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God’s Not Dead – Movie Monday

“God’s Not Dead” 2014

Director: Harold Cronk

A Drama, Produced by Pure Flix, a Christian film studio.

Rated: PG 1hr 53min

Or go to www.GodsNotDeadtheMovie.com to view the trailer.

I have pretty much given up going to the movies, not interested in the selection of films offered, so I was intrigued by the little known, small budget film, “God’s Not Dead” which
opened March 21, 2014. It grossed $ 9.2 million, the first weekend, and as I watched the trailer, I immediately made plans to see this movie aimed towards Evangelical Christians.

Josh Wheaton (Shane Harper), a pre-law student, signs up for a philosophy class with an aggressive professor. Professor Radisson (Kevin Sorbo) is an atheist who demands that everyone declare and write on a sheet of paper that ‘God is dead.’ Josh, a Christian, refuses which causes the professor to challenge him to prove God’s existence. He is given the
opportunity to present his defense, in front of the class, and if he is unable to do this, he will fail the class. There are several story threads, woven through the movie, that capture the struggles, heartbreak and challenges that believers and those questioning their faith face.

One intriguing character is an elderly woman who is visited by her absentee son (Dean Cain). He is a successful businessman annoyed and impatient with her dependence and deteriorating state of dementia. He angrily questions her faith and she, in a moment of clarity, tells him about the consequences of sin. There are a few surprising twists and special appearances by Newsboys and “Duck Dynasty’s” Willie and Korie Robertson.

I recommend this movie because it encourages Evangelical Christians to stand up for their faith. It also invites those questioning their faith to ask questions about God. I am sick and
tired of offensive language and the blatant attempts of the media to shock and offend with their disrespectful comments. In this movie, the name of our Precious Savior Jesus Christ was spoken with reverence and praise. It has been a really long time since I’ve heard that in a movie. Also, another important concept, about this movie, was that it was based on actual court cases where students, like Josh Wheaton, defended their faith in an academic setting. The ending credits list the students and universities.

The responses to this film are, as expected, strongly divided. I think this quote by Paul Levinson, media critic and professor of communications and media studies at Fordham University in New York sums up the movie very well. He states, “The success of ‘God’s Not Dead’ shows at least three things: Big budgets are not necessary to make popular movies, there is a significant part of the population that cherishes faith-based movies, and students like narratives about arrogant professors who get their due.”


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Fresh Express Salad Swap Party #momsmeet #saladswap

We were provided coupons in exchange for our hosting a Fresh Express salad swap party for Moms Meet. All opinions and thoughts are our own.

You all know we are trying to live a healthy lifestyle, including our eating habits. Our whole family enjoys salad. That’s why we were interested in this Fresh Express salad swap.
For the first time in two years, we’ve been battling a serious cold for the past month or so. But we also have mold in our rental home too so it is hard to discern what exactly is causing our illness at this point. Due to our illness, we rescheduled our Fresh Express Swap party a couple of times and finally opted to send our guests their coupons for them to try the Fresh Express Swap app themselves and send us their feedback and photos. The overall opinion was unanimous. Everyone enjoyed their Fresh Express salads!

Fresh Express Facts

•Fresh Express salads are thoroughly washed, rinsed, and gently dried, then sealed in patented “Keep-Crisp®” breathable bags to keep their just-picked freshness, without
preservatives.
• Fresh Express has a wide variety of products, including refreshing mixes and ready-to-eat kits. They also have a special USDA-Certified Organic line.
• Fresh Express salad mixes can vary in price, depending on the retailer, but typically cost between $2-$4 per bag.

The organic line did not seem to be easy to find in the stores we visited, which may just depend on the individual store’s buying/selling habits.


About the FREE Fresh Express Salad Swap App

 

The free Fresh Express Salad Swap App includes a variety of recipes and salad swaps, a progress tracker, motivation and inspiration, even additional Fresh Express coupons.

You can also participate in the 30 Day Salad Swap challenge and have a chance to earn more salad coupons. For every two salads you buy, you earn a coupon, which will be emailed to you. So if your new year’s resolution to lose weight or eat healthy has fallen by the wayside, this challenge could reboot your goal, plus give you great recipe ideas of how to swap out your favorite high calorie meals for a healthier alternative.

Here are a few screen shots to show you a little inside look at the app:

Fresh Express Salad Swap App 1

Fresh Express Salad Swap App 2

I wanted to know what would be a swap for blueberry pancakes (my favorite!) and this is the salad that came up:

Fresh Express Salad Swap App 3

Fresh Express Salad Swap App 4

Fresh Express Salad Swap App 5

Here’s what Magen thought of the app:

“Just tried the app … Wow! So cool! I am actually going to the store to try one of the swaps now. Going to try the lemon tilapia with Kale! I like that it has a calorie tracker and that you can put in what you are craving and it actually gives you an EASY option to trade with which are yummy!”

