On Monday, I posted the Sweets of our trip to PA and promised to add the Sours in a day or two. I confess that I was all ready to unload a litany of sours on Tuesday. However, something, or better Someone stopped me. Have you seen those cartoons where the character is running full speed, but someone bigger has their hand on the little character’s forehead and although his arms and legs are spinning, he’s going nowhere? That’s kinda what God did to me. I was spitting and sputtering in my head about all these sours, and God just planted His big ol’ hand on my forehead and said, “Woah.”

He has given me permission to state a couple of sours, mostly because I’m sure you’re curious now, but I’m not to elaborate.

Sour #1: On Monday we had to put our nearly 14 year old cat to sleep. If I’m to be honest, I don’t really care for cats all that much, but Ruddie was special and we will miss him terribly, especially when we are doing school. 

Sour #2: While on my trip I checked my emails from a hotel and discovered another “Dear Jane” letter regarding my writing dreams. ‘Nuf said.

Here’s the deal…one sour was just plain sad and the other was a terrible dissapointment, but in the scheme of things, they aren’t as sour as they could have been. In each case, there are things for which I am thankful. When I was planning my original Sour post on Tuesday, God led me to Isaiah 30:20 “Although the Lord gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, your teachers will be hidden no more; with your own eyes you will see them. Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying “This is the way, walk in it.”

God never promised to just give me roses in this life. He will give me thorns too and today I’m thanking Him for the thorns. I have a choice; I can complain about the Sours that happen every day or I can thank God for them and choose to learn something. He promises my “teachers will be hidden no more.” I need to remember that while there will always be Sweets and Sours, my sours always contain Grace Lessons.

“Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you;…Blessed are all who wait for Him.” Isaiah 30:18

About the Author ~

Neta Jackson Neta Jackson’s award-winning Yada books have sold more than 350,000 copies and are spawning prayer groups across the country. She and her husband, Dave, are also an award-winning husband/wife writing team, best known for the Trailblazer Books–a 40-volume series of historical fiction about great Christian heroes with 1.8 million in sales–and Hero Tales: A Family Treasury of True Stories from the Lives of Christian Heroes (vols 1-4).

Dave and Neta live in Evanston, Illinois, where for twenty-seven years they were part of Reba Place Church, a Christian church community. They are now members of the Chicago Tabernacle, a multi-racial congregation that is a daughter church of the well-known Brooklyn Tabernacle.

About the Book ~

Turkey dinners, tree trimming, and decking the halls–it’s that time of year again! And I Jodi Baxter, can’t wait to celebrate. My kids are coming home for Thanksgiving and Christmas, and then all of us Yadas are getting decked out for a big New Year’s party.

But God’s idea of “decked out” might just change the nature of our party plans. A perplexing encounter with a former student, a crime that literally knocks me off my feet, a hurry-up wedding, and a child who will forever change our family…it’s times like these that I really need my prayer sisters.

This holiday season, we Yada Yadas are learning that no one can out celebrate God. So let’s get this party started!

THE YADA YADA PRAYER GROUP GETS DECKED OUT is a festive novella featuring America’s favorite prayer group, the Yada Yadas!

Sometimes dubbed “chick-lit” for their bright covers and catchy titles, this series provides far more depth than witty banter and wacky situations. Inspired by a prayer group of real women, each book will have you laughing, crying, and perhaps praying anew.

In this highly anticipated installment, the Yada Yada sisters-a group of multi-cultural friends-and their families prepare for the event of the season.

But yes, eager readers, this novella—which picks up a year and a half after the end of book #6 The Yada Yada Prayer Group Gets Rolling concludes the series with some twists and turns that will amaze and encourage you. Plus, it sets the stage for Neta’s new series with new characters and new situations but also occasional roles for the beloved Yada Yada sisters in familiar Chicago neighborhoods with all their cultural richness.

In the Bible study class I co-teach, we always open our time together by sharing our Sweets and Sours. I decided that today I would share my SWEETS from the last week and a half and tomorrow I will share my SOURS.

We just got back from an 8 day trip to Pennsylvania and if I say, “I think we saw it all”, I am not kidding.  Here are a few of the highlights~

• Flying with the boys for the first time! They were thrilled when the pilot invited them into the cockpit on the first leg of our trip.
• The Amish sites in Lancaster County~The Amish Experience, The Amish House and Farm, Plain & Fancy restaurant, the Glick family farm and the kids spotting the buggies and squealing!
• The life-sized Tabernacle and tour at the Mennonite museum.
• Chocolate World in Hershey, PA!!!  Okay, now that place defines SWEET!
• The Crayola Factory in Easton, PA
• The Boyd’s Bear Factory ~ which the kids all deemed their favorite place in the world!  Special thanks to Grandma and Grandpa H. who sent money for bears for each kid. It was a blast!
• Completing the auto tour of Gettysburg. It was amazing and emotional. Really, words can’t describe that experience.
• Valley Forge was a bit of a disappointment, partly because it was wet and dreary and partly because it’s just one big camp ground. Nevertheless, we are glad we stopped there!

