I don’t drink alcohol so when Old World Gourmet, an upscale food and beverage company, contacted me about reviewing and giving away a set of their new line of Vino-Licious wine mixers I contacted one of my recipe guest writers here at Screwed Up Texan to try it out. Vino-Licious comes in several fruity flavors including Peach-Bellini, Sangria, Pomegranate Blueberry, and Lemoncillo Freeze. Vino-Licious can also be purchased as a set in either a red or white wine specific variety. Stay tuned after TJ’s very honest review for your opportunity to WIN their white or red wine mixers set (value $24)!

From TJ Gilmore:

“OWG has taken wine, slammed a frozen drink mix on top and given people a sugary, wine flavored margarita for the effort.

If you’re a wine snob–stop. You’ve got a Martha Stewart recipe for mulled wine or sangria with about 1/20th of the sugar and five times the pretension.

If you’re looking for something sugary sweet with a twang of wine sophistication… Who am I kidding. There’s nothing sophisticated about this stuff. The ice flavor tastes like unknown fruit cocktail while sangria has a slight hint of orange and the blueberry tastes like a Hostess blueberry pie.

I don’t think I’d use a wine that I’d spent more than a few dollars on as it completely masks any wine flavor- you’re basically adding alcohol to the powder and tossing it in the freezer.

The Pros:

It freezes up great, can be served with an ice cream scoop, and is basically an option to the Frozen Strawberry Margarita for your friends who get tequila rage.

So if you’re looking for something slushy, sugary, and a way to mask that bottle of wine that might be on the verge of vinegar, this is the stuff. There’s enough difference in the fruit flavors to comment on, and it’s great adult kool-aid.”

GIVEAWAY!

The folks at OWG want to give one of my readers their very own set of wine mixers for their next party, value $24! To enter to WIN just follow the easy instructions below.

REQUIRED: To enter this giveaway, simply leave a comment below on whether you’d like the white or red wine mixers. See the entire Vino-Licious line HERE.

OPTIONAL: You may do one or more of the following and then leave a separate comment for each item you do for extra chances to win!

• Follow OWG on Facebook.
• Follow Screwed Up Texan on Facebook.
• Follow OWG on Twitter.
• Follow Screwed Up Texan on Twitter.
• Tweet the following message: #GIVEAWAY! Wine Meets Slushy with Vino-Licious from @OldWorldGourmet http://screweduptexan.com/?p=3252 #win @screweduptexan
  
• Share this post with a direct link to it on your own blog or Facebook wall.
• Pin this giveaway on Pinterest and tag me in the description field! Follow me HERE.

That’s IT! Giveaway ends Monday, January 14 at 9pm CDT. Winner will be contacted by email for shipping information after verifying entries.  Open to United States shipping addresses only.

Disclosure: One set of red wine mixers were given to us in compensation for writing this review and hosting the giveaway. All opinions are our own.

I am the mother of three boys who are all just about one year apart. You can imagine how crazy life was for me after my youngest was born and I literally had a newborn, 1 year old, and 2 year old running around. Imagine life like this for me: newborn is screaming and hungry, 1 year old is barely transitioning off the bottle and learning how to use a sippycup which so far ain’t working, and two year old is running around naked like a wild banshee and has suddenly decided he wants Cheerios for breakfast and so decides to pour himself some with some milk on the FLOOR. My husband is at work and I have no close friends or family nearby. At that moment I KNOW I need to feed and cuddle my newborn, but the temper tantrum my 1 year old is holding because he can’t figure out how to get milk from the sippycup and the mess my 2 year old made on the floor and is now spreading it everywhere is getting the best of me. Oh how I wish I could have had a helper on most days because they were oftentimes just like that!

Folks, this is how I grew my patience when they break 2 1/2 dozen eggs on my kitchen floor in case you wanted to know.

A few weeks ago, the folks at L’il Helper reached out to me in hopes I’d review their product that helps little ones hold their own bottle and Mom regain some sanity. In short, this product is amazing…I so wish I had one when my boys were very young. I think the above situation would have been made easier if I could have attached the L’il Helper to my baby’s bottle and then while keeping an eye on him remedied the sippycup and Cheerio explosion in the kitchen. I would NOT recommend this product to be used with a newborn, however I would have felt comfortable using it with my 6 week old and older children on occasion when I seriously could have used an extra set of hands. Bonding over mealtime with your babies is top priority for me, but in reality it is little devices like the L’il Helper that can become so useful when chaos hits!