Download the Salad Swap app at 30daysaladsswap.com
 


Fresh Express Salad Swap Party

I opted to do a sandwich version of this Salad swap – Grown up Ham and Cheese but with my own twist.

Fresh Express Salad Swap App Recipe Ham and Spinach

I used wheat bread, Fresh Express Baby Spinach, deli ham, colby cheese, raw honey and mustard. I made it like a grilled cheese sandwich in a frying pan but instead of butter I used coconut oil, which heated up waayyy too fast…and they say coconut oil does not burn? Yes it does. This was my first time trying to substitute coconut oil with butter. I think next time I’ll have everything ready before I turn on the burner! I’ll blame it on being in a hurry and my head being clogged from this cold.

Fresh Express Salad Swap Grown Up Ham and Cheese_

Rosemarie shared:

“If you’re craving a favorite comfort food search Fresh Express Recipes for a delicious Salad Swap. I love Middle Eastern cuisine and falafel are one of my favorites. I was eager to try the Roasted Chickpea and Cucumber Salad with Lemon Feta Vinaigrette. It had the zesty flavors. I love and the firm and crunchy Fresh Express Leafy Green Romaine held up great under the roasted chickpeas. This Salad Swap was a healthy alternative that I would make again.”

Fresh Express Salad Swap Rosemarie

Magen and her family opted to do the Bacon Caesar salad kit:

Fresh Express Salad Swap Magen Collage

Here’s what they had to say about the salad, “We loved Fresh Express Salad. My daughter had a friend over and they could not wait to tear into the bag for lunch. They even started eating it before I could serve it at the table. Fresh express salad was very tasty and we LOVED their “kit” option!”

Here is what Jamie said:

“I enjoyed a lovely cheeseburger salad.”

Fresh Express Salad Swap Collage

There is a Fresh Express salad coupon available online for YOU at greenmomsmeet.com/freshexpress and you can learn more about Fresh Express by visiting their social media sites:

FreshExpress.com (click on their store locator for stores carrying Fresh Express)

Facebook.com/FreshExpressSalads

Pinterest.com/FreshExpress


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MommysClub All In Bundle Review

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As I mentioned last week in our MommysClub giveaway post, we have been reviewing the MommysClub All In Bundle.

Products in the MommysClub All In Bundle

None of the products smell chemically. They barely have any scent. I love that they are organic and or all natural, toxic-free and hypoallergenic.

MommysClub All In Bundle

Total Body Health with Multivitamin
– To be honest this is weird tasting but I’m not one to shy away from weird tasting health products. Now bad tasting products, I usually won’t buy again. Weird I can get use to. I think only my oldest and I have been taking it.


Total Body Health for Children with Multivitamin
– Only our youngest son likes to drink this. The rest not so much. I’d describe it as liquifying crushed up multivitamins. This would be great for those who cannot swallow pill form vitamins.

Children’s Multivitamin – All the children loved these chewable multivitamins!

Pre-Natal Plus – This is the same as the other liquid vitamins above but for expectant or nursing mamas. I did taste it. The flavor kind of reminded me of another health drink we’ve taken.

Daily Cleansing Foam – I’ve barely used this but it is a no-rinse hand washing solution that hypoallergenic with moisturizer for post-diaper clean up, cuts and burns. This would be nice to keep in the car.

Baby Shampoo – I haven’t even had a chance to fully review this product. I kind of forgot about it amidst all the other products. It smells great though!

Rash & Remedy Skin Relief – Haven’t had any use for this yet. Though Jr. does seem to have some spots I could try it on now that I think about it. It is for rashes and common skin problems.

Perfect Touch Sanitizer – Since we’ve been sick, I’ve been using this sanitizer on taps, door knobs etc. Yep, sick for the first time in two years and we’ve been double slammed in the last month. :(

I cannot honestly say how any of these products work long term because we have only been using them a short time. I can just give you our general thoughts about our initial usage.

 


About MommysClub

MommysClub is a network marketing company so becoming a member may enable you to earn an income from sharing their products with others. As a part of the giveaway and upcoming review, I became a member so this post includes my unique link.

You can learn more about MommysClub via their social media pages:

https://www.facebook.com/themommysclub

https://twitter.com/themommysclub

http://www.pinterest.com/themommysclub/

https://vimeo.com/user21859339


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Keep the Faith – Berenstain Bears Book Review

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This post contains affiliate links to support our family.

