Burt's Bees Winner & CHEAP SKATE! Cut Back!

Random.org picked #49 as the winner of my Burt's Bees Giveaway. CONGRATS TO TRACIE at FROM THE HEART who will receive this Burt's Bees Head to Toe Starter kit.

Tracie is an AMAZING woman. She and her husband John returned a short while ago from Ukraine with their 2 newest children-Emma & Aiden. Miracles children that would have been institutionalized had John and Trac not stepped in.

In my eyes, selfless & giving. The TRUE hands and feet of Jesus! Congrats TRACIE! Email me with you address and I will mail this out ASAP! I like nice things but I am a CHEAP SKATE. WHY? Because I know you can find cool stuff out there that you don't have to pay an arm and leg for.

My Mother's Day Chaise Lounge needed some company so for my birthday The Captain let me pick out some accessories.

I got this simple lamp at Target for $12.99. Queen sign $3-Gordman's a while ago. I like being Queen of one corner of the house since THE KIDS RULE THE REST LOL!I like it because there are 2 lights and they can be turned on separately and I can bend the reading light however I want-I love it so far!

The next thing I needed was a table. I was getting discouraged and unable to find one for under $100 that I liked. THEN, at the end of the aisle "hidden" was this beauty for $39.98.Isn't it adorable? My MIL gave me the flower arrangement for my b-day and it goes great there. Plenty of room for the stacks of books and Bible studies I have! I think the "Queen's Corner" as I like to call it LOL has turned out fantastic!

I sit here every night and do a lot of reading and praying-I LOVE MY SPACE!

I have decided to cut back on blogging. We are SO busy here on the farm this month and next. I just can't keep up with posting and commenting-sorry.

We are doing swimming lessons, library time & have Bible school soon. Our Month of August is BOOKED!

We are going to Sturgis on our Harley for a few days with friends and taking our family vacation to Florida at the end of August and I am organizing for our homeschool to start back up after Labor Day!

Plus, it's summer..... Time to spend outside, with the children, at the pool and beach enjoying God's goodness, not stuck at my computer!

Time to relax and enjoy simple but beautiful moments like this......I will be back in September a FULL FORCE RESTED BLOGGER and try to post every now and again until then! You can email me at any time if you need me!

UPS delivers fireworks...GIVEAWAY!!!

OKAY, he really didn't deliver fireworks but when the 4 littles jumped on this giant bubble wrap, my head started throbbing and it sounded like fireworks!I've kind of got a sinus infection funk, fever going on and have now completely lost my voice..YES the kids are thrilled. "WHAT, WE CAN'T HEAR YOU MOMMY?"What was wrapped in the bubble wrap you ask......I got a phone call a couple weeks ago from NY, NY.
It was a lady telling me that out of thousands of entries-I was one of 25 runners up in SELF Magazines "WOMEN DOING GOOD" Contest!

The 25 runner-up entries may also be featured as “Women Doing Good” on BurtsBees.com and SELFConnected.com from the month of June 2009 to June 2010. What A GREAT WAY to get our message out! God is awesome about opening the doors of opportunity to get our cause "out there."

I didn't even know I entered. WHY? My sweet cousin Beth, entered me.

She is such a huge lover of our family, our children and our cause for adoption & Drug Endangered Children.This is what I got... A gift basket with 13 FABULOUS ITEMS From Burt's Bees! Burt's chose the 25 runners up! My favorites are these: I CAN'T WAIT TO TRY THEM!

I CANNOT WAIT to see what Miracle the Miracle Salve performs on me, how the Ageless Skin Firming Night Creme will firm me up and how the ROYAL JELLY Eye creme will decrease my creases!
The Captain will be thrilled with this Poison Ivy Soap.Since I won, I thought YOU SHOULD TOO! I will be giving away a Burt's Bees gift set (NO, NOT MINE) to one of you beautiful people!

All you have to do is leave a comment and if you are a follower, leave a second comment telling me so!

