S Club Mama

Bob's Red Mill has been around for over 30 years providing gluten free flours, cereals, baking mixes, and grain. I had seen several of their items in our grocery store before getting the items we received to review. I had never tried any of them because we tend to be store brand people and Bob's Red Mill comes with a higher price - that's not to say that the products aren't worth it! We got to try their small pearl tapioca , all-purpose flour , and bread mix. We also have purchased their xanthum gum (which is used as a sort of gluten substitute in baking breads; it holds the mixture together). I think what has astounded me most about Bob's Red Mill is the quantity of products they have: dried tart cherries, coconut, blue cornmeal, fava bean flour, organic kamut cereal. So many things! I also like their gluten-free starter package (includes AP flour, pancake mix, brownie mix, bread mix, hot cereal, xanthum gum, and gluten free 101 book). It is a $50 price tag on t...

From the Mediterranean Snacks website: The Mediterranean Snack Food Co. is an entrepreneurial, privately-held company founded in 2005. Our mission is innovation to produce great tasting, nutritionally superior snacks. Using the superfood benefits of lentils in combination with whole grains and legumes, we create unique healthy and delicious snacks. We use only the highest quality, non-GMO, and gluten-free ingredients, creating snacks to satisfy even the most health-conscious food enthusiast. But our commitment to nutritional excellence never causes us to lose sight of the most important feature of good snacking – Great Taste! We were able to test out three of the Mediterranean Snacks lentil chips: sea salt, rosemary, and cracked pepper. I wanted to review the snacks after the boys enjoyed their rosemary lentil crackers. Personally, I enjoyed the lentil crackers were better than the chips in taste (if I compared the rosemary flavors of each). When I first opened the bag o...

I'm a little behind on my reviews, so I'll apologize now for the lack of personal posts for the next few days. Once I get pictures uploaded, I'll share some of my cutie boys with you! We've been reading "His Mighty Warrior: A Treasure Map from Your King" little devotions book in the mornings. I guess, we've been off schedule a little with the holidays, but I really enjoy opening my day with my sons by reading The Word in a way that is age-appropriate for them. "His Mighty Warrior" is just that: a letter to my boys from their Father in heaven. image via I love how boy this book is. There's a pirate on the front, maps in the book. All the pages are rugged like a map or have a compass on them - all about exploration. And that's what I want to show my boys; that Jesus wasn't just a nice guy. He was a warrior, He was manly, He was strong! I think too often, our young men see Christianity as a feminine religion whereas it's full...

I'm a little behind in wishing everyone a Merry Christmas, but I do hope you all enjoyed an extended weekend celebrating the birth of our Savior with family and/or friends. We spent some time with both families, but more with my own. I hadn't been home since June so it was very nice to be back. I honestly wasn't expecting to receive the large gifts I got, but am so thankful. My husband prepared a date night for us: Tim Hawkins tickets, reservations at a nice restaurant, and a hotel. Plus baby-sitting from my baby sister who is coming to spend some time with us after the new year. He also got me an Amazon gift card at his company Christmas party which I used to get his gift (a Glenn Beck book) and Shepherding a Child's Heart book. My mom & dad got me a sewing machine (!!) and my mom made me a casserole carrier and aprons (with matching ones for my boys - all Husker material - GBR). My little sister got me a really cute cardigan-type sweater and an N cookie cutter (...

Today was Moose's Christmas party and it went pretty well. He's been VERY defiant at school and at home lately. You tell him one thing and he wants the opposite - fairly consistently. But he ended up standing up and singing with his classmates (definitely not as well as he did at church but he could see me today). Overall a really good party. Then I get home and read his planner notes for today. "Kept wanting a gun at school (used a block). I finally had to get really firm (no guns at school - we don't want to hear it again - Mr. G [the principal] says no guns at school). Then [Moose] said, "I'm getting frustrated. I want to go home." He says this quite often when told NO." What do I do? I can't think of where he would pick up guns from. Yes, he watched The Fox and the Hound, but that doesn't sound like a rifle he was wanting if he used a block. And he's never pretended to use a gun at home, ever! I'm scouring my mind to wrap it ar...

Moose is a pretty adept boxer. check out Moose's face - hilarious! Squirt lasts about 5 seconds; he just wants to box Moose. And, of course, who boxes with shirts on anymore? Not the little boys in this house. The Wii is providing many smiles and much laughter.

Moose & Squirt, I just want you to know that I love you and my prayer is that one day you will both live in a world that is cancer free. Miss D (Moose's teacher), you are a survivor and I'm so proud to know you. I'm so THANKFUL I can know you because you mean so much to my family and so many more families. Disclaimer: This post is sponsored by American Cancer Society.

