Money Money Money (sing it please)

Ok, so at first I am chuckling about this picture...but how are we "investing"? This week I was totally encouraged by a fellow homeschooler, Leigh Bortin when I went to hear her speak. And while her words were encouraging and amazing, her actions spoke much louder. You see Leigh had personal money in a huge handful of evelopes. Each envelope had anywhere from $1-$50 in it. We earned these envelopes throughout the night, and at the end she asked us to "test" God. You see the Scriptures (in Malachi) encourage us to test God in area of giving (this should be above any tithe). It is supposed to be an adventure! Let me tell you, Leigh is on a major adventure. She is traveling (12 cities in 14 days) around giving out these envelopes and challenging us to give them back to the Lord. What a cool adventure, and what a great example of trust in God. My envelope will be "given" on Sunday. Thanks Leigh for letting us be a part of your adventure!

The "Cliff Notes"

I am not a grocery expert, but after attending a class and surfing the web, I was encouraged to get organized.

I organized my coupons in a notebook with baseball card holders (suggested by Angela's class), and I have since seen this done with returned check holders from Office Depot. The above picture is of my coupon book.

Be patient. You probably will not become an expert overnight, but it is worth the effort. It will be second nature (and the time will be insignificant) once you get into the swing of things. And, you'll save more and more once you get really good at it.

Use the expertise of others...Here are my favorites (I check them nightly).
Money Saving Mom
Coupon Mom
Money Saving Madness
The Money Herder
Balancing Beauty and Bedlam
The Grocery Game

Trust me, it is worth it....We could live off our pantry and freezer for months without visiting the grocery store (because we have stockpiled), AND we've cut our bill by about 70%.

Half Priced Living

How does FREE salad dressing, FREE toothpaste, and FREE sauces sound? Here is what I bought tonight for a whopping $51.00.....and yes, there are two bags of chicken that you can't see, Loreal shampoos, deodorant, several salad dressings, sauces, cereals, to go cereals, yogurts, bread, water, capri-suns, soups, veggies, toilet cleaner, tub of butter, ramen noodles and more.

How is this possible? Well, visit my friend, Angela, on her website to find out how you can learn how to save money (lots and lots of money).

The Love Dare

After viewing the movie Fireproof, our church is reading the Love Dare book together. It is intended to be read as a daily dare for you to complete and thus fireproof your marriage (they do not contend that this book will keep marriages from being faced with difficulty, they only suggest that the activities will leave you prepared, fireproofed, so that you will be able to withstand the fires). And it has certainly generated some fun conversations and some extremely rewarding advertentures with my husband. I am resolved to also "do" the Love Dare on my kids (after all it is a dare to love better, and I want to love my kids better too). I haven't completed the book, so there may be some days that need adjusting, but that should be fairly easy.

Come on, take the challenge. After all, it's a "dare".

Discovering the Word

This is a man (posing for his missionary pastor as an example of his nightly routine) whose family and country do not approve of God's Word. In fact, he could be persecuted if he was discovered reading God's Word. His response?? He wakes up in the middle of the night, and reads by flashlight. You could say that I was challenged this past Sunday, by my pastor and the Holy Spirit, to "re-discover the Word". It was a reminder that God's Word was written to us, as a love letter. I want to study His Word less like a student and more like an art lover who appreciates the works of his favorite artist. I want to search and thirst.

While I was in Jamaica this past Summer, I was amazed at the children and their dedication to memorize scripture. SO, along with reading and devouring it....I want to commit it to heart. Here is my attempt to organize my scripture memory. I cut some scrap scrapbook paper and attached them with some leftover chain from another project. I'm writing the verses on the back. I've carried it in my purse this week so I could grab it whenever I practiced the verses. It's always nice when a practical need turns out a pretty product!

Trash to Treasure

Rhoda, at Southern Hospitality, has invited us to her before and after pictures party of our top projects from 2008. I'm only including one for now...enjoy!

BEFORE

BEFORE

AFTER

AFTER

This was one of my recent projects. I know, the drawers were falling down (no drawer runners), falling out and covered with stickers. There are no sides or top and the project will take "forever". Well, some braces, wooden drawer runners, paint, sandpaper and several hours later....It has become our trusty office credenza. Now it is amazingly sturdy, and the fact that it replaced my husband's plastic cheap-o drawers made it worth every minute.

Personalized Notebooks

This idea came from the extremely creative Vintage Girl, and I've adapted it to the "junk" I had available to use. The whole idea was to personalize without spending money. So, I used notepads that I already had, and I cut them down to the desired sizes. Then I used links of a leftover chain (from who-knows-where) and bent them to open, slide the pages in, and bent them back. The base of the covers are made from a piece of chipboard that came with a calendar to hold it stiff in the store. The decorative parts of the cover and the page dividers are various crafting/scrapping remants. I added leftover flowers,stickers, ribbons and feathers from previous projects as well. Thanks Vintage Girl!

To see the complete instructions, please visit http://www.simplyvintagegirl.com/blog/index.php/2008/09/08/notebook-easy-to-make-easy-to-use/

Now What?

With Christmas decorations tucked neatly in our crawl space and every surface dusted (whew that felt great!), the house looked.....less warm. I was determined to warm up the place so I went "shopping" in my yard. I looked for items that would attach to my .99 Goodwill wreath (the kind made of linbs/sticks and nothing else), and I ended up clipping large handfuls of my side shrub to create this wreath. I was pleased that the wreate looks so full and like a fairly expensive one at that. I know it will only last about two weeks (I used some of the same shrub for my Christmas wreath and garland http://nestingplacenc.blogspot.com/search/label/seasonal), but I love it just the same!

Homemade Christmas

I worked to create several hand crafted gifts this year, thanks to my inspiration over at http://simplyvintagegirl.com/. As a result, I have an enormous appreciate of any hand crafted gifts that I receive. One of my favorites was actually given to me by a friend. It is a "conversation starter jar". Now, my kids are little so we're calling it a talk time jar, and we are using the conversation starters at supper time. The jar was store bought, but the cards were printed on business cards with a cute embellishment to make them look special. The questions were the result of hours of editing (there are many versions online, but some questions are questionable). So, for all you planners....start collecting jars for next year. I figure there is a size and shape to match every friend out there, and Goodwill is the place to look.

Happy Jar Hunting!