This winner will receive a copy of each of the three recently published books for their kids.

Congratulations are in order to……….

Linda Jackson!!!

Hurray, Linda!! I hope your children will love these books.

To read more about each of these 3 books, see my full review here.

***Disclaimer: When you purchase through Amazon links on my website, I do collect advertising fees.***

And here is a link to each of these 3 darlin’ newly published books on Amazon:

Your kids will love these.

Lincoln’s Big Adventure is also available free for Kindle Unlimited subscribers.

EXTRA big thank you to the authors of these three books for supplying our giveaway!

We closed April off on a happy note here at our house too. My oldest son is playing basketball, and they came in second place in this weekend’s tournament. That was exciting.

Plus, Alan took the boys to bring-your-kids-to work day this past week, and that was a hit.

And now my nine-year-old is here, and he wants me to get him registered for football, so I will stop here. I wish you all a wonderful May!

And be sure to check out my first successful YouTube video ever. ha! Yes, I’ve made many YouTube videos before to use on my blogs, but this is the first one to ever have over 1,300 views.

It is all about how to keep your clothes organized and decluttered when you have a small closet. My system will also make sure you vary your wardrobe and don’t get stuck wearing the same five shirts over and over again while the others just sit there.

Have a great week, y’all!! Congratulations again to our giveaway winner, Linda!

The post Let’s Start May with a Sprinkle of Joy: Announcing the Giveaway Winner! appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

I am so happy to announce our first giveaway in months, and it is an EXCITING one, just in time for Christmas!

***This post and giveaway are sponsored by Picturesongold.com. All opinions are my own.***

Let me tell you all about what you could win in this giveaway from PicturesonGold.com.

This is a $140.00 value sterling silver locket with your chosen photos laser engraved into the locket. That is my favorite part about it. You do not have to go hunting through your house for some tiny pictures. This is the problem with me and all those “personalized Christmas ornaments.” Who has time to go hunting for photos?

With this jewelry, you upload the photos you want in your locket straight from your phone or computer. I customized mine using the photos on my phone, and it took all of five minutes. Most of those minutes were spent just deciding which pictures to use.

First, you get to pick your locket shape and cover.

They have circle, heart, oval, dog tag, and square lockets. You can also order all sorts of pendants or bracelets, but this giveaway is for a locket. There are so many choices!

Choose whether you want gold or silver. I chose sterling silver.

Then you choose what you want engraved on the front. I am a sucker for a monogram, so I went with that on both my necklace and my mom’s.

Isn’t the monogram so pretty??

I ordered mine back in 2017, and I wrote about it here. This year I designed one for my mom, and it will be her Christmas present this year.

Personalized gifts are such a significant thing to give to your family and friends. I am a total sucker for a #1 Mom necklace or jewelry with my kids’ birthstones. This locket goes even above and beyond that with photos that feel like a hug each time you wear it and open it up and look at their smiling faces.

Choosing which photos to put inside is always the hardest decision for me. I was designing mine for my mom. Who do I choose?? She has so many of us to love!! I chose group photos to try to include as many family members as I could.

The photos in the locket turned out well, but it was hard to get a good picture of the engraved pictures. The one on the left side of the locket is of mom, dad, my brother and his wife, and my husband and me, along with our two-month old first baby. That was an extra merry Christmas, with the addition of the first little grandchild.

The picture on the right has all five of mom and dad’s grandchildren, all together for last Christmas. Plus, it was a good picture of everyone, which is always an amazing accomplishment in itself.

This locket holds up extremely well.

I still have mine that I ordered in 2017. In fact, I am wearing it right now, and it is still in perfect condition, though I did change out the chain this year for a shorter one.

Be sure to enter the giveaway, so you can win one of these beauties for yourself or to give as a gift this Christmas!

***Rules to Enter***

-Must be 18 to enter and win

-Must be U.S. resident

Don’t wait for the giveaway though. Check out all the ways you can make photo-engraved jewelry for your family this Christmas here: PicturesOnGold.com. Here is a discount code just for my readers: FESTIVE10

The post The New Perfect Christmas Gift Giveaway 2020 appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

Some years Halloween sneaks up on me and finds me woefully unprepared. Seriously, every single year we end up scrambling the day of trick-or-treating to figure out someone’s costume. At least one person ALWAYS has no plan.

