I don’t drink a lot of pop. Or, you know, soda if you don’t live in my area. When I do, it’s a special splurge for pizza night or another restaurant outing. That said, if I’m splurging, I’m going with Pepsi. I don’t need to say anything more than I prefer the taste of Pepsi to any other variety of pop. It’s my special treat sometimes.

That’s why I’m super pleased that Pepsi is starting something special of their own.

It’s called the Pepsi Refresh Project and it has the potential to be awesome. In short, Pepsi is going to be giving away more than $20 million dollars to help fund projects of all sizes that help make communities better. No. Really. $20 million dollars. My brain doesn’t even comprehend that kind of money. In fact, Pepsi is so serious about this project that they opted not to advertise in this year’s Super Bowl (February 7th) so that they could dedicate the money that they would have spent there instead to this very important social cause.

I could go buy a Pepsi right now and splurge a little bit myself in honor of this awesome project. Giving up ad space to help people? Holla.

What things count? New playground equipment. New library computers (hey, Ohio, are you reading?). Upgrades to make a historical building/theater/etc handicapped accessible. The list goes on and on. From the small projects to the bigger than big ones! Every month, you have the ability to post a project in one of six categories: health, arts & culture, food & shelter, the planet, neighborhood or education. At the end of the month, Pepsi then posts the top submissions and lets the public vote on who should win the grants which start at $5,000 and go all the way up to $250,000!

You can get involved in two ways. Visit RefreshEverything.com and either submit your idea to improve your community or vote on other ideas to help other people improve their communities. The power of social media can help improve your community, your family’s community and communities all over. Let’s show the world how we can come together for good. Get to suggesting and voting now! (As a side note, you can also connect via twitter (@Pepsi) or on Facebook to become a fan.)

(By the way? I’m suggesting something to make our community better. I know that your community could use something, couldn’t it? Think about it. Submit. You never know what can happen with the press of a submit button!)

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[Disclosure: I wrote this review while participating in a blog campaign by Mom Central on behalf of Pepsi Refresh. Mom Central sent me a gift card to thank me for taking the time to participate.

I read lots of blogs. All kinds of blogs make their way to my Google reader. I just added the FedEx Home Office Blog, entitled Out of Office. Their tagline reads “Unexpected Ideas for Creative Projects.” Yes, please.

I’ve been especially enjoying the blog since the beginning of the year. The posts have been well-written, encouraging and have inspired me to work on some of the organizational things in my own life. Keeping in touch with others is important as is keeping up with our schedule. In fact, I went ahead and made a fitness schedule like the one they talked about though, with the snow that’s been dumping on us this week, I’ve had trouble actually implementing it as of yet. Soon.

There’s also a nice link on the side that says “Print to Any FedEx Office Anywhere.” Now, I have a printer. I do. And I use it. In fact, I use it too much. But I ordered ink. The trouble is that I ordered ink during the holiday mail rush. Which means that when I went to print a contract (all 14 pages of it) on my first Monday back to work (I work at home), well, I was out of ink. And the ink wasn’t here. And it’s nice to know I have an option in utilizing FedEx. The things you learn!

But, yes, I’ve subscribed to the Out of Office blog. I have liked their ideas thus far and hope that they will hit me with some others in the near future. You should check it out as well!

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[Disclaimer: I wrote this review while participating in a blog tour campaign by Mom Central on behalf of FedEx Office. In addition, Mom Central sent me a gift card to thank me for taking the time to participate.]

If you’ve ever dreamed of taking your photography hobby and making it into a business, you’ve got to hear about the Soar! Scholarship with Me Ra Koh. Basically, Me Ra is giving three women the chance of a lifetime. Applicants can and have submitted two minute videos explaining why they should be given this scholarship which gives them a full page of prizes including a new Sony dSLR camera, lenses, flights for training and a whole YEAR worth of stuff and time and help. It’s amazing.

Amazing.

I know that as a photographer I have thought of starting up my own business. I work for a newspaper now and really don’t feel that portraiture is really want I want to work on at this time in my life. I do know, however, the amazing opportunity that is being presented to these women by this scholarship. Especially in this difficult economy, it can be so hard to start up a business. When you think about how much photography equipment and the editing software can cost, it can seem almost impossible to a woman with a dream. Thanks to Me Ra, it’s not impossible.

