Are you in need of some help connecting emotionally?

Maybe you’d like to amp up the romance?

Or you simply desire some practical tips to center your marriage on Christ…

50 Ways to Improve Your Relationship with Your Husband can help!

**We’re giving away 5 FREE copies this week!**

To Enter:

Simply “LIKE” MariLee’s new fan page!

5 new fans will be chosen as winners through random.org and will be contacted via Facebook on Friday 8/9/2011

We had a baby! Well, my husband and I did, that is!

Meet Jessa “Sweet Pea” (as my 4 year old son has dubbed her).  Baby and I are doing well aside from a lingering neuropathy (numbness and foot drop) in my left leg from the compression during labor.  It was a long, and rather difficult pregnancy, but baby Jessa was well worth it. She is beautiful and amazing. We praise God for our little miracle!

A colleague recently called our corporate Mommy Bag Marketing, Inc. number. Our voicemail was set to say that I have been on maternity leave and that they should call our admin. assistant instead. He left a message with her saying “You sure do take the ‘mommy’ part of your job seriously!” 

I had to laugh at that!  Yes—-we REALLY do!

But now Jessa is nearly 3 weeks old and it’s time to get back to work! (Thank God I work from home!)

I hope you will all continue connecting with us over the summer and throughout the year.

God bless!

~MariLee

Jesus replied: Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment.  Matthew 22:37-38

I have been significantly reminded in the past few months that I cannot please everyone. When I was on full-time church staff many years ago, I had quite the opportunity to learn this tough lesson and developed some thick skin and a deeper trust in the Lord during the process. (Oh yes, folks. Working with Christians is not a piece of cake like many think. We are all only human!)

Now as a mom, wife, writer, corporation owner, friend, etc. etc….It’s getting harder and harder to please all of the people in my life. And the reality is: It’s just NOT possible.

I was reminded that Jesus himself had people upset with Him all of the time. He doesn’t call us to please everyone—just Him! We need only concern ourselves with pleasing God and not worry about the rest.

This verse in Matthew is the greatest and most important commandment in God’s Word. If we are loving God with all of our hearts, everything else will come together according to His plan. If we’re truly loving God, that means we’ll be loving our husbands and families and neighbors, too. 

As leaders, we are called to make tough decisions sometimes.  This week in particular, I had some hard choices to make in my business.

1. If I did the right thing, I would deeply offend someone I know.

2.  If I tried to do the right thing while sweeping part of it under the rug and not calling the person at fault into accountability, I would be taking the easy way out and hindering the opportunity for the Lord to teach this person a valuable lesson about this particular issue.

3.And if I didn’t do anything at all, a lot of people would be upset.

When issues like this arise, I:

1. Take it to the Lord in prayer.

2. I ask for a 2^nd opinion from a wise Christian friend

3. I take action. All the while praying for the hearts of the people that the decision will affect.

How did it go over? Not so well. But I know that God is always working in the lives of His people. It is not my job to please everyone and after I’ve done what I know the Lord is asking me to do, I have to step out of the way and allow God to do what only He can do: Change hearts!

—–

MariLee Parrish is a Christian author of over 10 books and the founder and CEO of Mommy Bag Marketing, Inc. where their vision is to spread joy and Christian resources to moms across the country…one bag at a time! Are you looking for a speaker for your next mom’s event or women’s gathering? Learn more at www.marileeparrish.com

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I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.

Do you want the blessing of God on your marriage? On your business? On your life?  Abide in Christ.  This means that we remain or continue in a relationship with him.  We can’t produce fruit if we aren’t getting closer to the Lord each day.  The entire chapter of John 15 is a great encouragement for us.  Over and over Jesus tells us to remain or abide in him in these verses.  It was very important to him to get this message across.  He assures us that apart from him, we can’t do anything.  We can’t be a good wife, mother, business woman, daughter or sister unless we remain in Christ and seek his will for our lives.  Take the time and read through all of John chapter 15.  Consider how you can implement all that Jesus is saying to you in these verses. 

Dear Jesus, we want your blessing on our lives.  Show us how to abide in you.  In Jesus’ name, Amen.

**Even if you don’t have a “baby or mom-specific” product or service, you can STILL participate! See below for details!

We are planning a month-long blog event called

April Showers: Baby Girl Blog Shower!

