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Gift Ideas

The Circle Maker by Mark Batterson (One of my All-Time Favorite Books)

November 20, 2021 by Joi Leave a Comment

The Circle Maker by Mark Batterson

One of my favorite authors is Mark Batterson (link to his Amazon profile page where you can find all of his wonderful books.. you can also find them all on my bookshelves, but that’s another story). As a prayer warrior and as someone who proactively seeks to walk daily with God, his books have been absolutely invaluable to me, so it’s my honor to share book reviews of his extraordinary books with you, my extraordinary reader friends!

This particular book, The Circle Maker (Amazon link) was actually the first Mark Batterson book I ever read. Before I was even halfway through the book, I had already gone to Amazon to by my NEXT Mark Batterson book (as well as the prayer journal available for this one… Amazon link).

This fascinating book is full of inspiration and information (impossible to beat a book like that) and, best of all, it will help you take your prayer life to the next level. In a world where we see people with needs all around us, it has never in our lifetimes been more important to pray meaningful, effective, and life-changing prayers. Obviously, we have our own needs we want to be able to pray for effectively as well!

From the Back Cover of The Circle Maker:

Back Cover of The Circle Maker

From the Back Cover of The Circle Maker

If you aren’t familiar with Mark Batterson’s writing, you will not believe just how humorous and fun his writing is. It’s like sitting down for coffee with the funniest, most energetic, and optimistic friend in your life. This is the type of author you want to read and re-read because (like a favorite old movie) it seems to be EVEN better each time.

I hope you’ll grab a copy of this amazing book and begin your amazing, revived prayer journey right away. With Christmas right around the corner, it would also make an excellent Christmas gift for anyone in your life… the best kind of gift – the one that could benefit your loved one for their entire life.

Find The Circle Maker (Amazon link) on Amazon!

About the Author,  Mark Batterson:

Mark Batterson is the lead pastor of National Community Church in Washington, DC. One church with multiple locations, NCC owns and operates Ebenezers Coffeehouse, the Miracle Theatre, and the DC Dream Center. NCC is currently developing a city block into the Capital Turnaround; the 100,000-square-foot space will include an event venue, a child development center, a mixed-use marketplace, and a coworking space. Mark holds a doctor of ministry degree from Regent University and is the New York Times bestselling author of twenty books including The Circle Maker, In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day, Wild Goose Chase, Play the Man, Whisper, and recently released Win the Day. Mark and his wife, Lora, have three children and live on Capitol Hill.


The Circle Maker by Mark Batterson

Filed Under: Book Reviews, Gift Ideas, Spiritual Tagged With: inspirational book reviews, inspirational books, Mark Batterson books

Essential Oils for Sore Feet (EVEN Plantar Fasciitis)

October 2, 2019 by Joi Leave a Comment

Cute Sandals

A Tale of “Super Cute Sandals” Leading to “Anything But Cute” Foot Pain!

As I said a while back on the Self Help Blog, I have fallen in love with essential oils. I’ve always been a HUGE fan of aromatherapy but am fairly new to the world of essential oils.

Trust me, I’m making up for lost time!

Years of living every single day of summer in “super cute” sandals and “comfy” flip flops has led to recurring Plantar Fasciitis. Talk about painful. If you’ve never had this horrible foot condition, please do all you can to never invite it into your life. PAINFUL! Annoyingly, it will often go away for a while, only to return. Check out the best flip flops for plantar fasciitis.

Recently, after a 2-3 year absence, mine returned with a vengeance – in both feet, no less! I turned to essential oils to see if they’d make it more bearable. I’ve found a few that have proven very helpful for me.

  1. Peppermint Essential Oil. Peppermint essential oil (my “go to” for headaches and stiff necks) is helpful for several reasons when it comes to relieving pain – It increases circulation and is also a natural pain reliever. If you have muscle pain of any kind, it is also wonderful when it comes to stopping muscle spasms.
  2. Rosemary Essential Oil.  Rosemary is a new oil in my arsenal but I absolutely love it. Like Peppermint Oil, Rosemary oil relieves pain – EVEN arthritis pain.
  3. Lavender Essential Oil. Lavender does more than just relax your mind, it relaxes your body and – when it comes to pain – this is a glorious thing. While I use lavender essential oil in many ways, I actually turn to Lavender Bath Salts for soaking my feet. Heavenly!

You can use the essential oils by adding 5 drops to warm water and soaking your feet. When I don’t want to be confined to the bathroom tub or sing, I simply soak a washcloth in the essential oil water and wrap my foot in the rag (after ringing it out, of course). Wrapping a grocery bag around the wrapped foot keeps it from drying out too fast. The wrap is good (and downright delightful) for about 15-20 minutes.

