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

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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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