The Gift Of World Vision & Giveaway #GiftCatalog [ad]

When this time of year comes around, Fred and I get excited about what we're going to pick from the World Vision Gift Catalog for family and friends. He has done it for years on his own, and now we're doing it as a family.

Have you thought about how one simple act can change the life of just one person? Changing the life of that one person could change the life of the people in that person's family. From there, it impact is limitless. World Vision gave me the opportunity to work with them once again during the Christmas season to do a review & giveaway of their Silver Vine Cuff.

I think you know how much we love having an impact on the people around us, as well as those in need, especially children. When we went to Peru in October, being with the kids at the outreach center, and then making a difference with the wheelchairs...nothing beats what that feels like. It's an amazing feeling!

Maybe leaving the country isn't your up o' tea, or it's just not possible. Guess what? With the World Vision Gift Catalog, you don't have to leave your house to make a difference. So, you're thinking, "dude, what about people in need here in America?!" Boom, they've gotcha covered with options there as well. Not kidding, they've thought of everything.

What are your options of giving? Glad you asked! You can give anything from livestock to clothing, trees to water wells, soccer balls to daily life gear (blankets, lanterns, even a Ger!), musical instruments to medicines, and so much more. If you want to make a difference in a different way, you have the option of helping girls and women specifically by giving a sewing machine, a bicycle, send a girl to school, career training, a small business loan, and hope for sexually exploited girls.

Are you getting excited?! Truly, you have so many options, so what are you waiting for?

Oh, wait! Did you know that if you're just undecided because of all the amazing ways to give, you can give World Vision the option of using your donation where it's most needed. By doing that, you'll receive a free handcrafted gift! For different levels of giving you can receive a beautiful handmade gift!

Speaking of handmade gifts, let me tell you about this absolutely gorgeous Silver Vine Cuff that is from artisans in India. This cuff comes with a donation of $85 or more. It is one of my favorite pieces I've seen with World Vision! I love how it's such a great conversation starter. Any of their pieces are a wonderful way to get people inspired to get involved with this organization!

I'm thankful for the opportunity to be able to host a giveaway of a Silver Vine Cuff! Be sure to enter below, and tell your friends about it!

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Being Used By God In Peru

Our third day in Peru started off with a short (distance wise) trip to Cafe Verde. We'd gone to it on our last trip down, and we all loved it. What we didn't realize was, it was much further away than the last time. So, going like 10 miles it took us over an hour to get there! UGH! The last time it took us about 10 minutes to get to the coffee shop. We all enjoyed our coffee, and bought bags to take home with us. From there we headed off to Alcance.

Dave & I were chatting as I snapped a photo of the guy in Cafe Verde roasted the coffee. Fred was in love with the coffee maker.

On the very left of the left photo you can sort of see a guy. His job? Just to open the door. Love it! Miss Tammy got what she needed for her morning!

We knew when we went down to Peru that we'd be building wheelchairs at some point, but we weren't sure what other ways we'd be able to serve. When you go on a trip like this, you're basically available for whatever needs to be done.

We painted the wall the first day working at the outreach center. The second day we learned we'd be painting the sidewalk. To begin, we had to sweep the sidewalk. Funny thing was, the wind was working against us. So, we had one person sweeping as we painted.

Can't be the hubby & wife duo of Pastor Chuck and Tammy!

We started out at one end of the block with blue paint. That's where people can ride their bikes. We were given buckets of paint and paint brushes. I kind of felt like we weren't being very productive in the way we were going about it, and I started pouring the paint onto the section we were in. So much better, and easier, than dipping our brushes into the buckets. lol

 The painting begins! We were in teams of 3-4.

