Wednesday, 30 October 2013

The Force Has Arrived


A couple of weeks ago I shared a link to a FREE book on Amazon called The Fourth. Kingdom

Last week the sequel launched. The Force  is currently available FREE for your Kindle from now until 2 Nov. These two books are a part of The Kingdom Chronicles by co-authors Joyce and Alexandra Swann.
Details
  • Paperback: 358 pages
  • Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform (October 21, 2013)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1493524607
  • ISBN-13: 978-1493524600
  • Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
  • Kindle
  • Paperback

About The Force
Someone is murdering the world’s most beautiful women—over and over and over. When Jarrod and Joshua Sinclair are called in to consult with the FBI about the Hollywood Starlet murders, they immediately suspect their old nemesis Josef Helmick of creating clones of famous women for a visiting Saudi prince. Wasting no time, they hire retired detective Fred Kowalski and send him to Dubai to uncover Josef’s base of operations and build a case against him for the murders. But Fred soon discovers that Helmick Enterprises is harboring a secret much darker than human trafficking. Fred must stop Helmick before he resurrects an ancient, diabolical Force in order to bring the entire human race under his control.
This book has it all, for me it was a real sit on the edge of your seat read. I just could not put it down. I finished it in less than two days. It is an A+ Christian Sci-fi thriller and would fit very well on your book shelf amongst your Frank Peretti and Left Behind books. The author's have done a magnificent job of building a plot of intrigue, mystery, power, justice, mercy and suspense with a twist at every corner. It is a vision of the future and possible outcome of the technological age of cloning ...

About the Authors:

Joyce and Alexandra Swann are mother and daughter. Joyce homeschooled her ten children from the first grade through master’s degrees. She is a well-known author and speaker on the subject of homeschooling. For nearly a decade she was a popular columnist for Practical Homeschooling Magazine. She now blogs regularly on parenting, homeschooling, and Christian lifestyle issues.

Joyce and Alexandra have co-authored two other novels, The Fourth Kingdom and The Twelfth Juror, both of which were published in 2010. Joyce’s personal story of her experiences raising and educating her family is chronicled in Looking Backward: My Twenty-Five Years as a Homeschooling Mother, published in February of 2011. Her novel, The Warrior, which tells the story of one woman’s ten year prayer vigil for a man she has never met, was released in May of 2012. She is also the author of two children’s books, Tales of Pig Isle and A Horse Called Lightning/A House of Clowns (The McAloons), which began as stories that she told to entertain her grandchildren.

Alexandra is author of No Regrets: How Homeschooling Earned me a Master’s Degree at Age Sixteen and Writing for Today. She has been self-employed for over fourteen years and was the 2011 Chairwoman of the Board of the El Paso Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. She writes a regular blog, Paying for Protection, about the consequences of over-regulation and over-reaching government. Her novel The Planner, which is the prequel to The Chosen, was published in June of 2012.

You can read  Interview with an Author~Joyce & Alexandra Swann over at Following in His Footsteps.

Connect

Blessings
Chareen
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Monday, 28 October 2013

Trim Healthy Mama {Review}

I have a confession to make.  I started hearing all about Trim Healthy Mama on Facebook, my friends in the home education support group I attend and on Pinterest in the middle of last year.  I finally read Gwen's review and took the plunge, I purchased THM in January and when it arrived it sat on my bedside table for six months (this is my biggest regret... to think I could have been eating on plan for the last ten months and reached my weight goal by Christmas !?!)

I liked them on FB and read the testimony of an older lady whose health had been turned around and I shared that with my Mom and gave her my copy of the book. She has many health issues and has struggled to loose weight for the last few years, in fact she has steadily gained weight... Slowly slowly she has tried and applied the principles.  The weight numbers started going in the right direction and the inches are falling off of her. One day I noticed that she looked different and finally asked and her reply 8 kg (17.6 pounds) with THM! I was shocked. Now I knew I couldn't ignore my own weight/health issues any longer I needed this book too...

