Church of the Small Things

Happy Tuesday Friends!! It's a HUGE week around here as we're gearing up to celebrate our little ladies turning ONE! Let's not linger on that very long. I've been known to shed a tear, or two...or a few thousand in the last week.

But for today, it's a big day here on the blog! My friend Johannah started a Meet and Greet blog series a few weeks ago featuring a fun Q&A with other bloggers. Today, I'm so honored to be her guest! Be sure to head over to her blog and find out a little more about me and my little corner of the interwebs! 

I am SO excited to be today's host on the Blog Tour promoting Melanie Shankle's newest book, "Church of the Small Things"!!

So here's my fan girl moment and then we'll move on. I stumbled upon Melanie's blog some years ago. My friend Emilee gifted me with Melanie's first book, "Sparkly Green Earrings" (accompanied with a pair of green earrings because #duh) a few months after the book released. I LOVE everything about Melanie's writing style, but I'm fairly confident my favorite part is how relateable she is. 

More times than not, I'm finding myself slow clapping and nodding my way along in agreement. Preach, sister, preach! 

From there, we move on to her following books, "The Antelope in the Living Room" and "Nobody's Cuter Than You". Neither disappointed. At some point, I started listening to her and Sophie's podcast, the Big Boo Cast. Let me just say, these are by far the highlights of my afternoon drive! I'm sure people in neighboring cars in stopped traffic think I'm a lunatic for laughing hilariously and wiping tears in my car alone. 

All it takes is for one of them to "get tickled" or any mention of Melanie's beloved internet provider AT&T and I'm a goner. 

A few months ago, I applied to be a member of Melanie's Launch Team for her new book. I was absolutely STUNNED when I learned I was selected! This is the photo I posted in the private FB group the weekend, I received the book in the mail and shipped the girls off to Camp Lolli & Pop for the night so Mama could snuggle in and read in total quietness. It was heaven!

Ugh my heart. They've grown so much since this!! 

"Church of the Small Things" is a collection of lifelong stories that Melanie shares and all point to the small things and moments in life that add up to be a beautiful and blessed life. Moments that we so quickly overlook. Moments that hindsight teaches us were impacting us when we didn't realize it. 

Melanie shares so many stories in this book that not only had me laughing out loud by myself in a our quiet bedroom late at night, but also had me crying. She shares such sweet stories of her grandparents, and my heart just broke. Grandparents are such special people; she pulled at my heartstrings talking about her Me-Ma and Pa-Pa. I treasure the memories made and days spent at my grandparents house when my cousins and I were young. I want to share this little excerpt from the book: 

"There is something about grandparents that change and shape a child's life. Your parents have to work hard and discipline you to make sure you turn out to be an upstanding member of society, while your grandparents can relax, and let you stay up late and have that second or eighth ice cream cone. Once you're good and spoiled rotten, they pack you off back home to let your parents deal with you. This is called "getting revenge." I can see so much of my childhood spent with them in mind and in my heart, and it makes me a little sad to know that it's all gone, all part of a bygone era, a piece of time that shaped me and taught me how to live and love well." 

I absolutely loved her chapter, "So You Think You Can Parent". As a mom now, not a day passes when I don't think about what I really want to teach our girls. Kindness, compassion, love, self value...

This is the good stuff friends! 

 "We are all climbing our own Mount Everest and have no idea if our oxygen will last or if an avalanche will come, but God does. We can never underestimate the grace and the strength he will give us for whatever he is calling us to do and whatever challenges we'll face. What he has planned for us is higher and deeper than anything we could ever hope to achieve on our own." 

And then there is her humor which I can appreciate and ENJOY! She talks about various exercise trends, one of them being the Jillian Michaels' DVD's circa mid 2000's. I was rolling because this was me and Emilee in the living room of my apartment. Busting a move with Jillian and sending text messages of regret the following day. The same goes for Zumba, miles of walking around our local university, and class upon class at our parks and rec center. You'd think we'd learn our lesson, but no. We must enjoy the aches and pains we bring upon ourselves. 

"So I began a regimen of walking / jogging / sprinting through my neighborhood every morning, and when it was all said and done, I'm pretty sure my neighbors thought Pheobe Buffay had moved in. Because in my mind, I think I look as graceful as Beyonce dancing when I run, but in reality it is much closer to a hippo stampede. And honestly, that's kind of an insult to the hippos." 

I feel confident I could go on. And on. But I'm sure there's probably a limit on the amount of text I agreed to not share beyond when I signed up for this. So here's everything you NEED to know: 

Release Date: Tuesday, October 3...ONE WEEK FROM TODAY!

Pre-order from Amazon or Barnes and Noble.

**PRE-ORDER from Melanie's site and you'll receive fun bonus material!!**

And if NONE of this is convincing, here's the book's trailer. Pre-order your copy and get ready for some fabulous reading! 

And an FYI, for all fellow launch team members, and those of you who will get to read the book next week, I'm getting bangs today. I know I shouldn't, but Pinterest calls me to! 

Happy Tuesday friends! 

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