Something sweet

This is a wonderful idea posted by the Flanders family. I hope to use this in a few more months :-)

Candy Kiss Chains Our kids use these to count the days until Christmas. We make them right after Thanksgiving, then beginning December 1, we cut off one chocolate kiss per day until Christmas. To motivate the children to think of others, we tell them they cannot have the day’s kiss until they’ve done something sweet for somebody else — which may mean reading a picture book to the baby, making their sister’s bed, folding their brother’s laundry, raking a neighbor’s leaves, etc.   Supplies You Will Need to Complete This Craft: 25 chocolate kisses long piece of plastic wrap yarn or ribbon in Christmas colors scissors gift tag for name (optional)   Do It Yourself By Following These Simple Steps: Cut a yard-long length of clear plastic wrap, and lay it flat on the table. Position 25 chocolate kisses along the edge of it, leaving a little space between each kiss. You may use more than 25 candies if you want to start counting early, fewer if you’re making the chain later in December. Carefully roll the kisses into the wrap, forming a long tube. Young children may need help with this step, as the wrap is very clingy. Ideally, there should be at least a double layer of wrap around all the kisses in the chain. Cut yarn or ribbon to uniform length, about 4″ long. This is easily done by wrapping it loosely around your hand twenty-six times, then cutting through the loops once. Tie a piece of ribbon or yarn between each kiss. Tie it tightly, so that the kisses won’t fall out.You should have extra wrap left at one end, but do not cut it off yet. Staple or tie a name tag at the top of the chain (especially important if you have more than one child making this project). The excess plastic wrap will help in attaching the tag. Then hang it on your bulliten board, and you’re ready to go. Remember to “do something sweet to get your treat!”

A hand made gift...

Another wonderful craft idea from the Flanders family. Hopefully my family will forget about this before they receive it :-)

Christmas Heart Ornaments

Rebekah and Rachel made these pretty little hearts for an ornament exchange this Christmas. Of course, their brothers wanted to help, so we ended up making several for our own Christmas tree, as well. I’ve never had a child yet who didn’t enjoy working with clay, and these are easy enough that even our four year old was able to make one without much help. The design may look dainty and delicate, but oven-baking makes these ornaments fairly durable.

Supplies You Will Need to Complete This Craft:

• large package of Sculpey white clay
• small packages of Sculpey clay in red and dark green
• metalic paper clips
• gold cord for hanging
• wire cutters
• aluminum foil or cookie sheet

Do It Yourself By Following These Simple Steps:

Roll a ping-pong sized ball of white clay into a long, uniform roll, approximately 3/8″ diameter.

Fashion it into the shape of a heart by slightly pinching the ends together to form top of heart, and pinching another point to form the bottom. To make it easier to transfer ornament to the oven, you may want to work on a piece of aluminum foil or a cookie sheet.

TCut a loop off a paper clip using wire cutters, and bend the ends up sharply (sort of like a wide “W” with the loop in the middle). Press this into the top of the heart and smooth clay back over the sides of the “W”.

Flatten the heart slightly by pressing all around the edges gently with your fingers.

Use the sharp end of a paper clip to make indentions all around the top surface. These “holes” need not go all the way through the clay, only about half-way down.

Cut a loop off a paper clip using wire cutters, and bend the ends up sharply (sort of like a wide “W” with the loop in the middle). Press this into the top of the heart and smooth clay back over the sides of the “W”.

Take a little bit of red clay and roll it into a snake-shape, slightly thicker in the center and pointed at the ends. Coil this into a rose, place it between the leaves and press it into the heart by using the pointed end of the paper clip to bore a small hole in the center of the flower. Bake according to package directions. Once it has cooled, thread a loop of gold cord through the paper clip eye and hang it on your Christmas tree.

A beautiful reminder

It's not so much what you say As the manner in which you say it;

It's not so much the language you use As the tone in which you convey it;

"Come here!" I sharply said, And the child cowered and wept.

"Come here," I said- He looked and smiled And straight to my lap he crept.

Words may be mild and fair And the tone may pierce like a dart;

Words may be soft as the summer air But the tone may break my heart;

For words come from the mind Grow by study and art-

But tone leaps from the inner self Revealing the state of the heart.

Whether you know it or not,

Whether you are mean or care,

Gentleness, kindness, love and hate, Envy, anger, are there.

Then, would you quarrels avoid

And peace and love rejoice?

Keep anger not only out of your words-

Keep it out of your voice.

Author Unknown

There's NOTHING my God cannot do!!

