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i love babies ‘r’ us
Any time I go to Babies ‘R’ Us, I manage to walk out feeling like I really got a great deal. Of course, mostly what I buy at Babies ‘R’ Us are baby clothes from the clearance rack that are discounted over and above the clearance price. And then I usually have a coupon for another % off of that.
Monday I made the trek over to the only Babies ‘R’ Us I know of in my area ~ which is 45 minutes away if there’s no traffic or construction on the road. No matter. I LIKE going to Babies ‘R’ Us. 
Usually the clearance racks are well placed and easy to find. Not so on Monday. I actually had to hunt for them. I eventually found 2 clearance racks stuffed to overflowing. They were in the newborn infant layette section. Why they were hiding there I’ll never know ~ I don’t usually think to look for 18 to 24 month girls’ clothes in the boy’s section of newborn infant layette. No wonder the racks were overflowing.
I picked out 3 cute tops, 2 pair of leggings and a skort for Attison. I had a coupon for a free reusable bag, and 25% off the lowest prices of any clothes and/or shoes (sizes 0 to 48 months) that would fit into the bag. I love coupons ~ especially when they encourage me to buy from the clearance rack!
So, on Monday I walked out of Babies ‘R’ Us with 3 new outfits for Atti and a reusable bag ~ for $19.09. I was pleased.
I have another reusable bag + 25% off coupon that expires tomorrow ~ I will be making good use of it. There are new Babies ‘R’ Us coupons coming out on Friday, too!
forget me not (book review)
A copy of Forget Me Not by Vicki Hinze was provided by WaterBrook Multnomah.**
Synopsis:
Crossroads Crisis Center owner Benjamin Brandt was a content man—in his faith, his work, and his family. Then in a flash, everything he loved was snatched away. His wife and son were murdered, and grief-stricken Ben lost faith. Determination to find their killers keeps him going, but after three years of dead ends and torment, his hope is dying too. Why had he survived? He’d failed to protect his family.
Now, a mysterious woman appears at Crossroads seeking answers and help—a victim who eerily resembles Ben’s deceased wife, Susan. A woman robbed of her identity, her life, of everything except her faith—and Susan’s necklace.
The connections between the two women mount, exceeding coincidence, and to keep the truth hidden, someone is willing to kill. Finding out who and why turns Ben and the mystery woman’s situation from dangerous to deadly. Their only hope for survival is to work together, trust each other, and face whatever they discover head on, no matter how painful. But will that be enough to save their lives and heal their tattered hearts?
Author Bio:
Vicki Hinze is an award-winning author of twenty-three novels, three nonfiction books, and hundreds of articles. Selected for Who’s Who in America in 2004 as a writer and educator, Hinze is active in Romance Writers of America and serves as a Vice President on the International Thriller Writers Board of Directors. Vicki lives in Florida with her artist husband, a retired Air Force Lieutenant Colonel. Visit www.vickihinze.com to learn more about Vicki’s books, blogs, and writing programs.
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Presently I am only about half way through this book, but I will tell you Vicki Hinze has woven a tale that is a page-turner. I am enjoying the plot twists and turns, the characters have depth, and the suspense level makes this novel a thrill to read. If you’re looking for a clean thriller/mystery with a touch of romance thrown in, I recommend you pick up a copy of Forget Me Not by Vicki Hinze (available here).
** The publisher provided a copy of the book at no cost to me. I was not compensated for this review in any way other than that. My opinion and review are not influenced by any sort of compensation ~ I own my reviews, and they are not for sale or influenced by any outside party’s actions.
free kindle ebooks ~ read on your computer!
Amazon.com at times is really quite ingenious. They usually have free ebook or music/mp3 downloads available. Today Money Saving Mom and The Thrifty Mama shared links to applications you can download to your computer which will allow you to read Kindle ebooks without ever having to purchase a Kindle! Those are definitely the kind of deals I love.
If you want to read free Kindle ebooks on your PC, go here to download the application; the app for Mac is here.
After you have downloaded and installed your Kindle application, go here to download Philip Yancey’s Grace Notes: April 1-30. It’s free!
Also, when you have a chance, stop by Money Saving Mom and The Thrifty Mama. They are both sites I think are worth subscribing to ~ I love the deals they send out. If you don’t want to receive a gazillion emails every day from either of them, choose the Daily Digest.
some thoughts on fibromyalgia
aka The One Where I Ramble On and On…….
