TITLE:  HOW TO SQUEEZE A LEMON: 1,023 Kitchen Tips, Food Fixes, and Handy Techniques 

AUTHORS:  FINE COOKING MAGAZINE

PUBLISHER: THE TAUNTON PRESS

PUBLISH DATE: 11/09/2010

MY THOUGHTS:As a working mom of 6, I am all about tips and shortcuts in the kitchen.  This book is chock full of tips and tricks.  It is not necessary to read it in one sitting, it is easy to flip few a few pages as you find the time.  Many of these tips I had already discovered but several new ones I have incorporated into my cooking routine now.   My favorite tip was: use to the bottom edge of a ceramic coffee mug to sharpen your kitchen knives, I LOVE this tip, so easy and practical. I use it nearly every day.  Some other great tips are:  Protect your magazine while cooking by inserting it into a gallon-size zip-top bag, use a spoonful of flour keeps raisins from sinking, and use marbles to warn you when boiling water is too low. There are many solutions to problems that frequently arise when meal planning, this book is filled with enough tips to assure that you will find one to solve most every kitchen dilemma. The book has seven sections covering: kitchen gear, fruits/vegetables, meat/fish/poultry, techniques, the pantry, wine/beer, and what to do when things go wrong. 

Author: Wanda E. Brunstetter

Publisher's Synopsis: Bestselling author Wanda E. Brunstetter brings you three historical stories of finding room for love. Glenna Moore is desperate after she watches her gambling father jump hurriedly from the back of a moving train. Will a young reverend bring stability and love back into her life? Judith King’s life as a new schoolteacher takes an unexpected turn when a widowed father begins to captivate her thoughts. Will she muster enough courage to seek his love? Bev Winters’s job is an answer to prayer until her boss complicates her widowed life. Will her pride allow love after loss?

Title: Lazarus Awakening Author: Joanna Weaver My Thoughts: Joanna Weaver has a gift. Weaver’s conversational writing is so easy to read; however, her words impacted my heart deeply. She uses the biblical story of Lazarus and how Jesus raised him from the dead to encourage her readers to delve deeper into a love relationship with the Lord. We need to invest time into that relationship so we can hear His voice and in return He will set us free from mediocre living, and give us an abundant life. We need to surrender ourselves completely to Him in order to move into that new life. I find this the hard part, letting go. Weaver said that we need to relax and just let Jesus love us. Stop trying so hard and just let go, choose to believe that He loves us unconditionally.

Author: Sandy Coughlin

Publisher's Synopsis: Real Entertaining for Real People

True hospitality is not about being perfect, cooking a fancy meal, or spending a lot of money. Rather, it's about an open door and an open heart. Rather, it's about an open door and an open heart. Popular blogger Sandy Coughlin offers a simple but savvy approach to help women break free of the anxieties that keep them from opening their homes. Emphasizing the forgotten goal of entertaining--connecting deeply with others--she shows how women can use the gifts and talents God gave them to reach out in love.

Title: 14 Secrets to Better Parenting: Powerful Principles from the Bible

Author: Dave Early

Publisher: Barbour Publishing, Inc.

I enjoyed this book.  Dave Earley bases his “14 Secrets” from the Bible’s book of Proverbs. From “Concentrate on Wisdom” to “Help Them Experience God for Themselves,” these principles will help every parent learn use scriptures of the Book of Proverbs to raising successful children.  Each Secret has a “A Look in the Mirror” section at the end to allow readers to do a self-evaluation on how the reader is currently applying the biblical examples of parenting as taught in the Book of Proverbs.

The section that most applied to me was “The Four Perils of Folly”.  I have been been researching how to help my children overcome a poor example of foolishness  that was present in my former marriage. Mr. Early spoke directly to my heart regarding this area and I believe it accurately describes foolishness and the ramifications of parenting with “folly” and then offers ways to overcome it.

The author continuously quotes scripture from Proverbs to keep his teaching scripture based. I highly recommend this book for newer Christians and especially parents that love application of scripture.

This book will be available on or near April 1, 2011.

(Disclaimer:  I received a digital copy of this book free of charge in exchange for my honest opinion.)

Yippee!  Our taxes are filed!  It took about a total of 9 minutes for me to run through the amazing TurboTax program.  I used the TurboTax last year so it was a breeze.  It imported all our information, yes all seven of our deductions along with social security numbers, employers and even pin number for the IRS. We E-filed free too. If you are looking for a tax program give TurboTax a try.  Best of all, I received the TurboTax Basic free in the mail as a thank you for using their program last year.

TITLE: Why God Matters

AUTHORS: Karina Lumbert Fabian and Deacon Steven Lumbert

PUBLISHER: Tribute Books

PURCHASE: at Amazon

MY THOUGHTS:  The authors of Why God Matters encourage new believers to “recognize the constant presence of God within them.”  This book shares their own experiences and their own journeys to spirituality while encouraging others to continue to delve deeper in the search for Why God Matters to the reader.  This book is good for those pondering taking that extra step.  No opinions or doctrines are pushed at the reader, just stories of encouragement.

CONNECT:

• Karina Fabian Facebook
• Karina Fabian Twitter
• Karina Fabian Blog
• Tribute Books Twitter
• Don’t forget to check out the other blogs participating in this blog tour.  You can check them out here.

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book free of charge in exchange for my honest opinion.

I am a lipstick girl.  Well, actually I am makeup minimalist but I like a touch of color on my lips but the sticky glossy stuff is just nasty,  so I was extremely excited to try the new Cover Girl Lip Stain.

I am a working mom of six and watching my spending is extremely important to me.  I splurged on this one and may I say... WHAT A TOTAL WASTE OF MONEY! Major disappointment.

I take the safety seal off to see a precision tip,that looks like a Crayola Marker, and it smells like a Scented Crayola Marker.

I go ahead and try to evenly color in my lips, but it just seems too light and the tip dries. I squeeze the marker (lipstain) and nothing happens. I shake it, turn it upside down, let it rest upside down with the cap on and nada, nothing, zip! Finally after about ten minutes I try again and it works. I gave it about ten coats so I see a little color. Okay, I am sorta satisfied. Maybe it was just having trouble because it was new.  I look in the mirror ten minutes later– GONE!!!! What a WASTE!  There were tiny blotches and a faint lipliner outline, but that's about it. Advertised as "A lightweight flush of cover that won't smudge or budge" I expected it to stay put as promised. It did not.  I trashed it after repeating this process for about three days.

Cover Girl you let me down!!

Non-toxic, odorless, water-based, hypo-allergenic? Yeah, right! Okay I will try it. My three girls will put it to the test. When I received this product for review my three girls went WILD! We were gifted a yellow polish and a bottle of polish remover. All three girls LOVED the polish. There was absolutely no offensive odor at all. None, nope, nada. I was very impressed. The polish lasted as long as regular polishes too.

What impressed me the most was the polish remover! No smell at all! It was awesome! And safe to boot. I usually do not remove my little ones polish I let it wear off because of the chemicals and odor of the remover. This product is truly amazing. Non-toxic, odorless, water-based, hypo-allergenic how can it be any better than that? As a cancer survivor I am cautious what products we use, I can feel very confident with this product. From a mom of six to every mom out there...this is definitely worth it.

Piggy Paint has given a gift certificate for us to giveaway as part of our Launch Party. You can try to win it here. And don't forget to rsvp for the Twitter Party where we will announce the winners!