This Post Will Remain at the top of my blog the entire month of October. Scroll down for my latest post.

I have been inspired to challenge myself to a spending freeze. My inspiration comes from Julie who wrote a great post on being frugal, my sister-in-law, Amanda, who brought up the idea of doing a spending freeze, and the simple fact that Tom will be demoted to First Officer again in November due to Comair furloughing again.

I want to open this challenge up to anyone who is feeling the need to cut back on their spending...or is just up for a good ol' challenge!

Here's how I plan to tackle my Spending Freeze Challenge:

Yes, I did use the words "fun" and "frugal" in the same sentence. It is true. I also believe the old saying "It's all in the attitude" is true as well. I thought I'd share some things I've learned since beginning my spending freeze.

• Being Frugal Doesn't Mean No Fun. The kids and I have had fun finding alternate ways to make things rather than purchasing them. One thing we made was apple butter. I must tell you that I am not a big fan of apple butter, never have been. However, I have found a recipe that is to die for! If you're interested in the recipe just leave a comment and I'll post it later in the weekend. Below is a slide show of the homemade peanut butter / apple butter dip we made for our homemade baked bat tortilla chips! (We are studying bats right now.)
  
  
• Family Meetings. Before the kids and I tackled town Thursday with a full afternoon of errands, we had a family meeting and reviewed what the afternoon would look like. We discussed where we would be going (this concept is nothing new to our family) and what we would be purchasing (this part is new though). Reviewing what we would be purchasing did two things: (1) It let the kids know what I had planned to buy and if there was anything they needed this was the time to add it to the list . (2) It helped keep me accountable to sticking to the list!
• The List. Going into a store requires a shopping list with all items to be purchased written on the list. If it's not on the list, then it's not getting bought. Period. Although, I will admit that I did have to purchase one thing that wasn't on my list, however it was an item that we discussed during our family meeting that I needed to buy. The kids even helped me to remember to buy this item!  
• Curing the "Can I Have's". During our family meeting I announced to the children that I would not tolerate any "can I have's" while in the store. After all, we must control our wants and work on being disciplined. The consequence to my kids for asking "can I have?" was a 15 minute dock on their bedtime. Each "can I have?" would cost them 15 minutes. For example, Della's bedtime is 9:00 pm. If she asked "can I have?" two times, she would end up with a bedtime of 8:30 pm that night. Would you know that not one "can I have?" came out of the mouth of my four babes! TJ did test the waters by announcing "I want one of those." I did not penalize him for this since he was simply stating a fact and not nagging me. After all, I sometimes will say the same thing when roaming the store.
• Rethinking purchases. This spending freeze has done one big thing for me, it has me rethinking some of my purchases! For example, I know it's a small dollar item, but a dollar is a dollar. I researched whether it would be more economical for me to make homemade apple butter for our above dip or to go ahead and purchase a jar of it at the store. I am finding that not only am I rethinking in the way of whether to make or buy an item, but I am also simply rethinking if I really need or want this item! In today's society it is way too easy to buy impulsively. A spending freeze will certainly make you realize how many impulsive buys you make. Trust me, it's probably more than you realize.

The joys we are finding in this spending freeze is definitely unexpected. The benefits are blessing us in unexpected ways as well. If you haven't joined in on the spending freeze yet then I challenge you to give it a try...if even for a week.

The Hearts at Home (HAH) conference was wonderful! Here's a rundown of my experience:

Friends- It is a six hour drive to Grand Rapids for us. That gives more than enough time to chat our little hearts out...and chat we did...without little ones interrupting! Eating meals with friends...hot meals, without interruptions! We even had dessert! Hanging out with good friends definitely sets the tone for Heart at Home. 

Fun-  HAH made sure we had plenty of laughs to last us through the year until the next HAH conference. We were entertained by two comedians!

• Sally Baucke Oh my gosh! She was so funny! Check out her music video "Mini Van Mom".

• Ken Davis - Once again, we were rolling in the isles trying to catch our breath! And yet at the same time, Ken would inject such encouraging words to moms. Wow!

Speakers- It never ceases to amaze me how many gifted speakers are at this conference. Here are the few I attended workshops for:

• Jill Savage is the founder of HAH. Not only was I able to hear her during the main sessions, but I also attended a workshop that she and her husband spoke at about marriage. I was so encouraged.
• Micca Campbell -what a jewel Micca is. I was blessed to have heard her in two different workshops. God spoke encouragement to me through her. And wouldn't you know she found great comfort in Zephaniah 3:17 as well! I had to tell her how special that scripture was for me as well. She was just as surprised when I told her that as I was to have heard her speak of it in her talks! 
• Kirk Weaver - This man was full of creative ways to share God's word with the entire family and yet have tons of fun causing the family to say "do it again" or "we want more"! All I can say is you've got to check out his site and his family time books. Here you can see three samples. A word of caution: your kids might love family time so much they'll want to bring their friends over for family time...and that's a God thing!

