The best of 2012....

What a wonderful year 2012 was.  Like many other years, it did not come without its challenges and obstacles, but it was another year to be extremely thankful for.  I do, however, have to ask where it went?!? Is it me or do the years seem to pass more quickly with little ones?

I thought about posting my favorite moments of the year, but there are waaaaaay too many to list.  So many priceless memories with my awesome husband and four little girls.  Great times with family and friends were too numerous to count. I am continuously in awe of those blessings! Therefore, instead of listing those, I thought it would be fun to share some of my favorite inspirations of the year and a few things that just made life a little sweeter.

Here are a few of my favorites from 2012:

Book:

Calm My Anxious Heart: A Woman's Guide to Finding Contentment

Quote:

"Wise people limit their freedoms to protect others."  ~ Pastor Ben Lamb

Song:

Workout:

Zumba class (with my sister-in-law). Woo hoo. What fun!! You almost forget you are working out.

Blog Posts:

The Battle for Joy

Organizing Important Documents

Ebook:

21 Days To A More Disciplined Life 

In the Kitchen:

Trader Joe's Organic Virgin Coconut Oil
I've recently learned the awesome benefits of cooking with coconut oil. Not to mention, the benefits for your hair and skin.  I always wondered why women in India had such shiny hair when we were visiting there.  Now I know!

Cleaning:

 

Eureka Enviro Hard-Surface Floor Steamer,313A

What a deep clean without the harsh chemicals! Yay!

Documentaries :

The Daniel Project
This documentary is a journey and explanation of the signs of the times and Biblical prophecy.  Quite eye opening, I must say!

The Gerson Miracle 
Controversial, but extremely informative about health issues, treatments and prevention.

IndoctriNation: Public Schools and the Decline of Christianity in America

This one really gets you thinking about school environment choices?!

FOR THE KIDS

Homeschool:

My Father's World From A to Z: A Complete Kindergarten Curriculum

This curriculum is working out great for us.  It's very cute, too!

Music:

Buenas noches mi sol

Precious lullabies in Spanish.  Some of my favorite new songs ; )

Love Out Love DVD/CD

Great worship for kids with graphics and creative backgrounds.  We love the lyrics and the kids sure rock out to the beat!

Books:

Big Treasury of Little Animals (Random House Picturebacks)

This book is such a sweet learning tool about pets and farm animals.  Looks like we'll be getting a duck in the spring?!

 

The Jesus Storybook Bible: Every Story Whispers His Name
Our favorite kids Bible.  It truly does whisper the name of Jesus in such an understandable and beautiful fashion.

I hope 2012 had joyful and inspirational moments for you, as well.  We'd love to hear about some of the ways you spent the year, too! Have a safe and happy New Year's Eve!

Shop in your jammies and earn!

I hope you all had a restful and special Thanksgiving with your families and friends!  What a great time to rest, reflect, and count our blessings (hopefully we do a little of those daily anyway?!)

Only days after and Christmas (and shopping) are in full swing.  If you are like me, you are avoiding the lines, the hustle and bustle and early mornings in the cold weather.  Shopping online seems to be one of the great revelations of recent times.

You may have seen my past posts about Ebates. If you are not familiar with Ebates or you don't know how it works check out my previous post here.  It's a free rewards program that earns you rebates for shopping with your favorite retailers through their search engine.

We are "remodeling" what Christmas looks like in our family this year  so we won't be doing a lot of shopping, but that's another post for another time. Some of the shopping we have done or will be doing is through Ebates and I wanted to share some of their "secrets" with you.

Ebates current offers for new members (membership is free):

- $25 for your first referral and $5 for each referral thereafter (that adds up quickly)

- $10 earned for $50 spent


Some of my personal favorite deals are:

**Ebates is now offering 4% cash back on most Amazon.com purchases (I buy many of our 
homeschool items and books here as well as birthday and Christmas gifts).

**20% cash back on orders from Snapfish.  In addition, Snapfish is offering a free 8x11 photo book and 100 prints for new customers and 60% off of photo books through 11/25 using the code TWINKLE60.  (I use Snapfish to create our family photo books and love them). 


If you want to check it out and start earning, click here.

Peek-a-boo!

Hi guys.  I'm still here and I'm still alive and well.  It's just been a few months since I've shown my "face" on this blog.  A lot of life has happened in the last few months (mostly good, but a few setbacks) and something had to take a back burner.

Along with the busyness that comes with raising four little girls and being a home educator, my laptop went on the fritz (thankfully it's a fixable problem) and whooping cough ran its course through all 4 girls (yep, you read it right....whooping cough/pertussis).  This was a crazy thing that happened to us even though we have chosen to immunize in the past  It's a horrible and yucky virus and it was so hard to see them go through this - not to mention EXHAUSTING! I'm soooooo thankful it's over.  There's no wonder they call it the "100 day cough" : (   I'm happy, however, to report that everyone is well!

