Clean Sheets

Today I begin week 2 of the 90 Day Bible reading challenge.  The past week has been so fulfulling!  I've stayed on track and have almost 10% of the entire Bible read already, whoo hoo!

Today I am reading in Leviticus and my theme is "clean sheets"!  One of life's simple pleasures is crawling into a bed with freshly laundered sheets.  They are so crisp and clean, smell so good and promise a great night's sleep every time.  Unfortunately, after one night, they just don't hold the same appeal.  They aren't as comfortable and I won't be able to experience that luxurious feeling again until I go through all the work of stripping the bed, washing the sheets, and remaking the bed - such a daunting task, it only gets done once a week at best.

Living under the "old" law was  A LOT of work!  There were too many instructions to count!  Was this clean or unclean?  Which sacrifices do I need to make?  How do I make those sacrifices?  Talk about daunting!  After reading these verses, it just reaffirms how good God was to his people to abolish these ways and give us something "easy".  Is living a Christian life easy?  No, but because he gave his one and only son to die for OUR many sins, we have hope of eternal life!  I think I can safely say that if I lived in Moses and Aaron's time I wouldn't have any hope of that.  Too much work, too complicated...I've never been the best at following directions.  Repentance would be like cleaning the sheets, a daunting task, so I wouldn't do it as often as I should.  Thank the Lord, I can have "clean sheets" at any time now.  The process is simple....ask !  There is no stain that our Mighty God can't get out, he instantly restores us to his crisp, clean , sweet smelling followers!

Friday's Frugal Finds

This week's Frugal Finds are:

1.  Free Burger!  Many of you have probably already taken advantage of this deal from Ruby Tuesday, but if not HURRY!  I just checked and only around 7,000 remain.  "Like" Ruby Tuesday on Facebook, submit the form, and they will email you the coupon for a FREE handcrafted burger...YUM!  You can also follow this link.

2.  CHEAP cloth napkins!  Last week, I posted about how using cloth napkins can save you lots of money!  If you have a Southeastern Salvage near you, check out their clearance table!  They had the cutest cloth napkin 4 packs for only $1.95.  I bought mine at the Irondale location.  They are French country style with a painted rooster, colors black, red, yellow and brown!  I bought several packs and they wash up great, no bad wrinkling!  They also have matching placemats :)

3.  CHEAP Sports Gear!  Just in time for back-to-school and football season!  Lids is having their $5 sale days.  You can get tshirts as cheap as $2.50 and caps for $5.00.  I saw several Alabama/Auburn items, all SEC teams, Atlanta Braves, etc.  They also offer flat rate shipping of only $4.99 so you can buy a bunch without outrageous shipping costs!

The Old Schoolhouse Deal!

If you are looking for a deal on the homeschooling mainstay, The Old Schoolhouse,  your wait is over!  TOS is doing a major wipe out of their warehouse and are offering  over $104 of merchandise for only $25!   This includes 7 issues of TOS, Homeschooling with Heart Tote bag, free shipping and up to 4 freebies.  You can earn freebies by sharing this deal on your blog, facebook, twitter, or through email.  Simply put in the comment section how you shared and they will put your freebies in the box!  Quantities are limited so hurry if you want to take advantage of this deal.

Dinosaur Fun!

We have 2 new members of our family this morning...dinosaur babies!  Yesterday, we had to make a stop at Michael's and of course the kids found something they wanted too.  Out of all the cool stuff to choose from they each chose a hatchable dinosaur egg.  I have to admit I tried to steer them to something else, knowing that once this baby hatched the fun would be over.  Wow was I wrong!  I never dreamed this $2 toy would turn into a unit study on dinos. 

The directions were easy, just immerse the eggs in water and after 24-48 hours the dinos will hatch. 

Then change the water and leave the dinos in for another day or so to let them "grow".  Our dinos only took 12 hours to hatch which was a bummer because it happened overnight.  It didn't disappoint the kids too much since they awoke to the babies sticking their heads out of the eggs, but it would have been cool to actually see it happen!  My advice:  put eggs in water in the morning and keep an eye on them throughout the day!  We went to the Kids Dino website to identify our newly hatched babies and learn more about them.  Fun activity, definitely worth  2 bucks!!!

The proud "parents"!

Savvy Storage Idea

I'm always looking for storage solutions on the cheap and if I can repurpose something I already have that's even better.  One item I ALWAYS have an abundance of is flavored coffee creamer containers due to my severe small coffee addiction.  When Beckie over at Infarranty Creative asked for strange storage ideas, I knew I needed to share this one.  These creamer containers can be used for so many things!  Simply remove the label and wash and dry thoroughly.  I make homemade chocolate syrup and iced coffee mix and these are perfect for storing these liquids in the fridge.  When I give these homemade mixtures for gifts, I wrap the container in tissue paper and wrap with a bow and instant cuteness! 

From this



To this!

They are also great for storing paints for easy pourability (is that a word?)...oh well, it is now!  Do you have any clever storage solutions?

Kitchen Katastrophes

I love to cook, however I'm not a patient cook, therefore every once in a while I have some problems in the kitchen.  Yesterday, I decided to make a mixed berry crostada with the fresh blackberries and blueberries we had...yum!  I thought I had plenty of butter, so I start mixing up the ingredients...flour in, sugar in, salt in, butter in - oops, I only had 1 stick of butter left!  At this point I should have loaded up the kids and made a trip to the store, but I wanted a berry crostada NOW (notice the impatience here?).  So, I substituted Smart Balance spread.  Note to self:  NEXT TIME GO TO THE STORE! 

After 5 minutes in the oven, I see the beginnings of an oven disaster...melted butter is all over the baking sheet, about to roll right off into my clean oven.  My mind is working overtime....I can't waste my beautiful fresh berries and all of those ingredients!  So, I dump everything in a baking dish and hope the final product is somewhat like a cobbler.  Surprise, surprise!  40 minutes later I take it out of the oven, it looks like cobbler, it smells like cobbler, and IT TASTES LIKE COBBLER!  Disaster averted, ingredients saved, momma's fat and happy! 

Let me know I'm not alone with Kitchen Mishaps!  Have you made a mess in the kitchen?  Did you save it or have to scrap it?

Don't Stop Believin'

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This summer I've been participating in  the Ministry of Motherhood bookclub based on Sally Clarkson's book.  This week we are talking about the importance of training our children.  As I've read the verses this week, an 80's song keeps popping into my head (I know I've just dated myself!), DON'T STOP BELIEVIN' by Journey.  The chorus says "Don't stop believin', hold on...".    That's exactly what God tells us to do too! 

Hebrews 10:35-36 tells us not to throw away our confidence because it will be richly rewarded, perservere!  Matthew 24:9-14 assures us that persecution will come and many will turn away from what they've been taught, but we are to stand firm!  Don't stop believin', hold on because God keeps his promises and he has promised us our perserverance will pay off more than we can imagine!   My desire is that I can teach my children how important this command is...that in their everyday life they will finish what they commit to do, that they know what they believe and don't let others convince them otherwise.....that they Don't stop believin and hold on.....