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Back 2 School Blog Hop Bash

**This post will be sticky all month which means it will be the top post all month!  Scroll past it for most recent posts – DON’T FORGET TO PLAY ALL THE GIVEAWAYS FOR MORE CHANCES TO WIN!**

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It is time for my annual Back 2 School Bash!  This year I have gone one step farther and invited 4 other bloggers to participate in the Bash with me!  So, this is a Back 2 School Blog HOP Bash!  Are you ready for some Back to School Blog Hopping Fun!?  Between the 5 of us, we are bringing you a giveaway every day during the month of August, PLUS on Sundays, the 1st of the month and last day of the month, we will all be running the same giveaways!  That means, lots of Back 2 School giveaways for you to try your hand at winning.

In addition, some of us are running giveaways that are not part of the School Hop Bash, so get ready to hang out with us and win some prizes!

Refer back to this post during the entire month of August for links and end dates of every giveaway! Once each post is live, the title will be clickable and it will have an end date. :-)

All Five Blogs:

  1. Rubbermaid Revealends Aug 15th
  2. Easy Lunchboxesends Aug 22nd
  3. N-fini Shapeends Aug 29th
  4. Mabel’s Labelsends Sept 6th
  5. Charm Factoryends Sept 12th
  6. Knit Riteends Sept 14th

3 Boys and a Dog:

  1. Art & Homework Bag of Suppliesends Aug 16th
  2. Take Action Fileends Aug 21st
  3. French Toast School Uniformsends Aug 27th
  4. SnapFish by HPends Sept 2nd
  5. My O’bon School Supplies – Never received Product!

Mommie’s Angels:

  1. O’bonends Aug 22nd
  2. Barefoot Books (winner’s choice) – ends Aug 29th
  3. Snap - ends Aug 29th
  4. Honest Teaends Sept 5th
  5. Trekker Mugends Sept 12th

Jamerican Spice:

  1. CSN 50 dollar gift certificateends Sept 4
  2. Lafayette Puzzlesends Sept 10
  3. Socks for Lifeends Sept 16th
  4. Tukaiz - ends Sept 21st
  5. PromosLogos

Laughing Lindsay:

  1. Aeropostale - ends Aug 19th
  2. BIC HUGE Back to school kitends Aug 24th
  3. Carolina Padends Aug 31st
  4. Fellowes Paper Shredder - ends Sept 4th
  5. Design Your Dormends Sept 11th

Debbie’s Homeschool Corner:

  1. Knowledge Questends Aug 19th
  2. Super Star Speechends Aug 22nd
  3. Canson - ends Sept 1st
  4. Critical Thinking Pressends Sept 7th
  5. Freckle Boxends Sept 7th

**Button and Banner Designed by Krizzy Designs – yes, I paid for them, but I thought you might want to know who I got to make them and how you could get some.   :-) **

REVIEW: CoverMate Food Covers

It is summer, that means WATERMELON!  I usually chop up and de-seed watermelon the instant it comes in my door.  But, this year, my grandmother brought me a MASSIVE watermelon and I gave up after only doing half but that meant I had to find a way to cover the other huge half of the watermelon.  The acids in a watermelon will eat through aluminum foil and plastic wrap won’t stick.  So, I was sitting there trying to think when I remembered that I had some CoverMate Food Covers that were sent to me to review!

CoverMate® Food Covers convenient Variety Pack are perfect for keeping your food fresh and insect and debris free when having an outside BBQ.  They contains four sizes of versatile food covers that easily stretch-to-fit any size bowl, plate, platter, container or cup. The environmentally-friendly covers, which are made from heavy duty, clear FDA-compliant food-safe material free of BPA, PVC and latex, can be reused over and over as they are dishwasher safe. In addition, the covers include built-in corners for fitting both round and square dishware, and vents which allow steam to escape during microwave re-heating.

The CoverMate Food Covers are available online at www.covermatecovers.com and also in national retail outlets such as Target for $3.99.

Whether you are covering a plate of leftovers, keeping a salad fresh, or taking a veggie tray to party, Covermate has you covered. New Covermate stretch-to-fit food covers provide a quick and easy way to cover all plates, bowls and containers.

Be sure to take the time to:

GIVEAWAY: Betty Crocker Bake Life Sweeter

BC_Spoon_sigspoon_4C  (final) How did I manage to get so behind?  Zack’s birthday was in April, his party was in May, and I am just now getting this post written!  I feel like I have not stopped since Christmas!  Just when I think I am getting caught up, the UPS, FedEx, DHL, and Mail all arrive at the same time 3 days in a row. :-)

Anyway, thanks to My Blog Spark, I was able to review Betty Crocker Cake Mix and Icing for Zack’s birthday party!  They also sent me a Flip Cam (which is why I have been able to do all the video reviews) and gift card to help me make his party super special.  Zack chose Cars by Disney and with the help of the Betty Crocker website, I was able to make it a super special party.  DSCN1309

BettyCrocker.com has all your party-planning needs, including instructional videos, shopping lists, party activities and games, and even invitations that can be printed from your home computer!

Thanks to their party planning page, we were able to come up with tons of party ideas with just a couple clicks!

