Getting ready for.........

...CHRISTMAS!

The most important thing to be thankful for!

Watch this incredible short video.  You will be blessed!

http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid1137883230?bctid=1509297822

Thank you Jesus for setting us free and filling the hole in our hearts!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Bullet Boy- one year aniversary!

I had to post this to remind some of you and maybe new to some of you, that this REALLY did happen to MY child!  This is the week that one year ago, a bullet was swallowed by my son!  Being a mother of boys is really a dose of excitement daily!  Here was my post a year ago!:

Okay, here it is! The bullet boy, aka my little B.B. :) This is proof that the bullet was there! It is no longer in him and lead levels are coming down! (If a sewer explodes somewhere, I'm genuinely sorry!) Call the Today Show and everyone else you know and don't know, to show that a bullet really can go through you without exploding your entire being! We can now laugh because this is now BEHIND us and has PASSED! (No puns intended! Okay, maybe they were intended!) With 7 boys, I'm sure this is the first of many ingestions I will face. I'll chalk this one up for experience!

Ideas for cutting costs

Here are some simple ways I save money:

• use cloth diapers (they ARE NOT what they used to be!  So much better!)www.natureslove.net 
• washable wipes that I make myself out of flannel  (I sell these if you are interested!)
• reuse bread baggies and cereal bags to store other items
• I use extra pasta and less meat in my casseroles since it is more expensive to buy meat
• make my own greeting cards
• make our own gifts
• make things from scratch
• eat lots of soups
• I use 1/4 of what the detergent box says for laundry (Charlie's soap is what I use and it uses very little anyway!  All natural and NO chemicals!)http://www.beyondbeds.com/index.asp?pmc=CharliesSo&PageAction=Custom&ID=155&source=Charlies_Soap_Google&gclid=CKmhoZK7z50CFQjyDAodGDWnsw
• I don't but snack foods.  My kids are not snackers because I never started that habit.  We eat 3 meals a day and that's it!  They don't even think about it!
• We drink lots of water!  Cheap and good for you!
• keep paper products to a minimum!  We don't use paper plates unless on picnics or I get them for free!
• emptied yogurt cups make GREAT cups for serving jello, ice-cream, homemade frozen smoothies, and just plain water to little kids! The kids think it's great they have their own little portion!  They are also great to stick in a baggie that you can just throw away after you use them while on long car trips, the park or grandma's!  (They do wash up great in the dishwasher too!)
• use coupons and LOTS of them!
• holiday and birthday gifts are simple and budgeted!
• I use cash when I shop and I don't bring anything besides cash!
• Don't go to the store to often!  I can't spend if I don't go!  Also saves on gas!
• Buy in quantity when things are on sale
• Make lists, this includes wish lists and priority lists so I can keep things in perspective
• We hardly EVER eat out!!  I do not want to feed fast food to our kids anyway!  I am laying a foundation for them while they are young!  We do have a restaurant in our town where kids eat free on Tuesdays and we have been known to go there but they have healthy food options! 
• We have special meals that we set the table really fancy and get a movie to watch and have family dates in the comfort of our own home!
• I go to discount day old bread stores for some items and can get loaves of bread for $.79! 

These are some things I use.  My grocery bill every two weeks is around $150 for a family of 13.  My extra's such as soaps, shampoos, and other items comes to around $50 monthly.  Sometimes I can even do less than that if I get really good coupon leads!  :)  My kids are healthy and they NEVER go hungry!:)

Hope this helps you and pleeeasssseee if you have any other ideas I could use, leave a comment!   I need advice!:)

Coupon clippings

Some people have always used coupons. Me, not so much! I always thought it was to much work and usually after trying to REMEMBER to bring them to the store, I would forget to use them at the check-out. Therefore, I just made the decision NOT to use them all these years. UNTIL…I decided to subscribe to www.savingsangel.com. I was a skeptic at first. I read how people have literally cut their food bill in half! I thought NO WAY! I always buy at discount grocery stores anyway so there is no way I could save money just clipping coupons! I will say this, after using their services for 3 weeks, I have saved over $100! On their websight, they show me all the sales for the week and what coupons to use. I have learned how to stack coupons, only buy when things are on sale and how to use the coupons with the sale items. I have gotten many things for free like Glade Candles, Ziploc Baggies, Chinet plates and other things just by using their services and the coupons they direct me to. I now have to really NEED something before I will buy it without a coupon! Here are some ways to save by using coupons and in store sales:

  -Clip as many as you can from newspapers (Sunday papers are best)

 -Get them from the dispenser at the stores, even if you are not buying the product at that time

 -Have a file folder to keep them in so you can grab it whenever you go out

 -Look for sales to go WITH your coupons

 -Buy in quantity if something is on sale, stock up! This is a GREAT time of year to save on baking items!      Summer holidays are great for ketchup, sauces, paper kitchen items and similar things!

