What does love look like?

Love has a lot of faces and Valentine’s Day always gets me in the mood to share my love and show my love to the people around me.  In our house, the kids have come to accept that Valentine’s Day is a holiday for married people, after all, the history of St. Valentine’s has to do with keeping marriage lawful.  Still, it’s hard not to succumb to all the pink and heart and chocolate and diamond advertising everywhere.  And I do enjoy making them a delicious treat and flooding their ears with terms of endearment.

I’ve given up having expectation about Valentine’s Day.  There just isn’t really any point or the point is to express my love to others, not expect to receive love from others.  That being said, my husband has pretty much astounded me this year.  I’m mean, really astounded.  He read my blog post of about my longings and set to do something about it. What?  I’m still so surprised at his thoughtfulness and generosity.  I didn’t get a diamond or a trip to Hawaii, I didn’t get an elaborate date night with loads of pampering  and culinary indulgences.  I got a freezer full of meat.  Yup, you read that correctly.  Meat.

             

I took these pictures before he was actually done.

And while on the surface that might seem really bizarre, it’s so amazing that I fear I can’t express my gratitude enough. 

Not only did he plan out what to buy, he bought it, then repackaged it (with my input) in portions that would be helpful for our family.  He cooked, cut, washed, labeled, stacked, counted and prepared all this meat for me.  He saved me so much time, so much money from my normal weekly food budget.  He wrote a blog post about it here.  You can read it from his perspective, complete with charts and prices and what we packed up, specifically.  Amazing!

So now our family joke is that I don’t get diamonds for Valentine’s Day, I get a freezer full of meat.  Well, I already have all the diamonds I’ll ever need and a freezer full of meat satisfies my longing for simplicity.

I’ll be forever grateful. 

So for me, this Valentine’s Day, Love is Meat.

I shall eat of it daily.

The Battle is the Lord’s,

Mrs. Taffy

2013/2014 Homeschool Proposal

It’s that time of year for me.  The time when I purpose to put my ideas and plans to paper, to create a proposal for our next homeschool year so we can take the money out of our tax return.  So without further ado, here it is. 

Strawberry Taffy (Non-PSEO Version)-11^th Grade

1. Language Arts

a. American Literature: A Survey Course - $27.00

b. We own all the books or can get them from the library.

2. Math

a. Teaching Textbooks: Geometry

3. Science

a. Apologia Chemistry

4. Foreign Language

a. Rosetta Stone: Irish 1 & 2 -$299.00

b. This will last for 2 years unless she really gets into it then we may have to purchase another year.

5. History

a. History 101: Hillsdale College

b. Constitution 101: Hillsdale College

6. Electives

a. Preparing to be a HelpMeet by Debi Pearl-$14.00

b. Joyfully at Home by Jasmine Baucham- $17.00

c. It’s (not that) Complicated by Botkin- $15.00

d. One Thousand Gifts by Ann VosKamp-$10.00

Blue-Raspberry Taffy-5th Grade

1. Language Arts

a. Daily Grams (Grammar)

b. *Sonlight Core 2 & 3 (Reading)

c. All About Spelling Level 4 & 5- $39.95+shipping level 4 (Spelling)

2. Math

a. Teaching Textbooks: Grade 5

3. Science

a. Considering God’s Creation

4. History

a. Sonlight Core 2 & 3

5. Geography

a. United States

b. Galloping the Globe

c. Sonlight

*A friend of mine has retired from homeschooling and she has graciously given me 4 years worth of Sonlight.  I am so blessed by her generosity, I have always wanted to try Sonlight but have never been able to spend the money.  I have buckets of books in our school room that I have to find a place for now…that’s a small inconvenience though!  Wow!

