Abundant Springs

I want so badly to write something profound~ something that will mean something to someone—make a difference in their lives but honestly, all I can come up with is the list that’s running around in my head.

 Today I need to make appointments.  My DS11 needs fillings and all of us need to have our eyes examined.

 We’re going on a cruise to the Bahamas in October so I need to make sure we have our passports or travel cards before then.  I also need to finish paying for our cruise and plan some other short “vacations” during Spring Break & Summertime.  I'm also going to try and plan a short get-away for DH and I.

 We usually visit family in Southwest Virginia/East Tennessee.  We LOVE it there and hope to move there in the next few years.

 I need to get stuff together to file taxes & corporate report for my travel agency, Above All Travel.  I started this business last year in the midst of my pregnancy.

We’re always traveling somewhere and as a youngster, I worked for Walt Disney World in their travel/reservations department and then as an Executive Assistant (sounds important, doesn’t it?!) I was in charge of travel and event planning. So, it seemed like a natural transition.  I was booking vacations for family and friends anyway, just figured I’d get paid for it, too. 

 On top of all that, I have

·        the closet has been de-cluttered I just need to finish putting it back together. (but I have given away quite a bit of stuff I can’t or don’t wear and have 82 pcs of plus-size (I’m an 18/20) maternity clothes to get rid of ….anyone interested?

·        sort thru clothes in the babies’ nursery (We’ve been blessed to have my nephew’s hand-me-downs for DS0 up to size 2!!)

·        clearing out our “library” (our “formal” dining room in another life)~ the clutter seems to congregate there.

·        General picking up around the house

However, with 2 littles around that need my attention, I’m not likely to get it all done in one day!

 The Virtual Romance Toolbox Workshop was a blessing.  I’ve taken many, many things away that will only enhance my marriage and my relationship with God.  I’m looking forward to more of Cindy’s teachings.

 Now….what to take out for dinner……

I was listening to Cindy Rushton’s Romance Toolbox Virtual Seminar yesterday and ladies, there was some GOOD stuff there!

She said quite a bit that spoke to my heart but, one thing in particular was that our husbands and families deserve our BEST and the world should get our crumbs.  The fact is, for most of us, we shine for the world, giving them our best, and our families get our leftover crumbs ~ if there is anything left. 

Talk about convicted.  I prayed right then and there that I take that piece of sage advice and put it into action.

She also shared 1Peter 3 (The Message)

Cultivate Inner Beauty

1-4The same goes for you wives: Be good wives to your husbands, responsive to their needs. There are husbands who, indifferent as they are to any words about God, will be captivated by your life of holy beauty. What matters is not your outer appearance—the styling of your hair, the jewelry you wear, the cut of your clothes—but your inner disposition.

4-6Cultivate inner beauty, the gentle, gracious kind that God delights in. The holy women of old were beautiful before God that way, and were good, loyal wives to their husbands. Sarah, for instance, taking care of Abraham, would address him as "my dear husband." You'll be true daughters of Sarah if you do the same, unanxious and unintimidated.

7The same goes for you husbands: Be good husbands to your wives. Honor them, delight in them. As women they lack some of your advantages. But in the new life of God's grace, you're equals. Treat your wives, then, as equals so your prayers don't run aground.

Suffering for Doing Good

8-12Summing up: Be agreeable, be sympathetic, be loving, be compassionate, be humble. That goes for all of you, no exceptions. No retaliation. No sharp-tongued sarcasm. Instead, bless—that's your job, to bless. You'll be a blessing and also get a blessing.

   Whoever wants to embrace life
      and see the day fill up with good,
   Here's what you do:
      Say nothing evil or hurtful;
   Snub evil and cultivate good;
      run after peace for all you're worth.
   God looks on all this with approval,
      listening and responding well to what he's asked;
   But he turns his back
      on those who do evil things.

