Book Club Exchange

Today my bookclub and I are blogging at BookingMama for her feature, Book Club Exchange. Please check it out here!

Review: The Lace Reader by Brunonia Barry

Towner Whitney, the self-confessed unreliable narrator, hails from a family of Salem women who can read the future in the patterns in lace, and who have guarded a history of secrets going back generations. Now the disappearance of two women is bringing Towner back home to Salem - and is bringing to light the shocking truth about the death of her twin sister.

I received this book from www.heylady.net a few months ago and have been anxious to read it after reading so much about it. Fortunately our book club chose to read it this month, so that gave me a chance to move it up my To-Read list!

At times I got confused during the story, it is mostly told from Towner's perspective, but not always. There is also quite a bit of foreshadowing in the story. But, otherwise this was a great read. For the record, I don't believe in fortune telling or witches or lace reading, but still, I found the storyline very fascinating. The storyline revolves around a lot of abuse both as a child and as an adult. As someone who used to work with victims of abuse, the author did a great job portraying their emotions and thoughts. The story grabbed me right away in the first 3 chapters, then there was kind of a lull in the story and then the author grabs you again in the last 100 pages of the book. The story got extremely intense and I could not put it down until the end. I was grateful that the author left the story with a hopeful ending because by the end, I needed it. Even though this is fictional, I am curious to find out how much of this kind of fortune telling, etc really takes place in Salem. Maybe someday.

I gave this book 4 out of 5 stars and I look forward to reading Barry's next novel! Thanks to www.heylady.net for sending me this book in a giveaway and to my bookclub gals for reading it with me! Can't wait for the discussion!

Twilight Tea Winners!

I decided to surprise you and giveaway 2 samples of the Twilight Teas. The winners are:

Here are your random numbers:

4

1

Timestamp: 2010-01-19 14:09:55 UTC


april said...
Love your blog, Stacie!!! Count me in for the tea!!


Julie P. said...
I love tea and what a cute idea -- Twilight Tea! Sweet almond vanilla sounds amazing!Count me in please!

Thanks so much for entering. If you didn't win, check out http://www.twilighttea.us.com/ to order your own. My order came very quickly!

A Light in the Darkness

A couple weeks ago in my Bible study (http://www.bsfinternational.org/) we were studying John 8. While studying this, John 8:12 really jumped out at me....

Jesus said, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life."

As we dug deeper we learned that human life cannot flourish without light. And then I remembered a time in my life where I felt like I was surrounded by darkness, and I couldn't see a way out. I spent a lot of time in prayer and asking for guidance. As I continued to talk to Jesus and pray, I was able to see pieces of light through that darkness until eventually the darkness was gone. Jesus was that light for me and he can be for you too. Although I was in a place of great darkness at that time in my life, I kept Jesus with me and allowed Him to work me through that situation. He didn't let the darkness consume me even though I was surrounded by it. He led me out of that darkness because I believed that He could.

Faith is seeing light with the eyes of your heart, when the eyes of your body see only darkness ahead.

A Perfect Winter Recipe

Today my house is smelling so good because I have 2 crock pots full of my favorite soup cooking away. One crockpot is for us and one is for my dear friend who just had a baby. This soup is so easy to make and if you are going to make 1 batch, it is just as easy to make 2. I have had this cookbook for a long time, but it was my BFF Tammy who introduced this soup recipe to me and every time I make it, I think of her! This recipe is from Fix It and Forget It Cookbook by Dawn J. Ranck and Phyllis Pellman Good.

NO-FUSS POTATO SOUP

6 cups diced, peeled potatoes

5 cups water

2 cups diced onions (I only use a 1/2 cup)

1/2 cup diced celery

1/2 cup chopped carrots

1/4 cup butter or margarine (I use butter)

4 tsp chicken bouillon granules (I use 3 cubes)

2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

12-oz can evaporated milk

3 T chopped fresh parsley

8 oz cheddar or Colby cheese, shredded (This time I tried it with some Velveeta and it was less stringy)

Combine all ingredients except milk, parsley, and cheese in slow cooker.

Cover. Cook on High 7-8 hours, or until vegetables are tender.

Stir in milk and parsley. Stir in cheese until it melts.

Heat thoroughly.

I have also added cubed ham to this soup and it was delicious.

A Tea-riffic Giveaway!

I had the awesome opportunity to try out some new teas. I like tea and have a few favorites that I like to drink in the evening to "warm up" before I go to bed. When I heard that Luxe Teas were promoting a new Twilight Series of teas, I just had to check them out.

Welcome to Twilight Tea. Experience an exquisite tea blend selection to satiate your Twilight thirst cravings. With Twilight Tea, LUXE Tea founder, Sherry Hsieh, combines her mastery of the luxury tea world with her passion for the Twilight drama series.

In honor of the Twilight Series of books, they sent me 3 kinds to try: Bite Me Strawberry Seduction, Cullen's English Breakfast Tea, and New Moon Red. I loved all three, but my absolute favorite was the Bite Me Strawberry Seduction. The strawberry flavor hits you first with the scent and then the strawberry flavor satisfies you all the way to the last drop. I even went and ordered my own box of Bite Me Strawberry Seduction off of the website http://www.twilighttea.us.com/ . Forget the coffee, this is my new night-time beverage. To find out more about the Twilight Teas, or the Luxe Teas, check out the Twilight website or http://www.luxetea.com/.

Luxe Tea has many other kinds of tea to choose from. These particular teas come in a silken tea bag, but they also offer loose teas. I am also interested in trying their Sweet Almond Vanilla Tea. Both the Strawberry Seduction and the New Moon Red are decaffeinated, which is nice.

I have a set of the 3 Twilight Teas to giveaway to one of you. If you would like to win please leave a comment with an email address. The contest will run until 11:59 PM on Monday, January 18, 2010. I will draw the winner on Tuesday, January 19, 2010 using random.org.

Luxe Teas provided me with sample to try as well as to giveaway. No other compensation was provided. This is my honest opinion of a product review.

5 Years Ago

It was 5 years ago right now that I was in labor. My epidural had worn off or gotten loose and I was in major pain. But all that pain disappeared at 3:58 PM when our beautiful girl was born. She has been such a light in our family these last 5 years. When we are in the house, she can either be heard giggling or singing. She loves her big brothers and wants to be with them all the time (unfortunately they don't always want her with them) and is definately a Daddy's girl and has been since day 1! She is so excited to be 5. One day as we began talking about her birthday coming up, she realized that she was going to be 5 and stated that now she could go to Kindergarten. I had to explain to a very disappointed little girl, that she can't go to kindergarten until school starts again after the summer. Even though she will be 5, she has to finish out preschool first. She began reading on her own this year and I can frequently find her sitting and reading a book. Yesterday, I took her to Build-A-Bear for the 1st time. When she was born, her brothers gave her a bunny from Build-A-Bear that they had picked out and stuffed and named. That was their gift to their new baby sister. But, she had never been there before. So, she got to pick out her very own "friend" yesterday. We had a blast spending the day together. At the end of our day, she leaned over and said "Mommy, I love you"! This morning she asked me, "Mommy, now that I am 5, do I get to wear make up?" Oh my, 5 going on 15! She is going to keep me hopping over the next several years, but I am so lucky to be her mommy!