Philadelphia was almost like another trip in itself. We turned in our rental car and the kids experienced mass transit. What a riot! In addition to adjusting to new smells in the subway, we also experienced ~

• The Liberty Bell
• Independence Hall
• The US Mint
• The Constitutional Museum
• Betsy Ross’s House
• Breaksfast with Ben Franklin ~ which was our very favorite thing to do in Philly!… but we missed Daddy.  Mike was presenting at a conference that day.
• Ben Franklin’s printing shop and the first Post Office, from which we mailed postcards home.
• The Ben Franklin underground museum and movie
• The Civil War and Underground Railroad museum
• The Seaport Museum and the submarine.
• Eatting at the City Tavern where so many founding fathers ate before us!

I could go on and on. It was amazing. I think we all fell asleep before 9 every night and were up and ready to go by 7:30 the next morning. The kids and Mike still managed to sneak in a few dips in the swimming pool and I mananged to read a really excellent new book by my friend Virginia Smith.  (More on that later!)

 It was just a sweet getting home. We had cleaned like crazy before we left, so our house was spotless …atleast until we hauled in 4 bags and 5 backpacks! We are so thankful for the friends who watched our pets, delivered our van to the airport, and turned up our heat.

The things I will treasure most are the memories I made with my husband and kids. I pray that they will all remember this trip with the same warm feelings that I do now. It was wonderful.  I just have to share one quick story and then I’m done (maybe).

In an effort to save money, we took along our food for breakfasts and lunches. A couple of times we were treated to hotel breakfasts and twice we supplemented lunches by going to nearby markets, like the famous Reading Terminal market. Nevertheless, at the end of the trip we still had quite a bit of food left.

The kids and I were mostly on our own the last few days of the trip, because of Mike’s conference. One morning we were in the subway early and the kids saw a young homeless man digging in the garbage for his breakfast. It left its mark on their hearts. That afternoon we went back to the hotel and bagged up all our left over food. Apparently, that’s why I had taken all those ziplocks along. Anyway, Saturday afternoon the kids and I delivered two substantial bags of food to two men on the street. In the evening we recruited Mike to go into the subway with us and we delivered four more food bags to men.

I share this not out of pride, but because it is the thing I will probably remember most vividly of the trip. We experienced so many sweet blessings, but giving my kids the opportunity to serve and shine Christ’s light to others, will be the memory I treasure the most.

Try putting this book down once you’ve started it. I dare you. Really! Reading Bell’s Try Dying time warped me back 15 years to my first Grisham novel and that familiar “please-wipe-the-saliva-from-my-chin-cuz-I’m-too-gripped-to-swallow” feeling reintroduced itself. Bell is a master story teller and when I grow up I want to be just like him. (Okay, I don’t want to look like Jim, as shaving my face isn’t my thing, but as a writer I’d like to look a little like him.) Wow. I’m telling you, the character development is amazing and the urgency the main character, Ty Buchanan, experiences is highly contagious.

This is a blue ribbon novel! Shhh, don’t tell the author, but I might just be sticking a Grand Champion ribbon on it when no one’s looking. If you limit yourself to only buying 5 books a year ( I can’t imagine this myself) then Try Dying MUST make your gotta-have-it list in 2007!

About the Author~

James Scott Bell is a former trial lawyer who now writes full time. The national bestselling author of several novels of suspense, he grew up and still lives in Los Angeles, where he is at work on his next Buchanan thriller. To learn more about Bell, you can visit his Web site at www.jamesscottbell.com.

About the Book~

Life is good for Ty Buchanan. He’s in his prime, on track to be a partner in a successful L.A. law frim, has a beautiful fiancee he loves, and good friends.

In a matter of seconds, he will lose them all.

A freak occurrence on an L.A. freeway kills Buchanan’s fiancee, Jacqueline. The cops write it off as an accident. But when a mysterious stranger convinces Buchanan it was murder, his world goes spinning out of control.

Meanwhile, a lawsuit he’s trying is heating up-a case of repressed memory and claims of sexual abuse and people with power who don’t want Buchanan to go any further.

As Buchanan gets closer to the dark secret surrounding Jacqueline’s death, there’s nothing but trouble waiting. Those who know the truth want to stop him at all costs.

Now the lawyer must learn to survive on the streets. And the only help hehas comes from a basketball-playing nun and a fallen priest who give him shelter in the hills above Los Angeles.

From the high-rises of the city’s most powerful law firms, to the mean streets of gangland L.A., Try Dying is a blistering thrill ride in the finest tradition of modern noir.

I haven’t read Deadfall…yet. Due to time constraints I don’t choose to review every CFBA book myself. However, I still want to let you know about all the books. This is one I can’t wait to get my hands on. Just read about it here and you’ll see what I mean!

About the Author~

Robert is an award-winning author of over a thousand published articles and short stories. He is currently a contributing editor for New Man magazine. His work has appeared in Reader’s Digest, Travel & Leisure, Modern Bride, Consumers Digest, Chief Executive, and The Arizona Daily Star, among other publications. In addition, he previously worked as a celebrity journalist, interviewing Stephen King, Tom Clancy, Charlton Heston, and others for magazines such as Rocky Road, Preview, and L.A. Weekly.

