Important Blog Update

Hello family and friends!

Amy and I wanted to take a few minutes and shared a some thoughts about the blog and where we're going with it. But first, thank you, to the many hundreds of you who have continued to visit, read, share, like, comment, and encourage us here on TheHighamFamily.com blog. We are so very blessed that we get to share our story with you, via the blog and our vlog. Knowing that you are coming back over and over again, well, it's just amazing. And for all of you who continue to engage with us on Facebook, keep it up! We love reading your comments and participating in the conversations.

Now, this being the end of August, it's the perfect time to bring you up to speed with what we will begin sharing come September. And because we value your readership and support, we want you to hear our heart as we make some big decisions. So let's get going with what YOU need to know!

1. You need to know that the website and vlog are a source of income for the Higham family.
What does that mean? Well, basically, we hope to help supplement our monthly income with the blog. We believe very much in family. We've worked very hard over the last 20 years at raising our family. One of our biggest family values we hold is the belief that Amy's primary role in our marriage and in our family is to be the stay-at-home-mom. As a young couple, we committed to the idea that while our children were in school, Amy would stay home to care for the kids and the house. That meant that when children came, we would sacrifice her second income. And that's what we did.

At times the sacrifice was great, as we struggled and learned how to live on a youth pastors salary. We went without many of the extras others living with two incomes enjoyed, and we were okay with that. We made a commitment and our desire was to honor that commitment and trust that God would provide. And provide He did. Over and over again we saw God at work in our lives. We served in two amazing churches who cared very well for us and our growing family. God brought people into our lives who blessed us far beyond measure. And God opened the door to relationships that created many wonderful opportunities for Amy to babysit children in our home. But much has changed. Today we still trust that God will provide, but we believe He is leading us into new ventures that will lead us to deeper places of faith and trust. This blog and our YouTube vlog are two of these new ventures.

You see, we still believe that Amy's primary role is to be the amazing caregiver that our family has grown to rely on. And so we are seeking to supplement our income through the blog so she can continue to stay home and care for our children while we share our family story here on the blog.

How do we plan to make money? There are 5 primary ways that we will use the blog/vlog to supplement our income.

Affiliate Links and Sales. You have probably seen the ads that appear throughout the blog. We participate in two ad compensation affiliations, Amazon.com and Google Adsense. When you click on one or more of the ads placed around the site, you generate traffic for the company or product that is shared. For Google Adsense ads, that traffic then results in a percentage of revenue that is shared between us and our Google partner. In the case of Amazon.com affiliate links, when clicking on a product ad leads to you purchasing the product, we receive a percentage of the sale. The more clicks, the more traffic. The more traffic, the more sales. The more sales, the more the percentage towards income.

Life in the Higham House Vlog. A little over a year ago, the Higham's started a YouTube channel called, Life in the Higham House. It's what we refer to when we say VLOG. A VLOG is similar to a BLOG, or "web-log". Where a blog is usually typed thoughts or comment that tell a story, a VLOG is a "video-log" that shares the story in living color. We decided that not only did we want to share our family story in a blog, but that we wanted to give our readers a real life look at what life is like for a family of 7!

Now over the last couple of years, many families have started sharing their stories through their own YouTube channels. It's become so popular, that many of the YouTube channels out there operate like regular TV programming. YouTube has encouraged this creative story-telling by developing a way for video creators to continue creating content while also making a living doing it.

We have loved sharing our family story via our YouTube channel. However, our posting of regular content has been spotty. And yet, we have seen a slow but consistent growth in subscriptions and video views. We have also heard from  many who have shared how they enjoyed watching one or more of our videos. Some have even suggested that we share more than just the weekend vlog. Because of this we have decided to increase our vlogging to be a daily, you will be able to watch Life in the Higham House, on Monday through Friday! Like the blog, our videos come with short ads that generate income for our family. When you watch and click on the ads, you do the same thing that our affiliate links do on our website.

