This is late notice since it ends tonight!
Makobi Scribe is bringing you this Amazon Instagram blast where one lucky reader will win a $100 Amazon gift card. The giveaway is open to everyone and provided by Makobi Scribe. Good Luck! If you are a blogger, you can sign up for this blast here.
You may have noticed a new name on yesterday’s movie review of God’s Not Dead . Rosemarie Pagano. She is our newest contributing writer! Rosemarie is not another reviewer, as her posts will be focused on encouragement, faith and any other topics that appeal to her. She is volunteering her help in exchange for a writing platform.
B and Rosemarie the day we brought our goats home!
Rosemarie is a family friend whom we met nearly a year ago through our farm’s vegetable CSA (Consumer Supported Agriculture). She lives in the northwest suburbs of Chicago with her husband, who is originally from Italy, and two dogs. Rosemarie and her husband both enjoy cooking.
Rosemarie is a freelance writer working on her first novel. She is an avid reader and has a servant’s heart! She has blessed us with not only her friendship but her service from bringing a meal during haying season, special Italian breakfast rolls (hot chocolate and fruit too) on Christmas day or to helping us bring B’s goats home.
We are blessed to know Rosemarie and now privileged to have her use her gift of writing here at Faith and Family Reviews! Please make her feel welcome!
I have actually lacked motivation lately, thus the infrequent posting, that and the fact I have been extremely tired. Nope not pregnant, just lacking sleep! My brain doesn’t function well with little sleep. The two paper routes are killing me but I said I would give it two months and I still have a couple weeks left. Plus, it has been a long winter making the driving time so much longer than it should be.
This past weekend was extremely busy for us with Liberty Day (I was solo with the younger four) and a CSA (Consumer Supported Agriculture) Expo for our farm. I have follow up to do from the expo, plus our farm newsletter. We have to pick up 120 meat chicks and 150 young laying hens on Thursday or I should say my husband and son will be doing that task. Friday we are picking up a pair of White Chinese geese that were given to us, plus our children have piano here at our home. Saturday we have a green market for the farm….let’s just say it’s farm week!
In addition to the farm stuff, I have blogging stuff due and overdue, plus I want to start getting ahead on blog posts in preparation for spring planting, etc. I get tired and overwhelmed just thinking about it all. Ever feel that way?
What’s motivating you this week?
This is a sponsored post. I am a Kmart blogger, though all opinions are my own.
You’ll have fun watching this mash-up of customers doing the Kmart Layaway Dance! Dare we say it’s the latest dance craze? I know it caught my sons’ attention as they headed to bed! If you’re wondering what it is about Kmart Layaway that makes people spontaneously breakout in catchy dance moves, you should probably keep reading this. At Kmart, Layaway doesn’t start and end with the holidays. You can use Kmart Layaway all year round for celebrations such as birthdays, re-decorating or baby gifts. In addition, Kmart Layaway is available online and in stores. It’s simple: pick out the times you want, start with a down payment, make payments every two weeks (online or in store) and take your items home with you after your final payment (cue: Layaway dance)! Pro tip: Remember to give yourself plenty of time before you need the item, most Layaway contracts last about 8 weeks, so planning ahead is key! Plus, Shop Your Way Members get points on every Layaway purchase and exclusive Layaway offers.
Have an item in mind you’d like to put on Layaway? You know it’s about that time to start thinking grills and patio furniture! Get ready to practice your dance moves because you’re going to want to break out in a Layaway dance too! http://bit.ly/1hqSlD8
This post is taking the place of my Motivation Monday post.
I am a ZonePerfect blogger and part of the requirement is to write a post and in exchange I receive ZonePerfect bars! Yum! We got a box of 28 bars and thoroughly enjoyed them!
The first assignment is a challenge:
Challenge #1: Post a blog article detailing 3–5 New Year’s resolutions and include a letter to your future self that encourages you to stay on track or get back on track.
