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Here's What's New 
A testimony from Kristin
My husband, Chris, is a farmer. He has a job he loves as an agronomist for a large farm in Eastern Oregon, but he's had a lifelong dream of being responsible for his own ground, of planning a crop from beginning to end, of making his own decisions and then seeing the results of those decisions. Where we live, farm ground is rarely up for sale and, when it is, it is usually very expensive. So, honestly, my husband's dream of farming his own ground seemed just like that, a dream. Last fall, however, we learned that an acquaintance of ours had ground available for lease. Now, before any Dave Ramsey fans get concerned, let me explain that a farm lease is significantly different than a car "fleece." A farm lease happens when a land owner doesn’t have the ability or desire to farm their own ground. So they contract with someone who does have that ability/desire. The person who leases the ground is responsible for the cropping decisions, labor and other inputs. Then at the end of the season, the land owner receives some percentage of the harvest proceeds as a lease payment. There's more to it, but you get the idea. The first thing we did after we signed the lease was head over to the local Farm Service Agency office to talk about an operating loan. You see, we'd been told about the great programs the federal government has to help out new farmers. My husband belongs to a demographic (people under 35) that doesn’t seem to be interested in farming anymore and so the government has assorted programs to encourage and help these new farmers out. And besides, you can't farm without an operating loan, can you? There are a lot of expenses in farming before there is any income. These expenses are why so many people use operating loans. But as much as we wanted to realize this dream, we didn’t want to go into debt to do it… and our previous experience with government loan programs (Sallie Mae) hadn’t been that positive anyway. So we decided to just be weird and finance our own farm dream. And that's what we did! Something lovely has happened as a result: we are learning to trust God even more deeply than before. Every time we write a check for seed or chemical or equipment we pause and ask God to bless this crop. Every time we take the kids out to "our" field we pray and ask for God's protection and provision for the barley that is growing there. Right now, as I am writing this, rain is pounding on the window and my kids are antsy at another day inside but I'm thanking God for watering our field. And later this summer when we harvest that barley and there is some income from this venture, we will stop and praise God for His abundant favor. 
Kristin loves Jesus. She is wife to Chris and mom to 6-year-old Helen and 4-year-old Patrick. She looks forward to a summer of peas fresh out of the field, combine rides, and watermelon seed-spitting contests. Have you saved up and paid cash for something — large or small? Submit your story for possible publication here.
Make 2013 your most disciplined, productive year ever! Get 21 Days to a More Disciplined Life today! 
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I have to be honest and tell you that when April who is a consultant with Ava Anderson approached me about doing a giveaway and offered me a number of options of products to try, I had trouble choosing — because they have so many different great selections! Here are just some of the wide variety of products they offer: - skincare products
- bath & body products
- haircare products
- natural makeup
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- and even natural bug spray and deodorant!
You can see why it was hard to choose! There’s something for everyone. I finally narrowed it down to trying some of the cleaners, lip balms, and sugar lip scrub and was impressed with all of them. I especially loved the sugar lip scrub! 
There are also two customer specials you might want to check out: 1. Any of my readers who place an order with April this week of $35 or more will get a free lip balm with SPF — just in time for summer! To get this deal, be sure to order with the party number 11982. If you have any questions, you can email NonToxicAndSafe@tds.net. 2. If you purchase $90 in products in June, you’ll get a free Anti-Aging Mask. For more information on Ava Anderson visit NonToxicAndSafe.com. And be sure to follow April’s Ava Anderson Facebook Page to stay up-to-date on specials and discounts!
Ava Anderson also offers the opportunity to start your own business selling their products. If you enroll in June, you’ll get the AvaSkin Travel Kit for free, in addition to your business kit. April would love to share more details with you on this opportunity. Just email her at NonToxicAndSafe@tds.net. Want to win a free $50 gift certificate good for any Ava Anderson products? Just click on the graphic below and type in your name and email address. Five winners will be chosen and posted on Tuesday. This giveaway ends Saturday, June 8, at 11:59 pm, CST.
Make 2013 your most disciplined, productive year ever! Get 21 Days to a More Disciplined Life today!  
You’ve set your priorities and cleared the calendar clutter. You’ve set up a realistic summer routine. You’re pumped, excited, and ready to have an amazing summer. There’s only one problem: your family doesn’t have a clue that you’ve got their summer all lined out for them! And if you approach them in the wrong way, it could completely ruin your plans for a summer success. Tonight, we’re going to be talking about the Do’s and Don’ts for getting your family on board this summer. Let’s dive right in… 1. Don’t Become a Drill Sergeant The worst thing you can do is take your summer mission statement and routine and start barking orders at everyone. I promise that’s only going to make your troops want to rebel. 
Chore Charts by Stephanie from Totally Together 2. Do Be Enthusiastic Instead, call a family meeting — or whatever it is that you do at your house when breaking big news — and enthusiastically let them know that you’ve got some great ideas for summer you want to talk to them about. You set the tone for how they are going to receive things and your excitement will invariably be contagious. 3. Don’t Forget to Listen Share some of your ideas and then ask for their input. Listen to them and take their suggestions to heart. Your plan is a great starting place, but it’s by no means set in stone. In fact, I encourage you to make some adjustments to it based upon the input of your family. They probably have some great ideas you wouldn’t have thought of on your own. 
