Time Out Classics Blog Tour

Welcome to the blog tour for a few Time Out Classics!

This tour is unique in that it covers 3 small books that are wonderful and inspiring words that can be read quickly. This allows for quick encouragement and teaching, and it also gives us a chance to read them over again and again. Trust me, you'll want to check these books out!

These books are written by various presenters from the Time Out for Women events series. For over 10 years this series has been inviting women to step away from their daily routine and make space for themselves and their spiritual lives. For more information, visit TOFW.com.

Habits of Happiness – Wendy Ulrich

When happiness doesn’t enter our days automatically, and when life isn’t going as planned, sometimes we are quick to equivocally gauge our overall happiness in life. In this book, filled with scientific research, practical advice and engaging anecdotes, Dr. Wendy Ulrich invites readers to look at happiness in a new way.

Making It Through the Middle – Emily Freeman

Life is full of challenges, and it’s easy to feel the end of our trials will never arrive. But is it the end we should be spending so much of our time focusing on? In this book, Emily Freeman shares six lessons, and various personal experiences to assist readers in staying strong when they are right in the middle of a hard time.

Everything I Need to Know I Learned at Home – John Bytheway

Sometimes the smallest phrases we use in everyday language can be eternal principles that get us through our lives. In this book, John Bytheway makes an inspiring and insightful connection between everyday phrases spoken at home and principles of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Habits of Happiness Review:

All of us want to be happy. This often proves harder than we think it should be though. In this book, Wendy Ulrich works to show us some simple ways to work on and maintain our happiness. By asking ourselves some simple question, we can use these steps to make a habit of being happy. As we give ourselves better perspective on things, we can work on thriving rather than just surviving.

This book may be small, but it's loaded with some amazing things. This is one of those books I'll probably need to read repeatedly just so I can truly absorb it all. The ideas are fairly simple, and that is the point. In order to make our lives happier, we must really work to simplify things. By working on very small steps, we can gradually make huge changes in our lives. That's not to say we'll he happy forever and nothing will bother us, but it does help us to keep a better perspective on things. If you want to be able to truly thrive in life, this short book is one to really read and work through.

Book provided for review.

Making It Through the Middle Review:

We all will have times of struggle and trial. However, so many times we hear stories of adversity from other, but they always focus on the end result. What about when we are in the middle of it all? This book gives helpful ideas for perspective and guidance while in the middle of our trials, so that we can focus on what we are dealing with now rather than what we hope is to come.

I loved this book! It really focused on some beautiful things. I agree that too many times we focus on our end rewards, when the fact is we aren't guaranteed things will work out the way we want. This book does a fantastic job of helping us to appreciate all the little parts of our struggle as we are in the middle of our trials. Some helpful hints like focusing on the small yet tender mercies we receive constantly will help us to center ourselves amid the chaos that can surround us. Another one of the things I loved was trying to take time to appreciate how far we have come. Even though things may still be bad, taking time to appreciate how things have improved will help to renew and strengthen us for the journey ahead. This is a great book to help you focus on the journey rather than the destination!

Book provided for review.

Everything I Need to Know I Learned at Home Review:

Home is a learning laboratory, but sometimes many of us feel like our words may not quite be as meaningful as we think. Well guess again. John Bytheway takes the time to go throw some very common lessons he learned in his home growing up and shows how those apply to a much broader context. From the simple to the profound, this book is truly proof that many great things are learned in the home.

I thought this was a great book. I often feel like I do repeat the same things to my son, wondering if anything is getting through to him. This book gives me great encouragement to keep going in the hopes that one day my son will be able to apply all the things I try to teach on a broader level in his life. It also allowed me the chance to reflect upon all the things I have been taught by my own parents, and I can see how these things can be used to help me in my life. I particularly enjoyed the breakdowns of those simple life lessons of cleaning your room and changing your attitude. I'm sure these are all things we heard many times growing up (and may repeat many times to our own children), but I never quite saw them in this way until now. For a good dose of fun, encouragement, and inspiration, this is the book for you.

Book provided for review.