Archive - February 2016

Book Cover Reveal: Roseanna White’s A Lady Unrivaled

February 9, 2016

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Back in September I got to introduce you to one of my favorite Christian fiction authors, Roseanna M. White, as she released The Lost Heiress, the first book in her “Ladies of the Manor” series. It was so much fun following the story of Brook Eden and sharing glimpses of my favorite parts of the tale with you all.

Roseanna’s “Ladies of the Manor” series takes readers back in time to Edwardian England, when automobiles and electric lights were all the rage, but the old way of life was still ruling the land. Lords and ladies, maids and valets…and in this case, a dose of danger and mystery to take them all on their journey to love.

Today, I get to share a first look into the third book in this series with a COVER REVEAL for A Lady Unrivaled.

But we can’t skip straight from book one to book three!

We have to find out what happens next, in the second book, The Reluctant Duchess, which comes out in April! (Perfect for those of us who’ll be mourning the final episode of Downton Abbey.)

Here’s the synopsis:

Lady Rowena Kinnaird may be the heiress to a Highland earldom, but she has never felt good enough–not for her father, not for the man she thought she’d marry, not for God. But after a shocking attack, she’s willing to be forever an outcast if it means escaping Loch Morar.

Brice Myerston, the Duke of Nottingham, has found himself in possession of a rare treasure his enemies are prepared to kill for. While Brice has never been one to shy away from manor-born ladies, the last thing he needs is the distraction of Lady Rowena, who finds herself in a desperate situation. But when Rowena’s father tries to trap Brice into marrying his daughter, Brice makes a surprising decision.

Rowena wanted to escape the Highlands, but she’s reluctant to marry a notorious flirt. And when she learns that Brice is mixed up in questionable business with a stolen treasure, she fears she’s about to end up directly in the path of everything she was trying to avoid.

I can’t wait to continue with all the mystery and romance and see how Brice’s strong faith in God carries him through it all!

By the way, isn’t that red dress gorgeous? These “Ladies of the Manor” covers are beautiful, aren’t they? Just wait until you see the third one… 🙂

But of course, you never want to judge the book just by its cover, right? So, here’s what’s in store among the pages of A Lady Unrivaled:

Lady Ella Myerston can always find a reason to smile–even if it’s just in hope that tomorrow will be better than today. All her life everyone has tried to protect her from the realities of the world, but Ella knows very well the danger that has haunted her brother and their friend, and she won’t wait for it to strike again. She intends to take action . . . and if that happens to involve an adventurous trip to the Cotswolds, then so much the better.

Lord Cayton has already broken two hearts, including that of his first wife, who died before he could convince himself to love her. Now he’s determined to live a better life. But that proves complicated when old friends arrive on the scene and try to threaten him into a life of crime. He does his best to remove the intriguing Lady Ella from danger, but the stubborn girl won’t budge. How else can he redeem himself, though, but by saving her–and his daughter–from those dangerous people who seem ready to destroy them all?

Ready to be properly introduced to the adventurous and stubborn Lady Ella?

Well, then, it is my honor to present to you the cover for Roseanna White’s A Lady Unrivaled:

Another spectacular cover, another book I’m anxious to read… and another dress that I want in my closet.

This third book in the series releases in September, so we will all have to wait as patiently as we can to discover the rest of Lady Ella’s story then.

You can get The Lost Heiress or pre-order both The Reluctant Duchess and A Lady Unrivaled on Amazon, Christianbook.com, or your favorite bookseller. While you wait for the new releases, you can add them to your “To Read” lists on Goodreads and visit Roseanna’s Pinterest boards to see her character and costume inspirations for each of her books. You can keep up-t0-date on all Roseanna’s projects, including a new series coming soon, by visiting her site, www.RoseannaMWhite.com.

(Special thanks to Roseanna for letting me share the cover reveal!)

So, what do you think? Which cover is your favorite?

Our “Vision Verse” for Our Children

February 8, 2016

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Life in Lape Haven: Our Vision Verse for Our Children. This Bible scripture pretty well sums up everything we want to teach our boys about following God and His will for their lives.

Several years ago, I began leading the children’s ministry at the church where my hubby and I attended at the time. We were in a small church, so I usually only had a handful of students. However, no matter the size of my class, it was important to me to give them all a solid foundation in the Word and a realization that God not only wanted a real and personal relationship with them right now, but He could also use them no matter their age and had great plans for their futures as well.

