Having just celebrated a very merry Christmas, I couldn’t pass up the chance to help spread the good word about a new Christian books series for little girls. I received a complimentary copy of The Adventures of Rooney Cruz: Hannah the Belle of Prayer written by Erin Weidermann. 



About the Bible Belle Series:

This is a new series of books designed to give little girls female heroes to look up to. Each book in the series tells the stories of women in the bible through the eyes of a modern girl names Rooney Cruz.  Today’s review focuses on Hannah the Belle of Prayer. Since these books are aimed at girls, my 12 year old daughter honored us with her review below. 

Hannah The Belle of prayer book #review

REVIEW BY: Melissa Kinsman

Hannah the Belle of Prayer is a book about a little girl named Rooney Cruz, a girl who is bullied. She doesn’t understand why the popular girls are so mean! All of a sudden, an angel ‒ Rooney’s guardian angel, Mari, appears. At first, Rooney is in shock, and she doesn’t believe that that could be a real angel. Mari proceeds to tell her about The Bible Belles who are Bible superheroes! 

Mari takes Rooney on an adventure to learn about Hannah. She learns that Hannah is bullied also, by the mean Peninnah, who is rude to Hannah because she is unable to conceive children. Finally, as Hannah goes to pray to God, the priest Eli blesses her. After her prayer, God blessed her with a baby boy named Samuel. Now that Rooney knows Hannah’s story, she wants to try praying too. And she receives a bell, a gift from God. 

Despite the fact that this is a children’s book, it is a great book for the parents to read with their child as they may have questions that will open great discussion. It is educational in two ways: it educates them in prayer and also in bullying.  The book is a fun story with great experiences that will have any age group wanting more BIBLE BELLES stories. I think author Erin Weidemann did a great job!

Want your own copy? Click HERE to purchase yours today!

Want more Bible Belles fun? Click HERE for free printables and games! * Requires email address to receive freebies.*


As always, we hope you enjoyed this book review. We'll be posting more in 2016. 

Please share in comments: What topics or book genre's would you like to see us review?

Happy New Year dear readers!  I know that some of you are taking time off work to fully enjoy this special time of year so I’ll keep this post short and sweet.  In an effort to make sure I give you more of what you like in 2016, I am doing my first ever year in review post to share with you what posts and topics you liked best in 2015. To really get a feel for what’s working here (besides giveaways!) I removed those from my list. What makes me really happy is that my top 10 blog posts that resonated with you, my readers, is non-sponsored content! 



Working from home allows me to work with my daughters, ages 16 and almost 13. I’m so happy that both of their contributions made the top 10 according to my blog stats. 


In Fashion/beauty this post on Mom fashion by Melissa (12) was a hit!

Back to school outfits for Moms


Book Reviews are a favorite here on the blog, especially my daughter Tera's reviews like this one


You enjoyed my creativity and work flow tips found here almost as much as you like my Organizing/life hacks like this post


Entertaining/ DIY and recipes were well received as well.  Top posts like hosting an epic tween party and sipping Mediterranean Orchard Iced tea on the front porch were viewed thousands of times. 

Mediterranean orchard iced tea on the front porch


What really surprised me was how well all my Wordless Wednesday posts ranked! If they were about flowers, gardening, being outside, our land or my cats, you loved them!

Wordless Wednesday our land, outside, fresh air

You also really liked my weekly chore prompt series and my Color of the Month series. 


White Rose bloom, gardening


What an amazing year 2015 has been! I can't wait to share more of the content you love with you in 2016! If there is a topic you would like to see me cover more on my blog, please feel free to share it in comments. 


Happy New Year to you and yours!
Small Southern town Noel



Hot Chocolate with marshmallows and cinnamon


A lit candle for lost loved ones #peaceonearth


Frosted window panes


Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! 


Color of the Month- Silver and Gold

in , , , , , , by Linda A Kinsman, Thursday, December 17, 2015
Merry Christmas! This is the final color of the month post for 2015 and I couldn't think of a more perfect color combo for this special honor than silver and gold.

This month's colors were inspired by the classic Christmas Carol and all the beautiful displays I see everywhere!

Silver and Gold decorations for the holidays


I found tons of wonderful pins on Pinterest and I've highlighted just three of my fav's above. I hope you enjoy my board for December and will return for this monthly post in 2016.


Follow Linda A.'s board Color of the Month- December- Silver and Gold on Pinterest.

Merry Christmas and Happy holidays to you!
I am excited to bring you another wonderful giveaway sponsored by Hallmark. As a member of the Love, Hallmark blogger group, I was selected to host a giveaway today and I will receive the beautiful ornament below free of charge. Normally, I would wait until I received my good to start the giveaway so I could share lots of pictures, but I want to give my winner time to order and receive their ornament- so I'm hosting my first ever 2 day giveaway!

