Truth in the Tinsel

Ok, so I have never been a person who does advent activities.... Honestly, I really only thought of them as the calendars you see in the stores that pop out a piece of candy for 24 days leading up to Christmas (and who really needs any more candy leading up to Christmas?).  This year is going to be different- our family is going to plunge right into the Christmas season with a neat little ebook called Truth in the Tinsel.

The author, Amanda White writes,

I want them to say, “the best present of all is Jesus!”

I really believe December is one of best times to impress God’s Word on your kids’ hearts. Our whole country turns its attention to Christmas–stores are playing songs of worship to the newborn king, movies are playing on cable that show the real meaning of Christmas and people even decorate their yard with Bible characters!
I try to leverage this Jesus-centered month by helping my kids meditate on and learn the real story of Jesus’ birth. That’s how this ebook was born. Out of a daily advent-ure with my daughter when she was only 1 year old. Every day we read a passage of Scripture, made a simple ornament and then talked about the story. As we talked and created, God’s Word was sinking deep into her heart. She was meditating and focusing on Scripture–in her own preschool way.
This ebook will lead you and your children on your own experience through the Christmas Story. You’ll take a few minutes each day in reading the Christmas Story directly from the Bible, making a fun ornament craft and talking about it together.
Give your kids a few minutes for the first 24 days of December. You might find your kids giving themselves to Jesus in return!

I am so excited to be starting this with my girls in the next few days and wanted to let others know about it too.  Check out their facebook page too!

Happy Thanksgiving!

"Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever." Psalm 107:1

There are few times during the year that inspire us to examine the blessings God has given us as much as the week of Thanksgiving. I know in our house the hustle and bustle of the holiday week has a tendency to distract from personal reflections of how God has shown his love to us as a family. This year, Susie was sick and we were unable to do the traveling we originally planned. This meant we were able to slow down, stay home, and spend some great time with each other and totally enjoying each other's company (in between fevers!).

Although we have done some of our regular schoolwork this week, we took some time to focus on the Thanksgiving holiday. I pulled together some resources from the internet and we had some fun learning about the first Thanksgiving and doing some "Turkey-day" activities as we celebrated the things we are so thankful for.

Here are some of the things we did:

I found this interactive website at Scholastic.com that talked about the history of the Pilgrims and the Mayflower. It gives good information on what life was really like for the Pilgrims. Mikayla really liked it because she could click on the slideshow and there was a little icon she could click to have it read the story to her. There were also printables that both the girls enjoyed. One of them is a play about the first Thanksgiving. I let the girls color the pictures of the characters. Then I laminated them and the girls made them into puppets for acting out the play.

We also love Confessions of a Homeschooler and she posted this Thanksgiving Preschool Pack just in time for Thanksgiving! Mikayla and Susannah loved the activities I printed out for them.  This size-sorting activity is just one of many we completed. Susie's favorites are the pre-writing/ tracing activities, but there are tons of things to work on.

One craft we enjoyed working on was this thankful turkey.  The girls wrote or dictated the things or people they were thankful for on this holiday.  Mikayla is thankful for "nature" twice simply because she wanted to make one for the bird cheeps and sounds and another for all other animals.

Thanks to Pinterest, we had some tasty treats to work on too! 

This is a Skittles Sorting Mat.  It was hard to keep the skittles from rolling around, but otherwise fun! Susie was taking things so seriously!

Today, Mikayla made these Oreo Turkeys-  She really enjoyed being able to make them all by herself once I showed her how to make the first one (and I enjoyed giving her something to do while I was finishing the meal!).

I hope you have had a great Thanksgiving holiday and taken a few minutes to reflect on the blessings that you have.  I know I have been blessed in so many ways, but right now, I am thankful for the change in plans that led to such a great day at home with my family!

Operation Christmas Child

Several weeks ago, I posted about our girls' excitement as we prepared for Operation Christmas Child.  Through the ministry of Samaritan's Purse, we pack and send shoeboxes filled with goodies to children all over the world!

Four years ago, a few of us decided to make packing the shoeboxes a church ministry sponsored by our Sunday School children. The adults do the shopping and bring in various hygiene items, school supplies, and toys to pack on the first Saturday in November. The first two years we participated in Operation Christmas Child, we set a goal of 100 shoeboxes for our church. Each year we reached our goal, but then we decided to change our strategy a bit last year. My sister-in-law had been in prayer regarding this ministry and suggested we prayerfully ask God to determine the number of shoeboxes we were to send in His name. We held a "shoebox drive" in September to collect the many shoeboxes everyone had been saving. Our total count was 300 boxes!  We weren't totally sure if we would fill them, but once again, God made it happen.  Considering we are a small church, it was obvious to us that this was blessed by God.

