This month I had the extreme pleasure of reviewing the book Steady Days: A Journey Toward Intentional, Professional Motherhood, by Jamie C. Martin. The quote above is from the beginning of the book, setting the stage for an exploration of what it takes to be a professional mother.

There is one message that rings out strong and clear throughout the entirety of Steady Days and it is this... mothering requires intentionality. To maintain peace and order, we must be purposeful about how we achieve that. To maintain our enthusiasm, we must plan activities and encouragement into our days that inspire us. To capture memories and special moments with our children, we must have a plan for what we will do and how we will remember what we've enjoyed and experienced.

Over and over again, this one thought. To be successful in achieving my goals as a mother, I must be intentional. Purposeful. Prepared. Well-planned. Goal-oriented.

Let's face it. It can be easy to go on auto-pilot as a mom. Sometimes our days are so full and overwhelming that we just go with the flow, without being intentional about how we are spending these precious years with our children.

As a home educating mother, I make more of an effort to be intentional about how I educate my children, what learning resources I expose them to, how many books we read, etc.  And yet, throughout the rest of my day I can sometimes get so focused on other aspects of my roles as mother, wife, homemaker and more that I cease to be purposeful about all the other realms of my mothering.

If you can relate to what I'm saying, I think that you would be blessed by Steady Days. Jamie is encouraging and upbeat, and yet consistently challenging us to consider how we are doing things, what our motivations are, what could be changed, how we could grow as mothers.

Jamie reading to her 3 sweet children

A few other practical things I loved:

• Short, simple chapters. If bite-sized is what you need to make it through a book and really implement its strategies, then you will just love how Jamie has organized Steady Days into 40 short chapters.
• Steady Days Planner. This is Jamie's version of a homemaking binder, and she has so many wonderful suggestions for adding to it. A few that I was particularly inspired by were a Steady Blessings page (for recording our blessings, special moments, thoughts of gratefulness), Special Date Organizer, Shopping Lists, and Children's Goals. Many of the particular pages she discusses and shows throughout the book can actually be found on her website, at http://www.steadydays.com/resources.html.
• Room Time. A clever technique for achieving a bit of quiet time for Mom to get some things done, while each child plays/reads productively in their own space (no more sibling squabbles, at least for 20-30 minutes!). Love it!

Final thoughts: I really enjoyed this book and I know that I will reference it again and again. I love Jamie's encouragement to just implement new things or small changes bit by bit. For moms who are feeling overwhelmed and in need of someone to help you get more organized and intentional in your mothering, Steady Days is for you!

To get to know Jamie a little better and find more tips, strategies and thoughts for bringing steadiness and professionalism to your days, you can find her at her blog, Steady Mom.

Would you like to win a signed copy of Steady Days: A Journey Towards Intentional, Professional Motherhood?

Here's how:

(Please leave each entry as a SEPARATE comment, to ensure that they are all counted. Thanks for making my job easier!)

1. Tell me why you need to read this book, or a goal that you have for your mothering.
2. Visit Jamie's blog, Steady Mom, and leave a comment.
3. Subscribe to Steady Mom.
4. Follow her on twitter, @steadymom.
5. Subscribe to Keeper of the Home.
6. Follow me on twitter, @keeperhome.
7. Post about this giveaway on your own blog, and leave me the url.

Giveaway ends Friday, January 29th at 3:00pm. This giveaway has now finished.

Our Sponsors:

• It Starts at Home: Are we Discipling or Outsourcing the faith of our children? Read It Starts at Home! Then, just nurture them together.
• Moukisac: Your 6 in 1 shopping bag system; compact, stylish, versatile and practical, of course! Made by Canadian mom.
• hope ink: Custom inspirational art for your home
• ListPlanIt: Lists to put your world in order
• Vintage Remedies: Get healthy, naturally
• Just Bumming Around: When only the best cloth diapers (at great prices) will do. FuzziBunz packages on SALE!