This morning, while searching for a few new bottles of Peppermint Essential Oil on Amazon, I came across something BRILLIANT that I plan to stock up on: Peppermint Essential Oil Roll On! This will be the most effective way to apply Peppermint Essential oil to my feet (as well as my forehead when a headache strikes). The link I just used goes to a two-pack (which is the same, or even less, price as many single packs). I want the 2 pack because one can stay at home and I can keep the other in my purse to keep with me at all times. If you’ve ever tried to apply essential oil while in public, you know all to well how cool these roll ons are! There are even Lavender Essential Oil Roll Ons available.

Seriously, my world just shifted!

I’m doing more research on natural foot pain relief and will post more information as it is uncovered. In the meantime, take good care of your feet. They’ll settle the score in the years to come if you don’t.

Filed Under: Aging Well, Gift Ideas, Health Tagged With: essential oils for foot pain, foot pain, help plantar fasciitis pain, naturally cure foot pain

Review of an Inspirational Beauty: 31 Verses to Write on Your Heart

January 17, 2017 by Joi Leave a Comment

31 Verses to Write on Your Heart by Liz Curtis Higgs
31 Verses to Write on Your Heart by Liz Curtis Higgs
I recently wrote a raving review for Liz Curtis Higgs’ Really Bad Girls of the Bible and today I’m here to do the same – similar raving and same wonderful author. Only the book has changed.

31 Verses to Write on Your Heart is a beautiful collection of favorite Bible verses – collected from over 1,000 women. Accompanying the collection of inspiring and uplifting verses are Liz Curtis Higg’s beautiful (and deliciously witty) stories, words and thoughts.  The reader is given perfect illustrations of each Bible verse as it jumps out of the Bible and into your life.

I think that’s the heart of having favorite Bible verses. They are almost always words that spoke to us when we needed them most.  One of my personal favorite verses is Jeremiah 33:3, “Call unto me and I will answer thee and shew thee great and mighty things which thou knowest not.” (KJV) When my three girls were very young, my dad was in extremely bad health. We knew it wasn’t a matter of “if” he was dying, but “when.”  My girls and I packed up our homeschooling books and made the long drive each day from Madisonville to Owensboro (KY), where he was in the hospital.

If you’ve never watched someone you love greatly slowly die, I hope you never do. It’s… well, there doesn’t seem to be a word strong enough for what it is. Even “agonizing” doesn’t seem to cover it.

One night as I was stacking up the books the girls would need to carry with them the next morning, I just laid across the bed and let the tears fall where they may. Since the last thing I wanted my daughters or husband, for that matter, to see was me having a “moment and a half,” I dried my eyes, grabbed my Bible and flung it open – figuring I’d just begin reading wherever my red eyes happened to land.

I “landed” here in Jeremiah 33:3 – “Call unto me and I will answer thee and shew thee great and mighty things which thou knowest not.”  Here’s the thing about Bible verses – often, one verse speaks to one person differently than it does the next person. Why? Because God often has something different to say to each of us!

When I read that verse, it was as though God was meeting me right where I was and telling me to be strong… happier days are ahead and my dad’s suffering and our heartbreak would not last forever. When I closed my Bible (after highlighting the verse and writing it both on the calendar I carried in my purse AND on my heart), I realized something that I have never forgotten – when you keep your eyes on God (“Call unto me”), He will always be there for you (“I WILL answer thee”). What’s more, He will lead, teach, and instruct you (“shew thee great and mighty things”), even if you can’t, for the life of you, see them yourself (“which though knowest not.”)

From the Back Cover:

Let His Truth Find a Home in Your Heart
Here are the words of hope you’re looking for when your faith needs a boost or a friend needs encouragement. Chosen by more than a thousand women as their favorite verses in the Bible, each one is worth learning, worth sharing, worth remembering,

You’ll find verses you already know and love: “I can do all this through him who gives me strength” (Philippians 4:13). Others may be less familiar but are no less powerful: “Fear of man will prove to be a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord is kept safe” (Proverbs 29:25). All of them capture the truth of God’s goodness, mercy, and love for His own.

Best-selling author Liz Curtis Higgs invites you to experience—
* a deeper, richer understanding of thirty-one treasured verses.
* a fresh look at how these timeless truths can impact your life.
* a new passion for memorizing Scripture, verse by verse.
* thirty-one creative ways to keep them in your heart forever.

With a study guide included, 31 Verses to Write on Your Heart is a daily devotional and a small-group Bible study, wrapped in a lovely gift book overflowing with joy!

“Consider 31 Verses to Write on Your Heart your new spiritual strategy for deepening your daily walk with God. ”
—Karen Ehman, author of Keep It Shut

Each Bible verse comes with “His Word, Your Heart” at the end – a page that includes a tip for memorizing the verse and a space to write your own favorite version (KJV, NKJV, or NIV) of the verse.

