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  • Rosie Posie….Bucket of Worms?

    Rosie Posie….Bucket of Worms?

    Today my 3rd Princess…Princess R…turned 3 years old. She acts a whole lot older with her clear vocabulary, and very grown up facial expressions. She can give a stink eye like none other, and she never gives up when she wants something badly.

    Awhile ago, I must have said this to her, but I called out one day “Rosie…Posie”, and she responded in a sly little voice “Bucket of Worms…*giggle giggle*”

    The truth: she is my bucket of worms – my squishy, sometimes gross, fish catching bucket of worms.

    Dear Princess R,

    You have always loved the camera, but don’t always feel like smiling for it. These days you prefer to smile and run away from the camera in hopes I’ll chase you down with it. 

    In your first year and a half of life you were prone to enjoy odd places, and loved getting into the most trouble you could find

    That eye wound gave me a good fright, but all turned out well.

    In your second year, you were determined to become one of the big girls, and refused to let your sisters leave you behind. Although sometimes that was difficult since they are closer in age, for the most part I get to witness beautiful moments of sisterly love. 

     
    Shortly after you turned 2 you were no longer my baby, but became a big sister.  You stepped up to the plate, and showed me that you knew how to be a big sister. But you continued to be my bucket of worms as I recently watched you use brother as your horse but also made sure to share your applesauce when he was hungry.

      Happy Birthday Princess.  I can’t wait to see what the coming years will bring as you continue to shine with your very unique personality.  Come fall it will just be you, Prince L and I at home. I have adventures planned for the 3 of us!

    I love you baby girl!

    Love, Mom.

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    Princess R’s only request for her birthday was an M&M cake. I was happy to oblige, but learned something in the process.
    Don’t mix the M&M’s into the batter. The will sink to the bottom, and stick to the pan. Of course cupcake liners would have worked just fine, I didn’t use those either. Next time I’ll try topping the batter with M&M’s just before cooking.
    
    
  • Family – Friends – It’s About Love

    Family – Friends – It’s About Love

    I was on top of things this week. I had a daily schedule of all the posts I wanted to put up, information, and fun photos I wanted to share with you.

    Then Monday happened. my facebook newsfeed was flooded with “Prayers for Boston” and “Thinking of those in Boston”.

    I panicked. My brother is in Boston. What was going on?  One friend posted a link to a live newsfeed, and I was sucked in. Organizing my craft room would have to wait, I was stunned, shocked, and overcome with emotions. Was my brother there? Was he ok? I can’t believe someone would do this. Those poor families. What about the rest of the racers? Legs lost? I might just lose it.

    But I couldn’t. Not with my kids needing my attention still, school pick up still had to happen. Life was going on. And my phone wasn’t working. The second Mark came home, he began calling my family to see if anyone had heard from my brother.  Thankfully there had been an email sent to my parents saying he was ok. He had been in Boston, but they decided to leave about an hour before it happened. I was finally able to let the flood of tears come as Mark held me. He was ok. It was too close, though. Even closer, and sadder for many others. My heart broke for them, and the sadness they must be feeling.

    Suddenly, talking about home buying didn’t seem as important today. Neither did gardening. Instead, I want to talk about love. Rather, I want to show you about love.

     

    There are so many things that show love.  Through our everyday actions with our families and friends, to the bigger actions of serving strangers in times of need.

    My college roommate once told me – “I like hugs. All kinds. A friend let me borrow some pants once, and it was like wearing a hug all day long.”

    What hugs are you giving out? I think right now, we could all feel a little better with some big group hugs, Don’t you?

    Give Boston some Hugs
    Monetary donations directly helping victims of the bombing can be sent to
     
    Stay up to date with how you can help by following #BostonHelp on twitter.
  • Simplifying Birthday Parties {Think About It}

    Simplifying Birthday Parties {Think About It}

    My kids are obsessed with birthdays. It’s probably a topic discussed at least once a day in our house. I’m not entirely sure why the fixation on this topic. I would love to say it’s because of how we celebrate.  After I posted about my daughters Jake and The Neverland Pirates party, I had a bloggy friend comment that she loved how simple we made birthdays, and didn’t go overboard.

    So of course, her comment, doubled with my kids talking daily about who they’re inviting and what the cake should look like for birthdays months in advance, it got me thinking. And you all know how I love to think!

    Think About It! 
     
    You don’t need to go into debt to celebrate a birthday. You don’t need to have food for an army (unless you invited an army).  You don’t even need to pay big bucks for a location.  Your kid will have more fun, remember the special day longer, and most importantly feel loved on their special day if you keep it simple.
     
