Between now and Christmas, we have some really sparkly giveaways for you. So let’s not waste any time! Today’s sparkly giveaway is one of my favorite new finds at a favorite shopping spot in Rogers — Kate Austin Jewelry & Gifts. If you haven’t been there yet, you’ve got to go check it out. It’s in the Tuscany Square shopping plaza on Pleasant Grove Road, about a minute off Interstate 540. I’ve found lots of cute things at Kate Austin, including my favorite chunky bracelet, a sweet little necklace for my daughter and an insulated lunch bag for my son’s teacher last year.

During a recent trip to Kate Austin Jewelry, I found this unusual ring called the Staxx Ring. I’ve never seen anything exactly like it. I’d describe it as “Legos for ladies.” You build your own ring with various pieces. When you’re tired of that look or you put on a different outfit, the ring can change right along with you. Just take it apart and build it in a totally different way with different pieces or colors or shapes. It’s creative, practical and genius, if you ask me.

I had so much fun standing there at the jewelry counter building and then rebuilding different rings with totally different styles and colors. You know how sometimes you’re in the mood for something small and understated and then other days you want something big and bold? This ring totally understands those different moods and can change to accommodate them.

Below is a photo example of one of the Staxx ring gift sets. It’s called the “Garnet Gala” and it retails for about $120. But if garnet is not your favorite stone, don’t worry because we’re making this giveaway very flexible. The winner will receive a base ring and then get to choose her favorite pieces with which to build her own ring.

If you’re like me and you’re still in the thick of Christmas shopping, this ring might be a good choice for a sister, friend, mother or a teenage girl whose sense of style is always changing.

Here’s what makes this really nice for the average mom — it’s affordable. The individual pieces of the ring vary in price and start as low as two dollars. Or you can buy a gift set like the one above that has several pieces in it, kind of like a starter set. If you give the ring as a gift, then you could just buy a gift card for future birthdays so the recipient can choose her favorite pieces and add to her collection.

HOW TO ENTER: Since most of us are helping kids write letters to Santa or hearing from our teenagers about their extensive wish list, we want to know what YOU want from Santa this year. Yes, you! The mama! What would you love to find wrapped up with your name on it? Click the comment button below and write your wish or wishes. You can also e-mail your wishes to giveaways@nwaMotherlode.com.

As always, we’ll give you an extra chance to win for every friend you e-mail about the giveaway. Just be sure to put giveaways@nwaMotherlode.com on the CC line of your e-mail so we can give you proper credit!

Good luck in the random drawing! We can’t wait to read about what our fellow moms have their eye on this year. For more info on the Staxx ring and other accessories from Kate Austin Jewelry & Gifts, click here to visit their website.

Back by popular demand, the Tweens & Teens doctor is in! Motherlode’s newest monthly feature is designed to help moms navigate through the tween and teen years. Dr. Billy Jones, a child psychologist with Mercy Health System in Rogers, is our resident expert and go-to guy for answers moms need to know.

We all know how tweens and teens sometimes have big, emotional reactions to not-so-big things. And typically, it’s the mama who’s on the receiving end of all that drama.

In the video podcast below, Dr. Jones gives us a lesson in how to use the “Problem Solving Ruler.” It’s a technique he developed while working with kids to help them respond appropriately to problems and learn to deal with them.

Dr. Jones has used this strategy with his own son as well. This method can be used with kids as young as 8 or 9. Click the “play” arrow below to see the video.

Click HERE to print your own copy of the “Problem Solving Ruler” to practice with at home. Let us know how it works in your house!If you have a specific question you’d like Dr. Jones to answer, e-mail us at mamas@nwaMotherlode.com and we may feature your suggested topic on a future installment of Tweens & Teens.

Yes, brother, let me have joy from you in the Lord; refresh my heart in the Lord.

Philemon 1:20 (NKJV)

By Bro. John L. Cash, “Country Preacher Dad�

Well, here we are on the Sunday sandwiched between Thanksgiving and the beginning of the Christmas season. Most of us are feeling thoroughly thankful, and we’re beginning to feel the tugs of the “Season of Givingâ€�. So we should give something to a person we’re thankful for. Yes, it’s time to bake a cake for a soldier or a missionary!

Trust me, if you’ll do this, it will make your soldier or missionary very, very happy. I’ll even provide the recipe. This is a very easy cake to make, it travels well, and it’s bound to be a pleasant surprise to anyone who lives far away.

Easy Hershey’s Syrup Cake for a Soldier or Missionary

1 Stick of Butter

16 ounces of Hershey’s Chocolate Syrup

1 Cup of Sugar

1 teaspoon of Vanilla flavoring

1 teaspoon of butter flavoring (optional)

4 eggs

1 Cup of All-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/8 teaspoon of salt

Disposable aluminum pan for shipping

Cream the butter and the sugar. Add the eggs, chocolate syrup, vanilla and butter flavorings. Combine the dry ingredients (flour, salt, baking powder) and mix them together well. Then mix the flour mixture with the wet mixture. Pour into a well-greased 8� pan. Bake at 325 degrees for one hour. Cool it completely.

