Christian Women Tweet Up Tonight!

I am a Twitterer! I have "met" so many new people on Twitter; people with similar interests as mine, people with totally different interests from mine, other WAHM's, Christian men and women, single parents, single people, married people, and on and on.

Every once in a while someone will host a 'tweet up' which is where twitter people meet up. Tonight there is a tweet up hosted by Take Root and Write. Take Root and Write is a site where Christian Women come together for inspiration and encouragement. If you are a Christian Woman and have a blog, you might be able to add your blog to the blog roll, or even be a writer for Take Root and Write.

The tweet up will connect more Christian Women with each other and will be focusing on "the word for January, Cleanse". I'm excited about it and can't wait. You can join the fun and inspiration too! Just click here; all the details are on this page.

It's not hard to join in on the fun if you have a Twitter account. If not, get one here! You don't want to miss out on the CWTU!!!

Ch-ch-ch-changes!

I'm changing my template and background again! I get bored with the same old same old, so bear with me if you come upon my blog and it looks, well, unfinished for a bit. Hopefully it won't take too long for me to find something I like! 

I'll let you know when it's done!

Memories of 2008

The holidays are officially over now (according to me anyway) and a new year is well under way. 2008 was a pretty good year overall and we had some exciting times, some down times and some normal times (whatever normal is). Here is a photo journal of the past year around the Lutz house.

Alyssa Noel Grace was born Dec. 31, 2007. She and her mom came to live with us a couple of weeks later.


January of 2008 Trisha announced her 2nd pregnancy!

The end of March, I went on a mission trip to Nigeria Africa. An experience that changed my life forever!

The end of May, our God daughter Briana (one of the girls from youth group who came to live with us) graduated from high school.


June of '08 a bunch of us from the youth ministry visited the graduation open houses courtesy of the Chaffee mobile. It's a 1983 motorhome we all piled into. What a blast. In this photo: Barb Sewell, Sandy Chaffee, Cheri Porta and me.

In June we helped out at the Big Ticket Festival. What an awesome time that was!



July 4th we spent at the beach during the day and then went to see the fireworks in the park in Boyne City. Great family fun!




In July I got a great visit from my friends from Missouri and North Carolina. Lori, me and Rhonda grace this lovely photo.

On September 11, Dylan Richard Stefanic, my 2nd grandson entered the world!






September 30, the family got together to celebrate Ethan's 2nd birthday! A fun time was had by all, especially the birthday boy!






Christmas 2008 was Dylan's first Christmas, and Ethan's 2nd. Ethan was a joy to see opening his presents and trying to help others open theirs!

These are the highlights, that I have photos of anyway. Somewhere around Thanksgiving we lost our digital camera. The photos I have after then were taken with Trisha and Ben's camera.

I can't wait to see the exciting changes 2009 brings!

Make Money while you Shop on Line

Before I started my Christmas shopping this year, I joined Ebates. Ebates is a website that pays cash back for any shopping you do through their site. They have thousands of popular stores and some great ones you may not have heard of. It's very easy to use too! All you have to do is bookmark Ebates in your favorite browser and everytime you do any shopping on line, go to Ebates, find the store, or search for a specific product. Once you find the store you want to shop at, click on it through Ebates and you will get an automatic tracking ticket and then directed to the store you chose. Once you make a purchase at that store, Ebates tracks it and in a couple of days, credits your Ebates account according to the cash payout percentage. The payout percentages are shown on the page with the list of stores on Ebates. Ebates sends you a big fat check every quarter or credits your PayPal account.

Signing up is simple and quick, so go to Ebates now and start earning cash back now on all your online purchases.

I've already earned a nice little chunk of money from my Christmas shopping, and now I will be doing more of my shopping through Ebates as well. A lot of the stores on Ebates have every day items we use at discounted prices. So, in addition to earning cash back you will also most likely save money using Ebates. You have nothing to lose! There are no strings attached, so be sure to click on Ebates whenever you do any on line shopping.

Adapting to the New Routine

If you read my last post, you know I set some new goals for myself and my work at home business. Today is still officially still the Holidays according to some, but even so, I started practicing my new routine between Christmas and New Years Day. New Years Eve and New Years Day I took a little break from my writing because I knew I would be diving in today and even more so by Monday, if not sooner. Although I am going to try to take weekends off, or the days off my hubby has.

