Calling all Crafty People

I am not crafty -- I know, I'm a teacher of young children so I should be crafty -- but I'm not. Anyway, this year we're taking the holiday season and adding a new twist. We're celebrating Christmas and Hanukkah. I've never done Hanukkah before so I've been researching like crazy. In my teacher mind, I've come up with the "theme" for the holiday -- "Light." I know, not a hard leap. So, in my effort to make sure that we squeeze as much fun into this as possible and not miss out on anything we could have done -- I'm making a lesson plan (for lack of a better word) for the season. I have a theme for each day involving Scripture and Light -- oh, there are so many! Now, I have to come up with a fun activity and/or craft to go with each of my days. For example -- one night will be focused on "God said, Let there be light" and we'll do lots of star/moon/sun stuff (like what?) and decorate the apartment with Christmas lights. Or while reading about how the righteous shine (Matt 13:43) we will gift them with flashlights and then play hide-and-go-seek with them. Are you getting the picture? I think this could be tons of fun, will help to focus the season on Christ, and maybe they'll learn something. I know -- I'm such a teacher! I can't help it.
Anyway -- I'm going to list my themes for each day and if you know of a good craft or activity that would go with each then please let me know!
1 -- Jesus is the Light of the World (John 8:12)
2 -- God said, "Let there be Light" (Gen 1:2)
3 -- Light reminds us of God's presence (Ps 89:15 or PS 27:1 or Ex 13:21)
4 -- We reflect God's Glory (2 Cor 3:18 or Matt 5:16)
5 -- God's Word is Light (Ps 119:105)
6 -- The Rightous Shine (Matt 13:43)
7 -- God's Kingdom of Light (Col 1:12)
8 -- Light reminds us of the World to Come (Rev 21:23)

Also, another idea that I wanted to throw into the mix:
While driving around looking at Christmas lights this year -- I want to give a "Candy Cane" award to houses that particularly bless us. I'm thinking something like a cute note with a candy cane tied to it that we can place on their door. Trouble is -- I can't come up with some cute little poem kind of thing. Any poets out there?

Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah,
mickie

Our Thanksgiving

For the last many, many, many years Jason and I have celebrated Thanksgiving with his family -- usually lots of Thanksgivings driving from house to house . . . This year we stayed at one house (yea!) and celebrated with my mother's side of the family. It was such a nice day -- great food and even better company. The kids played non-stop.

When we got home we had "movie night" and ate flavored popcorn. I'm thinking that it might be a new tradition.

Jason got into our boxes of books this weekend. We have a lot of books -- it was so much fun. I was very impressed at our collection and wished we had a bookshelf so that I could easily re-read some of them. Alas, I just pulled a few loved ones and now have enough to get me through a few more weeks. If you're trying to find a good read then you might want to consider some of these -- remember these are just a few and definitely not my only favorites.

1. The Screwtape Letters -- CS Lewis


2. The World According to God -- Greg Johnson


3. Lies Women Believe and the Truth that Sets Them Free -- Nancy Leigh DeMoss


4. Bringing Up Boys -- Dr. James Dobson


5. Discipline -- Elisabeth Elliot


6. Shadow of the Almighty -- Elisabeth Elliot


7. Passion and Purity -- Elisabeth Elliot


8. and the Bride Wore White -- Danah Gresh


9. The Mission of Motherhood -- Sally Clarkson
10. The Holiness of God -- RC Sproul

Oh, and Michael Ann -- I found your Captivating book. Such an awesome book and I'm glad that it wasn't lost forever. I'm going to read it again, too.

I just finished reading Tramp for the Lord by Corrie Ten Boom. I was telling my friend, Vicki (who has been so awesome to mentor me this last year) and she shared how they had a private tour through the house/shop while they were serving in Europe and showed me a pocket watch that they had purchased from the shop. Wow! Maybe someday I'll get to go there, too. I love Corrie Ten Boom like I love Elisabeth Elliot (Chloe's middle name is Elisabeth if that is any indication.)

Love you!

mickie

Quote of the Morning

About 7:00am this morning Luke was eating candy corn (ugh!) I was just about to get on to him when he said, "It's tasty in my mouth." Cute, so I left him alone. This afternoon we were at the mall where we were trying (unsuccessfully) to get Abigail some shoes. I shared some of Chloe's goldfish with Luke and he broke out in a full dance. He said, "Eating a goldfish makes me want to dance." Another cute one -- especially if you had seen how elaborate his dance was. He's enjoying some junk food today (his favorite.)

