We all know life is crazy.  

Add in working a full time job, 

being a wife to a wonderful, hardworking man

 and a mom to 2 little boys

 and you have a recipe for chaos.

  (And I didn't even mention the farm, LOL).  

To add to my chaos we throw in extra curricular (baseball, soccer, & 4-H),

volunteer commitments in our community & church,

plus my 2 side jobs (an Etsy shop & selling Avon)

and people question when I sleep...

heck sometimes I question 

when I sleep especially since the baby doesn't sleep through the night yet!

But amid all of this I have felt a pull,

a tug to dig deeper into my walk with the Lord.  

I am part of a Good Morning Girls group (which I love),

& part of a women's Bible study group at church, 

but I felt like I personally by myself needed more.

A little while back I while reading one of my favorite blogs, Women Living Well,

I saw a call for readers of Courtney's new book by the same title.  

With little hesitation I shot a message over letting them know that I would be delighted to join in.  

Honestly, I didn't think I would get picked.  

I have never reviewed a book,

I'm not a consistent blogger with tons of followers,

I'm just me...

A few weeks went by and I received an email...

low and behold I was selected to review the book!!

To say I was excited was a slight understatement.  

I quickly downloaded the book and began to devour it...

but not far into it something told me to slow down...

take the book one step at a time...

really let it sink in and stick!  

So I stopped...yes completely stopped reading the book for a few days.

When I picked it up again I did so with new eyes,

an open heart and an open Bible.  

You see the book is all about 

"Finding Your Joy in God, Your Man, Your Kids, and Your Home."

Devouring the book wasn't going to help me. 

I needed to sit down with the book,

a good cup of coffee and my Bible,

so that I might find my joy.

So as I go through this book piece by piece I plan to share it with you.

My thoughts, my ideas, and how the book is helping me to 

"Walk with the King." 

Courtney has made this pretty easy for me as the book is divided into

4 parts: Your Walk with the King, Your Marriage, Your Parenting, & Your Homemaking.

Honestly delving into some of those areas frighten me.

Do I really want to know what the Bible says...

Do I really want to know how far I am from the woman God has called me to be?

Well I don't know, but I do know that God has called me to read this book 

and apply it in my life.  

So stay tuned as I review this book.  

How can you get your hands on a copy?

You can pre order a copy now and get a great added bonus!  

The book officially releases on October 1st!  

or 

you can enter to win a copy from my blog!!

Until next time,

Caci 

Faithful Fridays are a new addition to the blog this year!  I thought it might be great once a week to post on how I am trying to remain faithful to God.  This post keeps me accountable for my daily time with God.  It also gives me a chance at least once a week to focus on the blessings God has bestowed upon our family.  Some weeks that is much harder than others!!

So how have my faith based goals gone the first 11 days in the new year??

Goal 1: was to memorize 24 verses of scripture.  I am still working on my 1st verse of the year but will be adding number 2 next week!  I do have the basics of the verse hidden in my heart and will continue to work on it.  I have found myself turning to my index card binder often over the past 11 days to remind myself of the verse and to go before the Lord in prayer.  

Goal 2: was to spend more time in prayer and allow God to guide me.  I feel that I haven't spent nearly as much time in prayer  as I would have liked.  I need to be more dedicated and purposeful with my prayer time.  I catch myself praying throughout the day about little things but I feel that I also need to set aside some quiet time morning, noon, and night to do some focused prayer time.  As far as letting God guide me...well there are many times when I am not sure if I am doing my will or God's.  I try to make sure that what I am doing is pleasing to the Lord and that I am looking to him in all aspects of life not just in the big stuff.  I want to make sure that I am living my life for him all the time not just when it's easy.  I think my biggest struggle here is deals with finances.  It's hard to give up control to God and know that he will provide for our needs.  

Goal 3: was to read through the entire Bible in a year.  This one has been a little difficult as it requires you to set aside time each day to read between 4-5 chapters of the Bible.  I have gotten behind a couple of times but I am happy to say that currently I am caught up and have completely read the book of Ezra!  1 book down and 65 to go!  The weekends seem to be the hardest for me as we don't have a structured day on the weekends.  

In addition to these goals I also spend other times with the Lord.  I was blessed this week to get together with my WIC group on Wednesday night for a good girls night.  We enjoy a meal together, pray together, and study God's word.  We are working through Beth Moore's "David, Seeking a Heart Like His."  I have really enjoyed this study.  God has used this study to guide me in many ways!  I also really enjoy just spending time with the ladies in my group.  The majority of us are all in the same stage in life...we are 30ish, married, with kids and have full time jobs.  We do have ladies in our group who don't fit that description and I think that it's great!  Those ladies offer us a different insight into how God's word works in their life.  Many times we are so caught up in ours we forget that the same scripture may work differently in one life than the other...but the idea is the same...God is working in their life!  

Next week my Good Morning Girls group starts their study in Luke!  I am very excited for this study.  It's an 8 week study.  I am leading a Facebook group through the study.  I have tried this before and it worked out ok but I lost motivation because other's in the group weren't interacting.  I pray that the new group helps to keep up my motivation!  

I also try to work a little each day on vacation Bible school (VBS).  I do this so that I don't feel overwhelmed later in the year, which this year is even more important as we are expecting baby #2 in March.  I am happy to say we have dates set, starting to line up volunteers, and working on set design already!

So right now my typical day includes multiple small burst of time with the Lord.  I am thankful for the time I can spend with him alone but I also enjoy the time I spend with him and my family and friends.  Each type of interaction with the Lord blesses us greatly.  

Oh and by the way...I have to say HAPPY NATIONAL MILK DAY

So take a moment and let me know how are your faith based new year's goal going?  

Caci