Welcome…

I'm a stay-at-home-mom freelance graphics designer wife and mommy. I have one sweet little girl whom was born in May of 2008 and a baby boy on the way in January of 2011!

I enjoy sharing my faith in God, designing graphics, blogging, photography, getting lost in a book, crafting, and more.

Melody Lowmaster age 2

Owen Lowmaster 20 weeks old

You can find me at the following sites

*Face Book*Technorati*

I'll kindly take a donation if you'd like to buy me a cup of tea or two. :)

Daisypath Anniversary tickers

Lilypie Third Birthday tickers


Lilypie Maternity tickers

Add My Button


Get your own free Blogaversary button!

Archives
My Family & Friends
Entrecard
Search:
Christianbook.com
My Graphic Design Store
Baby Steals!

Archive for the ‘Book reviews’ Category

NCV Dad’s Bible: The Father’s Plan Hardcover {review}

020576: NCV Dad"s Bible: The Father"s Plan Hardcover NCV Dad’s Bible: The Father’s Plan Hardcover

By Robert Wolgemuth / Thomas Nelson

If you are stumped as to what you are going to get your Dad or your children’s father for Father’s Day this year, you might want to check out the Dad’s Bible: The Father’s Plan! I was given the opportunity to review this Bible through Book Sneeze and I must say it’s a great gift!

This hardcover Bible is put together wonderfully and offers so much information in means to encourage and uplift men of all ages whom are looking to become the men and father’s God has created and lead them to be.

Features

  • Articles
    • Walking in Authority - 100 articles on how dads should walk in the authority God has entrusted to them
    • Godly Character – 100 articles designed to teach and challenge
    • Passing it on- 50 articles about igniting the faith of the next generation
    • Dads in the Bible (30)- a look at the lessons taught by biblical fathers
    • Building your Children - 7 articles about nurturing and developing the potential in your children
    • Insight- 250 articles giving practical, biblical answers to life situations
    • Question and answer section- how to answer the hard questions
  • Topical Index
  • Presentation page
  • Hardcover

After learning about this Bible, I also learned there is a perfect companion the Mom’s Bible, in which I am totally going to look into to purchase for myself. This Bible  retails price is $29.99 and is a real steal if you ask me! I know my husband will love this Bible and I can’t wait to give it to him on Father’s Day.

Disclaimer: I  received a copy of the Dad’s Bible: The Father’s Plan for free to review for Book Sneeze.(Thomas Nelson)

  • Share/Bookmark

Bible Jumble for kids by: Christopher Hudson with Megan Chrans {book review}

Bible Jumble for Kids

by Christopher Hudson with Megan Chrans
Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.
Games/Word & Word Search
ISBN 978-1-4143-2696-2
Ages: 8 and up
SRP $9.99

The Bible Jumble for Kids is a fun puzzle book that features a total of two hundred Bible based and themed puzzles! There are six categories which include: traditional jumbles, mystery person jumbles, jumble detective, jumble criss-cross, find the jumbles and Bible passage jumbles.

If kids are a little lost or just can’t figure out one of the puzzles,there is a themed Bible verse reference at the top of the page. Also, all the answers are in the back of the book.

An example of jumble in the Mystery Person category is as follows: Mystery Person #20 “One Who Washed His Hands” verses Matthew 27:11-26. Clues include Jewish Religious Leader, Not Guilty, Something Unexpected, and To Let Go to name a few.  And if you haven’t figured it out, the jumble is referring to Pilate.

I think this a great book for kids! You can easily bring it along on vacation for those long flights or the seemingly never ending times on the road! Though not limited to vacation times, your child can enjoy this Jumble book any day of the week and it could even be incorporated into a daily or weekly personal Bible study lesson.

You can take a peek of Bible Jumble for Kids by Christopher Hudson.

Disclaimer: I received a free copy of Bible Jumble for Kids for kids 8 and older by Christopher Hudson from Tyndale House Publishers.

I Review For The Tyndale Blog Network

  • Share/Bookmark

FIRST: Let’s Have a Daddy Day by King Kingsbury

It is time for a FIRST Wild Card Tour book review! If you wish to join the FIRST blog alliance, just click the button. We are a group of reviewers who tour Christian books. A Wild Card post includes a brief bio of the author and a full chapter from each book toured. The reason it is called a FIRST Wild Card Tour is that you never know if the book will be fiction, non~fiction, for young, or for old…or for somewhere in between! Enjoy your free peek into the book!

