Joy

I am learning to look for joy around me.  The giggles of little girls, the singing of birds, the clear surface of our kitchen island...okay that last one may be a miracle it happens so rarely.

But just like I purposefully slowed myself down to give thanks, I am learning to slow myself down to find joy.

Just today, reading through my blog subscriptions I found things that gave me joy:

This great article about preserving the family dinner table - something dear to me!

I laughed at this post about what to do when you run out of table linens because I keep 2 white twin sized sheets just for this reason!  Maybe I should just quit pretending and put them with the table linens?

And I loved this article about serving nourishing meals to crowds because the very idea of filling our home with friends gives me great joy!

And then the CSA we are part of emailed me about next week's box, and that definitely gives me joy!  As does slowly working through the surplus of veggies we had and not just putting them all in stock, stir fries, or roasting them....although I will be roasting veggies for supper tonight.

Where are you finding joy today?

Free Copy of 31 Days to Clean!

Sarah over at Like a Warm Cup of Coffee wrote an ebook just recently that sounds DELIGHTFUL and got some great reviews called 31 Days to Clean...why do I tell you this? She is giving it away today!

Bloggy Goodness

There have been a few posts that I liked a lot today, and because I am watching cartoons with the girls (we finished school already...except for math, but mama needed a break), I thought I would share them with you.

Lindsay has had an excellent series about hospitality, but I particularly enjoyed this post about keeping meals easy when having company.

Erin has Quesadillas 5 Ways, and these are one of our favorite quick lunches or appetizers! Plus there are more great ideas on the comments section! I am thinking pizza quesadillas for Saturday....

Kate has a great post that has a simple formula for making Soup from Scratch. I love making soup from scratch, and am always surprised when people think this is difficult! Plus I love a simple formula that you can work to make new versions!

Sandy is one of my new favorite bloggers...at least, new to me. I love her book Reluctant Entertainer, The: Every Woman's Guide to Simple and Gracious Hospitality! She has a great post about how friends showed hospitality to her college aged son through a care package! Great ideas here!

Have any posts caught your eye lately?

Hospitality for Our Own Family

I have been absolutely loving the blog Reluctant Entertainer ever since I read her book: Reluctant Entertainer, The: Every Woman's Guide to Simple and Gracious Hospitality, which I highly recommend! Today she had an excellent guest post called "It's The Little Things" about showing love and hospitality to our own family as part of making our home a sanctuary.

Reading This Week

We have all felt a little bit of the yuck this week, so the week has been a quiet one with lots of lovely reading.

2 things I found on the web today worth sharing are:

• Lindsay's Christian Literature for Children Age 0-8 - we have some of the books on the list, and will definitely be checking out the others.
• Kathy's Time to Winterize - Emergency Kit and Pantry Supplies - with the seasonal forecast being colder and wetter than normal this is something I am readying carefully.

In the crafting front I am rereading Kathy's tutorial on how to make a rag quilt and wondering if Miss Pear and I could do this over the winter?

What are you reading this week?

Sneaking In...

...and for the record, it is all Donnetta's fault that I had to do this. (Hi Donnetta!)

She is giving away a WHOLE SET of Seed's Family Worship CD's. And if you have not heard them, you are missing out, they are wonderful! It is scripture set to music, and is instant encouragement and scripture memory. We put this set into the car when we moved and I still have not managed to get a single CD into the house! Our 5 year old requests them over and over again....we happily oblige!

Be sure to head over and comment to win so your family can be blessed to!

By the way, of you are not reading Donnetta I highly recommend that you do, she is very encouraging and such a sweetie.

I now resume my break! Blessings to you.

Bloggy Goodness

There have been two posts I particularly appreciated last week and I wanted to share them with you.

I enjoy Penny Pantry because while she loves a good deal, she is also careful to put her family ahead of her quest for savings. Great post about Are You Too Frugal! (We shoot for living prudently and spending wisely!)

I enjoy Life as Mom because she loves a good deal, cooks on a budget and still serves her family all the good stuff. Plus I can relate to a lot of what she says because we lived in Southern CA too! She had a great post about stockpiling and how that helps her save money in her grocery shopping and HOW TO DO IT. I wanted to share it with you because it is such a great balance of saving money and giving your family what they need and love! Plus it is what we do and how I keep our grocery budget down! She also had a great post about menu planning! She calls it meal planning for the beginner, but their are great tips and reminders in there that I found helpful and I have been doing a plan weekly for over 11 years!

Tea for you, Tea for me

(This is the picture Lindsay posted of the contest goodies)

Lindsay at Passionate Homemaking is having a great giveaway for a Celestial Seasonings Wellness kit. While it contains many teas I already have in my cupboard, it also includes a sweet little sleepytime bear to match my favorite tea! And a mug, and who cannot use another tea mug?

