PLEASE enter for the The Gift of an Ordinary Day Giveaway!

I only have two ladies who have entered and the company has generously offered 5 books to giveaway!  Please come and read the review and enter to win!

My Little Pony Twinkle Wish Adventure clip!

My daughter is always thrilled when I get these little teasers in the email!!!  I cannot wait for this movie to come out...ummm, I mean SHE can't wait for this movie to come out...yeah! 

Rainbow_Dash_Balloon-512K.mov <http://www.shoutfactory.com/av/mlp/twinkle/MLP-Rainbow_Dash_Balloon-512K.mov>

Wordless Wednesday

Sweet Dreams:)

Enduring in Love: Your First Love Relationship

I am a huge fan of Nancy Leigh DeMoss and when I'm lucking enough to have the time to listen to her radio show I do!  Today's sermon really touched my heart and I'd love to share it with you.  Take the time to listen to today's sermon...Enduring in Love: Your First Love Relationship.  It is so worth your time:)  Go HERE to listen to today's show:)

The Gift of an Ordinary Day by Katrina Kenison

This Giveaway is now closed!  Scroll to the bottom to see who my five winners are!

   

the gift of an ordinary day A Mother's Memoir by Katrina Kenison

This book really struck a chord in me because I am the mother of two teenagers and two toddlers.  Most of the attention tends to get focused on the little one's and I found myself allowing my older children to slip out of my hands without noticing.  This book brought me back around to paying attention to the life steps my 15 year old and 17 year old are beginning to take.  Before I know it, they will be out the door headed for college.  The Gift of an Ordinary Day reminded me to stop and enjoy these final moments of being a full time mother to my big kids.

"It's been quite a few years since I began my days of imagining them first from bed.  But now I think it's time for me to visualize again, if only to remind myself to begin each day with gratitude for what is rather than worrying so much about what still might be."

I could have written that part myself!  I hit the floor running to get the big kids out the door and then turn my attention to the 2 year old twins.  I need to take the time to reminisce on the years when all I had was my older two children and the memories we have together.

A quick synopsis of the book:

The Gift of an Ordinary Day is an intimate memoir of a family in transition-boys becoming teenagers, careers ending and new ones opening up, an attempt to find a deeper sense of place, and a slower pace, in a small New England town. It is a story of mid-life longings and discoveries, of lessons learned in the search for home and a new sense of purpose, and the bittersweet intensity of life with teenagers--holding on, letting go.

Poised on the threshold between family life as she's always known it and her older son's departure for college, Kenison is surprised to find that the times she treasures most are the ordinary, unremarkable moments of everyday life, the very moments that she once took for granted, or rushed right through without noticing at all.

The relationships, hopes, and dreams that Kenison illuminates will touch women's hearts, and her words will inspire mothers everywhere as they try to make peace with the inevitable changes in store.

You can also go listen to an excerpt HERE

What I thought was really great, is Hachette Book Group also offers a Reading Group Guide to go along with the gift of an ordinary day! 

Get to know Katrina Kenison a little better:

KATRINA KENISON has been the annual editor of The Best American Short Stories since 1990. Along with John Updike, she edited The Best American Short Stories of the Century, a New York Times bestseller. Also the coeditor of Mothers: Twenty Stories of Contemporary Motherhood, she has written essays that have appeared in such publications as Redbook and Ladies' Home Journal. Katrina Kenison lives outside of Boston with her husband and their two sons.

Buy It:  Follow this LINK and you will get a complete listing of all the bookstores that carry this book.

Win It:  Hatchette Book Group has graciously offered 5 (five) copies of the gift of an ordinary life to my readers!  For your very first entry, you must go to Hatchette Books and sign up for one of their newsletters.

Twelve other ways to win!

• Become a fan of the gift of an ordinary day on Facebook.  Follow me! ( 1 One entry)
  
• Follow one of the many Twitter groups Hatchette Books has to offer (1 (One) entry):

www.twitter.com/centerstreet

www.twitter.com/faithwords

www.twitter.com/foreverromance

www.twitter.com/grandcentralpub

www.twitter.com/littlebrown

www.twitter.com/businessplus

www.twitter.com/orbitbooks

•  Follow me on Twitter and tweet to me about this giveaway! Ex:  @mgills Lollypops & Lizards is giving away 5 copies of The Gift of an Ordinary Day! http://tinyurl.com/lfwqop #hatchettebooks(1 (one) entry)
• Follow Lollypops and Lizards.  (1 (one) entry)
• Subscribe to Lollypops and Lizards email newsletter. (1 (one) entry)
• Become a fan of Lollypops and Lizards on Facebook AND post to me that you entered this giveaway. (1 (one) entry)
• Blog about this giveaway including a link back here and to Hatchette Books.  (3 (three) entries)
• Follow my other blog, Faith on Fire.  (3 (three) entries!)

