The Joys of Teaching, Working, Playing, Praying, and Serving with your Children

OK, that's a long title just to communicate some of the random things we have been up to lately! First of all, the kids have been studying the 13 original colonies, memorizing them, learning about early colonial life, strife and friendships with the native Americans, the Quakers, the Puritans, pirates, witch trials, etc... and reading some AWESOME living books to solidify their knowledge of this time period. They made a "map" of New England out of different materials and then painted the Atlantic Ocean... Here are some pictures of their work:

 So, we have been busy enjoying our "trial period" of a different curriculum. I'm thinking that we will be making the switch for sure come August.

Our Kezi just had a birthday last weekend (she turned 7). Keilah and Kaleb each made her a present: Kaleb built her a wooden airplane out of some scrap lumber. He sawed and nailed it together all by himself (he designed it too).  Keilah made her a little zippered, lined pouch for putting her toy horses in. I talked her through how to sew it, but she did the work all by herself. Here is a picture of their handiwork: I'm proud of the work that they both did... even though you can't see the fine details in this picture...!

The other thing we have been up to is running! We love being active together as a family, but I thought it would be fun to train for a 5K (the older 3 kiddos and myself). I don't know if we will do an actual, organized race, but we will be trained up for one none-the-less.  Sometimes we train with all of the kids (3 runners and 3 in strollers which means I push the double stroller and Kaleb gets to push the single). Sometimes we go 3.1 miles, sometimes we go 5 miles. Sometimes we run on the road. Sometimes we run trails in the pasture on the hills. At any rate, I'm quite proud of their endurance and heart (even and especially when we are pushing the strollers on the dirt). The best part is sitting down with our water after we are done and talking to each other. I usually tell people that I hate running, but I LOVE how I feel after I run: thankful, refreshed, energized, strong... It is fun to share that feeling with my kids. They are so encouraging to each other during and afterward; it is almost as if running wards off strife! We will probably be ready in a week or two. I'm surprised how quickly the kids have built up their endurance! I would encourage you to get active with your kids: walk, run, bike ride, hike, geocache.... whatever... it is an awesome experience to share and a great way to enjoy God through His creation.  Truth be told, I tried to get my husband to train with us.... He said "no". But he happily volunteered to ride the 4 wheeler with the 3 little ones and carry water for the runners. Isn't he a great husband?

Linoleum Floor Cloth - my weekend project!

As we keep plugging away at remodeling the house, my mind is already in the "decorating" mode... and it has been for about the last year. Too bad you can't decorate before the dry wall is done or the plumbing is roughed in....  But one thing I have been thinking about is our eating area of our kitchen... where our table will sit. I personally prefer that a table be "grounded" visually with a rug underneath it. I think that the rug defines the area, beckons a person to it, and protects the floor from the chairs scooting in and out. The problem with a traditional area rug under a table is spills! (With a lot of littles around this house, our floor takes a beating daily)!  So the solution to my dilemma seemed to come with the idea of a floor cloth. It gives the best of both worlds: visually grounds the table, protects the floor, and is easy to clean!

I had several options, the first being to make one or buy one. Um, that was easy, I'm way too cheap frugal to purchase a ready made cloth. My next option was whether to make it out of canvas or linoleum. I really pondered this one awhile. But in the end, it seemed that linoleum would be easier/stiffer to work with than canvas. So that is the route I went. Then came the dilemma of designing it. I knew the color scheme I wanted to use, but I had no idea what design I wanted to paint. I searched the web and looked at dozens of floor cloths to get inspiration for my project. After getting a general picture in my mind, I got out my graph paper and drew it to scale experimenting with my color scheme. After I had an acceptable design, I was ready to get started.

I purchased a 6 x 9 remnant of linoleum at Lowes for just under $30. It had a 6x6 inch tile design on the front side of it which I wasn't crazy about showing through my rug, so I chose to paint the back of it instead. That being said, as I laid out my design, I could ever-so-slightly see the grid which really helped a lot when taping off.  I also will say that I MEASURED NOTHING on this rug (because I couldn't find any ruler, yardstick, or tapemeasure even after hunting high and low!). It was all "eye-balled". I didn't want it to be too perfect because I knew that I would have paint bleeding under the places I had taped off anyway (maybe other people have good luck with crisp, clean taped off lines.... I don't...). So if I started out with the mindset that "this will not be a perfect design", it would keep me from being too upset when it didn't turn out exactly as I had planned.

