As New Year's Eve is upon us, I find myself in a state of reflection over the past year. And it seems like I have a lot to reflect on for 2007!
It has, by far, been the most traumatic and difficult year of my life. From a move, another planned move that fell through at the last minute, two job losses, three months of unemployment and every single job opportunity being snuffed out, and the possibility that I might have a life-threatening disease coupled with a number of severe pregnancy complications.
Yes, it's been a difficult year.
I wish I could tell you that my faith never wavered, that I never questioned God, that I never worried about how we were going to pay the bills. But I'll be very honest and tell you that I wasn't this stalwart brave soul in the midst of all of this.
In reality, this past year I hit bottom more times than I can count. I learned that it's relatively easy to be cheerful and happy when times are good, but when it seems like everything is being pulled out from under you - your job security, your income, your health, even perhaps your very life - that's really when the rubber meets the road.
I remember how I felt the night after I was admitted to the hospital when all of my tests were coming back very strange and doctors kept coming in and throwing around words about this or that debilitating disease. Or how I responded when we got yet another call or letter or email rejecting Jesse's employment application.
There were many times when I would fall on my face and literally plead with God that He would take the struggles away. "Haven't I had enough practice in trusting You this year?" I'd beg. "Can't we just have a little breather here?" And yet it seemed the rain kept falling and the sunshine was nowhere to be found.
Why, God? How long, O Lord?
It isn't easy being clay in the Potter's hands. I think I know best; if I were in control I'd choose much differently. But that's why I'm not God. He knows the end from the beginning. From Eternity past, He planned 2007 to be a year of chiseling away at this crystal of His.
Through all the difficulties, I've grown and matured so much. I've learned to stop finding my security and joy in temporal things. I've learned to be more compassionate towards those with health issues, towards those experiencing difficult pregnancies, towards those struggling financially, towards those without a job.
I've learned more of the Father's love for me. A love that doesn't always give me what I want, but what I need so that I may become more Christ-like. A love that doesn't stop loving me even when I am questioning, fretting, and worrying. A love that wilt not let me go.
As we enter into 2008, only God knows what is in store, but I am grateful for 2007 with all its tears and struggles. I pray that I never forget its lessons and ever cling tighter and tighter to the Lover of my soul.
And I bid farewell to 2007 with the rich words of a hymn that has become ever-so-meaningful to me this year:
O Love that wilt not let me go, I rest my weary soul in thee; I give thee back the life I owe, That in thine ocean depths its flow May richer, fuller be.
O light that followest all my way, I yield my flickering torch to thee; My heart restores its borrowed ray, That in thy sunshine's blaze its day May brighter, fairer be.
O Joy that seekest me through pain, I cannot close my heart to thee; I trace the rainbow through the rain, And feel the promise is not vain, That morn shall tearless be.
O Cross that liftest up my head, I dare not ask to fly from thee; I lay in dust life's glory dead, And from the ground there blossoms red Life that shall endless be.
As we enter 2008, I am excited about some changes for our business and I'll try to outline them briefly below so that you can have an idea of what's to come and changes taking place:
1) As I've alluded to before, we are making some significant changes in our business. After much prayer and clear direction from the Lord, we will no longer be selling products other than our own from our website. This downsizing will hopefully allow more time for me to devote to our home and family and more time for me to devote to writing and blogging. I'm still in the process of putting up our simple shopping cart page - it should be finished soon! We'll be liquidating all of our current inventory over the next few weeks so if you are interested in scoring some great deals on God-honoring, encouraging products for your family, be sure to sign up for our newsletter to receive notice of these closeout sales.
2) Instead of selling a variety of products from different publishers on our website, I plan to have a large section of our website devoted to reviews of recommended products which you will be able to purchase from other websites. This will hopefully provide the best of both worlds - the ability for me to share about many products our family loves and finds useful without me having to spend hours of my time shipping out orders. This section of our website is in the works right now and should be available soon. I plan to update it weekly with new product reviews.
3) Since I will be freeing up a lot of my business time to devote to more writing and blogging, Lord-willing, you can expect to see more ebooks and books produced by us this year in addition to more blogging and more regular features on this blog. I receive so many emails every week literally begging for more blog posts or ebooks/books on certain topics and I'm hoping to have more time to devote to these.
Planned additions to this blog for 2008 include:
-Making Your Home a Haven Challenge - this feature from December was so well-loved and I've had a lot of requests for more of this so the plan is that every Monday I'll post a Making Your Home a Haven Challenge and encourage you to join in with me. I hope this is in inspiration to you all as you seek to bless your families and I also hope that it encourages you to get the week off to a good start.
-Getting Back on Track series - I confess that this is for me most of all. I've made a commitment to be more organized this next year, so I'm going to publicly share about my journey towards more organization in our home and in my life. I'll be tweaking our household schedule, our cleaning schedule, my home management binder, and more. I'm looking forward to the accountability and am hoping some of it might be helpful to you all as well.
