Advent Season, Part II – Jotham’s Journey

We have waited two years to begin the book, Jotham’s Journey by Arnold Ytreeide.  I was warned by my friends who LOVE this book that it can be a bit intense, even scary for little ones.  K, who had just turned 6 at the time we heard about this story, was a bit anxious over scary things so we choose to wait until this year.

I am glad we waited, but I am SO thankful we finally got a chance to read this book.  T, at age 6, was able to follow along and I suspect children in their early teen years would still enjoy this adventure.  

Hands down…the girls ADORED this story.   They begged for more every night.  In fact, they begged for more even when it was over.  I can’t tell you how much they (and I!) loved this tale!

Jotham is the youngest son of a shepherding family during the time before the birth of Christ.  This is a fictional tale based in a historical time period, leading up to the birth of Christ. 

It is broken down into daily readings for each day during the season of Advent.  Each one concludes with a biblical lesson and a brief question for discussion.

AWESOME!  AWESOME!  AWESOME BOOK!

BUT, I will warn you that my friends who told me there were some scary parts were UNDERSTATING the intensity of this story.  After being left by his family (who think he is dead), he undergoes HORRIFIC, yet exciting, adventures.  He is taken by an evil man who tries to sell him into slavery and who continues to chase him throughout the book.

He witnesses a killing, has a sword held to his throat, and is chased through a cave of bodies.

This is not a story for the fainthearted.  In fact, I was getting quite worried after the first few days, but then it seemed to be getting better.  Suddenly the chapter left us with a man holding a sword to Jotham’s throat saying, “We’'ll see what kind of price we can get for you.”

I stopped at the end of the chapter, looking up to see how my girls would react and they both blurted out, “KEEP GOING, MOMMY!”  I couldn’t believe it!

They LOVED this book.  Did I already mention that?

It truly was a highlight of our Advent.  We read it each evening at bedtime or during the day when we had a quiet moment.  D (age 3) was sometimes in the room or around, but this story was definitely over his head.  K and T (ages 8 and 6) were ALL OVER IT!  I am sure they will love the other ones in the series!

Of course, they are gonna be thrilled that I found an Easter Tale by the same author!

Advent Season – Part One, Jesse Tree

I think this Advent season is the most enjoyable one I can remember for a long time.  It is not that the other ones have not been fun, but this season was particularly relaxing and wonderful.

Of course, as part of that, avoidance of “this machine” means I haven’t had time to record any of it, so I’d like to take some time to share and record the things we did this Advent season that have been enjoyable for our family.

Our first tradition began two years ago when I read this post about a Jesse Tree.  I thought it was a great idea and immediately printed out these devotionals.  I had to “slap it together” quickly the first year so we made ornaments by coloring the pictures on the devotional sheets and gluing them to poster board.  They aren’t creative or beautiful, but they worked.

Some of our original ornaments are still around on our Jesse Tree.

The world was created by God and our grain picture for the story of Ruth and Boaz:

I got myself more organized after our second year and after being inspired by these ideas, I hit the stores for clearance ornaments.  I was able to find all sorts of fun ornaments to make our Jesse Tree a little more creative and unique.

We also included a few homemade ones:

A red rope for the story of and a pipe cleaner rainbow:

 

Michael’s had some pre-made wood craft ornaments, so I grabbed a tree to represent the “stump of Jesse” and a crown for the reign of King David.

I loved this fire I found for the prophet Elijah.  Not only was he a little “wild” (and the ornament says “The call of the wild”), but it is a reminder of the time he challenged the Baal worshippers to a “bonfire duel” and God showed Himself to be the only true God.  This ornament was perfect!

I have no clue what this golden, plastic, glass-looking ornament is supposed to be, but it worked perfectly as a representation for a bottle of oil that was used to anoint King David as a child.

The story of Abraham and Isaac includes a ram that was provided for a sacrifice in place of Isaac.  A ram was a bit tough to find, so this sparkly reindeer will have to do on our tree.  And next to that is a “key” (ornament found at a Hardware Store) which represents the prophets who hold the “key” to the future.