The biggest part of the adjustment in this new routine will be fluctuating with Jeff's schedule. One of the main advantages of working from home is being able to set my own schedule. This past week was his turn for evenings, so I would stay up late working while he was working, and when he came home, I would stay up with him until we were both ready to call it a night, then sleep in till about 10 or 11. I prefer staying up late so I think I'm actually going to start enjoying when Jeff is on evenings. I used to hate it because when I was working out of the home, I would have to go to bed by 10 or 11, Jeff would get home about 1am and stay up till 2 or 3 in the morning and then I would have to get up and go to work and he would leave for work before I got home, so I would never see him vertically the whole week he was on evenings, except on Saturday and Sunday. Now, I'm going to have to adjust to his day shift because like I said, I like staying up late, but he won't be able to when he is on his day shifts. But, it will be okay, because I will get to bed by 11 probably and get up around 7 or 8, if not earlier. Then I can work while he's at work and then put the laptop down or work on one of my tutorials.

Right now, I'm taking Blog Evangelists, which is an online workshop that teaches how to customize a WordPress blog and how to market your blog business to your local community. It's a course I can work on at my own pace, so it's easy to fit it in my schedule.

Jeff got me two Photoshop books for Christmas, so I am studying those as well. Obviously those are at my own pace, so I can work on those whenever I want. Sometimes I take a break from writing to work on my tutorials and study Photoshop, which is nice because now that I am writing a lot more, I need to give my brain a break...lol...so I can get refreshed and be more productive at writing.

There will be more adjustments to my new routine as time goes by I'm sure, especially when Jeff is on midnights...we will see how that goes! Probably the same as when he's on days because I will work while he sleeps and then put the laptop down or work on a tutorial in the evenings. But, I'm really loving working at home full time now and will just keep plugging along, learning more and building my online presence.

New Year! New Routine!

I am on a New Year kick!!! It's a New Year (almost) so time for some new routines! Especially since I'm working from home full time now, I have to get my writing routine down so that I am sure to get them all done. The other thing I'm working on is my health! I'm over being unhealthy and fat! So, I am going to start exercising every day for at least 15 minutes, drinking a lot more water, and eating smaller portions!

The other thing I'm adding to my daily routine is reading my bible everyday when I first get up! There's no better way to starting your day than in God's word. Jeff got me a new bible for Christmas that I LOVE, so I will be digging into it every day! I already started today off with reading a few morsels from it today! And have I had a blessed day!!! It's amazing!

Another thing I'm going to start doing is eating breakfast within the first hour after I get up. This boosts the metabolism, gives you energy and brain power for the day.

I noticed though, that now that I'm working from home full time, it's actually harder to get the laundry done and the dishes done! How weird is that?! I definitely have to work on that.

Speaking of laundry, I better get up and to get it started right now. My hubby is out of clean underwear!

New Year, New Goals

If you've been following my "tweets" on Twitter you saw that I've been posting a lot today! The reason? A new year, a new goal! I am working from home full time now, which I LOVE, and so I've set a new goal, inspired by my friend over at 2 Too Many Hats. The new goal? To write a post a day on my blog. Well, I have 3 other blogs, besides this one, plus I'm a contributor for 4 more! So, that's 7 a day! A pretty big chunk to bite off and chew, but since working from home and writing is my passion, then I know I can do it. Each of the blogs are different enough to be able to come up with different topics each day for all of them. 

On Efficient WAHM, I write reviews, post about giveaways, saving money as well as finding tools on the web to help other work at home mom's be more efficient in their business and personal lives.

I started Open Talk Mom so that other mom's would have a place to come and be open about what's going on in their lives. I also find resources, news and articles on disease and disability. I started it for my sister who suffers from MS and diabetes.

I also have my Virtual Assistant site, that has a blog as well, so there I write about everything from starting a VA business to why a small business owner or other work at home mom needs a VA. This one will probably be the most tough to come up with fresh and new ideas for everyday!

Two of the sites I contribute to are Profitable Mommy Bloggers (my first paid writing gig) and Show Mom the Money. Profitable Mommy Bloggers is fairly easy to write for as the writer of the A to Z Internet Glossary. Show Mom the Money is also quite easy as we are usually given a style of writing, or a goal to reach each month. Plus I write in the category Stay at Home Sanity, so it's pretty easy to come up with content to write about.

The next one I am a contributor for is They Call Me Wahmmy. I love this site and am the "teen expert" so I get to write about my kids, raising teens and my experience as a youth leader.

I just received the prestigious award of being an editor for Type-A Mom. I am the Stages Editor for Grandmothers! I give advice to other mom's from a grandma's perspective, write about being a "young at heart" grandma, and I get to write about my two grandsons! Needless to say, that one won't be very hard coming up with stuff to write about!