Bubble Gum Taffy (3rd Grade)

1. Language Arts

a. Daily Grams (Grammar)

b. Sonlight Core 2 & 3 (Reading)

c. All About Spelling Level 4 & 5 (See Blue-Raspberry)

d. Startwrite (Handwriting)

2. Math

a. Teaching Textbooks 3

3. Science

a. Considering God’s Creation

4. History

a. Sonlight Core 2 & 3

5. Geography

a. United States

b. Galloping the Globe

c. Sonlight Core 2 & 3

Laffy Taffy-1st Grade

1. Language Arts

a. All About Spelling Level 1 (Spelling)

b. All About Reading Level 1 & 2-$99.95 + shipping (Reading)

c. Startwrite (Writing)

2. Math

a. Haven’t totally decided what to use here, I have plenty in my school room to supplement him though.

3. Science

a.Considering God’s Creation

4. Geography

a. United States

5. Thinking Skills

a. Learning Resources Creative Color Cubes-$20.00

Marshmallow Taffy-Tot School

· Do-a-dot paints-$14.99

· Learning Resources Smart Snacks Alpha Pops-$14.99

· Magnatab Lowercase-$20.00

There you have it.  I have two graduating this year so I won’t be buying any more curriculum for them.  Only the items with prices next to them are things I need to buy.  I’m feeling pretty good about my proposal.  I was very committed to using what I already had and that has helped to keep expenses down.  I will also be adding several CLEP tests to my proposal and various expenses for the Teach them Diligently Conference that we are attending in Omaha, NE come May. EXCITING!!

Have you made a plan for the next school year?

The Battle is the Lord’s,

Mrs. Taffy

Thrifty Finds

Even though garage sale season is in hibernation, I still frequent my favorite thrift shops.  And since going the way of a budget it’s been even more fun finding good deals. 

I can’t take the credit for this find, Strawberry found it, but I did pay for it.  It’s a Longaberger Christmas Mug, nice quality like my Polish Pottery.  .99  LOVE IT!

      

I found this cast iron plate holder at Goodwill for $1.99, I was hoping I could use it to hold my cast iron pan.  It worked perfectly!  I have more pans to hang so I’m going to keep my eyes open for more of these plate holders.

This just made me smile.  $1.99  It’s a nice conversation starter as well. 

Another rooster for my collection.  This one is made of wood, I like the height it adds to my display.  Here’s a shot of the whole scene.

I’ve also been gathering up a nice supply of jeans for my 5 year old.  He’s been blowing through the ones I found at garage sales over the summer.  I’ve been able to get his jeans between $1.50 and $3.00 each.  That makes me happy and fits nicely into our budget.

Have you been thriting lately?  Find any treasures?

The battle is the Lord’s,

Mrs. Taffy

When the Taffy Pull Breaks Down

You know I love the image of the Taffy Pull and how I liken it to my walk with God. In the spirit of that image and in the desire to keep things honest around here I have to tell you…The Taffy Pull Broke Down.  You may have noticed I shut my blog down a little while ago.  Well, I started getting all kinds of comments and emails and realized that maybe that was kind of rude of me to just close things off without any kind of explanation.  I also realized that some of you may have come to rely on certain links or recipes that are on my blog.  But I couldn’t just go on with out some kind of explanation.  You deserve an explanation.  You also deserve to know that sometimes machines break, they need time to be repaired and rebuilt.  My gracious husband has taken the time to write this out in his own words:

There comes a time when the taffy pull machine breaks down… What happens to the taffy when it ceases to be stretched and heated properly? My wife and I have been married for almost 20 years. This is a significant number to us because many around us seem to have fallen away from each other over the years. It has been hard to watch couples separate, divorce, have affairs, or even leave the Lord. I always wonder why when I see these things happen…

Why does someone with children young and old turn away from them and the woman he made them with and enjoy himself in the arms of another woman? Why does a woman try to control every aspect of the man who provides everything for her? Why do both people treat their children like cattle and pawn them off to others for care so that they can live for themselves? Why does someone trade their belief in the living God because the person closest to them decides to profane themselves before Him in some addictive behavior they keep secret?

I have watched these things in others and wondered about them. I have watched people and listened to people lose their minds, their hearts, and their souls to the point of no return… it is scary.

My wife and I were attacked this week.

