Have you ever seen a cow try to eat grass on the other side of the fence? That is where the saying comes from, and I saw it the other day. Here was this cow, placed in the greenest pasture, contorting her neck in uncomfortable ways and stretching her tongue as far as it would go, all in hopes of biting off some grass that was unreachable to her.

I stood there dumbfounded. It is the same grass! In fact, hers was greener!

I am sitting here in my living room, about to start another day. God has blessed me beyond my imagination. And yet, I was about to complain about something. Yearn for something I don’t have. When I am tired and overworked, I complain about how much I want to rest. When I am home and resting, I complain that I am not out around more people, doing more.

Contentment.

I struggle with contentment.  I must choose every single day to enjoy my blessings and not complain about my “hardships.” (I’m so spoiled that I don’ t have real hardships).

I choose this morning to smile, to be thankful! I chose not to complain about anything – will you join me?

One of the best investments I have made in my blog as my career was to purchase professional business cards.  As I travel to different blogging events, I meet people on the plane that ask me where I am going. When I say, “to a blog event,” more questions follow. Having business cards on hand that I can whip out and hand them makes it so much easier to explain. Not to mention it is a really fab way to advertise.

I have used UPrinting before – I won business cards in another giveaway – so I can tell you exactly what I think about them. They rock. I chose to get the ones that are glossy on both sides. On hindsight I think I should have only ordered one side glossy so that people can write on the other side.

Besides that minor mistake on my part (which wasn’t really all that bad. My cards are so pretty!) I really was impressed with the cards. UPrinting was fast and there was not a single mistake. I also ordered my cards with rounded corners – I think that helps them stand out just a smidge.

UPrinting also makes a slew of other printing products.  Wouldn’t it be fun to make some bookmarks with your blog logo and hand them out to friends at blog conferences? I can think of a few fun ways to use stickers with my logo too….

Type A Conference is coming up – June 21-24! So let’s have this giveaway fast so you can get your cards printed before then. (If you aren’t going to Type A, then win some cards to take to BlogHer!)

What you could win!

250  pcs Die Cut Business Card Printing for one(1) winner
Sizes to choose from :
2 x 3.5″ Rounded Corners, 2×2″ Rounded Corners, 1.75×3.5″ Rounded Corners, 2×3.5″ Leaf, 2×3.5
Rounded one corner, 2×3.5″ Half Circle Side, 2×3.5″ Oval, 2.5″ Circle
Paper to choose from :
14pt Cardstock Gloss / Matte / High Gloss (UV), or 13pt Cardstock Uncoated,
6 Business Days Turnaround
Free shipping for US residents only

Contest runs
until 11:59pm on June 5, 2012!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

I was compensated to host this giveaway. All opinions are mine, ya know.

What is greener than recycling with a plastic trash can? Recycling in a compostable, recyclable container.
Clean Cubes is a new patent-pending biodegradable, disposable and recyclable trash bin available on Amazon. It was invented by Javier Colayco, a New York City-based Harvard graduate and web entrepreneur, and his wife, Thuy Minh.

What really impressed me was that after only 2 weeks on Amazon.com – not even available in retail stores yet – Clean Cubes™ received a prestigious 2012 International Housewares Association Innovation Award at the International Home + Housewares Show in Chicago.

Honestly, this is one of those products that makes you sit back and think, “why didn’t someone think of this before?” We all want to live green and reduce our carbon footprint. Yet we are using metal or plastic tins for our recyclables. I know a friend that uses paper bags for her recyclables, but that paper bag rips far too easily and – let’s be honest – doesn’t look nearly as clean.

In fact, it was the clean look as much as the sustainability that went into the design for Clean Cubes.

“Colayco, 34, thought of the Clean Cubes concept when devising a solution to the constant trash pileup in his small New York apartment. He and Minh, 30, were constantly frustrated with an overflow of trash whenever they had guests. “

Instead of bringing out big, ugly trash cans or just the bags, the Clean Cubes are cute and can be placed throughout your party space for recyclables. They are sturdy enough to be used multiple times. And if they happen to get filthy, you can put them in the recycle bag and get another one out.

I for one think they deserved that housewares award. They beat out over 400 other products for good reason. It cuts down even more on our consumer waste!

What do you think of the Clean Cubes? Isn’t this one of the most useful inventions so far?

Disclaimer: I received compensation to tell you about the Clean Cubes. After reading the press release, I was so impressed that I added my personal commentary and that is 100% my opinion. If you don’t like compostable trash bins, that is totally cool! Let me know your thoughts in the comments!

Super low entries, super easy wins! It is all right here in one place. I tweet this list and even go to your blogs to promote them to (at random. sometimes I run out of time to get to all of them).

Happy Friday everyone! It is Low Entries Linky Time!

Do you have a giveaway with low entries? Link it up here! I am bringing you a linky full of giveaways with less than 200 entries!

And for my loyal readers, I hope giveaways in this list bring you tons of wins! Don’t forget to enter my current giveaways too – I have 2 up right now!

Featured  Giveaway!

 The online printing company partnered with the popular blog The B Keeps Us Honest to celebrate Children’s Book Week by giving away a Kindle Fire!

Ends May 30th, 2012!

