Do you have any books lying around that you no longer use or need? I found a link yesterday for a program that pays you cash for many such books and they pay for the shipping, too! Check it out here.
If anyone has used this program before, I'd love to hear your thoughts. I usually sell our extra books on Half.com, but it often takes a long time for them to sell, if they sell at all, so the possibility of getting paid right away sounds great.
By the way, being the entrepreneurial sort of person I am, I'm always coming across different money-making ideas that wives and moms can do from home. I've been tossing around the idea of doing a whole series of posts on the subject. Is this something there would be an interest in?
Last week, many of you asked what we normally buy for our $35/week grocery budget. I thought I'd do a little photo tutorial to give you an idea.
What we buy each week varies depending upon the sales or lack of sales. This week, since there was a scarcity of good sales at Kroger, we opted - like last week - to only hit Aldi, CVS, and Walgreens. Here's what we bought at Aldi (I'm sorry for the wrinkled receipt!):
I always base our grocery list upon the current sales and what we have in the cupboards, refrigerator, and freezer and since I often have "stockpiles" of previous sales on hand, we never buy every single thing we need for that week while shopping. As much as possible, we follow what Meredith says here about stocking up on items when they are on sale at our "target price."
So, as you can see, the majority of our grocery money is devoted to produce and meat this week. I also had to buy a few staple items we were running low on, and since we were still under budget, Jesse got to pick up a gallon of his favorite Arizona tea. Who says you still can't splurge a little on a $35 grocery budget?!
Here's our menu for this week - straight off my scribbled down list posted on the refrigerator:
After our quick trip to Aldi, we headed to Walgreens. They were having two Register Rewards deals which we took advantage of. We rolled over our $10 Reward from the week before to buy the 2 Revlon hair color kits (these will go in our garage sale box), milk, and foil. Our total after coupons was around $1.30 - which I paid for with my Walgreens gift card that I've accumulated $$ on from past rebates. Buying the two Revlons generated another $10 Register Reward and we used that to purchase the cheese (on sale with the Walgreen's flier coupon for $0.99 this week!), foil, Puffs, and Alka-Seltzer. My total after coupons for this transaction was around $0.75 and the Alka-Seltzer generated a $6.99 Register Reward which we'll use for our next Walgreens trip. So, all totaled, we bought all of this for around $2.00 and left the store with $6.99 to use on our next trip: Our next stop was CVS. We ended up just doing one transaction and got all of the below (around $50 before coupons) using a small Extra Care Buck I earned from one of my previous shopping trip. And then we ended up getting $8.99 in Bucks back to use on our next trip.
By the way, you can get free Gerber Baby Food at CVS this week. It is in on sale for Buy 1, Get 1 Free and you can print out coupons for B1G1 here and here which makes them both free.
So, there you have it - a pretty typical idea of what we get for $35 a week. I always enjoy the fun variety that shopping the sales and deals provides. It gives place for lots of creativity!
And now, for a few more Frugal Friday tips, Loretta, who doesn't have a blog, shared these:
*Towels too worn to use for towels? Cut them up in the size of washcloths and hem them with an overlock stitch. You'll get more use out of them as washcloths. Then when they're too worn for that, use them as rags. They do great when it comes to cleaning!
*Shower gels...stretch them by adding a bit of water to it. I like to put gel and a little water into a small bottle. Makes it handier to use in the shower, too!
Here's one of our standby dinners that we use on weeks like this week when the deals at Kroger are sparse, so we only shop at Aldi. It's not the healthiest meal ever, but it is sure delicious and easy to prepare!
Ritzy Chicken
1 1/2 rolls Ritz crackers, crushed (I use the Aldi knock-offs - much cheaper and they taste the same to me!) 1 stick butter 2 cups cooked chicken, diced into bite-size pieces 1 cup chicken broth (I use homemade broth.) 1 can cream of chicken soup (or homemade cream of chicken soup) 8 oz. sour cream
Melt butter and mix well with cracker crumbs. Place 2/3 of crushed crackers on bottom of 9x13-inch baking dish. Place chicken over crackers. Pour mixture of broth, soup, and sour cream over chicken. Sprinkle rest of crackers over top. Bake at 350° for 30 minutes.
One thing which speeds up dinner preparation for me is cooking up the meat I need for the week ahead of time. This week, we have four dinners planned using chicken, so I boiled enough chicken breasts to last for all four dinners when I made the first dinner that used chicken.
I chop the chicken and then freeze it in meal-size bags. Not only does this save time, but it also stretches the meat farther.
Kathrynne loves to help me put the chicken into baggies.
I will be having our second baby in December, and I need lots of encouragement as I face this new season in our lives. I was wondering if you could post some of your daily schedule and the list of "weekly" and "monthly" chores that you do. I am learning to be a better homekeeper, and I really need some help in knowing what do to when. Thanks in advance! - Lindsay
Hi, Lindsay!