Attacked? Yes. Our marriage, our home, our children, our very purpose for breathing another breath. What does this mean? It means the taffy pull machine broke. Does this happen from time to time in any long marriage? Yep. Sure… but what do you do? I don’t know. You can’t just go buy new parts for your marriage… or can you? Not always… it depends on what broke.

Ecclesiastes 4:10 (NKJV)

¹⁰ For if they fall, one will lift up his companion.
But woe to him who is alone when he falls,
For he has no one to help him up.

We experienced this type of break this week. It is hard. We feel alone at times and there seems to be few people that have the fruit of commitment that we aspire to have. Sure, there are many who have remained married for 30+ years and that did not happen by accident. But there are few who demonstrate a truly affectionate love towards each other on daily grind level after those same years. I desire this type of relationship with my wife and she desires it with me. We want to grow old together and know the comfort of each other through all the years in the middle. So… what do you do when each person just simply lacks the ability to provide what the other person needs? Over a long time… repeatedly for both people? Get a book? Go on a retreat? Talk to people? Be patient? Pray? All of the above? What do you do when a problem remains after all these things are tried and re-sequenced without satisfaction for either person… it is hard. Quit? No… no one wants to be a quitter… not really.  But what about when the weary, tired soul is just sort of out energy and the light of hope at the end of the tunnel turned dark a long time ago?

Throw in some problems with the children, mix in several money issues at the same time, and why not the job too? Yeah… sure… just mix up and nice bunch of problems. And not fake problems… real ones… they always make the situation worse. The devil knows our vulnerabilities.

I repeat… we were attacked this week. A well laid trap. But why?

Were our defenses down? Maybe. Were we slack handed at dealing with some stuff? Maybe. Could we have been better with our money? Sure. Could we have raised our children better? Sure. Could we have been better about supporting each other through the years? Sure. But really… at some point… the answer is ‘no’ also. We are who we are and we are not Jesus. We aren’t perfect and we lack things that would make it all better. The devil knows the time to strike us too; he knows when our surroundings suck and we are at our most pathetic status.

So we break down. The Machine broke. It sits. The Taffy in idle status becomes brittle and hard and worth-less… The machine in disrepair is likened to garbage in value. Only in movement are both preserved. Only in dependence on each other. Only with replacement parts from time to time and maybe new ingredients for the taffy.

In our relationship, I try to make the environment and Mrs. Taffy gives the environment structure and definition. God made everything from nothing (environment), but He made all things with Wisdom (structure and definition). They must go together.

I am of the belief that any good marriage must go through this type of trial that we experienced this week… this type of breakdown. It is hard. Did I mention that? It is. It sucks. I can be an absolute jerk and am selfish and sometimes my lovely wife is not so lovely. We lack for each other what God intended. We do not possess the ability to fix this problem. God does. So what. Really? Did I say that? What does that mean? What I mean is that Mrs. Taffy and I have each prayed, waited, and pursued God to ‘fix’ these problems we have and He just doesn’t do it. In the meantime… more pain… more weariness… more anger…a “forget it” type mentality sets in… not good. But where is the good? Why doesn’t God just give us a miracle?

I do not want to end up like some I see where they stayed together tolerating each other to the grave… yuck. I do not want to end up slowly separating to the point of feeling better about the calloused heart and finally convincing myself that God somehow is accepting of our divide… what a crock! What a foolish conclusion!

I do not know all the answers. I can’t fix this. She can’t fix this. We don’t always know what to do. I love Mrs. Taffy with all that is in me and she loves me the same. Each in our own style, our own person… We have had many, many moments of complete happiness and blissful love too. If most of the machine is working but a significant enough part is broken, the whole machine is still broken.

Why am I writing this brutally honest post? Because it seems like so many around me go through this or have gone through it and left each other. I do not want to continue to see this occur if I can help it. Here is the only answer I have right now. I think God understands that this break down is only a matter of time before it occurs and is a result of the fallen man. We cannot achieve success here without both of us exhaustingly, maybe painfully, maybe awkwardly, maybe hopelessly trying together at the same time in faith with the Lord.

