Serials and Scenarios ~ The One-Day Way Chantel Hobbs

Book Summary:

The One-Day Way produces lasting results by taking you back to basics. No more complicated weight-loss strategies. No more expensive diet plans that achieve only temporary results. Instead, you will lose weight and get fit with Chantel Hobbs’s simple, high-energy meal plans and her at-home program for cardio exercise and strength training. She will teach you how to change the way you think, which leads to new actions. Before you know it you will be strong, fit, and healthy. All it takes is doing things differently for twenty-four hours—and then repeating it.

The One-Day Way gives you everything you need to lose weight and get fit in body, mind, and spirit:

* Break free from past dieting defeats
* Learn a realistic, life-changing way to measure success
* Change the way you think so you can change your life
* Translate your dreams into goals, and your goals into lasting achievements
* Get strong with thirty-one simple exercises, no fancy equipment required
* Take advantage of ten ways to eat better while you lose weight

By focusing on food, faith, and fitness, Chantel shows you not only how to lose weight, but how to build the new life you were designed to live. You don’t have to wait any longer. The One-Day Way gives you all the tools for success, starting right now.

Author Bio:

The author of Never Say Diet and The Never Say Diet Personal Fitness Trainer, Chantel Hobbs is a motivational speaker, life coach, personal trainer, marathon runner, wife, and mother of four whose story has been featured on Oprah, The Today Show, Good Morning America, Fox & Friends, the 700 Club, and the covers of People and First magazines. She appears weekly on two fitness-themed radio programs and promotes her One-Day Way Learning System on television. Visit Chantel at ChantelHobbs.com for fitness updates and coaching tips.

My Review:


Common sense and helpful advice for anybody who is ready to make life changes.

In her follow-up to Never Say Diet, Chantel Hobbs makes her plan even easier to follow. With very few rules, some unconventional, she manages to make her plan an easy to follow life change.

Hobbs is part expert, as she has lost and kept over 200 pounds, and part cheerleader. Her rules are so simple they could be easily summed up in a magazine article, really. But without the helps, encouragement, examples and stories that are included in the book, it would just be the same old, same old common sense guidelines. Included, also, are 31 exercises and some basic nutritional guidelines/suggestions. The exercise pictures are small and black and white and there are no recipes, so if you're looking for big glossy pictures and/or recipes or weekly diet plans with recipes you won't find them here.

Her plan is basically making small choices, one choice at a time. And that's magical when they are all added up and result in big changes. But as in all things regarding life changes, the proof is in the pudding....or maybe I should say organic yogurt.

The bottom line on this book - if you are looking for magic wands, this isn't it. But if you like the idea of one small step toward health becoming one giant step toward the body you want, well, then here you go.



This book was provided for review by the WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group.

Happy 2010

After a different-than-planned but special Christmas we have continued our celebration with our Minnesota friends.

Our New Year/post-Christmas fun has included shopping. Oy! Construction. YAY! Lots of food. And even more laughter.

We ended the old year and ushered in the new one laughing like crazy folks.

Hope your 2010 is blessed with much laughter and great people.

Serials and Scenarios ~ Mennonite in a Little Black Dress

Product Description

A hilarious and moving memoir—in the spirit of Anne Lamott and Nora Ephron—about a woman who returns home to her close-knit Mennonite family after a personal crisis

Not long after Rhoda Janzen turned forty, her world turned upside down. It was bad enough that her brilliant husband of fifteen years left her for Bob, a guy he met on Gay.com, but that same week a car accident left her with serious injuries. What was a gal to do? Rhoda packed her bags and went home. This wasn’t just any home, though. This was a Mennonite home. While Rhoda had long ventured out on her own spiritual path, the conservative community welcomed her back with open arms and offbeat advice. (Rhoda’s good-natured mother suggested she date her first cousin—he owned a tractor, see.) It is in this safe place that Rhoda can come to terms with her failed marriage; her desire, as a young woman, to leave her sheltered world behind; and the choices that both freed and entrapped her.

Written with wry humor and huge personality—and tackling faith, love, family, and aging—Mennonite in a Little Black Dress is an immensely moving memoir of healing, certain to touch anyone who has ever had to look homeward in order to move ahead.

My Review:

After seeing People Magazine's write-up on this little memoir I thought it would be right up my alley. When, a few days later, I was offered an ARC (Advanced Reader Copy) for review I jumped at the chance.

