Foot Prints Across the Year

20190102_131204 — I thought this turned out adorable but in hindsight I would not use a black background.

Children grow up so fast and it really is true that the ‘days are long but the years are short’. As the mother of a 12 year old I can tell you that the years fly by and I’m sure that will become even more a reality as he continues to grow up and gets ready to leave home. I am blessed to have four children ages 12, 10, 4, and 10 months and I want to make sure that I utilize the perspective that comes from having older children to really enjoy the moments with all of them. This doesn’t mean that every moment is going to be fun or that I’m going to be any less exhausted (teething anyone?) but I want to make sure that I capture the memories while they are at each new stage. *Some of the links in my posts may be affiliate links see below for more information. *

Why Keep Track of His Footprints?

When my oldest was a baby I thought I would always remember with vivid clarity each moment, each new accomplishment, each different stage, but time has a way of making some of those memories quite blurry. I think this is especially true for busy moms that have so much going on with just keeping the house running and making sure everyone is clean and fed. I wanted to be intentional about watching the baby grow up even in the midst of the hustle and bustle so I decided to create a keepsake each month that would remind me how much he was growing.

How Do Footprints Through the Year Work?

Each month I’m going to do a foot print project that goes along with the month/season and at the end of the year I will have a fun collection and be able to see how much his tiny feet grew over the course of a year. My four year old LOVES anything related to paint so he will probably also participate although I don’t expect to see as much of a dramatic difference in the size of his prints. I may use his hands instead of his feet. I had originally thought about using hands for both of them, but attempting to make a hand print using the 10 month old taught me that it was not the best plan.

20190101_155201 — The hand print did not turn out well as he did not want to relax his hand.

I hope to be able to create some kind of book or keepsake at the end of the year to commemorate the growth. While you have the paint out and the children messy you can even create a duplicate project that you can send to grandparents or other relatives that might enjoy the keepsake.

January’s Footprint Project

For January I found this footprint snowman that was super easy to complete. For the baby I just helped him make his foot print and then I finished the project. I let my four year old see the example of this cute snowman project using a hand print and he loved the idea. However, I made the mistake of leaving him alone with his hand print and his new paint sticks and the results were not quite was I was expecting. We may try again later this month with a little more guidance. 20190101_165356

If painting isn’t the right fit for you, you could do some other fun craft, a series of pictures, or a program like Qeepsake which sends you a question each day to answer and create a journal of memories. I hope this post encourages you to have fun capturing memories of the hectic but wonderful time when your children are small and growing and changing rapidly. I would love to hear your ideas in the comments for how you record those memories and mementos. foot prints across the year pintrest

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Journey Homeschool Academy is offering sale if you need a new science program! We love their high school programs and plan to try their elementary astronomy next year.

This is a great resource for lots of amazing printable materials from pre-k to 12th grade and they are offering 40% of lifetime access. My Snowman Paul is Free on Kindle and many others in the series are less than $1.

Treating Time Like A Video Game

While video games existed when I was a child (contrary to popular belief I’m not that old), I never had my own video game system. I did, however, have cousins that had Nintendo or Game Boy systems. We played a variety of games but one of my favorites was Tetris. If you do not remember the game, the basic premise was that different shaped blocks would fall from the top and you had to move them and turn them to fit as closely as possible at the bottom. If you did not plan well or just let them fall you would quickly have blocks stacked to the top and lose the game.

Time ManagementMaking it All Work Together

As a mother of four, small business owner, blogger, 4H leader, church volunteer and multiple other roles I stay fairly busy. One question I often hear is how do you fit it all in? Before I get to far into how I fit it in, I want to first say I am not advocating that you take on more than you can handle, leave no white space, or worship busyness. It is okay to have down time, it is okay (even good) to say no to opportunities that would overwhelm your schedule or resources. The concepts and tips in this post are designed to help you best utilize your time to complete those tasks that you need or want to complete not pressure you into taking on more obligations.

