Review: Palooza Packs

About ten years ago, I had the privilege of meeting one of the most contagiously energetic and upbeat women I've ever known. At that time, she was a newlywed working hard on getting a brand new business off the ground (which she did, with great success). Over the years, I watched as she worked hard, feathered her nest, encouraged women, and began raising children. But the one thing that continually drew me to Ann Marie was her genuine joy and love for the Lord. Everything in her life seemed to be an outpouring of that.

Now, all these years and five kids later, she and her family are launching another business together. When I found out what she was doing, I asked her if I could see it for myself and share it with some little friends. Here's the low-down.

First, here's a description of the concept, taken from Palooza Package's Facebook Page:   FUN, Educational SCIENCE and ART Packages integrated with Biblical Truth! For kids ages 4-10 complete with all supplies included for hours of engaging, creative fun! Themes Change EVERY month! Come Discover, Explore, Believe and Create with us! Each month, the company offers a different seasonal or theme based kits with lots of projects. The kit comes with everything you need, as well as teaching guides that will help you make this much more than just another crafty project for your child.

I received April's Spring into Motion Palooza Packet, which arrived in a box. When I opened the box, I found what reminded me of a party bag -- it was a large plastic bag lined with bright tissue paper, tied with colorful ribbon (like those in the picture above).  I love this packaging -- it's not only fun, but it keeps the kids from immediately seeing all the goodies inside (and digging right in)!

I opened that bag to find another bag containing a set of color-and-number-coded Learn Cards with matching project bags.

It's easy to locate the exact supplies for each project, as they are separately bagged and labeled with the appropriate project number and color.

My friend, Kathy, agreed to test-drive the Spring In Motion Palooza package with her kids. She's only made it through a few of the projects so far -- there are so many! -- but she and the kids had a great time.

Josiah and Sarah enjoyed working their projects, and Kathy appreciated that all of the supplies were right there for her, including instructions and a biblical truth to teach.

And they enjoyed using their projects, too -- I don't think they even realized that they were continuing to learn!

Here's what Kathy had to say about her Palooza Package:

Spring into Motion Palooza Package has been a blast! It has been so handy to reach in the bag and pick a project for the day as well as helping this busy Mom stay on task of enriching/teaching my kiddos during these busy Spring days! The kids come to ME asking what they can do next! My favorite part of the packs is how every project teaches us something about our Wonderful God...it is a Win-Win!!

The Palooza Package website will be up soon, but in the meantime you can get more info at the Palooza Package Facebook page -- check out them out on Pinterest, too!   To place an order or ask a question, contact Ann Marie here.

Book Review: Touching the Hem (A Biblical Response to Physical Suffering)

When we were expecting our first child, I also experienced my first kidney stone episode. I ended up in the hospital for about a week and began a journey of learning about medullary sponge kidney, stone removal procedures, spinal blocks, pain medication, and God's faithfulness. Almost 27 years, several hospitalizations, two more pregnancies, and innumerable stone episodes later, I'm still working on developing a biblical response to physical suffering.

So when I learned that Elizabeth Johnson of Dogfur and Dandelions was going to write this book, I was intrigued. And when the opportunity to review it came open, I jumped at the chance.

The seeds for this book were planted when Elizabeth faced her own serious illness several years ago, at a time when she was planning her wedding and a new life with her love, James. Suddenly, "the question of healing became extremely personal." Over the past six years, as Elizabeth has come to terms with her illness and its effects, her faith has driven her to God's Word to gain wisdom about dealing with daily, chronic illness and how to think about healing today. This book is the result of that study.

The book starts with a look at God's character. This is so important because, whether or not we like to admit it, pain can often lead to a questioning of God's character. Why is God allowing this? Does He love me? Is God punishing me? Does He not have enough power to change this? I appreciated the heavy dependence on Scripture rather than personal opinion or experience to sketch God's character. And even as Elizabeth encouraged ongoing Bible study to know God's character, she emphasized that a head knowledge is not enough. "Knowing and walking with Him daily teaches us His character better than anything else."

Next, the book discusses God's works, specifically through Christ. During the years of His earthly ministry, Christ did heal many of their physical ailments. Yet His ultimate purpose was that of ultimate healing -- atonement and salvation for man. Without an understanding of this, the gospel, the rest of this God's purposes (and this book) will not make sense. In this section, I especially appreciated the emphasis on using sound, contextual methods to interpret the Bible.

The book then addresses the circumstances of our suffering -- why is suffering a part of life? -- in order to lay the groundwork for the next section, which deals with our response to suffering. This section addresses the subject of healing, from scriptural principles to biblical examples to prayer and stewarding the care of our bodies. The issue of faith healers is also addressed with discernment.

It's worth noting that you can download a free study guide here. I think it would be helpful for individual or group study.

Touching the Hem's strength lies in directing us to look at the issue of physical suffering through a biblical lens. And by helping me better understand God's character and work, it has helped me be in a better position to respond biblically to my own suffering.

{If you'd like read more about the book from Elizabeth, check out her recent guest post.)



Ambassador International provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for a review; however, the views stated here are my own. This review has also been posted on Amazon.com and Goodreads.

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