Thanks for a great question. I love talking about scheduling and organization, even if it is something I have plenty to still learn about myself! I think that different systems and methods work for different people at different seasons of their life. For me, right now, this is what works:
This is my home management center. It's in a central location of our home - on the kitchen counter - and it truly helps things run much more efficiently and smoothly.
The top binder is my home management binder. I keep it open to our daily schedule* - something I tweak about every 6-8 weeks at this season of our life. The pages are in page protectors and I use dry erase markers to mark each thing off as we complete it. I put times on it as guidelines, but I don't necessarily follow them to a tee. If I was up a lot of the night with the girls, then I usually sleep in later and so everything gets bumped up. Or, there will be interruptions that throw us off track. The schedule is just a guideline, not a slave driver!
In my home management binder, I also have a section for daily chores.* These are things which need to be done every day or a few times per week. I have assigned different chores to different days. These are also in page protectors and I mark things off as I complete them. I don't always get to everything on these lists everyday, but if I try to and do most of them most days, the house stays pretty orderly.
Also in this binder I have a page for monthly jobs.* These are jobs which don't need to be completed all that often, but do need to be done occasionally. Things like sweeping the garage out, or dusting the baseboards, or cleaning the phones, etc.
My planner is in front and always open to the current day. I write down extra things that need to be done each day - phone calls to make, things to remember, errands to run, etc. Anything that is not on our schedule which needs to be done is written down here. Whatever doesn't get done off of this to-do list is transferred to the next day. On the opposite side of the page, I write down extra notes for the day - like blog posts I want to write, business ideas I want to pursue, or anything else which comes to mind that I don't want to forget for the day!
The sheet of paper lying on top of my planner is just a temporary nutrition and fitness thing. I'm trying to lose the last eight pounds of pregnancy weight, so this is my personal help to keep me on track. I record what I eat for each meal, how much water I drank (since I'm nursing, I'm trying to make sure and drink plenty - I often can forget so that's why I write it down!), that I took my SuperMom vitamins (love those!), and that I exercised.
*As far as what our daily schedule looks like and what my daily and monthly jobs are, they would take up a lot of space to post here so instead, I've put all of those into a file and would be glad to send it to anyone who is interested. Just drop me an email - biblicalwomanhood @ sbcglobal.net (remove spaces).
There have been a lot of sad anti-child sentiments being expressed in the media of late by authors or individuals, who, riding on the coat-tails of Linda Hirschman, are looking for their one minute of fame. Yes, write about why having children is "evil" and you'll get people talking about you. However, considering that all of us were once children ourselves, I think it's pretty silly for one to make it their life's mission to say people shouldn't have children. I mean, c'mon, what if the parents of these same people had taken to the advice?
At the end of my life, it won't matter how much money I made or didn't make, what kind of house I lived in, what kind of clothes I wore, what kind of car I drove, what kind of job I had (or didn't have), or how far I climbed (or didn't climb) up the corporate ladder. No, none of these things will matter. How I lived my life as a wife and mother will matter. Whether I was faithful in the calling God has given me to raise my precious daughters for the glory of God - that will matter.
While the world opines about whether children cramp your style or kill your desires, or gives 40 reasons not to have children (Yes, there's even a new book with that subtitle!), I'll spend my days happily changing diapers, kissing owies, laughing at the silly antics of a two-year-old (who knew that one little girl could provide such much-needed levity in our home?), and saying, for the umpteenth time in a day, "I love you sooo much. You are sooo beautiful."
I wouldn't trade my life - humble and simple as it is - for all the high-falutin career women of the world put together. You can keep your fancy cars and your McMansions with perfectly manicured lawns and decorator interiors. You can keep your designer clothes and expensive jewelry. You can keep your six-figure paychecks and trips to Cancun. I have much more important things to do with my life - I'm raising the next generation.
All of you moms and moms-to-be will love today's giveaway. Generously donated by LovePrints, comes these Handmade Mom-Invented Baby Burp Cloths. Designed to keep your hands free of spit up and dribbles, this unique burp cloth would especially be great for those who have sensitive skin or who, like me, tend to end up wearing a lot of spit-up if we're not careful! You can read more about how the Handy Burpee works here.
Sheila McGoldrick, the owner of LovePrints, sent me three Burpees. One for Kaitlynn in an adorable girly print and two to giveaway. The two I have to giveaway are in a boy print and a neutral print. They are both adorable and would make a great gift for someone else, or to use for yourself.
The giveaway is now over with. Congratulations to Susan H. of Canada for winning!
Since we were down for six days, Jesse and I wanted to do something extra special to extend our apologies and to show our appreciation for your patience and longsuffering with us. We just had a rather large sale and weren't planning anything else like it for quite some time, but with the website issues, we decide to run a very special 48-Hour Sale:
This sale includes:
-Free Shipping on any order in the U.S. Use coupon code FreeShip when checking out to receive this discount! Click here to start shopping.
