Tropicana Juicy Insider Program

I am excited to announce that I am an ambassador for the Tropicana Juicy Insider Program.  I was just reading a People magazine at the grocery store and saw an advertisement for the program and all of a sudden I felt a little special.

There are over 20,000 ways to save with this program.  Registering is easy.  Just visit www.tropicana.com.  Then with every specially marked package of Tropicana Orange Juice you will earn points to use towards rewards in this program.  These points can be used with companies like Adidas and EA Sports Active along with many other companies. One carton of Tropicana OJ can save you up to $15 on everything from tickets to the zoo to work out apparel.

I like to bring opportunities like this program to your attention because most of us buy orange juice for our families anyway.  This is a way to earn things in return for all the OJ we ingest (which in my house is a good bit )

**I wrote this review while participating in the Tropicana Juicy Insiders Ambassador program by Mom Central on behalf of Tropicana. I received 12 free Juicy Rewards points and a $50 Visa gift card to use in redemption of the points and to facilitate my review**

Children Count Too!

Every child loves a good game of hide and seek. There are the fun butterflies they get in their tummies when they’re waiting to be discovered and the pride they feel when they’re able to count to ten and then yelling, “Ready or not, here I come!”

But children who are hidden from the U.S. Census counts (taken only once every 10 years) are not a laughing matter. So, ready or not, here comes 2010 Census … and you have an important role to play!

Many parents may not realize the importance of accurately reporting the number of children in their family, including newborns. The truth is that the undercount of children means that we do not get a true picture of our nation and our communities do not get their rightful share of public funds.

Why Children Count Too
Children have been undercounted in every census since the first one in 1790. Local communities rely on census information in planning for schools, child care, health and other critical services. Babies need to be counted today, so they can benefit tomorrow from community services.

Census counts are used, in whole or in part, for more than 140 programs that distribute more than $400 billion of federal funds to states and localities, including such child-focused programs as:

• Special Education Grants to states ($10.8 billion)
• Head Start ($6.9 billion)
• State Children’s Health Insurance Program ($5.9 billion)
• Foster Care Title IV-E ($4.7 billion)
• Improving Teacher Quality State Grants ($2.9 billion)

Unlike adults, who may bear some responsibility for making sure they are counted in the Census, children are dependent on others to make sure they are included. Yet in 1980, 1990, and 2000, Census Bureau data show children, particularly young children, are one of the groups most likely to be missed in the Census. In fact, in the 2000 Census, there was a net undercount of more than 1 million children under age 10.

When playing hide and seek your children have the opportunity to be found after ten seconds.

The Census only comes around every ten years. So when you receive your Census form in mid-March, make sure your child (no matter how old) is counted!

**I am helping to spread the word about the Census as a partner with the Global Influence network.  I may receive a gift card for my participation in this campaign.**

Suffer the little children…

As most of you know I have a passion for parentless children.  Whether that be orphans in Haiti or foster children here in the United States, I believe in the promise of Psalm 68:6 where the Bible says:

God sets the lonely in families…

I love that verse.  If you want to be further inspired about this important topic, my friend Kim is guest posting on @RealLifeSarah’s blog.  You can read her touching story here.

Then read below to see how you can get more information about an organization that finds forever families for children that need them.

Last year AdoptUsKids hosted two adoption chats on Twitter.  As a result, some Twitter users actually made the decision to move forward with the adoption process.

If you missed our earlier events, please join us for a live Twitter party later this month, sponsored by AdoptUsKids. AdoptUsKids is a national project whose role is to recruit and connect foster and adoptive families with waiting children throughout the United States.

Funded by the Children’s Bureau of the Administration for Children and Families, AdoptUsKids hosts a national photo listing website contains photos and information about children in foster care waiting for families to adopt them. You may have seen some of the Public Service Announcements with the message “You don’t have to be perfect to be a perfect parent.”

Each year the campaign has a specialized target, based on the needs of children in care.  This year’s focus is finding homes for African-American children in care, who make up 31% of the children waiting to be adopted. African-American children are overrepresented in the foster care population relative to their percentage in the U.S. general population. Because of this, African American children often wait longer to be adopted.

