Best Home Made Apple Cider (Blogmas 3)

This is the best, easiest recipe for apple cider I've found. It is Paleo with no artificial sugar!

What you'll need for this great holiday treat:
1 Bottle of apple juice

2 Of those shorter cinnamon sticks (if you use ground then the cider gets all gritty)

8 Whole cloves (Strain those out before you drink... Trust me on this one!)

1 Tablespoon of honey

1 Teaspoon of pure vanilla extract

Put it all in a big pot on the stove burner and simmer until it reduces. It's that easy! (Just remember to take out the cinnamon sticks and cloves when you're done) Comment below and tell us if you enjoyed making this recipe! Don't forget to subscribe, follow, and share!


This has been a favorite in our family this season and we hope it will be in yours too! Happy Blogmas!!!

Favorite Christmas Music (Blogmas 2)

Everyone loves Christmas music, but what kind of Christmas music? Older classic songs or newer ones? Religious or secular? Carols? Here are a few of my favorite Christmas CDs/Playlists.

My favorite CDs are

1: Frank Sinatra and Friends

 2: Kenny G miracles The Holiday Album

3: Christmas Time with the Judds                                                                                                           

My go to Pandora station is Kenny G Holiday. As you can probably tell, I'm more into older carols and classic Christmas songs. If you know a really good newer CD be sure and leave a comment of the best music for the Christmas season! 

Have a favorite Christmas CD or song that you'd like to share? Comment below.

Bookish Christmas Presents For All Ages (Blogmas 1)

Christmas is coming up soon! It's time to start thinking about gifts for the people in your life. Here are a few ideas for bookish gifts by age.

For the littlest ones in your family board books are always a great option. Cloth books are also nice since teething babies tend to enjoy eating books more than reading them! It's never too soon to get your little ones hooked on reading!

For the toddlers who are just learning their letters, colors, and numbers there are countless great options! Dr. Seuss books are always a good choice. Of course, when they start to read on their own, classics like Dick and Jane are definitely a great option!

For those who are still learning, a leappad/reading help where it reads the word to you when touched such as the one pictured below can inspire imagination and instill love of learning this Christmas!

For those who are taking off and just past the Seuss phase, short chapter books like Arthur, Magic Tree House, and Bobbsey Twin Mysteries are ideal!

Then comes the age when it gets a little sticky... What 10(ish) year old picks books over tv, video games, or some other toy? Nancy Drew, The Hardy Boys, or Classic Starts (from Barnes and Noble) are great, but you may want to try a Kids Kindle, where you can set the amount of time you want your child to spend reading before they can play games!

Teen-agers are even harder to buy for. Good options include a gift card to a book store, an ereader, or audiobooks ( because sometimes it's cooler to listen to it than to read it). And since adults have such a varied taste, these make great gifts for them as well. (You can't go wrong with a classic though! Authors such as Dickens, Alcott, and Gaskell are sure to be a stellar choice!) If you have a true bookworm on your hands then reading lights, nice bookmarks, and cute bookish gifts are always appreciated!

I hope you enjoyed this slightly different post and also hope that it helps you to find the perfect gift for that special someone in your life! Merry Christmas!

Check back next week sometime for a list of the best Christmas books to read as a family!

Blogmas!!!

Hey! I'm super excited to tell you guys that I am going to try my hardest to post here every day in December till Christmas! I can't guarantee that every post will be about books, but I will try and post more reviews, Christmas traditions, Christmas music, actually just anything Christmasy!! It's gonna be great! Are you ready? Comment with your favorite Christmas tradition, one that you'd like to share. I'll be trying a few of them so comment away! Let's get in the Holiday spirit! Merry Christmas to all of you!!!!!!

New Design

Hey Guys! I've changed my background design/picture! Comment below if you prefer this one or the other and don't forget to subscribe, like us on Facebook, and follow on Pinterest! Happy December!!!!

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Review: The Shattered Vigil by Patrick W. Carr

Sometimes the best synopsis is the one on the back of the book, not from your own head.

