2009 December

Merry Christmas!

December 24, 2009 By Homegrown Mom Filed Under: Homegrown Links

Merry Christmas to you! I will be taking the next couple of days off, but I had to share this video with you. Watch the whole thing, even if you’ve already seen it It gives me goosebumps every time.

Luke 2:9-11
An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.

Wishing you and yours a very Merry Christmas!

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Christmas!

December 21, 2009 By Homegrown Mom Filed Under: Updates, Miscellany, Etc.

Merry Christmas! I have decided to take this whole week off I have a fun post set up to go out on Thursday, but other than that, I’m outta here, man.

What I’ll be doing instead: Catching up on the Christmas crafting, goodie baking, card-writing, present wrapping, snuggling, singing, and goofiness that I missed out on while sick. I plan to enjoy the next few days with with my family, with nothing competing for my attention.

Sound good? Will you join me and take a break from at least one big thing for the next few days? I’ll miss you all dearly, but we can get back together and chat again soon. Until then, tell me in the comments section here what you’ll skip out on to make more time for family.

But I probably won’t respond ’til after Christmas!

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Guess who reads my blog?

December 18, 2009 By Homegrown Mom Filed Under: MamaMusings

I am not going to tell you straight out, that wouldn’t be any fun. Just listen to this story and tell me what you think.

So, the other day my amazing hubby came home with a magazine for me since I’ve been sicky. He knew I was missing out on all our Christmas baking, so he brought me Paula Deen’s Holiday Baking. I’m not sure it even counts as a magazine, it’s thicker than your average magazine and at nine bucks I’d say it qualifies as a paperback book. But whatever.

Anyway, I’m flipping through the pages and come to a section of fun food gifts. Ooh there’s some good ones! And look, here’s some very creative packaging ideas. There I was just innocently enjoying all these fantastic yummy ideas, totally unaware of corporate greed…. So you can imagine my surprise when I came across the brilliant idea of putting baked goodies in a retro lunchbox. Hello? You might remember from my newsletter that yours truly had the same idea.

Now, I’m not naming any names but I think it is highly likely that a certain butter-lover may have been perusing my blog. What’s that you say? They make those magazines months in advance? First of all, I told you. It’s a book! Second of all, don’t tell me someone as famous as you-know-who couldn’t work in a last minute update.

So, what do you think? Are you as impressed as I was? What should I wear when she asks me to be on her show? What are you saying now? The magazine’s been on the stand for three weeks? Oh. Um, never mind, y’all.

Time to get off the cough syrup.

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How to get motivated to clean your house…

December 17, 2009 By Homegrown Mom Filed Under: Domestically Challenged?

photo_8798_20091017

…when you just don’t care. While I love the idea of a clean house, I’m not always enthused about the steps to get there. I’d rather chat on Facebook or write my next blog post than start cleaning my bathroom. The funny thing is, once I start cleaning, I usually enjoy myself.

It’s just a kick-start I need. Or more aptly, a kick in the behind. So when I’m feeling like a lazy slob and loving it, I have a few tricks I rely on to get me going.

Music!

My favorite CDs include worship music, show tunes, and Hannah Montana. Everything is more fun when you’re bopping along to your favorite tunes, and happy music is an instant mood lifter.

Make a list.

Surprised that I would advocate list-making? Didn’t think so. I’ll admit, my lists are way cooler than my actual cleaning skills will ever be. But breaking things down really helps me to focus and not get so distracted.

Give yourself a reward.

Back to the list: What’s your favorite thing to do? I happen to love organizing all my papers and notebooks, so I let myself do that only after I’ve finished everything else on my list. If I am so lucky as to have a stack of magazines to go through, there’s no stopping me from scrubbin’ that tub. Not excited by any prospect of cleaning? Promise yourself a bath in your clean tub as soon as you’re done with your duties.

Set the timer.

I’ve written before about setting the timer to help me get started on and finish tasks. Not so long ago, I had a shameful mess of junk piled up on my dresser for a couple of weeks. Every time I looked at it, I was so discouraged. It would take forever. And who has forever? Not me. Finally, I took my own advice and decided to see how much I could get done in 15 min. I was so happy to be getting it done that when the timer went off, I set it for another round and got done in 30 minutes. So, not exactly forever.

Make the kids help.

You know what they say, misery loves company. But seriously, having some helping hands makes the job go faster and I’m more likely to have a good attitude because I want to set a good example for my kiddos. What is so not cool: roping your kids into helping then getting distracted by a magazine and leaving them on their own for half an hour. Not that anyone we know has ever done that.

Picture your husband’s happy face.

Okay, maybe your husband doesn’t care about how clean the house is, but mine does. So I think about how happy he’s going to be and that makes me move a little faster. Well, that and the thought of going through my magazines. Can’t decide which one is more motivating. Probably my husband’s happy face. Yeah, we’ll go with that one.

Pray!