Winner of PAY IT FORWARD!

Congrats to Tina at REALITY CHECK!

You won the PAY IT FORWARD GIVEAWAY!

We did a VERY TECHNICAL-"name in the hat process" and MY MY picked YOU!The first think you won is Arbonne Sea Salt Scrub-THIS STUFF IS LIKE BUTTER! Use this to scrub your bod and it saves you a step..WHY? You don't need lotion after you use it...EVEN IN THE WINTER!! LOVE IT! #2- 1 lb of GOBENA ETHIOPIAN COFFEE-Drink this coffee-feed an orphan.

It's A WIN WIN!-Email me with your address and I'll mail it out sister!

Speaking of coffee-we've got A LOT BREWING in our house-pray for us!

AND DON'T FORGET TO DO THE PAY IT FORWARD GIVEAWAY ON YOUR BLOG!

I now have 101 followers so I think I need to do a giveaway for that.

STAY TUNED!

GIVEAWAY...ends tomorrow!

Don't forget about my GIVEAWAY! It ends tomorrow at 11pm! All you have to do is leave a comment CLICK HERE to enter.

I am GIVING AWAY 2 of my favorite things!

I can't wait for one of you to win them!

PAY IT FORWARD & AWARDS-check it out!

Hey ALL! Happy Thursday! A while ago I won this darling stuff at the PAY IT FORWARD GIVEAWAY at my friend KELLY'S BLOG-Close to Home!


As part of my winning her Pay It Forward, I agreed to hold my own Pay It Forward Give-Away. So there is no time like now to have it. The rules are as follows...

1. leave me a comment (bc WHO does not enjoy some comment love?) for ONE entry

2. link back to my give-away post on your own blog for a SECOND entry (but be sure to tell me you did so)

3. if you are a follower (or become a follower) of my blog you get a bonus THIRD entry. (bc I love checking out new blogs and making new friends along the way)

4. If you win the Pay It Forward give-away, you agree to host your own Pay It Forward give-away on your blog. I will be PAYING IT FORWARD with 2 of my favorite things I use to pamper myself!

Is that simple enough? This give-away will end March 7th at 11pm.

I have been given the "YOUR BLOG IS FABULOUS" Award by my new bloggy friend ANDREA at BETTER THAN GOOD. She has adopted from Ethiopia-LOVE HER!

Here are the rules of "Your Blog is Fabulous." I have to list/describe five addictions and then pass the award on to five others. Along with other's... I am not sure how addictions apply to being fabulous, but I guess rules are rules?Here goes..my TOP 5 addictions..

#1 Kids-some people collect figurines, I collect kids.
#2 BLOGGING-DUH..nuf said
#3 Coffee-can't FUNCTION without my coffee and FLAVORED CREAMER!
#4 Chocolate
#5 THE BEACH, I would live there if I could.

Now for my 5 bloggy friends to receive this award.

#1 AMY-MONSTER WRANGLER! Amy and her hubs who's a pastor are just embarking on their foster care journey-I just love her honesty!
#2 Jen-Inside Isaiah! For her courage to adopt Isaiah despite his medical issues-she followed the plan of Jesus and wasn't scared to obey him. Plus we've been BFF since we were kids
#3 Gayly at QUILT N MAMA! Another adoptive mom who just got home with a handsome man from China :) Love her sweet heart!
#4 Kelly at The Missing Piece! Kelly and her sweet fam are also just embarking on their foster care journey-she is a tough, sweet mom!
#5 Midwest MOMMY! Oh how she makes me laugh-HILARIOUS! Check out her stroganoff pics-what a crack up!

GIVEAWAY WINNER!

Isn't this necklace FANTABULOUS? Beki also made this.We had a VERY COMPLEX system to choose the winner!AND THE WINNER IS.....ADEYE SALEM from NO GREATER JOY MOM! Congrats! Email me at handsheartsquiverfull@gmail.com with your address and I will mail it out!

