In a Heartbeat: Sharing the Power of Cheerful Giving by Leigh Ann and Sean Touhy

You can read my review of this inspriational book at Blissfully Domestic.

Book Review: The Mailbox by Marybeth Whalen

Marybeth Whalen's debut novel The Mailbox is the PERFECT summer read. You can read my full review at:

http://http//blissfullydomestic.com/2010/the-mailbox-a-novel-by-marybeth-whalen

Thin Places: A Memoir by Mary E. DeMuth

Thin Places: A Memoir by Mary E. DeMuth is a stunning book about forgiveness and healing. You can read my review here ...

http://blissfullydomestic.com/2010/book-review-thin-places-a-memoir-by-mary-e-demuth

Blissfully Domestic Post - the Elf of the Shelf

I now contribute to Blissfully Domestic, A Smart Girls Guide to Life online magazine.

I'm thrilled to join this exciting forum designed to inspire women to live a life of bliss, even when the world, (or our kitchen and bathroom), is messy place.

You can visit and read my first post about the Elf on the Shelf. I invite you to leave a comment or share your own Elf on the Shelf story.


Blissfully yours,
Kristin

Powerful Novel, A Slow Burn, Ignites A Fast Read

A Slow Burn, Mary DeMuth’s second book in the Defiance Texas Trilogy, blazes a trail across the heart of Emory Chance, a grief stricken mother haunted by fear and regret after the murder of her 13 year-old daughter Daisy. In the first chapter, I watched - an innocent bystander to her pain - as she stood in a morgue in Tyler, Texas identifying Daisy’s remains.

“She touched Daisy’s shoulder. So cold. So hard. So unlike Daisy. Yet so much like herself it made Emory shudder.”

Less than twenty four hours later I arrived at the end of the book but not the end of the story. In those hours in Defiance, Texas a miracle occurred in my heart. In the first book, Daisy Chain, I looked at Emory Chance much the same way as a citizen of Defiance. I saw a neglectful, drug addicted mother who ‘deserved’ to lose her daughter. At the end of A Slow Burn my heart softened; I walked in her shoes, sympathized with her pain, I witnessed her transformation and stunned by my own response, I looked to her with hope.

Much like Emory, I hope to find peace and resolution in the third and final book of the Defiance Trilogy. And most of all I want to know who killed Daisy and why, if Ousie Pepper really knows who did it she isn’t telling. Stay tuned for the third and final installment in the spring.

Congratulations Mary! Your words change lives and our friendship enriches mine.

Please visit Mary’s web site to learn more about her and her amazing books www.marydemuth.com

The Coscto Conundrum

The dreaded Costco coupons arrived in my mailbox yesterday. I eagerly perused them in search of great deals; it promised more than $1,300 in saving inside! Wow – $3 off eight boxes of Marie Callendar’s Chicken Pot Pies, $3 off 24 containers of Activia yogurt. They don’t tell you how much the item costs, just how much you are going to save … clearly they employ marketing masterminds to lure folks like me into the buy bulk and save money mantra.

I’m not good at math or comparison shopping so I don’t know if it’s cheaper to buy them in bulk or drive a block to the Neighborhood Wal-Mart Market and buy the two chicken Pot pies and 5 containers of yogurt I need to see me through the week. We don’t have a deep freeze so eight boxes of pot pies is out of the question anyways, never mind that our garage is overflowing with the stacks of paper towels, Kleenex and Charmin we bought using the last coupon book.

Sure I can blame the coupons but I get sucked in by all the samples too and just watch out when they combine coupons with samples – those darn marketing masterminds strike again! The new coupon book has a coupon for $1.40 off Jack’s Special Medium Salsa. Call me a conspiracy theorist, but it’s no coincidence that last time Matthew and I strolled the isles of Costco a kindly lady behind a counter offered us a quick taste Jack’s Special Medium Salsa, of course we had to try it, and of course we had to buy it!

A four year-old doesn’t really contribute much to the cost of shopping at Costco unless you count the year’s supply of granola bars and fruit snacks we have in the pantry and the eight foot Halloween bat he begged me to buy on our last sojourn. I can’t blame him alone, I always seem to find a book I can’t live without and Robb has been known to buy a flat screen TV … or two.

The conundrum lies in the fact that when you go to Costco, list and coupons in hand, you buy more than you need, you buy things you don’t need, but you still think you are saving money. After the eight foot bat buying incident, I no longer hold onto this truth … dare I say, this deception?

Don’t get me wrong, I love shopping there but I feel caught in the Costco conundrum; sucked in by coupons, samples and the allure of buying bulk I think I'm saving money but it sure doesn't feel like it. Please tell me I’m not alone!

Life Goes On

Brandon and Matthew walked hand-in-hand across the parking lot of the Olive Garden restaurant in Fayetteville, Arkansas. We spent the day moving Brandon into his dorm and Matthew held Brandon's hand everywhere he went ... Brandon let him. They both knew good-bye waited around every corner.











“You’re staying one night, correct?” asked the clerk behind the check-in desk at the Holiday Inn.

“Yes, we are heading back to Dallas tomorrow. We dropped off our eldest son at University of Arkansas this morning,” I said.

“Yeah, my brother is living in a dorm now,” Matthew added.

“Are you going to miss him?” she asked, peering over the counter.

“Yeah, but he’s not gone forever,” repeating the words we said to him earlier in the day. “We’ll see him at Easter and Christmas and Halloween,” he counted days on his fingers, holding them up for the clerk to see.

She smiled at me, “He’s so cute.”

“Thanks. He’ll miss his brother,” I said with tears in my eyes.

I held back tears when we dropped Brandon off at the dorm that morning. We spent three days moving him and his roommate – his best friend since grade two – into their dorm. Our families stocked their room with college essentials:

• Three crates of Ramen noodles
• Easy Mac
• Coffee
• Candy
• Energy drinks
• Granola bars
• Cleaning supplies in hopes that they’d actually use them.

After months of college tests and applications, dorm selection, buying school supplies, books and new clothes seeing the results of our efforts come together as the plain dorm room transformed into a personal space full of pictures and comforts from home felt good; a job well done.

“Have fun. You’ll do great.” We left him standing at the sidewalk near his dorm.

Four hours later at the counter of the Holiday Inn it hit me … yes, we’d be together on the big days Matthew counted off on his fingers but the little everyday things were now out of reach. Only the words of Robert Frost did justice to my feelings, “In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life. It goes on.”

We take no solace in the fact we have to do this all over again in 14 years when Matthew heads off to college. God will prepare our hearts we know but I also know I won’t be able to hold back my tears until I get back to the hotel that night or Lord help that poor girl behind the check-in desk.