Longing for simplicity? Overwhelmed by demands? Tune in to “Amish Wisdom” to explore ways to slow down, de-clutter, find peace, and live a simpler life. You don’t have to “go Amish” to incorporate principles of the Plain People into your life. There's much to learn from them: simple living, everyday joys, and greater value on family, community and church.

Share an hour with Suzanne and give yourself over to a world that prizes old ways, where time slows down. Where people are more important than things, where nature is revered, where holding on is more important than letting go, where humility and peace of mind are treasured. Give yourself to an Amish moment.

Join Suzanne Woods Fisher, bestselling author of Amish fiction and non-fiction, as she interviews fascinating guests who can teach us to simplify our busy lives. So pour a cup of coffee, settle into your favorite chair, and tune into "Amish Wisdom." Thursdays, 4-5pm CST.

About the host:

Suzanne's grandfather was raised Plain. W. D. Benedict was born into a family of eleven children, started his career as a teacher in a one-room schoolhouse in Franklin County, Pennsylvania, and ended it as one of the first publishers of Christianity Today magazine. A wife and a mother--and now a grandmother!--Suzanne is the author of the bestselling Amish Peace: Simple Wisdom for a Complicated World and the “Lancaster County Secrets” series. Suzanne is contracted for books--both fiction and non-fiction--into 2016.

Have a question for Suzanne or one of her guests? Call the show at 1-877-864-4869.

To learn more please visit Suzanne's web site and for the latest news, her blog!

Missed a show? Listen here or on iTunes here!

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I'm thrilled to have Lorilee back on the show. She first visited Amish Wisdom a year ago when Erik Wesner was filling in as my guest host. Lorilee will be chatting a bit about how unprepared she was to write this book and how it changed her life ... for the better! She'll be sharing some tips on being frugal and saving time and money. We'll also hear about Lorilee's new book project that will release this summer. Don't miss the show - Thursday at 4:00 PM Central.

Be sure to leave a comment here for a chance to win a copy of Money Secrets of the Amish. Winner will be announced next week! Be sure to leave your email address.

More about Lorilee: Lorilee Craker used to be quite dense on the subject of money, so much so she laughed out loudwhen someone suggested she write a book about Amish money secrets. But since she hopped in that metaphorical buggy, in the summer fo 2009, she’s been learning how to share, save, and make shoefly pie (it’s cheap: six ingredients!). When she’s not scoping out thrift stores and garage sales, Lorilee is usually hanging out in her big old house with her husband, three kids, and four pets (ie: three too many!). She’s the author of 11 books, including the New York Times bestseller “Through the Storm” with Lynne Spears, and “A is for Atticus: Baby Names from Great Books,” featured in People magazine. For the last fifteen years, she’s also moonlighted as an entertainment and features writer for The Grand Rapids Press in glamorous Grand Rapids, MI. 

For more about Lorilee visit www.lorileecraker.com.

More about Money Secrets of the Amish: Take one thoroughly modern gal with a recessionary income problem, mixwith the practices of a culture that has proved to be recession-proof, and what have you got?

A financial planner in a straw hat.

When writer Lorilee Craker learned that the Amish are not just surviving but thriving in the economic downturn, she decided to find out why.  What she found was about a dozen tried and true financial habits the Amish have employed for generations that will make your cash last longer and help you build wealth.  Craker provides tips to...

• use it up, wear it out, make do, or do without
• rethink your gift giving
• repurpose, recycle, and reuse
• eat like royalty for a peasant's pittance

Endorsements:

Packed with practical, simple, and smart money saving ideas and teeming with great insight into the sensible Amish ways, Money Secrets of the Amish will entertain you with stories and retrain your brain to be the savvy money saver you always dreamed you could be.  --Beth Wiseman, best-selling author of Plain Promise and Seek Me With All Your Heart

This book is like an Amish basement shelf loaded with Mason jars full of Plain money wisdom.  Self-confessed “Fancy” gal Lorilee Craker rolls up her sleeves and cracks them open one-by-one, figuring out how to fit Amish principles to a non-Amish life.  She succeeds, and so can you—read Money Secrets of the Amish and add weight to your wallet.  --Erik Wesner, amishamerica.com; author of Success Made Simple: An Inside Look at Why Amish Businesses Thrive

