Giveaway: Flip Ultra HD Camcorder

Take a look at Mommy Snacks for her Flip Ultra HD Camcorder Giveaway. If you watch the entire vlog that Mommy Snacks posted and receive two extra entries to the giveaway for the Flip Ultra HD camcorder.

Giveaway: Aurora Photo System

The Frugalrimama is giving away a Aurora photo system. If you are anything me you could really use one of these!

Part of the review said:When I was asked to review a photo management system called Aurora I was super excited because I knew this was something I could really use since I have so many pictures. Aurora makes editing, organizing, sharing and storing digital images so quick and easy anyone can do it. I downloaded and installed the software in just a few easy steps. It immediately showed all my folders that I have pictures in and I found it really simple to use.

Enter this giveaway here.

Giveaway: Orek Halo

On Two Of A Kind Working On A Full House there is a new Oreck Halo Giveaway. I have always heard Orecks are great vaccum's so I'm certainly entered in the giveaway. Don't miss out on this one!

Go here to enter the Oreck Giveaway.

Giveaway: $100 Cash

Okay, all of us could use this $100 cash givaway at Choyster Cash.

Go here to enter this giveaway.

Giveaway: 16 gb Ipod Touch

Here's another fun giveaway at Momsbyheart. It's a 16gb Ipod Touch valued at $299.The iPod Touch. It has a 3.5 inch widescreen that allows for 20 hours of movie and tv viewing. Lots of games available, and of course gobs of music storage! 3500 songs to be exact. Retail value: $299.

Visit here to find out more about the sponser and enter the giveaway.

Giveaway: SwellyBelly

Here's a fun giveaway for all you pregnant moms. I had never heard of this until now but at the Thrifty Minnesota Mamma enter to get one and try it out.

She said: Now that my belly is slowly expanding (I'm 3 months pregnant) I have become aware of some of my shirts slowly getting shorter. No I'm not shrinking them in the wash, but I definitely remember (from my first pregnancy) how short regular shirts become once your belly starts to pop out. Being that I really only wear maternity clothes for six months I hate to go out and buy a whole wardrobe of new shirts.
The SwellyBelly from Nine Moons solves this problem. You wear the SwellyBelly under your shirts as a layering accessory to help "lengthen" your shirts and allow you to wear them longer. You simply slide it over your head and the elastic on the top and bottom holds it in place. Personally I love the layered look anyway so I think it really looks great and extends the life of your pre-maternity wardrobe.

Go here to read her complete review and enter.

Giveaway: Cloth Swim Diapers

Now this giveaway caught my attention. After a week of record high heat I have used several disposable swim diapers for a little girl I babysit and thinking what a waste of money they can be. These cloth swim diapers are $10 a piece. what a great idea!

At the Thrifty Minnesota Mamma she reviewed these cloth swim diapers:
I have never in my life used a cloth diaper, but the appeal of cloth swim diapers was for cost savings. I noticed the price of a pack of swim diapers is almost $10! All they do is where them in the pool/lake and get them soggy and throw them away! I couldn't imagine putting a new swim diaper on her every time she went swimming.

So go here to enter for a Cloth Swim Diaper.

Giveaway: Car Seat Cover

At the Thrifty and Chic Mom she has a car seat cover giveaway. She had this to say about the car seat cover:

I had heard of car seat covers in the past and in my pre-toddler days wondered what is the point? You can take the padding out and wash it right? So other than the cute look is it really that beneficial? Well the answer is YES! As I soon found out while you can take the cover out it is a HUGE hassle. You have to undo all the straps, ect., ect. and I found myself letting the car seat get pretty gross before washing it since it was such a pain. Baby Bella Maya makes adorable car seat covers and sent me the Ocean Mist toddler car seat from their couture collection to try out. First of all it looks very chic and my daughter loves her pretty new car seat ( so does mommy!), but beyond that it really is very functional. It covers all those crevices and places that crumbs like to hide in and you can easily grab the mess before it falls way down in the car seat. It also removes very easily for washing so it is no big deal to keep my daughters car seat looking great.

Go here to enter the giveaway and read her complete review.

Thinking about Cloth Diapering?

If you are thinking about using cloth diapers you will want to head over to SimpleMom to read her post for the Cloth Diaper 101 week. Even if you already use cloth diapers you will want to stop by as she is posting so thoroughly on the subject you may learn something new!

Cloth Diaper Review was yesterday and she went over several popular brands of cloths diapers. She has a great Cloth Diaper giveaway going on! If you enter the Cloth Diaper giveaway by June 7th you have the chance to win 4 different cloth diaper gift packages. Even if you don’t use cloth diapers yourself enter the giveaway and share them with family or a friend who could put the diapers to good use. They would love it!

Win a Vado HD Pocket Camcorder!

