Friday, July 22, 2011

Robert Pierre "I'm All In" CD Review and GIVEAWAY

I was recently given the opportunity to review Robert Pierre's new CD "I'm All In".  This is a contemporary gospel CD and will be released on July 26th.  Robert Pierre is a contemporary gospel singer and "I'm All In" is his 3rd studio album.  He is an extremely talented young singer.  Contemporary gospel is not typically our "style" of music but we did enjoy listening to many of these songs.  My kids really enjoyed  a couple of them and have been walking around the house singing them all week.  I love to hear my kids singing about loving their Savior.  Robert's love for the Lord comes through in his singing.

Robert says of the new album,
"All of the songs have something to do with things I was going through my senior year [in high school], preparing to say goodbye to friends and not really knowing what would come next, but finding comfort and peace in the Lord's plan for my life.  The Bible talks about how the eyes of the Lord are searching to and from throughout the eary, searching for someone whose heart is wholly His, someone He can strongly support. This CD is me saying 'I'm All In'."

You can learn more about Robert and his albums at his website, through facebook or purchase the album through Amazon

Disclaimer:  I received a copy of this product for free in the hope that I would mention it on my blog. Regardless, I will give my HONEST review of the product.  There has been no other compensation given for the review.

A GIVEAWAY!!!
The marketing team for Robert's new album has been very generous and is also giving away a CD to one of my lucky readers!  There are a couple of ways to enter the giveaway:

1.  If you are not already a follower follow my blog via GFC and let me know in a comment.  If you are already a follower just let me know in a comment.

2.  Visit Robert's website and enter the guitar giveaway (ends July 25th) come back here and comment letting me know you entered that giveaway.

3. Blog about this contest and link it to this post then come let me know you did so in the comment section.  

4. Link this post to your Facebook and come let me know you did so in the comment section.

So, you can get up to four entries in to the contest.  The album is going to be released July 26th so I will close the contest at midnight Tuesday, July 26th.  This is a short contest so let your friends know!  


Thursday, July 21, 2011

"...From the Mouth of Babes" - Book Review

Kimberly Williams is a homeschool Mom to three children, a pastor's wife and an author. Being "just" a homeschool Mom and a wife I know my plate is full so I imagine hers is too. But, somehow, she manages to squeeze the title of author into her life. She has written a series of Bible studies for ladies and now her latest book is a compilation of short stories all about this crazy world we live in. "...From the Mouth of Babes" is a wonderful addition to any Mother's reading list.


Kimberly's purpose in writing is to point others toward Christ and to encourage women in their walk with the Lord. In this book she is definitely an encouragement to me as a homeschooling Mom and wife to my husband. Through short stories she makes you laugh and cry as well as encourages you to be the lady God meant you to be. She encourages us to love and train our children for Christ and more importantly be a helpmeet to our husbands as God commanded us to do. This book is a very enjoyable read that gives you a glimpse into the daily life of this amazing lady who truly walks with the Lord. It is a great addition to my nightstand for nightly reading. I often find I will pick it up to read an antecdote or two and before I know it I have been reading for 45 minutes. It is encouraging, fun, and practical all rolled into one.

The book is divided in to:

-Stories about Marriage and Children
-Stories about Life and Spiritual Growth
-Stories about the Church and our Culture
-Stories about Holidays and Special Occasions

You can learn more about Kimberly on her blog

If you are looking for a great book to encourage you as you start the new school year you can purchase it for only $14.95 here. Or you can order it on Amazon. While you are ordering one for yourself order an extra for a friend that might need some encouragement.

You might also be interested in her Bible studies. I plan to order her study on the book of James soon.

Disclaimer: I received this product for free in exchange for my honest opinion of the book. No other compensating was given for this review, and the above is my honest opinion.

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Thursday, July 7, 2011

Organization!! Is it possible? Part 2

You may remember my post a few days ago about organizing our loft/office/library area. I am still busily working on it. Today I hired my niece to watch the kids so I could have some uninterrupted time to organize. As of my last post this is what the two areas looked like.