I love what Liz Curtis Higgs has to say about Scripture Memorization:

“If you’re ready to give Scripture memorization a go, you’ll see lots of practical ideas and fun tips scattered throughout the book, then collected in the final pages for easy reference…. I know, I know. You don’t have the time. Your memory isn’t what it used to be. You tried before and gave up. You think it’s too hard. I get it. Totally.

Still, here’s what the Bible says: ‘Keep my words and store up my commands within you.’ This isn’t simply the wisdom of King Solomon written to his son. This is the Word of God written for all of us. Keep and store. That’s memorizing Scripture in a nutshell.”

When it comes to memorizing Bible verses, the more you do it, the easier it is. It’s as though you’re exercising a part of your brain and with steady “exercise,” it’ll amaze you with how strong it becomes!

31 Verses to Write on Your Heart is available on Amazon and would make a BEYOND wonderful Mother’s Day or Graduation gift. Actually it’d make a perfect gift for any special lady in your life. You’ll also want your own copy, however.

This beautiful book sits proudly on a shelf on my Inspirational Books bookshelf  (keeping company with its sisters – other Liz Curtis Higgs books). However, it doesn’t sit there for long stretches at a time. When I got the book, I used it, daily, as a devotional – memorizing the verses and reading the corresponding words. Today, I often refer back to it to challenge myself with the verses and re-read the chapters for inspiration.

This is simply a beautiful, inspiring, uplifting, and perfect book. See 31 Verses to Write on Your Heart for your own copy.

Note: I received this book from the Blogging for Books program in exchange for this review. The opinions are entirely my own.

31 Verses to Write on Your Heart by Liz Curtis Higgs

Filed Under: Book Reviews, Books I Love, Gift Ideas, Positive Thought, Spiritual Tagged With: favorite authors, inspirational book reviews, inspirational books, Liz Curtis Higgs, Spiritual books

All You Need is Love…. and A Cat

December 1, 2016 by Joi Leave a Comment

all-you-need-is-love-and-a-cat-adult-coloring-book
I just did a review of a wonderful new adult coloring book, All You Need is Love… and A Cat on my cat blog, Cat-Pause. I’ve written about adult coloring books on Self Help Daily before.   They’re fun, relaxing, and a beautiful way to stay in touch with your creative side.

The fact that All You Need is Love… and A Cat celebrates one of my favorite things in the world (cats) makes it even sweeter.

This book comes with something else I love.. quotes! Each adorable page features a quote along with the picture of a curious, happy, and often mischievous cat – it just doesn’t get any better than that.

Click through All You Need is Love… and A Cat to read more. It’d make a great gift for yourself as well as the cat lover in your life.

Filed Under: Book Reviews, Books I Love, Gift Ideas Tagged With: adult coloring books, relaxation

“Call of the Cats: What I Learned About Life and Love From a Feral Colony”

October 25, 2016 by Joi Leave a Comment

Call of the Cats by Andrew Bloomfield
Can you believe it’s two months till Christmas?! TWO. How did this happen. It seemed like only yesterday I was dancing around my house celebrating the opening day of baseball.  And here I am dancing around celebrating the holidays.

As you’d imagine, I entertain my husband and cats greatly.

Speaking of cats (how was that for transitioning?), I just wrote a review for a lovely new book, Call of the Cats on my cat blog.

While this book is perfect for cat lovers, it’s also a must read for anyone who loves a great, inspiring read. For that matter, if we’re being completely honest, I can’t think of anyone who wouldn’t enjoy this book.

It’s that entertaining.

Read the review here.

I’ll be giving you a few “gift idea” heads ups during the coming weeks because, if you’re anything like me, you could use a little extra help thinking during these months. My thoughts get pretty tangled up with all the information flying around inside my head – Thanksgiving pies, Christmas shopping, gift ideas, decorations, Halloween candy, cookies, candy… too many thoughts for one brain.

This particular book would make a great gift idea for any cat lover in your life. Below are a few other books that’d be great gift ideas.

Cat Lovers

I Draw on Cats!

Cooking for Two: Your Cat and You

Furry Logic (Adorable!)

Cooks

Gluten Free for Good (cookbook)

The Quick Six Fix (cookbook)

The Chew: An Essential Guide to Cooking and Entertaining

Pepper: More Than 45 Recipes Using the King of Spice

Inspirational And/Or Health-Related

The Bulletproof Diet 

Jesus Talked to Me Today (Beautiful!)

A Gift of Love (Also Beautiful!)

Filed Under: Animal Protection, Book Reviews, Books I Love, Gift Ideas Tagged With: Book Reviews, cats, gift ideas

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My name is Joi (“Joy”)! I am the animal lover behind Self Help Daily.

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