All that to tell you that all I have to ramble about more books and something else I learned. I'm most excited about what I learned, so it goes first.
I learned that what I really wanted for my Mother's Day/Anniversary present was the GPS watch
that the nice electrician in town gave me last week. Surprise! I had no idea how much more fabulous running could be with a device on my arm. You could get a fancier one than what I have, but mine works wonders for me! It's a blast knowing how fast I'm going and how far I've gone just by looking at my wrist instead of having to guess and calculate based on the time on my phone. I actually run faster because of it. If you're related to a runner, serious walker, or biker and they don't have one of these, today is your lucky day because you now know what to give them the next time they need a present. If you're one of those runners, serious walkers or bikers, you now know where to send your relative for an unsubtle gift idea. (That rave review was all unsolicited. I blogged about it because I'm so excited about it, but did you know that if you actually click on any Amazon link and buy any new thing from them, they'll give me a small percentage of what you buy. It's not much, but I take whatever money I can make because God's still working on knocking out the root of all evil from me. I also figure if I make a little money from this blog Brad might decide to see blogging as the valuable hobby that I already feel like it is.)As for the books, remember my rambling post about When the Heart Cries? Since then I've checked out and finished the next two books in the series. I feel very comfortable saying I think Cindy Woodsmall is an great author. I love the contrast she provides between book 1
and book 2
and how she brings it all together for fabulous book 3
. Her sub plots were as interesting to me as the main plot, and I felt they all tie together extremely well. The first two books leave you dying to get your hands on the next book, but the final book has a happy ending. I always think I need an entire chapter or more about how happy life is for the characters after all the conflict is resolved but usually feel like I get two sentences. This gave me a couple of pages, so I was pretty happy with that. If you start book one make sure you're ready to read two more books. You've been warned! Lincoln's library has all three if you're wondering. 
! (Hence the requesting it from the library ASAP!) 
is a book I will not finish. I've taken a new approach to reading. If I'm not into the book after 50 pages or so, I'm not going to feel guilty about not finishing it. I have no guilt about not finishing this one. I'm sure someone out there likes the book because it has high rankings on some sites, but I think I'll just stick with my shallow obsession with Christian romance. Let me know if you read the book and think I should give it a few more pages of chance.
(a fun, 1800's, western romance) and now I'm reading 
is another keeper. If your kids like any other book in this series, then this would be the book to get, since it's three in one - 
, and 
. Each one is basically a curious little polar bear asking fitting questions about the topics of our world, heaven and love. The adult polar bears give very appropriate answers for a preschooler's level of understanding. You can tell the author put in excellent thought into each book and they teach kids a wide variety of great concepts. In God Gave Us Heaven they even have the bridge illustration fit in very naturally. Elliana loves having any of these books read to her. I think we'll have to check out 
and 
sometime soon! 
it made it real easy to keep my resolution of reading one night a week. Now I need to get started on the 
so I can continue keeping my resolution. 
for a high school reading class. It was a great book actually. 
by Dandi Daley Mackall. I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review.