Freebie Friday {Valentine's Day Edition}

 Are you enjoying the blessings in life that can be had without money? Here is a reminder of some of the many things that we can enjoy even while seeking to live frugally.

Five Things You Can Do For Free (Fun Dates For Valentines Day!)

1. Go to a Concert. This might not work to be exactly on Valentine's day but perhaps in that time period. Also I suppose it might not work in all communities but in ours (we live in a University Town) there are oodles of concert opportunities that are free. For instance in the coming weeks there are faculty piano recitals, a Baroque Ensemble Concert, A Percussion Ensemble Concert, College Senior Recitals and more. All Free. Check out you local Chamber of Commerce event listings, college events near you, church events (In our town the local Church Musicians have concerts on a regular basis) and school events.
2. Pack a picnic and take a hike. Yes, this can be done even in the winter. Bring some hot chocolate in your lunch. If you have skis or snowshoes that could add a fun dimension to your outing.
3. Go to an Art Gallery/ Museum. I know even in our medium sized town there are a couple of different art galleries that you can go to for free. When I visited Cleveland, Ohio this summer they had a HUGE art museum that you could visit for free. What do you have in your area?
4. Go on a scenic drive. Plan a fun route - maybe an area you have never explored before.
5. Have your kids help you plan a special romantic dinner for you and your spouse. You can decorate the house using various things you have on hand, plan a special menu (again using things you have on hand- have fun looking for new recipes using ingredients that you have), Figure out which child will be the waiter, the bus boy, the coat clerk, the musician, etc. Have fun finding appropriate fancy outfits for each of them. If you don't have a child that can play an instrument or sing for music then find a CD or music online that they can play. Put candles on the tables and dim the lights. The fancy table where you and your spouse dine could be put in a different room to make it different and special. That way the kids could eat their meal on the dining room table in between serving you. Make up a paper or chalkboard menu to announce the special meal that is going to be served. Many children will love getting to play restaurant like this and will totally enjoy serving you for a special evening. If you would like to make it a double date invite another family with children to join in with you. The kids could watch a pre-planned movie or play a game or clean things up while the parents visit and perhaps play a game. Realize that this will not quite be the same as going out to eat without kids but in can be just as fun too. You may need to jump up from your meal to help when something goes awry. You may need to do clean-up afterwards. You may need to take a break from your date and put kids to bed and then you could play a game or watch a movie at home.

One years' decorated table

Ideas for Free Valentines that You can Make for Free

• Heart shaped crayons, Animals made from hearts, Flower Pencils and more.
• More Animals for Hearts and a Repurposed Candy Box and Card.
• Flowers, Cookies and Cars made into Valentines.

• 

  "Racing Your Way to Say: Happy Valentine's Day!"

• 

  Suncatcher

  Make a Suncatcher with old crayons

Free Valentines you can Print

• From Better Homes and Gardens
• Zebra Valentines
• Vintage Valentines

Free Gifts you Can Give

• A Kiss, etc. - Would your spouse appreciate more physical attention? This is a wonderful gift that we can give in our marriage.
• Love Notes. This old post of mine gives some thoughts on the beauty of writing love notes.
• Babysitting. Do you have friends that would like to have a date without children? Offer your services as a babysitter.
• Candy. Candy is something that can be really fun to make using things that you already have on hand. It also makes a very traditional and appreciate Valentine's gift. Here is a link to many posts that I have written telling about Candy that I have made using things that I had on hand. Maybe one of the recipes will work for you too.

Listen for Free

The Best Free Gift!!!
"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." John 3:16


Do you have any free ideas for Valentine's day to add? I would love to hear them!

