GIVEAWAY DRAWING!

As updated in the last post, those who started following Aware to Care, a blog dedicated to educating us about the plight of those trafficked, were added to those eligible for today's drawing.  And, the winner of the unique and beautiful ornament/sun catcher (using random.org) is...

Heidi, member # 1 from AWARE TO CARE!!

Congrats, Heidi!  You will be contacted and as soon as we have an address for you, this will be sent out to you asap so you can enjoy it's beauty on your tree this year. 

May you all have a blessed Christmas season!  

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A Great New Blog!

I am very proud to announce the start of a great new blog dedicated to teaching us about the plight of those trafficked in our modern days.  Please take a moment to read these short, informative blogs and then take a step of faith and get involved!  There are tons of ways to do this that won't even take you outside of your front door-- the first, of course, is onto your knees to pray.  God sees and hurts those taken advantage of and cares for them more than we can imagine.  Let's answer His command to take care of the poor, the needy, and those who have no voice. (Jer. 6:8)

CHECK IT OUT!!!!!

Aware to Care

Don't forget:  Giveaway for the unique Christmas Ornament will close December 2.  If you haven't spread the word yet leaving a comment along the way, do so today!!!!

AND:  Update for the Giveaway:  anyone signing up to follow or receive the blog in the inbox at Aware to Care will be entered into the giveaway too!!!

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Christmas Gift Idea #1 (AND a GIVEAWAY for it!)

Beads to Bless, a not-for-profit small business that assists women and children around the globe by supporting free trade products (operated by my mother, no less!=), has come up with the great idea for Christmas tree ornaments. This very unique glass ornament is truly one-of-a-kind. Handmade, each ornament displays 27 large orange beads and various smaller ones.  ORANGE is used because it is the color that represents FREEDOM.  The 27 large beads represent the 27 (+) million men, women and children that are trafficked to date. (For more information and current stats you can visit any of the sites listed below.)

Beads to Bless has just opened their Etsy shop and there you will soon find other beaded products such as earrings, necklaces, bracelets, and some other home decor items!  If you are NOT the winner of this product, you can still purchase an ornament for yourself or for family and friends for just $12.  ALL PROCEEDS, 100% of it, goes directly back into supporting real women and real children helping them to make a living in order to support themselves to stay away from becoming or every being again a victim of human trafficking.


Great Sites To Become More Informed:
International Justice Mission, www.ijm.org
Not For Sale Campaign, www.notforsalecompaign.org
Free the Slaves, www.freetheslaves.net

If you are in Indiana, Sherry Searles is an AWESOME advocate and teacher who puts on "Freedom Parties" helping us to become more aware and equipped with what we can do to help those being trafficked Stateside and Abroad.  Check out her facebook here for more info!
HOW TO BE A WINNER:
Mandatory:
1) Leave a comment and letting me know you are "following" My Soul Waits
2) Leave a comment letting me know you "subscribed" to My Soul Waits
3) Send this post in an email (Sorry, my other sharing buttons are not working and I haven't had time to fix them yet!) and leave a comment letting me know you did.

Extra:
4)  Go check out one of the sites listed above and come back and let me know you did!
5)  Blog or post about this product or the plight of those trafficked and come back and let me know you did! (If you blog, please leave the link.)

Just one step in helping those in need and those who don't have a voice to be able to stand up for themselves-- AND you can get ready for Christmas!  Happy Giveaway!

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Treasuring Life, II

In her book, Feminine Appeal, Carolyn Mahaney shares the following as she talks about the struggles of keeping a right attitude in motherhood.

"Because mothering requires constant sacrifice, the temptations to resentment, complaining, and self-pity are always close at hand.  But such selfishness will quickly sap the strength of our love for our children...As mothers, we have a choice. We can either resent the challenges and demands that accompany motherhood and persist in our selfishness, or we can draw from God's grace and receive his help to cheerfully lay down our lives for our children..." (p52,53)

There is no question about it, and anyone who's ever done it will agree, mothering is the hardest job there is to do.  If we let all of the demands that come with the job overcome us and if we try to tackle them all in our own strength, we WILL be unhappy and we WILL resent our children.  If, however, we look to the cross, and see (and learn from!) the example Christ gave us of serving day in and day out with abounding love for even complete strangers, we'll find the strength we need to get us through each difficult day and season of mothering.  I find I am most satisfied in life (and in those given to me) when I allow the calling of motherhood to take its rightful place of center-stage (in priority over other life responsibilities-- after God and husband, of course) instead of resenting it compared to whatever "else" I could be doing at the moment.  For me, discontentment in motherhood and in this stage of life, appears when I allow myself to dwell on "other possibilities." 

I've always been a dreamer -- somewhere in my the depths of my heart I've wanted to do something so big for God that it is as if it were impossible to do.  I recently heard a broadcast (don't ask me which one!) where a quote was made about God working in impossibilities; something to the effect that Christ-followers should live everyday doing the impossible because as Believers we should be living fully dependant upon Him -- and doing impossible tasks require relying on the God of impossibility.  I sighed at this thought and revisited the "oh, I wish I were doing something impossible for God" thought-- and then it hit me (I'm pretty sure it was the Holy Spirit that hit me, but ya know, not in a harmful way, lol) -- as a mother, I AM doing an impossible thing for Him!!!!  Raising children who will love the Lord and follow Him and lead their families someday to do the same IS an impossible task!!!  And, to do so successfully, can ONLY be done WITH the Lord!! Only HE will draw my children to Himself and only HE can give me the strength to keep going on the many days when I want to give up or "do something else." 