Robert is an avid scuba diver, swimmer, reader, traveler, and a law enforcement and military enthusiast. He lives in Colorado with his wife and four children.

Robert’s first novel painted a scenario so frighteningly real that six Hollywood producers were bidding on movie rights before the novel was completed. His acclaimed debut novel, Comes A Horseman, is being made into a major motion picture by producer Mace Neufeld and his short story “Kill Zone” was featured in the anthology Thriller, edited by James Patterson.

Bob has sold the film rights to his second book, GERM. And he is writing the screenplay for a yet-to-be-written political thriller, which sold to Phoenix Pictures, for Andrew Davis (The Fugitive, The Guardian) to direct!

He is currently working on his fourth novel.

About the Book~

Deep in the isolated Northwest Territories, four friends are on the trip of a lifetime. Dropped by helicopter into the Canadian wilderness, Hutch, Terry, Phil, and David are looking to escape the events of a tumultuous year for two weeks of hunting, fishing, and camping.

Armed with only a bow and arrow and the basics for survival, they’ve chosen a place far from civilization, a retreat from their turbulent lives. But they quickly discover that another group has targeted the remote region and the secluded hamlet of Fiddler Falls for a more menacing purpose: to field test the ultimate weapon.

With more than a week before the helicopter rendezvous and no satellite phone, Hutch, a skilled bow-hunter and outdoor-survivalist must help his friend elude their seemingly inescapable foes, as well as decide whether to run for their lives…or risk everything to help the townspeople who are being held hostage and terrorized.

An intense novel of character forged in the midst of struggle, survival, and sacrifice. Deadfall is highly-aclaimed author Robert Liparulo’s latest rivetingly smart thriller.

Get Downloads and

“DEADFALL is drop-dead great!”
-In The Library Reviews

“What if Mad Max, Rambo, and the Wild Bunch showed up-all packing Star Wars type weapons? You’d have Robert Liparulo’s thrilling new adventure Deadfall.”
-Katherine Neville, best selling author of The Eight
“A brilliantly crafted thriller with flawless execution. I loved it!”
-Michael Palmer, best selling author of The Fifth Vial

“In Deadfall, Robert Liparulo gives us a fresh fast paced novel that instills a well founded fear of the villians and an admiration for the people who refuse to be victims. It truly deserves the name thriller.
-Thomas Perry, best selling author of The Butcher’s Boy and Silence

“Another brilliantly conceived premise from Robert Liparulo. Deadfall will leave you looking over your shoulder and begging for more.”
-DAve Dun, best selling author of The Black Silent

A NOTE from Bob: I’d like to give away five signed copies of Deadfall to readers of CFBA blogs during my tour. All they have to do is sign up for my e-mailing list (they won’t be inundated!) by going to my website (www.robertliparulo.com) and going to the “Mailing List” page. Or email me with “CFBA giveaway” in the subject line.

And a second NOTE from Bob: I wanted to let you know that I’m holding a contest on my site:

**one winner a week till the end of the year for a signed Deadfall
**one winner a week till the end of the year for an unabridged audio MP3-CD of Deadfall
***and on Dec. 31, I’m giving away an iPod Nano, pre-loaded with an unabridged audio recording of Deadfall

Winners are selected from my e-mailing list—sign up at my site. If a winner has already purchased what he/she wins, I will reimburse them for the purchase price (or give them another—whichever they choose), so they don’t need to wait to see if they win before buying Deadfall.

This weekend was daylight savings and we all should have turned our clocks back one hour. (If this is coming as news to you, that will explain why you were the only one who showed up for work “on time” this morning.;))  I always expect to feel rested after daylight savings in the fall, but that’s never the case. I stay up an hour later and think I am being treated with an extra hour, but the kids’ internal clocks don’t adjust to daylight savings so easily and they tend to wake up at their usual time. So I stay up until midnight (11:00 the new time) and they get up at 5:30 a.m. (6:30 the old time). Argh!

When the kids are older I don’t think it will make any difference, I won’t really be gaining that bonus hour. I’ll probably just fill it with goofy stuff like watching reruns of That 70′s Show.

So, I’ve decided to steal back time in other ways throughout the year. Here’s my plan:

*Politely ask friends not to send me propoganda forwards via email. (I don’t mind an occasional humorous forward as long as I’m not required to forward it without the threat of some bogus curse falling on me when I don’t.)

*Limit my TV time to the morning news and the weekly program we watch as a family.

*Get to bed on time. Then I can eliminate exhaustion from my list of excuses for not using my time wisely and efficiently during the day.

How about you? Are you ready to steal back some lost time? Tell me what you are going to do!

 Kadi ~ Twister

Ben ~ Luke Skywalker

Caleb ~ Jack Sparrow

Gracie ~ Teddy Bear puppy ~ 9 months

Watching for trick or treaters

Caleb and Gracie doing door duty together.