Lilla Rose Is Having a Back-to-School Sale!

You can still enter our Lilla Rose giveaway here, but you should also know that ...

Lilla Rose is having a Back-to-School Sale!

It began this morning and is going on through Saturday night.  Many of the styles on sale will be retired when they sell out, so this could be your last chance to get them.  If you're one of those people who can match accessories to every outfit, this is your chance up your game a bit.  Most pieces are 20% off.

Items on sale have their prices listed in red, and so it's easy to scan the page and find the special deals.

My Big Helper and I went Christmas shopping this morning and snagged a few beautiful pieces for presents.  Honestly, I wondered what shipping would be for all of the pieces I found, but guess what? I ordered through my current online party and paid only $4 total.  That's a far better rate I've received from other similar companies!

So, sign up to win, and hurry over to order your own birthday presents/Christmas gifts/it's-a-beautiful-day-and-I'll-treat-myself gifts.  :-)

Which flexi will you order?

**This is not an affiliate or sponsored post.  While I may benefit from any orders you choose to place through my current online party linked above, I am not being directly compensated in any way for this post.  I just happen to be a big fan of my new Flexi-clip and thought you might like to know about this great sale, too! 

Inspired Wednesday: Lilla Rose Review & Giveaway

I've always had a thing for jewelry.  Love the stuff - always have.  Doesn't matter if it's rings, necklaces, or bracelets, there's something about delicate decorations that fascinates me.

So when I first heard about jewelry for your hair a few months ago, I couldn't wait to try it out!

Lilla Rose is a company that produces just that.  With a huge line of clips in all sorts of colors, themes, and sizes, as well as decorative pins and bands, each Lilla Rose item is beautiful.

I recently received my Celtic Cross flexi-clip - well, about a month ago, and I've worn it every day since.  It looks delicate but is actually very strong.  It stays in my hair well, and there are many things I can do with it.

I've pulled the hair away from my face and clipped it in the back.

I've made a twist with my hair and fastened it all up with my flexi.

This picture came out a bit blurry, but My Big Helper can wear it as a low ponytail.

The absolute best thing about my flexi is that it's so versatile.  I used to leave the house for an all-day trip with a plastic clip in my hair and a band in my pocket, with usually another tucked in a bag somewhere, so I could be sure that I could tame my hair as needed.  With my flexi I don't need anything else.  I can pull some back or, with a bit of twisting, have all my hair up and out of my face - no bands or plastic clips necessary.

I must admit, though, that this didn't happen overnight.  The flexi-clip design is like nothing I've ever seen before, and for this hair-challenged girl, it posed a slight problem in the beginning.  It definitely took some practice to be able to manipulate both sides of the flexi while holding my hair in place, but after a day or two of practicing, I got it figured it out.  Which is not to say that I can do the fancy upsweeps yet, because I can't, but then again, I never could, so if the flexi somehow teaches me, that'll just be an extra happy bonus.  

I'm already dreaming of which flexi I'll choose next.  They come in different sizes so you can do different things with them, and I can't wait to try out some more fun hairstyles.  Besides, I'm about to get a haircut, and then I'll have less to work with, so I'm going to need a smaller one, right?  wink.

Sue Ellen is my Lilla Rose consultant, and she'd like to be yours, too.  She's generously giving one Flexi-Clip away to one of you!  I can't wait to hear which flexi you pick.  If you are already one of Sue Ellen's customers or you've not yet tried a Lilla Rose product, you are eligible for this giveaway!  Sign up with the widget below.

Or, if you're ready to try out your own Lilla Rose product now, click through to my party page.  If you'd like to browse first, this is a great place to get started.

Have you tried Lilla Rose?

Entry-Form

Last week Nancy at There is Grace shared a guest post about why a certain family homeschools.  I love reading about why others embark on this journey!  To find out more, visit There is Grace - and Nancy, please visit our Inspired Wednesday page and take the "I was featured on Washed Up Inspired Wednesdays' button back with you.  

