Perfect Coloring Book for Adults

Adult coloring books are all the rage right now. 
I know that I received two personally for Christmas gifts this year, my daughter received two, my sister one or two, and my mom also received one. 
I must admit that I love coloring. I always have. Whenever my daughter (she's six, but loves the sophsticated designs in the adult books) asks me to choose something to do, I would without a doubt always choose coloring. I've always found it relaxing and this year when everyone else seemed to catch on board, I was more than pleased to jump in on the action!
When I first came across this book I found the designs beautiful and the words just as much so. Quotes are also popular, especially for me, and having the combination of the designs and words together seemed too perfect. 
I was right!
This coloring book has wonderful quotes and words that you can reflect on while coloring. Instead of mindlessly drifting away while filling in the pages, the words seem to sink into your head and you get a chance to really think. 
I received this book for myself and immediately when I opened it I knew that I had to get one for my sister. I quickly jumped onto Amazon and ordered one to give her with the rest of her Christmas gift. She was excited to see the designs as she flipped through the book after opening it. 
If you are looking for a book with great words to really make you think, and then allows you to occupy yourself by creating beautiful art...then this is the perfect book for you!

**I received this book from bloggingforbooks in exchange for an honest review**

First Grade for my Little Lady

Last night was tough.
It was bedtime and suddenly the reality of going back to school hit my daughter like a ton of bricks.
All of August, whenever asked if she was ready for school, she would answer that she is very excited to go back! I mean, that's the right answer.
But last night the excitement faded.
Nervousness snuck its way into her body.

Look at that adorable smile this morning before we loaded up and headed to the elementary school! Adorable!

Last night however, that face was full of tears. 

Sad tears because she would be away from her mama all day.

Scared tears because she doesn't know her teacher.

Nervous tears because she doesn't know a lot of the kids her class yet.

Worried that we wouldn't be there to pick her up on time after school.

I tried all the usual mommy lines.

"You'll be okay. I'll be there to pick you up as soon as the day is over."

"Everyone is going to be scared and nervous, too."

"Your teacher is super sweet! Remember at back to school night, she was so nice."

None of those lines were helping.

Then she broke my heart.

"Do you think Grandpa will be proud of me for being in first grade?"

DO YOU HEAR THE SOUND OF MY HEART SHATTERING?!

She then proceeded to ask for the 5x7 photograph of my grandparents that she has sitting on her nightstand. Not sure what she was going to do, she hugged the picture, then laid the frame down next to her on her pillow and said, "I just wish Grandpa was here to see me go to school."

Tears came out of my eyes so quickly I had no time to react. 

She saw me crying. Which is okay. I never try to hide my tears from her. It's just she was so upset, I didn't want to make it worse for her.

I assured her that Grandpa IS so proud of her, even though he isn't physically here. He lives in her heart and he will be with her all day during her first day of school

She then asked if Grandma would be and if Grandpa Randy would be also.

I assured her that they would be right there with her.

"I wish I knew Grandma and Grandpa Randy. You love them so much, I just want to know them." she told me. 

Grandpa Randy is what she calls my dad. He died when I was fifteen, so she obviously never got the chance to meet him. Then my Grandma died just six months after him. Grandpa to her, is really her great-grandpa - the guy who took over raising my after dad and grandma passed on. Grandpa was her biggest supporter. 

She satisfied by my answer. Gave each of their faces a kiss on the glass in the frame and handed me the picture to place back in its spot.

All at once she seemed a bit better. 

I kissed her again and left her room after telling her about twenty more times how much I love her. 

A short while later she showed up in my bed and asked to just snuggle a bit. I couldn't say no to her, and she fell asleep within moments of lying down.

This morning she woke up eager and excited to go to school! 

"I don't think I will cry after all." she said through a mouthful of Cocoa Pebbles cereal. 

She then made sure we had her sparkly earrings and necklace on, a new pink and brown leather bracelet she just got at the Girl Scout store on her wrist and her new ankle boots on her feet. We took our snapshots and she was ready to go!