Over at the Grocery Shrink blog they are giving away a Vado HD Pocket Camcorder. Angela had this camcorder herself and is excited about this giveaway on her Grocery Shrink blog. Angela shares:

Hi Friend! I'm so excited! Creative Technology Inc. has donated a Vado HD pocket camcorder just for the readers here to win! I am a proud owner of a Vado HD already and if you've seen my videos on Youtube, they were made with the camera. It takes great video and is about the size of a cell phone. I love that I can drop it in my tiny purse or put it in my pocket for recording anytime. It recharges with a USB plug that folds right out of the camera. It couldn't be easier. It also has a USB extension cord so it will work with any computer setup. When it's time to download your video clips just plug it into your computer. Built in software on the camera takes care of the rest. My computer came with Windows Movie Maker built in and the videos interfaced well with the program for editing. I also love that there are no pricey tapes to buy. The video is stored on the camera and then downloaded. The video can be burned to a DVD from the recording for playback on any family theater system. Retailing at $229, the price is hard to beat for High Definition recording. If you are interested in videoing special family moments, or giving your business a boost through internet video, this is the camera for you!

Visit the Grocery Shrink blog now to enter this contest! The drawing will be held June 10th.

FAST AND HEALTHY MENUS FOR BUSY MOMS by Marilyn Moll

Marilyn Moll of the Urban Homemaker is offering a sale on her book, Fast and Healthy Menus for Busy Moms. I knew that Marilyn Moll has been recently widowed and thought I would like to help her business at this time. Please stop by the Urban Homemaker to look at the products she has to offer. My Mom bought an electric grain grinder a few years back and a Bosch mixer from the Urban Homemaker. She was very happy with the service from the Urban Homemaker and the products as well.


FAST AND HEALTHY MENUS FOR BUSY MOMS Reliable Recipes for Busy Families by Marilyn Moll – Pre-publication Promotion Continues with Eight Bonuses


If you and your family are tired of the pizza,hamburger, and the fast food rut and need some major cash infusion into your grocery budget....


Then Fast and Healthy Menus, provides the menus, the recipes, and grocery list to get you started to better health and drastic reduction of grocery expenses.


Menus rely on family favorite recipes the whole family will eat and basic, whole food ingredients readily found in the grocery store. No convenience products loaded with questionable ingredients, additives, or preservatives are used


You may subscribe to From the Heart of The Urban Homemaker at http://www.urbanhomemaker.com/subscriptions or call us at 1-800-552-7323.

Revolution Money Exchange

I was reading at Money Saving Mom Blog about the Revolution Money Exchange and decided to give it a try myself. I've tried several of Crystal's great "find's" and have never had an idea she passed along that didn't work. The Revolution Money Exchange sounded like a PayPal account without the fees involved when sending money to someone else who also has a Revolution Money Exchange account. Sure enough when I signed up I did receive the $25 for signing up!


Here's the review from Crystal:

"I've been seeing a lot of talk around the internet about Revolution Money Exchange and how you can earn $25 for signing up for an account. I'm usually someone who blows off things like this as "too good to be true" but after being repeatedly encouraged to sign up and try it out myself, I did just that two weeks ago.It was a simple 5-minute sign-up process and almost immediately, I had $25 showing up in my account! I've checked this out very thoroughly and have found this company to be very legitimate--in fact, it was started by the former CEO of AOL! Many of my friends who have signed up have already received their checks and I just requested mine and am hoping to receive it soon. This is an inexpensive viral marketing campaign for this new competitor of Paypal and it's worth signing up for if you have a few minutes and could use $25. And it gets even better--they also have a referral Program which allows you to refer others and receive $10 per referral (up to $500)! Who couldn't use $25? So sign up and then tell your friends and they'll thank you for it and you'll get a nice little kickback, too! I've already received my $500 in referrals from posting about this on my blog and will now be getting a check for $525 in the mail!"


This offer is only good for a few more weeks!

Caroline's Birth Announcement

My sister Caroline and her husband Sean welcomed their third child, and first daughter, to their family on Easter Sunday. I am sharing the birth announcement Caroline wrote and some pictures. Carianna is so sweet and looks just like Caroline did when she born!

It's a Girl!

Carianna Jewel Allen was born March 23rd, at 12:53, on her Mama's Birthday, Carianna's Due Date, and Easter Sunday! She is 20 inches long, and weighs somewhere between 8-9 pounds. The baby scales broke as our midwife tried to weigh her, so that is as close as we could get using regular scales. We are all doing well, she is sleeping and eating and cries only when her diaper is changed! So far she is very peaceful, and her brothers love to hold her and love her. And of course her Papa can't stop kissing and loving on his little girl! God has blessed us greatly, and we are so very thankful. Thank you to everyone who has been praying for us!

Homeschooling Ban in California

Do you have a teacher’s degree? According to the lastest ruling by a California court, you must be a state certified teacher in order to homeschool your children.

