I Am Thankful For

Including this post, I have two more 30 Days of Lists prompts left to finish. I am doing these last two out of order because I really want to save the other prompt until the end. You won't regret it. It's a good one and I have a lot to say about it. Onto today's prompt!

1. I am thankful for my family. My husband is a great guy who always try to help others when he can. My daughter is an amazing kid and I have no idea how she turned out that way. The rest of my family have always been very supportive of everything I have done, even when I have done idiotically stupid things. It's nice to know that someone will have your back when you (inevitably) screw up.
2. I am thankful that my husband and I have finally gotten out of the living paycheck-to-paycheck lifestyle. We did that for a very long time and, while we aren't rich by far, we are at least comfortable. 
3. I am thankful for my writing skills. They aren't paying the bills yet but they do give me some extra cash. That alone lets me do a few things that otherwise would not be possible. 

I am sure there are many more things I could put on the list. After all, we live in a nice community, both my husband and I are employed full-time, and we have our health. These are all things that most people take for granted. However, they tend to end up on lists like this a lot. I am thankful for those things but I wanted to show some of the other things I am thankful for as well. 

The Rainy Day Man

I recently finished The Rainy Day Man by Amnon Jackont. The book is listed on Amazon as "political mystery" but I'm not really sure where I would classify it. Basically, the plot revolves around Danny Simon, a retired Israeli explosions expert, getting sent to a small South Lebanese village with no real instruction. His bosses tell him that he is supposed to wait for intel from a local agent, though they never tell him who that is, in order to blow up something important, though they never tell him what that is either. As a result, he ends up living in this small town with no allies and no goal, which makes him question everything that has happened in his life up to now.

Maybe "political mystery" books are not for me. Like Danny, I spent the entire book waiting for something to happen. For his agent to contact him, for him to either get over his infatuation with a local woman or actually open up and do something about it instead of sneaking around behind everyone's backs, for him to step up and be a real father to his son. None of this really happened. The plot plods along chapter after chapter with no real progression in the story. It isn't until the final few chapters that the ball starts rolling. I would have been way more interested in the book if those events happened in the middle of the book instead of the end. 

If you are one of those people into political mystery-type books, please give the book a read and let me know if I am completely off-base. It is possible that I just haven't read enough of this genre to fully understand that this is how they work. For me, the book was just too boring. 

I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

InstaNatural Thangs!

InstaNatural sent me three product to test and review. Their Pore Tightening Vitamin C Facial Toner, their Advanced Formula Vitamin C Serum, and their Youth Express Eye Gel. I have tried all three of them together as well as separately. Here goes:

The facial toner is my favorite of the three. You spray it on your face then wipe it with a cotton ball before allowing the toner to dry. It made my skin feel really soft after using it. I also noticed that my pores did, indeed, look smaller. I thought that it was just me, but my husband noticed it as well. Especially on my cheek area.

While the Vitamin C serum has a lovely citrus smell, I didn't like it quite as much as the toner. It was another product that I had to wait to dry, which makes your routine a little long when you use all of the products. I also think that this is what caused a pinkness in my cheeks. My face didn't break out or anything but my cheeks looked flushed all the time after I used it. I think it was from all the acids in the serum.

My least favorite was the eye gel. It comes in a little pump can that makes it very difficult to get the appropriate amount of product to come out. The directions don't tell you how much you should use. However, when I used a full pump, the area around my eyes got very sticky. When I used a half pump, it was slightly better but I still had a lot of stickiness in the eye area. Every time I used it, I ended up washing it off after about a half hour. 

Since the toner was so good, I am interested in trying some of their other products. I think the serum and the eye gel just weren't for me. 

I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

Guilty Pleasures

Sadly, I do not have a new YouTube video for you today. I had some other commitments and I just ran out of time. On the good side of things, I hit 100 followers over on Instagram this morning! Yay! Just to round out the linkage, here are the other places you can find me: Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr. 

Today's prompt is Guilty Pleasures. Most of my guilty pleasures are TV shows. They are so bad but I can't stop watching them...

1. Cheaters - My husband and I watch this together. We both like Clark Gable better than creepy Joey Greco. Definitely a guilty pleasure
2. Supernatural - This is one of those shows that isn't OMG!AWESOME but it isn't terrible either. My favorite character is Castiel and I have a fondness for Misha Collins' off-screen antics. 
3. The Dark Parables game series - Dark Parables is a series of hidden object video games that all revolve around fairy tales. Usually the fairy tale characters have gone wrong and you need to save them. Both my daughter and I love playing them.
4. World's Dumbest... - Yeah, it's that show on the Spike channel or whatever that has the washed up celebrities commenting on videos. It's kinda funny sometimes.

These are the guilty pleasures that I actively watch on a regular basis. Any other guilty pleasures are shows that I only turn on when nothing else is on. I don't think those count. There is just so much bad TV out there! 

Best Places To Find Inspiration

Lately, I have a difficult time finding inspiration. I feel super lazy most of the time and I have to force myself to do things. It's a result of having way too many things to do and not nearly enough time to do them. But there are a few places I find inspirational.

1. The beach. I don't get to the beach nearly enough. However, I do find the beach extremely relaxing, which gives me inspiration to do more things. 
2. Podcasts. This may sound weird but I have been listening to a lot of podcasts during my daily commute. A lot of those involve interviews with people who just DID things. They didn't ask for permission or wait for someone to tell them to do it. They wanted to do something so they did. That is one of the things that inspired me to do my YouTube channel. 
3. My daughter. She is involved in so many things. She inspires me to keep going. Not stop doing something because I'm too tired or anything. 

