Jesse Tree

Christmas has always been a very crafty time for my little family.  It's our very favorite time to make, bake, and create.  Each year since Grayson was small, I have meant to make an Advent calendar for our family, and each year December begins with me sadly unprepared.  As I was searching the web at the end of November this year, looking for an easily made and assembled calendar idea, I instead stumbled upon the Jesse Tree.

The Jesse Tree is basically a visual aid for tracing Jesus' family tree.  More importantly, the devotions that go along with it (found here) show God's faithfulness and love for his people through the ages.

I decided that instead of a marathon crafting event where we attempted making all the ornaments in one day, and rather than making an ornament a day for the next month; we would make a week's worth at a time.  Here they are so far...

Day One:  Stump (representing Jesse), with a chute (representing King David), and the leaf or fruit (representing Jesus).  This one consists of 1/2 toilet paper roll, felt, a toothpick, and craft foam.

Day Two: The earth... God's perfect world before sin was allowed to enter in.  This one is made from a styrofoam ball, yarn, and craft foam.

Day Three: Apple with a serpent.  As you might guess, this is where the villain enters the plot.  The thing I like best about the devotion is that it does not focus on the fact that man sinned.  It's main focus is that God still loved his creation and provided a promise to them of redemption.  The apple ornament is made of craft foam with a plastic snake hot glued to the front.

Day Four: Rainbow.  This is when we speak of Noah and God's faithfulness to him.  We talked about God's promises to his people, and how he always keeps His word.  This one was made solely by Grant, using poster board for the rainbow and felt for the clouds. 

Day 5: Camel. The Bible passage was about Abram leaving his home.  More importantly, the devotion was about obeying God's commands, even when sin seems so much easier and even more fun. Most important of all was the discussion on how God always loves us and stands ready to forgive.  My sad little camel is made of craft foam and felt.  

These are all the days we have done so far, and this post is getting mighty long, so I think I will end here for now.  If you have always wanted to celebrate Advent with your family, but never knew how to begin, this might just be perfect for you!  It isn't too late to start.  The devotions are very short, and it would be easy to double up until you were on track!  If you are interested in doing a Jesse Tree, but are not of a crafty nature, the link provided above has print outs that can be colored and used as ornaments by themselves.  

Recovering From the Weekend!

Friday night was an adventure for the whole family as Jeff and the boys decided to bake a cake for my birthday!  I made a comment to Jeff on the phone about possibly making a cake for Saturday, when our families were coming over for my mom's famous Brunswick stew (which she makes every year for my birthday... even this year when her kitchen is mid-remodel!).  He said there's no way I should have to make my own cake, and that he and the boys would do it instead!  At first I thought he was joking, but he was completely serious, and I was once again amazed at this wonderful man I married.

Fast forward to Saturday night, and we were pumpkin carving machines!  We usually have this done way before the 31st, but this year there just was not enough time!  We managed to get them all done, though, and we are happy with how they turned out!

Sunday night it was finally time to take my Jedi trick-or-treating.  We were lucky enough to run into a group of friends, and we all went door to door together.  Judging from the piles of sugar at the kids' feet, I don't think we'll be buying candy again in this millennium!

Dancing With Grant...

It ain't for the faint of heart!  And protective headgear is not a bad idea either!

Scratchin' an Itchin'

Like everything else in my scattered brain, the itch to blog comes and goes in waves.  For the last few days, I have been thinking in blog posts...  If you are now or ever have been a blogger, you know what I mean.  Thoughts about your day go through your mind in your favorite font, accompanied by photos and thoughts about your blog friends who will read it.  Since this particular itch has lasted more than a couple of days, I finally decided to scratch it!

One of the many things I have wanted to share lately is a bit of disturbing information that was passed along to me by a friend via facebook.  You know how we all jokingly refer to chocolate as a "sinful" treat?  As it turns out, that may not be too far off the mark.  I was appalled to learn that the cocoa beans which make nearly all the chocolate we eat are picked by slave labor in West Africa, much of it child slave labor.  I will not go into all the gory details here, but please, please go to this link to read more.

