Wonderful Photos!

I have been getting some really great shots lately and  I just wanted to share them with all of you! So have a look, enjoy and don't forget to leave me some comment love and share with your friends!

Later,

Erin 

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2015? Already?!

Where has the time gone? It feels like just a few years ago it was 2005. Back in 2005, I was a newly wed, 6 months pregnant and had a 3 1/2 year old. Wow! What a difference 10 years makes!! Now here I am a separated, tubes tied, mother of 3 boys, ages 13 1/2, 9 and almost 15 months.

It amazes me at the changes in me as well. My patience hasn't gotten much better, I'm sad to say. As for my anxiety, that I do have better control of it...well, most days. By no means am I where I want or need to be, but as the song from my childhood says 'Kids under construction... The Lord might not be finished yet'.

I pray that as we venture into this new year, that we achieve the goals we have set for ourselves. As I previously posted, I have set for myself 3 resolutions. 

1. To stop all the yelling

2. To have daily quiet time with God

3. To take at least one photograph, every day for the next year.

I have already shared these in detail with you guys. To read that post click HERE!

Well you guys, I leave you with this little doodle that I have created in the front of my new Bullet Journal. Be on the look out in the next month for a post about Bullet Journals.

Later,

Erin

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In the Midst of Laundry

Somewhere there is peace to be had. I am desperately seeking peace. God finds us in the strangest places and in the midst of my laundry, is where He finds me. It feels like the laundry around here is never ending. So when I actually have time to sit and fold it, I feel relief and peace. It sounds strange, I know. But when you have 3 little boys, you find peace where you can.

My life over this past week has been so busy! It is often hard to find that time to sit and be still.
But I have come to find that it doesn't matter what your doing, You just have to be still in your spirit and listen. What does it mean to be still in spirit? It means to quite that never ending list of chores to do that you run down in your head. To stop playing a running dialogue inside. Be quiet. Trust me, I know how hard it is. When my mouth isn't running, my inside voice is still going.

Don't get me wrong. It is still very important to find daily time to spend with God. There is nothing as peaceful as sitting in a quiet space with your Bible and the Holy Spirit. I'm ashamed to say that, other than Saturday and Sunday, I did not take the time last week to be with God. Because of that, my week felt chaotic.

It is only Tuesday, so this week still has a chance! Will you pray with me for peace this week? Let us keep our daily time with God a priority. Find time for Him. Even if it is only 10 minutes while the baby sleeps. Find time for God and it will make all the difference.

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2 Unique Activities to do with your kids this Thanksgiving

With Thanksgiving less then a week away, I thought I would share a few unique activities with you, that I have created. Not only will you leave the post with instructions and printouts. But you will also leave feeling more thankful than when you came.

Thankful Leaves

Last year I came up with a great idea. I made 2 leaf templates and had the kids help me trace them onto construction paper. Here is the free printable template for the Thankful Leaves. We then cut them out and laid them in a basket with a roll of tape and a few pens. Each time we felt thankful for something we have, we took a leaf, wrote what we were thankful for and taped it on the front door. We will be doing this again this year. I didn't have construction paper, so I used decorative paper. I think they came out so pretty!

Thankful Leaves are a wonderful way to remind your children and yourself of all the little things we have to be thankful for. So many of us take for granted the little things. These leaves help bring thankfulness back to our hearts.

 Psalms 105:1 O give thanks unto the Lord; call upon his name: make known his deeds among the people.

Helping Hand Bag

My children and I like to make these bags whenever we can and keep them in the car. Part of being thankful for what you have is also sharing with others. We take just brown paper lunch bags and decorate them. Just sit down with some crayons or markers and draw away. Put a bible verse on the front or something simple like a smiley face. Then we like to fill them with a few goodies. Usually we put a bottle of water, a granola bar, maybe a piece of candy and then a handwritten note. We want the people that we give these bags to, to know that they are special and loved. We hope our little Helping Hands Bags lift the receivers spirit and spread the love of Jesus Christ. 