I love quirky writing. I am also intrigued by a simpler life. Not simple as easy, but simple as less complicated. I also thought I was a fan of memoirs written by quirky and interesting women. But I've read a handful of memoirs this year and I've been disappointed more than not.

Rhoda is a talented lady. I wish I had the grammatic grasp that she does, that I was capable of her wordsmithery. But...I tend to like to get lost in a story, not be reminded of who is writing it. And I couldn't help feeling a bit intimidated by her word talents, and her PhD, and her advanced knowledge. Her chapters were bits of memory woven through near and distant past and near and distant present and sometimes those memories didn't always flow easily. I often had to stop and rewind to get the timing established.

Rhoda has my sympathy for the life she has had to endure, a debilitating car accident within a week of being abandoned by her husband, followed by financial difficulties and the need to go "home" to heal. I appreciate that she attempted to keep a sense of humor about the whole thing.

I also understand fleeing from the religious persecution and suffocation that she felt growing up in her tight-knit community. I, too, ran far away from my Baptist upbringing and invited a bunch of natural consequences into my life. I, too, considered my parents, my church, my white-haired, lightning-flinging, angry God, and my peers as life-hinderers or fun-haters. But there came a time when I had to own up to the fact that I chose to see those people, that God, in the light of being life-ruiners. After all, I was the one who was either too afraid to take what I wanted or too greedy, grabbing more than what I should have. I actually, in all the gusto I grabbed, became my own life-ruiner and God was merciful enough to help me put the pieces back together again. I'm not saying Rhoda is laying all the blame on those folks for much of her own bents, quirks and life struggles, but I detected the scent of victimization coming from her story and it tested my patience.

I recently read another "humorous" memoir about growing up in the church and felt the same struggle with the other story I felt throughout Rhoda's journey, the concern that some well-meaning, very misunderstood people may have been wounded by the women who wrote about their perception of facts. I hope her words haven't caused more problems.

Did I laugh at some scenes? Absolutely. There were some truly charming, quirky moments. Did I enjoy the few little bits and pieces I learned about the Mennonite culture? You bet and would have loved to share more of those moments. Content warning...if you think this is about the Mennonite culture, it's not. It's about the Mennonite upbringing of one woman. And there is very little day-to-day detail of that type of life. There are also some f-bombs and interesting discussions about hairy women and sexual situations that may make for squirmy reading for some of you.

I hope Rhoda finds the spiritual north that she's looking for. I hope she puts her well-educated intellect to work digging for the truth beyond the misshaping and mishandling of imperfect humanity.

Serials and Scenarios ~ Silver Birches by Adrian Plass

Book Description:


When David Herrick receives an invitation to a reunion from a long-forgotten acquaintance, his first reaction is to refuse. He isn't feeling very sociable since his wife, Jessica, died six months ago. But the invitation comes from Angela, one of his wife's oldest friends—and mysteriously, she has something for him from his beloved Jessica. Reluctant but curious, he visits Headly Manor. When the friends gather, they no longer resemble the fresh-faced group of twenty years ago. One has been deserted by her husband, another has lost his faith, and another is filled with anger and Bitterness. As they have less than forty-eight hours with each other, they decide to be vulnerable and bear their souls. This poignant and moving story blends Adrian Plass's rich style of writing with his knack for addressing the deep issues we all face, such as faith, grief, love … and fear.


Book Review:

I can't believe that this book sat in a to-be-read pile for months. I don't know if it was the bland cover in the monochromatic silvers and grays. Or if it was the subject matter, a well-known Christian speaker loses his wife and the story begins in the midst of his depression and struggles. Whatever it was, don't make the same mistake I did.

If you love prose that often reads like poetry (the good kind), thought-provoking, faith-tweaking, realistic fiction, or love British authors, then pick up this book.

Rich, rich, rich details and storytelling poke at sensitive spots in Christ followers. The scenario of half a dozen youth group friends meeting for a weekend twenty years or so after last seeing each other sounds like it might be a bit like a Christianized/sanitized version of The Big Chill. There are moments it feels like that. But that might be because real Christians also have personalities and issues that don't look a whole lot different from unbelievers. And though similar to the storyline of The Big Chill, it's not actually sanitized a whole lot. A big theme is the Christian and his or her sexuality. Then toss in the waves that nearly drown followers when God does not do as He is expected and instead bad, awful, inexplicably hideous things happen that leave us gasping for air and a break. An even bigger one...what if a person, a good person prays and asks to be delivered from something yet still struggles with it twenty years later? Oh yeah. This book, tiny though it is -- less than 200 pages -- is heavy and deep.

