The Purposeful Mom

VeggieTales Store Deals: $5 DVDs and More

2012-02-09T20:05:00.000-06:00

The VeggieTales online store is having a $5 DVD sale as well as a sale on many of their other items. The $5 DVDs include SweetPea Beauty, Madame Blueberry and God Made You Special. There are also some good deals on other DVDs and some $4.97 CDs.

Shipping is free on orders of $30 or more. We have ordered from their online store in the past and were very pleased with the quick shipping.

Friday Favorites and Freebies

2012-02-09T19:58:00.000-06:00

Here at Friday Favorites and Freebies, I'm sharing some of the best articles and blog posts I've read this week on various topics as well as any Kindle or other freebies I come across. I hope you enjoy them!

Great Blog Posts!

Faith: The Gift that Takes Away Comparison at Mom's Mustard Seeds

Family and Motherhood: Biblical Love Seeketh Not Her Own at These Five of Mine Plus Two, Homeschooling a Strong-Willed Child at Nursery of the Nation and Encouraging a Thankful Heart at Doorposts

Food and Homemaking: How to Maintain (Some) Order in a Shared Kids Room at Feminine Adventures and Home-Management Binder Ideas at Time Warp Wife

Frugality: Shopping Online when you have a Cash Budget at I Am THAT Lady

Fun!: Valentine's Day String Hearts from Motherhood on a Dime

Blogging: 4 Ways to Increase Your Facebook Visibility at Social Media Examiner

Free Downloads

Free Kindle Downloads: A Love-ly Day (children's book), Jimmy the Racing Frog, Circle of Friends Cookbook: 25 Favorite Recipes, Special Dinners for Two, Dinner a Day Slow Cooker: 365 Recipes

Free eBook: Saving Money on Groceries

Read any good posts this week?

Some of these links are affiliate links.

Caped Crusader Valentines

2012-02-08T21:48:00.004-06:00

We were flipping through our Family Fun magazine a couple of weeks ago and Will stopped at a page and said, "I want to make those!"

I'm not a naturally crafty person but I figured I could handle these little guys. We decided to make some for friends and family for Valentine's Day. So here you have what we call the "Caped Bible Crusader" Valentines! :)

Items Needed:

Tootsie Roll suckers, preferably in Valentine's pink

Cardstock in red, pink and/or white

Sharpie or art marker

White computer paper

Hole punch

Scotch tape or glue stick

Family Fun template for cape and mask

Instructions:

Download the Family Fun template. Cut out and trace the cape template the desired number of times onto cardstock and cut out the cardstock. Then trace and cut the mask template (I used white computer paper because it wound around the Tootsie Pop easier than cardstock).

Write your desired message on each cut piece of cardstock. Punch a hole in the top of each cape and slide onto Tootsie Pop stick. It took a little work to do this and some help from my husband but we made it work!

Draw eyeholes on the mask with black marker. Wrap and tape around the Tootsie Pop. Our bag had 16 suckers and in my opinion that was enough! The kids helped put on the capes and masks and they loved the end result so it was worth it!

Need more Valentine's Day ideas? Check out my Valentine Crafts Pinterest board.

How to Rekindle the Romance in Your Marriage (Guest Post)

2012-02-08T08:05:00.003-06:00

Today I'm sharing at day2dayjoys about what to do when we feel our husband isn't meeting our romantic expectations. Perfect topic with Valentine's Day soon approaching, don't you think? Here's a snippet of the post:

When you were first married, what sweet things did your husband do for you? Did he write you poems or cute notes, give you sweet compliments or surprise you with flowers? These things all happened at first in my marriage but at some point they began fading away. Was it my husband’s fault? It certainly was, so I thought. But maybe, just maybe, I had something to do with it too!

Read the rest over at day2dayjoys!

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Mac and Cheese Soup

2012-02-06T20:41:00.000-06:00

This mac and cheese soup is an ultimate comfort food and a healthy twist on the typical boxed dinner. It's an easy-peasy meal perfect for a cold winter's night.

Mac and Cheese Soup
(serves 6)

Ingredients:

32 oz chicken broth
6 oz small pasta shells (whole wheat if possible)
1 bag (16 oz) California blend veggies (broccoli, cauliflower and carrot)
1 1/2 cups milk
2 Tbs. flour
1 1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

Directions:

Bring broth to a boil over high heat. Add pasta and return to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer uncovered for 5 minutes.

Add vegetables and simmer for 3-4 minutes. Add pasta and simmer for about 5 minutes more or until veggies and shells are tender.

Shake flour and milk together in a resealable container, making sure mixture is well-combined. Stir into pasta mixture. Cook and stir until thickened and bubbly. Gradually stir in cheese until melted. Serve with homemade bread and a salad.

Found any favorite comfort food recipes lately? I'm always on the lookout for something new!

Shared at Balancing Beauty and Bedlam's Tasty Tuesday

What Does Grace Mean to You?

2012-02-06T06:00:00.000-06:00

As we've studied the book of Ephesians, we've seen who we are in Christ and what God has done for us in and through Christ! This past week's verses from Ephesians 2:1-10 spoke of the rich and wonderful grace of God. The word 'grace' means so much to me!

photo credit

Grace is forgiveness when I am impatient or irritable toward my children and don't model the Christian behavior that I want to see in them.

Grace is help in times of need, when I'm at the end of my rope, questioning God and doubting His love for me.

Grace is God's favor, when He pours out on me abundant blessings beyond what I deserve and deals gently with me to help me to understand His will.

Grace is God's rich mercy given freely, without the expectation that I will repay Him.

Grace is all these things and more!

Verses 5-10 of chapter 2 say,

But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

Paul makes it clear in these verses that by grace we are saved. I once learned an acronym for grace in Bible college: God's Riches At Christ's Expense.

This grace we receive through Christ's sacrifice is such a precious gift and the least we can do is respond to this gift by allowing the Holy Spirit to flow through us and into the works we carry out as people belonging to God. We cannot ever earn our salvation but we can give thanks for His grace to us through faith and live our lives for Him each day.

What does grace mean to you?

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Review of Vintage Handmade Soaps

2012-02-06T05:00:00.000-06:00

Hi everyone! I am so excited to review a Sweet Orange Vanilla bar of soap courtesy of Vintage Handmade Soaps!

photos courtesy of Vintage Handmade Soaps

Vintage Handmade Soaps are made using natural oils and silk milk for added moisture. The soaps are scented with either fragrance oil or natural essential oils. They create and hand-cut each delicious scent for your enjoyment, from Sweet Mint to Sage and Lemongrass to Cream Cheese Frosting!

I used my bar for a week to see what effect it would have on my skin. I washed my face and hands with the Sweet Orange Vanilla and tried it on my kiddos' skin at bathtime. The scent on this particular soap is very light but I prefer that because my skin is sensitive to fragrances. I've purchased their Sweet Mint soap, which has a stronger (makes-you-almost-want-to-eat-it!) scent.

One thing I noticed was that after I washed my face for a few days with the Sweet Orange Vanilla soap and lukewarm water, my skin didn't feel tight and flaky like it normally does in the wintertime. That was really a relief for me! My children's skin was also very clean and soft after bath-time. It is even gentle enough for my little baby's skin! My husband actually enjoyed using it as well, although he claims he'd better use the Oatmeal Scrub from now on because it's more manly (ha ha)!

I'd recommend that you store your bar of soap uncovered. For the first couple of days, I kept mine in a closed soap container in the shower and the oils in the soap separated a bit from the rest of the bar. After I put it on my counter uncovered and let it harden back up, it returned to normal.

After about 10 days of using my bar from Vintage Handmade Soaps, I'm convinced that homemade soap is the way to go! The price of the soaps ranges from $3-$4 and each bar will last a long time. The shipping is reasonable and your order arrives quickly. Heather's customer service is wonderful too!

Visit Vintage Handmade Soaps to order your favorite scent. These soaps would make a great gift for a mom-to-be or as a fun Valentine's gift. As a bonus, receive a 20% discount when you use the code purposefulmom at checkout! Enjoy!

Friday Favorites and Freebies

2012-02-03T09:09:00.000-06:00

Great Blog Posts!

Faith: Accepting God's Love at Joyful Mothering. This post hits so close to home!

Family and Motherhood: How Two Become One in Parenting at Time-Warp Wife, Sharing for Jesus' Sake at Doorposts

Food and Homemaking: Post-Christmas Toy Overload: Cleaning out the Playroom at Blissfully Domestic

Frugality: A frugal recipe for Homemade Fabric Softener at Hidden Treasures

Fun!: Check out my Valentine's Day Craft Board on Pinterest!

Blogging: An oldie but goodie from Blogging with Amy (I really needed this reminder this week): How to Sabotage your Blog and your Life

Free Downloads

Free Kindle Download: Gluten Free Lunches
Free Valentine's Day eCookbook from Recipe Lion
Free eBook: Saving Money on Groceries

Read any good posts this week?

12 Books I'm Reading in 2012

2012-02-01T22:53:00.000-06:00

I love to read! How about you? But with three young children and plenty of things going on in my life, I sometimes struggle to find the time to do it! I thought a good motivator would be to choose one book to read each month. And if I get to more than one each month, great!

I'll be posting a review on each "book of the month" once I've read it. Some of these books are on my bookshelf, others in my Kindle reader and the rest I've gotten through Paperback Swap.

Here's the list:

January - I realize I'm posting this a bit late, but in January I read Debt-Proof Living by Mary Hunt. It has some great tips on frugality and getting out of debt. It made me think about money in a different way than other frugal living books and the advice is still relevant, even 13 years after the book was written!

February - The Good Wife's Guide by Darlene Schacht (Darlene graciously provided this eBook to me for a review, stay tuned!)

*Extra read for this month: Tell Your Time by Amy Lynn Andrews

March - Organized Simplicity by Tsh Oxenreider (you can still download this to your Kindle for free if you have a Amazon Prime membership)

April -One Bite at a Time by Tsh Oxenreider

May - The Mission of Motherhood by Sally Clarkson

June - The Hunger Games Series by Suzanne Collins - Yup, this is actually three books but I'm intrigued by this series because I've been hearing so much about it. Yet I'm not sure what to expect. If anyone has read it, I'd love to know if it's worth the time.

July - Lies Women Believe: And the Truth that Sets Them Free by Nancy Leigh DeMoss

August - Love & Respect by Emerson Eggerichs

September - Money, Possessions and Eternity by Randy Alcorn

October - Don't Make Me Come Up There! by Kristen Welch

November - A Measure of Mercy by Lauraine Snelling - This book is based in my home state, so I'm excited to read this book and the others in the series, even if they came out awhile ago.

December -Truth in the Tinsel by Amanda White

Any must-read book suggestions? I'd love to hear them!

*Some of these links are Amazon affiliate links. If you were to ever purchase anything through these links I receive a small amount of compensation, but you are never under any obligation to do so!

Free E-Book: Saving Money on Groceries

2012-02-01T21:20:00.002-06:00

You can download a free Saving Money on Groceries e-book from Menu Planning Central.

A Letter to my Baby Boy

2012-01-31T20:15:00.001-06:00

Jude at one month

To my sweet baby Jude,

I can hardly believe that it's been nine months since we welcomed you into the world on a Wednesday afternoon in late April. Nine days after the date you were due, you arrived with a soft cry, your bright blue eyes immediately taking in the world around you.

As I held you for the first time, my heart melted. I touched your dark hair and your tiny, wrinkly fingers and tears began streaming down my face. You, my third-born, are a precious gift, a "good and perfect gift" from God.

You woke me early on the morning of our departure for your first home (I think you just wanted to make sure I didn't miss the royal wedding on TV!). When we arrive at the house, your brother and sister were there to greet you and they vied for your attention, smothering you with kisses and stroking your sweet-smelling skin.

Then time passed.....in such a blur. And suddenly you were grasping my finger....rolling over.....giggling.....sitting up.....scooting across the floor.....excitedly grabbing for a spoon to feed yourself applesauce.

I love your open-mouth smile and your great big gasping laugh when I tickle you. I love how you reach for me when you are sad or scared. I love reading books to you (although all you want to do right now is put them in your mouth).

Jude at nine months

Most times, when I rock you before your naps or bedtime, I pray silently for your future. I wonder who you will become, what your interests will be, even who you'll one day spend the rest of your life with.

