Book Review: Unexpected Love

Title: Unexpected Love

Subtitle: God's Heart Revealed in Jesus' Conversations With Women

Author: Julie Zine Coleman

Unexpected Love is nine stories from the Bible in one book.  Each chapter focuses on one woman from the New Testament.  These women had in person encounter with Jesus.  They had life changing experiences when they met Christ.  The women featured in the book may be familiar and some may be new to you.  This is the chapter breakdown:

• Chapter One: John 2:1-11 (Jesus and Mary at the Wedding in Canaan)
• Chapter Two: Mark 5:21-34 (Jesus and the Hemorrhaging Woman)
• Chapter Three: Luke 7:36-50 (Jesus and the Sinful Woman)
• Chapter Four: Matthew 15:21-28 (Jesus and the Syrophoenician Woman)
• Chapter Five: John 7:53-8:11 (Jesus and the Adulterous Woman)
• Chapter Six: Luke 10:38-42 (Jesus and Martha)
• Chapter Seven: John 4:4-30 (Jesus and the Samaritan Woman)
• Chapter Eight: Matthew 20:20-28 (Jesus and Salome)
• Chapter Nine: John 20:1-18 (Jesus and Mary Magdalene)
  
  

Each chapter is broken into parts.  The author begins each chapter with the account from the NIV Bible that contains the conversation that Jesus had with the woman featured in that chapter.  The author then spends time summarizing and discussing the story.  There is then a Digger Deeper section which helps you to understand the culture and the times better and a Food for Thought section for a more intense Bible study.  There is even a section for personal journaling.

This is the kind of book that you need to read more than once.  You can get so much from the book that you will need to read it twice! Reading this book about Jesus' encounters in the Bible will change your relationship with HIm.  It will give you a deeper understanding and closer relationship with God.

The book is extremely well written not surprising since the author has an MA in Biblical Studies.  She also has a user friendly way of writing which may come from her background as a 20 year veteran teacher of children.

You can read more about the author on her website.  There are also free resources to use with this study at http://unexpectedlove.juliecoleman.org/ that would work well if you wanted to lead a small group or Bible study.

Disclaimer:  I received this book for free from Thomas Nelson Publishers through their BookSneeze program in exchange for an honest review.

A Broken Branch on the Family Tree

I have been spending time lately researching my family history.  I was inspired to find out more when I found my Great Grandmother's book a few weeks ago.  You can read about her book in this blog post.  I decided to start with a free trial on Ancestry.com.  I found out so many interesting facts about my ancestors.  The most interesting thing that I discovered was that my Great, Great Grandfather was murdered.  This is the newspaper article about it from October 11, 1917.  

The article is blurry and the lettering too small to read.  Below is a summary that I also found on the website. 

Roman Smith was murdered and his wife Mary gagged and severely beaten Oct 11, 1917 on his farm in East Brunswick NJ by four men. 

Mary was tied up and the house ransacked with the thieves stealing about $165 in cash, a small amount of jewelry and a shotgun from an upstairs bedroom.  They did not find a small safe which had been covered by an apron left by one of the daughters on her way to work.

Roman returned from the fields leading a horse where he was shot and killed in a small tool shed on the property.  His murder was discovered a short time later by his son Joseph as he also returned from his work in the fields.  The farm was located on the Milltown-South River Road near present day Ryders Lane.  A $500 reward was offered for the arrest of the murderers by Roman’s brother George.

Indicted for the crime were Salvatore Ferrella, Frank Laveri, Emanual Nepolitano and Antonio Ambruzzso.  Emanual Nepolitano, who was thought to be the principal in the crime was arrested in Weehawken NJ.  Durning the first week of April 1918 a trial was held in New Brunswick NJ at which time  Genario Palmieri (alias  Emanual Nepolitano), Mike De Palma and Frank Laveri were found guilty of the murder of Roman Smith and were sentenced to die in the electric chair on May 20, 1918.  Emanual Nepolitano was sentenced to 10-30 years for his part in the crime.  Salvatore Ferrella who was at first thought to be involved was released on $1000 bail, because , although he was not implicated in the murder was indicted on another charge of highway robbery.  Antonio Ambruzzso was still at large in April 1918.  On May 7,1918 Senator Hammond, a prominent Trenton attorney, asked for a stay of execution on behalf of Palameri, De Palma, and Laveri.

Summary written from a series of newspaper articles that appeared in the New Brunswick Home News, October 11,1917 and May 20, 1918.

The murdered man was my Great, Great Grandfather.  His son, Roman, Jr was my Great Grandfather.  He was married to my Great Grandmother Marie Oehl Smith who was the author of this book.  Roman and Marie had a son Linus, (along with almost a dozen other children) who was my Grandfather.  Linus Sr. was my father's father. My father is Linus Smith, Jr.

Roman Smith Sr

I am surprised that I have been on this earth for almost 38 years and this is the first I have heard of this tragic event in my family's history.  I wonder what else I will discover on my family tree?

