Family Stuff | Faith and Family Reviews

Archive for Family Stuff

Mother’s Day 2013 Charity Gifts

Posted by Theresa Gould on May 17, 2013
in Family Stuff, Giving Back/Charity, Holidays, Parenting, Uncategorized

This is a paid post. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Our family enjoys giving when we can, which isn’t as often as we use to give. We feel it is an important aspect of our parenting and beliefs to give back. That is why giving charity gifts during the holidays has appealed to us. It helps us take the focus off ourselves and what we get onto others and what we can give. Usually the season of giving is Christmas for us. We never really thought about too many other holidays to be honest. Have you?

I know I wrote a little Mother’s Day 2013 Wordless Wednesday post the other day, but motherhood is a wonderful enough blessing (and challenge, I might add) that’s worth mentioning again. Most of us in North America are not as challenged as mothers in third world countries. We haven’t had to see our child struggle to survive because there isn’t enough food. Nor have we had to see our child battle health issues because there is no doctor available to help diagnose what is wrong with our child. We have access to health care, food, clean water and educational resources. Does that mean other mothers don’t care? No. It’s because these things are not readily available to them for their families. That’s why I wanted to share an idea I never even thought about – giving charity gifts in celebration of Mother’s Day 2013 to help other mothers provide these things to their families.

Unicef offers a variety of charity gifts to give back. Perhaps you have yet to send your mom a gift – you could send her your gift and tell her you also gave a gift in her honor for Mother’s Day. Or maybe you would like to send a gift of your own in celebration of your own motherhood to help other mothers in need.

For a glimpse of the charity gifts offered, here’s a list:

- Mother’s Day Measles Vaccine to protect 100 or 200 kids
- Mother’s Day Family Water Pack
- Maternal Health Kit
- School-in-a-box
- Therapeutic Food
- Pencils
- Story Books
- First Aid Kits
- Footballs
- Bicycle
and more…

You can check out all the Mothers Day 2013 giving opportunities at this link provided.

Share and Enjoy

{31 comments}

Mother’s Day 2013 – Wordless Wednesday

Posted by Theresa Gould on May 15, 2013
in Family Stuff, Food and Treats, Gift Ideas, Holidays, Home, Seasonal Stuff, Uncategorized, Wordless Wednesday

Mother’s Day 2013 saw me served with a delicious homemade breakfast in bed. (I was also served with a yummy meatloaf dinner the night before and a strawberry dessert Yahoo featured!)

The whipped cream is homemade from our own cream – yummylicious!

And I bought these for the purpose of having a Mother’s Day flowers photo….we ended up giving them to Grandma on her special day too….

How was your Mother’s Day? Were you given the royal treatment too?

Share and Enjoy

{38 comments}

Wallaby Organic Greek Yogurt

Posted by Theresa Gould on May 14, 2013
in All Natural Products, Family Stuff, Food and Treats, Health, Health and Nutrition, Organic, Reviews, Uncategorized

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.

Our family loves yogurt. We’ve even made it ourselves and plan to do it again once our garden is planted. So when a Wallaby Yogurt review opportunity presented itself I agreed to do it. We had tried Wallaby Yogurt before but had not tried their new Greek Yogurt.

Wallaby Organic Greek Yogurt is smooth, silky, creamy and yummy. If you don’t know the difference between regular yogurt and Greek yogurt it’s the thickness and texture, in my opinion. It stays on the spoon better for kids (and adults too!) Sometimes, but not always Greek yogurt has less sugar in it. It depends on the brand and of course the fruit flavor.

My hubby brought home blueberry because it’s one of my personal favorites. The yogurt and blueberries were in separate sections like so:

Then I mixed them together like this:

The only thing I didn’t like was the curve of the container made it hard to get all the blueberries out of the bottom. I actually used the end of my spoon to get as much as I could out and added to my yogurt. The more blueberries the better in my book. Spoken like a true Bluenoser (person from Nova Scotia ) I think one of those new inventions shown on the show Shark Tank called Spatty (and the larger one Spatty Daddy) would have come in handy to get all the blueberries out.

Otherwise the yogurt was delicious and definitely one we’d buy again.

Share and Enjoy

{33 comments}

Long Grove Chocolate Festival

Posted by Theresa Gould on May 7, 2013
in Blog Stuff, Family Stuff, Things to Do in Chicago, Travel

This past weekend I really flubbed up on a blog opp. I felt horrible, seriously, because in all honesty I was really looking forward to doing participating in the opportunity since it was for Chicago area bloggers. However, since I was already at the Long Grove Chocolate Festival I determined to make the best of a sad situation – I bought chocolate – of course.