This white candy cane represents Abraham and Sarah, who were to OLD to have children, but God fulfilled his promise to them.  This candy cane represents an OLD person’s walking cane.

About halfway through the Advent Season, I snapped this picture of our Jesse Tree.  It sure looks cute this year with the montage of creative ornaments! 

Another thing I did this year to make life a little easier was that I cut the devotions and glued them on notecards.  Then I punched a hole and stuck the notecards on a ring.  It was handy to have them all together, easily accessible, in a large ziploc bag with the ornaments.

I enjoyed this pause in our day to read God’s Word as walk through the plan of Jesus from the beginning!   Of course, once we got going this year, I realized that it was a GREAT way to begin to teach D (age 3) the stories of the Old Testament and the Christmas Story.  The girls have studied the Old Testament in depth, but I often forget that he is not yet familiar with many of these stories.

I was so thankful for this special way to celebrate the Advent Season and focus on God’s plan, perfectly planned and perfectly timed from the beginning.

Happy (late) birthday

Dear K,

You turned 8 this year and I can hardly believe that you are 8.  Wow.  The time has certainly flown by.

We celebrated your special day at home on October 28th.  I was able to take you out for a special breakfast and then you planned the rest of our meals.  Yes, that means we had mac and cheese for lunch and dinner that day. 

 

Your daddy brought home beautiful roses for you that evening.

We didn’t have your birthday party with friends and extended family until November because of your leg casts.  We wanted to wait until they came off, and I am so glad that we did.

 

You wanted a Pajama Party, so we had one.  We just had it in the middle of the afternoon.

First we decorated pillowcases with fabric markers.

Then we had a few relay races involving sleeping bags and the stuffed animals everyone was asked to bring.

Next it was “Spin the Bottle” with nail polish bottles.  Each person would spin the nail polish bottle and then the girl it was pointing toward had to paint a nail that color.  We used blue, black, pink, red and purple nail polish!

Note to self:  Eight year olds are still too young to paint their own nails. 

Yes, it was a little crazy…

 

But it was a lot of fun…

 

Then it was time to eat ice cream cake and celebrate!  You don’t like cake, so we gave up on the old fashion traditional cake.  Ice cream cake is the best choice, though harder for daddy to decorate.  He did add your name and a few pajamas on the bottom of this cake.

You have a wonderful group of friends.  The only unfortunate part was that your sister was sick and had to go to Grandma’s for the day.  You were both bummed that she wasn’t there.

Happy Birthday my wonderful daughter.  You are growing up so fast.  And while I miss that little girl, I am truly enjoying the beautiful young lady you are becoming.  I can’t wait to continue to watch as God’s plan for your life unfolds. 

Love,

Mommy

Wordless Wednesday: Merry Christmas 2010

Tiny Talk Tuesday

Tiny Talk Tuesday helps parents focus on one of the many joys of parenting - the funny things that our little ones (and sometimes big ones) have to say.

Join in the fun and record the Tiny Talk overheard in your house! Publish a post on your blog and link us to the laughs. Then be sure to link to the blog carnival on this post so more bloggers can join in the fun.

The guidelines can be found here if you need them.
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T randomly told me, "God is more important than rocks." I smiled at her. She added, "I don't know why I just said that. I just thought it. But I didn't know I was going to say it."
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K (8): I like giving better than getting at Christmas.
T (6): I like getting presents best!
K: I like making someone smile when I give them something.
T: I like going, "YAAAAAY".
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T: I want a coached egg. You can make it in the coacher.

(That is a poached egg. And we just bought a thing to poach them in.)
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Now our featured Tiny Talk Family, my VERY dear and LONG time friend, Amy from Picture This Dinner.

Amy and I go WAY back to 10th grade, so there is way too much I could say about her, but I won't embarrass her because she could say WAY too much about me!

She is really good about posting videos of her kids, which I don't do much and should! Here's another one of that cutie! I love this because I get to know them in a whole new way!

Her Florida residency allows her to have a Disney season pass, which is so awesome! Of course, that also means I drool over swimming photos in the middle of my northern winter.

And now, a little bit from Amy...


