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What if you met your twenty-three-year-old self in a dream? What would you say?

Brock Matthews’ once promising life is unraveling. His coffee company. His marriage.

So when he discovers his vivid dreams—where he encounters his younger self—might let him change his past mistakes, he jumps at the chance. The results are astonishing, but also disturbing.

Because getting what Brock wants most in the world will force him to give up the one thing he doesn’t know how to let go . . . and his greatest fear is that it’s already too late.

Fans of Back to the Future will love The Five Times I Met Myself.  The similarity between the main characters is uncanny, but it totally works for me – Back to the Future is one of my favorite movies!  Unlike the ’80s classic, however, Brock isn’t trying only to have a good time.  He’s trying to improve his life for the better in some really deep ways.  Perhaps it’s really more like a cross between Back to the Future and It’s a Wonderful Life.  Brock needs to learn what’s really important in life, and he realizes that he’s had his priorities out of whack for years.

The Five Times I Met Myself does get a little confusing near the end.  As Brock’s trips to the past keep rearranging his present, it gets a bit tricky to keep track of what’s happening in which timeline, but that only adds to the suspense.  I loved trying to figure out what would happen  next – and what Brock’s ultimate ending would be.  I never did figure it out, although when it came I felt that I should have known all along.

Brock seemed like a genuinely good guy.  I can understand his confusion when trouble first came his way.  His life wasn’t bad, it just wasn’t as abundant as it could’ve been.  Since Jesus clearly tells us that He has an abundant life planned for each of us, The Five Times I Met Myself is the perfect story to help the reader recognize the best.

That lesson resonates with me.  It’s far too easy to set your sights on the wrong goal.  It’s even easier to do so for what you think are the right reasons.  This book reminds us of what is really important, though, and it’s a lesson that many of us still need to learn.

Whether you like the time travel vehicle or not, there are a lot of interesting people in this story.  Many different scenarios emerge, and it’s interesting to see how Brock reacts to them all.  If you do enjoy time travel, however, The Five Times I Met Myself is definitely a book that should reside on your bookshelf.

Click here to read other reviews on this blog hop or here to purchase your own copy now.

James L. Rubart is a professional marketer and speaker. He is the author of the best-selling novel Rooms as well as Book of Days, The Chair, Soul’s Gate, Memory’s Door, and Spirit Bridge. He lives with his wife and sons in the Pacific Northwest.

Connect with James: website, Twitter, Facebook

I received a free copy of this book from LitFuse Publicity in exchange for an honest review.

We had big plans for Father’s Day.

We were going to take in a Durham Bulls’ game.  Have dinner at my husband’s favorite deli.  Maybe walk around Costco a bit – something he loves to do – and basically have a lazy family day.

But then a tree landed on our house.  We weren’t expecting that.

Instead, we were celebrating our anniversary – the one that happened a few weeks ago but for which the plans my husband wanted to make never worked out.  Grandparents were up for a kiddie weekend, though, and so we happily traveled to Durham Saturday for a quiet dinner and a movie.

Ironically, we watched a super-realistic movie about a natural disaster.

After a bit of shopping, we returned home – and when we were a few streets away, we started to see downed branches everywhere.  Somehow I knew that something had happened at home.

Unfortunately, I was right.  We pulled in near midnight to find that a tree had split and landed on the roof.

We tramped around in the dark, tripping over branches, trying to determine what sort of damage the house sustained.  In the end, we decided that since the windows weren’t broken and nothing seemed to be leaking, it was time for bed.  What could we do in the dark at midnight?

But daybreak came, and with it, the need to take action.  The windows remained intact, something that seemed miraculous in light of just how close to our large bay window the branches hit. 

So instead of a baseball game, my husband spent his afternoon outside with the chain saw, working to remove the tree from the roof.  In near 100 degree temperatures.

He wouldn’t let us help, or even be outside, for fear that we’d get hurt, so we watched him through the windows (as much as we could with a tree in front of them). 

So while we listened to the chain saw buzz and watched the branches be dragged away from the house, sad that DH had to work so hard on what was supposed to be his special day, we decided to count our blessings.

Because there were blessings to be found even though a tree landed on our roof:

• Not a single window broke.
• We weren’t home to be scared by the storm and the flying branches – because the house is surrounded by them.
• Although large branches fell all around the hives, the bees remain untouched – and were normally active today.
• Our new gutters are slightly dented, but they’re not pulled away from the roof – and there appears to be no roof damage.
• A big branch fell right where I park my car – but the car was safe, with us, in Durham.
• My husband’s car has not a scratch, even though it was parked between fallen branches and trees.
• Nobody was hurt.
• We enjoyed a date night out before getting the unpleasant there’s-a-tree-on-your-roof news.
• My husband was willing and eager to take care of us by removing as much of the tree as he could, and he protected us from flying branches and the heat.  Even though it was Father’s Day.
• We had a working chain saw to make the tree removal process easier.

