Project52: Week 2

Since I neglected to take a photo of my handsome Buddy after his hair cut last week, I figured this week he would be in the spotlight for Week 2. He plays basketball and they aren’t having the greatest year, but he has a really wonderful and encouraging coach. When all the other coaches are out of their seat, yelling at their kids, our shining example of a coach never gets upset, never raises his voice, and ALWAYS has something nice to say.So, here’s Buddy in action today:

“Getcha head in the game…getcha, getcha, getcha, getcha head in the game”

He’s number 1 in my heart and on his uniform

Defeat is never an easy thing

What’s been going on this week in your life in photos? Head over to Life as a CEO and link up!

Pookster and the Practically Perfect Pickle and Pookster and the Unloose Tooth by Rhonda Funk Review & Giveaway

Pookster and the Practically Perfect Pickle

by Rhonda Funk
Illustrated by Eric Kieninger
ISBN-13: 978-1935265405
Publisher: Fish Pond Kids

About:

Pookster thinks that pickles are a wonderful treat-they are nice and crunchy, sort of sour and nearly perfect, (other than they're a vegetable and look like they're covered in frog skin!) Never-the-less, she is very protective of her pickles. So when her brother Bubs brings his toy soldiers to the table during her pickle eating break, she thinks they are there to swipe her green treat and take it to their leader. Planning for the battle of Kosher Dills, Pookster assumes the worst, and does what any normal little girl would do...however, Pookster's choice of sweet or sour words will mean the difference between keeping her pickle…or losing it to Mommy forces!

Poor Bubs, caught in the crossfire is stunned at her response! After all, he was just playing soldiers! Pookster decides she should tattle on her big brother, but Mom has already seen the whole thing. Pookster is about to learn a valuable lesson when it comes to her Pickle Protection Program, and how a pickle can disappear, just like that!

This silly story about an over-protective pickle eater teaches a valuable lesson on kindness and how our sweet words glorify God, but our sour words hurt people.

Pookster and the Unloose Tooth

by Rhonda Funk
Illustrated by Eric Kieninger
ISBN-13: 978-1935265405
Publisher: Fish Pond Kids

About:

Pookster prays each night that God would help her lose her teeth, but apparently He has something different in mind. Taking matters into her own hands one crazy night, Pookster and her big sister decided that her un-loose tooth COULD come out with a little help. What happened next, (to the horror of Bubs) was a tooth extraction of a slamming door kind- and a real life opportunity to sing “All I Want For Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth.”

Spring has sprung, Easter has come and gone, but Pookster hasn't seen much of her two front teeth. She's TIRED of eating apples and leaving rows, or eating her spaghetti noodles and not being able to cut them off. Now she's begging for God to bring back her chompers. It's funny, she wanted so badly to lose them, but now she just really wants them back!

Too bad Pookster has to learn the hard way that sometimes it’s better to wait on God than it is to do things on your own!

My Review

I first wanted to mention that these books come with an audio CD featuring the author’s children! How cool is that? I didn’t listen to them because I wanted them intact for the person who won them.

In the Unloose Tooth, the message is “A Lesson On Patience” and teaches kids that we might want something to happen right away and get ahead of what God wants. In the end, it’s always better to wait on God’s timing.

In the Practically Perfect Pickle we learn that words can be sweet or sour. Pookster thinks her brother’s army guys are after her pickle and says some sour things to him. Her mom compares pickles to attitudes in a way I think kids will understand an relate to.

I like that at the end of the books we read what Pookster learned and also read a scripture that goes along with the story.

About the Author

Rhonda Funk-Public Speaker, Singer, Songwriter with three independent releases. Publicist and owner of Bring It On! Communications. Married, mother of four.

Here’s your chance to win both books!

Required: What’s a lesson you would like a child to learn from a book?

Giveaway open to US Residents 18 yrs or older. Please leave your email in the required entry or have it available in your profile. No email/contact = No entry. Giveaway ends 1/27/11 at 11:59 PST. Winner has 48 hours to respond.

