I Love Alaska Giveaway!

                    

It’s no secret that “The Last Frontier” is a magical place! There are many things to love – scenery like nowhere else, whales, bears, Native culture, and just enough danger and adventure to keep us on our toes!

Alaska is a HUGE state (2.3x the size of Texas!), but Alaskans all across the miles – from Juneau to Barrow – share a special bond. As do people who have visited or dream of visiting! When you catch the “Alaska bug,” there’s no going back! A group of us bloggers living in the 49th state have decided to come together to share our love for our home with YOU – tangibly!!

Please take the time to visit all of the Alaskan Bloggers sponsoring this great giveaway:

Hey What’s For Dinner Mom?
Idlewild Alaska
Dabblings and Ramblings
Megan’s Gluten Free & Other Allergen Free Recipes
Raising the Barrs

We are so excited to be offering quite the Alaskan bounty to one of you – over $500 in value to help you celebrate your love of Alaska!

The Prizes!

A $250 (wow!!) gift certificate to purchase your favorite Alaskan seafood from Anderson Seafoods. Anderson Seafoods has worked hard to provide high quality and sustainably-sourced seafood for 35 years! And if wild caught Salmon and Halibut aren’t your thing (is that possible??), they also sell crab, lobster, shrimp and lots more fish.

Set of three Alaska-themed children’s books from Sasquatch Books – Alaska’s Sleeping Beauty, Grizzly Bears of Alaska, and Patsy Ann of Alaska. These charming and beautifully illustrated soft cover books will captivate children of all ages. Read a full review of these books here.

A handcrafted oil lamp by Dave Hough of Roads End Pottery – from the Town Square Art Gallary in Wasilla, Alaska. A thick cotton wick is held in place by a round stone, which sits at the mouth of the lamp. The lamp can be filled with ordinary lamp oil, as one would fill a glass oil lamp with. The glaze on the pottery is lead-free and dishwasher safe

.   Trilogy of Alaskan Homesteading fictional books written and signed by Warren Troy. Wilderness Reckoning, The Last Homestead, and Trails are captivating adventure stories sure to please anyone who daydreams about life off the grid or Alaska.

  A copy of Erin Kirkland’s brand new book Alaska on the Go: Exploring the 49th State with Children – so that you can start planning your family’s Alaskan vacation! This book will help you decide when to travel, how to get here, and how to take advantage of your time here with your children!

An Alaska shaped cutting board from Epicurean. The better to remember us by! You’ll get to share your stories from the frozen North every time to pull it out to prepare dinner for guests!

A yummy box of chocolates from JB Chocolatier – handmade in the Matanuska Valley. These beauties are almost too pretty to eat… almost! 🙂 $60 value!

A 3-pack of seasonings from the Alaska Seasoning Company to spice up your life – Kodiak Cajun, Gold Rush Seasoning Salt and Denali Dry Rub.

The Rules

Eligible entrants must be 18 years or older and live within the United States (AK & HI are FINE, of course! No discrimination from us!!). This giveaway will be open through Sunday, April 13th. Winner will be notified via email. Please enter to win using the Rafflecopter widget below:

 

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The coffee is still warm, but my brain hasn’t caught up

Pinterest and French press are my companions this morning now that J-Dub has ventured off to work.  Em and Chase are always laying about, so if I don’t mention them, one can safely assume that one is begging for food or attention while the other is flopped somewhere in near-death boredom.  They take turns at these activities.  My blessings, my charges, my God-given character-builders are still slumbering away, and I am half-listening for footsteps as I type.  Now that the scene has been set, I have a question for you.  Why on earth have styled bookshelves become a thing?  The obvious answer would be related to decor and personal style, but still, I wonder, why do we not have enough books in our homes to fill one small case?  Must we fill in those empty spaces with coordinated knickknacks instead?  Frames and empty vases and collections galore?  Here is another question – how in the world have all of these women convinced their husbands that having well-styled rooms is a worthwhile endeavor?  I’m jealous.  Plain and simple.  Pinterest, you are both my friend and foe.

On another note, I picked up a book at the library yesterday (more than one, actually, but that’s beside the point) by an apparent author and somewhat-famous interior designer.  I seem to have caught the annual “spring cleaning and nesting” bug, so here I am in all a rage to clear out our home and make it more livable.  I admit that as things accumulate, even simple housekeeping becomes a grand frustration.  This book, Seven Layers of Organization by Christopher Lowell, caught my eye, as doing things in chunks and in an orderly fashion appeals to me.  The first two “layers” that Mr. Lowell addresses deal with assessing the what/where/why/how of the extra junk and clutter in our homes, then separating our emotions from our stuff so we can purge the extra and create space for living.  Often times, I don’t think we realize how connected we can become to things.  We hold on for dear life to these things that can be burned down in a day, broken in seconds, lost in a moment and never seen again!  The relationships in our lives should be of greatest importance, and having a home conducive to nurturing those relationships is one of the goals I have for my life.  Might I encourage you to make it one of yours as well?

~V

Good Morning

Praise and glory to God alone, I am not only able, but also willing, to wake up with my husband each morning, a good two hours or more before the kidlets rise. This time has become precious to me over the past weeks, as I am able to accomplish things that are important to me, in a way that I am comfortable doing. Today is fast becoming a typical morning: Wake at 0500, shower and dress by 0530, get J-Dub his breakfast while he gets his things together for work, chat for a few before he leaves, Bible study/devotional/prayer, read a section of a book, set up for the day’s activities, and if I’m super lucky I will have finished an entire cup off coffee by this point.

Now about that devotional. I use the YouVersion app on my phone, which is simply loaded with all manner of devotionals, though one must take care that what they are studying through is biblical. I am currently going through the Made to Crave: a 21-Day Challenge devotions, though I haven’t read the book by Lysa TerKeurst (www.madetocrave.org). If you are tempted to overeat, or really over-do anything that is good in moderation, I encourage you to check out the materials. Something that stood out to me this morning was the question of how often I have given into a short-term desire that worked against a long-term goal. This thought goes so much further than eating too much junk. How often do we act on impulse? How often do we cause our own setbacks due to our unwillingness to tell ourselves “no”, and pray for help to focus on that which is superior to instant gratification?! Please leave a note below, I welcome you to share your point of view.