trying something new

Ok well I'm not going to promise anything but I would like to help some of my friends figure out ways to earn some extra cash and maybe even have some fun freebies show up in the mail. Instead of me researching what is out there and telling you when they are available I'm going to try to let you know about all the goodies I get in my mailbox each day and tell you where you may be able to get some fun stuff too.

Yesterday's mail included two $25.00 Spa Finder gift certificates I received these as a prize from a survey company my history with this company is-this company deals in points I have had a lifelong point total of almost 35,000 points with those points I have bought 2 phones with an answering machine attached, and an advanced weather system clock. Right now I have about 10,000 of those 35,000 points left to spend on something their prize catalog is HUGE everyone should be able to find something. I have been with this company since 2005. So obviously the money is not made quickly. I would say I get about 2 or 3 survey opportunities each week, if you don't win they give you a token for the game they have and you always win, usually 25 points. If you want more information on this company let me know and I will get you referred for opportunity number 1. I have deleted a lot of the survey companies I have had in the past because I didn't think I made money fast enough the only reason here is that they don't give you millions of opportunities (2 to 3 surveys a week is not much) but that means they aren't pesky and filling your in box all the time.

Today I got a check for $20 from another company. I can't tell how long I have been with them it looks like since 2008 since that time I have made $132.00 this company sends a lot more surveys but it's all cash which I think are the best kind. My last check came Aug 1st so sometimes you can make money pretty fast if you qualify. If you do not qualify for a survey you can try to "win" points I've won once since 2008 or they will donate to the Red Cross I think it's 5 or 10 cents. Ask about this one it is opportunity number 2 if I refer you (or you later refer others) you get $1. Kind of nice

Also in my mail today was a bag clip and a coupon for a free bag of Fresh Express Bagged Salad plus 3 $1.00 coupons for my friends (friends I need to remember to pass these out when I have them!!!) This is from a very fun company called Vocal Point. (go to vocalpoint.com) It is more of a "mom site" but they always have new products that companies want to get out there and talked about. They are always free but you have to make sure you are quick to sign up when they have giveaways because they are very popular. Probably in the last 30 days I've gotten a glad trash bag and a Mott's juice box for the kids. I don't always get this many but it's fun to have the cool packages come in the mail. The trash bag came in a cardboard trash can!

My last fun freebie today was from Target 2 size 4 huggies diapers plus $1.50 off coupon. I find out about these freebies on sites such as www.freebies4mom.com. I have my google reader programed for these sites and I try to get on once or twice a day to pick up on some freebies.

Now I do dedicate about an hour a day to this. Somedays I don't do anything but other days I do. I love football season because I can go all week without doing my emails and do them all while watching football. If you want to start dappling though this is a good start!

Any feedback would be great!

So much running through my head

So when I got married and someone would ask me "how many children do you want?" the answer was always 3. Three is plenty, I would have even told you that after we had number 2. I wanted three children. Then we were surprised to find ourselves pregnant with number 3 oh about nine months before we planned to start trying. And then the number four popped into my mind. I think four is the perfect number of children for our family. Lately though I have been reading a lot on a "Biblical approach to family" and my mind is going crazy. I got this information from some very conservative Christian groups, not saying that that is bad or good I'm just telling you were the information comes from. These people believe in moms place is at home with her kids, homeschooling, and wives submitting to their husbands. And no birth control, your number of children is totally up to how God sees fit. Wow totally opposite the world right now! Here's where I stand on those- I LOVE being at home with my kids, I know some moms work and that is the fit for them so I don't want anyone to feel I'm judging their way of life on this, this is all just me trying to figure out where I see myself in my life with my family :) Everything is crazy combobulated in my mind so I doubt there is any room in my head to judge! I could never homeschool my kids- I don't have the patience, I am working on my patience but I don't have enough of it yet or do I see that happening in the near future and I think we live in a great small community with great teachers and I don't feel right now that I have a need for this. 3) I know submitting to my husband is the correct way to do things it is just way hard... so yeah working o that one too. That leaves us with #4 - Kjell and I were talking this over today if we started giving everything over to God as far as our next child..... we could possibly have TEN more kids. Here I am thinking I'm almost done and I could have 13 children. I just about passed out just thinking about it. I don't know what kind of jobs most of these women's husbands have but I can NOT get maternity insurance for less than 650 a month and am not on Kjell's plan since he is a teacher. I would never want money to stand in the way of having more children but it is just a thought I have had. My #2 concern is most drs try to limit your c-sections guessing my dr wouldn't appreciate me trying to have 10 more c-sections since no one within a 3 hour radius would be willing to preform a VBAC. #3 I don't want to drive an industrial sized van, could we ever go anywhere??