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• The Handbook of Vintage Remedies: Review and Giveaway | Keeper of the Home
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• The Last Great Giveaway | Keeper of the Home
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All is well now, and they are working once again! So sorry for the inconvenience to those who tried to purchase a copy!

Our Sponsors:

• It Starts at Home: Are we Discipling or Outsourcing the faith of our children? Read It Starts at Home! Then, just nurture them together.
• Moukisac: Your 6 in 1 shopping bag system; compact, stylish, versatile and practical, of course! Made by Canadian mom.
• hope ink: Custom inspirational art for your home
• ListPlanIt: Lists to put your world in order
• Vintage Remedies: Get healthy, naturally
• Just Bumming Around: When only the best cloth diapers (at great prices) will do. FuzziBunz packages on SALE!

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I found this year to be one of our most meaningful Christmas seasons so far. It has been such a blessing to begin implementing even a few new things into the way that we celebrate the birth of our Savior. Here are some of the things that we did this year:

• Daily Advent devotions through the month of December (we learned about the many names of Jesus)
• Made a "Names of Jesus" Garland with Abbie and Caden
• Made shortbread cookies cut into shapes and symbols that remind of us the significance of Christmas-wreaths (symbols of God's everlasting love), hearts, a little boy (Jesus, who came to earth), stars (like the star over Bethlehem, and also to symbolize Jesus, the bright and morning Star), and the cross (because ultimately that's why He came to earth at all)
• Made star ornaments for the tree, because Abbie particularly liked learning about how Jesus was the bright and morning Star.
• Supported and watched Daddy take part in a beautiful Christmas performance at our church, focusing on the meaning of Christmas, from the manger to the cross.
• Participated in putting together for a Christmas hamper for needy families in the community
• Did a nativity version of an Advent calendar- one new fridge magnet each day (a stable, Mary and Joseph, wise men, sheep, etc.) until Jesus arrives on Christmas day!
• Watched the movie, The Nativity Story, as a family for the second year in a row on Christmas Eve. Our new tradition.
• Gathered on Mommy and Daddy's bed on Christmas morning to pray and thank God for sending Jesus, before opening our stockings together.
• Ate a wonderful breakfast and then Daddy read the Christmas story out loud, before we gathered around the tree to open presents (keeping Jesus first, and presents secondary!)
• Will be celebrating Epiphany tomorrow, Jan. 6th...

Epiphany and the 12 Nights of Christmas

One thing that I learned this year is that the song "The Twelve Days of Christmas" (you know the one... a partridge in a pear tree) is actually referring to the 12 days from the day after Christmas up until January 6th, a holiday known as Epiphany. Epiphany literally means "manifestation" and is a celebration of the fact that God became man and manifested Himself on earth in the form of Jesus, His son.

In the book Celebrate with Joy, Sondra (the author) includes an entire chapter with ideas for celebrating these 12 nights of Christmas. Each night include a Christmas carol to sing, along with activities and a devotion to go along with that carol. She also suggests that this can be an excellent opportunity to complete any Advent activities, special trips or events, gifts to give or ways to serve others, etc. that you had hoped to do before Christmas but were unable to get to.

I felt that this year, I couldn't completely jump in and actually celebrate these 12 nights. Our family really needed some time to just rest, and that meant that Mommy couldn't be working to pull together any more activities, events or devotionals! Instead, I have opted to do something only for the actual day of Epiphany, as a way of starting out small this year. In the book, there is a focus on the wise men during these 12 nights and on their gifts to the Lord. So tomorrow we will take Sondra's suggestions of learning about what each of the gifts (gold, frankincense and myrrh) symbolize, and I will be putting on a treasure hunt for the children, using various decorations, coins, etc. that will look like "treasures" in my little kiddies eyes. After we've found the hidden treasures, we will do a devotional on giving all of our treasure to Jesus!