Now, you should know that I am a severe chocoholic.  I was glad to find out that most organic chocolate is not tainted, and there is Fair Trade chocolate out there as well.  I have to admit though, that I am having a hard time setting my own boundaries in this issue.  As I pulled away from Starbucks yesterday sipping on my toffee mocha, I realized that I don't know where Starbucks gets their chocolate.  Then there are the things I buy for my kids, like chocolate chip granola bars or snack cakes with chocolate.  Where do I draw the line?  If I go with my real convictions on this, my family will certainly live a much healthier lifestyle.  I like to think my kids will be okay with it, since I have already begun to explain the situation to them, and we have added these poor kids to our daily prayer time.  Of course I am beginning to have my doubts, since on the way home from our Fall Festival last night, Grayson was munching on a Hershey bar and said, " Mmm...  I know this was made using child slaves, but it just tastes SO GOOD!"  Not my proudest parenting moment, I gotta tell ya.

Please join me in praying for these poor children, and letting the companies who use them know that this is NOT okay.

So says the fly on the wall...

Oh, the things one hears in a house full of boys!  We have had a day full of interesting conversations.  Breakfast with Grant went a little something like this, "Mama, how do you spell dinosaur?  Mom, how do you spell koala? Mom, how do you spell bat?  Wait - I know - B-A-T.  Mom, how do you spell Never Ending Story?"  "Mom - Why are you banging your head against the counter?"  Oh okay, I made that last one up, but you get the idea.

I let Grayson sleep in a little, and when he got up, he confessed that the reason for his insomnia lately is that he is afraid he will die in his sleep.  Oh my!  Those are deep waters to wade into before being fully caffeinated!  Nevertheless, we dove right in, and this conversation somehow led straight into the evils of drug use (there was a logical path that led us there, but it would take way too long to type it!), our family's tendency toward addictions, and the importance of choices he will make as early as his preteen years.  Whew!  By this time, I think it was 7:30 a.m., and my brain was screaming for someone to put on the brakes!

On a lighter note, we were driving in the car this afternoon, and Grayson was talking about his desire to be baptized.  He told Grant that, while our church believes in sprinkling, our family feels strongly that being immersed in the water is a symbol of dying to one's own life, and rising up to walk with Jesus.  He asked Grant if he even knew what baptizing was, and Grant said, "Duh!  Of course I do!  It's when Jesus went in the water with all his clothes on!  Why did he go in the water with all his clothes on anyway!?"  Grayson went on to explain in his own way what baptizing means, and Grant said, "Oh no!  I am definitely NOT bab-a-tizing until I am a grown up like Mommy, and then I only want Jesus to do my bab-a-tizing!"

These sweet, wonderful boys of mine, they keep me on my toes!

Sweet, Slow Saturdays

Sweet little hands, learning the little tasks that make the world go 'round.

Feeling "Inspirated"

It's been ages since I posted here, and there are lots of reasons.  Rather than list them all, I'll tell you what is new with us, and why I am excited to be back!

For most of Grayson's and Grant's childhood, I was super-duper strict about television/computers/video games.  Over the last few months, I suppose I just got lazy about fighting that battle.  It was just so very much easier to let them watch television or play on the computer than to fight them and come up with something better for them to do.  As their screen time crept upward, their attention levels and interest in creative activities spiraled downward.  It was so gradual that it was hard to notice at first.  It felt like I just turned around one day and suddenly had kids who were incapable of entertaining themselves for long periods, or who were too tired to play  outdoors.  Everything that wasn't television was "boring."

After a certain climactic brainless event which left Jeff and I stunned at the thoughtlessness of one of our children, we conferred and decided to make some drastic changes.  The child involved in the brainlessness has been without screen time completely for one week.  The other one is following our new rule of only thirty minutes of screen time in a day.  That includes ALL screens (DSi, Wii, computer, tv).  They do have the opportunity to earn more screen time by doing parent-approved scholastic activities, but so far they have been having too much fun to do so!

The changes in behavior, attitude, and maturity this week have been amazing.  We are back to the kind of family I had envisioned up being from the start.  The kind who spends quality time together, encourages one another, creates together, and inspires one another.  I am looking forward to seeing what these boys of mine get into in the future and sharing it all with you here!