Last Day for Extra Box Tops at Sam's Club and a giveaway

Those of you who know me personally, may also know that my mom is the school nurse at one of the poorest schools in our city. She personally heads up the Box Top for education collection program to help bring programs to these kids that they likely would not have otherwise. We love helping her in her effort by donating the box tops we collect and also by helping her to count them out every few months. Of course, you do not need to have a child in a poor school district in order for their school to benefit from the program. Box Tops for education are for all schools that like "free" money for projects and programs and in today's economy, almost every school needs this extra help. If you do not have a child in school, I am sure you could just drop the labels off at any participating local school and they would be glad to have them. If you are really having trouble finding a school that needs them, let me know and I would be happy to accept them for my mom or give you the school address so you could send them to her directly.

So where do you find these box tops? Right now, Sam's Club even has General Mills packages that have 6 box tops on them, but you have to hurry as that ends tonight. Other products, including General Mills, will still carry the regular, typically one, Box Tops on their products.

***Giveaway***
I was given an upgrade to a Sam's Club Plus membership and a $25 gift card to assist in writing this post. I also have an additional $25 gift card to Sam's Club for one of my readers. If you do not have a Sam's Club near you and/or do not have/need/want a membership, the gift card makes a great gift and/or it is also accepted at WalMart. To enter (mandatory entry): tell me what items you like to buy at Sam's Club. For us, we love to buy the Go-Gurt yogurt...and they come with Box Tops.
You can earn bonus entries (one entry for each that you do) by:
- subscribing to my blog
- following my blog
- sharing this giveaway via your blog or other social networking site.

Please leave an extra comment for each bonus entry. The winner will be chosen on September 8th and they will have 48 hours to get back to me or a new winner will be chosen. I will choose the winner at some point in the evening of the 8th and entries will be accepted up until the drawing. Good luck!

***Disclaimer***
Sam's Club and General Mills provided me with a Sam's Club membership Plus upgrade, a $25 Sam's Club gift card and the information for this post, as well as the $25 Sam's Club gift card for the giveaway, through My Blog Spark. As always, my opinion remains my own and no monetary compensation was received.

Win a free weekend stay from Hampton Hotels

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Hampton Hotels. All opinions are 100% mine.

Hampton Inn is giving away a free weekend stay at one of their hotels every day. Visit Hampton Chain of Friends Sweepstakes to enter.

I love traveling with my family and would love to win this to use for one of our mini-vacations, maybe to New York City this Thanksgiving. I always enjoy exploring new places with my husband and seeing my children experience new things and we have all always wanted to see the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade live. Or, maybe I would go with a few friends for a girls weekend. I love Chicago and would love to go back there. Are any of my friends interested in coming along if I win? Sometimes it is easy to forget that moms need a little away time to rejuvenate and remember who they are outside of their role as a parent figure. This would be a great way for us to not only reconnect with one another but also with ourselves. I know we would have a great time.

Where would you go if you won? Which Hampton Hotel would you stay at? Who would you take with you? Family? Friends? Me? ;) Ok, I am just kidding about bringing me, unless you really want to, but seriously, I would love to know how you would use this fun prize if you won?

Book Review and Giveaway: Amish Proverbs

Proverbs are those bits of wisdom that are often presented in witty sayings to help us remember them and to apply them to our lives. I have always enjoyed reading proverbs and have always had a great respect for the Amish community and their lifestyle, so when I had the chance to review the book Amish Proverbs: Words of Wisdom from the Simple Life by Suzanne Woods Fisher, I was delighted to accept.

The book did not disappoint me at all. It is a collection of over 200 proverbs and sayings used among the Amish community. Some of them were ones I have heard used by others, some were variations of others I have heard and some were completely new to me. All of them helped to remind me of the simpler life most of wish we led. They are divided up by topics which makes this a great resource book to keep on hand when looking for the right words to say. The topics are: time, money, faith, children & family, in word & deed, work ethic, handling adversity, education, community, character, and just for fun. Each topic also starts with a few paragraphs that tell about the Amish beliefs and history. The collection of proverbs were drawn from a variety of sources including published works and the author's personal relationships within the Amish community. The book also includes simple, yet beautiful color pictures of nature, life, and people. The book is a very easy read and is great to read when trying to unwind.


About Suzanne Woods Fisher: Suzanne Woods Fisher is the CBA bestselling author of The Choice, The Waiting, Amish Peace, and Amish Proverbs. Her interest in the Anabaptist cultures can be directly traced to her grandfather, W. D. Benedict, who was raised in the Old Order German Baptist Brethren Church in Franklin County, Pennsylvania. Benedict eventually became publisher of Christianity Today magazine. Suzanne is the host of a radio show called Amish Wisdom and her work has appeared in many magazines. She lives in California.

I was given the opportunity to review Amish Proverbs: Words of Wisdom from the Simple Life as part of a blog tour with Litfuse. For more information on the blog tour, visit the Litfuse website. While you are there, you can also learn more about the book, the author and about a Facebook party the author is holding on her Facebook page. The party will be held September 1st and she will be chatting with readers as well as announcing the winner of the Kindle giveaway she is having. Be sure to check it out.

Some of my favorite proverbs from this book are:
- Keep your feet under your own table.
- A person who gets all wrapped up in himself makes a mighty small package.
- The trouble with doing nothing is it's too hard to tell when you're finished.
Now that I have shared some of my favorite proverbs, I would love to hear yours.

