This winner will receive a copy of each of the three recently published books for their kids.

Congratulations are in order to……….

Linda Jackson!!!

Hurray, Linda!! I hope your children will love these books.

To read more about each of these 3 books, see my full review here.

***Disclaimer: When you purchase through Amazon links on my website, I do collect advertising fees.***

And here is a link to each of these 3 darlin’ newly published books on Amazon:

Your kids will love these.

Lincoln’s Big Adventure is also available free for Kindle Unlimited subscribers.

EXTRA big thank you to the authors of these three books for supplying our giveaway!

We closed April off on a happy note here at our house too. My oldest son is playing basketball, and they came in second place in this weekend’s tournament. That was exciting.

Plus, Alan took the boys to bring-your-kids-to work day this past week, and that was a hit.

And now my nine-year-old is here, and he wants me to get him registered for football, so I will stop here. I wish you all a wonderful May!

And be sure to check out my first successful YouTube video ever. ha! Yes, I’ve made many YouTube videos before to use on my blogs, but this is the first one to ever have over 1,300 views.

It is all about how to keep your clothes organized and decluttered when you have a small closet. My system will also make sure you vary your wardrobe and don’t get stuck wearing the same five shirts over and over again while the others just sit there.

Have a great week, y’all!! Congratulations again to our giveaway winner, Linda!

The post Let’s Start May with a Sprinkle of Joy: Announcing the Giveaway Winner! appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

***When you purchase through links on my website, I do collect advertising fees from the Amazon.***

Best of all, these books each have a different character-building lesson in them. They are beautifully illustrated too.

When you shop online, it is hard to know what exactly is in any book you have never read before. That can be problematic as a parent, with so many weird, competing messages being blasted out to our children.

So I’m here to tell you exactly what you will find in these new books for kids!

All opinions here are my own. I did read each book, and I even asked the authors to provide a giveaway copy for my readers! So I am extra excited about that. Giving fun stuff away is my favorite.

Now let’s see the new books!

I have read every page of each of these, from digital proof copies, supplied to me by the authors.

#1. Lincoln’s Big Adventure

There is so much to tell you about this one! I thoroughly enjoyed this book.

In Lincoln’s Big Adventure, you follow a $5 bill on his way through life, changing hands many times. In fact, we begin the story with Lincoln (the $5 bill) hanging out with some other money in a piggy bank. So cute.

What is great about this book is that it teaches giving, kindness, saving up money, charity, and helping others in a way that is a story and isn’t preachy at all. In the end, Lincoln gets to feel like he made a big difference.

It’s a heart warming story with a good message, and your kids will definitely learn a lot from this book.

Plus, I have noticed kids often have a fascination with money and how it works. This book will teach them more about that too.

A neat bonus here is that the book includes both English and Spanish. The Spanish is right below the English on the page. You can practice your Spanish while reading this book.

I also like that it is written by a Christian author and school teacher, Jordan Saez. You can find more of her books here.

#2. Fred The Oversized Watermelon

This is a super sweet, deep, and emotional book. It has an awesome, rarely heard message in children’s literature these days.

Fred is larger than all of the other watermelons. No one will befriend him, not the watermelons nor the other animals and fruits. For a minute, things are looking real bleak for Fred.

Children’s books do not often go this sad either, but life does, and that’s just facts. But do NOT despair!! That is one of the key themes of the book, the not despairing.

I hesitate to tell you the ending because it is a total spoiler to the story, but I know as parents you need to know the message.

So here’s the spoiler. Scroll fast to the next book if you don’t want to know. Ha!

This completely took me by surprise because books so rarely mention this aspect of God, the not being alone because you have someone watching over you.

Towards the end, Fred meets Duck. Duck represents God in the story. He shows up with a message of pure HOPE and love.

Duck has been watching Fred all along. He brings up the little good things that happened amongst the sad times and how he sent those. He reassures and loves Fred when no one else will. It is excellent. It reminds me of a Max Lucado book.

This book is written by Kendal Clawson. In the front of the book, Kendal dedicates the book to her nieces or nephews and reminds them that there is always a God in heaven watching over them. That is a vital thing to teach our children.

