As a reader of Money Saving Mom, the blog by Crystal Paine for several years, I have been encouraged and challenged in my pursuit of a purposeful life.  It was a joy to receive Crystal’s newest book, Say Goodbye to Survival Mode, 9 Simple Strategies to Stress Less, Sleep More, and Restore Your Passion For Life.

It is interesting how the book arrived in the mail shortly before the weekend away my husband had planned for me and him.  At that time I was definitely operating in survival mode, and that time away was deeply needed.

Like some of what the author suggests in chapters 1 (Stop Trying to Do It All) and 9 (Sometimes It Is About You) that get away gave my husband and I time to decompress, reconnect and have some great “unplugged” time away from kids and to do lists.

The book is broke down into 10 chapters that repeat and expand on the wisdom Crystal has shared on her blog over the years.  She extends grace to the reader and encourages the reader to extend grace to herself.  We can’t do it all, and we can live a rich purposeful life, wherever we find ourselves on this life journey.

Much of what I found in the book has been said on MoneySavingMom.com over the years, but it is a great resource to have that wisdom and encouragement gathered into print.  This is a book that will go on the reference shelf in our family library.

The publisher, Nelson Books has provided mewith a complimentary copy of this book  through BookLook Bloggers

Home Environment
Read 5 chapters of Love Does aloud. Read a picture book each day with my granddaughter.
Write a love note to Ben.
Clean the dresser top in our bedroom.
Celebrate Valentine’s Day with our daughters (day full of good food, fun movie in the evening)

Personal Growth
Finish memorizing Romans 12:1, 2, continue working on Ephesians 6:1-8
Walk 3 miles this week.  Start back up on crunches & pushups
Finish reading Undaunted, Say GoodBye to Survival Mode and Alone, Yet Not Alone.
Work on fingerless gloves

Ministry Goals

Prepare and test Perfectly Unique lesson plans
Take 5 photographs & edit them
Email 2 encouraging messages, write & mail 3 cards of encouragement or gratitude

Household Business
Finish Gathering Tax Paperwork
Submit receipts to Health Savings Account
Find a replacement for my current INR testing site
Find & Download the driver for our printer to the new laptop

This is just a test, to see if posting my goals where I can see them, but not having the spiral notebook in my purse or on my desk all the time, helps me to keep an atmosphere of “balance”.

join the daybook community?

Hidden Falls by Olivia Newport and released by Barbour Books is one such book. It will only be released in e-book form, and is available from Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

I was emailed the first episode in January and enjoyed reading the story while waiting for my daughter at an orthodontist appointment.  The story was enjoyable and I am curious about how it will carry on, but I am not sure I like the idea of paying each week to read the next chapter or “episode”.  If there are 13 episodes at $1.99 each (that’s the number I found on amazon), we are looking at roughly $26.00 per complete story.

You can download the first episode here for free.  I would love to hear how others feel about “episode” books.

The ebook was provided to me by Handlebar Publishing in exchange for my honest opinion.