Christian Loan Matching Service

Christian Faith Financial is a online loan service that offers payday loans and cash advances. They want to help families with Christian financial assistance to get money for anything, vacations, bills, rent or emergencies. They have a simple application right on the main page of the site. Complete it, and they will match you to the loan that best suits your needs. They help the Christian way.

This time of year, some of us realize just how much we spent over the holidays. If you need help, this is a good place to start.

Potty Training Fun!

We are in the middle of potty training with our two year old. She definitely has caught on to going "pee-pee in the potty" quickly. She wears her panties proudly and runs around naked the rest of the time at home. At school, she is doing well, with a few accidents. She is not making it to the bathroom quick enough to get her clothes off! Having a first year preschool teacher that has a young child (that pretty much potty trained herself), but she has very little experience with the entire process. I think she sent my daughter to the bathroom, located in the same room, instead of taking her. Since my daughter cannot get her pants down fast on her own, it has been hit or miss. My new potty training tool- CROCS- if they have an accident, they clean right up! Not like the sneakers she wore the first day. Such a joy to experience with the end result being freedom from diapers- that will save about $30 a month! (FYI- I buy White Cloud diapers at Walmart- what a deal- 50 pull ups for $14.00- so much cheaper than Pampers.)

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A Marriage Breakup

I know a dear couple that are friends that have decided to divorce. I am so startled by the decision, yet I know I do not know all the circumstances involved. Having come from a divorced family, I know how hard things can be. Having not been a divorced mom, I cannot imagine what is in store for my friend. It has to be an extremely hard job and dealing with your other spouse. While I believe that marriage is a union through God and very little should break that union, I also know sometimes there are things that cannot be fixed. Believe it or not, divorce rates have gone down over the past few years! But, marriage rates have gone down too!
Please pray for this family that the decision is made with prayer and great consideration.

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No Internet... not really!

I have been off the computer for days thinking that my internet service provider cancalled my service for their lack of customer service. It turns out, I forgot to plug the phone line!
Mommy brain completely!

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How do single moms do it!

For the third week in three months, I am a single mom. My husband is in the hospital for the third and last time for his chemo treatments. I am on my own... and I am already tired!
I don't know how single moms or moms with husbands that are not around (service men, police men, night shift workers, etc.) do it! I have so much more respect for moms that do it all. I only do this part for a week (although he can't do much when he gets home) and I cannot manage getting to work on time most days. You have my respect!

Click here to support breast cancer research by purchasing an original Breast Cancer No Excuses T-Shirt

First Born and A Higher IQ

I was reading Parenting magazine yesterday that had a story about higher IQ in the first born. This story was released earlier this summer. I did not pay much attention to the article and research this summer since I do not put much thought into IQ and how I am effecting my children.

First, many people believe your IQ is pretty much set from birth. While things can change and make an influence, your God given gifts are there the day you enter this world. The nature vs. nurture idea does have some clout and environment can definitely have an impact. But I do know do a lot of "extra" activities trying to make my children gifted. I do ask a lot of how and why questions to encourage thinking, which I think is a lot more important than a number from a test.

In the case of this study, there are many ideas that allow for some flawed logic First, the study was done in Norway. Those of us in the US may not have the same genetics or experiences to compare. Second, the study was only done on boys. What does that mean for the girls. Third, they used data from MANY DECADES- not current testing and statistics. The testing procedures and populations have changed over the years. And lastly, a three point difference between the oldest and youngest is not enough to be concerned with. Testing have a range of scores to take into consideration testing environment, learning environment, and cultural and economic difference.

So do not place a lot of weight in your child's birth order. Love your children, provide them with lots of learning activities, but most of all, let them play and discover what they love!

The Day Care Culture

I am a teacher. This is my eighth year teaching, skipping 4 years in between to stay home with my children. Now, I am on the other side. I am the parent and have to follow the rules and regulations of a school. This is not the easiest adjustment, especially when I know a few things about preschool.

The first thing I am having difficulty with is trying to find food that my children will eat at a scheduled time. I know they will adjust, but there are rules for eating. Today, their pop corn got sent home. The other days, they were not allowed to eat their fruits snacks. And my milk addicted son did not finish his milk during lunch and of course could not take it with him. My daughter has come home hungry and he has come home thirsty. I know they will get used to it, but until then, I feel like they are starving and dying of thirst!

The second thing is that my son, just 4, was sent home a list of sight words. While I want him to learn to read, I don't think now is the time. Sight words start at KINDERGARTEN, and even then, not at the beginning. I am worried he will be stressed or they will expect a drill and practice routine. I do not believe children need to read at four. If they do, it is great, if not, let it be!

