Bloggy Business

As you may have noticed, I have added a disclosure policy to this blog. Up until now, this blog has been specifically a place to share my personal thoughts, pictures and stories about my life. I write a separate blog on deals and saving money where I have shared a few reviews. I recently have come across some products that I was interested in reviewing that seem to fit this blog better than my other blog. So, I have decided that from time to time I will share these items here with you. These will be items that I believe tie in with the theme of this blog. It is my hope that this will enhance and bring an interesting new dynamic to this blog. I look forward to sharing more with you in the days ahead.

Disclosure Policy

This policy is valid from 09 November 2009


This blog is a personal blog written and edited by me. This blog does not accept any form of cash advertising, sponsorship, or paid topic insertions. However, we will and do accept and keep free products, services, travel, event tickets, and other forms of compensation from companies and organizations.

This blog abides by word of mouth marketing standards. We believe in honesty of relationship, opinion and identity. The compensation received may influence the advertising content, topics or posts made in this blog. That content, advertising space or post will be clearly identified as paid or sponsored content.

The owner(s) of this blog is compensated to provide opinion on products, services, websites and various other topics. Even though the owner(s) of this blog receives compensation for our posts or advertisements, we always give our honest opinions, findings, beliefs, or experiences on those topics or products. The views and opinions expressed on this blog are purely the bloggers' own. Any product claim, statistic, quote or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer, provider or party in question.

This blog does contain content which might present a conflict of interest. This content will always be identified.


To get your own policy, go to http://www.disclosurepolicy.org

Small Ways To Give Big

I have reposted a series on giving I wrote last year on my other blog. I combined the series into one blog post to make it easier to read. Check it out if you have the time and are looking for small ways to give big this holiday season.

Through The Lens Thursday #14

I am looking forward to living near the beach. I was made for summer days soaking up the sun with my feet in the sand. The prospect of milder winters without ice storms is very enticing. There is one thing I'm really going to miss though; the gorgeous fall foilage. Fall is pretty spectacular here and I know it won't be the same in Florida. However, I am perfectly willing to sacrifice that for not freezing in the winter. I managed to get some fall photos of the girls while there were still plenty of leaves around. A reminder of the beauty we've enjoyed here.











Each Thursday I share a glimpse at our life through the lens. If you would like to join in, leave a comment with a link to your blog.

An Answer

After living day by day without answers since mid-August we finally know where we will be living and which store my husband will be working in. We will, in fact, be living in Florida. We are all very excited. The planner in me let out of sigh of relief at finally knowing. I have had to let go completely these last two months and just live day to day trusting God to work out the details.

For well over a year God has been working on me; taking away the layers of things I held onto for security and teaching me that all I really need is in Him. Two job losses in a year has shown me you can't depend on a job for security. I see now how much security I had found in the job my husband held for 11 years. I didn't realize it gave me security until it was gone. An income slashed almost in half has reminded me that security does not come from money. The death of people dear to me has revealed to me security does not come from earthly relationships. And finally not knowing where I would be living for two months has shown me that security is not something I can give myself by planning my life out the way I think it should go. My life is His. My security is in my sweet Lord. He gives me enough for each day and that is all I need.

I won't say this journey's been easy. I've cried. I've prayed. I've searched His word. I've been scared. I've asked why. I have wanted to skip the valley and just go back to sitting on the mountain top. And I still want to know the answers to all the questions I have like now. I'm not the best at waiting on the Lord but through this He is teaching me how to wait and drawing me closer to Him.

These last two months have been particularly challenging and I'm not naive enough to think it's going to get much easier from here on out. There are still a lot of unanswered questions. Will we find an affordable rental? When will our house sell? Can we continue to get by on one income? What about finding new schools and a new church? If I allow myself to sit and dwell on any of those questions the anxiety begins to build and I start wanting to take back control and start worrying myself sick. But last week God answered one question. He's taking us to Florida. And I know that when He's ready more questions will be answered. He's taken care of us up to this point. He has promised to continue to do so.

Jeremiah 29:11
11 "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."

And for that, I'm grateful.

Stop by HeavenlyHomemakers for more grateful posts.

Super Girl Saves The Beauty Queen

Okay, so she didn't reaalllly save her but it's a catchy title, eh? My girls absolutely love dressing up. We have a closet full up dress up clothes that we've accumulated over the years. Not surprisingly, Halloween is a day of great anticipation. They are always so excited to put on their costumes and go door to door filling their bags with candy. This year Baby Girl wanted to be Super Girl. Actually, there was great a great debate between Super Girl and Daphne from Scooby Doo but in the end super powers won out. Sister orginally wanted to go as a movie star. She found a dress at Goodwill that she absolutely loved and after much discussion she finally decided that it looked like a dress a beauty queen would wear so that is what she decided to be this year. I altered the dress a bit, made her a sash and she was crowned Miss Pumpkin Patch. Alright enough talk, onto the pictures.

















See more cute kids in costumes at 5 Minutes For Mom.

Through The Lens Thursday #13

It was so nice to escape the chilly temperatures last week and enjoy some time at the beach with The Man. I love this shot of the girls with their Daddy. They had been running up and down the beach and playing in the water. I got them to pause long enough for this shot of them together. The bottom of Baby Girls' dress is soaked.



Each Thursday I share a glimpse of our life through the lens. If you'd like participate, leave a comment linking to your blog.