Running With Spears

My nine year old daughter, Evergreen, loves fun apps for her phone so she was excited to receive a free copy of the Daily Bible Jigsaw from Planet 316 along with the 500 Puzzle Coins bundle for us to review.

Daily Bible Jigsaw app from Planet 316. Freee to play. | Review by Running With Spears #puzzleapp #freeapps #bibleapp

This app has a new puzzle every day that takes a few minutes to put together. Once the puzzle is finished it adds an inspirational Bible verse. The app itself is free to download, but there are optional coins to purchase in-app. The coins let you do things like play puzzles from past days, rotate pieces, and pull out just the edges of the puzzle. There’s a timer, and though Evergreen doesn’t take advantage of the feature, you can play with friends and see each other’s top times.

game_icon_zpsxcg9czjr Evergreen says she loves this delightful little app. Her favorite thing about it is that the pieces aren’t automatically rotated the right way so it’s more challenging than other puzzle apps she’s played. The main thing she likes to use her coins on is playing the older puzzles so she can do more than one a day. She says it usually takes her between five and ten minutes to do a puzzle without using any coins to make it easier, but she has solved some of the puzzles in under two minutes. Her only frustration is that there are a number of elements, such as participating in the “Tourney” that require her to connect to Facebook, so since she doesn’t have Facebook she misses out on that.

When I tried it out using the edges feature at the beginning, and then using the magnet once to put two random pieces together for me and the guide to see what the picture I’m trying to make is, it still took me thirteen minutes. I honestly don’t really enjoy puzzles that much, and am not very good at them, though. My seven year old, Boo, said these puzzles were much too hard for her.

Daily Bible Jigsaw app from Planet 316. Freee to play. | Review by Running With Spears #puzzleapp #freeapps #bibleapp

If you enjoy puzzles you should check out Daily Bible Jigsaw. You can also hop over to the Homeschool Review Crew link-up to check out what other reviewers have to say. 🙂

disclaimer

The Key to Extraordinary by Natalie Lloyd | Review by Running With Spears Since my blog is becoming a bit more book-focused now that I’m reviewing books for Zonderkidz, I want to make a point of also sharing some of my all time favorite books with you guys when I get a chance (in addition to the wonderful ones I’ve had a chance to review so far).

I just have to start with The Key To Extraordinary by Natalie Lloyd! I first fell in love with Natalie’s writing when I read A Snicker of Magic to my girls a couple years ago.

As soon as The Key To Extraordinary came out I read it to Evergreen and Boo and it was just as charming and lovely and whimsical as we hoped. We immediately fell in love with the main character, Emma who is totally spunky and sweet and tenacious! The book is part mystery and part magic and 100% heartwarming! It’s all about friendship and family and mystery and dreaming dreams and having courage – and singing and dancing and picking flowers and sipping hot chocolate, too!

I can’t wait for Natalie’s next book, The Problim Children, I just wish it was coming out sooner than Spring 2018!

A few weeks ago, Zonderkidz sent me a free copy of Love Letters from God: Bible Stories for a Girl’s Heart to review. 🙂

Love Letters from God: Bible Stories for a Girl’s Heart --- This is a book every little girl should have in her library. | Review by Running With Spears #zonderkidz #godsgirls

This sweet picture book by Glenys Nellist and illustrated by Rachel Clowes features the stories of fourteen women and girls from the Bible. Each story includes a lift-the-flap envelope with a special “Love Letter from God” offering a heart-warming message that turns the key themes of the story into a personal message for your girl. Intended as a read-aloud to girls ages four and up, the personal messages even include a fill-in-the-blank spot where you can say the name of the girl you’re reading the story to, so it can feel extra-special to her.

Each page also includes a key verse labeled as “God’s Wonderful Words to You.” For example Rahab’s story shares Isaiah 46:4, “I will take good care of you.”

I love the way this book highlights the fact that girls are important to God, and their stories are in the Bible, too. I think it can be easy for girls to always just hear the stories in Sunday School about famous boys from the Bible like David, Joseph, Moses, Abraham, etc. and feel like there’s not really a place for girls in God’s story. This book helps show the importance of unfortunately often overlooked stories like Miriam, Deborah, Hannah, Naaman’s servant girl, and many more, as well as the well-known ones like Eve, Esther, and Mary.