God hears all our prayers, and I often ask Him to help me to care more about chores. When He answers, He answers big. So big that you might find yourself spending your entire household allowance in the cleaning aisle at Target. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

If you liked this post, you’ll love these:
A Plan for the Domestically Challenged

My Daily Clipboard

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I Wasn’t Always a Homegrown Mom

December 16, 2009 By Homegrown Mom Filed Under: I Wasn't Always Homegrown

Me cooking up a storm at age 2

I wasn’t always a homegrown mom. Not that I didn’t think about it.

I’d dreamt of being a wife and mom since I was very young, in my own delusional way. In the beginning, I thought I’d be a terrific housewife akin to June Cleaver, or Lucy Ricardo. Let me tell you, it was all about their dresses. One of my parent’s favorite shows was Roseanne. Man, I hated that show, and not just because they wore sweats. Their life was so messy. When I had a family, life would be anything but messy.

My house would be tidy, my kids respectful, my husband adoring. And me? Gorgeous, dahling. I also wanted to be a writer, teacher, fashion designer, and Punky Brewster’s best friend. But I fantasized about being a wife and mom more than anything else.

I made family newsletters, family mailboxes, and held family parties in my bedroom. I started babysitting when I was twelve years old and practiced all my best stuff on other people’s kids. We did crafts, cookies and bedtime stories. For the few hours their parents were gone, I got to live out my fantasy of being a mom.

Sure enough, I grew up and married fairly young. I had a reality bite or two along the way, but deep down, I still placed those fifties sitcom expectations on myself. It would take years for me to understand that the perfect wife I’d created in my mind was nothing like the picture God had painted of the perfect wife.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. My story actually starts in 1996 when I was holding down three jobs and keeping up pretty good with the night life. I was eighteen and putting off college, putting off church, and putting off making any decisions at all about my life.

Yeah, I was just living in the moment, free for the first time in my life. Well, almost free. I had a boyfriend I wasn’t too sure about, but I was putting off dealing with that, too. Until one night when I found myself on my knees in my bathroom, pregnancy test in hand and an anxious boyfriend pacing outside.

I took one look at the little pink line and knew. All those decisions I’d been putting off were going to have to be dealt with. Soon.

Part 2

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Homegrown Links

December 15, 2009 By Homegrown Mom Filed Under: Homegrown Links

Hope you enjoy these links!

For the Domestically Challenged

Want to be a knitter or teach your kids but don’t know where to start? I am so glad I found these How to Knit Videos.

The Nester has a free ebook, It doesn’t have to be perfect to be beautiful, when you sign up for her newsletter. Great book, and I encourage you to make your hubby look at the photos of her messy cabinet like I did. Love it!

For your Homegrown Kids

Such a cool idea for Christmas shopping for siblings. Angie at Many Little Blessings is also the main lady at Homeschool Classroom and has so many cute ideas for kids. I don’t just love her because her name is Angie (close enough!) and her hubby’s name is Eric.

Want a fun Christmas idea for your kids? Read this post I wrote about making Christmas Gifts for Jesus.

Weighing the pros and cons of Facebook for kids? This post I wrote generated some pretty strong comments from readers. Find out what I decided to do.

Christmas Fun

Every post from Simple Mom is a delight. This one, Christmas Food Gifts, includes a plethor-ah of recipe links. Yummy!

For Homegrown Bloggers

Amy Bayliss has lots of cute free blog templates on her ministry online site. Amy is a graphic and web designer and has such a heart for online ministry. She’s also one of the founders of Heart of the Matter Online and A Woman Inspired. You’ll love her blog!

I met Allen from Aptune.com on Twitter when I asked a question about Photoshop. Since then, I’ve been watching his step-by-step Photoshop tutorial videos for fun. And I don’t even have Photoshop. Yet. But when I do, I’ll be ready. He also has web design videos with words like CSS and HTML. If you’re geeky enough to know what that means, check them out. And don’t think that having a beautiful blog designer gets you out of having to know, because you’ll still have to learn eventually.

Homegrown Homeschoolers

Speaking of beautiful blog designers… Feeling like a sorry excuse for a homeschooler? You must read this Letter from an imperfect homeschooler. Prepare to feel a whole lot better.

Dreading holdiay get togethers with homeschool-hatin’ family? I got some great advice when I posted this question on the Homeschool Classroom. How do you deal with family members that don’t support your decision to homeschool?

Another free ebook! Brenda from The Ties That Bind Us wrote Creating an Atmosphere of Learning She goes through every subject area and tells how to foster a love of learning. Includes booklists!

Giveaway:
The adorable Sarah Mae from Like a Warm Cup of Coffee is giving away clothing from Down East Basics. Hurry, though, because the contest ends at 12am Thursday. She has quite a few ways to enter. In fact, I think I get one entry for posting this link, but I’ll have to double check.

Want more?
Check out my new Links page full of pretty blog buttons.