Victory Mountain youth camp grounds in Sophia, North Carolina – a review

Victory Mountain youth camp grounds in Sophia, North Carolina – a review

Victory Mountain Camp is remotely located in Sophia, North Carolina which is part of Randolph County, North Carolina. Victory Mountain Camp is just away from everything and oh so beautiful. I immensely enjoyed chaperoning my young son’s school field trip to Victory Mountain Camp in Sophia, North Carolina. Victory Mountain Camp is a remote and peaceful oasis of sorts as it features quiet fields, lots of trees, lakes, farm houses, barns, and lots of farm animals including, hogs, small pigs, goats, hens, cows and more. There is a pumpkin patch and the children took pumpkins home.
I love when an establishment has a really good website on the internet. When I learned that the school field trip would be to Victory Mountain Camp (VMC), I made sure to take a look at the website. The website is lovely with illustrative photos and when we physically went to Victory Mountain Camp, it lived up to the expectations I had from what I had seen beforehand on the website that markets Victory Mountain Camp, victorymountaincamp.com.

We were first greeted by the hosts that work at Victory Mountain Camp. Small plastic baggies containing a popcorn snack and cups of water were handed out to us as we arrived. The special features of Victory Mountain Camp were explained to us and then we were on our way. There was a nature walk as well as story time with story books about pumpkins of course. After story time by a very effective narrator who sat in a rocking chair, the children and adult chaperones which included teachers, teacher assistants and some parent volunteers were invited to board a hay ride that was lots of fun and exciting for the children.

The property is very expansive, covering nearly 150 acres. With so many acres of land at Victory Mountain Camp grounds, the little children’s feet can take them but so far on the many walks. The hay ride gave everyone a break from all the walking and covered quite a bit of the expanse of the grounds. The kids enjoyed looking at the sights as the hay ride moved along. Upon disembarking from the hay ride, there was another nature walk as we approached a barn and were able to see many animals. One popular topic of conversation was a large hog weighing over 400 pounds! There were many smaller pigs running around as well. Both the adults and children were invited to pet many of the animals and feed the goats some bread. The goats were frisky and playful and very ready to grab the bread. There were photo opportunities and lots of hand sanitizer on hand for when everyone finished petting the animals. That included being able to hold baby chicks with a words of caution beforehand about how to handle the delicate and soft creatures so as not to hurt them.

The Christian based Victory Mountain Camp is a very beautiful place with encouraging words of scripture posted in various places with various media including chalk on boards. Specifically, Victory Mountain Camp is affiliated with the Wesleyan Church.

There was free play time for the children to run around and multiple walks, some of which were guided by a Victory Mountain Camp employee. Among the many topics of discussion on the walks was talking about the numerous types of trees including maple trees and what type of leaves can be found on each variety of tree.

The arrays of pumpkins were beautiful and festive. The group convened for lunch in a large cabin also decorated with beautiful phrases from the Holy Bible.
The lunch was a hot dog lunch with tasty French fries and lemonade drinks. A field trip would not be a field trip without bathroom breaks for the kids and it was during these breaks that the group was able to see the interior of various other buildings on the grounds including cabins that had bedrooms and bunk beds for those who go to the grounds for overnight trips as opposed to just a day trip as we did. In all, we were there for approximately 5 hours and it was a lovely time.

The employees at Victory Mountain Camp were very pleasant people who seemed genuinely delighted to see when a large group of visitors arrived and they were very ready to show their hospitality.

Burgerim Restaurant Review

Burgerim
Burgerim Restaurant Review
A coupon code for takeoutcentral.com was offering free delivery of Burgerim food, a savings of $3.49 with coupon code: BURGERIM that was expiring on October 4th. My family decided to give it a try, ordering food from Burgerim. I would rate the food from this restaurant a 3 out of 5. We ordered a box containing a burger trio from Burgerim. I ordered 3 lamb burgers but received 2 lamb burgers and 1 beef burger instead.

When placing the Burgerim food order, it had seemed intriguing that you are given a choice of meats for your burger patty and you will be charged the same price regardless of what type of meat you select (turkey or vegetarian are other options for example.) I was really interested in getting lamb for all three burgers so when the burger trio was offered as 2 lamb burgers and 1 beef burger instead, it was just a little disappointing but I did not bother to call the restaurant to discuss the mistake. We just ate up and enjoyed the food while it was still warm.

