This is great for you and your kids. I can see two plus’ to this already!
A) You need to be outside to use this reference guide
B) You and your kids are learning and it’s fun! Kinda like a treasure hunt!
Go an get your Wildflower Reference Guide at http://shop.wildseedfarms.com/inforequest.asp
Tuesday, March 20th is the first day of Spring! Hooray! Go and celebrate with a FREE Bloomin’ Onion from Outback Steakhouse!
Here’s what you need to do! Tell your server that you’re there to “Bloom Into Spring”. That’s it!
There are other coupons on their site also!
Happy Spring!
I never thought about couponing for charity until I became involved in the Champion For Kids All You Couponing for Good campaign. Without a doubt it is an awesome idea, one I want our family to implement on regularly basis, which is why I am trying to get myself and my crew organized to hopefully do a monthly donation. Ask me next month to see if I have followed through! Better put it on my calendar to remind myself…..seriously.
Photo above shows most of the things we gave, but chips, tomato sauce and juice boxes are missing.
Shopping & Donating
If you haven’t read my first post about our shopping trip for our donation items, please read it here and see my complete shopping trip here. I was considering giving our goodies to our local food pantry but because I don’t have a car during the day, I decided to give our couponing for good donation to Turning Point instead because their hours were easier to coordinate with my husband’s work schedule.
Women’s Shelter
This week my children have all been sick in one form or another so unfortunately they did not go to the shelter with me. 
Oh some of them wanted to but I really didn’t want to be the cause of others getting sick with runny noses, stuffiness, wooziness/dizziness and headaches! We’ll just keep those germ bugs to ourselves! Yesterday my husband was home all day because I had a meeting and needed the car, so after that was over my oldest helped me load up the car with what we had already purchased at Walmart, juice boxes and juice/vegetable boxes I picked up at Costco, plus a few extras I took from our own pantry. Then I drove to Turning Point to drop off our goodies. Champions for Kids encourages SIMPLE service projects like this to help children (and women in this case) in our own communities.
I have never been to a women’s and children’s shelter before but was kind of surprised at the surveillance cameras outside, the door buzzer and locked door. I found it sad and scary – not for me, but for the women and children (workers too) who sought refuge there. The building was well taken care of and clean. I am always timid when it comes to asking if someone would mind me taking their picture so I never did ask the ladies working there. Maybe one day I will once I get to know them better. It might be a great blog post to interview them!
After I rang the buzzer and was let inside, the woman who let me in asked if I needed a cart, which I was grateful for and I only dumped one bag off the cart while rolling it in! I had to carry two bags, but the lady took those from me when I reached the door that she so kindly held open for me.
Our donation was appreciated and I was told to keep an eye on their website to stay current with their needs. It felt good to help a local organization assisting women and children in need of shelter from domestic abuse and violence.
Champions for Kids
To learn more about Champions for Kids visit:
Website: http://championsforkids.org/
Twitter Handle: https://twitter.com/#!/champions4kids
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ChampionsForKids
This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias. All thoughts and opinions expressed are my own. #CBias #AllYouCFK
Nearly a month ago we started the Healthy Habits & Oral Care Challenge, if you missed my first post about the Healthy Habits & Oral Care Challenge, please go back and read it here. We had our ups and downs of changing our individual daily habits, after all isn’t that why we give a challenge at least 30 days? I have heard some say it takes up to 90 days to successfully start a new habit or break an old one, while others say 2 weeks. Who’s to say, right? We are all different.
Depending on my work schedule, I improved my goal of getting back to brushing 2x/day and flossing at least 1x/day, even though I know our panel of experts recommended flossing 2x/day, but I wasn’t flossing at much, if any before the challenge. I was pretty much able to rinse 1-2x/day as well, just not consistent with the 2x/day recommendation.
My children were pretty stellar and I think some advancement has been made with certain ones that were really struggling. Consistency is key. A couple of the children really did not care for the mouthwash or were afraid of swallowing it (they know too much and read labels!). Another one of my children thought the toothbrush she had was too soft or not soft enough? I cannot remember now and she’s in bed early because she’s sick. But that is just a personal preference.