When I played Tetris if I just let those pieces fall how they came I was sure to lose in mere moments. With time management and planning if I just let the schedule and the obligations fall I will surely be overwhelmed and probably dropping the ball. When we plan our schedules it is important to look not only at all the small pieces but also at the big picture. If I know that Tuesday nights are busy because of American Heritage Girls then maybe I say no to other obligations on Tuesdays or maybe I schedule afternoon appointments on Tuesdays because I know we are already out of the house.

Planning ahead allows me to minimize those frantic days when I have too much to do and not enough time to do it. Those days where you realize you have 3 appointments, cupcakes to bake, a blog post due, company coming over, and the house isn’t clean are no fun. When I look ahead and know what is coming up I can use time to prepare. For example, if I know Tuesday is going to be really busy and I need to have cupcakes for Tuesday afternoon, I plan ahead and bake them on Sunday or Monday when I have more time. I can prewrite my blog post the week before and have it scheduled to post during a week where I have too many other commitments.

I use a Google calendar to track all of that because it works well for allowing my husband to see what is going on and add anything that he schedules to the calendar. You can certainly use other planners or programs but the important thing is to have something that shows all of your obligations. When you have your sons ball schedule on one calendar, your church obligations on another, and your daughters dance schedule on a third it is easy to overbook your days. When someone asks if we can participate in an event I can quickly and easily look at my calendar and see what else is going on and whether or not it will fit into our schedule.

In addition to basic scheduling planning ahead can look like meal planning and including crock pot or instant pot meals on those busy days when you don’t’ have time to cook. It is knowing that December is a busy month and getting certain tasks done ahead of time so that you have some breathing room during the holidays. I try to have my Christmas cards made and ready to mail the day after Thanksgiving and most (if not all) of my shopping completed by ‘Cyber Monday’. It might mean gathering all of the things you need for an event the week before because the day before is busy with some other obligations.

My children participate in several organizations that have major events such as Junior Historians history competitions, 4-H presentations, and 4-H State Fair projects. If I wait until the last minute these times can become overwhelming and they do not turn in their best work. Since I know those things are coming, I can work them into our schedules. I start months ahead by having them decide what projects and topics they will be working on. I also use that information to determine if I can combine any of these projects with other schoolwork. For example, this month my children are working on a research paper for their writing that will be turned into the Junior Historians competition next month.

When we take the time to look at our calendars and our obligations and plan ahead, we can make the pieces of our lives fit together in a way that reduces stress and overwhelm. Some days it feels like you do not have time to plan and work ahead, but those few minutes of strategic planning will pay off in a calmer and easier to manage schedule. I still have those occasional days where I did not plan well or life throws one too many curve balls but overall, things run much smoother and I do a better job keeping all the balls in the air when I have planned ahead and fit the pieces of our puzzle together with care.

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When A Word Is Not Enough…2019

A few years ago I started using a ‘word of the year’ where you choose one word to focus on for the year. I have enjoyed it and was planning on choosing a word for this year. I had considered simple or simplicity, thought about service, and was rather fond of rest. However, none of those felt like it was quite the right fit. Last month I did a ‘be still and be present’ challenge where I challenged myself and anyone that wanted to join me to spend time each day being still with God and present with your family. As I continued to pray about what my word for this year would be I realized that I was not being called to focus on a word but a phrase. I am going to carry the phrase ‘be still and be present’ with me into 2019. I want this to be a year in which I really dive into God’s word with consistency and that I am fully present and enjoy my family.

Be Still&Be Present

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There are benefits to concrete measurable goals but I also think there are benefits to just taking small steps with a focus on an end result. I need to personally remember that my goal is progress not perfection. Sometimes, if you are focused on that measurable goal (for example, having a quiet time 7 days a week) and you miss the mark it is easy to want to give up and say that you failed. However, if you went from only having quiet time occasionally to having quiet time four or five days a week you have made progress.

