The Beginner’s Bible ~ Review

My five year old daughter loves going to church. She loves learning about God and loves praying for others. She loves reading and learning about the different people in the Bible. She has a regular Bible but has not really done anything with it yet, since she is just starting to learn how to read. She also loves when anyone sits down and reads stories to her, stories with a lot of pictures. I didn’t tell her we were going to review a Bible story book, so when The Beginner’s Bible from Zonderkidz arrived, she was so excited! She immediately wanted me to read a story to her. It was a week before Christmas when the Bible arrived, so I chose to read her the Christmas story.



The Beginner’s Bible was originally published in 1989 and quickly became a best seller. This Bible storybook has over 90 stories from the Bible and includes an illustration on each page. It is a beautiful hardcover book with over 500 pages. The stories that are included are short and easy to read. It is the perfect book for a 4-8 year old. The illustrations in The Beginner’s Bible have been redesigned and make the stories come alive with their 3D appearance. The stories in the Old Testament covers from Creation to Jonah. The stories in the New Testament covers from Jesus’ birth to Jesus’ coming (Revelation). There is a two page content section in the front, so it is easy to find your favorite story. And there is also a dictionary (in the back) to help young children understand what some of the words mean.



I have been reading several of the stories from The Beginner’s Bible to my daughter since we have received it. After looking at the website and finding so many helpful printables and activities, I am planning to use the story book in our homeschool day. There are several activity (coloring sheets, mazes, matching, etc) sheets that can be printed for home use. There are also other resources that can be used with The Beginner’s Bible. I’m planning to use the recommend reading page that lists what stories to read during different times of the year. I also plan to print off several of the coloring sheets and other printables to use during our Bible time.



We, my daughter and I, have really enjoyed reading from The Beginner’s Bible. My daughter loves all of the illustrations. I have not ever had the opportunity to have seen one or read from it and I’ve always heard great things about it. I am glad to have finally had the opportunity to receive one and share the best stories from the best Book with my daughter. I am looking forward to when she can read the stories herself (to me). I also pray that she will treasure this Bible story book and always have the love for God and the Bible that she has at 5 years old. When asked what her favorite story is, she says, “All of it!”

CrossTimber Name Meaning Gifts Review

Are you looking for a special gift for someone, but aren't quite sure what to get them? Christmas is right around the corner. A personalized framed plaque with name meaning and Bible verse from CrossTimber would be the perfect gift for anyone on your list. They also offer other name meaning gifts as well - mugs, multi name plaques, and music boxes.

When I first read about how John Dehnart got started on his first name cards, it was humorous to me because my son was just starting drivers ed. It was John's first time for a "class" at a public school and it didn't go all that well at first. In September, my son, at age 14 1/2, first stepped into a public school to take a drivers ed class. My son's experience was a little better than John's experience. He had an assigned seat and got to know the three other kids at his table. You really need to go read John's experience and see how the name meaning cards got their start. That drivers ed class turned into a business for John and has turned into what CrossTimber is today, a family owned and run business.

I decided for this review I was going to order myself something. As a mom, I always try to put my children first, but for this I wanted to treat myself and I am glad I did. I love my gift! There are so many backgrounds to choose from, but I settled on the flower I used in my wedding. Lily's are my second favorite flower. There are several frames to choose from, but I went with "artist's choice" so I could be surprised a little bit. They picked out the perfect frame for my gift and it matched the background perfectly. You are also able to order just a print without a frame or have your print emailed to you in a pdf or jpg format. They also allow you to add a bookmark, pocket card, or a greeting card to your order for a small price.

My experience:
I had a great experience with CrossTimber. John was very helpful when I emailed him with questions. I didn't order any extras with my gift this time, but when I opened the package, John had included two pocket cards with my order. A very nice surprise! One thing I was worried about was how well it was packaged. You see, my town went through Hurricane Matthew and then experienced major, record breaking flooding. I live on the south side of the river away from the post office. My mail person could not get to us to deliver our mail. I was following (on the USPS site) when my order was to arrive. It was three days after it arrived before I received it. It was packaged so well that you couldn't even tell it had been placed in a bin waiting to be delivered. I was very impressed with how well it was packaged.

I have already been planning on some orders for Christmas. And CrossTimber offers discounts and freebies when you order 3 or more items. I can't wait to choose my gifts for my children and my mom for Christmas! I give CrossTimber 5 stars!

One more thing before you go, CrossTimber has a Christmas giveaway. You could win the grand prize of a personalized mug, name plaque, or 8X10 name plaque or be one of nine (9) to win a $10 gift certificate. Enter by clicking on the picture below.

MyFreezEasy.com ~ Review

Have you ever been in a rush or just know you are going to have a busy week? You look at the time and realize you have nothing planned for dinner. Or everything is in the freezer and you have no time to defrost, so you just swing by somewhere and pick up take out for your family. What if you could have some meals all ready to go in your freezer? All you have to do is take it out the night before and defrost it. With a MyFreezEasy.com Freezer Meal Plan Membership from MyFreezEasy, you can have ten meals made up in just one hour. You will have meals ready in your freezer for those busy nights or weeks.

