Reading is what I do!

So I just finished this book and decided to write a review of it. Since the goal of my blog is to get me writing more I figured I'd share it with you all.

Check out this book on Goodreads: The Great Bedroom War (Return to Redemption, #2) http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15758012-the-great-bedroom-war

"I think this book is a great example of chick lit. It has just the right amounts of romance, conflict and sex. It's not explicit like some romance novels are, but it has just enough sex to keep it interesting.

It can be confusing who's who at times, but I just have to stop for a fraction of a second and think wait who's Haley again and then it clicks. I have been thinking of creating a little family tree of sorts to remind myself who's who in the town of Redemption. Kind of like a residence listing with a short description of who they are. So-n-so is so-n-so's sister who passed, parents are... and is tutoring/dating so-n-so. So-n-so is the HS guidance counselor. Wish me luck in finding time to do that!

I have really fallen in love with this town of Redemption. Laurie Kellogg's intricate and involved storylines make it realistic. It's never just one bad thing that happens at a time in real life and Kellogg doesn't shield us from the drama of the "real life" of Redemption. I like how she alludes to a past history and just gives us a taste so I'm eager to keep reading and find out just what did happen! The flashbacks don't take away from the story they are like puzzle pieces being fit into the big picture.

All in all, a good quick read! I'm glad I got this as a free download and I'm happy I took the time to borrow the first book in The Road to Redemption series A Little Bit of Deja Vu, also a good quick read. Now it's on to The Parent Pact."

Water

I am trying desperately to increase my water intake and I have found the solution! Flavor infused water. Don't get me wrong I like plain water. I could drink it out of the tap, I'm not picky. I just have a hard time actually grabbing a cup filling it and drinking it. So I decided to make infused water to motivate me to drink. I got the idea to make naturally infused water on a recent trip to Trader Joe's. By their sample station they had a big hug filled with orange and strawberry slices. I, of course, sampled it. It had a light orange flavor with a hint of strawberry aftertaste. So I ran back over to the fruit and grabbed an orange, I had just gotten strawberries from the farmer's market. The secret to making it look pretty when making fruit infused water is ice! Loads and loads of ice. In hindsight, I would have filled the whole container with ice.

Step one: Cut up orange and strawberries. At this point I realized I didn't have enough orange so I cut up a lemon as well.

Step two: Put a layer of ice in your container depending on the height of your container. I put about two inches because I used a big container. 

Step three: Add a layer of sliced strawberries around the outside of the container creating a circle with the slices flat against the glass, to make it pretty.  :)

Step four: Add more ice behind the layer of strawberries, just about an inch of ice. 

Step five: Add a layer of oranges or lemons in the same manner as step three, to make it pretty. I alternated lemons and oranges to give a little extra visual appeal. 

Step six: Add more ice to the top of the orange or lemon slices.

Step seven: Repeat steps 3-6 if you want to. I stopped here. 

Step eight: Fill the rest of the container with ice and then fill in with water. 

Step nine: Drink and enjoy!

I think the number one motivating factor to drink it all, for me, is to drink it all before the fruit goes bad. It's working! I drank half of the container which I believe is almost 2 gallons!