1 day ago
Christmas time is officially upon us! We actually decorated for Christmas a little early this year. Usually we wait until the weekend after Thanksgiving, but this year we decorated the weekend before. Wyatt and Gwendolyn enjoyed putting the ornaments on the tree, and I love the little clusters of ornaments on the lower branches.
In honor of the start of Christmas season, I wanted to share a recipe for Holly Jolly Coffee! My mom re-introduced me to Holly Jolly Coffee last year, and it is the perfect hot drink for this time of year. I like it almost as much as peppermint mochas!
Holly Jolly Coffee
1 cup of hot coffee
1 hot chocolate mix packet
1/4 tsp. orange extract
Whipped cream (optional)
1. First off, you should brew yourself a pot of hot coffee - whatever strength you like.
2. Pour hot chocolate mix into a mug. Pour in hot coffee and mix well.
3. Add in the orange extract and stir.
4. I like topping mine with whipped cream, and a dusting of cocoa powder makes it pretty.
It is a super-easy recipe, but so good! I think it seems so Christmasy to me because of the orange flavor. Anything orange reminds me of Christmas. It's perfect for Christmas decorating, or Christmas card addressing, or present wrapping, or anything else Christmas related!
Have you decorated your house for Christmas yet?
With Thanksgiving coming up (tomorrow!), I've been thinking about how I want to teach my kids to be thankful to God for their blessings. There are so many creative ways to do that, and maybe I'll compile a list of ideas at a future time, but today I just wanted to write about some things that I want my kids to be thankful for. I think when we consistently demonstrate gratitude and talk to kids about specific blessings, they are more likely to be thankful for those things as they grow.
I want them to be thankful for Jesus, and what He did on the cross for us. I think it is so fitting that a holiday all about being thankful to God falls right before the season where we celebrate the birth of His Son. It is so important to me that I teach my kids about Jesus's sacrifice in coming to earth and dying for our sins (and rising again!), and I think Thanksgiving provides a great opportunity to refocus on that right before the Christmas craziness!
I want my kids to be thankful for living in America. I still believe that America is the greatest nation on earth, with more opportunities and freedoms than any other place in the world. It is an extraordinary blessing to be born and raised in such a country, that recognizes our God-given rights and has a rich heritage and history of being founded on biblical principles. They also have the opportunity to control their own government, and not very many people can say that. Only a small percentage of people in the world have what we have in this country, and I want my kids to know and appreciate that.
I want them to be thankful for their family, including their extended family. For some it may be hard to be grateful for family, because although family members can be a source of some of the greatest blessings, they can also be involved in some of the deepest pains. But God placed us in families for a reason, and it is a blessing to have living family and good family relationships. Families are messy, but they are also priceless, and I want my kids to know how blessed they are to have a family that loves them.
I want my kids to be thankful for material blessings. This is probably one of the most common categories of things that people might be thankful for on Thanksgiving, but it's important. I heard a statistic that if you make more than $34,000 a year, you are in the top 1% of wage earners in the world. That is for individuals, not families, but it still puts things into perspective. I want my kids to know what a blessing it is just to be warm and filled, because so many don't have even that. Gratitude also promotes generosity, so I hope knowing how blessed they are in material ways will prompt them to also give to others.
I want them to be thankful for God's Word. I wrote about this earlier this week, but the Bible is such a gift. God's written word is what allows us to know about Him and to know Him personally. I can't imagine not having it, and I want my kids to grow to love and be thankful for God's Word.
The first step in helping kids become grateful for the things that matter is to show that you are grateful for them. It is so important to give thanksgiving to God for the things He has given us throughout the year, not just on Thanksgiving. When we give thanks to God for our blessings in front of our kids, that genuine gratitude will rub off on them as well.
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I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving!
It is Thanksgiving week, and like everyone else, I want to focus on being thankful for all the things God has given me! I have a couple more posts coming on the topic of being thankful, but one thing I wanted to focus on today is God's written word - the Bible.
I believe the Bible is God's Word, written by men who were inspired by the Holy Spirit. Every word of Scripture is directly from God. I feel like sometimes Christians can even get confused on the inerrancy and all-sufficiency of the Bible (which is another topic, for another post). But over the last few months I have been thinking a lot about the Bible, and what a blessing it is. God gave us this manual for our lives, and everything we need to know for life is in there. It is also through the Bible that we are able to know about Jesus and come to know Him personally! All are reasons why this book is precious.
One thing that amazes me about God's Word is how deep it is - I could study it for a hundred years and still learn new things. I've been learning that lately as I am continuing to study and memorize Hebrews. I never realized how much about Hebrews I didn't know, and it makes me wonder what I'm missing in other books of the Bible as well!
All that to say, a love and thankfulness for God's Word is something that I want to impress upon my kids. I think there are a few keys to doing that.
