Happy Feast Day to all of my Catholic friends out there!

If you have kids and have not yet checked out Lacy’s wonderful debut into downloadable coloring sheets with a coloring sheet for the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, please make sure to do so!

Feast of the Immaculate Conception is a post from: Many Little Blessings

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This weekend, I’ll be headed to my first craft show as a vendor in about two years.  I’m really excited, as I always enjoy getting a chance to talk to people and check out what other people are working on as well.

Now, mind you, but “really excited,” this does not mean the same thing as “I’m well prepared.”  I’ve definitely got some work ahead of me tomorrow.  If I wasn’t afraid that the kids would finger print the metallic prints like crazy, I would pay them to work for me tomorrow by packaging prints.

I’ll have to update you all next week about how it goes.

~ 2 ~

Today, I started reading the book The Nerdist Way: How to Reach the Next Level (in Real Life).  (I pre-ordered it for my Kindle, which makes a great Christmas present for someone, by the way.)  I’m not far into it yet (and warning – there is quite a bit of bad language in it, if that offends you), but I’m really enjoying it thus far.

Want to know one of my favorite things about this though?  Someone else bought the exact same book through my Amazon affiliate link.  I hadn’t linked to the book personally, so it’s just someone who was on my site and then ordered it.  Love it!

~ 3 ~

I have added quite a few new things to my Etsy shop lately:

As for Me and My House, We Will Serve the Lord (original painting)

Beautiful Abundance (collage on canvas)

If I loved you less, I might be able to talk about it more (original painting on canvas)

Do What You Love (original mixed media on canvas)

Lord, make me a living tabernacle (original painting on canvas)

The Peace of God - 8x10 print (available in multiple colors)

Nothing can separate us from the Love of God - 8x10 print (multiple colors)

~ 4 ~

On All Souls Day, I was able to go on a candle lit walk (while praying) with a few adults (including two of our priests) and a small group of children to a cemetery.  It was a really nice experience, and I think it was an excellent faith formation experience for the kids.  With it being a bit windy though, everyone’s candles kept blowing out.

In what is probably not surprising as a revelation, the children (fifth graders), obsessed about getting their candles re-lit.  You know, in such a compulsive manner where they would try to hold back the line trying to light their candle off another child’s candle.

~ 5 ~

Speaking of obsessive, I made a big mistake a couple of days ago.  Really, not as much a big mistake as a huge mistake that I should really know better because I know myself and my natural tendencies in life.

I played Angry Birds for the first time.  And the second time.  And the third time.  And the hundredth time.

In fact, earlier today when I was trying to write a post for The Homeschool Classroom (about the monthly stats because that’s how I roll), and I had my iPad sitting there with Angry Birds going.  I’m not proud of it, but it’s just the way I’m wired.  (I’m hoping that book in #2 helps me out though!)

~ 6 ~

Thanks so much to everyone who has taken the time to fill out my reader survey!  I have loved seeing the results thus far.  Plus, at least a couple of the open-ended answers actually made me tear up.  I might have to print out some of those for the next time I’m feeling down.

I would really love it if you could take a few minutes to fill out the reader survey (especially if you’re a subscriber, but even if you’re not).  All of the questions are optional, so you can take as little time or as much time as you want.

~ 7 ~

“You are far too smart to be the only thing standing in your way.” – Jennifer J. Freeman

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7 Quick Takes: November 4, 2011 (Vol. 102) is a post from: Many Little Blessings

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3. 7 Quick Takes: July 1, 2011 (Vol. 86) ~ 1 ~ When we went out of town recently...

The other night, we were talking with some friends and one of our priests.  I had shared that we have told the kids before that we don’t always want to correct them when they’re doing things that we feel are wrong, but that God gave us the job of raising them to be the kind of people that God wants them to be.

Our priest then chimed in, telling us and our friends who are all parents as well, that we shouldn’t ask our kids what they want to be when they grow up.  Instead, he suggested that we should word it by saying, “What do you think God wants you to be when you grow up?”

