Reading through the biblle and living frugally!

In this blog:

Job
New shopping standards
Girl Scout camping trip
Writing

I have not put out a blog in a while as we have been swamped with activites.  We were also camping for a weekend as you will read below.  You can also keep up with me on facebook as I will post little bits I find here and there.  Become a fan on there AND here!  I love comments and messages and would love any input.


JOB
In case you haven't been keeping track of time, I have definitely surpassed my 90 day mark and have far from completed the bible.  Though I believe it to be doable. I do not believe I specifically could have done it.  So, I am just moving forward and have now come upon Job.  This is a book I have both been dreading and looking forward too.  I dreaded it because it is convicting to have had someone in history endure what he endured and remained faithful and righteous.  I looked forward to it, because much like the virtuous woman in Proverbs, just when I think I am going to lose my mind and wonder how much more I can take, I look back on Job.  I was finishing up Job as Mike's contract meeting with Disney came about.  That is when we find out if his contract gets renewed for another year.  If not, he loses his job.  I found peace somehow, before he ever went into his meeting in whatever happened, it was out of our hands.  We talked later and discovered, neither of us prayed that he would be renewed.  We both prayed for whatever was to come and to give us strength to endure it.  I thought about Job a lot.  He lost everything.  He was stripped of all that was wordly.  His faith never ceased.  He never let go of his faith in God and stood up to the people that argued with him about it.  Our situation more than paled in comparison.  We would endure.  We would continue our faith.  I can only pray that in the events that our future hold, I could continue to have that level of faith in God and know that we are in his hands and he knows what is coming before, during and after any life event.

New shopping standards

I have begun shooting for some new shopping standards.  We have been working diligently to save our money over the last 2 years.   We are beginning to see the fruits of our labors.  I don't want to stop the roll of momentum.  My new standards were set a few weeks back that I would be shopping from the $1 or less weekly deals on southern savers.  Now, granted, there are several things that this is an impossibility for me.  But I must say in the last few weeks, I have done a fairly good job at this.  I have been utilizing Save-A-Lot for their canned goods and bananas at 3 lbs for $1 (have never beat that anywhere!).  Their whole chickens are always .99/lb though Walmart is .98 and I have found them on sale at Publix for .78.  If I can give you any tips, check Southern Savers and click the weekly top deals tab for $1 or less deals and use their work of pairing up the coupons with the deals.  They show you printable and the ones from the paper.  I have tried as hard as I can to make due with those deals and have really managed to keep a good stock up of dry goods.

Girl Scout Camping Trip

Mike and I went with Madison's girl scout troop on a weekend camping trip.  I cannot tell you how proud I was of my family that weekend.  My baby had to stay home with grandma and pop-pop.  It was so hard to leave her, yet she did so awesome!  She slept through the night and ate like a champ.  She even performed her new walking skills all weekend!  Madi was an amazing little camper.  She hiked everday with her backpack and water.  She camped in a bunkhouse with all the other girls in her troop.  She even went canoeing with another girl by themselves!!  Mike was the only dad there and we were proud of that.  They were happy to have him there as well.  The kids loved him and the counselors thought it was awesome that he was so involved.  He is our troop's co-leader!  Yeah Daddy!  We had such a great time watching Madi being such a mature kid.  She blows us away everyday with the things she can accomplish.  She loves girl scouts and her troop has been a growing experience for us all!

Writing

I have been submitting my children's Christmas book to literary agencies.  None of the agencies have wanted them yet but that is what I expected.  They are a seasonal book and I am an inexperienced author.  But, I will keep working at it.  I also had a chance to work a little bit on my novel.  It has been completed for some time now, but it needs a lot of reworking and editing.  It also takes large chunks of time to do this.  I do not get large chunks of time except to workout and that is really important to my health so I cannot give that up.  However, I am working on my schedule daily and we are coming up on summer break and home-schooling goes part-time soI will have some time then.  I want to get to the point where I can submit that as well.  I hope by the end of the summer to have submitted it to at least one agency.  I love that novel and it is truly my writing passion right now.  It just takes time and I am being patient.  I know it will happen when it is meant to.


Moments...
-Mackenzie p**pin' on the potty...MANY timees!!  Hehe!!  Getting potty trained and doing awesome!
-Madi hiking up the trail with her bandana and her backpack like a real camper!
-Mike singing girl scout songs with all the girls!  (I am so sure he is going to love that I put that in here!)
-Madi diving over a pile of girls on the soccer field and jumping up with both thumbs in the air!

Win a trip to Colorado!!

Go here and enter to win a free trip to Colorado!!!  I am totally for a free trip!!!  You can only enter once which makes it even better!!

GOOD LUCK!!!!!

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!

Reading throught the bible...finishing Nehamiah. Most eye opening yet.

Last week at our church, there was a tag team sermon on glory moments.  The Red Sox winning the world series of course was my favorite.  There were several, including Tiger Woods.  Glory moments are usually short lived and the respect that they gain at the moment can quickly fade away and in some cases, it can be reversed.   Perhaps the best part of this entire book came when I read chapter 9.  Here you will find the words lifted up to God when the Israelites confessed their sins.  When we pray, we are supposed to glorify God.  Think of all of the glory moments we see here on earth and how much attention they get.  Think about how long you celebrate your team's victory or your promotion or raise at work.  I do not spend a tenth that long glorifying the REASON I have those moments to celebrate.  Therefore, when I read this entire section glorifying God and all he did for the Israelites and their recognition of him standing by them even when they cast him off for worshiping false idols, wanting a king even when he warned against it, and how he turned their enemies over to them, yet they still chose to ignore him, I was forced to whole-heartedly evaluate my glorification.  I fail everyday.  I have failed over and over and he still stands there waiting for me to come back.  In the grand scheme, this is minor, yet he does it as if he has nothing better to do anyway.  Doesn't he deserve more than that from me?  He certainly did from them, yet the things that the Israelites did, going back to Moses, seem horrible and stupid, yet so similar to myself.  Its not the fact that they did horrible things.  We all do.  Its the fact that it is all equal in his eyes and he will still be standing there waiting when you return.

I am going to read this passage way more often.  The remaining parts of this book talk about the the agreement the people made.  I am agreeing to glorify the one who deserves it and the one that will hold the glory forever.  It will not fade.  It will not be replaced by another's glory.  The Israelites are just me.  They are my life.  Just in a bigger painting.