Free Will--Curse or Blessing??

Free will.  It seems so easy.  God has given me and everyone else free will.  I am free to make my own decisions.  I am free to do whatever I want.  Easy right?  No. Not at all.  Not when your and mother, a wife, a friend, a daughter, a growing Christian. Any one decision in life has many many choices.  What do I choose?  And that same decision may be still a result of a decision made in the past.  Is my present and future now bound by poor choices yesterday?  Will ever get a chance to turn around a wrong choice?  It would e so much easier if I could wake up each morning and have a direct email from God outline each thing I would encounter today and what my responses should be and which exact choices I should make.  Wouldn't the day be amazing?  When my daughter acts not like her usually sweet perfect self, not only will I expect it I can calmly say to her whatever God has told me from my email.  When I have forgotten do something for my husband, I can just refer back to my email and know exactly how to fix it all.  I imagine myself at the end of this day relaxing with a smile on my face, hardly able to wait and see what was in store for tomorrow. 
But this is not reality. I do not receive an email from Him each day.  I do not what I will encounter or forget or have to decide.  I do not have a list of premade answers.  Or do I?
Christianity's foundation is faith.  Faith that all instruction of how to live daily life is found in the Bible, both old and new testament. Faith that if there is true belief, then God will always be there and never allow failure or harm to come to his child.  Faith that even when the answers can't be seen, He will guide to the right answer and to Him.
As I think through this, there seems to be a lot of if's.  What happened to free will?  I still have free will.  I am free to acknowledge me need for Jesus Christ to be my savior and guide.  I have the free will to continue to trust him when everything seems it's darkest and loneliest.  I have free will to put Him first and have the faith that everything else will fall into place as he would have it. 
Ok so free will isn't so bad after all.  I am freeing myself from myself. I am freeing myself from my human thoughts and decisions and embracing and listening to God.  He has given my everything I need  and will continue to so if I freely follow, believe, and seek HIM.

Christmas card 5

Three Wise Men Religious Christmas Card

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Beautiful Personalized Greeting Cards

I am a mother of 3 fast growing children. I love scrapbooking. I love photography. I love Christmas and all that comes with it. For years I have been making my own cards and either inserting a small photo of the kids or incorporating them into the card itself. Last year I received a code for Shutterfly to try their cards for free. Did I mention I love free. So a chose a photo and started browsing through the cards. The layouts were gorgeous. From winter scenes and designs to Christmas trees and the Nativity. The hardest part of card making for me was finding or thinking of a sentiment that would express what I wanted to share with family and friends and be able to use it for all. Many of their cards already have just the right sentiment making personal card making a cinch. I approved my cards and waited for them in the mail. They were everything I imagined. The photos were Shutterfly's high quality and the card stock was heavy and clear to read. I was proud to be able to send such beautiful cards to wish friends near and far a wonderfully merry Christmas. Shutterfly also has Hanukkah cards, party invitations, and thank you cards. I think this year I'm going to try the address labels.

Shopping--Doing good

I have 3 great shopping trips to post. First 7/9/2011.

Next 7-10-11

And today 7-13-11

Not too bad.

Happy 4th of July

Happy 4th of July.  We took it easy this 4th of July weekend.  Stayed at home for the most part.  Barry had to work all weekend but had Monday off.  He took a little time out to light sparlers for the kids and some fireworks he found in the cabinet.  We caught a small fireworks show we could see from our yard and still aren't sure where they were coming from or who was doing it.  Jeremiah was very curious about the fireworks and sparklers.  Every time one was lit here would try to run to it.  All in all I woul say it was great, laid back holiday.

Official Grocery Challenge Sabotaged....

Week 2 Day 1 Spent $54.30   Left $70.70

Well I was doing wonderful budget wise with the grocery challenge and my husband get in his head he needs  to stop at the grocery store.  Now last post we had $17 and some change left and we were doing well.  He spent over $30.  Now this isn't a big blow in the grand scheme of thing but it's over budget.  I am not however swayed in my quest to stick with the budget, I just have to be a little creative like automatically assume that Barry is going to use $30 a week on food and if he doesn't great for us and if he does not a problem.

I went to the grocery store yesterday morning and got groceries that should last us this week. Left over from last week I had 1 pound of ground beef, 1 whole ham shank, and steaks.  4 meals there already!! Kroger had ground beef on sale for $1.99 per pound so I grabbed 3 pounds and picked up some other goodies too. No pictures as by the time I remembered everything was put away and I wasn't going to get every thing back out.
I went to Kroger and bought:
        3 boxes totino's pizza rolls
        6 totino's party pizzas
        Hefty storage bags quart
        Hefty storage bags gallon
        8 Cans chef boyardee
        1 container countrytime lemonade mix (free with Q)
        3 boxes Garden delight Rozini pasta (free with Q)
        9 3 musketeers ($.50 total for all 9 after Q's)
        2 Wisk Detergent
        1 pack 18 ct tides stain release packs
        3 domino sugar (5lb each)
        3 lbs ground beef
Cost before kroger rewards card and coupons $87.20
Cost after Kroger rewards card and coupons $34.23 (gained 54  fuel points)

Next stop food lion
        6 Sobe lifewater
        2 Liquid All
        2 Surf powder
        2 Cocoa Puffs
        2 Cinnamon toast crunch
       5 lbs potatoes
Cost before reward cards and coupons $47.68      
Cost after reward cards and coupons $19.02

Final stop was CVS. Very few food but still great shopping
        Hershey air delight bar
       3 Revlon eye shadows
       1 Pringles to go can
       11 oz bag twizzlers
Cost before reward card and coupons $20.51
Cost after reward and coupons $1.05 and received $5.00 ECB for next time

Curly mini twists Style

This is how Cristiana word her hair for church Sunday.  I used Organics Olive Oil Wrap/Set Mousse and flexirods.  Put her hair in a high ponytail and left some arond her face.  She loved it and recieved many compliments.  These twists are 10 days old.  May redo top front but hope to go for 21 days (3 weeks).