Through The Lens Thursday #17

Wishing you a wonderful Thanksgiving surrounded by those most dear to you. Today I'm sharing one of my favorite pictures from last Thanksgiving. We won't be attending the big family dinner this year. However, we are incredibly thankful to be spending our long weekend together and preparing for our upcoming move. Our hope is that we'll find a house to rent this weekend. Just a few more weeks to go after that until we're all back together again.

Through The Lens Thursday #16

I have never been able to hula hoop. I've tried and tried but still can't seem to make that hula hoop go around for more than a few times before it hits the floor. Apparently the P.E. teacher at the girls' school uses the hula hoop in class a lot. Baby Girl loves it and bought herself one this weekend. The girl can hula hoop. I get a kick out of the energy and enthusiasm she puts into hula hooping.



Each Thursday I share a glimpse at life through the lens. I you would like to participate leave a comment with a link to your blog

Sister Loves Science

I know I've mentioned here before that Sister loves science. Her Christmas list this year consists of new bedding and anything science related. I'm sure she'd love this fun science kit being given away over at 5 Minutes For Mom's Christmas Giveaway.

This is just one of many great prizes included in the giveaway. Others items included are a Band Hero Super Bundle, an Epson Workforce 600 All In One Printer and a Veggie Tales Entire DVD Library.

A Temporary Home

I mentioned last week, that I was relieved when the apartment that The Man was hoping to rent didn't become available leaving him in the hotel(someplace familiar) to ride out Tropical Storm Ida. Our prayer was that he would be able to find a place to live short term that wouldn't be terribly expensive. The hotel had graciously extended The Man's stay at the same corporate rate the company paid during his training but even that would have become very expensive if he had to continue to stay there until we join him in December. Late last week, God answered another prayer for us by providing The Man with a vacation rental home to stay in until we move down there. It will be considerably less money than the hotel would have been which is a huge blessing. The Man also seems quite happy to be in a house after living in a hotel room for twelve weeks. Can you imagine? While it's nice to have someone else to do the cleaning, a hotel room just never feels like home.

We explored the idea of The Man just renting a house for us and living in it until we joined him. He would have had to buy and air mattress and a few other things to get by on until we got down there. The vacation home rental works better overall though. It's fully furnished. He didn't need anything but his personal belongings and food. The woman rented it for a month and will offer a nightly prorated rental fee beyond that if he needs it. Isn't it just like God to work out everything perfectly for us, even better than we would have worked it out for ourselves.

We are so thankful to have this latest answer. We're looking forward to celebrating Thanksgiving in the vacation home with plenty of space and everything we need to cook and and enjoy a wonderful meal and time together as family.

1 Chronicles 16:34 (NIV)
34 Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good;
his love endures forever.

Stop by Heavenly Homemakers for more Gratituesday.

Are You Hosting A Blog Giveaway?

If you're hosting a blog giveaway, stop by my other blog and leave a link to your giveaway. I will be hosting Giveaway Thursday with a Mcklinky each Thursday at The Money Jar.

Through The Lens Thursday #15

I still have beach pictures to go through from our trip over Fall Break. I look forward to seeing these sunsets on a fairly regular basis.



Each Thursday I share a glimpse at life through the lens. I you would like to participate leave a comment with a link to your blog.

Review: One Hundred Butterflies by Harold Feinstein

The earth laughs with flowers, but it dances with butterflies.

-Harold Feinstein

There is nothing that sparks excitement and fascination in my children quite like spotting a butterfly does. They instantly begin to squeal and laugh and follow the butterfly wherever it goes. The delicate wings of a butterfly are like miniature paintings.

In One Hundred Butterflies, Harold Feinstein captures the exquisite beauty of these delicate creations in brilliant photographs. Each photograph showcases the unique design and beauty of butterflies from around the world. In addition, the book features quotes and literary references to butterflies that show how there has long been a fascination with butterflies.

I found the photographs to be absolutely captivating. In some photos the brilliant colors almost seem to glow. I appreciated that the name and location of each butterfly was given. I also had no idea that there were so many butterflies whose topside patterns are so different from the patterns on the underside of their wings. The book is as educational as it is beautiful.

One Hundred Butterflies is a beautiful art book that would be a welcome addition to a coffee table or book shelf. This would make a great gift for anyone who appreciates the beauty of butterflies.

About Harold Feinstein

Harold Feinstein began his photography career at the age of 15. By the time he was 19, his work had been purchased for the Museum of Modern Art. Early in his career, Feinstein was know for his black and white documentary style photographs. In 2000, Feinstein began to master digital technology as an artistic medium. His photographs have been exhibited in and are represented in the permanent collections of major museums including the Museum of Modern Art, the International Center of Photography, the George Eastman House, the Museum of Photographic Arts, the Musee d'Art Moderne, the Museum for the City of New York and the Smithsonian National Museum of American History. His portfolios, photo essays, and articles have been published in major periodicals around the world including LIFE, Aperture, Audubon, Connoisseur, L'Illustriazione, and Popular Photography.

One Hundred Butterflies can be purchased at Amazon.com as well as many well known book stores.

I was given the opportunity to review this product because of my membership at The Product Review Place.

Disclosure: I received a copy of this book to review from Hachette Book Group. No compensation was given for this review. The views and opinions expressed in this review are my own and in no way influenced by Hachette Book Group.

Refuge

Sunday evening Hurricane Ida was making a bee line for the Florida panhandle. I got a phone call from The Man. He was in WalMart and wanted me to help him put together a few things he might need in case there was extended power outage and other problems resulting from the storm. Over the weekend the apartment he had hoped to rent hadn't become available after all. I was actually relieved to know he'd be in the hotel as the storm passed over rather than a new place he wasn't familiar with.

I was so glad to see Ida had been dowgraded to a tropical storm early Monday. I was also relieved to find out that people there take preparing for these storms seriously. The restaurant he worked at closed early so he was able to get back to his hotel room before the heavy rains and winds hit. And even though I knew he'd be okay, I admit that I kept checking in on The Weather Channel throughout the night to see what the storm was doing.

By this morning the storm had mostly blown through and my Man was safe. The damage in the area was minimal and mostly reserved to the coastline. I am so grateful that the storm weakened and passed over with only minimal problems.

There is nothing that is beyond the power of God. I know He was there providing refuge as the storm passed over last night and that the storm itself was controlled by His hand. This is true of not only the literal storms but of all the other storms we face in this life whether it be a job loss, relationship troubles, sick children, unexpected health issues, etc. God is our refuge from the storm.

Psalm 46:1-3
1 God is our refuge and strength,
an ever-present help in trouble.
2 Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way
and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,
3 though its waters roar and foam
and the mountains quake with their surging.

To view more Gratituedsay stop by Heavenly Homemakers.

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.