Win a copy of Dawn's Early Light by Laurie (L.C.) Lewis

Lovers of historical fiction will be excited to know that L.C. Lewis's new novel Dawn's Early Light, book three of her Free Men and Dreamer’s series, is now available. This compelling novel is set against the backdrop of the War of 1812 and covers the first American-born generation—the children of the Founding Fathers.

For those of you not familiar with Lewis's series, don't worry about needing to read the first two novels before this one. Dawn's Early Light can be read on its own or as a continuation of the first two novels. In fact, it was the first book I read in the series. I am not normally a huge fan of historical fiction, but this fast-paced novel kept my interest, both entertaining and showing me things about the period I'd never known before. The author has done an amazing amount of research and her characters are memorable. I particularly found it interesting to read of battles that I have learned about before, and to see how Lewis's make-believe characters can add so much understanding and feeling to what is going on.

Post a comment here and on any other blog site talking about the book to be entered in a drawing to win an autographed copy of Dawn's Early Light and a unique, handcrafted silver "Liberty" necklace made by Sterling Obsessions. Winners will be announced on Lewis's blog http://www.laurielclewis.blogspot.com/ on December 19th.

If you love historical fiction, or even sort of like it, you won't want to miss Dawn's Early Light. So go out and buy it today! The book can be bought online at Amazon.com, at Seagull Book and Tape, and other retailers. For more information about Lewis and her books visit her website: http://www.laurielclewis.com.

(Note: A copy of Dawn's Early Light was provided to me free of charge so I could do this review.)

Keeping Trim After Thirty-Seven

I have finally discovered it! Yes, the secret to losing the weight that most everyone, even those who've never had a weight problem before, have put on after age thirty-seven. You see, once you reach this ripe old age, you are only a hop, skip, and jump away from forty, which every teenager knows means you are practically ancient. Your metabolism starts complaining, "Hey, I've been doing this a long time now, and I'm tired. No, I'm exhausted, so I think I'm going to slack off a bit. Okay, a lot. Who cares? I've paid my dues."

Of course, it didn't bother to communicate this important information to you, and so you blithely eat on. You've never had a problem before. Chocolate, cookies, chips, and sweets never stuck on your hips and waist. "I have good genes," you'd always say, feeling sorry for those who were not quite so lucky. But now suddenly you are feeling every piece of chocolate and even a single piece of pizza adds a half a pound to your weight.

Now for the first time in your life, you finally begin to understand the nightmare that all those other people without "good" genes have endured all these years. Your waistline thickens, the fleshy part on your upper arms swing whenever you lift up your arm, and your sweats are so tight on your thighs that they look more like a second skin than something you bought at a department store. Your husband stops asking you if you want ice cream after dinner, and your children's friends no longer say they wished their mom had your figure.

What do you do? Give up and eat more chocolate? Buy clothes two sizes larger? Well, that might be the simpliest thing to do. In fact, it might be the wisest. There are a lot of happy, healthy people out there who weigh ten, twenty, or forty pounds more than they did in high school.

But there is another answer for those who don't want to grow large gracefully. The answer isn't exercise, though exercise is always nice for firming up. (Because most regular people can't work in enough exercise to allow them to continue to eat as they did as twenty-year-olds.) The answer is not some fad diet, which is only good while it lasts. It's not the lipo or surgery that some women resort to in desperation.

The secret is this: Don't eat.

I know, I know, it's a terribly hard thing to do. But the bottom line is calories. It doesn't matter so much what you eat, though some foods definitely give you more mileage, but how much is going into your body versus how much your lazy metabolism is willing to process. Or something like that. Fortunately, you don't have to completely stop eating, because your metabolism hasn't given out on you altogether. You just have to eat less. Less chocolate, less pizza, less of everything. A lot less. Grrrrrr. Except vegetables. Those you can always eat.

