book review

Real Simple

lallen2882Leave a comment

The first day as a SAHM is going well.  We’ve done lots-o-activities already and this mommy has strained her back trying to lift 27 pounds of Weston dead weight (read: throwing a fit).

I stumbled across a magazine called Real Simple last year. 
Let me first say, I resisted the eBook up until 2012 (why does that sound like so long ago?). I love having a book in my hands. I love having a library of books that people peruse when in my living room (it’s not that impressive). I love B O O K S. These are things I still miss.

My brother bought a Kindle, with goals to developed his love for reading, and decided it’s just not his cup of tea. I “borrowed” it and then confiscated it and then just told him to give it to me, “for my birthday”.  I’ve never looked back. I’m an eBook-aholic.

With all that said, I have a magazine subscription. Real Simple.

I love it. It’s probably getting old my place in life but it’s got a ton of great, relevant info.  I love a fashion mag like the next girl but I don’t have $6789 to spend on make up, hair products and clothes every week so most of the time, those magazines frustrate me.  I’m all like, “oooo I LOVE that shirt..oh wait, it’s $599 because it’s some fancy designer.  Gah!”  Ya feel me?

Back to Real Simple.  A magazine with goodness:

  • Recipes. Duh. Not everything comes from Pinterest.
  • Organization tips.
  • A small bit about make up and fashion (but not too much, there are 46242828 magazines that cover these topics already).
  • Articles on how to plan, and save, on vacation.
  • Information on how to inspire creativity in your kiddos and ensure they don’t spend the entire summer in front of the TV. Did my mom read magazines like this or did she just lock us in the backyard because she was raised without TV? Wait. When was TV invented? Sorry Mom. Either way, I am probably better because of it.

Back to my topic. I think Real Simple has a little bit of everything I want to read and not too much of anything.  I don’t need a subscription to a cooking magazine, fashion, organization and parenting if it’s all wrapped up in one!  Next time you are at the airport, or on a road trip, or you just plain desire a magazine, I would recommend checking out Real Simple. Maybe everyone and their dog already knew about this mag and I’ve just been living under a rock, either way, it’s a winner.

XOXO

5E1F90B120FB20C197CC10E4FF74EF96

*Disclaimer: Real Simple did not compensate me for my opinions.  If Real Simple would like to compensate me, please email me, I’m a SAHM now and need to figure out a way to generate income 🙂

Cry It Out

lallen2882Leave a comment

I read all of the pregnancy books I could get my hands on when I was pregnant.

The most popular one, “What to Expect When You’re Expecting” sat on my bookshelf for years.  It was given to me around my wedding since I was hoping to get pregnant quickly thereafter  It was my least favorite book of the genre.  I felt that it was repetitive and really, really broad. Not to mention boring.

My favorite pregnancy book was actually a free one.The Mayo Clinic Guide. It was sent from my insurance when I enrolled in the Healthy Pregnancy program.  I advise all pregnant ladies to enroll.  Almost all major insurance carriers provide a healthy pregnancy program.  You already pay for it with your insurance, so you might as well take advantage of it.  The idea is a healthier pregnancy equals a healthier baby and therefore less cost.  Or at least that is the goal behind the programs.  That’s why preventative services are now a zero or minimal cost.

I digress.

The entire 9 weeks I was on bed rest, I never read a single thing about what to do when the boys actually arrived.  I Googled blogs about twins and birth stories and completely neglected to read anything about what to expect after they came home. Doh! *slaps forehead*

I luckily had help for the first few weeks the boys were home.  Between an awesome husband, mom and aunt, the first month was bearable.  But the boys wanted to be held all of the time.  Even if they were fast asleep. As soon as you put them down, whether it was a crib, swing, bouncy seat, wherever, they would stay there about 20 minutes and then being to wiggle, squirm and make little noises.  Any new mom will tell you the smallest noise from a newborn, will wake you up.

We had these neat co-sleepers that went in the bed but that wasn’t good enough.  Both boys wanted to be held. I was too nervous to co-sleep.  Therefore I didn’t sleep.  Eventually I got over it, and both The Hubs and I held a baby in our arms. For the first two months.  The AAP strongly discourages this practice and I thought I was a terrible mother for doing it but the more I spoke to other mama’s, I realized a lot of us do it.

Amongst others, I began reading Healthy Sleep Habits, Healthy Child.  A book my old neighbor gave us.  She told The Hubs it was, “a life saver”.

Around the boys’ two month appointment, the pediatrician asked how sleeping was progressing.  I laid out our situation and she recommended we should stop co-sleeping.  She said no one would get good sleep that way and it’s not a practice she supports.  Everyone is different.  Most doctor’s will agree with the AAP too.  The book I mentioned above, said to wait to sleep train until three months after the boys actual due date to being sleep training.  But I was tired.  So we started.

At first, it wasn’t hard.  I started with naps in their cribs and it worked! They were swaddled up and would fuss for 10 minutes or so and then sleep for 40 minutes to an hour.  I was pleased. I could shower!  Then we tried it at night and they both fussed for a while but eventually just fell asleep. And stayed asleep.  It was great!  They still woke to eat but would go back down easily.  Swaddling was key for us.

