Giveaway: Whole Foods Dark Chocolate Coffee Beans (7 ounce package)

I discovered these little gems when we went on our Whole Foods tour over Spring Break. I’ve always loved chocolate-covered coffee beans (I’ll eat just about ANYTHING if it’s covered in chocolate), so I grabbed a 7-ounce package of Dark Chocolate Coffee Beans at Whole Foods and love ‘em.

The bonus is that the kids don’t like them, so I don’t have to even worry about hiding them. And I only need a few a day to almost replace my coffee habit. Forget Red Bull … these little babies give you a nice buzz! At $4 per package, it’s a steal!

So I’m sharing with 1 lucky bloggie friend! Lots of chances to win; all you have to do is:

1. Leave me a comment … if you have to be Anonymous, leave me your first name and email, please.

2. For a bonus entry, put a link on your blog telling about this giveaway and come back here to let me know you did it.

3. For another entry, sign up for an email subscription to my blog on the right-hand side of the screen.

4. For yet ANOTHER entry, become a Follower of my blog on the right-hand side of the screen.

5. For another shot at winning, follow me on Twitter (it doesn’t count if you already follow me) at mommykerrie.

IMPORTANT: Don’t forget to leave me your e-mail address so I can contact you if you win. I’d leave it in this format so you don’t get Spam: mommykerrie at yahoo dot com.

Field Trip: Whole Foods Tour

On the 19th we went on a great field trip to Whole Foods with another family from our homeschool group. I was able to leave my girls home with my mom, so it was nice to be able to just take the boys and do some grocery shopping and then do the tour and THEN some more grocery shopping!

We got some sort of horned fruit (kiwano horned melon???), Shatto chocolate milk, granola for parfaits, a block of the best smoked mozzarella I’ve ever had in my life, some Odwalla bars (easy breakfast for me) and our staple Veggie Straws and dark chocolate discs.

I chalked all these expenses up to “education” and figure a Catholic school education would be more costly than buying a few items at a grocery store. Besides, we usually shop at Aldi, which is super cheap.

At the end of the tour, the kids got to make a healthy granola, blueberry and yogurt parfait. They got a bag of goodies, including a kiwi fruit, a juice box and a sample of organic fruit snacks.

Now I really want to write an article on how to feed your kids organic, healthy foods on the cheap. I wish I could easily contact Kate Gosselin (Jon and Kate Plus Eight) because I saw her shop at a Whole Foods-type place on the cheap for 8 kids … lots of coupons and rain checks helped. Kate, if you Google Alert yourself, CAWL ME … I’d love to interview you.

Ways to Celebrate Lent

Yep, I’m one of those Crazy Roman Catholics (we call ourselves “RCs” in house; my aunt lovingly calls us “fish eaters”). I became Catholic in 1999, AFTER getting married. I went through the conversion process (9 months) and then decided I wasn’t ready; didn’t want to convert JUST because I was marrying a Catholic. I went through the process again and decided I was ready.

I get asked about how we celebrate Lent a lot, so here’s just one example.

I got an e-mail from Scooter’s Coffeehouse (there’s one right up the street where, like at Cheers, everybody knows my name). During March they have an offer where you get a Coffee Passport and sample 7 different coffees within a month from 7 different countries. Then you get a $10 gift card. Basically I’d need to spend about $35 (including tip) to get $10. Normally I’d jump at this, but during Lent I’m rethinking some things.

I decided to instead take that $35 I almost blew and put it into our Rice Bowl (a little cardboard bowl you pick up at church before Lent starts).

From the bottom of the Rice Bowl: “75% of your gifts to Operation Rice Bowl come to Catholic Relief Services to fund development projects overseas and Lenten education efforts in the U.S. 25% remains in dioceses in the U.S. to support local hunger and poverty alleviation.”

Not a major sacrifice, I know, but big for me. In keeping with the idea of helping the hungry, I could also go down to Harvester’s and help pack up food (would they let me in with a nursing sling baby?).

I welcome more ideas of how to help the hungry in more hands-on ways while keeping at least a couple of the kids with me so they can also help and learn. Leave me some info in the Comments section, please!

Messy Homeschool Bookshelf AFTER Picture

Okay, fine. Here’s the AFTER picture of my messy bookshelf. And no, smarty pants, I didn’t just move everything out of view of the camera! Here’s what I did, because I bet you have a messy bookshelf, too, especially if you homeschool:

1. I got rid of some workbooks or stored them in a homeschool tub in the basement.

2. I put the dictionary, thesaurus and writing books on my desk shelf instead.

3. I put the scrapbooking projects in my bedroom closet until I can devote a chunk of time to them.

4. I called my mother-in-law to see if she has any coloring books at her house for grandkids who come over. She actually needed some!

5. I put the tin of games in our hall closet with other games.

6. I could only part with 2 books, but moved a few to another bookshelf that had some room on it.

7. I realized some of the stuff belonged solely to the boys (Pokemon books, Zoobooks magazines) and put them on a shelf in the boys’ closet.

8. I put the worksheets I’d been storing in file folders on the bookshelf into the file cabinet (had to clear space out of that first, of course).

9. I put things I want to work on with the kids into their respective homeschool baskets and set a goal to teach those things before the end of the school year.

10. The magazines now live in my overflowing writing drawer (a project for another day).

11. The Christmas folder got moved to my computer desk since I do need it from time to time to jot down ideas for people.

I was even able to add their art kits and a box of Legos. Ah, my bookshelf can BREATHE now! And I don’t feel so overwhelmed. Now, on to the project of getting new pictures printed for those frames on the top shelf …

Sexual Compulsion as DISEASE???

Okay, so we’ve established that alcoholism is possibly a disease. So how about sexual compulsion? Is it some chemical problem in the brain or just bad behavior? Or a bad habit? Or what? I mean, overeating is a big problem, too. But I have to have food. If I stop food altogether, I will die. But if I never have sex again I will be fine. If a guy never has sex again (even with himself), he will not blow up.

Can’t wait for the opinions on this one.

By the way, there is a great program called Covenant Eyes that you can load onto your computers for accountability for someone who may have a problem with Internet porn. They have an accountability partner who sees their Internet report for the week (the sites they've gone to, what time of day, etc.). For the family members who don't have a porn problem, they just have a different login and no accountability partner.