In February 2006, I woke up one morning and was barely able to get out of bed. I was experiencing some major back pain. For the next 3 months I saw my Primary Care Manager (PCM) at least twice a week and went to a plethora of specialists just trying to figure out why I was in so much pain. I took some crazy-strong medications ~ mainly morphine in pill form ~ and turned into a person who my family didn’t know, and quite frankly didn’t like. Trust me, I wasn’t having the time of my life, either.
My PCM was a great guy, and he really wanted to figure out what the deal was with my back. After referring me to all kinds of specialists, who did all kinds of horrible tests and minor procedures, he decided to send me to a pain management doctor. My PCM pretty much told me he was at a loss as to what else he could do, and if the pain management doc wasn’t able to help me, he really didn’t know what else could be done.
Thankfully the pain management doc had the answers and was exactly who I needed to see. It just so happened (and I say that tongue-in-cheek because I KNOW Who orchestrated the events) that my health insurance company sent me to a pain management doctor who is one of the leading experts in the country on fibromyalgia. He took me off those crazy-strong pain killers and gave me a much milder form of medication for pain management. Within a week my back was feeling better. Not great, not completely pain free, but definitely better.
For the past 4 years I have seen my pain management doc every four to six weeks. It can be frustrating at times to sit in his waiting room for up to two hours, but this particular doc is worth the long wait. He knows what he’s talking about. He’s on the cutting edge of fibro research, and knows all of the best ways to help his fibro patients live fuller, less pain-filled lives.
Don’t believe the commercials you see on TV for that drug that is marketing itself as a fibromyalgia drug. Fibro’s not just muscle aches.
Since my diagnosis of fibromyalgia in April 2006, I have only encountered one doctor who told me he didn’t believe fibromyalgia is a real illness. This particular doctor said fibro can’t be real because there are too many discrepancies and variations from one patient to another. That’s true ~ fibro can vary widely from person to person. But that doesn’t make the illness any less real. Especially for the people who suffer with it.
It amazes me still how different one fibro sufferer can be from another. There’s no magic pill (again, ignore those TV commercials you’ve seen), there’s no one right way to handle this illness, and what works on Monday may not work on Tuesday for the very same person.
I know several others who have fibromyalgia. One lady lives virtually pain free because she cut gluten out of her diet. Another has more good days than bad because she exercises, eats only organic foods, and gets 200% of the daily recommended amounts of fresh fruits and vegetables. Another is able to somewhat curtail her pain by not eating foods with certain ingredients ~ corn, high-fructose corn syrup ~ and by taking holistic supplements.
I also know several others who have tried every suggestion under the sun ~ even going to the extreme of injecting themselves with hormones or other (legal) substances ~ and have seen no improvement at all. It can be very frustrating trying to find just the right combination of diet, exercise, and lifestyle that will reduce (or even take away) the pain of fibromyalgia.
I wrote earlier today that my brain just doesn’t seem to work as well or as quickly as it used to. There is an element of fibro fog involved, but sometimes I’m just plain ol’ scatterbrained. I lose words ~ usually nouns ~ and resort to using “stuff”, “junk”, “gobbeldygoop” and other non-descriptive words to fill in where a perfectly good noun should be.
I was a gymnast and a cheerleader for many years. So you’d think I’d be one of those people who enjoys exercising, right? Wrong. Way wrong. Exercising for me is like being put into a torture chamber. Even mild, steady stretching can wreak havoc throughout my body.
Being on the computer for extended amounts of time is also difficult. I get up and walk around quite often when I’m working on projects that require me to sit in front of my computer. Otherwise my back seizes up and I end up taking a couple of pain pills in conjunction with a couple of muscle relaxants just to be able to deal with the pain of moving. **
I know of a woman with fibro who seems to be an extremely energetic person. She has only had her diagnosis of fibro for about a year, so really she’s still learning how to deal with it in a way that works for her. The thing that continually amazes me is this woman’s online presence. She blogs frequently, and the sheer volume of her status updates on Facebook and Twitter astound me. She has even learned some internet lingo and ease in order to keep her tweets under the 140 word maximum. What has taken me 7 years to learn and figure out she has done in less than a year! And she’s not significantly younger than I am, so I can’t blame it on her being part of the computer generation, either (bummer).
