Crafty Bluejean Bags

Monday's subject for my little "Castle School" (home schooling) class was the invention of bluejeans. We read a few books about Levi Strauss (his story is quite interesting) and then we used a pair of jeans to create purses/bags.

For this project, I bought a large, cheap pair of jeans at Wal-Mart ($9) and cut them into 7 pieces trying to keep as many of the seams as possible.
Since I wanted the girls to do their own sewing, I let them use very large needles and string. They were able to stitch up whichever sides were not already connected once I cut the jeans. For some of the pieces (the leg pieces), this was only one side. I was pretty pleased that my 4-7yos handled this project easily, though I did need to put on the finishing touches and stitch the ribbon-handles on for them.
If I were doing this project myself (for gifts, for instance) I would do these things differently:
1. I might try out used jeans--if they weren't too worn, though for a certain look, the more worn the better.
2. I would stitch with a machine or at least more closely than we did with these bags.
3. I might line the bags (though this is not really necessary; the inside of the jeans made a a good inside for these bags.)
4. I would definitely use larger ribbon, the largest I could find, and I would make bows or use buttons to cover up where the ribbon is connected to the bag (unless I was inserting a lining; then I would sew in the ribbon between the lining and blue jean material.)
I think these would make great bags to stuff for gifts! For a teen you could put in some nice bath gel or lotion or for a little girl a few small toys. And for approximately $1.50 a bag, it's a price you can't beat!
Linked to Only the Good on Friday,Frugal Friday, Finer Things Friday, and I'm Loving It.

Surprise! (Giveaway Closed)

Giveaway closed. See HERE for winners.

I have a surprise for you all! My mom (remember how great and talented she is here and here and here) just gave me 10 (one not pictured) of her hand made bracelets to give away here on the blog! So, I'm doing a follower-appreciation Mother's Day giveaway and 10 of you (yes that's TEN) will win a bracelet. I am so thankful for those of you who read Of Such is the Kingdom! And since these bracelets are wonderful for "stacking," if Random.org chooses more than one of your entries, I'll let you win more than one! 

To win a bracelet, your mandatory entry is:

1. Be a follower and leave a comment telling me that you are and what you're current favorite piece of jewelry is. (and you're email address like this: 105olivia at gmail dot com) Thanks!

Additional entries:

2. Blog about this giveaway and leave 3 separate comments telling me that you did. 

3. Facebook, Tweet, etc. this contest and leave me a comment telling me that you did. 

I will let Random.org choose winners on the evening of May 8th. Winners will receive email notification that they've won.

Happy Mother's Day and thanks for following Of Such is the Kingdom!

Linked to Things I Love Thursday because I love giveaways and followers and Mother's Day and jewelry!

Bugs

I guess if you stopped by for last week's Attack of the Animals you're probably pretty happy that I don't have a picture of my house or my self (ugh!) covered with angry bugs. Happily, no!

All I have for you today is the boy's newest art work. I am loving that grasshopper's face. (And can I just say that the boy is only 4?! It's okay if I brag just a little, right?)

 5 Minutes for Mom, Extraordinary Mothers, 7 Clown Circus,Go, Graham, Go,Jolly Mom, Look What Mom Found,Two of a Kind,A Daily Dose of Toni, A Lot of Loves, J. Leigh Designz,Mom Dot, and Mom Start

