Gifts from boys. You never know what one of our boys will come up with, but this is the gift our oldest son chose for his big sister on her birthday a couple months ago. Pretty sweet gesture that melted her heart! I love it when children do stuff like this! It is a pretty frequent occurrence in our home, amazingly enough, but we still have lots of those other moments where they are still learning to love each other! After all where there are people there is conflict.
I don’t know what I get myself into sometimes but I have enough on my blogging plate to keep a couple people busy! Good thing my daughters know how to or are learning how to promote givewaways, enter giveaways or I’d really be up the creek without a paddle! 
This is another awesome giveaway if you are JC Penney fan. I love their towels! We have had them all our married life and I finally had to replace some of them a year ago. We still use the old ones, but I’d love to replace more of them. This next giveaway would be an awesome Mother’s Day gift idea for yourself, your mom or even your mother-in-law, so without further adieu….
Welcome to the $500 JC Penney Gift Card Giveaway, presented by CouponTrade.com and Moms with Voices Media!
CouponTrade.com is your new source for coupons that MATCH discounted gift cards! Sell your unwanted gift cards and name your price today!
One lucky winner will receive a $500 Gift Card to JC Penney! Just enter on the Rafflecopter form. Good Luck and have fun!!
We love educational products and tools. UncommonGoods not only has educational toys, but also gifts for plant lovers, hummingbird feeders and unique home accessories. Many handmade and eco-friendly products all very different. Recently we were able to review two of their educational kits for kids – Cheesemaking and Crystal Explosion….And UncommonGoods is providing a $50 gift certificate for one happy winner of our Earth Day 2012 Giveaway! A great way to start off Earth Day weekend!
Cheesemaking Kit Review
We have always been interested in cheesemaking so this was a cool kit to do. My older girls actually did this one and we let the younger children do the Crystal kit.
The kit gives you a choice of making mozzarella cheese or ricotta cheese. We chose mozzarella since we eat more of it than ricotta. The instructions were very well laid out, easy to follow and included photos so you could actually see if your cheese was doing what they said it should at each step.
Everything you need is in the kit except for a gallon of organic milk and a pint of half and half. Those need to be purchased separately. Each little tablet shown has to be cut into quarters, so you can actually make 30 batches of cheese with this kit – bonus!
One of my daughters was worried that the cheese did not turn out, but once we tasted it was fine. We lightly salted it when we tried it and liked that better than plain.
This kit is for older children (teens) to do on their own or for younger children to assist a parent due to needing a heat source, like a stove or microwave. We really try to limit our microwave use.
The girls enjoyed their cheesemaking experience. Now we need our own cow so we can truly make our own cheese.
You can purchase your own kit here($25).
Crystal Explosion Kit Review
Our children have been studying rocks and have been fascinated by what they are learning. The Crystal Explosion kit was very fun for the younger children.
The crystals (bath salts) were a bit messy but the enjoyment the children got from completing the crystal experiment far outweighed the small mess on the table!
Again, this was another kit that is very easy to use. Instructions are easy to follow. Due to hot water being required, some parental guidance and help is required.
It was fun to wake up to the crystals in the refrigerator. We still have them in there! Every now and then the children will bring me the cup and say, “Mommy, look at the crystals” because they are in awe. Very cute.
To order your own Crystal Explosion kit visit this link. It is available for $17.99.
Both of these kits are winners in our house and we give them two thumbs up. Thank you UncommonGoods!
Now you can enter our giveaway….
Earth Day 2012 Giveway – $50 Gift Certificate to UncommonGoods
Enter to win a $50 gift certificate to UncommonGoods! Open to the USA only. Winner will be contacted in 2-3 weeks, if not before.
Remember when I told you about KIWI Magazine’s New Allergy – Friendly Cookbook?
