Girls Weekend

This past weekend I was able to spend a night away with 13 other women from my church. We got a hotel, went out for dinner, played games, laughed til it hurt, got a little sleep and then woke up to attend a Living Proof Event with Beth Moore and Travis Cottrell. It was a weekend of fun and a weekend of growing together in Christ and worshipping our Lord.

The music was unbelievable! I don't really know how to describe it. When you are in a building with that many women, singing praises to our King......there is no other way to describe it!

Beth Moore spoke on The Law of Kindness. "She opens her mouth with wisdom, and on her tongue is the law of kindness." Proverbs 31:26

She gave us 8 tastes of kindness.
1 ~ Kindness is not a weakness.
2 ~ Kindness is not an action, it's a disposition.
3 ~ Kindness wears down when we do.
4 ~ Kindness looks pain in the face.
5 ~ Kindness is a Savior.
6 ~ Kindness has a good memory.
7 ~ Kindness craves an outlet.
8 ~ Kindness leaves a legacy.

There were a few things that she spoke about that really hit me.

First was that Kindness is not the same as being Nice. Kindness reflects the heart and is empowered by the Spirit. We can't fake kindness, it comes from the Holy Spirit.

Kindness can speak a strong word. Psalm 141:5 says kindness rebukes.

Point number 5 - Kindness is a Savior. In Ephesians 2:4-10 it speaks of that kindness. He shows "immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus." Is this something you think about daily? We don't deserve His kindness, yet He gave it to us in the form of His Son! Yet how do I treat others, many times I only treat them with kindness when I think they deserve it. That's not what God did, but many times that's what I do. Something I need to be reminded of daily!

Lastly, I want to leave a legacy of kindness. I want others to see that in me because I want them to know that I know Christ!

If you want to see more of what went on that day, you can check out a short video on Beth Moore's website.

I also want to share with you something that she had each of us say to the woman next to us at the end of the day and today I say it to you, my sisters in Christ. I found this on her blog.

My Dear Sister,

Your God has called you
To use that mouth of yours
For His great glory.
Don’t just add to the noise.
Become a real woman
Who opens her mouth with wisdom.
God wants the Law of Kindness
On your tongue
And the love of Christ
In your heart.
Never forget:
Kindness is not a weakness!
When you’re wearing down
Head to Christ and His people
And let them build you back up.
Always remember:
His yoke is KIND.
Make sure
It’s the only yoke you wear.
It’s time to go our separate ways
But we’ll all meet up again
At the glorious epiphany of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Until then,
Let the One who led you here
Lead you on with cords of kindness.
Now, get out there
And build a welcoming fire
In a cold world.
Live by the Law of Kindness!

Love you all!!!!

All My Free Time

Lately people have been asking me, "So, what do you do with yourself now that you have free time?"

My answer, "I'm still waiting on that free time."

Between going away a couple weekends and having to pack for that, my days have been jam packed! I barely have time to keep up with the housework and the laundry!

Every single day in the month of September has something on it.

The boys are both on different soccer teams this year so we have 2 different practice days and then games on Saturdays.

We have AWANA on Wednesday night. The older three are in Sparks this year and Isaac is still a Cubbie. What does this mean? Different verses to memorize. But they love it and they are actually learning double the verses because they end up learning the other kid's verses too and I'm also memorizing lots of scripture myself. I'm also helping lead a Sparks group.

I've also been really busy selling insurance, which I'm very thankful for all the calls lately and all the sales!

I have my last 2 days of grand jury next week. I was done with my 18 month term last May, but they extended us for 4 months to finish up a couple cases. Next week I go to finish up those cases. I will be glad to see all my jury duty friends, but am also glad I will officially be done.

We've had eye appointments, MOPS is starting up again, once a month I volunteer at the thrift store that benefits our school, I have carpool, dentist and hair appointments coming up, and I'm Room Parent for Isaac's class.

And the list goes on........

As you can see, I am filling my free time just fine and could probably use a little more. October's calendar is looking a little better but I'm sure it will fill up fast. Although, I will be another year older in October so I might need to start taking naps!

Labor Day Weekend

I am finally getting to posting about our Labor Day camping trip. It's been crazy around here this month and my next post will probably be about all that's been going on. Just a million things added on top of each other.

Labor Day weekend we went on a camping trip to Indiana Dunes with some friends of ours, my cousin, and my aunt and uncle. This group goes together every year and this is the second year that we have joined them. We have a lot of fun with them and there are kids everywhere. All the kids play so well together, you hardly see them at all.

It was a nice cool weekend but got warmer during the day so we could spend time at the beach at least one day.

We took a family hike, which led us too the beach and running down a big sand dune.

 Our hike back led us up a lot of stairs and down a lot of stairs.

But when we got to the top there was this beautiful view! If you look closely you can see the city of Chicago. No one really thought all the stairs was worth the view but me.

All the kids love craft time!