On our way to school she was all smile. Especially when we came across a friend and her mom walking to school. By the time we parked and crossed the crosswalk, we met up and all walked into the building together. 

Here's the thing that made it so much more special to me. 

The friend's great-grandpa was walking with them also. He was videotaping it all. The girls walking, stopping for this snapshot:

And being part of the big first day of first grade morning.

The great-grandpa happens to be one of the guys my grandpa considered a dear friend. 

The man was at my wedding. He was part of my childhood when I would tag along to "coffee club" with my grandpa. 

I never said anything, I just let him do his thing, knowing in some way my grandpa is part of this special day, just like I promised my daughter. A dear friend is enough for me. 

No tears were shed from my girl or from me (especially not my hubs who was eager to get out and start shooting clay pigeons on this beautiful day), until now. When I am sitting and thinking about how wonderful it is that my girl knows her heart is bursting with love from those who aren't here with us physically. Tonight I'll let her know that her friend's grandpa was also a friend of her grandpa and I know she will see the special connection. 

Go rock the first grade, Sophia. Your sense of humor, natural empathy, mix of sweetness, shyness and orneriness will take you far in life. I am so proud of you already. Your dad is so proud of you. We all are. Your light is bright and you make life beautiful.

The No More Excuses Diet by Maria Kang

I have spent many years always creating fitness goals for myself...only to fail. After reading Maria Kang's book "the No More Excuses Diet" I realize how my goals were always doomed to fail from the start. 
I never really laid out a plan for myself on just how I would reach my weight-loss goals. I just said to myself "I'm going to lose X amount of pounds by such-and-such date." That was it. I mentally told myself I would consume less, work out more, and yet it never ever happened. The lifestyle change is overwhelming and I never wanted to see it as something that was hard to do - or that I was actually going to be overhauling my entire eating/exercising habits that have been ingrained in me for as long as I can remember. 
The 3-day, then 3-week, and finally 3-month approach is realistic. I have always heard that it takes 21 days to create a habit, so it makes sense that breaking down the diet/exercise goals into segments works. 
Kang's tips on actually marking the goal dates on a calendar is so simple, yet something I never really bothered doing before. 
Everything is helpful in this book. I know it is going to be hard, and she doesn't sugar-coat that it will be. 
I have read the book in it's entirety, marking the points I wanted to remember, and now I am going back taking it step-by-step. I just completed the 3-days and am working towards the 3-week mark. So far so good. I am anxious to finish my first 3 weeks and continue on. It is obtainable and Maria Kang's words repeat over-and-over until you understand the importance of eliminating the sugars (giving up the soda a day or the dessert every night), but these things can still be enjoyed - as long as you know how to work for it. 
I've never bought a diet book before, nor actually read one - but this is one that I feel works, and it doesn't eliminate foods from your diet (such as Atkins) or make you do crazy things (juice fasts), instead it focuses on your own personal goal and teaching you how to zero in on it and reach it.

*I received this book from bloggingforbooks.com in exchange for an honest review*

Teacups Shouldn't Make You Cry

Time is moving quickly and I am now in a new writing workshop for school...nonfiction to be exact.
I have never dabbled in nonfiction writing.
I guess I figured it would be too difficult. I was right. It is difficult.
After reading short nonfiction works in the book The Best Creative Nonfiction Vol. 1 I have learned there really isn't a right or a wrong way to write it.
It doesn't need to be long, can focus on only one event, and doesn't have to be negative.
Reading Telling True Stories has taught me that when writing memoirs, we tend to focus on the negative and try not to make it good. I have always done this. I think that is why I never liked writing nonfiction. I mean, who doesn't have a ton of bad stories about growing up.
But, after reading so many great short nonfiction stories, I realized that spinning it into a positive creates a great story.
I tried this theory for my first writing assignment - a short story nonfiction piece that took a low point in my childhood, that honestly has haunted me since it has happened - and spun it into a positive.
I have been practicing this form of writing now since I started this piece and I am finding so many great things to write about! I can't wait to type them up and see what it leads to!