The winners will be announced tomorrow. You can see ALL of the video entries right now on the Soar! Scholarship website. There are 30 pages of videos. THIRTY! That’s amazing. I know I’ll be logging on tomorrow to see who won. In fact, I’ll be following the winners on their websites over the next year to see what they learn and come up with from their training. While I may not be going into the photography business, I am a photographer and I can always learn!

Photo Credit: Jenna Hatfield, 2009.

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I wrote this review while participating in a blog tour campaign by Mom Central on behalf of the SOAR! Scholarship and Me Ra Koh Photography. In addition, I received an Amazon gift certificate to thank me for taking the time to participate.

If your holiday season is shaping up to look like ours, you might feel slightly in over your head. Between the boys’ upcoming (joint) birthday party, a few get togethers with friends, Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and possibly some other holiday parties, I’m kind of overwhelmed with the planning part. Who is invited to what and when? Who has RSVPed? Which child of mine took off with the list for X-party and scribbled on it with marker before throwing it in a mud puddle? And so on.

Enter Microsoft Office Live.

It’s a handy little web-based tool that helps you organize all kinds of things. From planning events like the ones I’ve discussed above to sharing files between parties for work or school projects, Microsoft Office Live is a great, easy to manage tool. Here are just a few things that you can do when you go to create a new workspace:

• Blank workspace. (No restriction but no preset help either.)
• Class workspace. (Improve your grades using a contact list, date list, class notes, essay outline & syllabus.)
• Essay workspace. (Manage  your term paper or thesis with an outline, template, milestone list & more.)
• Event workspace. (Plan a successful event with an invitation, flyer, agenda, attendance list, to-do list & more.)
• Household workspace. (Share a to-do list, contact list, grocery list & more with family members.)
• Job Search workspace. (Organize your job search using an interview schedule, preparation notes, cover letter, resume template & more.)
• Meeting workspace. (Improve productivity using meeting notes, minutes archive, attendee list and a to-do list.)

Sounds helpful, doesn’t it? Especially for those of us who enjoy utilizing technology in our daily lives, as our family does, Microsoft Office Live helps with those little details that end up making a big difference.

I’ve enjoyed using both the Event workspace and the Household workspace for our current organizational needs right now. Previously, our grocery list was written in various places (on a sheet of paper, on the marker board, on my planning calendar) and, inevitably, things were always forgotten. Not now! To print, you simply click the Export to Excel button, enter your username/email and password for your Microsoft Office Live account, press okay and watch it load. Print. Grocery shop. Done.

FireDad is a fan of the Emergency Contact List in the Household workspace as well. What can we say? We’re a safety conscious family and having this information organized and handy is a great way to stay on the safe side.

We have made a Household to-do list with regard to some of the parties/events we have planned at our home over the next month and a half. Some of them are your everyday cleaning activities and some of them are party specific. Having everything organized that we can both see, so easily, makes it so much easier. We both know what  needs to be done. No questions. No miscommunication. Black and white.  Hooray!

I do believe that as I collaborate on projects with other individuals, we might use this as well. It’s a great way to put down, again in black and white, what everyone needs to do to contribute in order to see the project through to completion. Everyone can see that the others are keeping up with their tasks and, in theory, projects should go mighty smooth from start to finish. (Right?!) I’d even love to incorporate the Meeting workspace for a local group of which I am on the board. We’ll see if I can get them on the same technological page!

If you’re interested in utilizing Microsoft Office Live to get your household in order or plan some holiday events, simply head on over and register. It just takes a minute or so to enter your email, password and info. They send you a confirmation email and, bam! You’re ready to get organized!

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[Disclosure: I wrote this review while participating in a blog campaign by Mom Central on behalf of Microsoft Office Live. Mom Central sent me a gift card to thank me for taking the time to participate.]

