Favorite Tech-Free Summer Activities

Inexpensive, yet fun 👍 activities with your children during these dog days of Summer 2022 (by Rachel Cruze):

These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.( John 16:33)

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Rachel Cruze: Chic fil-A Hacks to Save Money $ at the Drive-thru

George Kamel, wikipedia

It's Summertime!  

Treat your kids at Chic fil-A once in a while and not feel so poor $$ afterward. 

Below are good, easy money-saving ideas from Dave Ramsey's daughter, Rachel Cruze, and Dave Ramsey co-host, George Kamel.  Watch their facebook video about this with the link below:

We went to Chick-fil-A to test some money-saving drive thru hacks! Try these hacks and let us know what you think! 👇

🔴 BLT: Just order a toasted bun with bacon, lettuce, and tomato. A great sandwich for about $2!

🔴 KID YOURSELF: Order a kids meal, and swap the toy for an Ice Dream in cup or cone. Food, drink, and dessert for under 6 dollars!

🔴 TWO SANDWICH HACK: Get two sandwiches on the cheap by getting an order of 4 count chicken strips and two buttered buns. Should save you about $2!

📍*exact prices will vary depending on your location

🠊Link to Rachel Cruze's  Facebook video 🠈

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MY DADDY SLEEPS NAKED

"Late again!" the third-grade teacher sternly said to little Robbie.

"It ain't my fault this time, Miss Russell. You can blame this 'un on my Daddy. The reason I'm three hours late is my Daddy sleeps naked!"

Miss Russell had taught grammar school for 30-some-odd years. Despite her mounting fears, she asked little Robbie what he meant by that.

Full of grins and mischief, and in the flower of his youth, little Robbie and trouble were old friends but he always told the truth.

"You see, Miss Russell, out at the farm we got this here low down Fox. The last few nights, he done ate six hens. Last night, when Daddy heard a noise out in the chicken pen, he grabbed his double-barreled shotgun and said to my Ma, "That fox is back again... I'm a gonna git him!''

"Stay back," Daddy whispered to all us kids!

"My Daddy was naked as a jaybird -- no boots, no pants, no shirt! To the hen house he crawled. Then, he stuck that double-barrelled 12-gauge shotgun through the window of the coop. As he stared into the darkness, with a fox on his mind, our old hound dog, Rip, had done gone and woke up and comes sneaking up behind Daddy. Then, as we all looked on, plumb helpless, old Rip done went and stuck his cold wet nose in my Daddy's crack!"

"Miss Russell, we all been pluckin' chickens since three o'clock this mornin!"

Facebook

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Home Renovation: What Adds the Most Value

 Thankful that I had some beautiful ceramic tile floor work done at my entryway on a recent renovation. Pics below.

Focus on Floors ... The thing that can add the most value to your renovation is underfoot. “When you’re buying a house, you’re basically buying walls and floors,” says Saavedra, who prefers wide-engineered hardwood, which can range between $3 and $20 a foot [or more]. “There’s no worse feeling than walking into a brand-new apartment and hearing that creaky, Formica plasticky sound,” he says. “I call it ‘foreclosure floors,’ and the saddest thing is, it’s really not that much cheaper.”  -- Domino Magazine

Ephesians 5:15




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Advice to a College Freshman From One in the Know

So, you're going to college. Here's some things I wished I knew when I was a naïve little freshman. You didn't ask me for any advice, I know, but I'm your big sister, so you're gonna get a list anyway 

1. For the first couple of months, keep your door propped open whenever you're in your room. Seriously. People are going to be walking around a lot, so it's a great way to meet your hall mates and make great friends.

2. Don't be stupid, though. Lock your door when you're not in. People suck sometimes.

3. Don't get too involved in settling down the first couple of days. You can unpack later, it can wait. Run around campus, do all those stupid freshman welcome things, and get to know people. 

4. Do not be the person who burns something in the community microwave. You will forever be known as the dummy that set the fire alarm off at 2 am in the morning on a school day. You will get death threats. Especially don't be the person who sticks a wet baseball in the stove because you want it to be dry when you play catch. Just don't. 

