Life as a mom.....

So I guess it's been awhile since I posted. Why does this keep happening? Because of life. I really want to try and post what God is showing me through my life as being a mom and wife. AGAIN, I will try.

Yesterday I was humbled. This is what I received from Riah (I'm sad, I can't find it, I was going to take a picture of it to share). I received a bookmark that she made. This is what she wrote "God loves you every step of the way, calm down all the time". Inside I weeped. I knew that if she wrote that, she had to have seen it, the ugliness, the impatience, the selfishness, the temper. Being a mother is hard and tiring but yet rewarding and a chance for major growth. Obviously this is something I need to work on, my patience. So yesterday morning, instead of nagging the kids with the hustle and bustle of the day (and really stuff that doesn't matter eternally) we slowed down in the morning. I sat with them on the couch, drank my coffee, talked with them, played with them, read my Bible with them and then we started the day with school and chores. Emma and I even ended up having a great conversation about making rules vs. the intentions of our hearts.

I need to remember to slow down with my kids. Enjoy them, remember them as gifts, and walk in His grace.

She opens her mouth with wisdom, And on her tongue is the law of kindness. She watches over the ways of her household, And does not eat the bread of idleness. Her children rise up and call her blessed; Her husband also, and he praises her. Proverbs 31:26-28

What I'm Studying

Here I am AGAIN!!! I have neglected this blog for way too long and I have gone back and forth of whether or not to blog again. Mostly I love to blog to keep a remembrance of our family. Thankfully my DH has done a wonderful job of that over at his blog. Now I must return though. I will attempt at blogging a few times a week to stay up to date but we'll see what reality brings. I've always blogged first thing in the morning (after devotions of course) before my kids wake up but Sarah, in her 3 year old little brain, seems to think that everything should revolve around her at 7:15 in the morning (just as she does all day long) so I'll see if that time will work or not or if I'll end up foregoing blogging again. Stay tuned to see what happens here.

Currently I am studying through a book by Cheryl Broderson, Against All Odds. This is the book we are studying through our Ladies Bible Study. I love studying Old Testament books because it brings so much history to life and paints a very clear picture of our need for a Savior which is fulfilled in the New Testament through Jesus. Ezra is believed to have written Ezra and Nehemiah which at one point used to be all one book. Jeremiah 29 starts out with a letter to the Jews as they are headed into captivity and states that he will not forget them but to live amongst the babylonians, and he will return them back to Jerusalem after 70 years. Ezra starts out by saying:

Ezra 1:1-3

NOW in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the LORD stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and also put it in writing, saying, Thus says Cyrus king of Persia: All the kingdoms of the earth the LORD God of heaven has given me. And He has commanded me to build Him a house at Jerusalem which is in Judah. Who is among you of all His people? May his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem which is in Judah, and build the house of the LORD God of Israel (He is God), which is in Jerusalem.

God has fulfilled His promise to rescue them out of captivity!!! God WILL do what He says He will do. He will never leave us nor forsake us. He has not forgotten. No matter what my circumstances, He will always be there rescuing me when I fail, when I stumble, when I am weak. There may be times that I have to go through hardship, heartache or loneliness but He always has a plan for my life.

Jeremiah 29:11-13 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.

He is listening and He has a plan! Later I will write about what we are studying on Sunday morning and Home Group, 1 Kings.

Safeway Savings!!!!

Woohoo, gotta love a great deal. I have been couponing a lot lately and it really has turned into my new hobbie, just to see how much I can really save and how much stuff I can get for free or close to it. Today I scored a pretty good deal and thought I would finally post one of my deals. I have made some pretty sweet deals, mostly at Safeway, and not posted them but today I finally thought I would take the time to do it. I had to break this up into two transactions to get the most out of the doublers that Safeway has and here is how my deal panned out.


1st Transaction
5 boxes cereal
6 yogurts
1 sour cream
Total = $7.13


2nd Transaction
1 bag chips
2 salad dressings
2 jars alfredo sauce
4 diced tomatoes
1 bag salad
1 bag broccoli
1 bag broccoli stir fry
1 box cream cheese
1 red bell pepper
1 bunch of radishes
2 fruit roll ups (snack for my big helpers for when we were done)
Total=$13.07

Total between both transactions = $20.20

By the way, I am not a huge cereal fan because of all the sugar involved and even in the lower sugar varieties but I figure sometimes it's easier the a hot meal. In a cereal with 6 grams of sugar/serving there is over 6 teaspoons of sugar in an average bowl of cereal (including milk) which in my home spells disaster for our day, usually in lack of focus. I do however make it a rule that when they have cereal they have to use plain cheerios for 1/2 of their cereal consumption so really they are getting a little less sugar then they would otherwise with a full bowl of sugary cereal.

Happy couponing!!!

Tumble Bumble Photography

One of my old high school classmates has become a professional photographer. She is so fun and makes every session a piece of cake (well at least that's what I've been told). She is here locally and she is running a contest right now. If you comment on her blog she will enter your name for a free session and 20-30 edited pictures on a CD which all in total is a $750 value (yes, she really is that good).

Head on over to Tumble Bumble Photography to enter. Oh and do you know anyone getting married? Last I heard she still has openings left this summer.

Potty Training Woes

We're potty training and she can't pull up her pants :))

We Wii, Do you Wii?

We have been out of commission around here because we've been a little pre-occupied. John and I have been pretty desperate about wanting to lose weight because we feel so miserable and know that we could feel soooo much better. I was reading on facebook about homeschool families using a Wii as their winter time activity and someone had said they had a Biggest Loser game for their Wii. We have always been Biggest Loser fans but have NEVER been fans of video games. We have seen too many kids in our adult experience that can find NOTHING to do except play on the nintendo, playstation, x-box, etc. etc. etc...... But after borrowing my sister's Wii & balance board we were hooked. Not for the fun video game experience but knew that this could really help us in our weight loss goals (although the fun family time helped too). So after 3 years of saying we will never have a Wii, we have finally made the move to have one in our home. I do see the addiction that can take place with it and we do have one daugther (not naming names) who has already displayed addictive behaviors. We as parents have to curve that for her. We did decide that we will not be buying video games for it, it will be purely a fitness tool and we can all do that as a family. I am very pleasantly surprised at how many fitness games there are out there. It will be nice to have a variety of "games" to play to achieve these goals of ours.




Cutest little boxer I ever did see :))

Lunch

I came up with a new lunch concoction the other day. I have been trying to save more money around here and bread is NOT cheap. I have been buying bread at the "used" bread store in Albany but I don't go to Albany very much anymore so I have to come up with another alternative. I have never liked making homemade bread for sandwiches so I decided to try something new. I would make a loaf of bread, cut off a chunk of it and make a PB&J dip. I mixed the two together and the girls would take a spoon and just spoon the mix onto their bread. The girls loved this, they thought it was so different and fun.



Then there is this cutie that has nothing to do with sandwiches except that she consumes them (except the crust)

How do you make lunch interesting?