Kids eat free!

Found a site that shows you all the restaurants in your area where kids eat free. Just enter zip code and a list will appear. Click on the restaurant name for specific dates and any restrictions as well as a map of the restaurant location. Enjoy:)

www.kidseatfor.com

Getting ready for a party!

Jordan is going to be 2 in a little over 2 weeks which means we are busy preparing for his party. Since we only have family come I try to make it special by hand-making invitations for the boys' birthdays. Right now he is really into Curious George so that's the theme. I just finished up the invitations last night and am pretty pleased with how they came out. We also got the shopping done yesterday. All the party supplies are bought as well as his gifts. They had a display with the dinosaur pictured above at Toys R' Us and as soon as Jeremy started playing with it, I knew it was going to be "THE" gift. We got him a few smaller things to go with it and so we are done with that part! Now on to the food planning...

Who doesn't like free stuff?

Just wanted to share another site with all of you who like free stuff!! These are mostly samples and I signed up for everything from cereal, to tea, to perfume, to cell phone holder, and even a potty training kit along with pull-ups, coupons, chart with stickers and Diego or Dora trophy. Hope you all find some stuff you like:)

www.freakinfreebies.com

Live and love with purpose

While I was sitting in the quiet of my house making invitations for my sons second birthday party, God impressed on me a thought that I felt compelled to share with you all. I want to begin by asking if you love what you do? The job you have, whether it be fireman, grocery checker, school principal, or stay at home mom…do you love it? I knew from very young that I wanted to be a wife and a mom. No matter what other things I aspired to be when I grew up, those were two that never changed. In fact, before I left for college I informed my mom that I was only going there until I met my rich husband and then I wouldn’t need to finish school because I would be a full time wife and mom. Well, I did meet my husband and still finished school. And while by no standards rich, he worked hard at what he does to get us to a place where I can stay home to be the wife and mom I want to be. Is it everything I thought it would be? No way!! Sometimes I wonder what I was thinking but it also brings me joy in ways I never could have imagined. Do I love it? Not always but I can’t fathom anything that I would love more. So my next question is whatever it is you do and whether you love it or not, do you make the most of it? Do you wake up each day thinking I am going to do my best at what I do today and I am going to find joy in it where I can? I can guess that many would say no. I would have to say no myself. I am ashamed by how much I take what I have for granted. So many moms would kill to be in my shoes and I often don’t appreciate it for what it’s worth. I don’t make the most of my time with my kids. My house is by no means spick and span most of the time. My husband doesn’t have his every need met. All things I thought I would be doing if I was staying home. Of course life gets in the way and nothing is ever going to be perfect but if I continue to be honest I can say that most of it is lack of effort on my part. Laziness. An ungratefulness for what I have been given in my life and why I have been given it. Do you realize that you are who you are and where you are for a purpose? God created you to be the age you are right now for a reason. You live where you do, have the family and friends you do, attend the church you do and yes, have the job you do for a purpose. Now some of you might be thinking, “Well, thanks a lot God. What did I ever do to you!” But if you really stop and think about it, it’s amazing. You are that special that everything you are was predestined in a way that would serve God. When I think of it in that way, I truly feel ashamed by the way I waste my blessings. How can I not get up each day and try to be the best wife and mother I can? How can I not find joy in all I do when it has been given to me by God? What a humbling thought. As I pray on this for myself tonight, I just ask all of you reading this to look at where you are in your life and ask yourself if you are living like it’s a gift from God. Does everything you do at work and home display your gratefulness for all you have been given? Do you live like you have a purpose?

For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do (Ephesians 2:1).

Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man's gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith. If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully (Romans 12:4-8).

