I have a long back log of posts on my computer and my camera. I know I am not the only person who does this as I have seen several other people write "catch all" posts. This is our last month in pictures and short stories.
After Christmas I stocked up on crafts for next years Advent countdown activities and some other discounted winter activities. I have been saving the snowman and other winter crafts assuming we would have some snow days. However with such unseasonably warm weather we only did this one activity, making a gingerbread house. I am sure we will have a few more to do but if not we can save them for a fun winter day in the summer.
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| Busy hands making a gingerbread house on a snow day. |
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| Sneaking a sample |
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| Love her beautiful smile! |
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| Finished product |
As a family we love spending time together and we value just being home together. By the world's standards we are depriving our kids by not putting them in tons of extra curricular activities and by taking them to all kinds of events. We are ok with not living up to the worlds standards in these areas. We do like to celebrate special occasions though and Lydia had an accomplishment worthy of a celebration. We went to the local 50's diner and had lunch as a family.
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| The girls really are becoming such great friends! |
Sometimes I wish that as parents we could choose the moments when teachable opportunities arise. One day, as we were coming home from running errands we noticed that the playground of a local school had trash thrown all around. We assumed it was vandals because the garbage can was so heavy no animal could have pushed it over. We had a teaching moment in the car about what we should do when we see something that needs to be done even if the timing is inconvinient. Needless to say we dropped off some things at home and went back to clean up the playground.
In the end it really didn't take very long and the girls and I had a great feeling of accomplishment. The opportunities to serve and help others don't always cross our paths at convenient times but it is important to do what we can anyway. In our society so much of our lives is lived in the rush to get things done and to go from one place to another. We often don't have time to see the needs around us let alone help out in any way. I want my life and the life of our family to be different. I want us to leave enough room in our lives to help out when there is a need and I want to always be praying for eyes to see the world around me as God sees it.
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| Some trash needing picked up |
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| Not an accident |
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| Two girls eager to help our community even at the seemingly most inconvenient times |
Thanks for reading. Blessings!
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