Book Review: True Treasures (Eternal Encouragement, formerly Teach Magazine)

I was so excited to get to participate as a Gabby Mom which is a new addition to Teach magazine, now called Eternal encouragement magazine
I get to review a new product from Teach Magazine every month which is fabulous, as i love their stuff!

So I got started as a Gabby mom a bit late, which meant i had only a week or so to review the book "True Treasures- 10 years of TEACH Magazine." So whenit arrived in the mail, i was a bit nervous but still excited. You see, since about child number 5, i've been more a "magazine person" rather than a "book person" My attention span seems to have reduced incrementally with each child :-) I've recently found that reading on my Ipod helps, i think the small space helps me to be not distracted. But since the book I was reading was an actual BOOK, in book form, and i couldn't fall back on my usual reading during my nighttime insomnia with my little electronic friend, i would need to read a book.



NOT that i'm complaining! don't get me wrong, part of the REASON i do reviews is because it FORCES me to READ actual books, which I strive to do, being a literate person and all :-) So anyway, a package arrived and I opened it to discover a beautifully wrapped PRESENT! But i was pleasantly surprised to see that this was a nicely compact and reasonably sized softbound book. Surprised, and a bit skeptical that 10 years of highlights could be contained in 103 pages, i began reading. Would you like to see what the inside looks like? here it is!




The topics of the book are as follows:

-Introduction
-Jewels that make the heart sparkle
-Marriages of Solid Gold
-Parenting Pearls: Practical and Priceless
-Homemaking That Dazzles Like Diamonds
-Homeschooling Nuggets of Wisdom
-Godly Living That Glitters
-Indexes

As I was reading, I thought I'd just be reading a bit at a time but I ended up reading the whole thing in one sitting, with an interruption or two to peel a baby off a table. But thankfully Dh was home, because I was quite immersed. I read and decided at each chapter's end, that I liked THAT chapter better than the last, and continued to do so until the end! I was impressed, and awed by how much work it must have taken to select just a few articles in each category from 10 YEARS of magazine!

Here are some of the things I read that were particularily appropriate to me at this season in life- (And i suspect as my life changes so will what i find notable about the book! LOVE THAT!)

- pg 16 "Slow and Steady" By Lorrie Flem- an encouragement that among the tedium- actual progress IS being made!

- pg 27 "Mothers , Move Over" By Lorrie Flem- An admonishment to let your husband lead your family! But not just the admonishment, practical steps you can take to make that happen!!! (which is so helpful to one who is naturally passionate about Christ and Christian living, and a natural leader, vs. my dear love, who is a steady, hard working man, who tends to not get overly excited about stuff)

- pg 50 "Give Them Your Heart" By Marilyn Boyer- yes, THE Marilyn Boyer! Which talks about things that we mothers tend to allow to take the place in our heart of our children, including our reputation, a clean house, our goals, our pleasure, our time, and more. OUCH. This one hurt- But its a good hurt.

- pg 53 Bible Verses to Pray for your Children- VERY COOL!

- pg 67 "Teach Your Daughters (and Sons!) to Embrace Homemaking (or Anything Else You're responsible for in Life!) By Lorrie Flem. Love that title! and I love the message, and I'm really glad she didn't exclude sons- one of my pet peeves is when people have such rigid gender roles that they don't even take into consideration peripheral, yet important issues. For example, when my sons' wives have babies, i would fully expect those boys to be doing the cooking and cleaning for a while. And suffice to say there will be no 35 year old, still living at home man-boys around my house! But I digress! This article is about an issue we are dealing with heavily at our house. ATTITUDE. This is one of my big soapboxes, that Christians need to embrace their roles and work to their best ability. Where ever we are in life, that's where God has put us, and we need to do all the boring stuff that needs to happen just because that's where we are! And I think my children are getting a big sick of hearing me say "You don't have to WANT to do it, you just have to DO IT." But reading this article has given me ideas of how to LEAD by example and effectively shepherd them!

- pg 72 "7 Ways to Break the Breakfast Blahs" By Lorrie Flem- Um.... yeah, we have cold cereal. EVERY DAY. And i've got grace about that, I have 7 children including twin toddler BOYS, its truly a miracle that anyone eats ANYTHING around here, but i'm planning for a day when i might actually... GASP..... COOK BREAKFAST! So i'm mentally preparing for that.

- pg 79 "7 Rules for Homeschooling and Loving it" by Lorrie Flem- Yeah, again, a much needed refresher for me, since homeschooling is starting to feel more like doing laundry than "lighting a fire" :-)

- Pg 85 "Yippee! its Still Free!" By Lorrie Flem- which is a great list of freebies you can find online, free curricula, music, math, etc. good stuff!

So anyway, Suffice to say, I enjoyed the book "True Treasures- 10 Years of Teach Magazine" and I am pleased to have gotten to review it! If you would like to buy a copy for yourself, use the code GABBYMOM at checkout to get $4 off this book!
And be sure to check out http://www.homemakingwithteach.com/ for good products, articles, recipes, and more for homemakers, moms, women, etc!

DISCLAIMER- I received this product for honest

review from TEACH Magazine as a part of The Gabby Moms

blogging program. All opinions expressed are solely my own.