This is the original "schoolroom" turned junk room/school storage space. This is the space we are making Steve's office space. I cleaned it out last time and here it is almost EMPTY which was an all day project in itself.





Here is the office space/loft area that will become the "library".




We took Steve's desk and moved it to his new office:





He also works on other peoples computers and needed a space in his new office for that, as well as a book shelf for his books. We didn't want to spend any money on another desk and the other desk from the loft/office was too big to put in the space. So this is what we came up with. This is his personal computer that he does some web design on, as well as uses the monitor to hook up to other pc's he is working on. It's far from beautiful, but it is functional.






Now, for the loft/library. I have some of my bookshelves in there and have started sorting the books:





I still need a few more bookshelves.

Here is the MESS that is still lingering to be sorted through. It is amazing to me how cleaning something out can often make such a huge mess. But, at least I have a plan and the space to work the plan. Now, if I can just find the time to work the plan!




And, the part of the loft that Steve still has to go through that I have yet to post a picture of:




This is where computers come after they die. Steve often get computers that people want to know if it is worth updating or if they should just be replaced. Those computers that just need to be replaced or often left for us to do something with and they end up here! There are also parts of all kinds that were replaced with new parts. Anyway, Steve is so busy those parts just pile up. I promise our whole house doesn't look like this...just the parts we don't see often! Steve is working on getting all these parts sorted through and either taken to the dump or stored in the attic. Hopefully, next post will be of a completely clean and organized loft area!

And, one more organization project I was able to do this week:



My kids have WAY too many toys. So many that they don't play with a most of them. But, I know they would love them, if supervised correctly. So, I took a few of their sets of things and put them In clear storage boxes and labeled them. I plan to use them as fun workbox items during the school year. I need to get 2 more boxes for play-doh and K'nex.

They do play with the legos (all the time) but they were EVERYWHERE. My husband and I often joke that you can't clean up anywhere in our house without finding at least a handful of legos. I don't know how they end up where they end up sometimes. So, I condensed the Legos to one box. We could have easily filled up 3 or 4 of these boxes with legos but we are trying to get rid of stuff around here. It took us a full day to go through the legos and make sure we had all the "special" pieces that the kids wanted to make sure and keep and to get all the parts of the "guys". We have a small box of just the pieces for the guys. They have had so much fun this week building their armies. We must have 100+ lego mini figures. It really is ridiculous!

So, there's my organizing for the week. How is yours coming?

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Sunday, July 3, 2011

Homeschool Supply List

Betty at Peace Creek on the Prairie put up her supply list and asked others to do the same and link up. I think it's a great idea to look at other supply lists to make sure we are not forgetting anything. So, here is my list--so far--just like everything else it can change at any moment! I try to purchase all of our supplies in the summer so we are ready to go and we don't run out and have to make extra trips to the store.

-Pencils--yellow #2 pencils are the best (the fancy ones just don't sharpen right)
-Sharpies
-Dry-Erase Markers
-Clear Contact Paper
-Printer Paper
-Printer Ink (lots of it)
-Colored Card Stock Printer Paper
-Erasers

-Specialized scissors for Molly
-Markers (each kiddo gets a new box each year)
-Colored Pencils
-More workbox boxes (Paul is moving from 9 boxes to 12, and Zach is moving from 6 to 9)
-Construction Paper
-Various types of paint paper
-3 sketch books for nature journals
-New paint brushes (ours are really worn out)
-New play-doh (again, ours really needs to be replaced)
-New Backpacks and lunch boxes--We try to let the kids get themed backpacks and lunch boxes since everyone else they know gets them at this time of year. We didn't do it last year and the boys backpacks are getting a bit worn out as well as their interests have changed so I am hoping to be able to get them new ones this year. They like to use them for field trips as well as hiking in the woods behind the house.

I THINK that covers it. I am sure I will see something on someone else's list and need to add to this. So, after a costly trip to Wal-Mart and some more organizing we will be ready to start.

Thanks Betty, what a great idea!






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