Hershey Chocolate

Yesterday, I received Hershey's chocolate bars, along with a very powerful PR message.

I've enjoyed Hershey's chocolate for years. It's the only milk chocolate chips I use in my homemade cookies--and the Hershey's syrup is the only one my family has ever used for our "chocolate sodas".

But what I never realized is that they've been helping educate children for years.

Just take a peek at why buying Hershey's makes sense...

For the past 100 years, without even knowing it, you have been helping hundreds of students have a brighter future simply by purchasing Hershey’s. Send your child back to school with a Hershey’s treat so that they too can be a part of Mr. Hershey’s legacy to help give opportunity to children in need. To learn more, visit www.thehersheylegacy.com.

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This post was sponsored by The Dabbling Mum.

For more articles geared towards busy parents, check out The Dabbling Mum eMagazine.

Scooby-Doo Abracadabra-Doo Clip-n-Review

You've got to see the newest edition to the Scooby-Doo franchise. This is probably one of the best, newer films, of the decade.

We meet Velma's sister who has a crush on Shaggy and Shaggy actually tries to impress her by not being such a "fraidy-cat".



Read my full review here:
Scooby-Doo Abracadabra-Doo

Disclosure: I was given a sample to review. This is "my opinion" of the product. I was not paid to give a positive review.

You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown

Plot
An animated musical celebrating a day in the life of Charlie Brown.

Starring
Kevin Brando, Brad Keston, David T. Wagner, Jessica Lee Smith, Tiffany Reinbolt, Jeremy Reinbolt, Michael Dockery, Robert Towers, Bill Melendez, and more.



Review
In 1967, composer Clark Gesner created a series of songs based upon the Peanuts comic strip for a Broadway musical he’d later call “You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown”. In 1985, that musical became an animated cartoon, giving Snoopy a human voice.

The musical is a compilation of vignettes, or short skits, with the main focus on the songs—not plot. This special follows an ordinary day in the life of Charlie Brown, with Lucy trying to get Schroeder to marry her, Charlie Brown trying to fly a kite and later failing at Baseball, Sally confronting Ann Flanders about Valentine’s Day, Linus learning about nature, the kids writing a book report on Peter Rabbit, and Snoopy pretending to be something he’s not.



I really tried to like “You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown” but it seemed to be all over the place. It’s as though someone threw a bunch of skits together without taking the time necessary to create an actual storyline.

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The songs are all in tact. And as stand alones, they are cute and entertaining—which makes me think they should’ve created this as a sing-a-long tape, instead of trying to turn a two hour play meant to entertain adults into a 50 minute special designed to entertain small children. (It is my understanding that when the creators put this special together, they cut most of the plot in an attempt to keep the songs.)

I’ve watched the film a few times since receiving a copy to review and I have to tell you that I as much as I wanted to like it, as much as I had hoped it would grow on me, it didn’t. And I really hated Snoopy’s voice. It grated on my nerves and totally threw off his charm.

What is worth the price of this DVD, however, is the special feature. “Animating A Charlie Brown Musical” is both educational and entertaining. It’s a featurette about the live-action musical and how it became an animated show.

If you're a die-hard Peanuts fan, you'll want to pick up a copy of this DVD. Order You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown Today!

Disclosure: I was given a sample to review. This is "my opinion" of the product. I was not paid to give a positive review.

The Fence My Father Built by Linda S. Clare

This is a guest post by Tina L. Scott (formerly Miller). Tina is a freelance photographer from Merrill, Wisconsin with a passion for writing. She can be reached at PhotographyByTina.com

Book
The Fence My Father Built

Author
Linda S. Clare

The Review
Muri Pond had a Native-American father she can barely remember, a Caucasian mother, and a step-father she’d rather forget. Now she has two children—15-year-old Nova and 11-year-old Truman—to raise on her own, no job to support them with, an almost-final divorce, and a lot of questions about the father she never really knew who died before she had the chance to reconnect with him. So she sets out in a van into the Oregon desert with her children, almost all of their worldly possessions (include mattresses strapped on top of the van), and not just a little apprehension about what she will find in her father’s former home.

What she discovers is Aunt Lutie, a tough old lady who looks a lot like a bag lady; Uncle Tiny, who is anything but that; a somewhat dilapidated trailer home with lots of half-hearted add-ons set amid what looks like a junkyard; and a handful of pigs that Uncle Tiny treats almost like children. Her teenage daughter is horrified and wants nothing more than to turn right back around and head back to Portland—and Muri can’t really blame her. Part of her would love to do the same. Only there is nothing for them to go back to.

So instead she tries to make the best of the circumstances and help her newly found family members sort out the mess related to the land her father owned, his estate, the water rights to the creek on the property, and the lawsuit a neighbor brought against her father before his death—and to try to learn more about her father while she’s at it. In the end, Muri discovers a great deal about her inheritance and her heritage, but not before everyone in town seems to think she is the enemy who came to the area just to cause trouble.

There were parts of this story—particularly as pertains to the water rights—that got a bit redundant and seemed repetitious without advancing the storyline. But beyond that notation, the story was well written and included enough unexpected elements to keep the story interesting and free from clichés. I also appreciated the faith lesson interwoven throughout this story, because in getting to know her father (even posthumously), Muri helped fulfill her father’s dying wish—that she should come to know her Heavenly Father and love Him as he did, as well.

There were a couple of lines I just loved in this book, and I want to share them here, because it will give you a flavor for the book and the storyline. One is:

“Lutie said the devil ruled luck, that there was really no such thing, and it was just old Beelzebub dancing on your soul.”

And another:

“I didn’t really want to give up on God, although I wasn’t sure whether he cared to help humans or let them stew in their own juices.”

While neither of these quotes says anything significant about the storyline itself (so I’m not giving anything away), they resonated with me, and I thought they were very representative of the main character’s struggle to find her faith and figure out where God really fit into her life. And they were so aptly worded. They just really helped typify Clare’s writing style in this book. And they showed significant elements of the story’s main characters, as well.

If you love interesting, quirky reads that also contain an element of mystery and suspense, you’ll enjoy The Fence My Father Built. As a bonus, you’ll get to learn more about Muri’s family history and her journey to accept the faith that meant so much to the father she never got to know while he was still alive.

Order The Fence My Father Built Today!

Disclosure: The reviewer received a complimentary copy of the book to review.

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This post was sponsored by The Dabbling Mum.

For more articles like this, check out The Dabbling Mum eMagazine.