Low-Cost Pregnancy Tests from Kisses From Above

Is there an official disorder for compulsive pregnancy test taking?

With 10 pregnancies so far, (we lost a baby in 2007) you can imagine how many pregnancy tests I've taken in my life! Waaay too many to be spending $10 or so every time I couldn't be patient and just had to know NOW! I'd heard about companies that offered testing strips for a much lower price, but had never actually seen them or tried them out.

My friend, Kendra, and her family run a home-based Christian business called, Kisses From Above. She sent me a generous trial package of pregnancy and ovulation tests---must-have items if you're like me and praying hard for more little ones to love! These are the same type tests the doctor offices use and are just as accurate as the store bought tests.

Besides the very inexpensive pregnancy and ovulation strips, Kisses From Above also offers books and fertility products, including supplements, at an amazing price. Right now, they've even got a sale going on for all Fertility Herbal Supplements.

Make sure to sign up for the newsletter, at the bottom of the site, to hear about upcoming sales, giveaways, and more; as well as to receive fertility tips and other great info!

Thanks so much to Kisses From Above for the opportunity to review your great products! This post contains affiliate links. I was compensated with products for this review and all opinions are honest and are my own.

Thanks for stopping by the Homemaking Party! Hope you're all having a lovely week!


Linking with:
Homemaking Party @ Hope In Every Season
Thursday Favorite Things @ Katherine's Corner
Thriving Thursday @ Serving Joyfully
Homeacre Hop   
Think Tank Thursday @ Saving4Six 
Home Sweet Home @ The Charm of Home 
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Inspiration Monday @ Your Homebased Mom
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Inspire Me Monday @ Create With Joy 
Marriage Monday
Making Your Home Sing Monday

Prepping For a Teen Driver at AutoInsurance.com #Compare2Win #shop #cbias

I am a member of the Collective Bias Social Fabric® Community.  Collective Bias has provided me with compensation for my time and effort to evaluate this website.  Participation in this program is voluntary. As always, all opinions are 100% my own.

Oftentimes I don't want to admit it, but it really is getting time for Lynzie to start learning to drive! Here in Arkansas, she can get her learners permit at 14---a year younger than Oregon. Jamie just bought a little Prius to commute in a couple weeks ago, but I think Lynzie has plans on taking it over! We've had a few discussions the last couple weeks about the responsibilities of driving. Things like staying off the phone, focusing on the road and not conversation, and making sure to carry good car insurance, are all important parts of Lynzie growing into a responsible teen driver.

At this point, she's pretty intimidated about driving the gigantic 15-passenger van, (not sure there's enough insurance out there to cover the possibilities...) but she thinks the Prius is just the right size for her. We do too, and we want to make sure we've got the right insurance to cover anything that might come up.

I've been spending some time comparing rates on AutoInsurance.com. It's a new site that is not affiliated with any particular insurance company---it's unbiased and is a neat way to compare coverage options. Right now, it's only fully functional in the following states: Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Louisiana, Tennessee, and Mississippi.

It's fun to change up the different coverage options to see how you can get your best rate---without feeling the pressure and intimidation of a salesman sitting across the table. To get started, you enter some information about yourself, and the site will pull up the vehicles you own. 

You just need to verify that it's all correct and then fill in a couple answers toward the bottom of the page. You'll then continue on to another page that will pull up your current insurance coverage. You'll be able to either use these amounts or you can change amounts and coverage options in order to compare your current coverage with other companies the site accesses.

Once you've decided on your amounts, you continue on to a screen that gives you several coverage amount options. You can click the gray tabs to go between different coverage and payment options. As you do, you'll see your coverage summary on the right change to match the plans. This shot shows the quotes for the coverage options I chose.

Here are my minimum coverage amounts. The site offered me quotes from two companies that I'm not yet familiar with, so I'll check these out and see what local friends think about them. 