Did you ever hear that song? I know it from Veggie Tales... I think Mr Lunt sings it :-) "My God is so BIG so STRONG and so MIGHTY... There's nothing my God cannot do!"

Well, that is what my heart is singing right now, with tears streaming down my face :-)

Let my back up a bit... I am sure that if you have been reading here for any length of time, you know that we have been trying to adopt children through the county of __________ ... this has taken much more time than we were expecting, and we have had our share of negative (and positive) thoughts that go along with any hitch in a get along :-)

That being said, and on a completely separate note, we have also been working on strengthening our family as it exists now.

-We have started homeschooling (pretty obvious with the homeschool blog huh? lol)
-Daddy has been reading the bible to us at dinner time and walking us through some wonderful discussions and time with the Lord.
-We have been doing a WONDERFUL curriculum that is centered around memorizing scripture.
-We are learning to be at HOME alot more... eating, schooling, baking, cleaning, gardening, etc...

And we have been reading alot of family focused authors... just for encouragement's sake I suppose, but it has had a really big influence on our thinking. We have realized that we have a world view that we did not choose... that we just kind of grew up with and never questioned... well, we are questioning it now. Reflecting on God's words more and peers words less... praying ALOT!

In all of this... reflective thinking, we came to the conclusion that we made a mistake when we decided to "have no more babies". Lots of prayer, and research led us to a doctor in Southern California who "un does" such mistakes as a ministry. His fee's are SUBSTANTIALLY more affordable than most other doctors because he does not pay himself for the procedure... HOWEVER, it is still alot of money to cover the costs, and it is all paid up front, no credit.
This is a HUGE blessing!!!! We have been saving for it for a few months now... on schedule for the September surgery date. AWESOME! THEN... we were blessed yet again. With a date change :-) Now the surgery is in July. Yay, but WOW... we are now no longer on schedule to have the money saved up in time... For about three weeks now we have been living out of the freezer and cupboards... making due with what we have, not spending money on ANYTHING that was not completely necessary. But as they do, unplanned things popped up here and there and we started to realize that there was no way we could make our deadline.

We started thinking about ways that we could raise money as well as save it... we have sold books out of our homeschooling stash, we have planned yard sales, we have collected recycling from relatives and friends, babysat for friends... you name it, and we have been trying it. But with little hope of reaching our goal.
Today the mail came and we had the usual junk mail, a package, and an unexpected letter from the county auditor regarding our property taxes. Those are NEVER good!!! The last time we got one it was an audit on last year's income taxes and we were billed upwards of $2000 OUCH!

THIS one was different though... This one contained a completely unexpected and unrequested refund application. Apparently our property taxes were assessed during a time when the value of the property was much higher than it is now and for some reason they have RE assessed the value and therefore adjusted the tax (which we paid back in December).... The difference? only the amount that we have been trying to save to pay for the surgery next month! :-D
I still cannot get over how loving our God is!!! He put this desire in our hearts, and He provided the means to achieve it. PRAISE to our God!!
So we have now come back to my song...

My God is so BIG,

so STRONG, and so MIGHTY,

there's nothing my God cannot do

Hey Hey!

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend! And Remember how much our God cares for you!!! -Christina

Psalm 127 ESV
"1 Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain, 2 It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for he gives to his beloved sleep.
3 Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward. 4 Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one's youth. 5 Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them! He shall not be put to shame when he speaks with his enemies in the gate."
Psalm 37:4
"Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart"

A Wise Mother Guards Her Time

Copied from here

She was busy running the women's ministry at church. She would rush home and get ready for her MOPS meeting and then later in the day she knew she would somehow try to fit in the desperately needed shopping trip to host the monthly bible study in her home. She also had to run Johnny to soccer practice and little Suzy to her ballet class. She had forgotten to make dinner again and hubby would be home soon not to mention she hadn't touched the growing pile of laundry for days. She was tired, overwhelmed, and burnt out.

With all these seemingly good activities, she felt a gnawing at her soul. She had not read to her children for months, and yesterday she had yelled at her husband because she felt burdened by all the housework that she had to do when she finally did make it home from being out. She sunk despairingly down into her chair and saw an unfinished sewing project laying in a basket nearby and wondered when she would ever have time to even think about when she could complete such a project. She knew something in her life was amiss---but didn't she have the life she had always dreamed of? Didn't she take on these commitments with good intentions to serving her Lord?