What Do You Have In Your Hand {Wedding Edition}

Last Saturday a friend of mine got married. It was a very small wedding and I did not attend but she did hire me to do her flowers and then I volunteered to help with various decorating and to make her veil. She was on a budget and so I had fun finding ways that I could do things using things that I already had on hand so that it didn't cost either of us any money. Here are some of the things that I (with Megan's help - she really was enjoying working on this wedding with me) made using things that we had:

 The ring pillow. I actually couldn't find any peach fabric (which is what the bride wanted) that worked at my house so my mom went looking at hers and found a peach skirt that she had set aside for repurposing and brought it to me to use. The bride had chosen the colors of peach, turquoise and light yellow -not colors that I would have chosen but rather fun to work with non-the-less.

 A "P" to hang above the fireplace- their last name initial. We were trying to think of things to decorate that area and I suggested this and the groom really liked the idea. I made it by cutting out the p shape from 4 layers of cardboard. Then I hot glued them (just minimally) together and then wrapped them with strips of the peach fabric. Then Megan and I had made some ribbon roses which I attached along with some loops of turquoise ribbon. The turquoise pins in the center of the flowers where some I bought for another wedding and had oodles left-over - but  I very rarely use them.

 We wanted to add a little height to the mantle piece so I took some branches and spray painted them turquoise and put  them in a jar that was filled with glass marbles and had a peach ribbon wrapped around the top and a ribbon flower on it. I had 3 such jars (that were decorated in various ways with ribbon and hand made flowers) on the mantle and then another over by the cake.

 This "Love" was part of a craft kit that had been given to us. It was made to make into a wall hanging but the stabilizing part had broken and I had no idea what I would do with it anyway. I had almost tossed it but was glad I hadn't when I found it to use for this wedding. I stabilized it with some cardstock and then added flowers and ribbons to it.

 Megan made a tissue paper flower which we tucked in for some color. The tulle was some that was leftover (and had already been used before) from other events.

 We added bows onto the cande sticks. The peach and yellow ribbons were some I had gotten very cheaply years ago and had nearly 100 yards of it. So I was quite willing to use as much as the bride wanted.

 We added tulle and bows to the staircase where the bride would come down.

More bows went on the ends of the chairs.

  It was a simple and inexpensive wedding and I had a bunch of fun helping with it and using "what I had in my hand".

 Have you found creative ways to use what you have in your hand this past week? I would love to hear about what you have been doing?

  How about when you got married - did you do any creative and economical decorating?

I am linking this to Frontier Dreams - Keep Calm, Craft On.

Seeking To Simplify {Don't Give Up!}

  As we go through clutter in our homes - some days in can be lots of fun and we make great progress and other days can be discouraging.

  There are days that come up where we think we are going to have time to work on a big project so we pull everything out of the closet and get started working and then interruptions happen. Perhaps your kids need more help with their school work than you thought they would, a friend stops by, somebody calls and alerts you to something else that needs done right now, you get a headache, etc. So there the pile sits and its looks worse than it did before you started cleaning. I understand. That has happened to me many times. Also sometimes I just think I can do a lot more than I can in a day. I expect everything to go super smoothly when in reality things went a little roughly instead.

  There are also days that are just super busy and you struggle to just maintain the order you have. Or days that you get sick or the kids get sick and need a lot of attention. Things happen.

   When we have hit a rough patch when it comes to our goal of getting organized and getting rid of clutter (or even losing weight, eating healthy foods, memorizing scripture, whatever your goal may be) we may be tempted to just give up on it all together. I am writing today to encourage you not to give up!

  In January I spent several days of being sick. I didn't get a lot done on those days to help with decluttering and it was a little bit discouraging to feel like I might be losing momentum and getting off track. But as long as we don't give up we will still make progress but if we just give it up WE WON'T. This seems pretty obvious but when we are discouraged sometimes we miss the obvious.

  So today I just wanted to encourage all of you to keep pressing on. Even if there are setbacks on the goals you have set - don't give up! (Unless you have decided that God is leading you to realize that wasn't a good or necessary goal to make).

