Mother’s Day Giveaway!

Posted on April 18, 2011 by Mary

I’m having a giveaway just perfect for Mother’s Day! If you read my last post, you know that I sell Avon now, which I totally love! It’s fun, the products are amazing and they have amazing sales and deals going on all the time. Before I get too carried away with all of that, I want to tell you about my giveaway.

If you go to my Avon website , click on “My Blog” you will see all the details there.

I am giving away the Reese Witherspoon “Love to the Fullest” gift set! When you click “register” on my Avon website, you will automatically be entered in the drawing to win this amazing gift set! This $51 value can be YOURS for FREE! :) Entry into the drawing ends Wednesday April 20th at midnight EST, and the drawing will be held April 21.

If you’d like to order the gift set, of course you can do that too! I have 4 sets on hand for quick sale if you live in my area, or you can order them from my website. To do so, just click the “Shop Now” tab on my Avon website.

I can’t wait to see who wins, so enter now and tell your friends!

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What’s New With Me 4.8.2011

Posted on April 8, 2011 by Mary

Well hello there! It’s been a really long time since I’ve posted here! I’ve been super busy lately with several different things, so I thought I would update you. I know, you’re so excited, right? LOL.

Let’s see, where to begin? Well, last August our church went through a church split. Yeah, that was fun. NOT! Lost some friends (at least I thought they were my friends) in the process…it’s a really long story and I’m not quite ready to go into all the details here…maybe someday. Anyway, our Pastor and about 80% of the congregation left and started a new church. I started out creating the bulletin, then was hired part-time as the secretary. I work 3 to 4 days a week at the church office, which takes up a good deal of my time, but I LOVE it and wouldn’t trade it for anything.

I also recently started AVON. Back in November, I was trying to find ways to save money on Christmas shopping, so I decided to start selling AVON, since there was a good discount for representatives.  Well, shortly thereafter, I decided to go into leadership because I was so impressed with the company and their business opportunity that I wanted to help others start their own business and be successful to. As of the date of this posting I am currently a Unit Leader, working my way up to Advanced Unit Leader. I have 33 people on my team so far. Our District Sales Manager, Laurie Fantozzi, is amazing!!! She is a fantastic leader and role model, and has everything to do with my success thus far. Click here to check out my online AVON store.

I also started Weight Watchers again. I’ve been doing it for about a little over a month now. It’s a huge struggle!!! I’ve only lost 3 pounds so far due to my low thyroid. You can read all about that story here.

I guess that’s it for now. If you’d like to order AVON products or want more information about the AVON opportunity, please visit my personal AVON representative site.

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Our Heart’s Desires

Posted on January 29, 2011 by Mary

I was chatting with a friend on Facebook and she mentioned how she would love to move to Nashville, but that she doesn’t see it happening. I replied with something along the lines of “you never know what can happen, because God may have placed that desire on your heart for a reason”. That thought lead me to thinking about my favorite verse, Psalm 37:4 “Delight in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart”. Many people read that verse and think that all their earthly, fleshly desires will be given them if they “delight” (or abide) in the Lord. However, through many sermons and messages, I’ve come to realize that this scripture means that when we “delight” (or abide) in God, our desires are actually God’s desires for our lives. In other words, even though you have desires you think are yours, when you’re truly abiding in God, then He laid those desires on your heart, probably for a purpose He has in store for our lives.

So the next time you have a desire come upon your heart, don’t dismiss it as a fleshly thought or unattainable dream. If you’re abiding in God, I truly believe he placed it there for a reason. It may not be for this moment, or this season, but it definitely is there to fulfill His purpose for your life. Pray about it, seek God further on it, and continue to abide in Him. And if He didn’t place that desire on your heart, it will probably go away in a very short time.

What are some dreams or desires you’ve had that you thought were impossible but upon waiting and praying came to pass?

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Determined to be Disciplined in 2011

Posted on December 27, 2010 by Mary

One of my friends set that as her status on Facebook. I saw it and decided I wanted that to be my motto for 2011 as well. You see, being disciplined, and staying disciplined, is one of the biggest areas I struggle with. I get side tracked easily and if I don’t see results right away, I tend to stop doing whatever it was I was working on, whether it’s budgeting, dieting, business ventures, and even spending time with God. Yes, I admit, I’m not very disciplined at spending time with God each day.

