Happy Haul-idays

Chronicle Books is having their 2nd annual Happy Haulidays giveaway!  They are so generous giving up to $500 worth of their books for you, a friend and best of all, your favorite charity!

I had so much fun going through their books and choosing what I would pick. I'm hoping Santa will bring me (and a lucky commenter) these goodies:

Audrey Hepburn International Cover Girl      $45.00 

Fairy Tales from Hans Christian Andersen: A Classic Illustrated Edition $19.99

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland $19.95

Peter Pan $19.95

The Knit-It Kit for Kids $16.95

Holiday Crafting & Baking with Kids $19.95

Cook It in a Cup!: Quick Meals and Treats Kids Can Cook in Silicone Cups $16.99

Gratitude A Journal $14.95

The Rumor By Monique Felix $16.99

The Redstone Inkblot Test $14.95

642 Things to Draw $16.95

Ok, so I tried to take "A Moment for Me", but this is just to big of a prize so here is my list for my girl:

Animals Christopher Columbus Saw: An Adventure in the New World $16.99

The World Almanac for Kids Puzzler Deck: Reading, Ages 5-7 $9.95

Duck! Rabbit!$16.99

Odd Velvet $14.99 

Rosie Flo's Travel Coloring Book $8.99

Creature Floor Puzzles $24.95

The Castaway Pirates $19.99

MoMA Make Art/Make Mistakes $16.99

Twelve Dancing Princesses $16.99

Press Here $14.99

Shadow $15.99

Lots of Dots $15.99

The Story of Little Red Riding Hood $18.99

Vincent's Colors $15.99

Out of Sight $19.99

Hurry! Hurry! Have You Heard? $16.99

The First Christmas $9.99

Grand Total = $498.37

This would be an awesome giveaway to win for the Holidays!  If I won I would choose to donate to our local library.  Remember, if I win I get to choose one lucky commenter on this post to receive the same haul of books! 

The Blessing

I had the opportunity to review The Blessing by John Trent and Gary Smalley
This is one of the first books I've reviewed for me instead of my daughter. Although the book is truly for her, and the blessing it will help me to bestow upon her. This book contains a challenge and I found it to be a challenging read as I attempted to learn from and implement the wisdom within. I highly suggest checking it out for yourself. 

Disclosure of Material Connection: To comply with new regulations introduced by the Federal Trade Commission, I must post that Thomas Nelson has provided me with a complimentary copy of this book to review through Booksneee. I also must say that the opinions are all mine.

Laundy, Really!?!

I was working on the Homemaker's Challenge, and I appreciate the inspiration and encouragement it has given me. I am going to come back to the book on my own, but I can't continue to follow along with the challenge at this time.

I am going to start on a smaller challenge though. Well, not technically a challenge, but Meghan at the tuckers take tennessee has promised to grow a LOVE of laundry through a series of blog posts she's doing. As I told her on twitter already, "This is a steep promise." I am in though, I mean it's worth try right?

So Meghan's first piece of advice is to create a schedule. I had been doing all my laundry on Sunday for years, until we recently returned to church, and now I'm splitting it between Saturday and Sunday. Note: when I say doing laundry I mean washing, drying, and returning to appropriate room. I RARELY fold or put away clothes like I should. I think if I could force myself into a new schedule I could have less each day and do it all more completely.

I'm sure this will require revision as I go, but here is my plan for next week:

Monday: Towels

Tuesday: Sheets

Wednesday: My daughter's clothes

Thursday: Whites

Friday: Colored clothes

Saturday: Work Clothes

I will still have to do laundry this weekend so we can be dressed next week though ;-)

Giveaway at The Rusted Chain

I don't normally re-post other people's giveaways, but I would REALLY love to win these prizes from The Rusted Chain. There is a giveaway for a signed copy of Candace Cameron Bure's book Reshaping It All, and a $25 gift certificate to The Rusted Chain. Either of these prizes alone would be awesome, but in combination they are even more amazing!
I hope I win....

Homemaker Challenge

Ack!

Ok, so I have fallen off the wagon so to speak. I started off last week really strong and even boasted my good works on twitter:

I have been doing well with the Mary Challenges and finding the reasons for wanting a clean home. It has motivated me to get some things done around the house that really needed to be done, but that hasn't equated to the Martha Challenges. While I haven't been following the guidelines the book really has been helping me. I'll take my cleaner house for now, and get to the specific tasks later when things are more under control. I am really looking forward to doing tonight's Mary challenge, and hope it will make a real difference in my days!

Homemaker Challenge Day 1

Challenge for Day 1: Why do I want a clean house?

I would like us to have a healthier cleaner home, so that we can be healthier. I also don't want to be ashamed of our home, or have to run around in a panic when someone comes to visit. Those are surface reasons though. I feel like part of my job as a wife and mother is to keep a clean home and I want to do this job well.

Reading for me

I know one of the fundamental ways to establish a love of reading is for my child to see me reading. I just struggle to find the time for it, but recently I have been carving out time for myself to read actual books. This made me remember something, I LOVE to read! I love to emerge myself into another world and lose myself in a wonderful story for awhile.


Here are my thoughts on my first two pleasure books:

The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner: An Eclipse Novella by Stephenie Meyer 

I don't think I've ever read a story like this before, don't get me wrong there are plenty of Vampire books out there, but this author took a minor character from another Novel and devoted a story to her. It was amazing and eye opening to come at this story from a completely different angle. Bree was a unique vampire story of a "newbie" and a unique character who I'm sure would have fit right in with the Cullens had she been given the opportunity. 

Room by Emma Donoghue

 

This book was recommended and lent to me by a friend with a warning of "wait until the weekend, because you won't want to stop reading it". I started it yesterday and finished it this afternoon, I did make myself stop reading it to sleep and spend time with my family today though. Hmm, I think I just said this, but I've never read a book like this before. It was written from the perspective of a 5 year old born into captivity. In some ways it was a psychological thriller which is right up my alley, but it was so much more than that. I struggled initially with stepping into the mind of this 5 year old, but I was so glad I did. I loved learning about the ROOM from him, and how his life and the world exploded around him.