December 19, 2017
A Year In Review: The Ups, Downs and Netflix #StreamTeam
It is hard to believe that 2017 is almost at an end and to be very honest I am quite ready for this year to be over.
Looking back at 2017 it has been a year of ups and downs for our family. We had some very special moments with our sons that included our eldest making the U14 Ontario Provincial Projects in soccer and our youngest making the competitive soccer team in the age group above him. We added a new member to our family, our little Kay Kay who has become a special part of our family and we were just saying yesterday that we can’t remember life without her little dramatic self. I graduated from McMaster’s Continuing Education Marketing program and I have almost completed my Business Administration (I am a huge believer of life long learning – always push yourself to keep learning and growing).
Like everyone we have had our downs from our son breaking his leg, damages to our car and roof, an unplanned surgery, a couple of ulcers and purchases that we had to make that were definitely not in the budget.
Urgh life! It definitely never goes as planned, right?
Throughout the good and bad times, we took plenty of down time together to recoup, rejuvenate and reconnect. We are a family that bonds over movies and television series (although we are all very determined to ensure that it is our movie we are watching on family movie night and not someone else’s choice in the family – so it can lead to a few arguments).
And according to statistics we are not alone! Canadians are ranked second globally for the most members to binge on Netflix every day (yes every single day). I definitely helped this statistic this year while I was off for a month and half after surgery and watched every episode of This Is Us and Fuller House – no feelings of guilt whatsoever that I cheated and watched all of the episodes before my husband and kids.
So what movies brought Canadians and their families together in 2017?
A couple of these movies made our family list, including Stranger Things (my husband and eldest couldn’t stop watching this), Fuller House, 13 Reasons Why, Atypical and Gilmore Girls. These movies made us laugh, scared us silly and got us talking. There is a little bit of everything for everyone on this list and a wide range of viewing suitability for all age groups.
Another interesting group of series that Canadians enjoyed in 2017 is the savouring category, these are shows that Canadians took their time to watch. They wanted to slow down and enjoy each and every moment of the series. The two my husband and I watched off of this list were The Crown and Atypical. Another two that we enjoyed and took our time watching were Luther and the Iron First.
While 2017 may be drawing to a close (yikes!), 2018 is setting up to be promising and bright and full of more family adventures (and hopefully a little less of the negative ones). I know that Netflix will continue to play a huge role in our family downtime moments. We will continue to be inspired, learn some awesome fighting moves (just joking although I have caught the youngest attempting some pretty awesome feats in the basement after watching several Marvel episodes) and just laugh together. And that is what all families need, time to sit, laugh and be together.
What was the highlight of 2017 for you?
Disclosure: I am a Netflix #StreamTeam member and receive perks with this affiliation. All opinions expressed are my own.
December 18, 2017
Practical Stocking Ideas for Children of All Ages
I was on Facebook the other day when a Meme popped up about Christmas and stockings. It was a child asking Mom for toothpaste in December but Mom said that will be part of your Christmas gift. I had to laugh because that is me.
The holiday season can be a very expensive time of the year if you let it. There are gifts, work parties, school events and gifts to buy for and the list can go on and on. The first few years into parenting, I would stress and want to make Christmas magical for my child. Which meant I would go overboard, spent too much and most of the stuff was never used. We had a great time don’t get me wrong but the money spent was way too much and we still had to buy so much in the new year.
I have learned over the years that practical gifts make the best gifts. Now half of the presents under the tree are clothes, shoes or soccer equipment. I want the gifts to be something that they can use all year round – if I am going to spend the money it has to be worth it.
The same holds true for a stocking. It can be easy to go to the Dollar Store and load up on a lot of items that your child may not use (and it isn’t cheap either there).
Instead I try to pack their stockings full of items that they can use. My top items to include in a stocking for children and adults are:
Toiletries – this includes their deodorants, gels, body wash, tooth brushes, tooth paste, lip balms and hand sanitizer for school. I love to buy the boxed sets from Shopper Drugs Mart every year (usually Axe or Dove) and use my points to get the most for my money.
