What if she doubted too?

I am reading the book Come Thou Long –Expected Jesus edited by Nancy Guthrie. It is a collection of Christmastime readings from classic theologians and contemporary writers. One piece that has really struck my heart was written by Martin Luther. The piece is titled, The Maiden Mary and in it he speaks of Mary’s part in the Christmas story. He writes:

Saint Bernard declares there are (at Christmas) three miracles: that God and man should be joined in this Child; that a mother should remain a virgin; that a mother should have such faith as to believe that this mystery would be accomplished in her. The last is not the least of the three. The virgin birth is a mere trifle for God; that God should become man is a greater miracle; but most amazing of all is that this maiden should credit the announcement that she, rather than some other virgin, had been chosen to be the mother of God.

Isn’t that so insightful? I had never thought about the fact that Mary had a choice in if she believed or not? Scripture says she asked the angel how this could be, but afterwards she went forward believing that all would transpire as she had been told. She believed in a completely outrageous and unbelievably amazing plan. This reading made me question if I believe in the promises God has made for my own life. I have not had blinding visions of angels or burning bushes in my life, but God has declared promises in Scripture for all believers and has laid truths on my heart about my own future. Do I believe them? Do I go forward with my life believing that all will transpire as promised? No. I worry, I doubt, I question … I don’t often enough, just believe.
What promises has God laid on your heart about your life? Are you living your life believing, or like me, often questioning? Let’s take young Mary’s example and believe – because the truth is, God does have a completely outrageous, unbelievably amazing plan for each of us too if we are faithful enough to believe.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas dear friends. Wishing you moments of peace, of laughter, of joy, and of awe on this wonderful day. Thank you for reading The Celebrated Family and being part of my life. You are a great gift to me!

"For to us a child is born,

to us a son is given;

and the government shall be upon his shoulders,

and his name shall be called

Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,

Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace."

Isaiah 9:6

An Amazing Gift

For the last few years my friend Jinny has gifted the women in our book club with a Christmas letter to our group. This letter is truly “gifted” to us, not just given. The letter is the most thoughtful of all the gifts I receive each year, for the gift contains nothing physical (it’s send via e-mail) and nothing material (it is not haphazardly stuck on top of a loaf of bread or a gift card). The letter contains two parts. The first is a look back at our year and what we have accomplished individually and as a group. This year it highlighted things such as three of us going back to work and four of us completing a triathlon (two for the first time), it talked about our girls’ weekend away and some of our struggles as well.
While I love the first part of the letter, the second part is the main show. Jinny assigns us each a name for the year and then talks about why. While she could easily assign us humorous names and roast us for our flaws or shortcomings – believe me she has the dirt on us – she picks beautiful, honoring, strong names. In choosing our names she holds a mirror up to each of us and says “look at what I see in you.” She reminds us of our own strength and beauty.
So in these final days before Christmas, if you are thinking of running to the mall one more time to buy one last gift for a loved one or friend, may I suggest giving someone the gift of letting them see themselves as you see them. Hope a mirror up for your friend or family member and show them the amazing, strong, beautiful person you see in them all year long – it’s an amazing gift.

Emily's Song of Christmas

This year the girls have been wanting to sing carols each night after our Advent reading. It has been so much fun and girls seem to really have learned a lot of carols. Sarah learned some new songs for her choir concert and Emily has come up with her own to have a new song to contribute to our evenings. I love her little song as she sings it with such emotion and it shows me that she is actually thinking about the true Christmas story - and the ends makes us all smile. She is only 3 after all.



This is Emily's Christmas song: (italics are singing, bold is yelling)



The angel came to Mary, you're going to have a baby,

she was so haaappppppyyyy,

then they went on a donkey,

Jofis knocked on the door and they said,

WE DON"T HAVE ANY ROOM,

Mary was really sad,

they went on a donkey,

Jofis knocked on another door and they said,

WE DON"T HAVE ANY ROOM!!,

Mary was really, really sad,

(depending on the night this "verse" is repeated quite a few times with Mary getting sadder and sadder - I am trying to have her sing it to me now and we have gone to ALOT of inns!)

then they went on the donkey to the manger and Mary found baby Jesus,

She was soooo happppppppyyy,

Where are the shepard?

They are making gingerbread cookies for Jesssssuuuss,

for Jesuuussssss,

They are making gingerbread cookies for Jesssuussssss!



I love Emily's song and the story she tells, I'm not sure where the gingerbread men come in, but knowing that my girl loves cookies, I think that to her, making Jesus cookies is a very nice thing for those shephards to do.

My friend Joanne, says that her family celebrates the story of Christmas not the stuff of Christmas. Isn't that wise? I think we are programmed for stories, from the youngest age, don't all children love a story? How does your family celebrate the story of Christmas?

Thinking about Mary

This morning in my Advent devotion book, it noted that today in the Catholic Church, the Feast of Immaculate Conception is celebrated. This feast day honors Jesus' mother Mary and the immaculate conception of Jesus. It made me stop and think about the challenges Mary faced. She was young, unmarried, packed onto a donkey, led far from her home and family and then had to deliver Jesus not only in a far away town but in a manager (or cave). Oh my. Not to mention all that she faced during Jesus' life and death.
I was reminded of a wonderful book I read last Christmas called Unafraid: Mary by Francine Rivers. This book is in The Lineage of Grace series. It is an easy read, but very memorable and really paints a picture of Mary as a woman, wife and mother. I loved it. I may actually read it again this Christmas! It would make a great gift this Christmas season - to yourself or someone else. (I will give the warning that it is told from a Protestant prospective and Mary does have other children after Jesus, so it may not jive with Catholic readers. )

The Santa conundrum …

I have been struggling with the issue of Santa for the last few weeks. This morning, I opened my devotional and there was a small piece on St. Nick which mentioned that today is St. Nicholas Day, so I took that as a sign to mention this to you all today. So what is my Santa issue you ask? First, let me give you some background. Back in the late 70's there was a little girl who loved Santa. I mean LOVED Santa. She started lists for Santa in October. She loved Santa decorations, Santa letters, making cookies for Santa … you get the picture. But when the little girl was seven, her obnoxious older cousin took her up to her aunt's attic two days before Christmas and showed her all the presents waiting to be put out from the non-existent Santa. Ouch. It was an ugly Christmas. Yes, that little girl was me, and I think I cried all through that fateful Christmas holiday. Now, although my obsession with the mythical Santa ended badly, I still love Santa. I love the idea of magic that he brings. The magic that anything can be waiting for you on Christmas morning. I think the tradition of Santa is something innocent, fun and whimsical – traits that are frighteningly lacking in today's culture of growing kids into mini adults by the time they are five.

So that is my shtick on Santa. What is the issue you ask? Sarah (6) doesn't believe. Ahh, my heart breaks a little just typing it. The other night Sarah casually mentioned, "You know I think Santa is just some man dressed up. He isn't real." Pete was ready to say, "Yes, you're right Sarah." When I jumped in and defended the little man dressed in red - and there lies are problem. Do we just tell her there is no Santa? I know it may sound silly, but I am not ready to give up Santa. I am not ready for what that says about Sarah. I want her to be an innocent wide eyed little girl who can believe in the magic of this world. I want her to go to sleep one night a year listening for the patter of reindeer hooves. I want her to lie in her bed wondering if maybe, just maybe, she will get that special toy she has been dreaming of, and then have her wake up to it stuck in her Christmas stocking. Is it too much to ask to get just one more year of this innocence?

But the flip side of the coin is complicated for me. What is it going to take to get one more year of Santa? Well certainly it is going to take lying to Sarah. It is going to take some active amount of deception that may or may not work. I don't feel very good about that. A few months ago, I read an article in Mothering magazine about a mom who believes (literally) in wood fairies. She so desperately wanted her daughter to grow into a faith in fairies that she thought she would help her along. She had the entire neighborhood involved in creating the illusion that wood fairies were actively involved in this little girl's life. They left her notes and gifts for years. Of course the inevitable came, the neighborhood kids revealed the sceme, and the little girl was absolutely crushed. She lost faith in her mom and felt completely betrayed. As I was reading the article, I was thinking, "this women is completely mad!" Then the author compared her wood fairy obsession with other people's Santa obsession. Well that struck close to home. I don't want Sarah to feel I betrayed and lied to her, setting her up to have her friends make fun of her for believing in something that doesn't exist. I don't want my daughter to lose faith in me. Most importantly, I don't want her to start questioning the stories I teach her. Like maybe that one about the man from Nazareth who died and three days later rose again – you know they say it is just a fairy tale of desperate people.