-Home Education at Our House series - Since Kathrynne is turning three in a few weeks, we will begin doing more educational things as part of our everyday life. I hope to share what we're doing, reading, studying, learning, and so forth in a weekly or bi-weekly series.
-In the Kitchen - In an effort to help out those of you who are new to homemaking, I'm planning to start a regular feature on cooking and baking. This will likely include some of my favorite recipes complete with pictures and instructions. I also hope to post some hints and tips on menu-planning and stretching a limited food budget.
-Book Reviews - Each week (or at least every other week), I hope to share reviews of what we've been reading around here including books I've read, books I've read to the girls, and books we've read as a family. I've set a personal goal to read and review at least one book here per week. I usually am overly-ambitious when it comes to my proposed reading list, but at least I can aim high, right?!
-Hot Topics - I plan to delve into more hot topics this next year on an occasional basis including the Biblical role of women, feminism, what's an unmarried woman to do?, and more. I may very well close comments on some of these posts since I try to avoid contention and unprofitable debate here.
-Topical Series - I'm hoping to do a series for newlyweds, a series on Proverbs 31 as it applies to us today, and a series on women in the Bible.
-Guest Posts - It's been awhile since we've had guest posts around here and I'm hoping to revive that feature this next year. I'm especially hoping for some wise words from older women. If you'd be interested in having a guest post featured here, please email me.
-And of course, you'll continue to see the usual eclectic fare of question and answer posts, input requested posts, frugal tips on Friday, Tuesday giveaways, notable links, pictures of the girls, funny stories from our everyday life, random thoughts, and whatever else I might come across to share with you.
Thank you for being here, for your kind notes, constructive criticism, excellent and thought-provoking comments, and your suggested topic ideas. I always welcome your input and would love to hear if you have a topic you'd like to see blogged about here. Just shoot me an email.
Universal Pre-K isn't going to force you to send your child to nursery school. Considering the cost of preschool, I think gov't subsidised programs are incredibly helpful for low-income parents who have to WORK and can't afford to stay home and homeschool.
Lynn, I believe very few families must have two outside-the-home incomes to survive. With faith in God, lots of creativity and thinking outside the box, and the whole family working together with an entrepreneurial spirit, almost any family can afford for mom to stay home.
I don't just believe it can be done, I know from personal experience it can. My husband and I lived on $800-$1000/month (his part-time income combined with money I made doing various income-earning things from home) while he went through law school. Sure, it was tight. Yes, there were times when we didn't know how the ends were going to meet at the end of the month. But, by God's grace, we made it through without relying upon any government assistance or accruing any debt and without me having an outside-the-home job after we had children.
So many families today are in financial trouble as a result of a lack of knowledge and training. My generation doesn't know how live on less than they make because having quite a bit of unsecured debt is considered normal. Most young couples I've come across who are struggling financially were not raised with creative and entrepreneurial spirits, they were raised to use credit cards.
When people fall into financial trouble, instead of having to bear the consequences of their own mistakes, they often look to the government to bail them out. It is a viscous cycle; the more the government steps in and helps people, the more people rely upon the government, so then the more the government has to step in.
I believe it is high time we start learning to be personally responsible for our own actions and mistakes. It is high time we commit to get on a budget, to live on less than we make, to spend less and save more. And it is high time we start training our children to be wise stewards of the resources God has given us and to stop looking to the government for handouts.
We can't expect politicians in Washington to ever consider cutting taxes and government welfare programs until we stop demanding more help and start learning to take care of ourselves. Change in our society must begin with us.
If you don't feel like being disturbed in the midst of your quiet Christmas vacation, you might skip over this post
I didn't want to spoil your Christmas, so I waited until afterwards to post this.
As most of you know, I'm what you could call a "political junkie." However, since there are a lot bigger issues in the world than who you are voting for, I try not to delve into politics much around here. But every once in a blue moon, I just can't hold back. And this video did it for me:From Hot Air:
My jaw dropped when I watched this one the first time. Hillary's Christmas ad says nothing at all about Christmas. The gifts make the connection, of course, but check out what the gifts are: universal health care, bring the troops home, etc. All of the gifts are funded in one way or another with your money. And she's portraying herself as a thoughtful gift-giver by taking your money and giving it back to you in the form of expensive government programs, some or all of which you might not actually want or need. If that doesn't typify liberal thinking, I don't know what does.
This whole ad was just over the top, but the clincher for me was the Universal Pre-K. At the rate we're going, it seems the government is soon going to be dictating the parenting of newborns or just trying to completely take over parenting altogether from birth onwards.
Sorry, Hillary, but I don't want anymore government programs. I'd rather keep my hard-earned money and take personal responsibility for my actions, including the parenting of my own children. Thankyouverymuch.