Some Reflections on Transforming our Family's Celebrations

To be honest, there was more that I had hoped to do. Even what we did still felt a bit minimal over the course of 5 weeks. It's hard to find the time to pull it all together with 3 young children and a busy husband. A few times I felt frustrated that I wasn't doing more or doing all that I had wanted to, but I finally had to rest in what I was able to do and let it be enough.

It takes time and effort to begin to implement these wonderful ideas and traditions in our Christmas celebrations. Though I was keen to do as much as I could, I had to recognize my limitations and accept the season that I am in... a season where each small child needs me so very much, in many different ways, and sometimes Mommy gets stretched too thin because all of the everyday stuff, so that adding in "extras" can be very challenging. I have decided that I need to trust the Lord to help me do what I am reasonably able to do, offering it up to Him as a feeble but hopefully precious gift in His eyes, as we all learn to honor Jesus more and more in our holiday traditions. I pray that He will grant us the ability to continue to build on what has been begun. I trust that He is faithful to reward our acts of obedience, no matter how small, as we learn to transform our celebrations to become more God-glorifying and I believe that over the years we will see the fruit of that obedience!

Preparing for Next Year

Personally, I didn't begin my Advent and Christmas preparations early enough this year. Not until basically the end of November, which is right when we needed to be beginning. Knowing this now in hindsight, I will be prepared to put some effort into my preparations in early November instead, because having a plan will help to ensure that my list of hope-to-do's actually turns into reality!

I spoke with Sondra about it a little while ago, and she said that she thinks January is actually the perfect time to begin thinking about next year. Perhaps this year didn't go the way that you hoped it would, or you were quite disappointed by the Christmas season and its lack of meaning, its busyness, etc. Or maybe this year was a more special year that drew your family closer to the Lord as you began to focus your celebrations and traditions more on Him, and you've been inspired to add even more meaning to next year's holiday season. Either way, now is the time to begin thinking and preparing for next year, while it's still fresh in our minds and hearts.

This is the last opportunity to purchase Celebrate with Joy from Keeper of the Home. It is available for $24.95 US (including shipping) and you can read more about the contents of the book in this previous post.

As well, Sondra has a number of copies that have become slightly damaged in storage, that she is willing to sell at a discount. The types of damage include small scratches or scuffs to the cover, slightly damaged corners, etc. They are completely readable and usable, just not in perfect selling condition any longer. These books are being sold for $19.95 US including shipping.

(Use this button for discounted copies, and the button above for regular condition copies)

As the holiday season winds down, what are your reflections on how it went? What new traditions did your family add? What added special meaning and purpose to your celebrations? What would you like to change for next year?

Our Sponsors:

• It Starts at Home: Are we Discipling or Outsourcing the faith of our children? Read It Starts at Home! Then, just nurture them together.
• Moukisac: Your 6 in 1 shopping bag system; compact, stylish, versatile and practical, of course! Made by Canadian mom.
• hope ink: Custom inspirational art for your home
• ListPlanIt: Lists to put your world in order
• Vintage Remedies: Get healthy, naturally
• Just Bumming Around: When only the best cloth diapers (at great prices) will do. FuzziBunz packages on SALE!

More from Keeper of the Home

• Celebrate with Joy: Week 1 | Keeper of the Home
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• Christmas Traditions- the Jesse Tree | Keeper of the Home
• Happy New Year (and it’s great to be blogging again)! | Keeper of the Home

Image by goodcatmum

There's something about the New Year that offers such a fresh start. It always feel to me like a perfect time to make some changes, try something new, or set some goals for myself.

I love that I'm not alone in this. Whether we like to call them "resolutions" or not, most of us choose some areas which we'd like to focus on as we complete one year and move into the next. For some of us, it's to become more organized (and if so, you should definitely stick around here this month!). For others, it's to get up earlier each morning and make exercise and time spent with the Lord a regular part of their day. For many, it's health-related changes, whether that means getting rid of not-so-great foods, improving nutrition with better foods, learning new cooking skills, eliminating toxins in the home, or switching to more organics or natural products.