Blondie and “B” were with me and we spent a little over an hour walking around the festival. Thankfully, we had arrived a little before opening time which enabled us to find parking very easily and we avoided massive crowds and lines during checkout. It definitely pays to be an early bird to popular Chicago events.

It was a beautiful day on Sunday for the Long Grove Chocolate Festival. We enjoyed stopping to smell all the tulips and daffodils in bloom. We rested on park benches and watched people. We visited a Christmas shop called, The Pear Tree Shoppe, the Scandinavian shop, the Irish shop, the Nifty Fifties shop as well as an antique store and others.

My girls were very pleased with our outing, especially when it came time to visit the Confectionary and buy chocolate! We treated ourselves to creamy chocolate fudge, a chocolate covered pretzel and a peanut butter cup with M&Ms on top. We treated those at home to a dozen apple cider donuts and chocolate coins.

All in all the girls thought we should get out more often as we absorbed warm sunshine and pleasant companions.

Share and Enjoy

{22 comments}

Home Depot – Free Kids Workshops

Posted by Brande on May 2, 2013
in Education, Family Stuff, Free Stuff, Fun Stuff, Kids Stuff, Kids Toys, Uncategorized

Looking for a fun and free activity for your kids!? Check out Home Depot’s FREE kids Workshops! The next workshop is focused on the upcoming movie “EPIC” and your child will be building an herb planter! It’s on May 4th! Home Depot also has 2 more upcoming workshop’s in June & July!

So far, my daughter built a bird feeder, here she is painting it.

She received her very own Home Depot apron, pin for her build, and a certificate! She is very proud of her accomplishments!

Head here or go to Home Depot’s site for more information!

Share and Enjoy

{46 comments}

Greenhouse Disaster – Wordless Wednesday

Posted by Theresa Gould on May 1, 2013
in Family Stuff, Farm Stuff, Gardening, Seasonal Stuff, Wordless Wednesday

This is what I call our greenhouse disaster. We had storms go through a couple of weeks ago and destroy our cheap greenhouse. I know even the large, well-made greenhouses on larger farms often get completely blown over in bad storms, but still it’s very disappointing to say the least because we also lost many of our transplants.

Share and Enjoy

{37 comments}

Cinco de Swap with Avocados from Mexico and $100 Gift Card Giveaway

Posted by Theresa Gould on April 26, 2013
in Blog Stuff, Family Stuff, Food and Treats, Fun Stuff, Giveaways, Health, Health and Nutrition, Recipes

“This sponsored post was made possible by The Motherhood and Avocados from Mexico. I have been compensated for my time and work on this campaign, however all opinions are 100% my own.”

Last Friday night four Chicago area bloggers gathered together to experience Cinco de Swap with Avocados from Mexico. We each made an avocado dish (or two) to pass and share. There was one blogger who had never tried avocados before. The majority of us were trying new recipes from avocado macaroni and cheese, avocado ice cream, guacamole and avocado fries. For some fabulous photos of the dishes served visit Frosted Fingers!

Did you know that avocados from Mexico are available all year round? I didn’t know this. I also didn’t know this when I chose a recipe for BLT sandwiches:

Fresh avocado in sandwiches, on toast or substituted as a spread in place of many other popular foods may help reduce your intake of calories, fat, saturated fat, sodium and cholesterol.

I also did not know that one ounce (3 slices) of an avocado has 50 calories and contributes nearly 20 vitamins and minerals, making it a good choice to help meet nutrient needs! I find that amazing.

However, I did know that avocados are full of good fats our bodies need. One of the reasons I would feed it to my little ones as babies – my older girls to this day love avocados. It makes for a very easy to prepare meal. Just wash it, cut it open, de-pit it and start spooning baby bites into baby’s (or your) mouth! Easy peasy! Our younger crew didn’t even notice the avocados on the avocado BLT turkey sandwiches.

Not very many in my family liked the avocado fries. I thought they tasted good, but liked Michelle’s (of Honestly and Truly) idea of serving them with a yummy dip.

Avocado Recipes

Here’s the link to the recipe that inspired our Avocado Fries. However, we did not fry them, we baked them and we used olive oil instead of canola oil. We also used regular bread crumbs seasoned with our own spices.

Our Avocado BLT Turkey Sandwich was inspired by this Turkey Avocado Bacon Sandwich recipe.

You can visit www.theamazingavocado.com for more recipes and nutritional
information.

Cinco de Swap with Avocados from Mexico and $100 Gift Card Giveaway

You all have a chance to win a $100 gift card! Just enter below.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Share and Enjoy

{197 comments}

Lowe’s Build & Grow – Free Activity for Kids!

