New Beginnings

 

I have been MIA for quite some time from here. I have been busy working full time and taking care of my three teenagers full time. I am in the process of a divorce after being married for 16 years. I never thought I would be here. If you were to go through this blog and you read some of the things I have posted in the past, you might not ever have thought I would be here either. It is a prime example of you just never know what is going on behind closed doors. I was never physically abused but I am so happy to be out of a marriage in which I (and my children) were consistently neglected except for on the rare occasion that he wanted to tell everyone what a great person he was so he would do something grand so he could show off what an "amazing" person he was. It is also a lot easier to be a single parent when you are actually a single parent and there isn't that disappointment or stress that the person you were relying on being your partner and teammate just stays checked out. I am so much happier on my own and I can't wait to get back to who I used to be before he stole all of my joy through emotional abuse and neglect. That part of my life is in the past, and this part of my life is something I really missed. So I will be back here posting reviews again. It will probably be mostly book reviews since that is my main source of entertainment, but I will probably write some other reviews as well, and post about any travels that occur. I may also write about my journey into being a single woman in my 40's with three teenagers, two cats, and a dog. I am so glad to back!

Messy Beautiful Love by Darlene Schacht Review + Giveaway

Disclosure of material connection- I was provided a copy of the book from the publisher via the Family Christian Stores Blogger program. I was not required to write a positive review and all opinions stated are 100% my own.

About the book (from Goodreads)-

"Messy Beautiful Love" delivers an incredible testimony of grace that offers hope for today's marriages and a spark for rekindling love.

Love gets messy.

Financial problems, sickness, aging parents, a chronically unhappy spouse . . . trials will inevitably come that threaten your marriage. No matter how long you've been married or how strong your relationship is, sooner or later you are going to have a mess to clean up.

"Messy Beautiful Love" is about cleaning up messes God's way, exchanging your ideas for His, and being prepared for both the best and the worst that marriage has to offer.

When you surrender your relationship to God, then and only then will you experience the blessing of marriage as He intended. This is the blessing of obedience. "Messy Beautiful Love" is an invitation to that obedience. The cynical world says marriages don't last, but God knows better. Tune out the world and tune in to Him. When you do that, a beautiful marriage is not only possible, it's inevitable.

My thoughts-

I think it is important to continually read books about relationships, whether that be books about parenting, books about marriage or books about a relationship with God. It is vital to continually seek to improve all of these relationships and reading other people's points of view or advice is a great way to get a fresh or insightful look on things. Most books about relationships are written by people who seem like they really have it together which is totally great, but sometimes it is nice to come across a book with a person who feels more real. Who has had their downfalls. Who humbly shares their mistakes in order encourage other couples to persevere in their marriage and to continually work on it together with your spouse. Darlene Schacht definitely does that in Messy Beautiful Love: Hope and Redemption for Real-Life Marriages. It is evident throughout the book that Mrs. Schacht feels lead to share her testimony to encourage other couples in their relationship. There are plenty of illustrations of personal stories from Schacht's life, and great lessons tied into the telling of these stories. One of the things I like best about this book is the challenge at the end of each chapter to think about and apply to your relationship with your husband, as well as some great prayers to pray about your marriage. This would make a good book for a newlywed and a more seasoned wife alike. We can all take away lessons from this great book to apply to our marriages!

About the author-

Darlene Schacht is writer of the popular Time-Warp Wife blog and is the original founder of Christian Women Online Magazine and the Internet Cafe Devotions. She also co-authored Reshaping It All: Motivation for Physical and Spiritual Fitness with Candace Cameron Bure. She and her husband Michael have been married for more than 25 years. Together they have 4 children.

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http://messybeautifullove.com/

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Little Book of Great Dates by Dr. Greg & Erin Smalley (Book Review)

Disclosure- I received a free copy of the book from Tyndale House Publishers via the Tyndale Blog Network in exchange for my honest thoughts. I was not required to write a positive review and all opinions stated are 100% my own.

I think that anyone in a relationship, especially in a marriage, knows how important it is to give each other our time. When we add kids into the mix, that becomes super hard and sometimes gets put to the side. Our children need to see us have a good relationship with our spouse, and I think it is particularly important that they see us try to have time as husband and wife without the kids in tow. Working on our relationship with our spouse should be a good example to them of how a marriage should work and important part of a marriage is keeping connected with one another.

Sometimes it is hard carving out the time to just be together with your spouse one on one. Sometimes it is just mundane doing the same old dinner and movies date, so I was super excited to have the opportunity to read the Little Book of Great Dates by Dr. Greg & Erin Smalley. I thought it was appropriate that this was written by a husband and wife team, since it is meant to bring couples together. This little book (it's a pocket sized little treasure you could certainly keep on the nightstand) is packed with 52 creative date night ideas. Some are more creative than others, but all are designed to get husband and wife talking, reminiscing, planning for the future, enjoying each other's company and learning new things about one another. My husband and I do not have the means to have a date night every week at this moment, but some of these could easily be done at home and if not, I have dog eared many pages of the dates I found to be the most interesting. I plan to have my husband go through it as well and tell me which ones he would like to do the most! The book is intended to start at the beginning of the year with the first date idea and progress until you have come to the end of that year. I am excited to begin these dates with my husband, so I will probably start with the ones I am most interested in and then begin again with the first one in the book in January. I would highly recommend this little book full of great dates to any married couple seeking to stay connected and enjoy each other's company to the full extent. I don't want to give away the date nights here, so you will be surprised when you read the book yourself! I have to say with the holidays coming up, that this little book is the perfect size to fit in your spouse's stocking. :)

You can purchase a copy of Little Book of Great Dates on Amazon.com