Cute Kids = Free Food!!

Our kids are cute.  Period.  No arguments from anybody who has ever seen them.

People seem to flock to them.  In the store, at the park, at church, and most relevantly (at least for this post), at restaurants.

There's just something about Jenny and David that causes casual diners to come over to our table to meet these cute kids.

And sometimes, they like to pay for our dinner.

It happened again last night.

We were sitting at Applebee's enjoying our dinner when a couple came over to "meet the kids", leaving us with the remaining balance on a gift card they'd used that evening.  It just happened to cover the rest of our meal (after using the gift cards we'd brought with us) and part of the tip!

Thanks, God, for blessing us with cute kids!

And THANK YOU to the anonymous couple who shared their gift card with us!

Too Much Fun at the Library

I had a little bit too much fun at the library yesterday afternoon.  We got there about 5:30pm, and they closed at 6pm.

We all went: Mommy, Daddy, Jenny, and David.

I had a list of books I wanted to find, thanks in part to my participation in Feed Me Books Friday on our homeschooling blog.  And then I had some books I wanted to get for school for this coming week.

I grabbed Jenny's library bag, put David in the stroller, let Jenny roam the Children's section, and J went wandering on his own.  I attacked the bookshelves with my list in hand, putting books in the bag faster than I could blink.  Okay... so it probably wasn't quite that fast, but the bag got pretty full pretty fast!

After perusing the Dr. Seuss books (his birthday is next week, and I've decided we're doing a unit with his books in two weeks), I hit up the easy reader series Now I'm Reading! and cleaned out their pre-readers and level 1 readers to work on with Jenny.  Then I wandered over to the Picture Books and picked up some books about siblings for school (our unit next week is about siblings).

Once I was done in the Children's section, I decided to make a quick stop in the Inspirational Fiction section to see if I could find a few books for myself, since my stack of books needing to be reviewed is gone (until the next batch arrives in the mail).

We found J and headed for the check-out.  Nineteen books later, we were on our way home.

"Abigail" by Jill Eileen Smith

Jill Eileen Smith has done her research. Taking what is revealed to us in Scripture, she has woven a beautiful story of David's third wife, Abigail.  Smith refers the reader to the Scriptures, then expounds on it in a beautifully written and easy to read story that might have happened, careful to leave the known truths intact.

Written with the setting and time period in mind, Abigail portrays the story of a beautiful woman given in marriage as a debt settlement.  She struggles to please her foolish husband, and finds herself in a dangerous situation after aiding David and his men.  When her husband is struck down by God, David takes her as his wife.  She must then learn what it means to be the wife of this soon-to-be king on-the-run.

Thanks to Revell, a divsion of Baker Publishing Group, for providing a copy of this book for review.

Links to Live By... New Friends

I want to introduce you to a few new friends I've made over the past couple of weeks!

Twitter has been the source of many new connections for me, including my new friend Lisa.  She blogs at Too Busy 2 Clean and Chaos Appreciation.  We bounded over our messy "catch all" rooms.

My Top Ten Tuesday/Gratituesday post brought me a new friend in Janna.  She blogs at The Adventure of Motherhood.  Thanks to her, I now have a long library list of books I want to get and read with Jenny and David!

I've also enjoyed getting to know Alicia through tweeting on Twitter and reading her blog, Making Time for Mommy.

Be sure to stop by these amazing ladies' blogs and leave them some comment-love!

And as always, feel free to leave your Links to Live By in the comments below for me to read.

A Reader's Survey Inverted

I got an email yesterday from one of my faithful readers wanting to know what my answers to my reader survey were.

So, I decided to answer it for her and you... in case you were wondering, too!

What's your favorite book?
I don't know if I have a favorite.  I like a lot of books (and authors).  Some favorite authors: Karen Kingsbury, Dee Henderson, Lauraine Snelling, Tracie Peterson, John Grisham, and the list goes on...

How old are you? (age range is OK)
I'm currently 25 - will be 26 on March 21.

Do you blog? If so, where?
Three blogs: http://xanga.com/beamissionary (Family Stuff); http://pkidshs.blogspot.com (Homeschooling); http://apfreewriting101.blogspot.com (My Brain on the Internet).

Do you have kids? What ages?
Two kids: Jenny is 3yo and David is 17mo.

Name one pet peeve.
Dirty dishes sitting in the sink.

What's your favorite dessert?
Depends on my mood, but usually has chocolate in it.