I really liked the flavor of the alcohol-free mouthwash we got. Not sure if my husband even tried it (I don’t keep tabs on his oral care! :)), he’s putting the little ones to bed so I can work so I cannot really ask him right now! I think overall everyone in our family has been pleased with the experience. It has made us more aware of how important it is to be a good example of practicing healthy habits to the younger children and showing them good oral care.
Tips on Getting Your Kids to Brush, Floss and Rinse
● Make oral care fun (e.g., make it a game; brush, floss and rinse to music; etc).
● Reward their behavior (e.g., give gold stars for good oral care).
● Show, don’t tell – make oral care a family affair.
● Involve them in their own oral care routine by providing products like LISTERINE® Smart Rinse, which can make the daily routine more fun,
provides 12-hour cavity protection for kids and strengthens teeth 99 percent better than brushing alone.
These tips were provided by Dr. Kaneta Lott, DDS (pediatric dentist).
Need oral care products? Shop here.
Faith and Family Reviews received the following product in exchange for writing and participating in the Healthy Habits for a Lifetime Oral Care Challenge. We are being compensated by Johnson & Johnson and TheMotherhood. While we consider it a privilege to receive free products to review and compensation, our reviews are our honest opinion and thoughts of the product.
Don’t pay full price!!! Kids grow in leaps and bounds, why pay full price when they just grow out of them within a few months?! I found this site this morning http://kidsconsignmentsales.com/. You choose your state and it gives the current sales coming up! In fact, I thought I knew about all the sales in my area. Low and behold, there’s another one, really close to my home. There are lots of sale starting soon for spring & summer clothes. I’m heading to one this afternoon! I love these types of sales and I hope you can get some good buys in your area too!
Our oldest son has challenged us more in homeschooling than any of our girls ever did and in order to get him to read we had to come up with certain incentives that were of interest to him and made him want to read for the end result. For him it was getting a BB gun. Even the promise of a $50 bill did not motivate him! He had to read a certain amount from January until his birthday in February then he could have his BB gun. He made the goal and on his birthday or the day after my husband took him to Farm & Fleet to buy a BB gun. However, he could not shoot his BB gun until he finished a certain amount of books….let’s just say he kicked his reading up a notch because this past Sunday he (and the rest of the family too) got to shoot his BB gun. The joys of living in the country affords us new experiences we would never had if we still lived in our townhouse subdivision and I have to say our children are happier for the change!
The Target – Nothing fancy mind you, but it worked for us!
The Master Teacher – An awesome Dad! (a must-have!)
The Students - Eager boys (and girls in our family’s case)
Teaching Safety - Especially to our younger crew (and NO we did NOT shoot at the target with them behind it! That’s why we were teaching THEM about safety as cute as they were trying to hid behind the box!)
Ready, Aim, Fire! – The REAL fun!
That about says it all! My husband was the only one to hit the target. Our two sons and one of our daughters hit the box when my husband decided that might be an easier target to start with. The rest of us missed!
Check out The Old Schoolhouse Magazine’s (TOS) reinvented Teacher’s Toolbox. I introduce SchoolhouseTeachers.com.
Click the banner above or here’s the link – http://schoolhouseteachers.com/dap/a/?a=3429
The topics of March include “Get Out and Garden!” , “This Day in History” , “Schoolhouse Kitchen”, crafts, lots of encouragement and devotions.
TOS is continually adding enhancements to SchoolhouseTeachers.com - Watch for Schoolhouse Clubs for Kids, freebies (for long-term members), and TOS digital back issues! With even more coming in April and beyond!
There are 3 different tiers of membership.
The Standard Membership includes –
After 12 months of uninterrupted membership, you’ll receive a $5 gift certificate to the Totally TOS section of The Schoolhouse Store.
After 12 months of uninterrupted membership, you’ll receive a $10 gift certificate to the Totally TOS section of The Schoolhouse Store.