Here we have Tammy dipping into the paint, Molly trimming the edge, Frieda sweeping, Denise sweeping, and apparently Mark supervising. heh heh heh

See the guy in the above photo, sitting on a chair in front of the the building (it's a house), in front of the SUV? Little swindler. He's an older man, probably in his late 60s, early 70s. A lady helped him outside, and I think there was another lady and a boy. Well, with them was a beautiful dog named Cici. Of course we had to pet it, so Denise and I gave it some loving. After we were done, the old man says, "Cinco soles," with a little chuckle. I was like, "¿Cinco soles? No, no, no," hahahahaha He was trying to get us to give him money for petting his dog!

Denise and Cici

See the brick up there? We'd be "painting" that a bright red later that afternoon. At one point, a gal and possibly her son, showed up and wanted to paint with us. The little boy was so funny. He kept stepping on the areas we were painting, and ending up with paint on himself. 

This was a long, arduous day of painting, but it was so awesome to see the bright color on the sidewalk. you can see how drab the blue is above everyone, and the brick is just as dull. The reason we were asked to paint was they wanted this block to be a beacon to everyone. They want to take their district and give it color, and life!

Another great couple team of "Papa Noel" aka Dennis aka Denny & Denise. I seriously loved this couple as I got to know them more. They were so smart, they brought knee pads!

At one point, Fred had to mix more paint, and he ended up with some helpers. Axel was always one of the first kids to show up. He comes to the outreach center because he was kicked out of school for fighting. He'll be able to try again next year.

We had an amazingly delicious lunch once again prepared by Rosa and Juanita. I'd be a rotund lady if we lived off of their cooking. Actually, I probably gained 5 pounds while we were down there. I typically leave half of a meal when we eat. Not the case at the center. I cleaned all of my plates every time.

Lomo saltado: steak with fried potatoes, tomatoes, onions, and rice.

After lunch, we went back out to do a second layer of blue, and this time we were able to roll the paint! Halleluia! Once that was rolled, we started with the red "paint". I wasn't part of the creation of any of paint. I just painted. Then...oh my...then all of the kids started showing up. And just like any other child, they wanted to help. We were swarmed by them. lol Thankfully I had my  phone with me, and I gave it to a little girl and let her play my son's game. What kid doesn't want to watch goats poop?

Me and Axel. Looks like I have some paint on my hands. lol

 Paige came over to us to try and lure the kids away, but yea, that didn't happen. lol As you can see, the kids had no problem coming over and taking the brushes right out of our hands. I mean, they convinced us so nicely in Spanish that they really needed to paint. lol

Now, let me explain to you about this red "paint". As I mentioned earlier, I wasn't part of the creating the paint process. We got probably half of the block painted in red. What we didn't learn until the next day, was we pretty much had just wiped wet chalk onto the ground.

Made sure to grab a pic with Pastor Trent...because he's from MN!

I woke up the next day and was trying to decide which sweatshirt to wear. It was strange at first that I was able to wipe the red off my gray sweatshirt. Slowly I began to get an idea of what had happened. When we got off the bus the next morning, I went over to the red and wiped it. Sure enough, it came up onto my fingers. We looked around and there were red footprints EVERYwhere. I just cringed.

Then I started formulating a plan. Maybe we could seal it. I didn't want our work to turn into a nightmare for the center. People walking around getting red all over themselves. The sidewalks looking worse than when we started. Could we seal it? I had to look at the bags they used to create the "paint" to see what we'd actually used. Turns out it was just a pigment. lol It should've been mixed with paint. As I kept thinking about sealing it, I realized it wouldn't stick. UGH! Next idea, contact my old co-worker who's now an assistant store manager at a Menards. His response was exactly what I expected. There wasn't a good way to fix it. We ended up having to leave it, and I was very disappointed.

It came time for us to head out, so we went to the mall and ate at a burger joint! We couldn't really read the menu, but Bernie helped us all figure it out. Something they do at restaurants down in Peru is offer a lot of sauces to go along with the meal. Much of the time they're hot sauces so I just stuck with ketchup.

Have you ever had a painting disaster?