Ecclesiastes 4:10

New King James Version (NKJV)

¹⁰ For if they fall, one will lift up his companion.
But woe to him who is alone when he falls,
For he has no one to help him up.

So, this is where we are at. One day at a time. One situation at a time. One look, one glance, one smile, one ear to listen, one word to speak life. One at a time… like it was almost 20 years ago when we were excited to build everything one day at a time.

I do not know what is on the other side, only that nothing is on the non-try side. Nothing. Are you in this place I speak of? If so, I am sorry. Do you have means to repent and try with your wife or husband again? If you do, you should. You should…

I liken it to a pit that we both have found ourselves in and there is nothing to grab hold of and no one around to lend a hand. It is the test. The only way out is up because there is no more down left. The only method up is together at the same time. For how long is not known but only coordination together will work. It always seems “fair-er” if the extra step is taken after noticing the other person taking an equal step.  However, the only way for this type is trying together at the same time will save us both from what we cannot do by ourselves. At the end, I believe we will recover and know what God intended for us to experience when we trust Him in everything.

This is a painfully honest look at our life.  I can only hope that being this honest with you will somehow encourage you to hang in there if you are going through problems in your own marriages or other relationships.  I know that “nothing’s new under the sun” but it feels new to us and it feels like failure.  But we have not quit.  Since the writing of this original note from my husband healing has begun.  I’m always telling my children to keep their issues in the light, sin can’t grow in the light, healing grows in the light. 

My sincere hope is that once our Taffy Pull is fixed, when it’s starts to stretch and pull with consistency and order, I can continue to contribute regularly to this blog.  And who knows, I may even share something from time to time just because.  I will leave the link live.  You are welcome here, always.  Pray for us.  We want to give God the glory.  We don’t want to end up a statistic.  Nothing is too big for God and we believe this with our whole heart. 

Thank you for your encouraging emails and notes on Facebook, you have brought me joy unexplainable!

Humbly,

Mrs. Taffy

Budgeting

Do you have a budget?  A few times through our almost 20 years of marriage we’ve had a budget.  We could never do anything like Larry Burket or Dave Ramsey because we just didn’t even make enough money to do it.  We had various financial trials throughout our marriage too, but I look back on the times of budgeting as a blessing.  Sometimes my husband was paid on commission, or monthly or weekly, it seems our finances are always changing, unpredictable.  Those times were hard to make a budget for as well.

My husband has turned in his resignation at his permanent position at a Bank here in the Twin Cities.  He had a VP title, health insurance, 5 weeks of paid vacation.  But at the end of the day he was miserable.  The commute is awful.  The environment…I’ve never worked in an office environment but the times I’ve gone to his work, I can’t believe how quiet and dull it is.  I would be asleep in 5 minutes! The hours were long, the work thankless. He was offered at contracted position at another bank in the Twin Cities, one closer to home, one with set hours and an hourly wage, no more health insurance but more freedom.  He’s worked there before and got the job without a formal interview.  He’ll be getting paid more money and will be able to work less hours.  With this new job we’ll be getting paid every week.  It’s predictable. So we decided to make a budget.

We went out to breakfast one Saturday morning, took the laptop and a note book, the bills folder and our thinking caps.  It was a wonderfully productive meeting.  The best earthly feeling, in my opinion, is being on the same page as your spouse!  I love to have a unified goal.  Love it!

Our categories look like this:

• Mortgage
• Food
• Bills (Includes: water, trash, cell phones, our Compassion Child, etc.)
• Consumable Household (Includes: toilet paper, napkins, toothbrushes, Goodnights, etc.)
• Non-Consumable Household (Includes: Printer ink, laundry baskets, brooms, photo prints, car keys, rugs, paint, stamps, etc.)
• Auto (Includes: gas, insurance, maintenance)
• Medical (Includes vitamins and Minute Clinic Visits, Dentist appt.)
• Clothes (Broke down per person, per week)
• Education (For homeschool stuff and fees for classes and tests for the teens)
• Savings (This is just a general savings for agreed upon family things.  i.e. Vacations, large car repairs, large medical bills, minor emergencies and Offerings, snow blower, etc.)
• Fun (This includes eating out)

We will also have another savings account that will hold all the money that goes beyond what we’ve allocated into these categories.  It’s complicated how we figured out the base amount, but he should be getting quite a bit more than what we budgeted for, that extra will go into a separate savings account, to be saved for emergencies or when we need a new car or sending Chocolate off to college or whatever, we want this account to keep growing.

