Author: Becca Eby


Sep
2012

Scripture and Prayer of the Week: Colossians 3:15-17

categories: family, jesus
Thanks for joining me for the scripture and prayer for the week.  I try to bring a little focus to my life and my home with a specific prayer and verse every week.  You can find past verses of the week here, and other posts about following Jesus here.  

Let the peace of Christ keep you in tune with each other, in step with each other. None of this going off and doing your own thing. And cultivate thankfulness. Let the Word of Christ—the Message—have the run of the house. Give it plenty of room in your lives. Instruct and direct one another using good common sense. And sing, sing your hearts out to God! Let every detail in your lives—words, actions, whatever—be done in the name of the Master, Jesus, thanking God the Father every step of the way.
Colossians 3:15-17 (The Message)

How am I cultivating thankfulness in my home?  Certainly not when I show my frustration over tiny, insignificant things, or when I yell at my husband or child.  I want this verse to be true in my house, but it is sooooo far from it on some days.  Ann Voskamp has it right, thankfulness is the key to understanding grace and finding peace with God.  The problem is my own selfishness.  I don’t want to be thankful and joyful when I want to be mad and I want to be right.  Anybody?  My prayer this week will be that the Word will have the run of my house, not me.  We will be thankful, because God has blessed us beyond all reason.  We will sing with joy and through pride out the window.  Hopefully.  Pray with me.

Prayer of the week:
Father God, Have the run of my house with your Word.  Fill us with joy and thankfulness.  You have given us grace we don’t deserve, and more than anything we want our little one to grasp that.  How can he if we are selfish, yelling, frustrated parents who reflect nothing of you?  Remind me to sing to you this week.  Remind me to be consciously thankful, out loud, in front of my family.  Help me get over the need to be right and to be justified.  We want to give you plenty of room in our lives, but our own selfishness takes over.  Help me to get over myself this week.  Amen.

What are you thankful for this week?


Sep
2012

Frugal Friday: The Dollar Store – Deal or No Deal?

categories: budget, frugal
I love the dollar store.
Not Dollar General or any other faker store, the real, everything costs $1 or under store, like Dollar Tree or the 99 Cent Store.  But, can you really find great bargains?  Yes!!!  Let me preface this by telling you not everything at the dollar store is a great deal.  While there are a lot of things we buy there often, there are others we will never buy there.  Now that you can use manufacturers’ coupons at Dollar Tree, it’s like a whole new world.  Today I’ll give you the top ten things we love to buy at the dollar store, and a few that we don’t.  This post is dedicated to my late mother-in-law, Carrie, whose love for the dollar store was passionate and true.  
Top Ten Deals at the Dollar Store:
1) Cleaning Supplies 
They have it all, including lots of name brands.  Don’t pay full price for stuff to clean your toilet bowl.
2) Kids’ Books & Coloring Books
They have tons, in English and Spanish.  I already have a bunch picked out for stocking stuffers.  
3) Food
They have our favorite Nature’s Own Double Fiber bread for 1/3 the price of the grocery store 1 block away.  We find name brand canned goods all the time.  The freezer section is often overlooked, but they have a great selection of sweet treats and frozen vegetables.
4) Craft Supplies
From grosgrain ribbon to wreath forms, they have tons of craft supplies.  I just bought mini pumpkins to add to my fall wreath.
5) Holiday Decorations  
Easter eggs, Halloween costumes, Christmas garlands, Fourth of July banners, they have a huge selection for every holiday.    I just bought 4 ceramic pumpkins to spray paint for my fall mantle.  
6)Party Supplies
The best deal of all used to be their mylar helium balloons, but there is apparently a helium shortage and our store has been out for months.  You can find wrapping paper and bows, gift bags, balloons, candles, all of it.  I buy brown packing paper and use it for every gift.  
7) Kitchen Supplies
Paper plates, napkins, and cups, as well as glass, plastic, and ceramic ware can all be found in the kitchen section.  Pie plates and random utensils are often a great deal as well.  
8)Home Decor
I buy candles and picture frames all the time.  There are tons of items with potential if you get a little creative.
9) Pregnancy Tests
Instead of $9-$20 at CVS, try $1 for 2 tests. 
10) Candy
Our dollar store has a big selection of movie theater big box candy, and it makes a great treat.   
Top Five Things I Would Never Buy at the Dollar Store:
1) Electronics
2) Batteries
3) Medicine
4) Clothing
5) Anything I want to last for a long time.
Basically, you pay for what you get.  While the dollar store has tons of great deals, a lot of the stuff is not high quality or regulated for content.  Quality doesn’t matter as much for party supplies and seasonal decorations, but does matter for your vitamins, your baby’s onesies, and your electronics.  
Here’s a great article from Forbes that breaks down everything you should and shouldn’t buy at the Dollar Store.  Thanks to our friend T.J. for sending it my way.    
Do you shop at the dollar store?  What’s the best deal you’ve ever found there?