Our schedules have been insane as of late. While we normally like to have our boys in bed before primetime TV rolls around each evening, FireDad and I still don’t always get to watch our shows. He works 24 hours at the fire department every third day. Sometimes I have projects that need worked on that make watching TV impossible. We’re also involved in certain things that meet on certain evenings. While we do have DVR, sometimes we do silly things like go away for a weekend and unplug the satellite receiver. Or, if it is raining too hard and our satellite goes out, we’re out of luck. On top of that, we have too many shows recording on Wednesdays for our DVR to accept.

Enter Fancast.com.

One2One Network let me know about this particular site. I clicked through without much hope and was pleasantly surprised. Not only is one of my new favorite shows on the site (Glee) but so is my all time old favorite, Friends. (Only 7 episodes thus far but I’ll take it!) Add in CSI, Dateline and (one episode of) How I Met Your Mother, and I’m really starting to get on board. In fact, they’ve got new shows like Trauma and Three Rivers. Now if only I had more time!

If you don’t believe me, read this stat:

FANCAST debuted in January 2008 and now has more than 10,000 hours of online video programming; with more than 60,000 videos available, including over 13,000 full-length shows (more are being added every day).

That’s a lot of hours. I don’t think I want to watch that much TV, on my computer or otherwise. But still! That’s pretty awesome. The site also offers things that other similar sites might not: movies, pictorials, blogs, listings, live chats and Q&A’s with stars, and much more. It’s really an all-in-one entertainment-fix kind of site!

Like some other sites, there are short breaks for commercials in the show. Personally, I don’t mind it on this or other sites. Why? As long as it stays free (which there are rumors that another popular site, name withheld, won’t be free for much longer), I’m game.

Fancast.com is now bookmarked on my browser bookmark bar. I like the idea of being able to watch TV when I want to (or when my schedule allows). I hope you do as well! (They’re also on twitter: @Fancast!)

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[Disclosure: I received no compensation for writing this post. One2One Network let me know about it and I liked it enough to share with you.]

If your kids are a fan of Veggie Tales, I bet that I can’t say the name “Veggie Tales” without the theme song bursting into your head. I know, I know. I’m sorry. As I sit here writing this post about the new DVD on the way, I’m singing it as well. While I don’t believe in pre-loading music, imagine the tune playing in the background or being sung by BigBrother. Good times.

Even better times: Veggie Tales has a new DVD coming out this October for the holiday season. (Why, yes, it is September 2nd and I’m talking about the holiday season. Why? BigBrother & LittleBrother both have birthdays in November. Their birthday presents are already purchased. I’ve been working on Christmas for a month. Guess what just got added to their list? Oh, yes, Veggie Tales.) The new DVD is entitled VeggieTales: Saint Nicholas—A Story of Joyful Giving. Just looking at the title lets me know that this will be something my kids will need this year. While LittleBrother is a bit young (he will have just turned two), I plan on talking about the idea of giving this Christmas with BigBrother. Excited to have a DVD to help me along with the goal.

In preparation for the October 3rd release, Big Idea (the company behind Veggie Tales) has released a video. Entitled “Give This Christmas Away,” the lyrics really speak to the ideas of giving this Christmas season. The song is performed by two of my favorite Christian artists, Matthew West and Amy Grant. It’s a beautiful song and the video is full of your child’s favorite Veggie Tale characters as well as other children receiving blessings of gifts from others. If you can watch the video without feeling a smidgen misty, you’re made of stone! I mean, the lyrics are beautiful:

What is December looked different this year?
What if we all just give this Christmas away?
If there’s love in your heart, don’t let it stay there.
Give this Christmas away.
And your life will be changed by the gift you receive when you give this Christmas away.

The children featured in the video are receiving gifts as a part of Operation Christmas Child. If you’re interested in teaching your children about giving as the holidays roll around this year, check out the site.

To make matters sweeter, Big Idea has also made another video available for free to download. Entitled “I Can Love (Because God Loves Me),” it is packed with messages that your child will be blessed to learn. After you enter your registration information, click the format that you would like to download. On the next window, click “save as” instead of run. It will be saved on your computer to listen to and watch at your child’s every whim.

The question may remain: who wants to listen to Christmas music in September. To be fair, my show choir starts practicing next week. We’ll be working on our Christmas concert. If I can sing Christmas music from September through December, so can your kids. Furthermore, far from Jingle Bells, these songs have a beautiful meaning that you will be pleased to hear your children sing over and over and over again.