What is MyFreezEasy?
MyFreezEasy is a monthly plan where you receive eight new meal plans to try monthly.  The meal plans available are the traditional, gluten free, slow cooker, clean eats, 20 meal plan, all chicken, all ground beef, and all pork chops. With the premium plan, which I received, you are able to adjust serving sizes and substitute a recipe in the meal plan.

Are you wondering how you are able to prepare 10 meals in one hour and you have never done it before? With MyFreezEasy, an instructional video is available to watch how to prepare the traditional meal plan. Highlight videos are available for the other plans. There are also assembly details for every meal plan that tell you exactly how to prepare the meals. And to make things easy, printable labels are included to label all of your meals, so you can easily find what you want.

Want to create your own plan? You can, with the premium annual plan. This is a great way to customize and get exactly the plan you want.

How did I use (and am using) MyFreezEasy? And what do I think about it?
I looked through all the plans when I received them, but decided to make my own plan by using food I already had on hand. For September meals, I chose lazy lasagna bake, classic spaghetti sauce, fully loaded taco meat, slow cooker teriyaki pork tenderloin, and slow cooker taco soup. I have never made any freezer meals in my life, because I have always been intimidated by the thought of it. I also didn't know exactly how to put things together. MyFreezEasy is just that - easy! Everything that you need to do is written out for you. You are able to print a shopping list. Then, when you are ready to start preparing, you are given assembly directions and told what you need to precook. Then, it tells you how to assemble each meal. It was very easy to do and didn't take me more than an hour to do it.

I put together my ten meals the weekend before my son started drivers ed. We only have one car and I was going to have to take my husband to work in the morning, take my son to drivers ed at 3 PM, pick up my husband from work at 5 PM, and finally pick up my son at 6 PM. My husband's work and the school where my son took drivers ed are each 15 minutes from our house, but in opposite directions. So, that meant, I was not going to have a lot of time to prepare dinner with all the dropping off and picking up I had to do. MyFreezEasy came in handy several of the 10 days (of drivers ed). It was easy to take the pork out the night before, defrost, and place in the slow cooker in the morning. Really, it was easy to just grab any of the pre-made meals out of the freezer the night before to defrost and either be cooking in the slow cooker or ready to put in the oven that night. Our favorite meal was the lazy lasagna bake. We had salad and garlic bread with that and it was so delicious. We did have a flop, but I think it was because I cooked it too long. I put the teriyaki pork in the slow cooker in the morning and set the timer, but when the time is up, my slow cooker turns to keep warm. I thought that would be okay, but it burned the sauce and was very salty. I should have turned it off when the time was up and taken it out of the slow cooker. Overall, we have loved everything else. I already have my October meal plan downloaded and ready to go.

I definitely give MyFreezEasy 5 stars!

Everyday Education ~ Review

My oldest son has just started high school this school year. I have been trying to help him find ways to learn how to do his best writing. We have used other writing programs in the past, but it seems like nothing has been sticking with him. We have been using Excellence in Literature Handbook for Writers from Everday Education, LLC the past few weeks. There is a lot of information, but I have seen some improvement in his literature book report writing.

Everyday Education, LLC is a small family owned company that was started by Janice Campbell in the early 2000's. She had her son design the website as a place for her to post articles and books and it has been built upon ever since.

Excellence in Literature Handbook for Writers is a 420 page book that is divided into two parts. The first part of the book is an introduction to essays and arguments. The second part of the book is an introduction to usage and style. Some sample pages from each section are in the picture below.

The first section of the book instructs on how to write different types of essays. It shows the student how to set up outlines, how to write a good opening paragraph, and how to use key terms. The first section has ten chapters of over 200 pages. Some of the chapters include the following:

• Arguments: Some Simple First Principles
• Deduction and Induction
• Organizing the Main Body of an Argument
• Paragraph Functions

There are also several samples at the end of the first section. Here the student can see how everything is put together into one great essay. 

The second section of the book is an instruction guide to style and usage. This section is the grammar part of the handbook and has nine chapters with over 200 page. Some of the chapters from this section include the following:

• Basic Punctuation
• Modifiers, Gerunds, Infinitives
• References and Bibliographies
• Basic Format for Essays and Research Papers

At the end of the second section, there are several pages for the student to use as they are writing - a visual guide, the six sections of an approach paper, eleven things a paragraph can do, and a rubric for writing evaluation.

During the review period, I printed off the different chapters that  I wanted my son to work through. I had my son work through both sections during this time also. He has a good grasp on grammar, so we didn't spend as much time on that section as we did on the first section. He is actually using Excellence in Literature: Introduction to Literature this year for his literature course. He was having difficulty forming the essays he was to write, so this review came at the perfect time. Working through the Handbook for Writers has helped him tremendously with his writing and has helped him while working through his literature course. He is able to see how to put the essay together and use the right words to make a good essay. I have also read through several of the chapters, so I would know how to help him with his writing. There is a lot of good information in this book and it is a book that he can use during the rest of his high school years and also use while he is in college. We both like this book very much and I plan to use this when my younger children get into the high school years.