For me personally, I want to get back to listening to the daily audio Bible app each morning, do more Bible journaling/coloring, and continue to get more consistent with my prayer life. I plan to use my Bible app and possibly Google Calendar to remind me each day until it becomes a habit. I have not yet decided exactly how I’m going to track my prayer life. I have tried complicated systems before that just did not work for that season in my life, but I also want to have a plan. I did find these adorable planners that focus on your quiet time and prayers life. For some people those planners will be a great way to organize and track Bible reading and prayer. For others they will be a hindrance to just getting it done. Use the tools that work for you and do not worry about the systems and tools that are not the right fit in this season of your life.

When I think about what I want ‘be present’ to look like in my life this year I see time spent just enjoying my husband and children. There will be times that are busy, times when I have to focus on cleaning, teaching, or writing, but I want to make sure there are also plenty of times that I am focused on them. I want to spend time with each one of them over the course of the week enjoying life together. Some days that might be craft activities, Legos, or hikes. Some days it might be baking in the kitchen with one of the children, date nights with my husband, family game night or just watching the children play in the backyard. I still need to work on consistency so I plan to continue to use the planning sheets that I created to go with the challenge last month. It is my prayer that by the end of the year it has become my default and I no longer need the planning or reminders.

2018 was a year full of changes and adventures. The two most pivotal events were adding baby number four to our family in February and Hurricane Florence in September. We have been and will continue to be working to help with Hurricane Florence relief efforts, but are looking forward to finding a bit of routine in 2019. I do not know that 2019 will bring but I pray that it is a year where I can grow closer to God and my family. I would love to know what your word or phrase is for 2019 or any goals that you have for the year. Please share them with me in the comments.

be still and be present pintrest

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Be Still and Be Present: Week 4

James 1:17

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James 1:17 probably is not the first verse that comes to mind when you think of the Christmas season. Most people thing of the story of the birth of Jesus as told by Luke or Matthew. However, during this time of gift giving and receiving it can be so easy to lose sight of the true gift of the season. Sure we know that Jesus is the reason we celebrate, but do we really live that out both in our hearts and our actions?

I want to spend the next week really focusing on all of the gifts and blessings that are in my life. We celebrate not just because Jesus was born but because he died for our salvation. No matter the stresses and frustrations of today, the gifts not yet wrapped, the child who is sick, the dinner that isn’t going to cook itself, the house that still needs to be cleaned; we celebrate because Jesus became flesh and was born to a virgin in order to die for our sins. When I put things into proper perspective there is so much for which to be thankful and joyful.

For many of us the next few days will be busy and it may seem that we do not have time to ‘be still’ but I encourage you to try very hard to carve out a bit of time each day to focus on Him. Sing hymns as you travel to visit family, read the story of the birth of Christ together on Christmas morning before you open gifts, pray over each person with whom you exchange gifts. You may not be able to hide away and have thirty minutes of uninterrupted time but you can still take a few minutes to focus on the reason that we celebrate.

Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.

James 1:17 (NIV)

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Sometimes our best laid plans just don’t happen. We had some fun times and did some great things this week, but other things did not go according to plan. On Friday my four year old woke up with a fever. This is never a good thing but was made worse by the fact that Friday was supposed to be a fun day out with friends. After much deliberation on my part, he stayed home with my husband and I took the other three to meet up with our friends. This time of year can be hectic and it was nice to spend an afternoon hanging out with friends and enjoying fellowship with no obligations. We tried a new burger place, had some yummy cupcakes, and then spent a couple of hours at the aquarium where most of us have memberships.

It would have been very easy to decide not to spend the day with our friends due to all the things on my to-do list. I could have said that I was too busy to go and no one would have argued with me, but sometimes we need to put the lists aside and just spend time with our people. My first priority in ‘be present’ is my family, but I also need to take the time to pour into my friendships as well. Friday we were able to ‘be present’ not only as a family but with our friends.