My deepest desire is for you to know God, to trust in Him when life gets tough and that you'll trust your parents too, to help and counsel you when you're pondering the mysteries of life.

Your name means "praise to God". And every day I praise the Lord for you, my darling boy. These past few nights, when I've been comforting you as you are teething, I have felt those tears spring again to my eyes. Because I love you, Jude, with my whole heart, and I look forward to knowing the strong man of God you will become.

But that's tomorrow. Another day.

Because tonight, you are my baby.

Love,
Your Mama

Artisan French Bread with Flax

2012-01-31T12:53:00.001-06:00

Recently my friend Stacey gave me a recipe for french bread made with flax. We love using flax around here so I knew I wanted to try it. But I'd never shaped french bread before, I've just made regular bread in my bread machine.

I found a great tutorial on how to shape and bake artisan french bread. (There is a secret step that makes the crust just beautiful!) I used this method and made a tweak to the recipe. We're taking baby steps to using all whole wheat flour so I substituted it for some of the all-purpose.

Artisan French Bread with Flax

1 1/4 c. warm water
1 T. oil

2 c. all-purpose unbleached bread flour

1 1/4 c. whole wheat flour
1/4 c. flax
1 1/2 t. sugar
1 1/4 t. salt
2 t. yeast

1 egg white
1 t. water

Place ingredients in your bread machine in the order recommended by manufacturer. Choose the dough setting. When the cycle is done, form the dough into a french bread loaf. This recipe makes one loaf.

Mix egg white and water together and brush over bread dough. Let rise and bake according to the tutorial.

Lesson Learned: I baked mine for 20 minutes at 450 F, but I should have done it for only 15 minutes. It probably would have stayed softer longer if I'd baked for less time. I used a meat thermometer to test the internal bread temp, as recommended in the tutorial.

Great for dipping in oil, making delicious french toast or drizzling with honey. Enjoy!

Stacey and her family grow and sell flax from their farm! It's a very healthy and delicious addition to your diet (you can find more recipes using flax here). Their family business is called Skandia Mills. They offer free shipping and sell flax milled or whole, in individual or bulk sizes.

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Thoughts from the Perspective of an Adopted Child

2012-01-30T10:05:00.000-06:00

I am so excited to be guest posting this morning at Mother of Seven. I'm sharing my adoption story as well as some encouragement for adoptive families. Here's a little preview of my post:

Since the time I was a tiny baby, my parents shared with me that I was adopted. They brought me home as a three-week old infant and rejoiced in the child they had been longing for. My mother read me books about adoption, hung a precious framed print (words below) about adoption in my nursery and shared with friends and family how God blessed them with such a wonderful answer to prayer.

Because all adoptions were closed at the time I was born, identifying information about my birthparents was kept sealed until I turned 18 and could legally search for them. In high school my mom showed me a paper with the only information they knew which included medical history and generic information about my birthparents’ physical appearance. This intrigued me more, especially when I discovered that I was born just a couple of hours from our home!

Join me at Mother of Seven for the rest of my story!

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Ephesians Bible Study - Week 2 Wrap-Up

2012-01-29T23:14:00.000-06:00

photo credit

The first fourteen verses of Ephesians chapter one tells us who we are in Christ; verses 15-23 show us more of what God has done for us and gives to us through Christ.

God showed his mighty strength when He seated Christ above all things, giving Him absolute power and authority for all eternity (vs. 19-21). He is the ruler and master. I love what my People's Bible Commentary said: "No authority figure can successfully oppose the risen and ascended Christ."

God appointed Him head of the church, and Christ uses His power for the good of the church, His body with whom He has a deep and profound relationship (vs. 22-23). Not only are we filled by Christ but we as the church also fill Him! He wants intimate fellowship with us as we walk through our Christian life.

God has called us to hope. This isn't the type of hope that we express when we say, "I hope the sun shines tomorrow" or "I hope we're not late for the game." It is an "assurance of things we do not see" (Hebrews 11:1) and a confident knowledge "that will not put us to shame" (Romans 5:5). The hope spoken of in the Scriptures does not disappoint us, even during times when we must cling tenaciously to that hope with our last bit of strength!

God gives us the spirit of revelation and wisdom (vs. 17) so that we can know Him better. How do we get to know God? Through His Word! When we spend time learning and meditating on the Scriptures, our eyes are opened to so many amazing truths!

What I love about all of these gifts is that we don't do anything special to earn them. They are freely given without reservation because of Christ's great, great love for us. Paul speaks of this love and grace in chapter two of Ephesians, which we'll be studying this week!

You can still join in on the Ephesians Bible Study, it's not too late! Visit this Good Morning Girls link to download the study guide.

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Friday Favorites and Freebies

2012-01-26T20:56:00.002-06:00

Here at Friday Favorites and Freebies, I'm sharing some of the best articles and blog posts I've read this week on various topics as well as any Kindle Freebies I come across. I hope you enjoy them!

Great Blog Posts!

Faith: Simple Ideas to Teach Your Children Scripture from The Better Mom

Family and Motherhood: Untapped Resource from Jenae at I Can Teach My Child

Food and Homemaking: Ball Jar Pin Cushion at Deep Roots at Home and Soaking and Sprouting at Whole Intentions - Two things I've never done before!

Frugality: Don't Buy Stuff, a short and sweet post by Laura at Heavenly Homemakers

Fun!: Free Preschool Projects E-book at Heavenly Homemakers and Lego Kindergarten Printables from 1+1+1=1 - My kindergartener is going to LOVE these!

Blogging: 10 Ways to Help Another Blogger Promote Their Blog at Blogelina, a Weekly Blog Planner from Kimberlee at The Peaceful Mom and All Things Bloggy: Tutorials at Raising Mighty Arrows

Kindle Freebies!

As of right now, all the books I listed last week are still free for download to your Kindle or Kindle-reading device. I haven't come across any new ones this week.

I did find, however, a free radio dramatization of The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder.

Read any good blog posts this week? Let me know in the comments!

How to Grocery Shop with Kids (and Not Go Crazy)

2012-01-26T15:19:00.002-06:00

We've all seen it: the exasperated mother in the checkout line with a shopping cart piled to the brim, trying to calm her crying baby (who's teething) and hungry preschooler (who's reaching for candy) while attempting to keep her cool all at the same time. Maybe if you're like me you've been in this situation at one time or another and wondered how you can make things different the next time around.

I really believe it is possible to have a successful trip to the store without caving in to your child's requests or completely going crazy! As a mom of three I'm slowly learning how to effectively grocery shop with children. Let me share with you some things that have worked for me!

Feed Them First

We probably all know that bringing hungry children to a store with aisles and aisles of food is a recipe for disaster! Keep some healthy snacks stashed in your car for such an occasion. This is especially helpful if you are picking your children up from daycare or school right before your grocery run. If it's not too messy, I bring the snack in for my kids to eat while they shop. Sometimes, I'll also reward them with a special treat that we can pay for (with a coupon of course!) at checkout time.

Establish Rules Before You Arrive

Before you even go into the store, let your kiddos know what shopping rules you've established. You may want your kids to keep one hand on the cart at all times or hold hands with each other as they cross the street. Make it clear whether or not you will be allowing them to pick out a treat and hold firm. If we are in the store and my kids mention they want a certain toy, I tell them to keep it in mind for Christmas or their birthday. Sometimes they will remember what it was and have me write it down, but often they decide they didn't want it that much anyway!

Give Them a Grocery List

I find it helpful to give my children a list of items that we need in picture form so they can be a part of the shopping experience. My 3 year old daughter loves her clip-art photos of bananas, carrots, cereal and other foods. She loves to show me what she knows and is excited to point them out on the shelf. Having identifying words next to the pictures is fun for my six year old son who reads them off to me as we shop. For toddlers, you could use a spiral notebook and a sheet of stickers to keep little fingers busy!

Make Your Child an Active Participant

If we forget our kid lists at home, I try to make it fun for my children by asking them questions as we stroll the aisles. "Do you see any yellow fruits?" "Can you find the letter B?" "Can you find the aisle sign with the word 'bread' on it?" My kids also like to help put the groceries on the conveyor belt during checkout.

Leave the Kids at Home

This obviously isn't a tip about shopping with kids but rather shopping without them. Now that I have three children (including a baby), I have found that it is much easier to match up coupons and shop sales when I am alone! Swap babysitting duties with another mom or go on your hubby's day off if you can.

How do you make shopping with your kids a more peaceful experience?

photo credit

9 Simple Ways to Improve Your Health (Guest Post)

2012-01-25T10:35:00.000-06:00

It’s about the end January but I’m just now getting motivated to start some new “resolutions."

One of the things I want to focus on this year is eating more whole foods and trying some more natural remedies for the sicknesses that tend to hit our family this time of year. I got to thinking that the new year is a great time to evaluate what we can do to improve our overall health. There are some very simple, no fuss ways you can take steps toward a healthier you (and your family will benefit too!) And so I bring you nine of the many ideas that have been running through my head:

1. Start Each Day with Time in God’s Word
When we think of improving our heath, we usually think of our bodies first. It’s important to nourish our spiritual health as well! I’m definitely a work in progress, but I find that when I begin my day with devotions and spend some time in prayer that I am a more peaceful, relaxed and purposeful mom and wife. There are lots of great devotional books or you can simply study a book of the Bible, like I am doing right now with the Good Morning Girls Ephesians study.

Join me over at day2day joys for the rest of the post!

Crock-pot Taco Soup - A Frugal Recipe

2012-01-23T21:51:00.003-06:00

Taco Soup is one of our very favorite recipes and it's so simple, even my three year old daughter can assemble it in the crock-pot. It's perfect comfort food for a busy day because it can just simmer away for several hours! We use organic ingredients and garden produce when possible, but here is the original recipe.

Crock-Pot Taco Soup

1 lb. ground beef

1/2 cup chopped onions

28 oz can diced tomatoes with juice (or about 8 medium tomatoes, diced)

14 oz can kidney beans, drained

1 cup frozen corn

8 oz can tomato sauce

1 package dry taco seasoning or 3 Tbsp. of homemade taco seasoning

1-2 cups water

Pepper to taste

1 cup grated cheddar cheese

Tortilla or corn chips (optional)

Directions:

Brown beef and onions and then combine all ingredients except the cheese and chips in your slow cooker. Cook on low for 4 to 6 hours. Top with cheese and chips if desired. Yum!

Shared at Balancing Beauty and Bedlam's Tasty Tuesday

Ephesians Bible Study - Week 1 Wrap-Up

2012-01-22T05:00:00.000-06:00

I'm doing another Good Morning Girls study, this time in the book of Ephesians with a wonderful group of bloggers. It's been very encouraging to read the thoughts of others on the first 14 verses of this New Testament epistle written by the Apostle Paul.

photo credit

There are some beautiful words found in this portion of Scripture that describe who we are in Christ:

Blessed

Chosen

Predestined

Sealed

Holy

Blameless

Look also at some of the wonderful things God has done for us through His Son!

"blessed us with every spiritual blessing" vs. 3

"chose us before the foundation of the world" vs. 4

"redemption through His blood" vs. 7

"forgiveness of our trespasses" vs. 7

"lavished on us (his grace)" vs. 8

"made known to us the mystery of His will" vs. 9

gave us the Holy Spirit as "a pledge of our inheritance" vs. 13-14

Wow! So many glorious things to try to wrap my mind around, although I'll never understand them completely. God is so very good to us and truly has an everlasting love for each and every single person. We had nothing to give Him and yet He freely gave us such incredible blessings. What an amazing God we serve!

You can still join in on the Ephesians Bible Study, it's not too late! Visit this link to download the study guide.

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A Handful of Heart at These Five of Mine Plus Two

Friday Favorites and Freebies

2012-01-20T11:45:00.001-06:00

I'm starting a new Friday feature called Friday Favorites and Freebies, where I'll share some of the best articles and blog posts I've read this week on various topics as well as any Kindle Freebies I come across. I hope you enjoy it!

I also want to say a big thank you to Lori from Everyday Truth for featuring my Scripture in Our Home series on her blog!

Great Blog Posts!