Merry Christmas and some other random notes (because brevity is not my forte!)
I'll be taking a blog hiatus until at least the end of next week.
We're looking forward to taking a short break from normal life and will be traveling and spending time with family and friends. I'm especially excited this year as my whole family is planning to be together for Christmas. It's been three years since that's been the case (my sister and her husband were living in Taiwan the last two years). We're all staying at my parent's house so it should be loads of fun as we're quite the lively bunch when we all get together!
Before I completely go on vacation mode, just a few notes:
A Huge Thank You! Thank you to the many, many people who have kindly donated to Lizzie and her family. She thanks you from the bottom of her heart. If you've not had a chance to buy her ebook or give a love gift, you can do so here. God bless you all for your generosity. A Few Notes of Business We are in the process of making some fairly major changes to our business for 2008. Don't worry, we're not going anywhere, we're just changing our business model and website around a bit. We are hopeful that these will be good changes which will allow us to serve you better and, more importantly, will allow me to have more time to focus on our home and family. We also have some exciting new developments for both of my blogs. Stay tuned!
Winners of the Elsie CDs One more thing, the winners of the Elsie CDs generated by Random.org were:
I look around and see homeless people and sick children and crooked politicians and hungry nations and angry young people and bitter old people...and I wonder why on earth Someone would leave Perfection for such a dirty old planet as this?
I know we needed a Savior, and desperately, but to choose to come? To enter humanity at its dirtiest--poor parents in a barn, of all places--to endure the hardest parts of being human with only the promise of the pain of ultimate sacrifice?
Maybe Christmas isn't easy after all. Maybe it's as gritty and earthy as the darkest moment on the cross.
But OH, is it ever beautiful. It's as beautiful as any Easter sunrise, as victorious as a heavy stone pushed away from a tomb.
In one glorious, cosmic, explosive moment, the God of our Universe leapt into our messed-up world. Victory wrapped in swaddling clothes.
Christmas music is playing on our stereo, my gifts are all wrapped, cookie, muffin, and bread mixes are all made, and I've almost found the bottom of the laundry pile. Hurrah!
The best part of all is that I really and truly enjoyed every moment of my short stint of Christmas preparations this morning. And I'm looking forward even more to this weekend when I can give the gifts to their recipients, spend special time with family, and reflect on the greatest gift ever given to man - Christ Jesus Himself. Though He wasn't born on December 25th or even close thereto (despite what some of the Christmas songs say!), I love this season of the year when we take extra time to reflect on the wonder of His birth.
I mentioned earlier that Jesse and I try to keep Christmas really simple around here. We don't want to buy into all the commercialized hype which has, sadly, become known as "Christmas" to most of the world. We've wrestled over celebrating Christmas at all, but have come to the conclusion that at this point in our lives, we want to redeem Christmas in our home for God's glory.
For this reason, we've chosen to focus extra time and energy during the month of December on giving to others. We've found such joy in coming up with creative, meaningful gifts for friends and family members, all the while sticking with the cash budgeted in our envelope designated for "gifts."
Most of all, we've enjoyed looking for opportunities to reach out to those in special need. We found a family who was very physically needy and were able to give them some boxes of food, essential household items, gift cards, and cash. We found out about another woman who was spiritually needy and were able to reach out and give her some things to, Lord-willing, help fill this void in her life.
There are so many, many people who are hurting and needy. Sure, we're not floating in wealth, but compared to these people who can't even afford basic necessities, we are very rich. And as God has blessed us, we want to bless others. We also want to teach out children that, "It is more blessed to give, than to receive." For after all, isn't that the real meaning of Christmas?
"For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that ye through His poverty might be rich. 2 Corinthians 8:9
I have been praying about something we could do here during this season to reach out and bless a needy family. As I was praying and thinking about this, the Lord brought Lizzie and her family to mind. As God has blessed us all so much, I would like to encourage each of you to consider sharing from that abundance with Lizzie and her family - a family who has very little this Christmas season.
I first "met" Lizzie through Shannon a little over a year ago. Shannon posted a link to Lizzie's blog, I followed the link and I got so wrapped into reading her blog that I think I read the whole thing from beginning to end right then and there. Since then, many emails have gone back and forth between Lizzie and myself and I've gotten to know her on a more personal level as a dear sister in Christ with a heart to glorify the Lord, even in the midst of difficult circumstances.
For those who don't know Lizzie, she is a homeschooling mom of young James whose husband is incarcerated. I encourage you to take a moment and read her introduction post here. You will be touched.
Her stories and testimony of faith, hope, perseverance, and trust in God while going through hard seasons of life have challenged me time and time again. Most of us cannot even imagine what it would be like to walk in her shoes.