Some of the numbers in the different categories are pretty small.  For instance, our clothing category.  It looks like this:

• Mr. Taffy- $25 a month
• Mrs. Taffy –$25 a month
• Banana Taffy- $15 a month
• Chocolate Taffy-$15 a month
• Strawberry Taffy-$10 a month

And down it goes, $10 a month per child.  That’s not much.  Mr. Taffy’s has more because he really needs some new work pants, mine is more so I can get a pretty dress for the boy’s graduation, the boys is more because we want to buy them each a suit for their graduation gift.  Could you spend $10 a month on clothes?  It’s going to be a stretch.  But like I was just telling Strawberry, “If you save all that money until May, you’ll have $50 to spend at garage sales.  You can get a LOT of clothes at garage sales for $50!!”  Some of numbers might be too aggressive.  We may have to re-evaluate in a month or two, but for now we are going to give it our best.  The kids can always use their own money if they want something new too.  They have no lack, trust me. 

Mr. Taffy has a LOT of experience in building data bases so he is working to build us our own to keep track of our purchases.  I’m going to teach Strawberry how to enter our purchases into each category.  I want her to learn how to itemize and organize.  She loves to find coupons and good deals, so this will turn into a nice .5 credit economics/accounting elective for her. 

One thing I’m doing to help me not be tempted to buy extra things is unsubscribing to all the email lists that send me wonderful amazing deals practically everyday!  Hello Gymboree?  Bye bye!  Good riddance!  I’ve given you enough money!  lol  Very Jane.  Sniff sniff…that one will be a little harder. 

It is a challenge living on one-income.  It’s even a bigger challenge when you consider how the price of food is increasing every day and how it looks like our taxes are going to be raised again.  It can be overwhelming.  I’ve been tempted to open a day-care in our home.  But God is in control and we are purposed to be good stewards of what He’s given us.  Mr. Taffy does NOT want me have a day care in our home (me either really), so we will do what we need to do and if that means we don’t get to eat out whenever we want too or if I have to spend more time in the kitchen because I’m cooking all the time, well so be it.  It’s a fair exchange to be home for my family!

What’s the hardest thing about budgeting to you?

Joyfully,

Mrs. Taffy

Playing with Pumpkins

Food gets me so excited!  Especially fresh produce.  The more the merrier!  Recently I purchased, ready for this…400 pounds of produce!  All at once!  Wanna see? 

I got 4-50 # bags of acorn squash and 2-50# bags of butternut squash.  I also got 100# of potatoes and 20# of onions.  I  guess that’s a little more than 400 pounds huh?

I’ve been reading about the Pilgrims and the incredible trails they encountered when coming to America, about how they had to grow and store all their food over the winter in order to survive.  It may sound funny, but they really inspired me.  Surely if they could do that, survive that, thrive in that, I can take care of and manage 400 pounds of produce. Surely.

I was honored to be able to purchase this food from a farmer, what I bought was part of his left overs from the year.  I spent a total of $148.00 on all this food, which still just sets me at awe!  All the produce came in burlap bags like the squash photo from the top.  It’s a handy way to transport them, but not so handy to retrieve, especially if I’m sending children out to get them.

  So in my garage I set up a table and portioned out some of the food into boxes.  All the potatoes are in a box so they stay nice and dark.  I also put the onions in a box.  One bag of acorn squash was divided between my big pantry in the house and chicken box from Sam’s Club.  All the produce is off the floor and covered with a sleeping bag in order to keep out the frigid winter air.

It’s not very attractive but I don’t care. (grin)

Since I’m showing you around my ugly garage I might as well show you my other food storage.