This giveaway will end Friday, October 2, 2009 at midnite (CST).  

Good Luck!


The Winners of The Gift of an Ordinary Day by Katrina Kenison are:

Andrea

Grissell

Ave

Tanya

A Mom after Gods Own Heart

Congratulations!  An email is on its way to you gals now!

Disclosure: I received a copy of the book, at no cost to me, for review purposes.

Beautiful Mess by Diamond Rio with Tom Roland

 

I have become a reviewer for Thomas Nelson!  I love to read so this suits me just fine.  The first book I got to review is Beautiful Mess The Story of Diamond Rio by Diamond Rio and Tom Roland.  The book is about the life of six men who are apart of the country and western band, Diamond Rio.  There are a lot of pictures in the book, showing each man's childhood and families.  

If you are a fan of Diamond Rio, you will love this book!  But, I don't really know too much about them and found the story line to drag a bit.  I tried to get into the book several times, but felt they used too much filler information to make each chapter stretch.  I guess I was hoping for a story that was filled with more meat of Diamond Rio's history so I could get to know them as individuals.  I found that I learned about a band who had to work hard to make it in the C and W music community.  How it was hard because they started at an amusement park then tried to break free of the stigma.  

Here is a synopsis of the book:

Can a band comprised of six very talented but very different musicians make a difference with their music?

What made it possible for Diamond Rio to weather the storms inherent in the fickle world of fame and fortune and go more than two decades without a single lineup change? Any reader in search of transparency and a behind-the-scenes look into the life of the band as a unit as well as the individual lives of the players and singers will be well satisfied. Can true loyalty exist within the competitive, seemingly unforgiving music industry? In A Beautiful Mess, Marty Roe, Dan Truman, Jimmy Olander, Brian Prout, Gene Johnson, and Dana Williams each has an entire chapter devoted to his personal and professional life. A Beautiful Mess is a wild ride from the edge of disaster and a little-known secret to an ongoing heart-warming revival.

If you are a country and western fan and even more important, a fan of Diamond Rio, you will enjoy this book.  If not, I'd not recommend it.

God Bless,
Michelle

Want to do book reviews?  Check out Thomas Nelson Book Reveiw Bloggers!

Mabel's Labels Winner is.....

Luv to Save said... 

I follow you on twitter as luv_to_save
luvtosave at gmail.com

I'm emailing you right now!  Yeah!!!

I follow you on twitter as luv_to_save
luvtosave at gmail.com

September 6, 2009 12:05 PM

Read more: http://nmgills.blogspot.com/2009/09/mabels-labels-review-and-giveaway.html#ixzz0Qtzr0q6y

Homestead Blessings Give-Away!

Homestead Blessings Give-Away!

Posted using ShareThis

MckLinky Giveaway Blog Hop! 9/11/09

Join in on the Blog Hop for the week of September 11th, 2009!  My Mabels Labels Giveaway ends at midnite on September 11th!

Testimony Part 2-The Dark Night of the Soul

Follow the link to Faith on Fire

Shhhhh!

Shout Factory is giving me and YOU a sneak peek at My Little Pony Twinkle Wish Adventure!  Take a peek at

Twinkle Wish Dilemma and Dreams Do Come True too and let your little one's watch because this is so cute!

PBS wants to help you get your kids back to school successfully!

Help Children Ease Back Into the School Year With PBS KIDS®!

PBS PARENTS Experts Share Tips on Getting Kids and Parents Prepared for the New School Year. 
Starting the school year can be a time of great excitement... and anxiety. Help calm your child's fears with these teacher-approved hints that will get everyone ready for the big day:

• Ease into the routine. The start of a new year can be stressful -practice your routine a few days in advance.
• Ask your child compelling questions. Specific questions help children picture what school will be like
•  Describe what will happen on the first day. This will help ease nervousness or confusion.
• Tool up. Obtain the class supply list and take a special shopping trip,letting your child pick out a few special items.
  