Link up and ReTweet to spread the word! The more you RT the more the news will spread about your giveaway, I’ll be tweeting out specific giveaways today and through the weekend, so good luck!

What Qualifies as “Low Entries”?

The only requirement is less than 200 entries at the time of your posting here. That’s it!

FORMAT:

Blog Name – Giveaway item – Expiration Date – USA/Canada

Mama Dweeb -Merry Maids GC – 12/31 – USA Only

Please put CAN if it is open to Canada. I have loyal readers that live in Canada and if the giveaway qualifies them to enter they sure will!

LINK UP!

This week, Tania from Pure Natural Diva wants to know what our character flaws are.  Well, how rude!  Just kidding.  I think this is a wonderful topic – one that I am really looking forward to listening to.  One of my flaws is comparing myself to others, so it will be nice to finally hear the ways my friends are human, know what I mean?

Here is my video and please check out the other ones in the linky below!

(And if you are like, “what is Vlog Mom?” Check out the Vlog Mom website!)

Friday morning I woke up at 3am. Full of adrenaline, I drove to Kansas City and flew to Chicago to be part of the Verizon Super Savers Kick off event!  Nineteen bloggers from the midwest were chosen to work with Verizon to promote their devices and deals and I was really excited to join them.

If you remember, I already worked with Verizon before. So this was a no-brainer!

I arrived and got settled into the Hard Rock Hotel. Let me tell you, that place is so fun to stay in! Then we all gathered in a conference room and listened to the super-fun Alli Worthington speak! She shared her favorite apps and some hilarious social-media photos/facts she found through Pinterest. We chatted and discussed WOMMA disclosure. We all introduced ourselves and it was just an all-around fun time.

Then it was finally time to open our mystery devices! Ever since we found out we were going to work as “Verizon Savvy Savers” we were given clues to guess what device we’d get first. We had no idea. You should have heard all the squeals as we opened and saw the shiny new Motorola Xyboard tablets! They come equipped with data plans, 4G capabilities and ready to use!

Then we went back to the hotel and I took a nap. A glorious, quiet, kid-free nap. It was Heaven! Verizon treated all of the Savvy Savers to a delicious dinner at a restaurant overlooking the Navy Pier! (and I had fun getting dressed without kids pulling on my skirt. )

Navy Pier was beautiful! Just breathtaking! It was such a relaxing dinner – I had the swordfish!

After dinner, I went back to my room and slept. I was kinda exhausted – you know, 3am and all!

The next morning was breakfast with our team and introduction to Verizon devices and plans. Then we talked more about our role as Savvy Savers – what we will talk about with our readers and such – and then we heard from a Motorola Representative that taught us how to use our tablets.

I’m really excited about this device. It can be my remote, connect to my computer remotely, my Hulu watching device, eReader, calendar, and so much more. I’ll definitely keep updating you all with what I learn about my tablet and how I use it.

Then it was time to go home. I was so missing my family.  Unfortunately I took the wrong turn and ended up like an hour the wrong way.  But then I whipped out my XYBoard tablet and it gave me turn-by-turn navigation home. It took me around the tolls, out in the country roads. I got some lovely shots – isn’t that sunset breathtaking?

So excited to be a Savvy Saver! Click the button to the left for the full disclosure, thanks!

I used to subscribe to the CPSC email list and would get an email almost every day full of recalled baby and children items. But I quickly unsubscribed when I just ran out of time to scroll through the text-only email and try to find items that I owned or planned to own.

The Recalls Plus app is a beautiful, easy to use app that actually alerts you when an item you own or plan to own is recalled. You don’t have to check online constantly, you don’t have to google or scroll through hard-to-read emails. It tells you. That is the kind of usefulness I love in an app!

Here is a little more info about Recalls Plus from the  makers:

Our diverse team consists of parents and others who are focused and passionate about parenting issues — working around the clock to make sure we don’t miss catching a recall on kid’s products or food with undeclared allergens. Recalls Plus is designed and built for busy parents like you so you can focus on the important things in your life.

The Recalls Plus app is available on iPhones and Androids. And if you don’t have one of those, you can use the Facebook app.  This is truly available for everyone.

This is so user friendly! Just tap the “Add Stuff” button and put stuff on your watch list. Then you wait and if something you are watching is recalled it will ding on your phone. No other efforts from you.

What is it they say on infomercials? “Set it and forget it!”

Here is a quick and easy link for you to download the plugin!

Thank you SheSpeaks for this amazing opportunity.  Loved working with you – all opinions are 100% mine, I did get a fun little Amazon.com gift code as a thank you for writing this.

That ridiculous article from TIME Magazine. Riling up bloggers like Scary Mommy and vloggers like Jessica Gottleib.  Check out twitter hashtag #MomEnough – we moms are not going to let this topic divide us anymore. I support moms that love their children and sacrifice themselves to nurture and raise them.

I am sorry if I ever said anything that made a mom feel not good enough. We are our worst critics! And when we hear other moms voicing our worst fears – that we are not doing a good enough job – we crumble inside.

So STOP! Love yourself. You are good enough. And support every other mom around you.

I overcame a fear of mine – approaching strangers – and asked moms in the Chicago O’Hare Airport to share why they are mom enough. The video gives me chills and I hope it encourages you today!