Daily Worship-The Best Part of Homeschooling

When my children were all young, our daily Bible time consisted of simple devotionals such as Leading Little Ones to God, memory verse work and simple Sunday School songs mixed in with some classic hymns. 

A few years ago, we found the devotional Long Story Short which was just what we needed. I had been so oblivious to what the Gospel really was, I was placing way too much emphasis on good behavior, and way too little on the finished work of Christ on the cross. Long Story Short was all about the redemptive work of Christ, and it came at a time when we desperately needed hope that our behavior wasn't what got us saved, but that it was what Jesus had done for us that brings salvation.

Fast forward a couple years. We had tried and failed to produce good children by focusing solely on good behavior, and so most of my children who are old enough to remember the intense years when we hit the brick wall of failed human goodness, are very, very thankful for a God who saves, despite our failures. This has brought some big changes to our daily worship time. 

Our morning Bible time still has some memory work, and some coloring pages and simple Bible stories for the little ones, but now the bulk of the time involves pouring our hearts out in worship to our amazing Lord. We are a musically developing family, so we might stream a Bethel Redding worship service to get passionate worship dropped into our living room on a Monday morning, or it might be my teen boys on their guitars or cajon leading us in some songs which they have been working on. 

                                          

Whether it is Jeremy Riddle at Bethel leading our worship, or my boys on their guitars, we are thankful. I still love the hymns, and we still occasionally sing the B-I-B-L-E for the sake of the younger children, but to see my teens seek God because they have tasted and seen how good He is, is the most amazing gift this momma could imagine. 

I have blown it as a mom in a million different ways, but God has been only good, and the joy of worshipping Him with my children is just one of the millions of ways He has shown just how merciful He is.

                                           

A Quick and Easy Frozen Party

The cousins were coming to visit with their brand new copy of the movie, Frozen. The house was abuzz with excitement as we prepared for our informal party. The first order of business was decorating. Since this was just an impromptu gathering, we simply cut paper into snowflakes, tied a bit of blue yarn to hang them and stapled them to the ceiling.

I had not cut out snowflakes in many years, so there were a few failed attempts, but the children enjoyed seeing what a few snips on a piece of paper would create and it was a good motor skills project for all of us.

Another crafty kid cut out the letters to spell Frozen and then hung them on our mantle.

I also designed a very simple Olaf craft

 For this craft you will need, 

White card stock. (we used leftover photo paper.)

Blue construction paper or card stock

Orange construction paper

A few small twigs and pebbles.

Glue, scissors and glitter glue.

I cut out the circles, the top one with a big, happy mouth, and then let my small son glue them on. He also enjoyed glueing the twigs and pebbles on. I helped with the carrot nose, simply rolling a cone shaped piece of construction paper into a cone and securing with glue before handing it to my son to be glued on his craft.

He then added a small paper snowflake and some glitter glue "snow"

When the cousins arrived they were delighted with our winter wonderland, and our little "Elsa" was so happy to share the joy of watching "Frozen" with her family and friends. Although, my husband and I had been a bit skeptical of the film after watching a video of the song, "Let It Go", we were pleasantly surprised by the message of sibling love and faithfulness portrayed in the movie. We try to keep media consumption to a minimum, but this was definitely a sweet diversion. 

Linking up with Welcome Home Wednesdays

A Valentine Themed Bridal Shower

                               

                               

My niece got married last weekend! This was the first of the children of my siblings to be married so it was a whole new adventure for my sister and her family. My girls and I with the help of the rest of the lovely ladies in our extended family had the privilege of throwing her a bridal shower.

Each of the bridesmaids contributed a food item within our finger food theme. There were many tasty morsels thanks to the creative bridal party.

Brie and Crackers with a creative heart cutout.

This was the first bridal shower I had been involved in for many years. There have been many baby celebrations but this was a whole new party realm, and with the advent of Pinterest, party throwing has been ramped up a notch.

The shower was just after Valentines Day, so I was able to score some lovely heart accessories at the Dollar store. To get the guests mingling, we wrote the names of famous romantic characters from books and movies on foam heart stickers and then stuck them on the back of guests as they came in. We then instructed the guests to ask other guests yes or no questions about their character. 

We also used heart shaped cutouts for guests to write love and marriage advice on, which they could then insert into our jar of sweet hearts. This made for a fun keepsake for the bride and stood in the place of a guestbook.

My niece Amanda, made this gorgeous pink ombré layer cake as well as 50 more yummy cupcakes.

                         

For beverages we made a sparkling citrus punch and purchased bottles of pink champagne and moscato, all chosen for their pretty labels. Thankfully, they tasted good also!

   























My crafty sister made the gorgeous banner with her Stampin Up tools.

                         

The happy bride was showered with wonderful gifts to furnish her new kitchen, along with a few other fun things for the sweet couple. It was a wonderful celebration with all the amazing ladies of our family.