Monday, April 18, 2011

Fun

With all of the bushes and trees filling out and the grass turning green, my eagerness to be outdoors is also growing!! I have so many plans filling my mind...getting our garden planted, playing H-O-R-S-E and hopscotch with the children, hiking at Turkey Run, cooking dinner on the grill and getting our zipline up and going. We have family traditions of park days where we play wiffle ball and kickball and then have a picnic outdoors. We also head to Holiday World over Memorial Day weekend. I can hardly wait! What about the Creation Museum? Have you been there yet?? What about you? What are your plans??

Sunday, April 17, 2011

Changing the Easter Candy Habit

This is a post from a dear friend of mine who is a LEAN instructor. Enjoy!

Monday, March 28, 2011

Hey, Mr. Postman!

As the weather is looking more like Spring, my mother's heart is thrilled! Each day as I pray for my children, I cover my mailman-son in prayer: safety, warmth or dryness from rain which will soon change to coolness in the heat, protection from dogs biting him, strength for his knees and ankles and also for those people to whom he delivers mail.

My mom's brother carried mail until he retired from the USPS and now my oldest son "carries" on the tradition. He is out in the worst weather...you know, the kind that is just door-to-vehicle but is so bitter cold. He walks his route. Daily. When I am all warm at home, my thoughts go to him and his duty he carries out no matter what his circumstances. He is also out in the most wonderful weather. He loves it! He has always loved the outdoors and working hard! But being aware of his situation has made me more aware of our mailman. Knowing all he goes through, it has helped me see the need to show kindness to our letter carrier. Since I am able to save so much money using coupons, I have things available to share as gifts with him. We have also included our trash collectors and UPS delivery person in the receivers of these gifts. I know that they are doing their job but how great to be able to offer a simple thank you gift to encourage them including the holiday seasons.

I am so thankful for those people who open their door and greet him with a smile and a cold water bottle in the summer. It touches my heart! I'm thankful for those who have offered for him to get warm within their homes even though he cannot accept. In his heart, it must warm him as though he had entered!

Saturday, March 26, 2011

Secret Friends

It is fun to tear out small papers and write the name of each person in our family on them and place them in a bowl. The suspense in the eyes of my children makes me giggle. Each person in the family awaits their turn to dip their hand in the paper soup to choose their Secret Friend. Sometimes we have a specific theme and others times it is just to try to stuff as much love into each secret act as possible. We used to have "mailboxes" made from empty tissue boxes where we could "mail" our secret gifts and notes within Munroville. This also served to encourage others to write notes to each other and "mail" them even if they weren't their Secret Friend. But the current course of action is to somehow manage to get to the pillow on the bed of Chosen Person and deliver a card, note or small gift without being caught. While this is not as easy as it might seem, it has certainly added to the adventure of it all!

I "coupon" so I am able to gather a vast majority of the gifts we share amongst us for free so there isn't a major cost involved. It is wonderful for the family members who have Gift Giving as their love language. If they don't have that as their primary love language, they are learning to show love to others who might have that as their love language--possibly a future spouse or a child of their own. I have learned to speak them all in order to show love to each of my children in the way they receive love.

We are doing our "revealing" next weekend where we will take turns sharing the name of the person we chose and something we see special about them. Already I have heard children guessing aloud who they think might be the one who has them as their Secret Friend. It is sweet to watch the children share in this fun family game and build their relationships which will bring rewards for years to come.

Friday, March 25, 2011

Tackle the Hot Spots

I am working on the weekly simplify-my-life goals and I am about done with week one. Everyone else is working on week three.

Since Thomas has moved, my heart has had readjusting to do. We plan for this, we raise them for this, but it isn't easy! So, as I have slowly gone through my closet for in fact, I do see it daily, I have worked through both the closet and drawers to clean them out and organize the remaining contents. But I am asking God to do the same thing within my heart. I'm more aware of the need since my heart has ached so much. Otherwise, I might have continued seeing the same things daily and become accustomed to their presence. I know God has something else, some magnificent plans.

I'll let you know how it goes.

Thursday, March 24, 2011

Bible Curriculum That Is Anti-Bible?

