Wednesday, February 15, 2012

You're Great...

When Keith and I were dating and engaged, we had the opportunity to spend a lot of time with a family who had four young children.  We got to glimpse family life up close, and yet, we proceeded (they say love is blind) J 

One of the many things I learned from the mom of this family, who is incredibly hard working and organized, was an idea that I’ve implemented in my own family. She has a plate that says, “You’re Special” on it and uses it to celebrate birthdays, good report cards, a great basketball game, etc.  Hers is really cute and probably from Pottery Barn or Crate & Barrel or Etsy.  Anyway, ours isn’t “designer”, but the boys LOVE it!

We made it through a Crayola-Create-Your-Own-Plate-Kit along with several other plates as a Christmas present to Keith a few years ago.  They have some similar items on amazon.  It is amazing how much it means to the boys to get the “You’re Great Plate”.  (It also serves well when you don’t want your two-year-old to use the fine china everyone else is using, while helping him feel special.) 

The joy they get at being told directly, “You’re Great”, is a good reminder how much they long for our affirmation and praise.   In fact, we all need that.  The other day, my oldest set the table and gave me the “You’re Great Plate” and it made my night.  We could all use a little pat on the back sometimes.

Therefore encourage one another and build one another up"
1 Thessalonians 5:11


Saturday, February 4, 2012

Deals, Deals, Deals

In an effort to save money I’ve been doing more “extreme couponing”.  This involves matching coupons with sale items to get things sometimes free or very cheap.  On average I save about 50% on groceries, which is great.  However, it also involves lots of time and energy searching for the best deals, printing off coupons online, cutting coupons from the Sunday paper, organizing the coupons, and tracking sales. There are several websites that help with this, but it still takes time.  I also am not sure I’m actually saving any money at all because I buy more of the items on sale than I otherwise would and sometimes I’m buying things I would never buy otherwise. 

For example, I can get breakfast cereal on sale super cheap this way. So what, kids, if you don’t like All Bran? It was only $1/box. Nevermind that you use a dollars worth of sugar on it just to choke it down.

So I’m still perfecting my system and determining how to make this work best for us.  Sometimes it’s a hassle, like when I’m in Target with children trying to find a certain coupon to know how many Skippy Peanut Butters I need to buy to use my coupon, but it can also be kind of like a game… I was trying to explain it to my husband and the best analogy I could use was Texas Hold ‘Em.  You know how you want to kick yourself when you fold on a hand that you would have won on? That’s how I feel when I buy something and then later realize I could have gotten it cheaper somewhere else.   But when I know I got a great deal, I feel like I won somehow.

Anyway, if you too are a “thrifty” mom, here are a couple of my favorite tips, sites, etc.

1)      If your children go through hand soap like there is no tomorrow: buy a foaming hand soap (like Dial). After it’s gone (in like a week around here)… fill it about a fourth of the way full with any kind of soap (suave body wash, softsoap hand soap, etc) and the rest of the way with water. Shake and voila … hand soap at ¼ the cost!



4)      Often cities will have their own sites like http://www.denvermetromoms.com/ or http://www.kansascitymamas.com/




8)      Also, Aldi is great which now has milk for $1.99. Their generic brands of chips, crackers, cereal, etc have been great.

9)      Amazon Mom Subscribe and Save can be great for diapers and other items… 20% off delivered right to your door.

10)   Costco also can be great for some items.  http://www.kansascitymamas.com/2012/01/costco-deals-top-15-list/

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

"He Gives Us Wine To Gladden Our Hearts"

I think sometimes we are afraid to pray because we think God is going to ask us to do something we don’t want to do, give up something we don’t want to give up, change something we don’t want to change, or add to the sense of guilt we already carry around us like a heavy burden.

But Jesus says, “My yoke is easy and my burden light”.  What does this mean?  Let me tell you a story of something that happened to me recently.

As I mentioned in my last post, money has been a little tight, and I’d recently resolved to really stay within our budget… hard core… like Dave Ramsey style.

My husband was working late several nights in a row and I had felt fried, frustrated, and desperately wanted a glass of wine.  I white-knuckled it for a few nights, but after a particularly bad day with the kids, I stopped and bought a bottle of my favorite red, Menage a Trois.



This wasn’t in the “spending plan”, but compared to a trip to the looney bin, I figured it was cheap therapy. J I did have a hint of lingering guilt however.

After I finally got the kids to bed, and poured myself a glass, I remembered that the next day was  my women’s bible study on The Mass by Dr. Edward Sri.  I knew I didn’t have the mental or spiritual capacity to do all the reading and prep that I was supposed to do, but I figured I’d at least look at the one question that I specifically had been assigned.  This is what I read:

“You bring bread forth from the earth and wine to gladden our hearts” – Psalm 104:15

Wine is very life to man if taken in moderation. Does he really live who lacks the wine which was created for his joy?” – Sirach 31:27

“Chief of all needs for human life are water and fire, iron and salt, The heart of the wheat, milk and honey, the blood of the grape, and oil and cloth” Sirach 39:26

And I smiled and laughed and felt very loved by such a tender and gentle God who has such a great sense of humor.  And I decided that despite all my Bible Studies, and classes, and years of doing ministry, I still don’t really know God.  He surprises me and is not who I expect sometimes.

So while I fall into the trap sometimes of thinking of prayer as one more thing on a long list of personal needs that I have trouble finding the time to meet, I am reminded when I do take the time that this is not just one more task to cross off the list. This is about relationship with a God who loves me.

And I added a line item in our spending plan for wine. J