March Into April Giveaway Hop

I am so excited to be participating in the March Into April Giveaway Hop. I hope you enter my giveaway and then check out all the other awesome giveaways. Make sure to enter as many as possible (or all of them) because this hop lasts for just a few days!

Get Ready for Spring With This Giveaway From Miracle-Gro® Expand 'n Gro

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Scotts® for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

We have been having unusually warm temperatures so far this year, and my children have been so excited to see all of the new flowers start blooming in our area. My older two children are especially excited, and they both keep asking when we can start planting. With the type of weather we usually have, I know we may have another few days of frost, so I want to wait until next month to start planting. In the meantime, I am starting to plan our garden, which will be our first garden at our new home. I have always been a big fan of Miracle-Gro® products. One year we planted flowers and added Miracle-Gro® and the flowers turned out beautifully.

I See Me! Personalized Children's Books Review and Giveaway

My children love to read, and they love being read too. We have bins full of books, and they will often sit and dig through the bins, looking for a special book to read. We almost always read a book or two every night before bed, and the children do have favorites that they often want to hear read again and again.

When I saw the unique and creative books from I See Me!, I knew it would be something that would interest my children, so I was thrilled to review one of their books.

Socks 4 Life Review and Giveaway

Socks are one thing we can always use more of in my house. We seem to lose all of the socks we have--maybe they disappear in the washing machine or the dog eats them--really I have no idea where they all seem to go. My children always need more socks and my husband also often needs more socks. He works long hours and is on his feet all day, so he needs socks that are durable and comfortable. I usually don't wear socks very often, but everyone else in my family does, so I was excited to try out some new socks from Socks 4 Life.

March Swagness with Swagbucks

I have an exciting new promotion to let my readers know about. It's called March Swagness! It is all about earning extra Swag Bucks bonuses for using Swagbucks the way you normally would.

Simply log in to your Swagbucks account and view the right sidebar of the homepage. You will see an earning goal, which is your target for the day. The meter will fill up as you complete each goal for the day, and the bonus you receive will always be 10 percent of that day's goal. You can earn bonus points by doing things you normally do, including (but limited to) Search, Surveys, Tasks, Swag Codes, Special Offers, Referral Bucks, Winning TTPTP, Hashtag and Comment hookups – if you earn it from Swagbucks, it counts towards the day it was earned!

Checklist for Doing Reviews and Giveaways on Your Blog

Many bloggers know that reviews and giveaways are a way to attract more visitors to your blog. The downside of doing reviews and giveaways is that some people are only looking for contests to enter and prizes to win, so they may not stick around after the giveaway ends. The upside is that you have the chance to review products, you have the opportunity to give back to your readers, you can potentially gain more of a following, and you can help companies you love gain more exposure. I wanted to create a basic checklist for bloggers new to doing reviews and giveaways, so they could easily start out with all of the information they need. I did do a basic post about this before, in regards to where to find items to review. I will also explore each topic further, and I will include links to some helpful information.

Things I said I Would Never Do Before Becoming a Parent

I am sure we all have plenty of things we said we would never do before becoming a parent, and then later find ourselves doing those things we never said we would do. I know I have quite a long list of things I swore I would never do, which changed once my children arrived.

Here are a few of those things I said I would never do before becoming parent. I would love it if you joined me at Parent Society to read my full article, titled "Things I Said I would Never Do Before Becoming a Parent."

I will never let my children take food out of the kitchen. 

This is something my husband and I even joked about, we said we would never let the children take food out of the kitchen. While he still is against this, I admit to letting them take snacks into the living room sometimes when I want some peace and quite in the kitchen or I just don't feel like arguing.

I will never yell or scream. Instead, I will always speak to my children calmly.

I thought I would always remain calm and work through the problems I had with my children, but I can admit to yelling more than once and not always using the best choice of words. I also admit to bargaining with my children, even if some people would think of it as bribing.

I will never say certain words in front of my children. 

In regards to my word choices, there are a few four letter words that have been uttered that I may have said when I was angry, dropped something, my computer broke, etc. Those words may have later been repeated by my children.


I will never use the TV as a babysitter. 

So, this happens more often than I would like to admit, but I can admit that it does happen. I think it is awesome that some families do not use the TV at all, but I am not one of those parents. I do let my children watch a movie or a certain TV show when I need to get work done or clean. I don't let them watch whatever they want.


I will never let my children eat junk food for breakfast.

Cookies, pizza, donuts, etc. We have had those here for breakfast a time or two, or maybe more. Not that I am proud of it, but some days it does happen. I do try to have better food options for them, which my children will usually pick, so it isn't like they sit and eat junk food all day long.

I will still make sure I look presentable when I leave the house.

I had often heard of moms becoming so busy they had no time to shower, let alone fix their hair. I was never a girly girl, but I would at least put on a little cover up, maybe some eyeliner, and blow dry my hair. I thought that would continue. Now, I sometimes run to the store in sweats, with my hair in a messy bun, and no make up on whatsoever.

Do you have any to add? Comment below or join me at the Parent Society and leave me a comment there.