Be sure to check out Stephanie's Inspired Wednesday post over at The Multi Taskin' Mom!

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An InLinkz Link-up

"Whispers on the Dock" by Evangeline Kelley

Three sisters. A charming inn. Hints of mystery and romance. And a gorgeous seaside setting. Escape to Misty Harbor Inn.

As Nantucket reaches the pinnacle of its summer glory, and the Marris sisters welcome guests at Misty Harbor Inn, youngest sister Sam Carter enters her mother's cobbler recipe in the Summerfest baking contest. But she faces a formidable opponent, a past winner who is determined to keep her title even if it means stooping to dirty tactics. Can Sam's newfound faith help her rise above the fray and reach out to this lonely woman? Meanwhile, an elderly guest arrives who knows the inn's history, and the sisters are stunned to learn that their late mother lived there as a child. But she told them she'd never been to Nantucket until her honeymoon! Through the woman's reminiscences and photos, the sisters make an intriguing discovery --- not only about the mysterious Hannah Montague, the young woman who disappeared from the house in 1880, but also about their own family history.

Readers will delight in the inviting Nantucket setting and be enthralled by the adventures of these sisters who reunite to bring their mother's Misty Harbor dreams to life.

This history mystery is the very best kind!  I love stories that involve modern-day people trying to figure out what happened with their ancestors, and in this story there are two!  The connection between characters and the distant time frames keep the story hopping.  

I had trouble getting into the story, though, and this was mainly because this is the third book in the series.  This story jumped right in and apparently picked up wherever the second one left off, and while I eventually was able to figure out most of what was going on, it was rather frustrating to be out of the loop for a while.  The addition of a 'catch-up' section before the first chapter would have been most helpful.  I thoroughly enjoyed the story once I figured out the main plot pieces and wish that I had understood the action from the beginning.

The cast of characters was fascinating.  Each sister had her own thing happening, and when combined with the two historical-style mysteries, Whispers on the Dock is chock-ful of suspenseful action.  The authors masterfully combine the drama and the mystery to keep the readers guessing, but they throw in some pretty great life lessons, too.  

All told, finishing this series made me want to read the beginning.  I may know the ending to the mystery, but I'm still in the dark about all the rest - and I don't want to be.  If you like dramatic historical mysteries, this is definitely a series worth checking out!

You can read other reviews in this blog hop here or click here to purchase your own copy now.

Evangeline Kelley is the pen name for the writing team of Patti Berg, Pam Hanson & Barbara Andrews, and Camy Tang, the four authors who collaborated to create Postcards from Misty Harbor Inn. Each of them has published novels individually, but this is their first series together. 

I received a free copy of Whispers on the Dock from LitFuse Publicity in exchange for an honest review.

Menu Plan Monday - August 19, 2013

We totally missed out on last week's meal plan. 

We ended up being out more than in, and when we were here, there wasn't much time to cook.  We ended up doing whatever was simplest, resorting in sandwiches, scrambled eggs, and lots of salads.

We're going to try again this week, and since we have few commitments to be anywhere else, I'm hoping for a better success rate.  

Here's the {tentative} plan:

Breakfasts:

- Cinnamon Almond Granola and fruit

- Baked peanut butter oatmeal
- Scrambled eggs and bananas
- Chocolate chip muffins, fruit
- Hearty Breakfast Casserole

Dinner:

- "Best Ever" Cheesy Grilled Potatoes with ham & broccoli, watermelon

- Grilled barbecue chicken salad, Sweet Strawberry-Watermelon Smoothies (CCC)
- Dinner by the Big Helper, still to be determined
- Hamburgers, baked beans, salad, watermelon, cookies
- Foil babies - sausages, potatoes, peppers, and onions grilled, fruit
- Sesame ginger chicken stir fry over brown rice, egg rolls
- Leftovers

I'm going to try my hand at grape jelly making this week.  I've made many kinds of jelly, but never grape!  I'm not sure what else we'll be creating ....