THIS year I want to make it different. We are going to do this right. I mean honestly Halloween has never been my favorite holiday because all things gross and scary are definitely not my thing. I’m holding out for Christmas before you will see any lights going up at our house.

BUT we do love fall, and pumpkins, and even trick-or-treating. I mean look at these guys:

What you don’t see in that adorable photo is how much the dinosaur cried about having to wear a costume or that the Lightning McQueen tried on 3 different costumes before he finally settled on that one.

So I am proud to announce that preparations are underway. Perhaps if I tell them 1000 times what they are going to be in advance, they will have accepted it and no one will melt down because their costume is “dumb, stupid, itchy, too big, too small, or too embarrassing.”

In fact, there was one year that my costume was “so embarrassing” to them that they begged me not to wear it on Halloween night!

I am soooo embarrassing.

Like my neon wig? You can find similar ones in green, pink, or blue here.

I haven’t decided for sure what I’m going to do this year yet, but I did get excited when I found this:

That’s April O’Neil from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, for those of you not born in the 70s/80s. Awesome, right? And you might recall that one of my sons used to be convinced that I am April O’Neil.

….And how hilarious would it be if one of the boys wore this:

just the wig, not the mask. Hehehe I think that’d be so fun, if I can get them to go along with it.

Of course, we’re on our 13th year of parenting, so we also have a bucket of worn out costumes in the basement. I’m hoping I can get one more good wear out of this one with John David or Daniel:

We are huge fans of all costumes Star Wars and super hero related. Try this place if you’re looking for costumes from your favorite t.v. shows and movies.

You could even be Forrest Gump. I kid you not. Look!

Have you noticed all those cute inflatable dinosaur costumes? I saw a really neat giraffe one that I’d love to see someone wear:

I truly wish John David’s Yoda costume still fit because guess who is going to be Yoda this year!!

Daddy is Yoda this year!!! But shhh! don’t tell my children because he wants to surprise them…which I didn’t realize when I told Daniel yesterday. Or was it JD I told? With someone I let the cat out of the bag..

You can find character hoodies and t-shirts here if you’d rather not go full-costume. I think the hoodie is the perfect solution since Halloween is usually a cool night. This one is light weight, cozy, and instantly recognizable. I may take a turn wearing it myself next year!

…And of course, when preparing for Halloween, you gotta buy candy every time you see that it’s on sale. I personally have 3 bags expertly hidden in my house. Not a single boy knows that I have any. The only problem is that I have started eating it already….

Sigh. Self-control seems to have flown right out the window.

Now for the best news of all.

TVStoreOnline.com  is providing a $40 gift card for one of my readers!!!!

In order to enter the giveaway, click on the option you’d like to do below. For example, you can click “visit their Facebook page.” It will ask you to log in to Facebook so that we will know that you entered.  You can enter with just one option, or you can choose all 3 for even more entries.

All I get is your name and email, and I only use them to notify the winner.

This contest ends October 8th at midnight. That way the winner will have enough time to use their $40 gift card in time for Halloween!

Good luck!!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

The post It’s That Time Again: Planning Our Halloween Costumes appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

The nice folks at Picturesongold.com have supplied me with ANOTHER locket to give away!

This giveaway doesn’t end until 11:59 PM Christmas day! Hooray!!!

I’m including my original review of picturesongold.com’s lockets for you to see how awesome they are.

The giveaway form is at the bottom of this post. Best of luck!!

***I was not paid to write this review. All opinions are my own.***

Living  in the South has ignited a passion in me for all things monogrammed, engraved, and personalized, so when I came across this locket that you can personalize online in 5 minutes with words AND photos, and order it right to your doorstep, I HAD to try it. Thankfully, I was able to get my hands on a free blogger sample. (Thank you picturesongold.com!)