I definitely have a few goals of my own. The upcoming organization series on my blog is certainly not happening because I'm already an expert in that area! I can use all the help and motivation I can get!

What are your goals for the New Year? Do better nutrition and more natural and sustainable living sound like things you aspire to this coming year?

My book, Healthy Homemaking: One Step at a Time was actually written to take you through a one-year journey towards those very things! Though it can always be used, no matter what time of the year that you choose to start, the new year offers a perfect opportunity to begin taking a series of small, purposeful baby steps towards your goals in these areas.

There are 26 simple and very do-able steps included, with a plan to work through the entire book in one year (2 weeks per step). Steps include everything from finding sources for better quality foods (dairy, meats, eggs, produce), for eliminating processed foods from your diet, for switching over to non-toxic beauty and cleaning products, for learning to cook nutritious foods in even more nourishing ways, for "greening" your home and habits, and much more.

Want to learn a little more about what Health Homemaking: One Step at a Time is all about?

To make it easier for you to get started, and because I know that January is often a crunched-budget month after Christmas, I decided to offer a one-week Happy New Year Sale on the book! From now until this Sunday night, you can purchase Healthy Homemaking in two different ways:

As an ebook. Regular price $8.95 Sale price $6.95

As a paperback book. Regular price $18.95 Sale price $14.95 (plus shipping)

What about you? What are your goals and plans for the New Year?

Our Sponsors:

• It Starts at Home: Are we Discipling or Outsourcing the faith of our children? Read It Starts at Home! Then, just nurture them together.
• Moukisac: Your 6 in 1 shopping bag system; compact, stylish, versatile and practical, of course! Made by Canadian mom.
• hope ink: Custom inspirational art for your home
• ListPlanIt: Lists to put your world in order
• Vintage Remedies: Get healthy, naturally
• Just Bumming Around: When only the best cloth diapers (at great prices) will do. FuzziBunz packages on SALE!

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(And if you're wondering what book I'm talking about, you can read more about my upcoming book here!)

Ryan and I have gone through the names and added in some of our own. We've narrowed it down to 7 potential titles. Just so you know, some of these were your suggestions, but slightly tweaked (but if the basic idea was yours, you'll still get the credit and the prize). Some of the titles don't have a subtitle yet, but will most likely have one added and we just aren't sure what works with them right now. We may combine elements from more than one potential title (then there would be two winners!). We may also decide on something completely different in the end, simply because this is ultimately about the right name for the book, and not so much about the contest.

All that said, your feedback really does matter to us, because you are exactly the type of women that I wrote this book for! If the title doesn't appeal to you, then it's not the right title!

A few things to consider when you're voting for your favorite book title: Would you buy a book with this name? Which name would draw you to this book? Which one can you most relate to? Which one seems to meet a need that you have?

Though I want a great sounding name, more than that I want a name that communicates what the book is really about and the value that it offers. I want it to appeal to the people who would most benefit from reading it. Catchy is nice, but connecting with my market is much more important!

I am so appreciative of your feedback! Thanks for taking this simple poll!

And if you have any thoughts or suggestions on how these titles could be improved, I'd love to hear those in the comments!

Our Sponsors:

• It Starts at Home: Are we Discipling or Outsourcing the faith of our children? Read It Starts at Home! Then, just nurture them together.
• Moukisac: Your 6 in 1 shopping bag system; compact, stylish, versatile and practical, of course! Made by Canadian mom.
• hope ink: Custom inspirational art for your home
• ListPlanIt: Lists to put your world in order
• Vintage Remedies: Get healthy, naturally
• Just Bumming Around: When only the best cloth diapers (at great prices) will do. FuzziBunz packages on SALE!

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Coupon code is: mailship1

It's good for US shipping only, and the coupon will last only today (Monday, Dec.7).

Click here to buy now

Additionally, if you miss the shipping discount today, you can use the coupon code "humbug" throughout the month of December to receive 10% off the cost of the book (regular $18.95). Only one promo code per purchase, so use this code only if the shipping code has expired.

