2 week "buy nothing" fast

In our consumer driven society, I'm always amazed at what we spend on things we really don't need. So I'm going to try a little experiment. The first two weeks in May, we are going on a "buy nothing" fast. Of course we will have to purchase food and toiletries at the store but I'm going to see how little we can spend outside of our needs. Which means I'll have to avoid The Mill and my Granita (iced coffee) fix! We may have a lot of picnics and walk everywhere during the week...think up free entertainment...but I'm hoping it will give us a little boost in our pay off debt goal...maybe an extra car payment or something! I'll let you know how it goes...

UnPluggin

here's a challenge for you...with spring's arrival it seems like the ideal time for a break from all the TV watching, computer surfin, emailing, I-Pod listening, etc. I found a challenge over at Unplug Your Kids that I think our family may try. It starts next week. It's all about turning off all the screens and spending more time together. I only let the kids watch 1/2 hour of TV a day now so I don't think that will be too difficult for them. I think I'm more dependant on this computer than I realize! And...LOST starts next week. We'll have to record it and save it for when the challenge ends...(my husband's gonna love this idea!). It will be a great time to focus more on family and each other.

friendship

Today I was thinking about friendship and I just felt overwhelmed with thankfulness. I've met some really incredible people in my life of 30 years, many people that I call my friends. I'm thankful today that God gave the blessing of friendship. There are those that I meet with regularly. Those friends that keep me afloat. They challenge me, encourage me to grow & love me despite my weaknesses and failures. There are those that our time together is rare, either because we have different schedules or because the physical distance between us is great, but something keeps our friendship alive and whenever we are together it is as if we were never apart.

Today, I want to say "Thank You" to my friends. My life is so rich because of you.

The quotes below speak to friendship.

Marcel Proust: "Let us be grateful to people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom."

George Washington: "Friendship is a plant of slow growth and must undergo and withstand the shocks of adversity before it is entitled to the appellation."

E.M. Forster: "One must be fond of people and trust them if one is not to make a mess of life."

Robert Louis Stevenson: "We are all travelers in the wilderness of the world, and the best that we can find in our travels is an honest friend."

treat your skin

DHC...ever heard of it? I hadn't until last year. I have great olive colored, easily tanned skin on most my body...except my face. My face is picky and very sensitive. Maybe it's all the time I spent outside as a kid...but my face has pink & yellow undertones, burns, & is easily irritated. I've tried many skin care lines that I like for a little while and then my skin says "no thank you". I was introduced to DHC by Betty, my mother-in-law, and I love it. Really I do. I'm not much of a sales person, but this is my pitch. I've been happy with all the DHC products I've tried and I just wanted to share the love with any other women (or men, they have a men's line) searching for good skin care. My face is happy, even during my pregnancy, which in the past has been a real mess. DHC is a Japanese company and many of the products use olive oil. It makes your skin feel so soft! One of my favorite parts of ordering is that you get to choose 4 free samples with your order. It gives you a chance to try something different without having to buy it.

My favorite products are the Deep Cleansing Oil, Velvet Skin Coat, and Q 10 Liquid Foundation

If you want to try it, you can use me as a reference and I think we both get a discount...

Take it or leave it...but I promise it is worth every penny.

Schedules & Lists

For the most part, I like change, adventure, spontaneity, excitement, etc. But, in our adult lives, we can't always have all that all the time...we actually have responsibilities and commitments that we have to get done. For some, accomplishing things and crossing them off a list comes easy and is motivating. For the rest of us, those with the creative, free-spirit, we have to work a little harder to stay on task. This is one reason that over the past few years, I have learned to use schedules and lists. I have found that if I make schedules and lists for myself, I end up having more time for the fun, adventure, and spontaneity. I now have a schedule for lots of things. I plan a weekly menu. I have a weekly cleaning schedule. I have a flexible but useful daily schedule with my kids. It really helps me stay on task since I'm home full-time. It also makes life flow a little easier, lets me know my time with my kids is productive, and allows me to give them my attention and still get work done. So, I'm sharing some of those schedules and lists for those of you who like to gather and share ideas.

