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A Surprise for Lily

Posted by html404 on September 19, 2013
in Books, Family Stuff, Girl Stuff, Kids Stuff, Reviews, Uncategorized

Faith and Family Reviews received the following product in exchange for writing a review. While we consider it a privilege to receive products to review, our reviews are our honest opinion and thoughts of the product.

This review was written by my second oldest, “B”.

A Surprise for Lily is another great book. The fourth in the series written by Mary Ann Kinsinger and Suzanne Woods Fisher. I really like the Lily Lapp books. Lily has grown and matured so much throughout the series. A lot happens in this installment.

Lily’s cousin, Hannah, and her family moves away and her grandpa passes away. I really felt bad about it for Lily because Hannah was her best friend. Lily misses them very much. Lily’s brother, Joseph, finds/gets a dog which he names Dozer, short for Bulldozer. Joseph loves his pup and makes excuses for every naughty puppy thing he does, such as: stealing boots, pulling clothes off the line and digging in the garden. Lily does not quite appreciate Dozer’s talent for getting into mischief. I like Dozer, but could understand why Lily found him annoying. He caused Lily and Mrs. Lapp an awful lot of extra work.

The long awaited baby “sister” arrives and turns out to be a new brother, much to Lily’s disappointment. Poor Lily, she waited so long for a sister.

Other news, Danny started going to school with Lily and Joseph, a new family comes to town, the Hershbergers, who have six children (3 boys and 3 girls). One of the boys, Harvey, who is nine and a bit of a trouble maker…..until Lily’s mother helped the new teacher (Teacher Judith) with English classes and outwits him. He suddenly never acts up again. I don’t think I could have treated Harvey the way Mrs. Lapp did. She did an amazing job.

Aaron Yoder still plagues Lily but she, Aaron, and Harvey actually became friends in this book, after the boys helped Lily in two incidents – both involving Dozer, who she learned to appreciate and love. I loved the fact that Harvey, Aaron and Lily became friends, it showed how much Lily had grown up.

Two thumbs up from “B”!

“Available August 2013 at your favorite bookseller from Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group.”

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Farming is Hazardous

Posted by html404 on September 18, 2013
in Animals, Family Stuff, Farm Stuff, Money & Finances, Safety

This is a featured post.

I have a farmer friend who gets after me each time she comes to our farm. You see, I tend to wear crocs around the farm. Yep, even around our hooved animals who weigh 1200-1500 lbs. Not ideal to say the least but my feet really like to breathe in the summer months and rubber boots or steel toed boots just haven’t seemed necessary or appealing to wear. And no, that’s not my fashion sense speaking, it’s my comfort level doing the talking.

When my friend was here to help with fencing over a month ago a t-post nearly fell on my foot. Not a good thing. A couple of years ago while working on another farm I had a t-post go through the bottom of my croc giving me a pretty good cut all because I tried to put the t-post into the ground with my foot, seriously of all things to do, but I did it as an automatic reaction. Farming is hazardous if you are not careful. A lot can go wrong on a farm. Thankfully we do not own any heavy equipment yet, but the large animals pose a risk because you never know what they can or will do. It’s not like we have medical insurance or life insurance that covers accidents, for that matter. We don’t even have a retirement fund come to think of it. It’s not like we view these things as unimportant, we just haven’t had the budget for them in the past five years, not with two lay offs under our belt. However, it is a goal of ours to get these things in place as soon as our income increases to the point of making it possible.

We do have farm insurance, which is helpful and provides some kind of coverage. Nevertheless, it’s a tad bit worrisome at times thinking of all the things that can go wrong when we lack other insurance coverage or funds to cover extra expenses that could occur.

Do you have life insurance? What about medical insurance in light of Obamacare? Are you preparing for retirement?

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Why is Organic Dairy So Important? #FightPesticides

Posted by html404 on September 17, 2013
in All Natural Products, Family Stuff, Farm Stuff, Food and Treats, Health, Health and Nutrition, Home, Organic, Safety, Uncategorized

This post is part of my application to become a Stoneyfield ambassador and I will receive Stoneyfield coupons for my participation. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Why is Organic Dairy So Important?