Underwear and socks – we all need them and they fit in their stockings perfectly. My boys go through socks like crazy and the cost can really add up throughout the year. Adding this to their stockings is a win win for parents.
Chocolates – I cave here and buy them their favourite chocolate bars. Who doesn’t love to get a little bit of yummy chocolate here and there? I know I do!
Music and DVDs – everyone loves music and watching movies, this makes for a great stocking stuffer. Maybe you have a younger child who would love the sounds of Will’s Jams or an older child that really has to have the newest Taylor Swift. Or maybe a child who loves My Little Pony. The options are truly endless when it comes to music and DVDs, the bonus is that this is a gift that is great for the colder, winter months when your child may be stuck inside more.
However you organize your spending during the holiday season make sure you enjoy every moment and live in each moment.
How do you as a family navigate the holiday spending when it comes to stockings?
Wishing you and your family a very happy holiday season!
December 18, 2017
Maternally Challenged: How My Special Needs Son Taught Me to Sack Up and Laugh
In Maternally Challenged, you’ll discover: That you aren’t alone, all moms worry they don’t know what they’re doing!
About Maternally Challenged: How My Special Needs Son Taught Me to Sack Up and Laugh
Are you parenting by the seat of your pants? Discover a new mindset to embrace the joy and madness of motherhood. Are your kids driving you crazy? Do you worry that despite your best efforts you still aren’t doing enough?
As a mother of two with a special-needs son, author Kathy Chlan knows what you’re going through. With her popular blog, Unfiltered Mom, Chlan has helped countless parents navigate the chaos of raising kids. And now she’s here to help you!
Maternally Challenged: How My Special Needs Son Taught Me To Sack Up & Laugh! explores the day-to-day challenges of raising a special-needs child. Through heartwarming and hilarious personal accounts, you’ll find that you aren’t alone in dealing with family dysfunction. With Chlan’s guidance, you’ll learn methods to re-contextualize your troubles for a new outlook on parenthood and life. You may even start to laugh through the adversity. In Maternally Challenged, you’ll discover: – That you aren’t alone: all moms worry they don’t know what they’re doing – What steps you can take when life throws you a series of curveballs – How to stop dwelling on your mistakes and find time to appreciate the little victories – How to teach your special-needs child that using disability as a crutch is never an option – How to put terrible days and tantrums into greater perspective, and much, much more!
This book is your laugh-out-loud guide to making sense of motherhood. If you like practical advice, using laughter as medicine, and personal stories from one mom’s journey, then you’ll love Kathy Chlan’s motivational resource. Buy Maternally Challenged today to start worrying less and laughing more!
My Thoughts
I started reading Maternally Challenged last night and could not put the book down. I laughed, I cried and my heart was full of joy. Kathy gets parents and gives a voice to everyone who is too scared to admit that yes we screw up, we yell, we make mistakes, we miss things and we are so far from perfect but our kids are happy and loved. I actually found myself laughing out loud at times when I was reading her book and my kids thought I was losing it, so I tried to explain to them what was so funny. It went over their heads but my husband even cracked a smile.
Maternally Challenged is the story of Kathy’s journey through motherhood from just before she was married. We follow her pregnancy that was plagued with extreme morning sickness to a C-section at birth. It wasn’t until they brought their son home that they realized something was wrong, from crying and curling up in pain all through the night to vomiting formula. This was just the start of what was to come – from a massive list of food allergies to alopecia and more. Their life became a whirl of doctors appointments, around the clock care and school for her son at an early age. Through it all, was the constant worry that all parents have – what can I be doing better, am I doing enough, should I try something different?
Their journey was emotionally exhausting (not to mention physically with all the driving from hospital to hospital). This could have worn them out and broken them. Instead they found the key to parenthood and to life in general. Admitting that yes this is going to be hard but laugh. Laugh when you feel like crying. Laugh when you feel like you can’t give one more ounce. Laugh when things don’t turn out like they planned. The road may not be perfect like we see on television but it is our road and we need to make the best out of it.
