7 Quick Takes Friday - Volume 14

I have some wonderfully exciting news!  See this adorable couple here?

That's my sister and her awesome husband.  They're celebrating their 2nd wedding anniversary this month, and they are expecting their first baby this summer!!  I am over the moon with joy and excitement for them!  Because of a few health struggles each of them has had, they actually didn't think pregnancy was at all possible... but the Lord had other plans!  It's such a neat feeling to watch my little sister go through the transformation into mommy.  I can't wait to meet my new niece or nephew!

We have hit birthday season at our house.  Last month, Isaac turned 11!  That's weird, to think he's only 2 years away from teen years!  *gulp*  Here was my sweet little boy back when he was little...

Here he is now!  He's exactly 5 feet tall now.  By next year, he might be my height!

Please excuse the lollipop stick hanging out of his mouth!

In the next two months, we have four more birthdays coming up!  Excitement abounds!

I've always heard stories of younger members of larger families learning to read on their own, basically through just absorbing what their siblings were being taught... and I am AH-MAZED to announce that Nathan (almost 5) is one of those examples!  We've been doing basic phonics work (Explode the Code Get Ready for the Code books), and he plays Reading Eggs once a day, but I have not done any formal "this is how you sound out words" type of instruction with him at all.  I almost cried when one day a few weeks ago he came to me while I was cooking dinner, asked me to sit on the floor with him, and read me a Bob Book... one that hasn't been read outloud to him, ever.  He sounded out each word, only needing help with "and".  Totally out of the blue! He then read me three more! I was so proud!  Of course, I still plan on doing formal instruction with him, but he's definitely got a head start and a good foundation.  I'm still in shock!

We passed another awesome milestone in our house - Judah is officially potty trained!  Phew!  I think I've expressed before how much I dread potty training.  It was surprisingly easy with Judah, though.  I had tried a few months ago and only got frustrated because he just wasn't getting it.  Waiting those few months made all the difference!  In the month that he's made the official switch to underwear (I don't use pullups), he's had maybe 6 accidents total?  It is SO nice having only one child in diapers!  And just because I adore this picture of him, here's the little man:

 

I have to recommend a wonderful book - it's called "Loving the Little Years" by Rachel Jankovic.  It has blessed me so much through it's encouragement and very practical helps for dealing with all of these little people God has placed in my charge.  I have been kind of burned out on Christian motherhood-themed books, because often they either aren't very helpful, or can almost be discouraging in the "picture perfect mother" ideal they present.  "Loving the Little Years" is none of those!  I walked away from it feeling refreshed and with new ideas and insights!  I can't recommend it enough!

To get a feel for her heart, and enjoy some wonderful encouragement, be sure to watch her series "Motherhood and Work" - there are 4 in total, all are less than 10 minutes long, and are chock-full of wisdom!

• The Vocation of Motherhood
• The Conservative Tendency to Over-Romanticize Motherhood (I love this one!)
• Cleaning House and Cleaning Hearts
• Too Many Straws in my Milkshake (I love her simple statement here: "Just pour!"  I have to admit, I had never, ever thought of it that way!)

I've posted a few of the pictures we had done as a family over Thanksgiving, but I'll go ahead and share a few more.  I love the ways these came out!

Yes, they had a portrait done by a disc golf basket.  Very appropriate!

All of us with my parents, and my sister and brother-in-law!  I love this picture!

A little while ago I was reading in Romans and a verse stuck out to me (I love how that happens).  I had to mull on it a bit before I shared my thoughts about it, but I think I've gotten them coherent enough now.

Romans 1 talks all about those people... you know, the lost ones.  The ones that have no excuse but still harden their hearts to God?  The one I used to be but am not anymore. (Thanks be to God and His merciful grace!) Right?  I always thought that, until verse 21 stuck out to me:

For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened.

