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Helping People for FREE!

10 Jan

I don’t play alot of games on Facebook.  In fact, I only play two.  A couple of weeks ago I came across a clip from the Ellen Degeneres show in which Ellen was talking about a new game called WeTopia.

Now before you decide you don’t have the time to read about some game app on Facebook, let me tell you how WeTopia is different.  When you play WeTopia, you are actually helping people around the world……..for free.  All it costs is a little of your time.  Like 5 minutes out of your day type of time.  Seriously, I spent more than 5 minutes in the McDonald’s drive-thru last week for a frappe.  I think I can find 5 minutes to help someone who is in need.

When you play the game, you collect “joy” and every 100 joy is a hot meal sent to Haiti….or some new books for someone in the US to read.  When you play, you are providing clean water for people to drink or funding for a school somewhere.  You choose what program you want to help.

People playing WeTopia are making it possible for 3 year old Kenny to have a warm meal

I love helping people, but we don’t always have the money for me to donate to organizations.  So far, people playing WeTopia have been able to donate 114,623 hot meals, 469,940 liters of clean water, 1,537 pairs of shoes. They have raised 38% of the total cost for the US Change Program in Louisiana, 18% of the US Literacy Program in Kentucky, 28% of the health care program for homeless kids in New York.  They are helping to fund a school that needs to be built in Flemands, Haiti as well as  textbooks to kids in Haiti.  They have fully funded a pharmacy that cares for up to 200 people a day in Haiti.  ….and they’ve done this all just by playing this simple game.

WeTopia is still in the beta version and is currently working on making some new connections that will provide things for other areas around the world.

 

So, if you are going to waste some time on Facebook, let me encourage you to check WeTopia out.  Now that I think of it….is it really wasting time if you are helping someone?  No, I don’t think so.

 
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Posted in WFMW

 

Things That Make You Go “Hmmm”

10 Jan

Have you ever read an article or seen something on TV that makes you stop for a minute and really think?  You might have had to re-read the article a couple of times to really let it sink in.  You know, something that made you go “hmmm”.

There are a few blog authors who make me do that frequently.  I’ve mentioned one of them quite a bit this past week.  Tsh Oxenreider seems to make me go ‘hmmm’ alot lately.  What she has to say really hits home with me right now.  She just posted questions to help you make some goals for this year on her blog, SimpleMom.net.

I was really happy when I realized that the 5 subject areas for Tsh’s questionnaire were the 5 areas that Hubs and I focused on when we wrote our family purpose statement.

Take some time to look at the questions on Tsh’s blog.  They might just make you go “Hmmm”.

 
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Posted in Uncategorized

 

Eating Your Elephant: Bite #2

09 Jan

If you missed the introduction to my year long challenge, go to this post.

Now that we’ve got a new and shiny family purpose statement, let’s put it to good use, shall we?  It’s time for our second bite!

Establish a morning routine

I’m not going to lie.  This is going to be a hard one for me.  I absolutely loathe getting out of bed in the morning.  The alarm goes off and I roll over and hit the snooze a few too many times before realizing that I need to somehow feed, dress, teeth brush, face wash, and hair style the kids in 45 minutes or less.  It’s chaotic, it’s stressful, and it is certainly not the right way to start the day.

So, how do we come up with a morning routine?  What do we put in a morning routine? Tsh says to “pick the things that fuel you the most, and faithfully treat yourself to those things, in the same order, every day.  Choose five things, and plan to do them first thing in the morning.”

Here are some ideas that Tsh gives:

  • Take a shower
  • Pray
  • Exercise
  • Drink a glass of water
  • Stretch
  • Make your bed
  • Read your Bible
  • Meditate
  • Journal
  • Take vitamins
  • Read encouraging quotes or a devotional
  • Review your family purpose statement
  • Listen to a particular song
  • Sit outside for a few minutes with a cup of coffee
  • Dump your brain (an upcoming bite)
Use your new family purpose statement to help guide yourself to some things for you to do.  What fits into the values you’ve picked?  If you want to be more active, why not take a quick walk around the block to clear those early morning cob webs from your brain?  Perhaps you can listen to a book while you are walking….do two things at once.