We have not yet done our graham cracker nativity scenes because I want to wait until my son feels better so that we can do them together. We did do some more puppets because he has decided he is really into the puppets. Another activity that we did this week with our 4H club was a five senses activity with these blooming tea balls. It was fun for all ages and simple to do. It is also easy to adapt for one child or a group of children. I simply unwrapped one of the tea balls and had them look at it, feel it, smell it, and listen to it. Then we dropped it into a pitcher of very hot water and they watched it bloom. Once it had steeped they were able to taste it. It would make for a nice low key activity this week after the hustle and bustle of Christmas.

If you didn’t finish all the fun crafts and activities that you wanted to do, do not despair Tuesday is only the first day of Christmas. I have found that the days following Christmas often bring a slower more relaxed pace and we can enjoy those activities without the pressure of long to-do lists hanging over our heads.

Take some time this week and ‘be present’ with your immediate family and if you can with extended family. If you are not close enough to visit for the holidays maybe you can spend time with neighbors or use technology to virtually visit those that live far away. Take the time to bake the cookies, get on the floor and play with the new toys, read the book, or just sit and chat.

How are doing with this challenge? I pray that it has blessed you and brought you closer to God and your family. I wish you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. While this challenge may be wrapping up, it is my hope that you will continue the habits of ‘being still and being present‘ into the New Year.

Be Present Resources:

Blooming Tea

Free Printable Nativity Coloring Pages

Hands on As We Grow (If you have young kids and struggle to come up with easy activities to do with them, this maybe a great resource for you. She has some free challenges, e-books, and a membership plan full of great activities that are easy to implement.)

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Christmas Traditions: Breakfast (and a Recipe)

For the first 33 years of my life I went to my grandfather’s house each Christmas morning for breakfast with my family. My parents, aunts, uncles, and cousins all gathered together to enjoy breakfast, fellowship, and gifts. I have so many fond memories of those Christmas mornings. My grandfather passed away a few years ago and that first Christmas morning was bittersweet. I missed my grandfather dearly and it seemed so strange not to be there for Christmas morning. However, we started our own Christmas tradition as a family.

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I honestly do not remember what exactly we ate for breakfast when I was a young child, but for all of the Christmas mornings that I could remember we had sausage, eggs, bacon, and most importantly ‘cat head’ cheese biscuits. For those of you that are not from Eastern North Carolina, I want to clarify that a cat head cheese biscuit got its name from the size of the biscuit not the contents. These are large round biscuits filled with gooey melted cheese, like the ones on our plates in the picture at the top of this post.

While I still miss my grandfather, we have settled into a new family tradition that incorporates some of the old tradition and makes it our own. When I was younger my grandparents house was only a few minutes from my home, but by the time I had my own children we were living almost 45 minutes away which made for a rushed morning to get there in time for breakfast. Now we have a slow relaxed morning before heading off to visit with family for lunch.

We get up Christmas morning and myself or my husband put an egg casserole and some homemade frozen cheese biscuits into the oven. The children can enjoy looking at their gifts, we can read the Christmas story from Luke, and then enjoy breakfast together around our kitchen table. The time together and the slower pace is nice. By choosing foods that can be prepped ahead of time we are able to have a nice yummy breakfast with minimal effort on Christmas morning. This helps me to be able to focus on my family and not spend my morning cooking and cleaning. I have included my breakfast casserole recipe below in case you are looking for a simple breakfast idea for Christmas morning.

I hope that my children grow up with as many fond memories of Christmas as I have from my childhood. While it is sometimes fun to change things up and there should be no pressure to keep doing things that aren’t working for our family, traditions can be a great way to build family unity and memories. I would love to hear about your favorite family traditions or how you have incorporated old traditions into new ones as family dynamics have changed over the years.

Christmas Morning Egg Casserole

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Deals and Freebies!

All About Learning has released the best deal of the day: A FREE Snowman Packwith reading and spelling activities for a variety of ages.