I'm putting a picture of Chloe up for Aunt Ashley. She sent Chloe this outfit for her birthday and I wanted to let her see how she looks in it. I know how to put a picture here but not how to do it in an e-mail. So, here she is -- so sweet! Thank you, Aunt Ashley.

mickie

Halloween

On Friday, Mikaela had a Halloween Party at her "school." The parents did it up well -- pizza and Krispy Cream doughnuts decorated like pumpkins. Then they did a parade where the parents would pass out candy and they got to trick-or-treat. She got so much candy that she was able to share with her brother and sister. Luke was even caught in the closet with her bag and she still had some left over! Mikaela was a cheerleader. She wore my cheerleading uniform from when I was in the 5th grade. Scary.

We have always done Halloween -- either at a church or more recently in our old neighborhood. This year we opted out and spent a quiet evening at home toasting pumpkin seeds and enjoying a nice dinner and dessert. My aunt had a Halloween party today and I am sure it was tons of fun. She promised it would be full of really scary stuff. She did introduce me to my first Haunted House as a child -- so I'm sure it was. Instead we went to the Kimball Art Museum to see the Impressionist paintings.

I've loved the Impressionists since I was in High School/College and was excited to see them in person. I was looking forward to introducing my children to them. This weekend was the last time the collection would be in Ft. Worth and we ended up joining all the other procrastinators (and there were a lot!) Parking was crazy but we ended up with a good spot. I heard someone say as we were walking in that the line for tickets was about 45 minutes -- looking at the line I believed them. As we were making our way to the line one of the employees told me to go to the members only line and tell them that he sent me. Wow, he must have felt sorry for the woman with four small children and a stroller. We went to the line and a lady questioned if we were members. I explained what "John" had told me and she looked at me and then passed me two (free) tickets and directed me where to go. Such generosity! I'm very impressed with the employees at the Kimball! We made our way through most of the collection but it was really too crazy to enjoy much. I think the kids, especially Abigail, got a good introduction and I got to see some of my favorites paintings up close. Nice day.

Love to you all,

mickie

Update on the Brown Kiddos

We had Abigail's parent-teacher conference on Friday. Basically, she's reading like crazy but at the wrong times. She has a tendency to read while the Mrs. Taylor is teaching! We discussed how strange it is for a teacher to tell a child to put the book away. Mrs. Taylor also said that Abigail talks a lot -- we know, she's got Whitehorn blood in her. But, she said that she doesn't necessarily talk to anyone -- just talks (and sings) to herself. I'm sure it can be quite distracting. Makes me smile, though. Her desk looks like it blew up but honestly, after seeing her room I would have been surprised if it had been orderly. Mostly, we're going to step-up in the math facts department. She's developed some bad habits (using fingers!) and we're going to work on getting things a little more mental. We're so glad that Abigail is in a place where she's happy, loved, and safe. She comes home each day (happily) talking about her day -- something that wasn't happening before. Even though Gram decided not to pay for her school, Jason and I are going to try to keep her there as long as possible. We're grateful that God has given me a job that is allowing her to stay and not have to start another (4th) new school (since January.)
Mikaela wakes up each day happy -- and she's so excited if it's a school day. She has always made friends easily but has developed a "friendship" with a boy named John. Apparently, John likes a certain shirt that Mikaela wears and I have to really watch her so that she doesn't take it out of the dirty clothes hamper. She's still gets in our bed each night but we love it -- that's why we bought a king-size bed. Some day she'll stay in her own bed, so for now we're going to enjoy the snuggles. We went camping about a week ago. We went with some friends and celebrated our first Feast of Tabernacles. We had so much fun! There were lots of Christians there and obviously Jewish people. Mikaela told me the other day that she didn't realize that Yeshua was a real person. Yeshua is the Hebrew word for Jesus and we use them pretty interchangeably around here. I was starting to be impressed that our trip had such an effect on her. When I questioned her further, she said that she had seen him when we were camping. Really? She then described a man with a beard, small hat on his head, and a thing over his shoulders. Ha, Ha -- that could have been 1/3 of the men there! So sweet. We're going to have to talk a little more about Yeshua and Jesus.
Luke has finally settled down with the potty words. Seriously, he would find a way to work "booty" into every sentence -- whether it fit or not. We tried to replace it with "buzz" but it didn't quite work the same for him. He's pretty much given up naps -- ugh! And has decided that he will be the pickiest eater around. He would live on peanut butter if he could (Jason loves peanut butter, too. Must run in the family.) I had enough last night and forced all of them to eat the homemade chicken-noodle soup. You would have thought he was dying! I don't see the issue -- he likes chicken and he likes noodles. But he wouldn't do it. I made him have it for breakfast and he still wouldn't budge. He got a regular lunch only 'cause it was a school day and then he got it again for snack (nope!) and supper again. Finally, he ate a few pieces of chicken. I can't decide if I'll let that count or not.
Chloe is big! She's fitting into her 18 month outfits VERY nicely -- she just turned one! All of my other children weighed 18 lbs. at one year but Chloe weighed 21 lbs. She uses three words -- mama, dada, and snack (how appropriate.) Oh, and she "signs" for snack, too. Just in case you didn't get it the first time. The rest of the time she just screams -- usually at Luke or Mikaela (they love to smother her.) I think her next word might be "stop." She's not interested in walking. At childcare they said that she needs to wear shoes -- my response, "Why? So she can ruin the top of them?" She'll walk if you hold her hands and force her. I have noticed her letting go of things a little and standing on her own -- so I'm not worried. In her own time (as long as it's not too much longer.) Oh, one more thing -- we've been singing "God, Our Father" for our prayer at dinner and she can "sing" the tune. Pretty neat. She's a reader -- like all my children. That's a good thing.
We love you all and hope to hear from you.
Many blessings,
mickie

