The Give Back Giveaway ~ Heavenly Treasures/HT Handicrafts

Today I'd like to introduce you to Heavenly Treasures.  Their mission is to "equip and assist people in developing countries to break the cycle of poverty through their handiwork and creativity."

The Heavenly Treasures Network consist of over 50 micro-enterprise livelihood projects in 13 countries around the world. At the Heavenly Treasures shop, HT Handicrafts, you can purchase a wonderful variety of arts and handicrafts, and know that 100% of the proceeds will go to the livelihood project selling the items.

From their website:

Since 1998, heavenly treasures has assisted refugees, single mothers, widows, the physically disabled, women & children rescued from human trafficking, orphans, the disenfranchised, and many others. Lives around the world are affected each day through the sale of handicrafts. Each product made reflects the heart and soul of one or more of our artisans around the world.  Assistance is provided to artisans in the areas of Business Development, International Marketing, Leadership Training, Product Development and Spiritual Guidance. We desire to see people fed physically, spiritually & emotionally.

Investing in people who have the desire to see their lives change is exciting “business”.  We are mission focused; Heavenly Treasures are people not products.  We network with those who can consistently build relationships with the participants of the livelihood projects and have their own network to build the kingdom of God.

Heavenly Treasures was founded based on Biblical scripture... Matthew 6: 19-21 “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal.  But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven… for where your treasure is there your heart will be also.”

Look at these lovely paper creations from Thailand...

Yes, these you'll get some of ALL of these in this giveaway! The giveaway consists of

• 6 small decorative paper boxes
• 1 pressed flower and paper bookmark
• 1 handcrafted pressed flower and paper journal with a wooden pencil  

 They are all sooo pretty, and I think they would make lovely gifts, don't you?

There are three ways to enter the HT Handicrafts paper gifts giveaway (please leave a separate comment for each... one comment = one chance to win):

1. I just love journals and have filled many. What about you? Are you a writer? Would you use the journal for yourself or gift it?
2. Browse HT Handicrafts and share one item you might want to give as a gift.
3. Share the HT Handicrafts Give Back Giveaway with your friends by tweeting or facebooking about it (then leave a comment here). Feel free to use this: "Heavenly Treasures Handicraft giveaway at Joyful Mama! http://goo.gl/6U3rK #GiveBackGiveaway"

Please include a way to contact you (via email, twitter or facebook) in one of your comments.

The Heavenly Treasures/HT Handicrafts giveaway will end on Monday Nov. 28, 2011 at 11:59 pm CST. Winner will be chosen using random.org.

UPDATE 11/29/11: This giveaway is now closed. Congratulations Darrell!

Disclosure: I am not affiliated with Heavenly Treasures or HT Handicrafts. The giveaway items were purchased for the purpose of this giveaway, with all funds going to Heavenly Treasures.

The Give Back Giveaway ~ Create Good Foundation

The Create Good Foundation was started by the founders of Pura Vida coffee to serve needy people in coffee growing regions around the world. Their focus is on providing access to safe water sources and establishing economic infrastructure projects.

Did you know...

• One in eight people lacks access to clean water
• Every 20 seconds a child dies from a water borne disease
• Lack of sanitation is the world's biggest cause of infection
• Over 200 million hours is consumed every day by women collecting water

In Nicaragua, projects sponsored by Create Good have built gravity fed water systems,  dug and rehabilitated wells, and improved sanitation by building latrines.

Water projects in Guatemala have included assisting families in getting individual water filters to clean their unsafe water sources, and building a gravity fed water system to bring water closer to residences and eliminate the need for physical hauling.

Create Good has also invested in projects that bring economic stability to poor areas, including grants for schools and loans for small businesses.

Create Good and Pura Vida sell coffee, tea, wine and chocolate to help raise money for these projects.

And oh am I excited about this giveaway.... chocolate!

The ingredients in Create Good's single origin chocolate are from Guatemala, and the chocolate is made in Guatemala.  This is really Guatemalan chocolate! The proceeds from sales of their chocolate go to their clean water projects.

How about this for yummy?

• one bar of dark chocolate
• one bar of dark chocolate with sea salt
• one bar of milk chocolate
• one bar of milk chocolate with almonds. 

That's right, four bars of chocolate for you or a friend!

There are three ways to enter the Create Good chocolate giveaway (please leave a separate comment for each... each comment = one chance to win):

1. Tell us... what is your favorite kind of chocolate?
2. Are you a tea or coffee drinker?
3. Share the Create Good Chocolate Give Back Giveaway with your friends by tweeting or facebooking about it (then leave a comment here). Feel free to use this: "Create Good chocolate giveaway! http://goo.gl/gqe79 #GiveBackGiveaway"

Please include a way to contact you (via email, twitter or facebook) in one of your comments.

The Create Good chocolate giveaway will end on Friday Nov. 25, 2011 at 11:59 pm CST. Winner will be chosen using random.org.

UPDATE 11/26/11: This giveaway is now closed. Congratulations Jennifer!

Disclosure: I am not affiliated with Create Good or Pura Vida. The chocolate is purchased for the purpose of this giveaway, with all funds going to Create Good.

The Give Back Giveaway ~ Haitian Creations

Last year as I was searching for gifts that give back, I came across Haitian Creations, an arm of Heartline Ministries.