I thought that was fabulous advice, and something to definitely pray on.  As a matter of fact, I suspect that it’s something that we all need to constantly pray on ourselves.

What Does God Want You To Be? is a post from: Many Little Blessings

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Eric and I have decided that we should just have a personal chef come in and make us dinner everyday.  They would also have to plan the meals and shop for them too, of course.  We continued on with this line of talk for a while.

Finally, Molly said, “Back up!  Back up!”

As we all turned to her, she said, “Now first — how are we going to get rich?”

~ 2 ~

Have you ever read books by Kevin Henkes?  If you have kids, you should!

We haven’t read any in a while, but looking at my bookshelf makes me wistful for when I read lots of them to the kids in the library when I was the librarian media specialist at an elementary school.  Not that I wish I was back in the library, but it was fun to get to pick out some of my very favorite books to share with the kids.

Your library is sure to have some of his books, so go check them out.  Some of my favorites: Chrysanthemum, Lilly’s Purple Plastic Purse, Wemberly Worried, Chester’s Way, Owen, Julius the Baby of the World, and so many more.  (If you click through to Amazon, several of those are part of their 4-for-3 promotion, where you can get one free.)

~ 3 ~

This week, we started up on our writing curriculum that we are starting this year, Institute for Excellence in Writing.  It was so much more doable than I thought it was going to be, though the kids weren’t sure what they thought about spending so much time watching a DVD and writing.  This is definitely their weakest subject area though, so I’m excited for what this year will hold.

Oh, and on the up side of it all, the kids really seemed to like Andrew Pudewa (on the DVD).  I liked that it was him assigning writing and not me.

~ 4 ~

Another curriculum addition this week is that we started up our foreign language instruction.  Jack wanted to continue with French, while Noah wanted to begin Latin.  I moved Jack into the Switched on Schoolhouse Elementary French, and it seems pretty good.  I was surprised at all of the vocabulary that they threw out at him in the first lesson though.

Noah began with Prima Latina.  When I went to buy this at a homeschool conference, when the lady at the Memoria Press booth pressed me to find out what age child I would be doing it with, she then went on to argue with me that I needed to put him in a higher level.  I told her that I was aware of their recommendations, and that I knew my child and this was what was appropriate for him.  She then continued to argue with me about it.  I still bought the program, of course, but I made sure to buy it from another booth.

~ 5 ~

Although all of the changes to the Roman Missal are quite the discussion in the Catholic Church, I have to admit that I was totally clueless as to what the actual wording changes are.  Today, we got some information about it from our parish.  I am fairly certain that I am never going to be able to remember some of the changes.

Even though we’ve only been going to the Catholic Church for five years, many changes are to prayers that I have said my whole life (from when I was Episcopalian).  We did high five that one word in the Nicene Creed that continues to trip us up five years later is being changed to what we always want to say anyway.

~ 6 ~

I sometimes wonder how many Catholic converts have to chant in their heads, “Stop after you say evil.  Stop after you say evil.” while praying the Lord’s Prayer.  I kept thinking it was just me, but then it has come up a couple of times recently with other people, and they have to remind themselves too.

Old habits die hard, I guess.

~ 7 ~

I have added a bunch of things to Just a Tiny Owl lately, but I’ll just share a few:

She Cried Because Life is So Short (Mixed Media on Canvas)

I would have laughed in your face if you told me I would list anything that I drew. Seriously - right in your face.

Older piece, but totally new colors and size

Playing with Textures and Overlays. Cool, huh?

And, one thing I have worked on that isn’t on Etsy, as it’s a site design for CLP International, LLC:

This post is linked to 7 Quick Takes and Weekly Wrap Up.

