Archive for html404

Monday Motivation: Mamavation 2 Week Challenge #Mamavation #2WeekChallenge

Posted by html404 on September 3, 2012
in Exercise, Health, Health and Nutrition, Monday Motivation, Weight Loss

Most of you know since the start of the year I have wanted to do something about my weight so I wouldn’t just keep gaining, but have failed royally in that department. I had considered Mamavation Bootcamp, but was just not ready. After all, I have been sitting in front of the computer most of the summer. Bootcamp would probably kill me, since weeding the garden last weekend nearly did me in. Then last Thursday I came across the Mamavation 2 Week Challenge and thought the Beginner Track would help me ease back into exercising. So I signed up, tweeted Mr.BookieBoo and wrote up my post (not really a requirement, I am doing to hopefully give myself additional accountability).

Today is the first day and I am probably going to die doing the beginner’s workout, but here goes nothing or everything depending on how I look at it!

For more information about Mamavation’s 2 Week Challenge read this post.

If you all want to hold me accountable or follow the challenge search for the hashtags #Mamavation and #2WeekChallenge on Twitter.

Here it goes….just maybe this will help prepare me for the next Mamavation Bootcamp….whenever the next one may be.

Do you have any fitness or weight loss goals you are trying to achieve? How are you doing?

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Lilla Rose Hair Clip Review and Giveaway

Posted by html404 on August 31, 2012
in Giveaways, Products for Mom, Reviews

I was contacted by Sarah an independent Lilla Rose distributor about hosting a review and giveaway as well as a Lila Rose Party.

My middle daughter and I chose the Sea-Inspired dolphin clip to review. My daughter loved the sea theme and her favorite color is blue so she was really pleased with the clip when we received it.

Before choosing a Lilla Rose clip be sure to watch the sizing video to choose the correct size so you don’t end up with a bad fit!

When we tested this clip out we were surprised at how well it fit my daughter’s hair. It didn’t slip or fall out and it stayed in all day which is surprising considering very few hair clips do. We are in love with these clips and think they are a great alternative to the cheap clips you can buy elsewhere because they are so well made not to mention beautiful!

I love that the Lilla Rose hair clips are not only pretty and fashionable, but they work great in any type of hair. Lilla Rose offers beautiful hair jewelry in seven different sizes so it doesn’t matter how thick or fine, short or long, your hair is, but they will have one that works for you!

We are really pleased with the quality and customer service provided by Lilla Rose. Sarah is extremely helpful in choosing a clip and is fast at responding to e-mails, not to mention very pleasant to work with!

If you’d like to purchase a Flexi-8 clip you can do so here. Remember! Orders placed today get FREE shipping!

$16 gift card to two winners (you can easily purchase almost anything from Lilla Rose with these)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Blog Goals Carnival

Posted by html404 on August 30, 2012
in Blog Stuff, Business

Trisha over at MomDot has been hosting a blog carnival the past several weeks. This is the first one I have participated in. Thought I had better get some goals down on paper so to speak…maybe…just maybe I’ll attain them.

When I Started Blogging

When I started blogging it was on a private family blog on the back end of our online bookstore. It was for close friends and family to keep up with the children’s growth and achievements. A “mom brag place” if you will. That was back in 2006. I stopped blogging there in late 2010 when I started this blog. I also had a blog in conjunction with our online shop, but it wasn’t going anywhere; which led to me becoming frustrated with the whole thing. After we had shut our bookstore down the blog itself didn’t make much sense. My purpose in doing it was to connect with our customers, possibly make money (back then I was trying to make money with affilate links and only made pennies and lost money because I didn’t make the payout goal in time…frustrating to say the least). I also wanted to try to be an encouragement to other moms. Then there were the people lurking that I wanted to get away from due to personal reasons. Not that they couldn’t find me again, but I was ready for a new adventure. I wanted to do more product reviews because I enjoyed that sort of thing after having wet my feet with book reviews. I also wanted to hide behind reviews so I wouldn’t have to blog about personal stuff anymore.

But I’m over all that…it’s what fueled the birth of this blog.

Goals for Faith and Family Reviews

I’ll admit that in addition to wanting to do more reviews, I wanted to monetize my blog. Yes, I wanted to make MONEY. I’ve been working at home since 2005, but only making money from home since 2008. Our book business basically paid for itself and that was about it. When my husband was laid off in 2008, that jet propelled me into a working machine to earn money. I can’t say I am good at it but I am making some money and it helps pay the bills. The problem is it’s usually at the expense of time with family. Before all my children are grown and hate me for working so much, I want to work smarter, spend more time with my family and work less.

