All the Little Fathers by Margaret Wise Brown

          This book has some wonderful pictures that illustrate how different animal fathers might interact with their children.   Each father is doing something different with their child.  For example the horse fathers are leaping with their children while the monkey fathers are swinging with their children. Eventually, the fathers put their children to bed.  Short…  Simple…  Cute!

          This would definitely make a wonderful bedtime story or possibly a sweet Father’s Day gift.  As a teacher I would definitely use it as a writing activity for the children to write about what they like to do with their father. 

     
Discosure:  I received this e-book from Parragon Inc. through the NetGalley reviewer program free of charge. In exchange, I agreed to review this book and give my honest opinion in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission Guidelines.

The Hiding Place (Young Reader's Edition) by Corrie Ten Boom

          It has been over 30 years ago that I first read the original book The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom.  Unlike most of the books that I read so many years ago, this is one that will never forget! I had to put it down so many times because the details and the events that happened were more than my young mind was able to taken in.  I was excited to see that there was a newly revised book for younger people.

          Corrie Ten Boom was a watchmaker at her father’s place of business.  Their home was a place that people enjoyed visiting and there was always an abundance of Christ’s love.   During World War II she and her entire family risked their lives to help Jews escape from the Nazis.  It is amazing how Corrie and her family were able to save many of God's chosen people.  They were eventually betrayed by a former employee and her whole family was arrested. 

          They were all taken to Hitler’s concentration camps.  While there they experienced things that are hard to even begin to imagine!  Corrie’s shares some of the evil as well as the miracles that could only be from God that she experienced while in the camp. 

           This is a truly remarkable book that shows an unwavering faith in God by Corrie Ten Boom.  A definite must read!

Discosure:  I received this e-book from Chosen Books through the NetGalley reviewer program free of charge. In exchange, I agreed to review this book and give my honest opinion in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission Guidelines.

Twisted Innocence by Terri Blackstock

     Twisted Innocence is the 3^rd book in the Moonlighters series written by Terri Blackstock.   If you are anything like me, you want to start reading any series at the beginning. The first book in this series is Truth Stained Lies and the second book is Distortion.   I was a tiny bit concerned when I started the book because it had been a few months since I read the last book.   However, it only took me a couple of chapters to remember the important details of the previous books.  

     The Cramer children have been the primary focus of each of these books.  The siblings continue to be plagued by a character in the previous books.  

Holly, the youngest sibling is robbed by junkies in her taxi cab. She is an unwed mother of Lily, a one month old baby. She has made some bad choices in the past and taking care of her baby has now became her top priority.  When the police come to her house asking questions about Creed Kershaw, she was all ears.  He was a suspect in a murder they were investigating.  Since Creed was the father of Lily, she knew she needed to act fast to find out if Creed knew about his daughter... and if he did, what his intentions were.

     Her investigation which primarly starts out to protect her baby suddenly takes her in a direction that she never expected.  She and her entire family are now in extreme danger.  I was on the edge of my seat as I read this book.  I completed this book in just few days because I couldn't put it down!  It definitely has its share of suspense! 

     The characters cling to their faith in God throughout each of their circumstances that come into their life.  It was a wonderful reminder to me that there is no way we can ever redeem ourselves no matter what we do.


Discosure:  I received this e-book from Zondervan through the NetGalley reviewer program free of charge. In exchange, I agreed to review this book and give my honest opinion in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission Guidelines.

Pentel… Don’t Leave Home Without Them!

     Thank you Shoplet.com!!!  Pens are one of my FAVORITE things to review. I think I could almost be classified as a hoarder of pens!!!

     Today I am reviewing three Pentel Products:

• Pentel Vicuna Retractable Ballpoint Pens
• Pentel EnerGel Alloy RT Retractable Liquid Gel Pen
• Pentel Twist-Erase III Mechanical Pencil

     First, let me tell you about the Retractable Ball Point Pens. They come in a package of 8 different colors. As a teacher, I am always looking for pens that my students will love to use. Of course those pens are usually the ones that are the most COLORFUL!! 

