Two tutes: wire bird nest, hand sanitizer

Aren't those so cute?! The bird nest tutorial is here, at Just Something I Made. They couldn't be easier, and require minimal materials. Combine that with this tute from Just A Girl, and viola, very easy and practical teacher thank you gifts! We gave ours to the AWANA and Sunday School teachers, and then I kept one for myself. That is a perk of being a home school mama, I get teacher gifts that I know I will like!

Fun stuff to do with kids

• write a play
• perform a play
• invent a circus act
• perform a circus act for neighbors
• play card games
• play catch
• make frisbees with old plastic lids and decorate
  
• play frisbee
• collect rocks, leaves or feathers
• dust the house
• brush your pet
  

Family Friday, on Sunday

Did you know if you go to blogger in draft you can schedule your posts? So last month I scheduled all of my prayer posts and all of the fun stuff lists, it was awesome! But it gave me an excuse not to post anything current, plus our family came to visit for a week, so I was busy taking pictures rather than posting pictures. Needless to say, I am a little behind, and if I don't post some pics soon, I will have some serious explaining to do where the grandmas are concerned!


If you look right below the name George, you can see the brown moth that came out of the Mr. Raindrop's cocoon this week, this was a seriously fun thing to do with the kids, you should all go caterpillar hunting this week!

Who needs to actually feed their kids? Ella is great at finding all kinds of things to eat on her own. Crumbs from breakfast, old sippy cups (the worst), toothpaste...



I am a reader, I desperately want my kids to be readers. Seeing babies enjoying books brings joy to my heart. Reading with my babies, and to my kiddos is the best part of any day.

These are just a few photos from the week. The one of Haley and Jeremiah is a rare moment when they were loving on each other, usually they don't do much of anything together. It is a relationship within our family that is going to take a lot of prayer and a lot of encouraging!

Also, I didn't take any photos of this but the highlight of my week was when my friend Ashley came to my house, and took me to lunch! Not just to lunch, but she took me to the three coolest stores in Houston, a thrift store, a used book store and the home school store. Did I mention that she brought her husband, who watched all 8 of our children while we did this?! Isn't that amazing?! Thanks to Ashley and David, and their servant hearts.

Then on Thursday night we went to Town Hall for Hope, the Dave Ramsey live event. It was awesome as usual. If you didn't go see it check out the link, and send it on to everyone you know, we need to spread the message of hope!

Pray for our family as we are still adjusting to such a huge change in our lives.

Hope your week was as wonderful as ours!

Prayer for myself

This is from a book called "Parenting Is Heart Work" by Dr. Scott Turansky and Joanne Miller, RN, BSN.

Lord, I pray the same prayer David  prayed in Psalm 139:23: "Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts."  Please point out areas in my heart that are getting in the way of my effectiveness with my family.  I want to serve You here at home, and I ask You to prepare me every day for the difficult work of parenting.  I also ask you to make me sensitive to my children's heart needs.  Help me to see past the mundane tasks fo the day to the deeper issues in their lives.  Please use me as an instrument in the work You are doing in their hearts.

Fun stuff to do with kids

• make up a secret family handshake
• make silhouettes of eachother
• do a three legged race
• make a zoo with all the stuffed animals
• play veterinarian with all the stuffed animals
• draw giant mazes on the sidewalk with chalk
• make homemade play dough
• write a letter
• let them vacuum
• draw, color or paint
• look at things through binoculars
• look at things through a magnifying glass

Prayers for my family

For my children:
Lord, you are able to preserve my children for their right mate, the one you have chosen in advance for them.  Keep them from the wrong person, and save them for the right one.  Lord help them avoid broken hearts and unnecessary pain in their lives.


2Co 6:14  Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness?

For my husband:
Lord, I pray that Michael will be a man of prayer, that he wills eek and pursue you purposefully.

1Th 5:17  pray without ceasing

Mustaches

This project gets high marks in the easy-peasy category. The kids did most of the work, I just traced mustache patterns and tied knots. It also get high marks in the very-silly fun category, making it an all-around great activity, highly recommended.