Our CEO is expecting a baby girl in June and this is a great time for us to review and promote businesses offering baby and mom products and services. During this time we will be reviewing products, writing thorough accounts of our experiences including photographs to post on our blog, fan pages, and websites. We’ll also be placing the articles on the Yahoo Contributor Network.

Between all of our corporate sites, we have developed quite a network of friends, business partners and connections that will be exposed to your company and products. Our websites average over 2,000 visitors per month, we have over 2300 twitter followers and over 2000 facebook friends and fans and over 10 state specific Mommy Bag Marketing fan pages wi/ their own fans. Not to mention the millions of readers that visit the Yahoo Contributor Network every day.

**You can STILL participate if you don’t have a baby or mom product. Just send 1 pack of Pampers Brand diapers and in return, your name and business will be listed on our contributors list and we will write 1 *new* article about your business to post on our blog.

**Also, if you’d like to include a giveaway of some sort for our readers, we will reward you with a TWITTER PR package! Not only will you receive your article on our sites, but we will tweet about your business for the entire month. You’ll receive at least 2 extra personalized tweets per week. Build your twitter following while promoting your business!

If you are interested in participating, please contact Nicole: nicole [at] cmbresource [dot] com.

The deadline for receiving products for review *or diapers* is March 15, 2011.

There are various lines of thought when it comes to early childhood parenting. Here are three of them:

1. My child will learn what he/she needs to know when school begins. That’s what the teachers get paid for. Until then, we watch TV. Disney teaches her plenty of stuff right now.
2. My child MUST be ahead of every kid when school begins. Anything less would be embarrassing. We run drills daily for math, reading, colors, etc.
3. My child loves to learn and we attempt to make our home a learning environment. We don’t push but we do encourage learning. School will help to solidify what’s already been taught at home.

When a child begins school there are numerous concepts focused on. For instance:

• Colors
• Numbers
• Sounds (soft vs loud)
• Animal sounds
• Music
• Social skills
• Self esteem skills
• Teamwork
• Listening skills
• More

Do we need to drill our kids on a daily basis to be sure they enter Preschool with a copy of War and Peace under the arm – ready to debate other toddlers on the playground? Probably not.

Does it hurt to turn our home into a fun learning environment so our kids will joyfully pick up basic concepts, prior to entering formalized school? Nope.

Here are a few fun ways to teach colors!

Create Color Baskets:

Head to the Dollar Store and pick up colored baskets. Fill them with items from around the home: caps, lids, fabrics, toys, left-over items that would otherwise be tossed out (re-purpose!), etc.

Pull out the baskets each day and play. Have your child help put the items back into the baskets when clean-up time comes: “Okay – pass me the RED lid now. That will go into the RED basket!” Here, you are clearly teaching your child his/her colors in a fun way. At this age most kids want to be helpers. They strive for the positive feedback that tells them, “I’m helping out and I’m needed here. I have a purpose!”

Color Baskets are perfect for this. For an additional spin, write the color on each basket in black marker. Be sure to spell the word like they would in school (NOT in all CAPS): Blue and Red and Green and Yellow. Write it how they will learn it!

*Keep choking hazard items out of the baskets.  

Use personal photos:

Take photos of your child wearing specific colors. Glue the photo to the same color paper. Label the back of each one:

• Blue
• Red
• Green
• Yellow
• Pink
• Purple
• Black
• White
• Etc.

Laminate for longer use and use the color cards in the car, on road trips, while standing in line at the post office, on a plane ride, in the grocery store, etc. You’ve now created homemade color toys. Personalized, interactive and fun! What kid doesn’t enjoy looking at their own pics, eh? The colors will be learned quickly and without any drilling needed. Simply say: “Hey. You’re looking at the red photo. Cool! Turn that over. See? It says RED. Pretty neat.”

Hole punch the corners and attach a flip ring for another alternative (keep in the diaper bag for easy use).

Create a color book:

Create a home-made book using your child’s photos. Snap pics of your child wearing specific colors and glue those to paper. Write the color word under each photo. There’s no need to scrapbook this. In fact, too many images and too much text will detract from your child learning the concepts. Read here

A simple photo and one word are perfect for this age group.

Staple or string the book together for use in the car, at bedtime, etc. Enjoy the book together and chat about it; in a non pushy environment. “Oh – look. There’s the BLUE page. I love that page! That BLUE shirt is fabulous.”

