This is a sponsored post from BlogHer and McDonald’s.

I’m a sucker for family time. In fact, if too much time passes without some really intentional activities with my people, I get all discombobulated and twitchy and grumpy. To me there is nothing more fun than hanging out with the people I love the most, and when we have that solid, uninterrupted time together, I just treasure it. It’s like a great big hug that lasts for days at a time.

I could probably bore you to tears with an exhaustive list of all my favorite family activities, so I’ll spare you. I will tell you, though, that right now I am really carried away with how our summer pool and beach time brings us closer together. In the fall I’m all about road trips to college football games and getting to hang out with old friends and their kids. The winter makes me long for big holiday gatherings with our extended family, and when spring rolls around, I’ll be ready for us to get outside and kick the soccer ball and spend Saturday mornings on the soccer field.

And then there’s the day-to-day stuff that knits us together – sitting outside while we re-hash the day, eating dinner together at the kitchen table, reading before bedtime and snuggling up for no reason at all. Those are the things that I treasure the most as a family, and those are the things that we can do together no matter where we are.

A few months ago we had a few days of family time in Chicago (with McDonald’s) – which was a little outside the norm for us – and one of the neatest parts of our trip was taking a tour of a Ronald McDonald House®. While I’ve known about the great work that goes on at Ronald McDonald Houses for the last fifteen or twenty years, seeing that work in person was something really special for our family. It’s a place that provides stability and care for families when they’re in the midst of difficult circumstances, and it gives them a way to continue to share family time with each other even when they’re navigating their way through medical issues.

And here’s some exciting news from the McDonald’s folks:

As part of the “Family Time. Happy Time.” campaign McDonald’s® and Ronald McDonald House Charities® (RMHC®) have developed the “Make Family Time Happy Time” online widget application. The “Make Family Time Happy Time” widget encourages moms to join other moms in the Family Time conversation and share “happy” tips for quality family time.

Through the widget you can pledge minutes or hours of activities with your family in celebration of what matters most – spending time together. We also invite you to join the conversation and share your favorite family activities with other families through the widget. You can then share the widget with your friends and family through Twitter, Facebook, and email. In addition, as part of this campaign, McDonald’s will donate 1 penny to RMHC® for every minute of time you pledge to spend with your family up to 1,000,000 minutes. Minutes and pennies are tiny amounts that, when added up over time, can make a big impact, so start pledging your family time!

Isn’t that great? You pledge family time, and McDonald’s gives money to RMHC®. That’s a win-win.

If the widget isn’t showing up here, you can find it – and pledge your time – on McDonald’s Facebook page.

If you’d like to win a McDonald’s prize pack – which includes a $25 gift card to McDonald’s, a Just Give gift card for the charity of your choice and all sorts of other fun stuff (estimated value $100) – go pledge family time on McDonald’s “Make Family Time Happy Time” widget and let us know what you pledged in the comment section for a chance to win! And after you share your pledge, feel free to share any favorite family memories you have that are tied to McDonald’s.

Be sure to visit the other bloggers who are participating in this giveaway (they’re listed over on the BlogHer.com special offers page). And by all means feel free to check out the official rules.

This giveaway is now closed.

This is sponsored content by BlogHer and Kelloggs.

I was never really a fan of breakfast when I was growing up. I would usually eat whatever my mama fixed so as not to rock the early morning boat, but it was mostly something I tolerated, not enjoyed. And when I got to college, breakfast became something that I just flat-out ignored. I wasn’t even remotely interested in it.

I would not recommend this practice, by the way. My breakfast-less philosophy was right up there with my maybe-if-I-only-eat-popcorn-I’ll-lose-10-pounds philosophy. That is to say: worthless.

Youth is wasted on the young, my friends.

But when I was in my mid-20s, a switch flipped, and suddenly breakfast became my very favorite meal of the day. I don’t have any idea what caused this seismic shift – it certainly wasn’t because I loved to wake up early, because truth be told I would sleep until the crack of noon whenever I could – but I started to see breakfast as a meal that was chock-full of possibilities. I also started to recognize that I was way more productive – not to mention cheerful – when I took the time to fix myself a good breakfast. It’s a habit that’s stuck with me through the years.