#3. Swinging for Joy

This is a sweet, heart warming story about a little girl and her dog and how they help a little boy in distress.

The dog is named Joy, and he is sort of a magic dog. Well, maybe he is magic, and maybe he isn’t. What he does are all things dogs do. He finds things with his nose, he comforts his girl, London, and he is her best friend.

Our dog does that too. In fact, that is the reason I insisted on buying our boys a dog even though I have never been a dog person. (Yeah, I know, crazy cat person here.)

I LOVE how in this story London sees a boy crying at the playground and heads straight over to help him.

This is EXACTLY the sort of behavior I want my kids to display, caring about other people and acting on it. It is also what we want others to do for us in our time of need.

This is a story of faith. You can use the way she believes in her wishes to her dog to encourage your kids to look to God to help them with their problems.

Another thing I liked about this story is this line, “All you have to do is believe..”

Kids are often not taught to believe in anything. This book teaches believing in something bigger than yourself. Just make sure they know the thing to believe in is God. If he can create a world, he can help you find your keys.

There is also a cool reference to some historical heroes from Alabama in the book, that I especially enjoyed. But since I’ve already let out so many story spoilers, I will let you discover that one for yourself.

The author of this book, Aishah Hight, focuses on writing on themes of kindness, hope, and overcoming challenges. That is exactly what kids need.

Now let’s give away some new books!

Our winner will receive one copy of each of these three books, in the mail, directly from the author. If you’d like, the author will even sign your copy!

To register for the giveaway, click on the tabs in the Rafflecopter below. You can comment below, or you can visit my new Facebook page and click like.

You have two weeks to enter the giveaway. I will let you know via email if you win, so you must provide a good email address that you check regularly.

Rules: You must live in the United States and have a valid email address so I can notify you if you win.

Your kids will love this! Good luck!!

The post 3 New Children’s Books for Summer & A Giveaway! appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

The nice folks at Picturesongold.com have supplied me with ANOTHER locket to give away!

This giveaway doesn’t end until 11:59 PM Christmas day! Hooray!!!

I’m including my original review of picturesongold.com’s lockets for you to see how awesome they are.

The giveaway form is at the bottom of this post. Best of luck!!

***I was not paid to write this review. All opinions are my own.***

Living  in the South has ignited a passion in me for all things monogrammed, engraved, and personalized, so when I came across this locket that you can personalize online in 5 minutes with words AND photos, and order it right to your doorstep, I HAD to try it. Thankfully, I was able to get my hands on a free blogger sample. (Thank you picturesongold.com!)

Making the Locket on PicturesOnGold.com

I was a little nervous about making it. Usually places like this want an exact size of photo, or I goof up and order 3 instead of 1…..like I did with those Third Love bras…but that’s another story…

Y’all! It was SO EASY, and there were OPTIONS– like Subway!! Silver or gold? What should be on the front? Which font? Choose your left inside. Words or photo? Choose the right inside. Choose what’s on the back. How long of a chain? Which type of shipping?

Want to see what I picked?

All 4 boys on the left, Alan and me on the right

What made me the happiest of all was that the upload time was quick, and they automatically shrink it to fit the locket. Then I was able to slide the photo around on there to center and enlarge the photos the way I wanted.

For the front I chose engraved initials:

Love!

It goes with everything. I was so excited when it arrived in the mail only a few days later, but you choose your own shipping option.

What sold me was that when the locket came, it was ready to wear. I did NOT have to go searching the house for tiny photos to fit in it. They are permanently “photoengraved” in.

Reader’s Discount!!!

You can use this code, just for my readers: BLOG10  That will give you 10% off your locket order. I cannot guarantee that the code will work in conjunction with other discounts.

Just go here to see all the personalized gifts they sell.

And now for the giveaway!!! Whoo-whoo!!!!

Prize is a locket like mine from PicturesOnGold.com for you to personalize online.

***Open to US residents only.***

Log in to the Rafflecopter below using Facebook or your email address. Then select one or more of the entering options to complete your giveaway entry!

