Temperance

I visited a blog recently, Everyday Kathy, and I really enjoyed going through her posts. I came across Ben Franklin's 13 Virtues while on her blog. As I went through them I thought that they would be great starters for some blog posts. I don't know much about Ben Franklin's life but doing some research on these virtues, it is said that he was partially inspired by Philippians 4:8 "Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things."

I don't know if I will do them in order of if I will write on all of them but I thought I would start with Temperance.

What is temperance? According to Webster's it is 1 : "moderation in action, thought, or feeling : restraint 2 a : habitual moderation in the indulgence of the appetites or passions.

I believe that temperance is not something that is very popular in today's society. We live in a " I want it" now society. A society filled with excess and lack of self control. If temperance or moderation was practiced I wonder if there would be so many of us in debt; the need to keep up with the neighbors and live beyond our means. A lack of restraint have landed many in sticky situations, and our jails may include a population of those to which temperance was not even a thought. Our various health problems brought on by an excess of food and other extremes that include body image distortions in some of our teens, have our lives out of balance.

Even as Christians many of us have rushed ahead of what God has truly purposed for our lives and in our rush to "fix it ourselves" we don't stop to think and end up in worse situations. Thank goodness that we have a merciful God who picks us up after our mistakes and brushes us off and helps us to get back on track.

I want to bring moderation to my actions, thoughts and feelings, taking time to think on the goodness of God, the goodness in people and the potential for greatness in everyone. My pastor message this week was on Psalm 23, and he talked about allowing God to "lead us by still waters" allowing Him to make us "lie down in green pastures" and slowing down long enough to allow "goodness and mercy" to catch up with us.

What are your thoughts on temperance?

It's Earth Day!!!!

Today is Earth Day, hopefully you don't need this day to remind you to take care of the Earth God has given us. However, today I want to share tips to making our carbon footprint a little bit smaller. Its small steps and hopefully it is not to late.

These tips from Care2make a difference:

Tip 1: Save Energy By Washing Your Laundry in Cold Water Only
Almost all of the energy used by a washing machine goes towards heating the water, so by simply turning down the temperature, you can really make a dramatic impact on energy use.

I practice this one, I only wash in hot water about once a month and the rest of the time I leave it cold.
Tip 2: Save Water By Using As Little Water Possible To Wash Your Dishes

If you have a newer dishwasher, chances are it uses less water than you would hand-washing. Modern dishwashers use only about 3 to 10 gallons of water per load. Some easy tips for your dishwasher: scrape plates instead of pre-rinsing, use energy-saving options when you can, and only wash full loads. Read more

I absolutely love this one, I hate hand washing dishes!!

Tip 3: Save Waste and Water By Switching From Bottled to Filtered Water

The bottled water industry is extremely wasteful. It involves millions of barrels of oil each year and the process actually wastes water. Since bottled water is often consumed on the go, most bottles do not actually end up getting recycled. Read more

Tip 4: Save Energy and Waste By Switching from Regular Batteries to Rechargeables

Rechargeable batteries embody one of our favorite principles: reuse. While traditional batteries can only be used once, rechargeable batteries, as the name implies, can be used again and again. By using the same batteries over and over again, you cut back on the waste created by disposable batteries. Read More


Tip 5: Save Waste By Buying in Bulk

Packaging has gotten a bit out of control these days. More and more we’re seeing items that are wrapped with layer upon layer of unnecessary materials. One way to combat that problem is to buy necessities in bulk. If it’s something you use a lot, it’s worth it to upgrade to a larger size or multi-pack. Read More

Here are some blogs that celebrate Earth Day , every day:

FocusOrganic.com

Consceintious Confusion

Tinygreenmom.com

GreenishPink.com

Stop by a great giveaway

I am mad at myself!!!!

I am an entrepreneur. I believe that I will be successful at business, I am a wedding planner, I have an invitation business and I am currently working on a favor business. It has been a dream of mine for over 10 years. Four years ago I left my job after moving to a suburb of NY from the city. The commute, the price of the commute, what I would spend on childcare and the total destruction of my family life made it an easy decision. I decided to take my talents and build a business....this is not a hobby!!