FFR Keeping the Faith book

If you spend any amount of time on my site you know we love books! I stopped getting children’s books to review just because we have so many books already but I couldn’t resist The Berenstain Bears Keep the Faith (Berenstain Bears/Living Lights) book.

Our younger children all love this book and have asked to read it over and over again. The message is simple. Brother and Sister Bear come across a friend, Ferdy Factual, who does not believe in God and they are not quite sure what to do or say for that matter. They were kind to their friend, though they asked him questions. I thought Mama and Papa handled the issue quite well, though they could have done a better job of explaining what faith is themselves rather than going to Preacher Brown. However, I understand that may have just been there to help children know when mom and dad do not know the answer a member of the clergy is there to consult with on the tougher questions.

This book was a good reminder to me to help our children understand that not everyone believes the same way or the same things as we do.

I give it two thumbs up for Keep the Faith for any family of faith with young kiddos in the home.


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MommysClub Flu Pack Giveaway

As moms we are always concerned with the health of our children. That means we want to feed them healthy foods and use products that do not harm them or cause adverse affects. MommysClub knows moms. They offer a variety of products that are organic, non-GMO, EcoCert & BPA free, toxic-free ingredients made right here in US. All their products are vegan, cruelty free. MommysClub are animals lovers and are a part of the Leaping Bunny community, which means they do not test on or use any animal products!

MommysClub Flu Pack

MommysClub is offering to giveaway one Flu Pack to one of you! Beat the flu this spring by using the flu pack products.

Mommy’s Club Perfect Touch Sanitizer and Daily Cleansing Foam – are your two best friends in the fight against germs. These products are perfect to hand out at Churches, Schools, Places of Work and even Gyms. Perfect Touch Sanitizers make great ice breakers for Mommy’s Club pitches. Replace soaps in Bathrooms with the Daily Cleansing Foam.

Our Flu Pack Sampler Small contains

10 Perfect Touch Sanitizers 1 oz
2 Perfect Touch Sanitizers 4oz
2 Daily Cleansing Foams

Look for our family’s review of the MommysClub All In Bundle next week!


Enter MommysClub Flu Pack Giveaway

a Rafflecopter giveaway


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Twigtale

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Do your kids enjoy looking at photos of themselves? My kids absolutely love looking through photo albums of themselves and talking about what they were doing and who is in the picture with them.  What if you could design a book completely centered around photos of your children and written for your child? Twigtale has made this possible, and it’s very easy to do!

Twigtale1

Twigtale makes personalized children’s books focused on early transitions such as moving, parents going on a vacation, or gaining a new sibling. They also make “anytime” books that build self-esteem and promote child development.  Your first step is to go to www.twigtale.com and choose which book you would like to create. I chose “Who Loves Me?” It’s a book all about the many people who love my daughter.  Once you choose the book you want you can begin building the book or see a list of photos you will need to complete the book.

Twigtale2

I found that viewing the image list helped me to gather all of the photos needed before I started the book. I saved them all in a folder to my desktop so they were easy to access.  You can either upload all of the images you have right away or add images as you go. Since I had already picked out my images I created a new gallery and uploaded them all at once.  It was really easy to just drag them from my desktop into the program for uploading.  Next you answer a few questions such as who the book is for, who is creating the book, and the gender of the child.  The book then populates with all of this information and you’re ready to start writing the book.

You begin with the cover page and go page by page until the end. Simply drag a photo to the desired page, edit it if needed, and insert text. Most of the story is there, you just need to insert people’s names.  Honestly it took me about 20 minutes to make the whole book. It was so fast and easy.  When you get to the end of the book, you’re able to preview it and check for errors you may have made. That’s it! Input your personal information and billing information and the book will be mailed to you shortly. I received my book in three days, it was very fast!

Twigtale3

The finished product was of very high quality. The colors are bright, the quality of the images were great, and the pages were nice and thick.  All of the books are only $20 each, and would make great gifts.  I plan on giving my daughter hers for her 1st birthday.  The site was very easy to navigate, and creating the book was very user friendly.  I even made a few mistakes and had to delete photos and upload new ones. I was very pleased with how fast the process was. Overall, I would definitely recommend Twigtale personalized books.  A high quality, personalized book, for a very affordable price!


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Hidden Falls by Olivia Newport

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Hidden Falls by Olivia Newport

Review by B, my almost 15 year old, who found it really hard to review this ebook

Thirty years of small-town secrets—now the key to the mystery is gone. The small town of Hidden Falls is abuzz. Former students, friends, and loved ones are prepping for tonight’s big event to honor Ted Quinn’s many years of compassionate service. Quinn is reluctant about a night in the spotlight–but is tenderly prodded by Sylvia, mayor of Hidden Falls and Quinn’s dearest friend and confidante.

