A Blog about motherhood. Featuring Review, Giveaways, and Great Deals!
Arby’s needs to raise $1 million dollars by the end of 2011 to help end childhood hunger. Here are three ways you can help right now:
1) Check in at Arby’s during the month of November using your smart phone and Foursquare and they will donate $1 to the Share Our Strength No Kid Hungry Campaign.
3) Donate in stores
We can all do our part and make sure no child goes hungry again!
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I was honored to have been invited to a wonderful charity event a few weeks ago hosted and run by Parkway Chevrolet in Tomball, TX. The event included music, food, the loudest Corvette contest, a public auction and a silent auction. It was held at the dealership and very elegantly and tastefully done!
Parkway Chevrolet, a family owned company of 32 years, has presented this event for 9 years. Every year they choose a different charity to be part of this fantastic event and to raise funds for. I really like that idea, to spread the “wealth” in a community, so to speak, so that a broader spectrum of people needing help can be reached.
This year, the charities represented were The Children’s Refuge and Urban Outreach.
The Children’s Refuge - I spoke with one of the members of The Refuge while at the event and was impressed with their cause. Among other things, they take youngsters – boys generally – who do not have fathers and grandfathers and let them explore the outdoors with the lessons of Christ behind them. They are a “non-profit organization engaged in providing deserving children with a quality outdoor adventure experience.”
Urban Outreach – They provide “life changing programs to at risk youth and vulnerable families in apartment complexes, schools and camps in the Greater Houston area.” Their vision is to provide faith based programs to help with lifestyle changes for these communities.
I, personally, was impressed with the charities Parkway Chevrolet chose to raise money for this year. And I was impressed with the event itself! It was well organized and a great “date night” activity for me and my husband!
My favorite part of the evening was the food, I won’t lie – catered in from some of Houston’s top restaurants, like PF Chang’s – but the highlight, I would say, was the Corvette Loudest Car contest! We did not have earplugs and probably should have but to see all of these custom Corvettes, proudly displayed and in mint condition, was fabulous! I think I still hear a few of them in my sleep!
If you or someone you know is a car nut, this event is right up their alley! 
I heard through the grapevine that The Texas Two Step (next year it will include the name Parkway in the title) raised around $100,000 this year. That is up from $40,000 last year. You know that they must be doing something right to have that kind of turnout of generous people!
Though done for this year, Parkway Chevrolet is always looking for sponsors and ideas to make next year’s even better! It is year 10, after all! Like their Facebook page so that you have front seat access to information for this event for 2012! With affordable tickets, amazing auction items – anyone want to take an African Safari? – and a relaxed atmosphere, it is the charity event you’ll want to go to next year!
We’ll be there!
**This post is not sponsored or compensated in any way. I wrote it because I truly loved the event!**
My 5 year old is on the verge of reading! Really reading! I am so excited for her because now she can open any book and read it to herself and get most of the words to the story through her sight words and thus the general idea of the book. Her world is about to open wide with colorful characters and fantastical places!
So when I got the new children’s book, Cooper and Me in the mail, I tucked it away until she got home so we could read it together.
Based on the real life relationship of the author’s daughter and her black lab dog, Cooper and Me is poised to help moms and dads everywhere help kids be less fearful of going to school. Wonderfully illustrated by 11 year old Alexa, the co-author with her mother Monique Peters, the book is bright and eye catching and holds a child’s attention over and over again!
The story of a girl, afraid of her first day of school, is relate-able and common for most families. A lot of children fear what might happen in the “unknown” and wonder if they’ll have a great time and make any friends. They often want to take a loved pet, or a favorite item to school with them!
Well, obviously, a black lab named Cooper can not go to school! So the little girl’s mother comes up with the perfect solution! A mini stuffed Cooper!
Watch children of any age, mine are 5, 4 and 2, engage with the little girl, fall in love with Cooper, and ask again and again to read it! It is a well written, fun and engaging book, and the perfect tool to help a child scared of a new situation!
And as a bonus, included with Cooper and Me is a fun CD with original songs about Cooper! My girls have not let me remove it from the CD player of the car! The CD even includes a narrative to the book! The book also comes with instructions on how to download the Cooper & Me theme song right from your computer!
But my favorite part of the Cooper and Me experience is that Alexa and her mother are giving part of the proceeds from each book sale to a wonderful charity! Petra Nemcova (Dancing With The Stars) has an amazing charity that helps sustain educational programs for children affected by natural disasters. Find out more about the Happy Hearts Fund here!
PURCHASE Cooper and Me at CooperandMe.com for only $12.99! Plus check out all of the other Cooper books and gear available too!