Heartline has had a presence in Haiti for over a decade. During the devastating earthquake in January of 2010, Heartline set up an emergency clinic that saved many lives. They run a women's clinic now, as well as a ministry teaching women to do handwork to support themselves.

From their website:

Our dream was to create a place where women could learn valuable life-skills and eventually support their families out of the cycle of poverty. This dream is coming into reality every day as women learn to read and write, learn to sew, learn to make jewelry, learn to cook, and learn to run their own businesses. It is our ultimate desire to see women discover their God-given talents and abilities and to know they are treasured themselves!

We offer four different education classes: literacy, beading, sewing, and new this semester, cooking. Women who graduate from the six-month sewing class or the four-week beading class have the opportunity to work part-time for Heartline at the center. We provide materials, a machine, and a safe place to work. Their beautiful hand-crafted goods are available online at HaitianCreations.com and through hosted Purse Parties around the US and Canada!

The Haitian Creations website sells purses and jewelry hand made by the women in the Heartline program. As of this writing, only the purses are up for sale, as the website is being revamped, but by the end of November you should be able to purchase jewelry from their website as well.

For this giveaway I'm delighted to be giving away a bag from Haitian Creations!

The bag is handmade and signed by its maker, Suzette. Think purse. Think knitting bag. Think library books. It's nice and roomy, with two pockets on the front and two inside. This would make a lovely Christmas gift!

There are three ways to enter the Haitian Creations purse giveaway (please leave a separate comment for each... each comment = one chance to win):

1. Visit Haitian Creations' purse page. What style do you like?
2. Spend some time reading one of the volunteers' blogs... John and Beth, The Hendrick Family, The Livesay Family
3. Share the Haitian Creations Give Back Giveaway with your friends by tweeting or facebooking about it (then leave a comment here). Feel free to use this: "Haitian Creations handmade bag giveaway! http://goo.gl/vEI45 #GiveBackGiveaway "

Please include a way to contact you (via email, twitter or facebook) in one of your comments.

The Haitian Creations purse giveaway will end on Sunday Nov. 20, 2011 at 11:59 pm CST. Winner will be chosen using random.org.

UPDATE 11/21/11: This giveaway has ended. Congratulations Melissa!

Disclosure: I am not affiliated with Haitian Creations or Heartline Ministries. The bag was purchased for the purpose of this giveaway and all funds went to Heartline Ministries.

When My Expectations Go Off the Deep End

I've been thinking about expectations the past few days.

About how I have a lot of them.

And how so many of them are unrealistic.

Kids? That I think I sorted out long ago. I figured out that if I expect my babies to sleep through the night I will be disappointed. If I lean into it, embrace reality, I can shape my life to deal with it.

Even now that they are all sleeping well through the night, I think I am pretty good at swatting away unrealistic kid expectations.

Fantasy: all children will be compliant on all school days and we will all happily learn together while keeping to a schedule

Reality: we all have good days and bad days, even Mama. The best approach is to take the long view. Not to think in days, but in weeks, even years. While it helps to have daily school plans, the real measure of how each child is doing comes as I look over the whole school year.

So yay, right? Realistic expectations.

Except.

Except when it comes to me. Or Me, Myself and I, as I seem to think I am capable of squeezing the work of three women into a day.

Did you know that it is {deep breath} unrealistic {I said it!} on a given day to cook all meals from scratch wholesomely on a budget, have no dust bunnies, educate the children with both breadth and depth, be an amazingly attentive and attractive wife, be a grace-filled yet firm mother, be caught up with the laundry, do church-based ministry work, do community-based ministry work, write and publish something of value, have clean floors, interact in a meaningful way with strangers via social media, keep up with all old friends and family via email/phone/facebook, write thank you letters, have an adorably tidy and productive homestead, have a rich personal prayer time, study the scriptures in depth, memorize chapters of the bible, and of course, be cheerful?

Did you know that?

Yeah.

Me too, kinda, especially when I read it all smooshed together in one run-on ludicrous sentence.

But Myself and I? Those ladies are clueless.

They seem to think that not only is it possible, but that not do so equals failure.

Like, failure as a human being. Seriously. {eyes roll}

Ha!

Fantasy: it is possible for a human being to accomplish everything in that paragraph-of-ridiculousness in a day.

Reality: I will get a few of those things done each day. Some are non-negotiables. And hopefully more than few will get done. But not all.

So friends, reality means I will not post here for a month and then suddenly I will post almost daily.

Reality is I will tell you I will email you about something and I will completely forget because when I sit down at my computer my brain goes *!*!*!*!* with all the things I am supposed to do and instead I will follow some bunny trail of blog reading.

Reality is I will make homemade muffins for breakfast but they will be with white flour because I forgot to clean the grinder yesterday so that the kids could start grinding wheat again and now I am in a rush.

Reality is I will completely forget to study my scripture memorization passages one day then spend 20 minutes the next day listening to myself saying them on repeat on my iPhone while driving the kids to an activity.

Reality is this mama is a bumbling mess, who has a wonderful life that begs to be enjoyed. So Myself and I are just going to have to chill out, 'cause the kids want to go with Me to visit some piglets.

{later}

Since I hadn't hit publish yet after writing the above, I can't resist sharing some pictures from our walk down to the babies.

You see what I mean about the wonderful life?

Now how about you go enjoy yours too. :-)





"To do" photo by Courtney Dirks
All other photos by Patti Brown