On the first and second day of Christmas

Christmas is my favorite holiday. I am going to try and post something for the Christmas season everyday. I think this will help me to think of activities to do with the kids that they will carry with them.

On December 1 the kids made their Christmas ornaments. I used the salt dough recipe from Allrecipes- http://allrecipes.com/recipe/dough-ornament-recipe/.

Ingredients:

4 cups all-purpose flour 1 cup salt

1 1/2 cups warm water

Directions:

1.	Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).
2.	Mix flour and salt well. Gradually add water, stirring with a large spoon. Finish mixing with hands. Knead until soft and pliable.
3.	Roll out on floured surface about 1/8 inch thick. Cut shapes with cookie cutters. Place on cookie sheets. With a toothpick make a hole in the top of the ornament for threading string. Bake at 325 degrees F (165 degrees C) until hard, about 1 hour. Decorate with paint and varnish to preserve I lowered the oven temperature to 300 degrees and only baked the ornaments for 1 hour then I just left them in the oven to cool. They turned out perfect. Then the kids painted them with acrylic paints from the hobby store. I did not get a good picture of them but here are a few on the tree. Then on December 2 we picked out our Christmas tree, brought it home, and finally decorated it. I opened a bottle of Pink Moscato champagne for my husband and I, a bottle of red grape sparkling cider for the kids, turned on Christmas music, and let the boys decorate. I love having a Christmas tree but I take a hands off approach to decorating it. The boys love looking at all of our old ornaments, hanging the new ones, and sneaking candy canes. I set up my Nativity set on the piano to remind of the true reason behind Christmas. When the boys finish the tree, they rush to turn off all of the lights in the house so that the tree is the only light we see. Their happiness fills my heart with pure joy. Merry Christmas, may your spirit be bright. The tree all dressed up. The tree all lit up. My favorite boys! I hope your day is filled with inspiration, love and laughter. Be well my friends.

Lessons Learned December 5

Lessons I learned last week.

My lovely husband was home all last week which is why my blog has been quiet. I love having him home but I am always glad to get the house back when he returns to work. I have no idea what we are going to do when he retires. Wait we'll be farmers so he will be busy with a thousand projects that need to get done.

So last week nap time some how became optional and went out the window. I am paying for this today and most likely tomorrow too.

School work for all parties became unbearable. With all the extra help less got done then normal.

I read Chaucer for the first time. I was surprised that his vulgar story telling is considered classic, also I had to write a short paper on whether he was for or against the church. I am pretty sure he was against it.

I sent the boys to pick our Christmas tree and some how all three of them decided on a 5 foot tree. I am 5'7". The lesson is always go as a family to pick the Christmas tree. It is pretty all dressed up even if it is the smallest tree we have ever had.

Finally I have found a new obsession . . .

Hats

Flowers

Adding flowers to Hats

Making my boys model flowery hats.

I have to be honest this yarn is some that someone gave me because they didn't like it. I have kept it around to try things out. If I don't like the outcome no big deal. It is kind of Christmasy if you squint a little to the left.

Then I discovered the five petal flowers. 

Oh yes friends, I like these flowers a lot.

Now what can I attach them too.

You guessed right a hat. I love the color of the flowers on the white hat.

The boys realized that these were girl hats.

I had to force him to model it for me.

I made them each their own hat. Which caused happy faces. Isn't he cute!

I am glad he is missing a tooth if he wasn't he would look a lot older. Then I would worry.

This is for one of my little nieces. I am so happy her mom said I could make her stuff with flowers on it. Then she said in natural colors or yellow. Wait! What? I want pink. Still I like the hat. I hope she does too.

So I am afraid you will be seeing more crocheted flowers and other stuff as I learn how to do them. I want to learn to make socks. Then I can make myself socks with flowers on them. I wonder if that is hard?

