Psalm 139:23-24
Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts:
And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.
I got several macro lens attachments for Christmas (Yeah!) and it's been fun playing with them. Just check out these vines close up. They were twisting around tree branches and they reminded me of this verse. We don't want any wickedness coming in, twisting around and preventing our hearts and lives from being right with God.
Can you believe this budding branch? I think it's a little confused. It's not even close to spring yet. Strange!
Happy New Year!
Here's a few more photos that I took at several of the Disney properties all decorated for Christmas.
Check out this life sized gingerbread house! Wow!
A giant gingerbread carousel.
This gingerbread snowman from the movie, "Frozen," was new this year. It's hard to believe it's a giant cookie! It was life sized!Merry Christmas!
Recently I mentioned that we spent Thanksgiving in Orlando and while there, we visited most of the Disney hotels to see how they decorated for Christmas. Here's a couple of photos that I took during that trip. I just love how they decorate!Aren't their decorative soaps so cute?!!
Blessings,
Jenni
Here's a blast from the past. Do you remember this candy cane apple from a few years back? I still like to make these at Christmas time for my kids.
Just wash a red apple.....
Cut up several strips...
Slice into equal parts....
Just arrange!
Exodus 20:8
Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.
Over Thanksgiving break my family and I took a short trip to Orlando and one of my very favorite things to do there is to visit as many of the different Disney hotels as possible to see them all decked out for Christmas. I took a bunch of photos that I'll (hopefully) share with you soon!
Anyhow, I feel as though I'm still recovering from Thanksgiving break and getting back into the swing of things while in the midst of this crazy holiday season. I say this because this week, I just taught my kids about the 4th Commandment as I drove to our after school activities. Honestly, sometimes I think it works best this way because there's not much for them to do in the car but listen to me, no distractions-yes!
For this Christmas season, I've chosen a candy cane as our theme. When flipped upside down the candy cane forms a "J" for Jesus. The 4th commandment is about remembering the Sabbath day by resting and making sure to honor God on that day as well. So, a wonderful way to honor God is by worshiping his son, Jesus and that's how I've tied this all together.
I recently bought for my kids the book,"Legend of the Candy Cane," which I'm sure many of you are familiar with. I love how it describes the legend for the meaning of the colors of the candy cane.
Red= Christ's blood that was shed for usWhite= We are washed white as snow in purity through redemptionI've put together a video tutorial on how to make this candy cane lunchbox. You can click HERE to see it or watch it below: It was like a candy cane workshop on my table!
Blessings,Jenni
Exodus 20:7
Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain
We are now working on the 3rd Commandment in pancakes and thankfulness is our theme. Since Thanksgiving is about being thankful, I taught my kids that we are to use our mouths to give God thanks and praise instead of misusing his name.
I was trying for an orange lunch theme with the orange jello and orange fruit (I LOVE themes....I can stay awake at night thinking about themes, so fun!).This time I was able to surprise my kids with the turkeys in their lunches. Usually they find out and see me working on it, but not this time! Yeah!You can make these pancakes ahead, wrap them, freeze them in a freezer bag and then put them in your kid's lunches the next day. They will thaw by lunchtime.Check out the video HERE, or watch it below:I made enough batter for my kids to make their own turkeys after school. I was able to freeze their lunch turkeys before they got home so they didn't know about them!
My daughter's turkey was sooooo cute! I love seeing what my kids come up with in art pancakes.
Blessings,Jenni
To tie into our 2nd Commandment lesson, my S.S. class made frog hair clips with pipe cleaners (I'm on a new kick with these I think!).
My daughter was inspired by the frog clips and made a bunch of Ant-eaters and red Ants. Very cute!
Blessings,
Jenni
Fall is on it's way out...and definitely the prettiness of it has faded from our backyard. Here's a few photos that I'll have to hold on to and remember until next year....
Blessings,
Jenni
Exodus 20:4
Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image
We have been working on the 2nd Commandment now and I made these little green frog sandwiches to represent it. Ok, so this doesn't make a whole lot of sense off the bat of course, but stay with me here.....
My Sunday School class had a stuffed animal picnic party recently where we talked about the 2nd commandment. My daughter used to have a frog stuffed animal that she loved and the frog pancakes are to represent a stuffed animal.
So we talked about how we love and hold our stuffed animals at night when we're scared and how they are comforting. Being comforted by our stuffed animals is good but if we believe that our stuffed animal can take away our fears and we put our faith in that instead of God, then they we are making it an idol.
I Samuel 4:1-11 is a wonderful reference to read because Israel put their faith in the ark of the covenant instead of God himself and by doing so, it was captured.
My kids LOVE The Action Bible. I highly recommend it and I read the above story to my own kids and my class from it.If you can't see the video player, click HERE For my own kids, I made Jolly Rancher green apple jello in their lunches (to stay with the frog green theme-I just LOVE themes!).