13-18If with heart and soul you're doing good, do you think you can be stopped? Even if you suffer for it, you're still better off. Don't give the opposition a second thought. Through thick and thin, keep your hearts at attention, in adoration before Christ, your Master. Be ready to speak up and tell anyone who asks why you're living the way you are, and always with the utmost courtesy. Keep a clear conscience before God so that when people throw mud at you, none of it will stick. They'll end up realizing that they're the ones who need a bath. It's better to suffer for doing good, if that's what God wants, than to be punished for doing bad. That's what Christ did definitively: suffered because of others' sins, the Righteous One for the unrighteous ones. He went through it all—was put to death and then made alive—to bring us to God.

19-22He went and proclaimed God's salvation to earlier generations who ended up in the prison of judgment because they wouldn't listen. You know, even though God waited patiently all the days that Noah built his ship, only a few were saved then, eight to be exact—saved from the water by the water. The waters of baptism do that for you, not by washing away dirt from your skin but by presenting you through Jesus' resurrection before God with a clear conscience. Jesus has the last word on everything and everyone, from angels to armies. He's standing right alongside God, and what he says goes.

Not only did this speak to my heart about my marriage but God is truly in the details.  You see, just after hearing that part of the discussion a dear friend of mine called me crying.  She is having a hard time at work because she has chosen to stand on Godly principals.  I was able to share this verse with her & remind her “to snub evil & cultivate good”!

If you’re interested in listening in on the seminars today live and at no cost to you simply visit http://www.romancetoolbox.com/seminar.html

Scroll down to the bottom and fill out the info under “Try Us”.  The seminar begins at 9am CST

Today’s Topics Include:

9AM CST
Fill Your Home with Good Things!

11AM CST
Maintenance!

1PM CST
Rebuilding from the Rubbish!

3PM CST
Honey Do’s to Make the Marriage HOT!!

Hope to see you there!

Tracy

My husband shared this with me so I thought I'd pass it along.  This is Good Stuff!

THE TOP TEN PREDICTIONS FOR 2008

  1. The Bible will still have all the answers.
  2. Prayer will still work.
  3. The Holy Spirit will still move.
  4. God will still inhabit the praises of His people.
  5. There will still be God-annointed preaching.
  6. There will still be singing of praise to God.
  7. God will still pour out blessings upon His people.
  8. There will still be room at the Cross.
  9. Jesus will still love you.
10. Jesus will still save the lost.

God whispers in your soul and speaks to your mind.   Sometimes when

We’ve created a tentative budget – which basically includes what bills need to be paid each month along with budgeted items.  Like Amy @ Home Sweet Simple Home, we’re following Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University (I highly recommend this resource!)  We still need to track every penny spent to find our leaks but we think we’re pretty sure where to plug the hole (eating out, “Stuff”)

I was also able to de-clutter some in the past couple days.  My Mom will be selling some of our “stuff” at her church’s yard sale this weekend.  It has helped to get things out of the house.

 I still struggle with PAPER but I’m trying to get a handle on that as well.  Anyone have a good organizing tool for paper? I’m using a tool over at Talk-a-Latte – Organization 911! Help for the Messy Mom ~ that I think will be beneficial for all my Messy Mom needs but any helps/hints/tips, etc are always  appreciated!

I have quite a few  unfinished de-cluttering projects ~read piles of stuff in each room that is currently undergoing de-cluttering~ but I hope to be tackling some of these over the next few days.  I can see the light at the end of the tunnel though which is really nice.  A lot of donating, tossing and re-purposing have been done and everything seems a bit more manageable~ not so overwhelming.

I’ve asked my husband and two older kids to write down foods that they’d actually eat if I cooked it.  So, I’m slowly building a list of menus that I can implement.

DD2 & DS0 are home with me and I struggle to get things done while attending to their individual needs along with everything else that needs to be done.   When DD16 &DS11 get home from school they are big helps.  DD2 loves DS11 and he’s very good with her.

I’ll post more as and when.

Tracy

To get ready for the "Big Day", I’ll be attending Cindy Rushton’s

  Romance Toolbox Virtual Seminar 

http://www.romancetoolbox.com/seminar.html

Cindy will be hosting this Virtual Seminar 

  February 8-9, 2008

Here's what she say's about her Romance ToolBox!

