November 27, 2017
21 Days to Happiness
Struggling to find work-life balance? Whether you’re feeling overwhelmed and frustrated or just want to increase your happiness, you can learn how in just 10 minutes a day!
About 21 Days to Happiness
For some of us, feeling busy or stressed has become the new normal. Others feel okay, but just want a boost to productivity, energy and motivation.
Instead of hoping for happiness, what if happiness is something you DO, something you CHOOSE every day? The good news: it is and the solutions are simple.
Psychologist and happiness expert Ingrid Kelada provides a practical, step-by-step guide to help you increase your personal happiness and feel more motivated. You can learn how with simple 10-minute strategies. Each day of the 21-day journey focuses on one key area of your life, including:
• Time: how to break the cycle of chaos and manage your time effectively.
• Body Language: exploring the surprising links between body language and happiness.
• Relationships: how to make the most of the number one predictor of happiness.
• Work: how to use your strengths and talents so that you are engaged and motivated.
• Money: what you should spend your money on to feel most satisfied.
The book is interactive. Each chapter features resources like apps to try, videos to watch for deeper understanding, or tools to help you master these new habits. At the end of three weeks, along with increased happiness, you’ll find you’ve become more:
• productive
• focused
• patient
• energetic
• healthy
• motivated
• positive
Happiness is a choice. A daily decision to choose happy can be easy, fun and rewarding. With this book, in just a few minutes per day, you can practice one new happiness habit, add resources to your arsenal, and jot down your notes in the journal section.
My Thoughts
I think we can all agree, many of us are losing the work-life balance. With technology, work can be in constant contact with us at all times and days. In the last month, I realized it was taking over my life – I was so worried about missing something that I would be checking my different email accounts at 3 in the morning! That is when I realized enough is enough – how could this be worth it? It was affecting my mental health, my relationships and my family.
This is what this book looks at – our happiness and how to achieve it. Chapter by chapter we look at how to put away distraction and how to put focus on our mental and physical well-being (because lets face it if we are not physically well we will not be mentally well). Each chapter discusses a new way in which we should focus on in our life, gives advice and real life examples as well as a worksheet and links to other resources to help us on our journey.
Happiness is not as easy as it sounds. We need to make an effort to choose happiness and push negativity away. For so many of us this is not as easy as it sounds! This book helps to guide you on your happiness journey and to focus more on your mental and physical health well-being. This book came to me at a time when I really needed it and I will continue to need it – going back and reflecting and reminding myself of where I have come and where I am going.
You can purchase a copy of this book on Amazon.
Rating: 4/5
About the Author
Ms. Ingrid Kelada is an experienced psychologist and happiness expert. She is a speaker and has facilitated over 1000 workshops all over the world. People find her to be pragmatic, inspiring and funny! She has an online personality questionnaire store to help people identify their talents and interests. With over 25 years experience, she offers her expertise to a wide range of clients. She is bilingual and a member of the professional association of Psychologists of Quebec. Visit her online at www.keladacc.ca
Book Trailer
The Giveaway!
Disclosure: I received a digital copy of this book in order to facilitate this review. All opinions expressed are my own.
November 27, 2017
Heart of the Highland: The Beast Book Review
In the Heart of the Highland, Keira is caught in the middle of a war that she does not understand, will Keira’s secrets be safe, or will she succumb to the Highland warrior who now threatens to capture her heart?
About Heart of the Highland: The Beast
For hundreds of years, Scotland has battled the English for their freedom. Now, they face a new enemy. In a divided world between politics and religion, the young King James V faces the threat of his own people rebelling against him. As civil war breaks out among the Highland clans, James recruits a secret group of warriors for protection. He calls them the Protectors of the Crown.
Ian MacKay has one mission; to defend the crown no matter the cost. Along with his men, Ian’s mission is to hunt down one of the most dangerous men in the Highlands. But when the daughter of an enemy enters his life, his heart becomes captured instead.
Keira Sinclair has lived a life of peace and simplicity until now. With her clan on the verge of losing everything, she is forced to wed a Laird from a neighboring clan to ensure that hers survives. During her travels to her new home, her carriage is attacked and Keira is taken hostage by a ruthless man.
My Thoughts
I am sure so many of you already know how much I LOVE historical romances. This is especially true for Scottish historical romances, I love the language, the strength in the characters and of course the romance!
