book review, books

It’s All About the Books

It’s book day! Yay! I feel like I am slowly getting back in to some kind of reading groove. I read some decent ones this month, and a few that were sort of meh. A balanced month I suppose!! Linking up with Steph and Jana.

After I Do by Tara Jenkins Reid

Love love love this book!!! I think that anyone who has ever been in a relationship can relate to some of the issues that this couple had. I felt like I could really relate to the characters, as TJR builds them so well. This book reminds you to not take your relationship, partner or family for granted. I found myself reaching for this as often I could and flew through it. Which is quite the task with a newborn, let me assure you.

Bottom Line: Read it! Such a great read.

Rating: 5/5

Pretty in Plaid by Jennifer Lancaster

I really liked Bitter is the New Black and Pretty Fat, but this one fell a little short for me. I sort of got bored several times throughout the book. I guess right now my expectations from a book are really high since I dont have near the time to read as I used to and something has to be really good to keep my attention for long.

Bottom Line: If you are a really big fan of Lancaster’s, you may enjoy this book. I got bored with it.

Rating: 2.5/5

Bringing Up Bebe by Pamela Druckerman

I really enjoyed this book. It is about an American woman who is married to an English man and they live together in Paris. She mainly observes French parenting in this book and I found it all very interesting. To be honest, I have some similar views and instincts of parenting that is common for the French. Which, in reality, is the way that the older generations and our parents raised us.

The way I got Zoe to “do her nights” is very similar to the way all the French do it, which is pausing when they start to cry to see if they really need you or if they will self sooth. It isn’t quite the same as cry it out, which is more aggressive. It had Zoe sleeping 5-6 hour stretches by week 7 without me changing anything. The food section is really what drew me in. I don’t want to have a picky eater and it seems that the French follow more of the “baby lead weaning” which is what I plan to try. We shall see how that goes!

Bottom Line: If you are a parent or soon to be parent, I would recommend this book. Otherwise, you probably wouldn’t care.

Rating: 4/5

Trying It All by Chrisi Barth

This is the forth book in the Naked Men series. Honestly, after reading the last three books I have realized there is very much a formula that they all follow and so I got a little bored. It is still a good series, but I wish the author would have changed it up some and not been so predictable. This book follows Riley, who is a control freak and Summer who is a live in the moment kind of girl. It is fun to watch the banter with all the guys of the blog/podcast and see all the girls interact from the previous books. I will still read the next one about Josh.

Bottom Line: If you are invested in this series, this book has its good moments. Just a little predictable at this point.

Rating: 3/5

**I received a copy of Trying It All from Netgalley in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are of my own.**

Yellow Owl Workshop’s Make It Yours by Christine Schmidt

Flipping through this book, I started to realize that a lot of these projects are very basic and easy. Honestly, that is all the time I have for a crafting project these days anyways. I was a little underwhelmed by them, but they are fun ideas. I think this book would be great to work on with my daughter when she gets a little older. Or as a gift for someone who is just starting out in DIY and has no clue where to start or what to do. This may help boost their confidence. I appreciate that the books spells everything out and makes it easy to understand what to do.

Bottom Line: Would be great for the beginner crafter who is looking for basic ideas. Probably not for the Martha Stewart type person who has a higher level of crafting skills.

Rating: 3.5/5

**I received a copy of Make It Yours from Blogging for Books in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are of my own.**

Did Not Finish

Evelyn, After by Victoria Helen Stone

I am not sure what it is about this book, but I just couldn’t get in to it or care about it. I think maybe I just disliked all the characters? Honestly, because I couldn’t get in to this book, I went about a month without reading anything and when I decided I wanted to read again I didn’t grab this one. this was a did not finish for me, so I suppose you can take my review with a grain of salt. The premise of it sounded great, maybe I just wasn’t in the mood? I refuse to force a book on myself.

**I received a copy of Evelyn, After from Netgalley in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are of my own.**

Currently Reading

The Girl Before by JP Delaney

April 11, 2017 by Nadine

weekend shenanigans

Weekend Shenanigans

I was going to say the first weekend of April is in the books, but um that was last weekend. Goodness, time flies. This weekend was full of adulting and fun. You gotta keep the balance, am I right??

Friday after work, I met up with my sister and we drove out to see my mom. I appreciate all of your well wishes and prayers for her. She was in good spirits, despite all things. I know she is in a lot of pain, but hopefully after she starts physical therapy and everything….things will get better. It was good getting to spend some time with her.

When I got home, Chris and I dropped something off to a friend and picked up some pizza at Marcos to bring home. It was delicious, as always!

Saturday we had a list of adulting things that needed to get done. Mainly getting a shelf for my office, and a few other things on the list. A trip to Bargain Hunt, Best Buy, Big Lots and Sams ensued. We also had some delicious food at Casa Fiesta! These chicken flautas will be ordered again!!

Sunday, Zoe took a three hour morning nap!!! THREE HOURS! Do you know what a mom can get done in three hours?? A LOT!!! I got the shelf built, cleaned up some of my office, and did some other stuff around the house. When Zoe woke up, she ate and then we did our meal planning and grocery shopping. I picked up BBQ for a late lunch/dinner and we got caught up on a little TV.

The rest of the weekend looked like this….

We got Zoe a Sophie the Giraffe for Easter, but after a week of constant chewing on her hands and drooling through many outfits…I decided to bust it out early. Clearly, they were instant best friends! I also suppose that Zoe might be in the process of sprouting some teeth soon. Hard to tell, I don’t really see anything.

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend! Linking up with Biana.