I so badly wanted to try what she was doing so I contacted THM to see if they had any review copies available.  Within hours they had responded and blessed me with a pdf copy of The Trim Healthy Mama.  I have put it onto my Galaxy Tab 2 but was finding it slow reading on there.  Thankfully this week a friend explained to me how to email it to my Kindle.  So much easier to read.

About the book
To be honest I have not finished reading this book.  It's 600 pages of information. I'm a fast reader but this stuff is paradigm changing and I find I need to re-read in order to grasp some concepts.  It's not hard it's just loads of information shared in a conversational tone. Pearl and Serene share their journey honestly and openly and are not afraid to say when they have a difference of opinion or experience in a certain area. 

I'm a tactile book girl so I took my pdf and printed the recipe section and had it spiral bound at our local stationary store.  I chose to print them single sided so that I would have the blank sides to write up my tweaks and the new recipes that I find over on {Trim Healthy Tuesday} a weekly blog hop where many Trim Healthy Mama's are sharing their creations.

I am in the process of saving to purchase a paperback version of the book in order to use tabs for easy reference as suggested by Gwen's Trim Healthy Mama Quick Start Guide.  I will be keeping it on my Kindle for easy portability and am pleased that I will have both the digital and paperback versions.

Our Experience
I am not a fan of coconut.  Period.  I really struggled with the concept of using so much coconut based products.  My mother wisely came over with some bread in a mug for lunch and needless to say the rest is history.  It was delicious and oh so very satisfying.  She made one batch and it was enough for the two of to enjoy.  That was all I needed in order to pluck up the courage to purchase ingredients and start my journey. I have made this for Paul and he is super impressed with how satisfying it is to eat.  He thought he would get hungry and have to eat but was pleasantly surprised that he did not.  I gave him bacon and eggs on bread in a mug. 

I then tried my hand at cheese cake.  Next time I will make this with more stevia. I served him this for breakfast with cream and berries.  Neither of us were hungry all morning.  He was rather surprised that this was diet food (and sceptical until I told how much weight I had lost in the first week ...) !

We are still in the early stages of using THM and I will write a follow up post after I get my head around the method. Now let me think there is something about S meals, FP meals, E meals and cross overs.  Once I get all this untangled in my head I will share more.  It's not difficult it's just a new way of classifying your food in order not to create a weight gaining environment in your body.

I was a sceptical because I was under the impression that I would be constantly counting carbs, points or something but I was encouraged to  “Never include large amounts of both fats and carbs in the same meal unless you are trying to gain or maintain weight. In other words, don’t tandem fuel.” Page 64  and "We don't want you doing a bunch of carb counting , which only leads to needless obsessions and detracts from happiness." I am pleased to say that the THM have done this work for you already by labelling the meals in the the recipe section with the letters S, FP and E.  I just haven't quiet understood how to use them yet.


I purchased
Australian THM products
  • Coconut oil
  • Flax meal
  • Almond meal
  • Cocoa
  • Coconut
  • Baking powder
  • Vanilla Essence
  • Happy Cow Cheese (full and reduced fat)
  • Barley wraps
  • Coconut cream
  • Onion flakes
  • Eggs
My grocery cupboard is being transformed.  My cravings are diminishing.  I used to crave chocolate and thought I would miss it.  The truth is I'm not.  Yes I do love chocolate but I don't have this driving urge to purchase and eat it all the time since I started THM.

Some people complain that it's expensive.  We are on a very tight budget.  There is no room to sneeze.  Yes some things are expensive and I will need to save for two or three paydays in order to purchase them but having said that the ingredients last because they are not things you need to stock up on every week.  So all I am doing is purchasing one to two items to add to my cupboard a fortnight and that is completely doable.

My numbers
  • Week 1 - 1.3 kg (2.87 pounds)
  • Week 2 - 1.4 kg (3.08 pounds)
  • Week 3
  • Week 4
I have a very long way to go but this will be a good journey.  I know that I am not going to be hungry and am not going to spend hours counting calories, points, carbs etc. I am going to enjoy becoming a Trim Healthy Mama! I will update here over the next few weeks with my numbers as I use the plan more and more foods as well as share some recipe's.