Does this woman actually “suffer” from fibromyalgia? I can’t imagine why anyone would say they do if they don’t. Is her fibro any less severe or difficult than mine? Maybe, maybe not. Am I just a bigger whiner and complainer than she is? I seriously doubt it. And this is what most doctors find so disconcerting about chronic pain illnesses like fibromyalgia ~ the list of symptoms is long and wide, and their manifestations can vary greatly from person to person. Am I a bit jealous that this other lady seemingly has more energy than she knows what to do with? Perhaps. Just a tad. Not all that much. Really.
So, now that you’ve waded through this long, rambling post of my thoughts on fibromyalgia, here’s my point: don’t judge a book by its cover, and don’t judge a person’s “illness status” by their perceived energy level or how they look. I’ve been told before, many times, that I must be feeling okay because I don’t look sick. That’s right, I don’t look sick most of the time. That doesn’t mean I necessarily feel good. It simply means that I have learned how to cope, how to deal with the pain, and how to fake it through a situation or circumstance when I need to. The majority of chronic pain illness sufferers I know personally (in real life) are the same way.
** Pain pills and muscle relaxants do not effect me the same way they do an average person. I don’t get any kind of a high from them, they don’t mess up my head, and they don’t put me to sleep. The medications I take are used only on an as needed basis ~ and believe me when I tell you that if I have taken a pain pill or muscle relaxant it’s because I needed to relieve some pain or relax some muscle or muscle group. My pain management doc is very good at what he does; he’s the only doctor I see other than my PCM (not the same PCM I had in 2006, by the way, because (1) the AF moved him to another base and (2) Roger retired from the AF last June, and we now have civilian doctors). When I take a Vicodin or a Nucynta, they have the same effect on me as a regular Tylenol does on an average person. One time I asked my pain management doc if he ever worried about prescription pain medication misuse or addiction in his patients. He told me that people who have chronic pain illnesses, like fibromyalgia, rarely misuse pain medication. Most chronic pain illness sufferers just want enough relief from the pain to function in daily life on a relatively pain-reduced level.
thursday thoughts ~ totally random
I don’t know if it’s a symptom of my fibromyalgia or if I’m truly getting old, but my brain just really doesn’t work as well, or nearly as quickly, as it used to. And I find myself doing the things I used to roll my eyes at older people for doing. Like being the grandma who gives socks in an Easter basket. Yes, I did that. Sorry, Attison. Next time I’ll just put them in your sock drawer ~ I promise. No socks or underwear for Christmas, either. E.V.E.R. The sad thing is, these behaviors are manifesting themselves and I’m only in my early 40s! [My grandmother, who was a gentile southern lady, would roll over in her grave if she knew I just wrote that where other people might actually read it!]
I’ve got some really exciting stuff going on behind the scenes these days. Yes, I’m going to put that teaser out there and not explain any further. Okay, well, maybe just a little explanation, just to get you going. I’ve got some fantastic giveaways happening over the next few months. And hopefully sometime in the next few weeks I’ll have a really great, really big announcement about sharing products I love with you. AND, a project that has been on my heart for a couple of YEARS seems to finally be coming to fruition. I don’t know how much longer that will take, but I promise you it will be well worth the wait.
I’ve felt in a bit of a blogging slump lately. I think it has something to do with Facebook. I’ve caught myself spending hours each day on Facebook, which has really taken a bite out of my time (and attention, and ability) to focus on getting other things done. I’ve had to put into place a self-imposed limit on how much time I allow myself to spend on Facebook. Most of the time I keep Twitter completely closed. Boy is that a time-sucker for me. Thankfully the people I follow on Twitter aren’t the kind of people who think they have to update their status or send a tweet every time they take a drink of water or have to blow their nose. One or two tweets a day really is sufficient. Nonetheless, I stay off Twitter almost entirely.
Now, speaking of needing to focus on other things, I’m going to sign out of WordPress and go clean my kitchen. Yippee. Can’t you just feel the underwhelming sense of excitement in that statement? But, it’s gotta be done. And unfortunately cleaning the kitchen isn’t a skill I’ve been able to teach my black Lab to accomplish, so I’ll just have to go do it myself.
why john piper should NOT have invited rick warren
I don’t usually get in the middle of political or religious discussions/debates for several reasons. Mainly though it comes down to a simple principle ~ it’s not my job to convince you or convert you. That is the work of the Holy Spirit. Do I mind having a discussion about Armenianism vs Calvanism? Not one bit. And if we do have that discussion, it will be evident very quickly where I stand on that issue. (Let me clarify here that I’m talking about discussions with mature believers in Christ, not the unbeliever or nonbeliever or the unchurched or whatever phrase you want to use. Nor am I referring to a discussion with a brand new Christian.)