OUR DAILY SCHEDULE (which can always be shifted and changed at a moments notice)
8:00 Breakfast & Daily Devotions
8:30 Clean Up and Chores
9:30 Art
10:00 Free Play (this is when we go to park or library too)
11:00 Video (I get lunch and dinner preparations ready)
11:30 Lunch
12:00 Clean Up
12:30 "School Work" -letters, numbers, coloring, etc.
1:00 Free Play
1:30 Book Time and Nap Routine
2:00 Naps
3:30 Snack
4:00 Free Play (play dough, art, toys, outside time)
5:00 Prepare Dinner
5:30 Dinner
6:00 Clean Up
Family Time
8:00 Bath time and Bedtime Routines
8:30 Bedtime for the kids

BASIC CLEANING SCHEDULE
Monday- Laundry & Ironing
Tuesday-Bathrooms
Wednesday-Vacuum & Dust
Thursday- Laundry (sheets get washed this day too)
Friday- Kitchen Deep Clean
Saturday- De-clutter/ re-organization
Sunday- OFF

SAMPLE WEEKLY MENU PLAN (I list seven ideas for each mealtime and then I can switch them around to fit the day or what sounds good, I make sure to have all the ingredients on hand that week-this helps me to write a quick grocery list)

Breakfast:
Cereal & Blueberries
Oatmeal & Applesauce
Pancakes & Banana
Cereal & Strawberries
Toast & Eggs
Oatmeal & Applesauce
Muffins & Banana

Lunch:
Turkey & Avocado Wraps, carrots
Chicken Mango Salad
Tuna burgers topped with tomatoes & cottage cheese with fruit
Almond Butter and Jelly Sandwiches & veggies
Chicken Salad, whole wheat crackers, fruit
Grilled Cheese and Tomato Soup
Dinner Leftovers

Dinner:
Fajitas & Pudding
Chix Alfredo with Broccoli and bread sticks
Veggie Burgers & mashed potatoes
Soup & homemade Bread
Homemade Catfish Sticks and mashed potatoes, fruit for dessert
Homemade BBQ Chicken Pizza
Southwest Chicken Salad

Snacks:
Yogurt
Cheese and Raisins
apples & Peanut Butter
Goldfish
Chocolate Covered Bananas
TrailMix

Our menu changes every week (I like change). This is a menu we had a few weeks back...some things I'll use again...others, like this particular veggie burger recipe got a negative family vote and got discarded!

Good Cereal Deal

Right now, Walgreens has Honey Bunches of Oats with Real Chocolate Clusters on sale for $2. You can go here and print a $2 off coupon and get a box of cereal for free! That's a good deal! I tried the Walgreens near my house this morning and unfortunately they did not have the chocolate kind...so I went to Super Savor instead...I needed a few things there anyways and they had the right kind on sale for $2.48 so I still got a box of cereal for $0.48! That's still a good deal! I've never tried this kind but it only has 7 grams of sugar so it fits under my less than 10 grams rule.

Cultivating a Home

I'm currently reading a book called Home-Making by J.R. Miller. The title can lead you to think it is a book about keeping house, cooking, cleaning, or the like. However, this book is more about creating vision for a Christian family. It was originally published in 1882 and amazingly has rich value to us even in our current culture. I'm pulling out some quotes and thoughts to share with you. Read this when you have some time to actually think about what Miller is saying.

I wanted to share some "nuggets" out of a chapter called The Parent's Part. It has made me think about, discuss, and evaluate what my husband and I are doing with our children and what our responsibility is as their parents.

First of all, I want to highlight Miller's vision for a home. He states, "The true idea of a home is that it is a place for growth...a true home set up and all its life ordered for the definite purpose of training, building up and sending out human lives fashioned into symmetry, filled with lofty impulses and aspirations, governed by principles of rectitude and honor and fitted to enter upon the duties and struggles of life with wisdom and strength."

