I found a couple of resources this week that I just HAD to share.
www.springpadit.com
is a website where you can manage your calendar, meal planning, chore charts, budget, and SO much more! I've only been using it for a couple days - but am loving it so far.
www.mint.com
is my new favorite site. It's a budget and money management site. It'll access your bank accounts and organize everything you spend/earn into categories. You can add a budget and it'll track your spending against your budget. This site might just be a lifesaver for me.
Here are a couple more that I've used in the past and sometimes still use...
www.cozi.com
is a household management site where you can manage recipes, grocery lists, calendar - it's aimed at family organization. Pretty cool interactive site. Even has an app to manage your photos - and can make a really cool photo collage screen saver (which I use and LOVE).
www.handipoints.com
is an online chore program to help you manage, rate, and reward your kid's chores. I signed up with the best of intentions. The site it great - although it does have parts of the site that are only available if you purchase them - boo! You can reward chores with an online cyber pet thingy that they can dress, feed and play with. Beats me why but Elisa just LOVES her cat (named Boo-boo after our cat that we had to give away a while back).
www.my-calorie-counter.com
is my favorite online calorie counting tool. Track your excercise, eating, and weight loss goals. I used this religiously for 2 weeks and lost almost 8 pounds just by eating better. Good site.
That's all I can think of for now. Just had to share - let me know what you like / don't like and if you have any planning / organizing tools you use.
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Friday, February 20, 2009
You're Welcome...
My favorite part of this video is how he says "You're Welcome" at the very end ... made me laugh out loud! Nobody says it quite like Mark Driscoll...
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Sweet Sweet Sound
I can't seem to stop playing "Sweet Sweet Sound" by Sarah Reeves over and over again on my itunes. It is affecting me today. Downloaded the lead sheet today - so hopefully we'll be playing it soon.
What are you listening to today?
What are you listening to today?
Friday, February 13, 2009
Hello, is this Poison Control??
So I know I already posted about our close call from last night with the dog's overdose, but needed to update you with our second 'overdose' of the last 24 hours. Seriously.
I was cleaning the kitchen and looked over to find Syd (my 2 yr old) on the couch holding my newly bought bottle of pepcid complete. I forgot to put it back up on the counter this morning after taking one - OH NO!
I ran over to the couch to find a very happy, sneaky looking kid, an empty bottle, a pile of chalky pink tablets all over the couch and one in her sneaky little mouth. Asked her to spit it out - too late - already swallowed. I began counting the tablets. There were 25 in the bottle to begin with minus the 2 I had over the last 24 hours minus the 19 I found piled up on the couch and that leaves 4 TABLETS!! I asked her how many she ate and she said 5 - but she's two and can't count - so I figured my math was more correct.
I immediately called Poison Control and they said that she will probably be constipated, and might throw up, but it won't kill her. So, I hung up the phone ready to kill her myself (just kidding for all you who have your hand on the phone about to call child protective services) - and had a very serious talk with her about why you shouldn't eat medicine that mommy doesn't give you. She laughed - I cried - good talk.
So it is now only 11:45 and already I've had to clean up the aluminum foil that Syd spread across the den (it is now in a very lovely aluminum foil ball b/c I couldn't get it rolled back up), clean up the mess from my dog throwing up a sock (yes - he also eats socks!), and call poison control to make sure my daughter was not going to die from an antacid overdose. I'm laughing out loud even typing it all!!
Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I am in the running for mom of the year - and I'm sure after this post I have your vote.
I was cleaning the kitchen and looked over to find Syd (my 2 yr old) on the couch holding my newly bought bottle of pepcid complete. I forgot to put it back up on the counter this morning after taking one - OH NO!
I ran over to the couch to find a very happy, sneaky looking kid, an empty bottle, a pile of chalky pink tablets all over the couch and one in her sneaky little mouth. Asked her to spit it out - too late - already swallowed. I began counting the tablets. There were 25 in the bottle to begin with minus the 2 I had over the last 24 hours minus the 19 I found piled up on the couch and that leaves 4 TABLETS!! I asked her how many she ate and she said 5 - but she's two and can't count - so I figured my math was more correct.
I immediately called Poison Control and they said that she will probably be constipated, and might throw up, but it won't kill her. So, I hung up the phone ready to kill her myself (just kidding for all you who have your hand on the phone about to call child protective services) - and had a very serious talk with her about why you shouldn't eat medicine that mommy doesn't give you. She laughed - I cried - good talk.