About the L’il Helper:

• Matches natural nursing posture
• Encourages development
• Frees parents to multitask
• Hassle free
• Reduces fatigue
• Travels anywhere
• BPA-free, solid construction
• Easy to clean, dishwasher safe
• Perfect for growing families & twins

The L’il Helper also fits most bottle sizes and works with baby’s natural gripping reflex. I think the L’il Helper would make a GREAT baby shower gift!

GIVEAWAY!

The folks over at L’il Helper want to give away 2 L’il Helpers ($30 value!, $14.99 each) to one of my readers this week! Entering to win is easy, follow the directions below:

• REQUIRED: Tell me what you LIKE about the L’il Helper in the comments section below. Visit the L’il Helper website for more info.

OPTIONALLY, you may do one or more of the following and then leave a separate comment for each thing you do for extra chances to win!

• Follow L’il Helper on Facebook.
• Follow Screwed Up Texan on Facebook.
• Follow L’il Helper on Twitter.
• Follow Screwed Up Texan on Twitter.
• Tweet the following message: Moms don’t need super powers–they need L’il Helper! http://screweduptexan.com/?p=3246 $30 value #win #giveaway @screweduptexan @lilhelper_
• Share this post with a direct link to it on your own blog or Facebook wall.
• Pin this giveaway on Pinterest and tag me in the description field! Follow me HERE.

That’s IT! Giveaway ends this Friday, January 11 at 9pm CDT. Winner will be contacted by email for shipping information after verifying entries.  Open to United States shipping addresses only.

Disclosure: I was provided with two L’il Helpers as compensation for this post/giveaway. All opinions and crazy stories are my own and honest. I have no idea what a wild banshee is.

A few weeks ago I set up a free K5 Learning account to test-drive with my kids. My kids struggle in school and just like any caring parent I really wanted them succeed. Sometimes I just didn’t know where to start, which is why K5 Learning came in handy because it tested my children (accurately!) to see what level to put them on before they even began any of the lessons.

K5 Learning is an online after-school study program for kids in kindergarten to grade 5. In 2011 and 2010, K5 Reading and K5 Math programs were selected as finalists for a prestigious award for the best instructional solution for special needs students. And K5 just isn’t for children who are struggling in school! K5 also works well with gifted children who are bored in class. K5 not only unlocks your child’s potential, they also build reading, math and study skills to last a lifetime!

The animated courses are fun, engaging, and interactive. Each lesson builds upon the previous lesson and helped my children logically reason and better understand reading and math concepts. In fact, I often found my oldest (learning disability) and youngest (ADHD) children asking to go on to the next lesson because they were having so much fun learning!

K5 Learning is an online reading and math program for kids from kindergarten through grade 5.  Their intent is to help kids build reading, math and study skills through independent study.  K5 is designed for use at home, after-school, on weekends and during the summer, and can also be used in conjunction with a homeschooling program.

Kids complete an online assessment of 8 key reading and math skills, and then work independently and at their own pace through over 3,000 lessons and activities.  The lessons are animated, interactive and simple enough that even a 4 year old can use them by himself.   The system automatically chooses lessons for students (based on their assessment and past lessons), tracks student progress and provides reports for parents.

K5 Learning includes 4 modules:  K5 Reading and K5 Math (curricula based lessons), K5 Math Facts (an adaptive program for developing instant recall in math facts) and K5 Spelling (an advanced spelling and vocabulary tutor).

In comparison to other educational websites, K5 has the following attributes:

- clear emphasis on curricula based education, not games / entertainment
- online assessment for placement of kids at appropriate skill levels
- ability for kids to work independently and proceed through lessons at their own pace while minimizing time requirements for parents (simple interfaces, automatic lesson selection, tracking, reporting)

Interested in learning more? Then visit K5 Learning HERE. They are also currently offering a FREE 14 day trial of their program to everyone.

Disclosure: I was given a free 6 week trial of the K5 program. All stated opinions are my own.

