Austin's surgery went well!

I'm so very excited to say that we are home and he is resting comfortable on the sofa wearing his red ninjago jammies and holding his favorite bear!

He will be recuperating for the next 7-14 days, but hopefully his bouts with strep will come to and end..or at least we won't have 9 counts in 12 months.

Thanks to everyone for their prayers and support!

Remember to check out my new blog at 

www.graceandbliss.blogspot.com

There's a giveaway going on!

Drawing has been extended until November 8th due to AJ's surgery!

You still have time to enter!

Here are the prizes, and the rules...

Join me... follow along!

Prize Packages

I'm hoping to reach a goal of 50 followers by November 8.  

Therefore, I'm offering two prize packages in order to help reach that goal.

Grand Prize package contains:

 Always Anna Crocodile Note Cards

These note cards are white with pink envelopes and black with green envelopes,

 embossed to resemble crocodile hide.  Very Cute!

Pumpkin Spice candle.  Smells so much like fall, you won't believe it! 

A sample size of Basic H cleaner and a bottle to mix it in. 

You won't believe this product!  A-mazing!

Two Chocolate Cinch Shakes!  Yummy!

Two Cinch decadence bars...one chocolate, one peanut butter crunch.. 

perfect for a quick breakfast

 All packaged in a sweet little fall bread basket...perfect for your Thanksgiving table!

Second Prize package contains:

30 dinner-sized fall-themed paper plates.  Great for snacks for those fall gatherings.

30 dessert / snack sized- fall themed paper plates.  

Yummy autumnal desserts would be so festive served on these!

Two chocolate cinch shakes, 2 cinch energy teas and one lemon-cranberry cinch bar.

Great for breakfasts, a quick lunch on the go, or whenever you need a quick energy boost.  

 This prize also contains a sample size of Basic H cleaner and a spray bottle for mixing!

All packaged in this sweet green-lined bread basket - perfect for fall gatherings, 

or your Thanksgiving table.

There are three ways to enter to either of these 

fun prize packages.

1) become a follower of my Life of Grace and Bliss blog. 

Just use the "follow" link in the right side bar ON THAT PAGE. (one entry)

2) leave a comment letting me know you've followed the Life of Grace and Bliss blog - 

either by "following" or by email notifications. (another entry)

3) if you blog, place a link back to this give-away on your blog, and leave a comment 

letting me know you've done so. (another entry)

4)  If you're on Facebook, encourage your friends to check out www.graceandbliss.blogspot.com

Let me know - and you'll get another entry into the drawing!

4)  If you're on Facebook, encourage your friends to check out www.graceandbliss.blogspot.com

Let me know - and you'll get another entry into the drawing!

Together we can reach this goal!

Tell your friends today!

Stay tuned.  Christmas decor starts going up this weekend!

Only By His Grace,

Billie

Quick Update...

A year ago I stopped blogging at this location.

I am happy to see that I still have a lot of viewers who check back regularly.  That's encouraging.

I want to invite you to come visit me at my new location:

graceandbliss.blogspot.com

It's a little of the old, a lot of new, and a few surprises mixed in from time to time!

Hope you'll come visit me there...

Until I see you there - I continue to blog

Only By His Grace

Billie

All Good Things...

Dear Friends,

I have been sadly lax at updating my blog as of late.  Honestly, I doubt if anyone is still hanging in there with me, after all this time.

I feel as if I owe you (the short version) of an explanation.

A few months ago we took our kiddos on a week's vacation.  We stayed at a fantastic resort hotel with 2 bedrooms, a kitchen and 2 baths.  It was just under 1200 square feet.  It was fully furnished with dishes, bedding, towels, cookware, etc.  Suddenly it occurred to me that I simply have too much.

We live in a home that is nearly 4,000 square feet.  I had four full sets of dishes and multiple sets of drinking glasses.  In fact, I have so much stuff that I have a 500 square feet storage area, that (most of the time) we can't walk through without causing an avalanche.

Now, a few months ago I wrote a blurb about "why I blog."  I felt so consumed with keeping up with the decorating and rearranging and creating and shopping.  I just felt so.... so..... shallow.  Please don't be offended at that last statement.  Many of you love what you do - and I'm sincerely happy about that.  But it wasn't for me.  I found myself cleaning my house to take photos for my blog...not out of love for my family.  I found myself shopping for superfluous "stuff" - not for the things I truly needed.  I think that's where I started to feel shallow.

