This is a Mama Buzz review for My Coupons.

Wow, is it already that time of year again?  August is almost upon us, and while we homeschool pretty much year round, I know children in some districts will be back at it come the beginning of next month!  Others will be restarting their educational studies in September, but still, I can hear moms across the continent already turning their thoughts back towards scholastic activities.

I’m always up for a good bargain, and although I’m not the most ‘online coupon’ savvy cookie in the bunch, I’m starting to learn that there are great savings to be had online, if you only know where to look!

My Coupons is a source you may not be familiar with that offers free, exclusive coupon codes for back-to-school.  They have popular back-to-school savings for new wardrobes, to textbooks, novelties, and more.  From free shipping at Crocs to 15% off at Oriental Trading Company, there’s  a little bit of everything there for young students on through college (like textbook rentals).

You can also find My Coupons on Twitter and Facebook for easy ways to stay up to date on new coupon offers.

Have fun bargain-hunting as back-to-school season kicks into gear!

It is time for a FIRST Wild Card Tour book review! If you wish to join the FIRST blog alliance, just click the button. We are a group of reviewers who tour Christian books. A Wild Card post includes a brief bio of the author and a full chapter from each book toured. The reason it is called a FIRST Wild Card Tour is that you never know if the book will be fiction, non~fiction, for young, or for old…or for somewhere in between! Enjoy your free peek into the book!

My Thoughts: My children REALLY like this modern adaptation of an event from the New Testament.  Bright, colorful – a big hit!

You never know when I might play a wild card on you!

and the book:

Jesus and the Children

Zondervan (January 15, 2010)

***Special thanks to Pam Mettler of Zondervan for sending me a review copy.***

Andrew is the creator, writer, and illustrator of the Lost Sheep series. Way back in 1989 as a young Bible college student, Andrew was asked to give the dreaded “children’s talk” at a large church. Andrew possessed one talent: he could draw sheep. He bought some overhead projector sheets and drew up the story of Cecil and the Lost Sheep. T he congregation loved it, so Andrew continued to draw stories to use with kids and adults. Other students, pastors, and teachers started borrowing the stories.

Product Details:

List Price: $4.99
Reading level: Ages 4-8
Paperback: 32 pages
Publisher: Zondervan (January 15, 2010)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 031071947X
ISBN-13: 978-0310719472

Press the browse button to view the first chapter:

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CLICK HERE TO BUY NOW AT CHRISTIANBOOK.COM OR AMAZON.COM!

Well, we are around 18-19 weeks pregnant now, and Sarah and I were looking through our baby-development photographs book – A Child is Born (it’s classic and is a favorite whenever I’m pregnant).  She loves to flip through the pages and say, “Our baby, our baby!”  I suspect she thinks that the photos of these babies are actually somehow of OUR baby, it’s a tricky concept for her .

In any case, we flipped over to a picture of an 18 week baby, and wow!  They are all arms and legs, and around 9″ long!  No wonder my belly has been getting bigger and firmer .  We have our next midwife appointment next week on Tuesday, so the children will get to see the plastic baby models there and look at the drawings of babies developing in-utero, and all of the other fun midwife office things they love to do (like the little plastic house with the mailbox!)

Well, being half-way through my pregnancy I’m not in official weight-loss mode, but I AM watching my weight because I don’t REALLY need to gain any with this pregnancy .  However, after little-one arrives, and I’m back on my feet again, I’ll likely have to get more serious about this whole weight loss thing.

I was reading some Nutrisystem reviews online today, and I can see why the program is successful at helping people lose weight.  One of the major factors is it takes the ‘choice’ out of having to plan and prepare food.  I really think this is one of the big stumbling blocks (and especially for people like me because I really don’t like meal planning!)  I actually do better with my weight if I’m a little bit…bored with my food!

Nutrisystem is a ‘food included’ type weight-loss system that costs around $8/day – which isn’t bad if you’re a single person .  There are different plans which range from just the pre-packed, shelf-stable options, to those that incorporate some fresh foods, and frozen foods.  There are also different options available for vegetarians, low-glycemic etc.

From the reviews I’ve read it definitely seems to work, and I like that it takes the choice out of eating.  And if you order now you get 4 weeks of food free.  The program also includes unlimited counseling, forums, and lots of other features.

Have you tried it?  What did you think?

Well, I’m definitely out of the first trimester, but my second trimester energy burst hasn’t seemed to have kicked in yet. Unfortunately I’m still pretty pooped most days! I had a glimpse of it as I just started to head into the second trimester, but it seems to have evaporated. Come back to me energy! Well, naps aren’t mandatory anymore, I guess maybe that’s worth something .

Umm, maybe my energy will kick in come the third-trimester. Here’s hoping.

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Hampton Hotels. All opinions are 100% mine.

Imagine this – a hotel all for yourself and your guests – 100 rooms for 2 nights. Think of it. Church retreat. Family reunion. Homeschooling family night out. The possibilities are amazing! And that is just what Hampton Hotels is giving away in their Hampton Chain of Friends Sweepstakes. The less impressive (but still fun) first prizes include daily presentations of a free two-day stay to the winner and three friends.

