Scents for the Holidays from Mrs. Meyer's and Grove Collaborative

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It's that time of year again: the holidays!

I'm not a fan of that term, honestly, because I'd much rather say "Merry Christmas" or "Happy Thanksgiving" instead of "happy holidays," but it does mean "holy days" which is what this season is really all about.

Once again, it's also time for Mrs. Meyer's seasonal scents from Grove Collaborative! These limited-time fall and winter scents are my favorite, especially the Orange Clove.

(This less-than-professional photo comes to you with love from my very own kitchen counter. :) )

The smell makes me so happy! It's fresh and clean and lingers pleasantly on my hands after I wash them or do dishes, but it's not overpowering. The other seasonal scents are Iowa Pine-- which smells just like a Christmas tree-- and Peppermint, which is so perfect for this time of year.

One thing I've noticed lately is that my hands don't get as dry when I'm using Mrs. Meyer's products, compared to using other brands. During the fall and winter my hands get painfully dry to the point where they sometimes even crack and bleed, but it's not nearly as bad when they're not exposed to harsh chemicals. Mrs. Meyer's products contain aloe, essential oils, and other good-for-you ingredients, which is just another reason I love them. And if your hands need a little more protection, Grove just came out with their own beautiful dishwashing gloves! I just added some to my next shipment and I'm looking forward to using them.

Now you can experience the magic of Mrs. Meyer’s for free with this Holiday Set from my friends at Grove Collaborative.

When you place your first order of $20 using my link, you'll get:

• Free Holiday Mrs. Meyer’s hand soap
• Free Holiday Mrs. Meyer’s dish soap
• Free Holiday Mrs. Meyer’s multi surface spray
• Free Grove seasonal kitchen towel
• Free Shipping & 60 Day VIP Trial

Existing customers will get a free set of Grove walnut scrubber sponges (click here). They make tackling holiday pots and pans so much easier!

This Grove kitchen towel is so nice to use, too. It's perfect for streamlining a busy kitchen, since you can use it to dry dishes, drape it over bread dough while it's rising, and even grab hot cookie sheets out of the oven. It also works like a charm with Mrs. Meyer's multi-surface spray for cleaning up messes on the stove or counter.

Using Grove Collaborative helps relieve stress over the holidays by eliminating the need to run to the store for cleaners, paper products, diapers, and a lot of other things! Schedule your shipments to arrive exactly when you need them, and enjoy more time at home with your family and less time going to the store. Plus, with your free VIP trial, you'll get totally free shipping for the next two months which will carry you into the new year!

Once you submit your first Grove order using my link, you'll also be signed up for the free 60 day VIP trial. For 60 days, you'll save even more with free shipping, free gifts, price matching, exclusive sales and personal service — perfect if you're trying to stretch your holiday budget! 

I should warn you that last year, Mrs. Meyer's seasonal scents sold out quickly. This offer is only available through Sunday, November 19, 2017, or until the sets are gone, so don't miss out! Here's how it works:

1. Sign up for Grove Collaborative here. You will receive the Holiday Set for free when you sign up!
2. To receive this offer, your order needs to be a minimum of $20. Choose the combination of products and scents you love and receive your first box within a few days.
3. You made it! Click Finish & Pay and place your order.

I hope you love Grove Collaborative-- and Mrs. Meyer's-- as much as I do!

Land of the free?

My family often visits "America's Fourth of July City" for Independence Day and we did this year as well. This place goes all-out for the Fourth.  There are dozens of craft booths, a food alley, carnival rides, historical presentations, concerts, and of course, fireworks--at least two major displays during the week of the Fourth, plus fireworks, firecrackers, and all other manner of explosives going off all over town.

This town knows how to celebrate.

But I wonder--what are we really celebrating?  Are we celebrating our freedom to purchase and light off firecrackers?  Our freedom to overeat and drink too much?

Twice today I saw veterans recognized for their service.  They know what we're celebrating.  They served this country, fought in wars, and know people who gave their lives so that the freedoms our forefathers won could be enjoyed by us today.

We have freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of religion.

But in the name of "tolerance," we've lost the freedom to tell anyone they're wrong.  The citizens of our country are losing jobs to people who aren't citizens, but are given almost all the benefits that a citizen deserves.  It's okay for our country to give weapons to rebels in other countries, but it's frowned upon for an ordinary citizen on our shores to carry a weapon to protect himself and his family.  Anyone can believe in whatever religion/god they want, but try to tell them there's only one God and they've got the wrong one and you'll be shushed.  We have to tolerate everyone, but our beliefs aren't tolerated by anyone.  By calling it a "choice" we've legalized the murder of hundreds of thousands of unborn children who didn't deserve to die.