The Best Things About This Week

This week is pretty generic so there aren't a ton of good things and there aren't a ton of bad things. Let's see what I can cobble together:

1. My daughter got into the jazz band at her school. They started rehearsing this week.
2. My first craft show of the fall season is this Saturday. I'm not doing nearly as many this year as I did last night. I'm not sure if that is good or bad though.
3. It's October! On one hand, I hate it because it means winter is super close. On the other hand, HALLOWEEN! I love Halloween. 

Um, I think that is about it. Like I said, it's a pretty generic week. There will be some amazing things coming down the line. But not quite yet. 

On My Mind Today

I have quite a lot on my mind today but that is because I have a lot to do. Busy, busy!

1. Slight worries that things I need for my full time job will not work properly. I'm not going to go into detail about this though.

2. Pondering some items for my daughter's Halloween costume. Every year I try to get this started earlier and every year something stops us. I hope I can get everything together in time. 

3. Trying to figure out my writing schedule. I have 3 books I need to finish reading for reviews, I have 2 more iPad apps I need to play with to write those reviews, I have to record some more videos for the YouTube channel...there is a lot. I seriously need more time in a day. 

I think that might cover it all. It doesn't sound like a lot but all of those things swimming around in my brain might give me a headache! When will there be more hours in a day?

Accomplishments I Am Most Proud Of

This will probably be one of the weirder prompts but here goes:

While it is not actually MY accomplishment, I am super proud of my daughter. I know this will sound like one of those moms who over-exaggerates how awesome their kid is. Not only is my daughter super well-behaved (she knows there are consequences if she does not), she is also very active in a lot of extra-curricular groups and manages to get all As and Bs in her classes, some of which are honors classes. I am very proud of everything she accomplishes. And they are HER accomplishments.

I don't know that I have any accomplishments, myself, that I am particularly proud of. I guess I'm pretty proud that this blog is still going after 7 years. Yes, it has changed over time but I never gave up on it.

Yeah, I guess that is about it. Now this prompt has made me a little depressed. As if I haven't actually done anything with my life. This was a terrible writing prompt!

This Time Next Year

September is almost over but, don't worry, I'm not quite finished with the 30 Days of Lists yet. I know I have missed a few days this month due to some engagements so I will be posting the 'leftovers' during the first week of October. (I don't think I've missed more than a week's worth of prompts...I'll just post everything I have left until they are all completed. It may take more than a week.) Today's prompt is "This time next year." So let's see what I think I will be doing.

What I Hope I Will Be Doing

I hope that I will have gotten myself to a point where I will be working from home full time. This includes all of my writing gigs, blogging, vlogging, and whatever else comes my way. I would really like to not be working in my soul-crushing desk job. Instead, I can focus on the content for my various formats, giving you guys the interesting stuff. 

What I Will Most Likely Be Doing

Most likely, I will be doing the same thing I have been doing for the past 14 years. Spending way too much time commuting to a soul-crushing job while trying to find the time and energy to do the things I want to do: be a good mom and wife, write interesting content, connect with my readers and viewers, be a "real" person instead of someone who is exhausted all of the time.

I know, I know. That second one sounds awful. I am always super optimistic that the first one will happen one day. I just have to keep plugging away as hard as I can. Man, I didn't want these prompts to get so depressing. I hope tomorrow's is happier!  

Lost in the Tsunami

I recently finished Lost in the Tsunami by Dorit Silverman. It is the story of an Israeli mother, Anna, trying to find her daughter, Ronny in India. 

We begin with Anna's inability to get a hold of her daughter. None of Ronny's friends have heard from her in a few days and Anna fears the worst. She begins to search for the young woman in the city of Tel Aviv. Eventually, she finds that Ronny has traveled to India. Anna goes to India and finds much more than she was expecting.

First, I would like to say that I did find the plot of the book interesting. As a mother, I can understand the panic that floods your body when you think you have lost your child. With that in mind, I do think that Anna was a little insane about the whole thing. She spent a lot of time screaming at people, which is never helpful. (I'm pretty sure the author wanted something more along the lines of "shouting" or "firmly stating" but "screaming" is what is in the text.) She was also very manipulative, which seemed against her character. Perhaps I am misunderstanding the character but it seemed like she was all over the place.

I would also like to point out that there are a ton of spelling and grammar errors in the book. This makes is extremely difficult for me to recommend it to others. They are all words and phrases that would pass a spell check (for example, a pineapple is pealed instead of peeled) so it is painfully obvious that the book didn't have a professional editor read through it. I almost gave up on the book as a result of the errors but I did plow through to the end. 

Finally, the title of the book is Lost in the Tsunami, but the 2004 Indian tsunami is barely a blip in the plot. There are 23 chapters and the tsunami doesn't take place until chapter 18. The majority of the book takes place in Israel. Anna and her guide don't even travel to India until chapter 15. I find it rather fake to title a book after a world-shaking event when it barely has anything to do with the actual story. 

While I did like Anna's story, there are way too many problems and inconsistencies to give it a whole-hearted recommendation. If, like me, spelling and grammatical errors grate on your nerves, stay away. However, if you can push through the errors, there is a fairly good story to be found. I have warned you, the rest is on your shoulders.

I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using <a href="http://www.tomoson.com/?code=BOTTOM1e0022dde73648d7321c989787876c38" rel="nofollow">Tomoson.com</a>. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.