The FireFamily will be receiving a copy of the DVD to review in the very near future. I hope to be able to watch it without the kids so that we can surprise them with it on the day after Thanksgiving in preparation for Christmas. I will, however, offer you a full review on my thoughts (and FireDad’s) after we give it a thorough watching. In the meantime, go watch the video for “Give This Christmas Away” and download your own copy of “I Can Love (Because God Loves Me).” And be sure to come back in October as we’re going to be giving away a copy of VeggieTales: Saint Nicholas—A Story of Joyful Giving.

So be sure to come back twice in the next month(ish) to read our review and have a go at winning the new DVD!

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[I received no compensation for this post. I share it because we are a Veggie Tales loving family. This information was shared with me by Morris-King Company. I will let you know when I have received free/promotional items to post. I always Blog with Integrity.]

Carefree is now offering a new pantiliner for your light days or as a backup for your tampon or menstrual cup. Imagine the protection of a pad but with the light, un-bulky fit of a pantiliner. Welcome to Carefree’s new Ultra Protection Liners. What are the benefits to this new liner?

• Offers 10x more absorbency than an regular liner
• Wings to keep it in place
• Thin and flexible for comfort
• Odor control for freshness

But that’s not the only thing Carefree is up to lately.

Carefree has partnered with First30Days.com (a site I’ve used!) to offer women a chance at a Fresh Start. It’s called the Fresh Start fund.

Three winners will receive $10000, $5000 and $3000 to begin their Fresh Start. Ooh.

What would I do with that money to give myself, my family, a Fresh Start? I can think of many things that have a selfish slant, of course. However, if I really go with the whole “Fresh Start” theme, I’d love to start a non-profit for mothers who have relinquished their children for adoption, both those who chose the path voluntarily at birth and those who were forced to do so by the state, to help them with their Fresh Start.

I wasn’t offered such a thing in the aftermath of my daughter’s adoption. I may have chosen for her to be placed with another family as I felt unable to provide for her due to a complicated pregnancy that left me on bed rest at 18 weeks but that didn’t mean that the decision didn’t leave me emotionally paralyzed. I did move to a new location to get that “feeling” of a fresh start but I was unable to find the motivation to get up and going for awhile. Even then, when I was beginning my career and working toward things that I now know to be parts of my life, I was emotionally cut off from the world for quite some time. I am thankful that I had people in my life who were patient and waited for me to make my way through the muck and mire of that time period, but I can’t help but wonder how the transition would have been made easier if someone, anyone, had offered help. Due to the ethical problems with adoption agencies in this era, parents who have just placed a child are all too often not offered long-term counseling, given an explanation of the grief process or shown resources which they can use to get on their feet. I know that if mothers were given a true, supported Fresh Start, they might begin to feel sooner than I did and, as such, heal sooner than I did. Funding, of course, is necessary because we need to be able to find counselors/therapists who actually have experience in this area. We also need to get together a grief workbook as the existing ones talk about grief as it relates to death; we deal with a different form of grief though the process is similar. As such, the wording needs to be different.

Do you think you have a good Fresh Start idea? Simply visit Carefree’s Fresh Start site and share why they want a fresh start, plans for reaching their goal, and how the funding could help. Maybe you can see your Fresh Start dreams come true. (Let us know if you do!)

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[Thanks to Mom Central for letting us know good things for women.]

Chances are you know someone who has fought cancer. My Mom was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2007. A lovely friend fought a winning battle over the past two years. For them and the millions of others like them, I love organizations like Look Good…Feel Better. They have been around since 1989, supported by corporate donors, to help women “offset the appearance-related changes from cancer treatment.” Think hair loss and skin changes and fingernails and so on. I love that someone realized a need to help counsel women on the fact that they are still beautiful.

Now Look Good…Feel Better has a new campaign. It’s the Hope is Beautiful campaign. Here is/are the slogan/s.

Hope is beautiful… and so is every woman being treated for cancer. Look Good…Feel Better can help women face the challenge of a lifetime.

In various ads, hope is replaced with courage, you and caring. They’re beautiful ads and the message behind them gives hope and courage and offers up that caring to all women fighting this battle.

