The Busy Couple’s Guide to Sharing the Work and the Joy by Kathy Peel {Review}

19 Jan posted by

Publisher: Tyndale House
Price: Softcover $16.99

Author Bio (from Tyndale Site)
Kathy Peel is founder and CEO of Family Manager, a company that trains women in the art of family management. She has written 21 books, selling more than 2 million copies. Her latest works are The Busy Mom’s Guide to a Happy, Organized Home (winner of the 2009 Gold Mom’s Choice Award) and Desperate Households. She is AOL’s Kids & Family Coach, and she contributes to many publications, including FamilyFun, Parents, Woman’s World, Family Circle, and HomeLife. A popular speaker and media personality, Kathy’s Family Manager makeover stories have appeared on programs such as Oprah, The Early Show, The Today Show, and HGTV.

My Thoughts:

I’m very fortunate.  My husband does an amazing job pitching in with housework and the kids.  He’s even willing to let me go out of town on “Girls Weekends” while he holds down the fort at home. (As a matter of fact, I’m currently on a girls trip to Phoenix with my closest friends while he’s at home taking care of everything…including middle school science projects).  With all that being said, I still wanted to read The Busy Couple’s Guide to Sharing the Work and the Joy by Kathy Peel because let’s face it, most of us could use a little help around the house.

The Busy Couples Guide to Sharing the Work and the Joy is a practical guide for managing every day family life.  It includes chapters on managing time, home & property, meals, relationships, finances, and more.  Although many of the tips and ideas contained in the book are “common sense” to a naturally organized person, it’s a great manual for someone like me who’s not! Although I read this cover to cover, I think it would be just as useful to pick out the areas in your life that need the most help and to start with those chapters.

Each chapter also contains worksheets, assignments, and questions to work through.  Although I enjoyed the entire book, I found some of the most eye opening info in the margins.  With titles like Smart Move, Tech Tip, and Caution!, these mini paragraphs are packed with great info!  If you’re hoping to get your husband to read this too, Kathy’s husband Bill provides “A Man’s Point of View” in each chapter.

I’m pretty sure I’ll never convince my husband to read this (since he pretty much only reads technical books), however, the info in here will definitely help me do a better job of managing the day to day in our household.  And although I prefer that the Christian books I read contain Scripture and truth that will change my heart, I won’t turn down a book that will help do a better job serving my family…and this book is a great resource for that!!!

Disclosure: The Busy Couple’s Guide to Sharing the Work and the Joy was provided to me free of charge by Tyndale in conjunction with Mama Buzz. All opinions expressed here were my own.

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Free Hip Hop Music

18 Jan posted by

If you’re looking for great hip hop music with a message that glorifies God, you need to download Grassroots Vol. 1, Grassroots Vol. 2, and JustWORD Album from Lamp Mode.  The music is excellent, the lyrics are Christ-centered, and these downloads are all FREE!

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Filed Under: free music, mp3

One Year Bloggy Anniversary {A Really Cool Giveaway} CLOSED

16 Jan posted by

Time flies when you’re having fun and this year sure has flown by!  It was last year on this day that I decided to start blogging about saving money.  So much has changed in that time, but it’s been a really fun ride!

This past October, I won a giveaway on another blog and it is one of my favorite things in our house right now (besides my hubby and kids, of course).  It is a 12×12 Cafe Mount Print from Red Letter Words.  I chose the Hope is an Anchor to the Soul print because I love the Scripture it refers to.  Hebrews 6:18-19a (NLT) says “So God has given us both His promise and His oath.  These two things are unchangeable because it is impossible for God to lie. Therefore, we who have fled to him for refuge can take new courage, for we can hold on to His promise with confidence.  This confidence is like a strong and trustworthy anchor for our souls.

Red Letter Words has art that isn’t just beautiful, it’s also meaningful.  And they are willing to give 1 of my readers a 12×12 Cafe Mount Print to help celebrate my one year blog anniversary!

