Selfishness comes naturally

In this day and age, selfishness just comes naturally.  We all have a bent to think of ourselves first and look out for NUMERO UNO.  ME!  ME FIRST!  It’s MINE!  Those are the all too often phrases that children and ADULTS all over the United States chime over and over each day… if not, each hour!

BUT I WANT TO BE DIFFERENT.  AND I WANT  MY KIDS TO THINK DIFFERENTLY!  And this is exactly what GOD wants for me and my family! Life is NOT ABOUT US… IT IS ABOUT GOD AND OTHERS.  Since this is not a natural response, we are in the process of reprogramming our hearts and the hearts of our children on a daily basis. 

One of the ways that we have found to do this in this season is through Operation Christmas Child.  It is a perfect way for our children to see that life is more about ME and all about YOU.  It started at Josiah’s birthday party. Instead of our guests bringing a present for him, we asked for them to bring an item to add to Josiah’s shoe box.  He totally understood that these things were for his box and NOT for him – things like small toys, toothpaste, soap, crayons, etc.  Then we bought other items to add to each of the kids’ boxes to make four in all.  The kids also used their chore money that they put in their “GIVE” jar each week for the OCC offering at church each week.  Many weeks the girls gave ALL their chore money for OCC… talk about UNSELFISHNESS!  They also completed MANY extra chores to get more offering money.

You see, they are starting to have more of an OTHER’S focus and are happily giving what they have for others.  AND IT WARMS MY HEART! 

 

 

 

 

   

 

 

I just LOVE Caleb’s expression!

The whole crew….

Happy Thanksgiving!

One of the benefits of homeschooling is you can talk about God all day long and in every situation!  You can tell Bible stories, train your children in the Word and discipline them by the Word!  It truly is the best way we have found to train Christian children!

This week has been a light week for school...we have done many Thanksgiving projects, baked food for our meal on Thursday, and read many books!  BUT...we have also memorized Psalm 100 -- a perfect Psalm of praise to the Lord for this season and a great way to culminate our study on contentment for the month of November!

Enjoy seeing the girls recite it... make sure to watch til the end for their silliness!

Off on an Adventure...

It is no secret that Danny and I love to be outside.  We love biking, hiking, beaching, walking, water sporting, etc., and we love all of the seasons.  Our children have inherited this same love, and they desire to go on adventures with us since they have heard over and over the adventures that we have done as a couple.  So... a few weeks ago, we created an adventure for the whole family to enjoy!

Hannah had her backpack!

And Grace has her notebook with the list of items that we are looking for on our adventure! Can we find all of them? Grace will keep us on track -- that's for sure!

As we got on the trail near our house, Hannah was the first to collect something for our adventure.  She found a brown leaf and then put it into the backpack!  Good work, Hannah!

  

She was also proud to find these acorn tops... the squirrels had eaten almost all of the acorns around here!

It must be a boy thing... my boys HAVE TO HAVE a stick when they go for walks!  They love to walk with it, hit things with it, play swords, and much more!  Life is MORE FUN with sticks!

  

Danny found a walnut and showed the kids how you can crack it open to get the nut inside! They were very curious.  Can you say SCIENCE LESSON?

Treasure hunters!

Some adventures need TWO sticks!

We searched and searched for pinecones... one of the last things on the list.  Grace was the first to find one! 

This one just makes me laugh!

Josiah found one, too!

And so did Hannah!

Danny and the kiddos!

On the way home, Hannah and Josiah had a little leaf fight...:)

 And Caleb needed help to make it all the way back... we are glad Daddy has strong shoulders!

In the end they still love each other...CUTENESS!

The Pumpkin....

 One sunny Sunday afternoon in Iowa, we grabbed our lovely pumpkin and headed outside for some carving.  The children were really excited and so were we!  They wanted to make an animal, and being the good parents that we are, we agreed!  They were thrilled!  We are NOT pumpkin carving experts in this household.  We can follow a pattern, but most of the time the kids want to help.  That makes all of the elaborate plans fly out of the window and we resort to easy shapes which are simple for even the novice carvers in the family!

This year it was a cat....

Hannah was just dying to get in there and get all of the slimy seeds!  She likes roasting them with Daddy... and then they eat them together!  

She doesn't mind all of the messy hands!

 "What IS this, momma?"

Grace is now a professional... she gets in there with no problem and really helps!

Caleb getting down and dirty!

Are you bored, Siah?

When you say "CHEESE" to Caleb, this is the face that you get!  HA!

I enjoyed how even Josiah wanted in on the action!  Here he is taking out the piece of the cat's nose! 

Hannah was pretty proud of it!

The lit pumpkin in our kitchen! :)