Uncategorized

Are you in a season of waiting—waiting for an answer from God, waiting for a change? Be encouraged by Tanika Fitzgerald’s new book, Miscarried Joy. Tanika transparently shares her deeply personal and disappointing experiences of losing her babies due to miscarriage. There were times when she felt God was the cause of her pain. Miscarried Joy has something for anyone who needs help pushing through incredible pain to conquer discouragement, walk in faith and birth their purpose. God’s delay in your life could be a set up for your greatest calling to be fulfilled.

Conquer discouragement with the help of Miscarried Joy and enter to win Tanika’s Hope Fulfilled Prize Pack.

 

One grand prize winner will receive:

• A copy of Miscarried Joy
• A prayer journal
• A three-month subscription to Faithbox

Enter today by clicking the icon below, but hurry! The giveaway ends on December 18. The winner will be announced December 19 on the Miscarried Joy blog.

Can Father Gilbert, who traded in his detective’s badge for an Anglican priest’s collar, champion the truth in time to stop more people from dying? Find out in Death in the Shadows, Paul McCusker’s new book releasing November 27. Pre-order a copy of Death in the Shadows and check the mystery-lover off of your Christmas list.

Join Paul in anticipation of Death in the Shadows by entering to win two books in the A Father Gilbert Mystery series (The Body Under the Bridge and Death in the Shadows)! Five winners will be chosen to receive the two-book sets. Click the image below to enter to win.

About the Book

 

When Father Gilbert became Anglican priest, he never expected he would be pulled into a different kind of mystery—the mystery of the spiritual world.

Attending a conference in a seaside town, he has yet another supernatural encounter, this time with a murdered girl who worked at a local massage parlor. Details of the murder lead Father Gilbert to approach the police with clues in common with other cases, bringing him into contact with a detective from his days with Scotland Yard.

Meanwhile, a local monastery has been vandalized, with grotesque images and profane graffiti defacing the altar and walls. The head of the monastery accuses the local sex-trade industry of retaliating against his outspoken stand against it. Then, one of the brothers at the monastery is found dead in the local red-light district. All evidence points to his having been a regular at a massage parlor—the same one where the murdered girl had worked. (Kregel, November 2016)

Learn more and purchase a copy here.

About the Author

Paul McCusker is creative director at Focus on the Family. He has sold more than a million books and twenty million audio dramas. His name is also heard daily on radio stations all over the world, and by at least two million listeners every weekend through the Adventures in Odyssey series. Learn more about him on his website and connect with him via Facebook.

In the fall of 1986 I entered Mrs. Aumiller’s class.

I started a new school that fall, and I was worried about it – a new school, a much longer bus ride with a change of buses midway, and few people that I knew in my class. 

It didn’t take long to know that it was going to be a great school year, though.

Mrs. Aumiller had short white hair and talked kindly, even through she often threatened to hang us up by our big toes and give us 40 lashes with a wet noodle.  The gleam in her eye always let us know she was kidding, but we never wanted to find out what she would do if we did misbehave.  We gathered for reading groups in a semi-circle of chairs at the front of the room and got new crayons each semester.  We did our work with fat blue pencils that didn’t have an eraser and recited poems from our English book in unison.  Six-year-old me loved When Daddy Fell Into the Pond.

If we finished our work early, she would take a black marker and draw a maze of wide lines on a piece of white construction paper, then instruct us to color it without letting two spaces of the same color touch.

At Christmas she wrapped her desk in that wide paper that looked like bricks and taught us how to make Christmas ornaments out of construction paper and glitter.  At Easter time we made big eggs and decorated them with lots of colors.

She started each day with a moment of silence, a throwback to the days when teachers began the day with prayer, and then the Pledge of Allegiance.

It was in her class that I met the people who became my best friends.

It was from her that I decided there was more to the teaching profession than dominating the giant chalkboards and controlling the box of chalk.

It was from Mrs. Aumiller that I first saw that school could be fun and teachers kind.

Mrs. Aumiller’s ideas were the first that I secretly hid away to use for that future day when I would have a classroom of my own.

A few years later I changed schools again, but Mrs. Aumiller kept track of me.  I’m not sure how it all happened, but we stayed in touch, and she – along with my also-amazing second-grade teacher – came to my wedding.  They both have faithfully sent Christmas cards to my family each winter for years now. 

My Christmas card list got a little shorter this week, though, when Mrs. Aumiller passed away.  She’s been sick for years now, and while I’m happy to know that she’s not suffering any more, it’s hard to know that she’s gone. 

She was an incredible teacher, and she taught more than 37 years’ worth of kids.

I’m so blessed for having been one of them.

We’ve had a big week full of outdoor plans – and been attacked by allergies, too!  When not actively enjoying our outside time, we’re hiding from pollen and trying to keep symptoms under control.  That’s why I’m super happy to have all of the wonderfully creative ideas from the Hearts at Home Blog Hop so close at hand!

