How Low Can You Go

Several weeks ago my mom gave me a Bible study book called the The Mind of Christ by T.W. Hunt and Claude v. King.

It had been my dad's, so I was really excited to get started.

But.. I was nervous. I am notorious for starting things and not finishing them. (just check the last date on my post) I knew this was one I wanted to complete.

So a few days ago I began..not exactly at the first of the year, but pretty close. As the title indicates, this study is to help you to be like and to think like Jesus as much as possible while on this earth.

The first few pages began by giving the characteristics of Christ. One mentioned was "lowly" with a scripture reference of 
Philippians 2:3 which states "Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves."

Esteeming others??

Here all this time I thought I had "humility" down..which is kind of funny because do humble people really know they are humble? I mean you can't brag about being humble, right?

I learned that being lowly or humility is not about belittling ourselves. ( I am pretty good at talking down to myself, so if that was the case...I would have been ok)

It is not even about us.

It is about others. 

Encouraging and esteeming (which means to respect and admire) others. Being humble is servanthood. Christ is the perfect example of this.

I was so far off the course of lowliness that it actually embarrasses me. 

As I look over the past year and think of all the opportunities I had to encourage or esteem a brother or sister in Christ..and didn't and usually because of my pride, it saddens me. Sometimes I would find it hard to give praise or admiration where it was due, because I felt that in someway it highlighted my own failure. 

Strange, yes. Self-esteem issues..um probably. I don't understand it and I can't explain it, but I have asked forgiveness for it and hope that this year I will do better

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By the way....Happy New Year....Six days late!!!

The Ugly Truth

I am a little nervous about posting this on my blog..sharing my struggles, seeking advice for myself. So reader beware...I need your help....



For years I have been told lovingly by my family that I have ADD. Recently my husband has come to  agree with them...lovingly.

I asked my doctor about it a few years ago, but he reassured me there was nothing wrong with me. It was the result of working full time, raising four kiddos and running a household. Too much on my plate. He told me that his wife has to help out his own married daughters from time to time. So I either needed to hire help (while both my mom and mother-in-law are awesome, they both work a 40+ week and hubby works 12 hour shifts and does what he can) or give up something.

So I mulled through this..ok hired help was not even considered. I could not just pick one kid to get rid of, I mean what kind of mother would I be??? So after talking, praying, etc. it was the job that had to go. I think I shared all of this before.

I honestly believed that once I became a stay at home mom  everything would change and that it would happen magically.

Suffice it to say I no longer believe in magic.

I still struggle with staying focused. I can be working on one project, stop to get something, become distracted and start working on something completely different, only to realize later that I did not complete the first task. This causes a lot of unfinished projects, half cleaned rooms, etc.

To say I get frustrated and overwhelmed at times is an understatement.

So today I am just wondering if there are others that struggle with this or have in the past? If in the past, how did you overcome it? I would love suggestions?

Linking to Homemaker By Choice

I Am Back

So I ventured out and started a new blog Saving With Purpose. The idea behind it was to be a money saving blog where I shared our purpose behind saving money, which was not only to be a good steward, but to eventually realize our dream of moving into a larger home, with land and essentially having our own homestead.

Basically I did not find as much joy in writing or posting about deals and money saving tips. It was fun some of the time, but not all. the. time. I missed sharing stories of my life as a wife, mom, child of God, etc. While I did own the blog and could have written whatever I like, it just didn't feel right..ya know.

So anyway, long story short, I am back!!

For the record though, the dream is still alive more than ever and I do still love saving money!!

 

I Am A What???

Ok, he is kind of cute...but really?

Let me explain...our Pastor at church has been teaching us on Wednesday evenings how to know what your spiritual gift is.

This past Wednesday he had us take a personality test.

I know, right?

My scores clearly said that I am a sanguine. According to Google...an otter.

The dictionary tells me this:

san·guine   [sang-gwin] adjective
1.cheerfully optimistic, hopeful, or confident:

Sounds good to me but the reality is there are also negatives or weaknesses to being a sanguine. Honestly, the weaknesses probably describe me better than the positive.