So here is what I did to create my floor cloth: First, I unrolled it and let it flatten out for awhile. After that I used a primer and gave it one coat. All of the paints I used were left over from our house remodeling project, and they were all latex based. I had planned on giving it 2 coats of primer, but I didn't have enough left for 2 coats... so 1 coat had to do.

After the primer dried, I painted the base coat. I chose the color of my kitchen walls for the background. I let it dry and then painted a second coat. This was the easy part because there was no taping off involved!

While I was letting that dry, I took a break and took a picture of a "too cute" 8 month old....

Now came the harder part... taping off and laying out the design. I decided to paint a boarder around 6 squares. I wanted each of the kids to have a square palette to paint their own picture in. I rummaged through our porch looking for something squarish to use as a template for taping off so that they would be somewhat even since I didn't have a measuring devise (note that I FOUND a tape measure AFTER I was done with the rug.....). In the corner I found some paper targets... 1 foot square each! And they were adhesive! So I was able to stick them right on the rug with out taping. After I positioned and stuck them on, I taped off a 1 inch-ish border around each one and sponge painted it sage green. At the same time, I taped off a border around the edge of the rug. I wanted one wide stripe and one narrow stripe, with a stripe of the background color in between them.

Note the "blue" electrical" tape... wouldn't you know that I ran out of painters tape when I had only 5 feet of area left to tape! (I found the frog tape that I KNEW I had... after the rug was done... and it was in the box of supplies that I looked through THREE times when I was frantically searching for it)!  But, FYI, electrical tape (with a couple of pieces of duct tape to hold the ends in place actually worked fairly well)!

After the taping off was complete, I rolled my red border around the rug. I did 3 coats of red, letting it dry between coats.

After removing the "targets" and the tape, here is what the rug looked like. I thought that the squares needed to "pop" a bit in their background color before the kids did their thing. So I painted each square with 2 coats of a bit darker tan.

Now it was ready for the kids to do their thing. This is the part that took much effort on my part... let-the-kids-paint-what-they-want-in-the-style-they-want-knowing-that-it-would-not-look-perfect... Why is that so hard???????  OK, I compromised... I helped Kyli (2) and Kaser (8 months) on their squares. But the others did their own thing... with the exception of Kenan (4) who painted his square with Daddy.

OK, this picture is upside down... but Kenan and Kyli did footprint butterflies and Kenan also did handprint tulips. That was interesting because he didn't want to make a hand print. He wanted to make a fist!

After the kids finished their masterpieces, I wanted to write Psalm 128 down the middle of the rug. Here is a tip: If you want to freehand anything on a rug, wall, etc... use CHALK before painting the design. It works better than pencil and it wipes off easily (unlike a pencil which needs erased). So I took chalk and wrote out the Psalm making sure that it fit somewhat evenly. Once I had it done in chalk, I decided that I liked the "light" color for the words rather than a "dark" color that I had envisioned. So I got a cream color and painted right over my chalk marks.  So there you have it: My weekend project. All that needs done now is 3 coats of a water based polyurethane which I did not have last weekend. So sometime in the next couple of days I will be finishing it up. What a fun, easy project!!!!!  Once it is completely done, I will update the post with a picture of it without the drop clothes!!!

Random Lizard Entertainment!

I am amazed at the amount of time Americans (both adults and children) sit glued to the idiot box (um... TV).  On the average... 40ish hours a WEEK according to the research. I have looked at research from a couple of different sources... and they all pretty much agree. In my opinion... that is just a waste of time. There are so many other ways to spend our time, I don't know why we would choose the "couch potato" route for either ourselves or our children!

Keeping TV viewing at a bare minimum allows our children to use their imaginations and I love to see the latest "game" they have created... which I'm briefly sharing about right now....
Lizard hunting!

Items needed:
a plastic lizard (or other type of toy)
nerf gun
nerf bullets

and a place to adhere the lizard....

