Morning Coffee

As I fill this cup

To warm my hands,

Lord, let it remind me
To fold them in prayer.

As the fragrance of freshly

Brewed coffee fills the house,

Lord, let it remind me

To fill this home with

The fragrance of Jesus.

As the cream blends into the coffee

Darkness fades and a new flavor emerges,

Lord, let it remind me

That Jesus can shine into my darkness

And create a new life in me.

As I am filled with the warmth

Of this cup,

Lord, let it remind me

That only You can truly fill my cup.

I'm Stuck...

Yep! On Pinterest. I've become addicted to pinning. I've found a lot of inspiration! I have boards for craft ideas, quilts, gifts and just cute findings. Surprisingly, I have a recipe board! I cook only because starving isn't an option. So far the projects Pinterest have inspired are a baby quilt for my new niece, a mug rug, a cup cozy, a scarf organizer and a greeting card organizer. I don't really need any more craft ideas. What I need is more time to do the crafts.

I pulled out the kids scrapbooks and realized I'm "only" 5 years behind. That's more than half of the Beans life and Sissy graduates from high school next spring. It might be nice to have her scrapbook ready for a graduation party. A mom can dream *sigh*.

I have finished a couple of projects this winter. This baby quilt was inspired by Pinterest.

My first potato chip scarf, modeled by Sissy. It made its debut way back here.

Hopefully, with the help of Snapfish.com and my new friend at the scrapbook store in town, I'm going to get some scrapbooking done. I'm also still working on organizing the storage room.

Family Fun

Last Sunday we decided to take the kids ice skating. Well, I skated, Honey took pictures. He's never been on ice skates - ever. Both the kids did really well skating (translation: no trip to the ER). It was Beans first time skating, Sissy has been before but not often. I was surprised how quickly they caught on.

Skating was followed by Starbucks! It helped ease my sore ankles and warm my cold...toes! Next weekend is the art museum.

I Heart Organizing

I'm so excited I found this blog post! I've been looking for it all weekend! I knew it was floating around in cyberspace somewhere, also proves I'm not losing my mind...today anyway. I would have helped if I could have remembered it was on New Nostalgia but I couldn't even remember that much. Why am I so excited about this blog post? Because of the "Donation Station"! I have been looking for a way to organize my basement storage room, or at least reduce the chance of bodily injury while looking for other things. The biggest problem I have is organizing the things that come into the storage room and need to go out again, either to the Goodwill or recycle.

Here is the picture that inspired Amy at New Nostalgia. Isn't it wonderful! A place for every thing. My area isn't going to be as pretty, I get to hide it behind closed doors, but I hope it will be functional. Honey and I made a trip to Stuff Mart to get bins for my organizing project but the trip was a bust. They didn't have anything that would stack and be open in the front to put things in. I found this on Amazon with free shipping.

My plan is to have one bin for clothing recycle, one for clothing donations to Goodwill, the last one for stuff donations. I don't know if I'll be able to get my family on board or not. They may still just put stuff in the storage room but I'll have somewhere to put it until we'll be near a drop off location.

I'm pretty excited to get this project started, I'm tired of playing shuffle the piles in the storage room. The hardest part will be waiting for the UPS truck. Come back and visit for before and after pictures!

The Project One Year Later

I can't believe it's the beginning of a New Year! What happened to 2011? I know what didn't happen. I haven't been at the Stuff Mart! For the past year I've tracked my trips and how much I spent. I'm glad I did this little experiment but I'm also happy I don't have to track the trips any more.

What I already knew was that we went to Stuff Mart way too much and picked up too many "extras". What I wasn't sure about was if we could not go as often. I had also hoped to save some money.

Surprisingly we could go to Stuff Mart less, we cut down our trips by 100 for the year! In 2010 we went made an estimated 171 trips (no, I didn't count all the trips I averaged a 4 month period) this year it was 71! We also spent less, average $100 a month. Does that mean we saved that amount? No! We spent it at other places.

What I learned was we could survive without running to Stuff Mart for every thing we think we need. I improved my list making skills. The less time I spent in the store, the less time I wanted to spend in the store. Less time spent seeing things I think I can't live without but didn't need or want when I left the house. It is possible to run out of plastic shopping bags!

This year my goal is to cut our spending and stay within our budget. The first step is to track my personals spending. Honey got me a weekly pocket calendar for Christmas because it has Mickey Mouse on it. I'm going to use it to track my spending. I also am very bad about keeping the checkbook up to date, that is step two. So far today I spent $1.20!

Happy Saving!

Fall Reading Wrap Up

Happy Winter! I didn't start the Fall Reading challenge on time, no reason to end on time. My list for fall reading was very short (two books) and I finished them pretty early. Honey and I started reading the Steve Jobs book, Honey finished, I'm going to wait for the movie.

Here's a wrap up of the books I did finish...

A Voice in the Wind and An Echo in the Darkness by Francine Rivers - loved 'em!

Grave Yard Games by Sheri Leigh - this one was ok, not great but it was free.

The Oak Leaves by Maureen Lang - also free and pretty good.

Pig Island by Mo Hayden - free, that's good because I didn't like it, I kept thinking this has got to get better, not so much.

The Christmas Dog by Melody Carlson - this would make a great Lifetime Christmas movie, short and feel good.

The Help by Kathryn Stockett - loved it! Pie!

I'm not sure what I'm going to read next. I have a long "To Be Read" list maybe I should pick something from there rather than check out what's new on the shelves. But it's not to early to start my list for the Spring Reading thing. Thanks to Katrina at Callapidder Days for hosting these challenges! Happy Reading!

Rant and a Challenge

The post-Halloween sugar crash just hit and my kids are already dreaming of sugar plums. The Star and the Bullseye stores are opening at midnight on Black Friday. But what about this guy?

Have we completely forgotten about Tom Turkey? Poor guy. I know he's not as cute as little ghosts and goblins and not as jolly as St. Nick but doesn't he still have a place on our calendar? We're done buying the costumes and candy, now on to garland and lights. I love Christmas as much as much as anyone else, my family might say more (I have been know to start watching White Christmas in August). Are we so busy planning and doing that we just don't take the time to be thankful? How can we appreciate what we will get for Christmas if we don't appreciate what we already have?

No, I won't be getting up at the crack of you-have-got-to-be-kidding to go shopping the day after Thanksgiving. I've done that. I just don't think the deals are worth fighting the crowds, hoping the store has what I went for, and standing in line for hours to pay. Have we forgotten the reasons for the holidays? Really, is all about who's getting what, who has the best costume, decoration, candy, football? Have we forgotten that holidays are about more? They are about family, friends, laughter and love. I'm done ranting now.

So, my Thanksgiving challenge for all of us is to post, tweet, facebook, write on the calendar, on a post-it note on the fridge, one thing we are thankful for everyday from now until Thanksgiving Day. That's 24 days, I know you can do it! Leave me a comment to let me know you are going to play along!

Today I am Thankful for my family; the one I was born into, the one Honey and I have created, our extended family and the friends who have become family.