I have struggled for my entire life with something that happened to me as a child.  I was able to forgive my perpetrator face to face years ago but I still struggled with what happened to me and other issues that come with it.  I can honestly tell you, after years of prayer and working on forgiving others who impacted how things were dealt with, that God has granted me complete and utter peace now.  I can think about every aspect of it, and no longer feel a tremendous, gut wrenching pain.  I HAVE PEACE!  Yes, I am shouting because this has been a tremendous journey for me!

I realized about 12 years ago that God had allowed this in my life because it gave me great empathy for others and I really feel like He has given me opportunity (and will continue to do so) to talk to other women who are hurting.  That was the start of my healing and it has taken this long to really feel healed!  I KNOW in my heart that the peace I now have, has nothing to do with me and everything to do with God.  He has given me the peace that surpasses all understanding.  I have held fast to Jeremiah 29:11 and if you had ever been to our old house you would have seen it painted on my living room wall, as a constant reminder to myself that God loves me and has a plan for my life.  He has no plans to harm me, though Satan might.  I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. 


Jeremiah 29:11-14
For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. ¹² Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. ¹³ You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. ¹⁴ I will be found by you," declares the LORD, "and will bring you back from captivity. ^[b] I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you," declares the LORD, "and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile."

If you are hurting and need some prayer or someone to just talk to, email me.  I long for everyone to have a heart that has peace and knows our one and only peacemaker, Jesus Christ! 

Check out my Mom's Bookkeeping Services Site.  Need a bookkeeper?  She's really good

Catey Bookkeeping Services

I maybe a little late on this but I discovered Pandora this week.  It's online radio.  You type in one of your favorite artists and it will play music similar to that artist.  My first "station" that was created for me, I plugged in Casting Crowns and got a wide variety of Christian music.  There are no commercials, no announcers, it's free, and you can tell it if you don't like a song or band and it won't be played again.  

*This isn't one of my paid ads   It's just a cool discovery that I wanted to share with you all!

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So you have a long drive to Grandma's house and need to stop at a hotel on the way there for a night.  Pack one duffel bag with only the things you will need (for everyone) to stay the night at the hotel; pj's, change of clothes, toothbrush & paste, and hairbrush.  When you get to the hotel, you will only have to take ONE duffel bag in with you, instead of trying to drag everyone's bags in while wrangling all the kiddos.  So much easier!

~This article is a work in progress, I will keep adding to it~

As we get ready for our long drive to Vegas, I have been searching all over the web for the best sites to help me put together my traveling folder and things for the kids to do.  I've compiled my favorite sites and ideas and wanted to share them with you.  My folder will be something that will remain in our van, for future trips!  That will be so handy.  So a lot of work is going into it now but I know it will pay off for many years of road trips to come! 

My Travel Folder Contains:
* Kids songs - as many as I could find and print off
* Travel games, ideas, and rules
* Card game rules
* Theme Ideas

I created a travel journal for each child.  I wrote prompting questions through out the journal to give the kids ideas on what to record.  Since I have little ones that can't read, I will sit down with them nightly and record their answers.  The journals include maps to each destination as well. 

I have also been putting together goody bags that will be given out as the trip progresses.  They may include a snack, a toy, and/or a craft or project.  I used brown paper bags, wrote their names on them, punched holes in the top to thread yarn through, and wrote what was in them on the bottom.  I plan to number them and have a master list that tells me what is in them so I can hand out the appropriate goody bags on our trip, easily.  Chad is helping me with this project as it's fairly large with 4 kids and for such a long trip.  A suggestion on a site I saw said to give them out every so many miles; 50, 75, or 100.  I'm not sure yet how we'll work this. 

Keeping The Kids Busy on the Trip:

Games:
* The Color Game - pick a color and have everyone try to find something in that color. 
* I-Spy
* Name that tune - start singing a tune and have everyone guess what song it is
* Silly story game - start a story and let everyone contribute to it
* "Tic Tac Toe
* Hangman
* Rock, paper, scissors
* Name Game - someone says a name and the next person has to say a name that begins with the last letter of the name.  ie: Chad, David, Don, Nora, Amanda
* Twenty Questions
* Name that cloud - what do the clouds look like?
* Sound game - make up your own sounds for items that you see along the way, see a bird say "meow meow" every time you see a bird.  Pick silly sounds for everything!
* License play game


Songs & Riddles:
* Jesus Loves Me
* Baby Bumblebee
* Apples and Bananas
* The Animal Fair
* A Hunting We Will Go
* I'm a Little Teapot
* John, Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt
* Hey Diddle Diddle
* Hickory Dickory Dock
* A Frog Went A Courtin'
* Do Your Ears Hang Low
* There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly
* Pop Goes The Weasel
* Old Dan Tucker
* Michael Finnegan
* Kookaburra
* Ain't It Great to Be Crazy
* A Pirate's Life for Me
* Pirate Ship
* I'm a Nut
* The Ants Go Marching
* Found A  Peanut
* On Top of Spaghetti
* I've Been Working on the Railroad
* She'll Be Coming Around the Mountain
* If You're Happy and You Know It
* Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes
* Freres Jacques
* Are You Sleeping
* He's Got the Whole World
*


