That’s right! This month long contest has come to an end and I just wanted to take a moment to announce the two winners who get the opportunity to choose the blog design they like (or a custom one) from www.SweetnSimpleDesign.com!

The Winners are:

#19 ~ April B
#5 ~ Tara

Congratulations to the two of you! I am sending you an email and you’ll need to respond by Monday afternoon to claim your prize!

Don’t forget to enter the two other contests we have going on right now!  

• You have one day left to enter to win My Fruit Rollups!
• Also, the lovely Munchie Mallow contest is available and offering some very adorable hair accessories for the little princess(es) in your life!

At 5 minutes for mom they are having an ultimate blog party design contest.   I created a button for them and GUESS WHAT . . . I am one of the finalists!  Hop on over, take a peek and exercise your right to vote!

As a mom we often find ourselves needing to evaluate daily life and priorities.  From everything as simple as our daily to do list, meal planning and prep, school managment (whether they are in public school or at home) and laundry to major events and needs in our life.   We really don’t stop and think about all the things we cram into each day, but if we did I think we’d be amazed that we get even half of it done!

After the holidays were over I thought life would quickly return to it’s normal routine (if i even have such a thing).  But I found myself stuck in a rut day after day this month and recently I began to wonder why.  Why don’t I feel like myself?  Why don’t I feel inspired?  Why does everything feel so dry?  How can I possibly complete an entire day and not feel like anything worthwhile was accomplished?

Then I noticed it even in my writing!  Dreary, uninspired or (gasp) completely absent!  Then, as I was working on a design, I stumbled upon an old blogger blog of mine called A Mom’s Faith.  I had been testing a design on it so as I was looking at the front page the top post caught my eye and I began reading it.

I do not consider myself a fabulous writer.  I love to write and I write from the heart, but I found myself surprised as I got lost in this entry.  As I finished reading it I was struck by a strange revelation . . . I felt refreshed, rejuvinated and somewhat bewildered.

At that moment a very specific reality hit me like a ton of bricks ~ I needed refreshment so badly that my very own writing ministered to my heart and soul.   Not to say that you should never be touched by your own inspired thoughts, after all I am sure this is why we all need to keep a prayer and study journal!

The bottom line is that when I’m consistently reading the Bible and spending time with my Savior, what I write has a totally different flavor!  It is inspired, thought provoking and this once again reminds me that I am nothing without Him.

So today I am rethinking my daily priorities and schedule.  The first goal on my list is to spend a bit of time with God today . . . and every day!  Things are so much more peaceful and lovely and smooth (relatively anyway) when I spend time with Him and I can almost guarantee that you as my readers will notice a difference when I’m consistent.  But better yet, you’ll notice a difference when YOU are consistent too!!!

Blessings today!

Many of you have probably seen my little Are You Meal Planning Yet button off to the right. Clicking on that button will lead you to Menu Planning Central . . . every mom’s BEST friend! I really love what they have to offer, complete meal plans at affordable prices, but if you act fast you can get a super deal!

If you sign up for a membership before Jan. 31st your monthly fees will be only $9.97 per month for as long as you keep your membership! As a member you have access to a full month of three different menu types: Family Friendly, Healthy and Vegetarian. Did I mention that each menu comes complete with weekly recipes and shopping lists? But it doesn’t stop there!

You also have access to creating your own menu plans, special reports for holidays and seasons and tons of great resources each month. This month I am very excited because they have just added a “Bulk Cooking for the Freezer” resource! This is one of my all time favorite things to do. In all honesty I haven’t been able to do this since the twins were born, but I love love love being able to simply pull a fresh and healthy meal out of the freezer for my family to enjoy. This time of year when there’s sickies in the house being able to prepare freezer meals has an added bonus of making life nicer for the well part of the family!!!

I encourage you all to hop on over to Menu Planning Central and give it a try, even for one month. I think you’ll be surprised at how much less time you spend planning meals, how much less money you spend on meals for the month and how much more you are able to enjoy family meal time every night!  Hurry though, the monthly membership goes up on February first, so join now to take advantage of the great price they’re offering!

This contest is now closed!  Our winners are: Shana, Tessa & Laura.  Thank you and be sure to enter our current contests (click on the link at the top of the left sidebar).

Have you heard of it? Well, you simply MUST go check it out! Go to www.MyFruitRollUps.com and you will be shocked to discover that through this website you can create your own personalized Fruit Rollups . . . REALLY! I honestly can’t think of a Valentine’s treat that’s more fun than this!