After 12 months of uninterrupted membership, you’ll receive a $25 gift certificate to the Totally TOS section of The Schoolhouse Store.
BONUS for the Ultimate Membership for a limited time only!
Go and sign up, this is a great tool for any parent just not homeschoolers!
**The membership information was quoted directly from the SchoolhouseTeachers.com website.**
Head to First Alert’s Facebook Page – Enter for a chance to win 1 of 100 Prize Packs! You have until March 12th (Monday)!
Don’t forget to change you clocks one hour ahead & smoke alarm batteries!
How cute are these little guys! And VERY tasty too!
Swiss creme covers these wonderful little bugs of goodness. With their centers made of light and airy chocolate truffle. These Lady Bugs are delightfully decorated and almost hard to eat (key word ALMOST).
The Swiss Colony website offers may choices in addition to these adorable Lady Bugs! Easter’s Coming!!! 
My Review:
Funny story first. I have a 3 year old little girl, who was very upset that I was eating “bugs”. She learned very quickly, that these “bugs” were very good.
These Swiss Colony Lady Bug Truffles are wonderful! I really enjoy chocolate and these made me close my eyes and enjoy the smoothness and flavor. I recommend The Swiss Colony! With Easter coming, now is a great time to order Lady Bugs! Not only are they very good, but they are a conversation piece! Add them to your Easter Table as decoration then eat them! Decoration and Dessert! Below is a picture of my box! Maybe the Easter Bunny will bring me some more!
Disclosure: I received this item free of charge from The
Swiss Colony. No monetary compensation
was received or offered, nor was I under any obligation to write about this
product. All opinions expressed are my
honest thoughts. I am not offering any
sales or taking orders for this item. I
will not receive any compensation in connection with any sales of this item.
Giveaway – You Could Win One Too! **Only open to the US.
We had 3 birthdays to celebrate in Februray month, so that’s always lots of fun! We celebrate pretty simply. For our birthdays we get to choose a birthday meal and dessert and choose a movie to watch. We usually decorate with a banner, balloons and sometimes streamers and extras.
The girls and I love to bake. Homemade cakes are not a problem. The problem comes with the decorating. I usually like simple cakes but on occasion we take on something out of our comfort zone. Our four year old likes Elmo and requested and Elmo cake. My oldest daughter found something that looked easy enough without having to buy a new cake pan. It was the head of Elmo. That’s it. I told her to use one of our stainless steel bowls to bake the cake in and voila! Here’s the end result:
Not bad for amateurs, eh? Well, next came the frosting. First, we forgot about food coloring so we had to run out for that, BUT a certain person (who shall remain nameless) grabbed tubes of piping icing instead of food coloring and no one noticed until we got it home. Improvise, right? Uh-uh. Not a good idea when it comes to the right colors etc. The butter cream frosting was de-lish, but it melted way too fast by the time the coloring was mixed in – should have put it back in the refrigerator! We just are not Buddy Valento of Cake Boss when it comes to having royal icing on hand. So here is the result:
A drooping mess of goo. Oh it tasted wonderful, the cake was nice and moist and chocolate-y yummy! Our sweet little boy just giggled and said,”A pink Elmo” and yours truly said, “Elmo had too much Pepto Bismol!” which made my husband laugh and say, “Honey!” But all of us “older” folks got it even if the younger children didn’t, as they do not even know what Pepto Bismol is! Thank goodness Nookie Bear is so young to be able to overlook his birthday cake disaster. One last look for good measure and to keep me humbled.
Now look away quick because here was my oldest daughter’s choice of cakes:
Oh yes, it was scrumptious! And no, there’s none left. That cake bit the dust the night it was served.
Here’s how our oldest son’s cake turned out:
And lest you start to feel bad for my poor kiddos, my oldest son was just here as I was editing his cake picture and he said, “Mommy, I love that cake.” Awww…can you say sweetheart? I can!
Let’s just say that we may just be going back to Dairy Queen’s ice cream cake if anyone wants anything fancy again or at least we will be staying within the scope of our abilities!