What are you cooking this week?

For more Menu Plan Monday, visit OrgJunkie.

"On Distant Shores" by Sarah Sundin

Caught between the war raging around them and the battles within, two souls long for peace---and a love that remains true.

Lt. Georgiana Taylor has everything she could want. A boyfriend back home, a loving family, and a challenging job as a flight nurse. But in July 1943, Georgie's cozy life gets more complicated when she meets pharmacist Sgt. John Hutchinson.

Hutch resents the lack of respect he gets as a noncommissioned serviceman and hates how the war keeps him from his fiancée. While Georgie and Hutch share a love of the starry night skies over Sicily, their lives back home are falling apart. Can they weather the hurt and betrayal? Or will the pressures of war destroy the fragile connection they've made?

With her signature attention to detail and her talent for bringing characters together, Sarah Sundin weaves an exciting tale of emotion, action, and romance that will leave you wanting more.

Continuing with the wide cast of characters created in With Every Letter, On Distant Shores returns you to the drama unfolding within the military during World War II.  As if fighting Hitler, Mussolini, hunger, heat, and disease weren't enough, Hutch also fights inequality within our very own military.  I've never before heard of the pharmacists' fight to become recognized as officers, and it's fascinating.  Who would've thought that such a respected and important profession would have faced such barriers?  I didn't - but because of Sundin's creative story, I enjoyed expanding my education!

Hutch and Georgie make colorful characters who complement each other well, and yet their differences in rank and those waiting for them at home make for a romantic story.  Sundin's push beyond the typical romance - making the story not just about finally finding a happy ending for their love but instead learning to grow as God's children and follow His will - make this a deep and enduring kind of story.  

Well written and full of historical detail, Sarah Sundin is rapidly moving up on my 'favorite author' list.  This has always been a period in history that is fascinating to me, but Sundin's On Distant Shores shines a spotlight on a little-known corner of it - and it shows us just how important these hardworking men and women were during this war.

Sundin reminds us that our lives are really not about us - not necessarily about our plans or our wants but instead what God wants us to do and how we can help others.  

What a fun way for God to deliver that reminder. 

You can read other reviews in this blog hop here or visit this page to purchase our own copy.

Sarah Sundin is the author of "With Every Letter" and the Wings of Glory series. In 2011, A "Memory Between Us" was a finalist in the Inspirational Reader's Choice Awards, and Sarah received the Writer of the Year Award at the Mount Hermon Christian Writers Conference. A graduate of UC San Francisco School of Pharmacy, she works on call as a hospital pharmacist. During WWII, her grandfather served as a pharmacist's mate (medic) in the Navy and her great-uncle flew with the US Eighth Air Force in England. Sarah lives in California with her husband and three children. 

Visit www.sarahsundin.com for more information.

I received a free copy of On Distant Shores from LitFuse Publicity in exchange for an honest review.

Inspired Wednesday - A New Game for the Whole Family {Typecrush Review}

* I received a free copy of this game in exchange for an honest review.

My Big Helper could not wait to open our new game of Typecrush.  She eagerly opened the can and read the directions on a Sunday afternoon, refusing to let anyone enjoy a Sunday nap.  She set it all up and called us in to play.

Typecrush couldn't be easier.  Essentially, one person spells a word using the provided letter tiles, and the objective is for everyone else is to guess it.  Whomever guesses correctly first wins that round and gets to choose the next word.  

There aren't any other rules.  Everything else is up to you to create.  You could have bonuses based on how many rounds you win, a limit to how many times you can guess incorrectly, or anything else you can think of.  

To make it easier to determine letter patterns, the letter tiles are color coded into five categories based on how often the letters are used in the English language.  For example, the blue tiles contain 'a,' 'e,' and 'n.'  Letters like 'z' and 'x' are a different color.  Several cards are included with the game that show exactly which letters are which color.  This would make it much easier for beginning readers - or those who understand phonetic patterns - to correctly guess each letter, and, therefore, the whole word.

