Let's Pretend We're Normal

I am horrible lately at blogging and vlogging. Honestly we have had so much going in our lives. Today is the 5th of August. I can't believe we have reached AUGUST already of 2015. This date is also said because two months ago I said goodbye to my biggest fan, best-est friend...my mother. She was diagnosed a year ago this month with Stage 4 Lung Cancer. We thought she would be with us much longer, but in May 2015 she entered the hospital for dehydration. It was then we sat down and evaluated how things were going and determined there wasn't much hope.

Hospice was entered into and I will say that was the BEST experience of my life. Having the nurses to rely on to help with whatever we needed, really made the process easier. The aides were wonderful and I will never forget the morning that my mother passed away how our nurse immediately came to start the process and help dispose of medications, call the numbers that needed to be called.

We are also in the process of moving. Currently we are in limbo because of a holdup with some paperwork.

But anyway, onto the real reason I sat down to write.

Shortly before my mom died I recieved my latest Blogging For Books, read. The book was Let's Pretend Were Normal by Tricia Lott Willford. The book is about a family who has lost their father/husband. I figured this book would be a wonderful choice given the news that we were losing my mom and then the fact that we had lost her when it arrived.

I tried my hardest to read the book, but it just did not go well. There was a night that I was taking a bath and having a panic attack. My husband tried to coach me through and I ended up throwing the book out of the bathtub only to have it bounce back in and get completely soaking wet.

Another day in a fit of rage I tore each and every page out of the book in frustration because it was the closet thing to me.

So this book did not go well. In terms of physical experience.

Every review really loves this book and I do believe it has some good points and is a heart felt story. I applaud any writer who is able to sit down and write their story because each story is unique and really deserves to be shared with the world.

For me however this book was just a 1 star.

Just Like It

Making lists is something I have been doing rather recently, when I think about it. Of course, there is the usual grocery list of things I need to get at the store, which usually gets added to while in the store or completly forgotten at home leaving me to shop from memory(forgetting half the items I originally had written down).

The next popular is the to do list. I am always writing down or mentally listing things that need to get done. It seems I am the pillar that holds up my family and so everyones reminders become my responisbility and I often have many task and errands to run not only for myself, but for them as well.

My latest blogging for book choice was "Go Ahead and Like It"

At first glance I thought this choice was going to be much like the books by Keri Smith, where they are interactive and you write in the book itself. When I opened it, I discovered it is a compilation of the lists the author has made throughout her lifetime. The thought of making a list of likes is still enjoyable to me because as I mentioned above my lists are often task related. So here is my list of 10 likes:

1: My son's laughter

2. My husbands breathing(knowing he is home and close by is a comfort)

3. The sound of the mailman dropping off mail

4. Scentsy warmers and bars

5. Mac and Cheese

6. Fighting my anxiety like a champ

7. The word socks

8. Flutes

9. Knitting

10. Sending mail to friends.

This Is What You Just Put In Your Mouth(Book Review)

Hey readers,

Hopefully I can get through this review easily. Currently only typing with 9 fingers as I somehow managed to slice my pinky open while getting out of the bath tub! Of course I would do something crazy like that just in time for having reviews and other things to write and type.

But, without further adieu, the latest book review.

The book for this review is

My first impression was that the book was packaged WAY wrong. It came in a medium sized box with three sheets of heavy duty bubble wrap. Way more than was needed to mail a book of this size or quality.

(As I write this, the light is also fading as my son has found the switch to the lamp in my bedroom, oh the joys of having children)

Mentioning my son, is one reason I did not like this book. I did not find the time to sit down and fully read this right away when it first came. 

When I did sit down and read it, I thought the book was going to be more "exposing" as to what is really in the products we use in everyday life, however upon further reading it simply is not.

To me the information provided in this books is extremely basic and I would not re-read this book or find any further joy from it. This was the first book from Blogging For Books that I generally disliked

My husband however found it interesting, so at least someone in the household got joy from it.

As always I received this book at no cost from Blogging For Books for review purpose. 

Love Without Limits (A BloggingForBooks Review)

Another month is upon us and that means time for yet another book review. This month is only six days in but it has been a doosy. My son turned a year old on the fourth and that has me looking back on the past year and seeing how much he has grown and changed, and how I as well have grown and changed not just as a parent, but as a person in general.

This month has also brought some tough family concerns to deal with. Nothing really that can be shared at the current time as we are all still trying to figure things out and just make things work with the help of God.

Speaking of God, that is the topic of this review. The book for this review is:

I was skeptical going into this book because faith or religious based books tend to be hit or miss with me. I either feel they get too preachy or quote the Bible too much. I have tried many times to take books out of our church or public library, only to get a few pages in and cast it aside because it was not as captivating as I thought it would be. 

This book however changed that for me. I got 16 pages in and I was HOOKED. I had never heard of Nick Vujicic before, but the story in this book written by himself and his wife Kanae, is to tell how they met each other and give some marriage advice. The book opened my eyes as to how I could be a better spouse to my own husband. As I read the book I realized that I often take my husband for granted. I know that he loves me and will always be by my side(In the early days of our relationship, when we were still dating, I was going through Chemotherapy for Hodgkin's Lymphoma and he was there at every session without batting an eyelash.). But I don't think I realized just how much I tend to yell without meaning to or take my frustrations out on him.