I know our family knows why organic dairy is so important but thought I’d share with you our reasons for wanting to eat and drink organic dairy to the point of owning our own cow. As you know, organic anything can be expensive, especially when buying for ten people. A huge reason for our buying a cow is so we could provide fresh milk for our family (and animals because we do share!). You also know from our Mariano’s shop, organic milk is around $7.99 per gallon at Whole Foods and Mariano’s. However, our reason for feeding her organic feed and hay is to be free of harmful pesticides (and GMOs – Genetically Modified Organisms) often used on crops. Now that we have our own pasture and hay, we know without a doubt our milk is organic, free of harmful GMOs. We have been supplementing Miss Moo with certified organic feed because when we brought her home she was underweight and want to fatten her up so she’s a good weight for her age and stage of lactation. We also know exactly what Miss Moo is fed, how she how the milk is handled and how she is cared for. We like knowing where our food comes from, and for our large family that means we are raising our own at this stage of our lives.

Don’t just take my word for it. Research it for yourself.

Resources:

http://www.100daysofrealfood.com/2012/06/07/milk-101-whole-raw-organic-low-fat-etc/

http://www.utne.com/Environment/organic-milk-USDA-amendment.aspx#axzz2f5HSUr2e

http://www.realmilk.com/

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Moms.com is Live!

Posted by html404 on September 14, 2013
in Encouragement for Moms, Family Stuff, Miscarriage, Nursing and Breastfeeding, Parenting, Pregnancy and Birth, Pregnancy Loss, Products for Mom, Reviews, Uncategorized

A couple months ago I applied to be a part of a new beta moms forum called Moms.com. I thought it would be fun to be part of a new website for moms as well as earn a little extra money on the side. It has been a lot of fun getting to know the “beta” mom group as we have created content for the site, which is full of topics from trying to conceive to pregnancy, babyhood, toddler, preschooler, big kid to just for mom stuff. In just over a month of working together, I believe we have laughed, empathized and cried together/for one another through sharing our lives and experiences as mothers – from the first day of school memories to reminiscing about our children’s births and so much more. Unlike other mom type sites, Moms.com encourages moms to be themselves and enjoy the daily sharing of our lives without harsh words and criticism for individual parenting choices. All of the mom members so far come from a diverse background and are a variety of ages, yet we have come together to unite as we share our thoughts and experiences about motherhood, as well as encourage each other in the journey of being a mom.

The Site

The site does require you to join if you want to participate in the conversations. Otherwise the site is very much public, not private. Though I just learned they are working on privacy controls, to be released soon, so this is about to change. When you join you will receive an email confirmation with your login information.

The Moms.com site has different sections such as Mom Moments where we can share photos or animated images in a card form with a few words as a description or caption. This section can be used to share photos of family, write an encouraging or humorous note.

The Best of Mom section is a catalog of topics where there are questions broken down and sub-categorized according to the different stages of Motherhood.

The Find Moms search button on the site allows you to follow other moms, look for moms in your geographical location or for moms with children the same age as yours.

Join Now!

Moms.com went live to the public this week and is open to new members. You can join now!

Follow Moms.com on:

Facebook

Twitter

Google+

Hope to see some of you there!

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Homing Pigeon – Wordless Wednesday

Posted by html404 on September 11, 2013
in Animals, Family Stuff, Farm Stuff, Uncategorized, Wordless Wednesday

A couple weeks ago we had a visitor land on our car. It was a homing pigeon. It has a tag on his leg that one of my daughters looked up and determined it was a racing pigeon from Nebraska. It is very friendly and allows the children to handle it. It has taken up residence with our broilers, which concerns me because it is eating 18% grower feed. What if it gains so much weight it cannot fly? Is that even possible? If it’s too heavy, how will it fly back home to its owner? And why has it decided to “vacation” here? Lots of questions. The children are loving “their” new pet though.

What is a Homing Pigeon?

When I googled homing pigeon images not many of them were the color of “ours”.

According to HomingPigeon.com a homing pigeon is:

Homing Pigeon – Aves Columbiformes Columbidae Columba Livia

Sixteen ounces of muscle and feather, at times on the wing for twelve hours, flying at sustained speeds of 30 to 60 miles per hour.
Why?
To return home where a special relationship exists between man and bird.

Wikipedia states the sport of homing pigeons was established 3000 years ago. The American Racing Pigeon Union says that in the late 1800’s homing pigeons were imported from Europe. More information about American racing pigeons can be found on www.pigeon.org

I don’t claim to be a homing pigeon expert but I hope that wets your appetite to discover more about these charming birds.

