Advent Study

Just click here for more information about Good Morning Girls!  

See The Light

I don't know who is more excited to start this, me or the boys! I will be doing this classes with them and I am thrilled! There is a lesson for each school week. We ordered the one year set with 36 lessons for $99! Most of the classes require basic art supplies that you probably already have and some further along may require more. The list of supplies is here. You know the best part? It is Christian and it teaches kids how to use their art to glorify God! They have other great products as well. Click on the big button to visit their site and fall in love with them. I will be posting lots of pictures of our art projects! Did I mention that I am an art major in college, right now? Can't wait!

5-5-5: Week 4 and 5

I totally forgot to post last week! It was a bit crazy around here, I don't think I was home all day for any day. I know that is most people's regular schedule but we are usually home all the time.
Looking back to week 1, I fell off the train a bit this week. I will be back to focusing on healthy eating and drinking more water
Week 2 was tough for me. I feel like my to-do list is never ending and it really overwhelms me. I am going to start a six list, which is list of six things that must get done each day.
Week 3 was a challenge to read the Bible before you read ANYthing else. And I am proud to say that I did it every day and am definitely going to continue doing this. If I don't have anything else to read, I read a daily Proverb (31 Proverbs for 31 days of the month) and then I read the devotion from Jesus Calling, which is I highly recommend.
Week 4 was clearing your mind of something. I did use the computer (facebook) less and I tried to read more. I am reading Raising Real Men, which is an awesome book for parents of boys. It has changed the way I think about a lot of things and I can see changes in our family and I'm not even half way through the book yet! And like I said I am reading a Proverb a day and Jesus Calling: Enjoying Peace in His Presence. I am trying not to think/worry/dwell/focus on all the junk. When I think of something troubling I really try to just give it to God and let Him deal with it.
And now for week 5's challenge... Work. eww. Just kidding! Courtney asks if the people in our home would call us an eager-beaver? um... no. Not me. I avoid work at all costs. And let me tell you that I avoid it all. Laundry, dishes, floors (!). I would rather read or hang out with my kids or do just about anything. But these are my responsibilities and I know they need to be done. {side note: Courtney also talked about this but next week Good Morning Girls is starting a 14 week study on Proverbs. You can get the book from Courtney's blog Women Living Well and the reading plan on Good Morning Girls. If you need an accountability group, just leave me a comment and I can add you to my Facebook group or you can start your own, they even made a leader's guide! That starts Monday and goes through mid-August.}
Back to the challenge, to work with eager hands for God's glory. Doing the work around my home is no fun but doing it for God's glory changes the reason and my heart to want to do it all, for my family and for my God.  My plan this week is to get caught up on this chaos in my house, all for the glory of God! Please pray for me!
If you missed it:
Week 1
Week 2
Week 3

A Small Thing

You can make a difference! We have a sponsor child in Rwanda. There are many ways you can help.

Help a Child

Week 1: Making Your Home a Haven

Please go visit Courtney at Women Living Well to learn more about this wonderful challenge.
I went to the store and purchased a candle. Apparently candles are not that popular in Mexico City, unless you want a picture of a saint on it. But I finally found one in the Christmas items!

Here it is... Boring.
You know I couldn't just leave it that way! Here is the final product (super duper easy tutorial below)!

Now that is more like it! Go down and see how easy it is to make your own family candle!

“The wise woman builds her house, but with her own hands the foolish one tears hers down.”

Use tissue paper! Yep, tissue paper. Trim it to the height and circumference of your candle. I try not to overlap it at the seam, if anything I'd rather have an opening. You won't really see it. You can try using other colors of tissue paper, as well. 

These are my favorite colors, Chocolate Chip, Not Quite navy and silver.

This is one of my favorite stamp sets! Refuge and Strength from Stampin' Up!

You can stamp as little or as much as you like. A big background stamp would also be great for this. 

Lay your candle down lay the tissue paper on the candle.

With a heat gun or hot blow dryer, start in the middle of your tissue paper and heat it. You will be able to see the wax liquefy  Don't leave it too long or your paper can burn and the wax can make a mess. Just long enough for the wax to get soft and adhere to the paper. Continue from the center and go back to the seam. I go around the top of the paper and bottom to make sure they are smooth against the wax, use the heat gun.

