We love good barbecue and you can find us at Sonny’s BBQ at least once a month. We go there for 4 good reasons: good food, good service, good prices and good friends. Almost every time we go to Sonny’s, we run into someone we know. On our last visit we ran into our friends Dan & Barb as well as my husband’s parents.

You never know who you will run into at Sonny’s but you do know you will get a delicious meal at a good price. Ron and I always order the Ribs for 2, sweet and smokey ribs with 3 side dishes. Jordan doesn’t like meat on the bone so he usually opts for whatever their specialty pulled meat sandwich is at the time. Do you have a favorite BBQ place? Why is it your favorite?

Did you know that if you use the AARP® Credit Card from Chase at your favorite restaurants you will get 3% Cash Back rewards? You get 3% back at gas stations too and 1% back on all other purchases. Who doesn’t want to get cash back on their purchases? I sure do.

Unfortunately, nearly 10 million Americans aged 50+ are affected by hunger. That’s my generation and my mom’s! I find that statistic staggering. Knowing how little money my own mother has to live off of since my dad passed away, I understand how this is possible and honestly, it makes me a bit angry. This is why I am happy to support brands that are doing something to help solve this problem. Chase, along with AARP are taking steps to feed those who are hungry now, while also developing long-term, sustainable solutions that proactively address the root causes of hunger among those 50 and older.

In 2016, Chase will donate $0.10 to the AARP Foundation for every restaurant purchase made with your AARP Credit Card from Chase—up to a total of $1.1 million. To learn more about AARP Foundation’s Drive To End Hunger visit: http://www.aarpcreditcard.com/drivetoendhunger. To learn more at Chase visit their website.  Please, do your part to Drive To End Hunger.

I am participating in a VIN campaign. This is a sponsored post by AARP® Credit Card from Chase. The content and opinions expressed below are my own. I am in no way affiliated with AARP® Credit Card from Chase and do not earn a commission or percent of sales.

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Earlier in the year, grant submissions were accepted. Anyone aged 13 and older could submit their community project for a grant as long as their project falls into one of three categories-education, safety or community development. Then a panel from the State Farm Youth Advisory Board reviews all of the applications and chooses the top 200. From May 14-June 3, 2015 public voting is taking place on the State Farm Neighborhood Assist Facebook Page. You can vote 10 times per day during the voting period. You can sort the projects by type or location to help you find the one(s) you want to vote for. The top 40 vote getters will each receive a $25,000 grant!

I sorted the choices by location (Florida) and then I read about the 7 Florida based programs. I chose to vote for End Hunger, a program that sends home 6 weekend meals plus snacks with elementary aged children who are at risk of going hungry. The current program serves 36 children at one school. If they receive the grant they can expand to 5 schools and serve 180 needy students. We all know that kids who are hungry get sick more often, and don’t focus well while in school. Feeding these children non-perishable meals on the weekends takes those variables out of their way.

Join with me and State Farm Neighborhood Assist and help award grants to deserving projects in your area. Voting just takes a minute or two so click over to the voting page now and get started.

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I believe it is very important for neighbors to help neighbors. Every one of us can do something to help those around us. I was raised to volunteer and help out worthy causes and I have raised my children the same way. Most of the volunteering we have done together as a family, and now that my kids are grown, they are continuing in their out reach. Some of the things we have done include raising money for modern day slaves through Team Freedom, organizing a clothing drive for families in the poorest area of our town, doing after school tutoring at a local elementary school, training to be a part of our county’s C.E.R.T. team, raising money for the American Cancer Society’s Making Strides Against Breast Cancer event and many many more.

About the State Farm Neighborhood Assist Program

Communities across the United States and Canada answered the call from State Farm® to help create a positive impact in their community and submitted 4,000 causes as part of this year’s State Farm Neighborhood Assist. Now the top 200 causes have been selected by the State Farm Youth Advisory Board® and they need your “assist” to help vote them into the top 40. From April 28 through May 16, anyone who has the free State Farm Neighborhood Assist Facebook application can vote daily for their favorite cause, or causes, and help bring $25,000 to the top 40 vote-getters.

Here is a video from one of last year’s grant recipiants:

There are only a few days left to vote so go right now to Facebook and use the State Farm Neighborhood Assist app to choose the projects you want to support. It was hard for me to choose from 200 causes so I narrowed down my search to the projects in Florida and I chose to split my votes between EMERGE-“ We would like to introduce a program called EMERGE, which will assist elementary students with their homework, offer organized sports programs, music, art, and field trips to local areas” and 2nd Chance Center 4 Boyz-“We provide court-ordered diversion services to at-risk males in a community-based setting. We provide weekly character/moral development groups, community service opportunities, and positive out of school activities to the aforementioned court-ordered young men, yet due to the rising levels of boys ages being arrested; there is an overwhelming need for us to expand our early intervention and diversion services to serve as an effective means of positive youth development for the aforementioned boys.”