Best of luck! Winner will be announced the day after Christmas!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

The post The Christmas Giveaway: a Personalized Locket! appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

***I was not paid to write this review. All opinions are my own.***

Living  in the South has ignited a passion in me for all things monogrammed, engraved, and personalized, so when I came across this locket that you can personalize online in 5 minutes with words AND photos, and order it right to your doorstep, I HAD to try it. Thankfully, I was able to get my hands on a free blogger sample. (Thank you picturesongold.com!)

Making the Locket on PicturesOnGold.com

I was a little nervous about making it. Usually places like this want an exact size of photo, or I goof up and order 3 instead of 1…..like I did with those Third Love bras…but that’s another story…

Y’all! It was SO EASY, and there were OPTIONS– like Subway!! Silver or gold? What should be on the front? Which font? Choose your left inside. Words or photo? Choose the right inside. Choose what’s on the back. How long of a chain? Which type of shipping?

Want to see what I picked?

All 4 boys on the left, Alan and me on the right

What made me the happiest of all was that the upload time was quick, and they automatically shrink it to fit the locket. Then I was able to slide the photo around on there to center and enlarge the photos the way I wanted.

For the front I chose engraved initials:

Love!

It goes with everything. I was so excited when it arrived in the mail only a few days later, but you choose your own shipping option.

What sold me was that when the locket came, it was ready to wear. I did NOT have to go searching the house for tiny photos to fit in it. They are permanently “photoengraved” in.

Reader’s Discount!!!

After the Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales are over, you can use this code, just for my readers: BLOG10  That will give you 10% off your locket order. I cannot guarantee that the code will work in conjunction with other discounts.

Just go here to see all the personalized gifts they sell.

And now for the giveaway!!! Whoo-whoo!!!!

Prize is a locket like mine from PicturesOnGold.com for you to personalize online.

***Open to US residents only.***

Log in using Facebook or your email address. Then select one or 2 or all of the entering options to complete your giveaway entry! Best of luck! Winner will be announced in a week!

Happy Thanksgiving!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

SaveSave

The post Beautiful Personalized Gifts for Christmas with Giveaway! appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

Our number one priority is that we set our children off on the right track spiritually.

We aren’t training them to live to please just their parents, society, or a set of rules.  Once you’re an adult, those things all become mushy anyway.

We’d rather they have a relationship with God. It’s not about religion; it’s about knowing how to pray, knowing why they believe, having faith, and making these choices on their own. It’s about feeling responsible to a being higher than ourselves.

We want them to know that through any crisis in life, and the good times too, they can cry to Jesus, to our Heavenly Father. Alan and I will eventually die. Their brothers will too, so they need someone who will always be there. That’s what they can find in their relationship with God.

Here are 5 super simple ways we foster their relationship with God:

#1. We teach them to pray.

From the time they are babies, we pray with each child individually before they go to bed at night. Sometimes it’s just Alan or me, but usually it’s both of us with each boy. When they are babies, I say all the words.

By the time they are talking, I let them say their own prayers, and I give them ideas for what to say by having them repeat after me. I change it up, not saying the same old thing every night.

For example:

“Thank you for this day. Thank you for my mommy, my daddy, my brothers, and (whoever else comes to mind). Thank you for my toys. Thank you for my house. Thank you for my food. Please help (insert sick relative) get better. Amen.”

By the time they are 3, they rarely repeat after me. They say whatever is on their mind, and sometimes it is adorable, and sometimes it is downright hilarious.

One of my boys used to say, “Thank you for

my mom and dad. Thank you for polar bears. Please help the polar bears. Thank you for badgers, raccoons, sun bears, grizzly bears, dolphins, beluga whales…” and he’d go on and on and on naming every animal he knew. So precious.

As they get older, we add in teaching them about praying for forgiveness when they’ve hurt their brother or disobeyed.

Daniel, proudly displaying an award he earned at church.

#2. We take them to church.

It’s so much work when they are little to get them all cleaned up and dressed and to the church on time, but it’s so incredibly worth it. Hearing these Bible stories from another adult, hearing about how God loves them, and getting another Christian’s perspective on walking with the Lord is powerful. 

It backs up everything they are learning at home, encourages them in their faith, and exposes them to other leaders and kids like them. I have had so many mentors over the years that were my Sunday school teachers and other Christians who enhanced my understanding with their unique experiences.