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7 Quick Takes: September 9, 2011 (Vol. 96) is a post from: Many Little Blessings

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*Do you have a post about scheduling?  Make sure to share a link to it in the link up below!*

I’m sure that your schedule is a lot like my schedule — there never seems to be quite enough time. When I’m pressed for time, as I often am, one of the first things to go is cleaning my house finding time for the creative things I like to do.  (Sadly, that crossed out one is pretty high on the list too.  Shhhh…)

I have always loved having some creative thing to work on, even when I don’t find that time nearly often enough. Many times throughout the years, I’ve been in conversations with people where they’ll say something like, “Scrapbooking?  Oh, I don’t have time for that.”  But, scrapbooking (which I don’t really do anymore) can easily be replaced by many things — art, photography, writing.  And, for other people, it might include things like knitting, sewing, crochet, and so on.  I have found over the years, however, that people will find time for what is important to them.

If you never can find time for the creative endeavor that you want to be doing, you need to ask yourself — is it really and truly in your heart that you want to do it? If it is, then you need to find that time to do it.  If you can’t ever make yourself carve out that time, then maybe it’s just not something that you actually want to be doing.  If that’s the case, consider letting go of it.  (And then let go of the guilt that can sometimes come from not doing a creative thing that you enjoy, or once enjoyed.)

Why Finding Time for Creative Endeavors is Important to Me

I must first admit that I tend to be an all-or-nothing kind of person.  I have a natural bend to want to say, “If I can’t finish a whole project all at once, then I don’t want to do it at all.”  It’s that kind of attitude that had me creating no art from very end of April through the end of August this year.

Here’s the problem with that — not only did it make me sad and like I was missing a part of myself (a part I’ve only found in these last few years), but there was something else that I was missing.  You see, a friend of mine told me one day that she loved that I was living out my faith through my art.  This made a huge impression on me when she said that.  While not every piece is specifically religious in nature, I know that many of the things I work on try to focus on either the love of God, the beauty of life and the world, special relationships, and other things of a genuine nature.  I had never thought of that, however, until she said it.

To add to this, within a few short days of her saying that to me, I sat in Mass and during the homily, the priest talked about how God wants us to do the things that help us to live out our faith.  I felt like God was telling me that my art was, indeed, a thing that I needed to do to live out my faith life and to share it with others.

You can now imagine why it’s a real issue to me when I go long periods of time without doing anything — I have felt called to be doing it.  So, when I don’t do it, I feel like I’m telling God that I don’t think it’s important.

Now, you may not feel the same way about the creative things you do, but that doesn’t make that time any less important.  The things that you create are done because God gave you that special talent to do them.  (Or, maybe you’re not even very talented at what you do.  I work hard at my art — it is definitely not something that comes naturally.  But, that means that God gave you that drive to work hard at it.)

How I Find Time for My Creative Endeavors

I have finally realized that big blocks of time probably just aren’t going to be the kind of thing I normally can find.  While I do carve out more blocks of time for my writing, my art often doesn’t get that focus.  Maybe you don’t have tons of time to give your creative endeavors either.

Here are some things that I do to make time for my art that might be able to work for you with your favorite creative endeavor too:

1. Work on Small Amounts at a Time – A painting that I just finished the other day was done over the course of a couple of weeks.  As I said – I have to really work at what I do, so since the painting included a woman, I might sit down long enough just to draw and paint her lips.  Then, I would leave the painting until the next day when I worked on her hair.  Even with my all-or-nothing attitude, I have to admit that in those small chunks, I finished the painting.  If I had waited for enough time to work from beginning until end in one sitting, I wouldn’t have started it yet.

2. Creative Time as a Group Effort - While working on the painting I mentioned above, I had at least one day where I went to my itty bitty craft room to work, and I set up a chair for Molly to work too.  This way, I didn’t feel like I was neglecting my time as a Mom, but I was also working on my painting (while she worked on one too).  At one point, she turned to me with such love in her eyes and said, “I am really happy to be working on paintings with you.”

3. Creative Time During Other Activities – We’ve been listening to a book on tape the last few nights.  I told the kids that they could do some quiet activities during the book, or they may just sit and listen.  Two of the kids and myself all worked on sketch books.  I created a piece that I really loved (drawing is so totally not my thing), and it didn’t take any time away from anything else.  We had some wonderful evenings listening and quietly working.  It was such a blessing to all of us!