The burger trio burgers were the size of sliders. Each meat patty (lamb or beef) was 2 oz. The bread tasted good and fresh and there were multiple toppings on the burgers including bacon and avocado which I love. Among the other abundant toppings that we requested for the burgers were lettuce, tomatoes, and melted cheese. The burger trio came with one order or fries and one large drink. We just put in this very small order and shared everything up. The burger trio was sold at a cost of $16.99.
One burger would have cost $9.99 with the fries and a drink and two burgers would have cost $12.99 with the fries and a drink. The food was rather unimpressive for the price. It seems like the prices of food items were a bit high at Burgerim but the burgers are considered to be gourmet. The packaging is great, practical and eye catching, with the Burgerim logo prominent on the box containing the slider burgers and the large cup containing the drink.

Burgerim stands out from other fast food restaurants that sell burgers in that the burgers from Burger IM are considered to be gourmet. Burgerim markets itself as an establishment that serves gourmet food “fast”. You can place a food order and get food delivery or receive your food in the restaurant for a dine-in experience in a timely fashion.

This Burgerim Restaurant Review is very brief because only a couple of items were ordered. The main thing here is that while the food was tasty, it seemed to be too pricey. There are many restaurants where we seemed to get more value for the money. $16.99 plus tax for 3 burger sliders, fries and a drink (ginger ale) just did not seem like a good deal and our family loves a good deal. We were glad for the free delivery though and I would not call the food order disappointing but it was just an average food order experience.

Unfortunately, the requested sauces such as ketchup for the fries were not included in our food order from Burgerim. Additionally, the lamb was aged so it did not have the same taste that I love when eating fresh lamb meat. The fries were great but in round slices, a different shape from the typical shape of french fries that your kids might be used to and love.

Just a quick reminder for the kids that the fries are the same as the long cut ones and taste just as great and they will be ready to dig in. Our beverage of choice was ginger ale on ice in a very large cup, where the drink could be poured out into portions and shared.
Overall, eating food from Burgerim was an okay experience.
Some food photos are enclosed and these show what the cute packaging looks like. The food presentation in the box was very good.

52nd annual ACM Awards

Anyone who knows me knows that I enjoy listening to many types of music. Regarding country music, although I do not keep my radio dial on the country music radio stations regularly and I don't often watch country music videos, I still enjoy listening to country music occasionally. Since I've been lacking the familiarity of regularly listening to country music, many of the songs that I was hearing on the ACM awards show last night were songs that I was hearing for the first time. Yes, after our delicious lamb chop dinner last night, the family & I hung out & we eventually watched some television. We did tune into the 52nd annual Academy of Country Music Awards (ACM).

Some of the songs were fantastic & I really enjoyed listening to them.

At the 52nd annual Academy of Country Music Awards (ACM), Thomas Rhett won the award for song of the year with "Die a Happy Man" It's a beautiful song. Among the other nominees in that category was Tim McGraw for the song "Humble & Kind"

At the ACM awards, Thomas Rhett also won in the category of best male vocalist of the year. Keith Urban & Chris Stapleton had been among the other nominees. During his acceptance speech, Thomas Rhett humbly stated that he had shared nomination in the best male vocalist category with people who were an inspiration and great influence for him.

Miranda Lambert won the ACM award in the category of best female vocalist of the year. Carrie Underwood had been among the other nominees in that category. Miranda Lambert said we've already established that Carrie Underwood could sing her "under the table" as she also humbly accepted her award.

Miranda Lambert also won the ACM award for best album of the year with "The Weight of These Wings", an album that focuses a lot on songs about her heartbreak. She thanked everyone for listening and one gentleman in her group that went up on stage encouraged the audience and onlookers at home to "tell the truth" in your aspiring songwriting and/or singing. "It's a lot more interesting". We've heard similar statements before & they really resonate.

During the show, Miranda Lambert had also given a somber performance of the sad song "Tin Man" with lyrics such as "take it from me" "darling/you ain't missing nothing"..."Tin Man" [from the Wizard of Oz] "you don't [want] a heart"

While sad, the song was creative and solid.