Tell us about yourself and your family. Be sure to include your
own hobbies and interests as well as information about your kids and
hubby.

My name is Amy and I'm 34 years young. I've been married to my wonderful
husband Jeff for ten years and we have two wonderful children: Allison, my
very inquisitive, talkative and sensitive six year old and Daniel, my very
reserved, yet sometimes mischievous, but will always a momma's boy three year old. I am lucky enough to be able to stay at home and raise my children to the best of my ability (for now at least). The more I stay home, the more
I realize I don't want to go back to work! We used to live in Maryland but
decided to move south to Florida about 4 years ago when I realized living in
cold weather was no longer an option for me (I just couldn't stand it). I
enjoy spending time with my family, whether it be swimming in the pool,
playing at the park or simply playing board games at home. Nothing is more
precious than the time we are able to spend together. When I'm not taking
care of the kids, I love to cook (hence the blog name) and write blog posts!
I was a Journalism major in college but never actually worked in the field.
I feel my blog is a great outlet for me to utilize my writing skills and
ensure they don't become rusty.

Tell us about your blog. What do you tend to write about? What are
some of your favorite posts/topics?

My husband actually came up with my blog name. He thought it would be a
great idea if I took pictures of different dishes that I made for dinner,
take a picture of the dish, and then write about how I prepared it, recipe
and all. When I first started the blog about 3 1/2 years ago I did actually
have recipes and pictures of my dinners on it. Now they are few and VERY far
between. I mainly write about my children because, well...they simply
provide so much for me to write about! I especially enjoy Tiny Talk Tuesday.
It's so much fun to go back and read old posts of things they have said - It
always puts a smile on my face. It's rare that I will write about anything
other than my family. There are always thoughts running through my head of
things I'd like to post (not family related), but they never seem to make it
onto the blog. That's probably for the best.

What is the one thing about you that we might not find on your blog?

My true emotions. I try not to write negative posts because I know I will
always regret them later. Oh, and the fact that I love pickles.

Your Turn:

Columbia Mall Flash Mob

On December 10, 2010, my facebook status linked to a flashmob at an airport with a desire to be in one sometime:

this was great...but how on earth did they get the TSA to approve it? :P (that's a joke...I know it isn't an American aiport) Man, I wanna be in a flash mob!

How on earth was I to know that a flash mob was being planned at my local mall???

But my thoughtful friend, Heidi, saw my status and knew about a holiday flashmob being planned at our mall…so she sent me an invite to the event on Face.book.

WOO HOO!

K (age 8) and I immediately decided that we were in and we invited my dad as well. A link to the dance steps was posted online and we began practicing.

Then the official performance night came (tonight). Rehearsal was at a local high school for about an hour and a half.

Here we are at rehearsal! As we sat in the auditorium listening to the “rules” and directions for the night, I leaned over to let my homeschool daughter know that “this is what being in school is like”. (LOL)

The organizer did an AWESOME job of teaching the dance and getting the night rolling. They did throw a curveball and they changed the performance time to be 45 minutes earlier than they originally said, hoping to avoid all of the folks who “heard” about it just showing up to watch.

So…here we are dancing at the mall. My mom began the video after we started, so you miss the part where I am “Mrs. Casual mall shopper” who is sipping my tea and texting on my phone while my kid rides the escalators.

I am in the green long sleeve shirt and white vest. My daughter is on the right in her hat and scarf with pink hearts. My father is the one in the Santa hat in front of me. And yes, my mom and I broke the “rules” by having her video tape this, but my hubby was at home putting the little guys to bed and we didn’t want him to miss K’s dancing.



K was so excited. She will NEVER forget this memory. (another benefit of homeschooling…out “late” on a school night) She told me, “A few people told me that I did a GREAT job. I was the only kid in our section". She absolutely LOVED playing our “mall shopping” characters that night as we wandered through Macy’s.

Here is the official video, which we are NOT in because we were toward the back of the group. It’ll give you a good idea of the size of our group as well as the people watching and/or wandering the mall.



Found another person's this AM that has K and I in it a little bit (when the pit between the escalators is filmed) and shows a good view of where we were in the mall.

