Free and discounted books I love on Amazon today

Just a quick post to tell you that two great books are available free or discounted today on Amazon.

I reviewed Tangled Ashes in the past and loved it!  Get it for free here.

This is a book that Tim and I both love.  It tells you exactly what a millionaire looks like - not what someone who is trying to look wealthy looks like, but someone who really is wealthy.  Get it for only $2.99 today (that's a great price and totally worth it).

Guest Post: Great Ways to Save Money Online

(Guest Post by Kristin Lynn Steward)

Source

Shopping Online and Saving Money

Let’s face it – we all have way too much to do and not enough hours to do it. We need to do more with less – less time and less money. There are plenty of ways, however, to save both time and money by shopping online and looking for deals.

First, remember to look for coupon codes. There are plenty of sites that share codes as well as how well they worked and the amount of money saved. By simply searching for a store name and “coupon code,” you should be able to find several different codes that will offer a variety of deals and promotions. Many sites also offer free shipping if you use a coupon code or meet a minimum order amount. Try to “gang up” purchases in order to save on shipping fees. There are many ecommerce sites that this is easy to achieve. For example, if you need a special gift for someone, go to Shutterfly to upload photos and create a customized iPhone case or take a look at their selection of photo gifts and have it delivered while ordering address labels for yourself and a customized water bottle to stay hydrated while running errands.

There are also cash back saving sites like Ebates that provide not just coupon codes for many commonly-used ecommerce sites, but you can get cash back from those same sites for shopping. Other sites like Amazon Local and Groupon offer special deals for businesses that are located in your area.

After the kids are put to bed, consider doing your food shopping online. There are often extra coupons available as well while you shop. Once your order is submitted, an employee of the store will do all the shopping, check you out and all you need to do is pick up your order. Talk about a time saver! Some food stores even offer delivery for a small fee. So if you are home with a sick child, you can still get your food shopping done and have it brought right to your door.

Saving money is all about getting creative today. Thanks to the Internet, there are plenty of ways to get creative and find those extra deals.

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About Kristen:  I'm a mom of 2 with a great husband. We reside in New England. My family is very active, especially in the Spring with the outdoor sports. I love writing and it's always been a huge part of who I am. I minored in it when I was in college, back in the day. A few of my other hobbies are baking, crafts, and anything related to photography. I love finding amazing pictures.

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Thanks, Kristin!

If you are interested in writing a guest post, please feel free to contact me either through a comment (with a valid email address attached to your Google account) or through an email.

Pinteresting Pins: Breakfast Ring & Crispy Chicken Wraps

Once again, Pinterest is busy giving me new ideas for dinner.  Thank you, Pinterest!

We tried out two new recipes last week - Crispy Southwest Chicken Wraps and a Bacon, Egg & Cheese Breakfast Ring

First up...the Chicken Wraps

I have to admit, I changed the recipe quite a bit on this one.  It called for a bunch of spices, a bunch of veggies and black beans, all of which I omitted when I made it.  My wraps consisted of chicken, rice and cheese (with the addition of sour cream for the ones Tim and I ate).  While Tim and I would eat all the other items included in the recipe, the kids would not.  In fact, they wouldn't have even touched them or taken a single bite of them.  Sometimes we are sticklers and make the kids eat stuff they don't want to eat and sometimes we just don't want the battle.

I think the brilliance of this recipe is in how you cook the wraps.  You spray them with cooking spray first - that's the secret - then you brown them on both sides in the frying pan.  I loved the crispy outside.

While they were good, everyone felt like they needed less rice and more of everything else - more chicken, and more cheese.

We'd definitely try this one again with a little tweaking to the filling. (For those of you without Pinterest, you can find the recipe here.)

Recipe #2 - Bacon, Egg and Cheese Breakfast Ring

Oh my, this was so good and so easy.  You cook up the bacon and eggs.  Combine them with cheese and put it in crescent rolls shaped like a ring.  Cook it all together and you get a great filling dinner or breakfast.

Shape the crescent rolls like a star, add your filling,
then pull the ends to the middle to make a ring.