My trip to Omaha went well. It was so nice to spend time with Jen. It was VERY DIFFICULT for me to see Isaiah. He was in a lot of pain. So hard to see a child suffer. It is very overwhelming. Isaiah will be listed for another transplant in 6-8 weeks when he heals from this surgery. He will be getting a small bowel and liver transplant. He took this news very hard.

Guess what? While I was there, I helped Jen start a blog! It's so overwhelming for them to update everyone on his condition so I told her this would be a great idea. Go HERE to give Jen, her family and Isaiah a little bloggy love, welcome and encouragement.

FIRST GIVEAWAY-YAY!

This is my first official giveaway!

It's in honor of my 104th post!

Seems like yesterday when I had NO CLUE what a blog even was! LOVE the blogging community! God has lead SO MANY friends to me!

I've been SO EXCITED and anxiously awaiting this little gift below to give to one of YOU...my faithful or sporadic bloggy readers!
Isn't it boxed so adorably? It will be a surprise to the winner!
My new friend Beki-has the most adorable stuff! She just made me this necklace and I LOVE IT! It's reversible-she also made the winners surprise!



















There are only 2 requirements for this giveaway. THEY'RE EASY!

#1 You must leave a comment on this post by Friday, Feb 20th at 11pm.

#2 You must promise to share the following quotes/facts with 2 people....

Every 10 seconds, one person dies of AIDS and another 2 are infected. A total of 3 million people die each year from AIDS. This staggering number has been compared to 20 fully loaded Boeing 747 airplanes crashing every single day for an entire year.

"WILL American Christians stand by as an entire continent dies?" ---Bono from U2

Halfway around the world..there is a little boy or girl who is desperately in need of your compassion.

Less than 3 percent of evangelical Christians said they would help a Christian organization minister to an AIDS orphan.

"In the poor we meet Jesus in HIS most distressing disguises."--Mother Theresa

"You can throw up your hands in despair (about the sheer numbers of children suffering)...OR you can roll up your sleeves and get to work."-Larry Jones, co-founder-Feed The Children

How do we get our arms around 15 million children orphaned by AIDS? It is not impossible. There are 350,000 Evangelical churches in America. If every church in America sponsored 42 African AIDS orphans, we literally could SAVE THEIR LIVES!

"THE HIV/AIDS pandemic is the greatest opportunity for the Church to be the Church. It is time for us to be the hands and feet of Jesus to those who need compassion." -----------------RICK WARREN

* There are 4.8 million orphans in Ethiopia.

- " In 2005, Ethiopia had 1,563,000 AIDS orphans, the second-highest concentration of such children in the world; and 4,414,000 orphans from all causes, the second-highest number in the world."

Being unwanted, unloved, uncared for, forgotten by everybody -- I think that is a much greater hunger -- a much greater poverty than the person who has nothing to eat. ~Mother Teresa

Isaiah 1:17 says, “Learn to do good; seek justice, reprove the ruthless, Defend the orphan, plead for the widow.” God is commanding us to care for the orphan!

“Whoever receives a child in My name, receives Me.” Matthew 18:5

There are NO unwanted children in the world, satan wants them ALL.

No, you can't "save the world" but you CAN make a difference in the life of one child that will last for generations. Bringing the love of Jesus to even ONE of the least of these-it's what Jesus would want.-ME(Jen)

"Though it makes things tighter for us in this king size bed, our home, our vehicle, as well as our wallet, the little pressure we may feel does not even compare to the pressure these little ones are experiencing. I figure if I ever make a mistake in over-indulging this is a good one to make." --John Loux (friend adopting 2 special needs kids from Ukraine as I type)

What are you willing to suffer for the sake of a child?

Got ya thinking huh? Good luck on the GIVEAWAY!

My Friend Mandi's Giveaway!

Head over to Immeasurably More for Mandi's Awesome 100th post giveaway!