Bring On Lemons

Book Review: My Father’s Gardens by Karen Levy Review by Crystal J. Casavant-Otto My Father’s Gardens  is a memoir written so eloquently it reads like poetry. Levy tells the story of her upbringing and coming of age. She is an Israeli native torn between her home land and the United States just as she is torn between her warring parents. Levy writes:  Beautiful families keep ugly secrets, contained in pretty boxes.  Yet Levy herself keeps no secrets from her readers. She shares her lessons and her love through her art of storytelling.  My Father’s Gardens  is beautifully written and will tug at your heartstrings from cover to cover. Levy’s style of writing reads like the loveliest poetry. I found myself highlighting sentences and phrases because of the pictures I was able to conjure through her words: ·           Bolts of electricity mythological in proportion rip through the night skies… ·  ...

Call me sappy, emotional, goofy, awe-struck, or off my rocker. I have the best job in the world and I thank my boss every day for the opportunity to work here. The hours are tough and some of the work smells funky, but I couldn't imagine doing anything else. When my husband balances the check book he wishes I had a better paying job, but we have food on the table and I go to sleep smiling each night. My feet throb from the long hours on them, and some days I don't have time for a lunch break - someone call the department of labor Puuhleez!!!! Photo by Olivia Brey of Oh! Photography If you don't already know, I am a stay at home mom. My day starts wells before 5am and ends somewhere around midnight. Our nursling is 9 weeks old, so I'm "on call" through the night and often up just an hour or so after laying down and then again a few hours after that. I am a jack of all trades and can teach a child to tie their shoes while nursing an infant and balancing m...

WE ARE IN LOVE WITH  SUN CUPS !!! I was approached a few weeks ago about trying and reviewing a new to me product with chocolate as a main ingredient. Of course I accepted the challenge with a great big smile on my face. Sun Cups are made in Colorado, the ingredients are certified organic, and their scrumptious treats are nut and gluten free. I'll be Delicious Sun Cups honest, I was expecting them to taste terrible. We were pleasantly surprised - and it wasn't just me ... my husband loved them (the dark chocolate in particular as he said it complimented the sunflower butter quite well), the children tried a bite of each and used words like scrumptious and delicious to describe the flavor. The texture was smooth and creamy and the flavor delightful - hard to believe these could be nut and gluten free, but they are! Visit Sun Cups to place your order and try these for yourselves - you will NOT be disappointed! http://suncups.com/ http://suncups.com/

I sure got behind ... I have oodles of products to review so I'm going to group lots of them together in this post. Here goes: We either loved them or hated them...some baby items we couldn't imagine life without and some we were happy to pass along to someone else. A single star rating just means the product wasn't a good fit for our family or our lifestyle ... this doesn't mean it won't be fabulous for someone else. The views expressed on this blog are simply opinions and not written maliciously. Rock n Play by Fisher-Price We are in love with the Rock n Play - this is a versatile bassinet that is great for naps but can also be used as a bed for the newest of babies. Breccan wanted to sleep with us and couldn't get cozy in his crib or the pack and play. We received the Rock n Play as a gift and immediately we were all sleeping soundly through the night. The Rock n Play folds small enough to take along (we brought it to grandma's the day of...

As promised - here is my recipe for lactation cookies. You may want to call them something else...we've sort of decided to call them freckle cookies around here since I'm eating them to increase my milk supply to nurse our littlest whose name is Breccan. Since we lovingly call him Breckle-Freckle we thought Freckle Cookies would be a great name for these high energy cookies! Enjoy! Ingredients: 1 1/2 c. whole wheat flour 2 c. oats 1 1/2 tsp baking soda 1 tsp salt 3/4 c. almond butter 1/2 c. softened butter 1 1/4 c. flax (ground) 4 T brewer's yeast 2 tsp cinnamon 1/2 c. dark brown sugar 1/2 c. sugar 1 tsp vanilla 2 large eggs 2 c/ chocolate chips (12oz) 1 c. cashew pieces 1/3 c. water - boiling....then add 6-10 capsules of each: fenugreek and blessed thistle **stir until the capsules are dissolved and you have a thick paste of the herbs then add the paste to your mix of ingredients above Mix everything thoroughly. Pre-heat the oven to 380 degree...

Title: The Howling Heart Author: April Bostic Genre: Adult Paranormal Romance Published on August 8, 2013 by Eternal Press Length: 220 pages Synopsis: Paige Donovan is an ambitious college graduate who aspires to reach the top of the corporate ladder. She’s climbing fast when given the promotion of a lifetime at a prestigious fashion magazine in New York City. Her bright future comes to an unexpected halt after news of her father’s death. She inherits his old cabin in the Colorado Rockies, and just when she thinks her luck couldn’t get any worse, she has a car accident in the mountains and awakens in the small, remote community of Black River. Soon, she’s engulfed in the mystical world of Varulv---wolves descended from 13th century Scandinavia and blessed by Norse gods with the ability to appear human. Paige is desperate to return home, but never expects to fall for her rescuer, Riley Gray, a charming young werewolf from England who offers her an alter...

Ladies' Home Journal Essay Contest 2013 I'm in the middle of writing my own entry for a fun personal essay contest via Ladies’ Home Journal, and I thought, as a member of the writing community, my readers might want to hear a little bit more about it too!  This year's theme is "The Best Decision I Ever Made," and the contest is calling for genuine, original essays to be entered through December 6, 2013. The winner of the contest will receive $3,000 and the chance to have his/her essay published in Ladies' Home Journal (the publication reaches 10 million women each month!), and work with one of the senior editors on it. In fact (and here's why this is such a uniquely wonderful opportunity), every story is read by an editorial staffer as they judge the entries, and they have published entries that didn't win the contest as well (and paid the writers, of course). Follow this link for more details: www.lhj.com/essaycontest .

Well - things didn't go exactly as I had planned when it came to Breccan's birth. Part of me wanted to pick a date and go in for an induction (yes, I'm a control freak ... I know this about myself) and part of me wanted to just wait. I didn't want my water to break at Fleet Farm or anything like that, but I didn't want to rush things either. Or did I? I was certainly conflicted ... especially when I learned that my husband had been taken 2 weeks early and was still a 10 lb baby. I certainly knew I did not want to go past my due date. Well, I went in for a regular weekly check up on Friday, September 20th and the Doctor on call asked me to come back later in the afternoon for a re-check. I had been dialated to 4 for weeks and I seemed to be further than that and since it was a Friday it made sense to know what we were up against before the weekend rolled around. At 4pm that Friday, the Doctor sent me to the hospital to be admitted. Now I know I'm amazing, ...

Well, it's taken seven weeks to get this down on "paper", so you'll have to excuse any inaccuracies. I should preface this story by saying it is true to the best of my sleep-deprived, new mommy recollection. Breccan's birth happened Monday, September 23rd at 9:33pm but in reality, his birth story began much much sooner. Now, my gestation period is 40 weeks (same as all other humans)...so this may seem confusing at first. Breccan's birth story begins mid-October 2012, nearly a year before his official birth. Mark and I were married in August 2012 and hoped to conceive on our wedding night. We didn't conceive until mid-October and we were super excited. I remember saying "we may not have a honeymoon baby, but maybe it happened the night of your birthday!" Well, regardless of when it happened, we were excited. We went to Sneek a Peek studio in Green Bay to get an early ultrasound. It was so reassuring to see the baby's heartbeat at 6 weeks. ...