My Mom was a teacher.

That is a simple statement, but, the legacy my Mom left is far from simple.

Besides her family, teaching was her life’s passion, and she instilled in me a love of learning early on.

In her own words:

“My mission on earth has been to help people, whether my own family, my students, or those who come to me for ­enlightenment.”

“I hope I have made a difference in their lives.”

Mom, the differences you made in this world are beautiful and vast, the ripples you began are never-ending and continue to inform my life today.

I love you.

When I graduated with my degree in Communications and Creative Writing, my Mom was so proud. I still remember the day she surprised me with my framed diploma and a poem she’d written with all her hopes and dreams for my future. I remember that day so well and both the poem and the diploma mean a great deal to me.

As we move into Spring, we are coming up on Graduation Day for our friends and loved ones! If you are like me, you strive to find just the right gift. I learned a lot in College, both on and off the page, and it was truly one of the best times of my life. My nephew will be graduating from Boston College this season and I am so incredibly proud of him! I’ve watched him grow into such a thoughtful and insightful young man. He is not only very bright and a gifted athlete, but he has a wonderful heart.

Graduation will be a time to celebrate his achievements and him! I am sure that I have found a fantastic gift. Thinking back to my own experience, I am glad that I have discovered Church Hill Classics diploma frames.

Church Hill Classics was founded in 1991 as a home-based business in Newtown, CT.  At first, the company offered limited edition artwork of college campuses in the Northeast. Over 20 years later, they continue to thrive in the adjacent town of Monroe and their core focus is creating diploma frames and document frames for colleges, universities and professional associations all across the country All frames are handcrafted here in the US.

Perhaps you are looking for the perfect frame for your own college diploma, or you are, like me, searching for a very special graduation gift that will honor this momentous occasion.

If you haven’t found a gift yet, you are not alone. In a recent survey conducted by The Motherhood, 98 percent of respondents who have a close relative graduating from college this year haven’t yet purchased a graduation gift for him or her.

I think that a diploma frame is a memorable gift. After all of the time and money spent earning that degree, no diploma should end up in a drawer, forgotten about, or ruined. This can too easily happen, as the same survey revealed that 56 percent of respondents never framed their own diploma.

At Church Hill Classics, all frames are officially licensed and they offer an extensive selection of custom frame styles for more than 1,500 colleges and universities. You can choose from frames featuring unique, color-enameled medallions of the school seal or athletic logo, beautiful campus images, foil embossing of the school name and/or seal and even an opening for their tassel. You can also customize your frame with moulding and matting options for the ideal gift.

Here is the frame I’ve chosen for my nephew! This is the Presidential Masterpiece Diploma Frame in Madison with Black Suede and Gold Fillet Mats. This frame is truly stunning and elegant with a handsome flat panel in a gorgeous dark walnut finish.

And here is the frame in my home, where I am keeping it safe and sound until I can give it to him on Graduation Day! It’s even more beautiful up close and personal.

Do you have a love one graduating this year? A diploma frame from Church Hill Classics is a lasting and memorable gift!

WIN!

In addition to providing wonderful gift choices on their site, Church Hill Classics is also generously offering one of my readers a beautiful diploma frame (up to a $200 value). Simply enter below!

Disclosure: This post is part of the blogger program by Church Hill Classics and The Motherhood, who compensated me for my time. Opinions, experiences and photos shared here are my own, and I hope you enjoy them.

Are you a foodie? Do you love discovering new healthy snacks? Do you like surprise packages?

If so, then Love With Food is for you!

I review a lot of subscription boxes, but I have to say that Love With Food is one of my favorites!

Each month, you can have new all-natural organic snacks delivered straight to your door, and, I love the surprise of not knowing what’s inside each one. I have been eating much healthier this year, and I’m finding that as I exercise more and eat healthier, that the choices I might have made in the past don’t appeal to me as much. I find myself reaching for a piece of fruit or a healthy snack instead.

Starting at just $10 a month, you can choose from the tasting box, the deluxe box (double the snacks!), or a gluten-free box. Each is a curated package of unique, hard-to-find tasty snacks which varies based on seasonal themes. No artificial junk!

And, here’s something supercool. For each box, Love With Food donates a meal to foodbanks across America. This makes the service even sweeter!

I received a box for review this month and it really was full of great choices! This particular box was curated by Megan Rooseverlt, the founder of Healthy Grocery Girl and plant-based Registered Dietician.