(And don't forget... tomorrow is the Healthy Holiday Eats and Sweets Carnival, so get your recipes ready!!!)

Our Sponsors:

• It Starts at Home: Are we Discipling or Outsourcing the faith of our children? Read It Starts at Home! Then, just nurture them together.
• Moukisac: Your 6 in 1 shopping bag system; compact, stylish, versatile and practical, of course! Made by Canadian mom.
• hope ink: Custom inspirational art for your home
• ListPlanIt: Lists to put your world in order
• Vintage Remedies: Get healthy, naturally
• Just Bumming Around: When only the best cloth diapers (at great prices) will do. FuzziBunz packages on SALE!

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Julie (9julesa5@)

Congrats! For all those still wanting one either for yourself or to give as a Christmas gift, you can purchase them directly from the Moukisac site.

Also, don't forget that the Healthy Holiday Eats and Sweets Carnival is approaching quickly! It is this upcoming Tuesday, Dec. 8th (though I will do my best to have the carnival post up by the Monday evening for the early birds). We're looking for healthy, whole foods recipes for all sorts of holiday occasions-- baked goods, special beverages (I'll be sharing amazing homemade egg nog!), Christmas dinner dishes, homemade edible gifts, breakfast casseroles, etc. As long as it's real food and something you love to eat during the holidays, you can use it! Older posts are also fine, so dig through your archives for previous but delicious recipes you've shared. I'm so looking forward to this event and the more the merrier, so spread the word!

If you haven't yet, you can still purchase a copy of Celebrate with Joy: Transform Your Christmas Season! I know for a fact that a shipment will be going out tomorrow, so if you'd like to receive it early in the month, be sure to get your order in by tonight (Wednesday).

And if you're feeling creative, why don't you add a name suggestion or two for my upcoming book? I'll leave the comments open for entries through til the end of the weekend.

One last thing: Are you still searching to earn Swagbucks? I bring it up because everyday this month, a different gift card is going "on sale" (can be bought with less swagbucks than usual). For example, today the $5 Paypal gift card can be bought for 55 bucks, instead of the usual 70. If you're new to this whole swagbucks concept, you can read more about it here. Personally, we've been really thrilled with swagbucks and actually used them to purchase the bulk of our Christmas presents this year (though you need to know that as a referrer, I earn a lot of extra swagbucks, so this accounts for why I can buy so much with them). Nonetheless, I still use my swag search every day to earn extra bucks, and we put them towards things like Amazon gift cards. It really does add up!

Our Sponsors:

• It Starts at Home: Are we Discipling or Outsourcing the faith of our children? Read It Starts at Home! Then, just nurture them together.
• Moukisac: Your 6 in 1 shopping bag system; compact, stylish, versatile and practical, of course! Made by Canadian mom.
• hope ink: Custom inspirational art for your home
• ListPlanIt: Lists to put your world in order
• Vintage Remedies: Get healthy, naturally
• Just Bumming Around: When only the best cloth diapers (at great prices) will do. FuzziBunz packages on SALE!

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Image by iprole

My new book is coming, oh yes it is!

Since this summer, I have been working on what I feel is a timely book on the topic of eating a whole foods, real food diet, but doing it frugally. If that sounds like a contradiction to you, it's not. The premise of this book is that you really can feed your family a healthy, nutritious diet even when you're working within a tight budget, and throughout the book I set out to show you various ways to do exactly that!

Current chapters include:

• Establishing and working within a grocery budget
• Finding resources for buying high-quality, nourishing, whole foods
• Using meal planning to lower prices and improve nutrition (and keep mama sane!)
• Shopping locally and seasonally- as well as preserving your own foods
• Cooking from scratch (with lots of ideas on how to make it easier and find the time to do it!)
• Buying in bulk (where, how, using it to your advantage, storing it)
• Eating nutrient dense foods to maximize nutrition while minimizing cost
• Growing your own food
• Analyzing the value of couponing, and ways to incorporate it on things that you actually buy
• Getting creative with unique ways to source out food for cheap
• Lots of general tips on money-saving ideas in the kitchen!

