Beautiful Song

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Making Gratitude Practical

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I believe that gratitude can change our lives. I’m not talking about saying grace before a meal, or the grateful prayers we say in church. I’m talking about the gratitude that seeps into all the corners of our lives. I’m talking about the quiet kind of gratitude that becomes a way of life instead of a face to be put on once in a while. Gratitude that is intentionally distilled from every day, creating a pattern in my life that puts being grateful as my default mode, instead of a backup plan.

But life for me can get a little crazy. Sometimes it’s easier to talk about intentional gratitude than it is to actually live it. Sometimes I’m not sure exactly how to practically make sure that not a day goes by that I don’t feed my soul with making time to be thankful for all the good things in my life. Sometimes I need a little inspiration.

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I think that’s why I immediately fell in love with the beautiful new journal by Tyndal publishers, Gratitude.  It is an absolutely gorgeous book that fits comfortably in my lap while I sit in one of my favorite places–in the hammock on the back porch.  It is the perfect combination of creative and structured. With beautiful pages to color that aren’t just abstract shapes but actual pictures, inspirational quotes, beautiful prayers and favorite bible passages, it everything that I want in a coloring book and a gratitude journal. It has room for doodling (because I’m not an artist, so I won’t call it drawing), places to write things I’m grateful for.
My day is often pretty hectic. From rolling out of bed, until laying down again it’s filled with working and mama-ing. Then there’s rushing to pick up the house a little and hopefully get dinner on the table before doing it all over again. Having this to sit down with before wrapping up my day is perfect. I find a little art and a little writing to be the ideal way to unwind. I love how relaxing it is for me to spend a few moments adding color and soaking in truth.

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But Tyndale didn’t stop there. Along with the gorgeous Gratitude coloring journal, they released an entire line of artistic inspirations. From a coloring journal through the Psalms,  to a beautiful Christmas coloring book, I immediately added everything to my wishlist. I have the Christmas one on the way and can’t wait to tell you what I think of it! If you would like to buy your own copy of any of these, they are all available on amazon as the Living Expressions Collection.

Now I want to hear how you make gratitude a part of your day! What’s your favorite gratitude inspirational prompt?

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I was provided a copy of this journal in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are mine.

Looking Ahead to Fall ( Plus a book review)

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The air always makes a subtle change just before the season changes. I noticed it the other day when I stepped outside in the morning, and I knew that summer was quietly wrapping up. A few days later, a summer storm came and with it a swirl of early falling leaves. It was a gorgeous hint of things to come!

I’m always a little sad to see summer go, but I’m learning to relish the beautiful days that come with autumn in the south. And I have to admit that I’m looking forward to some of the things coming up in the months ahead.

On that note, here’s a few things coming up on Beautiful Song in the near future.

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GreaThings 2016

Save the date! GreaThings will run from November 15-24 this year. I’m in the prepping stages right now, and if you look at the graphic above you’ll see a sneak peek into one of the things I’ve been working on. GreaThings has always been a highlight in my season. Gratitude changed my life for the better, and I love sharing that with all of you. Seeing the highlights of your year through the lense of gratefulness always makes me feel even more thankful for the great things God is doing for each of us.

In the past, GreaThings was more of a blogging challenge than anything. But I found that blogging for 21-27 days straight just doesn’t work well for a lot of us. With the face of the blogging and social world changing, and my own life much less predictable than it was in the past,  I’ve been tweaking the challenge to fit busy lifestyles and to accommodate some of the other platforms out there as well. I’m excited about how it’s coming together and can’t wait to do this with some of you again this year. Stay tuned for more details on this in the next few months.

Gratitude Journal

I hinted in one of my last posts that I had fallen in love with something. It’s this beautiful journal and coloring devotional that Tyndale Publishers sent me on an early release. As soon as I saw it, I loved the whole idea of it. It is absolutely gorgeously done, too. I’m pretty sure I want to buy one for almost everyone I know! It became available a few days ago, and I’ll be doing a full review of it later this month!

Pumpkin Patch Blessings

Since fall is on its way, I’ve been looking for some new books to add to Charlotte’s bookshelf to go with the upcoming season.

This adorable little book was an instant bedtime favorite. Charlotte was completely enthralled with the pictures and all the little animals that you meet on the day trip to the pumpkin patch.

I loved that Pumpkin Patch Blessings highlighted all the great things about fall and harvest beyond Halloween. As someone who doesn’t really celebrate Halloween, sometimes I feel like that’s the onlyl thing most books focus on when it comes to fall, so this was a nice change!

The cutout shape and easy to turn pages make it an ideal book for toddlers. The pictures have lots of sweet details that draw the eye in and give a lot of food to the imagination as you read the simple words in the book. And did I mention how adorable all the little animals are?

Even though I felt that the rhymes were sometimes a touch forced sounding, I did love that the book was focused on being thankful and looking for treasures in ordinary places.  I think this is so important, and it’s never too early to encourage our children to count their blessings!

I’m really looking forward to having this, and hopefully a few more new books on our shelf this fall!

I’d love to hear some of your favorite books for fall–for children and adults!

My reading pile could use a little fall flare too. I’m right on track for the reading challenge, but wouldn’t mind something new to read before the holidays!

