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There is a fun exciting series of classes coming up that you don't want your kids to miss. Its a series of 6 classes on Creation Science for kids K-8th. The live dates every monday from September 22- October 28 2008.The classes are every monday from 10:00-11:30 and both you and your kids can listen from the comfort of your own home. My kids will be there and it sounds like its going to be a LOT of fun. Here is the link: http://tinyurl.com/creationscienceclass Now if you happen to be reading this after the classes have started or long after they're done, DON'T WORRY! All of the classes will be recorded and available for you to download anytime along with the handouts. So what are you waiting for? It's going to be GREAT! Here is an article to whet your curiosity! Felice Gerwitz is just a really wonderful speaker and author! Experiments Taken from Creation Anatomy: A Study Guide to the Body http://tinyurl.com/creationscienceclass
2. Has your child (or you!) had a cut or scraped knee lately? The next time you do, observe the injury. What happens to the wound once the bleeding is stopped? How long does it take to clot or for a scab to form? Why does this happen? 3. Observe how uniquely God made us by fingerprinting each child. 4. Demonstrate osmosis of a cell membrane (a semi-permeable barrier). 5. Study the art of fingerprinting. How did this practice begin? When was it discovered to be an effective means of identification? What is the latest trend in identification? (eyes) What steps are being taken in various forms of identification?
Felice Gerwitz has lectured extensively on the topic of science fairs. She is an award winning author and her book “An Insider’s Guide to Successful Science Fair Projects” was chosen book of the month by God’s World Publishing. Let Felice help you teach Creation Science to your children each Monday morning from September 22-October 28. Learn more here: http://tinyurl.com/creationscienceclass |
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This is the fourth and last installment of 2 freebies for you from Cindy Rushton's Talk-a-Latte seminar coming up this week. Part 1,2 and part 3 are in previous posts that you can find in the archives. Cindy will be welcoming Leslie Valeska (from http://www.LeslieValeska.com) for a fantastic online seminar TODAY, starting at 9 a.m. CST. The Seminar is calle, A SIMPLEJOURNEY TO DEBT-FREE LIVING. Now listen carefully, its not too late to join us even if the seminar has started or is completely over. Read on! You see one of the neat things about Cindy's online seminars is that everything is ONLINE. Cindy builds a private, exclusive Membership Site that includes everything from the seminar in one place--it includes audios (from all of the sessions and from the bonus gifts that her speakers give to us), ebooks, complete unit study guides, articles, printable notebooking pages, cookbooks, on and on. I can't believe all of the things that we receive for only $29.95. It is truly amazing! Especially with this seminar. EVEN IF YOU GET YOUR TICKET AFTER THE SEMINAR IS OVER, ITS NOT TOO LATE! YOU WILL STILL GET TO ACCESS EVERYTHING! EVEN THE LIVE SEMINARS WILL BE RECORDED AND DOWNLOADABLE!! I Can’t Live Simple Until… It’s summer now; officially. For everyone summer usually marks a time of relaxation. Some of us homeschoolers school year round. For our family, we school throughout the summer because it is so hot here. We prefer to take time off in the winter when the weather is cooler and more enjoyable for outdoor play. However, we still have time during the summer that we use to relax. ****************************** Need MORE Help? ******************************* Quick Debt Attack Tips! Do you just HATE debt? Has it ever felt like a noose around your neck? Ready to come away from the slavery? Here are some quick tips to help you attack that debt and find the freedom that you are longer for! ==> What's in Your Hand? Yep! What do you have in your hand to battle that debt with? Do you have a skill? Do you have stuff? Do you have a product? Do you have equipment? Want your dreams to come true? Well, offer up those "fish and bread" in your hand to the Great Provider. Watch Him do a miracle! He may ask you to use your skill of cleaning to begin an office cleaning business--talk about a great business model with a very limited investment. Maybe you have tons of old books that are just collecting dust--hear the call to sell on Ebay? What about those purses that you make...or books that you have written...or even parts from that junk car in the yard--sell it on Ebay! What about that lawn mower...or that bobcat? Put that ad in the paper and offer up what you have in your hand. Watch God bless! ==> Stop the Leaks! If your money bucket is leaking quicker than you are filling it up, stop everything right now. Find a way to stop the leak! Write down every penny you spend for a week. Shock you? Little things will make a HUGE difference. Just cutting out soft drinks for our family of four saved us hundreds of dollars. Don't believe it? Just do a bit of math-- Family of 4 drinking 2 soft drinks per day--1.25 each--$10.00 ==> MAKE a budget and LIVE the budget! First, write down all of your necessary expenses--tithing, housing, utilities, gas, food, financial commitments. Decide which part of the month you will need to pay each. Next, look at all of the other things that you spend money on-- Find any of the leaks on your budget and apply the money from those leaks to get rid of debts one-by-one. Not enough money for all of the month? Take a look again at what is in your hand--what can you do to make more money? Nothing? How about looking around you for an extra job--we can truly testify that we always need help with our businesses but few people genuinely want to work hard for money. Debt hurt bad enough? It only takes a little while to catch back up and be free. Find that extra job. Or get rid of of those extras for a little while. There may be things that have to be set aside until the debt is retired. More than likely just using a budget will help to give the accountability needed to get rid of most debt and debt problems. My favorite resources for figuring up a budget (and all of the incidentals) can be found here: Dave Ramsey's Website or at Living On a Dime's Website. ==> "Live like no one else today so you can live like no one else tomorrow!" Anyone know who says that one? Yep! My favorite writer and speaker, Dave Ramsey. Dave is SO right! If we will just tighten our belts for a little while, in only a little while, we can have our dreams! I don't know about all of you, but I cannot stand being in captivity to the debt taskmasters. I want to go for all that God can give me in this life. I cannot do that if I am serving the master of debt too. I remember the day that Harold and I with our children decided that we would commit to live like no one else for a period of time so we could live like no one else later. The dream of having daddy home with us is worth it! The dream of having a business that our children can have as a heritage is worth it! And...it really only takes a little while! ==> Don't presume upon the future. This is one HUGE lesson that God spoke to my heart about my debt. He let me go through a period of not having "enough" to pay off the debts that I owed. It was a long, stressful, frustrating time. At any time, He could have removed that "thorn" from me. Yet, He didn't. He left me in the wilderness--in the heat of the journey. Talk about one I do not EVER care to go through again! If He spoke this word to my heart once, He spoke it a million times--no exaggeration there! Really any debt is presuming about our future. It assumes that we will have another heartbeat--we will have another chance. It assumes that the check will be here. It assumes that the needs for tomorrow will be less than the needs of today--unlikely! Boy! That will bite us! There are no guarantees. Even when people owe us money, there are no guarantees that *they* will be able to pay us--not even employers. We just cannot commit to spend tomorrow's money until it gets here and God gives us a clearance to spend that money. God is so very faithful. I have not finished my study through the entire Bible on money and debt (that is what I am studying right now). However, the very first thing that I remembered being taught as a little girl was to pray that God would give us our daily bread. Remember that? Jesus taught us to pray that request. However, it was not to pray for next year's daily bread so we could have extras today. That is just not how it works. We have to learn to use great self-control with our finances. Every single need will truly be provided faithfully by our Heavenly Father. Plus...watch out! Faithfulness also brings His lavish blessings upon our household. He is certainly our good Master! ==> Hit Debt Bit-by-Bit! Got debt? Want out, but have no idea how to begin? Beloved, first know that it won't take but a little while! Hate the debt and hit that debt! In a little while you are going to be free from the shackles. True Freedom! Get started by stopping the leaks to your finances. If you are going further and further in debt each month, take a long hard look at your finances. Are there things that really need to go? Soft drinks? Eating out? Lessons for the kids? Cable TV/Satellite? Cell phones? Telephones? Those car notes (sell and buy a cheap, good vehicle)? Going too much? Cut those extras! Add up how much all of those things are costing you. For a season, fast from those things. It won't take long and your debt can truly be mastered. Also, simplify everything! Cook meals in bulk--we always save tons with crock pot meals, staples like red beans and rice or soups, and eating sandwiches. We also save on entertainment by checking out videos for free from our library rather than renting, paying extra for cable/satellite, or going out to the movies. Really those things are great money savers, but they also save the family life--you can make sweeter memories with your family all together. What a perk! Finally, also write it all down--be accountable on paper. Every single penny should be logged. Let the whole family see the expenses. Talk about accountability! The kids have helped me to see the waste in Latte's and how much nicer it is to be able to exercise and afford regular family memories every single month with that