When I was a child, I loved Valentine’s Day. No, not really just Valentine’s Day. I loved ALL the holidays. I never liked those questions where people ask you which is your favorite. As a kid people often ask you your favorite things.

“What’s your favorite color?”

“Favorite holiday?”

“Favorite food?”

I have the same problem with all three of these questions, which no one asks you when you’re an adult, until you have children. Then your children ask you these questions. Of course, they add on things like:

“What’s your favorite animal?”

“Favorite dinosaur? Second favorite? Third favorite?”

I must be the most boring person ever, because I never did know how to answer these questions. My favorite book is Anne of Green Gables, and my favorite boy is Alan, so I married him. All the colors are beautiful, food is delicious, all the food, and holidays? I sort of live for holidays these days.

I think things like, “What holiday is next that I need a wreath for?”

“Who is the next person I have to buy a present? Who’s birthday is next?”

“Wait. Are we close to Christmas? What season is it even?”

So do I like Valentine’s Day? Yes, I’ve written about this before. I do not even care if the holiday was created by greeting card companies. The people who complain about this holiday are usually just men who are too cheap to buy flowers and chocolates. It is a day to exchange chocolate, go out to eat, and tell people you love them. What’s not to love?

Well, yes, there’s the whole single person thing, but when I was single I do not remember Valentine’s Day bothering me. I mean my mom still bought me those little boxes of conversations hearts, so really I was happy.

In school, we always decorated our little white bag with construction paper hearts, exchanged store-bought paper Valentines, and ate cupcakes and drank fruit punch. Wahooo! Happy Valentine’s Day to us!!!

We don’t do anything elaborate for this holiday. We exchange pleasantries in the form of Russell Stover’s, and we order take out food because we hate crowds. Some years I cook something everyone likes and make strawberry cake. It’s all very simple and exciting.

I do have a couple of ideas for what I want to do this year. This has been quite a challenging school year, and we need pick-me-ups in the form of holidays on the regular. I made a video earlier today to talk about Valentine’s Day as well as the books I have been reading lately. Of course, it froze on a less-than flattering photo, so mash play, and you won’t have to keep seeing my face looking all rough.

The Date Night Coupon Printable

I mentioned these in the video, but I got cut off. You see, I have this timer that lets me know I have spent too much time on Facebook, and it always kicks on at the most inopportune of times, like in the middle of filming. Click here to print these date night coupons for yourself. I noticed you have to scroll down to the very bottom of the blog post to print the coupons, and you can choose pre-printed ones or ones that say “Date Night” but then you fill in whatever you want the date to be.

I actually got that whole date night idea from the TheMessyBunMommie.com, if you would like to check out her blog.

Basically, my plan is to make this upcoming Valentine’s weekend the best I can make it. Moving has been such a hard transition. I can’t even explain to you how hard uprooting one’s world over and over again is, and we need all the holidays we can get. This year’s will actually be extra special because Daniel and John David are getting baptized this week.

Whatever year I’m in, that year is my favorite, so I’m calling this year my best one, and I am determined it will be. Much love to all of you! Go paint things pink and eat chocolate.

“But love ye your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again; and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be the children of the Highest: for he is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil.”

Jesus in Luke 6:35

I’m linking up with Finish the Sentence Friday. “Favorite or Worst Valentine’s Days”

The post An Easy and Happy Valentine’s Day appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

How’s everyone’s Cyber Monday going? Ours was great. We did no shopping, but I did go to my cardio aqua-therapy class!!  So fun and invigorating!

This giveaway is for two packs of fill-in-the-blank notes from Lil’ Miss Gratitude!!  One of your packs will be thank-yous, and the other pack will either be birthday cards or “Hello” cards.

The front of the cards come blank so your kids color the front, or you can also send them out uncolored! These are appropriate for ALL AGES of kids.

I colored this one!

My boys colored this one. Creative.

These are an awesome way to get your kids expressing gratitude, brightening someone else’s day, and all without the whining and fussing.

Here’s a sample of a completed card:

Sample of a “hello” card that we used as a thank you note.

Joshua needed to write about 12 thank you notes after his birthday party, and when he saw these fill-in-the-blank cards, he was so relieved, he ACTUALLY SAID, “Oh, phew. Thank you, Mom. Thank you so much for these. This makes it so much easier.”

Click here to learn more about Lil’ Miss Gratitude!

Giveaway rules! TWO simple ways to enter the giveaway this time.

1.) Subscribe to my newsletter. I have one going out this week! Already subscribed? No problem. That also counts. No need to subscribe again. Just click on the giveaway form below.

OR

2.) Visit Lil’ Miss Gratitude on Facebook, and  give her a “Like.” 

OR You could also do BOTH and get double entries.

I wish you could all win! Merry Christmas!!!!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

The post Cyber Monday Gratitude GIVEAWAY!!!!! appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

Top Pre-Teen Boy Picks: Ages ~8-12

#1. Popular Video Games this Christmas:

Our sons don’t have any of these yet, and all three are on my oldest’s list. His nonna has already claimed the basketball one, and I took care of the Skylanders, thanks to this incredible deal that Amazon is running right now on it. (That’s a link that’ll take you to it. So yes, this whole page is chock full of affiliate links.)

#2. Cards, cards, and more cards!!!