I think I will enjoy this new goal! It will definitely get my creative juices flowing! Won't you take the plunge and set a goal to write at least one blog post a day? If you do, please leave a comment and let me know so I can encourage you. Maybe we can give each other ideas to write about!

Christmas 2008

It came and went fast! I can't believe it's over. We will keep our tree up until the New Year, but it's weird Christmas came and went. It was fun, all the preparations I've been working on since Thanksgiving, but it's so hard to believe a month has gone by already! Anyway, here are the highlights, as I remember them.

Christmas Eve was the day we planned to celebrate Christmas with the kids this year so Trisha, Ben and the boys could open presents at their house Christmas morning, then go to Ben's parents and then to Trisha's dad's. I can just imagine all the scheduling that will have to be done when my other kids get married!

Christmas Eve day I got up, got showered and ready for the day. I knew it was going to busy, but I didn't expect the business to start as soon as I got up. Jeff was working, so I had to do the last minute running to the store and then back home to cook. Fortunately, the store wasn't too overwhelmingly packed, although it was busy. I knew what I had to get, so I just went in and got what I needed. The lines weren't horrible either, surprisingly for Christmas Eve!

I came home, did some picking up (I'm always amazed how fast the house gets cluttered!). I did have some time to relax before I had to start cooking, so I did just that. We were having a simple dinner of ham, cheesy potatoes and green bean casserole, so I didn't have a ton of cooking to do. We also made Jesus a birthday cake and some brownies.

Trisha and the boys got here about 3:30 or so, and we started cooking. I got the ham ready, made the glaze and put it in the oven. While that was baking we put in "It's a Wonderful Life." I had never seen it before, so it was a real treat and made it feel all the more like Christmas.

Then we made the cheesy potatoes, the green bean casserole and the desserts. Jeff got home a little after 6, at which time we ate. Then after dinner we opened presents. Everyone got some nice things and things they were wishing for. We also got some nice surprises like scarves from Scotland from Jeff's parents and hand drawn pictures from Brandon!

Karlie got a new camera which she was hoping for, Kaleb got a book by Brandon Boyd, the lead singer of Incubus. Jeff got the Nooma videos he wanted and some books and cd's from Amazon. I got some Photoshop tutorials I wanted, and Trisha got some books as well. We only gave 3 gifts to the kids this year in keeping the focus on Christ.

Here are some photos of Christmas 2008 at the Lutz house.

Two Year Old Laughter

I posted this video on flickr, but wanted to share it here too, as most don't usually go to our flickr account.



We were at Trisha and Ben's the other night and Kaleb and Ethan were throwing a big, blue ball up the stairs and when it would bounce back down, Ethan would laugh this cute, little two year old laugh. I don't think you can watch it without laughing yourself. Laughter really is contagious, especially when it's by little ones!

I Received My First Blog Award!!!

I was going through my Google Reader items, as I try to do everyday, but don't always get through them all, and saw that I won my first blog award! It's the "I Love Your Blog" award. My friend, fellow WAHM and fellow Twitterer Tishia nominated me! Thanks Tishia!!!

Now what I have to do, and so will you, is:

• I pick 7 blogs that I love and mention them here.
• If I mention your blog, you take the graphic and announce via blog that you have received the “I Love Your Blog” award.
• Link back to yours truly as the one who gave you the award.
• Choose 7 blogs to pass this award on to…you know those ultra cool blogs you like to read.
• Make sure you let your award recipients know about the award by posting on their blog comments or otherwise giving them the heads up.

Here are the blogs I give the award to (in no particular order):
Mom Maven
2 Too Many Hats
Bearable Deals
Christian Stay at Home Mom
Gohn Crazy
Simple Mom
Nicole Dean

There are a few others I wanted to give this award to also, but since I write for them, I wasn't sure is that was okay or not!

Karlie's 2008 Winter Choir Concert

We just got home from Concord Academy Boyne's annual winter concert. They have to call it that to be politically correct, but it's a Christmas concert! Concord is a charter school and a school of arts. There are no official sports teams, no Phys Ed, no cheerleaders, etc. There are however musicians, singers, artists, dancers and actors!

This year's concert was the first with the new music director. It was quite good, though it was certainly different from past years with the previous director.

We watched the 5th through 7th grade choir, then the beginning, intermediate and high school bands, and then finally the high school honors choir, which Karlie is part of. She is a soprano so it is easy for me to hear her voice above others and can that girl sing! She even got a solo part in one of the songs, which is in the video below. The picture is of her and her new boyfriend, of almost 2 months, Evan. We had to take the video and pic with Jeff's phone because we've somehow misplaced our camera!!! Booooo! I'm so sad about it! I hope we find it soon. I will hate to have Christmas without a camera!!!

