Foster2Forever

by

On Being a Christian Working Mom

24! It’s the same for everyone. 24 hours is what each of us have in each day. But to us mothers that work outside the home – it just isn’t enough!

At one time I was a stay at home mom (SAHM) & even homeschooled my teenage stepson. Although we struggled financially, our home life was very satisfying. Homeschooling did keep me quite busy, but I could multi-task my home duties at the same time. Dinner was ready when my wonderful husband came home on most days. It was a peaceful homelife.

However, my struggles with infertility & an incredible career opportunity, made me realize that God wanted to change my focus for a while. The move and the new job were exhilarating, but the desire to have a child still left an emptiness.

Eight months later, an 8-month-old foster baby was delivered to us one evening. Stinkpot’s arrival was a blessing that totally overwhelmed my life. It took a solid 6 weeks before I didn’t feel incredibly frazzled. It was then that I began to think about leaving a career I enjoyed to stay home again, however, because he was a foster child, we didn’t know how long he would be with us. We delayed any decisions until we knew he was ours.

We adopted Stinkpot in August 2009. Our life with a 2-year-old, although hectic, was managable. However, a week & a half before the adoption, we were brought a 2-year-old foster girl. We only had thought our life was hectic before then!!!

Since then, I struggle each day as I try to get 2 two-year-olds off to daycare, prepare dinner, keep the household together, get everyone (including myself) ready for bed & the next day. All the while, wondering, “Lord, am I a good parent? My time with my children is so short – Am I short-changing them?”

I know that there are other Christian working moms struggling as I do & I plan to use this blog as an outlet to possibly reach other Christian working moms that struggle with the same issues. Hopefully, we can support & encourage one another.

by

TAKING OUT & GETTING AWAY

I’ll start today’s blog with a quote. I love this quote by Jay Leno:

‘With hurricanes, tornados, fires out of control, mud slides, flooding, severe thunderstorms tearing up the country from one end to another, and with the threat of bird flu and terrorist attacks, are we sure this is a good time to take God out of the Pledge of Allegiance?’

As a country, we’ve become so intent on taking God out of everything – which right now would be the worst thing to do. We now need God more than ever.

I have been blessed this week reading the devotions of Proverbs 31 Ministries. So down to earth & so relevent! Lysa’s blog today was the best!

I haven’t had a chance to do much scrapbooking lately – being the working mom of 2 two-year-olds – but was so thrilled that Shutterfly has announced a quicker way to create a photobook with a program called Simple Path. The best thing of all is that the photobooks are on sale for 20% off until October 14th! YEAH!

This weekend, our family is going camping for the first time since spring. We are renting a cabin on the lake (easier to “camp” when you are in a bed). I’m hoping to take advantage of getting away from it all, but with the “dueling toddlers” – we’ll just have to see how the relaxation thing will work out.

by

WE ADOPTED OUR FOSTER BOY

I have been SO busy that I am JUST now posting about the most important thing in my life! (Nearly 2 months late!) We finally adopted 2-year-old Stinkpot on August 12th!! Isn’t he the most handsome boy you’ve seen???

Our life was CRAZY preparing for our celebration. The week before we were brought a cute 2-year-old little girl we call Blondie & I only thought life was hectic before that. She is 1 month younger than Stinkpot & just as competitive for attention. WOW! It has been draining, yet exhilarating too.

I am spending so much time trying to balance attention to both children to make each one feel special & LOVED!! But the sibling rivalry is the worst.

Please pray for our family during this transition. Oh, and please post any advice….

by

Yes! You CAN get a computer virus from your jump drive!

I now have the “autorun.inf” virus on all 3 of our computers that was spread via a jump drive. I’m still trying to ensure that it has been completely disabled. I’ve done some research & here are some of the best tips in making sure a virus doesn’t get from your jump drive into your computer.

#1 – DISABLE THE AUTOPLAY FUNCTION ON YOUR COMPUTER!
I learned how to do this on Windows Vista through the “Autoplay” button in your computer’s Control Panel by reading an article written by the How To Geek found here!

Here’s an excerpt:

Disable for just Removable (flash) Drives

The problem here is that while there are settings for Audio CDs and DVDs, there’s nothing specifically for USB flash drives. Windows will determine the drive type based on the content it finds on the flash drive itself, so that’s what we’ll need to change.

In order to disable AutoPlay for the removable drives, you should change all of the following to Take no action: Software and games, Pictures, Video files, Audio files, and Mixed content.

#2 – DON’T OPEN FILES BY DOUBLE CLICKING!!
This virus infects when you double-click the drive to open it.
Instead, use the “Explore” button by right-clicking the start button at the bottom left of your screen. When you find your drive, right-click on it, then press “Open”.

