We Have New Giveaway Winners! - plus details for next week!

UPDATE ON WINNERS: For the tea winners we have Mary and Jessica! Thanks for playing! Whoever emails me first gets to pick their flavor! So don't wait!

To all our lovely ladies, thanks for playing along and don't worry, family stuff and health emergencies have kept me away from the computer and the post office, but your goodies are on their way! Blessings to you and yours! Staci

Just in case we have anyone who's joining us for the first time, I want to welcome you and tell you you've picked the perfect time to join in! We're announcing this weeks winners and spilling the details for next weeks prizes, and how YOU can get them! So the first thing you want to do is head on over to my good friend's new website gracenotes and then check out this blog entry that tells you all you need to know about our awesome giveaway!

Now for this weeks winners we were drawing first for the Arnica Muscle Salve!

             AND THE WINNER IS JAIME LYNN!

And for the next item up for grabs is the All Better Butter!

                     OUR SECOND WINNER IS dontfencemein - JAMIE!

Ok, well that's it for this week! But look what next weeks winners get! A couple really great specialty tea blends. They're called sample sizes, but each bag will make about 8 servings! So you'll get plenty to try and enjoy. For our giveaway we've got a bag of the elegant

Lavender Lemongrass- here is what they have to say about it:  

"We brought this unique combination of herbs together to make a delightful, light, refreshing herbal tea that the whole family can enjoy. 

Lemongrass is know for having a calming effect, relieving insomnia and stress.  It also helps detoxify the body and stimulates digestion, circulation, and lactation.

Lavender is an excellent tonic for nervous tension and restlessness.  It is also known for relieving pain, enhancing circulation, and assisting with respiratory problems."

Next we have the rich Vanilla Rooibos - and this is why they love it:

"Smooth and delicious 

Rooibos is naturally caffeine free.  It is considered a "red" tea, although it honestly reminds us of an exceptionally mild and mellow black tea.  We have added vanilla to our Rooibos to create an especially delightful blend.

We especially love Vanilla Rooibos sweetened (with sugar or a natural sweetener such as agave or honey) and then we add milk for a wonderfully mild and creamy taste."

 Lets Do a recap- so far you can get an entry for emailing, blogging, facebooking, or tweeting about the giveaway, telling me what product on her website you'd most like to have, sharing a new product idea, following my blog and asking for that entry, and last but not least, my absolute favorite fun entry... tell me what dreamy flavor would you like to see in a sugar scrub? (if you're just joining in you can use the comments on this page to add in your entries too!)

So far that's a total of 8 possible entries and for this week I'll add another...

For your final entry you can comment below,

~tell me what body care item you own that is a total luxury but one you wouldn't want to live without?

I look forward to your responses! and thanks again for playing along!
Blessings to all!

Gracenotes in your life! Time For Another Giveaway!

 I know you love giveaways! I do too! It's fun to give and fun to receive! And I am so blessed to be able to give away a few totally awesome items from a new shop! Some friends of mine, a mother and her daughters have opened a neat online store called gracenotes! What is gracenotes? well I'll let her tell you...

"In music, gracenotes are those wonderful little notes that come in quickly and have no purpose except to embellish and enhance the music.  They are simply there to bring pleasure to the listener.  (We also think they're fun to play!)

That's what we want our products to do in your life.  We hope that our body care products, salves, jewelry, teas, sewn items, and anything else we might add in the future, will be those little embellishments that make your life just a little bit nicer...kind of like a gracenote does for a lovely piece of music.

The blessing is that they're new enough to be fresh and exciting, but their doors have been open long enough to have some satisfied customers who've given great reviews! I have had the pleasure of using some of their products personally and I'd like to tell you they offer affordable luxury! 

One item that has been a particular blessing to me has been the Arnica Muscle Salve. My husband has bad knees and when they act up I rub his knees with this stuff and it brings him relief. It's natural and helpful! Another blessing is that many of their products are available in trial sizes so exploring their products won't cost you a fortune! (It wouldn't even with the regular sized items, but this is even MORE affordable.) 

And if you're joining us from Raising Homemakers, the beauty of their business is that the mother has raised her daughters with a focus on raising Godly joyful homemakers, and this venture is just another joyful way for them to spend time together blessing others with what they do. I really love this lady and her website! So needless to say I'm just a little excited to offer these goodies up to you! So for the giveaway...

I get to offer up to you a lovely assortment of their products! I'll start the first one today, and to make things easy, I'll announce the winners next Thursday! That announcement will also have the info on the next weeks drawing. I'll be drawing 2 winners each week with a big surprise giveaway on my 30th birthday! (in just 2 weeks!) Your entries will count towards the next weeks giveaway too! 

Here's what you can do:

1: Share this giveaway on your blog, facebook, twitter, or email. (1 for each thing you do!)

2: Visit the gracenotes site, explore around and tell me what item you would most like to have!

3: See her Input page and comment here about what new products you'd like to see!

So that's it for now. You have 6 chances to enter this week! Comment below to get your entries! And Check back next week for the first weeks winners and info on how to add more entries!

Let me also say this. The most important gift that can be given is the gift that is given to us by our Heavenly Father, the free gift of salvation, available to anyone who will receive it. 

 

¹²"Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God." 1 Corinthians 2:12 KJV

  

I welcome you to contact me if you have questions or need prayer. 

Extra special blessings on your day!

UPDATE: This weeks giveaway is for a yummy lip butter sampler and a wonderful bergamot scented Epsom foot scrub sampler!  A wonderful and free way to get your lips kissable and your feet ready for sandal weather!

A NEW GIVEAWAY!

This is a wonderful new giveaway by Raising homemakers You can enter to win a homeschooling pack called the prairie primer. This is a great option for unit style studies that involve multiple grades of Little House lovers!




