After reading By Darkness Hid, Jill Williamson became one of my favorite authors instantaneously.  I was so excited to see her first novel win a Christy – it was entirely deserviced.  I have read a great deal of fantasy over the course of my reading career, but I can say without a doubt that the Blood of Kings series is everything that an epic fantasy novel should be.  Better yet – the author’s Christian approach to fantasy imbue the work and character with great integrity, honor, and struggles that lead them closer to their one-god (called Arman in this world).

To Darkness Fled, the sequel and middle book of the trilogy, is everything I hoped for, and more. Classified as a young adult novel, it is still an incredible read for fantasy-loving adults as well! Williamson’s characters continue to become fuller and richer, growing in likeability.

Picking up where By Darkness Hid left off, the story follows Vrell, Achan, and their renegade party into Darkness, where no sun shines.  Fleeing from the false prince Esek Nathak they are relentlessly pursued by bounty hunters and the allies of the impostor who has formally seized Achan’s rightful place as King of Er’Rets.  Battles ensue, rescues take place, armies are raised, and Vrell continues to masquerade as a humble lad while growing fonder, and fonder of the rightful (yet still displaced) King.

One of the most delightful aspects of To Darkness Fled is that Williamson rarely needs to concoct conflict for Achan and Vrell – they make it for themselves; it springs intrinsically from them as they stumble over their own faults and innate character flaws as their struggle towards maturity.  Many times other authors seem to be flinging unnecessary obstacles in the path of two characters finding one another, but Achan and Vrell do a great job of this themselves….no matter how frustrating it is to me as a reader!  Still, I can see how any pat resolutions at this point would be so contrived, and not true to the characters.

Williamson has also crafted one of the most realistic transitions from displaced hero-boy to a fledgling King that I have ever read.  The growth of Achan from a heroic stray into coming to understand his place in the world as Arman’s chosen sovereign is skillfully wrought, and therefore entirely believable.  We are also treated to a deeper understanding of how Arman and His Son Caan parallel YWH and His Son Yeshua as we see Achan growing in his knowledge of Er’Rets’ one-God.

The only frustration is that the story ends with a cliffhanger – of course!  But still, now that the third, and final installment in the trilogy is completed, readers won’t have to wait to get their next dose of Vrell and Achan in.  I know I certainly can’t!  Fans of Christian fantasy owe it to themselves to check out this series – they won’t be disappointed!

CLICK HERE TO BUY NOW AT CHRISTIANBOOK.COM OR AMAZON.COM!

Parents have a strong propensity to believe that the coming generation is much more decayed than their own generation.  In certain respects this can be true, but when we look at history we can see that evil, temptation, and sin have been with us from the beginning (after the fall in any case!)  So, realistically, I understand that my children do not face any temptation that has not existed since sin entered this world.  However, reading about current youth trends does send a shiver up my back.

In fact, I feel victim to many of these trends myself as a teenager, and I can only hope that my own children will be able to avoid going the same way. I hope that with my careful guidance, and above all – God’s grace – we can steer clear of ever needing to send my children off to a teen drug detox facility.  While I stumbled into drug use and had symptoms very similar to those found in teen borderline personality disorder during my high school years, God saw fit to deliver me and restore some stability to my life as I came out of the difficult years of puberty.

It is my most sincere prayer that we can guide our children through the difficult teenage years and that we can be an ongoing source of love, support, stability, and counsel for them.  I’m blessed to be with them each day and hope that the relationships we are establishing now will see us through the (potentially) stormy seas ahead.

CONTEST CLOSED!

Congratulations to Beth Shepherd!  You have won a copy of this EXCELLENT DVD!  Enjoy!  I have just emailed you.  Please get in touch within 72 hours so we can have this sent out for you in time for Easter!

With Passover (and Easter) rapidly approaching, believers are finding our hearts drawn more and more towards the cross and Christ’s sacrifice for us.  Our family recently had the opportunity to share Christ’s sacrificial death and resurrection with our children through See The Light’s unique DVD, The Crossmaker (received to review).

