Happy Mother's Day

To all of the moms I hope you have a wonderful, Happy Mother's Day.

Rod Stewart - Time *

* complimentary review copy provided for this review.

When I was back in high school (it really scares me a little when I consider how long ago it was now), I was very active in the church youth group. Every summer they would hold a large retreat at a nearby university. Each year, there was a theme for the retreat - based on a recent song. One of the years, the theme song was 'Forever Young', by Rod Stewart.

Much like that powerful ballad from the late 80s, the songs that are part of his just released (on May 7th) album Time have powerful lyrics. Many of the songs share the stories of his life and reflection on his life.

Rod Stewart has spent four decades being a rock star, three being a parent, and has a new album's worth of rollicking stories to tell. Time is his first album of new material in almost 20 years (and his hairstyle hasn't changed one bit!). The album was born from a burst of inspiration that came while Rod was reviewing his life for his recent memoir. Rod rediscovered his voice as a songwriter and rekindled his gift for writing the honest, nerve-touching narratives that have been the cornerstone to the first three decades of his career. 'Suddenly ideas for lyrics were piling up in my head,' he says. 'Next thing I knew, I had a song called 'It's Over' about divorce and separation. And now I was getting up in the middle of the night and scrambling for a pen to write things down, which has never happened to me. I finished seven or eight songs very quickly and I still wasn't done, and it became apparent that I would eventually have a whole album of material to record.'

Time Track Listing:
1. She Makes Me Happy
2. Can’t Stop Me Now
3. It’s Over
4. Brighton Beach
5. Beautiful Morning
6. Live The Life
7. Finest Woman
8. Time
9. Picture In A Frame
10. Sexual Religion
11. Make Love To Me Tonight
12. Pure Love


I really enjoyed listening to the album and the songs felt so familiar to me that there were even points where I was questioning if it was a song I had heard before, but only one was not an original song - Picture in a Frame. The liner notes features all of the lyrics and a few pictures - I love this, call me old-fashioned, but that was always one of my favorite features in an album, cassette or CD - the lyrics. I had three favorite songs - Can't Stop Me Now, Beautiful Morning and Time. I think of all the songs, Time was the most familiar sounding to me...it says though that it was copyright 2013 and it isn't the first single that was released...so I can't really explain why it was so familiar.

You can purchase a copy of the CD through Amazon or pick up the MP3 version (you'll miss out on the liner notes though).

Rod Stewart’s links:
Website: www.rodstewart.com
Twitter: @rodstewart
Facebook: www.facebook.com/rodstewart
YouTube: www.youtube.com/rodstewart

No compensation was received for this post. I participated in this campaign for One2One Network, who provided some information for the post. I received a free copy of the album to facilitate my review. By posting, I am entered into a giveaway. All opinions stated are my own or that of my family.

Samples and Freebies

Requested

Received:
Garnier BB Cream and coupon (Target.com)
Free International Delight coupon

JAWS Winner!

Congratulations to Austin! Their entry was selected as the winner of the JAWS cleaner giveaway.

Thank you to everyone for entering and be sure to watch for new giveaways, coming soon!

Michael Bublé - To Be Loved #ToBeLoved *

* complimentary review copy provided for this review.

For the past few months, I have been taking several workout classes at the Y and am fortunate to have a wonderful instructor...in fact, I have the same instructor 5 days a week for three different classes - spinning, boot camp and toning. For spinning she has a set play list, based on the workout of the day, but with boot camp and toning, she just has the music playing in the background and it seems, just plays whatever is in her library. The other day, we were in the midst of rotating between several very challenging stations in a circuit workout and the tempo of the music shifted...we had gone from 80's Hair Metal to Michael Bublé's 'Ave Maria'. One of the women in the class called out, definitely great music, not great workout music though - and the instructor switched to another song. The following day, in spinning, we were talking about the song when it came on during cool down. We all agreed that Michael Bublé has an amazing voice (and is nice to look at too!) and that we all love his music and how his Christmas album is a definite must have.



His amazing voice really shines on his newest album - To Be Loved. I recently had a chance to check out a review copy of his album and I really enjoyed it. There are four original songs and 10 cover songs. I love that when he does covers, that they range from the classics to things that I consider to be more 'current', like the BeeGees 'To Love Somebody'. Several songs feature other artists, including Bryan Adams on the original song 'After All' and even Reese Witherspoon on 'Something Stupid', a Nancy and Frank Sinatra cover.

You likely have heard the first single, an original tune, co-written by Michael Bublé, called 'It's a Beautiful Day'. I really enjoy the song which has a cheerful tune, although, I guess I haven't really listened closely to the lyrics before now, because I just read on his webpage that he considers it an 'anti-love song', a kind of revenge song. After listening closely, it is clear that the song is about a former relationship that she ends, because she just wants to be friends and he has an 'I don't care' attitude and won't spend his time thinking about the break-up. The good thing is that one of his other songs is a love song, a love song for the women in his life - his wife, his mother, his grandmother. "These are good times for the singer, who is about to become a first-time dad. He sounds like a man in love with life. "I wrote Close Your Eyes about my wife and about the power of all the women in my life—my sisters, my mom, my grandma and all women in general. Let’s face it, where would we be without them?"

The performance of the songs on the album is definitely great, he has an awesome voice. Some of the songs are slower, but the album would make a great back drop at a dinner or an evening with friends or just relaxing with my husband.

You can pick up a copy of the album at Amazon or iTunes or at a local retailer.

No compensation was received for this post. I participated in this campaign for One2One Network, who provided some information for the post. I received a free copy of the album to facilitate my review. By posting, I am entered into a giveaway. All opinions stated are my own or that of my family.

Wishing on Willows - Katie Ganshert *

* a complimentary copy of the book was provided for the review. All opinions expressed are my own or that of my family.

How often do we meet someone and come to a conclusion about who they were before really getting to know them or where they come from? I found the risk of this to be a common theme in the book Wishing on Willows.

Robin has faced a lot of challenges and disappointments in her life. She now is a mother of a young son and the proprietor of a coffee shop, that is located in a sought after section of town for a new condominium project. When the developer, Ian, comes to town, she sees him as a corporate man with little care or concern for the well-being of those in her community, only in the interest of his company.

As the story unfolds, they slowly learn more about each other and come to have a different view of one another. Through this process of discovery, they both start to reconsider their position and priorities and come to enjoy each others company.

Throughout the story, the reader is able to witness their faith and their compassion for helping others, both of which shaped their past and future.

One of the things that I enjoyed about the story is that the reader was learning about the characters along with them. There was less mystery in Robin, as her story was the start of the book, but many of the experiences and events that shaped who they were we learned as they were learning about each other. It really helped to create a bond with the characters and an evolution of experience and perspective of the characters and their intents. As my perspective evolved, I really started to cheer for a desired outcome...some of it resolved as I had hoped, but there were parts that I had other thoughts about. Still, it was a great ending.

I recommend the book Wishing on Willows to those that enjoy a good story. There is the right balance of tension and friction, self-doubt, love and faith.

I look forward to checking out Wildflowers From Winter and future books by Katie Ganshert. Wishing on Willows is the second book in the series, so you might want to check them out in order - although, you certainly can start right in with this book.

Want to see for yourself? You can read the first chapter of the book to preview the book.

You can learn more about Katie Ganshert and listen to her podcast on Wishing on Willows, with the links below.

Author's Website: http://katieganshert.com/

Podcast (about 6 minutes long):


No compensation was received for this post. A complimentary copy of the book was provided through Blogging for Books for the review. All opinions expressed are my own or that of my family.