Women were designed to be helpmeets, it is within our intrinsic nature to want to be available whenever there is a need. But we often do not pray before we take on new commitments as we blindly nod and say yes to fill someone elses needs. We forget to seek wise counsel and ask our husband what he thinks. Before we know it we have schedules that are swamped with well-meaning duties and obligations that were never intended for us, distracting us from our first responsibilities---time with God, our husbands and our children.

We have forsaken what is good with what is BEST. The days can be filled with many temptations, all enticing our souls, minds and our hearts away what is God's best for us. I believe many of us unknowingly choose such busyness for our lives falsely assuming it is the norm, but what we really need is to just live more simply. Simplicity helps to restore peace and order.

Sometimes we need to pare away the unnecessary things in our lives. This might be saying no to outside activities or events. This might be stepping down from some ministry positions we have found ourselves in. This could be putting some of your favorite craft projects on hold to be able to do some real work around the home. This might also mean taking a long break from the internet if we find it always tugging at our hearts pulling us away from our first duties.

If we find ourselves unsure if this is taking place we should ask ourselves a few questions: Are our homes in order? Are we getting meals to our husbands on time? Is the training and education of our children being neglected? Are the clothes in good repair and washed? All of these things take time and they are important. The mandate in Titus 2 is to love our husbands, love our children, to be self controlled, pure, kind, keepers at home and submissive to our own husbands, so that the word of God may not blasphemed. When we are doing these things, we are doing the Lord's work that He commanded us to do. These things to do not have to perfect, no home with people living in it will ever be, but we need to try to do our best in doing what we can in our circumstances.

Mother, turn your heart towards home!!! If you have a straying heart that always wants to be out shopping and driving all over town, surfing the net, emotionally distracted and absent with the non-important, pray that the Lord will give you a heart to stay home, to be present, to love it and to faithfully learn how to manage it well. It is well known that the woman is the heart of the home------but if she is gone all the time, now the home is lonely and empty. The mother is the one who helps fulfill the vision of her husband and puts into action cultivating the culture, warmth, order and atmosphere of the home, something that is impossible to fulfill being physically or mentally absent. It is hard to look well to the ways of our home and those in it if we are distracted by other so called "good" commitments or pursuits that are not required of us. We must use our best energies toward giving our all to our loved ones, not just our leftovers. May the Lord give us all wisdom on what might need to be eliminated from our lives, or our childrens lives, to preserve the sanctity of our precious family time and to manage our homes well.

Cloth Diapering

Ok, so I am not sure that I have mentioned it on here before, but I have been REALLY interested in Cloth Diapering for a really long time now... I even have been given permission by my sweet husband to go ahead and make the plunge. The problem is ... My youngest "baby" is 3 years old and prob will not be wearing diapers (of any sort) for very much longer.

Well... I have wrestled and wrestled with this for YEARS!!! Literally. I remember having the same thoughts two years ago when our littlest was 1 and we figured that he would be potty training soon... but... I am still buying disposable diapers... go figure!

Anyhow... I have little by little been buying one at a time and found a GREAT site called EcoBuns which is run by a wonderful woman who has "taught" me all kinds of diapering lingo  It is kind of a hard language to understand when you are a newbie.

Well... EcoBuns is sponsoring a give away on a blog this month. I am SO excited I thought I would share the info. Here is the link to Green Mama on a Budget.  I hope you will all enter, and if you win and dont know what to do with your prize, pass it on

Do you cloth? How did you get started? Do you have any tips to share? I would love to hear about your favorite diapers!!!

A wasted day? by Tamara Eaton

A wonderful reminder! Visit her here.

A Wasted Day?

by Tamara Eaton

Do you ever look back upon your day and think, "What did I really accomplish?" Every week I hear from frustrated mothers who feel they don't have enough hours in the day to do all that's needed. Most of them have young children and when someone asks them, "What did you do today?” they look back and have a hard time producing tangible evidence of a full day's work.

"Hmmm. I cleaned up the house some, but it's messy again. The dishes were done, but we used them again. I spent time cooking dinner, but we ate it in fifteen minutes. We homeschooled—children, tell your father what you learned today!"

Young children give their mom a blank look, then sidle up next to her and whisper, "What? Tell me again!"
We've all probably had days like this!

One of the busiest seasons of life is when all the children are young. On the other hand, when they are young, you can afford to be more relaxed about their homeschooling and cover the necessary work in just a few hours a week. You can spend more time working on attitudes, obedience, sibling relationships, teamwork, talking and learning about the Lord, enjoying hugs and stories, learning about nature and why things work the way they do, counting spoons and subtracting and dividing cookies—and of course, answering lots of questions.

