Tag Archives: giveaway

Holiday Plans in Full Swing

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The month of November has been really busy for us. We’ve had company, or been out-of-town every single weekend so far. And, of course, we’re heading out-of-town for Thanksgiving as well. I’m making Thanksgiving plans, but my mind is already on Christmas too!  (And we have a couple birthday’s in December and January too!)

Mr. Fix-It and I have been talking in “parent code” a lot lately. You know, the way you replace every couple words with “you know, hmm” and wiggle your eyebrows a lot because little pitchers have big ears. We’ve been making a list of stocking-stuffers and holiday surprises and I’ve been scouring Pinterest for fun winter ideas. (We are definitely doing the minivan express!)  We’ll also get to babysit my niece and nephew on Friday afternoon (I don’t really consider it “babysitting” when it’s family, but since my sister will be at work, I guess it is.) and the Ladybug and I are planning some holiday crafts and special snacks (bite size banana splits and candy cane hot cocoa, anyone?)

Will you be going Black Friday shopping? My sister and I have gone a few times and actually enjoyed ourselves–but part of that was because we had a good attitude about it and nothing on our list was critical to our holiday. It was as much fun to be out in the cold, laughing and hunting the bargains as it was to actually get our shopping done.

Besides, I tend to shop all year. When I find something perfect, I buy it and stash it away.

For the kiddos, we try to keep the Christmas gift routine simple, and focused on Christ. We tell the kids “we celebrate you on your birthday. We celebrate Christ on Christmas” and we give gifts to each other as a way to share Christ’s love in us with others. We don’t use Santa Claus as part of our holiday traditions any more (and we don’t miss it!) and we try to think of gifts that are both wanted and needed and save the more self-indulgent gifts for birthdays. (Plus, they get plenty of stuff from family!)

Starting tomorrow, I’m looking forward to posting some Christmas gift fun on Tuesdays for a few weeks. I hope you’ll stop by and share some of your gift ideas too–I’m a little stumped on the Ladybug this year! Our kids don’t play with a lot of trendy toys, we don’t have time or inclination for a lot of tech-gadgets, and we don’t encourage them to follow a lot of cartoon or media fads, so sometimes we have to get really creative to find meaningful gifts.

Do you have a tough-to-give-to friend or loved one?

Oh, and while you’re here, be sure to stop by and enter our current Easy Lunchboxes GIVEAWAY!

I have no doubt I’ll be packing up our Easy Lunchboxes with snacks for our Thanksgiving travel on Wednesday! I bet they’re just the ticket for simplifying some of the holiday bustle for you too!

And have you seen some of the super-fun lunches those super-moms’ out there are coming up with these days?! {grin}

 

Giving Thanks Challenge, Week 3

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How is it the 3rd week of November already?!! Time is just flying by! November is such a busy month, I’ve been so blessed to try and slow down and focus on being thankful and counting my blessings rather than being busy and frantic about the holidays and the coming winter. (Winter = lots of extra work, usually in the dark, on the farm.)

Have you been able to slow down and be grateful this month? I know a lot of my readers have been challenged this month with storms (both literal and figurative!). If you’re looking for a little inspiration, feel free to pop over and take a look at my Giving Thanks Pinterest board for a little pick me up! I feel like I haven’t focused much on the coming Thanksgiving holiday itself, but I have focused on trying to be calm and enjoy this month and the special routine-busters that keep popping up. (We had Grandparents Day, Veterans Day, teacher training days, family visits and family visits and more family visits, and now we have a birthday celebration coming up and the holiday–whew!)

This Thursday, I find myself thankful just to keep my cool! {smile}

I’m thankful for beautiful fall weather, and snuggle up with coffee fall weather. {smile}

I’m thankful for extra time with my family, and time all to myself. {smile}

I’m thankful for busy little boys, and for bedtime! {grin}

I’m thankful for Wednesday prayer meetings, and watching Duck Dynasty with Mr. Fix-It afterwards! {grin}

I’m thankful for seeing the Ladybug’s school attitude improve, and seeing her grades reflect it!

