Family

  • Creative Kids: Random Notes of Love

    Cute little surprise note!

    On one of our trips this year the girls hid a note in my backpack.  I love finding fun notes from my girls.  So who do you think put this note in my bag?  If you guessed Brina you are correct!  Jake got one in his backpack from Karlie.  It’s the little stuff like this that makes me so thankful for my sweet girls!

    Sweet note hidden in Daddy’s backpack!

  • Family Activities: Date Night Wish Lists

    Found one of Brina’s Date Night Wish lists from earlier this year!

    Jake and I try to routinely go on a Date Night with the girls.  He’ll take one out and I will take the other girl out on a Date.  Sometimes we’ll ask them to write out a list of some fun activities they would like to do during Date Night.  As I was going back over some things I came across these two lists from earlier in the year.  They made me smile reading them and remembering all the fun memories.  Many of the activities are free they just require some extra time and attention.

    Karlie’s Date Night Wish List for her Date with Daddy

    We like to request these lists every few months because it gives us a good idea of what is important to our kids.  So often we think the big elaborate activities are the most fun but after talking with them and reading their lists sometimes they would rather sit down and read a book with you, look through the telescope, picnic in the park, play ball, go look at animals at the pet store, or even a trip to the library.  Just reading these lists again make me thankful for my girls and the little activities that make an big impact on their hearts and lives.  Spending time together one-on-one and as a family is more important then all the trinkets in the world.  These date nights are priceless memories that have opened up many wonderful conversations with our girls.  They always look forward to their special date nights!

    Do you plan one-on-one time with your children? If so what activities do you enjoy doing together?

  • Intentional Living: Weekly Goals

    Our family was able to spend some time with extended family over the last couple weeks.  It was nice catching up with many people and creating new memories.  Now that we are back home everyone is trying to get back on the regular schedule.  Before long the kids will be back in school so we want to make sure we are prepared for that as well as enjoy our last few weeks of summer break together. I am hoping to get caught up on a few goals this week.

    Last week’s goals:

    Family Goals

    1. Read regularly to the girls and have them read to me
    2. Participate in at least 2 fun Summer Activities with the Kids
    3. Plan out the Girls “Swim Into Reading” Summer Reading Goal (total 2,000 Reading minutes) Grand Prize for Completion
    4. Spend time with extended family – spent time in both Kansas and Colorado over the last 3 weeks

    Personal Goals

    1. Spend extra time catching up and making memories with my extended family

    Home Management Goals

    1. Check in with the person coming by and check on the house / pets while we are away

    Business Goals

    1. Work on ideas for upcoming blog posts
    2. Keep up with the day to day items that need my attention
    3. Work on projects with the family business

    Ministry Goals

    1. Meet a friend or family member for Breakfast or Lunch

    Financial Goals

    1. Stay within Budget on Groceries $40 for 4
    2. Emergency Fund – save 6 months worth of living expenses – temporarily on hold
    3. Car Fund – save money for another vehicle to replace the one that was totaled – working on it
    4. College Fund – put cash aside for 1 year of Jake’s College Classes – temporarily on hold until we get a new vehicle

    My goals for the upcoming week:

    Family Goals

    1. Read regularly to the girls and have them read to me
    2. Participate in at least 2 fun Summer Activities with the Kids
    3. Plan out the Girls “Swim Into Reading” Summer Reading Goal (total 2,000 Reading minutes) Grand Prize for Completion
    4. Spend time with extended family

    Personal Goals

    1. Exercise at least 5 days this week
    2. Pick out my next book to read

    Home Management Goals

    1. All laundry for the week washed, folded, and put away in one day
    2. Weekly Dinner Menu & Schedule planned out for the week
    3. Work on My Summer Organizational Schedule
    4. Pack for upcoming trip
    5. Pay all upcoming bills

    Business Goals

    1. Work on ideas for upcoming blog posts
    2. Keep up with the day to day items that need my attention
    3. Work on projects with the family business

    Ministry Goals

    1. Meet a friend or family member for Breakfast or Lunch

    Financial Goals

    1. Stay within Budget on Groceries $40 for 4
    2. Emergency Fund – save 6 months worth of living expenses
    3. Car Fund – save money for another vehicle to replace the one that was totaled
    4. College Fund – put cash aside for 1 year of Jake’s College Classes

    I think it is important to share and encourage each other as we seek to improve our lives and the lives of those around us.  I want to live intentionally not just hope all my dreams and goals come true.  When I focus on small steps of improvement I am able to see results as I get closer to my goals.  Some weeks I get closer to the goals I have in my life and other weeks a take a few steps back (life happens, emergencies occur, people get sick).  Once the goals are written down and shared it provides a guideline for what I aim to accomplish this week.

    Why Share My Goals?