one commitment! ==> Get God's Vision! Lastly, we want to encourage you to look past the debt for a little bit. Look past the hard times and the struggles to get past this desert in your life. Think about the joy set before you! Can you imagine the difference in your family life? Can you see Daddy coming home for his dream business? Can you see that monthly income without all of the envelopes and threat letters in piles? Can you imagine the joy of seeing your children build their own homes and have their families without all of the debt? Can you see your children's children walking in freedom and liberty? Yes! It is worth it today! This is truly only a small period of time for you. It will be the thing that will make tomorrow a joy and delight. Read Deuteronomy lately? I have been camping there myself this past few months. I have been studying several things in depth in that book. One thing that is an underlying theme of that book of the Bible is God's plans for us financially. They are good plans! He wants to lavish us with blessings. He wants for us to pass on a legacy to our children that distinguishes them among our culture. He wants for us to be the lenders and givers to those who are in need--not to be the ones in need. He has chosen us to be His precious children--ruling and reigning in dominion over the world we are in. And...great news! He has a wonderful plan, complete with how-to's for how we are to get there! So, grasp for His best! Get a vision of all He desires and go for it! You have treasures awaiting you! ************************************* Need more help??? Join us for our NEW Talk-a-Latte Seminar with Leslie Valeska on September 12-13 ONLINE. Leslie will be teaching her amazing seminar, A Simple Journey to Debt Free Living! Learn more and grab your ticket here: http://tinyurl.com/5zankl Dont forget! Even if you're reading this long after the seminar is over, ITS NOT TOO LATE! You can still access everything on the membership site with your ticket AND the live sessions will be recorded and available for download too! So grab your ticket and dig in! Sincerely, Suzette
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This is the third installment of 2 freebies for you from Cindy Rushton's Talk-a-Latte seminar coming up this week. Part 1 and part 2 are in previous posts that you can find in the archives. Cindy will be welcoming Leslie Valeska (from http://www.LeslieValeska.com ) for a fantastic online seminar next week. The seminar is called, A SIMPLE JOURNEY TO DEBT-FREE LIVING. It sounds FABULOUS! You see one of the neat things about the Cindy's online seminars is that everything is ONLINE. Cindy builds a private, exclusive Membership Site that includes everything from the seminar in one place--it includes audios (from all of the sessions and from the bonus gifts that her speakers give to us), ebooks, complete unit study guides, articles, printable notebooking pages, cookbooks, on and on. I can't believe all of the things that we receive for only $29.95. It is truly amazing! Especially with this seminar. I will be posting 2 articles each day until the seminar this weekend so check back again TOMORROW for the next installments! Combat the Cost of Gas Think the cost of gas is high? Me too! Today I heard a news report that predicted gas would reach $5/gallon before summer's end. The same report included information about a raise in electricity prices as well. Although it wasn't included in the reports, this will directly affect the cost of other items, especially groceries and other necessities. With all these prices rising and our paychecks remaining constant, how can a family stay within their budget? One way to combat prices is to take a stern approach to re-evaluating your gas usage. If gas is your main source of heat and cooking energy, you are going to do a bit of number crunching as the prices continue to rise. The good news is that the winter is behind us, so there won't be heating costs. But summer is around the bend. For those of living in the south, we already have been running our air conditioners for the last few weeks. With home cooling costs, think just inside the comfort zone. By turning your thermostat up to 78-79 degrees, your a/c will run less. If you have an automated thermostat, use the day night settings. This can really be an energy saver. If your home is cooled by means of window units, only run them when you are home during the mid season. As the hotter months come around, keep the units at a constant temperature; preferably at the warmest you can tolerate. If you still have need of a heat source and you have some type of wood burning element (stove, fireplace, soapstone insert) consider using it exclusively. Cooking is another issue. I have spent time today trying to forecast the most efficient method of cooking with the estimated rise in cost of energy. As best I can figure with "ghost" numbers, small electric appliances will be the best methods of cooking with the least amount of money spent on gas and electric. The small appliances I evaluated and found to be the best were the crock-pot, electric skillet, counter-top grill, and microwave. I have never cooked in a microwave (ours is nothing more than a bread box). However, using the energy sticker (your appliances will either have a sticker or an imprint of wattage on them) I was able to calculate that it would be less expensive to use the microwave to roast a chicken than either a gas or electric oven. The crock-pot yielded an even higher energy savings for roasting the same chicken. The good news for us is that spring is here and summer is fast approaching. This means that we are less inclined to want to heat up our kitchens by using the oven and stove top. Small electric appliances are an excellent resource for the homemaker to help cut energy costs. A much over looked resource for energy efficient cooking today, is the old fashioned charcoal grill. Gas grills are wonderful (we have one). They are quick to light and heat up. However, with the cost of gas today, it can be costly. Even if you already own a gas grill, consider purchasing a charcoal grill. They can be very inexpensive for a bare bones model. Either way, grilling keeps household energy costs down. One more food preparation option that will help with slashing home energy costs is "uncooked" dinners. These are meals that are comprised mostly, if not solely of uncooked or previously cooked ingredients. For example, salads can be made in abundance and with a great variety. Left over meat from another meal will make a great protein topping. Sandwiches are another wonderful option to use leftovers. Sandwiches can be simple or complex, you choose. Planning ahead for these types of meals is the way to go. When you are making chicken for dinner one night be sure to cook enough to stretch for another two or three simple uncooked meals. In this way you are using the energy source and heating up your kitchen only once. These are some tips to get you thinking about how you can change a few methods you may be more accustomed to that will help you to reduce your energy costs. The next post will focus on ways to cut back on vehicle energy costs. Check out the wonderful Simple Journey to Debt Free Living Seminar here:
Meet the Debt Family Tree So where did debt begin? Truly, debt began with the fall of man. How many people were on the earth at this time? Two. It only took the creation of two people before we began our debt filled lives. Remember, debt can be defined as sin. The moment Adam and Eve chose to disobey God (Genesis 3), they entered into debt. The definition of sin is to voluntarily depart from God’s commandments. Clearly Adam and Eve chose to depart from God’s commandments when they fell. This sin is a debt we have being repaying ever since, yet God’s desire for us is to be debt free. Intense thought, isn’t it? We will never be perfect. Yet the process of transformation promises that we will one day be like God. This is not a minor issue for God. He makes it abundantly clear how strong His desire is for us to be transformed. Romans 12:1-3 instructs us to cast off our old selves to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. This illustrates the serious need we have to correct our thought process about money, debt, and spending habits. 2 Corinthians 3:17-18 tells us that we are being transformed into God’s likeness as well as the freedom it brings. This is ever so true when debt no longer has you bound as a slave. While we will never acquire this deliverance here on earth our rewards (in part) in Heaven are based on our journey to debt free living while we reside in our earthly form. In the simplest terms this means that we are commanded to make deliberate decisions that follow God’s commandments to assist repayment of this debt. Each of us has this responsibility. The best part about our head banker is that He accepts whatever payment we give without penalty or expectation as to the speed of the repayment. However, the idea still remains that the debt we accrue is our responsibility to repay. One thing you will need to continue to remind yourself is that you did not get into debt over night. It didn’t take one day to accrue the debt that has bound you to a life of servitude. It will take time to dig out. Some days the journey may be slow or even seem stagnant. Rest assured that allowing God to transform your mind on this matter will keep you moving forward and you will succeed, because of His guidance. Be patient with yourself, as God is patient with you. God knew that you would be on this journey and allowed you to make these choices to grow you up. All of the trials and affliction in your life are there to aid in your transformation. It is never the trial that is the important aspect in your life; it is how you handle it. Colossians 1:10-12 helps to define God’s outline for the process of long suffering and its overall reward in our lives. The concepts of the process of long suffering are as follows: 2) Wait, taking time to gather all facts about a situation before making any decisions on how to proceed. This includes prayer and being in constant communication with your spouse, 3) Looking for a solution (accepting responsibility and using kindness) as God presents it to you. Refer back to this verse as often as needed to remind yourself that God is at work here, producing in you great things and the ability to succeed at conquering debt.