Lizzie recently quit her job to stay home full-time with her son. It was a leap of faith for her to do and I know things have been especially tight for her. She is working on setting up an online business and she just recently released her first ebook, Visions of Sugarplums: A Collection of Christmas Cookery.
I asked Lizzie if I might help promote her ebook on my blog, but I didn't tell her all the specifics because I wanted to surprise her and knock her socks off - as I know you all are more than capable of!
So, I'd like to wholeheartedly encourage you to buy Lizzie's ebook and to consider making an extra donation to bless Lizzie and her family this Christmas season. Lizzie's new ebook, Visions of Sugarplums: A Collection of Christmas Cookery,contains 50 recipes - from old family favorites to international treats. This beautifully-done ebook also includes charming quotations from classic books and authors as well as tips and cooking helps for Christmas.
It is filled with those exceptional recipes of holidays past. Including recipes like: Gingerbread Waffles, Warm Cranberry Punch, Sweet Potato Casserole, Moravian Cookies, Toffee Squares, Epiphany Cake, Julgrot (Swedish Rice Pudding), Triple Layer Brownies, Vintage Molasses Cake, and many more such mouth-watering selections. For only $7.00, you can buy this ebook and bless a needy family this Christmastime. All proceeds from this will go directly to Lizzie and her family, I'm just hosting the button below to make it easier for you to purchase.
Click below to purchase this ebook today for $7.00!
Raspberry Cream Muffins Streusel Topping: 1/3 cup brown sugar, packed 1/4 cup flour 2 tablespoons butter, melted
Muffins: 2 large eggs, room temperature 1 cup granulated sugar 1/2 cup vegetable oil 1 teaspoon almond extract 2 cups flour 1 teaspoon baking powder 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 1 cup sour cream, room temperature 1 cup fresh or frozen (dry pack) raspberries, divided
Streusel Topping: Combine brown sugar, flour and butter with a fork until crumbly; set aside.
Muffins: Beat eggs in large bowl with electric mixer; gradually add sugar. With mixer running pour in vegetable oil and almond extract, blending until smooth.In separate bowl whisk together flour, baking powder, salt, and baking soda. Add flour mixture to egg mixture, alternating with the sour cream; blend until smooth. Set aside.
Spoon one generous tablespoon batter into bottom of muffin tins. Divide half of raspberries equally among muffin cups. Divide remaining batter among muffin cups. Top with remaining equally-divided raspberries. Sprinkle each muffin with streusel topping.
Bake at 375 degrees F for 20 to 25 minutes. Let stand for 5 minutes in tins on cooling rack. Remove from tins to rack to cool completely.
I also whipped up some delicious Three-Bean Chili for dinner last night. I didn't have a recipe, but just used some stuff I had in the cupboards and let me tell you, both my husband and I decided that this was a winner meatless recipe - especially for how easy and inexpensive it is.
Saute a chopped up onion in a little oil, add in one can of Italian tomatoes, one can black beans, one can red beans, one can pinto beans, and one can corn (do not drain any of the cans). Simmer and add salt to taste. I think it also would be wonderful served over rice with some cheese and sour cream. Or with some chicken or ground beef added.
We keep things very simple in regards to how we celebrate Christmas here. One thing we have done this year with our girls - thanks completely to my mom - is to have a Blessing Box. This is something my mom put together for us back when I was a little girl and I fondly remember it!
My mom came up with 25 gifts that relate to some blessing we have been given from the Lord (such as winter gloves to remind us that we can use our hands to serve the Lord) or correlate to one of the attributes of Christ (such as a a small flashlight reminding us that Jesus is the Light of the World, or a small pearl bracelet to remind us that He is the Pearl of Great Price). She then wrote a small little devotional of sorts which would be at a two-year-old's level with a few verses and an explanation of the significance of the gift.
She typed up these devotionals and put one per day in envelopes numbered from 1 to 25. Then she wrapped up all the gifts and put a number sticker on each of them that corresponded with the little devotional for the day.
Every morning, Kathrynne gets to open up one present and then we read the devotional and talk about its meaning. Kathrynne has absolutely loved this and it's been a simple way to incorporate more Scripture into our everyday lives. It's also been a great way to have our focus on the Lord and His blessings in our life this season.
I'm grateful to have a mom who is so creative and thoughtful and always looking for ways to point her grand-daughters to the Lord. It's been such a blessing and worked so well for us.
Edit: Since some of you were asking, my mom sent me the file with all of the devotionals and corresponding little gifts listed. If you would like a copy to get some ideas from to do something similar in your own home, just email me.
Input requested: Occupying children on a road trip
Our family is going on a road trip in 1 week and I am looking for ideas to occupy the kids in the car (8, 6, 3, 2, 3 months). -Tina
Great question, Tina! I know that many people will be traveling - some very long distances - in the next two weeks, so I'm sure others could use some suggestions, too.