Wait, they knew God?  What was it that caused their heart to be darkened?  They did not honor Him as God, or give thanks.  That stopped me in my tracks!  How many times do I go through my day to day life, not only not giving thanks, but even grumbling about various minor inconveniences?! How many times to I allow my thoughts to give into worry, instead of honoring Him as God and trusting in His sovereignty?!  I know God.  I believe His word. There is no denying there is an all-powerful, mighty God!  Look at His creation, it gives amazing, beautiful evidence of Him!  Just like Romans says!  But, if I am not honoring Him as God, nor giving thanks to Him... is my heart becoming foolish and darkened?

These thoughts have given me a whole new perspective on the discipline of giving thanks, and of simple faith.  I'm not trying to get into anything deeply theological (I am hardly qualified!), but I did want to share how the Spirit worked in my heart through those verses.  Have you stopped and given thanks to Him today?  Are there ways that you are allowing fear to shove out faith, or even worse, anger to shove out His love?  It's worth a little bit of thought!

I hope that everyone had a wonderful holiday season and is off to a blessed new year!  Thanks for stopping by!

Seven Quick Takes - Volume 12

*tap, tap tap* Is this thing on?  Is anyone out there?  I know my blog has been super quiet lately (did you hear crickets chirping?)!  Real life flies by at the speed of... well, life! I've been going along for the ride, with little time to take care of things like blogging!  For a quick recap of the past few weeks for us, here's my Quick Takes!

We celebrated Michael's 33rd birthday last week!  He took the day off of work and we went up to the mountains to play disc golf (what else?!).  The course up there was very challenging (disc golf in the mountains, what else could be expected?) but we had a great time as a family, enjoying the beautiful fall weather and each other's company!  Here's the birthday boy man and his boys!

Notice anything different about Isaac in the picture above?  Here's another picture for a closer look:

For a little while, he had been complaining about road signs and various other long-distance things being fuzzy... finally it got to the point where I thought I should probably take him in to get his eyes checked.  Sure enough, he's got his mama's eyes and needed some glasses.  Thankfully, it's not nearly as bad as my eyes, and we're hoping it stays that way!  He loves his new glasses - for one, because he can actually see again (go figure!) and two, several of his friends have glasses, so it's the "in" thing in his crowd.  I'm really happy that he's happy about them!

We've made an official upgrade!  We've enjoyed our wonderfully steady and reliable Suburban for 6 years, but with Rachel joining our family, we had officially maxed it out.  We all fit, but there was no room at all for anyone else, which got tricky at times.  After a few months of casual looking around, we came across a 15-Passenger van that met all of our criteria, and was in our price range!  And it's a pretty fun color, too!

I'm doing something that I swore up and down I'd never do.  No, it's nothing all that terribly exciting, but it has made a big difference - I'm running at night!  Instead of trying to beat Miss Rachel's wake-up time and getting up at insane hours in the morning, I've found it's so much easier to wait until everyone is in bed to hop on the treadmill.  I've always thought it would be way too difficult, because I'm really *not* a night person, but I'm finding it alot more enjoyable, since I don't feel a huge pressure to RUSH or stress about possibly being interrupted.  I had slacked off for about a month, but with some external motivation (training to do a 5K with friends!) and this new adjustment, I'm getting back into a good routine.  And getting to sleep in a little later!

Speaking of Miss Rachel and her sleeping... something has happened to my wonderfully content sleeper!  From the time she was about 6 weeks old, she had been sleeping like a dream - waking only once or twice, often sleeping 10-12 hours straight.  Such joy!  Right around the 6 month mark, though, something changed.  Call it teething (she did get her two bottom ones in), or milestone development (she is crawling everywhere and pulling up on everything!) or separation anxiety, or... whatever it is, it's amounting to NO sleep.  Naps are a struggle, and nighttime sleep goes well for the first few hours, and then she wakes up to nurse and wants to stay awake and hang out.  For an hour or two.  Or three.  In the middle of the night.  Um... that's not working for me!  This has been happening several nights a week for a while, and I'm a little tired (to say the least), and praying we get over this little hitch soon!

