There are a lot of giveaways going on right now, it seems like… Some from me, but also many great ones from others.

Here are a few worth mentioning:

• As For My House is participating in the blog-hopping Carry Me Please! giveaway: winner’s pick of an Ergo or Pikkolo baby carrier. Ends 5/26.
• Simply Stacie is giving away a Keurig B70 Platinum Brewing System ($169 Value!).
• Dear Crissy has a giveaway running for a KitchenAid Stand Mixer.

And we’ll be doing a fun children’s book giveaway here next week, so stay turned!

Image from fathergeek.com, with appreciation.

The other day the weather was lovely. Nobody was ill. We had no outside commitments.

I gathered up all the readers for the day, and some comfy padding, and we went outside to to the tree-house. (Made just for my Littles,it’s only about four feet off the ground)

We sat together and read the stories aloud, with the occasional pause to watch a bird, discuss an airplane, or flick away an ant…

After a while, we brought out snacks and our water bottles and had a picnic snack time there, as well.

Ah, this is the [homeschooling] life!

Babywearing can be a wonderful time for both mom (or dad) and baby. For some it is a necessity, for others it is just a way of life.

For whatever reason you wear your little one, you should be able to do it in style!

Tailor Made Momma has put together a terrific giveaway, and is offering the winner a choice of an Ergo or Pikkolo baby carrier!

This giveaway is open to the US and Canada and will end on May 26th.

Use the Rafflecoptor form below to enter – and don’t forget to come back and get your daily entries in!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

But the Easter activities didn’t seem to be on board with my plans.

We got a bit of a late start trying to grow grass on our Easter Garden after seeing the idea posted on Facebook (I apologize – I have no idea who to credit with the idea and the lovely garden pictured here).

First we discovered that Lowe’s didn’t really have a terra cotta pot small enough. Since we were already behind, we got the smallest one they had. [We have since learned that Michael's has adorable small sized pots for craft use].

We had trouble with the steep slope this created for our hill, but we soldiered on. Jewel and R.T. dutifully took turns watering the seeds with a spray bottle.

The grass was JUST beginning to sprout by Easter. Not ideal, but, it worked…

On “Easter Eve,” we made Easter Story Cookies.

The kids had fun making them, and we enjoyed reading the Easter story to them along the way.

The first batch, I realized I was in trouble when I got to the final step that said “add the nuts” … since I had put the nuts into the bowl after breaking them up in the first step!

Yes, I know I should have read through more thoroughly first, but it was the best I could do with a migraine.

So we put them in the oven and sent the kids to bed.

Then Wolf and I set about re-making them. (Yeah, we were going to “cheat” and stick them in the oven and not tell the kids!)

We beat and beat and beat, but they never fluffed. We read some other meringue recipes to try and figure out what the problem might have been.

Throwing them out, we made another whole batch with a couple of tweaks. We burned out the cheap hand mixer I’d just picked up (I should have known better). Then we burned out my stick blender! Ack! And still, no fluff.

We did put them in the oven, but with no hope of success.

The kids were surprised to see that they had “baked” overnight, but there was no miraculous “cracked open” or “empty (hollow) tomb”.

And I don’t even know what to do differently next year!

The only up side?

We couldn’t find a rock big enough to cover the overly-large tomb opening in our Easter Garden… But one of our Easter Story cookie-patties worked as an excellent stand-in!

Some good lessons learned for next year, and one mystery unsolved.

Good thing Easter isn’t about my homemaking endeavors!

It’s been around pretty much since envelopes were invented, probably, and has been popularized by Dave Ramsey.

You can stash your cash in regular paper envelopes, or you can pick up something like this nifty cloth envelope set I found on Etsy.

There are also various online budgeting programs to help track spending. The one that most closely mirrors this system, though, is Mvelopes.

I’ve wanted to try using Mvelopes for a while now, but couldn’t get past the idea of paying a monthly fee. (Their “free version” is so limited as to be pointless).

But the wise and wonderful Mary Hunt of Debt Proof Living got together with the Mvelopes folks to offer a totally free basic account. Read about it on the Debt Proof Living Blog.

It still has limits, and they still offer the upgrade to the Premium membership – but this is a fully functional account. It even includes a “jump start” phone coaching session to help you get started.

This is not a sponsored post, and I have no affiliate interest in any of the products mentioned. Just sharing a good deal I found on a tool I am beginning to use myself!

Just head on over to Tailor Made Mama to sign up!

We had planned a home birth, and things progressed rapidly in the morning. But just before we expected her to come any minute, progress stopped (but the painful contractions didn’t).

After trying everything known to, well, woman, our midwife transferred us to the hospital (a 30+ minute drive). Thank God that her backup doc was the one on the floor, so we were not immediately confronted with a C-section battle.

People may see me as “opposed to medical intervention in birth,” but what I am opposed to is “UNNECESSARY medical intervention.” Medical intervention saved one or both of us from a very bad outcome seven years ago, and allowed me to give birth to my beautiful daughter, Jewel.

Her grandma (my mom) caught her, we nursed right away, and a few hours later we were home with our whole family cuddled up in bed.

• Thank you, Lord, for the medical knowledge and help that was there when we desperately needed it.
• Thank you for my husband, Wolf, an amazing partner and father.
• And thank you for Jewel, who is a blessing beyond measure…

The complication is that this will be the first time we’ve gone anywhere since I started eating a gluten free diet back at the end of February.

No casual stops to eat out along the way… Even “obviously gluten free” things (such as meat) can have gluten containing seasonings on them – and restaurant staff doesn’t always know.

It’s not simple to “just swing by the store and pick up anything we didn’t pack”, since many stores have a very limited (or even none at all).

Certainly I will plan and pack – and I AM a planner! – but being the first time, I know there will be lots of things I never even think of.

Do any of you who are further along this path have any tips for gluten free travelling?

Sorry, no photo credit to be had. I picked it out of a composed meme picture floating around on Facebook…

Join the Housewarming Dyson Giveaway event today, grow your readership and offer one fantastic cleaning tool giveaway!

Please be sure to let them know I sent you, by listing As For My House in the “Referred By” section of your signup form.

Jeanne T.!

An email is already on the way to Jeanne, who can just send along her mailing address to claim it.

I hope you enjoyed these giveaways as much as I enjoyed sharing them with you.

And tomorrow we celebrate the greatest gift of all!

Easter is the end of the Christmas Story.

Although Christ died on the cross to redeem us on Good Friday, it might all have been empty talk and promises without the glorious proof of His deity.

Christians don’t follow [just] a prophet, a good man, or a wise teacher.

We serve a risen Savior!

An empty cross, and an empty tomb … He is no longer on this Earth, friends. Hallelujah!

A lovely storytelling of Easter Sunday, combining the accounts in all four Gospels, can be found in Ellen White’s The Desire of Ages (just click the title to read online). [I should state that I have not read anything else of her work, and know nothing about her - but this piece is very nice!]

He is risen, indeed!