Funny... Insulting Gifts From a Mother-in-Law

Growing up my favorite game show to watch was Family Fued. It is now Baby Girl's favorite as well. How funny is that? I didn't even encourage it. She just started watching it recently and informed me that it was her favorite.

Tonight she was watching it and one of the surveys was "Name a gift that might be insulting if a woman received it from her mother-in-law". I got SO tickled at some of the answers so I thought I'd share them here. (For the record, I guessed 4 of them correctly!)

1. Cookbook
2. Cleaning Supplies
3. Lingerie/Clothes
4. Diet Pills/Gym
5. Deodorant
6. C*ndoms
7. Kitchen Appliance (Hey, I'd just say "Cha Ching" to this one! LOL)

Have you ever received anything from your mother-in-law that you could add to this list? I'd love to hear about it!

Keeping the Home in Homeschooling

Laura has an awesome article posted on her blog today about home-centered learning. Here's just a few short excerpts...

"Too many parents see their homes only through the lenses of institutional education. Rather than finding joy and freedom in their homeschooling experience, they find themselves in bondage to cultural models of education defined by textbooks, workbooks, classrooms, age-grade norms, testing and grading.

Fortunately, we discovered early in our homeschool experience that textbooks and formal curricula are artificial means of education. Rather than unleashing learning potential, they hold it back. For us as parents, they created a false security that we were doing enough, and a false confidence that our children were really learning. For our children, they created a false dependency on formal methods of learning, and a false distinction between learning and living. Conventional classroom methods diluted the wonder and joy of real learning, turning it into a tedious and burdensome task unrelated to real life at home.

On the other hand, our children naturally loved reading and being read to, talking about their own insights and ideas, learning through real life, and having lots of time to explore and learn on their own. The more we studied Scripture and observed our children, the more confident we became that this was how God designed children to live and learn. It was the liberation of learning in our home!

Your home can and should be a warm, vibrant place where your children love to learn as freely and as naturally as they love to play."

And my favorite quote from this article describes exactly how we feel about our homeschooling in our home...

"we can honestly say that there is no distinction in our home school between home and school - we are living to learn and learning to live all at the same time."

To read the rest of this article, go here.

Coupon Overload!

They say experience is the best teacher and I have to admit, I've learned this particular lesson the hard way.

Never again will I let my coupons pile up. Oh. My. Gosh. I have just spent the past THREE DAYS clipping through months of coupon inserts (including many duplicates), separating and organizing them, and then placing them in my new coupon binder that I copied off of Alyssa. I have to say, I think that I'm really going to like this new system! I had been simply writing the date of the inserts with a big, bold marker on the front and clipping just the ones I needed to take on my planned store trips.

However, most of my trips to the store are, SURPRISE, not planned. So those stacks of coupon inserts were doing nothing more than taking up space and making a mess. They certainly weren't helping me save any money, which is kinda the whole reason for having coupons.

Now I can easily see what coupons I have any time I need to. Since my grocery budget has recently been reduced, I'm really hoping this will help me save more than I have in the past. Its funny how when you have a large grocery budget you don't really think about trying to save as much money as you can but take that excess money down to a more reasonable amount and boy oh boy does it become REALLY important to get the best bargains you can. I should have been doing that all along!

Anyway, I'll let you know how it goes!

12 Things You Should Not Do to Your Husband

Doug Phillips from Vision Forum has a great post on his blog that puts into words pretty much how I feel about women and their role within the home and marriage. I know many see this as being old fashioned, but God's word never changes and obedience to it brings forth blessings.

I see SO many women today treating their husbands as if they are idiots and talking to them like they are children. This irritates me quicker than just about anything. Baby Girl enjoys watching a particular show on TV but the one thing neither of us can stand is the way the wife talks to her husband. It has provided many opportunities for us to discuss how wives should and should not speak to their husbands. This first quote from Doug's blog entry titled "12 Things You Should Not Do to Your Husband" is what caught my attention...

DO NOT treat your husband as one of your children. You are not running the household; he is. So no matter how busy you think you are or how many tasks you might have to perform at once you should not address your husband in this way: “Honey come here! Do this! Hold that! Grab this! Deal with this or that!” Now I am all for asking our husbands for help when he is available to give it, but bossing him around is not becoming to a wife. We must conduct ourselves as his help meet and not treat him as if the reverse were true.