For more helpful tips, visit PBSPARENTS.org. And check out the new Back to School channel on the
PBS KIDS GO!

Remember the Electric Company!?  Check it out now!

PBS Sprout-The Sprout Great Tuck In and more!

Sprout has partnered with The Pajama Program to deliver NEW cozy  PJ's and NEW Bedtime stories to children in need!  Help them reach their goal of  75,000 kids in their first year! Go to The Great Sprout Tuck In to make your donation and Sprout with match everyone's donation!

What else is going on at Sprout??

Well, they have some new shoes coming and one of them is The Wiggles!  My twins LOVE the Wiggles and they are coming to Sprout!  Look at this!

They also have a new show called the Rubbadubbers!  Follow this LINK to see what kind of fun they will bring your kids!

If your a Facebook Fan, be sure to become a fan of Sprout!  Next Thursday they will launch an exclusive contest on their Facebook page that asks viewers to submit a photo of their best Wiggly face, which will be chosen by user vote and awards a weekly prize of a Flip Video camera and the grand prize is a Nintendo Wii and a Wiggles autographed shirt!  How Awesome is that!?

What Sprout shows do your kids like to watch??

MckLinky Blog Hop-9/4/09

It's that time again!  BE sure and check out my Mabel's Labels Giveaway!!!!!

 

Mabel's Labels Review and Giveaway

CLOSED!  THANK YOU FOR ENTERING!

How many of you have taken your kiddo's to daycare, church, a play date and you set your sippy cup or bottle down and then forget about it?  Or you set it down and someone else puts theres down by yours, and they are identical??  Church is great about labeling the cups and diapers, but sometimes the name gets rubbed off.  I swear I go through a dozen cups every month!  lol  But I have a solution for identifying your kiddo's stuff or even YOUR stuff!

Mabel's Labels!

Mabel's Labels sent me the whole kit for the Ultimate Back-to-School Combo!  Right now, the Ultimate Back-to-School Combo pack is on sale for $39.00!

What does that include?

50 Tag-Mates, 40 Skinny-Minis, 16 Shoe Labels, 2 NEW Teeny Tags.

Dishwasher/microwave-safe and UV resistant. Clothing labels are laundry safe.

 

The first thing I did was put the stickers on the sippy cups.  First, these labels do NOT come off!  I hand washed these cups, and they stuck, I ran them through the dishwasher...and the labels were still on there!   I love the fact that they don't come off with the first hint of water!  They do not come off even when its the the "sweat" of the cup when you have ice in it.  Nice!

The shoe labels are great because my kids take their shoes off at the VERY first moment they can and that means they shoes go in a huge pile, with a bunch of other childrens shoes!  Your in a hurry, trying to get your kids ready to go at the end of the day and the childcare worker doesn't know which shoes are your childrens!  Now, no excuse!  They are marked on the inside!  

Mabel's Labels has offered to giveaway a package of their Skinny Minis!  These are great for marking school supplies, lunch containers, dishes, and small toys!  How do you win?  That's easy!

Required Entry:  Sign up for Mabel's Labels Newsletter.  Follow this LINK to do that!

Additional ways to win (Nine (9) total ways to win!:

1. Go to Mabel's Labels Website and come back and tell me one thing that is not mentioned in this review that you would like to try!  Go HERE 
2. Follow Mabel's Labels on Twitter.  Go HERE 
3. Follow Lollypops and Lizards on Blogger and Twitter (on the left side of the blog).  One entry for each follow.
4. Sign up for Lollypops and Lizard Email News (on the left side of the blog)
5. Follow my NEW personal blog Faith on Fire.  Go HERE 
6. Sign up for the Faith on Fire Email News.
   
7. Tell me one way you would use the Skinny-Mini Label.

Now, be sure you leave me your email address so I can contact you!  I'd hate for you to win and then not get these cool labels because I could reach you!

One Winner will be chosen by Random.org on September 11th, 2009 at 12:00 midnite (CST)

Reli On Temple Touch Thermometer Giveaway

Piece of ME is hosting a giveaway for the Reli On Temple Touch Thermometer!  It closes on September 17th, so head on over to get in!

PLEASE READ!

I have decided to use Lollypops and Lizards for my reveiws and giveaways and move my personal posts, meme's, fun things over to Faith On Fire!  Just click on the link below and it will take you there!  Be sure to follow and to sign up for the email news!