Hallmark Personalized Keepsake Ornament red, sleigh, with family names
* * * * *     Our Hallmark Personalized Keepsake Ornament       * * * * * 

If you participated in my last Hallmark Keepsake Ornament giveaway in October for The Flying Ace ornament and were sorry you didn't win- here's your chance to try again.


There are so many wonderful keepsake ornaments to choose from at Hallmark.com! You might choose a Disney classic, or maybe you want to commemorate the birth of a baby- the choice is yours! 


Hallmark ornaments are easy to personalize

Win it!

Thanks to our sponsor, one lucky winner will receive a coupon code good for one free Hallmark Personalized Keepsake Ornament and free standard ground shipping! I'll email the winner the free code with step by step instructions on how to use it. Entering is easy using the Rafflecopter form below. 

Terms:
No purchase is necessary to enter using the Rafflecopter from below.  My WAHM Plan is responsible for prize fulfillment in the form of an emailed coupon code for you to place order at Hallmark.com. Winners will be notified by email used on entry form and have 24 hours to respond or another winner will be chosen.  This giveaway is not associated with nor endorsed by Facebook, Twitter, or any other social channel. You must have a PayPal email account to enter. 

Good luck and Merry Christmas from My WAHM Plan and #LoveHallmark!


Wordless Wednesday- Fall skies

in , , , , , , , by Linda A Kinsman, Wednesday, December 09, 2015
As we head towards Christmas and temperatures drop, gray skies like this one seem to rule the day.

Gray skies in Fall


But I have found beautiful, abundant, hard to take in colors at sunrise:

Beautiful Sunrise in December


And at Sunset:


Beautiful Sunset in December



Which color palette do you prefer?
Once I’ve served Thanksgiving leftovers at least twice, I feel comfortable turning my attention to all things Christmas and that means decorating and baking cookies! I love baking from scratch whenever I can, but sometimes this busy work at home Mom needs to streamline the baking process and that’s when I turn to Betty Crocker Cookie mixes. This week, I’m spreading holiday cheer with my Peanut Butter Toffee Cookies that started with a Betty Crocker mix. These cookies are so quick and delicious; nobody will believe they aren’t from scratch!


baking, holidays, cookie, season, peanut butter, toffee, cookies


I bake cookies often throughout the year, but at Christmas time, I’m baking like a boss all season long. I bake for family and friends, I bake for cookie swaps and teacher   appreciation days at my daughters’ schools and I bake cookies to give to my neighbors.

 It really is a simple and easy way to spread kindness and cheer at this special time of year. All you need is a Betty Crocker Cookie Mix, about an hour and a few Ziploc containers to put your cookies in.  I chose peanut butter because I knew it was a favorite ; but Betty Crocker has plenty of options like Sugar Cookies, Chocolate Chip and Double Chocolate chip just to name a few.  Both the mixes and the Ziploc containers are on sale right now at Publix, so be sure to visit readysetsave.com to download your digital coupons. Be sure to check out all the fun holiday recipes there too! 



Here’s my quick and easy recipe for Peanut Butter Toffee Cookies. 

Simple ingredients to make Peanut Butter Toffee Cookies


Ingredients:


  • 1) 17.5 ounce Betty Crocker Peanut Butter Cookie Mix
  • 1) 8 ounce bag English toffee bits (found in baking aisle of most grocery stores)
  • 3) Tablespoons vegetable oil
  • 2) Tablespoons water
  • 1) Large egg


Directions:

  • Preheat oven to 375 degrees and line cookie sheets with parchment paper. In large bowl mix oil, water and egg in Peanut Butter cookie batter until no longer grainy.
  • Gently fold in toffee bits.
  • Shape dough into 36 small balls or make drop cookies like I did by gently sliding off tablespoon size dough balls on to parchment paper.
  • Bake cookies for 8-10 minutes for regular size cookies or 9-11 minutes for large cookies.
  • Allow to cool.


If you are giving cookies as gifts like I am, while the cookies cool, it’s time to get your cookie container ready. I prefer using Ziploc containers because they are sturdy and reusable, which truly comes in handy this time of year! Sometimes,  I even receive my container back with a goody inside as thanks. 


Put baked cookies in a Ziploc container for sharing


I’ve found that a dozen cookies fit perfectly in the 1.25 quart size Ziploc containers. Sometimes you can get lucky and find the holiday containers, but if not, you can decorate your container as festively as you want. 


Label your cookies for gifting with a simple festive tag

Win it!


Thanks to my sponsor, Betty Crocker, one lucky reader will receive a $10.00 PayPal cash transfer so you can purchase some cookie mixes too! 


Terms: 

No purchase is necessary to enter using the Rafflecopter from below.  My WAHM Plan is  responsible for prize fulfillment. Winners will be notified by email used on entry form and have 48 hours to respond or another winner will be chosen.  This giveaway is not associated with nor endorsed by Facebook, Twitter, or any other social channel. You must have a PayPal email account to enter. 

Good luck!



a Rafflecopter giveaway
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