Some great quotes. 

And some ribbon to finish it.
SUPER DUPER EASY!
Let me know if you have any questions! 

This morning I went to light my candle and cannot believe it, but I do not have anything to light it with! Gonna try the gas stove. WOW! It is Monday!

Need Your Help!

Recently I posted about the Blankets for Babies and I have decided to do a fundraiser to help this ministry. Do me a favor, go read the post again. Then come back to this post and read about one way you can help.
I am an Usborne Books consultant and I am doing a fundraiser for the month of October. Any money that I earn during October will be donated to buy supplies to make blankets for these babies. You can do some Christmas shopping for all the kiddos in your life and you can help these mothers that would not otherwise have blankets for their newborn babies.
Click here to order online! 

BONUS: If anyone signs up to be an Usborne Consultant during the month of October, I will donate $20 of my own money to the fund!

Blankets for Babies

BE THANKFUL FOR WHAT YOU HAVE!
Imagine your first child has just been born. You're excited, exhausted and ready to head home. The nurse brings your sweet child in wrapped in NEWSPAPER and ready to sweep you out the door. WHAT?!? Oh, did I mention that you simply can't afford a blanket to bring your baby home and the hospital is too poor to help you out?
This is how many babies go home here in Mexico. The general hospital here in Mexico City sees 20-30 new babies EACH day! The hospitals and the new families are very poor. There is a ministry here that helps these new families by making baby blankets. I have helped make them a few times now and it was a fun time but I also felt my heart grow for the babies that would be receiving the blankets that I helped to make.
This is a very easy way to make a very big difference. I can accept donations of baby blankets or financial gifts to help these families. Please contact me if you can help in any way. Financial donations will go toward purchasing fabric to make blankets.
Click here to find out about a fundraiser, just another way you can help!

A Wonderful Day

Have a wonderful and safe 4th of July! Please remember those troops and families living all over the world. God bless them!

Also, Happy Anniversary to the best husband God could have ever given me; my best friend, supporter (in so many ways), amazing father and, well, I'll stop there because this is a family program. I love you hubs!

Reshaping It All!

I am joining in this challenge and I think you should check it out, too! Go! NOW!

Being Digitally Creative

A few people have asked questions about how to make blogs and blog designs. I have no idea! Follow an online tutorial! Really, that is what I do. It takes a lot of time! My re-design was about 6 solid hours (including new buttons and everything).
My #1 tip is to play around with some digital scrapbook stuff. You need some kind of software to do this, I use CS4 but you can use whatever you want. I think GIMP is a free program and maybe Paint, too. Never used these. I was using Photoshop Elements, which is a lot cheaper that CS4, to edit photos and that is how all this craziness started. Anyway, find something to practice in. Play around with layout and sizing, make some scrapbook pages and then order prints. I found that Costco has 12x12 prints for $2.99 and shipping is reasonable. And you're killing two birds with one stone, scrapbooking and designing your own blog! Use some of the tools in your software and learn your way around a bit. Then find a specific tutorial for what you want to do. I have listed a few of my favorites...

• Add a signature to each post. from Kevin and Amanda.
• Make a scrapbooky blog background. from Kevin and Amanda.
• How To Make Your Own Blog Background. from The Cutest Blog On The Block.
• Free Blogger Backgrounds from The Cutest Blog On The Block.
• Freebies from Kevin and Amanda. 
• Digi-scrap Freebies from computerscrapbook.com
• More Digi-scrap Freebies from DigiScrapDepot.
• Free 6 Month Photoshop Course (+tons more!) from creativetechs.com .

These are not ads, I get nothing for sharing this awesomeness with you. Please share your blogs, scrapbook pages and digital creations, so that I will feel some satisfaction from this post. I love helping people learn to be more creative!


One other thing, always check the copyright information on your free downloads, you can usually use them for personal use at no charge but you can't sell designs made with them unless you pay for that. 

March of Dimes

This is an email that I received from my friend, Faun. {We went to preschool-highschool together!} I know money is tight but do what you can to help or like she says, find a walk in your area. This is an important cause all over the world.

