Thursday, July 21, 2016

Back To School Haul

I really honestly can't believe it but back to school is really gearing up! For me this year that means that my two boys are heading back to school this year...Liam is in 3rd grade and my sweet little Cole is heading into Kindergarten!! That just seems crazy to me! Of course I am his mom and so I am sure that morning will be full of tears for me, I can almost already feel them coming...

With school around the corner, we decided to go ahead and do a little back to school shopping.  It seems to me like when I went back to school as a kid it was a heck of a lot easier! We had maybe a few notebooks and some pencils maybe a new book bag but that was about it, now it just seems a little over the top.

We literally spent 124 dollars on school supplies this year...Now...I will admit that not all of that was "Necessary" stuff.....for example I bought these:
 they are little thermos', Liam has been a lunch packer since day 1, he just doesn't seem to like anything that his school offers him for lunch, and I like providing him with healthier options.  I have no doubt that Cole will probably be the same way. In addition to the thermos' I bought each of the boys a new lunch bag.
(I apologize for the Elmo plate in the background, I took these pictures right after lunch and we hadn't quite cleaned up yet)

The other splerg item came in the from of star wars pencil cases, to be honest I'm not even sure this meets the requirements for their school list but if they can't use them at school they can bring them home and use them here

Now on to what the HAD to have....I'm not going to write everything down but you will see it is a heck of a lot of stuff!!! You will notice a few items in the middle for Caroline, she will be packing her lunch to go over to grandmas for childcare while I do school work or my WAH job.....



so there it is...My 2016-2017 back to school haul....I want to add here that if you have extra money or supplies you might consider donating to programs like the Salvation Army or Kids in Need Foundation,(or another one if you know of one in your area) that help out families.....I would imagine it would be hard to be the only kid with out a new book bag on the first day of school!!!
Talk to you soon!!!

PEACE








Monday, July 18, 2016

New adventure!

So as I have been doing a lot of reading lately, for reviews, I thought I would also try my hand at writing again,  ( I wrote a young adult novel about 4 years ago... Here is the link if you are interested (https://www.amazon.com/Hybrid-Samantha-Caretaker-Kathryn-Cook-ebook/dp/B0096RHI3A). Currently I am working on an original work, but I am also writing fanfiction....now I know there is some controversy about fanfiction itself, some don't feel it is legitimate work, and some do.....I personally think it is, because I think it takes (almost) as much creativity as an original work....if you write or read fanfiction please feel free to let me know because personally really enjoy it!

One might as why I would at this point decide to try writing again, well the answer to that is simple, my husband and I are contemplating an international adoption, and that my friend is expensive, so even a small amount of extra money is helpful, plus I find writing (and reading) to be a way to relax, something important as we enter into this emotionally draining time!

Here is the link to my fanfiction profile, https://www.fanfiction.net/u/3492896/ozchild1983,
By the way I don't make anything from the fanfiction, it is simply a way to distress and get my work out there, if you are interested in reading please take a look!

Saturday, July 9, 2016

Happy 4th and Lost Teeth!!!

The 4th of July has never really been one of my all time favorite holidays, but this year the kids were EXTRA excited about it.  So we bought a few fireworks for the kids to do and called it good.  Even though I didn't have the most fun ever, watching the kids have fun was definitely AWESOME!!!
We started out in the morning with a few snaps....






I was really happy to see that little miss america enjoyed it too since last year she was pretty scared of the fire works!!






The day after the 4th of July my middle son, Cole lost his first tooth!!! He was crazy excited to get his first tooth fairy visit!






so we are just going along!! Thanks for reading!!! Have a great day everyone!!!!

Love to you all!!
PEACE


Tuesday, July 5, 2016

Catching up!

Hi All!
So June was a mother of a month for me, and I definitely feel the need to explain myself.  It seems to be one of those issues that came up all of the sudden, and has been incredibly hard to resolve. To give respect to all of the people involved I will say it this way, my husband and I are having some issues. Some of them are long term some of them not so much, I will say that it feel weird to reveal this on a blog before revealing it to anyone in my "real" life but there you go, some times the anonymity  of a forum like this makes things a little easier. We are going to attempt marriage counseling and though I am willing to give it a try I am not 100% confident in what the outcome will be.  For now we are basically separated, however still living together for financial purposes and for the purpose of our three kids....we will see how it all goes....For now I am asking for your understanding, If you have asked for a book review I plan to get it done but it may not be in the time frame I was hoping for....Thank you all for your understanding

Monday, June 6, 2016

Adding a book review!

HI ALL!!!

Wanted to put a quick announcement on the front page that there is a new review posted in the review section of the blog, attached is the Author interview....
Have a great Day everyone!!!!

PEACE

Tuesday, May 31, 2016

Happy Summer, Family picture, and book reviews!

