N is for nothing – nada – nope.

Still on the letter N, and we have nothing to show for it.  EJ is going through another stage of not wanting to do a thing except play, and I can’t figure out how to play with him and get in my “agenda.”  I know he is learning things as we play, but my controlling self is having a hard time with this stage. 

This post on one of my favorite crafting sites has helped me a lot today.

First I have to admit, my boys like to craft differently than me. And I have had to adjust my expectations accordingly in order to be able to craft together and enjoy our time.

I am so stuck in my ways and my own thoughts that I’m having a really hard time adjusting.  Can anyone share any ways I can bend on this?  I’ve mentioned this in the past, and I thought I was doing better… 

Nothing at all can ever separate us from God’s love because of what Christ Jesus our Lord has done.  Romans 8:39

On the positive side, a wonderful resource (that I’ll share about next time) gave us a great opening to teach EJ God’s Word.  We are sharing verses and other things that we want him to remember at bedtime, right before he goes to sleep.  It’s been a wonderful teaching time that’s becoming a part of our routine, and I am amazed at what he can remember after hearing it at bedtime for a couple of nights. 

And what a wonderfully sweet time it’s been, too – snuggled together, talking about God’s love and how we can show that to others… I pray that this special time will continue!

‘K?

Are you guys OK if I don’t take pictures of all the worksheets and the construction paper verses that EJ and I do?  I keep forgetting to take pictures of them, and then when I do take pictures, I’m a couple weeks behind… yadda yadda yadda.  If you really want to see them, I’ve got a post in drafts just waiting to go… no? ‘K, then!

“The Lord bless you and keep you.” Numbers 6:24.  This has been one of my favorite verses for years, and I thought our “K” week would be a perfect time to introduce this to EJ.  We’ve been talking about how God will keep him safe through all his 2 year old fears, and I love that this verse is a reminder of that as well as a blessing.  As EJ grows, I pray that he will really see the depth of how the Lord will keep him.

Now, I’m excited about what I’m about to share – it’s not a craft that EJ was able to participate in with me, but the use of it has already provided hours of fun and pretending.  Presenting… King EJ!

Every King needs a crown, and this was so much fun to make.  Seeing EJ’s face when I gave him his crown – priceless!

After carefully inspecting his King’s crown, EJ switched into full on King mode.  Since I made a crown for Dieter, too, I had to wear it and be King Momma.  Which was fun, too.

Notice how King EJ is going shirtless these days.  Perfect for the cooler weather hitting us now.

There are a lot of different ideas for making crowns floating around online these days, and of course, nothing beats construction paper crowns.  I’m in love with sewing felt right now, so when I got this bug in my brain, I had to make it.  I’m thinking about posting details on how I made these little gems on my craft blog, so I’ll let you know when I get my act together and post it over there. 

My Impressions

It’s still not a very active week over at chez moi.  And I’ve been getting really down about it.  Sickness and injuries are taking their toll on everyone here, and this morning it all came to a head for me. 

Thankfully, the Lord has made fall come late to central Virginia this year.  The weather has just recently become cool enough for the leaves to turn colors, so what should’ve been happening almost a full month ago is happening now – when I really need it.  As I drove the kids to the doctor’s again today, I fully saw the glory of the fall leaves around me.  What a peaceful drive that turned out to be!  And as we got home, there was a little gift waiting for me on our sidewalk.

This isn’t one of our leaves – we only have the brown leaves falling from our trees.  And it was the only non-brown leaf around.  Isn’t it beautiful?

Since we’re on the letter “I” this week, and we started the Fall Impressions this week here on the blog, I’ve really been thinking a lot about what I am impressing on my kids’ hearts and minds.  From the time this blog started, I’ve been consciously thinking of wonderful ways to impress the Word of God on my children.  But I have not been consciously thinking about what else I am impressing on them… during this time of their sickness, they have seen a tired, cranky mommy who really just wants to lay down.  I have not been impressing them with the love that the Lord wants me to show them.

I am so thankful that “Nothing is impossible with God.” (Luke 1:37).  …that out of my time of need, I can draw from His strength to shower my children with love – every day.  I am thankful that the Lord continues to impress His Word on my heart, too.

True happiness…

Once again, both of the boys are sick.  Not the gross sickness of last time (was that really only 2 weeks ago?), but a feverish, coughing sick.  And we didn’t even get to do my last H activity (though that wasn’t due to the sickness – just some late week business).  I might add that into an early-week activity this week, if we can get going through all of this sick mess.

But I wanted to share with you the reason I chose this specific verse for the letter H.

“…be happy with what you have.” 1 Timothy 6:6 (also found in Hebrews 13:5).

I chose this verse because this is something I struggle with on a daily basis, and I would love to have EJ and Dieter not fight with this as they grow.  A couple years ago, I was struggling so hard with wanting more than I had – and I even had the best things in life…  A loving husband, a new baby boy, a wonderful home, and the opportunity to stay at home with my new baby.  But I had just left a job that afforded us many luxuries that we would not be able to maintain while I stayed at home, and I struggled so hard with that.  I did not rejoice in the ways that God was providing for us – I was angry that I saw others with what I (in my flesh) wanted.  Thankfully, I have a wonderful husband who helped me through what was a very rough time for him (a new dad being the sole provider for his family, having to deal with a very materialistic and greedy wife), and we found this verse together.  I needed this verse always before my eyes, so I hand-stitched the verse, framed it and hung it right next to my kitchen sink, where I would see it daily.