5. Treat ratemyprofessor.com like the Bible when signing up for classes. It will save you a lot of heartache and sleepless nights. 

6. Have a couple rolls of your own toilet paper. You never know when it will become a rare commodity. 

7. Never get into the habit of just smiling and nodding when someone is talking to you. You may end up accidentally agreeing to a date and then have to ninja around campus for months to avoid him because you're too socially awkward to face him again....

8. High GPAs look great on paper, but sometimes it's more important to network and gain relevant experience. Get a job, volunteer, intern, do whatever it takes to gain some experience. Get to know your professors. You don't need to become best friends with all of them, but if you can get close to even a few, they can be great resources and possibly provide letters of recommendation for you in the future. 

9. Before classes start, walk around campus and find all of your class locations. You will avoid being that pathetic looking freshman frantically running around the hallways and barging into class 20 minutes late on the first day. 

10. Remember to have a social life. You're in college, have fun, do dumb stuff, just be safe about it. 

11. If you find you're having trouble staying awake in class, sit in the front. It's harder to doze off when the teacher is glaring at you or, worse, spits a lot. It's gross, but effective. 

Anyway, have fun! These next four years will be amazing for you, I'm sure. Keep in touch!

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Actress Brigitte Nielsen & List of Moms Over 50 Years Old

Happy Birthday, 
Brigitte Nielsen! 

The Danish actress (born 15 July 1963) and her hubby, Mattia Dessi, welcomed a baby girl in June 2018 and named her Frida. She was 54 at the time.  I do not need to delve into her long history of various lovers. That's water under the bridge.  Based on the little bit of update-info I read on her, I see a sober woman who wants to start anew.  I hope she does not blow the opportunity. I hope even more that God intervenes in her life.  And no, she is not too old to be a Mom.  At 54 y.o. she is almost 2 decades younger than the oldest mother who has ever conceived in modern history.

IG: realbrigittenielsen

In biblical history, there was a miraculous birth for an even older Mom; topped only two thousand years later by the truly phenomenal (virgin) birth of the Lord Jesus Christ. 

Sarah, Abraham's wife, was 90 years old!!!!!!

written by the prophet Isaiah approx. 700 years before the birth of Christ

See the List of the 7 Oldest Mothers in the world  H E R E

Read the story on Brigitte Nielsen H E R E

Is She Too Old For a Baby?


Brigitte Nielsen, actress


Sarah, Abraham's Half-sister




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The Princess Bride bed

Awwww ... how very sweet and romantic of our son.

It's his current project:  a bed frame for himself and his soon-to-be, and beautiful-as-a-Princess wife. I am jealous, which prompted me to email hubby with a question:

Me:  Hon, why didn't you ever build ME a bed?

Hubby:  I did not build you a bed because I was busy with my full time job. 

Hubby: And this type of wooden bed would not have lasted as you got pregnant with our kids 6x.

Hubby:  Don't you remember that I bought you a water-bed instead?

Aaaah, thanks for the memories, luv. Goooood times!

22.07.02.18

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Summer Heat: Free Way to Cool Off

We barely got home from our walk with our pet, Mr Bubbles, when it began to rain. Yay, thank God for relief from the oppressive heat and humidity of the past week. As I got out of my wet clothes, the house became suddenly quiet. Where are my children? Why, outside, of course, enjoying the cooling rain. And ...horrors....actually holding hands in their fun and excitement ;-)

With or without umbrellas, I've never minded being in the rain, playing in the rain, or rain in general. The more intense the storm, the better. Times like these brings back happy memories of my childhood in the Tropics. No worries about looking like a fool, cleanliness, or infection (I thank the Lord for Tetanus shots, though); just acting like a child because you ARE a child, and enjoying the thrill of the moment. Cheap fun, courtesy of God and nature.

4.07.06.18

Kentucky Wedding

As we got ready to exit on Rt 335 from I-57, we heard it. A thumping, somewhat grinding sound from the left side of me (sitting in the second row, right side). A slight burning smell also.

Pull over, says hubby to our son, the driver.
Jared had just been manipulating the cruise control, but pulled over safely to the shoulder.
An hour away from home, on our way to Eric and Laura's wedding in KY, and now this!

