S Club Mama

Welcome Heather from Shutterfly! Thanks for hanging out at the S Club. While I'm hanging out with my mom and sisters at the College World Series, enjoy her vision for Kitchen Remodeling! It seems everyone is on the do it yourself (DIY) kick lately, thanks to home remodeling television shows and social networking sites such as Pinterest. Why not jump on the bandwagon and remodel your kitchen? The kitchen is a central gathering place in the home, where food brings people together. But remodels are hefty in price, right? Not necessarily.  In fact, it’s completely possible to do a budget-friendly kitchen remodel , but you need to set the highest amount of money you’re willing to spend and stick to it. Make sacrifices in certain areas and prioritize what you really want the most. For example, are granite countertops most important to you? Get those and buy blank appliances instead of the typically-more-expensive stainless steel. If something is really essential, splurg...

the kids are already asking to go back to the zoo and aquarium. And they say aquarium so darling! Yuck yuck yuck. Not a fan of snakes but I definitely like their glass boxes! Squirt was just laughing at this squirrel who was all over the place. Kindred spirits those two. (mostly) annual ape hand pictures Moose is recently experiencing legs that fall asleep during shoulder rides. Hilarious. He acts like he can't walk for awhile. :) I love the butterfly pavillion! The penguins were the boys' favorite parts. I think we could have only visited this and they would be just fine. mostly annual penguin pictures Can you find Nemo? until next time zoo! Keep it wild!

Yesterday, Anthony & I were baptized at church. To clarify a few things - Anthony was baptized as a baby, I in 8th grade. His was not his choice (of course) and mine was really out of fear of hell. In the denomination in which we were raised, it's believed that you must be baptized to be saved. We believe differently now. We believe that salvation comes from knowing that Jesus Christ paid for your sins on the cross with his own blood. Baptism is an outward confession of that faith. We have both been following the Lord for almost 10 years and were really convicted the past few weeks to be baptized. We were blessed to have our friend Cale baptize us; he's played such a large role in strengthening our faiths and has become one of our best friends. And then our boys were there to watch us (usually they'd be in children's church); that was really special to me. Squirt is still pretty young and may not have this as a long-term memory (but he kept talking about how ...

The title of "Confessions of a Raging Perfectionist: Learning to be Free" by Amanda Jenkins really resonated with me. I have been dealing with pride issues for a few months now and I was told that perfectionism is a symptom of pride. I was thankful for the opportunity to review this book. image via Amazon.com I have NEVER read a more convicting, real book. Jenkins is amazingly open with her struggles with vanity, money, recognition, relationships, parenthood, plans, pride, testimony, obedience, Diet Coke, and happiness on her journey toward freedom. I am a little ashamed to say that I equally share those same struggles with her in virtually every.single.way (except Diet Coke but I have my own to take its place). Please, please read this first chapter of the book!! I cannot tell you how convicted I was during the entirety of this book. My copy is marked from front to back with arrows, underlines, outlines, stars! In the vanity chapter, she talks about beauty and how ...

And the winner of the We Choose Virtues giveaway (picked by random.org) is.... Tiffany Faith! I will be sending you an email and will need to hear from you within 48 hours to collect your prize of a Kids' Kid from We Choose Virtues! True Random Number Generator Min:   Max:   Result: 12 Powered by  RANDOM.ORG Thank you to all who entered!

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of the American Cancer Society. Those are fighting words (pun intended). Cancer is no something to be silent about or to sit idly by and watch people die from. Not that everyone can be a doctor or medical professional or scientist, but we can help! The American Cancer Society (which turns 100 on May 22, 2013 - happy birthday, ACS) is going to start this really aggressive and historic research study: Cancer Prevention Study-3 (CPS-3). It's going to help us understand how to prevent cancer, which will save so many lives. They have this goal of 300,000 adults from every racial/ethnic background from everywhere in the US by the end of 2013 (and you know how fast years go by). My Grandma Kay had ovarian cancer. She died of complications of numerous things, that being one of them. That affects me every day. I don't get to write my grandma letters or call her on the phone to tell her about Moose and Squirt or my running. She n...

I almost think I needed this Kids Kit from We Choose Virtues almost as much as my sons. I mean, check out this list: patience, kindness, obedience, diligence, forgiving, attentive, etc. I have such problems with patience and attentive (anyone else get distracted by stuff online?)! So I know that it's important to teach these virtues to my children, too (and learn alongside them). Jesus was patient, forgiving, obedient, diligent, forgiving, attentive, self-controlled, content, etc. We are supposed to imitate Jesus and so I thought this was a good way to help me teach them how to do that. image from the WCV website Like I said, I reviewed the Kids Kit. It came with a Kids Virtue Poster (that tells all of the virtues & sayings that go along with them), one Fan Poster (your choice; a large poster that shows one virtue and saying), Virtues Clues & a clear acrylic card holder (business card sized cards with one virtue per card), "I'm a Virtue Kid" button, The...