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My Husband Lost His Job….Again

Posted by html404 on September 10, 2013
in Business, Family Stuff, Home, Money & Finances, News Worthy, Saving Money

Five and a half years ago my husband came home through our front door at about 9am, which was uncharacteristically early considering he left work at 5:30-6:00AM and usually returned at 3:30-4:00PM. When I asked him what he was doing home so early, he replied, “I was laid off.” It was such a shock. Robert had worked at the store since he was in junior high. We worked for the first owner from 1981-2005. Then when the second owner bought the shop in 2005, Robert at times felt he had less job security. But seriously, we never saw the lay off coming.

Robert was out of work for about 20 months. I cleaned houses for a couple of months and started our virtual assistant business. Then his original boss, whom he had worked for over 20 years called him saying he had a new buyer for the store. You see, the second owner still owed the original owner money so when he went out of business in 2009, the store reverted back to the original owner. Clear as mud, eh?

He’s trying hard not to crack a smile in this photo in case you didn’t notice.

My Husband Lost His Job….Again

We accepted the job because we had high hopes of the store succeeding under new ownership.

This current lay off was better in the fact we knew it was coming. Robert’s job allowed him to see the numbers in the reports he ran and I’d say early in the summer he called it by saying he gave the shop until mid-August. He was a little off in that he had a job until about the end of August, as he was officially done a week and a half ago.

It’s was a topsy, curvy ride waiting for the axe to fall, so to speak. It is a bittersweet end to a job Robert enjoyed. He really liked this last owner and we thought the store would make it but alas, the industry has changed so much with the advent of the internet. Mom and Pop stores cannot compete with their distributors or online competition. Just look at your home town’s main street. If you have empty store fronts like we do, you’ll see what we are living.

We are not sure what God’s plan is in all of this. It is definitely stretching us.

Robert is applying to jobs. I’m working more. I just learned that I have a job as a hostess of a new moms forum, which will help bring in a little extra money. We are trying to get caught up around the farm while Robert is home…but that is a never ending task because there is always something to do!

Have you ever been unemployed or faced a lay off? How did you survive?

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Our Farm at Sunset – Wordless Wednesday

Posted by html404 on September 4, 2013
in Family Stuff, Farm Stuff, Home, Uncategorized, Wordless Wednesday

This is a photo of our farm at sunset when we got the hay field cut. The hay is all baled and stored except for the few bales that got rained on. We got pretty close to 600 bales of hay for our first cutting and that was just our share. We split it 50-50 with the farmer who cut, raked and baled it for us. No exchange of money, which we liked. Some hay guys will charge you a certain amount on top of each bale, even if they are getting 50 percent of the bales.

It was very hard to find someone to do our hay. Someone who said what they meant and meant what they said. Mr. L. came out to our farm to look at the hay field the same day we called him. He cared if the hay got wet or not, though we didn’t miss the rain altogether due to the amount of time it took for the hay to dry with the thicker weeds. We had a few hay guys give us the run around, didn’t come out when they said they would etc. We are very thankful to Mr. L. for doing our hay for us.

It was a lot of work to get the hay unloaded and into the barn. Our children now say they hate hay! lol! We kept asking them what are you going to do if we get another cutting? What are you going to do if we get three cuttings next year? Though some say three cuttings is rare, especially if you don’t have your own equipment, which we obviously do not.

Now that the hay is in we have fencing to work on. Thankfully it is suppose to be nice all week and not too too hot. 70’s and 80’s slowly moving back up to the 90’s again.

P.S. By way of a wee update….Mr. L. picked up his last two wagons today and told us he had to bring in someone to fix his baler but he wasn’t accusatory like it was our fault or anything. The guy that planted our field refused to hay it, #1 he was backed up with other haying jobs but #2 he said it was all weeds and there were too many rocks in the field. When we told Mr. L. this he was matter of fact, “Hay fields have rocks….” We feel bad his baler broke but blessed he didn’t blame us/our hay field.

He also told us our pasture grass is coming back nicely and we can probably look at a second cutting mid to late October! Hoorah! The kids are going to love us!