Sound good? I'm actually amazed at how much I feel that I've been learning through the process of writing it myself and have been so encouraged with ways to stretch our own budget and continue to buy even higher quality foods than before!

The goal is to have the book published and available for purchase (both ebook and paperback) by sometime in January! But for that to happen...

I need a title!

(You might have figured out by now that although I can write day in and day out, coming up with titles is not my favorite part of the writing process! I run a naming contest for practically everything, LOL!)

At the moment, the book has been going by the working title of "Good Frugal Food". I know you can do better than that, ladies!

Please, indulge and entertain me with your creative title suggestions. Leave as many as you like! I will narrow them down to my favorites next week and run a poll where you can vote for your top picks.

And the winner? She will be among the first to receive a copy of the book in paperback!

Ready, set, blow me away with your suggestions.

Our Sponsors:

• It Starts at Home: Are we Discipling or Outsourcing the faith of our children? Read It Starts at Home! Then, just nurture them together.
• Moukisac: Your 6 in 1 shopping bag system; compact, stylish, versatile and practical, of course! Made by Canadian mom.
• hope ink: Custom inspirational art for your home
• ListPlanIt: Lists to put your world in order
• Vintage Remedies: Get healthy, naturally
• Just Bumming Around: When only the best cloth diapers (at great prices) will do. FuzziBunz packages on SALE!

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Image by ishane

What is Christmas? It is not a winter festival. It is not the inevitable annual energy drain. It is not a few holidays to give us a break. It is not a time to fill our children's heads with "visions of sugar plums."

Christmas is a season of holy days (the original meanings of "holidays"), filled with rich symbolism. It is a many sided object lesson using the Symbols of the Season to give us glimpses of heaven's glory. It is a time to fill our children's heads with "visions of God's incomparable Gift." Christmas is profound truth wrapped in plain packages.

What are some of these profound truths? Eternity in an infant. Heaven's bridge in a baby. The God-man in a manger. Every man's hope wrapped in homespun handiwork. Enough material for a lifetime of meditation.

These are some of the opening thoughts in the book Celebrate with Joy: Transform Your Christmas Season by my dear friend, Sondra Burnett. Many years ago, when her girls were still young (her four lovely, homeschooled daughters are now grown) she had a vision to write a book that would encourage and equip families to transform their Christmas from a time of frazzled (and often meaningless) activity into a time of meditation, family togetherness, special memories and most of all, growing in understanding of and love for the magnificent God who came to earth to become a sacrifice for all.

This year, I have decided to use Sondra's book in order to learn some unique ways to teach our children about the meaning of Christmas, and to help our family to celebrate Christmas in a deeper and richer way than ever before! Each Tuesday for the next 5 weeks, I will be sharing something from the book that I have gleaned or that we are doing as a family. For those who would love to have a resource like this for your own family, I will also be selling copies of Sondra's book (more on that in a minute).

Chapter 2: Advent... With Your Family

This chapter is just brimming with different ways to celebrate the season of Advent, which typically lasts from Nov.30 until Dec.24 (some traditions begin it slightly earlier). Sondra notes that "Advent preparations put our Christmas celebrations into proper perspective. Observing Advent causes us to take the time to spiritually prepare ourselves and grow into the joy of Christmas."

Here are a few of her ideas:

Image by Collin Anderson

Advent Wreath- The wreath is a popular and familiar symbol of advent, with 4 candles to be lit throughout the 4 weeks of advent. It is meant to give us a focal point and to be used during times of worship and adoration. Many churches include an advent wreath in their service or somewhere at the front of the church, and having one in your own home is a wonderful way to make advent more tangible. Wreaths are traditionally made of evergreens, with 3 purple candles and 1 pink candle (though you can use any color you like). However, there are many different options- a decorated styrofoam wreath, an artificial evergreen wreath, even a bread dough wreath, or you could simple make your own with fresh evergreen boughs. I have a wreath made up of small branches of wood, woven together. I am going to decorate it with sprigs of evergreen and put candle holders in its center. A large candle can also be placed in the center to light on Christmas day.