" How is your marriage? Want some great ideas to help spice up your marriage? Ready for some Mom-to-Mom refreshment and encouragement? Practical how-to's? REAL Help? Join us for our favorite online seminar of 2008! A fun weekend seminar JUST for YOU!

 Valentine's Day is just weeks away...

Are you thinking about your marriage, yet you have no idea how to change things any more? Are you at the point that you feel as though there is NO reason to try again? Do you think it is your husband's turn to put a little in your marriage? Your marriage just fine, so you think you can pass on this one? Oh! Wherever you are in your journey, t his seminar is FOR YOU! YOU! YOUR MARRIAGE! "

I'd love to see you there!

Hers's the link again:

 http://www.romancetoolbox.com/seminar.html

Tracy

I begin my planning in earnest.

I need to get so many things in our home under control.

There's a budget to be made (and followed), de-cluttering to be finished (I'm on the 5 year plan!), menus to be created (with things my family will actually eat and we can afford), a home travel business to build (I was waiting to go full tilt until after Nathan was born...now he's here), quiet time to find, a Bible study to lead, kids to take care of ~ a husband, too!

So many things and I have no idea where to begin.....

With this blog as my accountability partner, I'll post my accomplishments as they occur.

Find joy in your day,
Tracy 

As much as I like to complain about getting up with the baby between 3:30-5:00 each morning, it really does have its benefits. 

I get to spend precious time with my baby boy,  

I have some quiet time once he nods off again to drink my coffee and putter around the ‘net looking at interesting things.

 On the weekends, like today, when I don’t have to wake up the older kids

 Ashley & Adam for school and my little girl, Lily, stays asleep instead of waking up with me –

  Life is pure joy!

I was searching around this morning and found some really  neat tricks/shortcuts that you can access with Google. 

Some of these I already knew about ~ others I just found out about but can't wait to try so, I thought I'd share them with you.

I've listed quite a bit but try doing your own search for Google's Tips & Tricks and see what comes up!

·         Area Code Information: Enter a U.S. telephone area code into a Google search box (e.g. 760), and results feature a thumbnail map naming the geographic region at the top of the results page. Clicking the thumbnail displays the full Mapquest map of the area, a less useful result since it's an approximation, not an exact map, of the area code's coverage zone.

• Universal Product Codes: Want information about a specific product? Enter its Universal Product Code (UPC), the number on the bottom of a bar code displayed on product packaging into the Google search box (e.g.: 074101420241). If the product can be found, results include a link to the UPC Database for more information.
• Flight Tracking: Enter an airline name or code and a flight number (e.g.: UA 44) and you'll get two links to flight information, from Travelocity and fboweb.com. This feature works well and is robust, accepting variations on the example above such as "united 44" and "ual 44", two other ways of referring to United Airlines. It only appears to work for major airlines, however--I got no results for either Frontier or ATA airlines.

·         Vehicle ID Numbers: Entering a Vehicle ID number (VIN) (e.g. JM1BJ225431140254) returns a link from carfax.com for a page with more information about the year, make and model of a specific car.

·         U.S. Postal Service Tracking Numbers: USPS tracking numbers generate a direct link to the USPS Web site with information about the shipping status of a package.

·         Get Local Time: Type in What time is it followed by any city to get the current time.

·         Track Flight Status: Enter the airline and flight number to find out the departure time and estimated arrival for any flight.

·         Convert Currency, Metrics, Bytes and More: Google has a built-in converter calculator. You can enter quarter cup in teaspoons, seconds in a year, 5 US dollars in Euros and countless others.

·          Search for Pages That are “Better Than,” “Similar to,” or “Reminds me of”: Enter “better than keyword” or “similar to keyword” to find Web pages you never knew existed.

·          Use Google as a Free Proxy: Enter cache:website.com to view a Web page that’s been blocked from the computer you’re using.