Go here to read the rest.

If You've Ever Felt Sad or Tired for No Reason...

Then you might want to try Levity Vitamins. I have a hard time making it through the winter months without dealing with a bit of depression, SAD they call it (Seasonal Affectivness Disorder I think) and taking Levity Vitamins help me feel more normal! My family LOVE Levity...LOL!

Here is a quote from their website...

"Millions of women don't feel their best and don't know why. They're not outright depressed, but they aren't really happy either. They eat too much or have gained weight lately. They find it hard to concentrate or have trouble sleeping. They feel tense, anxious, or irritable, or they're highly sensitive to criticism. They're tired and not very interested in sex (or even everyday life)."

They also have a book entitled "When Your Body Gets the Blues" and you can get a new hardback copy for FREE! It is really eye-opening about why women's bodies go through different emotions, why we feel the way we do and how to help feel better. I have this book and highly recommend it if you've ever dealt with feelings of depression or struggle to make it through those long, dreary winter months.

(And no, I don't make anything by telling you about this. I just thought it might help other moms out there enjoy their families a little more).

Possible Help for Hot Flashes

I am often the hottest one in the house and I know it's due to my hormones being out of whack. I just can't wait for menopause to hit! (Sarcastically rolling my eyes on that one).

I just read that someone who suffered for years with hot flashes started taking Bee Pollen and has been flash-free for years now! So, I thought I'd pass on this tidbit, hoping it might help someone. If you've tried this and it has worked for you please let us know.

I'm In The Potter's Hands

There was a couple who loved to visit England and shop in the beautiful stores. They both liked antiques and pottery, especially tea cups.

One day in a tiny shop they saw an exquisite tea cup. "Oh! May we look at that one?" they asked. "We've never seen one quite so beautiful."

As the lady handed it to them, suddenly the tea cup spoke.

"I haven't always been a tea cup, you know. There was a time when I was raw, ugly clay. But my master picked me up, molded me and squeezed me over and over until I cried out, 'Let me alone!' But he only smiled, 'Not yet.'

"Then he placed me on a wheel," the tea cup continued, "and suddenly I was spun around and around and around. 'Stop it! I'm getting dizzy!' I screamed. But the master said, 'Not yet.'

"Next he put me in the oven. I never imagined such heat. I wondered why he wanted to incinerate me, and I yelled and knocked at the door. I could see him through the window and I could read his lips as He shook his head, 'Not yet.'

"Finally the door opened. He took me out of the oven and put me on the shelf to cool. 'There, that's better,' I breathed.

"But my relief didn't last very long, because the next thing I knew, he was brushing me and painting me all over. The fumes were horrible. I thought I would gag.

"'Stop it, stop it!' I begged. He only nodded, 'Not yet.'

"Then suddenly he put me back into the oven, but this was much worse than the first time. This time the oven was twice as hot and I knew that I would suffocate. I begged. I pleaded. I screamed. I cried. All the time I could see him through the opening shaking his head saying, 'Not yet.'

"Then I realized there was no hope. I would never make it. I was ready to give up.

"At that moment, the door finally opened and he took me out and set me gently back on the shelf. Then, an hour later he handed me a mirror and said, 'Now look at yourself.'

"Curiously I peered into the mirror--and gasped at my reflection, 'That's not me!" I exclaimed, "It can't be me! It's beautiful!'

"'I want you to understand,' he said, 'that I know how much it hurts to be molded and shaped, but if I had stopped, you would have dried into an ugly lump of clay. I know that it made you dizzy to spin around on the wheel, but if I had stopped, you would have crumpled. I know that it hurt and was hot and disagreeable in the oven, but if I hadn't put you there, you would have had no strength. I know that the fumes were terrible when I brushed and painted you, but if I hadn't done that, you would have never reached your potential, nor would you have developed your own beautiful character. And if I hadn't put you back into the oven the second time, you would have eventually leaked and your color would have faded away. But now you are a strong, beautiful teacup fit for use at the finest table.'

"'You are now what I had in mind when I first formed you.'"

"Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you; but rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ's sufferings, that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy." (I Peter 4:12-13)