love to paint

My husband has been on a trip for work so I try to make the most of the time he's away when he travels.  A lot of times I pick a household project to do, but I've felt pretty tired the past 2 months.  My body won't let me sleep past 6 am no matter what time I go to sleep and I honestly can't remember the last time I slept two nights in a row without waking.  So, maybe that's what it is =) Anyways, I decided to finally make sure I took time with each of the girls this week.  It takes extra effort on my part to coordinate child care so I know I drag my heels some times.  But, I knew my friend had a light load at her daycare this week so it worked out perfectly.  On Tuesday, I took Autumn to Ollie's to look for activity books for this weekend and a scrapbook (which we weren't able to find), to Dunkin Donuts (I had free coupons =) ), and then to Amazing Glaze to paint pottery.  She picked a princess statue to paint.  She didn't expect it to look per...

I'm always looking for good early chapter books and read alouds for the girls.  Last year, we read the first of Kate DiCamillo's Mercy Watson series about a a pig named Mercy.  The girls enjoyed it.  I had forgotten to look for more in the series.  On Saturday we were at the library and I found an audio recording of two of the books in the series so I checked it out. Friday night we all ended up sitting down on the couches and the chairs and listening to the story.  We all laughed and the girls were drawn in.  They loved it and it was nice family time.  Eli was in his room, though, looking at a book saying "wa wa wa" like the Peanuts teacher as if he was reading.  But, he was happy doing what he was doing. I did get the second book for Autumn to read on her own and she has now decided that she prefers to read silently.  It's hard for me to believe she's already doing this!  So, I check her comprehension to make sure she really read t...

When I first got married, my husband was in the Army.  I remember several pieces of advice that veteran Army wives shared with me.  One was to always go with your husband if you could go--even if it was only for a few months.  Make the sacrifice.  Go.  It may not be what you want, but it's the best thing for your marriage and it gives Satan the less opportunities to come between you two. Another piece of advice really came in the form of the examples I saw.  I heard from my husband about wives who complained about their husbands' jobs and the hours and I saw it in person.  I also heard about wives who didn't complain and supported their husbands and saw examples of this.  My husband spoke to me several times about how much a wife's disposition towards the Army could affect a husband's attitude about his job.  He would mention it the course of a conversation about how bad morale was at times.  I took from that the lesson that I would st...

Often books about love address one aspect of loving--the act itself, but not what is behind the love. It is the heart that is behind the love that matters and this is what Cynthia Heald digs into in this study. She addresses what love is, what it looks like, what it means to love one another, forgiving one another and reconciling, as well as how to speak to one another in love. I was blessed by this study as I have been by the others studies I have done by her. Her studies point you to the Word not to yourself or to popular psychology. This study would be a wonderful one to do to by yourself or with a Bible study. Often I find that small groups actually do "book" studies with questions attached that point people to the Word and to their own hearts and experiences. I would describe this book as one that points you to the heart of God--a loving heart. This study focuses much more on reading the Word than Ms. Heald's words. There are wonderful quotes and short stories which ...

This is a story from the chapter I read in Growing Grateful Kids by Susie Larson: One day while ministering in a prison, Ed asked the inmates, "How many of your fathers or mothers told you that you'd end up in a place like this?"  Guess how many prisoners raised their hands?  Every single one of them.    p.194                                                                  Later in the chapter she shares about a time in a store when a lady in a store said about one of her sons that he would end up in jail some day.  She got down right that minute next to her son and told him that the lady was wrong and that God loved him and had great plans for him. It breaks my heart to think of some lady speaking of a young boy that way.  Even now it brings tears to my eyes.  That story spoke to my...

I often think about savoring the moments with my kids.  I love to sit with Eli and just make him giggle.  I love to tell Autumn and Sami I love them and break out into a silly dance in the kitchen as they're eating breakfast and lunch. I want to enjoy those moments.  But, life often feels so stressful trying to get them to the activities we've signed them up for.  I'm very lucky that the kids' preschool doesn't fine me if they're late the way several preschools I know of do.  I'd be in big trouble!  Sami was late more times than not last year, I think. So often it feels very stressful trying to get them to ballet, Awanas, PE, piano, and other places.  But, I know this is their childhood and I want them have good memories of enjoying these things.  I don't want to do too much, but I do love to see their smiles after each of the activities.  I know how much they enjoy all of them.  And that makes the stress worth it to me. Now, I jus...