Family and Motherhood: The Practice of Rest at The Better Mom

Food and Homemaking: New Year's Resolution: A Cleaning Schedule at Homemaker's Challenge

Faith: Quiet Times for Desperate Mothers at Raising Homemakers

Frugality: Clear Out the Money Clutter at Life as Mom

Fun!: Valentine's Juice Jigglers at In the Kitchen with Audrey

Blogging: The Trouble With Blogging at Blogging With Amy

Kindle Freebies {Price can change at any time, so double-check before you download!}

Don't have a Kindle? You can download a Kindle reader to your PC.

The American Frugal Housewife
How to Cook Healthy and Natural Snacks
Organized Simplicity

Hide in Plain Sight

Fools Rush In

Healthy Children's Lunches
Smart School Lunches

Daughter of Joy (Brides of Culdee Creek)

DIY Organic Baby Food (Video Guide)

Have a great weekend!

One Simple Way to Encourage Obedience in Your Child

2012-01-19T05:00:00.000-06:00

Sometimes, despite our best efforts, it's hard to get our kids to listen to us. At times, although I try to remain calm, my voice gets louder and higher in pitch and then...well, you know how it goes!

Lately I've been learning that putting myself in my kids' place helps me find a better way to encourage obedience when I want them to do something cheerfully and immediately. Young children are easily distracted (hey, us adults are sometimes too!) and so even though we think they hear us, they may really be enraptured with a book or a toy they're playing with. It may be hard for them to instantly focus on what we're saying and sometimes they may not even hear us because they're so busy!

When I want to have my child's full attention and gain their immediate cooperation, I need to take the time to call them over to me, get down to their level and look them in the eye. This method works just about every time! Being one-on-one helps my child to focus on exactly what I'm saying and then respond by saying, "Ok, Mom," before going off to do whatever he or she is asked to do.

Obviously, I'm not going about this in a menacing way, giving them a stare-down and hissing between clenched teeth. It's just a simple matter of having them right next to me and speaking clearly and pleasantly so they understand what's being asked of them. Good for me, good for my little ones! And everybody can stay calm. (Now, if only I would remember to do this more often...!)

How do you encourage cooperation in your child?

Vintage Handmade Soaps - Coupon Code and Free Shipping

2012-01-18T13:21:00.000-06:00

If you're looking for a unique gift or just a little something nice for yourself, hop on over to Vintage Handmade Soaps for a delicious selection of hand-poured soaps. The soaps are made using natural oils and there are a variety of different scents as well as unscented choices. They would be an excellent choice for someone with dry, itchy skin (which most of us have during the winter!).

Right now, Vintage Handmade Soaps is offering free shipping on all their products from today (Wednesday) until Thursday at midnight (use code freeshipping). In addition, you can also use the code purposefulmom and receive 20% off your order! As a bonus, if you "like" their fan page on Facebook, you can take an additional 10% off your order with the code facebookfans.

The free shipping deal is only good until Thursday night at midnight, so don't wait!

Creating a Budget You Can Live With {and That Helps You Save Money}

2012-01-17T21:29:00.000-06:00

Previously I've talked about how the key to becoming debt-free is living on much less than we make and learning to separate needs and wants. One of the ways we can make that happen is to be able to direct our money where we want it, and most often that involves creating a budget!

The way to have a successful budget is creating one you can live with. There will probably be restrictions or sacrifices to accomplish your financial goals but it should also include some room for enjoyment and flexibility.

Photo courtesy of TaxBrackets

One thing we've learned though our years of budgeting is that it's not how much money you have, it's how you manage it. Here are some of the specific methods we used in making our budget, hopefully they are helpful to you!

Start by tracking your spending. For one month, we simply wrote down what we spent money on in as many areas as we could think of: groceries, gas, clothing, eating out, gifts, etc. This gave us an idea of exactly where our money went, where we should cut our expenses and how much was a fair amount to spend in each area.

Divide that spending into permanent categories. After we determined where our money went we listed categories that we would later assign amounts of money to for spending purposes. This number can fluctuate depending on your circumstance and the bills that need to be paid.

Use a cash envelope system. We found that the easiest way to control our spending was to use the cash envelope system for some of our categories. We would transfer money into a savings account for categories that needed to accumulate for several months before being paid (for instance, the car insurance bill).

Divide annual or semi-annual expenses into monthly increments and save. Using the car insurance bill for an example, we divided the total yearly bill by twelve and then set aside that amount of money each month into a savings account, marking it as such. Then when the bill came due, we were able to pay it in full, giving us a discount and the peace of mind knowing we already had it covered in advance.

Find ways to save money in each category. When you work on cutting spending, you can save yourself some stress and do it one bite at a time! One month I worked on saving money on groceries and the next month I focused on cutting our water bill. All it takes is a little motivation and internet research :)

Let yourself have fun! We knew it was important to give ourselves some fun money so that we wouldn't feel completely deprived and tempted to give up our frugal lifestyle.

Realize that your budget is a continual work in progress. Over the years, we have tweaked our budget many times to account for changes in salary, cost increases in groceries and gas and our savings needs. Gradually we are finding and overall system that works fairly well for us and allows us to save money toward our goals.

Money Saving Resources I Recommend:

Debt-Proof Living by Mary Hunt (This book included some advice I hadn't read anywhere else.)
Financial Peace Revisited by Dave Ramsey (I actually have only read the original Financial Peace, written in 1992!)
America's Cheapest Family by Steve and Annette Economides (This is an excellent read!)

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Frugal Friday at Life as Mom

When Your Children Are Sick

2012-01-17T06:00:00.000-06:00

Some days, when it rains, it pours. For the past few days my sweet baby boy has had a terrible cold and as a result, trouble sleeping and breathing through his little nose. Then today, my older son had a very upset stomach...and I don't need to talk about what happened with that!

The thing is, when your children are sick, all you want to do is hold them, comfort them and make them feel better (even when you can't). And the other things you enjoy are laid aside until your kids are back to their bouncy, happy selves. Even blogging. Especially blogging.

All that to say that I will return tomorrow with my post about our budget as well as some of the debt-free books we love. Someday I will get a blog post done far enough ahead of time, but for now, enjoy a picture of my kiddos on a healthy day....and if you think of it, I'd appreciate a prayer for these precious little ones. :) Have a blessed day!

Needs Verses Wants: A Lesson About Stuff

2012-01-16T05:00:00.000-06:00

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Last week, I shared with you our journey to living debt-free. There was a lot of character building and unexpected situations in the process, but thankfully we are at present feeling the financial freedom that comes with not owing anyone anything. This is something I really want for everyone and I feel for anyone who is in a tough bind financially. I've been there and I understand that it's incredibly frustrating and discouraging.

The key to getting out of debt and saving for the future is living on substantially less than you make. This isn't a new concept, but I found that it was a process for me to internalize this truth. But how can we live this way?

For me, it all came down to needs verses wants. These warring factions pit themselves against each other in my mind and often it's a knock-down, drag-out fight. The culture we live in demands that we buy, buy, buy and convinces us that owning lots of stuff or the newest stuff is the path to happiness. I've found that this is simply not true. In fact, the more I buy, the more I want, because the euphoria that I get from spending money is short-lived.

So how can we win the battle? It's really a matter of changing our thought process about what is a true need and what is something that we think we need but really could get by without. Let me share with you the principles that have helped me so far (and believe me, I am not perfect, I participate in this type of mind skirmish frequently!).

1. Trusting God to Provide - One of the names of God is Jehovah-Jireh, which means "The Lord will provide". In Latin, 'pro' means "before" and 'video' means "to see". God is able to meet our needs before we even know we have a need! I've already shared what Paul says about being content, but he also says this in Philippians 4:19: "And my God will supply all your needs according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus."

2. Spending More Money Won't Make me Happy - Proverbs 23:7 says, "For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he..." In order to get serious about getting out of debt, your mindset about what spending money does for you emotionally needs to be changed. As I am learning to distinguish between needs and wants, I am realizing that we as human beings need very few things. I've been reading "One Bite at a Time" by Tsh Oxenreider and it's really been teaching me that getting rid of stuff will actually make my life more peaceful (this, after our house has been overrun by Christmas presents). The point is, spending more money to get more stuff that I don't need isn't going to fill some deep longing in my heart. That longing is filled by Christ alone. Which makes me think...

2. Buying New Stuff Prolongs the Debt-Free Process - For me, this principle was highly influential in changing my thoughts about spending money. Any time I was tempted (and believe me, I was and still am tempted a lot) to purchase something, I reminded myself that it would only take that much longer to reach the state of being debt-free. To help keep myself from buying things I didn't need, I stayed out the mall and stopped browsing clothing stores online, especially the ones with adorable children's clothes! :) Which brings me to my next point...

3. What I Already Have Works Just Fine - Sure, we may not have had fancy bedroom furniture or a new crib for our baby (don't worry, it was a safe used one) and we may have been wearing garage sale and thrift store clothing but one thing was for sure: those things were good enough--even better than good enough, if I do say so.

4. Excuses are Just That--Excuses - Because I am a human being, I make plenty of excuses. My latest cop-out is that I don't have time to exercise because my baby has a cold and I have too many other things to do. But I digress.

Whether I'm waxing eloquent about the "fact" that there's not enough money to put into savings at the end of the month or that it's too cold to go for a run, I'm simply keeping myself from doing something that would be good for me because I don't want to give it the effort it may take.

When we got serious about getting out of debt, I had to own up to the fact that my excuses weren't going to get us anywhere. I needed to stop throwing myself a pity party and just do what needed to be done, whether that was sit down and meal plan so we didn't go out to eat so often or find ways to cut down on how much money we spent on clothes.

These are some of the powerful things I feel God has been teaching me, changing my mindset about our true needs and the wants that sometimes disguise themselves as such. I want to encourage you that as you evaluate your own needs and wants, you can choose to reject what the world offers as satisfaction and embrace the mindset that will give you a great start on the path to living debt-free.

How do you manage wants and needs in your home, especially with your children?

See how we created a budget that worked for us and helped us toward our money-saving goals.

Our Journey to Living Debt-Free, Part 5

2012-01-13T11:24:00.001-06:00

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If you'd like, you can read all of the previous posts in the Living Debt-Free series.

As we settled in to our new home and got to know our new church family, we still had a deep desire to finish paying off our debt for good and begin putting aside money for our family's future. There were several things we wanted to do with our money:

Continue to tithe to our local church

Rebuild and increase our emergency fund.

Be bigger givers to causes that are close to our hearts.
Invest in a retirement fund and IRAs.
Save money to purchase a second vehicle with cash.
Start college savings funds for Will (and our future children).
Add some furniture to our home (we had always lived in tiny apartments or with borrowed furniture).

All of these things seemed a tall order for a family living on one moderate income. And after a few months into the new job, we noticed that even though we had enough money to cover our expenses, we didn't really know exactly how much we were spending in different areas. We needed to crack down on our spending with renewed enthusiasm!

Enter a budget plan (more on the specifics of setting up a budget next week!). This gave us the control over exactly how much we would spend in a category (groceries, entertainment, clothing, etc) each month and also motivated us to cut expenses even further so we could put more toward savings.

Most importantly, we were realizing that saving money needed to be purposeful. It's great to want to get out of debt, budget and plan but without a purpose for doing these things, we can lack the motivation to actually make them happen. Our purpose were some of the goals I listed above but the greatest purpose was to become good stewards of what God had given us.

Paying Down our Debts

Just like before, we decided to tackle my college loan first. Once we had our budget in place, we paid all the extra money we could. After that was finished, we moved on to paying off the car loan, applying the extra we had initially put toward the school loan toward the car. At the same time, we were taking a couple hundred dollars a month and setting it aside so we could buy a second vehicle. During this time, we welcomed our second child, our sweet little girl.

After a few more months, the car loan was paid in full! We took the money that had been going toward that loan and were able to double our amount that we were saving to pay cash for a car. Just a year ago, right before we found out a third child was on the way, we were able to find a car that met our needs (and even some of our wants) and drive it home loan-free.

Finally, Debt Free!

It took four and a half years from the time we were on internship and began this debt-free process until the time we paid off all our loans and paid cash for our second vehicle. It was such a feeling of freedom, knowing that we owed no one any money and we could continue to put aside money for our future. Since then, we've been making good progress toward many of our goals and we are so thankful to be in this position.

