We have a winner for our Christmas in July giveaway!!
Congratulations to Liz!! (you’ll hear from me soon) = )
Even if you didn’t win I encourage you to get Prepare Him Room for yourself. I’m finally starting to memorize many of the songs and they are such a blessing to my thinking as I go throughout the day.
If you missed the challenge, we made lists of all the people we needed to buy Christmas presents for, trying to be ready long before the holidays hit.
Now that we have out lists let’s start brainstorming about what those people might like! Keep an eye out when you’re out and about and try to buy at least a couple of things in the next month.
We’ll check back on our progress in August!
Thanks so much to all who entered the giveaway and shared how you prepare ahead of time for the holidays. For those of you like me – this is our year!!
In case you’re short on time, here’s what you need to know: Food Lion hosted a super fun Frugal Cookoff and I had the privilege of being one of the contestants! (If you’ve read this, I promise I have not turned into Pinocchio.) As a result, I get to give away a $250 gift card to one of my readers. Hooray! Who wouldn’t want free groceries? Please enter the giveaway! Scroll down to the portion in bold and follow the directions for your chance to win!
Now for the story! = )
Out of the blue one night, I received a message from my friend Malise at Carolina Mama. She has a “fun idea/event opportunity for me.” After talking to her I found out about the Food Lion Frugal Cookoff. A chance to participate in a cooking contest – mystery meat ingredient, fifteen dollar budget of Food Lion essential brand products, forty-five minutes to prepare a main course and two sides – what could be more fun than that? At this point I have to tell you that my husband and I watched Chopped for a loooooong time; and I always wanted to try it. I was so happy it worked out to participate!! Thanks, Malise, for thinking of me!
My emotions took turns being excited, being nervous, being mad at myself for getting into something where I would probably make a fool of myself, and being completely uninvolved as I went about the daily tasks of taking care of my five girls.
I found out that we would be on teams… and Malise would be my partner – yay!!
We also found out that our meat for the main dish would be one of these four choices, boneless chicken breast, ground turkey, boneless pork chop, or tilapia.
I’ve used all of these except ground turkey so I decided to “research” a little. (Ahem, Pinterest.) The only things that looked good were turkey burgers or turkey meatballs, but turkey meatballs seemed a little too risky. I looked up ideas for the other meats, emailed Malise all my ideas and thoughts and then said, “Whatever you want to do is fine with me because you’ve been cooking way longer than I have!” = )
On the night of the cookoff we were given ground turkey! Our menu consisted of Southern Surprise Turkey Burgers, Parmesan Buttercup Squash Fries, and Simple Apples and Onions. Later I will share recipes and more about the competition – it was so fun!!
And… drumroll please… we won!!!
Can you believe it??? I sure couldn’t!!!
Actually, I was looking around at everyone else’s plates thinking they looked so good, so pretty and yummy. But, when I tasted ours, I thought, Hmmm…. we might have a chance!
It was all so yummy! You’ll have to check back for the recipes!! = )
Before I finish talking your ear off about this, I have to say that Food Lion was such a great sponsor! They explained their effort to provide fresh produce, fresh meat, and quality staples, all at their very lowest prices. They have even have new lines of organic and natural products – and, they gave us a goody bag that sampled these products – yum!! You should try them!
Now for the good part: I have one $250 Food Lion gift card to give away to one of my readers – yay!!
Here’s how to enter: Leave a comment here, like the blog on facebook, or share the giveaway via facebook, or all three for three chances to win!!
Let me know in your comments what you’ve done! I will announce the winner a week from today – next Tuesday!
A huge thanks to Food Lion for the opportunity to participate in the Frugal Cookoff! Thanks also to Malise of Carolina Mama for letting me know about the event and for being such a great teammate!
I can’t wait to tell you more of the story, show you more pictures; for now here’s the youtube clip!
Well, they’ve been featuring all these giveaways over at their blog for the new book by Rachel Jankovic, Fit to Burst… but, I haven’t won.
So I just decided to buy the crazy thing! And I’m so glad I did!
It just came yesterday; I’m only through the third chapter. All that to say, I can’t give you an official review, but I can tell you that it is fantastic!
She describes her book as a “collection of ‘field notes’ from a mom seeking to honor the Lord in her daily life. “I write about what I know, and what I know is the challenges, the joys, and the work involved in raising little people.”
I’ll try to pick favorite takeaways from the chapters so far.
“The Paradox Perspective”
Most of us grew up in a culture that despises this kind of thinking {a life of Christ-like sacrifice} and it may not come naturally to us. But we need to have the language of Scripture define our way of thinking, and not truisms from the world.
Have you taken on the form of a servant? … This is how we imitate Christ: We esteem others greater than ourselves, and that turns into action. You will be humbled. You will have opportunities to humble yourself further. Choose to do so gladly, not resentfully.
“The Unbaked Biscuit”
{on mommy guilt} I thought of biscuits. I would like to be a person who makes biscuits for my hungry children. I do not feel like making biscuits right now. I will make biscuits another time. I will have time when I am not tired and feeling fat. The kids won’t know. I wish I had made biscuits. I could have made biscuits. I’m such a bad mom who doesn’t make biscuits. I am not as good as all the moms who are everywhere in this stupid world making biscuits. People who talk about making biscuits are self-righteous. I hate biscuits. They make me feel guilty. Jesus loves me! Biscuits or not! Jesus doesn’t care that I didn’t make biscuits! Home free! Biscuit-free!
{what she writes after that is even better}
Fruit is intimately connected with forgiveness. When we are forgiven, we do not gallop out into a life of ambiguity and indifference. We do not become great negotiators of whether or not it matters that we aren’t doing things. We become filled with gratitude, love, joy, and peace. And then, having a firm foundation of another’s righteousness, we are free to go out and do. Jesus does not care even the tiniest bit what you do for your salvation, because there is nothing you can do for it. But he cares very much what you do with it.
“The Mean Boss”
…I was telling him about my expectations. And apparently my expectations were not aware of what my life is actually like. … My expectations were a seriously mean boss.
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The book is short and the chapters even shorter. I’m pretty sure every one could be read in ten minutes or less. (however, when I read Loving the Little Years, I liked to read a chapter and then think about it for a few days before moving on)
Want some super fun, favorite Friday news? I ordered two books!! Yes, look back at the picture (by the way, if you follow on facebook you would know why the books were in a pile of *clean* laundry). = )
There, that looks like some sad kind of modern poetry. But I’ve seen one too many rafflecopters lately, and this is my boycott! = )
I will count every entry, so if you use more than one method you will have more chances to win. If you comment here or on facebook, let me know if you shared, liked, pinned or other such qualifying nonsense.
The giveaway will end at 11:59 pm on October 31, and the winner will be announced soon after!
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And now, I have to go… so I can keep reading!
and may you be more fortunate in your giveaway endeavors than I have been in mine = )
It’s time to announce the winner from last week’s giveaway!
The prize is the Botanical Notebook Collection from the Rifle Paper Co. I love these notebooks so much! Actually, I still need to get some of my own. = )
Okay, without further ado: the winner is…
*June* from facebook! Yay!! I’m so excited!!
June, you’ll be hearing from me soon!
Thanks to all who entered, and even to those who meant to enter but fell asleep early and woke up after midnight on Saturday. = )
Hope you’re having a lovely and loving week!!
Christie
P.S. The winner was chosen by some mathematical process on random.org.
small steps, big picture 