Need MORE Help? Dont forget to check back again tomorrow!!! Tomorrows posts are titled "I Can't Live Simply Until..." by Leslie Valeska and "Quick Debt Attack Tips" by Harold and Cindy Rushton
Sincerely, Suzette |
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This is the second installment of 2 freebies for you from Cindy Rushton's Talk-a-Latte seminar coming up this week. For the freebies posted on Monday, see my previous post. Cindy will be welcoming Leslie Valeska, from www.leslievaleska.com for a fantastic online seminar this weekend. The seminar is call A SIMPLE JOURNEY TO DEBT-FREE LIVING. It sounds FABULOUS! You see one of the neat things about the Cindy's online seminars is that everything is ONLINE. Cindy builds a private, exclusive Membership Site that includes everything from the seminar in one place--it includes audios (from all of the sessions and from the bonus gifts that her speakers give to us), ebooks, complete unit study guides, articles, printable notebooking pages, cookbooks, on and on. I can't believe all of the things that we receive for only $29.95. It is truly amazing! Especially with this seminar.I will be posting 2 articles or MP3 downloads each day until the seminar this weekend so check back again TOMORROW for the next installments! The Simple Way to Maintain Your Budget By Leslie Valeska In the last two years it has been noted that Americans use their debit and credit cards more than their checkbooks. In fact, their usage has more than doubled! This is great in some ways, but it can be a nightmare for the budget conscious. When I left the envelope system of budgeting, in lieu of my debit card, something amazing happened. My expenses went up. In short, it is so much easier to spend one or two dollars here and there when the actual paper cash isnt' coming out of your hand. It's like we aren't spending that money or something. However, you CAN have a debit card AND stay within your budget. Actually, you can do this for all your budgeting needs for the household. The best part, this is a simple process. Use a separate bank account and debit card for all your household purchases. For the most ease, you and your husband might want to look into opening another account at your current bank of choice if you are pleased with their services and they offer no fee banking. You will likely have to place a minimum of $25-50 dollars in the account when you open it. This is a good thing, because it will enable you to use your entire budget without penalty. Confused? Read On. One good reason for this set up is that your husband can transfer money weekly or monthly, in an amount that totals your family's total budget for the month. When you go to the grocery store, you will know exactly how much you have to spend and not a penny more. a way to provide accountablility for yourself is to agree that if you go over your budget by $2, then that amount will be deducted from the next month's stipend. In this way, you will have not only an incentive to stay within your budget, but a method of discipline for your budgeting. One extra bonus with this method is that it is much simpler to track your household expenses. The beauty of this process is that you will do nothing differently than you do now. You will simply have a separate account with which to do it. Check out the wonderful Simple Journey to Debt Free Living Seminar here: *************************** Secrets to Making the Most of Your Money By Harold and Cindy Rushton Got more month than money? Want to make the most of your money? Want to build a legacy for your children to follow? I have some secrets that just might help. Let's dig in... ==> Cut eating out! Even eating out as frugally ast you can adds up. If you must be out, take sandwiches or snacks along. Otherwise, make a commitment to be home for meals. ==> Cut soft-drinks and juice! Drink water! No only is it better for your health. It is much better for your pocket-book. ==> Got room for a flower bed? Flower pot? Grow a mini-garden! Grow a few vegetables. Not only is it yummy and more healthy, but it will help your budget. ==> You may not LIKE It... but, hang out your clothes instead of using the dryer. Save electricity drying the clothes and cooling the house...and get the laundry done faster too. Don't have a clothes line? Have a deck? Yep! Hang them out--in just a bit they will be dry and ready to put away! ==> Simplify meals! Cindy has always helped with our budget by making hearty dishes that go far like red beans and rice, homemade chili with red beans and turtle beans, spaghetti, soups, etc. I really like those foods better than eating out. It has been amazing to watch her spread a package of meat for a whole week in dishes like that. Not only is she spreading the meat, she is spreading our finances further as well. ==> Contrary to popular belief.. You don't HAVE TO HAVE a cell phone...or cable TV...or a phone. Buy a pre-paid phone. Cindy only spent $49.99 on her phone and only tops it up every month-two months with $20.00. Her phone bill went from $100.00 per month to minimal amounts. Cringe over the TV thing? We don't do without entertainment. If you want entertainment, check out your library. Ours has videos that can be checked out for free. Get movies at the library and plan a movie night with your family. Or...read more! ==> Get rid of those car payments! Making car payments? Talk about a noose! Sell those cars! Get a $2-3,000.00 car. I have been all across the country in my $2,000 truck. No monthly payments. I save money every time I crank it up with its gas efficiency. Plus! Every month, I save on my insurance since I do not have to have comprehensive insurance to make a bank happy. ==> Kids and teens can save too! Don't make this just a "parent-thing" in your family! Kids can save too! They don't have to have a cell phone--in fact, going back to pre-paid cell phones, they are actually safer for your children. We bought the least expensive model for each member of our family. They do not take pictures or send/receive pictures. Yes, our teens are surviving this! Actually, Cindy was in a Bible study at church when she learned that several teenagers in the church were upset about a friend who had let a young boy take a picture of her nude. The first thing the boy did with the picture was forward that picture to all of his friends. Think YOUR children aren't doing this? Won't ever see anything like this? Well, Matthew was in charge of some teens at a church event several months ago. He caught several of his teen boys were sharing porn pics from the internet. Long story short, you not only SAVE their purity, you also save on your budget. Also, keep those teens HOME! Bring their friends into your home with video nights...game nights...paintball in your yard...food. Also, give them great ideas for inexpensive outings with their friends. Let them be a part of your attack on debt! ==> Cut going! Each trip for our family to town costs us at least 2 gallons of gas--that does not count going a lot around town in traffic. We already have several commitments in town per week with church and business. We have cut any extra going and limited it to only the times that are on our schedule. Not only does this save our precious time with our family, but it helps our budget drastically each month. ==> Be accountable! Write down your budget and chart all expenses on paper. Let the whole family see it. There is just nothing quite like seeing the little "foxes" that steal from the budget. Our teens would much rather have a regular family treat than drink soft drinks. They would rather see us invest in big expenses than drink a soft drink or chit-chat on the phone. Also, it helps us make better decisions when we know that we have to show our children what we are spending our money on--hard to buy junk when they are sacrificing at the same time! Not only that, it is also an amazing testimony for our children to see God's blessing upon our finances in meeting our needs and also shocking us with the desires of our heart. They have a "history" with God that has been charted through their childhood. Hopefully it will build a legacy for them and their children and their children's children. *************************** Take my word for it, you will WANT a ticket to this event and access to all of the wonderful resources. Grab your ticket here: Dont forget to check back again tomorrow!!! Tomorrows posts are titled "Combat the Cost of Gas" by Leslie Valeska and "Meet the Debt Family Tree" also by Leslie Valeska Sincerely, Suzette
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I just got an email from my friend, Cindy Rushton. She was telling me about the Talk-a-Latte seminar coming up this week. She will be welcoming Leslie Valeska (from http://www.LeslieValeska.com) for a fantastic online seminar next week. The seminar is called, A SIMPLE JOURNEY TO DEBT-FREE LIVING. It sounds FABULOUS! You see one of the neat things about the Cindy's online seminars is that everything is ONLINE. Cindy builds a private, exclusive Membership Site that includes everything from the seminar in one place--it includes audios (from all of the sessions and from the bonus gifts that her speakers give to us), ebooks, complete unit study guides, articles, printable notebooking pages, cookbooks, on and on. I can't believe all of the things that we receive for only $29.95. It is truly amazing! Especially with this seminar. Anyway, back to the reason that I am sharing with you... Cindy just sent me permission to give you several samples of her free gifts that are included on the Membership Site. I am so excited to give them to you! The first is an audio workshop featuring Leslie Valeska that she actually sells on her website, but she is giving away on the Membership Site (and to YOU!). I will be posting 2 articles or MP3 downloads each day until the seminar this weekend so check back again TOMORROW for the next installments!
Who doesn’t want to reduce their grocery expenses? Grocery shopping can be low cost for all types of food purchases…as long as you know how. Trim the Fat includes topics such as: How to shop each store the SMART way! STOP giving so much money to your local grocer and keep it in YOUR bank account, where it belongs! Download by Mp3 Check out the wonderful Simple Journey to Debt Free Living Seminar here: *************************** Homeschooling on a Shoestring Stretched budget? Planning to homeschool, but need some ideas that won't break the bank? Join Cindy Rushton as she takes you by the hand and gives you ideas for how to stretch your homeschool budget while making your homeschool fun and easy. An excellent education is NOT out of reach for you! Download by Mp3 *************************** Take my word for it, you will WANT a ticket to this event and access to all of the wonderful resources. Grab your ticket here: Dont forget to check back again tomorrow!!! Tomorrows posts are titled "The Simple Way to Maintain Your Budget" by Leslie Valeska and "Secrets to Making the Most of your Money" by Harold and Cindy Rushton Sincerely, |
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I thought I would feature one of my favorite inspiring authors this time. Cindy Rushton is a wonderful motivating speaker and I hope you will be as blessed by her as I am! Here is an article she wrote on scheduling. There is also info about her new 2008 Back to School Blast in the links and at the end. ENJOY! Psst! A Secret to Scheduling Success! Want to know one of my biggest secrets to homeschooling the easy way? Want to know one of my biggest secrets to scheduling success? This one secret can make your daily schedule finally fit. It can end your scheduling frustrations forever. I am not a "schedule by the minute" type of person. (GRIN) I fail with schedules like that. They don't meet my needs. My life includes too many areas that have different needs daily. Timed schedules just do not work for me. So, what has worked for me? Setting up a framework to my day. This is one incredibly powerful tip. It can make a HUGE difference in your day as well. It just might be the secret that has alluded you through the years. Wondering what I mean by a "framework" for your day? By framework, I mean a general flow to each day that includes all of the areas of my life that I juggle. But, how do I do that? Here are some quick tips: 1. Decide what should be included in your daily schedule. Look at what you are all about. Look at your goals, activities, values, priorities. Look at your husband's schedule--wrap everything around him. Look at what you need to include in your day to get everything done--quiet times, lessons, homemaking, read alouds, work, etc. This is important. Otherwise, you will include things in your schedule that may not be the very best choices. And...one big risk...you may never get around to the things that matter the most. Decide what really needs to be a part of each and every day for your day to be successful. 2. Decide the best time for the tasks you need to complete each day. This will help you get a good flow to your day. For me, quiet times are just best at the beginning of the day. Chores are great right after them--I need them completed so my brain can focus on the table time. Our business work and errands need to be done in the early afternoon. Read alouds are best before bedtime. You get the picture. When I tried to read aloud over lunch, we had so many distractions that we could never fit it in. Trying to work the business in the morning would never work...and of course, we couldn't take care of business errands at night. See how important it is to really look at the best time to get tasks done. Look at the best time for all of the tasks that need to be done. Look at the best flow to get everything done easily each day. You may not get this right at the beginning, but you will get closer and closer each day. You will love it! 3. Balance your day. Don't let any one area of your life get out of balance. Everything that we do in our day has a tendency to grow into a big time thief--homeschooling, homemaking, home business. Those important aspects of our life can easily grow out of their boundaries. While I love each of them, they can get rather exhausting if we don't keep them in balance with the other things that we have to do. The best way for me to stay balanced is to be reasonable about what I expect for each day, keep things simplified and easy, and keep everything inside of its time of the day. I don't mind those days that we want to dig deeper in a topic that we are studying. I also don't mind those days that we tackle a messy room. I don't even mind those days that we have a special business project that needs more time. But, if those areas were demanding extra time every day, it would be easy to get burned-out, frustrated and battle with our time each day. Want to make it work? Find a balance for your day. 4. Set up routines. Talk about a HUGE help for me. Without routines, things can get so frustrating every day--there are constant decisions, there is more strife in the family, there is no consistency. Routines help us to make things go faster, without the strife and struggle of figuring things out DAILY. Routines reduce the stress of making decisions daily. Routines help our children to know what to expect so they can move through all of the things that they need to do each day. Routines are crucial. They assure a smooth ride. They keep us on track. They keep us out of the ruts. They take us in the direction that we want to go. One of the toughest things I ever did was develop routines in my home. However, one of the most rewarding things that I ever did was develop routines in my home. When I got very, very sick, everything kept going. During those times that I have been stretched, things kept on going. All because of routines. Set up routines. Then, your children will know what to expect. They will learn what is next and next and next. The decisions will be made for you. They will be able to "just do it" with or without you. Set up routines for your family. Develop one set of routines at a time--look for the time of day that things go haywire. If it is morning, for example, look at all that needs to be done. Brainstorm. Make a to-do list for that routine. Write it out. Work it as a checklist until it becomes a habit. If you see other things that need to be added into that set of routines, add them. Tweak it until it is smooth. Then, move to the next troublespot. Do this for all of the times of your day. Watch to see how much it helps! 5. Prune anything that is not necessary. Truth is, we cannot do everything. What we do in our day keeps us from doing other things. It zaps our time, energy, strength. We need to be picky about what we add to our day. Every single thing that we do costs us something. We need to constantly prune those things that are not necessary. Prune anything that hinders, distracts. Be honest. Be ruthless. Prune. Even the good things! Go for the best! 6. Take the squeeze out of your schedule. Watch out for the squeeze in your schedule. Don't fill every minute of your day with something to do. Why? Because there are always going to be crisis situations, interruptions, melt-downs, delays. If we have our schedule maxed out, we will constantly be overwhelmed, overworked, and squeezed. Find ways to take the squeeze out of your daily schedule--cut out extra running, watch out for time thieves, prioritize your daily to-do's (and eliminate any that make the day too tight), cut out extras that are unnecessary, keep the day simple and easy. Keep a relaxed atmosphere. Constantly, take the squeeze out of your daily schedule. 7. Stay flexible! Stay adaptable! Actually, one of the reasons that we really want to develop a framework to our day is so we have more flexibility, so we have more "space" in our day to be adaptable. We want to be able to seize opportunities that come our way. We want to be able to slow down and enjoy our children. We don't want to miss teachable moments. These days just go by too fast. We want to enjoy every second. We want to make sweet, sweet memories. This requires that we stay flexible and adaptable. So, take the time to develop your own framework to your day. Do the tough work. Get your plans together. Work on these suggestions. Then, stay flexible. Stay adaptable. Grasp on to all that God has in store for you!
