Blogging for Books "God Gave Us So Much"

I have a fellow blogger and friend that posted last month about an opportunity to get free books, and I am all about free books!  Especially when they are ones I can read to my kids.  So, I quickly signed up.  All I have to do is blog a review of the books they send me (I get a list of books to choose from, so it isn't totally random).  If you want to find out more go here.

The book I received first was titled "God Gave Us So Much".  It is a three book collection of the "God Gave Us" books by Lisa Tawn Bergren.  They are based on a polar bear family and the curiosity of a young polar bear cub.  We have the "God Gave Us Christmas" book from this same author and really love it, so I was thrilled when this was in the selection pool.  This book is a must have.  All three stories in this book are fabulous.  They are "God Gave Us The World, Love, and Heaven."  All are very Biblically based, which totally impressed me and written at a level that was fairly easy for my 4 1/2-year-old to understand.  "The World" gave a view on how many different bears there were in this world and how God made them all different.  It talks about how BIG God is and how awesome it is that He was able to create it all.  "Love" talks about how God created all different types of love as well and how we need to love everyone around us even though there are times when we don't feel like loving some people (aka otters in the story).  "Heaven" was my favorite one.  This is such a huge concept for kids to understand, heck it is even hard for adults to understand, but this story does a great job as bringing it down to a simple level.  It doesn't get into too much detail, but is very accurate on what it does say and gives a basic understanding of how you go to heaven and what it might be like there.  It does an excellent job of explaining that you have to know Jesus to get there and uses the "bridge" example of how He makes it possible for us to get to heaven.  I would definitely recommend this book to anyone!

Survived the Sabbatical

Ok so sabbatical isn't the greatest word to describe my 2 week break from the computer, but it made for a catchy title. Anyway, God taught me a lot on my break. #1) How much I can get done when I am not sitting on my butt at the computer. #2) How much I rely on a computer for just about everything. #3) How much social stuff I miss when I am not on FB, but that I really can survive without knowing it all. #4) How I will be changing my computer usage in the future.
#1). Holy buckets! I spend way too much time on the computer. I knew this and knew this was why God put my little hiatus on my heart. I got so much accomplished in the 2 weeks I stayed away from my computer. I have kept my house much cleaner (most of the time), finished some projects that were put on the back burner and played so much more with my kids. It has been great and it will really make me think twice before I plop my butt down on the couch and spend an hour on the computer.
#2)When you are trying not to use something at all, you realize how much you really use it. I look everything up on the computer, I do most of my shopping on the computer, I use it during my quiet times to find definitions and some cross references, I use it for recipes, for banking, for communicating and just about everything else. I must confess. I could not stay completely away for 2 weeks. I did have to check email to keep up with groups I am in that do all their communicating via email and my Pampered Chef business. I also broke my code to do things that my husband asked me to do that required computer and a few other things that saved my family money and time that had time restraints on them. But as for frivolous computer usage and all FB (other than one time that I had to get a phone # off my inbox) I stayed away. But it was crazy how much, whenever I was done with one task and searching for the next to do, I would think "I'll go do a scrapbook page, or look at recipes on Pioneer Woman, or read up on some one's blog." So, when I couldn't do these things that didn't necessarily need to be done I was getting necessary stuff done.
#3) Man, I felt out of the loop for those weeks. I had no clue what friends were up to and what was going on in their lives, but you know what? I survived. It didn't really matter at all and I got to catch up when I saw them next. I have resolved to be on my FB account much less in the future, like only once or twice a day.
#4) I will be using the computer significantly less in the future. I think my little break has really showed my how much I over-used it before and will cause me to be more conscious of how much I use it from here on. I decided it would be a great idea to charge my laptop at night and unplug it in the morning. If I close it between uses the batter should last about an hour and a half. With all computer usage throughout the day, when the battery runs out, I am done. An hour and a half seems like tons of time on the computer and I hope that I don't even require that per day. But I like to scrapbook in the evening after the kids go to bed and that is computer time as well and can take quite a bit of time, so hopefully pre-bedtime usage is closer to 45 minutes.
We'll see how that idea works.

Thinking on a Thursday

2 thoughts today. . .
1. I was having my quiet time this morning with Miss Firecracker at my side since she woke up early, and she made my heart smile. Asking questions the entire time (can't say I got a ton out of my quiet time today, but the following story makes it worth it nonetheless), she inquires about what I am doing? What am I writing? Why do I look up things? Why are your eyes closed? and so on and so forth. Answering all of them to try and teach her about what I am doing: reading my Bible, writing down my verses, looking up meanings of words, I pray with my eyes closed, and on and on for answers. Once I finished answering her questions her reply to the whole thing. . . "When I get big, mommy, I can read my Bible and write too!" Oh sing praises my soul! I pray that you will each and every day!

