Velocity Church Camp

So, tomorrow I leave for Velocity, our church camp in Gambier, Ohio. I have to pack for Tyler and Grant before I leave. They don't leave until Saturday. I have to say, I have prayed and fasted for this trip to be a safe, life changing experience for everyone who goes. I will not be blogging until I get back. That will be so hard for me, not to share with you daily the amazing things going on. I will have plenty to say when I get back. So, I will return to the blog next Friday, if I survive the week. Two words, no air conditioning.

That is actually stated in the brochure, "bring a fan to cool your room, there is no air conditioning. Should be interesting as here in the midwest, humidity is king. I think cool showers will be a daily thing for me. Pray for me and the other leaders and the kiddos. I have declared my room to be the snack room, so I must stock up.

Have a great week. God bless you and yours.

Little League Baseball and the dreams of our youth

So my Grantie Bear has made a tournament team. Very exciting. If they go all the way, they could be on ESPN. The coaches assure me that this probably will not happen. The other teams in our area have played together for four to five years and we have had one practice. In our township, this is new, so we are the babies of the league.

This opens up a whole new can of worms that I think we should all discuss. Tournament teams, travel teams, private coaching, all that jazz. Obviously, I am not against it, but where do you draw the line? My sister spent $5,000.00 one summer for her daughter to be on a travel softball team that "promised" scouts to be at the games. She was scouted at one of her high school games. They traveled, spent money on hotels and gas and stuff and at the end of the day, was not quite sure it was worth it.

How much money do you have to spend for your child to get a possible college scholarship in a sport? Do they really need private coaching? Is Little league enough to get them ready for school ball? Tyler played for a school for the first time this year. He learned a lot, and showed the coaches his heart for the game. I think that is key. Heart. Where is your kid's heart in all of this? Are we forcing our dreams onto our kids?

I see those beauty pageant moms with those dressed up, poofed up, fake teeth wearing little girls on the reality shows and want to cry. They are fake tanning, fake hairing, fake teeth wearing little girls with more make-up on than I wear in a week. And I wear make-up every day. Two thousand dollars for a dress they can only wear once? Strutting and shaking things that have yet to grow in? And in the end, every one of them has said they were tired and wanted to go home. The moms have the nerve to say it's for college money. Okay, take the two grand you just spent on costumes and stick that in a college fund. The poor child will make more for college that way than if you spend all that money carting her around to little state pageants. Yikes. Scary, scary stuff.

I try to be very careful to make sure my children want to do what they sign up for. Tatum would sign up for fifteen things a semester if she could. She has done dance, gymnastics, girlscouts and many other things. Nothing has stuck. And that's okay, if she finds something she loves, she will stick with it and I will support her. Tyler and Grant have played baseball for more years than I can count, and they love it. But if they came to me next year and said they did not want to play, that would be okay.

The things we enroll our children in are supposed to enhance their lives, not take over their lives. The tournament team tryouts were just that and Grant made it and we are proud of him. I hope they go far, but in reality, this being their first year, that probably will not happen.

Where do you draw the line in your house about extra curricular activities? Do your kids enjoy what they are doing? Let me know.

God bless you and yours.

Too busy to blog.

So, today, I have six appointments regarding four children and myself. I cannot blog, I am too busy. I also work six hours today. So, I will see you all here tomorrow.

God bless you and yours.

Budgets, a necessary evil..........

So, my dear husband and I have always had a love/hate relationship when it comes to money. I love to spend it, he hates to spend it. When we made the move to Michigan, we made some serious decisions regarding our family and our finances. Money was no longer king, and we shifted our focus to God and our family. We simplified our lives and got closer to God in the process.

On Saturday, after a nice breakfast out, we decided we had to firmly write down our finances and create a budget. It is a little scary writing it all down. What you really spend a month will stagger you. My program on my Macbook was very helpful. What I found out was I needed to trim $350.00 off our food budget and find another $300.00 a month to live. So basically, I need to find $650.00 a month and not dip into our savings.

Interesting. The food budget I think I can do, because, quite frankly, I fly by the seat of my pants in that department. What sounds good today? Oh, I will just pick that up for tomorrow type of stuff. I have to create a menu and buy what is on sale. The end. I will shop the specials, cut coupons and eliminate waste. Which, we all know, I should have been doing in the first place. Finding the extra $300.0o a month is going to be a bit challenging. I could sell one of the kids, but I am sort of attached to the little buggers. I am going to open up my schedule at work and see if that helps. Scott is going to work a little harder and we are going to tighten our belts.

