The winners of Sheila Walsh’s Beautiful Things Happen When a Woman Trusts God are:

• Melissa  (donaldandmelissa@)
• Casey  (jcparker3@)
• Maren  (lee_maren@)
• Jeni  (jeniwilmot@)
• Lori L.  (monlor@)

Beautiful Things Happen When a Woman Trusts God is a wonderful read and a great tool in helping us remember that God is a God we can trust!!

The winner of the Garden Safe products package is:

Leah (mlkeysor03@)

Congrats!

Today is Mothers’ Day.  I love being a mother.  I am so thankful that God blessed me with four wonderful children.  I take them for granted, when truly they are the best gift God has given my husband and me.

My husband and boys do a wonderful job making Mother’s Day special for me.  They don’t let me cook.  They don’t let me do dishes.  They take special annual Mother’s Day pictures out by the peach tree we planted four years ago.  I love celebrating Mother’s Day with my men.

And yet, for some reason…all I can do today is cry.

I miss my own mama.

And today would have been her 61st birthday.

Why in the world did her birthday have to fall on Mother’s Day this year?  Mother’s Day is hard enough.  Her birthday is hard enough.   Both on the same day?  Ugh.

For a couple of weeks now, so many things I’ve seen and heard are painful reminders that I no longer have my mom around.  Our radio keeps asking people to call in and share about why their mom is so special.  There are ads all over the place suggesting that we should get our mothers flowers and other wonderful gifts.

You know what I would have given my mom for Mother’s Day/her birthday this year?

A new shirt.

Because that’s what I gave her every year.  Because that’s what she always wanted.  Because she loved getting new shirts.  Because even though it felt boring and unoriginal to give her the exact same thing every year…if I didn’t pick out a new shirt for her…deep down I think she would have been disappointed.  Because she loved getting a new shirt.  And she loved it when I was the one picking out the new shirt for her.  I knew just what she liked.

This time of year, I am drawn to shirts that my mom would have liked.  When I am out shopping, I see a cute button up blouse (usually in some shade of blue) and I almost buy it.  Every year.  Because I always got her a new shirt.

And now, every year, I hurt and feel joy at the same time when I see a shirt that she would have liked for her birthday or for Mother’s Day.  And I feel ridiculous standing in the clothing department with tears running down my face because for Pete’s sake, it’s a shirt.  Who cries over shirts?

I do.  Every May.

Anyway, I love Mother’s Day.  It’s a wonderful day to honor precious women in our lives. 

But today, I’m hurting.  And I’m weepy.  And I miss my mom.

And I figured you wouldn’t mind if I shared that with you.

I’ve heard from so many of you that you are excited to learn more about gardening and preserving your own fruits and vegetables.  Tis the season to start thinking about a garden…I’m SO excited!  I can’t wait to eat a fresh tomato that is right out of my yard!  I’ll be blogging my gardening and preserving progress throughout the next few months.

To get this season started with a kick, I’ve knocked $3.00 off  Heavenly Homemaker’s Guide to Gardening and Preserving e-book!  This sale price will only last until next weekend, so hurry to take advantage!

You can read all about what this ebook includes here. 

Go check out Heavenly Homemaker’s Guide to Gardening and Preserving!

I am so excited to be following an awesome group of bloggers who are in Kenya as we speak!

Please, please be praying for the Compassion Bloggers who are spending a week in Kenya, loving on kids and families there.

Read along and learn about their amazing experiences!

And, if you can, I’d love to encourage you to sponsor a child through Compassion International.  Our family has been richly blessed because of this ministry.

My beloved Tropical Traditions is offering FREE SHIPPING today only (March 1)!!  I’ve found that a free shipping day is always THE BEST way to save money on an order of my favorite Tropical Traditions products!

Take advantage of this until midnight EST!

The winner of the Have Your Cookie…and Eat it Too! ebook giveaway is:

Jessica   (jjjvan@)  Congrats!

Be sure to check out Have Your Cookie…and Eat it Too! ebook in my shop.  I knocked a (temporary) two dollars off the price, just for fun!!

Have Your Cookie…Eat it…and SAVE!!

The winner of the Tropical Traditions Omega 3 Antioxident Greens giveaway is:

Donna!!  Congrats!

One more quick plug for these Omega 3 Greens…I’ve been taking this daily for a few weeks now and I LOVE IT!!  It tastes good and I feel GOOD.  I LOVE that I’m getting Omega 3 because I KNOW that usually, I don’t get enough.  I am definitely adding this to my Tropical Traditions favorites list!

Here is the deal you don’t want to miss out on:

• Antioxident Omega 3 Greens are 50% off until Feb. 14!
• Enter the coupon code 080210 and receive an EXTRA 10% off your entire order (until midnight Feb. 10)!
• Enter my referral number 5342568 when asked “How did you hear about us?” and receive this free book (which is a great resource)!

Woohoo…I’m off to order more greens!

As you can see, we’re back up and running on the new server, but we have quite a few little things to do to get everything back to “normal”.  Please bear with us as we finalize the upgrade!

Thanks!

I’m sorry it took me so long to get around to posting winners of the November Gratitude Challenge giveaways! 

Winner of the $25 Gift Certificate to Heavenly Homemakers Shop:  Therese  (theresebradley@)

Winner of the Handmade Prayer Journal:  Bethel Home

Winner of the Stainless Steel Beginners Baking Pack:  Phyllis at Prairie Girl Wannabe

AND…

The winner of the Handmade Advent Calendar at the ReJoyce Etsy shop is:

Hope (hopeann.thompson@)

Be sure to stop by Joyce’s shop and take another look around at her wonderful crafts!