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Free Pictures @ Target Online

As a MOM I strive to be frugal with my penny pinching ways…but not only do I enjoy finding great deals but I have this Maven desire of wanting to share all my great finds with my Mom friends.

So today my friends , the great find I have to share is online at Target - you can receive 20 FREE prints in the mail when you sign-up for a FREE account at the Target Kodak Gallery .


http://targetphoto.kodakgallery.com/Welcome.jsp

Time Waster Time Saver Thursdays

Check out the NEW

Time Waster Time Saver Thursdays - Organizational Ideas for MOMS each Thursday at the 24/7 MOMS Blog

Stop by every Thursday

Trisha

Let' s Make a Meal Mondays

There is a NEW Monday edition at the 24/7 MOMS Blog





Let' s Make A Meal Mondays

http://www.247moms.blogspot.com/

Check it out each Monday for NEW meal and cooking ideas.

The big question - Why do we celebrate Easter?

As a Little girl that was the QUESTION I had for my Mom - I asked My mom to re-tell the time I as a little girl came and asked the Big questin - Why do we celebrate Easter?

WHAT IS THE REAL QUESTION??

By Patricia Eachus

(Trisha's Mom)
p.eachus@juno.com

My six-year-old daughter Trisha ran excitedly into the house after being at the neighbors where they were decorating for the upcoming Easter Holiday.

Blue eyes sparkling and freckles dancing across her face, she was as cute as a button, and I could tell filled with an important question when she explained, "Mom, mom, why do we celebrate Easter?"

At first, taken back by the thought that I had perhaps not done an appropriate 'Mom Job' of sharing the deepest of all truths in our Christian faith, I quickly moved into the 'Mom mode'. This is a VERY important moment, I must stop what I am doing and take the time to sit and tell her again the story of our Lord.

Leading her gently through the story of Christmas and the birth of our savior, His life of love and sacrifice for us his children. She sat spell bound and I could see she was intent on every word, waiting for the Easter part. I had such a desire that the impartation of these truths were understood by her that I was not willing to take any short cuts in giving her the life of our Lord.

After quite a long story telling on my part, I finally got to the cross, Good Friday and what the sacrifice meant to us that believe. Again, she did a few squirms and I could see she was anxious. I explained that the cross was not the end of Jesus. "On the third day, Easter, He was resurrected" I explained.

"RESURRECTED", she raised her voice quickly. "What does that mean, Mom?"

I replied, "Trisha, it's so wonderful, he rose, he came back alive, he was no longer dead".

Her face relaxed, her eyes became knowing as she exclaimed, "Oh, so that's when he turned into the Easter bunny".

What's a Mom to do? After the big story telling, sitting her down with the important facts of our faith, with one statement from her I realized that I didn't really hear her question. Trisha was not asking me for the Easter story, which she already knew. She was trying to figure out how the rabbit got into Easter.

Continue now and read My Daughter Savannah's Idea of Why there is a Bunny involved in Easter...I found this documnet in my computer, I had never seen it until a few weeks ago....It gave me a MOM LOL ( Lauhing out Loud) moment

Esther the Bunny Learns About Easter
By Savannah Novotny

April 17, 2003
Once upon a time there was a funny little bunny rabbit. Her name was Esther. Her mother always tod her that she was very special.

One day while she was talking to her friends they told her that she was really the Easter bunny, and her job was to give gifts to little boys and girls. She really believed it! She was so excited but she didn't know where to get goodies and gifts for all the little children of the world.

So she went to her Mom and asked, "Mom am I the Easter bunny?" Her mother responded "Yes my dear you are the Easter bunny, but I wanted you to figure it out all by yourself. I guess it's about time you found out."

One day soon you will help all of the other Easter bunnies of the world and give gifts to little boys and girls to celebrate the real meaning of Easter."

Esther was puzzled, because she wasn't sure what the real meaning of Easter was? "Mom" Esther asked, what is the real meaning of Easter? Her mom replied. "Remember the story you learned last week at Sunday School?". "Sure I do. It is one of my favorite stories." said Esther. "It was about God's only Son Jesus who dies for our sins and on the third day of his death he rose up and went to heaven. Our teacher said if we asked Jesus into our hearts we could be God's best friend and line in heaven too!" "That's right" said Esther's mom.

