WOW {Warm Oven Wednesday}

I love Gooseberry Patch and here's a favorite recipe from Gooseberry Patch Recipes:

Sweet & Easy Iced Coffee....So easy & O!So!Good!

From Jen at Gooseberry Patch, this recipe is a year 'round favorite and appears in 101 Breakfast & Brunch Recipes. Stir in a little chocolate or caramel sauce for an extra-special treat.

1/2 c. sweetened condensed milk, divided
4 c. strong brewed coffee, cooled and divided
ice cubes

Place 2 tablespoons of sweetened condensed milk into each of 4 tall glasses. Pour one cup of cooled coffee into each glass; stir to combine. Fill glasses with ice; stir to chill. Serves 4.

Crack Yourself Up Jokes for Kids by Sandy Silverthorne

My Thoughts: Once in awhile one needs to laugh like a kid.  Makes one feel good.
The jokes in this small paperback are geared for the first thru fourth grade crowd. 
Some of the jokes are funny others are well, deadpan!  😄
   For instance the one on page 82:  "My parents always had to pay my brother to be good.  But not me.  I was good for nothing."  
This small book is chock full of funnies.  135 pages of funnies to be exact.
So if you have a child who needs or wants to tell humerous jokes this is the book for them.
I know a few grandpas that would like this book too.

*This book was provided for review by Baker Publishing*

• Age Range: 6 - 8 years
• Grade Level: 4 - 6
• Mass Market Paperback: 144 pages
• Publisher: Revell (August 21, 2018)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0800729692
• ISBN-13: 978-0800729691

Congo Dawn

Book Description:  While former Marine lieutenant Robin Duncan is no stranger to corruption or conspiracy, she has always been able to tell the good guys from the bad, and the Congo jungle at first seems no different. But as her security team tries to track down an insurgent killer, Robin has to face a man who broke her trust years ago, and she discovers the gray areas extend farther in this jungle wilderness than she anticipated.

A ruthless global conspiracy begins to surface, run by powerful men who can’t afford to leave any witnesses. Her life at stake, Robin doesn’t know who to trust and wonders how she can help protect innocent people. Why is God silent amid all the pain and injustice? And how do these people of faith continue to rejoice in their suffering?

My Thoughts:  Jeanette Windle first caught my "reading attention"  when I read Betrayed.

The reader can tell that Jeanette writes with a first hand experience of the fiction world she is telling about.

One will always learn when reading, even from fiction.  

I enjoy Jeanette's writing style.  It's fast paced and to the point.  Description of the area are always a plus.  And the Congo...wow!  Not sure it's a place I want to visit.

Deception, greed and trying to fight for the Right!    

This faith filled read is about trust and, well, running form the bad guys. 

I like political intrigue and some but not overly romantic reads.  This book fits the bill!

A Little Salty to Cut the Sweet by Sophie Hudson

Book Description:  There’s nothing quite like family—for good or bad. But in a world where we sometimes know more about the Kardashians than we do the people sleeping right down the hall, it’s easy to forget that walking through life with our family offers all sorts of joy wrapped up in the seemingly mundane. There’s even a little bit of sacred sitting smack-dab in the middle of the ordinary. And since time’s-a-wastin’, we need to be careful that we don’t take our people—and their stories—for granted. Whether it’s a marathon bacon-frying session, a road trip gone hysterically wrong, or a mother-in-law who makes every trip to the grocery store an adventure, author Sophie Hudson reminds us how important it is to slow down and treasure the day-to-day encounters with the people we love the most.

Written in the same witty style as Sophie’s BooMama blog, A Little Salty to Cut the Sweetis a cheerful, funny, and tender account of Sophie’s very Southern family. It’s a look into the real lives of real people—and a real, loving God right in the middle of it all.

My Thoughts:  With all of the reality shows on TV, I wonder if people forget that the family God gave them are the "real" people we need to be with!??!

I love the title of this book because that's exactly how a family unit can be classified  . . . a little Salty with the Sweet by  Sophie Hudson is a timely reminder that we need not take for granted the family that God has given us. Family, that group of people that we have so much in common with, those peoples who are there for us through thick and thin.   The ones we fight with (salty) and have fun with (sweet) and make memories with. Our family is the one we make "our story" with . . . they are the ones who know us best.

Remember that one (or maybe more than one) vacation that went terribly wrong.  You know the one, where the rear axle on your family car kept coming off as you made your way home from Grandma's house and your dad kept stopping every couple of miles to fix it.  But in the end we had to get a hotel room and didn't go to church that Sunday because dad was fixing the axel?  We ate doughnuts for breakfast and read Good Housekeeping!  See, if you have a memory like that you probably have a family that has many memories.  Keep those memories and write them down.