And thanks to the generous authors, 11 year old Alexa and her mother Monica Peters, I get to give one lucky winner a copy of the fun book! Just click [continue reading] for easy Rafflecopter entry! [Read more...]
HOUSTONIANS and Family:
Lace up your shoes, stretch those calf muscles and head down to the Energizer Night Race for a Brighter World, a supporter of 1 Million Lights!
The race will take place in Downtown Houston on 11/11/11 at 6:30pm CST and there is an after race BBQ at 10pm CST. You can get $11 off entry fees with discount code HOUSTON11 when you register!
Read More About the Race
Only once every hundred years will there be an opportunity to participate in a running event on 11/11/11. The Energizer Night Race for a Brighter World is hosting the U.S. leg of the global night race series in Houston at the Sam Houston Race Park on Friday, Nov. 11, 2011. Runners are invited to participate in the 11K run or the 1.1 mile family fun run. Registration is open at www.energizer.com/nightrace.
The races will begin at 6:30 p.m. and runners, volunteers and supporters are encouraged to stick around for a post-race BBQ, music and awards ceremony.
All participants will receive a commemorative 11-11-11 athletic t-shirt and an Energizer® LED headlight to be worn during the race. All finishers will receive a special prize and awards will be given in each age category for men and women and for overall top finishers. Total goody bag items are valued at approximately $45.
What: Energizer Night Race for a Brighter World - www.energizer.com/nightrace
When: Nov. 11, 2011 (11/11/11) - Races begin at 6:30pm – Post-race BBQ until 10pm
Where: Sam Houston Race Park - Houston, Texas
Distances: Choice of 11k or 1.1 mile fun run
Cost: Rolling fee schedule, see www.energizer.com/nightrace for details
WHY You Want to Run?
More than 1.6 billion people worldwide lack access to electricity and depend on costly and health-hazardous kerosene lamps.1 Many spend up to half of their income on the kerosene, even though it provides inadequate illumination.2 Kerosene is also responsible for 1.5 million deaths from burns and respiratory illnesses annually3 – 62 percent of which are children.4 Further, each kerosene lamp emits more than 100kg of carbon every year, adding up to 190 million tons of global carbon emissions annually.5
As part of its new global platform—now that’s positivenergy™—Energizer is pledging to donate 11 million hours of light in 2011 to rural communities in need around the world.
Eleven countries will be hosting races in 2011, with Houston serving as the U.S. kick off.
WHO Will You Be Racing For?
The goal of the race series is to raise awareness of the need for safe, clean, affordable lighting for people around the world living without electricity. The Energizer Night Race for a Brighter World is more than a race; it’s an opportunity to make a positive impact around the world. In honor of all the runners around the globe participating in the night race series, Energizer will donate 11 million hours of solar light to its charity partner, One Million Lights, an organization dedicated to ending the world’s dependence on kerosene and replacing it with safe lighting.
As participants race through the darkness with only the light of a headlight to guide them, they’ll get to experience what families around the world without electricity face every evening as they try to complete their daily tasks in the dark.
The Energizer Night Race for a Brighter World is the first global initiative of the new Energizer platform, now that’s positivenergy™, which combines performance plus responsibility and demonstrates Energizer’s long-standing commitment to responsible power and serving the community.
To Register & For More Information
To register for the Houston night race, visit www.energizer.com/nightrace. For more information on the global initiative, go to www.energizerglobalnightrace.
October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Susan G. Komen is sending out FREE inspiration kits is preparation for the 2012 walk. Whether you or a family member has been affected with breast cancer, the walk is a fun event that the whole family can enjoy.
Right now, you can get your FREE Inspirational Kit just by signing up for one. They will be mailed in January!
Thank you WomenGetItFree.com!
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As a Dove Insider, I get emails telling me about great things happening over at Dove. Between October 21-23, 2011, Self Esteem Weekend kicks off and Dove asks that you choose a task and help them reach 15 Million girls with self esteem activities by 2015! Just choose an activity and make it a point to do it that weekend with some girls.
While on the insider site, choose to print a $1.25 Off Dove products coupon!
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P&G wants you to win one of four $2,500 Visa Gift Cards to be used towards a spa day with your friends! There are two ways to enter the contest, and you can do both, raising your shot at winning!
1) Simply enter the sweepstakes
2) Create a GIVE Hope Badge on the P&G Facebook Page. For every basge created, P&G will donate .25 cents to the National Center for Breast Cancer Research! It is super easy to create a badge and you can even do it in honor of someone you know! I just created it an clicked “Make my Profile Picture”. And now it is on my page. So easy!
