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Winner of Five for Fighting Autographed CD!

Thanks to the One2One Network, for donating the CD for my giveaway! The winner is kalea kane!!!!
Check your email! You have 48 hrs to send me your address!
Thanks!!

5 Tips to Help Your Child Develop Natural Gifts

Five Tips to Help Your Child Develop Their Natural Gifts
By Rafe Esquith

Author of Lighting Their Fires: Raising Extraordinary Children in a Mixed-up, Muddled-up, Shook-up World

It'd be nice if there was a secret I could tell you about how to instantly make your kids more successful in school and life. But there is no magic pill, only that old stand-by, hard work. And the funny thing about that is, you can't force kids to work hard. I suppose you could try, but I've rarely seen anything useful come from kids whose parents had to hold their noses to the grindstone. If there's something close to a secret, perhaps it's this: Kids work hard when they want to work hard, and this happens only when are motivated to do so by some positive internal goal, and not by fear or because they are worried about disappointing others. They work hard because they value hard work. Instilling kids with values like this is the first step the long road to real success.

But that doesn't mean there's nothing you can do to make this happen. Here are five ways to put your kids on the path to extraordinary:

Toot Your Own Horn. Ask anyone who knows me and they'll tell you I sound like a broken record when it comes to spreading the gospel of music education. Put simply, every child should play an instrument, and parents should make whatever sacrifices are necessary to put a flute, trumpet, guitar, or tuba in their kid's hands. I don't have room here to list all the valuable skills that playing music can help develop, but one of the most important is the ability to listen to others: to make great music, a child must learn to pay attention to what others are playing. Doing so improves focus and teaches a valuable lesson about collaboration.

Be the Example. We've probably all seen a parent yelling at her kids to be quiet and perhaps chuckled to ourselves about the mixed signals sent by this gesture. It seems like an easy lesson: for kids to understand why things are important, you have to be consistent. But this isn't just situational advice. Kids mirror parents and adults in far more depth than we often realize. They internalize our values by watching what we do, which is why it's essential that we live the way we want them to live. We can stress the importance of being on time until we're blue in the face, but if we're constantly late to pick them up from school, that's what they're going to remember.

Great Books are Great for a Reason. Kids have two backpacks: the physical one they carry their books in, and the mental backpack where they store all the lessons and experiences they'll use to help make decisions. A paperback copy of To Kill a Mockingbird won't take up much room in the first one, but the wisdom contained within this book can be carried in the mental backpack for a lifetime. There are lessons here about choosing generosity over selfishness, making the right choice even when it's the difficult one, and standing up for your beliefs. I also recommend Thornton Wilder's fantastic play Our Town, and anything by Shakespeare (important note: kids are never too young for Shakespeare). A kid with a library card has the world at her fingertips, and when parents read with her, they can serve as map to help make sense of that world.

Do Unto Others. Volunteering is a great way to build character and teach values while making an important contribution to the community. Working at a soup kitchen on Thanksgiving, visiting an elderly person at a retirement home on a regular basis, or planting trees and helping to beautify your town are all great ways to help kids learn about the importance of selflessness and humility. I know several families who volunteer together on a holiday schedule: on each day off, they pick a different activity and spend a few hours volunteering together. This way, parents get to be the example, reinforcing the positive message.

Patience, My Dears. In today's on-demand world, kids are taught that anything worth having can be had instantly. This is an incredibly bad lesson, and parents must work to counteract this by instilling kids with patience and focus -- the skills that will let them buckle down to achieve the truly great things that invariably take much time and effort. I've found that gardening is an excellent choice when it comes to teaching patience. Kids see that reaching their goal is a slow process, one that requires dedicated care and attention at every phase. And since they get to watch their garden grow as they tend to it, they learn that the real pleasure is in the process (though ripe tomatoes are certainly also a pleasure, and tasty!).

You may have noticed that most of these "success" tips don't have anything to do with school. That's because making kids extraordinary people is the first step toward making them extraordinary students. All follows from values and character, and in working to instill these, you'll create kids that you -- and the rest of the community and country -- can be proud of.