I met Christina Tutt online a few months ago via Facebook. Like me, she has seen a great need in our community to help and home children in need. Since 2006, Christina has adopted 1 child from foster care and 2 children from the Fort Worth projects through independent adoption. She and her husband, Trevor, are currently in the process of adopting two more children from hard places through independent adoption. Christina and Trevor also have 5 biological children between the two of them. As written in Micah 6:8,

“He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.
And what does the Lord require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
and to walk humbly with your God.”

Read more of Christina’s story and mission here, here, and here.

7 of the Tutt children

Christina has an interesting way of celebrating Christmas. Unlike many parents, instead of trying to overflow her Christmas tree with dozens of presents for each child, she instead gives three presents to each of her children, because after all if three presents were good enough for the baby Jesus, then three presents are good enough for her kids. If that isn’t unique enough, her family also spends Christmas Eve at a local Dallas area homeless shelter giving Christmas presents to children who otherwise wouldn’t receive anything. For Christina, her husband, and their children seeing the smiles and tears on these homeless children and their parents’ faces makes it worth everything to them.

Last year, Christina and her family spent their own cash buying presents for Dallas Fort Worth area homeless children. This year when she posted on Facebook her intent to give to homeless children again I decided right then and there that I was going to help her reach as many kids as possible. This is where YOU help make things happen. Our goal is to give 1 Christmas gift to each child we meet at the local Dallas shelter on Christmas Eve. You can help us by doing at least one of the following:

1. DONATE money via PayPal using the “donate” button below. We don’t care how much: $1, $5, $10 or more. We will use ALL funds received to buy presents for homeless children. Deadline December 20, 2012.
2. Send in a donated gift card for a store that sells children’s toys (ie Walmart, Target, etc). Not Kmart, please, since those stores don’t exist in the DFW metroplex. You can send gift cards to: Christina Tutt, P.O. Box 2401 Cedar Hill, Texas 75106
3. Send in a donated new, unwrapped toy to: Christina Tutt, P.O. Box 2401, Cedar Hill, Texas 75106

Suggestion for Toys: Almost anything will do, but keep in mind that toys small enough to carry around (dolls, cars, action figures, card games, books, etc) work best because oftentimes these children walk around a lot and the shelters are small and crowded. Coats, blankets, backpacks, and shoes also make great, practical gifts.

We don’t want to put a deadline on receiving donations of money and toys, but since we need the time to actually purchase these items, we are putting a deadline on our Christmas giving for December 20, 2012. However you are more than welcome to continue to send in your donations after that time and we will simply use the funds and toys to give to homeless children at other times of the year.

We sincerely hope that you will feel compelled to give during this time of the year to children whose hearts have already been through more than most of us can ever imagine. Perhaps your donation will give a child the glimmer of hope that so many of them are missing and make a difference in their life.

Thank you.

Questions? Email Me (screweduptexan @ gmail dot com) or Christina or LEAVE US A COMMENT BELOW.

Disclosure: I am NOT being paid to write this post and NO funds received will be used as compensation for either myself or Christina, ever. ALL funds received will be used to purchase toys or other gifts for homeless children. ALL toys received will be given to homeless children. We reserve the right to exchange or refuse inappropriate toys. You need to contact a competent tax adviser in the case of tax related questions. Although we do not make money off this endeavor, we are NOT a government approved non-profit…just a couple Texan women wanting to make a difference for children.

Where has the time flown?

Although I’ve been saying my oldest, Austin (named after our capitol), is 10 years old for over a month now, he officially turns 10 today.

The other day he asked my husband and me if he could have a cell phone, which we immediately told him, “No, not until you can pay for it yourself and not until you’re in high school.” To which he responded, “High school? BUT THAT’S FOREVER AWAY.” To which we responded, “It’s not too bad…only four years from now.”

People. FOUR YEARS AWAY.

FOUR.

And immediately I felt like an old lady.

Happy birthday son!

One of these days we’ll have to get his official birth certificate changed so can quit legally being a girl.

Like most moms, whenever I scroll through the hundreds (most likely thousands) of images on my computer nearly none of them contain a shot of me. Since I am the photographer in our family I am the one constantly behind the camera instead of in front of it. This same scenario happened a few days ago in which finally a light bulb turned on in my head:

Teach my 10-year-old son photography.

