Who doesn’t like free food? Well, at least free food that tastes good. Here’s your chance to be among the first people to taste Chick-fil-A’s new Spicy Chicken Sandwich.

From the Chick-fil-A website:

“Make your reservation for an EXCLUSIVE premiere tasting of the Spicy Chicken Sandwich. From May 31 to June 5, Chick-fil-A is giving a limited number of FREE Spicy Chicken Sandwiches to customers who make a reservation. It will not be added to the menu until June 7.”

I just made my reservation for a Spicy Chicken Sandwich. It was quick and easy. You just choose a location near you and fill in some basic information about yourself. The only required fields were Name, Email address, and Zip Code. You pick the date and time frame you’d like to enjoy your sandwich, and then they send you an email with your invitation.

So hurry on over, because the reservations for Chick-fil-A’s FREE Spicy Chicken Sandwiches are limited. Oh, and the offer only applies to legal residents of the United States who are 13 years of age or older. You can view the complete Official Rules at their website when you go to make your reservation.

Diet

Everyone knows that eating junk food is not good for our bodies.  So if you are including cakes and chips and processed foods in your daily eating plan, then you probably know why you are feeling sluggish without reading this article. But there are other factors that contribute to a feeling of well-being. If you will maintain your healthy weight and stick to a low-glycemic response diet, your energy levels will stabilize significantly. Try it for a couple of weeks, and you will notice a huge difference as soon as you deviate. You don’t recognize it as easily when you are living on a glycemic roller coaster, though, so be consistent. For information on a sensible and simple glycemic response diet, click here.

Vitamins and Minerals

Muscle strength declines along with a decline in potassium levels. This decline in muscle strength can leave you feeling tired, weak and irritable. Being even sightly deficient in potassium can cause such muscle weakness, and summer time is the most important time to make sure your potassium levels are supplemented. Heat increases our need for dietary potassium, even while our desire to eat potassium rich foods often declines.

For your best food choices to increase potassium levels, look to potatoes, avocados, raisins, sardines, flounder, orange juice, bananas, dried apricots, and raw tomatoes. Avoid high sodium foods, processed foods, and foods cooked at high temperatures. Try adding nutritional yeast (also known as Brewer’s Yeast) to as many of your foods as you can for a real nutritional boost of many vitamins, minerals, and amino acids…plus, it’s tasty! And remember to shoot for 3,000 to 4,000 mg  of potassium every day!

Other nutrients that have been shown to increase energy levels include Vitamins B₆ and B₁₂ and Vitamin C. These two important nutrients have been shown in both animal studies and human clinical trials to decrease fatigue and increase endurance.

Cellular Nutrition

Another supplement proven to increase energy levels is a specific blend of lipids and sterols called Tre-en-en. In the early 1950’s, a group of researchers at Hollywood Presbyterian Hospital in Los Angeles began to study the role nutrition played in degenerative diseases and Chronic Fatigue. After years of experimenting with supplements given to hundreds of degenerative diseased patients, they found a formula that produced results so amazing that they won a Nobel Prize. It was found to increase the the absorption of nutrients from food by 50% and to improve and increase endocrine function by 134%. These patients experienced dramatic improvements in their energy levels and general health. If you think you can benefit from proven results like these, you can find Tre-en-en alone or with a multivitamin/mineral (Formula IV) here.

When it comes to nutrition, health, and supplementation, consumers are faced with so many choices. Touting “revolutionary” science, and promising extreme and amazing results, companies hoping to cash in on the wellness revolution pay celebrities, scientists, and physicians to endorse their products. Adding to the confusion of what to take and which company to trust, the news media feeds on controversy and hype.

This generation is the most health conscious, with more and more people connecting their exercise and eating habits to their overall health and wellness. People have access to all kinds of supplements from the standard multi-vitamins to specific nutritionals in pill forms, powders to add to smoothies, and juices containing “super fruits.”

So how do you know what you should take? Start by asking yourself what is important to you. Are you a product junkie who just likes to try out the latest, greatest revolutionary product? If so, you may find yourself experiencing unpleasant side effects either immediately or after years of use.

Is it important to you that the supplements you consume are made only from ingredients found in the human food chain rather than from such questionable sources as hair harvested from Chinese prison inmates, for example? Do you want your supplements to have been proven safe and effective by centuries of human consumption?  Do you prefer your supplements to be based on valid, peer-reviewed science instead of hype that might drive sales but is otherwise worthless?

If these things are important to you, and they probably are, then you should check out a company called GNLD. With over 50 years of commitment to product excellence, GNLD has attracted the attention of researchers from the USDA, CDC, major universities, and respected scientific institutions around the world.

If you are looking for nutritional supplements from a company that will never compromise when it comes to your health, then GNLD is the right company for you.