About Cindy Rushton… Cindy Rushton is the hostess of the Back to School Blast, her annual back to school fling for homeschool mothers around the world. She is recording Preview Chats for the Back to School Blast RIGHT NOW! Join her wonderful guests FREE for the next weeks as they count down to the Back to School Blast (August 8-9--BUT! NEVER ENDING because it is an ONLINE seminar!). Get your ticket NOW and receive her awesome A Quick Start for Notebooking Mini-Set FREE today! Check out all of the details here: Sincerely, |
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I'm so excited about this weekend (July 11-12th 2008)! Cindy Rushton is hosting an online seminar called "Let's Get Organized for the New School Year"! I've attended several of her seminars from the comfort of my computer chair and WOW! they are so jam packed full of resources! Cindy always packs her Membership sites with a ton of free audios and free ebooks! This seminar is about getting organized and planning out the details of the new school year! Everything from planning out your goals, deciding on new curriculum, setting up your schedule and leaving room for all those other things we homeschool moms have to do! Everything is hosted online and you can join in live in the Conferance Room each day. You can also download the MP3 audios after the event too. The neat thing about being there live is you can text chat with other moms and really dig into the topic, sharing links, tips and experience! Did I also mention the jam-packed Membership website??? It's like sittng down with your best homeschooling friend and hashing the coming school year all out then coming away excited, motivated, and PREPARED! I'm ready! Here's the link for more info: http://www.CindyRushton.com/LGO2008/html Oh! Now for the FREE part! You can attend the talk on July 8th at 1 p.m. absolutely FREE!! The details are below! Here is the schedule and how to's for joining this seminar: Tuesday, July 8, 2008 1PM CST F* R* E* E*! Let's Get Organized for the New School Year! Cindy Rushton from Http://www.CindyRushton.com Talk-a-Latte Online Conference Room
How to Join Us Online in Our Conference Room... We provide the software download-free. Here is the link: Click to begin download or copy/paste into your internet browser and click ENTER. It will only take a few minutes to download into your computer, but you want to do it ahead of time so you don't miss a minute in the Conference Room. After it is downloaded on your computer, it will set up an icon on your desktop that says CONFERENCE. Then, you will only have to click it to open up the room. Here are your instructions from there: When you are ready to enter, you will enter your NAME or EMAIL ADDRESS in the first blank. Add the following information when prompted: Name of Room: Talk-a-Latte This Weekend--July 11-12 Let's Get Organized for the New School Year Virtual Seminar! Sign up today to join us live (just register with your name/email for us to send you the passwords and schedule updates) or grab a ticket for access to our Membership Site AND free ebooks/audios! Sign up here: http://www.CindyRushton.com/LGO2008.html See you there!!! Suzette |
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Have you filled up at the gas pump lately? Wow! What used to cost me $36 dollars at the gas pump not too long ago, now costs me $75. Ouch! That’s a huge chunk out of our budget for just one vehicle. I think that gas has become one of the largest budget categories rivaling groceries, utilities, and mortgage payments. It has everyone stretched thin. So what are you doing to cope? Leave me a comment with some of the ways you are coping with higher gas prices. One of the ways we are cutting back is at the grocery store. Groceries are another one of those big budget categories. What people don’t know is that there is a surprising amount of flexibility within this category. Since I’m the manager of our home, I have been doing quite a bit of studying on how to revamp our budget to counteract the soaring gas prices. While my kids do their schoolwork, I’ve been studying how to save at the grocery store. Since I don’t have a lot of time to teach myself all of this on my own, I have found quite a few inexpensive, (and some free) resources to help speed up my learning curve. On most of these, I not only recouped what I paid for the resource but saved even more money on top of that (usually 3 times the amount). Here are some of my favorites: The first fantastic resource that comes to mind is Teri Gaults’ website, The Grocery Game http://www.thegrocerygame.com . This website is a huge timesaver. I spend about 30 minutes a week clipping coupons from the Sunday paper and filing them in my coupon organizer. (Now, I don’t actually have a Sunday Paper subscription but I save my change up and buy one after church or have family and friends save me the coupons out of theirs.) Then, I go online to The Grocery Game and look up the 2 grocery stores in my area that I’m tracking. Since I live in a very rural area, I use the zip code of the area where I shop. The Grocery Game lists all the sales this store is having AND it also calculates which coupons to use in combination with the sale price to get the best rockbottom price possible. I make my weekly meal plan around this list. I am also trying to stock up a 12 week supply of basic pantry items and dry goods (like toothpaste and paper towels). Grocery store sales tend to run on 12 week cycles. If you watch for these cycles (The Grocery Game does it for you) then you stock up enough of an item when its at a rockbottom price (sale + coupons) to last 12 weeks. This way you NEVER pay full price. I’m starting small by just concentrating on building a stockpile of one or two grocery categories (cooking staples and dry goods) but I think in 6 months that I will have a good supply of just about everything on my list. This will free me up from having to buy an item NOW so I can watch and wait for the best possible price to stock up. The first week I used The GroceryGame, I saved $45. The gentleman behind me in line about fell over when he saw what I saved. My average savings each week so far has been about $30 and I haven’t even implemented everything yet. My grocery budget went from $500 to $350 for a family of 5. Average cost for tracking 2 grocery stores is about $7.50/month. I not only recouped my expenses the first week but saved almost $40 on top of that. Pretty cool! Right now you can sign up for a 4 week trial for $1. Please use my email address in the referral box when you sign up (PS139.13@gmail.com). The second fantastic resource that I have used is Leanne Ely’s Saving Dinner (see link in the sidebar on the right). Leanne’s goal is to bring families back to the dinner table. She does all the menu planning and making out a grocery list for you. She has many many types of menu plans from weekly to monthly, freezer to crockpot and heart healthy to vegetarian. Many of her recipes are easily converted to Kosher. You simply print out the menu and recipes and post it on your fridge. Print out the grocery list, add whatever else you need from the grocery store to it and you’re all set. Because she uses recipes with basic ingredients and in season produce, you can easily slash your grocery bill by 1/3 (I did). My favorite menus are the Five-For-The-Freezer ones. You assemble all the ingredients possible beforehand (I usually did it the afternoon after grocery shopping). Put them in freezer bags and freeze them. Then each evening I would pull out the next day’s meal and stick in the refrigerator to defrost. The next evening, it would take me all of about 15 minutes (30 at the most) to have dinner ready and most of that was cooking time. These differ from most freezer cooking recipes in that you don’t cook, freeze and then eat but rather freeze, cook, and eat. I think it tastes and looks better cooked just before eating but I like the time-saving features of freezing ahead. Leannes recipes get rave reviews from average moms like you and me too (and their families). I’m not the greatest cook but I feel like a gourmet chef with her recipes because they use basic ingredients but have delicious variety and flavor. Definately not Hamburger Helper and its wonderful to eat something that looks and tastes like it came from your favorite restaurant that YOU cooked and your family raves about. So see the link on the sidebar to the right and try it out. Another favorite resource is an e-course on Crystal Paines’ Biblical Womanhood website www.tinyurl.com/3zpqh7 or see the sidebar to the right). It’s called Supermarket Savings 101. This is a downloadable collection of e-books and audios that show you how to save BIG at the grocery store. Some of the topics covered are: Designing A Menu Plan that Really Works, Menu Planning on a Budget, Simple No Fuss Frugal Menu Ideas and Recipes, Creating a Workable Grocery Budget and How to Stick with it, Learning How to Find Good Deals, Time Management and Efficiency in Frugal Shopping, The Basics of Using Coupons, How to Make the Most of the Deals at CVS and Walgreens. Right now, it also includes 6 more free ebooks on saving money on groceries, menu planning, and recipes. Crystal actually spends about $30-40 per week on groceries and household items for a family of 5. Best of all, its downloaded to your computer and you can study it at your own pace when its convenient for you. There is such a wealth of information contained in this course that you can use to slash your grocery budget. This course normally is priced at $17.97 but if you use the link to the right, its only $8.97. Click on the grocery bag full of groceries and it will take you to the Supermarket Savings 101 e-course page. This was another resource that I not only recouped the cost of the course on my first trip to the grocery store but saved more money on top of that. My next favorite grocery frugal website is Leslie Valeska’s website Simply Journey Ministeries http://leslievaleska.com/bookstore/. She has written several ebooks on grocery shopping and menu planning that are fantastic. Her book "Menu Planning: Simple and Delicious" puts an end to boring, tedious menu planning and brings in fun and flexiblity to fit your family’s needs. She has another book called "Trim the Fat: The Ultimate Book in Cutting Food Costs" which shows you the tricks of the Grocery trade (you wouldn’t believe the lengths grocers go to get you to buy, buy, buy.), how to buy meat and produce for less, and how to shop for convenience foods and pay less. Leslie also has several books from her "Simply Frugal..." series as well as an 8 week class on Digging out of Debt God’s Way. I highly recommend all of them and have learned a lot (and saved a lot). I’m eagerly awaiting her upcoming book on the art of pricebooking (keeping track of what you pay for certain items in a notebook so that you’ll know a good deal when you see one). Another series of books that I’m studying thru are at Living on a Dime