On a brighter note, the band Old Dominion sang a song with the hook "You've gotta love like there is no such thing as heartbreak."

Earlier in the broadcast, Dierks Bentley sang a catchy song .."make my world go black, hit me like a heart attack, [put me] flat on my back." Many songs about love reference heart attacks.

Among other performances were Maren Morris with the song "I could use a love song". There was also Reba MacIntyre who performed a duet with Lauren Daigle who was recognized for being near the top of both Country music and Christian music charts. Many people in the audience and Reba MacIntyre herself on the stage became emotional and teary eyed while the performance of the duet took place with lyrics such as "We've gotta give this world back to God".

Nearing the end of the broadcast of the 52nd annual Academy of Country Music awards show (ACM), husband & wife duo Tim McGraw & Faith Hill debuted a duet song about respecting women (including your Mama!) with lyrics such as "That's how you talk to a woman. That's how you speak to a girl."

The winner of ACM video of the year was "Forever Country - Artists of then, now and forever". Among the other nominees in this category had been Miranda Lambert with the video for the song "Vice" & Tim McGraw with the video for the song "Humble and Kind".

Brothers Osborne won vocal duo of the year at the ACM awards show.

John Walsh of band The Eagles presented the Entertainer of the Year awards to
Jason Aldean. The other nominees for Entertainer of the Year were Luke Bryan, the band Florida Georgia Line, Carrie Underwood and Keith Urban.

Everyone in the audience appeared to immensely enjoy the band Backstreet Boys throwback performance of a couple of their past hit songs and their collaboration with the band Florida Georgia Line as they sang "No one's ever gonna love you more than God, your Mama and me, unconditionally. God, your Mama and me, unconditionally"...

We really enjoyed listening to all the catchy tunes, indeed! The ACM awards show was entertaining and enjoyable.

Thanks for reading.
-Nyesha
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Look at what I got for free from Kohl's

I recently made a purchase of around $80 at kohls.com. Several of the items I bought were toddler/kids clothing on clearance sale. Some brown corduroy pants in size 3T by the brand Jumping Beans were on clearance sale for only $3.99! Needless to say I bought several pairs of those. With my Kohl's purchase I received a deal that the company is well known for frequently advertising. That is Yes2You Rewards, $10 back in Kohl's cash upon making a $50 purchase. So, when you shop at Kohl's keep in mind that you can get great deals in the clearance section, perhaps use an additional % off coupon code plus get the frequently offered $10 reward for a $50 purchase. This is a great deal all around.
I received the notification about my $10 reward via email and was able to use it on my next kohls.com purchase, no minimum order required. Since I was not really in the market for anything more at the time, I decided to spend no more than the $10 reward. This allowed me to head over to the clearance section of kohls.com once again and peruse it to see what I could find for under $10. I decided upon a stylish cute "Live, laugh, love" floor mat with floral decoration, on clearance sale for just $5.99, originally priced at $14.99. It is just the perfect size for a foyer or entry way & I think it's especially nice to decorate with during the spring season. To that, I decided to add a limited edition character ornament from the animated movie The Princess and the Frog. Originally priced at $16.99, the ornament was on clearance sale for just $3.99. With these two small purchases taken care of by my free $10 reward, I only had to pay only the shipping charges of $5.97. These two free items arrived from Kohl's in a timely manner and both are quite cute. Thanks Kohl's!

The owl trend in kids' fashion | Cute owl t-shirt from the Children's Place with quote "Mom and Dad are a hoot!"

Saying that owls have been trendy might be a bit of an understatement as retailers have been capitalizing on the worldwide popularity of owls for years now. Owl motifs and designs are trendy in fashion, jewelry, household décor and more. Just as you might quickly come across some owl earrings in a store featuring women's jewelry for example, you might just as quickly spot the owl trend in kids' fashion options like I did at the Children's Place online store.

