Check This Out!

Happy Monday, everyone. Back to the work week, back to the grind. Hopefully it's not too much of a grind! I'm actually happy to be back in school, even though the long weekend was nice. I'm looking forward to getting back into routine and working with my awesome kids at the Elementary and High School! But first, I have a few things that I want to share with all of my faithful readers today. Links to three different websites or campaigns I'd encourage each of you to check out.

First off, let's revisit the barnraiser I wrote about last week. There are only THREE DAYS LEFT to pledge to the Shepherd's Way Farms Kickstarter campaign to make some much-needed barn improvements on their farm. I did a post about this last week, which you can read BY CLICKING RIGHT HERE!  They have some seriously good thank you gifts for pledging. If I lived in Minnesota, some of the wine and beer and cheese tasting parties would definitely be my pick! Here's a blurb from a recent email newsletter they sent out about their campaign: 

As I was talking with some friends about our project, I was surprised to discover that they didn't realize that Kickstarter is all or nothing. When I explained that if we don't reach the goal, the project doesn't get one penny, they were so shocked. And it also renewed their energy for the project -- 'Well let's get this going and what are we waiting for!'  You are doing far more than just pledging to a project, you truly are helping support local family farming. Farming is a tough business and small farms especially rely on their communities to survive and flourish. Thank you for embracing all that we work for and for being part of what we do.

Brand new lambs born over the weekend on Shepherd's Way Farms!

So, if you haven't pledged yet, please consider doing so today! These are some good friends of ours and I hope you'll all think about helping them out. Here's the link to do so: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1054711590/shepherds-way-farms-build-the-barns-grow-the-flock

Ok. Next up. Many of you who read my blog comment that you enjoy the photos that I take and include in my posts. I really appreciate your kindness! If you like my photos, you'll LOVE the photography of my Mom! She's taken up photography as a hobby and has gotten better and better at it over the past few years. Recently, she decided to start a blog of her own to showcase her work! If you love photography, especially nature and landscape photography, you'll love her images!  Click on over here: http://adamphotography.zenfolio.com/blog to check it out. She posts once a week or once every other week or so. Here's a sample to pique your interest:

Farms in the Iowa countryside. Beautiful, no?

Next up, another philanthropy-related item. Some of you may know that I'm kinda into sports. This time of year, it's all about college basketball. Specifically, my Iowa State Cyclones. Hometown pride, guys! This year, the ISU Men's Basketball Coach, Fred Hoiberg, is participating in the Infiniti Coaches' Charity Challenge. Coach Hoiberg is strutting his dance skills, hoping to raise money for the charity of his choice, the American Heart Association. The video below is just for fun and to get people excited to vote for him. It's also just plain fantastic to watch a very tall, gangly guy trying to do some hip hop dancing! Check out the video, then click on over the ESPN website and give him a vote. Coaches with the highest percentage of votes move on to the next round and win some cash for their charity! Here's the link to go vote: http://promo.espn.go.com/espn/contests/infiniti/2015/index?next=home. You'll need an ESPN account to vote.

  I would also like to point out that Bill Self, coach of the Kansas Jayhawks, currently has zero percent of the vote. Boo hoo, chalk. ;)

So there's a few things for you to check out in your spare time. I hope you like or connect with at least one of the above! Now, to leave you with one last image to hopefully make you smile. My mother-in-law sent me this comic recently, and I thought it was kind of silly and funny. Enjoy, and have a great week, everyone!