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Make-A-Wish® Foundation Needs Airline Miles- World Wish Day

Note: This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Make-A-Wish®. All opinions are my own. World wish DayOne thing I’ve been extremely thankful for is that my children are healthy and I’m always worried that I’m tempting fate by trying to become pregnant again. I’m afraid that for some reason my baby will have something wrong with it. (No, I’m not pregnant yet, just hope to be soon.) Some families, though, have to deal with children that have life-threatening medical conditions. The Make-A-Wish® foundation is there to help grant these children a wish. Do you know what they do?

The Make-A-Wish Foundation was founded in 1980 after a little boy named Chris Greicius realized his heartfelt wish to become a police officer. Since its humble beginnings, the organization has blossomed into a worldwide phenomenon, reaching more than 250,000 children around the world.

Did you know that nearly 75 percent of wishes require air travel, making it a critical – and costly – resource? In fact, approximately 50,000 airline tickets, the equivalent of 2.5 billion airlines miles or $37.5 million, would be needed each year to cover the cost associated with sending wish kids and their families to and from these incredible experiences. How can you help?

You can donate frequent flier miles or dollars at wish.org/tickets and help wish kids take flight! I lived very near a Make-A-Wish location in Kissimmee, FL and I always wanted to take the time to go over and see it but never did. I wanted to take the time to go donate my time, but life, as always, was too busy. I wish I had frequent flyer miles to donate, but since I don’t, I will most likely donate some money soon!

As an added incentive, WWE® Superstar John Cena® will personally match every frequent flier mile donated in April, up to 4.5 million. WWE will also leverage its wide array of assets – TV, digital, social media and live events – to help to promote World Wish Day to its 143 million social media fans and 13 million weekly viewers in the United States. United Airlines will also support World Wish Day by matching the donations of its MileagePlus® members, up to 3 million miles, through April 30.

Several other Make-A-Wish sponsors are coordinating special World Wish Day promotions, including Maggiano’s Little Italy®, Marquis®, Brooks Brothers, and Dave & Buster’s.

#WorldWishDay is April 29. Can you donate some airline miles or money to help grant these kids their wishes?

This year, 10,000 wish kids and their families will travel for a Make-A-Wish® experience. That’s 50,000 roundtrip tickets or 2.5 billion frequent flier miles. In honor of World Wish Day®, the day of the wish that inspired the founding of Make-A-Wish, visit wish.org/tickets and donate miles and dollars – and help wish kids take flight.

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Make-A-Wish®. The opinions and text are all mine.

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Mimi’s Goes Red Lunch Review

Mimi's Goes RedOn Friday Mimi’s Cafe went red for Women’s Heart Health. I took my friend Di there for lunch with the kids. I loved that for the two little ones they brought out bowls of Cheerios to help keep them happy until lunch came out. Lunch was very good and for having 3 kids under 4, it wasn’t nearly as hectic as it could have been! It was nice to have lunch with Di. Normally we have lunch once a week, but I’ve been so busy lately that I haven’t been going.

Di started off her lunch with the tomato basil soup (I always like that one) and I had the French Onion soup. Seeing that it was Friday, I tried to avoid meat all day so I ordered the 5-Way Grilled Cheese for lunch. Di had an avocado chicken sandwich, Buddy had chocolate chip pancakes and the other two kids shared chicken fingers.

Mimi's Lunch

I was a little bummed that the waitress didn’t even mention the Go Red Program to us. We had to ask for our free bowl of soup that you get on Friday’s in February if you wear red. I also had to tell her at the end of the meal that I wanted to make the donation to the program. I understand it was the first day, but things should have been pushed to the servers to tell the customers about the program. Besides that, she was a fine waitress and took good care of us. The other “oops” from lunch was that the person that sat us didn’t tell us about being able to take home a container of soup for $5, so Di got to take a container of the tomato basil soup for free.

Mimi'sDon’t forget that if you visit Mimi’s this month and wear red on Fridays you can get a free bowl of soup. Also, if you donate $5 to the American Heart Association you get a pretty, sparkly red dress pin and three coupons for your next visit to Mimi’s. Help a great organization and have a delicious meal!

Note: I received a gift card to Mimi’s Cafe in exchange for this post. All opinions are my own.