Testimonies- We heard two testimonies, but one in particular really touch close to home. Karla and I were privileged to be able to talk to this woman and eat lunch with her! She was definitely being used by God that day to minister to so many women.

Music- Cheri Keaggy was in concert Friday night and sang many songs through out the conference on Saturday as well. When she sat behind the piano and played it was almost breathtaking for me. She sings the song "Lay it Down" which has been God's message to me over the past several weeks. "Quinky-dink" that she would elaborate on this song and then sing it at HAH? No, it was all God. Wow! You can listen to "Lay it Down" here.

I must admit that I am so ready for this challenge. I'm ready to be frugal with my grocery shopping. I'm ready to be creative when needed to avoid pulling out my wallet. I'm ready to teach my kids more about living on less with more joy. I'm ready!

This afternoon the kids and I made up a list of ways we can be frugal during our Spending Freeze. Here's what we came up with:

• Turn off lights when not using them or it really isn't necessary to have them on. (This will be tough for me because I like everything to be well lite.)
• Don't waste water.
• Don't leave the TV on when we aren't watching it. (This is true but I had to do a double take when Della suggested it because the TV isn't on that much. However, when it is on there is someone glued to it. Tom and i have a name for this, "Square Eyes".)
• Turn the computers off at night.
• Open windows to cool the house.
• Use curtains and blinds to our benefit to cool or keep the house warm.
• Don't buy something just because we want it. Put it on a list or make it instead. (I plan to put a blank piece of paper on our fridge for all of us to list our wants during the month. In November we'll revisit our wants.)
• Drink more water rather than other drinks we have to buy.
• Check out sale items at the grogery store. Also investigate clearance areas. (Our Kroger will put bright orange stickers on bread, bakery items, meats, OJ, eggs and fresh juices. I end up paying a small fraction of what the original price was. Ask your local grocer if they have clearance areas.)
• Don't waste food or put too much on our plates. (I'm sure our dog doesn't like this idea since she gets leftovers on everyone's plates.)
• Compile trips and errands.
• Reuse clothes when able rather than automatically throwing them in the dirty clothes hamper. (After church or trips to town our clothes really aren't dirty. So we try to hang them back up in the closet. I do pretty good at this, the kids...well, that's a different story. This is the month to work on this!)
• Recycle aluminum cans.
• Grow our own veggies and herbs.
• Don't be wasteful.
• Cook from scratch.
• Instead of eating out, pack a lunch.

Sit down with your family this week and make a list of ways everyone can pitch in and take part in a spending freeze. It serves as a pep-rally, if you will. My kids are rather excited about the challenge after our brainstorming session over lunch. Woo-hoo!

After our short visit to Crater of Diamonds State Park we made a run for the boarder to escape Ike's furry. We overnighted in Jackson, Tennessee. Yes, I did say overnighted. As in set up camp in time for dinner and a brief sit around the campfire before zipping ourselves in our tents only to have to wake up at 5:00 am to once again run from Ike before he dumped another boatload of water on us. Hey, what can I say, it was definitely an adventure!

We ended up in beautiful Boone, North Carolina. We were hoping we were out of harm's way as far as Ike was concerned. No such luck. Of the five days we were there, three of them were wet and cold. I was miserable, but like I said I now see that we really did have a great vacation. See the last half of our vacation fun for yourself.

We stopped by this little church just off of the Blue Ridge Parkway that has a beautiful fresco of The Last Supper.

  Then we walked about ten feet over to another counter and went fishing...at a rainbow trout farm. Once again, we were guaranteed to catch a fish...or four! 

Here is how you make a birthday cake when you are camping.  

One final note about our vacation. We saw TONS of mushrooms growing both in Arkansas and North Carolina. Tom did a great job at capturing on the camera all the different types we saw. I plan to do a study and post on mushrooms one day, probably later rather than sooner. We were simply amazed at how many sizes, shapes, and colors mushrooms come in.

Our vacation took us to two different parts of America. To begin we traveled a bit southwest to Arkansas! My husband saw a show on tv about the Crater of Diamonds State Park, this stirred his interest and curiosity...not to mention the thrill of possibly unearthing a diamond. There have been some sizeable diamonds found at Crater of Diamonds since the earlier 1900's and one of the most beautiful diamond, as in flawless, was discover here as well in the later 1900's. So Tom's excitement had all of us rather excited as well!