-And since so many of you tried to access the page and couldn't, we're going to offer you 48 more hours to order the All Things Home package and enter to win a free Belgian Waffle Maker. Details are here.
For those of you who haven't been able to access our website or blog for the past week, you were not the only one! After a year and a half of almost no downtime, we experienced some serious and bizarre website issues which lasted for an entire six quite frustrating days.
I won't go into the long and extremely complicated story, but suffice it to say, when we bought the domain name BiblicalWomanhood.com we purchased it from a different owner who had bought it from a very tiny domain company. We should have switched it over to a more reputable company, but we didn't think to. The domain expired a few months ago, without us being notified or knowing it had expired (I'm not one who keeps track of those things and have always relied on automated emails letting me know when things like this expire!). Last week, the grace period was up so our domain was pulled and the name servers were changed so that it couldn't be accessed.
Since it had expired, we had to buy it back for a pretty penny. We didn't work through all of these details until Friday afternoon and when we went to the bank to wire over the money, they said it couldn't go out until Monday.
At any rate, my profuse apologies for the frustrations this caused for many of you. A number of you emailed and a number of you figured out that our old domain BiblicalWomanhoodOnline.com was still working just fine. But I know there were many others who didn't have my email address and didn't know our other website address and so I am sorry that our website was down without any warning or explanation.
We gained some valuable lessons from the experience, though, so that was good. And God also used it to teach me patience and reliance upon Him. As some of you know, we're going through a difficult time as a family right now. The website being down for as long as it was requiring so much work and effort to get back up and running felt like one more trial in the midst of a lot of greater trials. The timing of it all seemed like God was trying to remind me - yet again - that I am not in control. I can plan my steps, but only He directs my path. He is ultimately in control and I need to rest sovereignly in His plan for my life, even when things are unclear or make no sense. So, the past six days have been a time of growing and learning, for which I am grateful.
Thank you for your patience as we resolved these issues. I can't wait to get things back to normal around here and to be able to do more blogging again. I have so many things rolling around in my head to write and share!
Caleb posted today about getting charged $171 on a return instead of being credited with $171. He could have easily lost $342, had he not been paying attention. His story reminded me of Bethany's post recently about being charged $245.52 for a .36 cent bag of alphabet noodles! Good thing she was observant and caught the mistake! I couldn't help but wonder if there was anyone else who bought that bag of alphabet noodles and paid a whopping $245 for it and didn't get a refund like Bethany because they were too busy to notice.
An easy way to practice frugality is by knowing prices ahead of time and watching the screen as items are rung up. In doing this, I've encountered literally dozens of times when I was overcharged for something. Just last week, I was buying spaghetti noodles which were on an unadvertised manager's special for $0.25/package. I had purchased two and instead of ringing up for $0.25, they rang up for $0.50/each. It really was no big deal and I thought about not saying anything, but then I remembered that the only reason I had bought them in the first place was because they were on sale. And so I said something and they fixed the incorrect price. It took a total of about 30 seconds. That's more than a penny a second in savings. :)
If I save $0.50 by pointing out an incorrect price every week when I go to the store - which is very often the case - I am saving around $25/year. That's not much, I know, but every little bit of savings helps. And often it's more than a $0.50 overcharge. Sometimes, like Caleb, it might be to the tune of $342! It really does pay to know your prices ahead of time and watch your monetary transactions like a hawk!
I mentioned last week that we always grocery shop with a calculator in hand. This not only helps us to stay within our budget, but it also helps us to spot errors and overcharges when we check out. If you use a calculator when shopping and you add things up as you go, you'll have a very good idea of what your total should be when checking out. If it's off by more than a few dollars, you will know right away that something probably rung up incorrectly and you can stop and take care of the problem right then and there.
Caleb's story also reminded of another great benefit that comes along with paying in cash versus with a card - your card can't be inadvertently overcharged when you don't use one in the first place! I know some people find cash cumbersome, but if you want to save money, I highly encourage you to consider switching over to a cash-only system. There's something about paying in cash as opposed to swiping a card which really makes you think about your purchase. We have saved hundreds of dollars by switching to cash only almost all the time. Try it yourself for awhile and see if it makes a difference for you, too!
Little Alfie was born when his 25-weeks-pregnant mother Nicola Delemere suddenly went into labour on a First Choice Airways flight from Manchester to Crete.
Flight supervisor Carol Miller supported Mrs Delemere, 31, as the little boy was born weighing just 1lb 1oz as the plane passed over Germany.
Then Ms Miller cleared Alfie's lungs with a drinking straw before carrying out mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and heart massage for half-an-hour as the pilot diverted for an emergency landing at London Gatwick.
Alfie was taken to St George's Hospital, in Tooting, for specialist care before being transferred to hospital in the family's home town of Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire.