And my aunt has started the annual tradition of donut making which the kids really look forward too! I have to admit, I look forward to it too!

My favorite part of camping though is a cool night around the campfire with a lot of laughs and great conversations! Camping is a lot of work and you are filthy but a great campfire makes it all worthwhile! And it's always great to see your kids having tons of fun!

A Weekend Away

A couple weekends ago Brad and I were fortunate enough to get away and celebrate our 10th Wedding Anniversary!

We spent 2 nights in Chicago while Brad's parents took the kids for 2 fun filled nights! At least the kids have fun, not so sure how much fun it is for Grandpa and Grandma :)

Friday night we walked around for awhile and then settled on eating some delicious pizza.

On Saturday, I was treated to a facial (thanks to Groupon) and then we did some shopping on Michigan Ave. If there is one thing I learned: if your husband says,"Let's go shopping."  You go shopping! This is one time you NEVER argue! We hit Banana Republic, Brad's favorite store. It has now become my favorite store since he doesn't argue about me buying stuff there. Normally we hit the outlet store, but we treated ourselves to the real thing! Of course, we shopped clearance racks. You know me, I just can't get away from the clearance racks! We also had a coupon for 30% off and then a portion was given to charity or something, so we had to shop. It was for charity!

Saturday night we went to Ruth's Chris Steakhouse. Our first time there and it was delicious! And after we paid an arm and a leg for steak and wine, they treated us to this complimentary dessert. Wasn't that nice of them.

After dinner we walked to Millennium Park. A lot of walking was done this weekend which hopefully balanced out all the food we ate.

Here our some views from our room. Also, I must mention that I love Priceline which got us this room at a fraction of the price we would have normally paid.

And there you have it, our fun-filled weekend of frugality, shopping, walking, eating, pampering, and did I mention NO KIDS! (for those of you think that sounds bad, we really do love our children very much but this is the first time we've done this since they were born!)

Jewel Deals

Sometimes I get such great deals on grocery store purchases I just want to share it with everyone. Today was one of those days! Unfortunately Jewel's sales on most of these items ends today. So if you are reading this today, hurry up and you can go get some free food for yourself.

First Transaction:

This one was all the healthy items! (note sarcasm)

5 Capri Sun
2 Cocoa Krispies (had coupon for $1 off)
2 Rice Krispie Treats (had coupon for $1 off)
4 Pop Tarts (had coupon for $1 off)
2 Fruit Snacks (had coupon for $1 off)

Total $29.65
Received $10 Catalina for Keebler and Kelloggs Products (this deal is good until the 15th)
Received $5 Catalina on Capri Sun

Second Transaction:

3 Diet Pepsi ($1.88 each when you buy 4 Pepsi products)
1 Lipton Raspberry Iced Tea
3 Sweet Baby Rays ($.88 each)
5 Kraft Cheese (had $5 off coupon)

Used my $15 Catalina's from first purchase
Grand total $.69

Received $5 Catalina back on cheese

Third Transaction:

5 Cool Whips ($1 each)
Used $5 Catalina from previous purchase
Grand Total $.00

I also received $5 Catalina back on this

So there you have it, for all this food I paid $30.34 and I have $5 to go spend at Jewel yet!

If you want some more information on these deals and where I got some of my coupons you can go to Jill Cataldo's website, she helps me out a lot!

My Kids Think I'm Ancient

Hi.....I'm Melissa and I've been a lazy blogger and a mom that has been too busy to put much thought into blogging. So, I'm sorry about that. Besides the kids starting school, we've had Brad take on a second job and we've gone away the last couple weekends. Eventually I will get to downloading the pictures from my camera and sharing all the fun things we've been doing. I'm sure you just can't wait to read all about it  don't care.

I thought I would share this funny little conversation that has been going on with my kids over the past few weeks.

My kids think I'm old.

This makes me very sad that I am the "old lady", but they don't only think I'm old, they think I'm ancient! They often ask me if I watched a certain show that they like, when I was a kid. I proceed to tell them that show wasn't ON TV when I was a kid. They often ask me if I did such and such or if I had a certain toy, to which I tell them, "No, we didn't have that when I was a kid."

Today, Alex asks me if I liked Backyardigans when I was a kid.

I explained to her that this show wasn't on when I was little and in fact, I didn't even have cable when I was a kid.

Joshua says, "Boy mom, they didn't have very much when you were a kid."

That made me feel like I was from the stone age!

To drive home the point of how old they think I am, a couple weeks ago one of them asked me if I met Jesus when he was still alive.

Really? Do I look that old. Better start using more wrinkle cream!

First Day for Isaac

Today Isaac had his first day of Pre-k.

He was so excited and talked about this for days in advance! He did opt to have me bring him to school instead of riding the bus with the other kids.

He had a lot of fun and can't wait to go back tomorrow. It sure did tire him out though, he came home and ate lunch, watched a little TV and then told me he was going to take a nap. He didn't wake up until the other kids got home from school.