Category: Uncategorized

Some women love shoes….clothes….knick knacks……art.
Some people call them fetiches.
Some people call them Collections.
I call them….things.

I have a thing for…..
Matter of fact there are three.
PJ’s (the softer and comfier….the better)
Bags…not necessarily purses ( i really have to be careful when 31 gifts is involved)
AND…..
NOTEBOOKS.

I am a writer for Pete’s sake! That is a lot of how I organize our lives as a Family. I have notebooks for nearly everything. My husband often asks how I can keep them all straight. My answer is…”i just can!”

My absolute favorite notebook is the white three ring binder that has a clear plastic cover that i can insert my own custom cover.
Way back in high school/college that consisted of a clipart laden printout but today has morphed into what I truly like. My style. Distressed. Old looking. Pretty. It’s unique.

My hope is to complete a set of these to house our home organization. I have mostly completed our kitchen one.

It consists of my creativity and free printables! And one of those white three ring binders!

This is my cover.
Paper ink, stickers ink, glue, colored pencils and a blending pen. The old paper look is hand done by me in literally under a minute!

But as much as I love being creative i also love being organized and knowing what I have!

So that led me to search out some options in keeping a kitchen inventory….and I just adore what I found.

You can find inventory printables
Www.couponsnob.com

I have inventory sheets for my pantry, freezer, and household items.

In this notebook i also have my menus for the year. Yes year. I am in the process of taking notes and adding new recipes which i will change at the end of this year. This is huge for us because their are just some nights where i am exhausted on so many levels and this takes the thinking out of it!

My hope in the next few months is to implement some freezer cooking as well i have started collecting recipes for things i already make that are “freezer friendly”. Which will in the end become a part of our freezer inventory!

One of the other things that i have started again is making our own mixes.
There are some fantastic recipes floating around out there to help you make healthier choices for your family.

And lastly i have what I call a hospitality calendar. It helps us keep track of all of our events that we have people over for. We TRY to have everyone from our church over for dinner in a year, two open house, a deacon’s Christmas Party, a New Year’s Eve game night night and anything else that might happen
. It helps me not to repeat meals either!

I also have a small sized 3 ring binder that houses the dietary needs of everyone that comes into our home. If so and so is gluten free then that’s in the smaller notebook under their name. If so and so doesn’t like pickled herring…..then that’s there too….(not that I would EVER serve that…ewww!)

My next notebook in the works is my garden notebook! Hopefully in the next couple of weeks i will be able to share that with you all as well!
Hopefully i have sparked some inspiration in you!
Happy creating, organizing, and planning!
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Hey you…yeah you…the one with the notebook and pen in hand…..obviously you are like me right? You like to write….or journal, right. You have all the signs, including the pen indention on your middle finger (that is if you hold you pen correctly :), if not oh well.)

I wanted to share with you some fun journaling ideas i have found on Pinterest!

I have been actively pursuing both, mostly because they take so little time. To be quite honest, it has been sparking my blogging juices! And i have some posts coming up that are triggered by the journal prompts.

Here they are as i sat working one morning a few weeks ago when we were in Florida.

They are great for both the novice and experienced writers. I find it just enough to get me thinking without overwhelming my busy schedule.

The first is a five year journal. I actually found a very nice thick journal while in Florida. Basically you need to save enough space. Under each day for one line for five years. You can do this either with prompts or without them . For this year i choose to use them but i cannot guarantee i will always!
You can find the Prompts for the five year journal here.

The other is a fun printable……ok so 50 fun printables….you can pick border free, a border you can doodle and color yourself or pre-colored. I have been copying two at each sitting so i can photo copy the next set! I will say though that I must put a disclaimer here. In a rare instance I need to scratch out some options in the lightening round section….mostly related to alcohol. I do not prefer to drink anything with alcohol in it. So make you choice but i would not throw out the baby with the bath water just for one choice.

You can find the printables here

I hope you enjoy these journaling opportunities as much as I have. Whether you are a blogger, writer, or journaler (i think i just coined a new word). Give it a shot!
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Grace is giving someone something they don’t deserve…..not all too far removed but still very different than Mercy which is Not giving someone what they deserve. Do you see the difference?

Grace is something that Jesus exemplified right until his death when He uttered “Father forgive them for they know not what they do.” Luke 23:34 (ESV)

Even the thief next to him on the cross received grace. He knew what he had done was sin, understood who Christ was asked for Grace and it was extended to him when jesus said “today you will be with me in Paradise.” Luke 23:43

Did that mean that the robber would no longer suffer the consequences of his sin? Not a chance. He still died that horrible death on the cross. Far worse than anything I can even imagine.

