Author Archives: KMB

A Burning Touch – Patricia Ryan

Posted on February 23, 2017 by KMB

A Burning Touch is book three in the Hot City Nights series by Patricia Ryan. This series is a group of books all set in the city, but that aren’t actually connected, so can all be read as stand alone novels and in any order.

A Burning Touch

Mansfield, New Jersey, is burning up building by building—each fire more devastating than the last—and it’s Irish born police detective Jamie Keegan’s job to bring the “Firefly,” as the arsonist has dubbed himself, to justice. He balks when his captain orders him to consult the beautiful and enigmatic India Cook, who has offered her services as a psychic to the police department.

Jamie doesn’t believe a word about India’s special talents. He knows all about con artists. The fact that India doesn’t like to be touched—that’s how she reads people—is only more of a challenge, because she’s just about the most smoking hot woman he’s ever met. Convinced she’s a con artist, Jamie tries to deny the chemistry simmering between them as they work together to stop the Firefly before he can strike again.

My Review

I’m always a little bit reluctant to read novels where one of the characters has a supernatural power. There’s a real danger that it will slip into the ridiculous and far fetched. In this book though, I needn’t have worried. Although India does have a special ability, it is written in a way that makes it seem completely believable and fits with the story line.

Jamie is sure that India is a con artist. But, as he begins to fall for her, he decides that she must actually believe that she has this ability herself. She is just mistaken about it. His past makes believing that she can really read peoples thoughts and emotions, something that he just can’t accept.

I think that the struggle between the feelings that India and Jamie start to have for one another, and the fact that he can’t accept that she has this gift is really interesting. Can they somehow overcome this lack of belief? Will Jamie manage to accept who and what she really is, or is their relationship doomed to fail?

I won’t give away what happens in this great story, you’ll have to read it for yourself. Hopefully it’s enough to say that he doesn’t suddenly, miraculously change his mind. The journey is quite exciting with a few twists and turns. I really enjoyed this book and would definitely recommend it.

Continue reading →

Posted in Blogroll, Uncategorized | Comments Off

KONMARI WITH KIDS: BOOKS

Posted on February 23, 2017 by KMB

Welcome to my new series: ‘KonMari With Kids’.

Last week I shared how I KonMari’d my kids clothes – Baby, Toddler and Tween. You can read all about it HERE.

If you have just joined me – WELCOME – I recently completed the KonMari method with my OWN belongings, read ‘My KonMari Journey‘ to see how I did. Now, it’s time to get stuck into my kid’s stuff – I have two children: Miss B, soon to be 12 years old and Master M, soon to be 3 years old.

Marie suggests children as young as three years old can decide what gives them joy and the key principle is that each person should be making the decisions for themselves. Before you tackle your kids items, she does recommend you KonMari your own belongings first.

In a nutshell, Marie Kondo has four rules she recommends people follow when doing the KonMari Method:

1. Tidy in one shot, as quickly and completely as possible

2. Sort by category, not by location

3. Selection Criterion: Does it ‘spark joy?’

4. Order of tidying: Clothes, Books, Documents (Paper), Miscellaneous items (Komono), and Mementos (Sentimental)

*******

Today I am sharing: KIDS BOOKS

BABY & TODDLER

As a Mum and Teacher, I know how important it is to read to and with your children. When my daughter was younger, we had A LOT of books, probably 3 times more than the photo above, many of which were not read because she had her favourites, as they do. So when we moved out of our home (she was 7), we culled her books, only keeping the ones she absolutely loved and donated the rest. Fast forward a few years and those books are now in her little brother’s collection.

When we moved into our new home, the previous owners left a buffet table unit with shelves and slider cupboard doors – which has become a fantastic storage unit for kids toys and books. I put baby toys, books and puzzles in one side of the unit.

I organise the books by colour, as this makes it a lot easier when it is time to tidy up and after a while our toddler was able to return books on his own – and plus, who doesn’t love looking at a rainbow of books.

Our son is turning 3 in March, so I figured it was time to make changes to this cupboard. As you can see in the picture below, it’s overflowing with items that are no longer suitable for our son. It’s also a good time to go through the books and remove any ‘baby’ books.

