A Mommy's Job

I don't know about all you other mommy's out there, but when my little one get's sick I just want the whole world to be kind and realize that this little angel isn't feeling well. My daughter is just like me-- a great immune system. Sure we get cold's a couple times a year but that is about it. She is four and she has only ever thrown up once in her life-- not including spitting up as a baby but even that was minimal-- but the other day, she got sick eight times in three hours. Poor thing woke up the next morning with a 102 degree fever and we spent most of the day in the ER making sure she didn't have pnemonia or strep. Good thing is, it was just a 48 hour bug in the stomach.

Unforunately, this bug passed by quick from the little one to me. Now as a mommy I think all of usknow that when we are sick-- too bad for us. We need to keep pushing on and be there for our little ones and you know what? I am okay with that. Being a mommy means that we lose our chance at staying in bed all day when we are sick. We still need to be there for our babies to play or make them food, bathe them and be there for them. But if you are anything like me, knowing that being a mommy is the best thing in the world, then it doesn't bother you so much. Luckily, I was blessed with a beautiful and self-sufficient little girl who doesn't mind watching educational shows on Netflix and playing in the living room all day while mommy rests on the couch until she is needed.

We are both getting better though so thank you for all the well wishes from friends and family, and look for my next post soon!

Shadowhunters and High Warlocks

I am a huge reader, but a picky one. Anyone else? I could go months without finding a book that captures my attention but once a book or a series has it-- I am hooked.

This happened to me last year with the author Cassandra Clare. She has written The Mortal Instruments Series, The Infernal Devices Series, The Chronicles of Magnus Bane, The Shadowhunter Codex, and while working on the new Shadowhunter Series The Dark Artifices, she is also working on a new series with Holly Black called The Iron Trials.

Anyway, the Shadowhunter world has me hooked-- so much so that I plan to read everything she ever writes about them and I even have a tattoo on my foot, my first tattoo, of the Angelic Rune which is a major symbol for the books. Cassandra Clare got my back into writing and into writing the series I am currently working on.

But for the reason of the post-- I got my hardback copy of The Chronicles of Magnus Bane today. He is a bisexual warlock, absolutely adorable, and a main secondary character for multiple Shadowhunter series. These are little tales about him that happened throughout his centuries of living and I can not wait to get started. Since The Dark Artifices doesnt come out until next year, I needed something to keep me from going crazy without my Shadowhunters, so I am glad the book came out now. They had each individual story on Ebook but I am a lover of the real thing and I figured why not buy them once and all together anyway.

So readers, you tell me, is there a book, author, or series out there that you are just obsessed over? I know I am not the only one!

Oh The Weather Outside Is Frightful..

Hello everyone from the very chilly Illinois!

Is anyone else out there experiencing some very brisk, white-falling weather today?

I thought that since the weather was changing, I would talk about something that everyone seems to be dealing with. Higher Electric/Gas bills because of the colder weather.

Now, if your house is like mine, your electricity intake rules! I can keep every light in my house on most of each day a month and still only pay a hundred bucks on electricity charges. What really gets me and my ex/room mate in the winter is gas charges because our heater and hot water runs off of gas.

A helpful tip? Buying space heaters. Really, it does help. Especially if the case is that your house is great with electricity. I want to go ahead and review a product that I recently bought two of from Walmart.com. The Pelonis Fan-Forced Heater with Thermostat. This little fan-forced heater has done just an amazing job in our house. I bought two, one for my daughter's room and one for the living room where I am currently rested up.

In my daughters room, this little thing heats up the room fast and then shuts itself off when it reaches a very comfortable temperature that I have it set at and kicks right back on if it cools down in the room at all. It is barely even on because the heat just comes out of it so wonderfully and stays in the room for a good deal of time before fading.

In the living room, I obviously need it on a right level setting and it is usually kept on all the time because my living room, dining room, and kitchen connect, so the little thing has no rest when it comes to reaching these rooms, but it does a beautiful job. Keeps a very good temperature in the living room, slightly cooler in the dining room and a bit cooler in the kitchen, but I feel that if I wanted to get another one to heat from the opposite side of the house-- the kitchen through to the living room, my house would be a very nice, warm sanctuary from the cold.

Now, I am reviewing this product because I know that as much as we all want to go out ad get the expensive heaters or the faux fireplaces that can just blast our home with summer heat, we can not always afford that. So, for the low price of $14.94 at Walmart.com with free store pick up or home-delivery option, this little thing does the trick.

No need to worry about kids burning themselves because the fan keeps the heater cool to the touch and like I said, you can have it on low heat or turn the dial way up to high and you can have it on low, medium, or high forced air. But if you also want something you dont have to put away or waste money on in the summer, this little thing has just a normal fan mode too!

Really, from one cold mommy to a whole crowd of readers out there, this little thing did not disappoint.

Stay warm!