Apologia has a new FREE Christmas/Advent E-book!

Free Makeover Your Morning 5 Day Challenge! This is a great way to help re-focus and get your day off on the right foot.

Harry The Happy Mouse (Free on Kindle)

Illustrated Would You Rather Book (Free on Kindle)

Free Help Your Child’s Memory Book from All About Learning Press!

Crafting with Noodles!

We had some fun with noodles this past week and I wanted to share in case you were looking for a fun easy activity to do with your children. I did this activity with my four year old in mind but my ten year old joined in and had lots of fun as well.

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I chose this activity in part because we had all of the supplies on hand and it would be easy for the four year old to do with minimal help. He loves anything that involves paint and had been wanting to make some decorations to go on the small Christmas tree in his room.

First we chose our paint colors. Since we were looking for a Christmas theme we did red, green, and white. We split the noodles into three bags and put a squirt of paint into each bag (one red, one green, one white). Then, close the bags up and gently move the noodles around in the paint until they are fully covered. Next, spread the noodles on a cookie sheet to dry. We chose to cover the cookie sheet in parchment paper for easy clean up, but old newspaper would work as well.

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It took a couple hours for them to be fully dry. If you have little ones that take a nap or rest in the afternoon you can paint the noodles in the morning and let them know they can finish their project after rest time as an incentive.

Once the noodles are dry you can get creative with them. We were stringing them to make a garland for my son’s Christmas tree. He wanted to do a simple green, red, white pattern. I tied the first one onto the end of the string to keep the others from falling off and then let him go to work. He enjoyed stringing them on but did get a little bored towards the end, so I agreed to help him string them as long as he was giving me the colors in the pattern. When he was done, I tied the last noodle to the other end of the string and we had a garland for his tree. He wrapped it around his tree and was quite pleased with this work.

While we did Christmas tree garland, you could also use these to decorate a mantle or window, small sections of yarn to make necklaces or bracelets, or have them removable to practice a variety of patterns or color recognition. If you have extra painted noodles left over just stick them in a Ziploc bag until you are ready to do another activity.

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What fun and simple crafts have you been doing with your children?

Supplies:

A variety of washable paints

Ziploc Bags (1 for each color of paint)

Noodles (can be different kinds but need to have a hole in the middle)

Yarn or String

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Deals and Freebies!

All About Learning has released the best deal of the day: A FREE Snowman Packwith reading and spelling activities for a variety of ages.

Apologia has a new FREE Christmas/Advent E-book!

Free Makeover Your Morning 5 Day Challenge! This is a great way to help re-focus and get your day off on the right foot.

Harry The Happy Mouse (Free on Kindle)

Illustrated Would You Rather Book (Free on Kindle)

Free Help Your Child’s Memory Book from All About Learning Press!

Smartick (check out our full review here) is offering a 25% off discount if you use this referral link! Elizabeth is still loving this program.

Be Still and Be Present: Week 3

Joy

Some weeks ‘Be Still’ is much harder than others. It felt like last week was a lot of ‘go, go, go’. It was a really busy week for us as a family, with our business, and our church volunteer obligations. However, I’m pleased to say that my goal of being still didn’t just ‘disappear’ out the window as it has in the past when things got too busy. Using the app on my phone to do my devotional and spare minutes here and there to be intentional about prayer meant that I was able to spend some time focused on Jesus each day.

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Sometimes I think God uses a variety of ways to reinforce that which he is teaching us. This week he used the lesson I was teaching to our middle school students to reinforce that focuses on Jesus in this season is the key to true joy. When I focus on myself and what I want or need it is easy to be disappointed. Maybe we didn’t get to do some fun activity I wanted to do, maybe I’m not going on a cool vacation like my friends, maybe money is tight and I don’t put everything under the tree that I would have wanted. If I am focused on me those things are disappointing and frustrating, but if I turn my focus to Jesus it is much easier to be joyful over what I do have, eternal life, because he came as a baby to grow up and die for my sins. When our focus is on what we have because of Jesus the joy flows naturally. It may not erase all of our problems but it will bring joy to our hearts.

