40 Days to Joyful Motherhood Book Review

I was excited to see the cover of this "colorful" book because it shows some beautiful pictures and provides both devotions and coloring book to nourish mom.  40 Days to a Joyful Motherhood: Devotions and Coloring Book to Nourish Mom by Sarah Humphrey seemed like a book that would interest me because I am a mom and after a library program with coloring, realized that it is very relaxing.  I was hoping that this would be a great match for me.

Wouldn't it be marvelous if mothering came with a concrete set of instructions—an easy recipe we could follow? Instead, motherhood challenges women to find their faith, their true selves, and their family through daily doses of trial and error. It is a brilliant and healing time of life that is full of joy, pain, and beauty with a small side of crisis (and humor). What mothers do not know, they learn. And through this lifelong process of learning, they nurture and care for the most precious gifts on earth: children. In a modern society where moms often have a full and busy plate, these 10 minute daily devotions focus on six key topics of motherhood: • Self-acceptance • Self-care • Reconciling with grief, hope and expectations • Generosity • Presence • Forgiveness In addition to the devotions, these beautiful pages are adorned with handmade illustrations to help you refresh from long days or even occasional sleepless nights. So, grab your colors and a little quiet time for yourself while doodling at the kitchen table. You will be grateful you did!

I think that the title was a little misleading for the book.  The book was mostly about early motherhood and how to deal with lack of sleep and making a new life with kids.  I was looking for more uplifting information about any stage of motherhood.  The book has an introduction from the author and one from her husband and then goes into the substance of the book.  There was a introduction to each section and then one devotion for each picture.  Just getting to the actual coloring and relaxation part was a little more involved then I expected.  It is also specifically set up as one a day which is a lot for busy moms to get to done in a day.  There were about 42 pictures to actually color through the book and many had words and other things on them that didn't make them the relaxing pictures that I was expecting and not all were full page pictures but rather things that you should writing information on so it was more of a journal with coloring on them.  I thought getting some uplifting thought and then coloring while thinking about it would be good but I didn't really see that for me because some of the topics were tougher like miscarriage (day 13) or how our body changed (day 14).  It wasn't the book that I was looking for but I like the idea of an uplifting message with a page to zone out and color to relax but if you are looking for more of a devotional for new mothers, this would be a perfect fit.

**I was provided a copy for my review but all opinions here are my own.