Domestic Adventures

Thursday we spent with friends bumming around the Disney resorts. So much of Disney can be enjoyed without spending a penny.

1. Picnic by the beach
2. Wander wooded trails
3. Travel by boat to neighboring resorts
4. Visit a giant-sized gingerbread house
5. Snap pictures of gorgeous four-story Christmas trees
6. Ride a monorail through Epcot
7. Take a break by the waterfall in the Polynesian’s lobby
8. See a geyser erupt
9. Chase ducks
10. Window shop in princess heaven

Today we are celebrating Trent’s birthday. I am amazingly blessed to be loved by him, and I honestly can’t imagine a better husband or father. He can always handle anything, is always on my side, and even when we don’t understand each other, I know everything is rock solid anyway.
This year, December 30 is extra special though. We are also celebrating Emmaline’s baptism. Emmaline has been asking to be baptized for a long time. We asked her to wait because we wanted to be sure she understood the meaning of it, and both Trent and I feel certain she does now. She knows well that she is a sinner and that through Jesus’s death on the cross, her sins were paid for.
I first believed as a child also and don’t really remember a time when I didn’t trust Christ for my salvation. Even though Emmaline likely won’t remember a time before believing either, it is so interesting to me to see the gears turning away in her head. For instance, when Trent first told the story of Cain killing Able Emmaline was in tears. She was horrified at what Cain had done, but the fact that he hadn’t come to God for forgiveness was even worse. When Trent told her that Cain was angry at God, Emmie asked with big, fat tears rolling down her cheeks, “You mean he kept his sin?” The concept of “keeping” one’s sin is terrible to Emmaline, and I think the phrase she coined was particularly appropriate. We all sin, but we do not have to keep our sin.

He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”
2 Corinthians 5:21

We are praising God today that we don’t have to keep our sin, and that Emmaline has chosen not to keep hers. Instead she has chosen to become the righteousness of God in Christ. What a wonderful, wonderful thing!

I have no greater joy than this, to hear of my children walking in the truth.
3 John 1:4

I love giving (and getting) gifts that are just right. Lots of cool gifts were exchanged around here, so here are a few that were particularly unique or appropriate.

Dear sweet HopiQ made Emmaline and I matching gardening aprons. They are the sweetest little aprons ever with tiny flowers in Emmie’s favorite color. Now I need to get out there and tackle my garden again!

I found these marshmallow shooters on etsy.com. I bought two for white elephant gifts (taken home by Trent’s two brothers most appropriately) one for Trent’s stocking, and one for myself - I couldn’t very well give one to Trent and leave myself unarmed. They shoot miniature marshmallows surprisingly hard and far, and if you’re lucky enough to have a couple of two-legged marshmallow vacuums, it doesn’t even make a mess.

Trent is a wonderful gift-giver, so I had lots of fun stuff to open from him, including a “cosy kit”. In my cosy kit was the world’s softest blanket, cute and comfy pajamas, and a whole stack of new books to read. Very cosy indeed.

One of my favorite things in the world is watching Emmaline and Micah playing together. Seeing evidence of their love for each other, seeing them watch out for one another’s interest is such a wonderful thing. Though sibling interactions are unfamiliar to me as an only child, I want to do everything I can to foster a strong, godly relationship between Emmaline and Micah.
This devotional from Encouragement for Today discusses Christ’s choice of brothers as his disciples, focusing on how siblings can serve God together.

Today it’s rare to see siblings serving alongside each other, either in church or in a ministry outside of church. Parents often focus on allowing each child to explore his or her individual gifts and talents through service – which is a good thing. Then as brothers and sisters grow up, their lives take them away from each other. But what might happen if we initiated opportunities for our children to serve together? What if we served God with our own brothers or sisters at our sides?

One family who particularly exemplifies this is the Mally family. We have been blessed to meet them as they have traveled through the area several times, and their three children, now grown, have had an amazing ministry together. I must admit, at first I thought the harp-playing trio from Iowa was rather strange, but as I’ve gotten to know them, I’ve grown to really admire the relationships within the family. The three siblings have even authored together book about Making Brothers and Sister Best Friends.

