Fun times ( a little late for halloween)

 Today my son and daughter got their creative juices flowing! I guess this is a benefit of being homeschoolers! but here is a guy they call bonezer! Hope everyone as fun a day as we are!!

New Hair

One of the fun things about having a girl is getting to do hair! And my daughter has A LOT of amazing hair to do! Here are some of the recent pics of hair that we have done 💔💔

                                                          Style that Caroline did herself 😀

                                                 Fish tail braid that I did.

What I got my 8 year old daughter for her birthday!

 So my sweet little girl just turned 8!! I really can't believe it! Since I am planning to to continue ho use this as a bit of a journal I wanted to go ahead and post what we got her.  that way many years from now I can look back and remember what she got and the wonderful day that she had.  It might even remind me of some of the amazing things she was into at this age!

unicorn pillow

unicorn blanket 

face painting set

clay cakes maker

earrings(lots and lots of ear rings)

Rainbow high dolls (pink and purple)

disney shirts

50 dollars

fashion plates

doll books

It seems like she didn't really want a whole lot of "toys" this year it was mostly gown up girl stuff :( makes me sad and happy at the same time!

Direction change

 Hi. all!

It has been so long but I just wanted to write really quickly.  A lot has changed since the last time I wrote on here, one major thing that has happened is that I graduated from school I am now officially a licensed addiction counselor! I plan to do some life style stuff on here about that career at some point because I would love to bring more awareness to addiction and how it can effect people.  Secondly, My husband and I have been working together on our weight loss journey and I am happy to report that we have lost combined somewhere in the neighborhood of 150 lbs!!! It is pretty cool! I am hoping to post some pics of us soon! The next thing that is happening is kind of related. We have been on the adoption/ foster care train for a while and just decided that we might want to go on aa fertility journey.  Our hope is to get pregnant and possibly adopt a child with special needs at the same time! I know it sounds like a lot but this has been my dream for a long time. This month I will be starting a course of letrozol with a trigger shot.  I plan to post a lot on here because I kind of want to keep a journal of what is going on! 

Hope everyone is safe and happy and anticipating the end of 2020! I know I aam!

Update!

Very quick update, but since I am trying to keep a record for myself I will say, We got a phone call from the DCF social worker on Thursday, He will be coming to do our FINAL home visit on Wednesday at 3 PM, I am super excited and super nervous for this journey to start! We have a few things to do this weekend but not that much!


HERE GOES NOTHING!

K12 homeschool day in the life

for a long time I have been wanting to film a day in the life of what it is like for us with our 3 kids homeschooling.  I made a youtube video on Saturday (yes we did school) hope you enjoy it!

Foster Parent Room Progression

So I have no before pictures to show, but I want to document this journey for you and for myself honestly, and decided that I would just put the information here.  We had an inspection done by our social worker about a week ago and DCF will be coming out in a few weeks to do our final one, after that our home will officially be OPEN.  We will probably be licensed for 3 to 4 kids depending on how things go and I hope to take a sibling set of at least 3.  Again this journey is complicated so I can't tell you anything about number, ages or genders of the children we will get but my biggest hope is still that we will find a sibling group that can join our family sooner rather than later.  I will keep you updated as we go!
Below you will see the pics

A lot of people I am sure are going "WHY in the world did you get a CRIB!! There is no way you are going to get a baby that is young enough to need one or young enough to sleep in your room." or at least that was my reaction and we actually have a crib that my daughter and one of my sons slept, BUT our social worker specifically asked that we get one so that the DCF worker can license us for children under the age of one. since I specifically said that I am ok with taking babies who are born addicted.

This is our extra room all set up.  No, we do not have any bedding on the beds yet.  I didn't think that a 5-year-old girl would want the same thing as a 2-year-old boy!

Anyway, there you have it! I will keep you updated as we go!!!!

PEACE

YouTube Gossip: My thoughts

I have been a long time viewer of different youtube videos and different Vlogger channels, and I know it seems a little weird to take this kind of thing outside of the YouTube world, but I just wanted to write this because lately, I have noticed a lot of drama surrounding a particular couple of YouTubers who are making some choices that might be seen as not the best thing for their kids. and I was just wondering why it is that we all let ourselves get sucked into this? Are we that invested in these peoples lives that when something happens to them we take it as a personal insult? Do we just have nothing better to do? And then you have all of these other channels jumping on board and sharing their thoughts on these peoples life choices? It really just doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me...Several years ago, there was all the controversy about families like the Duggars and John and Kate Gosselin.  That I kind of understood because those people were choosing to put their lives and their kids lives on National TV.  So is YouTube reaching that level? I don't know. 