Kingdom Parenting #1-10

Here are ten more things I learned from our pastor and his wife this Sunday about Kingdom Parenting:
(Maybe I haven't explained in a while but when I say "Kingdom" I mean the Kingdom of God. Kingdom Parenting is training up our children to live for God and do His work during their lives.)
#1. Kingdom Parenting requires the direct involvement of the Holy Spirit at all times!
#2. A Kingdom household lives before the eyes of God (not mom or grandmom or neighbors, etc) and lives by God's rules (not rules like, "Thou shalt not interfere with thy parents' schedules." EEEK! Very convicting!)
#3. In order to teach my children rightly about the Kingdom, I must handle my sin correctly. This means executing my own sin, cutting it off completely, and when I have offended them, this execution needs to be in front of them. That means I need to do more than just give them a casual "I'm sorry," or even worse (this is so totally me) a "I'm sorry, but..."
#4. Kingdom Parenting is about training my child's heart, not just their behavior. This is so key!
#5. Part of training my child's heart is discovering who my child is--searching out and encouraging their unique gifts.
#6. A Kingdom household should proclaim the Gospel in everything. (Do I give my kids the Gospel every time I discipline them? God gave Adam the Gospel--"the seed of woman will crush the seed of the serpent"--before He gave Adam his punishment in the garden!)
#7. Effective Kingdom discipline often begins with a question: "Where are you?" "What have you done?" (Also modeled by God after Adam and Eve sinned in the garden.)
#8. I would never verbally shout, "God is a liar and the Bible is untrue!" but if If I truly want to teach my children to build the Kingdom then I must prayerfully watch that my actions do not shout that either.
#9. Kingdom parents reflect the King-Prophet-Priest nature of God. As kings, parents must govern as Jesus governed--not necessarily uniformly--taking into account the unique personalities of each child. As prophets we must teach and rebuke. But as the child grows, we
must be willing to relinquish command and continue to counsel. As priests, we must intercede for our children!
#10. As Kingdom parents we commit to being discontent with merely polite, unbelieving children. 
Linked to Tuesday's Tip Jar and Top Ten Tuesday.

Cup or Glass?

Yesterday one of our pastors and his wife spoke to our Sunday School class on "Kingdom Parenting." Wow! I learned enough for weeks of blog posts, but the very most simple and wonderful thing that we learned was from the illustration of a cup and a glass. 

Our pastor told the story of finding his daughter crying her eyes out. After a frustrating time of trying to get her to stop crying, he brought in a cup and a glass. He made her tell him what they both were for (drinking) and then he threw the styrofoam cup against the wall. It floated to the wall, bounced off, and landed unharmed on the carpet. He then began to throw the glass against the wall as well. His daughter quit crying and stopped him. She knew that the glass would have shattered if it had hit the wall.

He asked her, "Is the cup better than the glass?" He made her repeat her "No!" until she was nearly shouting it. Then he told her that both she and her daddy were glasses. Rough things in life hurt them more than some. Her oldest brother, he explained, was a cup. He was the one you wanted to call in a tough situation because he wouldn't be nearly as bothered by it.

Wow! What a revelation! Here at our house we have a cup and two glasses. You can tell this so easily! The whole point for the illustration was to explain to us, that though discipline and treatment of your kids needs to be consistent and fair, it is not always the same. It is easy to see that you would handle disciplining a cup much differently from disciplining a glass. This is why when I tell my youngest, "No!" in a firm tone, she cries for a ten minute stretch. This is why the boy will sometimes raise a howl that will communicate, "I'm dying!" after his older sister has hurt his feelings. So much is explained by a simple cup and glass.

Stay tuned for more from this "Kingdom Parenting" series that our Sunday School class is doing.

Rain, Rain, Rain

Praise the Lord for the rain!

(Our town = one big pollen cloud!)

If you're home with kids on this rainy weekend, head over to the Weekend Planner for some great suggestions on things to do!

Linked to Six Word Saturday

Pasta Salad For a Crowd

My mom doesn't always enjoy cooking, but she gave me some valuable training when I was growing up about making summer salads. When I was beginning to cook on my own, she told me, "Add mayo, pickles, and boiled eggs (and maybe a little mustard) to just about anything to make a great summer salad." And she's right. Think about it. Add those things to potatoes, you get potato salad. Add them to tuna or chicken or ham and you get the corresponding salad. Come to think of it, just serve mayo, pickles, and boiled eggs and you can have egg salad or deviled eggs; take your pick. And, of course, add them to your favorite pasta, and you have a great pasta salad.
But as I've told you before, I pretty much have to tweak any recipe, even if it isn't written down.
So here's my suggestion for "Pasta Salad For a Crowd"
32 oz. pasta (bow tie, shell, or elbow are my favorites)
8 boiled eggs
2 jars diced pickles (or the equivalent, if you're chopping your own)
1 red pepper, diced
1 yellow pepper, diced
2 tomatoes, chopped and rinsed
3 chicken breasts, cooked and chopped
1 1/2 cups (+/-) mayo (light works well)
I really have no idea how much mayo to put in because I always just add mayo until it looks right. I would start with a 1/2 cup and add up from there if I were you. It's going to take a lot, though. Another suggestion is to add mayo mixed with Italian dressing or olive oil, and again, you'll just have to add until it's right for you.
2 T Italian seasoning
1 t garlic
(and whatever else you feel like adding at the time)
You can also swap out the pickles for green olives (my favorite) or use broccoli instead of the pickles and peppers.
All in all, it's really hard to mess this salad up and it makes A LOT! My problem is that I make too much for the crowd, and then we have to eat it for dinner every night for a few days after the party. I like it, but the rest of the family definitely gets tired of it!
Enjoy!
Linked to Only the Good on Friday,Frugal Friday, Finer Things Friday, I'm Loving It, and Cooking for a Crowd.