All of these minus the true health concern seem pretty petty but the main concern I have and where I wish God would just "write it on the wall" is I want to be a foster parent. I haven't convinced Kjell this is the way to go and I'm in no hurry. The advice I once got in one of my college classes ( I was a criminal justice major ) was to make sure as a foster parent your own kids are older than the foster ones so that your kids can help them do better things rather than the foster kids teaching your kids to do bad things. I want babies, I want toddlers I want young kids, so my question is where does God want me? I was seriously considering after my next pregnancy (which we have set for next summer lol we will see how God sees fit on that one) of having my tubes tied. I just don't know anymore. The "next duggers??" So just rambling and trying to sort things out.

Ask and you Shall recieve

Well I've been trying to get my office/scrapbooking room organized. It has kind of been the go to room for things that we don't know where they fit or belong in this house to end up in and yesterday I found all the stuff from my first job after college. Right out of college I worked with inner city young life in Kansas City, I was in intern so I had to write a ton of papers on what I did and who I interacted with. Then I found a letter that I have kept for the last almost ten years now. It was a letter written from a kid who I had worked with in California when I worked at a camp called MayMac the summer before my senior year of college. This kid was rough, YOUNG but rough, most would see him as a thug, gang banger, but he grabbed my heart from day one. Long story short we talked for several months and I encouraged him to find the right friends, and to ask himself (this was the time frame where the WWJD bracelets were really popular) What would Reesey Do? (that was what they called me, and honestly the kids wouldn't have known what Jesus would do because they didn't know Him) One day his e-mail no longer worked and I lost contact with him two years later I got an e-mail from him out of the blue telling me how he had changed his life, he had joined the football team, he had a B average and he said thanks for believing in him, besides my love letters from Kjell this was the best letter I have ever received in my life

The letter made me cry because lately I have felt really useless. I LOVE being able to stay at home home with the kids, but some days I feel like a big failure when Justus and Kiah fight for the 100th time in the day and I just LOSE it. I just don't always feel like I'm making an impact, at least not as large as the one I used to make when I was working with Young Life. So this morning during my devotions I asked God to use me today. We decided to go see my grandma this morning and I don't usually take my cell phone with me because I want to just spend time with her, and an hour later when I get to the car I have a message from one of the ladies I work with, they had been trying to get ahold of me, they had called every phone I had, come by the house and didn't know where I was ( I felt really loved ) for those of you who don't know I am the breast-feeding peer counselor for Meade, Gray, and Clark County. They had a new mom who needed someone to come out and help her she was at her wits end and in a lot of pain. My coworkers wanted to know if I could go. I said I'd see I rounded up a babysitter, it went something like this "can you babysit today" "yes when" "does now work?" and I hit the road and was flying out to see this new mom and that is when it hit me. I'd asked to used by God today and He was going to use me. I knew this probably wasn't exactly the way I had though of when I asked him to use me, because I had been thinking more in a "spiritual" sense but I knew God could use me in every situation He gave me. I knew my goal was to be an encouragement. When I got to this new mom's house I got to just get to know her and how she was doing and then I got to help her for the first time in SIX days experience breast feeding with no pain. When she was done she just sighed and I could just see relief wash through her. Then I got to hold the tiniest (ok all my kids where over 8 lbs so a 6 pound baby to me is something TINY) baby for awhile and just let this mom know she was doing a GREAT job. See this baby had the same problem that I had had when Kiah was born, something easy to fix but hard for a first time mom to get figured out on their own. I love being able to make an impact in someone's life. See a nurse 5 years ago gave me the gift by helping me out, and now I was able to help someone else out. Thank you God for letting me be used today, it was SOOOOO fun

