My Little "Big" Helper :-)

 Seth loves to help, it doesn't matter what I'm doing, he "needs" to help. :-) Which is good, because in a couple months I'll need his help.
Seth is a very good carrot destroyer as well as being an expert whisk licker.

 Seth likes to be silly in his free time.

 He wasn't quite sure what to think about the deer that Daddy got at first, but pretty soon he wanted to go shoot his own.

 Seth has watched Daddy shoot guns so he knows all about ear protection. :-)

 Seth loves pictures at any time, and it is a very good way to distract him if he is getting into to much trouble trying to help.

 "Momma, look at my tower." Seth has already become quite the architect. He loves to build towers for Momma and Daddy to knock down.

Showing Momma his helping chart. He has several different ways that he can earn stickers for his chart throughout the day, some include: helping put away laundry, most of it is unfolded by the time he is done but we are working on that, helping wash dishes, I've learned the least messy way is to strip Seth down to his diaper otherwise we need a whole new outfit, and brushing his teeth, 2 stickers are available for this, he now wants to brush his teeth all day...good oral health habits, right?

Being an Example

 Reading John 5:19-30 today for Bible study has made me think about the example that I am being for Seth and others.

 "So Jesus said to them,'Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise.For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing...'" John 5:19-20a

 Jesus did not do anything except what he seen the Father doing, he followed his daddy's example. What did Jesus see the Father doing? Jesus seen his Father show unconditional and sacrificial love, he seen his Daddy breathe life into those that were dead and give them new life. His Father did not judge even though he knew the hearts of men, his Father was waiting patiently for people to turn and believe and when they did He was there with open arms, whispering love and forgiveness to them.

 I need to be this type of example for my children. I need to be one that loves unconditionally, even to those that make it hard, one that will pour myself out for others without holding anything back. I need to withhold judgement, because I do not know the thoughts and hearts of others. I need to offer forgiveness and then forget about the offense. I need to make everything that I do honor God, make everything an offering of worship to the one who gave everything for me, I need to take every thought captive. I need to encourage others to build them up, not yell to break them down. I need to be patient with others. I need to be like Jesus, I need to be like the perfect Father. To do this I need help from the very one I am trying to emulate.

 The past few weeks I've been trying to organize other areas of our day once we got our schedule all figured out. The "schedule" is working pretty well, we only really stick to it on lesson days though, the other days are much more relaxed and more go with the flow type of days. I do like to use it occasionally on other days and sometimes we just look at it to see what we can do with our time. The other areas that I have looked at to start organizing are in the cleaning department and meal prep/how much we are spending at the grocery store.
 I did print off a weekly cleaning schedule from http://listplanit.com/, but it was to in depth for what my little house needs at the moment. I do use the schedule for ideas but most of the things on it we just do every other week instead of weekly.
 For meals I've made a 2 week menu, pre-approved by Ben with the hopes that he won't spring any ideas on me in the middle of the week on what he is expecting for dinner...like he did tonight. Good thing his mom always has the things that we don't have for what he wants. :-)
 I've planned breakfasts, except for weekends and two full weeks of dinners. This is what it looks like:

Breakfasts -we'll just repeat this for the second week:
Monday: oatmeal- baked or regular
Tuesday: some type of eggs
Wednesday: pancakes
Thursday: coffee cake, or muffins- these will most likely be baked on Wednesday night as we have to be out of the house by 7:45
Friday: cereal

Dinners:
M: Crockpot Beef  Bourguignon- I will use venison in this instead of beef
T: Garlic Lime Chicken with Cilantro Lime Rice (I like lime :-) )
W: Venison Stir Fry
T: Hoppin' John with Salad
F: Pizza
S: Chili
S: Steak, Baked Potatoes
M: Chicken Rice Soup
T: Burritos
W: Cashew Chicken with Rice
T: Spaghetti
F: Pizza
S: Nacho's
S: Chicken Legs, Potatoes and Pea's

Monday's and Thursday's I've tried to make easy dinners, because Ben has basketball practice and dinner needs to be ready when he gets home. Wednesday's I have a little more time to mess around with food since Ben works late. I've included one new recipe to try each week.
 My hope is that we only need to possibly go the store one extra time in these two weeks since we never seem to get out of Plumbs without spending at least $20. I do have a couple things that I wasn't able to get on my shopping trip that I will be getting this week, Ben's Grandma is bringing us "good" cheese from the Amish cheese house over where she lives and we need to go get some apples for snacks. Nelson's fresh apples are way better than anything Meijer or Plumbs ever has.
 Wish me luck!!