Collection of MLK Jr. Quotes

"Everybody can be great... because anybody can serve. You don't have to have a college 

degree to serve. You don't have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only 

need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love."

- Martin Luther King, Jr.

So true.  We are all called to serve, some of the greatest, wisest people I know

do not have college degrees and rely heavily on spellcheck.  Yet they are

selfless, Christ followers, hard workers, willing to give of themselves and their

resources to others.  I have to think that is more highly valued in the kingdom

of Heaven than what title you held at a job or what your salary was.

Philanthropy is commendable, but it must not cause the philanthropist to overlook the circumstances of economic injustice which make philanthropy necessary.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

(image source)

History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

I got many of these quotes here: :http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/m/martin_luther_king_jr_3.html#ixzz1jdStWZmQ 

Pretty, New Blog Button

Yes there are designers who can whip out a blog button in their sleep.  With their hands tied.

Then there are people like me.

I made a new blog button.

It took me 2 and a half hours.  55 hours if you count all the times I had to stop to do school work, change a diaper, referee a wrestling match.  Still pretty proud.

I like the smiley face stick figure.  Hopefully you like her too, so much that you want to put her on your own blog.  She's very well behaved, although occasionally, like me, she gets her head in the clouds with grandiose ideas (SAVE THE WORLD, I CAN DO IT ALL BY MYSELF andmakebrowniesfromscratch
inmysparetime!) and needs brought down to the real world.  :)

Oh yeah, it is official.

Update: I graduated.

My degree came in the mail a couple weeks ago since I graduated mid-year.  The whole "put on a cap and gown" ceremony won't be until May, and yes, I am walking.

I'm framing the diploma and hanging it above a bookshelf where I store all my professional development books, textbooks, etc.  This was a degree in general studies (my husband asked what that qualifies me to do. I said, "generally everything." haha Get it?).

I am still in school though!  My second degree, an A.S. in Education should be done this coming December and from there I can transfer and finish the bachelor's.  Phew!  My classes this semester are all education and are a ton of work, projects, papers.  But since they are all educational topics it is fun.  Much better than last semester when I had to work with Earth Science topics (sorry to all my nerd friends).  :-)

Are any of you in school right now?  Or all you all done, never ever going back!?

Made in the USA: 3 things

If you remember, part of my Drawing the Line series was about feeling a need to buy more things made in the USA.  I was excited to see that three things I purchased this week were USA made (which means we know they were NOT manufactured by child labor or slave labor elsewhere).

1. Softsoap

Usually just a buck for a bottle of this stuff, we use it in the kitchen and the guest/kid bathroom.  I had never really checked to see where it was made, so this time I did.  USA.  Score!

2. Expo Dry Erase Markers

Shhh.  Can you keep a secret?

These are actually a valentine's gift for my son's teacher.  I have grand plans of making a cutesy tag that says "Teacher, you've got the WRITE stuff!  Happy Valentine's Day!"  Those plans will probably turn into me hand-scrawling a note on a piece of paper from the notepad on our refrigerator.  I once sent a teacher a note written on the back of a used envelope.  MOTHER.OF.THE.YEAR.
Anyway, she said she never has enough dry erase markers, these were on sale, and the cherry on top is that they were made in the USA!

3. Dr. Bronner's All-One Bar Soap  
This I purchased from my grocery store in the organic section (Kroger).  Around $4 for a bar.  My skin was sensitive and itchy so I wanted something pretty natural and loaded with good oils.  This looked good so I bought it.  I use it as my hand soap in my bathroom.  Love it!  I get clean, it smells fresh.  I have used Dr. Bronner's All-One Lip Balm in the past and thought it was very high quality.

Those are this week's USA Made finds! If you know of any brands made here, I'd love to hear about it!  

Redneck Gift Receipt

Every year I have grand ideas of how sophisticated my gift wrapping will be.

from this blog via this pinterest

And then I set out my stuff and actually start wrapping.

"I make it so pretttty!"

There are chimpanzees who work better with scissors and tape than I do.

I was wrapping quickly this year. Trying frantically to get every mother in law, father in law, sister in law, niece, brother in law, sister, mom, dad, grandma, etc gift wrapped. Then I did it. Put on the last piece of tape on my brother-in-law's gift. Uh oh. The gift receipt. I didn't include it. I could unwrap the gift, tape on the receipt, and re-wrap it.

But that would take more work.

*moment of genius strikes me* Some might call this a moment of Redneck. I prefer moment of genius.

I folded up the receipt* and taped it to the back of the package. PRESTO.

*The "gift receipt" is actually just a regular reciept because I forgot to tell the Miejer cashier that I needed a GIFT receipt. So my sister's husband could easily unfold it and see that his Adidas cologne set me back $9.99. He could also see that I had bought an Angry Birds game for my son, socks for my husband, and probably some random thing like bananas or maxi pads.

Linking up at:"
Pinteresting Party
Serenity Now

Educational, Eco, and Mommy giveaways

Have you ever entered blog giveaways?  I have hosted some and entered some.  Sometimes I even win.  Once I won some fabric from The Intrepid Thread.  I'm waiting on my arch set from Little Sapling toys to come in the mail. :)

Today I decided to hop over to a giveaway linky and enter some that looked appealing to me.

You might want to enter some of these too!

First there is this little time tracker from Learning Resources, being given away at Busy Mom Media.  I love Learning Resources, don't you?  Enter to win here.

Letters From Mama is giving away some eco friendly, reusable wipes and a wipe case from Planet Wise.  They are super cute!  I've never used reusable wipes before, but certainly would try them if I won them!  You can enter this giveaway here.

I've been really interested and learning more about Montessori education.  One of the blogs I follow, living Montessori now, is giving away a half price online training program OR two books.... from Keys of the Universe.  This is geared for elementary ages and with me having a 2nd grader, my fingers are crossed to win!  If you want to reduce my odds at winning and enter yourself, you can do so here.  :)

Another Learning Resources giveaway over at Two Classy Chics...this time for a pretend play supermarket. Doesn't it look cute??

Lastly, this is for you mommies, or ladies.  Or men who want a new bag to carry.  A consultant for 31 gifts is doing a giveaway over at her blog.  Enter the giveaway here.  It is a progressive giveaway, meaning the value of the gift card increases with more entries.  Right now it is a $50 gift card! Peggy Tew is the consultant and if you want to daydream about how you'd spend the gift card if you win, you can browse her website.

Happy Birthday! To me!

This blog's first birthday was yesterday, New Year's Day!
Thanks to all of you for following and commenting!  Hopefully you like, or at least don't mind, the variety of topics.

The most popular post by far has been the Reading Comprehension  post I did in August.  In fact, I still need to print out this spinner and start using it!

Thanks again for reading and following.  Here's to another great year!