Want to Win It?  Head on over to Red Letter Words and tell me what print you’d like to win! (This is required before any additional entries will count.)

Want Extra Entries?**

1. Follow Simplified Saving throu Google Friend Connect or Networked Blogs.

2. Subscribe to Simplified Saving via email and/or RSS Feed.

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

4. Take my pretty button and post it on your blog. (Leave your blog URL)

5. Follow me (@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 will be closing at 8pm on January 23rd.

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Haiti: What You Can Do to Help!

15 Jan posted by

In the midst of devastating tragedy, sometimes it’s hard to know what to do…so we do nothing.  It’s not a matter of being unwilling or unable, it’s usually more a matter of not being sure exactly what we can do.  If you’ve been wondering how you can help, this is what you can do!

You can give to Compassion International’s Disaster Relief Fund by texting “disaster” to 90999. This will be added to your cell phone bill next month.

You can give online to Compassion International.

According to Compassion:

The catastrophic earthquake that hit Haiti on January 12 has resulted in unfathomable chaos and devastation for hundreds of thousands of children and families.

Compassion sponsors and donors serve more than 65,000 children in Haiti. At least a third of them live in the areas that were hardest hit.

I am asking you to please send a generous gift today to help precious children and their families, and to encourage others to give to Compassion International through your blog, Facebook and Myspace pages, Twitter account and e-mail. Please utilize every on-line tool you have access to. The people of Haiti desperately need our help and hope.

Compassion International is working rapidly to assess the situation and determine the full extent of damage:
• Sadly, we anticipate there will be many deaths.
• We anticipate thousands of children and families will have lost everything.
• We anticipate many of our church-based child development centers will have been destroyed.

Without a doubt, the children we serve in Haiti are in shock and face immediate needs for food, water, medical care, shelter and counseling. We have teams prepared to respond, and we are deeply committed to helping each child.

We need your help immediately. Please reach out in the name of Jesus to bring relief, comfort, love and restoration to precious children and families whose lives have been devastated by this crisis.

All funds raised in response to the Haiti earthquake will be used immediately to provide for Compassion-assisted children and families affected by this crisis. Any funds raised in excess will be stewarded by Compassion for additional and future disaster relief efforts.

You can provide immediate relief today.
• $35 helps provide a relief pack filled with enough food and water to sustain a family for one week.
• $70 gift helps care for their needs for two weeks.
• $105 helps provide relief packs filled with enough food and water to sustain two families for two weeks.
• $210 gift helps care for two families’ needs.
• $525 helps provide relief packs filled with enough food and water to sustain 10 families for two weeks.
• $1,050 gift helps care for 10 families’ needs.
• $1,500 helps rebuild a home.
• $2,100 helps supply 20 families with the basics for three weeks.

Due to the high number of responses it may take longer than normal to process your transaction.

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Filed Under: Compassion

UPrinting Business Cards {Giveaway} CLOSED

15 Jan posted by


It doesn’t matter if you’re a blogger, business owner, mom (or any combination of the three), we’ve all had those moments where we’ve needed to give out our contact info. And there is nothing worse than digging in the bottom of your purse for a scrap of paper to scribble your info on (and believe me, I know first hand)! Wouldn’t it be so much better if you were able to just hand them a really fantastic business card? One lucky reader of Simplified Saving will be able to do just that.

UPrinting has generously offered to give 250 business cards to one reader of Simplified Saving. If you haven’t already checked out UPrinting, you are missing out. Uprinting is an online printing company that offers an incredible selection of products including a variety of templates to create your products from. You don’t need to be a business owner to benefit from their products. You can make family contact info cards to leave with babysitters, mommy cards to exchange with other moms, or even gift tags.

My business cards came from UPrinting and they look absolutely phenomenal.  They’re high quality (not like some of those other flimsy ones you see) and I can’t wait to pass them out when I’m at the Disney Social Media Moms Celebration next month.

