Giving Thanks

The girls have a new counselor at their school this year. She has started a new character building program and each month focuses on a character trait that they want to develop in the children at the school. Naturally, the character trait for the month of November is gratitude. Sister Girl and her friend A. wrote a poem together about gratitude that I, as the mom, found too cute not to share.

The Attitude of Gratitude
A poem by E & A

The attitude of gratitude is a really good thing.
It'll make you so happy, so happy you'll want to sing.

Gratitude means thankful, it doesn't mean someone was cruel.

Your gratitude will be better than that of an early settler. (note: that line totally makes me giggle )

Thanksgiving is coming soon! Be sure to give lots of thanks!

I have a whole list of things to be thankful for this year but I'm saving most of those to share with you another day.

But I am thankful that I get to spend Thanksgiving with my husband for the first time in over a decade and that my girls get to spend Thanksgivng with their father for the first time in their lives.

I am thankful for a husband who loves me and respects me and considers me his best friend as I do him.

I am thankful for Sister Girl who forces me to keep learning with her ongoing questions about God, family realtionships, science, etc. A girl who never seems happier than in those moments when I wrap her in my arms in a tight hug and tell her how much I love her. A girl who makes her sister paper dolls when she's sick to help her feel better.

And I am thankful for Baby Girl who is my cuddlebug. Who is amazed by all that she is learning. Who has a laugh that comes from deep within and just bubbles out all over. Who just asked me, "Mom, do you know how you spell YMCA? It's Y-M-C-A." LOL!

I am thankful that God has blessed me with family, friends and endless opportunities to serve him.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Blessings,
J

Gratitude Economy

I enjoyed reading Rachel Anderson's Thinking Thankfully About Money blog entry over at the God's Politics blog. Take a moment to read and ponder.



Blessings
J

Small Ways to Give Big

Today I'm starting a series called Small Ways to Give Big over on my other blog. Stop by The Money Jar and we'll learn how to give to others in challenging financial times.

Operation Christmas Child

It is National Collection Week(November 17-24) for Operation Christmas Child. A week when you can fill a shoebox with small gifts to bring the love of Jesus Christ to children around the world. It's an easy and fun way to give. You just get an empty shoe box, determine whether your box will be for a boy or a girl and the child's age category, fill it with gifts, include a check for $7 to help cover shipping and program costs and drop the box off at your nearest collection point. A simple act of kindness that will bring joy and hope to children living in desperate situations around the world.

If you have never heard of Operation Christmas Child and would like to learn more about it please go here.

To see what kind of items to include in the box read here.

To find your closest collection point go here.

See a life impacted by a shoebox. Lejla Allison's story

Flying Holly Berries

So back in June we all attended an arts and crafts festival here in town. We stopped for some ice cream and decided to take refuge from the blazing sun in a nearby gazebo. In the gazebo there was a table set up by the local Arts Association. As we finished up a gentleman at the table asked the girls if they'd like to draw a picture and enter it into a Holiday Card contest sponsored by the Arts Association. My girls love to draw so, of course, they decided to draw something for the contest. After we finished we left and promptly forgot all about it. Much to our surprise and delight, we received a call recently informing us that Sister Girl's drawing had been chosen as the winner and would be featured on the cards sold by the association. This week we got the call that the cards were in and would be ready to see in the studio by mid-week. Today we went to check them out and, of course, buy a few sets for ourselves. Sister Girl is just tickled pink to have had her artwork featured on the cards. Proceeds from the sale of the cards will help fund free art classes for children at the gallery.

Sister Girl at the Gallery with her cards.
Close up of the cards. I think the flying holly berries clinched it for her. :)

Who needs a Wii, here's a stick instead........

They are fishing poles, crutches, swords & spoons. They are piled & propped up to make the base of an invisible camp fire or a house for a fairy. They hold marshmallows over fires and provide arms for a beloved snowman. They are whatever a child wants them to be. They are sticks. And they have been inducted into the Toy Hall of Fame. Read more about the sticks induction here.

Quote

Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless.
-Mother Teresa

Shoulder to Shoulder

I was moved by Beth Moore's wonderful post regarding the election results and prayer for our new President.

Shoulder to shoulder we stand on our knees, united in prayer for our new President and for our country.

May God bless this nation.

Recycled Halloween

When you're a kid, what could possibly be more fun than dressing up and getting free candy? I know my girls always look forward to Halloween. Costume discussions begin months before the actual day arrives. This year, partly due to a tight budget and partly due to a desire for less excess we told the girls their costumes had to come from things we already had on hand. When you have two girls who love to play dress-up there are always plenty of costumes around. What I didn't anticipate was the fact that Sister Girl has grown so much that most costumes were bordering on obscenely short. The one costume that still fit her was her angel costume from last year but she didn't want to be an angel again. After a lot of contemplation Baby Girl came up with the idea of Bride and Flower Girl. We added gloves and a veil from the dress up box to the angel costume and voila you have a bride costume. A dress used for Sister Girl's Pink Princess Party when she turned 5 made a perfect flower girl dress for Baby Girl. They wore matching capelets that were given to them a couple of years back by their Grandmother. And there you have a reuse, reduce, recycle Halloween.

And what did they do with those pumpkins they picked last weekend? Well, they both decided they didn't want to touch that icky stuff inside the pumpkin so they painted them instead.