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Evan Moss is a real life Hero! But if you vote for him to win $10,000 from People magazine to help him aide in the purchase of seizure dogs for kids that can not afford them, you can make him a ‘Reader’s Choice Hero”!
After reading about Evan Moss, the remarkable 7 year old who wrote and illustrated the amazing book, “My Seizure Dog“, I was near tears. At 7, he raised enough money for his own $13,000 dog who can not only be with him when he seizes, but can alert others prior to a seizure happening. His dog is being trained now! When he was done with that, he helped raise enough money for three more families to get aide in purchasing and training their dogs as well.
And now, with the win of the $10,000 prize from People, he can continue his efforts to make every child who suffers from seizures not only have a constant companion, but a life saving one, and a best friend.
Please, I beg of you, vote for Evan Moss to WIN the People’s Magazine ‘Reader’s Choice Hero’.
And if you want to help further, Evan’s book, My Seizure Dog
Evan wrote and illustrated his book as a way to share a little about his journey to the seicure dog committee. He and his family thought is great enough to publish in order to afford the dogs. Evan published his book through the CreateSafe Self Publishing platform.
Thank you in advance for sharing, retweeting, stumbling and any other form of getting this out there!
From now until December 31, 2011, Yoplait Yogurts will donate .10 cents per pink lid mailed into their headquarters or entered on Yoplait.com to Susan G. Komen’s Race for the CurZ. They will donate up to $2 million dollars.
Entering the information on the website is easy and since Yoplait has so many wonderful flavors, your bound to find a lot that have pink lids that you like!
Be sure to print this $1/10 Yoplait Yogurt to save when you pick up your pink lids!
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**There are affiliate links in this post. Please see my Disclaimers page for more info.**
Do you like to save money AND have a great chance at winning some amazing prizes? Well I do and I have found that entering contests to win great prizes is an easy way to get what I want without spending a dime. What if you could be part of something bigger? What if you could help make a change? What if by entering this contest and telling others about it you helped the very people that help you everyday. I believe in America. I believe that every American has the power to do more and be more. It is with this belief that a group of bloggers have banned together to help Americans who have fought and returned to America to find that they are in a worse position then when they went to war. It is our duty and responsibility as citizens to help those in need. You can do something good and win $100 at the same time.
Here is Troy’s mission:
SPC Troy Yocum backed by a team is taking on the challenge of raising the needed $5 million by hiking 7000 miles across America while drumming. The journey will take 16 months passing through 31 states and 38 large cities. Troy will have to average over 20 miles a day while enduring each season. The idea for the hike has been evolving since Troy joined the Army in 2001 but it is now when our economy is struggling and military families are in most need that he will put one foot in front of another.
Here is are mission to raise funds and to raise awareness for the military families who deserve our support! You can help by getting on the twitter train.
The prize is $100 CASH
I have reviewed flipflop Wines and their amazing myriad of quality wines at very reasonable prices before. And I have loved every single one I have tried. I still purchase them to this day.
And I love when I get to try new ones!
The latest – has my taste buds dancing – bottle was the multi- award winning Moscato. A light and fragrant wine, teetering on the slightly sweeter side, the Moscato is easy to drink and the perfect wine with a delicate salad. Or a nice sushi dish. I even enjoyed a glass with my favorite fruit and cream dessert. Anything cool and refreshing pairs with this wine perfectly.
In 2010, at no surprise to me, flipflop Wines Moscato was awarded the Double Gold prize at the San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition, the largest. most influential wine competition in the America. That is an amazing award and to be given to a wine that is also easy on the pocketbook is a real feat. In addition, Wine Enthusiast Magazine gave flipflops Moscato the coveted “Best Buy” honor in the June 2010 issue. 
With so many accolades and awards, you would think that a bottle of flipflop Wines would be at the top of the price range. In fact, most of their products are under $10 a bottle. Most are around $7.00.
And the other thing I LOVE about flipflop Wines is their dedication to Soles for Souls, an international charity that gives needy children shoes. And if you are a blogger, you can take part in the flippin’ good deeds challenge and win a trip to one of flipflop Wines international distribution locations!
So next time you are at the store pick up flipflop Wines and know that with every bottle, you are helping kids get shoes!
**I received the products discussed for review purposes. ADayinMotherhood.com is the writer and distributor of this review. 100% of the opinions and writings are ADayinMotherhood.com’sand can not be duplicated without prior permission. Images and links were used with permission from the marketing company.**
Chili’s is making Monday, September 26, 2011, The Big Day! 100% of their net proceeds will go to St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital! That is AMAZING!
Join the Chili’s Coupon Club now and get your Free Chips and Queso coupon to take with you, eat and donate to a fantastic cause! Make Monday your day to eat out and know you are doing it for the kids!