Attack of the Animals

Sorry "Wordless Wednesday" folks (see below) this picture just has to have the story with it! Over the weekend, a beautiful spring Robin began hanging out on our patio. After about a day of us enjoying him, he began to dive-bomb our large living room window. Yes, you heard right! DIVE-BOMB!
Not just once, not just twice...not just a million times. This bird banged into the window constantly for about a three hour stretch. Then the next day he didn't let those three hours confine him. He kept up his routine (fly to window, look in, bang beak or head, fly away) until it was too dark for him to see anymore.
What was our response? (warning: this does not end well for the bird) Well, at first we laughed. Then I thought, "Wow, I need to get a picture so I can blog about this crazy bird." After about hour 3 or so, we began to say things like, "WHEN is this bird going to learn that he can't get in?" or "MAYBE he'll knock himself out." Don't judge, please! You try sitting down to a nice tv show once the kids are in bed while a bird bangs on the window beside the tv. (knock, knock, knock...knock, knock, knock!) It's rough, believe me!
On day three of the demented bird saga, it occurred to us that this might be a little dangerous for our children. What if our one year old walked out right as this insane bird came whizzing out of the tree intent on banging his head on our window?
So my husband did the only kind and loving thing. He shot the bird with the BBs he usually reserves for the squirrels who are stealing our bird seed. He put the bird out of its misery, saved our children from injury, and saved my sanity!

Okay, now a little bonus to the story. The day after the passing of the bird, my husband tried to plug in the iron while he was watching the tv (yes, I'm a terrible wife; my hubby has to iron his own shirts!) and the power in that room went off. When the electrician came, he found what you see above under that room! A wire chewed completely through by mice. MICE! We went without tv or internet for a full 24 hours because of mice! Who knew! (Maybe they were friends of the bird...?)

Linked with Wordless and Wordful Wednesdays at

 5 Minutes for Mom, Extraordinary Mothers, 7 Clown Circus,Go, Graham, Go,Jolly Mom, Look What Mom Found,Two of a Kind,A Daily Dose of Toni, A Lot of Loves, J. Leigh Designz, Mom Dot, and Mom Start

And the Winner Is...

I finally remembered to let random.org choose a winner for the great prize pack from Go-gurt. And the winner is ...

Linda 

who said:

I love to come to your blog and see that beautiful little smiling face with those big beautiful eyes! What a doll!

I love yogurt and fruit for snacks...but carrots and celery too if I am in the veggie mood.

Thanks, Linda, and I hope you enjoy your Go-gurt!

Kingdom Thoughts

I've been linking up to tons of sites lately and playing along with their memes, which is really fun, but I haven't given you a "Random Olivia" type post in a long time, so here goes:
I have noticed that though no human plans it, our Sunday School class and our sermon usually have a common theme. It doesn't matter how different the pastor/speakers are, they usually strike some common chord in my heart. This week's was Kingdom living. (Which is quite broad, I know. Probably every other pastor spoke about something like that this Sunday!)
Our pastor's scripture was part of 1 John 2 about how the antichrist will come but even now many antichrists have come. His point was that we get really hung up on the "the" and miss the "many" which is really more immediate and dangerous for us. We need to be aware that one of the most dangerous things for a Christian is the subtle influence of those around us who are not Spirit-led. AND the only thing that keeps us from being that kind of people is the Spirit in us.
A recurring theme for our pastor was "You should not idealize the church nor should you villanize it." When others look at the church and say, "Hypocrites!" they are absolutely right. And part of that is just because the time is late and we are nearing when Jesus will come again! It's right there in the Scripture: the closer we get to Christ's coming again, the more the church will be filled with those who say they are Christians but who are not.
And then on to Sunday School. The speaker there was talking about our individual and corporate calling to evangelize. If we are those who have the Spirit within us, we are called to live a Kingdom life of evangelism. We are to evangelize in word and deed, in promise and demand, and in body and soul. "We are (as Eric Liddell said) all missionaries. Wherever we go we either draw people nearer to Christ or repel them away from Christ."There is a world in need out there and the church is the one to bring them the help. Only Christ can heal!
So is that random enough for you? I guess to bring this all meaning, I should tell you how these thoughts are meshing in to my daily life.
The very main thing that I need to remember, to walk, to breathe, is that without the Spirit, I know nothing. I cannot help anyone (really) and I cannot understand Scripture. This is a humility thing, but it is also an encouragement because the opposite is true. I DO have the Spirit in me, so I CAN help and know! And I can shout it from the rooftops without any pride at all. (If I truly understood this I could!) This is the true way to draw people to Christ--to understand this kind of humility, this kind of boldness.