In the days since starting this book I have found myself, getting up and making his lunch for work without the usual moans and groans of doing so, going out to help him shovel snow when usually I would use the excuse of having to stay in with our son(thanks mom for watching him so I could do that) and just spending more time cuddling in general.

In truth this book helped my marriage. We were at the grocery store this past evening. My husband was at the bank depositing his paycheck while I walked around shopping for groceries. I found myself longing just to see him. The ache was the same as the one I had in the early stages of our relationship. When I would say goodbye to him when seeing him in person, or goodnight on Skype. I longed just to see his face and hear his voice.

The other night after our son fell asleep early, with two hours till my husband had to be at work, we popped a DVD in and just cuddled on the couch. Something we haven't done in quite awhile. Parenting has tired us out and my husband and I working opposite shifts has not helped either. 

Furthermore, the book was so helpful and insightful that I went on Amazon and purchased three more of Nick's books that I very much look forward to reading.

Thank You Nick for writing such an inspirational story and helping me in ways I could never have imagined.

As always I recieved this book from Blogging for Books for this review! 

The 13th Gift (Book Review)

The Holiday season is over and many of us have now stored our decorations away and are happily enjoying our presents.

My holiday's are still in many ways continuing, even though the new year has began. I had a book on my wishlist of books that I want to check out for review from Blogging for Books. It's a Christmas themed book and during the holiday season I knew I would be too busy to really enjoy it.

After running errands with my husband today I was greeted with the familiar package that I knew instantly was my next review book. I instantly sat down to read it. My mom even picked up the book and read the inside cover and quickly claimed the next read after I was finished.

A few chapters in, I wanted to continue reading, but had to stop to attend a meeting. When I got home I ran a nice hot bath and sat for over an hour finishing the book.

The book:

The story is about a family who has lost their father/husband the previous year around the Holiday time. This being their first Christmas without him. Soon they begin receiving gifts that relate to the song "The Twelve Days of Christmas". The gifts are really not extravagant, but simple from the heart and good will that the holiday season brings in people.

The 13th chapter, which leaving out spoilers, is one that brings a tear to your eye as you gain insight into the work that went into making this activity of giving to those in need possible. It was at the 13th chapter that I realized this is a TRUE STORY. Not just the work of a creative mind, but something that the author and her family went through.

It was a phenomenal read and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

I cannot wait until my mom reads the book as well to hear her reaction.




(I received this book for free with the purpose of review from Blogging For Books. )

It Was Me All Along (Book Review)

New year, means NEW chances for book reviews! HOW AWESOME. This review choice I chose to do something a little different and opted to receive both the print and ebook copy of "It Was Me All Along" a memoir written by Andie Mitchell.

I went into this book hesitant because I tend to find memoir books and biographies a bit boring. However, I wanted to give this a try because I was interested in the topic of Weightloss as one of my new years goals is to get better physically healthy.

The book overall was meh. I didn't love it, but i didn't hate it either. I enjoyed that she put her raw story out there and was honest and open about her struggles. I think overall, I just didn't feel the connection(s) that I thought this book was going to make for me.

It did inspire me in that I need to have change in my own habits right now. As I went out today I realized I was drinking a Vanilla Coke simply because my husband had bought it for me, not just because I wanted it. As I sipped the soda, I realized it was nothing more than just corn syrup in a bottle and I honestly did not want that.

Also while reading today I had a vision of getting off my bottom and fighting all the excuses in side of me to clean off our treadmill and use it on days when it is too chilly to go for a walk outside.

Below is a youtube video review of Blogging for Books as well as a verbal review of the book:

Goals for 2015

The new year is already three days in and today has been a real eye opener. Snow and rain falling down which lead to an afternoon nap. When I awoke I knew a change had to be made. I need to write my goals down where I can view them and hopefully stick them.

So what are they?

Well for a long time I have been struggling with a depression. It greatly reduced my ability to do things. I have no motivation. So my therapist and I have worked to setup my treatment goals. One of them is to get back to three activities that I had previously enjoyed, but have since stopped doing. Those three I have decided are crafting, writing, and vlogging.

Craft wise I have had no time as there is no real desire to scrapbook anymore. I could get into loom knitting. I think as far as this goal I would also like to do more crafts with my son and I think my youngest nephew would enjoy them as well. I remember the days when my oldest nephew was young and we would do a lot more crafty type projects.

Writing wise I have been doing an increase in blog posts as I make reviews about the Blogging for Books that I receive. I think I also need to start doing more of this though, just sitting and typing. I am also toying with an idea that may pan out as a novel, novella, or short story. Not exactly sure what it will pan out to be, but I think (and hope) that I continue on with it!

Vlogging wise is where I have struggled the most lately. In the last year I was big on doing pregnancy updates monthly and then weekly with my son. Since then I fell off the band wagon. I sit down and record video after video, but then I never upload them. When I get around to it, the content is about events that have already happened or I just dont feel the quality is good anymore.

I have also noticed I am starting to struggle with social anxiety. It has never been a problem for me to text or talk online. But gradually I have noticed I pulled back from those, for fear of what I could say. I need to start facing this and get back to the things I love.

Overall my goal for this year is better physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, EVERYTHING health in my life. I know I need to start getting more physically active because my weight is the same as when I had my son and its not good for my back and knees to be carrying all this extra baggage around.

Here is to a year of change!

I am excited for this journey ahead!