Jesus Storybook Bible - a review and a giveaway!

These days I am loving reading to my four year old at bedtime.  (I'm embarrassed to say that that hasn't always been the case...sometimes I feel like I have nothing left by the end of the day!).

Over the last little while, I have heard raving reviews about the Jesus Storybook Bible.  I had been looking for a bible for Beth and am so glad I got my hands on this one.  It has really revived our bedtime routine.  Yay!

It's beautifully written.

I love the illustrations.

So bright and colourful!

I had really wanted something for Beth to help her really understand the central message of scripture, and to read with her at bedtime.

Here's how the Storybook Bible is described on the website:

Written for children ages four and up, The Jesus Storybook Bible tells the one story underneath all the stories of the Bible and points to the birth of a child, the Rescuer, Jesus. Complete with 44 Bible stories, The Jesus Storybook Bible paints a beautiful portrait of Jesus and invites children to see that he is not only at the center of God’s great story of redemption—he is at the center of their story too. Children and adults alike will be captivated by the beautifully written narrative and the original and unique illustrations by accomplished artist Jago. Lloyd-Jones’ powerful gift of storytelling draws the reader into the greatest adventure of all time in an exciting page-turner that kids (and adults) find hard to put down.


Sally Lloyd-Jones is a leading writer of inspirational books for children and is an expert at conveying biblical truth to young children. She is the author of three bestselling children’s Bibles, including the Gold Book Award-winning Baby’s First Bible and, most recently, the Moonbeam Award Winner The Jesus Storybook Bible. She has written many picture books for children, including Handbag Friends, Time to Say Goodnight, and the critically acclaimed How to Be a Baby: By Me, the Big Sister. 

On a whim, I contacted the publishers at Zondervan and they provided me with 2 bibles to giveaway on my blog!  Just in time for Christmas.

To be entered in the draw, just leave a comment with your name below.  Let me know who you would love to read/give this book to :)

You have until next Friday, December 9th, at midnight, to enter, and you can only enter once. The winners will be chosen randomly. I'll announce the winners the next day, so be sure to check back then.

I'll post the two winners on Saturday December 10th.

Best of luck!

"Hammy"

So, my 10 year old daughter just bought her first pet.  It was her 10th birthday and all she wanted to do was buy a hamster.  Using the birthday money she received from her Nana, she bought her hamster and all of the hampster necessities (which ironically btw cost more than triple what the hamster cost!).  She named this little creature, "Pebbles Chrysanthemum".  However for some reason, I can't stop calling the little girl critter, "Hammy".  So as far as I am concerned, "Hammy" it is.  What is it about me, I can't seem to call anyone by their actual name?  I insist on making up names for people - my siblings, my kids, my neices and so on.

Anyways, this was a huge deal for Eva.  We don't have any pets and she has been longing for a pet pretty much since she could talk.

In the summer, she "hamster-sat" her friend Kira's hamster for 2 weeks.  Talking about it recently, she told me, "Mom, those 2 weeks were the best 2 weeks of my life."  She was dead serious.

On Eva's birthday last week, here is a conversation that we had first thing in the morning.   I couldn't resist sharing it.  Sometimes I wish I could get on video some of the things that come out of this girls's mouth.  Priceless.  It went like this:


Me :  how's hammy this morning?

Birthday Girl:  dead as a doorknob.

Me:  pardon?

BG:  dead as a doorknob.

Me:  pardon?

BG:  Mom, it's just an expression.  Means she is fast asleep.

Me:  makes sense.  She had a big ordeal last night.  I'm sure moving her from the pet store to our house was pretty tramatic and even stressful for her.

BG:  Mom.  Are you kidding?  Yesterday was the greatest day of Pebbles life.  The day every hamster dreams of.

Me:  Speechless.

Advent Tags

Last year, my friend Lori made these amazing advent tags for her family.  What a great way to prepare their hearts for Christmas.  I totally want to make these for my family this Christmas (I need to get started asap!).   I love this idea and asked for her permission to share it with you.  So, here you go - thank you Lori!

Here's what Lori wrote in a facebook note last December about her Advent Tags:

"To save anyone else the hassle of writing the Christmas story in 24 bite size chunks, I've copied it below for you. I used the NIV version (because it's the closest to the way I memorized it growing up, although it is missing the word "swaddling," which I desperately wanted to add!). I only took liberties with the Wise Men part so I could squeeze it all in. To that end, King Herod got kicked out of the story. I tried to keep each day short enough so that I could hold Sebastien's attention (age 6). I'm expecting to lose Xavier (age 4) this year. Molly Irwin (inspiration website from earlier post) uses verses from all over the Bible to include prophesy. I just wanted to keep it to the narrative.

In an ideal world, there would be a small, thin Christmas tree in my front foyer on which every day we would add a tag. I'm sure it would be beautiful by Christmas day.  We'll be taking them from their wooden bowl and placing them either on the mantel greenery or on the big tree. Maybe next year I can get that small tree."

Here's the story:


1
In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary.


2
The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favoured! The Lord is with you.”


3
Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favour with God.


4
You will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus.


5
He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, his kingdom will never end.”`


6
This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit.


7
Because Joseph her husband was a righteous man and did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.


8
But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as you wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.


9
She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”


10
When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife.


11
In those days, Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman World. And everyone went to his own town to register.


12
So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of Daivd.


13
He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child.


14
While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son.


15
She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.


16
And there were shepherds living out in the field nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night.


17
 An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified.


18
But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.


19
Today in the town of David, a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.


20
Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.”


21
When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”


22
So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph and the baby, who was lying in a manger.


23
After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, Magi from the followed the star they had seen in the east until it stopped over the place where the child was.


24
On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold and of frankincense and myrrh.


Do you have any traditions in your home to prepare for Christmas?  I'd love to hear them : )

Budgeting - the dreaded B word

The word, budget has always been a tricky one around this household.  I tend to be more of an over-spender and my husband tends to be more of an under-spender.  This makes for a lot of interesting conversations:)

Over the years we have worked hard to come up with a budget that works for us and brings us to a place of balance, a place that we both feel great about!  If you know how strong minded my husband and I can be, you will know that this is no small task!

Part of the challenge for us is that we live on one income.  We have chosen for me to be a stay-at-home-mom for this season of life and I love it, but it for sure requires discipline and sometimes sacrifice where budgetinging is concerned.

These days, there are a few small things that have saved me/us a bunch of money.  In the hopes that it might benefit you, I'll share them:

1.  Making my own coffee at home.   It's so much fun to stop at Starbucks on my way out to run errands, but those latte's add up quickly.  Like, really quickly.  Instead, these days, I'm making my own coffee and treat myself to a caramel macchiato only when I'm meeting a friend for a coffee date.

2.  Sharing clothes.  I am blessed to have friends that pass clothes down to my girls and I love to do the same for others.  Even my sisters and I have been known to swap clothes from time to time!  For Hallowe'en this year, I managed to borrow 2 out of the 3 kids costumes that I needed, which saved me a bunch of money.  For the third, I made a purchase at Value Village :)

3.  Borrowing Books.  I love to read and I love to buy books.  The thing is, books add up.  These days I am trying to borrow books from friends or from the library as much as possible.  At my local library, if you are looking for a book and they don't carry it, you can fill out a request form and they will consider ordering if.  If they decide to order it, you get first dibs at reading it.  Pretty cool!


Lately, I have been using this budget and love it.  Totally worth checking out.

How about you?  Do you find it a challenge to live within your budget?  Any advice you can share with me?