And I’m thankful for the start of the “real” holiday season, and the way little Christmas surprises are starting to stack up in closet corners…this year is going to be different than last year. I promised the kiddos we could decorate early this year. I promised to bake Christmas cookies. (And I’m promising myself to give 85% of them away!!) And I promised to be crafty and fun and not worry about the mess. (Those “simple 5 step” directions for gingerbread houses on the back of the graham cracker box, uh yeah, never again!)

Let’s share and encourage and lift each other up! What are you thankful for today? Leave a comment or link up a blog post (even an oldie-but-goodie!) and share with us!

Oh yeah–and here’s something to be thankful for–great sponsors and GIVEAWAYS! Be sure to hop over to yesterday’s post and enter our Easy Lunchbox GIVEAWAY!!

Busy Mom’s Dinner On-the-Go Solution {Easy Lunchbox Giveaway!!}

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I work. I mother. I farm. I keep house. (HaHaHa!) It’s fair to say we stay pretty busy during the school/work week. Last year I had finally worked out a dinner plan that managed to get us to prayer meeting on Wednesdays without resorting to fast food every single week (which wasn’t good for our budget or our stomachs!). We called it the frozen-pizza-every-Wednesday plan.

Then we started soccer and a new school, and we weren’t home long enough to cook pizza and we were out of the house 3 nights a week instead of one. I needed a new solution, fast. And it turns out I found one thanks to Kelly Lester and Easy Lunchboxes!

I’ve actually been following Kelly’s blog and some of her Neat Ideas picks for a while now. Bento boxes is one of those “wish I was that supermom” interests. (And oh, Pinterest, you feed my bad habits!) So I was very excited to reach out to her and collaborate with her on today’s review and giveaway! (And she got a kick out of my cow head in the water bucket adventure!)

We’ve been using our Easy Lunchbox set at least once a week, sometimes up to three times a week, for the last two months–and we LOVE it! The kids actually look for the cooler in the front seat when they climb in the truck on Wednesday afternoons. I can totally see how they’ve become a #1 best seller on Amazon!

We got the set of 4 containers and the orange lunch bag. (By the way, the orange lunch bag is o-r-a-n-g-e. As in “huntin’ orange” as the Cowboy would say. Or “blaze orange” as the rest of the world would say. I picked it on purpose so I wouldn’t lose track of it on the soccer field, etc. and it didn’t disappoint.)

I tend to use our own soft-sided cooler (more like this one) when packing, because I’m usually packing for at least 4, if not 5, of us at once. The Easy Lunchbox cooler seems to work best for one or two boxes, plus a drink or snacks. I line up all the boxes, pack a finger-food meal or snack in each one, and pack them all in one cooler with drinks, napkins, wet-wipes, etc. and head out the door.

My two favorite features?

  1. The tops are just as easy for little hands to open alone as advertized. This is a big deal if you’re asking your kiddos to eat on the go in the car, while you’re busy driving. Even Speedracer can open his by himself.
  2. The boxes are deeper than I was use to using Glad, Ziploc, Rubbermaid, and various other bento-box style containers. This made them much neater and easier to use in the car. No spills. They could even set a small drink in one corner of the largest section and it wouldn’t tip over.

They’re also perfect for snapping any trash and leftovers right back up and tossing them back in the cooler until we get home. Then we just throw them in the dishwasher top rack and get on with life.

They make it easy to do away with the constant plastic baggie waste, but you can also use pre-packaged foods if you want to. I’ve stuck cereal bars, rice krispy treats, and yogurt cups in them. There’s also plenty of room to tuck a fork or spoon in there. (We use kid forks for spreading peanut butter or nutella on crackers.)

Oh yeah, and the crew would like to tell you that their favorite part is that they come in everyone’s favorite color. (Which isn’t true since there isn’t a pink one, but apparently the Ladybug has learned to accept red as a version of pink and since I picked the orange cooler, orange is now my favorite color! {grin})

We have been SO happy with our Easy Lunchboxes the last couple months! They make it so much easier to pack real food on the go. I can feel like my kids got a real meal, even if it’s a finger-food meal. I can include all the food groups. I can focus on whole foods. I can ncluded dips and spreads.

If I had to come up with a suggestion, it would be that the depth of the box makes the compartments a little big for kid-size helpings of things. But voila, Kelly came up with the mini dippers to add more compartments and problem solved!

