“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
Wow! This mom of two would love a GREAT summer giveaway. Thank you siestas!
I’ll be ‘here’ allllllll summer! And my 3 teenagers tell me I can be so ‘random’!!! 🙂 🙂 🙂
Great giveaway!
drawing winner 🙂
What a wonderful giveaway!! Someone will enjoy a big treat!!
Wendi McCarn
Melissa,
You are just wonderfully sweet! I for one will spend my summer working to keep paying the rent and the bills. When I was a teacher I lOVED my summer breaks. Now that I am not longer in the classroom I get to work all summer long.
I would love, love, love this summer getaway in a bag 🙂
Please enter my name: Bethany Silva.
PS. Calling all siestas to pray for me please. I have run the alloted amount of time for unemployment and am not working enough hours to meet the rent and all the bills. I need a miracle from the Lord to multiply the loaves and fishes of my meager income. I think that I need another job and have been on interview after interview but nothing yet. God’s teaching me dependency but I’m SCARED. Prayers appreciated 🙂
This is so NICE of you!
Being a stay at home momma this summer…finally!!!
Wow, what a treat. I’m going to see if I can find that perfume that smells like the sea. With kids in college, some home for the summer, we are going nowhere. For me, the best part of summer is resting and being with family. I’m glad you got a vacation. Our next vacation of sorts will be to bring kids back to college when we sleep one night in a hotel room before coming home. My daughter is in Richmond and it is my one and only chance to visit a Lifeway store in person, there are none in upstate New York. We just finished your James study and everyone in our group was blessed. We had sixty ladies from fourteen area churches. Thank you for your work and study to help us grow in Christ.
I could use some of that sunshine!!
Well…I am blessed to live near the coast, but our water is not beautifully blue! My summer will be spent learning how to relax after a long period of caregiving to my precious mama. Hoping to find my old self!
I live in Wyoming, but not Jackson. Beach is nowhere near in my future. Nuff said.
Jillian
Ooops, wrong email address.
Still Jillian
And I live NO-where near, nor am I planning on visiting the beach.
Hoping to soon get off of the mountain, though…
Love all the goodies. Would love to win this!
The Bobbi Brown Beach parfum sounds great!
Thanks for the chance to win!
Looks awesome!
My husband was diagnosed with AML in March and I am commuting to MD Anderson on weekends while working full time and taking care of 3 dogs and a cat. No beaches for me this summer!
How thoughtful of you!
Girlfriend, I completely understand your frozen corn situation….I had an epidural steroid injection on Wed (for chronic back pain) that led to a spinal headache ON A HOLIDAY WEEKEND….so I had the frozen corn on my head for 6 straight days! Praise the Lord that he invented the blood patch, which I got today.
Loved your post too!
Traci
Please please let it be me!
I sure could use some sunshine in my world!!!
Sweet!! Just got home from leading session 2 of the James Bible Study. Wonderful discussion!!
YOU ARE TOO SPECIAL!! NEVER BEEN AWAY. I DON’T THINK MY HEALTH COULD GET ME ON A PLANE.
not for myself but for Amy Lee
What a lovely idea…sunshine goodies. Thanks for thinking of it. Marian Brophy
This makes me smile! Thanks for the giveaway!
How fun, I love a give away! Thanks for planning it. I hope your neck and stomach feel better Melissa. Can your dog see better now? 😉
sounds great to a college nursing student! haha
Grateful for your simple generosity. Love does. Sigh I sense a gentle breeze in my mind.
Julie Lake…entering give away contest.
Blessings!
How fun! Please enter me 🙂
Mary Lee Riggs from York, PA
This makes me smile!
No Bora Bora for me. We’ll be waiting until our little ladies get at least out of the toddler stage 🙂
I will not be having a “relaxing” summer. I started grad school last fall (I would like to be a nurse practitioner). Anyhoo, I am taking two summer classes…AND…I’ll have 5 children home for the summer that will need shuttled back and forth to sports camps, swimming lessons, etc. Oh, and I also work part time as a critical care nurse.
That bunch of goodies looks amazing!!!
Great giveaway!
Amanda Benton, Roanoke, VA
Count me in.
Awwww! Thank you for putting this together. Hope you are doing much better.
So awesome!!! Even if I don’t win, I’ll have to check out the Bobbi Brown Parfum…. 🙂
Pick me, pick me! Love the selection!
No beach for me – finishing my full-time CPE residency with one 24 hour on call a week and completing the final research paper, graduating 2 kids – one headed to college and one headed to Dallas, marrying my oldest son in August (they’re in Baltimore, wedding here in Atlanta). Only problem – not sure I have time to read!
What a fabulous, fun-filled gift! This would just make any girls’ day! Please count me in!!!
I live ten minutes from the beach in Fort Walton Beach, Florida, and I won’t be going anywhere this summer. I am the Director of Preschool & Children and VBS is next week, then all sorts of fun for the next two months. My son is in the high school band (practices) and my daughter will be returning to Auburn in August. I need Calgon to take me away if nothing else! Ha.
Love it!
What a fun idea! Would love a vacation! 🙂
Heidi
wow! so fun!! 🙂
What fun! It’s nice to dream of a getaway!
Cool goodies! Sorry to hear about your stomach bug:(
sounds delightfully refreshing!