Anyway, enjoy as best you can!

Fun Picture Meme

As you may or may not know, I love memes! My friend at 2 Too Many Hats tagged me for this meme, so of course I had to participate!


1. Open the 4th picture folder on your computer.

2. Open the 4th picture and post it on your blog.

3. Explain the picture.

4. Tag 4 people to do the same!

This is my son Kaleb in one of his senior pictures. This was taken behind his dad's house, at the stream all of my kids have played in, near and around growing up!





I tag:
Tishia Lee
Lisa Block
Christie Garcia
Briana McGlinchey

Happy Birthday Jeffrey!

Today, well technically yesterday, December 12, is Jeff's birthday. We got up around 10AM and went to Traverse City. Jeff had a coupon for one of his favorite restaurants, BD's Mongolian BBQ, for a free meal! We needed to go during the day because I had an Emmaus meeting at 7 this evening. So, we went and enjoyed a nice lunch with dessert (it came free with the coupon as well!). We only spent $20 on lunch! That's a steal of a deal, especially for BD's! And that included the tip!

After lunch we went next door to a new Apple store and looked around and dreamt. We did pick up one stocking stuffer there. Then it was off to the mall for some more dreaming and another stocking stuffer. Jeff also picked out a CD for his BD...lol.

We headed home after stoping at BK to get a drink and arrived about 5:30PM. It was a nice day, just Jeffie and I.

Happy Birthday hun! I love you! Your! Mary Karen

Christmas Meme!

I saw this on Christian Stay at Home Mom's and it looked like fun!


1 . Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate?

Defintely eggnog!!!

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree?

They are all wrapped! I love the surprise factor!

3. Colored lights on house/tree or white?

This year, I have colored lights on the tree and white lights elsewhere. It changes from year to year though. I love all the lights!!!

4. Do you hang mistletoe?

Haven't in the past, but 16 year old with boyfriend suggested it....hmmmm wonder why that is?! LOL

5. When do you put your decorations up?

By Thanksgiving or shortly thereafter.

6. What is your favorite Christmas dish (excluding dessert)?

Cheesy Potatoes!

7. Favorite holiday memory as a child?

Ugh hard one! I think it would be the year I got my first bike! I was in 2nd grade, and the bike was all set up in the living room when I walked out. It was green with a banana seat!

8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa?

I honestly don't remember.

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve?

The kids always ask to open just one, and I usually give in. This year we are opening gifts on Christmas Eve!

10. How do you decorate your Christmas tree?

The more lights the better! This year I have lights, a couple of ribbons, some silver ball garland and some green bead garland, along with all silver bulbs, and gold bows. I also add some fake snow. I usually have more but my kids complain my tree is too "decorated". Whatever that means! LOL

11. Snow. Love it or dread it?

Love having it at Christmas, love the way it looks, Hate driving in it!

12. Can you ice skate?

Nope, tried it once, almost broke my ankle.

13. Do you remember your favorite gift?

Not specifically, but I truly appreciate any gift that's well thought out. Not just something someone picked up because they thought they had to get me a gift, but something someone saw and thought "Mary would really like this!"

14. What is the most important thing about the holidays for you?

Keeping Christ in Christmas!

15. What is your favorite holiday dessert?

Christmas cookies! Me and my oldest daughter and maybe a friend or two get together and bake all day. Cookies, fudge, chocolate covered pretzels.

16. What is your favorite holiday tradition?

It used to be this game I named Pick and Steal. But, we're not doing that this year. I think it's going to be playing games like Speed Scrabble, Balderdash, Guesstures and so on.

17. What tops your Christmas tree?

A lighted star. The lights are different colors and twinkle.

18. Which do you prefer giving or receiving?

GIVING. Christmas should be all about giving.

19. What is your favorite Christmas song?

Oh Holy Night

20. Candy Canes. Yum or Yuck?

Yum!

21. What do you want for Christmas?

Just to see my kids and grandkids blessed!

22. Do you attend an annual Christmas party?

Our youth ministry has a Christmas party every year, one for the students and one for the leaders. My husband's work also has one, but it seems to fall on something else every year so we don't always go to that one.

23. Do you dress up for Christmas Eve or wear PJ’s?

This year we will be opening presents on Christmas Eve and I want some good family pics! So, we will probably dress up a little.

