Do You Know What These Are?

If you guessed shoeboxes the your right. Do you know what there for?

This is the start to our boxes to fill for Samaritans Purse for next Christmas and I am sooooo very excited. We saved the shoeboxes we got at Christmas and we will fill a box for every pair of shoes we buy for our family this year so only God knows how many we will be filling this year.

If you have never heard of Operation Christmas Child then please, please click here to learn. By simply filling a box for a child for Christmas you are giving a child a chance to spend eternity in heaven. The children getting these boxes get a chance to learn about Jesus! Don't wait until next fall to start filling your boxes, why not start today and then maybe a few more kids will get a chance to know Jesus. It is also just a shoebox that you fill so it doesn't have to cost much at all. You can even fill them with things from the dollar store.

The reason I am posting this today is because I signed up for a giveaway at Wee Share and I won and the item I won will be going into one of my shoeboxes. I'm hoping I win several things this year to fill shoeboxes up with.

Some things we have put in our boxes are: stickers, soap, toothbrushes and toothpaste. We put in stuffed animal, school supplies, small toys and candy. My favorite things to put in them are things that people make for adoption fundraisers. I LOVE, LOVE , LOVE when I can support an adoption and at the same time give it to someone else to bless. A couple adoption fundraiser things I put in the boxes this year were: Beading To China silverware (no knives) and fancy children's aprons.

If you make boxes up would you please leave a comment of some things you put in your boxes to give new people doing it ideas? Also how do you decided how many boxes to do?

Why Is It.....

I am sitting up late due to kids keep making noises that are waking me up but I have a question for all of you my friends.

Why is it that I could handle childbirth with 2 kids, 7 weeks of labor with one of them, flying to the other side of the world for our 3rd child (I'm terrified of flying).

I have had broken bones in my life.

I have handled many, many things.

For some reason though I cannot handle a broken toenail that I got on Christmas morning. I am not kidding you. I caught my nail on our wood floor while opening gifts and I won't go into details but I almost passed out. Chris has been taking care of it for me and again tonight when he went to change the bandaid I almost got sick and passed out and had to lay down.

IS THAT NOT CRAZY?

Do You Believe In Miracles?

I'm talking about the real kind of miracles, the kind of miracles that you actually see with your eyes. It's easy to say when someone is in an accident "oh it's a miracle you survived". There are things we say everyday "oh that's a miracle that happened." Have you ever really wondered though if God actually does real, real miracles today?

I have a friend that has a disease that causes tumors to grow all over her body. My friend has had a lot of these tumors removed but it is rare for them to be cancerous. Within the last year or so she got the horrible news that some of her tumors had become cancerous and due to it being so rare they really had no idea how to treat her and pretty much just wanted to experiment on her for science.

My friend is in her early 30's and a mom to 3 young boys that need their momma around. They have prayed and prayed for God to heal her and were beginning to think God was not listening.

About a month or so ago they found a cancerous tumor that they said they needed to remove. They thought they could hold it off until after Christmas and all that good stuff. Two weeks before Christmas my friend went to see the surgeon and he gave her some really bad news. The tumor was growing very, very fast and they couldn't wait it needed to go now. One week before Christmas my friend went in for surgery.

The night she had surgery her husband called me to tell me that the tumor was not there. The Dr. searched and searched all over her and NOTHING. They have 3 pictures of this tumor and it was no where to be found.

God removed that tumor for her. My friend got a physical MIRACLE from God for Christmas!!!

Have you seen God do a real physical miracle? If so can you share because I love nothing more than BIG GOD stories?

WOW, What A Week

Wow, this has been one crazy week full of fun.

A week ago we took Paige to her very first movie. Paige loved it and was quiet the whole time. A word of warning to parents though. The movie that you see in the picture behind her has a lot of evil in it that I would not have let her watch if I would have known about before going. Next time this momma will be a lot more cautious even when it seems like a movie for children.
Chris celebrated his 33rd birthday on Christmas Eve. Daddy always gets a special cake decorated by his precious kiddos. I found these really cool markers for decorating cake and it was perfect for the kids. Did you see what Amaya wrote on the cake? She didn't even ask how to write it (OK, I know we need a little practice on the S's.)