The negative qualities include..disorganization...

Ok, ok please stop laughing, you are hurting my feelings.

Lack of follow through was another (see the date on my last post if you are wondering about that. However, in my defense I have been blogging over at Saving With Purpose.)

Sanguine personalities also tend to be daydreamers.

I am fitting the mold more and more.

I daydream. ALOT.

I daydream about owning a beach house that we rent out throughout the year, but have to ourselves whenever we want.
I dream about owning my own business....and it being successful.
Doing what you ask? I have no idea.
I dream about making a lot of money blogging...however, the negative trait weakness of follow through seriously prohibits this.

So what's a girl to do with this information...

Not too much.

II Corinthians 12:9 says "But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me."

and thankfully Philippians 4:13 tells me "I can do all this through him who gives me strength."

I can't let it define me and certainly not limit me. I am only defined by who I am in Christ.

In the end we all have weaknesses, but through Christ we can rise above the weaknesses or negative traits to bring honor and glory to the one who has saved us.

I found a similar test that our Pastor gave to us here, if you would like to see what your personality is check it out

By the way, it looks like I could be a beaver too.....just sayin'

Lord I Want to Know You

This was my prayer over the summer.

It is also a title of a book by Kay Arthur.

Sometime after the birth of our third child, but before the birth of our youngest, the wife of our Pastor at the time taught a Bible study on the Names of God...the actual title was "Lord, I Want to Know You More", but what I remember was being taught the names of God and how much comfort and peace there seem to be in His names.

However, I was in a different season of my life, husband worked nights, three little ones, working..you get the picture. Sometimes Wednesday nights did not seem to fit into "my" schedule, which is when this Bible study took place.

When I look back at that time of my life I am reminded of how in Malachi the Lord says that we "rob Him and we rob ourselves of blessings", of course this passage is speaking of offerings and tithes, but I often wonder how many blessings I robbed myself of on those evenings when I robbed God of my time and did not make it to church.

Fast forward to Summer 2011, I was at a yard sale (shock, shock) that was actually packing up for the day when I noticed their books.

I spotted one that I wanted.

I asked how much and to my surprise they told me "free!"....I so love that word!

The book? A devotion study...

"Lord, I Want to Know You" by Kay Arthur

God's timing is perfect..remember my prayer?

I connected via Facebook with our former Pastor's wife (she's my friend too!) and she sent me the outline she had made for the study.

I am anxious to learn the ones I missed, but also be reminded of those I heard.

God is good......

But He is so much more than that!!!

Check back as I share what I learn over the next several weeks.

Linking up to Finer Things Friday at Amy's Finer Things

Knowing Your Passion

As you may have been able to tell by my last post, I am in a bit of some "soul searching", re-evaluating diffrent parts of my life. This, of course, included my blog.

I recently read an article that revealed several tips for having a successful blog, the first and foremost being that you write what you are passionate about.

Makes sense.

I had to stop and ask myself "what am I passionate about?". I mean, I like alot of things, I love a few things, but my passion revolves around my faith, my family and my home.

Fortunately, these topic will allow me to write about the things that I like and love too, hopefully on a regular basis (another secret to a successful blog. Duh!)

Do you know your passion?

Fast Forward Four Months From the Last Post...

and you will find me back here blogging.

Sometime during the past four months I prayed a prayer that I did not think would be a big deal...I prayed "Lord, help me to learn to love You the way I am meant to love you, fill my heart with a longing to know You, to love You and serve You like I have never felt before."

This prayer was answered. This prayer has changed my life. I have spent the past several weeks, reevaluating who I was in Christ and how I was living as a child of the King...was everything I doing bringing Him glory? Had I become complacent or lukewarm? Those were hard questions to answer completely honest. I just know that I want everything I do to bring honor to Him....including blogging.

I really enjoy blogging and obviously never have posted anything to dishonor Him and never would but I just wanted to be sure that blogging was not taking up time that should be spent in some other area of my life.

So I prayed.

