Wednesday, December 19, 2018

A Sanctified Family~"Last Episode"

We want to thank all of you for your kind words of encouragement, prayers, & support as we have been recording our podcast for the past four years! It is not an easy task to juggle along with our crazy busy lives with four kids. Of course, it has been a blessing to our family & we pray to yours too. After much prayer & thought, we have decided to take a break from podcasting. We won't be releasing any new podcasts next season, but we hope to still encourage families through our blog & Facebook. Of course, all of our previous episodes are archived on www.thelightnetwork.tv. Our final episode of this season released today. We love y'all!



As Christians we are called to be sanctified. On this episode, Denise & Wesley talk about what this means for our families and what it looks like. 

Be sure to check out show notes for audio of Legacy Family Camp lessons as well as some other great podcasts to encourage your family.

Wednesday, November 28, 2018

Praying for Your Family & Friends




We all know that praying for our families is important, but sometimes it is hard to know how to do that. On today's episode, Wesley & Denise talk about some practical tips for praying for our marriage, our children, & our friends. 

We talk on this episode about making a list for your marriage, your spouse, & each of your children. Sometimes, I need an example to get my mind going!  We have created a list of 16 Prayers for Your Marriage & 16 Prayers for Your Children.  {Click the link to download or save the images below.} We hope you will use & benefit from these prayer guides for your marriage & your children. We encourage you to use these simply as a guide to help you pray. (You can even cut the page & glue the pieces together to make a bookmark!) Please personalize these & make them your own. Pray for specific things that you or your spouse need help with or that are important to you.  Make a list for each of your children & make them specific to include what things your children need help with at this moment (maybe it is attitudes or a specific health problem or behavior that needs to be corrected).  Nothing will humble you as a spouse & parent as seeing your specific prayers written out to God & realizing what role you play in helping your own marriage & children.  Be sure you make a list for yourself as well-how you can be a better spouse & parent.  Post your list where you will see it often & can pray through it throughout the day. 
We love you--Wesley & Denise



Wednesday, November 14, 2018

Creating a Heart of Thankfulness

November is a month that our country traditionally thinks about being thankful. As Christians, we should have a heart of thankfulness all year long. On this episode, Wesley and Denise talk about how we can create this in our children and ourselves.


Tuesday, October 23, 2018

Legacy Family Camp

**We have recorded an episode of our podcast talking about our experience at camp.  Here it is:
https://thelightnetwork.tv/aiohs8e5/

Our family was blessed to travel to Oklahoma to the Legacy Family Camp last week.  Since I had over 500 pictures.....I decided not to Instagram them!  Ha ha!  Here are links to the Facebook albums. I will add them as I go.

First up, Day 1 & 2 Travel & Express Clydesdales
Legacy Family Camp-Thursday



There are some really fun videos from our trip-especially tomahawk throwing-but I cannot get them to upload directly to the blog. You can check them out on Facebook.




Legacy Family Camp-Saturday
https://www.facebook.com/deniseskelton/media_set?set=a.10105847581402175&type=3

Sunday/Trip home/Random pictures people sent me!
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10105852285659805&type=1&l=94b87188a4

Monday, September 17, 2018

Samaritan Ministries Health Sharing Experience

Now that we’ve had an ER visit complete with two night hospital stay, I love Samaritan Ministries even more. See these circled totals? That’s how much our bills were (you can see the “bill total” above was before “discounts” ðŸ˜³). With our Samaritan plan, we are responsible for $300 per event. Well.....when you receive any discounts, that goes towards your responsible amount. So, ER visit & 2 nights’ stay....we will be responsible for $0. Yep. $0. How does that compare to our crazy deductibles we used to have?! No comparison. It’s a hugely amazing blessing.
Here’s more info. I’d be glad to answer any questions. I know how much of a burden medical insurance & bills are & am thankful we chose this!


Wednesday, May 23, 2018

Internet Security for Families

Technology and the internet can be great tools for our families, but they can also be extremely dangerous. From pornography to internet bullying and everything in between, there are many things we need to be aware of as parents. Chad and Sabrina Tagtow join Wesley and Denise on the second of a two part episode on how to keep our families safe online. 
*This episode has technical tips for parents.*

Wednesday, May 9, 2018

Internet Security for Your Family

Technology & the internet can be great tools for our families, but they can also be extremely dangerous. From pornography to internet bullying & everything in between, there are many things we need to be aware of as parents. Chad & Sabrina Tagtow join us on the first of a two part episode on how to keep our families safe online.

Wednesday, April 25, 2018

Estate Planning

Estate planning isn’t a topic that we really want to think or talk about, but making plans to provide for our children in the event of our death is so important. On this episode, we are joined by Attorney Charity Stubblefield to discuss what plans we need to have in place, what documents we need to have available for our families, & how to choose guardians for our children in the event of our untimely death.
The bottom photo is the table of contents to a Legacy Binder one of our friends created.  There are lots of links in the show notes, including how to make a Legacy Drawer/Binder & what to include.