Some tasty easy recipes to try
What some others have said

Resources
Buy the Book
Connect with THM
I just want to say thank you so much to Serene and Pearl for giving me this opportunity to shout out for your book and blessing our family.  For my readers I would love to encourage you to save up and purchase this book it is well worth it's investment.  It is a book full of helpful information, an abundant recipe section and tons of encouragement.  It is not full of difficult jargon and is a book that will transform your life and your body whether you have lots to loose or a little, whether you are pregnant or breast feeding or just needing to get healthy this book is for you. You can use all the recipes and start at any point.

Be blessed and I look forward to reading your experiences with Trim Healthy Mama.
Blessings
Chareen 


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Saturday, 26 October 2013

HSMJ the scales ...

In my life this week in the past two weeks…
Grrr I'm feeling a little frustrated with Pinterest's latest update preventing me from pinning more than 15 pins from the web at a sitting.  It's so annoying!
I have recently started investigating The Trim Healthy Mama and so far both Paul and I are impressed with how satisfying the meals are.  I have been inspired by my mother ... This week Sir N has been sampling THM foods with me.  He has been tasting my Singing Canary drinks I have been making each day.  I am trying to tweak it to my personal taste ...
I am also enjoying the photographs and video's that are being shared on the Prince William and Kate Facebook page.


In our home school this week…
  • Sir N so enjoyed that Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle that we are off to the library to borrow another book in the series.
  • He is also enjoying The Usborne Time Traveler so much so that he can't wait for us to go to Rome!
  • I'm so enjoying listening to him read I Can Read It! Book 2 to me.  
  • Today Sir N and I are going to the library to get some books to continue our Expedition Earth journey.  He loves traveling the world.
  • This week we have been working through triple digit subtraction with borrowing.
Helpful homeschooling tips or advice to share…
I am inspired by…
Places we’re going and people we’re seeing…
  • Tennis
  • A play date with a friend.
  • Driving teenagers around to appointments all week ...
  • We went to the bank and opened a savings account for Sir N.  So much fun.  Sir N wants to save for a digital camera that has a good zoom lens.
My favourite thing this week was…
  • Climbing on the scales and finally seeing the numbers go in the right direction.  I've been watching my Mom and sister in law start on The Trim Healthy Mam so I started using some of their recipes last week.  (More of my story later ...)
  • I'm so proud of my daughter she has been saving up to purchase a car and finally met her goals.  She went to pay and pick up a beautiful Nissan Micra on Wednesday.
What’s working/not working for us…
  • Earlier bed times ...sometimes
Things I’m working on…
On my bedside table
  • Trim Healthy Mama
  • At home in Dogwood Mudhole by Franklin Sanders. I'm enjoying this book. Beautifully written.
  • The Fourth Kingdom really enjoyed this book.  Great read.  I'm even more pleased that I had the sequel to jump straight into.
  • The sequel to The Fourth Kingdom The Force. This book is a sit on the edge of your chair thriller. Loved every minitute of this read. Challenging topics and thought provoking information
In Bloggy world I’m reading…
I’m cooking…
  • Bread in a Mug
  • Singing Canary - definitely trying to tweak this so it tastes better!  I like the positive health benefits and it's better than the amount of tea I normally consume but I need to tweak it to be a little more sweet.
  • Cheesecake Really like this.  Will be adding this to our diet regularly.
On Pinterest I found...
I’m grateful for…
  • People who are willing to talk about things truthfully, that are not worried about political correctness.  I really enjoyed what Tim Elmore had to say in this article: How Adults are Stealing Ambition From Kids.
A photo, video, link, or quote to share…
A New Perspective For Moms from Elevation Church on Vimeo.

Blessings

Chareen

Homegrown Learners Hammock Tracks It's a Wrap

Photo collages made with: Photoscape a FREE photo editor
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