I Love You More- A Review

When I was contacted to receive a free copy of the new book "I Love You More" for review, I immediately jumped at the chance.

After two hours of googling and following links on the chance that it was a psycho stalker just trying to get my address.

I was really suprised by the book. We already have several books about love, one with the same name. But my kids adored this book.

I think most of the reason is that it is two stories in one. The book has no front or back, but flips over and the two stories meet in the middle. My daughter loves the side from the mom's perspective, "I love you prettier than the prettiest flower ever found." My son loves the little boy's perspective, "I love you taller than the tallest giraffe ever grown."

And all week I have been treated to the poetic stylings of "Mommy I love you bigger than the biggest toad." And "Mommy, I love you tinier than the tiniest ant."

They try.

If you want to check it out, you can visit the author's website

http://www.hippieandthebaldchick.com/ or find it on Amazon.

It's organized randomness

I haven't been able to make a full post out of my thoghts lately, so here they are in no particular order:

1. We have finished two full weeks of deployment! Luke is taking it the hardest and his behavior has deteriorated quite a bit. The other day he flooded our bathroom....literally. I had just shut off the water in his bath and had been out of the room for maybe three minutes when Chloe ran to tell me Luke was getting the floor wet. I went to check, and he had emptied out most of the tub using the bucket for rinsing hair. There was half an inch of water covering the entire bathroom floor, and it flooded the carpet three feet out into the hallway. Of course all he could say as I lectured and punished and made him help clean up, was "why not?"

2. I really like webcams. This is the first time we have been able to use them while he's been gone and it changes the dynamics a bit. Although I had to laugh because since my husband is looking down at his laptop screen and not the camera, it makes it look like he's trying to look down my shirt from the computer! And since he totally does that in real life, it's kind of like he's standing right in front of me :)

3. While blog browsing several weeks ago I came across Jennifer at Mississippi Girl whose husband was almost home from a deployment. We got to commenting and emailing and decided we'd try to get together, as we probably lived close enough. Then last Sunday I saw a pretty black-haired girl singing on our praise team at church, and guess what! It was her! We live just a few blocks from each other and go to the same church. So we got together for lunch at Chick Fil A last week, and I had a blast! She's so sweet and so fun to talk to and our kids enjoyed playing together. It just humbled me to think of how God worked all those details out, from directing me to her blog, and her to mine, to moving us near each other, knowing that having someone nearby who could relate to me would be a huge encouragement. Plus she gave me a recommendation for a good salon to get a haircut, and if that isn't evidence of God's provision, I don't know what is!

4. I just got the book "Chocolatherapy" in the mail. I'll let you know how it is!

A thank you and an invitation

Thank you, thank you, thank you, to everyone who took the time to comment, email, and most especially pray for us yesterday.

The little voice that was chanting "icantdothisicantdothisicantdothis" in my head all day yesterday is gone now. I'm still sad, of course, but I feel much more like myself today.

I'm joining Chrissy at Singalullaby in reading "Chocolatherapy" if anyone wants to join us! I just ordered it last night. Since I will be fighting the urge to "escape" during the next 6 months- through food, tv, books, blogs...it's definitely God's timing that she invited people to join her and I read her post the exact day I needed it! Check it out if you're interested.

The Bloggity Book Club

Thanks to Robin and BooMama for hosting this! Their first pick was Get Out of That Pit, by Beth Moore.

I was excited to read this book because I love Beth Moore.

Not because I thought I was in a pit or needed help.

I mean, I tend to be a pretty laid back, casual kind of person (bet that doesn't surprise you if you look around my blog a bit!) and I'm fairly optimistic, too. I don't struggle with depression, although I have bad days and weeks.

So I didn't go in to the book expecting it to really speak to where I am now.

Beth described the three different ways you can get into a pit- being thrown in, sliding in or jumping in. She said that people in pits often make themselves right at home, decorate their pit, and invite others to join them there in their pit.

And when she said that people in pits lose their vision, I finally came to the realization that I did slide into a pit- more than one, really- years ago, and I've only recently begun getting out.

One of those pits is my weight. It just crept up on me slowly until one day I realized that I actually needed to lose 30 pounds, not the 5 or 10 I had been thinking. And then I got pregnant, and well, I just dug my pit a little deeper. And for a long time I believed the lie that I could never change. I do know now that I can lose weight, yet it seems that I just can't help shoveling my pit just a little deeper for that one snack. And that one. And, well, that one, too.

But the even darker pit I slid into was one of separation from God. Becoming a mom combined with living in Japan was a slip n slide right into a pit for me. I think all moms have walked right up and looked into this pit. We're tired. I mean, really tired. And we're busy. And we have so many people depending on us. And the crumbs. My goodness kids are crumby, so the floors need to be vacuumed and the hands washed, and then there's laundry to do and baths to give. And it's just so easy to skip that Quiet Time in favor of a little more sleep or another chore.

Or a shower.

Or to forget about it completely.

I told myself that God understood. And the truth is that He does. He knows how tired I am. But that truth has too often become an excuse for me, and I tell myself that I'll get to my time with God later. And somewhere along the way I lost a lot of my vision. I stopped reaching out to people the way I used to, and expected them to come to me. And while I started the process of getting out of my pit before I read the book, realizing that I was in a pit really helped me to understand a lot of what I have felt emotionally in the past few years.

This book really made me take a look at where I am and where I want to be, and it's written in Beth Moore's totally sistah-like style, making me feel like we were just sharing a cup of Starbucks and having a chat. I would recommend it even if you don't feel like you are in a pit!

“I waited patiently for the LORD; he turned to me and heard my cry. He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand. He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see and fear and put their trust in the LORD.” - Pslam 40:1-3