Ebates – A Cashback Program that Works

Have you heard of Ebates.com?  Ebates is an online store directory where you earn back, in the form of cash, a percentage of your total purchase while shopping online.  There are over 1,200 stores in their directory including Sam’s Club, EBAY, Barnes & Noble, Cabela’s, Target, Sears and Wal-Mart.  Some stores also offer coupons in addition to the cash back. 

How does it work?  First you need to go to Ebates website and sign-up.  It’s very simple and will take only a few minutes.  Then you start shopping.  You must enter the store you want to shop at through Ebates, otherwise they cannot track what you have purchased and you will not get any cash back.  Ebates will keep track of your purchases.  Four times a year (after you’ve earned $10) they will send you, depending on your choice, a check or you can choose to have the funds deposited directly into your Paypal account, or option three is to have them send the check to a charity of your choice.  There is absolutely no charge to use this program.   

Since you might be doing some of your Christmas shopping online, this is a good time to join Ebates.  You can sign up for their program here or cut and paste into your browser http://www.ebates.com/rf.do?referrerid=7b77VoIUeqzOQKHXW%2F5rGQ%3D%3D.  Just for signing up they’ll give you $5.  And if you don’t mind using me as a referral, my email is timbuck2mom@gmail.com.

Thanksgiving 2009

I’m happy now.  We were able to have our Thanksgiving dinner and a special evening together.

Serenity made these cute napkin ring holders…

I made the meal.  No big picture of this plate.  If you don’t know how to photograph food, it just kind of looks unappetizing when you do try.

  

Have you ever had rocks for supper?  Well that’s basically what my little buns turned out to be.  Tried a new recipe in the bread machine that didn’t turn out so well at all.    But a pat of butter greatly helped.  I’ve heard it said that butter makes everything taste better.

There’s our Audrey again

One of my favorite things we did this year was this little blessing tree.  I’m not sure what blog inspired this so I can’t give credit but we took a dead branch from a manzanita bush and placed it into this jar filled halfway with decorative marbles.

At each person’s seat we placed two leaves that Serenity cut out of construction paper.  Each person wrote something they were thankful for pertaining to the person that sat on their left and to their right.  After reading them aloud, we placed them on the tree.

After supper we watched some home videos of when the children were little.  A foot bath can be therapeutic   as I mentioned yesterday,  but a good laugh is probably even better.

Proverbs 17:22 says, “A merry heart doeth good like a medicine…”

I laughed at one scene until I cried.  It involved Zachary and a speech he gave on the Blackfoot Indians when he was about 8.  Zachary always makes me laugh, nothing new there.  He has the quickest wit.  I’ve always wished I could be like that.  My mom’s family are so humorous with their quick replies but I guess it must have skipped a generation because it bypassed me. Rats!

 Dear Lord, all my thanks goes to you for your many and great blessings.  Thank you for the joys you give us through family.

A Thanksgiving Blessing

While most of you were having a wonderful day celebrating Thanksgiving, we were holding a different celebration.  Not all of us, since Russell and some of the boys were gone deer hunting but those of us who stayed behind wished… 

Audrey

 

a happy 4th birthday!  She wanted gingerbread pancakes for breakfast.  Serenity made her some M*ckey Mouse artwork. 

 

Little Audrey is at such a fun age.  Russell always tells her she’s a nice girl and his little princess.  If he ever just mentions that she’s his little princess, she’ll tack on… “And a nice girl.” 

Our two girls are 8 years apart in age but were both born during the Thanksgiving week, so we never can forget to be thankful for these 2 blessings.

There was no turkey with all the trimmings for us and no house full of people.  That was different.   It’s nice to be with family celebrating the day, isn’t it?  I really missed that this year.  So we didn’t have our dinner and special family time but we’re going to make up for it tonight with a nice meal. 

The cranberry sauce is already made. 

 

I think I’m the only one who will eat it with my turkey.  One of the kids wondered if I was making a drink when they saw it in this glass and thought it looked a little “chunky”.  Another one didn’t know what it was when he saw the picture but thought it looked good and was asking if he could have some. 

What’s it like at your house?  Is it thumbs up or thumbs down for cranberry sauce?

 

Other happenings on the farm this week…  

I tried out a therapeutic foot bath on Zachary.  Everyone else wanted to try it and for the next 2 days they kept that bucket filled with warm water.  What do you think was the result?  Yes!  Clean feet for 2 days!!

 

A tip  for you mothers.  If you live on a farm and your kids go barefoot, you might want to introduce the foot bath.  You won’t have any trouble getting them to soak their feet and they’ll be wrinkly clean.   Of course, nobody said you couldn’t try it, too.   Go ahead and then let me know how refreshing and relaxing it felt.  I won’t say “I told you so.”  Promise.

 

 

Birthday Wishes

What joys this baby girl has brought to our home.  She was our first girl after having 3 boys.  We were so excited when our midwife told us we had a baby girl.

Then – 1997

 

 Now – 12 years later - 2009

SERENITY =

Sincere Enjoyable Restful Easygoing Nice Impressive ThoughtfulYouthful

A Thousand Rings?