If you are in this with me, and feel the same way, let me encourage you; you, as a mother dedicated to her children, are attempting the impossible -- and we know that WITH GOD, ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE.  Keep on leaning on Him.


 

"Attempt something so impossible that unless God is in it, it's doomed to failure."  ~ John Haggai

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And the Winner Is...!

The winner of the Education Cubes giveaway courtesy of Mama Jenn is...

Angela, from Mama's Two Cents Worth!!!!

Congrats, Angela!  Please send your email addy to me via mom2iek@gmail.com and I will get your info. over to Mama Jenn so she can add you to the membership list and you can start enjoying your Education Cube printables right away! 

Thanks to all who have participated. I'd still encourage you to add Education Cubes and the Photo Stacking Blocks to your "resources-to - buy" list for school or maybe even your Christmas list.  This past week we reviewed our Spanish greeting phrases with them and studied our sight words from Child 1st Publishing with them.  (I'd have pics, but part of my busyness was having my camera "tied up" a bit with my photog business.  Next time, right?!)

Still working on the next giveaway!  I have the product here and I'm SUPER excited to share it will you BUT I've got to get a few more details in place before I do so...hopefully by THIS WEEK'S END!!!

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Welcome!

Just wanted to give a warm welcome to my new followers and subscribers.  I appreciate your interest & am looking forward to drawing a winner just two weeks from today!  I had great plans of posting each day this week one way we use Education Cubes in our home -- but alas, the flu has decided to run amok here and I'm not sure what my week will entail!  (I know you all completely understand=)  So, as I am able, I will be posting some pics and hopefully spark your interest and enthusiasm even more for this product.

Also-- be on the lookout for a great Christmas idea coming very soon through this MSW blog.  It will be educational (for the adults in your life), God-honoring, and look really nice around your home...any guesses?  (I don't think you could even guess if you tried!)  More details will come by weeks' end (along with another giveaway!)

Until then,
Kristen J.

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Education Cubes GIVEAWAY!!!!

I'm SOOOO excited to bring you all my very first GIVEAWAY!!!  Mama Jenn, over at www {dot} MamaJenn {dot} com, has been an inspiration to me ever since I found her last spring.  I had been using large dice made out of cardstock to reinforce new concepts such as word families and the kids' spelling words.  They happily played games using these dice, but the affects of many happy game times was, unfortunately, broken dice.  Also, I always had to keep a blank copy of the form and then hand write (which I despise my own handwriting so I hate to use it) all the review concepts out on the dice, tape them, etc.  It was a lot of work and it left me wondering if there was a better solution. 

Enter: EDUCATION CUBES. 

I don't even remember how I found her, but as soon as I saw her product I knew it needed to be added to my small and growing educational recource collection.  Mama Jenn, a homeschooling mother of 5 and fellower blogger (she has several sites) and guest blogger at Totally Tots , had come up with a brilliant (imho) idea: use photo blocks as dice and slide whatever concept being taught into the see-through pockets instead of photos.  She took this idea one step further and offered her growing collection of concepts (language, math, science, Spanish, etc.) to the public for a very reasonable fee.  You can learn more about the education cubes and how others are using them by clicking here.

THE GIVEAWAY!!!

Mama Jenn has graciously agreed to give away ONE FREE MEMBERSHIP to her site to one of my lucky readers!!  If you already purchased a membership to her site, she's even agreed to let you in on the fun and will refund your membership money should you be the lucky winner!  (hmmm...can I enter my own giveaway? =)  Ladies, this is a GREAT resource for your students.  I've used it for reviewing word families, spelling, and currently in our Spanish and Months studies.  There are many more concepts covered in her collection and she's constantly adding to them.  What is so nice for me is that I can conveniently go to her "members only" page, log-in, find the concept I need, click, and waa-la!  Print them out!  No more taping, no more writing, no more time consuming game-time prep! 

THE "RULES"

Okay, to enter you must do one of the following:

1. Subscribe to my blog via the "subscribe" button and comment letting me know you did!
2. Start following my blog (and, you got it!, comment and let me know you did! =)

The winner will be chosen via the sequence generator from Random.org on Monday, October 24th at 12 noon -- so HURRY!  Subscribe or start following today and make sure you get in on this great offer made possible by MamaJenn.

(NOTE: This giveaway is for membership to MamaJenn's Education Cubes site and does not include the photo blocks.  To purchase those separately, click herePhoto Stacking Blocks (See all Baby Stacking Toys) .)

Below are some pics from last week's Education Cubes activities.  I used her Alphabet Movement set to start our day out on the right foot-- er...stomache, as was the case when one of my kiddos rolled "I" and they all had to act like "inchworms."  They loved it-- and so did I b/c they all sat and did their studies really well after getting so many wiggles out!  AND, doing some fun alphabet games in the morning has been a great way for me to involve Little Lady and still have the boys engaged, too!

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