http://www.tinyurl.com/4duwna. The Living on a Dime ebook series is chockful of ways to save in Money Management, Grocery Savings, Menus and Leftovers, Cleaning, for the Holidays, and even how to get your kids to start saving (the way things are going they’re going to need a good headstart!). I’ve listened to Tawra Kellum, the author of the Living on a Dime ebooks and she has such practical advice on how to slash expenses in just about every area. Go check it out for yourself! Another website that I've found very helpful, especially in cutting grocery costs is The Hillbilly Housewife http://www.hillbillyhousewife.com . Yup, I said Hillbilly. She even has tips and tricks for cooking without electricity! Every month when I get my electric bill, I think about her website and ponder the fact that it IS still possible....She has a menu plan for feeding your family on $35 a week (and one for $70/week). She has many great recipes and tips that I have used over and over. For instance, I will NEVER buy a frozen pizza again and the Pizza restaurants don’t look all that great anymore either now that I found her page on making Pizza. Since several of us in our family are allergic to dairy, its been torture giving up Pizza or eating something else while the boys enjoy pizza. Now, I make pizza and just leave off the cheese. Believe it or not, my husband raves about this recipe and he is a cheese lover to the max. I make the dough earlier in the day in the bread machine, get my toppings and sauce ready, flatten the dough out into 2 baking sheets, add my toppings (pepperoni, sausage, canadian bacon, onions, and jalepenos) and bake away in the oven for 20 minutes. It’s actually very easy and its one of our favorite meals. Best of all, we can ALL enjoy it. She has many other fabulous recipes, tips, and tricks on her website so be sure to check it out. My last juicy resource tidbit is Marilyn Moll’s website Urban Homemaker http://www.urbanhomemaker.com. She has written many articles specifically for homemakers of all ages interested in the timeless arts of cooking, baking, canning, and homekeeping in the spirit of Titus 2. I have been surprised at how much I can save by getting back to the recipes that use basic ingredients (which you already usually buy in small bulk amounts, like flour and sugar). The price per person per meal drops dramatically and yet no one feels like we’re skimping. If anything, they feel like we’ve splurged because there will be rolls and other things on the table (I don’t normally splurge on frozen rolls at the grocery store) and yet it wasn’t a whole lot more effort on my part.
I hope that you will check out these fantastic money-saving resources that I heartily recommend and leave me a comment and tell me what you think. I have used all these resources and found many many ways to stretch a dollar wisely. I hope to turn this into a series of articles, a newsletter, and eventually a series of ebooks on saving money, getting out of debt, and stretching resources wisely so please bookmark my blog and check back often! In the spirit of Proverbs 31 and Titus 2, Suzette May |
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It's NOT too late if you missed the live portion of the Ultimate Homeschool Expo 08! It has been an incredible blessing to me and I want to share a part of it with you! You see one of the neat things about the Ultimate Homeschool Expo is that even though the live event is over, everything is ONLINE. Cindy builds a private, exclusive Membership Site that includes everything from the UHSE in one place--it has audios (from all of the sessions and from the bonus gifts that her speakers give to us), ebooks, complete unit study guides, articles, printable notebooking pages, cookbooks, on and on. I can't believe all of the things that we receive for only $40. It is truly ULTIMATE! Don't wait to get a ticket because the price is going up to $99 any day now! Anyway, back to the reason that I am sharing with you... Cindy just sent me permission to give you a sampler of one of her free gifts that is included on the Membership Site. I am so excited to give it to you! It is a audio and ebook set that she actually sells on her website, but she is giving away on the Membership Site. I just finished working thru the workbook and the audio and it was a fantastic planning tool for school next year. It gave me quite a few new ideas, things to ponder, and several things I hadn't even thought about! Download it for yourself and read thru it at your leisure. Here is the link: (If you will right click on the link and select "Save Target As", it will save directly to your computer)
Let’s Get Ready for the New School Year Mommy Planner… Need some help gearing up for the new school year? Wish you had a friend to take you by the hand and help you plan your year? You will LOVE this! It includes a quick Mommy Planner with a potpourri of planning sheets from all of Cindy's products to help you get started on the right track with your homeschool planning. It is full of goodies! AND YOURS... Download Part One Download Part Two
Download by Mp3 Isn't that FUN? You know the saying that a picture captures a thousand words,well...what about a a gift like this??? And, just think...this is only ONE of the awesome gifts included on the Membership Site. There are hundreds more! Take my word for it, you will WANT a ticket to this event and access to all of the wonderful resources. Grab your ticket here: http://www.cindysaffiliates.com/go.php?offer=PS13913&pid=1
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Well, I sprained my ankle saturday. I would have welcomed the convalescence that follows if the house hadn't been a wreck. My wonderful DH did several loads of laundry and dishes on Sunday and the boys are stepping up and doing all sorts of things I didn't think they could do! Amazing how inability on my part, brings out hidden abilities on their part. It's like their maturity and responsibleness take a leap forward at such times. I'm kind of glad I have a legitimate excuse to sit around and do nothing though! Cindy Rushton's Ultimate Homeschool Expo 2008 is going on this week and talk about AWESOME!!! It's only $40.00 and you get a ton of freebies and audio downloads on top of the speakers and vendors. I'm looking forward to the speakers today (Successful home management with Toddlers, Socialization: understanding the issue and seeking options, and Teaching your children a lesson they won't forget: writing, drawing, and learning from nature, What does God see when he looks at me?). The rest of the week is just as awesome: From Chaos to Order: Organization in your home, Creative playtimes, Blogging with a purpose, The Value of Motherhood, Helping your Child Find Their Life Purpose, Homeschooling at the Speed of Life, Secret to Supermarket SAvings, The only kind of mom God uses, Unit studies, God is Sufficient, Spirit-led homeschool, Homeschooling Toddler to Teens, Finding Freedom and Simplicity while seeking Biblical Excellence, Hands on HIstory, STraight talk to dads, Unleashed into your Future, WHo are your Child's Heroes, FAmily Routines: Keys to a Peaceful, Productive, Purposeful homelife, How can I teach Art when no one taught me?, What will they remember? It's not too late to get a ticket if you still want to attend : www.tinyurl.com/4jw74e. The seminars that have already happened will be available in a few weeks on the website. I'll probably NEVER attend an IRL conference again! Nearly everything on the website will be available indefinately. There are 3500+ in attendance at UHSE 08!! Please join us! Suzette May |
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This is an article written by Cindy Rushton that she graciously allowed me to share! I thought y'all might enjoy it! Take a moment, grab a cup of tea and sit back and enjoy! Restoring Balance To Completely Overloaded Lives! Ever had an “unbalanced tire?” Recently, I had a tire that was driving me crazy! It made the ride horribly rough. I was wore-out just from trying to drive to town because it kept pulling me off the road—obviously in the wrong direction! Just a simple trip to town was completely stressful. My hands were blistered from trying to hold on to the steering wheel the whole way to town and back! I was certain that my car was about to blow up…that something was permanently wrong! Imagine my relief to find that my problem was from one tire that was out of balance! Easy to fix. The smooth ride only took a few moments to restore. Ever had an “unbalanced life?” Well, the similarities are unbelievable! Talk about a rough ride! Talk about a pull in the wrong direction! Talk about stress! Sure it is easy to fix—but, oh so hard to do! We are overloaded! Every area of our lives suffers from overload: commitments… possessions… work… information…relationships! We are a culture that can be characterized as overloaded! We are busy. Hurried. Overworked. Stressed. Rushed. We exceed our limits. We take on WAY TOO MUCH! As my pastor says, “We write checks that our body and mind cannot cash!” Our productivity suffers. Our bodies suffer! Our vital relationships suffer. We no longer can hear God as He whispers direction, encouragement, and wisdom along our path. We miss the best! We wonder why we end our days empty and without meaning or accomplishment. We forget what is most important—or at minimum, put it off for another day. The important seldom screams for attention, but the urgent, often insignificant, constantly screams for MORE and more! We get so busy and distracted doing the urgent and demanding in life that we lose the opportunity to impact the important, that in which we are given to leave a legacy! So, how on earth do we get out of this rat race? How are we to restore balance? If we could restore balance, how could we maintain balance? How could we make life really count for something? Here are some things that the Lord has been teaching me this year as He has pulled me back from so many GOOD things to restore balance and keep me on the path to leaving a legacy! SLOW DOWN! Does that one hurt or what? We are so fast paced! We live on the “fast track!” Think of the rat race we live in: one-hour print…ten-minute oil changes…instant cameras…instant potatoes…instant MICROWAVE meals! Our homes have dishwashers, slow-cookers (don’t be fooled by the name—turn them on as you run out the door for work and have a healthy meal ready to serve at the end of the day!), microwaves, and computers! Oh, and the computer thing! Yep, I am on my computer now (at our local coffee shop—yep, priorities are nice at times!) enjoying the benefits of my blessed computer complete with its battery, cd-writer, and all of the other MUSTS that I am so spoiled with! BUT! For heavens’ sake…think of how spoiled we REALLY are! The computer age has taken over sweet little country stores! We have the Internet (which has faced the demand to have MORE instant connections—remember all of those ads this summer?), E-mail (to instantly