Are these the "freedoms" that thousands of men and women gave their lives to protect?

Is this really freedom at all?

I love this country, but it makes me sad to see some things that are happening in it.  I'm thankful that I live here, but this isn't the America that it was when Thomas Jefferson did most of the writing of the Declaration of Independence.

So today, I'm thanking God for the freedoms I have, and praying that he blesses this country despite its faults and failures (just as he blesses me despite my sinfulness).

I'm most thankful for the freedom I have in Christ: freedom from sin, freedom from the power of Satan, and freedom from death itself.

I'm free from guilt.  Jesus has destroyed that on the cross.

I'm free from fear.  Satan is vanquished: I have nothing to fear.

I'm free from condemnation.  Jesus took the punishment I deserve and gave me his perfect holiness.

That is freedom that no government, no country, no person can take away.

"Jesus said, 'If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples.  Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." John 8:31-32

"For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and the glory of the children of God." Romans 8:20-21

Faith and Freedom

from last year's Fourth

Jesus replied, "I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin.  Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever.  So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed." -John 8: 34-36

That freedom is what means the most to me.  Jesus Christ, by his life, death, and resurrection, has set me free forever from my slavery to sin.  As a result, I am now a child of my heavenly Father, and I have the promise of eternal life.

This freedom is one that will never be taken from me.  It will never be altered by human laws.  It will never change based on human whim.  It will never have conditions placed upon it.  It is mine, given to me by God, and I can trust that completely.

I live in a country where we treasure our freedoms.  We have fought hard and many have died to keep those freedoms we hold dear.  A day is coming when we won't have all those freedoms that so many worked so hard to earn and keep.  These human freedoms are the kind that won't always be guaranteed.  They are freedoms we may have to fight, once again, to have.  These are not freedoms I trust.

I am thankful for them.  They help make my life what it is.  God has used the laws of this country for good, and he will continue to do so.  Today I celebrate all the good that America is.

But I will never forget the perfection that is my God.

Lift every voice and sing

Till earth and heaven ring,

Ring with the harmonies of liberty.

Let our rejoicing rise

High as the listening skies,

Let it resound loud as the rolling sea.

Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us;

Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us;

Facing the rising sun

Of our new day begun,

Let us march on till victory is won.

-"Lift Every Voice and Sing," stanza 1, James Weldon Johnson

Thankful Thursday: Christmas Edition!

Christmas has kind of sneaked up on me this year.  I mean, I'm "prepared," so to speak, in terms of material things.  But spiritually, I really want to get more in the mindset of the real reason why we're celebrating in these next few days.  I think it's time to spend more time in the Word getting to know the Word, who in coming to earth became flesh to dwell among humankind.

That's one thing I'm incredibly thankful for today, and always.  Other blessings this week:
-Good food!  I've been baking up a storm, with Ruth and by myself.  Unfortunately (or perhaps it is fortunately!) a batch of cookies seems to only last about a day around here, especially considering how much we've been hanging out with Ruth and Joe this week.  But that's okay; we're enjoying them which is why I made cookies in the first place!  (Peanut butter "blossoms," sugar cookie cutouts, and gingerbread men were the treats I made this year!)

-More good food: baked beans, rice pudding and salad for supper.  The beans and rice didn't turn out quite how I hoped, but Joshua pronounced both "delicious." :)

-Our friends, as always.  It's been like having an older sister the last few days while Ruth hung out with us during Joseph's work hours.

-Sleep.  We've been getting a lot more sleep than usual which is awesome!

-Extra time with my husband.  Both of us have been cherishing all this alone time, just us, at home.  He is more precious to me every single day.

-Financial provision.  God has provided in some pretty cool ways.  We are so well taken care of.

-The anticipation of my family coming to visit in four days!!!  I am so excited I can hardly stand it.

-A sprinkling of snow on the ground this morning.  (Looks like it will be a mostly green Christmas, however.)

-Laughter.  Oh, how much we've been laughing lately.  It's so lovely to be so relaxed and content!