Autoinsurance.com also has what I call the "fun page". This page, Auto Insurance 101, answers lots of questions and is really easy to navigate. I especially like the section at the bottom for finding out local information and laws for each state.

I think Jamie is looking forward to this whole teen driving thing a little more than I am. It must be a dad thing because the only part of all of this that has been fun for me, so far, is playing around on the website. Ha! My favorite thing about the site is that I can do my own research and comparing before ever talking to an agent. In fact, I don't have to talk to an agent at all, if I don't want to! I can purchase coverage when I'm finished comparing and do the whole thing online or over the phone. It's not that I'm antisocial or anything...just a little busy raising teens!

Visit AutoInsurance.com to discover your own rate options. You can also check them out on Facebook and Twitter.

#Compare2Win

#CollectiveBias

Gideon: A Homeschool Bible Study & Make Bake Create Party

By far, our favorite homeschool activity is doing history studies. We've had a Titanic Tea Party, made an Egypt Map Cake, and more! One of our favorite resources is Mystery of History. We've been using it for our homeschool Bible study time for about eight years now and we totally love it! Yesterday, we did the MOH lesson on Gideon and had so much fun with a couple great projects.

I read them half the story of Gideon in Judges 6, and then we did project number one: making clay pots. Some of the kids didn't recognize the significance yet, but they had fun putting them together while I talked about what Gideon's people would have used clay pots for. Everyone got two lengths of modeling clay and creatively formed them into unique vessels.

After that, I read them the rest of the story of Gideon's defeat over the Midianites and they learned that Gideon's army broke clay pots to intimidate the enemy army and defeat them. We talked about how God helped Gideon weed out warriors---one way was by having them take a drink from the river to see whether they would remain on guard while being bent down. Michael and Elisha demonstrated how much quicker it would have been for the "lapping" guys to jump up than for the kneeling men.

Finally, it was time for my big surprise! Everyone headed outside and I gave terra cotta pots to four of the kids. You know what's coming, don't you?!

Everyone raised their pot and yelled, "the sword of the Lord and Gideon!"....

SMASH!!! Yeah, it was awesome.

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#ad Southwestern Sour Cream Chicken Enchiladas #SummerofGiving #shop #cbias

I am a member of the Collective Bias® Social Fabric® Community.  This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper amplification for Collective Bias and its advertiser. All opinions are honest and are my own.

If you ever want to really bless me, bring me a meal. Many times, friends have brought our family food after the birth of a baby, during or after a move to a new place, or sometimes, just because. I absolutely love it! This is also one of my favorite things to do for others and I try to always be available when I hear there's a meal list going around for a friend in need. Recently, I heard about Tyson's partnership with Champions for Kids on a project called, Summer of Giving. Every time you purchase a specially marked bag of Tyson products, they'll donate a meal to a child in need. Ending hunger is an important goal for Tyson and they're dedicated to making people aware of the hunger problem in their own communities through their KNOW hunger campaign. 

I use these bags of Tyson Grilled & Ready chicken pieces all the time in recipes. They're convenient, they taste great, and the price is good. Walmart had Grilled & Ready varieties on rollback for $5.97 this weekend, so I decided to take advantage and buy some for one of my favorite sharing meals: Southwestern Sour Cream Chicken Enchiladas. A friend of ours has been in the hospital, so we wanted to deliver a hot and flavorful meal to encourage her and make her night a little easier. Both Tyson and Walmart are local companies here in Northwest Arkansas, and I'm proud to partner with these companies that give back in this excellent initiative to end hunger nationwide. Walmart has promised to feed 5 million kids this summer and I'm glad to have my purchases go toward that commitment.

We first had this meal when someone brought it to us about 10 years ago after I'd had one of the kids. Since then, it's been one that I love to share with others. The Southwestern Style Chicken Breasts Strips are perfect in these enchiladas because they've already got some of the seasonings needed to make the dish taste great.