communicate!), E-books (to instantly receive our products so we don’t have to wait for the dreaded postal service to deliver!!), E-zines, Auto-responders (didn’t REALLY think those were REAL people there all hours of the day and night??!!), Auto-processing of orders/credit cards, and don’t forget Instant Messenger—for those who find Email to be too slow! We have “Drive-Thru’s” for EVERYTHING—food, cleaners, pharmacies, oil changes, and even (PLEASE GASP WITH ME!) funeral homes! Well…that is where I drew the line! Drive-thru funeral homes! Where are we as a culture? On the fast track! What do we do? Why not Slllllooooowwwww DDDDoooooowwwnnnnn??? I am not advocating that we STOP using technology. Rather, we should use those tools to make life easier and to make the most of our time. HOWEVER, where it really matters—relationships, home, family, homeschooling, our witness, life…where it REALLY matters, we must slow down! Restoring balance and eliminating overload is simply not possible without slowing down! Ephesians 5: 15-16 says, “Look carefully then how you walk! Live purposefully and worthily and accurately, not as the unwise and witless, but as the wise (sensible, intelligent people), Making the very most of the time [buying up each opportunity], because the days are evil.” What does this look like? Well, let’s go back to Genesis 33 for a look at the life of Jacob after he completely surrendered his entire life to the Lord. “My lord knoweth that the children are tender, and the flocks and herds with young are with me: and if men should overdrive them one day, all the flock will die. Let my lord, I pray thee, pass over before his servant: and I WILL LEAD ON SOFTLY, according as the cattle that goeth before me and the children BE ABLE TO ENDURE, until I come unto my lord at Seir.” Want to slow down, but how? Where do we begin? What can really make a significant difference? Try these: --> Decide what is MOST important! Think over life for a little while! What is it that only YOU can do in this life? Why did God create YOU? What is your life purpose? What is it that God created YOU to do? What can go? Just as our house cannot be cleaned without getting rid of the clutter—otherwise all we are doing is shuffling the clutter around—likewise, we must take an occasional inventory to de-clutter our life! I find this to be a battle JUST as many of you probably do and trust me, this is a life principle that I really stick to! Long ago, God impressed upon my heart that if I were going to be able to truly fulfill my calling that He had for my life, I would HAVE to only do the things that *ONLY I* could do—if it were something that anyone else on earth could do, it would have to go! Still, I will go through periods of my life and begin to get overloaded again only to find when I evaluate the value of all that I do, there are things that sneak into my schedule that vie for my focus and energy! Usually that requires that I take out those really tough pruning shears again to cut back—either by delegating the tasks to someone else so I can be more productive at what ONLY I can do—or even more difficult, get rid of what is overloading me! I know that this is hard, but it is SO key! Take a deep look now at what you are doing. Is it really eternal? Is it the “main thing?” Is it essential? Can anyone else do it? Is it hindering you from the very best? Decide what is most important. You won’t be sorry! --> Examine Your Lifestyle! Take a little while to jot down a journal of what makes up your day? Your week? Your month? Your year? REALLY BE HONEST! Do those things count? What are the days filled with: things that are really important…or lots of fires to put out? Take a bit longer to write out what you would REALLY like to be accomplishing. What do you think that a “perfect day,” if it were possible, would look like? How can you change your day to really slow it down so your life really counts? --> Examine Your Motives! Motives will fool us in a heartbeat! Scripture is so very true as it warns us to beware of our heart. We simply cannot trust our hearts. They will lead us astray every time! What really motivates us? What drives us? If we can determine this, we can evaluate activities and obligations much more effectively! So, what drives you? Ambition? Your life call? The desire to be in control? Don’t trust others to do things? Passion? Guilt? Ego? Insecurity (Can’t say “no?” Afraid that you have no value unless you are “seen” busy?) Constantly trying to please others? Revenge? Money? Oh, I could go on and on…motives are so very deceptive and there are so many. What is your motive? What drives you to do all you do? Busyness does not mean that we are accomplishing. Nor does busyness guarantee fulfillment. Often, busyness is the very thing that keeps us from the very things that will bring us satisfaction, fulfillment, and contentment. Busyness, given the chance, will keep us from fulfilling our life purpose! It is all up to us! We can choose which way to go! Enjoy the journey or wait to enjoy the brief delight of the destination? A wasted, bitter, defeated life or a life full of purpose and meaning? Burn out or real accomplishment? Deep, passionate relationships or very real regrets? Why not slow down? Relax? Enjoy the whole journey—the process getting there AND the destination! Build deep relationships! Stick to those priorities! Simplify life so you reach for the very best! Seize each moment! REDEEM THE TIME! Time! Friend or foe? Have enough time in your day? Or are you a truly kindred spirit, asking God for just a few good 80-hour days and the energy to use them to the fullest? Ha! I have a good feeling that if your prayer is for that one, that you will also find that God will whisper sweetly in your ear to say that the problem is not that we do not have enough time…or that we are using time to the fullest…or even that we waste time. Rather, He would say that we need to make it our ambition to redeem the time—each and every moment we are given! A few months back, my pastor taught a series of messages entitled From Burnout to Balance. In his series, he challenged us to look at time as a great big “bank account.” He said that this account is one that we are guaranteed to have daily deposits made on our behalf by God each and every day. We each get our fair share. No one gets more. No one gets less. Think of this awesome gift! Each and every day we are given a gift that can impact all of eternity—or be squandered away into oblivion. Each day we are given this gift without any regard to our stewardship from the day before! TWENTY-FOUR HOURS! ONE-THOUSAND, FOUR HUNDRED, FORTY MINUTES! EIGHTY-SIX THOUSAND, FOUR HUNDRED SECONDS! Deposited in our “account” each and every day! And…with this gift, we are free to use it in any way we choose. We can waste it or use it wisely. We can make a difference---or misuse it! But! One thing is guaranteed each day with all that is deposited on our behalf—it must be used up before the end of the day…it cannot be carried into tomorrow! We all have 24 hours put into our spending account each and every day. What we do with that time is in our hands! Will we be faithful? Will we use it wisely? Will we make it count for eternity? Will we use our gift to the fullest? Will we use our gift for what really counts? If we want to live a life of balance, we must guard this precious gift! We must measure our time as one of our greatest resources we have to invest in this life! This requires that we go back to our precious Giver and seek HIM for how we can most faithfully invest each moment! We must let Him be the Lord of our schedule, our to-do’s, our calendar. We must commit our way---ALL OF OUR WAY—to Him from our work to our studies that we pursue to our commitments to our books that we read to the activities that we participate. We must be careful to set a guard on our time to be sure that we do not flippantly do without thinking or take on too much that we forfeit the best! We need to purpose to really do those things that are “NEEDFUL” (remember Luke 10: 38-42?) and not just the “stuff” that we think MUST be done! We need to constantly evaluate our choices and weigh them to see if they are truly those things that help us to reach our life call. Time…what do you think? Redeem this precious gift so our lives can be balanced? You bet! SELL OUT COMPLETELY TO GOD'S WILL! Does this scare you to death? Are you seeing visions of little grass huts…no electricity…bugs…complete with the stench of underarm odor? Oh, beloved! My first image of total surrender to God admittedly envisioned life on a continent that was far, far away from all of the comforts of home. Still have no idea if there is a continent that could be as disgusting as my visions were. Sure, I trusted God for eternity, but never thought of heaven in the same way that I thought of my life on earth totally surrendered to Him! Now, as we move into our 21th year as a ministry, I HAVE to tell you that God has a very, very good plan for us! He does not call us, equip us, and then send us to an assignment that forfeits our trust and confidence in Him! In fact, one thing that I am thrilled to say is that although there IS work in our calling, there is delight and fulfillment that cannot be found in anything else under the sun! Seeing His provision is unbelievable. Watching His anointing fall is indescribable! Plus! No grass huts so far! Give your ALL to God! Sell out! Don’t hold anything in reserve! Abandon ALL for the call! Scared? Just give Him a try! Take a look at Jeremiah 29 in The Message Bible. God says to us, “I know what I’m doing, I have it all planned out—plans to take care of you, not abandon you, plans to give you the future you hope for. When you call on me, when you come and pray to me, I’ll listen. When you come looking for me, you’ll find me. Yes, when you get serious about finding me and want it more than anything else, I’ll make sure you won’t be disappointed.” Oh, beloved, not only will you never, ever be disappointed, but you will find that His GOOD plan will be truly good--satisfactory for you, satisfying, fullfilling, completely sufficient! Wonder JUST WHAT could YOU do? Too young? Too old? Too poor? Not qualified—or so you think? Well, beloved! Know that God has called each and everyone of us to function in His Body. We are the mouthpieces here on earth for Him. We are the feet for Him. We are the hands here in our community for Him! He has called and equipped each and every one of us to be a part of His Body here on earth! We each have talents, spiritual gifts, natural bents and interests, and experiences that can minister to those that are growing in the Body AND those that need to join the Body of Christ! God needs ALL of us working and functioning properly if His Kingdom—His way of doing things—will come to earth! He needs for us to be that light that shines in the darkness to bring others to Him. Just go into a dark, dark room… Light one candle… See what a difference YOU can make right where you