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  This past week went pretty well for my simplifying goals. I didn't manage to clean out my e-mail every single day as I had a very busy Friday with a wedding to prepare for and we left to go out of town for a robotics tournament that evening and Saturday. So not all went perfectly but I am back to having it cleaned out now. I did get the picture files gone through that I wanted too. I am making good progress at getting that organized on my computer and that is exciting.

   I did also manage to go through an area every day Mon-Friday (on days I am going to be extra busy I will do an extra area on an earlier day for that day). I managed to get rid of 61 items. Yeah! I still did not get around to selling anything. That goal isn't going so well.

   As I work at wearing all my clothes I am really thinking about how something feels and how I feel in it when I wear it. For instance I got rid of a shirt yesterday because after wearing it I realized that I don't like tugging on it all the time to try to get it to tuck in better or be long enough. I have a long torso and that is not going to change - nor do I think that shirt is going to get longer. I supposed it is possible that I might start wearing bottoms that are higher waisted at some point but that is not happening right away so out went that shirt.

   I am having fun working at reading through all of our books. I have learned a lot in the book I am reading about Reagan and Communism. I had fun laughing and crying through "The Family Nobody Wanted". Just now I have been having fun reading "No Greater Joy" Volume 3. I love the reminder to live more joyfully especially in relationship with my children and to really work at deepening the bonds that tie us together. To really have fun with them.

  How are your goals going?  Do you need to get started again and not give up?

Seeking to Simplify {Making Decisions}

   As I deal with clutter in my house I realize that the reason that I have much of the clutter that I do is because I have put off making a decision. This was a surprising thing to learn about myself. I have always thought of myself as a quick decision maker and to be perfectly honest I can easily find irritating somebody who is being really slow to make a decision (for example I don't like to play Chess with somebody who takes it pretty seriously as the game drags on and on and on...). Some people can take forever to decide what to wear in the morning, or what they would like to eat or whatever. For the most part I like to be efficient and I think that part of being efficient is being able to make fairly quick decisions.

   But still,  as I have been going through more and more of my things I realize that the reason that they are clutter that bothers me is because in many cases I haven't made a decision about them. I have put off for another time that decision that needed to be made. Some of the decisions often are:

• Do I need to take action on this? (Perhaps a letter that came in the mail or an e-mail) If so, can I do it right now so it is done and out of the way and I don't have to deal with it again?
• Is this something I really want to keep?
• Where does it belong? Can I put it there right now? If it doesn't have a place but I want to keep it can I figure out a home for it?
• If I don't want it than what am I going to do with it? Give it away (When and where?), Recycle it, burn it, trash it, repurpose it (and if I repurpose it where does it go for now?)....

   As I have been forcing myself to make decisions lately and have seen my clutter areas improve (My desk has been clean nearly the whole month!!! That is a huge accomplishment for me!) it gets exciting. I love being more organized and not having cluttered up areas. It actually gets a little addicting and I realize that making those decisions isn't really that bad - in fact it is pretty fun.

   I will give you an example of one decision that I had been putting off for years and finally made this month. My Grandma Cleone was an artsy craftsy sort of person and during my growing up years when she would come to visit she would often bring ceramics for us to paint. We kids found that very fun. Also she would paint various ceramics and give them to us. I have a couple of those gifts from my childhood which I enjoy keeping around to see and remember her. But she also made us a ceramic plaque for our wedding. I think it was very near the end of her ceramic painting time and I don't think her eyes were working as well. And to be perfectly honest it was horribly done. Also a picture of hands and a bow just doesn't do a lot for me anyway. So, that has been hanging around since we got married over 18 years ago. I displayed for a little while but then it just stayed in storage. I didn't like it, to me it wasn't a good representation of what my Grandma could do anyway. So - this month it went into the trash. That decision felt very good. I don't have to continue running into through the years and think "Why am I keeping this?" but feel like I had to.

  Cheryl, another blogger, had mentioned how they pray about the items that they are trying to deal with. I have been taking time every morning to ask for God's leading in what I get rid of and what I keep - that I could glorify Him in this de-cluttering process. He is so good to help!