I am currently putting together a post about Homeschooling--For Free. However, there is controversy about a BIBLE "curriculum" that doesn't agree with the Bible. Imagine! I read a blog by Anne Elliott about this and wanted to share it here.

Have a great day!

Saturday, February 19, 2011

S I M P L E

We moved. Again. This past October it was a local move to a bit larger home on 7.5 acres. We had relocated to this area as a transfer for employment. (We like to eat so we chose to move.) We were told, however, that it would be temporary. Since our move here had followed the flow of 75 other families to the area, the rentals were hard to come by. The one house we did find, we were thankful for: nice neighborhood, clean house. Small, but nice enough. After months of waiting to relocate, we decided to look locally for more a place with more space. We found it instantly and made the move that weekend.

Even though we have been here some months and the end-of-the-year holidays are past, I still don't feel settled into our new home. Being a Marine Wife for 20 years, I learned not to let the things I owned own me. I had to be able to let go of anything. Frequently. This really worked for my benefit to live a simple life. But here I am six years after retirement and the usual peace that comes with a move and settling in hasn't been present. Am I being owned by "things" we live with?

I found this project.



I am beginning next month with someone else leading the project. I pray that this nudge along with the cyber-company of others will help me get all settled in so I can focus on all the fun spring and summer projects our family has planned.

Friday, February 18, 2011

Amazon

There is a GIVEAWAY going on and you can enter to win! Check it out at Couponing for 4! $10 Amazon.com gift certificate! If I win, I am going to buy DIAPERS for my new GRANDBABY!

Sunday, February 13, 2011

21 At Our House


Today marks the day
our youngest child
turns 21 months old.





















...and our oldest (at home) is 21 years old.

Sunday, February 6, 2011

Use the Other Hand

~There was a poor boy who worked at a mill. He worked hard and long all day and most of the night to provide for his mother. One lady observed all of the strenuous work and in asking him further, "Don't you ever tire?," the poor young boy replied, "Oh, yes ma'am!" She then asked, "And what do you do when you get tired?" He energetically answered, "I switch to the other hand!" ~


WOW! When I get overly tired or just plain tired, I tend to stop. In hearing this short story, it has challenged me to continue........with the other hand! Praise the Lord for His continued mercy in teaching us how to go on for His glory and our good, even when we can't see the results right away! We need not to be persons of circumstance, we need to be visionaries..........................by using the other hand!

~Emily

Saturday, February 5, 2011

Valentine's Day?

We enjoy celebrating in our home. We find all kinds of reasons to have a party! We, of course, have the traditional holidays that most American's acknowledge but we have "edited" them to our liking. We have also created our own reasons to throw a party. Do you remember Faith's Halfway Celebration? We have also celebrated things like new shoes with a song and dance and going out to dinner because of the blessing of a pay raise. We have a special day we remember each of our children in Heaven and we have a HUGE celebration when a child turns double digits, just to name a few! But it wasn't until we have had adult children in our home being "held against their will to the expectations of the world" that we changed the name of Valentine's Day to Single's Awareness Day! (I know the story of the roots of Saint Valentine but adding chocolate to the day was surely done by a woman, right?)

Now we use this opportunity to try to consider both the hearts of the young adults choosing to wait on the Lord's timing for their Covenant Keeper and their circumstances as well as others who are single again. We have pictured it as kind of how having a Mother/Daughter Banquet leaves out mommy's with sons or sadly, wives without earthly children of their own. I dislike when circumstances simply leave someone out! So, we take flowers to my aunt that isn't married and have added another aunt to our list since the death of her husband as well as others.

Isn't it suppose to be about showing LOVE? What ideas do you have to share love on or around that day that can be so difficult for others?

Monday, January 31, 2011

Bird Feeded Project

Crafts. Some of us here love them and some of us don't. But we love family time and so everyone participates. We are busy making bird feeders. Come along on our journey and maybe this will prompt you to make bird feeders to hang from the trees outside your home.