Since I know firsthand the difference between a day that begins with a great breakfast and one that doesn’t, I’ve tried to be very intentional about making sure our little guy gets a good start to his day – every day. I really like to fix a hot breakfast, but time doesn’t always cooperate (or maybe the real problem is that I don’t always cooperate with time). My husband leaves the house much earlier than my little boy and I do (most mornings), so it’s usually just the two of us at the breakfast table. It’s one of my favorite times of the day. We both love cheese grits (not the instant kind), so that’s always a big hit, and we love to talk about how tasty our grits are while we’re eating. Perhaps we have some grits-related issues.

I’m a die-hard oatmeal person in the fall and winter, but since my child does not share my oatmeal-related enthusiasm, I usually sacrifice the oatmeal for the convenience of making something we’ll both eat (I don’t know if I mentioned it, but we’re fans of cheese grits). But we like other stuff, too: cheese toast, peanut butter toast with a banana, cinnamon-sugar toast or bacon and eggs. Last spring I got on a kick of making breakfast sandwiches with English muffins, eggs and bacon, and that’s probably going to be our go-to breakfast when we crank up our back-to-school routine in a couple of weeks. Some mornings we eat cereal, and it never ceases to fascinate me that my child likes his milk on the side. To me this practice is sort of like making chocolate chip cookies with the chocolate chips on the side, but apparently dry cereal is loaded with all sorts of tasty nuances that I have yet to experience. I’ll just take his word for it.

More than anything, it’s important to me that we share that time together in the morning – the food and the conversation fuel our day. I think it’s critical for kids to have variety in their meals and to continually try different foods. Breakfast is a great time to introduce them to new kinds of bread, cereal and fruit, don’t you think?

So what about you? What’s your favorite breakfast food? Leave a comment with your answer, and you’ll be entered to win a $100 Visa gift card (and come back next week to enter again – because these giveaways will continue for the next 11 weeks).

And be sure to visit the BlogHer.com Kellogg exclusive offers page – you have 24 other chances to win $100 every single week that this program is running!

Mom’s Breakfast Club was started to help educate moms and families about kids’ cereal and share the scoop on their nutritional benefits and ingredients. To learn more about the program, visit www.betterbythebowl.com.

This giveaway is now closed.

This is a sponsored post from BlogHer and Smuckers.

I’m not sure where I first got the idea of putting notes in our little man’s lunchbox. I know that it wasn’t any sort of original concept, so my best guess is that I probably saw Claire Huxtable put a note in one of her kids’ lunchboxes on The Cosby Show when I was younger. Of course I wasn’t consciously trying to pick up parenting tips from a TV show when I was, you know, thirteen, but I’ve never been one to underestimate the lasting influence of a family sitcom.

I mean, do you know how many times I’ve thought about Jan Brady running into the family portrait on her bicycle when I’m trying to teach our son about being responsible?

YOU ONLY HAD TO WEAR THE GLASSES, JAN.

YOU ONLY HAD TO WEAR THE GLASSES.

Regardless of where the idea originated, I first started putting notes in Alex’s lunches when he was in Mothers’ Day Out. At the time he couldn’t really read, of course, so I’d just draw a big heart and then sign “Mama” at the bottom. When he started four year-old kindergarten and was recognizing a few words, I moved up to “Alex – I love you, Mama” – and the notes have gotten more elaborate over the last couple of years. He always thanks me for the notes when I pick him up from school, and lots of times I’ll find the notes when I unpack his lunchbox – with little jelly or Cheetos fingerprints all along the edges.

Last year Alex ate in the school cafeteria a good bit (I have NO IDEA why, but he really gets a kick out of going through the lunch line), so I didn’t pack lunches nearly as often. But at the end of the school year, his class had a field day, and since the cafeteria was going to be closed that day, the teachers asked us to send a lunch to school.

It just so happened that the week of field day was a hard one for us because our dog Maggie died. She hadn’t been well for awhile, and I don’t think any of us were prepared for how difficult it was when she finally passed away. Alex took her death particularly hard – it was the first time he’s ever had to say good-bye to something he loved – and the week was filled with hard questions and hard answers. We talked a lot about the fact that there’s purpose in every single thing that happens in our lives, and we talked about how grateful we were that we got to share life with Maggie.

But oh, how he cried. And oh, how he missed her.