Added plus? If I can get my son to become really interested in photography maybe I can convince my husband I need a new camera!

Worth a shot (get it?).

This is our second lesson together and was about composing images. You see I just took up teaching myself how to knit using a loom (with ZERO prior experience knitting) 10 days ago and had just created the hat seen in these pictures. I thought this would be the perfect time to get a picture of my new hat to show off on Facebook. So, I directed my son to take a picture of my new knitted hat. He took those instructions quite literally and after about 70-something shots here is mostly what he came up with:

He literally took a picture of my hat.

I then spent the next two minutes explaining to him negative and positive space, along with balance. After about 50 more shots I decided to upload everything to my computer and chose the following two images for us to talk about and edit.

Exhibit A:

SOOC (straight out of camera)

Other than the obvious fact that my eyes are closed in this picture, I told him describe to me what he liked and didn’t like about the image. I then translated those things into technical terms like exposure, color balance, focus, aperture, etc. I know he didn’t pick up everything in our discussion, but the more we do this together the more he will gain understanding about what I am talking about.

We then edited the image together to his liking to optimize the image.

I then showed him a fun action (from Paint the Moon) to give the image a little extra pop.

Once again, from this:

To this:

What a difference, right?!

Exhibit B:

SOOC

We once again went over this image and what he liked and didn’t like. Then we edited it to optimize the image:

Again, we added the same action that we had previously on this one:

Once more, from this:

To this:

(first edit)

I think he’s off to a great start! Hopefully the next ten years will contain a lot more pictures of me in them!

At least twenty times a week one of my boys begs me to put him on YouTube. For some reason, they think YouTube is the best website in the world (besides online games and Netflix). Sometime I hate YouTube, because if you’ve ever spent ten minutes on that site, then you know how weird it can get in three videos.

Yesterday we found out my eight-year-old will need surgery to correct two conditions in his eyes that miraculously disappeared in his older brother’s a couple years ago. Esotropia (one eye turns in) is one condition that will hopefully be corrected, and congenital nystagmus (eye-shaking) is the other that we hope will improve. Because of these two conditions my son doesn’t have optimal vision and glasses don’t help. The surgery isn’t needed right away, so we will likely wait until sometime next year to do it.

So in honor of this news, my “blind” son decided to make a song about himself…here’s the home video:

He is definitely one awesome kid!

The other day I was listening to the radio when a commercial came on about adoption from foster care. You know, the one that says “you don’t have to be a perfect parent…blah blah blah.” Sense my consternation? Well with over 6,000 children available in Texas for adoption and only half of those children being adopted you’d think DFPS, adoptuskids.org, and the AdCouncil would come up with a more efficient way of getting those kids into forever families. (By the way, if you want to know the nationwide statistic it’s 107,000 children available for adoption in US foster care.)

My husband and I have pursued the adoption path out of prayer and a God-inspired calling to give a home to the orphan, the neglected, and the abused. My background of surviving a difficult childhood and coming from a similar hard place will ultimately give me the experience we will need to give these children a home of empathy, compassion, and mentorship.

Last month we were “matched” with a foster to adopt sibling group. Two girls–one who was very young and the other a year older than my oldest. Because of certain details the match did not happen. After preparing for almost the entire month of October for these girls to move into our home I felt a huge loss when we got final confirmation from our agency that CPS had decided not to place the girls for adoption just yet. My faith was certainly tried as I thought to myself why God would put my family through all that hope just for it to be in vain. I decided that I needed to guard my heart from now on. Our family–and this includes our three boys–have been waiting to welcome adoptive and legal risk placements in our home for nearly 8 months, and although we know we are waiting for the right children that God intends for our family it is really hard to give answers to your nine year old son who asks you multiple times, “Mom, why do we pray?” After all, he only sees the last 7 1/2 months as an unanswered prayer. If you can’t tell from my tone I am a little discouraged too.

What good could come from this experience?

