The 100th Post!

Welcome amigos!

Well, this is it post #100!!

Majorly exciting I am sure for every who is not me :) I have been putting off this post because I wanted to make it 'special', but in reality I am sure I am the only one who thinks it is a big deal. 

I do have two bits of small news to share with you lovely readers today:

1. As I wrote about several weeks ago, I am participating in my first ever read-a-thon. The Summer Lovin' Read-a-thon starts next week. They are having daily participation posts, each good for an entry in their fabulous giveaways. So, expect to see me tons next week!! Click on the banner here to be taken to their page for more info and a sign up!

 

This leads to ..

2. I am in the process of setting up a secondary blog. No, not because I am seeing wild success with this one (eye roll), but because I am wanting to narrow my blogging scope and yet widen it at the same time. Makes sense, yeah? :D 

The Christian Sugar Addict, as the name aptly implies, is my home to discuss God, Jesus and all my favorite baking recipes. And, of course since its me, a lot of LIFE thrown in the mix. As much as I love being able to share all aspects of my eclectic life with you here, I am falling in love with book blogs and want to jump in full force! I am not sure if 'book reviews' fall under the CSA umbrella. 

Of course I will give you all the details once I have them, but I am checking out Wordpress. And yes, it is extremely intimidating. I won't be hosting my own site since I do not have the funds or gumption at this point, so that there makes it less complicated....but still. I have enjoyed Blogger so far and am not completely sure I 'need to make the switch' as so many bloggers seem to implore me into doing. 

And that's it folks, post 100!! Hope I made it as exciting for you as it was for me :)

Twitterature for June

Hello Friends!

I am excited to be participating in Twitterature again!

The gist: This link-up is easy place to share what you are reading with short, casual reviews. Write the reviews 'Twitter' style: in 140 characters or less! 

Here is what I am reading NOW:

Anything by Jennie Allen

Reading with Good Morning Girls Book Club. So far, fantastic. Can't wait to read more and figure out how to apply #anything to my life. #yes

Drawing Near to the Heart of God by Cynthia Heald

Has a great travel aspect. Been hard for me to track, I often forget what I have already read about #couldbejustme

WHAT ELSE I HAVE READ: 

City of Glass (The Mortal Instruments #3) by Cassandra Clare

Like this book, but just don't rave about it like others. Male MC Jace is super obnoxious which ruins a lot for me. #stillreadingnextseries

Surrender the Wind by Rita Gerlach

Good historical mystery romance. MC Julia was too perfect. My 2nd Gerlach novel and still not a fan of her writing. 

Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins

Really enjoyed this one. Although it didn't have an abundance of travel-y bits, it still felt like it. And I love that. The characters were also SMART. #abouttime

HEY!! Check out my Goodreads shelf HERE!!

What have you been reading in the month of June??

No affiliate links. All graphics taken from goodreads.com. 

A New Diet

Bonjour Bloggy!

Major life change occurring here with hubby and me. And no it's not another baby!! Hubby was watching a food documentary, which is a bad idea, and it was discussing how difficult meat is for our digestive system to process. It lead to several vegetarian blogs who base their decisions on Genesis 1:28-30, particularly verse 29, where it mentions that God gives us all seed-bearing plants as food but doesn't mention meat. 

He and I held a lengthy discussion about what we thought about vegetarianism and were quite close to committing to it. The next day however I found Hubby eating meat!! Turns out he has changed his mind. Nice to know :)) 

Now, let me say that I don't know much about the medical side of things, and I bet I could hardly explain Paleo to you, so I hope you aren't expecting me to explain it all in detail. The basics of the Paleo diet is to eat what cavemen would eat, this includes vegetables, fruits, and meats. Yay! Glorious meat! But sadly it does not include wheat products or dairy. This happens to be 80% of our diet right now. The 20% leftover is sugar. Straight up. 

We aren't going strictly Paleo. After looking around can I just say: o.m.g. A Paleo diet can be quite complicated when you start looking at the 'rules' and can involve nitpicking every little thing you eat. Hubby and I wanted to give it a go but we were also not looking to devote hours of our time researching what we can and cannot eat. Instead we decided to simply give up gluten and dairy! Easy peasey! Well...in theory. 

We decided to go this route for several reasons. We are both dealing with health issues that *could* be related to food intolerances that I won't get into here. We've also both been convicted that we need to clean up our diets and choose a healthier lifestyle. Lastly, food as been an idol to us. We turn to food for comfort and joy instead of God first. 

I am sharing this not because I have all the details or am trying to jump on a bandwagon, or even get some sort of 'look at me mentality', but because its going to be HARD! And a large change. And I will probably be grumpy all the time. And to be held accountable. Hubby and I are going to journal how we generally feel now eating everything, try going gluten and dairy free for 30 days, and then check in with our journals again to see how we feel afterwards. If we don't notice much of a difference, I will totally be eating cheese again! Glorious cheese. 

Wish me luck!

See Tsh from the Simple Mom's posts HERE and HERE about Paleo and whether it might be the right diet for you.

Have you tried Paleo? What do you think about the importance of treating your body as a temple of God?

BVW #5

Guten Tag Amigos!

Well, because I took a blog break I didn't get to share the last Bible Verse Wednesday of May with you, so here it is one more time!

Honestly? This is a verse I need to pound into my brain. With a sledgehammer. And then glue it there with super sticky gorilla glue.

It goes along well with the well known verse of Psalm 46:10 "Be Still and Know that I Am God". I love the NASB version of that verse as well : "Cease striving..."