I am so glad I read this book. I'll be investigating other Plass offerings. Powerful.

Scribbles and Scrambles - Yay! I Actually Won a Round....

I have to brag. It's kind of lame because I'm talking about a board game.

But this is a board game I've won only one other time and that was, like, 4 years ago and was purely beginner's luck. Last night I played against the family Master's of Catan and I whupped them. Wah, ha, ha, ha.

My weeping and beaten cousin/nephew was kind enough to send pictorial proof via his I-Phone. He then went on to soundly beat me senseless in the next round.

Scribbles and Scrambles ~ Can't Stop Christmas an Odd Ode

oh the snow we did get.

the powder did fly.

the icicles grew

and the cars they did try.


Christmas still came

with windy whispers,

snow plumes and

great gusty gasps

and a whole lot less folks

than we normally have.


the turkey fed fewer

and the pickings were slim.


the glittery snow blanket

cosseted the usual din,

the last-minute rushin, the one-more-thing trip to the mall,

and those problems didn't change

one thing at all.


Christmas, whether you know the real meaning of Christ and His gift,

is about loving, and giving and sharing yourself, as He did.


Traditional not,

skinnier and sparse

Christmas still happened and I consider myself blessed.

Scribbles and Scrambles ~ Toad-Boy's Adventure in the Snow

I mentioned Toad-Boy's early driving skills, or lack thereof, and I believe X-ta made some remark that reminded me of yet another little incident, which triggered another flash of remembrance regarding the other grandparents' vehicle. Yes. Yes, it's true. My son made his mark in two states and on quite a few vehicles.

But this story is about his hidden skills as a driver.

This particular winter was snowy. One day he came home all cherry-cheeked and snow-covered. Seems he did a little cookie and somehow got high-centered on a median and had to shovel himself off/out.

So you'd think I wouldn't hand over the keys to my van.

You'd think. But you likely know me a bit better than that by now and are completely not surprised that I did.

This trip he arrived home with no incidents to report. However, the next morning I went out to the van. Now, the van appeared to be fine. No dents, dings, all tires inflated. Then I decided to stick something in the backseat and discovered that there was no outside door handle. None.

Now this handle HAD been a flat piece of metal matching the color of the van, not a large sticking out handle. This particular handle had been resting flush with the surface of the van. You had to stick your fingers in a little hollowed out hidey hole and pull out to open the van door.

Now the handle was gone. The only evidence of it ever having been there was the empty socket, of course, and a teeny-tiny knick at the very edge of said socket.

Perplexed but pretty sure I knew who was responsible I reentered the house. "Toad-Boy...Dear...What happened to Mommy's van door handle?"

"Huh?!?" This grunt was accompanied by a deer in the headlights stare and slight pinking of his cheeks.

"My door handle is missing. Gone. Back door, passenger side. What happened?"

Toad-Boy jumped up and rushed out of the house and inspected the scene of the crime. Then I watched as he bent over double, laughing hysterically.

Finally, he came back in. "I thought I heard a clicking sound."

Too make the interrogation process that followed a little easier on all of us. He had gone the snow emergency route that is infamous for residents who don't get the concept of snow emergency route and they all part willy-nilly around the carved-out snow banks made by the snow plows. He had gone the speed limit in a cruddy situation thinking that not only should you not exceed the speed limit, but that you mustn't go below it either.

To this day I just hope it was a large mirror that clipped off my handle and not a person. And I don't know how it was even possible for this little driving miracle to occur, but I'm pretty sure Toad-Boy has skills that defy the laws of nature and science. Somewhere, buried in someone's house gutter is a lonely maroon metal rectangle that used to be the handle upon my van. I hope. I really would hate to think I might encounter some poor person with a permanent maroon eye-patch.

Merry Christmas from Toad-Boy and me. Hope your New Year is happy and blessed. And I hope you don't have any snowy mysteries to solve this holiday season. If you have a Toad-Boy, don't give him your keys til Spring.