1. You have to read it yourself, and let them see you reading the Bible. This is something I need to get better at, because my kids are not going to realize the Bible is important if they don't see me reading it!
2. Read the Bible to them regularly. We have mostly been doing storybook Bibles with our kids, but I want to start reading them chapters. I think it will be good practice for them at listening, and once again, I want them to realize how important God's word is.
3. Talk about how blessed we are to have God's Word any time we need it. God really did think of everything. We don't need to sit around, wondering what God thinks, or waiting for some mysterious new revelation. If we want to hear from God, all we have to do is crack open the pages of the Bible.
4. Memorize Scripture. We've been doing much better at this lately - I have memory verses I help Wyatt with, and then I've been working on memorizing Scripture myself.
For the rest of this post I wanted to focus on that last one, because I feel like a great way to teach young children to appreciate the Bible is memorizing Scripture. As they commit verses to memory, it is easier for them to see how these words apply to their everyday lives.
Even as an adult, as I have been trying to get back into memorizing Bible verses, I have been re-discovering how beneficial it is. I think about God's Word much more throughout the day when I am actively memorizing a portion of it. (Which reminds me, I am up to chapter 5 of Hebrews - I will try to do another verse-reciting vlog soon!)
Tommy Nelson has provided a great resource for finding verses to help your kids memorize - a book called I Can Learn The Bible, which is the kid's version of The Joshua Code. I had never heard of The Joshua Code, but I have started reading through it, and I love the concept. It is based on Joshua 1:8, which talks about keeping God's Word in our mouths and meditating on it. We can't do that if we don't memorize Scripture.
Both of these books take a single verse per week to memorize and think about, over the course of one year. I have only read part way through the books, but so far the commentary on each of these verses seems accurate, and provides some good insights (if I find anything that concerns me in either book I'll update this post, but so far so good).
I Can Learn The Bible includes a verse for each week, taken from the International Children's Bible version. I have never read through this whole version, but the language of the verses is easy for kids to understand. I am rather traditional, so I'll probably have my kids memorize the verses in the NIV or NKJV since that is what I usually read, but so far the ICB seems like it would be a good supplement for explaining some of the more difficult verses. I like that the gospel is explained clearly through these pages.
We've been skipping around in the book a bit, and this week I wanted to find a section that would be appropriate for Thanksgiving - then I realized that children are encouraged to thank God throughout this book, which I love!
One chapter I thought was good for the concept of thanksgiving was the chapter on being filled with the Holy Spirit, whom every believer receives when they trust in Jesus. John MacAruthur has said that being filled with the Spirit is "living every moment as if you are standing in the presence of Jesus Christ". I like that. If we are filled with the Spirit we will be continuously praising God and thanking Him for all things (Ephesians 5:18-21).
Isn't that what Thanksgiving is all about? The Thanksgiving holiday is about thanking God for Who He is, what He has done for us, and what He continues to do in our lives. His Word is one of the most wonderful things He has given us, and I want to talk to my kids about that this week.
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What are your favorite resources for inspiration to memorize Bible verses (and for getting your kids to memorize Scripture as well)? I'd love to hear any other recommendations below!
If you are interested in checking out either of these books, I have good news - Tommy Nelson is offering one of my readers a chance to win I Can Learn The Bible and The Joshua Code! I think it would be fun to read these books side by side, and do a study together with your kids each week (in fact, I'm not sure why we haven't been doing that already).
Enter below for a chance to win! I'll keep this giveaway open (to U.S. residents) through Black Friday!
Note: I received copies of "I Can Learn The Bible" and "The Joshua Code" for free in exchange for a review. The above paragraphs about the books are my honest opinion.
Every year during the month of November I think to myself that I want to share this quote. And every year I forget until well into December. I almost didn't share it this year, because for the most part this November has been of the fretting variety, not the growing old gracefully variety. But I thought I'd share it anyway, rather than waiting another year. November never feels like it's fretting to me, it always feels like the year is growing old gracefully, so I think this quote is perfect. If you have never read the Anne Of Green Gables series, you are missing out.
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I am a historical fiction fan. I love when my "light" fiction reading can also teach me something, so historical fiction is right up my alley. And if it's biblical historical fiction, that is even better!
I think someday I will have to do a post on my favorite historical fiction series, but one that would make my list is Lynn Austin's The Restorations Chronicles series. I read the first book a couple years ago, and I was hoping she would write more - and I discovered recently that she has!
Keepers Of The Covenant opens with the Jewish people, exiled in Babylon, getting the decree from King Xerxes that all the Jews can be killed on the thirteenth of Adar (if this sounds familiar, it is from the story in the book of Esther). It follows several families through the fear leading up to that day, and the triumph and tragedy of the aftermath. It then dives into the story of Ezra, who petitioned King Artaxerxes to let the Jews return to their homeland, and it follows them back to the Jerusalem.