God is so, very, good.

linking up with Julia, as always!

late nights and Advent wonder

This last week or so I've had more of them than usual.  Oddly enough, it's twelve thirty and I'm not remotely sleepy.  I'm also in denial about the fact that I have to be up at seven for work.  Eh, six and a half hours, no problem.  I'll get to sleep in on Friday. :)

The main reasons I've been up so late are homework, and...oh.  Homework.  Yeah, that's it.  Mostly it's self-inflicted (coughprocrastinationcough) but I'm pretty okay with that.  Honestly, if I didn't have to get up as early as I do tomorrow I'd just stay up and write my very last paper and be done with it.  I might have been able to anyway if I hadn't spent so much time playing dumb games on facebook  chatting with my husband who was playing a computer game  procrastinating.  Ugh.

Anyway, being up this late tonight makes me wonder...it's Advent.  Eleven days before the birth of Jesus, was Mary sitting up, looking out her window, wondering what the future held?  A young, very pregnant girl, probably about to set out on the trip from Nazareth to Bethlehem.  What was she feeling?  Fear?  Excitement?  Anticipation?  Nervousness?  All of the above?

Was she feeling hope?  She knew that the baby in her was conceived by the Holy Spirit.

She was carrying, inside her body, God made Man.

Did she feel wonder?  Awe?  Amazement?

Hope?

Some days I fret, not knowing what the future will hold.  I mean, yes, tomorrow I'm getting up and going to work and coming home and going back to work.  We'll celebrate Christmas soon, the next semester will start, in a year and a half we'll finish college.

But will we?  We have no idea what will happen between now and then.  I don't even know what's going to occur in the next hour, the next minute.

But I have hope.  Because although my future might not be certain to me, it's certain to God--that God-made-flesh who was born from Mary, born in a stable, born into a sinful, dark world.

It's still a sinful world.  But Christ, the Light, was born into it, and now a Light shines in the darkness.

There is hope for the future, because that Light has already been there.  God knows what will happen tomorrow, next week, next year.  Nothing will happen in my life without his knowing about it.

And everything that happens to me, God will work for good.

Did Mary know that?  Did she know how eternity-changing her Son's birth would be?  Did she know, anticipating the pains of childbirth, that her baby would experience hell-- for her?  For the world?

I do.  I know what that baby experienced when he became a man.

He did it for me.

Proud to Be an American

I really am proud to call America my home.  I know that this country has made a lot of mistakes in the 135 years since its birth.  For decades slavery was part of our way of life and business.  Our leaders have made decisions that have had serious negative consequences.  Some leaders haven't been honest with those they were called to serve, or made decisions that most people didn't want them to make.

But we as a country have so much to be proud of!  We abolished slavery and have worked to fight against it in other countries.  We have fought hard for our freedoms--and won.  We have had incredible presidents and other government leaders who have done so much good for this country and its people.  Citizens of our country have made discoveries and invented things that have benefited people all over the world.  We were founded on Christian principles and although that's not as easy to see anymore, we still have freedom of religion in the United States like few other countries do.

We have been so blessed as a country, despite doing things as a country that are in blatant opposition to God's Word.  He has continued to be gracious and faithful to our nation as a whole.

On this day, I celebrate the fact that I was born in America and have grown up blessed by so many freedoms.  I thank God for those men and women, including some friends of mine, who have sacrificed in order to protect those freedoms and protect the people of our country.  I thank God for the blessings he has showered upon our nation.

And, today, I am remembering past Independence Days...there are so many memories connected with this holiday for me.  :)  It would take another post to consider them all (and I might just do that later).  This day has much meaning for me, and I'm ready to make new memories!

Fourth of July- Modeling! :)

I was (almost) a "Fourth of July Baby"--born on July 3.  I've always loved the holiday.  I love being American, being outside, fresh summer food, being with family and friends, and fireworks!!  I also really like how I look in the color combination of red, white and blue.  My lovely friend Bethie gave me some fashion tips last semester, and this outfit is inspired by some of those ideas.  My kitchen happens to be painted blue and the table is in the living room at the moment because we had a guest for dinner.  I just set the camera on the counter! :)  My favorite picture is the second.

Shorts-cutoffs from an old pair of jeans I got at Kohl's in about seventh grade.  (Seven or eight years ago!)
White top- actually a skirt pulled up to make a tube top, from Old Navy!
Red button-up sleeveless blouse- Sonoma.  Got it at a second-hand shop years ago.  :)

So here's me having fun. :D