Wishing you, and all the brothers and sisters in your family, a very merry Christmas!

As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net for they were fishermen. ‘Come, follow me,’ Jesus said, ‘and I will make you fishers of men.
Matthew 4:18-19

To use Sarah’s words, “the angels are singing tonight!” Little Ellie has gone home to heaven and while everyone will miss her so very much, it is such a relief to know she is safe with Jesus. No more pain or fear or sickness.
In addition to praying for her family, please pray for the children who are Ellie’s friends.

The third and fourth graders at school are involved in a project to help a needy family. A single mom of four children needs help this Christmas and students school-wide were invited to contribute food and gifts. Well, I’ve known about this for some time, but just hadn’t taken the time to make an appropriate purchase. Today was the deadline- after lunch the third and forth graders were taking a field trip to deliver the donations. Oh well, I thought, there are several boxes full of Christmas loot. It’s too bad I never gave anything. This was not Emmaline’s thought, however. When she realized it was the last day, she began begging and pleading to go buy something to add to the boxes. “We ran out of time,” I told her, “They’re leaving any minute to deliver them.” Then I remembered that I had Emmaline’s like-new copy of The Story of Holly and Ivy in my tote. “Would you like to give your book?” I asked. “It’s the only thing I have right now that we could give.” Emmaline was thrilled with the idea. She couldn’t stuff it into the box fast enough and was so excited to envision some other little girl reading flipping the beautiful pages of this lovely Christmas tale.
She was all smiles, and I was feeling rather proud of her generosity (especially in contrast to my apathy) - until tonight. Tonight Emmaline is utteryly distraught over having given away her book. She has been out of bed three times, once with real tears, just thinking about her loss. We talked about giving, and sacrifice; we talked about how happy that other little girl will be; we talked about all the other books she had, but I still had to tuck her in all teary-eyed.
Wanting to give and really giving are very different and Emmaline is learning that. This small sacrifice has been difficult for her, but I think it is a building-block toward future lessons.

My recent read aloud obsession is paying off. Emmaline loves our read aloud time. We have developed a morning routine of reading during breakfast, and the anticipation of finding out what happens next can go a long way toward overcoming morning sluggishness. We’ve read The Story of Holly and Ivy by Rumer Godden, The Raggedy Ann Stories by Johnny Gruelle, and most recently My Father’s Dragon by Ruth Stiles Gannett. It’s prompted her to ask for stories at others times of the day and I’ve realized that reading aloud is the perfect activity for all of us when the chaos level is just a notch too high for my sanity.
I’ve also been granted 45 minutes every Monday for reading aloud with my first and second graders. Their favorite so far has been Cyrus the Unsinkable Sea Serpent by Bill Peet and I have received several lovely drawings of Cyrus from my students.
My obsession is rubbing off on Trent as well. Last evening we spent visiting with some distant cousins at Trent’s parents’ house. The little cousins had a grand time together but tiredness set in before the adults were finished talking. Trent came to the rescue with a stack of books and spent at least an hour entertaining five little children who were perfectly happy to wallow around on sleeping bags and fluffy pillows listening to the adventures of Little Critter, Winnie the Pooh, and all sorts of dinosaurs.

Though previously unmentioned on the blog, many of you know we are thinking of, pretty sure, planning to homeschool next year. While I have many good reasons and really deep thoughts on the subject, that’s not what this post is about. This post is about how I’m obsessed with designing the perfect homeschool / family room. Our recent trip to Ikea didn’t help me get over this obsession at all. Nope, only made it worse. Did you know Ikea has the perfect shelving, and lights, and tables and cute little chairs for a homeschool room? They do.
But this post isn’t even about Ikea. This post is about giant wall stickers. I love this huge world map sticker from Ferm Living. Supposedly “simple to apply and easily removable” it seems like the perfect combination of very cool and very educational. I have all sorts of map ideas already swimming around my head, including a very cool idea from Family Fun Magazine about mapping with the stickers from our produce to see where different foods are from.
So, yes, all the curriculum and teaching is very high on my list, but decorating has not been forgotten.