So it is now only 11:45 and already I've had to clean up the aluminum foil that Syd spread across the den (it is now in a very lovely aluminum foil ball b/c I couldn't get it rolled back up), clean up the mess from my dog throwing up a sock (yes - he also eats socks!), and call poison control to make sure my daughter was not going to die from an antacid overdose. I'm laughing out loud even typing it all!!
Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I am in the running for mom of the year - and I'm sure after this post I have your vote.
My 2 year old music critic and my huge chocolate eating dog
It was one of those nights last night. It was bath night - so that was an adventure in and of itself. It was also the night before Elisa's valentine party at school. I hadn't been feeling well all day - so I asked Ricky to go to the store and get the valentines along with some pepcid and gatorade (cause of course I forgot to get valentines until the night before - ugh).
We put the youngest 2 down to bed and then Elisa began working frantically on her valentines (which we had again forgotten about). She finished them in less than an hour and headed off to bed. About 30 minutes later Ricky and I heard some rustling in the living room, which is where Elisa had been working on her valentines, and both of us instinctively called out "Elisa - BED!" forgetting we'd already sent her to bed. Then along came Tux (my giant puppy-boxer) trotting along at a pretty quick pace. I told Ricky that he only came running like that when he'd been into something he shouldn't have been. Then we both looked at each other and realized that the valentines were in the other room (complete with a piece of chocolate on each one!)
The valentines were EVERYWHERE!! All but one of the chocolates were gone - he ate 20 pieces of chocolate!!! We started freaking out - not only because he had eaten alot of chocolate, but because in his frenzy to get to the chocolate he pretty much destroyed the valentines our little angel had spent so much time and effort on!
I read the bag and it turns out that he only ate about 9 oz of chocolate after all - not nearly enough to be fatal. Thank God! He didn't even get sick - he must have a stomach of steel!
I spent the next hour trying to recover Elisa's valentines. Luckily I found a bag of chocolate that my mom had bought about a week ago - so I was able to put them back together (and replace a few of them that the dog ate along with the chocolate). Hopefully Elisa won't be sad that it looks all different. Oh, and by the way - during this fiasco we needed to find out how much he weighed so we'd know how much chocolate was too much chocolate - turns out he weighs in right at 75 POUNDS!!! I knew he was big - but oh man!!
On another note...
This morning while we were driving Elisa to school I turned on the radio.
Syd immediately calls out - "No, mom - not THAT song!"
(Note: it was a very slow, sweet, lovey-dovey song).
So I changed it to PowerFM and I think it was Skillet playing and she said - "Yeah, that one!"
I laughed so hard!! Just to test it out again - on the way home I changed it back to KLTY (disclaimer: I honestly love KLTY - and listen to it regularly) which was playing again a very slow sweet song. She yells out - "I don't like that song!" I switched it back to Power FM and she yells out - "Yeah - yeah! That one!"
So I guess my 2 year old has inherited my taste in music - woohoo!
We put the youngest 2 down to bed and then Elisa began working frantically on her valentines (which we had again forgotten about). She finished them in less than an hour and headed off to bed. About 30 minutes later Ricky and I heard some rustling in the living room, which is where Elisa had been working on her valentines, and both of us instinctively called out "Elisa - BED!" forgetting we'd already sent her to bed. Then along came Tux (my giant puppy-boxer) trotting along at a pretty quick pace. I told Ricky that he only came running like that when he'd been into something he shouldn't have been. Then we both looked at each other and realized that the valentines were in the other room (complete with a piece of chocolate on each one!)
The valentines were EVERYWHERE!! All but one of the chocolates were gone - he ate 20 pieces of chocolate!!! We started freaking out - not only because he had eaten alot of chocolate, but because in his frenzy to get to the chocolate he pretty much destroyed the valentines our little angel had spent so much time and effort on!
I read the bag and it turns out that he only ate about 9 oz of chocolate after all - not nearly enough to be fatal. Thank God! He didn't even get sick - he must have a stomach of steel!
I spent the next hour trying to recover Elisa's valentines. Luckily I found a bag of chocolate that my mom had bought about a week ago - so I was able to put them back together (and replace a few of them that the dog ate along with the chocolate). Hopefully Elisa won't be sad that it looks all different. Oh, and by the way - during this fiasco we needed to find out how much he weighed so we'd know how much chocolate was too much chocolate - turns out he weighs in right at 75 POUNDS!!! I knew he was big - but oh man!!
On another note...
This morning while we were driving Elisa to school I turned on the radio.
