I’m also at (in)courage today vlogging my heart out…and dishing about the day I didn’t brush my daughters hair. {ahem.}

I have a fun little something for you today!

As you know, I’m an OpenSky junkie…um, er, shopkeeper. I heart what OpenSky is all about, and I loooove that they are always hooking us up with fantabulous promotions to pass on to our readers!

My latest favorite thing is the EnviTote…oh how I heart thee.  My mother is a witness, I use this bad boy all.the.time (library books, toys, picnics, UPS drops, etc.)  Here’s my little demonstration of the EnviTote (yes, I know, I use “um” way too much):

Ya’ll, look at how much the EnviTote holds (no squished bread!):

Kath even showed me that you can carry a CROCKPOT in an EnviTote.  HOLLA!

Now that I’ve clearly shown my love for the EnviTote, let me now share with you another fave...a constant companion through thick and thin in the land of dirty dishes and housework…

Ah yes, the Flirty apron. Isn’t she beautiful?

She beckons to you. I know.

So here’s why I’m telling you about these favorites of mine, these staples in my everyday living:

Today through Friday you can get the EnviTote and a Flirty apron for 10% off each…

AND

whoever buys an EnviTote gets entered to win a FREE Flirty apron and whoever buys a Flirty apron gets entered to win a FREE EnviTote! Isn’t that fun?! I’m all about fun.

There are only 30 EnviTote’s available for this promotion, so GET ON IT if you’re wanting one!  :)

The winners will be announced on Monday.

Discount code for the EnviTote: TOTE10 Buy Here.

Discount code for the Flirty apron: APRON10 Buy Here.

Happy Shopping!

I also heart me some Marie-Madeline!  Fab.U.Lous. (ad)

People have been asking me lately if I would give them some tips for having a successful Twitter party.  I’m no pro, but I’ll share what I’ve learned!

10 Tips for Hosting a Successful Twitter Party

• Have tweets, with your hashtag, prepared in advance and in the order you plan to tweet them (welcome tweets, introductions, links, giveaway pics, etc.) – make sure they are under 140 characters (less is better so people can RT). You are still “free tweeting” but you have the prepared ones ready to go so you can keep the party flowing smoothly.
• Prep your team and sponsors well so everyone is in the loop!
• Make sure everyone on your team knows to keep an eye on their DM’s so you all can communicate privately during the party if need be.
• Have a theme for the party – think of things people are interested in (what would you want to talk about on Twitter?).
• Ask an “expert” or two on your theme to be on hand to answer questions – give the experts a gift and openly praise them.
• Have a post dedicated to the party with all the details regarding the party (include hosts twitter handles). Example here.
• Tweetchat is my favorite tool during a Twitter party, but Tweet Grid and Tweetdeck also work well.
• Start promoting the party a few days in advance – tweet link to party details post.
• Give a prize away every 10 minutes for duration of the party.
• Engage with people and HAVE FUN!

What tips would you add? What would make you want to come to a Twitter party?

This post is linked up with Top Ten Tuesday!

Related Articles:

What is a Twitter Party?

Twitter Parties for Newbies

Twitter Jail

For your next Twitter party, offer one of these lovely bags – it will be a hit!  (ad)

Moms, I have a wee little tip for you regarding your sweet little girls and modesty.

Put shorts under their skirts and dresses.

Such a simple way to protect their little heiny’s from random eyes.

Little girls like to run and jump and roll on the floor, and their cute little dresses come right on up.  Sometimes, in their innocence, they hold up their dresses/skirts for all the world to see.

But you don’t want the world to see, right?

So grab some shorts and make it a habit.  It just might stick with them.

:)

(I use biker type shorts that are tighter because loose shorts don’t cover well at all.)

This post was originally posted last summer, but I deem appropriate to post again as the weather warms.

The custom tessa bloomers are perfection in modest apparel for young girls!  (ad)

The new episode of “How Do I Grow My Blog” is up!  Watch it here!

Wouldn’t this be perfect for a little girl’s dress?!  (ad)

I camera stalked her.

I talked A LOT, had dirty hair, a sweatshirt on, and ate greesy mozerella sticks in front of her…while talking a lot.

She remained cool.

She smiled.

She didn’t pretend to have an “escape” phone call when I told her a story about enemas.

She is my “for real” bloggy friend.

Meet Michelle.  She takes pictures of the Amish on rollerblades and wears funky scarves with sass.

I love her.

I’m going to keep her.

Thanks for not turning out not to be a psycho killer.