    • To keep me accountable
    • To share a piece of my life with you as I strive to be a better Child of God, Wife, Mom, Friend, Homemaker, Entrepreneur and the many other roles I have each week
    • To have my goals consistently written down so I can gauge progress more accurately
    • Create healthy habits in my life
    • To encourage you to share your goals with me as you continue to grown and learn

    How did you do this week on your goals?  Feel free to share or link to your list of weekly goals.

    The picture above is one that I created for my own purposes, however, The “SMART” acronym was originally coined 30 years ago by Peter Drucker in his classic work, Management by Results.

  • Recipe: Fresh Blueberry Muffins

    Fresh Blueberries

    A couple weeks ago the girls and I went over to a friends house to pick blueberries.  I was really impressed with how dedicated the girls were to picking the blueberries with me.  They had a blast picking the blueberries, washing them and of course helping us eat them.  The kids loved eating the fresh blueberries and helped me make homemade blueberry muffins, blueberry smoothies, and more goodies with the fresh blueberries.

    When we picked the blueberries we used a beach bucket to store them in while we are picking because it had a handle.  When we got home we rinsed the blueberries, and laid them out on racks to dry out (see picture below) before bagging and putting them in the freezer.

    Fresh blueberries drying out after being rinsed

    You don’t want to store fresh blueberries in an tight container all today, especially if you are leaving it on the kitchen counter for awhile because they will go bad.  The blueberries, much like some people, need a little bit a space between them and the next one to breath.

    Homemade Blueberries Muffins (made with the fresh blueberries we picked together)

    I am so thankful for a sweet friend who let us come over and pick blueberries.  The blueberries have been a huge hit in our house and it was great having a chance to pick and catch up at the same time.  Blueberries are very healthy for you and this is the time of year to get stock up on some either picking them yourselves or getting them on sale at the store.

    Fresh Blueberry Muffin Recipe:

    • 1 cup fresh Milk
    • 1/2 cup Oil
    • 1 Egg
    • 2 cups Flour
    • 2/3 cup Sugar
    • 3 teaspoons Baking Powder
    • 1 teaspoon Salt
    • 1 cup Fresh Blueberries

    Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Grease a 12 muffin cup pan.  Mix flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt together and create a well in the center.  Put milk, oil and egg in bowl and blend well.  Add the moist items to the flour mixture and stir until moistened.  Fold in the fresh blueberries and spoon into muffin cups. Bake 15 to 20 minutes.  Remove from oven butter the tops of the muffins and sprinkle with sugar in the raw crystals.

     

  • Organized Chaos: Health & Medical Supplies

    Organizing Our Health & Medical Supplies

    Do you ever open the medicine cabinet for a bandaid or to get Tynenol for a child’s fever or something else and either everything falls out of the cabinet or you cannot locate the one item you need?  I love to get items on sale, clearance, or with a coupon but it is usually not reasonable to stuff everything in the same cupboard in the kitchen and hope that you can find it when you need it.  You don’t want any health or medical items somewhere young children can get ahold of it, it’s not food so the pantry isn’t really a great option either.  Since all the items don’t need to be in the cupboard at once (do you really need 2 to 5 boxes of the same bandaids in the cupboard all at one time) you could store them someplace accessible yet out of reach.

    Here are some more pictures on what is in the containers.

    Health & Medical items organized on the top shelf on my husbands closet

    The spot I discovered that works the best for our family is at the top of my husbands closet (thanks honey for sharing your closet space).  He was super sweet and redid our closets with the wire adjustable shelving which makes it much easier to store items in the closet.  For several years any extra items would be put in a box and stored on the top shelf of his closet.  Whenever we needed to get something we had to lug the entire box down and go through it to see if we had what we need.  I decided it was time to make it more accessible and user friendly.  I bought clear plastic containers at Dollar Tree, put all the items from the big box into the containers, labeled the containers, and re-stacked them on the top shelves of his closet.

    Far Left Stack

    • Liquid Prescription Medicine
    • Non-Liquid Prescription Medicine
    • Medical Equipment Equipment – Blood Pressure Monitor, Stethoscope, etc…

    If you notice out of all the stacks this one is the hardest to get access to (and for a good reason).  Many of the items in this stack are prescription based and in order to get anything out of this stack you have to move at least one of the other rows.  I intentionally put this in the hardest to reach place because these items shouldn’t be used as much and you don’t want someone to accidentally grab the wrong thing thinking its cough syrup.

