebook page you like!

The Problem

Like any other business, Facebook wants to make money. They’re purposely limiting who sees posts from Facebook pages and then forcing the company (blogger) to pay for their posts to show up in their fans’ News Feeds. Even when posts are highly engaging (which normally makes it show up more), only 30% of you are seeing even those posts. You’re missing out on some great conversation and you don’t even know it!

Here’s what I really hate about this: when I pay to promote a post, it automatically turns a post into an ad. I feel like I’m spamming you, and you feel spammed (just me?) If it were like a traditional subscription service where the consumer pays for the content (think magazines), then you better believe I’d be honored and willing to dole content out! While I’m not saying I feel like the content here is worth paying money for, I am saying that this model Facebook set up does not work well for bloggers.

I don’t mind spending money to promote posts to make sure you’re getting the content you asked for (you’ll see Sponsored underneath), but I can’t do that consistently either.

Below I have 3 alternate, automated ways you can be sure you don’t miss a post. I hope this helps you not just with this blog but others too.

Option 1: Get Notifications on Facebook

If you really want to continue using Facebook to hop over here, choosing to “Show in News Feed” is not enough action (since they’re not actually doing that as you requested). You need to turn notifications on. You can do that by going to the Facebook page, click on Liked so the drop-down menu appears, and then select Get Notifications.

When you do this, you’ll get a notification the second I post something new to the Facebook page.

I’ll be honest on this option: if you do set notifications on for too many blogs, your notifications are going to drive you a little bonkers. Options 2 or 3 might be better.

Option 2: Subscribe via a Feed Reader

If you are savvy enough to know what an RSS feed is, this is probably a moot point, but you can use sites like Feedly.com or Bloglovin.com to subscribe to this site’s RSS feed. I always compare it to a blog-only email inbox.

The downside to feed readers is you have to remember to visit the feed reader to read all the posts. The good news is when you eventually revisit it, ALL the posts will be there waiting in sequential order for you. This is actually my preferred method of keeping up with blogs.

I find that RSS subscriptions are a little too technical for some, so Option 3 is probably your best bet.

Option 3: Get an Email

The best way to be sure you’re getting alerted to all the posts is to have it delivered to your email inbox. For this site, an email is delivered around 7am with the previous day’s post. If you want to sign up: go here.

This option is great since most people keep a consistent eye on their email and you have total control about comes in and what doesn’t. If you need a good way to organize incoming emails from your favorite bloggers, check out my post on how to use filters to manage your inbox.

Alright, that’s my PSA for the day. If you are reading this at all, I appreciate you so much! You just have no idea how much I think of you!

If you start seeing some Sponsored posts on Facebook, please don’t feel spammed. My goal is to get the posts out to people who have already stated an interest in reading content here. I’m trying to help!

Share this post with your friends, readers or anyone else that might benefit. Facebook is NOT being nice but hopefully with these options, we can still connect with the content we want.

Sole Hope Shoe Cutting Party

December 9, 2013 by Amy 8 Comments

How to Host a Sole Hope Shoe Cutting Party

If you remember from mid-November, I shared Sole Hope and invited everyone to my house for a shoe cutting party. Well, this past weekend was the big day!

For a quick refresher, Sole Hope provides handmade shoes to children in Uganda to help prevent foot-borne diseases. Our job was to cut the material for the shoes based on templates they give in a kit. They send the assembled materials to Uganda and pay local shoemakers a fair wage to make the shoes.

I thought our party ended up being a smashing hit and I’m so glad several people have expressed interest in holding parties of their own. I wanted to share how ours went and give some tips to new hosts.

Let’s get to it!

Preparing for the Party

Beforehand, I had the impression that we could just show up with some jeans and scissors and cut some shoes, but there’s actually several things you need to gather and do before the party.

Materials

Here’s what you’ll need with some extra tips and detail the kit booklet didn’t cover.

