I was given a copy of King of Glory: The Story & Message of the Bible Distilled into 70 Scenes by P. D. Bramsen several weeks ago and I have been dying to share this book with y’all – it was finally released on Amazon and so in an effort to help spread the word about this book I am giving away one copy of this.
I was not asked to do this, nor am I being compensated for this. I just think every Christian parent would want this book in their collection.
This book is incredible. Parents seeking to share the gospel with their children need this book. This is God’s story of romance and redemption, broken down into 70 scenes, each with it’s own beautiful full page painting.
The seriousness of sin and how it separates us from God, our creator, is not simply sugar glossed over. The first 19 scenes gets us up to Adam and Eve being banished from the garden.
Did you catch that? 19 pages {out of 70!} to tell us about God’s plan for creating the world and the fall of mankind.
If there is one thing I want my sons to understand it is their complete and utter need for a Savior. Those first 19 pages of the book clearly and brilliantly pave the way into the rest of the story – the story of a King who is romancing and wooing a fallen and broken world back to Himself.
King of Glory is not a cutesy children’s Bible – and well it should not be. For the Bible itself is not cutesy.
“Our Creator God is holy. This means He is pure, clean, perfect and righteous. Because of His holy nature and holy laws, He must punish sin with death - separation from the Source of Life.” –from pg 50
The focus of the first half of the book is man’s need for a Savior – that the sacrifices, laws and prophecies of the Old Testament all point towards the need for a Savior.
The focus of the second half of the book is about the Savior, Jesus Christ, that came as a babe to then die on the cross to redeem mankind, rose again and will one day return as King.
“Do you remember how the innocent ram was sacrificed on the wood on an alter to ransom Abraham’s condemned son? Now the sinless Son of God was being sacrificed on a wooden cross to ransom Adam’s condemned descendants. God spared Abraham’s son, but He “did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all.” (Romans 8:32)” –from pg 136
“One of these days while the world is busy with its trivial pursuits and false religions, the King of glory will return to Earth, but not on a lowly donkey, nor to be mocked and crowned with thorns.” — from pg 154
Each scene is written in an easy read-out-loud format with opportunities for feedback from the listener and, in the back, one or two questions to ask for each scene to encourage further discussion.
Each scene is beautifully illustrated with beautiful, detailed paintings {and the wise men scene? More than three are shown in the accompanying picture!}
Thirteen images are available on Amazon, which you can see here.
I have shared excerpts from the book to show you the style of P.D. Bramsen’s writing – conversational, rich – picture painting. This book has captured the attention and hearts of our family and I am thrilled to be able to share a copy with one person. I wish I could give one away to everyone! I cannot recommend this book enough – in fact, if you’re looking for a Christmas gift to give a child, or a family, I would highly recommend this be the book you gift this year!
If you would like to win a copy of this book simply leave a comment telling me so!
For a second entry share this giveaway on Facebook, Twitter or the book image on Pinterest and leave a second comment letting me know. {so important! must leave a second comment for me to count you twice!}
King of Glory is newly released and is available on Amazon for $9.99 – though it is currently back ordered!
Contest is open until November 28 at 11 am. I will contact the winner by email that afternoon. Random.org will be used to determine the winner. Thanks!
“If I had a camera,’ I said, ‘I’d take a picture of you every day. That way I’d remember how you looked every single day of your life.”
“Holding hands, for example, is a way to remember how it feels to say nothing together.”
“…An average of seventy-four species become extinct every day, which was one good reason, but not the only one, to hold someone’s hand…”
“What about you? Are you happiest and saddest right now that you’ve ever been?” “Of course I am.” “Why?” “Because nothing makes me happier and nothing makes me sadder than you.”
“Once upon a time, there was a boy. He lived in a village that no longer exists, in a house that no longer exists, on the edge of a field that no longer exists, where everything was discovered, and everything was possible. A stick could be a sword, a pebble could be a diamond, a tree, a castle. Once upon a time, there was a boy who lived in a house across the field, from a girl who no longer exists. They made up a thousand games. She was queen and he was king. In the autumn light her hair shone like a crown. They collected the world in small handfuls, and when the sky grew dark, and they parted with leaves in their hair.
