Election Day Connection

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Help make the connection between voting and the electoral college. Grab the items below and a blanket, watch history in the making.

Things needed:

* Electoral College map

*Red & Blue Color Pencil

As the news gives us the results color in the state either red or blue depending on who won. You can also make two columns on a blank piece of paper, one for Obama and other for Romney,  to keep a live tally. This is a great geography activity to help your younger ones with the states and there location. Have fun and remember to keep our country in your prayers tonight!

 

VOTE!!!

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Today is a BIG DAY! Today we drive or walk to a building and vote for amendments, government officials, and we vote for the next President of the United States! My husband and I took our kids with us to vote, we wanted to show them the importance of voting, that we need to stand up for what we believe in. Everyone can talk, but very little will follow-up their talk with action.

We all stood in line for an hour and half, if you think that was long, I know of people who stood in line for three hours! I think we have to put it in perspective, we are not waiting in line to ride a roller coaster at a theme park, that will only last two minutes,  we are not waiting in line to be seated at a table for dinner, that will only last an hour or so, we are waiting in line to vote for our future, we are waiting in line to make choices that will affect our kids and grandkids future!

For anyone that hasn’t done so already, I encourage you to get out and vote. If you are worried about the line bring a book, play a game on your phone, or just pray for our country while you wait. Just do it…VOTE!

Psalm 33:11 “But the LORD’s plans stand firm forever; his intentions can never be shaken.” (NLT)

Servanthood

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“For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” Mark 10:45

At what age should we teach our children about serving others? I think we can start teaching our children about servanthood as soon as they are able to talk and walk. We as the parents set the bar for our children. It is known that our actions speak louder than our words.

When we have family or guest over, my husband and I always ask them if they would like something to drink or eat. Now that the girls are of an age that I feel they are able to serve our guest without spilling it all over them, the torch has been passed on. sometimes I have to remind them but when they do remember they are all smiles.

Serving comes from the heart. When we serve, we are putting others before ourselves, we are saying with our actions your needs comes before our own.

Jesus set the bar high in servanthood. Where is our bar set for our children? Is our hearts and hands lining up?

My prayer is as I follow after Jesus’ example in servanthood, my children will follow after me and together we will be GOD HANDS, bringing glory to his kingdom.

Help Meet

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“And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an HELP MEET for him…And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam…and he took one of his ribs…And the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man” (Genesis 2:18, 21-22)

Help meet, what does that even mean? Let’s start with the two words (help-meet), which is to say Eve was created to be a helper (noun) who was meet (adjective), suited to Adam’s needs. Now before all the strong powerful wives get crazy on me, take a deep breath. What I’m sharing is in the word of God, so if you feel your blood pressure rising, step away and take some time to ask God to open your heart to his perfect call on your life as a wife, then come back and read the rest.

Being a help meet doesn’t make us inferior to our husband’s, it means we are there to make him more productive and efficient at whatever he chooses to do.

Taking on the role as the help meet, requires a woman to be wise, smart, strong, selfless, attentive, available and able to help in many different tasks (by the way if you missed the description in the sentence above, a help meet is the opposite of a weak frail girl). Being that help meet to my husband has me doing different tasks inside our home and sometimes outside home, whatever it takes to help him. About three years a go, I took a step back and evaluated our family time. My husband was working between 45 and 50 hours a week and when he made it home he was still plugged (phone calls, emails, texts) in at times. The weekend would come and he would spend another two to three hours working outside away from the family. That’s when I realized if we wanted more time with daddy, I needed to step it up. Being a stay at home mom doesn’t guarantee us more free time but it does mean we can prioritize our time and tasks. I began mowing our lawn every other week giving my husband more time to relax and enjoy our family. Mowing the lawn might not be for every wife. Your husband might not want you to do the outside work but you won’t know until you ask.

When you are a help meet to your husband, you are a helper to Christ, for God commissioned man for a purpose and gave him a woman to assist in fulfilling that divine calling.  God has given us the instruction, it is up to us if we choose to obey and honor our husbands and then ultimately honoring God our Father, “A virtuous woman is a crown to her husband, but she that causeth shame is rottenness in his bones. ” (Proverbs 12:4) It is our job to learn how we can help our husbands in every way possible and as strong, wise, confident, and able women of God, the possibilities are endless.