    Middle Stack

    • Allergy Medicine
    • Headache / Fever
    • Tums / GasX / Stomach

    Right Stack

    • Cold Medicine
    • Cough Drops
    • Liquid Cold Medicine

    Organized Health & Medical Items

    Having the health and medicine organized has made the whole system much more efficient for our family.  If we are out of bandaids I go into the closet, get the bandaid container down, and restock the bandaids.  If I notice one of the containers is getting empty I will put that item on my list to look for in the sales fliers and on the clearance shelves.  Once a container is full I no longer buy any more of that particular item until we need it again because what we have in stock should last us several months.  This system has helped us save time, money, and energy.  It is much easier finding what you need, to see what needs restocked, you don’t waste money on items you already have at home, and it looks so much better too

    Left Stack

    • Miscellaneous – items that don’t fit into any of the other categories or ones that we typically only keep one extra of since we don’t go through them as quickly
    • Vitamins
    • Heat Pads

    Right Stack

    • First Aid
    • Bandaids
    • Gauze / Medical Pads

    This system has worked very well with our family.  I think it is important that you find what works best for your family and go with it.  It didn’t take me long to get this set up and it has been a huge time saver ever since we started using it.  I would love to hear how and where you store these types of items in your home?

  • Giveaway: CVS Gift Card

    I am thrilled to announce a new giveaway on Blessings Multiplied!   The winner of this giveaway will receive a $10 CVS Gift Card!  As a parent August is the month we are wrapping up our final days of summer break, gearing up for the new school year, and preparing ourselves for the first time we have to take our little ones to the doctor.  Thankfully as the kids get older they are getting healthier but it is always good to have a good stock of Kleenex’s, Vitamins, and other essentials items you can find in your local CVS.  Shop the deals and you can really make this gift card stretch.  Here’s how to enter the giveaway:

    1. Sign up to follow my blog (if you haven’t done so already) and leave a comment below telling us how you follow Blessings Multiplied.  Sign up to receive Blessings Multiplied via email or like on Facebook.
    2. You can get a bonus entry into the drawing if you leave a separate comment below sharing your best tip on keeping your kids and yourself healthy through the school year.

    All comments must be made by August 31st at 10:00 PM EST to be entered into the drawing.

  • CONGRATULATIONS to Our “More Than Enough” Book Winner!

    The name has been drawn for the giveaway!

    CONGRATULATIONS to

    Lynette

    for winning a

    “More Than Enough” by Dave Ramsey!

    Thanks for making a comment in honor of our Giveaway!

    An email has been sent to you with more information*

    Enjoy your new book!

    Don’t forget to enter our next Giveaway (the next giveaway will be announced later this morning)!

    *Giveaway must be claimed within 5 business days of the prize being announced.  Failure to claim the prize within the allotted time frame means you forfeit the prize.

  • Heart Reflections: Living Life in the Fast Line….Going from 0 to 70 in Seconds

    So often I feel like I am living life in the fast lane……zooming through life faster and faster.  I don’t necessary hit the top speed but I am holding steady at a high pace for days and there is always some where to be or something to do.  It is possible to fill up every blank space in your calendar (believe me I have seen it).  There are those days, weeks, or months when I am just waiting for life to slow down a little bit so I can catch a deep breath, but when that glorious day arrives I realize that all the stuff I couldn’t squeeze into the schedule before hand has spilled over into that time that was once reserved for a quiet day.

    Notice in the top right corner of the picture the “service engine soon” light is on.   One of the things I found myself skipping (which is kind of embarrassing to admit) is my quiet time with God.  Much like the “service engine light” on the van I need to be recharged or have a tune up as well.  My relationship with Christ has a significant impact on all my relationships, yet there are days when I choose to neglect the most important relationship of all because life simply just gets too busy.

    When life gets too busy and I get stuck running full speed in the fast lane God has a way of slowing me down and getting my attention.  Earlier this summer my husband was in a car accident.  If you just looked at the vehicle the damage looked devastating, but thankfully God spared his life and he walked away with only minor injuries.  I am truly grateful for God’s protection and goodness in this situation.  Over the past couple months as we’ve been juggling one car, looking for another vehicle, and spending some extra time together I am reminded of His amazing grace and mercy for me.  I love my husband so very much, but God loves me even more and longs to have a personal relationship with me.  Why would I hold back from the most awesome relationship in my life?

    I make time for what is important in my life – God, family, work, ministry, friends or whatever else that may be.  Every person gets 24 hours a day.  How do I spend my day, what are my priorities, am I making a positive impact on the lives around me, or am I just rushing through the “to do” list and jammed packed schedule while trying to catch my breath in between?  How are my relationships being effected by my decisions?

    Sometimes the best thing I can do is stop, take a break, and enjoy extra time focusing on the what’s truly important.  When my heart is in the right place, my relationship with God is open and honest life seems brighter because I don’t have to live life in the fast lane or have to be the one in control because He holds my life and future in his hands.  Being a Wife, Mom, Friend, and everything else can be tough some days, but when you have your priorities in line it really can be quite enjoyable.  We all need to take some time every now and then to slow down, relax, and service the check engine light of our soul.