T-shirts for kids are often on a very good sale at the Children's Place. Some tees were on sale and it was a matter of choosing which ones I liked best for purchase. I really liked this "Mom and Dad are a hoot!" owl tee in its vibrant blue color with the owl drawn so cutely in a more of a minimalist design. I purchased this kids' t-shirt for only $3.99 plus an additional 20% off. The Children's Place often readily offers an additional percentage off sale price when you diligently look for a coupon code through websites such as retailmenot.com or through the subscribed email list from the Children's Place or perhaps even by just going directly to the Children's Place website where you might see a coupon code posted and available for all shoppers.

Free shipping no minimum at Forever 21 expires tomorrow 5/5

I love free shipping no minimum deals! Don't we all? Forever 21 is offering free shipping with no minimum purchase until tomorrow 5/5/2015. I enjoy shopping at Forever 21 for several items including sweaters and hair accessories. This is a great opportunity to grab something small like a hair accessory at the website and not have to pay for shipping. Forever 21 is a retailer that often offers some great deals, so much so that there are frequent waiting lists. You can subscribe to receive email alerts to learn about when something is available again if it had been sold out. I have done this myself recently for several items including some headbands and a pretty floral mirror compact that was on sale for less than $3. I hope you've had a great weekend. You can head over to forever21.com and enjoy this free shipping no minimum deal if you decide to use it. Please come back to visit here at moviesfashionmusic.com soon. Bye for now!

Dino on a skateboard

I recently spoke of the comic relief you can get when you child is wearing a super cute and really funny outfit, whether it is a tee with a funny saying on it or perhaps a shirt or accessory with a funny picture. This particular t-shirt artfully depicting a dinosaur on a skateboard is just so endearing. Something about it makes me giggle when I see my son wearing it. Of course, I love to laugh, so that makes this t-shirt rank high up among my favorites in his t-shirt wardrobe. I also like the high quality of this t-shirt. It washes well and the black trim at the collar and the ends of the short sleeves are good quality details that I really like. As always, I love a good deal and here at moviesfashionmusic.com, I am most likely to write posts about items that I bought on good sales and offer information that can help to save you money. Having had kids for a few years now, I would say that I definitely live and learn and it is very important to be frugal and save money for the really important things. Even famous billionaire Warren Buffet has lectured about the importance of frugality. Those that have a lot of money are also wise enough to save it whenever they can. So, over the years I have really learned about saving money on everything from food to clothing to travel and more. So back to the subject at hand, this dino tee is both stylish and adorable, perfect for little boys and I purchased it at the Children's Place. You will be hearing a lot about the Children's Place from me. I really enjoy shopping there. The price of this t-shirt with the dino on a skateboard was just $3.99 on clearance sale. At childrensplace.com, taxes were added but shipping to my home was free! Always be on the look out for those hot clearance sales and free shipping with no minimum offers. My review of this fashion tee is very positive, 5/5 if I were to rate it: In summary, it is well made. It not just a plain tee, but one with a super cute and creative picture that will make you smile. The t-shirt holds up well after several washes. The clever idea of dinosaurs on skate boards has really been catching on over the years in various arenas for artful and comical ideas but when I stumbled upon this shirt, I still found it fairly unique (I like unique items) and nice to add to the wardrobe.

Gotta love the Macy's friends & family events | Take an extra 25% off at Macy's including sales & clearance items

Here is another great coupon code to share. It also expires soon, this Monday, May 4th so if you are in the mood to shop and in the market for anything that Macy's is offering, well you better act fact. :) The coupon code is sweet, simple and easy to remember. It is: FRIEND. Note that exclusions will be listed and the offer can not be combined with any other. If you are looking to buy eclectrics/ electronics, matresses, floor coverings and furniture, the offer will be for 10% off not 25% off, but the 25% off will apply for fashion apparel so this will be great for shopping for some stylish clothes. This is another coupon code / promo code that can be used both in store at the register and when shopping online. Just remember to use that code: FRIEND through May 4th. Happy shopping!

