Hello! Welcome to my new blog, Brooke Reviews and Sweeps! Since this is my first post, let me introduce myself. I’m Brooke, and I’ve been a “Momtrepreneur”, in a way, since around the year 2000. I’ve done several different things over the years, including content production, entering sweepstakes, and writing reviews (one of the first things I did to make money on the internet was writing for Epinions.com, where I was one of the Top Reviewers).
I hope that I’ll be able to do a few things with this blog. For one, I hope to be able to provide reviews of different things and places in my life, like books that I read, places I go, etc. I live in Colorado Springs, so my place reviews will probably include places in Colorado, but I’ve been blessed in that I’ve been able to go a lot of places, so you never know, maybe I’ll end up writing about Kentucky Fried Chicken in Jamaica!
I suppose that some people might think that I’m a little eccentric, so although some of my posts might be normal, you might also find a few things in my blog that you won’t find in many typical “mommy blogs”. For example, I just finished reading A History of Modern Europe from the Renaissance to the Present, so I might end up reviewing that. But I’ll also be reviewing more normal things, like Veronica Roth’s new book Carve the Mark, which I’ve already pre-ordered and will probably have finished reading on the day it comes out or the day after (I read all three Divergent books (in English) in two days).
Here are five things about me that will affect what ends up here:
- I’m a Christian. – Okay, that one’s pretty normal, but it’s an important part of my life, so it comes first here. My husband works for a non-profit here in Colorado Springs, we go to church almost every Sunday, twice, and are in the choir. So don’t expect to see a review of the next 50 Shades of Gray movie here. One note, however: some of the sweepstakes I enter offer gift cards as prizes and might be sponsored by products that I don’t endorse. I’m not going to blog about theology here, but being a Christian does affect my worldview.
- I’m a polyglot. – It’s possible that some people wouldn’t consider me to be a polyglot, so I’ll say what I mean by that. I speak English (obviously), am fairly proficient with Spanish and German, am okay with Russian, and I dabble in several other languages, including Portuguese, French, Italian, Irish, Danish, Hebrew, and ASL. There may be some others that I’m forgetting. Languages, for me, are like… ooh, an ardilla (squirrel)! and then I want to go learn it. If you want to post in some of these languages listed, go ahead (I can always get Google Translate to help). Sometimes I might throw in a foreign word here or there, but if I do, the meaning should be obvious from the context.
- I’m a homeschooler. – Homeschooling is a lot more common than it used to be, but it’s a big part of what I do. My kids are currently in 5th and 9th grades. We’re still hoping to add to our family (which is part of the reason why I’m starting this blog, but more on that another day), so eventually, we’ll probably have younger grades to teach again.
- I read non-fiction for fun. – I’m not sure if this is strange or not; after all, some people are buying all of these books. I was on a waiting list at my local library for months in order to borrow Pendulum, so I know that I’m not alone here. While you will see some fiction books reviewed here, there will be plenty of history books included here as well.
- I’m into health and fitness. – I try to live a healthy lifestyle, even when it’s not the time of year that people make New Year’s resolutions. I’m not, in fact, making any New Year’s resolutions this year. I’m just trying to continue to do what I’m doing. I drink kombucha, use essential oils, exercise, prefer organic when I can, that sort of thing.
So that’s a little bit about me, I’m hoping to get to know some of you in the future! Leave a comment and say hi!