What Do you DOOO all day

Ok if anyone reading this is a stay at home mom, I'm sure they have heard this line before. Frankly stay at home mom's seem to get a pretty bad rap, like we are lazy or just couldn't work outside of the home or something. But really some of us actually signed up for this job and LOVE it. But let me tell you what a "mommy sick day" is like. See there is no such thing as a mommy sick day, I wish! I woke up at 5 with a terrible sore throat and my body felt like it had been hit by a truck (I do say this last part was self induced as I started a new program in my workout schedule yesterday but that is besides the point) I took some Tylenol and prayed this was one of those days the kids would sleep in. But by 7 20 (and I know some of my momma friends will see this as sleeping in but when I'm wanting a sick day... it's not. I heard a crying baby and I walk into her room and she's once again standing up and she looks at me crying and says momma. Ok so it's early but she just called me momma for the very first time so I am TOtally not mad. So I take her into my bed and by 7:40 here comes Justus. The problem with letting Justus into the bed is he has not figured out that self control is important when one is crawling over someone in the bed, after a few knees to my head throat and chest area he is finally in the bed. Then by 8:01 (she knows she has to stay in bed until 8) In comes big sister and thus starts the fighting over anything and everything for the day.

I still don't feel good but I know the kiddos must have breakfast, but this morning Kiah has decided she wants a tea party. So I tell her she can take care of the details (like using the fridge water and ice machine to make the "tea and sugar" no problems there until I hear her shouting "Justus spilled his tea!!!" Now these cups are tiny when I walk into the kitchen I'm not sure how he spilled at least three cups worth out onto the floor and all over the table and yesterday's mail that never got put away.. but he does. Luckily the rest of breakfast goes off without a hitch.

Next step is getting the kids dressed which used to be easy until Karis refuses to lay still during a diaper change. I thought it was boys who liked to wiggle but I have gotten pretty good at keeping a diaper in tact when I have half of a baby facing me and a little booty staring up at me instead of the nice calm collected child I thought I was going to have! I can no longer use the changing table to change her clothes but rather have to sit on a chair holding her and trying not to let her wiggle out of my arms.

The next hour there was peace, ok I admit it, Tinkerbell and her little fairy friends helped the older two and a nap helped the youngest but I had a letter I had to get out to someone and had to find my wallet before our 11 o'clock drs appointment.

We actually made it to the dr in Fowler with 15 minutes to spare. I guess we are always so late anymore I wanted to make sure to get there on time. So we stopped into the post office to see my mom for a couple minutes and then went over to the clinic where Karis tipped the scales at 18 lbs 11 oz for her 9 month old checkup. Did I mention this was her first baby check up since her 6 week one, yeah but number three it's just harder to get to the doctor. (she is up to date on her shots though we can do those at the health department) I think over the sound of Kiah and Justus screaming like banshees and whacking as hard on the keyboard they brought into the room and throwing each other on the floor and all that stuff. I found out that Karis probably has allergies, the words tubes in her ears, zertec, cat-scan, Vaseline, antibiotic all came up but yeah I don't remember much of what happened because frankly I couldn't hear over the roar.

Then I got a couple minutes break by taking the big kids do the park so I could nurse Karis in the van. We then proceeded to Neon 57 which I love but today I was not a huge fan. When you walk in at 11 45 and are not able to get out of there until 1 o'clock it's just not that much fun. Not too much happened in there just a few melt downs by Kiah because she wanted an ice-cream cone and.. ooops I said NO.... Rushed back to Meade dropped Kiah off at school and was excited for a little bit of a relaxing afternoon until I started smelling something. Knowing that one of the kids had a dirty diaper. Well the good news was it wasn't Justus. The bad news was when I got to Karis I picked her up and her jeans squesed I know this isn't a word but that is what they did. I knew I was in trouble. I knew I was about to see what three days without a bowel movement looked like and frankly I was wanting my sick day just about then right then.... please.... Got her to her room without incident but then realized the poop had spread up her onsie. Thank the GOOD Lord that I had put her in a button down the front onsie and this mess wasn't going to have to go over her head. However it didn't matter by the time I had gotten the jeans off of the little one there was poop all over her room. I got her and her poopy diaper into the bath got the diaper off then ran some water. It took ten minutes just to get the water clean so I could run it there was poop everywhere. And now I had it all over my shirt.

