Facing Demons Book Review

This is one of the best books I've had the privilege to review in awhile! At 186 pages it's a quick easy read while also being extremely thought provoking. The main characters consist of a racist gang-member, a child prostitute, an African refugee, a thrill seeking rich kid and the man who is determined to save them, both from themselves and from the cruelties each has endured.

Honestly, it's rather difficult to find the right words to tell you about this book, without giving away too much information. It is written in a very straight forward way with no sugar coating. It's broken up so that it's told from each characters point of view and the tone of the book really lets you get a sense of how they each feel. It's a wonderful book both for adults and teens. It gives just enough details without being overly graphic. Actually, now that I'm finished with it, my friends 13 year old daughter is going to read it.

The author, Ashley Sanders is currently working on prequels to this book where he goes into greater detail on the lives of these characters. I sincerely hope I get the chance to review these as well and I would also love to see him write a follow up book following their paths to recovery.

You can follow the author here at...

http://bazzavswild.blogspot.com/ 

http://www.ashleysanders.com.au/ 

http://www.facebook.com/authorashleysanders 

https://twitter.com/#!/ashleysanders84 

Let the boxing match begin!

I think we need to buy those blow up boxing gloves. Who are the contenders? In this corner weighing in at 30 pounds you have 3 1/2 year old Hunter and in this corner weighing in at a whopping 35 pounds you have 4 year old Aiden! They are the best of friends and the worst of enemies all at the same time. As soon as one of them wakes up in the morning or they are away from each other for any length of time, they are asking for each other. One of the last things Hunter tells me before he goes to bed is that when he wakes up he's going to play with Aiden. But most of the time, 5 minutes into their playing, the boxing starts. I'm convinced you can hear the screaming and yelling all the way back in Ohio! It usually starts over a toy and immediately leads to slapping, biting, punching, kicking, you name it, they do it. And unless you see it for yourself, you never really know who's at fault. Lately it gets so aggravating that we've started telling them if one of them is in trouble, they both get in trouble. We just started this like two days ago so I'm not really sure if it's working or not yet. On the highly likely chance that it doesn't work, anybody have any other ideas? The usual time out and talking to them about what they've done wrong just doesn't seem to be getting us anywhere.

More night time horrors

You may be curious about how things are going at night since the whole Night time horrors post. I wish they were going better! The next night I let Holly have one bottle to go to bed and after that I made her take a sippy cup instead. She screamed NO, threw herself down and screamed and kicked! I basically said 'Oh well and I love you. Night night" and walked out of the room. This went on off and on for about 2-3 hours. I would check on her in between to make sure she was ok and let her know I was still there. Somehow Hunter remained asleep through all of this.

I guess she got fed up eventually because the next time I went in to check on her she had removed her pants and her diaper and threw it across the room. Now here's the kicker. The diaper had nice little balls of shit in it! Nice, right? Yeah! So I'm using the light from my phone so I don't wake up Hunter, and baby wipes to look around her bed and the room trying to find all these pieces of shit. Not fun! And during this Miss Holly is just laughing and having a good ole time! I wish I knew exactly what she was thinking! It was probably along the lines of "Haha mommy, next time give me my damn bottle!"

Any ideas on how to go about this now? So far I'm just not having much luck!

Night time horrors

As much as I dearly love my children, it's nights like this that I'm just so freaking done! It's a little after 11pm. Hunter and Holly have been in bed since about 7:30pm. They took an average nap today, played a lot, and it's been a rainy day which always makes them extra tired. So why the hell are they still awake and tormenting me?!

Hunter has had countless hugs and kisses. Holly has had two diapers and is on her fifth, let me repeat FIFTH bottle! I can't decide if once the sun goes down they either hate me or love my company way too much! Now, you may be thinking that my precious little ones are just having a bad night right? Let me assure you, they're not! This is a nightly occurrence. Am I a sweet, caring, nurturing mommy who simply tucks them back into bed each and every time? Nope. Maybe the first two or three times one or two times, but after that I'm threatening spankings, no more bottles, and even calling Santa to come take their presents back. Yes, I am a mean mommy like that! This results in tears and promises to go to sleep like good little children. But they lie! Ten minutes later, if I'm that lucky even, Hunter has something he needs to tell me, needs another kiss and hug, or is crying because Holly threw her empty bottle right at his head. The bottle throwing usually happens at least twice a night.

