Timely tips

Great lists worth perusing, especially this time of year!

Clutter-Free Gift Ideas

Traveling With Children

Our soon-to-be-6-year-old niece is having a birthday party Saturday. She really doesn't need a thing! So I've about decided to subscribe to a magazine for her. I think she would like that. Probably Clubhouse, Jr. from Focus on the Family would be my first choice, but I'm pretty sure they already get that. I looked at Ladybug but it was something like $40 a year! That's way too much! So the other option I found was Your Big Back Yard. I've seen that before. Lots of colorful animal photos. It's only $15 for 12 issues, so I'll probably go with that. I can't really think of any other Christian magazine for young kids. She is one of 5 children. Maybe I'll subscribe to magazines for all of them for their birthdays this coming year. Kids love to get mail! At least, mine do! I never know what to get these kids, so maybe this is the answer.

Ramblin'

I love having a laptop! I took it along to the library today... and I can hop online there! The connection seems slower than home. I wonder if it has anything to do with how far I am sitting from the main frame computer or something. I'm on the computer all the time, but I really have very little idea of how it works.

The kids are attending Homeschool Hour at the library today. I love having the hour to relax in the library. I could live in the library!

After we get done here I need to find some place that sells tempra or poster paint in relatively large quantities. I don't need gallons, but I do need more than the tiny little bottles in the school supply department at Wal Mart. The youth group will be making sets for the Christmas program on Saturday. Several of the boys are pretty good artists. I want to just assign them a backdrop to paint and turn them loose with it to see what they come up with. I think that will be fun for them... and good for them! Wonder if Michael's carries big bottles of paint? I'll check there first.

The Crown of Eden by Thomas Williams

"...nothing we do can destroy the order and beauty of the master tapestry. Each of us is given a thread and a pattern for its weaving. We are utterly free to weave our thread either by the pattern or in defiance of it. But regardless of how we weave it, we will always find that our thread has been anticipated. You may even choose to leave your thread unwoven, but if you do, there will be no gap in the fabric. You will find that another has already been laid down to take its place and the resulting design will be the one orginally planned. It is inevitable."

"...Adam's Eden was not just a place of beauty; it was a place of decision. It is as true for you as it was for him: Eden can be retained with the right choice or lost with the wrong one."

"The choices you make within the next few months will shake thrones and move armies. But you should not count that as exceptional. Every man and woman born, if they only knew it, make decisions and commit acts daily with consequences that spread like ripples through time, working untold effects on the shape of the future for generations to come."

Reflections

Memoirs of a Middle-Aged Housewife... a book just waiting to be written. Sounds riveting, doesn't it?

I've recently been reflecting over the "seasons" of my life as I have been helping a friend plan her high school graduation. So many twists and turns over the past 20 years... but I am so grateful that God has been with me every step of the way! Sometimes 20/20 hindsight can actually be encouraging!

Never enough time...