Now there are some channels that yes I think are truly putting their kids in danger, I won't name any names but there is a particular YouTuber who has two children who are adopted and have special needs and I truly feel that SRS should be called and all of those children should be removed. The house is a mess, the kids are not well cared for...the whole deal.

When you compare that to a family where the children are being cared for but maybe she got into a new relationship too quickly and got pregnant again fast, and you put those two people (comparing the two families) on the same level, I believe that is a problem.  I mean, my husband and I were only together 2 months before we moved to together, and he had JUST gotten out of a relationship...now, of course, the difference is that we didn't have any children.

Anyway, I am not going to name any names of these YouTubers because honestly on the part of the first family I mentioned I don't want her to get any extra views. 

Some people might think it is really stupid for me to write a post like this but honestly, I just needed to get some thoughts out!

Thanks for Listening!!!

PEACE

Back To School K12 haul

This year I have a 2nd grader and a 5th grader going back to school! for those who don't know we homeschool through the K12 system, so it is basically public school online, we personally love the program and it works great for our family because it is such a structured program. We do have a couple of other things that we waiting for (my oldest's reading program) but I wanted to go ahead and let you see what we got so far!

Math supplies and the listing of supplies for my 2nd grader!

My 5th grader opening his box!!

Back to school, First Aid, and a surgery

This has been a really eventful week for our family.  My kids received their boxes form K12 of their school materials for the year, I will be posting a "haul" of sorts showing you what was in them! My daughter had surgery to repair her eardrum from a retained ear tube and then we had something very interesting happen!

Most of you probably know that we are in the process of becoming foster to adopt parents.  A process that I intend to take you on as we get closer and closer to doing so.  Tuesday night we completed one of the last steps, finishing up our first aid class.  I had been dreading this class for a long time, but actually going wasn't as bad as I expected.  I also got a good look at why we were going to take this step.  The place where the class was head was our agency's main office. While we were there I saw a couple of kids come in and meet with their foster parents.  I saw a young teen crying when she was reunited with a foster mother she had been with before.  I saw biological parents coming in for meetings with their children and then leaving with tears running down their faces.  This is a heart-wrenching journey, I know that. Even though I have no idea what we are facing I know that it will be unexpected but as I told my husband when I left the building.  "I don't know if I can ever walk into that building again without walking out without a child who needs somewhere to go."

Controversial parenting tag

Hi All,

Several years ago, I saw several of this 'tag" being posted on youtube. A lot of people got a lot of hate for what they said but I felt like it was kind of a nice way to get to know some of my favourite mommy youtubers.  So decided to write out some of my opionions.  Keep in mind these are only MY OPINIONS so if you do things differently that is great and I still think you are a good mom and a good person.  I will post the questions in the comments so if you want to answer the questions on your blog go for it and you can post where you did it too and I would really enjoy looking it up! Thanks so much, guys!!! 

PEACE

1. Pro-life VS Prochoice

Soooo we are starting off with a really easy one (eye roll) I guess that is why they call it controversial...I consider myself pro-choice, I have no problem if you feel the other way about it at all and in fact, I understand.  I personally would never choose to have an abortion myself however in certain situations I think it is warranted and I believe that it should be legal so that they can be obtained without causing the woman to get a major infection.  The biggest problem I have with a lot of the pro-life camp is that often times it seems that they want these babies born but then do not care if the child goes without medical care or food.

2.  Baby Wearing

I'm all for babywearing in any situation, and I wore all three of my kids when they were little, I always wanted to do it for longer but never seemed to be able to find a wrap that I liked and really fit well.  If we get a foster /adoptive child young enough I definitely plan to wear them to help with bonding.

3.  Circumcision 

This is one of those things I am pretty passionate about.  All I will say is that I am against doing it because I feel like that should be left up to the owner of the penis.  

4.  Adoption

Well on this one we are in the process to do foster to adopt so I am all for it.  I don't care where you get them, (Ie from the US or some other country) a child is a child is a child.

