Give thanks!

Looking back on the week, I continue to have so much to be thankful for...

121. Warm stew from the crockpot after church
122. Sharing that stew with friends
123. A hubby who works so hard
124. Jobs for my hubby that he loves to do!
125. I get to stay home with my girls...all day, EVERY day!

126. Warm weather
127. A break in the rain
128. Being able to take a walk and enjoy some fresh air every day
129. Sun breaking through the clouds
130. Working outside in the yard

131. Getting a compost bin started
132. Coloring with my Hannah girl
133. Hugs and kisses from Ellie...she is such a little lover
134. Bedtime stories
135. Reading a good book...so good I can't put it down and end up staying up way too late!

136. Having more fun with my camera
137. Going out to lunch to eat Korean food for the first time...YUM!
138. Gentle rain to water the earth
139. Snuggling back under the covers and sleeping a little longer on a Sunday morning
140. Being able to read my Bible everyday

141. Getting to see my hubby in a suit for the first time!
142. Starting a yoga challenge, with friends to keep me accountable
143. Feeling energized after yoga
144. A nap on the couch
145. Laughing with my dad

"As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him: rooted and built up in Him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving."
Colossians 2:6-7

Frugal Friday: Baking Soda

Baking soda is very affordable and very useful in so many different ways. Of course, we all know about using baking soda in...well, baking. But did you know you can use it in place of shampoo? Or for facial exfoliating?
Here are some of the ways I use baking soda in our home.

1. Cleaning: Baking soda works very effectively as a cleaning agent. I use it to scrub pots and pans in the kitchen and to make my sink shine. In the bathroom, I use it to scrub the grime out of the bathtub. In the natural cleaning book, Clean House, Clean Planet by Karen Logan, there are recipes for making scrubs using baking soda and essential oils and other things. I have made a batch or two but, then when it runs out I never take time to make more so just sprinkle on some plain baking soda. That just works best for me right now. I do enjoy the recipes though and it is fun to have a nicely scented baking soda scrub.

2. Facial scrub: Use a little baking soda and enough water to make a paste. Gentle rub on your face and rinse with warm water. Do this a couple of times a week to keep your skin looking fresh. I have done this for a while now and love the way my skin feels afterward.

3. Shampoo: This is one that I just tried for the first time last week. I was kind of skeptical, but thought I would give it a try. (You can read about it over at passionatehomemaking.com). It works amazingly well. Be warned it does not work at all like shampoo. No rich lather or anything. But it does clean your hair. I follow with an apple cider vinegar rinse that leaves my hair feeling soft and silky. The vinegar smell seems to go away after it dries.

4. Toothpaste: Wet your toothbrush and dip into a dish of baking soda. I also like to add a drop of tea tree oil. My mouth feels so fresh and clean after brushing with this method. I don't use this everyday because it seems like I read somewhere that you shouldn't use baking soda everyday on your teeth (???). I need to do some more reading to find out about that and if it's true.

5. Deodorant: Using a mixture of coconut oil, cornstarch and baking soda makes a cheap, effective deodorant.(Another thing that I read about at passionatehomemaking.com- One of my favorite blogs!)

Anyway, these are just a few ways you can use baking soda. If you have other ways that you use baking soda I'd love to hear about them!

Composting

Today is the day. I've been planning on making some sort of a compost system ever since we moved into our house (which was about 2 1/2 years ago!), and it just keeps getting pushed aside. But not anymore! I now have a nice compost barrel in the back yard. Yippee!
I have looked at all the different plans and ways to do composting both online and in the composting book I have (The Rodale Book of Composting). I think that may have been part of the problem. There were just so many ways to do it. So many ideas. What were our needs? How much space do we have? Do we want a 3-bin system? Or a tumbler? Wood? Or cement blocks? Ack!

Finally, the other day, I was skimming through the book again and happened upon the Garbage Can Composter. Why hadn't I seen this before? To be honest, I am sure I have, but in my perfectionism probably overlooked it thinking, "If we are going to compost we are going to do it RIGHT! We need to build bins! A garbage can is too...simple."
Well, yes, a garbage can composter is very simple. But guess what? It still makes compost! And simple, it turns out, is just what I needed. I needed that first small step to cross the thresh hold into the composting world. I finally realized that if I was ever going to have a composter that I needed to start somewhere.
So, today was the day. I picked up the drill and made holes all over my lovely new garbage can. Then dumped in a little bit of soil, some yucky kitchen scraps and some leaves. And hopefully in a few months we'll have some rich, black gold for our garden if all goes well. And if not, I am sure there will still be something we can learn from it all and try again.

My lovely garbage can composter!

Photos and gratitude list continued

(January 8th)

I thought I would combine posting my photos for this week with sharing some more of my gratitude list. So here it continues...

101. A wonderful Christmas spent with family
102. The wonderful gift of Jesus!
103. Joy and delight on my children's faces
104. Spending New Year's day with friends that are like family

(January 7th)

105. Fresh starts, new beginnings
106. The promise of a new year
107. New opportunities
108. New friends

(January 6th)

109. New things to learn
110. My wonderful hubby who works so hard to take care of us

(January 5th)

111. A happy, warm home
112. Comfy shoes
113. Frost on the windows
114. Sunshiney days in between days of rain

(January 4th)

115. Learning more about my camera
116. Getting a good deal at the store
117. Green tea ginger ale
118. Curling up in bed with a good book before going to sleep at night
119. Getting out for a run...invigorating!
120. A new week to discover more of God's abundant blessings!