#3. Talking about what the Bible says

I should actually do this more. I tend to remember when I discipline the boys. I tell them, “Hey, Mom doesn’t like to punish you, but it’s my job. God tells me to. The Bible says an undisciplined son is a shame to his parents.” And well, we all know that’s true.

I try to remember to use Biblical examples when I’m coaching them on how to handle difficult people or situations or jobs.

#4. Modeling good habits

Feel free to laugh at me here because I guarantee you I’ve taught about as many bad habits as I have good…ahem…

But that’s okay. Kids need to know that people aren’t perfect, and we have to love and accept all sorts of people and be very forgiving.

We all know “more is caught than taught.” I want my children to see me reading my Bible, see me praying, see me helping the poor, and know that I am a kind, loving person who truly believes what I’m teaching.

For example….

I remember when I was home-schooling. Caleb and I were both going through a phase where we were having trouble with our out-of-control emotions. His was probably the result of my BAD modeling because I was going through a difficult time, but at least I was able to coach him on how to control his own emotions, by learning from my own mistakes.

I said, “Caleb, you may not ever be able to master your feelings on your own. When you feel that anger start to rage, and you want to give in to it, immediately stop and pray. Pray for God to help you keep it together.”

So one day, one of my boys came in, all upset and indignant, to tell on Caleb.

“Mom! Mom! I accidentally (did whatever), and Caleb got mad, and he HIT me, and then he just got down on his knees and started PRAYING!” said the flabbergasted and deeply offended brother.

I was so happy I could have soared with the birds.

“Oh, wow! That’s wonderful!” I joyfully answered.

“What! Wonderful?? What! He HIT me!!”

“Don’t you see? It would’ve been much worse for you if he hadn’t stopped and prayed. He stopped and prayed to keep from hitting you any more. Be thankful!”

#5. Using illustrated children’s Bibles to teach them God’s Word, like the Story Traveler’s Bible.

Reading the Bible to the boys goes over a whole lot better when we use a book with mesmerizing pictures, like this one. You should’ve heard the weeping and gnashing of teeth we used to hear when Alan would make our 7, 6, and 2 year olds listen to an entire chapter of the KJV Bible straight up.

Bible time should not be torture. We’ve come a long way since then.

Allow me to introduce you to a fabulous new children’s Bible that our family is currently enjoying reading:

Includes 85 Bible stories

I love the details of the Bible stories that it includes.  Plus, it’s so helpful how she includes these memory verses in the margins!

The boys love the brightly colored illustrations by Tim Crecelius.

In fact, for a week I could not find the book, and I thought I’d looked everywhere. It finally turned up in my nine-year-old’s room, in his little reading corner.

Now that’s good silent reading material!

Look at these beautiful pages:

In this book, 3 modern boys and girls travel through time and visit all of these old Bible stories and places.

the Samson story

You can order the Story Traveler’s Bible here, on Amazon.

***When you order through links on this page, I do earn advertising fees.***

The post The Story Traveler’s Bible: 5 Easy Ways We Teach Our Children About God appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

As much as we’d love to be a Disney family, high tailing it off to Orlando a few times a year, that’s not really practical for most of us, is it? No, and even if you do, there will be plenty of time between to fill up with memories at home.

Here are 3 things I’ve found lately to have a BLAST with my children without spending much money at all and without leaving our house.

4 Almost Free Ways to Spend Time Together as a Family

Board Games

This one can be even cheaper than you think. I buy almost all of our games at Goodwill or other local thrift stores. Part of Daniel’s birthday gift this year was an Angry Birds game I found for $3.95 at Goodwill. Maybe $3.95 doesn’t sound cheap, but when you figure the whole family could play it, it was in perfect condition, and retail it would have been more like $34, it starts to sound like a steal.

This morning we paid Spongebob Monopoly, and while 3 of 4 boys quit early on from boredom, Daniel hung in there and beat me SOUNDLY.

So did everyone have fun? Sort of. Everyone did for a little while. And one of them had the special honor of beating mom. Also, he learned so much about counting money and making change.

Playing Sports Outside…..and yeah, sometimes inside

What we play depends on what they are into at the time. Last year it was always baseball. Now it’s mostly basketball, but lately we’ve been all about badminton.