If you are among the many people already complaining on Facebook and other social media, you may have gone to your local Dunkin Donuts for your FREE iced coffee only to find that your store is not participating.  Here are some complaints I’ve seen already:

“talk about false advertising, or at least misleading, dunkin should be ashamed”

“We were told in Boston that Massachusetts wasn’t participating free ice coffee day. I always go to Dunkin Donuts, but I think it’s time to start giving Honey Dew my business.”

“Is this a viral marketing scam to get us into the stores, find out there is NO free iced coffee today so 90% of us will buy something anyway? Maynard, Concord, Acton MA locations had no idea what I was talking about when I went in”

And the complaints keep pouring in. So here’s the scoop: the promotion is only happening in select markets across the country.

• Baltimore, MD
• Charlottesville, VA
• Cleveland, OH
• Harrisonburg, VA
• Norfolk, VA
• Washington, DC
• Youngstown, OH
• Pittsburgh, PA
• Richmond, VA
• Roanoke, VA
• Salisbury, MD
• Philadelphia, PA
• Phoenix, AZ

So if you are in one of those areas, you may want to call before you head in to enjoy your iced coffee on the house. Otherwise, you may find yourself walking out empty-handed…or paying $.99 for that free cup of coffee you had your heart set on!

Since 1985, Timberdoodle has been hand-picking products that enhance the homeschool experience. A family owned and operated company that began as a back-porch venture, Timberdoodle makes the arduous task of sifting through thousands upon thousands of available products seem less daunting. With solid reviews and timely advice, this company’s expertise has long led families to a richer and more rewarding home learning environment.

With their most recent catalog, Timberdoodle Co. 2010, they have launched themselves into the world of the Core Curriculum. Here’s what they have to say about it.*

A Word About our Core Curriculum

When we started our business, it was the ability to select individual components that set Timberdoodle apart. And while we still offer parents the ability to match their curriculum to their unique family (and we encourage this), we recognize that not all parents are comfortable with that particular feature of home teaching. So we are happy to debut what we believe is the best of the best.

Why Timeberdoodle?

1. Our selection is based on over twenty-five years of homeschooling and twenty-five years of selling homeschool supplies. We know what works.
2. Because each child in each family is unique, we have kept our boxed curriculum to a bare-bones foundation. You will get everything you need to have an abundantly-successful year, with no extraneous fluff. While we strongly encourage you to add the extras, both to inspire and to excite you child, we recognize that in today’s economy extras may need to wait.
3. Because we do not self-publish, we are not limited by our abilities or resources, but have the entire world to hand-select from. That greater flexibility allows us to choose only what we consider the best. We are sure your children will be pleased with our offerings.

So, whether you are a veteran teaching parent or a bewildered newbie, we now have what you need.

Timberdoodle’s Core Curriculum on YouTube

Check them out on the web, find them on Facebook, and subscribe to their blog to keep up with what is happening in the homeschool world.

*Used by permission.

Insanity is hereditary; you get it from your children.  ~Sam Levenson

Children are a great comfort in your old age – and they help you reach it faster, too.  ~Lionel Kauffman

Sweater:  n., garment worn by child when its mother is feeling chilly.  ~Ambrose Bierce

There is only one pretty child in the world, and every mother has it.  ~Chinese Proverb

A suburban mother’s role is to deliver children obstetrically once, and by car forever after.  ~Peter De Vries

Insanity is hereditary; you get it from your children.  ~Sam Levenson

Children are a great comfort in your old age – and they help you reach it faster, too.  ~Lionel Kauffman

Sweater:  n., garment worn by child when its mother is feeling chilly.  ~Ambrose Bierce

There is only one pretty child in the world, and every mother has it.  ~Chinese Proverb

A suburban mother’s role is to deliver children obstetrically once, and by car forever after.  ~Peter De Vries

One of the reasons that mother is  so special is that she still loves you even though you stuck your fingers in your dirty diaper, wiped your boogers on her pants, and threw up red koolaid on her favorite bedspread.  ~Shelley Hankins

Who ran to help me when I fell,

And would some pretty story tell,

Or kiss the place to make it well?

My Mother.

by Jane Taylor: My Mother

Youth fades; love droops, the leaves of friendship fall;

A mother’s secret hope outlives them all.

by Oliver Wendell Holmes: A Mother’s Secret

Mother is the name for God in the lips and hearts of children.

by W.M. Thackeray: Vanity Fair

That best academy, a mother’s knee.

by James Russell Lowell: The Cathedral

For the hand that rocks the cradle

Is the hand that rules the world.

by William Ross Wallace: What Rules the World

If only I was the Fellow

While walking down a crowded

City street the other day,

I heard a little urchin

To a comrade turn and say,

“Say, Chimmey, lemme tell youse,

I’d be happy as a clam

If I only was de feller dat

Me mudder t’inks I am.

