Nourished {Book Review}

As a part of the Flyby Promotions review team, I get chances to get early peeks at a lot of cool products. Sometimes I know I won’t have time to take something on. That was true this time. However, when I saw the title Nourished: A Search for Health, Happiness and a Full Night’s Sleep come  up, I jumped at the chance to read it. I knew I had to MAKE the time to read this book.
This book was written by a mother-daughter team, Becky Johnson and Rachel Randolph. It’s their second book, but I never  read their first (We Laugh, We Cry, We Cook: A Mom and Daughter Dish about the Food That Delights Them  and the Love That Binds Them), though I’d like to soon. The pair is amazing together. They seem to be as different as  night and day – Mom Becky is messy and take it nice and easy while Daughter Rachel is methodical and take charge.

I love how they start each chapter with a quote or a verse. I plan to do this in my books, if I ever finish writing one, haha!  This quote really summarized the whole book for me:

 Don’t forget to pause and nourish yourself a bit along the way. When you’re born to help others sometimes you forget  to help yourself. Paula Heller Garland

We moms are especially brutal on ourselves…We give and give and rarely take time for ourselves. Nourished is all about  finding that balance – not being selfish, but caring about ourselves so that we can be healthy enough to care for those we love!

This book is practical, lighthearted, fun and enjoyable all rolled into one. I loved reading the book – it was almost like reading emails back and forth between mother and daughter. I laughed out loud in places (even in a public area), like

From Rachel: I like my surfaces mostly clean of clutter. Mom never met an empty surface she didn’t think looked “sad and alone” and in need of some company.

From Becky: …I chased the roving mayo around the floor. The irony did not escape me. This was my life. I reach for one thing and end up bruised and confused, chasing something totally unrelated to my original goal–all because my life and my home, like my fridge, are overstuffed….We can’t explain why. It is a mystery, like black holes and Einstein’s hair.

And I sighed in understanding in others. The second section, Nourished Spaces and Routines, was really timely for me, since I’m working on minimalism/decluttering (and have been for a few years…ahem…but I’m serious. Really).

Part three, Nourished Bodies, Nourished Selves, is one that I need to focus on for the exercise aspect. I am pretty good about what I eat, but am out of the exercising habit (again. I need to get back on it. Pattern? What pattern?), but the Joyful Eating about food in general in the home was great – I want to help my guys have a good relationship with food! I seriously plan to PRINT Joyful Eating for myself!

Part four, Nourished Relationships, was inspiring, because how often do I think that I wish I spent more time with friends…I need to prioritize and make that time! Love the parenting/grandparenting angle, and of course I know that my marriage needs to be a much higher priority.

The best is last, in my opinion, because our relationship with God is truly the most important! The spiritual side cannot be neglected and leave us with nourished selves. Love all of the advice here. I thought it was funny how Becky does a “monkey act” – she’s getting sensory input her brain needs! Love it. 🙂

Of the two of them, I am much more like Becky, but I have some perfectionist traits like Rachel. Since I’m a discouraged perfectionist, I think I’m in the middle of the two, so it was neat how I could relate to both of them in so many things!

I especially loved Becky’s friend’s $1500 secret to scheduling. It’s SO SIMPLE but so amazing!! (Sorry, no peeks! You’ll have to buy it — or win it — to get that gem!)

Negative takeaways:
I don’t think anyone who drinks alcohol is wrong exactly, but I was a bit surprised at how many mentions of wine there were, being a Christian book.
I’m not going to judge here either, but I do believe that putting a sweet little guy during a young, still bonding age (one year old), into a child care program (Mom’s day out, but still) for three days a week was a bit excessive, in my mind. I’m not going to say I don’t love a bit of time alone, but that age is still a bonding time, and I guess I’m too selfish – I wouldn’t want to share my baby with someone else for that amount of time. I think an hour or two a week would suffice.
I would have preferred more scripture. I am a scripture girl – I love reading the Word and seeing how it relates to my life as a mama.

Still, I highly recommend this book to any mother who feels she doesn’t have it all together. And honestly, isn’t that all of us? Even the most perfect-looking mother has a hidden failure she deals with.

I really think the book boils down to balance, and I love it. I need balance in my life. I need my Rider and my Elephant to agree to work together. I need to take care of the messes I can handle right now, and let God take care of what I can’t. Which is, honestly, a lot. But I need to be okay with that.

And I’m pretty sure, if you’re reading this, so do you.

Flyby Promotions has given me an extra copy of this book for one of my blessed readers!

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Disclosure (in accordance with the FTC’s 16 CFR, Part 255: Guides concerning the use of endorsements and testimonials in advertising): Many thanks to Propeller Consulting, LLC for providing this prize for the giveaway. Opinions are 100% my own and not influenced by monetary compensation. I did receive a copy of this book in exchange for this review and post.

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God bless,
Jenn