What's the problem here??!!! Engine starts, but shifting gear resulted in stalling.

We weren't going anywhere.  Off in the distance, to the right, is the exit to Monee.
To the left, is McD's. And bathrooms. I needed to go. Sigh.

Called Geico. Very, very nice black lady on the phone.
Within a half hour, a confirmation from Superior Towing (driver Tom).
But no Taxis in the area. Huh?! Let's call non-emergency Police for help.
Over an hour later, Monee Town Police shows up.
Two minutes after that, Illinois State Police shows up (Officer  Powell with an assistant, license plate 5-43).
Monee Police is a no-go.  It's against their regulations to take us anywhere except to the nearest gas station.
Tow truck can only fit two more people. State Police could also fit only two.  But there were 6 of us!
Rules were bent and winked at...off we ALL go. Must go backwards 5 miles to a Dodge dealership - hallelujah!- in Matteson. Meanwhile, I am being transported in the back seat of a Police car.

Two hours of waiting at Denny Guests' Southoak Dodge. Problem: blown out/bad ignition coil.
It was an original part. Bound to break, sooner or later. A nice office lady made us feel better by giving us Coke with ice.  Finally... 4 hours after break down, the car is fixed. Kentucky, here we come!

Officer Powell said if we had stalled around Kankakee, there would have been no one (meaning, car service) around for many, many miles. Realized later that had we passed Kankakee, in the backwoods area of Illinois, we would have ended up sleeping in the van while awaiting help 'coz NOBODY would have found us till the next day. The area was similar to the "Deliverence" movie in remoteness (I could be exaggerating here, but that's what it seemed like to me).  It would have been worse than trying to find Janice's dad's wake.

Finally made it at the hotel (Fairview Inn) at 9:15 pm. Had we not been delayed, we would have been here by 4 pm. Now, there was no time for the pool. At leasts there was wi-fi. Plus, below  was the glorious view outside our rooms' windows. We don't have this around our town. Yet.

Our morning meals were also included in our rate (unlike our friends who rented from Marriott).

Breakfast: 
Jimmy Dean Sausage, Egg and Cheese Biscuit
Jimmy Dean Bacon, Egg & Cheese Biscuit
Ham, Egg, Cheddar Quiche
Otis Spunkmeyer Apple Cinnamon Muffin
Dannon Light Fit Strawberry Yogurt
Orange Juice
Hard-boiled eggs
Coffee

Womanly Intuition is Highly Overrated

pc: Wheaton College

It was early in the afternoon, and I was the lone parent in the waiting room of the Music School.

Entry door opened; I got up to take a look.

I did not recognize the man -- short, stocky -- wearing a light-coloured coat; peering into the empty practice rooms.
He stopped and smiled when he caught a glimpse of me.

"Where is the owner?" he asked.
I gave directions to the outside stairs which lead to the owners' residence.
"Uhmmm....what's her name?"
I said her first name.
"Are YOU one of the teachers?"
No. Did he want someone in particular?
"Never mind. So the stairs are where??"
They're outside of the front doors, to the left.
He smiled once again and exited.
My anxiety level suddenly shot up.

I hurriedly found my cell phone and called my husband.
I paced from hallway to the waiting room, and back again, as I explained the situation.
He was just as perplexed as me; but after five minutes I'd calmed down enough, 'tho still feeling wary, to hang up.
I continued to wait.

Don, the school co-owner walked in through the back door.
Did a man show up at their front door about 10 minutes ago?
"What man? I didn't see anyone?" he answered.
Once again, I felt anxious.
"Let me go back upstairs and ask my wife."
I waited for his return, all the while thinking that the Music School needed a better security system.
A camera by the door?  Doors that lock behind you?
A Guard? One can never be too sure in today's society.

Don returned with the missing pieces to the puzzle.
Don's wife had given a donation months (years?) ago to AA.
The stranger had  remembered her (tho' not her name).
He had successfully completed the Alcoholics Anonymous program.
He's sober.  He's happy.  Most of all, he's thankful.
And that's why he'd shown up at the Music School.
Talk about misjudging a fellow!!

12.8.23.18