If I remember correctly from your blog, your oldest daughter and my daughter are about the same age (she is 2.5). She is not potty trained yet, and with baby #2 due at the end of the year, I'd really like to focus on potty training soon and get her out of diapers. I've been looking online, and there are tons of websites out there that promote their method really working. I was wondering - did you use any particular 'method'? Or do you just have any tips for what worked for you? And around how long did it take for you? -T
I recently mentioned in the comments section that Kathrynne was potty-trained. From that little comment, I have received numerous requests like the above email begging for hints and tips and tricks on how to potty train. Honestly, I feel less than qualified to answer any of these since it took me much longer than I would have liked with Kathrynne, and I fell off the bandwagon more than once and lost precious ground. However, for those interested, you can read more about what we did here.
I posted asking for input from readers on this back in May (read the responses here), but since this seems to be a topic that a lot of moms are searching for answers and help with, I'm asking for input on this again from all you experienced mommies who didn't get a chance to share your secrets the first time around. I'm sure I could learn some tips for next time around along with the other moms who have written me struggling with this.
I'm cleaning out and reorganizing my coupons and have two batches of expired coupons (mostly 2-4 months expired) that I'd be glad to send to someone on a military base who can use expireds.
Email me your name and mailing address. biblicalwomanhood @ sbcglobal.net
I'll send these out to the first two people who contact me.
By the way, I personally prefer to send coupons directly to a reader from this blog as a way to bless them, but for those who usually throw out your expireds, you might want to consider donating them through the Overseas Coupon Program.
My friend and wise "older" woman, Homemakerang, has a great post here:
What am I trying to say here? Even things that seem "good" like church activities are still distractions to us. I am saying that your family (hubby and sweet babies) is your first mission for Jesus, not your Bible Study, not your sewing class, not blogging (speaking to me here!) not the Internet, not your choir, not your church meetings, not your group you lead and find so much fulfillment in.... Family first! Your mission field is your family first, then others. If one of these things is becoming bigger than your family mission you should really consider opting out of it after asking God what He would have you do.
I mentioned earlier this week that I enjoy reading books - especially starting new books - but that I have a much harder time actually finishing them. As proof of this, I took a picture of what my current reading pile looks like:
Don't even ask to see the huge basket of books in my room that I'm hoping to start soon. Or the two bookshelves of books I really hope to read this year...
I've tried the "only-reading-one-book-at-a-time" thing I've heard that many normal people do. It just doesn't seem to work for someone like me. I'm not sure whether that's a good thing or a bad thing, but I know one thing, I don't think I'll ever run out of good books to read!
I try to get in at least 15 minutes of reading a day besides my Bible reading. These 15 minutes are usually spread out throughout the day as I have a brief few minutes here and there or while nursing. I also read for about 30 minutes aloud to the girls everyday (10-15 minutes Bible reading, and the rest of the time reading other books) and we read together as a family as well. I almost always plan to read before I go to bed, but, that plan doesn't usually last long because as soon as I hit the pillow, I'm out. :)
How many books do you usually have started at any given time? If you do read a lot, when do youfind the time to read? I'm always looking for new ideas to fit in a little more reading to my day!
I've written a lot about grocery shopping on a budget. This week, just for fun, I thought you might enjoy "coming with us" as we did our weekly shopping!
We save a lot of money by planning our menu around the store sales and what we have on hand, but this means it's a little different where we shop every week. Sometimes we'll hit three stores that are each running more than a few good deals. Other weeks, we just hit Aldi and CVS.
This week was an Aldi, CVS, and Walgreens week. Kroger had no good sales to speak of, so we by-passed it and stuck our Aldi-only menu.
For those not familiar with Aldi, it is a discount grocery store. It is quite small and usually very inexpensive compared to other stores.
On $35/week for groceries, about $10 of that is devoted to fresh fruits and vegetables. We try to buy a lot of a few kinds and buying them at Aldi or on sale helps stretch the $10 fresh fruits and veggies allotment. (If only we could grow our own! Maybe next year!) This week we bought orange, red, and green peppers, carrots, cucumbers, grape tomatoes, grape fruit, kiwi, and bananas. Notice the calculator in Jesse's hand. I usually have the list and lead the way. He pushes the cart and tallies things up as we go along to make sure we stay within our budget. We've learned never to grocery shop without a calculator if we want to stick with our budget.
At Aldi, bags are not provided free of charge - you either pay for them, bring your own, or use empty boxes. Kathrynne brought her own bag this time and thought that since she had her own bag, she could fill it up... with M&M's of course! Another way to save money at the store: Teach your children they don't get whatever they want and whining about it won't change things. We're still working on that with Kathrynne! By the way, the M&M's didn't end up staying in the cart or her bag. :)
Kaitlynn usually stays contentedly tucked in the sling while we shop. I love this sling from Pretty Momma Slings - I use it at least 2-3 times per day as I'm working around the house and almost always have her in it when I'm out and about. I'll switch over to the ERGO when she's a bit bigger, but I love slings for when they're so tiny!