I've learned a couple tricks for transporting food in the car. Instead of putting the dishes on the seats where they tend to tip and spill, lay a towel on the floorboards of the car and let the dishes ride flat. Always pack your meal into dishes that the recipient can throw away so she doesn't have to try to arrange getting them back to you. I like to include a dessert or breakfast for the next day, as well. When we first moved to a new town about 12 years ago, one of my happiest memories was a neighbor bringing over a batch of warm chocolate chip cookies. She'd lined them up in this cute wooden caddy and it was such a special thing. I try to always make chocolate chip cookies for the people I'm delivering a meal to, as well, because they meant so much to me back then.

These enchiladas are super easy to put together and they freeze well. Pair them with Spanish rice and beans with cheese for a delicious, tummy-satisfying dinner.

Southwestern Sour Cream Enchiladas

4 cups cooked, thawed chicken pieces

1 pkg. taco seasoning mix

2 cups cheddar cheese

10 flour tortillas

1 cup sour cream

1 can cream of chicken soup

Shred chicken, then stir in taco seasoning and cheese. (If you're using the Tyson Southwestern Style chicken, just use half the taco seasoning and save the other half for your Spanish rice.) Fill tortillas, roll them up, and place them in a greased baking pan. Mix sour cream and soup together well and pour on top of enchiladas. Bake at 350º for 30 minutes.

What are some of your favorite foods to deliver to friends? I'd love to hear about how you bless others with the gift of a meal. 

#SummerofGiving

#CollectiveBias

Celebrating Military Heroes with Coffee-mate Glazed Cookies #CMSalutingHeroes #shop #cbias

I am a member of the Collective Bias® Social Fabric® Community.  This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper amplification for Collective Bias and its advertiser. All opinions are honest and are my own.

If you’re like me, you love seeing brands promoting patriotism and celebrating the USA. Coffee-mate has decorated these two flavors of liquid coffee creamer, French Vanilla and Hazelnut, with stars and stripes, and will be offering them exclusively at Walmart through Independence Day. I had the opportunity to try some out last month and used these flavorful creamers to make a fun treat to share with our teens while we talked to them about the importance of Memorial Day.

Our children come from a long line of brave military veterans. Unfortunately, most of them have passed away and are no longer here to share with us the adventures and heartaches of military life. That’s why it’s so important to my husband and I to help them understand the reason we observe Memorial Day, Independence Day, and Veterans Day. We want them to honor those who have sacrificed time, comfort, even their lives, to ensure we can continue to live in peace and prosperity here in America. 

As the kids have gotten old enough to understand, it’s been fun to share our military heritage with them. Recently, I took our two teens to our town’s Veteran’s Memorial which honors local servicemen and women throughout Arkansas’s history. It really blessed me to see them excited about this part of our national history. 

Lynzie was especially excited to see this quote from Thomas Paine’s, Common Sense, as it’s a passage she memorized several years ago and she’s really taken the message to heart. 

Later, we spent some time around the table, looking at photos of loved ones in uniform and sharing memories that were passed down to us. I made some coffee and cookies and really enjoyed sharing this special time with my teens. 

Jamie cherishes several fun stories that were passed on to him about his grandpa . He never had the chance to meet him, but he still feels a special connection as they look very similar and had similar interests. This photo shows his grandpa (left) with one of his buddies during World War II.

Here are a couple photos from my side of the family. Here’s my Uncle Bud in his VFW cap. 

This newspaper clipping is one of my treasures. It shows my Grandpa Henry and his friends signing their enlistment cards at a Portland, Maine recruiting office. This would have been sometime in the late 1940s. My grandpa saved this in an album that he gave to me just before he passed away.

I used both flavors of creamers to glaze my cookies. I made chocolate cookies and glazed them with the Hazelnut creamer, and I made French Vanilla glaze to drizzle on these oatmeal ones.  It’s so easy to make dessert glaze with Coffee-mate creamers. Just mix 1 cup of powdered sugar with 2-4 TBS of creamer and whisk until smooth.  It’s a quick way to add a little extra flavor to any sweet treat.