Kohl's promo code - expires 5/3 | $10 off a $40 women's athletic shoe order at Kohl's

Do you read your local Sunday newspaper? Sometimes, taking a break from computer screen time and relaxing while reading hard print books, magazines and newspapers is the way to go for me. Through reading last weekend's local newspaper, I learned about a few valuable coupons for fashion. As always, I love a really good sales deal. This particular promo code that I am about to share with you is for the store Kohl's. Receive $10 off a $40 or more purchase on women's athletic shoes and comfort shoes. The promo code is: COMFORT10. You can use this promo code in store or online at kohls.com but you better act fast is expires tomorrow, 5/3/2015! You can go to kohls.com/exclusions to learn about any exclusions on this offer.

Disney Cars Lunch Tote

Jcpenney frequently has great sales going on and I highly recommend visiting the store in person or shopping online from time to time. When you shop online at Jcpenney, you can enter either jcpenney.com or jcp.com as the website address. Official Disney merchandise is consistently of good quality and I was very pleased to find a nice Disney Cars lunch tote on clearance sale at Jcpenney. The regular price is $12.99 and I got the Disney Cars lunch tote on clearance sale at Jcpenney for only $5.99! The quality and price were both awesome. I took a look on amazon.com and there are USED and "vintage" Disney cars lunch totes selling for even more money! A lunch tote is not the kind of thing I want to buy used anyway but whenever you are unsure of whether you are getting the best possible price on an item, I find that it would be a good idea to look at how much the item is selling for on amazon.com or ebay.com. In addition to the Disney movie Cars, at the time of my purchase, there were several additional lunch totes available with matching backpacks if you so desire. The lunch totes included various movie themes including Cinderella, Planes, and Jake the Pirate. All of these lunch totes were just $5.99 each and the backpacks were $12.99. The regular price for the backpacks had been $25.99. This is yet another instance where buying in the off season can prove beneficial. Prices for these kind of items will be higher at the end of August, back to school season. When you find something you really like at a fantastic price, catch it before it sells out. My son loves his Disney Cars lunch tote and I do too.

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Disney Frozen Olaf hat

Here we are, the last day in April and I am posting about a snow hat. Oh well. Some truly busy times kept me from posting much sooner, but I do want to share the information about this deal with you and perhaps you can look out for it later this year, in the next winter season if it will be available again. For just $6.99 each, I purchased these adorable Olaf snow hats for my boys during the Christmas 2014 season. I purchased them at walmart.com and the price had been significantly reduced in a clearance deal. I can not recall for certain what the original price was for each hat but I think it was $12.99. So, that's an almost 50% off savings. It's a nice quality hat that provides some comic relief. It will make you smile when you see your kid wearing it. The character Olaf from the Disney movie Frozen is really funny. I have stumbled upon several good clearance deals at walmart.com. I recommend you look at that section of the Walmart website to save money. Shopping in the off season is another tip you might find helpful if you do not already know about it. Winter items will generally be less expensive at the end of December/ beginning of January than they are in September, October or November. They would be even less expensive now, in April, May and the hot summer months. Yes, that is really off season. If you have adequate space to store items, maybe you would like to shop for them early, before you really need them. Until Next Time. Cheers!

Top 5 Sites for online shopping for high quality brand name sneakers for boys

"You get what you pay for" is a phrase that never seems to go out of style. Sometimes, when hunting for a huge bargain, we end up receiving a cheaply made, low quality product that does not last. Often times, paying a little extra allows you to be provided with a product that can last much longer than the cheaper one. Nevertheless, you really score a great deal when you get that higher quality product at a much lower cost than typical. I like the stylish features and durability of shoes that are very well made. When online shopping for shoes for my sons, I have learned to weed out the sites that will not typically offer me the best deals and go straight to the ones that will. In no particular order (I have not ranked them), here are my top 5 sites for online shopping for high quality brand name shoes for boys.: 1. nordstrom.com