Isn't he just the cutest? God truly blessed me with an incredible husband!!!

We have a tradition in our house that after Chris' birthday party is over the kids get a special Christmas Eve gift of new PJ's. They are showing off their new PJ's here.

So after cleaning the house, decorating cake, having party, getting PJ's and putting them on it is finally time to make cookies for Santa. Yes, I was one worn out momma by the end of the day.

We had a wonderful Christmas! Now I have sick kiddos and a messy house but oh well. I hope all you had a wonderful Christmas too.

Where's Your Shoebox?

I am so excited because I just got our email from Samaritans Purse saying our shoeboxes went to Benin. I had never heard of Benin and then I read more and they are in Benin, AFRICA!!!

My heart has been in Africa for sometime now so I am very, very excited about where God shipped our shoeboxes to.

This is my favorite project and it's fun that we can see where the boxes go now.

So where did you boxes go?

PS If you don't know what I'm talking about click here.

I Started Another Blog

I started another blog because of my new found addiction. I really hope to use this blog to share adoption fundraisers, great Etsy finds, other great handmade finds and well GREAT GIVEAWAYS!!!

I don't have much on there yet but I would LOVE for you to hop on over and become a follower. You might just come across some hidden treasure!


www.onthesearchforhiddentreasure.blogspot.com

Oh I Have A Headache

Can anyone else relate? I have had a headache for 2 days and couldn't figure out why.

Could it be that Chris' birthday is in 3 days?

Maybe it's that Christmas is in 4 and I'm not ready yet?

Maybe it's that Jaxson's birthday is next week?

Wow, why did 3 very important men in my life have to have birthdays all in the same week?

I love it though and would trade Jesus, Chris or Jaxson for the world =)

Our First Christmas Together

Last night right before I went to bed I had an email from Rett saying she blogged and I was in it. When I read the post I about wet my pants because she ask me to tell about the first Christmas Chris and I spent together.

PLEASE take this as a warning that I don't want to offend anyone here! I have my personal taste and well if your like Chris well then you like things different than me.

When I was single I went through a spell of being a tad bit crafty. I LOVED Christmas and I would even make my own wrapping paper. I would take that brown paper you mail stuff in and use shaped sponges to paint things on it. Then after wrapping the present I would make beautiful raffia bows and glue them on the package with babies breathe and country flowers.

Our first Christmas when we got ready to decorate I found out that marriage isn't always easy. I wanted my real tree that smelled wonderful. Chris wanted a FAKE tree. I wanted white lights and well Chris wanted colored. I was used to decorating the most beautiful country tree with flowers, raffia bows, rustic birdhouses and snowmen and just so ME.

As the woman in the house I figured I should get to choose how to decorate "our" tree. I had a HUGE problem though and that was my MOM. Oh how my mom loves my dear husband. When we first got together sometimes I thought she even loved him more than me. My mom would do anything or make anything for Chris. My dear mom also couldn't handle Chris not having his style of tree.

So let me tell you about my dear husbands style. Chris wanted a FAKE tree with colored lights. Chris wanted that shiny garland and tinsel and those round shiny ormaments that come in a box and they all look the same but different colors.

I thought I was going to cry.

At the time we lived in a 600 square foot home. Did you see that 600 was all the space we had so our living room was not big in any way? MY MOM told Chris that if I had to have my tree my way then he needed one his way too. I couldn't believe it!!! So we had 2 Christmas trees in our little tiny living room that year. One beautiful rustic one and one well you get the idea of how I felt about the other one.

After that year we came to an agreement on how to do one tree. We now have a real tree, colored lights for him, wooden beads for me and then just plain old regular ornaments that mean something (most of them anyway). I really, really do miss my beautiful country tree.

I would show you a picture of our ordinary tree right now but I'm about to throw my camera out the window so you will have to use your imagination.

What Happens To Them

For those of you that followed me when I first started fighting for Duncan from Reece's Rainbow you will remember how emotional I got. This morning I saw this video on a blog and it explains why I was so emotional for Duncan.

This video shows what happens to kids in many countries around the world when they have certain disibilities.

Wonder what breaks God's heart? Watch this.






