Using the things I have......

Matthew 6:20-21 NIV But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Over the past year I have cut way back on even going to the store. Not even going in to 'look' because there is always something on SALE that I have to pick up and in the end it costs money I didn't need to spend. I am learning more and more that if I don't see it then I don't even think about it and ultimately didn't need it in the first place. I tend to be a "saver" - thinking someday I'll use it. As a kid I wouldn't use things because then they'd be gone. Things like BANDAIDS. Yes, even bandaids. I remember getting a box of Strawberry Shortcake bandaids as a kid and never using them because if I used them then I wouldn't have them anymore. Having a single mom until I was 12 helped me learned the value of being frugal.  Right now my new goal is to USE things up before I purchase more. Things like makeup and lotion just accumulate!  What about you? Do you have a bathroom cabinet filled with half-used hair products and lotions? Lets use them!!!!!! :-)

Pumpkin Patch

Random Summer Photos

I just found Slide.com and got it to work so I am very excited about my two slideshows. :-) Even if no one else cares to look, I love to click on and see my wonderful family smiling and having a great time together. This summer was SOOOOOOOOOOOO jam packed with camps, VBA, missions trips, and more that I just now feel like I'm getting caught up on everything. When school started I dove headfirst into that and had to let other things like blogging take a backseat. But now I feel like I'm getting caught up and can breath and do a few extra things. Anyways, hope you enjoy your day!

Youth Conference 08

ABC's of me

Aprons–y/n If y, what does your fave look like? No, but I asked my mom for one for my 30th birthday next week. It's a very simple red/white fabric.

Baking - I like to bake banana bread/pumpkin bread the most because I like to eat them the most!

Clothes line? No - I like fluffy clothes out of the dryer.

Donuts–Have you ever made them? Never! All that grease!!!!!!

Everyday–One homemaking thing you do every day? Pick up the entry and living room. Lately though I've really been working on making sure there is NO dishes in the sink before I go to bed and having the kids clean their room before nap time EVERY day so it doesn't get catotic. It doesn't always happen but we're trying.

Freezer–Do you have a separate deep freeze? No

Garbage Disposer? No

Handbook–What is your favorite homemaking resource? Flylady.com!

Ironing–Love it or Hate it? Neutral. I just never set up the ironing board. The dryer works fine.

Junk Drawer–y/n? Uh Yeah! Doesn't everyone!

Kitchen–color and decorating scheme - My mom and dad just refinished my cabinets for me while I was on a missions trip and I love them. They are cream with bead board. I am going with the deep red and mustardy colors. French Country w/ understated hints of roosters. I really like how it's coming out.

Love–what is your favorite part of homemaking? homeschooling!

Mop–y/n? Yes - I'm not a swiffer fan

Nylons, machine or hand wash? Through 'em in the wash baby!

Oven–do you use the window or open the oven to check?I open it.

Pizza–Most Friday Nights - Kids like Pepporoni, Josh likes various greasy meats, and I like combo with lots of veggies.

Quiet– What's that? Actually, the kids are going in their rooms a lot more now that they're getting older.

Recipe Card Box–y/n? No - Recipe Books and random cards from my grandmas usually used as placemarks in my books.

Style of house–What style is your house? 1921 Craftsman

Tablecloths or Placemats? Usually neither, but the kids have character placemats they use.

Under the kitchen sink–organized or toxic wasteland? on my to do list!

Vacuum–How many times per week? Usually Monday, Wednesday, Saturday

Wash–How many loads of laundry do you do per week? 2 loads for Reagan and Josh! 1 each for Javon and myself...2 loads of towels...1 load of whites...1 load of reds....1 load of delicates....grand total = 11 loads

X’s–Do you keep a daily list of things to do that you cross off? Schoolwork YES! Other stuff I'm on and off about using my dayplanner.

Yard–y/n? Who does what? Josh mowes and weedeats - I pull weeds.

ZZZ’s–What do you do before bed? Read the Bible and watch 1 show.

Love ya Sis'!

A few ways Cass and I are alike: At first meeting you wouldn't think we're much alike however deep down we really are. We are both people pleasers. We both bottle up our emotions...sometimes to appear stronger than we really are....sometimes simply because we push them down for no apparent reason but it's our nature. We love our families and try to take care of them. She's an introvert and I'm an extrovert but deep down we are very similar and I'm thankful she's my sis.