What was in the box?

• Moringa Organic Tea by Miracle Tea
• Choco Chews by TruJoy Sweets
• Annie’s Chocolate Bunny Grahams
• Chocolate Banana Mini Snack Bar by 2 Degrees Food
• Hemp Hearts by Manitoba Harvest
• Roasted Chickpeas with Sea Salt by The Good Bean
• Sea Salt Bops by Good Boy Organics
• Almond Butter Cacao Truffle by Two Moms in the Raw
• Nutty Rice Bites with Cranberries by 180 Snacks
• Herbes de Provence by The Spice Hunter

Inside also was a gift card towards a purchase at Urban Remedy, some helpful information and a brochure describing everything in the box.

I was happy to see the Moringa Tea. I’ve been using Moringa powder in my morning smoothies and I love the healthy benefits I’ve been seeing. I’ve always wanted to try the tea. Dried Moringa leaves contain more than 90 different nutrients, including 47 antioxidants and complex amino acids. I’ve found that Moringa gives me that extra burst of calm energy to stay focused on busy days. The flavor is apple-cinnamon and it tasted warming and delicious.

The Choco Chews – vegan, gluten-free and organic – reminded me of healthy Tootsie Rolls.

Annie’s Chocolate Bunny Grahams were devoured here almost before I got to taste them, but I loved the crunchy taste. Kids love them!

The Chocolate Banana Mini Snack Bar was filling and solid. It tasted healthy with quinoa, chia and millet and I loved the dark chocolate and dried banana tastes together! I loved this one.

I added the Hemp Hearts to my salad. They gave it an interesting nutty taste. Also good on yogurt or cereal and a very good plant-based protein source.

I like savory as well as sweet so was happy to find the Roasted Chickpeas. I loved the crunchy sea-salt goodness and would pop these in my purse for on-the-go snacking.

Sea Salt Bops are super healthy potato-chip like snacks. Not my favorite, but, I liked them with hummus.

For a nice dessert treat, the Almond Butter Cacao Truffle was not too sweet but incredibly good! I’ll be buying more!

Another favorite of mine were the Nutty Rice Bites. I love crispy rice and these little bite-size clusters are so flavorful! I love the pumpkin seeds, almonds and cranberries! Simple healthy ingredients that taste amazing. I wanted more!

I used the Herbes de Provence in my mushroom omelette and they really added a nice zing! I will look for this as well. It’s a delicious blend of thyme, rosemary, basil, marjoram, sage, fennel and lavender.

Each product also has its twitter handle, and, if I like the snack, I love looking up the websites to see what other products are made by these brands.

Some I can buy online, some at Amazon, some at Love With Food online and I have also seen some at my local grocery store. This is such a great alternative to buying a whole bag of something only to find you really don’t like it at all or skipping over something that just happens to be amazing!

I whole-heartedly recommend Love With Food and have a special offer for my readers.

You can try a box for free (just pay $2 shipping) and get a box full of treats! Use this link to sign up for the special offer!

I can’t wait to see what surprises next month brings!

Disclaimer: I was provided a sample box for review, however, all opinions are completely my own.

It’s not easy to find delicious and healthy baked treats and mixes for yourself and your family, but, if you’re searching, ginnybakes may be just what you’re looking for!

A certified holistic nutritionist and health coach, Ginny Simon founded ginnybakes in 2010, creating delicious freshly-baked cookies, brownies, bars and baking mixes that are gluten-free, organic, non-GMO and kosher.

Ginny combined her passion for nutrition, active living and baking with a desire to help people everywhere lead healthy balanced lives.

I received a box of treats from ginnybakes for review with some delectable treats:

Chocolate Chip Love, Chococolate Chip Macadamia Love, Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Bliss, Coconut Oatmeal Bliss, Double Chocolate Happiness, Buttercrisp Love, Dreamy Vegan Delight, and Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Bliss Ginyminis.

Recently, ginnybakes was  recognized in Prevention magazine’s 100 Cleanest Packaged Food Awards,  the best, healthiest and cleanest packaged foods of 2015. The Chocolate Chip Love ginnyminis were chosen as a winner in the snack category, with their tasty and perfectly proportioned 150-calorie packs.

So, how do they taste?

Delicious!

