A City Life For Me

You may have noticed my button for Fireproof on the sidebar. If you have not yet seen this movie, you need to do so! Starring Kirk Cameron and Erin Bethea, and produced by the makers of Facing the Giants (Sherwood Pictures), the story is well written and developed. The issue of marriage and divorce is addressed in the movie, and the permanance of marriage before God is advocated. The movie also underscores that love is a committment, not a feeling. The basic story line, without giving anything away, is this (from http://www.fireproofthemovie.com/ ): At work, inside burning buildings, Capt. Caleb Holt lives by the old firefighter's adage: Never leave your partner behind. At home, in the cooling embers of his marriage, he lives by his own rules. Growing up, Catherine Holt always dreamed of marrying a loving, brave firefighter...just like her daddy. Now, after seven years of marriage, Catherine wonders when she stopped being "good enough" for her husband. Regular arguments ...

Okay, I promise this blog is not turning into a coupon blog. But...I have become a couponer , and I have been very excited about all of the money I have been saving lately. So...here is another picture of one of my shopping trips. Once the "novelty" wears off I won't put pictures up as often. These purchases, along with the last couple of freezer-stocking grocery trips will allow us to spend $40 or less per week on groceries in February. On top of that, we will be out of the country for the last week in February (we are going to Israel with Ben's family), so our grocery bill and utilities will be even less! The items pictured here cost me $39.54. There are 43 items. I used 28 coupons. I only paid full price for 4 of the items (many of my coupons required a purchase of two items). Original price and tax would have been $72.11. I splurged on the Dawn Hand Renewal and the Lil Smokies. 10 of the items were completely free, and at least five of the items were 25 cents or...

I have a lot of digital pictures, and I have found a great program to organize and edit them. It is the Memory Manager program from Creative Memories . I was sold on this program before I knew all of its capabilities. Now that I am learning everything it can do, I am even more excited about it! It offers easy organization of your photos. Everything is organized by People, Events, and Places. You create folders based on things you do over and over again, and drop your photos into the folders. To locate your photo, you can search by timeline, by search phrase, or by star (every pic can receive up to a five star rating). For example, Under "Events" I have a sort box called "Holidays", and within that sort box I have a folder for "Christmas". All of my Christmas pictures, every year, go into this folder. To look at the pictures from 2008 only, I simply click "2008" on my timeline, and the filter is applied. The editing features are simple to use. I ...

Psalm 90:1-12 A Prayer of Moses the man of God. 1 Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations. 2 Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God. 3 Thou turnest man to destruction; and sayest, Return, ye children of men. 4 For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past , and as a watch in the night. 5 Thou carriest them away as with a flood; they are as a sleep: in the morning they are like grass which groweth up. 6 In the morning it flourisheth, and groweth up; in the evening it is cut down, and withereth. 7 For we are consumed by thine anger, and by thy wrath are we troubled. 8 Thou hast set our iniquities before thee, our secret sins in the light of thy countenance. 9 For all our days are passed away in thy wrath: we spend our years as a tale that is told . 10 The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fou...

Here is a short, enlightening video about forms of government. I found it especially interesting, and even disturbing, as I considered the state of our nation, and the policies of the new administration. Please take about 10 minutes and watch this educational video. http://www.wimp.com/thegovernment/

When I read that Money Saving Mom found a blinkie by the cheese display to get Kraft cheese for 49 cents each, I headed to Kroger. Sure enough, my store had a blinkie too. My coupons were only for 75 cents off, and if I bought 10 packages they were $1.49 each, so I spent 74 cents on each package. Additionally, I found two gallons of milk on markdown for $1.99 each, and hubby wanted Ritz crackers (which were on sale, and I had a $2 off coupon). Total for this purchase: $15.61!!! I saved 69%, or $34.50. Whoo hoo!