Do A Dot

My son Lucas loves his Do A Dot markers.   We use them when he just wants to play but we also use them to help Lucas learn his letters.   He sits at his little table in the playroom and goes to town.  Anything that gets my son to sit still for more than a minute is a winner in my book!

He evens cleans up nicely when he is done.  We have a little bucket to hold the markers and a small tin pail that holds the caps while he is working.

We filled up our Do A Dot coloring books a while ago so I have searched on Pinterest for free printables for us to use. I have gathered all of my printables onto my pinterest board.

You can print all of these for your own use by clicking here.

First Chores then the Store

Sydney mopping the playroom floor

I may be breaking some child labor laws.  I am putting my seven year old to work.  It is a Win-Win for us.

I have taught her how to do several daily chores and I pay her to do them.  I get her to do some of my work and she gets some spending money.  She has also received a lesson on how much things cost and the value of hard work.

This is the chore list so far:

Make beds- 25 cents each

empty dishwasher- 25 cents

load dirty dishes into dishwasher- 25 cents

one load laundry from hamper to washer to dryer- 25 cents

fold and put away a load- 50 cents

sweep kitchen floor- 25 cents

mop floor- 50 cents

hand up coat and backpack after school- 25 cents

She saves her quarters in a bank.  When we go shopping she brings her quarters with her and can make a purchase.  We went out yesterday and she bought a toy at Five Below.  It helps her to understand how much things cost and it helps me since I don't need to listen to her constantly asking for me to buy her something.  It makes her think before she buys something.  Is it worth spending her money on it?

I am sure there are many opinions out there on this issue. Some may think that she is too young for chores.  Others may think that paying your child to help around the house is wrong, that she should just help without payment. 

Do your children do chores?  Do you pay them?  Any more chore suggestions for my chore list?

Pinterest Fun for Lucas

Have I mentioned lately how much I LOVE Pinterest?  

I have been using Pinterest a lot for Ella but this week I focused some projects for my 2 year old, Lucas.  

On Thursdays Lucas attends Puggles class which is a 2 year old class in Awana at our church.  My friend, Lindy, leads the class and she said they were learning that God made the animals.  She was going to review colors and animals by reading "Brown Bear, Brown Bear" By Eric Carle.   I wanted to make a game for them to play, enter Pinterest.  After a simple search, I found this printable matching game.  You can print your copy on this website.  I laminated them so that they can be used over and over.

At home, I have been working on the alphabet with Lucas.  We are trying to learn the names of the letters.  I am allergic to traditional Play Doh so I searched Pinterest for some alternatives.  You can read the recipe I used in this blog post.  We pulled out our Letter Shaped cookie cutters and Lucas went to town.

I can never be bored as long as there is Pinterest.  There is an unending number of projects on the site.  You can follow me on Pinterest by clicking on the button on the right hand side of this blog.

Apples and Trees

I am sure you have heard the old saying, "Apples don't fall far from the tree."  We say that a lot in our house.  

This picture of my son, Lucas during his nap today is a prime example:

First, Lucas loves to sleep.  This is a picture I took after he had been napping for 3 hours.  It was dinner time so I needed to get him up.  This little apple fell off his father's tree.  The Delmantos have an uncanny ability to sleep anytime and anywhere for any length of time.

Yes there are about 20 books in his crib.  He loves to read before he falls asleep.  This apple has fallen off of my tree.  I love to read and growing up I always had books in my bed.

As my little one, Ella, grows up, I wonder what tree she will have fallen off of.

Book Review: One Month to Love

Title: One Month to Love
Subtitle: 30 Days to grow and deepen your closest relationships
Author: Kerry & Chris Shook
Genre: Self-Help, Christian

One Month to Love is a self help book to guide you along the path towards closer relationships with the people that mean the most to you.  The book is broken down into 30 individual readings with the intent that you will read and focus on one reading each day for a month. 

 The 30 day timeframe is too short.  There is so much information in this book that I would suggest that one take 60 or 90 days rather than 30 to go through the book.  The suggestions are so in depth and helpful that it would be best to read the chapter one day and then spend the next day or two practicing what you read and journaling about it.  Each day includes questions at the end to challenge you to put into practice what you read.

I also thoroughly enjoyed the quotes at the beginning of each day.  They give quotes by various authors, poets, politicians, etc. The quotes align perfectly with the topic of the day and provoke further thought from the reader.

The authors cover the three most important human relations that one is likely to encounter: friends, marriage and parenting.  The title is a bit deceiving; I thought that the book was a marriage self-help.  I was excited when I began reading to see that the book focused on other important relationships.

The back of the book contains a helpful index that guides you to the sections of the book that cover the type of relationship that you are focusing.  So if you are looking for some encouragement as a parent, you can use the index to direct you to the relevant pages.

I recommend this book to everyone because there is not one person out there that has perfect relationships.  We all have areas that could be improved.

For more information about the authors, check out their website.


Disclaimer: I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review.