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See ‘n Store

Posted by 278Wife on September 3, 2013
in Baby Products, Family Stuff, Fun Stuff, Gift Ideas, Kids Stuff, Organization, Reviews, Uncategorized

Faith and Family Reviews received the following product in exchange for writing a review. While we consider it a privilege to receive free products to review, our reviews are our honest opinion and thoughts of the product.

For the most part, my children love going for walks in the stroller. Whenever I go to the mall, though, I always end up shopping too long for their liking. Usually I hand them my phone and let them play games or watch videos. This works okay, but I’m always stressed making sure they don’t drop it, or someone steals it from their little hands. Now there’s a way for all of us to be happy.

The See ‘n Store multi-media stroller organizer does it all and more. This lifesaver fits a tablet, iPad, iPad2, or portable DVD player. In addition, it contains a trash bag (with kids I always have trash!), drink holder, key ring, and other pockets to store baby supplies, phone, or whatever else you carry with you. It can be used in two different ways, either for mom to look at or the kids to look at. When the See ‘n Store is placed on the stroller facing mom, you can easily access your tablet to check e-mail, surf the Internet, or view photos and videos. I found this to be great. At the playground while the kids are running around, I can easily check my e-mail while still keeping tabs on the kiddos. It’s also nice for when my daughter falls asleep in the stroller. She likes movement for her naps, so I’m always rocking her. Being able to watch videos while rocking her, sure passes the time.

Then when I need to keep the kids occupied, I can simply reverse the See ‘n Store organizer to their side, so they can watch videos hands-free. I loved this. I no longer had to worry about my son dropping my electronic device, or touching it with his cereal-eating hands. He could just relax, enjoy his snack, and watch videos.

The See n’ Store is very easy to attach to the stroller. It fits on rear-facing and front-facing strollers for mom to “see” and rear-facing strollers for baby to “see”. This organization tool is very well made, and holds everything you can possibly think of. I plan on bringing mine to Disney. It will be a lifesaver while we wait in line, and at the airport. I would definitely recommend the See ‘n Store multi-media stroller organizer to all moms on the go!

http://baby-beehaven.com

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Oral-B Deep Sweep TRIACTION 1000 Power Toothbrush

Posted by html404 on September 2, 2013
in Family Stuff, Personal Care Products, Reviews, Uncategorized

Oral-B Deep Sweep TRIACTION 1000 Power Toothbrush

My husband reviewed the Oral-B Deep Sweep TRIACTION 1000 Power Toothbrush and even posed for a few goofy photos. He wouldn’t keep still when I took the photos so they turned out a little blurry.

At first he wasn’t too thrilled that he’d been recruited to review the Oral-B Deep Sweep TRIACTION 1000 Power Toothbrush because he didn’t think he’d like it. However, he ate his words and does like it very much. He said the brush heads are really easy to replace, at least according to him because I didn’t try replacing them for him!

What he liked about this toothbrush:

Because it gives me power….oops, no he said just kidding to that one! (shhh…..don’t tell him I left it in my review! Ha!)
He likes the way it cleans the teeth
He said it makes his gums feel good (he’s had issues with gum disease in the past so this is a very positive one for him)
He said it gets the plaque off his teeth and gumline

The only thing he doesn’t like about the toothbrush is he color. He said it doesn’t say SHAZAM! Seriously, he’s a goof ball, but shhh…..don’t tell him I said that!

Two thumbs up from Robert!

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Teespring.com

Posted by Brande on August 31, 2013
in Business, Children's Clothing, Clothing, Family Stuff, Fashion, Fun Stuff, Organization, Products for Dad, Products for Mom, SALES, Uncategorized

Raising money for an event or campaign is a tough job, especially when it comes to ordering shirts. Planning, collecting money, getting sizes, meeting with the designer, then making the time so everyone gets their product. Lots of time and effort, Teespring.com is here to help! How you ask? It’s simple.

Launch a campaign, design your own tee, pick the price you want to sell it for, choose a goal for selling, and an end date. Then spread the word via your own unique web link then post it it to Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and email!

When people order their shirt, they click on the unique link, pick their size, pay for it and best of all, your shirt can be delivered right to everyone’s door! Then if you are a business you can withdraw the profit. If you did this for a fundraiser, the profits are paid directly to the organization! It’s that easy!

Consider Teespring.com for your next fundraiser!