Since I made up a batch of frog pancakes for my kids lunches in advanced, I froze them to keep them fresh. I do this by individually wrapping each little sandwich with plastic wrap, then I placed them all in a freezer bag. I take them out and put them in their lunches still frozen because they will thaw by lunch time.
This isn't the first time I've made frog pancakes. Years ago I made this for my daughter when she was home from school not feeling well. "A frog with lily pads" is what she requested. You can see the original post HERE.
Blessings,
Jenni
I have one very dedicated pumpkin scrubber who lives at our house. My little gal worked on cleaning her pumpkin after visiting the pumpkin patch with great diligence! I mean, it took at least 30 minutes for her to clean this very small pumpkin (Heehe!) but it's super clean now..............Oh wait, more soap just for good measures......
Ok, Ok, I think it's clean now....time to rinse the poor pumpkin and maybe paint it some fun colors!
Happy November :)
Philippians 4:13
I can do all things through
Christ which strengtheneth me.
I have a decorated can in my Sunday School class (that we call our "I Can") to encourage my girls that with Christ, we can do all things. It's been a great way to encourage positive attitudes with my girls as well as myself (I mean, if I'm teaching this lesson, I need to be working on it myself too in my daily life!).
I currently use our "I Can" for our SS offering so that it has a purpose to sit out on the table every week. However, when I first introduced this lesson to the girls, we made clothespin flower clips to put on the can. Now I use their flowers clips as a way to hang up their artwork on the wall.
So, I thought you might enjoy a quick tutorial on how to make flower clothespin clips. They are really simple and my own daughter has already made tons of them....so fun!You will need:
Clothespins
Beads (must have a wide hole)
Hot Glue gun/glue
Felt
Pinking Scissors
Purple and Green Pipe Cleaners
Step One: Line up 3 purple and 1 green pipe cleaner. Slip 1-2 beads on and push them to the middleStep Two: spread out the purple pipe cleaners and pull the green pipe cleaners downStep Three: Start rolling the end of a purple pipe cleaner towards the middle until you reach the beadStep Four: Roll up all the rest of the purple pipe cleaners the same way that you did on step three Step Five: Curl the green pipe cleaners around a pencilStep Six: Measure a clothespin on a piece of felt and cut the shape out with pinking scissors (make it a little bigger than the clothespin)Step Seven: Hot glue the felt to the clothespinStep Eight: Hot glue the pipe cleaner flower on to the clothespin. Make sure and glue it to the non-pinching end.To encourage creativity: set out a variety of colored felt, pipe cleaners and beads and let your kids have fun making their own unique flowers!
Let me know if you give this a try :)
Blessings,Jenni
Exodus 20:3
Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
Wow, it's been awhile since I've posted a tutorial for art pancakes, but I've still been making them for my kids behind the scenes. If you've checked out my YouTube channel recently, you may have noticed that I re-uploaded quite a few of my videos. I wanted to re-translate the Bible scriptures that I was using in Arabic and in Thai (2 of my top countries that watch my channel are Saudi Arabia and Thailand). In the past, I've used Google translate but recently I've found actual Bibles in Arabic and Thai to use so this was an answer to prayer for me! Anyhow, that took awhile to fix and re-upload my videos.
Another thing that I've been doing since Spring, but haven't mentioned yet on this blog is that I've been enjoying teaching a children's all-girl Sunday School class at our church. I use art projects and art pancakes to teach the Bible. I just love teaching this class so much! I would like to start sharing some of the fun things we've been doing in my class with you. I also use the same lessons from my Sunday school and teach them to my children at home and also the kids on YouTube. It's been a blessing to be able to share my love of God and use my gifts for him in these areas.
Anyhow, I have been praying about what to teach next to my own kids, my Sunday school class, and the kids on YouTube and I really feel led to teach the 10 Commandments. If you've been on this blog for a few years, you'll know that I taught my own kids the 10 Commandments 2 years ago (and it took a year to complete) using art pancakes but I know that this is something that God wants us to talk about continually with our children and I'm looking forward to tackling this again! This time, I'm going to try to come up with new ideas for teaching this in art pancakes and this might be a challenge but I'll pray my way through........
Here is the link to my new video on YouTube or you can watch it here on my blog:
Ok, about the pancake tutorial...this King Crown is actually a sandwich that I made for my own kids' lunchboxes. I also let my Sunday school class make their own crowns in pancake art so that is definitely something you can do if you don't want to make the pancakes yourself. I can almost guarantee that your kids (boys too) will love pancake art. It amazes me how much kids universally love pancake art because I've tried it with such a variety of children in school classrooms, playdates, and church. I shouldn't be so amazed though, since I love pancake art also!
Anyhow, this King Crown represents God because he is the King of Kings and with the 1st Commandment, we are to worship and serve him only and put him first in our lives. I had my SS class tell me a list of their favorite people and things and then I told them that they are to put God above all those things.