And she’s been super-generous to offer one Walking in High Cotton reader their own Easy Lunchbox set as well! One 4-set of containers and a cooler bag in your choice of their 7 colors. Just enter the Rafflecopter giveaway below and spread the word for your chance to win!

(This giveaway is offered to US residents only. Please do not enter this giveaway if you have won or received free product from EasyLunchboxes within the past 3 months.)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

You know, Christmas is coming and an Easy Lunchbox set would make a great gift for a busy, health-conscious momma in your life! You can even get FREE SHIPPING by ordering $25 or more from their Amazon store.

{While this rave review is all my own gushing about how much I love these products as a busy working momma–this giveaway is sponsored by Easy Lunchbox and does contain affiliate links. We received one 4-set of Easy Lunchbox containers and a cooler bag to review. Affiliate links at Walking in High Cotton never affect your price. For more information visit Disclosure.}

 

 

 

10 Books, Part 2…and that Giveaway, again!

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Yesterday I shared the first 5, in my list of 10, books that we’re smack in the middle of around here–including a couple completely new-to-us series that we’ve discovered recently.

I also shared a giveaway for Walking in High Cotton readers–Childhood of Famous Americans, Davy Crockett–Young Rifleman. You can enter at the bottom of this post–or the bottom of yesterday’s post–or every day by tweeting about it!

But on to the books on this Momma’s nightstand!

I actually cleaned it up, just for you! {grin}

6. Voice in the Wind, by Francine Rivers. Actually, I’m in Book 3: As Sure as the Dawn right now, but #1 is my favorite, and I pretty much read through the whole series at least once or twice a year. I’m on my 3rd copy of book 1 because I keep loaning it out and not getting it back and I always want to read it again. Besides just being an absolutely captivating historical fiction, these books about the trials and hardships faced by those first generation Christians really helps put any little challenges in my life in perspective. (And a book about a blonde, German, barbarian trying to put aside his anger and desire for violent revenge and follow Christ’s path of forgiveness and peace..wow, hits in the heart right now.)

7. The Power of a Positive Mom/Woman, by Karol Ladd. These books have a great message and are formatted for quick, easy reading. You can grab snippets from them without losing the message, or read the whole thing at once and feel rather chipper for days! {smile} This one stays permanently on my nightstand for days when I really start to feel defeated. I also have The Power of a Positive Wife, and recommend it as well.

Our nightstands are actually wrought-iron bar chairs. Mr. Fix-It cut the back off and welded it into the bottom where your feet hang to give me more space. I covered it with pretty fabric to give him some relief from the clutter.

8. Life Management for Busy Women and Beautiful in God’s Eyes, by Elizabeth George. These books stay on my nightstand permanently (and most of her other books are on our bookshelves as well!) and I read them several times a year–particularly when I start to feel overwhelmed or like a complete Proverbs 31 failure.

9. Right-Brianed Child in a Left-Brained World, by Freed and Parsons. My Ladybug struggles with school work. Not with school, she loves school, but with the school work. When “words” like ADD, ADHA, and Dyslexia started coming out I immediately searched out some books. (Well, after crying. A lot.) This book is less about ADD and more about simply understanding different learning styles and gave me a lot of hope and encouragement, as well as some strategies to try. I’m also using their footnotes and commentary to make a list of other books to work through. The choices are overwhelming!

Ok, I’m actually working on several more than 10 books right now.

10. Living at Nature’s Pace, by Gene Logsdon. Yes, this one is about farming. But more than that, it’s about simplicity, about seasonality, about a philosophy of peace and routine and not being swept up in every new fad that comes along. Another farming book that’s about more than farming is Joel Salatin’s Family Friendly Farming. I’ve wanted to read this one again, but I lent it out and haven’t gotten it back yet. Salatin’s book is more about a philosophy of family and community than about farming. It applies to any family business and includes some good, solid ideas on raising competent, confident kids.

I know it’s strange, but I actually like to read the same books often. If I enjoy them or get something out of them, I don’t mind re-reading them. Sometimes again and again!

What have you been reading lately? Do you have favorites you go back to, or do you prefer to read new material all the time?