So there is my Santa conundrum. Do I push to have Santa stay, or do I let him go? Please, please send me your suggestions. How does your family handle Santa? I need some advice today from you wise women!

An Advent for everyone…

As I have been writing my chippy little posts this week about fun ways to celebrate Advent, I have been plagued by the faces of my friends and family who are entering this holiday season with nothing less than dread. In the past few weeks I have cried with friends who have lost their jobs, marriages, pregnancies and parents. Friends whose children have cancer and parents have Alzheimer's. In my immediate circle, it has been a sad time. This season all the festivities seems just downright offensive for these friends. The twinkling lights, the carols, and the memories of past Christmases are all seemingly aimed at crushing the resolve of the broken hearted.

I know it is tempting to stick one's head under the sand and wish for January. The concept of honoring Advent, counting down to the very holiday one dreads, is inconceivable. But did you know Advent is dual purposed? Most people recognize it as a time to prepare our hearts to honor the birth of Christ. The second purpose often gets lost in the happy shiny messages of Christmas. Advent is also a time to prepare ourselves for the future coming of Christ. A time when Christ will reign over our very broken world. He will reign over death, hunger, fear, hate, cancer, depression, ______________ (go ahead, fill in the blank) For me, that is the beauty of Advent. That's the Advent that is for everyone. Each week as we add the light of one more candle on the Advent wreath, we can be reminded that His reign is coming near and will dispel the dark, broken world we live in today.

I came across the lyrics to this popular hymn yesterday. What a wonderful anthem for Advent.

O come, O come, Emmanuel
And ransom captive Israel
That mourns in lonely exile here
Until the Son of God appear
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, Thou Rod of Jesse, free
Thine own from Satan's tyranny
From depths of Hell Thy people save
And give them victory o'er the grave
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, Thou Day-Spring, come and cheer
Our spirits by Thine advent here
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night
And death's dark shadows put to flight.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, Thou Key of David, come,
And open wide our heavenly home;
Make safe the way that leads on high,
And close the path to misery.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.

 

Advent Reading

For the last few years we have done nightly devotion readings with the kids. We have been using the book , The 25 Days of Christmas: Family Readings and Scriptures for the Advent Season by Greg Johnson. We cuddle up together, read the story and the kids eat thier candy from thier Advent calendar. The book is aimed at children a bit older than ours, but as a family (including grandparents and great grandma as we get closer to Christmas) we have all enjoyed it.

Although we have enjoyed this book, this year we are adding a couple of new books into the mix to give them a try.

We are reading Jotham's Journey with the kids before bedtime. Jotham's Journey is an Advent storybook which follows the adventures of 10-year old-Jotham who lives in Isreal at the time of Christ's birth. Each night of Advent there is a short chapter to read in the story.



I have two new books for myself this season. One my mom gave me called The Little Blue Book. It has brief devotions for each morning of Advent combined with information about Christmas traditions around the world. My mom is using this devotion book as well this Advent, which I think is so nice for us both to be reading at the same time.

My other new book this season is really a book on tape. For the last year, my friend Joanne has been telling me about Robert Benson's The Night of The Child. Taking her suggestion, I got the book on tape to listen to by the Christmas tree. We have our tree up and (don't take this the wrong way) I am looking forward to our Thanksgiving guests leaving so I can in my family room one evening and listen to it!



Does your family have a favorite Advent season book? I would love to hear what your family is reading this Advent season.

26 days of family fun ...

I hope you had a chance to look at the Advent Conspiracy video, I linked in my last posting. I love the phrase it gives of giving less presents and more presence this Christmas. So often I think over the past week and I can't find much time when I really gave my girls my undivided presence. That is definitely one of my big goals for this Christmas season.
My friend Katie and her husband Andrew have a great Advent tradition with their two kids. Each day when the kids open their advent calendar door of the day, they don't find candy as most kids do, they find a family activity or adventure. Some of them are simple, some of them are bigger weekend adventures that Katie and Andrew have planned out. I think this is such a great way to make sure you connect with your kids every single day of the Christmas season.
I asked Katie to share some of the surprises her kids will be opening this year.

• making a fire in the fireplace
• Going sledding
• Having hot cocoa after dinner
• Taking a drive to see the neighborhood Christmas lights
• making Christmas cookies together
• watching a family Christmas movie

I loved her suggestions. At first I thought, "how can I come up with 26 things?" But after I heard Katie's ideas, and then looked at our calendar and saw special things we are doing such as going to the Parade of Lights, our church's choir concerts, and friends' Christmas parties, I saw that it would be pretty easy to fill in the rest.

Do you have special things, big and small, that you do with your kids each December? I still need to fill in a few days and would love to hear what your family does this time of year.

Advent Conspiracy

This Sunday is the first day of Advent. Advent is the four week period in the church calendar leading up to Christmas. Although many protestant churches do not recognise the season of Advent, I think it is a wonderful thing for all Christians. Advent means "coming" and it is about preparing our hearts for the coming of Christ. I love having a time set apart in the calendar that we can take to prepare ourselves for Christmas. Over the next five days I am going to share some ideas of things to do to make your family's Advent meaningful.

First of all, check out this amazing video from Advent Conspiracy. I think I have watched it 50 times in the last month and it has completely changed how I want our family to celebrate Christmas this year! I hope it inspires you as well!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVqqj1v-ZBU

Thanksgiving Eve projects

Every year on Thanksgiving eve the girls and I make Indian headdresses and hand print turkeys. While being fun crafts, they also create a small record of how the girls have grown that year. The girls love to try on last year's headdresses and see how much bigger their turkey is this year. We use the turkeys to decorate the kitchen and the girls and I wear (yes Pete thinks i am weird) our headdresses while we watch the parade. Pj's, hot chocolate, a construction paper headdress and the Macy's day parade, to me that is Thanksgiving morning!

As I take time thinking about the many things I am thankful for this year. You come to mind. I am so grateful that when I send out this blog, you read it! Thank you for your encouragement, comments, ideas and support. I have loved making new bloggy friends and connecting with old friends around the world through this blog. You are all a great blessing to me.

3 ways to inspire gratitude this Thanksgiving …

I bet some of you who read my last few posts regarding Christmas prep thought that I must be skipping right over Thanksgiving this year. Never fear, I am not! I love Thanksgiving. I love that our country was the first country to set aside a day just to give thanks. I love that Thanksgiving comes right before the rush of Christmas. It is the perfect time to count our many, many blessings before we start into the commercial Christmas season of "I want, I want, I want."

Each year, I make a point to have some sort of activity with the girls to talk about what we are Thankful for. That activity creates something visual that I leave up into after Thanksgiving. I often try to incorporate whatever we have created into our Thanksgiving dinner decorations. Here are three of my favorites. I hope they bless your family this Thanksgiving.

The Thanksgiving Tree: Take a tree limb and put it in a decorative pot. Support the limb with floral foam or rocks. Cut out paper leaves and string each leaf onto a ribbon or raffia bow. Set aside some time as a family to talk about the importance of Thanksgiving and of having a spirit of gratitude. Write down what each family is grateful for on the leaves. Hang the leaves on the tree. I like to leave some leaves blank so that guests will be able to write on them on Thanksgiving day. During dinner, take all the leaves off and read them out loud. ( I will post a picture of our later this week – it is so pretty!)

I'm Grateful You're Here Mats: Make a paper placemat for each person who will be part of your Thanksgiving dinner. Have your kids prominently write the person's name on the placemat, decorate the mat with drawings, stickers and pictures of that person. List things that you are grateful for in that person. For example: Grandma, thank you for taking me to the library each week. Take the finished placemats to an office supply store or Kinkos to have them laminated. They may not be the fanciest placemats you could use on Thanksgiving but they are surely the most meaningful!

Grateful Turkeys: These little turkeys remind me of elementary school. I use to love making them every year. Make a turkey using a pinecone for the body and construction paper cut out for the head, weird red neck thing (I am sure it has a name) and the feathers. Before your children put in the feathers, have them write something on each one that they are thankful for. You can also do this for your family members, similar to the placemats, and have each person's turkey sitting on their plate when they arrive on Thanksgiving.

