"One Hand, Two Hands" by Max Lucado (Children's Book review)

"One Hand, Two Hands" by Max Lucado





Synopsis: "Written in rhyming text and illustrated with the charming art of Gaby Hansen, this simple message of God's blessing of hands not only entertains . . . as it teaches what wonderful things our hands can do from scratching, latching, and petting a pup to washing dishes with mommy and putting toys in a box . . . but it also conveys the important message: We can use God's gift of hands to show our love for Him by helping others. The book ends tenderly with a prayer of thanks to God for hands and asks Him to use them again:

One hand, two hands,
Five fingers, ten.
God, thanks, for my hands.
Please, use them again."

My Review:
A very simple cute book for the little ones. Pros are that it has adorable illustrations that my kids loved, and enforces the idea that our hands are for doing good things. Cons are that the book really only mentions God at the end there as quoted in the Amazon writeup and the book is a bit long for the attention spans of the intellectual level that would get the most out of the simple rhyming text. I think that my almost 4 year old will after a few readings begin to grasp that the book is saying we should use our hands to do good and kind things, without further explanation. She might need help connecting the one mention of God using our hands to the reason why we do good things with them, simply because God is so obscure in the book. But then again maybe not... kids pick up on things sometimes that we wouldn't think they would. My 2 year old however will probably not grasp this concept right away even with further explanation. I will have to own this book longer, I think, to be able to see what their little minds do with it. :) And every child is different so perhaps what is not immediately obvious to my tots will be to yours, or vice versa.
Over all a good sweet simple book. I enjoy reading it with my littles. I'd give it 4 out of 5 stars - not 5 simply because I'd like God to be a little more obvious in the text but other than that it's great!

This book was provided to me for review by Thomas Nelson's Booksneeze program. Opionions expressed are my own.

"My Sweet Sunday Moment" Pillsbury Sweet Roll (Review & Giveaway) *ENDED*

I've been given the opportunity to try out Pillsbury Sweet Rolls with my family and share the experience with my readers! MyBlogSpark and Pillsbury generously sent me a coupon for the rolls and a "Sweet Sunday Moment" prize pack. In addition, one lucky reader will win a Pillsbury "Sweet Sunday Moment" prize pack just like the one I got! Keep reading to find out how you can enter to win the prize pack, or a family vacation, or both!

{Pillsbury "My Sweet Sunday Moment" prize pack which includes a Pillsbury Doughboy Giggle Doll, blue silicon spatula, blue silicon pot holder and dishcloths.}

When the box arrived with my "My Sweet Sunday Moment" prize pack it was standing on it's side on my front porch. I went to pick it up and it made a sound- the trademark pillsbury Doughboy giggle. It took me a minute to figure out why my box was making that sound but then I smiled big when I realized what it was! Chicklet was so excited that when I went to snap the following picture:

a certain little girl reached in and started to run off with that doughboy... ;) I had to snap fast and let her have it because she was pretty much bouncing off the walls with excitement. I was excited about the rest of the goodies and checked them all out while she hugged that doughboy 50 times. We decided we'd be having us some yummy cinnamon rolls sometime in the next week! Seemed like a great family activity to help pass the last dragging days of this pregnancy.

Okay so it wasn't a Sunday when my little helpers and I decided to make our Pillsbury cinnamon rolls, but it sure was sweet! :) We all had to wear our aprons because of course, it's more fun to cook when you're wearing an apron, right? ;) And over our pajamas to boot. Because baking cinnamon rolls in your jammies is more fun. Hey and it was getting close to bedtime so we were just chilling around in our jammies anyway.

Yeah my daughter's cornrows look slept in. Because they are. So there. And my kitchen has baby-related boxes all over it. And my kitchen table is sewing central. Now that you've seen my junk, let's pretend it away and concentrate on the yummy cinnamon rolls and cute kids!

Getting ready to start! Can't make cinnamon rolls without our doughboy, right? I never use canned biscuit type things so I had no idea how to open the can and hubby kindly informed me how. Lol!

Cute little hams aren't they? :D

Chop chop! He's got a butter knife and is prepared to use it.

Thinking super sugary sweet daydream thoughts?

Arranging the sweetness.

The kids were excited. Neither had ever had a cinnamon roll before!

Helping Mommy put the cinnamon rolls in the oven! Careful, it's hot! :)

Our assistant, Mr. Doughboy, with some of the prize pack goodies.