I received notice of a book today available for review.  Although I don't think I'm going to review it, it was very interesting to me what the author had to say about why he writes about crime and evil in the world... http://stvjames.blogspot.com/2009/11/why-i-write-about-evil.html

This year I've read several romantic books written by women.   The forward of this book made me think that this book was going to have a lot of romance in it--"To my wife, Cindi, my one and only love and inspiration behind any and every romantic thought I've ever had."   I was curious how it would be similar to and different from romantic fiction by women. Back in December, I read the first book in this series titled The Unfinished Gift .   It was the first novel by Dan Walsh and I was impressed that it was written so well for being his first novel.   The end of that book did wrap a little too neatly and quickly for my tastes, but all in all I enjoyed the book a lot.  The sequel is titled, The Homecoming. I knew that this book would pick up where the first left off and the first does portend a relationship between Katherine and Captain Collins, the two main characters.   And indeed that is at the crux of the plot for the second book.   In this story,...

I haven't posted much lately.  I also haven't read much lately.  Honestly, I've been very tired.  Since we finished our homeschooling year up, I've had so many errands to catch up on.  We had a garage sale and then I had to take care of the disbursement of leftovers =) My husband did go to a wedding in Nebraska this past weekend and met a dear couple that he enjoyed getting to know.  The wife suggested two things to him for me.  One was Teaching our daughters to keep home, a home education curriculum for girls about homemaking and Sue Gregg's cookbooks.  I'm looking into both.  Please let me know if you've used either and what you think of them--I'd love to know! But, the biggest blessing of his trip to Nebraska?  My husband learned to fry amazing fried chicken and came home very thankful for our family.  That's always a blessing =)

A dear friend of mine was telling me that she hasn't found any Christian parenting books that she loves.  When she said that to me, I had to think about which ones I really like.  My very favorite is the Parent's Handbook for Shepherding a Child's Heart by Ted Tripp.  I like it even more than the book, actually.  It is a Bible Study about what God's Word says to parents.  Aside from those two books, though, it often feels as if Christian parenting books are more self help than biblically based instruction.   But, I am so thankful when God breaks down my stereotypes and my cynicism!  Growing Grateful Kids did just that for me.  It truly encouraged me as a woman and as a mom.  Susie Larson shares so many stories about her kids and her own heart that made this book a very easy read.  Every chapter I read left me pondering and chewing on something.  Many of the things she says were things that I've thought about and considered, but ...

I'm so thankful that I put the moderating comments feature on my blog.  It is crazy the spam comments I get!  Once there was one for Viagara, another for Harley Davidson clothing, another for clothes for your pets, and so many others.  I'm sorry I have to moderate the comments on this blog, but please know that this is why I do it.  I would feel so ashamed if these ads got posted as comments on my blog.

I like good quotes.  Someone emailed me about a self-help book.  I'm not keen on self-help books.  I think they put the emphasis on us and our efforts, rather than God.  But, I clicked onto the author's blog and found two quotes that I did like. “ Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature… Life is either a daring adventure or nothing. ”   —Helen Keller Definitely food for thought.  I suppose security in the traditional sense doesn't exist in nature because life does change.  Nothing stays the same.  But, there is always security in Christ.  God is always in control.  Still, the quote made me think that we do have to take chances and make attempts at things even when we get older.  Someone commented to me once about being over 30 and saying that they couldn't pick up knitting or drawing, I think.  They said they were too old to pick up a new hobby.  Well, I'll be 36 in two weeks and as crazy as t...

I have really been encouraged by a lot of ideas and thoughts that Susie Larson shares in Growing Grateful Kids. One of the ideas that she shares is this: They wanted their kids to be friends with believers and non-believers, but they set this rule for them.  If their friends didn't believe in God, they told them that they could be friends with someone they could stand up to, but if what their friend thought was more important than their convictions, then it wasn't wise to be friends with that person. I thought that was wise advice for adults and children alike.  I do desire my children to be friends with other kids who know the Lord and children who don't, but I wasn't sure how to go about it wisely.  So, I appreciated this advice and I thought I'd share it on this blog.   This story was shared in the chapter about restraint.  That chapter has really stuck in my head ever since I read it.  She articulates several thoughts I've had but hadn't put t...