Much of the reason I shared this story with you is because I want to encourage you that it is very possible to live debt-free, regardless of how overwhelming the situation seems. It does require sacrifices in spending, but they are often temporary and sometimes you come to the point where you realize you can live without whatever it is anyway! It does require the commitment to create and stick to a budget and to learn a new way of looking at your money, but your efforts are definitely worth it!

In all of this, I am so thankful for the faithfulness of God. We could not have come to this point in life apart from His help, patience and grace. Every situation of our lives is woven together to create further trust and dependence on Him for all our needs.

Next Monday, I'm going to share some of the great books we've read that gave us the tools to work out a budget, invest our money wisely and cut our spending in big ways. I'll also be sharing how we created a budget that worked for us and gave us the wiggle room to save toward our goals. I hope you'll join me!

Shared at Frugal Fridays at Life as Mom and Mustard Seed Planting at Mom's Mustard Seeds.

Our Journey to Living Debt-Free, Part 4

2012-01-11T23:49:00.000-06:00

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If you've read the previous posts in the Living Debt-Free series, you'll remember that I shared the bad news we received after returning to Illinois from some church interviews: my husband was let go from his job. His employer had to release several workers because of slow business and we knew he was sad to do so. This was something that had never happened to my husband before and it made us feel rather squeamish, considering that was our only (albeit small) source of income to pay our debts and monthly bills.

{On a side note, we were so blessed that my in-laws took us in and shared their home with us for that time. This was another way that God provided for our financial needs: not having to pay rent yet again. He really is able to do "exceedingly, abundantly above all that we ask or think" (Eph. 3:20)!}

So far, we had been able to fulfill our obligations, although we had to scale back to the bare minimum payments on the loans. This was disappointing, being that we had previously been making so much headway, but by keeping our expenses at next to nothing (I did lots of garage sale shopping!) we were able to stay on top of things.

But now that there was no income for our family, we were desperate to know exactly what God had in mind.

A few days after this happened, we received a letter of call from both of the churches where we had interviewed! We were cautiously optimistic, but we had been feeling a nudging from the Lord about one of the churches and so we committed it to further prayer. We took the call to our current church after a week of seeking the Lord through His Word and wise counsel. It was three more weeks until we could move, after the church made some repairs to the parsonage. For the longest time I had worried about the fact that we had absolutely no money to buy a house--and now we could live free from a mortgage or rent once again!

Once we got settled in our new home, we needed to reevaluate our priorities. Our church takes very good care of us and yet we still needed to regain our balance financially so we could find a budget that worked for us, pay off the loans and begin to save for our family's future. My husband and I both wanted me to be a stay-at-home mom and we wanted to add to our family soon. Raising multiple children on a modest income can be challenging but we knew it was possible. It was time to buckle down and get really serious about eliminating our debt for good!

I hope you'll join me tomorrow for the next installment in my series, when I talk about how we finally paid off all our debts, paid cash for a vehicle and developed a budget. You can read all the posts in the Living Debt-Free series here!

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Our Journey to Living Debt-Free, Part 3

2012-01-11T20:52:00.000-06:00

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When I left off yesterday, we were at the point where our debt was being paid off at a steady rate due to some frugal living decisions and lots of God's care and faithfulness! But quite unexpectedly, our faith in God was shaken.

In our church body, once you are close to finishing internship, churches in need of a pastor are given the green light to interview and potentially call you to join them in ministry. Once you receive a call, you pray on it to see whether it's God's will for you. We always just assumed we'd quickly find the right church. But as graduation approached, we didn't feel led to the churches who had graciously extended calls to us. Needless to say, it was making me a more than nervous!

We made plans "just in case" Kirk didn't take a call by the time he graduated to live with his parents as we continued to seek God's will. It was a good thing we made those plans, because after his beautiful seminary graduation ceremony we made our way to Illinois to live with my in-laws. By this time, I was very frustrated, close to angry with God. We had been good stewards with our money, faithfully paying our bills and then some and I felt as though we had been unrewarded and cheated for our efforts. And because we no longer worked for our internship church, we had to pay a large monthly insurance premium while continuing to pay off my college loans, our car payment and a monthly storage unit fee to house our belongings.

Thankfully, my hard-working and resourceful husband was able to find a job making tomato cages (a place he used to work in high school). It was humbling for him to have to get up at 5:30 am and leave his wife and child to do something that was not his original desire or what he felt God had led him to do with his life. But even in that, God was providing for our needs, despite my belief to the contrary.

There was a great struggle going on inside of me during this season of life. I tossed and turned at night, had terrible headaches and cried out to God on many, many occasions to just "fix things" so we could continue paying off our debt and building our future.

More than that, I knew Kirk loved being in a pastoral role and I deeply desired God to provide him with the right church. And of course I wanted it right now! I agonized over the situation for countless hours and wondered why He was "doing this to us" rather than trusting the Lord's provision and love for His children. I realize now that God was working a deeper sense of trust into my heart (and He certainly had His work cut out for Him!).

Midway into our second month of this living arrangement, we traveled to visit and interview at two churches within one week. As we drove back to Kirk's parents' house, we were unsure what to think but felt that even if neither of these churches was the right place for us, at least he had a job. But there was a very unpleasant surprise waiting for us when we returned to our temporary home. The tomato cage factory wasn't filling many orders anymore and so the owner told my husband, with great pains, that he would have to let him go.

...to be continued tomorrow! If you'd like, you can read the rest of my Living Debt-Free series here.

Our Journey to Living Debt-Free, Part 2

2012-01-10T05:00:00.001-06:00

Yesterday I left off in the Living Debt-Free series at the point where my husband and I hit the point of frustration about our financial situation. Let's pick up from there!

Once we purposed to get rid of our debt, we began brainstorming ways we could immediately cut our spending. These were the five biggest choices we made.

1. Stop eating out. We loved checking out new restaurants on the weekends but that had to temporarily come to an end.

2. Find a job for me. We were currently on seminary internship and I didn't want to put my child in daycare. I was able to work one night a week at a local YMCA in the nursery so I could take Will with me. I also filled in at our church as a very part-time secretary on my husband's day off, so we were always able to keep our son with us.

3. Take every bit of money we'd received as Christmas, birthday and encouragement gifts and apply it heavily toward our debt.

4. Cutting back to one cell phone. This was a tough adjustment at first, but we eventually found other ways to stay in touch. After all, people once lived without smartphones! :)

5. Learning to use coupons. I started small, clipping just a few from newspaper inserts and double couponing at a local grocery store. I finally started to grasp the concept of shopping sales and planning my menu based on that and the coupon savings. I also started taking online surveys at My Survey for a bit of extra cash.

Since we lived in a house the church provided for interns, we had no mortgage expense, which was very helpful. We also had a small emergency fund already in place from our days of saving while living on the seminary campus. We didn't use this to pay our debt, but left it alone just in case!

Specifically, we decided to consolidate my student loans and pay those off first since they had a higher interest rate than the car loan. We continued making the minimum car payments each month as we funneled our extra funds toward the school loan.

Some experts recommend that you pay off the smallest debts first (the snowball effect) but we found that it was more effective for us to pay the largest debt first, since we only had two debts by that time.

Once we got the ball rolling, it was exciting to see the falling balance on the loan. With enthusiasm, we began gaining the momentum to pay it down even faster. But then an unexpected event quickly changed our plan and brought us to a place where our trust in God for our finances would be put to the test.

...to be continued tomorrow.

Read Part One of this series here!

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Our Journey to Living Debt-Free, Part 1

2012-01-09T09:31:00.000-06:00

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I never used to think much about debt. And by that, I mean that I didn't know the ins and outs of what debt was, how one could accumulate it so quickly and easily and why it was important to stay out of it. Money management was a foreign concept to me for a long time.

Because of my lack of understanding, my husband and I didn't always live a debt-proof lifestyle. We were joyfully married in 2004 and joining us were my college loans, credit card debt and a car payment. That fall, Kirk started his second year of seminary and I continued my college education, working during the day and going to school at night.

After about a year of marriage, I started feeling sick and was constantly tired. To our surprise, we were expecting our first child! We were so excited but rather nervous about our financial situation.

Due to a job on the seminary campus, we were able to live rent free for one year. Still, I worried about money and wondered what we would do if there was any sort of an emergency. We started putting away whatever we could into a savings account. It wasn't much, but we hoped that if anything bad happened it would get us through.

I graduated from college just three weeks before our first son came into the world. Thankfully, we had paid off the small credit card debt. But then we were off on Kirk's seminary internship with minimal income. And we still had the car payment and a fairly large amount of school loans on our plate.

Even though we were fairly thrifty, we never seemed to have any extra money at the end of the month. Frustration mounted as we promised ourselves to get a hold of our spending, only to watch the money fly out of the checking account to pay off our debts and our grocery bills and other sneaky expenses, leaving nothing for any sort of enjoyment or savings for our family's future.

After a long conversation one night, we decided we were sick of not knowing exactly where our money was going. We were tired of paying off debt at a slow trickle. We were ready and willing to live a debt-free lifestyle, whatever it took.

...to be continued tomorrow, where I'll be sharing some of the methods we used to started paying off our debts immediately after making our "debt-free living" decision!

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Five Ways to Reuse Baby Wipes Containers

2012-01-09T06:00:00.000-06:00

Awhile back I stocked up on some super-cheap baby wipes, giving me a stash of wipes containers just waiting to be re-purposed! Here are some ways we've recycled and reused baby wipe containers to keep them out of the landfill.

Plastic Bag Holder

I hate to say it but I've definitely accumulated my share of plastic grocery bags. I strive to use reusable bags whenever possible but somehow that sneaky plastic finds its way into my house. Up until a few days ago, the extras were spilling over top of a paper bag. After recycling a large part of them, I kept some on hand for my Diaper Champ.

Lego Storage

Will got a bunch of Lego sets for Christmas, so we put some of the sets inside along with the instructions to keep them organized (a.k.a. to keep them away from three-year old Leah).

Storage for Crayons, Markers, etc

A perfect spot to corral all the markers, crayons and colored pencils when their boxes fail to hold together!

Organizing Charging Cords for Electronics

My charging cords and chargers for my camera, computer, iPod and phone fit nicely inside a baby wipes container.

Storage for Baby Food Containers

I want to reuse our baby food containers for crafts or otherwise, so I've kept them tucked inside a wipes container for now.

How do you reuse your baby wipe containers? I'd love more ideas!

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Our Journey to Living Debt-Free: Dependence on God

2012-01-08T12:00:00.000-06:00

Before I begin our story, I want to take a moment to reflect on the spiritual part of becoming debt free. I truly believe that the Lord has guided us through this journey. His gentle guidance and wisdom are what bring me through each day. God is teaching me (and believe me, it's a work in progress!) self-control, trust and ultimately to depend on Him for what we need. Any successful effort we have put forth in becoming debt-free is a direct result of God's grace and provision in our lives.

I love what the Apostle Paul says in Philippians 4:11-13:

"Not that I speak from want, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am. I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need. I can do all things through Him who strengthens me."

In short, what these verses say to me are that as a Christian, no matter what my present financial situation, I can trust and rely on a kind, perfect and amazingly generous God. He has met our family's needs and will continue to, whether we are exactly where we want to be financially or not.

Join me tomorrow as I begin my series! (Read the whole series here!)

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Happy New Year!

2012-01-02T05:00:00.000-06:00

Happy New Year everyone! Are you as excited as I am about the fresh possibilities a new year brings? There are so many ideas I have, both for my blog and my life and tons of things I'd like to improve or change in the areas of frugality, finance, homemaking and parenting (that last one is always needing improvement)!

If you read my most recent post, you know that I'll be beginning a series on January 9 called "Our Journey to Living Debt-Free". I'd love for you to join me and hope that you'll find this series interesting, motivating and encouraging.

Not only will I be sharing about the financial principles we live by and how we paid off our debts but I also want to delve into the emotional and spiritual parts of living a life where your spending is under control.

I'm not sure how long this series will continue after the first five days....we'll see what else comes to mind! See you January 9!

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Coming in January

2011-12-21T05:00:00.000-06:00

Christmas is soon coming and I'm going to be taking a "vacation" from blogging (and a real-life vacation too!) Throughout 2012 I will be working on some blog series and a variety of stand-alone posts.