There are many, many children right now on www.reecesrainbow.com waiting for someone just like you to save them from this happening when they turn 4.

I Just Have To Share

I love when people share really cool finds so I am going to share one with you. We live in an almost 100 year old home. The house heats pretty good but it is also a large 100 year old home so the wood floors get kinda cold. I wanted to get slippers for the kids for Christmas and I found the girls some really cute ones in the store but I couldn't find ANY in Jaxson's size. So either every little boy out there wears the same size or he is in between sizes for slippers.

Jaxson would have been so sad if they had both got slippers and he didn't. Finally (talk about last minute) I thought "OK, you can find anything on Etsy so why not slippers." I searched for children's slippers and look what I found.

Do these not look so soft and warm?

Problem was is that she didn't have any in his size either so I emailed and asked her if she could make some in his size and get them here before Christmas. She emailed back and sent me pictures of the fabric she had on hand and she is making them and shipping them TODAY. I ordered them at like 10:15 last night. They are also cheaper than what I paid for the girls slippers in a big chain store even with shipping.

She also makes some really, really cute notebooks. You should go check out her store by clicking here.

OK, I really want to figure out how to start a review blog because that would be too much fun.

THANK YOU SLIPPER LADY!!!

Question Of The Day

For a very, very long time now I have put myself on the back burner. I am a mom a 3 small children so for about 7 years now (you so have to count pregnancy time with Amaya because I was deathly ill) I put everyone else first and me last.

I just realized this week that my babies aren't babies anymore. They can bathe themselves, dress themselves, clean their rooms (when their forced to), make their own snacks, help clean the house, feed the dogs, help fold laundry and well the list goes on.

When I was out shopping for Christmas on Saturday I was at a store that had 50% off of their wall hangings. I found one I fell in love with and ask Chris if I could buy my own Christmas present from him. I never, ever do this. I never get anything for myself. You know what? I love having something for myself! I really struggle with this though when there are so many people out there that don't have anything.

I also said to Chris the other day that if I keep winning jewelry with my new addiction that I might even become a "fancy mom" as Amaya would say. I never wear jewelery now other than the stuff I have got for free.

I won't even begin to tell you how old my clothes are and I'm sure there are people out there including Rett that would love to just take me and give me a makeover.

I think this next year though I am going to work towards doing some things for ME now that I have a little time to do that with the kids getting older.

What are some frugal things you do to take care of you?

Best Christmas Present Ever

Can you believe I am doing 2 posts today?

I just read my friend Rett's post from today and boy did it get me thinking. Yesterday our pastor ask us what the best gift we ever got was and then Rett just asked the same thing. It really got me thinking about the best gift I ever got.

I have been the type of person that it has always been very hard me me to make a Christmas list even as a child. When I got married my husbands family makes you do a Christmas list and that was the hardest thing ever.

When I was a teen (I think about 15) my mom ask what I wanted for Christmas and I couldn't think of anything. I decided I wanted to give up my entire Christmas to give to an inner city child in Chicago. I found out later that the teen was able to get on a bus and go to California to see family with the money I sent. Do you know that is the only Christmas present I can ever really remember getting? Isn't that weird that the only present I really ever remember getting is one I gave instead of getting.

I'm not telling you this to make you think that I am special or anything because trust me I'm not.

What got me thinking is that as a mom now it would kill me to not buy my child any presents. What if my mom would have said "Sarah, that is a wonderful idea but I really want you to have Christmas too"? What if she would have just sent the money but also went ahead and gave me Christmas? What if my mom would have taken the only Christmas gift that really ever meant anything to me away from me because it would have been hard on her not to buy me something?

I pray that I can be the kind of mom that puts away my selfish desires to let my children serve God. Thank you Mom! Thanks Rett for your post!

What are some special things you remember about a Christmas gift?

Thankful Thursday On Monday - I Won Again

Wow, I was so excited to open up my email this morning to find that I won another giveaway. I am very excited about this one because Chris and I had just decided to take our house off the market for awhile. We were totally depressed about this and I told Chris if we were going to do this that we were going to stop looking at our house as something we will sell someday and that we would make it "our home." For so long we have been in the "we want to sell our home" way of thinking that we didn't bother decorating to make it a home.