Love you too Courtie....

For the first time

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDRfP-TzQwg

Someone help me on how to get the actual youtube video to post....I'm having trouble. :-)

Anyways, I was feeling nostalgic tonight and I looked up this song. One Fine Day the movie had come out while Josh and I were dating and I played it over and over. We played several of the songs off of the soundtrack throughout our wedding. It just took me back and helped me remember all the great reasons I fell in love with my Josh.

My girl!

We had a really good day today. It was mom's turn to teach Impact Kids which was a nice break. I very rarely sit through a sermon on Sunday. He talked about how the attacks on Sarah Palin are demonic and straight from hell. It is amazing at the things that people will say about other people to put them down or discredit them simply because they do not know the Lord. Anyways, then we had two girls from church come over to hang out and J. and R. LOVED every minute of it! They had a blast. It was so funny because Reagan is soooo quiet and shy most of the time at church is not like that at all at home. She didn't stop talking the entire day. She ask the girls to dress up with her in like 15 different outfits, go on a walk, play, watch a movie, and the list went on and on. She was actually being bossy which is not normally like her. It was fun to see her having so much fun though. Javon has a great time as well. It is great to have friends that love Jesus as well and that I feel comfortable with our kids playing with them and not being worried about what they will hear or say. It was nice because one of the girls is in 6th grade this year and acting more grown up at church, but once she got with Reagan she had a great day letting down her guard and just being a kid! It was nice. Hopefully you had a great day as well!

How did you invest your 86,400?

"Imagine for a moment that your bank suddenly announced this new policy: Every morning your account will be credited with $86,400. You can carry no balance from day to day. Every evening, your account will be canceled and whatever money you have failed to use during the day will be returned to the bank. What would you do? Why you'd draw out every cent of the $86,400 each day and spend it, save it, or invest it. Before long, you could be a very wealthy person!

Actually, you have a bank balance with a similar policy. It is called "time". Every morning you are given the prospect of 86,400 seconds. At the close of that 24 hour period, the moments you have failed to withdraw and invest to good purpose are ruled off the ledger. Time carries no balance from day to day. It allows no overdrafts. Each day, a new account is opened to you. If you fail to withdraw and use the day's deposit, it's your loss. 

Those who truly love life use time to the maximum. Make your days count rather than counting your days!"

This was in my devotional Bible yesterday and I really liked it. I feel so busy all the time but the truth is that there are a lot of wasted seconds throughout my day. Whether it be little moments that I could have put a load of dishes in or spent a little more time to do a craft with Reagan. I do great at never turning the TV on during the day, but in the evening I find myself randomly watching things that don't even interest me or matter. I just sit down and veg after the day. 

Not only does time wasted fall under the category of TV or internet, but I also want to remember that sometimes I just need to be present with the kids in playtime and not be busy cleaning the house or doing something that NEEDS to get done. Those times can also be a lose moment of sharing something with the kids. Anyways, that made me think. I have really been trying to make the most out of my day and juggle everything more efficently, but I know there are things that I can improve on and really want to try. 

Lord, help me to wake up each day ready to face whatever comes me way with a smile and determination. Help me be productive in all that I do and remember that You are pleased with me when I use my time wisely. 

So worth it....

So during the school year last year I subbed for our school district on Monday's while Javon was at co-op. Co-op hasn't started yet, so I decided to not start subbing on Monday's until it does. well, this morning I did give it a thought because $100 sounded pretty good. I didn't though and we had a great day that was far more valuable than the money! 

School has been going wonderful thanks to a $1.34 tub of erasers!!!! Javon and Reagan would both jump over the moon right now to earn erasers! Sounds crazy I know, but it's working. For how long...I don't know? However, I'm riding this wave for as long as I can. For every page of school work he does without complaint and in 10 min. he earns 1 eraser. If he can get it done in 5 minutes he earns 2 erasers. It is amazing how much time we have shaved off of school simply to earn erasers! He gets a 10 minute break after every subject. But when he earns 10 erasers he can turn them in for 30 min. of XBox time. His work is getting done efficiently, neatly, and without complaint. What a great blessing. Some may argue that it's not a good system because he isn't doing the work to actually learn but rather to gain XBox time, however I would have to cordually disagree. :-) The power of a positive attitude has greatly increased the quality of learning. The first few days of the school year where filled with whines and complaints and the past 3 have been filled with fun, laughter, and an overall great time. 