After you go vote, come back here and let me know who you voted for. You get 10 votes a day through May 16th so get voting!

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The gifts you can give fall into several categories:

• Animals
• Clean Water
• Clothing and Shelter
• Education
• Emergency Aid
• Gifts that Multiply
• Girls and Women
• Handcrafted Items
• Hunger
• Medical Care
• Orphans and Widows
• Poverty in America

I love that you can choose what you want your money to go to or if you just want to help there is a “where most needed” category too. Purchasing gifts from The World Vision Gift Catalog is a great family project. Many families collect spare change all year long to donate to a charity at Christmas time, sending a gift through The World Vision Gift Catalog is a great family project that you can continue year after year.

The World Vision Gift Catalog Giveaway

One reader of The Mom Maven is going to win the ornament set pictured above. The set is available through The World Vision Gift Catalog with your gift of $150 or more to the Maximum Impact Fund — which provides for the unique needs of children and families worldwide — you will receive this beautiful set of handmade Zakale wire & bead ornaments from Nairobi. Zakale crafts are made from recycled materials by Kenyan artisans, who received a series of installment loans from World Vision to grow their business and lift themselves out of poverty. When requesting the ornament set, please note your gift is tax-deductible less the fair market value of $30.

Ornament sizes vary by animal (giraffe 4″ x 1½”, elephant 2½” x 3″ & water buffalo 2 7/10 ” x 2½”).

The giveaway ends at 12:00am on November 18, 2013 and is open to US residents only. The winner will be chosen by Rafflecopter and notified by email. The winner has 48 hours to claim their prize.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Disclosure: I received a set of ornaments as a thank-you for sharing The World Vision Gift Catalog with my readers. All opinions are 100% mine.

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We have been married 21 years and our finances have never been this unstable. We have 2 kids in college and we have taken in a teenage girl from church. My husband hasn’t been paid in over 3 months but guess what? This month we will be committing to sponsor a Compassion child. I know in my heart that now is the time. When Aaron gets back from working out of town this week we will get together as a family and discuss if we want to sponsor a boy or a girl and what country we want them to be from. We will also decide how old we would like the child to be. This is a family project, a mission, where we can all give financial support and prayer support to a child who has even less than we do. With God’s help, we will be able to help give a child a better life and a better future.

This month Compassion International has set a goal of having 3,108 children sponsored  through the work of the Compassion Bloggers Network. I am honored to be a part of that network and I have a 3 step call to action for you.

1.  Visit Compassion’s sponsor a child page and look around.
2. Pray. Ask God to show you if this is the right time for you to step out and change the life of a child. If His answer is, “Yes!” Have your own family meeting and then come back here and move on to step 3. If His answer is, “Not now.” Please pray regularly for the Compassion International organization and all of the families they touch.
3. Commit to sponsor  a child or two!

Disclosure: I ask you do do these things through my links because, as much as I whole-heartedly believe in this organization, I am also in a little competition with other Compassion Bloggers to see who drives the most traffic to the site AND who brings in the most new sponsors. I am receiving a gift for this post but I would have written it even if I didn’t receive a thing. All opinions are 100% mine.

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After the Survivor’s dinner, the opening ceremonies were held and then the 18 hour relay started with a very special lap, the Survivors Lap. The Survivors gathered behind a banner and walked counter-clockwise around the track while the Caregivers walked clockwise around the track. The two groups met up on the far side of the track and then merged into one large group and completed the lap going counter-clockwise, it was very touching to celebrate with the survivors.

After that the teams hit the track. Each team has to have at least 1 member on the track at all times during the 18 hour relay. Teams are made up of school and church groups, civic clubs, companies and even groups of families. Each team raises money before the event and during the event they try to raise more money by selling food, drinks, t-shirts, glow bracelets and even by holding raffles. This years goal for the Venice relay was $220,000 and they were well on their way to meeting their goal when I headed home.

From my mother, in memory of her mother Blanche Sellenger

Once the sun goes down the solemn luminaria ceremony begins. People donate money and decorate paper bags in honor or in memory of someone affected by cancer. I did 2 bags one for Jill Harris, my husband’s cousin who died of breast cancer leaving 2 young sons behind and one for all of my Hystersisters who have battled cancer. My mom bought one in memory of her mom. We walk a lap in silence, the only sound a bagpipe playing “Amazing Grace”. This is so powerful. I wept all the way around the track and then I totally lost it, I got to a spot where a young boy, maybe 9-10 yrs old, wearing a survivor shirt himself, was kneeling in front of a luminaria with a man’s name on it and the word “daddy”. This brought it all home for me, my heart broke for this boy. It solidified in my heart the fact that we need to do what we can to raise funds for the American Cancer Society so that they can both support those battling cancer and those searching for a cure.

