We have been having fun seeing all the different produce that our garden has yielded to us in the past few days, so I thought I would share with you some of what we have been seeing! (and eating! :))
Summer Squash…….
Cucumbers……..
A Orange Pumpkin………
Red Potatoes……
Broccoli…….
Zucchini……
Our bounty! Green beans, sweet corn, tomatoes and more!
I received the following product in exchange for writing a review. While I consider it a privilege to receive free products to review, my review is my honest opinion and thoughts of the product.
I received the Malorie Bracelet: I found this bracelet to be very comfortable and not able to slide off my wrist as other bracelets have. It is very pretty and I liked the fact that the attachment part to the jewelry on both sides did not fall off at ALL! 🙂 She made it very sturdy and is very pretty with blue and crystal beads. The blue was in all different shades which was very nice! 🙂 Here is her description of it: “This bracelet, almost identical to the Norah anklet, is made with turquoise seed beads, crackle glass beads and small pale blue beads. The beads are looped on silver eye pins and the bracelet closes with a darling rosebud toggle clasp.” I really liked this bracelet. And the other jewelry that she makes!
Some pictures of the product:
She has alot more product including some more of my favorites:
I encourage you to check out Forget Me Not Jewelry made by the lovely Miss Lydia Jane!
I received the following product in exchange for writing a review. While I consider it a privilege to receive free products to review, my review is my honest opinion and thoughts of the product.
The product that I received was:
Honeysuckle Shea Butter Soap: I like this soap as it had a really nice scent and I liked at how smooth it made my skin. It is $4.99 for a 4 oz. bar.
Mandarin Vanilla Shea Butter Soap: I think that this is my favorite scent out of all the soap. It smells so nice. It too makes my skin so soft. It is $4.99 for a 4 0z. bar.
Grapefruit Geranium Shea Butter Soap: This may say geranium but it is a more masculine scent I think that might be because of the grapefruit though! It was the most “sudsy” out of all the soaps that I received and it makes a really nice lather 🙂 It is a nice smell just not as feminine as some of their other scents. It is $4.99 for a 4 oz. bar.
Honeysuckle After Shower Moisture Spritz: This moisturizer was very nice and it is a nice way to get your tan to glow 🙂 It smells very flowery as well and is a pleasant way to get your lotion in if you don’t have any on hand and if you are traveling and forgot your lotion. It is $9.50 for a 8 oz. bottle.
Truest Rose Butter Creme: This lotion smell SO good it is hard to believe that it is all natural! The super rich Butter Creme’ Hand and Body Lotion it is made from Organic Macadamia Nut Oil, Shea Butter, and Extra Virgin Olive Oil. The lotion smells like fresh roses and made my skin so very, very soft. You don’t need to use alot to get soft hands though. I defiantly recommend this lotion. It is priced at $12.99 for a 8 oz. bottle.
Every product comes in 8 scents:
Tuscan Lavender
Truest Rose
Mandarin Vanilla
Winter Yuzu
Woodspice
Honeysuckle
Peaceful Patchouli
Grapefruit Geranium
I thought Blue Ridge Gypsy Studio had VERY nice packaging. It is a little hard to open though if you are like me and don’t like to “wreck” the packaging 🙂 The packaging is done in pretty paper with their logo than tied with ribbon. It is a nice touch to Blue Ridge Gypsy Studio’s superior soap! Also all of their Shea butter soaps are made the old-fashioned way and add lots of super moisturizing Shea butter to ensure your skin will be soft and smooth. And, they are organic which is a plus! 🙂
I encourage you to check out http://blueridgegypsy.com/! Also if you cannot use fragrances than they have another company with the same products just not the sweet fragrances. Here it is: Skin Free
Enjoy your day!