This whole story is told through the eyes of different characters, several in Babylon and one in Bethlehem. The most fun part of the book is the last third, when all the characters are brought together in one place. There are a couple different sweet romances in this book, which also made it fun to read.
One thing that bothered me initially in this book was the hatred the main character had toward the Gentiles. It was mentioned so naturally in the first half of the book that I wasn't sure I liked it - I didn't remember reading anything in the Bible condoning hatred of the Babylonians and other Gentiles in Ezra's story. I was going to mention that as something that I didn't like, but then the author addressed it in a really satisfactory way at the end of the book. That is all I'll say.
Overall, I found the story to be really accurate to the facts while also adding enough of a story in the characters' relationships to keep the book interesting. I would definitely recommend this series!
Note: I received digital copy of this book for free from NetGalley in exchange for this review. This is my honest opinion.
I think someday I will have to do a post on my favorite historical fiction series, but one that would make my list is Lynn Austin's The Restorations Chronicles series. I read the first book a couple years ago, and I was hoping she would write more - and I discovered recently that she has!
Keepers Of The Covenant opens with the Jewish people, exiled in Babylon, getting the decree from King Xerxes that all the Jews can be killed on the thirteenth of Adar (if this sounds familiar, it is from the story in the book of Esther). It follows several families through the fear leading up to that day, and the triumph and tragedy of the aftermath. It then dives into the story of Ezra, who petitioned King Artaxerxes to let the Jews return to their homeland, and it follows them back to the Jerusalem.
This whole story is told through the eyes of different characters, several in Babylon and one in Bethlehem. The most fun part of the book is the last third, when all the characters are brought together in one place. There are a couple different sweet romances in this book, which also made it fun to read.
One thing that bothered me initially in this book was the hatred the main character had toward the Gentiles. It was mentioned so naturally in the first half of the book that I wasn't sure I liked it - I didn't remember reading anything in the Bible condoning hatred of the Babylonians and other Gentiles in Ezra's story. I was going to mention that as something that I didn't like, but then the author addressed it in a really satisfactory way at the end of the book. That is all I'll say.
Overall, I found the story to be really accurate to the facts while also adding enough of a story in the characters' relationships to keep the book interesting. I would definitely recommend this series!
Note: I received digital copy of this book for free from NetGalley in exchange for this review. This is my honest opinion.
This past summer I started dabbling in watercolors. I used to take oil painting lessons when I was a girl, and something made me decide to give watercolors a try. I was thinking it might be a little easier to paint in short sessions than with oils, since I only have limited time to do that sort of thing with three munchkins.
Well, watercolors are way different than oils! I experimented here and there and started to figure it out a little bit, but I still felt pretty lost, so I had to get this book when I saw it was up for review.
Urban Watercolor Sketching by Felix Scheintserger is a great beginner guide to painting with watercolors. He starts with the very basics (such as the color wheel), but he addresses everything in a way that doesn't make you feel stupid if you didn't already know what he is writing about. He goes over some basic watercolor techniques and gives tips throughout.
What I liked about this book is that it wasn't a "how to" sort of book as much as a book to give you inspiration. He writes about watercolors in such an easy-going way that it gives you confidence to experiment and figure things out for yourself. He paints from a very unique perspective, but he doesn't try to impose his style on the reader, and I like that. The information is also broken up with many of Scheintserger's sketches and paintings, so it is easy and interesting to read.
Every time I read a chapter I was ready to break out my paper and paints and experiment, but the kids haven't allowed me to paint much lately. However, I think I will keep this book handy and read a chapter here and there when I need a little inspiration to try watercolors again!
Note: I received this book for free from the publisher in exchange for this review. This is my honest opinion.
In the late fall of 2008 I was a newlywed, and as the holidays approached I was determined to find some new recipes to try for Christmas - recipes that could be "mine" and would become a tradition for our then family of two. That was when I found a caramel fudge recipe that has become the bane of my fudge-making existence.
The first time I made it, it was a success. It was the perfect texture, the perfect taste, and we loved it! I was excited that I found such cool recipe.
Every time I have attempted to make it since then, it has been a colossal failure. It usually ends up being a plate of sticky goo that never sets. I have made it so many times, and I cannot for the life of me figure out what I am doing wrong! I don't even want to know how much sugar, milk, and corn syrup I have wasted trying to replicate that first plate of caramel-y goodness.
However, I think I have finally figured out a way to use my plates of sticky goo! The other day I was in the mood for some caramel popcorn, the kind that is a little more chewy, less crunchy. After a little experiment, I stumbled upon a yummy concoction!
This recipe for Pumpkin Pie Spice Popcorn uses that caramel fudge recipe with some adjustments. And despite my caramel fudge always turning out spectacularly wrong, this popcorn turned out great!