To learn more about adopting from foster care and how to help spread the word about children in care waiting for a forever family, please visit AdoptUsKids. To search for children in your area, visit the AdoptUsKids Child Search.

Please join us Tuesday, February 23rd from 2:00 to 3:00 p.m. EST on Twitter for a safe and open informational chat about the benefits of adoption, as well as adoption from foster care with representatives from AdoptUsKids.

To participate, please follow @AdoptUsKids and @resourcefulmom, and use the hashtag #AdoptUsKids. Facebook users may also wish to become a fan of AdoptUsKids on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/AdoptUsKids.

This campaign is brought to you by Global Influence Network.

Faith, Family and Finances

Tomorrow (Wednesday) is part 2 of my (free, sponsored by Christian Women Affiliate) webinar on Faith, Family and Finances. The webinar will be live from 1:30pm to 2:30pm EST and will be available for replay.

You can attend by clicking this link.  I would love to have you there. If you missed the 1st session you can visit Christian Women Affiliate for the replay.

A Woman Inspired…I’m Speaking

While I was at a conference last July (you know, the one that changed my life and I can’t wait to go back to this year? yeah, that one!) I had the privilege of meeting Amy Bayliss, co-founder of A Woman Inspired.

I had attended a few of Amy’s online conferences and was so excited to connect with her in person.

Fast forward six months and I have continued to connect with Amy via various endeavors, including Christian Women Affiliate.

As you can imagine I was so thrilled to receive an email from Amy asking me to speak at her upcoming conference, Nurturing Creativity and Efficient Living (kinda right up my alley, huh?)

My session is on Thursday January 28th, 2010 at 12:30pm EST. I will be teaching on Setting Realistic Goals and Priorities.  Here is my session description:

Do you have trouble saying “no”?  Do you find yourself with too much to do and too little time?  This session will help you evaluate things according to your personal and family priorities before committing yourself to something.  Our time is valuable.  With so many demands (and requests) made of our time, we need to learn to be intentional about what we devote ourselves to. Join professional organizer and speaker, Melissa Smallwood, as she teaches how to set your family priorities and goals and how to stick to them

In addition to yours truly there are many other awesome women speaking on the topic throughout the week.  Be sure to register and reserve your spot!  I promise you will be inspired!

Mamavation Monday

I am so proud of the Mamavation moms and Leah Segedie from Bookieboo for coming up with the concept.

I had fallen off the Mamavation wagon during the holidays although I was able to make some changes like eliminating soda from our house, switching to all whole grains and trying to increase my physical activity.

Today, I want to focus on a friend’s Mamavation journey, so please read this:

Guest Post by Katie Hostetter at Frugal Femina

If you follow me on Twitter, you know exactly what the word “mamavation” means, because I have been eating, sleeping, and breathing it since I applied on January 1st. I am fortunate to have some followers left! Basically, it’s a 7-week boot camp to help 2 moms get fit in 2010, and it’s supported by Smooth Fitness, Earth Footwear, EA SPORTS Active, Gaiam, Bookie Boo, and MomTV. The team gives you a ton of support with a nutritional plan, a fitness program, and much more! You can watch my application video and read all about my lil’ journey over at Frugal Femina.

I am so blessed to have made it into the top 5 finalists. Now I need you to vote daily so I can make it into the final 2! I already shared my measurements with thousands of people, so you know I am committed! But seriously, this is all part of my quest to make 2010 one of the most positive years ever. I’m finishing up my last semester of nursing school, reading through the Bible in 90 days, taking care of Xon and Bradley {aka Hubs and Little Munchkin}, and trying to take care of myself, too! I’m not Superwoman, but I do want to focus on good things this year and surround myself with good friends and family.

So I’m hopin’ you’ll cheer me on and head on over to Mamavation and vote. You can vote once a day from each IP address through the 21st. And I won’t mind a bit if you happen to spread the word amongst your friends. Maybe I can encourage you all along the way! Mamavation is a great network of support, and you can be involved whether you have 200 pounds to lose or 0. We all need to stay healthy and fit!

