Book Review: Everyday Watercolor by Jenna Rainey

This book is full of beautiful examples and wonderful details for painting with watercolors. The author includes details on color theories and drawing techniques. She also included many time saving techniques such as what to do to prepare for next steps in painting while waiting for paint to dry. It seems she took the time to really write down exactly what she does when painting. The techniques are not as accessible to my children as I had hoped, to no fault of the book, merely my hope for the activity. I will look forward to exploring the techniques with my children as they become more capable with time. I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review.

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Fun Game Review

A Box of Awesome Things Matching Game is a fun addition to our family game collection. My kids were so excited to play the game with an assortment of interesting pictures. The selected pictures are a nice change from the usual boxed princess variety. The sturdy matching cards have also been used to play "Go Fish" as well as other made up games by my kids. The set of cards to make ones own matching design was a big hit too!!

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I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review.

Drawing Resource Book

My children and I have been exploring the Art world a lot this year. We have been completing art projects and visiting the local Art Museum weekly as a family.  An interesting resource I acquired to aid us in our exploration is called Foundations of Drawing by Al Gury.

This book contains a wealth of information on the history of art beginning in ancient times, tools, and techniques to produce ones own art.

I appreciated that the book is overflowing with examples of real art work from children's work and amateur all the way to professional and great artists. Some people may be uncomfortable with the amount of nudity portrayed in the examples, however, it is nothing different than found in Art Museums as artist strive to draw the human form.

I found great encouragement in learning that our own bodies anatomy creates an obstacle to drawing simple lines, yet people can overcome anatomy to produce wonderful results.

I also appreciated the extensive details on the many art mediums. The author includes how to store the mediums, types of paper to use the mediums on, how to prepare paper for adding the medium, as well as storage of final works.

Foundations of drawing seems to be a broad term, as the book seemed to progress to rather advanced concepts. I am not an expert on drawing so I am unable to speak to what might actually be advanced techniques to be contained in editions not aimed at "foundations".

Foundations of Drawing will be a wonderful resource through the years in our pursuit of improving our art work.

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I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review.

Review: The Underground Girls of Kabul

This book displays that life is always much more complicated than it seems. There is always another side to the story. The book brings awareness to women's rights issues. The book is an excellent choice for high school or college courses looking for a primary source document to further study gender issues.

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I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review

Book Review: Never Eat Alone

By Keith Ferrazzi

Ferrazzi provides an interesting peak into the networking aspect of the business world, with many practical tips for increasing ones chances of achieving goals through the assistance of others. I feel that the author attempts to describe the networking process as being others focused, when ultimately the core motivation of networking is to achieve ones own goals. As much as the author tries to put a positive spin on the concept, I struggle to see the "selfless" nature of networking. An exorbitant amount of text is also spent on discussing well known public figures that the author has encountered.

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I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review.

Book Review: Good God Lousy World & Me by Holly Burkhalter

I was impressed with the authors resume and intellectual abilities (and her ability to convey this in writing). It is amazing to me that this woman could work so hard on big issues and have political hurdles that permit progress from being made. These obstacles led her to have many questions  about God, ultimately leading to her developing a faith in God. It is really inspiring to read about the appropriateness of wrestling through questions with God, in contrast with a culture that promotes a view of lack of faith if one questions God. He is, after all, bigger than any of our questions. With all of the ugliness that she has personally seen in the world, the book serves as a great testament to God's power in our broken world.

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I received this book for free from Blogging for Books for this review.

Book Review: Living the Quaker Way by Philip Gulley

I was very intrigued to read this book as I had encounter a Quaker gathering place near one of my very first clinical locations in nursing school in 2004. I had wondered what they believed and had heard that Quakers gather to sit in silence during meetings.

The book answered many questions for me about the Quaker's but also caused many more questions than it answered.
I found the insights into living life with simplicity, peace, integrity, community, and equality as very good qualities. I was very confused, however, on the marketing being aimed at Protestants and bringing "God's Kingdom to Earth". I agree that this should be the goal of Christians, to live like Jesus now, not waiting to get to Heaven. However, early on in the book, Gulley described that Quaker's come from all walks of life, including athiest. I have not been able to reconcile this detail in my mind. To me "living the Quaker way" does not equate to following Jesus and bringing His kingdom to Earth, despite the similarities.

Overall an interesting read and definitely good qualities to live life in, but I would not classify this as a Christian book.

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Disclosure: I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review.

Book Review:Quiet by Susan Cain

This book was a phenomenal read! Being an introvert I appreciated the confirmation that my personality is not really a flaw, that it has strengths that vary from societal expectations. The book is full of great research articles and other references that bring much validity to the work. I highly recommend this read to everyone. As always I enjoy the numerous practical tips contained between the covers!
Be sure to listen to the TED talk as well!

http://www.ted.com/talks/susan_cain_the_power_of_introverts.html
http://waterbrookmultnomah.com/files/2013/01/Quiet-Reading-Group-Guide.pdf
http://waterbrookmultnomah.com/files/2013/02/Quiet-Question-and-Answer.pdf
http://www.randomhouse.com/book/22821/quiet-by-susan-cain/9780307352156
http://www.randomhouse.com/book/22821/quiet-by-susan-cain/9780307352156#excerpt
http://www.randomhouse.com/author/125586/susan-cain?sort=best_13wk_3month


"I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review."

Book Review: Next Generation Leader

book by: Andy Stanley

I loved this book.  Andy Stanley had a great coaching writers voice.  The book was a fast easy read with many practical applications.  He weaved personal experiences in modestly.  I really enjoyed to questions for self evaluation at the end of each section (Courage, Competence, Clarity, Coachability, and Character).  One of the most useful applications for me was defining my current job situation and then laying out the qualities of my dream job.  I feel inspired to step up and display more courage in my work because of this book.  I highly recommend it!

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I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review.

Life organization

Through the years I have tried many planners and calendars in an attempt to organize my life.  Nothing in the are world has ever worked for me on a long term basis.  This past August I received an IPad for my birthday.  This has revolutionized my life.  I have never been more organized.
I use a calendar for dates, to-do list for all tasks including a break down of goals and the tasks involved, Evernote for collecting information, numbers for budgeting, tracking gifts and cards, employment requirements, etc.  this is only the beginning.

What tools do you use for life organization?