   Can any of you relate to this struggle with making decisions? 

This week has been a good one for decluttering. This week I got rid of 49 items. I kept my e-mail inbox cleaned out and I cleaned out a space every day. I still didn't sell anything. My going through my clothes (by wearing everything once before I re-wear things) has been helpful in finding a few items (worn out tights, underwear, t-shirts and socks) that really needed to be discarded. I honestly didn't expect to find that much there as I had gone through my clothes this fall but by actually wearing something rather than just looking at it I discovered more issues.

  Are you working on de-cluttering? How is it going at your house?

The Devil is Real

It seems that in the world we currently live in, our culture would like to pretend that there isn't any such thing as a devil (except when Halloween rolls around - but that acknowledgement isn't in a good way). But the harsh reality is that there is one. He is real and he is up to NO good. He is our enemy. So let's be aware of what he is about and be ready to fight with God's armor on!

Who is the devil?

He is a sinner. "The one who practices sin is of the devil; for the devil has sinner from the beginning. The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil." 1 John 3:8

He is a liar and a murderer. "You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies." John 8:44

He is a deceiver. "But I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ." 2 Corinthians 11:3

He works to trap people. "with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition, if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, having been held captive by him to do his will." 2 Timothy 2:25 & 26

He is powerful. "in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God." 2 Corinthians 4:4

He has angels that serve him. "Then He will also say to those on His left, "Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels;" Matthew 25:41

What does the devil do?

He tempts people to sin. "But Peter said, "Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back some of the price of the land?" Acts 5:4

Works to make sure the souls of men are destroyed. (See verse in picture above) "When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart. This is the one on whom seed was sown beside the road." Matthew 13:19

He brings about false doctrine and false worship designed to deceive men. "For such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. No wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light." 2 Corinthians 11:13-14 "But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons." 1 Timothy 4:1

He makes war with God's people. "So the dragon was enraged with the woman, and went off to make war with the rest of her children, who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus." Revelation 12:17

He accuses Christians before God. "Then I hear a loud voice in heaven, saying, "Now the salvation, and the power, and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren has been thrown down, he who accuses them before our God day and night." Revelation 12:10

The devil will be destroyed.

"Then He will also say to those on His left, "Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels." Matthew 25:41

"Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives." Hebrews 2:14 & 15

"And the devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophets are also; and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever." Revelation 20:10

How can we overcome the devil in our lives?

Thanks be to God that we have Jesus Christ who was manifested so that He might destroy the works of the devil!!! (1 John 3:8) Through Jesus, God has provided us a way of escape. I am so very grateful!

  God has provided it but we must individually use that escape. To aid in doing that we are told to put on the full armor of God (Ephesians 6:11-20). James 4:7 says "Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you." Hebrews 4:15 & 16 adds: "For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need."

  My hope is that you will be on guard against the devil and will be drawing near to the throne of grace each and every day!

This Week in Pictures

Megan going up the big ski lift (actually the week before last but I didn't get it posted them)

On Sunday afternoon I had a booth at the Wedding Expo. Here are a few pictures from that.

On Thursday we got to watch my nephew for a while when my sister went to the chiropractor. We had fun! :-) The kids took turns caring for him. They were race through their school work so that it would be their turn. Jonathan made sure he was fed, Aaron entertained him with juggling a pillow with swords - Ephraim found it hilarious-  and Megan followed him around all over as he explored.

Some of my baking from Thursday.

 A tea time picture. Taken to share on the facebook page of an elderly friend who loves teapots. It is her birthday tomorrow and her grandson thought that would be a fun thing for a bunch of people to do.

Mara and I had a really fun time this afternoon attending a free photography class at the state park. It was extra cool as a friend of hers happened to be there too.

Mara the photographer. Below are some of the pictures that I had fun taking as we walked out on the lake.