We made 2 of them and ate one right away for dinner.  The other we saved and ate on all week for breakfast.  I'm a big proponent of eating lots of protein at breakfast.  It keeps you feeling full until lunch and keeps little tummies from having to visit the nurse at school just because they are hungry.  This recipe is a great, yummy way to get that protein at breakfast.

Both of these recipes were winners.  I was a little bit more partial to the breakfast ring because I love anything with bacon, eggs and cheese.  (If you don't have Pinterest, you can find the recipes here.)

Planning to try these out?  Leave a comment and let me know which one you think looks the best to eat.

The Gratitude Project

My one word for this year is Gratitude, being thankful to God for all he has given me.  Join me in the Gratitude Project every Thursday.  I list what I'm thankful for and you tell me what you're thankful for.


I'm thankful hat I have access to the Bible in many different versions and on many different devices.

I'm thankful for David's snuggles.

I'm thankful for Julie's questions and for her sense of humor.

I'm thankful for Tim's patience.

February Books

These are the books that I've read in February, my "other" books.  Feel free to read the list of 12 books that I'm planning to read in 2013.  You can also see all the books I've read this year and find links to their reviews on my Pinterest page.

6 Ways to Keep the Little in Your Girl

My wonderful husband gave me this book and the one below as Christmas gifts.

Synopsis:  Written for mothers of tween-aged girls (ages 8 - 12), Six Ways helps mothers of girls navigate all the tricky things in her girl's life.  It tells clearly how to tell your daughter about puberty and how to keep her from becoming too boy-crazy too young.  Gresh speaks about modesty, appropriate clothing and toys as well as appropriate media that your young daughter should and should not be exposed to.  

My Thoughts:  This is a must read for every mother with an 8-12 year old daughter!  There are so many things that scare me about this world for my daughter.  I want my her to have every chance to be pure and innocent for as long as she possibly can.  I want her to love pretending and reading books and playing with her doll right now instead of thinking about clothes or makeup or boys.  This book gives very practical advice on how to keep your little girl a little girl.  I love Dannah's easy to read, conversational style and I love how current the book is (talks specifically about celebrities such as Mylie Cyrus and Lady Gaga).  You can bet this will be kept and used as a resource in our house for a quite a while.

8 Great Dates for Moms and Daughters

Synopsis:  Written as a companion book to the Six Ways book (listed above), 8 Great Dates lists out 8 places to take your tween daughter and 8 things to teach her on those dates.  Studies have shown that a daughter's relationship with her mother is the single most important relationship that she has in her tween and teenage years.  Gresh gives 8 ways to keep the conversation open with your child while affirming her individuality and teaching her about the beauty that God created in her.

My Thoughts:  Another great book by Dannah Gresh.  Finding ways to connect to your tween daughter and finding great, unique ways to teach her how beautiful she is, is very hard.  Luckily Dannah created a cheat-sheet for us moms.  The dates listed in the book include visiting an art museum to learn how men look at women's bodies and subsequently, why we should dress modestly; getting a facial done at a local spa to learn how lovely and unique every human face is; and going on a special, fancy date with both mom and dad to learn how important purity is.  I think Julie is a little to young to appreciate these dates right now, but I will be coming back to this book in a year or so and following every word.  (Both Dannah Gresh books correspond with her SecretKeeperGirl website.  Feel free to go there for more information.)

When the Snow Comes, They Will Take You Away
This book is so old, it's not currently being sold on Amazon and there is no picture of the cover.  This was a recommendation from Honey for a Women's Heart in the biography section.  I checked it out of our local library.

Synopsis:  This memoir by Eric Newby follows him through his imprisonment in a POW camp in Italy in WWII and his journey through Italy for 4 months, after his release.  Throughout the story, Eric is helped numerous times by the Italian people in the countryside, people he had formerly thought of as his enemy.

My Thoughts:  This was a very unique book.  I learned so many things about WWII that I didn't know.  I never realized that Allied POW's in Italy were released at the time of the Italian surrender in Sept 1943.  However, no one came to get them because Germans were swarming the country.  So those prisoners had to either survive in Italy and hide from the Germans (or those loyal to the Germans), escape over the mountains to Switzerland or make their way through Italy to the south and cross the battle lines to where the Allied forces were fighting.  Newby does a great job of helping the reader realize that the Italian people were not really the enemy.  Their government was the enemy, but, like everyone around the world, the Italian peasants just wanted the war to end and for their sons to come home.