Jeans – Take jean donations from those not able to attend and have attendees bring some as well. Each average pair of jeans gets about 4-5 pairs of shoes from it. You really don’t need as many jeans as you think. We had a TON of leftover jean material.
Fabric scissors – I can’t stress enough that these need to be quality scissors. Jeans are not easy to cut. Find a local seamstress and see if you can borrow some for the night. I’m lucky that my mom has a drapery business and had a workroom full of massive scissors. I’d say for our size party we needed 5-6 pairs.
Pinking shears – These are those zig-zag scissors. I called Walmart and asked them if they had any and the lady said, “You want some PINK SHOES??” Needless to say, she came back online a few minutes later and said they didn’t sell them. I found them at the same store the next day. These are NOT cheap. Borrow what you can. We got away with only 2 pairs.
Safety pins – You need large safety pins but you don’t need too many. You’ll need one safety pin per pair of shoes. From what I could tell, we made about 1-2 pair of shoes per hour per person.
Large ziploc bags – You’ll need 1 bag for every 5 pairs of shoes.
Empty plastic jugs – Ask a large family or two to save their milk jugs for a week or two. You’ll need them to cut a half moon out for the heel. Depending on how the plastic is prepared, you could get 4-5 pairs of shoes per jug.
Quilter’s cotton – So as many of us learned for the first time, quilter’s cotton is basically just 100% cotton. The quilter’s cotton is cheaper because it’s plain. The cotton is used for the inside liner of the shoes. You can use jean material instead but we really, really enjoyed having pretty patterned cotton to work with and really, it’s not very expensive. Pro tip: buy light colors so you can see your pen marks from the template tracing.
Sharpies – You’ll need 5-7 Sharpie markers to trace templates on both the plastic and the jean material.
Pens – You’ll need 2-3 pens to trace onto the cotton.
Tables/chairs – If you’re hosting it at your church, you might be able to skip this one, but I had to borrow a few tables so we could be at my house.
Cardboard or plastic folders – You’ll get a paper template in your kit but you’ll need to make several more sets of the templates to be used at each station from either cardboard or plastic folders. I personally preferred the plastic folder templates.

Prepare the materials

If you have early jean donations, prepare your jeans to be used as material. Cut off the top of the jeans so only the legs are left. Then, cut down the pant leg at the seam. You should have a nice, rectangular-ish piece of jean material.

The kids loved destroying the jeans for us.

Prepare your plastic jugs. Cut around the top of the jug and outside along the handle. Then, cut close to the bottom so you’re left with the four sides. Then, cut down each corner so you should have 4 panels of plastic ready to be used.

Set up stations

There are lots of ways you could organize your party, but I found it easiest to separate the stations by material.

Station 1 had all the jean material. People there were responsible for tracing the template onto the jeans and cutting it out.

This station will need the jean material, fabric scissors, sharpies and templates.

We found that the jeans were the slowest moving station so it was better to have more people there than the others. We had 5-6 people working on jeans.

Station 2 was the quilter’s cotton.

The quilter’s cotton station seemed to require the most attention to detail and attract folks that were most comfortable around fabrics and pinking shears.

Fold the fabric over and you can cut two layers at once! Since you could cut twice as much at once and was thinner fabric, this station usually produced faster and only needed 2-3 people.

Station 3 was our plastic station. On one night, part of this station’s job was to prepare the jugs as described above but after that, this station simply traced and cut out the half moon shape for the heel patch. This station seemed to attract the men and kids. The template required here is simple and the plastic is easy to cut through.

Station 4 was the quality control and final assembly station.

For both parties, I handled this myself from my kitchen counter. My job was to make sure the material was cut as requested and then assemble a pair of shoes together with a safety pin.

Once you have 5 pairs of shoes, you put them in a bag and label them with the shoe size. You’ll need the safety pins, bags and sharpies at this station.

Finally, I’ll just say, as you can see, this doesn’t have to be super fancy. My house isn’t huge and I didn’t spend a lot of time decorating. You just need tabletops for people to be able to trace and cut. With kitchen counters, dining room tables and even the floor, almost anyone can make it work!

The Party

Finally! It was time to party! And surprise–we actually held two parties back-to-back!

solehope

Since our small group meets at our house on Thursdays, we decided to hold a cutting party during our regular small group meeting time the day before.

solehope

It was a great time to get my feet wet hosting and working out the kinks as well as introduce more people to Sole Hope and produce more shoes to send!

solehope

With everything set up, all that is needed once people arrive is a quick explanation of the stations and everyone seemed to have a natural fit of where they wanted to work.