Coloring Turned Patriotic Passtime

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Reading stories isn’t the only thing that I’ve picked up again this year.  Partly because I’ve always loved coloring, and partly because I now have a child who colors through a coloring book almost every single week, I decided to take a second glance at the trendy adult coloring book world.

And I was pretty sure after going through half a dozen coloring books all made up of abstract shapes or circles that I wasn’t really that interested. I found circles and shapes to be the opposite of the soothing, mind relaxing activity I had wanted to experience again. Instead, I felt like I had a sensory overload and it was more stressful to figure out how to make the colors look good together than it was relaxing.

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I think in my perfect coloring book world, I was looking for word art and nature-inspired pictures to color. Apparently, I just had looked in all the wrong places. When I pulled God Bless America out of the box the day before the 4th of July, I was tickled. It might not have been everything I hoped for in a coloring book, but it wasn’t too far away.

With some of my favorite quotes on life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness surrounded by nostalgic scenes from my country’s history and culture, it was such a fun thing to work through and to color in over the course of my country’s birthday.  Not only did it appeal to my love of history, but it appealed to my love of great quotes. I had fun adding color to the pages and making them come alive.

While I am still looking for that perfect coloring book, I really enjoyed taking a moment to pick up yet another thing from my childhood that I haven’t done for a while. I can understand why so many therapists are recommending coloring. Like a good rocking chair, there’s something about it that sort of fades out the little petty cares and makes everything come back into perspective.

Since trying out this coloring book, I was lucky enough to grab a couple more (spoiler alert: I got something I absolutely fell in love with just a couple days ago. I’ll be sharing about it soon!) and am experimenting with coloring pencils and pens to see which suits me best. I’m leaning towards the pencils myself.

Are you a colorer? I’d love to hear about your favorites.

Pictures welcome, if you care to share.

falling for audio books

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This year, I got hooked on audio books. Except it wasn’t really my first time.

When I was 5 years old, my grandparents gifted my brother and I a dramatized audio version of the first half of Pilgrim’s Progress, done by Jim Pappas. Since my mom had started reading the book to us already, we were absolutely tickled pink to hear the story come alive through the audio cassettes. Eventually, part two (Christiana’s Journey) was released and we got that as well!

Over the next 20 years, we listened to the complete,  beautiful story over and over again. We could repeat the entire thing from memory and even tried to recreate our own dramatized version with some of our friends. Eventually, the cassettes gave out and sadly I didn’t get the CD versions before they were no longer available.

We loved listening to Pilgrim’s Progress on tape, but I never jumped on the audio book wagon. Cassette tapes were bulky, and I found some narrators voices grated on my nerves. Plus, I could devour entire books in one sitting. Who needed audio books when you could do that?

Working a mentally demanding job, keeping up a house of my own and toddler keep my hands busy now. I rarely devour books like main courses these days. Adulthood, motherhood have changed a lot about the way I consume words. And for a long time, I felt starved for the comforting words of my favorite books.

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Then my smartphone met libravox and loyalbooks. With the premise that books should be free, both sites have hundreds and thousands of books in the public domain put to audio. The books are recorded by volunteers, and there are a wide range of voices and skills. But I’ve found a treasure mine of resources to feed my craving for words.

I have saved dozens of titles to my library. Some for me, and some for my toddler. I’ve been playing through my old favorite, Wind in the Willows  for the last couple of months. I put it on when I’m working. My hands and eyes are busy, but my brain is free to listen!

There are usually several versions of each book available. That means you can pick a narrator that you enjoy listening to the most. I picked this version because I really enjoyed the way this narrator added a little character to each voice. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed hearing my favorite parts again and it’s made some of the tedious parts of my job so much more tolerable.

I’m very much looking forward to listening my way through a couple of classics that I haven’t heard in a really long time once I finish the last few chapters of The Wind in the Willows!

I’m not sure what took me so long to finally get on the audiobook wagon, but I’m really enjoying it.

Now I really need to know. What’s your favorite audio book?

 

Night, Night Farm {a book review}

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It’s been less than 24 hours since Night, Night Farm showed up on my doorstep, and it has already moved up to the top of Charlotte’s favorite stack.

With the winning combination of being written by the author of one of her other top favorite books (Night, Night Prayer) and being about farm animals, it isn’t much of a surprise. And we’ve already read it at least two dozen times!

Night Night Farm

Night Night Farm features favorite animals on the farm getting ready for bedtime. Dressed in adorable little PJ’s, little mice take you on the rounds to say good night to each barnyard family. You get to see pigs taking a bath before bed, a foal who was just too tired after a run to the orchard, and kittens who ate too much milk to move.

The pictures are adorable. As you all know, pictures in children’s books are a big seller for me and Night Night Farm  definitely would catch my eye in a bookstore with the sweet, but more realistic drawings of each animal. The words are simple, so it’d make a great early reader as well as a bedtime story!

I love the emphasis on thanking God for all the little things that make our days in Night Night Prayer, and while Night Night Farm is more about tucking the animals in bed than a bedtime prayer, it does close out the story by taking a moment to recognize God as the Creator of all our animal friends, and our Creator too!

In all, Night Night Farm  was a great addition to our bookshelf, and one that I already know will be loved for years to come.

This book was given to me by BookLook Bloggers. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

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