When I was packing his lunch the Friday morning of field day, I decided to stick a note inside. I tried to make it upbeat and comforting because I knew how much his little heart was still hurting. And sure enough, when I picked him up from school that afternoon, he said, “Thanks, Mama, for the note you sent me. It made me smile.”

A few days ago I asked Alex why he likes it so much when I send him little notes, and he said, “Because when I’m thinking about you at school, the note reminds me that you’re thinking about me, too.” It’s such a small thing to do – it literally takes less than a minute – but I really do believe that that kind of intentional, loving communication with our kids reaps huge benefits. If you’ve ever written a note to your child(ren), you know that you can see the joy all over their face when they read it.

After the little guy and I talked for a few minutes about lunchbox notes, I had a hunch. Since field day was the last lunch I packed this past school year – and since he told me at the end of that day that he threw away all of his trash at school – I wondered if maybe he held onto the note when lunch was over. So I went in the pantry, pulled the lunchbox off the shelf, and sure enough, I found what I suspected that I would.

He kept it.

Bless his heart.

To celebrate the ways that moms connect with their kids over lunch – whether it’s by putting a note in a lunchbox or making special plans to sit in the backyard and eat sandwiches together – Smuckers has created a really neat program called Kidvitations. It’s a way for parents to intentionally make mealtimes special – and I think it’s awesome. I also think that you and your kids are going to love it.

If you’d like to enter to win a $200 Visa gift card, leave a comment and tell me one of your favorite ways to connect with the children in your life.

There are also BlogHer.com Smuckers roundup page.

And if you enjoy a little light reading, you’re sure to be delighted by the BlogHer.com Smuckers official rules.

This giveaway will run through August 23rd, at which point I’ll use random.org to select a winner.

Can’t wait to read your comments!

Create a Kidvitation!

Home can be a busy place with the hustle and bustle of everyday life. That’s why it’s important to set time aside to spend with your kids. Use Smuckers® Kidvitations to invite your kids to share a moment with you over a perfect PB&J. Check it out.

This giveaway is now closed.

This is a sponsored post from BlogHer and McDonald’s.

A couple of months ago I got an invitation from McDonald’s.

At first I was hoping beyond all hope that the invitation was to be a part of some sort of Double Cheeseburger Taste Test Committee (oh, my love for the Mickey D’s double cheeseburger is deep, and it is true), but alas, that was not the case. They were having a Family Time Getaway weekend for some bloggers and their families, and they asked me to be a part of it.

Honestly? I initially had mixed reactions about going. I mean, everybody knows the health concerns that go along with kids and fast food. Everybody knows the health concerns that go along with grown-ups and fast food. And I wasn’t really that interested in dragging my family all the way to Chicago so that I could be a part of what I assumed would be a never-ending focus group. But in the end, my relational side won out. There would be new and interesting people there (I am, as a general rule, a sucker for people), and I’d get to travel to one of my favorite cities with my husband and my son.

As it turned out, it was an absolutely delightful trip. The McDonald’s folks did have some meetings and activities set up for us, but they also gave us time to just hang out and be a family. I can’t even tell you how great that was. In fact, the second day we were there they planned a scavenger hunt on the grounds of the hotel, and our little family of three had the best time. The weather was absolutely gorgeous (I did not get the impressions that Chicagoans are, as a rule, familiar with the same level of humidity that we experience here in the Deep South), and I loved being able to “help” my fellas find the objects on the list while I took lots of pictures of trees.

Trees are my favorite, you know.

It was also great to get some behind-the-scenes perspective from the McDonald’s folks. They were candid, open, warm – and absolutely no topic was off limits. The scope of what they do is absolutely mind-boggling, and they are so passionate about it. What surprised me the most – and I don’t mean to sound like I was Sally Cynical before we met with them, but maybe I was just a little bit – is how much they genuinely care about the kids that they serve and how deeply committed they are to being a help to parents in terms of providing a nutritious alternative to a home-cooked meal (notice that I said alternative – I didn’t hear anybody at McDonald’s headquarters advocating feeding kids fast food five days a week, and I think we can all agree that children need variety in their diets and need to be exposed to a wide range of foods). They would be the first to tell you that they’re not perfect, but they would also tell you – and I would agree – that they’re working hard every single day to get better. As a mama, it was so encouraging to see that side of things.

