♥ The Big 5.0. ♥

It's hard for me to believe that this is my 50th birthday!

I mean I remember when I thought 50 was old!  What was I thinking?  :)

Truly, it's all about perspective.  When you get there, it just doesn't seem as old, does it?

I'm so thankful to God to have been given another birthday!  And I'm thankful for the life He has given me as well as a wonderful family and good health!  I know I'm blessed and I'm so thankful for these 50 years!

I'm embracing it!  :)

♥ Tammy ♥

♥ Celebrating Colt ♥

There's about a 4 week span that begins February 2nd and runs through March 4th that marks a marathon month of birthdays for our family.  Joy's kicks it off on Groundhog's Day (February 2nd), then comes my dad's on February 15th, then Luke's on February 25th, and just one week later comes Colt's (March 4th).  Whew!  And before that, we have my mom's and my niece's in January (the 8th and the 21st).  We're done for a few months now.

So, we celebrated Colt's birthday this past Monday evening.  He chose a Japanese restaurant, Osaka, for his birthday dinner.  My mother was a little worried when we walked in and saw we were going to be seated on the floor......worried she wouldn't be able to get up afterwards.  But there was a hole in the floor for our legs, so it wasn't entirely Japanese style.  :)

Colt doesn't necessarily care for birthday cake, so his request was for buttermilk pie, so I made two of those and took them along for the celebration.  Celebrating was our family, my mom and dad, Amber, and Colt's friend and roommate, Josh.

He turned 24!  I can't believe that my Colt is 24!  I know we all say that, but truly it has flown by!

This is one of my favorite pictures of Colt and I just happened to be the one to capture it.  :)  So, Monday night I asked him to recreate that pose for me.  It so captures Colt's personality.  Of course, he had to slick the hair over for a side do and strike a pose.

He wasn't so thrilled about being sung to by not only us, but the entire serving crew there, also to the beat of a huge drum!  I won't be saying who told them it was his birthday.  But hey, he got a great dessert because he endured it!  :)

His big gift came from Amber (his girlfriend).......a new guitar.  Not that he is guitar poor mind you....he has an entire wall of them in his bedroom of his apartment. 

Along with money from Grandmama and Pop and his daddy and me, and a cool shirt from Joy......

......he also received some targets for shooting (from Luke).......along with a piece of gum wrapped in tissue paper by Luke himself (which Colt split and shared with him)............  :)

Oh, and Joy, Luke and I surprised him with freshly baked brownies at work too.  I think it was a good birthday.  :)   

♥ Tammy ♥

♥ The Birthday Boy ♥

From the moment Luke woke up on his birthday (this past Monday the 25th), he was full of himself.  He knew this was HIS day and he let everyone know......and was full of wit and charm all day long.  He kept asking if he was bigger.    The Little Emperor was in charge of the day.  :)  For anyone within hearing distance, he would say, "I'm so glad it's my birthday".   And of course, he got lots of attention.

He wanted a fishing birthday cake, and really the entire party sort of took on a fishing theme (more on that below).  He had a choice of having a birthday party with kids coming over, or going to The Children's Museum during the day and having a family party that evening.  He chose the Children's Museum and the family party. 

So when we got up Monday morning, Joy completed her schoowork in record time and we were off to the Children's Museum.  He was SO excited.  He just couldn't stay with one thing....he was here and there and everywhere, over and over again.  I think it's safe to say he had a good time.  He loved that museum.  When I asked him his favorite part, he said it was the fishing part....and he did spend a good bit of his time there.

Here are some highlights from the Children's Museum adventures (and of course, his Joy was right there beside him because he doesn't go far without her):

Loading and exploring the Fed-Ex plane.....

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Luke, the fisherman.....you can tell he was a busy little bee here!

Luke the fireman........

Luke the surgeon....

Luke the policeman.........

Luke the grocery clerk and shopper....

Joy had a little fun of her own...... (checking her blood pressure and playing with the green screen dancing)......

Luke the mechanic....

Luke the dentist....

More fun...

Then that evening we had the family party.

The decorations........

The cake.....

The present opening.........

Playing games........

Family............

Playing with his toys.....

He told us he had a great birthday and I think he loves being 5!

And his sweet little sleeping self at the end of a LONG, FUN, and EVENTFUL Day! 

It's still so hard to believe he's already five!  What a blessing he is!  :)

Thanks for stopping by! 

♥ Earning Points ♥

These days it seems like many of us are looking for ways to be frugal, thrifty, and save money in any way possible!

Well, I wanted to share something I’ve recently begun that is allowing us to build points for gift cards and in one instance, even cash.