4. Schedule Time – If all else fails, block off some time every so often (whatever works with you schedule) to work on your creative projects.  In April, I was able to go on a weekend trip to a bed and breakfast with friends.  While they all scrapbooked, I brought along canvases and had a wonderful time.  Of course, it wouldn’t have to be a whole weekend.  Even a special hour would do!

The creative things that your heart yearns to do are important.  Don’t allow yourself to always push them aside in these busy lives we lead.  Take the time to slow down and create.

Several of my friends are sharing today about scheduling topics as well, please make sure to go check them out:

Jimmie’s Collage- Meal Planning for Well Ordered Days

Raising Arrows- How You Spend Your Time Matters

Adventures of a Somewhat Crunchy Mama – Chores ‘Round Here – The Teen Schedule

A Slob Comes Clean- When Life Happens and Your Schedule Stops Working

Finding Joy- The Flexible Schedule. It’s Possible.

Spell Outloud- Do Toddlers and Well-Ordered Days Mix?

Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers- Scheduling Time with Your Husband

Catholic Icing- Creating A Schedule Your Family Can Thrive On!

Get Along Home- How I Stopped Dithering and Learned to Love the Schedule

Do you have a wonderful scheduling post to share?  It doesn’t have to be new, maybe it’s an old favorite.  Be sure to link up here! (Your link will appear on each of the blogs listed above when you share your link on one of them.)

Finding Time for Creative Endeavors is a post from: Many Little Blessings

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1. Finding Joy :: Week 1 Last week, at long last, I introduced Finding Joy (check...
2. Finding Joy :: Week 2 Read more about my Finding Joy journey   Faith Life...
3. Finding Joy :: An Introduction I have thought quite a lot about starting another blog. ...

I mentioned briefly that we’ve been listening to The Magician’s Nephew by C.S. Lewis.  This has been a really wonderful experience for us (for a couple different reasons), as I’ll share more about later.

But, one of the things that cracked me up about the whole thing happened when we were in the van the other day.  We started talking about The Magician’s Nephew, as well as The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe (which Noah has been reading).

I asked them, “Who do you think Aslan represents?” when one child mentioned his willingness to die for his people.

Silence.

“C’mon,” I go on.  “Someone who was willing to lay down his life to save his people.”

“Jesus…” Jack said in a questioning tone.

“Yes, you’ll find that there are a lot of things in C.S. Lewis’ stories that mirror things in the Bible.”

Jack looked incredibly impressed and said, “Well, go C.S. Lewis,” just as though he had scored the winning goal of the game.

Jack Gives Mad Props to C.S. Lewis is a post from: Many Little Blessings

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Molly got a new Littlest Pet Shop Blythe doll this week.  She loved this one and declared that she looked very “country.”  But, then the poor doll had a problem, we later learned.  How did we find this out, you might ask?

Molly began performing a song (she loves making up songs) as the doll.  It seems that this poor girl (the doll) wants nothing more than to join a Country Club.  However, this is not the kind of country club you might be thinking of.  This is a club for people who are very “country.”

Molly’s song (on behalf of this doll) included lines such as “I’m just a little girl from South Illinois” and “When I was a little girl, I once wrestled a bear and won.”  There was also a back story about that this girl lived in the worst house on the block, that she had even paid to get into the “country” club, and then, mournfully, Molly would sing, “But they still don’t consider me country.”

Can I just say that that six year old girl is a hoot?  She can get cranky and difficult at times, but she is just something else.

~ 2 ~

After several days of the aforementioned mournful song, Molly ran up to me today to tell me that her doll was finally considered “country” and had made it into the club!  We all cheered.  It was a pretty exciting moment at our house!

~ 3 ~

We really, really need to start working more seriously on our 4H projects. We signed up for twice as many projects this year as last year, but I thought, “No big deal, because this year, I’m going to have us work on them during the school year.”  Yeah, that didn’t really happen much at all.