And as for the Double Cheeseburger Taste Testing, I’m sad to say that it didn’t happen. We did get to sample the oatmeal that they’re testing (it was loaded with fruit, and I was an immediate fan) as well as Egg McMuffins (seriously? did y’all know that they’re made with real eggs? that can be cooked however you’d like them? I HAD NO IDEA). My little man was so taken with the Egg McMuffin that he raised his hand and said, “THIS IS THE MOST DELICIOUS EGG MCMUFFIN THAT I HAVE EVER HAD!”

It was also the first Egg McMuffin he’d ever had. But I think we all know that he’s never really been lacking in enthusiasm.

But here was the biggest thing with me, and it had absolutely nothing to do with the food. The day we were scheduled to leave Chicago, a huge thunderstorm rolled into town. We were waiting in the hotel lobby for our ride to the airport, and all the McDonald’s folks were gone (it was late in the afternoon, and our last official activity that day was at lunch). I was just about to check our flight status on the computer in the lobby, and two of the girls who work with McDonald’s – Heather and Maggie – came running through the lobby doors.

One of them rushed up to me and said, “Are you okay? Is your flight delayed? We were almost home, but when we saw how bad the weather was we thought we’d better come back and check on you!”

Sure enough, our flight was delayed – then cancelled altogether – and they spent the next three hours working to get us home. We ended up having to stay an extra night at the hotel, and they took such unbelievably good care of us. I will never forget how they went out of their way to do that, and it spoke volumes to me about the way McDonald’s does business.

So.

I’m tickled that I get to give away a McDonald’s Family Prize Pack in conjunction with the “Family Time, Happy Time” program. The prize pack includes McDonald’s and AMC gift cards, games, a fleece blanket and other items that are perfect for a fun outing with your family, and the retail value is $100. So if you’d like to be entered to win, all you have to do is answer this question:

What’s your absolute favorite meal to eat for family dinner? Is it something you get from a restaurant? Or is it more of a home-cooked affair?

By the way, our favorite family dinner is country fried steak, mashed potatoes, butterbeans, rolls and homemade chocolate pudding.

We’re terribly sophisticated.

In all seriousness, be sure to visit the other bloggers who are participating in this giveaway (they’re listed over on the BlogHer.com special offers page. And by all means feel free to check out the official rules. This sweepstakes runs from 7/27 until 8/10.

Good luck, everybody – and if you have any questions about what we did or what I learned on the trip, feel free to ask. I’ll do my best to answer!

This giveaway is now closed.

This is sponsored content from BlogHer and The Laughing Cow.

Last spring I was reading a friend’s blog and noticed that she’d issued a challenge to her readers: 30 Days of Jillian Michaels’ 30 Day Shred. I was intrigued. I was also – dare I say it – inspired. And for reasons I have yet to fully understand, I immediately thought, “Okay. I’m in.” AND I SIGNED UP FOR IT.

CLEARLY SOME FITNESS-MINDED ALIENS SEIZED CONTROL OF MY MIND.

So I drove to the Target and bought the DVD and decided that the very next day would be Day One.

OH MY MERCIFUL HEAVENS.

But in a delightfully unexpected turn of events, I found out that my friend Melanie had also committed to the challenge. I cannot overstate the importance of this discovery because HELLO, ACCOUNTABILITY, NICE TO SEE YOU. We also realized that we were both planning to set aside some time to “shred” in the afternoons, but we were sort of blase’ about it because the workout only lasts 20 minutes, and how hard could that be, right? I mean, I can do all sorts of things for 20 minutes: I can lift the fried chicken off of my plate and put it into my mouth, I can repeatedly mash the buttons on the TV remote, and I can also send and receive countless text messages while continually sipping an ice cold diet Coke.

You may be picking up on why the aliens seized control of my mind and convinced me to sign up for the challenge in the first place.

So on that fateful spring afternoon, when there was not another living soul in my house, I turned on the DVD and got ready to feel the burn. I even wore my brand new lavender leotard and hot pink leg warmers.

Oh, I kid because there was a time when I really did own a lavender leotard and hot pink leg warmers.

