What kind of day will it be? - Lisa & Ryland Goines-Taylor - BOOK REVIEW

What kind of day will it be? - book cover (screen print)

Lisa Goines-Taylor, a mother to a beautiful girl called Ryland, has written the most uplifting book for little ones. What kind of day will it be? Her everyday experiences as a mother, watching her daughter grow and learn life lessons, have inspired her to write a book on life, growth, empowerment, and self-confidence for children:

This book resonates so much with me. I know of a specific person who tends to unravel with anything that is not right each day. And regularly proclaiming that this is her worst day ever! 😬

This book, What kind of day will it be? should be one of the most important things we can teach our kids. We can make a choice each day about what kind of day it will be! With a "can-do attitude", although life can throw you some curve balls, you can decide and make each day a great one!

This book can be used as a positive mantra each day. Buy for the little pessimists and glass-of-half-full persons, but also for everybody to learn how to have a better day each day.

I don't want to share too much of the beautiful illustrations by Rachel Rodrigues, but each page is a delight. 

The age group is from 4 - 7 years, but a smaller child, as well as older children will enjoy the uplifting message. This book is also a reminder to myself. What kind of day will it be? 

This is a great gift for all little ones.

Disclaimer: Lisa Goines-Taylor contacted me via email, and notified me when there was a free Kindle option available a little while back. Thank you!

Escape to a fantasy world of Guardians and mythical creatures - Book Review

It seems I am into escapism right now, and that's why I chose this book.

Also, I love Melissa Delport, as I have read Rainfall as well as The Legacy series and knows that she is an excellent writer.

Disclaimer: I got the book as a PDF to review!

I was not disappointed, as the story-line, the setting of Summerfeld and characters became my daily companions for a week during our Johannesburg traffic. It made traffic life totally bearable! (When you are disappointed that your two hour long drive - which is supposed to be half an hour - is coming to an end... That is a good indication!)
 

Thank YOU! The Guardians 🦄made my traffic so much better here in Jozy this past week! @melissadelport @cupcakemummy

— Karen du Toit (@karentoittoit) March 11, 2016

I love the protagonist, the strong female Guardian, Quinn. But all the characters are portrayed with so much empathy and depth that I did not even have a problem if the main character hitched up with the vampire antagonist!

The search for the twins, Quinn's sister's children, had me as a mother holding thumbs that all would turn out for the better!

I can't wait to read the next books in the series.


The book is now available for $0.99 on a Kindle.

My Amazon review: Escape to a fantasy world where Guardians look after mythical creatures in a modern day setting 


Thanks Cupcake Mummy for the opportunity! Available for review on Charlie Foxtrot

Escape from the daily commute with The Sorcery Code #scorcerycode

The Scorcery Code, by Dima Zales

I love reading books, but I really struggle to finish a book. I only get to turn four or five pages a night, which takes me ages to finish a book! (I am really impressed with some of you who gets to read more!)

I think I have found a way! I turned on my Kindle's text-to-audio, and listened to it on my daily commute. It did not even take me a whole week to listen through the book, and I was in a much better mood arriving at work each day. Especially with the horrendous traffic that we have had to deal with since February.

Disclaimer: I found this book through a Tomoson promotion on my email, and could upload it for free through Amazon.

The Scorcery Code on Amazon

I was in a mood for a bit of escapism and this totally ticks all the "magic" boxes! (sic)

Who doesn't love a handsome hero who is a sorcerer as well, and who comes up with the best magic from The Spell Realm? It does not take long to be immersed in this totally different world with spell realms where a magical object appears in the human form of  beautiful Gala. The rest is fantasy, but the emotions and human conditions are real! I loved being transported to a different world, where the characters are introduced through the first person. It makes the reading experience intimate and believable!

I can't wait for the rest of the books in the series!

It is worth the audio commute read!

Snoopy and Charlie Brown fans - the movie has all the Peanuts!

 #snoopying at the premier of Snoopy & Charlie Brown : the Peanuts Movie
@sterkinekor #peanutsMovie #peanutsatMcD's #McDonalds

The most loved neurosis and second-guessing of Charlie Brown are still here in Snoopy and Charlie Brown: The Peanuts Movie when he tries to impress the Little Red-Haired Girl. Snoopy is off on a fantasy as a Flying Ace against his arch nemesis, The Red Baron, while trying to save Fifi, his love interest and pilot!

