1,000 gifts---January

Started listed my 1,000 gifts following reading the book by that title by Ann Voskamp.

1.       Watching Conner play in the 1^st snow of the season.

2.       A hot fire in the wood burner

3.       24 chickens dashing to get out of the coop 1^st, after being in all night.

4.       Freshly lit candle

5.       Doggie kisses from Katie

6.       The smell of a cold winter day

7.       Naptime!

8.       Opening up a bag of cut up green peppers and be reminding of spring

9.       A stressed out moment and Conner coming up to me and asking if I can take him on a honeymoon!  Instant smile!

10.   Amish bread pulled from the freezer for instant breakfast

11.   Leftovers

12.   50 degrees on a day in January

13.   Grace

14.   Beautiful hills of southern Ohio

15.   Church

16.   Friendship

17.   A child’s hand

18.   Full moons

19.   Popcorn

20.   Cast iron skillets

21.   Sweepers

22.   Old photos

23.   Fuzzy socks

24.   Eggs picked fresh from the coop and fried in bacon grease for breakfast

25.   Freshly ground wheat

26.   Fresh loaf of homemade bread

27.   A vet that can get you in on a last minute notice

28.   Snowflakes on my nose

29.   Mittens

30.   The cat knocking over and breaking our old lamp and finally being able to buy one that I like.

31.   Your Father’s Kitchen and the volunteers that showed up today to do God’s work!

32.   No wind today

33.   A day of rest

34.   The Waltons

35.   Long baths

36.   Food to eat

37.   Roof over our heads

38.   Watching Conner run through water puddles

39.   Blue skies

40.   Good helpers

41.   Homemade bath salts

42.   Playdates

43.   82 degree house for free

44.   Job promotion, but still able to stay home to do it!

45.   Found energy

46.   Daffodils sprouting

47.   Finding tractor muck boots for Conner at TSC

48.   Girl time

49.   Ice pine trees

50.   Electricity

51.   A hug from a friend

52.   Salvation

53.   Brakes on a car

54.   Fast thinking

55.   Pillow fights

56.   Catching the hawks before they get my chickens

57.   Good news

58.   Sunshine

59.   Map quest

60.   Safety through fog

61.   Laughter

62.   Novocain

63.   Job flexibility

64.    A child’s smile

65.   Bandaids

66.   My mom’s strawberry cake

67.   A clean house

68.   Ice skating and not falling

69.   Card games

70.   Fellowship

71.   Support for our fundraiser

72.   Conner running the vacuum

73.   Cereal for supper

74.   Laundry blowing in the breeze

75.   One of my chickens finally laying her 1^st egg, green! Waited 8 months for that one!

grinding wheat for the 1st time!

Homemade bath salts

Finally ran out of the gallon jar of bath salts I bought over a year ago!  So,  I made my own!  Way cheaper and you can pick the scent you want to enjoy while you are soaking!!  I put mine in a older style quart canning jar ( I guess you could call vintage).  It was one of my grandma's.

Recipe:

     2 cups Epsom salts

     2 cups all natural sea salt (it is pink)

     12 drops essential oil (or as many as you desire)

               I used lavender essential oil for the calming effect, but you can use any kind you would like!

Put a lid on and shake very well to mix in.  Shake it again the next day a little bit also.  This will store in-defiantly on your shelf.  If you are like me, it won't last to long in the winter!  Put 1/2 cup - 1 cup in your bath tub and sit back and enjoy some "soak" time!

Blessings

 
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Kid's in the Word Wednesday John the Baptist and Jesus' Baptism

This week we did the lesson on Jesus' Baptism.  I am attaching my notes and all templates needed in a pdf file.

Materials:

white cardstock paper (1 for every 3 kids)
coffee filters ( 1 per child)
white/gray construction paper
blue construction paper
color sheet on topic

To make the dove:  I pre-cut the doves, and cut the notch in them.  Have the kids fold their coffee filter in half and then fold them in accordion style. I had to help my younger ones with this.  Then have them slowly push it through the pre-cut notch.  I had to do this for most of them, but my 2 older girls got it.

They even fly a little, so be careful they don't launch them!

The next craft we did was a picture of John the Baptist baptizing Jesus:

This lesson took us about 50 minutes so I didn't have a lot of extra time.  But if you do, you can always allow the children to practice baptizing.  Have fun with this lesson, I sure did!

Here is the link to my notes and to the templates.  Not the best artwork on the people, but I didn't have a lot of time to put into them!

http://www.scribd.com/doc/79466571/John-the-Baptist-and-Jesus

Kids in the Word Wednesday: Boy Jesus in the Temple

This is going to be the lesson for tonight at church.  Very excited to do it with the kids!!!

Set up:  Put a Nazareth sign going into one room or area and a Jerusalem sign in another room or are.

If you don't want to make yours I have some here:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/78686955

Start the class in Nazareth and explain to them that we are going to Jerusalem for the Passover feast.  Explain the them that Jesus would have been 12 years old at this time.  

Have the kids clap their hands 12 times while counting to show Jesus' age.

Then head on to Jerusalem.  ( sit on the floor and pretend to have a feast)

Then explain to them that after the feast was over they left to go home.  ( get up and walk 1/2 way back)

Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem and Mary and Joseph did not know this.  Mary and Joseph had walked halfway home, about 1 day, when they realized Jesus wasn't with them.  So they turned around and went back.  ( go back to Jerusalem)

Tell them that after 3 days they found Him in the temple. ( have the kids run around the room or area 3 times to signify this.)

Then have them sit on the floor and read from the Bible Luke 2:41-52.  (snack time)

will probably do a game of Simon Says to show that Jesus had to obey his parents.

Then we will go back to our room and do this easy temple craft.  Sorry they are not the best, I am not the best artist, but can get by with what I do!

Here are the links to what you will need:

temple in color:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/78688080

temple in black and white:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/78687200

Jesus:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/78688331

Have fun with it.  I also plan on ending the evening with Hide N Seek if there is extra time!!

Blessings!

Weeks 12-15

Our letters S-Z

His star collage:

11:  11 stars Genesis 37:5-11

12: 12 baskets Matthew 14:13-21

& Mark 6:30-44

Kids in the Word Wednesday: Flight to Egypt

Tonight in Children's Church we did the story of The Flight to Egypt.  The lesson plan can be found here:

http://www.sunday-school-center.com/support-files/lg2-lesson-6-the-flight-to-egypt.pdf

and the coloring page that was used is here:

http://www.bible-printables.com/Coloring-Pages/New-Testament/05-jesus-birth-007.htm

The kids had an awesome time hiking to Egypt and hiding from the Romans.  They loved the camping out part also, but were not very quite when we were supposed to be sleeping, lol.  Good thing we weren't really hiding from the Romans.  Praise God for getting my brain working on finding a craft for this lesson.  We painted the plate first before we started our lesson so that it would be dried.

Then we  made a tent out of black construction paper, 2 bushes that they had fun wading up.  Conner got the rocks out of the driveway to use for the fire pit and a balled up piece of red tissue paper for the fire.  Then I cut a Popsicle stick in half for Mary and Joseph and another one in 3rds for Jesus.

They really had fun with this lesson.  Afterwords we played a version of tag, where one of them was a Roman and had to catch the rest of them and make them Romans.