**Giveaway**
I was given an extra copy of Amish Proverbs: Words of Wisdom from the Simple Life to give to one of my readers.
To enter, tell me one of your favorite proverbs (mandatory entry).
You can earn bonus entries (one entry for each that you do) by:
- subscribing to my blog
- following my blog
- sharing this giveaway via your blog or other social networking site.

Please leave an extra comment for each bonus entry. The winner will be chosen on September 1st and they will have 48 hours to get back to me or a new winner will be chosen. I will choose the winner at some point in the evening of the 1st and entries will be accepted up until the drawing. Good luck!

Febreze Home Collection review and WalMart gift card giveaway

I am one of those people that loves to use different products to help my house smell nice. I have often burned candles, but with 4 little ones, it can be difficult to find a safe place to burn candles. Candles not only allow me to enjoy a scent, but they also help create ambiance in a room with the flickering light. I was very excited to be introduced to the new Flameless Luminary from Febreze. It is a simple black base that you place a scented shade on top of. When the shade is in place, the light is activated and looks like a candle flickering through the shade. The light does not get hot, but is warm enough that it activates the scent in the shade. When you want a new look or a new scent, you can easily just switch the shade that is on it. Each shade will last about 1 week. The other feature I like about this is that the light will flicker for about 4 hours and then automatically turn itself off. To reactivate it, just take the shade off and replace it. You can also use the switch on the base to turn the light on and off. This comes in Herbal, Green Tea Citrus, Natural, and Fruity & Refreshing scents.

I also tried out the No Spill Wood Diffuser from Febreze. I have used reed diffuser in the past and like the way they diffuse scents, but again with 4 little ones, they often got knocked over and spilled, then my carpet was diffusing the scent ;) This product follows the reed diffuser concept, by having a wood stem that goes into the oil inside the clear glass bottle. The oil is then carried up to the wooden block top on the bottle and diffuses into the air from the block. If the container is tipped on its side, the oil does not spill. As life would have it, my kids never knocked this one over so I cannot tell you how well that aspect works, but it is a solid block so I imagine it works well. This also comes in the same Herbal, Green Tea Citrus, Natural, and Fruity & Refreshing scents as above.

To buy or not to buy?
I liked both of these products, but particularly the Flameless Luminary. I found the scent to be light and not overpowering. I also loved the automatic shut off feature so that I could safely fall asleep to the glow of candlelight and not waste battery power all night long either. As for the No Spill Wood Diffuser, as much as I liked it, I would probably not buy it in the future. The scent was not strong enough for me, at least not in the room I used it in (the bathroom). I love the concept though and would recommend it to those who want a very light scent.

***Giveaway***
Both of these products can be purchased at Wal-Mart and I have a $15 gift card to give to one of my lucky readers so you can go and purchase your own Febreze Home Collection products. To enter: visit the Febreze website and let me know which product and scent from the Home Collection you would buy first if you won.
You can earn bonus entries (one entry for each that you do) by:
- subscribing to my blog
- following my blog
- sharing this giveaway via your blog or other social networking site.

Please leave an extra comment for each bonus entry. The winner will be chosen on September 1st and they will have 48 hours to get back to me or a new winner will be chosen. I will choose the winner at some point in the evening of the 1st and entries will be accepted up until the drawing. Good luck!

***Disclaimer***
I received the products listed above to review and the Wal-Mart gift card to giveaway from Febreze, through My Blog Spark. No monetary compensation was received and my opinion has not been influenced in any way.

Do Good Day!

Back on July 14th, my family and I had the opportunity to work with some other great mom bloggers and 77 Kids by American Eagle. My family and I joined Clarissa, from the POSHpreneur, Pamela, from the dayton time, and Nichole, from Modern Style Mama, and their children, in Syracuse(NY) for a day of helping others. Our morning started at the North Area YMCA where we hooked up with the YUM mobile to hand out treats to those at the YMCA. After a while, the bloggers and our families headed out for pizza and wings (thank you Clarissa!) for lunch. We then hit Wegmans and picked up some food trays to bring with us to the Ronald McDonald House. Along with the food trays, which were to be dinner for those staying at the Ronald McDonald House, Pamela had bought a bunch of supplies that are always in need at the Ronald McDonald House (paper towels, laundry detergent, etc). Another fun thing we did throughout the day, was to hand out $1 bills to random people, encouraging them to pay it forward. Along with the dollar, there was a pamphlet that listed 7 ways a person could do good with a $1 and 7 ways they could do good for free. It was amazing to see how people reacted when you tried to give them something for free. It is actually a sad commentary on how little people actually help others when people are shocked that someone else would do something nice for them, just because.

The Do Good Day was sponsored by 77kids, American Eagle's store for the little ones. They were preparing for the grand opening of their physical stores in 11 cities. In each city, a blogging team was chosen to participate in Do Good Day and then to come to the store for the grand opening (I will blog about that later). Syracuse was one of the 11 cities that was fortunate to get a 77kids store in their area. The store opened at Carousel Center on July 23rd.

***Disclaimer***
The money we handed out as well as the money used to buy the items given to the Ronald McDonald House were provided by 77kids. As a blogger, I was also paid for participating in this project. While I was paid for this event, my opinions remain my own and are not influenced by anyone else.

Back again

With the craziness of summer coming to a close, and my health troubles being better treated, I am once again back to blogging. I have a bunch of product and book reviews coming up and several giveaways as well. It is my hope that I will get at least 1-2 posted each day, starting today, but we will see how that goes. Anyway, thanks for hanging in with me through my ups and downs in writing. I really appreciate all of you.