Justus starts getting naked and the two take a bath together, I go and grab the changing pad off out of Karis's room so I can clean that while watching the kids. Had to scrub it three times with two different cleaning supplies before most of it came out. Finally get the kids out of the tub (unwillingly ) dressed (unwillingly) and laying down for a nap (unwillingly) put a load of laundry in and then decide instead of taking a nap and letting all these things run through my mind I should post on my blog because frankly I haven't and also no way no matter how sore my throat is our how much my body aches I can't nap because I don't want to miss Kiah when the bus comes.

So if you ever ask me (which doesn't happen anymore with three) or you ever think of asking any stay at home mom "What do you Do all day?" and they just smile at you, and move on. Don't get offended they probably would have much rather slapped ya in the face and said, "how was your last sick day?"

Not making this my new year's resolution

So last year I decided to keep track of all my survey rewards and all my fun freebies. I think I did almost 100% on documenting my rewards for my surveys but with the move to Meade I totally fell off the bandwagon as far as recording my freebies. I think it's because I leave my laptop upstairs and forgot to log in. So I hope to do that this year but I thought maybe I would put my freebies in on this blog. We will see if that happens.

I have also done great with getting rid of e-mails from some companies that I had gotten on a mailing list of or even some of my surveys. I discovered I had WAY. Too. Many. For the last week I have been able to go to bed and have no new emails which is a first in a very long time so I think I am on track with that. Now I just have to refigure into what to do with that time. And there was a LOT of time on the computer. I am hoping to read more books this year. Attempt a new workout program. Which I did ten minutes of today and the only good that came out of it was a HUGE appetite. So that part wasn't helpful. In all actuality I'm not sure how much more free time I will receive as we just purchased a house. Kind of made for a crazy Christmas break trying to plan all of that, thinking we had lost the house and then getting told we had it and needed to hurry and secure a loan and want to close on Feb 14th. Kjell really liked the house, I really liked not having any debt but we had both said if the right house came along and it was priced where we thought it should be we would go forth. (I should have known Kjell could find something so quickly so I could have saved a bit more for a down payment but that is in the past now!) After he refell down the stairs yesterday we are all ready to get out of this house! lol not really but the stair are scary.

So today I've been working on getting all of our paper work in. We found a 30 year loan that is locked in on an interest rate for the first seven years and then it can change so it's a fairly low rate, but I plan to have the house paid off in seven years. Yes Kjell and I and the kids are entering into a seven year spending freeze. Not really but close enough. I was very excited with the loan I found until I started reading reviews today and there were a LOT of complaints but mostly about people trying to refinance. Our rate is low and I have no interest in having the loan long enough to refinance so I hope this all works out..I just pray that God gets us through this. Everything else happened so smoothly I'd appreciate this going smoothly as well!

The kids are growing up so fast. Kiah is going to learn to read this semester at school she is totally ready and has been making attempts already at home. We still do our four preschool papers a couple times a week at home we are supposed to do them everyday but life is too busy for that! Justus and Kiah fight like cats and dogs, Kiah is a great tattler too. I saw her the other day throw Justus to the ground and then he hit her in retaliation and he told on her. I have to be very careful and very patient with these two. I am reading a good book on raising children biblically I don't remember what it is called and it is upstairs and if I walk up the stairs I risk waking up Justus. I am also reading a book called Money, Possessions and Eternity. By Alcorn. Another very good book. I should have had this book read through before the house purchase and allowed Kjell to read it but it's too late for that now! :)

Justus is finally starting to talk more. This morning he asked me where daddy was because it's his first day back to school. Justus also tries to get on the bus with Kiah so he can go to school and even kisses me goodbye. Next year will be hard when Kiah is gone all day.

Karis is working on teeth and thinking she is big enough to sit up but her body hasn't allowed her to yet. It will be very soon. She is the smiliest child I have ever seen. She just makes everyone around her happy. She rarely cries and is content to sit in her swing (and actually perfers it to almost everything else ) during the day.

