Second Installment of "From the Mouths of Babes"

On the third day of school, while on the way to drop the kids off, the following conversation took place:

Ashlyn: (giddy with excitement) "Today I'm going to get to play with play dough and color and Mommy I'm so excited to go to school again today"

Caleb: (frowning and not sharing in his sisters enthusiasm) "Ashlyn, when you turn 6, school is not going to be fun anymore! Then it's ALL work".

Me: (smiling and thinking to myself, "Son, you have no idea how much work is ahead of you")

From the mouths of babes...

I love when one of the kids says something that I remember and can later blog about it.

This morning on the way to school the following conversation took place:

Caleb: Mom, in 2 days I'll be off from school for 2 whole weeks!

Me: Yes, and Daddy will be off from work most of that time too!

Caleb: (with much enthusiasm) Alright! So Daddy will not have to work for 2 weeks and I don't have to do schoolwork for 2 weeks. But Mom, you still have to clean.

Sigh.....yes, that's right. Cleaning is never ending. Oh wait, being a Mom is never ending too, and housework.....but you wanna know a secret just between us, (between me and who ever reads, and Tim knows this too by the way, so really it's no secret at all)? I probably won't do much cleaning during those 2 weeks with exception to keeping dishes clean and clothes washed and dried. ;) Hey! what? Mom's need a break too, ya know!

Soapbox time...

Recently we have had some friends, close friends and long time friends, whose Christian marriages have just fallen apart. Friends that have been married for 5+ years and some who've been married for 15+ years. Some have been scriptural and some have not. I can't express how much this saddens me and makes me mad at the same time. I don't understand how people forget the promises they made - to love and cherish one another in good times AND in bad times, in health AND in sickness. Why is it that so many people, Christians included, forget about the latter of those two promises? It's like they use that argument of "well I just can't handle this hard time" as a "get out of jail free card" or something and somehow justify in their own minds that it's even okay to separate for long periods of time because of it.

We have to protect our marriages against the attitude of the world - that it's okay to get out of a marriage if you just can't get along. I once heard a confidant and mentor of mine say to just erase the word "divorce" from your vocabulary. It's not even an option - ever. Now, I'm not saying that GOD doesn't give us that option from scriptures because I know HE does, however, I believe it should still be a very last resort even when it is scriptural - I mean, if you think about it from the standpoint of saving someones soul.....

The same mentor of mine also told me once when I was engaged that if I ever felt like I was "falling out of love" with Tim that I'd better learn to love again. After all, that is what GOD commands of us as husbands and wives, to agape our spouse. Agape love is a choice we make. It's not the pitter patter of the heart. I don't think many young people getting married today realize that.

I want to see Christian marriages restored and to see people fighting for their relationships. We have to fight for our marriage against Satan before we hit a hard time in our marriage. We have to prepare for those hard times during the good times. It's so vital to the success of our marriages.

Some books come to mind in addition to daily reading in the scriptures. The first is one that Tim and I read early on in our marriage after seeing this guy at a seminar. It's called The 5 Love Languages by Gary Chapman. What a great book! Learning the love languages of your spouse will help stop the argument of "I just don't feel like they love me". When we learn how to love each other the way that person needs it - not the way we think they do, then we will save ourselves a lot of heartache.

The other book I haven't read yet, however it has been highly recommended by other Christians I know. It's called Every Man's Battle by Stephen Arterburn and Fred Stoeker. It's about winning the war on sexual temptation. I'm told that it's a good book to read by both men and women - especially when you are married. There are also other books in the series - Every Woman's Battle; Preparing your Son for Every Man's Battle; Preparing your Daughter for Every Woman's Battle; Every Young Man's Battle; Every Young Woman's Battle.

Other great books: Captivating - for women; and Wild at Heart for men.

I just want to see more Christians being more proactive to protect their marriages against Satan. How can we expect to win if we aren't preparing for the fight?

Give new things a try...

