I was published…

Bret asked me to write a book review for this website that promotes Christians books. All of the books are reviewed by a “layperson” and then the review is published on their site. I read the book Grace Like a River by Christopher Parkening (Classical Guitarist & Flyfisherman). It was his autobiography and his testimony of the work God has done in his life. It was a great book and I really enjoyed reading it.

You can read my review and buy the book yourself for an enjoyable read!

On that same note, I have been especially encouraged by a number of good biographies over the past year that I’ve read. They include:

Twelve Extraordinary Women by John MacArthur

Faithful Women & Their Extraordinary God by Noel Piper

The Three Mrs. Judsons by Arabella Stuart

Shadow of the Almighty (The Life and Testament of Jim Elliot) by Elizabeth Elliot

The End of the Spear by Steve Saint

William Tyndale by David Daniell

All of these come highly recommended by me!

From my villa to yours~

Financially Fit?

What a great resource for being financially fit: daveramsey.com.

We have begun trimming our extra pounds by following some of his really helpful ideas!

Take a look and you’ll be really encouraged!

From my villa to yours~

Some women journal to be creative…some mural

My dear girlfriend, Virginia, and I did something very creative recently: it’s called muraling! And it was so fun! I don’t know if I would call it a stress reliever as we really are not very stressed! Here’s our mural:

The mural is on the wall in my kitchen in a little niche.

Process:

We put an image that we like on the wall with a projector.

We traced the image and rough lines.

We used latex paints to fill in the lines and added more color to give it a layered look!

Finally we added the stone work edging.

Today I put the second coat of poly-covering over it to keep the colors fresh and stains off of it.

By the way, I also must give credit to a wonderful, patient 3 year old, Drake, who helped Mommy & Mrs. Kelly paint. Here’s the mural team plus the 3 year old cheerleader:

What a fun & creative time! Bret and I now enjoy our meals looking out into a Tuscany countryside!

From my villa to yours~

The Date Night of ipods & podcasts

You know you’ve been married for5 years when date night consists of messing around on your computers together! My dearest and I spent the evening (after a stroll and coffee & tea at Starbucks) searching for all of our favorite preachers’ (my dearest being at the top of my list) podcasts. How fun was that!

Now I must admit my younger siblings have been using ipods for a number of years now and I just got on the ipod train 6 months ago. I still have trouble figuring out exactly how to get songs & sermons to stay in my library and go to the ipod but now with the discovery of podcasts my trials are over (at least in this area of my life)!

Some great feeds include:

Pastor Bret Capranica of www.fbcsj.com

Pastor John MacArthur of www.gty.org

Pastor John Piper of www.desiringgod.org

Pastor Al Mohler of Southern Seminary

Pastors Phil Johnson & Don Green (my former bosses & great preachers of GraceLife at Grace Comm. Church)

Now it’s as easy as one, two, three to get great sermons explaining the Word and exalting Christ and the Father with the push of the button on iTunes.

Date nights would be lacking were it not for technology used for the Glory of God and the edification of the Saints!

From my villa to yours~