Once upon a time there was a boy who loved a girl, and her laughter was a question he wanted to spend his whole life answering.”
These quotes about love are all from The History of Love: A Novel by Nicole Krauss
Mennonite Manners is a really fun dice game for a large group of people.
Supplies needed:
- one sheet of paper per player
- one pencil
- one die
Point of the game:
To be the first person to write out numbers 1-100
To Play:
- Choose one player to start with the pencil and give the person to the left the die.
- At the start the player with the pencil starts writing out the numbers, starting at 1, up to 100 while the player with the die starts trying to roll a 6.
- As soon as the player rolls a 6 he or she grabs the pencil and starts writing out the numbers, starting at 1, up to 100 while the person to his or her left starts rolling the die trying to roll a 6.
- This continues around the circle, when you get the pencil back on your turn you continue with where your numbers left off on your last turn.
- First person to write the number “100” is the winner.
A warm fire to break the chill of sitting still, a cup of tea to sooth and a delightful pile of home decorating magazines. This was how I spent my time during the boys quiet time this week.
Quiet time at 3 and 4 sometimes results in naps and sometimes results in bed jumping and riveting games of hide and seek in their bedroom. It matters very little to me which course they chose so long as they’re able to manage their attitudes well.
More often than not quiet time is when they are held captive to an audio book well beyond their years and I have some moments of calm amidst the wildness of my little men.
This week has been a good one. Which I hesitate to say because it means next week won’t be. It always works that way.
My WordPress editor is being temperamental and won’t let me share links, but that Three Ingredient Cream Cheese Biscuit? I tried making it gluten free this week and it worked.
I updated that post with my findings, but I’ll share here too – I substituted rice flour for the white flour. I added pepper and cheddar cheese as the texture of the raw dough was a bit coarse - the result was delicious!
I served it with crab and egg salad for dinner earlier this week and it was a hit.
And that sweet baby I was honored to take the birth pictures of? He’s home now, released from the hospital, and I am dying to go see him again.
Have a good weekend – I’ve got cheesecakes to bake and bathrooms to clean!
Last year we started what I hope will be a long standing Christmas tradition – while out looking at Christmas lights we awarded our favorite homes with some festively wrapped Snowman chocolate bars.
This proved to be a fun exercise to get the boys thinking about other people and it was quite fun to see which homes were their favorites.
We had driven through a few neighborhoods last year, Judah had already chosen his favorite decorated home {I think it was the home with the biggest, tackiest blow up Santas and Snowmen} but none of them had really resonated with Wesley.
We happened to drive by a factory and Wesley gave a little sigh of glee and told us it was so beautiful and his favorite. So we pulled in and Wesley gave the security guard at the factory the snowman chocolate bar and thanked him for having the most beautiful lights. It was the sweetest thing ever. Though I am pretty sure the security guard thought we were NUTS!!
Right now I have our chocolate bars ready and waiting to be decorated for handing out closer to Christmas and I really can’t wait!
Next time you are at the store buy:
a couple chocolate bars
When you get home take a few minutes to wrap them in white paper. Store them until you need a simple craft next month and pull them out for the kids to decorate as snowmen.
Then save them until you go out to look at Christmas lights with your family, or use the snowman chocolate bars to give to the mailman, garbage man, kids friends, teachers, etc.
Click here to see a round up from my Preparing for Christmas series.
I am honored she asked me to be there in the sacred moments.
To witness, and attempt in a feeble way to capture, the breath taking miracle of birth.
Words fail me to describe how it felt to watch a little one leave the womb of his mother and be welcomed into her loving embrace.
And I am incredibly thankful to the awesome doctors who allowed me to be there through the procedure.
Welcome to the world little one – taking your birth pictures was one of the most amazing things I have done.