Card Games:
* Crazy 8's
* Old Maid
* Go Fish

To Do:
* Paper Dolls  -  Design Your own!
* Car Bingo
* Car Scavenger Hunt
* Movies on portable dvd player - rent or buy movies they haven't seen yet
* books on CD
* Travel check list - give them a map or check list with the places you will see or pass on the way there.  This will give them a way to calculate how much longer!  I.e. city signs, landmarks, etc.
* Jokes - get some kid joke books from the library and read aloud
* Get some kid sing-a-long cds from the library
* Puppet show
* Finger Puppets
* Crosswords or Word Searches - Make your own for free (very plain)  More Dolls - cute, with hair and more!
* Coloring
* Stickers
* Cats craddle - find directions for all kinds of fun online!
* Word scrambles
* How Many Words Can You Make Out Of: use words that have to do with your trip
* Yarn balls - wrap yarn around all of your fingers a bunch of times, take it off your fingers, tie a knot around the center of the now looped yarn, cut the tips of the yarn, and fan out for a ball of fun!


Snacks (Yes, I am the mean mom, I don't allow anything but water bottles in the van.  I save sticky things that can spill for stops for meals):

* Nuts
* Make your own snack mix
* Crackers
* Lunchables - get them some protein with their crackers!  Make your own for cheap!
* Corn nuts
* Carrot sticks - for older kids who won't likely choke
* String cheese
* Granola Bars
* Fresh Fruit
* GoGurts - frozen
* Fruit Roll-ups - I prefer these over fruit snacks because fruit snacks have a way of sneaking off and getting stuck to seats!
* Air popped popcorn - use a spray butter or olive oil and put in brown lunch bags

Dolly Parton has a new charity called, Dolly Parton's Imagination Library.  She will send your child a new book every month until they turn 5 years old.  Check to see if there is a sponsor locally.  There is not one for our area but I am going to contact our library.  You can too.  Check it out at: Dolly's Imagination Library

I watched bits and pieces of the show, The Bachelor last night.  I have to say, the show really rubs me the wrong way.  I know it's a popular show but the attraction to it, I just can't wrap my mind around.  The "love" story ambiance they try to inject into the show must be the draw for women.  I don't find the men to be all that attractive but I think it's because I just don't find what they are doing to be very honorable, so that right there is a big turn-off. 

Now this new bachelor, Jason just really blew me away.  He picked a beautiful girl after, a month of "dating" and asked her to marry him, then told her how he loved her.  Then I tuned into about 5 minutes of the after show, to hear him say that the chemistry between him and this girl had changed and he had spent the past several weeks thinking about the other girl he had sent packing.  This is when I turned the tv off and went to bed.  I was just so disgusted with this show and the exploitation of everyone involved.  Does it surprise me?  No.  It just disgusts me.  I know there are far worse shows on but I choose to not even tune into those channels.

I have to say, what woman in her right mind is okay with the guy they are falling for and sort of dating, kissing and touching all over some other girl?  When is that really EVER okay?  I guess for your 15 minutes of fame on a hit tv show?  Shame on the ladies who give up months of their lives for this show and shame on Americans for watching it.  My hope is that it's all for show and that none of these girls leave the show as truly heartbroken as they come across. 

This is not a show I'd want my daughter to watch or be involved with.  I want her to wait for her true prince charming.  The one God has already chosen for her.  I want her to save herself and all of herself for him.  I hope that he will do the same for her.  Now that is true romance.  Don't play these games with dating and giving your heart away too soon.  Save it for that special someone that the Lord has specifically picked for you.  I'm saddened to see young women and men, throwing themselves into a show like this, in hopes that they will find their true love.  I'm sure it's possible but this isn't a very honest way to go about it.

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It's been a while since I've taken the time to log in and write.  I've been so busy with kids and having a job, I just let this go a little bit!  We're fighting off nasty colds at our house. 

We're pretty excited to be taking a trip to Vegas and on the way home, stopping at our friend's home to visit.  I think I will take the kids to the Oregon Vortext on our trip down. I'm keeping lots of things a surprise on our trip, to help make it pass because it is going to be a very long haul with 4 kids!  If you have any tips on the Oregon Vortex, let me know.  Is it worth the stop?  I've been visiting this awesome site for traveling tips on traveling with kids.  Chad and I are putting together goodie bags for each child, that they will get to open as the trip progresses.  I've also put a huge folder together, with songs, games, card games, cat's cradle instructions and much more!  I labeled it THE Travel Folder and I think we'll just leave it in the car and continue to add to it through out the years.  No one can ever say they're bored when traveling with us   Aaron's going to fly in midweek and drive home with us.  That will be nice because I have some scary visions of how exhausted I might be after driving 16+ hours with 4 children by myself, esp with 3 of them being 6 and under.  We're going to make a leisurely trip home and take in what ever sites we feel like.  So stay tuned for updates and pics from our trip!