I hope your family enjoys these ideas. I would love to hear about projects your family does in preparation of Thanksgiving.

 

Planning for a point this year ...

A few years ago, I found myself Christmas shopping, wrapping presents and sending out Christmas cards right up until Christmas Eve. Then of course there was the cooking. We had stayed home that year and I was hosting Christmas Eve dinner and Christmas brunch. So even on Christmas Eve, I was up cleaning dishes and getting brunch prepped. Oh by the way, I had a 6 week old – so you're getting the picture here, right? Fa la la la la – t'was not the season to be jolly. In my busyness the one guest who had not been invited to our celebration was Christ. There was no room in my inn that year for Him, frankly I was just trying to stay on my feet and survive. When the gifts had been opened, the dishes cleaned up and the tree thrown out, I was left feeling empty and wondering what exactly was the point of all that craziness!

I vowed that that would be the last Christmas season spent on the work. I know Christmas cards have to be sent. My kids do have some gift expectations and I love to see decorations put up. But I had to take a serious look at what really needed to get done and what I could let go of. The first thing to go was the piles of gifts. Did you know the average American family spends $800 on Christmas every year? That's nuts. Over the last couple of years, Pete and I have significantly cut back on our giving. The girls each get three gifts from us. We agreed with cousins, aunts and uncles that non of us needed anything, so instead we give a charitable donations instead. We have cut our gift list back by about 75%, it has made a huge difference in the time we spend shopping, wrapping and waiting in line at the post office.

With our shopping cut back, the second, and maybe larger, change I made, was my planning. I realized that you can't have a Christ-filled Christmas if you don't do a lot of preplanning. That planning can't start in December; it has to start in November. Last year I started setting a deadline of when the work of Christmas will be done. Last year it was the 12^tt of December, I think I actually finished by the 14^th. This year my goal is December 1^st. By then the shopping, wrapping, and Christmas cards will be done. So then what happens you ask? Well, then we actually celebrate Christmas. Novel idea huh? Our family will go ice skating, see concerts and do advent devotions. With work not crowding our December, there will be room for Christ to be invited in to our home, our hearts and our celebration this Christmas, so come January we won't be asking, what was the point of it all!

And where would those political posts be?

A few months ago I posted that I was planning on blogging about politics during the presidential race. I know you all held your breathe and were greatly disappointed. Some of you have e-mailed to ask where all the political posts were, so I thought I owed you all an explanation. As I wrote in my post a few months ago, I am very passionate about politics. I love to discuss candidates, parties and platforms. I love that we live in a country where we have that freedom. It is an amazing gift. So I was getting right into my fired up political mind set – Obama sign in the front yard, and a pin on my purse – when I sat down in church and heard a sermon from our pastor about politics and faith. It was not one of those "go vote this way" sermons, it was essentially about keeping our eyes on Christ this election season. One thing he said really pulled at my heart. He asked, Who do people know you to be? Basically, what is the label you wear? Democrat? Republican? Doctor? Mother? Activist? Independent? Farmer? Teacher? I don't know about you, but don't want any of those labels to be who I am known as. I don't want to be known as Wendy the Democrat. Sure, I'm a democrat, but that's not who I am.

Daughter of the King
Servant of Christ
Follower of Jesus Christ
Christian

Those would be the labels that matter to me. So when I thought of writing about my political views and sending one more piece of ideology into your inbox this Fall, I just couldn't do it. We all heard enough pundits, didn't we? We all received enough flyers, postcards, spam and robocalls without me adding to your daily deluge. I don't honestly believe that writing about politics would have swayed anyone's vote, but what it could have done was take my eyes off what I set out to do in this blog. It would have turned my blog into a space of division and controversy amongst sister of Christ, instead of being a place where you can sit down with a cup of coffee and be (hopefully) encouraged in life. It would have been just another political e-mail that annoyed 50% of its readers.

Now we have all cast our votes, and the nation has made its representative selections, our challenges continue much the same. As parents the work continues whether it be keeping peace between offspring or guiding our children toward a living faith. As women, we continue to find that elusive state of balance (sorry to leave my approximately 5 male readers out). As Christians we continue to serve and worship our amazing God more fully. I hope that by making the choice not to blog about politics we can move on together as a community of readers seeking to celebrate our friends, family and faith more fully. And if you really, really think I should have blogged about politics – don't worry, I am sure the next presidential cycle will start in about 20 months!

One last reminder ...

Unless you live under a rock, you know today is election day. Tonight the phone calls, mailers and commercials will finally end, and America will have made huge decisions that will effect our state and federal government. Frankly, as Americans we will make choices that change the world today. I hope you will take the time to go and vote. It's our privledge, our honor and our responsibility to do so. So go vote!

Planning for Peace ….

While our jack –o-lantern was starting to decompose outside, Pete and I sat down this weekend to have our holiday season chat. I know your kids are probably still clinging to the ceiling from too much candy, and the thought of Christmas is a bit nauseating, bit stick with me here. A few years ago I realized that if I didn't start planning for the holiday season early, and I do mean early, then the whole month of December looked like a hectic grumpy mess and afterwards I felt like I had missed it. So Pete and I sat down this weekend to look at the last two months of the year and plan out what has got to get done and also what we want to do for fun. First we put on our calendars our obligations – holiday meals, birthdays, and family visits. Then we made a list of the holiday related work that needs to get done; decorating, shopping, cards, and some major cleaning before his mother and grandmother join us for Thanksgiving. Looking at our to do list we figured out how much time each of us will need and then plugged into the calendar two work days when I will hire a sitter or set up play dates so we can get it all done. There were some house projects that we would like to get done, but they are not absolutely necessary, so they came off the list for this year. Last, but definitely not least, we made a list of the fun things we want to do with the girls this holiday season. We looked up the dates for our local Christmas parade, the zoo's holiday light event, and local museums family holiday days. Looking at how full our calendar already was, we realized we needed to pick just two events. We chose the zoo and the parade and we blocked off those evenings on the calendar.

Does this seem ridiculously type A? Believe me, I am not naturally type A! There is a bigger picture here. I want our holiday season to have meaning. I want Pete and I to be thoughtful about what we do with our children during this time of year, because it is just so easy to make December an exhausting whirlwind. I want us to be on the same page, so that our priorities are the same, not one of us thinking we'll be finishing our basement this month and the other one assuming we'll be going to all of the wonderful holiday season festivals around town. This is our first step in planning for a peaceful holiday season.

Ghostly Toes

When Sarah was three she came home from preschool with a little ghost made out of her footprint. It is a simple and adorable little Halloween craft that we have done each year since. I apologize for not having a picture, so you'll have to use a bit of your imagination here.
Trace your child's foot on a white piece of construction paper. Cut it out. Turn the footprint so the heel is up. Where their heel was is the ghost's head. The toes are the bottom fringes. We use googlie eyes for the eyes and draw on a smile. On the back I write their name and year. This year will be Sarah's fourth ghost and Emily's third. The girls and I love to look at how their feet have grown from year to year and so do I.
I hope your family has a safe and happy Halloween!

Drawing winner ...

And the winner is .... Katie McArthur. Congratulations Katie. Thanks for sharing your ideas on how to keep your car from turning into a Mobile toychest/garbage bin. You will be receiving a gift card to Target.
Thanks to everyone for your great comments, suggestions, ideas and questions this month. Look for next month's drawing prize announcement next week.

Are you registered to vote?

Are you registered to vote? No? Maybe? Not sure? Voter registration in the state of Colorado ends this coming Monday Oct 6th, and many other states are closing in on their deadlines as well. Here is a great site to check on your registration, get registered and find out about early or mail in voting options. If you live in Colorado, everyone is being strongly encouraged to do early or mail in voting. The ballot this year is a monster, and voting lines will be long. I know the prospect of standing in line for hours with a two year old is not a pleasant one for me, so I will be mailing in a ballot.

Go make sure that you are registered and ready to vote in this critical election year.

https://www.voteforchange.com

It's party time

I love throwing birthday parties, especially kid parties. My girls' birthdays are both in the next few weeks and we are definitely in party planning mode around here. Sarah's first few birthday parties were rather obscene spectacles of goofy parent over indulgence. (Here I will absolve Pete from any part in them, it was completely all my doing! Thank you for dealing with me Pete!)

