The Internet: A Tool…Or a Trap?

As the world of technology progresses, it seems that it's almost impossible to even live without the internet.  I know very few people who do not have internet access at their home, and even so there are occasions when they must go to a friend's house or to the library to get online.

You almost cannot complete paperwork anywhere without having a valid email address.  And many times crucial information is sent to that email address that you will never receive unless you actually get online and check it.

Companies are trying their best to eliminate paper bills and move to all online systems.

Printed research material is becoming outdated, and new information is available mostly online.

Friends and family members may only be accessible to contact through Facebook or email.

Even missionaries for whom you would like to pray may only send their updates via email.

If you are going to stay on top of some of these tasks which are necessary for living, you're pretty much forced to have internet access.

The internet is a wonderful tool.  Many aspects of life have become much more convenient because of it.

Prayer requests shared on Facebook can spread around the world in a matter of minutes.

God's Word can be shared on blogs and social media and reach into areas of the world where it is normally suppressed.

Research material on any topic imaginable has become readily accessible.

Bills can be paid without cluttering your house with papers and without any money spent on postage.

Shopping can be done conveniently from home, saving gas money and time.

But as convenient and as great of a tool as the internet is, it also has the potential to be a deadly trap.

Although your goal may be to use it as a tool to spread God's Word, keep up with missionaries, pray for the needs of others, or save time on essential tasks, the devil's goal is to use it for your destruction.

He may do this blatantly by throwing pornographic advertisements in your face when you least expect it. Or he may take a more subtle approach by leading you to more and more interesting (although entirely appropriate) content which slowly sucks away your time.  Both tactics can result in the destruction of homes, families, and individual lives.

Men, Satan would love for you to become addicted to pornography even though you came across it completely by accident.

Ladies, he would love for you to frustrate your husband and children by neglecting your household duties because you were glued to your Facebook feed or Pinterest account.

Parents, he would love to expose your sons and daughters to perverse material that will forever be etched into their minds.

He wants to destroy your home and Christian testimony however he can.

You must not be blind to his tactics, and you must arm yourself against them.

Ephesians 6:11-18  Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.  12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.  13 Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.  14 Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness;  15 And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace;  16 Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.  17 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:  18 Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints…

In the previous passage, you find instruction in the use of the spiritual weapons with which God has provided us to withstand the devil.  They are useless unless you take advantage of them!

Daily infiltrating our minds with God's Word, a lifestyle of prayer, and yielding to the Holy Spirit should be our first line of defense against the devil's tactics.

But I am also thankful for practical tools to help us protect ourselves as well.

It would be foolish to delve into the online world without any type of protection against the traps that are embedded there.

Covenant Eyes is a wonderful place to find that protection.  My husband and I have invested in a  subscription each year because we both know that our hearts are deceitful and desperately wicked (Jeremiah 17:9).  Although we had the standard internet filters set up on our computer, we knew that we are capable of any type of sin and we figured, “Why take the risk?  Why even give ourselves room to be tempted?  Why let the thought remain in the back of our minds that we have the possibility of accessing any type of material our lustful flesh desires?”

Here are some reasons I think Covenant Eyes is an excellent choice for families:

• Separate users – you can add different members of your family and configure the settings to be most suitable for them.  For example – for young children, you could set it up for them to be allowed on one or two websites to play educational games.  For teenagers, you could select the strongest filtering so that they can browse and do school research without the ability to accidentally land on an inappropriate website.  The administrator can enter their password to allow access to a website that has been blocked but doesn't necessarily need to be.
• Internet Filtering – select as strong or weak of a filter as you feel you need, and make the strength different depending on the user.
• Internet Accountability – Besides filtering out content that could potentially cause you to stumble in your Christian walk, you can also ask a friend or relative to be your accountability partner.  Covenant Eyes will send regular reports via email of your online activity to the partner(s) of your choice.  You can have as many accountability partners as you wish and choose the frequency of the report (daily, weekly, monthly, etc.).  The report will show your accountability partner how much time you've spent online, what webpages you visited or attempted to visit, the search terms you used, and even whether you tried to uninstall Covenant Eyes from your computer.
• Time filtering – one of the more subtle ways the devil uses the internet against us is by tempting us to use it to waste time.  If you struggle with wasting time on the internet, you can take advantage of the time filters on Covenant Eyes.  You can restrict internet usage to a certain number of hours per week or day or you can choose to block internet usage during certain times of the day.
• Resources for families and churches – Covenant Eyes offers free e-books on topics relating to Family Protection, Pornography Use and Recovery, and Helps for Churches to address the subject of pornography.  They also have a great blog with many informative and thought-provoking posts.

