Sign Your Young Soccer Lover Up For British Soccer Camp! @ChallengerCamps @usfg

British Soccer Camp is the most popular camp in North America - 150,000 campers! With an innovative curriculum that develops skills, speed and confidence in players ages 3-18, British Soccer Camps provide boys and girls with the rare opportunity to receive high-level soccer coaching from a team of international expert's right in the heart of their own community. In addition to teaching new skills and improving game performance, each British Soccer Camp provides lessons in character development, cultural education and is the most fun your child can have learning the sport they love!

Enroll you child in a British Soccer Camp today! 

FREE Water Bottle with code: USFG16 

Disclosure: I received one or more of the products or services mentioned above for free in the hope that I would mention it on my blog. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.

Big Slice Slow Cooked Apples + Giveaway!

**Complimentary products received in exchange for our honest review.  All opinions are ours and ours alone**

Big Slice are more than your typically apple slices. These big chunky slices are slowly cooked in their own naturally sweet sauce and convenient packaged in large pouches for on-the-go snacking!

Six yummy flavors of these pouches can be found at many Target and HEB stores and hopefully all 17 flavors will be available soon!  You can get a full listing of where to find Big Slice apples here.

Check out the list of mouthwatering flavors:

Original

Blueberry Pomegranate

Cherry Vanilla

Banana Mango & Hemp Seed

Pineapple Passion Fruit & Fiber

Raspberry Hibiscus & Green Coffee Extract

Cinnamon French Toast

Boysenberry Chocolate 

These delicious apples taste indulgent, but most are under 100 calories!  They make great additions to breakfast or quick snacks while your running around town or on road trips.  

With flavors that everyone will love, these succulent, healthy sweets are perfect as an afternoon snack or a treat after sports practice or games!

Our favorite points about these goodies:

Big Slice apples are a healthy snack made with real fruit and no high fructose corn syrup.  They are made from USA apples and are naturally gluten free and fat free.

We loved our Big Slice care package:)

Get Social: 

facebook: facebook.com/BigSliceApples

twitter: twitter.com/BigSliceApples

Instagram: instagram.com/bigsliceapples

Pinterest: pinterest.com/grandmahoerners.com

website: www.bigsliceapples.com

purchase: www.grandmahoerners.com

Thanks to the folks at Big Slice, one lucky ABCD Diaries reader will win a Big Slice prize pack!  Enter below:

Spring Forward with Pilot Pens #ShopletReviews

**Complimentary products received in exchange for our honest review.  All opinions are ours and ours alone**

We recently had the chance to review some awesome pens thanks to Pilot and Shoplet:

Pilot pens are always a hit in our house and these were no exception.  Pilot uses advanced ink that always writes smooth like gel and dries quickly like ball point. 

Check out some of the newest Pilot pens:

Acroball Pro Hybrid Pens

Sophisticated design with premium metal accents

 This pack contained one red, one blue and one black pen and were quickly claimed by B to use at work:)

Acroball Ballpoint Pens

PureWhite– Writes in black advanced ink

I loved the fresh look of these pens and the grip was comfortable too.

Acroball Colors Pens

                            Vibrantly colored advanced ink with matching barrel colors

These awesome pens write incredibly smooth!  We also love the bold colors:)

Dr. Grip Frosted Pen 

Light and airy pastel barrel colors with matching grips. Incredible writing comfort in a new lighter weight barrel. Ultra smooth writing advanced ink. Retractable & refillable. 

The super comfy grip on this pen makes it a lot of fun to write with.  It's also super pretty:)

Visit Shoplet.com to check out all of these Pilot pens!

Shoplet.com is your one-stop shop for office supplies, medical supplies, cleaning supplies and much more!

 Get Social with Shoplet:

·         Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Shoplet

·         Twitter: @Shoplet https://twitter.com/shoplet

·         Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/shoplet/

·         Blog: http://blog.shoplet.com/

·         Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/Shoplet

·         Instagram: https://instagram.com/shoplet/

Disclosure: I received one or more of the products or services mentioned above for free in the hope that I would mention it on my blog. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.