Making the Locket on PicturesOnGold.com

I was a little nervous about making it. Usually places like this want an exact size of photo, or I goof up and order 3 instead of 1…..like I did with those Third Love bras…but that’s another story…

Y’all! It was SO EASY, and there were OPTIONS– like Subway!! Silver or gold? What should be on the front? Which font? Choose your left inside. Words or photo? Choose the right inside. Choose what’s on the back. How long of a chain? Which type of shipping?

Want to see what I picked?

All 4 boys on the left, Alan and me on the right

What made me the happiest of all was that the upload time was quick, and they automatically shrink it to fit the locket. Then I was able to slide the photo around on there to center and enlarge the photos the way I wanted.

For the front I chose engraved initials:

Love!

It goes with everything. I was so excited when it arrived in the mail only a few days later, but you choose your own shipping option.

What sold me was that when the locket came, it was ready to wear. I did NOT have to go searching the house for tiny photos to fit in it. They are permanently “photoengraved” in.

Reader’s Discount!!!

You can use this code, just for my readers: BLOG10  That will give you 10% off your locket order. I cannot guarantee that the code will work in conjunction with other discounts.

Just go here to see all the personalized gifts they sell.

And now for the giveaway!!! Whoo-whoo!!!!

Prize is a locket like mine from PicturesOnGold.com for you to personalize online.

***Open to US residents only.***

Log in to the Rafflecopter below using Facebook or your email address. Then select one or more of the entering options to complete your giveaway entry!

Best of luck! Winner will be announced the day after Christmas!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

The post The Christmas Giveaway: a Personalized Locket! appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

***I was not paid to write this review. All opinions are my own.***

Living  in the South has ignited a passion in me for all things monogrammed, engraved, and personalized, so when I came across this locket that you can personalize online in 5 minutes with words AND photos, and order it right to your doorstep, I HAD to try it. Thankfully, I was able to get my hands on a free blogger sample. (Thank you picturesongold.com!)

Making the Locket on PicturesOnGold.com

I was a little nervous about making it. Usually places like this want an exact size of photo, or I goof up and order 3 instead of 1…..like I did with those Third Love bras…but that’s another story…

Y’all! It was SO EASY, and there were OPTIONS– like Subway!! Silver or gold? What should be on the front? Which font? Choose your left inside. Words or photo? Choose the right inside. Choose what’s on the back. How long of a chain? Which type of shipping?

Want to see what I picked?

All 4 boys on the left, Alan and me on the right

What made me the happiest of all was that the upload time was quick, and they automatically shrink it to fit the locket. Then I was able to slide the photo around on there to center and enlarge the photos the way I wanted.

For the front I chose engraved initials:

Love!

It goes with everything. I was so excited when it arrived in the mail only a few days later, but you choose your own shipping option.

What sold me was that when the locket came, it was ready to wear. I did NOT have to go searching the house for tiny photos to fit in it. They are permanently “photoengraved” in.

Reader’s Discount!!!

After the Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales are over, you can use this code, just for my readers: BLOG10  That will give you 10% off your locket order. I cannot guarantee that the code will work in conjunction with other discounts.

Just go here to see all the personalized gifts they sell.

And now for the giveaway!!! Whoo-whoo!!!!

Prize is a locket like mine from PicturesOnGold.com for you to personalize online.

***Open to US residents only.***

Log in using Facebook or your email address. Then select one or 2 or all of the entering options to complete your giveaway entry! Best of luck! Winner will be announced in a week!

Happy Thanksgiving!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

SaveSave

The post Beautiful Personalized Gifts for Christmas with Giveaway! appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

How’s everyone’s Cyber Monday going? Ours was great. We did no shopping, but I did go to my cardio aqua-therapy class!!  So fun and invigorating!

This giveaway is for two packs of fill-in-the-blank notes from Lil’ Miss Gratitude!!  One of your packs will be thank-yous, and the other pack will either be birthday cards or “Hello” cards.

The front of the cards come blank so your kids color the front, or you can also send them out uncolored! These are appropriate for ALL AGES of kids.

I colored this one!

My boys colored this one. Creative.