This week, so far, we’ve finished one of our books (for each boy) and got to add it to the stack of books we’ve finished our required activities from.  Noah also worked on his woodworking project with Eric.  This weekend, Eric will help Noah finish it, as well as work with Jack on his woodworking project.  Plus, I’m hoping to get a few more things done as well.

Wish us luck!

Do you have children involved in 4H?  How are their projects coming along?

~ 4 ~

Have you downloaded Finding Educational Activities in the Most Unexpected Places yet?  While it can be purchased here on the site, it is still free right now for Facebook fans of Many Little Blessings!  (It’s on the left sidebar under the “Free Ebook” tab.)

Go take a look, if you haven’t downloaded it yet.  I have had so much fun sharing it with people!  (I hadn’t been keeping track of the downloads, but Eric had me look today, and I found that it has been downloaded free more than 450 times.)

~ 5 ~

Am I the only one that didn’t know that you can add a + the end of bit.ly or goo.gl links (like you’re apt to find on Twitter) to get stats about how much they’ve been clicked on, etc.?  If I’m the only one, then why didn’t someone tell me before?

But, you know, if I’m not the only one that didn’t know that, and you didn’t know that, then consider yourself informed.  Then again, it might have been better if I didn’t know.  I love stats and trends.

~ 6 ~

Lots of little girls draw pictures of flowers and hearts.  And yes, my little girl draws pictures like that too.  Molly loves art.  But, today, she was very excited about the special picture that she wanted to draw for me.  She took her time and made me a picture that was well done enough that I was able to look at it and then say, “Are those turkey vultures circling in the sky there?”

“Yeah!  Just like when we saw them with Dad when we were driving,” she smiled.

I can safely say that it’s the first time I have been presented with a drawing of turkey vultures.

~ 7 ~

The latest quote that I can’t get out of my head (that happens with quotes sometimes, which is why I have to put them in paintings or digital work sometimes):

“You don’t have a soul.  You are a Soul.  You have a body.” ~ C.S. Lewis

This post is linked to 7 Quick Takes (at Betty Beguiles today) and Weekly Wrap Up.

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7 Quick Takes: June 24, 2011 (Vol. 85) is a post from: Many Little Blessings

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Last week, at long last, I introduced Finding Joy (check it out to read more about my motivation and what it’s all about).  The Twitter-ized version is that I am going to try to work on various areas of my life that I think will bring more joy into my life and help me to be more intentional about the way I am living.

Today, I’m going to share about some of the things I’m going to be working on.  I’m not going to be working all the time on all of them, but they’re just areas that I am working on and will check in about.

Faith Life

Any list like this would seem incomplete without striving to work toward a stronger faith life.  I’m starting out simply with trying to pray more.  I talk to God a lot throughout the day, but I know that I don’t spend enough one-on-one, purposeful time with Him.

My work on this during the past week has been less than stellar, since we had a busy week with time out of town and a couple of days of traveling.  It was nice to spend time with family though, and it always makes me feel like I’m a little closer to God when I’m with my family.  It’s like I’m just where He intends me to be.

Goal: Find at least one time each day to sit in purposeful prayer.  Not matter what amount of time it is.  I just must find that intentional time.

Health and Fitness

This is a really big need for me.  Since the beginning of May, I have lost 11 pounds.  But, half of that was in one week on a very, very low carb, very restricted diet that I did for three and a half weeks.  I finally realized that not only did it not seem sustainable to me, but it also was making each day feel like it was about 72 hours long.  (Oh, and then the extreme cost of it wasn’t nice either.)

So, on the upside, I have not gained back.  Yeah!  I would love to keep losing though.  (This is where I admit that I had some double stuffed Golden Oreos while I was writing this post.  What the heck?)

I have been beating myself up a long time about the weight stuff and have given up clothes buying because I didn’t feel like I should buy things until I lost weight (and I was at the point where I had very few things in my closet).  Just about a week ago though, I went clothes shopping.  I bought things that fit well and looked cute (and weren’t all black or brown).  I have had so many compliments in a short amount of time (especially people noticing weight loss that is probably partially just from well fitting clothes).