As I mentioned in an earlier "Big Changes for my Blog" post, I'll continue to share devotions, recipes and some do-it-yourself projects. My mind is whirling with plenty more ideas to incorporate into the blog during the year.

On the agenda, beginning January 9, is a series I'm calling "Our Journey to Living Debt-Free". In it, I'm going to talk about our purpose for living debt-free as a family, some of the financial principles we live by and how we cracked down on our spending to pay off our debts. After that, I hope to continue to provide you with lots of money-saving ideas and frugal living encouragement!

Please join me as we live with purpose! I am always looking for new ideas and inspiration so feel free to leave me a comment at any time.

Have a very Merry and Blessed Christmas!

"When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceedingly great joy."

Matthew 2:10

What Gifts Can We Give Him?

2011-12-20T23:54:00.000-06:00

Have you ever seen The Bishop's Wife? It's a lovely black and white film starring Cary Grant that tells the story of a struggling bishop, his wife and the angel who comes to help them.

At the end of the film, the bishop gives a sermon called, "The Empty Stocking". He quotes this line: "All the stockings are filled, all that is, except one. And we have even forgotten to hang it up. The stocking for the child born in a manger. It's his birthday we're celebrating. Don't let us ever forget that. Let us ask ourselves what He would wish for most. And then, let each put in his share..."

I got to thinking, does Jesus really need me to fill his "empty stocking"? I think that instead I can say that when He came into the world as a baby, He filled me and gave me what I desperately needed. A Savior, Redeemer, Friend and Lord.

Colossians 1:19-20 says, "For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross."

John 1:14 tells us that "the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth."

At the same time, it is very much true that we can get so caught up in materialism that we miss the wonder, grace and truth of the season. That we forget to reflect, like Rebecca did in her post, on the amazing nature of Joseph and Mary's journey to Bethlehem and the fulfillment of prophecy that came about as a result of their obeying God and the law of the land.

I pray that you and I will literally stop at some point during the day and reflect on the Father's gift to us on that night....a gift more meaningful and precious than any other.

So what gift can we give our Jesus? I love the verse from the Christmas carol, "In the Bleak Midwinter":

"What can I give Him, poor as I am?
If I were a shepherd, I would bring a lamb.
If I were a wise man, I would do my part.
Yet what can I give Him, I give him my heart."

A very Joyous and Blessed Christmas be yours!

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Why I Call My Blog 'The Purposeful Mom'

2011-12-20T05:00:00.000-06:00

When I started blogging two years ago, it was basically for the purpose of journaling the things I felt God was teaching me in my devotional time. At that point, I called my blog "Meditations for the Heart".

A few months ago, I started feeling the nudge to connect with friends and other bloggers with a variety of topics. I thought and prayed about a name for my blog.

At some point during my musing I thought about how, as a mom, wife and woman, I want to live every area of my life with purpose. In living this way, I've come to the realization that I must take each day as it comes (because sometimes it's rather difficult to see the forest through the trees).

The thought came to me then of what my great-grandmother (who went to her heavenly home at the age of 104) would say when asked what she thought about life at that mature stage: "I just trust God and take things one day at a time."

We were created for a purpose...our lives are no accident! Psalm 139:14 says, "I praise You for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are Your works, my soul knows it full well."

Because of this strong belief that God desires our lives and actions to be carried out intentionally, I want this to be a place where we can all encourage and inspire others to do the same!

And so we have "The Purposeful Mom" -- Living with purpose, one day at a time.

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Why I Use Swagbucks and How You Can Earn 100 Swagbucks Instantly

2011-12-19T04:00:00.000-06:00

Have you heard of Swagbucks? It's a popular "search and win" search engine powered by Google. You can earn SwagBucks by searching, taking surveys, printing and using coupons, referring friends and much more.

As you accumulate SwagBucks you can use them for gift cards, prizes, and sweepstakes entries. My favorite reward I've redeemed is for $5 Amazon gift cards (450 SwagBucks). And it really doesn't take long to get to that point when you use the SwagBucks toolbar as your primary search function, which is how I've earned most of mine.

This is a legitimate company and is very simple to use. And there's a great deal for new sign-ups. You can earn 100 extra SwagBucks (I believe in addition to the 30 you normally get) by using the code HOLIDAYSWAG. This code is good through 12/31/11.

Today (Monday, December 19) Swagbucks is giving lots of opportunities to earn extra bucks. Check it out if you want...let me know what you think!

This post contains a referral link. Please read my disclosure policy for more information.

Friday Pinterest Favorites - DIY Christmas Gifts

2011-12-16T13:34:00.003-06:00

I've been finding lots of great ideas for do it yourself Christmas gifts on Pinterest lately! I've also been "pinning" some that I've seen on various blogs so I thought I'd share them with you!

Travel Activity Packs - perfect for taking along books or coloring books on trips, to the doctor's office, etc.

Source: kirstycolquhoun.blogspot.com via Jennifer on Pinterest

These travel trays are an excellent solution to the problem of rolling crayons, falling cars and sore necks while reading in the minivan--well, at least in our minivan!

Source: theschiresfive.blogspot.com via Jennifer on Pinterest

Make an adorable Christmas tree shirt for a special daughter, niece or friend. Super simple, I think even a not-so-crafty mom like myself can do it!

Source: bjanebrewing.com via Jennifer on Pinterest

These reindeer pop bottles would be a fun gift for your mail carrier, party host or Sunday School teacher (it's only root beer, everyone) :)

Source: lifeofamodernmom.blogspot.com via Jennifer on Pinterest

Speaking of the mail, this one has to be my absolute favorite of all! A little mail carrier kit for any sweet little girl who loves to use her imagination (with a bit of help).

Source: twelvecraftstillchristmas.blogspot.com via Jennifer on Pinterest

Need more inspiration? Check out my ideas for simple, homemade Christmas gifts.

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As We Approach Christmas...

2011-12-15T14:33:00.001-06:00

It seems like we're reminded often to "give thanks" during the Thanksgiving season, but as we approach Christmas, the many blessings that I have come to mind.

I am so thankful for the days when I hear my older two children busily playing "store" in the basement or pretending our large laundry basket is a boat and they need to rescue their animals from the "ocean" (aka the floor).

When they help their baby brother sit up or get him a toy or just give him a hug and smooch, I am assured that my efforts of teaching them to love each other are making their mark.

I am very thankful when my husband comes home from work, happy to see us, and gives us each a hug. Then we talk and share how our days have been. He doesn't even ask for a "break" from the family before launching into the "dad" and "husband" part of his life, but gladly helps me out when I need it most.

And as we get ever closer to Christmas, my heart is filled with joy when I consider a small family who lived over two thousand years ago: Joseph, Mary and Jesus. Joseph and Mary's willingness to follow God's will for their lives, even though it was unconventional, is an amazing truth to comprehend. As they raised Jesus, who grew "in wisdom, in stature and in favor with God and man", they did their best to understand this child, their (and our) Savior.

Jesus came, He really came! He gave up His glory in Heaven and lived among us and took the penalty for sin on our behalf, opening again the door to the glorious kingdom of the Father. His resurrection gave us hope, peace and joy, both now in these seasons of Advent and Christmas and for eternity.

What brings you joy today?

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Christmas Frugal Fun: Hands and Feet Reindeer Print

2011-12-15T05:00:00.000-06:00

Here's an easy and fun Christmas craft for your kids: Hands and Feet Reindeer Prints! These would be a great memory keeper as well, just like our Handprint Turkey. Will and Leah enjoyed this craft because it gave them a chance to help each other as well as improve their scissor skills. :)

Materials Needed:

White construction paper
Brown construction paper
Red pom poms
Googly eyes
Glue

Instructions:

1. Trace one of your child's feet on to brown construction paper (or let your kids trace each other's feet!). Cut it out. This will be the reindeer's face.

2. Trace both of their hands on to the white paper and color with a brown crayon. You can use a different shade of brown if you have it. Cut them out. These will be the reindeer's antlers.

3. Let your child glue the wrist part of the handprints to the back of the reindeer's face. Attach the googly eyes and red pom-pom as a nose. Let dry and display. Have fun!

Looking for some more Christmas crafts? Check out my board or follow me on Pinterest!

*I want to give credit where credit is due! I found a craft similar to this one on Pinterest and changed it up a bit for what we had on hand.

Homemade Christmas Gift: I Spy Bottle

2011-12-14T05:00:00.000-06:00

Looking for a simple and fun gift for a preschool-age child? This "I Spy Bottle" is easy to assemble and is made with items that you probably already have in your craft cupboard. As a bonus, let your school-age child help you assemble it!

Materials Needed:

Empty, completely dry plastic water bottle

Dry rice

Craft supplies and trinkets that will fit in the opening of the bottle. I used pom-poms, letter beads, buttons and sports erasers--all bought on clearance throughout the year.

Hot glue gun

Scrap fabric

Ribbon

Velcro tabs

Cardstock

Directions

1. Fill your water bottle half full of rice. I didn't have a funnel, which would have been helpful, so I just cut a corner of the bag of rice and Will helped me pour it in! {I forgot to take a picture of this part.}

2. Before you put your trinkets into the bottle {ahem}, arrange them on a piece of construction paper and take a picture of them.

3. Add your chosen items to the bottle and add more rice until the bottle is about three-quarters full. Let your child shake the bottle to mix everything together.

4. Hot-glue or super glue your cap back on the bottle. Hot glue a square piece of fabric on the cap and then tie a fun ribbon around it! Gluing will hopefully keep the very persistent child from opening it and dumping out the contents.

5. Print out your "trinket photo" from step two on to a piece of cardstock and laminate. Attach the photo card to the bottle with sticky velcro tabs. This is simply to keep it from getting lost. Tuck it into a cute bag and check another gift off your list!

Check out my other homemade gift ideas: hot cocoa and pumpkin pie spice sugar scrub!

*As with anything with small parts, please be careful around the young ones! I saw an idea like this on I Can Teach My Child and changed it up based on what I had on hand.

Homemade Christmas Gift: Homemade Hot Cocoa {in a Cute Little Bucket!}

2011-12-13T06:00:00.000-06:00

Recently I got to thinking about all the artificial "stuff" that's in my favorite packaged hot cocoa mix {hydrogenated oils, corn syrup and whatnot} and figured there's a better way to enjoy this cozy treat. Enter my take on this simple recipe with only three ingredients. I'm sold!

Homemade Hot Cocoa {or Hot Chocolate}

Makes 5 3/4 cups mix or 92 eight-ounce servings

3 1/2 cups white or turbinado sugar
2 1/2 cups 100% cocoa
1 Tbsp. table salt

Gently stir ingredients until combined. Store in an airtight container or...

...make it into Christmas gifts! I divided the mix into four clear bags and put them in little buckets that I found in the Dollar Spot at Target. Then I tied some ribbons (also a Dollar Spot find) around the handle just to give them a little color and stuck some peppermints and Andes mints on top. On regular address labels I printed these instructions:

Homemade Hot Cocoa

Microwave one cup of whole milk just until hot.

Add two tablespoons cocoa mix and stir.

Top with mints or marshmallows. Enjoy!

*You can reduce the amount of salt if it's too much for your tastes or play around with the ratio of sugar to cocoa to your liking.

Shared at Balancing Beauty and Bedlam's Tasty Tuesday.

Free Kindle Download: Healthy Children's Lunches

2011-12-12T20:25:00.002-06:00

You can download a free Kindle e-book, "Healthy Children's Lunches", at Amazon right now. Please note that with Amazon, the price can change at any time, so check before you buy!

You can see more free e-books here.

Friday Pinterest Favorites - Christmas Home Decor

2011-12-09T09:18:00.001-06:00

For the next two Fridays, I'm going to share some of the fun Christmas-themed ideas I've found on Pinterest! I have to say, my house does not (and probably will never) look at nice as these homes but they certainly give me inspiration! Enjoy!

I love the beautiful shades of green in this scene. I never thought of decorating above my kitchen sink, but I'm there a lot so it would give me something pleasant to look at instead of the mound of dishes :)

Source: theinspiredroom.net via Jennifer on Pinterest

This look could be achieved with an inexpensive frame, bow and simple cardstock print, kind-of like I did with some Scripture in our home.