Our small group completed 16 pairs and a few partials that I finished after the party that totaled 20. For Friday’s party, we completed 30. We had so much leftover material that I had my own little party and cut another 10 pairs while I watched Gone with the Wind (for the first time!) Saturday night.

So, I’m very happy to say we’re sending off 60 pairs of shoes!! Woo Hoo!!!

Skyler, Candie, Heather, Dani, Michele, Carla,
Tamara, Edwin and their 2 kids, Barb, Becky,
Jenn, Gracee, Emma and Lexi

Our small group totally forgot to do a group picture, but that’s the crowd from Friday night. Both groups are fantastic people I call family and friends! I’m a lucky gal!

If you spy the Sole Hope banner at the top of our group picture, I used some of the jean material and the sharpies to make it right before Friday night’s party. The photos are from the kit booklet. We just took the staples out of the booklet and then hung the separated pages right on the banner. So easy and fun!

Thank You!

Our parties absolutely could not have happened without the donations and help of so many people! They might kill me, but I really want to call out some people that made this possible:

Lara Beth provided bags and jeans and brought them to my house.
Jennifer mailed a box from Virginia and sent jeans, sharpies, bags, pins and a donation. It showed up just one itty bitty hour from the start of the first party. What timing!
My mom let us borrow her work scissors.
Phillip and Anita donated plastic jugs and got them to our church.
Holly donated plastic jugs and brought them to our church.
Jenny gathered all the plastic jugs at the church and brought them to the party.
Ken and JoAnn lent us their tables and scissors and donated fabric.
Heather brought us white chalk we used to mark on the darker fabric.
Dani bought quilter’s cotton.
Deb is sending a donation FROM CANADA with spare American dollars she had.
Dave prayed over our time and all the shoes.
Becky and Barb brought pinking shears and lots and lots of jeans.
Many of the participants brought bags, jeans, cotton fabric, and scissors and gave donations. It was coming in so fast I didn’t get it all written down.
Scott for running all my errands–he even went to the fabric store for me-and helping with all the set-up.
Everyone that attended and worked SO HARD!

As you can see, this was a group effort. To all of you that helped prepare and then those that attended, on behalf of myself, Sole Hope and the families in Uganda, THANK YOU!! I love thinking of those women sewing those shoes and then those toddlers walking around in the shoes! 60 of them!! That’s a lot of toddlers!

You absolutely can be a part! If you want to host your own party of any size, the first step is to buy a kit over at SoleHope.com. Please let me know of any other questions you might have!

Ultimately, I pray that these shoes would be a tool not just to bring physical healing, but be an opportunity to teach many about the love of Christ. When Dave in our small group prayed over the shoes, he was reminded of the verse that says how beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel. I pray that the feet of these little toddlers are covered with shoes so that one day that verse may be said of them—beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel! Their feet will be covered so they can know and then they can go. May it be so!

The Totally Terrible Tooth Fairy

December 5, 2013 by Amy 6 Comments

Emma at age 6 with her first lost tooth

I’m going to go ahead and spoil it for you—*I* am the Totally Terrible Tooth Fairy.

I play Santa with the best of them—cookies, carrots, different wrapping paper, the whole bit. I am a great Easter Bunny. Baskets and presents with chocolate and candy all wrapped up on Sunday morning. I even enjoy being Ellie our Elf. But the Tooth Fairy? I am an epic fail.

First off, my kids knew about the real identity of all of these characters by the time they lost their first tooth so my first fail is I didn’t even give them a chance to believe—even once—that a fairy with a wand was taking their teeth and leaving them money.

But even so, I played the part—or at least tried. But goodness, I am Totally Terrible.

The problem is two-fold.

One, I never have cash. Why have cash when your debit card is so much smaller and faster and documents all your spending for you? I don’t know. Maybe so you can be a more effective tooth fairy, that’s why.

Two, I cannot remember to do anything unless it’s in my phone. I have reminders for the trash, for the dentist, for the doctor, for the library and yes, to be the tooth fairy. But you have to remember to put in the reminder—and sometimes I fail at even that.

So, I have been known to leave a stack of quarters under their pillows.

I have been known to steal cash out of THEIR OWN WALLETS and stick it under their pillows in hopes that they don’t count ALL their money until I have a chance to replace it.

