Ultimate Blog Party {2013} and A GIVEAWAY!

Hello fellow UBP 2013 party goers ... welcome to Joy in the Everyday!  My name is Alicia and I began blogging in August of 2008 as a way to keep track of our homeschool journey. I figured if I didn't remember to write it down in my teacher planner at least I would always have the blogasphere to refer back to. 

My blog evolved to sharing my love of paper crafting, cooking - baking, homeschooling, my faith, and I always enjoy sharing ways I find joy in the everyday.

Our family lives in the northern suburbs of Atlanta - my husband and I have been married for almost 23 years and we have three biological children - ages 11, 10, and 8 - who we've homeschooled from the beginning.

We are now in the process of adopting a sweet girl who we hosted in our home for four weeks over Christmas {that is her and I pictured above}, from an Eastern European country. Here are a few posts on that subject ...

Video of the Sweet Girl We are Adopting

The Beginning of Our Adoption Journey

We are overjoyed to be adding this child to our family and are hoping to travel in June to get her! So now, our blog has grown once again - this time following us on our adoption journey.

When I am not posting about homeschooling, family life, or adoption - I love to post fun recipes and craft projects {I have to put my Pinterest addiction to use somewhere}. Here are two of my recent baking/crafty posts.

Photo Pendant Necklace Tutorial

Easy Cheesy Slider Recipe 

GIVEAWAY INFO ... 

As I mentioned above - I absolutely love paper crafting!! So, for one lucky party goer I am giving away a complete stamping set {pictured above} from Stampin Up! It includes a stamp set, ink, and a card making kit. To enter ... just leave me a comment below!

Thanks for stopping by and I look forward to visiting you during the Ultimate Blog Party 2013!!

Italian Days – Taste the Tradition event at Publix® {and a GIVEAWAY}

UPDATE:  Congratulations to Amy A from One Blessed Mama ... winner of the $25 Publix Gift Card.

My family absolutely loves Italian food - so you can imagine during Publix's Italian Days ~ Taste the Tradition event, we stock up on some of our favorites. This wonderful event goes on through March 1st. 

During Italian Days, I like to pair Publix’s awesome prices with coupons to stock up on some of our favorite General Mills brands like Green Giant and Progresso {love those Buy 1 - Get 1 sales}. Plus, stocking up on all the ingredients for some of my family's fave Italian dishes! One of our favorite meals is Lobster Ravioli with a cream sauce, sauteed shrimp, and a big salad.

During Italian Days, you can enter for a chance to be 1 of 500 shoppers that will win a $100 Publix® gift card!  Look in-store or visit www.clickcallmail.com to find coupon savings, recipes and to enter for a chance to win!
General Mills and Publix have also generously provided me with a $25 Publix gift card to give to one of you! To enter this giveaway, simply comment on this post with your first name, last initial and let me know your family's favorite Italian meal. The deadline to enter is Friday, February 22nd at 11:59 EST! I will announce a winner on Saturday, February 23rd.

Disclosure: The information, products and General Mills gift pack were provided by General Mills and Publix® through MyBlogSpark.

Molasses Cookies and a GIVEAWAY!

Fall is here which in our house means lots of baking ... and if your family loves molasses cookies like we do, but could do without the preparation and mess - Betty Crocker to the rescue! This fall, Betty Crocker is introducing a molasses cookie mix, making this year-round favorite easy to bake in less than 20 minutes.

Ava Mae and I whipped up a batch yesterday afternoon and they were a huge hit! They had a soft chewy texture and the perfect blend of cinnamon and spices.

And the good news, I get to giveaway a Betty Crock Molasses Cookie Prize Pack - including everything in the picture below {Betty Crocker Molasses Cookie Mix, Betty Crocker apron, non-stick baking pan, and mixing spoon}.

All you have to do to enter is leave me a comment below telling me your favorite occasion for baking spice cookies.

This giveaway will run through October 11, 2011 at 11:59 PM. Winner will be drawn via Random.org on or about October 12, 2011. Winner will be notified via email and will have 48 hours to provide shipping information. Giveaway is limited to US residents only who are 18 and older. If winner fails to respond within the 48 hour time frame, I will choose a different winner. Be sure to leave your email in the comment or ensure that it's available in your public profile. If you win, I need to be able to reach you!

Edited to add ... Congratulations to Amanda Y for winning the giveaway! Your prize pack will be on its way soon ... enjoy!