Here’s the prize: 250 Business Cards from UPrinting

You can get these in one of 4 sizes: 2″ x 3.5″, 2″ x 3″, 2 x 2″ (square card) or 1.5″ x 3.5″ (skinny card). You can also choose from 14 pt gloss cardstock, 14 pt matte cardstock or 13 pt recycled uncoated cardstock. Your cards can be Full Color Both Sides, Offset Press, and 3 Business Day Printing. This giveaway is open to US Residents only due to shipping constraints. Also, UPrinting has recently changed their shipping policies. All giveaway winners will be required to pay for shipping costs. There is a shipping calculator on the right side of the UPrinting site.

Want to Win It? Leave me a comment telling me what you would do with the business cards if you were to win. This is required!

Want Extra Entries?**

1. Follow Simplified Saving throu Google Friend Connect or Networked Blogs.

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

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

4. Take my pretty button and post it on your blog. (Leave your blog URL)

5. Follow me (@LisaAboutLife) and @UPrinting 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 will be closing on January 19th around noon eastern time.

{Disclosure: UPrinting generously gave me 250 business cards as a thank you for offering this giveaway}.


Filed Under: UPrinting

Mega Swagbucks Day

15 Jan posted by

Happy Friday! Today is Mega Swagbucks Day and that means you can earn Swagbucks in larger denominations (10,20, 50, 100). They guarantee over 10K Swagbucks will be awarded in Mega Bills! Make sure to head on over to Swagbucks to do a few searches. Remember 45 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. You can learn more about Swagbucks in this post. Have a great weekend!!!
Search & Win
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How to Earn More Swagbucks

13 Jan posted by

Search & Win

I know you’ve heard me gush about how much I love Swagbucks, so I’ll spare you the details…  Let’s just say that any site that gives me over $100 in Amazon gift cards in 1 year for doing what I already do is a great thing!

Although I’ve frequently shared of my love for them, I haven’t give you any practical tips on how to earn more Swagbucks.  Here’s a quick rundown on Swagbucks just in case you’re not familiar, then I’ll get to the good stuff!  Swagbucks is a search engine (powered by Google and Ask.com) that randomly awards you “Swagbucks” for searching the web.  These Swagbucks can then be redeemed for great prizes.  You can get a $5 Alice.com gift certificate for only 20 Swagbucks or an Amazon gift certificate for only 45 Swagbucks.  If you’re new to Swagbucks, you’ll get 3 Swagbucks to get you started when you sign up here!

Here are my tips for earning more Swagbucks:

First of all, sign up for the Swagbucks newsletter. Once a month (and sometimes more than that), you’ll get an email newsletter.  At the very bottom of the newsletter, you’ll find a code.

Download the toolbar. Every day this week, they will be giving out a code for a Swagbuck on the toolbar. The codes are only good for a few hours, but if you’re online pretty regularly, you should be able to snag quite a few of these.

I’ve never done one of their special online offers before, but I do know that you can go on their special offers page and click on See No Obligation Offers. Make sure you don’t click on any of these…click either skip or next offer. After skipping a few of them, you will get a code for a Swagbuck. These Special No Obligation Offer codes reset every Thursday, so you should be able to get at least one a week that way.

You can also check the Swagbucks Swidget. Go to Simplified Saving and scroll all the way down to the bottom of the page. You’ll see a little square that says Swagbucks. Along the bottom you’ll see options like search, sign up, etc. Choose Swagcodes and then click Check If There’s A Swagcode. If there are available Swagcodes, it will tell you where to look (like in the newsletter or the toolbar) or it may even have a code for you to use!

Set Swagbucks as your homepage and search, search, search. I use Swagbucks for anything I’m searching for online. I usually get at least 2 Swagbucks a day this way, but there are days (like yesterday) where I got 8!

You can also refer friends to sign up. When you’re friends earn Swagbuck, you’ll earn too. You can earn up to 100 Swagbucks per friend you refer!

