Tips for saving and making extra money

Who doesn't need extra money coming in these days? I am so excited, I've had my second article published on Associated Content. Check it out:

Tips for saving and making money in a bad economy

Tell me what you think and what I could improve.

Running a contest........I need you to help me increase my readers and my subscribers to my store newsletter. So I am going to develop a contest over the next week and see about giving away a great prize for anyone who comments and posts a link to my blog on their website, facebook, or blog.

Any ideas for a prize that you'd like to see?

Pastor Furtick is online!

I know you might be getting tired of hearing about my church and my Pastor, but I just can't help passing on the information and talking about them. There are such amazing things going on in this city and this church. All of Pastor Steven Furtick's sermons are online. Here is our most recent sermon that was our very first sermon in our new campus. Pastor is talking about having real faith and acting on it...not just saying that you believe in God, but proving it by your actions. It's definitely worth listening to.

Give Me Faith Sermon from 8/22/09

So we all made it through the first day of school.

My son made it through the first day of 4th grade and still says he likes school. My 7th grader was really nervous, but seems to be settling in. My oldest started high school and came home talking a mile a minute so I think we are good there too.

Now I have a million papers to sign and I need to get some sleep. 6 am comes really early.

This weekend was Amazing!!!

We had an extremely busy and productive weekend. I went to a First Aid/CPR class with my girls on Saturday. I did a bunch of cleaning on Sunday. Since I'm still recovering from back surgery I haven't done much cleaning for the last several months. So now I am gradually getting back into my routines and going through my house room by room and cleaning out the clutter.

We also went school shopping with the kids. Of course with school starting tomorrow they needed book bags, lunch bags, pencils, paper, notebooks etc. Then they also "need" a new pair of hip shoes, a cute jacket and that great pair of skinny jeans.

By far the most exciting part of my weekend was the first service at our new permanent campus with our church. It was the most incredible thing I have ever seen. We doubled our service capacity from about 450 seats to 900 with the new campus. But what happened Saturday no one could have anticipated. We filled all 900 seats of the service and the another 400 seats of overflow made with folding chairs through-out the church and then started turning cars away in the parking lot. We had to tell about 100 people that we had no seats for them. Is that not crazy?!!! I was quite humbled by the whole thing.

A great video about America today

Here is a great video that really describes the state of America right now. This was our opening video for Easter Sunday. It's a very powerful video.

Elevation Church Easter Sunday Opener

Goings on at Elevations

Tonight was a great night at Elevation Church. We had a volunteer meeting at our church. We toured the new building and watched a couple baptisms. We also heard Chris Brown's new song, Give Me Faith. I am so excited for where my church is headed and the momentum that they keep in doing so. It is absolutely amazing. Our campus Pastor, John Bishop said something that made a lot of since......Our preparations are prerequisites for God's presence. That is so true for everything in your life. We have to prepare our lives for his coming to get us. We have instructions for how to pray and have our prayers answered. There are directions on how to live your life and how to have a Godly marriage. All these things are examples of how our preparations are prerequisites for God's presence in our lives!

We had a lot of fun at the reunion. There was family there that I hadn't seen in 15-20 years. It was great to reconnect with them. We got lots of pictures. The kids got to go on a hike and see the Raven Cliff Furnace. My son, my husband, and my Dad even climbed up inside of it and got some pictures. My middle child played around in the river most of the day. My oldest played the Guitar and sang for everyone most of the day. There was lots of food and we took lots and lots of pictures.




The Raven Cliff Furnace in Wythe County VA.




As seen from inside the furnace up the chimney flue

Have great weekend!

Well, I will probably not post until again until Sunday. We are going to a family reunion in VA this weekend. Great times with family and hopefully pictures to share later. I've only worked a few hours today and then I've spent all day cleaning my house and packing. My hubby is on his way home and I've still got to get the van loaded. Have a great weekend!

Sarah Palin's notes on the so-called Death Panels

I've been watching this for awhile. Just read and make up your own mind. You may need a facebook account to read it.

Yesterday President Obama responded to my statement that Democratic health care proposals would lead to rationed care; that the sick, the elderly, and the disabled would suffer the most under such rationing; and that under such a system these “unproductive” members of society could face the prospect of government bureaucrats determining whether they deserve .........
more on Sarah Palin's notes on the Death Panels

How much is too much?

How much is too much for your kids? Do you buy that new bike they've been asking for on their birthday? Or that new video game they have mentioned? Or do you go for the more practical gifts like new clothes or a savings bond? Do you buy everything that your child asks for?

This is a daily battle for my husband and I. We have one teenager and one preteen and then one still in elementary school. The older ones are all-consumed by clothing and shoe brands, only wanting to wear certain things. It's so hard sometimes for us to find a balance between what they need and what we can afford AND what they want.