What a Christmas memory!

Wordless Wednesday: Uncle Dana

Tiny Talk Tuesday

**The 2011 featured Tiny Talk Family schedule is beginning to fill! If you would like to be featured, please let me know! I'd love to have a chance to have everyone who participates to have a week.

Tiny Talk Tuesday helps parents focus on one of the many joys of parenting - the funny things that our little ones (and sometimes big ones) have to say.

Join in the fun and record the Tiny Talk overheard in your house! Publish a post on your blog and link us to the laughs. Then be sure to link to the blog carnival on this post so more bloggers can join in the fun.

The guidelines can be found here if you need them.
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My little D (age 3) is the sleeper in the house. He is in bed by 7 PM and usually sleeps till 8:30/9 AM. When he does wake up, he plays happily in his room until I come get him, usually after everyone else is up, dressed, and downstairs.

He woke up at 8:22 the other day and I went in to get him at 8:50 AM. T had just woken up and was resting in my room. C and K were both still sleeping (which is WEIRD).

I told D to be quiet because K and C were sleeping and he said, "I got up early today!" (uh...yeah...at 8:50 AM)

*My sleepy alarm clocks made me quite late for church. I might need to rely on that actual alarm clock more as a back up these days!
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I took the girls roller skating this week. T (age 6) was like a floppy fish and so funny to watch. She kept scaring me though when she got close to the half wall at the end of the rink. She would dive forward and flop into the wall, almost hitting her face EVERY.TIME!

The third time she pulled this maneuver, I said, "T. Stop doing that. You are going to slam your mouth into the wall and knock out a tooth."

She responded, "But mom. I WANT to lose a tooth."

*sigh. She is DYING for the tooth fairy to visit her.
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Speaking of T's DESPERATION for the tooth fairy to visit...

K lost another tooth when the dentist pulled it out for us. She wrote a note to the tooth fairy and put it under the pillow.

T (who has NOT lost a tooth yet) decided she wanted in on the game too. She wrote a note to the tooth fairy as well, "Dear Tooth Fairy. I love you. I want a stuffed animal."

The tooth fairy left K a gift for her tooth and left T a note that said, "Dear T. I love you too. I want your tooth. When I have it, then you can get a stuffed animal."

Of course, the sweetest part was that in the AM, K saw that there wasn't a gift for T, so she ran downstairs and got a book off the shelf and put it under T's pillow for her. She came and told me and made me promise not to tell. She said, "I don't want T to be sad that she didn't get anything."

**And of course, I didn't get her anything (as sweet as that note was) cause I thought it wouldn't be fair to the child who actually lost a tooth. Just goes to show ya...
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And I just have to add with this story a little note of my own (though it isn't a tiny talk)

The note to the toothfairy CRACKED me up because when we were young, my sister wrote notes to the toothfairy. Her most famous note was, "Dear Daddy. I love you. I think this tooth was worth $20. I love you."

And of course, she actually got the $20 from my father, so it became a classic story because my brother and I never thought to write a note to try and get big bucks from the toothfairy.

Now, we often see a lot of genetic similarity in my sister's personality and my little T's personality. So when this happened, I had to call my parents and tell them that T TRUMPED her Aunt V. She wrote a note to the toothfairy too, requesting a "big gift" and she even had the gall to do it without a tooth in exchange :)

*just a little family history saved for my girls here...
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Our Featured Tiny Talk Family today is Lindsay at Bytes of Memory. I have always thought she had such a creative blog name! I never could have come up with that.

Lindsay and I both have sons who are about the same age. Her Sammy is about the same age as my D. She just posted the cutest set of Christmas pictures so you can see Sammy growing up! Or there is another recent photo shoot here so you can see Lindsey's photography and her adorable son!

I love folks who participate in Menu Plan Monday and admire their incredible skill at planning ahead. I have yet to accomplish this goal! And anyone serving Bananas Foster French Toast for breakfast has some cooking skills! YUM!

Now a little bit from Lindsay:

Tell us about yourself and your family.