     
    Money.  You really truly do not need to go into debt for your kids birthdays.  I will admit here, with our first child’s first birthday, we went WAY overboard. Looking back, I think boy we could have spent our money wiser with her. She won’t remember it at all.  As your child gets older, they won’t know how much you spent, unless you make it into a big deal as some sort of manipulation. So save some money. Keep the decorations to a minimum, or home make them. Bake the cake from scratch, or pick up a premade from a bakery.
    Think About It!
    Unless you’re a terrible cook, a homemade cake is made with love, and can even get the child involved spending time with mom. Take my son’s cake we made this last weekend. It was so simple, and extremely cheap. We spent a couple dollars on one of those new Duncan Hines flavor creations (caramel) because we were in a time crunch and my homemade frosting was an EPIC fail! Another dollar for the Happy Birthday decorations, and voila – simple easy cake! (In case you were wondering the theme it was for our son Lincoln’s first – hence the penny for 1 President Lincoln). We used a salad serving spoon to create the bumpy penny edge. Nothing fancy, tools we already had on hand, and cheap cheap cheap!
     
     
    Presents. Who has ever bought their child an expensive toy only to have it break a week later, or be forgotten about in place of a cardboard box?  I’m not saying give your child a cardboard box (though I know mine would love that!), but really think about the presents worth before shelling out all your money.  I also suggest, that if you invite friends and family to the birthday party, you let them know a gift is not expected – just their presence.
    Think About It!
    I don’t like my friends feeling like we just want a present out of them. All we really want is to spend time making memories while celebrating their life. Presents are fun and nice, and I’m sure the kids really love them, but is it what they remember?  There are very very few presents I was given that I still remember.  I do remember the memories from the day though. Having my BFF over to play just because it was my birthday.  Having all my friends and their mothers over for a mother daughter night because I turned into a young women and was no longer a little girl.
     
    Food.  Have you ever had leftovers because you weren’t sure how much dinner your family would eat?  Have you ever had leftovers from a party because you made too much salad, bought too many hot dogs, or filled your freezer with ice cream? 
    Think About It!
    Food at a birthday party should be the simplest part. If you plan a party around lunch or dinner, you’ll want to have enough, but don’t go overboard. Finger foods like a veggie/fruit tray and sandwiches are perfect for small children’s birthdays. Just do your friends a favor and find out if there are any allergies. You’d hate to only have PB&J’s for a kid with a peanut allergy.  Another of our favorite birthday foods is a $5 pizza from Little Caesers, and a bag of salad.
     
    
     
    Games.  Make and create your own games!  I remember my parents throwing me a Carnival party for my 8th birthday. It was the most friends I had ever had over at one time. My dad painted a bean bag toss on a piece of cardboard. We had a “fishing pond” made from sheets.  And then a bucket full of water balloons and squirt guns. Simple, easy and cheap. It was by far the best birthday I ever remember, that probably cost my parents next to nothing to put together.
    When we celebrated Princess C’s birthday, Mark put together a treasure hunt. Using a paint program on the computer he mapped out our yard, and placed X’s where all the clues were. We didn’t need a fancy one time expensive Disney themed map, when we could make our own. You don’t either!
     
    Think About It!
     
    Traditions. Finally my favorite way to simplify and truly celebrate our children’s birthdays are by carrying on traditions. Things like singing the Happy Birthday song are fun, and do make it special – but have you ever changed it up some?  You know like they do at restaurants?  I recall many birthdays laughing as my dad sang us this version

    Oh Happy Birthday. Oh Happy Birthday. There is Sadness in the Air, People Dying Everywhere, but Happy Birthday. Oh Happy Birthday.

    Albeit maybe a little morbid, and depressing.  I don’t currently sing this song to my kids, but I still have fond memories of my dad singing and everyone joining in.

    Another family tradition, that I know Mark just loves, and I have carried on to my kids is one where we all get to whack the birthday person on the head after singing this catchy tune

    Heavy Heavy Hangover, thy poor head. What I wish for you is a Bump on the head.  – Followed with a nice Bump on the head with their present. This is then repeated with each successive present.

    Finally, my last and most treasured tradition is our Birthday Dinner. For our birthday, we would get to pick out a restaurant – any restaurant – and go out with just Mom and Dad (no siblings!) for dinner. The quality time spent with my parents was priceless time not often found with 5 siblings. My parents made sure to carve out that time at least once a year for the individual child. I now very much enjoy taking my own kids out one at a time, to focus on them and the things they like. Talking about their life, listening to them tell us whatever is on their mind, and enjoying ourselves. This is a tradition I would encourage all parents to start. Your children will appreciate it the rest of their lives.

