Amy J. Bennett

Extraordinary Faith for Everyday Life

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eBook: Plan a Fabulous Party {without losing your mind}

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Update: use code FABPARTY until November 15th for a $3 discount!!

OK, folks, you’re going to get TWO eBook-related posts from me today.  But this one is pretty important and I just couldn’t hold it off until next week.

 

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Mary Carver has launched her first eBook called Plan a Fabulous Party {without losing your mind}.  Considering this is birthday month for us, this book couldn’t have come at a better time of the year.  The only thing I regret is not having it in time for our very first sleepover this past weekend.  But let me tell you, I’ll be referring to this for Emma’s sleepover next week. 

What I love about the book first is Mary’s voice.  Just like her blog, her writing is easy to understand and funny, to boot.  And it’s all fantastic content.  I love that sometimes she doesn’t give answers but knows how to ask you the right questions so you can plan your perfect party.  It was a special treat to see ohAmanda pop up in one of the chapters about themed parties.  If you haven’t seen one of Amanda’s parties, go check out her Tangled party for her daughter – so cute!  What Mary does in this book is take all the jumbled things about parties that stress me out and organizes it into smaller chunks that I can think about without losing my mind<—hey, look at that!  She also has a great list resource in the Appendix.

The best thing about this eBook launch and why I’m so insistent on writing about it on her launch day is ALL proceeds are going to benefit Operation Christmas Child today!  Woo Hoo!  Head on over and pick up a copy.  It’s for the kids.  All for the kids!

Disclosure: Mary gave me a copy of the eBook to review in exchange for this post.  And go subscribe to her site because she’ll be posting about my book this Saturday!

Weekend Recap

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e44f610c08d211e1a87612313804ec91_7Entangled on an iPad! 

Friday night was Lexi’s big birthday sleepover just in case you missed that post over the weekend.  The rest of Saturday morning was spent around the house cleaning.  We had our first of two home study visits with DSS Saturday afternoon.  It turns out to be a long but painless process.  She just sat down with us with a list of 11 pages of questions.  We turned to page 2 after an hour.  Yeah.  So we ended up getting through 5 pages and have the second visit scheduled in 2 weeks.  By the time she left, we were all starved and went to Moe’s with Scott’s parents.  After that, we had to run over to my parents’ so Scott could move some furniture. We were all WIPED OUT after our late night for the sleepover so we went straight home for bed.

Sunday morning was church.  It’s the normal but I’m super excited as they announced that they’d picked the next pastor.  I’m not sure if I ever mentioned that our pastor stepped down last Spring.  He had some personal issues to attend to and I thought he might go back to pastoring but has chosen not to.  I’m really excited for this new season of our church. 

Sunday afternoon Scott went mountain bike riding and Emma stayed with Scott’s parents after lunch.  Lexi and I went to do some shopping!  She has already outgrown jeans I bought her this summer on vacation.  But jeans were just not in the cards.  The 6x in the little girls section were all too small to button and the 7’s in the big girl section were way too big.  We ended up with 3 sweater/legging outfits.  As a jean lover it’s hard to fathom a winter wardrobe without plenty of jeans to choose from but it seems like Lexi is going to be all leggings, all the time.

Sunday evening I ended up making some soup for us and then headed over to Melissa’s house to work on the eBook.  I can’t stress enough just how much work Melissa (and even her husband Jeff) has put into this book. There’s been a lot of formatting and editing and behind the scenes stuff that I think it will be easy to take for granted once everything is set up.  I’ve gotten a lot of good response from other bloggers and I think this weekend is going to be huge.

Actually, this week is going to be huge no matter what.  Two projects I’ve been working on for over 6 months at work are implementing this week.  Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday evenings are all going to be busy.  The eBook launches Friday so the weekend will probably be anything but a respite.  But I had to launch on a day I wasn’t working and that was it before the holiday season.  What I’m trying to say is don’t get worried when you see me checking into Starbucks a few times this week.  And a few prayers would be welcome too.

Tomorrow I’ll be starting to post more about the book and web site until it launches on Friday.  See you back then and hope your week is starting off well!

Lexi’s 7th Birthday Parties

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The past two days we’ve been in complete birthday mode for Lexi.  Normally we do a family party on their actual birthday and then do a combined party the week between Emma and Lexi’s birthday at a place like Chuck E. Cheese.  This year, both girls wanted separate sleepovers.

Thursday was a complete blur.  Lunch was spent gathering the cake, balloons and a present that I didn’t really need since I forgot I ordered American girl stuff.  I was a little wiped out before the party even started.

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But it turned out to be a great evening.  Lexi was ecstatic when people actually started showing up.  I think she was legitimately worried people wouldn’t come.