These tips work for me and hopefully they should have you on your way to earning some serious Swagbucks!

For more Works for Me Wednesday, visit We Are THAT Family.

Search & Win

Disclosure: This post contains a link to an affiliate.

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Filed Under: Swagbucks, WFMW

$25 Restaurant.com Certificates only $2

13 Jan posted by

Now is the time to buy your Restaurant.com gift certificates. You can now get a $25 certificate for only $2 or a $10 certificate for only 80 cents! Use code INDULGE while checking out to get 80% off your order!

Disclosure: This post contains a link to an affiliate.


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Filed Under: restaurants

Wondering Why I Didn’t Post Any Good Deals?

12 Jan posted by
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I had grand intentions of posting some deals today and it didn’t happen.  I’m consoling myself (and you) with my very valid excuses reasons.

1. I woke up with a killer sinus headache and the day got off to a late start.

2. I worked all day…and left the office later then I planned.

3. My daughter’s basketball team had 2 games tonight instead of the 1 I planned on (and if I can brag a little, my daughter K scored 14 out of the 20 points her team had in the first game for a 20-2 victory!)

4. I was reading the Bible in 90 Days.

5. My husband is out of town and life is crazy without him.

6. I was talking on the phone with my husband (see #5).

7. I was daydreaming about Disney World and planning our upcoming trip.

8 I was reading about Kristen’s upcoming trip to Kenya with Compassion International.

9. I was looking at pictures of kids who need sponsors (and there are lots…so I looked for a long time).

10.  I was sponsoring 2 kids through Compassion…little girls with the same birthdays as my girls, but without all the privileges.

So that’s why I wasn’t posting deals today.  I think they’re pretty good reasons, don’t you.

And if you’re looking for a good deal…I have one for you.  You can sponsor a child for only $38 a month.  And it’s tax-deductible.

Sponsor a child in Jesus' name.

For more Top Ten Tuesday, visit Oh Amanda!

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Filed Under: Compassion, top ten tuesday

The Bible in 90 Days: 11 Down…79 To Go!

11 Jan posted by

Bible in 90 Days

It’s hard to believe I’m on Day 11 of the Bible in 90 Days!  Somewhere between work, church, working out, hanging out with my kids, volunteering, blogging, and spending quality time with my husband, I managed to read Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, and a large chunk of Numbers.  Although I’ve read the Bible before, I’ve come across so many things that I didn’t remember or never realized.  It amazes me that a concentrated, focused reading time yields such insight into the Bible. It’s also kind of shocking how much scandal is in the Bible…I’m talking PG-13 kind of stuff!  It’s interesting that they struggled back then with the same sins we do now…jealousy, lying (and even twisting the truth a little to protect yourself), complaining…

Genesis starts off with a whole lot of nothing…and then God starts creating and it is all good! Until Eve decides she knows better than God and it wouldn’t hurt to have just a little itty bitty piece of fruit.  She of course shares it with Adam and they both get kicked out of the beautiful garden they live in.

We also see the first murder…as the result of sibling rivalry.

Then we move on to Noah and his big boat…a boat that took him years to build, but that saved his whole family from a wordwide flood.

I was shocked to see that Abraham tried to pass Sarah off as his sister twice…apparently he didn’t learn the first time.  But I could also see his logic when I found out that Sarah really was his sister.  The gene pool back then was quite small and they had  the same dad!  Isaac pulled the same stunt his dad did when he tried to pass his wife off as his sister. And of course there is more sibling rivalry in both the story of Jacob and Esau and in the story of Joseph and his brothers.

In Exodus, we see Moses trying to worm his way out of talking to Pharaoh.  He gives God a bunch of excuses why he shouldn’t be the one to lead the people out of Egypt.  And just when Moses finally agrees to go talk to Pharaoh, you stumble across these strange verses.

