Excellent Christian Book Resource

My mother-in-law passed down the Lost in the Woods book to us, and I've been reading the short stories to the kids as they eat their lunch every day.

The stories are excellent – each short story contains a gospel message.  The language is a little bit old-fashioned, which I like because it is helping my kids build their vocabulary.  I don't think kids are as dumb as we make them out to be.  My two year old understands these stories, and she is learning lots of new words as she listens too.

I didn't know where the book came from, so I googled the publisher, and I was pleasantly surprised at what came up!  It was a treasure trove of quality Christian books for all ages!  There are missionary biographies, Christian historical fiction and non-fiction, devotional books, short story compilations like the ones pictured, reference books, and more!

I have this particular book, and it is excellent.

I could spend a small fortune if I were to purchase everything that I wanted.  I will be frequenting this site often.

Anyway, I was just excited to find so many great looking books all in one place, so I thought I'd share.

Here's the site:

Bible Truth Publishers

Anyone else have any good recommendations for quality Christian books?

How to Have More Energy {Plus a Giveaway!}

Since I've still been struggling with extreme fatigue, I've been doing lots of research on what the problem could possibly be, and what I can do to help myself.  Many of you have left comments and written emails giving various advice, and I appreciate it so much.  I have tried lots of different things that you all have suggested.

At this point I'm really hoping that my hormones are just out of balance.  I'm biding my time until the baby is weaned before I seek any more professional medical advice.  If things don't settle down a while after I'm done nursing then I will assume there is something else that needs to be addressed and go back to the doctor.

But in the meantime, I have a household to run and three little ones to take care of.  That's not so easily done when my energy level is basically at zero.

I came across a number of sources that stated that the glucose in honey absorbs into your body very quickly and turns to energy.  It is recommended that you take a tablespoon in a glass of water in the afternoon every day for optimum energy.  I can't honestly say that I know it works yet because I just tried it for the first time today, but I'm all for trying anything that will help me feel a little more like a human being!

My favorite honey in the whole world comes from Tropical Traditions.

This organic raw honey is honestly the best honey I have ever tasted in my life!  I generally like to eat local honey, but there is something so sweet about the honey from Tropical Traditions that blows away the taste of even local honey.  Plus, I love that fact that it is truly organic, meaning that the bees do not gather their pollen from any flowers that are grown with pesticides or fertilizers.  Instead, they gather from wild vegetation in the frontiers of Canada.  The beehives are located far from any type of city and its pollution from traffic and industry.   After harvesting, it is left completely unprocessed.

You can purchase some here.  (And as of this posting, it's on sale too!)

And don't forget, that Tropical Traditions is also the best place to purchase coconut oil.  Check out my post on 30 Uses for Coconut Oil and my favorite ever and oh-so-easy homemade granola using coconut oil.

You can read more about how virgin coconut oil is different from other coconut oils on their website: What is Virgin Coconut Oil?

Now, for the fun part!

The Giveaway!

One of you will win some organic raw honey, thanks to the generosity of Tropical Traditions.  To enter, just follow the directions on the form below:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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15 Independent Activities for One Year Olds

I have been preparing for the coming homeschool year, and it dawned on me that I will have a one year old to keep busy during homeschool hours!  He is a busy guy too – always into everything.  I went on the hunt for some activities that will be safe for him to do without supervision.  I'm hoping these will be exciting enough to him that he will keep himself occupied for a while.  If the pictures are not self-explanatory, you can check out the link under each one to find tutorials on how to make these activities.

New! If you like this post, you will love my brand new eBook, 101 Independent Activities for Toddlers and Preschoolers!

Make your own texture book

Peek-a-boo tray from shoebox lid

Baby Play Bottle

Buckle clipping toy

Treasure baskets

Tissue box stuffed with fabric squares

Muffin tin sorting

Putting balls through a tissue box

Velcro board

Tearing Paper

Playing with magnets

Placing objects in a large container

Tactile exploration cards

Pipe cleaners in a bottle

Don't forget to check out 101 Independent Activities for Toddlers and Preschoolers!  

Anti-Procrastination Challenge: Gettin’ Messy!

This probably makes me a horrible mom, but I am always hesitant to let my kids do certain things because I dread the mess it will create.  (Let me clarify, I dread cleaning up the mess it will create!)  My list of I-rarely-say-yes-to-doing-this activities includes play-dough, playing in the rain, playing in the dirt/mud, painting, and more.  I realize that all of these activities are some of the best memories I have of my own childhood.  How much fun can a kid have without doing those things?  I keep telling myself that I will let them do more of it when they're older and can help more with clean-up.