"And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to the which also ye were called in one body; and be ye THANKFUL." Colossians 3:15

Happy New Year!!!

(January 3rd)

Happy New Year, everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful, blessed Christmas season, and that you've had a great start to the new year! We had a wonderful time with Matt's family. We spent about a day and a half with them over Christmas and had such a great time celebrating Jesus together and enjoying some relaxing family time.
I just still can't quite wrap my mind around the fact that it is 2011. Where did 2010 go? At any rate, though, it is exciting to be starting a new year. I don't really make resolutions because well, they usually go out the window after the first week or so. But I am working this week on setting some goals...realistic goals...and also just evaluating my life and how I can be more intentional...in my spiritual walk, as a wife, as a mother, and just as me! There is so much I want to accomplish but over the years I have been terrible about actually making a plan about how to actually accomplish those things.
One of the things that I have been wanting to do for years is to learn photography. It is now becoming more of a reality now that I got my new camera a few months ago. But just because I have the camera doesn't mean I am instantly going to gain all this knowledge about photography. I came across a neat website a few weeks ago about taking a picture every day for an entire year as sort of a visual journal of your year but also as a way to improve your photography skills. I thought what better way to make myself really get to know my camera than by using it everyday! So I am setting the goal of taking one picture (or more, of course) a day for the year 2011. It sounds kind of overwhelming a little bit when you think of 365 days, but......that is why I am posting on here. As a way to keep me accountable. Now you know, and all my Facebook friends know, so I will be much more likely to stick with it to have some accountability. I won't be posting every day on my blog (time with my family is more important than always being online), but I will try to post pictures at least once a week, so you can see that, indeed, I am taking a picture everyday. And if you notice that I am slacking, please don't hesistate to say something. Really. :)
So, with that I give you the first few pictures from this year. I am signing off for now to go accomplish some other things. My time limit is up for blogging tonight.
Thank you to each of you for reading my blog and thank you for keeping me accountable on this! You are awesome! Praying the rest of your first week of 2011 is blessed!

(January 2nd)

(January 1st- Happy New Year!)

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your path." Proverbs 3:5-6

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from our home to yours! We pray you all have a blessed Christmas celebrating the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ! And may your new year be filled with the love, joy and peace that can only come from Jesus! He is the best gift!

Love,
Matt, Amber, James, Hannah and Ellie

"For God so loved the World that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." John 3:16

"Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows." James 1:17

"Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord." Luke 2:11

JOY TO THE WORLD!!!

Champions!

I was looking back over my blog and realized I hadn't posted much about James in a long time. It was definitely time to write something, and his football season is certainly something worth writing about!
He had an AWESOME first season playing football. It was a huge time commitment with practices 3-5 days a week at 2-3 hours a day, plus games on Saturdays. And it started in July and didn't end till the middle of November. Whew! But it was so worth it! James enjoyed every minute is already looking forward to next season!
The 5th/6th grade team he was on had super coaches who really knew what they were doing. Most of the other kids had been playing since 3rd grade (which is as early as they can play), so James was the new guy, but he jumped right in and worked hard and made starting positions almost every game. He mostly played on defense (I can't remember the exact position name since I am not a football expert), but he did have the opportunity to learn some other positions on offense as well.

It was such a great experience for him and we are thankful we finally signed him up this year. And the highlight of it all was that his team went undefeated and won the championship!

We are so proud of how hard he worked and the enthusiasm and good attitude he had about it all. Even Ellie and Hannah had so much fun cheering him on at the games. Can't wait for next year!

Snow!

We had snow here the other night! Yes, it wasn't very much, but since we don't get much snow here, it is a BIG deal when it does snow. The kids were so excited! We were all wishing it had snowed more. But we enjoyed it just the same. :)

So much to be thankful for...

81. Flipping the switch and having light.
82. Having kids who are willing to give and share with others.
83. Golden leaves covering the ground
84. A wonderful evening out with old friends
85. A super friend who was willing to watch the kids so I could go out
86. New friends
87. Knitting with friends
88. Getting a super awesome deal on some beautiful yarn
89. Elderberry syrup
90. Big hugs from my girls
91. Having one on one time with each of my kids
92. Cupcakes
93. Reading my Bible in the early morning
94. Watching Hannah enjoy her dance class
95. Cheese
96. My wonderful hubby who works so hard
97. Skype
98. My warm, comfy bed
99. The freedom to go to church and worship on Sunday
100. Silly faces

"Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised." Psalm 48:1

Frugal Friday

Good morning! I hope you all have had a wonderful week! We have enjoyed some lovely November weather here in the Pacific Northwest.
I just wanted to share really quick with you about a new website that I came across by recommendation from a friend.

It is... http://www.ebates.com/

With ebates.com you earn a certain percentage back on your online purchases if you start at their site and click onto your favorite online shopping places. They have hundreds and hundreds of stores on their site, from Home Depot to Target to Diapers.com. In addition to earning cash back, they also have many coupons for each site as well that give you more discounts.
I have just recently started using ebates.com and so far I have been very impressed with it. I know it might not be for everyone, but I for one love the idea. Especially since I have been doing more of my shopping online to save time in our busy schedule.
If you'd like to check it out, please use this referral link, and we will both get $5 bonus when you make your first purchase!

http://www.ebates.com/rf.do?referrerid=RmULkb80ki3iq1krWVYxyA%3D%3D