So, thanks to those of you who have missed me (a.k.a my posts) or if you don't have a clue what I'm talking about and you didn't even know I had a blog....no hard feelings ; )  I've truly missed writing and connecting with you all.  I look forward to sharing more of our beautifully chaotic lives with you and adding some fun and hopefully inspiring posts very soon.

Hooray! We did it...we did it!

So, per my previous post here....the verdict is in. I said that we know I can grow people, but could I (we) grow food?! ;) The answer is YES! Well...to some degree).

Earlier in the summer, we planted cucumbers, tomatoes, green peppers and sugar snap peas.

Unfortunately, the sugar snap peas didn't make it. The green peppers are slowly but surely coming along. The tomatoes are doing pretty well (we've eaten a few already). Thus far, the cucumbers are a bit confusing!? The vine has gone wild and is growing every which way and there is only one enormous cucumber on it. hmmm We shall see?!

The kids are very proud of their efforts - watering, hoping, weeding and waiting.

In the meantime, we had fun reading books about planting and gardening, especially this one:

Are any of you reaping a yummy harvest of a home garden?

My favorite deals this week: more back to school specials

Today only from Target! Buy one get one free girls dENiZEN from Levis brand jeans. $17.99 plus free shipping.

Don't forget...free haircuts the entire month of August for kids 16 and younger at JCPenny Salons.

The Blame Game

The blame game. Pointing fingers. Blame shifting. We all know about it and we have probably all done it at one point or another. It happens from government offices, to large corporations, to school classrooms, to religious communities and at home. It is as old as time. Think of the story of Adam and Eve in the third chapter of Genesis. What was Adam's response when confronted by God about eating the forbidden fruit? In a paraphrased manner, [Eve made me do it].

Part of raising children into successful and mature adults, is helping them to understand how to take responsibility for their actions and owning up to their decisions - good and bad.

I was recently watching an episode of the Dr. Phil show (yes, on occasion I do enjoy watching it). He was talking to a teenage girl who had badly beat up one of her friends and posted the video online. There were a lot more excuses than confessions on her part. Finally, there was a little remorse shown and she basically said that what's done is done and there was nothing she could do about it now. To which Dr. Phil replied, "you can't take it back, but you can own it".

So what can we do as parents to help teach our children to take responsibility for their actions and own up to their choices?

Here are some tips that I think are helpful in doing this:

• Don't entertain (allow) phrases such as:

"It's not fair."

"It's not my fault."

"But....he/she did this or that so I did this or that."

"I didn't mean to."

• Consistency and follow-through when it comes to discipline.

When you set rules for your children, there should be consequences if those rules are broken...every time! Each family has their own rules/guidelines and their own consequences. Even at an early age, kids will know if you are serious about following through or if you are just nagging and threatening.

• Teach respect for authority and boundaries.

Teach children that they will always be accountable to someone for their actions, even when they become an adult - teachers, professors, law enforcement, their boss, the government and so on. I remember teaching at a school where an irate parent came in yelling at the administration for punishing her child for poor behavior (bad choices). She left the building ranting at how no one was going to punish her child except her. What kind of message did that send to the child?!

• Emphasize and re-emphasize the power of choice: the A+B=C theory.

Yes, it's true that there are things in life that are out of our control. However, let's be honest with ourselves and say that most things that happen to us and to others are the results of choices made.

When we bring a weapon to school, we will most likely be expelled.

When we speed, we are very likely to get a speeding ticket.

When we consume more than a moderate share of junk, we are very likely to have health

problems and become overweight.

When we don't do our homework, we are very likely to fail the class.

When we don't show up for work, we are very likely to get fired.

When we spend money that we don't have, we are very likely to go into debt.

Very simple equations really: A + B = C

• Teach them that their choices (good and bad) usually affect more than just themselves:

Very rarely, do our choices affect only ourselves. Mature thinking (and planning) looks beyond our own needs, wants and desires and thinks about how it will affect those around us. Learning this at an early age will save our children and those they love a lot of heartache.

From a Biblical standpoint, the Bible urges us in James 5:16 to confess [our] sins.

What a great way to keep a pure conscience and own up to those shortcomings and bad decisions that we all make from time to time.

I recently read the following very powerful and very true quote:

"Trying to grow up hurts. You make mistakes. You try to learn from them, and when you don't, it hurts even more." ~Aretha Franklin

We Choose Virtues Winner!

Last week I hosted a giveaway sponsored by We Choose Virtues. Thank you to those who entered. I wanted each of you to win, but......

congratulations to Ann who is our winner!

I love giving stuff away....but I don't like the fact that not everyone can win : (

So, for those of you who are really interested in the We Choose Virtues products, but didn't win the giveaway, I want to let you in on the latest discounts they are offering.

During the month of August, when you go to the We Choose Virtues site you can receive :

*25% off of family and homeschool kits (their most popular) - use code BTS25

* 25% off of any kit (which can be used by publc schools, Christian schools and churched - use

code START25

With our without these great tools, may all of us continue to inspire, encourage and model virtuous living within our families!

Pssssttt... if you didn't win, don't worry, I plan to do more giveaways. : )