Maternally Challenged is a beautiful book full of humour, inspiration and guidance. You laugh out loud and you can completely relate to Kathy and her family (I loved how members of her family wrote a letter and it is included throughout the book – especially her brother’s thoughts on Kathy as a child and her clothes!). While we all face different challenges, the lessons that Kathy teaches us can be used in any situation. This is a definite must read book for new parents and seasoned parents!
You can purchase a copy of this book on Amazon.
Rating: 5+/5
About the Author
“After years of being in the trenches of motherhood, I know how easy it is for your identity to get wrapped up in your kids. Now that mine are all out of the house, I’m a mom with new priorities: I’m trying to find me.
This is a place for moms to embrace the mistakes we’ve made (and continue to make) with no judgments while we navigate a new phase of life. It’s dysfunction at its best. As a mother of two with a special needs son, I know what it’s like to have a family that doesn’t fit the mould—and I love it. My kids are the gifts that keep on giving.
I’m tipping a hat to my journalism past and sharing my perspective on the modern frontier for moms: treating yourself, finding your passions, saying no, and—of course—my family’s crazy stories to help other moms realize that life isn’t so bad. If you had a terrible day and screamed at your kid over Skype or in person, big deal. Here you’ll find inspiration for moms who aren’t sure about what they’re doing. (And don’t worry, there are a lot of us.)
We’ve all got adversities in life. My response? Laugh through it.”
You can connect with Kathy on her blog Unfiltered Mom.
The Giveaway!
My Canadian and American readers can now enter to win their own copy of Maternally Challenged via the Rafflecopter form below – good luck!
Disclosure: I received a copy of this book in order to facilitate this review. All opinions expressed are my own.
December 17, 2017
The Shadows in My Heart Book Review
The Shadows in My Heart is a story that will be too familiar to some and unfamiliar to others, but will pull at the heartstrings of everyone.
About The Shadows in My Heart
Big families cultivate chaos. Mary Havens knows this all too well. One of twelve children, she grew up on a picturesque Wisconsin dairy farm. Holidays, graduations, marriages, and newborns filled the farmhouse with the light of laughter and hugs. But for Mary, the unspoken eclipsed that light. Unresolved grief, abuse, religious dogma, and secrets left her in the shadows, lost and alone. Her profound story is one of determination, survival, and the ability to rise above the fray. It is a story that will be too familiar to some and unfamiliar to others, but will pull at the heartstrings of everyone.
My Thoughts
We have been blessed to live in a time where we are encouraged to talk about our emotions, where we are encouraged to talk about something that doesn’t feel right and where victims are believed and told to come forward. The focus is on healing, holding those responsible but also rehabilitating them. Gone are the days when things like sexual abuse and mental health were swept under the covers.
My Grandfather was a very quite man but I loved him for his quirks. He wouldn’t replace something because it was old and even if you bought him something new he would prefer and still wear his old clothes. He was a man of few words but it was in his actions that you knew he was proud of you and that he loved you (from hiding coins around his home to sitting at the head of the table on our weekly Sunday lunches). He grew up in the same time this book was based on and I wonder if he saw the same actions in houses of his friends and how this influenced him.
The Shadows in My Heart made my cry, laugh and understand. Society has come a long way in being open and discussing domestic and sexual abuse but we still can do more. The understanding of how many young girls and boys went through abuse and then suffered mental health consequences from this is shocking. This was the world that they lived in but no one wanted to talk about it. It drives home how important it is to talk about, to let both girls and boys that this is not the norm, this is not love and that they will always have someone to talk about it to.