What do you need to mine diamonds and other gems? A shovel (as you dig deeper you increase your chances of finding diamonds according to the regulars.), a bucket to put your hopefully valuable volcanic ash dirt into (Crater of Diamonds was a volcano), sifters to help sift through the volcanic ash dirt. Here's Tom, the kids, and Maggie ready and prepared to unearth "a girl's best friend". Do they look prepared or what?

Tom's still digging while Claira had so much fun just walking around and picking up big rocks.

Here's Claira with one of the many big rocks she found.

This year for our annual family vacation we chose to tent camp again. I trusted Tom to plan the vacation and he trusted me to pack. To quickly sum up our vacation it was wet and cold much of the time thanks to Ike, thus making it difficult for me to think about much else other than being wet and cold. But after getting home and looking at our pictures I realized that we did indeed have a great family vacation. Just as we mamas for some strange reason tend to forget how dreadful childbirth can be after meeting our new little ones, I am also finding myself forgetting how terribly miserable I was. Now that I am dry and warm again I am able to focus on the wonderful memories we made. Yes, they indeed were wonderful memories. I'm going to break my vacation post up into several posts. Today I'll feature our traveling and campsite pictures. I'm keep you on pins and needles keeping you in suspense on where we went. I'll reveal our first stop in my next post.

Don't they look cozy? When you've got a seven-passenger mini-van that has been reduced down to a six-passenger mini-van so the family horse mastiff dog can come with us, things do get rather tight cozy.

Sleeping beauties...We weren't really traveling here, rather the kids were playing in the car. I think Della is suppose to be the "baby" here since she is sitting in a booster seat. They look so sweet and innocent here...especailly TJ. Or maybe that is a mischievouslook. Hmmm...Look closely and you'll see a caravan of orange utility trucks. On our trip we saw numerous caravans, some big caravans, of utility trucks heading down south to Texas to help repair the damage Ike was about to do. Little did anyone know that days later we'd need these trucks to come back home to restore electric to Northern Kentucky after Ike came through. Camping sites... TJ and Claira kept busy while we set up camp and settled in.At this campsite horses were welcome to camp also...on the campsite. The horses weren't suppose to be in the area of the campsite that the tents are set up in, but obviously there was at least one horse that didn't read and follow the rule. So Grace is shoveling horse manure so we can set up tents. The kids enjoyed helping cook...especially when it came to making s'mores.Take note of the tent flies that are draped on the picnic table and post in the background. Ike dumped some rain on us the previous night so we had to move camp to drier ground...which didn't last for too long. However, we did get our tents dried out.

 

Now that the older two girls are back home from their month long visit with their grandparents in Florida and we are all back home from our family vacation, it is time to try to find "our normal" again. Yeah, I know, whatever that is.

I am anxious to get back to my blogs but need to get the family settle back into "our normal" again. So I will return later this week.

Until then I'd like to leave you with a piece of wisdom that God literally laid in front of my face today with absolute perfect timing like only He can.

"You must hold on, so you can do what God wants and receive what He has promised." Hebrews 10:36 (emphasis mine)

If you read my blog somewhat regularly you will know that I am all about the Hearts-at-Home's conference. Karla, my friend who introduced me to Hearts-at-Home (HAH) and my traveling companion to the conferences, and I are counting down the days until this years conference starts. I do have a countdown on my sidebar...it is malfunctioning and I haven't had the time to fix it yet, but that hasn't dampened my anticipation and excitiement to be refreshed, renewed, and re-encouraged!

I will admit that going to my first HAH confernce last year was mostly exciting because I was going to get away for the first time from my responsiblities and duties as a wife and mom. I would be able to eat FOUR meals that would be hot, if they were served that way. I would not have to cut-up, fix-up, or clean-up others' meals before eating my plate of food. I would have adult conversation, no bickering or silly conversations...well, okay, we did have silly conversations but they were fun to have with other moms. I could order AND eat a dessert all by myself! Yeah, this is the kind of stuff that turned me on to HAH in the beginning.

However, little did I know that this conference would be a life changing eventfor me. It would be the beginning of a slow quake of finding that God really does have a purpose for me, my circumstances, and my life! Over the past year the events that seem to be "bolded" in my mind are:

• The HAH conference
• Zephaniah 3:17's truth spoken to me
• Building 429's concert in February and their song "Singing Over Me"
• Discovering the quote "Be brave...you were made for this"
• Living a marriage that has much seperation due to Tom's job
• Beginning a new adventure with writing my first column, Marriage from a Distance, at Take Root and Write.