Remember that review and giveaway I did for the digital scrapbooking software, MyMemories Suite?  Well, it's become a slight addiction for me.  I think I do at least one page a day, or work on a page, anyway.  I seriously love it!  Besides just really fun scrapbook pages - like this one:

 

I've also realized what neat decorations and gifts I can make!  This has been my latest project - making name pages for each child to go on their doors.  It's been fun to consider each one's personality and tastes while doing it.  Here they are - click to enlarge if you want to see them bigger!

Take a close look at Joel's - we had a compromise we had to work out over it.  He wanted a monster on the page, and I wanted the grasshopper (Michael calls him "Cricket" so a grasshopper was a close fit)... and we both won.  Can you see his monster?  :-)

Anyway, my point is, that the whole digital scrapbooking thing is more than just a way to present photos - it is actually quite versatile! I love it so much that I'm an affiliate for MyMemories now! So, if you order the MyMemories Suite Software, use can use the coupon code STMMMS71850 to save $10 off the software price and get another $10 credit toward stuff in the MyMemories store... and I'll get a little bonus, too!  They also have weekly freebies and fun challenges on their Facebook page, so check them out!  And if you're still hesitant about buying... and have a lot of patience, I'll be doing another giveaway, probably early in the new year!

In all of my free time (hahahahahaha!!) (no, I mean, the several times a day I sit down to nurse the baby, that's about as free as I get), I've been working through some older literature on my Kindle.  Since so many good, older books are available for free, I decided "why not?".  I started with Anna Karenina by Tolstoy, and while I found the storyline not quite to be my style, I was very impressed with the writing.  Most recently I've been absorbed in Les Miserables - I've been reading it for almost a month now and am only 50% of the way through!  Phew!  But it is soooooooo good!  What has really stood out to me the most from both of these stories is the quality of writing, the use of language, the deep character development - things that are hard to come by in many modern novels that seem to be written with much less depth nowadays.  I've gained a new appreciation for what constitutes good writing... as well as an appreciation for the dictionary feature on my Kindle!  My vocabulary has been challenged, and it's been fun to stretch my brain a little.

There you go!  The basic highlights of life in my world.  Forgive me for not being more regular as of late... and thanks for stopping by!

Motivated Moms Sale!

I've posted before about how much I love my Motivated Moms Planner before, so I won't go into all that again (recap: Its awesome, I love it, it has revolutionized my housekeeping!), but I did want to announce that since it is now July, all of the 2010 Planners are now half price! So instead of $8, you can get a full planner for just $4! That's a perfect price for anyone who has been wanting to try it but maybe not wanting to shell out $8 based on my excitement alone ;-)

To check out the different ebook options and some samples, click on the banner below, this link, or the picture on my sidebar! Its a great deal!

I Did It!

After having items in my Sonlight cart for weeks now, I finally pressed the "Submit Order" button! I ordered Core 3 for Isaac and Ezra to start this fall, and bits and pieces of Cores P 3/4 and P 4/5 for Joel and Nathan to enjoy over the summer as Joel starts learning to read with "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons".

After placing my order, I went back to review it. The 10 items I had listed in my cart, broken down into individual pieces, book by book, amounted to 65 items! No wonder "box day" is such an exciting experience for Sonlight users! You can be sure I'll post pics when ours arrive!

I have high hopes that this will be a long, enjoyable homeschooling experience with Sonlight. I can't wait to get started!

By the way, if you use my link, or the banner to the left in my sidebar, to order something from Sonlight, you get $5 off your first order of $50 or more!