Why not try and win it first? When I read the rules they are only giving away 3, but hey you never know! Hurry because the contest ends on April 13th, which is tomorrow! Log onto Facebook – here’s the direct link!
https://www.facebook.com/KIWIMagazine/app_208195102528120
TOS (The Old Schoolhouse Magazine) revives Molly Green Magazine / Econobusters! Each week Molly Green is delivered to your inbox with tips, recipes and other inspiring ideas related to saving money! Molly Green Magazine / Econobusters offers decorating tips, pet care, health and beauty care for less. Let’s not forget tips on coupon clipping and “Abundant Blessings” (large savings for large families). With a paid monthly subscription to Molly Green Magazine / Econobusters you will receive “FREE Menu-Planning E-Book and Home Work: Juggling Home, Work and School Without Losing Your Balance E-Book“. Let Molly Green Magazine / Econobusters save you money too!! There is also “A Minute with Molly” a free newsletter.
The Butt Bench
The Butt Bench is an innovative bench to go in your tub to provide a place to sit, rest your foot on while you shave your legs or to hold all your personal care products while you shower or bathe. In their words, the all in one bath tub seat.
View a video here: VID00052
My Butt Bench Review
I have to tell you the name alone makes me smile! A Butt Bench is exactly that and more. I thought it would be a great addition to our girls’ bathroom, however, we must have measured something wrong as the first time we went to use it water got every where. 
Kind of disappointing. I am going to see if it will fit better in my mother-in-law’s bathtub, but not sure if she will go for it. If not, I will get my husband to ask his brother and sister-in-law to see if they would like it.
I love the cedar wood and look of the bench. It may just be a perfect Mother’s Day gift for yourself or your mom! It is kind of pricey, but for a gift item not too bad at $52-56. For more information, please visit www.ButtBench.com
The NIV Girls Bibles if for girls 9-12 and not only does it have a Bible inside, but it also has a ton of extra features like a dream girl section where girls can use their imaginations, finding out what they have in common with great women of the Bible, words to memorize, and answers to questions that they have always wanted to find out about.
My girls really liked the notes on the side/bottom of the pages and the index in the back too. Most girls will love the frilly pink design and cute flowers that are scattered throughout. It also has a read the Bible in a year index is something that most girls will love and I know that my girls did. They will also love the list of verses to read when you are feeling bad or upset.
The NIV Boys Bible is targeted with boys ages 9-12 in mind. With tons of cool features and devotions designed to strength your boys walk with God parents will love that their boys are leaning values at a young age. The colors and textures in the boy’s Bible will appeal to them since it is very “manly” and they will love the metal cover. They will also love the gross and gory section that features all the weird and cool thing that you never knew was in the Bible. It seems to be very sturdy and I am guessing that it would last through even the most destructive boy.
Both Bibles are really nice and tweens will love the extra features. I’m not too crazy about the hardcover, but I prefer soft cover Bibles so that is just a personal preference. I think that these would make nice bibles for tweens and then you could “upgrade” to a more adult Bible when they reach their teen years and outgrow these.
The NIV Bibles can be purchased at bookstores nationwide and www.Zondervan.com A great last minute Easter gift idea!
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.
STOP BUYING BOTTLED WATER!!! ZeroWater is here to help save the Earth with it’s water filtration system. ZeroWater has a “patented 5-stage water filter system and is the only system certified to meet the Food & Drug Administration’s standards for Purified Bottle Water.”
Let’s talk water and TDS (Total Dissolved Solids) – TDS is the substances in your water that make it “taste salty, bitter or metallic.” I live in the Northeast and have well water.
I used the TDS water meter provided 
I tested our tap water and here’s the results.
That meter reads 126 as the glass stood there for a few minutes it went up to 129. Which in my area of the world is normal for tap water. Most of the US falls into the 051-200 meter reading. The ZeroWater filter will produce about 24 to 40 gallons of water for my area. As the meter reading rises the gallons of water reduces, because the filter has more substances to clean.
I buy bottled water for my family to drink. If I drink my current tap water from the faucet, frankly it tastes like dirt. I’ve tried other filtration devices and they haven’t worked.
Here’s what happened to the meter when I put my tap water through the filter.
The meter dropped to 001! WOW!
For the heck of it – I tried bottled water.
That one was 046!
The Pitcher -
It fits well in the fridge, has a place on the lid to put the TDS meter and a little spout on the bottom. I don’t even need to take the pitcher out of the fridge! My only concern in the future would be a leak from the spout. So, far all is well an no leaks! Hooray!