    
    What do you do to simplify birthdays?
     
    

  • Budget Friendly Recipes #takeyourplace

    Today I am joining over 200 other Food Bloggers to spread awareness for Hunger in America.  
    Have you ever gone hungry?
    I have. I’m not saying I’ve gone days/months at a time, but as poor college students with little mouths to feed, I would periodically skip a meal to stretch our budget and make sure the kids got something healthy.
    Any mother would do it. Feed their kids before themselves. We have a responsibility to our children to take care of their basic needs – food, shelter and safety. 
    I was/am lucky though. I have family that always knew when we were hitting an especially rough month. They never took completely over, but they often stepped in to help until we could get back on our feet. Whether it was making sure we had enough money for food, or giving us a place to live.  
    Beyond our own family, we also belong to a wonderful church (learn more at www.lds.org).  Our church believes strongly in Christ’s teaching of feeding the hungry and clothing the naked. They also believe in building yourself up, and standing on your own feet. Across the nation our what we call Bishop’s Storehouse, with basic foods and toiletries. Once your local Bishop has determined how much help you need, they send an order for those things. All they ask in return is that you offer service in some way for payment. Some areas have financial classes to help get you back on your feet as well. It truly is a wonderful program.
    Other programs, like WIC and SNAP are also wonderful resources for struggling families. I have personal experience with both, and can say how grateful I am for a program that kept my kids eating when we were struggling financially.   
    How can we be self-sufficient to avoid going hungry?
    Another principle my church teaches is Food Storage. They have recommended that each family work towards having a 1 year supply of food stored. You never know when a hard time will hit – job loss, sudden medical bills, natural disasters. 
    Since food is one of our very basic needs, we need to make sure we can provide that during the difficult times. We are slowly building up our food storage, but I can already tell you, we have used it many times.  Last year when we had a sudden change in jobs, we were jobless for a few months. Since we didn’t know where we would end up, or how our income would change, we began eating our food storage to stretch out the budget, and put some money aside for later. It truly helped us out. 
    Grow a Garden.   Growing your own food is the ultimate way to be self sufficient. Not only that, but a single packet of tomato seeds can cost under $2, but you will get upwards of 20 or more tomato plants from that. That is a lot of money saved!  You can then make your own spaghetti sauce, salsa, canned tomatoes for stews, and even eat them fresh. $2 and one small packet. 
    All these ideas are fine and dandy if you aren’t already in the midst of going hungry.  For those currently struggling to put food on the table, here are some budget friendly recipes.  These are all recipes I go to when money is tight. The flour tortillas and maple syrup, especially save my family a lot of money, while still providing something good to eat.
    Creamy Potato Cauliflower Soup (can easily be adapted for tight budgets)
    Chili (can easily be adapted for tight budgets)

    How You Can Help!

    I can’t imagine the mothers who constantly go hungry so their kids can eat, or the kids that are going hungry because everyone else is too.  It breaks my heart thinking about it. I’m sure it does yours too.

    Write a letter to Congress and tell them you support No Kid Hungry, and preserving government programs such as WIC and SNAP.

    I also encourage you to go see the film A Place At the Table: One Nation, Under Fed.  There is a problem in this country, and it needs to be addressed.

    For more bloggers participating in this campaign with budget friendly recipes, visit The Giving Table and look under the sidebar.
  • Movie Night with DreamWorks and a Giveaway

    Movie Night with DreamWorks and a Giveaway

    I mentioned back in this post, about how I should get Mother of the Year Award. I mean seriously, 3 themed parties in one weekend? It was like a miracle around here!

    We had some leftover Root Beer and Cookies & Cream Ice Cream from Princess C’s party, so I started by whipping up some Root Beer Floats. Then I remembered seeing these licorice straws on my friend Kristin’s blog – Pinning With Purpose. So I snipped off the ends of licorice and popped them in with the floats. My kids are big on straws, so I knew they would be a hit.  The Cookies & Cream ice cream went over pretty well with the root beer – a fun variation to your normal vanilla.

    While I was putting together the floats, I had a bag of popcorn going in the microwave. We normally use our air popper, but sometimes a good old microwave bag is the way to go. I was aiming for quick and easy, but fun. Once that was ready, I served it up in our new movie reel tin (now decorating our movie shelf).  And what would conclude a movie night, better than a box of Swedish Fish?