I thought Hidden Falls by Olivia Newport was good, but rather confusing. There were eight point of view characters that came across as too much even for me, and I’m a fast reader. I found myself forgetting about half of the characters as we hopped back and forth between point of views and inside the different character’s minds.

However, I did find Quinn to be interesting and liked his character as well as Dani, Nicole, Liam and Ethan. I wish we had gotten to see more of Dani as she came across as a really unique character and added something special to the novel. I felt bad for Liam and enjoyed Nicole and Ethan’s character point of views.

Unfortunately I couldn’t even rate this on terms of plot due to how much was going on. I couldn’t focus or even find the main plot line because of all the extra character point of views. It was a very slow read, but I loved the ending. It was quite surprising.

I’d give it a 2.5 out of 5 stars, but I would probably read more in this series due to the characters that I did like. I’m intrigued as to what will happen to Quinn and Dani in future books.

You can read the first episode of Hidden Falls here.


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Movie Monday – Underdogs Movie Review

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Trailer url:
http://tinyurl.com/lgu7wjf

Underdogs Movie Review

If you liked Facing the Giants, I think you will like Underdogs. It is the story of one Ohio high school football team that opened the minds and won the hearts of their community. It was inspired by a true story.

Underdogs was a little slow paced at times but still intriguing enough to keep all our children’s attention. A couple of scenes may be objectionable depending on your preferences (pool scene and a guy opening the bathroom on a girl trying to get dressed). Some of our children said “ewww” to the kissing scenes and one of our sons counted six kisses! ;) After we finished the movie, it was so cute to hear him leave the room saying how many kisses were in the movie.

The language was good, only one reference to a$$ that I caught. So I would tend to disagree with This film has been approved for all audiences by the Dove Foundation. It will depend on your family’s values etc.

I really liked the fact there were intact families. I know families come in all shapes in sized, I am not dismissing that fact but so often movies don’t have one or the other parent and this movie had both parents of two of the teens. Also, the teens were respectful of their parents, except Johnny (quarterback for opposing team) a few times.

The story was inspiring and I loved how the team evolved under their new coach’s teaching and direction.

Our family enjoyed watching Underdogs together.

You can watch it too on video on demand (In-Demand, iTunes http://tinyurl.com/mhnspj6 or DIRECTV)! Or swing by Walmart and grab your favorite movie snacks and pick up the Underdogs DVD, on-sale now! http://www.walmart.com/ip/29114152

Features legendary hall-of-famer Joe Namath and stars D.B. Sweeney.


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Lola’s Math Train 2 App Review

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math Train
Choo Choo Coming through with a new app just for you!

Lola the panda bear greats you at the train. All Aboard!

There are 3 difficulty levels – Easy, 2 (Medium), and 3 (Hard).  With 15 different math games!

Math train 2
The Easy & Level 2 I found to be very similar, the numbers math problems are a little harder.  This level has adding, arrange numbers smallest to biggest, how many more apples are in this box than the other.
Level 3 takes you to subtraction and harder problems like which number is missing, and the start of multiplication.Math Train 3
Once you finish a few problems you can pick out an outfit for one of your riders on Lola’s Math Train. Lola’s train will then give you a score at the end.

 

Math train 4

I love the progress tracker!  It’s on the welcome page in the lower left corner. Once there you can enter your email address and it will email you the progress of your child.
This app is available for Apple products as well as Android!

Lola’s Math Train is recommended for ages 3 to 6.

I did find that the easy level was a little hard for my daughter. She is 5, I expected it to be 5 + 1 type of games, but it was more like 10 + 20 which I found to be a bit advanced for her. Otherwise, this will be a great app in future.

 


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Does Registry PC Cleaning Software Really Work?

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Have you ever questioned does registry PC cleaning software really work? We have. That’s why when we recently had the opportunity to try PC Health Boost, a registry PC cleaning software we jumped on it. We immediately experienced a difference in the performance of our old laptop, which has been sluggish and temperamental. Now it is faster and issues with Netflix pausing at 33% while loading is no longer an issue.

PC Health Boost is a PC cleaning software that gives your PC that extra boost it needs to perform better by fixing tiny issues. When we ran the software, it literally fixed over 200 issues. Who knew a computer could have that many issues?

This software is only for the Windows OS.

Boost Software, INC is a Microsoft Gold Partner and has won tons of awards for their software, which eased my mind concerning the risks involved with downloading software from the internet to our computer. PC Health Boost is very user friendly. Our 14 year old daughter was the one to download it onto the computer and she had no issues doing so. It just took her a little while to find out where to enter our complimentary license key.

For all my skepticism about registry cleaners, I have to say I am pleased the old laptop is working better than it was before. Here’s to hoping we get a few more months out of it!


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