Review: If Mama Ain't Planning

If Mama Ain’t Planning, 2010: Daily Devotional Planner

Format: e-book

Price: $9.99

Available at: If Mama Ain’t Planning!

Affiliate Program also available!

The first of the year is often a time for reflection and changes made to our lives. Just a brief glance through the sales ads will tell you that most people resolve to do two things this time of the year: get in shape and get organized. Many Christians also decide to spend more time reading the Scriptures as well. If Mama Ain't Planning won't help you get in shape, but it could definitely help you with the other two!

This is truly a neat little ebook. It starts off with an overview of the Scriptures which will be the focus of each month of the following year. Then there is a printable month calendar, suitable for putting on the refrigerator, for example. The monthly calendar also has reminders of the focal Scriptures for the month as well as what she is encouraging the prayer focus to be. For example, in January, the focus is on righteousness, so the verses and prayer focus is on that subject, praying for God to make us more like Him.

Following the monthly calendar are weekly calendars, again with the verses to read that week, as well as three other sections: "Must Do," "Might do," and "Menu." There is ample room to write out the menu for the week here, as well as the priorities for the week, all in one spot.

At the beginning of each month, she has written a devotional on the theme of the month, for instance as I mentioned, January's is "If Mama Ain't Righteous." In an easy style of one friend to another, she gets you thinking about how you as a wife and mother affect the rest of your family. Remember the saying "If Mama Ain't Happy, then nobody's happy!" Well, Anitra Elmore has taken the saying and applied it. If Mama's not displaying a good attitude, not doing what she should, how can we expect our children to? This, in essence is the theme of January. The other months follow with themes such as wisdom, service, relationships, etc. throughout the year.

I think this is a neat little book, easy to use (you do have to have Adobe downloaded onto your computer to read and print it). The pages are even pretty to look at. The only negatives are very small ones. the very nature of the ebook makes it so that you can't type onto them. If you are a print it out and use it type of person this will be of no problem whatsoever. If you are a strictly digital person, keeping everything on the computer, it might not be as useful to you, though you could still refer to the Scriptures and use the themes. But really, this is a compilation of pages meant to be printed. This does make it easier for the rest of the family to see, however.

The only other downside, also a minor one, is that one or two of the "Spiritual Habits" that are encouraged each month may not sit well with all Christians, depending on their beliefs. For instance, while the activity that is encouraged to become a habit in January is a regular, daily reading of the Bible, in February, the habit is regular fasting as the Lord leads. Some of my friends and family would be uncomfortable with the idea of fasting. However, if this isn't something you would disagree with, it is easily skipped. So this is really a very minor issue.

If you are at all interested, Mrs. Elmore has a neat blog, called, of course, If Mama Ain't... I hope you enjoy her book as much as I have!

This is a review for MamaBuzz. This product was provided for free for review purposes.

Potluck Survival Guide

Potluck Survival Guide by Cherie Kimmons

Price: $18.96, regularly $24.95


I was really looking forward to getting a look at this cookbook. This is no ordinary cookbook; this book was written just for bringing dishes to feed a crowd. We have a small church and we eat together at least twice a month. This is not counting the get-togethers with other groups or with other families. Needless to say, I'm constantly looking for new things to bring.

The author, Cherie Kimmons, did a great job bringing this collection together. After years of bringing dishes to feed her kids' sports teams and other activities, she put together what is really MORE than a cookbook. She has guidelines for what to feed kids before a game and what to give them after, ideas for buffet meals (like a potato bar or waffle bar), a great chart for multiplying quantities of everything from meat and pasta to muffins for a crowd. She includes decorating ideas and even help if you are the one in charge of planning the entire menu for an event, not just bringing a dish or two. There are instructions on cooking up large quantities of the staples, such as boiling chicken or cooking pasta. She also has helpful hints on making dishes kid-pleasing. She emphasizes dishes that are relatively inexpensive and easy to make, though there is a lot of latitude in that. For instance her seafood dishes would obviously cost more, where as the macaroni and cheese would not.

The bulk of the book is spent on recipes. I was very pleasantly surprised that the recipes were not all casseroles. In fact, not all of them are main dishes. She has a great variety of side dishes (which is something I struggle with coming up with for a potluck), desserts, breakfast items, etc. One of my favorite features of the book is that nearly every recipe has notes on the side with ways to make variations of the dishes so that it can be made multiple ways. Some have alternate meat ideas, or different vegetable to add, a different sauce, etc.

Last week, I was able to make a couple of the dishes from the book for our church's potluck lunch, including one of the "Hall of Fame Recipes" which are select recipes from the book that are her never-fail-people-always-beg-me-for-the-recipe dishes. Both turned out very well. My husband particularly liked the Spicy Baked Beans.