©2009 Rafe Esquith, author of Lighting Their Fires: Raising Extraordinary Children in a Mixed-up, Muddled-up, Shook-up World

Author Bio
Rafe Esquith, author of Lighting Their Fires: Raising Extraordinary Children in a Mixed-up, Muddled-up, Shook-up World, has taught at Hobart Elementary School in Los Angeles for twenty-four years. He is the only teacher to have been awarded the president's National Medal of the Arts. His many other honors and awards include the American Teacher Award, Parents magazine's As You Grow Award, Oprah Winfrey's Use Your Life Award, and People magazine's Heroes Among Us Award. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife, Barbara Tong.

For more information, please visit www.hobartshakespeareans.or

Show No Fear Review and Giveaway

Thanks to Hachette Books for providing me a review copy of Show No Fear by Marliss Melton as well as 5 copies to be given away to my readers.

Synopsis

Top choice for a rescue mission to Colombia where American hostages are held deep in the jungle by rebel terrorists, CIA operative Lucy Donovan is thrilled to take on the undercover assignment. The danger doesn't faze her...until she hears that Navy SEAL Gus Atwater will be her partner on the mission. Gus is the only man she ever loved, the man she walked away from when beating back terror seemed more important than her happiness. At odds from the start of the mission, Lucy and Gus trek deep into the jungle, desperate to locate the hostages and lead the Navy SEALs in to extract them. With the guerrilla opposition on their tail, out to protect their own interests at any cost, Lucy and Gus have no choice but to rely on each other for survival. But when one of them is taken hostage, the tables are turned. Can they both find their way to safety and to the love that has always bound them together?
On Marliss Melton's website she is known as a writer of "Suspence so hot you'll need clearance". Go read her bio! This is the type of lady you want around you! She is bursting with knowledge and energy! She has 10 books published with more on the burner! Her current series deals with NAVY SEALS!

My take on the book: I first thought that this was going to be some super mushy, wimpy Romance Suspense novel. You know the type... all fluff and no Navy Seal action! Well was I ever wrong! I read this book in 2 evenings. I had a difficult time putting it down. She had the characters, both male and female, very well defined and ready to fight. Her careful attention to details really had me on the edge of my seat or bed as it was in my case.

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GIVEAWAY
5 copies- leave separate comments for each entry and your email at least once

1) To enter tell me what you think of when you hear the words SHOW NO FEAR

Bonus (Do all, none or one)

1)Visit Marliss Melton and subscribe to her newsletter (5 entries)

2) Subscribe to my Google Friend Connect or Networked Blogs on right column. 2 entries each (you get the entries if you are already a subscriber)

3) Follow me on Twitter @susieqtpies (2 entries)

4) Blog the giveaway (5 entries)

5) Tweet Giveaway and include link to giveaway up to once a day (5 entries)

6) Enter any of my other giveaways or leave comments on other book reviews (2 entries per comment)

GIVEAWAY ends Nov 14th. US and Canada only.

Tales of Thanksgiving Food and Friendship

Thanks to FSB Associates for providing the article. I will be offering this book as a giveaway in a few days!

Tales of Thanksgiving Food and Friendship
By Andrea Israel and Nancy Garfinkel,
Authors of The Recipe Club: A Tale of Food and Friendship