Advent Devotions

There are so many possible variations, but here are a few that Sondra offers:

1) Use your Advent wreath with the traditional 4 candles, and each week, have a special family devotional time where you light one additional candle per week (1 the first week, 2 the second week, and so on).

2) If you are starting late or the month has become busier than intended, you can use the wreath each day for 7 days, during the week that precedes Christmas.To use this variation, you might like to use 7 candles instead of the traditional 4.

3) Another option is to use 24 candles (you may not want to use a wreath, but perhaps set up your 24 candles in a larger display that includes your wreath, perhaps on a side table or the top of a piano). As you follow a daily advent devotion for 24 days, you can light 1 new candle each day. You could also include your nativity scene in a display like this.

Celebrate with Joy includes a wide variety of Advent month devotionals to choose from:

• 4 slightly longer family devotions for use with your wreath, to be done each Sunday leading up until Christmas
• Advent activities: a traveling advent calendar (for those who will be on holidays for much of the time), an advent chain (a paper link chain that is hung up somewhere prominent, and each day you remove one link to show that Christ's birth is approaching), advent chain memory verses (writing one memory verse and decorating each link on the chain), using an advent calendar (that you open daily) as a way to remember to pray for some specific people during this season, making an advent scrapbook or spiritual journal, etc... so many unique ways to add to this special time!
• Advent daily devotions. There are two different plans included, each of which has 24 devotions: 1) Names of Jesus and 2) Symbols of the Season. Short and simple, these offer verses to read, questions to discuss, objects for an object lesson, or an activity to do.

Personally, instead of the Jesse Tree that we did last year, we are going to try something different and instead use the Names of Jesus daily devotional, which includes a few verses and a simple object lesson. I am going to create a Names of Jesus Garland with the names from the devotional, and we can add a new name to our garland each day.

For those looking for some devotionals to begin with their family right away, here are a few links to some that I have found online (and please note that I have not been able to go through each one and check for sound doctrine, so be discerning as you select one!):

• Over @ Kitchen Stewardship, Katie is putting up an Advent Daily Dose, which will be "a very short reflection, encouragement, lesson or challenge for you to read every weekday of Advent." As well, her first daily dose included a couple of links to Jesse Tree devotionals available (free) online.
• Last year I posted on doing a Jesse Tree, and in the post I linked to where you can purchase a wonderful ebook of devotions as well as simple paper ornament cutouts.
• Family Jesse Tree Devotions @ Reformed Church in America website

Better yet, you can purchase Sondra's book, Celebrate with Joy: Transform Your Christmas Season for only $24.95 US including shipping!

Celebrate with Joy is a 192-page spiral bound book that includes:

• Advent resources, as discussed above
• Symbols of the Season- their meanings, how to use them
• A look at Christmas traditions- their value, ones worth keeping, how we can plan to establish unique family traditions
• Gala Gatherings- meaningful Christmas parties and get-togethers, including ideas for evangelism as well
• Grateful Giving and Gifts From the Heart
• The Twelve Nights of Christmas- celebrating from December 25-January 6 (a lesser known Christian holiday called Epiphany)
• More Than Just Recipes

Books can be purchased through my site only, and will be sent directly to you as quickly as we can get them out so that you can still use them for as much of the Christmas season as possible! Supplies are limited, so if you'd like to get one, make sure to place your order quickly.

How will your family be celebrating Advent? Any other creative wreath ideas?