Hi All!!!

Summer is officially in full swing!!! I finished with the semester on May 18th, Cole finished on the same day and Liam was done a week later.....So far we have had a ton of fun.  We have been to the park, the natural history museum and a few other places, Tomorrow we are signing up the kids for the library summer reading program! I also heard Barns and Nobel has one, I may check into that as well.

I also want to say thank you to all of the authors who have contacted me and asked me to review their books!! I have gotten an amazing response and am actually booked through the first week of July!! So far I have kept myself to one book a week, because I feel like that way I can really give each book and author the time their book deserves!!! But I may revise that to 2 books a week!!! We will just have to see!!!

A few weeks we went out to take some new family pictures, we always take them ourselves because I honestly can 't see spending hundred of dollars to get them done, So Dan takes the pictures and I pose and edit them.....





Oh by the way I also now have a Facebook page for this blog!!!

Feel free to follow me here:
https://www.facebook.com/ozma0810/?ref=aymt_homepage_panel


Thanks for reading!!! Hope everyone has a safe and happy summer!!!!
Talk to you soon!! for the review of Laurel Graver's Book









PEACE

Friday, May 27, 2016

New Book To Review!! (Book introduction) Almost There By Laurel Graver

First off I would like to apologize for not doing many posts over the last few weeks, it was finals week at school, and then the kid's last days, so needless to say things have been crazy busy!! With the lazy days of summer officially here it is time to let loose!!  And what better way to do that then with a new book to review.  I was approached by author Laurel Garver a few days ago and asked to review her new book "Almost There."

Here is the blurb on the back of the book!!

Paris, the City of Lights. To seventeen-year-old Dani Deane, it’s the Promised Land. There, her widowed mother’s depression will vanish and she will no longer fear losing her only parent, her arty New York life, or her devoted boyfriend.

But shortly before their Paris getaway, Dani’s tyrannical grandfather falls ill, pulling them to rural Pennsylvania to deal with his hoarder horror of a house. Among the piles, Dani finds disturbing truths that could make Mum completely unravel. Desperate to protect her from pain and escape to Paris, Dani hatches a plan with the flirtatious neighbor boy that only threatens the relationships she most wants to save. 

Why would God block all paths to Paris? Could real hope for healing be as close as a box tucked in the rafters


So far I have read the first few chapters and I must say I am hooked, I am reading as fast as my eyes and brain can carry me, so I hope to get the review and author interview up with in the next week or so!!!

Here is the link to Ms. Graver's blog and a picture of the front cover!


Blog link:   http://laurelgarver.blogspot.com/2016/05/release-day-and-giveaway.html

Youtube video link:   



Wednesday, April 27, 2016

QUOTE MONTAGE

I finally have enough quote photos written out that I can do what I planned to do from the beginning!!! I have really wanted to put to slide show of them together set to music that I can share in a video! Today I finally did it, you may notice that there is another one in the montage that I haven't posted in my quote of the day area, it is a quote from Prince.  As I said before I wasn't a huge fan of his but since he died last week I wanted to do something to pay homage to him since I am really into music and he was a pretty famous musician!!

Hope you enjoy it!!

Peace

Tuesday, April 26, 2016

IT FINALLY CAME!!!

A few months ago I signed up on B&H (I actually say B&N in the video...oops!!!) publishing to do book reviewing, it had been so long that I actually forgot that they were going to send me one, but today I checked the mail and there it was!!! I received The Prince Warriors by Priscilla Shirer.  I am really looking forward to reading this book, the back cover makes the story sound really interesting.  

A little information about the book: it was published this year (2016) and is categorized at a christian young adult.  I am in the process of doing some further research about the author, but this appears to be the first in a trilogy so that is exciting!!!!

anyway here is the picture of the front cover:

And here is a link to the youtube video I did on the book:




Stay tuned for more on the book and more books to come!!!!




Monday, April 25, 2016

Earth Day at the Zoo

On Saturday our family celebrated earth day at the zoo.  As I said before I love earth day and this was fun, they had several booths explaining different environmental things, which was really cool, you could paint a sidewalk square, or flower pots, or watch a puppet show! It was really nice but we mainly walked around and looked at the animals. It was really cool to see my kids look at the animals and talk to the volunteers about how much they know, Cole really impressed one of them by asking if "Patrick" ( The Ball python) was done shedding his skin. It is probably just because we go so often!

Here are some pictures and a video from the event!!!








Sunday we went to a horse rescue and the kids got to pet horses, donkeys, and miniature horses!! ( I didn't get any pictures because I was busy with the kids) They really enjoyed it, This place was really amazing they rescue animals from bad situation (like going to slaughter, Something I didn't even know they did to horses) Here is the picture from their website.