The plot/s are great and the characters are true to form! 

It is a must-see for all Peanuts fans!

We were fortunate enough to attend the Premiere at Ster-Kinekor in Rosebank this past weekend. Little Miss knows about Snoopy because I have all the characters in my office, but she loved the movie just as much as the adults did!

Photo-op with Snoopy

Snoopy tattoo

McDonald's added to the fun of the day!

Go see it!

Thanks to 20th Century Fox, Ster-Kinekor, Bokomo Otees and McDonald's for the invite!

Cloudy with a chance of Meatballs 2 - gets a thumbs up by the preschooler

We saw Cloudy with a chance of Meatballs 2 a few weeks back.

Little Missy loved it, and she did not blink through the whole cinematic experience.

We love it that we can go to the movies now and she really enjoys sitting through the whole cinematic experience. She did not take off her 3D glasses once.

The whole family went with Little Missy, and afterwards we all had to confess to each other that we had some bouts of sleeping in-between watching the food running around on screen.

It is a very colourful and wacky movie, but the first movie was much more interesting...

AND for how long can you actually watch food running around?

The question afterwards. What do they eat now, because all their food are running and talking? We did not get the answer to this in the movie. Not that this question bothered Little Missy...

Thumbs up from Little Missy!
Thumbs down from the rest of the family.

Luckily it is a movie for children. It is worth taking your children to see it!

--------


Related to this, but not from the cinema.
Little Missy got this clay toy with a Wimpy Meal and she loved designing her own 3D picture on the same theme from the movie.

Timeout in Review

Timeout

This week I downloaded  the third disciplining app of  10 iPhone apps that help with discipline, Timeout - Ultimate Discipline Tool.

This is a very simple and easy app to use.

As it is also not the ultimate disciplining route that we want to go, this won't be used very much in our household.

It is only as a very last last last resort!


Steps to use the disciplining app:

1. Select the time that time-out should last. Usually a minute for each year of age of the child. Press the button "Start". (I don't think it should be more than that?)

2. The next screen is the one on top of this post.
The time starts ticking off with the car going forward. The settings can be changed here, and the time added on. (Although, I don't think we should go that route!)

3. As soon as the car reaches the end, and the time has clicked off to 0:00, it goes to the third and final screen on the app.

4. A smiley face with the sound of cheers!


> I think this will help Mom and Dad, more than the children, to keep to the required time-out time, and not to keep the children in suspense.

>> It will help to redirect negative energy. The mere fact that we change the scenery for a few minutes with the help of an app that gives a "cheer" at the end!

>>> 4 minutes (the time I will use for my toddler of 4) is a very long time when you look at it.
It is more than enough time to break the spiralling negativeness.

>>> I paid $0.99 (R7,99) for this, which is very reasonable.


I give this app a rating of  6/10 for the cute car driving forward, and for the cheering when time-out has been completed!



Related post:

10 iPhone apps that help with discipline

Poetry of a Hobo Mama - We are never alone

Poetry of a Hobo Mama
Lauren Wayne

I am reading my first poetry on my Kindle, which is Poetry of a Hobo Mama, the first three years, by Lauren Wayne.

I am really enjoying the honest look into motherhood. I have been following Hobo Mama's blog for a very long time. (She is in my blog list.)

I love her honesty as well as her excursions with attachment- and natural parenting style.

The poetry is a raw and honest account of pregnancy, miscarriage, birth, babies and motherhood. As she accounts her struggles to read and to go out to the theatre and do the things they used to do before baby, she also writes about her love for her baby and her husband.

I am copying one of the poems. One of the most poignant life-altering changes that new parents have to cope with. "Mothers are never alone" But is also a reminder to me that mothers also share the same journey, and in that we are never alone!

It helps to read about another's journey in motherhood.


Mothers are never alone

I don't have that space anymore
a hole to fill
left to my thoughts
or devices
or skin.

Even visits to the bathroom
accompanied always
by someone to talk to me
and demand his due.

Like a queen
on a throne.

Like a queen
with courtiers
and chamber servants
and everywhere a face
everywhere a voice.

Only it is I
who serve them.
                                    April 2010


Poetry makes it sound so much better!