I might, perhaps, stalk these ladies some day…because they create such fabulousness!!!!!  (ad)

Today’s post is by Tiffany from A Moment Cherished (and contributor to the up-coming Raising Homemakers). Tiffany is a hero to me…you will see why. As you read her words today, hear her heart and consider joining the beat…

A warm cup of coffee… a nice plush couch… and a well written book…

Stories of adventures to faraway lands… Tales of someone else’s great calling… Pages chronicling struggles, failures, heartaches, and victories…

…all while I am snuggled on the couch, enjoying my warm cup of coffee… That’s my kind of journey… Safe at home with smooth roads, and me, blended into the background, serving behind the scenes, and definitely not rocking the boat!

Then God inserted my husband and me into the story… no more safety… no more smooth roads… I am in the midst of a Dramatic Thriller… looking to rescue my child from halfway around the world. I am not reading it on some abstract pages this time – I am living it.

This because, my husband and I have recently discovered God’s passion for orphans, and we are taking James 1:27 A religion that is pure and stainless according to God the Father is this: to take care of orphans and widows who are suffering, and to keep oneself unstained by the world to heart.

God has opened our eyes, softened our hearts, and turned our faces towards Ethiopia. With everything in us, we know that we have a child in Ethiopia who needs to be rescued. My arms ache for this baby I have never seen, for the baby God has grown just as tightly into my heart, as He grew my other two children into my womb. This weighs heavy on our hearts as we face the mountain of paperwork and the Goliath of not having enough money. Adoption is expensive, and we have stepped out in faith, without the money in our pockets, trusting and believing that God will provide because His heart is for orphans.

Do I think everyone is called to the ministry of adoption? No. But I do think every Christian can make a difference in the life of an orphan or a widow. For some it may look like sponsoring a child, for some sending money to orphanages, for others it might manifest as supporting widow-care, for some adopting, and for a few supporting those that are adopting.

Which leads me to the purpose of this post… To humbly beg of you to help me rescue my child…Imagine if this were your child trapped in another country, cared for by someone other that yourself…

To help raise awareness and funds, we are hosting a few fundraisers. I am really excited about our coffee fundraiser through Just Love coffee. My husband and I are coffee purists – some might even label us as coffee snobs. We grind our own beans every morning, we prefer high end coffees, we only enjoy the beautiful, hot elixir in its naked form – black. {grin} So as you can imagine, we were delighted to find out that the birthplace of coffee is Ethiopia! We were also excited to discover a lovely organization that has a heart for orphans and sells really great coffee. We have partnered together with Just Love coffee and set up a store where anyone can purchase products. A percentage of each sale goes directly to our adoption fund, and a percentage goes towards an orphanage in Ethiopia.

Our family is requesting that if you normally purchase coffee for your family, and if you feel the desire, would you please purchase your coffee here? If you are not a coffee drinker (is there really such a person?!) could you pass our link on to someone who is? By drinking a mug of this coffee you are helping to fulfill the command in James 1:27.

“…once our eyes are opened, we can’t pretend we don’t know what to do. God who weighs our hearts and keeps our souls, knows that we know, and holds us responsible to act.” Proverbs 24:12

To follow more of our journey you are welcome here.

______________________________________________________________

Be still my heart…ruffle aprons…found here (ad)

Well friends, I’ve decided that I need to release the 5:16 club; I just do not have the time to organize and lead it properly. I’m so sorry!

There is good news though!

The lovely soul Courtney from Women Living Well has a wonderful group going that is super organized – Good Morning Girls! Find all the information you need here.

What exactly is a Good Morning Girl?  Watch this:

Courtney is the perfect person to lead such groups because she is faithful, consistent, and organized. You will be incredibly blessed by her.

Check this awesomeness out…

“homeschoolers scored 34-39 percentile points higher than the norm on standardized achievement tests.”*

“…whether or not parents were teacher-certified had no impact on these high scores.”*

Did you know that an average of $9,963 is spent per public school student? Homeschoolers who had under $600 spent on them still scored 30+ percentile points above public schoolers!*

I have no idea what the Lord has led your family to do in regard to education, but those stats are pretty encouraging to me as a homeschool mama!

You know what is the most important thing to me though?  Reaching my children’s hearts so they can reach the heart of others for Jesus.

Here are some of the resources I’m saving up for in order to plant love seeds and encourage an education for the soul (kindergarten):

My Father’s World (some of it for my 3yo and some for my soon-to-be 5yo)

Polished Cornerstones

The Put-On Chart

For Instruction in Righteousness

The If-Then Chart

A Little Princess in the Making

A Little Hero in the Making

Little Keepers at Home

Character Sketches Volume 1

First Catechism

I Heard Good News Today

Can You Find Me? Building Thinking Skills…

Addition Songs – learning math through song is so much more fun then workbooks!

Math on the Level - learning math through real-life activities – all the way up through pre-algebra!

