Back to School Shopping Secrets

It is one of my favorite shopping seasons.  Okay, it is not nearly as fun as Christmas shopping but the school-shopping season can be a lot of fun with a little planning.  It is that time of year when office supply stores desperately compete for your school supply dollars and with a little wisdom, like the ant you can store up for the upcoming winter.  I was on the hunt for 1-cent (yes, really only 1 penny) tab dividers and notebooks when I came across something for my husband’s business that he had been wanting for a long time.  Armed with my basket of cheap school supplies and my 15% off coupon, I was ready to make the splurge and bring him home a present. 

As I was checking out, the person running the register asked me if I wanted to donate a $1 to children who couldn’t afford school supplies.  The thought of a child having to start back to school without a backpack full of shiny new pens, pencils, and paper almost brought tears to my eyes.  I said yes I would like to donate.  The cashier reaches into a bag and says there is a coupon for $5 off your order available.  I tried to give $1.00 toward a child and I receive $5.00 off my order that I wasn’t expecting! The benefits of giving are not always an immediate monetary gain like I experienced.  You may never see the look of joy on the face of the child that you touched.  Believe me that no act of kindness ever goes unnoticed! 

Here are 7 tips to stretch your school-shopping budget:

1. Start Early – Right now many of the office supply stores offer about 3-5 things per week for under $0.25 each week some are even $0.01.
2. Plan multiple trips – stock up on the cheap things each week instead of trying to knock off your list in one trip.
3. Get in and get out – know what you are going to buy before your stop.  Remember your time is valuable and you are making multiple trips to get everything on your list.
4. Look for rebates/loyalty rewards – office supply stores often like to offer things free after rebate or get 100% back in store credits for purchases.  Free is Free.  Take the extra step to fill out an online rebate or sign up for the store loyalty program.
5. Plan for the year – stock up for your kids, household, and business.  Paper doesn’t go bad.  Better to buy 2 extra notebooks now for $0.10 each than have to go out in March and pay full price.
6. Designate a spot for your stuff – fill your child’s book bag with their stuff for the 1^st day of school and put the extra paper, pencils, pens, and highlighters in a drawer where they can access it as needed during the school year.
7. Don’t forget about coupons – coupons aren’t just for grocery items.  This time of year you will often see coupons online and in the Sunday paper for everything from notebooks to glue sticks.  Pair these with a sale and you can often get these items for free.

Happy Shopping!  I hope this helps you get ready for the upcoming school year.  By using the tips that I listed above I was able to cut our school supply expenses by 77% for our family!

Turning the Bitter into Sweet

On Sunday morning, we got to worship with a friend of ours, Joe Grubbs.  He made a statement that really stuck with me – “Don’t be bitter be better. “  It is easy to allow the words that others have spoken over us to take on offenses and allow us to be bitter and take on a cynical attitude to all who are around us.  Sometimes the high road is not paved and smooth but rugged and filled with briars.

What happens if it is already too late and we have allowed the bitterness to affect us? Our thinking has become clouded by those hurts?   I have hope for you today, God is able to turn our bitter waters sweet again.  The choice is ours though if we want to remain the same or coming to a loving God and be honest about our situation.  Just like when I take a cup of coffee with a bitter aftertaste and add some Italian Sweet Cream to it and it is forever changed.  God is able to take our bitterness and make us sweet again by adding His healing love to our situation.

I am sure that there were those that told Jesus that his loving us was a mistake as He hung on the cross for our sakes.  Rather than being bitter his response was better, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.”  Bitterness is like acid it does more damage to the containers that it is stored in then to the object that it is poured out on.  Today, I hope that you are encouraged to take your bitter hurts and disappointments and lay them at the feet of a loving God who is able to heal our hearts and allow us to say, “I Forgive.”

Five Minutes to Your Success

When I was doing my social work internship, I came across the five-minute principle.  One of my coworkers shared with me that her son had been diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder or more commonly known as ADHD.  She really wanted to avoid putting him on medication and so one of the techniques she used with him was to set a timer for five minutes.  If he could complete five minutes of his schoolwork without getting up, then he was rewarded with five minutes of free time.  Every time he got up before the timer went off, the timer would be reset for another five minutes with no reward.  This may sound silly to you but no matter what your attention span is everyone needs to feel the rush of completing a task.  Completing one task successfully helps spur you on to be able to complete the next task ahead of you. 

I use this same method for household chores.  Sure, after a long day at the office the last thing that you want to do is come home to dirty dishes, a pile of laundry, and a bunch of hungry family members asking you what is for dinner.  It would be so much easier to just crash on the couch for the evening and hope that you had more energy tomorrow.  However, pick one small task that you can accomplish in five minutes.  For example, see if you can unload and reload the dishwasher in five minutes … you will be amazed at what you can accomplish.  The success of completing that task will give you energy to try another five-minute task and before you know it you will be looking around amazed at how quickly you brought order to the chaos.  I am not promising that your home will look perfect or that you will cook a gourmet meal every night but if you start somewhere you will be amazed at how easily you went from stressed to success!