For some people, Thanksgiving evokes warm feelings triggered by memories of a close-knit family gathering, where relatives share traditions and a home-cooked meal.
For others . . . it's the beginning of a holiday season stuffed with lunatic relatives, family dysfunction, bitter recriminations, and heartburn.
We heard a wide range of Thanksgiving Tales this year while traveling around the country for our Recipe Clubs. Inspired by the plot and structure of our book, Recipe Clubs are storytelling and friendship circles in which women gather to share true-life food-related stories along with recipes. Recipe Clubs are not about cooking; they're about creating community and fostering friendship . . . they're about laughing and crying . . . they're about honoring our own lives and the lives of others. They show us how the simplest, sweetest, or funniest tales about food can turn into deep revelations about our lives.
Just about everybody has at least one quintessential Thanksgiving food memory that perfectly captures the complicated feelings surrounding the holiday. Here are some of our favorites:
GIVING THANKS
One Recipe Club friend recalls the first time she ever cooked a Thanksgiving meal on her own. Her mother, who traditionally did the meal, was recovering from surgery. Her father was working. And her sister was flying in just in time for the meal, but not early enough to help cook.
So our friend rose to the challenge, proclaiming that she would do the entire meal, on her own. No problem -- until reality set in. She woke at dawn, shopped, chopped, and soon realized her oven was half the size it needed to be. By the time the turkey wanted basting the chestnut stuffing required baking -- and the brussel sprouts were definitely not cleaning themselves!
But things really went south when it came time prepare her grandmother's famous pumpkin pie. This was the pie recipe that had been handed down through generations. If it didn't come out perfectly, our friend knew she'd feel like a failure.
Of course, nothing went right. The pie crust was too wet, then too dry. There was too much nutmeg, not enough ginger. With every crimp of the dough her head swam with the imagined voice of her southern grandmother: "A woman is judged not just by who she is, but by what she can bring to the table."
When the pie came out of the oven, the crust was too brown, and there was a giant crack running down the middle of the filling. Our friend fought back tears, took a deep breath, and set the pie out to cool, knowing more clearly than ever that neither it -- nor she -- was, or would ever be, perfect.
But when it came time for everyone to gather at the table, something shifted. Her parents and sister praised her hard work and loved the meal. And our friend realized she had somehow been carried on the wings of the generations of women who had cooked before her, without complaining, to serve a Thanksgiving meal to their family. She felt truly thankful for all the work that her mother, grandmother, aunts -- indeed all the women she'd known through her life -- had accomplished each holiday. Triumphant, connected, and happy, she understood that food cooked with love is its own kind of perfection.
FINALIZING THE DIVORCE
One Recipe Club friend recalled her first Thanksgiving after her divorce.
Since carving the bird had always been her ex-husband's job, she delighted in finding a new, turkey-free recipe. She settled on an apricot-glazed ham, and went to work cooking a glaze of brown sugar, cloves, and apricot nectar (an ingredient that gave her extra pleasure knowing her ex-husband detested it.)
When her grown children came for dinner, they were childishly upset not to have their usual 12-pound bird. But it was delicious, and in the end each one complimented the chef. On her way out, the youngest daughter told her mother, "maybe we all need to learn how to gracefully accept change."
For this new divorcee, serving ham became a way of asserting her independence, showing her children there was life after marriage, and teaching the whole family to find new ways to be together.
IT'S ALL RELATIVE
The truth is, we don't pick our relatives. So if the Thanksgiving gathering of the clan is an annual emotional challenge, you aren't alone.
In a recent Recipe Club circle of old friends and new acquaintances, we met a woman who admitted that for most of her life she dreaded Thanksgiving; all it evoked for her were memories of family fights. The contrast of what she knew Thanksgiving was "supposed" to be, versus what it was in her home, always made her feel ashamed and disappointed. And yet every November she felt compelled go home for a family Thanksgiving meal.
But one year, that changed, when her parents and brother decided to have Thanksgiving away from home. They journeyed together to Nantucket, where they ate dinner at a seaside inn. The inn served a New England clam chowder, rich with cream and warm on a cold autumn night. And they discovered that a new location, with new foods, away from the house where memories were often more fiery than the jalepeno cornbread, turned out to be just what the family needed.
Now, every year, back at home, they have a new tradition: serving New England Clam Chowder at their Thanksgiving feasts, each spoonful bringing back fond memories of a peaceful and loving family holiday.
A FAMILY OF FRIENDS
Finally, a little tale of food and friendship.
A reader of our book told us that she had a choice this year. She could invite Uncle Tim and Aunt Zoe, the way she does every year, and spend the entire holiday worrying about whether or not the perpetually complaining couple were happy. She could include cousins Beth and Sean, knowing they would be competitive, putting down her choice of food, her way of cooking, her table setting. She could extend an invitation to her brother and dreaded sister-in-law, who would sit in silence the entire meal and pick at the food.
Or . . . she could shake things up and do something entirely different: invite only friends. True friends. People she enjoyed being with. Who made her laugh. Who spoke truthfully. Who shared her passions for good books, good wine, and good music.
She took the leap. She dumped the whiners, broke with tradition, irritated several family members -- and never looked back. The moral: good food and good friends are the perfect combination. Sometimes it's a good idea to trim the guest list before you serve the bird with all its trimmings.
©2009 Andrea Israel and Nancy Garfinkel, authors of The Recipe Club: A Tale of Food and Friendship

Author Bios for The Recipe Club: A Tale of Food and Friendship
Andrea Israel is a producer/writer for ABC's Focus Earth. She was a producer/writer on Anderson Cooper 360, Dateline, and Good Morning America (which garnered her an Emmy Award). Her story In Donald's Eyes was recently optioned for a film. Ms. Israel is the author of Taking Tea. Her writing has appeared in many publications.
Nancy Garfinkel is co-author of The Wine Lover's Guide to the Wine Country: The Best of Napa, Sonoma, and Mendocino(Chronicle Books, 2005). A creative strategist, design consultant, writer, and editor for magazine, corporate, and non-profit clients, she has won a host of graphic arts and editorial merit awards. She has written extensively about food and graphic arts.