Sep
2012

Family Travel: Visiting an Old West Ghost Town

categories: colorado, family, toddlers, trail west, travel
Ghost towns dot the map of the United States, and extremely prevalent in the former wild west states.  As a card carrying history nerd married to another history nerd and world geography teacher, historic sites are a big part of our normal travel itinerary.  Ghost towns in particular have long fascinated me, so much so that I did my senior history thesis on Cadron Settlement, a long lost Arkansas ghost town.    

 One of the activities at Trail West Lodge is a 4×4 Jeep tour up to St. Elmo, a real Old West ghost town.  We jumped on board.  St. Elmo used to be famous for mining, now it is famous for chipmunks.  Oh, how time changes us all.  🙂

Let me just recommend Jeep tours to anyone with a kid who needs a good nap.  We did a lot of off road driving in Colorado and New Mexico, and it was the Bear’s kryptonite.  He couldn’t fight it.  Out like a light every time.

The most popular thing to do in St. Elmo is feed the chipmunks.  I freely admit that I enjoyed this more than anyone else, maybe ever.  I had a Disney princess moment, y’all.  

 The Bear, on the other hand, was a bit suspicious of the little critters.  He really liked them, laughed and pointed, but wanted no part of them touching him.  It was probably better that way.

 Jed even fed the little buggers.  This is a huge deal for a non animal lover.

 The second most popular thing about St. Elmo is the scenery.  It is serene and so beautiful.  A lovely mountain stream flows through the middle of town, and mountains surround you on all sides.

 Even the one room schoolhouse has an alpine view.  How did teachers educate a room full of kids of all ages?  This mystifies and amazes me.  My grandmother taught in a schoolhouse much like this in El Paso, Arkansas.

 The pioneer cemetary is on your way in to town, if you come up the jeep route.  The graves reside among lovely trees in an aspen grove, and date back to the mid 1800s.

 This is a replica of what the inside of the courthouse and jail looked like around the time of the town’s boom (late 1800s).

 The original Miners’ Exchange building is now home to the St. Elmo General Store.  There you can buy a snack for you or for the chipmunks, books about the town and Colorado history, postcards, and lots of souvenirs.

 There are so many of the original buildings still standing.  We really got a glimpse into mining life during the gold rush.  As we walked the dirt streets we pictured miners and their families grinding out an existence high atop a mountain in rugged Colorado.

 On our second trip up to St. Elmo, my parents joined us.  I inherited my history nerd gene from both of them, so they thought it was awesome.  My dad was a big fan of the cable series Deadwood, and we could picture that kind of action happening on the main street.  It was a great little outing for the whole family.

Do you or your family enjoy historical travel? 
What’s your favorite history travel outing?


Sep
2012

Scripture and Prayer for the Week: John 15:4-5, 7, 10

categories: jesus


“Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love.” (John 15:4-5,7,10)

One of my summer staff ladies from Trail West, Susannah, posted this verse on our group wall on Facebook.  It was a great reminder of what our mission in this life should be, to abide in Jesus.  He is the one who will cause us to bear fruit.  Without Him, we are dead branches produce nothing.  This weekend the Bear and I watched as Jed pruned the shrubs in front of our house.  The Bear loves watching his daddy do yard work, and Jed explained to him that the shrubs would grow much faster the more he prunes them.  It was such a picture of how our Father prunes us so that we can grow and bear fruit. 

Prayer for the week:
Father God, I long to abide with you and your Son.  Teach me what that means and how to go about it daily.  I hope to obey your commandments.  Help me to be faithful.  I strive to bear fruit for your glory.  Lord, make me fruitful. Prune and shape my life so that it can bear much fruit. Amen.   

How is God pruning and growing you right now?


