A Brand New Day: July 2009

Welcome to our little world!

Thanks for stopping by! I hope to update daily to give you a little peek into our lives. We are so blessed and look forward to sharing a little piece of us....

I find so much peace in the fact that Jesus NEVER changes - He is ALWAYS the same & He loves each and every one of us unconditionally and more than we can even imagine!

You can pause the music if you just don't feel like listening to it and you can click on any picture to see it larger!

Ooo - and excuse the typos - it's just not me to care if I spell or punctuate right! Ha!!!

Monday, July 20, 2009

What is a family?

Just something I've been pondering lately. Is is the family you are born into? Share the same gene pool with? Grow up in the same house with? People that God brings into your life? A little of both? Whatever the case - I do know they are people who love you unconditionally.

Just a quiet day around here - escaping the heat..

My kiddos in their tees courtesy of Oh Bananas!

and my newest blanket - I'm currently working on a John Deere one!

Friday, July 17, 2009

Fabulous Friday!

Today has been hot - hot - hot! The hottest I read on the thermometer was 121! Insane! And there were some really cool clouds that rolled by - you couldn't see any lightning but there was an amazing thunderstorm going on in there!!!

My Spotted Box arrived today!!!
It was stuffed full of goodies!

Mackenzie is becoming such the little helper - by choice I will add! She loves emptying the dishwasher, folding clothes & has taken up my passion with blankets, she loves helping me lay them out & then picking them up in rows for me!

Jonas - well, he was just uncooperative today when it came to getting his picture taken, so here's a pic of his back side - sporting his Black GAD diaper with the Raiders vs. Broncos - ha!!!

and check this out! Jonas (or Jo Jo as I call him often!) is such a smart little guy!
Click here:
Jonas on YouTube!!!

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Tuesday....

Lots going on here today - we have FIOS and laptops!!! Feel like we were in the stone age! Ha!!! I sooooo need me a mouse!!!

The Spotted Box stocks tomorrow and from what I hear - the box is amazing this month!

Scentsy is going great! I am loving selling such an amazing product!!!

Right now we're boiling some apples & making home make applesauce - we got the apples from a local person - all organic!!!

Here's some recent pics of the kiddos.....

Thumbs up for outside play!

Cuddle time with Daddy!

Sibling love.....why can't they be this way ALL the time!

All ready for church!

Ummm....so refreshing!

So tall & thin!

Happy Birthday Ben!

Monday, July 13, 2009

The Husband Project...and the winner is.....

Comment #10!!!! Courtesy of my daughter - I told her to pick a number between 1 & 10 - and she picked 10!!! Heather!!!! I will see how I go about contacting you and get the book to you! Yay! This is going to be fun!!! Thanks for all the comments - if anyone else wants a book, you can visit Kathi's site to do so - and I know I have some links in my original post of where you can purchase!

Also - be sure to visit Kathi's site and sign up for her newsletter & get your free copy of the e-cookbook The Ultimate Guide to Man Food!!!

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

The Husband Project

Yep - I'm on a mission. I posted recently how I have let JT slip a bit to the back burner, and God, once again, has amazed me! He sent me Kathi Lipp! She is an amazing woman & speaker, who spoke at our Woman's Retreat last year, and is also from my home town of San Jose - well, she contacted me. She has written a book called The Husband Project.

Kathi has sent me 2 copies of the book and what I'm looking for is another woman to be my accounability partner (and I'll be hers) to do this with. Keep reading for more info & then post a comment here - tell me what you love about your husband to be entered.

Here is a bit more info:

Short description of The Husband Project
Do you feel like your marriage has gone from "I do" to "What did I do?" Recapture the romance that made you and your husband fall in love in the first place. The Husband Project provides 21 days of fun activities to show love and honor to your husband. Kathi Lipp will help you discover:
Proven ways to return fun and flirting to your marriage.
Inner assurance to meet your husband’s unspoken emotional needs.
Increased confidence when it comes to meeting your husbands sexual needs.
New levels of warmth and tenderness in your relationship.
A deeper sense of security with your husband.
A greater ability to boost your husband’s belief in himself.

