Vietnam Vetrean's Day

It is fitting that today is Vietnam Veteran's Day as Admiral Jeremiah Denton passed away yesterday. I have mentioned his book, When Hell Was In Session in my blog before. He was a Catholic Vietnam POW for over seven years with a wife and seven children left behind. If you would like to learn more about his life check out his book. 
                                                       God Bless our Soldiers and Their Love Ones,
                                                                                         Nina
                                                                                    

Books with meaning..

Hi all,
     As I journey through Lent I am constantly reevaluating my use of time.  What am I doing with my time? What am I reading? Does this bring be closer to God? I have played numerous online games in the past and I recently started playing Farmville 2. I was having fun but it was using up so much of my free time and I kept getting sucked in and could not manage how much time I was spending on it. I know I can still have fun but I want my fun to have the ultimate purpose of leading me closer to God that is one of the reasons I have this blog. I love reading but what good is it if I do not share what I have learned with others. I have mostly wanted to focus on sharing books that I have enjoyed and not just writing reviews of everything I have read. I want focus on the positive and not the negative. The church I attended growing up had a library that I would faithfully visit after mass to look for new reading material. Two of the books I remember clearly were biographies aimed at younger kids about Abigail Adams and Mother Teresa. I have been trying to locate them for many years and I have recently found Mott Media LLC, which published the series containing these books  in the Sower Series. They are definitely Protestant in their tone but are a good introduction to biographies for younger readers. As mentioned above I really like the Abigail Adams and Mother Teresa books. I hope you are having a good Lent.
                                                     Have a good read,
                                                                 Nina

Favorite Links

Hi all I added a few of my favorite links at the bottom of the page. One for Ebates and another for a blog called Seraphic Singles.  If you are shopping online, Ebates is way to earn a few dollars. I have earned $18 myself and it went straight into my book budget. If you go to ebates through this *link*  I can earn a few for dollars for referring you. My oldest nephew is receiving his first confession this week. I am so excited for him as the Sacrament of Reconciliation is one of the greatest gifts we have been given. If you could offer up a prayer for him this week that would be appreciated. In 2005 I was able to visit Lourdes, France on my way home form World Youth Day in Cologne. They have a separate building just for hearing confessions and they offer as many languages as possible. Although I had gone to confession earlier that week in Germany I felt drawn to go to confession again. Some of the people I traveled with thought that it was weird since I had gone to confession so recently. The best thing besides receiving the sacrament myself is that it encouraged someone else who had not gone to confession  in a long time. I remember hearing that Blessed John Paul II went to confession daily. If he felt the need to go daily how much more am I called to receive the sacrament regularly so that I might grow closer to God as  Bl JPII did. Well I hope your Lent is going well.
                                     May God grant you the grace to grow closer to Him daily,
                                                                           Nina

Journey of Hope

Journey of Hope by Debbie Kaufman is an interesting look into the missionary world in 1920. Anna Baldwin is a missionary to a tribe of cannibals in Liberia, the Pahn. After losing her major form of support she is running out of ways to stay in the missionary field. Enter Stewart Hastings who has recently been dumped by his fiance for scars he had incurred in WWI. As they journey through the jungle they encounter danger and driver ants (look them up, they can be dangerous). What I liked most about this story is that it focused on doing God's will and not what we think is God's will. Both Anna and Stewart have set plans on what they are in Liberia for, but circumstance and God show them that there is a different plan. A plan that they could not have imagined but one that brings Him glory. When you look this book up you will see it's a Harlequin book. Well it turns out that Harlequin has some Christian series namely Love Inspired Historical, Love Inspired, and Love Inspired Suspense. I have read many of them and have found most of them  to be clean, a little heavy on the romance but not more than many of the Christian romance novels out today.
                
                                                                   Have a good read,
                                                                           Nina

The Lenten Diet

Hi all,
      We have now officially begun the Lenten season, we have washed the ashes off of our face and we now face the challenge of keeping true to our fast. As the title of this blog post notes I often feel that I am going on a diet when I give up certain foods. I also selfishly think about how abstaining will help me lose weight faster  and often focus on that aspect rather then the fact that fasting is to bring me closer to God. My goal this year is to focus on what God wants me to learn from fasting. Also as part of my Lenten journey I am listening to The Screwtape Letters dramatization put our by Focus on the Family Radio Theater.  It is a good examination of conscience as well as reminding me about those little sins that I so often forget. I picked up a book at the library that had an interesting title called Coffee with Jesus  by David Wilkie. It is a compilation of a daily comic strip which features Jesus having morning coffee with a varied group of Christians. They talk about prayer, getting along with neighbors, and various everyday problems they run into. I pinned one of the comic strips on Pinterest check it out here.  http://www.pinterest.com/pin/133278470197157915/

                                             May your Lenten journey bring you closer to God,
                                                                                       Nina