Below are some pictures of my coupon book. I don't remember where I read about this system of organization, but it has worked for me so far. I only get one set of the coupon circulars because I only shop for two people. So I used a basic 1" three ring binder. I bought a package of baseball card holders from Target for around $5. I then applied sticky tabs to the baseball card sheets to divide my coupons into categories. My categories are: Health & Beauty Aids Teeth & Shaving (a separate category because there are so many of these coupons) Household supplies (cleaning items) Laundry & Soap Paper & Plastic (ziploc bags, toilet paper, paper towel, Kleenex) Cereal & Snacks Dry goods Refrigerated & Dairy products Frozen products Medicine Misc Canned goods I only save the coupons for items that I normally buy. If the coupon is for a different brand than my usual item, I save it in case the product goes on sale and I can get it really cheap. Coupons for produ...

I am planning to read through my Bible this year, so right now I am in Genesis. I just finished reading the story of Jacob - from how he cheated Esau out of the birthright, and then the blessing, then he worked 14 years for his Uncle Laban in trade for Leah and Rachel as wives. Then Jacob stayed on in the employment of Laban in order to build up his own herds and flocks. Yesterday I was in Genesis 31, where Jacob wants to return to his own land, but he is afraid of Laban. As a result, Jacob sneaks out and puts and three days' journey between himself and Laban. Once he righted his relationship with Laban, Jacob then had to face his brother Esau, who was breathing out threats of killing Jacob upon their last encounter. This caused me to think about fear. In the first instance, Jacob was afraid of Laban because he was trusting in himself, and not in God. God had given the command in Genesis 31:1, "And the LORD said unto Jacob, Return unto the land of thy fathers, and to thy kind...

My deal of this week has been free toilet paper! There was a printable coupon for 50 cents off Cottonelle toilet paper. At my grocery store, Kroger, it is 99 cents for a 4 pack of single rolls. They also double manufacturer coupons for 50 cents and under. So, 99 cents per pack with $1 off from doubled coupons - that is free toilet paper! I had six of these coupons, so I was able to get six 4-roll packages of toilet paper for free. That works for me!

I have had a little more time on my hands lately so I have enjoyed some card-making and scrapbooking time. These are a few of the cards I made with my new Sweetheart punch from Creative Memories (Mom gave it to me for Christmas). I got the ideas from the Creative Memories Project Center , and I was very pleased with how they turned out! This is just a freehanded tree trunk from a brown paper bag, and circles and hearts. SO EASY! I think this one is my favorite - mostly because of the buttons that make up the butterfly's body. This little love bird was so easy to make with two circle punches, and the sweetheart punch. I also love the brown paper with faux stitching. So much fun! This is another butterfly I did without the buttons, and with a different color scheme.

When this series first came out I was thoroughly disinterested. I don't know why, but I had no desire to read them. Ben mentioned that he had read the series, and seen the movie. I was in the library one day and saw "Left Behind the Movie" on the DVD shelf, so I brought it home. I enjoyed the movie and thought that it was very well done. This spurred me on to check out the books and begin reading. I decided to start with book one, despite the fact that it is covered by the movie which I had just watched. In the beginning, it was a slow read because I was familiar with much of the information. As the book progressed, I found minor discrepancies in the movie, and I also discovered new details. I believe the book does have some theological problems regarding the end times. However, since I am not as well versed in my eschatology as I would like, I cannot enumerate them for you. This book has been good for me in that it has raised questions in my mind and encouraged me to ...

I have been very negligent in my blogging lately. But it's okay - I was on vacation! We enjoyed a great visit in Colorado with my family. We spent Christmas Eve with my mom's side of the family at Grandma & Grandpa's house. It was great to see them again, and to see that Grandpa is doing much better in his recovery from knee replacement surgery. We gave Grandpa a framed verse that I had done in calligraphy. I wrote Psalm 91:1 - his favorite verse - in Hebrew and in English. He got a kick out of it, and then delved into talking about prophecy. Grandpa Paul with Ben & Andrea Grandpa's verse On Christmas Day my dad's parents came over. They drove in from Muskogee, Oklahoma, and were staying with my Uncle Tim in Boulder, Colo. We had a good visit and a great meal. It is a Godby family tradition to have fondue on Christmas Day. We had steak, shrimp, chicken, and mom made all of the fixings and sides. I was stuffed at the end! Wesley & Andrea - do you like We...