I'm not sure who came up with the idea for this very entertaining game... but it really is addicting! We placed the lizard in a grout line of our fire place and took turns shooting at him with the single shot nerf pistol. (Which, by the way, is not sighted in very accurately). I think that if you had a nerf gun that held more than one bullet at a time, you would be more successful. But we use what we have... right??? Anyway, the first to knock down the lizard wins...

Just so you know... Mommy is currently the lizard hunting champion!  This has been great fun and the kids have added in more "targets": a plastic coyote and a Diego figurine.  What silly game does your family like to play?

The Passover... Why We Celebrate...

I did not grow up celebrating Passover, so this is a relatively new idea for our family. I have read about the Passover numerous times over my life, but I never thought about the rich symbolism, meaning, and memories celebrating it would bring to our family. I never thought about how celebrating the Passover would really make the scriptures come alive... both for our children, and for us.  (Gee, I wonder if that is what God had in mind when He ordained the feast in the first place.....)

We love traditions. We love thinking back on annual gatherings with fondness and looking forward to the next event with anticipation. We try to recreate our own childhood events for our children so that they have similar memories (just think of your Christmas traditions... we usually celebrate the same way with our kids as we celebrated when we were kids). This builds a sense of family heritage. And it is awesome.  But what about our spiritual heritage? Are we intentionally building family traditions focusing our attention God-ward?

Focusing on the Biblical feasts allows us to concentrate on what the Lord has done for us without the distractions of our commercially driven culture. I mean, I don't go to Wal-Mart and get bombarded by the "Passover Bunny", the "Shavouth Claus", or the "Omer Fairy". At least in this part of the Kansas, the rich meanings of the Biblical feasts have not been raped by retail predators trying to make a buck off of a holiday.

So why can't we just incorporate our family's spiritual heritage into one of the holidays that we already celebrate? Well, you can. And I hope you do. But it didn't work so well for us. Nearly every major holiday (Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter) we are gathered together with extended family from both sides. Other than the prayer before the meal, there is very little talking about the Lord, or to the Lord. We have tried to intentionally steer the conversation towards spiritual matters and personal stories of God's deliverance... but it was not to be. We have some strong believers in our extended family, but there are others who are not interested in such conversations. So as much as we love and adore our relatives and spending holidays with them, these events weren't creating a heritage of spiritual traditions that we feel are important for our children. Enter in.... Passover.

Exodus 12:14 tells us that God instituted the Passover feast to be done as a memorial. A memorial of what? Of His deliverance of His people from the bondage of slavery in Egypt. He provided protection to them (by the blood of a lamb) from the angel of death. Each family had to make sure they were under the protection of the blood of the innocent lamb by applying the blood to their doorposts. The Passover was to be celebrated each year with their children. Exodus 12:24 says, "And you shall observe this event as an ordinance for you and your children forever". It was a means of making sure your children (and each generation) would remember what the Lord has done for His people. God wants us to share about His faithfulness with our children. We are not to forget what He has done and what He continues to do. During trials, it is great comfort to draw on His past and present steadfast love and faithfulness! But I can't draw on this if I don't know the history of His character.

But why single out a special event to share this? Shouldn't this be done in our everyday lives? Well, yes.... and yes! Absolutely, we need to be teaching about God's character and deliverance each day: Deut. 6:4-9. But isn't it exciting to look forward to a special day? A day where we do things a bit differently than normal days? A day to dress up, bring out the fine china, cook a special meal, and plan extra special activities? My kids have been anticipating this event all year! They remember much of the symbolism of the Seder plate and matzo from the previous year's celebration. They are excited to search for pieces of leavened bread by candle light (symbolizing searching for the sin in our lives), to drink from the 4 cups, to wait in anticipation of Elijah to come, to taste the parsley dipped in salt water (symbolizing God bringing His people forth from bondage and crossing the Red Sea.... but also the bringing us forth from the bondage of sin), etc... This isn't meant to be an exegesis of the symbolic nature of the Passover, so I won't talk about every detail... but you get the picture. But we also remember, that about 2000ish years ago, during the Passover feast, our Messiah came and was sacrificed as the innocent lamb of God. He broke us out of the bondage of OUR sin... if we have come to faith in Him. He drank the bitter cup of God's wrath and came out victorious over death and the grave. This is worth remembering... it is worth remembering in a symbolic way.

