2008 December

Doll for sale – quick!

Current giveaway: Grandpa Jake's Campfire Cooker

December 5, 2008 By kimc

Quick! We’re off to the store so the girls can buy Christmas gifts for each other, and little Becca has no spending money.

She has no money, but she does have a new doll from the Vision Forum clearance shelf.

lil entrepreneur 226x300 Doll for sale <i>quick!</i>

This 18″ Evangeline doll has long soft blonde hair, beautiful brown eyes and a sweet pink-checked dress. She is also wearing pantaloons and will come with socks and shoes. She will arrive in a special doll box in gift-giving condition. Evangeline was made by Gotz in Germany, and is no longer available from Vision Forum so this could be your last chance to get her!

Becca would dearly love to sell this doll in the next couple of hours. She is $50, including shipping. Payment by Paypal would be great.

You can see more of the girls’ new Vision Forum items for sale on our Sale page, including more dolls.

Filed Under: Huh? Category? Leave a Comment

Poll: Homemade laundry detergent

Current giveaway: Grandpa Jake's Campfire Cooker

December 5, 2008 By kimc

Have you tried it? Would you try it? Would you, could you, in a house? Would you, could you, with a mouse? Sorry. I slipped into Dr. Seuss for a moment. Can you name the title of that book?

But back to the point: Please chime in on my first-ever poll over at Frugal Hacks!

If you have tried it, was it liquid or powder? What did you think? Will you keep using it? Why or why not?

If you haven’t tried it yet, will you? Why or why not?

Filed Under: frugal 22 Comments

Reminder: 50% off sale ends Friday

Current giveaway: Grandpa Jake's Campfire Cooker

December 5, 2008 By kimc

edited to change the numbered list to a bulleted list. I just couldn’t deal with the fact that there were 11 items. 10 would have been good: decimal system and all. 12 would have been an even dozen. 15 is a multiple of 5. But 11? Ack!

Many top-selling items were added midweek, so even if you already ordered, take another look! Shipping is a low $5 on any order so it doesn’t hurt to order again.

You can save 50% off some of our family’s very favorite toys and books:

X-Scope 7-Function Pocket Tool (we don’t have this, but it’s the current #1 seller!)
Jonathan Park Goes to the Zoo (4 CDs)
All American Pop Gun (a perennial favorite at conferences)
Passionate Housewives Desperate For God
3 Man Slingshot Water Balloon Launcher (try this with snowballs!)
10 Peas in a Pod (the book that inspired us to make daily Bible reading a true priority)
William Wallace Sword (hubby’s own idea and a great hit since it was first added to the catalog)
Forever Flashlight
Snapshot Rubber Band Gun (too. much. fun. we have to hide these at the conferences.)
The True Story of Noah’s Ark (hardback book)
Thoughts for Young Men

If you don’t see your favorite on the 3 pages of 50% items, don’t worry: Everything else in the store is on sale too!

Filed Under: mom is neurotic, Vision Forum 4 Comments

Be nice to my friends

Current giveaway: Grandpa Jake's Campfire Cooker

December 4, 2008 By kimc

Jennie Chancey, founder of Ladies Against Feminism and co-author of Passionate Housewives Desperate for God, is practicing what she preaches: she took the chance to publicly praise her husband in the 2008 Man of the Year contest, hosted by the Art of Manliness and sponsored by Old Spice. Mr. Chancey knew nothing about it until he learned that he was a finalist. Rumor has it that his response was, “You stinker!”

Thanks to Jennie’s glowing writeup, her husband is in the running for a $2,000 cash and a whole lot of Old Spice. He’s currently in second place, with other contestants trailing far behine. Let’s push him to first! Voting continues through December 14, so please click over and give him a thumb-up!

Filed Under: friends 3 Comments

Money for kids

Current giveaway: Grandpa Jake's Campfire Cooker

December 4, 2008 By kimc

Monica asked about ways that our girls make a little extra money. I emailed her, but thought my answer might be the start of a useful post. Here are some of the ways our children earn money.

I have allowed the girls to put items up for sale on Ebay for us. If it’s something I would have sold myself, I might split the proceeds with them. If it’s something I wouldn’t have bothered with, I let them keep the money. Those high-dollar baby formula coupons that arrive in the mail sell surprisingly well.
They buy items from the Vision Forum clearance shelf (at the on-site retail store, not the online Clearance Outlet) to post on their For Sale page.
They combined their savings a while back and bought an expensive female Yorkie to breed. This little business investment of theirs was far more work than they expected, but it did pay off.
Our oldest can now earn a paycheck when she works with her dad at Vision Forum, so she likes to pay her siblings generously to do her household chores on days that she is gone. We allow this because she sees it as a way to share a blessing with her sisters.
We don’t do allowances, but I often hire the girls to do extra work for me, such as compiling a mailing list or doing graphic design for a family website. I often hire little ones to make my bed, brush my hair, etc. During the warm weather, I usually have a bounty out on flies and daddy longlegs in the house.

None of these might be practical for your family, but we find that there are always opportunities if you look hard enough and have a bit of patience.