You never know when I might play a wild card on you!

Today’s Wild Card author is:

and the book:

Let’s Have a Daddy Day

Zonderkidz (April 13, 2010)

***Special thanks to Pam Mettler of ZonderKidz for sending me a review copy.***

My daughter is a big fan of this book! The illustrations are quite eye catching and the book is a very easy read as it has a fun rhyming style.  My daughter enjoyed me reading this book and asks for it every night before bed. This book as simple as it may be illustrates a big lesson that whether plans don’t go as you wish that being together is what really matters in making wonderful memories together.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

New York Times bestselling author Karen Kingsbury has written more than forty of her Life-Changing Fiction titles and has nearly sixteen million in print. Dubbed by Time magazine as the Queen of Christian Fiction, Karen receives hundreds of letters each week and considers her readers friends. Her fiction has made her one of the country’s favorite storytellers, and one of her novels, Like Dandelion Dust, is under production for an upcoming major motion picture release. Her emotionally gripping titles include the popular Baxter family novels, the 9/11 Series, Even Now, Ever After, and Between Sundays. Karen and her husband, Don, live in the Pacific Northwest with their six children, three of whom are adopted from Haiti. You can find out more about Karen, her books, and her appearance schedule at her website.

Dan Andreasen lives in Medina, Ohio, with his wife and three children. He has illustrated more than thirty picture books. When his daughter was asked by her first grade teacher, “What kind of work does your daddy do?” she replied, “He colors.”

Product Details:

List Price: $15.99
Reading level: Ages 4-8
Hardcover: 32 pages
Publisher: Zonderkidz (April 13, 2010)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0310712157
ISBN-13: 978-0310712152

TO BROWSE THE BOOK, CLICK ON THE BUTTON BELOW

Let’s Have a Daddy Day

  • Share/Bookmark

If I Could Ask God Anything by: Kathryn Slattery {children’s book review}

I was given the opportunity to review ‘If I Could Ask God Anything-Awesome Bible Answers for Curious Kids’ by Kathryn Slattery as part of the Thomas Nelson Book Sneeze book club. This is a wonderful book that answers all sorts of questions that children have or may have when it comes to learning about God and the Bible.

This book is set up wonderfully! All the questions are broken into eleven groups; God, Jesus, Holy Spirit, The Bible, Christianity, Prayer, The Church, Christian Seasons and Holidays, Being a Christian Here and Now, Being a Christian Forever and Ever, and Big Questions.

Each of the questions asked are explained and always backed with scripture taken directly from the Bible in which is sometime listed or you can look it up yourself as a reference.

This book can be used for more than when those certain questions come up, but you can take this book and use it as a Bible Study to sit and do along with your own child or perhaps in a Sunday school children’s church class!

I know in the years to come, I’ll be using this book in my own home with my children. This book is recommended for children of all ages. I would say whenever your child starts asking the questions, it’s time to start looking to this book as I know each child matures in their own time.

Thank you to the Thomas Nelson Book Sneeze Club for providing me a copy of this book for review. I was not paid for my review and the opinions expressed are my own.

  • Share/Bookmark

The Adventures of Pookster & Bubs by Rhonda Funk {children’s book review}

In The Adventures of Pookster and Bubs, you’ll be introduced to sister Pookster and brother Bubs. Both in their everyday lives learn some pretty important lessons and principles to take to heart directly from the word of God.

In the story Pookster & the Unloose Tooth by Rhonda Funk, Pookster learns a valuable lesson about patience when it comes to loosing her two front teeth after forcefully causing one of her teeth to come out when it just wasn’t ready!

And in the story Pookster and the Practically Perfect Pickle, Pookster learns the importance of loving and unloving attitudes through her words which could be sour to those that are sweet much like pickles.

I’ve found each book to be illustrated perfectly by Eric Kieninger in a fun comic style. And with each of the books in this series a read along cd is included that is narrated by the author and her own children whom were the inspiration for these fun stories! I personally appreciated the sounds effects that were added to the reading of this story in which making it more visual to it’s readers and listeners.

