This is the year

With Christmas just around the corner, I'm looking beyond the holiday with anticipation of the new year, of 2011. For the upcoming new year presents opportunities for me to pursue my dreams, my plans for new possibilities in ways never before imagined. Maybe it's age, maybe it's a more peaceful outlook and acceptance for what is ... and isn't, but whatever the reason, I'm more excited to pursue the opportunities coming my way in 2011 than I have in recent years past.

This is the year I will finally take advantage of the fact permanent employment outside the home is not likely to happen. And that's a wonderful thing. A magical thing. A scary thing. A breathtaking thing. A thing I will do my very best to make the very most of by doing what I love and watching the money follow.

This is the year I drop the "first-time grandma" title. I have a grandson due to arrive the end of May, a grandson who will make a joyful noise playing not second fiddle but accompanying fiddle to my precious first grandson, Bubby. I'm thrilled by the prospect of becoming a grandma again, a grandma to more than one.

This is the year I will take advantage of the tremendous opportunities to become better. To become better at nourishing my body, my mind, my soul. To become better at writing books and blog posts, taking (and editing with Photoshop) awesome photos, playing piano regularly after pooping out after becoming unemployed and too anxious to plunk the keys. And to become better at spinning pizza dough ... just because I can. Most importantly, this is the year I will become better about letting each and every person in my life know how very glad I am to have them in my life.

This also is the year that I'm pretty darn sure the Prize Patrol from Publishers Clearing House will finally come knocking at my door. It's usually only older people who win, which means I'm so in the running for it. I've licked enough stickers and scrolled through enough "Order Now" offers that my name surely is ripe for picking in 2011.

Ultimately, this is the year I will take advantage of the potential and promise with which I've been abundantly blessed. I may have reached midlife and all the baggage that goes with it, but I plan to decorate that baggage with stickers of "been there, done that" and head out on the awaiting adventures. The sky is the limit and I'm on my way this year.

I wrote this blog post while participating in the TwitterMoms and OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network blogging program, for a $50 gift card. For more information on how you can participate, click here.”

Giveaway: Pandigital Digital Photo Frame [CLOSED]

How do you stay active? Are you a marathon runner? A regular participant in pick-up basketball games? An avid practitioner of yoga? A fitness boot camp soldier?

Or maybe you're more like me: a relatively sedentary person who fits in bits of activity here and there as it fits my day.

That could mean walking the dogs ...

 

Visiting the splash park ...

 

Outlining a grandchild in chalk on the patio ...

 

Or -- admittedly less common -- jumping in the bouncy house with a loved one ...

I also garden and do Pilates and go up and down several flights of stairs several times a day -- only because my house has lots of stairs and I have no choice but to ascend and descend again and again.

But what about you? How do you stay active? And do you take pictures of those activities?

The makers of Salonpas Pain Relief Patches (the first FDA-approved, OTC pain relieving patch) want to hear how you stay active with your family. Comment to this post and Salonpas will choose TWO winners to receive not only samples of the patches (one arthritis sample and one pain relief sample) but each of the winners will also get a Pandigital 7-inch digital photo frame ($99 MSRP). This isn't just any old digital photo frame -- and I know, because they sent me one, along with Salonpas samples -- it's  a picture frame that's Wi-Fi and Bluetooth compatible (for a photo frame!), plays videos and music, features a clock and calendar, has a fully functional remote control and a 1GB memory that stores up to 6400 images. Images of you being active with your family!

And all you have to do is answer this question:

How do you stay active with your family? No family around? Then tell us how you stay active on your own.

Comments will be accepted until 11:59 MST Monday, November 29. Two winners will be chosen and announced Tuesday, November 30. Prizes will be shipped directly from Salonpas.

And if you can't wait until the end of the giveaway -- or if you end up not being one of the two lucky winners -- you can request samples of Salonpas pain relief patches directly from the Salonpas Facebook page.

Disclosure: I received Salonpas samples and an awesome digital photo frame just like the ones in the prize packages in exchange for hosting this giveaway on my site.

Update on Tuesday, November 30, 2010 by Lisa Carpenter

And the winners of the super cool Pandigital Digital Photo Frame are:

#6 = Tonya

#7 = Debbie

Congratulations, ladies! I'll be getting in touch with you for shipping addresses.

Thank you to all who entered! And if you'd like to request samples of the Salonpas Pain Relief Patch, be sure to visit the Salonpas Facebook page.

Review: The Thieves of Darkness by Richard Doetsch

The Thieves of Darkness by Richard Doetsch -- Guest review by Pam of 40-Something First Timer

The Thieves of Darkness by Richard Doestch – which the title page tells me is “a thriller” – certainly starts out as a thrill ride. The first 30 pages are non-stop action, with car chases, shoot outs, daring prison escapes, villains and heroes. The end of the book is also a thrill a minute, with treasure hunts, more shoot outs, betrayals and daring escapes. However, the middle of the book is only sort of thrilling.

Each character is fleshed out – almost too much. We get to read about their entire life before this book, even characters that have apparently appeared in other books by this same author. Although fleshed out, the characters are still caricatures. The good guys are all good and the bad guys are all bad, except that all but two of the main characters are criminals. The good guys became thieves for noble reasons, while the bad guys became thieves for selfish reasons. It was a little too cut and dried for my taste. The so-called noble reasons were still pretty selfish if you dig just a little deeper.