You all know I don’t make resolutions so here is my “loose” list of goals for 2014:
1. Increase our income. (I *think* God is well on His way to answering this prayer…need a bit more time to be sure.)
2. Nutrition. Eat and grow more vegetables to we can freeze and can our winter supply.
3. Take our children on more field trips.
4. Get more organized as a whole family – mostly the house as it is an ongoing battle, that and getting the children to stay on task.
Dear Self,
Just wanted to remind you of a couple of things to assist you in accomplishing your 2014 new year’s resolutions or “goals”. You have to be focused and keep your “hand to the plow” so to speak. There are going to be times when you don’t think you are moving forward but realize you are, no matter how small the step. History has proved that. Remember when you moved to the farm nearly three years ago?
Count your blessings amidst your successes and failures.
Work hard, play with your children and set aside time each day to organize something together as a family.
Your goals are not unattainable, which is good because it will make the journey to fulfilling them much easier.
Press on,
Your “Past” Self
Can’t believe I have been consistent for 13 weeks for the Saturday Top Five Laughs! Woo hoo! Once more we have joined The Mommyhood Chronicles in the Saturday Top Five Laughs of the week.
5. Last week I went out to lunch with my “farm” buddies – other women farmers and farmerwannabees – and my friend, who also has cows (beef and a Jersey) shared with me that conventional farmers do not allow their cows to go the bathroom during milking. Now I could be wrong, but I swear the cows at the farm we grew up going to and buying milk from went to the bathroom during milking. Nova Scotia friend Elaine, are you reading? What does the N farm do? Anyhooo…Miss Moo going potty has been an issue for us. So C told me to hold a bucket under Miss Moo’s tail when she went to go. B did this ONCE and Miss Moo has stopped going to the bathroom during milking. Miss Moo knew what she was doing was wrong and was taking advantage of us beginners! I am still shaking my head at that. My pregnancy and sensitivity to smells stopped me from continuing to milk Miss Moo, but so did her bathroom tricks. I think I’ll have to pick up milking again…if Miss Moo will let me. She would not let anyone milk her one evening when B and my husband went to a farmers market. She waited for B to come home! She’s definitely B’s cow.
4. Our three year old ‘s drawing of a snowman from a gift card envelope. 
3. Jr. and my husband – snuggle buddies and partners in mischief – these two definitely love each other!
2. I bought a new garbage can to store animal feed in and this is what the little boys did with it before it got taken down to the barn….why buy toys, right? Then I had to take it from them because they started to do stupid stuff. What my husband likes to blame on the “S” gene (for stupid gene).
1. We still have our Christmas tree up. Yep, we do. I bet it stays up until the end of January.
Most people can use a bit of extra cash after the Christmas season or any time really, right? Five fellow bloggers and I have joined together to offer a $100 Visa Gift Card giveaway. Not only can you buy groceries or gas but it could be used for gifts too. A great way to get a head start on 2014 Christmas gifts. I’ve bought one small gift so far for each of our children. Even if I buy one thing per child per month, I will be that much farther ahead than I was last year. Here’s to better planning this year! Do I hear a “hear hear!”?
The giveaway will run from Tuesday, January 21, 2014 to Tuesday, February 4, 2014 at 11:59 EST. So be sure to come back and enter tomorrow!!
An actual Visa gift card will be mailed to a winner. This is not an e-gift card.
Thanks to Katy over at MovingThroughLife.com for organizing and coordinating this giveaway.
What would you use the gift card for?
I took some time off over Christmas so I broke my straight run of posts for the Saturday Top Laughs but I enjoyed the time off! And now it’s time to laugh with the Goulds again! Once more we have joined The Mommyhood Chronicles for Week #10 – for us – in the Saturday Top Five Laughs of the week.