Any chance you were impressed by this new super talent? No. I don't blame you. Yes? You would not be so impressed if you knew how super easy these projects are. If you want to learn the secret to these lovelies check youtube. That is right step by step instructions. I hope you don't mind all of the pictures this week. I can not control myself. Do you know what I found that is next on my list? I won't make you guess it is a dinosaur hat. I have to buy yarn. I also need to con some people into letting me make them one. Do you need a hat? I am just kidding, kind of.

I hope you have a wonderful week filled with Holiday cheer (We celebrate Christmas but I love saying happy Holiday's because we are all in it together trying to spread goodwill to all)  I hope it is full of peace and hope and Love and Laughter. Be well my friends.

Lessons learned October 9, 2011

Lessons learned a weekly debrief
October 9, 2011

I know I am a day late on my Sunday lessons learned. I hope that you will forgive me.Saturday I got into a discussion about the meaning of Jeremiah 10 with a friend of my sister in law on facebook. I did a crazy amount of research so that I would sound like I knew what I was talking about and that I made my point very clear. Which turned into a debate over Christmas. It has reached an out of control level of craziness on my part. I am compelled to answer and research and answer again. I got to read large parts of the bible because I always read ahead and further after the verse given to me. I find that the meaning of any verse when taken out of context can mean anything you want it to mean. When you see the whole picture it becomes clear, and beautiful. I found this article that said everything about Christmas trees and it is worth reading. I am posting the last few paragraphs because it sums up the whole article.

Jeremiah 10 and the “Pagan” Christmas Tree by Dr. Richard P. Bucher
From the foregoing, it is abundantly clear that the "decorated tree" to which Jeremiah 10 refers is an idol, very likely the Asherah. Therefore, it is very superficial Bible interpretation and pure silliness to understand this passage as directly referring to the use of a fir tree for Christmas! If, and I repeat, if those who set up a Christmas tree fall down and worship it as a god or goddess, complete with altars and incense stands, then Jeremiah 10 applies here. Or if someone loves their Christmas tree more than God, then such a thing might also be considered spiritual idolatry. But apart from these exceptions, I think it is abundantly clear that Christians who erect Christmas trees are NOT worshiping them as gods or goddesses, nor are they loving them more than their Savior Jesus Christ. They are simply using the Christmas tree as a fun custom, one that can remind them of Jesus who is the branch of David (Jeremiah 23:5; 33:15), the root of Jesse (Isaiah 11:1). One that can remind them of the tree that led Adam and Eve to sin, but more importantly, the tree on which Christ Jesus died to make atonement for the sins of the whole world (Acts 5:30; Gal. 3:13; 1 Peter 2:24). Christians should know that they can use a Christmas tree with a good conscience. It is unfortunate and wrong when well-meaning Christians call something sin that is not sin, and enslave the consciences of their fellow believers with imaginary sin! Shame on such Christians! Those who continue to believe that the Christmas tree is pagan and sinful, even after having their conscience correctly informed, should not use them. For it is not right to sin against conscience. This is regrettable, however, since there is absolutely nothing wrong with using a Christmas tree.

http://www.orlutheran.com/html/jer10.html

Today I learned who the Chocolate Pilot was. Sometimes I am taken off guard by something so profound that it changes a piece of me. Damian is reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory for a unit study I checked out every book I could find with the words Chocolate or Candy in the title. I didn't know anything about Berlin or what the people faced after War World II. This randomly chosen book Candy Bomber The Story of Berlin's Airlift's Chocolate Pilot made me cry while I was reading it to the boys. I kept thinking how will I teach my boys to be so giving, and how do I become a better person? I hope that this story stays with me always.

I learned about where Chocolate comes from, a huge pod, from a tree in South America.

I learned that if I jump on our little trampoline with James he will say the Alphabet and count to 20 with me and he thinks it is fun.

I also learned about Confucius through his books The Doctrine of Mean and The Great Learning.

I learned all about Live Oak Trees for forestry.

I read two chapters of my science book then took a test but now I don't know what I read. I am sure it is in the well I told you about in another post. I will need to drop the bucket for the final for the information but today, right now I am tired, and my brain feels full. The learning must go on!

I hope that your week is filled with learning, love and laughter. Be well my friends.