Here’s my best tips for introducing your kids to badminton or tennis:

1. Buy any racquets at thrift stores. Thrift stores almost always have tennis rackets, and when you are playing at home, you can totally play badminton with big giant tennis rackets. In fact, it makes it easier for the kids to hit the birdie.
2. If you don’t have a net, designate a line on the driveway as your “net”. By the way, the one above is a nice one. You can also buy super cheap ones, but I can’t vouch for how good they will be, but they might be better than just the line on the driveway. Ha!
3. Our family just used the crack in the driveway as our “net” until we had time to go buy a net.

Most sports can be simulated at home without actually owning the equipment. In most cases, you just need a ball.

ABSOLUTELY FREE: CHARADES!!!

Alan took some papers, cut them into squares and wrote names of people we know, movies we’ve watched, and places we’ve been to on them. Then he made a paper bag for each category, and put the papers in the bags for us to draw out.

The boys LOVED it. It was more personal this way. We used family members, and then they’d act out what they’ve noticed about those family members. The cutest was when they were being their cousin Wesley, and they got on their knees, to show they were short, and then went around hugging everyone! Ha!!!

For places, we used random ones like the driveway, the pumpkin patch, and places we used to live. Just talking about it makes me want to do this again. We all laughed so much.

Include the little ones too. Just whisper in their ear how to act it out. As long as there’s one person to guess, you’re good. When toddlers get involved, I promise it will be hilarious. They may even announce to everyone who they are being, like JD does, and that’s okay.

Turn something they LOVE into a family activity!

Light sabers? Family jousting tournament

Legos? Building contest! And name a different prize for each kid. Maybe even make little construction paper ribbons.

Dancing? Dance Party.

For example, the ever so obnoxious BOTTLE FLIPPING!!

Does any mom or teacher out there not hate this activity? Why? It’s loud. It’s annoying, and it always spills water.

Did you know they make games for Bottle Flipping? As in board-game like games? They do!

 
I decided to give this a shot. This is the very first time I had ever attempted to flip a bottle, and I’m here to tell you it is way HARDER than it looked! I have new respect.

Best of all, my older boys got a real kick out of me participating in bottle flipping with them. My oldest wasn’t even going to play with us at first, but once he saw us having fun, he joined in and then insisted that we play again.

In fact, I want you all to join in on this fun, so this week we are giving the Bottle Flippin’ Game away for FREE to one of you!

***This giveaway is sponsored by the Bottle Flip Game.***

I love giveaways!!!

To enter just Log in with Facebook or your email below, and click one of the options. If you have trouble, just send me your email address, and I’ll enter ya.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Good luck!!!

The post 4 Almost Free Ways to Spend Time Together as a Family + Giveaway appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

Our family is living on a budget for the first time…..since 8 years ago when we read that Dave Ramsey book.

This year was a huge change. We went from paying about $3,000/year in school tuitions to Classical Conversations and preschool to paying about $15,000/year total in private school tuitions. That’s two full school tuitions plus a partial one for my kindergartener, who has a partial scholarship. It was a big jump. We realized we were going to have to make major changes in how we live to pay for all of this.

These tips will help you for sure. I do realize $15,000 would only pay for one child’s tuition in a large city. At the time that I wrote this we lived in Georgia, where the cost of living is lower.

I want to share what we are doing to pay for private school:

#1. We down-sized our house.

We went from a 5-bedroom home in luxurious Monterey, California to a 3-bedroom home in Georgia. The difference is so vast, but I’ve actually enjoyed this change! No more stairs to go up and down. Hmmm Maybe that’s why I’ve gained weight….Plus, our new house still comfortably fits us. It has everything we need, and it came with a way better backyard, so this was not a hardship. This was a win. We only lost about 500 square feet, so we ditched a room or two worth of furniture, and all is well.

We do have four kids in a 3-bedroom house, but only one of them complained, and I think it’s good for them.

#2. I took on a part-time writing gig with MontereyPremier.com in September, and I resumed product reviews and sponsored posts here on Stories of Our Boys.