And prayed.

Often times I would think "I am just going to go ahead and start writing posts." but something always stopped me.

So I prayed some more.

So here it is several weeks later and I feel that I can now start writing again. My prayer is that God can use this blog in someway even if it is just to help me grow.

I have so many ideas and things that I want to write about and am anxious to begin sharing them!

Love to you all!!!

Finally Yard Sale Time...

I hauled in several things this weekend from yard sales.

I have two favorite finds this week..the kids papasan chair and that black cushioned ottoman. We are in the process of updating the kids bedrooms and are looking into purchasing a loft bed for our middle daughter. The papasan chair will look great under it next to a little desk - it will be her reading chair!!

I cannot tell you how excited I was when I not only found this ottoman, then saw it was only $1 and THEN the owner of it charged me only $1 for EVERYTHING I purchased at his yard sale.

BOOYAH!!!

Anyway, this will be going in my oldest daughter's bedroom and will be recovered with zebra striped fur (that is her desired print). Just last week stumbled across a blog that shared how to do this. I am thinkin' it is going to look sooooo good!!

The ironing board was a purchase that reminded me why I love to garage sale! We have been in need of a new ironing board for quite awhile, I have just had a hard time shelling out $20 for a piece of flat metal that will not be used very often. (I do not purposely purchase any clothes that will require ironing before each and every use)

Cheap? Yeah, maybe..

But I am ok with that because I found this beauty of an ironing board for...

$1!!

Yup.. saved myself $19.

The bulletin boards are going to be covered for my two oldest daugters to match their rooms.

The life jacket is for our youngest when we go on vacation and for when we go to the lake this summer. ( We are going to attempt to become a camping family - we will see how that works out!)

The purse..well, that's for me.

At the beach.

Love it.

The frames will be accenting one of our living room walls after they are painted. I am wanting to do one of those gallery walls that I keep reading about.

Oh and hanging on the ironing board is a summer dress I bought for myself for our vacation. I haven't decided though if I like it on me or not, so it may go in my Ebay pile.


Included in my finds were plain, yet beautiful light green tablecloth & eight (that's right EIGHT!!) matching cloth napkins - LOVE IT!! (They have been washed and are in use right at the moment so they are not pictured with my other finds)

All in all I am happy with my purchases and as it gets warmer, I am excited to go to even more garage sales!!

Happy Monday all!!

Vacation Challenge-Week 8

I started the week still needing $106.79

Let's see how I did...

$15 I was the Biggest Loser at our weigh in over the weekend!!! WooHoo!!!

$5 One tiny writing project...Boo!!

$23.05 Ebay profit!!

Total for the week....$43.05

That leaves the amount still needed at $63.74

SOoooo very close!! I have a few more things on Ebay that will hopefully bring me to the end of this challenge! (Although, I am really enjoying myself!!)

Happy Thursday!

Vacation Challenge Weeks 6 & 7

I have two weeks to catch up on, however, not too much to report.

I began the week(s) still needing $155.86.

I earned

$20.50 Writing Projects
$14.99 Ebay (sold two pair of pants that I paid 50¢ each for..not too bad of a profit!)
$13.58 from Office Depot rebates

Total=$49.07

That leaves me only needing $106.79!!

Woohoo!!

I have no doubt that I will have it all by time we go on vacation in two months!!

I have a couple of more items on Ebay that I am anxious to see if they will sell - you will know next week if they did or not!

Have a great Thursday!!

And The Winner Is...........

The winner of the Yopliat Kids Prize Pack is...


Steph S said...
My kids like bananas, apples, baby carrots and string cheese as healthy snacks.

I have sent you an e-mail......

Congratulations!!

Menu Plan Monday + Recipe

So our menu for the week is looking pretty good...(I could be a little hungry!)

Monday - BBQ ribs..grilled porksteaks, salad, baked potatoe, mac & cheese

Tuesday - Chicken Alfredo, salad

Wednesday - Leftovers from previous two nights

Thursday - Tacos

Friday - Homemade pizza & salad (I fix lots of salads, mostly for me since I am dieting.