What you need:
scissors
mini hole punch
marker
elastic beading cord
scotch tape
magazine clippings of hair (or for littler ones, I used craft foam)
these templates

Trace the mustache shapes onto the magazine clippings or the craft foam and cut them out. Punch holes and tie the elastic cord through the holes. You will need to make several knots and then trim the ends so they don't tickle your nose.

Brown paper packages tied up with string

My nieces got baptized this weekend. It was pretty cool. The bracelets are their gift, hopefully they will remember the occasion every time they wear them. I love anything wrapped in brown paper and string. So I sewed the bracelets up into little brown paper pockets made from lunch sacks. It was easy and it looks simple, but pretty.

Fun stuff to do with kids

• check out movies from the library for a movie marathon
• write reviews of some of those movies
• have everyone help put together a family newsletter
• plan an imaginary trip to any country you want to go to
• find a pen pal in that country
• if you are right handed do everything with your left for a day, or vice versa
• balance things in the palm of your hand
• google cornstarch fingerprints and then follow the directions on one of the sites
• press flowers
• play knuckleheads by drawing faces on the side of your hands
• play with play dough
  

Prayers for my family

That we would believe God, and not the deceiver.  There is absolute truth and there is deception.  All of life is a choice of who you will believe.  Life is a battle between believing the truth or swallowing lies.  And because the nature of our hearts is to doubt the truth and believe deceptions, it takes a deliberate effort to embrace God's truth as non-negotiable.  If we don't keep our minds in the truth of the Scriptures on a daily basis, we become easy marks for our constant foe, the devil, who is both an "angel of light" (2 Cor. 11:14) and the "father of lies."
(this is an excerpt from the online daily devotional at Focus on the Family)

Lord give us daily, deliberate, ongoing discernment.  Give us eyes that are able to see the difference between truth and lies.  Give us ears that are able recognize lies immediately.  Give us mouths that only speak truth.  Give us feet that are swift to run to truth and away from lies.  Give us deep longing to be in Your Word everyday, where absolute truth is found.  In Jesus Name, Amen

Caring for a cattepillar? catapillar? CATERPILLAR

Caterpillar is the correct spelling for anyone wondering, maybe you all already knew how to spell it? Anyway, meet Mr. Raindrop. He is a lovely little forest tent caterpillar, that Mikey found on the toys outside.

Mr. Raindrop is our second caterpillar, preceded by Baby Caterpillar, who Haley found. Unfortunately Baby caterpillar found his way out of the jar through holes in the lid that were too big. (Haley warned Dad, Dad dismissed warning, drama ensued)

This is really a lot of fun for all of us, especially me, I mean, especially the kids. Mikey has a caterpillar bucket, with a rag and a smaller jar for collecting dirt. He takes the bucket outside every other day and collects new sticks and leaves and dirt. Then we gently remove the caterpillar, wipe out his jar, change the stuff inside and replace him in his new cozy home. For about two days Mr. Raindrop didn't eat much or even move much, I was preparing the kids for his imminent death, I thought for certain we had killed the little guy. Then yesterday we got to watch as he started building this:
YEAH! We didn't kill him, he was just resting up for his big project! This is how eastern tent caterpillars pupate, they build these silky little cocoons and then turn into big ugly brown moths. Haley is still expecting a beautiful butterfly, I keep trying to warn her, I hope she won't be too disappointed...I hope drama does not ensue.

When you find a caterpillar, do a google image search to find out what kind it is, what it eats and how best to take care of it. Eastern tent caterpillars are more of a nuisance than anything, and so most of the information was about how to get rid of them! Fortunately we found a little home school kid's blog all about taking care of them, called "A Bug's Life" he had dozens and dozens of these, making him a subject matter expert in my mind! This has been a very fun, easy project to do with the kids, I highly recommend it.