What's your favorite post that I've written?
I don't know if I have a favorite post that I've written.  Looking back, I think the posts that are most meaningful to me are the ones where I took the risk to be open and honest.

What's your favorite candy bar?
Snickers or 3 Musketeers (depending on if I want to chew it or just melt in my mouth).

What's your middle name?
Dawn.

What's your favorite color?
Most of the time, I'd say blue.

Anything else you'd like to know?

If you didn't take the survey before (which only one person did), be sure to take it this time around... just leave your answers in the comments below!

This post is linked to Company Girls Coffee 2.26.

Homemade Sticker Fun

Little Man constantly wants to be doing whatever his Big Sister is doing when she is "up" at the counter.  (Or he wants to sit on my lap and push buttons on the computer.)  Monday, for example, I was working with Jenny on something at the counter, and he was throwing a fit because he wanted to be included.

I grabbed a roll of "sticky tape" (aka masking tape) and made some homemade stickers that were just his size.  I folded the edge of the tape back (for easy removal if he stuck them to anything too hard) and added a few smiley face stickers to add flair.  I popped them on the fridge, and we had instant entertainment for about fifteen minutes!

 

  

  

(Please ignore the PJs... we had a PJ Day on Monday!) 

This post is linked up to WFMW at We are THAT Family.

I'm grateful for...

Yesterday, I sent out a plea for help - looking for a topic for today's post.  One person suggested a meme they'd seen (but didn't know where it was hosted - so I used this awesome site to find it), while another person suggested the topic of gratitude.  I decided to incorporate both ideas, joining both the Top Ten Tuesday and Gratituesday memes today.

The Top Ten Things I'm Grateful for Today (in no particular order):

* My awesome hubbie who made me coffee this morning before he left for work.
* The sunshine outside.
* Two healthy kids who love life.
* The blessing of being able to be a homemaker (though I'm not very good at it).
* High-speed internet.
* Jenny's brilliant mind that soaks up information like a sponge.
* My friends and family that are a wonderful support system.
* Great books to read for FREE.
* My hubbie's job that pays well and provides for us.
* God's awesome provision of a HUGE tax return that let us delete some major debt.

Be sure to stop by each of the hostesses' sites (click on the meme buttons below) and visit the others participating in the memes today!

"Out With the In Crowd" by Stephanie Morrill

With the second book in her The Reinvention of Skylar Hoyt series, Stephanie Morrill was a fresh breath for me.  I didn't read the first book in the series (though I really want to now!! and can't wait for book three), but Out With the In Crowd was definitely what I needed for a fun and relaxing Sunday afternoon.

After putting the kids down for their naps, I grabbed the book and a throw and bedded down in the recliner.  A couple hours later (and a few distractions), I was done with another great book.

Even though this is a young adult fiction book, I still enjoyed reading it.  It's fun (well, sometimes) to reminisce about high school and my teen-aged years.  It was fun to lose myself (the adult version) in the story and "be a teenager" again for a little while.

Thanks to Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group, for providing me with a copy of this book to review.

"The Hidden Flame" by Davis Bunn & Janette Oke

I really struggled with reading this book.  It wasn't poorly written.  It didn't lack for a good story line.  But it took me almost a week to read it!  (And I tend to read books in one night - two at most.)  I almost dreaded coming back to it.  If it had been a library book (and not a book I was reading in order to review it), I would have probably returned it unfinished - and I hardly ever return a book unfinished, even if I don't like it!

The main story line was predictable (as it followed the story in the book of Acts), but had a number of "extras" that added dimension and surprise to the predictability.  The second book in the Acts of Faith series by Dunn and Oke, The Hidden Flame tells the story of Abigail as she learns to trust God in the day-to-day struggles she faces.

If you liked other books from Janette Oke, you'll probably enjoy this book as well.  (I've just struggled with her writing style from day one, and I probably wouldn't have agreed to review this book if I'd looked at who the author was.  Nothing against her - I just don't enjoy the style of her books.)

Thanks to Bethany House Publishers for providing me with a copy of this book for review.

What I want for my birthday... Amazon Edition

This post is mainly for my mom (and any others who might be looking for birthday ideas for me).

Here are a few items I'd like for my birthday (and if you use the links on here to buy them, I make a little bit of money on them!!) that you can buy on amazon.com:

Corelle Livingware 16-Piece Dinnerware Set, Service for 4, City Gardens (I'd like 3 sets!!)

KitchenAid Stand Mixer

Kindle

Amazon.com $50 Gift Card (or any amount would be fine)

Slacking in the "Mommy" department...

