I'm a full-time mummy

Few days ago, I announced that we are expecting our second child and now I have the privilege of reviewing a parenting book by Jennifer Cigale called "Newborn Necessities".

Author: Jennifer Cigale
Publisher: Tate Publishing (November 2, 2010)
ISBN-10: 1616633840, ISBN-13: 978-1616633844
Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 4.9 x 0.2 inches
Paperback: 84 pages

Excerpts from the product description:

"Are you a new or expecting parent? Do you know someone who is? If so, this book is for you.

There are many items you will need to get ready for your baby, and Newborn Necessities is one of those things. As soon as your baby is born, your doctor, midwife, nurse, and/or pediatrician will ask you to keep track of his or her feedings and diaper changes. Make it easier on yourself by writing it down. Using the charts provided in Newborn Necessities will help eliminate common feelings of stress and anxiety associated with, When did I last feed the baby? Is he/she eating enough? When was their last bowel movement?

This book is designed for parents by parents. It is intended to make your journey into parenthood a little bit easier by providing you with easy-to-use charts to document this information. It is a quick, compact, and easy-to-understand way to chart this information, thus leaving you more time to spend with your baby and catch up on your sleep!"

A brief info about the author:

"Jennifer Cigale lives in Boca Raton, Florida, with her spouse and two children. As a new mother, she developed these charts for her own use and was soon sharing them with friends and family who were also starting families. She holds a master's degree in Occupational Therapy and has used her education and training as an occupational therapist to identify problems and develop working solutions for her patients."

I love the cover of the book! The color is so refreshing to the eye, the size and weight of the book is just nice. Not too heavy and not too flimsy either. Just nice! Content wise, it is a very handy and useful book to help a new parent to track the intake and output of their newborn child.

If only I have this book when we just had Ben 2 years ago, it would've save us lots of time and trouble as back then, what I did was writing down the logs for the day on our small whiteboard in our room. I only scribbled the time I breastfed Ben, duration each feeding, which side and only started keeping track of his diaper logs when Ben started his solids at 6 months old (never thought of keeping track from his birth hehehehe..). So yeah, if we have this book back then, all I need was just write down the daily logs on the specific page and the information is all right at our finger tips and the book can be carried around easily!

Now back to the book, it is divided into 2 categories: 

Now, please do not underestimate the importance of noting down the feeding and diaper logs as I did the same thing with Ben and I was able to give more detailed information to our paed on what Ben is taking in and producing out during each of his health visits.

I would however love to see notes of what to look out for or to be alert for (such as growth spurts = more frequent feedings or changes in poo which might be caused by illnesses etc) as these would be an added special touch for the book user.

In summary, this is a great book to have for expecting and/or new parents to help them keep track of the intake and output of their newborn child and can be a great gift to expecting and/or new parents as well!

You can purchase the "Newborn Necessities" book from Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Tate Publishing website.

But wait!!!

Jennifer has been so generous in offering me not one, but TWO copies of her book to giveaway to you guys! Now hear me out, TWO of my lucky awesome blog readers/visitors will be able to win a copy of Newborn Necessities! Yup! You read that right!

* Eligibility: OPEN WORLDWIDE!

* Giveaway expires on 7th March 2011 (Malaysia time)

* You must fulfil the mandatory entry 1st (which is letting me know you are participating as international/Malaysian blog reader or visitor, then providing your valid email address & answering the question), else you will be disqualified.

* Winner will be randomly drawn using Random.org and will have 48 hours to respond to  my email notification or a new winner will be drawn.

* Both winners will receive their prize sent directly by the author.

* A copy of Newborn Necessities book will each be given to: 1 international blog reader/visitor AND 1 Malaysian blog reader/visitor (if your mailing address is not in Malaysia, I will disqualify you and choose the next one!).

To enter the giveaway, kindly click at the link shown below and the entry form will appear in a new window:

* Newborn Necessities Giveaway Entry Form *

(Link has been disabled as entry closed at 12midnight past 7th March 2011)

It'd be great if you could leave me a comment once you have submitted your entry so that I can check and ensure it's safely tracked into my database. So what are you waiting for?!! Hurry up! You have 1 month time from now to join in the fun and try your luck!

I received no monetary compensation for this review, I was provided with an actual copy of the book by the author in order to facilitate my review. All opinions expressed in this post are my own. Please do your own research when purchasing products, as your opinions may differ from mine.

And if you'd like to read my previous book reviews, you can do so by reading this post of mine called "My Book Reviews"

I'm so glad I had the opportunity to review this wonderful book called: "UNSTUFF". It took me some time to read it came at some busy  time of my life - rushing to bake Christmas cookies, New Year and so on... So without further ado,

Author: Hayley & Michael DiMarco
Publisher:  Tyndale House Publishers
ISBN: 9781414334783
Paperback: 224 pages
Dimension: 8.25 X 5.50 (inches)

Product description from the publisher's website:

"God . . . and stuff. Everything in the universe falls into one of these two categories. Which is more important to you? (It’s not a trick question.) In Unstuff: Making Room in Your Life for What Really Matters, popular authors Hayley and Michael DiMarco take a close look at what’s in your wallet, your heart, your house, and your mind to reveal the pleasures and perils of stuff—and the joy, peace, and freedom that comes from learning to live with less.