 

First of all, for some time now, we have been using a Visa points card through our bank, Regions. We were a little reluctant at first because it is a credit card, which we stay away from like the plague. BUT, we decided to give it a trial run, since we were already in the habit of using a debit card. The thing we wanted to make sure was that we were disciplined in making sure to pay it off every two weeks (which is a pay period for us). In other words, sticking to our budget and putting only those normal things on it we would purchase anyway, like groceries, gas, etc.. So, that’s the first way we’ve been earning points and it’s already paid off well during Christmas. We opted for cash into our account and it was nice to see that money earned just by using the points card. Now if you don’t think you can be disciplined to pay it off each week or two, I wouldn’t advise this because racking up a balance on a credit card that you don’t pay off is never a good thing.

The second way we’ve been building points is through My Points (.com). I’m not that familiar with Swagbucks, although I’ve seen it around. This may work similar to that. I earn points through this by taking surveys occasionally or should I say trying to take surveys (because most of the time they disqualify me). Guess I'm just too simple and not interesting enough.  :) But that’s okay too, because I still get points for trying.....just for clicking and attempting to take it.  Another way is by printing and using coupons that are sent to me through email.   And the big way to earn points through My Points is by purchasing through their site. This means if you’re already going to make an online purchase, first go to My Points (once you’re signed up with an account) and see if that store is listed and go through that link to the website and place your order. You automatically get points for your purchase. I’ve only been doing this for less than a month, and it’s already building nicely.

And the third way I wanted to mention that is really easy is Bing. Bing is a search engine and you build points with them mostly by just doing searches.....any type of search.   You don't have to click on what your search, just put it in the search bar.  You do 30 searches a day for 15 points and there’s always a daily list of things you can do. I literally spend about 5 minutes or less doing this, making it a part of my daily routine. There are a few ways to get your rewards with them, but for us, the best one was Amazon gift cards. I’m planning on saving mine for Christmas gifts.

Now, here’s another thing. If you sign up for either My Points or Bing, you can also earn extra points by inviting other folks to sign up through your link. And then they can do the same thing with family and friends.

So, if you’re like us, and looking for ways to save or build points for gift cards, I highly recommend these. If you’re interested, I’d love to pass along my link for Bing and an invitation to join My Points.

Click here to sign up for Bing through my link.  Just follow this to sign up and it automatically gives me credit and gets you started! It gives you the option to sign up through Facebook or to create a Microsoft account, which only requires an email address and a password.  I'm not on Facebook, so I joined through the Microsoft option.

And for My Points, email me here with your email address and I’ll send you the invitation. Then just let the points start building and the savings begin!

And last of all today, I’m going to leave you with a couple of pics from Joy’s birthday celebration. Bless her heart, she had a stomach bug on her birthday, but somehow made it through the day although she says much of it is a blur. Her friend, Christina, spent the entire weekend with us, stomach virus and all.  What a sweet friend.  :)

Joy wanted a Captain America birthday cake:

And she wanted to eat at Steak N Shake:

Thank you for all the sweet birthday wishes for our girl!  :)

Thanks for stopping by! And if I can answer any questions about the above points avenues, I’d be glad to try! :)

♥ Tammy ♥

♥ 14! ♥

It's hard to believe it, but our brown-eyed girl, Joy, turns 14 today!

She was a princess then......

And she is still a princess.....

She is truly a joy to us!  We are blessed! 

Happy birthday, Joy!  We love you!  Enjoy your day!  10!   :)

♥ Mama and Daddy ♥

♥ Catch-Up ♥

Have you ever visited an Amish community? If you haven’t and you get the chance, you should go! We were able to visit an Amish community in Tennessee when we went to my brother’s house for an extended weekend vacation last week. It was a very cool crisp day for the buggy ride through the Amish community. The driver was very informative and stopped at several of the Amish homes for us to visit their shops and purchase wares if we desired.

We watched them make sorghum molasses. We bought delicious peanut brittle that never made it out of the buggy. It was gone before we ever returned to our car! I saw the most adorable little Amish boy in his straw hat that I would have loved to scoop up and hug. I saw a little Amish girl cracking walnuts with her bare feet on her front porch, and eat them. And I had to buy this basket. I have a weakness for baskets in the first place, but this one was made by Amelia, a 12 year Amish girl.

On the bottom of the basket:  Can you see the handwriting -  Made by Amelia age 12

Monday night, we celebrated Jason’s 52nd birthday.

 

And we’re still enjoying the ice cream bar cake. It needs to be gone because it calls to me from the freezer.