TATRAS – vertical reading program

Sonlight Read-aloud list (I’ll get them from the library)

Art books (from the library)

A different composer each month (CD’s from library)

I heart the Charlotte Mason philosophy of education, so we will be learning through life, enjoying one another, reading great books, and inserting education where my babes are ready and interested.

Recommended Resource:  The Children of Caesar – Whoever controls the schools control the world – Very informative and thought-provoking talk on education!

What resources are you using to educating your babes?

*Taken from the HSLDA Homeschool Progress Report 2009

Unique and practical bag patterns – vintage and modern styles to choose from! Find them here! (ad)

The fire in my heart for home educating burns once again.

I attended my very first homeschool conference this past weekend and I LOVED IT!!!!!!!!!  I was only able to be there for a few hours, but be still my heart, I’m even more in love with home educating then I was before.  I love that I can form my child’s education (tailored just for their little personalities and bents), that I can instill in them a biblical worldview in all we learn about – that we can find God in each “subject,” and that we can just enjoy studying and learning and loving God together!

During my conference go-round, I may or may not have stalked the Vision Forum booth, was introduced to an incredible mentor program, learned about a whole new way of learning math, found out about a lovely little site full of gems, got to hear this amazing family speak, collected so many catelogs (that I have been gloriously pouring over) I could barely walk straight, and soaked up every bit of the graciousness that God bestowed upon me in placing the desire to home educate in my and my husband’s hearts.

I will share tomorrow more of the incredible resources I plan to use in educating my babes, but for today I wanted to share some of my notes from the “Raising Children for Mighty Works” session held by the Mally’s.

My Notes

How Do We Win Our Children’s Hearts?

• Be on their side – be their ally
• Trust them – give them the benefit of the doubt
• Enjoy being with them
• Guard against bitterness – resolve problems
• Communicate
• Take the humble position
• Treat your children as partners (love this!)
• Discern hurt and show compassion
• Be easy to please
• Try to please them
• Give teaching so you think alike
• Pray with them

Having Vision:

• Know what you are preparing for (let your kids know what they are preparing for) Ephesians 2:10 “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”  How Do We Prepare? Seek first the kingdom in education!
• Develop life messages that God has given you – how have you seen His hand in your life – what are you stories?  What stories are you going to share one day in heaven?
• Pray that God would build into you and your children godly convictions
• Bring forth fruit that is eternal

*God wants us to do works that are humanly impossible to do!

Five Goals For Home Educating:

1. Wisdom – the world can’t give this
2. Godliness – the world can’t give this
3. Knowledge – the world can only partly give this
4. Skills
5. Ministry – all the goals are for ministry – everything we do is so we can be better equipped for the kingdom of God

Some extra tid-bits that stood out to me (in no particular order):

• Use your skills/talents for the kingdom of God – don’t get distracted!
• Memorize portions and/or books of the bible instead of just verses (my family is learning Psalm 1 together)
• Focus on ministry projects together rather then getting through school books – things that last
• Know the basics of creation science
• Seek wise influences – use a lot of biographies in your home educating
• Start serving others ASAP – don’t wait, take initiative and do it
• Be skilled in evangelism (they recommended reading The One Thing You Can’t Do in Heaven)
• What parents want for their children: Philippians 2:15 “so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe.”

I am bursting with anticipation of our home educating journey, and I look forward to giving you glimpses of my family’s heart for home school in the process.

Tomorrow I’m going to post some interesting facts on homeschooling and a few more resources!  :)

Don’t you just want to buy from Marie-Madeline Studios because the ladies behind it are so wonderful?! You think I’m kidding?  Read about them here and you will fall in love like I have!  (ad)

Someone asked me this the other day:  “How do you do it? Homeschool, enjoy kids, house in order, hubby taken care of AND amazing blogs/social media?”

Let me shatter the myth right now.

I don’t do it.

I don’t do it all well and something at some point will have to give (either that, or my time management skills will have to drastically improve).

I start officially home teaching in September when my daughter turns 5 (although not intensely), and so things will have to change at that point.  My thoughts/heart/talents must turn towards home or I will regret these very short years.

Let me also say this, I don’t always enjoy my kids (but I want to), my house is DEFINITELY not always in order (heh), and my husband, well, let’s just say I could take care of him a lot better.

I’m just figuring it all out.  One.Day.At.A.Time.

By the way, if you don’t believe me, ask this gal, she knows me in real life. :)

Now, I will tell you something I AM good at…Rockin’ the Mini-van (thanks to Amanda, I swiped this from her blog):

If you want to discuss this whole comparing thing more, join in the conversation here.

So much goodness here! Recipes, giveaways, and all around wonderful! (ad)