Archive for the ‘family’ Category

Review: In Leah’s Wake by Terri Giuliano Long

Rating: 2 out of 5 stars

In Leah’s Wake by Terri Giuliano Long is about a family of four whose eldest daughter starts exhibiting dangerous and destructive behavior and how it affects the enter family. Sixteen year old Leah decides that she is tired of being a soccer star and ‘perfect’. Twelve year old Justine just wants her family back the way it was. Parents Zoe and Will each handle the stress in their own ways while pulling away from one another.

I found In Leah’s Wake to be painfully slow. I committed to reading this, so I did read the entire book though I struggled to finish. From the title and description I had figured out what the plot would be and just wanted it to get to the point already. I did like the extensive character development. Each chapter is from the perspective of a different family member and I especially liked the chapters from Justine’s perspective the most.

I gave In Leah’s Wake a generous 2 out of 5 stars as I did like the character development, but would have liked more resolution with Justine given some of the symptoms that she had started exhibiting given the strenuous situation with the rest of her family. While I personally did not like this book, others may well like it very much.

In Leah’s Wake is available for purchase now.

~Jaclyn~

*Disclaimer: I received this from the author and Novel Publicity as part of their book tour. Please see my disclaimer policy for more information.

Today was probably the most hectic, most insane, and the craziest shopping day of the entire year! So why you may be asking would I subject myself (and using a wheelchair nonetheless) to the mayhem? For the outrageous sales of course!

Well, I mainly wanted to go CVS and Rite Aid because of the amount of highly discounted, free, and moneymaker items! I started following several coupon sites that each list the matching week’s transactions (also called “match-ups”) and even go so far to list each [sale] item and put together transactions lists. This then makes it super easy for the user to figure out which coupons are needed and in what order to purchase the items in order so as to be the most bang from one’s buck!One of my favorite of such sites is Deidre’s Cuckoo for Coupon Deals though she didn’t have transactions listed for black Friday.

The super nice and helpful cashier at CVS was very impressed with the detailed transaction lists that I gave her Deidre’s website as well as my own. Who knows, maybe she’ll even read this post! My sister and I spent over three hours at CVS and Rite Aid between finding items and checking out. And in both stores everyone we encountered shoppers and employees alike were so kind and helpful! One woman in CVS noticed we were looking for the same items she was and brought us the items as she found them for herself as well!

I am pretty new to the whole stockpile coupon-ing thing. I remember cutting out coupons for my mom when I was 4 or 5 without ever being asked or shown how. I just did. So I’ve always been interested in coupons and tried to use them when I could. But in the last few months I’ve really been trying to use coupons to get items we use very inexpensive or free. I have found though that for most of the food products my family buys, that there are no coupons for them.

So my main focus is for non-food items like hair products, soap, cosmetics, and other toiletries. I have a couple shelves in one bookcase that I am using for these items and I have to say that we are good on shampoo and conditioner for awhile! Rite Aid had VO5 for $0.33 each after store rewards! Both stores were very patient while I sorted the items into the many transactions needed to take advantage of store rewards.

Did you take part in Black Friday? And if so, where did you go and what deals did you find?
~Jaclyn~

Tomorrow I head back to the surgeon’s office for yet another one of my bi-weekly visits. While it is a drag having to schlep up to their office and having to often wait hours to see the P.A. (Physicians Assistant) I know it is well worth it.

And I am very lucky to have such a close family friend who is just wonderful company and we often will go out for dinner or something afterwards. That really does help to make the whole experience so much better!
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What do you do to prepare for the holidays? Do you do a lot of house cleaning? Do you try out new recipes?

In my house a lot of that depends on what our plans are. This year we have been invited over to one of our very close family friends for the Thanksgiving holiday.

I love to cook and bake. I love trying out new, sharing, creating my own recipes. I have found that nearly all ‘traditional ‘ stuffing recipes contain celery, carrots, and other vegetables. A couple of years ago I came up with my own stuffing recipe after doing a lot of research and wrote it using ingredients that I can tolerate. As there are hardly any veggies that I can eat without becoming ill.

I have found through experimentation that I can tolerate some very well cooked and peeled apples and onions. So I’ll include brown or sweet onions, green apples, chicken broth, a mixture of savory and sweet breads, and herbs. The result may be unconventional and not traditional but it is delicious. In fact my sister has already requested that I make a HUGE batch!

Years ago a coworker of my dads gave us a fabulous and easy pumpkin dessert recipe she called pumpkin dump cake. Amply titled because you mix everything in one bowl and then dump it into the pan!

I find that it is an easier to make alternative to pumpkin pie as there is no crust to roll out. In my version since there isn’t a typical crust there isn’t any butter and so probably In this recipe that crust is in the form of a ‘crumble’ made up of yellow cake mix sprinkled on top and drizzled with oil.

What are some of the things you do to prepare for thanksgiving and holidays? I’d also love to hear about any of your favorite holiday recipes?
~Jaclyn~

We watched the last Harry Potter film this past Sunday afternoon. I thought that the second Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows movie was significantly better than the first.

Overall I typically find that books are better than their movie counterparts. One such case of an exception is in the case of the seventh Harry Potter book! I strongly disliked the book even though I had been a Harry Potter fan for many years and even went to Harry Potter Meetup on several occasions. Click to Continue Reading