*I am not sharing bad parts of my childhood in search of sympathy. Everyone has bad things happen to them and ultimately I chose how I wanted to be as a person as I grew up and my past is in the past - where it belongs. However, writing about it has taught me that it helps free some lingering bad feelings I have about the situation. I'm telling my own story, just as anyone should be able to.

Teacups Shouldn't Make You Cry

The Opposite of Maybe

I finished reading The Opposite of Maybe in two sittings. I would have done it in one, but it was late and my eyelids wouldn't stay open any longer. Even though when I went to sleep my brain wouldn't shut off and kept rehashing everything I had just read about Rosie and her eccentric, non-exciting life - so I couldn't wait to find the free time to finish the story. Maddie Dawson writes in a way that I feel like I know the characters. Although, they are considerably older than I am, I can identify with their lifestyle, friends, jobs, relationships, family dynamics, and surprises along the way of life. I was able to picture myself as Rosie in many of the situations and there were times I was excited along with her and I couldn't turn the pages quick enough and yes, there were times I would find myself teary-eyed. 

Overall the story contains real-life problems, the thoughts we all think but do not necessarily share, and best of all it shares the complexity of relationships and how a person going down one path in their life suddenly finds it leaving a void and we are left searching. Sometimes we don't know what we are searching for and the main character in this book doesn't know what she wants until she has tried every avenue. Rosie battles her own feelings and emotions, trying to do the right thing. In the end all that matters is what makes her happy. 

The Opposite of Maybe is written well with characters are well-developed and has a well described setting. Everything about the book I really enjoyed. I gave it 4.5 stars because it left me hanging! I know that sometimes this is for the best, but I just wanted to know what happened at the very end. I am a sucker for a good romance story and this doesn't disappoint. It is tasteful, fun, and not like a book I have read before. I would recommend this to anyone looking for a quick, fun read that makes them think about themselves also. 

I received this book from the Blogging for Books program in exchange for this review.

Time to Share!

This week is the last week of my fiction workshop with Southern New Hampshire University.
I have learned so much from this class. Having to work on one short story for the past seven weeks has really been beneficial to me. I loved to read the stories the other students in my group had written and critiquing them.
I totally hate reading critiques on my work, but this workshop forced me to read them. I had to because if I wanted to pass the class I had to acknowledge their thoughts and see how to incorporate it into my story.
Guess what? I wasn't scared to read any critiques by the end of the session and I was actually looking forward to it! Which was something that I didn't expect to happen, at all.
The requirement of the short story was that it had to be loosely based off of some life event true to the author.
I am not going to lie - I had no clue what I wanted to write about. I could write about so many different things!
I just sat down one evening with my laptop while my daughter was watching Jessie and just started typing. I ended up writing about Australia.
I went there for three weeks when I was sixteen.
For me, the trip couldn't have come at a better time since my Dad and Grandma had both just passed away.
Going there, with no family or friends (I went with People to People, so I got to know the students in my delegation, of course) really helped me find myself. I mean, who knows who they are when they are sixteen and just lost two important family members? Ummm...no one?
But, for me it was a time to reflect, let go, and just be a teenager and truly enjoy life! And I completely did!
So I took that experience of feeling whole for the first time, just from experiencing life some place new and poured it into this short story.
I don't know my grade yet, hopefully it'll be posted in the next few days. I'll update when it is!
But I decided to upload both my rough draft and my final draft to just show (and remind myself) how much work changes and evolves with great critique, some editing, and lots of thought.

Missing Pieces
Rough Draft
Final Draft

To Speak or Not to Speak?