At a lodging place on the way, the LORD met Moses and was about to kill him.  But Zipporah took a flint knife, cut off her son’s foreskin and touched Moses’ feet with it.

I’m pretty sure those are the strangest verses I’ve ever read, especially given their context.  I’m pretty sure that Moses’ son wasn’t thrilled with the spur of the moment circumcision either.  (OUCH!)

We then see Pharaoh refuse to let the people go despite the pleadings of Moses and Aaron.  Plagues fall on Egypt (including boils and locusts which I dreamed of after reading this passage…ewww), yet Pharaoh’s heart remains hard.  After more plagues including the death of the firstborn son of every Egyptian, Pharaoh lets the Israelites go.

Fast forward, you see the parting of the Red Sea which I find to be absolutely amazing (over 600,000 people walked through it) followed by lots and lots of complaining.  I have to say that I probably would have complained too.  They ate the same food for 40 years! And although I’m sure the food tasted great since God made it, it would still get old after a while.  They also complained about how much better life was in Egypt which I found to be quit odd considering how horrible their situation was, however, I realize that it’s easy to make your past seem better than it was.  When we first adopted our girls from Ukraine, they were thrilled to be in America…until the first time things didn’t go their way.  Then they cried and complained about how much better it was in the orphanage and that they wished they had never been adopted. Now that they’ve been here over 2 years, this rarely happens, but I was reminded again that although we’re in a very different place culturally, we still have the same heart issues.

In Leviticus, we find lots of information on the sacrifices. {Word of Caution: Do not read Leviticus before or during a meal unless you are trying to lose weight!} There is so much blood and guts and fat…  They also talk about testicles. (Told you it was shocking stuff!) I definitely would not plan on going through the book of Leviticus if you teach a Jr. High Sunday School class  although they might actually pay attention to this kind of stuff…

So far, Numbers has been a part census, part detailed job descriptions.  Although it’s been a little bit of a struggle to make it through the 1000s of people listed, I am reminded of how amazingly personal God is.

There is so much more than I could possibly share in one post (or even 11).  I highly recommend you consider the Bible in 90 Days.  It’s been truly amazing so far!  You can check out Mom’s Toolbox for more details.  Also, if you’re on Twitter, you can follow along using the hashtag #B90Days.

You can purchase The Bible in 90 Days and The Bible in 90 Days for Kindle on Amazon.

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Filed Under: Bible in 90 Days, Bible Study

Walt Disney World: Where Dreams (and Goals) Come True

10 Jan posted by

My girls have been begging for a trip to Disney World since before they could speak English…seriously.  When we first adopted them and brought them home from Ukraine, they loved to watch the Disney Channel.  And whenever a Disney World commercial would come on, they would yell for me and when I’d walk in the room, they’d point at the TV with big puppy dog eyes and say “Please Mama.  We go?” I used to always smile and say “Someday, but not right now.”

It’s been 2 years and the girls have radically changed.  They’re your typical well adjusted tween and teen girls and they speak English fluently, but one of the things that hasn’t changed is their desire to go to Disney World.  They still ask regularly  (and they still try to use the big puppy dog eyes when they ask).

One of my personal goals for 2010 was to take a family trip to Disney World and that goal (and dream) is coming true next month.  My whole family is heading to Disney World in February for Disney’s Social Media Moms Conference.  This trip will not only be a fun family vacation, it will also be a great chance to network with other Social Media Moms and will allow me to check off one of my blog goals for 2010…to attend a conference.

If you have any suggestions for making the most out of our first family trip to Disney World, I’d love to hear them.  Please leave me a comment!

Also, I will be posting later this week on how to get a free day at Disney thanks to the Give A Day, Get A Day program so make sure to check back!

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Filed Under: Disney, Goals, travel

Are You Going to Be at the Library with Me on Tuesday?