Here is a poem that I wrote that you can print and put inside your bags if you would like.

1 John 3:17-18 ESV 

But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.

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Mid-Week Chat 10/29/14

I hope everyone enjoyed their weekend and are having a good week. My kids had a 3 day weekend due to a teacher work day. To kick off the weekend, we attended a school, movie night event! It was great! It was held outside and they showed the movie on a portable stage with a screen. This thing was really cool!! One of the local Churches lets the school use it for events such as that. 

Because the event started at 6pm, we brought food with us. Little Caesar's has $5 pizzas, so we got 2. I also popped popcorn at home and brought that. We packed up soda and lots of blankets. It was so cold and we were very grateful for the blankets.

The movie was Soul Surfer. I don't know if you have ever watched that movie, but I HIGHLY recommend watching it! It is about Bethany Hamilton, a pro surfer with one arm. The movie lays out for you all about how she lost her arm and her amazing faith in God. This movie is very inspiring and entertaining. No bad words, no sex, just a good movie.

Saturday we celebrated my youngest son's 1st birthday! It had bumpy start but over all, it went really well. We had it outside with close friends and family. Here are a few pictures for you to enjoy!

Sunday the kiddos and I went to church and the baby stayed in the nursery the WHOLE time! He hardly ever does that. I guess he is getting better at being away from mommy. 

After church was Neighborhood Groups (small groups). We talked about the sermon from that morning and fellowshiped with one another. The sermon from that morning can be heard hear Wendover Hills - Honoring your mother and father. 

While listening to the sermon a few things stuck out to me. Without following the first 4 commandments, you can't expect good results in getting your kids to follow the 5th commandment which is Honor your father and mother. I never really thought about that. I have since taken the time to sit back and look at how well I obey the first 4 commandments.

The first 4 commandments are as follows:

1. You shall have no other gods before Me.
2. You shall not make idols.
3. You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain.
4. Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.

I don't worship anyone but God. So I'm good there. I don't have idols. No golden calves hiding around my house. Taking the Lord's name in vain. . . That answer was a tough pill to swallow. We had talked about that 2 weeks ago in Neighborhood Groups. How it is all too easy to take God's name in vain and not even realize it. How many times do I say "Thank the Lord!" and I'm not really thanking him. Or how about "OMG!". How many of us use that one. I don't use OMG, but I do say "Thank the Lord" without even really meaning it. Like "Thank the Lord I was able to find my keys." Do I really mean that? No I was just saying it. I found that to be depressing.

So what my pastor was saying, is that If we follow the first 4 commandments with all our hearts and to the best of our abilities, our children will follow right along into #5. 
Honoring your parents is a whole lot easier if your parents are following God.

Monday we had fun with Jelly Belly Bean Boozled Beans. Click here to watch the videos on my Youtube Channel. Don't forget to thumbs up my video and leave me a comment.

Yesterday I visited a local scrapbooking store and got some really pretty stamps. I also bought some new paper and embossing glitter. I created a card with 2 of my new stamps. If you wanna see, just click here to see my post about it. I'm really happy how it turned out. 

Well, that's about it folks. I hope I didn't bore ya. Talk to ya next week!

Later,
Erin

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Teaching Responsibility to your kids and . . . the positive results

I am the proud mother of 3 boys! They are ages 1, 9 and 13. With my oldest 2 children, I'm always looking for ways to teach them. There is so many things in life to learn and I want to be the one to teach them certain things. I enjoy teaching my kids!

Responsibility is a very important thing that I teach my children. It is isn't just about taking care of chores and homework. It is also about owning up when your wrong and helping others. Webster says that being responsible is being accountable for your actions and duties, being able to tell right from wrong and being dependable and reliable. 

From a young age, I teach my children how to be responsible. By teaching and by showing them with my day to day activities and actions. As much a chores are a big part of it, a larger part is being a upstanding and caring person. Allowing my children see me caring for my husband's needs and others needs before mine really helps them understand what it means to be humble and caring.