This novel had everything I love about historical romances set in the Highlands and more with an amazing plot that kept you guessing as to what would happen next. In this novel, we have Keira a young woman who has been forced to wed a man that she does not love all because her clan is about to lose everything. This man clearly has no love nor respect for her as he refuses to meet her halfway for the wedding and sends young, untrained boys to help her travel to him in order for them to be wed. This is when she meets Ian – who mistakes her carriage for her husband to be.
Ian is still suffering under the weight of his deceased wife’s death. He holds the blame for her death and has had a hard time moving forward with his life. There is something in Keira that brings out the better in him, making him want to hope, be a better man and to protect her. He takes her under his wing and tries to help her see what a mistake it would be to marry her betrothed.
This is when the plot becomes really juicy! We learn about the deceit her betrothed had done to her and her Father, and how truly evil he really is. We learn about how her Father betrayed his own beliefs and family, and my heart broke for Keira. We also learn more about who Ian is and his connection to the Scottish crown.
This was an amazing novel from start to finish – it was full of excitement, betrayal, hope and romance. I loved how the plot was developed and there was an importance placed on the plot just as much as the romance. A great read for historical romance fans!
You can purchase a copy of this book on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo and iTunes.
Rating: 5/5
About the Author
April is an Award-Winning Author for her Scottish Historical Romances. For more than ten years, she has worked full time in the direct marketing business, but developed a passion of historical romances through her love of reading, history and genealogy.
The Giveaway
Disclosure: I received a digital copy in order to facilitate this review. All opinions expressed are my own.
November 26, 2017
Build, Battle and Learn STEM with HEXBUG!
We all know how important education is – I am personally very fond of the sciences. I did my Bachelors in Kinesiology and many of my electives were in Biology and Chemistry. I want my boys to understand this same love I have for sciences and how much fun the sciences can be (how can you not love mixing chemicals for reactions or building up a car that moves?). When you can combine learning with fun in a toy, this is a definite win win for this parent!
This year, HEXBUG has released a whole new line of products that are perfect for children from three to their teens. These products will find your child building, using their imagination, battling and so much more.
The HEXBUG nano Space Discovery Centre allows your child to take their HEXBUG adventures to space and beyond. The set is very easy to build and put together. My son and I had it ready to go in under ten minutes flat. The set comes with two nanos, space suit, a rover and all the necessary pieces to make their space adventure come to life.
Our son had so much fun creating space battles and even added in extra nanos to race around the space centre. He used his larger HEXBUG as an alien that would attack the Space Discovery Centre and the smaller nanos would have to do everything they could to protect the centre and not allow the alien to take over.
The Space Discovery Centre provided hours of imaginative fun and can be found at many retailers, including Amazon, Chapters and Toys R Us. There is also a nano Space Cosmic Command and nano Space Zip Line in this product line that would go perfectly with this set.
Maybe you have a child that is a budding engineer? Then the VEX Robotics Tombstone by HEXBUG would be a great gift option for them.
This set will have your child putting together pieces to assemble their own VEX BattleBot. This set is definitely for the older child or a younger child with a lot of patience and a parent nearby to help them. The instructions are excellent (some of the best that I have ever seen) and also includes real size image of many of the smaller pieces so that you can compare each piece to the instructions during each stage (which really helps to ensure that you don’t get near the end and realize you used the wrong piece in step two). The BattleBot took us about two hours to put together, although to be fair we took a lot of breaks.
It was really fun to put together and the pieces snap together easily, although they are a bit trickier to pull apart. I found if you used one of the smaller pieces and pushed from the bottom the pieces would unsnap easily. Once the BattleBot was fully assembled, it looked incredible. We were both quite proud of the final product!
The VEX Robotics Tombstone can be purchased at Amazon and Toys R Us. You can also purchase the VEX Robotics Minotaur by HEXBUG to get into full battle mode.
What features do you look for when purchasing educational but fun products for your child?
Make sure to follow HEXBUG on Twitter and Facebook to keep up to date with all the newest products and more.
Disclosure: I received the above mentioned products in order to facilitate this review. All opinions expressed are my own.
November 26, 2017
The Ultimate Travel Must Have for Parents #StreamTeam
“Are we there YET”
“I am SOOOOOOOOOO BORED!”