On this one though, I’m going to jump in ~ I hope I’m not jumping into something that is going to get blown out of proportion or cause division among believers. There are just certain things that Christians will have differing opinions on. This is one of those issues. And it’s OKAY for us to have different opinions/viewpoints ~ you don’t have to agree with me, and I don’t have to agree with you (on certain issues). Even if we do have a large degree of differing opinion, it doesn’t mean we should fight with each other or get ugly. That’s another reason I usually try to steer conversations away from hot button topics. I feel very passionately about some things, as I’m sure you do as well. But I still think that brothers and sisters in Christ can love one another and show grace to one another. In my opinion, there’s not usually a need for anyone to get ugly with another believer.
Tim Challies’ blog/website is one of my favorites ~ I read it at least once a day. Today he had a very well-written post about John Piper and Rick Warren. I will state that I am not a Rick Warren fan. I read The Purpose Driven Life and was dismayed at Warren’s misuse of scripture. Tim Challies states this point better than I ever could, so I’ll just let you read his article.
Click here to read Why John Piper Should NOT Have Invited Rick Warren by Tim Challies.
winner of the yoplait greek yogurt gift pack
The winner is……..Charlotte! Yay Charlotte! She already told me she LOVES Greek yogurt ~ and I’m sure she’ll love all the items in the gift pack (or the mini spa in a box, as I call it).
Thank you again to Yoplait and MyBlogSpark for providing everything for this giveaway.
Sorry I’m late in posting this. I was gone most of the day yesterday, and Sawyer had a baseball game last night. His team won! But, by the time we got home I was totally wiped out. I figured it would be okay to wait another day to post the name of the winner. 
good sites
I discovered a few really good websites over the past week or so. You may have already heard of or even visited these sites, but I wanted to share them anyway in case there are some who haven’t seen them yet. Here’s the list ~ they’re all live links, just click on the website’s name and the site should open in another window or tab:
- Food with Kid Appeal (Attison is an extremely difficult/picky eater ~ this site has some great ideas for encouraging little ones to eat good foods)
- Grass Point Farms
- Kellogg Valley Farm ~ this family-owned organic farm is local to me, and they don’t have a website as far as I can tell so this is a link to their Facebook page
- Cascadian Farm
- Natural Pantry/Wholeliving.com
- Make-Ahead Meals for Busy Moms
- Whole Foods Market
- Wheat Montana
- Sunfood
I have a lot more links to share, but I’m going to try to list them in groups ~ so more link lists are forthcoming. Enjoy these for now.
If you have any good links you would like to share that are relevant to topics I like to write about here on my blog ~ organic food/living, kid-friendly things (foods, coloring pages, games, websites, clothes, etc.), mommy interests, Christian interests, couponing/simple/frugal living, homeschooling, etc., please send them to me. I’ll choose some good ones and add them to my future posts.
my blog is carbon neutral
I received an interesting email this morning. Here, I’ll post parts of it for you to read:
Our goal is to contribute our part in reducing the carbon footprint by raising awareness of the severe environmental damage caused by carbon emissions . One of our activities is to raise awareness of the carbon emissions resulting from the use of the internet – specifically of blogs. A blog with 15,000 visits a month has a yearly carbon dioxide emissions of 8lb. To neutralise these emissions we have created “My blog is carbon neutral” buttons so bloggers can demonstrate that they care about the environment and the carbon footprint of their blogs. We present them a small but nontheless worthy solution to contribute to environmental issues. Our idea is to show possibilities to make a contribution to protect the environment…
And how do we actually neutralize your blog’s carbon footprint? We are planting trees in cooperation with the Arbor Day Foundation in Plumas National Forest in Northern California for our project to neutralize the carbon footprint of blogs. Thousands of wildfires burned down many national forests over the past ten years and 88.000 acres of Plumas’ were destroyed by two fires in 2007. To help replanting we need the support of bloggers all over the world! For every participating blog we plant a tree. One blog – one tree.
Okay, sounds good to me. So this is my post about the project, and if you look in my right hand sidebar you’ll see my “My Blog is Carbon Neutral” button.
To find out more, please visit http://www.kaufda.de/umwelt/carbon-neutral/how-you-can-join