Ready for a great “It’s a Small World” story?  So late one night months ago, I was browsing Facebook when I noticed one of my friends had liked an organization called The Shepherd’s Cafe.  In true nosey fashion, I clicked through and fell in love with what I read: a Catholic coffee house created with young adults in mind, used to help the community grow in faith with speakers and music.  How awesome, right?  I was bummed I lived so far away from Texas!

If you watched the video, you may have noticed the Cafe’s secondary ministry, Mission Coffee.  This ministry is amazing!  Their goal is to help impoverished coffee farmers in third-world countries, right now in Honduras and Nicaragua.  Here’s the “It’s a Small World” part: I have close friends who have served on mission trips to these same small Honduran towns.  I have a friend who is a long-term missionary in Honduras (she’s even pictured in the video!).  These connections drew me to this organization even more.  And now I want to share it with you!

Whether you are Catholic or not, I think everyone can stand behind an organization that goes out of their way to support farmers and provide them with a fair wage.  Something so simple can change a person’s life, change a family’s life.  And we can help!  

If you are interested in purchasing, please contact Yong here to order.  There is a three bag minimum for shipment. 

So now onto the fun part: I’m hosting my first GIVEAWAY on the Big White Farmhouse!  To help spread the word about this great organization, I want to give one of you a bag of Honduran coffee to try!  

The coffee is delicious

For an entry, all you need to do is comment at the end of this post!  If you’re extra ambitious, here a few ways you can earn extra entries:

• Become a follower of the Big White Farmhouse and let me know that you did
• Like The Shepherd’s Cafe page on Facebook and come back here to let me know you did
• Spread the word about the giveaway through Facebook and/or Twitter and let me know you did.

The giveaway will run until next Thursday night, April 19th, at 9PM EST.  I will announce the winner Friday, April 20!   Good luck!

My kids love to read.  LOVE.  And while we have a pretty nice selection at home, they really like to discover books for the first time.  Thank goodness for the library and this great website: We Give Books! 

Here is how the website works: “We Give Books is a free website that enables anyone with access to the Internet to put books in the hands of children who don’t have them, simply by reading online. Simply choose the charity you want to read for and then select the books you want to read. For each book you read online, we donate a book to a leading literacy group on your behalf. The more you read, the more we give.”

I love that while my children are reading, we are helping others to read as well.  So Mammas, get started!  Here are a few we are hoping to read this week:

• Animal Hide and Seek
• Snowmen at Night
• Cordoroy Lost and Found
• Wink! The Ninja who Wanted to be Noticed

Today I’m excited to share with you a new way to give.  The organization is called Kiva, have you heard of it?  Watch this short video (it’s only a minute long!) to find out more about how it works: 

How Kiva Works from Kiva on Vimeo.

This is Aidah.  She is from Uganda.  Married with three children, she has managed a retail business for eleven years.  She requested a loan to purchase more food in order to expand her business and increase her profits. 

I don’t know about you, but don’t you think she has the greatest smile?  I was instantly drawn to her story and couldn’t wait to help a fellow Mamma.  My $25 was combined with others around the world and just like that, her loan was funded and her dreams are so much closer to coming true!

I think this non-profit organization is amazing.  I love that by December, she will have fully repaid the loan and I’ll be able to help fund another.   You can find more about Kiva here.

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Just a reminder that the Mamma Support Swap is open until Friday, so be sure to sign up!  You can find more information here. 

To me, Thanksgiving is all about acknowledging the blessings in your life.  I am so fortunate to have an amazing aunt.  She is so loving, supportive, and thoughtful.  One of the amazing things about her is that she never forgets a birthday.  Or a holiday for that matter!  Growing up, I always had a special card in the mail just for me.  Now she does it for my kids.  It made my day then and it so greatly touches my heart now.  Anyway, she has a birthday coming up, so I wanted to send a little something for her to find in her mailbox too!

I used this for a birthday gift, but it’s so easy to adapt for Christmas.  I think it would make a great little gift for your neighbors, girlfriends, even for teachers!  

I used a Reuseable Sandwich/Snack bag to hold the little goodies inside.  Afterwards, she can use it for its intended purpose, but it’s definitely not limited to that.  It would be a great little place to hold all of her Christmas gift tags or to throw a few pieces of jewelry in if she’s traveling.  So versatile!

Inside, I tucked in a few items I found from a great etsy shop called Dress Green.  Specifically, I got her the Tricky Lip Lush and the Travel Size Mango and Pomegranate Body Scrub.  They came already wrapped, so I just tucked them in the bag.  So easy!  

To package it all up, I used an extra Favor Bag from our pirate party.  I love that the red stripe is generic enough that I can use them for Christmas or more birthdays later on in the year.  Added a sticker that came with my Erin Condren planner and off into the mail it went.  

Happy Birthday, Aunt Rie!  I’m actually a little EARLY this year!  We love you.  🙂   

I don’t think I’ve shared here that I was born into a military family.  In fact, the majority of the men in my life have or are currently serving.  And let me tell you, it is such an honor.  What an example for my boys. 

Whatever your political views, I think we can all agree that these men (and many of them young men!) are so selfless and courageous.  They do a job much bigger than themselves, for love of country and love for the people who live here.  For that alone, we should support them!  And not just in words…

I consider myself a pretty flexible parent.  I try to see my children for who they are and not who I want them to be.  But if there is one aspect that I am NOT flexible, it’s this: I don’t want my children to be so focused on themselves that they don’t see the needs of others.  I don’t want my children to think the world revolves around them.  I don’t want to raise snotty, entitled children.  There.  I said it.   

So, I am always on the lookout for tangible ways to show my kids what it is to serve.    Enter: Operation Christmas Child.  I had heard of this organization before, but had always been too late to participate.  But this year I was ready!

This weekend, we took the boys to the store to collect items for our shoeboxes.  We’d talked it up all week, even to the point of brainstorming ideas and making a shopping list (those apples don’t fall far from the tree!).  I let them pick out the majority of the items and they were so excited to pack the boxes when we got home.  It was service at a 5 and 3 year old level and it was good.  They totally got it.   

I encourage you to participate in Operation Christmas Child with your family.  Pack one box for the whole family.  Let each of your kids fill one.  It’s really fun and so rewarding!  You can find the website with all the information you need here.

One of the reasons I love the Internet so much is the ease in which information is spread.  I found out about this awesome non-profit from this post.  On their website, Color A Smile has a variety of coloring pages that you can print out and send back to them.  They, in turn, will pass them out to nursing homes and retirement homes – anyone in need of a smile.  Such an easy way to give! 

My kids are little, but they are starting to understand what it means to give to others, so I knew this would a perfect project for our family.  I told M and D that there were some Gramma’s and Grampa’s who didn’t have any kids to draw them pictures, so we were going to color some for them!  The boys jumped right on board and they colored quite a few!  Some will be going to our own grandmothers who need a little cheer and the rest will be mailed off to Color a Smile! 

I’ve been collecting these Box Tops for Education off and on for a few months now.  Having no children in school yet, I wasn’t exactly sure what I was going to do with them, but at 10 cents a piece, I thought, “I have to clip them!  It’s like throwing away money!”

Then, this week, I found a Facebook page about helping Joplin, MO schools (remember that devastating tornado?).  And they are asking for… Box Tops!  So mine are in the mail!  If you are interested in donating as well, check out their page!

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On a similar note, I just pulled out my coupons that will be expiring at the end of the month.  Did you know that military families stationed overseas can use coupons up to 6 months past their expiration date?  This website has a list of bases to send them to!