I Hate Fundraisers!

I've been in school way too long. If you think about it -- I've pretty much been there in one form or another since I was five years old. I remember doing my first fundraiser at Plemons when I was in fourth grade. (My sister and brother loved going door to door to sell cantalopes (sp?)-- I didn't inherit their business gene.) As a teacher, I would cringe every time they would take time out of my teaching day to do an assembly where they could get the kids all excited about earning junk if they would just sell ________ to their family. I felt guilty about passing out the packets to the kids because it made me feel like I was a part of the whole system. If I had the money, I'd just donate the 40% to the school instead of getting some magazine that I don't have time to read. I've always been able to ignore it (pretty much) for Abigail. But now that she's at the new school they've got me cornered. Next week, they are having a Walk-A-Thon. It's during the day so all the students have to attend (and they let out early, too. A real pain!) So, if Abigail goes to school that day she will be walking and if she doesn't then she'll be counted absent. Ugh! I hate for her to walk for no reason. They got me! So, if you would like to sponsor Abigail in the Walk-A-Thon (the money will go to buy Accelerated Reader books in the library) then let me know. She's walking next Thursday and has to turn in the money the beginning of December.
Oh, and if you're in the mood for a magazine subscription then she's selling those, too. I'm starting to think that private schools are worse than the public ones!
Love to you all!
mickie

He is always with us

Matthew 28:19-20
19 "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,
20 teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age."

i had to share what happened to me this week at my job with UPS. It is no secret that i battle depression and when it creeps in, i feel like curling up in the fetal position and dying. The pain i have experienced while working 70 hours at two jobs and only sleeping 4-5 hours a day has been enough to take me out and i have a high tolerance for pain. Okay, enough about me because my lovely wife says that i write too long and it is too much of a theological treatise for our intended audience.

Long story short, Christ manifested to me the verse above (20) the other day as i was loading package cars. i was depressed and feeling like i wanted to quit the world when i see a white sticker stuck to the belt that moves our packages down to us for loading. On the sticker was handwritten, "Jesus Luv U". i know not of any believers on the side of the belt i was working on and only those workers and myself have access to the belt and could have placed that sticker there. It was perfectly placed where you could read it like you were going to grab a package off of the belt.

Freaked me out! It was one of those where you think about it for a why and the weight of it crushes you. "Lo I (the I AM) is with you always, even to the end of the age." Yes, LORD this true; you made that apparent clear to me the other day and saved me from the depths of my depression and sinfulness that causes it. May His name ever be praised and bring on the Sabbath Rest.