Easter Stories {Review and Giveaway}

Disclosure (in accordance with the FTC’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising”): Many thanks to Propeller Consulting, LLC for providing this prize for the giveaway. Choice of winners and opinions are 100% my own and NOT influenced by monetary compensation. I did receive a sample of the product in exchange for this review and post.


About the book:

383 pg / multiple authors

Everyone who believes Easter is about more than Easter egg hunts will be grateful for this new anthology of short stories that illumine the true meaning of the season. Selected for their spiritual value and literary quality, these classic tales capture the spirit of Holy Week and Easter in a way that will captivate readers of all ages. Parents and grandparents will find that children love to hear these stories read aloud, year after year.

Easter Stories includes time-honored favorites from world-famous storytellers such as C.S. Lewis, Leo Tolstoy, Selma Lagerlof, Oscar Wilde, Elizabeth Goudge, Maxim Gorky, Ruth Sawyer, Anton Chekhov, and Walter Wangerin – as well as many you may never have heard before. 

Illustrated with original woodcuts.

My thoughts: 

I was interested in reviewing this book, not because of it's title, but because I didn't know most of these stories. And I love to celebrate "Easter", or rather the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ, every day, not just one Sunday in the spring, so these stories could be great to read for yourself or to your children or grandchildren at anytime. 

Here are just some of the 20+ story titles:

The Coming of the King by Laura E. Richards

The Church of the Washing Feet by Alan Paton

Robin Redbreast by Selma Lagerlof

John by Elizabeth Gouge

Two Old Men by Leo Tolstoy

The Death of the Lizard by C. S. Lewis

The King and Death by Ger Koopman

I enjoyed reading these stories and will encourage my children to read them at their leisure. One story that I appreciated was The Church of the Washing Feet by Alan Paton. I had never read or heard this one before and it was very touching. It takes place in South Africa and is a beautiful lesson in forgiveness and the desire for unity. 

Another new one to me was Two Old Men by Leo Tolstoy. It is a poignant story about putting aside our own plans and desires to simply see the people in front of us and act in love and compassion. Sometimes we think our plans are on track or even that God requires a certain thing of us, only to find out that He just wants us to breathe His life to those whose faces are in the dirt and who are without hope. This one will stick with me for a long time.

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Giveaway Details:

To enter this giveaway, simply comment with your favourite author or what you are enjoying/will enjoy about spring. Please include your email address.

This giveaway is open to anyone, 18 years or older, in the USA or Canada. Only one entrant per mailing address, per giveaway. If you have won a prize from our sponsor Propeller/FlyBy Promotions in the last 30 days, you are not eligible to win. If you have won the same prize on another blog, you are not eligible to win it again. Winner is subject to eligibility verification.

Update on giveaway: I am leaving this open one more day, as some people have apparently had trouble commenting. Please try again and I will close it at 11:59pm ET tonight (3-28-2015).

Blessings and love. xo

Long Weekend!

We had a lovely, long weekend. The weather was nice and Easter was pretty low key. Resurrection power and celebration are daily before me.

The boys had their cub car races at the church where they participate in a Cadets group on Friday. We had lunch there and I even met another home schooling mom! Several of the boys did not show up for the races, so our little girls were allowed to participate with two of the extra cars. We are thankful for this church and that they allow and welcome our children even though it is not our home fellowship!

And the most exciting part was that Austin's car won the whole shebang! Way to go, Buddy!

(Sorry for the weird yellow colour...taken with my phone.)

The one "Easter-y" kind of thing we did was to make Resurrection Rolls (or buns as we say in Canada). It's been a tradition since Emma was a little girl.

And we enjoyed the beautiful blue skies and sunshine!

(Can you spot TWO cool dudes in this tree?)

Pine cone wars!...

Not a little girl anymore...

Enjoying Maya's "restaurant"!

"Daddy, come and find me!!!"...

And this week we celebrate Austin's birthday! He is, at this very moment, playing laser tag with two friends, as well as Ben, Emma and Bob. He was so excited that he woke up at 6:45 this morning...not like him at all! :)

I need to run to get the chocolate glaze made for the cake.

Blessings in Jesus!

Catching Up...

So, with getting ready for our North Carolina trip, having more sickness, and then getting things unpacked and in order after the trip, I'm behind.

Actually, that's nothing new.

Anyway, here are pics from the younger three children dyeing Easter eggs. The little girls did not remember doing this last year, so it was very exciting for them. And Ben always enjoys being creative, so he had a great time thinking of designs and colours.

Fun!








Coming soon...pictures and stories from our trip. It was hard with sickness and spiritual attack but also had some amazing moments while we were actually in Asheville. We were reminded over and over that God is faithful!

Blessings.

Celebrating Every Day

I've been thinking a lot more during this past Lenten and Easter season. And please do not read any condemnation in this post...I am just sharing what's on my heart, which is probably just for me.

I see the purpose of Lent and the need for us, as believers, to mark a certain day with the celebration of Jesus' resurrection from the dead. I think, though, this year has been more of a turning point, in that I want to celebrate Jesus EVERY DAY, more than ever before. My life in Him is so much more than one Sunday out of the year. He died and was raised for every single day...every single moment. I want to be intentional in celebrating the salvation I have been graciously and freely given each and every day....and I want to teach my children that we have reason to celebrate Jesus 365 days of every year!

I have been remembering my trip to Russia thirteen years ago. We had the joy of worshipping with a protestant church in Moscow, and I was struck then by the fact that they used the greeting *He is risen! He is risen indeed!* in their service. And it was not Easter Sunday.

He has given us life and He is our victory!

Our Easter Sunday was a bit different this year. Since we have mostly university students in our fellowship, we were not meeting together, as most of them went home for the weekend. We have had lots of sickness in our family lately and did not really know what we would feel up to doing. Most of us are better, but we wanted to spend the day as a family, so since a few were still *puny* (as my Grandmother would call it), we had our traditional resurrection roll breakfast, watched the crucifixion and resurrection on The Gospel of John DVD (love that movie!) and then spent the rest of the day playing outside in the sunshine. It was a very focused, relaxed and enjoyable time.

In case you're not familiar with the resurrection rolls, here's the scoop...

The marshmallow represents Jesus' body, the butter and cinnamon sugar are pictures of the oils and spices they put on His body before placing it in the tomb...

The crescent roll represents the tomb...


As they are baking, the marshmallow melts... And then as you open your roll, you cry *Jesus is risen. He is alive!*

We have been doing this on Easter morning for six or seven years now and the older children still ask for it. It was nice for the younger kids to get into it more this year. Ava wanted to say over and over and over *Jesus is risen. Jesus is alive!* So precious.

He is risen! Hallelujah! He is risen indeed!

Father, help me to remember and to celebrate every single day.

1 Peter 1:3-4 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In His great mercy He has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade...

Blessings!