The only downside to the book, and it is a small one, is that I wished it had more hints or directions on cooking for events when you can't cook it at home and then immediately serve it. For instance, at church, we make the dishes at home and then have to either keep them warm in a crockpot or in an oven. But we are all used to that, and it wasn't that hard to adjust the recipes I made for that.

I am looking forward to making more of the recipes in this book. I received this book free to review, but I would definitely have paid money for it if I had seen it in the store! If you cook a lot for groups, you really ought to look into it!

http://www.fivestarpublications.com/potluck/book.html

This is a Mama Buzz review. The product was provided by Five Star Publications for this review.

Wright on Time - a review

Lisa Cottrell-Bentley kept looking for book for her home schooled kids to read that had home schooled kids as characters. She never could find any, so she decided to write some herself. Wright on Time, Book 1: Arizona is the first of a series of books which features the Wright family. The Wrights are your typical home school family - that is if your typical family has a dad who is fluent in several languages and writes magazine articles, a mom who is a software engineer, and the whole family sells their home to buy an RV in which they travel the country. During their travels, they plan on learning about history and science as they visit each state in the country, though I read that the RV will not be making it to Hawaii.

In Arizona, the family rents a cave for the day. The daughter, Nadia, is a bit of a science nut and can't wait to mine out some minerals. The younger son, Aidan, just wants to find bats. Lots and lots of bats. Bats are "freaky cool" - unlike the stale-egg-mites his sister keeps talking about. But the Wright family's adventure is a learning experience for all four members, especially when they find a mysterious object embedded in the cave wall.

Wright on Time, Book 1 was a fun, light-hearted book with fun science facts thrown in, much in the same vein as the Magic Tree house books. My 8 year old enjoyed the book and is already wondering what the family will be doing in Utah, the setting for book 2. It's well-written, and it is fun to have books with home schoolers as the lead characters. Another thing I appreciated is that the parents are important characters in the lives of the kids. The author is also looking for ideas for the series. If you check out the website http://www.wrightontimebooks.com/ you can suggest places for the Wright family to visit when they arrive in your state!

The age recommendation for this book is 5-12, but I think it should be more like 5-10.

We are looking forward to further installments in the Wright on Time series!


This was a review for Mama Buzz. I received a free copy of this book, valued at $12.99, from the publisher, Do Life Right, in exchange for writing this review.

the Ultimate Cloth - Chemical Free Cleaning

This is a Mama Buzz review. The product was provided by Ultimate Cloth America for this review."

Product/Book Name: The Ultimate Cloth

Price: $6

Links: http://www.ultimateclothamerica.com/index.html

The Ultimate cloth surprised me in some ways. It really has a different feel from most fabric I've ever felt. It claims an "exclusive MiraFiber technology that cleans with just water." The company says the cloths will save you money on chemical cleaners, paper towels, and Swiffer refills, cut your cleaning time in half, and of course reduce the amount of chemicals used in your home.

So I was very interested in giving the Ultimate Cloth a try. And in many ways I was very pleasantly surprised. The cloth does retain water very well and I was able to clean several surfaces with it before needing to rinse or wash it. It did a great job on the mirrors and windows as well as my counter tops and facets. I didn't try it on my Swiffer for the floors, but from my experience with it on other surfaces, I think it would do a great job for that as well.

Now, the down side.

Though I LOVE reusable, non-disposable cleaning products, there were some things I was wary about using the Ultimate Cloth on. The company claims that it will pull up germs and bacteria into it, but even so I did not use it to clean my toilet. The instructions say to wash it in bleach after cleaning a bathroom or kitchen area but I just don't wash many things in bleach at all. Most everything I have is not bleach-able. After using it on ordinary surfaces you can just machine wash it with detergent, but it needs bleach to disinfect it. Most things in my house that are already white are towels and other cleaning rags, but the instructions also say to only wash with lint-free laundry. And it has to be air dried - no dryer. And no fabric softener. So the care instructions are a little high maintenance for me.

And, call me a product of my era, but without some sort of lab test, I was not willing to trust that it was soaking up all the germs from really icky surfaces. This was another reason I wouldn't use it on my toilets. I wanted to KNOW that the toilet was clean. Spraying something on it, even if it is just vinegar and water, does that for me. I did try it on the metal in my shower, and it does not get the water spots off that, though it did great on the glass on the shower, though it was pretty clean to start with.