 

You don’t get to see Colt (our oldest) very often. I was so glad to have him home for awhile last night, along with Amber. He told Amber he couldn’t believe I only took ONE picture of them. He knows me all too well. :)

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For Sandra’s 31 Days of Fall Challenge, here’s another photo by Joy. She’s keeping me stocked, isn’t she? Mums definitely say fall.

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And last of all, but definitely not least, I hope you’ll join me tomorrow on the sunporch for a chat with Lois of Walking on Sunshine. I’m pretty sure that Lois and I began blogging the same year. She’s a long time blogging friend and I know you’ll enjoy getting to know her a little more! Come join us!

Thanks for stopping by! Have a great day! :)

♥ Happy Birthday Jason ♥

I had to pop in here this morning before church for a  Happy Birthday post for my hubby! Jason is 52 years old young today.

Don't think I've shared this pic before.  It was taken late this summer.  

He’s been working so hard on our staircase every single spare moment (especially after having been out of town on our little vacation to Alabama), and he really deserves a day of rest. Knowing him, he won’t take it though.

We're headed out later this evening for his birthday dinner of BBQ ribs and I’ve made him the ice cream bar dessert that I shared on my blog before. That’s what he requested.  We’re all looking forward to that! :)

I’m so very thankful for God giving me Jason. He’s a good man…..and a great husband and dad.

Happy birthday honey! I love you......MORE. :)

♥ Tammy ♥

♥ A Busy Week ♥

We’ve had a busy week! Monday marked the first day of our homeschooling year! Actually, we “eased” into schooling, as I call it. I decided it would be best to get Joy started and on a routine again before I began working with Luke. I think it was a wise decision. You know how it goes, there are always interruptions and getting into the schooling groove again after a leisurely summer always takes a bit of discipline, especially staying away from the computer. So please don’t think I’ve abandoned you if I don’t get around to visit right away. I’m trying to find my groove and best way to do it all.

The day our box of Sonlight books arrives is an exciting day. It’s like Christmas! We are always anxious to see where our reading adventures will take us…..including read alouds as well as independent reading. I wouldn’t miss reading aloud for anything! It’s my favorite part of homeschooling! The books you see here make up Joy’s History, Literature, Bible, and Spelling curriculum. (The rest comes from different companies and were already waiting for us on the bookshelf).

Luke catches on to the enthusiasm when books arrive. He has been asking all summer if I was ordering his school work! He has learned so much informally all summer already. But we are going to tackle beginning to read and since we make a big deal out of books and being able to read, he’s pretty excited!

This picture was taken on Joy’s first day, Monday.   I'm likely to find her reading in the strangest of places. :)  I would think sitting down would be more comfortable?

And as you can see in the background, we still have a mess from the staircase project!  Leave it to us to start a project right at school time! 

While Joy and I were working together, Luke played on the iPad. Do you see what he’s eating?

Let's take a closer look......

Yep, that’s chopped onions, folks! He had just helped me prepare lunch and we had left over onions.  When he found out there were some left, he asked for them………and he ate just about every one of them too.

Thank you all so much for the birthday wishes on Tuesday! I have to say that I had a very nice birthday! And all of your comments……well……they really topped it off! Thank you so much!

After our morning of school, my mom and I, and the kids, went to the antique gallery where she told me to pick out something for my birthday (on a budgeted amount of course). That was fun because so many times I put off buying because I talk myself out of buying because I “don’t need it” right now. But it’s fun to be able to pick something out and bring it home! We were all laughing at the check-out register because I remarked that not many folks would want for their birthday what I picked out for my birthday.

I loved them both though!  And I came home and immediately found them a new home.

And then for dinner that night, we went out for Mexican food at my favorite Mexican restaurant. It was all of our family including Colt and Amber and my mom and dad. Between Jason and all the kids, I got 4 CDs which included two from TobyMac, one of Mandisa and one of Tenth Avenue North, a DVD called Monumental by Kirk Cameron, and some butterscotch maple cream tarts. Oh, and Luke wrapped up an old ID chain he found all by himself and made me a card from a piece of typing paper and had it taped over closed. He was quite proud of all the letters he made including the letters LOVE……….and so was I. :) 

It was a good day! I’m so thankful for the blessing of another year.

Oh, and my cake! Oh…..my cake! I requested this cake. My mom made it.  She makes it often and I make it from time to time.  It’s my favorite!  We shared some with the server and cooks at the restaurant and I still had some left to bring home.  It only lasted one day though.  It's long gone now.

I had a cute helper blowing out the candles.

 

I’ll come back and share the very simple but delicious strawberry cake recipe tomorrow along with Faithful Friday (by the way, we’d love for you to join us for Faithful Friday too)!

Thank you so much for stopping by today! Have a great day!  :)