#3 – PREVENT YOUR JUMP DRIVE FROM BEING INFECTED!
This is a pretty handy trick, I read here.

Here’s the nifty part, this is based on a hack from a friend who works for an anti-virus company.

  1. Create a folder on the root of your portable drive.
  2. Rename it as autorun.inf.
  3. Right-click on the folder, and click Properties. Alternatively, select the folder, then go to the File menu, and select Properties. KB shortcut: [Alt]+F, R
  4. Under the General tab, on the Attributes section, check Read-only and Hidden. KB shortcuts: [Alt]+R, and [Alt]+H, respectively

The above instructions would prevent other infected computers from copying an autorun directive to your portable drive. It doesn’t necessarily mean an instance of the malware itself would be prevented from being copied as well. It just protects you from your own muscle memory of instantly double-clicking the drive icon to open the contents, but instead, running the malware to be installed on your clean PC.

I hope that my mis-fortune will prevent you from experiencing this! Please forward this post to your friends! Good luck to you!

by

Adoption News

Howdy!
Stinkpot’s adoption will be final on August 12th – less than a month! I’m still trying to figure out what to do so that I can finalize plans to send out invitations. This week is totally crazy & I’m so ready for the weekend! Tomorrow night, we’ll be attending an adoption match party where we will be meeting area adoption workers to hopefully match us up with children that are up for adoption.

 

by

Just another Manic Monday

Beginning a really busy week, both at work & at home.

This is coming off a worrisome weekend with my 2-year-old foster boy, Stinkpot. He has had so many breathing problems (2 hospitalizations for pneumonia). With the way he was gasping Saturday night, we began steroid medication. He woke up Sunday morning with 101 fever & we really thought “here we go again”, but his fever broke by noon & he has been feeling great since. THANKFUL for answered prayers!

This week is really crazy!

  • Tonight is the final meeting with Stinkpot’s adoption worker before his adoption on August 12th!
  • Wednesday we are stimulating the economy by installing new flooring in our living room -> Goodbye to our income tax refund!
  • Thursday we are off to an adoption fair & then to an evening at a waterpark with our new church family
  • Sunday Bubba, my stepson, leaves for a weeklong camp & getting him ready will take a few days!

One thing that helps with crazy weeks like this is to have meals planned ahead of time. I learned this tip from The New Messies Manual: The Procrastinator’s Guide to Good Housekeeping by Sandra Felton.

Please comment if you have any tips to keep Mondays (& the rest of the week) from being manic

by

Freedom through God’s Grace

During this time of celebrating our freedom, I have been evaluating the freedom I have as a Christian. Sometimes as Christians, we get caught up in everything we can’t do, instead of looking at how we are free through Christ.

Galatians 5:1 states, “Freedom is what we have – Christ has set us free! Stand, then, as free people, and do not allow yourselves to become slaves again.” (Good News Bible)

This freedom the apostle Paul talks about is not a freedom that we had to fight for. Jesus Christ gave us this freedom when he died on the cross 2,000 years ago. When we accept Jesus Christ as our Savior, we are pardoned from sin & not a slave to it any longer!

by

Printing at simplyscrapping.com


I just received my print order from http://www.scrappingsimply.com/ today! What a great resource! The prints are fabulous yet inexpensive. Everyday printing for 12X12 layouts is only $1.99 per page!

I downloaded 21 layout pages (12X12) ~ {downloading took a while} on their website on June 30th. They had a 20% sale so I got my prints for only $1.60! My entire order was only $38.43 for 21 prints!!!

Shipping I thought was quick considering such a great sale before a holiday week ~ they had noted that the processing would take a little longer than usual because of this. The prints are packaged wonderfully in a plastic sleeve & shipped in a cardboard container. Scrapping Simply only charges $5 flat fee for shipping & it cost them over $7 to ship this order.

Also, if your order is over $50, use the coupon code “meredith” to receive free shipping!

I would highly recommending using this company to print your LOs!

by

Allergies, Sore Throats and Viruses

I’ve been suffering through yet ANOTHER bout of allergies this week. I’ve lost count this year on how many times I’ve been going through this. Is it grass I’m allergic to now? Then I’m in big trouble! The coughing & sore throat are so annoying!

But the worst part is that my portable hard drive & now laptop have a virus. It’s so annoying & worrisome.

3 lessons I’ve learned from this:

  1. Always disconnect portable drives using the safely remove hardware button
  2. Don’t have them connected to your computer as it’s booting up or restarting
  3. Don’t procrastinate backing up your data!!!

Of course, #3 is the most important. Hopefully, I won’t lose all my digital pictures from this entire decade because of my procrastination…

I’m Clever

Sway