Supporting Your Spouse’s Military Career
Military spouses all come from different places. Please visit HERE for the updated version of this post!
The Berenstain Bears and the Biggest Brag by Mike Berenstain Book Review
When I was a little girl, bears were my favorite animal. I loved them. So of course I LOVED the Berenstain Bears. I think my favorite one was the one about the junk food. My mom liked the messy room one.
Over the years I have tried to pick up a few for my own boys.
I was given the opportunity to review, The Berenstain Bears and the Biggest Brag.
It is written by Mike Berenstain. He grew up watching his parents, Stan and Jan, working together to write and draw these lovable bears. Eventually he started drawing and writing about them too.
It was published by Zondervan!
This book is good for children of all ages. You can read it to them or they can read it to you.
The book is about how brother and sister bear keep trying to one up each other. I think a lot of kids like to brag. They are trying to figure out their place in this world and when they discover they are good at something, they want to share it. Between siblings it can be such a battle. That is what this book is about. Brother and sister bear are trying to one up each other and Grizzly Gramps comes and explains why they shouldn’t be doing so.
In the back of the book you can find activities and questions you can ask your own little cubs. This is great because it gives you some good ideas on how to make this real for your kids and to get them to think about it. I like how each of the Berenstain Bear books have a lesson we can teach our children. Whether it is something they are struggling with or just something that is important to learn.
The illustrations are fantastic and really show the detail of the bear’s world as well as what they are experiencing.
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookLook Bloggers book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”
My Dog Ate My Garden And 2015 Gardening Plans
Last year I decided I was going to focus on less variety of plants and grow more of the same types of things. I also wanted to grow corn. We had an old plastic pool and I made that into a garden. I was pretty excited about it all and then we got a dog. At first, she stayed away from the garden for the most part. I thought it was fine. Then one more I woke up to all of my little corn seedlings thrown around the garden. We should have put up a fence after all! Lesson learned.
I also started working from home full-time which didn’t allow me much time to garden anyway. In the end we had tomatoes and peppers that we grew in containers, some lettuce and herbs and that was about it.
Looking ahead at this year I want to keep it simple. I still have my beds but not sure I will do anything with then this year. I would have to put up a fence!
I think I can buy something cheap for my garden pool to keep it safe and we plan to reuse our containers on our deck.
We are thinking we will stick to tomatoes, peppers, snap peas, herbs and lettuce. Maybe strawberries. I always fail at those though.
I also planted some tulips in my front yard and will be excited to see them grow. I want to experiment with some different types of flowers as well. I just adore flowers but they seem way too expensive to buy here. I used to get them weekly in Germany but they were only about 2-3 Euro.
I need to spend some time clearing out some of the old plants from last year and getready to start growing new ones. Seedlings will need to start in a few weeks and I am excited about that. I love planting the seeds and watching them grow.
Do you garden? What will you plant this year?
Don’t Make Me Type In A Code And Other Blogging Annoyances
I enjoy visiting a lot of different blogs in different niches. I try to get to a few other blogs everyday. I have been doing this for a few years now and I have noticed some things that drive me a little crazy when I see them on a blog…
1) Music that plays by itself. Remember the days of Myspace and playlists? That was fun but I don’t enjoy seeing it on a blog. When I am looking through blogs I am usually listening to music or a podcast and if music starts randomly playing on a blog, it is a huge turn off for me. In fact, it drives me nuts. Any music you have on your blog should not start automatically. I understand wanting to share music but it is so much nicer to let the reader chose if and when they want to hear it.
2) White writing on a black background. This is frustrating because it is hard to read. I might really enjoy what you are talking about but if it is hard to read I am more likely to stop following you. It also can give some people a headache and that isn’t good. It might work for sites that are more photos than words as photos look really nice on a black background.
3) Word verification or captcha. I hate this. I really really hate the Blogger.com version of it with the numbers against a wall. I usually can’t even figure out what the numbers or letters are. Now I know spam is a problem but there are other ways to deal with it. Word verification is a huge turn off to me. I also don’t like when I leave a comment and get up from my computer only to come back to it hours later to see I missed filling it out because of captcha. Just say no to captcha. I would rather check a box or something easy like that.
4) Not allowing comments. I know there are certain blogs where this is needed but if I am reading your blog and want to respond, let me leave a comment. I don’t want to click on another link and go somewhere else to do it. I want to leave it right there on your blog. I can understand turning off comments if things get too heated on a certain post or even after a certain amount of time but please let your readers have a say.