All in all it was an environmentally packed weekend!! We all came home tired and took a nap!!! Now we are starting another week!!!

Have a great one everyone!!!!

Peace!!!





Saturday, April 23, 2016

Quote of the Day

Happy Earth Day!!!

Today I am doing a quote which has a special connection to earth day, I have always loved earth day and it is a day that holds a ton of significance for me.  I remember as a kid learning about how we needed to protect our planet and help it to be healthy and how sometimes we as humans aren't very good at that.

God gave us this great planet and put us in charge of protecting it.  Today and every April 23rd can be a great reminder of what we should be doing to help our earth!!


Come back later to see our earth day trip to the zoo Video!!! 

Happy earth day!!!



Friday, April 22, 2016

One song yoga #4

It's Friday again, meaning it is my day to post my normal one song yoga.

Today's one song yoga includes a lot of poses that are good for just getting out of bed and limbering up our muscles for the day!!

I really love doing these posts every week and spend a lot of time working on what song I am going to choose to go with the poses I have chosen for that week.  This week I really considered using a prince song considering his passing earlier this week, but this song by Madonna spoke to me much more for this routine.  This was a song I had honestly never heard before and I am not sure if it is one of her extremely popular ones or not.  I listened to her much more in the late 90s early 00s.

It isn't overly happy for greeting the morning, but I like the title because it shows the washing and refreshing of a new beginning.  I know not all the lyrics reflect that but oh well....:)


Hope you enjoy your new beginning every day

PEACE




Sunday, April 17, 2016

One Song Yoga 3 and a rant

So this week my computer is not working, so I am having to do my blog posts from my iPad.  Not that I am complaining, I love this thing.  It is frustrating though because we are quickly approaching the end of the semester and so this is not really the time for a computer issue.  Besides that, this is the third time in 3 months that we have had computer problems, we probably should have just bought a new one when all of this started, but alas we didn't do that. Computer issues, along with sick kids, along with end of the semester coming up leads to a fair amount of stress.

I looked online and found this one song yoga to Meghan Trainor's "All About that Base" and it definitely seemed fun!!! It is a basic sun salutation but I have found in the past that these are some of the best stress relieving poses.

As part of my seminary education we had an assignment a few months ago entitled "Discoving our Rule of life." The Rule of life is basically a regiment that we do for self care, most of us have spiritual practices such as prayer or service on or rules of life, but it can be anything that helps us to feel closer to our creator, and usually something that relieves the stress that has entered our lives..  I really think that everyone should have a rule of life, because it can help bring you back to center.

Whether you are a student, a mother, work in what ever capacity, I suggest you use this week to focus and re center...We all need it, we all have stress!

Have a great Sunday, and remember the week is just beginning!!













Friday, April 15, 2016

Kindergarten round up!



I honestly can not believe this but last night was cole's kindergarten round up!! He is so ready to start in the fall! I'm pretty sure that I will have a harder time then he will, it is really helpful that I love the teachers and the school, so much, I have compete confidence in them, plus Liam attends and Cole will be attending a magnet school, for those who don't know a magnet school is a public school that has special programs associated with it, ours is a science, fine art and music magnet school. Meaning they get special instruction in these areas, which is particularly amazing, since this school is one of only TWO in the city that has an art program at all....

The whole evening was pretty cool, the kids got to see all the science labs, and the whole thing had a wizard of oz theme, right up mine and the kids alley! 

Here is a few pics we took and a video I made up




Here is the yellow brick road leading into school....




The tornado and the witches feet at the enterence to the library 



Some of the kindergarten teachers 




Here are the flying monkeys









and......the video

Wednesday, April 13, 2016

Day in the life of a 90's school kid

I grew up in the 90s and I thought it might be fun to do sort of a "day in the life" kind of post!!




Good Morning 90s school kid!!



So you get out of bed and your sheets look like this...



















And you were wearing:



















You come down stairs for a delicious morning breakfast of;
















While you were eating you watched:














You got dressed in:
















And headed out to school in your mom's:


















You studied spelling






















math....




















and science....





















Then you went to lunch and ate out of :
















But if you were really lucky "hot" lunch might have been:
















You scarfed down your lunch so you could go out to play on the NEW play ground equipment












Came back inside and went to PE where you tried not to smash your face while riding one of these:















If you were really lucky your teacher might let you watch this in the afternoon
























Finally the school day would end, while you waited on your babysitter to come you and your friends might play this















When you got to your babysitters house probably watched this:

















our you might play:

















Or this...















finally Mom and Dad would come and get you and you would go home to have a nutritious dinner, of course if your mom was really busy your mom might give you this























Or this.....




















Then you went to dance class where you prepared for a recital where you danced to......
























Then home,  where you read this....





















until bedtime....

















Good night 90s school kid!!! See you on the flip side zzzzzzz