     I was excited to see that the ink didn’t smear when I rubbed my fingers across each of the lines! Whew! Because I really love these bright colors. Each of these retractable ballpoint pens has an oil-based ink with a 0.7 pen point size. I was expecting the ink to flow a bit more freely, but I have to admit I wrote all the colors of each pen the very first thing after opening the package. If you look closely at the words blue (both) of them, you will notice they look a bit strange. Almost like it stopped and started again. However, it doesn’t matter to me. I would definitely buy these pens!!

     Up next is the Pentel EnerGel Alloy RT Retractable Liquid Gel Pen. The barrel of the pen is aluminum and the color is a beautiful Aquamarine. It looks like a fancy pen, truly gorgeous! It has a 0.7 mm metal tip and it definitely writes smooth. In fact, I had a hard time keeping up with it!!! The ink just flowed!!!! And…wait for it…. It doesn’t smear either!!! 

Last up is the Pentel Twist-Erase III Mechanical Pencil. I have to admit that I am not a big user of mechanical pencils. I write very heavily so it always seemed like most of my time was spent getting more lead to come out. I reluctantly took it out of the package and began to write. If you look below you will see that I wrote so hard that I poked a hole in the paper (look at the word Wow!!) Guess what… it did NOT break. I’m totally impressed. This pencil apparently has a protective tip that is designed to stabilize the lead to reduce breakage. I just might have to rethink using mechanical pencils. This mechanical pencil also has a few other qualities that you might like:

• Latex-Free Grip
• Jumbo Twist-Up Eraser (refillable)

     
         I hope that you have seen something here that is of interest to you.  All of these items can be purchased at Shoplet.com. They have a huge selection of office supplies, promotional products, medical supplies, office stationary and so much more. 

I received the above mentioned items for free and in exchange, I agreed to give my honest opinion of each of these products.  All opinions expressed are my own..

Sand in My Sandwich by Sarah Parshall Perry

I was drawn to this book the minute I downloaded it onto my Kindle.  I found the title quite interesting in itself, but also because of other reviews that I had read.  I was not disappointed, I finished the book in 2 days and probably would have finished quicker, but I had to go to work!  :-)

Sarah Perry shared bits and pieces of her journey in life.  As a single woman she was definitely a perfectionist.  When she married and had children her life however took a drastic change and there was no room for perfectionism. She realized that she could not completely control her children and perfection was no longer an important part of her life. 

Sarah Perry is an incredibly strong woman.   Just like the rest of us, Sarah is not perfect but she strives to please God and seeks Him in all areas of her life which includes seeking God for guidance of her children.  Knowing that God is in control is so difficult to understand...especially when your children are so different from other children.  Sarah shares honestly the struggles, fears, anxieties, stress, etc. that she has being a mom of an autistic child.  Mothers will relate to these stories, because they mostly likely have some of the same fears and anxieties.  

I enjoyed reading this book a lot!  Although I have no children of my own, I have had the privilege of being around children that showed so many characteristics that Sarah refers to in the book when she is talking about her children.  It is an encouraging book. We never know what is going to happen next in our life, but the Almighty God does and He always uses it ...even though we usually don't understand it! 

Disclaimer:   I received this book free of charge from Revell Publishing in exchange for writing an honest review of  Sand in my Sandwich and Other Motherhood Messes I'm Learning to Love.  The opinions expressed are my own.  

Bic Pen...Magic Markers... & Stylus... REVIEW

I know... I love pens!  I do...I do...I do.  Thank goodness it doesn’t take a lot of money to make me happy! Shoplet.com sent me a few items to review and I always feels so privileged to try products that I have never tried before.  Especially the huge variety of PENS in this world!!

Let me start off by tell you about this box of Bic Atlantis Retractable Exact Ball Point Pens.