5) No way to share you on Social Media. I know that I can copy and paste your link to whatever social media site I want but it is a lot easier if you have a button right there for me to use. It makes it easy for me to share your post which is better for you. If nothing else, make sure you have share buttons for Google+, Facebook and Twitter as those are the most popular of the social media sites.
Not everyone blogs the same way and there is a lot of debate about how to handle things in the blogging world but I think most of us bloggers would agree on this list. When you have your own blog, you don’t want to be turning people off for silly reasons that you could easily change.
What drives you nuts about a blog?
On Being A Stay At Home Mom
I grew up with a stay at home mom. She was 33 when she had me and had already worked many years as a teacher. When I was in the 5th grade she went back as a full-time teacher for a year and then substituted after that until last year when she decided to join my Dad in retirement.
I am not sure if she is the reason why I did things the way I did. I knew I wanted to finish college before I got married. That was not something I was willing to compromise on. I got engaged at my graduation party and married 8 months later. I was pretty optimistic about my future career. I also had a plan. I would get a job I loved and work for a few years. Then we would have kids and I would become a stay at home mom. I didn’t really think much past that. I didn’t think about when I would go back to work. I just knew that I wanted to be a stay at home mom.
I wasn’t able to find a job in my career field that paid enough. They wanted someone with a Masters or someone who spoke spanish. I ended up working for a temp agency making more than I would have in some of the jobs I came across that would use my degree. Sociology is a degree but there isn’t much if you only have your BA.
I worked for about 2.5 years before my son was born and I finally got what I wanted. I was able to be a stay at home mom. We lived in a townhouse in the same city I had lived in for college, right where my husband grew up. When I quit my job I was selling books on Ebay. This brought in a little bit of money. After we moved to Kentucky, I added children’s clothing and got really into it. I was making a part-time income but it was busy and my mom helped out a lot from California as she would help shop for clothes I could sell.
Then, we moved to Germany. You can’t sell on Ebay in Germany so I closed up that business and was a stay at home mom until we moved back to the states in 2010. By then I had two boys and was pregnant with my third. I didn’t think I could do Ebay again, not the way I was doing it before so I focused on some other things. I had started my blog and was starting to get more interest in that.
Ever since 2010 I have been making money from home in one form or another. I love it. I love that I have something to focus on. I love that I have my own career and that I can do it around my kids, although that is very difficult sometimes. It’s much easier when all of them are in school on certain days. I am never ever bored because between the house, the kids and my work, there is always something to do.
At the moment I am a mix between the stay at home mom who takes care of the house and the work at home mom who is making some money. My husband works full-time out of the house. It’s very traditional looking. Yet, I don’t see myself that way. My husband was the stay at home Dad and I was working from home for part of 2014. I have good friends that are working moms. I don’t think one way is better than any other. You have to do what works for your family at the time.
And I am only 35…I have a lot of time. I can go back to school. I can grow my writing career. I feel like I have a lot of room to do something different in a few years if I want to.
What about you? Are you a SAHM? Do you work from home? Do you work outside the house? What’s your ideal?
Faith Shift by Kathy Escobar Book Review
*I received a free copy of this book in hope of a review on my blog! This post includes affiliate links!
The Christian faith can be such a complicated thing. We are all raised with a set of beliefs and as we grow older we develop our own. We go through different things in our lives that might make us question a few beliefs that we never have before. We might start to wonder about other faiths and if what we believe is the truth or what living out that faith should really look like.
Over the last few years my faith has changed a little bit. I am trying to figure it all out. That is why when I saw the book, Faith Shift
Hope for spiritual refugees, church burnouts, and freedom seekers.
After years of participating in a comfortable faith tradition, many find themselves in a spiritual wilderness, feeling disillusioned with church, longing for more freedom and less religion in their lives.
If that describes you, you’re in good company. Countless men and women are in the middle of a shifting faith—and aren’t sure where to turn.
What if you discovered that losing beliefs doesn’t mean you have to lose your faith?
Pastor, friend, and spiritual director Kathy Escobar has journeyed with many who have experienced significant shifts in the faith they once considered unchangeable. Through their stories and her own, Kathy has discovered that growth and change are natural parts of life in our relationship with God.
Filled with honest stories and practical insights, Faith Shift gives language to what many experience as their faith evolves. With an inviting blend of vulnerability and hope, it addresses the losses that come with spiritual shifts and offers tangible practices for rebuilding a free and authentic faith after it unravels.
What feels like an ending can become a new beginning.