I recommend this book if you are interested in finding out how to celebrate the various Biblical feasts with your family. Celebrating Biblical Feasts does a great job explaining the symbolism and telling you how to participate in these exciting feasts. Are we 100% kosher in our celebrating? No, we are not... but you can be if you want to. Our position has been that we want to teach principles and concepts.... not regulations.

I hope that you take time this weekend to truely meditate on what was at stake at Calvary. To examine yourself to see if you are truly in the faith, and to worship our risen Lord. May you have a blessed Passover (which was last Tuesday) and Resurrection day.  He is risen.... He is risen indeed!

Have you celebrated Passover or any of the other Biblical feasts? What is your favorite part?

Countertops: Cubic Zircon or Diamond?????

I love to cook. I love to bake. And it is a good thing, because I spend a large part of every day cooking for our family. So in gutting, redoing, and adding on to an old farmhouse that will eventually be our home, I have put many hours of research and thought into the kitchen layout. I have to admit, at first I didn't know if it was even possible for the existing kitchen to transform into something that would be functional for our family. I was pretty skeptical. But it really has been fun seeing it all come together. But then came the decision of what to use for countertops. At one time I thought it would be neat to someday have concrete slab countertops. But I have never met anyone who had them or anyone who knew anything about them... so I basically dismissed that notion. Granite or marble was completely out of the question because I'm too frugal to even consider it. So we decided that we would do laminate even though I wasn't exactly thrilled about that option. However, not knowing any better, I chose and bought my sink: a beautiful, large, double basin apron front farmhouse sink.... which also happened to be an undermount sink. I didn't know this was a problem. My contractor said something like, "I'm gonna have to think about this one...". Come to find out... I guess you can't use an undermount sink with laminate countertops because of the potential of getting water into the laminate seams and thus ruining the countertop.  But my position is always: where there is a will, there is a way! So that got me looking back into countertop options. I began to wonder about concrete again, so I did a google search about concrete countertops in Salina, Kansas.  The search introduced me to a "new" product which became the answer to my countertop problems.  The product is iCOAT. It is NOT a concrete slab. Rather, it is done by skimming a thin coat of a special concrete over an existing countertop (you can do it right over laminate). After the concrete is troweled on, then it is colored to whatever you want! It can take on the look of granite, marble, concrete, metallic paint.... whatever. Then, it is sealed with a 2 part epoxy that is heat resistant up to 500 degrees and never needs maintenance! It sounded too good to be true, so I called the guy who does it and I got to see some sample boards and even visit a client of his to see the finished product. We loved what we saw and decided that it was what we wanted to do.  The other cool thing about it is the price: $35ish/sq. foot.... labor included!  So for the price of good laminate, you get a product that is even better... with the high end look of granite, marble, quartz, or solid surface! Kind of like buying the cubic zircon, but letting everyone else think that it is a diamond!

Being a researcher, I looked for reviews of the product.... but I could not find any. So I had to go on the guy's word and the testimony of his clients who had their countertops done 3 years ago. This is a great option if you want to give your kitchen a facelift without tearing out your countertops.... it goes right on the top of the existing laminate. And unlike concrete slabs or granite, you don't have to reinforce your cabinets to hold the weight of it.  In our case, there were no existing countertops to coat with the concrete. So we had countertops built out of MDF and then had them coated.

So what are the drawbacks of this product? So far, the only drawback is the "curing out" time of the epoxy. Once the epoxy is put on, you can't touch it for 24 hours. After that initial time, you can touch it, but can't put anything on them for an extended amount of time for 2 weeks. In other words, you can wash dishes and set them briefly on the countertop, but you wouldn't want to let them set there overnight. After that 2 weeks, you can use them as you normally would. (I probably will give it a month before I set a crock pot on them for overnight oatmeal).


I'm posting the before and after pictures of my kitchen (which is still a work in progress). Please note that the pictures do NOT do it justice!!!!

These first 3 photos are the "BEFORE" pictures which show the MDF countertop.