I will spare you all the details of my initial foray into shredding, but suffice to say that within the first five minutes of the workout I was thinking Not Nice Things about Jillian and her perky fitness compadres. It didn’t help that Anita – who was quickly becoming my new BFF since she was in charge of showing us the “modified” moves, aka The Moves For Those Of You Whose Primary Form Of Exercise Has Been Pointing Your Toes While Typing – had abs so defined that I thought at first they must surely be the creation of some subtle airbrushing, only to realize that OH, those abs are totally real, and MY WORD, they are spectacular.

However, I moved past my bitterness, soldiered through the workout (does it tell you something that I was actually relieved when it was time for the ab segments because that meant I got to LIE ON THE FLOOR?), and y’all, when those twenty minutes were over, my leg muscles were so exhausted that my very first thought was I’ll never walk normally again.

Sure enough, I spent the next forty-five minutes trying to figure out how I was going to walk without looking like some straight-from-the-boondocks contestant on America’s Next Top Model who is trying to impress Tyra with what she thinks is a fierce runway walk. The only way I could manage to keep my knees from locking up was to lift my the tops of my legs to a forty-five degree angle with my waist, then sort of kick out my leg until my foot hit the floor, and later, when Melanie and I were laughing until we cried about The Day Jillian Nearly Killed Us, I described my new walk as something along the lines of what you’d expect from a demented clydesdale.

In other words: it was very sexy and now.

And since I had absolutely no hope of being mobile for day two of The Shred since WHOA, NELLIE, LEGS WERE A-SMARTIN’, I figured that maybe I could track down some sort of beige marker and spend my twenty minutes watching Jillian tell me to WORK HARDER and PUNCH IT OUT while I drew ab muscles on my stomach in an attempt to replicate Anita’s rockin’ six-pack.

Certainly I was climbing to new heights of fitness!

Or at least I would have been.

If only I had been able to, you know, stand up.

So.

If you’d like to win a $150 Visa gift card, leave a comment on this post that answers the following question:

What’s a fitness-related memory that makes you laugh? It can be a family-friendly story, video, or picture – just post it in the comments!

Be sure to visit The Daily Laugh hub to read funny content each day and for weekly chances to win $100 at the “Play For Laughs” game. If you share something really funny, they may even use it in The Daily Laugh!

And don’t miss the other bloggers’ posts – you have 11 other chances to win each month!

Questions about the sweepstakes? Check out the official rules.

Happy Laughing, everybody!

This giveaway is now closed.

Back in the spring our little guy decided that he wanted to go to basketball camp this summer. After I got over the shock of realizing that he was in fact old enough to go (COULD SOMEBODY PLEASE STOP THE TIME?), I filled out the registration form and signed him up. He was excited as could be, and I was tickled to see him show some interest in a sport that I’ve loved for years and years.

I don’t know if he realized how much work camp would be, but he was totally carried away with it from the very first day. What he lacks in basketball skill he makes up in enthusiasm, and he thought it was the most fun to see his friends and cheer them on and dribble the basketball and maybe even make a shot every once in a while.

As a mama, I just couldn’t have been more proud of him.

At some point during basketball camp week I decided that we needed to celebrate all the fun he’d had with a little celebratory family dinner. All the food was round (get it? like a basketball? because I am queen of the obvious?), and I served some of the little man’s favorites: slices of turkey and pepperoni, Provolone cheese, lima beans (granted, the “round” was a littttle bit of a stretch on the lima beans, but we needed a vegetable) – and a very special dessert.

He loved it. And let’s all just pretend it looks exactly like a basketball. MAMA TRIED.

I used a biscuit cutter to make circles out of two Ice Cream Shoppe^TM Vanilla Milkshake Pop-Tarts®. I made a little ice cream sandwich, and then a few drizzles of chocolate syrup brought home the basketball theme.

It was such a fun way to celebrate a great week at basketball camp – and the best part was how easy it was to pull everything together.

If you’d like to enter to win a $100 gift card courtesy of BlogHer, just answer one simple question in the comments:

What’s one of your favorite ways to celebrate with family and friends?

I can’t wait to read your comments, and be sure to check out the BlogHer.com special offers page – you have 9 other chances to win!

You can find the official rules right here, and you can find all sorts of great dessert ideas on the official Pop-Tarts Sprinklings site. If you’re wondering just how creative you can get with Pop-Tarts, you need only look at the Sprinkly Ice Cream Bites.

This giveaway is now closed.