At Home for the Holidays
By Meredith Efken
(Steeple Hill Café 2006)

If you’ve ever been in an email discussion loop, you’ll fit right in with cyber-girlfriends, Dulcie, Zelia, Jocelyn, Veronica, and Rosalyn. Fans of Efken’s first mom-lit novel, SAHM I Am, will find plenty to laugh about in her new yuletide tale, Home for the Holidays. The quick-paced email exchanges between these stay-home moms make for hilarious reading as they try to balance housework, family crisis, and the impending holiday madness.

Though the book is uproariously funny, Efken… Read More

The Stained-Glass Pickup: Glimpses of God’s Uncommon Wisdom
By Cathy Messecar
(Leafwood Publishers 2006)

Newspaper columnist Cathy Messecar shares a collection of stories that will deepen the faith of every woman. The title comes from the first devotional in the book, about a rancher who prays aloud for his high school age daughter while he drives her to school in his truck. I can certainly relate to praying in extremely humble places.

The book contains an eclectic mix of uncommon wisdom gleaned from the Bible and the author’s… Read More

Mozart’s Sister
By Nancy Moser
(Bethany House 2006)

For all the music or historical fiction lovers on your gift list, Nancy Moser’s exquisite novel will whisk them away to 18th-century Vienna. Did you even know Mozart had a sister? Six years his senior, Nannerl was every bit as talented as her precocious and highly acclaimed brother. Yet because she was a woman, she was overlooked by society, as well as her father.

The book is told from Nannerl’s point of view and reads like a piece of music, with sections… Read More

Beyond Green Gables:
Kevin Sullivan’s Designscapes
By Kevin Sullivan
(Davenport Press 2005)

One of the most popular stories of all time, Anne of Green Gables, captured our hearts even more when we saw Anne’s beloved Prince Edward Island come to life on the silver screen. But did you ever stop to think about the artistic genius required to create the spectacular movie sets? Kevin Sullivan is a photographer extraordinaire, and in his stunning, full-color book, you’ll be taken behind the scenes of the filming of Anne of Green Gables, as well as… Read More

Queen of the Castle: 52 weeks of Encouragement for the Uninspired, Domestically Challenged or Just Plain Tired Homemaker
By Lynn Bowen Walker
(Integrity 2006)

Author Lynn Bowen Walker begins her book with this disclaimer: “OK – so let’s get this out of the way right up front: I am not homemaker of the year.” That said, this is a book every homemaker won’t want to live without. Written with a light and humorous touch, Walker combines inspirational storytelling with an endless cache of organizing, craft, and holiday ideas –… Read More

The Three Wise Women: A Christmas Reflection
By Christin Ditchfield (Crossway 2005)

You’ve heard of the three wise men; they’re an integral part of every Nativity. But what about the three wise women who each played a significant role in the birth of Christ?

Three women–one single, one married, and one widowed –have much to teach us about following God’s will, even when it doesn’t make sense at first. Mary was chosen while still a teen to become mother of… Read More

Claire Knows Best,
by Tracey Bateman
(Warner Faith 2006)

Tracey Bateman’s mom-lit is a hoot, and I can’t say enough fabulous things about her Claire series: Leave it to Claire, Claire Knows Best, and I Love Claire (coming in Jan. 2007). Single mom Claire Everett’s plan for her life is tossed out the window when a tornado rips through her home, crashing her computer, and forcing her family to move. She’s dating Greg, the cute widower down the street, but there are mega-problems–her teen daughter’s rebellion, her ex-husband’s pregnant… Read More

(Bantam Books, 2002)
By Marla Cilley, A.K. A. The FlyLady

Are you a FlyLady fan? If so, then you’re one of over 300,000 women around the world who have discovered FlyLady’s system for coping with the chaos in your home. I joined her newsletter group about a year ago and always felt like I was missing the whole story, so I finally bought and read her book.

Sink Reflections gives you a behind-the-scenes peek into how the FlyLady system came into being. Marla Cilley was once a frustrated… Read More

Amy is a 30-something, Christian, homeschooling mom to three amazing little men who, after more than four years of being a single parent, was wed to her best friend Ryan Bayliss in September of 2007. She is  a self-proclaimed canister collecting and appliance junkie, and she says a side effect of her ADD creativity gene is that she gets bored frequently with her hairstyles and must experiment with new ones…

It is pretty much the same with her blog layout. She is a self-taught graphic designer, writer, and

It’s been a year, and there’s now a brand-new school. The little girls are gone, buried in the rich and fertile earth of Amish cemeteries. The shooter, too, is gone, his life ended by the same gun that took the little girls. He‘s buried next to the heart-shaped stone of his infant daughter. The tiny school has been bulldozed to the ground, with nothing remaining in its place. The earth has been reseeded, though, and one day soon something beautiful might grow there.

The Amish call us the “English.” They are separate from… Read More

Let’s just get this out in the open right now. I am no Martha Stewart. That fact becomes woefully obvious to me around the holidays! Everywhere I look I see a dozen new ways to create something fabulous for the season. Gifts, packaging, elaborate decorations, and gourmet feasts, you name it, the holidays cry out for a homemade touch. It is enough to have me crying out for more hours in my day! The main problem is not my lack of inspiration or desire to have everything just so. I have… Read More

Listen in as Jill chats with author Rachel Hauck about her new book, Diva NashVegas. Rachel is a pastor’s wife whose first novel, Lambert’s Pride, was published in 2004. Her current release is Diva NashVegas, May 2007 from Thomas Nelson.

In addition to writing, Rachel works alongside

I am a young, Christian woman. Finding out that you were a Christian uplifted my spirits, like you wouldn’t believe!

Your role in the new movie “The Wager” is one of a seductive actress called Cassandra. And in one of your previous Q’s & A’s, you listed the questions that you ask yourself before you accept or receive a job.

One of the questions was this, “Will the new job be pleasing to God, and will it glorify Him?”

I asked myself, “How can this be pleasing to God?” The movie hasn’t… Read More

My friend Michelle says, “Every test is a testimony and every mess is a ministry.”

If indeed that is true, many of my fellow Boomer Babes have as many testimonies and ministries as we have grey hairs!

During this season of Thanksgiving, there will be no dearth of articles popping up in virtually every print and online publication discussing the topic of “giving thanks.” We’ll be encouraged to give thanks for the many blessings we’ve received…thanks for all the good things we’ve been given. However, I’d like to pose… Read More

I saw you on TBN the other day (with your brother Kirk) and decided that I would see what I could find out about your acting career. I was excited when I saw you had a spot for Acting Advice, but was disappointed that it is still under construction. As of last December (through an amazing sequence of events) it seems that God is calling our 17-year-old daughter, Heather, into acting–at least for now. We are committed to helping her pursue this training and experience