Julie Gumm - Author

Vote for me! Vote for me!

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Yes, I feel like I’m 12 and running for student council president. (Except I as 17 and I ran for Treasurer.)

Anywho, Circle of Mom’s has a Top 25 Adoption Blogs contest going on now and you can vote for little old me.

It’s SUPER easy and takes like 2 seconds. Click the link below or the badge over on the right.

Then click the orange Thumbs Up button.

Yes, it’s that easy.

You can vote once a day til June 21st.

Pretty please 🙂

(You can vote for more than one so if you have other friends on the list you don’t have to choose.)

VOTE NOW

Date Night Finds

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Last night Mark and I went out for a LONG overdue date night. (Yeah, trying finding a babysitter in the month of May – crazy!)

We had a yummy dinner at Outback, free thanks to some generous friends who had given us gift cards.

Then we went thrift store hopping.

Yes, we’re wild and crazy like that.

Of course, it’s way less fun when we’re in “clean out” mode around the house. Can’t tell you the number of things Mark picked up and then put back. He had a credit to use at one store and I found a couple cute dresses and 3 pairs of nearly new shoes for the girls for $24 (free w/ credit).

At a different store I scored these two finds.


One-quart pitcher that matches our dishes (didn’t even know they made one) $6.99


Super cute denim purse, lots of pockets inside, looks new $7.99

I promised to purge at least one purse today since I bought one 🙂

Thrifting definitely takes some discipline, otherwise you’ll end up with tons of  stuff you don’t need. And a good deal on something you’re never going to use is NOT a good deal.

Summer Scripture Memorization

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Last summer we instituted a scripture memorization program with the kiddos. We’re back at it again this summer.

I was kind of unprepared the first week so I just took I Cor 13 and broke it down into 3-4 verse chunks.

Predictably this brought some whining and “it’s too hard” pleas from one particular child. I gently reminded her that last summer they did this exact thing and she was perfectly capable.

On the other hand, one of the other kids asked, “What happens if we memorize the whole thing?”

So I promised an extra hour of electronics time to anyone who had the whole chapter memorized by Friday at dinner.

Three out of the four (including the aforementioned whiner) had it down.

I put Mark to work on the schedule for the rest of the summer. We’ve coordinated it with I John since that’s what our small group is studying and the adults are going to memorize it to. I’ll put our list down below as well as a few other passages Mark selected in case anyone wants to use them.

But first you have to see this cutie…(watch til the end)

I John 1:8-10
I John 2:15-17
I John 3:16-18
I John 4:7-12		 Ephesians 1:3-8
Ephesians 4:25-28
Ephesians 4:29-32
Ephesians 5:1-4
Ephesians 5:15-21
Ephesians 6:1-8
Ephesians 6:10-18		 Philippians 2:14
Philippians 2:5-11
Philippians 2:12-16
Philippians 3:7-11
Philippians 4:4-8
Philippians 4:10-13
James 1:2-8
James 1:13-17
James 1:19-22
James 1: 26-27
James 2:14-18, 26
James 3:13-18
James 4:6b-10
James 4:13-17
James 5:13-16		 Psalms 8
Psalms 24
Psalm 37:1-8
Proverbs 31:10-31 (for girls)		 Psalm 1
Psalm 23
I Corinthians 13
Romans 12:1-3
Romans 12:4-8
Romans 12:9-13
Romans 12:14-16
Romans 12:17-21