Remember when I wrote that post about Mommy guilt over TV viewing?

Well, this has been the weekend of Mommy guilt.  I'm not exactly how much TV (mostly the same movie over and over and over again - Jenny LOVES Cinderella) they watched this weekend, but it was definitely WAY more than the recommended one hour a day or less.  I mean, watching a whole movie takes around 90 minutes, and when they watched it multiple times in one day (for multiple days in a row), it all adds up, right!?!

We set them up in our room (David in the PNP to help keep him out of trouble) with one of the portable DVD players feeding the movie to the TV.  (Unfortunately, the TV is getting a bit old, and the movie would only come through in B&W, but they didn't seem to notice at all.)  They took a bunch of toys in there with them - they like to play their instruments (keyboard, guitar, drum, etc) with the songs in the movie - and they settled in for a movie day.

Meanwhile, J had gone to the video store (twice in two days, actually) to rent a few movies for us to watch:
Post Grad
Extract
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Love Happens
Couples' Retreat

So, we all had a movie weekend.  It was nice to have a quiet weekend at home with nothing on the agenda... it's been awhile since we've had one.

What did you do this weekend?

Sunday Thoughts...

The Gospel isn't makeup, it's medicine.

(Not meant to be used to pretty up the outside, but rather should have a life-changing effect on the inside.)

A New Bedtime Routine

Last weekend, while we were at Camp Barakel, we bought a book in the "Trading Post" (the camp store) to read to Jenny and David.  I'd seen others talking about loving it, and I had decided that eventually I wanted to get it for the kids.

And when I saw it in the Trading Post, I decided to pick it up right then.

That book has started a new bedtime routine for us.

Now, after the kids are dressed in their PJs, we gather together, as a family (unless J hasn't made it home from work yet), on Jenny's bed.  We sit and read together.

And Jenny asks LOTS of questions about the story (and the pictures).

And we discuss what we're reading.

And the kids are starting to learn about God's Perfect Plan of Redemption, seeing it unfold through the entire Bible.

Links to Live By...

Thanks to Twitter (it works for me!!), I discovered Sarah Markley and her blog.  Her posts speak to me in such a meaningful way... here are a few of my favorites from this week:

Where is My Bathing Suit?
Bad Emails Make Me Cry
All He Wants is a Barbie

I'd love to hear your thoughts on these links!  And since it's Friday, feel free to leave a shamless plug for your blog in the comments, too!

My "Job"

Yesterday, we hit the ground running and had great success with all of our errands we needed to run!

After stopping at Church to pick up my Sunday papers (I have a "hookup" for "cheap" Sunday papers that delivers them to our church on Mondays for me to pick up at my convenience), we headed to the library for 3's Story Time with Miss Margaret.  We checked out a TON of books after Story Time (way more than normal, but I kept finding fun ones for the kids!) - I can't wait to read some of them together!

CVS was our next stop, after clipping a few coupons from the papers we'd picked up that morning.  Thanks to the fact that our CVS gets re-stocked on Tuesday nights, they actually had all the sale items in stock (along with a few items I had rainchecks on), and we were able to "make money"!

We "made" $3.98 (before tax) at CVS!  That's a savings of 105.35%!!

Our next stop was Owens (our local Kroger affiliate).  Since our ad runs Thursday through Sunday, we were able to take advantage of the Daytona 500 special sale they were running, restocking our pantry with LOTS of goodies!  We managed to save 69.52% (before tax) at Owens.  (I didn't take a picture of this stuff, but it included: Banquet meals, Pillsbury Grands! biscuits, Ragu pasta sauce, Gatorade, Chef Boyardee ravioli, and more.)

After Owens, we ran into Walgreens.  They also had gotten re-stocked on Tuesday night, so I was able to pick up everything I was after in one stop!  Once I send my MIR in for the Olay bodywash, I'll "make money" on my WAGS trip.  And, since I had WAGS giftcards, I only had to pay a few dollars out-of-pocket.

I'll "make" $2.97 (before tax) at WAGS.  That's a savings of 103.95%!!

My total shelf cost for the day was $257.75 (before tax).
My total spending for the day was $26.01 (before tax).

That's a savings of 89.91% for the day!

And since my "job" is currently "homemaker", I'd say that's not too bad for a day's work!

This post has been linked to Money Saving Mom's Super Savings Saturday & Saving Our Cents' Saving Our Cents Saturday.