What you'll need:

  • Pine cones
  • Paper plate per person
  • Butter knife
  • Smooth peanut butter
  • Birdseed
  • Ribbon, yarn or string
  • Scissors

How to make it:

  1. Cut a long length of ribbon, about 2 feet, of ribbon, yarn or string to hang the bird feeder.
  2. Tie it in a knot around the pine cone near the top (about 3 sections down).
  3. Tie a knot in the end of the ribbon. This part will hang from the tree.
  4. Use the knife to spread peanut butter inside the pine cone and around the edges.
  5. Hold the pine cone over the plate and sprinkle the birdseed over the pine cone.
  6. Roll the pine cone in the birdseed that is on the plate.
  7. Hang the bird feeder on the tree.
  8. Enjoy watching the birds eat their treat! This makes for capturing great pictures for the photographer in your family.

Sunday, January 30, 2011

18 weeks

There is a countdown going on at our house. We have done this so many times!!

My main memories of "counting down" have been when William was on deployment. The children and I would spend the first several days of him being gone cutting and connecting strips of paper and making a chain. I would try to keep it fun with the children but wow was that hard standing there looking at all...those...rings. One link represented each day and I remember silently wondering if I'd make through the whole deployment when I was barely making it through making the paper chain. The rings covered the entire floor! We hung the chain around the room in swags and then each child would take a turn each morning removing a piece of the chain. How fun when we got down to halfway. We'd celebrate!

I have also done a countdown until vacation, a countdown until my parents arrived to visit us at yet another duty station, a countdown until a special family event and many pregnancies we counted as God would choose to bless us with another child!

Well, this is a new countdown for me, one I have never had the privilege to experience before!! This is the countdown to the "due date" of my very first grandchild! My oldest son's wife, my beautiful daughter-in-love, is pregnant and today she is 18 weeks from her due date! She is past halfway!!

Two weeks ago when they were here visiting, we had a surprise Halfway Party and it was so much fun to celebrate LIFE!

Saturday, January 29, 2011

GIVEAWAY

If you are interested and want to try to WIN a Lilla Rose flexi clip, head on over HERE and check out this blog.

Enter to win...

Lilla Rose

This is an invitation to a special Lilla Rose online party! This special website link will be open from January 28-February 7. We would love for you to come for a visit!


Lilla Rose is home to the elegant Flexi-Clip, which allows you to do your hair beautifully in only seconds! It will be the most charming, durable, and comfortable hair clip you have ever tried! Baby fine or extra thick, the flexi will work in your hair where other clips have failed. Once you try one, you will be won over for life!

Please start by watching the styling videos, so you can see all the beautiful and feminine hairstyles the flexi can do. Then watch the sizing videos, to learn your perfect size. Then click on your size, and see all the charming styles there are to choose from!

Lilla Rose also carries elegant jewelry, headbands, hair sticks, bobby pins, eyeglass lanyards, and badge holders.

All orders are shipped directly to you, and come with a one-year guarantee, so if your flexi is not the right size, you can send it back free for an exchange.

Don’t forget about Valentine’s Day…flexi-clips make very beautiful gifts for all the lovely ladies in your life….mothers, daughters, wives, aunts, and sisters!

To visit our online party, please click here:

Thanks so much!



Blessings,

Paula Ramm

Independent Lilla Rose consultant

Friday, January 28, 2011

Happy New Year

I believe it is still permissible to say "Happy New Year" as my greeting to those I haven't seen yet this year. Never mind that next week is February. I haven't been on here yet this year to begin writing. I had hopes of writing weekly and the older girls taking turns adding to our "online journal" as well. Good intentions.

So, we have updated and rearranged the page and we even have a schedule so that each of us can contribute to The Munro Family blog. We hope to be able to share more of our lives with you, our family and friends.

Thank you to Rebekah for her many entries last year. She did a great job!

Saturday, December 25, 2010

Merry Christmas

Greetings from our home to yours...

May this season of celebrating the birth of Jesus bring joy to your heart and home!

With Love,
Ann

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Lydia at 15 months

Thursday, December 16, 2010

Family Conference

Family Economics Conference 2011 Banner

Sunday, June 20, 2010

Father's Day

“Deep in his heart every man longs for admiration of his manliness – his masculine skills, abilities, achievements, ideas, dreams, and manly body. He hungers for it as for bread. Just as you need love, he needs admiration. In fact, the center of a woman’s happiness in marriage is to be loved – but the center of a man’s is to be admired.”

~ Mrs. Helen Andelin from page seventy-nine of the book Fascinating Womanhood, 2007 edition.