Special thanks to Andrea at Mommy Snacks for being my Fit Friend and encouraging me throughout this campaign.

Haiti- What can we do?

Sometimes it feels like I live in a bubble, a very blessed bubble. Wednesday I traveled to NYC to sightsee and be a part of Martha Stewart’s blogging show (and yes I will post on that later).

With all the fun I was having I was out of touch with what was going on in the rest of the world…but when I got home Thursday evening the images of Haiti and the reality of the devastation there brought me to my knees.

I cried for the children, for the mama’s who lost their children and the children who lost their mama’s, for the innocent victims of a natural disaster.  I cried out to God to “fix it”..why do people have to suffer so much?

It is easy to get caught up in the day to day stuff and forget that other people are suffering.  It is a shame that it takes a tragedy of this magnitude to stir me from my self absorbed bubble.

But stirred I am.  I want to DO something for the people of Haiti.  And thanks to the power of social media and the internet the options are endless.  Here are a few of the ways we can help:

You can text “haiti” to 90999 and $10 will be donated to the Red Cross.

You can text ‘disaster” to 90999 and $10 will be donated to Compassion International (a charity I have long supported and believe in)

You may think that $10 isn’t really going to help…but just know that in the last few days over $5 million dollars has been raised by people giving $10.

Be a part of that- the Bible tells us that we are blessed to be a blessing to others.

Let us live that out today and everyday.

Multi Tasking Mama Updates

Have some housekeeping and announcements to make at the start of this fine week!

First, we have two winners of the Susan G. Komen Commemorative journals, donated by Energizer.  According to random.org, our eligible winners are Lemonade Making Mama and Muthering Heights.  Please contact me here within 72 hours to claim your prize and provide me with your mailing address.

Second, they have discovered the reason for my “hives”, which have turned out not to be hives.  I have lupus and am experiencing a skin flare.  Is it possible to have lupus and multiple sclerosis?  Well, the consensus between all my “ologists” is yes…it is rare but seems definitive in my case.  What does this mean?

It means I am going on a new medication to treat the lupus (said medication is making me more tired, which I didn’t think was humanly possible).  I have had a bunch of tests done to confirm all my diagnoses so that the doctors feel comfortable with these disorders (which they do).

It means big changes for our family.  We have been quietly praying about and considering downsizing our 3300 sq ft. home on two acres since my original multiple sclerosis diagnosis almost two years ago.  With this newest wrench in things, Mike and I both felt strongly that downsizing is the best option for our family right now.  We officially put our house on the market this weekend and I will be busy de-cluttering and packing in the next few weeks/months, etc. as we prepare to move.

We will be staying in our current area so that our boys friends, church, etc. is not disrupted unnecessarily.

I covet your prayers at this time.  Life is a little nuts right now and I don’t want to lose my focus on family or ministry during these circumstances.  God is bigger than all of this!!

Be blessed!

Melissa

Giveaway Notice

Hey ladies!  I will be hosting all future giveaways on my Living Life by Design site.  Right now I am giving away a Rubbermaid Easy Find Lid container system.  Open to US residents only, winner to be chosen by random.org on 6/22/09.  Visit my site to enter.  Thanks!  Melissa

 

Free fun for Earth Day

Hi readers:

The folks at EcoStore have asked me to pass along a great opportunity for free family fun if you live in the Cincinnati area (wishing I did for this one Here is the information they sent me:

Wednsday 4/22/09 Disney will be promoting Ecostore USA ask Ecoman (Malcolm Rands) Meijer store tour at the Cincinnati Meijer Radio Disney. This promotion will coincide with the premier of the new Disney movie Earth.

The first 25 moms or dads that ask Malcolm the Ecoman A question will receive an organic Ecostore T-Shirt. There will be entertainment for the kids while mom and dad ask Malcolm ( Ecoman) questions.

You do not want to miss out on this one it is going to be GREAT! Please see time and place below.

4/22 Cincinnati – Harrison Road (4-6 PM)

Sounds like fun, huh? I am also looking forward to seeing that movie. Be on the lookout because I will be offering a review/giveaway of the EcoStore products in two weeks!

Happy Sunday!