The Ultimate Bundles folks used to do two major bundles every year — the Ultimate Homemaking Bundle and the Ultimate Healthy Living Bundle — and nothing else. A few years ago, they expanded, and have done a few other “themed” bundles each year. Unfortunately, over the past couple of years, the two flagship bundles have been increasingly less “likeminded” for me, so I haven’t been very excited about them, even though I loved them for years prior to that.
But this year there’s a Christian Living Bundle, and it includes some great stuff.
The Overall Bundle
Just like the Christian bookstore, the overall bundle is a bit of a mixed bag. I don’t know that I “recommend” everything in it, per se. I don’t know, maybe I would. I haven’t read every product. But my general impression is that I’d love some, dislike others, and be pretty “meh” about still others.
There are 50 products in 4 categories:
- Children & Marriage (13 resources)
- Hope & Encouragement (13 resources)
- Prayer & Devotionals (9 resources)
- Scripture & Bible Study (15 resources)
These break down as 17 eCourses, 13 printable packs, 11 workbooks, and 9 eBooks.
The total retail value is $1,182.78.
There are also four bonuses (including one early bird bonus, good for purchases made through tomorrow night) and an extra bonus for anyone who registered for the webinar last week.
My Favorite Parts (of the Main Bundle)
Like I said, the total package here is a bit of a mixed bag. BUT…there are some amazing tools here for more organized and/or effective prayer time, Bible study, and/or spiritual journaling. I’m going to highlight some of these in two “tiers.” The first tier is my very favorites. The second tier is comprised of sort of “supporting actors” for that first tier, and which ones to focus on is likely to be personal preference.
So, first-tier items include:
- Love the Word Bible Study Binder by Arabah Joy
- Prayer Journal Workshop by Jen Evangelista
- Delight in the Word thru Coloring & Bible Journaling – for Beginners & Beyond by JoDitt Williams
These are classified, respectively, as a workbook, ecourse, and ecourse, and together total $51 retail value.
The Love the Word Bible Study Binder works together beautifully with my prayer binder*, and the way I usually put that together with the materials I’m using for my current studies. It’s a far more organized way of keeping up with Bible study plans, though!
*In fact, if you buy the bundle through my link, forward me your receipt and I’ll throw in my prayer binder dividers, too.
The Prayer Journal Workshop walks you through how to make a pretty, decorated notebook for your prayers, divvied up by day. It appears that Jen breaks down her prayers by day of the week similar to how I do it, so this would work together really well with my method. It’s prettier than my binder setup, but not complicated (doesn’t require a lot of crafty skill!).
You could easily do this instead of the binder setup I have, to use in tandem with the binder setup I have (e.g. keep your permanent record in here, and use it alongside the more changeable binder system), or use these methods to jazz up the binder system I use.
Delight in the Word thru Coloring & Bible Journaling is perfect for those who are intrigued by the more artistic type of Bible journaling that’s become “a thing,” but who aren’t very artistic. It has tips and tricks for beginners, including what to if (like me) you can’t draw.
More Favorites
Melissa Tumino’s Bible Study Planner and Workbook reminds me a lot of the Bible study book I often recommend, Learn to Study the Bible, by Andy Deane. Like much of Deane’s book, this workbook is comprised of different methods for studying: various acronyms and that sort of thing. In this case, they’re preceded by a guided assessment of your spiritual health and experience, paired with setting goals for spiritual growth, and a series of Bible reading plans and helps for that.
I’d say these go about moderate in depth, so they’re probably good for a lot of adults, but also good for use with older kids and teens, but possibly a little less useful for those who are very experienced with Bible study. Because we already have the Deane book, I don’t know that we’ll use this much, but for those who don’t, this can be a freat way to get started branching out a bit.
There are also actual studies in the bundle, of different types and lengths, like A Grateful Heart and the James Self-Study Workbook. (MFW moms, take note! I’ve known some folks to not be crazy about the James study that’s included in Exploration to 1850; this might be a good substitute.)