Snacks on the Go with Wild Garden [ad]

I don't know about you but snack time can get really boring around here. One of the stinky things about working from home is that when I get the munchies, all I need to do is walk to the kitchen and start snacking. The bad part is that I rarely have anything decent to eat.

A couple years ago when my Smooch came out for Christmas, she went to the grocery store to get hummus for herself. I had always kind of gagged at the idea of hummus. No, I'm not kidding, as in real life gagging. Then I saw her eating, and figured I may as well be an example to my boys, and try something I'm not a fan of.

I have to admit, I was totally shocked at how delicious it was. I've become a fan, but a couple of the issues I've run into is gorging on the stuff, and I haven't really found anything I like to eat it with. I tried carrots and they didn't go together well for me. I think another time I tried it with plain old potato chips, and again, not a fan.

This is where Wild Garden comes in! I was able to try 4 pairings of hummus and crackers or chips. I'll have to admit that I only got 3 images of me trying the snacks because I ate one, and it was so good, it was gone before I thought about taking a picture!

I started with the veggie chips and traditional hummus. I'm not sure if there's a "right way" to do it, but I just squeezed the hummus out onto the chip. It was the perfect amount for one snack sitting.

The pita chips were my favorite. It felt like there a lot in the bag. These were paired with the traditional hummus as well. And yes, I finished the entire bag. Good stuff, and very flavorful.

There didn't seem to be as many chips in this bag as the other two, but I loved the roasted garlic hummus. I could've eaten that stuff like it was going out of style. I don't think multi-seed is my thing. They tasted good, but I'd probably go for the chips first.

I know that I want my boys to try the pairing, but I'm not sure sneaking it in to their lunch boxes will do much. A mom can always try, right? I know my Smooch will love them, and since she's a starving college student, I'm sending them to her in a care package.

Have you ever tried hummus before?

Getting Down To Business In Peru

Our second day in Peru had us back at Alcance in La Victoria. Paige gave us a tour of the outreach center, and then we prayed over each floor as separate groups. It was so exciting to hear what they're hoping to do there: dentist, chiropractor, and one other thing that I can't remember right now. They'll also be able to repair wheelchairs for people who need some help if theirs breaks down.

This is the view from the 2nd floor window. Believe it or not, there were car tires up there along with someone's laundry line.

We found out we were painting the wall outside of the center. First we had to wipe it down because it was super dusty, and had footprints (yes footprints) on it. While people started with different tasks, I was helping to clean the walls, and then cleaning the old rollers. I was surprised to find out we had so many to use!

I have to admit, it was hard for me to not be bossy. lol When I see tasks like this that need to be done, I believe I have some experience that would be helpful to our work. Sometimes though, no one cares to hear my opinions. lol Shocker.

Cleaning up before we get down busy painting

First we trimmed the wall. Dave went with the ladder painting the trim at the top to hopefully help us not get our black on the white. The paint from Sodimac (the Peruvian version of Menards) is super expensive. They used thinner to make the paint go further, and it dried really fast. We had to paint somewhat quickly.

Pastor Chuck, Mark, and Denise trimming the wall

The paint splatter is real, yo! Caillie got the spray roller. lol

Part way through the painting we were served our first lunch at La Victoria. Oh my goodness, Juanita and Rosa made food I couldn't stop eating. I seriously cleared my plate! It's funny, food I'd never give a thought to eating here, I scarfed in Peru. Those ladies know how to cook!

 This was Aji de ganilla. It's basically spicy cream chicken, but not spicy at all.

When in Peru you're require to try Inca Kola. It tastes like bubble gum.

Once we started painting, it went pretty fast. That is until we ran out of paint. Up to that point, if we needed something, a couple guys walked with Pastor Trent to the local hardware store to get it. Wellllll Fred and Pastor Chuck realized we'd run out of something and took it upon themselves to take a walk to the hardware store by themselves. Oh boy. When Pastor Trent found out, he wasn't a happy camper. It was one of the first times we realized that we were in a pretty unsafe neighborhood. He took off at a jog to catch up to them, clearly unhappy with those fellas. Ooooo someone was in trou-ble! HA!