Aren't giveaways fun! It's so neat that all these bloggers love sharing! I think sharing with each other gives us a sense of community that we need.

If you'd like to just read more info about the book, or this giveaway is already closed and you want to know how to purchase one, just wander over to Cadron Creek and they have all the information you need.

Thanks for reading and be blessed!

Domestic ARTS and a recipe for Bread Pudding you'll actually want to eat!

There is something so satisfying about making the domestics into works of art! Last Tuesday morning I could have been siting down to cold cereal, but I decided to make it a special day. There wasn't any significant reason, it was just "because". I've found that when you do special things for your children, they feel special and that helps your relationship. It does so much the same way it does when your hubby does something special for you. I would venture to guess you can recall just about every special moment in detail! To this day I can't eat an omelet without remembering my dad and his wonderful homemade breakfast treats!

28 "Her children arise up, and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praiseth her." Proverbs 31:28 KJV

I want my children to have cherished memories that reinforce a strong sense of being loved. So when time allows & sometimes when it doesn't, I will make an extra effort to make them feel special. The menu is not what's important, but because they are important to me, I'll consider the manner in which they're served. (And in this principle I devote myself to my husband also.)

4 "That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children," Titus 2:4 KJV

So without further ado...
We had bread pudding for breakfast! I laugh at myself saying that with such enthusiaism because I never liked it before. However, my husband loved it so I learned to make it, and over the years have improved it. Now I have improved it well enough to enjoy eating it. One key point is to cover it while it bakes so the top doesn't dry out.

Ma's Best Bread Pudding

several sweet bread end pieces
Cinnamon
real maple syrup
7-8 eggs
real vanilla extract
1/2cup or so milk (evaporated, 2% or half/half)
canned pears 1/2 to 1 cup

Tare bread into large bite size pieces and put into small to medium buttered casserole pan. Top with Cinnamon and a drizzling of maple syrup, to taste. In separate bowl, whisk eggs, vanilla and milk with a fork, add a little more milk if too thick, it should be like custard, not scrambled eggs. Pour mixture over bread pieces and top with pears that have been cut into bite sized pieces. Cover and bake at 350* F for 20-25 min, or until eggs are set. Serve warm with dollops of butter and a fresh drizzle of syrup. Enjoy!

Have fun making it really special for your family. Get out your china (which is FOR SPECIAL PEOPLE - NOT JUST FOR SPECIAL OCCASIONS!). Decorate the table fit for royalty! Then wake them with a kiss and watch their eyes sparkle!

*(And if you have an early riser, don't let that spoil your mood! Let them help, make it a game to whisper and "surprise" the others!)

Bless you mamas and thanks for reading!

More to come! I haven't vanished!

I just wanted to post a quick note that I haven't disappeared. I'll be posting soon, and I am working on some neat things to put up very soon! Here's what I've been reading about lately!

http://www.abowlofmossandpebbles.com/?p=4130 (my hyper links aren't working! if you know how to fix this please tell me!) This is by Breezy, one of the co creators of the Daughters of His Story collection of paper dolls, found at Noble Rose Press. Check them out!

and this too...

http://sewmamasew.com/blog2/?p=930 it's never too early to learn to hand sew, I do it a few ways with Hannah, my just turned 3 year old.

Sometimes I poke the needle in my quilt and let her pull it through, other times I give her a tapestry needle and a prepunched card shape, also we just got her a set of lacing beads, this helps with the hole, needle, hand, eye coordination. She loves to do it and she's learning too. Our approach is to never underestimate the children's ability to learn a skill. If they don't do it right, OK, they'll learn eventually.

Have fun!

RETURN OF THE DAUGHTERS, yet another giveaway!

In case you haven't realized the people over at Raising Homemakers .com are trying to get things started with a BANG! They're having yet another giveaway and this time it is for a copy of Return of the Daughters

I loved this movie, it was a great inspiration as a mother of daughters, and even as a mother of sons. It brings to light a new old concept of daughters staying at home with their families until marriage. This isn't an oppressive idea as some might think, but rather a way to preserve the innocence and glory of a young woman and also bless her family and community with the gifts she while she has the time to devote to such things. It's a wonderfully fresh look at the early adult years and what they're meant for. Go on over to their website and get your comments listed for an entry.

Another thing I want to point out on their post is they're considering a book swap. Leave a comment and let them know if you're interested. It would be a great resource for Christian women to have access to a book swap with like minded women. Bless you and have lovely, God inspired day.

(the title of the blog entry will take you there if you click on it)

Do you LAF? I LAF! it's fun!

I love to laugh, and I love to visit LAF a site that is dedicated to promoting Godly womanhood. LAF stands for Ladies Against Feminism. Some misunderstand this as being a degradation of women's rights and raise eyebrows at the term. But what we're talking about here is not the women's basic human rights, but rather the feminist attacks on society and the values of the family as it was designed by God. I am not a door mat! But I LOVE being a homemaker! I am eternally thankful for my role as wife and mother and teacher to my children. A homemaker can have many different roles, and as their life changes so does their role in the home. Some picture a woman slaving over a hot stove and laundry piles with bags under her eyes and a baby hanging off each hip. I won't lie, there can be days like that, just as there are "days like that" for my husband at work, but there are also days of sunshine picnics and stories in the park. We make surprise trips to daddy's work or play in the rain till we're shivering then run inside and take hot baths and sip cocoa! I rock my baby to sleep while "the man of the house" fights traffic in a hot non-air conditioned car. I love what God made me to be. I am perfectly equipped, perfectly made, and perfectly happy to be the nurturer of the family.

The feminists can have their stuffy offices and stiff trousers! I'll keep my aprons and butterfly kisses and crayon masterpieces and soft breezy skirts!

Here's a link if you'd like to read more!