Source: theidearoom.net via Jennifer on Pinterest

Cute DIY idea from Better Homes and Gardens. Use some extra scrapbook paper you have lying around for a unique candle display!

Source: bhg.com via Jennifer on Pinterest

Love this super cute idea for a mantle or hutch with wooden letters and ribbon.

Source: centsationalgirl.com via Jennifer on Pinterest

This is by far my favorite--I love this type of "rustic" decor from an article on The Better Mom. What fun ideas have you found on Pinterest lately?

Frugal Fun: Gingerbread Man {or Women!} Activities

2011-12-08T05:00:00.000-06:00

Grab some ribbon, beads, buttons or whatever you have and enjoy some crafty fun decorating gingerbread men and women with your kids!

We copied a gingerbread man pattern on cardstock and cut them out (with a little help from Grandma).

We brought out the tacky glue and the kids decorated the Gingerbread people their way :) Leah's had feathers on it's arms so it could fly.

Will told me his gingerbread man was celebrating Thanksgiving. He also said, "I think his mouth is hilarious!"

We checked out and read "The Gingerbread Man" from the library.

We also had fun with this Five Gingerbread Men Finger Play:

{Use the left hand open, palm up, as the tray, and lay the other fingers on the tray until each runs away}

Five little gingerbread men lying on a tray,
One jumped up and ran away.
Shouting "Catch me, catch me, catch me if you can
I run really fast, I'm a gingerbread man!"

Four little gingerbread men lying on a tray,
One jumped up and ran away.
Shouting "Catch me, catch me, catch me if you can
I run really fast, I'm a gingerbread man!"

{Repeat with three, two and one gingerbread man, then...}

No more gingerbread men lying on a tray,
They all jumped up and ran away.
Oh, how I wish they had stayed with me to play.
Next time I'll eat them before they run away.

Have fun!

1 John Week 12

2011-12-06T22:02:00.001-06:00

Our Good Morning Girls study on 1 John is coming to a close. This study has been such a blessing to me, giving me the accountability to do my devotions each morning (although sometimes it became early afternoon!).

This week we're reflecting on the entire book of 1 John and as I flipped through my notes, I stopped on this passage: 1 John 2:20-21.

"But you have been anointed by the Holy One, and you all have knowledge. I write to you, not because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and because no lie is of the truth."

No lie is of the truth. Big lies. White lies. Itty-bitty lies. And there are plenty of them out there, sent by the thief who "comes only to steal and kill and destroy." John 10:10

I've been learning to pay attention to the sneaky lies that pop up in my life: in books, movies, tv shows, children's books, pop psychology and various worldviews. Each day I pray for the discernment to "know the truth" and keep it close and to refuse to buy into the falsehoods that surround me.

I'd love to know, how have you surrounded yourself with truth amidst the lies?

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How to Make Pumpkin Pie Spice

2011-12-06T20:55:00.001-06:00

I found a little jar of pumpkin pie spice in Target the other day. It was pretty tiny and expensive and I figured, "Hey, I can probably make this myself with stuff I already have in my cupboard!"

And so I did. And so can you!

Pumpkin Pie Spice

1/4 cup ground cinnamon

2 Tbsp. ground ginger

2 tsp. ground cloves or allspice

1 tsp. ground nutmeg

Gently stir together all ingredients. Makes 1/2 cup pumpkin pie spice for use in pies, muffins, puddings or my delicious-smelling Pumpkin Pie Spice Sugar Scrub!

Homemade Christmas Gift: Pumpkin Pie Spice Sugar Scrub

2011-12-06T20:21:00.001-06:00

I can't claim to be a big DIY gal--in fact, I love to bookmark page after page of ideas but many times I don't get around to doing them!

But with Christmas quickly approaching, I need to make some of these ideas a reality as I think about some frugal and fun gifts for the people in my life.

So here we are: Homemade Pumpkin Pie Spice Sugar Scrub! This is a really sweet gift for Sunday School or school teachers, hostesses and babysitters or as a little something extra to include in a larger gift. Here's my take on what I first saw at Under the Table and Dreaming.

Pumpkin Pie Spice Sugar Scrub

{hand or body scrub}

2 Cups Brown Sugar

1 Cup Granulated Sugar

2 1/2 Tbsp. Make it Yourself Pumpkin Pie Spice

3/4 cup Vegetable Oil

Mix together the granulated and brown sugars and pumpkin pie spice until there are no lumps.

Add the oil and stir until fully combined. I increased the spice amount from the original recipe.

Don't be afraid to test a little on yourself! Rub it into your hands and give it a sniff to see if the pie spice scent is to your liking. After you wash it off you'll be able to tell if it needs a little more oil too, adding just a bit at a time. The original recipe called for 1 cup plus 1 Tbsp. oil but I thought that detracted from the pumpkin pie scent, so I used less.

Use a funnel to fill small canning jars with the scrub or just scoop it in with a spoon (what I had to do when I {ahem} couldn't find my funnel. You can use a jar lid that has been previously used in canning--a great way to "recycle" them! Twist the jar lid on with a nice looking jar ring and tie a little ribbon around the top to dress it up a little!

I also used the labels at Under the Table and Dreaming and attached them to the top of the jars with tacky glue. Super easy and fun--and who doesn't like to pamper themselves a little?

{By the way, you should save a bit for yourself!} Enjoy!

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Our Family Christmas Card 2011

2011-12-06T12:31:00.001-06:00

I just finished up ordering our family's photo Christmas card through Shutterfly. This really is a great company and I always appreciate their prompt service and delivery, good prices and discounts and beautiful photo quality.

Photo Card

View the entire collection of cards.

Just for sharing my photo card on my blog, I get $10 off my next order. You can too, through the Shutterfly Share Project! Once you create and place your order, you will see the instructions on the order confirmation page.

If you've never used Shutterfly before you can get 50 free 4x6 prints. Right now you can get free shipping on orders over $50 and photo books are 50% off.

Homemade Pizza Crust with Flax

2011-12-05T22:06:00.001-06:00

We love homemade pizza and often use our whole wheat pizza dough recipe when we make it together on Friday nights.

This Homemade Pizza Crust with Flax is prepared in the bread machine! It has a light texture and crisps up nicely (especially when baked on my Pampered Chef stone). It's a bit thinner crust than the whole wheat recipe and it's become our new favorite!

Homemade Pizza Crust with Flax

1/4 c. water

2 Tbsp canola oil

1 1/2 c. all purpose flour

1/2 c. whole white wheat flour

2 Tbsp ground flax

1/2 tsp. sugar

1/2 tsp. salt

2 tsp. dry active yeast

Use dough setting on bread machine, adding ingredients as specified by bread machine booklet. When complete, spread the dough onto a pizza pan or stone. Let the dough rise in a warm place for about 20 minutes.

You can pre-bake the crust for 6 minutes at 425 degrees Farenheit. After pre-baking, top with your favorite pizza toppings and return it to the oven for about 10 minutes or until done to your liking!

*This recipe is adapted from the Skandia Mills Golden Flax Cookbook.

Looking for more recipes with flax? Check out our Rhubarb Flax Muffins and Bread Machine Calzone Dough!

Shared at Balancing Beauty and Bedlam's Tasty Tuesday and

Our Favorite Christmas Books for Toddlers and Preschoolers

2011-12-05T21:28:00.001-06:00

It's been so fun for us to create Christmas traditions with our children and of course some of these traditions include our favorite books! Every December the kids are excited to pull them out. Here are a few that we love, good for toddlers, preschoolers and early elementary age children.

The illustrations in Room for a Little One are beautiful and our whole family enjoys the story of all the weary animals who find their way into the stable before the donkey brings the most special guests--Mary and Joesph (and soon baby Jesus!).

Tonight You Are My Baby is the Christmas story told from Mary's perspective. I have to say that this one made me tear up, thinking of how much I love my kiddos and how much Mary must have loved her little boy.

Do you remember the Little Golden Book called The Christmas Story? I grew up with this story and now read it to my kids. It's old-school wording makes for a good vocabulary lesson and in my opinion it's such a good Biblical portrayal of Jesus' birth.

You Are My Miracle is a book about the same little bear from You Are My I Love You. It's nothing educational but it's a simple and sweet story about all the little things this bear does to get ready for Christmas.

*These are Amazon affiliate links: please see my disclosure policy for more information.

Frugal Fun: Making a Tornado

2011-12-01T22:22:00.001-06:00

I know this activity isn't very Christmas-y in nature, but I wanted to share it because my kids had SO MUCH FUN with it. Making this "tornado" is basically free and makes a good little science lesson!

What You Need:

2 two-liter pop bottles
Duct tape
Water

What to Do:

Fill one of the two-liter bottles about 3/4 full with water.

Line up the opening of the empty bottle with the water-filled bottle and tape around the openings tightly with duct tape.

Quickly turn the bottle over so that the water-filled bottle drains into the empty bottle, swirling it around right after you turn it, kind-of like stirring a cauldron (sorry, I couldn't think of another analogy). Watch as the water creates a tornado between the two bottles!

Will even got the hang of it after awhile. Leah had some help from Dad.

Check out the looks on my kids' faces--priceless!

Will and Leah wanted to repeat this activity over...and over...and over again. Finally the bottles started leaking through the tape so I snuck it into the recycling. Have fun!

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30 Days of Intentional Acts of Kindness with Your Kids, Week 4

2011-11-30T09:03:00.001-06:00

This past month as we have been a part of the "30 Days of Intentional Acts of Kindness with Your Kids", my heart has been encouraged by the way my children have become more loving toward each other. Will, who is five, has even had some sweet suggestions of kind things we can do for family and friends.

I've also been inspired by the ideas I've seen on other blogs--it's so wonderful to see what God has taught each of us through this experience. It's definitely caused me to be more aware of the Holy Spirit's prompting in my life! I'm so thankful for Jenae's creativity and kind heart in inspiring us in these acts of kindness.

This past week, we were thankful to be able to be a part of my grandpa's 84th birthday (on Thanksgiving!) and the kids enjoyed drawing him pictures, lighting candles and singing to him. We made cookies as a surprise for Daddy when he came home from work yesterday and sent some letters to friends overseas. We also "bought" some chicks and milk for a week from the Samaritan's Purse gift catalog. When we noticed a lady with two small children and a full cart in Walmart, we were happy to let her go ahead of us in line.

None of these things are shared so that you can see how "good" or "holy" we are but rather to encourage you that when we make it a point to deliberately show kindness to others (and each other), our children can't help but catch on!

I loved this quote from Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar's book 20 and Counting (which I'm reading for the 2nd time), "We believe teaching our children to develop a ministry mindset begins in the heart of the family, with children learning to serve one another so they later will know how to reach out ot others outside our home."

"And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching." Hebrews 10:24-25

1 John Week 10, Chapter 5

2011-11-29T21:21:00.001-06:00

The 1 John Study will soon be drawing to a close! I've been growing so much in my faith as I've studied this book and exchanged observations and ideas with my Good Morning Girls group. I want to share just one truth today about the verses in 1 John 5 that I've been meditating on so far this week.

"Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well. This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands. This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome, for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God." 1 John 5:1-5

How is it that we who are born of God--truly believing and trusting in Him--overcome the world? It is only because Jesus rescued us from this world by saving us through His sacrifice. Through Him, we can overcome the trials and temptations that this world has to offer.

I'm so thankful to be a child of God!

DIY Corn Muffin Dry Mix

2011-11-29T14:26:00.001-06:00

One of the ways I attempt to save time when preparing meals is to make homemade dry mixes ahead of time. That way, all I have to do is add the liquid ingredients to the already prepared dry ingredients for a quick bread, side or dessert.

Kirk loves chili and cornbread, so I decided to make up a corn muffin dry mix for those days when I just don't have quite enough time to make these tasty little guys from scratch.

DIY Corn Muffin Dry Mix (slightly adapted from Rachael Ray)

6 cups bread flour (I use a combo of whole wheat and all-purpose flour)

1 cup sugar

4 cups cornmeal

1/4 cup baking powder

1/2 Tbsp. salt

2 tsp. cinnamon

Stir together all ingredients and store in an airtight container. This recipe makes enough for 5 dozen muffins.

To make one dozen muffins:

Whisk together 1 cup milk, 2 eggs and 4 Tbsp. melted butter into 2 1/4 cups of the muffin mix just until combined. Put into muffin tins and bake at 400 degrees F for 15 minutes.

