Book Review: Becoming a Spiritually Healthy Family

Becoming a Spiritually Healthy Family: Avoiding the 6 Dysfunctional Parenting Styles (David C. Cook, January 2015)

We all want to guide our children into the abundant life that Jesus offers. But when we pursue the more and better that the world offers above our pursuit of Jesus, we fall into dangerous parenting habits. InBecoming a Spiritually Healthy Family, Michelle Anthony unpacks six common dysfunctional parenting styles that we fall into out of habit, lack of attention, or just oversight due to busyness. If you long to show your children Jesus but don’t know how to do it, you’ll find hope in this practical guide to creating a relentlessly grace-filled home that is focused on God as first in charge.

Includes Scripture guides, reflection questions, ideas for family rites of passage, and other real life family examples.

My Review: 

Don't we all want to be a spiritually healthy family?  I don't know anyone who would say no to that!  The subtitle of this book is "Avoiding the 6 Dysfunctional Parenting Styles".  Ummm... yes please to that also!  This book was a wonderful read and is such a welcome addition to our family's book resources.  I love when "family help" books offer practical advice, wisdom and examples.  This book is all about being the example as a leader in your family.  It encourages and inspires you to build your relationship with God so you can be that example.  I highly recommend this book as a great read and also a great addition to your family "tool" books.

I received this book for free in exchange for my honest opinion.

Book Review: The Soup Club Cookbook

Food-sharing is the hot new thing in the "getting dinner on the table" conversation, and in The Soup Club Cookbook, four friends share not only their formula for starting a soup club--which gives you at least three meals every month when you don't have to worry about dinner--but also 150 fantastic recipes for soups and sides and storing tips for stretching those meals across the week.

 

The Soup Club began when four friends (who, between them, have four husbands and ten hungry kids and several jobs) realized that they didn't actually have to cook at home every night to take pleasure in a home-cooked meal. They simply had to join forces and share meals, even if they weren't actually eating them together. Caroline, Courtney, Julie, and Tina happen to be neighbors, but a soup club is for anyone: colleagues, a group of workout buddies, a book club. All you need are a few people who simply want to have more home-cooked food in their lives.

In a soup club each person takes a turn making soup--and sometimes other dishes for sides or for when everyone needs a break from soup, so if a club has four people, in a month each person will have dinner delivered three times--a dish that can start as a full meal and stretch into more dinners or lunches or even morph into a sauce. Soup is forgiving, versatile, and perfect for sharing; it can be spiced to taste, topped elaborately or not at all, and dressed up or down. It travels well and reheats beautifully.  The Soup Club Cookbook also has dozens of tips for cooking in quantity and for tailoring soup to individual tastes and needs. Here, too, are simple guidelines for starting your own soup club, anecdotes, and a few cautionary tales  that will inspire anyone to share food and eat well. 

 

Recipes include quick and easies, classics, twist on favorites, and dozens of flavor-rich new crowd pleasers:  

   * Carrot Coconut and Chicken Chili, 

   * Senegalese Peanut Soup 

   * Faux Ramen 

   * Red Lentil Curry Soup 

   * Potato Cheddar Soup 

   * Sun Dried Tomato Soup 

   * Jeweled Rice Salad 

   * Cheddar Cornbread, 

   * Summer Corn Hash 

   * Soy Simmered Chicken Wings

My Review:

This is my new favorite cookbook!  I love the way it is written... like a conversation between 4 friends.  The recipes include so much more than just soups.  They added in sides to go with the soups, salads, and pastas.  Each of the friends also added in tidbits of what toppings or seasonings they added to each of the soups.  I really cannot get enough of this book.  I could have sat and read the whole entire thing like a novel, which I've never said about a cookbook before.  I highly recommend this book (obviously)!

I received this book for free in exchange for my honest opinion.