Note my undermount sink which led me to search out other countertop options!!! I actually could have mounted the sink higher so that it was either level with the countertop, or even raised above it some... but since finding out about the iCOAT, I was able to leave it as an undermount. (Note that the 5 gallon bucket in the second picture is not a permanent fixture in my kitchen...!)

 



This is the butler's pantry. It used to be a bathroom. The upper cabinet was sitting in an upstairs bedroom in the house. I love reusing and re-purposing old stuff!!!










And these are the after photos. Again, they do NOT do it justice at all!

The glare is from the kitchen lights.

 The other cool thing about iCOAT is that you can get your perfect, custom color! I'm sure that if we had gone with granite, we wouldn't have gotten this perfect of a color/design!








 

The epoxy is very shiny... like glass. But you can buff it down if you want.

 Is it the "real" thing? Or not???? You would never be able to tell! The other great thing is that it really has a lot of "depth" to it. Who would have thought that it is only about 1/8ish inch thick? It looks like you can look into it forever!!!!!

So if you are wanting to update your kitchen or are in the market for countertops, I would HIGHLY recommend James from Blueline Construction in Salina, Kansas. He did a great job and was awesome to work with! His email is: james@bluelinesalina.com and his phone number is 785-643-0799.

Family Time Picks for January and February

A.W. Pink once said: "The Bible is not designed for lazy people.  Truth has to be bought (Prov. 23:23), but the slothful and worldly minded are not willing to pay the price required. That "price" is intimated in Proverbs 2:1-5: there must be a diligent applying of the heart, a crying after knowledge, a seeking for an apprehension of spiritual things with the ardour and determination that men employ when seeking for silver; and a searching for a deeper and fuller knowledge of the truth such as men put forth when searching for hid treasures - persevering until their quest is successful - if we would really understand the things of God.  Those who complain that these articles are "too difficult" or "too deep" for them, do but betray the sad state of their souls and reveal how little they really value the truth; otherwise they would ask God to enable them to concentrate, and reread these pages perseveringly until they made their contents their own.  People are willing to work and study hard and long to master one of the arts or sciences, but where spiritual and eternal things are concerned it is usually otherwise."

How true his words were and very much still are today. How many times have I been told: "I've gone as deep as I want to go," or "I don't have time to read the Bible," or "I have other things I have to do," or "Look at all the ministry things I do and how I serve at church... that is how I serve God", or how many people simply read the Bible without meditating on its truths or even think about what it means to apply it to their life? Today's culture has lost the love of simply being alone with God and seeking Him.

Does it take time? Yes. Does it take discipline and determination? Yes. Is it worth it? Absolutely. Is the wisdom gained worth as much as gold and silver? It is worth much more!  Sadly, convincing others of that truth is not easy. Even though (as the western church) we say we are christians, where we we prioritize our time paints a much different picture. Statistically we are spending 40+ hours a week watching TV (and that doesn't include the time spent on the web, playing video games, reading novels, sports, etc...). Jesus takes a back seat to our other priorities. Where our time and money is... there is where our hearts are.

We want our children to grow up with the mind of Christ, with a insatiable love for the Word of God, with a love FOR God which translates into habitually spending time with Him, meditating on and memorizing His word. We want them to see the world how God sees it, to love people how Christ loves people, and to humbly serve Him with their lives. We want them to know about and study the great minds and missionaries of the past (Baxter, Bunyan, Bradford, and the puritans, Edwards, Calvin, Waldo, McCheyne, Murray, Augustine, Brother Andrew, Brother Yun, Mueller, and countless more). We want to teach them to work hard, study hard, and to be men and women of virtue. We want to pass the truths of the faith on to them through a lifestyle of discipleship which is what we see illustrated in Deuteronomy 6:4-9. Home schooling Discipleship allows us to pour our time into our children, molding them, training them, teaching them, and demonstrating the love of Christ to them.