I love the time that I have to dedicate to my children and the time I have to dedicate to my business. However over and over again I get the question when are you going back to work, maybe you should go into teaching , why don't you go back and get another degree. Funny thing is I believe I am working, building a dream business, building on my passion.

But as usual I drown out my dreams and succumb to the direction of others. All my life I spent pushing my dreams to the background. I started thinking and thought I should go back for my Masters in Education, yeah I would make a good teacher (right?), its taking a while for business to pick up anyway.

What am I thinking? I am going to be 40 next year anyone who makes a career change at this stage of their lives makes it to their dream career...helloooo. While I love the idea of imparting knowledge and working with kids (anytime before 4th grade)...this is not my passion. As my friend put it it would be a job, not a dream career. I would be deferring my dream , because others feel that a traditional route would be better.

I am MAD because I don't have the guts to tell these people that this is my dream and it is not just a hobby. I can't verbalize to them how hard I am working to make my dreams happen, How deeply rooted this passion is. The fact that as I am writing down my thoughts I have tears in my eyes because I know how much I want this to work. I am mad because time and time again I stifle my dreams because I the words of others have me second guessing myself. The hard part is that the others aren't people I just met on the street, I don't really care about their opinions ( hope that doesn't sound mean) but it is the voices of those closest to me that are the hardest to ignore.

I try to teach my girls boldness , how to stand up for what they believe; Lessons that they have grabbed on to so tightly that it amazes me. I am mad because I am not taking my own advice.

It would be crazy to spend two years of my life building on someone Else's dream for me....wouldn't it.
I am mad at myself for allowing my conviction be swayed by others.

So what do I do with this anger? Anger is supposed to propel you to do something? A really good friend told me I must not be angry enough, because if I was really angry I would do something about it.

Passion

Someone on one of my online networks asked a question, What are you passionate about?
I thought I take time to answer this question on my blog. What is passion anyway?

According to Websters it is "a strong liking or desire for or devotion to some activity, object, or concept : an object of desire or deep interest. intense, driving, or overmastering feeling or conviction"

Based on my understanding of passion and Websters definition , here is what I am passionate about:

God: I have a full devotion to Him. He is my creator and when I look at my life I don't know where I would be without God in my life. Serving a faithful God who is there in the midst of the most chaotic situations.

My Husband: We have been together for 20 years and married for 14 but I still am passionate about the man I married. I love love songs they have away of speaking your heart, I have several songs that I dedicate to my hubby and two of them are True Love by Faith Evans because it reminds me in part of our relationship. It speaks of the ups and downs but a commitment to love and growing together.

My Girls: I love my girls , they drive me crazy sometimes but I wouldn't have it any other way. They each bring teach me something different about life and I love them with all of my soul.

Wedding Planning: Has there ever been something that no matter how many books you read on the subject or how many shows you watch you still look at it is your first time? That is what wedding planning is for me. I may not have many years of experience but I have passion and it drives me to do the best for my clients. To help them fulfill that dream they have of their special day. It is a passion that drives me to constantly study and be up to date on new skills and trends and love it every time.

Service

This week we had a guest speaker at church and he was talking about service. It was a great message about serving and finding opportunities to serve in our churches, community, jobs, homes. The speaker offered some direction in knowing how and where to serve; if you are thinking about serving in your community and don't know exactly where to commit your time..then listen. Listen to whats going on around you , maybe they are community projects already on their way that you could be a part of. If it is in your place of worship get in tune with the leaders vision for your place of worship and jump in to service.

Have you ever gone to an amusement park and rode on a roller coaster or maybe one of those water rides with the log looking vessels? You ever notice that as soon as one car comes down , a bunch of people exit to the left and then there are people waiting to enter from the right? Well I got an image in my head that service is something like this or should be, there are always individuals serving but when they are done serving, there should be no hesitation for other to jump in and continue filling the need.

Where do you see yourself serving? We all have a call to serve others. I believe that in serving we plant seeds that will be watered by others and eventually bring a great harvest.

