The Many Faces of Emily

You Know You're A Large Family If...

1. You return from a shopping trip with 7 loaves of bread, 5 gallons of milk, 7 boxes of cereal, 4 bags of apples, 4 bunches of bananas, and many other things and you are asked if you are stocking up for the month and you reply, "no, this is just for 1 week."

2. Couponing becomes a Monday family event.

3. You have to make many trips to the doctor and dentist just for all of your children to get in their yearly check-ups.

4. You don't get many invites for dinner because people are overwhelmed at the size of your family and the cost it will take to feed them all.

5. 4 loads of laundry is a daily chore.

6. Sweeping and mopping the floor occurs 3 times a day.

This list can and will continue as I think of more to write.

Redefining Beautiful by Jenna Lucado

Recently I signed up to be a book reviewer for Thomas Nelson Publishers and chose Redefining Beautiful by Jenna Lucado. Jenna writes about how the world defines beauty as something you see and can make of yourself. She says that God defines beauty as what He sees when He sees you. There are accessories that many people will put on to make themselves more beautiful. She takes the theme of accessories and brings it all back to scripture and calls them life's accessories. Life's accessories for a beautiful person should be:

1. Security- trusting that no matter what, we have a God who loves us.
2. Identity- in knowing who we are and whose we are.
3. Value- knowing we are treasured.
4. Love- knowing God's love for us so we can love others.
5. Self-control- for making good decisions.
6. Peace- in believing God is in control.
7. Joy- in knowing the Source of all joy.
8. Contentment- in who God made you to be.

With these accessories added to our lives we are beautiful to God and do not need society to tell us rather or not we are beautiful. This book is well needed in our society for young girls. I will definitely have my girls read this book when they are old enough. Jenna does a great job at incorporating scripture throughout as well as personal stories and application questions. She knows how to get to the heart of just who defines beautiful. I would give this book a five star rating!

Haircuts By Mom

The Long Lost Blogger Has Finally Returned

After being away from blogging for 4 months, I am now ready to blog again. Life has been very busy as a mom to 5 little ones, a home school teacher, and a pastors wife. During the four months that I was away I spent time learning how to coupon. This is a whole new world to me! Much to my amazement there are many other mom bloggers out there who have done all this research on finding the best deals for your money using coupons and getting free stuff. A few of the sites that have become my favorite are www.krazycouponlady.blogspot.com and www.wickedcooldeals.com. Other sites that I enjoy are www.couponmom.com and www.afullcup.com. Just yesterday, I discovered www.momcentral.com. This is a site that teaches you how you can test new products and take surveys all while earning a few extra bucks! As I continue to learn more I will post more.

Another Great Resource

Do you ever wonder if there is anything else that you should be teaching your child at the moment? I have, so I did some research and found a helpful book. Gail Martin wrote What Every Child Should Know. It is full of advice about devotional life, character skills, manners, safety, girlhood, boyhood, practical life, etc. I found it very helpful because it has reproducible charts that help me to know what I can work on for each age level in my home. Kendra Fletcher over at www.preschoolersandpeace.com recommended it on her recent talk she gave at a homeschooling convention. She is also full of lots of helpful and practical advice.

The Crow nd The Pitcher

I just couldn't resist sharing this Aesop fable with you all. It is found in First Language Lessons for the Well Trained Mind by Jessie Wise.


A large black crow flew over a long stretch of parched land. He grew thirstier and thirstier! At the edge of a village, he spied a large, deep pitcher at the edge of a patio. He flew down for a drink. To his dismay, there was so little water in the bottom of the pitcher that he could not reach it with his beak.
"I'll push the pitcher over and drink what spills," he thought. But the pitcher was too heavy.
"I'll stretch until I can reach the bottom of the pitcher," he said. But his neck was too short.
"I am too tired to try again," he sighed. So he hopped over into the shade of a tree to think about what else could be done.
As he rested in the cool shade, he noticed a number of large pebbles around the edge of the patio. "I know!" he said to himself. "I can pick up these pebbles one at a time and drop them into the pitcher. As they sink to the bottom, the water will rise above them. Maybe I can collect enough pebbles to make the water rise so that I can reach it."
So he collected the pebbles, one by one, and dropped them into the pitcher. Slowly, pebble by pebble, the water rose. And finally the thirsty crow plunged his beak into the water. He drank until he was full. Refreshed, he spread his wings and flew away.

Moral: Many hard things can be accomplished with patience and perseverance.