Chore Chart from ThermoWeb 4. Do Communicate Your Expectations Once you’ve all signed off on your summer plan of action, make sure that everyone clearly knows how it’s going to work and what is expected of them. If a routine is something new to your kids, review and practice how it’s supposed to go. Don’t expect that they’ll know how to follow a list or complete a project if you haven’t shown them how. And don’t be discouraged if it takes awhile for the new routine to stick — or if you end up needing to tweak it after a few days. That’s totally okay! 5. Don’t Get Hung Up on the Details Don’t become obsessed with following your routine or plans to a tee at the expense of your relationships with your children or husband. Some days, you just need to throw the routine and to-do list out the window so you can care for a sick child or do something spontaneous. That’s real life, not something to be frustrated by! 
6. Do Remember What It’s All About Remember your summer mission statement? Don’t lose sight of that this summer. And at the end of the day, if you made memories as a family, invested in things that matter, and haven’t completely exhausted yourself, you should be encouraged and happy. Your kids are going to remember the memories made much more than they are going to remember how well you stuck with your plan. The plan is only there to help facilitate more intentionality. If it starts to get in the way and becomes a burden rather than a blessing, it’s probably time to tweak it or toss it altogether and go back to the drawing board! photo credit; Make 2013 your most disciplined, productive year ever! Get 21 Days to a More Disciplined Life today! 
Want to slow down and savor this summer? Here are five tips: 1. Stay Home More A few weeks ago, our second car was in the shop. I was amazed at how much quieter and calmer our life was that week because we had no choice but to stay home all day for most of the week! Some families find it helpful to get out and go somewhere every day, but don’t feel like you have to just because that’s what other people do. I love staying home and we aim to stay home all day at least 2-3 days per week. When we are running, running, running, and going, going, going, it makes us all feel tired and cranky. Try staying home more and see if it allows you to have calmer, more organized days. You can’t say it won’t work if you haven’t tried.  2. Allow Two Hours of Margin A lot of our feelings of busyness come from trying to pack 32 hours’ worth of projects and to-do’s into a 24-hour day. No wonder we feel so overwhelmed and worn out! Two things that have really helped me feel less schedule overload the past year are to plan out the time blocks of my day each night before I go to bed (watch the video where I talk more about this here) and also to allow at least two hours of margin in my day. These are buffer hours where I don’t have any projects planned. Most days, there will be interruptions and unexpected things that come up and these two hours of margin time allow you to be able to deal with the interruptions without your whole day being thrown off course. And hey, if you have a rare day without many interruptions, you can use the two hours to catch up on other projects, to do something spontaneous, or even to catch up on sleep! 
3. Take One Day Off Setting aside Sundays as our “off” day has been one of the best decisions we’ve ever made. In fact, I would say it is almost the number one key to my productivity and efficiency. I look forward to Sundays as the weekly 24-hour period to rest, refresh, and recharge. Not only is taking one day off good for your physical health, I believe it is imperative for your mental health and well-being long-term. You’ll quickly wear out of you just charge through life and never take time to refuel. Sundays are the day when my spirit breathes and my creativity tank is refilled for the week ahead. I dare you to try taking one day off from work, media, and your normal life and see what you think. You might find you quickly realize you can’t imagine life without it! 4. Focus on the Best Return on Investment There are many good things in life that you can invest your life in, but you can’t come close to trying to do them all. Figure out what the best things are for YOU and wrap your life, time, and energy around those things. For me, that’s my marriage, my kids, my health, and the blog. I say “no” to a lot of other things because they are the best things for me to invest my time in at this season of life. 
5. Choose Quality Over Quantity When considering the multitude of opportunities that constantly present themselves for activities, ministries, service projects, and more, I try to first ask myself, “Will this matter in 25 years from now?” This helps me weed through a lot of things that just aren’t the best things for me to be devoting time and energy to right now. After paring down my list based upon that question, I then try to focus on quality versus quantity. I’d rather do a few things really well, than a hundred things pretty poorly. What things help you to slow down and savor life? I’d love to hear your suggestions and input! photo credit; photo credit; photo credit Make 2013 your most disciplined, productive year ever! Get 21 Days to a More Disciplined Life today! 
For years, I had visions of the type of mom I would be. Calm, quiet, organized, patient, loving, creative… I was going to be all those things and much more. Then I had kids. And very quickly, I realized I was not at all as patient as I thought I was! 
Motherhood has shaped me, broken me, changed me, humbled me, and caused me to rely upon God more than ever before. And one of the most important lessons I’ve learned so far is to give up on perfect. 
It’s fantastic to want to be the best mom I can be. I want to love my children well. I want to set a good example before them. I want to invest in them, love them, and nurture them. 
But it’s impossible to do a perfect job. I will make mistakes. I will lose my temper. I will get frustrated. Things won’t be all neat and orderly all the time. I will have days when I feel overwhelmed. I will have days when life feels hard. 
My Non-Perfect Motherhood Mantras Instead of getting frustrated over the mess, I want to embrace it realizing that messes mean little people are exercising their creativity — a skill that will take them far in life, no matter where they end up. Instead of feeling disappointed in myself for losing my patience, I want to admit I was wrong and ask forgiveness of my children realizing that this probably speaks volumes more to my children than being a perfect mom ever would. Instead of focusing on the hard and difficult things, I want to soak up the beauty in each moment realizing that a grateful attitude is one of the greatest gifts I can give my family. 
Trying to be a perfect mom only set me up for frustration. Giving up on perfect has brought much more peace and joy — to our whole family. Make 2013 your most disciplined, productive year ever! Get 21 Days to a More Disciplined Life today! | 
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