Week 3: Created To Be His Help Meet

Chapter 3: A Thankful Spirit
'A wise woman sets a joyful mood in her home. Through laughter, music, and happy times, she creates a positive attitude in her children. She knows that a lighthearted home relieves her husband of stress.'

Yikes, another chapter directed at me!!! I've really got to work on my poor-me attitude and get myself a merry heart!! :D There is so much good wisdom in this chapter, I will be quoting a lot of it. :)

'Discontentment is not a product of circumstances; it us the state of the soul.'

'Thankful people have a view of life that begins somewhere deep in their soul, and outside circumstances just can't mar their joy. To them, life is a wonderful, continuous dream come true. All of life is blesses, and they see themselves as being in a continual feast.'

Joy begins with thankfulness. Quite often our attitudes hang in the balance; by making a a conscious choice, we can tip our souls into dark moods of complaining, or into thankfulness and praise. It is amazing how much your mouth controls your soul. You can smile with your mouth and say, "Thank you, God; thank you, husband; thank you, children," and your spirit is directed into gratitude with joy following. Thankfulness is how you think; joy is the abundance it produces.'

'Most people have practiced hitting the notes of bitterness, sourness, hurt feelings, and frustration so long that their soul finds the discordant notes easily, almost without thought. But you don't have to keep on practicing discord; you can practice joy and thanksgiving just as easily, and certainly with more pleasure. Every day, every right response makes the fingers of your soul find the notes of joy and thanksgiving easier and easier...'

'Learn to enjoy life. Be thankful. Smile. When you catch yourself becoming irritated or disturbed at circumstances, stop and laugh at the little things that steal your peace. Count your blessings and learn to be appreciative.'

"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law" (Galatians 5:22-23)

'Phil 4:6 tells us to "be careful for nothing," which is to say, don't worry and fret about everything being just perfect, but be content with what you have.'
WOW, that is exactly what I need to remember and start doing!!! I'm a total perfectionist and I often get frustrated when things don't go perfectly!!! I am working on this and praying that God helps me become a content and thankful help meet!!! :D

another awesome deal!!

So, my girls love the Signing Time dvd's and ask for them every day!!

I am signed up to get emails on discounts and specials. Well, I got one and they are having an after Thanksgiving deals on their website, check it out.

Today's deal is get 50% off any orders over $25. I wanted to get vol 1 for my girls and my mom wanted to get vol 2 for my sisters, so we put our order together and saved!!! :)

Together we bought 26 dvd's for $294.27!! woo, hoo :D

Thanksgiving

Spent a good day with Mat's parents and stuffed ourselves and played Sorry, girls against boys, both won a game and then played Canasta and the girls whooped the boys!!!! Fun times :)

Thankful that we get to go down to my parents for a couple days for Thanksgiving!!

Now I'm going to clean the house, pack, put up Christmas decorations, make dinner, then get ready to leave for parents house. :)

Week 2: Created To Be His Help Meet

Chapter 2: A Merry Heart
"A merry heart doeth good like a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones"
(Prov. 17:22)

Yikes, this one is going to be a tough one for me already!! lol
I've always had a hard time being happy with what I have and catch myself getting upset/angry over little things that bug me so.

Proverbs 15:13 says, "A merry heart maketh a cheerful countenance..."
'Everyone is drawn to a smile. Who and what you are is reflected in your face.'

This is very interesting, I found out later, that when Mat and I saw each other for the first time, he was drawn to me because he liked my smile!!! :D Which is ironic, because I've never liked my smile and don't smile much, because of it. lol

'Everyone is drawn to a smile and wants to be a friend to someone overflowing with goodwill.'
I have never been a cheerful person and wonder that maybe this is why I don't have a lot of friends or even a best friend. I tend to hold people out at a distance, because I have been hurt by people I considered a friend and hate being deceived or hurt.