Head on over and sign up with your favorite wellness tip. Your tea cupboard will thank you if you win!

Who wouldn't love a quilt!

The lovely ladies at Marie-Madeline Studios are hosting a quilt give away! This quilt actually:

To win, head on over to leave a comment! Please mention that I sent you over!

Albertson's Gift Card Giveaway

If you live in California and have an Albertson's near you, you might want to check out Fishmama's giveaway for a $100 Albertson's gift card over at Good (& Cheap) Eats!

Of course, if you don't live in CA and would like to join the fun, I would be more than happy to use your gift card should you win! :-)

Amazon here I come...

...guess what I won?

Yup, gift card for Amazon, just when I needed it!

Such a blessing!

For Father's Day I always try to get Daddy something he can do with his girls. Which is why he got a water table one year, and I have to tell you, he LOVED it!

This year I am thinking that he will need a copy of Stokes Field Guide to birds for our area. He has talked about it off and on since we moved to Southern California almost 10 years ago, but now Miss Pear is starting to point out the birds by name too, so I think that would be a great gift! (Along with homemade cards, and a special meal of his choice too!)

Learning Latin?

If you would like to you could win help from Rosetta Stone over here....

Precept's Great Bible Giveaway

I don't have much inspiring to share with you today, other than to say Miss Pear's allergies are back under control, Baby's are getting there, but she is teething too, so that is fun.

So I decided that I would share something fun that arrived in my inbox instead! (Afterall, no one likes a whiner!)

Your have probably heard of Kay Arthur and Precept Ministries and the Inductive Study Bible. Well, they are having the Great Bible Study Giveaway this month! They are giving away 10 Bonded Leather New Inductive Study Bibles and 122 Bible Studies. Definitely worth the trip!

Although apparently the colored pens are not included..... :-)

Homeschool Classroom Giveaway

I have been reading the Homeschool Classroom since it started, and it has really encouraged me! They are currently having a giveaway for a $25 Amazon gift card, and is there ever such a thing as enough books for homeschoolers?

Too Funny

If you are a fan of Precept Ministries and Kay Arthur, you have to check this out! It is so funny!

Apple-y Goodness

Okay, so I stole the title from the same post I stole this delicious recipe for apple danish - what could I do, it sounded so delicious and apples were on sale for $0.50 a pound!

And it was delicious! The only changes I made were that I used my food processor to make the pastry, and upped the cinnamon to about 1 tbsp.

I would invite you over to try some, but we ate it all, our neighbors helped.....

T'was the night before Christmas...

After a night of being up each and every hour with Baby (the first night ever like that), many hours more than once, I read The Night Before Christmas for Moms at My Quiet Corner. I read it last year too, and it was great then, but a must read this year!

And we are praying for a quieter and sleepier night tonight.

But even with the severe lack of sleep, I love being a mommy.

Mental hiccup

It was a long morning, even breaking out the Christmas books did not help for some reason - probably because Miss Pear is exhausted and Baby is a bit out of sorts from yesterday.

So now with them both down I started reading stuff in the news and bloglines as a mental break, and wanted to share the good stuff with you. Keeping in mind the long morning I had, just humor me if it is not really that good or funny.

Did you ever wonder how much the 12 days of Christmas would cost? Apparently we all should have invested in that, it's value is up 10.9% year over year!

Life as Mom is contemplating a simpler Christmas.

Blogger is being mean and randomly posting this without me hitting post.

Donetta has a wonderful post for the Precious Promise this week, and another excellent one about prayer that I intend to go back and read again.

Jen wrote about Intentional Christmas Traditions, and while the accidental ones are fun, we long for the meaningful ones!

The DHM at the Common Room had an excellent post about the out of control materialism of Christmas. We will just ignore the fact that I had to go to Target to buy Miss Pear a Cabbage Patch Doll because they were on sale for $19, are the 25th anniversary edition, and that I was given one the very first year they were available.

This all distracted me from waiting for the phone to ring with Baby's results, for which I am thankful. I will distract myself further with cookies.....

Bloggy Goodness

There were a few great things I came across that I wanted to share - and this time I am determined to remember to tell you!

Advent coloring page! (HT to Alexandra)

I am ready to start my freezer cooking again, and came across this at the Common Room. An excellent read! And a tale of caution that has no need in my family I am thankful to say!

I loved this post about looking for Jesus at Christmas as hard as we look for a lost ring.

There are many more, but I hear a little one starting to wake up, and I figure actually posting 3 is better than none at all! (Little goals, more checked off the list!)

Praying for Noah

For those of you who have been here for a while, you are probably familiar with the little button on my sidebar about praying for Noah.

I would encourage you to click on it today as Noah is very sick and in the hospital again.