We shouldn't underestimate the value we can get in occasionally taking a look at the clearance prices at retailers we might typically think of as being less affordable than most. On several occasions, I have found some really great deals at Nordstrom.com. I considered these little kid boys sneakers from Nike to be a fabulous find. I like the brilliant colors of blue, yellow and black in this trendy combination. I purchased them a few months ago for $29 including tax and shipping. Nordstrom.com is one of the online retailers that offers free shipping on every purchase. 2. nordstromrack.com Considered to provide outlet items from Nordstrom at accompanying prices, Nordstrom Rack might be lesser known to many. I just found out about it and started purchasing from Nordstrom Rack myself not too long ago, maybe 4 months ago. If I had seen information about it prior to that, I did not pay it much attention and it is not memorable but now Nordstrom Rack has my attention and I will be shopping there again in the future. There I purchased Rebook little boys sneakers for only $16.97 in a blue color similar to the Nike sneaker above. The color combo is blue and orange (with orange detail and orange shoe lacings) as opposed to blue, yellow and black. They are bright but not too loud and have some suede as well. The music lyrics "Don't you step on my blue suede shoes" come to mind often when I help my son lace them up. On pitfall that you would need to look out for when shopping with Nordstrom Rack is that you must typically make a $100 purchase in order to qualify for free shipping. If you were to order just that one pair of sneakers like I did at the time, you will have to pay approximately $8.00 for shipping bringing that $16.97 up to $24.97 not including the tax. 3. shoebuy.com Another great online shoe dealer that offers lots of coupon incentives for purchasing nice, trendy shoes for the whole family. I have only shopped with them once so far but occasionally visit the site to see what's new and can imagine shopping there again sometime soon. What I purchased at shoebuy.com was a pair of Fila sneakers for little boys. They are navy blue with the white NY Yankees logo on the side. Very cute! Shoebuy.com boasts purchases that are tax free, with free shipping and if needed, free returns as well. I was given a $10 off coupon for shoebuy.com, from a Shutterfly photo printing purchase I had made, so thought I would try it out. Even with the $10 off coupon, this sneaker purchase did take me into the 30 something dollar range. I have since become even more frugal and savvy for a great deal so now, wherever possible I keep children's sneaker purchases UNDER $30 including taxes and shipping. 4. jcpenney.com / jcp.com I found some very durable Fila sneakers for little boys at this site. They are black with red detailing. They look great. They were only $19.99 at the time, advertised to be 60% off original price. This was a very good purchase. I recently revisited the site and this week, these same sneakers are on sale again but they are $24.99 not $19.99 so they are not at the best possible sale price right now. Additionally, with jcpenney, you must typically make at least a $75 purchase to qualify for free shipping. For lower priced purchases, you might be charged around $8.95 for shipping.

5. kohls.com New Balance has been one of my favorite brands for sneakers for years now. New Balance sneakers can often hold up really well for a long time. Found at kohls.com are New Balance sneakers for little boys. The ones I like most are black with the trademark "N" on the side of the sneaker. The "N" is colored yellow. These eyecatching black and yellow sneakers are awesome. Kohls has an offer that is advertised often. You can earn $10 Kohls cash to spend on a future purchase, when you purchase $50 worth of merchandise. On sale, the sneakers are in the 30 something dollar range. I have been seeing these sneakers at kohls.com recently but I actually purchased them at jcp.com if I remember correctly. Right now, they are no longer available at jcp.com. A couple of good additional websites to consider for sneaker shopping are: 6pm.com (outlet pricing) and macys.com (clearance section) I hope you found this helpful. Bye for now.

Rollback at Walmart - Fruit of the Loom t-shirts on sale for just $2.97 each

This past weekend, the family and I went shopping in the Walmart store. I shop Walmart online fairly frequently but in the past 4 weeks, I went to the store in person, twice. One of the good finds this time was a Walmart rollback deal for Fruit of the Loom t-shirts for boys. The already very reasonable low price of $3.47 per t-shirt was reduced to $2.97 per t-shirt! I think that anything under $3.00 is a truly awesome price for a child sized t-shirt. We might often think of Fruit of the Loom for underwear and under shirts only, but these t-shirts are not undergarments. They are good quality t-shirts for wearing in the spring and summer with jeans or shorts. They are available in an array of colors. I snagged a couple of blue ones and was pleased with the purchase. With the sales cycling from Sunday to Saturday, the price of this particular item might possibly go back up by this coming Sunday. I encourage all Moms with active boys to take a look at this deal. When strolling around the Walmart, don't forget to look out for those 'Rollback" signs indicating clearance deals. Where the $2.97 Fruit of the Loom t-shirts were set up, there were other display tables nearby with other t-shirts priced at $6.00 and up, so let's keep a keen eye for the best deals. Until next time...Cheers!