I teach my children the importance of keeping your word. When you say that you will or won't do something, you stick to it. If you fail to keep your commitment, own up to it. Don't try to excuse it away or blame someone or something else. We all make mistakes but it is extremely important that you try your hardest not to break your word.

Chores are important for many reasons. It not only teaches you life skills, it gives you strength to stand on your own. When my kids become adults and get married, I want them to get married for love. I don't want them to get married just so they can have someone to take care of them. That is a burden that is hard on both parties. So when my children start walking, I start teaching. I teach them to pick up their toys, throw away trash and how to put clothes in the hamper. By the time my children are 6 years old, I have taught them how to do most household chores and lots of life skills.

Now that my oldest son, Allen is 13, I have started giving him more opportunities for new responsibilities. I have found that with this new venture, my son has become even more responsible than I expected! 

Some of the things that I have done are: leaving his younger brothers in his care for short periods of time; asking him for his opinion with small purchases; having him help more with making meals and allowing him to be involved with setting and changing household rules.

Over the past 6 months or so, that I have been doing this, I have seen a large change in Allen. He is more willing to help when I ask. Also he volunteers to do things for me more often. I asked Allen for his opinion and here is what he had to say.

"It has helped me to feel like I have say on how things go in the house. It has helped me to be more confident in who I am and outgoing. Also it is teaching me to tackle obstacles with confidence."

So if you are having trouble with your child(ren) being responsible, try giving them more opportunity to show you just how responsible they can be. You just might be surprised at the results you get!

Later,

Erin

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**** Fun cards for little boys! ****

I have 2 sweet little boys in my life, that have birthdays this month. So I made them each a really cool card!

Without further ado.....

For this fun Batman card I used the following:

Grey/blue cardstock

Yellow computer paper

Black cardstock

Grey cardstock

black stickles

0.5 pen

3M tape gun

My 13 year old son, Allen, free hand drew the Batman symbol for me. 

I put it all together and this is what I got!

For the dump truck card I used:

Kraft cardstock

blue cardstock

Green cardstock

Black cardstock

Yellow printer paper

I free hand drew all the dump truck parts. My son Allen traced all the cut out pieces onto empty cereal type boxes and cut them out. This way I can use them again!

I cut it, glued it and Voila!

I think they came out so cute! I hope they really enjoy them!

What do you think? Do you ever make cards like these? Leave me a comment below.

Later,

Erin

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Mid-Week Chat

Hi there to all you wonderful people out there in the great beyond! This is my Mid-Week Chat. I plan on having one of these every week. So be looking for it.

So far this week my 2 oldest kids have started a new school year. My oldest son, Allen, is an 8th grader and my middle son, Zachariah is a 3rd grader. It wasn't really hard putting Zach on the bus, but when Allen got on that bus for the first time as an 8th grader, I had to keep from crying. It is hard to imagine my little boy is in his last year in middle school. Only 5 more years and he will graduate high school. It was also hard for me because I have been homeschooling Allen. So I am worried and scared of what the public school will hold for him this time around.

First 2 days went swimmingly for both older boys. But Benjamin on the other hand isn't dealing with it too well. He has been clingy and fussy for the past 2 days. Hopefully today will be better for him. It doesn't help that he is cutting a new tooth. Benny is so miserable when he is teething.

I work for Pizza Hut and work stuff is a little weird right now. We are opening a new location in town for my particular store. But it has been delayed. The really bad thing is that they had already started closing down the old store. So now we are part in one store and part in another. I am just thankful that all the customers I have encountered have been understanding. I work today, so I just hope it is the same today with people.

So now for just a little fun stuff. I am going to try my had at making a tutorial video sometime in the next week. So what do you think I should do? How to make paper medallions or butterfly embellishments? Leave me a comment and let me know.

Later,
Erin

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