 -Make a list of what you need before you go and attach coupons on your paper so you don’t have to dig!

- Make a little symbol beside the item on your list that you have a coupon for so your remember to use it

 -Ask others to save coupons for you (my mom is great at this!)

 -Swap coupons with other people that you know

 -Get online to check for coupons. Just, google “free coupons” (My coupon service does this for me!)

 -Although kind of annoying to get e-mails from different companies, I have found they have GREAT recipes and lots of free trials and great coupons to print off! I actually enjoy receiving them now!

 -Don’t forget to use them and bring them with you!:)

These may seem obvious to you or hopefully give you some new ideas. This is another way God has been blessing the work of my hands! Using some scissors and typing on the computer for about 2 hours a week to gather coupons has helped us with our grocery bill! It is also nice to be able to go to my pantry to get something instead of running to the store! I have gotten a pretty good supply of things because I am able to buy many things at once! That also saves me money because a trip for me to the store for 2 things, turns into 20!

Some websights I use:
http://www.pillsbury.com/
http://www.couponmom.com/
http://www.scjohnson.com/
http://www.bettycrocker.com/
http://www.smartsource.com/
http://www.coolsavings.com/
http://www.printable-coupons.blogspot.com/

If you don't see coupons come up on the first page, go to the search and type in 'coupons' and that will take you to their coupons that are available.  Some of these sights have great recipe idea's also!

If you have any other ideas using coupons, please let me know! Happy clipping!

Saving money tips -Impulse Buying

In this process of God blessing the work of my hands, He has allowed many things to surface that I need to change. The one I will cover today, is something that costs us a lot during the year! Just in one week, I added what up what was NOT on my lists and it totaled almost $80! That multiplied by 4 is $360! Now I realize it may not always be that much, but I was shocked! That was a great lesson for me!  Welcome to my life as an impluse buyer! I can go to the store for 3 things and come home with 30! Here are some things I use to help me stick to my list:

• PRAY before you go! I cannot emphasize this enough!
• USE a list!
• use coupons (I usually will not buy an item if I don't have a coupon for it!)
• bring cash ONLY!
• Do not go to the grocery store when you are hungry!
• go when you don' t have lots of time BUT enough time NOT to get grumpy!
• be accountable to somebody, tell them where you are going and how much you are spending (I choose my husband!)
• Leave your kids at home! (I actually am not serious about this one, HOWEVER kids do ask for things so I make my point to tell them WHAT we are going for and they may not ask for ANYTHING because I can't get it anyway!)
• Take your little kids WITH you! (It will make you want to get out of the store QUICK! ) Kind-of kidding about this one too! My little ones actually help me put things in the cart and I use it for school for math and problem solving!)

Hopefully you don't have any trouble with impulse buying like I do! If you do, hope these things will help you to spend less!  I also strongly recommend that you do what I did for one week and keep track of the things you buy that you don't need or did not plan on.  It will surprise you! 

I am still a work in progress and am not perfect at this yet, but these things have helped me!  It has also brought much blessing to our finances and in return, brings blessing to my husband!  God continues to bless the work of my hands by making lists and sticking to it!

Any ideas you have for sticking to your lists would be great!

Simplicity and spending less

Here it goes!  Another thing God has been teaching me these past few weeks is how to be a blessing to my husband.  Some of you may deal with other issues, mine is money.  I am an impulsive buyer.  Now the things I buy on impulse, may not cost much, however, many things not costing much add up!  So I have been asking God these past few weeks to bless the work of my hands!  Little did I know all that would be included in that prayer!  I will be sharing some ideas and giving you a little peek into my life in the coming posts!

In the past, I never really knew of any GOOD ways to spend less, it was just a way of thinking that I would try to find the best deals and most economical way to live.  Usually out of necessity not just for the fun of it!  From the worlds standards, we don't have much. 

