Versatile Blogger Award

Pagan Culture and Riding on a Broomstick gave me this fantastic blogging award.

I'm currently riding the backward train to see what blog started it all.

So Riding on a Broomstick also received the award from Magaly at Pagan Culture.

This is going to be like a Begat kind of list.

1. Pagan Culture received the award from Cheap Wine and Cookies and Mama's Thyme (she also received the award from Cheap Wine and Cookies and so ends here).
2. Cheap Wine and Cookies received the award from Manager to Mom
   
3. Manager to Mom received the award from Urban Granola
   
4. Urban Granola received the award from Granola Mommy of 2
   
5. Granola Mommy of 2 received the award from Mama Bird
   
6. Mama Bird received the award from Nap Time is My Time
   
7. Nap Time is My Time received the award from LiveWell, LaughOften, LoveMuch
   
8. LiveWell, LaughOften, LoveMuch received the award from Always Just a Mom
   
9. Always Just a Mom received the award from Mommy Time Out
   
10. Mommy Time Out received the award from Ooh Lala...thirty
    
11. Ooh Lala...thirty received the award from Tanya Treasure Trove
    
12. Tanya Treasure Trove received the award from Little Izzy
    
13. Little Izzy received the award from Classified: Mom
    

And with that I just can't go on anymore. lol So now onto 3 things about me before I send this out another 10 times. :)

1. Getting paid to read would be my ultimate dream job.
   
2. I started this blog just to be generally whatever I felt like talking about, but it has followed my bliss and become mostly book reviews.
   
3. I giggle and squeal when a publisher sends me a book, or the author signs it first.

Now who do I nominate?

1. Tribal Horse Designs
   
2. Our Princess in Pigtails
   
3. Octoberfarm
   
4. Confessions of a Pagan Soccer Mom
   
5. Confessions of a Modern Witch
   
6. A Cozy Reader's Corner
   
7. Lilith's Ramblings
   
8. Bringing up Salamanders
   
9. Bones, Buried Treasure and Beliefs
   
10. Chickens in the Road
    

Winning Streak!

I just wanted to take a day to express my gratitude for all the prizes I have recently won. I've really had quite the winning streak, and I'm not even counting all the books I've won at LibraryThing - which is a great website, btw.

---

First I'd like to thank Kallan Kennedy for her most generous giveaway, which I was one lucky winner. She writes the blog titled "The Secret Life of the American Working Witch". I won a prosperity pouch and a cookbook, she included some incense, a candle and a trillium seed packet.

With my gift certificate to Pagan Stuff Cheap I purchased a triple moon altar cloth, Dual Panther Letter Openers, Necromantic Ritual Book by Leilah Wendell (which I can't find on the site anymore), and a clover pocket stone (which I can't seem to find).

---

From Magaly's blog Pagan Culture I was so lucky. I won a couple of books, super-cute earrings and an Etsy gift certificate.

The earrings are from Whimsy Beading and sell for $60!!! And of course I chose a god/goddess from Carioca Witch on Etsy, I finally settled on Hades-and I can't wait to meet him!
The books are Daughters of the Stone and Myka the Goddess Witch. I already reviewed Myka - not very good. But I'm really looking forward to reading Daughters of the Stone.

---

I won a couple of book from the The Circle of Balanced Witches, given to her by Weiser Books.

---

And for my final win - over at Jon's blog, which was Me vs. College but has since changed to All Rocks go to Heaven - as Jon won the college battle! Yeah Jon!
I won an alligator head from Kel at The Monkey Heart Discourses. She was sweet in her wrapping, which included a very Mardi Gras feather boa, and a sleep pouch to aid in better rest. It was a great win, as my son loves the head and so did all his classmates.

