Autumn Leaves Craft

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Living in the middle of the Sunshine State (Florida), we don’t get the pleasure of enjoying every season, especially the beginning of Fall. Which could be referred to as Autumn.  Autumn is defined by when the foliage changes color as an indication of the end of summer. We have very few leaves that change color and when they do it’s winter time. So, for our craft today we decided to paint “Autumn Leaves”.

Step One: Pick different kinds of leaves

Step Two: Glue your leaves on card stock paper

Step Three: Paint your leaves

Step Four: Place your sticks around your picture to give a Frame look

Now we too can enjoy the changing of leaves 🙂

Discipline vs Screaming…

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For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

Hebrews 12:11

Surprise! We are having lunch and P.E. at Chick-fil-a today. The girls were so excited! The deal is always the same, eat all your lunch then you can play on the playground.
Today, as we were enjoying our delicious nuggets and hot waffle fries, we overheard a mother tell her 3-year-old daughter that it was time to go. The child started screaming and ran back into the play area.  Kayla, my 3-year-old, said “Mama, she’s not listening to her mom… that’s not good!”
Two minutes later, the mom went inside the play area and told the child again that it was time to go. Once again, the child chose to scream and play anyway. This time the mom sat down surrendering to the child’s screams, basically saying, if you scream you can have your way. About five minutes later the mom told the child again, it’s time to go. While the child was screaming to the top of her lungs, the mom picked her up and walked out the door.
It’s not fun to discipline your child, but it is necessary. When our children act out or scream they are saying, “I need boundaries, I need direction and I need to feel safe.” By setting up boundaries, kids can feel more secure because they know what is expected.
I always try to give my kids a heads up before we leave the activity we are involved in. Today, for example, I let them know they had five more minutes to play, so this let them know we would be leaving soon but they still had a little time to play.
Disciplining is definitely not my favorite thing to do, but the peaceful fruit of righteousness is well worth it.
Today, when this Mama said it’s time to go, I was rewarded with thankful hearts for the fun surprise! This is not always the case, but as a family, Jesus is always working on each of us to be more like him.

Building Strong Kids…

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What does it take to build strong kids? This is the question I ponder on everyday. My heart always speaks the same thing, “pray for wisdom and trust God.”

With that said, I believe we need to be aware of what is feeding our children’s minds and ultimately their hearts. The things they watch, read, and yes even listen to, all play a role in whom them become. The mind is a powerful thing. Dwelling on self will only reap selfishness, dwelling on things will only reap greed, and so on.

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Philippians 4:8

Sharing a “Huggie”

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About two weeks ago, we lost someone very close to our family, a dear cousin.  She was only 43 years of age when she lost her battle with cancer.  She was always giving and so thoughtful of others.  It was more than just a nice thing to say when she asked, “How are you doing?” she really did sincerely want to know how you were.
We decided yesterday to take a trip to visit some of our aunts, one being the mother of this beautiful woman. My husband explained to the girls how they should behave, prior to us going into the house.  We were there to love and to give lots of “huggies”, as my 3-year-old daughter would say. Our little angels did just that! From one lap to the other, they took turns holding their great aunt’s hands and cuddling with them.
Love speaks louder than words. For a child to wrap their arms around you and smile, is like taking in a deep breath of fresh air. Even though the girls could not talk much to their great aunts, because their first language is Spanish, the huggies, cuddles, and smiles were more than a thousand words.
May we never be too busy to give a “huggie” to someone who is hurting.
“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.”  2 Corinthians 1:3-4

Animal Kingdom Field Trip

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Today was our first field trip of the school year. Because I am a seasonal cast member at Walt Disney World I get myself and my family into Disney for free a couple of times a year.  So, we surprised the kids this morning by taking them to Animal Kingdom. Since, this was a planned field trip, I brought notebooks and pencils for the girls to write down animals and plants that they saw today.

We were limited on our time because of our 6 month old prince and the Florida heat. But I wanted the girls to get out of the classroom for a day and explore the wild. We went down the Pangani Forest Exploration Trail. There we met a nice Disney cast member named Elise, who explained to the girls the similarities in the Okapi and their cousin the Giraffe.  She shared about their facial bone structure and how their tongues are 18 inches long! Further down the trail Victoria was able to ask questions about the Naked Mole Rats and the African Bullfrog. It was great learning about all the different animals. The girls were also able to practice their handwriting and spelling by writing down each of the animals’ names we saw on the trail. Our plan is to research each of these animals more in detail on Thursday of this week.

The world is our classroom and the best part is we are learning as a family!

Impress them on your children…

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Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates. Deuteronomy 6:5-9

How are we to be committed to raising, training, and guiding our children when we have so many commitments elsewhere? Two and half years a go I made a big decision to homeschool our children. A desision that isn’t very popular. One that requires lost of time and selflessness. No running errands or getting pedicures while the kids are at school because I run the school and I am the teacher. Although I don’t get the “me time” like most stay at home mom’s get, while their kids are in school. I get something better. I have the joy of spending most of the day, everyday with our four blessings. I am able to do what this scripture has called us to do. We start our morning with praise songs, we then go into reading two or three Bible stories, during P.E. we exercise to Jamie Grace or Britt Nicole and through out the day I able to remind them “we CAN do everything through Him who gives us strength” Phil 4:13.

By all means I am not putting down the parents who aren’t homeschooling their children. But those parents do however, have to make more of an effort to invest good quality time with their kids. Because they have less hours in the day after work, school, extra curricular activities, and homework.

I encourage all parents to take the time to impress God’s words on your children’s hearts. For the word says also, “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not”. Galatians 6:7-9

I am very thankful to have the opportunity to homeschool a doctor, christian singer, president, & NFL football player. All in which will give God the glory for their talents and skills because they came to know and build a relationship with our Heavenly Father at an early age.

Hello world!

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Hello World! I’m excited to start this new journey of blogging. Tonight is Friday night which means Pizza and Movie night at the Boy’s house. So let me keep it short and sweet…Welcome to “From The Committed Heart”! Now back to the fam, we’re watching Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax tonight!