Works for Me Wednesday - Getting the Most from SwagBucks

This might be old news to some swagbuck pros, but I am relatively new to the swagbucks craze, so it was exciting for me to figure this out! In case you are also new to swagbucks, perhaps it will help you, as well :-)

First, what is swagbucks? Its a search engine that rewards you for using it. You earn points, called... "swagbucks" (not that complicated) that can be used in their "swag store" (there's a pattern here!). Personally, the only thing I really want swag bucks for is to buy amazon.com gift cards. Free books, people!! But they do have lots of other stuff, too. (And a *ahem* pretty cool referral program if you want to sign up using one of my links or the banner on my sidebar over there *ahem*)

I soon noticed that a $5 amazon gift card costs me 45 swag bucks, and a $25 amazon gift card costs me 315 swagbucks. Huh? I'm pretty good at math, but I think most of the general adult population can figure out that ordering 5 separate $5 gift cards at 45 swagbucks each (which would total $25) is actually LESS than 315. Almost 100 swag bucks less, in fact. Actually, for 315 swagbucks, one can actually get 7 individual $5 gift cards, which equals $35!

However, what I didn't know and had to figure out for myself is how to actually apply more than one gift card while checking out at amazon. I'd like to be able to apply more than $5 off each order, because then it's actually really like getting free books. So, here's the beautiful part!

Amazon has this wonderful thing you can do if you log into "Your Account" - I will include a picture for those of you who are visual like me and can't understand written instructions without pictures very well:

(click to enlarge if needed)

See the big blue arrows? The link they are pointing to says "Apply a Gift Card Balance to Your Account". If you click on it, you can enter in your gift card number, and it will apply that amount to your account (kind of like the link says). Here's the part I was excited about: you can do that with any quantity of gift cards! So if you gather up a bunch of $5 gift cards from swagbucks, you can enter each one in, and it will total them up for you. When you are ready to order from amazon, when you check out, it will ask you if you want to apply your gift card balance to your order. I love it!

Right now, I am about 4 swagbucks away from adding another $5 to my gift card balance, which will then bring it to $25... but I only spent 225 swagbucks instead of 315! The nerdy part inside of me that loves to get a good deal is thrilled about this - so I just had to share!

Join in for some more Works for Me Wednesday fun at We Are THAT Family!

Kitchen Organization!

I recently became a Tupperware Consultant. Honestly, I had no idea that people still sold Tupperware until I was invited to a Tupperware Party over the summer. It was more fun than I expected, and there was a particular line of products I completely fell in love with. You know, one of those organizational tools that will make your life easier, less cluttered, your children behave perfectly and your husband wash the dishes for you every night? Ok, well, maybe not all that, but at least the first two ;-)

This line of products is called "Modular Mates" and they're for pantry storage and organization. I've mentioned it before - we don't actually have a pantry. We have two bookshelves in the kitchen which serve the purpose of a pantry... sort of. Space is tight, so I knew these would be just what I needed to keep things in place, save space, and make things look nice and orderly, too!


Do you see how beautifully uniform they are? And so neat and tidy? So compact! Ahhh... organization is such a wonderful thing!

And this month I am very glad I am a consultant, because that particular line of products is ON SALE! 40% off, in fact - what a GREAT deal! (And as a consultant, I get an even better price - score!) Because I am so in love with my Modular Mates, I couldn't not share this deal!

Here's the flier with the sale prices - click on it to enlarge. If you'd like to order anything, leave me a comment (I won't publish it, it will just be a way to contact me) with your contact info and I'll get back to you about placing an order. This really is a sale too good to miss, especially if you need more organization in the kitchen!

The sale ends February 12!

Oh, I wanted to add one more thing. A while back, I was trying to get on the "no plastics" bandwagon. I had a bunch of really cute jars holding things like rice, beans, sugar, etc. They were cute... until one day I dropped my sugar jar. Let me just say 5 lbs of sugar along with glass shards all over the floor is not fun to clean up, especially when trying to ward off two dogs and a crawling baby. So, my sugar is now safe and secure in a Tupperware and I won't have to deal with that scenario again! Practicality won out ;-)

2010 Motivated Moms Planner!

I've mentioned before how much I love my Motivated Moms planner - its really the only system I've found that has helped me stay on top of all of the nitty gritty things that need to be done to keep a house in routine order.