Part of instilling that message was the “Vision Verse” that God gave me for the children’s ministry, which was Daniel 11:32b: “The people who know their God will be strong and take action.”

For the first month or so after I started teaching them, we learned this verse, complete with motions (kids always learn stuff better with movement), and we talked about what it meant.

Lately I’ve been thinking about that verse again, and how it’s the same vision my husband and I have for our own children now. Over the next few weeks, I plan to introduce this vision verse to our boys and share with them the same things that I taught my students about how it applies to them.

The People who KNOW THEIR GOD

Since we are “the people” who should know our God, Brad and I want our children to understand how we can know God, how we spend time with Him, and how having a relationship with Him and truly knowing Him is different than just knowing ABOUT Him. It’s easy for children who are always in church and surrounded by Christian family members, Christian music, and Bible stories to know a lot ABOUT God.

The crucial point, though, is KNOWING HIM personally. And they can start that NOW, even at very young ages.

We want our boys to love God with all their hearts, to be able to pray and talk to Him on their own (and WANT to), to know His voice and recognize His leading, and to understand the importance of reading their Bibles. We want them to know what the Bible says about God and His character – His love, His goodness, His mercy, His holiness, and His justice.

Will BE STRONG

As children of God who know Him well, we should be strong. We have the Holy Spirit living inside of us, the same Spirit Who raised Jesus from the dead (Romans 8:11). Because of this, we can be bold and courageous in our faith, and we are empowered to face temptation and choose obedience to God.

Both of our boys are strong-willed, like their mommy, and they are all about being strong, like super heroes, so this part shouldn’t be too hard for them to grasp. We want our boys to know that since God is with us, we can be powerful, tenacious, determined, and tough warriors who can live a life of no compromise, one that is holy and different from the world.

And TAKE ACTION

Once we truly know Him Whom we have believed, we are bold and courageous to take action, whatever that might be. It could be as simple (and difficult) as being kind to someone who isn’t nice to us or going wherever God asks us to go to reach the world with His love.

We don’t want our children to be content sitting back and doing nothing for God. We want to encourage them to use their gifts and talents in whatever ways He leads them. Our desire is for them to be active in their church, active in sharing their faith with others, and active in pursuing God and His purpose for their lives.

As parents we have the honor and responsibility of laying the spiritual foundation for our children. And while I have always aimed to give my all in teaching my students in the past and my preschool Sunday school class now, my biggest, most important ministry is to our little boys. Brad and I want to make certain that they truly KNOW their GOD, so they can BE STRONG in Him and TAKE ACTION whenever He calls them to.

DO YOU HAVE A SPECIAL VERSE FOR YOUR FAMILY?

I also have a verse that has become my “Mommy Motto.”

*Note: I chose an easier translation of the verse for the children to learn. In the King James, the entire verse is this: “And such as do wickedly against the covenant shall he corrupt by flatteries: but the people that do know their God shall be strong, and do exploits.” Exploits is a cool word, but a little harder for young children to understand and remember compared to “take action.”

Get more ideas & encouragement from this real-life mom as I experience God’s faithfulness through the joy and chaos of motherhood.

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Why I Capture Our “Everyday”

February 4, 2016

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Life in Lape Haven: Why I Capture Our "Everyday" - Getting pictures of my boys as they play and do ordinary, everyday things allows me to save and savor the moments and hold onto the story of their childhood.

Last week Elijah stayed home from school a couple days because of an ear infection, and I was given an opportunity to do something that I haven’t done nearly enough in recent months. Not only did I get to snuggle a little more with my big boy, but I also got to grab my camera and capture some moments of my two boys just being together.

I love adorable pictures of them dressed handsomely and smiling happily, but those perfectly posed shots rarely tell as much of a story as a simple picture of my children playing on the living room floor.

There is something so precious to my mommy heart about a candid moment between my two little guys as they build a tower or “race” their cars along the lines of the area rug.

It’s grabbing a piece of my “every day” and saving and savoring it.

Most days, by the time Elijah is home from school, I’m working on dinner, finishing up laundry, or some other housekeeping task while the boys are playing, so I usually miss out on just watching them and seeing how they interact (although I can always hear the giggles and little arguments). It’s not often that I get to sit and witness these seconds of their growing up together.