Simple Mills Almond Flour Baking Mixes

**Complimentary products received in exchange for our honest review.  All opinions are ours and ours alone**

Simple Mills began out of a necessity and a desire for a food that is simple, healthy, and delicious.

They offer a variety of baking mixes, from sweet to savory, all made with healthy ingredients that are gluten free!

Each mix has a very short ingredient list of wholesome ingredients.  We reviewed the Vanilla Cake Mix and the Artisan Bread Mix.

Here is the Vanilla Cake Mix in action:

Vanilla Cake Mix $7.99

Free of: gluten, grain, dairy, soy, refined sugar & emulsifiers / gums

Paleo-friendly, certified Kosher, Gluten-Free, and Non-GMO

6 SIMPLE INGREDIENTS! Almond Flour, Organic Coconut Sugar, Arrowroot Powder, Organic Coconut Flour, Baking Soda, Sea Salt

Doesn't it just look healthier than other boxed mixes?

We used our cake as the bottom layer of this Banana Pudding Icebox Cake and it was divine!

It was firm enough to be a good solid bottom layer and moist enough to be delicious!

We used the Artisan Bread Mix to make flatbread.  There are many variations on the box...you can also make a loaf or dinner rolls.

Artisan Bread Mix $7.99

With half the sugar, twice the protein and half the carbs, this bread is paleo-friendly, gluten-free, dairy-free, and non-GMO

All you need to add is eggs, oil, and apple cider vinegar & then pop it in the oven! 

6 SIMPLE INGREDIENTS! Almond Flour, Arrowroot Powder, Flax Meal, Baking Soda, Sea Salt & Organic Coconut Sugar 

This bread has a crumbly texture, but was exceptionally good compared to other gf bread mixes we've had.  It was actually pretty tasty!

Both mixes were super easy to use and produced great results.  If you are eating gluten free for medical reasons or just as part of a healthy diet, I would recommend Simple Mills!

Click to shop Simple Mills!

Disclosure: I received one or more of the products or services mentioned above for free in the hope that I would mention it on my blog. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.

Clean Up This Spring With Zest Fruitboost Shower Gel + Giveaway!

**Complimentary products received in exchange for our honest review.  All opinions are ours and ours alone**

Zest has launched a brand new product and a first of its kind in the body wash category –  Zest Fruitboost Shower Gel:

Fruitboost Shower Gel is a 2x-concentrated formula that revitalizes your skin with gentle moisturizers and skin-nourishing, antioxidant-rich Vitamin C.  With innovative, easy to grab packaging, every Zest Fruitboost 10oz tube lasts up to 40 showers, making each quarter size-application go a long, long way.  At $3.00 a bottle, this shower gel not only keeps you feeling fresh, but stays within your budget.

We also tried out Zest Smoothie Body Scrubs.  These naturally exfoliate and moisturize and leave skin feeling super soft. 

Every one of these products smells ahhh-mazing!  They have quickly become the go-to shower products for every member of our family, not just because they smell fantastically fruity, but because they really do leave your skin feeling moisturized and healthy.

Find Zest Fruitboost Shower Gel and Smoothie Body Scrubs at mass merchandisers and grocery stores nationwide!

Enter to win a Zest prize pack below:

Moustache Stationery: Subscription Box for Lovers of Paper and Pen!

**Complimentary products received in exchange for our honest review.  All opinions are ours and ours alone**

I am a list-making fanatic!  Add to that the fact that we are homeschoolers and it's no wonder I have an obsession with all things paper and every writing utensil under the sun:)  I recently found a subscription box service that can fulfill my need for new writing supplies every month, Moustache Stationery!