Disclosure: The product, information and prize pack has been provided by Betty Crocker through MyBlogSpark.

Totino's "Learn a Ton when School is Fun" Sweepstakes and GIVEAWAY

Our family, collects Box Tops for Education all year long to help enhance the learning experience kids receive at the one day a week enrichment school our children attend. It is amazing what Box Tops for Education can purchase to help improve a child's school environment and make learning fun.

This school year, Totino´s® is giving away one million Bonus Box Tops (equivalent to $100,000) to help bring fun ideas to life both inside and outside of the classroom, through the "Learn a Ton when School is Fun" sweepstakes:

• This school year, four participating schools in the Box Tops for Education (BTFE) program will each win 250,000 Bonus Box Tops, equivalent to $25,000, from Totino´s to help fund a fun project at their school. Visit www.BTFE.com/Totinos to view official sweepstakes rules.
  
• You can start, or continue, to earn cash for your kid´s school by collecting Box Tops coupons from hundreds of products, including Totino´s
  
• This back-to-school season, Totino´s^® Party Pizza^® and Pizza Rolls^® Snacks will feature double Box Tops on select varieties, to help you earn even more for your kid´s school!

Fun is an essential part of learning. Continue to help make your kid´s learning environment more fun and exciting by taking advantage of these simple opportunities from Totino´s - enter the "Learn a Ton when School is Fun" sweepstakes for your chance to win 250,000 Bonus Box Tops, and serve up a quick and delicious after-school snack with Totino´s Party Pizza and Pizza Rolls Snacks {one of my kids favorite mid-day snacks}, while collecting double Box Tops from each.

Giveaway! Enter to win a Totino's prize pack.

Thanks to Totino's one LUCKY Joy in the Everyday reader will win a Totino´s "Learn a Ton when School is Fun" prize pack which includes: A Brain Quest Smart! Game, Micro Rubik´s^® Cube Key Holder, Draw string backpack, Coupons for a free package of Totino´s Pizza Rolls Snacks, Totino´s Party Pizza and new Totino´s Pizza Stuffers.

This giveaway will run through August 25, 2011 at 11:59 PM. Winner will be drawn via Random.org on or about August 26, 2011. Winner will be notified via email and will have 48 hours to provide shipping information. Giveaway is limited to US residents only who are 18 and older. If winner fails to respond within the 48 hour time frame, I will choose a different winner. Mandatory entry is required; extra entries are optional. Be sure to leave your email in the mandatory comment or ensure that it's available in your public profile. If you win, I need to be able to reach you!

Mandatory Entry: Leave a comment telling me, What type of fun project you would use the 250,000 Bonus Box Tops ($25,000 value) to fund if they won the Totino´s "Learn a Ton when School is Fun" sweepstakes?" or What do you do to make learning fun?

Extra entries: Each action is worth one entry, and you must leave a separate comment for each action. If you've already liked or subscribed, just leave a comment letting me know. With regard to actions on Facebook, please do not leave a message about this contest on sponsor's wall if you opt to Like them. Just leave me the comment letting me know that you completed that entry!

• Like Totino's on Facebook

• Subscribe to/be a subscriber of Joy in the Everyday

• Share this giveaway on Facebook. Please come back and leave a link in the comment for this entry. You can do this once per day. Leave a separate comment each time if you choose to do this daily.
  

Disclosure: The information and prize pack has been provided by Totino´s through MyBlogSpark.

UPDATE: Congratulations to Lori over at Morning Glories and Moonflowers for winning the prize pack. Winner was chosen by Random.org number generator which gave me the number 11.

Ultimate Blog Party 2011

So excited to be participating once again this year in the Ultimate Blog Party! It is such a fun way to get to know other bloggers!

My name is Alicia and I have been married 20 years to a wonderful man - we have three kids ages 9, 8 and 6 - which we homeschool. I blog mainly to chronicle our homeschool days but, I also like to blog about cooking/baking, crafting, and I like to review mom/kid friendly products and host giveaways.

Hope you join in on the fun! I am hosting a giveaway on the blog to celebrate this fun party! Leave me a comment and be entered to win a grab bag of fun crafting products valued at over $50. I have Jolee's Jewels and Stampin Up! product to giveaway. Winner will be announced in one week.

Happy Ultimate Blog Party 2011!!