Play Dough Cars

Peanut Butter Play Dough = Inventing Cars

(whew! that was hard to do in 6 words!)

I'm teaching a little homeschool group (we call it Castle School) and this semester's theme is "inventions." I'm trying to stick with inventions that directly affect my K-1st graders (like legos and crayons). Last week's lesson talked about calculators, pianos, puzzles, and cars. At one point I gave the kids peanut butter play dough, crackers, marshmallows, cheerios, yogurt covered raisins, and toothpicks. They were allowed to "invent" a car. And, as soon as I took pictures, they got to eat them! Instructive and yummy!

I've linked to Six Word Saturday (and you should too)!

These are a Few of My Favorite Things

When I was checking out the prize page for the Ultimate Blog Party over at 5 Minutes for Mom last night, I started thinking, what kind of things would I want to offer if I were to submit a prize?
Well here are a few things that I would love to share with you:
(Maybe I'll submit them for next year's prizes, or maybe I'll just do giveaways right here on Of Such is the Kingdom with them.)

1. These necklaces are the greatest! They are created by hand from recycled magazines by women of the Karamojong tribe in Uganda. These girls who are selling the necklaces buy them from the women and also send 20% of the proceeds back to them. Wow!

2. You've heard me talk about these before, I'm sure, but I do love Songs for Saplings! These are scripture memorization songs that are both catchy and well done; and that's hard to find! My kids love the folksy feel of the music (and so do I)!
3. And for my third thing I love, how about a favorite book? This one covers both great stories for your child and a great philosophy of reading: the rationale for the need of all things "faerie" for children. Wonderful!
Linked to Things I Love Thursday.
And did you notice? These fine and beautiful things are quite frugal as well! The necklaces are $18 a piece (a steal!), the cd's are $9 and look at the great price for this book on Amazon! Head over to Frugal Fridays to check out other frugal gifts, prizes, and more!
Also linked to Only the Good on Friday, Friday Finding Beauty,Frugal Friday, and Finer Things Friday.

Come and Worship

But as for me, I will come into Your house in the multitude of Your mercy;
         In fear of You I will worship toward Your holy temple.

Psalm 5:7

I couldn't resist posting this pic of our church today. It was so beautiful on Sunday, and in the midst of taking pics of the kids outside the church I took one up toward the spire. Enjoy!

Linked with

 5 Minutes for Mom, Extraordinary Mothers, 7 Clown Circus,Go, Graham, Go,Jolly Mom, Look What Mom Found,Two of a Kind,A Daily Dose of Toni, A Lot of Loves, J. Leigh Designz, and Mom Start

Okay I also can't resist plugging for my giveaway! 

(Thought it doesn't fit at all with the serene picture above.)

Please visit and comment to win a pretty cool Go-gurt prize pack!

Me:A-Z and a Big Blog Party

Today I'm joining in 5 Minutes for Mom's 2010 Blog Party. I'll be linking up with them and visiting some of the 1000s (no joke) of other bloggers who are linked up there as well. It's a BIG blog party! (That's a reference to a favorite book around our place, in case you're wondering.)

To introduce you to myself, I'm using a nifty little A to Z format. Feel free to use it as well and link to it in the comments.

Age: 32

Bed Size: Queen! (Not too big, not too small, it’s just right!)