Try Exodus 14:14 in the NASB: "The LORD will fight for you while you remain silent". 

Sometimes it is hard for me to rely on God first. I am a seer more than a blind faith-er. I can't see God, I can't hear Him speak to me audibly, so I forget sometimes. I think I have to do it all myself. Who is going to clean the house? Me. Who will feed the Baby? Me. Who will manage this fight? Me. Who must make that decision? Me. So many things weigh me down. Ugh. I feel poopy just thinking about it. 

But God. 

But God says : "Just be STILL Alyssa! I got this. You stay here, hiding in the shadow of my wings, I will fight the battle for you. I will put out the fires for you. I will take care of your child. And I will restore your marriage always. Cease striving? What can you gain and do on your own?? You can do nothing apart from me. So come, sit, relax at my feet. Worship my Holy Name, and know that I AM."

Friends, I pray the same for you today. Maybe you simply need to grab hold of this promise, maybe you need to stop and cry a little, maybe you need to dance around the house to loud praise music ignoring the mess Baby makes. GOD HAS GOT THIS. HE can fight your battles, you need only BE STILL! 

My heart aches for us to get this. Starting today, I will cling to this promise!!

My first Read-a-thon!

Hey friends!

Special Tuesday post here: I am going to try my hand at a read-a-thon! Here is the information:

The Summer Lovin’ Readathon is a week-long readathon event hosted by seven independent bloggers! (Oh, Chrys!, Tumbling Books, Effortlessly Reading, Love Life Read, Shelf Addiction, Read Sleep Repeat, and Reviewing Wonderland)

Spend the week reading at your own pace, when and how you want too. There will be daily challenges for awesome prizes and opportunities to get points toward the Grand Prize Packs.

As if that weren’t enough – the week will end with a 24-hr marathon readathon! Twitter parties, mini-challenges, games, prizes given EVERY HOUR, and more chances to get points toward the Grand Prize Packs.

Sign-ups will be open through July 6th!

So happy to have fallen into the world of book blogging!!

The Age of Miracles

Hello Bloggy Amigos!

I'm back.  I spent all of last week following Armchair BEA blogs, Twitter parties, link ups, interviews, giveaway, UFF DA! Armchair BEA is the online following of the BEA in New York (Book Expo America). Publishers, authors, speakers, and readers all converge on NY for a few days of book-lovin' fun! Armchair BEA is for us poor saps who can't go. An agenda was provided with daily blog topics to link up with, Twitter parties to participate in, and even an Instagram challenge a day! It is great fun if you love to read, like I do!

So in the spirit of book blogging, I am here to share a review of "The Age of Miracles" by Karen Thompson Walker!

 
The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker

GoodReads Summary:
“It’s never the disasters you see coming that finally come to pass—it’s the ones you don’t expect at all,” says Julia, in this spellbinding novel of catastrophe and survival by a superb new writer. Luminous, suspenseful, unforgettable, The Age of Miracles tells the haunting and beautiful story of Julia and her family as they struggle to live in a time of extraordinary change.
 
On an ordinary Saturday in a California suburb, Julia awakes to discover that something has happened to the rotation of the earth. The days and nights are growing longer and longer; gravity is affected; the birds, the tides, human behavior, and cosmic rhythms are thrown into disarray. In a world that seems filled with danger and loss, Julia also must face surprising developments in herself, and in her personal world—divisions widening between her parents, strange behavior by her friends, the pain and vulnerability of first love, a growing sense of isolation, and a surprising, rebellious new strength. With crystalline prose and the indelible magic of a born storyteller, Karen Thompson Walker gives us a breathtaking portrait of people finding ways to go on in an ever-evolving world.

The Age of Miracles follows Julia and her family as the world, literally, changes. Somehow  for some reason, the Earth's orbit around the sun is changed, now revolving much slower. Blazing days and freezing nights are elongated, stretching out for 30, 40 hours now instead of the 24 hours we grew up knowing. This book is a fictional study about what would happen to gravity, animals, and humans if this were to ever happen.

I found this book extremely captivating, but basic as well. First, I will explain the latter. The idea of the Earth slowing is a novel one, I myself have never read anything like it. But I couldn't help but feel that this story was bred from the author's college writing courses. Most authors are taught to ponder "What would happen if.." and then breed a story from the answer. This book does that to a "T". So it does feel a bit formulaic.

Also, as the book follows Julia, a girl of middle school age, we don't often get to see the complex 'grown up' decisions and emotions that would follow a 'disaster' like this.

However! This adds a whole new view point. This is a coming of age story in the vein of Judy Blume, but set in a semi post-apocalyptic world. Julia has her foot in the Old World and the New World and thus can relate to us, with honest, open child eyes, all the changes happening around her.

I love the way the book is written, as if Julia is telling us the story from after the point. Sure, big events are never a surprise then, but it builds up the suspense. We know something is about to happen because Julia cryptically alludes to it, but we don't know what it will be, how it will affect her until after it is finally fully described.

The Age of Miracles may be slower paced for some, but even still, is one of those novel's you won't want to put down. This is the type of book you will think about for days, wondering what your own life would be like if the Earth slowed. Being somewhat short (269 pages? Really?? Felt like less!), it is an easy read. Add it to your TBR pile today!!

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Check it out on Goodreads HERE or Amazon HERE.

 
No affiliate links were used. Photo source: Goodreads.com. I bought and paid for this book myself. All opinions are my own. Enjoy!