Lorilee inspires and impacts your everyday life with this marvelous little read. From buttons to bakery you suddenly realize this conversation is not about just pinching a few pennies but about transforming how we view our everyday lives. I applaud Lorilee for asking the hard questions and pressing in to find honest answers. Forget the mall, kick back and soak up the delicious wisdom of a life well lived. Thank you Lorilee for shaping my everyday!  --Tracey Bianchi, author of Green Mama

Don't miss this week's show. I'll be speaking with cookbook author Judy Walter. Her cookbook, At Home in the Kitchen: Mennonite, Hutterite and Amish-Style Cooking, reflects Judy’s enjoyment of cooking and preparing wholesome meals. Each recipe, throughout the wide range of food categories, comes with clear step‑by-step instructions using simple ingredients. Be sure to tune in on Thursday, January 26th at 4PM Central.

Judy has generously offered to give away three copies of her cookbook. Just leave a comment here to be entered. Winners will be notified next week via email!

More about Judy: The prairies and an amazing grain farm in southern Alberta were home to Judy Walter.  In thepattern of Hutterite communities, a central kitchen was the scene of old-fashioned good eating, as delicious and abundant as anyone could wish for. Three times a day the big bell pealed out the sound that signalled the call to the kitchen where the food was waiting.

Years of observing and helping with food preparations gave Judy the opportunity to explore her own bent in the kitchen.  She had the experience of being involved in cooking large amounts of food as well as paring down to making meals in her own kitchen.  Many guests passed through her doors, leaving with memories of delicious meals or snacks shared around her kitchen nook. 

Check out Judy's blog for recipes along with tips and tricks from At Home in the Kitchen. 

More about At Home in the Kitchen: At Home in the Kitchen is a 7"x10" spiral bound book with full-color laminated covers.  There are 8 color pages illustrating a sampling of the recipes as well as celebrating the beauty of Alberta.  Along with colorful photos, you will find heart warming anecdotes and personal experiences that enliven the pages of this beautiful cookbook.  With over 300 recipes its sure to be a favorite.

I'm excited to chat with this week's guests. We've all heard (and probably experienced) the results of being unorganized and too busy (it's usually the "being too busy" that leads to my being unorganized!). Our first guest this week, Kathryn Bechen, author of Small Space Organizing, will be sharing ideas and tips for being organized and talking about why that even matters! Then during the second half of the show we'll hear from Cindi Ferrini. Her recent book, Balancing the Active Life, offers some advice on avoiding the pitfalls of our hurry, hurry culture. Stress, fatigue, disconnected families, ruined relationships and so much more. She'll be sharing tips on how to balance all that God's called us to. Be sure to tune in on Thursday at 4PM Central!

Both ladies are giving away a copy of their books. Leave a comment below for a chance to win one. Winner's will be notified next week via email.

More about Kathryn: Kathryn Bechen is an award-winning lifestyle writer specializing in home decorating andorganizing, how-to, weddings, and travel. She is the author of several lifestyle e-books, and her feature articles have been published in national and regional magazines such as Cottage Style, Small Room Decorating, Country Almanac, and San Diego Style Weddings. Kathryn's new home-related book, published by Baker Publishing Group, is scheduled to release to bookstores everywhere, and online book outlets, in early 2012. Kathryn lives in sunny San Diego, CA, USA, with her husband and business partner of many years, Steve Bechen. For more information please visit her blog and website at www.KathrynBechenINK.com.

 

More about Cindi: Cindi enjoys speaking on topics that will encourage men and women to make a difference in their sphere of influence by being all they can be for the Lord, their families, and themselves. Joe and Cindi are on the speaking team for Family Life Ministries, a marriage-focused ministry founded by Dr. Bill Bright of Campus Crusade for Christ.

Joe (a dentist) and Cindi have enjoyed ministry together as they direct the City Focus Ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ in the Northeast Ohio area as associate staff since 1989. They helped to bring the Billy Graham Crusade to Cleveland in 1994 and served as trained counselors, supervisors and leaders. They were also responsible for the direction of distributing over 32,000 pieces of material to inquirers that came forward throughout the crusade. The Billy Graham Association asked them to establish follow-up in the NE Ohio area because of the discipleship ministry they already had in place. They have also served as City Ministry Directors of the FamilyLife conferences in Cleveland (NE Ohio) from 1990-2001 with expansion to Akron in 2000 and an Urban Familylife Conference in Youngstown, OH, in October of 2001! Joe and Cindi now speak nationally for the Familylife Marriage Conferences. For more info, please visit  http://www.cindiferrini.com

More about Balancing the Active Life: If you struggle to get organized, Cindi's your new friend who understands...