Pumpkin Pie Spice Popcorn
1 bag of popcorn, popped (either plain or buttered is fine)
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 whole milk
1/8 cup (ie. 1/2 stick) margarine, melted
1 tbsp. light corn syrup
For the pumpkin spice mixture:
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 brown sugar
1 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
1. Pop the bag of popcorn in a microwave, then pour into a greased bowl or dish. Set aside.
2. Mix together the ingredients for the pumpkin spice mixture. Set aside.
2. Brown 1/2 cup of the sugar in a saucepan. (If you don't know how to brown sugar - just let it sit on the heat until it melts. Make sure it doesn't burn.)
3. Slowly add in the milk. The sugar will sizzle and harden into a lump ( I haven't figured out a way to avoid this). Don't freak out. Just keep stirring while the caramel cooks to encourage it to dissolve.
4. Add the margarine, 1 cup of the sugar, and corn syrup. Heat over medium high heat until mixture gets to soft ball stage. (The soft ball stage is when you put a little of the mixture into cold water, and it solidifies to the point where you could form a soft ball with it if you wanted to.)
5. Remove from heat and beat mixture until cool. Add three tablespoons of the pumpkin spice mixture to the caramel mixture and mix well.
6. Pour caramel mixture over the popcorn and mix to coat the popcorn. Sprinkle the remaining pumpkin spice mixture over the popcorn.
And that is it! This popcorn has a great, fall-ish taste to it. It would be perfect to much on while reading a book to your kiddos. Or you could bring the popcorn along as a snack for some of your favorite fall activities (corn maze, anyone?).
What are some of your favorite fall snacks?
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Speaking of fall activities, I am also on the Tommy Nelson blog today talking about some ways to use fall fun to talk to your kiddos about the Lord. I'd love for you to stop over there and say "hi"! I'm also happy to say that Tommy Nelson is giving one of you a copy of "It Will Be Okay" by Lysa Terkeurst, which I reviewed earlier this month - it's an adorable kids' book, and perfect for fall. Enter below!
The first time I made it, it was a success. It was the perfect texture, the perfect taste, and we loved it! I was excited that I found such cool recipe.
Every time I have attempted to make it since then, it has been a colossal failure. It usually ends up being a plate of sticky goo that never sets. I have made it so many times, and I cannot for the life of me figure out what I am doing wrong! I don't even want to know how much sugar, milk, and corn syrup I have wasted trying to replicate that first plate of caramel-y goodness.
However, I think I have finally figured out a way to use my plates of sticky goo! The other day I was in the mood for some caramel popcorn, the kind that is a little more chewy, less crunchy. After a little experiment, I stumbled upon a yummy concoction!
This recipe for Pumpkin Pie Spice Popcorn uses that caramel fudge recipe with some adjustments. And despite my caramel fudge always turning out spectacularly wrong, this popcorn turned out great!
Pumpkin Pie Spice Popcorn
1 bag of popcorn, popped (either plain or buttered is fine)
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 whole milk
1/8 cup (ie. 1/2 stick) margarine, melted
1 tbsp. light corn syrup
For the pumpkin spice mixture:
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 brown sugar
1 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
1. Pop the bag of popcorn in a microwave, then pour into a greased bowl or dish. Set aside.
2. Mix together the ingredients for the pumpkin spice mixture. Set aside.
2. Brown 1/2 cup of the sugar in a saucepan. (If you don't know how to brown sugar - just let it sit on the heat until it melts. Make sure it doesn't burn.)
3. Slowly add in the milk. The sugar will sizzle and harden into a lump ( I haven't figured out a way to avoid this). Don't freak out. Just keep stirring while the caramel cooks to encourage it to dissolve.
4. Add the margarine, 1 cup of the sugar, and corn syrup. Heat over medium high heat until mixture gets to soft ball stage. (The soft ball stage is when you put a little of the mixture into cold water, and it solidifies to the point where you could form a soft ball with it if you wanted to.)
5. Remove from heat and beat mixture until cool. Add three tablespoons of the pumpkin spice mixture to the caramel mixture and mix well.
6. Pour caramel mixture over the popcorn and mix to coat the popcorn. Sprinkle the remaining pumpkin spice mixture over the popcorn.
And that is it! This popcorn has a great, fall-ish taste to it. It would be perfect to much on while reading a book to your kiddos. Or you could bring the popcorn along as a snack for some of your favorite fall activities (corn maze, anyone?).
What are some of your favorite fall snacks?
---
Speaking of fall activities, I am also on the Tommy Nelson blog today talking about some ways to use fall fun to talk to your kiddos about the Lord. I'd love for you to stop over there and say "hi"! I'm also happy to say that Tommy Nelson is giving one of you a copy of "It Will Be Okay" by Lysa Terkeurst, which I reviewed earlier this month - it's an adorable kids' book, and perfect for fall. Enter below!
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