Sep
2012

Frugal Friday: Mad Money $$

categories: budget, financial freedom, frugal, our financial story, shopping

When folks find out that we are on a strict budget, they often ask questions like, “How do you buy things that just YOU want?” or “Do y’all get frustrated with each other if the other spends too much money?”  Before we went on the budget I had so many questions like those.  We would try to be frugal and something would come along we just had to have, we’d buy it, and then feel guilty.  One of my favorite things about the budget we have now is the concept of mad money.  Every month we budget in a certain amount for both Jed and I to get mad money.  This money is ours individually and we can do with it whatever we want.  WHATEVER WE WANT.  If I want to buy a ridiculous pair of shoes, I can do it.  If Jed wants to buy an expensive flashlight (happens often), he can do it.  We are not allowed to get upset about the other one’s mad money purchases.  Our current mad money amount is not that much ($50 each), but it is plenty to get something we want or save up.  We also get $25 each per month for clothing, that we save up.
One difficult thing about mad money is that we are always trying to convince the other that our intended mad money purchase should really come out of the house fund or the car fund or some other fund.  Sometimes this is true, and we work that out.  Sometimes it isn’t. Our house does not need yet another flashlight.  Sorry darlin’.  The other downside of mad money is that if you make a mistake, your mad money has to pay for it.  For instance, Jed got a speeding ticket the other day, and his mad money fund took a big hit.  Bummer.
Mad money is one of the main reasons we are able to stick to our budget.  I love that I have the freedom to buy whatever I want as long as I have enough mad money.  For a born shopper like me, this is HUGE.  I’ve told y’all before that doing Dave Ramsey’s Total Money Makeover and sticking to a budget has been the best thing ever for our marriage.  With the budget and our mad money funds, we never fight over money.  Ever.  You can read more about our financial story here.

Do you have a mad money fund or something similar in your house?  


Sep
2012

Family Travel: Hiking with a Toddler

categories: baby, colorado, family, frugal, travel

Hiking is one of my favorite activities in the world.  Jed and I have loved hiking together since we first started dating.  Many of our first dates included exploring the mountains of western North Carolina together.  We were excited to take The Bear hiking for the first time during our trip out west.  He LOVES being outside, so we thought he would really enjoy it.  We were so right.  We took many hikes with him this summer and while we did some things right, we made a lot of mistakes and learned a lot about hiking with toddlers.

Our Top 5 Hiking with Toddlers Tips
1. Bring a comfortable carrier – comfy for you AND your wee one.    
2. Be prepared to go slow and stop a lot to play.  
3. Bring snacks and drinks – for all of you.
4. Layer clothes and sun protection.
5. Know exactly where you are going.

I’ll explain a little more about each tip.  Some might seem like common sense, but believe me when I tell you we had to learn some things the hard way.  
1. Bring a comfortable carrier – comfy for you AND your wee one. We love our Ergobaby carrier.  I won it off a blog giveaway and it is by far the most comfortable one we’ve tried for big babies.  With a toddler, a carrier with a back carry option is going to be your best bet.  Front carry will kill your back after a few hours.  We were able to hike comfortably with the Bear (27 lbs) for 3-4 hours wearing the Ergo.  We loved the Moby Wrap when the Bear was teeny, but he weighs a lot more now and we need more structure.  We also used our Bob stroller (handed down from Sam and Michelle) for flatter trails.  It was awesome.  To push a hiking/jogging stroller up or down any kind of incline you need serious strength, so be prepared for that.  Always use the safety strap.     
2. Be prepared to go slow and stop a lot to play.  If you are used to hiking pre-baby, the pace is going to be completely different.  The Bear can go for 3-4 hours happily if he gets to get out and play every 30 minutes or so.  We hold his hands and let him walk for a bit, throw rocks in creeks, throw sticks, explore, etc.  This makes a HUGE difference in his attitude.  
3. Bring snacks and drinks – for all of you.  On one hike we packed plenty of snacks for the Bear, but not enough for us.  We were starving and cranky by the time it was over.  Not fun.  Bear loved hiking with his snack trap full of cheerios, and a few chipmunks may have been fed during the process.  Water is so important for the whole family, especially at high altitude.  Bring more than you think you need.  
4. Layer clothes and sun protection.  When you change elevation, the temperature can change quickly and drastically.  We knew this but sort of forgot during one hike, and the poor Bear got so cold.  I felt like such a rookie.  The sun is also more powerful at higher elevations.  We used sunscreen and hats for ourselves and the Bear.  We love Babylegs legwarmers for layering.  We use a pair that is breathable and SPF 50, as well as the regular cotton pairs.  They also have ones with bug protection now, but we don’t have those yet.  They are great because they make on the trail diaper changes super easy, and are easily removed and stored if the temp rises.  

5. Know exactly where you are going.  Ah yes, our biggest mistake.  We got lost.  For a long time.  With a one year old.  Not good.  We had a map but forgot it, and decided to keep on going.  This was not a wise decision.  Thankfully we finally ran into a family on four wheelers that pointed us back to civilization, but it could have gotten ugly.  From here on out we will always have a map or a well marked trail to follow.  Even if you are an experienced hiker, don’t take it for granted that you won’t get lost.  It happens all the time.  We’ve been hiking for years and it happened to us and was pretty scary.

Have you ventured onto a trail with your kids?
What hiking tips do you have to share? 