In no time, the colors will be learned.

Head to the grocery store:

The grocery store is one of the easiest, most effective places to teach concepts to a child. As you shop, point out the signs, words and colors.

1. “Check that out. That juice bottle is orange. I like orange.”
2. “See that banana? It’s yellow. Do you like yellow bananas?”
3. “The cheese is white. We use that cheese when we make your favorite Italian pasta dinner. You love that white cheese.”
4. “The tomatoes are very red today. I wonder if they taste good, too?”

Point, talk, ask questions and allow your child to answer, in their own time. If they don’t answer, fill in the blanks. Soon enough, they’ll be answering quickly, wanting to please you and show off their new-found knowledge. At that point, a high five or hug is in order: “Great job kiddo – well done!” All humans like positive feedback; children are no different.

Teaching colors need not be a drill of any kind. 23+ years of working with kids has taught me this: Make it FUN and they will learn. In fact, they’ll WANT to learn and they’ll RETAIN the information more quickly and more effectively.

Off you go, then! Happy color teaching.

Easter is just around the corner, and I’ve been thinking about the meaning of Lent recently. The season of Lent parallels the 40 days that Jesus spent in the wilderness, fasting and enduring temptation. The basic idea of Lent is to draw closer to Jesus, either by giving up something, or by adding something (like working in a soup kitchen) to your schedule. Regardless of your church’s Lenten practices, I’m wondering if we can mine some meaningful gems from this season and apply it to our lives as busy moms and working women.

Lent has a reputation for “giving things up,” so let’s start there. Pull up from the daily nitty-gritty of your life for a moment, and take a look around. Are you spending an inordinate time doing things that have little pay-off, and are consuming most of your time? Could you drop one thing from your life, and in doing so, create permanent time in your schedule for daily devotional time with God? If you’re like me, it’s easy to let my quiet time slip to the back burner of my life, and yet it is that time alone with God that energizes me and equips me to face the rest of my life. I usually have to give up something (sleep) in order to have my time with God, but the benefit I receive from my early morning encounters with God far outweigh the sacrifice to get up early. (And I hate to get up early!)

I have recently heard of people observing Lent through sacrificial giving, instead of self-deprivation. I must confess that I love this interpretation, as it takes the focus off of me as an individual and places it on a path to bless others.  Even something as simple as really being present in a conversation allows me to bless someone with the gift of time. How many times do we turn away from an opportunity to demonstrate God’s love to a “needy” person because we were concerned about all of the time it would take to simply listen? Jesus was relational as He displayed God’s love, and all of us have the ability to give of ourselves to those who are hurting and need to experience God’s love. What kind of opportunities have you had this week to bless others? Have you been able to take God up on His invitation to get involved?

Lent is not so much a season of depriving oneself, nor of over-extended giving, but of finding the balance in eliminating the extras in order to return to the basics. And, unlike Lent, we don’t have to limit ourselves to just 40 days! Ask God what you need to give up OR add to your schedule (or both!) in order to discover more of what He has in store for you this year.

Ahhh, that’s the song that’s in my head right now. But actually, all of these titles DO, in fact, have something in common!

Last night at 7pm MT, I was checking on my tweeps and happened upon a Twitter party! I researched a little and found that Tommy Nelson was involved, so I wanted to know more.  We love Max Lucado and Sheila Walsh at our house  and they both write Children’s books for Tommy Nelson! I was actually attending the Children’s Pastor’s Conference in 2007 when Sheila Walsh was the speaker. She gave her testimony and it stirred my heart in more ways than I can express! Then she signed GIGI books! They are wonderful!!

As a writer, I was naturally intriqued by this twitter party about Tommy Nelson, Mommy Bloggers and a fast paced brainstorming session! So, bath-time for my son got pushed back a little and I began to tweet #getasponsor and join in on the fun!

  I have only ever been involved with one other twitter party, so it was still a little new to me.  It was really fun to get ideas from other great mommy bloggers and learn about the Relevant Blogging Conference.  Tommy Nelson gave away 1 sponsorship (where the hashtag #getasponsor comes into play!) to the Relevant Conference and some other prizes.

Tommy Nelson talks about the Twitter party here: http://www.tommynelson.com/blog/why-bloggers-rock

Learn more about the Relevant Christian Blogger Conference (specifically for Christian Mommy Bloggers!!) here: http://therelevantconference.com/

It’s Valentine’s Day Weekend!