For example for Sarah's second birthday we rented out a playground and got a bouncy obstacle course. We had a craft station where kids each received a coloring book that I had made to feature Sarah and my Elmo theme. We had enough food to feed about 100 people ( there we 50 of us) and I made 6 dozen chocolate chip cookies with the number 2 and the letter "s" on them.

In the last three years, I have definitely calmed down a lot. I want our girls to have very special birthdays, but we no longer have 50+ people there to celebrate them.

So what are we doing this year?

Both girls are inviting just 5 friends and their cousins. Sarah (turning 6) is having a pj party. The kids are going to play 3-4 PJ or sleeping theme games. One is a Princess in the Pea challenge. Each team will get 5 blankets, half the cushions from our couch and 4 pillows. They will have to race the other team in making the tallest bed that one of their teammates can lay on without the bed falling down. The girls are also going to paint pillowcases (these will be their favors) and make their own pizzas for dinner.

Emily (turning 3) is having a Dora pumpkin party (its Halloween time). The kids are going to wear their costumes and play traditional games like bobbing for apples as well as some Dora theme games like "pin the pumpkin Dora." They are also going to have a Dora challenge where the kids will follow Dora's map to find the birthday cake. Emily (who is dressing up as Dora) will have a back pack filled with three things to help the kids on their mission. I haven't quite figured out what the obstacles will be - maybe a fake lake to "swim" across or a mountain (aka the stairs) to climb. If you have any ideas please share them with me!

It is so fun to be planning these parties with the kids. They both have been very involved in every decision this year, agonizing over pink vs purple plates and which games to play. I think planning the parties and working together to get everything ready has really let them know that it is indeed their special day that is coming up. I'll let you know how the parties turn out.

My favorite things about Fall

Fall has definitely arrived in Denver. The leaves are amazing shades of red, orange and yellow. The sky is a clear backdrop of stunning blue and the mornings are crisp and cool. Emily and I walk Sarah to school each day. We have been watching certain trees' progressions into Fall. The first tree we spotted with yellow leaves is almost bare now, and the maples have burst into brilliant reds.
I don't remember loving Fall this much as a child. Maybe it was because I saw it each year and took it for granted. After having lived for 11 years in Miami as an adult, I now long for and savor each Fall. I know I drive Pete nuts as we drive around town. I am constantly pointing out trees of various colors, leaves falling, blooming mums and pumpkins adorning people's front steps. (Recently I pointed out a brown leafed tree, and Pete informed me that it has been dead all summer).
Anyway, I love it! I decorated our house a few weeks ago with Fall wreaths, yellow mums and pumpkins. There are two scarecrows sitting on my front swing whom Sarah has named Rose and Bushy. The kitchen has gone into Fall mode as well. I have started making those comfort foods that our whole family loves like beef stroganoff, chili and cornbread and roasted turkey. Yum!
With all the things there are to love about Fall - here are 5 of my favorites. What would your 5 favorites be?
1. Einstein Bagels pumpkin muffin and pumpkin bagel
2. Walking on crunchy fallen leaves
3. Pulling out my favorite sweaters
4. Hot apple cider
5. Harvest festivals

A servant’s heart …

A few weeks ago at a church dinner, I watched my friend Wendy's daughter Greta holding three cups by the drink coolers. Our church puts out those large orange coolers full of lemonade, sweat tea and water. I saw that Wendy was busy getting meals for her two girls, so I went over to see if I could help. I asked Greta if she needed help. She said "No, I am getting the drinks for my mommy and sister." Well, you see Greta is three, so I thought I better help anyway. She was very thoughtful in her selections, taking her time to make all the right choices. Sweat tea for mommy, lemonade for her sister and herself. I helped her fill up the glasses, but she was bent on carrying them herself. She was a little girl on a mission. I told her to take two and come back for the other. By that time Wendy had come looking for Greta and I told her that what she had been up to. I have been thinking about Wendy's response for the last week. She said, "Greta, thank you for serving me!"

Thank you for serving me. What a beautiful response. It hit the nail on the head. Wendy could have said, "thank you for being my helper." Or "that was very nice Greta." But Greta wasn't just helping or being nice, she was serving and it was beautiful to watch. I don't know about you, but I want my children to grow up to have servants' hearts. I want them to grow into women of God who look around their world and serve it with the love of Christ. I want that, but all that week I was wondering what am I actually doing to cultivate it?

For starters I wasn't sure that my girls know what the word "servant" means from the Christian perspective. Second, I knew I hadn't taught them that we are called to follow Christ's example and serve with love, "For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve," (Mark 10:45). So those would be the first two things I needed to work on.

But the third thing is so much bigger. I need to model it. As a mostly stay at home mom, I spend much of my days serving my family. But how much of that serving is done through love? Honestly, not enough. I pack lunches, do laundry, clean toilets and tie shoes from the mindset of a worldly servant (think sad 17^th century maidservant). My attitude frequently reflects my worldly servant mindset; I'm grumpy, worn, and resentful. Over a cup of coffee, I day dream of maids, laundresses and nannies who will come to my rescue. I need to wake up! What a horrible example I am setting! Is it no wonder that when I ask Sarah to set the dinner table she sighs the weariest of sighs as if she is being sent back to a coal mine?

Our whole family needs to shed our worldly servant mindsets and claim our blessed position as servants of Christ. So for the last week, I have started to change my mindset and the vocabulary that goes with it. The girls and I have been talking about having a servant's heart and how we can live that out at home. But a heart level change like that is not something we can beat into our kids or shove down their throats, its something we have to encourage and cultivate. So now when I see Sarah putting on Emily's shoes for her, I don't say, "thank you for helping Sarah." I say, "thank you for serving your sister with love Sarah." Today when I caught Emily helping Sarah clean up her Webkinz, I said, "Emily, thank you for showing the love of Jesus, by helping Sarah clean up her Webkinz." It's amazing how this seemingly small shift has made a really huge difference in our attitudes about being helpful toward one another. It has been a really neat thing to watch.

The big 100!

Eleven months after starting The Celebrated Family blog, I have reached 100 posts. I wanted to take this little milestone to thank you all for reading my thoughts, ideas and sometimes just random rambles. I have so enjoyed reading your comments and receiving your e-mails. I love having met a whole set of wonderful women (I don't think I have had a comment from a man yet!) through this blog.

You are all a great gift and blessing in my life.

Thank you!

Wendy

Morning routines

Thank you all for your ideas and general support for my disorganization issues last week. Well, I told you to send me your own organization issues and I had requests for help in one area over and over again – morning routines. I received requests for ideas for making school day mornings more organized and less tense.
Mornings have traditionally been something that we have really struggled with. Sarah and I are definitely NOT morning people and when the two of us both get in our grumpy morning moods, it can be ugly. Last year, Sarah started school at 9:00 and I think we made it to school on time about 6 times. This year, we have to leave the house at 7:40, so I was very worried all summer about how it would go. About 4 weeks before school started I sat down and figured out a new morning schedule for our family, and by the grace of God it has worked out beautifully.
After you all gave me such wonderful tips last week, it's time for me to share some. When I say "by the grace of God" our mornings are working out. I literally mean it. This summer I started getting up before the girls to spend a half an hour reading the Bible and praying. Now with school in session, I get up at 5:50 and spend 30-40 minutes each morning reading Scripture and praying. Through feeding my soul before I wake the girls, I am equipped to wake them with patience and a smile. It has made all the difference in the world (thank you Joanne and Cindy!) There are a few things that I do the night before that helps our morning run smoothly as well.

• Clean out the backpacks: Every afternoon I clean out the girls backpacks, put in whatever needs to go back to school the next day, and set them by the door.
  


• Pack the lunches: I pack everyone's lunches before I even make dinner. I normally do it while the girls are having their afternoon snack. I find that if I put it off until after dinner, it just doesn't seem to get done.
  


• Lay out the clothes: I lay out my clothes as well as the girls before we go to bed. The girls know that the first thing they need to do when they wake up is put on the clothes that are at the end of their beds.
  


• Fifteen extra minutes: When I figured out our new morning routine, I added 15 minutes to give us a little cushion each day.
  

Everyone had such great ideas last week, I can't wait to hear how you get your families out the door each morning. Keep the ideas coming. They are great!