I wanted to share that the 2010 Planners are now available, if you want to give it a try! A planner is only $8 for the entire year, and there are several different formats available - full sized, half-sized for a DayTimer, with a Bible reading plan, without a Bible reading plan, etc. So you're sure to find a format that suits your style best!

Also, in case you would like it give it a try before spending the full $8, the 2009 planners are now on clearance for $2 - it would be a great way to test run the system through the end of the year to decide if you want it for next year!

Getting it all Together!

Little by little, I am getting organized, and my home is consistently cleaner! I am so excited about it! I have always looked over lists and books and other women's examples, trying to find a routine that works best for me in keeping my house clean - not just "on the surface" clean, but actually clean, as in no panicked toilet scrubbings before company comes. I get overwhelmed easily and felt like it was just impossible to be that consistent and develop a good routine.

That was, until Brenda mentioned Motivated Moms and how much she loved it. I had heard about Motivated Moms before, but for some reason didn't think it would work for me. After hearing Brenda's glowing review, I decided to give it a try. Since it was the middle of the year already, the Planner was marked down 50%, so it only cost me $4. $4!! So I figured why not?

I've been using it for 3 straight weeks and let me tell you... I LOVE it! My bathrooms are clean all the time now. My children's nails are clipped on a regular basis instead of when they're in danger of being mistaken for dragons. And I'm declutterring... one small area at a time! And I don't feel like I'm doing any "extra" work. I still do my main things, but also have a block of time set aside for my Motivated Moms list, which never takes very long at all.

Some days its as easy and switching out the handtowels and decluttering a drawer. Other days it's a bit more lengthy, but never so much that I feel overwhelmed. And there are things that in the back of my head I knew needed to be done, but never got the ambition to do them - like dust off light fixtures, or clean off the top of our nightstands.

It works so well for me because I am a list follower. Without a list, I feel lost and don't accomplish much. This is just a daily list, with room to write in my own "to-dos" as well as appointments and dinner plans. So it works perfectly for me!

This is the version I got, and I keep it in my Home Notebook (which is still in progress, but coming along) on my counter. Before bed each night, I go over what the next day holds and also write in anything I need to remember that's not on the list. The next morning, I get up, and my day is ready to go!

Now, of course, this doesn't DO the work for me, so I still have to combat my distractedness and get to work, but having it all there for me to see makes it so much more... motivating! lol! And I don't beat myself up if I miss something here and there... I know it will come back around eventually and I'll just do it then!

Since I love it so much, I decided to go ahead and join their affiliate program. You can actually buy it through me! Just click on the banner below, or on my sidebar. Oh, and if the prices are still listed at $8 (that's the full year price), don't worry, it changes to $4 in your cart. It won't be a wasted $4, I can promise!

A Few Notes about Apologia

One thing we will be continuing during our summer break is working our way through Apologia's Exploring Creation with Botany, by Jeannie Fulbright. Its just too much fun to give up, and the summer season is a good one for studying a variety of plants. One thing that the boys are loving about it are the hands-on experiments. Something that I love is the Botany Lab Kit that I got to accompany the book. It has made science so much LESS stressful and burdensome to me!

Almost everything we need for every project and experiment in the book is included, and what isn't included are simple things found in most households (measuring cups, water, etc.). The kit even includes tin foil and paper towels! So now we just open up the book and go with whatever is assigned for the day, with literally NO preparation on my part.

The kit comes with each lesson's materials sorted into labeled bags, so I just pull out the "Lesson 1" bag (or whatever lesson we're on) and get what I need out of it. I cannot even begin to describe how much I am loving this kit!

It is produced by Nature's Workshop Plus, which has a ton of other fun science and nature resources, but I was even more excited to find out that Christianbook.com carries it, too - since I am an affiliate, and all! ;-)

There are kits for each Apologia Exploring Creation book - Astronomy, Botany, and the Zoology series, as well. I really can't say enough about what a blessing the kit has been to me, so if you are using any of the Apologia Exploring Creation books, I highly recommend the investment!