Covenant Eyes pricing starts at $9.99 per month and goes up depending on how many users you have and which services you select (accountability, filtering, or both).   You can also use the Covenant Eyes browser on your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad or use the accountability app for Android.

I am determined to do all that I can to make sure the internet remains a tool and not a trap. How about you?

5 Common Causes of Fatigue

Are you feeling fatigued day after day?  Perhaps you may laugh, thinking that it's normal to feel that way, but would you be happy to know that you don't have to feel exhausted all the time?  I understand that you work hard at your responsibilities, and being tired is a natural result of that.  Fatigue – being constantly, overwhelmingly exhausted – is not natural.

Framed Fabric Monogram

Disclosure: The materials for this Framed Fabric Monogram as well as compensation for this post were provided by Martha Stewart/Plaid Crafts and Blueprint Social.

You all may know by now that I'm not the most artistic person in the world. However, I still enjoy beautiful things and crafts as much as any other woman. It's just that anything I do has to be pretty much dummy-proof or I will find some way to mess it up!

When I found out that I would have the opportunity to try out items from the Martha Stewart Decoupage line, I immediately thought of an easy project that even someone like me could complete.

First, here are all the goodies I recieved:

There were so many craft possibilities with all of the lace trims, fabric cutouts, and different finishes of decoupage.  All of the Martha Stewart decoupage products are available at Michael's.

The supplies I used for this craft were:

• Martha Stewart fabric-to-fabric decoupage (I used the matte finish)
• Martha Stewart decoupage brushes
• Fabric of choice (I used a sheet I found at the thrift store)
• Card stock
• Picture frame

Here's how I did it:

First, I found a font that I liked and printed it off on the computer.

I cut it out and used it as a template to cut out an identical piece of black fabric.

Next I used a piece of card stock as a template to cut my base fabric the right size.

I applied a layer of decoupage on the back of the monogram and adhered it to the center of my base fabric.

Then I applied several coats of decoupage over top of the whole thing to seal it. I did this several times, giving it a couple hours of drying time in between.

Finally, I adhered the entire thing to a piece of card stock and stuck it in a frame. I opted to leave it without the glass so that the texture of the fabric could be more prominently displayed. (By the way, this is a great way to use thrift store frames that are missing their glass!)

That was it! Done quickly and easily! If I can do it, anyone can!

Be sure to follow Plaid for lots more ideas:

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You can also check out what other bloggers are doing with the Martha Decoupage products:

What I Didn’t Know as a First Time Mom

This post brought to you by HUGGIES. All opinions are 100% mine.

When this new little one arrives, she'll round out the number of our children to an even four.

I remember how different things were when I had my first.  I had read all the books and listened to all the advice, and I thought I had this thing all figured out.  Now I look back at my first-time mom self and laugh.  There were so many things I didn't know.

• I didn't know that I'd feel like I had been run over by a truck for the first six weeks.
• I didn't know how badly my back would hurt when I tried to bend over the bed to change diapers.  (We didn't own a changing table.  The know-it-all baby books said it wasn't really necessary.)  It took me a while to figure out that getting down on the floor was actually easier.
• I also didn't know that changing said diapers on bed would immediately trigger an irresistable urge in that sweet little baby boy to wash my sheets for me.
• I didn't know that in my sleep-deprived state I would be too tired to care about why the sheets were wet and that I'd sleep on them anyway…with a towel on top of course.
• I didn't know that it would be okay to go to a friend's house when I was invited…even if it was past the baby's bedtime or naptime.  I just didn't know that newborns can adapt wherever you take them.  I didn't know how badly I would regret turning down the invitation to relax with friends.
• I didn't realize how quickly the newborn phase would pass, how quickly he would grow.

All new moms will experience times when they realize, “I didn't know this is what it would be like!”  That's why The Mommy Center is helping new moms to navigate those first few months by equipping moms with everything from baby essentials to advice from moms who have been there before. They'll show you the ropes and tell you whether their favorite brand was HUGGIES® Little Snugglers Diapers, HUGGIES® Pure & Natural Diapers, or HUGGIES NATURAL CARE® Wipes.  They'll help you find great values on the products that will be most helpful to you.

available at Walmart

No matter how tiring or uncomfortable all of those “new mommy moments” have been, I can look back and say emphatically, “They were all worth it!!!”

Back to School With Crayola {Win a $25 Gift Card!}

Disclosure: The Crayola product, information, and additional gift pack have been provided by Crayola.   As always, all opinions are 100% my own.