are! Have no idea what His plan is for you? Take a look at Romans 12: 1-2. He promises in verse two that YOU can know His good, perfect, and acceptable will for you! Yes, YOU can know that plan! How? Going back through this passage, we see how: --> Become a living sacrifice—EVERYDAY! Completely yielded. Completely dedicated. Completely committed to Him and His Way! Giving Him our ALL! All that we are: our plans…gifts…bents…talents… ambitions… ideas… methods… techniques… fears… delights…concerns… all presented to God as a living sacrifice EVERY SINGLE DAY! If we truly desire to know the good, acceptable, perfect will of God for ourselves or our children, we must first obediently present ourselves as a complete, living sacrifice. There may be things in our lives (things that are very precious and difficult to get rid of) that must be burnt up as a sacrifice for us to be prepared to receive God’s very best OR we may find that what we bring to sacrifice before the Lord is acceptable in His sight and can return home with us (like Abraham as he willingly prepared to sacrifice his beloved Isaac). However, the key is not in what God does with our sacrifice, it is in our heart coming before Him daily, presenting ourselves and all that we have before His throne! --> Don’t not conform to the world; but conform to Christ!! Yep! We either conform to the world or to Christ! We cannot live for one without forsaking the other! Want to know God’s plan? Let go of the world’s standards, the world’s ways, the world’s requirements, the world’s traditions, and the world’s bondage. Let go of the lies of the world! We must stop serving the world at the expense of becoming ALL that God wants for us to become! If we want to live an abundant life—a balanced life—the world’s way will never work! Only God’s way brings balance, freedom, and true, abundant LIFE that we are really searching for! As we grow in relationship with Christ, daily become LIKE HIM, we find security and LIFE! We find peace! We find hope! We find the direction that we have been looking for all along the way! We find freedom to become ALL that God designed for us to become! Talk about LIFE! We move beyond balance to abundant life! --> Be transformed by the daily renewal of your mind! The last key to getting to know God’s plan! However, this one is SO VITAL! If we truly want to live a balanced, abundant life, we must sell out to God’s will. BUT, however much we want to sell out, unless we truly let Him change our life, we will just spin our wheels in the same ruts, never becoming all that God wants for us to become! How is our mind transformed? Life changed? This life transformation begins as we sit at the feet of Jesus. As we daily immerse ourselves in His Word, we will begin to be transformed. Then, we will soon have different priorities… different beliefs… different ambitions… and soon, we will be able to prove what is good, acceptable, and perfectly in the will of God. If we never experience this transformation, we will always find ourselves burdened under a yoke of bondage. We will always find ourselves looking in all the wrong places for direction, approval, meaning, purpose, and rest! We will constantly battle overload. We will find life bumpy and pulling us into life’s “ditches!” God has a precious plan EVEN for you! Surrender ALL to Him! Let Him have it all! Let Him do His work in you! Don’t rush! Don’t drag around! Don’t run from it! Live EACH day letting Him have your ALL in complete abandonment! Balance will come—but, beloved there is so much more that will rush into your life! Purpose, meaning, abundant life! Go for it! BUILD MARGIN—BREATHING ROOM—INTO YOUR LIFE! Ever been at rock bottom? We see many of our favorite Bible characters that we get to know during good times, but I think my favorites are those that we get to see when they are rock bottom, with NO breathing room, at the point that my mother would have said, “I’ve HAD IT!” Ever just “HAD-IT?” Imagine for yourself the grief and utter pain that Job was experiencing as he cried out in Job 3:26, “I have NO peace, NO rest, NO quiet!” Drop into the conversation with Paul as he declared that he got to his “breaking point” in 2 Corinthians 1: 8-9, “For we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about the affliction and oppressing distress which befell us in the province of Asia, how we were so utterly and unbearably weighed down and crushed that we despaired even of life itself. Indeed, we felt within ourselves that we had received the very sentence of death, but that was to keep us from trusting in and depending on ourselves instead of on God Who raises the dead.” Finally, journey back to 1 Samuel as we are first introduced to Hannah at the point of utter desperation—you probably know a bit about her story. Barren. Broken. Taunted (by her husband’s other WIFE!! Who had NO problem bearing children!). Empty. Crushed in soul. Oh, let’s join her at the point that she had “HAD IT!”… “Crushed in soul, Hannah prayed to God and cried and cried—inconsolably. Then, she made a vow: Oh, God-of-the-Angel-Armies, If you’ll take a good, hard look at my pain, if you’ll quit neglecting me and go into action for me by giving me a son, I’ll give him completely, unreservedly to you. I’ll set him apart for a life of holy discipline…” As she was praying, she sunk even lower as she was completely misunderstood by the priest, who thought she was DRUNK! We hear more of her heart in her reply to him… “Oh no, sir—please! I’m a woman hard used. I haven’t been drinking. Not a drop of wine or beer. The only thing I’ve been pouring out is my heart, pouring it out to God. Don’t for a minute thing I’m a bad woman. It’s because I’m so desperately unhappy and in such pain that I’ve stayed here so long!” Relate? I know that these precious vessels were crying out in the midst of trials and life events that were too much. However, I don’t think that we find ourselves at the point of desperation without first pushing limits for quite some time! We haven’t got margin to deal with the daily-ness of life—much less those life struggles, crisis situations, losses, and persecutions that inevitably knock most of us off our “rocker” into despair! Think about it…if you are the average person in our society today, you live on fast-food, crazy hours, no sleep. You are chronically rushed (or late), overworked, exhausted, overloaded! What is the solution? Build MARGIN! Build some BREATHING ROOM! Simplify life so there is room for change…space for disruptions. How? Here are some suggestions that I am trying to implement in my own life: --> Accept HUMAN Limitations! Can you sense how HARD that is for ME to type? Oh, here it where it gets harder, it is not MY idea, it is the Word of God too: “I have seen that EVERYTHING HUMAN has its limits and end no matter how extensive, noble, and excellent.” (Psalm 119: 96a) OUCH! If there is a battle for balance (and YOU KNOW there is!), this is one of the biggies! We ALL have limits! But, where we need more margin is that we don’t say “NO” when we face limitations! As I shared above, we “write checks our body and mind cannot cash!” The world says, “You can have it ALL!” “You can do it all!” Even the church gives the illusion that “I can do ALL THINGS through Jesus Christ.” However, the Bible is very clear that we can ONLY DO those things that are HIS THINGS—HIS WILL! WE have limits! We have space limits. We have body limits. We have emotional limits. Jesus does not give us a blank check to do ALL THINGS. Much less, Jesus WILL NOT empower us to do ALL THINGS. He only empowers us to do those things that HE CALLS us to do. He never gives us anything that is beyond our abilities and resources to do. One clear way to judge what we are called to do from those things that we are not called to do is to look at our limitations: our red lights, shut downs, overloads, crashes. We need to look at those warning signs: pain, fatigue, stress, irritability, frustrations. Our human limitations are God’s boundaries in our lives that help us to know that we are overextended and writing checks our bodies and minds cannot cash. Respecting human limitations will restore balance to even the most overloaded life! --> Expect Interruptions! Proverbs 22:3 says, “A prudent man sees trouble coming and ducks—a simpleton walks in blindly and is clobbered!” If there is one thing in life that is FOR SURE, we can be sure that life seldom goes as planned. Life cannot be predicted. Just think about it…what truly messes up your schedule? Traffic? Car trouble? Delays? Crisis situations? Special needs along the way? We must plan for interruptions or our lives will constantly be out of balance, our schedules will never work, and much of life will be squandered! Expect interrruptions and plan room for them into every day! --> Put SPACE Into Your Schedule! Ever had your PDA/Planner/Calendar/ Briefcase complain about an overstuffed schedule? Actually my planner looks so much more “professional” when it is PACKED OUT! Only I don’t handle it so well! For the last few years, I have really evaluated what I was doing that was causing me to get off my schedule and not get around to all of my to-do’s. Now, granted, some days it is ME or my darling little ones! But, overall, 95% of my schedule woes are also the culprit behind life getting just way too busy—OVER-SCHEDULING! Schedules, like daily life, only work when there is SPACE in each day! Just like we see with the life of Christ (see Matthew 5-10), our life is filled with distractions, interruptions, crisis situations. We can battle against these OR we can add margin (space) into our lives that gives us room to use these as THE MAIN THING—opportunities for ministry, opportunities for the very best lessons, teachable moments, hands-on discipleship! Not only are we able to step up to the call as it beckons us, but we are less likely to spin out of balance constantly! --> Prune Life To Yield MORE Fruit! Several years ago, one of my dearest friends bought her DREAM land. Every time that I go to visit her, our family laughs because just driving up her driveway I begin to see a view that rivals that of the gorgeous view on The Sound of Music, thus tempting me to begin to sing—“The HILLS ARE ALIVE…with the sound of music…” The land is gorgeous. But it is more than that. It is also productive! However, at first it wasn’t. Rhea bought the land, complete with an orchard. Sound ready to go? Well, not exactly! Needing a bit of help with her fruit trees, she called in a professional. To her shock, she looked outside to find her precious orchard looking like a bunch of sticks in the dirt. Pruning began to have a whole new meaning! What looked like devastation actually was the key to those best fruit ever! Bigger fruit! Sweeter fruit! MORE fruit! I remember the year that Rhea was getting her first fruits after the pruning. It was a year that I needed that practical example of pruning just so I would have the nerve to let God loose with His pruning shears! I can’t say it was easy! It was probably one of the most challenging times in my entire life. I had lived my life pretty much just without much thought. However, God was wanting for me to yield up EVERYTHING so He could prune back all that was diseased…all that was broken…all that was zapping my strength…all that was causing double-vision…all that was keeping me from bearing the fruit He had planned from the foundation of the earth. 