Thank You Lord

Every week my fridge is empty and every week I am able to fill it back up.
Every week as I am standing in line paying for all the food and necessities to run a home I do a silent prayer and just thank the Lord for providing my husband with a stable job.

I am so thankful that each week I can go to the store.
I hope I never take this for granted.

Forgiveness

This week we talked about forgiveness.
Our verse was

We added peace sign stickers to remember the verse Hebrews 12:14-15 "Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one misses the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many."
We were able to do some fun things to talk about forgiveness.

We made a cross to remind us to come to Jesus and ask for forgiveness when we sin.
I made a cross out of packing tape and the girls stuck cut up pieces of tissue paper to it.  Then I put packing tape on top to seal the tissue paper in.  We taped it to the door to be a sun catcher.

Forgiveness can be hard for little ones to understand, but I wanted them to know that Jesus forgives our sins right away because He loves us so much.

This activity was a great visual to show what our hearts are like when we come to Jesus.

We started with white hearts cut out of fabric.

Then the girls colored the hearts with washable markers.

This represented our sin. 

Then the girls dipped their hearts in bleach water. 

After a few minutes our hearts were White as Snow.



I really really liked this activity.  I will do it again and again as the girls get older.

I liked the verse we had this week because it talks about how our behavior needs to be like the Lord's.  We need to forgive quickly because He did.

Forgive others quickly, just as the Lord forgave you.

Colossians 3:13

4:30pm

We usually go to the pool for a couple hours each day.  We come home around 4:15.  On the way home ariel usually starts rubbing her eyes.  Fortunately we live close and she stays awake.  If she falls asleep, we can plan on her being up until 10:30 or so.

My goal is to keep her awake while I make dinner.  If I put a show on, she will fall asleep most of the time.  So I come up with different activites for the girls to do in the kitchen while I make dinner.  sometimes they do playdough, a crafts, beans, or something else I quickly think of.

One of their favorite things to do is to play with Water Beads.
I found them at the Dollar Tree for $1.  I bought 3 jars and dump the in a shallow plastic container and give them some spoons and bowls.

The container says they are not a toy.  It also says they are made of water and are biodegradable so I am thinking it is basically just a choking hazard.

They feel really neat and the girls really enjoy playing with them.

Happy Anniversary to Us

7 years sure has gone by quickly.  It is fun to look back at the pictures from that special day. 

I like to try my wedding dress on to see if it still fits. 

I am pretty proud of myself for getting it on after 3 babies.

7 years, 3 sweetie girls, Still in Love!

Blueberry Picking

I have not been blueberry picking in a few years.
I went with the girls and my mom last week. 
I didn't do very well, but the girls did great.  I think they picked more blues than I did.

The next day my sister in law, Michal, wanted to go blueberry picking.  The girls were really excited to go again and to see Michal and their baby cousin.

Patience

This past week we talked about Patience.

Our Bible verse was

Annabelle said this was our most boring poster.  We were going to glue pompoms on it, but just never got to it.  Oh well,  can't be fun all the time.

We talked about how it was important to be patient in different situations - waiting our turn, wanting to talk when someone else is, waiting for mommy to tend to every need right away :)

We started the week with "planting" beans.  Right away the girls wanted to see that they had grown.  Each day we checked on them.  By the end of the week, we had quite a few sprouts.  The girls' patience had paid off.

We just put some beans in a damp napkin and put it in a paper cup. I kept the napkin wet so the beans would sprout. It would have been better if we had a clear cup, but this was just fine.

They were pretty excited when they saw the sprouts.

We also made Patience Candy.

We boiled water and then added sugar - teaspoon by teaspoon.  This did not work out for us.  I think we may have lost our patience along the way.  After about 15 minutes of the girls taking turns dropping in the sugar, I took over.  It said it was supposed to make a clump in the pan and then form crystals in 24 hours.  I was okay with it not working because we didn't necessary need sugar crystals.  It was a good activity to practice and talk about being patient.  We also talked about not quitting.  Annabelle wanted to go do something else, but I told her that she had to see the activity through.  (I kind of wanted to go do something else too).  If you do this make sure you plan for 30-45 minutes. 

Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for Him.

Psalm 37:7

Daily Calendar Journal

I saw this great idea on Pinterest so I pinned it.
Then I actually did it!!

I really liked the idea of it and it didn't seem that hard because I had everything I needed at home.

Have you seen this?  You have a card for every day and then you write down what you did on that day.  I started on July 1.  It is a bit of a challenge to keep up, but I keep it out so that I remember to do it.  Right now it isn't all that exciting, but I am really looking forward to next year and 5, 10, 20 years later to read back on what we did that day.

I currently have it in one of those plastic index card boxes.  I like it in there because it has a lid.  I am hoping to make it cuter in the near future.

Have you done something you pinned that you loved?