On their 20th anniversary year, Look Good…Feel Better is asking both graduates of their program and cancer survivors to submit their stories. They want to know how the program helped her get through her treatment. They want to hear encouraging stories of women who have defied the odds. Entries will then be featured on the Women of Hope is Beautiful blog to encourage, inspire and educate others who may be dealing with the very same things. In August, Look Good…Feel Better will choose five (beautiful!) women as their Women of Hope is Beautiful women. They will then be featured on the website and will win a trip to the DreamBall at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York on September 24, 2009 as well as receive a professional makeover.

Nice!

So, how do you submit your story? Visit Look Good…Feel Better and submit your story. Add some pictures. And press submit. You haven’t fought cancer but know someone who has? Pass the information along. Keep passing it along. I encourage all women to share their stories of their cancer fights. Even if you don’t win, isn’t the chance to encourage, support and educate someone who is now following in your footsteps worth it? I think so.

Go submit your stories. And pass on the word. (PS: Look Good…Feel Better is on twitter!

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[Thanks to Mom Central for letting us know of this beautiful organization.]

Are you procrastinating buying something for Father’s Day. (That falls on this coming Sunday.) Or, maybe you aren’t procrastinating but you just haven’t found anything of interest to the Dads in your life? Enter the Mom Central Father’s Day Gift Guide. (At this point, you should hear the sounds of angels blowing trumpets and singing. Hear them? No? You didn’t click yet. Click. I’ll wait. See? Angels.)

The gift guide is separated into four categories:

• Under $25
• Under $50
• Under $100
• Over $100

I’ll be honest. I clicked on the Under $25 category first. Not because I don’t think FireDad is worth more than $25 or that his parenting isn’t somehow worth much more. But because the economy stinks right now. That list had some nice grilling options. I did, of course, hop through each of the categories and, I’ll be honest: FireDad would love everything in the Over $100 category. (That Casio EX-S5 Camera? He’d love it so he didn’t have to borrow my big, honking DSLR!) The lists have everything from a Microbrew gift basket (don’t tell FireDad) to a book on Sea Warfare. You’ll have to give them a look to see everything they have to offer.

To make matters all the more awesome, Mom Central is also giving away stuff every day through Father’s Day. Everything from grilling accessories to a Jeep tent built for seven people. I’m going to be honest. FireDad saw the tent. FireDad wants the tent. So if you could refrain from entering that giveaway, the FireFamily would be grateful. What? The Dads in your life want it as well? Can I bribe you with cookies? They’re yummy! No? That’s unfortunate. May the best Dad win! (Which is obviously FireDad… right? Right.)

Whether you’ve already purchased a gift or you’re still trying to figure it out, visit the Gift Guide and the Giveaways list. As always, thanks to Mom Central for going above and beyond the call of duty to help moms. Thumbs up!

Do you ever feel like you need an encycopedia handy for parenting your children. Or a gaggle of other moms ready to answer any question you might have? Welcome to Mamapedia! You can search through the hundreds of questions that parents have already had to ask and see what they were told to do by other parents. (You can even join Mamasource and add your own expertise to the discussion.)

The site is unique in the way that the search works. Simply ask your question on the main page and it will bring up all the related questions that they have indexed over the past two years.

I decided to ask a question that I thought might not be on the site. I asked:

“What is your cloth diaper laundry routine?”

My results brought up three pages, some of which actually include an answer to my question! (For the record, I do two full washes, use Purex Free & Clear and Oxi-Clean Powder. That’s all.) And, so, the fact that my question, which isn’t particularly mainstream, was answered in various ways on the site gives me hope that the site will answer all sorts of questions that I am bound to have over the next few years.

I find it easy to navigate, easy to understand and easy to rate. (I marked the laundering question as helpful.) I think I’m going to bookmark this site so that I don’t have to enter random questions into the Google search engine. As Mamapedia exists solely to answer those questions, I think I’ll stick with that the next time I have to ask, “My son won’t eat peas; what do I do?” My guess is that other moms have been there, done that and have some tips up their collective sleeves.

Go check out Mamapedia and have your questions answered, too!

[Thanks to Mom Central for this helpful tip!]