Wednesday, May 8, 2013

BLOG TOUR/GIVEAWAY: Family Ever After by Michelle Packard

 

Family Ever After: Simple Ways to Achieve Perfect Happiness 
in an Imperfect Family
by Michelle Packard
Familius, 2013
ISBN 9781938301384
Inspirational Nonfiction
e-book provided by publisher in return for honest review
All opinions expressed are solely my own.

ABOUT THE BOOK

Women frustrated with their marriage and their family will find the help they need to achieve greater happiness and success in their family in the new book, Family Ever After: Simple Ways to Achieve Extraordinary Happiness with Your Ordinary Family by stay-at-home mom, blogger, and ordinary family leader Michelle H. Packard. Family Ever After uses the fairytale concept that once you find your prince charming life is happily ever after. Michelle H. Packard knows this concept, while romantic, is not realistic, and she provides a practical, poignant, funny, and moving exploration of the simple ways you can help find greater happiness and satisfaction in your marriage and family. Packard says, “While the idea of happy ever after is distorted, you can, in fact, achieve a Family Ever After.” Family Ever After brings time-tested and well-researched principles to family life to help you learn specific ways to improve your marriage and your family, whether that family is ordinary or extraordinary. Using real-world examples of best practices and helping woman readjust their media-driven perception of what happily ever after means, Family Ever After gives readers a pragmatic, helpful, and entertaining exploration of:
  • How happiness in marriage and family life requires a more educated, real-world perspective
  • How proper prioritization and defining what’s important in marriage and family is key to success;
  • Why conflict is part of an ordinary family experience and how to peacefully resolve it;
  • How to cultivate a sense of humor;
  • How to develop a thoughtful and sincere habit of complimenting each member of your family;
  • How to improve family relationships with extended family members; and
  • Learning how to love a family member in the way they understand and accept that love
More than another how-to-have-a-perfect-family book, Family Ever After helps you gain the understanding and the practical skills of what makes ordinary families successful. Family Ever After is an essential and beautiful resource for all women who want to put more happiness in theirs and their family’s life.


Praise "Family Ever After is a must-read for every happily married Cinderella who wonders why she’s still holding the broom." --Rachelle J. Christensen, award-winning author of Wrong Number and Caller ID "Michelle is open enough to have given readers an intimate look into her life and those close to her, allowing us to learn from both painful and sweet experiences. Her self-reflective style and meaningful insights, if applied, would clearly make a profound impact in the lives of readers." --Shawn Edgington Ph.D.    

michelleABOUT THE AUTHOR

Michelle Packard is a mother to her four very human and totally fabulous kids. Her oldest, Ella is always in charge and leads the pack with creativity and curiosity, Daniel follows with loyalty and loves tenderly, Julia is a doll and always buzzing over something beautiful, and Jackson could hunt down the last sharpie on earth to create art on your bathroom wall. She has been married ten years and is quite taken with her guy. Date night is her favorite and she dreams of weekend getaways with her man. She loves creating beauty through floral design, but apparently has no gift with living flowers (They end of upside down and pressed in books). She finds parties alluring. They beckon her to invite people over, spend way too much time preparing food for murder mystery dinners, and totally enjoy friends and family. Michelle holds a bachelors degree in Home and Family Science from Brigham Young University. She has spent a great deal of time working with children and young adults and finds her greatest joy is happy families.


TENS LIST by Michelle Packard
These are my 'go to books.'
1. Good Night Mr. Tom by Michelle Magorian
2. The Rent Collector by Camron Wright 
3. Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China by Jung Chang
4. Leadership and Self Deception by The Arbinger Institute
5. Enchanted, Inc, Once Upon Stilettos, and Damsel Under Stress (this is a series) by Shannon Swendson
6. The Art of Baking with Natural Yeast by Caleb Warnock and Melissa Richardson
7. A Bad Case of Stripes by David Shannon
8. The Pout-Pout Fish By Deborah Diesen Illustrated by Dan Hanna
9. The Candy Witch by Steven Kroll Illustrated by Marylin Hafner
10. Serendipity Books by Stephen Cosgrove

REVIEW

A fantastic, thoughtful look at the importance of putting forth the effort necessary to create our own happily ever after.  Often we get so busy with all that life offers us that we forget to put our energies where they most belong.  Happy ever after requires work on our part and the part of each and every family member. Packard shares experiences and thoughts that she has learned over the years. Ideas about putting first things first, people being more important than things, and helping family members pursue their own dreams are put forth for consideration.  But I think the thing that struck me the hardest was the reminder that if we want a true happily ever after, I need to put family first, before hobbies, before work, before everything else. For me that is a very important reminder and one I'm grateful to the author for sharing. Highly recommended for any and all types of families.

TOUR GIVEAWAY

$25 Amazon Gift Card or Paypal Cash
Ends 5/19/13

a Rafflecopter giveaway  

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