If you're curious, Here is the link to all of my past art pancakes for the 10 Commandments.
Let me know if you give this tutorial a try!
Blessings,Jenni
I set up this little sick dog scene (in surprise) in my son's room while he was at school to go along with a Bible lesson that I'm teaching my kids. I can't wait to hear what he says about it!
Isaiah 53:5But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.We have been dealing with a serious surgery in our family and I realized that I was holding on to fear, not claiming victory in faith like God would want me to. The Bible says that faith can move mountains and we need to claim the promises of scripture as truth for our lives. So, I'm claiming this verse, "with his stripes we are healed," and teaching my kids today to do the same. If you need healing for anything, let's bring it to the Lord in prayer together:
Lord,
We need your healing touch and we believe
that you can and will heal in this situation.
Help us to keep on believing and having unshakeable faith.
We claim today that by your stripes, our situation will be healed.
We claim victory in Jesus!
In Jesus name,
Amen
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Welcome little tiny acorns, cooler weather, golden leaves, white swans swimming in the pond against a colorful autumn landscape at the park.....Welcome October! I love you so much.
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Where we live, September brings several unique changes that I look forward to seeing again:* Golden light on the rolled hay bails in both the front and back yard*Cheerful sunflowers that pop up all over the surrounding areas as one last "hurrah" before the cold season hits
*Plants that look like wheat (not sure what they are actually called??) that seem to glow in the light*Cicada insects that are super noisy (I won't miss these actually but they signal the end of summer)
*My neighbor's tree that's already changing red for fall! Yeah!
........Coming soon will be the black fuzzy caterpillars that cross the road in the early morning. They always signal the start of cool mornings. I've never gotten a photo of one. Maybe this year!
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| Mums in our backyard |
I Can
do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.
Philippians 4:13
"Lord, help us to be all you intended us to be and not to miss out on the ability to bless others, or be blessed ourselves because we have an I can't attitude. We can face what we need to face, conquer what we need to conquer, and trust in you while we do it."-I CAN find the energy to cook my family dinner after a long day.
-I CAN keep working on housework even though I'm worn out already.
-I CAN be brave and try that new thing.
-I CAN go to that social event and meet new people.
"Lord be our strength and help us to have an I CAN attitude in you and you alone."-Amen
Condiment squirt bottles are super important tools for creating art pancakes but they can be challenging to clean! So I thought I would share with you today my cleaning process for them.
I used to put the bottles in the dishwasher but I noticed that they would end up discolored (not the lids for some reason, just the squirt bottles). This could just be my dishwasher but anyhow, now I always clean the bottles by hand.
Here's my process:
Step One: Discard the leftover batter in the trash
Step Two: Soak the bottles in water for a few minutes.
Step Three: Put the palm of your hand over the squirt bottle and shake the water around a few times.
Step Four: Use a baby bottle brush to clean your squirt bottle. Let them dry upside down on a towel.
Step Five: Put the lids in the dishwasher in a basket on the top rack
All done!
September is almost here and summer is ending soon so I thought I'd share with you a few more highlights from it. We were able to vacation in the desert again (see last year's photos
HERE). It's just sooooo different than our life here at home and I just enjoy it so much! The desert is a dream with all the golden light and colorful sunsets and endless plants to photograph!
This cactus blooms in the morning and then by afternoon, it's gone. I snapped this photo while it was on it's way out.
This jackrabbit visited us a few times in the afternoon.
The paddle cacti were just brimming full of fruit. I kind of wish that I would have bought some cactus jelly. Oh well.
I really miss the Mexican food! We ate it every chance we got!
Blessings,
Jenni
I walked by the kitchen window and saw that my son had placed this leaf in the sill. I think it looks a lot like a fall leaf don't you? I'm claiming it as our first fall leaf (maybe a far stretch!). As
anxious as I was for spring to come, well, I'm now that anxious to get rid of the heat. I love how with seasons, you can look forward to a change just when your tired of the season your in. What a blessing seasons are!
And speaking of seasons, my life is in a new season now that my kids are back in school (as I'm sure many of you can relate). I can actually hear myself think. Kinda weird. I've been blasting music in the house to create some "noise." I'm currently loving
this CD of Francesca Battistelli.
Blessings,
Jenni
Hey Friends,
Just in case you're wondering, I'm still here but I had a nice blog break while my kids were home for the summer. And speaking of summer, it just keeps getting shorter and shorter. I remember a time when I was a kid that summer lasted 3 months. Not anymore. I will say though that while I love sleeping in and
not packing lunches, it's nice to get back on a school schedule after awhile of lazy daisy-ness, you know? Anyhow, here's a few photos from our summer.
My daughter made these butterfly cupcakes. They are just cupcakes cut in half and turned around.
Blessings,
Jenni
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