April 10, 2017 by Nadine

friday favorites

Friday Things

Happy Friday!!! This week has been a bit of a blur for me and I am not quite sure why. I think the weather on Wednesday sort of mixed up my routine a little bit. Either way, I am glad it is Friday! It is nice on the weekends to only worry about Zoe, and not having to get shit done for work too. You know what I mean?

I haven’t talked about it much (well not at all on the blog), but my mom had to have surgery on her shoulder yesterday. The surgeon said that her shoulder was a mess and there was bone shaving going on, repairing of a rotator cuff and a screw involved. So if you could all say a little prayer, send good vibes or whatever you are into…that would be great. Zoe and I are going to go pick up my sister when she gets off work and go visit her this afternoon.

Favorite Recipe: This week, we pulled out an oldie but goodie. This Cajun Chicken Pasta recipe is my favorite. It is a meal splurge as far as calories and shit go…but totally worth it every now and then. Add in some fresh baked bread, and it is pure perfection.

Favorite Lust: The other week I was in JCPenney to grab some face wash at Sephora. I happened to walk by the ANNA stuff they had out front and saw the most beautiful bomber jackets! They had a pink one and an olive one and I want them so bad!!!! They are on sale right now and I haven’t stopped thinking about them. In person they are even cuter. The material was really nice.

Speaking of sales. Target has BOGO 50% off on their shoes right now and I still have my eyes on these.

Favorite Pins: I am on clean and organize all the things mode. I have pantry envy with this…

via

And I wouldn’t be mad if my closet looked like this, either…

via

Favorite Funnies:

Is it?:

Linking up with Amanda. Have a great weekend!

April 7, 2017 by Nadine

about me, currently

Coffee Chat

If we met for coffee, we would probably start talking about the weather yesterday. While there was potential for some really scary shit, it actually wasn’t too bad most of the day. I would tell you how Zoe and I spent the day with my SIL and nephew. It included an outing to Target and Starbucks before things were supposed to get bad. We hung around her house the rest of the day working and watching the kiddos play. I decided to go home around 5:30pm and a horrible hail storm started right after I pulled into my garage! Talk about good timing! There were downed trees everywhere around us. In fact, they are still cleaning that mess up this morning, many roads are closed.

I would probably tell you that Zoe has been fighting her sleep a lot lately. It was just naps, but last night she had a meltdown for an hour before we could get her to bed. Four month sleep regression maybe? I would ask if you had any tips!

I would ask you what your weekend plans are. I am not sure what we are doing yet, but I hope they include getting my car washed. I clean the inside often and it is always vacuumed but I haven’t cleaned the outside since I bought it. ~~Last July~~.

I would tell you that I need to go shopping for some clothes! I only have a few tops that fit me right now, and one pair of jeans. All of my dresses are old and super worn and I truthfully needed new ones last year. But I was pregnant and decided to just wear them all one more year as maternity and then get new ones this year. Well that time has come and I need to do some serious shopping! I am going to be honest though, the mirror is a brutal bitch postpartum. I have been pretty good about my food lately but I can always do better. I am thinking of going back to shakes for breakfast.

I would ask you what you are reading and watching on TV. I am about one chapter into The Girl Behind. I really need to just sit down and read some!! Chris and I have been catching up on all our normal shows. Last night we watched Chicago Med. We saved Big Little Lies until all the episodes were available, so I am hoping to maybe watch some of that this weekend.

I would tell you that we are trying to really purge and clean things up around the house. There is forever a ton of baby things taking up space all over. For a tiny human, she has a lot of stuff! I have a huge pile of clothes in my office area that needs to be hung and tagged for a consignment sale my neighbor is doing towards the end of the month. I hope to sell most of it! I just want to surround myself with things I love and nothing else. The clutter gives me anxiety! My hope is to walk in to any given room and just see things that make us happy. Hopefully all of that will make it easier to stage our house whenever we decide to put it on the market.

As any good thing, our coffee date would have to come to an end eventually. You know, adulting and stuff. I would tell you that we really need to do this again soon! Why do we always wait so long before we set time aside to focus on our relationships with friends? They are important too! I would suggest that maybe next time, we try out a new restaurant! Or maybe that Sour Room in Avondale that I have been dying to go to.

Linking up with Kristen and Gretch.

April 6, 2017 by Nadine

confessions

Confessions

Kathy and I decided to not host the confessions linkup anymore. There weren’t many people who were still linking up and my InLinkz account expired so it seemed like a good time. I will still post confessions posts from time to time, because usually they are sort of snarky snippets of my life or what I am thinking and feeling.

–Chris and I were watching the latest episode of Grimm on Saturday night. It was really good but then we were like…hey wait…is this the end end?!?! Turns out it was. It makes me so sad because we just loved that show!!! I am still depressed about it. Any other Grimm watchers out there?

–It is really hard to fit in workouts working a full time job, a side gig and being a mom to an infant. Really hard. There have been a few days where I put Zoe in her high chair and stick a toy there for her and workout in front of her. I think she thinks it is some kind of game where mommy acts like a crazy fool. She smiles and giggles at me and I am not sure whether to take offense or not. I am over here trying to workout, what is so damn funny??? I am certain I look ridiculous, so I cant blame her.

–So this is the current weather situation here in the south. If you aren’t familiar with tornado season, you don’t really want to be in the orange and you sure as hell don’t want to be in the red or pink. So basically you can find me hunkered down with my helmet and Zoe in her car seat. I legit went to Walmart to get a helmet yesterday. I wasn’t the only one in that aisle. We take this weather serious down here. Especially after April 27, 2011.

So if you live down here in the south with me, stay safe! Know you safe place, grab a helmet and a whistle or air horn if you need help and don’t go outside to film the damn thing. Your life isn’t worth a viral post on Facebook.

Confessions in ecard

April 5, 2017 by Nadine

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