As I’ve written before, I AM a bit fan of staying in hotels (so out-of-the-ordinary for me!) and this is a great opportunity to win a free hotel stay! It’s also an easy contest to enter, just click on the above link, click on ENTER NOW, fill out a form, and you are entered! It doesn’t get much easier than that – I just did it, pretty simple.

After going to the Edmonton Zoo this past weekend with our family, our next big trip will likely be to the Calgary Zoo (it is huge, and definitely a 2-day trip.) So, if I won, I’d love to invite my family to stay with us at a Hampton in Calgary! There are two Hampton’s there, but I’m not really familiar with the strange Calgary addresses, so I’m not sure which one is closer to the Zoo. My Mom might not even mind staying over, because at the Hampton they wash the duvet and sheets anew for each guest! AND thankfully they have rooms with two-beds for those of us with families (well, it might still be tight with all our kids.)

So, do go enter, or ummm…maybe not…that would make my own chances higher .

I’m on day 2 or 3 (depending on how you count it) of weaning Sarah, who just turned 2 at the end of June.  My poor little dove.  This is the youngest I’ve ever weaned one of my children, but she seems to be taking it well.  Nursing through this pregnancy just hasn’t been working out as well as I would have liked.  I’ve nursed through two previous pregnancies, but I’m just feeling so ‘done’ with nursing this time, also – there is very, very little milk at this stage in the game (I feel a bit full on my high-production side, but have had NO engorgement or pain.)  She and I have been fighting about how much she gets to nurse and when, so I thought our relationship would be much more harmonious just to be done with it.  And so far it has been.  She’s asking less, crying less, and has been happier.  I think this has been a good decision for our family.

This might seem odd to women who don’t nurse for as long as I do, but I do still struggle with residual guilt.  Tell me it’s okay!

This week, the

Christian Fiction Blog Alliance

is introducing

NightmareBethany House (July 1, 2010)

byRobin Parrish
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Robin Parrish is a journalist who’s written about the intersection of faith and pop culture for more than a decade. Currently he serves as Senior Editor at XZOOSIA.com, a community portal that fuses social networking with magazine-style features about entertainment and culture.

He had two great ambitions in his life: to have a family, and to be a published novelist. In March of 2005, he proposed to his future wife the same week he signed his first book contract with Bethany House Publishers. They contracted him for the rights to The Dominion Trilogy: Relentless (2006), Fearless (2007), and Merciless (2008). His science fiction thriller, Offworld came out in 2009. This summer debuts Nightmare, and he’s working on another for 2011. Robin and his wife and children live in North Carolina.

ABOUT THE BOOK:

The Nightmare is Coming…

Ghost Town is the hottest amusement park in the country, offering state-of-the-art chills and thrills involving the paranormal. The park’s main ride is a haunted house that promises an encounter with a real ghost.

When Maia Peters visits during her senior year of college, she’s not expecting to be impressed. Maia grew up as the only child of a pair of world-renowned “ghost hunters,” so the paranormal is nothing new and to her most of the park is just Hollywood special effects. In fact, the ride feels pretty boring until the very end. There, a face appears from the mist. The face of Jordin Cole, a girl Maia knows who disappeared from campus a few months ago.

Convinced what she saw wasn’t a hoax and desperate to find answers to Jordin’s disappearance, Maia launches into a quest for answers. Joined by Jordin’s boyfriend–a pastor’s kid with very different ideas about paranormal and the spirit realm–Maia finds herself in a struggle against dangerous forces she never expected to confront on the edge of the spirit realm that try to keep the truth from emerging.

If you would like to read the first chapter of Nightmare, go HERE.

My Thoughts: You can read my complete review here!

Well, I can see the end of the Old Testament in sight. It has proven to be far more fascinating than I thought it would . I have now finished Job, and am moving on into the last half of Daniel which deals with his future prophecies, then I think it’s Ezra, Esther, Nehemiah…and I’m almost done .

I really appreciate the deeper grounding in the historical narrative that reading my NIV chronological Bible has provided me with, and its also helped me to understand God’s consistent character throughout the Bible and into today where we can still find Him working in similar ways.

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Mission Foods. All opinions are 100% mine.

I know that we only have three children (and one on the way), but we’re already considered a ‘larger’ family, as many of you are as well!  And if there’s something that larger families do well, it’s creating budget-friendly ways to feed multiple children!  Well – I have a contest I need to tell you about!

The same folks who bring us Mission Flour Tortillas (available in 6″, 8″, and 10″ sizes at major food stores across the U.S. trans fat and cholesterol free!) are having a Mission Menus Challenge – the big prize is a $10,000 kitchen makeover, and round-trip airfare and hotel accommodations for two to the Mission Menus Challenge Cook-off on September 10, 2010 at the Hard Rock Café in Los Angeles.

Your recipe needs to:

• Include Mission Flour Tortillas 
• Be original 
• Feed a family of five for $10 or less
• Be submitted before August 09th, 2010

And I KNOW you ladies can do that easily!  Recipes for families of that size for $5 are often bantered around online, and I know we’re pretty good at cooking frugally too .  AND Mission Flour Tortillas are a great fit for busy families – they’re versatile, easy to use, and fun for children to eat.

Mission Foods is also proud to support Share Our Strength, the leading national organization committed to ending childhood hunger in America.

Even if you don’t want to enter the contest, if you’re looking for quick, affordable recipes for your family, you can find them listed online at Missionmenus.com.