They came back with their tails tucked between their legs, and we were ready to keep on keepin' on.

Tres Blanco Gringos is what we comically called these 3 as they were walking back towards the outreach center.

We got back to painting and it didn't take us long to finish! Clean up took quite a while. My goal was to get the rollers as clean as possible for the next time they needed to paint. I stayed so clean while we were painting, but cleaning these rollers with the thinner, I ended up with black paint everywhere. Totally worth it, for sure!

From painting we went to what was a huge mall, and next to the mall was the Sodimac. I kinda like the tradition that every time we go to Peru, I end up in a hardware store. Very apropos! There was also a grocery store that we went to, which we were searching for local chocolate and coffee. I left with a bar of chocolate (that I still haven't eaten), and we all decided to wait until we went to a Lima coffee shop.

No, he didn't leave the store with that, but we did get candy for ourselves (like I said above), and some candy for the kids to try when we got home. You don't say Sublime like su-blime, but the Peruvians say su-blee-may.

Dinner time came around, and the interns took us out to dinner at Pardos Chicken. Fred remembered eating there the first time he went to Peru. I had no idea what to expect, and the rest of us were all shocked at how much food we were served.

How it works is, you get 4 large pieces of chicken, a huge bowl of fries, and a massive bowl of "salad". It's shared between 4 people. Unfortunately, I couldn't enjoy it because I ate my entire plate at lunch and was still full hours later. The salad was made up of avocado, beets, carrots, and green beans. I happily at the avocado and green beans!

Have you ever been on a mission trip?

Shelby: A Magical Holiday Tail Review

As any of my friends or family knows, I don't do Christmas ANYthing before Thanksgiving. It makes me cringe big time! My oldest daughter on the other hand will start playing her Christmas music in September! GAH!

That being said, my youngest and I watched Shelby: A Magical Holiday Tail for our Friday night movie. He didn't realize at first it was a Christmas movie. Needless to say he was surprised I'd put that kind of movie on. ;)

Getting ready to watch Shelby: A Magical Holiday Tail with my youngest. Who can resist a holiday movie starring a dog? #Christmas #movienight #DVD #ad

A photo posted by Mimi N (@mimibakermn) on Oct 30, 2015 at 7:12pm PDT

Now, who can resist a dog and a holiday movie? Shelby is about a stray Beagle (voiced by Rob Schneider) who's locked up at a dog pound run by Doug the dog catcher, played by Tom Arnold. Shelby is an escape artist who once again escapes, but ends up in the home of 10 yr old, Jake.

Doug spends the entire movie trying to recapture Shelby for a family who's willing to pay $5000 for him! Jake's goal is to keep the pup hidden until Christmas morning when he can say Santa brought him a puppy!

Shelby causes a lot of hijinks throughout the movie, and had my son & I laughing quite a bit. This would make a fun movie for the family to sit together on a weekend night. As you gear up to start watching holiday movies, be sure to add this one to your lineup.


The family dynamics are what you might expect. The big brother is a thorn in Jake's side. Then his uncle & cousin show up to make life miserable, as well as depressing. Grandpa on the other hand lends amusement to the audience, and encouragement to Jake. Grandpa's character is interesting. He treats his son like he's a doofus, while he tries to help Jake see the possibilities in life. Did I mention grandpa is played by Chevy Chase? The character fits him to a T!

Now, there are a couple of elements that families with younger kids that you should be aware of. The boy says the word "sucks" several times throughout the movie. There's also alcohol consumption, and at one point grandpa says he needs something stronger than the wine he's drinking.

In the end, this is a heartwarming story, that the entire family will enjoy as we head into the holiday season. Shelby is coming out on DVD, November 3rd!

What movie does your family love watching during the holidays?