Disconnecting to Connect

The following is a sponsored post.  As always, all content and opinions are 100% my own.

Computers.  Smart phones.  Tablets. .

They're so helpful, but so much of the time they end up sucking away our time and attention from the ones who should matter the most.

The Tech Timeout^TM challenge started by Foresters encourages families to take a daily break from technology. Participating families are encouraged to disconnect from all things electronic with the goal of helping spouses, parents and children build stronger bonds, communicate more personally and get more involved in each other’s lives.

And I think it's a great challenge!

I was recently asked if I would like to participate and share our family's experience with the challenge.

I don't have a smartphone, so checking Facebook or email throughout the day is not a temptation for me.  We also don't have T.V. or video games.  Pretty much the only electronics we have are the computer and Kindle, but I did want to disconnect a little more than I normally do and see if I thought it made a difference.

When I would normally be on the computer writing here on the blog, or just relaxing on Pinterest while the kids nap, I decided to stay off and spend time outside with the kids.  We enjoyed the extra time spent together outside, but since that was during their naptime I can't do it on a regular basis.

I think if I had a smartphone I would be really bad about messing with it and not giving my undivided attention to the kids.  Having a designated time each day to specifically have it OFF no matter what would be really helpful in making sure I'm not getting distracted from paying attention to my kids.

Do you think you would benefit from a designated Tech Timeout?

Here are some GREAT ideas of things you could be doing rather than being connected to technology:

Which of these fun family activities would you enjoy most?

Visit techtimeout.com to make the pledge with your family!

Printable ABC Memory Verses for Preschoolers (KJV)

These printable ABC  memory verses were created by my contributor Andrea.  I'm so glad she made these for us!

Recently I discovered that my daughter is ready for some harder Bible memory verses than “Be ye kind” and “God is love.”  She was attending Summer Adventure Club at a friend's church, and she would get a prize if she could learn her verse for the next day.  The verse was Romans 6:23 – “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”  We worked very hard, and sure enough – she was able to say her verse and get the prize!  I was very proud of her effort.

A few days later, I overheard her talking to herself in the car, and all of the sudden out came Romans 6:23.  Word perfect. She rattled off the whole verse, and we hadn't even reviewed it for several days!  She then quoted it to our pastor, and her Sunday School teacher at church.  Now I knew that I needed to add some new verses to her memory book.

We will be doing a form of preschool this year, and working on alphabet and phonics.  I had seen some printable ABC memory verses on Pinterest, but they were not in the King James Version of the Bible.  So I decided to create my own!  These memory verse cards were designed to reinforce the alphabet, learn the phonics sound of each letter, and incorporate Bible memorization at the same time.  I created them for my daughter who is almost four.  I tried to use entire verses as much as possible.  A few of them are a little longer, but most are still short and easy.  All verses come from the King James Version.

When children are young, they can learn and absorb information so quickly.  This is the perfect time to pour God's Word into their hearts and lives.  Many of the verses that I can easily spit out without thinking are the ones I learned as a child.  I want my children to know and understand God's Word so that they can say with Timothy, “And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus” (2 Timothy 3:15).  I tried to select verses that could be easily explained, and that would be applicable to their young lives right now.

The printable verse cards are two verses per sheet.  I printed them onto card stock for more durability.  I then cut each sheet in half, and laminated them.  (I use this laminator and these laminating pouches to save money).  After punching holes, I used binder rings to fashion a small book.

I hope they are a blessing as you use this as a tool to infuse God's Word into your little one!

Protecting Your Child From The Devil

As I sat in my room this morning during my quiet time, I noticed out the window a cat strolling casually across the yard.

Suddenly a bird swooped down, attacking the cat.

For a split-second, I was incredulous.  A bird?  Attacking a cat?

But I quickly realized that this bird was not attacking a cat because she thought she was bigger and badder than the cat.  She was a mama bird, and she had baby birds nearby.  Even though the cat didn’t seem to be seeking his breakfast, he was still close enough to the location of the baby birds to cause their mama plenty of concern.

Although a bird is no match for a cat, she was willing to put her life on the line for the protection of her babies.  She swooped down over and over until she had driven the cat far away from her home.  Then she flew high into a tree and waited until the cat was completely out of sight before she flew back to her nest.  She didn’t want to chance having the cat know where her babies were located.

Mamas, there is another member of the feline family just waiting for his chance to destroy your children.  He is the devil, and like a lion, he walks about seeking whom he may devour.

What are you going to do to protect those children of yours?

You need to recognize the various ways that he will try to attack them and eliminate his opportunity to do so.