Guilty Pleasures on Netflix

So, as someone who does not have cable due to saving money, I am certainly someone who is obsessed with Netflix. Yes, this does mean that I have to wait for the new seasons of Supernatural ad The Walking Dead to come out, but I am okay with this, for the most part.

 My stream as a ton of movies I have yet to watch but is constantly growing because I add pretty much everything on there that I can find that I will watch at some point before it is removed from streaming. I also have a ton of shows from the oldies like Cheers, to the underground fandoms like The Secret Circle, and BBC Jewels like Doctor Who and Merlin. Not to mention that Netflix has educational shows that keeps my four year old more then entertained. Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood has been a godsend on teaching my daughter about potty training in the past, being polite and more.

However, I do think many people have a guilty pleasure whether on cable or on Netflix or Hulu. Mine used to be Gossip Girl before I finished it off, and since then I really haven't found a show that I wanted to watch that I would consider a guilty pleasure. Until recently. After watching Dancing with the Stars this season and last's on ABC's website, I was drawn in to a show that an actor and actress had both come from to DwtS. Ready? Okay.. it is..

Pretty Little Liars.

I know, I know! A Show about four teen girls seems to be asking me to watch a show with a lot of drama and teen angst in it, but really, it is actually a pretty interesting modern mystery that left me thinking "Holy Crap" at the end of Seasons Two. Currently I am in the beginning of Season Three and catching up until I am forced to wait for the next season. But really, I am loving it and sitting and swooning over cute boys again, handsome men, left wondering who A is or Red Coat and then also left wondering not only why I couldn't have such good friends in high school, but why my high school experience couldn't be that interesting too. Not that I would want a friend of mine to die or be constantly blackmailed or threatened by someone, but just by the intrigue of it.

Anyway, that is my confession. I love watching Pretty Little Liars. I think Ezra and Caleb are gorgeous, Toby is adorable, and my favorite girl is Aria. Really though, now I am curious....

Do you have a guilty pleasure on Netflix and are ya open enough to share.

--"A".

You Learn About Someone Through Their Pinterest Posts

When I first heard about Pinterest, I wasn't sure it was something I was going to be interested in. Getting on a site and looking at pictures.. nothing but pictures? Really? Then, I actually got on to one of my friends who wanted to show me some ideas for something I was thinking about doing and I was just blown away.

I think what I liked most about Pinterest was the huge community of people that surround it and how you can find people just like you or connect to people through images. I have about 70 different folders or more and those are just the ones that I have on public. Some things I look up I like to keep to myself. But I can find things from craft ideas and children learning ideas to pictures from my favorite fandoms, things on relationships, things on being single, on being a mom, a being a woman, learning to sew or cook or build, to Do it Yourself projects and home renovation techniques. Really, the site is amazing.

I have looked through some Pinterest boards and ended up becoming connected to people who are fellow Whovian's or Book Junkies like I am, and really, I love it. I go on, see that their posts are so similar to mine that if we were to meet in real life we would be instant friends. I think it is really great and in all honesty, you ca really learn a lot about someone through their Pinterest posts.

The First Post Of Many

Do you know what I just so happen to be doing right now? 

I am skimming through my Pinterest, listening to Just A Game by Birdy on my Spotify, and writing to you nice people. 

I have tried writing blogs before that had a specific theme to them. I wanted to write a blog all about being a new mommy a few years back on Tumblr, and last year I attempted to do a blog that reviewed movies and shows that I watched that were either new, I found on Netflix or rented from a local movie store, but I always found myself slipping behind and leaving my readers without posts for days, weeks, sometimes months.

I am a writer, you see, but as far as writing goes, I share the same disadvantage as other writers do and I sort of fall off the grid after a while when the motivation stops. As I was skimming through my Pinterest though, I found some comments about blogging on just your life. What happens to you each day or each week. Believe it or not, some people actually read that. I am one of them. Sure, there will come a person or two that leaves a comment saying "Why are you writing this junk? Who cares what you had for breakfast or that you and your daughter went out for ice cream? Who wants to read that you are having relationship issues? Boo hoo, someone just wants attention." 

But then I thought about it.. doesn't everyone in some way? I can choose to write in my blog anything I want, knowing that I may or may not get readers, knowing that if I do some of them could be supportive strangers or others could be inconsiderate people I know down the street. In the end though, I am writing about my life from my perspective and you as a reader can either choose to read or not to read. You can be supportive or be silent. You can keep reading, or you can ignore me all together and my "attention seeking posts" about my life, my daughter, hobbies, schooling and so many other things. I will keep writing, because I know that out there, is someone like me who wants to find a blog about someone who talks about their lives. Searching for that blog that does the occasional movie review, talks about relationship issues, or mentioned what they had for breakfast, just so I can sit on the other end-- or you can, and say "Hey, this is a real person just like me, and I like that movie too."

So here I am in all my emotionally-naked glory, warning you that this blog might not always be exciting, it might not always be agreeable, it might not always be pretty-- but it is real, I am real, and if you ever need someone to listen to you too, I am here.

This is my blog-- Life and Nothing Like It.