The number one rule is to make sure these five things focus on you.  Don’t check your email or Twitter, don’t throw a load of laundry into the washer, and don’t pack the kids’ lunches.  First do these few things that will feed your soul.

We’ll recap this bite on Sunday.  Have a great week!!

 
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Posted in Eating Your Elephant

 

Bite #1- Recap

09 Jan

 

Well, how did you do with the first bite of your personal elephant?  Did you get far on your family’s purpose statement??

The opening sentence for our’s will most likely be tweaked a little bit, but the “meat” of the purpose statement will not change.  I do feel that the things we chose are both timeless and not too general.  So, here it is:

We believe that our purpose as a family is to live to the fullest potential that God has given to us.  We will accomplish this by:

  • Striving to grow in God’s likeness
  • Making family togetherness a priority
  • Living with a direction
  • Being the light to those around us
  • Having a welcoming home full of love, joy, peace, and contentment
  • Being financially responsible
  • Living simply
  • Living healthy lives
  • Being good stewards of God’s creation

 

I took each family value above and broke it down into what it means to us right now.  The values themselves will probably remain the same, but the interpretation of each value may change a little as our kids grow older or things change in our lives.  Here is what each value means to us right now:

Striving to grow in God’s likeness

  • Raise up Godly children
  • Strive to spend time with God daily
  • Memorize God’s Word both individually and as a family
  • Serve others

Making family togetherness a priority

  • Communication
  • Time management
  • Meal times together
  • Bible reading/memorization as a family

Living with a direction

  • daily, weekly, monthly, yearly, and lifetime plans
  • daily routines
  • meal plans

Being a light to those around us

  • Show God in our actions
  • Invite neighbors over once a year
  • ‘See a need, fill a need’

Having a welcoming home full of love, joy, peace, and contentment

  • A house that is clean enough to have people over on a whim
  • Use gentle words and tones
  • Uncluttered
  • Simple

Being financially responsible

  • Debt-free
  • Have an emergency fund
  • Give freely
  • Educate the kids on financial responsibility (bill paying, budgeting, etc)

Living simply

  • Uncluttered
  • Enjoy what we have
  • Quality over quantity
  • Care for what we have

Living healthy lives

  • Limit eating out
  • Grow some of our food
  • Limit processed foods
  • Be active at least once a day

Being good stewards of God’s creation

  • Enjoy God’s creation outside as much as possible
  • Be good stewards of the environment
  • Cultivate food and flower gardens

 

Now that we have a family purpose statement, it will be alot easier to figure out other steps in the elephant eating process.

I’ve decided to have a larger canvas made with our family purpose statement so that it can hang in a prominent place in our home.  I’ll be sure to share a picture whenever I get that done.

Feel free to share your family purpose statement in the comment section below.

 
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Posted in Eating Your Elephant

 

Meal Plan January 6-12

05 Jan

For the past two months I’ve been trying to keep up with putting meal plans together.  It takes me a little while to get a good routine going sometimes, so this is still a work in progress, but I thought if I started posting them once a week on the blog, then I’d be sure to get it done.

I do them Friday through Thursday because Hubby gets paid every other Friday and that’s when I get my grocery money out.

So, here is the next week’s meal plan:

Friday: Oven roasted chicken with red potatoes and green beans with garden salad
Saturday: Haddock with Macaroni and Cheese balls
Sunday: Broccoli Cheese soup
Monday: Creamy Chicken Noodle stuff (crockpot meal)
Tuesday: MUSTGO (all leftovers “must go”)
Wednesday: Sweet and Sour Chicken with fried rice and egg rolls
Thursday: Steak with light fettuccine alfredo and garden salad

Do you do meal planning?  What’s on the menu for this week??

 
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Posted in Meal Planning

 
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