I Finally Finished a Book!!!

The pile of books to be read (or reread) on my night stand keeps growing and finally in the last month or so I have been able to slice some reading (for me) time back into my crazy life. My friend Mary Ostyn's book (it's the cute pink one on top) A Sane Woman's Guide to Raising a Large Family was one of the first on my rather long list. She's the author of the blog Owlhaven but you probably know that already!

It is a fabulous parenting book full of really sound advice. I say this not because she goes into many researched and clinical details as other parenting books I've read, but really because she doesn't. Her advice is real, mom to mom, down to earth and enjoyable to read. The theme that spoke most to me was to focus on the stuff that matters most (to me.)

Mary's words flow nicely and the information she shares is obviously very personal and gained from her own parenting experiences. Even the times when someone (who shall not be named) kept stealing my bookmarks and I would read the same sentence or paragraph over and over, it was fine. I'm learning how God works and there was a reason I needed to read these particular passages over and over and really, I was delighted to do it! I mean how could I not be...

"Kids grow fine sharing rooms, and God does fine at stretching budgets. In fact, I suspect He takes delight in surprising us with just how well He can provide." pg 35

Each section of the book has a sense of warmth and care for the children of the family, while keeping things practical for mom and fun for all. Obviously my two kids puts me nowhere near having a large family and I don't have some of the unique challenges that comes with it. Even still, I have taken much from the book and never felt excluded because of my small family size. It was nice to gain an insight into what happens in large families. In fact I think no matter the number in your family, creating a unique bond with each child and having more time to do it is something we all are looking for.

I'm very eager to read and start tasting recipes from her new book Family Feasts for $75 a Week which is now available! My plan is to start in September when Mary is doing her grocery challenge and I'll tell you about all the yumminess! After all if a Mom of ten recommends it, I'm at least going to try it out for size!

A Princess Give Away

I must admit I was both excited and nervous to review the DVD "Prima Princessa Presents Swan Lake." Excited to have a DVD to show my kids something I'm very passionate about. Remember, I used to be very serious about dance. Nervous because I knew the story line of swan lake was a bit above most small childrens thinking capacity with some dark and twisted stuff :). Turns out I should have just been excited!

After watching it with my children I am happy to say it was great! The selected scenes from the Paris Opera Ballet's performance were simply narrated by the voice of a young girl. The performance is interspersed with scenes from children at the New York City Ballet's School of American Ballet (SAB) as well as, my personal favorite, little girls in tutus dancing barefoot in the grass.

My 4 year old son was surprisingly very interested in the lingo and movement taught by the kids at SAB, especially the young boy doing pirouettes and jetes. He seemed happy that there was another boy to relate to. My 19 month old little princess had a blast twirling with the girls and surprisingly the whole 40 minute video held her attention span.

This is an extremely well made video and I recommend it for anyone especially if you have little girls. A most fabulous way to introduce children to the ballet!!!

The company was founded by two mommy entrepreneurs one of whom, Stephanie, is going to give a copy away to one lucky reader!! You can twirl over to their website www.primaprincessa.com to learn more about them.

To be entered into the drawing just leave me a comment on this post by 11:59pm Wednseday, April 8th! You don't have to have a blog, just make sure to leave me your email in the comment or email me. So that I'll be able to contact you if you win!!!

Thanks Stephanie, you didn't disappoint!!