This year, we continued to place our faith in God and allow Him to lead us in this ministry. Just a little over a week ago, we packed 312 shoeboxes! This has truly become a ministry of the church family as we wrap ALL those shoeboxes, gather/sort/count ALL our supplies, pack ALL the boxes, check ALL those boxes (sometimes twice!), pray for ALL those boxes and their recipients, and finally deliver ALL those boxes to a drop off center where they will begin their journey to the hands of a child. We are so blessed by the parents, children, and college students who give up their busy Saturday morning to help us. 

This week is packing week for Operation Christmas Child, so you still have a chance to pack a box and get it to a drop-off center. Their website has all the information you need to pack a box and local drop-off points.

Here are some of the things we have learned as we have packed for a large group...

1. Since it is uncool to send a box with a toothbrush, but without toothpaste (or vice-versa), it helps to rubberband them together ahead of time.  (Trust me when I say that it really stinks to try and figure out which shoebox doesn't have the toothbrush in it at the end of a long packing day!)

2. Since soap has to be placed in a baggie anyway, it makes life easier to put a washcloth in there too. 

3. Set up your packing area ahead of time.  We usually set up our tables the night before so that there is less chaos the day of packing. 

4.  Have a check point, especially if lots of kids are doing the actual packing. We have between three to five "checkers" who check each box before it is cleared.  We check to make sure we don't send pencils without sharpeners (totally uncool) or flashlights without batteries.  We also place a picture of our Sunday School students in the box and label/rubberband it. 

5. Pay for shipping online. If you pay for shipping ahead of time, you can print labels for the shoeboxes and track where they end up! It is so exciting to know that the shoebox you diligently packed ended up halfway around the world!

6. Pray, Pray, Pray! Pray for the children who receive these boxes and pray that it helps to open their hearts to our Lord and Saviour.

This experience continues to bless our family and our church- I hope you give it a try too!  Here are some other links about Operation Christmas Child you might enjoy:

Operation Christmas Child

Our Family for His Glory

Impress Your Kids

Edited to show the girls once we packed up the vehicles to drop off all these shoeboxes! They were packed in soo tight!

Happy Birthday, Jeff!

Today, on Veteran's Day, is my husband's birthday.  He doesn't like his picture posted on the blog too much, but you will see him around and hear me talk of him often. We first met almost twelve years ago at the Tom Rose School for Dog Trainers (of all places).  Yes, we were both originally dog trainers before pursuing our current careers!  We still train dogs on occasion and hope it will be something Jeff can "retire" to, but even if it isn't,  it has always been a lot of fun for both of us.  Although we certainly didn't experience "love at first sight," Jeff and I believe God meant us for each other. Like many other people, we are still growing into God's plans for our family and living out His design for our lives.  We have weathered many storms and seen many rainbows, but I know the best is truly yet to come for us!

1 Corinthians 13:4-8  Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.  Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.

These are some of my favorite verses on love in the Bible... so familiar, yet no less true. 

This year, Jeff's birthday celebrations have been a little low key since we both had to work today. Yesterday, I was off, so the girls and I made and decorated some really yummy cupcakes!  They were soo good!  The time change has completely thrown all of our time clocks out of sync so the girls were too wiped to do any other crafts for Daddy this year.  He received his gift about a month ago when he got his new puppy, Diesel, from Belgium. Diesel is a Belgian Malinois, a herding breed that is frequently used in police work over here in the States.  They are high energy, intelligent, fun loving dogs that require a lot of training (a great dog for a dog trainer, lol). 

Also, before I forget, I would like to express my appreciation for all the veterans of our wonderful country. We are grateful for the service, time, and sacrifices you have made for our nation. 

A New Blog

About a year ago, I started my first little blog, A Princess Preschool.  I knew this would be a short-lived blog due to my girls rapidly approaching and surpassing preschool age, but I enjoyed it anyway. It is a way for me to share about my new experiences in homeschooling, but it is limited in other ways. There are times I have what I think would be a great post about something our family has done, is going through, or going to do, but if it didn't fit with the topic of homeschooling, I didn't post it. I hope to rectify that situation with this new blog. I hope the broader subject matter will allow for me to post frank discussions about our faith journey as well as our continuing adventures in homeschooling. In the coming weeks, I will reintroduce you to the family and some of the things we have been working on. I hope above all else that the words written here will encourage you as many other blogs have encouraged me!

I hope you will continue to tag along with us at Faith and Family Moments!