Further Info on being a Help Meet: Created To Be His Help Meet by Debi Pearl (I like and dis-agree with some things in this book but you can read it for yourself and ask God to show you his perfect plan as a help meet.)

Haiti

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He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.

Mark 16:15

We just got done Skyping (I love technology) my brother and mom from Haiti! They are there ministering in Port-au-Prince.

 

This was a perfect opportunity to bring Haiti to life. We took time cutting out pictures that represented the country, like their flag, some of their agriculture and the map of Haiti itself. Then we took time praying for the people of Haiti.

Thank you God for giving my brother and mother this opportunity to invest in Haiti. May they be used by you greatly and may your hand of protection be on them as they are preaching your word.

 

 

Yes, they are all mine.

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Children are a gift from the Lord; they are a reward from him. Children born to a young man are like arrows in a warrior’s hands. How joyful is the man whose quiver is full of them! He will not be put to shame when he confronts his accusers at the city gates. 

Psalm 127:3-5 

Are they all yours? This is the most common question I hear when I am out and about. I always smile big and say, “Yes they are!” The next thing that comes out of their mouth is, “I don’t know how you do it?” I only have four kids, is that a lot? If I didn’t have c-sections I might have had six or seven, then people would really think I was crazy.

There is no greater thing (material item), blessing or gift, than a child. My prayer is that the fathers and mothers of today would realize the amazingly beautiful little or even big person they have in front of them and to treat them as such. Our children are not collectibles, burdens, annoyances, or something we take out every now and then to play with, they are our pride and joy.

Lord help us to keep our children close, let us be ready at any hour to listen to their hearts, may we be the fuel to their fire when they set off to conquer their dreams and may we never treat them as a hindrance, for they are a gift from God.

God Broke the Mold

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“For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful I know that full well.”

Psalm 139:13-14

Presenting Alayna Boy, now presenting Victoria Boy, and last but not least presenting Kayla Boy. Each princess dressed up in a lovely princess dress and walked down the stairs to the living room to show off their beautiful attire. They twirled and danced around, smiling from ear to ear, each one in their own way saying, look at me mama, look at me daddy, don’t I look beautiful?

Most women deal with some kind of self esteem issue at some time in their life. Why is that? Well, I think first of all we as women believe the lies in our heads that tell us we are too fat, too skinny, not tall enough, or too short.  Second, I think we put too much pressure on ourselves when we see all the junk (let’s call it what it is) Hollywood puts in magazines, on billboards and media. In 2 Corinthians 10:12, it says, “…When they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves, they are not wise.”

Raising three little women and one little man, challenges me to encourage them everyday. I want them to know that society will always have a certain image out there for everyone to follow, but as for our house we will follow the image God sets before us. What a relief for them to know they are fearfully and wonderfully made, period! They are unique, they are special, God broke the mold after he made them. What a relief to know they don’t need to look like anyone else or try to be like anyone else, but part of them knowing this truth, requires us as their parents to tell them weekly or sometimes daily. While we brush their hair in the morning, look into their eyes and quote Psalm 139:13-14 over them. When they are helping us around the house, remind them of what Ephesians 2:10 says, “I am God’s  workmanship.” As they are growing into the teenage stage, make sure they know a boy or girl will never complete them, for we are complete in Christ, Colossians 2:9-10 and when times get tough, Philippians 4:13, is there to encourage them, they can do all things through Christ who strengthens them.

My prayer is to consistently speak encouragement and life into their heart, so that when society screams at them and the devil whispers lies, it will be like a ball bouncing off a wall, it will have no affect because they will be full of God’s words and promises.

Gas…

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Today we experimented with baking soda and vinegar which resulted in gas.

Gas Balloon:

Take one small empty plastic soda or water bottle and carefully pour 1/2 cup of vinegar into it.