Love Letters from God: Bible Stories for a Girl’s Heart --- This is a book every little girl should have in her library. | Review by Running With Spears #zonderkidz #godsgirls

One of my favorite parts of this book are the titles given to each story. For example Rahab is “The Brave Girl,” Hannah is “The Hopeful Girl,” and the Samaritan woman at the well is “The Thirsty Girl.” Part of what I love about these titles is the wonderful context that’s given. Rahab isn’t “the harlot” and Eve isn’t “the apple eater.” In fact, Eve is “The First Girl,” and her story focuses on how God delighted to make her. Yes, it tells us how the serpent whispered to her and she ate the apple, but then it reiterates God’s love, making sure we know that after everything, God still gave her new, warm clothes. Eve’s story tells us, “And as Eve walked away, she knew she was forever covered in God’s love and forgiveness. God had made her, and she was good.” The love letter on that page reiterates that God made each of us and delights in us, and forgives us, too. 🙂

The only thing I’m sad about with this book is that I didn’t have it when my oldest was younger. That said, even though she’s almost ten now I really want her to hear the messages in this beautiful Bible storybook, so I think I’ll have her sit in with us while I read it to her younger sisters.

I feel like the stories in Love Letters from God: Bible Stories for a Girl’s Heart are so important, and written and illustrated so beautifully, that this is a book every little girl should have in her library. There are honestly very few books that I would say this about, but if you have a young daughter, go buy this book right now and read it to her. You can thank me later. 😉

disclaimer mine

So, about a decade ago when I was pregnant with my first baby someone gave me a Boppy nursing pillow and I thought it was the best thing ever. It definitely did help my support her when I fed her, but it was lacking in a number of ways. I didn’t know there were any other options, so I made it work for my first two girls. Six years later when my third sweetie was born, I saw that there was a deluxe Boppy or something along those lines that was thicker and more supportive, so I got that. It was definitely superior to the first one, but I still wasn’t 100% happy.

Finally, when I was pregnant with my fourth baby, I started researching what all was out there.

Blessed Nest Organic nursing pillow! After trying numerous other nursing pillows over the course of nine years, I finally discovered this pillow that is leagues better than anything else! It's moldable, supportive, stays in place, and completely natural and chemical free! | Review by Running With Spears #newbaby #newbornnecessities #nursingpillow

I found soo many choices it was honestly pretty overwhelming.I wanted something big, but not so monstrous that I wouldn’t be able to use it at my desk. And I wanted it to be firm. I didn’t want the cover material to be too hot, but I did want it to be soft. I also really wanted it to stay in place, but the one I had before had a belt you hooked on the keep it in place and it was honestly pretty annoying.

After looking at a ton of reviews, I decided that The Nesting Pillow from Blessed Nest looked like it would be pretty good, but it was $94 so I kept debating it for about a month, and looking into other options. I finally decided that since I planned to nurse my baby for probably about two years, it was worth the investment, so I bit the bullet and ordered one.

As soon as it arrived, I pulled it out and started using it to support my very pregnant tummy, and it was the best thing ever to help me sleep comfortably (And I’d tried tow different giant maternity pillows). Then my toddler stole it as her hug pillow at night, lol. I figured I was going to want a spare cover anyway in case this one was spit up on and in the wash, however, the covers are $56 and I decided that I would actually just go ahead and get an entire second pillow instead.

I’m so glad I did! I LOVE this nursing pillow so much! My only regret is not getting it sooner!

(As a note, I didn’t receive this free to review or anything. The lovely people at Blessed Nest literally have no idea who I am, I just love this pillow so much that I had to tell you about it.)

The Nesting Pillow is 100% organic cotton* canvas (from a US mill!) and filled with buckwheat hulls. I was a little worried because that means you can’t put it in the wash, but when my baby has spit up a lot on the pillow, I’ve always quickly taken off the cover and the pillow itself only ever had a tiny spot of dampness that had gotten through. You can put it in the dryer for fifteen minutes to keep it sanitized (I add a dryer ball with a couple drops of an essential oil) and after a year of use it still smells perfect and doesn’t show any signs of being dirty.

It’s also a heavier pillow that any others I’ve seen. It weighs about about five and a half pounds. This weight means it stays in place really well. It’s kind of like a bean bag that is the perfect blend of moldable and firm, so it sits on my legs and stays put. And speaking of being moldable, one of the best attributes of this pillow is that you can easily shift the buckwheat hulls so that it’s higher on one side than the other so you can easily nurse your baby with their head a bit elevated (A great feature for babies with reflux).

If I could go back in time one year, the only thing I would change would be to also order The Nest Egg – a small pillow that gives a little extra support under babies’ head, or your arm, or wherever you need a bit more pillow. I just use a little travel size pillow for this purpose, but I know that The Nest Egg would stay in place better and also look nicer.

Over the past year we’ve purchased three of these for people close to us who had babies – we knew this nursing pillow would be such a help for first-time-moms trying to figure out the whole breastfeeding thing, so we just couldn’t resist supplying them with a Nesting Pillow!

I’m sure I’ve left something out, so if you have any questions please feel free to ask, I’d be happy to try to answer them for you!!! 🙂