5.  Baby Piercing

This I am assuming means like piercing a babies ears, I am not against it if a parent wants to pierce their ears, however, I did not get my daughter's done when she was a baby.  I feel like I can have a special day with her when she decides that she wants to have her ears pierced. So I am kind of looking forward to that.

6.  Breastfeeding- Vs Formula feeding

I breastfed 2 and formula fed one.  I do think it is best to breastfeed if you can, but if not as long as they are fed I think its great.

7.  Cry it out method

I don't agree with it. In my opinion, if a baby is crying they need something.

8.  Spanking

Spanking to me is just a form of bullying because you are bigger then they are.  I think there are better ways to teach your child right from wrong.

9.  Co-Sleeping

I co-slept with all of my kids and I think it was a great experience. and I would do it again in a heartbeat.  It helped me a lot with bonding after my c-sections and I wouldn't have done it any other way.  I am a very light sleeper so I have never worried about rolling over on them or anything. But it actually allowed me to get beter sleep then I would have if they were in another room.

10.  Home vs private vs public vs charter schooling

Well our schools around here are awful and we homeschool through K12 so I guess we are kind of doing home and public schooling.  I don't really have a strong opinion on this.  If it works for your family I say do it.

11. Vaccinations

My kids are fully vaccinated except for the flu shot.  If I had to do it over again I would probably vaccinate them but on a delayed schedule.

12.  Medicating Children

This one I have a pretty strong opinion on.  I think under the age of 5 meds are a BAD idea, try other options like therapy or natural methods.  After 5, I still would not do it unless they really really needed it.

13.  cloth vs disposable diapers

I cloth diapered and would again but I don't have a problem with either.

14.  Store bought vs homemade baby food

As long as they are fed I think it's fine, although I would probably do child led weaning if I had another baby that age



So there you have it the "controversial parenting tag"


Hope everyone is having a good weekend!!!

PEACE

Kitten foster

Hi All!

I am currently working on a new book review that I plan to have up for you in just a few days, (waiting on the author questions to come back) but I wanted to tell you a little bit about being a kitten foster mom.  My kids, husband and I started fostering kittens about a year ago, and so far we have raised 3 litters.  Today we got our 4th, a family (mama with 4 kittens) of beautiful tortious shells.  I never dreamed that I would like doing this as much as I have but it does my heart so much good! it is fun to cuddle the little fluff balls and watch them grow up so they can be adopted by good families, I also feel like it is good practice for the foster to adopt journey that we are about to embark on.

Someday I want to do a day in the life of a kitten foster mom for you guys because it is time-consuming! but if you love animals try it out! They always need foster parents for animals.


Thanks for reading all!
PEACE

Quote of the day

A few years ago I tried to do these all the time and I really enjoyed it, since I have been in school I haven't really had the time but I decided a while ago that I was going to start it up again.  Since I have a lot of authors who look at my blog I decided to do a quote for today that had to do with writing. sometimes it can be hard to be a writer, and you need a little encouragement.  So here you go! If you are a writer know I am thinking about you! 

Have a great Day (Or night!)

PEACE

July Favorites!!

HELLO EVERYONE!!!

Hope all of you are doing well.  where I live it is a HOT and HUMID July, but we are almost done so I guess that is a plus! I have seen quite a few bloggers and YouTubers do postings like this so I thought I would give it a try. (Just so you know I wasn't paid to sponsor any of these brands they are just ones that I have loved this month and wanted to share with you guys.  I would also like to do an August favourite on books in addition to products I have been enjoying so stay tuned for that! I am currently reviewing a new book so that will be coming out later this week, I have a final due on Tuesday, and both my parents are having surgery.  Hope all of you are doing great!!!

1st up, (and these are in no particular order.) is Ayr nasal gel, and I know this is going to sound weird but I honestly have not been able to live without this stuff this summer, my daughter has large blood vessels in her nose, something she will be having surgery for next month, but these vessels cause her nose to bleed.  This stuff has literally kept her nose from bleeding, a huge plus for me since it can be kind of scary when she has one.

next up is cactus water shampoo by Hask I have always loved trying out different shampoos and my hair is pretty temperamental so finding one that works well for me is really hard. But this stuff is so awesome! And by the way, it is also nice not to have to use a whole bottle of shampoo to make my hair feel clean, an issue I have faced more times then I can count.