Those are the two major things so far. "School" actually starts next week, so they will have a teacher, not a day care personnel. I am hoping I have a change of heart, because right now, I am confused about letting someone else be with my child more hours per day than I am. Many people do it, it just was not in my plan.

A good thing is that I do love my job so far and I am looking forward to it. Since I have to work, I could not have asked for a better position with a better list of responsibilities. As the weeks go on, we shall see!

Cleaning Out the Children's Clothes

With school days just around the corner and the need to be efficient in the mornings, I tackled the children's dresser tonight- it is mostly filled with my daughter's clothes. My sister has a daughter older than mine, but smaller. She gave me a whole bunch of winter clothes, but my daughter (2 years younger than hers) will grow out of them before the winter comes (he daughter wore them this past winter). I have also held on to some things that looked like they were big, but really are not going to work.

So I am purging the clothes.

I have taken out anything I do not like or do not want or do not fit. There are now four possibilities for them:
1. Donate them to the Salvation Army.
2. Give them away to a friend.
3. Take them to the consignment store.
4. Sell them on ebay. (Since the 4fabmoms are doing an ebay challenge to clean out their houses, I could sell them on ebay with tips from the ebay selling coach.)

There are no longer younger girls in the family to pass them down to (soon I will be passing up!), so a close family friend will get some. But since I am trying get together some cash to pay off credit cards, I need to sell the better name brand items. And sadly, this time, the ones I don't want to do anything with will go to the Salvation Army. I know someone can use them, even though I see them as unfit (they are still in wearable condition).

It feels good to clean out and be organized. I may have to go back to my house cleaning challenge again!

GPS for the Directionally Challenged

I am famous... famous for taking the wrong turn and knowing it! I am always thinking a road will go one way it is does not... mostly, because in Florida, we have these things called BODY OF WATER.

It is not just the big bodies of water- the Gulf and the Atlantic usually help me in my direction- the Atlantic is on the east- so I can figure out the rest of the directions from there.

It is the lakes, rivers, and other water ways that get in my way. There are not always bridges where I need them to be~

And it is not the around town directions- I know every short cut there is to get around my city- even where the water is.

It is the longer trips, when I make a turn because I think it is correct- and it usually is not.

Today, for the first time, I saw the east side of Lake Okeechobee- that is the big lake in the center of the state. I made one turn and went the wrong way north. I ended up where I knew (and at least I knew I was going north), but I again was calling my husband telling him about the new adventure I was on. I asked him for a GPS for Christmas- one that leads me like a lamb to the location.

So ends my two days with my grandmother- the long way home!

Back to School Tips for Preschoolers

As our summer vacation comes to an end, we are finishing up our last days of freedom. With having been home for 4 years, the biggest change in August was my husband going back to work. Now it will be back to work for both of us and to school for the other two.

As a newbie to this school thing (I usually am on the teacher side of the occasion)- I found this great article on Back to School Tips for Preschoolers. There are great ideas for what to include in your child's backpack and tips for first timers.

So off to Grandma's for a few days of "vacation"- two children and stairs are probably not the most relaxing ways to spend the last few days! Counting the days down...

Unbecoming a Stay at Home Mom

After four years at home, I am becoming a WOHM- a work outside the home mom. As a mom, I have only been a stay at home mom recently adding the work at home mom part. Now, as my friend Amber says, I am a work at home mom with a moonlighting gig.

I am going back to teaching in one week. I got a great job- a consultant teacher to teachers that teach the gifted and advance middle school students. I travel to four schools and help teachers teach the really smart kids.

A far cry from my last teaching- teaching children with learning and behavioral problems.

I am excited about the job since it is what I always wanted to be as a teacher. I am not excited about getting up each morning and getting my children out of the house. My children have never been forced to get up- or for that matter- have a bed time. All of that will change now. :)

So continue with me on this journey... see how I am a WAHM WOHM! A work at home mom (still with Smart Moms and my preschool site) and a work outside the home mom. What a adventure- what a story!

Multiple streams of income... right?

Bad Hair Day

This was too good not to publish today-

Hair after a day at the beach (having been up in a pony tail)!

Glamour Magazine Wants to Know About Prayer

I received this email from Rachel Hamman about a survey Glamour magazine sent about prayer.

If you would like to participate, answer the following questions and email the answers. Or just comment on this post so we can see your answers.

1. What's the craziest thing you've ever prayed for?
(or most unique or silliest thing)

2. What's the last thing you prayed about?

Send me your responses--a couple of sentences for each--and your:

full name:
age:
city/state:
phone:
email:
PLUS, a high-res JPG photo of your smiling face (if someone else is in
the photo, we can crop it).

One more star for hubby!