So, if you've kept up - thank you, bye the way -- but I haven't updated since July.

Here it is October... and November is right around the corner.  I had high hopes for blogging through Christmas... See, I have collected enough Christmas decor through the last 20 years of marriage that I could decorate the White House...  I put a Christmas tree is every room.  Last year the total was 15 trees, 12 wreaths, 9 Santas and 11 Nativity scenes.  There isn't a single inch of our house I don't decorate.  In fact, I start November 1.  Decor stays up through New Year and it takes me nearly a month to get it all put away. That's three full months of Christmas at our house.

However, all good things must come to an end.  Which is where this blog post leads me.  I will be shutting down my blog.  I will still follow all of you wonderful ladies...you're such an inspiration.  I just can't keep up with something that makes me so crazy over unimportant things.

I thank each of you for your sweet comments over these past few months.  I may decide later to start a new blog focussing on a different topic.  But for now, I'm looking forward to doing things for my family.... because I love them... not because I have to blog about it.  As for all of you, keep up the good work.  I look forward to seeing your creativity.

Blessings to you all.  Thanks for visiting my blog.

Only By His Grace,

Billie

Happy 4th of July...

Hope everyone has a wonderful time with family and friends celebrating our freedoms.

Thank you to all those who have fought and are still fighting to maintain those freedoms.

We are forever grateful!

Only By His Grace,

Billie

Back Door Bulletin Board...

Good Afternoon, Blog-friends!

Today's post isn't about decorating or cooking or walking or field trips.  Today's post is about a happy little accident.  You might find it interesting -- or you might find it tacky.  Either way... here it is.

Like so  many families we know, we pull into the garage and enter our home through the back door.
Everywhere we go -- we enter and exit through this door.

Last year, I hung our family dry-erase board on the back door.  Now it's easy as pie to check for important events as we leave the house.

Oh... by the way... sorry for the fuzzy pictures... :)

Now, here's the happy accident part... I just learned realized that our back door is metal.  Know what that means?

It's Magnetic!




So that means the whole back door is one big memo board. Anything I need to keep up with - school calendars, chore calendars, summer reading programs, rewards charts, extra summer freebie tickets, etc.


Here's what it looks like now. It's a little hectic, but isn't life hectic?

The kiddos chore charts. Tip: If you print your child's chore charts on regular paper 

and insert them into a plastic binder page sleeve, it becomes dry-erase(able).

Summer Reading programs and Chuck E Cheese reward sheets.

It's a great place to store those summer fun freebie tickets, too.  

You can grab 'em as you're heading out the door.

And the whole thing looks like this.

It's been so helpful to have everything together right there on the back door.  

I'm really looking forward to the school year starting... I plan to purchase a couple of the wall file boxes. I'll magnet them to the door.  One for each child.  No more lost permission slips.  No more last-minute "last day to order" school photo orders...

Wow... maybe I need a bigger back door?!?

How do you keep your family organized?

Only By His Grace,

Billie

Getting Back to Basics...

Yesterday the kiddos and I had a bit of an outing...or two.  There are two really great haunts within a couple of miles of our house.  The first is the Corporate Headquarters of Papa John's Pizza.  Yes, you read that correctly.  Papa John's: Better Ingredients.  Better Pizza.

When they built their corporate headquarters, they also installed a massive pond, walking trail and water fall, with benches and picnic tables scattered every so often.  Why?  For the good of their employees, of course.  Who wouldn't want to come to work here when you could have lunch or a walk in such a relaxing place?  Best part?  It's completely open to the public.  Plenty of parking.  Lot's of ducks!  And a great place to bring the kiddos when they're bored stiff.

Oh...and because I don't like to be wasteful, I save all our old bread, crackers, corn bread, muffins, pancakes, etc and every couple of weeks, we come and feed the ducks.  Can you say FREE entertainment?

Here's just a glimpse.

The second cool place near our house is Veteran's Park.  It's a playground, walking trail, and Veteran's Memorial all in one.  The kids love it because they can play, we can picnic, we can "hike" and there is really cool stuff to look at, too. 

There you have it, folks.  Two field trips to two gorgeous venues -- all in one day.  

Only By His Grace,

Billie