The mobile playroom/kitchen/laundry room/garabe can

Thank you all for your great ideas on getting my office organized. My friend Joanne is coming over today for lunch and I am looking forward to getting her two cents in person. When I get some of your suggestions implemented, I will post a new picture of my office. Doesn't that sound like a HGTV show? "Stay tuned for the big reveal of Wendy's new and improved office, where she can actually find things!"
Okay, so are you ready for organizational issue #2? The car. Out of respect for Pete and in order to not ruin my father's entire day, I am not posting a picture of the inside of our minivan. Instead, I'll give you a true story from last weekend which will illustrate the state of our car pretty well. Last Saturday after Sarah's soccer game we headed downtown to Elitch Gardens (an amusement park). On the way there, Sarah decided she did not like the outfit she had picked out. I said, "I'm sorry, that's too bad." Sarah replied, "Isn't great that our car is full of stuff, I'll just find another outfit." And she did - shirt, shorts, and even another pair of socks. Sarah was thrilled, I was horrified. Why is all this stuff in our car!
Twice this summer, when we have been out of town, my wonderful father has completely cleaned out our car. Within, days it is full of stuff again. My dad likes to tease the girls that they shouldn't bring anything they like out to our car because we must have the rule that once something goes in the car it can never return to the house. Ahh sometimes it feels that way.
So here are my questions; what does the inside of your car look like? If it doesn't look like mine, what family rules do you have in place to keep it cleaned up? Do you have any nifty car organizing tricks to share? Bring on the suggestions, I can't wait to read them.

I have got to get organized!

Okay, I mean it. I have to get organized. Many of you who know me are laughing, and that's okay. I hope some of you are saying, "Amen, me too sister!" And, I hope a few more of you are saying, "I can help you with that." Praise you if you can, the good Lord knows that my parents tried for years. They still try. My poor mother-in-law who is a very clean and orderly lady, is frequently appalled by me. In her house, everything has a place, and she puts it back there. She has tried to create this system in my house, working herself ragged when she visited, but sadly it never sticks. Now don't get me wrong, my house is clean, it's just not organized. We waste so much time as a family looking for lost shoes, shin guards, library books, phone numbers – you get the picture. It drives me nuts.

For the next week or so I am going to talk about some organizational challenges I am having, and I hope you'll share your ideas and solutions with me. If you are a big mess like me and you have an organizational challenge you would like some help with, write to me and I will include it.

It's been awhile since I have had a monthly drawing, so I am going to host a drawing this month for a $10 gift card to Target. Use your gift card to buy file folders, labels, plastic tubs, whatever you may need to help get organized too! Every time you leave a comment between now and Oct 10^th, you will be entered in the drawing.

So today's challenge – my office. I have wanted my own office for 10 years. In our new house, I finally have one. It has a great walk in closet, plenty of room and opportunities, yet as you see – it's a big mess. It seems to be the dumping ground for school, church and house paperwork. There are piles of the kids' artwork mixed in with books for writing projects, crafts and family photos. So how do you organize your home office or workspace? Start sending in those ideas, and get entered in the drawing.

A review of The Faith of Barack Obama by Stephen Mansfield

A few weeks ago, Michael Hyatt, CEO of Thomas Nelson, announced the release of The Faith of Barack Obama by Stephen Mansfield. He offered a copy of the book to bloggers who would read the book and post a review. Here is my review.

The book cover of The Faith of Barack Obama reads in part, "In this fair-minded but inspiring account of Obama's faith, New York Times best selling author Stephen Mansfield takes you inside the theology of Barack Obama, inside the church that has been his spiritual home , and inside the battles of faith that have shaped his politics." If Mansfield had written a book to fulfill that description, it would have been a useful and insightful tool for voters seeking to understand Obama's faith this election season. Yet, Mansfield's surprisingly brief book falls significantly short of this goal. The book is notable for what it lacks nearly as much as for what it contains. Namely, the book lacks any interviews with Barack Obama, his family, his former pastor or his current one. A void that is evident throughout the book.

While I applaud Thomas Nelson for publishing a book about the faith of a Democratic candidate, at times I wondered what the motive was behind publishing this book. The editing is clearly biased. One pullout quote reads, "Barack accompanied Lolo to a nearby mosque on Fridays and prayed at his side for the blessings of Allah." In the text, that sentence actually starts with the word "occasionally." It is an important word, as Mansfield asserts that Barack is not and never has been a Muslim. But a reader scanning the book would be left with a very different impression.

Mansfield spends an inordinate amount of time covering the black theology of the 1960's. If Obama's own faith statement was framed through the vocabulary of black theology than the time spent elaborating on the roots of this belief system would make sense. But since it does not, this section of the book can leave suspicious readers believing that Obama studies James Cone's Black Theology and Black Power instead of the Holy Bible.

In the fifth chapter, Mansfield compares the faiths' of Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, John McCain and George W Bush. The comparisons are written along predictable Republican Party lines (Mansfield is very open about the fact that he's not voting for Obama.) McCain's lack of comments regarding his faith is painted as the stoic and gentlemanly demeanor of a man from a bygone era. There is no mention of the fact that he cheated on his first wife and applied for a license for his second marriage eight days before his divorce was final. McCain has never been baptized into nor joined the North Phoenix Baptist Church where he attends with his wife Cindy. Instead of using this information to take a critical look at McCain's faith, Mansfield instead endearingly calls him a "maverick." In the concluding paragraph of the chapter Mansfield says in referring to Obama,

"His face stands out among them all. It is black. It is under fifty in 2008. It is Christian in a nontraditional sense…. It is progressive and social justice and the most liberal face of all." (pg 127)

Any reader who had gotten through the first four chapters of the book thinking this was an unbiased look at Obama, should have no misconception about that by page 127.

In conclusion, if voters want to understand Barrack Obama's faith, they should go straight to the source. Either one of Obama's very well written books will shed light on who he is and what he believes. His website is also a good source of information. Although this was not a glowing review, I commend Thomas Nelson for even publishing this book. They have received an unbelievable amount of negative reactions from the Christian Right for publishing a book about a democrat. I was shocked to see the level of anger and hatred personally aimed at Michael Hyatt when he announced this book on his blog. It is vital to the democratic process that information is made available through all sorts of venues about the candidates our country is considering. When publishers are corporately and personally attacked for publishing a book about a candidate affiliated with the "wrong" party, our nation is in a very sad state. It is made even sadder yet that the attacks are done in the name of Jesus Christ, The Prince of Peace.

Let’s just talk about things we shouldn’t…

There is a saying that ladies don't speak about politics or religion. Well I talk about the religion all the time, so I am going to throw caution to the wind talk about politics. I have really struggled with the idea of blogging about politics, primarily because I don't want to upset people. But the truth of the matter is that I am very passionate about politics. I grew up in a politically active home, where debate was expected not avoided, or shushed up. I have a minor in political science and if I didn't blog about over the next few months, this blog would no longer reflect who I am.

So why do I think people will get upset if I talk about politics? Because I sit on what is considered the wrong side of the fence for an evangelical Christian. Yes, there it is, I'm a Democrat. (Oh, I feel so many of you cringing). For the past 8 years I have stayed mostly silent about my political views around my Christian friends. I bought into the marketing scheme that Republican's are God's party and Democrat are godless heathens. But now, facing a critical fork in our nation and world's road, I think it is vital to start talking about political choices. So I am going to be blogging about political topics on and off for the next few months. My goal is not upset you or even recruit you; it is to encourage you to have your own conversations with your friends, your bible study, your neighbors, your co-workers. Talk about those topics that can be uncomfortable, but are vital to our national consciousness; military action, social responsibility to the poor, our economic crisis, global warming, abortion rights, the list can go on and on. Let's start talking, and listening to one another, and come November we'll all be better informed to cast the correct vote for ourselves, our families and our nation.

update

Sarah had a great first day of school today. She was very excited to find out two of her friends were in her class. She marched into class with her little friends and never even looked back at Pete and I. She says that she had a lot of fun today - especially playing computer games. She is her father's daughter!
Thank you for your kind support of my mini nervous breakdown yesterday. I had dry eyes today and really enjoyed meeting some other new parents at the school's Boo Hoo Breakfast this morning.

Tomorrow, already?