This post is linked at Balancing Beauty and Bedlam's Tasty Tuesday.

Advent Activities from Focus on the Family's Thriving Family Magazine

2011-11-28T13:40:00.001-06:00

Last night I wrote up a post about ideas for celebrating advent with your kids. This morning, I opened my Thriving Family magazine and found a neat little Advent Activity Calendar inside! It has a devotional for each day of Advent (which began yesterday, November 27) and an activity you can do to give your kids a deeper understanding for each Scripture passage.

If you don't get Thriving Family (it's a free subscription!) you can also view the Advent Activity Calendar online.

Focus is also running an Advent contest...not sure what I think of that, but it can help motivate you to read your devotional and check in each day to answer a question and enter to win prizes.

Momma Shoe commented on my previous post that she and her family have made ornaments for a Jesse Tree. I saw this on another blog a few years back but can't find it now. I'd love to know if anyone has any ideas or photos of one!

Ideas for Celebrating Advent with Your Kids

2011-11-27T20:55:00.001-06:00

As we come into the season of Advent, my family seeks out resources we can use to share the message of the coming Messiah with our kids. Here are some ideas for celebrating Advent that we love!

Advent Devotional - This "Christmas Stories for Bedtime" book is one we enjoyed using last year during December. Each section has a Bible verse relating to Advent/Christmas and then a brief story explaining it (one example is a story about what it was like to be a shepherd). There is a short prayer at the end and then a Christmas hymn. Our favorite part was singing the carols together.

Right now, this book is on sale for $1.99 at Christianbook.com. There are hundreds of other books, Bibles, and DVDs on sale as well. You can also get free shipping with orders over $35 with code 352495.

Advent Calendar - This is a beautiful Advent Calendar I saw on Pinterest, with an ornament that is removed from the pocket and hung on the tree for each day of December ending on Christmas Day. This year we have an Advent Wreath with little gifts to unwrap each day and a Scripture verse that goes with each one. You could also make a simple advent envelope calendar.

Source: katieemrich.blogspot.com via Lisa on Pinterest

Advent Candles and Wreath -Being my husband is a pastor, we light an Advent candle on each Sunday of Advent during our church service. He uses this as an opportunity to talk about how we prepare our hearts for Jesus' coming and how the candles symbolize different parts of the Christmas story: the prophecy of Christ, Bethlehem, ETC.

You can make your own wreath! I love these Advent wreath ideas from Lacy at Catholic Icing.

**UPDATE: I found another great Advent devotional idea in my Thriving Family magazine this morning--check it out!

I'd love to know--how do you celebrate Advent with your family?

*Don't forget about the Heavenly Homemakers Pink Friday sale--25% off all products in her store through the end of today!

Heavenly Homemakers Ebook Sale!

2011-11-25T11:05:00.001-06:00

Laura from Heavenly Homemakers is having a "Pink" Friday sale on all of her eBooks! From now through midnight Monday, she is offering a 25% discount off everything in her shop! Just use code PINKFRIDAY at checkout.

Even better, you'll get the 25% off already discounted packages: the Holiday Hospitality eBook Package and the Heavenly Homemakers eBook Overload (contains ten eBooks).

She has a great variety of eBooks, from gluten-free cooking to what to do with kids in the kitchen to a preschool curriculum. I have several of her eBooks, including Totally Tortillas (her recipe is delicious!), Fill 'Em Up and her Learn Your Letters, Learn to Serve curriculum.

If you've never heard of Heavenly Homemakers, you will definitely love reading about Laura's journey to eating whole foods not to mention her wonderful faith and frugality.

**This post does contain some affiliate links: for more information, please read my disclosure policy.

30 Days of Intentional Acts of Kindness with your Kids: Week 3

2011-11-22T21:58:00.001-06:00

This week I've been thinking how thankful I am for all the kindnesses that have been shown to us this past year. Oftentimes it's so easy to complain about the things that I don't have instead of having a "joyful heart" and grateful spirit in light of all that God has given me and my family.

Children so quickly learn by example and I'm am glad to see that as we are sharing in acts of kindness their little hearts are becoming more aware of the needs of those around us.

These past days we've been able to pack and deliver boxes for Operation Christmas Child, have the kids talk on the phone to my grandparents who we aren't able to see often, put away each other's clean laundry, deliver some treats to a neighbor who celebrated a birthday, bring a meal to a busy and pregnant mom of four and send a card to my brother in law who is a Marine serving in Afghanistan.

And in light of this Thanksgiving week, I want to share what I am thankful for (in no particular order)...

...a warm and safe roof over my head.
...an amazing, supportive husband who completes me in every way.
...three precious children who motivate and teach me every day.
...a church full of kind, generous and laid-back people who encourage our family in ministry.
...my dear family, both immediate and extended, who helped make me who I am today.
...friends who encourage me, sharpen me and bless me with their creativity (like Meagan, who took the pictures you see below).
...the kind people who comment on and/or read my blog, encouraging me to continue sharing what God is teaching me each day.
...the bountiful food and material things that we have been blessed with and a God who gives me content in what I have.
...my Savior, Jesus, for His tremendous sacrifice and love for me and for the world.
...my Heavenly Father, whose strength, patience, love, kindness and peace are everlasting.

Have a blessed Thanksgiving!

"May the God of all hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit." Romans 15:13

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Thanksgiving Recipe Ideas

2011-11-22T10:43:00.001-06:00

Looking for some last-minute Thanksgiving recipes? I wanted to share with you a few that we've tried or will be trying this year!

Photo courtesy Food Network

Sweet Potato Biscuits from Paula Deen - We used a similar recipe for these {which I can't find at the moment} a couple of years ago. They are delicious and a unique way to serve potatoes for Thanksgiving dinner.

{Not Your Typical} Green Bean Casserole - This recipe is on our Thanksgiving menu this year! With a topping made from Ritz crackers, it should make for an interesting taste. I'm going to make just half a recipe since some people in our family {ahem} do not like mushrooms.

Creamed Corn {From the Freezer!} - I made this delicious creamed corn early in the fall and this is a perfect occasion to pull a bag out of the freezer and have some of this goodness.

Pumpkin Gingerbread - This is another recipe I'm going to try this year and I imagine the smell will be irresistible!

Hot Cranberry Apple Cider - I love my apple cider to have something a little extra! This cider recipe is from an old Country Women magazine that my mom gave me {she actually gave me a whole stack!} and I found it has been put on the Taste of Home website.

A blessed Thanksgiving to you! Thanks be to God!

Shared at Balancing Beauty and Bedlam's Tasty Tuesday

Is My Patience Really a Virtue?

2011-11-21T12:40:00.001-06:00

I'm sure you've heard the saying, "patience is a virtue." A virtue is defined as "a particular moral excellence" and "a good or admirable quality."

Which makes me think: Is my patience really a virtue?

Many times my grasps at patience are anything but excellent or admirable. Whether it's waiting for the water to boil (and a watched pot really doesn't boil!) or anxiously anticipating the arrival of my third child, my life isn't exactly wrought with this fruit of the spirit!

So many places in Scripture encourage us to be patient:

"Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for Him." Psalm 37:7

"But let patience have its perfect work, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing." James 1:4

"The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, thankfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law." Galatians 5:22

I need to increase my patience in so many areas:

Patience with my kids when they are fighting for the ~~500th~~ 10th time today.
Patience with my husband when he doesn't do things "the way I think they should be done".
Patience when I have been praying for the salvation of friends and family and nothing seems to be changing.
Patience with myself when I feel like a failure because I didn't cross everything off my to-do list on any given day.
Patience with God's will when something happens that I don't understand.

Thankfully God is gracious and patient with me!

"Blessed is the one who waits." Daniel 12:12

What are you learning to be patient about? I'd love to lift you up in prayer!

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Thanksgiving Handprint Turkey Craft

2011-11-18T13:00:00.001-06:00

I originally found this handprint turkey craft on Pinterest (if you haven't joined yet, you're missing out!).

Knowing how Leah likes to paint and get her hands messy I thought this would be the perfect combination of the two as far as a craft is concerned :) Isn't he cute?

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What you need:

Red, orange, white and brown construction paper
White cardstock (our paint soaked through regular paper on the first try)
Googly eyes
Glue
Paint in various colors--we used red, orange, and yellow
Paintbrush

What to do:

Paint your child's hand with a thin layer of one paint color at a time and then "stamp" their hand on the piece of cardstock, making a fan pattern (i.e. turkey feathers). We didn't have brown or green tempera paint at the moment, so we mixed other paints to make fall-ish shades of color.

Cut out a round turkey body with brown paper, a smaller head with white paper and glue them to the feathers after they have dried. Add some googly eyes, a beak, a giblet and feet. Super cute!

We cut the turkeys away from the rest of the cardstock because I underestimated the size of my kiddos' hands! Then we glued the little guys onto brown construction paper and hung them up on the fridge for Thankgiving viewing by the relatives :)

I wrote Leah's name and the year on the bottom so we could keep this for future fall decorating and to remember what her little hands were like when she was 3!

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Thanksgiving Printables!

2011-11-17T15:19:00.001-06:00

I found some fun Thanksgiving Printables from around the web, so I thought I'd share some with you! Will and Leah have really enjoyed using these printables. I don't necessarily print out all of them--there's such a variety that you can choose what your child likes to do and go from there.

Jolanthe at Homeschool Creations has two Thanksgiving packs - one geared towards younger Preschoolers and another for Kindergarten.

2 Teaching Mommies also has a preschool and tot Thanksgiving unit along with ideas for devotions and books you can read with your child. Will really enjoyed the Roll and Graph part of this unit. They also have a super-cute Turkey unit!

You can find lots of fun Thanksgiving printables with mazes, word searches and the like at the Family Fun Magazine website.

Tomorrow I'm going to share a cute Thanksgiving turkey kids' craft that preserves a memory at the same time!

30 Days of Intentional Acts of Kindness Week 2 and a Devotional Thought

2011-11-16T08:03:00.001-06:00

Isn't it funny how different areas of your life sometimes intersect? Usually it's for a purpose, many times because God wants to teach us something about ourselves. I've been reading 1 John through my Good Morning Girls Bible study and also participating in the 30 Days of Intentional Acts of Kindness with your Kids at I Can Teach My Child. We were challenged this week to share some acts of kindness that have been done by others so that it didn't become so easy to draw attention to ourselves and what we are doing.

That made me think: why is it that we do something kind for others? Is it a selfish desire to be noticed and applauded for our generous spirit? Or are we motivated by the Scriptures which say, "Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another" (1 John 4:11).

That's where these two parts of my life have come together this week, causing me to think through my motives. And truly we should be showing the love of God to others. Not the "love" of the world, which can be selfish in nature (i.e. what's in it for me) but "the love of God manifested in us" because "He sent His only Son into the world so that we may live through Him" (1 John 4:9). God has lavished His love on us and so that love should overflow in us toward others!

Can I share one thing that we did with our kids this week? Since this challenge started, I've been thinking so much about how we show love and kindness to the people in our own home. Will and Leah enjoy the book "Things to Love" by Richard Scarry, so the kids decided to make a "Things to Love" card for each other. It was sweet to help them write the things they thought of and precious to see their eyes light up when they read their card.

Let me share one way God provides for our needs through the kindness of others. Recently, my family received a blessing from someone that allowed us to cover a financial need--almost to the dollar! How God can work through other people's kindnesses that way is amazing!

I also loved what Cindy at Crayon Wishes and Popsicle Dreams shared about her "kindness" week--that the love of God nudged her to give a man on a corner some money, resisting the urge to hold back because she didn't know for sure what he'd do with the money.

Seeing people through the eyes of God may be difficult, but it is necessary. That is how He saw us: struggling and needy and wearing worn clothing...and He chose to provide for our deepest needs and give us a beautiful garment of pure white.

How has God provided for you this week? How has He motivated you to love others as He loves?

Writing Them on the Doorposts: Scripture in Our Home Part 8

2011-11-14T11:36:00.001-06:00

I hope you've enjoyed the Scripture in our Home series! It's been fun for me to think of some extra ways to display Scripture on our walls, in picture frames and other places at our house.

