Carraba's Brandon, Florida Review

My family and I decided to try Carraba's in Brandon, FL yesterday for lunch. We got to the place and I noticed a very strong odor of spices as soon as we walked through the door. My wife noticed a much worse odor as she used the Lady's room. Lucky for me, the Men's room was clean and fresh.

The waiter was nice, he brought the four of us two baskets of delicious warm bread twice. He was busy, but he tried to make sure our trip was good.

I ordered the chicken parmesan sandwich, with cherry tomatoes and cucumbers as a side. The chicken parm was dry, so I asked for a side of sauce and dipped the sandwich into the sauce. This fixed the problem. The tomatoes and cucumbers were good, but there were actually too many cherry tomatoes. I am not sure how anybody could have eaten that many cherry tomatoes, there had to be at least twenty five.

My son ordered the meatball sandwich with a side of mashed potatoes. He liked the sandwich, even though it was dry because he doesn't like too much sauce. My son had no complaints about his food.

My daughter ordered chicken carraba, which was supposed to be chicken alfredo. There were a ton of delicious tasting noodles, but only four small pieces of chicken. There was actually enough noodles that my son and I had to help my daughter finish them. I believe there had to be a pound of noodles on that plate, amazing.

My wife had seafood pasta. She had the right amount of noodles and seafood. I tried a shrimp, it was large and tasty. The meal also had mussels and scallops. My wife loved her meal.

If you go to Carraba's in Brandon, FL, make sure you order the more expensive dishes, they seem to be made better and are of better quality. The sandwiches were dry and my daughter's dish was lacking enough chicken. Lesson Learned. If I had to give the restaurant an overall grade, they would only receive a C+.

Family Honor Plate & Discussion Cards Review

About the plate: Step #1 MOM AND DAD - BE THE EXAMPLE. BE THE ROLE-MODEL: The virtues are listed in the center of the plate for mom and dad to use as their anchor, their moral compass to guide them in how they need to show up for and to their children. This is how our children learn what character (Christ's Character) is, what it looks like, what it feels like. Our children are watching us and learning from us.

 Step #2 BE ON THE LOOKOUT: Look for the good choices and attitude your kids/spouse are making and showing throughout the day. Track it back to the virtues and character it shows.

Step #3 CELEBRATE THEIR CHARACTER: Turn dinnertime into a celebration when you catch someone making good choices and showing good character and present their meal on the FAMILY HONOR PLATE. This is when you: · Talk about the choices they made and the virtues and character that it showed (Be specific). · Talk about how they made everyone involved feel and the impact they had on people and how that is POWERFUL and BEAUTIFUL. About the cards: Every question is followed up with "Why?" to take everyone's answers to a deeper more intimate level. That's where the magic is and the real conversation starts. So now when even a simple question such as..."What is your favorite dessert?" for example, rather than someone answering "Apple Pie" and then moving on to the next person, the whole family gets to walk down memory lane because it reminds them of Grandma Smith who always made apple pies with them when they came to visit." Her house always smelled of fresh baked pies and she gave the best hugs when we walked in the door." Communication is the key to connecting, building and maintaining healthy relationships. When we are raise our children to be confident in their ability to communicate with others and get their point across, situations are less stressful and they have better outcomes.

Okay, these are my two young children. I have a girl who is 21, but she is in college. Khloe is the artist in the family and she painted the Family Honor Plate. We actually made sure mom didn't see it and it is her present for Christmas from her children. This honor plate gave us a chance to give mom something special for Christmas. My kids are in Catholic school and they actually do some things like this in their school. Different, but somewhat the same. My son and I went to Metropolitan Ministries and worked all day. It was actually was hard work, but we helped people in need. The plate is special because what it says, but also because of what you do with it.

The discussion cards are cool because my children and I go through them and talk to each other. I was the stay at home (working father) who has spent a lot of time with his children, but as they get older, it is nice to talk to them, have questions that interest them and know what they are thinking about life. For instance what do you like most about summer vacation? My daughter it would be drawing pictures and reading. My son the answer would be he's out of school and he gets to play video games. The surprise this year is I changed their gifts for Christmas. Since children love video games and computers, I bought a bunch of board games to force the family to come together and spend time with each other. As we play, those discussion questions will come in handy. It is always good to know what and how other members of your family are feeling.

In conclusion, I do some of what this plate was meant to do, but it is always good to have a reminder the importance of your every day life with your children and your entire family.

LET THE LITTLE CHILDREN COME BIBLE TRACTS REVIEW

I'm sure you've been there, walking down the street and somebody hands you a tract. Most of the time it's cool, except when you receive something from Jehovah Witnesses, making believe they are trying to bring you to Jesus. I have never seen tracts for little children. I was interested in seeing what these gospel tools looked like.

# gospeltracts

Let The Little Children Come aims to provide effective gospel tracts and evangelism tools and resources for children.

It is the hope that these tools and resources will help you in conveying the powerful gospel message to children.

these gospel tracts are all specially designed to capture and hold the attention of children, while not distracting them

 from the core message of salvation through Jesus Christ.

 #FlyBy

What I noticed about these gospel tracts for children is they remind me of tools teachers use for Vacation Bible School. They are cute and simple, any child can show them to their Christian or non-Christian friends and introduce them to Jesus. Below is how the tracts look.

This gives you some idea what i'm talking about. You can also buy the TRACTS HERE.