We have a 4 bedroom house that is about 2000 square feet at best!  My kids all have their own beds, but own rooms, NOT!  One bedroom has 2 bunkbeds and 2 dressers, the girls room has a double bunkbed, 2 desks and a dresser (also lots of closet space!), and the 3rd kids room has a bunk bed, single bed, desk and a dresser.  Our room has a crib in it for now but that will soon change when we move the baby into the other boys room.  The kids don't have toys in their rooms.  We have very few toys (by choice)  unless they are lego's, lincoln logs or blocks and a rubbermaid with trucks, tractors and trains.  We have a walk-in-closet/toy room on the main floor where toys are kept and up above are shelves with our books and school stuff.  We prefer the kids to be together, so they don't play in their rooms unless they are having room time and then they can take a toy to their room and then bring it back when they are done.  That keeps messes at a mimimum too!  Our dining room has a table that sits 12-15 people and the piano is in there also, and the only other room we have besides the kitchen is our living/family room.  Inspite of what people think, this works just fine for us!  I have said at this stage in my life, I don't want any bigger of a home because little boys left alone is well, plainly put, just asking for trouble!  (I have 7 boys under 9 years old!)  So where we are, they are also, and that is how we like it!  My husband  always says to people when they ask how he can afford allllll those kids, "Well, we can afford them, just not 3 brand new cars, a huge house, big vacations and other extra's!"  Our kids also appreciate the simple things which now days is very hard to do!  An afternoon at grandma and grandpa's or pizza delivered to our home is a HUGE deal!  Going to the park is more fun than you can imagine!  They REALLY appreciate going to a hotel to swim and staying overnight once a year!  In that, we are hoping that we are teaching them that the things of this world will pass away but being together and building relationships is what is of true value! 

Christmas is another thing that we have always been very limited financially and for that I am truly grateful! I really mean that!  We have never used credit cards during the holidays because we knew we would regret it later!  So for all of our 11 kids combined, we never spend more than what we can afford.  Usually that means about $25 a piece for the bigger kids and about $15 for the little ones.  For them that is a big deal because we don't buy them gifts or toys during the year except for birthdays.  So getting gifts worth $25 is HUGE in their eyes!  Another great thing about simplicity!  The things we buy them are also things they will use!  Blankets, sleeping bags, and building toys are ALWAYS favorites that can be used all year through and you don't see them 2 days after Christmas laying around because they are bored with them already!  Wasted money in my eyes!    We also never buy them more than 3 gifts a piece!  We always said Jesus only got three, why should we get more than him?!  Santa is never acknowledged in our home either!  I never have believed in him as a child and I never wanted  my kids to believe in him either!  And they don't!  Guess what?  I don't even feel scarred by that!  :)  In fact:, I am grateful!  As far as extended family goes, we usually make something and a $15 gift to go with it. 

Birthdays are also celebrated in our home but not with material things.  They always get a meal of their choice and a gift of about $10. And if everyone complies, a day off of their serving chart because the others chip in to help!  That usuallly beats the gift part in their eyes!  :)  Daddy ALWAYS prays a blessing over them during evening bible time and dessert of their choice is always on the agenda too!  We have also started a tradition way back when our oldest turned one, that we would watch the movie of the day they were born.  It is so fun to watch how everyone has changed!  They always get a few laughs at mom's changing hair styles!  (And I thought I was so hip!)  HUH!  Fun, inexpensive way to enjoy each other!  We don't ever have birthday parties with friends.  Just never started that and don't regret it!  Now, they have enough "friends" in their own living room on a daily basis to make any birthday party goer jealous! :)  What we have done at times is let them pick a place they want a friend to go and take them with us.  Grandma and Grandpa's house is always a favorite.  They lives outside of town and have land to hike and run around on.  The girls always decorate their room and have a little slumber party the night of each of their birthdays.  Good memories!

This is just the beginning of some ways we save money through the year.  I will be sharing some practical daily and weekly ways to cut costs next week. 

How do you save money throughout the year?  Any simple ideas on birthdays and Christmas to make them special without all the material "stuff"? 

Fall football fun for Foto Friday (how about that for a tongue twister!)

Being Frugal

Doing a post on ways to save money in the coming week.  First, I would like some ideas from my readers on simple ways they cut costs!  I would like to include them in my coming post!  Thank you! 

Off to the store I go! 

Children should be seen AND heard!

I write this post today with excitement and a fire under my belt!  The past few weeks have been a journey for me in walking closer to my loving savior.  So many things have been happening "behind" the scenes that I never knew were happening and now as I have been watching things unfold before my eyes, I am thrilled to begin sharing them with you!  The next few posts will in greater detail describe some of the things God is doing in my heart and life!  The first one I will share with you today.

As I visited my "home" church that I wrote about the other day, a dear lady that I knew quite well came up to me and I innocently gave her my blog address so she could catch up with our family because there is just not enough time to cover what 13 people have been up to in the past 10 years!  Well, God had a greater plan and began to plant a seed in her heart for something else to do with my blog address. 

