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Relaxing & Reading

This weekend was Camp Primo! For the uninitiated, that’s my parents’ Grandparent/Cousin camp. They take all the grandkids on a 3 day trip complete with creek-stomping, campfires and arts & crafts! But the most important thing for you to notice about this is that I DO NOT HAVE ANY CHILDREN WITH ME. My husband and I celebrated our two days of kid-less-ness by going to the mountains. Our friends have a cabin (which really, would be better described as a log PALACE) in Tennesse that is just gorgeous. Here’s the view:

We slept late, we went out to eat, we lounged in the hot tub and we even did this:

raft1

Yup. That’s me on a zipline. Do I look cool or what?! (Don’t answer that.)

The other thing I did was read. One morning I got up, wrapped a blanked around me and sat on a rocking chair on the porch. Overlooking the mountains, I pulled out my husband’s iPad and read. I have recently discovered e-reader apps. There’s iBooks, Kindle, Nook, Sony e-reader and more! AND there are loads of free books online to download! In the last few weeks I’ve read Sixteen Brides, Love Finds You in Homestead, Iowa, She’s in a Better Place, My Heart Remembers, She Always Wore Red, Waterfall, Cascade and Stuck in the Middle . That’s like 8 books. And almost all of them were free. The other ones I bought with swagbucks!

Then I discovered Nook Kids which is like it’s own app for kids–and they have kids’ books that you can read by yourself or it has the audio version on it, too! The kids have a Rudyard Kipling book, an I Can Read book and even Curious George. They love reading on it! (I do, too. It’s super cool.)

Anywhoo. I’m trying to decide if I’m going to keep commandeering the iPad for my own personal reading pleasure or if I’m going to ask for an e-reader for Christmas. (I kinda like that idea because I could slip it in my purse or keep it with me whenever I wanted!) Any insight from someone who has an e-reader? What do you recommend? What pitfalls have you found with them?

Speaking of e-readers how would you like to WIN A NOOK?

*insert squealing*

I knew you would! I’m literally salivating over this giveaway today. Nestle has been doing this fabulous campaign for Happy New {School} Year. They are giving away a $2000 Literacy Grant for your school, $5000 for back-to-school stuff, daily $50 prizes along with some really cool ideas for snacks, lunches and crafts. Honestly, you can always find a fun idea on their website or facebook page.

Also, I have to mention that Nestle (their PR firm) is compensating me for this post. But part of the reason I accepted this is because some of the compensation is $350 worth of books for Lydia’s school! I am SO excited to bring these books to her teacher! I’m gonna feel like Santa! Only skinnier. And less hairy.

win a nook

Now, let’s get on to the prize! If you win you will receive a Nook e-reader, a mix of free coupons from STOUFFER’S, TOLL HOUSE Refrigerated Cookie Dough and Morsels, JUICY JUICE, NESQUIK, TOMBSTONE, OVALTINE, product from WONKA, a $3 off coupon from BOOST Kid Essentials, a CARNATION BREAKFAST ESSENTIALS $1 off coupon, an OVALTINE straw dispenser and coupon book. That is FUN stuff! Just imagine reading curled up with your Nook and all that yumminess!

And just how can you win this? Well, I’m kinda over the whole bajillion comment thingie. So, let’s just do it the old-fashioned way:

Leave me a comment with your favorite book of all time (or kids’ fave book) and you’ll be entered to win!

Of course, if you want to tweet or facebook about this giveaway, I’d be honored! I made it easy for you–there’s some handy dandy little buttons right at the bottom of this post for you to use! I’ll pick a winner this Saturday (10/01)–it’s open to US only. Thanks again to Nestle for the fabulous prizes and for encouraging reading!

 

Comments

  3. What an amazing giveaway! Look at you go! 😉

    I think one of my favs of all time is The Secret Garden. I’ve been thinking about it a lot lately and wondering if I could convince the boys to listen to it…

    • YES! We listened to it and the kids LOVED it. Dicken is totally a boy they’d love! And if you don’t want to listen to the whole thing, Focus on the Family has the Radio Theatre version that’s all dramatized!