Update and brief review of the movie Belle

I hope everyone is enjoying Happy Holidays. As we are entering 2015, my Movie, Fashion & Music Reviews United blog has stayed dormant for so long. It is my hope to become more consistent with postings in this New Year. So much has happened. I have not one but two wonderful children now! They are sweet and loving two & four year old boys. While very busy with them, I have occasionally tried to post at the other writing platform I use. My profile link is journey.hubpages.com. There, you'll especially find a lot of recipes for food that I cook for my husband and children.

While I still pay attention to the current trends in men and women's fashion and occasionally purchase some nice items for my husband and me, I have become enthusiastic about the adorable fashion finds that are out there for my little boys. I also love a great bargain!

Please follow my blog to learn more as I share information about some of the best sales I have encountered to stretch the clothing budget farther. It feels good to provide the clothing your children need, while finding cutest fashions and saving money.

I've also been watching more movies geared especially toward children as I watch them with my little ones. So, I can only write what I know. It has been a really long time since I've watched any of the current mainstream Hollywood movies so I can't really comment in movie reviews.

Occasionally, I will rent a movie that is not specifically geared to children from the Red Box & watch it after they have gone to bed but there is not much time for that. The common advice given to mothers of infants and toddlers is "sleep when they sleep" and that is so true. I try to get my rest. It is not always easy when we have a lot of important things to get done but in my opinion, it is better to go to sleep instead of staying up to watch the movies or television. Finding extra leisure & entertainment time is not worth sacrificing sleep when you have to wake up early the next morning. I was not always necessarily onboard with such an ideology but I sure am now.

Nevertheless, I will always like the movies, especially the most meaningful ones. The last one that I was actually able to see from the Red Box was based on true history and films like these are of course important to provoke thought,discussion and remembrance more so than the feeling of being entertained. There is merit to the educational element as some viewers of the film surely learn much about historical information that may have once been obscure to them.:

Belle, rated PG, not visually illustrating the violence of slavery but narrating the tragedy of it...

The movie does not have disturbing scenes of violence. It speaks of the blossoming love story between a young Lawyer and a woman who was the niece of the chief Judge of the Supreme Court of the land (Britain in the late 1700s), The niece, Dido Belle, was a biracial woman left in her Uncle's care by her father after her mother died. Her father and uncle were White. Her mother had been a Black slave.

Upon reaching her Uncle's estate, Belle in many ways lived a very privileged & entitled life but it was still made clear to her that the color of her skin would cause her obstacles. The trauma of this made her very disturbed and self deprecating, at times wanting to rub off the color of her skin! She battled between trying to keep her confidence and despising the sight of herself in the mirror.

The penetrating race dynamics were highlighted for example in Belle's relationship with the Caucasian cousin raised alongside her like her sister, who was also left to be raised by her Uncle. Additionally, Belle was not able to eat meals with the family when they had company. She was not encouraged to eat dinner with the hired help such as the cooks OR with her family so for her, this was a time of feeling very alone.

Belle's bond with the young Lawyer began as he was under the tutelage of her Uncle. His passion for true justice caused him to be at odds with her Uncle namely as a verdict was being sought in the case of the Zong massacre. Belle's life of privilege had caused her to be naïve to many of the realities of slavery beyond the walls she lived in but she was deeply affected as she began to learn more. Her love for her mother and her heritage caused her to naturally become passionate about the horrific issue. In the past, before watching this film, I have written some about the Zong here: http://journey.hubpages.com/hub/Slavery-The-Zong-Massacre

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....Additionally....and what do you know, I am admittedly not the huge music fan I once was either. More than mainstream/popular/secular music, I now listen mainly to soothing tunes, gospel music & of course lullabies and nursery rhymes to share with my kids.

As I have settled into motherhood, I feel truly blessed. God is first for me & family is truly second. Spending that time with them & sharing experiences with them is priceless. Naturally therefore, I will be shifting the content of the blog to focus more on things geared toward children because now that is what I know most about in the latest trends.

So, I did not start writing this post intending to announce that my blog will change to a child focused and family oriented blog but inevitably it will. Take good care. Talk to you soon.