Last week’s Monday Motivation:
~ A friend I have known since 1988 is doing some great things to enjoy her four children and make lots of memories this summer. She has motivated and inspired me with the slow down of business to relax and enjoy my brood with some fun activities. Someone on our homeschool loop shared that area theaters are having $1.00 Wednesdays on certain movies, so the only two we were really interested in seeing were “Tooth Fairy” and “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs”. And guess what? They are playing the next two weeks. I should also include this in a Thrifty Thursday tip, eh? We did it and it was a wonderful time for us. I loved listening and watching our children laugh and enjoy themselves, as we had to sit in two different rows to fit us all! The older children thanked me several times, commenting on what a fun time they had. Brownie points for mom, eh?
~ Go to the little beach within walking distance of our house and just play.
~ Weeding, harvesting….We did a bit, but not near as much now that I am in the “turtle” phase of my pregnancy. Yes, I am very slow. My poor husband who is 6 ft tall has to slow his long pace to mine.
~ 36 week midwife appointment Went really well. I got my oral vitamin K. Baby felt and sounded good. Blood pressure is good. And we are getting things ready for our home birth and for baby’s arrival.”
~ Celebrate our 16th wedding anniversary! I wrote about this yesterday. But we had a really fun time going out to Olive Garden for soup, salad, an appetizer and raspberry lemonade. We even brought home dessert (Chocolate Strata cake – a three layer chocolate cake) to eat while we watched a couple of movies.)
This Week’s Motivation:
~ Surprise the children with a trip to the mini golf place we went to on Friday! I just want to get these things in before baby comes.
~ Go to the movies on Wednesday for “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs”.
~ Start going weekly to the midwife.
~ The older two girls have been asked to help at a farm dinner at one of the farms we have volunteered at, so we will not have our big girls for about three hours that evening. They haven’t been away since they helped at Grandma’s house, so I am sure they will enjoy it.
~ We have Men of Valor and Women of Virtue with our church.
~ The garden. We really need to plant a few fast growing plants that we started inside, just to see how they do compared to our direct planting in the spring. Things like lettuce….
“Choose your love and love your choice.” – Amish Proverb Suzanne Woods Fisher’s Mother
I read this on Friday and thought how appropriate to read this on our anniversary. Isn’t that what we do? We choose the love of our life and it is a choice to continue loving that person. This quote went right along with one of the two movies we watched Friday night after we went out to dinner and a round of mini golf, which by the way was a lot of fun! The 16th hole was so bad for me that I had 12 shots and set Robert under a pine tree to retrieve my golf ball! I had been winning up until that hole. Let’s blame mosquitoes and a pregnant woman’s need for the “ladies room” on my poor ending….hmmmm….
The movie that went along with the quote was, The Wager, starring Randy Travis and Candace Cameron Bure. Randy Travis plays an oscar nominated actor in the movie whose life quickly takes on a downward spiral due to circumstances and situations quite beyond his control. And the above quote would be a perfect quote for Randy and his wife in the movie.
This movie was about trials life throws our way. It is about the valleys we hit and our response to them and to God. It is also about the victory we have in Christ when He brings us through to the darkness and into the light at the end of those trials. No matter what we are going through, the Lord is there for us. He has a greater purpose for our lives than our finite minds can fathom.
We rated the movie 4 out of 5 stars. We really enjoyed it. I cried but my hormones are raging and any movie these days will cause the tears to flow!
My husband thought it was a good movie. He liked the fact that there was no nudity, no offensive language and it had a good positive message, and that the characters and their problems were realistic.
In a day when commitment/vows to one’s spouse is not always taken seriously and the divorce rate is 50%, it seems reasonable to do a little bit of reflection when anniversary time rolls around. Anyone married knows that marriage has its mountain tops and valleys, but what gets couples through those valleys? I think for Christians, the Lord Jesus Christ is the One who helps couples stick together. Secondly, both people in a marriage have to be completely committed to each other through good times and bad. Thirdly, couples have to have communication lines wide open so the little stuff doesn’t pile up and grow into big stuff that has had time to fester and grow.