Yoplait Yogurt - Product Review and GIVEAWAY

My girls and I are addicted to Yoplait Original Style Yogurt and that is a good thing because, I am always looking for ways to get more calcium in my diet. Being on Weight Watchers I try and find point friendly ways of making that happen and Yoplait Yogurt has some of my favorite flavors in 4-cup packs and easy-to-store 8-cup fridge packs in 23 delicious flavors including Strawberry, French Vanilla, Harvest Peach, and Blackberry Pomegranate and, they are only 3 points on WW.

Yoplait recently sent me an awesome prize pack for reviewing their product and I would love to send one of my readers a prize pack also. For those of you getting back into a healthy routine this is the perfect prize it includes a great workout bag, water bottle, awesome jump rope, workout towel and a coupon for free yogurt!

If you would like to be entered into the giveaway just leave me a comment telling me how you are working on becoming more healthy and getting more calcium in your diet.

I will draw a winner one week from today on Saturday, March 26th.

Disclosure: Yoplait provided me with the free product, information, and a giveaway through MyBlogSpark.

Jolee's Jewels GIVEAWAY

Last week I hosted a Jolee's Jewels House Party at my home for a few friends. We all got the opportunity to make swarovski crystal bracelets. I have to say I was a little intimidated at first (I am first and foremost a paper crafter) but, following the step-by-step video that Jolee's Jewels provided made making the bracelets super easy! The hardest part was deciding what beads we wanted to use and what pattern we wanted them to go in. It was a great way to jump start everyone's Christmas crafting.

I wanted to share the fun we had with my blog readers and so I have a prize pack for you too! I will include two packages of swarovski crystal beads, a crystal pendant, and toggle. I will also include Beadalon wire, crimps, and a jump ring for you to complete your project. The only tool you will need is a pair of needle nose pliers.
To enter the giveaway just leave me a comment and tell me what your favorite craft project is. I will use a random number generator to select the winner on Wednesday, November 25th at Noon.

Disclosure: Thank you to Jolee's Jewels and House Party who provided me with all the materials needed for my beading party and the items offered in the prize pack.

I am linking this post up to The Girl Creative's Just Something I Whipped Up Link Party. Jump on over to her blog and see all the great items everyone is whipping up!

How Do You Start Your Day and A Giveaway!

So how do you start your day? I know how important breakfast is but, many mornings it just seems like our day gets going and somehow breakfast has slipped my mind. Thankfully, my kids have not adopted that bad habit. One of the first things they do in the morning is make themselves something to eat. I have been trying lately to make wiser choices on Weight Watchers and so you can imagine when My Blog Spark and Fiber One gave me an opportunity to try out their Fiber One cereal I jumped at the chance.

I have to say I was a little skeptical about the taste when I first read there was 14 grams of fiber in one serving. I was pleasantly surprised! The cereal is actually really good, even my 8 year old loves it. My favorite way to eat it is with a cup of fat free milk and sliced bananas - a 3 point breakfast on WW and so filling. I love making it through the morning without the need to snack. Many mornings when I skip breakfast by lunch I am starving and I grab the first thing I see - not always the wisest choice. Fiber One wants you all to have an opportunity to try out their cereal and see for yourself how great it tastes and how filling it can be. The first 15 readers to click on the site below will receive a free box of Fiber One cereal.



Fiber One sent me a gift pack (pictured below) along with the Fiber One cereal and guess what? They are letting me give away a gift pack to one of my readers! The "Help Take the Hunger out of Dieting" prize pack includes a box of Fiber One Original cereal, a cereal-on-the-go container, food scale, water bottle and notepad for tracking what you eat.

To enter, just leave me a comment telling me your go to breakfast to start your day. I will choose a random winner, a week from today, on November 16th. To earn an extra entry post about my giveaway on your blog or facebook and link back to this post - then just leave another comment letting me know what you did.

Disclosure: General Mills provided me a box of Fiber One Cereal, a prize pack and information about their product through MyBlogSpark.com.

And the Winners Are ...

Thanks to everyone who stopped by my blog during the Ultimate Blog Party 2010! I had such a great time meeting so many new blog friends. I found so many new blogs that I have to follow.

I have made it back to almost everyone's blog - just a few more to go but, I wanted to make sure I posted this morning the winners of the set of cards and rubberstamp set.

I used a random number generator ...

#41. Jen from Reflections in the Window is the winner of the stamp set.

#12. Ashely from Barista Mama is the winner of the set of cards.

Congrats to you both ... I will be stopping by your blogs to let you know you won. Be sure to send me your mailing address so I can get your prizes out to you ASAP. My email - aliciak999 at gmail dot com.