Blog Goals: Make money. Smarter with my time = More time with my family. Trips are extra perks.

Money Goals for 2012

One of my goals at the beginning of the year was to double my blog income. I think I’m half way there, at least some months. Now, I want to double what I am currently making.

I wanted to get a couple of ambassadorships. I have one, now to acquire another one.

I wanted to get more paid advertisers. I joined some ad networks, but only time will tell if those make a dent in my income or not. I’d like a couple of paid advertisers for my side bar once I clean it up a bit from old campaigns.

Goals for 2013

Establish some relationships with PR. It seems like I work more with blog networks than directly with PR.

Get my page rank up again, preferably by January 2013.

Create a blog “inner” circle where fellow bloggers and I bounce opps/ideas off of one another. Similar to what we do on the MomDot forum but on a smaller scale.

Possibly get into some consulting.

Defining Success

I know in some circles making money with my blog does make me a success, but to me success means something bigger. I want to make more money and work less. That means getting paid more for my time. Bigger jobs, more money, less time. I’d love to make enough to pay my contributors. That’s always been a goal of mine too.

Success to me has also been to be the best mother I can be. My children are part of the reason I work so hard. So if I can manage to raise my children to be good, God fearing, law abiding citizens, responsible and courteous, then I consider myself to be a success.

So how do you define success and if you are a blogger, what are your goals?

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Bloggers, Brands and PR

Posted by html404 on August 29, 2012
in Blog Stuff, Business

Thank You!

The Motherhood
Social Fabric
Mom Central
Kidorable
One2One Network
Revell Books
Litefuse

Many of you are blogging for a living or even part-time and know it’s a lot of work. It takes time to think of subjects to blog about, to craft the posts, to do SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and to promote the posts. Then there are the review opportunities which require time email reps or brands, to try, test and test again the product(s), take pictures, water mark photos, write down those thoughts and follow up with the reps or brands with links and final thanks. Same goes for event opportunities. This is how bloggers, brands and PR all work together to accomplish a common goal of marketing and getting either the company, brand or product and blogger exposure to a larger audience.

Without PR we bloggers wouldn’t have any of these opportunities. That’s why it is so important to say thanks and show our appreciation. I am a part of a blogging community that is really awesome. I have learned so much from the bloggers there. Not so long ago a group of them wanted to say thank you to the PR companies they have worked with, which you can view below. I missed out due to not getting anything ready in time, but for the purpose of this post, I just created the list above to give a shout out to a few of the PR people whom I have had the pleasure and privilege of working with.

You can read more about the bloggers featured above over at MomDot. All of their blogs are listed there.

Thank you PR peeps!

P.S. I have been meaning to post this and kept moving it for something else and I don’t know why when it was in drafts all ready to except for my shout outs and photo, which I still didn’t get to…

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Potatoes Are Ready! – Wordless Wednesday

Posted by html404 on August 29, 2012
in Business, Farm Stuff, Food and Treats, Gardening

Well, not just the potatoes are ready, we also have butternut squash, pumpkins, heirloom tomatoes, basil and mint ready too. The zucchini and summer squash have slowed down a lot and we still get an occasional cucumber if the children don’t eat it first.

Potatoes.

Pumpkins, butternut squash and zucchini.

Fresh, locally grown heirloom tomatoes.

Fresh, locally grown basil.

Mint.

The children set up a farm stand on Saturday and sold some fresh, local produce, along with organic lemonade (yep, we made it with organic cane sugar and organic lemon oil – from Costco…kind of defeats the purpose of buying local, eh?) While we may not have grown as much produce as we wanted, what we do have is yummy in our tummies! We even made pumpkin pie for Sunday’s potluck!

Lemonade stand.

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Catch Up Time With Motivation Monday on Tuesday

Posted by html404 on August 28, 2012
in Animals, Family Stuff, Farm Stuff, Monday Motivation

It’s been a while since I wrote a Motivation Monday post, so that’s why I titled this “Catch up Time With Motivation Monday” because it is time to catch up. So much for taking some time off from blogging this summer, this past month just seems to be so very busy. Not just for this blog, but also for my VA business. When it rains it pours, but it’s a blessing to be busy, to have work and to be healthy enough to work. It’s just stretching my time management skills that’s all. Ha!