9 Jan posted by


On Tuesday, January 12th, I will be talking about Saving Money at the Eckhart Public Library from 6:30-7:30pm.  This is your chance to ask all those questions you’ve been wanting to ask about saving money.  I will be talking about saving money on groceries, everyday purchases, and travel as well as planning for birthdays and Christmas throughout the year.

This is a free event.  For more details and to register, click here.  I’m looking forward to seeing you all!

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Mega Swagbucks Day

8 Jan posted by

Happy Friday! Today is  Mega Swagbucks Day and that means you can earn Swagbucks in larger denominations (10,20, 50, 100). They guarantee over 10K Swagbucks will be awarded in Mega Bills! Make sure to head on over to Swagbucks to do a few searches. Remember 45 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. You can learn more about Swagbucks in this post. Have a great weekend!!!
Search & Win
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Filed Under: Swagbucks

Oh Blissdom I Hear You Calling

7 Jan posted by

2010 is my year. The year to take the things I am most passionate about and make them happen. For me, those things would be Faith, Family, and Adoption. I am passionate about seeing people live out their relationship with God in a way that compels others to desire the same. I want to see my family continue to grow closer to each other and I want to see my kids and husband reach their potential and fulfill their dreams. And then there is adoption, if it were up to me, I’d probably have 20 kids living with me. I have such a passion and desire for kids to grow up in a safe place knowing they are loved. This is the year I am going to live out my dreams!

I’m going to start an Orphan Care program. A program that would improve the quality of life for orphans locally and globally. A program that would allow families to connect to these kids. Maybe families aren’t interested in adopting, but they’d love to be a grandparent to a lonely hurting child. I’d like to facilitate these relationships. I’d like my children who were adopted at 9 and 12, to regularly desire to make life better for other kids who’ve been in touch situations.

We’d like to become foster parents as well this year, however, that will require a slightly larger house, but we’re working on that too. We’re working on getting our house all gussied up and pretty so the perfect person will buy it and we can move into something a little bigger that will accomodate more kids. I know what I want to do, I know what I want to be, and I know that BlissDom can offer me the extra information and inspiration I need to meet my goals.

Will it be easy to start an orphan care ministry, become foster parents, and continue blogging about ways parents can save time, money, and their sanity…probably not. But usually the things worth working for don’t come easy! I know that the Steaz people know firsthand how it feels to see your nearly impossible dream come to fruition and I’d like to see that happen too! If you’re not familiar with the Steaz people, visit them on Facebook here.

PS Steaz people if you’re reading this, I would be very happy if you picked me.

Disclosure: This post was written in a desperate attempt to get the Steaz people to send me to Blissdom!

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Filed Under: Uncategorized

Declutter Challenge: Cutting Clutter 2 Things at a Time

7 Jan posted by


Yesterday I shared my dirty little secret with you and you all jumped on the bandwagon to help.  I was thrilled to see the various emails, comments, and tweets with decluttering suggestions.   Amy over at Amy’s Finer Things is hosting a Declutter Challenge and I’ve decided to participate using some of the suggestions you’ve given me.  My goal (like Amy’s) will be to get rid of at least 730 things or an average of 2 per day.  Who knows? Maybe I’ll get carried away and get rid of even more than that! I’ll keep you posted!

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Filed Under: clutter

Help! Clutter is Driving me Crazy

6 Jan posted by

I think I may be a packrat. I hate to put that down in writing, but I think it may be true. I struggle to get rid of stuff and it seems that no matter how much I get rid of, there is always more.

I know that taking care of stuff takes time and that the more stuff I have the more time it takes. I don’t have a lot of extra time and I don’t want to spend that extra time cleaning and organizing. I want to get rid of as much clutter as possible and then I want to organize what I have.

Does anybody have suggestions for doing this? How do you decide what to keep and what to get rid of? How do you decide what to store and what to keep out? Any suggestions would be most appreciated!

Head on over to We Are THAT Family for the backwards edition of Works For Me Wednesday to see the questions other bloggers are trying to get help with!

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