He goes on to talk about things that are involved in setting up a home culture that will allow for this growth to take place. One of the things that he points out as important is the physical environment. "Even the natural scenery in which a child is reared has much to do with the tone and hue of its future character. Beautiful things spread before the eye of childhood print themselves on the sensitive heart." This doesn't mean we have to have large expensive houses with the latest want. That is not what beauty is. Miller expresses, "Every home can at least be made bright, clean, sweet, and beautiful, even if bare of ornament and decoration. It is almost impossible for a child to grow up into loveliness of character, gentleness of disposition and purity of heart amid scenes of slovenliness, untidiness, repulsiveness and filthiness. but a home clean, tasteful, with simple adornments and pleasant surprises is an influence of incalculable value in the education of children."

More important than the actual house is the "home-spirit". Miller speaks about unselfishness, affectionateness, courtesy, happiness and gladness among other essential elements that should
permeate the home. He says to make their childhood sunny and tender. I think one small example of this would be to listen to your children and value what they have to say. My three year old asks no less than one million questions per day (seriously she has the biggest quota of words than anyone I know). I patiently try to answer every one of those sincere questions with love because I want her to keep coming to me when she is older. I want her to know that what she thinks is very important to me and whatever I am doing is not more valuable than her. We do have boundaries...she knows not to talk to me when I'm on the phone or in conversation with another, but for the most part, I'm all ears.

Miller addresses training children. To quote, "This work of training belongs to the parents and cannot be transferred. it is a most delicate and responsible duty, one from which a thoughtful soul would shrink with awe and fear were it not for the assurance of divine help. Yet there are many parents who do not stop to think of the responsibility which is laid upon them when a little child enters their home."

I know I'm quoting a lot here, but this is rich stuff and a wonderful reminder to us of our role as parents. Miller says, "women sigh for fame...but is any work in marble so great as hers who has an immortal life laid in her hands to shape for its destiny? Is the writing of any poem in musical lines so noble a work as the training of the powers of a human soul into harmony? Yet there are women who regard the duties and cares of motherhood as too obscure and common place tasks for their hands."

I love this next quote of a mother..."Could she have but one glimpse into the future of that life as it reaches on into eternity; could she look into its soul to see its possibilities; could she be made to understand her own personal responsibility for the training of this child, for the development of its life, and for its destiny,-she would see that in all God's world there is no other work so noble and so worthy of her best powers, and she would commit to no other hands the sacred and holy trust given to her." Knowing this responsibility can be overwhelming but it makes the sacrifices that I give every day worth it. I cannot fulfill this duty in my own strength but only when I rely on Christ.

I want to end with one last exceptionally long section out of the chapter, but I believe it is well worth your time reading. Miller writes, "Only this much may be said-whatever may be alone in the way of governing, teaching, or training, theories are not half so important as the parents' lives. They may teach the most beautiful things, but if the child does not see these things in the life of them he will not consider them important enough to be adopted in his own life...You cannot give your child what you do not possess; you can scarcely help giving your child what you do possess. If you are a coward you cannot make him brave; if he becomes brave it will be in spite of you. If you are a deceiver you cannot make him truthful; if you are selfish you cannot make him generous; if you are self-willed you cannot make him yielding; if you are passionate you cannot make him temperate and self-controlled. The parent's life flows into the child's life. We impress ourselves upon our children less by what we teach them than by what we are. Your child is a sensitive plate; you are sitting before the camera; if you do not like the picture the fault is with yourself...What we want to do with our children is not merely to control them and keep them in order, but to implant true principles deep in their hearts which shall rule their whole lives; to shape their character from within into Christlike beauty, and to make of them noble men and women, strong for battle and for duty. They are to be trained rather than governed. Growth of character, not merely good behaviour, is the object of all home governing and teaching. Therefore the home influence is far more important than the home laws, and the parents' lives are of more moment than their teachings."

I hope that if you took the time to read through this carefully and digest what Miller is suggesting, that you will be encouraged to view your role of parent as a high and holy calling and that you will prioritize your daily life and activities to fulfill this calling. I am encouraged by reading this book. Our society does not put much value on mothering or parenting, but I am reminded that it is vital in the lives of my children. I am honored to have been given this gift and responsibility. I hope that if you have children you are too.