Saturday - Probably dinner out at Dennys (kids eat free + coupon = cheap eating)

Sunday - dinner at church - Not sure what I will be taking yet...hmmm


My recipe review is a dessert this time.

I know it simply as the Weight Watchers Cake

1 box of cake mix
1 can of diet soda

Easiest instructions ever..

Mix the cake mix & the soda together (nothing else at all). Bake as directed on the back of the cake mix box. I used diet orange soda

Once cooled top with low fat or sugar free Cool Whip.

All I can say is YUMMY!!

You so have to try it!!

Linking up to I an an Organizing Junkie's Menu Plan Monday.

What a Week!!

Whewww....birthday parties are done.

I am ready for normal life to resume....

I have alot to post about, i.e. my vacation challenge, the JOY Projects...I am waaaay behind.

I don't even remember the last time I posted one of meal plans for the week...or a review of a new recipe and we have tried some.

Anyway, I have a lot to catch up on!

I hope you all have a great weekend!!

Oh don't forget to enter my Yoplait Kids giveaway. A winner will chosen on Tuesday.

It's Party Time With A Yoplait Kids Giveaway!!

This has been a busy week for us..two of our children have birthdays six days apart....March 11 & March 17...add separate birthday parties and well...let's just say it has been hectic.

These lovely kiddos are 7 & almost 9..(only 2 days to go for her) and sporting their new bikes that their Oma & Grandma purchased for them!!

In keeping with the celebration theme, I thought it would be more than fitting to do a Yoplait Kids Prize Package Giveaway!!!

Fun...I know, right!

My kids absolutely love yogurt and I love it, especially Yoplait Kids (it contains less sugar than others..shh don't tell my kiddos!) because it is a nutritious snack!! My kids love Yoplait because it tastes good!

The winner of this giveaway will receive a Yoplait Kids prize package (pictured below) courtesy of Yoplait through My Blog Spark.

Leave me a comment about healthy snack ideas you keep on hand for your kiddos. A winner will be chosen randomly on March 22.

You can also print out a 50¢ off one (1) four pack of Yoplait Kids Yogurt here, courtesy of Yoplait and My Blog Spark.

Have a great day all!!!

**I was not asked to give a positive Yoplait review, but since we love it, I figured why not!!!**

We Finally Got One..

A library card that is!!

I know that doesn't seem like a big deal and well, it probably isn't. We live outside the city limits and do not pay any taxes into the library, therefore it is not free to us. So I am excited that we finally took the plunge.

Now that the kiddos are getting older and enjoying reading and I can enjoy cool reads of my own, we figured now is just as good of a time as any. Before we relied on thrift stores, garage sales, book sales, etc. for our books and I will still look there for books, but I just like having a library card.

Wanna know what books I checked out on our first trip?

Of course you do!!!

Miserly Moms by by Jonni McCoy - Love it already
Frugal Families by Jonni McCoy - Very useful information, alot of which we already do though.

"I Can't Believe I Get Paid To Do This!" by Stacey Mayo - Not real sure why I chose this one, I had never heard of it before. We will see how it goes.

October Song by Beverly Lewis - Because I have a fascination with the Amish and their lifestyle.

From Amish and Mennonite Kitchens by Phyllis Pellman Good & Rachel Thomas Pellman - Seriously, I love the Amish! Actually, I just love the simplicity of their lives, their minimalist way of living and since they pretty much bake everything from scratch, I figure that these recipes have to be yummy..at least I hope!

I have a list going on of books I want to read, but I have to pace myself, right?!

Vacation Challenge-Week 5

As you can assume by my lack of blogging, I have been busy doing other things around the house and not as much time on the computer.

However, I did mange to get a little work in over the past week to go towards my vacation challenge.

I started the week needing $195.36

I had $39.50 from writing projects.

Leaving a total of $155.86 still needed!

I am getting close.....

I still have not put my items on Ebay yet, simply because I am waiting for them to have another listing special. Hopefully they will have one soon!