"Well why do we give gifts to little boys and girls?" asked Esther. "Because sill, we want all the boys and girls of the world to know that Ester Sunday is a special Sunday because it is remembering what God's only Son did for mankind. When we leave special gifts it helps them to remember who Jesus is." Said her Mom.

"Wow exclaimed Esther, that means I really am a special bunny, but I still have a question? When do I get to give gifts to all the little children?" "Well my little bunny" said her mom, "when the time is right, but until then you are to do your very best to a good little bunny and always remember Jesus Christ is behind the real meaning of Easter."
The End

Got Friends - Join 24/7 MOMS today

Have you heard of 24/7 MOMS?

Check out http://www.247moms.blogspot.com/ full of great MOM stuff.

I know you as a Mom GOT lots of mom FRIENDS that would enjoy being part of the 24/7 MOMS community.

So if you GOT FRIENDS why NOT invite them to be part of 24/7 MOMS and they can say they GOT 24/7 MOMS as part of their Motherhood Journey.

Tell your friends to Join our 24/7 MOMS E-List at http://www.247moms.com/ or Join our Yahoo group at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/247moms/

The Little Leprechaun wants chocolate

What are we celebrating tomorrow? Was the BIG question I asked my youngest child Nate earlier today. His answer “St. Patrick’s Day”. I then proceeded to ask him how do we celebrate St Patrick’s Day?. He went on to tell me that “we have to set up traps for the Leprechauns who will come to our house tomorrow night and steal all of our chocolate” (I am chocoholic, which means we have plenty of it in our home to get stolen) he continued on…. “but if we catch one then he has to grant us a wish”.

His response got me thinking about how we could celebrate St. Patrick’s Day this year….Typically our family tradition is eating a meal of corned beef and cabbage along with green food items at the dinner table in which I have decorated in green and filled little gold treasure boxes with treats.

This year my children have a birthday party to attend on St Patrick’s day. Why cook another meal? Remember, I’m the “Cooking is NOT my thing” chef , so Nate's response to What is tomorrow? has given me an New idea.

I typed up post card size notes for each of my children from the little Leprechaun, filled their gold boxes with some yummy treats and as I head to bed tonight I will place them in their bedrooms. When they wake up in the morning they will see what the little Leprechaun has left them, and hopefully follow the instructions. Which means the Mom (little Leprechaun) should be getting 5 gold boxes filled with chocolate by tomorrow night.

I think this is a great plan for both the kids and I...they get a yummy treat and I get some of their hidden chocolate.

Off to deliver my Gold Boxes

Veggie Tales FREEbie offer

My two youngest Caleb and Nate are still Big veggie tale fans so when I came across this bargain I was thrilled…. This week at http://www.bigidea.com/ they are offering $10.00 off any DVD purchase by using code WIZ.

I ordered Veggie Tales "The Wonderful World of Auto-tainment" for my boys. I think it was the only one we actually don't own. My total cost was $3.63 for the shipping..

What a bargain FREE Veggie Tale DVD and all I had to pay was the shipping
http://www.bigidea.com/ use Code WIZ

I caught the FREEbie bug

When I was a little girl I would sign-up for every birthday club, door Prize drawing, mail in offer, I searched for FREE stuff. The more I won and received free the more I caught the FREEbie bug. The bug has never quite left me, even as an adult I LOVE free stuff.

Are you a mom like me with the FREEbie bug..Love to get free stuff, Love to win contests?

Then go check out the FREEbie stuff at 24/7 MOMS Blog
Each month 24/7 MOMS features several opportunities to win FREE stuff.

This month there are some great FREEbie contests ….Watch out, you have officially been exposed to the FREEbie bug and the best medicine I can suggest to you, is quick ENTER a contest today. www.247moms.blogspot.com

Time Waster - Time Saver : Receipts

Time Waster : Are you tired of digging and scrambling for that lost receipt to return the unwanted item? Possibly never finding your receipt and now being left with an item you don't want or need?