I have already bragged about my husband about how great it has been having him home. Last night, he cleaned out the pantry! I got the nice pantry shelf organizers about 9 months - 1 year ago and cleaned it out pretty good. But I did not look at any expiration dates. Well, here in the hurricane state, you tend to stock up on canned goods and non-perishables. Who knows how long those things last? Well he found some pretty old ones. Have you ever heard of a can of artichokes exploding???? ...that is what started all of this off.

So now the pantry is free and clear of old food- now I don't have guilt over not using it.

And you know what they problem was... recipes. I would gather up ingredients to cook a recipe and go back to the plain old food I always cook! Gourmet cooking is never a quick option!

Thanks to my hubby and his wonderful eagerness to clean our house during his vacation!

P.S. He wanted me to add that we have more pasta per capita than any other house in the US. I never use up a whole box and always try to work it in. It would help if I only bought one type of pasta and then that would solve the problem!

Bragging on my husband!

My husband is a school teacher, so he is home for the summer. It is wonderful because he is helping out all around the house. He has done laundry, begun to clean out the garage, sell thing on ebay, and even cleaned the porch. I am also able to sleep in with our youngest even though the oldest gets up before 7:00 am.

It is also nice to have some family time with either the kids separate with one adult or all of us together. This summer has been great (except of course the cancer and the surgery- but those are over and done with!).

It has been so nice to have him home. Teachers do not have the highest paid jobs but the benefit of being off during the summer and holidays is worth it... plus, he just loves to teach!

Children's Annual Checkup Questions

Don't you love when you go for your children's annual checkups and they ask you all sorts of developmental questions? You really have to think.... does my child describe things? Do they walk backwards?

The one I loved the most today was do they have any behavior, eating, or sleeping problems? Not if eating junk most of the time, whining, and sleeping in your parents bed don't count as problems! It is all how you think of things as problems. My children certainly would not classify those as problems... actually, those would be solutions to their problems! So how do you answer? My doctor is one of those that thinks most children act like children anyways... so I tend to keep my mouth shut. I taught children with behavioral problems, you think I would be able to get a 4 year old to get into bed at night!

Until next year--- maybe I will be better prepared!

Rushing to Church

How is it that even when you get up early, you still end up rushing to church! I remember Sunday mornings with my mom, a single mom or the only parent attending church, screaming at us to get our clothes on, eat breakfast, and get in the car. Then of course there was the argument of three children of who got to sit up front. A never ending saga that ended when we walked in the church doors. You wonder how we learned anything when we got there after the rush and chaos of getting there.

With that in mind, I try real hard not to rush my kids. I read somewhere that "hurry" should never be said to your children. You should plan ahead for enough time so that you not throwing them out the door and into the car seats.

And we were not that late to day. We were technically on time- just not as early as I wanted to be there... I have a bit of a thing for being on time... from the above story, do you wonder why? :)

I did not say "hurry" but I did say "come on guys, get to the car." Of course, we started getting ready too soon, which was part of the problem. We thought we had more time that we ended up with. I will make an effort to make my children not feel rushed, but still get there on time. You try too!

When My Mom Visits

My mom is coming over in the morning to watch my children while we go to the follow up visit for my husband. My mom is not the typical grandmother, since she has two children of her own still in her home- ages 14 and 18. She does occasionally watch the children, but not very often. And she does visit, but not very often. She claims she does not care what our house looks like, but there is always some motherly comment later. Last week, my friend stopped by at the same time and talked about being a germophobe. And my mother said after she left, "I can see why she did not sit down in here!" So I have desperately tried sprucing up my house. When she is here alone, it is even worse, even though she "does not care." I do have to point out, I am not the best housekeeper, but I am not the worst! And she actually employs a house cleaner... 4 days a week! But still, you cannot help but worry when comes to visit!

Free Kids Music

I was completing my preschool math activities for measurement page today and heard this song called Tall by Milkshake. I thought the song was appropriate and looked it up on google on found the video on YouTube. I posted it on my site and my preschool activity blog. Then I got an email from the group from my YouTube post that sent me to their website. They have an entire set of kids music for free. You cannot beat that! Check them out. I am sure you will love them! Moms love great music for kids, especially when it is free. Plus they have a whole bunch of videos too!

Cleaning Out the Car

I do not understand how some moms have cars that are clean and spotless. My car looks like someone lives in it- literally. The kids bring in toys and leave them. We have every paper that comes from Sunday school on the floor. Not to mention, my seats have all sorts of stains, even though they are BLACK fabric! And I will not even bring up the french fries that appear under the car seats!

So today, my goal is to clean it out. It may only last a few days before it gets cluttered up again, but it is a start.

If I got my windows tinted, maybe no one but me would notice. Except when the papers go flying out as I put the kids in their car seats!