For more information please visit www.therecipeclubbook.com

All I want for Christmas bedroom makeover

All I want for Christmas is a Bedroom Makeover for my almost 11 year old daughter! She has a really nice sized bedroom with a loft bed. Her problem is that the room is too white and too old looking. This is our 3rd year living here in this house. Her room is on the bottom of the list of changes we make each year.

Emily is a dreamer and a reader. She loves being in her bedroom but it lacks in creativity and personalization. Some day I want to give her a fun, tween bedroom to relax in and hang out with friends!

Here is her room!

Look at this border and wallpaper! I'm really not sure why someone would choose such a border for their room. This bedroom was used as the previous owners "tanning bed" room. They took the tanning bed when we moved in, thank goodness! On the right side of the room, the wall has an orangish tint from where the tanning bed sat. It is creepy gross!


When you go to enter her room you can see where she painted on a chalkboard to try and personalize her room. She chose those 3 bright colors and that is the color scheme I really want to change her room too!
When you open the door you see her huge loft bed. We put it along the right wall to cover up the orange tanning bed wall. I love the molding around her door frames. She has added her touch by placing little items up there.


So her room lacks FUN! I"m going to write a letter to Santa to let him know that as her mom this is the bedroom makeover that I want for Christmas....Dearest Santa
I am getting so excited for your visit to our lil' town. Every year you ask me what I want for Christmas but I never give you my wishes. I have the best husband and best 3 girls and feel very blessed with what I already have.

This year I'm sending you my list. This list is what I want so that I can give Emily a bedroom makeover. She doesn't know about this so please keep it quiet! I want to wake up her old boring bedroom and give her a huge splash of color.

Please Santa go to Vision Bedding and check out my wish list. I want to get her the some Groovy Wall Stickers , Tropical Diva bedspread, and Colorful Retro Pop Wall Art.

Thank you so much for your help in making my Christmas special by helping me give Emily a fun, creative and personalized bedroom where she can go to relax
and feel inspired.
Oh and Santa.... remember the fudge that I leave you every year? I promise to leave you more of it this year. If you leave your address I'll send you some each month! Bye Santa! Love, Susie Q (Emily's Mom)

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Thanks to TwitterMoms and Vision Bedding for the contest opportunity for the Bedroom Makeover. The most compelling/creative blog post judged by the experts at VisionBedding.com will win a do-it-yourself custom bedroom makeover valued at $1,000! You can choose a custom bedspread or duvet cover (twin or full/queen), pillows (2), blanket, wall mural and wall art sticker. A great new me-space for some much needed me-time!

Creamy Hot Cocoa

Tis the Season to start thinking about warm winter drinks. Here is my Creamy Hot Cocoa Mix that is a must for my household!

Join in on our Holiday Recipe Exchange and you could win a 700 Recipe Cookbook!

Creamy Hot Cocoa Mix

*1 lg container of powdered Creamer ( plain unless you want to get one of the new yummy flavors)
*1 lg container of Nestle's Quik
*1 lb powdered sugar
*1 sm box of powered milk
*1 tsp cinnamon or nutmeg
*12 oz Whipping cream

Mix all ingredients together in a large bowl or jar with a lid except whipping cream and 1 Tsp of powdered sugar.

Use 1/4-1/2 cup of this mixture with 1 cup of hot water. Very yummy and creamy.

Whip the whipping cream with powdered sugar. This is the best topping for the cocoa! Sprinkle top with cocoa powder, cinnamon, nutmeg,etc. Cinnamon sticks or peppermint sticks are wonderful additions to this drink to have on hand for your guest!

Tradition in my home at the holiday's includes Christmas mugs. I have a collection that I put out right after Thanksgiving. Everyone selects their own mug to enjoy their special drink.

So yummy! Even your snowmen will agree!

TwitterMoms and Lenox have teamed up to gather blog post of yummy seasonal drinks and presentation style!