Little Brown Men

Last year we gave Gingerbread Police Officers to our police department as a little Christmas thank you gift. The boys wanted to do that again this year, so we decided to make some for our volunteer fire department. We have 56 volunteers that serve our town. One of our two fire stations is right down the block from us. We hear them often enough and visit the station to check out the trucks more than a couple times each year.

Making firefighter cookies was a lot harder than the police officers. I didn’t want them to be red and end up looking like Santas. But my generic gingerbread cut-out is quite fat and pudgy and just not so good for a firefighter shape. I thought I’d outline them in yellow for their reflective stripe and fill them in with grey, just like their real gear.

Yea, they don’t look so much like firefighters. I tried some with buckles on their jackets, and some with suspenders. They just look like yellow & grey gingerbread men. Eh. The kids think they look great, and they do taste amazing!

We started out with 57 men and are down to 54. I’m going to have to eat another one after lunch. Three hours of decorating warrants at least two cookies in my belly!

Plus, what are the chances that ALL 56 volunteers will be at tonight’s meeting? At least a few of them won’t even like gingerbread, right?

Our “Truth in the Tinsel” Advent Calendar

I mentioned to my sister that I couldn’t text for long because I wanted to “finish sewing these toilet paper tubes” before I went to bed.

“Umm…sewing toilet paper tubes?”

“Yep…I’ll send you a picture when I’m done.”

I finished cutting out and hand laminating all the numbers and pictures at 11:45 pm, November 30th. JUST in time. =)

The colors are a little off…the tubes are painted a dark forest green, the numbers are black printed on cream, and the bows are burgundy. I found the idea from this blog via Pinterest.

We are teaching the children about the Christmas Story through the Truth in the Tinsel book. Inside each tube is a small picture of what the story will be about that day.

In the morning, one of the boys gets to take the velcro number off and trade it for the picture of the day.

After dinner, the Chief reads the selected Bible passage and then once the dishes are taken care of, we do a craft to remind us of what we’ve learned.

After the glue is dried, the boys get to hang them up on our branch from the Jesse Tree. (For the last 2 years we used Ann Voskamp’s “Jesse Tree Journey,” but found it just a little too over our young kids heads. I really love how she did the book and will most likely bring it out again once the kiddos are upper elementary age.)

Just on the other side of our mute Zachariah, crowns, and light, is a scrappy little chunk of posterboard that I salvaged into a collection of “Names of God.”

The poster has been on the wall for about a month and a half now and has slowly collected names of our Lord as we have studied Him. Each time one of the boys (or the Chief or I) hear a new name of God, we write it on the poster.

Monday morning, Monkey crawled into bed with me and excitedly told me,

“Mama! I’ve got a new name of God!” he paused with a knowing smirk on his face waiting for me to ask the question:

“Oh yea? Which one is it?”

“Messiah! I heard it in a song we sang in Junior Church and then Pastor said it when he was preaching too.”

He was very proud to have remembered it on his own. I was so proud of my little man for waking up the next morning with those thoughts in his head. I was also pleased to know he was actually listening to Pastor’s message!

I despise what the Christmas season in our country has become during just my lifetime. I have purposefully kept the children out of the stores as much as possible this year. They get so greedy so quickly. They get caught up in the shiny sparkly things they see and lose the real light of Christmas. This year, we are doing everything we can to show our children the real meaning of Christmas. The real Light, the real Gift, the real Love that is the Christmas Season.

The Boy With the Biggest Heart

I have this little boy. We call him Bruiser because he is a pretty rough little guy. He doesn’t cry much over bumps and bonks. He’s got a gravely voice (that rarely speaks quietly). He has a very difficult time staying focused on any task you ask of him. 

But this little rough, distracted fellow has such a big heart for others. 

After an hour or so of hard playing/raking this morning he ran inside. A few minutes later, out he came with a large full water bottle. “I was firsty so I filled up some water. I made a big one so everybody can have some.”

It was the sweetest thing.

Just now, the same gruff little boy came to me and handed me two dollars and fifty cents.

“Mom you work so hard in this house, I fink you should have two dollars and two coins.”

After a very large hug and smooch, I explained to him that I didn’t work hard in our house to earn money. I work hard for the Lord and He supplies us with all the money that we need. Bruiser still tried to give me the money, because we give them money for some chores. My selfish little heart was a complete pile of goop now.

Thank you, God, for teaching me such important lessons from my children!

 

 

Homeschool Recess

Most days recess is 20 minutes of free time while I prepare lunch. About once a week or so, we will take a trip to the park, the Ikea Smalland, or the ball cage at Fun Fore All. Today’s recess was an autumn special.

After about 10 minutes of helping me rake leaves, the boys were jumping in the pile we created. While they had fun with that little pile, I continued on with my master plan. Next, I raked several straight lines which became racing lanes. (Sorry, no pictures of that one.) Then I shooed the kids away and worked on a great surprise for them. With a little creative re-arrangement of the lines, I made them this:

Their very own backyard leaf maze.

 

It was a big hit.

I continued raking leaves for the purpose of actually disposing of them while Monkey and Bruiser ran the maze over and over again and Sparky did his best to destroy the maze walls. Pretty soon my barrel was full, and I needed a leaf-squisher!

In this video, you’ll see Bruiser doing two things he never does. 1-talk quietly 2-ask to be left alone because he is tired and wants to take a nap.

 

We didn’t finish our school work until 4:30 today. Wait, no, now that I’m thinking about it we never did read our “read-aloud” book. I guess that will be tonight’s bedtime story!

Was it worth it for a few hours of outdoor leaf-fun? You betcha!

Up.

Up.

Higher.

Taller.

Bigger.

It must be better.

He watches his older brothers doing things and thinks he can do them too…reach them too…eat them too.

It has been the theme of Sparky’s summer. “Be a big boy.”

He’s a climber. I guess he is tired of the vantage point from the floor. After this post I think you’ll better understand what I’ve been up to these last few months. =)

At the town pool, I turn my back on him to help wrap up his shivering brothers and:

I leave the room to do I can’t remember what, and when I get back to the kitchen:

Sparky has taken advantage of my “attic pile.”

Most people call these baby toys “walkers.” Ours is a climber.

It’s only a matter of time before it becomes a scooter.

This one really scared me. He was ready to step on the armrest of the chair to get on top of the ironing board.

I could NOT clean house anymore while he was awake. And thus the reason for babywearing more often. If he is awake and I am trying to be productive, this is where you will find my little fireball:

He quite likes it back there.

Let him off my back and you might find him…

He sees everyone using the computer. He should be able to as well, right?

At least this spot wasn’t so dangerous. Just checkin’ out a little Sports Illustrated.

Moral of this little story: don’t ever turn your back to the baby unless he is strapped to it!