OK now, this next one is pretty silly honestly but I really do love them.  They are the little plastic cups that they sell at Walmart in the party aisle, at the beginning of the summer I got one for each of my kids in their favourite characters, and they have used them since the beginning! best 97 cents I have ever spent.

Now we have the Method all purpose cleaner, now I know I am a little late to the party on this one but honestly this stuff is amazing and I know I am going to be buying it all the time!

one of the last things that I am going to mention are these Kid's crocks I got a pair of these for each of my kids and I am so glad I did.  They wear this swimming and with any kind of water play.  They are pretty ugly but they do the job!

I also have a picture of the swimming suit that I got at Target, This thing is awesome and I was able to get the top in one size and the bottom in another one to fit my crazy body!! I honestly feel comfortable in this thing and I don't think I have ever been able to say that about a swimming suit before..So if you are in the market, go there!

So remember how I made a big deal about how my hair is weird?? Well, my skin is even worse.  This is something I have used for quite a while but since I have never done this before I thought I would feature it! Clinique dramatically different lotion is pretty awesome stuff and it actually makes my skin look healthy, a problem I have faced since I was a teenager!

There are two final things I am going to talk about one is The coppertone sheer spray and the last is the flip flops that are shown in the picture on the left.  The spray is something I have had for a super long time, all my kids are very fair skinned and burn super easy so this stuff really helps when we go swimming or walking or what ever we are doing in the summer months!

Now the flip flops, these are probably the best flip flops I have ever gotten and I got them completely by acciednet! A friend of mine and I were walking around Downtown in our city and my feet were killing me, I went into the first store I saw and found these flip flops! They have held up and they are amazingly comfotable, they probably arent the cutest thing ever unless you are a KU Jayhawk fan but  I would buy them again a thousand times!!!

So there you have it my July Favorites!!

This was kind of fun! Talk to you all soon!!!

PEACE

IM BAAAAACK

Hi All!
So sorry for the long delay, I apologize for taking so long off! I guess that is the life of a homeschool, in school, book blogger, mamma! I will be looking through my email tonight and responding to several of you who have asked for reviews, and hope to get back to you! Again I apologize for the long break but I have several postings planned for the upcoming months and I hope to include SEVERAL book reviews!

Thank you all for your understanding!!!

War World By Rod C Spence

Hi All!

I just wanted to do a quick into for the book War World By Rod C Spence.  Over my winter break I was approached to review this book and it has taken me quite a long time to actually finish it it! Bt now I have so I feel confident in being able to finish up my review!

 Below I will post the blurb from the back of the book as well as a short intro about the author! This is a good one guys so heads up!

Jeremy Austin never asked to save a planet--it's bad enough being a "B" average student as the son of a world-famous geneticist for crying out loud! He didn't ask to be attacked by Gnome assassins, didn't choose to become food for a prehistoric monster, would never have thought consorting with wizards a wise concept, and he definitely would never, ever sign up to do sword combat against the bloodthirsty Gnome King. 

Note to self: say NO to portals and wormholes. 

His father's expedition to a planet 2.4 million light years from Earth has gone missing. Jeremy and five high school friends embark on a rescue mission. Surrounded by an army of mercenaries, they travel through a high-tech portal and discover a nightmare planet on the other side--a violent world of alien races and man-eating monsters--a world in despair; anxiously awaiting the arrival of a savior who will defeat the evil Shadow Lord. 


For Jeremy, the search for his father becomes lost in a struggle for survival... and escape from those who would put the mantel of planet savior on his shoulders.


About the Author: (From Amazon)

ROD C. SPENCE is the author of the War World series and has spent decades as a creative cog in that great machine called television. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger, right? From the highs of 3 Emmy nominations as an editor on CBS's Survivor to a different kind of high on MTV's Jersey Shore, he's honed his storytelling skills on real people in unreal situations and has been blessed to work with some incredible people along the way. 

And then there's the film obsession thing. 

He loved filmmaking so much he chose to spend several decades writing screenplays in the motion picture business that many survivors have compared to getting steamrolled in a bed of broken glass… on a good day. Spence also chose to write screenplays in a multitude of film genres—a no-no according to one writer's agent… and the agent was probably right, although, because this agent also recommended Linda Seger's book, Making a Good Script Great, the agent is to be commended and hugged. 

