Persistence: My Word for 2017

The Christmas presents have all been opened, the grandparents have all been visited, the cousins have been played with, and the tree…..well, the tree is still up. It’s pretty. I’m reluctant to take it down. And today is New Year’s Eve. Time to pick a goal, a resolution, a plan!!! Or as my adorable little boys say, “It’s time for our New Year’s revolution!” That makes me smile every time. So did you set goals? I have goals in mind, […]

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Our Top 10 Stories from 2016: The Drama Year

Christmas is over, and boy, was it a good one. In the photo above, all 4 boys were watching the clock intently. Christmas truly is magical for children. I’m so thankful for a Christmas when my kids were healthy, we didn’t have to fly, there were no funerals to attend, and all went smoothly. Now on to the new year! 2016 was all about drama. Yep. Drama. I’m hoping 2017 will be more about persistence and less about big things […]

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“Get help when you need it” is my new motto.

Y’all know it was a rough year for me, physically. Thankfully, everything turned out to be mostly okay. I just have a few chronic conditions to manage, but it’s all under control now, and I have a good outlook. A brilliant thought came to me the other week, as I was putting on my rain boots, Alan’s rain jacket, and heading out to shut the trashcan lid and bring it in from the pouring rain. “What am I doing??? Why […]

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When Alan gets home from New Jersey tonight

Remember how I said that Alan wasn’t going on any business trips in December? Of course, I was wrong. This week turned out to be New Jersey week. You might think that a 14 year Army wife veteran such as myself would not sweat short business trips. I’ve been through more than one year-long deployment, several months-long assignments or deployments, and too many short trips to count. You might even think that I should be so tough as to enjoy […]

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Moving Day, the Surprise Party, and the Power of Good Neighbors

On Friday night, I snuck into my home town. My parents were expecting me at 8:45pm, but truthfully I arrived at 7:30 or so, but I didn’t want them to know that. They were still staying at the rental house, but I did not go straight to the rental house. I went by my childhood friend, Kristy’s, house. We were on a mission, you see. I grew up playing with Kristy and the other neighborhood kids. Kristy’s grandparents lived next […]

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What’s this Bible journaling craze all about?

I can see why Bible journaling is so popular right now. You can express yourself, learn scriptures, and create a visual in your mind that helps you learn your Bible better, all through Bible journaling. It’s definitely something worth trying out.

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7 Unexpected Ways Life Changed When We Quit Homeschooling

For the past two years, I home-schooled my four boys. Now that sentence alone should clue you in to the great difficulties I was up against: 4 BOYS, home-schooled! Add that to the fact that I don’t enjoy teaching, and it was a sort of a pressure-cooker for my heart. The stress was too much for me personally. I gave it up, and enrolled my children in a Christian school this year. It was a change I had to make […]

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How To Pay For Private School: Changes We Made To Make It Work”

how to pay for private school

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 […]

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Cyber Monday Gratitude GIVEAWAY!!!!!

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 […]

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2016 Christmas Gift Guide for Tween Boys, Ages 8-12

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.)             […]

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