By Friday morning I had to take a deep breath and do the whole birthday thing again but this time with 7 girls.  Overnight. I kept it pretty simple as far as decorations go.  Lexi wanted all her friends to watch Soul Surfer together so we made it a surfing theme.  We had a cool cake made and borrowed a real surfboard and let the girls take pictures on it like they were Bethany from Soul Surfer.  Between pizza, cake and presents they danced, played Twister and red rover.  They finished out the night with the movie.  I was feeling pretty good about this whole sleepover thing.  Until the next morning.

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This morning I woke to find that during the night, some of the girls had taken the pretzels, goldfish and other snacks I had out and put them on other girls as they slept and generally made a mess of all the food in the living room floor.  It was so bad Emma had the cheese from the pretzel sandwiches in her ear.  No one would own up to it. I kept my cool (outwardly) but gave them a full-blown “that was rude and disrespectful” speech.  I think they thought I was an evil stepmother about then.  Scott’s only comment to me was well, just think, if they were boys, it would have been shaving cream.  I do know pranks are part of sleepovers but I wasn’t prepared to see that this morning.  All is well though.  We moved on and got some breakfast and they got some good play time before everyone headed out.

I can’t believe my baby girl is 7 and all the work was definitely worth seeing all her smiles.

Happy 7th Birthday, Lexi!

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She crawled in my bed at 6:00 this morning.  I told her Happy Birthday and she said I’m 7!  It’s a big girl number.  And 7 is God’s favorite number!  That girls makes me smile.  She’s like one big ball of joy.  Until she isn’t.  And she’s crying and near screaming over something little like not being able to cut a straight line. 

She lives on hugs and kisses.  She says her hobby is watching TV.   She adores animals, especially puppies.  She can’t get enough of Tucker’s ears, saying they’re the softest part.  She collects stuffed animals, much to her parents’ chagrin.  She’s obsessed with Barbies. She designs outfits and can’t get enough of her mother’s closet.  She always picks sequins and glitter.  Always.  She could eat McDonald’s every day.  Or Wheat Thins and cereal.  She still cuddles her white blankie at night.  She loves having her own money and is always sure how she’ll spend it.  She prefers clean scents but really is happy as long as it doesn’t smell bad.  She’d run around without a shirt and socks all the time if she could.  She loves her sister and would be lost without her companion.  She’s all girl but orange belt at Tae Kwan Do.  She likes order and rules.  She prefers to learn through song.

I’ve never met anyone like Lexi and I’m so glad I get to be her mom.

Did I mention she likes taking video of herself when no one is looking?  This one’s for you, Lexi, when you’re old with 4 kids and trying to film videos while the kids nap…

Entangled: The Introduction

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I debated. I texted. I couldn’t decide what to share with you today. The intro. An excerpt. The video. The web site. The testimonials. So many choices. But it feels right to share the introduction this week. This will give you a little more detail about what happened but doesn’t divulge the whole story yet.

On a recent October afternoon, my coworkers and I were headed to a corn maze, and I was legitimately scared I was going to get lost. I could just imagine retracing the same path countless times, never finding a way out, calling for help and no one answering. I was sure I’d be spending the night in the gloppy mud between spindly stalks of corn. OK, maybe that is a bit dramatic. It turns out the owner stands on a bridge and all I would have to do is raise a flag, which had been given to me at the start line, and he would lead me out. But it got me thinking about life. Sometimes we enter paths we don’t want to follow; some of the same ones over and over, all leading to dead-ends. We don’t know how to get out. At some point we have to raise our flags and ask for directions.

A few years ago, I headed down paths I never thought I’d find myself on. At times, it all felt like a fun game, and I was content to lose myself in the maze. But when I finally wanted out, I realized I was stuck. I kept retracing my steps because what should have felt like the wrong way had quickly become familiar. In just a few short weeks six years ago, I found myself emotionally checked out of my marriage and checked in with a person with whom I worked. I wondered if I had missed my real soul mate. I was sure I had found the real fairy tale I’d been looking for all my life. I was having secret conversations, dreaming about a guy who wasn’t my husband and wondering how I got there. And night after night, I found myself lying in the mud not willing to raise a flag for help.

God finally found me in the mud and mire and through his spectacular grace led me out of the entangled mess I had put myself in.

Maybe you know how it feels to question your husband and your marriage. Maybe you know how it feels to have feelings for someone else. Maybe you know how it feels to hide your text messages and Facebook account because if your spouse saw it, you’d be mortified and just a little afraid you’d lose everything. I’ve been there. Lost in the middle of the cornfield.