    I put our snacks on my handy bed tray, and carried it down to our entertainment room (aka toy room).  Mark had the kids down there cleaning so we could enjoy our night without the mess. Once I made an appearance though, the cleaning stopped and the fun began!

    Oh, would you like to know what we watched? 

    Right now, until March 15th, in specially marked boxes of Big G cereal you can collect 4 DreamWorks Sampler DVD’s.  We were planning on watching all 4, but some tantrums ensued, and bedtime approached faster than we anticipated so we started with a family favorite – How To Train Your Dragon – and saved the rest for later.

    The Sampler DVDs contain 1-2 full spin off episodes from the popular movies How To Train Your Dragon, Kung Fu Panda, Shrek, and Madagascar. Each DVD also contains a sneak peek into DreamWorks new movie The Croods – coming to theaters March 22nd.

    Giveaway Time!
    It’s been awhile since I’ve had a giveaway for you. DreamWorks and General Mills would like to send one of my readers a Movie Night. What it includes
    – All 4 DVD Samplers
    – Movie Reel snack tin
    – The Croods: movie novelization
    – The Croods: Grub’s Survival Book
    This giveaway is only open to residents of the US
    All entries will be verified
    Enter using the Rafflecopter

    a Rafflecopter giveaway

    *I received some of the products mentioned here for free from DreamWorks and General Mills through MyBlogSpark. All opinions are my own.

    
  • Party Party Party

    Party Party Party

    We had 3…count them…3 themed parties last week!  That’s about 3 more than I normally have in a year. I think I need Mother of the Year Award now.

    It all started with Valentines Day. I put together a fun Alice In Wonderland Fondue party for the family.

     
    On Saturday, our second child, Princess C turned 5.  Although we don’t go all out on parties for our kids every year, we do let them pick a theme for the cake. She chose Jake and the Neverland Pirates, so I made an Izzy cake. It was a hit, and I’d dare say my best decorating yet.

     Finally on Sunday night we decided to have a family Movie Night and watch the new DVD Samplers from Dream Works and Big G cereal (giveaway later this week!)

    It was all so much fun, but I’m feeling a little partied out now. On top of all that, we also started our bathroom remodel. Sometimes I think we must be crazy. 
    Now don’t despair, I plan on posting about each of these themed parties in the coming days, so you can have as much fun as we did! I’ve got printables, tutorials, and a giveaway!!

    To calm things down however, I’m planning a very simple menu this week.

    Monday – Pasta
    Tuesday – Potato Casserole
    Wednesday – Chili
    Thursday – Spinach Quiche
    Friday – homemade pizza
    Saturday – leftovers
    Sunday – Taco night

    This post is linked up at Organizing Junkie’s Menu Plan Monday
     
  • Rearranging Furniture

    Rearranging Furniture

    If you came around facebook yesterday, you may have seen that I decided to rearrange our furniture. See we….Mark…decided to buy a massively huge desk from some friends. I mean this thing is big! We brought it home, and just tossed it in the family room while we decided where to put it.

    After spending the weekend ignoring it, and using it to pile random bits of stuff on, I knew we needed to make a decision. Mark told me to go ahead and rearrange and he’d be surprised when he came home from work. Surprise surprise! He normally likes a bigger part in these decisions. I was excited to get started, but also knew it was going to take the whole day.

    I thought about taking this picture after I did a general clean up but decided I would feel better seeing exactly how much cleaning and rearranging I did from start to finish. So, here was my challenge – pick up toys, and rearrange literally every piece of furniture in our family room.

    FYI – that’s 17 boxes full of books behind the chair in the corner. Boosh! Moved them all downstairs to the storage room. One of these days we’ll get some bookshelves again.
    Oh, and the desk holding the computer here, yeah it went to the basement as well. I did it, me, by my lonesome. Talk about some muscle building! And score one for me – no holes in the walls, and no broken bones!

    Is the suspense killing you yet? Did you spot the new desk? Up there on the left – that thing weighs a ton, but not nearly as much as the piano hiding behind the chalkboard….

    Alright alright, check it out!

    So what do you think? I personally am loving it! The immense space I have at the desk is just divine. I feel like I can actually work here now.

    Don’t you all worry now, I did wait for Mark to help move the piano. Well, alright I tried to move it on my own, but I couldn’t budge it. So much heavier than the desk.