One thing we did with the kids over the weekend was to print out some "thanksgiving" Bible verses, color them and laminate them for placemats at the table. This would be fun if you are hosting Thanksgiving to make for each guest. You could also print out a verse and have each guest write something they are thankful for on the paper and then hang it up or display it in a frame.

The verses we used were Psalm 107:1, 1 Thessalonians 5:18, 1 Corinthians 15:57 ("Thanks be to God") and 1 Chronicles 16:8. I realized after printing these out that it was quite tedious to color each letter but Will stuck with it, I colored some, and Leah did her own thing :)

Because we live in a parsonage, we haven't put up any of those popular wall vinyls with Scripture verses. Something about buying them and then not being able to reuse them when it comes time to move doesn't sound so great. But I love getting ideas for the time when we may own our own home! Here are some I've recently found on Etsy and Dayspring.

This bird has Matthew 6:33 printed on it and is available as a wall canvas or framed canvas at the Dayspring website. All of their wall canvases are 30% off for November!

This one is beautiful too, and because it's canvas, I can put it up! Maybe it will go on my Christmas list :)

Love this one from Etsy: "Be still and know that I am God."

This would be super cute for a nursery!

Or what about this one for your living room or homeschool room?

Wherever you put it, Scripture in your home will be a blessing to you, an encouragement to your children and a testimony to all who enter!

You can read the rest of the Scripture in Our Home series here.

Writing Them on the Doorposts: Scripture in our Home, Part 7

2011-11-11T11:09:00.001-06:00

Today I wanted to show you some of the Scriptures we have hung in Will and Leah's room.

The green one beyond the red frame says, "Children obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord. Colossians 3:20".

We bought these picture frames for $1.99 each at IKEA a couple of years ago. I typed up some verses on Microsoft Publisher and we rotate them every once in a while. It's been fun to say these Scriptures before bed and even make up some actions for them too! Now that Leah's old enough to join in the fun, she asks to say them every night.

Do you hang Scriptures in your children's bedroom? Which verses have you chosen?

Next Monday, I'm going to wrap up this little series with one more idea for displaying Scripture at home as well as some other photos of Bible verses that I've seen around the web!

A Review of "Blogger Behave" by Laura Booz

2011-11-10T08:25:00.000-06:00

I'm always on the look out for great blogging advice. After all, I'm just getting started with this whole "yes-I'm-serious-about-blogging" thing, so I need all the help I can get! I recently read "Blogger Behave" by Laura Booz and I truly enjoyed it!

Laura's advice was enlightening for new-ish bloggers like myself and challenging for experienced bloggers who need a fresh look (or a kick in the pants) regarding purpose and balance in blogging. What she writes is especially relevant to us in a day and age when we are constantly bombarded by social media opportunities and need what Laura calls "hidden cop cars" on our blogging road trip.

Laura is encouraging, humorous and tenderhearted, writing in a pleasant narrative style mixed with plenty of practical advice. She takes the time to open up and share how she's learned (and improved) from her own experiences.

She brought up many things I'd never thought of before in reference to my blog. She challenged me to think about how blogging can benefit my life without taking it over, how to include my family in my blogging adventures and how to be open and honest with my readers without being preachy.

I definitely have a much better handle on how to balance my blog life with my real life after reading this book. I'd recommend Blogger Behave to anyone desiring to blog with purpose without losing your mind or time with your family!

You can buy Blogger Behave through this link or at Amazon.com, available as a Kindle download.

Week 8 of 1 John, Chapter 4

2011-11-09T13:12:00.001-06:00

Sometimes I'm afraid for my children.

Everywhere I look something terrible is happening, from natural disasters to senseless killings to an economic crisis that brings people to their knees. These circumstances bring me fear about the kind of world my little ones will grow up in and go out into when they leave our home.

When these thoughts come to mind, what should I do? I am reminded that God does not give us a spirit of fear! Instead He asks me to "take every captive every thought and make it obedient to Christ" (II Corinthians 10:5).

More than that, John tells us in 1 John 4:4, "greater is He that is in you than he who is in the world." Because of Jesus' death on the cross, we are victorious! God is greater than the world and greater than our hearts. He is the one certainty in uncertain times. No matter what circumstance tells us, He really is trustworthy and true.

Trusting Him with the lives of my children is a process, a day by day surrender of these sweet gifts He has given to me to take care of for a little while. But I am learning.

I love the context of the II Corinthians verse I shared earlier:

For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled.

I'm thankful today for a mighty and powerful God who casts out my fears and brings me peace.

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Homemade Microwave Caramel Corn

2011-11-08T09:56:00.003-06:00

Who doesn't love caramel corn? This is a recipe from my childhood days that my mother and I made often. Let me tell you, it's really hard not to eat the whole batch in one sitting.

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Microwave Caramel Corn

1 cup brown sugar
1 stick butter
1/4 cup white corn syrup
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. baking soda
3-4 quarts popped corn (you can easily use homemade microwave popcorn)

Combine first four ingredients in a 1 1/2 quart pot on the stove. Bring just to a boil, then stir in soda. Remove from heat.

Put half of the popped corn in a brown grocery bag. Pour half of the caramel mixture on top, then alternate with more popcorn and the remainder of the caramel mixture.

Close the bag and shake, shake, shake! I had some helpers for this part. Cook on high in the microwave for 1 1/2 minutes. Stir or shake it well once again and then return to the microwave for about 1 more minute.

Pour into a pan and allow to cool (if you can wait!).

Lesson Learned: Lest I became too convinced I had this recipe mastered, some of the caramel corn decided to burn itself to an inedible crisp. The next batch I shook even longer and stirred with a spatula before putting it in the microwave for it's second round.

Here's what it looks like when done correctly. Soft and chewy caramel goodness! Hope you enjoy!

This post is linked at Balancing Beauty and Bedlam's Tasty Tuesday.

Writing Them on the Doorposts: Scripture in our Home, Part 6

2011-11-07T10:51:00.001-06:00

Last Friday, I posted about where I put Scripture so I can easily read it to Jude throughout the day. I definitely don't forget about our older two children in this endeavor!

In Sunday School last year, Will's class worked on Scripture memorization. Once the kids recited a memorized verse a certain number of times to their teacher they got a small reward. This fall I decided to do something similar at our house! I'm working on a Scripture memory unit for our kids that takes us through the alphabet with a Bible verse for each letter. It's a chance for Will and Leah not only to memorize but apply these verses to their lives. Obviously we keep it very simple at this point :)

As we go through this unit, we are "building" a caterpillar, adding one circle or "segment" each time we complete a verse! So far we have A through E. This is on the wall down the hallway to our kids' room so they can see it as often as they like!

I'm working on some posts for each letter and verse and little activities that go along with it. It's a work in progress and I'm looking forward to starting these posts in 2012, so if you'd like, you can follow The Purposeful Mom via RSS (coffee bean button at the top of the right sidebar), on Facebook, or through Google Friend Connect (also in the sidebar). You can also follow me on Pinterest and I'd be glad to follow you as well.

I do post each weekday: devotions, recipes, kids crafts, series that I'm a part of and soon some series that I'm working on myself. And of course there are the occasional Will-isms and Lovely Leah posts for the grandparents and any other interested parties :) I'd love to look at your blogs too!

*You can read the rest of the Scripture in our Home series here. This post is linked with the "Write them on the Doorposts" Contest Challenge.

30 Days of Intentional Acts of Kindness Week 1

2011-11-07T06:00:00.000-06:00

It's been such a blessing to be a part of 30 Days of Intentional Acts of Kindness, hosted by Jenae at I Can Teach My Child. We've been challenged to do something each day for someone else (with our kids along for the ride of course!). It's so important to put our words into action and to encourage our children to do the same. The Bible exhorts us to "serve one another in love" (Galatians 5:13).

Last week, we enjoyed completing some of the activities we set out to do: sending pictures and thank-yous to a great-aunt and the kids' grandparents, making each other's beds, and delivering items to our local food pantry. We also made a crock pot of soup for a youth group fundraiser because they were needing some extra help. The kids and I gathered some baby items for an orphanage our church supports in Brazil (our ladies' group is sending a care package in December).

The kids getting ready to deliver to the food pantry

This week we decided to do some of the things we were unable to do last week. As a family we came up with some more ways that we'd like to bless the people around us. We found ourselves getting so excited about it!

1. Make a "Things to Love booklet for each person in our family, drawing and writing (with help) what we love and appreciate about each other.

2. Bring homemade caramel corn to our close neighbors (recipe here).

3. Deliver gently used baby items to the local Women's Pregnancy Center. They were closed the day we went into town last week (we live 30 miles from the nearest Center).

4. Bring a meal to some friends who just moved into a different house and are up to their ears in boxes!

5. Call my grandparents on the phone and letting the kids talk to them too!

6. Purchase supplies for Operation Christmas Child boxes. We'll be filling the boxes with our youth group mid-November.

7. Make a Christmas gift for Will's Kindergarten teacher. We thought this would be a good time to get it done before the holiday rush sets in.

If you'd like to join in, you can read all about 30 Days of Intentional Acts of Kindness at I Can Teach My Child where I along with many others will be linking up to Jenae's weekly post. I'll also be posting each Monday through the month of November about the things we have done. I'd love to read your ideas here as well!

Free Amazon Kindle Download: DIY Organic Baby Food

2011-11-05T06:00:00.000-05:00

DIY Organic Baby Food: The Video Guide is available for free download on Amazon Kindle. If you don't have a Kindle you can get a Kindle reader for your PC, Mac or iPhone.

I have this in book format (downloaded for free several months ago) and I found it to be very useful. The price can change at any time, so be sure to check before downloading!

You can see my complete list of free Kindle downloads here. I just added some new books today!

Writing Them on the Doorposts: Scripture in our Home, Part 5

2011-11-04T06:00:00.000-05:00

If you missed them, you are welcome to read the previous posts in the Scripture in our Home series!

Having Scripture displayed all around our home really motivates us to commit it to memory and allow it to transform our thinking. We also want our kids to hide God's Word in their little hearts and so we try to think of simple ways to share verses with them throughout the day.

It's such fun to read Scripture to little Jude too and so I like to place Bible verses where he spends a lot of time....at his changing table :)

Here are our most recent verses...

I think it's appropriate to throw in a little humor for good measure.

To be fair, although Jude has moments when he struggles with sleep, most of the time he is a great snoozer!

Next Monday I'll share a fun idea for helping your kids learn Scripture as well as introduce a little project I've been working on. This post is linked to the "Write Them on Your Doorposts" Contest Challenge.

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French Fries, Dogs, and First Aid

2011-11-03T06:00:00.000-05:00

Last month on our way to the first MOPS meeting at an area church, Leah had some things on her mind.

As she sat in her car seat, swinging her feet and looking out the window at the potato plant, she commented, "Mom, it smells like french fries in here. And dog food."

A bit further down the road she asked, "Does the church we are going to have a first aid kit, like our church?"

No, it's not the beauty of the sanctuary, the fun Moppets activities or the presence of the Lord that's the most important to her right now: it's the bandaids.

Week 7 of 1 John, Chapter 3

2011-11-02T14:31:00.000-05:00

If you'd like, you can read my past meditations on 1 John.

One of the things that got my attention this week in chapter three was the exhortation in verses 16-20:

"We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoever has the world’s goods, and sees his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him? Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth. We will know by this that we are of the truth, and will assure our heart before Him in whatever our heart condemns us; for God is greater than our heart and knows all things."

It is easy to express our feelings about the world's injustices or feel saddened by the aftermath of natural disasters. I tend to say things like, "We really should be praying for them," or "I just don't know how I'd cope with that."

John tells us that we should stretch our love further than just words. God is certainly the greatest provider. Yet He calls us to put our love into action. That action could be writing a letter to a hurting friend, sending money to a charity working to rebuild an area of natural disaster or making a meal for an elderly neighbor.

But what if we took it one step further? We could visit the hurting friend, go on a missions trip to help with rebuilding efforts or coordinate two weeks worth of meals for our neighbor.

The love of God is poured into our hearts through Jesus; shouldn't we respond by pouring that love out to others? It does so much to show the love of Christ, keeps the focus off ourselves and makes us thankful for how God supplies all our needs. Our family desires to do just that (we've joined with this link-up challenge to help motivate us) especially during the holiday season.

Blessings to you this week!

photo credit