Before I open up the floor on this one, I thought I'd share a few things we did growing up on long road trips which worked well for us. Some of these are more applicable to older children, but hopefully these will spark some ideas for some of you.
1) Play the alphabet game or the license plate game.
Most of you probably know these but they are old standbys.
For the alphabet game, everyone races against each other to see who can find all the letters of the alphabet in order first by using signs along the road, license plates, etc. You could have every man for himself or have teams.
To play the license plate game, you want to be on a long cross-country trip. The goal is to find a license plate for every single US state (excluding Hawaii). First person to find all the states wins. Or, you could simplify it by sticking with a list of 10-15 states which are in the same region you'll be traveling.
2) Play a roadtrip "scavenger hunt."
Think of 15-20 items which you are likely to see as you're driving (animals, a bridge, a bus, etc.) and either cut out pictures of them and put them on a sheet of paper or make a list of them. Have a race to see who can find all of the items first. You could also use this idea but in a bingo format.
3) Sing a song for each letter of the alphabet.
Go through each letter of the alphabet and go around the car and have each person come up with a song which starts with that letter of the alphabet
4) Make up a folder of activities for each child.
My mom often did this when we would go on long trips. She'd include age-appropriate worksheets such as coloring pages for the young ones, crossword puzzles and mazes for the older children, etc.
One year she even included interview questions and we had to sit with a different person between each stop and interview that person with the interview questions she provided. We kept those interview questions and my sister found them the other day and we found the answers to be quite hilarious!
5) Listen to books on tape.
This is a great way to pass lots of time. My mom also usually chose a new book to read to us while we were driving and we'd try to finish the whole book during the course of the trip.
6) Plan some surprises.
My mom always did fun things like plan special surprises to keep things exciting. Every four hours we got to open a little present or choose a snack or she'd bring special activity books or books to read that were something new and she'd bring them out and hand them out when people started getting bored.
There are some other fun ideas listed here including I Spy, 20 Questions, and Name That Tune.
Those are just a few of my ideas. I'd love to hear from the rest of you on this. What do you do to occupy your children while on road trips?
Related: Lindsay has a great post up on making "restaurant kits" to make traveling easier. What a brilliant idea!
Please note: This will be the last Frugal Friday for 2007. We'll start back up again in January. Thanks so much for all the great tips and ideas you've shared this past year!
I know that most of you know about how you can get lots of free stuff at CVS. It's been awhile since I've highlighted any of the deals on this blog, though, since I usually do a pretty thorough weekly write-up on my other blog. However, this is a week you definitely don't want to miss if you live anywhere near a CVS so I thought I'd mention a few of the great deals here.
Here's some of what you can get free this week:
Free tissues - Use this coupon, a limit of one box free per day.
Free Johnson's baby care products - Use this $2/1 CVS coupon (a limit of one of these coupons per transaction) on items that are $2 or under. Check to see if you have any manufacturer's coupons you can stack with these store coupons.
Free batteries - Use this $5/1 CVS coupon (a limit of one of these coupons per transaction) and stack it with a manufacturer's $1/1 coupon. Many of the battery packs have $1/1 peelies right on them so be sure to check for those! Use your CVS card and buy $15 worth of batteries (that's 3 packs of the $5.29 batteries) and you'll get a $5 Extra Care Buck printed on your receipt which you can use like cash on your next purchase at CVS (there's a limit of one $5 ECB per card). Plus, buy three and you can get this tote bag free. Best of all, if you do multiple transactions, you can stock up on free batteries to last you for quite some time.
New to CVS? Click here to read my full dissertation on how to shop there and never spend much of anything out of pocket.
Want to get even more deals there this week? Check out this post and this post. -------------- Join in the fun! Have a frugal tip or deal to share? Post about it on your blog and then come back here and leave your link below so we can all be motivated and inspired. Remember to keep it family-friendly and to post directly to your blog post, not to your blog homepage. Thanks so much for joining us!
But, since I can't keep a secret for the life of me and I also wanted to make sure I bought the right one and Jesse was okay with me spending the surplus funds on it, I decided to surprise him out of the blue and tell him tonight. I was pretty sure he'd be tickled since he loves surprises like this. And I was definitely right about that.
I spent a few hours researching the best deals on a Garmin (since I knew that was the brand he wanted) and finally settled on this one. When Jesse called on his way home, I told him that I had a surprise for him tonight. He started pestering me with questions which I had fun fielding and not letting on to anything.
When he got home, I told him that I'd asked for some input on a Christmas gift for him and I'd decided what to get but I needed him to help me pick it out. He was still stumped. So I proceeded to read him my post (with a long pause between "What he really wants is..." and I made him guess what the end of that sentence would read!) and then showed him the one I picked out. He loved it and so we bought it on the spot. And he is super excited about getting it.