My name is Lindsay. I am 27 years old and married to my best friend, Tim. We have an energetic 3-1/2 year old boy named Sammy. Tim and I have been married for 5-1/2 years.

Tell us about your blog. What do you tend to write about? What are some of your favorite posts/topics?

I write about our lives; the big things, the little things and most of the stuff in-between :-). My favorite topics are homeschooling, technology, and various events in our lives.

What is the one thing about you that we might not find on your blog?

Probably not much as I am pretty open about my likes and dislikes and various interests. I am a technology oriented Christian mother who loves her husband and likes to sew, do crafts, and teach my son.

So go say hi to Lindsey this week!
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Your Turn:

Wordless Wednesday: Ice Cream Cake

Tiny Talk Tuesday

Tiny Talk Tuesday helps parents focus on one of the many joys of parenting - the funny things that our little ones (and sometimes big ones) have to say.

Join in the fun and record the Tiny Talk overheard in your house! Publish a post on your blog and link us to the laughs. Then be sure to link to the blog carnival on this post so more bloggers can join in the fun.

The guidelines can be found here if you need them.
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We were reading the story, "Revenge of Ishtar" (in the Gilgamesh trilogy...Ancient Egypt). D (age 3) loves it and was the one who asked for it again told me in the middle of the story, "I am not afraid of monsters. I can just shot them with the arrow and then they are dead."

(oh, he is such a boy...his sister had "bad thoughts" from that same book tonight)
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Whenever D draws something and I ask him to tell me about it he always tells me, "That's all of the things that are exploding!"

(you heard it has been said that girls draw nouns and boys draw verbs...well, it appears to be true in this house!)
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And now for our featured Tiny Talk Family...


I'd like you to meet Debbie from Children Grow Children Explore Children Learn. She is a fellow homeschooling mom of a 4 year old girl.

She hosts a great blog carnival for teaching geography. There are some great ideas, like this one about moving west. The wagon train is a craft that I am sure my kids would enjoy!

And I gotta tell you that ANY town that has a parade that includes a lighted cement truck would be a winner in my son's book! They'll want to move if I show them! (or they'll at least want to take a trip)

Now here is a little bit from Debbie...

Tell us about yourself and your family.

My name is Debbie, I am happily married to a wonderful man who we prefer to identify him as Papa. We have two grown children Kristi 27 years old and TJ 25 years old. We are raising our granddaughter Selena 4 years old. We have always enjoyed the out doors, camping, fishing, and hiking. Though now I must admit our out door interests have changed to doing a lot of hiking, enjoying going to the beach, and taking long drives. We live in a small quiet town, Montesano which is about 25 miles from the Pacific Ocean. Our town is truly more of a country town, and our nearest large city is Olympia the Capital of Washington. We are homeschooling Selena so we do look for every opportunity we can find to get her out into her world for as much hands on learning as we can. We wish we could see our older children more, but since we moved here that just isn't the case. Though we know they are grown, it still would be nice to have them around, I think that has probably been the hardest part of our move, but when the job calls sometimes you just have to go.

Tell us about your blog. What do you tend to write about. What are some of your favorite posts/topics.

My blog is called Children Grow Children Explore Children Learn. My blog actually started out as an attempt to share, similar to what I did when I had my web site. I discovered very quickly though that blogging was so much more and so different then just keeping up a web site. It wasn't long before I began to log what Selena and I do every day in her journey through preschool. I feel my blog has really evolved into a place where I share many aspects of parenting and teaching. My favorite topics to write about truly are the times we spend together as a family, the adventures we have, and the things we take in from the world around us.

What is the one thing about you that we might not find on your blog?

This is kind of a tough question for me to answer, I feel I am pretty open about myself. Papa is my second husband. I had been married for 15 years before that marriage ended in divorce. Papa truly made my life complete when I met him. He has been the greatest step father to the older children, and even adopted Kristi. Him and my son have a bond that is unbreakable. I truly can't imagine my life any different then it is now. My life hasn't always been easy, but I have grown from all my experiences and always look for the good in it all.

So go say hi to Debbie this week!
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Now it's your turn:

Wordless Wednesday: My Cowgirl