Tips: Bake in a regular, heavy 8 inch pan, not the disposable aluminum pan, and it will hold up better. Put the pan on a cookie sheet in case it runs over. After the cake is cool, run a knife around the edges to loosen it, and dump the whole thing on a large sheet of good plastic wrap.

Wrap the cake well and place it in the aluminum pan, and then wrap it well again. You may want to use some bubble wrap, too. You can enclose a can of frosting, paper plates, napkins, and utensils if you like.  It may help to put each food item in a separate zipper plastic bag, so things won’t leak if they get smushed.

(Now here’s a beautiful thing: The post office will give you a wonderful UPS flat rate box for free! The whole thing will mail for about $12, no matter how much it weighs. You can mail as many goodies as you can pack in the box at no extra postage charge.)

Dear mamas, St. Paul in today’s Scripture (at the top) says that we can bring joy to those who are doing jobs of service. Through our kind acts, we can refresh their hearts. Why not bake a cake this week, and get your kids — even the littlest ones — to help you? You know they’ll have a blast, and you’ll be teaching them at a tender age how to live out the Gospel by little acts of kindness.

Dr. John L. Cash is the “Country Preacher Dadâ€� * He was raised in Stuttgart, Arkansas, and is enjoying his 25th year of being a country preacher in the piney woods five miles south of the little town of Hickory, Mississippi. He and his lovely wife, Susan, and his sons, Spencer (age 18) and Seth (age 15) live in the parsonage next door to the Antioch Christian Church (where the Preacher this week mailed a cake to his dear friend, Sgt. Jeff Sibley pictured here, who is stationed in Iraq. Jeff, the canned peaches are to put on the cake if it’s dry!) You should write him at extramailbox@juno.com.

By Gwen Rockwood, newspaper columnist and mama of 3

When I’m not writing for the newspaper (or driving carpool, or doing dishes, or staying way too busy to exercise even though I swear I’m going to), I’m writing every day for a website. And last week on the website, we asked an audience of mostly women and mothers to answer a simple question: “What are you thankful for this year?�

Of course, I anticipated some of the answers – family, friends, good health, etc. What I didn’t expect was the sincerity and the bounty of those “thank you’s� and how those thanks were directed toward the source of all of it – God. Even in what are obviously hard times for many of those answering the question, people acknowledge and appreciate that God is taking care of them. (Click here to see those posted comments by local moms.)

Some of the women mentioned serious illnesses that either they or people in their families are facing – swine flu, cancer, recovery from an accident. Some of them mentioned job losses that they or their spouses (or both) have suffered through this year. Many of them mentioned that they are waiting and praying for a military spouse to come home from overseas. One or two of them even said that they had lost their home this year because of a job loss and a terrible economy.

Given all the hardship, it would have been understandable if people felt a little low in the thankfulness department. But they weren’t low at all. Despite the tough times, they seem to be more thankful than ever.

They happily listed their blessings – their husbands, children, parents, a home, a good job, their health. They focused on the big things – the things that matter most in tough times. One woman who lost her job and is struggling financially said she’s thankful to have working legs that enable her to get up and go look for a job every day. She knows that not everybody can do that.

Seeing those comments reminded me that, like it or not, we all need a point of comparison. Good times wouldn’t be nearly as good if we didn’t know the difference between good times and bad. They would all blend together with no distinct highs or lows.

Even though times are hard for so many people right now, the adversity serves as a contrast and highlights our blessings even more.

If you’ve ever had the stomach flu or food poisoning, you know how sincerely thankful you are when it’s finally over, when you feel good again. Suddenly, feeling good goes to a whole new level and you’re able to appreciate it so much more than you did before.

Mothers, in particular, are given a good sense of contrast. It truly is a blessing to carry a baby, but pregnancy does often have some unpleasant side effects – bloating, heartburn, nausea, hemorrhoids, back pain, anxiety. And then you go into labor and it feels like a Cadillac with elbows is passing through a small hole in your body.

But all that hard stuff sets you up for the most joyful of moments when you see the tiny face that has been growing inside you for nine months. I remember telling my husband that I’d give birth every single day as long as it was followed by that supreme moment of blessing at the end of it. There is nothing like it.

I sincerely hope that hard times haven’t fallen on you and yours this year. But if they have, I hope you overcome them and I hope the experience serves to heighten your joy in the good things that remain.

From my family to yours, have a blessed Thanksgiving weekend.

Want to read previous installments of The Rockwood Files? Click HERE.