And we're finished!
The little shopper! We let her carry out a few of the items in her own bag. We always try to encourage her to be helpful and take initiative whenever we can.
We usually use boxes instead of bags to carry our stuff out in. Our total was around $33 this week. It might not look like much, but with what we already have in our cupboards, we have plenty too eat all week and some to spare!
---------------------- Have a frugal post or tip to share with us? Leave your link below!
[Website problems are being resolved - slowly, but surely. We at least made some good headway today with our domain company, but it almost all of my scheduled business time to make that headway. Sometimes these things can be so time-consuming! Thanks for bearing with us. I have so many blog posts rolling around in my head right now, but since I've used up so much of the business time fixing this website problem the last day and a half, it's left little time for other things like blogging!]
WASHINGTON - There it sits on your night stand, that book you've meant to read for who knows how long but haven't yet cracked open. Tonight, as you feel its stare from beneath that teetering pile of magazines, know one thing - you are not alone.
One in four adults read no books at all in the past year, according to an Associated Press-Ipsos poll released Tuesday. Of those who did read, women and older people were most avid, and religious works and popular fiction were the top choices.
The survey reveals a nation whose book readers, on the whole, can hardly be called ravenous. The typical person claimed to have read four books in the last year - half read more and half read fewer. Excluding those who hadn't read any, the usual number read was seven.
When I read this article, I couldn't help but wonder how many movies and TV these non-readers had watched this year or how many video games they had played? I know not everyone is replacing reading books with entertainment like movies and video games, but I would guess that most people who didn't read any books did watch at least one movie or a few hours of TV.
My problem has always been that there are so many good books I want to read and never enough time to read them all. I am terrible at often starting new books when I've not finished the other ones I've already started. I have set a goal this year to try and finish at least one book a week. This doesn't always happen, of course, but by making a goal to read one book per week, I've found I usually finish at least two or more books per month. Never as many as I'd like, but at least it's something.
By the way, on the subject of books, I admit to thinking almost all fiction is incredibly boring. I'd much rather read a biography or a book on business any day. Am I alone in this?
For those of you who actually figured out how to get here, my profuse apologies for the strange way my blog looks! For over a year now, we've been blessed to have almost zero downtime or server and hosting problems with our website. However, yesterday, everything with the beginning URL of BiblicalWomanhood.com went down and is still down despite many frustrating efforts on this end. We've isolated it to a problem with the name server on the domain hosting side and are frantically working to get it resolved!
Having website problems is very frustrating, to say the least, but made much more so when we know it has to be frustrating so many of you, as well, to not be able to access our website! The good news is that our backup domain website www.BiblicalWomanhoodOnline.comis working just great! It is a mirror image of BiblicalWomanhood.com but hosted through a different service so everything is working on it and should continue to.
So, the only link to access my blog right now is http://www.BiblicalWomanhoodOnline.com/blog.htm None of the pictures are showing up, though, because all of those are hosted on BiblicalWomanhood.com.
By the way, if you know of a friend who visits our website/blog on a regular basis and might not know about our second domain, would you do me a favor and let them know about our current website problems? I'd hate cause further frustration than need be.
Please tell me I'm not the only mom who has done this...
So, Kathrynne and I were eating homemade popsicles (er, icicles as she calls them!) earlier today and, without much thought at all, I took mine and let Kaitlynn have a lick of it.
Jesse saw me and just about flipped out in disbelief.
You see, I was the mama who didn't want anything that remotely even resembled table food near the lips of Kathrynne until she was over six months old. And I was the big advocate of "exclusive-breastfeeding-until-she-has-teeth" sort of person. And I'm the mama who happily nursed Kathrynne until she was 18 months old.
And yep, this same mama is feeding popsicles to her next daughter when she's exactly two months old. Okay, so it was only a lick or two of it, but still...
What has gotten into me, people? Is this the normal way a mother goes downhill? I mean, will I be feeding my next baby off my plate when they are two days old without even so much as thinking about it?
I guess at least it's good it was a homemade fruit popsicle.
I have to say, though, that this story isn't half as bad as what I did last week - namely, licking what I thought was white frosting off my hand. I'd just finished frosting the cinnamon rolls so didn't think anything of the supposed "white frosting" until I swallowed it. Um, come to find out, ittasted nothing like frosting but much more like baby spit-up. Not that I knew before what baby spit-up tasted like! Ahem, I do now, though.
Moral of the story: Never lick anything off your hands when you have a baby in the house. My only consolation is that it wasn't what appeared to be chocolate frosting! :)
One thing that we have found really helps set a peaceful atmosphere in our home is to have cheery music playing in the background. We play a variety of music - mostly classical music and CDs with hymn arrangements. I especially enjoy having hymns playing as it enables me to meditate on snippets of the hymns as I go about my daily tasks and find encouragement from the Lord through the richness of the words.