Russell was reading about Solomon in our morning devotions a few weeks ago, telling the children how Solomon had riches, houses, lands, as well as 1000 wives and in the end said, “All is vanity.”

Justus (6 yo) looked perplexed when he heard that Solomon had 1000 wives.  

“He did?  How could he fit all his rings on him?”   LOL

Of course, we had to do a little explaining.

 

A Week of Organization

By the time you read this on Friday my 3 oldest boys, along with my husband, will most likely be home after being gone a whole week hunting for bull elk.  They’ve had a good time seeing hundreds of elk and getting within a few yards of them, seeing them bugle and watching some cow elk playing, kicking up their heels.  One morning Wesley saw a mountain lion with her cub walking along.  Unfortunately, they did not bag their game.   I guess the elk have to win some of the time.

I have been doing quite well, surprisingly, with only my 3 youngest and myself at home.  I was able to accomplish things I normally am unable to get to.  I did some organizing of my papers using David Allen’s book that I reviewed yesterday (that was a tremendous load off my mind), organized another mess of CD’s, my linen closet and my last project I’m still working on – cutting fabric scraps. 

I have a bag full of fabric scraps from some quilts I have made.  You don’t want to toss them but they don’t seem to be of much use except for little projects that the kids want to make.  Well, I read on someone’s blog (can’t remember who’s) about a website called Quiltville.  Bonnie, who operates this site, is an avid quilter and her specialty is making quilts out of scraps and shirttails.  Read this link she wrote on what to do with scraps.  So I’ve been following her suggestion and have been ironing, measuring and cutting all my leftover scraps, placing the different sized squares, strips, etc. in individual Ziploc baggies. 

When cutting a piece of fabric I have this particular quilt in mind from Quiltville.com – the Pioneer Braid.  I cut my pieces (2 1/2″ x 6″)  from the fabric with that quilt in mind.  Whatever is left from the fabric I then cut into 2″ or 1 1/2″ strips or squares.  I’m tossing anything less than 1 1/2″. 

I won’t be able to make this quilt for quite some time because I don’t  have enough scraps for an entire quilt top.  But at least I’ll have my scraps all cut up and placed in a baggie, along with the directions on how to make the quilt.  As I get more leftover pieces, I’ll cut them adding them to the pieces already cut.  I hope I’m not totally wasting my time doing this.  I don’t quilt very often even though I thoroughly enjoy it so it may be years and years before I get to this Pioneer Braid.

How do you use your fabric scraps?  Do you save them for your children, toss them or what?  I’m not a real crafty person so I’d be curious to know what some of you do.

I’ve had a productive week but I’m anxious to see the rest of the crew.  Seth is back now from Ohio but I’ve only seen him for about 3 hours, (he went to bed early the night he got home and left at 3:30a.m. the next morning for the hunt) so I’m looking forward to being able to give him a hug when I feel like it and telling him how good it is to have him home.

Have a wonderful weekend.

Review – Getting Things Done

Getting Things Done

Written by: David Allen

Publisher: Penguin

 

Papers, papers, papers.  Projects, to-do lists, things you want to do someday, phone calls to make, appointments to go to.  Just how are we supposed to keep all this straight in our minds and not forget something important?  How can we control the paper monster that threatens to take over?  With all the things we must do each day, we need a system that we can rely upon.  May I introduce you to an author that has been successful in coaching many executives to a clearer mind and workstation?  David Allen has written the 267 page long book Getting Things Done. 

I have only recently been told about this book by my other “love to organize things” sister but I have already put his system in place.  You see, I was getting overwhelmed by all the papers I had floating around.  Papers I wanted to keep but where should I put them?  I had papers sitting on my desk to remind me that I needed to do some follow-up on them.  Facing this kind of mess day in and day out can really wear a person down.  After all, where do you work?  I usually would push one pile aside while working on another, or I would place my new set of papers/books on top of the old.  Sometimes I had to peer around the stack to see my computer screen.  I had a serious need to get this part of my life together.

David Allen addresses everything I mentioned at the start of this post.  To-do lists, projects, papers you want to keep for reference and any other problem you have with paper and mental clutter.

Although I am thrilled to have found this book, I must say I found the book to be somewhat confusing to read.  The first half is an overview of the system and the second half is how to implement it.  I read some of the first half but I just wanted to get to organizing my stuff  – not only read about it, so I moved to the second half.  Some of it I did not understand how to fully work until I went back and read the needed parts in the beginning of the book.   Maybe if I had read it in order it would have been okay but really I think it should have flowed together a little more smoothly.

Some of the steps David Allen will have you do is set up a filing system.  He recommends the A-Z system.  With this system if you have a paper that you want to keep for reference but that needs no action, you need to file it under the letter it belongs to.  For instance, I have a list of music teachers in our area  that I placed in the T folder.