For the record, the genre's Spence chose were fun to work in: High Noon, a remake of the 1952 classic (action), DIG (youth sports drama), Section Eight (comedy), Carny Princess (romantic/musical/thriller), Carville (period drama/romance), The Man Next Door (thriller), Truth Or Die (action), Fiend (supernatural thriller), Triple Threat (martial arts/action), and Maynard (family). 

So what if he’s had to extract a few pieces of broken glass? It’s been a wild ride.

Spence has recently turned his attentions to completing his first novel. The evolution of War World was birthed from his love of science fiction thrillers by Michael Crichton and the fantasy novels of Tolkein and Terry Brooks. The story and characters expanded over time and what was once a single novel has grown to become a multi-book series. Drawing upon his years writing screenplays, Spence crafted a host of characters he believes readers will love to spend time with and in a world as complex as it is mysterious. War World’s cast may not be as crazy as those on the Jersey Shore but whether there is a Survivor amongst the high school students by series end… only time will tell.

Family blog!! Fun with Fall

Hi All,
So this is going to be just a picture heavy blog.  Last Thursday was Thansgiving so we had a family day.  It wasnt a huge deal, Just me, Hubby, Kids and my mom but everyone had a good time and I feel like we need to really soak up these years because they are slipping away fast.

As you can see the boys chose "In leaf pics" and Caroline who is a little more prim and proper chose sitting on top of the leaves wearing her halloween Elsa costume.  Everyone had a fun time and shockingly I did not over eat.  I am currently intermentant fasting trying to lose some of that pesky baby weight that has been hanging around since Caroline was born.  It is going well! Some day I will write a whole blog about the process and let you guys know what it has been like....

Christmas Holidays are fast approaching and I am looking very much forward to what the new year will bring!!! Hopefully many fun surprises to come!!!

Gearing Up for doing a Blog every day of December (I shamelessly stole the name Blogamus from YOUTUBE)  Remember if you have a short peace of fiction, non fiction, fanfiction, what ever (Im not picky) that you would like to have reviewed email me it soon so I can get you on the schedule!!!

Here is my email if you need it ozma0810@gmail.com

PEACE and LOVE

Event you might be interested in.

So this event is just a few days away and is something that I think many of you might be interested in!

"Bestselling author Gayle Forman will be joining Inkitt for a free, live event in Manhattan at 7pm on Nov. 30th. Gayle will be sharing her top tips for writers, doing a Q&A, and signing books. All are welcome to attend! You can RSVP by clicking here: https://www.meetup.com/meetup-group-QfRAWtAU/"

If you live in the Manhattan area you can RSVP from the link and attend the event if you don't and you still want to attend (Like me) you can attend through Facebook Live stream... Here is that link. : www.facebook.com/inkitt

I don't live in the area, so I will be attending through the blog Facebook page...I will send the link for that also.  If you see me there, please feel free to message me and introduce yourself! I would to "Virtually meet some of you!

https://www.facebook.com/ozma0810/

Here is a graphic about the event!

HOPE ALL OF YOU ARE WELL!!! 

PEACE!!!!

"Authors Talk About It" Book award contest

Hi All,

So I know a much larger amount of you look at this blog then those I actually am able to do reviews for.  I have always said that the reason I do these reviews is so that I can help authors grow in their popularity.  I recently found out about the "Authors talk about it" Book award contest.  I wouldn't promote this if I didn't honestly think it would help some of you out. 

Here is some quick information about the contest!

Do you ever wish you could find amazing help with your book without having to give up your first born to afford it? You want feedback - is your book any good? what’s amazing in it? what could make it better? what needs work?

Guess what? If you enter the 2018 ATAI Book Award Contest, you get all of that…and it’s ONLY $45. That’s freaking crazy. 

Their team writes a thorough 250-350 word critique of your book, and they include a scoring rubric with notes for each section they score.

Wait, there’s more! You get to enter your book in either General Fiction or Nonfiction AND up to three more categories - all of that is included for one low entry fee! So, you get to enter your book in up to four categories. You’ll get one critique, but you could have four chances of winning one of their amazing prizes for finalists, let alone for the winners.

Seriously, this is an awesome way to get more eyes on your book and get professional support for a super low investment that you just can’t find anywhere else!

Jump over and check it out right now.

Just click here!

PEACE

Happy Birthday BABY!

Last Monday was my baby girls 4th birthday! I really don't know where time went! The party was fun, small like most of our parties! Cant wait to see what this next year brings in her life! I am looking forward to sharing it with all of you!