How to Make Butter
Ingredients:
Heavy Whipping Cream
Tools:
Jar with lid (fun for the kids!)
{or}
Food processor (gets the job done with less work)
How to make butter by shaking:
Pour the cream into the jar – make sure the jar is large enough to give it room to move around. We started out with a small jar and ended up switching jars halfway through. After roughly 8 minutes of shaking the cream will have turned into a ball of butter!
How to make butter in a food processor:
Pour the cream into the food processor and blend until a ball of butter forms.
After the butter forms in the jar or in the food processor:
You will have both the ball of butter and buttermilk - separate the two.
Then rinse off your butter with water.
Salt if desired and enjoy!
Making the butter was a really fun family activity – we made this short video on how to make butter {e-mail subscribers may have to click through to see} and the boys have watched it at least a dozen times.
And that butter? I can’t stop snitching little bits of it every now and then. It is delicious!
Do you know what recipes for Christmas cookies and other baked goods you’ll be using this Christmas season? I recommend keeping it simple, choosing a couple favorites, maybe a couple new ones and then simply eliminating all the extra stress of Christmas baking.
Once you have your master list of recipes for Christmas create a shopping list of all the ingredients – over the next several weeks many of those items are likely to go on sale so watch for that!
Next time you are at the store look for items on your Christmas baking shopping list that are on sale.
Here are some of the recipes for Christmas goodies I plan on making this year – either to give to friends and neighbors, for Christmas parties or for just the four of us to enjoy for special treats.
Three Ingredient Cream Cheese Biscuits - easy and delicious!
Best Shortbread recipe – this will probably be the only Christmas cookie recipe I make this year. It’s delicious, we all love it, it’s easy to gift to others – so why mess with a good thing?
Almond Puff Pastry Recipe – I am going to try talking Paul into letting us have this instead of cinnamon rolls Christmas morning!
Bacon wrapped water chestnuts – you can’t really go wrong with any bacon recipe, but this little bacon appetizer is really easy to put together and delicious!
If you have any special recipes for Christmas that you always make I’d love if you shared!
Sharing;
Bacon Wrapped Water Chestnuts
Ingredients
1 lb sliced bacon
2 cans whole water chestnuts, drained; 8 oz each
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup mayo
1/4 cup chili sauce
Directions:
1. Cut bacon strips in half. Cook bacon until almost crisp, drain. Wrap each bacon strip around a water chestnut and secure with a toothpick. Place in an ungreased baking dish.
2. In a small bowl combine the last three ingredients. Pour over water chestnuts. Bake, uncovered, at 350 F for 30 minutes or until hot and bubbly.
Almond Puff Pastry Recipe
Ingredients:
2 cups all purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup cold butter, divided
2 TBSP plus 1 cup cold water, divided
1/4 tsp almond extract
3 eggs
{Frosting}
1.5 cups confectioners’ sugar
2 TBSP butter, softened
4 tsp water
1/4 tsp almond extract
2/3 cup chopped almonds, toasted
Directions:
1. In a large bowl, combine 1 cup flour and salt; cut in 1/2 cup butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Add 2 TBSP cold water; stir with fork until blended. Shape dough into a ball; divide in half. Place dough 3 in. apart on an ungreased baking sheet; pat each into a 12-in x 3-in rectangle.
2. In a large saucepan, bring remaining butter and water to a boil. Remove from the heat; stir in extract and remaining flour until a smooth ball forms. Remove from the heat; let stand for 5 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Continue beating until mixture is smooth and shiny.
3. Spread over rectangles. Bake at 400 F for 18-20 minutes or until topping is slightly browned. Cool for 5 minutes before removing from pan to wire racks.
4. For frosting, in a small mixing bowl, combine the confectioners’ sugar, butter, water and extract; beat until smooth. Spread over pastries; sprinkle with almonds.
Pastry Recipe says it yields 2 pastries, 11 servings per pastry. Whatever! I think 3 adults consumed both pastries one evening. This is really delicious.
Almond Pastry recipe from Taste of Home Best of the Holidays 2008