No you didn't get a Christmas card from me, but yes you should have. My pictures got "lost in the mail" The company gave me my money back but of course I got a great deal on them so they are out nothing today I asked them to resend the pictures we will see if it happens.

Oh and for today's freebies. I got a Kids' Pork Cookbook from the national pork board, and a tour wrap for my gold clubs, because I have golf clubs (nope) anyways that was from golf digest. Plus I cashed out one of my surveys and received 20 dollars in my pay pal account.

SOOOOO HAPPY

well I am offically done with checking in on two survey spots. FINALLY. getting 20 + emails a day from one company and 15+ from the other was way too much and I just could never get caught up. I ended up cashing out with a $10 check coming and a $25 walmart gift card. But SOOO not worth me spending all my time on the computer. I will keep recieving the emails until my prizes get here and then I am totally deleting out of them for good it feels refreshing to see new ones come and just send them straight to the trash. Will more sites follow? I don't know yet a couple of weeks to see if this works is what I plan to do first!! SOOO excited though

the sites you may ask? Surveyspot.com and rewardport yes you get money but it takes way too much effort

so I've been purging

So I have been running around like a chicken with my head cut off since we have moved to Meade. I'm not sure what it is, the extra child, the super large house, more laundry, having more distractions in town i.e. a TON of family, my intense new Bible study, or my best guess a combination of all the above but I can't get caught up. When I started this chapter of my life as a stay at home mom I started doing online surveys to make a bit of extra money. I would devote about an hour a day to the cause and every once in awhile I'd make some money. It got to where I'd make about 300-400 dollars a year with some good other good things thrown in there some rewards or gift cards plus getting to try products out and I was hooked. So over the years I've started added more and more survey companies. Oh yeah and I should say I discovered google reader and several sites where they would post ways to get freebies, by just entering some mailing and general information about myself. All this was good, but all of this took time. But the reward (money, free stuff) was so thrilling and fun (I admit I do enjoy money, I like months where we out +s are much more than our -s and I felt like I was adding to this. But there is such a thing as too much of a good thing.Well this last year I think I just got too much of a good thing. I would find myself not able to get online for a day or two and end up 300 to 400 emails behind. So I started being on my computer (and will admit right now I still am on it too much) WAY TOO much. So I felt convicted to spend less time on the computer. It was a hard decision to make as for the last several months I've been making about 200 bucks a month in "cash and prizes" but at what cost? So that I'm too busy to spend time with my kiddos, that I don't do things I see as more important, spending time with Kjell (sad thing is we are both addicted to our computers) spending more time with the kids, writing in their journals, reading books or reading a magazine. So a couple weeks ago I just said I'm done no not even close to all done but I have decided to drop two companies I do surveys with. I didn't go cold turkey I waited until I could cash out of them and so far I've only been able to cash out of one. I had 500 unread e-mails and when I went to delete the new ones from them I had 57 the other company I can cash out of at 7500 points and I am waiting, right now I'm at 7413 so not very far off. I get roughly 20 emails a day from them. I also deleted one of my google reader things I subscribed to, I never got anything out of that one that one of the other freebie sites didn't talk about so I felt ok.

Do I think I will ever quit all my surveys? No. Will there still be a couple days where I'm online more than an hour? Yes, but that's ok I do consider this a part time job but when it becomes my life it's too much. I want to be able to take a day off and be able to get caught up. What have I done with my "free time" (which still isn't much because i just deleted the one company yesterday and I have a few days left before the other one will be to 7500) I've been praying, it might not be anywhere near what my great grandma used to do, she was a true prayer warrior and I have a long way to go yet but when I found out a friend's parent got cancer, a friend had heart surgery, several of my friends not living their lives for God instead of being too busy to do anything I pray. Such a powerful tool I have to use. Oh yeah and I can't forget praying for my kids and my husband.

We will see if I delete more but I feel so much relief just from these three "small" things I dropped see I had time to update my blog which I haven't done in forever and I feel that is important :0) I will keep you updated on if I delete more. I want my surveys to be a fun thing to do not a chore.

Oh yes today my little boy turns two. I can't believe how big/little he is! Justus and Karis both got dedicated in church today and I also have a new book to read, I don't remember what it is called but it shows us how to parent using scripture can't wait to start that book.