Do we struggle and fail? Epically and every day. We constantly have to repent and seek forgiveness from our children and our Lord as He sheds light on our shortcomings. We constantly "examine ourselves" to make sure we are in the faith (2 Cor. 13:5). But is that an excuse to give up? No. Is it hard? Yes. Is it exhausting? Yes. Is it worth it? Yes! Do we have it all figured out? No we do not. With much prayer we seek to know how to raise our children in this manner as we plow through this unbroken ground hoping to pave a family legacy for generations to come. We read books and follow blogs by others who had this vision. We seek other families and listen to teachings from Godly men who are leading their families, pouring into their children, and washing their wives with the water of the word. But we also thank God for the resources that are available to us. Especially, because in the eyes of this culture (and EVEN in the eyes of the typical western church) we are extremists who "take the Word too far.."  Our "friends", family members, acquaintances, and even those within the typical church see us as that family: You know, the weird, unsocialized homeschoolers who eat weird, take the Bible too seriously, have a ba-jillion kids, reject dating and encourage courtship, make-people-want-to-sin, etc... you know.... we are THAT family. So to have a community of believers who have the same vision is invaluable!

But while we are serious about God's Word and giving them a Biblical worldview, it does not mean that it is a "dry" and super-serious undertaking that bores our kids to death... quite the opposite. There is so much wonderful, biblically-founded media out there and we are always looking for more things to learn from. But finding a place to start can be overwhelming, so I wanted to share some things that have blessed our family time so far this year! We are fortunate to have resources available to help immerse our family in the truth of God's Word and the application of it to everyday life! These resources have been so fun the last several weeks, and while we don't do them ALL EVERYDAY, we have routinely used all of them the past couple of months.

Balancing the Sword - This is a 2 volume set that gives questions/answers for every chapter of the Bible. It is filled with awesome illustrations and quotations from a variety of Christ followers of old. We use it to ask the kids questions about their daily Bible readings from their chronological reading plan and their monthly Proverbs reading plan.

Trial and Triumph - This is a book with several biographies of people in church history. It has been a great family read-a-long spurring many great discussions. From Peter Waldo, Augustine, Anselm, Bunyan, St. Patrick, etc. there are 46 biographies and you are sure to learn a lot!


Dangerous Journey - This is a great retelling of Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress with AWESOME illustrations! Another great read-a-long stirring great family discussions!

How A Spider Saved A Man's Life and 51 Other Spurgeon Stories - We love C. H. Spurgeon and this little, fun book of children's stories is just great! They are concise, interesting, and keep our kids wanting us to read several at a sitting. There are great lessons to be learned from each story.  There is also a 2nd volume by the same author that we will definitely be getting!

The Peleg Chronicles - This series of 3 books is set in post-Babel times where paganism abounds. But there are some who still believe in Noah's God! The Bible speaks of huge beasts and giant people... what would it have been like to live back then??? Join us in reading about dwarfs, dragons, giants, and the faithfulness of a few in this series. These novels are packed with scripture and action. My 10 year old and I are reading them now. My 7 year old will begin soon. We are loving this series!

How to Disciple Your Family - a 200 Year Plan - I got my husband this DVD series for Christmas and we are carefully working through it. It has been great in giving us a model for family discipleship, prayer points for our kids and generations to come, a family catechism, etc... Doug Phillips and Geoffry Botkin are the presenters on the DVD's. Both of them are great teachers and examples of fathers who are raising godly children. I would definitely recommend this series (and almost anything that Vision Forum sells)!

The Kingdom Series - Wow... what can I even say about this series to do it justice? This is a series of 6 books (we purchased the audiobook version) that is a medieval parallel to the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. Be sure to click on the link to read more about the plot... but I highly recommend this! The audio (drama) books are SOOOOOO well done! Because our family tends to spend a lot of time on the road, we listen to it in the truck during our hour long trips between here and out west. The story has ALL of us captivated and sitting on the edge of our seats! It is really worth the money! I love how the audiobook allows us all to enjoy it together! Even our 2 year old begs us to turn it on!

Well, there you have it! These are the resources that are blessing us at the moment! What are your family's favorites????

The Gold Mine in Your Own Backyard!

I really thought that I would have a lot more time to blog when I decided to create one... however, it seems like maybe once a month I actually get the chance to sit down and type. But, several times a week I find myself blogging in my head.... those blogs just never seem to make it to my fingers! However, I have been meaning to share about this topic for a couple of months now... Your local thrift store!

