Blessings in a day...

Even though I am congested and had much work to do today- this day was so full of blessings through simple pleasures... like siblings playing together outside on a gorgeous day. Blanket in the yard with three children reading books, Popsicles and puffy clouds, nice breezes and baking peach pies.....

After we made our first 2 pies, we had more pie crust.. so we decided to take a very quick trip to the nearby orchard to buy more... when we got there we found out they were having a summer celebration and one thing there was a library book sale!!! I got the book below for $1.00. It is a wonderful book... A Celebration of Motherhood and Old-fashioned Cooking!! :)

It includes many wonderful recipes but also sweet pictures and poems and stories.

I hope you had many blessings and simple pleasures in your day today, too!

Fast Food Fun!

A quick stop at a fast food place proved to be

a fun place for a photo shoot! :-)

This is one of my favorites ...

Preschool Corner: Farm Unit: Pig

We started some preschool- early elementary activities this week. I am working on organizing our school area so we thought we'd keep the little ones busy with some school work.

I planned to do a farm lapbook/unit with my youngest two children. Here is the start of it. We did lessons around pig these days...

One of their older sisters read them this story called Polly Pig and the Bee. (and asked them questions)...

These are some of the worksheets they did and phonics reader we worked on.

Here they are finger painting their pig puppet pieces...

We worked on spelling and writing the word "pig"

Here she is sorting a bucket of tiny farm animals...

Then she had some outside fun with her older sisters :-)

These streamer wands are a hit with my children. I love my daughter's face in the below photo (action shot). She was singing! :)

If you wish to see others' Preschool Corner posts, Click Here !

Our VBS Crafts

This year we were able to incorporate our daily lesson into our craft pretty well I think and still do some things we haven't done before.

Our lessons were from Matthew 13

First we had the lesson of the Sower and the seed. The skit for this one was very funny!

For the craft we were able to use leftover flower pots from another year and the children sponge painted them. Then we planted a flower in them.

The next night the lesson was on Wheat and Tares..

We gave them canvas board and pieces of wheat and paint. They could paint and make a picture using the wheat.

They were very creative. Here is a nice one this young lady made:

Night 3 theme was fishing/fishnet

For the craft we did homemade silk screening. This was really neat too. I got the idea and instructions HERE...

We silkscreened the Christianity symbol of a fish onto canvas bags

Then we had the theme of Hidden treasure... For this we did an I Spy bottle with the younger group.

The older kids made a paper bag book for treasures:

The pages opened at the side to slide in treasures like cards, photos, notes, etc.

Last ...the lesson was on the Pearl of great price. We had pearlized paint for them to use to paint wooden boxes.

VBS 2010

The God Who Provides

While online today, I read an article on the Institute for Creation Research's website... It's called The God that Provides (in quotations below) written by Henry Morris, Ph.D.

It is so true and not what we initially always think of when we hear how God provides... but He does provide ALL our needs, not just material things. His love and care for us is all-sufficient. Often people will say "God forgot about me or He isn't answering my prayers." however, He is ALWAYS in control and His plan is perfect. He may not work and supply what we want in ourtime but His plan is bigger and better than anything we could imagine. Each step is planned out. Often things in our life affect others so God

can supply a need through us to them and often vice versa. As a believer, a born-again Christian, I can easily rest in the Lord, taking all my concerns to Him in prayer, knowing that He has a perfect plan and He will provide EVERY

THING we truly need!

"Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost." (Romans 15:13)

God's provisions for the believer include far more than physical necessities. These are indicated by seven beautiful titles ascribed to Him in the New Testament:

The God of love: First of all, we need love, and "God is love" (1 John 4:8). Then "the fruit of the Spirit is love" in our lives (Galatians 5:22) because He Himself is "the God of love and peace" (2 Corinthians 13:11).

The God of all grace: God saves us by His grace, and then we need to "grow in grace" (2 Peter 3:18). This we can do because "the God of all grace . . . hath called us unto his eternal glory" (1 Peter 5:10).

The God of peace: He satisfies the need for peace of soul in the believer's life, and He is called "the God of peace" five times in the New Testament (Romans 15:33; 16:20; Philippians 4:9; 1 Thessalonians 5:23; Hebrews 13:20).

The God of all comfort: Our God is called "the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort," because He "comforteth us in all our tribulation," thus enabling us also to provide comfort to others
"by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God" (2 Corinthians 1:3-4).

The God of patience: We do "have need of patience" (Hebrews 10:36), and this need also is supplied by "the God of patience and consolation" (Romans 15:5).

The God of glory: It was "the God of glory" who first called Abraham (Acts 7:2), and through the Word, we also "are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the
Lord" (2 Corinthians 3:18).

The God of hope: By His Spirit He fills us with joy and peace, with power, and abundant hope--blessing us "with all spiritual blessings . . . in Christ" (Ephesians 1:3)"

Renaissance Girls

I am very blessed as a mother. I am so thankful that the Lord has blessed me with each one of my children and that I get to spend each day with them.

Most girls love to dress up from time-to-time. My oldest daughter also recently got a camera for her birthday so it has been even more photo-happy around here. :) Today they asked me to do a photo shoot with them. Even though it was very warm outside, we had fun and these photos are my favorite.

To know that God has entrusted these beautiful girls into my hands to raise for Him is just amazing.

The thing about these two that I am more proud of though- that you just can't see from these photos, is that they are more beautiful on the inside.

My daughter, the knitter

My daughter's FIRST knitting project is completed!

Great Job, sweetheart!

Happy Birthday to my daughter!

We are so thankful for you and glad you are part of our family!

We love you very much!