I'm so blessed to have these men of integrity and honor, like my Uncle Gary who fought in Viet Nam, in my family tree. I wish that we could have these family heroes right here at the table with us, sharing their memories and allowing us to thank them for their honorable service. I am thankful, however, that our families passed on their stories to us so we can do the same for our children. Do you have military heroes in your heritage? How do you keep their memories alive? I’d love to hear your stories!


#CMSalutingHeroes 
#CollectiveBias

Linking with:
The Art of Homemaking
Inspiration Monday @ Your Homebased Mom
Metamorphosis Monday @ Between Naps on the Porch
Motivate Me Monday 
Modest Monday @ The Modest Mom 
Living Proverbs 31
Inspire Me Monday @ Create With Joy 
Masterpiece Monday @ BoogieBoard Cottage 
A Round Tuit @ Creating My Way to Success 
Monday Funday @ C.R.A.F.T. 
Making Your Home Sing Monday

4 House Rules for Internet Safety #sponsored #mc #cybersafe #cybertribe

I participated in an Influencer Activation Program on behalf of Mom Central Consulting for BGCA. I received a promotional item to thank me for my participation. All opinions are honest and are my own.

Family Internet Safety is definitely a concern for my husband and I. We want our kids to be tech savvy, but we don't want them coming across a lot of the junk that's out there. When we first started allowing the kids to go online, we set up some rules:

• Time Limits: Everyone has 45 minutes a day, every few days. This is practical for our large family, but it also makes it less likely the kids will mindlessly browse. If they know they've got a time limit, they're careful to get in all the game-playing or chatting with friends time that they can.
• Boundaries: Our kids have certain boundaries when it comes to social media sites like Facebook. They're not allowed to friend anyone without permission and they can only stay on their own wall. They may access their news feed page only to go to their games---but we don't allow them to scroll through the feed. Even though we try to be careful to only allow them to friend those whose influence we feel comfortable with, there's always a few weird things on there that we don't want them to see. As they get older, this rule will be more flexible, I'm sure.
• Chats for Friends Only: The kids are only allowed to chat online with people they've already friended on Facebook. Any other chatting, on game sites or otherwise, is not at all allowed. The older kids understand that anyone can hide behind a screen name, so they shouldn't strike up a conversation with an unapproved person.
• Keep It Out in the Open: When our kids are online, they sit with their backs to the room so the screen is facing out to the room. This is great for making sure the younger ones are where they are supposed to be and provides good accountability for the older kids and adults in the family.

June is Internet Safety Month and the Boys & Girls Clubs of America have put together a campaign to help parents learn more about being #CyberSafe. Teenagers today are often more aware than their parents of the influences and dangers out there because Internet technology has been a part of their entire lives. 

Visit the BGCA CyberTribe of teen experts to get your questions about Internet safety answered. After you submit your questions, you can enter to win an iPad mini, as well as a $500 donation to the Boys & Girls Club of your choice. 

I read through some of the answers the teen panel has been giving and it's really good information. Topics like cyberbullying, talking to online strangers vs. "real live" strangers, and popular social networks for kids, are all being discussed on the site. You can also take a CyberSmart Parent quiz to see if you've got #cybersafe skills!

What kinds of house rules does your family put into use to make sure you all are safe online?

Linking with:
The Art of Homemaking
Inspiration Monday @ Your Homebased Mom
Motivate Me Monday 
Modest Monday @ The Modest Mom 
Living Proverbs 31
Inspire Me Monday @ Create With Joy 
Masterpiece Monday @ BoogieBoard Cottage 
A Round Tuit @ Creating My Way to Success 
Monday Funday @ C.R.A.F.T. 
Making Your Home Sing Monday

Pretty Summer Hair Styles and a Lilla Rose Giveaway for the Homemaking Party

I've been seeing these gorgeous Lilla Rose clips all over some of my favorite blogs, so when my friend, Elizabeth from Yes They Are All Ours, contacted me to tell me about her new business selling them---I was excited to try them out!

