Finding harmony in family, finance & military life

Welcome to Harmony in the Thunderstorm For the month of December with each new enrollment I am giving away a free bottle of Cedarwood, Spearmint or TummyGize while supplies last! Take advantage of this months promotions offered by Young Living! Every month they offer so amazing incentives that help you experience the wide range of products they offer and this month is one of the best offers yet. I am also offering incentives to my down line as a thank you for being so great!! Click on each picture to enlarge it and Merry Christmas!!

Just in case you haven't heard I am now a distributor with Young Living!! I am very excited about, not only building a business with this amazing company, but also sharing how my family uses all of these oils to stay happy and healthy year round. You will not believe the results we have had using Young Living essential oils for the every day ups and downs that I am planning to share with you. Please take a moment to go like and share my Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/HarmonyintheThunderstorm/ I will be posting all sorts of great information on that page, you will not want to miss it! The most exciting news for right now is that once my page hits 1000 likes I will be hosting a give away on this blog! It has been awhile since I held a give away and the last one was a lot of fun so get to liking and sharing while I think about what great oil to give away! God Bless

Heard an interesting take on being the stay at home mom, homemaker, house wife whatever you prefer. Along with being the domestic diva, home economist, and the long list of side jobs that goes with being a wife and mother your role in life should also include being the anti-drama for your husband. Yes that is right the ANTI-DRAMA! I hadn't really thought about it. Ok yes I have but not in that respect, I had not thought about how I could be the anti-drama to my husbands day. It actually goes hand in hand with the post I wrote here.  If he your husband works outside the home or inside the home he is already dealing with a great deal of drama. He gets to hear about the goings on in the life of his co-workers, he gets it from his boss, from the people he talks to on the phone. Your working spouse deals with drama all day every day at work. When he comes home your job is to be the anti-drama. That peaceful calm that he looks forward to coming home to each day. Now sure your life w...

Last week Brent and I made the decision to join our church family in a 21 day fast. We needed to do this as a family. I knew it would not be easy but it would be beneficial. We need to focus more on time spent as a family in prayer, reading the Bible and getting closer to God. The week since making that decision has been extremely high stress, exhaustion filled and down right discouraging. Satan took up a stomping ground in my head and my home. It was the perfect example of just why our family needs to do what we are getting ready to do. Choosing the type of fast was easy. The Daniel Fast for Brent and I and a modified version for our five kids. I am not so hung up on what we can not have but what we will gain by doing this. I really hope that mindset pays off as we press forward. My biggest concern is my own endurance. I love to eat! Meat, cheese, ice cream, cake, sour cream oh yes to me it is all good so giving it up will take will power. Brent while concerned about what he can...

My husband and I have recently found ourselves being sought out for financial advice. Now we are not experts, have no formal training or special initials following our last name. Our qualification did not come from a school at all, really it came from life. Life and the book that completely changed our lives The Total Money Makeover . We will help out anyone who asks by meeting with them, giving them the book and helping them create a budget with a goal. It is our passion to see people win with money. People just like us who are ready to say no to debt and yes to living like no one else so that later they can live like no one else! Brent and I are financial opposites he is the free spirit spending money freely and I am the natural nerd trying to tell every dollar that comes in where to go hoping a few stick around. I loved making budgets, making sure the bills got paid and the groceries were bought. Brent loved shopping, buying what he wanted and justifying the purchase because it i...

With Blogger being down most of yesterday and today I had a lot of time to think about just how to write this post. Now that I am sitting down to write it I know just what I will do. I am going to wing it like all the rest. On Saturday May 7th we went to a cook out at a friends house. Nearly the entire K9 crew was there. A large group of rowdy guys drinking and having fun a small group of moms trying to keep track of the dozen plus kids running around. It was normal K9 comradery. Meagan was there with her three kids, her husband deployed just a few months ago. She mentioned to me that he was supposed to go "outside the wire" it was not the first time but between the two of us that term meant prayer. I raised my eye brows in acknowledgement and nothing more was said. The night went on and I left with my kids around 9pm. Shortly after 11pm I woke up to my phone. Brent was calling me and the words that came out of his mouth did not make sense. He must have been playing a cru...

I am really getting excited about Brent's home coming. Getting into "routine" has never been a problem for us after a deployment or long separation. I have noticed so much emotional and relational growth during this deployment for both of us and that is what I am excited about the most. I want to see how all of this positive change and maturity sets a path toward the next step in our life. I can see a curve in the road ahead and instead of fearing it I am running toward it with my eyes wide open. I almost feel like yelling grab your helmet baby because we are in for a wild ride! Almost, to actually do something like that would be completely out of character for me. The return home always holds so much emotion. I can only speak from my personal experience and I am sure it is different for everyone but in the past it has always been a mix of elation, excitement and fear. So many questions would fill my mind before Brent even stepped off the plane. What will he look like? ...

I finally got to pull a new menu card. We were blessed with a great meal by a good friend from church after Liberty spent the night in the hospital so a new menu card was not needed until now. Sorry to keep you all waiting! The kids and I spent several days eating leftovers too so they would not go to waste and a fun indoor cookout was added to last weeks menu as well. Baked Chicken Nuggets with rice and mixed vegetables This is such an easy meal when you have small children that I love having it on the menu. I got a great deal on chicken nuggets this past month so I am taking advantage of it. Rice is a great healthy side dish. My children love brown rice and white rice and are happy eating it plain so that is how I tend to prepare it for them. A large bag is so cheap that it is a good idea to keep it in bulk in your pantry. As for the vegetable I stocked up on some bags of frozen vegetables so that is what we will be using with this meal. It is not what we prefer but I want to emp...

It is a part of military life more now then ever. We are on our third deployment since 2006 and contrary to popular belief they do not get easier, they also don't really get any harder. Each deployment has had different circumstances some good some bad with the end result always the same and for that I am thankful. If you are new to military life or maybe not so new but have never been through an actual deployment go ahead take a deep breath and say it out loud DEPLOYMENT! There ya go not so scary is it? I will not even try to rehash our first deployment five years ago with three children all under the age of four. Even I have no idea how I managed that one! Then the second deployment came way to soon after the first I was pregnant with our fourth child and due right around the time he was scheduled to come home. He made it thank goodness by not even two full weeks but at least he was home. Two months later my husband went remote and well that is a whole other story completely. ...

Hello, My goal for this blog is to help knit together the somewhat chaotic moments of life, my life while providing useful insight for my readers. My life revolves around my five amazing children and my husband who I love very much. Our dog, our home, our finances and "what's for dinner?" will all be a part of this blog. I will share my shopping adventures and the amazing to me deals that I get with coupons. My flops and triumphs in the kitchen as well as the joys of potty training a three year old boy! I hope that I am able to enrich your life as I share mine. I will always be honest and am going to tell you right from the start I have never done this before so mistakes will be made but I am going to do my absolute best. I will leave you now and I hope you have a great rest to your day! What is next you ask? Dinner of course tonight I need to get a salad made before my vegetable become inedible!