  • Plan a Successful Family Reunion {Guest Post}

    My mom’s side of the family has a reunion every 4 years. I always loved getting together with my extended family and more so now that I’m older with kids. With my brother living across the country, we are hoping to start planning our own reunions with my siblings and parents soon.  I was excited when Melissa asked me if she could guest post on Planning Family Reunions.

    With that intro, here’s Melisa

    Six Steps to Take When Planning a Perfect Family Reunion This Year

    Family reunions are an exciting and excellent way to keep in touch with your extended family. Family members can enjoy each other’s company, meet the newest members of the family, and catch up on each other’s lives. Planning a family reunion involves careful preparation to make sure everyone enjoys themselves to the fullest and to avoid any family drama. Here are six steps that you can take to make planning your reunion stress and problem free.

    Confirm Who Will be Attending

    The most important step is to confirm who is interested and will be attending the reunion. It is important to have a number of family members attending for all of the next steps. This might be difficult since most people won’t know if they’re free until there’s a set date, but at least get a lose number for how many are coming.

    Set the Time, Date, and Location

    This is a fun step to take, finding a location is number one. Local parks will most likely allow you to host for free, just call up your city and make sure that permits are taken care of, if needed. After the location is set, the time, and date are next, and everyone can have a say in these. You want everyone to be able to come, so everyone needs to be flexible and considerate. Ask everyone to vote through an email or choose the mode that fits most family members. Once you have this set, you can make the invitations, and you can purchase them online, print, and mail invitations or send evites if you have a tech-savvy family.

    Choose a Theme

    You want to give your party a theme so you can decorate, dress-up, or purchase items accordingly. Some popular themes for family reunions include, Hawaiian luau, black & white, vintage, 80’s style, and bright colors. Just take weather when choosing a theme, you don’t want everyone to be miserable if the temperature dips down, and everyone’s in shorts.

    Delegate Work

    It is impossible to do all the planning and work yourself, so once you have the basics set, start delegating responsibilities to other family members that are willing to help. You can assign the food, decorations, party favors, and confirmation calls to different volunteers.

    Place Your Orders

    Make sure everything that you will need is ordered and purchased, you can go online and look for party favors to give away at the reunion. Some popular favors are personalized rubber band bracelets, or a small bag of cookies, or customized t-shirts. If you want everyone to contribute to the cost of the reunion, you should start crunching numbers and sending everyone an email on what amount they will have to pay to attend.

    Confirm and Make Checklists

    You want to confirm attendance with everyone at least one week prior to the event to make sure there are no last minute changes. Make checklists of things that you need to take with you the day of the reunion to ensure that you have everything you need on that day.

    Author Bio
    This article was written by Melisa on behalf of Reminderband.com. Please visit their website for the contact info for Reminderband, for more information on placing orders.

  • Till Death Do We Part? {Think About It}

    Till Death Do We Part? {Think About It}

    It’s a phrase we’ve all heard.

    Till Death Do We Part

    The question I pose today, though, is how often do we truly commit to that promise? In these days, how many couples stay married until death parts them?  
    It seems to me, that more and more, the words should be rephrased “Till I’m sick of picking up your socks” or “Till I’m bored, and want a change of life.”
    Think about it.
    How many people do you know have been through a divorce, have divorced parents, perhaps you’re divorce yourself?

    When the Exception becomes the Norm

    “Mawage. Mawage is what bwings us togeffer today” ~Princess Bride
    I’m sure you’ve all seen it, but let me recap. Buttercup has been forced to marry the Prince. She doesn’t love him though, she loves Wesley, but believes he is dead.  After the ceremony, Buttercup is alone in her chamber and begins to take a knife to her chest. It is better she be dead than married. When suddenly there is Wesley. Buttercup than suffers a conflict – she’s married, but her love is actually alive. She could just run off with Wesley, but she doesn’t. That is until Wesley shows her she isn’t married, because she never said “I Do”.
    Alright, this might be a confusing, and complicated example, bare with me here. 
    Marriage and the act of marrying someone meant a commitment. At least until death. Now I’m not saying opt for suicide over divorce, please don’t read into it that much! What I’m saying is Buttercup was married, and she knew the commitment that she made (but didn’t really). 
    I ask, when did the exceptions for divorce – unfaithfulness, abuse – turn into a normal occurrence? We divorce because “we fell out of love” or “she/he isn’t the same person”. When did marriage become easy? 
    Think about it!

    For Time and All Eternity 

    In the LDS faith, in our temples, we don’t marry until death. Instead the words “For time and all eternity” are used. We truly believe that we will be married beyond death. Connecting our families past, present and future generations. 