While the subject matter and storyline were unique, reading the book was a little tedious.  There were a lot of descriptions of mountains and trees and ridges.  There is a map at the beginning of the book which helps as you're reading, but it still took a while to wade through the imagery.  That being said, I still wanted to keep reading.  I still wanted the story to go on.  And I still enjoyed it.

The following are all short e-books that I got free on Amazon.  The titles pretty much give a good description of the books, so I won't include a synopsis on these.  They really only take an hour or so each to read.  If you are looking for free Kindle books like these, visit ereadergirl.com.  She lists all the best of the free fiction, nonfiction and kids books for the day.

Real Clever Solutions and Ideas

If you could see all the bookmarks that I saved from this book on my Kindle, you would know that there really are clever solutions and ideas in this book.  I found great ways to remove soap scum and to make nontoxic drain cleaner.  This is a very useful little book.  (Look for it to pop up free again on Amazon or pay the $0.99 for it.  It's worth it.)

55 Things to do for $5

Don't waste your money on this.  I thought there would be good, cheap entertainment ideas in here.  But no, the ideas were things like people watch, exercise or do your gardening.  I really don't consider those things entertainment.  From the title, I thought it was going to be more creative.

25 money making businesses you can start in your spare time

This e-book lists 25 ideas for online business.  Each chapter includes a few paragraphs about what the business is and how much it costs to get started.  Then there are a bunch of websites listed that you can visit for more information on the subject.  If you are really wanting to start an online business and have no clue of the business choices out there, then this book would be helpful.  If you are aware of the business options out there, then this book won't help you much.

How to become a successful work at home mom

This one was just OK.  It was aimed at someone who formerly had an outside job and wanted to transition that job to home.  It's not really for a mom trying to start up a home business.  Also, the author is based in the UK so some of the things she wrote about did not apply to Americans.

The Makings of a Young Entrepreneur

Written by a 5th grader - a 5th grader! - who has a successful online jewelry business, this book is very impressive.  Aimed at children, I found Gabrielle Williams to be very well spoken and very relevant.  She talks about not only the fun part of a business but about the hard work involved in starting and running one.   Not only is she a successful businesswoman at such a young age (she started her company when she was 7), she is a sought after motivational speaker.  This is a great book for any child who has ideas of becoming an entrepreneur.

Making Money on the Internet - 197 Ways to Increase your Income from Home in your Spare Time

I thought this was one of the worst books I've ever read.  I almost didn't include it on the list because I so disliked it, but I figured bad reviews are just as important as good ones.  It looks like this book is long and might have good info, but no, really the author just uses really big fonts for the chapter titles.  There is hardly any real information in any of the chapters.  Pretty much it's just a list of websites to visit, those that promise you money for one reason or another.  Most of the chapters end with the author admitting that he hasn't visited that site and doesn't know much about it and that you should do your research.  Really?  I could have figured all this out with one Google search and a little common sense.  The crowning jewel in this bad review was when the author mentioned writing an e-book for money.  He says to be sure to check and double check the book for errors.  Then he has both a spelling mistake and a grammatical error in the next chapter.  Guess he doesn't practice what he preaches.  Don't bother with this book...ever.  (Hmm... I can't find this on Amazon anymore.  Just know if you do see it out there, don't get it.)

Fearlessly Frugal: How to Save Money on Your Laundry

I help measure how useful a non-fiction book is to me by how many bookmarks I save.  This book had a lot compared to the length of the book (which wasn't very long).  The author divides the book up into washing, drying and removing stains.  Then tells you ideas on 3 levels, depending on how frugal you really want to be. I like the choices she offers and I like her organization.  It makes it easy to go back and reference.  If you need some help saving money in the area of laundry, pick this up today.  It's totally worth $0.99.