  9. My favorite book I reread when i can’t find anything else is Joy in the Morning by Betty Smith (who wrote A Tree Grows in Brooklyn).

  10. I have to say my favorite book of all time is Charlotte’s Web. I remember reading it over and over as a child, and I am enjoying reading it to my kids!!!!

  11. Loved reading the Little House on the Prairie series as a child. I’ll bet I read them at least 10times!

  12. Oooooh, would LOOOVE to win this! (Like everyone else here, right? lol). My favorite book of all time has to be “To Kill a Mockingbird”.

    megancrose at gmail dot com

  15. My favorite children’s book? “I’ll Love You Forever” have tissues ready if you’ve not read it. My older brother actually read it during my mom’s heavenly Homegoing celebration. Love that book. A close second favorite children’s book? There’s A Party in Heaven. Love that one too. 🙂

  18. I’m such a bookworm, this is nearly impossible for me. My latest good read was Ann Voskamp’s One Thousand Gifts. It definitely makes my top 5.

  21. My favorite book as a teen was I Am Rosemarie, a novel about a teen who grew up in Hitler’s concentration camps–kind of an Anne Frank who lived, as did her parents.

  24. My favorite all-time children’s books are The Little House and The Funny Little Woman. My favorite all-time adult book is Jane Austen’s Persuasion.

  27. I love The Giving Tree. Evan repeatedly ignored my instructions not to climb a low limbed hickory in our woods (he’d get about 20+ feet off the ground, on pencil-thin branches!) So I read it to him after I had to trim it’s bottom limbs, and he cried! I’ve never seen him get emotional over a book before. It was one of those moments that really stuck with me as evidence of his growing up. We had read it before, years ago, but he was too young to really *get* it, then.

    Great giveaway, Amanda!

  31. Wow…I definitely don’t know how to pick my favorite book…this year I’ve loved A Million Miles in a Thousand Years by Donald Miller and right now I’m enjoying A Homemade Life by Molly Wizenberg.

  33. The Chronicles of Narnia were my favorite books growing up and they still are! I never tire of reading them and I sometimes go back and read just my favorite parts…the end of The Last Battle brings tears every time.

    • ME, TOO!

      “All their life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and the title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story which no one on earth has read: which goes on forever: in which every chapter is better than the one before.” Makes me excited about heaven!

  34. My favorite book for moms and for kids is Let Me Hold You Longer. Such a special reminder that the little moments are just as monumental as the milestones.

  35. I have to say that the “Little House” series is one of my favorite. Not only did I love it as a child, but reading it with my [now teenager] oldest daughter was just glorious. The colorful language takes the reader back into the setting perfectly. It’s funny, now that I have children all in school I notice that this descriptive language is something they are trying to teach this generation…how can they learn it if they have never heard the beauty of it?

  36. This summer, I read Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese and it was amazing. I’m still thinking about the characters and the beautiful roundness of the story – you must read it!

  40. Holy cow – this is such an awesome giveaway – I would LOVE an e-reader!

    Favorite book – Where the red fern grows. LOVE, LOVE it.

    Thanks for a great giveaway and how exciting to be able to give the books to your child’s school

  43. We have really enjoyed the Magic Tree House series.

    Thank you for a HUGE giveaway. I would love an e-reader.

  44. My favorite book would definitely have to be The Mortal Instruments/Infernal Devices series. It used to be Harry Potter but I’ve grown and this is my new favorite 🙂 thank you!

  49. My favorite book of ALL time? Yeesh, that’s hard! But honestly, if I’m going to say a book that will stand the test of time for me, it would be a book of essays by Ralph Waldo Emerson. I’ve loved him since I was 15 and he will always reach a place within me that no other author can! 🙂

Hi there!


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