Chicklet trying out one of the dishcloths from the prize pack. She's a little zoned out- it's actually bedtime when I took this so staying up late and baking cinnamon rolls was a double special treat.

Buggie's examining the picture of the finished product and carrying on a monologue about it, which I understood about 10% of. Sometimes when he gets to going on excitedly it's a bit hard to translate... Hehe...

Taking the tasty treat out of the oven! That funky potholder thing from the prize pack actually worked. I was surprised, wondering how something like that would work to protect me from getting burned, but surprisingly it did.

Frosting?! They have FROSTING?! Can I PLEEEEEEEASE taste some FROSTING?! PLEASE!!!!

Yep, it's edible. Can I lick the frosting container out too?

Dishing out the deliciousness...

Hmmm let's see if this is as tasty as it looks...

Thinking...

I asked but they just kept chewing. Hello? Guys? Is it yummy?

Does the rapidly vanishing bites of sweet roll in these pics answer whether or not they were delicious?

Hubby and I had some too and we decided that they were really yummy! We contemplated eating the leftovers after the kids went to bed but decided to behave ourselves and save them to share after lunch the following day instead. ;)

The cinnamon rolls and prize pack for this review, and it's accompanying "My Sweet Sunday Moment" prize pack giveaway, were provided by








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**Now it's your turn to join in the fun!! There are 2 things to enter so read on to find out the what, where, and how:

-Go HERE to enter Pillsbury's "My Sweet Sunday Moment" contest for a chance to win a family vacation package! In addition, when you enter the "My Sweety Sunday Moment" contest, you will have a chance to print out a coupon for Pillsbury Cinnamon Rolls!
{In an effort to recapture Sunday mornings as the ideal occasion to reconnect with family and loved ones, Pillsbury Cinnamon Rolls is teaming up with Melissa Joan Hart, star of the new ABC Family sitcom "Melissa & Joey," for the My Sweet Sunday Moment contest, where you and your family have a chance to win a seven-day "week of Sundays" vacation to California, including a visit to area theme parks and Melissa Joan Hart´s sweet shop, SweetHarts! Enter today by visiting Pillsbury.com/SweetSunday and telling Pillsbury Cinnamon Rolls why your family loves Sunday and why you want more of them for a chance to win.} HURRY and enter before September 2nd!!

-"My Sweet Sunday Moment" prize pack GIVEAWAY rules:
To enter to win a "My Sweet Sunday Moment" prize pack of your own, you must first
   ♥ Leave a reply comment on this post telling me what Sunday traditions your family has and what Sunday traditions you'd like to add. LEAVE YOUR EMAIL ADDY SO I CAN CONTACT YOU IF YOU WIN!
If you don't leave an email address and your number comes up you forfeit the prize and a new winner will be drawn, courtesy of Random.org. If you do not complete the mandatory primary entry this also disqualifies you. If you accidentally make a duplicate entry, it looks more honorable if you delete the duplicate(s) so I don't think you were trying to cheat. After completing the mandatory primary entry as stated above, you qualify for bonus entries. You may do as many as you like from the list below- each thing only one time unless specified. Please leave your email address in at least all daily tweets and in your primary entry so I can find it easily should you win. Please leave one comment per entry or they will not all get counted.
Bonus entries:
  ♥ Enter Pillsbury's "My Sweet Sunday Moment" contest (Enter before September 2nd!) and then come back here and tell me why your family loves Sunday's and wants more of them. Worth 2 entries- leave 2 comments.
  ♥ Leave a comment telling me your favorite Pillsbury product. Worth 1 entry.
  ♥ Leave a comment telling me about a good Sunday memory you have. (Something more specific than the primary entry of what your traditions are.) Worth 1 entry.
  ♥ Blog about this giveaway with a link back to it. Comment here with the link so I can check. To count you must say in your blog post why you would like to win this giveaway. Worth 3 entries- leave 3 comments.
  ♥ Follow @PillsburyTreats on Twitter and then comment back here telling me. Worth 1 entry.
  ♥ Tweet the following up to once per day:
       Enter @MamaMirage reviews to win a Pillsbury "My Sweet Sunday Moment" prize pack! Ends 9/8 http://tinyurl.com/miragereviews #myblogspark
Worth one entry per tweet/day. Don't forget to leave the tweet link here and don't forget your email addy in each tweet post!

Giveaway ends September 8th, 2010. Winner will be selected at random. By entering this or any of my giveaways, you acknowlege that you have read and agree with my Giveaway Rules and Liability Policy /Disclosure(as updated 6/12/10) .