Then Mom came over and visited after their 2 week trip to Wisconsin. It is great to have my family home! Then we went on a 18 mile family bike ride. I'm not very fast at all compared to Josh. He coasts most of the way and I feel like I'm pedaling my rear off, but he likes to share his love of biking (cycling) with us. A friend found us a bike trainer (Thanks April!) at a yard sale and this was Javon's longest ride. He was a trooper. That's a long ride for a 5 year old! I was pulling Reagan in our bike trailer, so we looked like quite the little clan of riders. Reagan sang to me most of the way and looked at a book! It was so cute. We got a Jamba Juice and then headed home. Along the way we stopped and picked wild blackberry's for a cobbler. 

Yeah, that was better than a $100! 

So today as I was running around doing errands and hitting a few yard sales along the way, I was thinking how different Josh and my relationship is in some ways from when we first got married. When we first got married we did everything together. I love to go yard saling so every Saturday morning I would wake him up at like 7:30 AM and beg him to go with me. He loves to sleep in on the weekends. I can't! 8:00 AM is sleeping in for me. I'm not an early bird, my body clock just doesn't sleep past 8 AM. 

So he would reluctantly roll out of bed and go with me to do something that he really didn't enjoy but didn't we HAVE to do everything together? No :-) Over the years I've learned to appreciate the times that it's just me and understand that he enjoys sleeping in on Saturdays. Then when I get home from my errands, he's up and ready for the day. That is of course on the few Saturday's a month that we don't have something already going on. :-)

Just kind of a random thought that was going through my head today as I enjoyed "my time" at the yard sales. :-)

A few more Mexico pics of my two guys!

Javon and Julio were buds all week long in Mexico. It didn't matter that

their lives are totally different, they simply knew they liked to hang out. 

They played, hung out, talked, and had a fun time. 

1st day of school!

Yes, I'm a terrible mother for making my kids start school on Labor Day! But it is "labor" day right. It just seemed like a great day to kick everything off so we went for it. Washington State has one of the later school start dates...most states all start the end of August. Not that our schedule is determined by that, but it worked out to be a great start time. I'm thankful that I had already gotten all of my curriculum lined up and school area organized back in July. This summer has been sooooo busy. Camps, Vacation Bible Adventure, Missions Trips, teaching on Wednesday nights, Impact Kids on Sundays, and on and on it feels like. I can't even believe that it's September!!!

We had a bit of a rough start this morning getting back into the groove, but ended up getting a lot accomplished and went out for a milk-shake when school was done. I planned to be done by around 2 pm, but we ended up going from 8:30-3:30. We started with our song for the month "Trust in the Lord" and then did some dancing which got Javon in a bad mood. He isn't one prone to dancing. You'd think so because of his outgoing (slightly hyper!) personality, but he has never enjoyed dancing around with me to music. Reagan on the other hand would dance with me all day. After that we worked on our weather cart which I was very excited about starting and went and checked out what kind of clouds there were....overcast! Surprise, surprise! It's Seattle. The chart took a bit longer than expected because of having to get it all set up for the month. 

I use ACE curriculum so then we dove into our PACE work. 

Math - Money and Time

English - Review of the alphabet. Writing upper and lower case letters and going over the vowels and consonants. 

Social Studies - Reading and questions about Jesus saving us from sin. 

Science - Creation Days

Word Building - Review of a list of new spelling words, drawing shape patters, and writing some of the new spelling words. 

He also did his typing and then art with dad. 

We didn't get around to health (once a week) and piano, but we'll shoot for tomorrow. I didn't want to push anymore. He worked really hard and I was very proud of him. Although there were times during the day I thought this is the HARDEST job anyone could ever have. The patience required during these young years is pretty intense. I can see why some moms feel like they can't do it. It has to be a passion/conviction or there's no way you could pull it off. 