So, for 2011, I really want to be more disciplined! I really want it, so therefore I have to be determined to be disciplined. According to Dictionary.com the definition of determined is:

  1. resolute; staunch
  2. decided; settled; resolved

And synonyms of determined are:

  1. inflexible; unfaltering; unwavering

Therefore if I’m determined to be disciplined, then I will be disciplined. Does that make sense? I also looked up disciplined and while there are several definitions for disciplined, the one that fit the best in this context is:

  1. activity, exercise, or a regimen that develops or improves a skill; training

Therefore, in order to be disciplined, I need to incorporate activities, exercises and regimens that will help develop and improve the areas I want and need to improve upon. And those are:

Alone time with God:

  1. Set aside 15 minutes a day, each day to get alone with God in prayer and thanksgiving.
  2. Start out each day with prayer and thanksgiving to God
  3. End each day with prayer and thanksgiving to God
  4. Build up to at least 1 hour a day, but not stopping there

Losing Weight and Exercise:

  1. Praying about joining Weight Watchers again (is it financially smart?) I know it works, but I don’t know if we can realistically fit it in our budget. I’ve tried losing weight on my own, but obviously it’s not working.
  2. Setting aside 1/2 hour every day for exercise. I have several DVD’s I can work out too right in my own living room.
  3. Determining to stick to it. I start out strong, but then fizzle out after a few weeks. (Figuring out why I do this)

Budgeting:

  1. Jeff and I have been doing Dave Ramsey’s Total Money Makeover and it’s a great program. Still tweaking the budget so we don’t run out of money before the next pay period and so that we can get our emergency fund built up and save money for other necessities…like new vehicles (not brand new, but new to us).
  2. Tithing: Malachi 3:10 says, “Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the lord Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it.” Jeff and I tithe, but I have let the tithe slip now and then when it seemed impossible to make ends meet. I’m not going to do this any longer. We will bring the whole tithe into the storehouse and test God to see if he will not throw open the floodgates of heaven!

Business:

  1. Praying about my business ventures: Full Blog Support, AVON and as the church secretary.
  2. Right now I have a writer for Full Blog Support, but thinking I should get back to doing all the writing myself, due to our financial situation. This of course requires more time. Or should I spend my time building my business and getting more writing projects, which will bring in more money. Hmmm, that sounds like the wisest way to go.
  3. As far as AVON goes, I love the product and love the discount I get on it, but honestly I don’t think I have enough time to really pursue building it as a business. Will pray about it though.
  4. And as the church secretary, I’m working part time, 15 hours a week is what I get paid for, but I really do LOVE it the most and feel it’s what I’m called to do! I’m praying that God blesses our church so much that they need me more (and can pay me more). It’s looking promising :)

For 2011, I’m Determined to be Disciplined! It’s not a resolution; it’s determination!

Posted in Everyday Life, Faith, Family, Money Management, Weight Loss | 2 Comments

What I’ve Been Up To

Posted on December 8, 2010 by Mary

It’s been so long since I’ve posted here, or anywhere for that matter. I’ve been super busy with so many other things, here’s an update of what I’ve been up to the last few months.

As you know, my oldest daughter gave birth to her 3rd child, a boy, on October 2. It was quite an exciting birth, as she had him in the mini-van on the way to the hospital. You can read all about that here. So, I’ve been busy enjoying spending time with them.

Secondly, I’ve been busy with the Chosen Conferences. This fall, the conferences were held in Sault Sainte Marie Ontario, Detroit, and Gaylord, MI. We have another one coming up in February in Grand Rapids, MI, so I’ve been gearing up for that.

Another big change in my life is that I am now the secretary for our church, Life Church. It’s a part time job for now, and I truly enjoy it. I think it’s my calling. I work 2 to 3 days a week, but it’s enough to keep me pretty busy. I usually end up spending 4 days a week at the office due to working on Chosen stuff.

And the newest thing I’ve been working on is building my AVON business! Yes, I am now an AVON representative! It’s pretty exciting! I’ve already got my first recruit and I have an appointment to sign up my second one on Friday :) AVON has great products at very reasonable prices, and I love their online ordering system. AVON is a pretty easy product to sell, as most people know about it and most have bought AVON at one time or another. If you would like to check out their products or are interested in starting your own business, click here.

Then of course Christmas is coming up…which is another reason I started selling AVON. Not only will the extra income come in handy, but because I get a discount on products as a representative, Christmas shopping will be much easier.