I did it the other day and it was a blast! Super simple, the hardest thing about it is trying to decide between all the fun images you can have put on the fruit rollups and what to have written on them! If you want something cute, but don’t want to try to figure patterns out for yourself, you can choose from one of their great design suggestions. It really truly is very fun and very easy!

They have a promotion going on right now and one of the first things you’ll see when you go to their site is an offer for a discount, which is great, but it gets better!

Leave me a comment (or email me if you prefer!) by Thursday Jan. 31st, telling me about the sweetest Valentine’s Message you have received or given to someone.

Then, I will review all of them and the best THREE messages will each win their own opportunity to personalize a package of Fruit Rollups for FREE (a $29.99 value). This is a SUPER quick contest though, so make sure you get your entries in soon!

Please note: if you do not leave a Valentine’s message in your comment it will be deleted.

Welcome to Froggity Bloggity Contest News!  Where we inform you about all of the contests and events that are happening around the blogosphere and even the internet that we think moms in particular will LOVE!!!!  Enough with the introduction already though . . . on to the business at hand.

RIGHT HERE:  We just started the Munchie Mallow Contest yesterday (you have until 10pm Feb 5th) and the A New Year A New Look blog design contest ends in 5 days!

5 Minutes for Mom is always holding great contests, here’s a couple that I want to highlight for this month, but be sure to check in there regularly for many more great contests!

Right now you can enter to win a Red ‘65 Mustang Pedal Car from their shop www.PedalCarsandRetro.com. Sound good? Well then hop on over their site: Click here to read more about it and enter the contest.

The fun doesn’t stop there, you can also enter to win an Insignia Bluetooth MP3 Player! This is perfect for those of you who are like me and have a household of children with their own mp3 player, but don’t have one for yourself! Best Buy is sponsoring this contest, so be sure to visit them as well!

Goldsmith Jewelry is offering a gorgeous pair of 1 Carat Diamond Stud Earrings worth $1,500 to bloggers just for spreading the news about their site! How do you enter? Simply visit the contest page on their site and read all the details, take that information and write your own post about the event, then email them with a link to your post and voila . . . you’re entered!

They have been in business in the Orlando area for over 30 years and this giveaway is part of a Valentine’s promotion for their website! The winner will be announced on February 10th, so make sure you get your entry in before then!

Oh, and before we go did you know that you can always find many great giveaways that moms LOVE at BloggyGiveaways.com? Well you can and I recommend that you visit and enter many contests!

Have something to add to the list for February? Just use my contact form and let me know!

How’s that for a title?  The fact that I’m not getting today’s post up until 8pm might easily be understood when I tell you that I ended up with 4 sickies in my house today!  Yessiree 4!

Last night CJ threw up just before bed, then Lion in the middle of the night, then Baby Bug this morning and hubby felt horrible in the midst of it all.  The “wellies” were fit to be tied though and bouncing off the walls, but once the Salesman and Tater were off to school I just had Monkey boy to contend with. But boy was he in a naughty mood.  He knew perfectly well that I was occupied and buried under brothers, so he wanted to take full advantage of that!  But we survived.

Although I didn’t send CJ to school today (it would be so totally unfair to expose his classmates to him so soon after being sick) he wasn’t doing too well unless he overdid it in the eating department.  So he was a bit of a help when things got truly hairy a few times.

I’ve learned a few things from this round of a stomach bug, so I thought I’d share it with  you.   Obviously you can be only so prepared for illness like this and we’re never entirely sure what form it will come in, but once one person begins showing signs that would be the time to get ready and send the cavalry to the store to pick up a few things.  I have to share first of all how very extremely wonderful it is to have a washer that gives you the opportunity to “Sanitize” at the push of a button!

So here’s my recommendations of items to keep in the home:

• Large comfy sheets to drape the furniture with.
• Plenty of personal blankets that aren’t too bulky and are easy to wash.
• Latex (or other rubber) gloves.
• At least 2 buckets that are particularly good for using for throwing up.
• About 4 old towels
• A BLOG!
• Music
• fun videos, coloring books, etc that really only come out when they are sick, but can help keep them calm during the thick of the storm.