My Grandpa always claimed that he was super bashful when he was a youngin'. You wouldn't know it if you had ever been in the same room as him though. He grew into a talker. A big talker. Maybe it is best to describe him as a storyteller.
He was one of those storytellers that would start to tell you a story, say something like, "I may have told you this before..." you would agree that you have heard it, and then he would keep on with the telling of the story as though it doesn't matter if you have heard it before or not.
He obviously had a huge impact on my life. My childhood, adolescence, and adulthood all included him as an important person.
So when he passed I would lie away at night thinking about all of the wonderful things I wanted to make sure everyone that was at his service knew just how important he was to me.
I did something I never thought I would, I spoke at his service.
I am definitely not a public speaker. I get the sweats. I feel like I talk too fast, etc. add this to being crushed emotionally and I figured it would be a recipe for a speech disaster.
But, the night before his service a speech just played out in my head. I had to get up and get it out on paper and I am so glad I did.
I did start out with an ugly cry when I began, and throughout it I am sure everyone heard me snort up my snot a couple times in the microphone. My voice wavered throughout it all. However, I pulled through.
I kept looking down from where I was at the front of the church to the casket with my love, my Grandpa's body safely inside. He wasn't in pain anymore. He looked good that day. I just kept envisioning him smiling at me like he did when I gave a speech at the Optimist Club he was a member of when I came back from Australia when I was sixteen. It was that look that pulled me through.

Remembering Grandpa

Hello.
I'm Emily, in case you didn't know.
I'm the granddaughter you might have heard about a time or two.
For the past 13 years, it's been me and him.
My dad, Randy, died when I was 15 followed six months later by my grandma, Janet.
Grandpa was my parent.
When grandpa and I went home after my grandma's passing we sat down together and realized it was just the two of us. He was left to raise me - a teen girl, 61 years younger than him.
We made a promise then to never let an argument come between us and we never let that happen.
It was tough at times, but he was just the type of man you couldn't say "no" to or argue with.
While living with him, he taught me so much about life, more than he'll ever know.
He taught me that life is beautiful.
Most people are good.
How to drive a stick shift.
That 7up floats are almost as good as root beer floats.
But most importantly he taught me that a family can be of any dynamic as long as the people truly care about and love each other.
He loved me unconditionally.
Grandpa was there for everything my dad couldn't be -
High school graduation, when I earned my first college degree, even when I got my first speeding ticket (which he wasn't too happy about)...but greatest of all, I was lucky enough to have him walk me down the aisle and give me away on my wedding day.
He then stayed all afternoon when I had my daughter, Sophia. He didn't go home until almost midnight by the time she finally arrived and he got to hold her. And, he was back to see us bright and early the next morning and didn't yawn once.
Grandpa was the person I called first when I was happy or sad, we ate dinner together at least once a week for the past ten years after I graduated high school and moved out.
If I wasn't feeling well, he'd show up with a 7up and crackers for me, even if my husband was home because grandpa just knew Channa wouldn't tend to me like he could.
He was right.
I could go on and on with stories about the way he has impacted my life.
I know I won't ever be as great of a person as he was. He touched so many lives and on his mission of helping others, and he succeeded with more of an impact than we will probably ever really know.
The past few months have been very hard for me.
I am very selfish and wanted him to live forever.
I would have had him live with us until the end of time just so I knew he was safe and happy.
I told him this and his reply were his happy tears and a simple, "I know you would, honey."
The last few days of his life I would sit by his bedside for hours and talk on and on about anything and everything.
I wouldn't come home until late because I know that he would have done the same thing for me.
My daughter has lost her great-grandpa, who got to share a bond these past five years that many people aren't lucky enough to have with their grandparents.
My husband gained a grandfather he never thought he would have had.
I had not only a grandpa, but also a father, a role model, and a friend.
Today marks the longest time in half of my life that I haven't heard his voice, got to hug him, or make him some cookies.
But I am at peace knowing he is with his wife and son again and I get to carry all of his stories, his morals and values, and his sense of being within me.
He and my daughter had a ritual before bed while he stayed with us and in response to the saying...now you get to sleep tight, grandpa. And I'm sure the bed bugs won't bite.
Thank you for your time.