We got our tree up the other day. We went to a tree farm and picked one out that is nice and full. We did have a heck of a time getting it to stand up…it kept wanting to fall over, so we attached some fishing line to the wall behind it…you can’t even tell :)

As you can see, I’ve been pretty busy! But it’s all a good busy and I wouldn’t change it for the world.

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Losing Weight, Budgeting and Resisting Temptation

Posted on November 15, 2010 by Mary

What do losing weight, budgeting and resisting temptation all have in common? They all require Discipline!!! Why am I thinking about them all right now? Because I’m trying to lose weight, have been budgeting for about 3 months now and we were talking to our youth group about sin and temptation recently. Last week at youth group, one of the students asked, “Why is it so difficult not to sin?” Or maybe it was more like, “Why is sin so fun?” I answered it with something along these lines:

It’s just like dieting: It takes discipline to eat healthy, make time for exercise, and to resist things that aren’t good for you and that will make you gain weight. It’s easy to eat whatever I want whenever I want and to not think about it. However, it takes a lot more effort on my part to eat things that are good for me and not-s0-fattening, and to actually think about what I eat. Same with budgeting: it’s easier to get paid and just blow the money on whatever I want, but it takes discipline to sit down each month and to plan where to spend the money and actually stick to only spending it on pre-designated things. But in the long run, there are rewards for your efforts. With dieting the rewards are: longer life, feeling good about yourself, looking better and feeling better. With budgeting the rewards are: not stressing out whether you’re going to have enough money to make it to the next paycheck, paying down debt so you can live debt free life, knowing where your money goes, being in control of your money instead of it controlling you, saving for emergencies, and having true financial peace and security.

You can look at sin the same way: sure, it’s easier to give into your temptations and sin may even appear to be more fun. But, there are many, many rewards for not giving into sin and temptation. For instance, if you remain pure until marriage, you don’t run the risk of pregnancy outside of marriage or an STD. If you don’t indulge in drunkeness, you don’t run the risk of drunk driving, DUI’s, or becoming an alcoholic. If you resist lying, you don’t run the risk of getting caught in a lie or being mis-trusted. I could go on and on, but I think you get the gist of it.

What are your thoughts? What areas in life do you find it most difficult to discipline yourself in?

Posted in Everyday Life, Faith, Money Management, Weight Loss | Leave a comment

Budgeting Progess

Posted on November 5, 2010 by Mary

We’ve been budgeting going on 3 months now, and I must say it’s getting better and easier. The first 2 months were a huge adjustment, and I continually tweak it, but it is going pretty well. There were a couple of weeks that we came really close to running out of money for gas, but I’ve figured out just about what we spend between the truck and the car for the two week period, so I know how much to put in our ‘gas’ envelope.

Now our biggest issue is figuring out places where we can cut back so we can get our $1000 emergency fund saved. The only problem is, is that we have to get new tires on the car ASAP because winter is upon us and the tires on the car are BALD. I’m going to try to budget new tires in this pay period.

I find it’s easier to budget every two weeks than it is monthly. I think it’s just the way my brain works. I might eventually be able to get to where I budget on a monthly basis, but the way I’m doing it now works…it’s best to stick with what works.

We also need a new PC for the house. The one we have is going on 10 years old and has issues. With Brandon taking Photoshop and web development classes, it would be nice for him to have a decent computer at home. Plus, it would be nice for Jeff to have something to go to as well. The local computer store has a couple of really nice PC’s for $150. They’re like new, refurbished Dell’s. It doesn’t include the monitor, keyboard or mouse, but you can get those pretty inexpensively now too.

Other things on our prayer list are new vehicles. We are paying off the van that got totaled which will be paid off in March, then the truck, but it won’t be paid off until October, 2011.  The Camry had 234,000 miles on it and is dying a slow death. It has an oil leak, but Praise God it still runs pretty good. The air conditioner doesn’t work any more and it’s possible the heater core is going out because it doesn’t seem to get as warm as it should. The truck is all banged up on the outside, but the engine seems to be in good shape. But, it’s a gas hog. As much as we drive back and forth to Gaylord to work and to church, it would be nice to have 2 vehicles which get good gas mileage…plus that just makes more sense. But, we can’t sell the truck and get what we owe out of it…so we will just have to keep plugging along, and keep praying that God holds them both together for us until they are paid off. We can always hope and pray for a miracle too, because God does do that sometimes too :)

Anyway, that’s the update for now. Just wanted to throw my thoughts and prayers out there. How are you doing budgeting? Do you have any tips, tricks or suggestions?

Posted in Everyday Life, Money Management | Leave a comment