This was an incredible and yet heartbreaking novel that all adults and even young adults should read. While the topic is sensitive, I feel it is so important for our young adults to read about and understand everything they can about abuse and mental health. Mary is an inspiration and a very typical individual in this type of situation. She endured years of abuse for her children but found the strength to fight back. Her opening up about the situation is what helped the healing process. This book serves as an inspiration for so many struggling with the same hurt in their own home who may not know where to look for help. This is a definite must read novel that you will not want to put down.
You can purchase a copy of this book on Amazon.
Rating: 5/5
About the Author
Mary A. Havens has appeared on numerous talk shows, discussing surviving domestic violence and sexual abuse, including The Oprah Winfrey Show, Minneapolis’ Twin Cities Live and The Mary Hanson Show. She was a Twitter contributor for Dr. Phil and The Doctors show. Mary volunteers with organizations for survivors of sexual abuse and domestic violence. She enjoys traveling and divides her time between the Midwest, Southwest, and Alaska.
Disclosure: I received a digital copy of this book in order to facilitate this review. All opinions expressed are my own.
December 15, 2017
Speed of Life Book Review
Speed of Life is the heartbreaking yet heartwarming story of a girl who thinks her life is over when really it’s just beginning. It’s a novel about love, family, grief, and growing up.
About Speed of Life
Sofia lost her mother eight months ago, and her friends were 100% there for her. Now it’s a new year and they’re ready for Sofia to move on.
Problem is, Sofia can’t bounce back, can’t recharge like a cellphone. She decides to write Dear Kate, an advice columnist for Fifteen Magazine, and is surprised to receive a fast reply. Soon the two are exchanging emails, and Sofia opens up and spills all, including a few worries that are totally embarrassing. Turns out even advice columnists don’t have all the answers, and one day Sofia learns a secret that flips her world upside down.
My Thoughts
We can be travelling along in life, with not a thought to the future and never really appreciating and living in each moment. In an instant that life we were living can be changed drastically. It could be a car accident, a broken bone, an old secret coming to light and even a death in the family. All of a sudden, the direction we were taking is completely altered and we are expected to somehow move on because no matter what life keeps going regardless of how we feel.
Sofia is a young girl (teenager) who suddenly loses her Mother and unfortunately was the person to find her Mother dead. In that one moment, life as she knew it was over. She was lost, stuck in her grief with no idea on how to get out of it. The little things that used to be so important weren’t so important anymore. Everything reminded her of her Mother which instead of filling her with joy filled her with pain. I think we can all relate to this, it took me almost two years to be able to look at my Grandfather’s room without crying. You constantly expect that person to be there, to make a joke or to jump up and say hello.
We follow Sofia as she struggles through her grief and navigating important milestones in school – including boys. She has no one to go to talk to this anymore – she most definitely could not talk to her Dad. But then to make it worse, her Dad begins to change and has somehow managed to smile again. Sofia turns to her best friend’s columnist for help but ends up getting more than she bargained for again.
Speed of Life is beautifully written, I could not put this book down and finished it in one night. I wanted to reach out and hold Sofia and let her know it does get better. Pain never disappears but it becomes easier to carry. That we need to look for our loved ones in the small moments (maybe a rainbow, a butterfly, their favourite song and so on). It is a story of hope, faith and recovery of a young girl. It is a perfect book for both young adults and adults alike that stands as a reminder that life doesn’t wait for anyone. No matter how broken, hurt and in pain we are – life keeps moving on. It is how we decide to move with it that makes or breaks us.
You can purchase a copy of this book on Amazon.
Rating: 5/5
About the Author
Carol Weston has been the Dear Carol advice columnist at Girls’ Life since 1994. Her sixteen books include Ava and Pip, which the New York Times called “a love letter to language,” and Girltalk, which came out in a dozen languages. Speed of Life received starred reviews from Kirkus, PW, SLJ, and Booklist. Carol studied literature at Yale, graduating summa cum laude, and has an MA in Spanish from Middlebury. She lives in Manhattan. Visit her at www.carolweston.com.
Disclosure: I received a digital copy of this book in order to facilitate this review. All opinions expressed are my own.