14 hours ago
Despite the snow outside my window right now, my favorite day of spring, Resurrection Day, is right around the corner! I am planning a few crafts this week to point my kids' back to Jesus's death and resurrection, and I have a whole Easter study planned for morning time. I'm also going to finish getting my kids’ Easter baskets ready - we don't usually give our kids alot on Resurrection, because we want the day to be about celebrating Jesus’s resurrection first and foremost. But we always do some type of Easter basket, and I thought I'd share what I got with you this year (just for fun).
First I should say, the bedrock of our Easter baskets every year is a new Adventures In Odyssey volume for each of our five kids. I save up our credit card points every year to pay for Easter baskets, and so we've been able to collect quite a few of the old Adventures In Odyssey CDs for no extra cost to us. We will probably stop collecting after the James Dobson Odyssey era, so we only have a couple more years of doing this, which will be just about right for our kids' ages. We really enjoy listening to the stories in the car, and they also provide good opportunities to discuss biblical or character topics.
Another thing that has been practically free for the girls' baskets this year has been earring sets from Claire's. My youngest got her ears pierced last fall, and Claire’s had a deal that you can get a “year of free earrings” with an ear piercing, so each month we receive an email coupon for any earring set under $17. Since my older girls didn't get this deal when they got their ears pierced, I decided to split the free earrings for all three of them, so I've been collecting the earrings with the coupons, and I'm adding them to the girl's baskets!
So in their individual Easter baskets we'll have:
-An Adventures In Odyssey volume
-One of these devotional books by Joel Beeke
-Earrings for the girls
-Sunglasses for the boys
-Playdough eggs
-Candy
-Peeps
I decided to do an extra all-kids basket this year as something a little different (for us). Even though actual spring doesn't come to our mountains for another month or two, I wanted to give them some things to enjoy on warmer days, so the communal Easter basket is my chance to do it! I also collected a few Christ-focused books for them over the last couple months, and I'll sneak them into the basket too.
For the group Easter basket I got:
-A very large bouncy ball
-A colorful volleyball
-A colorful football
-A kite
-Bubbles
-A light-up bouncy ball
-Sidewalk chalk
-Socker Boppers
-Splat balls
Books:
-The Knight's Map by R. C. Sproul
-The Poison Cup by R. C. Sproul
-Little Pilgrim's Progress by Helen L. Taylor
-Big Truths For Young Hearts by Bruce Ware
It's nothing too special, but with five kids there are always those little items that they point out in the grocery store that we have to pass by. They are such good kids and never give me a hard time when I say "no" to something. I'm using this Easter basket as my chance to give them all those fun odds and ends!
The group basket is also a good excuse to collect some beautiful picture books that I've been eyeing for a while and add them to our family collection. What I love about R. C. Sproul's books is how he communicates such poignant biblical truths in story form. I've also heard good things about the other books on my list - we've read Pilgrim's Progress with our kids already, but I think having read it they will enjoy this illustrated version even more. Big Truths For Young Hearts is supposed to be almost a systematic theology for kids, which we'll go through as a family. The “Building On The Rock” devotionals for their individual baskets are something we will end up reading all together as well!
Do you have any items that you put in your kids' baskets every year? Are you adding anything new to the mix this year?
It's been a while since I've written a currently post! Honestly, we are at this difficult in-between stage in homeschooling where I know that homeschool is just going to take over my life between the months of September and May - I've accepted it. I have a couple hours this Sunday afternoon, the school week is already planned out, and I am doing a little not-too-serious blogging.
Currently...
Drinking: Holly Jolly coffee. You can see the recipe here.
Wearing: Brand new leggings, because we have a puppy that finds joy in chewing up all my clothes. I have taken something of a break from my no-buy project, because I have had to replace so many items that have been destroyed! She's literally chewed up every one of my workout leggings, among other items (including five dollars - literally, just a five dollar bill she found in my closet). I know this chewing phase will pass, but goodness, at what cost? So far she's dismembered at least $300 worth of stuff. Ouch. At least she's cute.
Reading: Hoax For Hire by Laura Martin. I really enjoy Laura Martin's middle grade fiction - she comes up with such interesting plots. In this one, a family has been hoaxers for generations, fooling people into believing they've seen Bigfoot, Nessie, etc, etc. It is Middle Grade March, so it seemed like a good month to pick it up.
Here are a couple other books I'm reading too.
Watching: Derek and I have been going through Parks & Rec again. Ron Swanson literally (read that the way Chris would say it) makes that show. We've also been catching up on Survivor. We usually wait until after a season has aired and then we subscribe to Peacock for one month and watch it all at once.
Planning: The kids' Easter baskets. I think I might even whip out a separate post about it, just so there's more to read on my poor, sleepy blog. But I found some fun things for their baskets, and I might be more excited about it than they are.
Dreaming: About warm summer days. This is always the stage of spring that drags by for me, as we are constantly teased by warm days bookended by snowstorms. We had a doozy last week, with 27 inches of snow at our house! The kids were thrilled, and I didn't hate it. We took a rare homeschool snow day! However, it's all melting into a muddy mess now, and that is the part that makes me pine for tank tops, pool days, and reading on my porch in the sunshine. Soon.
Listening To: A Johnny Cash playlist. It's just hitting right.
Baking: Alot of bread. I have finally perfected my fresh-ground grain bread recipe for my bread maker, and it turns out perfect every time now. I also was able to experiment at making cinnamon raisin bread and apple bread, and it's been yummy. It's a good way to add some extra protein to our diets, and it takes me about 20 minutes to throw everything into the bread machine. Two hours later, we have a beautiful loaf. Sourdough is nice and everything, but I doubt it can beat the ease of my bread maker recipe ( though I might still try sourdough sometime).
Working On: Cleaning out all the nooks and crannies of our house. When we first moved here, my cabinets and closet were fairly well organized, but the clutter has slowly crept back in. It's amazing how much can accumulate in a short five years! I did a major kid clothes cleanout a few weeks ago, and our SUV is piled full of 8+ bags full of stuff to donate. And I haven't even tackled my closet yet (that's on the agenda for next weekend). I'm looking forward to going through my clothes and packing away the things that I haven't worn this past winter. My method (currently) for getting rid of clothes is packing away items that I haven't wanted to wear over the past season, then revisiting it in a year. If it's packed away and I haven't even thought about it in a year, it's probably safe to get rid of it, so each year I go through my bins and do a final purge. I have to do this two-step process to help me be a little more ruthless on what to consider giving away - it helps me to know I can always undo it before my final purge.
Loving: How laid-back I'm feeling this spring. Aside from the year that I took completely off of social media, this past year I've probably spent the least amount of time I ever have on scrolling. I notice that when I am not constantly bombarded with aesthetic Instagram posts, I feel less compelled to have photographic evidence of everything we do, and hence I'm less stressed and more able to enjoy things and just relax. I've also spent more time communicating with friends through mediums other than social media, and I think that is a really healthy thing. It's just helpful to pause every now and then, and recognize how far I've come in the way I use my phone, and the positive changes I've seen since making adjustments.
Now, I still spend too much time on podcasts and Youtube, but that's a different post. One problem at a time.
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