A Single Terrible Choice Faces the Vigil. Hide in Safety and Let Darkness Take Over the Land or Face the Growing Danger and Risk All of Their Lives.Their victory over the dark forces during the feast of Bas-solas should have guaranteed safety for the continent. Instead, Willet and the rest of the Vigil discover they've been outsmarted by those seeking to unleash the evil that inhabits the Darkwater. One of the Vigil has gone missing, and new attacks have struck at the six kingdoms' ability to defend themselves.

Worse, a deadly new threat has emerged--assassins hunting the Vigil, men and women who cannot be seen until it's too late. To thwart the perilous new risk, the church makes the drastic decision to safeguard the Vigil by taking the surviving members into protective custody. But there are secrets only the Vigil can unearth, and so Pellin makes the heart-wrenching choice to oppose the church in a race to turn back the evil that threatens an entire continent.


I have so much to say about this book. 4.5 Stars!!

1: If you love fantasy then this is the book for you! I was captured by the pure genius of this tale.

2: Even though this is the second book in the series (well, there is a short e-novella I believe that is a prequel maybe to the first book) I wasn't really that lost. The author did a great job of making sure to throw in enough backstory to get it all.

3: I really enjoyed Lady Bronwyn's storyline. In fact, I picked her as one of my favorite characters almost from the start. When she finally became one of the viewpoints ( I'm not too sure of the technical term when you see and hear things from her perspective) I was super excited. Her relationship with Fess was probably my favorite thing to happen in the whole book.

4: Willet also had a great storyline, ( really all the vigil members did) and I enjoyed how his story grew. His relationships with everyone around him were fascinating, especially in light of the fact that he had a vault. I enjoyed his relationship with his guard probably most of all.

5: The only reason I didn't give this book all five stars was because of the part about Lelwin. It scared me a bit, and I know that that stuff really happens and that it served a purpose in the story, I really didn't want it to happen. I know it wasn't as graphic as it could have been but...

I received this book in exchange for my honest review.

Review: From This Day Forward by Lauraine Snelling

This is the synopsis that is posted on the Bethany House website.

Deborah Longs to Marry, but She Never Thought She'd Have to Choose Between an Old Love and a New Possibility.
Deborah MacCallister, head nurse at the Blessing hospital, has loved Toby Valders since her school days, but she's had enough of their on-again, off-again relationship. With the help of the young women of Blessing, Deborah decides that by the end of the summer she will either have won Toby's heart--or she'll give up on him forever.

Toby truly cares for Deborah, but he's never felt like he could commit to marriage or a family. When Anton Gendarme, the new schoolteacher, comes to town, sparks fly between Deborah and Anton. The sudden competition makes Toby do some serious soul-searching, but is it too late?

As the town of Blessing prepares for harvest, Deborah faces the most important decision of her life. But where does her heart truly belong?


I give this book 5 stars.

1: This is the fourth book in the series. You should read the others first. This is the only one that I've read and I was constantly flipping to the front of the book where the family tree was so that I could figure everything out.

2: There were so many storylines that the action never stopped. There wasn't a place where I said to myself, " Okay, back to the story please!" because the whole thing was interesting.

3: I loved the close family ties. Everyone worked to help everyone else, always looking to fill in a gap. Ingeborg with her grandchildren was so sweet. And I loved the way Astrid and Thorliff were able to patch things up. Also, there were plenty of children, which is always a big pull for me to read a book.

4: The power of prayer in this book was so overwhelmingly real. I loved how much prayer was emphasized through the whole thing.

5: I absolutely loved Deborah and her family. I loved that they adopted her and took care of her and that she wanted her Pa to walk her down the aisle on her wedding, and not the pa that left with Manda and went to some ranch somewhere, but the Pa that stood by her for so many years. Also, the way Mary Martha knew Deborah inside and out was so beautiful and sweet and I love it so so so much!

                                  I received this book in exchange for my honest review