“This movie is awful”
Vacation and travelling should be fun and relaxing. For many parents, we also know how stressful it can be with children in tow. They can quickly go from being okay and happy to a complete melt down over the waiting for flights, the movie that they don’t want to watch and anything and everything in between.
Last holiday season, our family made the almost twenty hour total travel time from Toronto to South Africa. We had one lay over in London. Going there our children were so excited and even though we left at midnight, the kids refused to sleep. While Mom and Dad’s eyes were trying so hard to close, we were hounded with questions of how much longer would this plane ride take, why did the movie selection suck so bad and how badly they wanted to get up and move around. Needless to say by the end of the last twelve hours in the air, both of us couldn’t wait to land.
The plane ride back was even worse as we had an eight-hour layover in London and the flight back to Toronto was overbooked and delayed due to people trying to bring on more carry on luggage than they were allowed to. We were all exhausted, bored, cranky and uncomfortable. The only bonus to this experience, we learned many valuable lessons on how to prepare for a long flight.
Our number one mistake? Failure to plan fully for the kids to be entertained. I had packed colouring books, books, toys and treats but what they really wanted was a couple of good movies that would help make the hours pass by quicker. The movies on the plane, while not the worst, were definitely not what they wanted to watch.
So what should we have done? Netflix on the go!
Now we have the option to download many of our children’s favourite flicks and shows on our iPad so that they can watch them in the air and during layovers (not to mention it would have been amazing for the many car rides we had as we travelled from country to country during our stay). Not only is this the perfect solution for travelling by plane but it also alleviates the headaches that can come from long car rides because lets face it – no one is a good traveller when they are bored and confined in small places. This applies to kids, teens and parents alike – no one is at their best at these times.
Share with me! What was your worst travelling experience? What did you learn from it? Have you used Netflix on the go downloading?
Disclosure: I am a #StreamTeam Member and receive perks with this affiliation. All opinions expressed are my own.
November 21, 2017
Ghost Owl Book Review
Ghost Owl is a compelling and inspirational tale and the third installment of the Avian Series which invites the reader to ponder the extraordinary treasures hidden in the ordinary events of daily life.
About Ghost Owl
Ghost Owl is a magical story of discovery, as a young woman seeks to understand her potential and confront her own shadow. Mariah Easter wakes up in the middle of the night to discover the world is as bright as noon—but for her eyes only. Urged by her godfather, she embarks on a mission to peer into the dark spaces normally hidden from view, leading her to confront the sinister nature of power, the vulnerability of the ill, and the hidden life of a homeless man: a journey that will bring healing to herself and the man she loves.
My Thoughts
This is the third book that I have read in the Avian series by Nancy Schoellkopf. While a third book, you do not need to read the other two to fully appreciate and understand this one but I would completely recommend it. You can find my reviews of Yellow-Billed Magpie and Red-Tailed Hawk.
In this book, Mariah starts to see the Ghost Owl in her dreams and around her in mysterious ways. The Ghost Owl is an animal that is connected with deep wisdom and people who have this as their spirit animal tend to see beyond what others see and when this animal guides you, you can see true reality beyond illusion. This is what happens to Mariah, she goes on a magical journey to a whole new level of understanding and see life on different levels and dimensions of the same person.
I really enjoyed this book the most out of the series but you do have to pay attention! The concept of the same person having different realities and dimensions can be a bit to take in so you do have to pay attention. Mariah is a very different young woman in this book! It is almost hard to believe to see how much she has grown from the first book. This is one my favourite parts about series – the growth and development of a character.
Ghost Owl is a well written novel that takes you on a magical adventure. It is a story of growth and understanding and completely unique in its plot. It keeps you guessing as to what and where Mariah is going and the why. It is a definite must read in this series, either alone or as part of the other two books.
You can purchase a copy of this book on Amazon.
Rating: 4/5
About the Author
Nancy Schoellkopf is the author of the Avian Series of novels including Yellow-Billed Magpie and Red-Tailed Hawk, as well as the short story collection Rover and Other Magical Tales. She has been telling stories and writing poems for many lifetimes. It goes without saying that she’s needed a second income, so this time around she happily taught amazing children in special education classes in two urban school districts in Sacramento, California. A full time writer now, she enjoys lavishing attention on her cats, her garden and her intriguing circle of family and friends.
You can connect with her on her website, Twitter and Facebook.
The Giveaway!
Disclosure: I received a digital copy of this book in order to facilitate this review. All opinions expressed are my own.