For years, since I found out I was pregnant with my first child, I have had a PASSION to minister to young girls and young mothers about the value of life and that children are a blessing NOT a burden!  The world today sees that as just the opposite and it disgusts me!  That is a harsh way to say it but that is truth!!  Why does the world see children as a burden, well simply because of selfishness!  It is WORK to raise children, it is expensive to raise children, and it is time consuming to raise children!  So therefore, it is considered a negative thing to have more than one or MAYBE 2 children.  The "cost" is to great!  (For those of you who cannot have children or have only one or two, please don't write me how unsypathetic I am! I am talking about the idea of  children being a burden not attacking personal reasons for having 1 or 2 children.)  It's all about attitudes and trust!  There are vacations to take, jobs to do outside of the home, new cars to drive, big huge houses to acquire, and the list goes on and on!  Not that those things in itself are ALWAYS bad, just when they become priority over God's plan to have more children. 

If God's word says, "be fruitful and multiply", "the fruit of the womb is your reward", "children are a blessing and a heritage from the Lord",  and other verses that explain children are GOOD and a blessing, then WHY should we consider them any different!  Jesus even said, "Let the little children come to me!"  He knew how important they were!  As a mother of 11 children, with 7 of them 8 and under (and boys at that!), I understand how trying children can be BUT I also thoroughly understand the blessings they bring and they far outweigh the trying part!  The extra laughter, hugs, kisses, and the lessons we ALL have to learn in being selfless!

With that being said, I will continue on with the rest of the story.  I recieved a phone call yesterday from a well known representative from Iowa Right To Life.  She had heard of me through the lady I had seen at church and wanted to know if I would have any interest in helping get a new campaign off and running about populating Iowa!  I said I have done a great job of that already!:)  I would be thrilled to take part!  The new journey in releasing the passion God has placed in my heart to share with others has begun!  HE found a way for me to share my heart!  I did not search IT out, He brought it to me!  I hope to be used in a way that can be a blessing to others and His glory can be seen.  I will update you more on things to come as I begin to write and publicize this campaign that children are to be seen AND heard!  They are gifts and blessings that only God can give! 

Pray for me as I seek His desire and plan for me while on this new journey!

Just sharing a smile or two!

A little taste of heaven

This weekend, I had the experience of going back to what I call my "home" church.  A church where 15 years ago, God sent us to and where the passion for Him began!  We were there for 5 years before we moved and the people who impacted us for Christ at that church was awesome!  We built friendships and had such sweet fellowship with them on a weekly, sometimes daily basis!  We saw how a relationship with God differed from just knowing about God.  We fell in love with Jesus because of the example of these loving, genuine lovers of Christ!  God's glory was revealed to us and we began to seek more of Him along side of these beautiful people.  When we left the church, I mourned for a long time!  I was moving away from a huge family!  People who supported us, had accountability for us, prayed for us and loved us!  It was very hard for me.  As time has gone on, God has been so good and the continuing of following His heart has never grown old and the example they showed us at the church has never left my heart! 

Yesterday, I went back and walked through the doors.  Now, I was excited to see them as I anticipated going that morning, but I NEVER expected what was to come!  Faces I had forgotten and those I held so dear were flocking to us!  People with faces of joy just to see us and the beauty of their faces when we saw them!  The flood of tears began!  The raw emotion of love that poured out of me from seeing those loved ones was something I don't remember ever having.  Please understand I have been moved to tears after missing somebody and seeing them again, but this was a multitude of people that moved me to tears all at one time! 

God then gave me the vision of what heaven would be like.  When I walk through those gates after I pass from this world and enter my eternal home!  The people I will see that will come running to me!  Ones I have probably forgotten about and definately ones like my grandpa and sister I will once again be able to see!  And the part that will be so great is I will have eternity to be with them!  Yesterday, I only had a few moments with all who were there, but not in heaven!  That makes it even sweeter!  Finally, to be with my Jesus who loves me and has shown me about what love really is!  I will have the honor of living with Him in   my final home! 

I hope all who read this, are able to say they are ready to be with Jesus someday!  I hope you have given your life to Him and have that peace that passes understanding that you will be in heaven after your life on earth is through!  It is not just a fable or a fictional story!  It is going to happen!  You have a choice this day whom you will serve!  The world or Him!  Please let it be Him!  There is not greater joy than a life built on nothing less that Jesus blood and righteousness!  Today may be your last or you may live to be 100 years old, but whatever that may be, I hope you are ready to walk through those pearly gates and live forever with Him!

And there is my preaching for the year!  He bought us with a GREAT price!  Take that cross and cherish it!  You will never regret it!