Over the past couple of weeks we have focused on peace but this week I want to focus on joy! John 15:11 tells is that our joy may be full in Him and I want us to hold on to that promise this week and focus on Jesus and the joy he brings. You may still have sadness or grief in your life, there still may be stress and frustration, but if we focus on Him there will also be great joy.

These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.

John 15:11

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We had a lot of fun this week as I was intentional about ‘being present’. Some things were small and some a bit more time consuming but all time well spent. We had the privilege of stopping at two large light displays this week on our way home from a field trip. The first one we rode though and enjoyed but the second one you can get out and walk through. The baby was asleep so it was just me and my three older children. We all enjoyed it, but the excitement that my four year old had for the experience was amazing. I have seen these lights every year for the past 12 years and while I always enjoy them I had forgotten just how amazing they are to those that are not familiar with them. My four year old had forgotten being able to walk through them last year and was absolutely enthralled, running for display to display squealing with joy. Looking at those lights through his eyes brought me to a new appreciation of that great display and I loved making those memories with the children.

I mentioned last week that my four year old wanted to do a puppet show. I had planned on printing out puppets and doing a show with him. I found these cute printable Christmas puppets and we colored them but then he and his siblings decided to change things up a bit. They ended up using some nativity masks that we have and doing a show together depicting the nativity story. It was cute and hilarious.

Another fun and easy project that we did this week was making Christmas tree garland out of noodles and paint. It was so easy because we simply put noodles and paint into ziploc bags to cover them, let the paint dry on the noodles, and then the children could put them onto a long string to make a garland. Check the blog later this week for a quick tutorial of this fun activity.

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I used to have grand plans and dreams of us baking and creating our own gingerbread house. I’ve come to realize that in this stage of our lives that just is not going to happen. My oldest has an intolerance for food dye and so we cannot use most commercial kits. Some years I get a chance to go to Trader Joe’s and pick up a kit that he can eat but with the closest one being two hours away that does not always happen. Luckily I have found a variety of tutorials for cute little graham cracker nativity scenes that are lots of fun, easy to make, and I can accommodate his food restrictions. This is one of the family activities that I hope to do this week. I will link to a couple of different ideas for these in the resources below.

We are also going to spend some time this week making cards together to give to friends and neighbors. I have already sent out our ‘official’ Christmas cards but I know it will be fun for us to share homemade cards with some people that are close to us and a good time for us to spend crafting together. We can all work on them and spend some time talking and listening to Christmas music while we work.

How are doing with this challenge? I would love to hear about the progress you are making or the challenges that you are having so that I can try to help you overcome those. I pray that this challenge is bringing you closer to God and your family.

Be Present Resources:

Edible Nativity Scene

Another Simple Version

Gingerbread Nativity

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Christmas Traditions: Cousins and Cookies

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Christmas elicits so many emotions, both positive and negative. Our goal as family during this season is to create many fun memories without going overboard and adding to the stress and overwhelm; all the while keeping our eyes on Jesus. Our family culture values time spent together and with those we love and we especially tend to gravitate towards that during the holiday season.

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Two years ago we decided that we wanted to do something fun with my children and my cousins’ children. We didn’t set out to start a tradition, just give the kids a chance to play and us a chance to visit and enjoy each other’s company. However, we did it again this year and decided that it was so much fun it needs to be an annual tradition.

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Most of our family lives with-in about a 45 minute radius of each other but we also have a cousin and her precious son that are many hours away. We try to schedule the cookie party when everyone can come but that is not always an option. If all of our little ones can make it we have eight children four and under. This can make for an exciting but messy event.

We always get together at Thanksgiving and Christmas for dinner and visiting but we really wanted an event that focused on the children and let them play and have a good time together. I originally thought about having them bake cookies together but quickly decided that might be a bit too much. If you have older children or fewer children, baking cookies might be a lot of fun. I let my four year old and ten year old help me bake the cookies the day before and my ten year old make the homemade icing.