The relationships are all a little too perfect, whether they are friendly or not.  And dialogue between characters seems contrived. The love scene feels forced and trite, leaving me rolling my eyes. Characters fight over things that real people would talk out – not just walk out.

Descriptions of places, buildings, cities and people are so drawn out they actually take away from the flow of the story. While it was interesting to read about what a harem really was, I don’t think taking several pages to describe it added to the story. It is only mentioned again as characters pass back through the area described.

The twists and turns throughout the book became tiring for me. Just when I thought the good guys were in the clear, the bad guys would suddenly show up. Just when I thought the bad guys might get away with their evil plans, the good guys would somehow show up. Both sides always seemed to be just one step ahead of their adversary. I began anticipating that. In the end, it seemed like the winners were just the luckier people. Because of that, in the end, the twist didn’t surprise me all that much.

I wanted to like this book, but I really didn’t. It took me much longer to read this book – which is just 469 pages – than it normally takes me to finish a novel. I found myself bored through much of the middle of the book. The places are beautiful and intriguing, but, too much time is spent describing them. The characters, with the exception of Paul Busch, are unlikeable. I also thought the story took way too long to come to its neatly wrapped conclusion.

There are other reviewers on the Internet who have very positive things to say about The Thieves of Darkness. On the other hand, Publishers Weekly says, “A shop-worn plot and stock characters mar Doetsch’s overlong third thriller to feature retired art thief Michael St. Pierre ... Clunky writing doesn't help.”

I have to agree with Publishers Weekly.

Clicking on the book cover will provide more information on the book. It is NOT an affiliate link; I earn nothing by you clicking on it.

Double review: Halfway to Each Other & The Stuff That Never Happened

In the past few months I've read two books on long-term marriages. Long-term marriages on the rocks, to be specific. As a partner in a long-term marriage, one that's admittedly seen its share of rocks, I was intrigued by the two books that came my way, each with a different look at marriages on the verge of dissolution.

First let me make clear that my marriage is fine; it's definitly not on the verge of dissolution. There are just so many hunka-hunka-burning-love, life-is-rosy-and-blissful books about the excitement of budding romance out there (and I'm not even talking about romance novels!) that it's refreshing to see characters who look like me and live lives similar to mine.

The first book is Halfway to Each Other by Susan Pohlman. It's the true story of a couple who are days away from visiting the divorce lawyer when they decide to give their 18-year marriage one more shot -- by leaving Los Angeles with their teen daughter and pre-teen son to live one year in Italy.

The book is published by Guideposts so I assumed it would be filled with Bible verses and platitudes that might make me gag a bit. I'm a Christian, no doubt about it, but I don't like being bonked over the head with syrupy sweet messages about how grand life is as one of the forgiven. Luckily, Pohlman didn't do anything like that. In fact, I found it quite refreshing the way she shared moments of her marriage that were surprisingly similar to my own, uncomfortable moments such as realizing an innocent remark led to slammed doors and stonewalling. And wondering how the cuss it devolved so quickly. Moments that have nothing to do with being a Christian but everything to do with being real and human and disillusioned with the state of one's primary relationship.

If you've been married very long at all, you've likely experienced the stuff of which Pohlman writes.

The stuff you've likely not experienced, things of which Polhman also writes, are the breathtaking moments that helped heal her marriage and strengthened her relationship with her kids, many courtesy of the people, customs and landscape the ex-pats found in Italy.

I found the balance of the reality of a long-term marriage -- and the honest revelation of the thoughts, feelings and fears of a middle-aged woman -- countered by the novelty of a new environment fascinating, refreshing and uplifting. In a non-saccharine way.

To say that things worked out for the Pohlman's in the end gives nothing away as the subtitle of the book is "How a year in Italy brought our family home." Even knowing the ending, Halfway to Each Other is an excellent read for anyone in a long-term marriage -- one on the rocks or not -- as it points out that sometimes all you may need to freshen things up a bit is a new perspective. 

Fortunately a new perspective doesn't require a trip to Italy -- although wouldn't that be nice!

The second book I read on a similar topic is the novel The Stuff That Never Happened by Maddie Dawson. It, too, takes an unflinching look at a long-term marriage and all the nit-picking that threatens even a seemingly stable 26-year relationship as it heads into the empty-nest phase. (Sound familiar?)

What's not so familiar -- at least not to my marriage -- is that Annabelle McKay, the narrator of the book has a secret: A longing for the man she fell in love with during the first few years of her marriage. That man wasn't her husband, but one with whom she'd had an affair long, long ago.

In the midst of what has become an unfulfilling life, Annabelle reflects on her life-changing affair and the way things might have been. If only ... .

A realistic portrayal of what it's like to be the mother of young adults while struggling with coming to terms with how one's life turned out keeps The Stuff That Never Happened from reading like a romance novel. There's not much romantic about the things Annabelle, her husband or her lover did in the past -- or in the present -- and it was waiting for a realistic resolution of what the future might hold that kept me reading Annabelle's story.

It's not a deep read, but it was an interesting read, for I'd venture to say that each one of us has entertained a few "if only" moments at one time or another, even in the happiest of marriages. I enjoyed reading how Annabelle's "if only" worked out for her.

Click on the book covers for more information on the books. They are NOT affiliate links; I earn nothing by you clicking.