We had a blast, we took videos that we will cherish for years, I took a million pictures, and the cake and cupcakes were FABULOUS!

One of my very lucky readers will win a Betty Crocker “Bake Life Sweeter” prize pack that includes coupons for cake mixes and frosting as well as all the baking tools you will need to create any cake you want!Bc Winner Package  (final)

To WIN: Visit the Betty Crocker website, look around, then come back and leave a comment saying which Betty Crocker cake you would like to try!

BONUS #1: Follow Betty Crocker on Twitter then retweet this contest.  The easiest way is to simply click the green RT button at the top of this post.

BONUS #2: Like Betty Crocker on FaceBook

Other bonus entries:

#1. Spread the word about this review by: email, forums, blogging, twitter, Digg, or putting the link in a meme. (one entry per thing done)

#2. Follow my blog.

#3. Subscribe to my RSS feed.

#4. Follow me on Twitter

#5. Fan Me on FaceBook

#6. Put my button on your blog.

#7. Leave a comment on any other post (excluding giveaways!) Be sure to leave a comment here saying which post.

CONTEST ENDS: August 10th at midnight CST

OPEN TO: USA and CANADA

DISCLAIMER:  The information, gift card, flip video camera and giveaway have all been provided by Betty Crocker through MyBlogSpark.  Any opinions stated are strictly my own.

The Barilla Family Dinner Project

Barilla I am always super busy, as are many families today.  We have sports, work, hobbies, music, doctor visits, etc.  It seems everyone is always going in different directions and it is HARD to eat dinner together.

Barilla, like many widely-recognized food brands, is trying to get families back to the dinner table.  They have started the Share The Table program to help families make meal times more meaningful.

I LOVE the Share the Table site!  It has many things you can do to help meal planning easier and more fun:

  • Sweepstakes – If you join the site, you could win Barilla Pasta Fridays pasta and pasta sauce
  • Contests – The Mealtime Moments Contest allows families that commit to making mealtimes great a chance to win prizes through the summer like a month’s worth of groceries!
  • Donations – For every person that becomes a fan of Meaningful Meals at Share The Table, Barilla will donate 1 dollar to Meals on Wheels.
  • Meal Planning – The dinner calendar makes it easy to meal plan and when you are ready you can print a shopping list directly from the site! They even have pre-made menu plans!
  • Recipes – With many meal options like Healthy, Kid Friendly, Make Ahead, and Vegetarian, you should have no problem finding something you like.  Find a recipe you want to try and save it to your very own recipe box!

To help our family “Share The Table,”  we were sent a wonderful package full of all the things we needed to create a meal for the family.    We love pastas and are partial to tomato based ones.  We make spaghetti, girl scout stew, Taco Bake, Crock Pot Pizza, and love trying new things.  For this review, I tried the Three Layer Lasagna.  Can you say, “YUM!” :-)

“I wrote this review while participating in a blog tour campaign by Mom Central on behalf of Barilla and received products necessary to facilitate my review..”

How To Handle Your Incoming Tasks

First think of all the things that come to you each day:CB007273

  1. Mail: FedEx, USPS, UPS, DHL, etc
  2. Email
  3. FaceBook
  4. Twitter
  5. Phone Calls
  6. Text Messages
  7. RSS readers
  8. Conversations with family members

How do you handle all of the incoming stuff and all the tasks that this stuff generates?

Imagine this: I had just returned home from the WeBlog Conference to over a dozen packages, hundreds of new FaceBook and Twitter followers, and over 1,000 emails to sift through.  Plus, I had several pages of things that needed doing post-conference!

So, how did I handle it?

  • Step One: I got overly stressed over the amount of work needed doing. :-)
  • Step Two: I decided to simplify it and write a post on what I did. LOL!
  • Step Three: I grabbed my brand new timer and set it for 10 minutes.  With a notebook and my new favorite pen, I began free-writing or brain dumping all the tasks that popped into my head.
  • Step Four: I set my timer for another 10 minutes, organized my Outlook Inbox by sender instead of my date and began bulk deleting anything I deemed unimportant, junk mail, ads, or newsletters.  That took one inbox from 241 emails down to 91!  I feel better already!

Ways to Handle Your email Inbox:

  • Step Five: With that inbox still by sender, I went through my new Twitter follows to see who I wanted to follow back and my new FaceBook request to approve or ignore them. (approximately another 10 minutes)
  • Step Six: Again, I set my timer – but this time for 15 minutes.  I spent 15 minutes working on a post.  Since I had a few in my drafts folder, I was actually able to complete one and post it in that time frame.
  • Step Seven: Another 15 minutes found me handling and responding to the 91 emails still in my first folder.

An hour down and I have just about handled every email in 1 inbox and posted one post!  I completed this process the entire day and ended up getting all emails handled and about 6 posts scheduled!  Now, I am caught up on blogging and ahead on posts!  This is a great way to catch up the wfmw-300x198overflow to get your life back on track!

Note:  this concept can be used for housework, too!  Timers and breaking tasks into smaller tasks can really help with procrastination!

This post is linked up to Works for Me Wednesday at We are THAT Family.

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