Sep
2012

Scripture and Prayer for the Week: Psalm 4:8

categories: jesus
“I will lie down and sleep in peace,
for you alone, O Lord,
make me dwell in safety.” 
Psalm 4:8
I’ve struggled with insomnia off and on throughout my adult life.  So often it comes from a lack of peace and trust in God.  I lie awake fearful about something I want desperately to control, and refuse to let go of it.  This week my prayer is for peaceful rest in the Lord.  I want to hand over my worries to Him every day and every night.  I can’t control anything, and worry only makes me trust less.  If this is a struggle we share, pray with me this week, and lean on this scripture with me this week.
Prayer for the week:
Father God, I love you so much and I want so desperately to trust you completely.  Give me peace as I rest, and help me to be confident that I am resting in your arms.  Help me to trust that your plans are the best for me and for my family, and to know that you alone are my rock and the only one who can make me dwell in safety.  Amen.  


Aug
2012

Frugal Friday: Making the Most of the Library

categories: financial freedom, frugal, kids

As a voracious reader, one of the first things I do when I move to a new place is get my library card. I’ve always loved the library, but in my new role as a full time mama I’m realizing just how awesome it really is.  This week The Bear checked out his first books.  This kid LOVES to read, especially books about trucks.  The book in the picture above had to be returned after a couple of days because the plastic cover proved too much temptation for little toddler hands.  We’re sticking with board books for now.  How do I love the library? Let me count the ways.

1. It’s FREE!
2. story time for kids
3. books, magazines, and movies
4. the queue
5. It’s close.
1. It’s FREE!  Totally, completely free.  Just bring your stuff back on time or recheck it online and you won’t ever have to pay a dime.  Free, air conditioned entertainment can’t be beat.
2. Story time for kids.  Most libraries have some sort of story time for children.  Dallas libraries do a really great job of this.  We go to story time at the Lochwood, Lakewood, White Rock Hills, and Northpark Mall branches all the time.  They have different offerings for each age group from birth on up.  The Bear LOVES it.  He runs around, claps his hands, and has the best time.  We even found a story time at the library in Vail, CO, and visited while we were traveling.  And again, it’s FREE.
3. Books, magazines, and movies.  You can borrow any of these, as well as books on CD for long road trips, CDs to listen to, and so much more.  A lot of libraries are even starting to carry ebooks.  All FREE.
4. The Queue.  The might be my favorite thing about the library.  You can go online with your library card, search for the books or movies you want to read, and add them to your list.  You will be placed in line if there are more requests than there are books available, and then notified when the book is yours.  The best thing about it is that the books you request will be sent to the branch you choose, and held with your name on them for a week.  This is so great for when you get a book recommendation from a friend, magazine, or blog, and want to remember to read it.  Put it on your queue and it will soon be yours.  Awesome.  And FREE.  
5. It’s close.  In most places there are multiple library branches, so there is bound to be one close to you.  We have 2 within 5 minutes and another 2 within 15 minutes.  We are so spoiled.  
Do you make the most of the library?
Does your local library do anything special?


Aug
2012

Family Travel: Baby’s First Rodeo

categories: colorado, family, toddlers, trail west, travel
When you’re traveling with wee ones, entertainment that satisfies the whole family can be hard to come by.  While we were at Trail West this summer, the assigned team decided to take all the work crew and summer staff and assigned team families to the local Buena Vista rodeo.  Big fun.  It was awesome.  The Bear loved it, and so did the whole group, which consisted of all ages from 0-65.  We had tons of little kids, 30 high schoolers, 20 college students, and a bunch of adults with us, and everyone had a blast.  

 This is the Bear’s “I’m trying to figure out what the heck is going on face.”  He was enthralled by everything from the mutton bustin’ (little kids riding sheep) to the serious cowboys riding buckin’ broncos.

 The one downfall of the rodeo arena was that the fence was not exactly toddler proof.  Look how far apart the slats are – perfect for a 1 year old to climb through.

 He was loving it.  One great thing about a rodeo is that it moves fairly quickly because they are trying to cram in tons of events.  Jed and I couldn’t believe how much the dude on the left in the brown cowboy hat looked like Brad Pitt in Legends of the Fall.

I tried to get a better picture of homeboy with out being too creepy.  Look at the pic below from Legends of the Fall and tell me they aren’t twinsies.  He’s just above Bear’s head to the left with the long hair.  
Anyway, I digress.  

 It was a constant flow of entertainment for all.  Calf roping, rodeo queens, barrel racing, and bronco riding kept us cheering for several hours.  Sadly, just before the bull riding, a HUGE storm rolled in and we had to abandon ship and head back to camp.  I’m pretty sure several of the work crew and summer staff (high school and college folks) still haven’t forgiven me for making them leave.

 Calves after calf roping
 Rodeo Queens on parade
Buckin’ Broncos
We all loved the rodeo, and I’m hoping to take the Bear to another one this year closer to home.  Mesquite, Ft. Worth, and Houston all have big ones, and the Texas State Fair is coming up soon.  
Have you ever taken your family to a local rodeo?
Do you check out local festivals when traveling?