Reading through the bible, changing some shopping habits, and writing!

In this post:

Esther
Changing some shopping habits
Spring Break
Writing


ESTHER
A heroine.  Plain and simple.  King Ahasuerus chose Esther for his wife and queen, an orphaned Jewish child raised in Persia by Mordecai, her cousin.  Mordecai had once saved his life but went unrewarded.  He heard a plot to murder the king and she was able to warn him.  He also promted her to tell the king of the plan to rid the Jewish race.  She was scared.  So she fasted for 3 days.  We are going to be studying fasting in our small group throught the book Celbration of Discipline.  It, again, proves her heoinism in that she turned to God to help her.  In much the same way, Mordecai refused to bow to a prominant prince as he only would bow to God.  This almost got him hung, however, the man who planned to hang him, was hung instead in the very same gallows he constructed for Mordecai, as he was part of the plot to kill the Jews.  Oh, the irony!  Thus Mordecai was saved and honored because he saved the king's life, the Jews were saved and Esther was the reason for it all.  Could I have ever been that courageous?  Does my discipline, concentration, or devotion run that deep?  She is not just a hero to the Jews, but to us.  A shining example and a leader in the bible.  Another subtle hero.

Changing some shopping habits...
I have been shopping from Southernsavers.com for quite some time.  I love their set up and their match ups.  I also use Dealseekingmom.com and moneysavingmom.com.  The part I like most about Southern Savers is on their home screen, they have a top weekly deals link that has a drop down menu.  There you will find $1 or less deals.  It was my plan this week to shop only from that menu, saving things like milk, meat and fresh veggies.  I actually did better than I planned.  I even managed to find fresh veggies that were less than $1/lb.  The only things I bought that did not fall in this catergory were milk and some meats.  (Though the meats were heavily marked down.)  It is my plan to try this all month.  I have a few recipes I want to make that will require buying some things I do not have, so we will see how it goes.  I also have the plan to try have a freezer cooking day.  Anyone want to participate?  I do not plan on cooking for a month, as the blogs that I read do, but I will try for a week first and see how it goes.  I am going to have my 6 year old homeschool daughter help too.  She is becoming quite the little helper in the kitchen and I would like to take that to the next level!

Spring Break
We had so much fun this week on spring break.  It gave me a good taste for the summer, though we homeschool part time through the summer until August, we will still get a good amount of time off!  We went to the beach 2 times and had some fun outside, slip and slide time.  We also took great advantage of our newly enlarged backyard.  We went to a garden festival and did some planting in our own garden!  We just really enjoyed the outside and had some great memories?  Anyone care to share what you did this spring break?

Writing
My writing has become my nemesis as of late.  I am trying to get an agent for my children's books, but have been having technical issues with submitting my books.  I also have not had the gumption to sit down and work on my novel, which is complete but needs a lot of tweeks.  The sad part is, it is truly the most loved piece of writing I have ever done.  I want to be submitting that more than anything, but with little time to devote to such a long project, it has sadly been put aside.  I need to earn about $20 extra a day to pay someone to watch my kids for a while so I can work on this project.  It is a satifying and fulfilling book...if I do say so myself!!

Moments...
-Mackenzie took 4 steps on her own to me and Madison!!!
-I am so deep in the bible that it has attached itself to my moment to moment life...
-Easter service at church, it rained on stage.  A rare moment that made me gasp...and then close my eyes and thank God for being there with me.
-The end of spring break meant I saw Mike for a whole day and almost a half!  Life will resume normalcy for a while.

Reading, writing, growing, changing...everyday!!  I feel like a newborn baby sometimes!