---

All websites listed in this blog entry:

• LibraryThing
• Pagan Stuff Cheap
• Pagan Culture
  
• Etsy



• Whimsy Beading



• Carioca Witch



• The Circle of Balanced Witches



• Weiser Books



• All Rocks go to Heaven



• The Monkey Heart Discourses

Review - The Pregnancy Test

No! Not this one...
This one...
by Melissa Heckscher, Emily Sikking
Amazon.com Paperback - $9.11
Amazon.com Kindle - $8.65
Barnes & Noble Paperback - $9.11Barnes & Noble Nook - $9.99


More than 150 serious questions from real moms-to-be, including:

• Can I ride a rollercoaster in my first trimester?
• Is it safe to pump my own gas?
• Why is hair growing around my belly button?
• Can I get pregnant when I’m already pregnant?
• If I’m stung by a bee, can it hurt the baby?
• If my baby only weighs one pound, why have I gained 15?

Test your own maternity savvy—then turn the page and find out what the experts say!

Being pregnant is no joke. So why are your family and friends laughing at so many of your questions about it? As an expectant mom, you need to know whether it’s okay to pump your own gas. You need to know whether one little cup of coffee will make your baby come out all jittery. That’s why authors Melissa Heckscher and Dr. Emily Sikking have prepared The Pregnancy Test: part multiple-choice quiz and part maternity reference book, offering carefully researched and informative answers to the most important, embarrassing, and slightly neurotic questions every mom-to-be has ever wondered. At long last—the whole truth about what to expect while you’re expecting!

---

This book rocks! I wish I had been able to read this when I first started trying to get pregnant, or just when I was expecting. It's so much more honest, unapologeticly so.

• Will you poop when you deliver? Yeah, pretty much.
• Can you still have sex? Yes and chances are your orgasm will be the best ever!
• When do you have to tell your boss you are pregnant? Legally it's none of their business, ethically you might hurt some feelings if you don't tell.

And one that affected me personally...

• What if you get pregnant while on the pill?

Oh yes you can get pregnant while on the birth control pill, just ask Ivan. It shouldn't affect the baby at all, but stop taking them once you know you are pregnant (DUH!).

This book would make a great "congratulations on your pregnance!" present. I'd say shower gift, but it would be better to have earlier in the pregnancy than later. It really was a great book full of information that will benefit the pregnant woman and her partner. My husband picked this up and started reading it one day I took it to a restaurant, he couldn't put it down..."this is fascinating!" he said.

Book Review - The Last Letter

Amazon.com - $10.07
Kindle Edition - $0.99
Barnes & Noble - $10.07
Nook Edition - $0.99

Katherine wouldn’t have believed it if she hadn’t found the letter...

Katherine Arthur's mother arrives on her doorstep, dying, forcing her to relive a past she wanted to forget. When Katherine was young, the Arthur family had been affluent city dwellers until shame sent them running for the prairie, into the unknown. Taking her family, including young Katherine, to live off the land was the last thing Jeanie Arthur had wanted, but she would do her best to make a go of it. For Jeanie's husband Frank it had been a world of opportunity. Dreaming, lazy Frank. But, it was a society of uncertainty—a domain of natural disasters, temptation, hatred, even death. 



Ten-year-old Katherine had loved her mother fiercely, put her trust in her completely, but when there was no other choice, and Jeanie resorted to extreme measures on the prairie to save her family, she tore Katherine’s world apart. Now, seventeen years later, and far from the homestead, Katherine has found the truth – she has discovered the last letter. After years of anger, can Katherine find it in her heart to understand why her mother made the decisions that changed them all? Can she forgive and finally begin to heal before it’s too late?

---

This story is AWESOME. Let's start at the beginning, the cover is very simple, with the young girl in a simple white dress on the prairie. The story itself has excellent flow and the words are woven so that I would at times forget I was reading and just see the story move through me.

There are 2 main characters in this book. Katherine, the daughter and Jeanie, her mother. It starts in Des Moines, Iowa in 1905 with Katherine and her husband, Aleksey. He brings her mother and her mentally challenged sister, Yale to live with them. His idea because Katherine has never forgiven her mother for breaking up the family. Her mother is dying of cancer, but Katherine is really bitter.

