Babysitting Co-op

This is something I wish I would have known about before now!  A good friend of mine invited me to join her babysitting co-op which is made up of about 25 moms – all living in our area.  I’ve been a member for just a few months and I love it!  Basically, a babysitting co-op is a group of friends who trade sits in exchange for coupons or points.  It’s a fabulous alternative to relying on a young sitter, and availability is not a concern with stay-at-home and homeschooling moms.  The coupon exchange is nice too – a normal date night would cost us about $40 for the sitter - add dinner and a movie and it gets expensive.  Now I can let my kids play with friends during the day and receive coupons in exchange - it’s great!

Learn more about babysitting co-ops on iVillage.com and babycenter.com or check out the templates and information at www.babysittingcoop.com.  I think moms need all the support they can get and this is a fabulous way to create a quick network.  Make sure that members invite only the friends they trust and know well so that you can rest assured that your kids are in good hands.

River of Words Contest

Many schools and groups use The River of Words (ROW), a non-profit organization, to help support children’s literacy through poetry and art, but did you know that you can be a part of this great competition from home?  River of Words accepts all entries from children ages 5 – 19 for their free, international poetry and art contest.  The art/poetry theme is “watersheds” and is meant to encourage exploration of the natural and cultural history of the child’s geographic area.

My son submitted an artwork to the contest this year – we were so proud to learn that he received a second place award for his age group.  We had a lot of fun discovering how watershed works in our city and then finding a creative way to put it into art.  His work will be on display in Denver, and he will attend an official awards ceremony sponsored by Colorado Humanities & Center for the Book.  I highly recommend this as a fun, educational project to do with your kids!  Details on the competition can be found at
http://www.riverofwords.org/index.html
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Good Friday

“Our firm decision is to work from this focused center: One man died for everyone.  That Puts everyone in the same boat.  He included everyone in His death so that everyone could also be included in His life, a resurrection life, a far better life than people ever lived on their own.  Because of this decision we don’t evaluate people by what they have or how they look.  We looked at the messiah that way once and got it all wrong, as you know. We certainly don’t look at Him that way anymore”.

2 Corinthians 5:14-16 The Message