The Write Words

As a writer, I often work at getting just the right words for what I want to say. On a day such as today, I think I've found the perfect ones:

"...To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world..." John 18:37

"For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost." Luke 19:10

"And he bearing his cross went forth into a place called the place of a skull, which is called in the Hebrew Golgotha: Where they crucified him, and two other with him, on either side one, and Jesus in the midst." John 19:17-18

"He is not here: for he is risen, as he said." Matthew 28:6

"The LORD hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love." Jeremiah 31:3

"This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners." I Timothy 1:15

"For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God." Romans 3:23

"For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." Romans 10:13

"And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son." I John 5:11

HAPPY EASTER

A Stroll on the Riverwalk

We've had absolutely beautiful weather this week. The kind of weather where everyone smiles and says, "This is why we live in Florida!" So one evening after work, we decided to talk a stroll on the Riverwalk, which is about two miles from our house.

That's Paul in the blue sweatshirt. He's checking to see if there are any fish down there.

I love the sunset on the water.

The War Memorial.

"Fire power!" The guys' favorite line from Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian.

Best Buds!

Our guys standing at the base of the monument.

Hope you all enjoyed this little picture of our Florida weather. The wind made us welcome the sweatshirts that night, but it's warming up more every day. Friday we'll be out on the boat! Hope you're enjoying some spring weather wherever you are!

Chicken Little Random

For this week's Random Dozen, go here to link up with Lid and read more great answers. Then do your own. Hey, wait! Don't forget to read mine (and comment on them!) first.

1. How do you feel about the marshmallow Easter Peeps?
They never call. They never write. They show up once a year. I think I'd call them fair-weather friends.

2. Chickens are notoriously nervous creatures. When you are nervous, what is the best way to calm down?
Scratch a little in the dirt and then crow a few times.

3. People say, "April showers bring May flowers." Do you enjoy Spring rains?
Fall rainy days are cool. The wind is chilly, and it's a perfect day to curl up indoors with a good book and a blanket in front of a roaring fire with soup simmering on the stove. Spring rains bring mud. 

4. When I was randomly flipping through TV channels this week, I saw a show in which tattoo parlor employees received tattoos of a co-worker's face on their bodies. I can't imagine having a portrait of a colleague tattooed on me. But if someone forced you to receive a portrait tattoo (face only) of anyone, who would it be? Why?
I imagine if someone was forcing me to get a tattoo, they probably already have a face in mind. And I hope they have a little sedation as well because needles are not exactly my favorite things.

5. Would you rather have a tattoo (any kind) or a nose ring?
That depends on which gang I'm joining. But then again, if I'm in a fight, no one can grab the tattoo and give it a yank. Can't say the same for a nose ring. 

6. Do you have any special plans for Easter?
Oh, just making egg-shaped Easter cards, and then sitting out in the egg patch waiting for the Great Egg, decorating the egg tree, then eating the roast chicken with egg stuffing, followed by watching the pastel fireworks. You know--same ol', same ol'.

7. Cadbury Eggs or Reese Eggs?
I prefer to keep my candy separate from my eggs. Eggs go with bacon.

8. What was the last thing/person you took a picture of?
I'm not telling until I hear back from America's Most Wanted.

9. What book are you reading now, or what was the last one?
How to Win Friends and Influence People. Is it working?

10. What do you think is the most difficult task when it comes to Spring cleaning?
Doing it.

11. How many pairs of flip-flops do you own?
You said "pairs", right? I don't know, but I have a great collection of single flip-flops that have lost their mates. I'm thinking of starting a support group.

12. Which color makes you happiest?
It depends on what item is being colored.  Pink accents in clothing? Good. Decorating? Bad. Pepto Bismol pink? Only in medicine. Green in clothing and decorating? Good. In food? Usually means you need to throw it away. It's all a matter of perspective.


Okay, now hurry over to Linda's and read some more great answers. And then go eat Easter candy. You know you want some.

The Coupon Frenzy

A couple of months ago I had a friend invite me to a little meeting she was going to one Monday night. It was a meeting for couponing--a lecture on how to get the most out of coupons.

I've never been much of a coupon-user. Sure, I've had them on occasion. But I would lose them, or they would expire. And really, how excited can you get about getting forty cents off "when you buy two"? I was quite happy with generic brands of most things, I decided.

In spite of that, I decided to go to the meeting because I liked my friend and wanted to spend time with her. And it was being held at Panera. Who doesn't love that? Just going to the meeting was an eye opener because most of the other women there were homeschool moms. Boy, you can spot them a mile away, can't you? (Don't get offended. I am a homeschool mom.) I took notes for a future post on that, but I also took notes on the lecture.

I was amazed.

I've heard the stories. You know, women who saved more than they spent at the store? People who somehow managed to put together enough fifty cent off coupons to actually make a dent in their grocery budget. The kind of people who paid less than a dollar for boxes of cereal (name brand cereal!) and always seemed to get an incredible deal on their makeup. Personally, I thought those things were urban myth. At least, I did until the lecturer passed around some of her recent register receipts. These receipts listed $70 or $80 worth of items. At the bottom, you could see where she had actually paid out $3.

I was in awe. It was like finding out that, not only was Superman a real person, but he had a cape for everyone who wanted one.

So I strapped my cape on, and started out. I admit it was rough going at first. You've got to be able to think through scenarios. You've got to be able to anticipate possible windfalls. The first couple of weeks, I saved a little money. But then I'd go home and look at my coupons and see how many opportunities I'd missed. But finally I had a breakthrough.