Only to become a Time Waster as we search and look for our lost receipt.

Today most of our local stores such as Target and Toys-r-Us make it difficult to return an item without the receipt.

Time Saver : So I have a GREAT way that I keep my zillions of receipts each year organized...with 5 kids it seems receipts can pile up quickly.

My Time Saver solution has been that each year I purchase a Cancelled check file from my local office store. I then file each receipt in alphabetical order.

Now when I have a return to make I can quickly retrieve my receipt and have a No Hassle return.

Read more organization tips in the Swap Hop at Lysa's blog

I am NOT a cook - I feed the freezer

I am not a Cook and Cooking is NOT my thing ( just ask my mom, husband and friends)....however with a family of 7 taking off the chef hat was not going to be an option ....instead I needed to come up with a method of cooking that would not only keep my family happily feed but would de-stress my role as a chef.

The solution to my “NOT my thing” cooking dilemma is what I refer to as "Feed the Freezer" for the past 10 years it has completely changed my entire cooking and meal planning STRESS.

The concept of "Feed the Freezer" is to choose my favorite freezable recipes and double and triple them so that I can begin feeding my freezer full of extra meals. After doing this several times soon my freezers is full of a variety of meal choices and makes my meal planning SIMPLE.

Now I can easily place that chef hat on as if cooking is “My Thing”.

Check back later this week to read additional helpful hints and recipes from Trisha’s “Feed the Freezer" method of simplifying your cooking and meal planning stress.

Today's "Feed the Freezer" recipe:

Cranberry Chicken - from "Don't Panic it’s in the freezer" cook book

4 skinless/boneless chicken breasts

1 8 oz. bottle of Catalina Dressing
1 package dry onion soup mix

1- 1 lb can whole berry cranberry sauce

You can double and triple these ingredients to make multiple freezer meals.

Mix together dressing, onion soup mix and cranberry sauce. Place the desired amount of chicken and mixture together in a freezer bag. Freeze. On cooking day: Thaw completely. Place chicken with cranberry sauce in greased baking dish and bake at 350 degrees hour 1 to 1 ½ hours uncovered.Or place in the Crock Pot on low for 8 hours.

Don’t forget to write on your freezer bag what is inside and the quantity.

Need MORE great recipe ideas check out the recipe swap at http://lysaterkeurst.blogspot.com/

Trisha's Book of the week

Mom's Everything Book for Daughters
By Becky Freeman

Do you have a daughter? "Mom's Everything Book for Daughters" is definitely one of my top 10 recommend books for moms with pre-teen daughters. Chalk Full of practical bonding ideas to cultivate the mother daughter relationship as you head into those teenage years...fun activities, recommended reading for your daughters, awesome conversation starters.

It completely captured my attention I could hardly put it down, I earmarked and underlined all the creative ideas and thoughts as I read through it especially the highlighted sections "Just for Fun" , "Rave Reviews" and "God, Mom and Me"... Moms of Daughters this is a MUST read... grab your copy today. Available at Amazon.

Mom's Everything Book for Daughters
by Becky Freeman by Zondervan
Paperback
List Price: $12.99
Our Price: $7.40
Buy Now

Galaxy Movie Theatre Challenge in Gig Harbor

Novotny Family claims 6% of the Coveted Poker Chips

We live in a little city called Gig Harbor…. lately our little city has been turned up side down with commercial building or as my teenagers say..”Gig Harbor is out of control”… a new YMCA, Costco, Borders and Books, Jamba Juice, Panera Bread, clothing stores and even a new zillion dollar bridge across the Puget sound…In the minds of my teenagers NONE of this was needed or necessary except for ONE , the New 10 screen Galaxy Theatre.

Now that is a very vital need...so vital that when rumors circled that the first 100 guests in line on grand opening day would receive a FREE 90 pass to the movies...the Novotny kids were up for the challenge .