So the day didn’t turn out at all like we planned, but it was good, anyway.  We grilled Sweet Chicken Bacon Wraps and served them with rice, salad, stir-fried broccoli, Mom’s Baked Corn, and fresh pineapple.  The kids made cards for their dad, and then they watched golf together for the rest of the evening.

So that’s how we handled the day a tree fell on our roof.  What would you do?

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 posts from last week were  Banana Bread Bites.

Some of my favorite posts from last week were:

– Benefits Of Honey On Skin

– Brownie Biscotti” – #TastyTuesday

– Homemade All-Natural Nourishing Liquid Hand Soap

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

Link up your family-friendly blog posts below. Please add our button to your post to link back to this one. Happy hopping!

I just received an email from the founders of Educents, Kate and Kaitlyn, with some really exciting news. Until today, Educents was a website for parents and educators to take advantage of daily deals. But those deals expired… And there were only 50 deals available at once… I wanted saving money to be even EASIER. Kate and Kaitlyn agreed. So they created the new Educents Marketplace. It’s even easier to discover affordable educational resources that make learning FUN!

Thousands of new products – Educents Sellers can now offer ALL of their bestsellers on the new Educents Marketplace. There’s a wide variety of worksheets, lesson plans, educational apps and toys. Shop The Young Scientists Club, Scholastic, Workman Publishing, Alpha Omega Publishing, Life of Fred books, hundreds of printable units created by educators, and more!

Offers that NEVER expire – Sellers can offer our favorite educational products year-round. Once a deeply discounted Daily Deal expires, you can still find that product available on Educents at the lowest price.

Discovery – It’s easier to search on Educents. Search for your kiddos’ interests like Minecraft or Frozen-inspired resources, and then sort by grade level, subject, brand, and more!

Follow your favorite brands and Sellers – The “Follow Me” feature lets me add my favorite Sellers to a list. Click the heart on the Seller Storefront. You can also see which Sellers are the most popular with other shoppers!

The Educents Marketplace is exactly what I want it to be — the best place for parents and educators to find the resources I NEED at an affordable price.

The birthday celebrations are still in full swing!  We’ve got surprises happening over the next few days, and we’re partying bigger than usual since this is a ‘monumental’ birthday complete with double digits.  How do you celebrate birthdays?

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 posts from last week were  Free Do-a-Dot Printables.

Some of my favorite posts from last week were:

– St. Patrick’s Day Party Games – Kids and Adults

– 40 Ways to Welcome Spring Birds – Child Led Life

– Baked Mozzarella Cheese Sticks – Do It All Working

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

Link up your family-friendly blog posts below. Please add our button to your post to link back to this one. Happy hopping!

An InLinkz Link-up

This picture of my dad, my grandmother, my firstborn, and I was taken ten years ago. 

Ten years ago today I was hanging out in the hospital for this future Big Helper’s birth.

When you have a baby, everyone tells you to make the most of it because the time will fly.

They’re wrong.

‘Flying time’ doesn’t begin to explain how very fast the years will disappear.

While some days – some phases – seem neverending, it seems that you miss whole years when you blink a single time.

And so today that’s where I sit – lost in wonder at this big girl, this tween, this girl on the threshold of growing up.  She’s grown and changed more in the past few months than I’ve seen in the past several years, and while these changes have always been expected, I never realized how quickly they would come.

It hit me the other day that we’re more than halfway through this parenting-of-kid-under-roof thing.  She’s already lived here for ten years and has only eight left.  Eight years of becoming an adult.  Ten years with the easy lessons of walking and talking and learning to read already gone and eight mature, weighty years left.

I don’t feel old until I consider that. 

I’m quite sure that I’m not ready to be the parent of a tween or a teen or an adult.  I’m glad that there’s a little time before all of that becomes official, but this birthday has been very hard for me.

My Big Helper is turning into an amazing girl.  She’s kind and helpful (obviously), complimentary and very hard working.  She’s tenacious and not afraid of trying new things, and I love spending time with her.  I’ve loved the past 9 weeks of bee school and the time that we’ve gotten to spend together.

Just as bee school is ending, however, so also is childhood – but maybe not yet.

Maybe we can still paint and play and bake together.

After all, it’s only double digits.

I remember visiting my great-grandparents as a kid and listening to them talking about the birds they were watching in their backyard.  They could see a huge tree from their rocking chairs, and they could always identify the birds they saw.  I admired how much they knew about the world around them.

On the other hand, there aren’t many birds that I can identify immediately.  Somehow bird identification never really crossed my educational radar, but my kids love it.  We keep animal identification books on hand, and they can often be seen flipping through them to find an animal that they’ve spotted through the window.

It’s really coming into play lately, though.  With the weather alternately warm and seriously cold, we’re seeing large amounts of birds in the backyard.

Then we realized that we could carefully sneak out the back door and onto the deck, which is elevated above much of the backyard.  From that vantage point we have been able to get some great pictures of the birds feeding all over the backyard.

Can you identify these birds?

Aren’t they beautiful?

Want to find some great bird identification resources?  Check these out:

Download this FREE bird coloring book from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.