UPDATE: The Ebook Winner is BreeAnna McManus! Woo hoo! I’ll email you!

First, one of my friends pointed out these AH-dorable keepsakes from Lisa Leonard Designs (I had never heard of her!) and my heart melted. I’m SO ordering one of these when Peter gets home with the credit card tonight! lolI don’t usually blog on Thursday nights, but I wanted to share a few great finds AND I have a giveaway for you! {way down at the bottom!}

I did a little snooping around and found a discount. You can Save 15% when you sign up for the Lisa Leonard Designs newsletter which, in my book, is like cutting down on my shipping costs. Oh, and check out the “Itty Bitty Hearts” necklace. So cute. I’m not one to hint for Christmas, but if my husband asks, you can tell him that I mentioned it. {Oh, he reads here? What a coincidence!}

Great book:

Anyways, I also wanted to share a book that I can’t get enough of right now, entitled Keeping House: The Litany of Everyday Life. If you loved Home Comforts: The Art and Science of Keeping House by Cheryl Mendelson, this book is on par with that but with a Christian perspective. It’s was one that I couldn’t wait to get to read each night. Here are a few of my favorite quotes:

“As one writer notes, “The front door of the home is the side door of the church.” What kind of church do our household members and guests encounter when they walk in the front doors of our homes? Do our homes reflect and embody a gospel that takes seriously the needs that all of us, as embodied and social creatures, have for things like beds and clothes and meals and the daily routines that produce them? Does the way we live bear witness to both the necessity and the goodness of things like these? Can we—do we—keep house in ways that respect and embrace our creatureliness and that foster community within and beyond our households?”

“Israel was a wandering stranger, and God took her in, and fed her and clothed her and housed her; and in response, Israel was to care for the alien and stranger in her midst. Christians in their turn saw hospitality as a basic way in which members of the Christian community could emulate and hand on the welcome they had received from God.”

On serving: “But if in Jesus God himself could take up a towel and wash other people’s feet, surely we, as Jesus’ adopted brothers and sisters, can find it in us to wash one another’s dirty clothes and dirty dishes and dirty floors.”

On working with our hands: “It is this capacity of handwork to make room for joy, room for grief, room for hope and waiting and process, that makes it so valuable a practice in a world that increasingly has no room for any of these things. Many of us have less and less experience with anything that unfolds over time; we expect everything to be instantaneous and are indignant when our e-mail takes more than two seconds to arrive in its recipients’ in-boxes. But life is not instantaneous. It takes time, and handwork can be a way to weave temporality and process back into our lives.”

Too many great quotes to share them all. 🙂

Favorite Crafty Things:

This tutorial for painted burlap utensil holders. Remember I told you about the painted burlap runner I made? Well, this will go so well with it for quick entertaining. So easy, a child could help you–and with beautiful results.

And did you see these free printable Bible verses? Beautiful!

Recent Posts You May Have Missed:

This copycat recipe for Vanilla Chai Tea that tastes just like Dunkin Donuts. Your wallet will thank me.

This delicious apple pie recipe that uses oil pastry and is easy, peasy to make.

I now have an Amazon store with all of my favorite book recommendations. I hate to say it, but I like to see them visually, because I do judge a book by it’s cover. Is that shallow? 😉 Anyway, I think it’s easier than the list I used to have.

Things to note:

For those of you on my Facebook Page, I told you Tuesday about this free sacred piano CD you could get free by liking Gregg Howlett’s FB page. Did you know that you can choose your price for any of his entire CD digital downloads? I thought that was pretty generous of him. All of his music is here.

And you can still get two free chapters of my Christmas ebook here.

Now for the giveaway.

I’m giving away one free Kindle copy of Keeping House, just because I’m so excited for you to read it!

1. To enter, comment below and tell me your least favorite household chore.

2. For an extra entry, share this post on FB or Twitter and comment again “I shared with friends.” 🙂 Easy.

You must have a Kindle account to receive this gift. It will come via email. 🙂

Winner will be announced Saturday night, November 9th, at 10 pm. 🙂