Hello! As many of you know, my daughter, Avery Reese, was born in March of this year at 23w3d gestation. She weighed 1lb 1oz when she was born. We spent 4 1/2 months in the NICU before we were able to take her home. I am walking this year in her honor.

I'm very excited to be a part of March for Babies this year. Please help me reach my goal by making a donation to my walk. It's easy and secure - just click through to make your donation.

Your gift will fund March of Dimes research and programs that help moms have full-term pregnancies and babies begin healthy lives. And it will be used to bring comfort and information to families with a baby in newborn intensive care.

If you can't donate, consider joining our team and walking around our capital on April 30th!

Please support this important work. You can make a donation with your credit card, or if you prefer, cash or a check is fine, too.

Thank you for helping me give all babies a healthy start!

Love,

Faun, Mark, Brooklyn and Avery Try

To make a donation, visit my personal Web page at

http://www.marchforbabies.org/averyreese

If you would like to learn more about March for Babies, visit the Web site at
www.marchforbabies.org.

Would you like to see what March for Babies is and why I'm walking?
Click http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5P_dFD0J47I to see the video. (see below)

The March of Dimes mission is to improve the health of babies by preventing birth defects, premature birth, and infant mortality.

I know a lot of you have your own blogs, you can go to Faun and Avery's personal page and get a badge like this for your blog or an app for Facebook. 

A Great Way to Connect Military Families.

HLN - Salute To Troops
Create your own 'Salute to Troops' tribute here: http://bit.ly/SendSalute
Uploaded by thatsfunny. - Family events, birthdays and parenting videos.

Peace On Earth December Challenge 12/6

December 6th: As the warmth of Christmas has now begun to enter your home with the influx of decorations, cookie baking and friends, take out your calendar and SCHEDULE a night where you will take a warm refreshing bubble bath. I'll give you more details on what to include with this bubble bath. But until then, one main thing will be your Bible. Read the story of the birth of Jesus in Matthew 1, 2 and Luke 1,2. 
Read More at Women Living Well

Off The Shelf Challenge

I finally found a book challenge for ME! (Thanks Sheena!) I have quite a few books on the shelf and the e-shelf (love my nook). 
Trying Category – Choose 15 books to read
Titles followed by (e) are on the virtual shelf. 
Here is my list:

1. Capture His Heart-Lysa TerKeurst
2. Turn Up the Heat-Dr. Kevin Leman
3. Prayer Coach-James L. Nicodem
4. Get Out of That Pit-Beth Moore
5. Hope Again-Charles R. Swindoll
6. This Present Darkness-Frank Peretti
7. The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo-Steig Larsson (e)
8. The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest-Steig Larsson (e)
9. The Girl Who Played With Fire-Steig Larsson (e)
10. The Power of a Positive Woman-Karol Ladd (e)
11. Great Expectations-Charles Dickens (e)
12. Where the Sidewalk Ends-Shel Silverstein
13. A Light in the Attic-Shel Silverstein
14. Little House on the Prairie-Laura Ingalls Wilder
15. Mama Rock's Rules-Rose Rock with Valerie Graham

Peace On Earth December Challenge

I have decided to commit to the 

Peace On Earth December Challenge from WomenLivingWell.org.  

Visit the link to find out more about the challenge and link up. 

I hope you will join me in having a more peaceful holiday season. 

Thirty Days of Thanksgiving Day 29

29. I am thankful for our family. My family and the in-laws. We are both very lucky to have great families and great in-laws as well. From what I hear, this is pretty rare. The blessings continue...

Thirty Days of Thanksgiving Day 28

28. I am thankful for body scanners at the airport, they keep my husband safe while he travels.

Thirty Days of Thanksgiving Day 27

27. I am thankful for wise counsel. Friends and family that lead me back to Jesus, right were I need to be. People that share just the right verse at just the right time. People that are praying for me. People that truly have the love of Christ in their hearts.

Thirty Days of Thanksgiving Day 26

26. I am thankful that, even after an emotional start, our Thanksgiving turned out pretty great. Great food! And then we watched a family movie together. I am truly blessed.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We made this Thanksgiving tree this year and I love it! {I ordered it from eBay but it is originally from Oriental Trading}

A lot of variation on the things the boys are thankful for... Jesus and treats, pretty much every thing in between, too.