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Healthy Food Education is Important! @BGCA_Clubs

Healthy eating is becoming more and more important to my family. We’ve been working on eating more fruits and vegetables and getting whatever we can as Organic. I don’t strive to ever be 100%, but it feels good to know that these small changes are good for my family.

Amway has partnered with the Boys and Girls Club of America to help educate kids and their families about healthy diets and lifestyles.

  • POSITIVE SPROUTS® Sustainability Grants – Amway is providing $30,000 in Sustainability Grants to ten deserving Boys & Girls Clubs who previously received community gardens from Amway. The funds are designed to assist Clubs with the maintenance of their garden as well as improve nutrition for Club members. For more information on the POSITIVE SPROUTS program, click here:http://www.myclubmylife.com/positivesprouts/Pages/Welcome.aspx
  • Garden In A Box Kits – Amway is donating 150 Garden In A Box kits to Boys & Girls Clubs who demonstrated an interest and need for establishing a community gardening program at their Club. The kit includes a variety of fruit and vegetable seeds and supplies Clubs need to get started.
  • POSITIVE SPROUTS® Curriculum – Amway is enabling the delivery of a healthy food curriculum to 4,000 Boys & Girls Clubs nationwide ensuring that all Clubs have access to educational materials promoting healthy eating habits.

I love that Amway is trying to do something positive to help kids learn more about healthy eating. I wish there were more community gardening programs available. I would love to take a gardening class for myself before next year. I’d like to learn what I’m really supposed to do with my garden. This year I just had tomatoes and jalapenos in it.

When I was younger my Dad used to work for a campground teaching about animals. The camp was special, because it worked with the Boys and Girls Clubs as well as inner-city schools to get these kids out to a camp for a week, something they’d otherwise never have a chance to do. There are such great programs out there and I love to see more come to be.

Note: I participated in a campaign on behalf of Mom Central Consulting for Boys and Girls Clubs of America and Amway. I received a promotional item as a thank-you for participating.

 

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Don’t forget put together your Operation Christmas Child Boxes! #OCCGiving

I just wanted to remind you that if you are going to do an Operation Christmas Child Box that they need to be sent by November 19th. We dropped our boxes off at a local church this Monday that was collecting them. The kids are so into giving lately. Their school is collecting canned soups and puzzle books for the soldiers and they just HAD to get some to bring to school. They’re also looking forward to the Thanksgiving and Christmas food and toy drives at church. It’s always amazing to walk into church on the Sunday before Christmas and see the whole front of the church filled with wrapped toys for little kids.

I wrote about Operation Christmas Child about a week ago telling you how we filled our boxes. If you’re interested in sending a box yourself, you can either do it online or you can get a list of items needed and fill a box yourself.

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Operation Christmas Child. The opinions and text are all mine.

 

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Operation Christmas Child #OCCGiving

Operation Christmas Child What do you do to teach your kids about giving and compassion? Every Thanksgiving and Christmas we grab the list from church and head to the store to donate dinners for the poor. When I heard about Operation Christmas Child, I knew we had to jump on board and make a box or two for needy kids. I printed out the directions and headed to the store with my youngest to pick out toys. Once we got there we couldn’t choose between girl or boy so we decided to do both. Knowing that my daughter likes little things, it was so easy to find things to fit in a shoe box for a girl. The boy I had a little harder time with because it seems like everything is action figures or really expensive.  I ended up spending around $25 on each box which isn’t bad.If you want, you can just create a box online for $30.

The kids had such a great time drawing pictures to put in the box. Monkey wanted to go get a stuffed animal or baby doll from her room to give to the little girl. I had to explain that they don’t want used toys. Buddy said to her “What if you didn’t get Christmas.” She said, “That’s ok, because we have lots of toys here.” They just wanted to do all they could for this little boy and girl to give them everything they could for Christmas.Monkey wanted to go out and buy her a Barbie, because “What if she wants a Barbie for Christmas?” I said that we couldn’t give them everything they want, but we could give them a little happiness.

We got both kids yo-yos, a deck of cards, a toothbrush and toothpaste, coloring book, crayons, and a magnetic doodle pad.The girl got some Hello Kitty socks and a Polly Pockets doll and the boy got a couple of cars.  We had some Halloween playdoh that had never been opened so we threw a few of those in as well. I really hope the little boy and girl enjoys these boxes. The kids made a drawing and we put Christmas cards in from our family with our pictures on it and our address, because it says if you send your address, the child may write back. I hope so, because I think it would be great for the kids.

