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Motivated Moms

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I realized this morning that I haven’t blogged about Motivated Moms yet. So, today is the day!

If you haven’t heard about Motivated Moms yet, let me be the first to rave on it. And, if you have heard of it and use it, please chime in!

Motivated Moms has been very instrumental in helping me get our home cleaner and more organized. And, that is no small feat, believe me. I am not a cleaning person by nature. I absolute LOVE a clean home, but I have just never been great at keeping it clean. Enter Motivated Moms! I found this site online through a friend’s recommendation. I’m so glad I found it. I can’t rave enough. The Motivated Moms calendar system gives a checklist of daily cleaning chores PLUS extra chores to do each day to insure that all the deep cleaning and organizing in the house gets done. What I love is that the basics are done each day and then the big things are broken down into daily chores to make it all more manageable. I have been doing it for almost two months now and the results have spoken for themselves. If it works for me, I know it would work for anyone and any household. When I admit that I am not a cleaning person by nature, I’m not being modest, I am being brutally honest. But, the Motivated Moms system makes it so easy and helps keep us more tidy and organized one day at a time. Awesome!!

Another thing I love about the calendar is that it doesn’t just list the chores to do each day, but also has a place for appointments AND gives a daily Bible reading if you choose to do that too. What more could I ask for?! Nothing. This calendar has it all! The cost is really reasonable too. It’s only $8 per year for the calendar which is a great bargain!

What I do with my calendar is put it in a three ring binder. That way I can easily flip to the current day and have the list available to me. And, I can use the binder pockets for things like party invitations, appointment reminders, etc. See, another way to keep organized!!

I know that I am blessed to be a stay-at-home mom and I know it is my responsibility to keep our home clean and running smoothly. Since I have discovered Motivated Moms, that has all been made so much easier. It probably sounds silly to some degree, but I just love the accomplishment I feel when I check all the items off the checklist each day! This system would also work beautifully for working families because the tasks are easy to complete and broken down so that everything gets done without being completely time consuming. It’s a great solution for every home!

I can’t recommend Motivated Moms enough. Try it, I know you’ll love it to!!

Book Reviews

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I just inundated my blog with book reviews. I think I’m caught up now and hope to just have one review every week or so to stay caught up. 🙂 If anyone has any Christian fiction recommendations, please let me know. I’m always looking for great reads!

Book Review – Home to Holly Springs by Jan Karon

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018253: Home to Holly Springs, Father Tim Series #1 Home to Holly Springs, Father Tim Series #1
By Jan Karon / Viking

Wonderful news, Mitford fans! Father Tim, the beloved retired Episcopal priest, is back—and in response to a mysterious summons, he’s taking a trip down “memory lane” to his hometown of Holly Springs, Mississippi. His journey is filled with colorful characters, heartfelt insights, and plenty of laughs—but will the destination yield surprising secrets, too? 368 pages, hardcover from Viking.

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Kelly’s Review:

We gave my step-mom, Dorothy, this book for Christmas because she and I are both HUGE fans of the Mitford series. She positively raved over this book and I could not wait to read it myself! She brought it to me over Easter weekend and I had to wait a few days before I finished another book so that I could give this my full attention. I have to say, it was more than worth the wait! This is truly an excellent read from start to finish!

As a fan of the Mitford series, I welcomed this book as new and different glance into Father Tim. This book takes us on a journey with him to his boyhood home of Holly Springs, Mississippi. Father Tim hasn’t been to Holly Springs in nearly 40 years and returns to find some of his old friends and make peace with the past. The characters he encounters along the way are all just brought to life on the pages. The story easily seems like it could take place today in a small southern town. Beautifully written and engaging throughout. Even if you’ve never read a Mitford book, this book is still a great stand-alone read. I can’t recommend it enough. And, I also give a big recommendation for the Mitford series because it’s another of my all-time favorites.

Book Review – On This Day by Melody Carlson

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On This Day by Melody Carlson


I have read a few Melody Carlson books before and when I found this one at Lifeway on the sale table, I was excited to buy it and give it a read. On the whole, it was just okay for me. I wanted to like it more than I did. I found the tone to be a bit down the whole novel and the outcome was predictable. It wasn’t a bad read at all, but it didn’t really captivate me and I wasn’t emotionally invested in the characters, really.

On This Day is a story about five women who are in attendance at a wedding. Each has their own issues to confront and wrestle with regarding love, life and marriage. The main characters are a war-bride widow, a vain socialite, a woman who feels her 25 year marriage is in jeopardy, an insecure young wife and new mom and an engaged bridesmaid. The book takes us through the wedding through each point of view and also introduces us to the trials each character is facing. Along the way somewhere the story just started to drag and feel down to me. And, one of the stories doesn’t even get a resolution. I read it all the way through, but mostly because I dislike not finishing what I start and I like Melody Carlson and wanted to do a service to her novel.

Still, I’m only lukewarm on this one. It had its better points scattered throughout, but I didn’t find it to be a great read on the whole. Unfortunately. Still, Melody Carlson is an excellent author and I have enjoyed every other work of hers that I have read. I will continue to read her books without a doubt.

Book Review – Sweet Caroline by Rachel Hauck

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543370: Sweet Caroline, Low Country Series #1 Sweet Caroline, Low Country Series #1
By Rachel Hauck / Thomas Nelson

When ownership of a country bistro falls into Caroline Sweeney’s lap, she wants to drop it like a hot potato! But she soon discovers she loves the restaurant business—till her blossoming relationship with country musician Mitch O’Neal threatens to place it on the back burner. Can a devastating fire help Caroline sort it out? Will she finally put herself first, instead of taking care of everyone else and not herself?

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Kelly’s Review:

I started this book on Sunday afternoon and finished it on a Tuesday morning. I really REALLY enjoyed it tremendously! It had all my favorite elements going for it in that it’s a work of Christian fiction AND a Southern novel. Can’t go wrong there with me. Plus, I have an unexplainable affinity for books with settings in the Low Country of South Carolina and that was the setting for this wonderful book. Those elements combined to provide an awesome read and absolutely took me in from the very beginning.

Sweet Caroline in this story is Caroline Sweeney. She has lived in Beaufort, SC all her life and always finds herself doing things for others because they need doing. She feels an intense loyalty and calling to be there for those that she cares about. She lives against becoming like her own mother who was overly eccentric and abandoned the family before she died. After a string of other jobs Caroline has taken out of compassion and loyalty, she finds herself working at the Frogmore Cafe in Beaufort. The Cafe is a town institution, but has become worn down and almost forgotten. When the owner dies and leaves the Frogmore to Caroline, she finds more in her lap than she bargained for. In addition to figuring out what to do with the Cafe, she also has to make a decision about taking a job with an international firm in Barcelona. And, of course, there is a love story involved. Caroline has recently started to date a handsome deputy sheriff in town with a reputation for being a lady’s man, but she is convinced he has changed. To complicate romantic matters, her first true love, Mitch (now a famous country singer) returns to town. Throughout this novel Caroline has to find ways to balance her life, discover love’s true meaning and rediscover her faith.

I really enjoyed this book because Caroline was a character I could feel a connection to from the beginning. The style of writing used by Rachel Hauck made every character seem so real. This story feels like it could have easily been true. I’m thrilled to learn that it’s the first book in a series and definitely look forward to future installments.

HIGHLY recommend this one!!