One such CD we have enjoyed is Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus - a beautiful CD of harp meditations. Featuring 16 hymns and spiritual songs including well-loved favorites like Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus, Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus, Be Thou My Vision, and many more, this CD will both soothe and uplift you.
Erin Cross, the producer of and harpist in Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus, has kindly donated one of her CDs to be given away this week for our Tuesday giveaway.
Giveaway is now over with. Congratulations to Jenny H. for winning!
Although surveys, polls, and statistics aren't the be-all, end-all, I do find them interesting. As was this one (Thanks to reader Angela for the link!):
NEW YORK - So you're between the ages of 13 and 24. What makes you happy?...
Spending time with family was the top answer to that open-ended question, according to an extensive survey - more than 100 questions asked of 1,280 people ages 13-24 - conducted by The Associated Press and MTV on the nature of happiness among America's young people.
Next was spending time with friends, followed by time with a significant other. And even better for parents: Nearly three-quarters of young people say their relationship with their parents makes them happy.
"They're my foundation," says Kristiana St. John, 17, a high-school student from Queens in New York. "My mom tells me that even if I do something stupid, she's still going to love me no matter what. Just knowing that makes me feel very happy and blessed."
By the way, as Anna S. said, is this any surprise? It shouldn't be, but I think we've lost sight of this in our current culture. We think heaping nicer things, more things, bigger things upon our children will make up for one of the things they need most - quality time.
I look down into her precious eyes. I see her smile. I hear her gurgle and coo.
Why me, Lord? Why did you entrust me with this precious gift? I'm not worthy, Lord.
These thoughts have been running through my head a lot the past few days. Some friends of ours - friends who were married soon after us and had twins soon after Kathrynne was born - lost their little three-month-old baby boy this week.
My heart breaks for this young couple. I can't even begin to imagine the pain, the heartbreak, the agony of losing a little precious child, a child you loved so dearly. There are no words to describe what the pain must feel like.
I look at my two precious girls - one scampering about the house, the other cuddled in my arms - and a lump arises in my throat. I don't deserve these precious gifts. I never want to take them for granted. However little or much time God gives me to be their mother, I want to be faithful, I want to make the most of it.
There are so many good things in life that constantly creep in to try and crowd out the best things. The good things can wait, being a mommy and investing in these precious lives cannot. Lord, help me to be faithful!
I find creative marriage proposal stories fascinating and this one certainly takes the cake. I guess you could call it rather visionary.
Though I like reading about humdinger proposals, I personally wouldn't have wanted one myself. And Jesse knew that, gratefully, and kept it very simple. His only goal was to surprise me - a feat that is almost impossible to do. He didn't manage to pull the proposal off without me having some idea that it was coming that night, but he did manage to blow me away by telling me he was hoping we could get married six months earlier than we'd been planning. Of course I said yes to that!
Anyone else have a unique proposal story to share?
Do you love all things related to home and family?
Do you like saving money?
Would you like a chance to win a free Belgian Waffle Maker?
Martha Green, from Marmee's Kitchen, and I have teamed up to put together a very special offer for all of you wives, mothers, homemakers, and hope-to-be-someday homemakers.
If all of my furniture is distressed and white but I can't speak kindly to my children, I might as well have plastic from KMart.
If my shower curtain hooks are rosebuds and my shower curtain is embroidered organza but I don't care for the poor, I might as well have mildewed vinyl and snap-together rings.
If my table is covered with Victorian quilted runners and cherub napkin rings but I don't show respect to my husband, I might as well have paper coasters and... well, just paper coasters.
If my throw pillows are beaded and bangled and fringed and laced but I'm not thankful to God for my daily bread, I might as well have lumpy pillows with the stuffing spilling out.
If I have a teacup from every decade arranged on delicate hooks but don't ask God what He wants me to do each day, I might as well have big ol' fast food cups stacked on the window sill.
If I have lavender sachets hanging on every doorknob but am not concerned for wounded souls, I might as well have unchanged kitty litter in my corners.
Last Friday evening when we were visiting our families (yes, I know, I'm a bit behind here!), Kathrynne had fun with some of her aunts and uncles at a little amusement park. This was the first time she's ever gone close to kiddie rides and not screamed in terror! This time, as soon as the ride was over, she kept asking if she could ride it again!
I loved her expression in this otherwise blurry picture!
We're still working on teaching her how to smile and open her eyes at the same time!
She was bound and determined to drive this car so we let her even though I was sure she wouldn't have a clue what to do when she got in it. Sure enough, not only could she barely reach the steering wheel, she couldn't figure out how to push the button to make it go and steer at the same time. Needless to say, after about 10 crashes into the wall, she finally was ready to get out and move on to the helicopters.
And little Kaitlynn sat nicely in her stroller much of the time. I can't believe how big she is getting! She has far surpassed Kathrynne at this age!