One week I realized I'd actually saved as much as I spent. I was thrilled, and the savings spurred me on to greater effort in flushing out each and every savings opportunity. I started refusing to buy things unless they were on sale AND I had a coupon. I scoured sale papers. I thrived on the savings.

I became ... Coupon Woman! (My cape is green, in case you want to know.)

I am now savings hundreds (that's right. I said hundreds) of dollars each month. I'm well on my way to becoming the urban myth I'd always heard about.

And, I've got that great post for identifying homeschool moms. It just doesn't get any better than this.

Monday Memories -- Spaghetti

Quite often when people hear that I have six kids, they inevitably comment, "I don't know how you do it!" I usually respond with, "not very well!" There is one tip I've learned though, that is essential to raising children, no matter how many you have. And I thought I'd give this tip with today's memory. Here it is:

Never take your eyes off them.

Ever.

Seriously.

When Matt and Steph were little, I was a full time secretary, and Terry worked second shift driving a forklift. When I got off work on Wednesdays, I had very little time to pick the two kids up from the sitter's, get them home and fed and dressed for prayer meeting. One Wednesday night I decided to dress them while I was waiting for dinner to finish cooking. Then I swathed them in towels to make sure their clothes stayed clean, and told them to eat quickly while I finished getting ready.

When I returned to the kitchen, both children sat at the table, doing their best to look innocent. I'm not sure why they thought I would buy that because they couldn't hide the fact that spaghetti was plastered to the walls, table and floor, and both of them were dripping with spaghetti as well. Apparently Matthew decided it would be funny to throw a handful of spaghetti at his sister. Stephanie, always able to hold her own, decided to give as good as she got. And the result was a spaghetti explosion in the kitchen.

I'm pretty sure Matt would have thought of throwing spaghetti if I was still in the room, but he would have curbed the desire under my watchful eye.

And that's the reason for the tip. Never. Look. Away. Sure, it requires a complete lack of sleep and any semblance of a life, but you gave those up once you decided to have kids anyway.

Oh! And here's another tip:  try to hold off feeding them spaghetti until they're a little older. It won't stop the food fights, but at least they can help clean up the mess.

Strangers Passing in the Night

Okay, you want to know something totally weird? Or freaky? Or maybe it's just me and my over active imagination. You tell me.

I have a feeder service that tells me about my blog traffic. It's interesting because it tells me where people are going in order to get to my blog. The feeder helps me to identify my target audience. Clearly, sometimes they just happen to stumble across it. Sometimes I think they come by accident. Sometimes it's my "regulars"; the followers on my blog that I communicate with on a regular basis.

I get a lot of international hits on my blog. I've gotten quite a few from Saudi Arabia. I had no idea they'd get my sense of humor over there. I've also had hits from Moscow, Japan, Spain (I know those people!) and various other countries that I can barely identify.

It is interesting(!) to see how people searched in order to find me. Sometimes they searched for "Jill Boyd's blog". Sometimes they were searching for something innocuous. Like insurance. I did a post a few weeks ago about insurance, and I used pictures of several well-known spokespeople. And one gecko.

One time I had someone in the cornfields of middle America hit my blog in the wee hours of the morning. They did it by searching for "Terry and Jill Boyd in Florida".  Hmm! That would be us. Except we don't know anyone in the cornfields of middle America. But apparently they know us.

Recently I had an international hit from someone who was searching for "Jill is sprayed by poison gas".

Really?

 Is anyone else uncomfortable here?

Well, on the plus side, if they're international, they're not going to be spraying me with poison gas anytime soon. And there's a lot of Jills in the world. It doesn't have to be me. Except this hit came from Asia. I don't know how many Jills they have over there.

Of course you know what my imagination is doing. Nothing that's good for my blood pressure, that's for sure. And now I'm wondering--how careful are you about your presence on the internet? Do you ever worry about stalkers? Or poison gas attacks? (I live in a household of males. We have poison gas attacks almost every night. )

I want to hear of any weird encounters you've had on the internet. It'll make me feel better. Maybe.

A Punny Idea

Just thought I'd try to give you a smile today, since we don't laugh too much around here. Enjoy!

1. The roundest knight at King Arthur's round table was Sir Cumference. He acquired his size from too much pi.

2. I thought I saw an eye doctor on an Alaskan island, but it turned out to be an optical Aleutian.

3. She was only a whiskey maker, but he loved her still.

4. A rubber band pistol was confiscated from algebra class, because it was a weapon of math disruption.

5. No matter how much you push the envelope, it'll still be stationery.

6. A dog gave birth to puppies near the road and was cited for littering.

7. A grenade thrown into a kitchen in France would result in Linoleum Blownapart.

8. Two silk worms had a race. They ended up in a tie.

9. A hole has been found in the nudist camp wall. The police are looking into it.

11. Atheism is a non-prophet organization.

12. Two hats were hanging on a hat rack in the hallway. One hat said to the other: 'You stay here; I'll go on a head.'

13. I wondered why the baseball kept getting bigger. Then it hit me.

14. A sign on the lawn at a drug rehab center said: 'Keep off the Grass.'

15. The short fortune-teller who escaped from prison was a small medium at large.

16. The man who survived mustard gas and pepper spray is now a seasoned veteran

17. A backward poet writes inverse.

18. In a democracy it's your vote that counts. In feudalism it's your count that votes.

19. When cannibals ate a missionary, they got a taste of religion.