In some ways it is amazing that we have been married as long as we have been, yet in other ways it seems like such a short time ago we were getting married in a small country church. We are thankful for the years we’ve had together and pray for many more to come.
I received the following product in exchange for writing a review. While I consider it a privilege to receive free products to review, my review is my honest opinion and thoughts of the product.
I received Tribe All Natural Hummus to review and having never tried hummus before was interested to see how it tasted. So when contacted by the PR person and sent my free hummus coupons, I decided to try the Tribe Classic and was pleasantly surprised at it’s taste! It had a nice smooth taste to it and all my children LOVED it! Even my 2 year old. It was delicious! We have gotten Tribe’s Hummus two more times since when I received it to review. It is wonderful with all natural chips. We love this hummus! Thanks Tribe!
Disclosure: This dinner event was sponsored by MyBlogSpark and I was provided with the dinner, gift card, product and information through MyBlogSpark. My thoughts and opinions are my own. The decision to even write this post was completely voluntary.
As I stated in my MyBlogSpark dinner post, I wanted to write a separate review of Wanchai Ferry entrees, so I am finally writing getting to it! Remember they pulled a PR stunt on us and revealed in our fortune cookie that our entrees were frozen dinners! The thing is they were simply delicious. Truly, we never suspected anything was amiss.
Sweet and Sour Chicken
Beef and Broccoli
We tried the Sweet & Sour Chicken, as well as the Beef & Broccoli. The vegetables in each of these entrees were crunchy and tasted very good. There were peppers, water chestnuts, carrots, corn, peas and broccoli. My husband isn’t here to run down the list, so I may have forgotten one or two veggies. The meat was tender and very yummy to our hungry taste buds. We loved the sauces too that each entree was saturated in. The only negative thing, as I mentioned in my Ben Pao post, was that my husband felt there wasn’t quite enough rice served with the entrees. From my understanding, the rice is included with the Wenchai Ferry entree.
We are looking forward to using our free entree coupons to try the rest of the entrees or the ones we already tried since the children have not tried either of them!
Again, we thank MyBlogSpark, Ben Pao and Wanchai Ferry for such a great dinner!
I have been using these two purses for a while now and really, really, like them! They look small but they hold alot! In the grey purse I have been putting my cell phone and other needed objects and I am using the black one for my keys etc, etc. The key ring with cell phone holder (pictured above) and coin purse are perfect to attach to the inside of five’s messenger bag. The key ring and coin purse features a five petal flower similar to five’s logo flower. The purses have a zipper closure.
These purses are from the new line made by a fair trade co-op in Cambodia, is made from recycled plastic mosquito netting, carefully washed and cleaned, originally used to protect livestock, safety netting, and brick layers used it as a sand sieve. They are recycled, Eco-Friendly and support needy people in Cambodia.
These purses are available from five ACCESSORIES. They are $15 for the black and $20 for the grey. For more info contact: info@fiveaccessories.com or call 312.504.3483.
I received the following product in exchange for writing a review. While I consider it a privilege to receive free products to review, my review is my honest opinion and thoughts of the product.
Cadoozles – Mechanical Pencils:  These pencils are fun, colorful and are nice to use. My husband and I have been using them to balance our checkbook. 🙂
Daisies Ball Point Pens : These fun pens have very cute designs and I like the way they write. My teenage daughter really likes them they would make a great gift for any fun loving woman.
Regal Roller – 2 sizes: These pens are REALLY nice for when you need a nice fine tip pen. I like these and so does my teenage daughter.
* 0.5mmMicro Point Needle
* 0.7mmFine Point Arrow
I really like all of the pens and pencils I got to review! My family and I have been having fun with them. I love the fun colors and designs on all of them and the Cadoozles mechanical pencils. The only thing is the green and yellow-orange ink are harder to see than the other colors, but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing especially if you journal or keep a diary! 
They are available at stores nation wide.
Here are just a few frugal living tips:
Have fun being frugal!