The good news is that since your metabolism is taking a break, the food lasts longer in your system and you don't feel hungry as you would have on the same sparse diet when you were younger. However, your stomach and brain don't realize there's been a change for a while, and they still think they should be on the old schedule, so you have to trick them by eating a whole bunch of vegetables and fruit for weeks on end so they think they're getting as much as they always did. Then by the time they realize the calories have been cut, they are good with the deal because they thought they were getting as much all along.

Yes, it's a matter of trickery and starvation. SIGH. I don't know about you, but shopping for a larger size of clothes sounds like a lot more fun.

Saving Madeline Blog Tour Winners!

Okay, the Blog Tour contest for Saving Madeline has come to an end. My children and I typed and folded each entry into a black hat, and then the youngest drew the names from the hat. We had just over 200 comments on all the blogs. Some readers searched for more than one blog and were able to enter multiple times (as allowed by the rules). Thanks to everyone who participated in the tour or who commented. And the winners are:

NightOwlMommy (from her entry on Anne Bradshaw's site)

Suze (from her entry on LDS Women's Book Review)

Congratulations! Please e-mail me with your full names and address and I'll send those books right out to you.

Saving Madeline Last Days to Win

Okay, we're coming down to the last few days of my contest. Visit any of these new sites and leave a comment to be entered into the drawing for a few copy of Saving Madeline. If you haven't already left comments at the other sites, check my past posts for the URL. Good luck!

http://lifelongbookworm.blogspot.com/2009/09/saving-madeline-review-interview-and.html
http://camicheckettsbooks.blogspot.com/2009/09/saving-madeline-review-and-giveaway.html
http://cjorgensenfamily.blogspot.com/2009/09/saving-madeline.html
http://grahamchops.blogspot.com/2009/09/book-chop-saving-madeline-contest.html
http://suzetheprice.blogspot.com/2009/09/interview-with-rachel-ann-nunes.html

Different Doesn't Mean Wrong

A few weeks ago I was at the Olympic Park in Park City, Utah waiting in line for the Alpine Slide ride, and I couldn't help but overheard the two young mothers in front of me discussing how they succeeded in making their babies sleep through the night. They used phrases like, "He only cried for an hour the first night" and "Mine cried fifteen minutes and then I went in and patted his back for a while" and "It took several nights, but he sleeps all night now." They expressed both guilt for letting their child cry and gratitude for their now-uninterrupted nights.

I didn't join the conversation. Why? Because I wouldn't have known what to say. My children never slept through the night as babies. I nursed them on demand, and they slept in our room until they were weaned (between 14 and 24 months). Even after they slept in their own rooms, I would go to them if they cried in the night and stay with them if they wanted me, or take them back to my room. I simply wasn't capable of allowing them to cry, especially as tiny babies who didn't understand why they were suddenly alone. By answering their calls, I felt they would know that I would always be there for them.

That idealogy continued into other areas. If they didn't feel comfortable in the nursery at church or in their class, I stayed with them until they wanted to go alone. I never sneaked out of a room when they weren't looking, or left without telling them I was going and when I'd be back. I told nursery leaders to come and get me if my child cried and once when they didn't, I refused to take my child back until they were replaced. I didn't us dentists who insisted on keeping me out in the waiting room while they worked on my children. Or to preschools who didn't encourage parent visitors. At times I endured criticism, but what I saw at commitment to my child came first.

I also had little time for myself. There were a lot of days that I was groggy, irritable, and annoyed. I sometimes felt that my sleepless nights would never, ever end. At one point, I couldn't ever remember sleeping all the way through a night in a solid decade. I craved sleep as a drowning man craves air. But I still couldn't let them cry.

I chose other ways of setting limits. I made my children do their chores, we held them responsible for their homework. We always tried to know where they were and who they were with. We taught them the gospel and the commandments. We taught them to care for and love each other.

So did my method work? Well, my children sleep all night and have since they were two or so. None of them have sleep disorders. On the rare occassion if they are awakened by a bad dream, or feel scared at night, they know they are welcome to come to my room for comfort. (As opposed to my husband as a little child, who would shiver alone in his room at night because his father would get mad if he came into his parents' room.) All my children attend school without any issues, they excel in academics, the two oldest have received college scholarships. Some have pursued sports and acting. They have friends and are well-adjusted. I'm convinced I made the right decision for my children.

