Dollar General/ P & G Everyday Heroes Giveaway

Posted on by Mandy

I shop at Dollar General every week, and one of the things I love most about DG is that they are a company that believes in giving back.  I’m especially loving the fact that as a new school year has started, Dollar General and Procter & Gamble have partnered to celebrate schools and honor teachers with the “Everyday Heroes” Campaign.

As an educator, I can attest to the fact that teaching is a tough job.  To be appreciated feels wonderful and I’m so excited Dollar General and Procter & Gamble are focusing the month of September on teachers as being “Everyday Heroes”, because as a parent with a school-aged child, I know they truly are.

This month, Dollar General is offering the opportunity to win money for your school through its “Write to Win” sweepstakes. Customers ages 21 and over may visit www.dollargeneral.com to submit a brief essay about why their school deserves to win. Three essays will be selected and the winning schools mentioned in those essays will win $10,000 each.

 

GIVEAWAY:

I have a “Back To School” Prize Pack, courtesy of Procter & Gamble to give away to a lucky blog reader!

dollar general prize pack

The prize pack includes:

  • Tide PODS
  • Prilosec OTC
  • Cascade Action Pacs
  • Ultra Downy
  • Scope Outlast mouthwash
  • Dollar General cosmetic bag
  • Dollar General reusable sandwich container

Enter using the Rafflecopter form below. Giveaway ends Sunday, September 30, 2012 at 12:01 AM EST. US Only. Must be 18 or older. Void where prohibited.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

I was provided with a prize pack to give away and one as a thank you for posting this information.  All opinions are my own.

Why Have Kids?

Posted on by Mandy

Why_Have_Kids

As a parent, I want the best for my son.  I’m sure it’s a feeling I share with many, many other parents.  I can remember bringing my son home from the hospital and wondering if I was a “good enough” mom when it came to choosing how to feed him (breast or bottle?) and I questioned my decisions an awful lot.  Perhaps it was first time mom jitters, but I wanted to appear that I had it all together, even though our lives had changed drastically, but for the better, of course.

As my son grows, those thoughts turn to different choices according to different seasons of our life.  Should we make him play sports?  Is he eating healthy enough?  Am I still a good enough mom, even though we don’t play sports and I work out of the home?  Thankfully, these thoughts don’t consume me, but I see parents I know making themselves almost crazy with chauffeuring to after-school sports and activities and trying to be the perfect parent.  While it’s admirable to strive to be a great parent, are we doing a disservice to ourselves and our families trying to keep up with an impossible ideal that we think equals happiness?

If so, why have kids?

This is the thought-provoking question posed by Jessica Valenti, author of Why Have Kids? A New Mom Explores the Truth About Parenting and Happiness.  Released this month, Valenti’s book explores problems with modern parenting and offers solutions to social and political issues that can bring back the joy to parenting instead of striving to live up to an impossible ideal that conflicts with the reality of parenting, which leaves everyone involved feeling disappointed and miserable.

BUY IT NOW

WHY HAVE KIDS? A New Mom Explores the Truth about Parenting and Happiness

by Jessica Valenti

On Sale: September 4, 2012· Amazon/New Harvest· 208 pages
$23.00 Hardcover · ISBN: 978-0-8050-9412-1
$9.99 Digital List Price· ASIN: B008L4KT6W

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Jessica Valenti is the author of three previous books, including The Purity Myth: How America’s Obsession with Virginity is Hurting Young Women. She is also the founder of Feministing.com, which the Columbia Journalism Review called “head and shoulders above almost any writing on women’s issues in mainstream media.” Jessica – called one of the top 100 inspiring women in the world by the Guardian – speaks at universities and organizations in the U.S. and abroad about feminism, activism, and media. She lives with her family in Boston, but remains a New Yorker at heart.  Follow Jessica on Twitter @jessicavalenti

 

This review was made possible by Mom Spark Media. Thoughts are my own. I received a copy of Why Have Kids? and compensation for my time investment and work on this campaign.

Does Crafting Burn Calories?

Posted on by Mandy

crayons melt

 

My 20th year high school reunion is next weekend.  Anyone know how I can drop 75 pounds in a week?  NO?  Nobody??  Didn’t think so…..

Shopping for something to wear to said reunion has stressed me out.  Calling being short “petite” doesn’t make it any nicer.  I can’t ever find pants to wear right off the rack.  I always, always have to have them hemmed.  Short people got no reason to live.  I’m kidding.  It’s a SONG.  (And a crappy one, at that!)

I’m finding a ton of decorative inspiration for my library from so many amazing teacher bloggers.  I’m also quite in love with this site, where teachers sell worksheets/posters/file folder games/etc. that THEY create.  It’s like the Etsy of education! 

Speaking of Etsy, I also discovered digital scrapbook paper and Mod-Podge. I am so not crafty, so clearly something is wrong with me.  I’m sure it’s a phase and all of my supplies will join the rest of the ceramic paints, rubber stamps, and scrapbook stuff in the “craft crap” box I’ve been adding to since 2001.

I’ve also been reading a crap ton of YA Fiction (that’s young adult) on my Kindle.   I have no idea why, but I have to say that the characters these days sure do seem more “grown up” (and do more grown up “things”) than the Sweet Valley High bunch I grew up reading about.  I’m also reading Holes and My Teacher is an Alien.  That is purely because my students at school had to read them over the summer and I need to brush up on what they are required to read.  And while all of this reading is to stay “in the know” about what kids and teens are reading today, it sure is a breath of fresh air to read some light and funny things compared to the non-fiction I mostly read.  But the paranormal teen romance stuff is just really, really weird.  I don’t think I will ever “get” that.

I now have a stack of magazines almost 15 deep that I am behind on reading since school started. 

My husband has lost 30 pounds since May.  He looks amazing and I am so proud of him.  He’s proof that the only thing that stands in the way of what you really want is excuses.  THAT is what I have taken away from watching his transformation.  Now I just need to do something about myself.  I’m sure all five of you who read my blog faithfully can probably guess that I broke up with Jillian Michaels.  It wasn’t her…it was me.  And that crappy sinus/bronchitis thing that totally wiped me out for three weeks while in the thick of my workout enthusiasm.  But I have to admit she was becoming quite a bore, so maybe it was her a little.

E.B. is still mining and doing great in school so far.  He’s also trying to pull a fast one on me by checking out books like Goodnight Gorilla and My Friend Rabbit from the school library.  These books have very, very few words at all.  I’m waiting to see if he brings home something similar this week before I cue him in on the fact that his mom just happens to be an elementary school librarian and I know what he is up to. *snort*

Sorry for the giant ramble.  I’m playing catch-up this week on my blog.  I am SO looking forward to the holidays when I can blog and read blogs at my leisure.  I just really, really need some leisure.