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**There are affiliate links in this post. Please see my Disclaimers page for more info.**
I have three daughters. The first two are 14 months apart, the second and third are 20 months apart. I had a tiny babies, sleep deprivation, and very little help during the most frustrating times of new motherhood. There were weeks on end where my daughters would cry, hours and hours a day, and there was very little I could do about it.
I remember sitting in my rocker, night after night, shifting my baby girls from position to position, walking with them outside, driving them in the car and so on… just to try to calm them. Eventually, I would just sit and cry with them until we both fell asleep, only to repeat the process again the next day.
I now know that the Period of Purple Crying, the time between about 2 weeks and 4 months old when babies cry for no apparent reason for hours on end, is just a normal phase in life. Unfortunately, it also coincides with a new mother’s deepest exhaustion, greatest stress in doing everything right, and post pardem emotions and possibly depression.
And when you add a desperate, tired, frustrated parent and an inconsolable little baby, bad things can happen. Like Shaken Baby Syndrome. We all know how catastrophic is can be to shake a newborn baby, even just a little. And anything we can do, as mothers, daughters, and a society to educate and remind parents – mothers AND fathers – about the dangers of Shaken Baby Syndrome, is a cause I want to be on board for.
The organization, Click For Babies is amazing! All they ask is that knitters across North America knit or crochet PURPLE baby hats in baby soft yarns and donate them to a participating hospital to be given to babies in November. The objective is to have every baby leave a hospital with one and that a tired, frustrated parent is reminded during the Purple period to walk away if they have to and leave the baby in a swing or a safe crib, as opposed to shaking them.
Here are the details of the Call for Knitters:
Knit or crochet from 5 to 50 purple baby caps using soft baby friendly yarn and send them to the closest participating hospital or the National Centre in Utah. The aim is to have a hat for every baby born in November at participating hospitals.
By knitting and sending PURPLE newborn baby caps to be given to babies across North America including hospitals in North Carolina, Seattle, Iowa, Kansas, Maine and Ontario, you will make a difference by:
You can join the Facebook page, follow them on Twitter or find hat patterns and photos at the Click for Babies website for more details. To find the hospital closest to you, visit http://clickforbabies.org/ and select “Knit”.
Now, I can not knit. And I do not have time to learn between now and November. But I can donate! But instead of donating on the Click for Babies site, I thought I would send out a challenge to my readers.
The reader that knits the most hats for this campaign and donates by mail or taking them in to their local hospital will get $15 Paypal cash $30 PAYPAL cash from me and Kim at RainyDayPennies.com to help reimburse for materials! I can remember that period in my infants lives so well and believe so strongly that we can stop Shaken Baby Syndrome with awareness and education that I will pay for $15 worth of yarn for these hats!
Thank you to Kim with RainyDayPennies.com who saw this post and sent me a message that she wanted to match my Paypal Cash Payment to the one who knits the most hats! What an amazing thing to do!
All you have to do is knit between 5 and 50 hats, take them to a local participating hospital and then send me a picture via comment or email at lomargie at gmail dot com. The reader who does the most will get the $15 on October 30th, 2011!
So click those needles together, spread this message around and let’s start obliterating Shaken Baby Syndrome!
**Paypal cash rules: ONE reader will be chosen to receive the cash. NO CHEATING will be tolerated. If I think the photo submitted is altered or manufactured in any way, the reimbursement will not be issued. The photo should be sent with a note about how many hats and where you donated them. If no one claims the $15, it will be donated to the Click For Babies campaign. I am trying to help babies here… please be respectful of that.**
Now through September 20, 2011, HEB is collecting books at all of its Texas locations in an attempt to donate 1 Million books to kids in need.
The Read 3 program challenges all of us to read to our kids at least 3 times a week. But in a needy household, there may be no books to read. So please, gather together your gently used or new books and take a moment to drive them to your local HEB. And during Read 3, you will have a shot at free books with HEB’s Meal Deals and Combo Loco’s as well!
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Head over to Shop At Home’s Facebook page and leave a comment as to which charity you think should get a donation, and ShopAtHome.com will donate $10,000 to those charities.
It is the least we can do.
I was searching around the internet the other day and stumbled upon this!
Fun for us… definately a need for them!
Kellogg’s wants to see pictures or read descriptions of your breakfast! For every photo or description added to ShareYourBreakfast.com or texted to 21534, Kellogg’s will help feed a child.
Their goal is to feed 1 Million Children before the start of the 2011 – 2012 school year!
I know, we are on a deadline!
These kids need us!
Thank you!
LORI PACE - Author
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