I have a tendency to write large, so I love that is a fine point pen. The ink ran very smooth as my hand was able to glide without the tugging of ink and it didn't leave a smear when I rubbed my hand over the just written ink.  I did find it sorta awkward to get a good grip on this pen...but only because tend to write with the fingers gripped very close to the base of the pen, so I almost miss the rubbery part of the pen which would give me a good grip (that it just a me thing I'm sure).  There is also one more thing that I didn't like and that is the blue ink.   Never use it...so hopefully it also comes in different shades like purple, green, orange or pink!!

This is a box of the Bic Atlantis Retractable Comfort Ball Point Pen.  

Now this particular box of pens is just a tiny bit different.  The one thing that already had me on its side was that they have black ink.  Yeah!!!!  It is a medium point pen and it continues to write very very smooth without any jerking and there was absolutely no smearing of ink!  I do not like smudges one little bit.  I had the same problem with the grip as before, but I promise that is a me thing!

My students loved these vibrant Bic Magic Window Markers. 

The bright fluorescent PINK and fluorescent YELLOW were almost too much for my first graders to take in!  I used them to write their name on our classroom window when they reached their reading goal.  It was like the world revolved around them when their name was finally written "for the world to see!!!"  These particular markers have bullet tips.  The water-based ink adhered very nicely to our classroom windows...nice & smooth!!!!   Then came the clean up...I do not like to clean up messes! However I used a wet cloth to clean the windows and it came off very easily.  I was impressed.  I will definitely be using these and other different colors to add a little more "POP" to my classroom.  



The last item I want to share with you today is the Bic Cristal Styles 2-in-1 Pen. I really liked the idea of this 2-in-1 Pen!!!!  I always have a pen in one of my hands and usually have my phone, iPad or Kindle nearby...so this makes perfect sense to me to have a pen and styles together!!!   I of course tried in on three of my things and the pen worked just fine.  It is very lightweight, glides easily across each of the screens (which would eliminate a few fingerprints...ha.ha.ha!!).  I love the look of this pen too.  Very modern.  It looks like a pens...thats all decked out for the evening.  Pretty!  I did have one slight problem when using it with my Kindle...apparently your hand as to be within "metallic section" to be able to use it with your technology.  It was a bit frustrating at first, but one I read the directions.. I was able to move only without any further issues.


Shoplet has a huge selection of products that I hope you will check out.  Please consider them next time you are ordering online, You will be amazed at the wide selection of office stationary, office supplies, medical supplies and their great promotional products.   


Please be aware that even though I received these produce at no charge, I have given my honest opinion of each of them. 

Touched by Heaven

This book arrived on my porch Friday afternoon.  Which just so happened to be the beginning of my Spring Break!!  Yippee!!!!  I decided what better way to start my break than to read a book a good book.  It took me a couple of days to finish it...but I did just that.

This book is a true story written by Nancy Ravenhill.  At the age of 5, her father began to use a belt to whip her.  Nancy's father used her as an outlet for the rage he felt towards her mother.  Her mother watched and did absolutely nothing.  

Nancy retreated to her bedroom and she knew at that point that there is really no one that she could turn to except for Jesus.  And she did just that... It was there in the quiet of her bedroom that she experienced seeing Jesus for the first time.  
This heartbreaking event unfolds in the the very first chapter called The Storm Breaks.   I was immediately drawn into her story and couldn't put it down for hours.

As the story continues to unfold, she unfortunately continues to be abused by her father. Amazingly, her mother does nothing to intervene.   It was after this abuse that Nancy realized that the way that she responded to this pain would make a huge difference in what was in store for her in the future.  She chose to cry out to the Lord with her heart and soul!! 

I was intrigued by Nancy Ravenhill.  She is so faithful in seeking God throughout her life and waiting for God's timing. 
Throughout the book she tells about the many meaning events and happenings as well as the many encounters she has with Jesus.  It was fascinating to read about.


The entire time I was reading this book I felt a little uncomfortable.  I'm not sure why exactly. That is something I probably need to deal with on my own.  

This book was sent to me from Chosen Book Publishers at no charge. The opinions expressed here are my own.