Product Sales. We want to promote the idea of family. And one of the ways we will do that is through the sale of various items or products that we create and sell. Currently we offer two products, our family t-shirt line and Jay's children's books. The family t-shirt line is just that, a line of t-shirts with graphics that promote the family. You can see some examples by clicking HERE! We design the graphic, print the shirts, sell them right here on the website, and ship them out to you! And Jay's growing library of children's books is made possible through a program offered by Amazon.com. With print-on-demand technology, you can order a copy of any of Jay's book from Amazon.com! Do you like ebooks instead? Jay's books are also available for Kindle! Every order you make for either a book or a t-shirt generates a little bit more income for us!

Speaking Engagements. Jay has been teaching and speaking in front of students, parents, and adults for over 25 years. Amy has been teaching mentoring, and encouraging girls, women, and mom's for over 15 years. And we would love to come and share our experience with your group! MOPS groups, couples retreats, family retreats, youth retreats, women's groups, men's groups, youth groups, churches, or youth worker seminars and trainings. If you need a speaker or consultant, contact us here.
​
Patreon.com. We love generating content that encourages and strengthens the family. We love sharing our family story on the blog and in our vlogs! We consider it as part of our ministry to students and families. And we want to keep doing it! One of the biggest ways that you can help us continue to create and encourage families is to become a regular sponsor of TheHighamFamily.com and Life in the Higham House vlog. How? By becoming a partner. In the coming weeks we will be setting up an account with Patreon.com, a website that helps online content creators generate income so they can continue creating content. By sponsoring the blog and the vlog, you help us generate income so we can continue to create and share. As we get closer to our September launch date, we will share more with you.

2. You need to know that we are a blog committed to encouraging the family.
As you know, Jay has been blogging for years. Mostly it's been a hobby. But a couple of years ago, Jay began to get serious about his writing. Along with focusing his blog (www.JayHigham.com) on the student ministry, he has been working hard to get some of his articles published on other student ministry sites. So far he has been featured on the YouthMinistry360.com blog, the YouthSpecialties.com blog, and the YouthMinistry.com blog (also known as the SimplyYouthMinistry.com blog) You can read some of his articles by visiting this page: www.jayhigham.com/published-articles.html. 

But this blog is different. This blog focuses on family. We truly believe that the family is an essential piece to the stability of society. As Christians, we believe that the family is part of God's beautiful design for life. We believe that marriages should be honored, spouses valued, and children treasured. We believe that parents should BE parents. And we believe that the family home needs to be a place filled with grace, love, forgiveness, and hope! And we want this site to become a place where husbands and wives, mom's and dad's, even children, can find encouragement, support, resources, hope, help, and maybe even a little laughter along the way.

You see, we're not a perfect family. We make mistakes. But you don't have to be perfect. And it's okay to make mistakes. Because it's through the trials and errors that we learn and grow, and we see God do amazing things. This is the place where we can share those things. That's why we say, "Raising stronger families together!"

3. You need to know that we are striving to raise a healthier family.
After our miscarriage in December 2015, we were introduced to essential oils. Essential oils are the natural plant extracts. We were encouraged to begin using the oils to help relieve some of the emotional and physical struggles we started having. It didn't take long for us to discover the great benefits of the oils. So this summer we decided to take a bigger step into the world of essential oils, and became an independent disturber for the oldest and most trusted leader in the industry, Young Living.

Young Living has pioneered the essential oils industry, developing a Seed to Seal process that guarantees the delivery of the most powerful extracts on the market. 100% natural from plant to home, these essential oils have changed our thinking and how we live in so many ways. We shared many of our reasons for trying essential oils here, The Journey Begins. Because we have seen a significant difference in our lives, we decided to share what we are learning and using with you, our readers here on the blog. Our desire to to raise a stronger, healthier family, and Young Living Essential Oils is helping us do that.

We have created a new page here on the blog labeled, Essential Oils. On this page you will find resources, our own personal testimonies of products we love and use, announcements of discounts and special product promotions, and tutorials on how to use the various oils. And every Wednesday, we will highlight one or more products through a blog or a vlog post.

So there you are, 3 big updated coming to the website here in the month of September. We love sharing our lives here with you on the blog and in our vlogs. We are so grateful that you take the time to visit the site to read, watch and encourage us. And we want to continue doing this; sharing the amazing story that God has written for our family, offering encouragement and practical helps as you raise your family and growing a deeper community of friends who cherish, value, and support the family!

Thank you again, for all your support. Be sure to comment and share your family story with us! We want to know you!

​- the higham family

---