March 9th, 2010

2 Free MP3 Downloads from Francesca Batistelli

You can get a free MP3 download of Francesca Battistelli’s Free To Be Me [Dented Fender Sessions] from Amazon. (This song always makes me smile and sing loudly!)  Hurry and download this quickly before the price goes back up!

If you’re on Twitter, you can go here to get a free MP3 Download of “Beautiful Beautiful” for tweeting about one of your beautiful friends. (And since you’re on Twitter anyway, make sure you’re following me…@LisaAboutLife.

Thanks Frugal Girls for the heads up!

Lisa

March 9th, 2010

Adie Camp: Just You and Me is Available Today!

It’s here!  It’s here!  If you haven’t already done it, you can purchase Adie Camp’s CD Just You and Me.  It’s available in CD form or as a digital download.  And if you haven’t already read my interview with Adie Camp, make sure you check it out and enter to win a copy of her CD.

Lisa

March 9th, 2010

Panda Express: Free Honey Walnut Shrimp (March 10th Only)

I love free food!  Right now when you become a fan of Panda Express on Facebook, you can print off a coupon for a free single entree serving of their Honey Walnut Shrimp. This is only good on March 10th while supplies last.  You may want to call to make sure your Panda Express is participating.   And while you’re on Facebook, become a fan of Simplified Saving!

Lisa

March 9th, 2010

Barbie- $3 at Wal-Mart (and other stores)

Today is the anniversary of Barbie!  I didn’t know this when I ran into Wal-Mart this morning to pick up a few things and I happened to walk by the toy section.  They had tons of toys on clearance and they had their Superstar Barbie priced at only $3 (which according to Barbie Media is what the first Barbie doll sold for).  I picked up a few to add to my gift closet.  These will make great gifts for Christmas, birthdays, or for local toy drives.  When I was looking online for a photo, I noticed that Target and Toys R Us also had them priced at only $3, however, Toys R Us has a limit of 1.  According to the good old web, this deal is a celebration of Barbie’s anniversary and will only be good through March 13th, so head on out and pick up your Barbie now!

Lisa

March 8th, 2010

Beth Moore Bible Study Today (and it’s free)

If you like Beth Moore, make sure to check out today’s broadcast of Living Proof with Beth Moore. This is an ongoing Bible Study on the book of Proverbs with new broadcasts every Monday.

Lisa

March 7th, 2010

Free Sample of Zerovia

Stevia is my sweetener of choice and right now you can get a free sample of Zerovia.  I’ve never tried the Zerovia brand of Stevia, but I’m looking forward to getting my free sample and seeing how it stacks up to the Stevia I use now.

Thanks goes to The Freebie Blogger for this heads up!

Lisa

March 6th, 2010

Free Copy of Rich Dad, Poor Dad

Right now you can get a free copy of Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert T Kiyosaki.  Although I haven’t read this book, I’ve always thought it looked like an interesting read!

Thanks Amy!

Lisa

March 5th, 2010

FREE Purex 3-in-1 Sample

Purex is giving away free 2 pack samples of their Purex Complete 3-in-1 Laundry Sheets.  These sheets include laundry detergent, fabric softener, and static guard!  I really wish I would have had these with all the traveling we’ve done these past two months!  Make sure you head on over to TryPurex.com to get your free sample!

Thanks Becky!

Lisa

March 5th, 2010

Today is Mega Swagbucks Day

Happy Friday! Today is Mega Swagbucks Day and that means you can earn Swagbucks in larger denominations (100,200 500, 1000). They guarantee over 10K Swagbucks will be awarded in Mega Bills! Make sure to head on over to Swagbucks to do a few searches. Since Swagbucks birthday in February, things have changed a little. Every 1 Swagbuck you earned prior to their birthday is now worth 10. With the new system, 450 Swagbucks will get you a $5 Amazon gift card. You can easily earn 1 or 2 Amazon gift cards a month with just a few searches a day!

Search & Win

For those of you who haven’t heard of Swagbucks, it is a free way to search online (it’s powered by Google and Ask.com) and earn rewards for doing it. If you’d like to learn more about Swagbucks or you just want to earn them more quickly, read How to Earn More Swagbucks!
Search & Win
Lisa

March 3rd, 2010

Adie Camp: Just You and Me {Review and Giveaway}

This past week has been stressful.  It hasn’t been a bad week…just a busy week, but I have to admit, sometimes the busy weeks get to me and I feel overwhelmed.  It probably didn’t help this past week that I was horribly sick which meant that everything I needed to get done took twice as long to do!  In the midst of one those busy days, I found these words running through my head. (There’s a pretty good chance I would have been singing them loudly if my throat wasn’t so sore.)

Jesus, Savior, Protector of my soul, Messiah, Redeemer, You’re the shelter in the storm!

These words come from the song Shelter on Adie Camp’s new album Just You and Me (which will be released on March 9).

The past few weeks, I have had the privilege of listening to Just You and Me and I have found it to be a beautiful worship album put out by an equally beautiful wife and mom.  For those of you who are not familiar with Adie Camp, she is a singer, worship leader, wife of recording artist Jeremy Camp, and a mom to 2 little girls.   She knows firsthand the struggles moms face today.  I think that’s one of the reasons this album is so powerful…and so soothing.  The songs reflect her desire to seek God in the midst of the good, the bad, and the busyness…and she’s had all three this past year.