Every little bit helps, and I’m still spoiled because I’m working from home. I still get to be with my three-year-old all day long. I can still cook dinner by 12 pm, and I’m able to pick up the boys from school every day. The only hitch is that I literally get paid by how much I work, so if I spend my day jumping on the trampoline with JD, baking, and sweeping, I don’t actually make any money at all. Ha….yeah, that happens a lot..

#3. We cut the bi-weekly cleaning lady, the gym, the pest control service, and the lawn care service.

Yes, we would like to have ALL of those services, but they are a luxury, not a necessity.

#4. We are “making do” with things that we would like to replace, and saving up money to replace them later, rather than spending all we have or taking on a car payment.

My minivan?

It’s a 2007. One of the doors has taken on a mind of its own, so you now have to do these special maneuvers to get it to close, and if you do it wrong it will go “Ding. Ding. Ding!” Only it won’t start all that dinging until AFTER the car is driving, so then you have to find a place to pull over and shut that door to save your sanity. Also, the defroster is having issues. I guess that’s what paper towels are for.

The minivan is paid for, and the engine runs perfectly. Just don’t stand in the trunk putting away groceries too long because it will randomly start to close the trunk door on your head. Nice little adrenaline rush as you quickly remove all body parts and small children out of the way!!!

However, we are thankful that we have two cars that run. That van has never broken down, and it has 4 good tires. We’ll make do another year.

My mattress? 

It’s 14 years old, and my hips were starting to hate, hate, hate my flattened out old mattress. It wasn’t giving much anymore. Soooo…we bought a $25 quilted mattress cover. That didn’t help much. Then we bought a $15 egg crate and put that on top of the quilted mattress cover, and we’re good again! That’ll buy us another year, I’m hoping.

Our sofa?

Well….we’ve only had it for 3 years, but it got ripped in a few places with the move. I don’t even know how because it was all wrapped and padded. I have no idea why we didn’t put in a claim on it while we had the chance, but we didn’t, so now we are stuck with a sofa that’s all hurt looking and sad.

It’s on my list to get replaced first, but not until Christmas is taken care of. Here’s hoping for a new sofa in January or February!

#5. My favorite part: Yard Sale-ing!!!

You might recall that my parents had a house fire this year, so when we moved down here I started going to yard sales with my folks. It is so addictive!!!

Here’s a list of some of my amazing finds:

-2 benches for $10 each

-Large Coach bag in PERFECT condition–for only $25!!!

-5 pairs of boys size 14 blue jeans for $2 a pair! Wow!

ladies shirts $1/shirt

-yoga pants $1

-Mom got a computer chair for $5!

-Sunglasses $1

-Baseball themed ceiling fan for half of what you’d pay in the store–I can’t remember how much! But it’s in one of the bedrooms at my parents’ new house now!

-Countless costumes, toys, books, and games

Yard Sales are my new hobby. I’m all about it.

Now I do realize that many people are into the Facebook yard sales now, the perpetual bargain fares. But have you noticed how over-priced they are? I can rarely save much over what I’d pay retail on those sites. Yard sales are still my favorite.

Thrift stores can be good too. I recently bought a nice set of shelves for only $15, plus a bag of AR books, all at Goodwill.

#6. Buying groceries at Aldi

I’m not a coupon-er, so I have to find the absolute most affordable place to go grocery shopping. Aldi is the cheapest store near me. The commissary is usually a great deal too, if you are military. But the best way to find out what place has the most affordable food is to shop a different store each week and make a comparison chart. When we lived in Texas, I was surprised to realize that Walmart actually was the cheapest, even better than the commissary!

I hope I’ve given you some ideas here for ways to stretch your budget.

We are constantly looking for more ideas! Please share in the comments or email if you have more ideas for how you save money! How do you “make do” and find discounts?

Editorial Update:

The next year we added our youngest son, which brought this to 4 kids in private school. Thankfully, half day preschool was much cheaper than regular private school. We stuck to these same principles to make it work. 

For more Money Saving Strategies, check out my other articles on this:

How to Save Money Using Dealspotr.com

Where to Find Cheap Food: A Comparison of Grocery Stores

How to Save Money on Makeup & Skincare

The post How To Pay For Private School: Changes We Made To Make It Work” appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.