Buckets with bags of dry goods.  Mr. Taffy and I  feel pretty passionate about having a little bit of food on hand for eating and for emergencies.  We don’t live in fear, but I feel like part of my job as resident Homemaker is to make sure that there is food here, continually and Mr. Taffy always encourages me to stock up a little bit here and there. Plus it’s such a blessing to be able to go shopping in my garage and not be at the mercy of grocery store prices and the fluctuating market.

Along with the produce I ordered, the farmer gave me some canning pumpkins, or sugar pumpkins or pie pumpkins, not sure exactly what they are called, but they are the kind of pumpkins that make delicious pies.  I don’t really make pumpkin pies but I love to put pumpkin in EVERYTHING else.  So even though it was a stretch for me, I spent an evening “processing” those pumpkins.  With a little help from my best girls of course!

I figured out it was easier to sort of “milk” the seeds out of the center of the pumpkin, rather than scoop out everything  all at once and separate the seeds afterward.  (I washed, soaked and roasted the seeds. My husband LOVES the salty pumpkin seeds to snack on!)

So slimy!  I think we processed 8 pumpkins, I still have 2 more, but I’m going to use them for my Thanksgiving Table.

I got to wondering if I could just bake the pumpkin pieces in my roasting pan.  Guess what?  It worked, beautifully!  I roasted them in two layers, with a sheet of tin foil in between.  I baked them at 325 for about an hour and the pumpkin came out of those shells as easily as could be!  After it cooled I ran the pumpkin through my Squeeze-O and then froze the pumpkin in one and two cup portions!  No added sugar or preservatives, just look at that lovely color!

It was a pretty messy job but I’m glad we took the time to do it.

Off to make some Pumpkin Bread! 

 

Joyfully,

Mrs. Taffy

“Do not fret…”

I went to the Word looking for a little encouragement and look what I found!

Trust in the Lord, and do good; dwell in the land and feed on his faithfulness. Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart, commit your way to the Lord, trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass.  He shall bring forth your righteousness as the light, and your justice as the noonday.  Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him; do not fret because of him who prospers in his way.  Because of the man who brings wicked schemes to pass.  Cease from anger, and forsake wrath; do not fret—it only causes harm.  For evil doers shall be cut off; but those who wait on the Lord, they shall inherit the earth.  For yet a little while and the wicked shall be no more; indeed, you will look carefully for his place, but it shall be no more.  But the meek shall inherit the earth, and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.  Psalm 37: 3-11

I have found myself fretting more than once, worrying about all the things that a Wife and Mother has to worry about, you know the list:  Am I doing enough?  Am I making my husband happy?  Am I a good wife?  Will my children follow the Lord when they leave my house?  What’s for dinner?  How can get everything done?  Oh the list goes on and on…

And on a bigger scale, our country at large and all the issues that come with whomever is elected president: Can we afford our life?  Tax increase?  Abortion?  Will homeschooling still be legal?  Will we be safe?  Who’s telling the truth?

And finances…wow that’s a big one!  Being a one income family is a blessing and struggle!  The price of groceries and household goods, cost of living, insurance, bills, our up-side-down mortgage…so much to fret about.

I was fretting this morning.  Worry about things I had no business worrying about.  This psalm was a balm to my soul, written so long ago but so relevant to me, a stay-at-home, homeschooling mom today.  God is amazing like that.  His Word transcends time. 

Clearly God has it all under control, clearly peace is mine for the asking and the having.  What an awesome God I serve, one who can use the words of an Ancient King to comfort the heart of a Mom in the year 2012. 

Thankful for His peace and so thankful that I don’t have to fret! 

Dropping my worries and resting in my King,

Mrs. Taffy

Garage Sale Treasures Week 14

Our Thursday Garage Sale day started out kind of slow.  The first few sales were really bad.  But things started picking up and I actually found a lot of great stuff this week!

