Trying something new!

With some encouragement from family, I have signed up with some advertising associates programs. 
What this means, is that I will occassionally include links in my posts to various products that I really like.  Some of them may even be offering a super great deal at the time.  Should you click through the link and share my interest and purchase the same product, I may earn advertising fees as a result of your purchase.

Amazon and SwagBucks !

I am so stinking excited.  Christmas shopping is starting around here.
I was reading my email and learned that Amazon had the Pink Lego Bricks on sale for $15.




We happen to have a very creative princess.  She wanted some pink lego bricks for her birthday.  BigODaddyO didn't believe she would really get into them. But there was an Auntie willing to take the chance.  She doesn't create as much lately cause her hands are busy knitting.  A whole other story there.  One that includes 26 hats and 26 scarves, all before Christmas.  But I think after Christmas she just might want a break from knitting for a while!!!
 
Then I checked my swagbuck gift cards for Amazon and I had enough accumulated to only have to pay tax on these beauties! !
Hush all you readers.  No telling my secrets. :) 
If you are not using Swagbucks to do your online searching, you really should give it a try.  If you fill so inclined, please sign up under me, by clicking on the link below.  I get matching Swagbucks up to your first 1000. 

Many things to post and share

But since I use this blog to help capture moments.  Store them away for another day when I am asked, "Do you remember..??" or just when I need to remember the good, the silly and the precious. 
Tonight, I just want to remember taking the kids to the Christian book store.  I don't do it often.  Shopping, aka browsing in my world, isn't easy with children in tow.  But tonight we were waiting and 1/2 hour to go till sis was done and ready to be picked up.  After explanations that this was a Bible study, Sunday School, Homeschool kind of store, we browsed.  Lots of treasures were found.  But as I perused the card section with one of the children, desperately hoping we could find the right card we came across a twirling tower.  Little business card sized sentiments written out and my dear son, who has been struggling something fierce, found one and asked my help with a word.  "God has a place for me in his heart."  He looked up at me as we walked and asked, "Does God have a place in his heart for me?"  Fighting tears with all my might, I reassured him that yes, God has a place in His heart for him.  He loves him very much and Jesus died for him too.  Right there in the middle of the store, God reminded this broken hearted momma, reassured a scared little boy that there was a place in  His heart just for us, warts and all.  We never found the card we started looking for, just this little 15 cent card that represented hope and love to my boy.  But it was the best 15 cents I ever spent cause he could always carry it with him and look at it whenever he needed to remember, there is a place in God's heart just for him. 
That would have been enough, but then we found the poster he asked for in therapy today, one that will help him in communication.  Then we found clear, blue overlays for one of the sisters.  The colored transparencies help filter light that interferes with her being able to see well when reading.  Her reading is greatly improved when using her transparencies.  Except, the ones she has are 8.5 x 11 and not convenient.  These were bookmark size!  Perfect for stowing in her bible, school books and as a book mark in her leisure reading books.  Her smile was from ear to ear! 
My couponing, frugal self was extremely blessed because all of it cost us not a penny.  I had a gift card in my wallet from several years back.  A service gift from church.  Tucked in my wallet, forgotten about until a month ago.  Cleaning out my wallet, I pulled all the forgotten gift cards and tucked them in the cup holder of the car.  A constant reminder that I have them.  Guess what?  I have now successfully managed to use all but a couple.  The couple I have left, I think are empty.  They are just waiting for me to double check at the store.  What a sweet hug ang kiss from my Heavenly Father tonight.

Another Birthday coming up...

And it will belong to Hockey Player.  What does he want for his birthday? To play golf with his dad and the other men in his life.  A white cake with blue frosting.  To go out to dinner...where?? Golden Corral or  Ryan's.  Both are buffets.  Both options mean he will not leave with a spare spot in his being still feeling empty.  It is not unusual for the kids to go scavenging off of another's plate.  We rarely have leftovers.  But there are always a couple of family members not all that hungry and willing to share what is left on their plate.  All I can think is he is becoming another hard to shop for man in my life....  He is a young man, so he does like his Itunes, technology and games.  Of course, he likes hockey and golf.  None of which are on the slighly less expensive end of the shopping ideas!    At least I have his younger brothers. 

Just another week out of 52 a year....