In this real-life look at “how it’s done,” the DiMarcos take an uncomfortably close look at the cost of their love affair with stuff. They start by Unstuffing their house—getting rid of anything they don’t need by giving away, selling, or throwing out items that only add to their love for more. Then, kicking it up a notch, this family of three travels across the country with nothing more than they can fit in a motor home . . . and discovers that the really important stuff goes with them."

I love this book! At first I was a bit skeptical at the title, I mean, "Unstuff"? What do you mean unstuff? What is there to unstuff? But oh boy, am I glad I requested this book! As I read further, I realised the message the authors are trying to point out. Now back to the book, it is categorised into 6 sections (Wallet Stuff, Mind Stuff, Body Stuff, Love Stuff, Worship Stuff and Future Stuff)

In the 1st section, (Wallet Stuff), I love the statement of "When we take on debt, we're saying we want more than what God has allotted for us and we go against his command to "owe nothing to anyone" (Romans 13:8)". Which is why I do my very best to clear off any debts I might have, purchase made using credit cards (to collect and redeem points) will be immediately settled the moment the transaction was reflected in my bank account.

I'm also deeply inspired by the statement "no woman does her faith or her man a service by wanting more stuff. And no man does his God or his wife a service by believing that more stuff is what God wants him to provide". I also like the parable of the Delivery Driver and find it inspiring as well!

What I don't like about this book?

I don't like that some of the important points they are trying to emphasise are not standardised. You can see the points bolded, italized, capitalised or size enlarged and it is kind of a clutter and hard to read. I do have a bit difficulty in trying to understand whether the points are important or worth noting down.

What I think would be better is to just use the same font size and type and just put a different color, red perhaps to emphasise that the statement is worth pondering on or something. Or if colored fonts is not a good idea, then just plain putting the sentence in bold would do, but not mixing it up with other styles! Other than that, this book is just perfect! And I like how the authors included snippets of their diary of their life on the road and some inspiring statements here and there which we can use and share on Twitter as well.

If you think you need to unstuff your life, do consider getting a copy of this book. You will not regret it!

You can purchase this book from Tyndale House Publishers, ChristianBooks.com and many more.

I received no monetary compensation for this review, I was provided with a copy of the book  in order to facilitate my review. All opinions expressed in this post are my own. Please do your own research when purchasing products, as your opinions may differ from mine.

And if you'd like to read my previous book reviews, you can do so by reading this post of mine called "My Book Reviews"

Few weeks ago, I posted about this awesome Stop Reacting and Start Responding™ campaign and that I'll be following up that post with my review on the e-book which I received as part of my participation in the campaign. So here goes:

Title: Stop Reacting and Start Responding™
Author: Sharon Silver
Publisher:  One Voice Publishing
ISBN: 9780983156109
Ebook: 224 pages

Description from the product page:
"There are many wonderful books out there sharing new ways to parent. The question is, “Do you have the emotional capacity, or time, to read about a new method when you’re in the middle of a whirlwind of anger or reactions?”  Stop Reacting and Start Responding™ addresses that issue.

When a parent is involved in a whirlwind of emotions, anger or reactions, it’s hard to think. Being too emotional to think also makes it difficult to search for answers to change what’s going on so you can arrive at a calmer outcome. Stop Reacting and Start Responding™:
* Is a no-nonsense, reality-based book written in the “blog” style, using short, concise tips
* Offers quick reminders of what to do when a par­ent and/or child is reacting
* Tackles the emotions that are produced during the everyday situations that
* parents face
* Explores a different way to look at situations, and shares a new perspective that ignites a parent’s own wisdom, allowing them to resolve situations calmly, lovingly, and firmly
* Allows parents to enjoy the read and then use it as a tool to remind and support them when they or their child are reacting

A per­fect example would be, when a child says, “No!” A lot of parenting information only addresses how to stop a child from saying “No!” Stop Reacting and Start Responding™ explores why a child might be saying “No!” and shows a parent how to acknowledge those emotions, while teaching the child what they should be doing instead.  And does it all without punishment."

This book is for parents with children from ages 1 to 10. I love the title! Stop Reacting and Start Responding! That's the way how us, parents should do!

Plus, this book is very easy to read! I like that the book  is divided  into 15 chapters and from each chapters, it's further described into situations that parents encounter on a daily basis. You can just flip over to any pages and you'll bound to identify with one of the many situations yourself and learn from it!

I like the tips on giving our children choices (two choices only of both are approved by ourselves, that way, either choice our child choose is still OK with us!),  not ignoring our child (as it will let them think they need to do more things to get our attention!), how to handle children's tantrums, the importance of our tone of voice when disciplining our child and so on. I do however feel that some of the situations given are not applicable to me yet.

In my opinion, the "Stop Reacting and Start Responding™" is a good choice for parents to learn more about how they can respond to their child in a positive way!

You can get this book from http://www.proactiveparenting.net/the_book.

** Disclosure: I am a participant in a Living My MoMent campaign for Proactive Parenting™ and have received the e-book Stop Reacting and Start Responding™ by Sharon Silver as part of my participation.

All opinions expressed in this post are my own. Please do your own research when purchasing products, as your opinions may differ from mine.

And if you'd like to read my previous book reviews, you can do so by reading this post of mine called "My Book Reviews"