Great book!  And a great gift, too!  I'm thinking that this will make a 

great grandparents day gift...or a great gift for that baby shower in July!

*Tyndale Publishing*

List Price:

14.99 

ISBN:

978-1-4143-7566-3 

Trim Size:

5 1/2 x 8 1/4 

Binding:

Softcover 

God Bless Our Bedtime Prayers by Hannah Hall (Author), Steve Whitlow (Illustrator)

Book Description:  Join the adorable animal families as they learn to pray about every moment of the day—the fun times, the hard parts, and everything in between. Whether the animals ask God for help finding a toy or thank Him for the day’s adventures, God Bless Our Bedtime Prayers will create a special, quiet bedtime routine of prayer and will instill God’s Word in your children’s hearts.

My Thoughts:  I love the children's books that are available right now.  This is the third "little"  kids book that I've received this summer and I think the books just keep getting better and better.

Since we have twins in our family I love books that show more than one child.

In this book the illustrations remind me of watercolor art.  And the pages are hard back so it's easy to wipe clean.

There is a child's prayer.  Pure and simple.  Then a short verse. 

Remember that little ones have a short attention span so this book is just right for "leading" a bedtime prayer, saying a prayer and talking about the pictures.  All the pictures are of a "grown up" animal and a small animal.

Our twins just love this colorful book.  "The Lord gives sleep to those he loves.  Psalm 127:2"

This makes a wonderful gift, too.

*This book was provided for review by BookLook*

• Grade Level: 1 - 2
• Series: A God Bless Book
• Board book: 20 pages
• Publisher: Thomas Nelson; Brdbk edition (May 29, 2018)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0718096398
• ISBN-13: 978-0718096397

WOW {Warm Oven Wednesday}

I found this delightful yummy lemon cookie on allrecipes.com

Lemon cookies are a summertime treat!

INGREDIENTS:

1 (18.25 ounce) package lemon cake mix 2 eggs 1/3 cup vegetable oil

1 teaspoon lemon extract 1/3 cup confectioners' sugar for decoration

DIRECTIONS:

1.	Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
2.	Pour cake mix into a large bowl. Stir in eggs, oil, and lemon extract until well blended. Drop teaspoonfuls of dough into a bowl of confectioners' sugar. Roll them around until they're lightly covered. Once sugared, put them on an ungreased cookie sheet.
3.	Bake for 6 to 9 minutes in the preheated oven. The bottoms will be light brown, and the insides chewy.

Threads of Love by Andrea Boeshaar

Book Description:  Emily Sundberg has her life all laid out. She has a respectable job as a teacher and an idea of whom she should marry.  But does God have a better plan?

 Emily Sundberg considers herself a proper young lady of the twentieth century. But a decade ago she behaved more like a tomboy. So when the neighbor’s grandson came to visit one summer when she was thirteen, they became fast friends. Emily even got her first kiss—quite by accident. Unfortunately Jake Edgerton told all the boys something else. Rumors circulated, and Emily caved from embarrassment and guilt. Meanwhile Jake returned home to Fallon, Montana and she never saw or heard from him again. Over the years Emily has worked hard to prove to her peers and the people of Manitowoc, Wisconsin that, despite past mistakes, she is an upstanding young woman, one worthy of being a schoolteacher—and possibly Andy Anderson's wife. But even with the passing of time, Emily has never forgotten Jake and how he nearly ruined her life… And now he's a US deputy marshal and he’s back in town!

My Thoughts:  Every once in awhile I enjoy a more "slow" read about times past.  Threads of Love by Andrea Boeshaar is one of those reads.  By a slow read I mean one of those reads that takes you to the past and delves into peoples thoughts and actions...how they related and lived side by side.  Not the fast action of a murder mystery.

Emily Sundberg is a proper teacher.  But in her young teens when was quite the tomboy and loved hanging with the neighbor's grandson, Jake, who was visiting for the summer.  That summer is when "The Kiss" happened.  Not an on purpose kiss but a quite by accident your lips were in my space kind.of.kiss.

Emily thinks that Jake told all the neighbors about the kiss because rumors were started and Emily is both embarrassed and guilty.  So, Jake went back home but poor Emily is left in her hometown.  She sets out to prove that she has a good character and self discipline.  And so, she because a dedicated, straight laced school marm.

But guess who the handsome US deputy marshal is?  And he's back in town?!?!  you guessed correctly...it's Jake!  And boy.o.boy does Emily have a cold shoulder ready!

A fun romantic, light read with christian values and references.

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1621362396
• ISBN-13: 978-1621362395