·          Remove Affiliate Links From Product Searches: To avoid seeing search results from certain sites, enter –site:website.com.

·          Find Related Items: Enter ~ before any search term to find related items as well.

·          Find Music and Comic Books: Enter -inurl:(htm|html|php) intitle:"index of" +"last modified" +"parent directory" +description +size +(wma|mp3) "Band or comic book name" to find music files and comic books.

·          See Images of People, Objects, Etc.: Type in a search term, and click on images to see photos of the results.

·         Search for Faces: If you’re looking for a photo of a person named Rose, and don’t want to see photos of the flower, add &imgtype=face to the end of your image search. It will show you only images of faces.

·         Google Catalogs (http://catalogs.google.com), which features products from more 6,000 paper catalogs in a searchable index

Google Web Search Features

In addition to providing easy access to billions of web pages, Google has many special features to help you to find exactly what you're looking for. Click the title of a specific feature to learn more about it.

Google Scholar

Scientific Research at Your Fingertips With Google

Goog-411

There's no stopping the Internet dynamo Google when it comes to providing cool free services to the public. Their latest innovation -- offering free directory assistance calls via Goog-411 -- could really shake up the telephone business in America, estimated at about $7 billion annually.

All you have to do is dial 800-GOOG-411 (800-466-4411) from any phone, then tell the automated voice what city and state you're looking for, and the specific business name or category, and Goog-411 does the rest. Although the Goog-411 call is free, as is connecting you to the business, typical phone charges may apply based on your service provider.

You have to try this service. The voice recognition is really amazing and you can stop paying those annoying $1 plus charges from your phone carrier when you have to know a number that you don't have, and they will even dial the number for you for free

GoogleEarth:

·  Plotting a satellite map from your home to another destination, then traveling that very same route.

·  Looking at how far or close airplanes fly by your home.

·  Checking out the strange images distorted by satellite images, like the very weird towers of water piercing the sky north of Pittsburgh.

·  Reliving history thanks to dedicated users who have added overlays in areas like Little Big Horn and Pearl Harbor.

·  Watching real-time weather maps

I recently received an email from a dear friend saying she dropped out of a local church's weekly Bible study because in her words " It made me feel stupid and ! dumb. It was hard. What can I say!!"

Her words cut my heart deeply and got me thinking about hosting a Bible study in my home with her and inviting some other ladies that we know. 

I have previously hosted a class in our church at the Wednesday Night dinner hour using Eliabeth George's A Woman's High Calling and it worked out well.  I have some other books I could use but I was hoping that some of you lovely ladies would help me with some suggestions that I might not be aware of.

As I await your suggestions, I'll be praying for God's Direction.

Blessings to you all,

Tracy

  I was online yesterday looking for quality books for the kids & came upon Usborne Books at Home.

Being a confirmed direct sales addict I could resist the kit offer of $99.95 (good 'til1/31) along with the business "stuff" I would get 33 books - not a bad deal so I signed up for the personal discount.

Then, I started actually looking at the business as a business.  They've got some good stuff here and I can't wait to dig in.

They've got a lot for the homeschooler (which is why I was looking in the first place) AND I have the option of working with schools & libraries.

As a new consultant with Usborne Books at Home, I'm given some great tools to start off and help others, too!  So, I'm letting everyone know

• Double Merchandise Allowance - New consultants within their “incentive period” can offer Double Merchandise Allowance to their hostesses who have minimum retail sales of $250 and a booking dated within the next 4 weeks.  = approx $80 in books or more

•  Exclusive Recruiting Offer! – During your first eight weeks in business you can offer two friends the complete Base Kit for $99.50 plus s/h and tax, half of the normal price. Just note “half price base kit” in the comments section of the consultant agreement and we will adjust the price. I got 33 books  to go along with my kit! and a discount on all the books I'll buy for the kids.

I'm sure that a bunch of you are already consultants with Usborne and I'd love to hear from you but I'm just so excited about the opportunity to bring some income into our family!

Find joy in your day,
Tracy