Asking Forgiveness

I think it is important for children to see our personal walks with the Lord reflected in our daily lives. If we have struggles that are appropriate to share with them we can ask them to help us by reminding us. It also goes for when we fail - especially in front of or towards them. I think it is important to ask their forgiveness and explain what we did wrong, why it wasn't pleasing to the Lord and what we should have done. I usually go through these steps with my children when they have sinned. I asked them what they did wrong, why it wasn't pleasing to the Lord (using scripture, usually) and what they should have done instead. I often help them with the "correct" answers, but provide time for them to reply with their own ideas first. Anyway, if I've lost my temper, or been disrespectful to their Daddy or something else, not only does the offended person deserve an apology, but I try to apologize to the children for my bad example and explain everything to them. This, I hope, will be an example for them in the future to be able to apply to themselves without my needed intervention.

Coupon Savings

Well, I decided to give a little tip for this year's Christmas gift giving. It does have to do with coupons, but it's not what you think. I'm taking this in a different direction.

Since being married to Seth and him being the one and only bread winner in this family I have always felt silly buying him gifts because it is all his money anyway! Christmas would roll around and I would not have gotten him anything. I would just tell him to please feel free to splurge and get yourself something you really want. Don't feel guilt spending the extra money, yada yada yada. Seth could care less about gifts, so I don't think it really offended him, but now that we've been married over 6 years I feel a lot more confident in gift buying - both with purchasing and with the purchase it's self. However, some years are tighter than others and this is something I did one year when I still didn't feel the liberty to just spend his money on gifts for him.

I created a hand made coupon book. No, not those kinds of coupons! I made about 15 different "freebies" for him to use up as he liked. It ranged anywhere from a free hot drink or a full body massage (given by myself, of course!) You can make it as practical and/or as sensual as you want (or rather, as he'd like:). I also added two blank coupons for something he might fancy that I hadn't thought of. Some more ideas are as follows:

running an errand for him when it isn't convenient for him
a personal dance performed for him
a free evening guaranteed without distractions (steal his cell phone and keep kids from calling on him)
a kiss
a dinner menu consisting of only his requests

You get the idea. This costs nothing and yet will be something special and will require love and sacrifice to pull some of them off. I told him these coupons meant he could use them whenever he wanted and I had to "redeem" the coupon immediately. I could not put it off and say I'd do it in 5 minutes or whenever convenient. They had to be performed when he desired it. I think he really enjoyed it. I might even do it again this year, despite the fact that we're not as financially tight as we have been in previous years...:)