Extra:

Follow me on Twitter (1 entry)

Tweet this giveaway (1 entry daily) “RT #Win 2 “Adventures of Pookster and Bubs” books with audio CDs #giveaway @bigguysmama http://bit.ly/exr4Op“

I’d like to thank Bring It On! Communications for my review copies, which I am giving away. The opinions expressed are my own.

Shameless Promotion: Vote 4 My Son?

I love entering contests where I get to share with the world how adorable my kids are. I know, I’m a bit biased, but what are you going to do?

Disney’s Family.com website is having a photo contest in which I’ve entered Doodle. If his photo has the most votes for the Disney Junior: Be Part Of The Magic photo contest his photo will be part of the Disney Junior premier week, February 15.

Since kids have to be 2-7 Doodle is getting in under the wire as a 7 year old! CLICK HERE TO VOTE.

Here’s the photo I entered:There’s a month of voting and I’d love to keep Doodle at the top. If you’d like a reminder to vote, please let me know and I’ll send you a reminder. If you could “Like” him on the page of his photo that’d be helpful as well.

I’d like to thank you ahead of time for voting for my little guy and for forgiving my self promotion of him. =)

Inside Pages Launch by Moody Publisher & GIVEAWAY

Moody Publishers is pleased to announce our new corporate blog! We will be launching Inside Pages, at www.InsidePages.net, on January 17th and to celebrate we’re hosting daily giveaways from January 17th-29th, giveaways include a Kindle, iPod, new book releases, Ryrie Study Bibles, and more. Inside Pages will serve as Moody Publisher’s online forum on faith, publishing, and literary culture, offering readers a behind-the-scenes look at publishing and creating a digital community for dialogue about books. Here you will hear from the editors about the changing face of traditional publishing, catch a sneak peek at upcoming titles and what goes on behind the publisher’s desk, and read devotionals and articles from our authors. Inside Pages will also regularly feature giveaways and free reading/writing resources. See http://www.insidepages.net/ for details. We hope to see you there!

I will be giving away a copy of The Five Love Languages Gift Edition by Gary Chapman.

New York Times bestselling author Dr. Gary Chapman guides couples in identifying, understanding, and speaking their spouse’s primary love language—quality time, words of affirmation, gifts, acts of service, or physical touch. Chapters are categorized by love language for easy reference, and each one ends with simple steps to express a specific language to your spouse. You can build a lasting, loving marriage together. More than five million sold!

Required: Tell me which love language you think or know fits you (is important to you): quality time, words of affirmation (encouragment), gifts, acts of service, or physical touch.

Giveaway open to US Residents 18 yrs or older. Please leave your email in the required entry or have it available in your profile. No email/contact = No entry. Giveaway ends 1/21/11 at 11:59 PST. Winner has 48 hours to respond.

I’d like to thank Moody Publishers for providing this book as a giveaway. I haven’t received any compensation for this post.

Q & A With Author Missy Buchanan

Even when age creeps up on the body and mind, and life changes from what it once was, is it still possible to have a purpose in life?  When it is no longer possible to venture out and do the things you once loved, can you still find a reason to look forward to each day?  Missy Buchanan, a leading expert and advocate for senior adults, believes that you can.  Buchanan wants to encourage older adults to find their purpose, share their stories, and make an impact on those around them.

Q: What made you decide to start ministering to and writing books for older adults?

Well, as a middle-aged adult, I never had any intention of becoming an author of books for older adults.  But because of the journey that my own aging parents were on, I realized how they had become disconnected from their church as their lives changed.  They started off as active older adults and then that circle got smaller as they had more needs and physical limitations.  As I would visit them at their retirement community, I would also see so many others that were just like them.  They needed spiritual encouragement.  And so that’s why I got started.  The first book began as a project just for my own parents.  I wrote devotions and kept them in a loose-leaf notebook.   But others started asking for them and things just spiraled from there.