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On the day of the cookie party everyone gathered at my mom’s house, (hers is closer to most of the family). First we let the children play outside and burn off a little energy. Then we brought them inside and let each of them choose one of our cream cheese cut out cookies to decorate. We had paper plates to put them on, plastic knives to spread the icing, and a variety of sprinkles and colored sugar to finish them off. My son is allergic to food dye so we made most of our own using India Tree natural colors.

Once they decorated their cookies they either ate their cookies or decorated other cookies for the adults in the room. It was really messy, there was probably some double dipping, but they had so much fun. There were smiles and giggles and lots of proud faces showing off their creations.

We did a quick craft using foam shapes and stickers, thanks to an inexpensive kit from Hobby Lobby. Then we finished up the party with pizza and fruit. It was several hours well spent making memories. Aside from making the cookies the day before (and you could buy them in you wanted) there was very little preparation time and the only costs were the food and the $5 I spent on the craft kit. Sometimes it can feel like you spend so much time and energy on something and it is over in no time and not really worth this hassle, this event felt very low stress and my son is still talking about it over a week later.

You might not have a gaggle of young cousins that need to get together but this party could easily be adapted for different groups. You could invite friends, neighbors, or even a Sunday School class to attend your party. If you have older children, the children could actually bake the cookies and maybe even donate some of them to a local nursing home or fire department. When the children are a little older (i.e. have a bit longer attention spans), I want to add reading the book The Gift of the Christmas Cookie to the tradition. I already read it at home but thought it would be a little too much for the youngest ones to sit through.

I hope I have inspired you to add a cookie party to your list of fun Christmas traditions. If you have tried something similar or have other fun traditions that you would like to share with us please let us know in the comments. Stay tuned next week for more on another Christmas tradition, my daughter’s Christmas tea.

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Be Still and Be Present Week 2

Isaiah 96

My goal is to be honest with you guys even when it’s hard. It is fun to show you the neat crafts we find or the fun books we read, it isn’t as easy to tell you about how I failed. However, I think it is important that you know and remember that we are all human and imperfect and that we just need to keep trying and moving forward. I had some successes and some failures this past week.

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I feel really good about my consistency doing my Bible study. It may not have been a full 30 minutes each day but I did spend time in the Word and in prayer each day last week. I want to keep moving forward and studying. I found this week that I had to get creative a few days. If you follow me on Facebook, you may have seen that I was doing my ‘Be Still’ time one day with a sleeping baby in my arms. I have been working through a devotional in the YouVersion App and I could easily do that and spend some time in prayer while I held the baby. That app also works really well for those mornings that I wake up before the children. If I get out of bed, they sense it and start getting up but I can use my phone in bed and read scripture and devotionals and then have my prayer time.

This week I want to continue to work through the Advent devotional that I’m doing in YouVersion. I also want to continue my focus on peace but this week looking at Isaiah 9:6, which tells us that Jesus is the Prince of Peace. I created a very simple coloring sheet of of the names that are included in Isaiah 9:6. It is available to download for free at the end of this post.

This is where my real honesty comes in, I went to bed last Monday and realized I had been running around so hard that I never actually sat down and did what I had planned for ‘Be Present’. Often when I mess up a challenge of activity like that it is really tempting to feel like I failed and just give up. I can’t pretend that it did not cross my mind, but I knew that this was important and that I really wanted to develop these habits in my life. I resolved to not give up, not feel defeated, and just keep moving forward. Throughout the rest of the week we had a great time with various activities. We spent some time one night riding around looking at Christmas lights. It was so simple, we just detoured off of our normal route home from serving at the church and rode around a couple of neighborhoods that are known for having great decorations. We all looked at the lights and talked about our favorites.

