Free Book Giveaway Winner!

The winner, randomly chosen, for the free copy of The Heart Mender by Andy Andrews is Sarah! I will contact you, Sarah, through email so that I can mail you your free copy! :)

If anyone loves to read, I highly recommend checking out Book Sneeze. They were the suppliers of these books. In return for me providing reviews, they send me free books and sometimes a book to give away as well. I just received my second book, Mystically Wired by Ken Wilson, from them. I will review it here when I am finished reading it. No book giveaway this time, but I am very excited to get to reading it so I can share the review.

Free Bowling for the Kids!

Great idea to help with those bored kids this summer! Free bowling! Go to this site:
You can search for participating centers at the website. If there is one near where you live, you can sign up and put in any children under 18. Each week, you will receive coupons for free bowling for the children. The coupons are good for the bowling only - shoe rental is a separate cost. Some centers will let you buy season shoe rental passes for a reasonable price. My local center charges $2.00 per rental, or $20.00 for a season pass. If we would go 10 times, the pass paid for itself and any visit after that would be "free" shoe rental! They also offer a family season pass for $24.95. This pass is good for the adults in the family and will allow you to bowl whenever your kids use their coupons. For families who love to bowl, this is a great deal! For everyone else that just would like something to do with the kids here and there, the free bowling coupons are still a great deal too! That's what we did, and can't wait to use them!

Be sure to check your local centers' available bowling times and any other rules they may have. My local center started the free bowling program in April already, and it goes until September.

Also, you can add Kids Bowl Free on Facebook for additional giveaways: Kids Bowl Free.

Finally, for anyone local, Lighthouse in West Bend participates in this program. I also just received their summer schedule from them. It looks like they have some fun things planned for the kids for this summer. I was most interested in their Thursday preschool program for kids age 3-6. For $7 a week, the kids can bowl, make a craft, and do other activities. We may have to check that out as well! You can find the Lighthouse Entertainment Center's website here.

The Challenging Month of May

May has been quite the month. It always seems to be. There's so many good things that happen (Kierra's birthday being one), but then there's also often trials we encounter, and of course the reminder of pains that we endured in the past.

The irony that this all occurs in the month of May does not escape me. Spring is supposed to be the time of new beginnings, right? Yet the month seems to always be a time of new beginnings, sometimes endings, and then reflections on the past. I'm often left in a strange mood like I am today. It's hard to put it fully in words. I'm sort of melancholy, but also there is hope and excitement underlying somewhere in there. I tend to withdraw a bit. My communication with other people tends to become more superficial if I even do communicate with anyone outside the immediate family. This year, I was trying to change that with this blog. I wanted to try to get those emotions out that are often very difficult for me to verbally express.

I don't even know if I'm making much sense. I feel like I'm rambling. I apologize for that! ;)

I'm left thinking of all those big questions that we often don't really want to think about. I even worry I have become a bit death-obsessed lately. It happened the first time when my dad died. I was always worried if someone took longer coming home than usual. I've gotten a lot better over the years, but I feel those fears creeping up on me again. I worry about something happening to me. I don't feel ready to go anytime soon, but yet I worry that it might happen. And then I worry what that might do to my family. My fears next center on my husband. What if something happened to him? I go through every member of my family, until I realize how morbid my thoughts are and force myself to do something else to get my mind off of it.

Soon we will be into summer and all the events that come with it. I'm sure I'll get busy and most of these morbid thoughts will fade away again. Or maybe not? This year seems to be a big one of change. I don't know yet if the overall change will be for the better or for the worse yet, though. Guess I'll just have to try to hang on to every shred of optimism that I have left.

I wanted to write more, and am hoping what I wrote even makes sense, but I have to go take care of the kids now. I guess I will leave this here for now, and concentrate on the treasures in my life for now. :)

Book Giveaway! (and Review)

I'm excited to offer my first giveaway! Yay! I was given two free copies of the book The Heart Mender by Andy Andrews. One copy was for me to read and review for all of you, and the other copy was to give away to one of you! First, let me review the book.



I wasn’t sure if I would like The Heart Mender by Andy Andrews. While I do like to read some historical books and I also like to read love stories, I haven’t read many stories set during the WWII period. I was pleasantly surprised with this book.

The book is part historical account, part mystery/thriller, and part love story. I tend to figure out plots and twists in them fairly quickly and easily, but this book was actually able to throw a few things in there that surprised me.

The characters were well-developed and came to life. I felt like I really knew them by the end of the book, and loved to find out that the story is based on a true story. I came to care for the main characters of Josef and Helen, and loved the way things ended for them. Josef was a German man that was aboard a U-Boat in WWII when he washed ashore in the Gulf of Mexico. Helen, a widow who lost her husband in the war, found him and nursed him back to health. She had to deal with her intense pain and anger in losing her husband to the Nazis, and found that Josef is not the hated enemy she first believed him to be.

The story’s inspirational message is a great one to be admired. It is a story of forgiveness and letting go of anger before it consumes you. Love can often times be found in the most unlikely of places, as this story shows.

The book did start out a bit on the slow side and made me think I wouldn’t like it after all, but when I got into the story it became intense enough that I didn’t want to put it down.

If you like love stories, inspirational stories, thrillers, mysteries, or historical books; then this is the book for you!

Now onto the fun stuff. As I said, I'm giving away a new copy of The Heart Mender for free! If you would like to enter, here's how to get some entries:

1) Post a comment to this post, including your email address. (One entry)
2) Follow this blog, then post in the comments section of this post that you follow the blog. (One entry)
3) Refer friends and make sure they post in the comments section that you referred them. You will receive one entry for every friend referred.
4) Subscribe to this blog's feed and again, post a comment that you did this.
5) Post about this giveaway on your blog or social media site. Post a comment telling me you did this. (One entry)

I will take entries until May 28th. That gives everyone a little over two weeks to get those entries in! On May 28th I will use random.org to randomly choose the winner. The winner will be notified through email and I will ship the free book to the winner once I receive address information.

