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Award-winning author Sarah E. Ladd examines how to escape the clutches of a tainted past in the final installment of her Whispers on the Moor series. A Regency-era novel, A Lady at Willowgrove Hall cleverly shows that even though our pasts may be shameful or painful, God can take the darkest personal histories and turn them into the brightest futures.

Celebrate with Sarah by entering her Kindle HDX giveaway!
 
One grand prize winner will receive:

• A Kindle Fire HDX
• A Lady at Willowgrove Hall by Sarah E. Ladd

Enter today by clicking the icon below. But hurry, the giveaway ends on November 2nd. Winner will be announced November 3rd here.

Kara Tippetts‘ brave and touching book, The Hardest Peace is launching with a blogger challenge. Celebrate with Kara by joining the #HardestPeace conversation and share how you are finding grace in the midst of the everyday and in life’s hard moments.

Share your stories of everyday grace in the midst of life’s difficulties and enter to win a #HardestPeace prize pack:

• A book club pack (10 copies of The Hardest Peace for you and your small group!)
• A handcrafted candle
• Journal
• Custom Etsy The Hardest Peace print and coffee mug

To enter to win, simply blog about your #HardestPeace story and then submit the link to your post via the link-up (or see link in the Rafflecopter below). Plus stop by others’ stories to leave encouragement and offer prayers as we all travel the journey of life together and discover that the hardest peace is often the most fulfilling peace. Then follow Kara online (via the Rafflcopter) for additional entries into the giveaway.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

As many of you may already know this year I was selected to join the KinderMom (and KinderDad!) family. Kinder Surprise eggs have always been a huge part of our family – they make the perfect gifts during the holidays (which I may or may not hoard for myself at Easter) and the best way to dry up those tears on the sad days – not just talking for the kids here either!

The best part of this year? I will be able to bring you fresh Kinder news, Kinder giveaways as well as sharing some of our special moments together with you.

It feels like the summer months flew by! Our summer was full of firsts for our family as we started traveling more with our son’s soccer team, our one son learned how to ride a bike (without training wheels) and our other son learned how to swim without a life jacket.

As part of our new role in the Kinder family we were able to attend the grand opening of the #KinderSmiles booth at the Eaton Centre. If you weren’t able to make it to the booth in Toronto you can still make your own online. A couple of weeks later we witnessed history being made at the CNE as Kinder Canada broke a new Guinness World Record for the most people unwrapping chocolate at the same time (lots of #KinderSmiles on the CNE grounds that day).

But all too quickly came the return of routines and structure as school started up. September is an incredibly busy month for us – finishing up the soccer season, re-starting a new soccer season, football games, getting back to the school and daycare routine while my husband and I try to just survive (and not always gracefully I might add!). I won’t lie this month can also lead to tears as our boys try to get used to their routines again, leaving us for the day to go to school and the day to day stress of new classes, friends and school work.

 

Kinder Canada has introduced something special – new Kinder toys! I am positive that your children are going to love them! We are talking Transformers and Disney Fairies – you can’t get any better than this. You can now find inside specially marked eggs 8 Transformers and 10 Disney Fairies – how cool is that? While my boys will be hunting down all of the Transformers that they can get their little hands on I would love to have this fantastic Fairy below:

Which limited edition Kinder Egg will your little one be looking for?

Don’t forget to follow Kinder Canada on Facebook and Twitter for fantastic new updates, giveaways and so much more!

Disclosure: I am part of the Kinder Mom program and receive special perks for being a part of this program. All opinions are my own.

Do you love new products? Giving your honest and constructive feedback to brands?

Then Influenster is the program for you!

The Influenster community is made up of a fantastic group of like minded individuals and bloggers all ready to test out the hottest new products on the market. The best part? It is completely free to join!

The benefits of Influenster:

• VoxPerks: connect your social media accounts to be rewarded for what you do everyday – be social!
• Twitter parties: connect with brands and receive special perks just for tweeting.
• VoxBoxes: I love getting these beauties in the mail! I have received everything from makeup to food samples! These boxes completely make my day when they show up in my mailbox.
• Brand Badges: unlock special perks from brands by completing easy tasks online.

You can find more in depth information on all the perks on their website here.

Interested? Check them out and join here today!

Make sure to follow Influenster on Facebook and Twitter to keep up to date with all the newest programs!

Disclosure: I am a member of the Influenster community and want to share the love of the community! By posting about the program I have the opportunity to win a prize.

Today’s post is a little different from me – I am not usually a ranter but after a pretty crazy weekend at a soccer festival I felt like I had to write this post!

My son has played competitive soccer for the last four years and the game has changed a lot from when I was a child especially in the competitive area. The rules have changed for the under ten age groups to encourage FUN and PARTICIPATION with the long term goal to keep children in the sport – who wants to play a sport where they are constantly yelled at? I know I gave up soccer when my coach humiliated me in front of my teammates by repeatedly throwing a soccer ball at my head to get me over my fear of heading the ball. The soccer association has changed the rules so that players must wait behind the centre line on goal kicks until the ball has been touched twice to allow the team the chance to bring the game forward, no score is kept and there are no tournament trophies (first and last place). We coached house league as well and the head coach advised us there will be no more “laps” as it takes the focus away from the love of soccer.

This past weekend we attended a soccer festival where the emphasis was placed on fun and meeting new teams as technically the soccer season was complete. Our team was so excited to meet new players and be challenged. They had a fantastic Saturday – they won two out of their three games but the best part? Watching their amazing passes, cheering each other on and the confidence they had. For those that have never met these boys they would never have known they started the season with low confidence in themselves. Their coach worked very hard this season to bring up this confidence, teach them to believe in themselves and you can see it in how they play – they found their passion for soccer. As a parent this is the best feeling we could have ever felt – that is why we take him out four to five times a week to play because he loves to play.

Their whole vibe was changed on the Sunday when they played a more advanced team but not because of the players but because of the parents. I have never in my life witnessed such verbally mean parents – not only to their own children but to ours and to our team’s parents. Not only were the parents just plain mean but they encouraged their children on the sidelines to be mean as well – one of their children had the courage to tell me in not so nice terms that I wont be cheering for long (my son had just scored!). I was in shock especially as her mother joined in (all I could think was if this was my child talking to another adult like that I would be humiliated – it just wouldn’t have happened!). Her husband came up to tell me we must be cheating and our goalie has to be older because they have never not scored in a game. When they finally scored in the last minute that mother jumped up and walked several feet towards me and yelled at me “In your face!”. My response? To laugh (mostly out of shock). Her husband came over to try to explain and I just told him that he can defend her but that is inappropriate especially for a FRIENDLY game that has no score and doesn’t advance the team anywhere.

The worst part? Our children were witness to this.

The lesson?

It is OKAY to lose! These parents were so upset about losing that they could not focus on their children’s passing and plays (which I can admit were quite incredible for their age group) – they lost out on just enjoying watching them play. Losing is important for children. They need to learn to lose with grace as well as learning why they lost. We are never always going to win – it’s just a plain fact. It’s not the best feeling but it is life. We need to learn how to accept this and move on. But what does this teach their children when their parents scream and fight for them? That when they can’t win they should yell that someone is cheating because it is not possible? Or to run to their parents to make it better? As parents it is our job to teach and guide our children – focus on the positives and learn the lessons from the negatives. Let our children enjoy the game – our finals words to our son each and every time he heads out on the field? Good luck and have fun. As parents we need to sit back and just enjoy these moments, watch them progress and learn.

Have you ever experienced this on the field or in an arena? How do you handle these situations?