But, seeing as how this is anti-procrastination year and all, I decided that today was the day I was going to surprise the socks flip-flops off the kids by telling them I would get the kiddie pool out for them.  Last year I kept putting them off because I “didn't have time” to clean the dirt off from storage, blow it up, and ultimately clean up dripping wet kids.  The whole summer ended up going by and we never got the pool out one time.  Shameful, isn't it?  But you have time for what you make time for, right?  And there's nobody more important that I should be making time for than my kids, even if that means it's not totally convenient for me.

So here we are getting things set up.  It wasn't too bad yet at this point.  I put the baby in his inflatable bath tub because I was afraid the older kids were going to get too wild and hurt him if I put him in with them.

But he saw how much fun they were having, crawled out of his tub, across the grass, and into the pool with them.  What did I say about the other kids being too wild?  See the bottles of water in their hands?  They were headed straight for the baby's head, and landed there about a second after I snapped this picture!  (Oh, and don't you just love the shirt I drew on my oldest?  My artistic abilities are amazing, I know!)

   
Did they make a mess?  Most definitely!  It was interesting trying to figure out what to do with three soaking wet kids when I could only bathe and dry one of them at a time.  Leaving them outside by themselves is not an option in the house where we currently live.  I ended up making them stand in the laundry room while I took them in one by one and bathed them as fast as I could.  Then there was the fun part of draining the pool and rinsing out all the dirt and grass, setting it out to dry, cleaning up all the toys, and washing wet towels and clothes. 

Did they have fun?  Absolutely!  Of course the first thing they asked when we came in was, “Can we go swimming again tomorrow?”

We just might, little ones.  Mommy had a whole lot of fun out there too.  I think the mess was worth watching your happy faces!

Your turn!  What is it that you've been putting off because you don't want to deal with the mess?  Whether it's something fun with the kids, a household project, cooking supper (ha!) or whatever else, it's time to get it done.

If you're just now joining our Anti-Procrastination challenge, you can read all the details here. Be sure you're subscribed to email updates or follow me on Facebook to receive each new challenge!     

Anti-Procrastination Challenge: Thinking Ahead

One thing that I am horrible about is thinking that I have plenty of time to get something done.  Before I know it, the event has sneaked up on me and I am hanging out to dry.  (Insert head hanging in shame here as I admit that Father's Day was a day of “Oh, yeah, it's Father's Day.  I really meant to have a gift ready for you, but I didn't get it ready in time.”)

So, today I am thinking ahead to things that are coming up and trying to go ahead and prepare even though it seems like I have plenty of time. 

I spent most of the morning doing lesson plans for the upcoming school year.  I can't believe I'm going to be a homeschooling mom!  Somehow that makes me feel old.  I've got the first 12 weeks of kindergarten almost completely prepared.  I want to prepare ahead of time for activities for my 2 year old as well so that I'm not getting frustrated as I try to think of things for her to do.  I'll use my list of 15 self-directed activites for toddlers, but I also want to have some educational worksheets ready for her that correspond with what Little Bear is learning in school. 

Your turn!  Can you think of anything coming up for which you need to prepare.  Maybe it seems like you have plenty of time, but it's better to go ahead and get it done instead of letting it sneak up on you.

If you're just now joining our Anti-Procrastination challenge, you can read all the details here. Be sure you're subscribed to email updates or follow me on Facebook to receive each new challenge!        

Still Tired

I updated you after my doctor's appointment and told you that I was waiting for the results of my blood work to come back.  Well, a few days ago I got a note in the mail that said “The results of your bloodwork are normal.  Continue taking B vitamins.”  “That's it?!” I thought.  What about the heart palpitations?  B vitamins are not going to help my heart any, and I've been taking vitamins and they're not helping the tiredness! 

I decided to call the doctor's office and see if they would let me speak to the doctor so I could ask her what she thought I should do besides taking B vitamins.  I can't just continue to ignore the heart palpitations.  This has been going on for 3 years.  I've got to get it checked out, but I don't really want to start over with another doctor.  I want the doctor I already went to to tell me what to do next.  They said they would make a note for her to call me.

 It's 3:05 p.m., and I need to be in the kitchen by 3:30 to fix dinner.  We have VBS tonight, so we have to eat an early dinner.  My husband I are teaching 2's and 3's like we have many other years. They wear me out!  I want to take a little nap before I make dinner, but the doctor will probably call as soon as I lie down.

I'm still going to try to sneak in a little nap.  I can hardly even think straight.

I'll try to give another update when I hear anything else.