These are an awesome way to get your kids expressing gratitude, brightening someone else’s day, and all without the whining and fussing.

Here’s a sample of a completed card:

Sample of a “hello” card that we used as a thank you note.

Joshua needed to write about 12 thank you notes after his birthday party, and when he saw these fill-in-the-blank cards, he was so relieved, he ACTUALLY SAID, “Oh, phew. Thank you, Mom. Thank you so much for these. This makes it so much easier.”

Click here to learn more about Lil’ Miss Gratitude!

Giveaway rules! TWO simple ways to enter the giveaway this time.

1.) Subscribe to my newsletter. I have one going out this week! Already subscribed? No problem. That also counts. No need to subscribe again. Just click on the giveaway form below.

OR

2.) Visit Lil’ Miss Gratitude on Facebook, and  give her a “Like.” 

OR You could also do BOTH and get double entries.

I wish you could all win! Merry Christmas!!!!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

The post Cyber Monday Gratitude GIVEAWAY!!!!! appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.

November is quite possibly my favorite month of the year.

Why? It all boils down to 2 primary reasons.

#1. It is not SUPPOSED to be 90 degrees anymore.

I’d do anything to get these temps turned down. ARE humans causing global warming? I don’t know. I don’t care anymore. If there’s a chance it might work, here, take my car keys……. Wait……. Does that mean I have to home  school again? No, never mind. You can have my electricity, but I am going to have to insist on driving my kids to school. The gas guzzling minivan actually does take precedence over global warming after all. Sorry, y’all.

But seriously, bring on the blue jeans weather!!! And leggings! And boots!

fun times spent with family

It’s so refreshing to be nearer to our peeps.

#2. Low maintenance holiday.

Yes, it is. Eat with friends or family. Share the cooking responsibilities. No one has to buy presents. We don’t have to take out any loans. Just be thankful.

And you know who invented Thanksgiving?? Why, President Abraham Lincoln, of course!!  

Not making that up. I read about Lincoln all the time. I never thought about presidents of years past until we moved to Washington, D.C. Plus, Caleb adored Lincoln, and it rubbed off on me, sort of like Joshua’s fascination with animals. I love the way my children have changed me!

“…I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Seal of the United States to be affixed….”     –President Lincoln, Oct. 3, 1863

You have to love a man who was called “Honest Abe” even while he was still alive.

He was greatly loved and equally hated in his own time.

In fact, in our current political system, he would have never been the Republican nominee. How do I know? Because he was elected at the convention, not from the sort of primary system we have now. Nope. The delegates at the Republican convention put in a first ballot, and the person with the most votes was Seward. William Henry Seward. He became President Lincoln’s right hand man, but at the convention it was Seward who won the first round of ballots.

The delegates then haggled and regrouped and voted again and again, allowing the delegates to switch their support. Lincoln won on the third ballot.

Funny how differently it was run back then, isn’t it? I dare say we would have a different nominee if that old system were still in place, actually.

I’m thankful it was Lincoln that won on that third ballot.

I heard in a video on the internet the other day a cartoon character remark that Thanksgiving is not a religious holiday. Ugh. Wrong.

Of course, it IS. It was ALWAYS meant to be. You want a non-religious holiday?? You have Halloween, which is not a bad holiday. It is a time when we come together and fellowship with our neighbors, something we could also use a little more of.

People often cite how terribly divided our country is right now, but remember, it is not “the most divided it has ever been.” We aren’t having a Civil War, now are we?

Be thankful! Give thanks to our beneficent Father!!!

I could go on and on about Lincoln, because he was wonderful, but I’ll save that for another post. Today I just want to wish you a happy fall, remind you to enter my giveaway (because I love to give good things to my friends and readers), and encourage you to pray for our country, just as President Lincoln asked us to so many years ago.

Will you vote this year? I know. These choices are so unpopular. So unpopular I’d be embarrassed to endorse either of them. But it is our civic duty to vote and even more so to pray.

God bless! And bring out the turkeys!!!  🙂

Win a brand new cutting board!!!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

The post Global Warming, Honest Abe, and the Best Month Ever appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.