The hardest part of crying it out, was actually as they got a bit older.  Around five months and again at 6-7 months were probably the most difficult.  We were working through bedtimes and naps and milestones and they would cry.  Usually one or the other.  And it would break my heart. But if you went in to soothe one baby, the other would start screaming too.  And since it was impossible to get one settled, with the other screaming for your attention, it was a lost cause. Plus the CIO recommendations stated over and over again, to be consistent.  That inconsistencies sent the wrong message and they would continue to cry.

I have tears in my eyes as I think back to them crying.  It’s not easy.  At all.  I panicked a lot.  I would get super bitchy towards anyone that was around.  I second guessed myself all the time. I cried.  A LOT.

My mom gave me a hard time, “How can I let my babies cry?”. I would read articles that talk about how stressed out an infant is after a CIO session. Or watch something about baby wearing and how good it is for both mom and child.  But for every negative article, I read a positive.

I stuck with it and now I have two healthy, HAPPY boys.  We made it through the time change unscathed.  Well, if a 3:45 am wake up counts.  But guess what? They woke up and started talking to each other and then went back to sleep, until 6:45 this morning. No crying.

I’d say we did something right.

Kindle.

lallen2882Leave a comment

Oh how my Kindle has been ignored.

I love to read.

I probably wouldn’t have TV in our house except I love sports more than I love to read.

My Kindle was actually acquired.  My younger brother purchased it for himself to try to encourage him to read more.  I “borrowed” it and, very quickly, it became mine.  Thanks Kyle. 

In the matter of one year, I had read over 75 books.  The following year was about the same.  Then came the year of the pregnancy, the move, and bed rest.  You would have thought that I would’ve read a TON while on bed rest for 9 weeks.  Honestly, I didn’t.  I worked from home and watched a little TV and slept.  I read books but they were mostly pregnancy/baby books that people gave me.

Then the Nuggets arrived and I downloaded Babywise, but other than that, nada.  I pretty much forgot about several books I was waiting on as well.  Note: I wouldn’t recommend downloading baby books.  I always go back and reference stuff I’ve read and that was difficult to do when I couldn’t highlight/book mark stuff.

I digress. The Passage’s final book, City of Mirrors by Justin Cronin ( the first two are reviewed here), which was supposed to come out in Nov ’13 has been delayed until this year. I almost burst with excitment when I realized I had gone past the original release date and then was disappointed when I saw the delay.  That’s okay, it actually gives me time to re-read the The Twelve (book #2).  I have The Hubs hooked on this series as well.  Major bummer is the release date is vaaaaague.  2014…I mean, a whole year?  Can it not be narrowed down a little bit?!?!?!

Another book I forgot about is The Eve, which is the final book in the Eden trilogy by Keary Taylor. It came out last month. 

As a super, ultra, quick book review, this series is more dysotopia and sy-fi-ish (seems to be a bit of theme with me).  Summary: the world ended because of TorBane, which was developed to help any ailment humans suffer from.  Instead, it took over the human body and they were no longer humans, instead robots.  Robots that only wanted every human to be a robot too. Enter robots taking over the world.  Eden is the heroine of the books.  She’s a bad ass. She’s relatable and she’s in love with….who? Don’t want to spoil anything here. There is plenty of suspense and action with just enough love story and some definite twists.  I’m excited to read the last of the series.

Now that the boys are in a stage where we can chill out a little (until we hit the walking stage) maybe I can get a little reading done.  Maybe?

Book Review Time

lallen2882Leave a comment

In order to not lose all of my followers (bahahahaha) to my depressing rants of infertility, I will mix it up with a book(s) review.

For any of you that are not over achievers (i.e., procrastinating starting the MBA) or kid free like me, you should have some extra time on your hands.  Or if you are a super duper over achiever and have your MBA, kids and still find time to read…..you should read the following:

This book is intense!  It’s not exactly an easy read either.  Justin Cronin is actually an English professor at Rice U in Houston, TX.  So needless to say his writing, vocabulary and style is impeccable.  In my opinion, but it is so good.  I have a habit of reading junk.  Not really junk, that’s a bad description because I cannot stand a poorly written book but I tend to lean towards romance-y, contemporary, easy reads…most of the time.  I did tackle the Stieg Larsson trilogy with vigor.  This book has so much more depth without over describing and it shocked me, several times.  The book starts with the world at a very near future (like 2013 or something) but ends quickly.  It has a vampire twist but nothing like Twilight or Sookie Stackhouse.  It’s more of a focus on super secret government weapon gone bad = end of the world as we know it.  It’s not overly sy-fi though. 

I will finish by saying, I almost killed someone when I got to the end of the book. Lucky for me the sequel had just been release.  Enter:

It’s a good thing for anyone in the vicinity that I was able to immediately download the second one to my Kindle.  I think I liked this one even more than the first because it intermingled so well.  I was so invested in the characters and it incorporated individuals that had very minimal parts in the first one into book two.  Again, so good.  I highly recommend these two.  The only downside is I have no idea when the last of the trilogy is set to come out.  The Twelve was actually just released in Oct this year.  I might actually go back and re-read them when I know it’s close to time for the last one to arrive.

I leave you with this:

The genius-man behind the books is hot! I might have actually stuck with English being my major if this was my prof! ;o)

Anyone have any book recommendations for me?