Author Bio
Kathi Lipp helps women renovate their life with projects for the soul. She is a national speaker and author who inspires thousands each year to take beneficial action steps in their personal, marital, and spiritual lives. Her wit and wisdom will give you new ways to:

• Avoid settling for less than God’s loving plan for your life.
• Develop new levels of warmth and tenderness with your spouse.
• Return fun and flirting to your marriage.
• Boost your confidence to follow God-given dreams and goals.
• Create an environment of encouragement in your friendships

Kathi is the author of The Husband Project: 21 Days to Loving Your Man on Purpose and with a Plan and The Marriage Project: 21 Days to Reigniting Your Relationship (coming Fall, 2009). In addition, her articles have appeared in Today’s Christian Woman, Bay Area Parent, Focus on the Family, Discipleship Journal, and Christian Parenting Today.
Church leaders and women’s ministry directors rely on Kathi to help women move from living out of obligation to enjoying godly passion. She shares her cheerful humor and biblical insights over 45 times a year at conferences and retreats.
Kathi and her husband, Roger, are parents of four teenagers and live in San Jose, California. They are members of Church on the Hill where Roger is the programming director of the worship arts ministry.
Renovate your life with a project for your soul!

Q&A with Kathi
Kathi, why did you want to write The Husband Project?
When my husband and I got married, I was determined not to be like so many other couples who turned from romantics to roommates in a matter or months. But, like everyone else, we got back form the honeymoon and had kids and bills and home repairs waiting. It wasn’t long until I packed away the lingerie and was wearing sweats to bed. I knew that if I wasn’t intentional about keeping my husband a priority, it would be easy to let him fall to the middle of my to-do list. I had to get desperate and creative – that is how The Husband Project was born.

Tell me, how does The Husband Project work?
The Husband Project is like a workout program for your marriage – only with less sweat and more chocolate. You commit to do fun and flirty things for 21 days to raise the temperature of your marriage – everything from flirty notes on the bathroom mirror to more lingerie in the bedroom. It is a little bit of work – and a whole lot of fun.

How did you come up with the Projects?
All of these projects are husband tested and wife approved. First I tried things out on my husband, and then I had a group of over 200 women try some of those projects out on their own men. We took the projects that had the highest flirt factor and put them into the book.

Don’t most women want to do nice things for their husbands?
Why do you need a book to do them?
Oh, I totally agree. We all have great intentions, but blessing your man is like making dinner: The hardest part isn’t the cooking, it is deciding what to fix. It is the same with the husband project – all the ideas are pretty simple, but the Projects just lay it out so that it is easy to do.

Give me an example of what a project looks like.
Most of the projects take less than 5 minutes or 5 dollars. One woman made her husband’s favorite brownies and put one on his nightstand every evening for five days. Another wife just casually mentioned to her mother-in-law what an amazing man she had raised in front of her husband. That man lived off that compliment for two weeks. We also collected some of the best low-cost dating ideas from the women who have done The Husband Project and have those up on the website at http://www.kathilipp.com/ under Free Resources to give you even more ideas than what are found in the book.

What are Bonus Projects?
Bonus Projects are the PG13 part of The Husband Project. They are once a week assignments to have sex with your husband. (I know you won’t be surprised to find out that these were the husband’s favorite projects.)

Besides the Bonus Projects what were some of the husband’s other favorite projects?
The second most popular category of projects was definitely food. The guys loved it when their wives made something just for them. In fact, it was such a big part of the Project that we had the wives send in their favorite recipes that you can get free on my website kathilipp.com It’s called The Ultimate Guide to Man Food and it is all the guys favorite recipes in one collection.

Why do you want women to keep The Husband Project a secret from their guy?
Look, I would never tell you to keep anything from your husband – that is just bad marriage management. But I think The Husband Project should be the exception. I wasn’t upset when my husband threw me a surprise party – this is the same type of situation.

Purchase Links:

Link To Kathi’s Reader’s Freebies Reader's Freebies

Kathi also has a fun blog: http://blog.kathilipp.com/

Okay - so there you have it! Sounds amazing, right?! I started reading last night and must admit - guess who was sitting next to me when the mail arrived yesterday? Yep - JT! He;s so funny - he saw the book & told me "get to reading!" Ha!

This is not just all about blessing our husbands - it's for us to - changing our hearts and creating new patterns ort habits.

So - who wants to join me? Post a comment here and tell me what you just love about your husband to be entered to win a free, signed book from Kathi! But, please remember, you are also signing up to be accountabity partners! I will keep this open until Friday & then randomly have one of my kiddos pick the winner and I will get a hold of you & send you the book!

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Projects.....

Okay - so maybe you don't need another project - or, so you think!

Check out THESE!!!! And then, come back & post and tell me what you're doing!!!

I'm attacking my jewelry drawer tomorrow & that is going to be SCARY!!! I do think I have laready gotten rid of all those lovely 80's earrings however!!!