And be sure to enter our GIVEAWAY from yesterday. You can enter the Rafflecopter below, or head to yesterday’s post to get details about the book!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

{Note: While this post does include affiliate links, this giveaway is being sponsored by The Lowe Farm, LLC and I received no products or compensation for this post. I happen to think these are great resources for families! For more information on affiliate links, please visit the Disclosure page.}

10 Books, Part 1…and a GIVEAWAY!

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Do you read more than one book at a time? I do. And apparently I’m training my kiddos to as well! {grin} We’re reading books for school projects (American Heritage speeches coming up in November!), books for family read-aloud time, books for one-on-one time…and of course, this Momma is reading books on farming, books on parenting and marriage, books I want to preview for my crew, and books that are just for fun!

Here’s 10 books lying around our house right now in progress by someone!

1. Viking Quest, #1, Raiders from the Sea. This is our current family read aloud. I pulled this recommendation from a Veritas Press catalog and we love it! The main characters are young (8-14 yo) Irish Christians kidnapped by Vikings. I’m as sucked in as the kiddos and I just found out that our library carries them so we won’t have to wait until Christmas for #2! {smile}

2. Kathleen’s Shaken Dreams. We got the Kathleen 4 book set for the Ladybug for her birthday in August and they are a treasure! She and I are reading this together when we won’t read Viking Quest because we aren’t all together for read-aloud time. This is our “girl time.” {By the way, I just pulled that link and saw that the series is on sale at Vision Forum for only $18.00 for all four, right now! That’s half off!!}

3. Pioneer Plowmaker, John Deere. This is what the boys are reading if we don’t have everyone together to read Viking Quest–like when I’m helping the Ladybug late with her homework and Mr. Fix-It is putting the boys to bed. I find it ok, but the boys are really enjoying it–Mr. Fix-It even told me he read a little bit ahead because it was so interesting.

4. Peleg Chronicles. This series is something new to me and I’ve been reading through it before we decide if the kids will like it or not. In times past, I was a big fantasy fan (although these days not as much). So the idea of fantasy that included “no magic, no humanism, no evolution” (according to the book cover) was both interesting and confusing to me. I mean, what’s left?

Well I have to say, this stuff is FUN! I’m almost done with Book 2, and can’t wait until we can fit this into our family reading rotation. Vision Forum describes it as “…a world of mystery, adventure, and danger in The Peleg Chronicles, a gripping fictional trilogy set in post-Babel times. Paganism abounds, but a remnant of families still believes in Noah’s God.”

5. Childhood of Famous Americans. We’re using this series to help us in research, writing, and prep for the crew’s upcoming American Heritage speech competition. The Ladybug will be Laura Ingalls Wilder and the Cowboy will be Davy Crockett. We have Davy Crockett, Betsy Ross, and Laura Ingalls Wilder from this series and I’m quite pleased. The books are a pretty easy read for 3rd/4th grade and they encompass the person’s entire life within one book. You’re not going to get the breadth and depth of understanding as if you, say, read the entire Little House series. But you’re going to get a good feel for the big picture–which is all you need for a 30 second speech in Kindergarten!

{Note: the Vision Forum has an awesome deal on a 12 book set, but we also found several additional titles at Amazon for comparable prices.}

They’re also not completely non-fiction. Here’s how Vision Forum describes them:

Each book in the this series focuses primarily upon a historical figure’s childhood and early years, using an easy-to-read story format to supplement historical facts with fictionalized details and dialog. Not all of the actions, ideas, and principles of the men and women featured in this series were based on God’s Word, and parents should make this clear to their young readers.  However, positive character-building lessons such as perseverance, courage, and determination are illustrated throughout each biography, and readers will find their interest piqued for future in-depth studies.

And I’ve got one to GIVEAWAY to a Walking in High Cotton reader!

Enter the Rafflecopter giveaway below by Friday, October 19, 2012 to win your own copy of Davy Crockett, Young Rifleman.

And stop by tomorrow–I’ll be sharing 10 Books, Part 2…5 books on my nightstand.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

{Note: While this post does include affiliate links, this giveaway is being sponsored by The Lowe Farm, LLC and I received no products or compensation for this post. I happen to think these are great resources for families! For more information on affiliate links, please visit the Disclosure page.}