Chore you hate: Emptying the ice trays.  This is a hang-up from childhood; I hated it then too.

Dog’s name: Dixie. She’s a 5yo Golden-looking dog, (above pic is what she looks like when we have her shaved for the summer) and definitely a favorite with the kids!

Essential “Start the Day” item: Bible. I’m not a coffee drinker, and if I get to choose, I wouldn’t spend my time showering. (I know it's gross, but I'd rather be reading!)

Favorite color: blue like the sky with no clouds. : ) This was one of the questions my hubby asked me the first time he got me to talk to him. He just "happened" to be going where I was going on campus and walked along with me asking me random personal questions. It took him two years after that to get me to admit I liked him.

Gold or silver: white gold

Height: 5’6” It says 5’7” on my driver’s license and for years I thought I was, but alas, I really am only 5’6”.

Instruments you play: I play(ed) the flute and piano. The old flute’s around here somewhere, and I probably could make a melody of some sort on it, and I do pick at the piano every once in a while, but my hubby is the real musical one around here.

Job Title: homemaker (chef, housecleaner, chauffeur, nanny) ballet teacher, homeschool teacher, and blogger

Kids: Oldest—Girl, Age 6, Boy—Age 4, Baby/Youngest—Girl, Age 20 months

Living Arrangements: We own a wonderful home one mile away from hubby’s work and we love that!

Married: In our church September 15, 2001. That's four days after THE Sept. 11th. I don't think I was really able to comprehend Sept. 11th until months after our marriage. All I could think about that week was marrying the love of my life! We actually flew right over NYC on the 16th; there were only a few people on the flight and we were able to see the smoke and grieve. We did have a perfect wedding, though.

Nickname: I don’t really have one. I guess my brother fondly called me “Opie” for my initials (my maiden name started with a P) for a while

Overnight Hospital Stays: There have been too many! I was bitten badly by a dog at age 4 and was in the hospital for over a week. I’ve been in overnight with each child, and I’ve been in once for about four days with some kind of stomach awfulness.

Pet Peeves: Stuff on the floor, Okay, just generally stuff out of place

Quote from a movie: "See what you have to ask yourself is what kind of person are you? Are you the kind that sees signs, that sees miracles? Or do you believe that people just get lucky? Or, look at the question this way: Is it possible that there are no coincidences?" Gibson in Signs 

Righty or Lefty: Righty and I've always bemoaned the fact because I wanted to be unusual in every fiber of my being. And of course lefties are more unique, so I was always jealous of lefties.

Siblings: One brother who’s four years younger. We loved to argue when we were little and I had perfected the art of arguing quietly so that we he yelled it sounded like he was the only one at fault. My poor brother!

Time you wake up: In between 6 and 6:30am

Unique Trait: I am a romantic—which has led to many other unique traits, one of which is that I love to write poetry

Veggie you dislike: I’ll try anything, but brussel sprouts are really horrible, aren’t they?

What makes you late: My love for what I’m doing “now.” I want to give myself every second doing whatever I’m doing before I go on to the next thing. This means I am usually late.

X-Rays you have had: Teeth, Cat-Scan (I was a very clumsy girl!), and upper back.

Yummy food you make: I can make some great cookies if I take them out of the oven early enough. I often overcook them, though. I can also make some mean cheese grits. Yum!

Zoo animals you like: I like animals and I like the zoo. I think my favorite is a giraffe. You can't beat the way they chew!

I saw this A to Z idea first at Beautiful Calling.
And, since this post is not long enough already (smile) here are a few prizes I would love to win at the Big Blog Party.

US39 - 2 night stay for a family of four at any Hilton Garden Inn from Hilton Garden Inn
 at bloggin2noggin

US11 – A $100 gift eCertificate to Restaurant.com from Amy LeForge of Earnest Parenting
at EarnestOne

US6 – Hand Stamped Personalized Necklace from The Double Stacked A Lot Of Love.
at Kristen’s Custom Creations


US52 – A $25 GC to Amazon.com.

US73 –$30 Amazon gift 

 US75 – $100 Gift Certificate to SummitCampingGear.com



 US87 –a $30.00 Amazon Gift Certificate

US88 – $25 E-Gift card to Amazon.com!