Oh...and then I told Lynzie...

We all know how much she's into hair and beauty and fun accessories! She played around with three different sized clips to do some pretty summery styles for us girls.

Elizabeth sent us three sizes to play with. This one is the XS and worked great on Kynthia's fine baby hair. She's 2 1/2. 

Avalon, 5, also wore the XS. I think it would have been a good size to pull all their hair back in, as well. There are three notches on the back of the clips to adjust the size, and Elizabeth's website has a great styling video to help you choose the right size for the style you want to do.

Selah (8) loves to pull all her hair back at the base of her neck, so the S Flexi was perfect for her. The concept of these clips is such a neat idea. I love the pretty beads and charms that are added to give them such a feminine look.

This is that same S size Flexi on me. It was just enough to pull a small amount of my super thick hair back into a fun braided style. 

Lynzie was also able to use the S size to secure this pretty up-do. 

Lynzie did this pretty bun using the Flexi Clip size L---the clip is all that is holding this cute style together! Size L is big enough to pull back all of both mine and Lynzie's very thick hair.

Are you new to Lilla Rose? How would you like to win your own Lilla Rose clip? Enter to win on the Rafflecopter below and I'll announce the winner at next week's Homemaking Party. (Widget might take a minute to load...) a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thanks for stopping by the Homemaking Party! I'm excited to see what you've got to share!

We received three free Flexi Clips to review for this article. All opinions are honest and are my own.

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Disney FROZEN Party Brownies

Hey, just because it's summer doesn't mean we can't enjoy some great Frozen movie treats! These fun, party snacks are a spin on the fruity brownies I shared with you a couple weeks ago---with a Disney's Frozen theme! If you're looking for more fun Frozen party ideas, make sure to check out Avalon's Kindness Party based on the Frozen movie.

Olaf looks awfully proud of these, don't you think? I used my coffee creamer icing to frost these. If you let them set overnight, the frosting will crinkle up and make it look like a fun, frosty, glacier brownie!

Frozen Party Brownies
16 oz. boxed pound cake mix
1/2 c. butter or margarine
2 eggs
2/3 c. water
6 oz. flavored gelatin mix (choose blue if you want the Frozen theme)
blue food coloring, if desired


Heat oven to 350º. Grease a jelly roll pan (or line with parchment paper). Mix all ingredients on low for 30 seconds and then on high for 2 minutes. Bake for about 20 minutes or until done through. Cool completely. Decorate with icing and sprinkles. To make coffee creamer icing, mix 1 c. powdered sugar with french vanilla coffee creamer (or milk), 1 tsp. at a time, until it reaches your desired consistency.


Welcome to the Make Bake Create Party! 5 Blogs-1 party-lots of fun and creative ideas for you!

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Bubbly Nature Creations | Facebook | Twitter | Pinterest 

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The Creative Princess | Facebook | Twitter | Pinterest 

Nessa Makes | Facebook | Twitter | Pinterest

Follow the MBC Pinboard!

Linking with:
Make Bake Create @ Hope In Every Season
Cottage Style Party @ Lavender Garden Cottage
Winsome Wednesday @ My Daily Walk in His Grace
Whole-Hearted Home Wednesdays 
A Wise Woman Builds Her Home
Homemaking Link Up @ Raising Homemakers
Inspire Me Wednesday @ MamaBuzz
What's It Wednesday @ Ivy and Elephants 
Wednesday Link up at Adorned from Above
Inspiration Friday @ Dear Creatives
Show and Tell Friday @ My Romantic Home
Foodie Friday @ Rattlebridge Farm 
Link Party Palooza
Pintastic Party
The Creative Collection @ Craft-O-Maniac