I have to tell you that we have one room in our house that I really, really do not like. Our bathroom is tiled more than 1/2 way up the wall in PINK and green tile. Since the day we moved here I have never done anything to it because what do you do with a pink and green room?

Well, God gave me a little blessing this morning and I won the perfect picture to put in my pink and green bathroom. You can go check it out here if you want and go look at the other amazing photographs. Have I told you I LOVE Etsy???

Has anyone been signing up for giveaways since my last post?

I Have An Addiction

OK, since you guys were AWESOME yesterday helping me to stay warm with your wonderful comments I'm going to be very real with you today.



I HAVE AN ADDICTION



Yes, my friends I have become addicted to a certain website. The website I have been addicted to you can check out by clicking here. I can't believe I am sharing this with you.



A couple months ago I won a giveaway on a friends blog and in her giveaway she asked people how they found her blog. Someone mentioned the site above so I went to it and that is all it took. Come naptime or bathtime everyday (after I check my farm on Facebook) I have to go check out this site.


Not only can you sign up for giveaways (by the way I have won a few of them) but you get to find incredible ETSY stores.


I know I am lowering my chances of winning but since you guys are awesome I will share just this one time. Don't tell too many people please!

I AM SOOOOOO COLD!!!

OK, it is way to cold out for my blood today. With the wind chill it is -3 degrees (Jeanette please don't tell me how warm it is there). I love my 2 little Furry babies but man it's not so fun taking them out to go potty on a day like today.

All I can think of is coffee and cinnamon rolls and wishing something hot was brewing in the crock-pot.

My dear hubby is in a men's leadership bible study and they are getting together tonight with us wives to go to a town that has a special Christmas thing that you are supposed to walk all around town. Can you tell I'm shivering even thinking about it?

To help warm up my day would you please leave me a comment with a recipe of your favorite hot food or drink??? PLEASE!!! Also I really want to learn how to make homemade cinnamon rolls so if anyone has an easy recipe for these please give it to me.

I just know you all will help warm me up with recipes because you guys are just AWESOME.


Thanks!

How We Keep Christ In Christmas

Thank you all so much for your comments yesterday. You really helped pull me out of my funk a little bit. I decided this morning I was going to make ME time and I spent some time in the Bible and exercised and that helped too.

Holly ask me to post about how we keep Christ in Christmas and I have been thinking about that since I read her comment.

Well, to be honest we keep Christ in Christmas the same way we do everyday. I'm not one that stresses about making sure I push Christ like crazy to my kids around Christmas because that is something we do everyday whether it be Christmas, Easter or I don't know May 1st.

Oh, we love Santa coming to our home. We make special cookies for him and we have a special plate and cup thanking Santa for coming to Celebrate the birth of Jesus with us.

What do we do to keep Christ in Christmas? Well, we do the same as we do everyday. We pray for orphans daily, we support and pray for a child through Compassion, we make sure that every week when we buy groceries that we also buy for the food bank. This is just a little of what we do and we do it because God has blessed us and we choose to bless others.

It seems like Christmas is a time when everyone is asking for donations, volunteering and you know how the list goes on. We choose as a family to do these things year round and not just at Christmas.

Don't get me wrong, our kids know the reason behind Christmas!

One thing I have done with Amaya though is to challenge her this week to do something extra special or help in a special way at school as a way of giving Jesus a birthday gift.

As my friend Rett said on her blog the other day:

JESUS IS THE REASON FOR EVERY SEASON!!!

Bloggy Blahs

Does anyone else go through this? Maybe it's because I had to work so hard on my blog the last month that I just have the bloggy blahs. I have not even kept up with my bloggy friends blogs very well.

Nothing too exciting is happening right now in our life other than we decided to stop trying to sell our house for awhile. This just stinks because we wanted to build our new house so bad but it's just not a good time to sell now.

We have no little ones coming home soon ( as far as we know anyway) so nothing exciting there.

We do have all the fun Christmas stuff coming up but other than that I'm just in blah land right now. I may not post a lot until I get over this and if I normally visit your blog and I don't right now I'm sorry.

Oh and the answer to the bead questions, you can buy them at Walm*rt.

Maybe if you leave me some good comments I will get over my bloggy blahs.