US95 – $100 Gift Certificate to Restaurant.com 

US112 – $50 Amazon Gift card


US113 – $25 Walmart Gift Certificate

US114 – $25 Walmart Gift Certificate


USC 3 – A $50.00 Target Gift Card

USC 15 – $50 Target gift card 

US32 – $25 Target Gift Card!


Free Go-gurt for the First 30!

Is yogurt on your snack menu for this week?
Click HERE  for free go-gurt! After the first 30, a $1 off 1 coupon will be available using the link.     Enjoy!
And be sure to click on the link to the left to comment to win another free box of Go-gurt as well as some other great prizes in a Go-gurt Prize pack!
On my menu for this week:
Monday: Leftover lasagna (from a lunch party yesterday)
Tuesday: Homemade ham and cheese rolls (I'll use the cheeseburger rolls from this post and sub ham and/or turkey for the ground beef)
Wednesday: pasta salad--probably with chicken, olives, grape tomatoes, mayo, spices, etc. Maybe some peas or broccoli? Depends on what strikes my fancy as I'm mixing it up.
Thursday: Turkey cutlets (from last month's Angel Food), baked fries, veggies
Friday: Eat out with coupons after working out at the Y
Linked to Menu Plan Monday.

A New Giveaway

A New Giveaway With Great Yogurt
Recently I was contacted by MyBlogSpark to see if I would like to try Simply Go-Gurt and host a giveaway for it. Of course I said,"Yes!"
This giveaway pack is focused on the Savvy Mom (or Grandmom, or Aunt, or Babysitter...) as a planner and traveller. In it you'll receive a pocket Etch a Sketch, weekly planner and a seat back organizer.  
The Go-gurt itself is very attractive because it contains no high fructose corn syrup, has lots of vitamin D and calcium, and has no artificial colors or flavors. All that in a tube so that your kids can eat yogurt on the go. That's pretty cool in my book!
You can also visit Go-gurt's website to find a great $1 off 1 coupon!

And in case you're wondering, this prize is a great deal; Amazon carries these little Etch A Sketches for about $11!

So how do you win it? Very simple! 

**Just be a follower of Of Such is the Kingdom,

**And comment telling me what kind of healthy snacks you give your kids.

**You can comment once each day until next Saturday (April 17th) when the contest will end at 8pm. 

Happy commenting!

Yoplait provided me with the free product, information, and gift pack through MyBlogSpark.

Linked to Six Word Saturday.

Angel Food Ministries

With couponing, stockpiling, and rebates, I thought that I might eventually give up our monthly order of Angel Food (see details here). But every month, I still find myself ordering at least one because I just can't beat their prices for meat and staples. Their basic box of food, ordered through local churches, is about $60 worth of food for $30. You can basically feed a family of four for a week with it. I usually just buy that box, but there are also specialty boxes.

The reason I'm writing (again) about Angel Food Ministries is because they've added a few new specialty boxes that are worth noticing: the "Just 4 Me" boxes. One of them features a lot of after school snacks--maybe a few too many of the fast-foody type things for me. The one I really like is a box of fruits and vegetables that will interest your kids. This month the "After School Fruit and Veggie Box" has

(3) Red Delicious Apples
(3) Granny Smith Apples
(3) Navel Oranges
(3) D'Anjou Pears
(1) 6 pack Apple Sauce
(1) 3 pack Apple Juice
(1) 2.5 oz. bag Sweet Potato Chips
(1) 2.5 oz. bag Apple Chips
(1) 6 oz. bag Banana Chips

That's a pretty good deal for $16. The main box is still the best deal, but this is definitely worth checking out!

Check out their April menu to see if ordering through them would help you with your grocery budget!

What a good, beautiful, frugal finer thing saving money can be! Linked to Only the Good on Friday, Friday Finding Beauty, Frugal Friday, and Finer Things Friday.

A Few More Easter Pics

Don't you just love trying to get everyone to smile and look pretty/handsome for Easter pictures?

"Pee-paw, I stuck!"

I didn't really mean to do Easter baskets this year, but I found cute crafty stuff for the kids and put them in really inexpensive baskets. It was fun that they were totally surprised by the fact that there were baskets waiting for them on the table. (We've never done baskets before.)

Happy Spring, everyone! I'm enjoying this beautiful weather, and I hope you are too!