Do you know how fun it is to be able to do something like this for my hard-working husband and see him so excited? Thank you to everyone who encouraged me to shake off my frugality and go for it. Maybe sometime I'll be able to pull something off like this without telling Jesse ahead of time!
My husband doesn't have internet access today so he can't get on my blog. Because of this, I knew I had to quick get on here and ask for your input:
What should I buy my hubby for Christmas?
We have a budget of $50 for each other. He knows my usual aptitude for finding great deals and stretching $50 a long way so I'm sure he's counting on me to come up with something really great. But I am completely waffling on this one...
I could get him clothes. He needs dress shirts and ties and it's a very practical gift. But it's also boring and I really don't feel like doing something so bland and normal.
He likes books and I have his book wish list on my computer so I could just buy off of there. But that also seems very unoriginal. I mean, I seem to always get him books or ties or shirts.
He really wants a GPS system, but that's a wee bit over the $50 budget. I am seriously considering just using some extra money I have from some freelance projects I've done this year and surprising him with it. But I also don't have a clue about electronics like this so I might very well end up with the wrong kind or something like that. What would you do? Would you stick to the budget and get some old standby gifts, or would you forget about the budget and surprise him with the GPS?
By the way, what are you buying for your husband? Any other brilliant ideas for me? Any suggestions on what kind of GPS I should get if I were to go that route? And anyone know where I could get a good price on one?
If you are looking for a beautiful and practical planner to keep yourself and your family on track this next year, you will love Martha's Yearbook (see sample pages here). Plus, at $10 off, you are getting quite the bargain! Martha told me she's never offered it this low before.
Be sure to use coupon code BW2008 when you check out in order to receive the $10 discount. This offer is only good through tomorrow so pick up your copy while you can!
Thanks for allowing me a brief interlude in this Challenge to deal with my sick daughter and some unforeseen website issues. When I first started this Challenge, I had no idea what these weeks would hold! Thanks for bearing with me. Now on to Thursday's challenge...
1. Refresh Your Spirit.
I can't stress how important it is to begin your day on the right foundation - the solid Rock! You may not have hours to sit and study God's Word, but you can take a few moments to commit your day to the Lord, to soak up the richness of His Word, and to ask Him for strength and grace for whatever today holds.
How did the Lord encourage your heart this morning? Share with us!
2. Do Your Morning Routine.
Do you have a simple morning routine? If not, sit down right now and write out a short list of five things you'd like to accomplish in the same order every morning. Put this list somewhere obvious where you can reference it often every morning until you have it memorized.
Here's my list: -Get up, spend time in God's Word and prayer, write in my journal -Exercise (Right now my goal is to do Pilates and stair-stepping for 30 minutes every week day.) -Shower and get dressed to my shoes (Thanks to FLyLady's encouragement, I've learned to love wearing shoes.) -Start a load of laundry. -Spend 15 minutes with Jesse.
What's your morning routine? Post it if you've not done so already!
3. Take Time to Plan.
What's on your to-do list today? If you don't already have a short to-do list written out, take a moment to write one out right now. Keep it to 10 items or less and then number them in order of importance and work on them in that order. Don't start on #2 until #1 is done. And so forth.
Share your to-do list on your blog today and keep us posted on your progress!
4. What's On The Menu for Dinner?
Do you have dinner planned and prepared? If not, pull something out of the freezer, stick something in the crockpot, whip up a casserole, or get as much prep. work done as you can for dinner.
Post what you're making (or made) for dinner if you have a chance!
5. Project of the Day.
Put on an apron, light some candles, roll up your sleeves, and let's get to work! Today's project is the bedrooms. You can either choose to tackle all of the bedrooms, or you can just pick the one which needs the most work and start there. Set the timer for 15 minutes and do a quick pick up, declutter and throw out trash, do a quick dust and vacuum, and you're done!
Take before and after pictures of the bedroom(s) you clean and share them on your blog. Graphic from Art.com -------------------------- Join in the fun! If you have time, blog about what you accomplish today including before and after pictures, if you'd like. Leave your link to your blog post below. Let's all inspire one another on to making our homes a haven for our families!
While in San Antonio for the Independent Christian Film Festival, we had the privilege of getting to meet and eat lunch with the Mantuefel family.
I especially loved getting to meet Laurie Manteufel - energetic and vivacious mom of seven who so warmly welcomed us into their home at a moment's notice. What an example of a loving wife and mother and hospitable woman she was!
In the course of our conversations that afternoon, I heard her mention something about her new recording. My ears perked up.
I have to confess to having never read any of the Elsie Dinsmore books, but when I started listening to this CD, I was thoroughly engaged. Laurie's reading of this book just enraptures you. I promise you'll have a hard time turning it off! (Listen to a sample clip here.)
Vintage Voice Recordings has kindly given us three copies of this CD to give away. Please note that these CDs are MP3 audio tracks so they only can be played on an MP3 compatible CD player.
