10 years

A few weeks ago, my husband reminded me of a very important anniversary, the day I finally came to Christ. It was February 14th, 2000 and I was driving home from somewhere (can't remember where--probably my best friend at the time - Kelli - or Kelleigh as she liked to spell it). After denouncing Christianity and God about 7 or 8 months previously and living life how I wanted it, I realized how empty and unsatisfying it was. I didn't find the freedom I thought I would. Being able to do what I wanted to do, when I wanted to do it. So naive. God, in His amazing providence, put people in my life - Christians in my life - to draw me back to Him. After speaking with them about their beliefs and their book, I realized I had it SOO wrong. I spent about a month studying - just to make sure it was all legit - and was amazed at what I saw. Before now, reading the Bible was boring and blasse, now things were leaping off the pages at me. It actually made sense!!



So on that drive home, on the day our country celebrates love, I found out what true Love is.

"Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not
love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing . And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing. Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; 5does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails . "1 Corinthians 13:1-8

May you all come to know true Love.

Confessions of a Couponaholic

I've been cutting (and using) coupons a lot more recently in an effort to save more money for our move in the next few months and this could get addicting! I would always look for sales for things we buy, but wouldn't use a whole lot of coupons. Well, after talking to an amazingly organized and resourceful friend, I have reorganized my shopping strategy. Clipping coupons for items that I know will go on BOGO soon at Publix, going to brand name websites to search for coupons there, and scouring my parent's Sunday paper for additional coupons (we don't buy the paper, thankfully they do). Sometimes my efforts only unearth one or two coupons, sometimes I find 25 coupons that don't expire for another month. I'm having a lot of fun with this!

My most favorite find this weekend was at Kohl's. We have a lot of little kitchen and household items that we need, so we've made a list, allotted some money to use each month, and are searching for sales. Kohl's had their entire section of kitchenware on sale this weekend. I had $10 Kohl's cash from a previous purchase (Pyrex kitchenware that was 60% off with coupons, sales, and mail-in-rebates), and received another $5 in e-mail. I was able to get a very nice bamboo wooden spoon and a very sturdy (and very cool looking) measuring cup set for FREE!! I actually still have $1.98, but it expires today and I don't forsee using it. My adrenaline is pumping.

I'm trying to instill in the girls the importance of finding the best deal (but not spending hours upon hours of looking). Right now they're learning about comparing "price per ounce" on grocery items and comparing prices for namebrand and generic items (we buy about 90% generic items at our house - the 10% namebrand are either onsale or I had coupons for). It's made a little adventure when we head down certain aisles like the cereal aisle. They have a game where they find the cheapest price per ounce cereal. Sometimes they are surprised at which ones are cheapeast!

If anyone has any coupon clipping ideas they'd like to share, feel free to do so - I could use any and all suggestions!

The Budding Writer

As Doodle as progressed into writing more "stories", her writing style is beaming with 7-year-oldness and it's just awesome! Last week she and Lulu spent an entire week learning about Coral Reefs. So this week I let them make up their very own coral reef animals and they did a pretty good job. Lulu created an eel that curls up like a snail, and it's name is Eelya. :) Doodle created a fish called a Nailfish. Turns out, its predator is the Scalloped Hammerhead Shark. The shark tries to hammer the nead into the Woodfish (it's true, she even called Uncle Bobby to tell him all about it). What imagination!! She had to write a story about her fish last night, as if she herself were the creature. She surpassed my expectations. Aside from forgetting to capitalize I a few times and mispelling some words, her story is fabulous! Can't wait to have her write more.

To accompany her story, both girls got to make awesome stained-glass art of their animals. We took black construction paper, drew on their animals and habitats with a pencil, then went over the pencil with glue. We let the glue set over night then brought out Doodle's oil pastels (only, I can't call them "Oil Pastels" because Lulu says that word "pastel" sounds weird... so we can only call them oils..). The girls colored around their lined creations and added some extra dazzle to their pictures (Doodle said that the Nailfish lays 500 eggs at one time, similar to the Clownfish who lays 400 at a time.. so she decided to draw about 100 beautifully colorful fish below her nailfish). They turned out great! I'll have to take some pictures and upload them on here for you to see.

We talked a little bit about how much fun it was to create your own animal, what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, etc. And we came to the conclusion that God must've had an awesome time creating all of His creation - hopping toads, flying birds, fish the size of an airplane. The Bible tells us that He frequently looked at His creation and said "It is good."