Another morning I combined breakfast with our ‘Be Present’ time by bringing breakfast into the living room and reading fun Christmas books while we ate breakfast. It was so simple but so fun that we did it again later in the week. All I did was serve apple breakfast cake that I pulled out of the freezer (low prep and low mess) with a bit of hot apple cider. I even pulled the baby’s high chair into the living room and let him happily munch on his breakfast. While they ate, I read our Bible selections for the day and then a family favorite, Cranberry Christmas. This activity was truly so easy and so enjoyed that I plan on trying to do it at least once a week.

Cranberry Christmas

As I sat down Sunday evening to plan out the week I was thinking about activities that would fit well into our schedule and be enjoyable for our family. Once activity that I know I want to include is a puppet show with my four year old. He has been asking to do a puppet show with popsicle stick puppets and paper. We have all of the materials so it will only cost me ‘time’ which is what I’m trying to freely give. I did not get a chance to color a picture with my daughter this past week so it is a top priority this week because she enjoys it so much. My twelve year old has been learning to play the guitar and I want to spend some time with him one day listening to him play and talking about what he wants to learn because that has become a passion for him. I also think it will be fun for all of us to do a Lego challenge one day. I’m planning on writing different holiday themed items on slips of paper and putting them in a jar or basket. Then I can pull one out and everyone will have 5 minutes to create the item on the slip of paper.

If you didn’t join us last week, be sure to check out the week one post to get your free planning printables. You can jump right in and join us this week, do not worry that you did not start ‘on time’. Simply start when you can and keep going. Our goal is to make this a long term habit. I truly want to hear what you are studying in the Bible this week and what fun activities you have planned with your children.

Prince of Peace (Free coloring sheet. Please download and use for yourself or your family. If you wish to share this with anyone outside of your household please share the link to this post for them to download it for themselves.)

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Beloved: 365 Devotions for Young Women (review)

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If you have a teenage daughter, this review of Beloved: 365 Devotions for Young Women by Zondervan is for you! This beautiful hardcover devotional book is as powerful on the inside as it is beautiful on the outside and I am excited to share this resource with you.

When I started reviewing this book, I was looking at it from the perspective of the mother of a ten year old daughter. As I read the devotional I came to two conclusions. My first conclusion was that this was a well done devotional that would be great for a mother and teenage daughter to work through together. The second, was that my daughter was not quite ready for some of the content and so I am putting it up for a year or two before we work through it together.

The devotional is laid out with 365 devotions to take you through the entire year. Each day consists of a small scripture verse, a devotional thought, and a bit of journaling space at the bottom of the page for your notes and thoughts. While I wish that the scripture verses had been longer to give more context, that is easily remedied by reading the scripture in your Bible.

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One thing I really like is that many of the devotions go in a series by following through an entire story of scripture. For example, one series is from day 213 to day 227. On those days the reading is in 1 Samuel chapter 25 focusing on Abigail who was Nabal’s wife. I love how it focused on various women in the Bible to help a teenage girl see how God used women and continues to use women to do amazing things for the kingdom of God. I think it handled subject of women in ministry well by explaining that each person can use their gifts even if not behind a pulpit.

You may be wondering why if I enjoyed it so much I put it aside for another year or two before going through it with my daughter. I should mention that my daughter is still a bit younger than the recommended age but I was hoping she was ready. However, since it does address the topic of sex and adultery in several of the devotions I did not feel my daughter was ready for this book yet. The topics were handled well and appropriately but I would not recommend them for a girl who did not yet know about sex unless you were going to read it with them and were ready to have that conversation and offer explanations.

Overall, I do recommend Beloved: 365 Devotions for Young Women for teenage girls. It is simple enough for them to do on their own but I think it would be a great mother-daughter devotional time. You can sit down for a few minutes each day with a warm drink and read through it together; drawing closer to each other as you draw near to God. I encourage you to check out the other Review Crew reviews below to see how they used the devotional and what those with older girls felt about the devotional.