Are you viewing taking care of all the children's needs, changing diapers, answering questions, wiping tears, teaching obedience, mopping up spilled milk, and such as "interruptions"? They're not. They are some of the MAIN occupations of a mom with young children.

So often during these years, our efforts seem to have no tangible results at the end of the day, but just because we can't always SEE what's been done, doesn't mean nothing has been accomplished. We are shaping young lives and allowing the Lord to shape ours in the process as we yield to Him each day. We are ministering to the Lord as we minister to our family.

We do need to be on guard against time-wasters—the telephone, television, too many outside activities, letting things go with the children and not taking time to train and correct them in a Christlike manner. (Otherwise, countless minutes are wasted by having to repeat ourselves every time we tell the children to do something.)

I no longer have very young children, but I'd like to share something I wrote years ago when I had a nursing baby, an active 2-year-old, and homeschooled four older children. (Don't think I can't remember what it was like in those days!)

I used to like everything perfectly planned and in order, but I have had to learn to relax. Six children and a "perfect" house just don't go together. I'll admit I still have days I'd like to have my own apartment just so I could have one place kept perfectly neat. I have to be flexible because with so many young children, things often are put on hold. We do have a good basic routine, which helps, but I have to allow time for interruptions. I also make lists and then don't get upset if I don't get everything done. A new day begins tomorrow!

I have to remind myself that even though it may seem like I didn't accomplish much some days, I'm actually doing the most important work in the world—helping to mold and shape precious human lives with the Lord's help. What an awesome responsibility! We can provide a secure, loving environment for them in the midst of all the chaos in the world. We can lead them to Jesus, teach them His ways, and help prepare them for the unique ministry that He has for each one of them.

Sometimes too, we must think of all the things that could have happened that day, but didn't. The children didn't throw a temper tantrum and talk back because we have been faithful to be consistent to train them in the ways of the Lord. (Not that they aren't still "in training" in some areas—we are, too!) They didn't experience rejection because we have demonstrated our unconditional love for them. They didn't grow hungry because we fed them peanut butter sandwiches and fruit. They were sheltered from many negative circumstances. They were safe in our care. They heard about Jesus from our lips and saw Him in our lives today; they joined in with singing songs to Him.

If the floor wasn’t mopped and the clothes are filling all eight baskets in the laundry room, what difference does it make? Eventually those things will get done, but in the meantime, our children have a mother who truly loves and cares for them, even during the less than glorious times.
Some days being a godly mother is all one can accomplish—and it is a BIG accomplishment. After all, I don't plan to take my baskets of laundry and the kitchen floor with me when Jesus returns. I do plan to take my family! There won't be any quizzes for my 9-year-old to make sure she knows her multiplication tables before she enters Heaven. We have to keep things in perspective. Academics are important, but there are other things more important. If we keep the right perspective, the Lord will bless our homeschooling, our mothering, and our family.

I wrote those words years ago, and I can now report that the nine-year-old became a teenager and knows her multiplication tables well!

Attempting to be "good stewards" of their time, some mothers crowd many activities into each day. Therefore, they end up pressuring themselves in ways God never intended. We need time to train our children and enjoy them while giving ourselves time to rest and meditate upon God's Word and allowing Him to speak. We need time to act in response to circumstances of daily life instead of reacting to the swirling events that surround us. Doing all things without murmurings and disputings—that we might shine as lights, holding forth the word of life—so we can say with Paul, that we will not have laboured in vain. (Colossians 3)

If this has been a struggle for you recently, why not ask the Lord to give you His perspective, and allow Him to reveal any areas that need changing? He is so patient and longsuffering with us, and the conviction of the Holy Spirit is always tempered with encouragement that we can repent, receive forgiveness and a clean slate. He delights in our dependence upon Him and freely bestows all the grace we need.

Don't allow a search for tangible accomplishments to distract you from the work the Lord is doing through you in your children's hearts. This ministry has eternal consequences and rewards, and you will truly reap "treasures in Heaven" if you're faithful.

"And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work" --2 Corinthians 9:8

"And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men; Knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance: for ye serve the Lord Christ." --Colossians 3:23-24

"And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me." -- Matthew 25:40

"But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." --Matthew 6:20-21



Copyright © 1994-2000 Tamara Eaton, all rights reserved.
Permission is given to reprint any of Tamara's articles in non-profit publications as long as the article is reprinted in full and contains the copyright information and website address. Please send a copy of the publication to Deeper Life Family Ministries, P.O. Box 909, Killen, AL 35645. http://www.chfweb.net/
Copyright ©  2007 Eclectic Homeschool Association