Tomorrow morning, Pete and I will walk Sarah to her first day of kindergarten. I can't believe this big day in our lives is here already. I know many people will roll their eyes or laugh off the idea of kindergarten being a big deal. But to me, it really is feeling like a big deal. I have been truly blessed to stay home with Sarah since she was born. I have loved watching the small and large moments of her life unfold. I really can't imagine what life will look like with her away from home 5 days a week.

I know she is ready. She is an outgoing, happy and bright little girl. I know she'll make friends easily. She has a wonderful teacher who is a strong Christian women, I praise God for that. It's her mama who will be a big wreck tomorrow. It's me who will miss our days at the zoo, family lunches on the porch, and lazy afternoon naps snuggled in my bed.

Pete and I have made two moves to get into a great school district, knowing one day soon Sarah would be off to kindergarten, but it's hard to believe that that day is tomorrow.

Back to school ice cream fun …

Although the official end of summer may not be until next weekend, summer is ending for us this evening. School starts up this week and I am back to work at the church. This past week we tried to squeeze in some last minute summer fun. On Wednesday night, we had an ice cream party for neighborhood kids who will be starting kindergarten with Sarah. I sent out an Evite to 8 families and told them to invite anyone they knew who will be starting kindergarten. We ended up with 12 families. It was fantastic. Most of the children did not know each other, so it gave them a chance to meet some new friends before the start of school. I wanted Sarah to have a few familiar faces in the sea of nearly 100 kindergarteners who will be starting this week.

I provided the ice cream and everyone brought a topping. I have to say I was really impressed with the creative toppings we ended up with. There were all the basics plus berries, gummy bears and cute little cookie dough balls (thanks Megan!). The kids had fun eating their sundaes, but even more fun chasing each other around the yard burning off their sugar highs. I really enjoyed meeting some new moms (and a dad) and hearing about the school from the veteran parents. Sarah and I agreed that it was so much fun, we may make it an annual tradition.

Since we are just entering the world of "real" school, I would love to hear your family's back to school traditions.

I’d cross the street for you…

My friend Anna said a quote the other day that has really stuck with me. I believe she said it was by Eleanor Roosevelt. The quote went something like, "Many friendships are lost by people's unwillingness to cross the street." Okay this is probably a really well known quote that I have now butchered, but you get the meaning. It's such a true statement. So often in our busy, self righteous, modern day lives, we let great friendships slip away because we are just unwilling to cross the street. The street can represent so many things. Hurt feelings, misunderstandings, a move, a life status change. Our best friend moves across the country, and we are too busy to pick up the phone and call them – the friendship fades away. A friend slights us and we don't take the emotional energy to explain the pain they have caused, instead we let the friendship die. Life gets moving so fast that we place our friendships on the backburner, only to find them gone when we finally find the time for them.

Spending time with my college roommates this weekend, I kept thinking that you just can't make old friends. You can meet someone new to go out to coffee with, but you can't go out and replace your old friends. I won't lie; my little gang of college friends has experienced our share of issues. There were years when I was completely nuts, and other years when some of them were. We have had to come to terms with our differences in priorities, goals and religions. We have hurt one another, but we have loved one another more. They are the women who held my hand during the darkest time in my life and the same women who danced to Gloria Gainer at my wedding. Those are the type of friends you can't decide to go out and make. They are the friends you have to decide to keep.

Friendships like that are like a marriage. It takes time, energy and an emotional investment. That is what I love about Anna's quote. Crossing the street is such a great illustration, it's an active decision, and it's intentional. Crossing the street doesn't just happen. You chose it and you do it. The beautiful thing about friendships is that there is someone on the other side of the street, willing to make the same choice.

Do you have those friends? The ones you need to keep. I hope you'll take the time to plan a girl's weekend, or just night out. At the very least, give them a call just to let them know that you'd cross the street for them.

Girls Weekend

The girls, (also know as Heidi, Fara, Caroline and Manya) and I arrived at my house a few hours ago. We spent three great days up in the mountains. Our plans were thrown out the window by a major cold front that blew in Thursday and brought snow - yes snow - to the mountains. We cancelled our biking trip and went to the movies instead. We saw Mama Mia and did some shopping on Friday. Saturday we spent most of the day in our condo as rain and hail poured down outside.

Last year we spent the whole weekend saying, "what do you want to do?" "I don't care, what do you want to do?" So this year we decided to try something new. Each of us have developed unique hobbies and interests over the years, so we decided to celebrate by having each person pick/plan an activity that reflects their interests or life at home. It worked out great. Caroline, who just finished yoga instructor training, led us all in an incredible hour of yoga. It was wonderful getting to see a different side of her. I actually cried at the end of our little class, because she is SO amazing! I am so proud of her! Our resident crafty gal Fara, brought a fun craft for us to do. We spent Saturday morning beading and creating away. It was great for all of us to get to start and complete a craft without a preschooler interrupting.

The activity that I planned was a book club night. I love my book club here in Denver and wanted to share the experience of reading a book and discussing it together. We read The Geography of Bliss. Friday night we went to the grocery store and bought a variety of yummy munching food. We stayed up snacking and talking until about 1:30 in the morning. It was a great discussion book as it makes you thing about what makes you happy. It was a great way to really share what is going on in our lives at home. So frequently when you talk on the phone, you just don't say all the things that you can say in a face-to-face uninterrupted conversation. It was a wonderful night.

I will post some more pictures later this week. This photo was taken on Manya's phone and is the only one I can get to tonight.

The girls are coming to town …

Fifteen years ago this month, my life was getting ready for a big change. A big BIG change. I moved from Denver to Miami, Florida to attend UM. When I arrived there, I was faced with a totally new world. A world without any friends or even familiar faces. Looking back now, I can't believe what a brave 18 year old I was. Would I move across the country not knowing a soul now? Probably not.

Amidst a sea of 8000 strangers a miracle happened, I met a group of the most amazing women. Women, who I quickly became my sisters. Fifteen years, six marriages, nine children and nine intrastate moves, they are still my sisters, and tomorrow they are coming to town! ( All but one – Jenny we will miss you!) Each year we get together for a girls weekend. From beach weekends in Florida to city weekends in NYC or Chicago, we try each year to get together for four days. Our lives have moved us all over the country – Penn, Florida, North Carolina, Illinois (soon to be Kuwait!), Georgia and Colorado. But one weekend a year we get together for rest, relaxation and lots of reconnecting.

This weekend we are going to Breckenridge. Everyone is flying into Denver tomorrow and then we will drive up to the mountains. We had lots of plans for the weekend, but a huge cold front is moving in which may keep us inside. Even though our activities may change the things we are looking forward to will not. With all of our children being under 6, Fara and I made a list today of things we were looking forward to doing while we are sans kids for four days.

Here are some of them:

• We will only go to the restroom when we actually have to use it ourselves.
  
• We will get to go to the bathroom all by ourselves.
  
• We will not be required to dispense juice boxes, goldfish or graham crackers to anyone.
  
• We will be able to carry little purses whose sole purpose in life is to be cute.
  
• We will be able to wear a shirt all day long without it being used as a napkin, tissue or towel.
  
• We will sleep in until hearts' content.
  

And most importantly ... we will have very long, drawn out conversations without any interruptions! We will actually complete whole thoughts! Can I hear an amen?

I will post some pictures from the weekend come Monday. Have a great weekend.

How to host an activity bag swap

So have my postings on activity bags caught your interest? Why not host a swap. Sherri MacLean, co-founder of Activity Bags LLC, offers the following advice on hosting your first swap.