In the middle of all that, Reagan did real preschool for the first day. Last year she pretty much did a portion of what Javon was doing in Kindergarten, but his year he has much more written work so I had to work with her separate on some preschool activities. She really enjoyed all the attention!

We read 5 books about the zoo. 

Worked on counting to 20.

Found things the color blue.

Watercolor painted a picture.

Colored a picture with crayons. 

Worked on a memory verse.

Danced and sang and played dress up. 

Anyways, it was a VERY long, but rewarding day. Even if no one else ever sees or understands why I'm doing this, my kids will reap the benefits and I also know that God is watching and cheering me on. Praise the Lord for His grace, provision, and never-failing love. 

Tomorrow is a new day that will present new challenges and I will try to figure out some new positive ways to teach and continue reinforcing things I'm already doing. Oh, and then there's church and the house and all the things that come with them, but for today I'm just "Mama" teaching my children to the best of my ability how to love God, respect others, and be the smart little people I know they are! 

Blessing to you as you begin your '08-'09 journey!

I'm back!

Wow, what an amazingly difficult, rewarding, and amazing 10 days!!!! We left Thursday morning and drove and drove and drove. Our trailer tire blew out while I was driving but praise the Lord we were only a mile away from an exit where we could get it repaired. We drove to Riverbank, CA until 1 AM and then slept at a church. I was messing around and went to fake kick Abel and fell flat on my back. It knocked the wind out of me and hurt really bad but was pretty funny. That was until my tailbone was bruised for the next few days. :-) We got up and left for Mexico early the next morning. I had the privilege of driving through L.A. this year which took FOREVER! We went like 33 miles in 3 hours. It was ridiculous. When we finally saw the Mexico border sign we were all excited. Once we crossed the border, the exit we needed to go to Ensenada was closed. We pulled over and asked for directions and a Mexican policeman came up beside us and ask what we needed. We told him directions and he said that if we'd give him a "drink" he'd take us to the bypass. Our dear Miss Madeline offered him a bottle of water and he shook his head! :-) He then changed his request to dinner. Pastor Josh asked if $10 would do and he didn't seem pleased but pacified. He took us to the detour on ramp and then told us to slip the money in his glove. It was so crazy! But we got to our destination.

We stopped at Taco's Pablano for the beginning of many taco stand stops. I knew that Javon would not eat beef or pork on his taco so I asked if they could be a "queso" taco. They did and everyone else saw it and started getting them. Last time we thought we only had two choices, but our eyes were opened to a bean pot and cheese tacos this year!!!!
Here is what the majority of the farm workers' homes look like. It is basically made out of tarps, pallets, cardboard, and whatever else they can find. It is heartbreaking to see it.
The kids did amazing. They never backed away from anything we asked them to do! They jumped right in with both feet and shared Jesus' love with people. I am so proud of them.
We passed out a lot of food, helped build a home for a "working poor" family, held two community hot dog feeds where we sang and shared the gospel then passed out bags with toiletries and toys in them, plus did a service Sunday night and VBS on Wednesday at the church we went to last time. This time was more broken up than last time, but in the end we saw that God was in it all. Everyone did really great at being flexible. Javon played and played and played with the kids. He didn't care that they were dirty or didn't speak English, he just went right up to them and starting playing. As a mom, I can't even tell you how proud I was of him and how excited I was to see God using him. He just did things with Jesus' love because he wanted to and it felt right, not because we made him. It was so amazing to watch him serving and interacting with the kids. We also worked with the children's home kids this year. The girls would get up early each morning and brush the kids teeth, feed them breakfast, clean them up, we also spent all Sunday afternoon cleaning their entire childcare room. Everyone worked together and did great. Did I mention how proud of them I was?

I have tons of pictures that I'll keep posting. It's nice to be home, but Let the Little Children Come Home will remain in our hearts and we are excited to see what God has done when we return!

Power Lab was powerful!

I have about 20 seconds to post because I'm leaving for Mexico in about 3 hours. Yes, Mexico to do 2 more VBS's with 13 other wonderful people. Pray for me....I've been sick all weekend and this week. My voice is completely gone, but I wouldn't any of the crazy business! I love it all. 

See ya the end of August!