I apologize for the awkwardness of this photo, it does show two of my great finds though.  The individual trampoline-$5.00 and the Ikea Easel with Paper roll-$5.00.  Both were excellent condition and something that I have been looking for.  Laffy actually has sore muscles from jumping so much!  The easel is primarily for Bubble Gum Taffy but the others are enjoying it as well.

                   

Another awesome find is this little bike for Laffy Taffy.  We’ve been looking for a two-wheeler for him and this was in such great condition and was only $10.00!  He loves it!

             

Black Trench Coat for me-$3.00.  White blouse (really long)-.50 and red cape jacket-.50. 

Also for me, three pair of long jeans-.50, 1.00 & 1.00.  1 pair of Tommy Hilfiger cropped jeans-$2.00  Black Dress pants-$1.00, black stretch pants-.50, black tank top-.25 and light blue shirt-.25. 

Light up pumpkin-$1.00.  My boys helped me to put it in its new home:

                    

Can you believe there’s actually a plug up there?  And LOTS of dust!

Kid’s books were a quarter each and the movies were .25.  I had to buy Lady and the Tramp because Mr. Taffy did not believe m that there are Siamese cats in the movie.  I’m happy to say I proved him wrong.  ha ha!  The Little House Movies are still shrink wrapped!  The chicken was $1.00.

These two books were .25 each.

A new quilt for Bubble Gum.  $3.00!!  It’s so perfect in her room, I was so happy to find it for such a good price.  I got the quilt from the same sale as the easel and the clothes for me, she had GREAT prices and I basically spent the rest of my money there which was about $14.00 I think.  Less than a new pair of jeans from Wal-Mart!  So thankful!

How did you do?  Did you find any treasures?  Please share your finds with us by linking up below!  If you’ve never joined us before, please read this post first!

Let the bragging begin!!

Joyfully,

Mrs. Taffy

P.S.  Sorry this is a little late!  Mr. Taffy stayed home yesterday and we’ve been having fun making some important decisions for our family.

My New Favorite Way to Stay Organized!

I hope you can stand another review.  This one isn’t affiliated with any particular group, it’s just something that I found on my own that I’m enjoying so much I wanted to share it with you all!  Some of you have probably already heard of it, but me, well I’m asking, “where have you been all my life?” 

Cozi is an on-line calendar.  Free.  Michelle Duggar uses it with her MEGA family and it’s working for my little one too!  (Okay, well, maybe not little, but in comparison…)

I have a seriously low tolerance for learning anything computer related.  I really like the computer, but my attention span for learning programs is basically non-existent.  After signing up, I watched a 3 minute video and had it figured out!  I made a family calendar and put in the boy’s work schedule very simply.  You can add all of your family members so that you can keep track of who is doing what, when.  I have a grid schedule on my refrigerator that has been working very well, but it’s almost gone and the company that sold it is out of business.  My teenagers are getting busier and busier, it’s hard to keep track of where everybody is and what they are doing.  But as the resident manager it’s my business to know where they are and what’s going on from day to day.  Cozi is totally helping me!

Here’s a list of the things I like so far:

• Easy to understand and maneuver
• All the kids with internet access and can access our calendar and add their schedules and appointments.
• Cozi will email or text reminders for upcoming appointment.
• There’s a page to plan menus, and you can print them!!
• There’s a page to make grocery lists.  I have several lists going, so if the kids notice something is running out, like paper napkins, they can go into the list section and under Target write Napkins.  Or if they have an individual need they can write, “Socks for Banana Taffy,” and I’ll know who to buy them for next time I’m out.
• The Grocery Lists are printable too.
• There is a journal segment where you can put a picture and jot a quick note about happenings in your family, then you can turn it into a newsletter that they will email to whomever you want.  This is great option if you don’t have a blog or if you do and certain family members don’t read it but still like to know what’s going on.  lol
• There’s a free app for certain interfaces.  Not the kindle fire yet, but my husband has it on his smart phone and he will look at it and use it too! That’s a great thing!
• I set up a special list of to-do’s for Mr. Taffy and myself.  I don’t like to give Mr. Taffy more work than he already has but there are few things that I just can’t do, like fixing the printer issue with my laptop. 
• You can sync this calendar up with other on-line calendars.  So if your homeschool co-op or public school has an on-line calendar you can import those dates into your Cozi calendar with just a few clicks. 
• It’s so easy.
• It’s free!