We found that holding a swap is a really fun way to accumulate a variety of preschool activities without having to assemble every one by ourselves. Basically, you get a few friends together. We found twenty to be a great number for a swap, but it also works well with fewer. Each person receives instructions for assembling one activity. They will put that activity together twenty (or whatever the number of participant) times. Then, you swap, and each person gets one activity from every other person! It is great fun! When the swap is over, each participant will walk away with many completely different preschool activities. You can certainly do all the activities by yourself; you do not have to do a swap. The activity instruction sheets are very clear for assembling one, ten, fifteen, or twenty activity bags.Coordinating an activity bag swap is not only easy, but very fun! Below are some tips to give you an idea of how simple it is to coordinate a swap. More detailed instructions are contained in each book.
Set Important Dates. Before you start calling all your friends to participate in your swap, you need to do a few things first:- Decide on the dates for assembling your activities.- Determine the date for the actual swap.- Select the activities you want to assemble. Having all this information at the ready will help you when you make your calls or send emails to the potential swap participants.
Find Your Participants.Now that you have all your important dates and activities picked out, you need to find some participants to be in the swap. Once you have an idea of potential participants, you can either send them an e-mail or call them. All of our books include a Participant Information Form to help gather all your information on each swap participant. Below are some suggestions of where to find participants for your swap:- Preschool play group- Church- Moms in your neighborhood- Friends and family- Homeschool Support Group- Moms you meet at the park- Basically, any mom, grandmother and or teacher with preschoolers
Assign the Activities.Every book includes a Preschool Activity Supply List to help you find an activity based on what supplies your participants may have on hand. When you talk to your potential participants, ask them what supplies they have on hand at home and try to match an activity to what they already have. Every bag is designed to cost $1 or less to assemble. But, the more items you have at home on hand, the less each bag will cost.
Communicate and Stay Organized.It is important to communicate with your swap participants in case they have questions regarding buying supplies, assembling the bags, etc. You can send an email out about 2 weeks before the swap date just to check in and see how things are going. About a week before the swap date, send one more email to check in and remind the participants regarding the swap date and time. Each includes sample emails and letters to help you communicate.
Learn from Other Coordinators."The best tool for me was communication. After I made the first contact with my participants via phone using the script in the book, I followed up with an email using the example in the book. Everybody knew what was going on and if anyone had questions regarding their activity, I caught it early. Also, the Activity Instructions are VERY clear. The majority of the questions I received were regarding the best places to buy supplies and substituting items.""Try to find people you think are truly willing and committed to following through with assembly etc. That was my biggest challenge. Take the time to do a lot of follow up calls, reminders and make yourself more available to pinpoint potential problems before the swap.""Do not be afraid to work with the number of participants you have. If you do not have 20, do not worry. If you have less than 20, you can just make that number of activities or everyone can do 2 activities and double the number of activity bags you will receive. If you have more than 20, you can split into 2 groups. Be creative"

Thanks again Sherri!
Wendy

An Interview with Activities In A Bag's Co-creator

I posted a few weeks ago that I was going to participate in a preschool activity bag swap. I went to the swap and it went great. I recieved 24 different activity bags for Emily. I have given her about 7 of them so far and she loves every one. I am so impressed with the variety of activities and what she is learning from playing with them.
Sherri MacLean, one of the co-creators of Activity Bags LLC, agreed to answer some questions for me. She gave me so much wonderful info, it will be in two posts. In this post, we'll talk about Activity Bags and in the next post, Sherri will share how you can host a activity bag swap of your own. (Don't miss the free gift offer from Sherri at the bottom of this post!)

CF: Welcome Sherri! You and Paula spent 2 years field testing your first Preschool Activities in a Bag book. In your experience, what makes a good self-directed activity for preschoolers?

SM:What makes a great preschool activity for us is one that 1) cost $1 or less to assemble, 2) it needs to fun, educational, and require little to no help from Mom to do the activity and 3) it needs to have skill sets that help prepare the preschooler for Kindergarten.

CL: Having created so many different activity bags, surely you have a lot of bags around your house. How do you organize your children’s activity bags?
SM: We keep them organized in file folder boxes. We label them on the outside and stack them near our school area. You can fit 20 Preschool Activities in one file box quite nicely. How do your children use them? We take one activity out at a time and set the timer for 15 minutes. When the timer goes off they may open another activity ONLY when the first one has been put away, zipped up and put back in the box. And, if you ask our seven, eight, nine and ten year olds, they will tell you YES! They STILL play with the activities and ask to do them after school is over. One of the favorites involves stacking cups, plates, and bowls. They also love the matching activities and bead activities. Basically, they love them all and will tell you they are not just for preschoolers!
CF:Do you strategically bring out different bags at different times?
SM: Not really, unless we are working on how to hold a pencil, or small motor skills. We try to rotate them but they always have a favorite they could use over and over. Also, the great thing about the activities is that they can be used over and over again as well as passed down from child to child. Some of the activities do contain consumable items such as paper, which can be replaced easily to keep the activity going and going.
CF: According to your website, you have quite a few new books underway. Can you share with us what your Science Experiments in a bag, Craft Kits in a Bag and Math games in a bag will look like? What ages are they geared toward? When will they be available for purchase?
SM: Most people think we only have activities for preschoolers, but we have more books on the way that have been tested and are being prepared for print. Including: Preschool Activities in a Bag - Book #3, filled with 34 brand new preschool activities, three volumes of Science Experiments in a Bag (Ages 3 - 12), three volumes of Craft Kits in a Bag (Ages 5-12) , and Math Games in a Bag - Book #1 (ages 5-12). All of our books are in the same format, allowing participants to hold a swap with other friends. Each experiment, craft kit, and math game has been tested by over eighty different moms, and they love them! So, Activity Bags, LLC is not just for preschoolers.Between the two of us, Paula and I have 11 children and writing books in the mix, along with homeschooling, can be challenging. So, it is hard to say when all the books will be finished - but know we are working on them. :)
CF:A large portion of my readers are in the Denver area. Is there a way that moms can participate in testing activities for the new books?
SM:Yes, we keep a data base of moms who are interested in testing our new kits. All you need to do is send an email to www.ActivityBags.com and let me know you want to be on our mailing list for testing. I will add any Mom who is interested in testing to our main data base. Next time we hold a test swap, you will receive an email invitation with all the details to join the swap(s). It is really that easy. So far we have held to date over 30 groups of 20 moms. That is a total of 600 participants and 12,000 kits being assembled!
As a gift to all your Moms reading this, we would like to offer you a complimentary copy of our Ebook Sampler that includes:7 Preschool Activities in a Bag assembly instructions3 Science Experiments in a Bag assembly instructionsA 30 Day Challenge Devotionalhttp://www.activitybags.com/Sampler.pdfPlease feel free to write to us anytime with questions - we would love to hear from you!

Thank you Sherri!

The scary hostess

Tonight Joanne and her family are coming over for dinner. Partially because my back is still sore and partially because it is 101 out, I was not super motivated to do a lot of cooking today. I came up with a pretty simple summer dinner menu and everything has been ready to go since about 2 this afternoon. The ease of today got me thinking to how I use to prepare for guests. There is only one word for it - scary. I don't know why, but for the first 5-7 years of Pete and I's marriage, I became completely insane when people came over for dinner. The menu was planned out in extreme. There had to be 2-3 appetizers. Some huge hunk of meat, like a lamb roast or a prime rib. Of course the meat needed 3-4 sides to go with it as well as a homemade dessert worthy of a Martha Stewart magazine cover. ( I tried today to find a picture of this pumpkin cake I used to make each October - it's pretty insane.)
Well after all that planning, and cooking and of course cleaning, I rarely had a good time. Pete and I would fight in the hours (or sometimes days) leading up to the party. I would be exhusted when people arrived and after everyone left, Pete would swear we were NEVER having guests over again. I created so much pressure on Pete and I. It was ridulous.
The sad part was, that I really enjoy having people over. Having a meal at home is so much more relaxing and enjoyable than going out. With kids now in the mix, resturants are always a sad disaster and babysitters get expensive.
Sometime in the last 2 years, I finally realized that my friends don't want to come over to my house to have a four course meal of fancy food. They want to come over and hang out. They want to let the kids run wild in the backyard while we eat stinky cheese on crusty bread. (Because what is better than stinky cheese among friends!) What a relief this realization has been. The best part has been that we actually have friends over a lot more often then before and we go over to friends houses quite frequently as well. When you set the bar at prime rib and Martha Stewart cake - who wants to try to reciprocate!
So what are we eating tonight?
Chips with mango or tomato salsa (all from the store)
Dinner: Roast chicken, green salad (Joanne's bringing that), Orzo salad, and of course a loaf of bread with some stinky cheeses.
For dessert the kids are making us ice cream in our ice cream ball and I bought a pie.
Easy, easy, and I can't wait for the Heim's to arrive.

Adventures in Garage Sales part 2 - Should we call an ambulance?