Other Stuff
There are a couple tools here suited especially for kids. (The James study technically is, too, but it’s good across the board, in my opinion.) There’s a study of Psalm 23 just for kids. This is created with kid-friendly language and visuals, but is a fabulous walk-through of how to study the Bible. (If you’re a total newbie, don’t write this off for yourself, either! The pictures are a bit childish for an adult, but the Bible is the Bible!)
There’s also a set of Bible reading plans for kids. These are fairly short, and more topical than systematic, but they’re a non-overwhelming way to introduce young readers to the principle and discipline of working through a reading plan.
I also really appreciate The Good Gospel, and encourage parents (or those who work with children in church or day care classrooms) to read through it even if you don’t “use” it. Building off the work of child educators like Maria Montessori and Charlotte Mason, it emphasizes the value of teaching our children — especially when it comes to spiritual things — in an environment and manner that’s beautiful and sober (not in a “boring” sense, but in a “taking it seriously” sense), not in a manner that’s trite, silly, and cartoonish.
It includes specific lessons, but just reading about the “why” is valuable, in my opinion. (We aren’t likely to use the actual lessons.) If you’ve been using something like My Father’s World (kindergarten) or, even more, The Gentle + Classical Preschool or Gentle + Classical Nature, you’ll already be largely familiar with these principles.
Moving beyond products for kids, there’s a product called Prayer and Encouragement Words embroidery pattern. Obviously, these are intended for embroidery, but you could also use them for other things, like painting, Bible journaling, etc. They’re super-cute images of the words courage, hope, comfort, rest, wonder, joy, and faith — each with images built in. For example, “faith” integrates a mountain and “comfort” a mug of something warm.
All told, these products I mentioned are all products that I would either use in whole and in part, or give my kids to use (with the exception of that one that I said we probably don’t need because we already have a similar book). There are ten of them that I’ve specifically talked about, and they would total $165.97 retail…and there are still other courses and ebooks that provide opportunities to color, journal, study, etc. that I haven’t even touched on.
Bonuses
In addition to the core of the bundle, there are a few bonuses.
If you order by the end of the day on Tuesday, March 23, there’s an early bird bonus: Fresh Start: A 31-day Devotional to Jump Start Your Prayer Life, from Val Marie Paper. This is a print (not digital) product (you just pay shipping). Of course I haven’t had time to read mine cover-to-cover yet, but so far I like what I see (and it’s exactly the right size for my new Tula XII planner!)
If you ordered through the webinar (which ends Tuesday night, so it’s kind of like another early bird bonus!), you also get a free month’s subscription to Sojo Academy, which is Jen Evangelista and Arabah Joy’s Bible study community. I’m new there, too, but it looks pretty awesome so far.
The other bonuses are:
- 3-month subscription to Paper Me Pretty, which is a digital stationery company. Each month, they come out with a new bundle of themed stationery. (digital)
- bar of Frankincense & Myrrh soap from from Puro Co. You pay shipping. IMO, the shipping cost is not worth it on this unless you’re going to be buying something else, as well (although I bet it smells amazing!). Lowest shipping option for me was $6.45. (physical)
- BeeSilk lotion bar & lip balm from MadeOn. Shipping is $6.50, and these products make great stocking stuffers or gift basket fillers! (physical)
What Else Do You Need to Know?
How do you organize them? I have a post here about how I organize my bundles.
What if you don’t need all of the resources? You can give them as gifts! Each resource may only be owned by one person. So you don’t get to keep it and give it away, and you can’t read it, and then give it away. But if there are fifteen resources you’ll use and thirty-five that you won’t, you can give away any one or more of those thirty-five to someone else (and delete it from your own computer). I’ve done up some examples of past bundles for how you might package a digital gift with a physical component to make it more fun for giving.
How much does it cost?
That’s the big question, isn’t it? The bundle is $29.99, or $39.99 if you also want the Cheat Sheets, which are a little like Cliff’s Notes on each product.
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