Monday, May 17, 2010

Lydia at 1 year

Thursday, May 13, 2010

Lydia's First Birthday!



Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday dear Lydia
Happy Birthday to you!

Happy 1st Birthday Lydia!

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Tomorrow we are heading to Danville.
So we are busy packing,
baking and getting ready.

Sunday, May 9, 2010


In just a few days our
precious baby will be
1!
Ahhhhhhhhhh!
Where has time gone?

A Tribute to Mothers

Your High Calling

Mother, whoever you may be,
You may think long and earnestly
Of your high calling. Pondering
The undreamed honour of the thing;
Learning how God, through you, would plan
To be well know to every man.
An through your arms would gather fast
The whole world to His heart at last.


Fay Inchfawn

Mamas: the Shapers of Eternal Souls
The most underrated job in America is that of being a mother. The entire world seems to conspire to mock and minimize the true blessings of motherhood. This is why we appreciate the words of J.R. Miller, who once wrote:

Oh, mothers of young children, I bow before you in reverence. Your work is most holy. You are fashioning the destinies of immortal souls. The powers folded up in the little ones that you hushed to sleep in your bosoms last night, are powers that shall exist forever. You are preparing them for their immortal destiny and influence. Be faithful. Take up your sacred burden reverently. Be sure that your heart is pure and that your life is sweet and clean. —J.R. Miller, The Family, pg. 106

The Cost of Motherhood
Once a lady went to visit her friend. During the visit the children of the friend entered the room and began to play with each other. As the lady and her friend visited, the lady turned to her friend and said eagerly and yet with evidently no thought of the meaning of her words: “Oh, I’d give my life to have such children.” The mother replied with a subdued earnestness whose quiet told of the depth of experience out of which her words came: “That’s exactly what it costs.”

There is a cost of motherhood. And the price is no small sum. And if you are not willing to pay this price, no amount of encouragement about the joys of motherhood will satisfy. But the price of motherhood is not fundamentally different from the price of being a disciple of Jesus Christ. In fact, Christian mothers see their duty as mothers flowing from their calling to Jesus Christ. And what is this cost?

Christian motherhood means dedicating your entire life in service of others. It means standing beside your husband, following him, and investing in the lives of children whom you hope will both survive you and surpass you. It means forgoing present satisfaction for eternal rewards. It means investing in the lives of others who may never fully appreciate your sacrifice or comprehend the depth of your love. And it means doing all these things, not because you will receive the praise of man — for you will not — but because God made you to be a woman and a mother, and there is great contentment in that biblical calling.

In other words, Motherhood requires vision. It requires living by faith and not by sight.

These are some of the reasons why Motherhood is both the most biblically noble and the most socially unappreciated role to which a young woman can aspire. There are many people who ask the question: Does my life matter? But a mother that fears the Lord need never ask such a question. Upon her faithful obedience hinges the future of the church and the hope of the nation.

In 1950, the great Scottish American preacher Peter Marshall stood before the United States Senate and he explained it this way:

The modern challenge to motherhood is the eternal challenge — that of being a godly woman. The very phrase sounds strange in our ears. We never hear it now. We hear about every other kind of women — beautiful women, smart women, sophisticated women, career woman, talented women, divorced women, but so seldom do we hear of a godly woman — or of a godly man either, for that matter.

I believe women come nearer fulfilling their God-given function in the home than anywhere else. It is a much nobler thing to be a good wife than to be Miss America. It is a greater achievement to establish a Christian home than it is to produce a second-rate novel filled with filth. It is a far, far better thing in the realm of morals to be old-fashioned than to be ultramodern. The world has enough women who know how to hold their cocktails, who have lost all their illusions and their faith. The world has enough women who know how to be smart.

It needs women who are willing to be simple. The world has enough women who know how to be brilliant. It needs some who will be brave. The world has enough women who are popular. It needs more who are pure. We need women, and men, too, who would rather be morally right that socially correct.

As we approach America’s national Mother’s Day celebration, lets remember that we are fighting for the Lord, and it is He who prioritizes motherhood and home as the highest calling and domain of womanhood “that the word of God be not blasphemed.” Titus 2:5. May the Lord fill our churches with faithful mothers!

Posted by Doug Phillips on May 8, 2010