Friday night I went to bed exhausted from a great first day of our garage sale. Although I was tired, I was excited about how much we had sold. I said to Pete, “I would feel that it was a successful sale, even if we didn’t sell one thing tomorrow.” Oh if only I knew what a prophet I was! Saturday morning, while I was trying to move a king size bed out of the garage, the frame came apart. I badly twisted my back. For an hour or so, I thought the pain would go away, but it only got worst. Two hours later, I couldn’t sit down, bend over or move my arms without horrible pain. Our wonderful friend Vanessa came to our rescue. She helped Pete pack up the sale and took the girls back to her house. Pete took me to the ER where we spent the next 6 hours. X-rays showed that nothing was broken, it was just a bad sprain. I was ordered to spend three days in bed and take three strong prescriptions for pain, swelling and muscle spasms.
While preparing for the garage sale, my time and thoughts were focused on all the worthless stuff that crowds our house. I kept thinking about the money I have wasted on toys, clothes and kitchen gadgets that go unused and are unappreciated. Because I am a hopelessly cerebral person, the piles of unwanted stuff made me start thinking about our family. Who are we? What do we value? I don’t think of us as being materialistic. I think of us as valuing our friends and family, not things that can be bought. I think of us as a family who stores treasures in heaven, not junk in the garage. But seeing all of our extra stuff piling up for the sale seemed to be evidence to the contrary.
But as I have watched friends come to our aid and Pete take such amazingly tender care of me the past few days, I’ve realized that we really are who I want us to be. We’re surrounded with amazingly generous friends who are willing to drop everything to help us. We’re part of a faith family who knows the power of prayer, and covers us with it. And most importantly, I’ve been freshly reminded of how truly incredible my husband is. He has juggled the roles of single dad, nurse, chef, chauffeur and Technical Product Manager (the job that actually pays him) beautifully.
I think that is the danger of having too much stuff. We get blinded by it. It absorbs our space, time, and energy. We start to think that all those things have value. We lose focus of the fact that it is indeed just stuff. So although this was not the ending I had pictured for my adventures in garage sales, it’s a perfect one for bringing my priorities back into focus.
** As for all the garage sale leftovers – they are going to Goodwill this weekend!

Adventures in garage sales part 1 – the good stuff

For the last few weeks I have been getting ready for a garage sale. It is just frightening to me to see the amount of stuff our family has amassed. I don't think of myself as a shopper. I really don't like shopping. But the amount of stuff we have must mean that I do shop (or maybe our stuff is breeding – that is very possible). As I sorted our belongings out I found enough Tupperware for 3-4 families, enough stuffed animals to open a toy store and enough Citrix (the company Pete works for) logoed shirts, backpacks and water bottles for an entire village. The bags and boxes of stuff just kept piling up. Books I'll never read again, clothes with the tags still on them, blah, blah, blah, just way too much stuff!

But as the saying goes, one man's junkola is another man's treasure.

After days of tedious sorting and pricing, Friday finally arrived. I love garage sale days. I love meeting and talking to complete strangers. I think it is so interesting to see what people buy and how much they offer for it. Friday's sale went great. We had crowds most of the day and sold so many things. Sarah and Emily sold donuts, juice and water. Emily was quite the forward saleswoman, walking around asking people if they wanted a donut. Sarah was mortified by her little sister's forwardness, but it paid off and they made $17. By the end of the day, I had made over $500! Who new my junk treasures could be worth so much?

Interested in having a garage sale? Here are my tips and links to two sites about having garage sales.

1. Make a lot of signs. I did bright yellow arrows that said "Garage Sale" leading to our house.
   
2. Post on Craigslist. I posted an advertisement on Craigslist, listing types of things we were selling, our address, and told people to follow the yellow arrows.
   
3. Keep the kids busy. Having the kids have their own sale really helped me keep them busy during the morning rush. They were very excited about making their own money.
   
4. Organize your items by category. Place all kitchen items on one table, baby things on another. You get the idea.
   

   Tips for having a sucessful garage sale or tag sale.
   10 tips to a wildly sucessful garage sale
   

Ladybugs, ladybugs, ladybugs!

A few weeks ago our rose bushes started to be overtaken with aphids. Sarah, in her sage five-year-old wisdom, told me that what we needed was ladybugs, because they like to eat aphids. That sounded like much more fun than spraying our garden with chemicals, so we started our search for ladybugs. Apparently we are not the only family in town with the same idea, because all of our local nurseries have been sold out for weeks. I looked online but could only find enormous, mass amounts of ladybugs to cover acres of land. That seemed like a bit of overkill even for me. Last week we stopped by our favorite nursery and got lucky. For just over $8 we were the proud new owners of 1750 ladybugs! The girls were so excited. Their friends Adalae, Liam and Sophia came over that evening. We made ladybug homes out of old Tupperware. I told the kids that they could each select two as pets, and we released the rest into our garden. The kids had a great time having the ladybugs climb all over them before they flew away.
As for the aphid situation, the roses actually look a lot better. I’ll admit though, of the 1750 ladybugs we let go, I would estimate that 12 are still in our garden. But we had fun!

Mother Love

My book club is reading Lisa See's Peony in Love this month. It is the story of a young girl name Peony who lives in 17^th century China. While the story is mostly about romantic love, I have found myself drawn to the mother-daughter relationships and the Chinese concept of "mother love." While helping with the binding of a young cousin's feet, Peony writes, "The written character for mother love is composed of two elements: love and pain. I had always thought this emotion was felt by the daughters for their mothers, who inflict pain on us in binding our feet, but looking at Second Aunt's tears and my mother's courage I realized that this emotion was for them. A mother suffers deeply to give birth, bind feet and say goodbye to a daughter when she marries out." (Peony in Love by Lisa See, pg 44, Random House 2008)

Four centuries and half a world away, this passage has affected me deeply. There has been much mother love happening in our house lately. My daughter Sarah, who is 5 ½, has been testing her boundaries in talking back, ignoring me and flat out being mean. Lately we have been fighting like never before. I have become that screaming mom I never thought I'd be and she's become the arrogant, and sometimes mean spirit girl I hoped she'd never become. I have heard the first five years of parenting are physically hard as you get little sleep and are constantly carrying a little one, but the next 10 years of parenting are emotionally hard as you fight to mold your child's character. I guess we are entering that second stage of parenting. I'll admit that it terrifies me and I don't feel ready.

I think the character Peony may have been wrong, mother love is an emotion for both mothers and daughters. Whether it is forming our daughters' feet or their character, the work is hard and painful on both the mother and the daughter. Last Friday, I had planned to take the girls on their first camping trip with two other moms and their daughters. Friday turned out to be a terrible day. Sarah refused to do the four simple chores assigned to her that day. Our tempers both escalated throughout the day as I insisted she do them and she continued to refuse. Sarah told me that she wished I'd go get a job because she was sick of having me around. I told her the camping trip was off. Both of our words were like arrows to the heart.

I was responsible for bringing part of dinner for camping that night. So I packed the girls in the car and drove through two hours of traffic to deliver the food. The girls had never seen a camp site. As we pulled in and they saw the tents there was much begging, pleading, and crying. I felt bad for the girls. (By the way Emmie had followed Sarah's lead all day and wouldn't do anything I asked either, so it was a fair punishment for both of them) The soft part of my heart screamed, "let them go camping!" The sensible part of my heart argued, "If you don't try to mold her now, it will only get worse." The sensible part won out and we pulled out of the campsite. They cried all the way home. My heart cried too. I realized that can no longer ease every tear with a tender embrace, a Dora sticker or a tickle fest, that's not my job. My role as mother has become much more complicated. It is time to begin in earnest the job of molding Sarah into the person God wants her to be. I guess that means there is much more painful mother love in our future.

When we got home, I went and sat on our front porch. A huge lightening storm had started. The loud crashes of thunder echoed the girls' and I's mood. I sat on the porch and prayed. I prayed for wisdom, for strength and for peace. The lightening gave way to a driving rain storm. The first we have had all summer. As the rain began to fall, Emmie came outside with me. She snuggled on my lap and we quietly watched the rain. I praised God for the rain, which drove away the heat of the day and washed away my tension. Sarah soon came to find us and we finally had a productive conversation about our day. Cuddling on the porch, watching the final drops of rain fall, I was reminded that Mother Love comes from two characters - it is not just pain, the first character is love. With the grace of God, that love will get us through this new season of mothering.