Posted by Brande on April 25, 2013
in Education, Family Stuff, Free Stuff, Fun Stuff, Gardening, Handmade Items, Kids Stuff, Kids Toys, Uncategorized

I’m always on the hunt for free and fun activities for my family. Lowe’s has a fantastic program called Build and Grow. On my daughter’s first visit she received a Lowe’s apron, a hammer & protective goggles to borrow and her project. When she/we finished the project we returned the hammer and protective goggle and she was given a certificate and a patch for her apron! She loves the iron on patches that she earned and loves to show them off on her apron.

So, far we’ve built 2 monster trucks and a “Croods” the movie planter. Our next build is a sweetheart frame on May 11th.

Click here or head over to Lowes.com and search for Build & Grow to sign up at your nearest Lowe’s for the next free activity for kids!

Share and Enjoy

{33 comments}

Milking and Making Butter- Wordless Wednesday

Posted by Theresa Gould on April 24, 2013
in All Natural Products, Animals, Family Stuff, Farm Stuff, Food and Treats, Wordless Wednesday

This is our second oldest daughter milking. She’s our chief milker at the moment until we train the next one in line to milk. I have helped with milking but I think my nervousness unsettled Eclipse because she seemed jittery and moved a lot. Then again maybe I’m being paranoid and she was just antsy in her new home since I haven’t milked since the first week. Eclipse does seem to do better for our daughter, whom the cow loves I might add! Over the weekend, Eclipse watched the children go from one end of the property, down the tree line to the other end and mooed in their direction after our daughter went over with her younger siblings. Then when our daughter came back across the field, Eclipse followed her again by walking the fence line to greet her – if that isn’t affection, I don’t know what is!

Since Eclipse has been on pasture her cream (and milk) has been slowly increasing. Today the girls got 6 cups of cream from two gallons of milk and made two pounds of butter! The photos below are not all of the same day. The milk bottles are actually some of our very first. The butter photos are from today. All they do is put the cream in a pint or quart sized jar and shake it until it forms butter. The girls like to shake it until it forms a ball, which eliminates the need to shape the butter by hand! Pretty smart, eh?

Click on the image to make it larger and brighter.

It’s a fun milking and making butter! My husband is very happy not to have to stop for milk after work!

Happy not-so-Wordless Wednesday!

Share and Enjoy

{15 comments}

RIDEMAKERZ ~ BUILD YOUR RIDE

Posted by Professor on April 22, 2013
in Family Stuff, Fun Stuff, Gift Ideas, Kids Stuff, Kids Toys, Uncategorized

New from RIDEMARKERZ, it’s XTREME CUSTOMZ! Have a great time building and customizing XTREME Customz rides!

Watch them in ACTION!

Get ready to build and customize the toy car or “RIDE” of your dreams. Choose from a wide range of body styles (about the size of a cell phone) and interchangeable, snap-on parts to transform your RIDE from mild to wild. With so many choices, it’s easy to Mix. Match. Make it Your Own.

XTREME CUSTOMZ RIDEZ comes in two sizes:

1:48 scale ~ about the size of a cell phone
XL 1:18 scale ~ about the size of a football

All parts are interchangeable across 1:48 scale RIDE bodies. All XL 1:18 parts are interchangeable across 1:18 scale RIDE bodies, including RIDEMAKERZ Disney-Pixar Cars RIDEZ.

1:48 scale XTREME CUSTOMZ RIDEZ even have a 4-mode adjustable chassis so you can customize the way you cruise. Choose from Race, Lifted, Jacked, and Off-Road…all with the push of a button! 1:4

Our Party and Review:

We had a fabulous time at our XTREME CUSTOMZ RIDEZ party. All the boys had a blast! We received 10 BATMAN starter kits.

The boys had an exciting time outing the cars together and playing with them. We had races and even a style show where the boys showed their tricked out cars and what they could do! What fun!

Here are some of the boys just receiving their XTREME CUSTOMZ RIDEZ!

They could not wait to open them and enjoy building. Each child built the BATMAN car…some needed more help than others, but overall the build was not difficult. The instructions were very detailed and outlined exactly what to do.

Here is the PDF file of the instructions…Batman PDF… to see how easy and detailed the instructions were to follow.

I had plans to show a Batman cartoon to compliment our RIDEZ but the boys were too wrapped up in playing with the cars to even think of a cartoon! This was great to see them interacting rather than watching television!

Each boy got to go home with his own custom ride and wish list! ~ Our group of boys are partiers and the moms loved the wish list provided by RIDEMAKERZ … this will make birthday party gift giving easier among our group!

Overall, EVERYONE had a blast…boys and mom’s included! Thanks RIDEMAKERZ for making our party a HUGE hit!

You can learn more about XTREME CUSTOMZ by RISEMAKERS by visiting www.xtremecustomz.com

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