'Being pitiful, hurt, discouraged, and even sickly is one side of a "bad marriage" coin.'
I need to work REALLY hard on this one, I'm discouraged daily and probably act pretty pitiful, at times. I am quite the perfectionist and tend to want/expect things to go perfectly or in a certain way and when it doesn't I tend to think that I did something wrong to cause it.

I really like this next part. 'God's will is for a wife to have a merry heart, a cheerful countenance and a glow that will refresh the most stressed and tired husband on the planet. Bubbling cheer goes a long way to maintain or even restore a marriage. Make a decision to break the "poor me" habit.'
This is the type of woman I want to be, not just for my husband, but also for my girls!!

Today, tomorrow and every day after that is a 'new day' and I want to start right now, to have a merry heart!! <3

schooling plans

So, my friend, Sara, and I got together this morning and ran some errands together and started talking about getting together more often. Which ended up with us making plans to get together a couple times a week to start teaching our kiddos their colors, numbers, shapes, crafts, etc. I left stoked and looking through my stuff that I've researched, noted and put into a ring binder!! :D I want to share this with all my toddler mommy friends, mainly Nicole. ;)

I just found yesterday, magnetic visual schedules from Little Billies. "For the children still at home on most days, this is a fantastic chart (visual schedule) that will help give both mum or dad and the child a clear direction for the day. It will help to assist to build a flexible routine into your home and give your child stability and security in knowing what is coming next." These are awesome and I have wanted to get something like this for awhile now, and probably will!! :)

A great homeschooling website is Hands on Homeschooling. She has an overview and preview of the curriculum and a checklist for ages 2-5. I was so excited to find something for 2 yr olds, I thought they didn't offer anything until kids were 4!! I would love to get the curriculum, but it's late in the year and we don't have much money, so I might not be able to get it until next year.

We are thinking about getting together 2x a week, one day at my house and the other at her house. Sara and I are also thinking about doing sewing projects on those days, too.

This is exciting for me, because I'm a procrastinator and get more things done if I have someone to do it with and it also gets our kiddo's together. :)

an oh-my-gosh moment...

My girls gave me a heart attack today...

I was in our bedroom and I could hear the girls jabbering about outside, mommy's/daddy's shoes and go bu-bye. I could also hear Natalie messing with the door knob, now we have a child safety thingy on the door knob, but Natalie has already figured it out!!

Well, the next thing I hear is 'click' and muffled voices. I look out the bedroom window and both girls are standing on the front step!!!!!! I ran to the door and opened it and all I see is the back side of 2 little girls. Kiley is dressed in just a pj top and diaper and wearing Mat's shoes and carrying her tiger, and Natalie has her pj top and bottom on and wearing my shoes and carrying a lunch bag, given to her by Sara, full of stuff!!!

I couldn't help laughing, they looked like 2 miniature clowns!!! I was wondering if any neighbors saw them and what they thought about it. :O

I brought them inside and got them dressed and sent them to the back yard, which is fully fenced, hopefully they won't figure out how to get out!! I couldn't be be upset with them, because they weren't doing it to be bad, they just wanted to go outside. ;) I really wish I had gotten a picture of it, it was quite comical!! lol :D

Tuesday's Twin Style

Ok, my friend, Nicole, is doing her own meme's, what ever that means. and no, i'm not stalking her blog, she just has so many good ideas! ;) lol So, I thought to myself, if Nicole can, why not me?

Well, here it is, Tuesday's Twin Style, every tuesday, I will be sharing about my experiences as a 'twin mommy'. Hope you enjoy it!!

Today's is short, mainly because I have no idea what to say!! :)

Inseparable, that's how the girls have been since birth and I imagine will always be. You will often find the girls sitting close to each other, quietly reading a book. I think this is the only time they're quiet!! They will sit and read in the morning before breakfast and right before bedtime and periodically throughout the day. They must get their love of reading from my mom!?! ;)

Then the next minute, they will be fighting over the same toy, that they have a double of!! Seriously, that's why I buy 2 of everything!! :) lol

This is all I can think of today, so come back next week to see what I have to say then.