To enter to win a copy of Elsie's Womanhood Audio book recording:
:: Leave a comment below with your name. Also, let me know whether you have a Mac or a PC. (This will determine which CD should be sent to you should you win!)
:: I'll leave comments open until Monday of next week and will choose three winners and post them shortly thereafter.
Congratulations! Email me your shipping address and we'll get this sent right out to you.
For those who didn't win, Marie-Madeline Studios just released a pattern for their beautiful aprons. Buy your copy here.
Also, you can order a pre-made apron in their shop here and get free shipping through the end of December. Just mention my blog when you order to receive the shipping discount.
For those of you who don't frequent Money Saving Mom, I thought you might enjoy the post below which I'm cross-posting from there. By the way, I don't link over there very often, but if you like to save money (who doesn't?) or enjoy getting free stuff, or like discussions related to frugality, be sure to check in there every once in a while.
I've seen a whole lot of gift-buying guides around the blogosphere, but this one was classic - in more ways than one.
We're not big into toys for our girls, especially since they are both under three. We love our daughters, we sacrifice for them everyday, and we spend lots of time with them. But we've decided early on not to lavish them with gadgets and gizmos and heaps upon heaps of stuff.
So far, Kathrynne (almost 3) seems happy as can be without a boatload of toys. She enjoys her Legos and dolls, but more often than not, you'll find her happily engaged in writing, drawing, coloring, cutting, or looking at picture books. Her most favorite thing of all is to spend time working alongside me or playing with her younger sister.
I guess you could call me old-fashioned but I believe your presence is much more important than your presents. Making memories and spending time together with your children is more valuable than all the stuff money can buy.
So, for those of you frantically trying to come up with something to give to that little child in your life, I'm not saying you shouldn't give them toys, but remember that they might just as well enjoy a toilet paper tube, or a paper grocery bag, or a simple cardboard box.
------------- On a related note, I've been asked repeatedly recently to share on meaningful gifts and books I would recommend for young children. I've not had a chance to put together that post yet (maybe I still will get it done before Christmas!) but I'd love to hear from you all on this subject.
What ideas do you have for meaningful gifts for children? I'd also love to hear what meaningful things you are doing to celebrate the season at your home and to make Christ the center and focus of this season.
This got me thinking: does marital fidelity have anything to do with political performance? And should marital infidelity be cause for impeachment or resignation from office?
The answer is yes, and lies in the nature of the two offices.
The marital bond is a sacred union between one man and one woman for life. When one marries, he or she vows before God to love, honor, and cherish his or her spouse until death do them part.
Noah Webster defined a vow as "A solemn promise; as the vows of unchangable love and fidelity In a moral and religious sense, vows are promises to God, as they appeal to God to witness their sincerity, and the violation of them is a most hainous [sic] offense."
Similarly, when a public office-holder takes office, he or she takes an oath, a solemn vow, to uphold the Constitution and effectively carry out the duties of that office. They also end that vow with a petition to Almighty God for assistance in doing so--"So help me God."
Are there telltale signs I should be looking for? Kaitlynn's very congested, coughing, running a fever, and quite fussy most of the time right now, especially at night. I was just attributing all this to teething since her gums are very swollen and it's obvious they hurt. However, I'm wondering if maybe she has something besides just a bad case of teething? Thoughts?
Also, since Kaitlynn is still nursing exclusively, I'm trying to take a lot of immune boosters and probiotics which I'm hoping will benefit her. Any thoughts or suggestions there?
Thanks for your help! I feel like this is whole new territory for us since Kathrynne's teething only lasted a short while and was helped tremendously by simply giving her Orajel and a little pain reliever here and there. Kaitlynn has been a completely different story...
Since I'm a bit behind around here due to Kaitlynn's teething issues, I'm going to keep this challenge short and sweet. In addition to spending some time refreshing your spirit in the Lord, doing your morning routine, making out a simple prioritized to-do list for the day, and preparing dinner by noon, your challenge today is to either:
1) Clean out, declutter, and organize a drawer, shelf, or closet.
2) Tackle a project you've been procrastinating on for too long.
Or, you can do both!
If you have time, blog about what you accomplish today including before and after pictures, if you'd like. Leave your link to your blog post below. Let's all inspire one another on to making our homes a haven for our families!
We had a late start this morning since I was up every 30-45 minutes last night with Kaitlynn who is miserably teething. Poor thing - she has just about every teething symptom in the book: Fever, runny nose, cough, swollen gums, loose stools, drooling, trying to chew on everything... She especially has trouble getting any sleep and we've tried every remedy we know of so far and nothing is giving her much relief aside from mommy holding her and rocking her. If you have any thoughts or ideas for us, I'd welcome them - I'm sure there's something we've not thought of yet!