6. My husband was messing with the garbage cans at the end of the driveway on garbage day, when our three year old saw him from our front window he started calling, “Daddy!” Then it changed to, “Robert!” which came out more like “obert”. I proceeded to ask him what my name was and he goes, “eesa”. It was cute and now he hasn’t called us by our names since. Recently I taught him our real names but it was like one time so I was surprised that he remembered our real names, then again he does hear us calling each other by our real names.
5. Robert celebrated his birthday recently and the girls made him two birthday desserts but only one was ready to eat in time. He said the next morning he had a bad dream (I call it a birthday nightmare) that mice came and ate his chocolate chip cheesecake during the night. He woke up with relief to find out the cheesecakes were just fine. 
4. Kittens climbing across Miss Moo’s back.
3. Kittens sitting under Miss Moo’s udder to catch the drips of milk in the morning.
2. Padfoot, our goofy Newfie, jumping to catch snowflakes!
1. Our children started calling my husband “Vader” after watching Star Wars over the Christmas break. Our 14 year old daughter, B, discovered “Vader” is the alternate spelling of the Dutch word “Vater” meaning father. Darth Vader means “dark father”. B and O even decorated their dad’s birthday dessert accordingly. B’s been calling me “Mater”, latin for mother.
That’s as good as it gets this week. How about you, what laughs have you started 2014 with? Or what nicknames do your children come up with for you and your husband?
Remember the review I did of a local farm’s wool dryer balls? Well, I have an extra set I was going to donate to a charity auction but it fell through so I thought I’d offer you all a chance to win the set. They are Christmas colors though, just so you know.
Oh and I must add, I am still not sure if we have completely eliminated the static or if the dryer balls are missing some of our loads. Still working on figuring it out. Other than that we do still really like them!
And I fixed the tweet in the Rafflecopter! Sorry about that!
Wool Dryer Balls Giveaway
That time of week again – to laugh with the Goulds again! We have joined The Mommyhood Chronicles for Week #9 – for us – in the Saturday Top Five Laughs of the week.
5. The children brought me a dozen eggs telling me they were bad. We just got them from a friend’s farm last week so I knew they weren’t bad. Come to find out when we picked up more eggs they are a cross between Easter egg layers and brown layers so the color of the eggs is really unusual as you can see from the photo below. They kind of do look “sick”.
4. Not all of our children have stockings and I have been eyeballing the stockings at Pottery Barn (eeks, I know) but I want them to have something nice that will last. Plus it’s something they will use or pass on to their own children once they leave home. Thanks to my paper route tips, I can actually afford to treat the children. Well, I was telling my husband that because the stockings were half off I went ahead with the “mammogramming”……my husband goes, “Mammogram, isn’t that like for a breast exam?” I paused and thought about it and then burst out laughing at my own mistake….it’s monogramming….wonder where our Amelia Bedilia gets it from! lol! :0 I’m serious, if you could see me I would be blushing right now. I also said, “Guess, I made the Saturday Top Five Laughs, this week.”
3. One morning B went out to milk Miss Moo and discovered her stall open and Miss Moo gone. Eeek!? Guess where B found her? She was just outside eating from the hay wall my husband built to keep the barn warmer. The barn is older and the lower level is pretty much all open as the old doors must have rusted off and since we are renting it isn’t like we want to put a bunch of money into improving something we could leave. Thankfully Miss Moo was a good girl and stayed at home. Good thing we have food to keep her here! I hate to think what would have happened had she ventured off……argh. I wish we had a picture of that too because B said she was just standing there chewing her cud and looked a Rebecca as if to say, “What are you doing silly?” Like B was the one doing something out of the norm!
2. Our three year old has this funny little habit of saying, “Me go pee on my potty” when he’s asked for something and we say no. It’s like his going pee on the potty gives him license to ANYTHING he wants. I think the praise of going on the potty got crossed in his brain somehow.
1. Our three year old grabbed my husband’s phone while in my husband’s lap and said, “Me want to text you.” It just cracks me up. Of course it was mostly jibberish, the word “school” was my husband’s doing obviously.