I have been known to forget for THREE NIGHTS to be the Tooth Fairy. Emma will not let me live that down and every single time someone loses a tooth, Emma’s all, “One time the Tooth Fairy forgot for THREE DAYS.” She says it with conviction and wide, round eyes directed right at me. Hmph.

All of this is known when Lexi loses a tooth last week at the Frozen premiere. She’s chomping away on popcorn and Reese’s pieces and leans over with a tooth in her hand, “My tooth! I lost a tooth!” The three of us run to the bathroom and rinse out her mouth and wrap up the tooth in paper towels. I stick it in my jacket pocket and all the anxiety starts about BEING THE TOOTH FAIRY. Remember, remember, remember,.

We do manage to remember to get the tooth out of my jacket and under her pillow that night. The next morning as we’re getting ready for school, I realize that yes, once again I have become the Totally Terrible Tooth Fairy and forgotten my duties.

So, the kids are milling around the living room and I remember I actually have a few dollars in my purse. I can still pull this off! So I slink over to my purse, slowly reach into my open wallet and sneak out a dollar bill. I don’t even look as to not draw attention to myself. I walk back to Lexi’s room, steal away her tooth wrapped in paper towels and tada! I have managed to pull this off.

I walk back in the kitchen, situate myself by leaning on the counter and as if it has just occurred to me and say, “Lexi! Have you checked to see if the Tooth Fairy came last night?”

She jumps up and says, “No!!” She runs back to her room and rummages around and I hear her starting to skip down the hall. “I got a Lincoln! Fiiivve dollars!” She skips into the living room and I’m thinking $5? How did she get $5?

“Really?! The Tooth Fairy gave you $5??” I am truly surprised because what did I do?? I suddenly remember a sole $5 I had and of course that is the one I silently snuck out of my wallet. *sigh* “Wow, that was really something!” And truly, The Totally Terrible Tooth Fairy, that was.

Oh, but it doesn’t stop there.

Emma lost her very last tooth on Monday. It’s been wiggly for weeks, but she will leave a loose tooth in there until it literally falls out on its own. She had an orthodontist appointment on Monday and they pulled it out for her.

Even though I’ve made a Totally Terrible Tooth Fairy, it was sad to see the end of that era come for her. It made me think of how she got her very first tooth at 4 months and all the times she cried getting in those molars and the time she threw a basketball at the wall in PE and it came back, hit her in the mouth and knocked out 3 loose teeth at once in 1st grade. (It’s ok to laugh, I do). And yes, I thought of that one time I forgot being the tooth fairy for THREE DAYS.

So, Emma puts her tooth under her pillow on Monday night and explains she wants Ellie our Elf to deliver the money for The Tooth Fairy. That’s perfect, that’s one less night I have to figure out how to be Ellie the Elf. And ya’ll, we remembered! Ellie was propped up on the pillow beside Emma, dutifully holding a few dollars—since it IS her last tooth.

I wake Emma up early Tuesday because I’m so proud we remembered. “Emma! Look! Ellie delivered your tooth money!” She wakes up with a big smile on her face. She’s always known Ellie and the Tooth Fairy are us but she still delights in it. I wistfully think of all those moments again and get a little sad we’re saying goodbye to this dance.

But I did it—I remembered the very last time and I’m going out on a high note. Maybe I’m not such a Totally Terrible Tooth Fairy after all!

A few minutes later, when I’m still internally patting myself on the back, we’re in the living room getting ready for school and Emma says, “Mommy, why did the Tooth Fairy leave my tooth under my pillow??”

*sigh*

So close, y’all. The Totally Terrible Tooth Fairy, indeed.

What I Wore Wednesday 12.04.2013

December 4, 2013 by Amy 3 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.

I bought this dress at a consignment sale a few weeks ago and I was so happy to find that I already had a cardigan and shoes to match. Looking at the pictures now, the black leggings aren’t my favorite thing ever with them. In any case, I wore this twice this week—once to Thanksgiving dinners and then to church. On Thanksgiving, I matched my first-ever-homemade cranberry dressing perfectly.

We are now in total full swing of Christmas. My cards have been sent, presents are getting wrapped, and we decorated gingerbread houses last night. How about you?

Let’s connect! Like AmyJBennett on Facebook. Follow me on Pinterest (where I post these inspirational pictures),Instagram (where you might sneak an early peek of an outfit) orTwitter.