The challenge began yesterday ( Thursday)….the plan was my oldest Son Stephen and his best friend Alex were going to camp out over night if that’s what it took to get those 90 day passes….but the big question was when would people begin lining up…or would they have already begun?

It was 12 noon, Stephen and I just had lunch and were headed to the library, we decided to stop by the theatre and see if a line had begun. No line - then the cell rings. It’s Alex reporting to Stephen the rumor at Gig Harbor high “there are 57 in line already”. Stephen cleared the rumor ”No one is in line”.

We then went to the library for about 15 minutes , as we began to drive home we decided to make one more check on the theatre. Well the rumor began a frenzy and the students were beginning to line up.

The RACE was on…off to the house to pick up chairs and sulpplies…off to the High School to pick up Shelby…back to the theater to claim our spots… I the mom left to begin picking up the 3 other Novotny kids. WHEW, we made it. It is now 3:25 and the line has continued to grow.

I was in line holding a place for Alex (Stephen’s friend) as he had to work until 6:00. being the nice MOM...I grabbed my new Moxie blog book and a chair and thought I'd get some reading in while my 2 youngest waited with me playing and enjoying the teenage world, by 5:30 there was well over 100 in line.

Tents were popping up, chairs lined along the side walk, BBQ hot dogs cooking, Sleeping bags ready for a nights rest in the cold winter air

The theatre management came outside and announced “That they would soon hand out poker chips with numbers on them to the first 100 in line”….….30 minutes later the manager once again walks out with a second announcement “ The first 100 in line would receive a poker chip … once we had our poker chips, we were to leave go home and return tomorrow at anytime and exchange our chips for the 90 day pass”…YAHOO, they were seriously going to hand us our GOLDEN TICKET for our 90 day pass and NO ONE has to sleep on the streets of Gig Harbor tonight. (remember I am still there with my 2 younger boys, still waiting for Alex to arrive)


Honestly my teenage kids were a little bummed that they did not get to experience a winter night on the streets of Gig Harbor…I do think the Novotny's now hold the record for receiving the highest percentage, 6 to be exact that would be 6% of Gig Harbors MOST coveted poker chips today.

I don’t know if this is what Making History is all about but for the Teenagers in Gig Harbor today this is History.

I know, I know - what kind of mom am I? let my kids get out of school early to get in line, I had intended to let them sleep on the streets of Gig Harbor and to top it off allow them to skip school to attend the grand opening of a movie theatre??

My answer to you I’m a MOM that believes in Making Memories…and for the Novotny TEAM these memories will be forever great ones.….Accomplishing the Challenge of receiving the most coveted poker Chips in Gig Harbor this week.

What Memories are you making with your family?…Explore Dream and Discover with them…..and even do a few wild and crazy things.


Mark Twain said "Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do……Explore, Dream, Discover”

Already Spring Cleaning

I know spring has not actually arrived but I am in obsessive cleaning mode. In the last 2 weeks I have accomplished completely cleaning end to end, top to bottom 4 kids bedrooms, 4 Bathrooms, My Bedroom and today I decided to do what I thought would be one of the EASIEST rooms in my home. "The Laundry room"

When was the last TIME you cleaned out your laundry room end to end, top to bottom?

Its official I spent 4 ½ hours cleaning my laundry room today. Prior to beginning my cleaning escapade you might have said “Trisha it will only take you 1 hour and really it does not look like it even needs cleaning”

4 ½ hours later, It is safe to say My laundry room is NOW the most sanitized, cleaned and completely organized laundry room in my entire neighborhood, of course that is until one of my 5 GREAT kids tromps thru and dumps their things on my oh so clean floor.

I am often referred to as a TYPE A or PERFECTIONIST. WOW, does it ever come out when I begin cleaning a room - thoroughly cleaning every inch, organizing all drawers, cupboards and closets, each time I clean that room....not just when it's spring. Which is why I have officially hired a new house cleaner.

If I continue to do it myself, it is only a matter of days until I end up like this women in the Video clip below. After you view it you will be glad Trisha hired a new house cleaner at least for the sake of her family.