[She] will enable you to develop a more balanced life. -Susan Alexander Yates, speaker and author
...concrete ways to move ahead toward a balanced life. -Joy Downs, speaker and co-author

Balancing a pyramid of seven people on a tightrope cable only 5/8-inch thick, the Great Wallendas showed the world their astonishing skills. They performed their balancing act 35-100 feet high over dens of lions! How many times did they nearly lose their balance?

Though you might not be surrounded by lions, who is to say that your life isn't just as stressful with your own set of acrobatic and balancing acts?

'How we spend our time is the life we live,' says Cindi Ferrini of Creative Management Fundamentals.

Join author and balancer Cindi Ferrini as she presents her 13-week interactive Bible study that addresses the question: 'Does being a Christian mean we automatically have a balanced life?'

Everyone gets carried away with work, family, ministry, and life opportunities available to us. And sometimes we neglect the areas that God is calling us to and that are best for us. Through this study, you'll learn to balance your priorities, set and achieve goals, and discipline and organize yourself in a variety of areas.

Just as the Wallendas learned the excitement of being in balance and walking the tight rope, you too can take the challenge of learning what it takes to Balance the Active Life!

This week on Amish Wisdom we've got two guests who will help you start 2012 right. The first half hour we'll hear from Deborah Pegues about taming your fears. Whether it’s failing finances, rocky relationships, or the angst of aging, the spirit of fear is paralyzing people from living out the lives God intended them to fulfill. What can be done? Are we destined to be slaves to our fears? Deborah will help answer those questions and more. Then during the second half hour we'll hear from Saundra Dalton-Smith. Saundra is  a practicing physician who shows women how to break free from fear, insecurity, and other lies they tell themselves and into a life of health and balance in her new book, Set Free to Live Free. She'll be sharing her tips for freeing ourselves from some of the mental ties we bind ourselves with: perfection, envy, image, balance, control, emotions, and limits.  

Both Deborah and Saundra have copies of their book to giveaway - leave a comment below (with your email address) for a chance to win one. Two winners (one for each book) will be selected next week and notified next week via email. 

More about Deborah: Deborah Smith Pegues is a dynamic, high-energy motivational speaker, CPA, and certifiedbehavior specialist who delivers sage advice on gaining relational, financial, and emotional freedom. Her books include 30 Days to Taming Your Tongue, 30 Days to Taming Your Finances, 30 Days to Taming Your Stress, Confronting Without Offending, and more. Her advice has appeared in several national magazines. Pegues has also made radio and television appearances on shows produced by FamilyNet, Salem Radio Network, Moody Broadcasting Network, and more.

For more about Deborah and her other books, visit http://www.confrontingissues.com.

More about 30 Days to Taming Your Fears: Deborah Smith Pegues, behavioral specialist and bestselling author of 30 days to Taming Your Tongue (more than 500,000 copies sold), sheds light on rational and irrational fears and offers readers a path of hope and assurance.

With her trademark clarity and practical wisdom, Deborah addresses spiritual, relational, physical safety, financial, and emotional fears with godly principles and straightforward helps. Each step of the way, she gives readers power over fear by helping them understand:

• the foundation of  their fears
• God’s  perspective on their specific anxiety, fear, or phobia
• how to respond to fear triggers with information, awareness, and confidence
• ways to embrace healthy fears and to resist unhealthy ones
• how  neutralizing their fears  maximizes their life

This will be an invaluable resource for anyone walking the minefield of constant apprehensions who is ready to exchange fear for the peace which passes all understanding. 

More about Saundra: Saundra Dalton-Smith is a physician, teacher, wife, and mother who is passionate about helping women overcome the mental barriers that prevent them from living free in Christ. She combines the knowledge and compassion of her medical training with biblical principles to offer those bound by insecurity, anxiety, fear, and doubt a prescription for living free. To learn more about Saundra visit www.setfreetolivefreebook.com. Read more at http://www.drdaltonsmith.com/about.aspx. 