Sadly, we don't have a Rite Aid anywhere near us, but for those who do, Katie wrote:
I don't know if you have Rite Aid drug stores in the Midwest, but if you do, you may want to check them out. Up until a month ago, their prices were pretty horrible. However, they recently merged with Eckerd Drugs, and now it looks like they're trying to give CVS a run for their money.
By combining deals, coupons, and rebates, I have gotten many good-to-great deals over the past few weeks, on everything from lightbulbs to deodorant. I've been especially happy with Rite Aid's deals on high-quality shampoo: last week I got a free bottle of Garnier Fructis, and two weeks prior I got a free bottle of Herbal Essences. I didn't even have coupons; they were both free-after-rebate. I also like the fact that Rite Aid's weekly deals are typically different than CVS's, so I'm able to get lots of variety from my bargain shopping!
The only downside is that, instead of getting instant rebate coupons, you have to enter receipt information online and request a check by mail. Still, it's quick and easy to do, and more than worth the time. This August, I've spent 3.59 at Rite Aid, and come away with a whole cabinet full of toiletries, cleaning supplies, and non-prescription medications, much of which I've been able to share with others. -Katie
For those in California, Ruth shared this tip:
For your blog readers in California, the supermarket chain Save Mart has printable coupons on their website, including several for their healthier foods and products, such as Simple Green cleaner, SO Delicious Soy Ice Cream products, Tofutti products, Soy Dream and Rice Dream products, Purely Decadent Dairy Free products, Eighth Continent Soy Milk, and others, as well as produce items. These are discounts that are only available through the printed coupons, and they make the items much less expensive than health food stores or even Trader Joe's.
Granted, it's still partially processed food, but for a healthier, guilt free (or at least guilt minimized!) treat for the extreme crunchies or the lactose intolerant, it's a good savings option. The coupons can be downloaded by going here and then choosing the coupon option in the right-hand column. - Ruth
------------------- To join in Frugal Fridays, leave the link to your family-friendly frugal tip or blog post on any subject regarding saving money below.
What happened to the other twenty-two hours in my day?
Is it just me, or does having two children mean it takes longer to recover from going out of town than the length of the actual trip itself?
I remember back to when Kathrynne was little, I could usually have everything unpacked, laundry done, and be back into the swing of things within a few hours of arriving home from a trip. It's been four days since we went of town for four days and I still have unpacked suitcases sitting on our bedroom floor. Everyday this week I've woken up saying that I am going to "get to those suitcases first thing today" and then somehow it's suddenly the next day. How does that happen? I know there are twenty-four hours in a day, I just seem to be having trouble finding about twenty-two of those hours.
I am really going to attack those suitcases today - if it's the only thing I do! Besides, of course, feeding Kaitlynn, changing diapers, wiping up spit-up, changing yet another outfit, and doing laundry because Kaitlynn is out of diapers and clothes yet again...
Ah, life! Being a mom of two certainly keeps me needy before the Lord.
Kathrynne and Kaitlynn got to spend a day with cousin Cadence (10 months old) last week (how's that for a tongue-twister?!). They had a great time together and we got quite the entertainment out of watching them play together. It's amazing to see the difference just a few short months in age makes, though.
We tried to get them to all in the same position on the sofa - to no avail! Every time Kaitlynn pushed up, the other two girls weren't looking, so this was the best we could get. Poor Kaitlynn looks a little tuckered out!
For those who were interested in enrolling in the Fall 2007 Home Business Class I'm teaching beginning in September, the early bird discount ends tonight. The class is almost full, but there are a few spots left, so if you have not yet registered, do so by tonight and save $20!
If you don't have time to take the full course, but would like to sit in and "listen in" on the lessons and class discussions (all conducted via email to give everyone flexibility in their schedules, by the way!), we also have a few seats still left for auditing the course.
Culturally, the culpability in this case is much worse than this young gal's memory lapse. As a culture, we've done much worse than simply forgetting what motherhood means. We've willfully abandoned the concept.
The ideal - which rarely gets mentioned these days - is that in the best interest of the child, a mother shouldn't be preoccupied with work and finances; she should be preoccupied with her newborn.
Instead, we've embraced the lies out-of-touch feminists tell - the notion that women can have it both ways. They can have a career and a baby, and do both with equal competence.
And then there is the pressure society places on these young gals, which leads them to feel "kept" by a man if they decide they'd much rather stay home. And what about the governments, with the high taxes and a lack of respect for the basic institution of the family, what culpability lies with them? They have all but forced both parents into the workforce just so they can afford the basics of "the good life."
And then there is our degrading of children. We've cheapened their value. In the worst case, children have become a "burden to be avoided at all costs." And in the best of the worst-case scenarios, children are simply an add-on commodity. As long as they fit into our lifestyle and our career, they're a nice thing to have around. They make us feel "complete." Provided, of course, we have others to look after them.