I know it’s scary and confusing right now. This book is my attempt to shout from a bull horn on a bridge to the middle of the field where you are and give you the directions out. Because there is a way out. But some of it is not easy. The path out is bumpy and even painful at times but I can tell you how good the freedom feels when you find your way out.

So will you walk with me? I need to tell you about a time I got lost in a cornfield.

I hope you see that this book is not just a self-help book but a chance to share with you my story. I hope you’ll choose to walk with me. 10 days and counting.

Weekend Recap

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 We ended up having a very full weekend.  Saturday started off with a bang at the Renaissance Festival to celebrate my niece’s birthday.  The last time we went I think I might have been a little shell-shocked.  The Renaissance Festival is serious stuff!  This year we went early and didn’t deal with the hours of traffic and crowds.  The kids were in a great mood and were happy to sit to watch many of the different shows.  We saw some poetry reading, Celtic musicians, jousting and even some belly dancing.  There favorite by far though was meeting Twig the Fairy.  She was the cutest fairy that put a rock and fairy dust in their hands upon meeting them.  She didn’t speak but giggle, smiled and did some sign language to say thank you.  I haven’t figured out yet why she didn’t speak (fairies don’t speak? perhaps she’s deaf?  saving her voice during festivals?) but her enthusiasm communicated everything.   If you go, be sure to try the soup in bread bowls.  We snacked on that during the jousting and it was the perfect lunch.

That evening we had dinner and cake to celebrate my niece’s birthday.  By Saturday evening I was pooped!  We did manage to get a round of Monopoly in and I have to say, the new electronic version using cards and the machine is pretty fun.  All the swiping helps fill my need to run registers at Target.

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 Sunday’s theme was fall festivals!  After church and lunch we went to my mom’s.  But not before we had costume drama.  About two months ago I bought both of them genie costumes at the consignment sale and made a grave mistake by letting them play with them in the meantime.  Emma’s costume is completely missing.  Not to be found anywhere.  And since it was so cold, I had Lexi wear tights under her costume.  Lexi and tights and layers don’t get along well.  We eventually had to bag the genie outfit.  They both ended up wearing dance outfits a family friend had given them and named themselves fairies.  

My favorite part about the first fall festival was all of us playing a round of Bingo in one of the rooms.  They had it rigged somehow that we all won at one time.  It was hilarious when we all screamed Bingo together and realized what had happened. 

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Sunday evening we headed over to Scott’s parents’ church where we used to go.  The kids had fun seeing their friends, eating a bunch of food and playing games.  And it is always good for us to go back and talk to the members we miss seeing every week.

A very full weekend, indeed.  I hope yours went well and you have a good start to your week!

A Saturday Morning Hello

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Source: anthropologie.com via Daphne on Pinterest

A random adorable shoe

I don’t normally post on a Saturday morning but I wanted to say Hello.  My blog has been in the midst of switching hosts the last two days hence no posts.  Big props to Jason for helping me out.  He and his wife are the ones that took over OTHBlog from me and he’s been trying to convert my other sites for quite some time. 

For you bloggy, techy folks, I switched from a dedicated server on Surpass to Dreamhost VPS.  At peaks, the dedicated server would not hold up and it costs roughly 5 times as much as Dreamhost.  I hear it’s been working well for OTHBlog so we’re gonna see!  I think they have a Halloween special and you can get an entire year’s worth of hosting for $9.24.  No affiliate link there, just a friendly FYI.  Not that affiliate links aren’t friendly, but you know.

It’s probably been a good two days not to post as we were super busy with no time to post.  Thursday night we had some family pictures made to use on the Christmas card.  Oh, and speaking of, since the blog was down, I emailed the winners from the giveaway.  Congrats again to Jo Ann, Liz and Nichole!  After our photo session, we went to Beef and Brady’s to eat with my parents and then went home to quickly do homework and hit the hay.

Last night the girls and I had errands to run and ended up at Target.  The girls are coming up on their birthdays quickly and had gotten some gift cards to Target as gifts so of course they couldn’t wait to go spend it.  Since I’ve been cracking down on the toy-buying around here and they have to use chore money, buying just any toy they wanted was a huge deal.  And it was quite interesting watching them work out the math.  Emma, who had been begging me for colored dry erase markers saw they were $10 and said she didn’t want to spend her money.  I asked her why, if she was just begging me to buy them she wouldn’t buy them and she said, yeah, but that was your money.  Aha!  Lexi put down a toy that would have cost all her money and chose 3 smaller ones.  We still ended up with Squinkies in the house but at least it seems they are finally figuring out the value of money.

Today we are supposed to go to the Renaissance Festival.  It’s rainy and cold here though so I’m not sure if it’s going to happen.  I guess we’ll see and I’ll report in my Weekend Recap on Monday.  See you then!