    Does that mean it’s easy? No! I want to be very honest with you here. Mark and I have had our share of struggles. A few years ago, the word Divorce came up. I think the mere mention of that word sent Mark and I into a little shock. It’s something neither of us had ever considered, so having it crop up so easily in a time of marital strife, was a shocker. 
    We chose to change. He had things to work on, and so did I.  I couldn’t hold a grudge and analyze his every action waiting for him to mess up. I had to trust that he would change, and work on my own problems, and hope that he trusted me enough to change as well. 
    We love each other, and we love our kids. We weren’t going to take our promise to love each other for eternity lightly. We wanted to make our marriage work. For each other, and for our kids. 
    Think about it.

    How does Marriage effect Home life?

    It does, doesn’t it? Otherwise, why do we bother with marriage? Why do same sex couples push so hard to have legal marriages? 
    There must be something we find important in a legal and binding marriage.  Otherwise, wouldn’t we all just live with whoever, whenever, having babies as they come?
    Here are my thoughts. Of course, they are faith based as well. I believe marriage is something ordained of God. I believe the family is central to our eternal lives. What is life without love? What would an eternity without our loved ones be like?  

    My top priority is to raise my kids in a loving home. If I wasn’t married I feel an important aspect of love would be missing for my kids. As we sacrifice for our spouses, our kids see that. They may not understand it as an act of love in their young ages, but one day they will. Did you see how we just bought a dog? I am really not a dog person, or any animal for that matter (though chickens I think would be fun…). I often found many excuses for us to not buy a dog. I always justified them with “one day. I promise”. Well that day came. I had to let go of my own reservation and feelings, because deep down, I knew it would make Mark happy (the kids too). And you know what, I wanted Mark to be happy. Turns out we got a pretty good dog, I’m in love with him already.
    What does divorce teach our kids? 
    What does marriage teach them?
    Think about it!
    (Feel free to grab this printable! Right click and save)


    I’d love to hear your thoughts. Let’s have an open discussion below. 
    Note: I am not suggesting suicide in place of divorce. I am not suggesting you stay in an abusive marriage. If you are being abused, I urge you to seek help. A marriage takes work from both parties, and there truly is only so much one person can give.


  • The Living Room by Bill Rolfe {Book Review}

    The Living Room by Bill Rolfe {Book Review}

    The Living Room

    The Living Room

    by Bill Rolfe
     
    About the Book:  Daniel Clay has good looks, money, and a rising career as a New York investment advisor. Meanwhile, his personal life is barren of love and family. But when a distant relative dies and leaves him a house in England, Daniel embarks on a life-changing journey—toward love and his soul’s awakening.

    He meets and falls in love with Claire, a children’s palliative care nurse. With her help, he opens his home and heart to comfort young patients in their final days. As Claire tends to the children in a beautiful glassed-in room overlooking the sea, Daniel prays for miracles. Just when his prayers are answered, a mysterious illness strikes him down and relentlessly drains away his life. With no hope for a cure, Daniel holds fast to a deep secret that he can never reveal. And now, he needs a miracle of his own.

     
     
    About the Author: 

    Late on night back in July 2002, I fell asleep and had a dream. It was unlike
    any dream I had before or since. It was like watching an extended movie, and it
    ended with instructions for me in the rolling credits. I awoke in shock and
    glanced at the clock next to my bed, only to discover what seemed like hours of
    sleep had only been a few minutes. I got up, sat at my desk, and spent the rest
    of the night writing everything down. Never having written anything before, I
    took the next few weeks to follow the instructions from the dream – share the
    story in a novel. After a few months of being inspired by the story, but at the
    same time feeling overwhelmed with the project, I put it away. However, I
    couldn’t forget it. Now, after more than nine years of struggling with the
    process and battling against my own self-doubt, I’m ready to share the story.
    “The Living Room” was my dream. Bill Rolfe

     
    My Thoughts:  I cried. What a touching book. I was not prepared for The Living Room and the emotions it would stir up. Bill Rolfe has taken a dream he had, and turned it into an emotional story of faith, love and the importance of family first that will touch every heart, and perhaps remind this busy world what truly matters. 
     
    To be honest thinking of this book today, after so many children were thoughtlessly killed over the weekend, I can’t help but feel it’s message is even more important. Hold to your families. Let their love hold you up and carry you through. Working parents, hold your children a little tighter. You never know when something could pull them from you. Don’t get so caught up in the work life that you don’t have time for home life. When you make home life a priority, the rest will work itself out.
     
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