The other thing is that in my larger-than-normal house with my larger-than-normal family, I would need many, MANY of these cloths to be able to replace all paper towels and cleaning rags. I have not yet decided if that's an investment I'm willing to make yet. At the time I received my free sample, 2 of the standard size are $10 but if you buy 15, it is $45.

Don't get me wrong, I think they are quite good at what they do. I think they would be a great investment for you if:

• you refuse to use chemicals or want to use as few as possible.
• you are addicted to Lysol cleaning wipes - this would be a much cheaper alternative.
• you use a wet Swiffer - these would make great washable alternatives to the disposable cloths.
• want to keep one in each bathroom for quick touch-up cleaning or for young children to use.
• you have granite or other specialty surfaces with limit what you can use on them.

Media Blurb:

The Ultimate Cloth is eco-friendly solution for homes as well as a money and time saver. The Ultimate Cloth is a brand new technology – in fact, it is the only cloth to receive a new patent in the last 25 years. The Ultimate Cloth is a simple, green and effective one-step cleaning process. The Ultimate Cloth cleans any hard surface – glass, wood, granite, stainless steel and many more – with just water! No longer do you have to use harsh chemicals in your home, nor do you need spend hundreds of dollars per year buying them. The Ultimate Cloth has been lab tested to remove 96% of bacteria, without the use of chemicals. And, can cut 50% off your cleaning time. The Ultimate Cloth is truly the ultimate in green cleaning.

All of my readers can receive a FREE Ultimate Cloth!

All you need to do is follow Ultimate Cloth America on Twitter or become a fan on facebook:
Twitter: http://twitter.com/Ultimate_Cloth
facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Ultimate-Cloth-America/209222110335?v=wall&ref=ts

Big Thoughts for Little People by Kenneth Taylor

Mama Buzz, and reviewers, were provided with a complimentary copy of this book for blog tour purposes*

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Big Thoughts for Little People by Kenneth N. Taylor

Ages 3-7

Hardcover retails for $14.99

Big Thoughts for Little People is a charming little book. It is part devotional book, part story book, part character lesson book, part picture study book. Each two-page spread covers one letter in the alphabet, which begins a word the lesson is about.

For example, the letter C starts a page about crying:

C is for crying.
It hurts when you fall,
But please do not cry
About nothing at all.

Each page then goes into a paragraph to discuss the subject of the page. On the C page the author discusses how crying is OK when a child is hurt, but how we shouldn't cry we aren't really hurt. (I think, with a house full of girls, this was my favorite page. My life, it seems, is all about crying for nothing at all.) Then there are questions for the child. (Why is the girl crying?) Some ask questions about the subject. Others ask the child to examine the illustration. (On the H page: Which children are being helpful?) And hidden in every illustration is a ladybug to search for. The page ends with a Bible verse.

The age recommended for the book is 3-7, but I think age 3-5 would be best. My biggest gripe about the book is that the Bible verses at the bottom of each page are in The Living Bible translation. I'm sure it's done to put the verse in a language more easily understood by young children, but I would prefer a literal translation instead of a paraphrase. I want even my young kids learning Bible verses that we would read in family devotions and church services, so that she can connect what she hears in books like this to what is happening in the rest of her life. It could also be used as a memory verse. I won't have my kids memorize paraphrased verses. Of course, the parent could just read the suggested verse out of a Bible instead of reading the one at the bottom of the page.

While the book is charming, I think the best use of the book would be as a daily reading activity with a pre-schooler, rather than a devotional. I think it's a little shallow for a devotional book, even for pre-schoolers. But it would be a fun activity to do with a pre-schooler while my older kids are doing school work. My favorite part is the illustrations that Lauryn enjoyed. She liked to point out the parts of the pictures that went with the subject of the page.

The Blue Umbrella by Mike Mason

The Blue Umbrella: A Novel

The Blue Umbrella is the first venture into fiction from a non-fiction author, Mike Mason. It's an intriguing combination of sci-fi and fantasy and obviously the work of someone with a wonderfully active imagination. My almost 11 year old and I both read it and we both enjoyed it. Aubrey thought it was very well written. "I never could guess what was going to happen until the end." I agree with her. Often children's literature can have somewhat of a predictable plot. The Blue Umbrella kept me guessing as well.

The Blue Umbrella tells the story of a boy named Zachery Sparks who is suddenly orphaned when his mother is killed by a lightning strike. Two mysterious aunts show up to claim him and take him home with them. That's when the mystery begins.

