Working Mommy Journal

February 26, 2014

Awaiting Their New Baby Cousin #WW w/linky

Last week my boys were thrilled to add a new addition to the family tree – their Uncle had a baby boy! My youngest was a bit confused screaming in excitement that he couldn’t wait to meet his cute baby brother but it was too cute!

Here are some pictures of the long wait and the excitement that they had before going into the room to meet him!

“Mom! My cute baby brother is born!”

They had to wait another five minutes while the nurses cleaned up – they were getting restless!

I did not post a picture of their baby cousin because I never got a chance to ask my brother in law but trust me he is a cutie!

Link up your Wordless Wednesday post below so I can visit!

February 24, 2014

The Thief #Review

Set during the time of Jesus Christ, The Thief by Stephanie Landsem gives us a different perspective of life in these times especially for a Roman Centurion and a Jewish woman.

The Thief is based on the lives of our two main characters, Longinus, a Roman centurion and Nissa, a Jewish woman. Longinus is haunted by death and his own failures. He has always felt a bit out of place by being not a full Roman by blood. When a group of thieves begin to steal from the marketplace he accepts a huge wager – if he can find the thieves before Passover he will earn a transfer out of the region and if he does not he will lose his Father’s sword.

Nissa is a young, Jewish woman who has a sharp tongue and because of her age no hope for marriage. She begins to steal in order to feed herself and keep a roof over her head.

When a healer named Jesus heals her blind brother, Longinus wants to learn more about this mysterious man. In his quest to learn more he is drawn to Nissa. When they are caught up in the arrest, trial and crucifixion of Jesus, they begin to wonder who this teacher is and why he was not able to save himself.

The Thief was a moving story of forgiveness and the power it has to change our lives. I was not able to put this novel down! I stayed up all night reading it. I fell in love with our two main characters and watching them struggle with their own insecurities and beliefs was very difficult. You wanted to be able to help guide them. I loved how they evolved throughout the novel and found healing in the end. It was fantastic the way the story of Jesus was tied into the novel – I was not expecting that at all!

You can purchase a copy of the book here. You can also find more reviews on the Litfuse Blog Tour here.

Rating: 5/5

Disclosure: I received a digital copy of this book in order to facilitate this review. All opinions expressed are my own.

February 24, 2014

#UltimateHome Twitter Party with Leon’s!

Are you ready to party?

To celebrate their upcoming Ultimate Home Super Sale (starting this Friday February 28th) Leon’s Canada is hosting a Twitter party this Thursday, February the 27th!

Here are the important details for this exciting twitter party:

When: February 27th, 2014
Time: 9PM – 10PM
Host: Leon’s
Moderators: @mommyoutside @zoojourneys
Prizing and Support: @CantonCathy @cvegnad

Everyone is welcome to come but prizes are open to Canadians only (excluding Quebec and B.C.).

The prizes?

5 prizes of a $100 online gift card to Leon’s
one grand prize of Starship Collection Bunk bed set (valued at $499!)

To win you have to RSVP! Head over to Mommy Outside the Box and RSVP now!

Looking forward to partying with you on Thursday!

Everyone is welcome to join in the conversation. Prizing is open to Canadians (excluding Quebec and BC) 18 and over. You can find the complete rule – See more at: http://www.mommyoutsidethebox.ca/2014/02/ultimatehome-twitter-party-with-leons-1000-in-prizes-227-can.html?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=facebook#sthash.qghCvUFc.dpuf

February 24, 2014

Medieval Times: Thrilling and Educational Entertainment #Giveaway

Brave knights, mystical horses, a strong and fair King and a beautiful Princess. This is what awaited us at the incredible Medieval Times in Toronto, Ontario.

When I was chosen to be a #MedievalTimes Brand Ambassador, I can not even begin to explain how excited I was! Anyone who knows me knows what a huge history buff I am! I love the Middle Ages so this was a dream come true for me – not to mention for my boys! All those moments of playing knights at home were about to come true!

Walking into the castle is like walking through a piece of history. Medieval Times goes that extra mile to make you feel like you have stepped through time and arrived at an eleventh century castle for a tournament and feast. After thirty years of experience (yup thirty years!) they have perfected the tournament!