I love that at the end of  each of these books, there is a section called What I’ve Learned and on the final page a Bible verses that relates to the lesson taught that your children can memorize if they so choose! And the fact that these books are perfect for both boys and girls alike is just another great feature.

I really enjoyed reading these books and I have no doubt that when my daughter is a little older that she’ll enjoy listening and reading these books as well. I look forward to more additions to the Pookster and Bubs series.

Pookster and the Unloose Tooth & Pookster and the Practically Perfect Pickle can be purchased from Amazon for $9.59 for paperback and 2.99 on the Kindle.

Disclaimer: I received a free copy of these books for the purpose of reviewing them. Books were published by VMI Publishers. Copyright 2010. ISBN: 1935265407

  • Share/Bookmark

eat the cookie … buy the shoes: Giving Yourself Permission To Lighten Up {review & giveaway}

Eat the Cookie…Buy the Shoes: Giving Yourself Permission to Lighten Up by Joyce Meyer
Category: RELIGION
Format: HARDCOVER BOOK
Publish Date: 4/13/2010
Price: $19.99/$24.99
ISBN: 9780446538640
Pages: 208

About the Book

Engrained in our culture is the belief that unbending discipline is the only sure way to success. You must go to the gym five times a week, never order the dessert, and don’t even think about buying that dress you keep staring at in the store window. Breaking from such a regimented lifestyle is a sign of weakness, right? Wrong!-and Joyce wants to tell us why…

Though setting rules in our lives are important, it’s just as important that we break them from time-to-time. Structure is a powerful tool, but when diverging from your own goals is seen as catastrophic, it can have a hugely negative effect on us. Balance is a core value in life and every once in awhile we deserve to indulge in a guilty pleasure or two. So don’t feel bad about straying from your goals every once-in-awhile and in fact, embrace it: eat the cookie and buy the shoes!

My Thoughts

This is a great book with many examples that teach and encourage it’s readers to lighten up a little bit! How often do we let ourselves get down, stressed and overworked in our day to day life without stopping to smell the roses? Too often, if you ask me.

We get so set on the goal on the end results that we lose ourselves in the middle forgetting that God made things for us in our lives for us to enjoy whether it be a cookie or a new pair shoes.  And we shouldn’t feel bad about it and I know I am even guilty of this feeling like I don’t deserve a little pleasure here and there.

Why should we get so stressed out and only take time away for ourselves on a vacation just once year? We shouldn’t let ourselves get so burned out and exhausted! Joyce Meyer does a great job in reminding us to rejoice in all that God has given us.  So I encourage you to pick up this book, grab a coffee,  spend a little time alone with God and be encouraged by the words of truth found in this title!

Win it!

To enter, leave a comment telling us something that you would like to indulge in that you feel guilty about doing.(If this is a personal question that you wish to not answer, just leave a comment about her book.) I’ll pick either 3-5 winners depending how many people sign up!

Extras:

1. Add me to your blogroll or add my button.
2. Blog it, link back to this post. (2 extra)
3. Favorite my blog on Technorati
4. Subscribe by email/RSS. (2 extra)
5. Follow on Twitter @erinlowmaster & Tweet (daily entries available)
6. Email a friend about this giveaway. (Leave name of friend)

Tweet:
(copy/paste)

RT:  Eat the cookie … buy the shoes by Joyce Meyer (5 winners) @erinlowmaster– Ends 5/15/10.

Thanks to Hachette Book Group for sponsoring this giveaway. The contest is open until May 15, 2010 . This contest is open to USA and Canada only. Hachette Book Group is responsible for awarding the prizes to each winner.

Disclaimer: Thanks to Hachette Book Group for sponsoring a giveaway and permitting me to review a free copy of Joyce Meyer’s latest book “eat the cookie … buy the shoes: Giving Yourself Permission To Lighten Up”.

  • Share/Bookmark
Reviews

Do you need a Review?


Do you have a product that you'd like for me to do a review on, or a website that needs promotion? If so e-mail me directly with the info on your product or website, images of your product or site, and info you'd like for me to use in my review!

Do check out my Media Kit for more information and blog stats.


E-mail me at: ellybean (at) connected2christ (dot) com

Affilates
I review for BookSneeze