More about Set Free to Live Free: A Physician Shows How Our Physical Health Is Impacted By Spiritual and MentalChoices

Discover the seven lies women believe about themselves and how they can overcome them 

Author Saundra Dalton-Smith, a practicing physician, shows women how to break free from fear, insecurity, and other lies they tell themselves into a life of health and balance in Set Free to Live Free (ISBN: 978-0-8007-1993-7, May 2011, $12.99). Smith shares with readers how one patient reshaped her practice and approach to medicine. One day, a patient entered her office, and as Smith listened, she recognized she would need to work closely with this patient if she was to get better. She could not simply offer the latest medications, but would instead need to walk with the patient and help her become free from the lies that had impacted her physical health. Readers will journey with this patient and others as Smith shares how their triumphs became her motivation to see others free. 

Imagine life with unlimited possibility, where fear, misconceptions, and insecurities don't have the power to rob us of our potential or our dreams. Many women have trouble seeing this vision, because they are bound by mental ties that keep them from living free. In Set Free to Live Free, Smith will show women how to break free from seven mental ties that hold them back: perfection, envy, image, balance, control, emotions, and limits. She encourages women to embrace spontaneity, be transparent, nurture their bodies, and cultivate a balanced life through compassionate and inspirational writing. 

A study guide is provided at the end of the book outlining each chapter with discussion questions.

Start the year out right with this week's Amish Wisdom. Author Lisa Wingate and Judy Christie will be chatting about how to make changes this year ... changes that matter.

For a chance to win a copy of both Lisa's and Judy's books, leave a comment here. Winner will be announced next week via email.

More about Lisa: Lisa Wingate is an award-winning journalist, magazine columnist, popular inspirational speaker andanational bestselling author.  Lisa is one of a select group of authors to find success in both the Christian and general markets in mainstream fiction. Her works have been featured by the National Reader's Club of America, AOL Book Picks, Doubleday Book Club, the Literary Guild, American Profiles, Crossings Book Club, Women’s World Magazine, Family Circle Magazine, and have been short-listed for various awards, including the American Christian Fiction Writer’s Book of the Year Award, which her book Never Say Never won in 2011.  Lisa also spends time on the road as a motivational speaker. Via internet, she shares with readers as far away as India, where her book, Tending Roses, has been used to promote women's literacy, and as close to home as Tulsa, Oklahoma, where the county library system has used Tending Roses to help volunteers teach adults to read.  Recently, the group Americans for More Civility, a kindness watchdog organization, selected Lisa for the National Civies Award, which celebrates public figures who work to promote greater kindness and civility in American life. www.lisawingate.com. 

More about Blue Moon Bay: Heather Hampton returns to Moses Lake, Texas, to help facilitate the sale of a family farm as part of a planned industrial plant that will provide the area with much-needed jobs. Heather's future fiance has brokered the deal, and Heather is in line to do her first large-scale architectural design--if the deal goes through. 

But the currents of Moses Lake have a way of taking visitors on unexpected journeys. What was intended to be a quick trip suddenly morphs into Valentine's week--with her old high school crush, Blaine Underhill, the handsome banker who just happens to be opposing Heather's project. Spending the holiday in an ex-funeral parlor seems like a nightmare, but as Heather connects with Blaine and reconnects with her uncle's aging Mennonite housekeeper, Ruth, she slowly finds herself being drawn into the family and the lakeside hometown she thought she'd left behind for good. 

More about Judy: Judy Christie is an author and consultant who lives in Northwest Louisiana.

She writes inspirational fiction and nonfiction.  Her popular Green series chronicles the goings-on in the small Louisiana town of Green and is part of Abingdon Press’s new inspirational fiction line.

Judy is also the author of the popular Hurry Less, Worry Less nonfiction series, published by Abingdon Press.

Wreath, published in October 2011, is Judy’s first young adult book. Look for it and a free download on her books page!

Judy was a journalist for many years and is  a frequent speaker at retreats and workshops. She works with clients around the country on how to slow down and enjoy each day more and how to set and meet goals. www.judychristie.com

More about Hurry Less, Worry Less: Live a More Meaningful and Joyful Life  

Hectic. Rushed. Noisy. Exhausted. We live in a world where we know these words all too well. Is it even possible to live at a slower pace?   

Judy Christie assures us that, with God’s help, it is possible to learn to live with less hurry and worry, to recover the joy of living. Hurry Less, Worry Less offers practical ideas and strategies to help you begin your own path toward change. 

Crucial steps include:   

Determining what your ideal life would look like   

Creating a new road map for your life   

Letting go of your worries and trusting in God   

Cutting down on the “noise” in your life and listening for guidance   

Discovering God’s will for your life   

Making a commitment to persist in your journey