It is this kind of cultural attitude that fuels our maniacal treatment of children, evidenced in everything from abortion on demand to the ineptitude of a career woman - or man for that matter - whose priorities have become so twisted that they can absentmindedly forget a child in the back seat of a car.
But when you really think about it, this bizarre phenomenon that is occurring with too much frequency - the trend toward forgetting little children, either in cars or in life - isn't that hard to understand. Because when motherhood is poorly regarded, children have no greater value than the commodities that adorn our cars. Should we really be surprised when someone forgets them in the back seat for the day?
These days you'll find me at home changing diapers, picking up toys, helping Jack make pb&j's (I do the peanut butter and he does the jelly), wiping spit-up off my clothes - and, here's where it gets exciting - going to Wal-Mart to purchase more diapers. (Hot Tip: I've found the White Cloud brand to be the best of the cheapest.)
My home is a long way from the community college campus where I used to serve as a ministry intern on behalf of my church - sharing the gospel and discipling girls every day. It's a long way from the offices of Covenant Life Church where I organized women's meetings and retreats for hundreds. It's a very long way from Hungary and India where I traveled on short-term mission trips.
I love my life now, even if it doesn't always seem as "exciting" or "significant" as what I used to do. Maybe that's why this thought from John Piper - from his book The Roots of Endurance resonated with me:
"As I write this Preface I have just preached to my people several messages in which I pleaded with them to be 'coronary Christians,' not 'adrenal Christians.' Not that adrenaline is bad, I said; it gets me through lots of Sundays. But it lets you down on Mondays. The heart is another kind of friend. It just keeps on serving - very quietly, through good days and bad days, happy and sad, high and low, appreciated and unappreciated. It never says, 'I don’t like your attitude, Piper, I'm taking a day off.' It just keeps humbly lub-dubbing along. It endures the way adrenaline doesn't. Coronary Christians are like the heart in the causes they serve. Adrenal Christians are like adrenaline - a spurt of energy and then fatigue. What we need in the cause of... [motherhood] is not spurts of energy, but people who endure for the long haul. Marathoners, not sprinters."
Being a wife and mother - or doing any other long-term kingdom work - requires us to be "coronary Christians." It requires faithfulness even when we don't see the fruit. It requires joy in the mundane, unglamorous tasks. It calls for confidence that God will bless our gospel-motivated labors.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- The Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary offers course work in Greek and Hebrew, archaeology, the philosophy of religion and -- starting this fall -- how to cook and sew.
Southwestern Baptist, one of the nation's largest Southern Baptist seminaries, is introducing a new academic program in homemaking as part of an effort to establish what its president calls biblical family and gender roles.
It will offer a bachelor of arts degree in humanities with a 23-hour concentration in homemaking. The program is open only to women.
Coursework will include seven hours of nutrition and meal preparation, seven hours of textile design and "clothing construction," three hours of general homemaking, three hours on "the value of a child" and three hours on the "biblical model for the home and family."
Seminary officials say the main focus of the courses is on hospitality in the home -- teaching women interior design as well as how to sew and cook. Women also study children's spiritual, physical and emotional development.
Yet the program is raising eyebrows among some Southern Baptists, who say a degree concentration in how to be a Christian housewife is not useful and a waste of seminary resources.
Wives of seminary students asked for the homemaking courses, said Seminary President Paige Patterson, a former president of the Southern Baptist Convention. Seminary trustees approved the program in the fall.
"We are moving against the tide in order to establish family and gender roles as described in God's word for the home and the family," Patterson said at the denomination's annual meeting in June. "If we do not do something to salvage the future of the home, both our denomination and our nation will be destroyed."
While you all know I'm not a big proponent of the modern college experience in general and think that there are many ways to learn to be a skilled homemaker without getting a degree in homemaking, I applaud Southwestern Baptist for this move and for realizing that without a strong family unit, nothing else in this world will be strong - including churches.
Personally, I feel that the best situation is for women to learn these domestic skills from their mothers or other Titus 2 women. Sometimes, this is not always possible, and for those ladies who are going to go to college, I feel it is nice that they have an alternative to the regular college majors. I think it is wonderful that a man can study for the ministry, and a woman can learn more about her God-given role as wife, mother, and homemaker. Rather than only having career-driven majors, I am glad that women have a domestic choice.
Time for another Tuesday giveaway! Today I'm doing something different and giving away two sewing patterns:Girl's Hankie Dress Pattern (size 12 months to 4T included) - This adorable pattern incorporates an old-fashioned hankie to complete each of the four designs.
Ladies' Regency Gown Pattern (size 6-18 included) - This Regency gown pattern is designed after the styles of the early 1800s and particularly appropriate for 1812 impressions and 1804/Lewis & Clark interpreters!
Giveaway is now over with. Congratulations to Karen H. from PA for winning both patterns!