They are buttery, crispy and crunchy and the Chocolate Chip Love are most definitely my favorites. My second favorite are the Coconut Oatmeal Bliss, and the Double Chocolate Happiness have a rich chocolatey taste. They really do not taste like gluten-free cookies at all, so if you or someone you love is gluten-free, this would be a really yummy treat! Even if you’re not on a gluten-free diet, these are crunchy bites of joy! If you like homemade crispy cookies, you’ll love them.

The current family of ginnybakes foods includes cookies, ginnyminis,  bake mixes, ginnybars and crumbles.

The packaging is attractive, well-designed and keeps the cookies fresh.

Ginnybakes treats not only taste delicious, but, all products are organic and handmade with love in a gluten-free kitchen and are free of artificial preservatives so you can feel good about what you’re eating!

Ginnybakes are available at retailers nationwide and online at ginnybakes.

Disclosure: I was provided review samples, however, all opinions are expressly my own.

I think I’ll call you Roomie 

When I was growing up, my Mom had a monster of a vacuum cleaner. It slept in the closet in the basement until some brave soul went to drag it up the stairs. Wheezing and noisy, it then proceeded to annoy everyone in the house. Dogs barked, babies cried. It was a mess! Heavy doesn’t even begin to describe it.

I still find vacuum cleaners to be fairly heavy, at least the one I have, and the stick vacuum I bought on sale really does a poor job picking up debris.

But, friends, Romans, countrymen, I am in love! Completely in love!

It amuses me that as I get older I can fall in love with appliances, but, truly I have. I had the pleasure of testing the new iRobot® Roomba® 870 which was sent to me by Best Buy.

Roomba and Docking Station

It’s a simple and intuitive set-up and the instructions are clear and well-written. Although it is technologically brilliant, you really don’t have to be.

I really am so impressed with this vacuum cleaner. It works equally well on my floors and carpet. With the revolutionary AeroForce™ Performance Cleaning System, it’s the most powerful iRobot Roomba cleaning system yet, with 5x the suction and it removes up to 50% more dirt, dust, hair and debris.

I had to test this out. Somewhat reminiscent of the door-to-door vacuum salesman, I had my bag of tricks to dump on the rug. It worked great on dustballs, hair, dirt, and tiny particles I didn’t even know were there. So very impressed! Featuring HEPA filtration, Roomba 870 traps particles as small as .03 microns, making it ideal for allergy sufferers and pet owners. Plus, the Tangle-Free AeroForce Extractors are virtually maintenance-free so hair jams and brush cleanings are a thing of the past.

The Roomba also comes with Virtual Wall Barriers which can be used to confine Roomba to clean a specific room or area.

What’s really cool is the way it cleans under my furniture, tables, dishwasher, drawers, cabinets and bed. In short, anywhere its slim profile can fit, it will go, while the spinning side brush is grabbing dirt and junk from hard to reach wall edges and corners. Seriously, it’s fascinating to watch. Or maybe I am easily fascinated!

It had absolutely no problem going from the floor to the carpet, and I love how it intuitively works its way out of jams if it gets into a tight spot. I’m amazed that it is persistent and will find its way in or out!

A really great feature is that you can schedule your Roomba to vacuum when it’s most convenient to you and I love the way it returns to its Home Base where it recharges in between cleaning.

It really takes up so little room and, not only that, it’s so quiet that you can listen to music, tv or have a conversation while it’s running. If only all guests were like that, and as tidy!

Fabulous Features

• iAdapt® Responsive Navigation Technology with cliff-detection sensors
• Large HEPA filter keeps dust, dander, and other allergens out of the air
• iRobot® XLife™ Extended Life Battery provides double the battery cycles
• Bin Full indicator light lets you know when the bin needs emptying
• 2 Virtual Wall Barriers keep Roomba in the rooms you want to vacuum & out of the ones you don’t
• No more cleaning brushes! Tangle-free AeroForce™ Extractors are virtually maintenance free, making it even easier for Roomba to tackle daily dirt build-up  and leave more time for you to enjoy your day.
• Roomba’s large HEPA filter keeps dust, dander, and other allergens out of the air – ideal for homes with pets and allergy sufferers
• Just press CLEAN or schedule Roomba to vacuum when it’s most convenient for you.

I can tell the air is cleaner. My allergies are not acting up since I’ve been using it and what a great feeling to leave and come back to a clean living room! Though, I have to admit that watching it is a form of meditation for me. As I said, I’m easily fascinated lately.

Boots, no problem. I’ll just head the other way.