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Consumerism, Christmas and #FairTuesday

December 3, 2013 by Amy 19 Comments

Ever since posting my Catching Fire post, my heart has been so heavy. I’m convicted of my materialistic mindset and our culture’s consumerism. It’s even more apparent this time of year. I read one statistic that said 11 billion dollars would be spent on Black Friday. Billion. I realize that much of Black Friday is actually wise spending. If you need something and it’s greatly discounted anyway, then go for it. But much of Black Friday isn’t wise spending. And much of our culture isn’t about buying what we need.

Please don’t feel condemnation from me here—I just want to share where my heart is. I’m guilty just as much as anyone. God has been dealing with me about this for years. If you’ve followed me for a few years, you’ve been through my Crazy Love moments, my Radical moments, my 7 moments, my blood:water belt moments. All of these have been steps of letting go of what I “need” and learning to give out of our excess.

I can’t say I have it mastered. I still buy things I don’t need and my kids are spoiled. But there’s been progress and this is a journey.

But lately, I feel convicted about the things we do buy and at what expense to others they come. Tsh’s post about chocolate before Halloween may have been the catalyst. She explained that much of the chocolate we buy is because of forced child labor. CHILDREN are working cocoa farms so *I* can enjoy my Reese’s cups and M&M’s. This is not a movie. It’s not pretend. It’s real children in real places being exploited for my personal benefit.

And it’s not just chocolate. It’s our coffee, our clothes, our shoes, our purses—so many things. And y’all, it makes my heart so, so much. My purchases are hurting God’s people. I don’t care if I never look them in the face or know a name. My purchases matter. We hold so much power in our hands as consumers and what is our power doing? Making slaves of others. There is no other way to say it. It’s not being dramatic. It’s not guilt-tripping anyone. That is the truth.

And so here I am so devastated and Christmas comes along. Our list is like anyone’s—full of all sorts of things. And hear me—I so believe in giving others gifts just as Christ is a gift to us. Christmas is a wonderful time to remember what Christ did for us and a chance to show our loved ones how much we care. But are we hurting others far away in an attempt to show love to those close to us?

So here I go, it’s Christmas season. Tsh posted her ethical shopping guide and today is #FairTuesday where it’s encouraged to to buy ethical, fair trade items. I’m excited.

But guys? I don’t know how else to say it. Very, very little of what’s out there are viable options to give to our family members.

Most of what you’ll find are scarves, jewelry, tote bags and T-shirts. While I LOVE most of that stuff, my father-in-law doesn’t. My male cousins don’t. My kids don’t. My aunt doesn’t. Heck, even I am at my limit of scarves and tote bags.

The big companies that DO offer things that are ethical and interesting to them are so overpriced that there’s no way we could afford Christmas!

I kind of threw my hands up this weekend and concluded that our culture is just simply not there. We have put ourselves in such a terrible predicament that even when we want to buy ethically, the options are just too slim or expensive.

This morning though, my heart was just aching as I looked over the options again. Lord, what am I supposed to do? I was reading over at FairTuesday.com and they are simply asking for one—ONE—gift to be bought ethically and explain how much of a good difference that makes. One bracelet can provide clean water for TWO MONTHS in Guatemala. One dress can send a child to school for an entire month in India. So this is how God answered me: Bring me your fishes and loaves and I will make much of it. From five fish and two loaves, I fed 5,000. I can do much with your small obedience.

I cannot buy every single gift and everything I need like I want, but I can buy something and God can make much of it. God is in the multiplying business and if I can just make one good purchase, he can multiply the affects far beyond what I can imagine. It won’t free all the slaves, but it might free one. And that matters–it matters so much.

So, I conclude urging myself and all of us to get informed. Understand at what expense your purchases come to others. I still don’t have a grasp on everything that is “bad” and what is “good.” But if we find something good, even if the change is small, do it and let God multiply.

A few resources I’ve found are:

The Art of Simple Ethical Shopping Guide
FairTuesday.com
TOMS Marketplace

Please, I’m just learning–if you have resources to share with me to learn more, do so and perhaps share this post so we can all learn together.

What I’m Into – November 2013

December 2, 2013 by Amy 9 Comments

November was a busy month of birthday parties capped off with Thanksgiving. I read a lot and watched Netflix with the family to decompress. I don’t have a ton of stuff to share but let’s get to it!