Not a lot of extraordinary going on here.  Trying to desperately slip into a routine, we keep adding a bit more each week.  But I guess that is life, very little is consistent except for the need to eat, sleep, drink and go to the bathroom.  :)    AND there is alot of that happening around here! 
Fun Mom has chosen swimming laps over running with her dad and brother.  She is up to a mile at a time.  Her current goal is to swim that mile in a 1/2 hour.  Her school work is going smoothly.
 Hockey is trying to get back into a full time calendar filler upper !  We have added Boy Scouts this year.  It looks like maybe some horse back riding and volleyball throughout the year. 
I am teaching high school English this year.  OH MY !  is all I can say.  Due in 3 days for me...15 vocabulary terms defined so I can grade their tests...these are Grandpa's vocab words and they are expanding my vocabulary.  The first 3 chapters of To Kill a Mockingbird so I will be able to tell if they are answering correctly in the discussion.
Grandpa (my dad) is out of the hospital and doing great, all things considered!  Hoping we can work out a trip with him this year.  His emphysema and COPD is starting to really challenge him.  My father-in-law has been on the golf course a couple of times.  Not playing a full 9 holes yet, but able to hit the ball around.  Which is absolutely wonderful after the roller coaster we all went on after his surgery this past February.  My mom and dad-inlaw (don't like the term stepdad...so this is our name) are doing well.  School is back in session for them and keeping them busy.
Little Princess and Hockey Player are being very reliable in their school work and chores.  A huge blessing.
Daddy's Buddy is getting down with it with school as well.  His reading ability blows my mind away.  He caught me the other day and started to read the newspaper to me.  An article on a cattle drive going through Kansas.  WOW.  Flutter Nutter, who needs a new nickname cause he is getting bigger, has started Kindergartner and Sparks.  he knows a lot and just gets after it. 
Little Princess taught Flutter Nutter to ride his bicycle this week..no training wheels.  Dad and Hockey Player and Fun Mom were at the gym.  Little Princess told Flutter Nutter, this is it, you are going to ride this thing.  HE DID !
Another week, another Saturday.  Laundry in process, bathrooms need cleaning....

Tears

It has been a teary week.   First it started with realizing this would be Hockey Player's final official year of Awana.  Should he finish his book this year, he will earn his Timothy Award.  That took me down memory lane.  Cause with our club, they always ask parents what they will remember  most.  I can't help but remember Fun Mom's Timothy Award. 
These two kiddos are intrinsically "tied" together when it comes to Awana.  Cubbies came into our life as an answer to desperate momma prayers.  I wanted something to help me teach my sweet toddler "Fun Mom" about Jesus.  Pregnant with Hockey Player, my then 3 year old Fun Mom started going to Cubbies.  Beginning my journey of learning how to sit, walk, and live my life while teaching these precious children about God.  I had no idea, that a month into her first year of Cubbies, I would be laying in a hospital room in organ failure with dangerously high blood pressure, scared doctors and being induced. I was actually admitted, shortly after taking her to Awana.  I thought I was just going to get checked and sent home.  I wasn't scared when they told me I needed to be induced.  All I could think on was the Bible verses I had been helping my little Cubbie to memorize.... "All have sinned.."  "While we were sinners, Christ died for us..."   "God loved us and sent his son..."   I was asked once by my dear sister how it was I had the presence of mind to quote scripture at a time like that.  I had no real answer for her.  Many years later and many more life experiences later, my answer would be different....practice.  When I spend my time focused on God's Word, it is only natural it comes to mind when times are desperate.  Not that I can honestly say, I have done it "right" all these years since.  I have had my times of distraction, to only realize how distracted I have become because when I am desperate again and there are cobwebs where there should not be.  A reminder for why we are encouraged by God's Word to not grow weary in doing what we know is right (Gal. 6:9).

So as I dwell on my second's growing up and the faithfulness of God in his life, my littlest is starting kindergarten at home.  He graduated Cubbies last year and is starting in Sparks.  So ever glad, I am not sending him off on a bus.  I think it would be even harder on this momma .  My littlest girl turned 10.  She will, hopefully, be trying to earn her Timothy Award next year.  Daddy's Buddy is graduating Sparks this year.  So many milestones, so many reflections. 

A blessed reunion with extended family this weekend. Only six of the "greats" (3 + spouses) are still around.  God showed me how very much I am loved by my extended family.  Something I have known, but I saw it with my heart this weekend.  Made me a bit weepier.  With a childhood torn apart by divorce and lies of this world I sometimes can get lost in bad memories and then God so gently reminds me of the good memories and blesses me with the many grandparently hugs I have been missing for so many years.  I have a place where I belong. 

Then a phone call from my dad. 
My heart tells me maybe I shouldn't put off for another year what can be done now.  It is time for some more memory making. 
Tears, a little heart wrenching at times, soothing at others, joyful still.  But never unnoticed by my Heavenly Father.  May I always rest in the palms of His hands.

How it is....according to Flutter Nutter

Little Princess just celebrated double digits.  We had been chatting for a month about the big event.  Hockey Player's birthday is exactly a month later and it is now his turn to share his ideas and chat about his birthday.  (I have a 30 day rule, because of this 1 month spread.  They can start sharing and giving me their ideas for their birthday starting a month before.  Otherwise I become overwhelmed.)  But, when you are the little brother and you are 5 1/2 it seems like forever before your birthday.  Especially, when the list goes like this...Little Princess, Hockey Player, Mom, Thanksgiving, and then you! Then Christmas comes right after.  No spreading it out through the year. 
So a couple of days ago, Flutter Nutter wanted to talk about his birthday.  But it isn't his turn I very gently tell him.
His response, "But I have sooo many ideas!"  in the sweetest, non-whining voice.
Hockey Player isn't in the car.  I cave, cause who can argue with "I have sooo many ideas."
His first idea... a cake with icing grass, a house, trees and flowers.  When I repeated back what he said but in reverse order...flowers, trees, house, and grass,  I was immediately corrected.  Cause you have to get the order right when frosting a cake.  Otherwise, the grass is on the house and that would be silly and he doesn't want  a "tree house".
Love this boy.  I am not looking forward to his next birthday.  I like him this age. :)