But do I believe these young mothers ahead of me in line chose the wrong method for their children? Of course not! I remember how the exhaustion weighed on me. I remember how our children's need sometimes came between me and my husband. I remember people outside our family pressuring me to create a sleeping and eating schedule and make my children adhere to it. This method didn't feel right for the person I am and the way I was raised, but these mothers chose the way they felt was best for them and their children. That it was the complete opposite of my path absolutely doesn't mean their children will suffer negative effects.

There are many different ways to parent. My belief is that mothers should follow their instincts while raising their children. Don't let popular opinion, friends, or family pressure you into doing something you feel is wrong for you child. On the other hand, don't let anyone guilt you into not doing something you feel is right. Yes, study out all sides of the issue, discuss with your husband what you should do, making any compromises necessary, and then make a plan. If it doesn't end up working, rethink the plan. Nothing should be set in stone. As I've found with my six children, what works for one child, may not work for another.

For all those young mothers out there battling those sleepless nights. I want you to know that looking back now it seems as though those sleepless 15 years went by so fast! And the moments I spent alone in the middle of the night with each of my children during their first few years are memories I now cherish. So take heart and love your child, and remember that no matter what sleeping method you choose, as long as you love and care for them and set limits in other important areas, your child will be just fine. And one way or the other, you will eventually sleep all the way through the night like I do now.

The Sister Pact

Last Saturday I was sick, really sick. I could do little but lie on the couch and feel miserable for myself. But I could also read, and that's what saved the day.

Let's back up a little. You see, I'd received the book, The Sister Pact by Cami Checketts, to review a few days earlier, but the moment I took it out the package, my sixteen-year-old daughter swiped it and vanished. The next day she brought it back. She's a big reader, but with her heavy high school schedule, which consists mostly of college-level courses, I was amazed that she'd finished so quickly.

"How was it?" I asked. "On a scale of one to five stars, what would you give it? Three being you liked it and four meaning you loved it. Five would be that it was amazing."

"Four and a half," she said without hesitation.

"That high? Are you sure?" Believe me, that's incredible praise coming from a teen who reads so much.

"Yes."

So the next day I was lying on the couch feeling sorry for myself, and I picked up The Sister Pact. Miraculously, it helped me forget about my illness for several hours. It was a quick and enjoyable read, especially if you love romanctic supsense novels. As I usually read national women's fiction and contemporary paranormal that are sometimes a challenge to follow (with all their heavy social concepts and their weird new worlds), this was a perfect book for me that day. I enjoyed the flirty dialogue between the two main characters, and I even wanted to slap the guy a few times right along with the female heroine! I truly wanted to strangle the nurse.

The Sister Pact is a good novel for teens, too, as you don't have to worry about inappropriate scenes. If my daughter is any indication, they will love it. The Sister Pact also contains a good message about body image that could positively influence teens, though this is not an integral part of the plot and not delved into very deeply so it won't turn teens off. I know my daughter will be eagerly awaiting any more books from Cami Checkets.

To read a blurb on the book or the first chapter, please visit the author's website: http://www.camichecketts.com/.

More Chances to Win Saving Madeline!

More reviews of Saving Madeline! Remember to comment on these sites to be entered to win a free copy of the book! Good luck!

http://tamarahartheiner.blogspot.com/http://tamarahartheiner.blogspot.com/2009/09/review-saving-madeline-by-rachel-ann.html
http://sandrasdance.blogspot.com/
http://www.alisonpalmer.blogspot.com/
http://nicholegiles.blogspot.com/2009/09/book-review-saving-madeline-by-rachel.html
http://billyshercarpenter.blogspot.com/2009/09/saving-madeline.html
http://micheleabell.blogspot.com/2009/09/interview-with-rachel-ann-nunes-author.html
http://annebradshaw.blogspot.com/2009/09/my-review-of-saving-madeline-by.html