Here’s what to send the cavalry after if you don’t already have it in the house (or better yet, if you have any opportunity to get out of the house for a breath of fresh air it isn’t a bad idea):

• Lemon-Lime soda
• saltines (my family likes a variety; oyster, graham, ritz, goldfish ~ granted, some of them are not appropriate until many hours after vomiting has stopped, but they’re nice to have)
• applesauce
• Pedialyte (for the little ones)
• bananas (do not give these to anyone until you are sure they won’t throw them up ~ this is for me the all-time worst type of vomit to clean up, ICK!)
• rice
• bread for toast
• A variety of quick to prepare meals for the “well” part of the family.  We don’t do cold cereal around here, but on a day like today you know that if you are too distracted they will still be able to eat.
• Soup: particularly chicken noodle or broths

Well there you have it LOL!  It really isn’t that I’m an expert or anything, but I am simply right smack in the middle of it right now and this is what’s working!

Remember to sign up for the contest this week!  Oh, and I have a surprise super quick contest to share with all of you tomorrow!

This contest has ended.  The winner is #56 ~ Shannon!!!!  Congratulations! Remember we add new contests every week so there’s always something for you to enter! 

Today I would like to introduce you to yet another very fun mom owned shop . . . Munchie Mallow!   Jessica started Munchie Mallow in July of 2006 and her shop specializes in little girls hair accessories. She offers some of the cutest handmade headbands, clips, hats and other hair accessories I have ever seen! 

I had the honor of talking to Jessica recently about her business and the first question that she answered for me was regarding the name of her shop:

Now you’re probably wondering how I came up with the name Munchie Mallow. Well, it is one of the many nicknames we came up with for our daughter. We started out calling her Munchkin, & that ended up being shortened to Munchie. One of my favorite treats is marshmallows, & my daughter’s little arms & thighs reminded me of the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man. So we ended up combining the two & calling her Munchie Mallow! Funny, I know! But quite catchy don’t you think?

I have to admit that the name of the shop was one of the first things that intrigued me. I simply had to rush over and check out her site with a name like that! I was also interested though how she came up with her creative and fun products:

It all began when I was trying to find some cute headbands for my daughter (who happened to be bald for a really long time)… I began creating beautiful flower headbands to coordinate with her outfits. She got compliments on them everywhere we went. A few people mentioned to me that I should start selling them, & the rest is history!

I love all things girly and the products at Munchie Mallow definitely fit the bill!  As I looked through the site I found a few items that I thought I’d share, here’s just a couple of my favorites:  the Pink and Brown Flower Clippies, so cute and fun!  In the Flower Hats section and I saw the Apricot and Cream Knit Hat, and oooooh how cute is that?  I simply could not choose just one and it was difficult to limit my faves to only 2! 

At Munchie Mallow you will find flower headbands, flower beanies, knit hats, flower clips, hair clippies and tiaras. She also offers hand beaded Swarovski Crystal 3D heart necklaces as well as some graphic design services. When asked what else she would like for all of you to know about her and her shop Jessica replied:

I am currently a stay at home mom to my adorable two year old daughter Brooklyn. I am also a full time graphic design student, as well as online boutique owner.
The products I create are handcrafted with only the best of materials. A lot of time & love go into making each item. I am a one woman operation, & most of my items aren’t actually made until an order is placed. So your item is especially made for your little Munchie Mallow.

Jessica has been extremely generous and has offered a Lavendar Daisy Headband and a set of Mint Ice Cream Clippies! What a fun package to win for the little girl in your life!!!!

If you just can’t wait for the contest to end use this link: http://munchiemallow.com?code=FROG to purchase products from her with a 15% discount (coupon expires Feb. 28th and is good toward hair accessories only)!!!!

Here’s what you need to do to enter (it really is simple, I promise ):

Leave a comment on this post to be entered (no duplicate comments please . . . remember if it doesn’t show up immediately it is awaiting moderation).  It is that simple, but if you are a blogger it would be wonderful if you would post about this contest linking also to www.MunchieMallow.com out of consideration for their generosity!  You must leave your entry comment by 10pm February 5th.  We will use random.org and announce the winner first thing on February 6th.

If you love contests be sure to visit our contest page to see all the great contests we are currently offering.  Be the first to know about all new contests simply by signing up to receive updates (top of the right sidebar).

Well, the contest has ended and we have a winner!  Please remember to visit Sweet Pea Cakes, etc. to take advantage of the generous 15% discount that has been offered to my readers!

The winner is #45: Tonya Keener.  The winner has been emailed and has 4 days to respond (if they don’t respond we’ll pick a new winner).

Meanwhile, I hope you all enjoy our great new contest!

A look back to 2005 - 3 years ago this was our pudgy binky lovin’ Lion!