Friday, February 16, 2018

Using Chatbooks to Print Social Media Photos




I LOVE using Chatbooks to make photo books for our kids, family events, & grandparents.  I seriously don't think my kids would have photo books at this point without Chatbooks.  They have certainly made it easier on me.  Here are a few reasons why I love Chatbooks:

  1. They sync automatically from my Instagram (or Facebook!).
  2. I can have separate books for each kid or event or even each set of grandparents with no problem.
  3. I can make a series book (like I have for each child) or do custom books (like I do for grandparents at the end of the year).  The series book would be a great way to have a homeschool "yearbook."
  4. It takes most of the work out of making photo books.  The captions & dates are automatically included from when I upload to social media.  I do go back when I receive my "it's about to print" email & double check for typos & choose the cover photo. 
  5. You can add photos from your device or social media.  So, a couple of times, I have taken a photo that Wesley requested that I not put on social media.  I just added it to my Chatbooks manually after I took it.
  6. You can set your subscription based on how much money you want to spend each month.  I have had it set to one book per month for HK & M.  Recently, I paused those subscriptions & started SG & N's.  
  7. Their customer service is TOP NOTCH. I have never had an issue that wasn't quickly resolved by customer service.  They are seriously amazing.
  8. The quality is great. If you know me, you know I am very picky about our photos.  As a former professional photographer, quality is something I take seriously. I have been very pleased with the books we have received.  (I haven't tried them yet, but they also have prints!)
I am often asked how you link your social media to Chatbooks. I thought I'd post a little tutorial today to walk you through it.  Now, Chatbooks has a great how to on their website.  Just look at their FAQs & type in Facebook, Instagram, etc.  I am a visual person, so I thought this might help.

**I know some people are really picky about posting their kids photos on social media.  Never fear! You can still do Chatbooks.  You can always just upload from your device, but if you want to do it a little at a time like I do--just create a PRIVATE Instagram account.  You decide who your followers are & if you don't want anyone to see the pictures, just don't add any followers.  :) Hope that helps!**

My kids' photo books are sorted by hashtag.  So, each time I upload a photo to social media, I include their hashtag in the caption.  (I also do that for both sets of grandparents, special trips (like PTP), our yearly book, Christmas, anything I *THINK* I might want a book for later.)
See Noah's hashtag?

Go into the Chatbooks app (or their website) & click the plus sign to add a new book.  Select photo book series & then where you would like to get your pictures from.
On photo sources, click MANAGE to add the hashtag(s) that you want to include. You can also set it up to add contributors (maybe if you & your spouse upload pictures or whatever).

 Add the hashtag filter you want to use-you can use more than one hashtag if needed.

I don't exactly remember why I did this screenshot.....but look how precious my tiny baby was! Maybe it was to say you can click that little gear icon in the top right to manage your subscription or edit what photos are included.....Who knows!  It's nap time & I am exhausted!
I hope this helps! Let me know if you have any questions! 
If you do not have a Chatbooks account yet, PLEASE sign up through my link.  You get your first book FREE & I get $5 credit.  We have four kids......I take a lot of pictures........I need all the credit I can get! :) 

Thursday, February 15, 2018

2018 Scripture Memory Plan--Deuteronomy 6:4-5

Here's an extra for this week! We taped ours to different doors in the house.  Our kids loved it! There is an easy & a harder version.
If you'd like to learn more about our 2018 Scripture Memory Plan, check it out here.




Making Big Decisions S7E3

As adults, we often make big decisions that affect our family.  How often do we discuss them with our children?  On this episode, we talk about how to include our children in those decisions and use them as teachable moments. 

Thursday, February 8, 2018

Chatbooks

I LOVE Chatbooks. ðŸ’–💜💚 I use a hashtag for each child (or special event I want a book for -- Christmas, 2018, PTP....) & I automatically get a book every time there are 60 pictures. Captions are already done because I put them on when I uploaded to social media. It's AMAZING. I also have a hashtag for both sets of grandparents (they LOVE this!), so they get a book for Christmas with all of the year's pictures. Let me know if you have questions! If you use my referral link HERE, then you get your first book free & I get $5 credit.. This is seriously the only way my kids have photo books at this point! 

Wednesday, January 17, 2018

A Year of Scripture Memory Work

Season 7 Episode 1 "A Year of Scripture Memory Work"

We all know how important it is for us to hide God's Word in our hearts.  Today, we are unveiling a plan of Scripture memory work for the whole year as well as giving some tips on how to teach & review memory verses with our kids. Listen to our episode here.

We had a great suggestion from one our our listeners to develop a Scripture memory plan for the year.  I know we desperately need a plan or we really struggle.  We have really slacked with memory verses as we have added each kid because that's one more thing to remember to do.  If something is not planned out for me, I have a hard time getting it done.  Hopefully, this will help not only our family but your family as well.  I made this plan for the year while our family was battling the flu, so please let me know if you find any errors!  If this goes well, maybe next year we can develop another one that follows a "plan" a little better-maybe a theme for each month or something like that.  For now, here is our official 2018 Arrows in Our Hand Scripture Memory Work (can you think of any more words we can throw in that title?!)!
You should be able to click & download the image to print & we will also have this available on our Facebook page.


Here are some of our favorite memory verses set to songs:



And here's an episode we did about memory work during our first season of the podcast with our friends, the Eplings.