I read 4 full-length books in February (3 listed on this post as well as Echoes) and 7 shorter e-books.  That brings my total up to 13 books for the year (I didn't count the e-books).  I'm well on my way to reaching my 40 book goal.  See all the books I've read on my Pinterest page.

Week in Review: Feb. 24 - March 2

I'm a few days late in getting this out.  I apologize.

We had the wonderful privilege of starting the week with my brother and his family as they prepare to move overseas.

Monday was pretty much recovery day here.  The kids were tired from the trip but, like little troopers, we all got up and made it to school on time.  Although there were claims (at 7 AM) that they were both going to come home after school and take naps, it didn't happen.  But it's fine, I didn't really expect it to.  We just made sure that everyone got to bed on time.

I took it easy knowing that my pain would increase some after sitting in a car for a long time.  And it did.  But I'm learning better how to handle it when my pain increases and what to do to lower the pain level.  It took a few days, but I recovered and I did not go into a tailspin.

David had a special day on Tuesday.  He officially became a Wolf Cub.

The way they do things in Cub Scouts confuses me sometimes, but this is how I understand it.  Each grade in Cub Scouts is assigned an animal.  First graders are Tiger Cubs, second graders are Wolf Cubs, and third graders are Bear Cubs.  You are called that animal name at the beginning of the year (i.e. David has been called a Wolf Cub all year) but you really don't achieve that rank until now, at the Blue and Gold Banquet.

David got his Wolf Cub patch and is officially a Wolf Cub now (even though he's been called a Wolf Cub all along, go figure).  That means he finished all the requirements in his book.  He can still do the electives in his book for the rest of the school year but he doesn't become a Bear Cub until next August.  And it means I have another patch to sew on his shirt.  Did I mention I don't really like sewing patches on things?

Proud parents

The week ended by poring over new designs, car designs to be specific.  Both kids worked hard on Saturday, drawing out car patterns to be cut out of a block of wood.  David gets to build a car for his Cub Scout Pinewood Derby and Julie gets to build a car for the Awana Grand Prix.  And Tim gets to help build both of them.  Lucky Tim.

Can't end the post without this priceless picture of Julie.  We ordered a pizza from Papa John's and she decided she was going to try the pepper included in the box.  Kudos to her for deciding she was going to try something new.

She only got as far as sticking the pepper on her tongue, then she did this.

Guess it's a NO on the pepper.

Eshakti.com: Custom-Made Clothes & Special Discount Code

When I was a little girl, my mom used to make most of my clothes.  From dresses to shorts to those cute little rompers that were so en vogue back in the early 80's, she could do it all.

My sister, also, is a wiz on the sewing machine.  She quilts and make her own curtains for her house.  She even made me a dress one time in college.

Me?  I didn't inherit that gene.  I call it the "sewing gene" and it's not in my genome.  Every time I touch a sewing machine and try to be crafty on it, I end up in tears.  Yet, I love getting items custom made to my measurements.  So, what's a girl to do?

Luckily, a great website is out there to solve that problem.

Eshakti.com

Eshakti.com provides customized clothing for women.  When you visit the site, you can choose to order a style in a standard size (i.e. 2, 4, 6, etc) or you can have it made according to your exact measurements.  You also choose from many customizable features on each item, such as skirt length, sleeve length and neck opening.  (See how the dress above was made from the same style choice just with different customization.)

It's as if you were at a seamstress's shop commissioning clothing made just for you.

Here are some styles I love (you can visit their Pinterest page and see tons of choices):

Want a dress or skirt or shirt made just for you?  Eshakti can help.  Exclusively for my readers, Eshakti.com has provided a discount code good from now until March 10, 2013.  Just enter TNSTYNTHEC and save 20% off your order.  Give yourself the gift of customization today!

** Update:  The promotional code was not working this weekend but it is up and going now (just tried it and it worked!).  The deadline for the code has also been extended to March 25. **

**Code has to be entered in the 'Promotional Code' box. No Minimum Order Value. The discount code is not case sensitive. The code can be used any number of times until the validity period. This code can be clubbed with any other gift coupon or gift card in the same order. This discount code is not applicable on our Overstock category. Not applicable on previous purchases.