I’ll give a few examples, but you as a parent need to be diligent to think through the circumstances of your own child’s life and pinpoint all of the areas that need to be protected.

•     Friends

God let us know for a reason that “evil communications corrupt good manners”.  The people your child associates with on a regular basis are one of the biggest influences he has.  Do you know who your child’s friends are?  Do you know what they believe and what they talk about to your children?  If you are not aware of these things, you are leaving your child in a very vulnerable position.  The devil has the opportunity to use those friends to influence his thinking in ways that could completely undermine everything you are trying to teach him at home.

•     Media

One of the most powerful influences on the mind of your child is the media that filters through his eyes and ears.  The tv shows, movies, books, video games, and music that he is exposed to are not a neutral force.  They are either drawing him closer to God or driving him away.  Examine closely what goes into your child’s mind, and do everything you can to protect him from anything that contradicts God’s Word.  Even if you become the world’s most “uncool” mom, saying no to these things is worth every minute of your unpopularity.  I’d rather be uncool than to lose my child’s soul to the devil.

•     Their own sin nature

We are all born with a burning desire to sin, and even after salvation that sin nature still rears its ugly head, tempting us when we least expect it.  You may be doing all you know to do to protect your child from evil influences, but his greatest and most subtle enemy lies within himself.  Just as those baby birds will one day leave the nest and be responsible for protecting themselves, your children will gradually become more and more independent.  You won’t always be right beside them, swooping down and chasing away the devil when he comes too close.  Give them the tools to protect themselves when they’re on their own!  Teach them the Word of God.  Engrain it into their minds and hearts.  Instruct them about the armor of God which they possess if they are a child of God and teach them how to use it!  Pray for your children every day.  Pray for their protection from temptation and that God would help them to remember the things you have taught them about resisting the devil.

That mama bird would have been devastated had the cat gained access to her babies and taken the opportunity to injure or kill any of them.  Can you imagine the grief that you will feel if your child falls prey to the devil?

To the mother bird, it was worth risking her very life for her children to be protected.  What will you risk?  How hard will you work?  How unpopular are you willing to be?  

It’s worth it all.

Rite Aid Tugaboos Diapers: My Experience

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Rite Aid Tugaboos diapers.  As always, all opinions are 100% my own.

I'm all about natural living here, but I don't do cloth diapers.  If you enjoy it, kudos to you.  I don't.  Disposables for me all the way.

But as we all know, the cost for those babies (I'm talking about the diapers, not the actual babies) sure does add up!

I do a lot of shopping on Amazon for diapers, and I try to buy them in bulk so that I always have plenty on hand.

But there are those times when I just haven't paid close enough attention to how many were in the closet, and I find myself in panic mode.  A last-minute run to the drugstore is not an option.

Of course I look for the cheapest diapers I can find, but there is a difference between money-cheap, and quality-cheap.  I look for the money-cheap diapers, but I can't stand quality-cheap diapers.  What is the point of even putting a diaper on a kid if it doesn't hold any of their messes inside of it?

If there are no diapers on sale, and I don't have any coupons, the store brand is usually the cheapest option.  (Bonus if the store brand is the one on sale!)

I've used Rite Aid Tugaboos several times, and I'm happy to say that while they're often the cheapest option money-wise, they're not cheap quality-wise.  They don't feel quite as thick as the name brands, but they hold the mess in, and have a nice comfortable fit.  (At least, they look like they do.  I haven't personally tried them on.)

Rite Aid Tugaboos have also received some upgrades recently, including increased leakage protection, hypoallergenic inner liner with a cottony soft feel, and a stretchable waist (love that stretchable waist thing!) (Well, the leak protection is pretty important too.)

And if you care about looks (please tell me you're not the mom who takes her kid to Walmart with nothing but a diaper on!), the diapers feature a cute, gender-neutral design.
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Next time you get into panic mode and have to take one of those last-minute drugstore runs for diapers, take my word that you can save a little cash buying Rite Aid Tugaboos and not have to worry that you will have wasted your money.

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Rite Aid.

To The Point of Exhaustion

Last night we finished up Missions Conference at my church.

Having grown up all my life in good churches as well as attending Bible College, I've been involved with approximately 32 Missions Conferences.

If I haven't surrendered my life to the Lord's work by now, I'm a pretty sad case.  The truth is, I've given my life to God a long time ago – to go wherever He wants me to go and do whatever He wants me to do.

Every time I attend a Missions Conference, my heart is burdened for all the people around the world who do not know Jesus, and who do not have someone to tell them about Him.  My heart is stirred to work harder towards telling those I already know about His love.

This year was no different, and I thought, “Lord, what would you have me to do?”  many times throughout the services.