Fairly easy, right? So, please enter and pass the word to friends!

Mother's Day

In honor of Mother's Day, I wanted to make a post about my own mother. ;)

My whole immediate family has not had the easiest life. I know every person has his/her own set of obstacles to overcome, but I often felt like we seemed to have more piled on top of us. The biggest trauma that happened to us is that my father passed away suddenly at the age of 42 of a heart attack. My brother was 15, I was 11, and my sister was 6. In one night, my mom found herself a single mother to three children.

We were recently posting memories of our dad (he passed away May 5th, 1994) and my mom brought up her recollection of that night. She was at work, while us kids were home with dad. I of course knew what happened at home - the memories will forever haunt me - but I didn't know what my mom went through. It was strange, and heartbreaking, to read. Being a mother now, I put myself in her situation and I cannot imagine what she went through. I know we often find strength when we need to, and my mom definitely did. So much so that I think we all don't truly know how much she suffered. She had to be our strength.

Looking back, I see the sacrifices she made for us so that we could have the best possible life she could provide. Somehow she made it work on only one income, and somehow she helped us through such a traumatic event and we all survived.

My disability was the next big thing to hit me. My mom was there every step of the way - taking me to appointments and being there in every way she could. I know it sounds selfish, but I never really thought how it all was affecting her at the time. I had enough to deal with how it was affecting me. Now I see what she must have gone through as well. I remember our last trip to Mayo Clinic when the doctors told me that they had no clue what I have and couldn't help me...I left the room in tears. I remember seeing her cry as well, and that image seems to be burned into my mind as well. I think that's when it actually dawned on me the extent that my mystery illness was affecting her as well. I wasn't totally oblivious - I knew everyone in my life was affected by it. But to see her grieve for the lost chance of a diagnosis and cure, it made me see that the person that was always so strong and there for me probably shed many tears in private that I didn't see.

She's been my friend, my champion, and my teacher among many other roles that she took with her main role of mother. It sounds so cliche to say, but I really couldn't have asked for a better mother. She taught all of us to go for what we dreamed of, and to not let things hold us back. All of my siblings and I have learned so much from her and have grown to be caring people. And I think the reason we are who we are now can be traced back to our mother.

So, Mom, there's what I wish a Mother's Day card could really say. Thanks for all that you have done and continue to do for us. I hope that you know every day that we do truly recognize and appreciate it all. I think we would have all been lost without you. Love you, Mom!

I might be scarce for a bit...

My laptop will hopefully be fixed, so I don't have as much easy access to the internet now. I would often go on the laptop late at night in bed, but without it I only have the desktop. It's hard to find time to sit down and get on it during the day.

I'm hoping the laptop doesn't cost too much to be fixed and can be fixed since I will be taking online classes starting in August. I'm going to get a certificate that will prepare me for AODA licensure. Hopefully that will help with the job search!

Really busy around here, the whole month really. This weekend we have Mother's Day and Kierra's birthday party. Then we don't have a weekend totally free until June I think!

Group for Families with Disabilities

I decided to finally start one for Washington County. I've been wanting to do something like it for awhile, but wasn't sure where to start. So I decided to just make a group on Facebook (link here). And made a public blog page here. I also posted on craigslist that I was looking for interested people. I'm going to be safe about it since I know the scary people that can be lurking online, but I figured it was a quick way to get the word out. I will screen each person that contacts before just meeting with them.

It can feel very lonely to be a parent with disabilities, and I'm sure it's also lonely when it's the child that has disabilities. I was hoping to set up a sort of support group and possibly play dates and local handicapped-friendly events.

I'm not sure if I'll find anyone interested or how else to advertise (preferably free for now!) but figured I have to start somewhere! ;)

Time for a party - a pity party that is

I'm warning you this will be a pity party post. Just let me get it out of my system, and then I'll go back to my normal self - not really Susie Sunshine, but trying to be hopeful with a dose of realism as well.

I didn't get the job. Yes, I knew this was a big possibility. I told myself not to get my hopes up. But that's hard when I was facing the prospect of almost doubling our income. I was dreaming about the bills we could pay and the things we could finally do. It was like dangling a much-desired object in front of me, but then snatching it away right when I had the hope to finally reach out.

Okay, maybe a bit melodramatic. But this job would have made us financially set. It was above and beyond what I was hoping for. Not only was it high-paying, it also had flexible hours. The job was with youth, one of my favorite populations to work with. And it would involve planning the whole program...I LOVE planning.

The key part that reeled me in? I could actually physically do the job! It was part time, so it wouldn't tire me out. There were no personal cares involved which I physically cannot do. The likelihood of violent clients was also low. Finding a job I can actually do is very difficult. That would be why I graduated last May and have been looking for a year now.

I LOVE staying home with my kids and would be fine doing that and volunteering if that was financially possible. Unfortunately, we are just scraping by. Finding a part time job will make me feel less like I'm failing my family.

It is so frustrating to go through so many years of college and end up with a Master's degree that is proving to be useless for me with my disability. I'm either overqualified, underqualified (not licensed is a big one...duh I can't become licensed until after I get hours in at a job!), or I'm qualified but can't physically do it. Or the company doesn't want to deal with my disability. Yeah, try proving that discrimination happened.

I just want to take care of my family. I don't need a swimming pool in our yard and a BMW in the driveway. I just want to make sure that my kids have everything they need. Why is that so much to ask for?

Okay, pity party done. Now back to the regularly scheduled blog. ;)