Moustache Stationery offers a monthly box of awesome stationery and writings implements.  From unique items, to products from around the world, you will get a box of awesome goodies delivered to your door every month!  Receive exclusive products from brands like: Caran D’ache, Fisher, e+m, Meticulous Ink, Pilot, Faber-Castell and more!  Boxes include 4-6 unusual and high quality stationery items curated especially for "paper geeks."

 

The theme for the box was we reviewed was "Coffee and Tea"

 

Let's take a look at the goods:

Coffee Stained Sticky Notes 

These sticky notes were created exclusively for Moustache Stationery and they were made in Canada.  They are pretty small and super helpful for marking pages or jotting down reminders.

Coffee and Tea Bookmarks

These are unique bookmarks perfect for the book lover who is also a hot beverage aficionado, and don't they go hand-in-hand? :)  They are printed on both front and back.

Coffee Coasters

Another exclusive item was the set of 6 coffee coasters that depict instructions on how to prepare some famous coffee drinks:)  I would say these are fairly temporary because they are made of thick card stock, but cute nonetheless!

Moustache Notebook

This fantastic notebook is adorned with the Moustache Stationery moustache logo.  It is very well-made and will be awesome for taking notes and making lists!

Platinum Preppy Fountain Pen

This is a super fun, super fine tip fountain pen.  The kiddos are loving this one.  It makes them feel like they are writing important documents in what they refer to as the "olden days"  :)

Tombow Kei Coat Double Sided Highlighter

This highlighter is awesome!  I love the dual tip; one side is perfect for highlighting and the other is great for writing.  The green color is a welcome change from drab highlighter yellow:)

I'm not really sure what the actual value of this box was since many of the items were exclusive, but it sure was a fun box to review!  If having a selection of cool, new writing materials delivered straight to your door each month sounds like heaven to you, you should give Moustache Stationery a try. Oh, and you might be a fellow paper geek:)

Subscriptions are $39.95 monthly and Moustache Stationery ships worldwide.  Shipping is free to the US, $5 to Canada and $10 to the rest of the world.

Click to visit Moustache Stationery!

Disclosure: I received one or more of the products or services mentioned above for free in the hope that I would mention it on my blog. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.

Book Review: The Promise of Forgiveness by Marin Thomas

**Complimentary products received in exchange for our honest review.  All opinions are ours and ours alone**

After writing twenty-five romance novels, award-winning author Marin Thomas makes her women’s fiction debut with THE PROMISE OF FORGIVENESS (Available March 1, 2016; $15.00), a novel of love, forgiveness, and the unbreakable bonds of family that takes place in a small town where secrets are guarded closely. 

 

About the book:

When it comes to family, Ruby Baxter hasn’t had much luck. The important men in her early life abandoned her, and any time a decent boyfriend came along, she ran away. But now Ruby is thirty-one and convinced she is failing her teenage daughter. Mia is the one good thing in her life, and Ruby hopes a move to Kansas will fix what’s broken between them.

But the road to redemption takes a detour. Hank McArthur, the biological father Ruby never knew existed, would like her to claim her inheritance: a dusty oil ranch just outside of Unforgiven, Oklahoma. 

As far as first impressions go, the gruff, emotionally distant rancher isn’t what Ruby has hoped for in a father. Yet Hank seems to have a gift for rehabilitating abused horses—and for reaching Mia. And if Ruby wants to entertain the possibility of a relationship with Joe Dawson, the ranch foreman, she must find a way to open her heart to the very first man who left her behind.

My thoughts:

I really enjoyed reading The Promise of Forgiveness.  The characters are very realistic and easy to relate to.  Some are very likeable and you find yourself rooting for a happy ending and others are not so likeable and you find yourself hoping they get what's coming to them:)  Plot twists keep you guessing right up to the very end.  The Promise of Forgiveness is a fun, quick read that is hard to put down!  

Disclosure: I received one or more of the products or services mentioned above for free in the hope that I would mention it on my blog. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.