In the past, when I heard about Roombas, I had no idea if they really worked. I was so pleasantly surprised by the superior performance. So much better than my old vacuum cleaners in every respect. Not only is it easy, but, it actually does a better job.

And, really, to be honest, the effect it has had on my health is priceless. I have fibromyalgia and stress and overwork cause flare ups. To know that I can keep my home clean without hurting my back or re-injuring my shoulder is wonderful.

I honestly recommend the iRobot Roomba 870 for anyone. It’s great for homes or apartments, for young or old.  Because it’s so easy to use, you can use it every day, not just when you have time or are in the mood. That extra time saved can be spent with family and friends or taking some ‘me’ time for yourself .

 Kick back, put your feet up, and let someone else do the work for a change!

 The reviewer has been compensated in the form of a Best Buy Gift Card and/or received the product/service at a reduced price or for free.

This blog hop is one of my favorites! Cooking and creating food and drinks for family and friends is something I enjoy immensely. Best of luck to all!

Welcome to the 2nd annual Let’s Mix It Up in March Giveaway Hop Event, hosted by Lindsey Blogs and Viva Veltoro. We’re mixing up March, with a bunch of awesome bloggers, by bringing you fun (and in some cases delicious) giveaways in this Food and Kitchen themed Giveaway Hop! Be sure to hop around to them all and don’t miss the wonderful Grand Prizes – a Born Free Bottle Genius™ on Lindsey Blogs and a Step2 Mixin’ Up Magic Play Kitchen at Viva Veltoro!

Here at Strange Daze Indeed, the prize is a Beanhead Ceramic Burr Coffee Grinder! I had recently received some amazing smelling coffee beans as a gift but I was unable to use them as I did not have a grinder! When given the chance to try  Beanhead’s new coffee grinder, I was more than happy.

I love my coffee whether it’s first thing in the morning to help wake up or shared with a good friend, some chocolate croissants and a good story!

Beanhead Coffee Company knows that coffee isn’t just a beverage. It’s a ritual, an experience, a process to achieving perfection.

Brewing that perfect cup of coffee is a science. The coffee enthusiast (aka. Beanhead) knows that creating the best cup of coffee is not only in the quality of the bean but how it is prepared. That’s why Beanhead Coffee Company strives to bring you quality equipment to aid in your pursuit of perfection.

What’s the big deal with manual grinders?

Manual grinders are the superior alternative to electric grinders because they:

*do not heat the beans during the grinding process which can negatively impact the flavor and aroma of your grind
*encourage you to grind in smaller amounts ensuring the freshest cup of coffee every time
*are much quieter
*travel easily ie. you can take it camping
*are easier to clean and store

Features:

*Unique Dual Bracing Arm Technology for a more consistent grind
*High Grade Stainless Steel – No glass means no breakage => Durability => Save $$$$
*Oversized solid S/S nut on top of grinder offers easy adjustment without disassembly
*Sturdy and foldable grinding arm for easy storage and travel; take it anywhere
*Lidded hopper – keeps beans from jumping out when grinding
*Sleek contemporary design without sacrificing strength or durability; Looks great on the countertop
*Wide base for extra stability. Ergonomic design for an easy and comfortable grip

I like this grinder. It’s sturdy, with a wide base and a comfortable grip. The grinding arm is foldable, making it easy to store or to carry with you if travelling. The container of the grinder is high grade stainless steel which is durable and strong and the design is modern. With no glass, there is no chance of breakage or chipping. It’s also very easy to clean.

The only minor issue I have with it is getting the exact grind. There is nothing to set, so basically it was trial and error for me the first few times. Now I know how many turns until it’s perfect for what I need and I am very happy with it. I love saving money and getting more taste out of my coffee!

Here is a helpful tip:

When you fill the hopper with the coffee beans and are reattaching the lid and arm back on with the knob, once it is almost fully closed, turn the grinder upside down, give the arm a quick jiggle and tighten the knob further. This gets rid of any coffee bean bits left in the burr if there are any at all. Then turn the knob the number of times that you like to achieve your perfect grind size and then grind away.

Amazon Link for the Beanhead Grinder

If you would like to win your own Beanhead Ceramic Burr Coffee Grinder, please enter below! Cheers!

Disclosure: I was provided a coffee grinder to facilitate my review, however, all opinions are strictly my own.
  So Easy Being Green, Viva Veltoro, and the Mix It Up in March participating bloggers are not responsible for sponsors who do not fulfill prize obligations.