So one day last week, I was able to get belly-down to the floor and listen as Elijah, a typical older brother, directed Josiah on how they were playing with their castle, knights, blocks, and the random character toys they’d pulled from the toy box. I watched Josiah grin in awe and admiration of Elijah’s stair-buildings skills. And even though I didn’t take a picture of it, I saw Elijah’s frustration when Josiah accidentally knocked over parts of that stairway and his patience as they worked to build it back up.

: Building a stairway to the king.

: Pegasus is going up.

Sure I could have spent less time on the floor, just snatched up my phone, and taken a couple of shots, but that’s not what I wanted. Phone shots are almost always more for everybody else, for quickly sharing something, or in a pinch, catching a moment when my real camera isn’t nearby.

Of course, some people only think of taking out a “real” camera for special events – birthdays, weddings, trips to the zoo.

I like my camera for pictures from those things, too, but what I treasure are the pictures of my boys in the seemingly mundane, ordinariness of something they do every day.

Because it’s simply them being them. (And I LOVE them)

Playing together.

Photographs like this require me to slow down a bit and really pay attention to everything going into the picture.

These moments aren’t meant to be “just point, shoot, and post.” It’s about recording the story for them and for me.

Through my camera lens, I get to hold onto to this time when they imagine silly scenarios and create fantastic worlds together. Even though they seem so little now, I know it won’t be long before they are grown.

I want to take every chance that I can to treasure each day with these precious gifts from God, to notice the details of their average day, and capture the moments of their childhood while they are still children.

Of course, once I’ve gotten some pictures, I put my camera down and join their playing.

I don’t just want to capture their memories. I want to be a rather big part of them, too.

If you’d like to get better photos of your family, you can read my 4-part series, How to Take Better Pictures of Your Kids.

Tried It Tuesday: Bacon Chocolate Chip Cookies

February 2, 2016

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Life in Lape Haven: Tried It Tuesday: Bacon Chocolate Chip Cookies . A tasty but easy tweak to traditional chocolate chip cookies, this recipe is delicious. Bacon and Chocolate Chip Cookies - genius! Homemade cookies with a hint of gourmet.

One day, about week or so ago, when my hubby came home from work, he said, “Guess what I had at work today?”

Since his office tends to order food in for the employees quite often, it could have been pretty much anything, so of course, I didn’t know.

“Bacon chocolate chip cookies.”

As his words registered, I thought, “That’s genius.” And then and there I told him that I’d be making some…soon.

Because I was sure I could find a recipe for them on Pinterest.

I was right, and I had plenty of options to choose from.

When I realized we had company coming down for the weekend, I knew I had to make these cookies for us all to try out.

Now, I know some people think that bacon in everything is kind of cliché and so overdone, but you know what? There is a reason, people:

Bacon is GOOOOOD! 🙂

Therefore, I set out on Friday to make my first ever batch of bacon chocolate chip cookies. I have to admit that I was pretty excited.

The first step is to cook your bacon, obviously. And while you can do that in any way you like, I prefer to cook my bacon in the oven, per Alton Brown’s method:

“Place the strips of bacon onto a sheet pan fitted with a rack and place into a cold oven. Turn the oven to 400 degrees F and cook for about 12 to 15 minutes, depending on how crispy you like your bacon. Remove from rack and drain on paper towels.”

This is an easy way to get crispy bacon without much effort. 🙂

: Bake bacon in the oven at 400 degrees

: Cool bacon and crumble it

: Crumbled bacon ready to be folded in to the cookie dough.

I let the bacon cool a little, then transferred it to some paper towels to drain. I also poured the bacon fat from the bottom of the baking sheet into a measuring cup. I used a 12-ounce pack of bacon and ended up with about ½ cup of fat. You need ¼ cup for this recipe.

To make the cookies, I adapted this recipe for bacon chocolate chip cookies. You are basically making a traditional chocolate chip cookie, but you substitute ¼ cup of the butter with the bacon fat and eliminate the usual teaspoon of salt. When you fold in the chocolate chips, you can add in bits of crumbled bacon, too. That’s pretty much it!

: Cream butter, sugars, & bacon fat. Then add eggs & vanilla.

: Mix in flour & baking soda.

: Fold in bacon crumbles & chocolate chips.

: Mix to combine.