Galatians 6:9 (New International Version)
9Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.

Back to High School

I wasn't the most popular person in High School, I had a few really good friends and still connect with them today. High School wasn't horrible, I just know that I probably would not go to High School Reunion because no one would remember me. There were times in high school when certain people dismissed what I was saying or straight up laughed at me. They never took me seriously or deemed anything I said as important. I consider myself a fairly well spoken individual, so when I seemingly experience that same thing with adults today I get upset. Your standing in a room with a group of adults trying to provide them with information or requesting information and they stare at you as if you are speaking a foreign language.

I remember taking a class in college that talked about the biases that are place on a speaker by the listener, sometimes even before they begin to speak. The speaker is basically tuned out before the listener ever tuned in. Maybe its something they are wearing or how they did their hair. Maybe is who they are associated with or not associated with. How many of us listen this way? Possibly missing out on something truly important because of a pre-imposed bias.

Do we read blogs that way? Maybe the writer does not have a lot of followers or advertisers. No cute graphics or catchy introductions, do we miss out on connecting with someone that may have something really impactful to share because of this?

These are just my random thoughts provoked by recent encounter by a biased listening audience.

I would love to hear your thoughts. Please share!!!

Got hubby hooked on coupons

The other day my hubby and I went to the supermarket, even before we got there we prepared for a covert shopping mission. We stood at the kitchen counter he checked through the coupons I just clipped and I looked through the weekly supermarket flyer. We began by pairing sales with coupons, and best of all it was the doubler flyer, woohoo! About once a month they send out a flyer with doubler coupons that will double any $1.00 manufactures coupon.

We went down each aisle, carefully checking our grocery list, flyer and coupons. My hubby was skeptical about the doubler coupons but I knew how they worked and if you used them correctly you get a good bargain.

First up Dole juices, regular price $3.49, sale price 2 for $5.00. After $1.00 manufacturer coupon and one doubler, we got two Dole juices for $3.00. We did this at every stop and weighed in the bigger bargains.

At check out ( we like to do self-check out) I monitored the screen to make sure that all the prices in the flyer were ringing up properly. Well the customer service rep made a lot of trips to our register because of discrepancies. It was almost closing time so they didn't seem to upset. After everything was done I was given a loyal customer 5% discount.

The grand total of savings was $63.00 including supermaket sales, coupons and doublers. Not bad for novices, I know there many who save so much more, but I was proud of our united effort to save. I really enjoyed doing this with my husband, I know that I may make things deeper than they are however, I wish we were united in all things like this....imagine how much we could accomplish.

Great Birthday giveaway

I came across a blog that is having a fabulous giveaway and to enter all you have to do is say Happy Birthday. It doesn't get any easier than this. I simply love the cut glass Masterpiece in ruby, pink and green. I entered I found that I already have the matching ring, which happens to be my favorite ring. Giveaway ends on April 12, 2010.Visit Designers DNA to enter.



My ring

Join the Spring Fling!

A fabulous Spring Fling will take off this Tuesday, April 13th and four prizes will be given away every hour on:

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Over $6,000 in prizes will be given away and it will be EASY to win! To get the party started they are already giving things away. Don’t miss out on all the free stuff!

Enter to win one of the Four TJ Grand Prizes, $645 value.
Leave a comment to win one of Ten Premium BlogFrog Memberships, a value of $60 each.
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The Sassy Sampler

I am a part of a great group call Sassy Sisters in Sales, we have collaborated and come up with a great box of samples. The Sassy Sampler was the brain child of Jenn Brockman owner of Painted Laydies Mineral Makeup. She has done a great job putting these boxes together. You will find samples representing a lot of the shops in the group. We plan to do this monthly. Our first sampler box went on sale April 6th.

Stop by and check it out. Sassy Sampler

This week I have 35 to 40 hours of Leisure time!!!!!!!!