Syd immediately calls out - "No, mom - not THAT song!"
(Note: it was a very slow, sweet, lovey-dovey song).
So I changed it to PowerFM and I think it was Skillet playing and she said - "Yeah, that one!"
I laughed so hard!! Just to test it out again - on the way home I changed it back to KLTY (disclaimer: I honestly love KLTY - and listen to it regularly) which was playing again a very slow sweet song. She yells out - "I don't like that song!" I switched it back to Power FM and she yells out - "Yeah - yeah! That one!"
So I guess my 2 year old has inherited my taste in music - woohoo!
Monday, February 09, 2009
Sunday, February 08, 2009
Believing God for the Impossible
I was reading my bloglines today and came across one that seemed to echo what God has been teaching me over the past several months...
Here's the link to the original post...you should read it. A young woman named Katie who lived in Uganda and takes care of so many of the poor, orphaned kids there - providing them food, school, shelter and much love. She wrote a post about how God is the God of the impossible. Here's a small glimpse (and my favorite part of the post):
"Every morning as I wake up with some impossible ask in front of me, I know that God will meet it with impossible strength and love. I serve the God who used Moses, a murderer, to part the Red Sea, a God who let Peter, who would deny Him, walk on water. A God who looks at me, in all my fallen, broken weakness, and says YOU can do the impossible."
It seems that God has provided me with several opportunities in the last several months to believe that He is the God of the impossible. Not every one of these opportunities has turned out the way I would have hoped - but I have come out of each of them with a bigger belief that GOD CAN DO THE IMPOSSIBLE. I believe that He can do whatever He wants to with me - even when I don't understand how He would do it. He has been teaching me that I have to believe Him for the impossible.
I read something a while back that has stuck with me (it came from this blog)...
"Expectant faith honors God, and God honors expectant faith."
I have been learning to pray expectant prayers - that is praying what I know God wants me to pray and expecting Him to answer in a way that only He can. I am growing closer to Him as I am learning to believe (like Beth Moore taught me) that
- God is who He says He is
- God can do what He says He can do
- I am who God says I am
- I can do all things through Christ
- God's word is alive and active in me
It's a daily struggle to keep on Believing God - but it's a struggle I intend to win today. What about you? What are you believing God to do in and through your life?
Here's the link to the original post...you should read it. A young woman named Katie who lived in Uganda and takes care of so many of the poor, orphaned kids there - providing them food, school, shelter and much love. She wrote a post about how God is the God of the impossible. Here's a small glimpse (and my favorite part of the post):
"Every morning as I wake up with some impossible ask in front of me, I know that God will meet it with impossible strength and love. I serve the God who used Moses, a murderer, to part the Red Sea, a God who let Peter, who would deny Him, walk on water. A God who looks at me, in all my fallen, broken weakness, and says YOU can do the impossible."
It seems that God has provided me with several opportunities in the last several months to believe that He is the God of the impossible. Not every one of these opportunities has turned out the way I would have hoped - but I have come out of each of them with a bigger belief that GOD CAN DO THE IMPOSSIBLE. I believe that He can do whatever He wants to with me - even when I don't understand how He would do it. He has been teaching me that I have to believe Him for the impossible.
I read something a while back that has stuck with me (it came from this blog)...
"Expectant faith honors God, and God honors expectant faith."
I have been learning to pray expectant prayers - that is praying what I know God wants me to pray and expecting Him to answer in a way that only He can. I am growing closer to Him as I am learning to believe (like Beth Moore taught me) that
- God is who He says He is
- God can do what He says He can do
- I am who God says I am
- I can do all things through Christ
- God's word is alive and active in me
It's a daily struggle to keep on Believing God - but it's a struggle I intend to win today. What about you? What are you believing God to do in and through your life?
Thursday, February 05, 2009
What do you know about Jesus?
That's the question I asked my 2 year old Wednesday night as we were heading home from church. I LOVED her answer. She said...
"Jesus loves God
and God loves Jesus."
that's it. I was so excited that she understands (even at 2!!) that God and Jesus are connected. Of course, she then continued on with ... "Twinkle, Twinkle loves God and Row, Row Boat loves Jesus...and Mary little lamb loves God and ABEC loves Jesus" My husband looks at me and says, "Now I'm pretty sure there's some deep spiritual application there if we could just decipher it." Hilarious stuff.
My favorite part of the car ride home, though, was when my 8 year old asked my 2 year old if she could tell her about Jesus. Syd (the 2 yr old) yells "YES! but Weesa (that's what she calls her) where's your bible?"