Linked with

5 Minutes for Mom, Extraordinary Mothers, 7 Clown Circus,Go, Graham, Go,Jolly Mom, Look What Mom Found,Two of a Kind, A Daily Dose of Toni, A Lot of Loves, J. Leigh Designz, and Mom Start

Make a Blogger Happy Today!

Yesterday I had a great chat with a friend (at Starbuck's of course!) and one of the things we talked about was blogging. She has a great blog, and was asking me questions about mine. During the conversation, this blog began to take shape.

What are the top ten ways to make a blogger (very) happy?

#1. #2. and #3. Comment. Comment. Comment. It really does bring a smile to my face when people say something about what I am writing. I mean the writing itself is cathartic, but what I really live for is the comments.

#4. Become a follower. Call it notches on my belt or just plain old ugly pride, but I love to see that number grow. The very name "follower" is sort of magical, don't you think?

#5. Subscribe via RSS and email. And yes, I know, I don't have that RSS thing figured out yet. I know it isn't all that hard, but did I mention that I have three children?

#6. Participate in giveaways. I don't have one going on right now, but there's a great one coming up. Come back and play along! I love it and you just might win. My giveaways have been relatively small, and so there's an even greater chance for my followers to win.

#7. LINK TO ME. Perhaps if I capitalize it, it will be burned on your subconscious and you won't be able to help linking to me the next time you blog or Facebook or Tweet or whatever else people do out there these days.

#8. Click on my ads. This makes me money, folks. It really does. Even if you just look around and don't buy a thing. I love to blog, but there is a certain amount of guilt for a SAHM blogger--there are ALWAYS other things I could be doing! If I can make my blog pay, even if it's only a little bit, this guilt is slightly alleviated. And really, it doesn't hurt anything for you to click on the ad and look around a bit. So please, please, try it.

#9. Leave me advice as a comment. I love to hear constructive criticism. Okay "love" is probably too strong a word. But I need it and I know that, and I'd like for you all to feel free to do it.

#10. This particular blogger hasn't added a whole lot of buttons to her blog, but I do have a button for a poetry book I've put together on blurb. You don't have to buy it (It's great and all, but I know it's expensive for such a small book.) but if you would click over and look at the preview, it would certainly make me feel loved.

So there you have it. It turned into a way to make ME the blogger feel loved, but I'm sure you could apply these principles to any blogger and they would feel loved too. Hey, leave me a comment, and I promise to spread the blogging love around!

Linked to Tuesday's Tip Jar and Top Ten Tuesday.

Easter Recap

We tried the Resurrection buns recipe, but we must have done something wrong (perhaps a little too much help from the kiddos?) and they were too runny. So we opted for a different recipe (marshmallow=body of Christ, butter and cinnamon=spices and oil, and canned crescent rolls=tomb) and they were simple and yummy. (Find that recipe in this post.)

We also used the jelly bean prayer to review the Resurrection story on Saturday after lunch. That went over great!

We did make and use the Resurrection eggs, and the kids really loved them. Everyone loved guessing what would be in the egg, and the oldest was able and willing to read the verses for the family. This was a great Easter devotional for us! I think their favorite eggs were the one with the crackers (for the last supper) and the one with the nail. We talked a long time about the nails in Christ's hands and feet and they brought that egg up after almost every other egg.

We never made the lilies or the bread from this post; I really wanted to, but I either ran out of time or steam! We'll try those next year. I think the lilies would be a good project for a couple of weeks before-hand. Then we could deliver them to friends and neighbors much like we did our Christmas handprint wreaths.

The girls dressed up in matching dresses (thanks Grandma!) and the youngest picked a hat out of the dress-up box. She wouldn't take the hat off the whole morning!

At church we enjoyed a sermon on 1 Corinthians 15:20-25.

But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive. But each one in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, afterward thosewho are Christ’s at His coming. Then comes the end, when He delivers the kingdom to God the Father, when He puts an end to all rule and all authority and power. For He must reign till He has put all enemies under His feet.

In the afternoon we joined my extended family for food, some guitar picking (for non-southerners: this means that we enjoyed live music!), and of course, an Easter egg hunt. There were eggs with chocolate, eggs with change, and real eggs. My kids were thrilled.

I hope everyone had a very happy Easter!