Freedom and Gratitude

“Don’t find fault, find a remedy; anybody can complain.” – Henry Ford

Sitting outside a local Starbucks typing since for the second time within the last 3 days we are once again without power and Internet service.  Complaining comes easy.  Action takes effort.  If you allow it, the circumstances of life will hinder you from accomplishing anything.  There is always an excuse or a reason why we can’t get something done.  Whether it is the storm that is raging outside, the lack of power, our busy schedule, there is always a reason that our plans can be thwarted or hindered.

I think about those who have been devastated by severe storms around the world and realize that a power-outage that can be fixed within 24-48 hours is nothing more than an inconvenience.  Our home is still standing, we drove down the street to get power, and I can even cook our dinner on the grill if necessary or grab a burger from the local fast food restaurant.  I really have no reason for complaints and with a little planning I can still accomplish what I set out to do today.

When I think about taking control of life’s circumstances when it isn’t convenient or easy, my husband always comes to mind.  He didn’t let sickness stop him and kept pressing on.  You can read more about his incredible journey and victory over diabetes and kidney failure at natefreemanstillstanding.blogspot.com. 

Yes, I truly have so much to be thankful for and in a few days we will be celebrating our country’s independence.  Freedom doesn’t come cheap!  The things we so often take for granted were bought with a costly price.  Jesus said that there is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for your friends.  As we enjoy the festivities these next few days, I am so grateful for those who laid their lives down for us to enjoy our freedom.  I am most grateful that Jesus laid down his life to give us true freedom over sin, sickness, death, hell, and the grave.

May we enjoy this time with our family and friends, remembering how precious our freedom is.  

Learning to Love

God has taught me a lot about love through my stepchildren.  I have heard many people say that they have learned to love through their biological children.  Do I believe that God places His innate love in the hearts of parents?  Yes, we see a glimpse of God’s love in a parent’s ability to love unselfishly.  However, how many times have we seen the headlines that report parent’s doing the most awful things to their own biological children?  The Bible tells us that God is love and that we are able to love because He first loved us.  People who don’t know God can’t love like God loves.  The Bible also teaches us that love for our children are to be taught from one generation to the next.

 

God has adopted us into His family. This type of adoption was a permanent commitment on behalf of the parent, however, the child could decide at any time to leave the relationship.  What a picture this is of the love of God!  He gives us the choice to opt out of the family but He will never abandon us.  What a contrast from our society’s adoption system that says if the kid turns out to be too difficult, return them to the state.  Or if your kids give you too many problems go ahead and send them across the country to their other parent.

So back to my step-kids, my heart broke for their time, their affection, their skinned knees, and the tears streaming down their eyes.  I rejoiced at their successes and cried at their failures. They came into my life as teenagers and through their lives I was able to see how much God rejoices over our successes and cries at our mistakes.  How He loves us even when we don’t love Him back.   

Has it always been perfect?  Of course not!  Were their times that I wanted to throw up my hands in frustration?  Sure.  It is important to remember that love never fails.  When you chose to love it might be hard at times, but it is always worth it!

Fatherhood

Too often we recognize the wrong people as heros, such as movie stars and sports figures that don't live a life worthy of recognition.  How tragic that the true heros around us often go unnoticed.  

Fatherhood doesn’t come easy.  It doesn’t come with lots of thank yous for the sacrifices made.  Sadly, the media and our legal system often devalue it.  It doesn’t end when your child turns 18 and it sure doesn’t get any easier just because they are “grown”.  I am thankful to the men who chose to stay by their families no matter what it costs them.  Those that knew that their first job was to parent and not be our best friend.  Those who chose to lead us and guide us even when they knew that our response might be, “I hate you!” as we through a tantrum only to look back and realize that they really had our best interest at heart.  For those who provided security and discipline, and whose strong arms could comfort our tears. 

With love this Father’s Day to my Dad, my husband, and my Father-in-Law.  I love you and I thank God for each of you every day. 

Opportunity Knocks

“Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.” – Thomas Edison

I like this quote because often the harder you have to work for something the more value it has. Marriage takes work.  Managing your home takes work.  Making money takes work.

Each of us have different things that come easy for us and other things that don’t come quite as easy or are just down right difficult.  For me, schoolwork came easily.  In fact, I was told in high school that I would have been a nerd if I didn’t play basketball.  However, when it came to driving this wasn’t the case for me, in fact, I failed my driving test twice.  I didn’t quit just because it was difficult for me.  The freedom that a driver’s license brings to a teenager is an easy goal to work for.  What about the things that are difficult when the result doesn’t bring immediate gratification?  I was helping Trey with Geometry homework the other day and there is no immediate teenage gratification for acing a Geometry test in the same way there is for getting a license.  On a sunny spring day when all you want to do is go outside and all your friends are texting you, how do you sit at a desk and work Geometry problems? 

A favorite quote for our family is “If it were easy, every one would do it!”  We have been saying that a lot around here as Nate furthers his education.  If you are chasing after a dream and it gets difficult, now is not the time to give up!