Then put 1 teaspoon of baking soda in a small balloon. Next carefully put the neck of the balloon all the way over the neck of the bottle without letting any baking soda into the bottle.

Now for the fun part…choose a brave participant to lift the balloon up so that the baking soda falls from the balloon into the bottle and mixes with the vinegar. Watch the balloon fill up. My daughter Victoria said, “I’ll remember this the next time I want to blow up a balloon, so I don’t have to blow it up myself”. Ha! 🙂

Bag Bomb:

Put 1/4 cup of pretty warm water into a small (sandwich size) zip-lock bag. Then add 1/2 cup of vinegar to the water in the bag.

Put 1 and 1/2 tablespoons of baking soda into the middle of  a tissue, wrap up the tissue paper by folding it.

Now partially zip the bag closed but leave enough space to add the tissue with the baking soda in it. Once you place the baking soda packet inside the bag, quickly zip it up completely closed and drop it on the ground.

Let the expanding begin and if all goes well, you might just hear a little POP!

So, what just happened?

Take out the science notebooks/logs for the simple explanation. When the baking soda and vinegar are mixed together they create a gas, (carbon dioxide – the stuff we breathe out) gasses need a lot of room and the carbon dioxide starts to fill the bag, and keeps filling the bag until the bag can no longer hold it any more and, POP or Ssss!

Now it’s your turn to go outside, have fun and be safe!

“Fall Tree” – Craft

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To every thing there is a season. Ecclesiastes 3:1

Fall is in the air for us Floridan’s, well at night. 🙂

Today we decided to finger paint what we thought a tree up north might look like during the Fall. 

Step 1 – Have Fun!

Step 2 – Trace your hand and part of your arm

Step 3 – Paint your tree

Step 4 – Finger Paint your Fall Leaves all around your paper

“Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.” Albert Camus

Don’t Take It Personal

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“My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires.” James 1:19-20

Please don’t sit on the pumpkins, please tell the young lady not to push the pumpkin into the inflatable cat, please do not…, please do not… I felt like everything we did was wrong. The girls were so excited to finally be at the pumpkin patch and they had to walk around on pins and needles. We have gone to pumpkin patches every year for the past five years with the kids and this was the first one with so many “don’ts”.

I felt myself taking it personal, I felt like saying forget it let’s just go, but my heart said, “relax”, so I took a deep breath to help my insides calm down. As I went to pay the man who had been on the microphone the whole time telling us ALL the “don’ts”, I found out a little about him…he has been running this pumpkin patch for nine years. When it’s time to open shop every year, he sits in a chair for 30 days straight, all day, running this patch. After hearing this, I could understand his lack of patience and all his rules…he has probably seen people sit on pumpkins and crack them and he’s probably seen a lot of things sitting in that chair for 30 days straight, every year, for the past nine years! I’ll tell you one thing, that’s for sure, there is NO WAY I could sit in a chair for 30 days straight, I would lose my mind.  The best part is, he does it all for the Osceola domestic violence shelter for women and children. Thank you man behind the microphone for your act of selflessness so the women and children’s organization can have money to help families in need.

Our human flesh is always ready to rise up but it takes effort to listen to the small voice to control our inner selfishness. Instead of judging the man and leaving mad, I’m thankful I listened to the whisper in my heart that said to relax. We can now say, we supported the women and children’s shelter of Osceola county.

Below are some good steps to avoid hurt feelings or taking things personally, that I found, written by Doug Britton.

*Realize the other person’s reaction may reflect time pressure in his or
her life.

*Realize the other person’s reaction may reflect tiredness or
exhaustion.

*Realize that you may not see things clearly or may misinterpret
something.

*Realize that everybody is imperfect. If someone is inconsiderate,
rude, or insensitive, you can lovingly say to yourself, “That’s his (or her)
problem.” There is no need to take it personally, even if it is meant to be
taken personally.

Turn to God for affirmation. This experience can
help you grow in his Spirit and become more dependent on his love and approval.

http://www.dougbrittonbooks.com/onlinebiblestudies-depressionanddiscouragement/hurtfeelings-donottakethingspersonally.php