Who are these aunties he's never heard of before? Why did they bring him home to live with them only to be cruel? Why is the town of Five Corners, his new home, bewitched? Why is he so fascinated by Sky Porter, the owner of the store across the street from the aunties' house? What are the mysterious lights coming from the second story of the store at night? And why does Mr. Porter always carry that umbrella with him? Why does Dada, the aunts' father, want it more than anything else in the world? In fact Dada wants it so much, he orders Zac to steal it from Mr. Porter who has become a friend. What should Zac do?

The Blue Umbrella combines intrigue, mystery, sinister characters, loneliness, trust, betrayal, grace, redemption, family dysfunctions, and weather phenomena into a captivating yarn. The author states in the "after words" that his intention was not allegorical or to make any kind of statement, but just to tell a good story. There are, however, spiritual parallels that can be drawn from the story. It will also captivate your child's imagination. My daughter is looking forward to a second book in the series.

*This book was given as a complimentary copy to Mama Buzz Reviewers by David C. Cook and Mike Mason, for blog tour and promotion purposes.

The Blue Umbrella: retails for $14.99

Ages 9-12

Enjoy a free excerpt of this book at Mike Mason's website.


The Blue Umbrella, by Mike Mason from David C. Cook on Vimeo.

Redefining Beautiful

Recently, Thomas Nelson sent me Redefining Beauty, a book by Jenna Lucado (yes, her father is the more well-known Max Lucado), written primarily for 12-17 year olds. The paperback retails for $12.99.

When I received the book, I expected the theme to be along the lines of, "Christians shouldn't think of beauty the way the world does, we should be modest and less concerned about appearances." While all this is true, I was pleasantly surprised that Miss Lucado went further than this. When she talks about "redefining beautiful" she really wants girls to think about what really makes a girl beautiful - what's on the inside.

She calls these things on the inside which make girls beautiful "Life Accessories," such as "Security - trusting that no matter what, we have a God who loves us" and "Peace - in believing God is in control." These life accessories are what makes us attractive to others no matter what kind of clothes we wear.

The most important theme of her book is that the foundational beauty secret is a father's love, both earthly and heavenly. A girl with an earthly father who shows his daughter love, spends time with her, and teaches her to love God will be infinitely more likely to be filled with these life accessories. But even a great earthly father isn't perfect, and ultimately we all must look to our heavenly father as the source of our inner beauty. Miss Lucado also points out that this is even more important for girls whose dads are either non-existent or are abusive.

She also touches on boys, friends, authority figures, and modesty. I appreciated her approach to the modesty issue. It's easy to make a list about what is acceptable and what isn't, but she encourages her reader to think of two things when dressing: would God approve and will it tempt boys to think about things they shouldn't. She is also quite emphatic about letting boys take the lead in the relationships - they should do the approaching, the asking out - and she discourages girls from flirting.

While the book was written for teens, the tone is often a bit condescending. Though Miss Lucado is evidently in her early 20s, she just tries a little too hard to be"hip" sounding, to talk in language a teen would talk. As a result, I think it would be best for the younger end of the age range as I doubt high school kids would respond to the tone. For instance she calls Ishmael "Ishy" and the apostles "a group of guys Jesus hung out with."

I also think this book would be best used as a discussion tool with your daughter. There are several instances where the author asks her readers to make lists and to write certain things down. I think most girls wouldn't do this unless forced to, but I think an even better idea would be to use these as discussion points with your daughter. This would also give home schooling moms like me a chance to explain what she means when she talks about throwing on clothes and rushing out the door to first period.

The biggest drawback to the book is that while the truths are simple, they aren't delved into deeply. For instance, she does a good job of pointing out that we are valuable to God, called his children, etc. However, though she is evidently writing to believers, she fails to develop this idea of our identity in Christ, that when God looks at us, He sees Christ.

If you have a daughter that is struggling with insecurities about her looks and who she is, this could be used as a starting point of some good discussions. Just be prepared to delve deeper into some areas she glosses over. Thank you, Thomas Nelson, for the opportunity to review Redefining Beauty. This has definitely given me some great ideas for topics to bring up with my girls!

This review is also posted on Amazon.com.

Cool!

I don't know if you've noticed the new button on the right hand side of the blog, but I have recently joined the Mama Buzz group (hive?) of mommy-reviewers. The group reviews products - mostly books and toys - geared for children of all ages. So occasionally I will be receiving a book or toy that one of the girls and I will try out and then I'll post what we think about it.

I'm looking forward being involved in the process. Isn't it too cool to think about getting to read books or try out toys before they're published/available? And what a great opportunity for the girls to see a glimpse of modern advertising/marketing practices. An occasional freebie is also fun, huh? So stay tuned in the coming months for glimpses of what our estrogen-overloaded house thinks of the latest stuff coming to stores near you!