BEFORE:

We also have a front facing library shelf in the playroom, where I rotate a collection of his books.

Following Kondo’s rules, I took all of the books out of the cupboard and put them on the lounge floor. I also grabbed a small collection of Little Golden Books that were in his room, and added them to the pile.

I had my little helper, helping me decide which books ‘spark joy’ and which books don’t. I didn’t think he would say no to any, but he did. He found a few new favourites too.

DONATE PILE

As you can see our donate pile is fairly small, that being said – it is made up of baby books, duplicates and books we don’t read, so we are passing them on. I think we had two books that needed to be discarded because they were badly ripped.

AFTER:

I decided to organise the books by colour again because it is a system that works for our family and it is helping our son with colour recognition, so it’s a win win. I have also taken away a lot of the ‘baby’ toys and puzzles and replaced them with puzzles and activities that are age appropriate. I donated the puzzles and discovery bottles to his home-based carer who has two under 2’s.

TWEEN

As I mentioned above, when my daughter was younger, she had A LOT of books. By the time we moved in with my partner, Miss B was 7 and she was starting to read chapter books more. So we donated majority of her picture books to a local op-shop – only keeping her/our favourites.

Fast forward a few years, her book collection has grown – not by much though because she got into the habit of loaning her books from the school library or public library (which is a great idea), and all of her picture books were passed on to Master M.

We corralled her books together and she started to pick out her favourites and donated the ones she no longer wanted. I forgot to take a photo, but there were about 5 or 6 that went into the donate bin.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Miss B has her books stored on an 8-shelf unit in her wardrobe. She still loans books from the library, and asks for a book every Christmas and Birthday (which is just around the corner), so for now her collection is small, however she loves each of these books and will happily read them over and over again.

KonMari With Kids: BOOKS – COMPLETED

To be honest with you, I thought this category was going to be hard, but it actually wasn’t. Yes it can be very overwhelming and a tad daunting when you put ALL of the books in one place, however it’s a good opportunity to see what you have, corral like books together and organise them in a way that is going to benefit the whole family and make it easier to maintain.

TIP: If you have hundreds of books (and I know of some families who do), simply categorise them into groups – picture books, baby/board books, chapter books, topic/theme books, non-fiction/fiction etc and tackle each category one by one.

Once you have sorted the books, one idea is to start a library system where each child or member of your home can ‘issue’ 4-5 books a week, to keep in a little basket in their room.

Ideally, you want ALL of your books in one place, but that doesn’t work for us. We have, what I think, is a manageable amount of books in our home and our collection will grow over the years, the great thing is, we have systems in place that work (for us), to help us not become overwhelmed. If a book no longer sparks joy, we donate it.

You might also like: My KonMari Journey: BOOKS – my own journey of using the method with my book collection.

Coming Up Next: KonMari With Kids: PAPER (Art Work)
My kids don’t have A LOT of paper (definitely not as much as I did), however they do bring home A LOT of Art Work, so that is what I plan to tackle next. Watch this space.

*******

I am super excited about this new series ‘KonMari With Kids’ and would love for you to follow along in this process, better yet, join me – Subscribe to my Blog, so you don’t miss a post and together we CAN KonMari With Kids. I will also be sharing my journey on , and , so be sure to follow me there too.

Don’t Miss A Post…Subscribe Today

* indicates required

First Name *

Email Address *

Select Your Email Option Below

Each Post
Weekly Newsletter

Continue reading →

Posted in Blogroll, Uncategorized | Tagged books | Comments Off

Author Archives: KMB

The Freedom of Imperfection

The Media and Fat people

Comes and Goes- Shut Me Up

The One Universal Rule of Potty Training

A Burning Touch

My Review

BEFORE:

DONATE PILE

AFTER:

BEFORE:

AFTER:

TIP: If you have hundreds of books (and I know of some families who do), simply categorise them into groups – picture books, baby/board books, chapter books, topic/theme books, non-fiction/fiction etc and tackle each category one by one.

Once you have sorted the books, one idea is to start a library system where each child or member of your home can ‘issue’ 4-5 books a week, to keep in a little basket in their room.

Get the Kiwi Mummy Blogs newsletter