I knew this book would help me along my journey and I was very inspired by it. The author talks about her own struggles and how she came to be where she is today. I also loved how she included different stories from other people. This is very helpful because it allows you to see that you are not alone in your questioning or your thoughts about different things. There are also discussion questions in the back of each chapter so this would also make a really good book for study in a group.
If you are struggling or wondering what is next on your faith journey, you would get a lot out of this book. The author goes through the different steps of a faith shift and how to get through them. I also like that this book isn’t a “how to” book but more of a “I get it, this is what worked for me and others” type of book.
Favorite Books of 2014
This post contains affiliate links!
In case you haven’t noticed. I love to read. I always have. This year I read 39 books. Not my best year since I started tracking. I don’t really have a goal for books but I find the numbers interesting.
Out of the 39 books I read, here is a list of my top 10! My 10 favorite books from the year 🙂
1) The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
2) The Wednesday Sisters by Meg Waite Clayton-I heard about this from another blogger and it sounded really interesting to me. It was the story of best friends who started meeting at the park when their kids were little in the late 60s. It takes place in the Bay Area and I was hooked right away. There is a sequel I still need to read.
3) The Longest Ride– I haven’t read too many of Nicholas Sparks books but I heard good things about this one. The story goes between an older man who is stuck in the snow and a young couple. I hear they are making a movie in 2015 and I hope it turned out to be good. It really is a great story.
4) Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs- I had seen this book before and it looked interesting to me. I started reading it a few weeks ago and it drew me in. It is the story of a 16 year old boy who grew up with a Grandfather who told him the most interesting stories. They always assumed he was making them up until the boy finds out that he really wasn’t. I also finished the 2nd book in the series but liked the first one a lot better.
5) Matched by Ally Condie- I love dystopian fiction. Ever since the Hunger Games I have found other series that are similar and this is one of them. In this world everything is controlled. People are only allowed to list to 100 songs or read from a list of 100 books. They also don’t get to pick who they marry. They are matched. This story is about a girl who gets matched with her best friend. This rarely happens and was a very interesting book. The other two in the series were not quite the same but overall I really enjoy this series.
6) Witches of East End by Melissa De LaCruz- I wanted to read this one once I saw the show. It has most of the same characters as the show but things are very different. It is about a mom and her two daughters that happen to be witches living in a small town called North Hampton. I am on the waiting list for the next one.
7)Written in my Own Heart’s Blood by Diana Gabaldon- As a fan of the Outlander series, I couldn’t wait for this book to come out. I was waiting about two years for the book since I finished the last one. This book continues the story of Jamie and Claire as well as their daughter Brianna and her husband Roger.
8)Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter- I bought this book because of the cover and took it with me camping. It was a great story about an island near Italy, an American movie star and it takes place in the 1960s as well as present day. I would love to read more by the author in the future.
9) Full Measures– I love it when Military spouses write fiction books. This book is a love story between the daughter of a Military man who is killed in action and a local Hockey star. Their relationship is emotional and enjoyable. It was written by Rebecca Yarros who blogs at The Only Girl Among Boys.
10) Wedding Night By Sophie Kinsella- I loved the shopaholic series and as I wait for the next book to come out I decided I wanted to read the author’s other books. Wedding Night is the story about a crushed girl who runs into an old flame and decides to marry him right away. It’s funny and takes them to a romantic island.
What were your favorite books this year?
Our 11th Christmas With Kids
I was just thinking about how this is our 11th Christmas with kids. 2004 we had a little three-month old baby and we have only grown from there. Having kids at Christmas time can be a magical thing. To see their faces, to remember what that felt like. It’s amazing. They have been there even when Ben has not been home to celebrate with us.
This post is a picture post of all those Christmases and magic they brought into our home…
Looking through all these pictures made me remember those years and how different some of them were. Daniel’s 1st Christmas we were able to spend time with both Grandparents. Christmas of 2006 was spent in Germany with a newborn, my parents and Ben home on R&R. Christmas of 2007 was spent in California after a long 15 month deployment. 2009 was the year we did a smaller Christmas and then went to visit a few countries on our cruise. 2011 was the first year the boys got Legos. 2013, I didn’t take as many photos for some reason but I remember it being a good day. And this year? This year has been a strange one. A lot of changes for our family. Some I am having a hard time with but I just have to believe 2015 will be a good year. Getting out of the Army is hard, even if you think you have figured it out. All I can do is look forward to the future and know that I have a great family, a wonderful husband who I am in still in love with and I am blessed in so many different ways.
Merry Christmas to you all. I hope you have a great day. And if you are sad, lonely or missing someone, just know that tomorrow is another day 🙂