We are rather limited because we live in a very rural setting, but if you live in the city you might find many opportunities with the neighbors:

Yard care: lawn mowing, leaf raking, snow shoveling, poop scooping, weeding flowerbeds, etc. Hubby and I mowed lawns one summer, raking in over $2000 in the evenings with our $300 investment in a mower and weed eater, and a $4 classified ad. We once paid a kid to shovel the snow on our sidewalk simply because we appreciated his motivation.
Misc. services: dog walking, house-sitting, pet-sitting and plant-sitting for vacationers, putting out the weekly trash, garage organization.
Offer services: let your young entrepreneur knock on doors and tell the neighbors, “I’m trying to earn $50 for a ___. Do you have any small jobs I can do to get started?”
Babysitting: an older child of yours could babysit in your own home if you prefer.
Yard sale: they could have a yard sale for you, doing all of the work and keeping some or all of the proceeds. They could offer to clean neighbors’ garages, etc. and have a yard sale with the castoffs.
Recycling: the price of aluminum is currently very low, but it fluctuates. My daughter and a few of my youngest sibs gathered a pickup load of cans a couple of years ago and earned over $150!
Housecleaning: I started doing this for some of my dad’s coworkers at the tender age of 12. By the time I was 17 I had a small business.

How do your children earn money? How else could they earn money?

Filed Under: from the mailbag 13 Comments

Homeschooling in December

Current giveaway: Grandpa Jake's Campfire Cooker

December 3, 2008 By kimc

Kelly asked if we take the month of December off of school so we can do fun activities like these. My answering comment grew and grew and I still wasn’t ready to hit the button, so I decided to make a post of it.

Kelly,
Our approach to schooling is very relaxed and thoroughly integrated into our daily activities. Almost any worthwhile activity has its teaching moments, even if you don’t want to get too “teachy” about it.
Examples:

In hanging the lights on the deck rail, the girls had to troubleshoot. They found burned out bulbs, loose sockets, and a bad fuse. In the process they learned about electrical circuits, fuses, and how incandescent bulbs work. This is something we’ve talked about before, but this was a refresher course.
Cutting out snowflakes forces them to think analytically, trying to make them turn out the way they visualized, or visualize the way they’re going to turn out.
Christmas cooking invariably involves math since we nearly always double or triple recipes, and it brings up many questions: How many teaspoons in a tablespoon? How many ounces in a cup? Instead of measuring 12 tablespoons, can we change it to cups? There are also many aspects of chemistry: How do baking soda, baking powder and yeast make things rise? What is the function of each ingredient in a recipe? Which ones must be measured carefully, and why? Which ones don’t need to measured carefully, and why not? What if we substitute ___ for ___?
It’s becoming more and difficult for us to absorb entertainment without analyzing the worldview behind it and within it. This extends to Christmas music as well.

An active mind is always learning, whether or not the owner is planted at a desk or table with a pencil in hand. And since it’s Wednesday, let me just add that homeschooling works for me.

PS. I just got on the Vision Forum website and saw that they have several best-sellers and some of our very favorite toys included in their 50% Off Sale with flat $5 shipping til Friday. Good stuff!

Filed Under: homeschooling 5 Comments

Sights, smells and sounds in our house today

Current giveaway: Grandpa Jake's Campfire Cooker

December 2, 2008 By kimc

Banana bread and pumpkin bread in the oven;

Cranberry bread on the schedule;
Cranberry-apple pie on my mind;

Pinecone garland on my chandelier;

White paper chain on the wall;
Paper snowflakes hanging from the ceilings;

Christmas hymns in our ears;
Lights on the deck rail;

Silly Santa hats on silly children’s heads;

Windows open to a crisp fall day;

In HIM we live and move and have our being.
God is good!

Filed Under: food, photos 4 Comments

It’s here!

Current giveaway: Grandpa Jake's Campfire Cooker

December 2, 2008 By kimc

Maybe you’re not as excited as I am, but then again maybe you are: WordPress 2.7, Release Candidate 1 is officially ready. That means that even responsible, conservative people can upgrade now without apologizing for being impetuous.

You’ll love it. We’ve been loving it for weeks and upgrading nightly as they tweak it, because upgrading is just that easy now. Sorry.

Filed Under: blogging & technology 4 Comments

Fun Christmas Links

Current giveaway: Grandpa Jake's Campfire Cooker

December 1, 2008 By kimc

It’s that time of year again. We listened to Christmas hymns and songs for much of the day yesterday. I let the girls wrap lights around the deck rail. We’re eying the Stupid Santa Hat with anticipation. No, we don’t do the Santa thing, but hubby likes to wear the big red hat when he’s on the road and with an hour commute that means he wears it a lot. And today, the kids made an enormous mess cutting out paper snowflakes. My dining room was covered from top to bottom in white confetti.

It’s also time to dig out the fun links that have become part of our family traditions. I feel a wee bit guilty that the lights and links are being unearthed before the nativity set, but let’s not over-analyze the order of things. Christ is first in our hearts, and our whole family knows what we are celebrating. The fun stuff is just the cranberry sauce at the table; it’s a sweet little garnish.

So with that disclaimer, here are some of our favorite Christmas-y websites and activities. What are yours?

Elf Yourself – add a headshot of a friend, family member, or important political personage, and let the hilarity ensue.
I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas – I can’t help but see Santa with toothpick legs every time I hear this song. The reindeer solo is priceless!
Make a Snowflake – be sure to check out creations saved by others. Some are absolutely amazing!
Snowcraft -the classic snowball fight with simple, understated graphics and intense competition.
Pandora Radio – create your own Christmas radio station online with your favorite Christmas music, like this.

That’s all for now, but we’ll update if remember any old favorites or discover any new favorites.

Filed Under: Huh? Category? 1 Comment

Christmas lights

Current giveaway: Grandpa Jake's Campfire Cooker

December 1, 2008 By Liddybug

Christmas is only 25 days away(or 24 depending on if you count today)that’s just over 3 weeks!! So, Megan, Natalie, Becca and I decided that it was time to get the Christmas lights out. We untangled the masses of Christmas lights that hadn’t been touched since last year, threw the broken ones away(blah blah blah)…

Any way we brought the broken bulbs in the house and messed around with them and then I decided to make this: