Facing the Giants - A movie review

Facing the Giants

Sherwood Pictures

Head coach Grant Tyler has a 6 year loosing streak. He and his wife have been trying for years to have a baby. . . and can’t. The entire team has a bad attitude. For years one man has prayed for the revival of the school. That man comes to Grant and tells him that God is going to use him.

Facing the Giants is the second movie produced by Sherwood Pictures (The first is Flywheel a movie about a used car dealer. movie budget $20,000*). By movie standards it is still very low-budget $100,00*, but with much more of a real movie feel.

Facing the Giants is a movie designed to have you think: about the ‘Giant’s’ in our lives, the obstacles that seem to be unbeatable, mountains unclimbable. But that if we put our trust in God, He will give us strength. I do think the movie makes it look like all dreams come true, but I do know that God will provide all of our needs, even if He doesn’t provide all of our dreams.

I give this movie a 5 out of 5, because of family friendliness, story line and ability to relate to many peoples lives.

By the way, did you know that Sherwood Pictures has a new film coming out in 2011 and that it is in production right now?? Courageous the movie is about 4 policemen fathers. Check it out to see what’s going on!!

* Budget amounts are provided by Wikipedia.org

**Note: This movie review has been done because I wanted to. The makers of this movie, Amazon, nor Wikipedia have paid me.

Toward the Goal: The Kaka Story - Jeremy V Jones

Toward the Goal

                *  The Kaka Story

Jeremy V Jones

Kaka is a young Football (Soccer if you’re from America) player from Brazil.  He loves sports & he loves God.  When he is seriously injured as a young teen,  the doctors were surprised he wasn’t paralysed, and were sure that he would never play sports again.  But God is bigger than injuries, and Kaka went on to play football, in fact playing football very well!!
This book is written for preteens(9-12), with a great message of faith.  It also talks about working hard for your goals.  I like how the book is set up with story and background information.  Without seeming like a ‘school book’ the author adds a few paragraphs at the end of each chapter about different topics (Brazil, history of soccer, world cup records ect), so you learn something new!! It was very fun.  I also like how the author added the first round info for the 2010 World Cup, letting you know that Kaka’s story isn’t finished yet!!  If you have a preteen that likes sports, check out this book!! (I actually checked into it because I have friends who have a preteen, and they are missionaries in Brazil!!, makes me feel a bit closer to them )

* NOTE – This book was provided to me by Zondervan free for review purposes.  I was not asked to write a positive or negative review, all opinions are my own.

White Chocolate Moments - Lori Wick

White Chocolate Moments

Lori Wick

Archineh (Arcie) is 11 when she is in a car accident that kills her parents. She moves in with her Grandfather whom she adores and who adores her.  But now she must deal with a very jealous cousin, who finally drives a wedge between them.  She finally decides to leave, and runs away at the age of 18.  She learns to work, and works very hard, living a life completely different from the one she grew up.  Arcie grew up very privileged when her parents were living, and even more so when she moved in with her business tycoon Grandfather.
White Chocolate Moments covers more than 13 years of Arcies life in a very detailed way.  You feel like she is one of your best friends, and that you have watched her through the years, seeing her triumphs and her struggles.
* Note: This review has not been paid for. Lori Wick, Amazon.com,  & Harvest House have no clue who I am, and have not asked me for this review.  (and now I really want some White Chocolate!! Yumm)

The Ultimate Gift - A movie review

The Ultimate Gift

Trust fund baby, Jason Stevens (Drew Fuller) hates his grandfather, in fact everyone in his family can’t stand him. So when Red Stevens (James Garner) dies, his family is happy to see him go, and leave his billions to them. Only each person gets just part of what they want, there are stipulations to how they can use it, or something else, that makes them madder still.
But Jason, comes out of the reading of the will with . . . a gift, not money, but instead Jason must do something. And it keeps going like that. Getting ‘gifts’.

This movie shows the huge difference between the rich and the poor (could it be that life might actually be easier for some poor people than some rich people??) The theme of the movie is living life to its fullest in every way, not just buying material things. And friends, money will buy them, they just won’t be there to support if you if you need it.

Mild swearing(H— and BS), and Jason’s girlfriend ‘slips into something more comfortable’. But other than that I have no complaints.

A family movie, that I really enjoy watching!