My bone to pick with going gluten-free and casein-free is that a lot of the cookbooks that I've seen have really fancy recipes. We are not fancy people - we're meat and potatoes kind of folk. I want someone to makeover my recipes I have and just tweak them to take out the wheat and dairy. Well, Kinnikinnick has helped me begin that process myself. They sent us food that complies with our lifestyle; things my kids will eat! Montana's Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Cookies were good. So good that my husband and I probably ate more of them than the kids. They still weren't very moist (these weren't the Chewy cookies) but they were so close to another brand of cookies (wish I could remember the name). Even Big A liked them, so that's really telling you something! The Pancake & Waffle mix has made my family several meals. We do breakfast for dinner at least once a week. You can hardly taste the difference between the pancakes made with this mix and gluten-ful...

Moose's first snow angel :D can you see the angel? Squirt wasn't so thrilled with the snow but he kept venturing out to check it out and then whining when he got snow on him eating snow Do you play in the snow with your kids? I had such fun this day; I can't wait for more snow!

 Our family has yet to acquire many seasonal decorations - we don't have anything for Easter or 4th of July and only a few things (that I forgot to put out this year) for Halloween. However, I am happy to say we have Christmas decorations (again, not many but enough). This year I am sharing my holiday home decor and cleaning tips for the chance to win prizes from The SITS Girls and Great Cleaners .  My boys started to decorate a few days after Thanksgiving. I like to have everything set up the day after Thanksgiving but we had to get it all out of storage and then buy a new small tree because the old one (5 years old) was broken. And then Big A fixed it so we have 2 small trees.  Aren't they such good helpers? These two are probably my biggest cleaning tip. I started my boys young (even though they are young now too) on helping me clean up. They pick up toys with the best of them and Moose has learned to wipe off the table. Children are capable of helping...

I'm listening to my "Alabama station" on pandora radio . I love "old" country music (thinking 80s and 90s although I do enjoy some music older than that) that I listened to growing up. My mom loves country music (or at least used to) - my dad was more of an oldies fan back then (CCR, the Doors). My sister, Amber, and I loved country music. George Strait, Brooks and Dunn, Alan Jackson, Reba, Dolly Parton, the Judds. As I was listening to "Straight Tequila Night" I was just transported back to my bedroom growing up. Our red bunkbeds. Learning to line dance at Aunt Karrie's house. Watching CMT and the Wildhorse Saloon. "Dust on the Bottle," "Fancy," "Romeo," "When You Say Nothing At All," 8 Seconds, Pure Country. Garth Brooks before Chris Gains. Do you ever wonder how it is our brains can listen to something, smell something, see something and it just triggers that memory?? Why? Why did God give us these rec...

Random.org chose the winner of my giveaway for The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That and Chloe's Closet DVDs . Number 8 of 15 entrants is.... Apryl from Studied to be a Mommy said... We LOVE WordWorld in this house. However, I'm super sad that it hasn't been on Netflix recently. We also really like the Cat in the Hat Knows... Pajanimals also looks good, got to love everything from Jim Henson! Thanks for entering and remember that there are low entries here at the S Club so you have a good chance of winning! Come back again for more giveaways.

Attune Foods has been around (in one way, shape, or form) since 1908!! That's further back that many of us can trace our genealogy! Uncle Sam cereal was introduced in that year, followed by other companies that were bought out by other companies over their history . Finally, Attune Foods acquired Uncle Sam, Erewhon, New Morning, and Skinner's in 2009 . This new collaboration of companies now brings you "Simple, pure ingredients that help you feel your best every day." Attune Foods has two types of gluten-free products : Erewhon cereals and attune probiotic bars. We ate the brown rice with mixed berries , strawberry-crisp , and rice twice cereals. I really appreciate that these cereals tasted good. I ate each one and enjoyed them. The strawberry crisp is reminiscent of Special K with strawberries and the other two cereals remind me of rice krispies (one with mixed berries in it). The rice twice even makes the nice popping sounds! Moose did not care for the mixed...

I signed up for my first half of 2012!! Lincoln National Guard Marathon and Half Marathon - 2012 : Half Marathon : early registration You have successfully registered at GetMeRegistered.com. I'm psyched to run this race! I tried to register last year but it filled up fast (Registration close at 10,000 entrants, with up to 8,000 entrants accepted in the half marathon.). We used to live in Lincoln so I'm excited to run there with the added bonus of finishing on Memorial Stadium (go Huskers!!). So excited!! Want to enter? Register here .