Presenting the story of Jesus’ death and resurrection through art, children are introduced to the storyteller (a loving grandfather) and the youngsters that he shares the story with.  These characters are live action, but as the story is told, it is presented in chalk art drawings with the camera panning in, moving etc. across the art as appropriate.  The expressions on the faces of the children as they watch their grandfather speak resembled those of my own children.  The children and grandfather appear from time to time as the story progresses, and they share some short devotional thoughts at its conclusion.

This was such a wonderful, gentle, and authentic way to share Jesus’ death with my small ones.  They were absolutely awed and have spoken so often of Jesus, the soldiers, and much more in the days that have followed.  Even my toddler has exhibited so much more understanding than she had before.  As wonderful as this portrayal of the cross is, there is even SO much more on this DVD.

Children can watch a chalk artist create a piece of art that shows Christ’s sacrifice for us (both with a nd without commentary).  Even though this was around half-an-hour in length, my children couldn’t take their eyes off it.  They watched it once with the accompanying worship music, and another time with the artist’s commentary, and were absolutely fascinated both times.  My two-year-old grabbed a piece of chalk and had at a piece of construction paper with it!

There are even three separate art lessons – each around thirty minutes in length.  One is a lesson on lettering, which includes a calligraphic style rendering of the word “Glory” with an illuminated letter – beautiful.  Another is a chalk pastel drawing of two women approaching the empty tomb, and another is a mixed media lesson with watercolors/maker/pastel.

My eight-year-old completed the mixed media lesson, resulting in the relation of a beautiful piece of artwork showing the three crosses on a hill.  She did it all herself too!  After assembling the supplies, she sat down in front my laptop on the kitchen table with the DVD in it, paused when appropriate, and made it independently!  This DVD has really re-kindled her passion for art; the step-by-step demonstrations and instructions are absolutely wonderful.  She is planning to save up some money to purchase the other DVD in the series – The Gift of Love.

When you visit their website you’ll see that they have these DVDs available in sets with the special black-light art supplies and small black-light for adding the black-light touches included in each of the art lessons.  These are optional though, and my daughter has been following the lessons without using black light supplies because we don’t have them on hand (yet).

I CANNOT recommend these DVDs enough.  Our entire family is absolutely in love with them, all of our children who are out of the baby stage (2, 5, 8), through to my husband and I.  You really need to experience these excellent (and professionally produced) DVDs for yourself.  They are simply beautiful.

I also hope to check out some of their art curriculum on DVD.  If my daughter is so eager to follow along with the art instruction included on The Crossmaker, I think art would actually get done if we had a DVD-based curriculum like this for her to follow!

SPECIAL OFFER! If you visit the See the Light website you can sign up for a free copy of their first art curriculum DVD!

You can also find See the Light on twitter and youtube.

I’m thrilled to be hosting a giveaway for this DVD, it is simply amazing!

CLICK HERE TO BUY NOW AT AMAZON.COM!

CONTEST DETAILS:

I have 1 copy of The Crossmaker DVD to give away to one blessed winner in the US!   To enter, visit See the Light and let me know your favorite thing about their website!

For additional entries:

1. Subscribe to this blog for updates – see the left hand sidebar. Leave an additional comment letting me know you’ve subscribed (or if you already subscribe).

2. Write a post on your blog promoting and linking to this contest. Leave an additional comment with a link to your post.

3. Add the Quiverfull Family button (see the code box in the right hand sidebar under BUTTON UP!) to your blog’s sidebar, or let me know if you already have the button displayed. Leave an additional comment with a link to your post.

4. Digg, Stumble, Tweet, Facebook or otherwise share this post on a social networking site. Leave an additional comment indicating how you shared this post.

5. Follow me on Twitter or let me know if you are an existing follower.

Each additional step taken counts for 1 additional entry. A total of 6 entries are available if you complete all of these steps. Please leave a separate comment for each entry!

