Lots of stuff going on. If you don't follow Mike's twitter or his blog go here.

I will write more when I can.

Pray.

Kristen

Better Pictures

I promised I would post better pictures of Seth's baptism, and there are some fabulous shots on Mike's blog.

Go check them out!

Kristen

The Old Schoolhouse Digital Magazine

The second product I was given the opportunity to review was this, The Old Schoolhouse Magazine digital subscription.

When I first thought of an e-magazine I have to be honest I wasn't too sure. What if I found an article I wanted someone else to read? Or I wanted to just flip through quickly to find a specific thing? This seemed like it would be a problem with this format.

I spent considerable time this last week browsing through this magazine, on-line. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that my concerns were unfounded. While reading through this magazine on-line if you want to share something with a friend you can just email it to them! Also if you want to find a specific topic like "unit studies" you can search the word and up comes all the articles in the magazine that talk about unit studies.

I also have to praise the fact that the digital copy also saves paper and clutter. If you know me you know that I can't stand clutter. And having a bunch of magazines and papers laying around piling up just about drives me crazy! So what usually happens to magazines that I am finished with, is they get thrown out and then months later I go looking for a particular article that I read and I don't have it because I threw away the magazine! But with this digital copy you don't have the clutter, but you do have access to all the issues you purchased in the archive.

Finally, if you want to take it with you to read you do have the option of printing out just the articles that you want to read while you are away.

Very easy to use, clutter free, and environment friendly what more can you ask from a magazine?

Kristen

The Old Schoolhouse Planner

I was given the opportunity recently through The Old Schoolhouse, to review a couple of home schooling products and write reviews. This was such a great thing for me because I got to try out a some great new products that I may not have thought of trying before!

The first was this. It is a planner for home schooling parents, but really it is a planner for every parent! I love this planner and am excited about using it this coming year.

I love that it is an E- book. I like that I can browse through it and decide what I want to print out and only print out what I will use. A lot of planners that I have used seem to have pages of useless stuff that just remain empty and seem like such a waste, while not having the pages that I could really use. This is not a problem with this planner.

And the people who came up with this thought of everything! There are pages and pages to choose from, including fun recipes, calendar pages with big blocks for writing in dates and appointments, forms for everything, and charts that any parent would love to have at their finger tips. A lot of thought went into the planning and producing of this planner.

Check it out!!

Kristen

My Son

Baptism Pictures

What can I say? It was an incredible day from beginning to end. The music in the morning, the talk from God's heart through Scott's mouth, the amazing stories of hope, the gorgeous weather, family to hang out with, fantastic food, and of course the highlight of the day, over 125 people baptized. One of which was my son. I got to be in the water with him and help pull him out of the water to be reborn. Just writing that brings tears to my eyes.

Yes, I was crying before he came up. I was crying tears of joy for all the other people that I had the honor of being next too in the water, as they made this huge, exciting pronouncement of their faith. Seeing the excitement in them, the promise of hope and new life. Amazing.

And yes, I really lost it when Seth came up for his turn. Thankfully, he was the last one his daddy and I got the privilege of baptizing yesterday.

Stacey, my sister-in-law did her best with my horrible camera, but I am hoping there will be some fabulous pictures of the whole day, including my Seth, soon.

And when the video is available I will post that too.

And finally, I just need to stress to you that if you are in the area next year, or you can be in the area for this event, do it. It will change your life. I promise you. You will never forget it.

Kristen

Stuff Christians Like

This is just too hilarious. If you don't read this guys stuff you are seriously missing out. He is so funny.

But as I was browsing his blog today, I came across this and I laughed so hard. If you aren't a regular reader go and read #368 part 1 and 2.

Enjoy!

Kristen

Pirates Island

Here is the pirate ship before it went to the party, sans sails.





























The pirate ship at the party all ready for it's final voyage.










And finally the pirate ship with cannons blazing.






Kristen

Are You Ready For Some Football?

So it's Wednesday, and it has been a very busy week!

My good friend Paula had a birthday (happy birthday friend!) as well as her twin boys (born on her birthday seven years ago). Her oldest son had a birthday a couple of weeks ago and so they had all their birthday parties this week. I told Paula I would make their birthday cakes for them, for their parties, as a present to her, for her birthday.

I bet you can't guess what the first party's theme was?

It seemed like such a simple cake but it gave me the hardest time. Partially because I insisted on using the yummy frosting that is really horrible to work with. Partially because after I finished the logo I didn't realize that my decorating bag was dragging across the cake and wiped it entirely off the cake :(

The second party had a pirate theme. We found the cake idea on familyfun.com. The pirate ship was no problem but I had read that it was difficult to keep together so I created an ocean out of a sheet cake for it to sit in. It was so easy and very cute. Lukey, one of the birthday boys, wanted to contribute his shark to the ocean so that was very fun!!

I loved giving this special gift to the boys and their mom! It was fun and I hope they all know from it how special they are to me and my family!!

I will post pictures of the pirates cake when I get them.

Kristen

Taking the Plunge

We are all very excited about our up coming BBQ and Baptism this next weekend!!

For one, there are over 100 people signed up to be baptized this year! Awesome!!

For two Seth has decided that he would like to be baptized this weekend!! He really wanted to do it last year but didn't quite understand what the commitment was really about. We spent the last year praying with him and studying what God has to say about baptism and asking him questions. I believe that he is ready, and he is off the charts excited about it.

How cool is that?

His Granny, Papa, Uncle Charlie, and Aunt Staci are going to be able to come up for the weekend. We are all excited about that!

Also, I am thrilled because I get to help Mike in the water, baptizing people again this year. It was absolutely the highlight of my year last year. I feel honored and privileged to be allowed to participate in this day! And on top of it all I get to be there, in the water with my son when he is baptized!!! It really doesn't get better than this!

Here are the videos from the last two years. Check them out you will cry, so go ahead and get some tissues then click on the link. Here and here.

I will post pictures as soon as we get them this weekend.

Kristen