“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
This is an amazing idea. Helps me think of being thankful for the things God has surrounded us with , even when we cant escape to those faraway places that look so inviting.
Yay! What a wonderful idea. No need to include my name but just wanted to tell you that I live this idea! Praying someone will win who really needs this!!!
Oh now that whole package looks like FUN!!! Pretty sure this year our vacation will be a couple of days at the state fair. But then that’s always fun too!
Rebecca Coffee
Consider me entered…I’m not going anywhere this summer!
Thanks for doing this!
What a fabulous treat this would be to win! How wonderfully generous!
I haven’t had a vacation in four years, I’d love a care package!
Jaime Garrett ~ Wilson, NC
No big vacation plans this year. HOpefully next year! Great idea!!!
This is so awesome!!!
LPM is the best!
Fun idea!
Due to a divorce, I have to return to the workforce so I don’t have any vacation plans this summer! But that’s ok, maybe next year!
I have never won a thing in my life!!!!! I am ready to enjoy this one!!!! Thanks for making this fun with no requirements!
Sounds wonderful and much needed 🙂
Hey Melissa! What a neat giveaway. No beaches for us but we have learned to enjoy what “down time” we get. Some days it is 5 minutes of “vacation” on our front porch. God is good to us whatever we have. Blessings
Melissa,
Thank you so much for thinking about those of us who are unable to take a summer vacation. Would enjoy some time at a beach.
God’s best to you for blessings others.
Carolyn
Love everything I see and so enjoy everything LPM. 🙂
I soooooo love the beach! Since I was a small child, I always felt closer to God when my family vacationed on the Alabama Gulf Coast. I remember crying as we drove away, headed back home. I must admit that as an adult I still have the same feelings! There’s the cleansing of the salt in the air and the water and the soothing of the sound of the waves on the beach… Ummmmm, it brings a peace to me as I remember it all! Praying a blessed day for each and everyone!!
Great idea! Thanks for thinking of us.
What a thoughtful fun idea! So fun!
Thanks Melissa and LPM! Even the bag looks gorgeous! 🙂
Thank you for graciously thinking of others and sharing some of your happy gifts. God’s great kindness is so evident in you!
I haven’t left my house for more than a day trip for almost 2 years; sounds great!
Liz Bendo
Looks so fun!!
Looks like a wonderful gift!
Please, pick me!
Susan Taylor
What a fun idea! I’d love to be entered, thank you! ~ Anna S
Trusting God for my next move in a very difficult job situation, and knowing that no matter what, I am blessed! Focusing on what really matters keeps me going, and remembering that I am in the world, but not of the world. Blessings to LPM!
Yay! Just working vacations this summer, so working in pretty pink nail polish would be fun!
What a great giveaway!!
I will be one of the ones who will not be going anywhere this summer so I hop I win something. I am decluttering my house all summer.
I’m so excited about this! How generous! 🙂
Mckenzie
Pick me! Pick me! Pick me! (Whilst feverishly waving my hand) Happy Summer!
Well, I will get to go to Panama City Beach in July, but that trip is with my in-laws and extended family. I’m not sure if that counts as an exotic get-away, but I just wanted to be fair and mention that. 🙂 I will get to follow that up with a trip to CentriKid Camp with my two youngest children and then I will have to go back to work to get a break from my vacation. 😉
Hope you feel better soon, Melissa!
Our little family (girls 8,4) went to the beach a couple weeks ago for the first time in 4 years. (My husband was unemployed for two years and I home school, so we had no extra income for holidays.) It rained for 3.5 of the 5 days we were there…so we had a bubblebath party in the bathtub….it was nice to get away but so did not meet my hope to be kissed for hours on end by the sunshine and ocean breezes! Your generous giveaway looks divine and would totally make up for my rainy vacation! Enter me please!
THANKS FOR.THINKING OF ALL OF US WHO CANT AFFORD THAT OPPORTUNITY
So fun! Thank you!
My daughter’s dog ate my husband’s expensive glasses! I thought we were the only ones that knew of a dog that ate glasses! Bella also eats towels and carpet! Ha!
Fun! 🙂 You can enter me under Lindsay Neagle.
I will not be able (unless the Lord intervenes) to go to the beach this summer. This would be a great pick-me-up. 🙂
What fun!
That is an awesome summer collection of fun!
I would love to have a ‘vacation’–even if only in my mind. Too many medical issues going on with members of my immediate family (but then that is our ‘normal’). No complaining–but would love to ‘get away’ even if it is not physically.
I would love to win this! Six months and counting without a job and no vacation days leaves a lot to be desired! Thank you for the opportunity!!
What a great little surprise. Thanks so much for thinking of us all!
Sarah Wilkie, Roblin, MB, Canada
Thanks for the fun contest, Melissa!!
No vacations for me this summer; I’ll be tied up with a new job, that I’m starting for the first time in about 15 minutes… Eeps!!
What a sweet idea!
What a fun package! Thank you for thinking of those of us who celebrate summer close to home! God bless you!
Oooooohhh! I love it! Pick me – Amy Baranosky 😉
Sending our 14 year old on her first missions trip this summer to Chicago. Then packing our son off to his first year of college. No vacation for Mom and Dad this year. Lots of expenses to trust God to provide for.
What a fun idea 🙂 Love that you think of us!! We aren’t going to be going anywhere this summer but we are blessed 🙂
I need some relief…….no vacation in sight. Sigh.