Acting Balanced

Free Kindle Reads

2012-05-28T23:16:00.000-04:00

Remember, that you don't need to have a Kindle device to take advantage of these great freebies - you can download software to read on your PC, Mac, Android, iPad, iPod and more... just click here to get the app you need and then check out these great books:

These ebooks are currently free as of the time of posting, but Amazon and the Publishers can change the status at any time - so grab what you want while it's still a freebie:

Review and Giveaway: Bob the Builder™: Adventures by the Sea

2012-05-28T23:02:00.002-04:00

You know you are a parent of a construction loving kid when you not only know all of the characters and the theme song to Bob the Builder™, but you can also drive down the a road under construction and tell the difference between a backhoe loader and an excavator - and worse, you know how to identify the mini, regular and giant versions of said excavator... that's where our family is at right now, so as soon as the new Bob the Builder™: Adventures by the Sea DVD entered our house, it was a big hit in the dvd player!

Bob and his Can-Do Crew are having fun in five new, sea-themed adventures in construction in Bob the Builder™: Adventures by the Sea, which sailed onto DVD, Digital Download and On Demand May 22, 2012 from Lionsgate and HIT Entertainment. From facing fears, correcting mistakes, doing good work and always getting the job done, Bob’s the man and when you’re on his team, life’s a beach!

Travelling With Kids Guest Post: What to do if you lose your wallet

2012-05-28T22:14:00.001-04:00

Your wallet is akin to a miniature directory of your identity. Think about it. Your driver´s license, credit card, debit card, medical insurance card and other numbers are all stored together. However, in the event of a lost wallet or stolen wallet, having all of this information in one place greatly increases your risk of identity theft. ProtectMyID (www.protectmyid.com) has 9 great tips for travelers.

Read more »

MMMmonday - Seasonal Fruit Poached in Vanilla Syrup

2012-05-27T21:35:00.000-04:00

This is one of those standby recipes that is an easy and elegant recipe that can easily be doubled if you want to... it is great as a stand alone dish but can also be used as ice cream topping, crepe filling or even as topping for waffles!

Seasonal Fruit Poached in Vanilla Syrup

Read more »

Monday Quiz About Me #MQAM

2012-05-27T20:37:00.000-04:00

Welcome to Monday Quiz About Me

Here are FOUR QUESTIONS that everyone can answer and then you have the option to add a fifth question of your own for those who are visiting your blog to answer in the comment section, along with commenting on the four standard questions you answered!

Grab the badge for your post if you like:

Travelling with Kids Guest Post: Traveling For the Budget-Minded Parent

2012-05-27T16:37:00.003-04:00

I want to thank Shereen from the aptly named Shereen Travels Cheap for sharing this wonderful post on being budget minded while travelling:

Traveling For the Budget-Minded Parent

Travel will never be classified as inexpensive and family travel is even further from making it onto that list, but if you think sitting at home is the only way to save money, think again. Summer vacation is coming up fast. Keep your family and your wallet happy with some easy tricks that can help you stay within your budget and have a great time doing it.

Sundays In My City - Vacations Past... (Travelling with kids)

2012-05-26T21:04:00.001-04:00

For the next three weeks I'm going to be posting daily about travelling with kids! Yesterday, Unknown Mami was kind enough to show us (with great photos of course) why she loves San Francisco and in honor of travelling, I thought I'd share a few of my favorite pics from our family's travels around the US and Canada...

Chinese Festival of Lights (August 2007 - Toronto, ON)

Travelling with Kids Guest Post - I Love San Francisco

2012-05-26T17:05:00.001-04:00

I'm so pleased to invite my friend Claudya, also known as Unknown Mami to guest post about San Francisco today as part of Travelling with Kids!

Do you love the city (or town, or village, or you name it) that you live in? I do. I live in San Francisco, CA and I love it.

This city is beautiful, diverse, and inspiring. If you’ve visited, you know what I’m taking about. If you haven’t yet, what are you waiting for? Come and if you have kids bring them.
Read more »

9 at 9 ~ An Interview with...

2012-05-26T09:00:00.000-04:00

I always love the opportunity to feature a fellow Canuck on Acting Balanced... and this week I get to introduce you to my bloggy friend, Ghada from Mama goes BAM. I hope you enjoy her interview as much as I did!