Since this was my first time making them, I kind of underestimated how much the cookies would spread out on the baking sheet, so as they baked, the cookies spread into one big connected cookie, plus I think I made them too big. I also let them cook a bit too long so they were a little crunchier than I would have liked.

Thankfully, I didn’t have to worry too much about the presentation of the cookies since I was serving them to my family and very close friends. I did, however, whip out my biscuit cutter to cut out a few round cookies. I did a few with my star-shaped cookie cutter, too, just for the boys. The extra, odd-shaped edges were more like cookie sticks, which made them great for dunking in milk. 🙂

: Drop by rounded tablespoons onto prepared baking sheet

: Mine were too big and too close.

: Cookie cutters saved the day.

: Round and star-shaped cookies. 🙂

Oh, and despite not being the prettiest cookies I’ve ever made, they were still pretty tasty. Like, really, really yummy. While they are still similar to a regular chocolate chip cookie, they are different enough that they aren’t the same at all.

In fact, I was right. Bacon chocolate chip cookies ARE genius.

I know that you are eager to try these for yourself, so here is how I made them:

The Home Maintenance Idea I Got from a Car Dealership

February 1, 2016

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Life in Lape Haven: The Home Maintenance Idea I Got from a Car Dealership. A quarterly practice of my former employer helped keep his dealership looking great and well-maintained. Now I'm using the same idea to keep up with our home.

A long time ago (about 10 years or so), before I was a wife and mommy, I worked as the Executive Assistant at a northeast Ohio, family-owned Chrysler dealership. I worked closely with the owner and his family, doing everything from tracking salemen’s stats to typing his correspondences, proofing newspaper ads, managing office supplies, planning events, and booking travel for him, his family, or various employees.

I absolutely loved this job, and my boss was great. He was a very good businessman and a generous and kind man. The only reason that I ever left was because I had met this guy named Brad, who lived about 3 hours away, and we wanted to get married.

While I remember those days fondly and think of and pray for my coworkers and boss often, there was something I recalled the other day that I always thought was one of the most simple, but wise practices for taking care of his business that my boss had.

And when I pondered it, I thought to myself, “Why have I never done this for our home?”

Every so often, at least once a quarter, my boss would have me add a “Facility Walk” into his schedule. This meant that on an appointed morning, he, the Lot Manager, and I would be literally walking all over the dealership property, looking at everything, inside and out. I took scribbled notes in my own version of abbreviations and shorthand, as my boss pointed out places that needed maintenance, cleaning, reorganized, and generally brought back up to Five-Star standards.

It could be anything from “replenish the brochures in the showroom” to “replace a ceiling tile by the cashier’s booth” to “bathroom needs repainted” or “Pre-Owned showroom needs retiled.” Anything that needed attention was written down and documented.

We visited every department and room on the premises: finance, service, parts, reconditioning, sales, the offices, the waiting rooms, the break rooms, and the restrooms, as well as the outsides of all the buildings, the entire lot, and all the landscaping and signage.

It usually took us a couple of hours. Once we were done, I took my notes to my office and spent some time typing them out, creating a master checklist for that day’s entire walk as well as sorting out the assignments into individualized checklists for different employees or departments who would be responsible for taking care of each task.

Every task also had a deadline for completion, and believe me, my boss followed up.

His attentive stewardship of his company showed, too, and the customers and employees appreciated the clean, well-maintained dealership.

Fast forward about 10 years, and Brad and I are working to declutter and organize our home. Two little boys make keeping up with it all a bit tricky. During the week, my main focus is keeping them fed, clothed, clean(ish), and alive, and I try to stay on top of laundry, dishes, and dirty floors as much as they allow me.

However, maintaining a home well requires more than that every so often.

So, we’re carving out some time, with hubby using some time off, to really go over our house and attend to areas that don’t always get the most attention.

That’s when I thought of the facility walks.

While I have a few major to-do projects written down and a few more in my head, we need to go through our home, room by room, and make notes, prioritize, and plan.

I know that we won’t accomplish all the tasks this week or even this month, but at least we’ll have a goal to work toward.

Maybe after we accomplish these, we can set a new goal that will require me to dust off my “travel-booking” skills. 🙂

WHAT IS ONE OF YOUR FAVORITE HABITS OR TIPS FOR KEEPING YOUR HOME ORGANIZED?