I was contacted recently by Crayola to see if I would like to shop for Crayola products during our back-to-school shopping.  Of course I said yes!

I thought back to my own childhood and the fond memories of being so excited to get that 64-count box of crayons with the sharpener on the back.  Then there was the day I was given an entire box full of paper and various types of Crayola markers, pencils, and crayons (some of them were even glittery!)  Yes, those were exciting times, and I thought I could expect the same thing when I headed out for our big shopping trip.

I was right…but I was also wrong!  Not only does Crayola still make all those same great products from my childhood, but they have also added so much more!

I did my shopping at good old Walmart.  With 3 small children to get in and out of the car, I try to consolidate my shopping to one store as much as possible.  Not only were there various Crayola products interspersed throughout the school supply aisles, there was also an entire aisle in the craft section that was chock full of Crayola products.  My jaw just about dropped when I turned the corner and saw it.

Our Walmart trip was cut short before I could look at and purchase everything I was hoping to.  This pregnant mama just got completely worn out from walking, so I decided to head home and finish my shopping online.

Here's what I ended up with before we left Walmart, though:

• Paint and paintbrushes
• Supertips washable markers
• A good old-fashioned package of crayons
• A dry-erase board
• 2 packs of fine tip dry erase markers
• A 12-pack of washable dry erase markers
• Dry erase crayons

All of these are practical supplies that we will use regularly in our home school.  The paint, paintbrushes, and markers are for art class.  The crayons are for my daughter's pre-school activity sheets.  (And you can't beat 50 cents!  I'd rather pay 50 cents for Crayola than 25 cents for the off-brand.  There's a big difference.)  My son already had his own dry erase board for various activities, but when I saw that Crayola had this purple one, I got it for my daughter (she loves purple!)  The washable dry erase markers are for my own sanity (as opposed to non-washable.)  Since I was at Walmart, I was able to price-match those for a lower price.  I also used a coupon for $1 off 2 dry erase products that Crayola had on their Facebook page.  (They have had a number of different printable coupons available throughout the back-to-school season.)  The fine tip dry erase markers are for worksheets that I want the kids to re-use.  I put the worksheets in sheet protectors and they do them with the dry erase markers so they can erase them and do them again later.  The dry erase crayons are for my 2 year old.  That way he can do work on his dry erase board like the big kids, but I won't have to worry about him drawing all over his clothes with markers.

When I got home I hopped on to Walmart.com to finish the rest of my shopping.

Crayola Wild Notes Notebook set – the pens change color as you write! How fun!

Fingerpaint – more art class fun

Construction paper – my kids go through this stuff like crazy!

Yup – the 64 pack with the sharpener on the back. My kids need to know how fun it is to have this! 🙂

You can see I'm a very practical person, and don't really go for the gadgety type stuff, but it is amazing to see all the cool stuff Crayola has come up with!  Just take a look at all their newest products and you'll see what I mean!

It also wouldn't be a bad idea to follow them on Facebook and Twitter.  (Remember those coupons I was talking about?)

Win a $25 Visa Gift Card to purchase your own Crayola products!

Entering is easy as pie!  Just click the enter button in the rafflecopter form below!

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Personalized Back to School Supplies with Duck Tape®

This post brought to you by Walmart. All opinions are 100% mine.

I think I've been more excited about school starting than my kids have.  I have made school supply lists about a million times.  We finally had the chance to get out to Walmart this week and actually buy the stuff on the list!

One of the things I needed was binders for the kids to keep their seatwork assignments in.  But I'm cheap.  It kills me to pay 4 or 5 dollars for a binder when the one for 92 cents does the same thing.  The only problem is that the cheap ones are boring and drab.  

It was so easy to fix that with Duck Tape®!  

First we accented the pockets of J's binder with the camouflage he had picked out and added his initials to the front.  So quick and easy, but he couldn't have been more thrilled!

For miss K, we used the polka dot tape she had picked out and made a pocket to hold all the itty bitty pieces from her various preschool activities.  This will go in her notebook, which of course we had to personalize with her initial too.

I'm sure these projects aren't the only thing they'll be using their Duck Tape® for!  They have been cutting pieces off and sticking them everywhere!  I guess since their dad uses it as bandages, they figure they can use it for pretty much anything too!

Have you made your inevitable trip to Walmart for school supplies yet?  You might want to consider grabbing a couple rolls of Duck Tape® too!  It's an easy way to make a happy kid! buy Duck Tape at Walmart

Need more ideas for using your Duck Tape®  (besides having your kids stick it in random places all over the house)?  Follow @TheDuckBrand for tons of creative inspiration!