Her relationship with the Lord sustained her during one of the darkest times she’s ever experienced. In the middle of the recording process, Adie miscarried a baby in the second trimester. After taking a two-week break, she returned to the studio and recorded the song, “Shelter.”

Adie was gracious enough to answer my questions about finding balance in her busy life, shepherding her children’s hearts, dealing with loss, and more…

As a busy mom, what is the one tip you could give to other moms to make
their life easier?

Honestly, my time with the Lord before the girls wake up is crucial to the healthy function of my day. It’s like plugging into the power source and charging myself up, if I don’t do it – the battery dies quickly!

How do you find a balance between spending quality time with your husband and finding quality time with your daughters?

Jeremy and I have been doing this for over 7 years now and I think we’ve both learned to balance a lot of things. The girls obviously take up most of my time, but we try make priority time for just him and me. We often just sit and watch tv together, but we’ve also learned to keep each other in the loop with heart issues. From early on we started asking each other, “hows your heart?” It seems to be a good checkpoint sometimes.  Every once in a while tho, I have to be honest with him and say, “ok, babes, I need some time with you!”

As a mom, one of my greatest privileges is to shepherd the hearts of my
daughters.  I can see how much you desire to see your daughters growing up
loving Jesus.  What are you doing now to shepherd their hearts? And at a
time in your life where you are busy giving all day long to your family,
how do you find time to get in the Word and have your batteries recharged?

With regards to the girls, my mom gave me some great advice once. She said to make sure I was teaching the girls hearts’ and not just modifying their behavior. You can have a child who acts perfectly, but may have disconnected in their hearts.

I often sit the girls down and talk to them about consequences. That every decision they make will have either a good or bad consequence. They can either add peace or chaos to the situation. It’s helped us many times to sift thru drama or to get them to see that it’s better to choose to obey and get a good result…

I also try to take time out to listen to them and build a friendship with them now. If they start talking now, my hope is that they still will when they’re teenagers and of course after those years too.

With regards to my time with the Lord, I need it desperately. I wake up before my girls to read my bible and spend time in prayer. I’ve gone thru days when I didn’t spend time with Him and I fall a part so much faster.

I love that you are so active in your community and that you have embraced causes close to my heart.  With your love for the abandoned and the underdog, have you ever considered adoption?  I’m passionate about adoption and we adopted our daughters from Ukraine.

I totally have. It is definitely something that I would do in a heartbeat. If it’s the Lord’s will for us to, then I totally trust Him to lay it on Jeremy’s heart and mine equally as strong and at the right time. I think for right now He hasn’t, because there are other things that we are meant to be focussed on (“Speaking Louder Ministries“) and we want to be good stewards of the time we have, but as soon as He does, we will!

This past year, you experienced the devastating loss of your baby. What words of hope and comfort do you have for other families experiencing profound loss?

I truly cannot emphasize how God carried me (us) through that time. I read so much scripture that touched my heart so deeply. I can honestly say it’s one of those hard, but beautiful things that God has used in my life to show me the depth of His character and His love for me and I have never felt closer to Him.

I really do believe that His plans are good and we can’t be taken by surprise when we face trials as believers but God’s love is strong enough to get us through.  He is near the those who are broken-hearted and He is our ultimate comfort.  It is a joy to know that our precious baby is in the most perfect place, our home, in the arms of our loving Father God.

Of all the songs on your album, what song (or songs) have you been most impacted by?

“Shelter” ministered to me so much when our little baby went to heaven. It speaks about needing the Lord and knowing that He hears me and that He’s my shelter and comfort in the storm. I also love “Redemption Song” and “Seek You”.

Thanks Adie!  I am so appreciative of you sharing your heart and your music with us!

I can’t say enough good things about this album.  The lyrics are encouraging, the music is soothing, and in the midst of my somewhat chaotic life, I’m reminded to take my focus off of me and to put it where it needs to be!

And now it’s your turn to be encouraged by Adie Camp. If you’d like to win a copy of her newest CD Just You and Me, leave me a comment with your “go-to” song when times are tough or you’re needing a little pick-me-up.

1. Follow Simplified Saving through Google Friend Connect.

2. Follow Simplified Saving through Networked Blogs.

3. Subscribe to Simplified Saving via email and /or RSS feed.

4. Become a Fan of Simplified Saving on Facebook.

5. Blog about this giveaway and link back to this page (Leave your post URL)

6. Take my pretty button (code is in my sidebar) and post it on your blog. (Leave your blog URL)

7. Follow @LisaAboutLife on Twitter and tweet about this giveaway.

****Please leave a separate comment for every entry. Make sure you include your email with each comment.  This giveaway ends Friday, March 12th at 7 pm ET.  Winner will be chosen by Random.org.

{Disclosure: Overture Media provided me with a free copy of Just You and Me to review.  The opinion that this CD is a must have for every busy woman is my own honest opinion!}.

Lisa