God answered in one specific way long after the final service had ended last night.  We were home and getting ready for bed.  We were all worn out, and naturally I wanted to get into bed as soon as possible.

But my husband and I could sense that the children needed some attention from Mommy and Daddy.  They had been rushed through the days of this past week to make sure everything was ready for church on time.  Daddy came in the door from work at the last minute every night, and we would all hurry out the door.  We enjoyed some fellowship with the missionaries after the services every night and then we would hurry back and make a mad dash for bed to get as much sleep as possible before another busy day arrived.

Last night we really felt that, as tired as we were, we should take the time to play with them, give them some tickles and cuddles, sing some songs, and just re-charge their “love batteries”.

Then it was off to bed.  My oldest, who always seems to be high need when it comes to how much attention he gets, asked me to sing him a song.  Thinking of how exhausted I was and how I had already “paid my dues” by playing with him, I started to say “Not tonight.”

But that's when the Holy Spirit spoke to me.  “You go to Missions Conference and tell me that you'll do whatever I ask you to do.  You sing the song that says you'll “spend and spare not” when it comes to how much you'll invest in people.  You've said that you're willing to minister to people even when it's exhausting.  Well, here's your chance.  Here's a little soul that needs your ministry, and even though you're exhausted, you need to keep going.  You can't give up just because you're tired.”

Wow!  My heart was challenged to give my everything to this ministry of being a “keeper at home”.  That is truly the primary thing God has called me to do.

It might seem more glamorous to work to the point of exhaustion when it's something “important” like being in a “real” ministry.  But if we were to ask someone in the ministry, I would imagine they'd say it's not exactly more fun to be called in the middle of the night by a drug addict threatening to kill you than it is to sing a song to your kid before bed.

I have been giving up way too easily.  I have been so concerned about the souls in my community and around the world to whom I'd like to minister that I've failed to see just how important these little souls are.

This one

And this one

And this one

No longer am I going to base my decision to sing or not to sing a song before bed on how tired I am.  I'm not going to give up on the housework just because I want to go to bed.  I'm not going to tune out the little voices asking me to read a book just because I have a list of things that I'm trying to get done.

These little ones are just too important!

So what if I'm tired?  If I tell myself I wouldn't let something as simple as exhaustion stop me from ministering to the heathen, I should never let it stop me at home!

I can claim the verse “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me” for the big things, and I can claim it in my little space at home.

Find more mom-to-mom encouragement on Facebook:

10 Things Small Children Can Do in the Kitchen

My children are always begging to help me in the kitchen, but sometimes I have a hard time thinking of things that they can do.  I did a little brainstorming and compiled a list of 10 things that children as young as age 2 can do in the kitchen.

1.Dump ingredients into a bowl.  You measure it and then allow them to dump it into the bowl.

2. Stir.  Since they will probably not stir it as well as it needs to be done, you can tell them that you will start and they can finish.

3. Put toppings on pizza.  Lay out the toppings and let them have fun spreading them on the pizza.

4. Put forks, napkins, and condiments on the table.  Of course you're not going to let a very small child put the breakable dishes on the table, but they can set the forks and napkins around and help you put small items on the table like ketchup or salad dressing.

5. Sweep the floor.  A child is not going to be able to get the floor completely swept, but they will feel like such a big boy or girl using the broom.  It will probably keep them occupied for a while.  You can also teach them how to hold the dustpan for you while you sweep the dirt into it.

6. Tear up salad greens.  If salad is on the menu, you can keep children occupied tearing the lettuce.  They may even do a better job at it than you!

7. Wash dishes.  Give them a chair, a sink full of soapy water, and some unbreakable dishes, and let them have at it!  They may end up a little bit wet, and you will most likely have to re-do the dishes, but they will have fun!  They will also be developing the skills they need to wash them them right way when they get a little older.

8. Dry dishes.  If you're not in the mood for a wet kitchen, you could wash and let them dry.

9. Chop Vegetables with an enclosed chopper.  If you have a hand chopper that is enclosed, they could take a turn at chopping.

10. Help you unload the dishwasher.  Kids as young as age 1 love to help unload the silverware from the dishwasher.  They can hand you one piece of silverware at a time while you put them away.

Children will probably not do everything perfectly in the kitchen, and you may get frustrated when they use the spoon more often as a bat than as a stirring utensil. But when you allow them to help, they will develop skills that will allow them to really be a help in the future.  You are also spending valuable time with them, and they will know by the time you spend how much you love them.

 What did I miss?  I'm sure there are more things that kids can do in the kitchen that I didn't think to put on this list.