* Note: This movie review was written because I wanted too, and I was not paid to write this review by anyone, including the makers of the movie or amazon.com

Fireproof - the book

Fireproof

Eric Wilson
Based on the screenplay by
Alex Kendrick and Stephen Kendrick

Based on the movie by Sherwood Pictures, this book was written after the movie, so it follows exactly how the movie goes. Yeah!! But not only do you have the story and message of the movie, you have all of the background information that you wondered about but didn’t know. Details that give the story more feeling and more emotion and more substance (and they did a great job on doing that with the film).

Fireproof is the story of young fire Caption Caleb Holt and his wife Catherine. Caleb and Catherine are married, but leading very separate lives. The are both living for their own needs, apart from God and each other. With a divorce in the near future Caleb’s dad asks him how willing he is to save his marriage. and challenges him to take the next 40 days to do a “Love Dare” and learn to love his wife. Caleb takes the challenge grudgingly and we get to watch as he changes over the next days and weeks.

I LOVED the movie, so when I saw the book, I wasn’t sure what I would think of it, but I decided to give it a shot, and see what it was like. I really liked it!! I love how I could see the movie in my mind as I read it, but I wasn’t correcting it. I would recommend this a great weekend read!!

* Note, this is a book I found at the church library, and decided to share with you Sherwood Pictures, its author, the Kendrick brothers, Amazon, Thomas Nelson, etc have no clue who I am, and have not paid me to write this review (positive or negative)

Breastfeeding Diary for Microsoft Windows Mobile-app

Breastfeeding Diary for Microsoft Windows Mobile

$1.99

With my new phone, and a new baby, what other product could I possibly need but a breastfeeding app. I actually looked for one about 2 months ago, but didn’t find it until last week (new app) right after I got home from the hospital with him!

This app is designed to help you keep track of when you feed your baby, which side you started on (so that you can start on the opposite next time) and let you know how long your baby ate.

What I liked.

No real set up, you can go in and change the name easily, and that is all you need to do.
Easy to figure out. a left/right button starts it up, and you let it run while you nurse.
Pause button allows you to burp baby, and ”Switch” changes it from Left/right right/left
It takes very little memory, so you can leave it open all of the time (I’ll tell you why I had to later)
It totals your time for the entire feeding (Left 17, Right 12 = 29)
Allows you to see either all the details for each feeding or just the total time and start side
You can use other programs or the phone while it keeps working

What I didn’t care for

Every time you open the program it opens it up to “New Baby” and so you have to open up your babies profile (so I just left it open running in the background all the time)
It only shows todays stats and yesterdays.
If you forget to stop your feeding (Which I did often) you can only mark it as incorrect, you can’t edit it

What I wish it had

Ability to add diaper change info
Ability to correct feedings

Note: This reveiw was not paid for, and I purchased this app on my own. I will probably not use this program long, but for the few weeks that I did/will use it, it has been very helpful to get my schedule set.

Potty Training 123 - Gary Ezzo

Potty Training 123

What Works, What Doesn’t and Why

Gary Ezzo

A book designed to . . . you guessed it, Potty train, this book gives:

• helpful advise on how to get started – tools and general guidelines
• timing – are you ready, is your child, is the rest of the family, ect
• incentives – they recommend food which I struggled with, but ‘input=output’. They also give suggestions on which food treats might work the best. Another thing that he recommends is a cheering section (grandpa and grandma, a favorite aunt or uncle, older siblings.)
• when to give the incentives – rewarding more for ‘clean and dry’ than for ‘going’

The book is short, and detail packed, easily readable in one night, or snuck in over a few lunch breaks.

With 4 children (3 of which I have potty trained) I have to say I like this book! I did not use it with my first, I just guessed (it took him forever to get it). With my second I bought the book after a false start, and we had a bit of a problem, but he got it soon after I restarted with the principles of the book. With our third, I had already read the book, but I reread it, and jumped in excited to get it done fast!! We were accident free in about a week. (there were occasional accidents, but about 1 a week, so I would consider that accident free). I will soon (July or August probably) be training our fourth, and I am only waiting until then because baby makes 7 and I don’t want to false start with him. I don’t anticipate problems, and I am excited to work with him (even more excited to save the money that his diapers cost, and only need to purchase diapers for the new baby).

** Note: This review is being done because I want to. It was a book I purchased a while back (3 years ago) and have used with 2, soon to be 3, of my children. No one has paid me to write this review. I would highly recommend this book. Good Luck!!