Not to mention all the events and promotions we have coming up for our Young Living business and our fledgling farm.

More Farm News

My husband and I are still so impressed with the farmer we met on Sunday. True to his word, he sent over all the information he said he would yesterday morning. I have been working on a farm listing, called an insurance agent regarding farm insurance and have a date on the calendar to learn about chicken processing and to process our own turkeys. Oh and we now have upgraded housing for our laying hens – thanks to this new farmer friend! We have been deliberating over what we were going to do since our nesting box won’t fit in their moveable pens, which were just a short-term fix until they started laying. Our laying hens should start to lay soon so we have to pick up the larger moveable coop soon. Our moveable coops were/are for our broilers (meat chickens), which we now plan to do next year. So next year we will be able to do about 100 broilers at a time and do several batches of them, now that we have some networking happening. Funny to think that I am excited about raising chickens when I never thought we’d ever have any animals. Nevertheless, I do find it all very exciting.

Our Midget White turkeys are doing well. Not having raised them before we worry sometimes if they are gaining enough. Then other days when we go out there a couple of the plumper ones make our mouths water at the thought of roasted turkey! Yummy! That’s the difference between my husband and I, and our children – we look at our livestock as food, not pets.

Townhouse Update

All the cosmetic work is finally done on our townhouse. I am hoping to get some new photos and I’ll have to post some before and afters or something. We just loose ends to tie up and we have to finish cleaning out the garage and bring our second fridge and freezers over now that they are nearly empty. Now I have to start marketing it again or we’ll need to list it with an agent to see if we can sell it. Decisions, decision, decisions.

“In every deliberation, one must consider the impact on the seventh generation”
-Great Law of the Iroquois

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Chicago Chapter of Weston A. Price, Farm Tour and Potluck

Posted by html404 on August 26, 2012
in Animals, Business, Family Stuff, Farm Stuff

Today we are hosting our first farm tour and potluck since having animals. A few months ago the leader of Chicago’s Weston A. Price group contacted me after having found our Local Harvest listing. It’s been a little nerve wrecking this week since I have had my normal work load to deal with, that many of the things for the farm tour – cleaning the house, making a couple of dishes to pass, getting things to look half decent in the garden and yard, etc. have all had to wait until the weekend. The yard is a challenge since Padfoot is still chewing up boxes or whatever he can find and making a mess every time he’s bored!

We are really looking forward to meeting this new group of people and allowing them to see what we are doing to provide locally grown, healthy, GMO-free, non-chemical food. They are really interested in our farm and would like to promote it during the winter months, as we have offered them significant savings if they purchase a CSA share from us for the 2013 season. (CSA means Consumer Support Agriculture). Here’s to hoping the event goes off without a hitch!

We really want the farm to be self-sustaining, which simply means profitable enough to pay for itself. That’s our first goal. Our next goal is to make enough money for the children each to earn an income from it. Let’s just say lots of thinking has been going on lately as we brainstorm and try to see what businesses we can create as off shoots to poultry, eggs and veggies.

I’ll let you know how the farm tour and potluck goes a little later….

Update: We had about 13 people out for a session of “know your farmer, know your food”, in spite of the rain. Nice group of people. Met another local farmer whom we learned a lot from, so that was a huge connection as he has some great ideas and only 45 minutes away. AND he’s willing to try processing our turkeys for us, I say try because he’s only processed broilers/meat chickens, so we don’t have to make a 4-5 hour drive to the only processing plant in Illinois! We also have the opportunity to volunteer on his chicken processing day so we can see how it’s done (up close and personal) and help him out.

I was took busy talking to get photos of the actual potluck, so the one above is a fake. Our oldest son wants to know when the next potluck is because he liked all the food….HA! 😉

I’d say our day afternoon was a success.

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Signature Stamp

Posted by html404 on August 25, 2012
in Business, Reviews

As a business owner there are times when paper work gets piled high, whether that is filing, mail or flyers and contracts to signed and delivered. Sometimes I wish I had my own Virtual Assistant! Recently I found myself sending out a small mailing of about 100 letters (yes via snail mail, shocker I know). I signed each letter individually. Now I didn’t have to sign them individually, I chose to use my signature as a way to give the letter more of a personal touch instead of just running off 100 form letter copies and sending them. However, it took so much time I quickly regretted ever making the decision in the first place.