Another step is to have a tickler file.  A tickler file is one in which you have folders for each month of the year and then individual folders numbered 1-31.  Having a system like this is like mailing yourself something.  You look at the file that is today’s date and if there is anything in there you must either take action on it, defer it or delegate it.  An example from my files… I have a coupon that is good for November 18-21.  I placed the coupon in folder 18.  Now when I look at this folder and coupon I can decide if I want to place an order from this company or not.  Maybe I’m still not sure so I can even feel free to defer it to the 19th and place it in that folder. 

The tickler file and A-Z file system are two of the basic steps presented in Getting Things Done but there are answers to all your other paper problems, too.  He writes about project lists, someday/maybe lists and next action lists.  You do not need to have everything paper-based either.  You could also set yourself up on Microsoft Outlook or some other digital device.

But of course, as with any system, you must stick with it.  Mr. Allen recognizes this and so to keep everything running smoothly you must review your lists at least once weekly.

In conclusion, if you also have too many things on your mind, are not taking action on things that really need to be done, do not know what to do with all your papers – you really need to get this book.  David Allen also has a website here. 

 

Sunday Inspiration

The lion hath roared, who will not fear? the Lord GOD hath spoken, who can but prophesy?     – Amos 3:8     

My Son Has Returned

My son has returned!  Seth made the drive back from Ohio and arrived last night.  Sometimes you just don’t know what your kids are capable of and he did surprise me.  He seemed to handle the drive well; we made sure that we called him quite frequently to see how he was doing.  The first day he drove 8 hours to my mom’s and stayed overnight.  The next day I think he drove 12 or 16 hours and still wanted to go on but Russell booked him a motel room so that he could get some decent rest – and because he knows how dangerous it can be to drive when you’re tired.

The next morning Seth left at about 5:30 a.m.  An hour or two later, as he was driving, he saw on the opposite side of the freeway a car flip from end to end.  He parked (about 200 yards down the road), grabbed his knife and ran back. 

For a little background as to why he grabbed his knife.  A year ago as our family was driving down the freeway to Louisiana a van went off the road right in front of us and rolled.  We stopped and the boys all ran to the van.  The van was still upside down and there was a man trying to get out of his seat belt and having trouble.  This incident made Seth think about what he would if he was ever in a situation like this again.

Back to the present.  Seth grabbed his knife and ran back thinking that if the car caught on fire and they needed help getting out, he would be able to assist.  (I was impressed with his quick action.  But I guess this is what they say you should do.  Think through how you would react in an emergency so that if the time comes and you need to act, you are not paralyzed wondering what to do.)

When he arrived at the car there was another man there already.  It was a lady and two children.  One child was in a car seat and the other had been thrown out.  The child in the car seat was fine.  The mother crawled (she couldn’t walk) over to her little girl who had been thrown out and kept saying, “I’m sorry my babies, I’m so sorry.”  After she reached her girl she was in terrible pain with her legs.  Seth thought her legs and 1 arm was broken and that the little girls arm was broken.  It really touched Seth to see this mother so obviously concerned for her children.  That’s a mothers love isn’t it?  I know all us mom’s can relate.  We would give our lives for our children in order to spare them.

Seth stayed until the ambulance and police arrived (about 25 minutes), holding the baby for a little while and covering them with a blanket.  The police officer told Seth when he was leaving to be careful.  Seth was thinking, “I sure will after seeing this.”

What was the cause of the accident?  The lady bent down to pick something up from off the floor.

I’m thankful that the Lord brought him safely home and that the accident he saw was not even more horrific.

A grateful mom…

Photos of a Cowboy Kid

Probably inspired by Serenity’s photo shoot with Audrey, I decided to try one myself.  Usually, I take the children to a professional photographer but with funds being tight, I’ve been hesitating.  Too long as a matter of fact.  I like to get a picture of them when they turn 13.  That didn’t happen with Wesley and he’s now 14.  Oh, dear! 

I also like to get a picture of them at age 6.  Since Justus turned 6 in April, it was time for him.  I had the clothes I wanted him to wear and so one day this past week, we decided to just take the pictures.   Getting pictures of children is no easy task.

First it started off with the slouch and little to no smile, “because I’m a cowboy” .

Then it was the stiff as a board look.

We got rid of the stiff look but the smile still isn’t right and the head is too tilted.

Because the smiles were minimal, mom, (that’s me, folks ) decided to help out a little.  I grabbed his mountain man “necessary bag” in which he had a few pieces of candy and pretended I was going to eat them.  Instead of the big smile because mom is so funny, I got the stunned and distressed look. :( Okay, forget that! 

Okay, time for some fun…

The serious, contemplative cowboy.

But then we started making progress towards getting a few good ones.

Until finally we got this one.  And guess what?  This picture and the composition of it was all Justus’s idea.

Off to C*stco online we went and ordered all the pictures I wanted, 8×10, 5×7’s and some 4×6’s.  All for about $4 for a grand savings of over $140.  Fantastic!

Can I show you a few more?  Here’s one that Serenity set up.  She wanted Justus in the foreground and Audrey in the background.  Cute.

And finally, Daddy and his little girl.  (I have a similar picture of Serenity when she was the same age (3) wearing the very same outfit. It’s one of my favorite photos and I always wanted to get the same picture with Audrey.)