Make It A Home! Blog Hop & Treasure Hunt

 
Welcome to the Make It A Home Blog Hop & Treasure Hunt hosted by Anitra from The MamaZone. We hope you’re ready to win some great prizes for your home and some cash to help you make your house a home! This giveaway hop is a little different than most because it has the added element of a cash treasure hunt! As you hop through, entering the giveaways on these fabulous blogs, keep your eyes open—you just might find some hidden cash! Here’s how it works:

• Visit each blog listed below and enter their giveaways.
• Look for the mailbox on each blog. If it contains a three digit code, make a note of it.
• Once you collect all 5 randomly hidden codes, enter here to win the Grand Prize of $100 and a Mint Floor Cleaner.
• As an added bonus, if you enter every giveaway involved you’ll earn 11 extra entries into the Grand Prize drawing (Sweet!).

The hop and hunt will run May 1st-May 14th and the Grand Prize winner will be announced on the 15th.

Ready to win? Here’s what I’m giving away:

My homemade carmels are such a hit in my Etsy shop!  I will be giving away one large batch of these fresh, buttery Nibbling Carmels!  Yum!  (If needed,click "read more" below to enter!)

Contentment Part Four: Keeping a Soft Heart

This article wraps up my series on Contentment.  Here are the previous parts of the series if you've missed any:


Part One: Contentment instead of worrying
Part Two:  No Complaining!
Part Three: Coveting and finding joy in our unique circumstances


Last Wednesday, I talked about coveting and today I'm talking about envy.  I've always had a hard time understanding the difference between the two;  however, now that I've studied them both a little, I think I realize the distinction:


Coveting is an unquenchable thirst for the things of this world---material things, specifically; but, perhaps, personality traits or life circumstances as well.


Envy is more of a resentment of the joys and positive things in another person's life.


Where coveting is a verb, an active and conscious action, envy is a personality trait that festers and grows.  It can start out small, but it's fed by irrational thoughts and fears.  


James 3:16:  "For where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there."

Isn't that the truth!  How many times has your respect for someone grown to admiration, then to desire to "be like her", then to feelings of inadequacy when she succeeds, then to wishing she wouldn't succeed so much, then to wanting to sabotage her success now and then, and finally to complete contempt for every good thing in her life?

That's envy.  Jealousy.  With it comes hatred, malice, and a little voice inside that tells you that you just don't measure up.  

I've been on both the giving and receiving ends of envy.  There are people I know who have lost incredible amounts of weight and I've been envious of how easy that comes for them.  I think I've gotten to the point of wishing she wouldn't succeed so much before my "voice of worthiness" speaks up and reminds me who I belong to.


As for being on the receiving end, let's just say that I've got a loving and present husband, obedient and healthy kids, and a very peaceful home life.  This doesn't sit well with some who are struggling in these areas and I truly, from the heart, feel for those who envy this good life to the point of maliciousness.


This verse in James is surrounded by wisdom---wisdom about wisdom!


James 3:13-18:  "Who is wise and understanding among you?  Let him show by good conduct that his works are done in the meekness of wisdom.  But if you have bitter envy and self-seeking in your hearts, do not boast and lie against the truth.  This wisdom does not descend from above, but is earthly, sensual, demonic.  For where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there.  But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy.  Now the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace."


I think the last verse just really sums up this whole series on contentment:


"Now the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace."

Being content is not a place we somehow and someday arrive to and stay.  It's a conscious daily choice to sow seeds of peacefulness and reap the blessings.  Instead of actively seeking contentment for ourselves, I think that we will be much more successful at finding peace when we seek to make peace abound around us.

Delivering the Goods! Odwalla CFK Game Day Challenge Round Two #CBias #SocialFabric

This month, Champions For Kids is partnering with Odwalla juice in a SIMPLE Service Project to round up some new or gently-used sports/outdoor equipment and donate it to a children's organization.  We decided to give our gifts to Pendleton Parks and Recreation!

Our family has benefited, on so many occasions, from the services that the Pendleton Parks and Rec provides.  Our homeschool group rents out this gym once a week to have free play time.   

Each year, they host the Daddy Daughter Dance---one of the highlights of the year for our girls!

They make sure we've got several baseball fields around town to play in.  Our homeschool group utilizes one specific park the majority of each year for sports.

They maintain all our beautiful parks and make sure we have clean and safe places to enjoy family time!

Before heading out for our shopping trip to collect items to donate to the Recreation Center gym and summer park time, I contacted the Parks & Rec to make sure that they were interested in the donation and to see what sorts of things they needed.  We've never given to a community-wide resource like this, so I wanted to make sure that we were providing things they could use.  Along with our donation of outside equipment, we gave a bunch of Odwalla juice! 

 If you'd like to see more  pictures of our shopping trip, you can check out my Google+ album featuring the #OdwallaCFK project. 

We set up an appointment and delivered the goods one sunny afternoon---on our way to the park!

The ladies who took the donations for us were so blessed by the kids' generosity that they let them each pick a tattoo!  Now our kids can't wait to go back to the Rec Center to play with the toys they donated!

For more information on how you can be involved with Champions For Kids, visit CFK at the following places:

Champions For Kids website

Twitter

Champions For Kids Facebook page

I am a member of the Collective Bias™ Social Fabric® Community.  This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias™. #CBias #SocialFabric All opinions are honest and are my own.