It is my prayer that by introducing this verse to EJ early in his life, he will learn how well God does provide for us, and what we have is the best for us in every way.  In my mind, it’s kind of a warm-up verse for “Not that I speak from want, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am.  I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need. I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.” Philippians 4:11-13.  What a gift to be able to know this early in life!

I don’t want this to become a trite reminder in our house, though.  While I would love to match every whine of EJ’s with “Be happy with what you have!”, I think he would become hardened to it.  I pray that I will know when and how to encourage him with this verse, and I hope that I will be able to model this verse for both of the boys throughout my life. 

And… we’re on to “E!”

I’m thankful for new beginnings… after my struggles last week with the letter D, I was fully ready to move on to the letter E, with all new activities and verses….

I found a new website that I am having a fun time poking around on… Christian Preschool Printables.  I got the printout of the earth on that site – it also has a wonderful memory verse on it… “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” (Genesis 1:1).  He’s already memorized this one, and I’m still mentally chewing over how the Bible verse is going to work for us and why I’m the one struggling with it.  I’ll let you know when I have it all figured out.

So, E is for earth, elephant, envelope, egg, and, of course, EJ!  The letter E is one he’s known from the beginning, since he’s seen it in association with his name for such a long time.  One thing that I think is really interesting – because he’s so allergic to eggs, we don’t have them around much, and he’s never seen one cracked open and raw.  So when I showed him a picture of one, he had no idea what it was. 

But the earth… we hit the jackpot with this one!  EJ loves space and the things in it as much as he loves dinosaurs and sports. So we’ve done a lot with the earth this week. 

 

 

 

 

 

I found some paper bowls in my pantry, and I grabbed our blue and green paint.  When I discovered that we were out of cotton balls, I found some little white craft pom-poms… and we made our own earths!

Glue once again reigned supreme – at first, there was not much paint on EJ’s earth – gluing the pom-poms down was the most fun.

Then, when he discovered how to squeeze the paint out of the paintbrush (it’s in the handle of these great little inventions), the pom-poms were gone, and the earth was covered!  He also used the pom-poms to spread and stamp the paint around.

On the right is what I had in mind for the craft, but I love EJ’s interpretation of the earth. 

And I loved it when EJ wanted to show his earth to Daddy as soon as he walked in the door.  Beautiful! 

I also found other great earth-things online – Look at this!  Isn’t it fun?  Definitely something I’ll save as a reference for years to come…

Remember the Letter R

Maybe it’s because I’m pregnant, but I could not think of one verse that began with the letter “R” except “Rejoice in the Lord always” and honestly, I wasn’t sure if that was a verse or a song! So, I pulled out my handy dandy concordance and began to flip through the R’s. Wow. Concordances are…well, detailed.

Finally, I got to the word “remember” and I liked this idea. I want Lydia to REMEMBER the things of the Lord. While comparing the concordance to the NIRV on biblegateway.com, I found one of my favorite verses (and probably one of the first I ever memorized) Proverbs 3:6, “In all your ways REMEMBER Him. Then He will make your path smooth and straight.”

(Now that I look at it and we’ve said it a few hundred times, I should have split this up and done the first sentence this week and the second sentence next week for “S”: smooth and straight. Live and learn.)

I know “remember” is kind of a hard concept, even though we do talk about remembering a lot. So, I taught Lydia the sign for remember to kind of help emphasize the word and the verse. (You can see the sign here.) I think this helped and she’s very intent to do the sign while we say the verse…or while I say the verse.

(We’ve done sign language with Lydia since she was months old. She knows well over a hundred signs. So, she’s used to this. But regardless, I think motions/signs help emphasize any learning. The more senses you can use, the more you’ll remember.)

There are so many great r words: roses, rainbow, round/rectangle, red…and ROBOT. Ever since Lydia saw Wall-E (or Waaaaalllleeee, as she says it), she’s been really into robots. We decided to make a red, rectangle robot with ribbon appendages. We pulled out the ever-present baby name book and decided on “Razi” as a first name. What can I say? She liked it.

By the way, Lydia did the whole thing by herself with the exception of the ribbon and the awesome button and light drawings I did on Razi’s chest. Did you see the great eyes and nose she did? That’s a big improvement—there are actually TWO separate eyes! Oh, and the “scribbling” on the top left? Lydia wrote “Razi the Robot”, of course.

I was going to go through our books for “R” but Lydia already thought of a book because it has a RAINBOW in it…our Little Golden Book of Noah’s Ark. It’s actually quite good–follows the story well and has cute pictures. We’ll do more with Noah and the rainbow this week because I think it’s a great tie in to “remember”—God put the rainbow in the sky so we could REMEMBER His promise to us.