Goal: Exercise for at least 20 minutes on at least five days.  Eat more veggies!

Homemaking

I’m not afraid to invite someone over right now, so it’s not like it’s dirty.  But, it needs a serious cleaning.  This is one of those areas that I often lack in.  But, here’s the thing — I always notice that I feel like I’m in a better mood just after we clean the house.

On a different note, I have been on a serious menu planning rut.  We are deciding each night what to make that night (or we go get it from out).

Goals: Do a thorough house cleaning.  Plan our dinners for one week. (I can’t believe I used to manage to do a whole month with no problem.  What has happened since then?)

Time Management and Organization

We’re just going to leave this blank for now.  Although, Eric and I did have some great discussions about time management while driving on our trip.

One quick thing I’ve been trying, however, is that when I sit down to my email, I’m trying to do it when I have some time to actually answer emails.  Plus, I have been trying to deal with many emails as they come in, though I haven’t tackled all of what was already sitting in my inbox.  (This idea was in the Simple Blogging ebook.)

Goal: Will set a category specific goal later.

Creative Endeavors

Haven’t had time to work on art projects, though I did list a few new things in my Etsy shop.  (Though, of course, that doesn’t feel like a very creative thing to do.)

Goal: Pick one night each week to have as an Art Night.  Try to not work on any computer related tasks, unless they are creative endeavors instead of blogging or social endeavors.

Little Ways I Sought Out or Encouraged Joy This Week

• Let the kids test out whether the Robosapian could walk on the treadmill.  Hilarity ensues.
• Indulged the children in their quest to try out “big block” gum.  We then drove down a two lane state highway and spent time blowing bubbles.  We were sure to cheer for extra good bubbles.
• Had a Connect Four tournament right before bedtime one night.  Noah beat everyone.  He won $1.25 that I offered up as a prize.
• Molly and I got all gussied up for a trip to Walmart.  She wore a (faux) pearl necklace, and I wore a bracelet set that I got when I was clothes shopping

As promised to Carol last week in the comments, I am going to put a link up to this post, because she wanted to join in too.  I’m going to post Finding Joy each Wednesday night/Thursday morning.  So, even though I’m going to post this series just for me, if you want to work on intentionally finding joy or seeking out more joy, feel free to join in and link up.  (You can write up your post however you want.  You can follow my format, just type up a few things you did to add more joy to your life, or share it in whatever way you want.)  But, if it’s just me, that’s okay too!

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Finding Joy :: Week 1 is a post from: Many Little Blessings

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1. Finding Joy :: An Introduction I have thought quite a lot about starting another blog. ...

~ 1 ~

Next week, I am going to be co-hosting a Twitter party with Blogelina on the topic of Blogger Networking.  So, be sure to be on Twitter with the #blogelina hashtag next Thursday, June 23rd from 9 – 10 pm EST.  You need to make sure to RSVP (at the link), and during the party you could win one of six prizes: (1) migration from Blogger to WordPress by Blogelina and (5) One-year membership to Connections Network.

Hope to see you there!

~ 2 ~

Want to see what happens at our house when we decide to experiment with our new treadmill? (Link is  a 13 second video.)

IMG_0252

I have to say, hands down, this is one of those times when I was glad that I was being more of a Yes Mom.

~ 3 ~

This week, my two younger kids attended Vacation Bible School.  (This was the second year in a row that I didn’t volunteer, and I felt kind of bad about that.  We’ve made plans to make sure to go back to volunteering next year.)  My favorite part of VBS is watching all of the kids really get into the songs.  I just love seeing 150+ kids dancing and singing about Jesus.  (Truth be told – it kind of chokes me up.  I’m emotional like that.)