I also do not have any great savings to report.

Here's to next week...hoping (fingers crossed) that I can earn at least $55.86, leaving only $100 to go!

That would be so awesome!!!

**I do have a plan that should help with the cost of groceries while on vacation that I will share with you very soon!!**

Vacation Challenge-Week 4

My week was better than last week, but still far from the first two weeks. The writing for me was scarce again.

I started the week still needing $222.86.

Writing projects - $27.50

Ended the week still needing 195.36.

I have several things to put on Ebay..so I need to get motivated and do so.

I did score a couple of good deals at CVS this week..

1 Crest Pro Health on sale for $3.29
- I used $1 off coupon + $1 CVS Extra Care Buck
2 Battery Operated Oral B Toothbrushes on sale for $6 each.
- I used 1 $3 off coupon + 1 BOGO free coupon

Total for all before coupons = $15.29

Total after coupons + tax =$5.61

BUT the best part is that I received
$9.29 back in Extra Care Bucks (If you are unsure what ECB's are, they work just like dollars at your CVS Pharmacy!)

So I have almost $9.29 to roll over into their next deal!!

Plus I got in on the Target frozen food deal this week and purchased 7 frozen food items, of course, used coupons on all 7 and scored a $5 Target gift card for a later date...

Not too bad, not too bad!

Leave a Message After the Beep...

My oldest daughter who is 12 and my youngest daughter who is 3 have a nightly ritual.

They have a long drawn out goodnight..it usually starts with my oldest tickling her little sister, then my youngest pretending to hide from her.

It always ends with "I love you sissy!"

It always melts my heart.

Last night though it started diffrently than normal. My oldest started calling out for Lulu (that is what I call my youngest), the next thing I know Lulu is hiding behind me saying "Lulu is not here right now, please leave a message after the beep! Beeeeeeeeeeep!"

We do not even have an answering machine, so I am not sure where she heard that, but it had my oldest and me cracking up!!

Kids say the funniest things!!

Vacation Challenge-Week 3

So my week was not as productive as I would have hoped, at least in regards to earning money for our vacation.

In fact..I am a little embarrassed..

Writing projects - $8.50

I started the week still needing $231.36


Ended the week needing $222.86

However, I scored some great deals at Target this week using coupons found on their website.

For $7.90 after coupons I scored..

-Pair of jeans for myself
-Long sleeve shirt for my 3 year old
-dental floss
-toilet paper
-Ibuprofren
-Pantiliners
-All Purpose spray cleaner w/ bleach
-Fabric softener
-Dishwasher gel tabs
-Pencil sharpener for my daughter


The jeans were a great deal...they were on clearance for $4.98, but I used a $5 off women's jeans that you can find here. You can print each Target coupon twice, so I scored two pair of free jeans!!

For the other items check out Money Saving Mom's Target coupon match up!

So while I hated that I did not do so well earning money for our trip, I was able to save money on our budget.

Last night I heard someone say "A dollar saved is better than a dollar earned because you don't have to pay taxes".

I feel better......

I am the Biggest Loser!

Seriously!

I have not posted too much about it, but along with some of our extended family, my husband and I have decided that this year, 2011, we would make it our year to lose weight and get healthy. I did post about it being one of only two New Year's Resolutions that I made.

We have made several changes in our eating habits and have added exercise into our weekly routines. My husband has access to a gym and uses it every day that he works. I joined a new gym here in town that is extremely affordable. I hated to add that extra monthly expense, but figured I could pay the small monthly charge now to exercise or I could pay a monthly co-pay for weight related medication that could be necessary down the road if I continued to gain weight.

Anyway, I am happy to announce that I was the "biggest loser" at our first scheduled weigh-in since our intial, embarrassing weigh-in on January 1st.

I lost 14.4 pounds and my husband lost 17 pounds. I had the higher percentage though.

Yeah me!!!

Most of the others did well too. I was proud of us all.

I love that my husband and I are working on this together. We hold ourselves accountable to each other and we are each other's biggest cheerleaders.