“A California appeals court ruling clamping down on homeschooling by parents without teaching credentials sent shock waves across the state this week, leaving an estimated 166,000 children as possible truants and their parents at risk of prosecution.”

Read the complete article here.

Just as upsetting to me as the outrageous ruling itself is the statement from the judge:

"California courts have held that ... parents do not have a constitutional right to homeschool their children," Justice H. Walter Croskey said in the 3-0 ruling issued on Feb. 28. "Parents have a legal duty to see to their children's schooling under the provisions of these laws." Parents can be criminally prosecuted for failing to comply, Croskey said. "A primary purpose of the educational system is to train school children in good citizenship, patriotism and loyalty to the state and the nation as a means of protecting the public welfare," the judge wrote, quoting from a 1961 case on a similar issue."

Children belong to the state? Does this judge live in a communist country or the USA? There are more outrageous philosphies however as you read along being expressed by the director of a Children's Law Center:

"Michael Smith, president of the Home School Legal Defense Association, said the ruling would effectively ban homeschooling in the state."California is now on the path to being the only state to deny the vast majority of homeschooling parents their fundamental right to teach their own children at home," he said in a statement. But Leslie Heimov, executive director of the Children's Law Center of Los Angeles, which represented the Longs' two children in the case, said the ruling did not change the law. "They just affirmed that the current California law, which has been unchanged since the last time it was ruled on in the 1950s, is that children have to be educated in a public school, an accredited private school, or with an accredited tutor," she said. "If they want to send them to a private Christian school, they can, but they have to actually go to the school and be taught by teachers."Heimov said her organization's chief concern was not the quality of the children's education, but their "being in a place daily where they would be observed by people who had a duty to ensure their ongoing safety."

Do teachers have more of a duty to ensure the safety of children than the parents themselves? Is she assuming that all parents everywhere are not capable of having a greater love and concern for their children than an accredited teacher? I do understand she is representing a group that strives to uphold the rights of children they believe are being mistreated. I have no doubt there are many children that have been and will be mistreated in someway by their parents. However, her statement is very dangerous for she begins with the assumption that all parents do not fulfill their duty to provide love and safety for their own children. I hope to see this decision overruled soon by the California Supreme Court. I was homeschooled third grade through twelth by my parents, and I can tell you one of the very reasons they homeschooled me was their duty to ensure my ongoing safety and to provide me with a quality education. Quality education was precisely one item they saw lacking in the public school I attended! I don't know what part of Los Angles Ms. Heimov lives in, but a Los Angles CA public school is not the safest place in the world for all children, accredited teachers or not.

The Creativity of God

Here's a thought provoking post on racisim by Stacy McDonald, co-author of Passionate Housewives:


"I used to manage apartments (years ago) and when we would do any type of advertising or brochures, we were required to have X number of black people, X number of white people and an Asian or Hispanic person for good measure. This seemed so silly to me. If the person who owns the property is white and the majority of the people in that area are white, why should they be "afraid" to use white people in the ad? If it would have been a black neighborhood, they would have had no problem at all using all black people in the ad, so what's the difference?

In the world of "political correctness" there seems to be more of a tolerance for every color BUT white. If you are white, sometimes you feel like you have to either apologize for being white or "prove" you are not a racist by meeting your quota or by listing all the multi-racial friends you have. To me, THAT'S a racist attitude. Why pay so much attention to race that you even find it necessary to do such a thing? Why count?…

Let us state for the record, that we are NOT in agreement [with any form of racism] and are in fact vehemently opposed to any teaching that requires “racial purity” or separation based on skin color or any other "outward" characteristic.”

That was what we said then, and that is what we say now. Racism is wrong. And personally, I think the “politically correct” obsession with race is wrong too. If you are a Christian, you are my brother or sister. I should not care beyond that.

It wasn’t too long ago, when we still lived in Houston, that I left some items at a grocery store. I quickly returned to the store and tried to figure out which lane I had used to check out. I remembered the cashier and recalled our entire conversation. I was counting on the fact that she remembered me too, since I couldn’t find my receipt! The funny thing was, when I went to the customer service counter for help, and the employee asked me for a description of the cashier, I couldn’t give her one.

Getting frustrated, she asked me if my cashier had been black or white. For the life of me, I couldn’t remember! I began to tell her about the conversation we had – about the fact that she had a son in the military, she went to a ladies Bible study near the mall by my house, and how she was going to be working until midnight that night. Those things I remembered well. They finally were able to figure out who my cashier was, but the whole experience made me think.

This is how it should be. We shouldn’t be paying so much attention to skin color. We should notice more about the person and what’s important in their lives – who they are and if they are in Christ.

Relax and forget about such things. Enjoy your brothers and sisters in the Lord without concerning yourself with race or color. Remember that whatever package God gives us – it’s for His glory! Praise Him for His creativity!"

Read Stacy McDonald's complete post about racism here.