Our Sponsors:

• It Starts at Home: Are we Discipling or Outsourcing the faith of our children? Read It Starts at Home! Then, just nurture them together.
• Moukisac: Your 6 in 1 shopping bag system; compact, stylish, versatile and practical, of course! Made by Canadian mom.
• hope ink: Custom inspirational art for your home
• ListPlanIt: Lists to put your world in order
• Vintage Remedies: Get healthy, naturally
• Just Bumming Around: When only the best cloth diapers (at great prices) will do. FuzziBunz packages on SALE!

More from Keeper of the Home

• Celebrate with Joy: Week 2 | Keeper of the Home
• Celebrate with Joy: Week 3 | Keeper of the Home
• Celebrate with Joy: Epiphany and Reflections on Transforming our Christmas Celebrations | Keeper of the Home
• Frugality with Food, Revisited- Part 1 | Keeper of the Home

In the midst of preparing for baking day and then spending all day yesterday actually doing it, guess who completely forgot that it was supposed to be the Organic Gardening Carnival today? Oh wait, that would be me!

Because I always prefer to give everyone a heads up about an upcoming carnival the day before it actually happens (just to give you time to prepare your own post if you're participating), I decided late last night not to run the carnival today. Instead, I took this morning to sleep in (much needed!) and enjoy a sweet and leisurely family time over breakfast (fancy scrambled eggs, sprouted grain toast and OJ- yummy!).

So consider this your one day reminder that the carnival is coming up! Tomorrow, to be exact! In fact, I'll likely have it up by later tonight, for any early birds who want to get their posts up first.

Can't remember what the Organic Gardening Carnival is all about? See this post.

In other news...

Tomorrow will be a busy day for me, because not only am I running the carnival but I will be participating in the first every Real Food Twitter Party! Thursday night from 9-11 pm EST (that's 6-8 pm for us Westcoasters) you will find myself, as well as many other fabulous nourishing bloggers (Cheeseslave, Kelly the Kitchen Kop, Naturally Knocked Up, Kitchen Stewardship, etc.) discussing (what else?) REAL FOOD! We'll be discussing how we all got started and why we eat the way we do. We'll definitely be taking questions and doing our best to answer them! If you're just curious about eating more traditional, nourishing foods or starting out and would like to hear more about how others do it, then definitely join us! There will even be a chance for someone to win a copy of Nourishing Traditions!

If you don't already, you can follow me on Twitter (@keeperhome). To join in the party, look for the hashtag #realfood, so that you can keep track of the conversation that's going on. See you there!

Wanna know who won some of the giveaways?

Awesome Stainless Steel Food Storage goes to:  Sarah M (@ssmast)

Gorgeous Silver Jewelry goes to:  MelodyJ (melodyj@)

Please email me at stephanie (at) keeperofthehome (dot) org, and if I don't hear from you I will be in touch.

Remember that you only have 2 more days to get your entry in for the incredible dehydrator giveaway, and that means my book sale only lasts 2 more days as well!

I hope that this little post is a good reminder that yet again, I do not have it all together. I get caught up in what I'm doing (and just the general chaos of life) and forget all about other important things. I get too busy and too tired. I sleep in. I'm a real mom, just like all of you!

So just to make me feel better, why don't you all share with me some of your "finer" moments where you completely forgot about something important!

Our Sponsors:

• It Starts at Home: Are we Discipling or Outsourcing the faith of our children? Read It Starts at Home! Then, just nurture them together.
• Moukisac: Your 6 in 1 shopping bag system; compact, stylish, versatile and practical, of course! Made by Canadian mom.
• hope ink: Custom inspirational art for your home
• ListPlanIt: Lists to put your world in order
• Vintage Remedies: Get healthy, naturally
• Just Bumming Around: When only the best cloth diapers (at great prices) will do. FuzziBunz packages on SALE!

More from Keeper of the Home

• I’m joining in the Spring Cleaning Party! | Keeper of the Home
• Upcoming- Organic Gardening Carnival! | Keeper of the Home
• No News | Keeper of the Home
• Free Groceries and Other Random Thoughts | Keeper of the Home