I can’t remember the timing between that business mailing and an opportunity from Stamps Done Right to review a signature stamp, but when it marched into sight I knew exactly what I wanted to do…Yes, I took full advantage of being offered an easier way to do any future mailings.

My Review of the Signature Stamp

Front

Back

Side

Top

The signature stamp works well. The name explains what it is and what it does. It gives a clean looking signature. The stamp itself is not overly bulky, I’ve seen larger, and does not jam when pressed down upon.

Signature Stamp – I know the watermark defeats the purpose, but we weren’t really comfortable putting my signature out there for the whole WWW (World Wide Web) to have access to, if you kwim?

The Signature Stamp retails for $30.99 but is only $23.49 at Stamps Done Right.

About Stamps Done Right

Stamps Done Right offers a full line of custom rubber stamps for all you home and office needs. For the professional look, try one of the many text stamps and embossers which can be customized according to your preference. Stampsdoneright.com has a large selection of self inking stamps and embossers. Keep your home or office organized and well run with our custom return address stamps, notary stamps and embosser, signature stamp and more.

Faith and Family Reviews received the following product in exchange for writing a review. While we consider it a privilege to receive products to review, our reviews are our honest opinion and thoughts of the product.

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Dying To Read

Posted by html404 on August 25, 2012
in Books, Reviews

Are you Dying To Read? Gotta love that book title, eh? Lorena McCourtney has started a new series called The Cate Kinkaid Files and Dying to Read is the first book. After reading it I am already looking forward to the others to come.

Dying to Read is a Christian mystery. The main character, Cate, is at a crossroads in her life after some of life’s most disappointing moments.

I found this book to be entertaining. Lorena definitely kept me guessing and eager to keep reading in order to solve the mystery surrounding Cate’s first assignment as her uncle’s Private Investigator Assistant. I never did solve the mystery and had an ah-ha moment when it was finally revealed.

Though Cate’s character didn’t seem to think very highly of herself. I found her to be strong, not easily swayed and possessed a very good work ethic.

I liked that this book only had a hint of romance. It wasn’t a gory mystery, not that I mind that kind of mystery, but just so you all know. It was mostly about Cate and how she went about trying to solve the mystery and the scrapes she encountered along the way. I can’t say there was anything I didn’t like about it, only that it ended too soon and I want the second book….now!

This was the first book I have read by Lorena McCourtney and Dying to Read made me want to read her other books. It was quite refreshing.

“Available August 2012 at your favorite bookseller from Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group.”

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GoPicnic Review & Giveaway

Posted by html404 on August 24, 2012
in All Natural Products, Food and Treats

GoPicnic is a company that sells all natural, mostly gluten free, pre-packeged meals for the whole family. They sent us out their Super Best Selling Meal Variety Pack to review.

Sunbutter + Crackers- This meal contains creamy sunflower spread, multi-grain crackers, seed and fruit trail mix, tropical fruit bites, and a double chocolate chip cookie. My kids loved everything inside this box. The butter was yummy and the sides were delicious.

Peanut Butter + Crackers- This meal was a huge hit with my little guys. They loved the peanut butter and crackers, the apple sauce, the cheddar bunny crackers, and the gummy airplanes.

Salami + Cheese- My older girls loved this box. It was the perfect size for them and they loved that everything was natural. It included beef salami slices, olive oil & sea salt cracker, Asiago cheese spread, fruit + nuts, and a chocolate cookie cruncher. They weren’t expecting the cheese to taste as creamy as it did. Everything in this box was a nice balance.

Tuna + Crackers- I was surprised that my kids actually really liked this box, usually they don’t like tuna, but they enjoyed the mix of applesauce, chocolate, seed crackers, taun spread, and the fruit & nut mix.

Turkey Stick & Crunch- Another huge hit was this box. It was sweet and spicy. A perfect mix of turkey sticks, Popchips, a double chocolate cookie, fruit & nuts, as well as tropical fruit bites.

A quick note- Not all of GoPicnic’s meals are gluten free. Therefore it is important to read the product packaging and labels because several meals contain gluten.

GoPicnic wanted to create affordable, yet healthy solutions for families or individuals who need to eat and run. We love the concept and will be purchasing their products in the future. They are great for traveling, school lunches, or even for work. With a variety of flavors and packs there is sure to be something that everyone in the family will love.

GoPicnic’s food receives a thumbs up from us! I love that everything is all natural and balanced. Everyone in the family loved the products and the idea is genius.