Not only is this a romantic time for you and your sweetheart, it can be a fun time for your toddlers and preschoolers, too! My son and I had a great time picking out special surprises for his little buddies and cousins.  We’re also hosting a little Valentine play date for his friends to come over, exchange valentines and eat some yummy homemade treats. This will also be a fun time for me as I get to chat with the other moms and have some adult conversation (in between trips to the potty, breaking up wrestling matches and wiping icing off of the walls, of course!).

Here are some more Valentine ideas to make this day special for you and your little ones:

1. Shara Lawrence-Weiss of Mommy Perks submitted this idea:  “I used to make home-made V-Day stuff with my son. It’s been a while but…I still love the idea of making a home made card. I have one that he made for me when he was 4 – he wrote out all of the things he loved about me.

For example:

“I love my mom’s hair because ________.”

“I love it when she cooks _________.”

“I love it when she ________.”

Some answers ended up being really funny or sweet. Very simple project but it builds literacy skills, comprehension skills, hand-eye coordination with the writing, etc.

2. Make a fridge magnet with their picture on it for their parents. Submitted by Lauren Garcia.

3. use paper doilies and put the child’s hand prints on it with paint, then glue the doily to a big red construction paper heart. Submitted by Sherrill Yoder, Independent Mary Kay Consultant.

4. Make a pan of brownies, use cookie cutter hearts to cut out brownies, then frost with milk and powdered sugar frosting (died pink or red) and top with a heart shaped chocolate. VERY kid friendly and yummy! Submitted by Sarah Mitchell Slater 

5. Paint toast!  Color milk with pink/red food coloring. “paint” hearts using the colored milk  on white bread with Q-tips or small clean paintbrushes, making sure not to use too much and “drown” the bread. Then toast in toaster. Submitted by Vickie Henman of Little Green Fern.

6. Valentine Craft

*Add 1 part glue to 1 part paint (red and white)

*Drip paint/glue mixture on large sheet of wax paper.

*Child finger paints on wax paper – blending the colors.

*Cover the painting with another sheet of wax paper and flatten.

*Let it dry – when it dries, it will become very stiff.

*Cut out  a heart (or any shape you like to do this craft ANYTIME during the year!)

*Poke hole and thread yarn through the top to hang.

Submitted by Deborah Stewart

of Teach Preschool Online

First Published on Associated Content by MariLee Parrish 2/12/10

Why should mom’s everywhere consider switching to Shaklee products to clean their home?

I was told by a friend that Shaklee is so safe that a child could drink it on accident and be ok. Is this true?
Children should never drink any type of cleaner natural or not. 

Is Shaklee affordable?
Shaklee is very affordable. You spend the money up front and the products last twice as long….they are great. Also no more running out to the store…Shaklee is shipped right to your door. You have a 24/7 on-line access to purchase products anytime that fits into YOUR schedule.

Does Shaklee offer other items besides cleaning products?
Yes, that is the great thing. Shaklee is the #1 Health and Nutrition Company in the US. Not only great cleaning products, but beauty care, nutrition, weight loss and ant aging. And the best part — THEY ARE ALL NATURAL!

Can work-at-home-moms really make money from Shaklee?
YES, they can and they do. I’m a mom, work outside of the home and make extra money. The opportunity is very flexible. You decide how much money you want to make. You give yourself a raise if you are needing to make more one month over the other. You work your business when you have time.

What is the compensation plan like?
Amazing. There are so many different ways to make money that if you are stronger in one area over the other; you make money in the area you are strong at. It is flexible and workable for everyone. Right now it is set up for those that are NEW to Shaklee to earn up to $100,000 in 15 months. That is an incredible offer, especially in this economy. And how many times do we use a product and share it with our family and friends? Do you get a check from that retailer for doing that? I never did, but Shaklee sends me a check for sharing products and opportunities to those that I know.

Why would joining your team would be a great choice?
I have been working in public service for 17 years and it is my passion to help people. Having my own Shaklee business is an exact match for my desire and passion for helping not only other moms, but all people. I have a strong foundation and great team and would welcome anyone that wants to earn an income and/or start using products that are safe for you, the environment and your family.

Learn more here: http://www.living4greenhealth.com/