Reshaping It All Challenge

I am joining in on the 65 day Reshaping It All Challenge!  I am sooo excited to participate in this.  I have read the book and I love it!   In this 65 day challenge, she will be highlighting parts of the book, giving daily tips and activities to incorporate into your day.  Come and join in on the fun!

I Laughed, I Cried, I Baked!

For my youngest daughter's 6th birthday, I decided to make her a cake to go along with her Toy Story theme.  I love, love, love to challenge myself with doing specialty cakes for each of my daughters' birthdays.  I still have a lot to learn, but I have so much fun doing it! 

After piping the whole cake like in the picture below, I decided to smooth out the frosting.

 My daughter decided to get her ears pierced with her birthday money.  I was happily snapping pictures of this event until she didn't find it so fun anymore.  She did very well considering that her ears were done one at a time.  I am so thankful for each of our daughters!  We are so very blessed!

Praising Our Children

One of my favorite verses is, Finally brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is anything praiseworthy - meditate on these things.  ~Philippians 4:8

Having had the privilege of hearing Michelle Duggar speak at the convention, there is something that she said that really stuck with me.  She advised us to praise our children, 10 times more than we correct them.  We can praise them, not by flattery, but by pointing out a certain character quality that we notice in them.  Our children naturally want to please us.  When they feel that we cherish and value them, they will respond much better to correction.   This was such a good reminder for me!  I want my girls to remember me as a mom who smiled at them, loved them, cheered them on, and valued them!

Today I am linking up with Women Living Well!  This blog is one of my favorites!!!
                                                       

Mid-West Homeschool Convention

We had so much fun at the convention in Cincinnati!  We saw comedian Tim Hawkins, as well as The Duggar Family.  Jim Bob was gracious enough to take a picture with our family.  God also blessed us with the opportunity to meet another family while we were there!  Liz, (Forever Changing), and I met through our blogs.  It was so cool to be able to meet in person!!!
One of the major themes of the convention, seemed to be about focusing on your child's heart, and instilling character.  One of the workshops, was with Tedd Tripp, who is the author of Shepherding a Child's Heart.  He explained how most of the time parents will try to manipulate the behavior of their children, to get them to behave.  For example, by grounding them for a certain amount of time, or promising a reward for good behavior.  (Which I am guilty of!)  Instead he encourages parents to focus on the character trait that needs correcting.  To instill character first.  Otherwise, when you need to correct them, they will have a tendency to feel wronged, and angry.  One way of helping them with their heart attitudes, is to have them keep a heart notebook.  Mr. Tripp suggested letting your child decorate the front of it, and write down bible verses on the inside that pertain to each character trait, or heart attitude.  I think this is a great idea!  What a wonderful way to help them to remember God's word.  
I signed up for a natural wellness course, through Vintage Remedies!  This is very exciting to me, as I have felt very passionate about learning how to use natural remedies for our family.  They also have a Vintage Remedies book for Girls, which I plan to use with my daughters!  It teaches them how to live a healthy life, choose healthy foods, and even how to make things, such as natural cleaning supplies and skin care! 
On a final note, we found out that we will be moving...again!  I am so thankful for the simplifying that has already been accomplished in our home.  This should make moving so much easier this time around.  I recently found a book entitled, Speed Cleaning, by Jeff Campbell and The Clean Team.  I am looking forward to reading it, as it promises to help you cut your cleaning time in half!  I will keep you posted...
Blessings to you!
~Jaime

Simplicity

Simplify~

to make less complicated, clearer, or easier In trying to organize our home, I started to realize just how much stuff we had that we didn't need.  It almost seemed as if a light bulb went off in my head...why on earth do we have 20 dish towels, when we could get by with 5?  Or do my daughters really need so many clothes, that they overflow out of their dresser drawers? We have been blessed with hand-me -down clothes over the years, but I have had a tendency to hang on to everything.   As the old saying goes, You can't organize clutter! So, I started with all of our clothing.  I ended up taking several bags to goodwill.  Now my girls have a much easier time not only keeping their clothes put away, but also keeping their rooms picked up and clean.  (I had each one of them go through their toys to donate the items that they no longer played with.)  This has felt so liberating, and peaceful!  Why did I not realize this sooner?  It has motivated me to simplify other areas of our home as well.  It is a work in progress.  I am absolutely loving the results of simplifying!

Organized Bliss???

Okay, I have to admit that maybe I was overly optimistic (just a tad) about getting my house completely cleaned and organized from top to bottom in one week.  I had a great start, but didn't count on getting sick in the middle of it.  I think I wore myself out!  The good news is, it has only been 2 weeks since I started, and I am almost finished!  I have been gleaning many wonderful tips and bits of advice from various blogs, websites, and home organization books.  One of my favorites was to put all of our DVD's into a DVD wallet, (or in our case, 3), and get rid of all of the empty movie cases.  What a difference this has made!  You would not believe the amount of weight and space they took up before.  I have also had to get creative with storing our clothes, as the bedrooms and closets in our home are small.  I have clear totes that slide under the beds to hold clothes, as well as an over-the-door shoe hanger, re-purposed for small items, such as socks.  This I hung on the inside of our closet door.  I have also been keeping to a home keeping schedule. Today was the beginning of the 3rd week of doing this routine.  Today was Tuesday, which is to focus on the bedrooms.  One part of it, is changing the bed sheets.  I make it a point to have all of my laundry caught up, so that I can get all of the bedding through the wash on that day.  I love doing this weekly!  I read such an inspiring blog post about making our beds to the glory of God.  You can check it out here: http://raisinghomemakers.com/
It has been a blessing to our entire family to have a routine that we stick to.  It has made such a difference in our home.  :)

Forgiveness and Peace

I am humbled today.  I have been dealing with a lot of things in my walk with God.  I have had many convictions lately regarding different areas of my attitude. One of which came in the form of hearing something repeated back to me, that was said by another...about me.  Ouch!  That didn't feel good.  I had to swallow my pride and let go of the hurt that started to stir up inside of me.  By God's grace, I can honestly say that I now feel a peace in a place that would have drove me up the wall with bitterness before.  I am so thankful for God's forgiveness and mercy in my life.  I am in awe of the greatness of our God!  He is always there when we call on Him, ready to guide us and love us through it all! 

Therefore we do not lose heart.  Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day.  For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen.  For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.  ~2 Corinthians 4:16-18

Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering: bearing with one another and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do.  ~Colossians 3: 12 - 13