My mother-in-law is in town and she loves Dr. Phil. Sometime last week when she was watching the show I sat down to watch when I heard the topic. Apparently there is a man by the name of Dr. John Robinson has done a study and concluded that busy moms actually have 35 - 40 hours of leisure time per week, read about it here. I was not sure if I should laugh uncontrollably or be outraged...if I laughed would that be considered leisure time?

Someone forgot to inform me of this. You mean at the end of the day when I just want to crash on the couch it is from all the leisure time I had that day? Who knew? According to Dr. Robinson a root canal is considered leisure time since you get to sit in a nice comfy chair while the dentist yanks and drills.

Well, I would like to share how I spent my leisure time this Saturday. I slept in until 10, I got up skipped breakfast and started my housework. I spent 4 1/2 hours braiding and beading my girls hair. I sat for another hour paying bills . I took a walk to my laundry room and started the 1st of the 3 loads of laundry for the day. I guess between washing, drying and folding all loads I spent 2 1/2 hours. I cleaned my bathroom spent 20 minutes being next to the bathtub that's just as leisurely as soaking in a tub right? I cooked dinner about 30 minutes. Oh but the wings were done in the oven so that was definitely leisure time. I sat while I waited for a cab to take us to the mall to go shoe shopping, yeeeah, (with three kids on a holiday weekend). When I returned home after sending the kids to bed, I cooked again for a potluck dinner I was attending the next day. This was indeed a day of leisure for me.




I have to be honest, my children are a little older (4,9,13) so I have a little more freedom than a mom with small ones. However, this is still random segments of time, not totalling 35 - 40 hours. I don't believe that this Dr. Robinson has a grip on reality....a busy moms reality. Wouldn't it be great if this was a movie like Freaky Friday ,that put in him in the shoes of a busy mom. Then and only then would he truly understand.

Derailed

Did you ever feel like you have derailed, you are going along on this train ride called life and boom your car goes off the track. Yes this is how I have been feeling for a couple of weeks. I am slowly getting back on track but boy is it hard. So what derailed me you may ask?

Well our one and only car died, not temporarily in coma, just dead. The engine went on our 12 year old baby, you might thing my baby was young, but it carried us to many places and 108,000 miles later it gave up the the spirit. My hubby who did most of the driving since I only have a permit, was the one to drop my daughter to school and pick her up before work, shop and any number of running that was required. Any place that I didn't walk to! Well we have had to take a cab with her to a fro. I walked once when the weather was cooperating but basically we were coughing up alot of cash. I feel bad when things happen to us as parents, whether due to a bad decision or in this case natural causes and the children suffer. Kayla so loves her social education at school (since she knows everything else that they are teaching). Did I mention that we go to church 30 miles away? We are blessed to have the railroad near by but it is costly to travel on Sunday, not to mention by the time I get there with three children I feel drained. Not a great place to be for worship. So that was speed bump number one.

Speed bump #2: A couple of weeks ago we had a storm, still not sure what to qualify it as. After seeing oaks literally uprooted I say mini tornado. Anyway, one of these fantastic trees landed on my roof, yep on the roof. Let me focus on the positives of this first. Somehow when it was falling the wind must have blown again and instead of landing on my daughter's bedroom it landed on the den. There is a whole, but we are not exposed to the elements.

Ok, so there is a dent along the side of the roof , gutters are gone, siding is gone, fence is gone ( boy do I miss that fence) and that is the damage that we could see. The adjuster has so many claims in this area, he wont get to me until April 8th. Oh yes and my neighbor has no insurance. Well through everything we go through there are lessons, the one I learnt is that if a neighbor's tree falls on your property is yours, yep (did I mentioned I have no trees on my property). We got our half of the tree removed, since the neighbor wanted to run over to home depot to buy a saw a do it himself. Yep that would be all I need more damage to my house and a potentially injured man on my property.

I did not have electricity for 2 days after the storm. We survived, the kids thought it was an adventure, and I got derailed. I couldn't get back to blogging, my work, my housework (did I mention that I get extra crazy when my house is),I just needed a good boost.

Thankfully, my very supportive online group gave me the encouragement I needed to just pick up and get back on track, so I am back on track trying to pick up speed.