24. Do you own a Santa hat?

I thought I had one, but I don't think so

25. Who do you normally spend Christmas with?

My hubby and kids. But this year, we are spending Christmas Eve with the kids and they are going to their dad's on Christmas, so it will just be me and my hubby this year!

One Stop Shopping

As an Amazon Associate, I have the ability to add an Amazon store (aStore) to my web site. I did just that at Efficient WAHM!

There you can get everything you need, in one spot! I love one stop shopping for the convenience, and money savings. One stop shopping on line is even MORE convenient and money saving because you definitely don't have the stress of large crowds and traffic, and you save money by saving gas not driving from store to store. Plus, there are so many great deals on line that aren't usually in-store.

So, head on over to Efficient WAHM and get all your shopping done in one spot!

My Blog's Personalities

I "tested" my other blog, Efficient WAHM's personality type on Typalyzer, so of course I had to here! Next will be my "professional blog". It's interesting the different personalities that are coming up for each. Efficient WAHM's blog personality is:

ISFP - The Artists

The gentle and compassionate type. They are especially attuned their inner values and what other people need. They are not friends of many words and tend to take the worries of the world on their shoulders. They tend to follow the path of least resistance and have to look out not to be taken advantage of.

They often prefer working quietly, behind the scene as a part of a team. They tend to value their friends and family above what they do for a living.











This blog, my "personal" blog's personality is:

ESFP - The Performers

The entertaining and friendly type. They are especially attuned to pleasure and beauty and like to fill their surroundings with soft fabrics, bright colors and sweet smells. They live in the present moment and don´t like to plan ahead - they are always in risk of exhausting themselves.

The enjoy work that makes them able to help other people in a concrete and visible way. They tend to avoid conflicts and rarely initiate confrontation - qualities that can make it hard for them in management positions.









And ProVBS, my "professional" blogs personality is:

ESTJ - The Guardians

The organizing and efficient type. They are especially attuned to setting goals and managing available resources to get the job done. Once they´ve made up their mind on something, it can be quite difficult to convince otherwise. They listen to hard facts and can have a hard time accepting new or innovative ways of doing things.

The Guardians are often happy working in highly structured work environments where everyone knows the rules of the job. They respect authority and are loyal team players.

It makes sense that each blog would get a different personality type since they are all 3 different in nature! Interesting!

What If We Treated Our Bibles Like Our Cell Phones

As you may or may not know, I am more of a work at home mom now, and am only working my part time job one day a week. This has given me lots of time to really promote my on line business more and get lots of writing done for the other blogs I write for. Through my travels on the web, I have found some awesome blogs and websites of other WAHM's. I also have made several new friends and acquaintances via Twitter.

One new acquaintance I made just now had this awesome thought posted on her blog. The author is unknown, but it really does make you stop and think: What do we value more, our bible or our cell phone? Before you answer that, read this:

Cell Phone vs. the Bible

I wonder what would happen if we treated the bible like we treat our cell phones?
What if we carried it around in our purses or pockets?
What if we turned back when we forgot it?
What if we flipped through it several times a day?
What if we used it to receive messages from the text?
What if we treated it like we couldn't live without it?
What if we gave it to kids as gifts?
What if we used it when we traveled?
What if we used it in case of an emergency?
What if we upgraded it to get the latest version?
This is something to make you go...hmmmm...where is my bible?
Oh, and one more thing, we don't ever have to worry about our bible being disconnected because Jesus already paid the bill!

My Son Is Now an Adult

Kaleb is stepping into adulthood like most typical teenage boys; he's got that "I can do what I want attitude" right now, and we keep warning him, it will come back to smack him in the face. He doesn't believe us. Ha. I guess he's going to be one to find out the hard way, unfortunately.

As a senior in high school, he's trying to figure out what he wants to do with his life. He's thinking about film school or working skiing into a career. He's an awesome skier and was in the junior Olympics his freshmen year. If he disciplines himself, he definitely could do something with skiing.

Right now, he's talking about getting a tatoo, and something pierced; his arm? Weird to me, but I guess it's cool amongst his peers. I don't have a problem with tatoo's and piercings, and have told all my kids they do what they want to their bodies when they are 18 and can pay for it themselves. My other son, who is 23, has 3 tatoos and gauges in his ears, and has plans for more tat's. It will be interesting to see what tatoo Kaleb gets.

My prayer for my son is that he finds his way back to God and that he lives out his calling as an evangelist. This was spoken over him when he was 6, when I first got saved. I know God is faithful and that He is protecting him, so I am keeping the faith that Kaleb will return to God as well.

Happy 18th Birthday Kaleb! I love you!
Mom