There are so many instances of Grace exemplified by Jesus even before His death. There were tax Collectors, harlots, accusers, the mob, his disciples (yes they of all the rest seemed to need FAR. More grace than all the others).

I am no different and neither are my children. Let me start off by saying this, we could learn a lesson or two from kids, they are just chock full of grace! But we as parents (and even non-parents) can sometimes come down hard on those same grace filled kids! It really is very sad. I have found myself on more than one occasion set to discipline a child for something that had nothing more than the purest intentions. I have pretty sweet kids. But sometimes they just go about being thoughtful in the wrong way. So I have two choices, i can come down hard on them and say….”you broke a house rule, i don’t care why, you will have to do this……” Or before i get to crazy I can stop and listen. Just by stopping and listening shows an amazing amount of grace. Sometimes as parents hubby and I need to do just that. Does that mean by doing so that our kids get away with something though? NOPE. By slowing down though it gives us more opportunities to teach and train, and by doing so we are also teaching and training them how to handle others as well.

One of the hardest things to do is to try to understand the motives of your child. Only God truly understands ones motives but as parents we must become students of our children. Understanding every little thing about them and what drives them to do what they do (just another way we as parents depict Father God to our children). This is why children who have been abused by their parents have such a hard time picturing God as the loving Father that he is. This can be exceptionally hard in counseling sessions and church settings.

When you stop and listen you learn so much. A child’s heart is something that is so pure. Despite all of Jesus’ exhaustion He took time for the children. He saw the importance of time on a child’s life. He laid the groundwork for the grace they so desperately needed. I often wonder what kind of impact that moment had on the lives of those children.

There is a saying that is uttered in our house often, ” there isn’t anything you could say or do to ever make me stop loving you.” We want our children to know that our love is not dependent on their performance in life.” They will make wrong decisions and Will have to suffer the consequences. They will say hurtful things and will apologize. Trust will be broken. But no matter what I will love them…and they hopefully never question that (though I am human too)

God’s love isn’t dependent on me being good. i am obedient to God because I love Him. Love and grace though no the same go hand in hand. God is gracious because he loves me. I should be gracious to my children AND to all those around me because I love God. And i follow his commandments….and he commands me to love my neighbor and my enemy!
Its hard to do when someone hurts you but how else will they ever see the love of God? Grace is not synonymous with trust. Grace is giving someone what they don’t deserve, they might deserve what they did you in the first place. Grace is not giving it to them! Love them instead, give them kindness instead.
Live a grace filled life….it’s contagious!

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Hi all,
Sorry for the absence but we took a week of vacation! It was wonderful!
And now that we are back and mostly recouped from our insanely long trip back. I am renewed and refreshed!

This was out first vacation in FOUR years. Over the last few years we have spent two weeks in spring in Michigan for hubby’s Th.M. program. Last may he graduated so we didn’t need to go out there! That was half school and half vacation!

The last full vacation we took was to Tennessee and Kentucky before my husband accepted the call to the church he now pastors back in February of 2009!

On this trip we got to spend time with my aunt and uncle in South Carolina and on the return trip we got to see my brother for a few minutes. While in Florida we got to spend time with hubby’s brother HT and sister -in -law L. And our new (and only) niece Ducky (that’s her nickname)

Isn’t she sweet! hubby and I fought over her and the kids all loved her to bits! We enjoyed the sun and warmth of southern Florida!

We as a family we rested…well that is until we headed home from South Carolina! What should have taken us 13 hours ended up taking us 26! The traffic we hit was unbelievable and we even avoided the DC /Baltimore area!

All in all it was a real blessing. We miss everyone!
I look forward to jumping in with both feet over the coming weeks!

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This is the very first installment of a series i mentioned on Facebook a little while ago entitled Why we do what we do. We get many questions about why we choose certain things.

Today as i am nearing the end of my reading through the book of Philippians i was reminded of the reason we opt out of regular media.

It says :

Philippians 4:8 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.

Everything thing we consume media wise is put into our minds we will recount them. We need to be sure not to put something in that does not fit these requirements. It is setting ourselves up for failure otherwise!

It’s far too easy for our kids to see something they aren’t supposed to. We let our kids watch movies and some TV shows that we pre-pick

We are called to be good stewards of all we have and that includes our children. We need to make sure their minds and hearts and eyes are protected at all costs. Let’s face it today’s media lacks in the pure quotient. Hubby and I also need to focus on these things as well because our hearts could become numb to sin, and that would affect our ministry!

Remember focusing on right things is a commandment of God…..garbage in garbage out fits perfectly into the Bible!

BLESSINGS,

– Posted using BlogPress from my iPad