Both of my oldest two boys (ages 9 and 11) are crazy about these. Here’s a link to some card holders too because their collections get massive quickly.

#3. Books my boys have asked for:

The latest Wimpy Kid book is HALF OFF on Amazon this week! I’m sure we’ll be completing our collection…

Epic Big Nate: This one is NOT on sale, and it’s $32. Youch. It’s an overview of Peirce’s career progression with Big Nate. I’m not sure that it has any cartoons in it that haven’t already been read, so we will be holding out on this one, but if you have a die-hard fan, like our son Joshua, it would still be a hit.

The Big Book of Who is $12.50, and has enough pictures to be a major hit for kids who love basketball and love memorizing sports stats.

This one is only $9, and it’s an excellent story of a boy overcoming adversity through hard work to become an NBA star. 

#4. Sports Team Apparel

This is the first year that sports team apparel has made both Joshua and Caleb’s lists. Clothes! They actually want clothes! Joshua wants (yet another) ball cap, and Caleb wants a Bryce Harper jersey. And our sports teams are all over the place because we move so much, but that’s okay. Here are the ones my boys want. Of course, the Braves and Georgia Bulldogs are more popular where I live. What team do your neighborhood kids root for?

#5. Well, actually, who DOESN’T want a drone this year???

This one is the Star Wars remote control Tie Fighter Drone, per Caleb’s specifications!

#6. A New Bat (or sports equipment in general)

#7. Lego

Lego sets are still a safe bet for some boys, but not others. Caleb still loves them. They weren’t at the top of the list this year. However, they do get excited about the Legos that you can do robotics with, the kind that have moving parts.

The very affordable Star Wars build able figures are still a hit.

And then there’s these, for the mechanically inclined:

Buyer beware: It’s $200. This is just a pipe dream for most of our kids. Ha!

But they do make these:  

These are only $30, and you can add these motors to Lego creations that they already have or make to go with it. 

#8. A Mega Nerf Gun

We refuse to buy any more of them because our boys have way too many, and yet it still turned up on Caleb’s Christmas list, yet again. Caleb has this one, and it is pretty amazing:

Toys we’ve graduated from:

–Hotwheels (sad, I know)

–Super Hero Toys

–costumes

This age group is mostly past the above toys. My younger boys love them, though!

I hope at least one of these ideas will be helpful for you. Please always feel free to share with me what types of articles you’d like to see on the blog or the newsletter.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

The post 2016 Christmas Gift Guide for Tween Boys, Ages 8-12 appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

A peacock, who sits on his feathers, is just another turkey.

Life is so much more fun when you quit worrying about what others think of you. It’s not about “me” anyway.

The other week I sang a solo at church. It used to make me ridiculously nervous.

Why does it make us nervous to do something we love in front of other people?

Because there are people! And they are watching! And what if your hair is messed up, or there’s lipstick on your teeth, or you miss a note?

But what if you don’t? What if you just stomp on all of those thoughts, embrace the very soul inside yourself, and just do it!

That’s what I did the other week. I had all these doctor appointments and mystery health problems hanging over my head, and something about it all pushed me over that selfish ledge that has eluded me. I managed to hop that fence, you know, the one that stands between caring and not caring about what anyone else will say.

Plop! There I was on the other side of that fence, and it felt amazing! I stood there, it was the most empowering thing to just not worry, and I sang my heart out to Jesus, just as if I were in my very own shower.

I was not nervous because it wasn’t about me anymore.

Who cares if someone out there chuckles about me? Good. Glad they got a laugh. Serving isn’t about me. It’s about giving what I have.

Have fun with life!

Ha! I bet some of you wonder why I’m always sharing my crazy crap on the internet.

It’s worth it, y’all. Do what you love, and shamelessly share it. It may even turn into income for you. I turn away work now all the time because I’m still too busy with all of my children to take on outside work, but I’m still here, writing and sharing, maintaining what I enjoy. Income opportunities can be taken care of later, when I have time for that.

I believe in not putting pressure on yourself to “have it all.” Maybe you can have it all throughout your lifetime, but why stress yourself out going for all of it at once? Where’s the fun in that?

I wish I could go back to the sweet, timid, 23-year-old me. I would tell her, “Who cares if you don’t have a job and don’t know what you want to be? You’re happy being a wife and cooking and keeping house. Master that, and don’t worry about what anyone else says. There will be so much time to work a career and raise children in due time.”

Life is too short to impress people who won’t be impressed anyway.

I’m going to spend this weekend praising and thanking God for this beautiful life that I have been given. We are going to hang out as a family, going to birthday parties and basketball games. I’ll probably eat and talk too much and accomplish precious little. The kids will be loud. John David will follow me around. People will always be asking me, “What about dinner?” It will be glorious.

For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ.  Galatians 1:10

Romans 12:6-8 

 

We all have different gifts, each of which came because of the grace God gave us. The person who has the gift of prophecy should use that gift in agreement with the faith. 7 Anyone who has the gift of serving should serve. Anyone who has the gift of teaching should teach. 8 Whoever has the gift of encouraging others should encourage. Whoever has the gift of giving to others should give freely. Anyone who has the gift of being a leader should try hard when he leads. Whoever has the gift of showing mercy to others should do so with joy.

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