The contest will close at 12 a.m. MST on Monday, April 18th, 2011. One (1) winner will be randomly drawn for this book on Tuesday, April 19th, 2011 and notified by email. Please fill your email address in the comment form when you are completing your comment so that I can contact you. The winners must respond with a mailing address within 72 hours of my email, or a new winner will be chosen. This contest is open to those living in the US!

You’ve seen them, those chatty ‘girlfriends-guide-to-having-a-baby’ type books.  But you’ve wondered – are these books going to be unnecessarily crude?  Raunchy?  Worse?  Well, Erin MacPherson has written a similarly light-hearted guide to pregnancy entitled The Christian Mama’s Guide to Having a Baby.

Laugh-out-loud funny, MacPherson tackles the nitty-gritties of pregnancy in chronological order while providing the much-needed levity every pregnant mama needs to hang in there!  Bonus sections include thoughts and advice to husbands from husbands who’ve been there (I loved this part!)  Like many Guideposts titles, the faith emphasis isn’t particularly strong in this title, but the author does acknowledge the difficulties pregnant moms face maintaining a godly attitude.  She often directs moms towards their Creator as a source of support during the difficulties pregnancy can bring.

I enjoyed the fact that MacPherson does attempt to include some coverage of alternative caregivers such as midwives, birthing locations such as birth centers etc. although she hasn’t personally experienced them.  Having given birth at home four times I found her take on the medical aspects of pre-natal care and delivery to be fairly traditional and at times unfairly skewed in favor of medicated hospital births (she warns about the risks of preventable injuries that have occurred in home births, but what of all the common, preventable negative outcomes so common in hospital births?)

I’ll admit, I’m a rabid natural-birther, so it’s hard to please me on that front; I do suggest moms-to-be do some intensive research on the consequences and risks of common interventions (such as epidurals) before plunging into one.  Complications following an epidural can too often lead to a c-section.  Whew, okay, rant over!  In all honesty, the author does a better job of presenting alternatives than most do.

That being said; there’s few other times in your life that you’ll need to be able to laugh at yourself than when you are pregnant.  Not only does MacPherson provide those much-needed chuckles, but she also provides REALISTIC advice about how much baby gear you should actually buy, some tips on avoiding nausea (though she freely admits it may be likely that you CAN’T), and lots of other down-to-earth advice from the trenches.

CLICK HERE TO BUY NOW AT CHRISTIANBOOK.COM OR AMAZON.COM!

Well, my poor little princess is having even more spring allergies.  It’s not only the cow, it’s….spring!  I suspect it is the molds that are being uncovered after the long, wet winter.  Her typical eating spot is beside our door, and whenever it opens she starts sharp inhalations and has a hard time getting her breath.  Windy days are the worst.  I’m so thankful for the breathing oil we have to rub on her chest, it is a life-saver and helps us to get her breathing difficulties under control at difficult times of year.  It has never been as bad as it is this year for her.  I feel for my little munchkin.

If you feel led, we appreciate prayers for her to get through this high-allergy season comfortably .

Have you ever received great custom envelopes in the mail?  Sometimes I get the cutest ones sent to me; more often though, it is the labels that are adorable.  I am just blown away by the cuteness of those labels that show each member of the family in a stick figure type style.  A stick mom, dad, and assorted children of various sizes, genders, and hair colors.  The cuteness.  I’ve never been able to bring myself to buy them for us though.  We don’t send enough personal mail to justify it, and we’d likely have a new addition to our family before we could get them all used up!

I also like to receive free promotional engraved pens in the mail, but that is more because I have a hard time keeping track of pens, and need a lot of them around in order to have one when I need it.  My children tend to wander away with mine, so I can use all of the pens I can get my hands on!  Amsterdam Printing offers all sorts of personalized items if you are looking for them.  Did you know you can buy your own custom printed Rubiks Cubes?  Neither did I until I visited their website.

For the past few days our little allergy queen has been manifesting far more hives than she usually does.  It has been happening several times a day and we’ve been trying to narrow down the cause.

I think we have it.