A Nest in the Rocks is now one of the co-hosts for the weekly Hearts for Home Blog link-up, which means that every Thursday you’ll find lots of great tips, recipes, and other family-friendly ideas listed throughout this post. If you’re a blogger, we’d love to have you link up your posts and join us. You can find information about the other co-hosts of this hop here.

The most clicked post from last week was Homeschooling Multiple Ages? Simplicity Is the Key to Success.

Some of my favorite posts from last week were:

– A Simple Way to Track Grades and Create Transcript 

– My Favorite Homemade Lemonade Recipe 

– Simple Nacho Potato Casserole | Fluster Buster 

If your post is listed above, please grab one of our ‘Featured Blogger’ buttons! Congratulations, and thanks for writing such inspiring posts.

A female bodyguard plus her star NFL client plus danger equals a great recipe for romance! Her One and Only, book four in Becky Wade’s Porter Family novels, releases May 3. To celebrate, Becky is hosting an author chat party on her Facebook page on May 5 at 5 PM PDT/8 PM EDT. Join Becky for an evening of book chat with other bookworms and prizes.

Plus a portion of all pre-sales and sales the release week of Her One and Only will be donated to the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund. For more details on how to purchase a copy, click here.

About the Book

After ten years in the NFL, super star Gray Fowler is accustomed to obsessive fans. But when Gray starts receiving death threats from a stalker, his team hires an executive protection agency to guard him until the culprit is caught. Dealing with bodyguards 24/7 is a headache, especially when one of them is a young, beautiful woman. How can a female half his size possibly protect him better than he can protect himself?

Dru Porter is a former Marine, an expert markswoman, and a black belt–none of which saved her from disaster on her last assignment. In order to rebuild her tarnished reputation, she’s determined to find Gray’s stalker and, since relationships between agents and clients are forbidden, avoid a romantic attachment between herself and the rugged football player with the mysterious past.

Yet every secret that leads Dru closer to the stalker also draws her closer to Gray. As the danger escalates, they’ll survive only if they can learn to trust their lives — and their hearts — to one another.

Learn more and purchase a copy.

The weather’s getting hotter, strawberries are ready, and summer’s nearly here!  Our focus is changing – we’re nearing the end of our regular school year and are looking forward to our summer schedule.  How about you?

A Nest in the Rocks is now one of the co-hosts for the weekly Hearts for Home Blog link-up, which means that every Thursday you’ll find lots of great tips, recipes, and other family-friendly ideas listed throughout this post. If you’re a blogger, we’d love to have you link up your posts and join us. You can find information about the other co-hosts of this hop here.

The most clicked post from last week was When Art & Nature Journals Collide – A Nest in the Rocks.

Some of my favorite posts from last week were:

– 25 DIY Lavender Essential Oil Projects

– Oreo Cookie Desserts

– DIY Essential Oil Detangler

If your post is listed above, please grab one of our ‘Featured Blogger’ buttons! Congratulations, and thanks for writing such inspiring posts.

We’re having a slow-evening week, and I’m excited to have more evenings at home!  I’m looking forward to doing more cooking that we’ve had happening lately amid all the craziness.  Do you prefer to be out and about or at home with your family?

So with that, I’ll probably be turning some of these leftovers into new dishes for the freezer and using others to eat for lunches.

What do you have going on this week?

Breakfast:

• Breakfast parfaits with fruit and Cinnamon Almond Granola
• Overnight Cinnamon Rolls
• Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies
• Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins

Dinner:

• Spaghetti with Easy Bolognese Sauce and salad
• Roasted turkey, mashed potatoes, Mom’s Baked Corn, Simple Slow Cooker Stuffing, applesauce
• Crispy Honey Chicken with rice and stir-fried veggies
• Slow Cooker Wild Rice Soup
• 4-H Dinner out
• Leftovers

I’m going to give these Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies a try this week, too.

What are you eating this week?

For more Menu Plan Monday, visit OrgJunkie.

I’m not sure what happened last week.

I cooked, I really did, but somehow I didn’t make many of the things on the plan.

So – here’s to Take Two.

Breakfast:

• Breakfast parfaits with fruit and Cinnamon Almond Granola
• Cinnamon Bread and fruit
• Healthy Breakfast Cookies

Dinner:

• Daddy/daughter & Mommy/Son dinner dates
• Spaghetti with Easy Bolognese Sauce and salad
• Meatball Sub Bubble Bake, salad
• Chicken with Lemon Cream Sauce over rice with roasted carrots, salad
• Slow-cooker Tomato Soup with sandwiches
• Leftovers
• Valentine’s Day:  Family Grilled Cheese Sandwich Competition

What are you eating this week?

For more Menu Plan Monday, visit OrgJunkie.

Merry Christmas from our Nest to yours!

We’ll be spending time together as a family over the next week or so, but we’ll be back soon with fun ideas, books, field trips, and recipes.  Until then, we wish you the merriest of Christmases.