Ricky and I looked at each other with such tremendous pride in our hearts as we realized how much our little baby already knows about Jesus. She knows that Jesus loves God, God loves Jesus, and that the Bible is the story of Jesus. WOW! We were so proud that our 8 year old was so willing, ready and excited to witness to her little sister. WOW!
If only we were all so willing, ready and excited to share the incredible story of Jesus with those that we love. I love it when God uses my kids to teach me a lesson.
"Jesus loves God
and God loves Jesus."
that's it. I was so excited that she understands (even at 2!!) that God and Jesus are connected. Of course, she then continued on with ... "Twinkle, Twinkle loves God and Row, Row Boat loves Jesus...and Mary little lamb loves God and ABEC loves Jesus" My husband looks at me and says, "Now I'm pretty sure there's some deep spiritual application there if we could just decipher it." Hilarious stuff.
My favorite part of the car ride home, though, was when my 8 year old asked my 2 year old if she could tell her about Jesus. Syd (the 2 yr old) yells "YES! but Weesa (that's what she calls her) where's your bible?"
Ricky and I looked at each other with such tremendous pride in our hearts as we realized how much our little baby already knows about Jesus. She knows that Jesus loves God, God loves Jesus, and that the Bible is the story of Jesus. WOW! We were so proud that our 8 year old was so willing, ready and excited to witness to her little sister. WOW!
If only we were all so willing, ready and excited to share the incredible story of Jesus with those that we love. I love it when God uses my kids to teach me a lesson.
Wednesday, February 04, 2009
Tuesday, February 03, 2009
Life Is War
Guest Blogger: Sandra McCurdy
John Piper in Let the Nations Be Glad wrote:
Probably the number one reason why prayer malfunctions in the hands of believers is that we try to turn a wartime walkie-talkie into a domestic intercom. Until you know that life is war, you cannot know what prayer is for. Prayer is for the accomplishment of a wartime mission.
This was very convicting for me. I’ve been in places where spiritual warfare was blatant, bold, and very much out in the open. Prayer was critical to the outcome every time and yet, I fall back so easily into complacency using my conversation with God, as Piper writes, “…not to call in fire power for conflict with a mortal enemy, but to ask for more comforts in the den.” (p. 46)
Why am I so complacent when the battle is raging around me? Why am I satisfied with asking for things that will make me comfortable when those around me are falling in battle?
In Ephesians 6 we are told to “Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”
It’s time to start acting like we are in a battle. Our comrades are falling all around us. We need to be vigilant. We need to be ready. We need to see with spiritual eyes. We need to stay in close contact with our Commander. We certainly don’t need to be afraid or confused because our leader is supreme.
In Nehemiah 4:14, Nehemiah tells the people, “Don’t be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your brothers, your sons and your daughters, your wives, and your homes.”
Forgive my complacency, Lord. You have called me to be a part of your army and I haven’t been a good soldier. Please renew my heart. Set my mind on things above, not on earthly things. Help me to be strong in you Lord and in Your mighty power. Help me to be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.
--Sandra
John Piper in Let the Nations Be Glad wrote:
Probably the number one reason why prayer malfunctions in the hands of believers is that we try to turn a wartime walkie-talkie into a domestic intercom. Until you know that life is war, you cannot know what prayer is for. Prayer is for the accomplishment of a wartime mission.
This was very convicting for me. I’ve been in places where spiritual warfare was blatant, bold, and very much out in the open. Prayer was critical to the outcome every time and yet, I fall back so easily into complacency using my conversation with God, as Piper writes, “…not to call in fire power for conflict with a mortal enemy, but to ask for more comforts in the den.” (p. 46)
Why am I so complacent when the battle is raging around me? Why am I satisfied with asking for things that will make me comfortable when those around me are falling in battle?
In Ephesians 6 we are told to “Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”
It’s time to start acting like we are in a battle. Our comrades are falling all around us. We need to be vigilant. We need to be ready. We need to see with spiritual eyes. We need to stay in close contact with our Commander. We certainly don’t need to be afraid or confused because our leader is supreme.
In Nehemiah 4:14, Nehemiah tells the people, “Don’t be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your brothers, your sons and your daughters, your wives, and your homes.”
Forgive my complacency, Lord. You have called me to be a part of your army and I haven’t been a good soldier. Please renew my heart. Set my mind on things above, not on earthly things. Help me to be strong in you Lord and in Your mighty power. Help me to be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.
--Sandra
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