Typecrush would be a fun game to play during reading time.  You could use it to work with words following specific patterns, like the -CVC pattern, or use common phonemes.  Because it would be difficult to play without being able to read at least a little, Typecrush is recommended for people 7 and up.

While we'll enjoy playing it in this straightforward way, it was not quite as exciting as I'd expected, but I think that was because there were only three of us playing.  I'm looking forward to a bigger family get-together coming up in a few weeks.  The open-ended nature of this game lends itself naturally for families-gone-wild, and I'm thinking that we could put some fun rules in place for this - like cookie bonuses for those who correctly guess a word or phrase.  Maybe we'll see how many 'over-the-hill' phrases we can think of to roast the birthday boy.  Maybe we'll play in teams.  However we play, Typecrush provides the basis for a very entertaining evening - one that everyone can enjoy.

Pros:

• Few rules allow for flexible play.
• Color-coded letter tiles provide important scaffolding so that even early readers can play.
• The many letter tiles allow for phrases to be incorporated into play.
• Allows your own creativity to guide the game.
• Can easily be used during learning time.
• Simple enough for kids to play but challenging enough for adults.
• Proudly made in the USA!

Cons:

• Creativity is required.  Lumps on logs will have issues.

Other important stuff to know:

• Typecrush sells for $25 from www.typecrush.com.
• You can purchase Typecrush here with free shipping every day.  Family fun is guaranteed - your money will be returned if you don't love this game!

You can find Typecrush around the web here:

Find them here:

• Website
• Facebook
• Twitter
• Instagram
• Pinterest 

Want to read more reviews in this hop?  Check them out here!

What kind of games do you like to play as a family?

Last week Susan at Homeschool with Love shared free copywork pages to go with the hymn "All Things Bright and Beautiful."  I love when creative moms share their ideas!  To find out more, visit Homeschool with Love - and Susan, please visit our Inspired Wednesday page and take the "I was featured on Washed Up Inspired Wednesdays' button back with you.  

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An InLinkz Link-up

GratiTuesday - The Very Best Thing

It's been a busy summer for us, and I haven't seen my friends as much as usual.  I did have the chance to see two during the past week, though, and our conversations were as different as night and day.

Both friends have more children than me.  Both are teachers by trade.  Both are strong Christians, and both have husbands with jobs that keep them very busy - and have a rather unusual schedule.

The first sounded sad and wistful.  She's had a rough summer and has been trying to make the most of every second of family time that she can.  Her schooling months are hectic, busy, and stressful, and in the midst of the busyness, she misses her children.  

The conversation with my second friend went quite differently.  She sounded peaceful and thankful for the busy times they have, just as she's thankful for being able to say 'no' when the schedule is too packed.  She is happy to be able to spend each day with her children completely.

Two years ago I felt like that first friend.  Our public school schedule and the hours of homework was overwhelming, and I felt as if I didn't get to spend much quality time with my children.

This past year was busy, and at times I felt hectic-ness creeping up on me - but there was a difference:  I never missed the kids.  No matter how crazy or busy I was, we were together.  We ate together, studied together, baked together, traveled together.  Every day after lunch we snuggled together on the couch and read.  We took field trips and stayed in by turn, but whatever we were doing, we were together.

I've felt a bit overwhelmed by turn this summer.  We've had way more going on than usual, and I'm picking up several new responsibilities for this next school year - but I have had less planning time than usual.  It has been easy to complain mentally about that, but then again ...

There's no law that says that I have to plan the whole year before beginning.

We can start whenever and wherever we'd like - and so we've already begun, even though I'm not fully planned.  Gasp!

Whatever our days look like, busy or not, wherever we go, we're all together.

For this homeschooling mom, that's the very best thing.

We can take fun field trips with our friends.

We can learn math and gain entrepreneurial experience by starting our own mini family business.

What better way to learn about another culture than by experiencing it?

For more GratiTuesday, visit Heavenly Homemakers.