Q: What do you think children need to know about their aging parents?

What I realized personally was that I had been so caught up in my parents’ physical needs that I had neglected their spiritual needs.  They were no longer connected to their church, at least in regular worship attendance, and that had been such a huge part of their lives.  I almost made that mistake of just totally missing that, and that was the point where I began to write.  I looked and there were other books written about older adults but not very many that were written to them and for them.  So the first thing I would tell their children is to pay attention not only to their physical needs but also to their spiritual needs.

Q: What is your opinion about role reversal with children and their aging parents?

I hear the whole idea of role reversal where the older parent becomes a child and the grown children become the parent, and I understand what they are talking about because my own parents became more dependent on me.  But I think that when we refer to it as a role reversal, and we begin to think of our aging parents as children, we strip away their dignity.  We rob them of respect and we overlook the fact that they are not children.  They have had a lifetime of experiences that a child has not had.  And I think that is an important difference that grown children need to think about and pay attention to.  It’s more of a role shift in responsibilities and not a role reversal.  I know how much it hurts an aging parent to feel like they are being treated like a baby or like a child.

Q: Other than aging adults, who else has benefited from your writing?

A friend of mine in an assisted living facility asked me to bring some books for one of her tablemates.  Her tablemate explained that these books were for her adult children.  “They don’t understand what it feels like to grow old, and I can’t seem to make them understand, but your books say it better than I ever could.”  My books are all written in the first person as if an older adult is speaking directly to God.  There are a lot of adult children that are buying them for themselves and older adults buying them for their grown children.
 
And I’ve heard of different youth groups that have been reading my books in order to better understand what it’s like to grow old.  Instead of just mocking their older peers, they are learning that they share a lot of the same feelings—feelings of insecurity, feelings of fear.  As a result of reading the books, one youth group in Tennessee has even adopted the residents of the senior living center across from their church.

Q: How can faith change our idea of growing older?

So many see aging as a punishment, and they dread it so much.  But even though it is difficult to be limited by an aging body, they need to look at it as a gift that God has given them.  They still have so much to give.  They have great wisdom to share and stories to share.  I always tell my older friends that their story is not yet over.

Missy Buchanan is the author of Talking with God in Old Age: Meditations and Psalms and
Living with Purpose in a Worn-Out Body: Spiritual Encouragement for Older Adults (Upper Room Books).

Click here to watch Missy Buchanan’s recent interview with
Good Morning America’s Robin Roberts and Roberts’ 86-year-old mother.

Visit Missy Buchanan’s website, www.missybuchanan.com, and blog, http://missybu.wordpress.com/.
Become a friend on Facebook (Aging and Faith) and follow on Twitter (MissyBuchanan).

 

Talking with God in Old Age: Meditations and Psalms
In Talking with God in Old Age, Missy Buchanan sensitively address the worries, fears, and frustrations of older adults and extends hope, encouraging them to maintain an open dialogue with God. Each reading features:

·         A candid conversation with God
·         A related passage from Psalms
·         Easy-to-read print
Seniors grappling with the aging process will readily identify with these reflections and will find reassurance of God’s Presence. Caregivers, family members, and others seeking to understand aging loved ones will gain insight into the thoughts and emotions of the elderly frail.

Living with Purpose in a Worn-Out Body: Spiritual Encouragement for Older Adults
Birthed out of real-life experience, Living with Purpose in a Worn-out Body is a big does of authentic spiritual encouragement for frail elderly who struggle to find purpose a the end of their lives. These devotionals addressed to God raise in prayer the many concerns of the frail elderly and provide opportunities to reminisce and reflect on their blessings.
Each devotional offers the following:

·         Easy-to-read print
·         Reader-friendly format
·         Comfortable, nonacademic language
·         A first-person address to God
·         Brief supporting scriptures from the New and Old Testaments

I’d like to thank The B&B Media Group for sharing this information with me. I have not received any compensation from this post.