I don't get what it is about night time that turns my little angels into screaming devils. They don't fight me this badly at nap time. Hunter goes potty, gets tucked in and goes right to sleep. Holly gets her diaper changed, gets ONE bottle and snuggles in with her blankie and panda's head (another post). So again I ask. Why do they hate me at night? When will this nightly ritual end? When will there be peace and quiet in the evenings? Nights like this, 18 just can't come soon enough. But then morning will come and my snugly little babies will be bright eyed and happy to see me and somehow I will manage to block out the horrors of the night before. Until the next bedtime that is!

The Swiss Cheese Theory of Life Book Review

I've really been falling behind on my reading lately which also means I've been slacking on my book reviews! So I figured I better get to it.

This time around I read The Swiss Cheese Theory of Life "How to get through life's holes without getting stuck in them!" By Judith A. Belmont, MS and Lora Shor, MSW.

The first thing that caught my interest about this book was definitely the title! Comparing our lives to swiss cheese with all it's many holes seemed like an intriguing metaphor. And very accurate too! Without the many holes of varying shapes and sizes, swiss simply would not be swiss.The same is true for each of us. It's the "holes" or challenges that we face that makes each of us unique.

We spend so much of our lives dwelling on the past and all of the woulda, shoulda, couldas that many times we fail to realize all of the amazing things that we do have in our lives or the things that we could have if we just let go of the past and paid attention. The Swiss Cheese Theory of Life uses different cheeses to relate to our lives, with all their many different tastes and textures. Filled with lots of quotes and handy little tips offered by The Swiss Wiz and The Swiss Cheese Fairy, this book is a wonderful and entertaining way to come to terms with life's many disappointments and also a guide to turning those roadblocks into successes!

"When one door closes another door opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door, that we do not see the ones which open for us."

-Alexander Graham Bell 

With chapters titled...

Fondue can never turn back into a block of cheese...

No whine with the cheese, please!...

Living whole despite the holes!...

Smile and say cheese!...

Just to name a few, this book is a must read for anybody!



Seriously Thursday!?

I've been missing for awhile so I'm not really sure if anybody is still doing Seriously Thursday with From Mrs.To Mama but I have PLENTY of things that have made me go SERIOUSLY!? lately.

Seriously...can my 3 year old Hunter and my room mates 4 year old ever go one day without fighting and arguing with each other???? They start asking for each other as soon as they wake up or if they have to spend a few hours without each other, but then when you put them together it's fighting, biting, punishing, kicking, toy stealing...you name it, they do it! Is this like dogs trying to establish who is the Alpha male? Whatever it is, I seriously wish they would stop!

Seriously...I think this has officially been the longest week in the history of the world!!!!!! You name it and it's gone wrong this week. It's been nothing but one emotional roller coaster after another. As I type this there is more screaming from the mini alpha males....calgon take me away!

Seriously...Why does Hunter spend the 2 hours before dinner asking to be fed, like he's really just wasting away, then when it's actually time to sit down and eat he decides he's not really hungry.

Seriously...On a positive note, Monday was my birthday and a bunch of amazing made the whole weekend awesome and very special for me. I seriously love you guys!

Seriously...My room mates are completely awesome too. I've had a few melt downs this week and they have seriously helped me to de-stress lately. Much love you guys!

Seriously...I am so happy to be back to blogging again!!!!!!!!!!

Birthday Cookout

Well tomorrow is my 29th birthday, generally I'm claiming to be 25 still. Don't judge, I'm sure you've done it at some point too! So last night we had a birthday cookout. Sooo much fun! I have truly amazing friends who always manage to make things not only special but also highly entertaining! I'd have to say one of the highlights of the evening was the unwrapping of my gift. Now if you know me at all then you know that I hate to be the center of attention. This is something that I try to avoid at all cost! Do my friends know this about me? Yep! Do they care? Nope! So after using every possible excuse I could come up with to not go outside and be put in the spotlight, my lovely friends decide to bring the present, wrapped in Justin Bieber paper, (my payback from Christmas! Thanks Shannon!) inside where I could no longer hide. I will admit to cheating though. I enlisted the help of about 7 kids! And it's a good damn thing too cause this thing was sealed up tighter than Alcatraz! It was wrapped, and boxed, and duct taped I don't know how many times! Again, a little bit of payback for my Christmas wrapping this year! Due to some technical difficulties, there are no videos of this! Thank goodness! So the end result? This cute little netbook that I am now blogging on! I am so excited! I haven't really been able to do much writing lately since the computer is in the bedroom and there are 6 kids in this house. Kinda hard to make sure nobody is trying to burn the house down when I'm at the back of the house! So now, thanks to my awesome, amazing, fantastic friends, I can blog again!!!!