What are you doing to secure a healthier, cancer-free future?

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“The holiday season provides the perfect opportunity to honor a loved one and give a gift that has real-life implications on a family in need,” said Traci Coker, World Vision Gift Catalog national director. “As little as $16 can feed a family in the US for a day or put a smile on the face of a young child by replacing their makeshift banana leaf ball for a real soccer ball.”

The catalog offers more than 250 gifts online and in the print version ranging in price from $16 to $39,000. These gifts can be purchased in the name of a family member, teacher, co-worker or child, including many affordable items under $50. Gifts available include, but are not limited to:

• Goats ($75): One of the most popular gift items because its milk provides protein for children and the surplus can be sold. More than 20,000 goats were purchased last year.
• Feed a family in the US for a day ($16): Here in the United States, 1 in 5 children lives in poverty. Gift givers can help restore hope to families that have been struck by disaster, homelessness or job loss.
• A child’s education ($32): Supplying school fees, textbooks, paper and pencils will help a child reach their full potential.
• Beehive ($150): Beekeeping is a sustainable, year-round way to generate income and is a great source of nutritious, medicinal honey and beeswax.
• Traditional water well ($13,700): A well can provide more than 2,800 gallons of fresh water every day – enough for up to 300 people – for years to come.

The best part about these gifts is that they are self-sustainable. For example, goats given to communities in Africa are purchased inAfrica. This allows transformational community development within the most poverty-stricken villages. The gifts can also sometimes double or even triple, as shown in the box below on the right (The World Vision Difference).

World Vision has also designed a way for donors to see these self-sustainable gifts in action in real time through “The True Spirit of Christmas Tour.” For the third consecutive year, World Vision staff will be traveling across the world this December to see the impact that goats, sheep and other gifts have on families and children. Donors can follow “The True Spirit of Christmas” on Facebook at www.facebook.com/truespiritofchristmas.

Since the Gift Catalog was introduced in 1996, its popularity as a gift-giving medium has grown with more than $32 million in purchases made last year. World Vision hopes to reach $34 million this year. After purchasing a Gift Catalog item, the person whose name the gift was given in receives a special card describing the gift and its impact. Donors can also receive free handmade gifts such as ornaments from Nairobi and jewelry fromThailandwith a cash contribution to the Maximum Impact Fund.

To order from World Vision’s Gift Catalog, visit www.worldvisiongifts.org.  To order by phone or to request a print catalog, call toll-free at (888) 511-6511.

One of the gifts in the catalog is a beautiful Artisan Multi-colored Necklace: Fight human trafficking through this semi-precious stone and glass bead necklace. This unique, colorful strand can be worn long or short, as a bracelet or even a belt. You can win this necklace for your very own!!

Disclosure: I received a necklace as a thank-you for writing this post. All opinions are 100% mine.

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(I stole this picture off mom's Facebook page...I hope she doesn't kill me!)

Today is actually the 5th anniversary of my mom being cancer free! Yes, my mom is a breast cancer survivor and she now volunteers her time for the American Cancer Society’s Road to Recovery and Look Good…Feel Better programs. I am proud of my mom, how she walked through her cancer with a positive attitude and how she now gives back to others who are suffering with all types of cancers.

Part of the fun of the walk is that we are encouraged to wear a decorated pink bra on the outside of your clothing during the walk. Yesterday, we got crafty and decorated our bras for the walk.

Getting Crafty

My bra

All 3 finished projects

You’ll have to wait for my post on the actual walk to see us wearing our creations

In all seriousness though, this is a fundraising walk and I am really counting on you, my readers, to help support me in my effort. From now until the walk, the Making Strides badge will be at the top of my page for you to click on to donate. You can also click here. No donation is too small. I have set a modest goal-since we are starting kind of late, I’d like to raise at least $250.00. Together we CAN do this! Thank you for your help and support.

Please leave a comment and let me know you donated!

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Previous Clips:

Herding Cats

Sita has a Secret

African Morning

Reservoir Cats

Earning His Keep

The post African Cats Clip of the Day-Fang appeared first on The Mom Maven.

Previous Clips:

Herding Cats

Sita has a Secret

African Morning

Reservoir Cats

The post African Cats Clip of the Day-Earning His Keep appeared first on The Mom Maven.