Our boxes are all set and waiting for our drop off date. There is actually a location about a mile from our house where we can drop off the boxes, so that works great.

How to pack a box:

 

 

Use an empty shoe box (standard size, please) or a small plastic container. You can wrap the box (lid separately), but wrapping is not required. Most importantly, pray for the child who will receive your gift.

 

 

 

Determine whether your gift will be for a boy or a girl, and the child’s age category: 2-4, 5-9, or 10-14. Print out the appropriate boy/girl label by downloading the artwork to the right. Mark the correct age category on the label, and tape the label to the top of your box.

 

 

 

Fill the box with a variety of gifts that will bring delight to a child.  Use the gift ideas provided on the bottom of this page.

 

 

 

Please donate $7 or more for each shoe box you prepare to help cover shipping and other project costs. You can give online by using our “Follow Your Box Donation”option, or you can write a check to Samaritan’s Purse (note “OCC” on memo line) and place it in an envelope on top of the gift items inside your box. If you or your family are preparing more than one shoe box, please make one combined donation.

 

Place a rubber band around each closed shoe box and drop it off at the 

collection center nearest you during our collection week, November 12-19, 2012.



For locations and hours of collection visit our Drop-Off Locations page where you can find the nearest place to take your shoe box by entering your ZIP Code or you can call 1-800-353-5949.



You can also send your shoe box gift to: 

Samaritan’s Purse

Operation Christmas Child


801 Bamboo Road

Boone, NC 28607

 This holiday season build a box with your family to teach kindness, compassion, and generosity.

Operation Christmas Child and influencer marketing platform BlogFrog have teamed up with 200 bloggers like me to spread the word about this great cause.

BlogFrog will match the first 200 boxes that are built.  Pledge your commitment below to build a box today on Facebook or Twitter!

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Operation Christmas Child. The opinions and text are all mine.

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Mimi’s Cafe Power of Pink @mimis_cafe #PowerofPink

The Mimi’s Cafe Power of Pink campaign kicks off Monday, Oct. 1 and goes through the entire month. With each Sparkling Pink Passion Mimosa and Pink Passion Sparkler drink sold, a portion of the proceeds will be donated to National Breast Cancer Foundation through Oct. 31.Throughout October, guests can donate $1 and receive a leaf to inscribe and hang on the “Giving Tree” display. With a $5 donation, guests also receive a limited-edition pink ribbon lapel pin. All proceeds will be donated to National Breast Cancer Foundation. As a token of thanks, Mimi’s is providing up to $30 in coupon savings for those making in-restaurant donations. (Ours gave us a pumpkin spice muffin to take home, for free, as well. Guests can also support Mimi’s Power of Pink online with eGift card donations and donations on the digital “Giving Tree.” Similar to the tree in each restaurant, the digital tree will grow to life as a leaf appears with each heartfelt donation.
Power of Pink
My girlfriend was babysitting two kids so we took those two and my Little Man to lunch today to support the Power of Pink. The boys were crazy together, but luckily no one complained. (At least not to us!) The food tasted great! I ordered the five way grilled cheese, which I may have dunked into Little Man’s Ranch dressing from his salad. He is such a crazy kid, while the others ordered chicken nuggets and corn dogs, he ordered soup and salad with fruit! He wasn’t fond of the salad, though, because of the types of leaves they used. The other two boys ate their food up great. My friend ordered the Blue Cheese and Walnut salad. It looked amazing and she said it was really good. (She practically licked her plate!) I don’t know that I’ve ever been really disappointed at Mimi’s.

Both my friend and I donated $5 to get the pin and free Pumpkin Spice Muffin. The kids saw my muffin after school and want to dig into it! I’m thinking I’d like to meet a few girlfriends for a late breakfast one morning after the kids go to school before October is up to help support the cause again. Find out how you can help with Mimi’s Cafe Power of Pink! Check in with Mimi’s on their webpage, Facebook, and Twitter #PowerofPink.

 Note: I was given a gift certificate in exchange for this post. All opinions are my own.

How About a Recipe?

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