A few days ago her cow Alpha (our milk cow) gave birth to a little bull calf, now named Buster (our traditional name for critters destined for beef.)  Our daughter has been out there several times a day visiting with him, and whenever she comes back to the house she has a fresh crop of itchy hives.  It is nowhere as near as severe as her allergy to bunnies (that is horrific!) but it’s still something we’ll need to keep an eye on.

Poor darling.

Small start-up businesses (such as many small family enterprises) often find themselves in need of promotional materials, but have very small budgets to work with.  The best prices for promotional materials can always be found when you are able to purchase large quantities of promo items, but sometimes that large initial investment is just out of reach.

Paying more per item, but needing to order in smaller quantities can be made a bit more palatable when you know about Vistaprint coupons. Vistaprint coupon codes – like those found at Best Online coupons – can be used for free shipping, free rubber stamps, free t-shirts, and their now well known offer for free business cards.

Of course we all realistically know that there’s no such thing as a free ride.  Even with the proliferation of Vistaprint coupons, the company still needs to make some money, right? There are often shipping and handling fees applied to the free offers, but buy and large, you still end up paying less than you would at your local office supply box store for the same kinds of items.  (Especially business cards, I’m always surprised to see how much they want for those locally!)

We’re in Canada, so the higher shipping costs don’t really work out for us here, so if you have personal experience with Vista Print, chime in here!

It is time for a FIRST Wild Card Tour book review! If you wish to join the FIRST blog alliance, just click the button. We are a group of reviewers who tour Christian books. A Wild Card post includes a brief bio of the author and a full chapter from each book toured. The reason it is called a FIRST Wild Card Tour is that you never know if the book will be fiction, non~fiction, for young, or for old…or for somewhere in between! Enjoy your free peek into the book!

You never know when I might play a wild card on you!

and the book:

Every Single Woman’s Battle

WaterBrook Press; Workbook edition (August 16, 2005)

***Special thanks to Staci Carmichael, Marketing and Publicity Associate, Doubleday Religion/ / Waterbrook Multnomah, Divisions of Random House, Inc. for sending me a review copy.***

Shannon Ethridge is a wife, mother, international speaker, and certified life coach. She is the author of numerous books, including the million-copy best-selling Every Woman’s Battle and Completely His. She has been featured on many radio and television broadcasts. Shannon is most passionate about her role as best friend to her husband of more than twenty years, Greg, and cheerleader to their two children, Erin and Matthew.

Visit the author’s website.

Remaining pure while single isn’t easy in a culture that encourages a woman to use her body to gain power, respect, and personal fulfillment. The longing for emotional and physical connection can gradually and subtly lead you into compromises you never intended to make. But you can resist the pressures—or reclaim your purity—by building a strong foundation of integrity.

This book, ideal for study with Every Woman’s Battle, is designed specifically for single women and will give you the tools you need to resist temptation and discover true fulfillment.

Product Details:

List Price: $11.99
Paperback: 144 pages
Publisher: WaterBrook Press; Workbook edition (August 16, 2005)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1400071275
ISBN-13: 978-1400071272

AND NOW…THE FIRST CHAPTER:

CLICK HERE TO BUY NOW AT CHRISTIANBOOK.COM OR AMAZON.COM!

West Palm Beach, Florida is a great place to retire, but my husband and I have no such plans.  Instead of retreating to one of the many luxury retirement communities available, we are planning a much different path.

When we read the scriptures we do not see the elderly retreating from the rest of the world, instead we see them actively involved in decision-making (at the gates), in mentorship of the upcoming generations (Titus 2), and in rejoicing over their children and grandchildren.

Just as my own maternal grandparents have done, we plan to stay close to our offspring and help them however we can.  We are so thankful that our older family members remain actively engaged in our lives and in our children’s lives as well.  It is one of the main reasons we are still in Alberta!  In light of that, we certainly couldn’t run off to Florida to heed the call of luxury senior living.

I have to admit though…the weekly housekeeping, linen services (sheet changes!), 20-30 meals/month AND breakfasts, are all very tempting.  Still, I wouldn’t miss out on being near my potential future grand-babies for anything!  Not even the free appetizers in the lounge each evening.