Yes.... this is probably OLD news to most people. And NO, I am not a "name brand" snob who only shops at Gap, The Children's Place, Old Navy, Dillards, etc...(In fact, my favorite things are hand-me-downs!)  But I haven't until recently made it a habit to make it to our local thrift store. In fact, I have lived here for nearly 13 years and my first time frequenting it was 2 months ago.  Why? I suppose that it is because I heard some rumors about it 13 years ago and it tainted my expectations of the store and I never revisited the thought of going there.

Well, I could not have been more wrong in not shopping at the thrift store. It is a GOLD MINE! It is very well organized, they are very picky about the clothing items that they choose to sell, the volunteers are great, the prices are great, and they even have great sales!

So what kind of treasures have I found? First and foremost: kids' clothes (especially blue jeans). Just a side note here... I'm not sure how a kid is able to actually outgrow a pair of jeans without getting a hole in the knee... I don't know that I have ever had that happen... and if it ever did, the next kid to inherit the jeans would certainly "do them in"... So blue jeans are a constant need in our family. If I have to pay full price for a new pair of jeans, then the holes in the knees really don't bother me. But if I can get a pair for $1.50 or less, then SOLD!  So, my favorite thing to browse through is kids' clothes....  But that is not all!!!

I recently have been wanting a few long denim skirts (A-line and tiered), but I have been too cheap to buy any online at $25-60 each. My first trip to the thrift shop yielded me FOUR long, denim skirts all in my size... 3 were A-line and one was tiered!!!! And the price? Less than $8 for all four of them (Gap, Maurices, and Lands End were the brands).  Then, we were in the need of 2 pairs of snow pants for our growing kids.... I actually could have gotten by with one, but my 4 year old son really didn't want to wear the pink pair that was passed down to him from big sister... So, back to the thrift store I went and I found just what I needed. And even better, it was "bag" day where a bag full of clothes costs only $3. I have also gotten 2 down vests (Lands End and Cabelas), a pair of insulated work bibs for my 10 year old, a pair of Keen mary jane shoes, a bread machine for my mom ($2.50), a RED crock pot that is perfect for overnight oatmeal (my recipe eliminates the last 4 ingredients of hers... we sweeten the next morning with raw honey), a like-new pair of camo waterproof, insulated, hunting boots, gallon and 1/2 gallon jars, drinking glasses, etc... In fact, my husband has never been there and it is his new favorite store!

OK, I'll stop going on and on about my finds right now.... but in case I'm not the ONLY one who is fairly new to the thrift store shopping experience, I wanted to give a few hints on what you might need that your thrift store "probably" has... Coffee pot carafes... Haven't you ever broken one? and when you went to Walmart to replace it, the carafe was more expensive than a whole new coffee maker??? Try looking at a thrift store instead! Our local store has a whole basket full of various carafes just waiting for a new home. What about soccer shoes for your kids? Instead of buying a brand new pair for the 6 week season, you might find a whole selection of shoes that were only used for 6 weeks the year before! And what about kids' dress shoes? I can't tell you how many times I have bought new black dress shoes for my oldest's piano concert and they were only worn one time (because ALL of his other dress clothes are earth tones which doesn't necessitate a pair of black shoes). Well, judging by the selection of black dress shoes, I'm guessing other moms have done the exact same thing! Other barely worn things that tend to abundantly find their way to the thrift shop are: snow clothes, holiday items, vases, glass ware, glass tea trays, dress clothes, small appliances, special occasion shoes (snow boots, dress shoes, soccer shoes, etc), purses, wallets, duffel bags, yarn, sheets, material, etc...

I don't want to down play Goodwill stores because some of them are very nice and I have found a lot of good things there too. Our local Goodwill is also great, but honestly, their prices are higher than our local thrift store, and they aren't as picky as to what they sell. That means that I have to "dig" harder to find clothes in good condition than I do at the thrift store. But if Goodwill is all you have, by all means go treasure hunting there... but don't discount your local thrift shop just because they don't have the advertising dollars.

Well, there you have it, my two cents worth on thrift store shopping! What is your favorite thrift store find????