Like all good parents, for many years, now, I have told my children stories of how hard I used to work as a child. Recently I was recalling my days as a salesman. I used to sell Christmas cards from the "Olympic Card Company" (is that still around?), Greeting cards from "Cheerful House", thin green mints in order to go to day camp, strawberries for extra money during the summer, and all sorts of things as fund raisers for school and church. I became quite good at selling things, so much so that a high school teacher that I had wanted to hire me to sell first aid kits for his side business.

After all of my bragging...uh, I mean, recalling, John Allen decided he wanted to go into business himself. Enter "Wreaths of Maine". Wreaths of Maine is a company that sells Christmas wreaths and primarily works with homeschoolers. In order to receive the "intro kit", you either had to send in $10, or write an essay on what you would do with the money. John Allen's was short and simple. He would save some, buy a few things for himself, buy some Christmas gifts for his younger brothers and, get this, give some to his parents to help with the bills. It seems that JA had overheard Sarah and I having our monthly discussion on how to make ends meet and decided he wanted to help.

Needless to say, Sarah and I were very touched by this. We've decided not to steal his blessing, but to take whatever money he may give us and spend it for Christmas gifts. Probably from Vision Forum. So, ultimately, he will be getting most of the money anyway.

We are making him do most of the work and he is doing very well. He's memorized his spiel, learned how to fill out the order forms and paperwork, and is learning to be positive and persevere when no one seems to be buying.

So, if you are in need of a live Christmas wreath (they are really quite nice), and want to help with the Tinkel's bills, you can visit the Wreaths of Maine web site at http://www.wreathsofmaine.com and enter John Allen's code #4086 where it is called for.

Thanks ahead of time. John Allen would be thrilled.

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Mood:  a-ok

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As I mentioned in my first post, one ofA the goals of this blog is to strengthen families. I can think of no better company that promotes family unity than Vision Forum. Vision Forum, Vision Forum, is a Christian company that not only promotes family values through its books, media, and toys, but also believes strongly in remembering the Godly heritage of our country.

Two years ago John Allen and I had the greatest time participating in the Jamestown400 Treasure Hunt. Vision Forum developed a very elaborate hunt that began with the "Mystery of the Vision Forum" catalog, that lead to secret websites and eventually a physical hunt in the Jamestown, Yorktown, Williamsburg triangle for the top 100 sleuths. Along the way, we had to solve elaborate codes and learn a slew of history that was all intermingled in a complex plot. We loved it! We were blessed to be in the top 100, but were unable to go to Jamestown for the final hunt. They have some type of hunt every year (although usually not as big as the Jamestown hunt)A and this year is no exception. It doesn't appear that this year's hunt is a big one, but we aren't sure yet! There's still time to get involved - why don't you order a free catalog and join the fun.

John Allen isn't the only Tinkel child that enjoys Vision Forum though. Joshua and Jacob love the special promotional videos they have for some of their products. Check out this one for their new remote controlled amphibious tank http://www.visionforum.com/hottopics/blogs/dwp/2008/10/4426.aspxA .A Anyone who wants to purchase that as a Christmas gift for the kids (especially little Timmy!) is welcome to have it drop shipped right to us!

Vision Forum also runs www.Behemoth.com where you can download Christian music, videos, audio books and more. They have specials daily where you can download something for free. Unfortunately, you need a credit card to register. Sarah and I tore up our credit cards a few years ago so we haven't been able to take advantage of any of the freebies yet.

Of course, most companies aren't totally perfect. There are some religious views that Vision Forum has that I don't completely agree with, but those are few and far between and minor. Check out their website and let me know what you think. If you should decide to order, I am hoping to become an affiliate soon, so please use the link on my page before ordering. We could always use the extra money.

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I must admit, that when I created the title for this entry, my first thought was of the movie The Sound of Music and my first introduction to that song. You have to understand that I was a very naive 18 year old that came from a backwoods town  in PA. I was very blessed to have been chosen to tour Europe with a concert band and choir that is now known as The Sound of America (then it was All Student Groups USA). While playing a selection of Rodgers and Hammerstein songs, I couldn't understand why the choir kept singing "...when the beasties"! Of course I know now that it's "...when the bee stings" and was quite embarrassed when I found out. Obviously I didn't get out much then. I was completely out of my comfort zone traveling around the big cities in Europe. I'm glad we mostly stayed together as a group or I would have been totally lost. Maybe someday I will tell you about some of my adventures.

Oh well. That's not what this entry is about. It's really about my favorite websites. They are posted on the left side of this page and are broken down in to two catagories...Family Links and Homeschool Links. I will be talking more about each one of them in the days and weeks to come and telling you why they are my favorites, but don't wait until then. Start clicking and exploring now. And remember, this is a sharing blog, so let me know what your favorite sites are as well. 

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Mood:  special

I have finally done it. I've jumped into the blogosphere. I have been reading blogs of friends and acquaintances for a long time now and toyed around with creating a blog of my own. I wanted to create a blog about things that I cared about - My God, my family and my ministry. The name "Families Again" seemed good because not only does it include my family, but the family of God, and the family of prayer and financial supporters that we have for our ministry. It also was a good fit for one of the topics that I wanted to discuss the most-building stronger families. I say discuss, because I am by no means the authority on strong families. Our family is a normal family that fights and makes up, has ups and downs, has strengths and weaknesses but through it all does our best to obey and honor our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

I not only want to use this blog to talk about things that we've done to try to strengthen our own family, but give you ideas and websites from others on building stronger families and to listen to your ideas and suggestions as well. I pray that this blog will be a place where we can exchange ideas on how to raise our children to grow up to be the Godly young men and women that will be the leaders of our households, churches, and government in the future.

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