1. Tell us a little bit about your blog:

I am a KiwiCanadian who just relocated through my husband's work from New Zealand in August 2011. I was originally going to start a new blog in April 2011 about my pregnancy and the relocation process. I was too sick and very tired during the pregnancy, so instead ended up only starting this blog once I landed in New York. Mama goes BAM is about my adventures in the Big Apple with Monkeys (my newborn and toddler) all the places we go, people we meet and adjusting to life in New York in general. I also write about trying to live my best life - healthwise (emotionally and physically).

2. How long have you been blogging and what do you love about it?
Read more »

He Said/She Said

2012-05-26T07:39:00.002-04:00

It's been 14 years? I don't believe it... well technically as of writing this post it's been 13 years and three hundred and sixty days, but it really does feel like it was just yesterday...

Wayne, I am always amazed that you still love and put up with me... the blogging instead of cleaning the house, the book fairs instead of grocery shopping, but with all the crazy stuff going on in our lives, we are still in sync and I love you more with each passing day!
Read more »

Celebrate Memorial Day Weekend with Sesame Street Characters!

2012-05-25T22:36:00.002-04:00

As a preschool and toddler mom, I am always happy to invite Big Bird, Rosita, Elmo, Cookie Monster and the rest of the Sesame Street gang into my home and this Memorial Day weekend they are part of a fabulous ongoing project that I want to share with you!

Read more »

Travelling with Kids Guest Post: Breaking the Routine!

2012-05-25T21:03:00.000-04:00

I am pleased to have April from www.AskApril.com as the first guest poster for my Travelling With Kids event! Keep your eyes peeled as we spend the next three weeks exploring Travelling with Kids!

Family vacations are wonderful ways to break the routine and spend some time together as a family on a special adventure -- whether it's action packed or laid back. Regular family vacations are important to the health of the family as a unit and to the individuals in the family so that they remember to balance work and play. However, there are tricks to successful family vacations when children are involved.

STRUCTURED VS. UNSTRUCTURED TIME

Thomas & Friends: Engine Friends DVD Review and #Giveaway

2012-05-24T23:01:00.000-04:00

I am so pleased to be able to bring you another great Thomas & Friends^® review and giveaway!

Aspiring engineers will thrill at over 20 favorite Thomas & Friends^® episodes on two DVD discs when they watch Thomas & Friends: Engine Friends, on DVD, Digital Download or On Demand from Lionsgate and HIT Entertainment. Thomas, Toby, Percy and more favorite engine friends take you back to first meetings, learn about cooperation and discovery and realize the best adventures of all are the ones you can share with friends. Thomas fans won’t want to miss this timeless collection of Sodor’s finest moments of friendship on the tracks.

DVD SYNOPSIS

Friday Fragments

2012-05-24T22:08:00.002-04:00

It's time to dust off the few remaining brain cells and try to unscramble the frags hanging out between the sleeping neurons... all while trying to make some amount of sense ... then hook up with:

I am thankful that my parents journey here was fairly smooth... or as smooth as travel can be during 'construction season' I'm excited that they'll be here to hang out with us and the kids (well mostly the kids) while I get everything ready for our travels!

Read more »

Five Question Friday #5QF

2012-05-24T20:39:00.002-04:00

It's that time of the week again when I get to tell you more about myself by participating in:

1. Are you a napper?

Read more »

Romance Your Summer #Giveaway ~ #WIN Two great Mary Jo Putney novels

2012-05-24T09:09:00.000-04:00

I love a good escape book and one of my absolute favorite authors of historical romance is offering a giveaway of two great reads to add to your summer reading list! I have read both of these books and am always blown away by Mary Jo Putney's attention to detail and fabulous story lines! I have to say that my favorite of the two was hard to choose, but if pressed, I would tell the winner to read No Longer a Gentleman first and The Rake second... or maybe the other way around, lol...

Here are the blurbs about each book:
Read more »

Heading to PA this summer? We are!

