2012: The Year in Review

Happy New Year!  Can you believe that 2012 is over?  It has been a good year for me, I hope it's been good for you.  The biggest thing that happened this year was the arrival of our third child, Joshua!  Wow, have they all grown this year!  Joshua is walking now, and eating anything he can get his hands on!  Caleb has started reading and has discovered LEGOs!  Rebekah has found a love for scrapbooking, but she still loves baby dolls the best!

On the blog, I've added the Word for Wednesdays posts, which I plan to continue in the new year.  

What post did you like the best?  Here are the most viewed posts from 2012, starting with the top one.

1.  Vinyl and Denim Picnic Blanket!

2.  Handle Cover for Cast Iron Skillet

3.  Fabric Covered Wipes Case

4.  Waterproof Zippered Bag

5.  Yellow T-Shirt Dress

6.  Homeschool Space 2012

7.  Cloth Diapers and Wipes Case

8.  Barbie Doll Birthday Cake

9.  Baby Boy Scrapbook

10.  Purple T-Shirt Dress

So, which one was your favorite?  It's also fun to see that my all time most popular post is the Jean Skirt Tutorial!  That's all for 2012.  See you next year!

Baby Food Jar Snowmen with Hot Cocoa

 
Aren't these snowmen adorable?  I found this link on Pinterest and started saving baby food jars right away! I used the larger jars for the bottom part filled with hot cocoa (only because I didn't have enough small ones).  The hat is just some black construction paper.  Rebekah helped me pick out the buttons.  I used some glitter puffy paint for the nose and mouth.  It was a quick and simple gift for the kids to give to their Sunday School teachers.  I printed the tags from Sassy Sites, and the kids colored them and wrote their names on the back.

I know Christmas is over, but maybe you can save this for next year, or find a reason to give a snowman gift this winter!

Gingerbread Houses 2012

Our family makes ginger bread houses every Christmas, it's become our tradition, and this year they expanded!  We used cardboard covered in white freezer paper this year, instead of the normal paper plates, so that meant we got to make gardens (or an abominable snow man)!  Our candy selection seemed to increase this year too!  (Click here to see last year, or here for the year before that, or here to get the recipe I use.)

This was Joshua's first Christmas!  And he already loves our gingerbread house tradition!  He didn't quite understand how to put the cereal on his house, but he did understand how to take it off and eat it!  He loved the frosting!

See?

I love this tradition so much because it's usually two hours of family time, we get to be creative, and we get to eat lots of candy!  It doesn't get much better!

Below is Rebekah's finished house.

This one is daddy's.  See the abominable snow man!

Here's Caleb's.  He made some serious candy gardens!

And here's mine, complete with green sugar grass!

I hope you all had a Merry Christmas.  Now I wish you a Happy New Year!  May God bless you greatly in 2013!

Sewing Kits for Kids

This was the kids big Christmas present this year, a sewing kit!  I had a lot of fun making this kit, but man did my hand hurt after all the cutting and hole punching!  (Plus, I made 3 kits!)  It includes: an embroidery hoop, shelf liner, burlap, scissors, a homemade needle threader, yarn, thread, instructions, pony beads, large buttons, lacing cards, cardboard sewing cards, plastic canvas in varying sizes (magnets, picture frame, bookmark), a no sew fleece pillow kit, a hanging heart kit, a small stuffed dog kit, a chicken sewing project, stuffing, and a needle book!  Wow, that's a lot of stuff when you type it all out!  I found lots of inspiration online, at these sites: Fifth Wizardry, Maya*Made, Little Family Fun, Kids Sewing Projects.

I can't find the chicken printout link for you today, I'll try to find it later, but it was a cute activity!

Here's a picture of Caleb working on his stitch card.  I got the idea from The Studio.  I was surprised that they did such a good job!

I blogged about the felt needle book.

I used my Cricket to cut out their names and then adhered them with spray adhesive.  They turned out cute!

And that's it.  Have a merry Christmas!

Felt Needle Book

I've been working on a Christmas project for my kids and a niece.  I made them their own sewing kits!  You'll have to wait to see pictures of the completed kits, but here's the felt needle books I made.  The blue one is for Caleb of course, and the pink ones are for Rebekah and my niece.

They were easy to make.  First, I cut two rectangles of felt.  Then I cut an embellishment out, either a heart or a moon.  I hand sewed the embellishment on first.  Then sandwiched a piece of ribbon between the two rectangles and used my sewing machine to zig zag stitch it together.  Since I wanted to give them a plastic needle, I added a small piece of elastic too.  I think they're so cute, I love them!  One of the needles I gave them is a sharp one, but the rest are tapestry needles with blunt ends!  The safety pins are for holding projects together so they don't have to use straight pins yet!

I even found pink plastic needles!  Check back in a few days to see the completed kit!

The Names of Jesus Christmas Ornaments

A few weeks ago, I posted a Word for Wednesday about making Christmas a more Holy experience.  I went through the bible, and came up with 25 names of Jesus and made ornaments with the names on them.  Every night, we read a scripture and talk about the name for that day.  Some days, the kids have been very receptive, and other days they are bouncing off the walls!  But I'm thankful that we've done this.  I know it's almost Christmas, but I wanted to share with you my list.  Maybe you can at least have a conversation with your kids about all the different names of Jesus.  For the ornaments, I bought a piece of that styrafoam poster board, and cut it into 2 x 6 inch rectangles.  I wrote the name with permanent black marker, and then traced it with glitter glue (from the dollar store!).  Then I hot glued on some ribbon to hang them.