She t’inks I am a wonder,

An’ she knows her little lad

Could never mix wit’ nuttin’

Dat was ugly, mean or bad.

Oh, lot o’ times I sit and t’ink

How nice, ‘twould be, gee whiz!

If a feller was de feller

Dat his mudder t’inks he is.”

My friends, be yours a life of toil

Or undiluted joy,

You can learn a wholesome lesson

From that small, untutored boy.

Don’t aim to be an earthly saint,

With eyes fixed on a star:

Just try to be the fellow that

Your mother thinks you are.

Will S. Adkin

Finally, check out some other Mother’s Day gift ideas.

Along with eating right and getting plenty of exercise, supplementing our diets can be a great way to boost our energy, health, and longevity.

My Mother Dear

There was a place in childhood that I remember well

And there a voice of sweetest tone bright fairy tales did tell,

And gentle words, and fond embrace, were given with joy to me,

When I was in that happy place upon my mother’s knee.

When fairy tales were ended, “Good night,” she softly said,

And kissed, and laid me down to sleep, within my tiny bed,

And holy words she taught me then–methinks I yet can see

Her angel eyes, as close I knelt beside my mother’s knee.

In the sickness of my childhood, the perils of my prime,

The sorrows of my riper years, the cares of ev’ry time,

When doubt and danger weighed me down, then pleading all for me,

It was a fervent prayer to Heaven that bent my mother’s knee.

Samuel Lover

“All that I am or hope to be I owe to my mother.”

Abraham Lincoln

²¹“^(A)Whenever a woman is in labor she has pain, because her hour has come; but when she gives birth to the child, she no longer remembers the anguish because of the joy that a child has been born into the world.                     John 16:21

Tribute to a Mother

Children, look in those eyes, listen to that dear voice, notice the feeling of even a single touch that is bestowed upon you by that gentle hand. Make much of it while yet you have that most precious of all good gifts, a loving mother. Read the unfathomable love of those eyes; the kind anxiety of that tone and look, however slight your pain. In after-life you may have friends, fond dear, kind friends; but never will you have again the inexpressible love and gentleness lavished upon you which none but a mother bestows. Often do I sigh in my struggle with the hard, uncaring world, for the sweet, deep security I felt when, of an, evening, nestling in her bosom, I listened to some quiet tale, suitable to my age, read in her tender and untiring voice. Never can I forget her sweet glances cast upon me when I appeared asleep; never her kiss of peace at night.

Thomas Babington Macaulay

As the mother of a couple of budding geeks, I just had to share that today is Star Wars Day! Unofficially, of course, but it’s just too funny not to share.

The first Star Wars movie was released in May of 1977, and the series has drawn the love and devotion of fans ever since. If you are a  Star Wars fan, even if it’s just secretly because you don’t want anyone to know about your geekish tendencies, there are some fun internet resources you might like to check out.

For fans young and old, there is a whole lot of fun to be had over at StarWars.com. You can keep up with what’s new, play games, see videos, and more.

If it’s, ahem, just your kids who are loving the Star Wars, there are an online coloring game, tips on how to draw Star Wars characters, and plenty of other fun things to do here.

So whatever your Star Wars interests may be, remember to be thankful today for George Lucas’ vision and imagination. Maybe spend a little time reminiscing, and make sure to tell all your friends, “May the fourth be with you!”

As a mother of six, I am well qualified to know what a mother wants, right? Well…maybe. But the things I’d like for even a Mother’s Day gift may seem strange to many women. For instance, I’d love to have a compost bin, a pair of good cowgirl boots, or a new hairstyle. Other things high on my wish list are a new tabletop for the table on my back deck as well as having the two right burners on my stove repaired.

I guess you could say it’s the simple pleasures I’m after. But maybe lots of other mothers have a new, simplified idea of what they want in today’s economy. If you think the mother in your life may fit that category, then that iPad may not be as high on her wish list as you had thought. Perhaps it’s that one thing that she’s been thinking would make some aspect of motherhood or housekeeping easier, but she hasn’t been willing to budget for it. I’d say that the Shark Portable Steam Pocket Cleaner would be high on my list in that regard. (Imagine me running around behind half a dozen kids or more all day long trying to keep things clean).

But truthfully, if I must be pampered just because I’m a mom, then Honey, if you’re reading this and you’re dreaming of hearing  “Oh, baby, you shouldn’t have, but I’m so glad you did!” is Nutriance’s Nourishing Collagen Cream. After all, I only get this one face, and I would love to keep it as young as I can for as long as I can…