Instead of following our usual schedule, I decided to just stick with a simplified version of it, leaving out specified times so that we had room for more flexibility:
-Devotions -Morning routine -Morning chores -Make dinner -Lunch -Girls down for naps -Business and computer work -Clean up and table set -Dinner -Family time -Girls to bed -Blogging
Going into the day with low expectations really helped since I knew that Kaitlynn was probably going to need lots of extra loving and attention - which she did.
For our morning chores, we tackled the kitchen. For the sake of full disclosure and being real, here's the before picture - yes, we live here!
Don't ask me what the hair brush or the clothes hanger are doing on the kitchen table! I'm not even sure where they came from. And you can also get a peek at my pink laptop!
While I cleaned up the kitchen, Kathrynne busied herself with having a little tea party on the floor.
She's wearing her Extend-a-Bib from Seams of Love which I just love and she does, too. She thinks it's pretty and I think it's not only pretty, it's practical as it means less clothes she stains which equals fewer need for changing her clothes with the end result of less laundry.
I washed the dishes and dried and put them away, wiped down the countertops and cabinet doors with Basic H, put everything away that was out of place (like the hair brush and hanger!), and swept and mopped the floor.
Ah, much nicer! (And please don't pay any attention to the fact that this is actually a picture I took and posted a few days ago. I promise I did get the kitchen looking like this again today, I just didn't have a chance to get a picture. So we'll just pretend this one is the "after" picture!)
Once the kitchen was clean, we made a really simple dinner of homemade bread (I made the dough in the bread machine of course!), green beans, and homemade macaroni and cheese. Yum!
And I just couldn't resist posting this picture which was taken on Thanksgiving and never got posted here. It makes me miss my happy contented little girl. I sure hope those teeth pop through soon!
I hope you all enjoyed a restful and refreshing weekend as a family. We certainly did, though our house is a bit more the messier for it! And that's why I'm glad for another week of the Making Your Home a Haven Challenge.
If you've not had a chance to join us yet, feel free to jump right in wherever you and do whatever you can do. Remember that doing something and starting somewhere is better than nothing at all!
I've added in a few extra items this week since hopefully some of us have established some basic routines now. If it feels too overwhelming or too much, just pick one or two of the following items and do those. Don't bite off more than you can chew!
Today's Challenge:
1) Refresh Your Spirit
Begin your day with the Lord. Fix yourself a delicious hot drink and spend at least a few minutes praying, reading God's Word, and meditating on Scripture. Ask God to bless your day and to love through you. Find your joy and hope and strength in Him.
Did the Lord give you a special word of encouragement this morning? Share it with us!
2) Do Your Morning Routine
If you don't have a morning routine, take a moment to write down five things you'd like to accomplish in the same order every morning. And then get busy tackling them! Remember to keep it simple. It's better to plan a few things and get them done, than to write out an elaborate list and not do it.
3) Take Time to Plan
After your morning routine is finished, write out a short to-do for today (five items or less). Number the items in order of importance and start on number 1. Don't move on to number 2 until you've completed number 1.
What's on your to-do list today?
4) What's on the Menu for Dinner?
Take a moment to plan what you'll be having for dinner and then do as much of the prep work as possible before noon. Fix up a pot of soup, throw something in the crock pot, whip up a casserole, or pull something out of the freezer.
I recommend you have this dinner prep work as part of your morning routine or scheduled into your morning somewhere. Then you'll save yourself realizing it's five o'clock and you haven't a clue what to fix!
What are you serving for dinner?
5) Project of the Day
Turn some uplifting music on, light some candles, put an apron on, roll up your sleeves, and let's get busy!
Set your timer for five minutes and start at your front door again and quickly walk through the main living areas of your house straightening and picking up and putting away anything that's out of place. When the timer beeps, you're done, so work fast and don't get distracted.
Then, go to your kitchen (you knew we'd get there soon, didn't you?) and wash, dry, and put away any dirty dishes there are (or use the dishwasher) and then quickly straighten anything else that's out of place, wipe down your counters and cupboards, and replace your dish towels.
If you have a chance, take before and after pictures of your main living areas and kitchens and share them with us.
I'll post my challenge update in the early afternoon or evening. Have a wonderful day, ladies, and I can't wait to see and hear how God blesses you as you seek to be a blessing to your families. Let's pray for one another while we work!
Graphic from Art.com ----------- Would you like to join us in this "Making Your Home a Haven" Challenge? Just do one or more of the items listed above or something else to "make your home a haven" and post about it on your blog. Come back here and leave your link below so that we can be inspired!
Because I'm sure you need to eat more chocolate this time of year...
I made some of the world's easiest Christmas candy last night. Did I mention that this stuff is really good and really addictive? If only it had some nutritional value, too!
To make up for all the chocolate we've been eating, I made some delicious spinach tortillas.
