“My husband is in Afghanistan and a few ‘favorite things’ would brighten my day!”
How about that, Sisters?!? OK, Edie, please contact Living Proof Ministries at toll free (888) 700-1999 and give us an address. Please ask for Kimberly or Susan. Knowing what we now know, all of us here would want so much to send you to the beach…but, instead, we’re sending the beach to you. ENJOY!!!
PROCEED WITH CAUTION: this post will embody most everything you anticipate and perhaps even despise about women’s ministry. There will even be pink nail polish. As the great Professor Thornbury said a few weeks ago on the Twitterverse “something is not a stumbling block if you can see it coming.” So, consider yourself warned.
Colin and I just returned from a week at the beach in Mexico. It was crazy fantastic. I slept. I read classic literature. I also swam with a dolphin named Duey. And on the day I returned home I was greeted abrasively by a stomach bug and a crick in my neck so bad I could barely move my head. Oh, and then my 100 lb puppy Winston ate my over-priced prescription eye-glasses. But how can I really be frustrated with this bad boy?
Anyway, since this weekend was the Memorial Day holiday I scrolled through numerous tweets from people who were somewhere fabulous while I was at home with a bag of frozen corn under my neck. And I began to weep for the serenity of the ocean and my dolphin Duey.
But enough about me.
I want to talk about you.
I got to thinking that there may be some of you who won’t get a break this summer. While nearly everyone you know is off to some fabulous island, you won’t get a moment’s rest. For whatever reason, you won’t be able to retreat to the beach or the mountains or to wherever else makes your heart happy. We want to send a little fun and lots of love your direction so we’re doing a random give-away. And it will not include commentaries, concordances, or anything super useful or meaningful.
This giveaway is simply full of some of my personal favorite summer things including: Bobbi Brown Beach parfum (seriously smells exactly like the beach!), classic Ray-Ban aviators, Votivo Candle in White Ocean Sands, a pair of bright yellow Moleskine notebooks, Tea Forte’ Pomegranate Blackberry Iced Tea, and America’s Test Kitchen Best Summer Dessert recipes. See the contents below:
There are really no conditions for this giveaway. My hope, of course, is that this gift makes it into the hands of someone who simply can’t get a break this year and not someone who is heading to the Maldives or Bora Bora next week to stay in one of those little huts with glass floors sprawled across sparkling turquoise waters. But truly, if this gift brings a big smile to a single one of your faces that is quite enough for me.
So, please enter your name in the comments section if you could use a little sunshine in your world. We’ll do a random drawing and announce the winner at noon on this Thursday the 31st.
You are loved.
Melissa
What an incredible giveaway! It would definitely brighten my summer! – Vanessa Brown
Please enter me…Debi Bearden. Wow, what a nice treat bag! 🙂
No summer getaways for this girl. Our second bundle of joy will be arriving in a few weeks and we are committed to paying off my hubby’s student loans (Gazelle Intense, Dave Ramsey style) before we go on any exotic trips. 🙂
Having a baby this week so a little ‘serenity now’ will be nice!
Very generous and very fun for whoever wins. I hope its me 🙂
Looks like summer to me!! Weehoo!:-)
How Fun!! Thanks for doing giveaway- would love to wear Bobbi Brown’s scent and dream of the beach:)
Mary Eckert “could use a little sunshine in her world”!
This is a lovely idea. We’re moving to another house this summer (God willing) so that we use our townhouse to minister to widows and orphans somehow, probably in the form of a single mom with a family. Our family is truly blessed and we want to bless others.
What an amazing idea!!
So sweet!!
What a fun giveaway! Thanks for the opportunity.
Thank you!!
Thanks! This is a lovely giveaway!
How fun! Oh what I wouldn’t give for a day at the beach.
Carla
Oh how i hope I win! Thanks for the fun!
This looks great! I have a friend who could use some sunshine!
Love this post. Thank you.
How fun!
Uh me, who’s 4 year old is angry because she was talking and the baby started crying and interrupted her.
What a blessing this would be!! 🙂
I would love to win this!! It would be the perfect thing to bring me out of my funk!!
Nicole Rodriguez
Well to look on the bright side of catching the stomach bug at least you don’t have to feel guilty about anything you ate on your vacation … it’s all gone. It’s like it never happened!!! Happy Summer to you!!!
I so long for the beach
Would LOVE to have this! While I am constantly surrounded by lots of sand (I live right below the Sahara desert), I am nowhere near a beach! And I go thru sunglasses like they’re tic tacs.
Emily Shanahan
*Don’t enter me in the contest!* 😀
Just want to say that you guys rock! Y’all are so sweet for doing this.
Melissa, I’m sorry that you’re not feeling good! I’m just getting over some sort of somebody’s H2O Revenge, myself.
Hope you are feeling better soon! 🙂
Awesome giveaway!
woohoo! I’d love some summer fun. Please enter me!
~Denissa Churchwell~
Thank you!!! 🙂
Woohoo! You should call this the Lucky Dog giveaway! =)
What a thoughtful idea!!
Thanks!
Jennifer
I hope I win, as I will NOT be heading off anywhere fabulous this summer. But either way I wanted to say, what a beautiful thing to do. I pray the person who needs it most wins. And that you’re deeply blessed for thinking of this xxoo.
What a nice thing for you all to do!!!!
How thoughtful…count me in!!
Marybeth Dodson <
So excited to see summer right here. It’s like a Calgon moment, but for the whole season. Love.
I am so blessed and if chosen to receive this gift pack would look for just the right young lady who would benefit from the encouragement to share it with.
After a day like today, I could really use some sunshine! Darcy Abell
I’d love to win. Please enter me in the drawing.
How cool! All these things look wonderful. I’m due with baby boy #2 in less than two weeks. Then in less than two months, we’re packing up everything and moving from the moderate and lovely weather of Los Angeles to the heat and crazy summer of Dallas for my husband to begin seminary in the Fall… Between a toddler and a newborn, boxes and packing, and getting settled somewhere new, there’s not a vacation in our future for a long, long time. Thanks for the chance to win!
You have great taste, Melissa 🙂
I would love to enjoy all these sweet goodies, especially those yellow Moleskins. After some minor surgery today and looking at a crazy summer ahead of me, I could use some sunshine.
New town, new job, in the process of adopting equals NEED for a virtual vacation.
Love the basket! I’ll be dreaming of the beach this summer!
Oh I like you a whole lot Melissa, and I don’t even know you.
I’m due with our 3rd “surprise baby” in 3 weeks. And while I hear of everyone else’s fun vaca plans I have to remember that sweet little Baby Kasey (her name) was His plan for our summer 2012 all along. I have 2 precious boys that are 4 & 2, so of course I’m even more excited about a baby girl.
Love the beach and hoping that the perfume will be mine, but I’ll be ok if the Lord knows it will sprout envy in me and decides I don’t need it 🙂
What a great giveaway… Would love to win… Kim
Would love a little piece of the beach in my corner of the world.
Pick me! I’m not going ANYWHERE this summer, & I have an only child that will be bored out of her mind by day two of summer break. 🙂
Great idea. LOVE.
My mom would love this! 🙂
Something like this will be my “beach” this summer! No traveling with a sick husband and no vacation days after using them to help out with grandchildren while the baby had open heart surgery. Thankful that she is well now and the knowledge that our God gives us fresh mercies every day!