Better to do this now, then try to catch up later. I have always been for a budget, Scott not so much, but is coming around. He always felt if we had, let's say, $200.00 for food, we would spend it all instead of not spending that much. I have changed his mind. We have had friends do the envelope system. That works too so much money in said envelope for said costs. Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover is a great place to start if you need some help in the budget department. You do have to budget fun. If all you do is drudgery, you won't stick to your budget. Period. You just can't eat at the fancy steakhouse every weekend. Unless you have a two for one coupon, a gift card and someone else is splitting the check.

In these trying times, we all have to get creative with our finances. We need to listen to our elders, who survived the Great Depression and use it again, save it, recycle it, or use it up. We are going to tighten our belts and get the last little drop out of the toothpaste. We have become a wasteful nation and we need to go back to the basics.

What do you do to save household money? Share the love and the ideas, we all need some help.

God bless you and yours.

The Chore Jar

So my fifteen year old is sassy and privately, he cracks me up. He just told me last night that I had to pick from the chore jar because I had yelled. That meant, because he was back talking, that he had to pick from the chore jar. Which brought up a unique debate. My oldest could be an amazing lawyer if he did not want to be a youth pastor. Let's all take a moment and praise God that he wants to be a youth pastor.

He can argue six sides of an argument, all of them successfully and make you believe he believes in all six sides. Case in point. He wears many t-shirts regarding his faith to school. There was a boy who had to change a satanic t-shirt. Tyler argued that if that child believed in Satan the way he believed in Christ, what was the difference in their civil rights of wearing t-shirts promoting their individual "faith". The basic argument challenged his and my mind and I walked away worried that he might be falling from his faith. He laughed and said he didn't believe in what the kid's shirt said, just that the kid had the same rights as him. Amazing.

So, bring this child (at fifteen he is still a child) into the realm of chores and the chore jar. The debates could kill a lesser person. Now if he debates, he gets a chore. He is too smart for his britches, as my dear departed grandma would say. I love that he is so smart and using his brain for good and not evil, at least most of the time. I do have to watch it though, he has my memory, which is long and vast.

So the chore jar works, the house is cleaner and the kids are falling in line. Any questions? They learn to hate the chore jar, so they learn to get along and do what they are supposed to, so they can avoid the chore jar. Easy peasy. Mostly.

What quirky personality thing does your child do? Share the love.

God bless you and yours.

Father's day

So, I just realized that Sunday is Father's day and my dad lives two thousand miles from me and I have yet to mail him a gift. Not good. It will be late. And what do you get a man who says he has everything he needs? I usually go gift card, they mail in a card quite easily. I am taking the kids to get Scott's gift today. He is tough too, the kids have some funny ideas, so the trip should be hilarious.

My dad has always cherished my mom. A true love story that has been a blessing to watch. Not always perfect, but willing to work through the tough times. Through that, I know, with all my heart that he has always loved us kids. My sister, brother and myself. There has never been a doubt that we were loved. There may not always have been tons of money or vacations and stuff, but there was always love. My dad is a hard worker and now at almost 80 years of age, his biggest regret is that he cannot wake up feeling 29 every morning. He does not like being sick or getting old, but so go the sands of time.

I consider my father a gift to our family. His work ethic, the way he worked to get his degree while working full time and supporting a family. His love for his roses. His love for his family. His refusal to ever give up on any of us kids. He is a good man and I am a daddy's girl. Always have been. So what to get this amazing man. He is not without faults, we all have them, but his love has never wavered. I think I am stuck with gift certificate again. Not very original, but will have to do.

What is your favorite memory of your father? Funny? Touching? Loving? Crazy? Share the love.

God bless you and yours.

Off to the Library

Or Libarry as the case may be.  We make our children, or rather encourage rather strongly,  to read for half an hour every day.  Today being my first day off since they have been out of school, it is library day.  As an avid reader, all I have to say is YEAH!

Here in Michigan, well in Macomb Township, there is this library of epic proportions.  I love it.  It is like all the libraries in all the movies.  Enormous and wonderful.  I go and get some books, the kids get books and movies.  You can check out movies for free people.  If you don't mind waiting until it gets donated or bought, you can see some newer stuff, just not on the day if was released on DVD.  When I realized we were spending close to forty dollars a month renting movies, we went to just the library.  If you like movies like we do, that is too much money to be spending.  So we check out movies from the library and buy they ones we know we want for our collections.  Saving money makes great cents (teehee).

So I am off to take a shower, eat a little breakfast and go to the library.  Love it.  As it is raining out, I know the place will be packed with moms and kids.  All the better.

What is one of your favorite, free things to do in the summer with the kids?  Let me know and share the love.

God bless you and yours.