These all began with HAH. The conference was so much more than just a get-a-way. During the many sessions I attended God, like a true gentleman, extended His hand to me offering to help me through the stage of life I am in. I willingly accepted with tears in my eye. Tears of joy, hope, and relief. I was a changed woman.

What was the moment I knew that this wasn't just any conference? Hmm...good question. I still am not sure. I believe it was the entire experience. Yes, ALL of it was needed to morph me into the woman I am today. The music, the skits, the speakers, the food, the chocolate, the friends, the laughs, the tears, the praises, the...ALL of it!

Interested in Hearts-at-Home's ministry and conferences? Check them out here!

I have to share with you this awesome song of Building 429's. This song is directly linked to who I am today...God gave it to me. Crank up the speakers...this song is great!

Grace and Della are finally home after a three week and one day visit with both sets of grandparents. They had fun, lots of it, and were not only spoiled by the grandparents but also by the time of no younger siblings around.

I think it may take a few days to get all four kids intermingling again as they use to. After all, for three weeks and one day they only had to live with, share with, and deal with one other sibling. Now there are three other siblings to be with. Yep, I suppose it is only natural to have to work at becoming a foursome again. It will take some time and a little extra work, but I have no regrets over this extended visit that Grace and Della had. No regrets that we let go of our two oldest children so that Tom's and my parents could love on them, be with them, and have fun with them. No regrets for the memories they all made that some day Grace and Della will be sharing with their children.

I will share with you that I rediscovered some old feelings that I've not had for at least three years. Several years after Tom and I married we dreamed of having four children. With that dream came desires, and with those desires came emotions that struck my heart strings. I would delight in seeing a mom with her four little ducklings following close behind as she pushed her cart load of groceries. I drooled at the sight of a mom walking hand in hand with two younger children as the two older children followed close behind. This past week I found myself desiring once again to have those dreamy four children. Yes, I did melt at the sight of a mom with her four children near by as they walked through the parking lot. My heart began to yearn for my full quiver of four kiddos and busting family of six.

So I cherish having my fabulous four again...and just in time. Later this week Tom will return home from his trip and we will all begin the final stage of pre-vacation planning and packing. We will all load into our mini-van, along with our petite mastiff (she's a runt), and set sail on our family vacation. Working together, camping together, playing together, BEING TOGETHER. Oh, I can't wait....

I was standing in the sunken living room folding freshly dried clothes when I heard the kitchen cabinet lightly slam shut. With interest as to the "who" and "what" of what was going on I peered up through the spindles separating the room I was in and the upper level kitchen where the action was taking place. Between the spindles, dinner table legs, and chair legs I could see a pair of legs standing on the plastic step enabling this little person to reach higher than they should have been at this moment.

I quickly discovered the "who" was Claira and the "what" was digging into the new candy the kids brought home from a birthday party we attended yesterday. In this particular cabinet on the middle shelf is a large plastic Rubbermaid bowl that holds all of the sweet treasures we accumulate from parties and festivals through out the year. I admit that I was pretty lenient over the past 24 hours allowing the kids to have more candy than usual. They took this new-found freedom and ran with it!

As I crash Claira's plan to sneak another piece of candy she just gave me that "deer in the headlights look". Literally. Our eyes locked and I knew that I couldn't look away or I'd be excusing her disobedience she was trying to hide. She ever so carefully put the candy bowl back in the cabinet then slowly and cautiously stepped down from the step never taking her eyes off of me. Once she was on the hard tile floor she bent over with her eyes still locked with mine as we both continued to look through the obstacles the dinner table, chairs, and spindles made.

Then it happened, I had to turn my head because I could no longer maintain a serious look with out a deep belly laugh, although somehow I did manage to keep it muzzled. This is when Claira made her move. She dashed like a little thief making her get-a-way running to the neighboring schoolroom and crouching under the school table.

I immediately called her to come to me, struggling to get my composure back and the "I mean business" look on my face again. She came as I told her to but was candy-less. The Nancy Drew in me knew not to settle for her slyness. So I glanced under the school table only to see the abandoned candy!

That stinker had quickly devised a plan to not only sneak a piece of candy out of the candy bowl, but quickly figured out what to do with "the goods" once spotted. Needless to say, the little disobedient candy snatcher had to face a swat with the wooden spoon. And I had to maintain the "mama isn't pleased with you" tone.

In the end the candy was returned to the candy bowl and peace in the household quickly returned. However I am still giggling over it.