Online Shopping

I know this might be an odd thing to say I’m into, but I’ve definitely been into online shopping. Given today is Cyber Monday, I thought it worth mentioning. I bought all the girls birthday presents online and the only Black Friday shopping I did was some poinsettias from Lowe’s. The rest was done from the comfort of my office chair. Even when we did go out for a few presents this weekend, we found that there were better deals online. And who doesn’t love to have a bunch of boxes show up on your front porch?

If you don’t have an Amazon Prime account, we’ve found it pays for itself easily. Also, did you see they’re testing 30 minute deliveries with drones. I’d be into that.

A serious footnote: I’ve been wrestling with all of this consumerism this holiday season given this post I wrote about Catching Fire. I can’t seem to find my way through it yet and life marches on—we’re crossing our Christmas list off the only way we know for now. Maybe I’ll write more tomorrow on Fair Trade Tuesday.

Earthpaste Toothpaste

Soo…I never thought I’d be including this, but I really am into this natural toothpaste called Earthpaste. I got it as a free gift on one of the eBook bundles. It’s made out of clay and has no foaming agents. At first, I was completely turned off. But honestly, the more I use it, the more I prefer it to traditional toothpaste.

I don’t feel like my mouth gets as icky in between brushes, I feel like my breath is better and my friend Becky that uses it too said it’s really helped her teeth unlike any others she’d tried. I have it in the lemon flavor but it also comes in peppermint, wintergreen, cinnamon, and spearmint.

Mocha Brownies

Now let me give you a good reason to need toothpaste…Pioneer Woman’s mocha brownies. I’ve made these several times in the past, but again for Emma’s birthday this month after we were caked-out. It always gets rave reviews, but be ready for a serious sugar rush! As you can see, they’re more icing than brownies!

Christmas Music

We started decorating for Christmas before Thanksgiving so I’ve already been into Christmas music. I’m not one of those crazed Christmas music fans, but it doesn’t bother me to hear it early either. I found a few good lists on Spotify (FREE music!) that are perfect background music for the season.

Books

I didn’t read a ton, but I did manage to complete a few books. I admit, this month’s books are a little unfair. I read a few Advanced Reader’s Copies I got from Allume.

Restless – Jennie Allen’s book coming out in January is a next step from her book Anything. It’s an answer to those calls you have way down deep that there’s something more. I was underlining this one like crazy—something I only do when a book is one of my favorites.

Say Goodbye to Survival Mode – Crystal Paine’s book is another January release. If you’ve read Money Saving Mom for long, you know Crystal is like a productivity ninja. This book is all of her productivity secrets rolled together. I’ve learned so much from her over the years and I can’t imagine this wouldn’t motivate someone. She aims to stress less, sleep more and restore your passion. I highly recommend it.

If You Find Me – I read this YA fiction after reading a passing social media comment about it. It was ok but nothing to rave over. It had some sensitive subjects in it, but I was drawn to the theme of adoption. It wasn’t terrible, but I can’t say I highly recommend it either.

Speaking of books, I’m reading through Ann Voskamp’s Advent book The Greatest Gift his month and posting about it on the Facebook page. Join me there!

What have YOU been into this month?

Check out more What I’m Into posts over at Hopeful Leigh

Advent 2013

December 1, 2013 by Amy 2 Comments

Good morning and welcome to the Advent season. I introduced it in this post last week but wanted to remind you today I’ll be going through The Greatest Gift each day until Christmas on the Facebook page. I don’t know about you, but I need some accountability to stick to something like this and sharing just a few thoughts a day will help. I just posted Day 1:

Advent Day 1: Ann starts in Isaiah 11 talking about the promise of Jesus through David. “Out of the stump of David’s family will grow a shoot–yes, a new branch bearing fruit from the old root”

She reminds us that Christ comes small and quietly. “Christ comes small, the micro-macro-miracle who comes in the whisper and says, Seek Me.”

Love this reminder that while Jesus pursues us, he always gives us a choice and never demands of us. We have to seek him out in the quiet. This is my hope for this season–that I’m quiet and seeking and not too busy to miss moments with Him.

It’s not (ever) too late to start Advent. Pick up a Kindle copy of The Greatest Gift and join us on Facebook.