I had an idea (with the guidance of an acquaintance who had done it before) to host a Holiday Trunk Show featuring several home based businesses. My small idea (with only 2 others besides myself) grew into an event with 17 booths of different home based businesses. Below are pictures from this event, which took place last night:

The Greeting and Registration Table:

Gypsy Basket Booth:

Partylite booth:

Taste of Home Entertaining booth:

Premier Designs Jewelry booth (that's me in the back):

A friend who paints (no business name yet):

Juice Plus booth:

Designs by Kerri booth:

Personalized Door Signs booth:

Castles & Crowns booth:

Others not pictured:

Pampered Chef booth

Tupperware booth

Stampin' Up booth

Mary Kay booth

Elizabeth Grace Designs booth

Southern Living at Home booth

The Traveling Boutique booth

Creative Memories and Placemat Purses booth

I think over all it was a success. Several of my sellers made a great profit while others made very little profit. Some profited in a different way, by making new contacts or booking home shows or gathering business prospects. Everyone had a great time and seemed to have fun.

My final analysis is that I'm not sure I'll plan another event like this - it took a lot of work and money to put it together. I wasn't one of the sellers who had high financial profits from this event. In my business home shows are the most profitable avenue and so I'll continue with that. I am thankful though that I followed through with the idea, because you never know until you try something. And I might reconsider after I recover from this one. Most of the sellers asked for me to remember them if I do it again and I gathered about 6 or 7 additional sellers of home based businesses who I met after planning this event that I could add.

With the economy low, try this in your area if you have a home based business. Get out there and be active and give new things a try!

Hospital visit

This past week Ashlyn got sick. It started much the same as when Caleb was sick the week before. She became hoarse and then began coughing. It wasn't until Sunday night though that we became concerned for her. Her breathing became very labored and by Monday morning she was struggling to take breaths.

So we made our way to the first open appointment with our pediatrician Monday morning. She had croup just like Caleb had, but only more severe. Dr. M did a breathing treatment and gave her a steroid shot and told me that if her breathing became like that again to call him and he would admit her into the hospital.

All was going well until about 30 minutes after she woke up from her nap. She began coughing and her breathing was labored again. So off we went to the hospital.

We spent 2 nights and 3 days there. Day #2 was the worst because of having to give medicine via her IV. She had the most breathing treatments that day as well. Here are some pictures from our trip.

This second picture was before she had an IV put in her hand. She was a super big girl and didn't cry much thanks to Nurse Lacy and her distractions while 2 other nurses put the IV in.

We are so thankful to be home again and to have Ashlyn well!

Picasa, Photoshop, etc...

I don't know much at all about the different programs that you can use to touch up pictures, such as Picasa or Photoshop - both of which I have and use. But what little I do know can help a great deal in making a good picture look even better.

For instance, this was a favorite of mine from my trip with Ashlyn to the park. This is the straight out of the camera shot. So sweet isn't it? But a tad dark and missing some spark.

This is the same picture after having touched it up a bit using Picasa. First I did the auto contrast and auto color. Then I added a little highlight to the picture. Next I sharpened it and finally I added a soft glow around the edges.

I'm going to try playing around with this picture in Photoshop but I am even less sure of what I'm doing while in there, so I'm not posting about that one just yet.

Tea Party Invitation Pictures

Ashlyn is soon to have her 5th birthday party in 2 weeks. We are having a tea party. The other day she and I went to the park to take pictures with some props for our invitations - which are in the shape of tea pots.

This first picture was the winning choice. These are all straight out of the camera shots - so no tweaking has been done to them yet, though I let the machine at CVS do a few things for me to brighten up the printed version.

These next few were all 2nd favorites, but something wasn't quite right enough with them - such as the shadow across her face, even when tinted to Sepia - since I realize it's a pink hat, blue dress and purple chair - in the Sepia tone the colors didn't exactly matter.

I took about 35 pictures and thankfully got the 1 shot that I just adored. We had fun, despite the heat and are pleased with the final result of the invitation.