Also, another fun Apologia development are the new Notebooking Journals for both Astronomy and Botany. My boys have always found blank notebooking pages a bit intimidating, so we've been using Live & Learn Press's Learn N' Folders. They make a great interactive notebook, but require a bit of planning and preparing effort on my part to print, cut, assemble, and glue them. After looking at the sample pages of the Notebooking Journals, I think we're going to have to give them a try when we begin Zoology (hoping that one for Zoology will be ready by then!) They look like just what we need to graduate into more "mature" notebooking, while still enjoying the process, and saving myself some time!

Don't Forget the Giveaway!

Don't forget to leave a comment on the Giveaway Post to enter for a chance to win one of the 5 new DVDs from Vision Forum! So far, your chances are pretty good ;-)

DVD Giveaway!

Vision Forum is offering a free DVD from their latest additions to their "Reclaiming the Culture" series! To win, just leave a comment letting me know which one you'd like if you won, and make sure you also leave contact information! For an extra entry, post about it on your blog and link back here! This giveaway will close at midnight on Thursday, May 14th, and I will announce the randomly selected winner on Friday the 15th!

Here are the product details:
New products are always exciting, and we hope you'll be as excited as we are about the 5 new DVD titles in the Reclaiming the Culture set.

Titles include:

•	You May Not Take Our Guns (DVD)
•	The Devolution of Law (DVD)
•	Top Ten Questions About Genesis and Creation (DVD)

•	The State of Parental Rights in America (DVD)
•	Christianity and Science Fiction: Reclaiming the Genre for Christ (1 DVD & 2 CDs)

Description from the Vision Forum website:

At every level of government, our rights as citizens and parents are ignored and usurped by power-hungry politicians. Our news media, universities, and entertainers actively wage war against God’s Word and those who live by it. And our children are confronted daily by the lies of evolution and the horrific realities of its “survival of the fittest” ideology.

In an effort to provide encouragement, hope, and practical instruction to Christian families, Vision Forum is pleased to release five new DVDs. These timely presentations will equip your family to understand our culture’s most critical battles and biblically fight for the rights granted to us by God, rights recognized and preserved for us by our Founding Fathers.

Sale

From May 8-15, 2009, this brand new group of DVDs is available at 33% off the regular price of $78.00. For a limited time you can acquire them for $45.00 OR you can buy the entire 14 DVD set for $99.00. That's a savings of 53% off the retail price!

New Affiliate!

I am now an affiliate for Christianbook.com! I LOVE Christianbook.com - they have so many homeschooling supplies, Bibles, bible studies, and good theological books, and their prices are excellent! They also have great sales, such as the one they've got going on Apologia Science - we use the Elementary Series and really enjoy them! So, if you're in the market for good Christian materials or homeschool supplies, it would bless me if you use my affiliate link in the left sidebar! :-D

Fireproof

Remember the movie Fireproof I reviewed a few months ago? Great news! It is now out on DVD for buying or renting! To celebrate the release of this excellent marriage movie, Vision Forum is offering a promotion. Not only do they have everything they offer on sale, but with every order over $100, you get a FREE copy of Fireproof - the Special Collector's Edition DVD! This edition includes outtakes, a Bible Study, and a behind the scenes look at the making of the movie. Let me tell you, it is easy to find enough items you'll like that will add up to $100, and the sale prices make it all the more fun to shop ;-) If you want to check it out, click on the banner below! But hurry, the promotion ends January 31!

Affiliated!

I'm excited to share that I am now an affiliate with Vision Forum Ministries! I have been very blessed by many of their materials, so I encourage you to check out their website and take a look at what they offer.

Our favorites here are the Coonskin cap (see Isaac's 7th birthday picture - he loves it!), the CD "The Wise Woman's Guide to Blessing Her Husband's Vision", the books "Desperate Housewives, Passionate for God" and "Family Driven Faith" (see my review below), and the DVDs of "Entrepreneurial Bootcamp For Christian Families".

They have many, many more resources, as well! So please check them out and treat yourself to a blessing of God's Word applied to today's Christian families!