I compromise with my older girls. We shop Goodwill and yard sales. We also shop sale racks. Anything else they have to earn themselves. They have to save their birthday and Christmas money and earn the money if they want the high end shoes or jeans from the high end store. We just can't afford to buy the name brands. I think my kids are better off for it. They appreciate that their Father and I work hard for the things that they have and they tend to take care of things better because they have to earn some of it themselves.

So how do you find a balance and decide how much is too much?

Thankful for all the love and prayers during our time of need.

I wrote this while being laid up after my back surgery. So to all who helped out and prayed for me and my family, Thank you.

Thanks for all the prayers. I have to say this is one time when I am genuinely grateful for every single person who prayed that the surgery went well and for my recovery. I have never been so scared in my life before a surgery...and I've had a few.

I am slowly getting back to myself. I have actually found myself getting up and brushing my hair and putting on makeup, something that was excrutiatingly painful before because I couldn't stand up straight in the mornings until I had some pain meds in me. And on that note, I haven't had a pain pill since Saturday July 25th. I am so glad to be off the pain pills after more than 2 months on them.

I have felt like such a killjoy for quite a while now, but this year has been really hard and doesn't really show any signs of getting better any time soon. Everytime we get through one crisis another takes it's place. I am not going to even attempt to list off all the family members I have that are in need of prayer right now.

All I can say is that I have found I have a lot of people who care about me and who have been helping out. We have only had to fix dinner for ourselves one night since the surgery. You would have thought there had been a funeral with all the covered dishes that have been dropped off. Some days we've had lunch and dinner provided. I have had friends' of my kids bring flowers and cards to me (multiple kids, not just one kid or one bouquet of flowers). People are texting me and offering to run errands for me daily. I don't think that I've ever felt so loved in all my life. That is the upside to all of this.

And then I can say that I've seen a tender side to my husband that I've never seen before. He was really worried about me and so stressed the day of surgery that it brought on a full blown migraine headache with nausea and sensitivity to light, something he's never had to deal with before.

So I am thankful for the repreive. Thankful for a healing, and time to regroup and no matter what is coming I trust in God and know that he doesn't give us more than we can handle, though sometimes he tests those boundaries and gives us more than we think we can handle.

Love you all.

OK, I am feeling a bit old. We upgraded our cell phone plans today. It's become an almost necessity with teenagers in the house. My boss texts me. My daughter texts me. My sister texts me. Even some of the doctors offices text me. So we decided it was time to upgrade our phone plans to include text and picture messaging. It turns out to be a good deal. Doesn't really cost us anything extra then we were already paying. We just switched to a different plan. So here I am joining the technologically savvy. Scary, huh?

I know you hate change, but......

I have been working on my sites. I am trying to get back into posting on my blog every day. That is a good thing. But then I have also been painstakingly going through each and every listing in my Ebay store and comparing it with what I have in inventory. Inevitably there have been things I was tired of attempting to sell, things that have been moved or lost, and of course changes that need to be made to the listing like shipping prices. It's a very tedious boring process, but one that needs to be done. I am about done with the current listings. Now I just need to add new listings.

For all my readers and fans, I have added a promotion. If you will go to my ebay store and subscribe to my newsletters then I will give you 15% off your entire order. Just let me know that you subscribed before you pay and I will adjust your invoice.

Keep checking back over the next couple weeks as I add new things.

Thoughtfulness: an area I might need to improve on

Ok, so I like to read my Pastor's blog. This week's blog entries were about thoughtfulness. I am learning alot and would like to be more thoughtful. I see that those little thoughts that come to mind for things that we could do or say for others may be more than just random passing thoughts. They could be nudges from God to help someone through a tough spot or a simple word of encouragement to help someone get through a tough day. Don't pass up the chance to bless someone.

Check out Pastor Steven's Blog.

http://www.stevenfurtick.com/

Wow, has it really been that long!!???

Ok, so I didn't really realize that it had been that long since I posted anything on here. I feel like I am slowly coming out of a fog. So if you have been faithfully following my boutique posts, I apologize. A lot has changed since December. All Things Boutique has since folded. I stepped down from my position as leader of ALTB and this blog is now just my blog for my life and designs. I began having back pain the week between Christmas and New Years and I just had back surgery a couple weeks ago. I am finally off pain meds and feeling a whole lot better. I am planning on completely overhauling this blog along with my entire boutique store. I will be relisting some old favorites and hopefully as I get back into a routine some new original designs. We've had some challenges thrown our way recently and I am sure that I have lots to talk (ummm, TYPE) about. So I'll be back soon with more.