Surrounded by history we were able to teach our boys about the Middle Ages in a fun way that had them craving for more. For the past week following the tournament we have researched on the internet and visited our local library for books on the Middle Ages.

Here are a few of our favourite highlights from the night:

See those lovely bowls above? I did not realize we weren’t going to be using cutlery and waited five minutes for a spoon while my boys laughed hysterically at me! They have since decided that we need bowls like this at home.

Our eldest son and my husband cheering on our victors! It was so cool to watch him take out his iPod and take as many pictures as possible for his school’s Brag and Drag talk on the Monday following the tournament!

This was our youngest favourite part! This beautiful bird was flying high above the crowds!

Medieval Times runs weekday matinees (11AM and 1:30PM) for elementary aged students. This includes a thirty minute seminar, meet and greet with the birds of prey and demonstration. My youngest sister was able to participate in this when she was in elementary school and still brags about it to this day! You can find out more about their educational programs here.

Medieval Times and PTPA are proud to bring you a very special contest!

Medieval Times wants you to experience the magic and thrill of the Middle Ages for yourself and are hosting a giveaway that will see four winners win family pack tickets to Medieval Times! These tickets include both dinner and tournament! Pretty awesome right?!! You can enter via the Rafflecopter below! Good luck! This giveaway is only for tickets to the Medieval Times in Toronto, Ontario.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Make sure to follow Medieval Times on Facebook and Twitter to keep up to date with great promotions and information!

Disclosure: As a Brand Ambassador with PTPA and Medieval Times, I received compensation for my participation. However, all opinions expressed on this blog are my very own.

February 21, 2014

Learning Languages with Langmobile #Review and #Giveaway

Learning a second language is a high priority to me for my children. It is a fantastic skill for them to carry forward into their school and later on their professional careers. For me knowing that language acquisition is easiest during the ages of zero to five, puts a little bit of pressure to get started early!. This is often called the “critical period”. Yet I still want them to have fun and enjoy learning a second language – not the second language classes I had where we had to memorize conjugating verbs but never learned to understand and speak Italian!

Langmobile is based out of Saint-Lambert, Quebec. They offer high quality workshops in music, yoga, English, Italian, French and Spanish, along with pre-school activities and camps. Langmobile has developed a program that helps parents bond and interact with their children while teaching a second language. Langmobile actively includes parents in the learning process to help learn and teach them at the same time. They have taken the research that they have put into their programs and developed an incredible app that assists parents in teaching children English, Spanish and French.

The Langmobile app incorporates new teaching methods that place the interaction between parent and child at the core of the learning process. The Langmobile app features fifty lessons in English, Spanish and French. Each lesson contains a video, song and printable materials (teaching sheets, colouring sheets and more!). The apps use adults to bring languages to life. The apps feature original music composed by Langmobile’s team of experts.

yoga , music workshops, English classes, Italian classes, French classes, Spanish classes, Saturday classes, after school activities, preschool activities, day camps and specialized services to CPE and private Daycares – See more at: http://www.langmobile.com/quality-workshops/#sthash.hbdLhMKb.dpuf

When I first download an app I like to spend a couple of hours looking through the app myself to allow myself to become familiar with the teaching aspect, how it works and so on. As soon as I opened the app up and let the first video play my children came running (both my two and nine year old!) at the energetic music and singing! They were engrossed in the app!

My favourite features of the app were:

easy and quick download
music was energetic and great at catching my children’s attention
repetitive; allowing the words to be easily learned
informative parent guide with instructions on how to use each word/video, including also colouring books, craft activities, activities on the go, lyrics, words to practice and cards to print out
the parent guide allows you to minimize the amount of time spent directly on the app itself for parents that are worried about too much screen time
loved that I was able to interact and be part of the learning process (versus just reading it aloud and hoping they absorb what you are reading to them)
incredibly fun way to learn a new language (all of us were dancing and singing along!)
even though it is designed for teaching children 0-5 years of age, my nine year old loved it as well!
easy to navigate between pages on the app
app is designed to be able to download onto Apple devices and Android

Langmobile is offering four individuals a chance to win their own copy of the app! US and CAN residents can enter via the Rafflecopter below.

Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Disclosure: I received a copy of this app in order to facilitate this review. All opinions expressed are my own.