Book Reveiw on Untamed

This month I also read Untamed by P.C. and Kristin Cast. This is the fourth book is a series called House of Night. It is kind of a teen type series about vampires written by a  other and daughter team. I like the fact that it is written collaboratively by a mother and daughter. While there is a good bit of "teen drama" in it (that is the audience it is written for though), there is an interesting story line and they have an interesting take of vampires.
So far the main character is Zoey Redbird who is a fledgling vampire (young teenager going through the "Change" from human to vampire) and her group of friends that come to the rescue for various calamities and tragedies. There is some surprising character developments as well. The character you like and/or hate in the beginning may not necessarily be the same characters you love and/or hate as the series progress.
In this book, Zoey and her friends enlist the help of her grandmother and some new characters (nuns!) to help her as she tries to unveil an evil at her school (The House of Night). However, as it would seem the evil stays a step ahead of them and tries to pose Zoey as the instigator and bringer of evil to school. Zoey begins to run thin on allies, but and her powerful band of friends ultimately have to "save the day". I am not give away the ending of the book but I will say the the last few chapters are a bit intense!

All in all this is an interesting and fun read. I would recommend this book to both teens and adult who want an interesting, fun, quick, guilty pleasure type read.

One Bite at a Time Book Review Part2

I finished One Bite as a Time by Tsh Oxenreider and I have to say I did enjoy it. There are many projects I have already begun to incorporate into our schedule and family life. In addition to the before mentioned projects in my previous post, I plan to incorporate dates with my hubby and dates with the kids. Right now we have 2 small children (toddler and preschool age) but I think it's good to start this one-on-one quality time early. My husband and I decided that we would switch off every other week, so that we each get one-on-one time with each child and it's special and individual to that child. I am already looking forward to these "dates".
I am also working on a chore system for my kiddos (future posts on how it all turns out).

I am also trying out the no "poo" shampoo system & the oil cleansing method for my face. I let you know my thoughts on this later as well. I really like her downloadable "to do" list which I also may try out.

All in all I would definitely recommend this book to any mom and maybe even interested dads. Hope you enjoy it and find it as helpful as I did.

Book Review on One Bite at a TIme

I am reading One Bite at and Time: 52 Projects for Making Life Simple by Tsh Oxenreider as part of the Booking It 2012 book club with Life as a Mom. One Bite as a TIme is full of projects (52) to help simplify your life. The book has the option of doing one project a week if you prefer and/or taking them on in order at you leisure. The table of contents is a checklist so that you can check off what you've accomplished, which means you don't necessarily have to go in order. Each project is in a category, so you could even do the projects according to categories if you wish. I like the set-up of the book and each project has a page for notes following the project with helpful links.
I have made it through project 27 "Streamlining Your Email". I have already started unsubscribing to unnecessary &/or unwanted emails this morning and it felt really good.
Some of the projects I have already begun to put into place but still enjoyed Tsh's take on the project. I really liked Project 1 and its concept "Eat Your Frog First Thing Everyday"! I think Tsh and I have the same frog so I am going to seriously work on that.
I am working on downsizing my magazine collection through scanning important or wanted articles/recipes. I have also started having family meetings with my husband which has really helped us stay on the same page and tackle things together (households tasks, budget, bills, etc). Two really important projects that I definitely want to get going is the Essential Papers File (project 17) and Organize Your Files (project 21). I really like the rotate your children's toys idea.
I also really like her thoughts on the Staycation. We may try this in 2012. I also want to work on turning the TV off more and encouraging my children to play without the TV. We don't have cable and use NetFlix for kids shows so I don't really worry about commercials so much with them but they probably watch too much and half the time they are playing it is just running with no one watching anyway.

Some other resources that I can add for some of her projects that didn't see or would like to restate are:
Flylady
Dave Ramsey
Sophie Uliano Gorgeously Green

I am looking forward to the next half of the book!

2012 Blog "Face Lift/Update"

I originally started this blog when my oldest babe was still in CD (cloth diapers). Now she is no longer in diapers (YEAH!) and my son is becoming interested in the potty. While I am still learning daily in the life of a parent, my babies are growing and learning as well and...well there not really babies anymore (even if they'll always be my babies). My daughter is a preschooler and my son is a toddler (and a one man wrecking crew all rolled into one).

So I am changing the focus of my blog to reflect that of my changing life. One thing I plan to do this year is blog more often and actually keep it up. I have been rather sporadic the the last few years. I am going to share my food experiences, healthy experiences, family experiences, crafty experiences and my book experiences. I hope to make this next year all in all more productive and fruitful in all aspects of my life.

For starters I am joining an online book club headed up by the blogger from Life as a Mom called BOOKING IT 2012. The first up is One Bite at a Time: 52 ways to Live Simply by Tsh Oxenreider mom blogger of Simple Mom.