1 Corinthians 6: 12a says, “Everything is permissable (allowable and lawful) for me; but not all things are helpful (good for me to do, expedient and profitable when considered with other things).” There are many GOOD things that God would not have a problem if I were to do them. However, those good things can keep me from producing all of the fruit that I can bear. It becomes a choice thing for me. I can choose whether I will allow Him total control of my entire life—even the schedule… commitments… my going… my doing. I am the ONE who can sit down, yield to the shears, and stay ready to bear more and more fruit. Likewise, I can also resist. But…I don’t really like that alternative! At the end? At your limit constantly? “HAD IT?” Take a good look look at life! Check for margin! Not enough? Build margin! Create space! Watch what happens! DE-STRESS! Yep! Gulp! De-stress! This one got you out of whack before too? You are not alone, beloved! Want to know the #1 complaint in our culture? What about among homeschool moms? The booger behind despair? The reason that most quit? The reason that many never begin? You have got it! The stress! The chaos! The mess! The lack of organization or ability to “keep it together.” Want to battle for balance? This little devil will give you quite a challenge! Yep! If there is a need among the body of Christ, this JUST might be it! But, how? Here are some quick tips for restoring balance when it all gets bumpy from the stresses of life… --> Find Your Stressors! What throws YOU for a loop? What takes you into a “nose-dive?” What “stalls” your flight? What are your biggest stressors? What causes YOUR stress? Identify the REAL culprit—HINT: it is NOT your husband (!!) or your children (!!) or God (!!). Look at your life honestly! What REALLY stresses you out? Holding onto your stress? Carrying a burden you do not have to carry? Anxiousness? Discontent? Strife? Expectations? Willfulness instead of willingness and total surrender and total abandonment? Find YOUR stressors! Know what REALLY “punches” your buttons! --> PLAN! Plan ahead! Well in advance! One saying that always pops into my head when I think of the word plan is, “If we fail to plan, we really plan to fail!” Nothing brings MORE stress than living life without direction, without a plan, always under “crisis” management, making decisions on a moment-by-moment basis. If this is stressing you out, try to plan ahead! Plan out your goals. Plan out your schedule. EVEN the mundane things—plan out those daily routines, even going so far as to write them out! How does this help? Well, decisions are made, saving those precious brain-cells for other uses! Trust me this works WONDERS! So, plan! Plan well! Don’t wait until the last minute! Plan…then, you can settle in to go a slow pace! --> Write it DOWN! Give your brain a rest! Talk about stressing out—our brains will stress out if we are keeping all of our to-do’s…plans…goals…heartbeats…EVERYTHING on our brain! Write it down! Not only will it help to keep things from slipping between the cracks, but it will also help us to evaluate where we have come from and where we have to go. Plus, the best yet! We will have a sense of accomplishment when we look back! --> Watch that attitude! There are going to be some life-stresses that quite honestly cannot be changed! However, we need not walk in a life of defeat and stress! Instead, when we recognize life-stresses that cannot change, that is the time to sit right down at the feet of Jesus! Ask Him to show the purpose. At minimum, KNOW that victory is guaranteed! There is no temptation or trial that is original with any of us! Nor is there anything that we are allowed to walk in that is not first filtered through the loving hands of God. He always guarantees VICTORY! So, watch that attitude! When things cannot change, change what can—that perspective…that attitude!! --> Delegate! What is it that makes it so hard for moms to get help? Our children LOVE to be Mommy’s helpers! We really steal their blessings when we do not delegate to them. Even toddlers can help fold a load of laundry! Don’t try to do it all by yourself! Delegate and you will find some of the stress dissipating! --> Get enough rest! Oh! This one is soooo tough for me! But, let’s honestly look at what happens in our families when we get tired: don’t get enough sleep>get cranky>don’t enjoy life>not too great to be around> others get cranky> irritates you more>get more tired… Why not simply get that rest?? Sleep AND that rest in body, spirit, and soul! --> Self-control! Hummmm… Such a challenge! However, we will find ourselves constantly stressed out until we learn to say “NO” to those activities, commitments, all that stuff! Bit-by-bit, they wear us down. Saying, “NO” eliminates the whole threat of stress from the onset! --> Keep it simple! Don’t overload! We already KNOW we cannot do everything, but we have to remember this when choices are there to be made! Always look at anything new, whether an activity or a possession, judging its importance by what you are willing to swap for it. This works for everything—shoes, books, activities, commitments. Keep it simple! You can’t do or have everything, so go for the very best! --> Give yourself a break! Don’t pick yourself to death NOR let others pick you to death either! It is so easy to focus on the negative, get overwhelmed by the weaknesses and inadequacies, and get frustrated about how far you have to go! Then, PEOPLE sure do not help! Let another person loose in your life with the license to critique you or your situation and you will be ready for the nut-farm! Give yourself a break! See this thing as a process—you will not arrive until it is all over but the shoutin’ so relax, enjoy life, and give yourself a break! --> Find ways to fill your cup! We are each wired so very different. Certain things stress some of us that do not bother others. Likewise, certain things just fill our cup! STOP! Step back! Shift into low gear –or reverse! Do what it takes to DE-STRESS! Rest! Relax! Rejuvenate! Renew! Refill! Whatever it takes, find those things that fill YOU back up! Oh! The benefits go beyond de-stressing and restoring balance—you finally have living water to pour forth into the lives of others! --> Make the most of EVERY minute! Cherish this time! Make sweet memories! Take time for the most important—the best things! Your husband! Your children! Your family life! Don’t let life just slip by! Look at life and decide what you would do if this were your last year…last month…last week…last day? Would you go to the park to enjoy watching them play? Would you cuddle up and read a great book? Would you take off to the beach? Why not make those things YOUR thing? Oh, and probably find that education can be EASY along the way too! De-stress! Crawl up into the great big comfy arms of our loving Heavenly Father! Let Him hold you during the most turbulent or trivial stresses of life! Let Him restore your spirit! What you are doing is vital! Your enemy wants you stressed out, overloaded, out of balance! He is defeated! When he snarls, throws forth his darts, and lies to you, just snuggle up closer to your Lord! Give Him the struggles! Give Him expectations! Give Him every single burden! You won’t be sorry! GET BACK TO THE MAIN THING! RELATIONSHIPS! Remember Matthew 22: 37-40? Jesus was asked, “What IS the most important thing? The bottom line? The main thing?” I love Jesus’ ability to summarize ALL of life in ONE response! He summed up the main thing in three commands: to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and body…to love others as ourselves…and obviously, to love ourselves! Do you see this? The MAIN THING…the BOTTOM LINE..THE most important thing was relationships! However, when we get overloaded, the very first thing that we skimp on is relaitonships! Want to restore balance and get rid of all of that overload? Take a deep look at the MAIN THING! Anytime things are out of balance, take a look to see how relationships are doing? Are they being “put off” until the pressures go away? Are they quiet while the rest of the “stuff” screams, demands, and pulls you to pieces? Ask God to constantly keep you attuned to relationships in which you are charged with ministry. Ask God to show you ways that you can love and minister to Him. Ask Him to quicken you all along the way with ideas and precious opportunities for ministering to those you are called to minister to—your husband, your children, your parents, your siblings, those that come within your sphere of influence. Cry out to Him to help you guard your time so moments do not slip away leaving a hole in this vital area of life! SO…WHAT DO YOU THINK??? Ready to get out of this rat race? Ready to restore balance? Make life really count? Sit at the feet of Jesus! Snuggle up close! Listen for each beat of His heart! Let Him pull you back from that “stuff.” Let Him show you how to let go of those GOOD things and grab onto the very best! Give Him a chance to restore balance and set us on the path to leaving a legacy!
About Cindy Rushton… Cindy Rushton is the hostess of the Ultimate Homeschool Expo, the very first online homeschool convention. She is recording Preview Chats for the Ultimate Homeschool Convention RIGHT NOW! Join her wonderful guests FREE for the next weeks as they count down to the Ultimate Homeschool Expo (April 28-May 3, 2008--BUT! NEVER ENDING because it is an ONLINE Convention!). Get your ticket NOW and receive her awesome A Quick Start for Notebooking Mini-Set FREE today! Check out all of the details here:
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Well, after checking out many of my friends blogs, I decided to jump in. This is such a neat time (and busy!) time in my life and my friends echo this too in their lives. I hope you find encouragement, advice, laughter, and motivation here for your homeschooling journey, not only with education, but family life as well. Feel free to leave comments or email me. May this blog be a joy to your day! OH and speaking of joy to your day (because it brings joy to mine!)....If you haven't checked out the Ultimate Homeschool Expo 2008, I HIGHLY recommend it!! It's a virtual homeschool convention that you can access from the comfort of your computer chair any time of the day or night! You can download encourageing, motivating, and incredible how-to audios, workshops, ebooks and tons of freebies from some amazing speakers onto your MP3 player and listen whenever you want. Counting Down to the Ultimate Homeschool Expo! Tickets Now On Sale! Get More Details at: |