Well CPS might have their heads up their bureaucratic rear-ends, but God has shown our family good things from last month’s experience dealing with “the system”. While talking with my husband the other night about my feelings and where we should go from here on out I learned that he has more faith in God than I give him credit for. Most of the time he is so quiet and reserved (unlike me) that I assume it’s because he doesn’t have the testimony I do (a little self-righteous ain’t I?). My husband told me about how he prayed for the right outcome with last month’s near placement. When he told me that God had answered him and said “not now and not these girls” I didn’t want to believe him so I ate almost an entire chocolate cake by myself. Which didn’t make me feel any better. While on conference call at our agency with CPS talking to the girls’ caseworkers our agency learned more about us and how we view adoption and our commitment as adoptive parents. After revealing to our friends, neighbors, school officials, church leaders, and doctors that we might get placement we discovered that we have a HUGE support network. We had friends who stepped up and committed to taking the required tests and training to babysit when we need a break. Our children’s pediatrician who normally doesn’t take Medicaid (most foster children are covered under Medicaid) offered to make an exception for these girls. Our support network is amazing!

So WHERE do we go from here? We keep the course and continue to have faith (even if I feel a bit defeated) that the right children will be matched with us. Other than giving up that’s really our only option.

Honestly? I pray that our prayers are answered soon, because I am out of words for when one of our children ask us again “Why are we praying?” except to say: Go ask your dad.

Adoption from foster care is not for the faint of heart.

Proverbs 3: 5-6: “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.”

From my seven-year-old:

If I were President,
I will eat 16 ice creams.
I will eat 16 bacon.
I will make them too.
I have 210,000 dollars.
Snack catch 1,000 sharks.
A party with every people in the lighthouse.

I’m keeping this forever.

If you know me on a personal level, then you know that I have “at least” two children who struggle in school. Really, I don’t get it. School for me was always easy as fried pies so when I discovered that I had given birth to children who need extra help in the classroom I was dumbfounded. Let’s not even start on the blame game I enacted on myself in a failed attempt to figure out how they got this way. Not enough prenatals? Too much scaly fish? Nope. I’m thinking it had more to do with genetics and personality than anything else.

(Scaly fish? That’s a reference to a letter the Mother Trucker sent me when I was pregnant.)

But here’s the hard and bold truth: Even though my oldest has received instructional help since he was three years old in our school district, as a fourth grader he mostly grasps the educational concepts of a 1st and 2nd grader. I can’t even explain how this is true because I believe and I have Mother’s Proof that my child is a very bright and intelligent person. Another truth is that sitting down with my kid and explaining math and reading concepts to him every day after school is torture–for us both.

Last week K5 Learning approached me with the opportunity to review their fun and educational online program to review for six weeks free of charge with two of my children. I had my oldest and youngest children complete K5 Learning’s online math and reading assessments which then placed my children according to their educational learning level instead of their grade level. Because my children are assessed at school I already “knew” where they should be placed so I was surprised when K5 Learning’s results were the same.

For the next six weeks my children will be participating in the K5 Learning online program. I will be writing a review of K5 Learning’s program after the six week free trial they have given me. So far my boys are enjoying the online lessons.

K5 Learning is an online reading and math program for kids from kindergarten through grade 5.  Their intent is to help kids build reading, math and study skills through independent study.  K5 is designed for use at home, after-school, on weekends and during the summer, and can also be used in conjunction with a homeschooling program.

Kids complete an online assessment of 8 key reading and math skills, and then work independently and at their own pace through over 3,000 lessons and activities.  The lessons are animated, interactive and simple enough that even a 4 year old can use them by himself.   The system automatically chooses lessons for students (based on their assessment and past lessons), tracks student progress and provides reports for parents.

K5 Learning includes 4 modules:  K5 Reading and K5 Math (curricula based lessons), K5 Math Facts (an adaptive program for developing instant recall in math facts) and K5 Spelling (an advanced spelling and vocabulary tutor).

In comparison to other educational websites, K5 has the following attributes:

- clear emphasis on curricula based education, not games / entertainment
- online assessment for placement of kids at appropriate skill levels
- ability for kids to work independently and proceed through lessons at their own pace while minimizing time requirements for parents (simple interfaces, automatic lesson selection, tracking, reporting)

Interested in learning more? Then visit K5 Learning HERE. They are also currently offering a FREE 14 day trial of their program to everyone.

Disclosure:

K5 Learning has an online reading and math program for kindergarten to grade 5 students.  I’ve been given a 6 week free trial to test and write a review of their program.  If you are a blogger, you may want to check out their  open invitation to write an online learning review of their program.