The Taste – It improved my water taste tremendously! No more dirt water and I can finally stop buying bottled water! ZeroWater recommends that you change your filter when you TDS meter reads 006.
World Water Day was officially on March 22!
Visit ZeroWater’s Website or on Facebook to learn more about their products!
Want more!? Use the following code MC30 for 30% off your own 10 Cup ZeroWater Pitcher !
My Review – Great product. As I said earlier my water tasted terrible. With the ZeroWater Pitcher, I don’t have to buy bottled water anymore! I can save money and the environment!
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.
“I wrote this review while participating in a blog tour by Mom Central Consulting on behalf of ZeroWater and received a water pitcher to facilitate my review, two pitchers to giveaway, and extra filters to thank me for taking the time to participate.”
There’s a giveaway! No, wait there’s 2 GIVEAWAYS!!!
a Rafflecopter giveaway
As you all know, we are all for going green and living a healthy lifestyle while making use of the earth’s resources in a responsible and sustainable way. We desire to be good stewards. You are also familiar with our farm journey. That’s why when we were introduced to The Gigglin’ Garden Gang we were excited because it was right up our alley!
In recent years our family has enjoyed planning, preparing and planting our garden. This “Go Green and Giggle”® Book & Tote Garden Activity Gift Set fits perfectly with our fun family activities, but first I had to buy it.
Shopping Online for the “Go Green and Giggle”® Book & Tote Garden Activity Gift Set
First I went to GigglinGardenGang.com. They have some fun music playing that my little guys zoomed over to the computer to “see” being so use to music videos we watch. The website is very easy to navigate and very pleasing to the eye.
To order the product I had to click on their Amazon link to the left side of their home page:
Once I clicked the link it took me to The Gigglin’ Garden Gang’s Amazon shop:
From there is really was a piece of cake, click add to cart:
Amazon will then confirm that the item is in your cart:
After that just click to place order:
Completing the order was a matter of imputing credit card info or editing personal information. I really did not have to do much because we do have an Amazon account so most of my information was already stored. It really is that simple and took less than 5 minutes to do! I love shopping online, can you tell? 
Green Children-Friendly Activities
If you are looking for sustainable activities to do with your children on Earth Day, which is only a month away, the “Go Green and Giggle”® Book & Tote Garden Activity Gift Set is the perfect one to choose! Our children loved it! Of course, I only bought one so they all had to share. It contains the “Go Green and Giggle”® Book, the tote, the greenhouse with six soil wafers, sunflower seeds, a sticker, a coloring sheet of Sunflower Suzi and a CD featuring Sunflower Suzi singing cute little songs – a Theme song and a Go Green and Giggle Rap & Instrumental – my children loved listening to it! We played it a few times while doing our planting activity and they just asked again as I was typing.
The kit unpackaged.
My four year old holding the greenhouse.
Individual components of the kit. The sunflower seeds were tucked safely on the back page of the book by Sunflower Suzi after all she is providing them to us, right?
The soil wafers up close.
The sunflower seeds.
We added warm water to the soil wafers. The children took turns and actually did very well pouring the water! Very little mess, surprisingly! lol!
Each of the children planted a seeds. We actually had 7 sunflower seeds in our package. Our oldest did not participate. She was on her laptop!
As you can see from the greenhouse tray there are actually 12 cells in which to plant. The directions recommended taking it off, but we kept it on and decided to plant the extra sunflower seed as well as some snap peas. My daughter experimented last year with seed saving and these are actually seeds she saved from our snap peas. We hope to do more seed saving this year! All a part of stewardship and being sustainable.
Baby even helped!
Ta-da! All done with the planting!
We really had fun. I read the book to the children, then they sat and read it. Very cute illustrations and funny little jokes that made us giggle! We hope to get permission to use those in our farm newsletter in the future!
What a great rainy day activity too! I was glad to be able to keep my children busy this morning since they couldn’t go outside!
Connect with The Gigglin’ Garden Gang Online
To connect with the Gigglin’ Garden Gang on their social media sites, please visit:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/GoGreenNGiggle (@GoGreenNGiggle)
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/sunflowersuzi
This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for
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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.**