It then jumps back to 1887 in the Dakota territory. Jeanie and her husband Frank have just arrived on the prairie to start a new life. Running away from the shame she faced surrounding her father's death and business dealings. Unfortunately she learns that life here is far too rough and unforgiving to allow for a man to be lazy and moody - which she comes to realize Frank is. Actually what she figures out is she no longer has the time to cover for him. They are lucky that they end up with great neighbors and form a cooperative to help each other.

Now Frank pulls some other stuff beyond just being a lazy-good-for-nothing and why she doesn't just push him down a hole, I'll never know. They had 3 children when they came and she was pregnant with another. Having had a hard time with all previous pregnancies, she does her best with what she has. The baby is born very early, too early but Jeanie fights for her Yale. This woman fights, and fights and fights for her children, and the 2 that were with her that year in the Dakotas grew up hating and resenting her for driving their father away.

It is a sad tale, although still beautiful. I also enjoyed all the detail of what a hard life it was to be a pioneer in the Dakotas. How people made a success of it was in part just pure dumb luck, because the land doesn't seem to help at all.

So, go pick up this book - I am giving it 5 stars and permanently adding it to my library to enjoy again and again.


update - This book just won an IPPY award, which I hear is like an Emmy for Independent writers. Mid-West – Best Regional Fiction-Gold!!!

Sunday Stealing - The "You Can't Be Missed" Meme, Part 2

Cheers to all of us thieves!

16. What was the last thing you did that was totally selfish, yet you feel no guilt? I sat playing the Sims 3 while my husband single-handedly dressed the boys to take them shopping. Why don't I feel guilty? Because during the week when I ask him to help me he stays in bed and then goes to the bathroom...neither of those options help! ;)

17. Tell us about a film fave of yours that we probably have not seen. Wristcutters, just saw this one recently...loved it...let's just say they aren't lying when they say "dark comedy."

18. When was the last time you kissed someone that you shouldn't have on the lips? I don't think that I have ever...oh no not true...but that is so not getting shared here. Chris it was before you - no worries.

19. When was the last time you cooked something for someone not in your family? Nope, can't think of anything on this one. I'm a close to home kinda gal.

20. When was the last time you danced like a crazy person? Oh let's see...sometime last week I swung around with Ivan.

21. When was the last time you just wanted to be invisible? Couple weeks ago, but I get this often, and I think I'm actually pretty good at pulling it off.

22. When was the last time you got a gift you absolutely hated? Oh now I'd have to get a gift for that to happen. ;) Well I guess I could count all the contests I've won, people usually give you an extra trinket. But I love that kind of stuff, I've never gotten anything I totally hate because I actually do appreciate the effort (weird, huh?)

23. When was the last time you got into a physical fight? (If NEVER, let us know about a time that you got close to a fight.) Let's see, I was 6 or 7...it was this snotty neighborhood girl that just wouldn't back off. So we started fighting and it ended when I yanked out a fist-full of her pretty blond lochs. Then I felt really bad and so never fought again.

24. When was the last time you had to sleep with a light on? Well, if by light we count the TV it is anytime that Chris is gone overnight. I do NOT like being alone.

25. When was the last time you were under some serious stress? I am now, trying to live on less when the price of everything is going up, but not our income.

26. When was the last time you watched your favorite movie? Last week? The Other Guys...god that's so good!

27. What song did you most recently downloaded? Styx Greatest Hits and a Lionel Richie album

28. What would you say is your favorite hobby? knitting...which I can't do thanks to carpel tunnel...then it's crochet...which is also getting harder to do.

29. What is your favorite thing to do when you hang out with friends? Just talk and laugh

30. What would you rather do: shower or bathe with that celebrity that you are crushing on? shower before bath after.