2. During my prayers this morning the thought about the amount of time I spend on my computer kept coming back to my mind. I kept praying for God to help me focus on my time and words with Him, but all I could think about was my stinkin' computer! Then it hit me like a sack of flour! Duh! He was trying to tell me that was what He wanted me to know. I am spending too much time on my computer! So, as my resolution to this revolution (not that it is all that much of a surprise to me, but I thought that was a pretty catchy saying :) I am signing off my computer until September 1st. No facebook, no blogging, no Pioneer Woman or other blogs, and no scrapbooking. I will have to check my Pampered Chef email as it is a business and I need to make sure I am keeping up with my customers, but I will only check it once each day and only address issues that are necessary. So, if you need me, you'll have to call or text me! Don't worry, I'll keep track of my kiddos in my prayer journal and post 2 blogs about the missed weeks once I return, just in case you are sitting at the edge of your seat wondering about our oh-so-exciting-lives! So, here is to you keeping me accountable. . . I hope you don't catch me on here for12 more days! It is going to be tough! I'll be signing off at noon today so I can let necessary people know how to reach me and tie up some PC ends so I can spend the least amount of time possible on the computer for that in the next 12 days as well.

Not so Savvy

Ok, so I consider myself pretty computer savvy. Not the I-can-fix-anything-wrong-write-a-web-page-get-rid-of-a-virus type of savvy, but I can usually figure most things out and find what I need. I spent a great deal of the last hour trying to figure out how to change my fonts for my blog and got no where. Step-by-step instructions and I can't figure it out. Grrr. It doesn't help that the comparative file that was provided to make sure your web-writing looks like it should won't open up. I think if I could get that working I would be good to go and then I would have some very fun fonts on here to spruce things up. Maybe I'll go searching for some new instructions. . . when I have another free hour. Yeah right!

An Attempt

So, currently I am attempting many new things in my life. . . one being this blog. Not sure what prompted me to start this in the first place. Maybe it was reading all of my friends' blogs and thinking it would be fun, maybe it was reading all the Pioneer Woman's blogs and wishing just a little bit that I could be that cool and funny (yeah right :), but I am hoping that it will accomplish one new thing I am trying in my life as well: to talk about myself less and listen more. I thought maybe if I talked about myself on here, when in conversation with others I would do it less. I am hoping this is the case. You see, one of my Proverbs 31 Ministries email devotionals this week was one of the authors telling her story about how she became so dependent on gaining the approval of others that she lost sight of the only approval that matters - God's. I felt much in her same shoes, so I am going to give it a try myself. So, if you want to hear things about me, you can read them here. I am going to try and talk less and listen more, which will be a challenge cuz I am a talker! There, you have just been made responsible for keeping me accountable to this! ;)
Another new thing is long distance running. In High School all I ever ran were the 100 M dash, 100 M hurdles, 4x1 relay and long jump. . . nothing more than 100 meters! So, now I am training for the 1/2 marathon in Lincoln. That is 13.something miles!! I think I am nuts! Have you seen my legs? Short and stalky, definitely not distance runner legs. But, I'll give it a shot. My goal is to finish, not win! I did start doing quite a big of running after Jeff and I first got married, before kiddos arrived. I never ran more than 5 miles, but I enjoyed it. So, in attempt to get back into shape and lose this disgusting 'stuff' that seems to be hanging out around my midsection after baby #3 I decided to finally start training for the 1/2 Marathon that I had wanted to do for the last 4 years. Tomorrow, however, is my first attempt at "racing" where I will be running the 10 Mile at the State Farm run in Lincoln. It is supposed to RAIN all morning. . . yikes! This could be interesting. Please say a prayer for me. . . I will need it!
And not last and definitely not least (but the last thing I'll drone on about in this post) is the fact that I am attempting to yell at my children less. You see, I have been getting up at 445 am 3 days a week to go run for my training, which means I am tired. This is on top of the fact that my little thumb sucker still gets up usually at least 2 times in the night for a feeding before this time. This means I am even more tired. . . and when I am tired, I am crabby. I was telling a friend that I am glad my kids are too young to be able to have a good memory of this time in the future. Cuz if they did it would surely be the memory that they started with, "Remember that time that mom was training for the 1/2 marathon? Man, she was always so crabby." Thus, I am trying to control my crabbiness and temper that seems to flare when I am sleep deprived. Pray for me about this too! This week has gone well, with the exception of Tuesday. Tuesdays seem to be the worst for me for some reason.
OK that's enough for today. . . have a good one!

New At This

Well, I suppose I'll just get started. Perhaps by explaining how I picked my blog name? Not too much to it. . . right now in my life I am just where I want to be, and acutally just where I thought I would be. You see, I turn the big 3-0 this year and it really doesn't bother me (OK, so maybe I have given thought to investing in some kind of anti-wrinkle cream for under my eyes lately, so if you have any good suggestions send them my way, but other than that I am good :). I always said I went to college for a MRS degree with a minor in MOM and I totally succeeded. (In fact this very day is the 10 year anniversary of my husband's and my first date.) I got married just out of college to a cowboy (go figure) and we now have 3 wonderful children. I also always said I wanted to be done having kids by the time I was 30, another thing accomplished. I am very happy with my 3 wonderful children and want no more. (Remind me I said that in a year when my baby is no longer a baby and I get the 'itch' again!) So, there you have it, just where I want to be. Now, where I want to be in my next 30 years. . . haven't given that much thought! Where I want to be at this very second? In Bed! Since my youngest is not yet 5 months old, I am training for a 1/2 marathon and my almost 4 yr old is deciding to give up naps, sleep is a rare thing for this almost 30-yr-old mom and I think I will try to go get a few hours before the babe awakes!