1. Jesus, Mat 1:18-21
2. Mighty God , Isa 9:6 
3. Prince of Peace, Isa 9:6
4. Everlasting Father, Isa 9:6
5. Wonderful, Isa 9:6
6. Counselor, Isa 9:6
7. Emmanual, Mat 1:23
8. Christ the Lord, Luk_2:11
9. The Lamb, Joh_1:29
10. The Branch, Isa 11:1-2
11.  Lion of Judah, Rev 5:5
12. Jehovah, Exo_6:3
13.  Son of God, Luk_1:35
14. Son of man, Mar_14:62
15. Rose of Sharon, Son 2:1, Isa 35:1-2
16. Lily of the Valley, Son 2:1 
17. Bright and Morning Star, Rev_22:16
18. I am, Mar 14:61-62
19. Son of David, Mat_21:9
20. Alpha and Omega, Rev_1:8
21. Redeemer, Isa 47:4
22. Friend, Joh 15:13 , Joh 15:14  
23. King of the Jews, Mat_2:2, Mat_27:37
24. King of Glory, Psa_24:8
25. Saviour, Luk_2:11

Word for Wednesday #7

Mat 5:22  But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire.

I have this great program on my computer called e-sword, it's a free downloadable bible.  But it also has Strong's dictionary, which I used on this verse.  Here is what it said about the word angry:


orgizō
or-gid'-zo
From G3709; to provoke or enrage, that is, (passively) become exasperated: - be angry (wroth).

This verse just blindsided me!  Especially since just a minute ago, Caleb was being incredibly loud with a game (while Joshua's sleeping), and then dropped the whole game trying to put it away (loud crashing!).  Let's just say I was exasperated...  

Normally, I thought of this verse as being angry with another adult.  But just this afternoon, I realized that maybe I should apply it to my family, mostly my children.  Wow, what a revelation!  I certainly don't want to be in danger of going to hell!  I have had to ask God for forgiveness, and I think I need to go apologize to my kids...  I will make a better effort to remain calm, and not become exasperated or get angry!  How about you?

PS:  The picture of Joshua has nothing to do with this post, it's just cute.  (I couldn't find one of him crying!)

PPS:  I thought it was Tuesday, so this is a little late, and you get two posts in one day!

Days 64-81 MFW 1st Grade

Yep, day 81!  That means we are officially half way done with our school year!!!  The above picture was Caleb's summary of the story of baby Moses.  It's the first sentence he's written all by himself.  All I did was help him remember the words he wanted to write.  I'm so proud of him!  And I think I'll keep this page forever!  It says "The king's daughter found baby Moses in a basket."  That's a giant period at the end.  I was surprised that he got the "ou" right in the word "found", but he made the "n" upside down!  I love it!  (I purposely didn't correct the word "basket", since I didn't want to point out too many mistakes.  I wanted him to be proud of himself!  Below is his finished summary with his picture.

And below is his drawing an summary from last week.  He came up with the sentence, but I wrote it down and let him copy it.  The picture he did himself.  He's really progressed in his art work!  He used to cry and tell me he couldn't draw anything.  For a while he copied exactly what I drew, but now he's coming up with his own drawings.  Below are piles of food that Joseph stored, complete with workers climbing up the stacks of food!

Caleb's reading is really progressing too.  It really amazes me!  He still doesn't like reading books himself though.  I signed him up for Pizza Hut's Book It program, so his December goal is to read 20 books.  He usually reads a book to daddy in the evenings.  Below is a picture of his sticker chart.  Daddy wants to take him to Pizza Hut when he makes this goal!

For bible, we learned about Abraham, then Isaac and Rebekah, then Jacob and Esau, Joseph, and now we've moved on to Moses.  One activity we did together was make lentil stew (like Esau sold his birthright for).  I really liked it, but the kids said they didn't.  Below is a picture of Abraham's family tree.  We also did our own family tree.

And we've continued learning some Proverbs.

We haven't done much for science.  We learned about measurement, and now we've just started studying water.  Not too many experiments to take pictures of...

In math, we finished up money and moved on to fractions.  What's better than learning about fractions using cookies?  Below is our visual aid.

Hope you enjoyed visiting our school!

Corduroy and Fabric Skirt (from Pants)

I'm back!  I used up all my picture capacity on Blogger, so I had to purchase more!  It took me a little bit to decide what to do about it.  My apologies!  I have been sewing quite a bit actually, although a few things I've already given away without taking pictures!

This is a skirt I made for myself!  I found the corduroy pants at Goodwill on the clearance rack for $3!  The fabric is a fall colored paisley that I paid $1 for!  Total cost = $4!!!  This is not the best picture, it looks much better in person!  To make one yourself, follow my tutorial here.  I'd love to hear about your thrift store deals too!!!

Word for Wednesday #6

Mat 6:24  No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.

I used to read this scripture, and I thought the word mammon meant man.  But then my husband enlightened me.  Did you know that the word mammon actually means wealth?  As in money?  That gives this scripture a whole new meaning!  You cannot serve God and money.  As Christmas approaches, I find myself getting caught up in the hustle and bustle of gift giving.  It's so easy to start serving money without even realizing it!  It's so easy to spend more than we have budgeted for, which means credit card debt or not enough money for other important things.  Why do we think that someone will love us more if we buy them a more expensive gift (which they probably won't even remember by next year).

Let's make a conscious decision to serve God this Christmas!  Gift giving is a wonderful thing, but let's remember that the reason we give gifts is to show people that we care about them.  I think it would be a wonderful idea to buy a gift for someone in need too, or make a donation to a homeless shelter or another charity.  Don't forget about the bell ringers too!  In the end, it all comes down to this: our money is not really our own anyway, it's God's!