Online Coupons

It's grocery shopping day, which in my house means lots of coupon cutting. Thought I would pass on some great sites I have been using to help us save money at the grocery store. Feel free to share any that you know of that I am missing:)

These 3 sites allow you to put coupons straight onto your grocery card (like Safeway, etc)
http://www.shortcuts.com/
http://www.pgesaver.com/
www.safeway.com/IFL/Grocery/Digital-Coupons

Printable coupons
http://www.coupons.com/
http://www.coupons.smartsource.com/
http://coupons.redplum.com/CouponMom/

I also recommend going to your favorite brands websites for coupons. They have some really good ones at Ronzoni and Uncle Ben's to name a few. Happy cheaper shopping~~

I remember

On the morning of September 11th, terrorists hijacked four commercial jet planes and attempted to fly them into several U.S. targets. One of the planes, American Airlines Flight 11, crashed into Tower One of the World Trade Center at 8:50 AM. United Airlines Flight 175 crashed into Tower Two at 9:04 AM. As the world watched Tower Two collapsed to the ground at about 10:00 AM. Unfortunately, this horrible scene was duplicated at 10:30 AM when Tower One crashed to the ground. This terrorist attack brought about the death of approximately 3,000 men, women and children from nations around the world. ~ from : http://americanhistory.about.com/od/terroris1/p/wtc_September11.htm

I know that I will never forget that day. Where I was, how I found out, the feeling of helplessness that everyone shared. I was a sophmore in college at WSU and was awoken by my mom calling bright and early. "You need to get up and watch the news," she said when I answered. I was like, are you kidding? Why would I get up this early to watch the news? She preceded to tell me what had happened. I rushed to turn on the tv in time to see the second plane crash. I just watched in complete disbelief. My first thought was to wake up my roommate whose dad was in the military. Surely this would effect her more than me. If you knew my roommate at the time you won't be surprised to now she wanted nothing to do with getting out of bed. So I just sat and watched by myself. Overwhelming footage of people in complete disarray. News anchors breaking down from the trauma of it all. I remember thinking about how this was going to change our world as we knew it. Would we go to war? Would the war come here and disrupt our everyday life? Would they start attacking more cities? Where would it be safe to go? All I could do was pray. I went to work that night and as customers came through they all wanted to talk about what had happened. You could tell there was a strong need to connect to others who were feeling as helpless as they did.

I will never forget the images of people falling from those buildings. I will never forget the fireman, policeman and other service people who risked their own lives to help those in need. I will never forget watching children on tv leaving signs trying to find their moms and dads, pleading to the camera through tears. I will never forget how people came together for a long time after that. I WILL NEVER FORGET.

Our first small group!!

Feeling extremely blessed this morning as God continues to answer our prayers in big ways. For so long we have been longing to be part of a church family and after Jeremy's shift restructuring at work we were able to start attending Real Life Ministries. We have just loved the time we have spent there. We have been praying for a long time to get into an active church where we can begin to meet other couples and families who we would have something in common with. Our church is so large that they rely on small groups to keep everyone connected. One of the first times Jeremy went to the men's breakfast he got hooked up with a guy who was starting a new home group in our area. It happens to be a couples group and they all have kids. Yesterday was the start of the new year so we all got together for a BBQ to get to know each other. It was a really great time and it is getting me so excited for weekly fellowship with these other couples. Another prayer I have had (you can look back several blogs:) was to become more versed in my faith. To dig deeper into the word and be able to speak it from memory and a place of understanding. I found out last night that the way this group works is that we break down a book in the bible and take turns weekly memorizing a story from that book and reciting it back to the group without taking anything away or adding anything to the word. We then reconstruct the story as a group, read it from the bible to see if we added or took anything away, and then discuss what we learned about God and man in the story. Talk about truly learning my Bible!! I didn't think this would happen in such a public fashion, but I have learned that when you ask God for something you had better be prepared because you never know the form in which it will come:)

"Now may the God who gives perseverance and encouragement grant you to be of the same mind with one another according to Christ Jesus, so that with one accord you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, accept one another, just as Christ also accepted us to the glory of God." Romans 15:5-7