Easy Taco Soup

I have not posted a recipe for so long!  Mostly because I have not been in a creative mood or in the mood to once again hear the moans and groans from ungrateful appreciative birthed from MY womb, urchins children when I try something new!  But today, I decided to take my family on an adventure within the four walls of our own home and make something new in my beloved crockpot!  So far, it is smelling wonderful and the first fears from the older urchins kids of trying it, have faded after I  forced and held them down  and they gladly and willingly took a little taste!  So here it is:

Easy Taco Soup (makes 8 servings)

2 lbs of browned hamburger
30 ounces of spaghetti sauce, plain tomato sauce,  or crushed tomato's
30 ounces of water ( I reduced that just a touch)
1 onion chopped
1 pack of Taco Seasoning (I used some of my own seasonings also to spice it up a tad)
1 bag of frozen corn
1-2 cans of Kidney beans or preferred beans-optional

Totilla chips
Shredded Cheese
Sour cream-optional

Directions:
Sautee onions (or cook with hamburger while browning) and place both in crockpot.  Add rest of ingredients in crockpot except for chips, cheese and sour cream.  Simmer on low for 4-6 hours.  Serve with chips, cheese, and sour cream! 

It's that easy!  Enjoy!

Are YOU feeling okay?

The flu has hit our home and of course has hit the little guys ALL at the same time! Oh my! The past 2 nights have been interesting! I will just leave it at that! :) When I have sick children, especially babies, I feel literally sick myself! Emotionally it really wears on me! I lay awake and listen to them coughing and I touch their hot little bodies and watch them sleep in my arms and I ache and long for them to be well!

Last night, as I was holding my 20 month old just laying on me because he felt so miserable! I began to have an image of how God feels when we are "ill".

Not ill in body, but ill in our spirit. When our bodies are sick, we do all that we can to make them feel better if possible! We will do things to get fevers down, take away the headaches, figure out a way to stop the cough or runny nose. Why? Because it is just plain miserable to have our flesh feel so "out of order"! But what do we do with our hearts when we are not living side by side with Jesus? Do we look and search with urgency to find something to "heal" us because we are so miserable? Do we even realize how "ill" we are or are we so used to being sick, that eventually we just get used to living for ourselves without giving a second thought to anyone else around us?

I'm not necesarrily talking about those big whopper, noticeable to all, mistakes! (Although those can count too!) I am talking about the things that subtly steal and pull us away from our first love. For me, it can be sleep, (or lack there of), computer, just plain selfishness and focusing on my needs instead of those around me. There are way to many others to mention!

As I pictured this image of me with MY child, I pictured Christ with us. Just as I love my babies soooo much and ache when they ache, God does the same with us. When His children hurt, He hurts! It says in Psalms 56:8 that "He holds our tears in a bottle". That means He cares about us and He loves us!

The romans had a tradition during funerals or mourning that they would literally collect their tears in a bottle and keep them for rememberence. Just as I desire for my child to feel well, Christ desires for us to be well! Our hearts more than our physical bodies! God desires for our hearts to be right more than our bodies, the body is temporary!
2Corinthians 4:18 says, “While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.” Our bodies are temporary, our souls are eternal!

God provides those of us who are healthy, an immune system to heal us when we are ill. He also provided us a way to heal our hearts! His word and just plain talking to him! (That would be called prayer!) When we turn to Him, we will have ALL we need!

Just as we grab the motrin or tylenol when our bodies are sick, we can look to the world for things to "heal" our sick hearts, but they are only temporary fixes! We can look to the world to satisfy us through material things, TV, computer, over or under eating, focusing on our outward appearance, getting more "stuff", shopping, even looking to our husbands instead of God for our worth,(something else I will get into another time!), and many other things. As we do that, God looks at us lovingly and aches! He knows what we need!

Just as our immune systems knows what to do in our fleshly bodies! ( That's why we get fevers! ) We are fighting an infection of some kind. Our hearts need Him and only Him! Love Him with all your heart and begin to allow Him to heal your heart! Just as we desire so much for our children to be well, God desires us to be "well" and it hurts Him when we are not! He is willing to do whatever it takes! He loves us and wants us as close to Him as we can possibly be while on this earth! Just as it says in James 4:8 Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded. Why do we do this? Because He knows what we need to stay healthy on this earth so we can be with Him forever in eternity!

He is only a simple word away, JESUS! Just call on His name! He will not turn His ear, but will listen and be there to heal you! Read what John 14:13 says, And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. The Bible DOES not lie! It is the infallible word of God! God cannot lie! Trust Him! Believe Him! Follow Him! He loves you, you are His child and He is holding you!