One of the days when I was walking up from the parking lot to get the kids, the weather was just beautiful.  I could hear the church bells playing and I could see through our social hall’s windows that the kids were all dancing.  I looked around and could see so many people that we’ve come to know and many who we’ve become good friends with since joining our church.  I couldn’t help but feel very blessed at that moment.  Even though it has been almost five years since we decided to convert and started attending our parish, I’m still often struck at just how happy I am that we did it.

~ 4 ~

Besides, if I hadn’t converted, I would have probably never met my friend Stephanie and had the urge to walk around saying, “WHAT WHAT!”

Isn’t it fun when you have friends that you can do things with that you just wouldn’t do around other people?  And then, as a double bonus – this amazing chick gets my boys to do all kinds of new experiences that they normally shy away from.  She seems to always know just the right thing to say to them to get them to do it, without ever pushing.

~ 5 ~

I’ve been a real menu planning rut lately.  Well, no.  That would seem to indicate that I’ve been menu planning and just been having the same things over and over.

Instead, let’s say that I’ve been stuck on menu planning lately.  Please help me get my act together.  What are some of your favorite things to add to your menu plan?

~ 6 ~

I find it incredibly hard to believe, but apparently a month from now, it will be my travel day back home from the Savvy Blogging Summit. I don’t really think I have anything to get ready, but I also feel very unprepared.  (Any of you also going to Savvy Blogging Summit?)

This also means that in a month, all of our 4-H projects will have been turned in.  We are so totally unprepared right now.

~ 7 ~

“Cast yourself into the arms of God and be very sure that if He wants anything of you, He will fit you for the work and give you strength.”
~ St. Philip Neri

This post is linked to 7 Quick Takes and Weekly Wrap Up.

7 Quick Takes: June 17, 2011 (Vol. 84) is a post from: Many Little Blessings

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a glimpse of some of the items we donated

During Lent, as you may remember, we limited the types of things that we could buy from the grocery store.  We didn’t actually end up saving much money (at all), but we ate a lot healthier (given what we were allowed to buy).  Still, I wanted to report back that we did hold up our end of the bargain of donating what we saved during Lent in our grocery budget or $100, whichever was more.

Well, first we actually did a serious clean out of our pantry.  We donated probably around $30 – $40 worth of groceries from there. This also made it much easier to see what we actually had that we would want to use.

Then, we talked to one of our priests after Mass one day and told him about what we had done during Lent.  We asked him what types of things would be most beneficial for the food pantry.  First, he told us that he hoped we were going to keep up some of that healthy grocery shopping even after Lent was done.  (We have, by the way.  Although we have bought some not as healthy things too.)  Second, he told us that the best things to donate were either easy to prepare foods or any number of type of personal care products. I hadn’t been aware that food stamps wouldn’t cover things like soap, shampoo, laundry detergent, and the like.

So, we set out to our local grocery store (as a whole family) and we planned to spend our $100 on most cleaning and personal care products.  Even though our grocery store can be higher priced on many things, I had seen that they had laundry detergent on sale at a very good price, as well as many items that we were looking for as part of a 10 for $10 sale.

The kids loved shopping for the items to donate! (And so did Eric and I.)  It was such a delight to see the pride in their faces as they were putting handfuls of shampoo bottles, bars of soap, and tooth paste into the cart.  The most expensive thing we bought (though all name brand) was probably $3.50, though the vast majority were $1 each.

In the end, we left with 65 items to donate having spent $97. (I was doing all the adding in my head, so it wasn’t an exact science.)

One of my favorite moments was when the kids and I all carried bags into the food pantry.  When we were finally done, Noah turned to me and said, “You know, Mom, I feel pretty good right now.  I think we helped a lot of people.”

Funny thing is, I think that the people receiving those items aren’t going to be the only people that were helped by this exercise in sacrifice.  As a matter of fact, I suspect a certain family of five were helped even more.

This post is linked to Works for Me Wednesday and Finer Things Friday.

Our Food Pantry Donation is a post from: Many Little Blessings

Current Sponsor:

Great Homeschool Conventions - Incredible Speakers and Exhibitors! The Homeschool Event of the Year!

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