2012-05-24T06:20:00.001-04:00

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of PA Tourism for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.
One of the things that Wayne and I love to do on our trips home to Canada is mix it up a bit... the sixteen plus hour drive can be pretty daunting if we don't find fun things for all of us to do - both adults and kids... sometimes we just let the GPS guide us to something fun - be it a park, playground or museum, but more often than not, I like to have at least a few concrete ideas about where we can stop!
Our usual route takes us from Charleston, through South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, Pennsylvania and New York to home in Ontario, but we sometimes mix it up and go up the East Coast or head a little further west to explore ...

Summer Fit Learning Activity Book Review & Giveaway!

2012-05-23T22:27:00.001-04:00

Those of you who are regular readers of Acting Balanced know that Liam is already out of school for the summer and is missing it already... he still asks about the school bus every morning and while we've been heading out for some fun stuff with the MOMS Club and around town, I don't think he really understands how long the summer break is and what it entails...

One of the things that I'm trying to do while Erik naps is to continue to build his reading and math skills and one of the ways we're doing that is by using the Summer Fit Learning Activity Book.

These workbooks are different from other summer learning programs, within the pages of SUMMER FIT, you'll find a discussion on core values, academic worksheets, physical activity, certificates of achievement, and other stellar additions.

Now Liam isn't ready to tackle all of the activities as they are written, but they do give me some great ideas for material that I need to cover, even if I have to modify and create my own program to some extent, because of Liam's special needs.

Read more »

Thirsty For Comments!

2012-05-23T21:53:00.002-04:00

Welcome to Thirsty for Comments

Hosted by Acting Balanced, Silver Faeries and Dragonflies, Thoughts 'n Such, and Crazed Mama

Grab our badge for your sidebar or post:

There is no Featured Blog this week.

We are currently redesigning how we choose featured blogs - if you have a suggestion, please leave a comment!

What is Thirsty for Comments?

Moms and Every Day Heros Giveaway

2012-05-23T21:33:00.000-04:00

Throughout the month of May, in recognition of moms who do extraordinary things every day for their families and communities, DollarGeneral® is teaming up with Procter & Gamble® to honor moms – the true Every Day Heroes who have made sacrifices for their families and their communities. To celebrate moms, Dollar General is inviting customers to upload videos describing why their moms are “Every Day Heroes.” Videos can be submitted and viewed at www.dollargeneral.com/everydayheroes.

In honor of Moms and Every Day Heros, DollarGeneral® & Procter & Gamble® have created a special prize package for you and for one of your readers which includes: Tide® Pods, Febreze® Auto Air Freshener, Always® Radiant, Tampax® Radiant, Secret® Coco Butter Clear Gel, Old Spice® Champion Deodorant and a Dollar General chip clip.

One lucky Acting Balanced reader from the US will win it!

A Mighty Fine Thank You

2012-05-23T12:37:00.003-04:00

I love getting feedback from sponsors and I thought I'd share this email that I got from the director/producer of Mighty Fine after the post I wrote here.

I want to personally thank you for your kind support of my film Mighty Fine. It means so much to me to hear how you have connected with my personal story. I enjoyed the online experience as much as you did and it was wonderful communicating with you after watching the film, especially being able to hear your feedback directly. I think we’re dealing with a very important subject in this film. We are hoping that it will make a difference by helping to break the cycle of abuse.

Wordless Wednesday - On Campus

2012-05-22T21:24:00.000-04:00

Robyn is off for a three day/two night trip to the College of Charleston as part of their outreach program... she's quite familiar with the campus, but I'm hoping she'll enjoy the trip anyway... here are a few of the views she might have:

Free Kindle E-Reads

2012-05-21T21:57:00.000-04:00

These ebooks are currently free as of the time of posting, but Amazon and the Publishers can change the status at any time - so grab what you want while it's still a freebie:

MMMmonday: Greek Shrimp with Feta Cheese

2012-05-20T21:22:00.000-04:00

This is one of those yummy dishes that will make company think you've been slaving away for hours but is really quick and easy to prepare and oh so yummy! Plus... it's got Feta cheese in it, so it has to be fabulous, right?

Greek Shrimp with Feta Cheese (Serves 4 to 6)

Read more »

Monday Quiz About Me #MQAM

2012-05-20T20:42:00.000-04:00