 

 

I love anything that helps me with my job and Cozi is really doing that for me!  Maybe it will for you too? 

www.cozi.com

Joyfully,

Mrs. Taffy

Cutting the Apron Strings*

We are entering this new season in our life.  A season where we pray that our training sticks, where we trust the Lord with the lives of our young adults more wholly, where we have to let go in order to let them fly and grow.  I can feel the change happening, I’m watching it as if it’s not my life, curiously.  I tried to explain it to my 16 year old, the difference in my protective instinct over my little ones as compared to him and his older brother.  I failed.  It’s impossible to not sound detached and uninterested.  That’s not it.  It’s just the process of letting these boys become men.  It’s allowing them to make their own choices, knowing now that my words have impact but are not law.  They have to chose their way, they have to decided to stay on the straight and narrow, they have to decide to be  MEN.  My husband I have always had the mind set that it’s better to let them make dumb choices now while they are still under our care so we can help them through it.  It seems like all the dumb choices Mr. Taffy and I made happened when we were newly married.

Our sons are being raised to be hard-working, God-fearing Providers.  I stress the Provider part often.  I’ve met several mom’s who have grown children, her children aren’t able to homeschool her grandchildren because “they have to work.”  I’m doing my part now to prepare my sons to be providers so that my grandchildren aren’t in daycare.  I know there’s always exceptions to what I consider perfect and all that, but I’m talking about making choices now that will allow them to live how they want when they are older.  My boys are smart, they know.  They watched their dad struggle through unemployment and they still saw the value of me being home.  They even saw it the other day when I casually mentioned getting a part-time cleaning job, Mr. Taffy was a little annoyed at me for even mentioning it.  (Gotta love job security!)  I talk about these things a lot,  about their lives as married men.  I know they might not get married, but both of them want too, so God-Willing, when they do they will be more prepared. 

We had an interesting experience the other day.  We were at the beach and the older boys had a nice game of soft ball going on in the grassy area.  They just use plastic balls and bats so they don’t hurt anybody.  A couple of very LOUD and RUDE women came up and commanded that they move their game because, “this is a beach, not a baseball field.” Then they proceeded to plop down all their beach towels and bags in the grass, not the sandy area near the water.  The guys were so offended and upset by this.  Not because of what they asked but because of their approach.  Our boys would have cheerfully and respectfully moved their game had the women been kind and respectful.  (And you should know, they did the right thing, they were just pretty mad about it.)  Everywhere my sons go they are praised for their respectfulness.  They have good eye contact, strong hand shakes, can string together a whole slue of words without saying “like” once.  Respect begets respect. Kindness begets kindness.  Talk to a teen like an adult, they will talk to you like an adult.  Give them responsibilities, they will be responsible.  This is our approach.

Banana Taffy is working two jobs currently.  It’s a good reality check for him.  Entering this realm of being really tired, working really hard.  It’s been good for him.  Since he’s not totally on his own, I’m still a little protective of his time and he is not keeping both jobs when school starts back up, but he has expenses:  insurance, gas, college,  his Compassion Child, etc.  So he works, he works hard.  I still do his laundry, I still feed him, he still has chores and responsibilities at home, he’s still accountable to us.  But he’s moving toward that independence that is inevitable and welcome on some levels.  It’s just sobering.  Hoping and praying and believing and trusting that we’ve raised him right, that he will continue on with a PERSONAL relationship with the Lord, that he will make good choices, that he will be sober-minded and cautious, that he CONSULTS the Lord with his concerns and LISTENS for an answer and then obeys. 

It is such a privilege to raise these young people.  It’s a privilege to listen to their plans and dreams, to guide them and nurture them, to mother them.  I can’t think of anything I would rather be doing. 

Joyfully,

Mrs. Taffy

*Thanks Dory for the inspiration!  Love you!

Wordless Wednesday