Good news and bad news

The bad news first, I was hoping that if I left it open longer than originally planned, that more people would enter the giveaway for the FairTax book. I hope this isn't a commentary on how little people care about our country, and just a commentary on how many (or few!) people read my blog!

The good news, since there were only three of you, I am going to send all of you a copy! I only have one in my hot little hands and will send it to the first commenter, the others will have to wait while I find time to go to the bookstore and then find time to go to the post office, so it might be a couple of weeks, but I will get them to you. Maybe I will just get them from amazon.com and ship them directly...sounds like a plan!

So congrats to all of you! Enjoy the book and do what you can to make it a reality!

Canning pictures?

The picture quality is really low here, my camera batteries are dead and so I used my phone. But you get the drift. I used to save jars for Michael's grandma, and now I am just in the habit. I have an entire shelf in one of my cabinets, full of jars.

You can check out the original idea here at Photojojo. I just subscribed to their newsletter, it is plum-full (that is Texas speak) of ideas for using your digital photos.

Fun stuff to do with kids

• finger paint with pudding
• make dinner
• invite one of their friends over for dinner
• have a neighborhood bike wash
• arrange photo albums
• stargaze
• listen to the birds and try to imitate their calls
• find an ant hill, spill food and watch what happens
• play charades
• make a map of your house or child's bedroom
• search your house for items made in other countries and then research those countries in an encyclopedia (a real one, not the internet, a lost art!)
  

(Psalm 107:1-3)Oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever! Let the redeemed of the LORD say so, whom he has redeemed from trouble and gathered in from the lands, from the east and from the west, from the north and from the south.

Thank you Lord!  For you are good.  Your love is unwavering, unchanging, unending.  You have redeemed us, make our lips ready to say so at any moment, willing to say so at any moment and able to say so at any moment.  You brought us from where we were, lost and wandering, to this place where we can rest in You.  Thank you Lord!  For you are good.

Family Friday

My favorite photo from the week. What a funny kid!

Hershey Park is a walking/biking path that goes through the city. There are so many trees and it goes along a river so it feels very secluded even though you encounter an occasional overpass where the highway goes right above you. After a month of making plans and then having to cancel for sick kids and family emergencies and exhaustion from all the preceding, my friend Ashley and I finally made it!! It worked out perfectly, the day was beautiful, not to hot, not to humid, a rarity in Houston as I understand.

Mikey, who never met a stranger, befriended this lady walking on the path. He struck up a conversation and they walked together for about ten or fifteen minutes.



All along the path are little areas where you can stop and eat, take a rest or just play. Here the boys (she has four boys, plus my two, and of course Haley couldn't be left out, so she had her fun too!) found a great place to climb up and jump off. So we spent a good half an hour climbing up and jumping off.
I was very surprised when Jeremiah decided he wanted to jump too! Usually no amount of coaxing can get him to try something so "dangerous." But being around all those boys is good for him, he didn't need any coaxing and got right to it. I was proud of him!

Haley carried her baby ALL DAY long. And took very good care of her, every once in a while I would catch a glimpse of her rocking and singing, or swaddling with the blanket. I just crack up when she does things like this, on one hand so very girly with the baby. On the other hand, running and jumping and playing in the dirt with all the boys.


Ella was content to sit in her seat and enjoy the ride. She was just as content to get out and walk a little when we came to a nice shady bridge. Maybe it had to do with the cheese and peanut butter crackers I was dealing her all day? Here she is playing peek-a-boo, which is also one of her newest words. She learned it from Jeremiah who loves to play with her.

Hope your week was as wonderful as ours!

Prayers for my family

Haley came to me yesterday and told me she was ready to go to battle. Immediately Ephesians six and the armor of God came to my mind. It even came in handy later, when someone dear needed prayers to face a battle of their own. So this is my prayer, straight from Scripture.

Ephesians 6:10-18
¹⁰Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. ¹¹Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. ¹²For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. ¹³Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. ¹⁴Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, ¹⁵and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. ¹⁶In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. ¹⁷Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. ¹⁸And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.

¹⁹Pray also for me, that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, ²⁰for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should.